The 20 Principles
If you remember nothing else from this guide, remember this page
The 10-second version
Eat mostly whole food, prioritise protein and fibre, manage calories for your goal, minimise alcohol and ultra-processed food, and don't let perfect be the enemy of consistent. Everything else below is detail on that one idea.
1. Energy balance decides direction. Eat less than you burn to lose fat, more to gain, the same to maintain — no diet style is exempt from this.
2. Protein first. A palm-sized portion at every meal; 1.6–2.2 g/kg/day if you train; 1.0–1.2 g/kg/day minimum if you're over 65.
3. Don't fear carbs. Get them mostly from whole grains, legumes, fruit, and vegetables — total calories and fibre matter far more than glycaemic index.
4. Don't fear fat. Cook mainly with unsaturated fats; saturated fat from whole foods in a normal diet is not something to panic about.
5. Eat fibre on purpose. Most people fall well short of 25–38g/day — it's one of the most universally supported pieces of nutrition advice there is.
6. Minimise ultra-processed food, not because "processed" is automatically evil, but because these foods are engineered to be overeaten.
7. Drink to roughly 35ml/kg bodyweight/day, adjusted for thirst, climate, and exercise; use urine colour as a real-time check.
8. Sodium takes care of itself if you cook from scratch more than you eat processed and restaurant food.
9. A varied, colourful plate covers most micronutrient needs — vitamin D, B12, and iron are the specific exceptions worth checking for at-risk groups.
10. Most supplements are unnecessary. Creatine, caffeine, and vitamin D (if deficient) have the strongest evidence; the rest are marginal at best.
11. Alcohol works against your goals. No amount is risk-free; less is better if you drink at all.
12. Meal timing is a tool, not a lever. Eat on whatever schedule makes hitting your calorie and protein targets easiest to sustain.
13. If you use a GLP-1 medication, protein and resistance training matter more, not less — appetite suppression doesn't protect lean mass on its own.
14. Track to learn, not to police yourself. If tracking starts to feel like anxiety rather than information, loosen it.
15. Most self-diagnosed food sensitivities aren't what people think they are. Get tested before permanently eliminating a food group.
16. Treat your gut microbiome with food, not supplements. Fibre and fermented foods have real evidence; most probiotic products don't.
17. Common foods don't need to be "good" or "bad." Eggs, butter, bread, dairy, coffee, and chocolate are all fine in normal amounts for most people.
18. Frozen vegetables are not a downgrade from fresh — buy whichever you'll actually eat.
19. Consistency beats precision. A good-enough plan followed for months outperforms a perfect plan followed for two weeks.
20. When the evidence is genuinely mixed, this guide has told you so. Where it isn't, it's given you a clear answer — trust the clear answers, and treat the flagged uncertainties as honestly uncertain, not as licence to ignore the rest.
Keep this page
Print it, screenshot it, or just remember where it is. Most nutrition confusion comes from forgetting these 20 lines, not from missing some piece of advanced science nobody told you.