Based on the huge variance I see in successful macro splits from people on everything from high carb diets (bulking/bodybuilding) to keto (as close to zero carb as possible) I think micros should be dialed in first. If you are eating nutrient dense foods you will reach all your micro goals and still have 50% of total calories left to fill. This leaves plenty of room to hit whatever macros you want with WAY less worry.
Nutrient dense foods you need to eat everyday, are cheap, and easy to prep/eat:
Broccoli
Sardines: better O3 content than most fish oil caps + a mega dose of calcium.
Prunes: very high in antioxidants and much easier/cheaper to buy and eat in bulk vs things like blueberries.
Eggs: egg yolk is basically a multivitamin, I eat 4 a day.
Pumpkin seeds/almonds: for the magnesium which is also a common deficiency, can sub other nuts but they are inferior.
Dairy: Milk is highly controversial with studies pointing to increased cancer risk and cancer reduction with a slight edge to the former in terms of power. This effect disappears at doses of 1 cup a day or less. A cup of milk a day along with a serving or two of cottage cheese (CC and ricotta cheeses are correlated with reduced cancers) is the best middle ground as far as I can tell at this time.
I would be willing to bet money that someone eating at least a couple servings of each of the above and being fairly loose with the rest of their diet would have superior outcomes to someone strictly meeting macros but not necessarily hitting micros. Why do i say this when so many health researchers talk about macros all day? Because macros are important for *unhealthy people*. When you have someone eating 500+g of processed carbs and 200 grams of processed fats rich in O6 a day then fixing that is going to dominate health outcomes. In large scale studies of nutrient content of foods it was found that seasonal swings in mortality were strongly correlated with seasonal swings in the nutrient content of foods.
Supplements that EVERYONE should take:
Vitamin D3: Very few supplements have strong evidence of better health outcomes with the notable exception of D.
Fiber: Unless you really are chowing down on tons of veggies almost no one gets as much fiber as is suggested by health studies. Fiber supplements are one of the few supplements where you don't have to worry about their absorption vs whole foods as humans don't absorb fiber. I take psyllium caps with every meal.
Any other supplement you think you need you are almost certainly meeting/exceeding RDA's with the above food list.
This post to be updated if I find anything useful.
Edit: whole grain high protein pancakes recipe reproduced here.
Cottage Cheese pancakes
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
Vanilla extract, Cinnamon, and nutmeg to taste
you can mess with ratios to your hearts content. It's really hard to screw these up and I just eyeball everything.
For syrup a good alternative is blackstrap molasses (you can mix with a bit of butter and milk to make it more syrup like) It is very rich in magnesium, containing the same magnesium/ounce as peanuts.
Supposedly healthy foods that should be avoided:
beetroot, radishes, turnip greens, lettuce, spinach (avoid eating leaves in general). Nitrite content isn't worth it given that you can eat much healthier vegetables like broccoli and asparagus.
skim or low fat milk. Skim milks often have oxidized cholesterol and nitrates as a result of the processing. Reduced fat milk is made by adding skim back to regular milk. Stick with full fat milk.
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