Taking Control of Your Health Through Diet
How Should We Eat?
by Jon Porter
According to Dr. Mercola, “Unfortunately, two out of three people in the U.S. are overweight and one out of three is obese, and the rest of the world is not far behind. It has been my experience that many people are in denial about being overweight.” http://www.mercola.com/nutritionplan/index.htm. Dr. La Puma states, “This year 900,000 Americans will die from heart disease, 500,000 from cancer, 200,000 from complications of diabetes, and 150,00 from a stroke...disease affected in some way by the diet.” - quote from the Introduction of his book Big Book of Culinary Medicine. He further states that “Out of the 116 medical schools in America, 68 have no requirement for nutrition classes ...and those other 40% ...they require an average of just 2 credits, basically one course, about nutrition.” Astounding! Dr. Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General indicated that 2 out of 3 Americans suffer fatal health problems because of poor dietary choices. - from the book The Maker’s Diet page 50 by Jordan Rubin. We are a nation without a clear healthy nutritional direction being provided for us by our mainstream medical community. Bummer!
Soooo, I ask you, how should we eat? I can only offer these simple guidelines, which my own investigations have uncovered. Please remember that these are merely my suggestions.
- Take responsibility for your own health as much as you can. Many would agree that Western medicine is particularly advantageous in acute health situations, but as mentioned above, few doctors have any serious nutritional training. Therefore, take responsibility for what you eat and make it your first line of defense for long term wellness. Let food be your primary medicine!
- Reduce the intake of overly processed foods which includes almost all packaged foods. Read the labels. Rule of thumb - if you can’t understand the labels - don’t eat the food.
- Soak all raw seeds and nuts before consuming (see my article - The Good Seed)
- Reduce or eliminate the use of pasteurized foods.
- Purchase locally organically grown produce and meats whenever they are available (not necessarily certified as such).
- Increase the consumption of organic raw vegetables and fruits while reducing the amount of cooked grains and meats in your diet - dump the old USDA pyramid charts that place grains on top. Put fresh organic vegetables on top.
- Add wild fish to you diet.
- Add non-pasteurized foods to your diet such as high-end yogurt that has no artificial additives, kombucha, or homemade sauerkraut. These are examples of healthy appropriately processed foods.
- Detoxify by water or juice fasting for short durations - I use The Detox Book by Bruce Fife and the Juice Fasting and Detoxification book by Steve Meyerowitz for fasting guidance. Be careful about fasting when you are on medications. Even though few doctors are trained in nutrition, they are certainly trained in the toxic side effects of the medications they prescribe, and they can help us to avoid making sudden dangerous or overly rapid reductions in medications. There are clinics you can locate on the Internet, such as the Hypocrites Institute that assist people in detoxifying and eliminating unnecessary medications through dietary changes.
We have no guarantee of a long life free of suffering. But whatever health conditions we find ourselves struggling with, certainly we will profit from a healthy diet.