A lot is being written about the "right" way of eating. It seems like food trends are changing continuously, with new forms and fancy names added almost on a weekly basis. Unfortunately people generally know very little about the food on their plates.

I'm not a big fan of anything that sounds and acts like a cult, whether that is called vegetarian, vegan, pescatorian, gluten-free, or any other form of diet. But arguing to not blindly follow empty labels doesn't mean one shouldn't be conscious about the food one consumes. On the contrary, in my view being deliberate about which foods to consume and which not is much more than a lifestyle question. It's part of setting yourself up for performance - and eventually success (but that's a different story altogehter).

Rather than following the latest tips broadcasted by the rich and famous on twitter or going for the next abs-diet described in GQ, people should educate themselves about the different ingredients and make conscious choices about why and what to eat.

I look at my food from two different angles, one being sustainability and the other being the needs of my body.

From a sustainability perspective why would we look at energy production differently than at food production? I guess by now we can say that it's generally agreed that emissions from fossil fuels to produce energy used in propulsion and as electricity harm our climate. Hence, the urge to move towards renewable energy. We also know pretty well how much input we need to produce the foods we consume. Be it actual energy (in form of fuels, electricity, etc.) or other resources (mainly water). That leads us to conclude for example that meat production requires a lot more resources (particularly water) than the production of most other foods. With water being scarce in many heavily populated areas of the world (e.g. California, where most of the US meat comes from; or China, which sees a surge in demand for pork) we need to ask ourselves whether that makes sense at scale. For fish the case doesn't look that much better, as at least in the stores I know it is quite difficult to find fish that is from anything close to sustainable farming or sustainable wild catch.

I'm not arguing that we should all turn vegetarian (although there are cases to be made), but we should all at least have a sense of what we eat and how much we actually need. That leads to the second part of the equation.

As for me, even with the regular workouts I commit myself to, a diet averaging slightly above 2000 kcal per day does the job. Most people argue for their meat consumption with the need for protein - for my part, I get the roughly 56g of protein I need easily from the vegetables on my plate (e.g. 200g of chickpeas, and 200g of lentils would already do the job - but a bit more variety is highly recommended). And the good thing is there is plenty of fibers in there too, that keeps me feel saturated for a while. But everyone is slightly different and it makes sense to start by developing an idea what one currently consumes and how the body reacts to that.

It will not help just giving people prescription diets and new trends - we should much rather invest in education about dietary needs and help people make conscious choices. Whether they chose to eat meat, poultry, or vegetables should be everyone's own choice.