Michael Pollan is known for many things, but his quote on how to eat, “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” is krazy glued to his followers’ brains.

I agree with this, mostly.

I’ve tinkered with “how to eat” since the day I was born, obviously. I have to. Don’t we all? But the question of how to eat and what to eat and how much and when is a loaded machine gun. There has never been a time in the history of earth where this question has been more popular, contested, and frankly, annoying. Notions of “diet” and “healthy” and “good for you” are completely meaningless. Healthy cupcakes? Bad for you steaks? Bad for you vegetables? Good for you, sugar-laden everything? People ask me all the time, “but is that healthy?”, and the answer is always a long-winded explanation, because it’s multi-layered and SO individualistic. What’s healthy for me might not be healthy for you. And what’s healthy for you might not be healthy for me. I think we need to guide ourselves by what foods make us feel like shit and what foods don’t make us feel like shit. And Michael Pollan’s quote is good in the sense that he’s promoting eating that is unprocessed, whole, and from the earth. But what comprises the other when it’s “mostly” plants?

Protein. Every time you eat a meal. Every. Single. Time. This is something that I didn’t want to accept in my life for a REALLY long time. There are so many more delicious things that exist on this planet other than animal meat! And back in the day, I definitely used my calories for everything except protein. Like sugar. And dairy. And so many processed carbs. And fruit. And tons of nut butters. So much candy. So many baked goods. Delicious! I’m talking no animal protein, ever, in my life for a long period of time.

The funny thing is, though, that when I ate that way I was not a fully working human. I stopped, um, functioning in a womanly way. I was skin and bones and not much else. Maybe some brittle hair, too. And my skull housed a half-working, stressed out, super anxious, unaware brain. I experienced spurts of a diet that I would never recommend for anyone on this planet that rhymes with legan. While I was aboard that train, I ate so many soy protein imposters. Because it was “healthy.”

What I become more aware of daily as I continue to eat and feel and learn, is the impact of what we eat on our mental health and general sanity. Like we can actually eat in a way to make our brain happy, or we can eat in a way that makes us feel off all day long. And in a world where stressors lurk around every corner, I like to be able to control my stress as much as I can in healthy ways. It’s much easier and so much more fun to overindulge constantly by drinking or stress-eating or drowning sorrows in hours and hours of TV or other addictions. But we can make ourselves calmer by what we eat. And this is where the importance of protein comes into play. Because it’s actually a real thing in our brains. Because science says so.

To put it lightly, our brain needs amino acids to function properly. The essential ones, because, uhhh… they’re ESSENTIAL. To work, to think, to be productive. To do what you need to do daily. To make your impact on the world, to leave your legacy. To talk and express yourself. To do everything you need your brain to do which, for most of us (definitely not all), is a whole buncha shit. To be happy, calm, and healthy. And these essential amino acids are ONLY AVAILABLE through animal proteins. Not soy-rizo, not tofu, not tempeh, not beans or rice. ANIMALS, people. There’s a reason why people who don’t eat animal proteins take a cocktail of supplements to function. Because we are humans, omnivores who need these foods for our BRAIN to function. I’m not even going to get into the muscle part right now. In latin, protein comes from the same root as the word priority. The word gods even knew what they were talking about when it came to food.

As I made the shift to focusing on eating around 4 ounces of protein at every meal, I noticed that my anxious symptoms ameliorated. Not completely, because I am an anxious, sensitive person in general. But I felt satisfied and never snacky with this serving of protein and some vegetables. And my brain felt cool, calm, and collected. Consequently, I noticed it more when I DIDN’T eat the protein. I felt frazzled, unfocused, all over the place, and super munchy. When I read and then felt the science in my brain, it makes so much sense that this is just the way I eat now.

So while I do agree with Pollan in eating plants, I think it’s just as important to eat the other, animal-y stuff, too. I mean, have you ever spent an entire day eating just plants? Your stomach will look like a pregnant balloon. What’s most important is taking the time to become intuitive about what really works for you. Which is mostly protein.