Moderation in all Things

Moderation in all things, such a wise saying. As a nation we are not very good at this! Let's see if we can start to develop our common sense. Especially when it comes to EATING!

There are a lot of fad eating plans out there, the latest craze in diets, diet drugs, paleo eating (more about this later), vegan, raw food, vegetarianism. With a minute, that last one may have some validity. The longest lived people in the US are Seventh Day Adventists who eat a vegetarian diet. This is a diet rich in variety of whole foods, cooked, raw, fermented, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, grains, fruits and vegetables.....HMMM and natural healthy sources of oils!

There a great documentary by Michael Pollan, "In Defense of Food", it gives a great overview of how Americans got so confused about what to eat. Tracing many of our modern premature aging diseases to a lack of healthy fats in the diet and an overload of sugar! Watch it! The paleo promoters are on the right track in some respects, but unless your going to become a hunter gatherer, it's impossible to follow and possible unhealthy in the long run to eat the amount of meats recommended. Colon cancer can be directly correlated to the consumption of beef. Modern researchers have been making great strides in proving this point. The beef Americans are eating are fed corn, they are by this diet FAT, their meat is high in fat. There are many healthier choices if you are going to consume meat. That's another blog topic for later.

I have over the 40 years since I first began to consider what I was eating and how it was making me feel, tried every type of alternative eating. Raw food, vegan, vegetarianism. I have had times when I ate fish, eggs, cheeses moderately. The one diet I can tell you for certain will make you ill is the Standard American Diet. My search for healthier eating started from being made sick by the S.A.D. Raw food is hard to maintain, some vegetables yield their nutrients through cooking. Most raw foodies are also vegan. It takes a lot of focus to go all raw and older bodies don't do as well on all raw. Vegan requires the same focus, it can be done, variety is the key.

Several years ago, my husband (a Paleo if ever there was one) and I had some analysis done of our nutrient levels. The doctor was certain I would show deficient, especially in B vitamins because of my vegetarian diet. Much to his surprise my nutritional levels outranked my husbands and most predominantly in the B's including B12! Why? I ATE MORE VARIETY  OF FOODS THAN HE DID, INCLUDING, WHOLE GRAINS, NUTS, SEEDS, LEGUMES, RAW AND COOKED VEGETABLES, FRUIT, GOOD SOURCES OF OILS, OLIVES, AVOCADO, COCONUT AND OLIVE OIL. I ALSO FAST THREE TO FOUR TIMES A YEAR AND STOP EATING WHENEVER I FEEL ILL, LIKE ANIMALS DO!

Boiling it down, the average American has lost the instinct to know what to eat and when. The S.A.D. diet destroys your appestat. The low nutrition leaves you craving food all the time, the high sugar, carb and fat combo is a killer. A sensible restorative detoxification regime provides a transition out of the addiction cycle of the S.A.D. diet and can segue you into a healthier more balanced diet along with a return of the natural instinct to eat, only when hungry!

COMING UP NEXT: FASTING, WHAT HAVE THE RUSSIANS BEEN UP TO!