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As I understand it, a diet can be broadly described in term of macronutrient ratios—i.e., the proportions of energy received from carbohydrate, protein and fat sources.

In that case, presumably the range of all possible diets can be plotted on a ternary graph, ranging from (33,33,33) (i.e., a completely balanced diet) to (100,0,0) / (0,100,0) / (0,0,100) (i.e., a diet in which all energy comes from a single type of source).

What would such a map of the ‘dietspace’ look like? Where would the healthy and unhealthy regions be? What regions would come with unexpected side-effects, positive or negative (such as ketosis maybe helping to treat epilepsy)?

I've had a go at making a rough version, but as you can probably tell I am neither an artist nor a dietician (the dashed lines show overlap, which is difficult to get across in Paint):

A rough map of the ‘dietspace’

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  • This...is borderline to being on topic as well. What is the purpose of the diagram? What are you trying to determine? If you could ask that, instead of what the diagram would look like, that would make it more on topic. – JohnP♦ Jun 14 '19 at 13:54
  • Also, I suspect the type of diagram you want is called a Venn diagram. That's the one with circles surrounding datapoints and shading/overlapping on common points. – JohnP♦ Jun 14 '19 at 13:57
  • @JohnP My thinking is that if one marks their current diet on the map (i.e., uses the macro ratios as coordinates), they could then easily identify which coordinate ranges/areas on the map they should push their personal diet towards/away from in order to produce desirable effects/avoid undesirable effects. – Rumps Jun 14 '19 at 14:27
  • Also, one could visually assess the ranges/regions representing healthy diet macro makeups, which would be more intuitive than trying to parse different diets based on names and marketing (e.g. this sort of question wouldn't be necessary, as the difference between a (40,20,40) diet and a (100,0,0) would be immediately clear). I don't think a Venn diagram is the correct tool here. – Rumps Jun 14 '19 at 14:32

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