When a "disorder" that befuddled my doctors appeared to be well on its way to killing me, several years ago, I decided to take it upon myself to research the issues and use my academic skills in a "last ditch" effort to save my life. Let me make it clear that I did not engage in any "high risk" behavior and have never even smoked a cigarette. I did not drink alcohol, though I took a tablespoon or organic red wine at the end of a meal once in a while. I was eating plenty of whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, legumes, and I was supplmenting with omega 3s. I ate very little salt and no cholesterol. Yet somehow, my body was deteriorating rapidly, and I was only 36 years old.

I decided that I would put all preconceptions aside, and just examine the evidence behind any claim. At the same time, I read books on biochemistry, physiology, nutrition, etc., in an attempt to develop an deep understanding of the processes involved. If I thought that I had "come up short" in this endeavor, I would not be writing these essays (and I probably would not be alive to do it anyway). The rationale for my present diet is simple: avoid foods that act as direct stressors (such as any food that contains more than a small amount of unsaturated fatty acids); avoid foods that inhibit normal physiology (such as legumes); avoid foods that contain natural toxins (such as potatoes with green colors); avoid foods that contain cholesterol that is likely to be oxidized (meat, eggs, or dairy cooked while exposed to air, powdered eggs or dairy as one might find in baked goods, and homogenized dairy); eat at least some antioxidant-rich foods with each meal (such as berries or dark chocolate); be sure to eat enough high quality protein each day to meet your needs (probably at least 50 grams for a "moderately active" adult).

Below is my current diet, though I do also use some supplements, and I will add a section on them at a future date. Note that one often hears about the "dangers of sugar" and other such nonsense all the time in the mainstream media. Moreover, all one seems to hear is how "beneficial" fish oil is, when in fact the National Research Council and the major works of the professional nutriitonal literature warn about its dangers. I have quoted passages from this literature in other essays, but I'll just mention here that when one says something like "sugar" or "saturated fat," take it with a grain of salt, because such terms and phrases have no scientific meaning. The molecules in a bag of refined white sugar are different than the molecules in a something like Rapadura unrefined sugar, and other "sugars," such as malitol have specific physiological effects. Most people have been convince that "sugar is bad," but in fact it is the safest form of energy for mitochondria, with the possible exception of short/medium chain saturated fatty acids (though these are not found in more than trace amounts in most Western diets).

What follows is a diet of mine that I no longer follow; after that is my current diet. I don't think the "old" diet is a "bad" one, but I like my current one better. Both are practical and not very expensive, so almost every Westerner should be able to obtain these foods. I would not claim that it is "best," but that it does no harm and supplies the body with what it needs. Note that you may need more protein in your diet, depending upon your lifestyle, and also that I am assuming that a person is in excellent health (and also that I am going to add a supplement section that I also feel is necessary, at least for me).

3 slices of homemade bread (coconut oil is the only major source of fat used, and it is only used to "greasse" the pan), made with all-purpose, organic, unbleached flour, organic sugar (Rapadura brand), bananas, spices, and a touch of salt

All of the dairy products listed below are not from grass-fed cows, and have little if any omega 3 content:

3-4 ounces of whole milk cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, swiss, or monterey jack)

4-5 ounces of whole milk yogurt

1 ounce or less of butter

½ ounce of bittersweet chocolate

1/8 ounce of dark chcocoate (70% cocoa mass)

3 ounces of whole milk ricotta cheese

1 boiled egg (organic, but not enhance with omega 3s)

1 large banana or 2 small ones

1 or 2 prunes

a few dozen raisins, rehydrated slightly

1 ounce of strawberry preserve

3 ounces of shredded coconut (which I then grind into a powder with a burr grinder)

1 apple, 1 pear, or several pineapple chunks

less than one level teaspoon of nutritional yeast

an occasional carrot

a small amount of sauerkraut (washed off first) is okay, and goes well with boiled eggs

boiled potatoes are good, but they should be organic, and the organic ones around here are often very green - do not eat green potatoes 

if you can get organic berries (blueberries are the most available and least expensive, from what I've seen), go ahead and eat at least several with each meal.

My current diet:

Aside from fresh fruit, especially bananas (though I'm not sure if bananas are technicaly a "fruit"), I eat a lot of cheese along with ricotta, which can be the same as cheese, or be made with whey, which will change the amino acid profile a litte. I make a "milk shake" type of item by adding strong coffee (after it has cooled) to ricotta, and mixing it with sugar, a touch of salt, and small amounts of cocoa powder, cinnamon, and ginger. I also eat other dairy, such as butter, sour cream, and yogurt, but never with additives such as carrageenan.  I eat dark choclate and bittersweet chocolate chips. I let raisins soak in water for several hours, then drain the water - you can also use this water if you want to make a bread. I also eat figs, prunes, and other dried fruits, which I soak in water too, but not as frequently. I eat boiled potatoes with butter.  I often eat pickled/fermented cabbage with cheese.  I eat pasta, with an herbal tomato based sauce on top (ricotta is mixed into it). I also eat oatmeal sometimes, made with cinnamon and ginger, along with sugar and some salt. I make a pudding with pineapple juice, crushed pineapple, a mashed banana, sugar, coconut oil, a touch of salt, ginger, and flour to thicken it up. You can make this with other fruit as well. Once in a while, I will eat a boiled egg. Lastly, I eat shredded coconut, though I put it through a burr coffee grinder first, because I like the texture better this way. I still take tiny amounts of nutritional yeast, and even tinier amounts of gelatin, each day.

A word about "cooking:"

High temperature heating of food while exposed to air is something I avoid entirely, in order to prevent dangerous chemical reactions from occurring. It may sound impossible to eat such a diet after you've been raised on fried food, but I found that the key is to let your sense of taste predominate over your sense of smell. This takes a few days, but once you "have it," you can appreciate subtle nuances in your recipes. I make sauces with tomato paste and pureed corn. I add herbs and/or spices, along with a pinch of salt and sugar, then add ricotta cheese and mix well. This all occurs at low/medium heat on the stove top. After it is warm throughout, I add organic pasta, and let it heat to the level I like. It is not very hot, and while I eat I keep a top on it so that it doesn't cool quickly, which will happen. I eat slowly, and like to "rotate" among several different dishes or combinations of items (such as a couple of raisins, a small amount fo dark chocolate, and some shredded coconut).

Those who feel the need to eat meat should read the thread in the nutrition forum on cooking meat. Basically, the best thing to do with meat, assuming it is fresh, seems to be to freeze it for at least two weeks, let it thaw, cut it into small pieces and then put it into a sauce, such as the ones I have described above, but not to use high heat. I don't know what this will result in, since I don't eat "meat," but you may need to squeeze the blood out of some cuts. If anyone tries this technique, please go to the cooking meat thread and post a message about your experiences there.

Supplements:

I take about 25-50% of the USRDA of potassium in the citrate form along with about .15 gram of calcium citrate before my first meal of the day, along with a tiny amount of a vitamin B complex powder (which I allow to dissolve under the tongue). Keep in mind that the more stress you place on your body, the more vitamin and mineral supplementation you will likely need.

In the middle of the meal I take about 25% of the RDA in vitamin D (I don't get a great deal of sunlight), then at the end of the meal I take about 25-30% of the RDA in zinc and magnesium citrate, and a very small amount of MSM. In the next two meals, I do the same thing except that I don't take the potassium or zinc, and instead take about 15% of the RDA of copper (gluconate form) in the middle of the meals.

Every week or so I take a gelatin supplement, and advise those with conditions where healing is not happening to do the same. For example, I had tendonosis in my right shoulder for over two years, but after using the gelatin and also eating more high quality protein, it felt normal again within a couple of months. I also take tiny amounts of selenium as selenomethionine a few times a week (avoid the selenite form of selenium).

Another thing you need to do is to determine whether you are producing enough stomach acid, because many conditions and also a poor diet can cause this deficiency. If you have "heart burn" once in a while you probably produce enough. If not, you can get a betaine HCl and pepsin supplement and cut the pill into thirds (I use Country Life brand, for example). You take a third and see what happens, then you take two thirds and see what happens. When you feel warmth, you know you took too much, so you drink a few ounces of water to neutralize it.

Even with enough stomach acid, you may have an inflammatory condition in your GI tract which is causing the cells that absorb nutrients to be dysfunctional (meaning that you are probably overloaded with AA, or eat a great deal of raw and/or rancid food). In such a situation you are in a lot of trouble, and this can happen in "celiac disease," where (as usual) an inflammatory response that is too potent causes damage and dysfucntion. If I were in such a situation now, I'd avoid food that could enhance the problem and eat more antioxidant-rich food, especially berries, but since I have taken the AA out of my cells, as I've seen, I just get a quick inflammatory burst and then the quick resolution, so I doubt that I would encounter a "chronic inflammatory" condition. Note that the evidence suggests that on a diet with only a trace amount of unsaturated fatty acids, it is unlikely that the body would invoke the inflammatory response against gliadin, and hence there would likely be hardly any "celiac disease," nor other kinds of problems like this.

A word about "salt:" I use mostly Celtic Sea salt, which you can get over the internet, just as I prefer Rapadura brand sugar over what is called unrefined organic cane sugar (but I use both, because they have different tastes). Sodium is not the problem in terms of developing high blood pressure, but eating a high salt diet will mean a lot of chloride, and if your diet is low in potassium, that combination seems to cause most cases of "hypertension" (which is why fruits and vegetables appear to counteract it in major studies done on this subject). Basically, if you make your own food, like I do, and eat foods that have good potassium content, then you can eat the salt "to taste." You may need time to adjust your sense of taste, but that only takes a few days to a week, in my experience. I've found that I don't like foods with strong odors, as most Americans do, but prefer little smell sensation (relatively speaking). Once you find that you have also adapted in this way, it is highly unlikely that you will eat too much of the salt (assuming you make your own food), but you can measure it out so that it is in the range of acceptable, then put it in a container and only eat that amount per day. If you eat salty cheese or something like that, you can take a little salt out of the container to compensate. Remember that if you already have hypertension, this advice is not for you, though you may want to eat more fruit and vegetables and make your own food (and in the process, change the way your experience food so that you don't eat as much salt).

Not enough salt may have been the root cause of the problem that almost killed me in 200-2001, for example:

American Society of Animal Science American Dairy Science Association

News from the Midwest Sectional Meetings, March 16-18, 1998, Des Moines, Iowa

Contact: Ted Wiseman, Ohio State University(614) 292-9052 Don Mahan, (614) 292-6987 By Kyle Sharp

Salt Doesn't Just Add Flavor to the Diets of Early-Weaned Pigs

COLUMBUS, Ohio �?Hog producers who wean early and want healthier, faster-growing and more consistently sized pigs should be saying "pass the salt." Sodium chloride, commonly known as table salt, helps break down protein and prevent the growth of harmful bacteria in the stomachs of newly weaned pigs, said Ted Wiseman, Ohio State University animal science graduate research associate. The chloride component is particularly important. Early-weaned pigs with almost three times more sodium and chloride in their diets than the minimum recommendations of the National Research Council are more uniform with better growth rates, Wiseman said. Wiseman presented research regarding sodium chloride and early-weaned pigs at the American Society of Animal Science/American Dairy Science Association Midwestern Meeting, March 17 in Des Moines, Iowa. Several years ago, Ohio State researchers found that pigs weaned early have a greater need for chloride. While a young pig nurses the sow, lactose in the milk is broken down in the pig's stomach by bacteria called Lactobacilli, and as a result lactic acid is formed. This acidity in the stomach is what digests food proteins and prevents the growth of harmful bacteria that can cause diarrhea and other health problems. When pigs are weaned from milk, lactic acid production decreases and is replaced by the natural production of hydrochloric acid within the stomach. However, when a pig is weaned early, hydrochloric acid production has not yet begun, and the resulting low stomach acid levels can cause poor food digestion and bacterial concerns. Chloride helps digest food proteins and keep stomach acid levels high. "The chloride in sodium chloride helps sooth the transition period of early-weaned pigs from when lactic acid production decreases to when hydrochloric acid production begins," Wiseman said.

Source: http://www.asas.org/midwestern/press/ohsalt.html