Sunday Story...Perfect Diet

In Search of the Perfect Human Diet is a documentary created by a C.J. Hunt who almost died at age 24 of a heart attack while running. He spent the next 22 years searching for what and how to eat in order to find perfect health. The movie is full of scholarly references, interviews with many knowledgeable people in the fields of nutrition, human evolution and many more. This is a movie everyone should see. This is a way of eating everyone should adopt. It isn’t a fad, unless you consider a fad lasting about 2 million years!

I am not going to recap the movie here. I will be hosting a viewing of the movie soon and I will invite all of you to join me. The bottom line is very simple: eat real food. Real food is the kind of food that is recognizable, close to the ground, and simple to prepare and eat. Real food does not have a nutritional label attached to it. The turnips I pulled out of the garden did not have a label on them. Real food does not have an ingredient list. The grass fed beef I bought this morning has only one ingredient: beef. This is really simple.

The hard part is doing it. We, as a society, have made it really easy and cheap to eat bad food. I was traveling recently and away from my own cooking and regular food sources. It was difficult to find food that I wanted to eat. I could eat lots of crap (Calorie Rich And Pathetic) food. I didn’t but it was everywhere. However, it is possible to eat healthy even in the face of airport food stands and fast food kiosks crying out. It just isn’t easy.

As with everything the question is how to start? It seems terribly radical to go into your kitchen and remove all the processed foods, all the sugars, the dairy, the grains, the legumes and replace them with natural meats, a variety of vegetables and sources of healthy fats. You could do it that way or you could take a more measured and gradual approach. Change one thing. Add another a week or a month later.

So here is a ten step approach to shifting your diet in a more healthful direction.
1. Drop the Soda, Gatorade, energy drinks anything over 1 cup of coffee or tea with water. Drink lots of water…if you normally drink 8 sodas a day 8 glasses of water of the same size should be a piece of cake. Drink coconut water or use Emergen-C if you are worried about electrolytes.Does this really need explaining? There is very little good in any of these drinks. A quagmire of chemicals and sweeteners (most of which don’t occur anywhere but in a laboratory) designed to make you want more of the same. Stop it now and back away from the bottle.
2. Dump the sugar. STOP adding sugar to your food. Sugar is addictive so when you stop using it you are going to have withdrawal symptoms just like any other drug like caffeine, alcohol, or heroin. And it is everywhere so this is going to be challenging. If you must use sweetener try to get closer to the real deal...honey, stevia, or ?. Minimal processing and no lab creations (high fructose corn syrup, aspartame).
3. Change your plate. Make sure there is a fresh green vegetable on the plate every meal. Just one. It’s a start and I don’t want you to freak out!
4. Increase your protein intake. Protein is a macronutrient (the other 2 are Fats and Carbohydrates) necessary to your survival. Notice there is no fried Twinkie necessary for survival. Eat meat, eggs, and nuts at every meal. The breakfast cinnamon roll is not doing you any good, even if you cover it in bacon.
5. Eliminate milk and replace it with… (guess) Water! Milk is not necessary for your survival despite what the dairy producers lobby would have you believe. Lactose is a sugar and we are going to eliminate added sugar from our diet.
6. Stop buying from the middle aisles of the grocery store. Stick to the produce section, the meat section. There are lots of different vegetable other than carrots and broccoli and lots of fruits other than bananas! The only reason to venture anywhere else is for a specific need…paprika or laundry detergent.
7. Go to www.Foodee.com and start using recipes from there. They are simple, healthy and don’t use any of the things we are trying to avoid for the most part. Learn to enjoy preparing food and eating flavorful delicious meals
8. Give up grain and legumes. Bread, pasta, cereal, and all the rest of the grain family. It is full of sugars and other things that don’t serve you in your quest for health.
9. Give up dairy...all of it…cheese (this one was the last thing to go for me), yogurt, and anything else dairy related. Except butter, especially butter from grass-fed cows...mmmm Butter! We won’t use a lot of it but we will use it from time to time.
10. Go to the clothing store and buy yourself new clothes that now fit because you are nearing your optimum healthy weight!

That’s it. All in all very simple and healthy way to get to the Perfect Human diet…meat, vegetables and fruit, some nuts and seeds. No sugar, no grains, no legumes, no dairy. You won’t be deprived, trust me. And you may just release yourself from the shackles of corporate food slavery!


Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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