Balance
To transition easily into a healthy lifestyle:
1. Eat less of what makes you feel worse 2. Eat more of what makes you feel better
Foods that nourish and cleanse you:
Raw fruits and vegetables
Soaked nuts and seeds
Sprouted grains, legumes and seeds
Chlorophyll-rich and colorful natural foods
Marinated vegetables
Naturally fermented foods
Naturally raised meats, poultry and eggs if you eat them
Raw and organic dairy products if tolerated
Foods that harm you:
Caffeine and tannins
Artificial sweeteners
Dyes and food colorings
Hormones in animal products
Pesticides
Chemical preservatives
Fried foods and all heated oils
Genetically modified foods
Irradiated foods
Microwaved foods
Most soy-based products
Food additives
Processed sugars
Processed grains
Processed animal products
The trick is to balance every meal with 30% protein foods, 30% good oils, and 40% high quality carbohydrates.
A meal should include:
30% proteins to rebuild
30% fats to sustain
40% carbohydrates (plant foods) to nourish and cleanse the body
Protein sources for a vegan include nuts, seeds, seaweeds, algae, sprouted seeds, grains, and legumes.
Animal proteins include grass-fed, organically-raised beef, mutton, lamb, or wild game; organic, free-range poultry and eggs; wild-caught fish from clean waters; and raw dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt, kefir) if well tolerated.
You can soak and sprout beans and lentils, or soak and cook them with seaweed to improve digestibility.
Soaking nuts and seeds breaks down enzyme inhibitors so you can digest them better.
Protein digestion is related to sleep hormones. If you’re having trouble sleeping, reduce the amount of proteins eaten and increase their quality.
The main job of the pancreas is to digest proteins. If the pancreas is not doing its job, proteins don’t get digested and they can cause allergic reactions and autoimmune dysfunctions.
Fat sources include coconuts, avocados, olives, nuts & seeds, and cold-pressed oils.
The first two hours after a meal, carbs keep you going. After that, fats and oils provide the energy.
Have 3-4 different high-quality; cold-pressed oils on hand – coconut, hemp, olive, sunflower, sesame, flax, avocado. Avoid Canola, corn, and “vegetable” oils.
Fat and oil digestion is related to the awake hormones. If you’re falling asleep in the afternoons you’re probably not getting the right kind of fats and oils, or you’re eating so frequently that your body doesn’t have time to digest them. Eating too frequently prevents the body from burning fat.
Your body cannot learn how to digest bad fats and oils. If you burp oil, you’re not digesting it. Choose another good oil to see if it works better for you.
You cannot lose weight in a healthy manner without good fats and oils.
Carbohydrate sources include fruits, vegetables, legumes, sprouts, and grains.
For maximum health eat raw veggies with a small amount of fruit as your entire carbohydrate intake.
Don’t focus on fruits.
Eat melons on an empty stomach.
Eat at least a small portion of dark green leafy vegetables twice each day.
Sweet potatoes are better than other potatoes. But avoid white, thin-skinned potatoes.
All grains need to be soaked, and preferably sprouted. You can make or buy breads made with sprouted grains, either baked or dehydrated.
Raw and Fermented Foods
Eat a diet of 70-80% raw foods to use food and food alone to heal your body. Cows get calcium and protein from greens, but they have multiple stomachs for digestion. It helps to marinate our greens for pre-digestion. See recipe for basic marinated greens at the bottom of this page. If you’re not marinating, use lemon and oil as your dressing or dipping sauce to help improve digestion, and chew thoroughly. Eat fresh raw foods and living foods every day. Living foods are fermented, cultured, or sprouted foods: high quality yogurt, kefir, cultured vegetables, marinated vegetables, natural pickles, and sprouts of all sorts.
Food Combining
Many people improve dramatically when they practice proper food combination rules:
Don’t mix proteins and starches in the same meal
Eat melon alone
It also might help to avoid starchy foods until your health is significantly improved. Starchy foods would be white potatoes, most grain products, and most processed foods found in packages in the center of the grocery store.
Colors of the Rainbow — some colors are better than others.
The most important food color is RED. Cayenne, cranberries, cherries, pomegranate (not the pasteurized juice sold in bottles), beets, red chard, raw tomatoes, red fruits, paprika, red bell peppers, etc. Rescue remedies frequently call for concentrated cranberry or cherry juice as they are easily used by the body.
Next is GREEN. Eat kale, collards, spinach, Swiss chard, seaweeds, dandelion greens, parsley, cilantro, and just about anything else that is edible, dark green, and leafy. Make sure you add lemon, vinegar and oil to help digest them. Sprouts allowed to turn green (alfalfa, clover, etc.) are also considered greens. Rescue remedies use liquid chlorophyll (found in a health food store, but don’t get mint flavored versions unless you really like mint) but juicing your own greens is good too.
Third is PURPLE. Sea vegetables, purple cabbage, purple kohlrabi, purple kale, eggplant, prickly pear, and any purple fruits — make sure you eat the purple parts.
Many people get into a rut in their diet by eating the same foods all the time. Variety is important! Eat all the colors of the rainbow.
In case you hadn’t noticed, white (white sugar, white flour, white pasta, white bread) isn’t in the rainbow. However, garlic, and onions are good foods, high in natural MSM. And cauliflower is excellent raw.
Detoxing, Cleansing, Hydration, and Fasting
While transitioning to a healthier diet you may have side effects and cravings. Don’t give in to the bad cravings! There is a difference between a good craving and a bad craving. Bad cravings could be for dairy products (ice cream, cheese, milk), simple carbohydrates (pasta, sweets, candy, sweetened drinks, breads, baked goods), or tannins (coffee, cola, tea, chocolate, anything with artificial red food dyes, all tobacco products). Good cravings would be for a moderate amount of fruit in season, vegetables, legumes (hummus!), water with lemon juice, or other foods that you know are good for you. Be sensitive to what your body is telling you. Keep your bowels moving with raw foods at every meal. As you add more nutritious raw foods to your diet, you’ll find you don’t crave bad foods as much anymore. It will be easier to eliminate (or at least cut back on) foods that are harmful. It is fairly easy to find a healthy raw food to substitute for nearly any craving.
Craving Remedies:
LL: drink the juice of a fresh squeezed lemon, or make an LL cocktail with lemon, water, and a natural red juice concentrate (cranberry, cherry, beet) with a few drops of vinegar.
LO: eat olives, avocados, or something with a lot of good oils in it. Cooked oils don’t count — cooking hydrogenates oils.
4C’s: use muscle testing to determine which kidney is in need (left kidney follow LO, right kidney follow LL), or do a combination — reds and greens in oil and lemon. Eat marinated greens — just a spoonful will solve a lot of problems. Keep some in your refrigerator.
If you’re not sure, the marinated greens recipe below has everything in it and it’s the perfect quick remedy. Also, find the perfect pickle and olive and keep them on hand. Lindsay has a line of natural olives in cans, and Claussen and Bubbies both have natural pickles sold in the refrigerated sections of many grocery stores. Bubbies also has natural saurkraut in brine.
Hydration
Many people are drowning themselves by drinking too much water while they suffer from dehydration. This happens when the cells aren’t getting water; instead, the water gets stuck between the cells. Drink no more than about 16 ounces (2 cups) of clean water daily, mixed with fresh-squeezed lemon or lime juice. Do not exceed a total of 16 ounces daily. Drink lemon juice straight to help with inflammation. During the summer or when sweating a lot, you might find cranberry added to your lemon and water refreshes better. And yes, people who sweat a lot will need to replace the fluids lost, but replace them the healthy way instead of depending on processed, sugared, flavored, and colored liquids.
Fasting
A fast can be a spiritual cleansing, not just a physical one. The goal is restoration of the whole being: body, mind, and spirit. Choose a fast that will separate you from offensive behaviors so you can begin to see what they do to you, and to those around you. Choose one day each month to eat and drink nothing for 24 hours. Time this with natural rhythms: either with the moon or your menstrual cycle — 24 hours around the full moon, or the third day of your (or your wife’s) period. This allows all sorts of bodily processes to reset and, along with a healthy diet, should be all that is needed except for a spring and fall cleansing fast. Spring and fall fasts are best timed with leaf fall in autumn and pollen season in the spring. During this time at the very least cut back on all animal products, but especially dairy products. This is a great time to increase raw foods, stop all junk foods, and increase your intake of lemon.
Medications and Supplements
If you are on medications now and want to get off, clean up your diet first. Then ask your doctor if the medications are still needed. Give your body time to heal, and find out how to get off specific medications safely. Some can take as long as a full year to get off. Only your doctor can safely take you off any medications you were put on for medical reasons. If you remove the necessity for the medication through healthy eating, your doctor will take you off. Go off supplements wisely. It works better to improve your diet first, and then begin eliminating supplements as they are no longer needed. Determine the purpose of the supplement and research real food sources. Make a list of foods you should eat frequently because of past health problems and post it in your kitchen as a reminder. Use muscle testing to find out if your supplements are helping or hurting you. Often the combination of ingredients, the extreme processing methods, or other factors cause supplements to do more harm than good.
B12 problems
A certain percentage of people don’t absorb vitamin B12 well. It doesn’t seem to matter if these people eat vegan, lacto-ovo vegetarian, or a lot of animal products. Many people on raw foods who have worked on recolonizing their gut find they gain the ability to absorb B12 once they’ve gotten off processed grain products with synthetic vitamin B12 added. The gut naturally recolonizes when the diet is changed to include raw, marinated, and fermented foods.
Vitamin D
New findings indicate the proverbial pendulum is coming back again. At first it was “Avoid the sun at all costs!” Then it was “Expose yourself to the sun before ten am and after 4 pm or you’ll have vitamin D deficiencies.” But it seems that midday sun is best, whole body exposure is best, short exposure times are best, and people with darker skin need more sun exposure than those with lighter skin. The link between cancer and vitamin D deficiency is now fairly well known, but lab testing can be a problem. Apparently not all labs use the same method of testing and standards have not been set. Two excellent resources on this subject: The Healing Power of Sunlight — downloadable e-book interview with Dr. Michael Holick, and The Vitamin D Cure by James E. Dowd, M.D. and Diane Stafford.
Infants and children
Obviously, breast milk is the best milk. As you introduce new foods, begin with raw foods as much as you feel comfortable. Google “raw food kids” and find tons of information. Amazon sells a book called Raw Kids.
Recipe for Marinated Greens
Wash one large bunch of collards, kale, spinach, or chard (enough to make about 6 C chopped greens) Wash one smaller bunch of dandelion greens, cilantro, or parsley (1/2 – 1 C chopped greens)
Cut up the greens into bite-sized pieces and put into a large bowl.
Add one or two grated carrots if desired.
Mix in a measuring cup: 2 – 3 tablespoons lemon or lime juice freshly squeezed (to taste) 1/2 cup olive oil or other good oil 1 Tablespoon good vinegar 2 – 3 tablespoons tamari (to taste) Cayenne to taste 1 clove garlic finely minced
Pour mixture over the bowl of greens and mix to coat thoroughly.
You should be able to taste the lemon or lime — if you can’t, add more. Greens are not digested in your body very well, and need that pre-digestion process to make them usable in the gut. I usually add the juice of one lemon or lime on the second or third day as well.
If you’re having problems digesting greens, cut them into finer pieces to allow for more pre-digestion. Also be sure to chew them thoroughly before swallowing.