Should I do Vegan, Carnivore, Paleo or Keto this new year?

With the New year approaching, most of you are thinking of health goals as a new year resolution. If it is to lose weight or increase performance, how do you know which “diet” to choose? There are so many options and trends, people get overwhelmed!

Is a vegan diet good for athletes? Is becoming a vegetarian right for me and my performance goals?

I get asked these questions all the time and for some reason, people always assume I’m vegan. I don’t often recommend a “specific diet” for my elite athletes or clients — I let their labs and how they feel on certain food determine the best food for their individual body. Why? Because there is no “one size fits all” diet. Recommending one specific diet blindly is like recommending track and field spikes to a tennis player, ice skater, and a soccer player.

I don’t believe in one universal diet that’s right for everyone. I believe the right diet for you should be determined based on your unique body.

How to Find the Right Diet for Your Body

Use this three-step process to find the best diet for you:

#1. Test Your Body

I’m a big believer in using professional testing to dictate my eating habits and lifestyle choices. All of us have different needs and we function differently. We may need more of something and less of something else.

Personally and professionally, I use these five tests to understand the dietary adjustments I need to make for my health and performance:

● The Viome Gut Intelligence Test takes the guesswork out of eating with an in-depth analysis of your gut microbiome, including deficiencies and foods to avoid.

● The Genova Diagnostics CardioION Profile is a combination of nutritional tests that assesses and identifies risk factors for heart disease. It measures levels of fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and more.

● The Oura Ring sleep activity tracker provides daily feedback to better understand your body and fine-tune your diet to boost performance.

● A Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) shows you exactly how food affects your blood sugar and insulin levels (and so much more).

● Applied kinesiology muscle testing from a certified provider.

#2. Pay Attention to How Your Body Reacts

Pay attention and note how you feel on the foods that you are eating. Monitor your digestion, energy levels, mental function, sleep, performance at the gym — everything.

Many people (especially vegans) say bloating, gas, and using the restroom three or more times per day are normal responses to their diet. No, that’s not normal! You shouldn’t experience those symptoms with the right eating plan.

#3. Keep Testing

Your body’s nutritional needs, and whether you’re meeting them, change every three to six months due to stress, traveling, work, etc. So, the only way to know whether you’re eating right is to check your lab markers. I retest and monitor my results every 4–6 months to compare my data with how I feel.

Use these test results to figure out the best eating plan for your body instead of following what you read or heard from someone who had success with whatever diet that is currently trending.

Cautions with Vegetarian and Vegan Diets

If you’re considering going plant-based, here are two big considerations before making a decision:

Vegan and Vegetarian Diets Create Gaps in our Nutrition

No matter what your diet or eating habits may be, all humans have basic nutritional needs. Our bodies cannot make the essential fatty acids and proteins it requires to survive. So, you must get them from your food.

Eliminating meat and animal products cut out these significant sources of protein, fat, and micronutrients. So, vegans and vegetarians must get tested for nutritional deficiencies. To stay healthy, many need to supplement with

● Vitamin B12

● Vitamin D

● Iron

● Zinc

● Omega-3 fatty acids

● Vegan protein powder (such as soy or pea)

Food Quality Matters

Where your food comes from, what is mixed with it, and how it is prepared matters!

Check the ingredients carefully for fillers and artificial ingredients. Açaí bowls or smoothies are desserts, they are mostly sugar! The strain these foods cause the body from the spike in glucose outweighs their nutritional benefits.

The same is true for people taking a “dirty” or “lazy” approach to keto or carnivore diets. You can’t just chow down on Slim-Jims, cheese, and burger patties from a drive-thru.

Unless your fruits and veggies come straight out of your garden, you have no idea whether you’re getting all the vitamins and nutrients you think you’re scoring. That broccoli or asparagus could have been cut ten days ago and been exposed to different temperatures and environments by the time you buy it “fresh” at the grocery store. They may have lost most of their nutritional value at this point.

You have to understand what your body needs and cater your diet/food to your body’s needs — not what fad everybody else is following — do the recommended tests and consume food that your body needs and likes!