A few years ago I read this book called “Never be Sick Again” by Raymond Francis, M.Sc. The idea behind all of the recommendations made a whole lot of sense to me. The main point of the book is that there is only one cause for sickness and that is unhealthy cells. And to make your cells healthy, you have to fix any deficiencies and eliminate toxins. He goes into more details than that, but what I got out of the book was that you can take charge of your health by eating foods that nourish your body and avoiding toxins - both toxic food and environmental toxins.
After reading that book I started using healthy beauty products - ones without parabens and sodium lauryl sulphate. I found a deodorant without aluminum in it. I switched to Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, although I think I could actually even go healthier than that. I think it was also around that time that we switched to an organic lawn service (yes, we have a lawn service. I feel a little weird about that, but it really is nice knowing that our lawn is being fed all good things).
Next up. The food. This book is where I first learned about food combining - eating foods in proper combination so they move swiftly through your digestive tract. I don’t really practice that too much anymore, but I was able to cure my reflux disease and get off of medicine by following this recommendation. I won’t go into the principles here, you can search for them online if you would like to find out more.
This book says sugar, refined flour, processed oils, caffeine, and dairy are bad. Dairy, wow. That was a new one for me.
Over the years I’ve really tried to figure this out. What were we made to eat? What foods will best nourish our body? The conclusion I’ve come to that makes sense to me amid all the nutrition noise is that foods in the closest form to how they are found in nature are probably the best for us. Man, in all his infinite wisdom, has mucked around with our food supply and our health. We now have fake butter, fake sugar, fake oils, fake food color. Those can’t be good for us. I know it deep in my soul. I’ve always felt this way since the days of growing up with margarine in the house. Even as a kid I never felt that margarine was healthy for you because man made it up.
So, here are some of the diets I’ve read about on this journey. And some of them I’ve tried. Southbeach. The Zone. Eat Right for Your Blood Type. Nourishing Traditions. The Mediterranean diet. Ultrametabolism. Vegetarian. Vegan. Raw. Eat to Live.
Some of these felt like they had pieces of what I was trying to find. But it wasn’t until I read Eat to Live that I felt like all the pieces fell into place. And I’ve decided on a Vegan diet for myself, because I’m not a huge fan of meat and I love vegetables to death! I’ve really been a vegetarian at heart my whole life, although I’ve denied that part of myself as people questioned my diet. I remember my doctor, when I was pregnant, telling me to eat some meat. As far as the milk goes, a LOT of sources say milk isn’t good for you, and even the Nourishing Traditions book says your milk should be raw. Pasteurization changes the structure of our milk. Once again, man interfering with something natural. For me to find and make use of raw milk and cheese (and I really don’t even LIKE milk), it’s just easier not to eat/drink it. And I love my almond (or rice) milk.
So, even though I am not choosing to eat meat and dairy, I believe if you (or I, at some point) do choose to eat these items you should choose organic, grass-fed, free range meat and eggs and dairy sources. And don’t buy pasteurized milk.
My current dietary guidelines are these:
- No sugar, or if sweetener is needed, use honey, agave nectar, maple syrup, or dates.
- No refined flour. I use wheat tortilla wraps or wheat flat bread. I use brown rice. I use brown rice pasta (like it WAY better than whole grain pasta and so does my family, who aren’t really on this journey with me yet). There are a lot of other nice grains such as Quinoa that I am going to try to integrate into my diet.
- Limited processed foods. I say limited, because Trader Joe’s has some pretty healthy frozen foods for those times when you need to grab something quick. But actually, I’ve started cooking and freezing my own “processed” foods for quick meals.
- Eat beans and dark green vegetables for protein and calcium.
- Eat a variety of raw and cooked vegetables.
- Eat (raw) nuts and avocados for healthy fats.
- Drink water, unsweetened ice tea (decaf if possible), decaf teas, green tea.
- Dried fruit (and fresh fruit) is my new “candy.”
- For my chocolate fix (I do still need that, but not as often) I make a health shake with unsweetened cocoa - Ghirardelli makes the yummiest cocoa - or I have a square of Lindt dark chocolate (but I’m not enjoying that as much as the shake. Good for melting and dipping fruit pieces, though).
- A multivitamin so I get vitamin B12 (this is missing from the vegan diet) - plus I take extra vitamin D and fish oil.
That’s it. My diet in a nutshell. At this point, anyway. I will keep researching health because it is a passion.