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  1. Marcus

    "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

    I love that – thanks for the great article – i have been thinking about food alot also and now i feel more relaxed!

    All the best for your foo(d)t!

  2. Anonymous

    I suggest you change the Nutella (30% fat)by pure rosmery honey,sometimes you can

    alternate with extra olive oil and salt,try more salads with tuna,salmon,pasta or lentils,more fresh fruits(bananas better than Nutella or any bars!),2times per week red low in fat meat,with salad,no french fried potatoes etc

    You elite runners must look after your diet strictly

  3. pdc

    I don't know much about eating right or running fast but what I do know is that Dakota is a very funny and entertaining writer. Thanks for making me laugh Dakota!

  4. Anonymous


    I laughed while at work. Thanks Dakota. :)

  5. Brandon

    As a PE/Health teacher, I couldn't agree more with the statement "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." And Dakota's view of trying to eat less of the wrong foods is what I've been trying to drill into my students minds. There isn't a need for someone to go strictly paleo or vegetarian. You need a balanced diet, period. Make sure you get a substantial amount of whole grains, vegetables and fruits and a little bit of proteins and dairy and you will be fine. By doing this you will get almost all the nutrients your body needs without any supplements. Balance is the key. Just like you have to find a balance in your training, mixing workouts with easier runs, you have to balance out the types of foods you are eating.

  6. solarweasel

    I too dove into this subject matter a couple years ago and essentially came to the same conclusion: "eat food; not too much; mostly plants".

    Thanks, Michael Pollan, for the pithy rule of thumb that's much easier remembered (and adhered to) than the specifics to some restrictive diet or complicated eating plan.

    Other lessons about eating that I've learned through trial and error include:

    – I (as well as many other ultramarathon runners) are much more at risk of simply not eating enough than not eating the right things. I don't try to count calories, I now just eat until full, then a bit more.

    – I will eat whatever is within reach. If I stock the fridge with fruits and veggies and purchase foods that meet Pollan's criteria (less than 5 ingredients — all recognizable) at the market, that is what I will eat (most of the time).

    – "Most of the time" is another key. Sure, Nutella can be a slippery slope so I don't buy it. But if I'm visiting a friend and they want to cook me up a Nutella chimichanga, I'm all in.

    I echo Brandon's sentiment that balance is of utmost importance. Too much of any one thing is typically not ideal. This applies to eating, training, working, etc etc…

    Great post, Oak Dot Jeans!

  7. Johnny

    Love the simplicity of the "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." But should note that the "eat food" part is really saying eat real food, i.e. not processed food. One of Michael Pollan's rules of eating is to not eat anything with ingredients your great grandmother wouldn't recognize.

    1. Jill Homer (@AlaskaJ

      My great-grandmother died at age 98 in 2004 with all kinds of scary food in her cupboards, such as boxes of Twinkies and Weetabix that expired in the 1980s. I'm not sure I want to eat the way my great-grandmother ate, but she did achieve admirable longevity.

      1. Brent Broome

        Seems like if she died with 20-years-expired junk food in her cupboards, then she probably never ate the stuff. I can buy a bag of beans and not cook it up for two years (because I rarely eat homemade beans), but a box of Twinkies wouldn't last two days in my house. Okay, that's a lie– the twinkies wouldn't last through the night.

  8. dogrunner

    Great post. I'm going to make my students read it :)

    I am a biologist, teach Introductory Biology to biology majors and others who are stuck taking it for their major, and your post provides great insight into the workings of the mind for the majority of students. At least the ones who bother to think about what they eat in the first place.

  9. Charlie M.

    Sure is nice to have the "what should I eat problem"…for most of history it was "will I be able to eat?"…and now we're just bogged down in choices and guilt and dogmatism.

    Everything in moderation, even moderation.

    The best meals and snacks happen when we least expect it…and it can't be repeated the same way twice…it's an elusive thing, just like when we have a great run that we didn't expect when we started…

    There is no way to be perfect or to control anything…just change things up–that's the only rule…if you start one day with Potato Chips, start the next day with a banana…and then change it up again the following day. Over 35,000 days of eating in a lifetime you will have good days and bad…

    1. Charlie M.

      Actually there is one overarching rule: You MUST start each day with Coffee, and you MUST end each day with Wine. No exceptions :)

    2. ChrisG

      Your first paragraph reminds me of this quote –


      – Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

  10. Flandria

    You can make home made Nutella with natural ingredients and there's a few recipes out there! Here is my contribution. Taste really good! You can use Hazelnut butter which is available now out there to get that hazel nutty taste. Easy! [Broken link to Our Ultramarathon Journey Blog’s September 6, 2012 article “Homemade Nutella” removed.]

  11. Shelby

    Ahhh Prez…here’s a topic I think about a lot (unlike ice climbing), eating being one of my favorite things to do. I’ve found after eating terribly for decades that just making sure I’m putting a healthy variety of foods in my body allows me to enjoy some of the not-so-good for me foods that taste oh-so-good and make me happy (like Tim Tams, my personal vice). I hate these books that tell us to steer clear of certain natural foods, when really we just should not overdose on them (like carbs or fats). I love me some carbs and thankfully they are needed for running long. I also love me some fat and thankfully, they (like nuts) can come in packages that give me other important things like Omega 3s. I love me some animal too, which I need to rebuild my damaged muscles and give me a dose of much needed B vitamins. Everything in nature has a purpose and I like learning about the important roles these foods have in making my body run optimally.

    My personal fav book on the subject is Eat, Drink and Be Healthy by Walter Willett, from Harvard School of Public Health. Unlike most books on the subject, this one was engaging, well-balanced and based on years of academic research. I found it helpful to have a basic knowledge of how certain foods that I’m NOT prone to eat will benefit me (like fish – yuk) and armed with that knowledge, I’m motivated to add eat them in small quantities at least.

    A tip I’ll share with you and anyone else who happens to read this is my fav way to eat veggies — roasting them. It’s simple, healthy and oh-so-tasty (and I don’t like veggies, so that’s saying a lot):

    1. Cut up a variety of veggies, (including sweet potatoes)

    2. Put them in a roasting pan (like one for a turkey)

    3. Drizzle some olive oil and add a little salt/pepper

    4. Bake at 450 for ~45 min

    Voilà! The sweet potatoes make the rest of the veggies even sweeter. Ask Bryon & Meghan how they like ‘em.

    Good luck at the Red Hot next week, I hope it’s PF pain-free for ya.

  12. Emil


    This had me laughing the entire morning. Thanks!

  13. Snerb

    This is a good read Dakota. The topic of food and diet among athletes is always interesting to me, the range of opinions on what to eat and when is never ending. I agree with your conclusion, don't start by focusing on what you should be eating. Instead, focus on what you could or should be removing from your diet, that's the easiest place to start. I feel like I'm eating the way I should be now, but it took a while to get there and baby steps are the key. The only blanket statement that I always make around diet and eating is that all fat is not bad, know the difference between healthy and unhealthy fats, especially if you're an athlete.


  14. Jamie

    Reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" on the bus to and from work lately has made me rather terrified of food. That said, Michael Pollan's "Food Rules" is a great, simple, guide to how to eat (even just a little) better.

    Thanks for the laugh, and I hope to see you on the trails again soon.

  15. Scott

    As a current nutrition student I find it constantly shocking how wrong the information people spout is. Especially when they are talking of these "restrictive- eat this don't eat that" diets. Take for instance Fruitarians. There is essentially no possible way a human can subsists on fruit alone. Fruitarians are either heavily supplementing or they are misstating what they are actually eating. But people read articles about them and believe it all. Same thing with anti-meat diets. Unprocessed meat is not the villain the current docu-crowd wants it to be.

    1. Nick J

      Agreed. I think the 80 banana a day guy is full of shit. Likewise anyone that tells you meat "rots" in your stomach.

      I have far less flatulence when I eat meat, If I go anywhere near a bean or say a chick pea you may as well put a 10 mile exclusion zone around me.

      Listen to your body, not the diet gurus. (most of whom are pretty fat off the profits of their books).

        1. Nick J

          Bryon, sorry about that I should have reflected a bit more before pressing submit. Apologies if my post caused offense, sometimes subtlety is not my strong point.

          I'll tone it down in the future.


  16. Pete

    I like the way people are getting preachy about using Nutella and its fat content. If AK chooses to get his meager fat calories from Nutella, what's wrong with that? When you live out of a truck in the summer, your food options are limited, folks. It's always annoying to hear the wannabe nutritional experts spout off to elite athletes about how their diets should be changed.

  17. Libby

    Too funny. Love the sense of humor in this. "Born-again paleo". Ha. And so right about the diets of some of our favorite lovable ultrarunners. Completely runs the gamut.

  18. Jeremy

    A few good habits I've picked up the past few years:

    1. Eggs for breakfast 1-3. Banana + almond butter. Anything less than this and I will never make it through AM workout without eating gels.

    2. Big salad with sardines for lunch. Put any and all veggies, fruit, seeds, nuts you have in the house in there.

    3. Pre-cook soup with chicken stock (homemade). Make a few gallons and eat it over the week.

    4. Wild game for dinner and more veggies.

    5. Pre-cook a bulk portion of a healthy starch like quinoa, yams, etc. Mix these into meals when depleted or when carbing up for a long/hard run. Limit starches as a rule. Make the body burn its fat around the clock.

  19. Capn_Q

    "For example, I love Nutella more than I love my parents"

    Thanks for that Dakota! I almost spit my lunch (coffee and a Picky Bar) out of my nose. Keep up the good work, and yes, try to eat most every day ;)

  20. korey

    I drink a lot of booze.
    Eat a lot of whatever I want.
    And don't read nutrition books. Actually I try not to read in general.
    Keeps me fast, strong and stupid.
    Entertaining as usual, Mr. Jones

  21. Martin

    Nice one:)

    My attitude towards healthy eating is that one should mainly try eating a large variety of food. Let the body take out what it needs and wash out the rest.

  22. shaun

    been on the 80/10/10 aka fruitarian diet for 5 months now (from straight up vegetarian). its been amazing for my ultra running- more energy, super recovery, and clean digestion. Its not for everyone (and no, dont let Kutcher let you believe its ONLY fruit). Getting away from processed food as a first step is key- which this author has clearly discovered.

  23. Aaron K.

    Weird, Dakota. In a roundabout way, the topic of your diet came up the other night while having a beer with my girlfriend. (Creepy, huh?) I casually mentioned that I'd like to participate in your Telluride extravaganza this summer and she proceeded to claim to have sold you your first cookbook at the bookstore in Moab. I figured at this point in your career, you must be way too rich and famous to actually prepare your own meals.. . .don't all elite ultrarunners have butlers and servants for that sort of thing? Coincidentally, the next morning we ate spoonfuls of Nutella with a small side of crepes.

  24. Cara

    Not to be too repetetive here but…. Eat REAL food, not too much and mostly plants is spot on.

    I am a RD/Nutritionist and its what I teach every day and seriously thats the best advice out there.

    1. Focus on real food with limited or single ingredients

    2. Find what works for YOU, there is NO one size fits all believe me. I operate great on a mostly veg diet but my husband would not.

    3. Pinpoint food intolerances and sensitivities **

    4. Just know that whether Plaleo-ish or vegan they all have good points, but take the good points and make it work for you and what you like and your body likes

    5. Most important EAT REAL FOOD (with the exception of the energy foods we need in ultras and try to find better options for that stuff like Organic Honey Stinger or Pocket Fuel). If you eat real food you cut out the overload of added sugars and you cut out the additive chemicals

    6. You run a lot so you have leaway to have that extra beer or pizza just dont do it everyday

    Enjoy food don't stress about it!

  25. Dom

    Everyone's body adapts to new diets, the question is whether the change is worthwhile and sustainable. I aire the gluten-free-vegans of the world, provided they really get a performance boost out of it. However, if there's not a noticeable advantage for oneself, don't sweat it! Your body always adapts and changes efficiencies and wastefulness!

  26. Lori Enlow

    As a family nurse practitioner in a busy internal medicine practice…..Thanks for so wittingly putting into words what I try to relate to my patients every day! You are right on the money!! No further research or reading necessary my friend….you've got it! Best wishes on all your adventures!

  27. panos from greece

    I was in the same confusion during the past few months that i was trying to figure out what it is best to eat.

    What i have decided to do, after having read 4-5 books on nutrition (athelete's or not), is to follow what makes sense, and what is sustainable from every book.

    So my "food mantra", goes like this:

    -Try to eat real food. Raw if possible, mostly vegetables, fruits and less nuts and meats.

    -Eliminate processed food from my died (biscuits, snacks, ice cream, etc)

    -25% of my daily calories should be from protein (better from fish and meat)

    -Try to eat simple meals and combine starch and vegetables or meat and vegetables but never starch and meat.

    That's all

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