Comparing Diets (Steven Gundry, Ben Greenfield, USDA)

Ben Greenfield’s Superhuman Food Pyramid

Here is Ben Greenfield’s own food pyramid and food list on what to eat, moderate, and avoid along with how many servings of each he recommends each day. This is a very broad/general list and he states that he created this due to high demand, it is not necessarily his bible. His audience is mainly pretty high level athletes. In other sections of the book he goes into calorie counting and protein needed for muscle building or maintaining muscle. You may think he is paleo from looking at this but the fact that he recommends a good portion of carbohydrates as vegetables, wild rice, fermented bread, sprouted legumes, etc. shows he favors more of a variety of foods.

The key things to his guide for good nutrition is tons of fats and vegetables. This is similar to my nutrition, except I do not ferment my bread, I just stay away from almost all grains. I also don’t sprout my beans but I also limit those as well. Ben’s reasoning for fermenting and sprouting is to make the food much more easily digestible and to also feed your gut microbiome with good bacteria to build your immune system and strengthen your gut.

Other than that, this is similar to what you see with the paleo diet - staying away from processed foods and oils as well as sugar while favoring fats and meats (but being conscious with what fats are better in high doses and which are better moderated).

Due to the incredible amount of research, experimenting, and health coaching Ben has done, I find this “Superhuman Pyramid” to be a great list for any active person who cares to be health conscious.

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Dr. Steven Gundry’s “Yes” and “No” Lists

Dr. Gundry has more of a strict diet - focusing on high vegetables and low amounts of meat. He focuses on high amounts of foods with polyphenols, like olive oil (which he suggests consuming 1 liter each week due to his research on blue zones) and dark chocolate. He will tell you the focus of his diet is more on what foods to avoid. Similar to Ben, he also follows the paleo idea of getting rid or processed foods. He also bases his diet on getting rid of lectins. Lectins are a defense mechanism that plants have to warn animals not to keep eating them and their babies. Gluten is actually a lectin and he gives several vegetables to look out for that have lectins as well. If these are prepared correctly (for instance, tomatoes being peeled and deseeded and legumes being pressure cooked), you can actually remove the dangerous lectins so you won’t get leaky gut and, in turn, mitigate damage to your immune system.

Dr. Gundry’s nutrition plan seems to work best for people with autoimmune diseases and many cancers. For the average person, this could definitely be difficult to maintain. I still think there is a lot people can learn from Dr. Gundry if you are interested in longevity and getting rid of inflammation.

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USDA’s MyPlate

There are 2 good things that coincide with Greenfield and Gundry’s work:

1. ​Vegetables are seen as the largest portion.
2. There is not an overload of sugar shown. Those who follow the “whole grain, balanced” diet at least will agree with high-fat dieters that sugar is what we need to avoid.

Other than that, there are several things wrong. The biggest thing is the grains group. Dr. Gundry states that grains are not good for anything except for fattening us up. This is the same reason we feed grains to our cows and pigs - to fatten them up. Cows fed on grass have a much higher Omega-3 index rather than Omega-6. The way the Western diet is shaped, it is much more beneficial for us to get more omega-3s in our nutrition plans.
One other thing that I know these experts would have an issue with is the “Low-fat Milk”. Low-fat yogurt , low-fat milk...it is all crap. A high fat diet does not mean weight gain, in fact it usually means the opposite.
One of the key takeaways that I got from Dr. Gundry is from his popular saying - rather than “you are what you eat,” he says “you are what you eat ate.” If you think about basic biology, a carnivore gets many nutrients from the herbivores that their prey fed on.
Greenfield and Gundry also say fruit should be enjoyed in moderation due to high sugars and carbohydrates.

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This was taken right from the top of a USDA page. From what I told you above, you can see why the low-fat milk and the wheat bread goes against Gundry and Greenfield’s work.

USDA is in the business of agriculture, not a credible resource for dieting. They truly do not care for our health so they feed us this BS. Researching true health experts like the two above will show you what science and clinical trials are trying to teach us.