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What is the best diet for human health?

From Dr. Collins:

Background: I strongly believe that the quality of one's diet may be the single most powerful factor influencing one's health. Like many, I have personally experimented with numerous approaches to diet over the years. I have "been" a "vegan", a "lacto-ovo-vegetarian", etc. I have practiced various dietary approaches over the years including the "USDA", "Macrobiotics", "The Zone", "Atkins", "Mediterranean", "Nourishing Traditions" and more. Professionally, I am not a registered dietitian, but I have been studying and examining diet since the 1980s. As a wellness-based chiropractor, I have been practicing wellness-based clinical nutrition counseling/coaching with hundreds of my patients since the 1990s.

My advice to you: As a clinician, after years of studying nutrition and reading hundreds of scientific articles and many dozens of books re. diet/nutrition, I have become absolutely convinced of 2 things: #1 Poor diet is the number one cause of chronic illness and premature death in the USA and #2: The mainstream (government and healthcare system) recomendations for eating are not only substantially flawed, these guidelines are causing much of our ill-health! I believe there is "one best diet" for nearly all human beings (homo sapiens)! Its technical name is the "modified paleolithic diet" and it is known popularly as 'The Paleo Diet' (other names: Paleo/ Primal/ Innate/ Ancestral Diet, etc). Below are links to high-quality/evidence-based resources regarding this way of eating. This diet, with slight variations, is the OPTIMAL diet for MOST PEOPLE: Men, women, children (once weened), old, young, athletes (both strength and endurance), etc. In other words, I do NOT believe that most people need a special and unique diet. We are mammals and like all other mammals, most of us do not require a "special" diet that is unique to us. There is a lot to learn but, once you get the basic concepts, this way of eating is very simple. I hope that you read, learn and get inspired to change the way you eat. I also recommend a limited amount of evidence-based nutritional supplements for everyone, everyday.

To learn more about what supplements I recommend click HERE. Come to my class to learn more!! Eat well to be well! Also, remember that I also do online wellness coaching, which includes nutrition consulting/coaching.

John J. Collins, DC

Recommended Eating Resources/Further reading:

Practical Paleo
Other dietary approaches which I also support and/or recommend (at times):
For those who: a) are older and/or b) have long history of being significantly overweight and/or c) have a history of blood sugar regulation dysfunction and/or d) have a long history of being sedentary. Fyi, one or more of those four conditions apply to the vast majority of my patients in last 25 years!

Ketogenic Diet
Dr. Berg Keto Site
Diet Doctor En Español

Lastly, for those who have been diagnosed with ANY type of auto-immune condition (or have good reason to suspect they have an auto-immune condition) I urge and encourage them to research and learn more about the following approaches:

The Autoimmune Protocol
Autoimmune Wellness