29
Mar

Welcome to the Beginner Nutrition Plan

Posted in Diabetes, Diet, Gluten Intolerance, Nutrition  by admin

I feel it’s best for most people to start at the beginner level of this nutrition program. However, if you’re healthy and highly committed to improving your health, you can go straight to the intermediate or advanced section.

I do advise reading through each plan though as recommendations mentioned in each plan are not repeated in the next level. There are two reasons why I recommend most people start at the basic level:

  • There are several basic requirements in this beginning plan that will take time and patience to integrate into your daily life, and these requirements are essential to move on to my intermediate and advanced nutrition plans.
  • You need to allow your body to adjust to lowered insulin levels.

There is, however, a general principle that is useful for everyone, no matter what level you choose:

Listen to your body!

As I mentioned in the introduction, this is one of the most important principles in this series of recommendations. If any food or supplement makes you sick in any way, stop it immediately!

Step 1: Eliminate All Gluten, and Highly Allergenic Foods From Your Diet.

Gluten is the primary protein found in wheat. In my experience, there is an epidemic of hidden intolerance to wheat products.  There are frequently no obvious symptoms.

Rice, corn, buckwheat and millet have glutens, but the glutens in these foods do not contain the gliadin molecule that can provoke the inflammatory reaction. Therefore, they are usually safe.  Other safe grains include quinoa and amaranth.

Gliadins are molecules that frequently cause toxic reactions that trigger your immune response. When gliadin in gluten becomes water soluble, it is free to bind to cells in your body.  If you are sensitive, your body will make antibodies to gliadin and attack the cells gliadin has attached itself to, treating those cells as an infection. This immune response damages surrounding tissue and has the potential to set off, or exacerbate, MANY other health problems throughout your body, which is why gluten can have such a devastating effect on your overall health.

In some cases people are allergic to rice, corn, buckwheat or millet, independent of the reaction to gluten/gliadin.

Reading labels can be very misleading; don’t trust them. Some companies list their products as gluten free, without understanding the scientific basis of the problem with gliadin.  For clarity of communication, sub-clinical gluten intolerance will be used to refer to this sensitivity to gliadin in the rest of this discussion

Unfortunately, most people don’t feel better immediately after eliminating gluten from their diets as it may take 30 to 60 days for the inflammation to subside, and up to 9 to 12 months for the lining of your small intestine to heal. 

On rare occasions an individual may experience significant improvement within weeks of eliminating gluten from their diet.  But in other cases people may feel considerably worse upon initially starting a gluten free diet.  This is usually due to other unidentified food allergies and food sensitivities — a problem that plagues about 75 percent of the population.  In fact, food cravings can often serve as a gauge of food sensitivity. Craving dairy products or breads, for example, can be an indication that you are sensitive to that food, especially if you crave it but then feel worse after eating it.

For most people with gluten intolerance, by around 6 to 9 months of being gluten free, noticeable physical and mental/emotional changes will have taken place.

When you eat a food that you’re sensitive to, it causes a series of negative biochemical reactions in your body, especially in your digestive tract and immune system, as I described earlier. However, it also decreases your serotonin levels, which can have a marked negative impact on your mood, and can cause you to turn to simple sugars and carbohydrates for relief. 

Usually, when you remove allergenic foods (such as gluten) from your diet, your cravings for sweets will diminish, your mood will improve, your weight will drop, and your overall health will soar.  

Therefore, your first step is to avoid the following foods. They are all highly allergenic and will frequently keep your immune system in overdrive by continually triggering the inflammatory response:

  • Wheat
  • White flour products (baked goods, cookies, pastries)
  • Barley
  • Rye
  • Kamut
  • Teff
  • Spelt
  • Couscous
  • Soy
  • Pasteurized cow’s milk products

Step 2: At least one third of your food should be uncooked.

Valuable and sensitive micronutrients  are damaged when you heat foods. Cooking and processing food can destroy these micronutrients by altering their shape and chemical composition. In fact, malnutrition — nutrient deficiencies — from consuming a highly processed diet is one reason why many people cannot lose weight, because it leads to overeating. If you’re consistently feeling hungry, you’re likely not getting sufficient amounts of the nutrients your body needs to thrive.

On a more holistic note, you also need the live “sun energy” available only in raw, uncooked foods for optimal health. One of our ultimate biological nutrients is in fact sunlight, which you can absorb not only through your skin, but also through your food, where it is stored in the form of ‘biophotons.’

Biophotons contain important bio-information, which controls complex vital processes in your body. The biophotons have the power to order and regulate, and, in doing so, to elevate your physical body to a higher oscillation, or order.

This is manifested as a feeling of vibrant vitality and well-being.

Every living organism emits biophotons, and it is thought that the higher the level of light energy a cell emits, the greater its vitality and the potential for the transfer of that energy to the individual who consumes it. The more light a food is able to store, such as organically-grown fresh vegetables, the more nutritious it is.

Regular vegetable juicing will easily help you reach this goal of 1/3 raw food in your diet.

Step 3: Eat more vegetables.

Nearly everyone would benefit from eating as many vegetables as possible within the allowances of their nutritional type design limits, or their unique biochemical individuality. Please remember that you are unique; your body knows best, and will tell you what is an optimal type and amount for you.

For example, an Eskimo simply can’t eat as many vegetables as a Peruvian Indian can. Not only would they feel poorly, but they’d likely develop a ravenous appetite matched only by their sweet cravings, as well as who-knows-what degenerative process and emotional imbalances.

So, while we all need vegetables to stay healthy, the type and amount should be determined by what nutritional type you are, which is based on your individual biochemistry.

For example, carbohydrate types need far more vegetables in their diet than protein types. One of the easiest ways to fulfill your vegetable intake is through regularly consuming fresh vegetable juice.

There is a basic test you can take to find out your nutritional type, which is detailed in my new book, Take Control of Your Health.

Remember to let your body report back to you how accurate your appetite/taste buds are at gauging what is right for you. Once you’re eating the right types and amounts of vegetables (and other foods), your body and mind will respond favorably, and many common health issues will  begin to resolve.

Step 4 : Keep your vegetables fresh.

If you are unable to obtain organic vegetables, you can rinse non-organic vegetables in a sink full of water with 4-8 ounces of distilled vinegar for 30 minutes, or use the solution described at the end of this article.

When storing fresh produce, be sure and squeeze as much air as you can out of the bag that holds the vegetables and then seal it. The bag should look like it is vacuum-packed.

Fruits and vegetables release ethylene gas while ripening after harvesting or picking. This ethylene gas accelerates ripening, aging and rotting. Removing as much air as possible out of the bag can help decelerate this process. I do this by holding the bag against my chest and running my arm over the bottom of the bag to the top, which bleeds the air out of the bag.

This will double or triple the normal storage life of your vegetables.

Step 5: Limiting sugar is critical.

Eating refined sugar weakens your immune system and promotes yeast overgrowth, both of which are contributing factors to the number one killer: cancer. A weak immune system, in and of itself, is guaranteed to impair your health and promote virtually every disease known to man.

High sugar consumption can also lead to adrenal exhaustion, common symptoms of which include feeling mentally and emotionally stressed, sugar and salt cravings, moodiness, and feeling weak and lethargic.

Your adrenal glands — those tiny almond-sized nodules that sit on top of your kidneys — are a major part of your stress defense team. One of their duties is to release adrenaline after you eat a lot of sugar or high-carbohydrate foods. While insulin removes sugar from your blood stream, the adrenaline counteracts too much sugar being taken out by releasing stored glucose from your muscles and liver. This is your body at work, trying to maintain homeostasis, or perfect balance, for optimal health.

This release of adrenaline is the reason why eating sweets can make you feel jittery, upset, or nervous. Please remember, your adrenals have to perform this emergency procedure EVERY TIME you eat a lot of sugar, which places enormous stress on your entire body.

All non-diet soda have 8 teaspoons in each can. Most packaged cereals have sugar as their major ingredient.

Avoid most natural sweeteners (including corn syrup, HFCS, fructose, honey, sucrose, maltodextrin, dextrose, molasses, rice milk, almond milk, white grape juice, fruit juice sweetened, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, date sugar, cane sugar, corn sugar, beet sugar, succanat and lactose).

When in doubt about the sugar content of a food, look at the list of ingredients and see how many grams of carbohydrates are listed. Unless the carbohydrates are from aboveground vegetables you should be concerned that they represent sugars that could alter your insulin levels.

Step 6: Avoid Artificial Sweeteners.

While all these sugars are best avoided, NONE of them are as bad or toxic as artificial sweeteners. I don’t say this lightly and took two years out of my life to carefully research this topic for my bestselling book on the topic – Sweet Deception. So if you must have soda, regular is superior to diet for all the reasons I discuss on the site and in my book.

Many people ask about Splenda, Equal or Nutrasweet (Aspartame). These artificial sweeteners need to be eliminated. There are more adverse reactions to Nutrasweet reported to the FDA than all other foods and additives combined. In certain individuals, it can have devastating consequences. You should also avoid artificial chemicals like MSG. 

If you are healthy you can use a few teaspoons of succanat intermittently. Natural Stevia is also a safe, natural alternative. It is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar and has virtually no calories. Some don’t like its taste, but other than that it is nearly the ideal sweetener.

Step 7: Avoid hypoglycemia.

Most of us eat far too many grains and sugars, which cause us to have large amounts of insulin circulating in our blood. When you stop eating grains your body will take several days to lower your insulin levels. In the meantime, the high insulin levels will cause you to experience many symptoms such as dizziness, confusion, headaches, and generally feeling miserable.

If you eat every two hours for the first few days of your transition you will be able to avoid this temporary side effect. You will need to eat some protein, such as an egg, piece of chicken, turkey, fish, or some seeds, along with a vegetable such as a piece of celery, cucumber, or red pepper. This will help to prevent hypoglycemia and stabilize your blood sugar.

Even after your system has adjusted, it is wise to eat 4-6 meals a day. Eating more frequently has been shown to normalize cholesterol levels. It will also help your adrenal glands better regulate cortisol levels. Cortisol bolsters you during more long lasting stresses, such as during a prolonged illness or when you have chronic mental or emotional stress going on in your life. If your adrenals are exhausted from a high-sugar diet, your body will be less capable of dealing with, and healing from, longer-term stresses.

Make a Menu — If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail

Most people have great difficulty implementing these suggestions unless they sit down once a week (at a time when you are well rested, fresh and relaxed) and plan every meal for the week ahead.

If you are working, a good rule  is to prepare your meals ahead of time. For example, make your lunch for the next day before you go to bed. Also determine what you will be eating for dinner before you leave the house in the morning. This will allow you to go to the store if necessary, or take the appropriate items out of the freezer. This is strongly advised. Those who don’t do this will more easily slip back into their old, more comfortable, and less healthy eating habits.

Ten Recipes

All you need to do is find at least ten recipes that you like. You may not believe this but that is all that most families use. You might have to try ten recipes to find one that you and your family enjoy, but that’s ok as it is all part of the process. It is vitally important to have  variety. Do NOT rotate between just two or three meals or you will burn out and end the program.

Variety is the key.

Step 8: Learn to distinguish physical food cravings from emotional food cravings.

If you are seeking sweets or grains because of an emotional challenge, you will want to consider using the simple and effective psychological acupressure technique, EFT, to rapidly help you control your emotional food cravings.

Many people don’t understand that emotional well-being is essential to their physical health. In fact, in terms of dieting for weight loss, not addressing emotional issues — whether small or serious traumas from the past — is the primary reason that most people who lose weight often fail at keeping the weight off.

If you maintain negative thoughts and feelings about yourself while trying to take physical steps to improve your body, you will not succeed. It will be like repeatedly washing your car in an effort to keep it clean during a dust storm. Fine-tuning your brain to “positive” mode is absolutely imperative to achieve optimal physical health.

Many people shun this notion, not because it doesn’t make sense, but because the medical establishment has conned them into believing that it means they’ll be shelling out many thousands of dollars over the coming months or years to traditional psychological care.

Well, some of the traditional psychological approaches may sometimes work, but there is a better solution. Psychological acupressure is an inexpensive, simple and proven way to eliminate the negative emotions barring you from a full and healthy life. And the Emotional Freedom Technique — or EFT — is the most powerful form of this technique available.

EFT Can Help You:

  • Relieve most emotional traumas
  • Abolish phobias and post-traumatic stress
  • Shatter food cravings that sabotage your health
  • Eliminate or significantly reduce most physical pain and discomfort

If you feel that your own emotions, or your own self-image, may be your own worst enemy with this (or any) nutrition plan, I highly recommend you read my free EFT manual and consider trying EFT on your ow

Beginner Plan: Protein

 

Proteins are nutrients that are essential to the building, maintenance and repair of your body tissues such as your skin, internal organs and muscles. They are also the major components of your immune system and hormones.

Proteins are made up of substances called amino acids — 22 of which are considered vital for your health. Your body can make 14 of these amino acids, but the other eight, known as essential amino acids, must be obtained from what you eat. Proteins are found in all types of food, but only meat, eggs, cheese and other foods from animal sources contain complete proteins, meaning they provide the eight essential amino acids.

In my experience, most people don’t eat enough protein. A person’s required protein intake varies and depends on your sex, height, weight and exercise levels. Normal protein intake ranges from 20 to 50 grams at each meal.

Lesson 1: Look at the package.

If you are eating packaged foods, the number of grams of protein per serving is listed on the package. For whole foods, 3 ounces of most meats will provide about 20 to 25 grams of protein. A 4-ounce hamburger, which is processed,  has about 20 grams of protein while typical lunchmeats have about 5 grams per slice. One egg has about six grams of protein and a cup of milk (not typically recommended) has 8 grams.

Lesson 2: Eggs are an excellent source of protein.

  • Go organic. Omega-3 eggs contain a 1:1 omega 6 to 3 ratio, while commercial eggs contain a 19:1 omega 6 to 3 ratio.
  • Don’t be afraid to eat eggs. You can easily eat one dozen eggs per week, as they will not cause your cholesterol to increase. Scientists have shown that infants who eat the adult equivalent of 40 eggs per week don’t have problems.
  • Avoid eating eggs daily. If you are cooking your eggs, it’s important to avoid eating them daily because you may develop an allergy to them. You should not eat eggs more than five days a week if you prepare them conventionally. This will change as you advance in the program; you can tolerate eggs on a much more frequent basis if you consume them raw.
  • You can use egg substitutes. You can increase your protein intake by using pasteurized egg whites or egg substitute products in this phase. However, while they are acceptable in this phase, these products are eliminated in the intermediate phase.

The best way to consume eggs is to not cook them at all, but this is an advanced technique.

Lesson 3: Restrict your intake of dairy products.

Pasteurized yogurt and cheese are allowed in this phase but are drastically reduced in the intermediate phase. If you have allergies, consider avoiding all dairy, or at the very least pasteurized milk. Raw milk would be far better. When eating yogurt, please pay special attention to the carbohydrate content as many contain added sweeteners, often in the form of either sugar or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which dramatically increases the carbohydrate content. Also, low-fat dairy products are densely packed with carbohydrates and should be avoided.

Lesson 4: You can eat all meats in this phase.

All meats, including lunchmeats, are allowed in this phase. It would be wise to purchase lunchmeats that are preservative-free (nitrate free). You will move toward higher-quality protein sources in the intermediate phase of the program.

Lesson 5: Become aware of your soy intake.

All soy products are allowed in this phase, though soy is not a healthful food, despite popular belief. Among many other issues, it can weaken your immune system and impair thyroid function (input the term “soy” in our search engine to find dozens of articles on soy’s health drawbacks). Soy products will be excluded in subsequent phases, with the exception of fermented soy products like tempeh, miso and natto.

Lesson 6: Think about your fish and seafood intake.

All fish and seafood products are allowed in this phase but are progressively eliminated in subsequent phases due to fish and seafood contamination with mercury and other toxins; sadly, seafood and fish, whether from the ocean, lakes and streams, or farm-raised, are all showing signs of such contamination. Therefore even otherwise healthy fish are now advised against and will be phased out in subsequent phases

Lesson 7: Watch your bean and legume intake.

If you do not have a problem with insulin, these foods are acceptable in this level. If you have high insulin levels, you will want to avoid beans until your levels have normalized. Because although they are complex carbohydrates, they can still contribute to raising your insulin. If you have achieved your ideal weight, you can introduce beans.

Symptoms of high insulin levels include:

  • Excess weight
  • Obesity
  • High cholesterol
  • High blood pressure

Beans  are sources of good, but not complete, proteins. So you’ll want to add some additional proteins to your dish if beans are your primary protein source at any meal.

Beginner Plan: Carbohydrates

 

Carbohydrates provide fuel for your body in the form of glucose or sugar. There are two types of carbohydrates — simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates are sugars, such as the ones found in candy, fruits and baked goods. Complex carbohydrates are starches found in beans, nuts, vegetables and whole grains.

Two-thirds of Americans are either obese or overweight. Folks, we have an epidemic on our hands! This is the result of eating far too many processed foods and believing the low-fat diet myth.

If this is new information for you, it will be very important to read one of the most important articles on this site, Reduce Grains and Sugar to Lose Weight and Improve Health, which discusses the reasons you need to radically reduce the amount of grains in your diet.

What most people don’t know is that you don’t actually need carbohydrates — they are not essential for survival. If you ate no carbohydrates, like many traditional Eskimos do, you would be fine as long as you had enough high-quality protein, fat, water and minerals.

While both grains and vegetables are carbohydrates, most grains should be avoided and most vegetables are acceptable. I don’t advocate a zero carbohydrate diet, as I believe we all need vegetables to achieve optimal health.

Your body prefers the carbohydrates in vegetables rather than grains because it slows the conversion to simple sugars like glucose, and decreases your insulin level. Grain carbohydrates, on the other hand, will increase your insulin levels and interfere with your ability to burn fat.

Lesson 1: Find out your insulin level.

Hopefully you will have already completed this test as it was recommended in the introduction.

Lesson 2: Scale back, or completely eliminate, all grains, beans and legumes in this phase; the higher your insulin levels, the more ambitious your grain-elimination should be.

As mentioned previously in step one of this beginner plan, you should already have eliminated all gluten grains. If that did not provide the improvement you are seeking and you still suffer from signs of insulin overload such as:

  • Excess weight
  • Obesity
  • High cholesterol
  • High blood pressure

Then you will also want to consider eliminating the following additional grains:

  • Spelt
  • Barley
  • Amaranth
  • Millet
  • Oats
  • Rice
  • Rye
  • Quinoa
  • Teff
  • Potatoes (This is actually a vegetable, but it digests more like a grain.)
  • Corn (This is considered a vegetable, but it is technically a grain.)

Highly processed grain-based products are not recommended, regardless of insulin level. These include:

  • Breads
  • Pasta
  • Cereal
  • Bagels
  • French fries
  • Chips
  • Pretzels
  • Waffles
  • Pancakes
  • Baked goods

Avoiding grains frequently causes weight loss. One of the main reasons for this weight loss effect is due to the stabilizing of leptin — a hormone that sends signals to your body to reduce hunger, increase fat burning and reduce fat storage. When your cells are communicating properly they can “hear” this message.

If you eat a diet that is high in sugar and grains, however, the sugar gets metabolized to fat (and is stored in your fat cells), which in turn releases surges in leptin. Over time, if your body is exposed to too much leptin, it will become resistant to it (just as your body can become resistant to insulin).

And when you become leptin-resistant, your body can no longer hear the messages telling it to stop eating and burn fat — so it remains hungry and stores more fat. Leptin-resistance also causes an increase in visceral fat, sending you on a vicious cycle of hunger, fat storage and an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and more.

When you reduce your intake of grains, your body will become progressively better able to hear the leptin signals again, telling it to burn more fat and reduce your fat stores.

If you don’t want to lose weight you can increase grains in your diet, but I strongly recommend that you contact a knowledgeable health care professional that understands insulin and fat biochemistry to help fine-tune your individual program.

If you want to eat beans, soak them for 48-72 hours, rinsing every 12 hours prior to cooking them. You can then cook them for 8-12 hours in a crock-pot. These steps ensure that the protein will be more easily digested. Additionally, selecting beans for your blood type may make some sense.

Lesson 3: Eat the best vegetables.

Remember this important principle: vegetables are generally good, but not all vegetables are created equal. For example, increasing your vegetable intake with salads is a good start, but I would advise avoiding iceberg lettuce. Why? Because it has minimal nutritional value. Red and green leaf lettuce, along with romaine lettuce and spinach, are much more nutritious options.

Additionally, finding organic vegetables is important. Your absolute best bet is to try to locate organic vegetables that have been grown locally, rather than having been shipped from overseas. However, if you can’t obtain organics, any vegetable is better than no vegetable! Just take extra care with non-organic vegetables by washing them thoroughly and removing peels and cores when possible to minimize your exposure to pesticides.

My Recommended Vegetables List provides a guide to the most nutritious vegetables, and those to limit due to their high carbohydrate content. Remember: the greener the vegetable, the more nutritious it will be.

Finally, at least 1/3 of your diet should be raw foods, and vegetables are an obvious choice to help achieve this. While vegetable juicing is an important step later in this nutrition plan, I encourage you to try it now, as it is an easy and enjoyable way to consume all the vegetables your body requires.

Lesson 4: Reduce your intake of sweeteners.

It’s best to avoid sweeteners whenever possible, but for the beginning level the following sweeteners are acceptable:

  • Honey
  • Rice syrup
  • Beet sugar
  • Maple syrup
  • Molasses

Avoid using high fructose corn syrup.

If you are healthy you can use a few teaspoons of succanat intermittently. Natural Stevia is also a safe, natural alternative. It is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar and has virtually no calories. Some don’t like its taste, but other than that it is nearly the ideal sweetener.

It is helpful to avoid artificial chemicals like MSG.

Further Reading:

Beginner Plan: Fats

 

Did you know that your brain is about 60 percent fat? The fats you eat strongly influence your level of brain function. Some nutritional anthropologists believe the human brain would not have developed as it did without access to high levels of DHA (a type of fat) found in fish and wild game. Just two generations of high omega-6 and low omega-3 fats can lead to profound changes in brain size and function.

Lesson 1: It is the type of fat that matters, not the amount.

Learning about fats can be confusing. When you go to the grocery store, you’re confronted with advertisements telling you that a product is low in fat, or a product is made with partially hydrogenated oil. To make sense of all the labels, I’ve compiled the following list of definitions for you:

  • A misguided fallacy that persists to this day is the belief that saturated fat will increase your risk of heart attacks. Folks, this is simply another myth that has been harming your health for the last 30 or 40 years. The truth is, saturated fats from animal and vegetable sources provide a concentrated source of energy in your diet, and they provide the building blocks for cell membranes and a variety of hormones and hormone like substances.

    When you eat saturated fats as part of your meal, they slow down absorption so that you can go longer without feeling hungry. In addition, they act as carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Dietary fats are also needed for the conversion of carotene to vitamin A, for mineral absorption, and for a host of other biological processes.

    Studies on low saturated fat diets also support nutritional typing, which predicts that one-third of people will do very well on low saturated fat diets (which supports the studies showing that they work), whereas another one-third of people need high saturated fat diets to stay healthy.

    If you’d like to learn more about the role dietary fats play in your health, be sure to check out these excellent research studies.
     

  • Trans fats: These fats form when vegetable oil hardens, a process called hydrogenation, and can raise LDL (bad cholesterol) levels, and  lower HDL (good cholesterol) levels, which of course is the complete opposite of what you need in order to maintain good heart health. In fact, trans fats — as opposed to saturated fats — have been linked repeatedly to heart disease. These fatty acids can also cause major clogging of your arteries, type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems..
  • Monounsaturated fats: The best oil here is olive oil. Canola oil is also in this category, but I advise avoiding it and using olive oil instead.

Lesson 2: Learn about the importance of omega-3 and omega-6 fats.

Omega-3 fats improve your cell’s response to insulin, neurotransmitters and other messengers. They also help the repair process when your cells are damaged. On the other hand, omega-6 fats are pro-inflammatory and contribute to insulin and membrane resistance, altering your mood, and impairing learning and cell repair. To avoid high levels of omega-6, it is important to avoid all vegetable seed oils.

Please understand that it’s not only necessary to consciously consume omega-3 fats, which I’ll review further in lesson 3 below, but it is just as important to lower your omega-6 fat intake. If you don’t lower your omega-6 fats to acceptable levels, your omega 6:3 ratio will not be low enough, and you will not receive many of the wonderful benefits of omega-3 fats such as reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s, arthritis and many other degenerative illnesses.

Lesson 3: Take a high quality omega-3 supplement

Americans consume a dangerously insufficient amount of omega-3, a fat essential to good health but only found in fish oil and a few other foods. Meanwhile, our intake of omega-6, another fat found in corn, soy, sunflower and other oils, is far too high. The ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 should be 1:1, but the typical American’s ratio ranges from 15:1 to 50:1!

I am convinced that this lack of omega-3 in our diets is a primary reason behind many of the diseases Americans face, and our shorter lifespan in relation to many other “first world” countries such as Japan or Greece.

Benefits of omega-3 found in fish and cod liver oil:

Helps fight and prevent heart disease, cancer, depression, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, diabetes, hyperactivity and many other diseases

  • Increases your energy level and ability to concentrate
  • Provides greater resistance to common illnesses such as flu and cold
  • Helps pregnant women avoid premature births, low birth weight and other complications

While a helpful form of omega-3 can be found in flaxseed, walnuts and a few other foods, the most beneficial form of omega-3 — containing two fatty acids, DHA and EPA, which are essential to fighting and preventing both physical and mental disease — can only be found in fish. Unfortunately, nearly all fish, from most all sources, are now severely contaminated with toxic mercury, which is why I have amended my previous recommendations to consume fish on a routine basis. It’s simply not advisable for most people any longer.

My latest recommendation for a source of high quality omega-3 fats is krill oil.  The omega-3 in krill is attached to phospholipids that increase its absorption, which means you need less of it, and it won’t cause belching or burping like many other fish oil products. Additionally, it is loaded with potent antioxidants, almost fifty times more than is present in fish oil. This prevents the highly perishable omega-3 fats from oxidizing before you are able to integrate them into your cellular tissue.

Lesson 4: How to know if you are taking too much omega-3 fats

Omega-3 deficiencies have been tied to the following problems:

  • Mental sharpness on awakening
  • Depression/well-being
  • Weight gain
  • Brittle fingernails
  • Allergies
  • Arthritis
  • Quality of sleep
  • Memory problems
  • Dry hair
  • Dry skin
  • Concentration
  • Fatigue

If you start krill oil and notice that one or more of the above symptoms improve that is a very good sign.

If after a time on the krill oil your symptoms return for no apparent reason, that is a good clue that you are taking too much krill oil and should stop for a short while to help your body eliminate the oil and then resume at a lower dose.

Unlike vitamins and minerals whose intake is usually relatively constant, the amounts of essential fatty intake is quite variable so following the above will help fine-tune your dose so you can fully benefit from the truly miraculous health benefits that krill oil provides.

If you chose to use fish oil or cod liver oil as your source of omega-3 fats, then the normal dose of fish oil is one 1,000 mg capsule with 300 mg of EPA/DHA for every ten pounds of body weight.

One teaspoon of liquid cod liver oil is equal to about 3 ½  capsules, and there are three teaspoons in one tablespoon, so one tablespoon would equal about 10 capsules.

This dose can be reduced if you are healthy and if you are in a summer climate with warmth and sun exposure.

Beginner Plan: Beverages

 

Let’s start with the most important element of your diet: Water!

Water makes up more than 70 percent of your body’s tissues and plays a role in nearly every body function, from regulating temperature and cushioning joints to bringing oxygen to your cells and removing waste from your body. Therefore, it’s vital to pay attention to what you drink.

Lesson 1: Drink enough water to turn your urine light yellow

Drinking enough water is one of the most simple, basic, and important health steps you can take. However I am no longer convinced that we all need 8 glasses of water a day, which I used to recommend.

After awhile I began to question this one-size-fits-all logic, and further refined my recommendations to use the color of your urine as a guide to how much water you should be drinking. As long as you are not taking riboflavin (vitamin B2), which fluoresces and turns your urine bright yellow (it is also in most multi-vitamins), then your urine should be a very light-colored yellow. If it is a deep yellow then you are likely not drinking enough water.

If you drink the required amount of water to maintain a light yellow coloring, you can easily avoid dehydration, which can have profound effects on your health.

Dehydration can cause:

  • Fatigue
  • Dry skin
  • Headaches
  • Constipation

Lesson 2: Drink your water at the right rate.

It’s  better to sip water all day long than to guzzle a large amount all at once. Depending on your size, your body can only process a bit more than a glass of water per hour. If you drink much more than this at one sitting, the extra water will not be used, but merely flushed down the toilet bowl. So keep your water bottle with you all day long, and let your thirst be your guide for when to drink.

Lesson 3: Drink pure water.

Healthy water? I bet you thought all water was healthy! Don’t be tricked!

Healthy water is  water that has been properly treated to avoid contamination. Nearly all municipal water supplies have chlorine and fluoride (a highly toxic bone poison that should be avoided at all costs) added during water treatment, both of which are detrimental to your health. Europeans have known for many years that fluoride is toxic and have long since removed it from their water supplies. Be sure and obtain a filter (see my recommendations below) to avoid ingesting chlorine and fluoride. About 5 percent of the water supplies in the U.S. also contain unhealthy arsenic levels that  can cause you health problems.

Additionally, thousands of tons of drugs are flushed down the toilet, and many wind up in your water supply as most filtration plants aren’t designed to remove them.
There are several ways to obtain healthy water in your home:

  • Avoid distilled water. While this is a controversial area in natural medicine, I believe there is enough evidence to recommend avoiding distilled water as it has the wrong ionization, pH, polarization and oxidation potentials. It will also tend to drain your body of minerals.
  • Filter your water. There are two main types of filters that I recommend:
  •  
    • Carbon filters: These work well to remove impurities but may not remove fluoride. I highly recommend the PUR Faucet Mount Water Filter. Another recommendation of mine is the GE Smart Water, which was top rated in Consumer Reports December 2002.
  •  
    • Reverse osmosis: This type of system removes most impurities and is suggested at the intermediate level.
  • Store your water safely. Avoid purchasing the one-gallon cloudy plastic (PVC) containers from your grocery store as they transfer far too many chemicals into your water. The five-gallon containers and the clear bottles (polyethylene) are a much better plastic and will not give the water an unpalatable plastic taste.
  • Find an economical solution: Pur and Brita are two high-quality and leading brands in water filtration. PUR Faucet Mount Water Filter is a solid and economical choice, while Brita water filtration pitchers are also a good choice (Brita filters costs approximately 24 cents per gallon, while bottled water costs about $1-2 per gallon!)

Lesson 4: You can use lemon juice to add a bit of flavor and normalize your body’s pH level.

You can add lemon juice to your water occasionally, to help flavor it and normalize your body’s pH if you’re too acidic. However, be careful not to use the lemon juice continuously or you run the risk of developing an allergy to it.

Lesson 5: Assess your water delivery system.

If you have a water softener, you need to divert the softened water away from the kitchen tap to a reverse osmosis system. If you have municipal water you will also want to add a filter to your shower to remove the chlorine, as this exposure could actually be greater than exposure from drinking your water. If you are on your own well, this is not necessary.

Lesson 6: Monitor all other fluids.

  • Alcohol: Beer, wine, and distilled spirits are allowed in moderation. Moderate alcohol intake is defined as a 5-ounce glass of wine, a 12-ounce beer or 1 ounce of hard liquor with a meal. You will have to count these as carbohydrates, however!
  • Juices: Fruit juices are also allowed in the beginning level, but you should seek to limit them as much as possible as they contain large amounts of sugar.
  • Avoid all soft drinks! I don’t ever advocate drinking any soft drink for any reason as they have no redeeming value whatsoever. Both regular and diet sodas are potent contributors to a number of health challenges. For example, did you know that for every can of soda you drink per day, your risk of obesity increases by 60 percent! This is one of the easiest changes you can make that can significantly improve your health.

Further Reading:

Beginner Plan: Supplements

 

It is my goal to limit supplements. I believe you can obtain most of the nutrition you need from wholesome food. There are some exceptions, but it is quite rare that someone would really benefit from a shopping bag full of supplements, especially the synthetic varieties.  However, if you’re looking for an all-inclusive insurance policy, I have formulated one of the best and most comprehensive high quality multivitamins on the market, made from raw whole foods.

Lesson 1: Make sure you get enough vitamin D.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is vital for optimal health and disease risk reduction. It’s found in food like milk, eggs, fish and fortified orange juice, but you only get an average of 250 to 300 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day from dietary factors alone, which is rarely enough to maintain optimal levels. Recent research has found that it takes 2,000 to 4,000 IU of vitamin D per day to have a significant impact on cancer risk reduction. Fortunately, vitamin D is also  made in your body after exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun.

The major function of vitamin D in your body is to maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus. During the summer months, you will get enough vitamin D from just spending some time outside every day. Your body can produce about 10,000 IU of vitamin D per day with full body exposure, about 5,000 IU with 50 percent of your body exposed, and as much as 1,000 IU with just 10 percent of your body exposed.

In the winter months, though, you will most likely not get enough vitamin D if you  live in a place that has low or infrequent amounts of sunshine (such as the southwest U.S.). In that case, I strongly recommend a healthy tanning bed like the Sun Splash.

You can also supplement with cod liver oil, which is high in vitamin D and omega-3 (an essential fatty acid most Americans are in dire need of). Because cod liver oil can vary greatly in quality, I have researched multiple brands and offer the highest quality cod liver oil.

It’s always wise to have your vitamin D level tested, especially prior to taking oral supplements of vitamin D. This is best done by a nutritionally oriented physician. It is very important that they order the correct test as there are two that closely resemble each other: 1,25(OH)D and 25(OH)D.

25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D, is the better marker of overall D status. It is this marker that is most strongly associated with overall health.

OPTIMAL
25-Hydroxyvitamin D Values
45-50 ng/ml or
115-128 nmol/l

NORMAL
25-Hydroxyvitamin D lab Values
20-56 ng/ml
50-140 nmol/l

Your vitamin D level should NEVER be below 32 ng/ml.
Any levels below 20 ng/ml are considered serious defiency states and will increase your risk of breast and prostate cancer and autoimmune diseases like MS and rheumatoid arthritis.

Lesson 2: Be careful with Tylenol.

If you take Tylenol regularly, you should be on N-acetyl cysteine to prevent organ damage.

Lesson 3: Smell your vitamins.

It is important to smell your vitamins. If they smell bad, you should not take them. It is your body’s signal that they are not good for you.

If you do take many supplements, a convenient way to store and transport your supplements is a small fishing tackle box (available at sports stores).

Beginner Plan: Lifestyle Changes

 

Along with all the dietary changes you are making, there are some basic changes to your lifestyle that will help you along the path to optimal wellness.

Lesson 1: Practice techniques, such as prayer, meditation or EFT, to control anxiety and stress, eliminate self-doubt and negativity, and instill self-control and peace of mind.

There is no greater enemy to your physical health than a negative self-image or high stress. Many people initially succeed at implementing a diet — whether it is to lose weight, heal a disease, or strengthen their body against sickness — but then fall back into  old habits… and therefore, the “old” body. Why? Because the emotional barriers were never overcome in the first place.

To truly succeed at this nutrition plan, I highly recommend you work on overcoming your emotional barriers, whether they’re based on life’s anxiety-factors or emotional traumas.

There are a host of techniques to instill positive emotions and thoughts and create a sense of inner-peace, and the best rule is to find the one that works for you, whether it is considered traditional or “alternative,” and keep on using it.

In my clinical practice, I have tried a variety of methods, and have been exposed to many more (both traditional and alternative) through my medical background, but none have come close to the success rate I have experienced with the “Emotional Freedom Technique,” or EFT.

I highly recommend you at least give EFT a try. EFT is a form of psychological acupressure that, while it appears a bit unusual to some at first, can almost seem miraculous in its ability to erase negative emotions and instill positive ones.

With EFT, while mentally focusing on the psychological/emotional issues in a positive manner through the use of affirmations, pressure is applied to the same energy points used for thousands of years in acupuncture (these energy points are finally even being recognized as legitimate by the pharmacy- and surgery-addicted American medical establishment.)

These energy points are only tapped, though, not punctured as in acupuncture, as it has been shown that pressure on these points is all that is necessary to activate your body’s bioenergy. This combination of positive mental focus on the issue(s) and physical stimulus to your body’s biochemistry is amazingly effective at eliminating the issue — be it stress, cravings, trauma, etc. — quickly.

EFT is routinely used in my practice and I highly recommend it for your optimal emotional health. Although it is still often overlooked, emotional health is absolutely essential to your physical health and healing — no matter how devoted you are to the proper diet and lifestyle, you will not achieve your body’s ideal healing and preventative powers if emotional barriers stand in your way.

EFT is very easy to learn, and will help you:

  • Remove negative emotions
  • Reduce food cravings
  • Reduce or eliminate pain
  • Implement positive goals

You can learn how to start using EFT on yourself and those close to you right now with my free online EFT Manual.

NOTE: This is the only lesson that will be repeated in each phase of my nutrition program, as it is crucial to long-term success.

For more information on how your emotions can aid or hinder your physical healing, please review the following articles:

Lesson 2: Control your eating habits.

  • Vary your foods. It is important to avoid regularly having the same food every day of the week. However, if the food is uncooked and is good to consume for your metabolic type, this concept is not as critical.
  • Eat every two hours. Most of us eat large amounts of grains and sugars that cause us to have large amounts of insulin circulating in our blood. When you stop eating grains your body will take several days to lower your insulin levels. In the meantime the high insulin levels will cause you to have many symptoms such as dizziness, confusion, headaches, and generally feeling miserable.

If you eat every two hours for the first few days of your transition you will be able to avoid this temporary side effect. You will need to eat some protein, such as an egg, piece of chicken, turkey or fish, or some seeds, along with a vegetable such as a piece of celery, cucumber or red pepper. This will help to prevent hypoglycemia and stabilize your blood sugar.

  • Eat more often during the day, rather than less often. Even after your system has adjusted, it will be wise to eat four to six meals a day. Eating more frequently has been shown to normalize cholesterol levels. It will also help your adrenal glands better regulate cortisol levels.

Lesson 3: Make sure you always get a good night’s sleep.

To get a good night’s sleep, it’s important to sleep in complete darkness. I suggest:

  • Get between seven to nine hours of sleep every night.
  • Avoid before-bed snacks, particularly grains and sugars.
  • Sleep in complete darkness or as close as possible.
  • No TV right before bed.
  • Avoid using loud alarm clocks.
  • Keep the temperature in your bedroom no higher than 70 percent.
  • Get to bed as early as possible. Your systems, particularly your adrenals, do a majority of their recharging or recovering during the hours of 11PM and 1AM.

For more information on these and other sleep suggestions, see my Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep.

Lesson 4: Start exercising, especially if you need to lose weight.

At a bare minimum, everyone should exercise for 30 minutes per day. If you need to lose weight, it is important to exercise at least 60 minutes every day. Also note that, if you are diabetic, you will not be able to control your diabetes without exercise as part of your regime. If you are just beginning exercise, work up to 60 minutes slowly; you can combine several shorter exercise periods to reach your daily 60 minutes. There is a synergy with proper diet and exercise that is incredible. You will not be able to control diabetes without exercise.

Swimming is one of the best exercises on the planet, but if you are like most people your only option is swimming in a chlorinated pool. I strongly advise avoiding this since you will absorb more chlorine by swimming in a chlorinated pool than you would by drinking tap water for one week. Swimming in a lake, ocean or other natural water body is recommended. Peroxide (not bromine) is also an alternative for chlorine in your pool, and a product called Baquacil is available at most pool stores.

See Exercise to Improve Your Body and Your Brain for much more on my exercise recommendations, and to access an exercise table to plan and chart your progress. I also recommend you explore the following articles:

Lesson 5: If you’re smoking, don’t quit now.

I know, this sounds unusual. This is generally the first thing most health professionals ask you to do. What you may not know is that sugar is a far more dangerous influence to your health than cigarettes.

It is more important to stop eating sugar before you stop smoking. If you try to do both at once you will most likely fail. I want you to start feeling better before you even think about stopping smoking. I do recommend that everyone should stop smoking, but taking on the task of quitting should only be done once you have an optimal diet in place and you are already feeling good.

Lesson 6: Minimize drugs.

Minimize the unnecessary use of drugs, and seek safe and effective alternatives when possible. Especially troublesome are antibiotics, anti-ulcer drugs, birth control pills or estrogen for menopause unless you are having hot flashes. If you take Tylenol regularly, you should be on N-acetyl cysteine to prevent organ damage.

Further Reading:

http://www.mercola.com/nutritionplan/beginner_lifestyle_changes.htm

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