Keto Vs. Vegan

(TL;DR at bottom)

I am looking to get back into shape and have been out of the game for a number of years. Back in the day I ate a balanced diet and just counted calories to lose weight. However, I have to wonder if there's a better way.

Doing research online I have come across two camps of people -- the whole food vegans and the Keto low-carb people. These people espouse diets 100% diametrically opposed to one another and both claim the science is on their side. Both of them are right to some degree: You can find studies that suggest keto is awesome and other studies that say vegan is the only way.

Both camps also use the "our ancestors ate this" argument. The Keto people point to the paleolithic age and the vegans just say shite like "Humans were made to eat plants." The truth is that both are correct. Humans have eaten exclusively plants and exclusively meats depending on the time period and location. (Some humans ate both). However, the mere fact we know what they ate tells us nothing about how HEALTHY those ancient humans were. What if they all died at 35?

I've seen studies about saturated fat and there's zero doubt (none) that it correlates with cardiovascular disease. The American Heart Association and numerous university centers (like Harvard) say that the science is conclusive. The keto people try to spin this as a "conspiracy" among scientists to sell whole grain foods. But the whole foods people aren't immune from conspiracy mongering either. Plenty of of them buy into various conspiracies relating to drug companies, etc.

So can any baws help me out? I feel like the extremes (low carb and low fat) are both quackery. We know plant diets aren't sufficient in some essential nutrients (like B-12) which means you cannot survive on it without supplementation. Therefore, this means such a diet is not natural no matter what the religious followers say.

On the other hand, there is good evidence that too many carbs causes diabetes and even heart disease in some people. We also know that not eating meat does not mean you'll be slim. There's obese vegans out there ("dirty" vegans who eat anything except meat).

My opinion: We have a lot to learn. The fact there's still this much controversy about diets just proves the human body is far more complex than most admit. I suspect there are genetic factors that determine what diet is right for any individual. We know, for instance, that some ancient humans ate lots of dairy (milk and cheese) and over time they developed a gene for lactose tolerance that other ancient humans did not have. This means lactose is only good for those people with the genes to tolerate it (most Asians cannot tolerate it). This is why your grandma can smoke until she's 90 while Joe Blow died of a heart attack from smoking at 40. It's all genetics, baws.

TL;DR - So what's a guy to do? Do I zero carb it or eat only plants? Is there scientific consensus on this topic?