Ten Staples: A Simple Approach To Developing a Healthy Diet

Go back a couple thousand years and chances are your ancestors had never heard of much less eaten a mango unless of course they were born in Southeast Asia.

For the majority of human evolution, our diets consisted of a small collection of foods that were available to us according to where and when we lived.

There were no supermarkets or trucks or trains or Instacart.

We don’t really need so many different foods to survive and thrive either.

Variety is overrated.

In fact, now that we have this endless variety, we’re getting less and less healthy. I’m not implying causation, it’s just reality.

So if you need to develop a healthy diet and reset the foods you are consuming, here is a stupid simple way to do it that I can describe in one sentence.

Choose ten nutritious foods that you enjoy and eat mostly those.

Ten Staples Approach

That’s right, choose ten nutritious foods that you enjoy and eat mostly those.

This might sound restrictive, but it is not. It is actually freeing because it provides a clear food palette.  You know what to eat so life is less complicated. Plus, you get really good and efficient at preparing those ten foods while developing outstanding health.

Here’s my list.

Straying 

Must you only eat what’s on your list? No. There will be times when you eat other things. This is Ten Staples not the Ten Commandments.

Nevertheless, good nutrition does reside at the margins, so the more you stray with garbage, the less progress you will make over time.

Specificity 

This is your list, so you can be as general or as specific for each staple as you like. Notice, for #5, I say vegetables. That’s pretty broad. But for #1 I say eggs, that’s pretty narrow.

Habitualization 

Once you have truly habitualized your staples, you will have a core of healthy foods you enjoy that you eat everyday. 

Then, you may begin adding other things that are complementary. You can make the list The Eleven Staples or the Twelve Staples. It’s your list. I just went with ten because it seemed to fit pretty well and it’s a nice round number.

Two Good Biases

There are two rational biases I have added to this approach.

1. Heavily bias towards protein rich foods.

2. Heavily bias away from carbohydrates and processed foods.

Avoiding Stupid Complexities

Another great thing about this approach is you never have to watch how much you eat. Just eat as much as you want of those nutrient rich foods on your Staples List. Eat until you are full. Do not count calories.

You never have to calculate macros or any other stupid complexities. If you want to, be my guest, but you don’t need to. This is about satiety and nutrient density, not calories.

Have a great day.

I am the founder of Pearl Institute. I offer personal health, performance, and decision making services to individuals and groups. You can schedule a 30 minute no fee consultation here.