The system I like best so far for identifying what type of diet is most likely to give you the most energy was developed by my good friend Glen Depke, N.D., and is called nutritional typing. Depke, a traditional naturopath and the chief nutritionist at the Mercola Optimal Wellness Center in Illinois, has developed a terrific basic questionnaire that you can use to determine whether you are a “veggie type”, a “mixed type”, or a “protein type”. He has generously allowed met to reproduce that questionnaire here. It’s a simplified version of the nutritional typing test they use at the Mercola Center.
Take the test, and use the results to determine where you should start for your optimal high-energy diet plan, realizing that you may have to tweak it depending on your needs. Nonetheless, the two sample diet plans below should give you a great place to start once you know which type you are.
NUTRITIONAL TYPING TEST
Choose your answer and keep a tally of your score according to the number of points assigned.
1. If you had to be at your best throughout the morning with high physical, mental, and emotional energy and did not have a chance to have anything but water from breakfast to lunch, which meal would you choose for breakfast?
• Yogurt mixed with fruit – 2
• Steak and eggs with a small amount of has brown + 2
• Almost any food would work for me O
2. Do you crave salt or snacks with salt, such as potato chips?
• Yes + 1
• No -1
• At times but not consistently O
3. Do you do well with a juice or water fast? (If you’ve never done one, take a guess at how you might feel.)
• No + 2
• Yes -2
• Can fast if need be O
4. If you had to be at your best throughout the afternoon with high physical, mental, and emotional energy and did not have a chance to have anything but water from lunch to dinner, which meal would you choose for lunch?
• Large salad with a small chicken breast -2
• Beef tenderloin with a small spinach salad +2
• Almost any food would work for me O
5. If eating dessert, what would you prefer? (Remember, this is based only on your desire, not what you think is better or worse for you. What would you eat if no one were looking?)
• Cheesecake +2
• Mixed berries with low-fat yogurt -2
• Almost any desert would appeal to me O
6. If you had to be at your best throughout the evening with high physical, mental, and emotional energy and did not have a chance to have anything but water from dinner to bedtime, which meal would you choose for dinner?
• Rib-eye steak with cauliflower topped with cheese sauce +2
• Tilapia with a large Ceaesar salad -2
• Almost any food would work for me O
7. How would you react if you were forced to skip a meal ?
• I would have no problem -2
• I would react very poorly +2
• I could skip a meal if necessary but would really prefer not to O
8. If you drank a glass of fruit juice on an empty stomach, how would you react ?
• Poorly +2
• I would respond well -2
• This would have no noticeable effect on me O
Add up your score to determine your estimated nutritional needs.
-15 to -5 Veggie type
-6 to +5 Mixed type
+6 to +15 Protein type
If you’re a veggie type, it would be best to include higher amounts of vegetables in your diet, cut back on red meat, focus on lighter fish and white meat fowl, and use fat sparingly.
If you’re a protein type, increase quality organic red meat (I recommend only grass-fed meat), wild-caught fatty fish, and dark meat fowl in your diet and consume higher amounts of quality fats and slightly lower amounts of quality fats and slightly lower amounts of vegetables.
If you fall into the middle, you’re probably a mixed type. Start with an assortment of quality meats and vegetables and a fair amount of fat.
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