Dieting

The reason why most diets tend not to work for very long is because they are not sustainable. A person gains weight because he or she consumes more calories per day than needed. The diet creates a temporary deficit.

When the diet ends, the person goes back to normal eating and the weight comes back. Let's look at an example. Say that you weigh 150 pounds. That means that you burn 1,800 calories per day in a resting state. Let's also imagine that in the course of a day you burn 200 more calories living your life -- walking up and down steps, carrying in the groceries and so on.

Your calorie needs then are, on average, 2,000 calories per day. Now let's further imagine that, on average, you consume 2,050 calories per day. On a daily basis your body is taking in, and therefore storing, 50 calories more than it needs. So every 70 days (3,500 calories in a pound / 50 calories each day = 70 days) you gain 1 pound (0.45 kg). If that "50-extra-calories-per-day" trend continues, then over the course of a year you would gain 5 pounds.

This, by the way, is the pattern for a big portion of the U.S. population. If you over-consume by just a few calories per day then, over time, you will gain weight. Keep in mind that just one Oreo-type cookie contains 50 calories, so over-consuming is incredibly easy. One cookie contains 50 calories. Now, you go on a diet -- the amazing "Palm Beach Miracle Diet."

On this diet, you consume nothing but 2 cups of brown rice and a can of Vienna sausages, along with all the onions you care to eat, every day. You start this diet and you are consuming only 1,000 calories per day. You also start jogging 2 miles a day. That means that, on a typical day, you are consuming 1,200 calories less than you need.

Over the course of three days (3,500 calories in a pound / 1,200 calories each day = approximately 3 days), you will lose 1 pound of weight. You keep on this diet for two months and lose 20 pounds. The day you go off this diet, what is going to happen?

First, you are probably going to eat a lot more than normal because you have been eating nothing but rice and Vienna sausages for two months! Then you will settle into your "normal eating pattern" that you had before the diet.

And eventually all of the weight comes back. This is why diets don't work for most people. You do lose weight, but then go off the diet and gain it back. What is needed instead is a sustainable diet -- a food consumption and exercise plan -- that lets you live a normal life and eat normal foods in a normal way.

Eating Right Food

       Eating a healthy diet can make a difference in the way you act, feel and look. It's easy to tell when you're eating as you should. You look vibrant, feel energetic and better withstand the pressures of life. Poor nutrition, on the other hand, can lead to a number of health conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure and some forms of cancer.

Proper healthy diets contain the right amounts of essential nutrients and calories to prevent nutritional deficiencies and provide a balance of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Following the Food Pyramid Guide is a good way to ensure that you're getting all the nutrients your body requires, but that's often easier said than done, especially in today's fast-paced world.

Few of us are willing to expend the time and energy necessary to make delicious, well-balanced, nutritionally sound meals. Instead, fast food or a quick (usually fatty) snack often takes the place of healthy eating. And, even if you have time to cook, you may be on a low-calorie weight loss diet and have intentionally limited your intake of food.

Or, perhaps you're a vegetarian and don't eat meat. Whatever your reason, getting the daily requirements of vitamins and minerals from diet alone can sometimes be tough.

There is help, however, for the nutritionally challenged:

Taking a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement can help assure you that even when you don't eat balanced meals, you're still getting the appropriate nutrients to maintain good health.

Industrialized Diet

The industrialized diet is very different from the natural foods and Paleolithic diets. By industrialized, I am referring not to the foods eaten by people who work in industry but to the trend of our times toward mass production and factory processing.

The industrialized diet contains a large proportion of refined foods. Many of the basic grains and sugar containing plants are stripped of their fiber and nutrients, leaving the concentrated sweet or starch powder that can be used to make or flavor other foods. Refined white flour and white sugar are the two basic components.

These "new" foods often have additives and preservatives to allow for packaging, shipping, and %u201Cshelf life.%u201D They fit in with the mass production ideology and fast-paced lifestyles of not only the American culture but many other technological and urban cultures of the world. Rural peoples still tend to eat more basically and naturally.

An interesting fact is that when the industrial or refined foods diet was introduced to different tribal cultures throughout the world, a general degradation of their health followed, usually within one generation. Tooth decay and diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer increased to levels that correlated with those in industrialized societies.

One of the people who had observed and described this phenomenon was Dr. Weston Price, a dentist, who studied native cultures eating such diets and compared them to like tribes who were still eating their classical diet. Dr. Price has reported on the descriptions of the tribal people themselves regarding the changes they have experienced, as well as his own observations.

This whole story is contained in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive Diets and Their Effects (Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, 1948). Modern medicine and technology have made some fantastic advances that have affected the lives of almost every being on Earth, but the greatest dilemma now is how to balance these industrial changes with a healthier diet.

The refined and fast food diet has been one of the greatest economic supporters of our currently expensive medical system and has made medical doctors one of the richest professions because of all the acute and chronic disease that this technological diet generates. And herein, I believe, lies the dilemma. The Western economic structure is dependent on mass production, corporations, fast food restaurant chains, and refined, packaged foods.

The American consumer must consume them in even greater quantities, as more are being produced all the time. It is very possible that if more people cultivate foods and go back (or ahead) to eating more natural, chemical-free foods, it will either bankrupt or totally transform our current big business economy and health care system, instead of so many farms going bankrupt. But there is a lot of resistance and dollars preventing that from happening.

Billions are poured into advertising to brainwash people into buying and eating these nonfoods. Also, sweet and salty flavors are addicting, making it harder for the people eating all those pre-made snack foods to eat more naturally and enjoy it.

I do not have the answer to this dilemma (maybe more advertising for apples and sunflower seeds) other than writing this book. Time will tell. Change is usually slow, and adaptability and survival are timeless.

It is ultimately an individual choice. As more of us choose to eat more healthfully, more new and natural products will be developed and made available.

Paleolithic

        This is one of the more fascinating of the diet plans to come forth in recent years. And yet, it is based on some of our most ancient, evolutionary eating patterns the "caveman" or "caveperson" diet. (This is not to be confused with the dinosaur era, which was some 70 million years ago.) Actually, these people belonged to nomadic tribes and mainly used caves for winter shelter.

        This hunter-gatherer diet of the Paleolithic humans, our ancestors who inhabited Earth some 40,000 years ago, has been carried on in many tribal cultures. NowaDay s, however, it is essentially an extinct species of humankind that continues to hunt wild game and gather their foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds as available on a seasonal basis.

       Recent archeological findings suggest that these ancient ancestors of ours were a healthy bunch tall, strong bones, and body structures like modern-Day athletes they appear to be most similar to ours in regard to stature, and as long as they survived accidents, infections, and childbirth, their longevity was similar to ours, but with much less chronic degenerative disease.

Warrior's Diet

      The "warrior's diet" is a term that I have used to describe the way I often eat, especially on the Day s when I am busy and want to be productive. This diet consists of small meals or snacks eaten every two to three hours throughout the Day .

       These are simple meals and often only simple foods, such as a handful of almonds or sunflower seeds, an apple or two, carrot or celery sticks, crackers with avocado, or a bowl of rice with sprouts or cooked beans. Consuming the contents of one small to medium bowl should generate sufficient fuel to continue energetically along the Day's path.

       A warrior is always ready for action, with energy available whenever he or she is called. Big meals or lots of different foods can act as a mental and physical sedative, as they cause a lot of our energy and blood to be shunted to to our abdomen (liver, stomach, intestines) to digest and assimilate our food.

       The warrior eats large meals only in celebration or ritual, or given our modern society, at the end of a work day to relax at home alone or with friends or family. At this time, we can let go more of our physical concerns and tensions, be more aware of inner levels, and digest our meal and the Day's experiences. The warrior's concept is that food is our fuel; we give our body what it needs for continued combustion of energy.

      When I refer to being a warrior, I am talking about embracing the challenges of life with some feeling or passion. Food nourishment should support this and not devitalize us or generate excess aggressiveness or moodiness.

        Since I am a strong supporter of peace and positive action, I think of the warrior as one who does battle not with others but rather with life, the main struggle being to conquer our own weaknesses. Illness is, in a sense, succumbing to that battle; from a nutritional standpoint, when we take in too much, we may block the energy that is needed to cope with stress, and then we get stuck in the specifics of the battle, such as conflict with a person or job.

       Keeping ourselves clear through light and simple eating will allow our full energy to be available to us so that we can be the true "spiritual warriors" or "spiritual athletes" we were intended to be.

Weight Reduction Tips

Weight-loss diets come and go by the hundreds. Every year at least half a dozen new diets become popular with Americans, who are always looking for the latest, greatest, shortest route to that trim figure. There is usually at least one diet book on the best-seller list, while publishers are always on the lookout for a hot new book that can take a few million dollars out of the American peoples wallets.

Thus, there is no one specific type of reducing diet but a whole collection of diets that either reduce calories, restructure eating habits, or add a special food that cuts fat. I will not discuss all of them here; several are described in some of the therapeutic diets in Part Four, and most specifically in the Weight Loss program in Chapter 17.

Overall, we who are overweight or who easily put on extra pounds need to think of "diet" as our basic wholesome daily food intake, rather than a special project that we struggle through on occasion so we can return to the enjoyable habitual way of eating that creates the body that necessitated the original struggle.

Very simply, for the average overweight person, the best diet to reduce weight is one that provides fewer calories and burns more with exercise: less intake plus more output equals decreased mass, or as one ArgIslizm ends, "sweat equity." Eating small meals and drinking lots of water helps. Avoiding breads, sweets, dairy foods, and excess fats and oils will greatly reduce calories.

Low-calorie fruit or vegetable snacks are best. Importantly though, simple meals of lean proteins and lots of vegetables provide a good level of nutrients, enhance digestion and metabolism, and, if not overdone, will cause us to burn more calories and stored fat and thus reduce our weight. Developing good eating habits to change our basic diet is the only way to create the body we want in the long run.

Fasting For Weight Loss

True fasting is consuming only water and air, of course. This provides a strong inner experience; I believe that it should be done only under certain circumstances and ideally with the guidance and supervision of a physician or experienced nutritionist.

However, a surprising number of people have done water fasting successfully for short periods of time on their own. It is undertaken basically as a detoxification-cleansing-purifying process. It is not really a diet, since it provides no nutrients.

Juice fasting is more common, provides more nutrients, and can be undertaken for a much longer period than water fasting, but it is still deficient in total nutrition. Drinking only fruit and vegetable juices can be done for several day, a week or two, or even longer; the longer fasting is done, the more problems (called 'cleansing reactions' by those experiencing them) and deficiencies may be experienced.

I have known people who have fasted for longer than two months and have personally monitored some patients through thirty-day fasts, most often on the 'Master Cleanser,' or lemonade, diet. This fast and others, as well as the how-to's of fasting, are discussed in many books on the subject, including my first one, Staying Healthy With the Seasons.

It will also be discussed in Chapter 18 of this book, entitled Detoxification and Healing Programs. The fasting process is best used as a means of transformation to enhance the potential for change in habits and lifestyle during the reevaluation, detoxification period.

Weight is usually lost during the process, though I do not suggest fasting as a weight-loss diet. I do feel that it is one of the best natural therapeutic tools available to the healing arts, given the right situation. Resting from foods and letting the body process what is already stored is the perfect balance to our typical excessive and congesting way of eating.

(Body-organ-cell congestion comes from eating more fat and protein foods than we need.) I have called fasting, or the cleansing process, the "missing link in the American diet".

Natural Hygiene

Natural Hygiene

The "natural hygiene" diet is not a New Age fad, but an ancient system of a raw foods diet supported by cleansing the colon and occasional fasting. This program and philosophy began with the Essenes, an ancient tribe of Jewish scholars.

They believed in preparation for the "messiah" via detoxification of their bodies, minds, and spirits through clean living and keeping the body free of waste. This pure diet and evolved lifestyle is written about in the Essene Gospel of Peace by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely and in other texts.

The natural hygiene diet was repopularized in the 1930s in Germany, and has had its followers in Europe and America since that time. Aspects of it have been discussed as part of the Fit for Life book by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond.

I will review more of the Essenes concepts and practices of natural hygiene in the last part of this book in the Detoxification, Fasting, and Immortality programs.

Vegan

The Vegan is the strict, or pure, form of vegetarianism. No animal products are consumed, only fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds. No eggs, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, butter, or other milk products are eaten. This diet is not suggested for children unless the parents can painstakingly oversee it and select the right foods.

It is difficult with this diet to obtain a balanced intake of all the nutrients that are needed during growth; however, it can be done. This is true also in pregnancy and lactation, where higher intakes of most nutrients are needed. I am not suggesting that this cannot be done; it just is more dangerous in its risk of creating deficiencies and subsequent health problems.

Overall, the vegan diet is often of a lower than average weight, even underweight for his or her size, and usually has a low cholesterol level. Many of the advantages of the lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet are even truer of the vegan diet.

There is a much lower incidence of hypertension, obesity, heart disease, and some cancers, most notably of the colon, breast, uterus, and prostate. The fiber content of the diet is usually very good. However, the potential nutrient deficiencies are a concern.

Vitamin B12 is the main one. Iron and calcium may also be low. Protein levels may be all right if the person is very conscious of protein intake and complementing food. Vitamin A may be low unless a high amount of the orange, yellow, and green vegetables is consumed. Vitamin D is often low; some sunshine will help. Zinc may also be low unless seeds and nuts are consumed regularly.

In general, though, I suggest a good supplement program for vegans, including those above-mentioned nutrients. A vitamin B12 level and general biochemical profile every few years will help reassure us that the diet is providing adequately for bodily functions.

As with any type of diet, if health is faltering or sickness is recurring, an investigation should be made. Overall, though, with the right intention and knowledge, the vegan diet may be a very healthy one.

Lacto Ovo Vegetarian

This is the most common of the vegetarian diets, one that does not include animal flesh but does use the by-products of the chicken and/or cow/eggs and milk products (vegans, or strict vegetarians, do not eat these foods).

Some vegetarians are lacto and not ovo, because of a moral aversion to eating unborn chickens. And some may be sensitive to milk but find eggs okay. However, usually the vegetable foods are the largest part of the diet, which consists mainly of fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Throughout history, most people's diets have been primarily vegetarian, with meats eaten only occasionally. This is still true toDay throughout much of the world.

It is just in the last century that the meat foods have been so heavily consumed in the Westernized cultures, such as North America, Australia, and the European countries. This is due mainly to the commercial herding, slaughtering, and packaging of flesh foods to make them readily available at the corner store. This book and, of course, I myself lean strongly to a more natural and vegetarian-type diet as one that is more healthful, especially as compared with a typical American diet.

The suggestion is not that people become vegetarians, which is a very scary proposition to many (What? Give up my meat?!), but that people become more vegetarian, eating less meat and animal fats. Moving toward meatless meals is a beginning step. A more vegetarian diet clearly reduces our risk of many common chronic diseases, and as long as we consume adequate protein, we are safe from deficiency problems.

The most common reason for not giving up meat, besides people being used to the taste, is the fear of not getting enough protein. I believe the protein concepts perpetrated by American nutritionists to be one of the biggest fallacies about our diet. We do not really need as much protein as we might think, and it is likely that excess protein is a bigger concern than protein deficiency, at least in Westernized cultures. On the other hand, vegetarians need to be aware of obtaining adequate protein, and maintaining efficient digestion and assimilation; I have seen many people with problems in these areas. A mixed vegetarian diet with or without eggs or dairy products can theoretically supply adequate protein, though it may take more effort than with the omnivorous diet.

As long as the diet is not filled with a lot of sugars and other empty calories, the protein content is usually adequate. Protein combination, or complementarity, suggests (this is a theory) that we mix two or more vegetable protein foods at a meal so as to provide sufficient levels of all the essential amino acids. Usually one or two of these amino acids may be low in each food, and mixing them at the same meal will mean that our body has what it needs to make new proteins.

However, it is important that the vegetarian eats sufficient calories so that the body does not use the proteins for fuel instead of its many other functions. Carbohydrates and fats are more readily used for fuel, and it is they, not protein, that actually nourish the active muscles. Protein (amino acids) builds the tissue during growth, though, and this may come from dietary protein of either animal or vegetable origin. Another fallacy in many people%u2019s concepts about protein is that animal proteins are needed for strength and endurance, or athletic prowess.

Although the percentage of vegetarians in our culture is generally very low compared to omnivores, there have been some outstanding athletes and record setters through the years who were vegetarians. The human body is really more adapted to eating as vegetarians. Our long and convoluted intestinal tubing is very different from the carnivore%u2019s short system, where the meats can move through rapidly before they putrify. Our digestive tracts are more like those of the herbivores, where the length allows increased absorption area to help break down the plant fibers and utilize the nutrients.

The strengths of the lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet are many and the weaknesses few. Both are more pronounced for the strict vegan diet, but here we focus on the lacto-ovo diet, which usually provides sufficient protein, calcium, iron, and vitamin B12, all of which are concerns for any vegetarian. If eggs or milk products are eaten once a Day along with other wholesome foods, the diet should be fairly balanced in all respects.

Vegetarians have in general lower blood pressure and weight than their meat-eating companions. Their incidence of hypertension, obesity, high cholesterol, atherosclerosis, heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer are all reduced. Studies of the Seventh Day Adventists, a large vegetarian population, shows their incidence of coronary artery disease about half that of the average population.

The incidence of coronary artery and heart disease correlates with each country's intake of meat throughout the world. The high amount of fiber and lower amount of fat in the vegetarian diet are also very helpful in keeping cholesterol down and digestive tract diseases at a minimum. The high amounts of vitamins and minerals present in vegetables, especially, are also an advantage.

Many vegetarians find that they have a higher level of energy. I certainly did when I changed to vegetarianism, and this has continued through the years. My diet has been re-created numerous times to suit my lifestyle and the changing seasons. It is still primarily vegetarian, with occasional fresh fish or organic poultry. Potential problems for vegetarians include a reduced iron and vitamin B12 intake and thus a higher incidence of anemia.

As stated earlier, this is less a concern for the lacto-ovo-vegetarian than for the strict vegan, but it is still something of which to be aware. Oral iron and vitamin B12, or even B12 injections, could be needed to fulfill the body's needs (more likely with poor digestion and low hydrochloric acid output) and maintain the tissue stores of these important nutrients.

There is some concern that infants, growing children, and women who are pregnant or lactating should avoid vegetarianism. This is unfounded, particularly for the lacto-ovo diet. Pure veganism, in these cases, I think, should be avoided.

If children can eat a wholesome diet with a good protein balance, they can grow well and be healthy on a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet, as can pregnant women. Sometimes they may be even healthier, perhaps because vegetarians tend to have better food habits and less abusive tendencies in general than the average population.

Macrobiotic Diet - Macrobiotic's

Macrobiotics is a philosophy of life centered around a diet originally brought to this country from Japan by George Osawa. It has been expanded upon and shared with many by teachers and authors Michio and Aveline Kushi, a Japanese couple living in the Boston area, and by the magazine East West Journal. Macrobiotic diets, either very strict or more liberal, have been adopted by a great many young people in this country and throughout the world.

A macrobiotic diet consists almost exclusively of cooked foods. Raw foods are felt to be difficult to digest and too cooling for our system. A minimum of fruits is consumed, less than 5 percent of the diet, and most of those should be cooked.

Dairy foods and eggs are usually avoided; the only animal products recommended are whitefish such as halibut, trout, and sole, and these are also kept to less than 5 percent of the diet. Thus, it is primarily a vegetarian, almost vegan, diet, but it seems to contain more protein and nutrients than the standard vegetarian cuisine.

The macrobiotic meal includes between 50 and 60 percent whole cereal grains, such as brown rice, whole oats, millet, barley, corn, wheat berries, rye, and buckwheat. Flour products and baked goodies are avoided, and pastas and breads are eaten only occasionally. Vegetables make up about 20%u201325 percent of the meal; members of the nightshade family, such as potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant, as well as avocados, spinach, yams, and sweet potatoes, are all avoided.

Beans and sea vegetables (seaweeds) are suggested to complement the meal, making up 5%u201310 percent of its quantity. The primary beans eaten are azukis, lentils, and garbanzos, along with fermented soybean products such as tofu, tempeh, and miso. Most other beans can be eaten occasionally in this diet. Some seeds, nuts, and vegetable oils may be used. Soups and salads can also be eaten, constituting about 5 percent of the meal.

Such other exotic foods as umeboshi plums (and other pickled foods, such as daikon radish and ginger, usually eaten at the end of a meal to aid digestion), tamari soy sauce, sesame salt (gomasio), and bancha twig tea are also included. Overall, these are very basic and wholesome foods, but the diet is somewhat controversial.

On the positive side, this diet is considered to be very balanced. It provides a lot of vitamins and minerals and is very good in complex carbohydrates and fiber. The protein content is usually adequate, and the fat content is low. By balanced, I mean that a majority of the foods are from the center of the food spectrum, such as vegetables and whole grains, with a minimum of foods from the extremes, such as fruits and sugars, which are more cooling, and the meat and dairy foods, more stimulating.

Also, herbs and spices, such as garlic, onions, and cayenne are considered too stimulating. From the viewpoint of Eastern philosophy, this diet is felt to be a good balance of yin and yang and to be stabilizing, nourishing, and healing. With the avoidances of chemicals, sugars, refined foods, and high-fat foods, it is a good step, I believe, toward a more balanced and healthful diet for many Americans. With a variety of foods eaten, there is not a great deal of concern over malnutrition, though many practicing macrobiotics appear very trim by American standards.

My first book, Staying Healthy With the Seasons, was felt by many to recommend a macrobiotic diet, but it was very liberal macrobiotics at most. Whole grains and vegetables, I feel, are the mainstay of a healthy diet. They provide wholesome fuel without being too rich and clogging for our finely tuned body machine. But I think that fruits, salads, and more raw foods can be tolerated well, especially in warmer climates or in late spring and summer, and these are often richer in many nutrients that might be lost during cooking and other preparations.

Also, many of the special foods recommended are not available locally, and this, I think, is a weakness in suggesting that macrobiotic practitioners everywhere eat a similar diet. Furthermore, I am an advocate of juice fasting, a process that macrobiotics does not support; fasting may be an extreme practice, but I feel it is a useful therapeutic tool in many situations.

Another drawback to macrobiotics, especially for Americans, is that it is served with a whole philosophy%u2014near religion, if you will%u2014but at the least a way of life that goes along with the diet. I will not get into a discussion of this philosophy, but for many people it can, as can the often radical change suggested in the diet, become a psychological barrier against acceptance of the dietary principles.

With some of its proponents and in much of its literature, there is almost a fanaticism that this system will solve many problems and difficulties in the world. Though much has been written about the theory that a macrobiotic diet can help cure many diseases, including cancer, there is no good evidence for this, only some anecdotal experience.

Maybe some further research will provide more useful information, especially in regard to the fatty acid effects on cells. The omnivorous diet generates more arachidonic acid, which cancer cells need to thrive, while a vegetarian and macrobiotic diet reduce production of arachidonic acid, a possible reason for the benefit it may provide.

Overall, I am much more supportive than otherwise of the macrobiotic-type diet. Except for my period as a raw-fooder, my own diet through the years has been closer to a macrobiotic one than to any other type, though I usually eat more raw vegetables and fruits than suggested.

I feel that it has a lot to offer, including some sound, wholesome information, that may provide many Westerners with an improved sense of health, peace, and well-being.

Raw Foods

A raw food diet is a very interesting one and potentially very healthy or healing for those who have congestive maladies. It basically consists of uncooked whole foods. Foods are eaten in their uncooked, most potentially nutritious state, with the vital elements of nature still contained in them.

The suns energy, water, and nutrients from the earth invigorate fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Sprouted beans and seeds are often a very nutritious component of the diet. Sprouted grains can be made into breads and wafers.

Raw (unpasteurized) milk products may be used. Water, fresh juices, and sun teas are the main drinks in this diet. All stimulants, chemicals, and alcoholic beverages are avoided. Though this diet can be a very healthy and adventurous one, I believe that unless it is very astutely balanced, it is not a good one for very long. It can provide good vitality and nutrient content, however, it is usually low in protein, calcium and iron, all of which could lead to problems in the long run.

Also, with no heat added to the foods and an avoidance of the more concentrated and heat-producing foods, the body could become cold. People in warmer climates, those who are overweight, or those with good body heat are more likely to do well on this diet.

Many people lose weight on a raw foods diet. Proper chewing and good digestion help with this diet; some people experience more difficulty in their digestive tract than on a more cooked diet. For one spring and summer, I ate a completely raw food diet - lots of fresh fruit and vegetable juices, blended fruit shakes, sprouts and vegetable salads, nuts and seeds, and a special treat I used to call "nice cream", made solely from frozen fruit, such as bananas or berries, put through a Champion juicer.

My neighbor kids used to come running to see me when they heard Dr. Elson was making "nice cream". During that particular dietary experience, I felt great, very light and more open spiritually. I weighed the least I have in my adult life, though I definitely felt less grounded-more spacey-than when on a more cooked diet, and my intestines were very active and somewhat gassy.

I guess they had a little less to hold onto and felt a bit insecure. In lecturing about nutrition and fasting, I have talked to many people who eat a raw food diet, often for a period of from one to three years. They speak very highly of their experiences and especially how healthy and alive they feel.

The raw foods diet is really the "living food" diet. It definitely goes against the flow of the Western dietary tradition, but it is something to try for those with an adventurous spirit who want to lighten up and cleanse themselves on deeper levels. Many of the same concerns must be watched for as on the vegan diet.

Top 10 Weight Loss Tips

1- You don’t need to diet … most people want tolose weight fast. And the first thing they usually do to acheive this goal is find a faddy weight loss diet to get on. But fast and long-lasting weight loss is made possible by making some minor adjustments in your mealtime habits and lifestyle. Not by getting on fad diets. Only implement the changes that you can see yourself enjoying and maintaining in the long run.

2- You’ll eat less if you slow down … place your fork and knife down between each bite, take frequent sips of water, and reduce the size of your bites. Give your body enough time to realize that you’re satisfied. By slowing down when you eat, you’ll want to eat smaller portions. It’s not necessary to eat everything on your plate, especially when you’re dining out and faced with the over sized portions that restaurants offer.

3- Don’t make any food off-limits … one of the most important weight loss tips is to allow yourself a small portion of a favorite treat occasionally. Denying yourself completely will only cause an increase in cravings.

4- Imagine your new appearance … once you reach your weight loss goal. What kinds of clothes will you wear? How will you spend your time? What will it feel like to look the way you’ve always wanted?

5- Don’t stop trying … to reach your goal because it takes time. The time will be gone anyway, but it will be so much more meaningful if you can take pride in the way you look.

6- Write down what you eat … and make sure to keep track of your calories. This will show you where you need to cut back on certain foods and drinks. It will also show you where and when you may tend to overindulge, as well as if you’re eating a properly balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables.

7- Don’t shop for groceries … when you’re hungry. You will buy more than you should, and you’ll most certainly eat it. We tend not to throw good food away.

8- Treat yourself with kindness … if you make a mistake or have a rough day, it’s not the end of the world. Remind yourself that you have had many good days, and know that one day of overeating isn’t going to ruin your weight loss efforts. You can always start anew the following day.

9- Get your body moving … people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off have made regular exercise a part of their life. It doesn’t have to be difficult, and you don’t need to run a marathon. As little as 20-30 minutes of walking at a brisk pace will make a big impact on your weight loss effort. By adding some resistance training twice a week, you will increase your metabolism even while you are sleeping. This will also add tone and definition, which will look great. Even small doses of activity can be quite helpful. Take the time to see where you can fit more activity in to your daily routine.

10- Give yourself a gift … reward yourself with a small incentive for every bit of weight that you lose. Some new clothing is always something to look forward to, and over time you can accumulate quite an admirable pile of money to buy new clothes for your new body!

Bonus Tip – Include lean protein with every meal … this will help you build and preserve muscle mass, which in turn will increase your metabolic rate and encourage fat burning. Plus you’ll feel fuller for longer. Healthy sources of lean proteing include fish, chicken, turkey, nut and beans. You could also try using a whey protein powder supplement once or twice a day at snack times.