A condensed education in "Natural Hygiene"

Natural Hygiene is a diet and lifestyle philosophy that was described in (at least) two contemporary books, "Fit for Life" by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond published in 2002, and "The 80/10/10 Diet" by Dr. Doug Graham in 2006. Both books were best sellers, possibly because Natural Hygiene is based (in no small part) on common sense.

What do I mean in this instance by "common sense"? We've heard our entire lives that fruits and vegetables are the original health foods. We've all heard the quote by the original medical doctor Hippocrates to "let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food".

Recently "fruit is bad for you" has become a cultural meme. I could give you my ideas about how this (health destructive) state of affairs has come to pass, but that's a topic for another post at a future point. Meanwhile have a look at a short video by natural hygienist Loren Lockman to judge for yourself the long term effect lots of fresh fruit (and vegetables) has caused in his state of health. If this video peaks your interest, it's the first in a brief series of short videos recorded last year at Lockman's Tanglewood Wellness Center in Costa Rica. In total they are a fairly comprehensive but condensed presentation of Natural Hygiene philosophy.

Creative credit: Symbiotic Solutions Youtube Channel

Greens...better than drugs?

The New York Times reported a recent study that shows green leafy vegetables slow cognitive decline by the equivalent of 11 years:

A Salad a Day May Be Good for Brain Health

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/well/mind/a-salad-a-day-may-be-good-for-brain-health.html#story-continues-1

Common Sense! (looking for intelligent life in the universe)

I think I'll do a series of blogs on common sense, because it is, sadly, not all that common, but oh so necessary for the development of real understanding. Looking back at my own progression it's easy to forget how confused I was about the substances and conditions that induce health vs those that cause disease. Along the way certain voices I found spoke with logic and clarity simply because what they said consistently made sense. The cumulative effect of finding these voices has been the reversal of my own confusion and ill health.

Here's a relatively new voice for me, Dr. Garth Davis, a bariatric bypass surgeon who, with a conventional medical education, had gained weight himself, and developed high cholesterol and early stage cardiovascular disease coming into middle age. At first he accepted this fate as a simple consequence of aging or "bad genes", but then motivated by professional curiosity (he is after all a weight loss doc) began looking into the whys and wherefores, taking a deep and long dive into the scientific literature. He had been recommending to his patients a high protein low carb diet, and consuming one himself, but then did a 180. The change in his own health and that of his patients has been extraordinary. There are many interviews and talks by him out there, but I chose this brief one, an excerpt from a talk, because in it he shows off some of that common sense:

If that got your attention, you may want to check this out too...a talk Dr. Davis gave at a medical conference on diabetes, recorded by an attendee in the audience. You may need to turn up the volume a bit or use headphones to hear it clearly. It's gold.

Why I prefer the term "disease reversal diet" to "vegan diet"

The term "vegan diet" has a problem in that it describes a very broad, inclusive, and general set of conditions, and includes the possibility of consuming some of the most health damaging processed foods yet conceived. One could for example consume a high fructose corn syrup soda and potato chip diet and yep you'd be vegan. If that's all you ate you wouldn't be long for this world, but you would have no problem finding all the "food" you wanted on that "diet", it's everywhere. In so-called "nutrition deserts" it's essentially the only diet on offer.

Let's face a few facts. It would be interesting in this context to know the population of Nutrition Desert vs Everywhere Else in the good ole USofA, because the Nutrition Desert areas are essentially an act of genocide. The good Dr. Fuhrman, who has coined the very useful term "Nutritarian Diet", has even written a book on this topic (and much more) titled "Fast Food Genocide: How Processed Food is killing Us and What We Can Do About It".

https://www.amazon.com/Fast-Food-Genocide-Processed-Killing-ebook/dp/B01N27P8BR/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

One can get the Genocide Diet anywhere in the USA, one need not travel to the local Nutrition Desert to partake, but of course "in the desert" it's pretty much all there is.

The disease reversal diet is not magic or some complex and mysterious secret known only to select few. It's basic common sense: fully nutritious foods that are also not system clogging, which means they do not present inefficiencies to the body in digestion, assimilation of nutrition, and disposal of waste. In other words you are giving your body sufficient fuel and nutrition without robbing it of the valuable energy it needs to take care of the pathogens and toxins we are exposed to every day. Basically you are simply "getting out of it's way".

Once you have really done that, the body immediately begins to vector toward health on all fronts. It may however be uncomfortable at first, when you clean house dust gets kicked up, and when you begin the disease reversal diet "lodged" toxins are mobilized into the pathways of detoxification and elimination, a process that may very well make one feel worse for a period of time (depending on how much "cleaning" has to be done).

Here's a few clues you may not be consuming the disease reversal diet:

- your energy fluctuates quite a bit during the day.

- digestive processes may cause you discomfort (you should not be any more aware of healthy digestion than you are of normal healthy breathing).

- it may take longer than a single minute to "do your business", and afterward you may feel compelled to open a window out of consideration.

- you may experience any of a broad variety of physical or emotional discomforts with relative frequency.

- your BMI is above the healthy range.

- you may have one or more of the very broad category of health conditions caused by not consuming the disease reversal diet.

There are additional terms other than "disease reversal diet" which identify essentially the same approach:

- SOS free whole food plant based (SOS free = no added salt sugar oil).

- 80/10/10 diet.

- Nutritarian diet.

- Fruits and vegetables with legumes and moderate nuts and seeds diet.

It's interesting how "fruits and vegetables" have been known as the healthiest diet since the time of Plato and Hippocrates, but quite recently has morphed into the "meat and vegetables" diet. Humm...how'd that happen? Was it "science" (using the term loosely) funded by the "disease induction and management consortium"? (Comprised primarily of these industries: meat & dairy, manufactured foods, fast food, big pharma, big health care.) Or was it post industrial cultural biases? Or both?

We love to hear good things about our bad habits...we're only human after all. But we can do better, it only takes education and personal experience to really see and feel the difference.

Let's shine a bright light onto this "invisible" genocide, and get rid of nutrition deserts wherever we find them (even, or especially, in our own bodies). It very likely won't be easy or quick...a huge slice of US GDP has become dependant on the "disease induction and management consortium"...it may even be greater than 50% all told? I somehow think the Fed does not publish that statistic.

Was Chipotle Sabotaged for banning GMO's?

I think it's quite possible after reading this:

You may remember that last year Chipotle was the first restaurant chain to announce that it would phase out the use of genetically modified foods, also known as “G.M.O.’s”. Shortly thereafter, and quite mysteriously, an E. coli outbreak was reported, across fourteen states, from Washington to Pennsylvania, and only in Chipotle restaurants. According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.), the odds of an E. coli outbreak crossing a single state line is only three percent, as restaurants generally buy their produce and meat regionally for freshness. The likelihood of an E. coli outbreak crossing fourteen state lines, coast to coast, is probably a small fraction of one percent. Additionally, as many restaurant chains use produce and meat from the same sources, it is probably a fraction of a fraction of one percent that such a nationwide E. coli outbreak would only affect one restaurant and not any others.

After six months of thorough investigation by the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.), the C.D.C., fourteen state and local Health Departments, as well as scientists hired by Chipotle themselves, all have independently concluded that there is not a single traceable source of E. coli from any Chipotle restaurant, in any food ingredient, preparatory surface, or piece of equipment. Literally thousands of individual tests were conducted on the all the foods, on all the kitchen surfaces, and on all the appliances at the suspect Chipotles, and no trace whatsoever of E. coli was found in any restaurant or food ingredient. The C.D.C. being unable to trace the source of a restaurant’s food poisoning, after thousands of tests and half a year of effort, has never happened before in the entire history of the organization.

from this page

https://www.march-against-monsanto.com/mystery-e-coli-strain-smoking-gun-in-chipotle-sabotage-federal-investigation-reveals/

Is it mere coincidence the disease reversal diet is also the way to fix global warming?

Anyone who is paying close attention to nutritional science, anecdotal experience, and epidemiological evidence already knows plant based whole food diets are exponentially better for human health than animal based diets. But what's this about the animal agriculture industry contributing more to global warming than all global transportation combined?

Perhaps it makes sense what is best for human health will be best for the health of the earth too...after all, we are the species destroying the ecosystem. Is there a link?

The new documentary film Vegan 2017 is worth a look.

Women's Nutritarian Diet Health Study looking for participants

The link below will take you directly to the info page.
https://nau.edu/nutritarian-womens-health-study/

Here are a few lines from that page:

The Nutritarian Women’s Health Study (NWHS) is a long term observational study on the effect of the Nutritarian diet on overall health plus the occurrence, recurrence, and progression of chronic diseases (including all forms of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke).

"We can reduce cancer rates – breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer – by 90 percent or more by people adopting what I call a nutritarian diet." ~ Joel Fuhrman, MD

Women over 18 years old who agree to participate in a research study that examines the effect of a nutrient dense, plant rich diet on a variety of lifestyle diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and many cancers, especially breast cancer.

An introductory video about the study: