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Slide 5 of 15

Based on their constituency, and research showing the benefits of their regular consumption, the healthiest diet is one centered around fruits, vegetables, and nuts. What I mean is, be sure these are in your diet if you can eat them. I say "if you can eat them" mostly in reference to nuts because nuts do have the potential for allergic and immune reactions. Also, try to let the majority of what you eat consist of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, and if you do eat other things, let that be the minority.

The things you really want to try to limit, and if possible to avoid are: cholesterol and animal proteins, especially those from meat, dairy, and eggs, because they contribute to the development of heart and vascular disease, autoimmune disease, and degenerative disease of some internal organs (like the kidneys from having to process and eliminate high amounts of protein; starchy carbohydrates, which are mainly found in grains and potatoes, and simple sugars-good old-fashioned sugar, junk foods, desserts, because they contribute to obesity, diabetes, high triglyceride and cholesterol in blood, fatigue, and autoimmune disease (mainly speaking of gluten and to some extent, corn); sodium, which is mainly found in shaker salt, canned and pickled food, and processed meats, because of its contribution to high blood pressure; and chemical preservatives/dyes and pesticides in produce because of their potential to cause degenerative and immune diseases and probably cancers. It's your personal choice whether you limit these or avoid them; what you don't hear me saying is "Eat a lot of these." Finally, avoid food to which you are immunologically sensitive, based on reactions you notice or accurate laboratory testing.

What is it about gluten that makes it so stimulating to the immune system? It is its biochemical structure, the amino acids that constitute the protein, which makes it peculiarly reactive to the immune system of people with certain genes. In fact, it almost certainly has to be true that when the function of this gene evolved, it was probably reacting to an infectious organism. Our evolutionary ancestors did not eat gluten but for the last 10,000 years. There was something that came before eating grass seed that led this gene to be present. It may actually have provided a survival benefit. To have an extra sensitive immune system might have kept our ancestors from dying back when people died mostly from infections. But in this day and age, we don't die as often from infection. We live long enough to get other things. Certainly we live long enough to start reacting to our own bodies in the form of autoimmune disease, and of course now we've got all these other factors: environmental factors, the increased gluten content of hybridized wheat, other preservatives, who knows what else, facilitating these reactions. So, unfortunately, now a very sensitive immune system often leads to more health problems.

Unfortunately, most doctors don't have very much interest or knowledge in how food leads to illness. That's because they are in a different model, a different paradigm of illness; that illness is caused mostly by infections and degenerative diseases that require medicines or interventive procedures. But there are a few doctors who are aware of these things, because they are not in that same paradigm.


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