Advanced Healthy Diet Guidelines

What seems to be of critical importance to good nutrition is the need to keep the ratio of plant to animal foods at a high level. For Westerners, this means a switch from using foods from animal sources as the center of their meals, to using them, on a reduced basis.

The basic premise is variety, balance and moderation.

Highlights of Advanced Healthy Diet Guidelines:

The basic premise of any good diet is variety, balance and moderation.
What seems to be of critical importance is the need to keep the ratio of plant to animal foods at a high level.
There is ONLY one way to get the benefit of Phytochemicals. You have to eat a diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains.
Only you can make the tough choices it takes to change the food that you put into your body. And, only you can choose to release the wonderful healing power that Mother Nature has given to each and every one of us.

Improve your Nutrition at the Advanced Level.

Homemade Bread is Feasible

Fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains are edible plants that are full of nutrients, vitamins, fiber, and phytochemicals essential for good health. Hundreds of studies have established that diets high in plant-based foods are associated with lower rates for Lifestyle Diseases.

Phytochemicals give plants their color, flavor, smell, and texture. They are plant chemicals that have health-related effects. As plants evolved they developed antioxidant compounds, which afforded them protection from molecules of highly reactive oxygen, as well as other biochemical defenses against bacteria, fungi, viruses, and damage to cell structures, such as DNA.

There is ONLY one way to get the benefit of these Phytochemicals. You have to eat a diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains.

"There are many biologically plausible reasons why consumption of plant[-based] foods might slow or prevent the appearance of cancer. ... Consumption of diets low in plant[-based] foods results in a reduced intake of a wide variety of those substances that can plausibly lower cancer risk."[1]

Remember, only you can make the tough choices it takes to change the food that you put into your body. And, only you can choose to release the wonderful healing power that Mother Nature has given to each and every one of us.

Phytochemicals are in Plant-Based Foods

The basic premise of any good diet is variety, balance and moderation.

Good nutrition is a journey, NOT a destination.
1. What you ate last week is ancient history. Eating Healthy is a battle that you face now, and will face every minute of the day, till you die.
2. The Perfect Diet is a Myth.
  1. Eating healthy means improving your current diet gradually and slowly over a long period of time to the point where eating healthy becomes routine and pain free.
  2. The Perfect Diet is your goal, but NEVER reality. There will always be room for improvement.
The health principle of moderation applies to nutrition and eating food.
1. Quantity
  1. EXCESS -- All healthy foods when eaten to EXCESS can be bad for you, and even toxic. And, may even lead to serious health conditions like hypothyroidism.
    1. Most people can obtain recommended intakes of nutrients in a 3,000 calories a day.[5] But, 3,000 calories a day is clearly excessive for the low activities levels typical of modern life.
  2. The Goal is to eat a variety of healthy foods at a total caloric rate that will either maintain, or achieve your ideal body weight over a reasonably long period of time.
    1. Most people can obtain 80% of the recommended allowances of nutrients in a 2,500 calories a day diet.[5]
    2. Getting 100% of the recommended allowances of nutrients in only 2,000 calories a day is certainly possible. But such results do not come automatically. It takes a great deal of effort to get all your RDAs from your diet.
  3. DEFICIENCY -- Poor variety or too low a caloric rate that causes you to loose too much weight, or fails to provide minimal levels of nutrients.
    1. On 1,500 calories a day most people can obtain ONLY about 50% of the recommended intakes of nutrients from their diet.[5]
2. Quality
  1. EXCESS -- Obsessing over eating only organic, fresh foods, or home cooked is non-productive. Nor, are they required for good health.
  2. The Goal is eating an adequate mix of Whole-Foods and minimally processed foods that contain:
    1. An abundance of plant food factors, referred to as phytochemicals.
  3. DEFICIENCY -- Consuming mostly Junk Food .
3. Variety -- Variety means that we should eat a mixture of foods across the range of food groups and a mixture from within each food group.
  1. EXCESS -- Excess comes about by trying to include too much diversity in your daily diet. Variety is balanced over an entire week. Excess daily variety results in excess total caloric intake.
  2. The Goal is achieving adequate biological variety. Ideally, you should eat between 20 and 30 different plant-based foods a week.
    1. To ensure an adequate intake of essential nutrients and other factors in food important for health that are currently not regarded as essential nutrients.
    2. To dilute potential adverse food factors.
  3. DEFICIENCY -- No single food can provide a nutritious and healthy diet. Foods from similar biological sources in nature have common nutritional characteristics.
    1. Less than ten (10) biological sources means inadequate food variety.
Stop eating Junk Food.
Eat sparingly red meat, poultry, and dairy products.
1. Meat and poultry is served as a condiment to meals, but never as the main course.
Eat 2 to 3 servings a week of fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring, albacore tuna).
Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil as the principal added oil, replacing other fats and oils (including butter and margarine). The rule of thumb for cooking is to never heat any cooking oil to the point of smoking. The preferred expeller or cold pressed oils (acidity of .5% or less) used for cooking in order of their health benefits are:
1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil (You can use it for cooking and sautéing, but not at very high temperatures).
2. Avocado oil
3. Light Olive Oil
4. Canola Oil
5. Peanut Oil (This oil is unhealthy, but is pretty good for unhealthy deep-fat frying.)
Eat an abundance of plant-based foods.
1. Wherever possible eat seasonally fresh and locally grown foods.
2. Vegetables and fruits in nutrition are loosely distinguished by the need for cooking Vegetables, while fruits may be eaten raw. But the distinction is imprecise and often fails to be totally consistent.[3]
3. Eat two to three fresh salads each week. Most food from plant sources should be consumed cooked, in order to neutralize any toxins that they may contain.
  1. Fruits
    1. Serve fresh fruit as the typical daily dessert.
    2. Grapefruit should be avoided.
      - Contains a chemical that reduces the efficiency of the livers ability to detoxify.
4. Vegetables
  1. Potatoes should be avoided as a Core Food.
  2. Don't overlook these plant families of vegetables:
    1. Brassica or Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower);
    2. Carotene rich fruits and vegetables ([dark-green leafy vegetables and deep-yellow-orange fruits and vegetables] tomatoes, carrots, dried apricots & peaches, kale, spinach, pumpkin); and
    3. Allium vegetables (onion, garlic, leek, chive).
5. Grains
  1. The small hard seeds of cereal grasses, such as wheat, rice, oats, and corn which are often ground into flour.[4]
  2. Corn is a grain, not a vegetable.
    1. Corn should be avoided as a Core Food.
  3. The carbohydrates that should form the keystones of a healthy diet come from whole grains, like brown rice or oats, from foods made with whole grains, like whole-wheat pasta or bread, or from beans.
6. Legumes & Nuts
  1. Legumes are plants belonging to the bean family. They refer to seeds that grow in cases called pods. They considered are a legume when cooked without the pods. But, when cooked with the pods they are considered a vegetable.
  2. Nuts are the fruit of certain trees and shrubs (as of the almond, walnut, hickory, beech, filbert, etc), consisting of a hard shell enclosing a seed.
    1. Peanuts are a legume, not a nut.
    2. Peanuts, peanut butter, and peanut oil should be avoided as a Core Food.
  3. The combination of 'Legumes & Nuts' along with a 'Grain' provides a complete protein source.[2]

NOTICE -- These nutrition guidelines are:

Intended ONLY for the NORMAL healthy middle-aged adult population. (This diet is NOT designed for Pregnant Females, Infants, Children, or Teenagers. Nor, is it recommended for any individual who has some type of serious ABNORMAL condition, such as Celiac Disease or Diabetes);
Recommended for advanced users who have been working on their nutrition for two or more years. (Beginners should keep it simple, and stick to the Basic Healthy Diet Guidelines shown on the Diet introduction webpage.);
Grounded in science-base information, and totally ignores all considerations of animal right ethics;
Strictly about nutrition and eating food. (Rules governing exercise, etc. are covered on other Web pages; and
Based, in part, on the historical reality of the traditional Cretan Mediterranean Diet.
There is a vitamin D revolution going on. Adequate vitamin D supplementation more than doubles the amount of calcium that you can get from a healthy whole food diet.

Additional information in this Web site on Nutrition is located at:

[Return to The Nutrition of Eating Healthy Whole Foods]

Advanced Healthy Diet Guidelines Comments:

References

Potter JD; Steinmetz K. Vegetables, fruit and phytoestrogens as preventive agents. IARC Sci Publ 1996;97(139):61-90. PMID: 8923020
"The data support the conclusion that a rice and bean diet is a well balanced food combination and can serve as a fairly good source of protein for the adult human."
Vannucchi H, Duarte RM, Dutra de Oliveira JE. Studies on the protein requirement of Brazilian rural workers ("boias frias") given a rice and bean diet. Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 1983;53(3):338-44. PMID: 6629673
Vegetables Webster Dictionary, 1913
Grain Webster Dictionary, 1913
Mareschi JP, Cousin F, de la Villeon B. [Caloric value of food and coverage of the recommended nutritional intake of vitamins in the adult human. Principle foods containing vitamins] Ann Nutr Metab. 1984;28(1):11-23. French. PMID: 6703646