Principles of a Healthy Diet
Healthy Dietary Principles
- Here’s a quick overview of what constitutes a healthy diet, what to eat and what to avoid. Regardless of your preferences these principles will help keep you on the right course.
- Note: This is a general overview of what you want to incorporate into a healing, disease preventing diet. This overview does not take specific conditions into consideration.
- Eliminate refined "whites" which include refined sugar, white flour, and white rice, etc. This includes foods like white bread, pasta, white tortillas, and baked foods. White, processed flour works in the body in the same way as white sugar.
- Consume whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, and barley. Also, choose whole grain breads and pastas. These foods are nutrient-rich and provide a good source of dietary fiber. (see Preparation Tips)
- Eliminate Refined and Artificial Sweeteners, which includes white sugar, brown sugar, pasteurized honey, corn syrup, or foods or drinks containing them. Sugar slows healing, accelerates tissue breakdown, aggravates symptoms, and deteriorates overall health.
- Eliminate Damaged Fats. This includes heated polyunsaturated oils, margarine, hydrogenated oils (i.e., vegetable shortening) or foods containing them. Deep-fried foods are off-limits because the high heat destroys the fat's health properties and they are usually made with vegetable oils or hydrogenated oils.
- Use traditional "hard-to-damage" fats and oils in cooking and baking including butter and/or ghee (organic from grass-fed cows), extra virgin olive oil, expeller-pressed nut oils (walnut, sesame) and the tropical oils coconut and palm.
- Eat clean, naturally raised meats and animal products grown without hormones, antibiotics, and chemical-filled feed. This includes fish, seafood, poultry, eggs, and grass-fed beef, lamb, game.
- Eat whole, naturally-produced milk products from pasture-fed cows, preferably fermented, such as whole yogurt, cultured butter, and whole cheeses. Choose full-fat varieties over low- or non-fat. Butterfat is in milk for a reason. In fact, without it, the body cannot absorb and utilize the vitamins and minerals found in this food.
- Eliminate or Minimize Unhealthy Beverages. This includes soda, coffee, processed teas, alcohol, and untreated water. Also fruit juice, which is a concentrated source of sugar.
- Drink pure, filtered water. It is your best beverage and necessary for optimal body function. Herbal teas can be healthful. There are also some cleaner, more natural sodas on the market that are good to substitute when the soda urge arises.
- Eat fresh vegetables and fruits, preferably organic, in salads and soups, or lightly steamed.
- Eat "super foods" like cod liver oil, Brewer’s yeast, spirulina, bee pollen, raw wheat germ, and kelp.
- Consume fermented foods like tempeh, sauerkraut, raw vinegar, fermented vegetables, full-fat plain yogurt.
- Use sea salt and other natural seasonings and assorted (non-irradiated) herbs and spices.
- And finally....
- Personalize your diet to fit your unique biochemistry and lifestyle. What is YOUR best diet? There is no one diet suitable for everybody. The concept of biochemical uniqueness and personalized nutrition has been around for centuries. Taking the above principle factors into consideration can help in your healing process as well as in overall health and disease prevention. But ULTIMATELY - your body is still your best nutrition guide. You will need to pay attention to your own moods, feelings, and sensations when you eat different foods. Keeping a food diary may be a good idea.
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