When we follow nature’s way by what we eat we take a simple step that brings rewards many times greater than the effort required.

We are what we eat and the millions of chemical reactions occurring in our bodies every second of our lives depend on the quality of the raw materials in our food.
By choosing the right balance of nutrients, while watching other aspects of lifestyle, body and mind function potentially normal, and this gives us the starting point in order to enjoy life to the full. We need three basic requirements when eating well: Food needs to have the right acidic/alkaline balance It must supply the exact amount of all essential nutrients. It must supply these nutrients without causing harmful effects An example of a food that contravenes the last requirement is red meat. Although it provides balanced protein, it has no fiber and it contains substantial amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol, which may cause harm. It is a sad fact that the modern human being is the only creature in the history of life on earth that doesn’t know what it should put in it’s mouth,and most people are poor nourished.

The problem with modern food.
We may think, perhaps, that our mental attitude or regular exercise will keep us well and that the key to health is the old golden rule:’everything in moderation’. However, only by understanding how much damaged is caused by processed foods will individuals feel motivated to make the necessary changes if they want optimal health, and freedom from degenerative disease.

Here follows an overview of the main effects of processed foods:
No balance.
As already mentioned in my introduction, we need to nourish our bodies with the right balance of acid-forming and alkaline-forming foods after metabolism is complete. This is easy to achieve, because the alkaline-forming foods are mainly all fresh fruits and vegetables, while the acid-forming foods are all the rest, with a few exceptions. The average Western diet contains approximately one-and-a-half times as much acid forming (concentrated) food as it does alkaline forming food, but this ratio is completely the wrong way around. The major problem of eating too much concentrated food is the build-up of acidic waste products in the system, waste products who are toxic in the subtle sense of the word. Toxamia is the underlying cause of most of our health problems. Also, a diet that is insufficient in fruits and vegetables is a diet unsufficient in the vital antioxidants-carotenoids(the beta-carotene family), vitamin C and many others. These are of paramount importance in preventing oxidation and free radical damage in the body, which are the basis of cancer, heart disease and other degenerative conditions.

Too much protein.
Most Western people consume two or three times as much protein food as required – mainly in the form of red and white meat, cheese and eggs. The adequate amount of protein-rich food is approximately 85-120 grams (3-4 ounces) per day. The ‘pure’ protein from this and other foods meets the international standards of half a gram of protein daily per kilogram of body weight. Excess protein can’t be stored in the body and must be broken down and eliminated, putting great strain on the liver and kidneys. Large quantities of animal protein are highly acid-forming, containing a large quantity of saturated fat and cholesterol, forming uric acid which may lead to goat. The problems caused by a lack of fiber in animal proteins quickly increase with the quantity consumed. Excess protein in the diet may cause as much colo-rectal cancer as does excess fat.

Too much fat
The typical modern diet contains 40% of total calories from fat,which is far too much.and this amount of fat is dangerous. Because fat contains two-and-a-quarter times as many calories as carbohydrate or protein, excess fat is the major contributor to obesity. Fat inside our body coats the intestines and blocks the assimilation of some of the vital water-soluble minerals. Fat plays a major part in heart disease, stroke and cancer. Saturated fat, which is harmful in itself, also stimulates the liver to produce large amounts of cholesterol. The general opinion is that it is rancid or oxidized fat and cholesterol that do the most harm. Oxidation is caused by high temperature, as in deep frying, exposure to air and exposure to light. We need some fat only in small quantities and unsaturated, and we have to make sure that there is plenty of vitamin E in the diet to protect the fat against oxidation. Even too much unsaturated fat will thicken the blood (make it sticky), leading to serious health problems, like high blood pressure .

Refined carbohydrates
Refined sugar is not a natural food – nowhere in nature does sugar occur in it’s pure form. White sugar is devoid of minerals and vitamins, as they have been removed in the form of molasses to be used for stock feed. The animals get the good nutrients and we get the ’empty’ calories. The absence of alkaline minerals in sugar, which are needed to neutrolize the carbonic acid formed during metabolism, means that refined sugar is highly acid-forming. In fact, it cannot even be metabolized properly because of the absence of B vitamins (particularly B1, B2, B3 and B5), which activate the enzymes that break sugar down to release energy. in it’s effort to metabolize a highly unbalanced substance, the body takes minerals and vitamins from its reserves in the liver, but these stores are usually low anyway due to the consumption of a large volume of processed foods. It is not by change that B vitamins give us more energy. They simply enable us to properly utilize sugar.

The average daily consumption of sugar is approx 130 grams, which is an enormous amount by any standard. This is equivalent to the calories contained in almost 1 kg of apples. In addition, we also consume large amounts of calorie-rich fat, protein and starch.

The possible long-term consequences of regular, large amounts of refined sugar – whether white, brown or raw – include obesity, high cholesterol, gout, hypoglycaemia, diabetes, high acidity and depletion of minerals and vitamins.

The same applies to white flour and white rice. White flour and its products and white rice have lost about 50 – 75% of their minerals and vitamins, and much of their fiber.

Refined carbohydrates can easily  be replaced in most dishes with dried fruit, honey, wholemeal flour or brown rice.   What we need is a diet that is essentially unprocessed, low in fat,high in fiber, free of salt, caffeine etc, and loaded with fresh vegetables and fruit.

Lack of Fiber
Fiber is needed to create bulk in digestive tract in order to stimulate
peristalsis, the intestinal muscle action that pushes food matter along.
If fiber is lacking, partly digested food may leave the bowel after one
or even up to four days,instead of six to 12 hours.
Partly digested food in warm climates produce ammonium and other
nitrogenous compounds, which are highly toxic and may eventually lead
to cancer. This is why research in the 1970s found that the major cause
of bowel cancer is lack of fiber.

Other results from lack of fiber are appendicitis, deverticular disease
of the bowel, varicose veins, piles (haemorrhoids) and hiatus hernia.
In addition, because soluble fiber carries bile salts made from
cholesterol out of the body with the bowel motions, lack of fiber is a
major cause of gallstones (most are made of cholesterol) and heart disease.

Fiber is found in plants. Fiber is the defining difference between the
plant and the animal kingdoms. All unprocessed plant foods contain fiber,
while all animal foods – red and white meat, cheese, milk, yogurt and eggs –
contain no fiber. Health problems are inevitable on a high meat diet.

To summarize:
The typical Western diet is based on meat and dairy products, high in
refined sugar and flour, too low in vegetables and fruits, and overloaded
with condiments, caffeine, food additives and pesticides.
It’s all back to front!

What we need is a diet that is essentially unprocessed, low in fat,high
in fiber, free of salt, caffeine etc, and loaded with fresh vegetables
and fruit.

So just how do we put together such a diet – so that we can expect to
enjoy good health, well being and longevity?