I am not posting any sources here because these are just my personal diet theories based on my own research and experience with all different kinds of diets over the past 20 years. This post is not about who is right or wrong, it is just a tool to use to help educate yourself in addition to the many tools available online. There are so many contradictory studies there is a lot of faith involved when it comes to diet and these theories represent something of my own personal faith-based beliefs on diet. I have practiced all kinds of diets including vegan, vegetarian, bodybuilding (high protein) and ketogenic (high-fat) diets. Ultimately I believe an ethically sourced and balanced omnivores diet (about 40% fat, 40% carb and 20% protein) will serve 99% of the population very well for both health and fat-loss. Some of my thoughts here could easily be questioned but this is just my opinion and I know I can not be 100% right about anything concerning diet. Metabolic flexibility is a real thing, we can get our energy from either fats or carbs, it is mostly a personal choice. I have seen people of all ages succeed on all different kinds of diets.
Theory #1 - People under the age of 30 can follow almost any type natural foods diet and get great results when it comes to their health and fat-loss goals. Up until the age of 30 your hormones (specifically insulin, leptin, testosterone and growth hormone) protect you from eating excess carbohydrates, protein and/or man-made fats. As we age our natural hormone levels change. We become more insulin/leptin resistant and levels of testosterone and growth hormone decrease. The number of people successful on fruitarian, raw food, raw vegan, vegan and vegetarian diets goes down as you look at people by age. Most people who succeed on these diets are under 30 and most of them shift up in diets as they age. So fruitarians become raw vegans as they age, raw vegans become vegans, vegans become vegetarians and vegetarians become omnivores. The exceptions to this is people who do not feel their health failing and/or do not find fat accumulating around their belly.
2) It is said that you can not exercise off the effects of a bad diet but I disagree. Up until about the age of 30 many people use exercise to counteract the fat-accumulating effects of a poor diet. Men and women under 30 are often naturally in a anabolic (muscle building) phase of their life. They have high levels of testosterone and growth hormone. They can eat diets high in refined foods and not be totally insulin resistant yet. As these folks enter their 30's they try the same approach (lots of exercise) and wonder why they keep getting a little fatter each year. Metabolic disorder can take years to show its symptoms in many people, particularly people who were not overweight in childhood and their teens.
3) A superfood is a food that you need to eat very little of to get large amounts of macro and micronutrients. Grass-fed beef is a superfood because you only need to eat about 4 ounces of grass-fed beef to get a good dose of B-vitamins, beta-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin K, iron and trace minerals like magnesium, calcium, and selenium. Broccoli is not a superfood because you need to eat 25 ounces of it to get similarly sized amounts of protein and micronutrients. Broccoli is still a great food because it has a very low Glycemic Load but 4 ounces of grass-fed beef is infinitely more palatable than 25 ounces of broccoli. This is not to say that I don't eat or recommend eating broccoli. The best diet has a balanced approach, I recommend eating both.
4) All naturally occurring foods are health positive. The only foods that are bad for our health are refined/processed foods and man made fats.
5) All diets are better for health than the Standard American Diet (SAD). This is the reason why so many people do well on 100% plant-based diets. They are making the switch from SAD to whatever plant-based diet and get tremendously good results.
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