What is Diet?

I have come to the conclusion that one of the most important contributing factors to health is the things we simply put in our mouths and ingest, i.e. things that we eat or drink. This can include a variety of things as such fruits and vegetables, but also things like twinkies and french fries thanks to the chemical “food” manufacturing companies.

To me diet is not something you do for a short time to lose weight to fit into your favorite dress.

To me diet is a set of principles you adhere to in selecting what type of food or drinks you ingest to give you maxiumum nutrition to achieve optimum health.

The objective of diet and nutrition is to increase your health, not to simply fill you up or excite your taste buds.

When we look it at that way, then there are certain questions that arise, such as:

1. What is the effect of this food/drink on my health?
2. How is my body going to react to this food/drink?
3. Is what I’m about to ingest going to take me closer to optimum health or away from it?
4. And finally, what is the optimum diet for humans and more importantly for my body?

In my opinion, those are the questions we should be asking ourselves every time we make a decision to ingest something or not. And this decision in my opinion should be a conscious decision based on the research each one of us has done personally and continues to do so throughout life. As you continue to research nutritional science then you can incorporate the new data with your existing knowledge and the experience of what has worked for you in the past.

Unfortunately for many of us the decision of what we ingest is made for us subconsciously by the advertising and marketing messages we are bombarded with on a daily basis. We just cruise past the grocery store aisles with our carts, grabbing things from this shelf or that shelf without reading the labels, knowing the ingredients in the food item, or what it will do to our body once it’s in there.

To me the first important part of change is awareness, i.e. the knowingness or the feeling that things can be better, followed by a desire to improve the status quo. Second is education which brings about awareness of the benefits and dangers associated with various food items and that is hopefully why you are reading this blog.

The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, had said “Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food”.

I do believe in that statement. I believe that our food was not only meant to sustain us with the energy necessary to accomplish our earthly tasks, but also to keep bodies healthy and safe from harm by foreign micro invaders.

After much research I have come to the conclusion that the optimum diet for the human body is one of raw, vegan, living foods.

1. The food must be in an uncooked state because heating up food beyond 108 degrees Farenheit (according to some 114 or 118 degrees) will denature the enzymes in the food. Enzymes are special protein molecules that speed up or catalyze certain reactions in the body such as digestion. There are certain digestive enzymes that are in our food and some that the body makes itself. The more we heat up or cook our food, the more food enzyme we destroy and the harder our body has to work at manufacturing these enzymes, which is a very energy-intensive process for the body. One of the best sites I have found on raw food educations is by Dr. Jim Carey, Ph.D. promoting Dr. Ann Wigmore’s program from the Creative Health Institute. I highly recommend it. You can also get Dr. Ann Wigmore’s 10-DVD set Special for $88 from this special link.
2. The food must be properly combined for optimum digestion and absorption. To undertand this I highly recommend reading Fit For Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. This book is full common-sense suggestions on foods and a healthy diet, plus many directions on how to properly combine your foods. For instance you don’t want to mix your proteins with carbs, such as a steak and potato. Instead eat the steak with some steamed or sauteed vegetables instead of the potato and you can do the same thing with the potato or carbs. I lost 30 lbs during a year just by following this particular way of eating without changin must what I ate. For those who are not ready for a raw diet, then this is the best I can suggest.
3. The food must be in proper quantity: NEVER OVEREAT and always stop before you get that “stuffed” feeling. That is very taxing on the body. I still do get dragged to a buffet once in a while but I always end up regretting it because I just keep eating. So if you’re like me, don’t put yourself in a position where there is an unlimited “all-u-can eat” supply food.

I wish you the best in your efforts towards creating a healthier body