What does food do for us anyway?

Besides providing some extremely pleasurable taste and social experiences the reason we even seek it out at all is to provide the nutrients and nourishment we need for health and growth.

That’s the main crux of it: the nutrients and energy. Within that we have macronutrients, which we need large amounts of. We’ll get to them. And we have micronutrients which we need very tiny amounts of relatively speaking. We’ll get to them too.

And we define the energy content of food through kilocalories (kcals), generally just referred to as ‘calories’. In terms of what a  calorie actually is. Technically it’s the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 litre of water by 1 degree celsius but let’s just leave it that it’s a unit of energy for simplicity’s sake. They are the units of energy stored in foods which are then used up in the body or stored. This is why you’ll hear that eating too many calories leads to weight-gain, the excess can be stored as body-fat once our body has taken what it needs.

Calories (kcals) then come from each of the three* main macronutrients which I’ll go through now.

*Alcohol is also technically a macronutrient but will not be discussed here. It is 7 kcals per gram.

Protein

You may or may not picture a large, muscular man or woman with no visible neck chugging down a shake when the topic of ‘protein’ is brought up. While protein is important for muscle-building yes, it’s so much more than that though. Without protein and the amino acids it provides we wouldn’t be able to make any of the body tissues we hold so dear. Organs, skin, hair, nails, muscle, ligaments, tendons, enzymes, antibodies, many hormones and much much more. They all need protein and amino acids as the building blocks.

So it’s probably a good idea to get enough. In general having a decent serving of protein-rich food at every meal is going to be a pretty good idea. Not only does this make sure you get enough but it also comes in super-handy for managing hunger, blood sugar and energy levels. Want to feel nicely stable energy levels throughout the day without dips? Trying adding in some protein at every meal.

Animal proteins tend be nutritionally superior to plant proteins and good sources of protein overall are:

• Fish
• Seafood
• Poultry
• Beef
• Pork
• Lamb
• Eggs
• Dairy
• Game meats
• Soya protein like tofu
• Pulses/legumes like beans, chickpeas and lentils
• Mycoproteins derived from fungi (like Quorn)
• Nuts & seeds
• Protein powders (dairy, like whey or plant based)

A good rule of thumb is that the more unprocessed the protein source the better. This applies to other foods too! Not just protein. And 1 gram of protein consists of about 4 kcals.

Carbohydrates

Carbs seem to get a bad reputation in certain and unfortunately influential parts of the nutrition world these days. Depending on who you listen to they must be removed if you want to have good health and be in shape. But what do they actually do?

Carbohydrates and the glucose they provide are the primary fuel source for the body and are especially the main player when it comes to fuelling the vast majority of athletic performance and sports. There is actually no physiological necessity for carbohydrates in the diet since we can make all we need using fats and protein if carbs were super-restricted so they’re not actually considered to be ‘essential’ (i.e. we can’t make them ourselves) in the diet. Carbohydrates, like protein, provide about 4 kcals per 1 gram.

Beyond providing glucose for energy carbohydrates also have important roles in providing other nutrients, digesting other foods and in the sub-category of carbs (fibre) they provide food for your gut bacteria as well as roughage for digestive health. Some good sources of carbohydrates are:

• Vegetables (yep, they’re carbs – hard to say carbs are bad now isn’t it?)
• Fruits
• Pulses/Legumes
• Tubers like potatoes and sweet potatoes
• Grains, particularly whole grains

Interestingly when carbs and sugar get blamed as being the ‘bad guy’ when it comes to nutrition and health the typical foods that get pointed to like cakes, pastries, cookies, biscuits, chocolate, ice cream, pizza, fries etc. all tend to have very high levels of fat in them too – making them very calorie dense and very easy to overeat.

And it’s no surprise that someone who consumes the majority of their (excessive) calories from carbohydrate-rich foods would experience weight-loss when they ‘cut them  out’ but the reason is the excess of calories the carbs are providing in that context. Not the carbs themselves.

Fats 

Here’s the other one that has played the villainous role in the nutrition world before carbohydrates started to take the heat recently.

Similarly, it’s misdirected to blame any one macronutrient or food as being the root of poor health or body composition. In terms of functions, fats have many, as you’d expect from an essential macronutrient. They provide a massive energy store in the form of body-fat and are the most energy-dense macronutrient at 9 kcals per gram.

After that fats are needed to make most hormones in the body, they make up part of our cell membranes and are what your brain and nervous systems are made from. Finally they help to transport the important fat-soluble vitamins like D, E, A and K.

There are 3 main types of dietary fats: Saturated fats, Monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. It’s important that these are consumed in balanced ratios for good health. Often people will over consume saturated fats and under consume the important omega 3 fats which are in the polyunsaturated category.

One type of fat, ‘trans’ or partially hydrogenated fat is absolutely shown to be very bad for health and should be avoided as much as possible. Fortunately because of their health risks you won’t find them too easily in the European food supply anymore.

And since we eat foods and not specific fat types or nutrients it’s more useful to talk about food sources when it comes to fats (and other macronutrients for that matter). Also, most foods contain not just one type of fat (and there is another layer to this where there are different types in each of the 3 categories) so with the exception of some pure oils like coconut oil you are likely to get some mixture of all three types but for handiness sake I will lump them together to give ideas of which foods are good sources for fats:

Saturated

• Good quality beef/lamb
• Dark chocolate
• Dairy products
• Coconut products
• Eggs

I’d point out here though that anyone consuming a decent amount of animal products won’t have to worry about getting enough saturated fat and likely they’ll have to look more at getting a balance of the other two instead.

Monounsaturated

• Avocados
• Olives and extra virgin olive oil
• Good quality beef/lamb
• Eggs
• Nuts
• Rapeseed oil
• Peanuts and peanut butter
• Pork

Polyunsaturated

• Oily fish like sardines, mackerel, salmon and marine omega-3 supplements. These contain the two primary marine omega-3 fats which are crucial for health so if you’re not eating oily fish a few times per week supplementation would be advised. Vegans can use supplemental algae oil instead of fish oil or krill oil. If using fish oil supplements store them in the fridge and don’t buy them if they’re in a clear container. Light damages the fats very easily.
• Flaxseeds
• Rapeseed oil
• Nuts/seeds
• Soybeans/tofu
• Poultry
• Pork

I’d point out here that within the polyunsaturated category there are two main types.

Omega-3 and omega-6. Most people consuming typical foods will have no problem getting in enough omega-6’s but as mentioned above they are probably not getting in enough omega-3 fats. The balance between these omega-6 and omega-3 fats is important and most people would do well to actively increase their intake of omega-3’s. To avoid getting too technical remember that a large portion of omega-3’s MUST be marine in origin. Plant sources do not cut it.

Micronutrients:

That’s macronutrients taken care of so let’s talk about micronutrients. As we said above micronutrients are needed in relatively tiny amounts compared to macronutrients but are still critical for good health. These are all the vitamins and minerals you would have heard of as well as important plant chemicals (phytonutrients).

Going into any depth for sources of each of the micronutrients is beyond the scope of this article but know that their functions in the body are far-ranging and important. And certain micronutrients are more important in certain contexts, for example folate in the case of women of child-bearing age to prevent neural tube defects.

To get full coverage without having to think too much about specific micronutrients aim to eat a widely-varied diet, not just the same 8-12 foods the whole time and choose extensively from the different foods mentioned above. Consume lots of fruits and vegetables (like 10+ servings per day) as well as animal proteins and it’ll be hard to go wrong.

 

By Brian Ó hÁonghusa,
BSc (Hons) Human Nutrition, ANutr
Precision Nutrition Level 1,
Precision Nutrition Level 2 Master Coach

 

The carnivore diet is one that’s risen to popularity in the fad diet sphere in the last couple of years. The aim of the diet is to eat only animal products, mostly meat and nothing else to the exclusion of all plant foods and carbohydrates. Pretty much the opposite of a vegan diet! I’ll discuss the potential pros and the many cons of a carnivore diet soon but it should be mentioned that for the most part, advocates of the diet are not eating a full spectrum of animal products. From what I’ve seen it’s mostly meat, beef in particular. This fact poses some issues in itself that we’ll get to.

The first point to remember is that there is no scientific evidence to support the carnivore diet as being good as is the case with most fad diets. All of the evidence is based on anecdote and while there does seem to be a lot of anecdotes to go around of people going carnivore and feeling great and resolving some health issues as a result you cannot then push a diet like that because “well it worked for me”. And I do have to empathise with people who have likely tried a lot of different treatments to help with chronic health conditions, like the daughter of the illustrious Jordan Peterson, with no relief until they come to carnivore and find it works for them. If you’ve tried everything and it’s the only thing that worked it doesn’t give you much option does it? However it’s still an issue to try and mass recommend a lifestyle approach that has no scientific backing whatsoever.

PRO’s

1) Meat and animal products are very nutritious

Unprocessed meat is one of the most nutritious foods you can eat in that it contains large amounts of important nutrients like zinc, iron, vitamin B12 and folate. It’s also a fantastic source of protein which in general diets tend to be too low in. The most nutrient dense foods we can get our hands on turn out to be organ meats, particularly animal livers. Eating more of these foods is one of the best ways to give your diet a nutrient boost. Within this I would include fish, seafood, poultry, eggs and dairy. Many of which seem to be excluded from a carnivore diet. And where red meat is concerned – unprocessed red meat seems to have very little if any negative impact on health whereas processed red meat like sausages and bacon do depending on how much of them you’re eating.

2)You likely won’t be very hungry once you adapt

If you’ve been eating a fairly normal diet high in carbohydrates then switching to a protein and fat only diet is likely to make you feel a bit rough. This can be offset by consuming electrolytes like potassium salt/ Lo-salt but for most people it’ll take some adapting to. Once you do adapt though and are likely to be in a state of ketosis i.e. using fat breakdown products as fuel, you likely will have a good handle on your appetite since ketones are very appetite suppressing. As such, many proponents of the carnivore diet also practice intermittent fasting and may eat only 1-2 times per day.

3)You’ll lose weight

If calories are controlled and you want to lose some body fat you’ll probably have a relatively easy time losing it on a carnivore diet because of the appetite suppression from the ketones and all the protein. When you’re restricted to such a small list of food options it’s less likely you’ll overeat and it could be relatively hard to get a lot of calories in on a meat only diet where you don’t get hungry.

CON’s

1)Plants overwhelmingly stand out in the scientific research as being healthy

Unlike meat, trying to find research or studies to suggest that plants are harmful to health is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Overwhelmingly plant foods are shown to be beneficial in terms of reducing the risk of chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancers and type 2 diabetes and reducing all-cause mortality i.e. any known cause of death.

2)Fibre/gut health

Many of the reasons plant foods and carbohydrates offer health benefits is down to the fibre content. This helps digestive health as well as feeding the gut microbiome. And although we don’t know all the ins and outs of microbiology and health the fact that we’re 90% made up of bacterial cells makes me think we best pay heed to this. Also, fibres from plants and plant foods in general seem to promote more healthy varieties of bacteria than a meat-based diet. Carnivores will argue among many things that their..ahem..’reduced digestive output’.. is just down to the better utilisation of the food they’re eating. When we consider though that a lot of faecal weight is made up of dead bacteria it just says to me that they have greatly reduced diversity of bacterial species in their gut. And while we don’t know the whole story for the gut and microbiome it does seem clearly enough that greater diversity is a positive sign.

3)Exclusion of foods

You’re stuck with just eating meat and maybe other animal products. Having so few options could make this a tough diet to stick to in the long-term. It makes eating out more difficult. Although to be fair if you’ve found what seems to be the holy grail for your health you’re probably going to stick with it. It’s just not for the faint hearted.

4)High saturated fat intake

Yes, saturated fat is no longer vilified like it once was, and with good reason. However it is still not necessarily a ‘health’ food as some people would have you believe by putting butter and coconut oil in their coffee…Not all saturated fats are created equal and some people can respond quite badly to them leading to elevated cholesterol levels. It’s not everyone but it’s worth thinking about. A balance of fats in the diet is what’s important and monounsaturated fats (many of these are found in meats) and polyunsaturated fats (omega 3’s in here), particularly plant sources outperform saturated fats when looking at health.

5)Plants help counter a lot of the negatives associated with red meat/cooking

Meats when they’re charred or burnt – think BBQ’d, can create some compounds called heterocyclic amines that are carcinogenic. Usually I don’t think this is something to really worry about if you are consuming plenty of plant foods and/or use antioxidants when cooking – many marinades and seasonings like herbs, spices, olive oils, citrus are protective against this but if you’re only eating meat and no plant foods and you cook on high heat like frying or BBQing or burn your meat you might be putting yourself at more risk there.

6)Awful for sports performance except maybe endurance sports

For the majority of sports carbs are your friends. They help you perform during exercise by supplying you with stored energy. We have stored energy as fat too but it can’t be accessed and utilised fast enough to support any sort of intense exercise which is a category most sports fall into except maybe endurance sports. In endurance sports you might get away with running on only fat but if I was your nutritionist I would be using carbs in there as well and get you running well on both carbs and fats. If you were to try a carnivore diet you could expect your training performance to tank.

7)You might not eat diversely enough

If you said to me that you were going to try a carnivore diet that was based around meats, fish, seafood, poultry and eggs and maybe some dairy well then you’re going to get a lot more nutrition from that than from just eating beef for example. By limiting your variety of foods you could easily run into nutrient deficiencies like vitamin C and magnesium. Sure you could supplement but this was one of my main criticisms of a vegan diet – the list of supplements needed to make it really healthy is a long one. By eating all of the animal products available to you as in those mentioned above as well as some organ meats like liver you’d be much better off. You could further improve on this by including nutrient-rich and protective herbs and spices and fats like olive oil.

Final thoughts

You might get the gist by now but overall I think it’s pretty ignorant to think that a diet that actively avoids plant foods (carnivores make many arguments as to why plants aren’t all they’re cracked up to be – I didn’t cover it here because these arguments don’t actually stand up to any scrutiny) is going to be health promoting. Quite the opposite. If you tried eating only meat and it virtually saved your life then I’m not going to argue with you – just don’t go around telling people that vegetables are bad for them, that’s nonsense. Meat and animal products are great. So are plant foods. Eat them both.

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By Brian Ó hÁonghusa, BSc (Hons) Human Nutrition, ANutr, PN1, PN2

I’ve noticed quite a shift lately towards more desire to engage in plant-based eating (PBE). Personally I think this is great! If there’s one thing that is sorely lacking from people’s diets on a population level its intake of healthy plant foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds and pulses/legumes.
And I like the term ‘plant-based’ eating because it effectively describes a healthy diet I think whereas ‘vegetarian’ or ‘vegan’ have their definitions in what they don’t consume rather than what they do. i.e. you can still have a shitty vegetarian or vegan diet that is going to be as bad for your health as any other diet containing lots of processed or low-nutrient foods.
With PBE though it sounds very much like it encourages more consumption of plants foods rather than just the exclusion of all or certain animal products. Of course people will have their own definitions of what PBE means to them but I’m writing this from the standpoint of a nutritionist and coach who’s primary focus is on eating for health and wellbeing.

Vegetarian vs Vegan vs Plant Based Eating:

In this post I’m going to steer well clear of:

i) the environmental considerations for different types of eating because I simply don’t know enough about it to have an opinion (if only that attitude popped up in more places on the internet)

ii) eating considerations from an ethical or religious standpoint because as a nutritionist focused on health this isn’t really any of my business.

That said I want to briefly define vegetarianism vs veganism vs PBE in this context.

Vegans tend to eat the most exclusively by not including any animal or animal-derived products at all in their diets. This includes things like dairy and honey and even certain supplements like vitamin D3 derived from lanolin (sheep’s wool).
Next up vegetarians have several different categories but again there is some emphasis on excluding animal products. Lacto-ovo vegetarians for example only consume dairy and eggs in terms of animal produce because it does not involve any animal slaughter which is the key point.
Then with PBE as far as I’m concerned this means to eat mostly whole plant foods and not as much animal products yet that isn’t to say they’re to be excluded entirely.

Issues with exclusive diets:

As I have eluded to already there are many benefits to a PBE approach. However as a nutritionist I will always have potential concerns when a large food group, like animal products, carbohydrates, dairy etc. is excluded unless it is for good reason. Simply by reducing your availability of food choices you could limit yourself on the nutrients available to yourself to keep yourself in top health unless you engage in a lot of supplementation to fill in any gaps. I think with a well-constructed vegetarian diet you can achieve maximum health and wellness.
With a PBE diet there’s no question because as I’ve said it may not necessarily exclude animal products – it just encourages more plants so it doesn’t have to be necessarily exclusive. Vegan diets on the other hand require a lot of supplementation and micro-management to ensure all your nutrient needs are met. Therefore as a nutritionist I would not recommend a vegan diet from a health standpoint. Remember I’m leaving aside the environmental, ethical and religious connotations of a vegan diet. Now if you are currently eating a pretty poor, low-nutrient diet would I think a well-managed vegan diet is better? Of course, but that’s a bit of a silly question. If you’re starting from a poor diet then making it better in any way will of course..make it better.

Nutrition considerations for vegans:

It is certainly possible to achieve extremely good health on a vegan diet so long as it is well-managed. These are some key nutrients to think about.

1. Vitamin B12 – vegans and vegetarians are at the highest risk of B12 deficiency as it cannot be reliably obtained from plant foods unless they are fortified (B12 added to them). So consuming fortified foods is definitely a good option to maintain good B12 intake. For example fortified cereals, plant milks and nutritional yeast. I would certainly suggest though that for anyone not consuming animal products that they use a B12 supplement in the form of methyl B12/methylcobalamin. B12 deficiency can manifest as anaemia, low energy and damage to the nervous system (this includes the brain).

2. Vitamin D3 – this goes for anyone who doesn’t live on the equator really and isn’t actually dependent much on diet but rather, sun exposure. So vitamin D3 is always worth mentioning as unless you get regular sunshine you may have low levels which can result in poor bone health, poor immune function, poor recovery and lowered mood. For vegans you will have to source a vegan vitamin D3 as the naturally vegan vitamin D2 is not as effective as D3 for vitamin D levels.

3. Marine omega 3’s – you’ll have likely heard the advice to consume omega 3 fats and oily fish for good health? These are important for brain & mental health, heart health and helping to regulate inflammation. While there are some plant sources of omega 3 like flaxseeds, chia seeds and walnuts they don’t provide the ones we’re looking for that come from marine sources and while we can convert a little bit of the plant ones into the ones we really want in the body, this process is very inefficient so supplementation for anyone not consuming oily fish on a regular basis (2-3x meals per week) is advised. For vegans this will require a high quality algae oil since fish oil and krill oil are excluded.

4. Calcium – contrary to popular belief there are ways to achieve good calcium intake without using dairy products. Leafy green vegetables, soy products, almonds, pulses and fortified plant milks, yogurts and cereals. It still does take some vigilance though to get enough so you would want to be consuming plenty of these foods to get in at least 500mg but ideally 1000mg per day. If you can still consume fish then canned sardines or salmon are actually fantastic sources of calcium when you consume the edible bones – which are pretty much pure calcium. So that’s an awesome hack if available to you to hit your calcium and omega 3 fat requirements. You need adequate calcium for bone and teeth health as well as nerve signalling and muscle function (the heart is a muscle too remember).

5. Zinc – zinc is a key mineral for things like immune function, hormonal health, growth and development and repair. Oats, nuts, seeds, wholegrains, pulses and tofu are all decent plant sources of zinc so make sure to eat plenty of them. There are compounds in plant foods called phytates that could limit zinc absorption by binding to it in digestion so for people not eating much animal products you may need to consume slightly more zinc. If you opt to supplement, zinc gluconate is a good source.

6. Creatine – gone are the days where creatine was just for people playing sports or training in the gym (though it still is fantastic for increasing performance and muscle gain). Theres plenty of research now to show that creatine is also very important for brain and cognitive health. And unless you’re eating fish and meat you probably won’t be getting enough creatine unless you choose to supplement. For the performance benefits either way supplementation is advised.

7. Protein – As standard I would say that the majority of people don’t consume enough protein whether or not they have specific training or performance goals. This is especially true for older people who do not digest protein as well and therefore need more than usual. It can be hard to get enough protein from just plant sources alone but consuming plenty of pulses, soy, nuts, seeds, mycoprotein and wholegrains will get you off to a good start. However it’s rare I find a person eating no animal protein that is having an easy time getting in enough protein especially when in theory they need more since the amino acid quality of plant based protein isn’t as good as in animal proteins. Fortunately there are many tasty and nutritious plant based protein powders on the market now which can offer a convenient way to boost your daily protein content if you avoid animal products.

While this is not an exhaustive list it does cover some of what I think are the key gaps in a diet containing no animal products. Additionally we could also look at nutrients like iodine, iron, choline and saturated fat but those ones I mentioned above are the main ones.

The ‘Best’ diet:

While I’m not too keen to throw around a generalist ‘best’ diet for people that doesn’t factor in things like the sustainability and ability to adhere to it I might go so far as to say that a plant-based diet that does include some animal products might be on to a winner.
How much animal products depends on your own needs and preferences but the fact is that animal products like meats, poultry, fish, seafood and dairy are an extremely abundant source of key nutrients that when added to plant-based diet really round it out and make it the best that it can be in my opinion. The most nutrient dense foods we have available to us are animal products particularly meats and seafood and specifically the organ meats of different animals. And for that reason I think it would be unwise from a health standpoint to exclude these foods.
The reality is you could get away with very little. Say you did want to minimise your intake of animal products but also keep your health a priority and not have to micro-manage and supplement your diet to a large extent. You could then eat the vast majority of your foods from whole-food plant sources like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, pulses and wholegrains and then tactically complement it with small amounts of organ meats and seafood several times a week or a fortnight. Now unfortunately not many people – even avid meat eaters are willing to eat organ meats so this may devolve to consuming quality fish and meats on a semi-regular basis. For me this is a prescription for an awesome diet and awesome health. This is personally the approach I adopt with myself, maximising health being the main target outcome.
I eat tonnes of plant foods, 15-20 servings per day and I also eat a lot of quality meat, fish, poultry and eggs – more than is maybe ‘needed’ but I also have training and performance goals to take into account here too.

So by all means (I’m begging you here) eat more plant foods.
Most of us don’t get enough and therefore miss out on key nutrients, phytochemicals and fibre which are crucial for health but don’t be lead to believe (by certain shite..cough..documentaries) that a diet devoid of all animal products is going to be the best one for your health and vitality.

If you can, have the best of both worlds.
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By Brian Ó hÁonghusa, BSc (Hons) Human Nutrition, ANutr, PN1, PN2