Can you stay plant-based without the perfectionism? Registered Clinical Nutritionist Luke Gabites and Dr Cliff Harvey get honest about food values, food rules, and why rigid diets often backfire.

Most diet arguments online come down to rules: you either eat this way perfectly or you're out. Luke spent years eating a strict vegan diet for ethical reasons. He joins Cliff to talk about what happens when strict rules meet real life, real bodies and real clients. Both have plant-based roots, both have become more pragmatic, and neither is anti-vegan.

In this episode we cover:
How Luke and Cliff each came to plant-based eating, and why both have softened over time
Why a vegan diet isn't medically suitable for everyone, including Cliff's systemic nickel allergy and Crohn's disease
Whether a vegan diet always results in fewer lives lost, and where food systems and consumerism fit in
Values vs rules: an acceptance and commitment therapy lens on how we eat
Rigid diets, perfectionism and the link with disordered eating
What the research on plant-based eating actually shows, and where it gets overstated
Working with clients across the dietary spectrum without pushing your own ethics
Luke's one universal principle: start with your values, then build a mostly whole-food pattern that lets you live

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:12 Cliff on pragmatism, veganism and dogma
03:49 Welcome Luke
05:05 Luke's path: migraines, student flatting and yoga in India
07:51 Holding values without rigidity
09:30 Cliff's story: hunting, Buddhism and going vegetarian
12:15 Crohn's disease, nickel allergy and eating meat again
15:36 Does a vegan diet always take fewer lives?
17:35 Food systems, gardening and killing slugs
19:20 Perfectionism in diet communities
20:04 Restrictive diets and disordered eating
22:00 Diet vs ethos: the vegan category problem
23:00 Values vs rules
26:28 Identity, performance and hypocrisy
27:39 Insects, puha and cats: where is the line?
30:17 Living in alignment and self-compassion
33:28 Backlash for changing your diet
36:58 Online criticism and when to block
39:45 Bioindividuality and lived experience
41:37 Reading nutrition research pragmatically
45:11 Working with clients of every diet
48:40 Who ends up in your clinic
53:44 Knowing when to refer on
56:47 One universal truth in nutrition
1:00:32 Coach-first practice
1:02:39 The Practitioner's Roadmap

ABOUT LUKE GABITES
Luke Gabites is a Registered Clinical Nutritionist (Clinical Nutritionists Aotearoa) and Wellness Educator based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, and the founder of Planted Nutrition. He graduated with first-class honours from the Institute of Holistic Nutrition, completed HPN 2 clinical nutrition training at HPI, and co-hosts the Thrive: Mind & Body podcast with psychologist Jane Gabites.

Website: https://plantednutrition.nz/
YouTube: @planted.nutrition
Instagram: Instagram: luke_gabites
Thrive: Mind & Body podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast...

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Cliff's low-nickel diet and Crohn's disease case report (Journal of Metabolic Health, 2026): https://doi.org/10.4102/jmh.v9i1.127
EPIC-Oxford study, Tong et al. 2019 (BMJ): https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l4897
Kristin Neff on self-compassion: https://self-compassion.org/
HPI faculty and advisors: https://www.holisticperformance.insti...

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