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Every diet book has negative reviews. If you think about it, there is not a single diet that is agreed upon by everyone to be the best diet for feeding human beings. It's really crazy since we're the 'smartest' of beings, yet we really have no idea what to feed ourselves. No other animal or organism has this problem. Additionally, no other animal or organism cooks its food. Last, but not least, man discovered fire well after he was genetically on his way, so no one can say we were genetically programmed to cook our food. If we were, we'd have been doing it either as primates or back in the Garden of Eden. The time span of early man and the beginning of cooking with fire is data anyone can look up. If you only look at cavemen, however, the data really doesn't go too far back before man started cooking and as I said in previous blog posts, the scientists also point to when man started cooking food as to when they first started seeing disease states. This book or not, it's obvious to me man ate something other than cooked food, cooked meat to be precise, before the advent of fire. He simply had to have eaten something other than cooked food prior to the discovery and use of fire.
I do look at 'data' in books and there may be some flawed data in this book as there may be in all books of this type, but what I was interested in and looking at had to do with our natural, authentic diet and I felt this was pretty much the way we were genetically encoded to eat - give or take a few percentages back and forth. That was my quest when I started out on this path. I found this book on my quest for an authentic diet and felt it most closely matched how we were genetically encoded to eat. I didn't just pick this book up and say, "Oh this sounds good, I'll try this." I was actively seeking what our authentic diet was well before Nabisco came on the scene and I did months of reading and thinking before even buying it, much less trying it.
I felt if I could figure out what we were encoded to eat I'd finally find the way to feel better. I know there is no way we were genetically coded to eat things that did not even exist back when man started. Whether you're of the Eve theory or the Primate theory, this makes the most sense to me of anything I've not only read, but experienced: We're not genetically encoded to eat Oreos, nor a whole host of other garbage that's on the grocery store shelves today. Our diets are a disaster for our species. One look at the obesity and illness all around us should be a big clue that something is very wrong here.
Whether it's exactly 10% fat or 20% fat or whatever, I don't know, but to me this most closely replicates the food we should be eating. The food we eat today really has only been around for less than 100 years and I'm not talking about oranges and bananas. What we were 'born to eat' was what I was in search of, particularly since absolutely nothing else has worked for me in terms of the bloating and difficulty in losing weight as well as feeling extremely run down and horrible every single freakin' day of my life for at least the past decade. I have spent years saying things like, I felt really good on November 17th, 2006 but that was pretty much it for that year. How sick is that? I can tell you our Healing Diet at BreastHealthOnline did heal me when I could not heal for anything. I mostly followed it through the years because I do know balancing our blood sugar is crucial no matter what diet you're on, but I never could get below 170 lbs, I could never stop, control or understand the incessant and horrific bloating that I lived with on a daily basis and I could never get my energy up off the floor except for a few scant days over a 5 year period. To me, that's not living.
Now, this is not to say I don't have some issues with this book. I do. In terms of calcium, this book does not address this, especially for a woman who was just forced into menopause. Calcium deficiency and bones turning to dust in women is a very real thing. It's possible if I ate this diet from birth, I'd not have my calcium wasted away by whatever 20th century mechanisms are stripping me of it. Maybe I would not have needed a hysterectomy either, but most people come into this book as adults with all our baggage and so I feel calcium for women needs to be addressed and as a woman you need to look out for yourself. He says that calcium is perfectly packaged in plant material and that if you need more calcium you should seek out sources with greater values. That's great, but like I said, I was probably already deficient, heck I was extremely Vit. D deficient and these go hand in hand and I'm not actually finding it so easy to get it out of my diet. The biggest source of calcium I can find is sesame seeds but to eat it in sufficient quantities for calcium spikes my fat intake. So, this info is not helpful to me and I'm not dealing with a perfect body coming into this, in fact, my body was just altered to boot. The book doesn't cover what to feed children, it doesn't address what state you might be in when embarking and the book isn't written specifically for menopausal women.
It doesn't mean the book doesn't have value. No book can cover everything for everyone. Being a responsible, fairly intelligent adult, I realize I have calcium needs and I need to look at my specific situation to make sure I'm taking care of them. No book can do that for me and I knew that well before January 1st when I started this. I spent all of January looking at what I was eating and how much calcium I was getting so I'd have a baseline. I specifically tracked my calcium. It's not enough based on whatever standards the FDA and RDA people are currently hawking and as you know, they change their minds as well as change the food pyramid at will and sometimes argue within themselves about how much of whatever we really are supposed to be getting. Despite the fact the 'data' is apparently a bit floaty and ungrounded within these agencies we'll suddenly cling to their findings if anyone outside them says anything that varies from what they determine to be true. Visited any flat planets lately? Whatever the case, I'm supplementing now and I have supplemented with Vit. D for the last few years when I was found to be very deficient - despite being a California girl in the sun for nearly my whole life.
Which brings me to pretty much my only other issue with the book: I think his recommendation that everyone should get 15 min of direct sunlight on as much of their bare skin as possible each day is a great idea. However, if it's winter in North America, not only is there no sun (it's currently been snowing like hell where I am) but the trajectory of the sun is such that it wouldn't matter if I ran naked and freezing in the street on a 'sunny winter day' here, I'd not get the benefit of Vit. D because the UV rays are not strong enough for it to be produced on my skin. Don't take my word for it - look it up. There is plenty of bonafide research on this. I'm a huge proponent of people carefully examining their Vit D levels and making sure they're getting enough, despite much controversy over how much supplementation is necessary. Bottom line though, you're not going to get it through your skin in the dead of winter in much of North America.
There is also good info about Vit D and pain levels, such as at the Mayo Clinic, which is how it was discovered I was severely Vit. D deficient a few years ago. I had endless stomach pain every night, all night, which stopped within 10 days of prescription supplementation. So, I think the section on sunlight should have been expanded, but he touts being able to get all you need without supplementation, which is probably why those areas (calcium and Vit. D) are not expanded upon.
Basically, I strongly feel this is the way for me to eat. But I need to be mindful of my nutrition and take steps whenever and wherever I feel I need. This includes seeing my doctor to track levels of important nutrients and systems - like thyroid. In my opinion, the book is a good basis about how we were genetically programmed to eat. Considering the year and the society we live in, there may need to be some tweaks, just like there is with everyone's diet. Even people on the ADA diet, possibly the most accepted diet by general western thinking, needs to be reviewed to fit each person and each person really needs to look at how they feel and adjust accordingly.
Of course, almost no one does this. How many people really follow their doctors diet advice to the letter? How many diabetics really follow the ADA diet to the letter, despite their survival depending upon it? How many people follow and stick to any weight loss diet, much less a diet lifestyle? I can't begin to tell you how many patients at BreastHealthOnline will look at our healing diet and choose to add just yogurt and bananas to their regular diet and proclaim they're following our Healing Diet. Then they can't figure out why they're not healing. When I ask them to detail their food and then point out what a disaster their diet is and why it's not working, they simply get mad at me. But those that will follow it do heal.
As human beings we are creatures of habit who often refuse to take responsibility for our own diet and health. We want professionals to fix us but we don't want to be told what to do. When presented with any information, in particular about our diet, we're massively resistant, distrustful and can find a myriad of reasons as to why it won't work/we can't do it. We are adults but we often act like 5 year olds with our diets and do what we want regardless of the most compelling and respected information out there. And so it goes until you can face yourself in the mirror and accept responsibility for your own health and your own diet. Until then you'll continue to play this game with yourself which should be titled, "Gambling with your life", because that's exactly what you're doing. You may not pay the price now but you'll pay the price in your later years. Hospitals and nursing homes are filled with geriatric patients suffering a multitude of health problems and someday that bed may be yours. If you don't think your diet affects your health then maybe we all need to start talking to the researchers who said they started to see disease states when food first started to be cooked. Even if you don't follow a raw diet, you can be more honest with yourself. You know there are things you can do to have a better diet and you know what those things are.
In other news a number of friends have given me input on my foot trouble, which I so appreciate. I want to hear anything I might be missing - it's all good. Thing is, it isn't the actual skin. There is no rash, no dryness. It feels irritated but it doesn't look irritated. You can't see anything on it at all and more so, I've not had to daily tend to dry cracked heels anymore at all. It's a miracle - I've had the same daily foot ritual for 300 years and I no longer have to be a slave to it. In fact, my skin - whole body skin - is just incredible. Generally my skin is dry as well as bumpy and congested all over, even worse in the winter. I hate it. It's dead winter now and my skin is just smooth and silky and hydrated. As to my foot, it may be either calcium or just my running shoes. My feet are extremely sensitive, and the left one in particular as it was crushed a long time ago. It also may be stress. I had 'restless leg syndrome' when I lived with my ex. I noted two nights ago this reminded me of that, a sort of crawling and nervous, jittery feeling inside. I lived with a tremendous amount of stress at that time. Within 2 weeks of leaving him, the shaking, crawling and discomfort in my legs and feet stopped. Maybe it wasn't restless leg syndrome - maybe there should have been another term for it like 'living with alcoholism and terrorism every single day syndrome'. I'm going through a lot of stress right now and I'm sort of wondering if that may also be playing a part. Then again as another friend pointed out, I just had a hysterectomy 8 weeks ago, it might be my hormones. Everyone wants to immediately blame this book for anything and everything that ails me but that's just not fair.
As far as dry skin goes, I was actually concerned about this when I started. My skin was already dry to the point of redness and rashy over much of my body and has been my whole life. The last thing I wanted was for my skin to become more of a problem than it already was and as I said previously, it's completely transformed into smooth, silky and hydrated. In Steve Pavlina's 30 day blog he reported dry skin (he wasn't really specific on where) but did talk about dry, cracked hands. My right thumb is terribly cracked and I'm sporting a bandaid and some A&D ointment. Thing is - they crack every single winter. I remember being in Paris and in SO much pain one winter. I ran crying into a pharmacy in search of more bandaids and ointment and it took months to finally get over it. It's cracked right now. I also scrubbed a tub, a counter, 2 sinks and 3 floors yesterday with cleansers and my hands are in a lot of water washing fruit everyday. Other than one thumb being cracked as it is every winter, nothing is different. It has nothing to do with my diet or this book.
If you've not read the book and more importantly, not tried any of it, don't throw the baby out with the bath water. There is a lot of value in this book in terms of just candida alone. In fact, if i told you to cut the fat back in your current diet and watch the cause and effect, you might see some changes for yourself. What I appreciated about the book was learning to look at candida differently. But book aside, go and be totally honest with yourself. Track your current diet on Fit day or Nutridiary - the latter which I hear is better. See how much fat you're eating and then cut it back, play with it and see what you can bring about for yourself. I've battled candida for so long. I remember spending a fortune on a case of Threelac because I was so desperate and determined to rid myself of this horrible bloating and they promised the 'cure'. It did not work and that was not the only 'cure' I spent money on. I had some corn chips last night (have I mentioned the huge amt of stress lately?) which sadly made me feel horrible and I had bad bloating :( It's funny because no one really cared what I ate before, be it Top Ramen and Ding Dongs for that matter (I didn't but you get my point), but people tend to freak out over me eating fresh fruits and vegetables, which I find interesting. My former diet never helped me before and this is definitely helping in many realms. Besides, you get to watch me to do it and you don't have to experience one lick of it if you don't want to. Win/win? Maybe...
No one has to do anything. No one has to go raw, much less 80/10/10, and very few people could just cold turkey do 100% raw much less 80/10/10 straight out of the box coming off a standard American diet. I worked my way into this before this year started and still I ate some corn chips last night - it happens. I've only been following 80/10/10 full on for 30 days and they say it can take a year to finally rid yourself of doing these things to yourself. I don't happen to think a few corn chips is such a big deal considering how far I've come and what I'm going through now in my personal life. I could have ran over to Arbys and gone crazy, but I absolutely didn't do that, nor did I consider it on any level. I think that's really big progress for anyone.
So, if you were curious, you could simply add a lot more fruit and raw vegetables to your diet and cut back on fats and go from there. The American diet is 35-45% percent fat. Cut it to 20%, eat a breakfast entirely of fruit each morning and build from there based on how you feel. If you are eating a raw diet now, track your food and review your fat. You might be surprised at the numbers. Many raw diets are very high in fat, even upwards of 60 - 80%, which is crazy. No one needs that much fat in their diet. Track your food and see where you can make some changes.
Stay tuned for tomorrow for a much shorter blog where I'll be updating my weight, measurements and timeline (body) pictures. YAY!
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