NUTRITION & HEALTH. (9 MAR 2016)

Any person trying to make sense of what to eat is going to get frustrated at all the conflicting morass of information available. The purpose of this article is to blow away the confusion concerning the conflicting research & info on diets out there and to build some understanding of health & nutritional concepts. The goal of this article is to give the reader the tools of discernment to do further exploratory research on their own. It will be as succinct as is reasonable.

STARTING POINT-1 SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL. All humans share common features, but our body chemistries, genetics, metabolisms and generational histories are different. So there has to be a balance between recognizing commonalities while also recognizing that each person is also different, and needs a diet that addresses each individual’s needs. I have talked about the research concerning eating right for your blood type. But it goes way beyond that. The nutrition & health of your mother, grandmother, and other ancestors directly relates to your makeup. The specific set of flora (helpful microbes) that are in your gut at the moment makes a difference. The toxins that you are exposed to relate to those environments & products you have been around, for instance common plastics which have only recently been identified as poisonous. Those toxins which pollute your body also interfere with the way it functions. Our modern lifestyle, which we think superior to primitive cultures, is moronically inundated with toxins, while the primitive environments have been usually clean of such things. So we also have take into consideration the context our body lives in. The bottom line is that you will have to determine through research and testing what works best for you. However, that does not mean that there are not common truisms to build upon. 3 examples of individual differences: your set of apolipoproteins (for instance ApoE) play a role in how you respond to diet (like lipid metabolism)…your set or absence of the lactase enzyme for digesting dairy…& your amount of amylase in your saliva for dealing with high-starch foods. This is not even touching on the role of genetic differences.

FIRST TRUISM- The Matrix we live in spews out lots of good looking information but the appearances are deceptive. The goal of the controllers of the Matrix is to reduce the population through soft genocide, so a great deal of dangers surround us—including a lot of disinformation & dangerous drugs. (This is why I feel compelled to write articles like this.) The Medical System is set up to make money & to control us. People need to be wary of the established Medical System; they make money off of sick people. But there needs to be a balance. One should not reject something just because it comes from some mainstream source. Be wise in the sources you give credibility to, but stay balanced. The government & its agencies are even tainted. For instance, I have explained how Monsanto has placed their people into government regulatory groups. So dump all your socialized Matrix groupthink.

SECOND TRUISM- Around the globe, there were “primitive” societies that over many centuries had developed accumulated common wisdom on what potential foods in their environment would give optimum health. Not all primitive societies discovered & employed those things that would lead to perfect health. Indeed, there were plenty of primitive societies that were not healthy. But there were places on the globe where people were very healthy, lived long healthy lives, and did not suffer from western degenerative diseases. They lived healthy without modern health care & had excellent teeth without brushing their teeth daily. (I will list those in the next paragraph.) In my opinion, the best study ever made of food & health of primitive societies was done by Weston A. Price, who published his findings in the book Nutrition & Physical Degeneration (1939). He travelled around the globe and carefully studied the health of different groups that were still living as their ancestors had. He also carefully compared these very healthy groups to individuals who had left the group and had been using modern diets. These traditional societies are no longer available in their untouched forms like they were in the 1930’s, so the research by Price may remain in a class of its own.

TRADITIONAL GROUPS FOUND BY PRICE TO HAVE PERFECT HEALTH: Gaelics in the Outer & Inner Hebrides, Swiss in Loetschental Valley, traditional Eskimos in Alaska, traditional natives in the Rocky Mountains, certain Melanesians & Polynesians in the so. Pacific, various African tribes, Australian & New Zealand aborigines, Malays on islands off of no. Australia, and natives in the Andean mountains. None of these groups ate anything remotely similar, yet all had exceptional natural health. But each of these diets had 4 times the level of vitamins and minerals recommended by nutritionists. Their diets were high in the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, & K) which get neglected by vegan diets. In fact none of these perfect health traditional groups were all vegetarian, their most prized foods were animal products. In fact, many things they ate would not be touched by moderns: organs, insects, dried fish eggs, cod’s head stuffed w/ oatmeal, etc. None of them ate sugar, vegetable oils, processed grains and processed food…which are all big debilitating elements of our modern diets.

POPULAR ALTERNATIVES TO THE MODERN DIET. Perhaps the 3 most popular alternatives to the modern diet are some type of Paleolithic-style diet, a Mediterranean type diet, and a Whole-food, natural, plant-based diet. Just like all the successful traditional groups had different diets, likewise each of these are different, but each has given success and has advocates that swear by them. All of them are superior to our modern processed-food diet. And like the successful traditional groups’ diets none of them eat refined sugar, processed vegetable oils, chemical preservatives, refined flour and processed foods. So it is obvious from both the healthy primitive traditional groups and the successful popular alternatives what NOT TO EAT: sugars, processed vegetable oils, and processed foods. Which now leaves the truth seeker the question:…now that I know what to avoid, what will work for me?? Going back to the 3 popular alternatives, here is a little known fact to consider: none have correct & full research. The Paleo diet research is not for the same food as the popular diet. The actual people in the Mediterranean area eat things the popular diet does not mention like omega-3 rich snails, wild vegetables that don’t exist here, etc. The long term effect of totally plant based diet (minus key animal based nutrients) is not known.

THIRD TRUISM. Avoid sugars, processed vegetable oils, and all processed foods.

HEALTHY FOODS. (Virgin) Olive oil, seafood, and all non-starchy vegetables have been commonly found to be healthy. The traditional diet of Japan (with lots of seafood) has given them health, not as perfect as the traditional societies had, but healthier than our modern western society. Unfortunately, with the ocean used as a toilet by modern society and Fukashima’s radiation… seafood is often toxic. And commercial vegetables are being raised on soils full of toxins. The advocate of staying healthy really needs to not only experiment with what works for his or her own body, but one has to revert back to growing one’s own food to be sure what environment the vegetable grew in. Eating things raw often preserves more of the nutrients. And then there is the situation of how we combine foods. Combining certain foods together when they are eaten affects how well they each can be digested. So not only do we need to find healthy foods, but we need to learn how to serve and eat them.

FINAL TRUISM. There is no single answer as to what will be healthy to eat. Even traditionally healthy foods may be contaminated. Additionally we need to identify healthy ways to serve & eat those healthy foods once we have identified them.

Conclusion. I hope that this actually clarifies things. You may wonder, how does it clarify things?? Well, for starters you don’t have to try to sort out who is right in the debate between their alternative diets—you could spend a lifetime trying to figure out which is better, the Mediterranean or a Paleo diet…on the false assumption that there is one single correct answer. You need to examine what has worked for people and experiment. Consider this a learning adventure, bon appetite!