Proper diet and nutrition are far more powerful than any medicine a medical doctor can prescribe for a specific medical condition. If you are suffering from diabetes, heart disease, acid reflux, chronic fatigue, hypercholesterolemia, or cancer, before trying out new medicines to relieve your symptoms, consider a diet and nutrition program. There are so many claims by new diet books and nutrition gurus that an incredible amount of confusion is created in deciding what to eat and how to prepare meals. In this article, I’ll explain my approach to Diet and Nutrition.

For many years, I have been advocating the concepts of 1) the Rotation diet as determined by Food Allergy testing, 2) the Zone diet by Barry Sears, Ph.D., and 3) the Blood Type diet by Peter J. D’Amato, N.D. I have also incorporated Food Combination Rules, Glycemic Indexing, and Metabolic based diets. These general dietary recommendations are discussed in a more detailed article on my web site (see end of article) titled “Peak Performance Diet.” Many of my patients have benefited from the Peak Performance Diet by losing weight, gaining more energy, and increasing their self-confidence.

Lack of time to prepare food has been one of the major challenges in following any diet. One of the nagging questions I’m often asked is, “How do I prepare the meals and preserve all the nutrients in the food when I have a limited time to cook.” I have finally come up with an answer to this question. How about not cooking at all? Eat raw, save time in cooking, and stay healthy.

I have seen many sickly vegetarians on raw food diets so for me to propose a raw food diet is a radical idea. There have been many different opinions on raw food diets. One of my patients, Jeff, changed my view of the raw food diet. Jeff used to be 175 lbs. and a muscular weight lifter before he became sick and lost most of his weight to less than 80 lbs. He appeared old, sickly, and dried up like a concentration camp prisoner. He went to major medical centers and health spas to correct his failing health. He had every conceivable test but ended up without a definite diagnosis or treatment plan.

Despite the intestinal parasite cleansing, heavy metal detoxification and nutritional programs in my clinic, Jeff continued to lose weight. In desperation, he switched to a raw food diet and consumed raw eggs, meats, chicken, butter, milk, and vegetables, and avoided grain. His body made an almost miraculous transformation back to a vibrant muscular 26 year old young man in a short period of time. The process has been phenomenal and defied the nutritional programs given by the conventional and alternative medical professions.

Raw food by definition is unprocessed, unheated, uncooked, non-radiated, non-homogenized, and unpasteurized. Raw food is not genetically modified and not preserved with chemicals. And it should be organic. These raw foods promote cellular repair. In doing so they generate good health and can reverse chronic disease which is rampant in modern industrialized countries. Processed and cooked food promotes cellular and physical degeneration. This degeneration then passes on to the next generation of children and accelerates the chronic disease process. See Dr. Francis Pottenger’s study of cats from the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Man’s original diet, often called the Caveman’s diet, was very similar to all other living creatures. They ate what was available in their local environment, which included raw food, and they stayed remarkably healthy. African tribes and Eskimos survived in extreme environments with extreme diets by our standards. Yet they remained strong and free of chronic disease until the introduction of Western industrialized processed foods. The only common denominator is that they consumed food raw whether as whale, seal, Caribou, fruits, milk or blood. Grains were not in their diet. Grains were not part of the human diet until the dawn of the civilization of Mankind when grains became the main cheap gruel for slaves.

Grains, legumes, nuts, and vegetables are more difficult to digest. Cooking was introduced to make it easy to digest these foods. But cooking with fire destroyed the essential enzymes and nutrients. This destruction of essential nutrients caused the beginning of modern ailments and chronic diseases.

Not all raw foods are equal for human consumption in large quantity. Most of the protein foods such as milk, meat of all kinds, and eggs should ideally be consumed in uncooked, raw, and organic form. For most people, medium rare meat and a soft boiled egg with a runny yolk is a good starting point for the introduction of minimum cooked, palatable food. You may need to learn to marinate raw meat to enhance the flavor for regular consumption.

Raw fat has been the most misunderstood food in our fat and cholesterol phobia society. Raw butter is one of the best sources of good fat for cellular energy, hormones, internal lubrication and cellular regeneration. Moderate amounts of vegetable oils from Olive oil, coconut and flaxseed oils are also beneficial. Fish oils and cod liver oils are highly recommended for additional supplementation of good fat.

Vegetables, seeds, and nuts can be consumed as seasonally available. I recommend juicing vegetables for those people suffering from any chronic ailment. Over-eating of vegetables, seeds, and nuts, thinking this is good for you, can cause bloating, indigestion, and gas. Vegetables, seeds, and nuts should be consumed in moderation. Don’t eat a bird’s diet. Humans do not have gizzards.

The main carbohydrate sources of grains (and products from grains like bread, cookies, pastas, etc.), sugar, and alcohol were introduced in the very recent part of human history. They were mass produced for domesticated civilization. As a result of the introduction of these foods, we are witnessing the beginning of epidemic problems with cavities, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Don’t eat like a cow. Humans do not have multi-chamber stomachs to digest grains and green vegetation.

Fruits are natural carbohydrates with good nutrients but are also high in fruit sugar. They should be limited to one or two servings per day. Don’t eat like a monkey. Humans are hunters and gatherers by nature, not vegetarian, fruit-eating monkeys. For more information, you may look at Dr. Joseph Mercola’s “No Grain Diet” and his website at www.mercola.com.

There is no perfect diet for each individual. There is no such thing as germ free, perfectly safe food in our society. We need to accept the fact that we are living in a contaminated, toxic environment. Radiation, chemicalization, and Pasteurization do not make our food any safer than without these processes. So you should not let fear hinder you from eating raw food. We need to adapt to whatever is available to us. It is not as difficult to eat raw food as you may think. You may want to try raw food by eating at least 50% of your food in a raw, uncooked state, especially for protein and fat sources.

Raw food might be the best medicine available to us for our health and survival as well as for our offspring. You may not need as many nutritional supplements when you are on a raw food diet. A resource to get raw milk and butter is Green Hills Harvest in Missouri by Barb and Kerry Buchmayer at 660-244-5858. Organic foods may be obtained at Wild Oats and Whole Foods. You can also request your local grocer stock raw, organic foods. We need to combine the best knowledge about diet and nutrition and apply it to each individual in a realistic life style. Think of food allergies, Zone diet, Blood type diet, and eat more raw food for maintenance of good health, and prevention and healing of illness.