So what really IS the best way to eat?
Vegans. Paleo. Sun eaters. Mediterranean. Keto. High protein. Low carb. High fat.
Guess what folks? They all work, if you do them properly. How to eat has created a schism in society as there has been so much misinformation and "fad diets" that what we should actually eat has become blurred. When you throw the hundreds of millions of dollars in food industry propaganda things get really interesting.
So here's how people should generally eat based off the limited information they have at hand!
The Genetic Component
Genetics is a huge copout in my opinion and we know scientifically with epigenetics that we have a huge amount of control of our genetics with our actions. But the food that your particular ethnic heritage has eaten for centuries is a good foundation to find out what you should be eating. For instance with dairy I happen to fit into the small percentage that can handle it very easily, I do not get lactose-intolerance symptoms. One reason for this is that I am of Northern European descent, one of the only places where milk and dairy has been part of the diet for a long, long time. Now, if you are Native American or African American, then your ancestors did not drink milk. So, your body's digestive tract really just isn't equipped to properly digest dairy. African Americans with descendants actually in Africa typically eat a very simple and healthy diet, mostly fruits, nuts and vegetation.
Naturally with any diet taking ancestry into consideration, by default all junk food is erased. Nobody was eating Cheetos two hundred years ago. Nobody was shoveling candy in their gullet in medieval Europe.
Overall Goal In Mind
If you are looking to be a talented athlete you will not be eating the same as someone who is eating purely for health and longevity. If you want to add muscle you cannot eat like a Tibetan monk. Your goal must align with your diet.
For longevity and overall health, the best way to eat is to eat much less and incorporate fasting, despite the public ridicule of the fasting idea. As a general rule we eat too much food, and it strains the digestive tract. We are also eating very unhealthy food so we have compounding problems...
To eat for longevity means to eat just enough to take care of your current needs, and to get plenty of nutrients in that food. So eating less and getting more nutrient density is the best way to be healthy. This is a problem for many people because they eat less but also don't supplement the nutrition back in, and so end up malnourished. Being malnourished is personified by a lack of energy, getting sick constantly, joint breakdown and general mental fogginess.
High-profile athletes on the other hand, need a lot of energy and even more nutrients and calories. If you are very active physically then you need many more carbohydrates for fuel. You will also need more protein for muscle and organ repair. You will also need to get all of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that are needed for muscle contraction and sport in general. Things like calcium, magnesium, etc.
The point of this post isn't to give the exact nutrients needed because that is an extremely exhausting study in and of itself. This is just to show the pillars of where to look when starting to change the diet, and avoiding the problem of just picking something because it is currently popular but is not right for you.
So in the end you need to visualize what you want to look like or feel like, and then simply use resources like this article to eat just like the person you want to be!
The basics
While it can be difficult to hone in on the optimal variety of foods that will give you the most amount of nutrients while minimizing toxins, there are several things that simply need to happen and the person reading this needs to come to grips with the fact that there is no excuse for these habits.
People must stop eating fast food, candy and soda. We need to just avoid these "foods" because they do not fit into the paradigms just discussed. Soda, candy and other junk food doesn't help to add muscle, it doesn't help to be healthy, it ravages the organs; simply put it does nothing but harm the body. And so it all needs to go. Here and there a little cheat is permitted but for the most part we have to grasp that our body really does need nutrition; nutrition that is not present in all of this shitty food. You need vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, or you will age poorly and you will feel like garbage for a large percentage of your life, but you won't even know it because you won't know what it feels like to feel amazing.
You must drink plenty of clean water. This is non-negotiable. If you don't drink water you will get sick and every cell will suffer. Its estimated that 70-80% of people are dehydrated at any given moment. We simply need to drink water to survive!
Lastly is you have to know how to breathe properly. Its really sad that this subject is largely ignored. You can go weeks without food, days without water, but minutes without oxygen. So breathing deeply and regularly really does help with health. It allows us to get rid of toxins through exhalation while also obviously getting valuable oxygen and other nutrients into the body. Breathing actually has a compounding effect because when you do it properly you have more energy which will lead to better mood which equates to better choices in nutrition and fitness.
So just to sum it all up we have three main things to focus on when eating healthy:
Check what your ancestors normally ate
Find your goal and make it the focal point of your nutrition so you know how much you should eat
Do the basics first, clean up the junk food, focus on breathing and drinking plenty of good water
I hope this helps a little bit with people caught up in the fads that fly all around us these days!