Eating in a manner whereby food does not digest completely will ruin our health. Eating in a manner which enables perfect digestion is the pathway to flourishing health!
Humans are provided with the senses and faculties to select and completely digest our most nutritious and biologically suitable foods. However, in our modern society we have departed from instinctual, simple whole foods and digestive maladies run rampant. Happily, with the help of some guidelines, we can correct our harmful eating habits and establish excellent digestive health.
The Joys of Healthful Eating
When we eat in a manner whereby everything digests completely, we derive outstanding results! When our natural foods digest completely, we can experience these major benefits and more:
o a clean internal bodily environment,
o a silent, unnoticeable digestive system,
o a clear mind and stable metabolism, unfettered by chemical imbalances caused by toxemia (a toxic blood stream),
o pleasant or no body odors,
o pleasant or no body waste odors,
o effortless, pleasant, regular bodily waste evacuation,
o freedom from most illnesses and strong resistance to environmental pathogens,
o the promotion of excellent, dynamic health, physical beauty and longevity.
The Miseries of Unhealthful Eating
When we eat unwisely, whether in our choice of food or in our manner of eating, nutrients decompose in our gut via the action of bacteria. We do have digestive limitations! Under this scenario, fermentive and putrefactive bacteria decompose the food matter, weakening the intestinal tract, impairing nutrient absorption, defiling our entire body with pathological substances, impairing our mental functions and causing fatigue. This condition is known as "toxicosis" (general bodily toxicity or "auto-intoxication") or, less formally, as "food drunkenness"; it impairs our health and eventually imperils our life. Indigestion (flatulence, belching, bloating) and foul bowel and body odors are just some of the unpleasant warnings signaling the beginning of illness.
Undigested protein (chiefly from meat, dairy products, beans, nuts and seeds) will readily putrefy (rot) in our warm gut, just as milk spoils at room temperature on a warm day. Putrefactive byproducts are highly toxic and carcinogenic. They include: methane, hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans (which yield the rotten egg odor when carried out by the methane gas), cadaverine, putrescine, ammonias, indoles, skatoles, leukomaines and host of other toxic and carcinogenic gases and substances. Just as hydrogen sulfide gas will decompose concrete, iron and steel sewer pipes, it will irritate and destroy the flesh inside our intestines and colon.
Under haphazard eating conditions, simple carbohydrates (from fruit) and complex carbohydrates (starches from grain products and white potatoes) are readily fermented by fungi and bacteria in the gut. The result is the production of alcohol and vinegar which is dozens of times more toxic than alcohol. These ravage bowel tissue and can cause painful ulcerations.
Furthermore, the overeating of slow-digesting fatty high-protein foods causes the stomach to secrete and retain copious amounts of acid. When this hyper-acidic condition occurs chronically, the stomach and intestines can become inflamed and ulcerated and the pylorus sphincter, which normally allows food to enter the duodenum, can become swollen shut. This typically leads to fermentation and putrefaction of the stomach's contents, GERD (gastroesophogeal reflux disease), vomiting and great pain. Chronic inflammation and ulceration lead to cancer.
It is imperative to avoid operating our gut as a composting bin filled with odoriferous, rotting, acidic wastes at all costs! The toxicosis that results from indiscriminate, haphazard eating accelerates aging, causes disease, including gastritis, irritable bowel, colitis, Crohn's disease and ulcers, and is the cause of most deaths! We don't really want to endure chronic, incomplete digestion and toxic bowels. Sadly, most live this way and accept it as "normal." Happily, there is a way to create perfect bowel health.
The Formula for Perfect Digestion and Superb Health
Via the science and fine art of selecting our natural biological foods and eating them correctly--i.e., only when we are truly hungry, alert and relaxed, in proper sequence and combinations, in quantities which do not exceed our digestive limitations or point of satiation, in their fresh, raw state and chewed to the point of liquefaction--we can enjoy complete, perfect digestion and all the wonderful benefits of a well-nourished and clean body!
Here are basic, time-tested, scientifically proven healthful eating guidelines for promoting optimum digestion and gut health.
Food Selection: Choose raw, fresh, ripe, organic, whole, vegan foods. Base your diet in fruits and vegetables and eat only those foods which are attractive to your senses, especially your sense of taste. Obtain enough calories from fruit to maintain sustained peak energy and internal cleanliness. Avoid animal-derived foods--they are poorly digested and toxic when cooked. If you choose grains and legumes/beans (neither are recommended, since they also digest poorly), select them in their whole state and either sprout or cook them lightly. If you choose to cook vegetables, light steaming is the least deleterious method; however they won't digest perfectly, either. Fashion a diet with close to 80% of the calories from carbohydrate, 10% from protein and 10% from fat. Deriving more than 10% of your calories from fat and/or 10% from protein will invariably exceed your digestive limitations, resulting in toxicosis and disease.
Food Combining: Follow food combining guidelines to a "t." Eat fruit only on an empty stomach, alone or with leafy greens, celery and/or cucumber. Eat melons alone. Eat citrus fruits at least one-half hour before non-acidic sweet fruits. Starchy foods (squash, potatoes, grains and old carrots) combine well with all vegetables and bell peppers; they do not combine well with tomatoes or other acidic or sweet fruits, nuts, seeds and avocados. Fatty, high-protein foods (nuts, seeds and avocados) combine well only with non-starchy vegetables (greens and celery), cucumbers and minimal amounts of acidic fruits including tomatoes; they do not combine well with starchy or non-acidic sweet foods.
Meal Sequencing: The best sequencing is fruit-and-greens meals during the day, then, optionally, a glass of raw vegetable juice followed at least one-half hour later by a dinner of vegetables with one fatty food, i.e., avocado, nuts or seeds. Note: it is not necessary and, in many cases, unhealthful to eat a fatty food every day. Furthermore, it is OK to have a dinner of simply more fruit and greens.
Meal Spacing: It is most beneficial to space meals as long as is comfortably possible. Assuming you are not so fatigued that you need to take a nap to restore your energy, a slightly uncomfortable feeling in the back of the throat and a dip in your physical and/or mental energies are the signs that it is time to eat again. Sweet, juicy foods, eaten in sufficient quantity, will quell hunger, rehydrate you and supply your caloric fuel needs. To put it simply, eat sufficient quantities of nutritious, simple carbohydrate-rich, whole foods--primarily fruit--to keep your blood sugar and hydration at a level which assures sustained physical and mental performance.
Daytime Diet: Eat one or two types of sweet fruit for breakfast--preferably the juiciest fruits to start--and, generally, different types of fruits for each of the following one to three meals, eaten with or without greens, celery and/or cucumber, taking them in sufficient quantity for satiation and sustained energy.
Dinner Diet: If desired, drink raw vegetable juice, then at least one-half hour later follow it with a simple salad of vegetables and fruit-vegetables such as tomato and bell pepper. If you include carrot in your vegetable juice, avoid having tomato with your dinner. If you desire a fatty food, have one to two ounces of nuts or seeds, or two to four ounces of avocado. The fatty foods can be salad additions in whole or blended dressing forms. Caution: it is generally imperative to avoid fatty foods if you are fatigued and/or experiencing illness. If you prefer a meal of more fruit and greens instead of vegetable juice and salads, that is generally a healthful choice--follow and trust your senses when they call for raw, delicious foods!
You Can Do It!
These guidelines may seem tedious in the beginning, but within a week or two they become easy and "first nature." Listening deeply to the body's signals and eating simple, whole-food meals are the keys. As we experience digestive ease and the great revitalizing benefits, this way of eating becomes simple and most pleasurable. So, dig in! Digestive maladies will soon become a thing of the past. You'll love eating, your tummy will love you and glorious health will blossom forth!
For further insight, study Self Healing Colitis & Crohn's; Raw Revelation; Health Reporter Special Issue on Food Combining; The Raw Food Pearamid and Food Combining Chart; as well as back issues of Vibrance and Living Nutrition. These are available from the Living Nutrition Online Bookstore. Also see the Colitis & Crohn's Health Recovery Center and Digestion Perfection sites.
