Food & Diet

DO EAT vs DON'T EAT

The best diet to follow is styled along an ancestral diet, or Paleo diet, or hunter-gatherer diet.

If you look backwards in time, you start to understand that for thousands of years, humans have lived off the land, growing crops, picking fruits, nuts and berries, and hunting for meat. You will not go far wrong ever if you stay close to that ancestral truth...as you are alive today because of this historical diet. We have become too used to modern supermarkets and processed food, which are deceiving our bodies and minds into thinking that food is for pleasure, when the reality is that it is primarily for survival. If the food tastes good, that’s a bonus. But we should choose wisely.

Meat : Think about where the animal has been all its life and what it has eaten. If it eats what is natural to it, like a lamb grazing in a field all day, you can probably imagine that the animal is good for meat, and its fat content is relatively pure and in ratio to its muscle mass. Lamb, organic where possible, and organic beef, are the best meats. Game is great too. Organic chicken less so; if you ever look in a chicken coup, there is usually not a lot of food available to the chickens after they have been there a short while. I don’t advocate eating any other chicken that is not at least free-range and organic, and i don’t advocate pork too often due to the animal’s eating habits.

Fish : All fish is good, if it swims in the open sea and then usually line-caught. They are a natural animal eating what is natural to them. Oily fish, like sardines and mackerel and herrings are good for everyone. I do not advocate shell fish of any kind...think about what they eat!

Organ meats : Liver and kidneys, and maybe sweetbreads and haggis, from a good organic source, should be eaten whenever you like.

Vegetables : Green leaf, like Kale, Broccoli, Cabbage, Spring greens and spinach should be eaten daily. You get a high mineral source from these. The most nutrient rich foodstuff available in the UK foodmarkets is believed to be curly Kale...and if you worry about your calcium levels, the cow eats grass before producing milk...which is where the calcium comes from. We don’t eat too much grass, but green leaf like Kale is where we get a great source of calcium, better than dairy sources if they have been pasteurised! All other vegetables should be consumed...every day...and I suggest steaming them unless consumed raw.

Less potatoes, tomatoes, aubergines and peppers (chillies and capsicums, not black) as these are nightshade produce and are linked to arthritis.

Fruit : All fruit, every day, including berries which are best picked by your own hand whenever possible. And eat the seeds inside them too, when possible, as the seed contains vitamin B17 which is the most important anti-cancer vitamin in the natural world. I will write about its use in cancer treatment in another article.

Cereals : I do not advocate wheat products as a good nutritional source. Less bread, cakes, pasta and pastry for life. The nutritional value of cereal products is about 30% or less of what they used to be about 30 years ago due mostly to intensive farming methods. Soda bread may be a better source. Rice flour is best in baking.

Dairy : Avoid dairy. Most dairy products have been pasteurised, except for some cheeses in the supermarkets. Pasteurising dairy products destroys the enzymes thus changing the absorption rates in our guts. And there are more reasons to avoid dairy than just pasteurisation. Butter however is the exemption...eat lots of it, but get organic only.

Sweets : Cut down sugar intake...desserts, drinks, sweets etc should be treated as luxuries and eaten rarely, not every day. Saying that, never replace sugar with sweeteners which are far worse.

Seeds and nuts : Always and whenever. Good snacking foods. Organic where possible. Avoid cashew nuts as they are nightshade.

Oils : For shallow frying, use butter or walnut/coconut oil. These can be heated to higher temperatures than vegetable, sunflower, rapeseed or palm oil. Virgin Olive oil is great, but not for cooking... Never, ever use margarine or similar spreads. Low cholesterol spreads are to be avoided totally.

Drinks : Water is always best. Organic juices and some good natural cordials are ok when some flavour is required. Drinking water half an hour before eating is advised to aid digestion. Milk is to be avoided, so green tea or fruit tea is the way forward. Caffeine is to be avoided or at least minimised. Fizzy drinks should be avoided. If you drink them, go ‘full fat’, never diet varieties. When it comes to alcoholic drinks, less is best, but avoid spirits mostly. The best spirit however is Gin due to its purity. Some vodkas are similarly pure, with far less hangovers the following day! Women should never consume whisky as it damages good Oestrogens and potentially is linked therefore to breast and ovarian cancers. Wine is better than beer, due to us wishing to avoid cereals. Cider is a better alternative to beer. Non-alcoholic beers just don’t taste that good!

For more information or a personal consultation contact our clinic on 01709 828928