Chapter 6
DIET, THE SLOW KILLER
Once, you've cleaned out and repaired your food processing and waste removal system, you're ready to begin the process of rebuilding your body. Keep in mind that your body is rebuilding itself all the time. The actual life cycle of a blood cell, for example, is approximately four months. That means you end up replacing your entire blood supply every 120 days. The question is: what
will determine the quality of that blood? What are you going to be building that new blood from—Cocoa Puffs and beer?
Understand, it's not only your blood, but every cell and organ in your body that's being replaced. For the most part, you get an entirely new body every seven years. It doesn't take a genius
to realize that the better your nutrition, the better "quality" your new body will have.
Unfortunately, it's not so simple. Any attempt to optimize the nutrition we take into our bodies must address five key problem areas.
The Five Problem Areas
1. The Question of Meat
2. Milk. It Doesn't Necessarily Do a Body Good
3. Plastic Fats
4. Refined to Death
5. What's the Big Deal about Organic (which will be covered in Chapter 7)
1. The Question Of Meat
Probably no topic has been more discussed (and is more confusing) than what constitutes the optimum diet. There's the:
Caveman diet
The blood-type diet
The Hi-carbo diet
The Low-carbo diet
The High-protein diet
The Low-protein diet
The Steak Lover's diet
The Vegetarian diet
The Vegan (or pure vegetarian) diet
The Hollywood diet
The Scarsdale diet
The Twinkie diet
etc.
Heck, I'm getting confused just writing them down. So let's step back, take an objective view of the situation, and do a little reality check.
Let's begin by cutting through all of the nonsense and just taking a look at what kinds of food our bodies were designed to handle—then figure out what that means for us today. And the best
way to do that is by first identifying the key characteristics of our "eating and digestive" systems, then seeing which animals we match up with and what they eat. The key "indicators" that we're
going to look at are:
The teeth
The stomach
The length of the digestive tract
The Human Eating Machine
>Teeth. All of our teeth are nearly of the same height. Our canines are projected only a small amount, and our molars are broad-topped
>Stomach. The human stomach is slightly elongated, approximating the shape of a kidney bean
>Digestive tract. The average adult has a digestive tract (measured from mouth to anus) of about 30-33 feet long. This means that the ratio of the length of a person's digestive tract as compared to their height (also measured from mouth to anus) is approximately
10-12 times the length of their body.
Carnivores, the Meat Eaters: Lions, Tigers, Etc.
The first thing you notice about carnivores is that their teeth are nothing like those found in humans. They have huge canines for striking and seizing prey, pointed incisors for removing meat
from bones, and molars and premolars with cusps for shredding muscle fiber. In carnivores, the teeth of the upper jaw slide past the outside of the lower jaw so that prey is caught in a vicelike grip. In general, carnivores don't chew much; mostly, they just tear chunks off and swallowing them whole.
An examination of the carnivore intestinal tract reveals a short (relative to the length of their body) bowel for fast transit of waste out of the body[1]. (The actual length of the carnivore bowel is
approximately 3 to 5 times the length of the body—measured from mouth to anus—a ratio less than half that found in humans.)
Most of the digestive process occurs in the carnivore's stomach (which is a round, sackshaped, simple structure with a very high concentration of acid salts for digesting animal muscle and bone). Food usually remains for days at a time in a carnivore's stomach while it is digested (to a large extent) by enzymes present in the RAW meat itself (a process called autolytic digestion). In addition, carnivores are adapted to process huge amounts of food at a time (up to 25% of their body weight or more), then eat nothing for days at a time.
Again, this doesn't sound very much like us.
Herbivores, the Plant Eaters: Cows, Deer, Etc.
Herbivores have sharp chisel-shaped incisors for cutting, no upper incisors in some cases, and small incisor-like canines. Their diastema molars and premolars are flattened with ridges. Their
teeth and upper jaw meet the lower jaw so that lateral movement of the lower jaw produces the ...
[1 Fast transit of waste for carnivores is important for two reasons. One, the faster the transit, the less opportunity
for parasites to take hold. Two, meat tends to putrefy in the intestinal tract. Fast transit, therefore, limits exposure
to the byproducts of putrefaction.]
...grinding actions to break down plant materials. In herbivores, the incisors are dominant, the canines usually depressed, and the molars broad-topped.
As for the herbivore bowel, it usually runs almost 8 times longer than a carnivores (20 to 28 times the length of the body, from mouth to anus) since, unlike meat, plant matter is not prone to
putrefaction, thus rendering quick elimination moot.
Herbivores also tend to have extended, compound stomachs.
Again, not much like us.
Omnivores (Roots, Berries, Meat, Etc.): Bears, Wild Pigs, Etc.
No animal is really adapted to eat all things; but if any animal comes close, it would have to be the bear. Typical foods consumed by bears include: ants, bees, seeds, roots, nuts, berries, insect
larvae such as grubs, and even flowers. Some meat, of course, is eaten by bears including rodents, fish, deer, pigs and lambs.[1]
Grizzlies and Alaskan brown bears are well-known salmon eaters. And of course, anyone who has read Winnie the Pooh knows that many bears relish honey.
Other than the ants and grubs and rodents, the bear diet sounds a lot like the typical American diet; and, it's for this reason that many people conclude that the natural human diet is that of an omnivore. But remember, we're stepping back and taking a look physiologically where we fit in, and on those counts, we don't match the omnivores.
The biggest difference is in the teeth. Omnivores have the sharp canines of the carnivore AND the pronounced incisors of the herbivore. They also have molars that are BOTH pointed and
broad-topped.
That's not even close to a human set of teeth.
Frugivores, Fruit and Nut Eaters: Gorillas, Etc.
In the frugivore, all the teeth are nearly of the same height. The canines are little projected and the molars are broad-topped. (Sound familiar?) Unlike the carnivore jaw, which as we have seen is vertically mobile for biting or tearing, the jaw of the typical frugivore is laterally mobile to allow for chewing.
As for the bowel of the frugivore, it runs about 10 to 12 times the length of the body from mouth to anus—the same as found in the human body.
The stomach of the frugivore is typically long and extended—a complex structure—containing 1/10 of the acidic salts and pepsin found in a carnivore's stomach. Again, the same as in us.
So, here we have our match, but what does it mean? Are we restricted to fruits and nuts?
[1 Polar bears feed almost exclusively on seals and an occasional human; but then, what vegetation is there for them to eat in the frozen wastes of the Arctic.]
No. In fact, the frugivores we most closely resemble, the wild chimpanzees, periodically do indeed eat live insects and raw meat. Among the great apes (the gorilla,[1]the orangutan, the bonobo,
and the chimpanzee) and ourselves, only humans and chimpanzees[2] hunt and eat meat on a frequent
basis. But make no mistake, chimpanzees are largely fruit eaters, and meat comprises only
about 3% of their diet—far, far less than is found in the typical American diet.
So Should We, or Should We Not, Eat Meat?
Is a vegetarian diet automatically better?
No. In fact, depending on blood type, some people actually do better when they include meat in their diet. Other factors in our diet affect our health to a much greater degree than whether or not we eat meat.
So??
The bottom line is that eating small amounts of meat, chicken, or fish probably comes down mostly to a personal choice. If you choose to, you can eat 3 oz a day, or less, of meat without any
significant health problems—with the following provisos:
Keep the amount small—3 ounces a day or less.
>Heavy consumption of meat significantly compromises beneficial bacteria in the colon resulting in a 1,000% increase in the levels of harmful bacteria in the colon and a concomitant 90% drop in the levels of the beneficial bacteria as measured in fecal matter.
>High consumption of meat also tends to push the body's pH levels into the acidic range, which as you'll see in Chapter 12 presents major health risks including cancer and osteoporosis.
>Epidemiological studies at Harvard Medical School showed that, "Men who eat red meat as a main dish five or more times a week have four times the risk of colon cancer than men who eat red meat less than once a month." They are also "more than twice as likely to get prostate cancer."
[1 Gorillas have never been observed hunting or feeding on any animals other than invertebrates such as termites and ants.]
[2 Wild chimps love fresh baby monkey meat.]
If you're going to eat meat, buy only organic meat to avoid exposure to the wholerange of chemicals,[1]growth hormones, and parasites present in beef and chicken, or the high levels of toxic metals present in most fish. If it isn't available locally, pressure
your supermarket to carry it as an option.
2. What About Dairy?
The average American typically eats close to 600 pounds of dairy products a year, which makes it the single largest component of their diet. Unfortunately, this may not be as healthy asthe milk ads you see on TV would lead you to believe. Even if the cow's milk you get is free of chemicals, growth hormones, allergenic proteins, blood, pus, antibiotics, bacteria, and viruses typically found in milk, you still have major problems. Cow's milk is not designed for people. For one thing, it has 20 times the casein of human milk.[2]
(Human milk is designed to take an infant from 8 pounds to 40 pounds in 18 months. Cow's milk is designed to take a calf from 90 pounds to 1,000 pounds in about 24 months. Although they are both white, mother's milk and cow's milk are totally different beverages.) And for that matter, the cow's milk you buy in the store and the cow's milk that comes from a cow are not similar substances.
> First, homogenized milk is not natural and presents serious health risks. The theory behind homogenization sounds simple: break up the fat particles in milk until they are so small that they stay suspended in the milk and don't rise to the top and form the
layer of cream that used to be the trademark of all bottles of milk. Unfortunately, there's a side effect to this process. Once you make the fat particles so small that they don't rise, you've also made them so small that they easily get absorbed into the body and clog your arteries.
> Second, there's the problem of the growth hormone used in dairy cows to increase milk production. This growth hormone, called bovine-somatotropin3(BST), was developed by Monsanto. It was supposed to be identical to the actual growth hormone found in cows, and in fact, as part of their 55,000 page application to the FDA, Monsanto submitted a chart identifying the 191 amino acids contained in BST showing that they absolutely matched the amino acid chain found in natural growth hormone.
Unfortunately, it seems, the application is inaccurate. The problem occurs at amino acid #144, which was supposed to be lysine in both the natural growth hormone and in Monsanto's BST. As it turns out, it isn't. In the July 1994, issue of Protein Science(3:1089-97, 1994), Bernard Violand, a Monsanto scientist published evidence that
amino acid #144 in Monsanto's growth hormone is, in fact, epsilon-N-acetyllysine, a freak substance. Whoops! Ah, but then you probably think that once this problem...
[1 Just as an example, over 90% of today's chickens are fed arsenic compounds. And while we're on the subject of chickens, it's probably worth mentioning that according to a government study, over 90% of the chickens sold in this country are infected with leukosis (chicken cancer). As for those chickens with too much cancerous tissue to be sold, well . . . they're destroyed, ground up, and fed back to the chickens that we ultimately buy and eat!]
[2 The high levels of casein are just one of several reasons that humans do not digest milk proteins very well, leading to numerous allergic reactions and high levels of mucous in our noses and bowels. Incidentally, Elmer's® glue is made from cow's milk casein; that's why you see Elsie the cow on each bottle of Elmer's® glue.]
[3 Also called rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone).]
...came to light, totally nullifying the Monsanto application, that BST was recalled.
Nope, not in the United States![1]
And then there's the fact that the body digests milk (any milk) differently once gastric juices begin to flow (at around 18-20 months old). Before gastric juices flow, milk is alkaline and non-mucous forming in the body; but once gastric juices enter the picture, they turn the milk acid, forming mucous, causing sinus problems, allergies, colds, etc. That's why every animal except man weans its young off milk! Think about that for a moment.
In addition to all of that, milk has been implicated in:
>Heart disease[2]
>Cancer[3]—particularly breast cancer
>Diabetes[4]
>Allergies and colds
>Colitis
>Colic and earaches in young children
And finally, milk has played a major role in the development of the "super bacteria" that have recently emerged to plague our health. How? In 1990, the USDA allowed the dairy industry to increase the one part per hundred-million antibiotic residue standard for milk by 10,000% to one part per million. The problem is that at this level of constant intake, the antibiotics actually destroy the probiotic colonies normally found in the intestinal tract, which then allows harmful bacteria to flourish and develop resistance to a whole range of antibiotics.[5]
If you must have dairy, use organic. Avoid homogenized milk at all costs. Also, there are a number of grain and rice-based milk alternatives; some of which are spectacular.
[1 The FDA gave its approval for the sale of Monsanto's BST product back in 1993, but in Canada and the European Union, BST remains uapproved because of strong circumstantial evidence that it may promote cancer in cows and humans. Understand, this change in one amino acid is not insignificant. The replacement of one amino acid can change the configuration of a protein significantly; and configuration determines the properties and effects of a protein. Although the chemically detectable difference between true BGH and Monsanto's BST creation may be slight, the effects of the two hormones on the human body may be quite different indeed.]
[2 If you do drink milk, it is essential that you take a folic acid supplement to neutralize the xanthine oxidase found in milk. Xanthine oxidase, which attacks the arteries, is a major factor in heart disease. Interestingly enough, this problem seems only to occur with homgenized milk. When non-homogenized milk is consummed, the body excretes the xanthine oxidase.]
[3 It's worth noting that 60% of America's dairy cows are infected with the leukemia virus.]
[4 One particular protein, beta-caseine, found in cow's milk, can literally trick the immune system into attacking and destroying the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas.]
[5 There are 52 different kinds of antibiotics and 59 bioactive hormones found in milk.
Note: milk is often pitched as a great source of calcium. It is not. Yes, it has a high calcium content, but the body is able to utilize very little of it; and, in fact, because of the way the body deals with milk, consumption of milk actually leaches calcium from the bones.[1] If you have any doubt about this, just consider the fact that Americans are among the highest consumers of dairy in the world, eating an average of 600 pounds of dairy a year per person—and yet we have one of the highest incidences of osteoporosis in the civilized world!
3. Unnatural Fats: The Number 1 Dietary Problem
Food manufacturers love hydrogenated oils because hydrogenation makes those oils thicker, creamier, and more appetizing to the consumer. Unfortunately, hydrogenation also saturates the oils' fatty acids, changing them into trans-fatty acids. Trans-fatty acids are the number one killer in our diets, and a major contributor to:
>Cancer
>Heart Disease
>Diabetes
Hydrogenated (and partially hydrogenated) oils are absolutely unnecessary and have no place in your diet or in any of the foods you eat. The number one dietary prescription from this chapter
is to totally eliminate all hydrogenated oils from your diet. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it sounds. Food manufacturers have put them in almost every food they manufacture. The good
news is that if enough people refuse to buy foods that contain trans-fatty acid oils, manufacturers will stop putting them in their foods.
You also want to eliminate refined oils and manufactured polyunsaturated oils from your diet. What oils are good? Virtually any raw natural oil is good. Olive oil is the best. Use lots of extra
virgin olive oil in your cooking. Surprisingly, butter is cool—provided that you can get butter that doesn't contain antibiotics and bovine growth hormone and all the rest of the nonsense that many
dairy farmers use.
"Wait a second! Isn't butter high in saturated fat?" Absolutely, and let's put that bugaboo to rest. Natural saturated fats in moderation are not a problem. They do not raise cholesterol levels. They do not lead to heart disease. In fact, there is actually a diet that helps people lose weight, and lower cholesterol levels while eating as much meat and eggs and natural saturated fat as they like.[2]
The two reasons this diet works are (1) natural saturated fats do
not cause heart problems, and (2) all versions of this diet call for the elimination of snack foods, processed foods, sugared foods, foods containing any trans-fatty acids, and foods high on the glycemic index.
[1 It is a myth that we need milk for calcium. There are many far superior sources of calcium—such as sesame seeds. The problem with milk is that because of its high acidity, your body needs to buffer it with even more internal calcium than you get from the milk itself. Also, the 10 to 1 ratio of calcium to magnesium found in milk is insanely high and devastating to the body.]
[2 I've already discussed my concerns with too much meat in the diet; nevertheless, these programs do demonstrate the health-building power of just eliminating the bad things from our diet.]
4. Refined Carbohydrates: The Number 2 Dietary Problem
This includes all refined and processed foods, including:
>Everything made with white flour
>White rice
>Cold cereals
>Most hot cereals
>Most snack foods
>All sugar foods, including cakes, candies, and soda pop[1]
They negatively affect the body in a number of ways. They are all acid forming in the body, which we'll talk more about in Chapter 12. They are all converted to triglycerides in the body and
stored as fat. And they all rank high on the glycemic index (with no redeeming nutritional value such as the fruits and vegetables that are also high on the glycemic index).
The Glycemic Index
The glycemic index, and identifying high-glycemic foods, is one of the hot areas of nutritional science right now. Not to make light of it, it is an extremely important dietary consideration, but with one huge HOWEVER. First, though, a quick discussion of the glycemic index.
Diabetics have been using the glycemic index for years to help in controlling their insulin levels. Quite simply, foods that adversely affect blood sugar by elevating insulin levels are termed "high glycemic" foods, and foods that do not elevate insulin levels are "low glycemic." High glycemic foods can:
>Cause your body to store fat
>Make you fatigued
>Cause your brain to go "fuzzy"
>Lead to heart problems such as elevated LDL cholesterol levels and high blood pressure
Obviously, these are conditions to be avoided. High glycemic foods that cause elevated insulin levels and the concomitant problems I just mentioned include:
Bananas
Raisins ...
[1 Soda pop, particularly colas, may be the single worst "food" ever invented. First, soda contains approximately 1 teaspoon of sugar per ounce of soda. (Aspartame is even worse—once having been considered by the military for possible use as a battlefield neurotoxin.) That works out to about 12 teaspoons per can, or 32 teaspoons per Big Gulp. Many sodas, particularly colas, are high in phosphoric acid, which leaches calcium out of your body at an astounding rate. And all sodas "feature" CO2 bubbles, which when you think about it, is the body's main waste product!]
... Carrots
Potatoes
Corn
Breads, cereals, pastas, and rice of all kinds
Virtually all snack foods
Sugars of all kinds and soda pop
Earlier, I mentioned that there was a big HOWEVER to the glycemic index. What is that however? It's called chewing. If you chew your food well enough, the saliva neutralizes almost all of the glycemic response. So how much do you need to chew your food?
There's an old saying that says, "You should drink your solids and chew your liquids." What that means is that you should chew the dry food you eat until it turns to liquid in your mouth (about 40 chews per mouthful), and that you should swish liquids back and forth in your mouth (chew them as it were) an equal number of times.
As we've already discussed when we talked about refined foods, you should give up snack foods and refined flour products and sugar sweetened foods for a number of reasons. On the other
hand, for most people, if chewed enough, it's still okay to eat all of the fresh fruits and vegetables you want—even if they are high on the glycemic index.
General Recommendations
>Diet. Clean up your act.
Eliminate as much of the processed and cooked food from your diet as possible. Instead of canned or frozen, eat fresh.
Eliminate as much of the refined flours, grains, and sugars as possible. Instead of white bread, eat REAL whole wheat. Instead of cake and ice cream for dessert,
eat fruit.
Replace low-value foods such as potatoes and iceberg lettuce with high value foods such as sweet potatoes and almost any of the richly colored vegetables (particularly, spinach, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and beets).[1]
As much as possible, eliminate all snack foods and fast foods. Replace with prunes (no kidding, an extremely powerful antioxidant), raisins, and all of the berries.
Eliminate all hydrogenated oils and trans-fatty acids. Replace with olive oil and fresh butter.
[1 For those with arthritis, it might be useful to forego vegetables from the nightshade family, including: tomatoes,
spinach, and eggplant.]
Cut back on the quantity of meat, pork,[1]chicken, and dairy in your diet. And make sure that what you do consume is organic.[2]
Fish, of course, is okay—okay that is, if you can be sure it's free of heavy metals and toxins and hormonal "modifications."
> So what does that leave you? Actually thousands of choices. Virtually, everything that we've talked about eliminating is easily replaced with a healthier version. If you can't find the organic meats and dairy you want, or the whole grain foods you're looking for, talk to your supermarket. In most cases, they will get it if you ask.
>Of course, if someone is in an advanced state of illness, they better clean up their act TOTALLY, and eat no meat and no cooked food. In fact, ideally, they should go on a raw juice fast[3]—at least, until they get well. Once you're well, you can bake up a potato, or grill yourself a nice piece of organic beef (if that's your bent).
>The bottom line is that the worse you eat, the more often you will need to cleanse and detox and make use of supplements.
So After All That, What Do I Eat?
At one time, I was totally vegetarian, primarily for ethical reasons. Anyone who has any awareness of how cattle, poultry, and pigs are treated in our modern "superfarms," must think twice about consuming products produced by this system. It is incredibly cruel.
Unfortunately, after years of speaking engagements in numerous places around the world, I got tired of eating iceberg lettuce with second-rate Italian dressing for lunch, and white rice and dead vegetables for dinner. I broke down and started eating small amounts of chicken and fish.
My diet now consists of:
>Fresh juices, superfoods, and ground flaxseed (see next chapter) for breakfast.
>Large fresh salads with a variety of greens and vegetables4
with the occasional small piece of chicken or fish for lunch.
>Dinner is light. Sometimes a bowl of slow cooked whole-grain cereal so the enzymes are still active. Sometimes a small bowl of soup. Sometimes fresh fruit, etc.
[1 And no, pork is not "the other white meat." In fact, it's probably one of the more indigestible meats.]
[2 Incidentally, pesticide levels are far more concentrated in the animal flesh and dairy we eat than in the fruits and vegetables sprayed with those pesticides. Think about it for a moment. The animals consume these pesticides day after day, steadily concentrating all of the pesticides they eat through their entire lives in their flesh. The bottom line is that the higher up the food chain you go, the more concentrated the pesticides are. A cow eats hundreds of pounds of clover to make a few gallons of milk—concentrating the pesticide in that milk. Then again, it takes 21 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of butter, and 10 pounds of milk to make 1 lb of cheese—concentrating the pesticides even more.]
[3 See Chapter 13.]
[4 Sometimes I'll substitute a plate of lightly steamed or baked vegetables for the salad.]
> On the other hand, I still have an occasional slice of pizza. When I was young, I'd eat pizza 2-3 times a week. Now it's once a month. And more often than I should, I still indulge a sweet tooth and have dessert.
