The Traffic Light Eating Method
Not Everyone Thrives on the Same Foods. Here’s How to Find Yours.
The traffic light eating method is one of my favourite tools for helping people build a genuinely personalised approach to eating. Rather than following someone else's approved food list, you create your own based on how specific foods actually make you feel.
Think of it like building a playlist. The best playlists are personal. They contain songs that make you feel something specific. Your ideal food list works the same way. It's yours, built on your body's responses, not a generic template.
What is the traffic light eating method?
🟢 Green foods
Green foods make you feel genuinely good, physically and emotionally. You digest them well, they provide energy, you enjoy the taste, they improve your mood and you have a healthy relationship with them. These are foods you can eat consistently and rely on for regular nourishment. For most people, green foods include fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, lean proteins and healthy fats.
🟡 Yellow foods
Yellow foods work for you sometimes but not always or not in large quantities. A small serving of lentils feels good. A huge bowl creates digestive discomfort. A glass of wine with dinner is enjoyable. Three glasses is not. Yellow foods can be enjoyed occasionally with awareness.
🔴 Red foods
Red foods make you feel bad after eating them. Not because they're inherently evil but because they don't work for your body. They might cause digestive issues, energy crashes, skin reactions or a loss of control over your eating. Ultra-processed foods often fall into this category. But so-called healthy foods can be red-listed too. If eggs give you hives, they're red for you regardless of their general reputation.
How to build your personal traffic light food list
Use these questions to create your own list. The Precision Nutrition Red-Yellow-Green Foods worksheet is a helpful tool to guide the process.
Red-Yellow-Green Foods worksheet
🟢 What foods make you feel genuinely great?
These are your green foods. You digest them well, they give you energy, you like the taste and they support your overall wellbeing. You can eat them consistently without overthinking it.
🟡 What foods work for you sometimes but not always?
These are your yellow foods. They're enjoyable in the right context and the right amounts but they don't belong in your daily rotation. Treat them as occasional pleasures rather than staples.
🔴 What foods make you feel bad?
These are your red foods. Pay attention to how you feel one to two hours after eating specific foods. Bloating, fatigue, brain fog, skin reactions or a loss of control around eating are all signals worth noting.
Why this approach works
Most nutrition programmes give everyone the same list of good and bad foods. The traffic light method recognises that nutrition is deeply personal. A food that's a green for me might be a red for you.
This approach also removes the moralising around food. No food is glorified or demonised. Each person's list is unique. What matters is whether a food makes your specific body feel good.
Building your own food list creates a genuinely enjoyable relationship with eating. When your green foods are foods you love that happen to make you feel great, healthy eating stops being a struggle and starts being a pleasure. That's the whole point of everything I share at Vitality Marco.
Health should feel like your best life, not a break from it.
Marco ☕
References
For more information, click this article from Precision Nutrition - Traffic light eating method: The best foods for YOU
About Me
I'm Marco Asnicar, personal trainer, nutrition coach and founder of Vitality Marco. I didn't discover the Mediterranean method. I grew up living it, shaped by Italian roots, real food and movement as a natural part of daily life. It took me until recently to realise that what always felt completely normal to me is exactly what most people spend years searching for.
I coach men and women aged 35 to 55 to do the same. No restriction. No fads. No giving up the life you love. Just a way of eating and living that genuinely feels good and gets better every year.
Want to know more about my story and approach? Read my full About Me page.