I tried to figure this out a few weeks ago and was similarly confused. A lot of people on the internet seem to promote extreme diets, (paleo, veganism, etc.) bu

I tried to figure this out a few weeks ago and was similarly confused. A lot of people on the internet seem to promote extreme diets, (paleo, veganism, etc.) but these guys also seem to open themselves up to really weird health problems (ex. Gout, rapid tooth wear & decay for vegans). Anyway, since I didn't want to spend all my time researching this or become a doctor, I just looked up the USDA guidelines and tried to eat more in line with that. 3 meals a day, minimal snacking, home-cooked food, ~2400 calories per day (for my body & weight loss goals), 3+ servings vegetables, 2-3 servings fruits, 2-4 servings dairy, some meats and eggs, etc. The USDA site even gives you recommendations to eat certain amounts of specific types of vegetables weekly (greens, starchy vegetables, orange vegetables, etc.) which I assume is an attempt to abstract things out a bit so we can worry less about levels of specific micronutrients There's also an app called MyFitnessPal that lets you log food intake by scanning barcodes with your phone's camera and tracks some nutrients (vitamin a, c, potassium, iron, a few more)