In 2018 I was just graduated and unemployed on vacation. Back then I was considering to do a PhD, because to be 100% honest with you… I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and a PhD seemed a good and productive way to postpone such a decision for a few more years :)

I remember until this day: me, at my mom’s basement (she is the sweetest, she had prepared a full room just for me to come and live with her for a few months), it was 2 a.m. in the night, and I was researching on my computer how to eat healthy?

I stumbled upon a MYRIAD of tips, recommendations, doctrines, superstitions and bro-sciences… all of them promising to be the best when it comes to eating healthy…

After more than two month absorbing pages and pages of information, two things came out as trustworthy and evidence-based enough for me to trust:

• a healthy diet provides the minimum of macro- and micro-nutrients through whole foods as much as it is feasible, and
• a healthy diet contains (near-)zero of scientificaly studied unhealthy foods/nutrients.

There are a ton of research online, good and not-so-good ones. I will focus on presenting below the ones I found to be evidence-based and from trust-worthy sources. This list is not exhaustive, but I did my best to list good sources you can get more information from if you wish. I hope it gives you a good head start!

If you got any questions, ask me on youtube or insta 😉 I will be happy to help!

• Omegas 3 and 6
• Fiber
• Cholesterol
• Saturated Fat
• Minerals
  • Calcium
  • Iron
  • Iodine
  • Sodium
• Vitamins
  • Vitamin D
  • Vitamin B12
  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin E
  • Choline
• Build a diet — practical advice
• TL;DR
• More sources

Omegas 3 and 6

You probably already heard about the importance of Omega 3’s, and maybe understand it is important to keep a balance intake of Omegas 3 and 6.

The rule is pretty simple: for every milligram of Omega 3, you can eat between 1 and 5 milligrams of Omega 6. So any ratio between 1:1 and 1:5 should be good (source???), with the general recommendation being 1:2 or 1:3 — I personally strive for the 1:1, which showed sometimes to be the the ideal (source???).

But maybe what you didn’t know about is that we have 3 types of Omega 3’s: ALA, EDH???, and DHA. I will not go too much in detail, what is important to remember is that even consuming only ALA our bodies can use it and create EDH??? and DHA.

In summary, the minimum Omega 3 intake should be around:

• X mg/day for ALA
• X mg/day for EDL???
• X mg/day for DHA

One fact to keep in mind is that the efficiency of ALA-EDH-DHA conversion varies among humans. So a safer approach is to eat a small Omega 3 supplement with EDH and DHA. I personally take (this one every day - Amazonlink???), with X EDH??? and X DHA, and without any smell! (some Omega 3 supplements smell like fish 🥴 this one comes ???hidden span for future post???direct from the source: algaes(s???)??/hidden??)

Fiber

Many people lack river on their diet! And fiber is super important for correct food digestion and nutrient absorption. If you eat mostly whole and plant-based foods, you already probably eat more than enough fiber!

In summary, eat at the very least X g of fiber per day. I personally strive for at least X g of fiber (and usually eat much more) 😋

If you’re updating your diet now, increase your river intake slowly, otherwise your guts may not have time to adapt and you could feel constipated in the beginning. The good news is your body adapts in just a few weeks!

Cholesterol

This one is to be avoided. High cholesterol intake has shown to be detrimental for health (source???), and linked to diseases such as (list???).

Humans do not need to consume any cholesterol, because our bodies can produce all that it needs, therefore my recommended intake is zero grams. Medical advice says to limit the daily intake to a maximum of X g per day or less.

As a quick reminder, the only cholesterol sources in any diet are animal products we eat, such as meats, dairy and eggs. Plant-based foods have always zero cholesterol. Limiting or replacing animal products in your diet is a good idea.

Saturated Fat

This one is to be avoided, too. High saturated fat intake has shown to be detrimental for health, and be connected to many diseases, specially those related to your heart and blood flow.

The recommended (source???) daily intake should be lower than X mg. I personally strive for X mg per day 🙂

As a quick reminder, most saturated fat sources are animal products we eat, such as meats, dairy and eggs. Most plant-based foods have low or zero saturated fats, with some exceptions like coconut oil. As I said previously, limiting or replacing animal products in your diet is a good idea.

Minerals

Calcium

Iron

Iodine

Sodium

Vitamins

Vitamin D

Vitamin B12

Vitamin A

Vitamin C

Vitamin E

Choline

Build a diet — practical advice

Now, enough of theory — with this information you can already put your hands to work, and build an actual diet plan, that is both healthy and nutritious!

If you want a more practical solution go to this article, where I show you how I use an amazing app called Cronometer, with a step-by-step guide, and even an example from my own weekly eating plan/diet.

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TL;DR

Here is a summary of each nutrient presented in the above article:

• Omegas 3 and 6:
• A
• B
• C???

For a practical guide on how to actually build a weekly eating plan, go to (this article)(link???)

More sources

If you’re interested to acquire even more knowledge, I recommend these sources:

• vegan health (website)
• nutritionfacts (website and youtube channel)
• Examine.com (website)
• uncommon vegan (youtube channel)
• Mic the vegan (youtube channel)