Ironically, almost everything mentioned here is a result of the SAME root cause. People today eat a diet that is so far removed from what we are designed/evolved to eat, it isn't even funny.
The main reason we need to drink so much water is that our diet isn't providing it in a form our body needs it. A diet of mostly raw vegetables, leaves and fruits provides so much water, and water that has such an appropriate balance of electrolytes (sodium, potassium) that if you eat enough of it, you may need only 1 or 2 glasses of water. But eat mostly cooked foods (What happens when you cook? Water gets driven off/out!) and so many foods with added salt, that we end up needing to drink a lot of water.
The excess salt needs to be flushed out through urine to maintain a potassium-sodium balance; we need water to create that urine. Likewise, consumption of sugary soda pop and caffeine in tea and coffee have a similar effect: they are classed as "diuretics" (=they make you pee!).
The potassium we aren't getting is needed to get water INTO cells; sodium gets water OUT of cells. Since we don't eat the raw plant foods RICH in potassium, we get the imbalance. Incidentally, that same imbalance creates the rampant high blood pressure that plagues most middle-aged Americans and helps cause strokes and heart attacks.
Ironically, in nature most animal life has no problem getting enough potassium; useful sodium is harder to find. Meats have some, but vegetarian animals don't eat much meat. That's why deer, buffalo and other animals have been known to take regular migrations of tens of miles to reach "salt licks", where the ground is salty. At some of these, even predators like bear and mountain lions have been known to lick the earth alongside the deer --unthinkable anywhere else. It's as if the animals understand that their mutual survival depends on this balance; on them all getting their salt.
Humans have turned this upside-down; we add salt to everything. We eat comparatively little raw, unprocessed foods. ALL OTHER SPECIES ON EARTH EAT 100 PERCENT RAW FOODS! So what makes us think we can thrive on diets which are highly processed, cooked, sometimes bleached and ground and dyed and otherwise manipulated out of recognition?
Ask yourself this: How much of what you ate today looked like it did when it was grown in nature? If at least 80 percent of it didn't, there is NO WAY you are going to have a long, healthy life free from disease. NO WAY. Please think about it.
If you want to do a simple test that will completely change the rest of your life, do this: FOR THREE MONTHS (but you won't need that long to realize what I'm saying) EAT ONLY fresh, raw and mostly (at least 75 percent) raw foods. NO factory-processed foods. Nothing that comes pre-prepared in a jar, box, can, etc...
NOTHING with synthetic or artificial additives; i.e., no preservatives, no colorants, no flavorings (100 percent natural herbs and spices are okay in moderation; but "natural flavoring" on a label means MSG, and is a big NO-NO!). Just eat ONLY stuff that looks like it was found that way in nature. That is, leaves, fruits, vegetables, nuts (BUT NOT processed with salt and bad oils, etc... and preferably not cashews). Nothing with weird chemical names, nothing "hydrogenated", no alcohol (sorry!... but remember, it's only for three months), no caffeine, no refined sugars, no refined grains (whole oatmeal is okay; whole wheat bread is NOT!).
Make sure you get at least twenty DIFFERENT types of leaves and fresh vegetables in your diet each week... ideally, every three days. Sound like a lot? It isn't. It's okay to make a "mono meal" sometimes, like just eating a few bananas for a meal, but most meals should combine a variety of fresh, raw, natural foods.
A word on bananas: DO NOT EAT the kind in the supermarket from major brands like Del Monte or Chiquita. They have been bred for long shelf life and appearance, but in the process have lost their natural goodness and are not very digestible at all. Eat only the tropical kinds that are big and thick, or small and stubby, or reddish... ANY variety except those big-name-brand ones with the stickers. Avoid those.
As for milk, the only kind you can consume during the 90 days is fresh, raw (NOT pasteurized and NOT homogenized!) milk, ideally from a human being. If you are lucky enough to have access to a lactating woman's breast, it's a fine source of healthful nutrition. If it is a goat or cow's or dog's teat you can get at, well... go easy on it. It isn't very suitable for your species. Incidentally, one very important (for health) medium-chain fat (lauric acid) is found in only two sources: breast milk and coconuts! A raw coconut every day or two is VERY good for you, partly for this reason.
You can and probably should cook one meal per day; fish is a good choice, with cooked vegetables. Or another meat, with cooked vegetables. Use ONLY coconut oil for any cooking you do; NO other oil that has been heated. Don't add any commercial barbecue sauces or marinades that come in jars. If you want to marinade or make sauce yourself, using only fresh, natural ingredients, that is fine.
Add plenty of "medicinal" foods like ginger, turmeric, garlic and beets (beetroot) to your diet. Fresh dandelion greens are excellent for the liver, and provide a lot of nutrients, so go out there and weed the garden for dinner!
Add to this diet a couple caplets or a teaspoon of pharmaceutical-grade cod liver oil, and about 2-3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil per day. Don't worry if the cod liver oil has a slightly fishy taste; that is due to proteins, not rancid fats, and it won't hurt you. HOWEVER, test the olive oil: if shortly after swallowing a spoonful of it you feel a burning or scratchy sensation around the back of your mouth and/or down your throat, the oil is rancid and MUST NOT be eaten. At least half of the oil I find in stores is rancid like this, and will a lot more harm than good. Flax seed oil goes rancid so fast, even when refrigerated, that I have given up trying to use it, and recommend avoiding it. You can grind up fresh flaxseed just before consumption, though; then it is good for you, but watch out for that "burning throat" feeling; if you get that, don't eat the stuff! Avocados, coconuts (again, FRESH - NOT the dried or canned or preserved stuff!)and olives are also good sources of good fats/oils. If you eat an avocado or some olives at a meal, you can skip the spoonful of olive oil. Make sure you get some amount (you don't need very much; about a tablespoon each time in total) of good oils/fats at least two or three times a day.
Just do the above, and keep with it for 90 days, you'll be AMAZED at what will happen to your body, your appearance, your moods, your productivity... EVERYTHING in your life.
Don't argue with me, don't ask (or even THINK) about cheating or fudging it, just shut up and DO IT. START NOW if you have any raw food in the kitchen. If not, then buy some tomorrow and throw out (or seal up and set aside) all the other junk you won't be eating for the next 90 days. Believe me, after the first two weeks, you probably won't want it, anyway.
Be aware that you may have temporary cravings and mildly uncomfortable feelings during the first week or two as your body starts to function better and "clean house" from toxins stored in your tissues (usually in fat, which will then "melt away"). If you are a caffeine addict, you may well get headaches during the first three days. This is due to increased blood circulation to the back of the head (a GOOD thing, after your body re-adjusts to it). Eating enough raw vegetables will lessen and speed up your passage through that phase, and may even prevent it altogether, as the body can deal with the adjustments better if it has enough of the right nutrition it needs.
That's all you really need to know, but the following will help a lot, too. Most of this relates to helping your body digest and assimilate the food better:
Chew your food VERY thoroughly before swallowing. Do not eat in a hurry.
Don't drink water (or anything else) with your meals. You can drink water 15 minutes before a meal, or 1/2 our afterwards, but not WITH the meal. If you are eating mostly raw foods, you will find this very easy to stick to, within a couple of days. Only cooked and processed foods and additives make you thirsty, because they've had the water driven off and because they are too salty and produce too many toxins and metabolic by-products that need to be flushed out.
Do not eat when you are upset or distracted. Relax, calm down and when you eat, just EAT. This will help your digestion.
Don't mix "high protein" foods like fish with "high carbohydrate" foods like potatoes -- they don't digest well together. You can eat both, but at separate meals, not together. Raw leaves and/or vegetables can be eaten --and should/must be eaten!-- with every high-protein meal AND with every high-carb meal. Fruits are best eaten separtely, except for a few like tomatoes, avocados, and olives, which digest well with vegetables.
Eat your largest meal at lunchtime. That is when your digestion is strongest.
Eat as much at each meal as both of your fists stuck together: any more than that and you are stretching the stomach and will probably not digest the food well.
Eat every 2 to 3 hours. This means more than three meals a day, but since the meals are smaller, it works out to the same or more total food. You may need to plan things a bit, to be able to do this (pack a couple meals to take to work!).
Do not eat after 8 p.m. in the evening. No "late night snacks". If you are hungry late at night, it is only because you didn't eat enough breakfast, early enough in the day. {Trust me, this is TRUE... unless you have worms or something like that making you hungry.}
Make your last meal of the day a protein one, NOT a simple carb one. Avoid sugars and high-carbs (like potatoes or rice) during the last few hours before you sleep. This has several benefits, but you'll be amazed how much this one thing will help if you are trying to lose fat and/or build muscle!
Eat breakfast AS SOON AS POSSIBLE after you wake up. Fruit makes an excellent breakfast. A protein meal like tuna with veggies is also fine. A carb meal like oatmeal is okay, but not ideal for the first meal, so better save that one for lunch. Eating as soon as you wake up will speed up your metabolism and help you to normalize your weight much faster, will prevent evening/night-time hunger, and will make you more mentally alert all day.
That's all I can think of, and more than you really need to know. The MOST IMPORTANT rule is simply to eat NATURAL foods, that look like they were just plucked from a tree or dug from the ground or caught in a lake... and eat MOST of them RAW.
DO that for 90 days, and you'll completely stop thinking I'm some kind of a nut. You'll thank me from the bottom of your (now working properly!) heart, and wonder like hell why everybody doesn't know this, why the rest of the world keeps on with the stupid, addictive insanity that people have come to think is "normal". You've been brainwashed and misled (the blind leading the blind) and lied to (in the case of the junk-food pushers) for so long, you probably don't realize how absurd the "modern" world's eating habits have become, largely just within the past (less than a) century.
Sermon over. I've told you what you should do. It's up to you to do it.
Do it, and you'll have 80 to 90 percent less chance of cancer.
Do it, and if you have atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and/or high blood pressure, starting today you will --probably for the first time in years-- start to make it better, not worse. You will probably be preventing that heart attack or stroke that otherwise is on it's way.
Do it, and every cell, tissue, and organ in your body will start to function better.
Do it, and you'll have a LOT (and I mean a LOT) more energy, although you may only notice that after the first couple of days/weeks, when the "housecleaning" is still taking place.
Do it, and you'll start to shed excess pounds.
Do it, and you'll start breathing better, seeing and hearing more clearly, thinking more clearly.
Do it, and your moods will improve. If you are depressed, you will start to feel better. If you are discouraged, your optimism will return.
If you are out of shape, you will start to WANT to exercise as soon as your body is ready to, and you will recover quickly from it. You will re-discover the joy of movement that you had as a youngster, and probably have forgotten.
In fact, you will feel, look and act YOUNGER... because MUCH of what we think is aging is not due to the passage of time, but rather to the accumulated harm of an unsuitable diet (although sadly, not all aging stems from that, and not all is reversible). Keep up the diet for a year, and I guarantee you will look at least ten years younger, and feel even younger than that.
I'll shut up now, so you can go do it. Be like Nike, and "Just do it!' Your loved ones will thank you for it...after they see the changes in you, and realize that you hadn't really "gone off the deep end", but discovered something truly good, instead.
Here's a weird one for ya, when I was in my early 30s, I had some pretty bad pain in my chest. I knew I was pretty young for a heart attack, but felt like it needed checked so went to the hospital. Apparently there's a condition where heavy physical excercise can cause your lung to seperate/tear from your chest cavity, and you get an air-pocket in there. :scratch2: They said it's mostly restricted to tall, skinny white males, and I thought they were messing with me a bit, but they were serious. :yes:
