diet?

"i stand by my assertion that a lot of the benefits of the paleo diet occurs when people simply stop eating garbage and replace it with fruits and vegetables."

People will certainly see a benefit if they replace all the "garbage" with fruits and vegetables

While on my last trip to the grocery I recalled 20 years back when I worked as a produce clerk in a competing store. In comparison to 20 years ago: a) the bread asile and bakery is still huge. b)The soda, snacks, beer, and wine is 4 times bigger. c)Frozen prepared foods have trippled. d)Candy space doubled. e)The deli now sells prepared fried chicken and ribs.

Here's something related I saw (I do not present it as though I know it
to be the gospel truth)...

http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=dailytip&dbid=71


Is it safe to eat raw eggs?

No, it's not. We realize that some websites disagree with us on this
issue. The main issue regarding eating raw eggs is contamination with
the Salmonella bacterium. According to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Salmonella contamination may be a problem with about 1
in every 30,000 eggs. Just because an egg contains Salmonella bacteria
does not mean that you will get a Salmonella infection. And eggs are
not the only way that Salmonella infections can spread, so you might
get a Salmonella infection even if you never eat a raw egg. However,
from our perspective, even a very small risk is not worth taking in this
situation - and there is no way to avoid taking a very small risk when
you eat a raw egg. Because bacteria enter the ovaries of healthy
looking hens even before the shells are formed, you cannot tell from
looking at eggs whether they are contaminated. This is why we feel it's
important to properly handle and cook eggs to eliminate the risk of
Salmonella infection. Here are some steps you can take to help do so:

Be sure to purchase eggs from a refrigerated case and place in your
refrigerator as soon as you get home. It is best to use eggs within 3 to
4 weeks of purchase.

Cooking eggs destroys the salmonella however they must be cooked to
a temperature of at least 160°F. Sunny side up and over-easy eggs
often do not reach this temperature.

Refrigerate hard-boiled eggs 2 hours after cooking.

Refrigerate all foods that contain eggs.

For recipes that contain raw eggs such as Caesar salads, mousse or
homemade ice cream, it is best to use pasteurized eggs which have
been heated to a high enough temperature to ensure that the
salmonella has been destroyed.

A second issue involved with raw eggs is the availability of biotin.
Biotin is an important B-complex vitamin that's found in both the
whites and the yolks of raw eggs. Not all of this biotin is availability to
our body when a raw egg is eaten, however, because there is another
substance found in raw egg whites - called avidin - that binds together
with biotin and prevents it from being absorbed from our digestive
tracts. The best way to prevent this lowering of biotin availability is to
cook the egg whites. The cooking of an egg will destroy the binding
power of avidin so that the biotin in the egg will become much more
available. While you could separate the yolk from the white and cook
the white only to achieve this same result, the risk of Salmonella
infection from the raw egg yolk would remain. So from our perspective,
this second issue involving biotin is just one more reason to stick with
cooked versus raw eggs.

As with all foods, we recommend purchasing organically grown eggs
whenever possible - not for the sake of avoiding Salmonella, but for
the sake of avoiding unwanted toxic residues that make their way into
the egg after the chicken has consumed food or water containing these
unwanted substances.

As far as the thing about biotin, the Wai Diet stated clearly that only the egg yoke is to be eaten raw, not the white or the bag that yoke is contained in. She talks about a component of the raw egg yoke that prevents absorption of certain nutrients.

The book also talks about salmanella. Besides myself, my wife, nanny, 2 year old son, and 3 year old son have all eaten the raw egg yoke on a daily basis with no problem. No sickness, no diarrhea.

For anyone who is familiar with Chinese "Hot Pot" restaurants or the hot pot style of meal, eating raw eggs is not uncommon. Raw egg is often used in this Chinese style of meal when you make your own dipping sauce. My mom was surprised to hear that I was eating raw egg yoke, but then I reminded her that she puts in raw egg herself and eats it when making the hot pot dipping sauce.

For everyone to be on the same page, I suggest you check out this 400 page free online book: http://www.freeacnebook.com/print.htm

Let me also mention that I feel that the "perfect diet" tends to be an individualized thing. Even though my wife and I are on this Wai Diet, "my version" is a bit different from hers. For example, I have certain digestive problems that tend to be decreased from a very low fiber diet. So while she may eat the fruit, I found that juicing the fruit works better for me. There are several other differences, but we don't really need to get into my digestive problems. :)

i should say i was referring more to raw foodism as opposed to the paleo diet. i think this article sums things up well:

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QA/QA357082/

i think sometimes raw is better, sometimes not.

"i guess what i'm saying is show me some research. imo, a diet like the zone, where you are taking in a lot of fruits and vegetables and an appropriate amount of protein is better imo until i see research otherwise."

Do you need a funded double blind placebo controlled study to tell you what to eat to make you feel better?
As Bolo stated there is an enormous amount of scientific evidence for the Paleo diet.He also clearly stated that the raw food diet he is doing is not a permanent way of eating.
Whenever it comes to diet threads people always come out and dismiss "unconventional"eating...well it certainly is easy to be against something but what are you for?
I felt fine before I started eating this way ,now my wife and I feel excellent....that is all the evidence I, or anyone, needs.

Dr Weil is a big fan of soy and he is also chubby.

"i stand by my assertion that a lot of the benefits of the paleo diet occurs when people simply stop eating garbage and replace it with fruits and vegetables."

For me if by garbage you mean organic whole grains,rice,potatoes and oatmeal then I agree....I feel much better after cutting out this "garbage".

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070627225459.htm

"In a clinical study in Sweden, the research group has now compared 14 patients who were advised to consume an 'ancient' (Paleolithic, 'Old stone Age') diet for three months with 15 patients who were recommended to follow a Mediterranean-like prudent diet with whole-grain cereals, low-fat dairy products, fruit, vegetables and refined fats generally considered healthy. All patients had increased blood sugar after carbohydrate intake (glucose intolerance), and most of them had overt diabetes type 2. In addition, all had been diagnosed with coronary heart disease. Patients in the Paleolithic group were recommended to eat lean meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, root vegetables and nuts, and to avoid grains, dairy foods and salt.

The main result was that the blood sugar rise in response to carbohydrate intake was markedly lower after 12 weeks in the Paleolithic group (–26%), while it barely changed in the Mediterranean group (–7%). At the end of the study, all patients in the Paleolithic group had normal blood glucose.

The improved glucose tolerance in the Paleolithic group was unrelated to changes in weight or waist circumference, although waist decreased slightly more in that group. Hence, the research group concludes that something more than caloric intake and weight loss was responsible for the improved handling of dietary carbohydrate. The main difference between the groups was a much lower intake of grains and dairy products and a higher fruit intake in the Paleolithic group. Substances in grains and dairy products have been shown to interfere with the metabolism of carbohydrates and fat in various studies.

"If you want to prevent or treat diabetes type 2, it may be more efficient to avoid some of our modern foods than to count calories or carbohydrate," says Staffan Lindeberg.

This is the first controlled study of a Paleolithic diet in humans."

demandango,

I read the link you posted. If you read that free online book, the author address all those things mentioned in the article. The doctor in that article you posted talked about the natural toxin in certain vegetables. The Wai Diet is not based on vegetables and she explains why.

When my nanny started to work for me, she changed her eating habits for the better and ate similar to what I ate at that time - oatmeal, lots of salad with a large variety of vegetables, chicken meat, etc.... When I started to do the Wai Diet, I was surprised that she decided to do it too. She has now done it for 1 week. I asked her if she noticed any changes in her body. She said that the skin on her face has cleared up and her pimples are gone. She also said that her stomach feels a lot better. Even though she was eating healthy before, she said that her stomach had an uncomfortable feeling after eating in the past. She also said that she feels like she has a lot more energy.

I'm not saying that everyone needs to get on this. I'm just trying to make the point that there are people out there who are seeing great benefits even though they were already eating healthy.

By the way, I was reading the end of the Wai Diet book and she said something very interesting. She stated that she was originally just doing research about the relation between diet and skin. Most of the scientific studies she read were financed (either directly or indirectly) by pharmaceutical companies and she discovered that they actually knew the causes of major diseases, but publically pretended not to know.

This thread has lead me to do lots of personal research oh the topic.

The free book said lots of stuff the frankly reverses most everything about most diets. I still find the info seems to be one persons opinion vs another.

Personally, i have changed the way i eat, my diet throughout the day IS fruit and nuts. I am surprised that i'm not hungry like i thought i would be. I am still eating a dinner, although i try to keep it fairly clean, but i will not deny myself.

I am sleeping the best i have in years, now i don't know if it's the diet or a phase i am going through.
I tend not to sleep very well at all, i usually get 4-5 hours a night, but lately it's been 5-7 hours. It feels good not being basically drained all day everyday like i usually am.

cdog1955,

I too have been bringing fruits and nuts to work and it has made a huge improvement. It is also a big savings on time preparing all the foods and/or money I previously spent going out to eat.

Where can I find more information about the Wai Diet?

google it.

www.freeacnebook.com.

Thanks!!

My kids have adapted incredibly well to this diet. At first they did not like to eat avocado, however, after a few weeks, they are fine with it. The other day, I wanted to begin to condition them to eat sashimi (raw fish). My 3 year old instantly liked it. My 2 year old didn't like it, so I'll have to take a little time to condition him to eat it. I have found that the younger a child is the easier it is to condition them to eat certain things. At 2 and 3 years old, it is really easy. Some people are suprised that I can get my kids to eat so natural, but I tell them- there is no Mexicans in Mexico who don't like Mexican food, just as there are no Chinese in China who don't like Chinese food. So if eating natural is what my entire family does 7 days a week, it becomes a normal way of life for my kids.

Once in a while, I will eat a little bit of "regular cooked food". I immediately notice that if I even eat anything a bit saltier than usual, the blackheads on my nose will appear again. For example, I noticed this after I ate only 1 unagi hand roll. Then I'll eat "clean" again and the blackheads will go away.

On very few occasions, I have eaten a little bit of cooked meat. I didn't have the craving to eat it as it was more the mentality of "everyone else is eating, so I'll eat a little". Though it tastes good in my mouth, my stomach feels like I ate mud afterwards. I find that I no longer feel comfortable after eating cooked meat.

Interestingly, a student of mine is taking the general idea of this diet and doing the best he can with it. He's not doing as strict of a version as I am. Anyway, he said he ate a hamburger the other day and his stomach immediately felt terrible. He felt like he ate mud, had gas, burping constantly, and just an overall feeling of uncomfortableness. He thought it was a fluke and ate hot dog a few days later. He got the exact same feeling.

Though my student and I don't feel good when eating cooked meat, my wife seems fine when she eats it. Well, she's not totally fine as she generally wants to go to sleep after eating some. She actually has a strong craving for meat.

What my student and I felt was interesting was how we did not have such a negative reaction to eating cooked meat in the past, but we do now. I said that we may have had that reaction, however, we just ignored it as assumed it was normal and we simply have a greater awareness of our bodies and how it reacts to certain foods now.

Personally, I have also been able to figure out more about certain foods that my body reacts badly to. Garlic, red onion, white vinegar, and balsamic vinegar destroy me. White onion is OK in small amounts and apple cider vinegar is totally fine.

As far as training or physical activity, since I am not eating food with physically addictive components, my body can regulate itself very well. I listen to my body and eat when and what I feel that I need to eat. I don't have any exact pattern or schedule. Some days I eat more of certain things than others. It like my body knows what nutrients I need and give me the urge to eat those food that will provide those nutrients.

In past, I had conditioned myself to drink plain water rather than drinks with sugar, including fruit juices. When I eventually figured out that I needed to decrease the amount of fiber in my diet, I had to start juicing fruit rather than eating it whole. I was concerned that drinking the fruit juice would undo the conditioning I had done for myself for drinking plain water. Since my body is able to regulate itself, I have found that when I work out hard and sweat a lot, my body will crave plain water and I'll have no urge to drink anything with sugar in it.

By the way, after losing a few pounds of water weight because I decreased the amount of sodium in my diet, my weight fluctuates between 165 lbs. and 168 lbs.. (and I was weighing 170 lbs. prior to this diet). Just mentioning this because I know there are some people out there who don't want to lose weight.

I did not want to lose weight but I lost about 5-8 lbs also but the only thing I can see is that my lower abdomen doesnt protrude.Even though I am thin I always had that puffy lower ab look.
I actually thought I was gaining weight by looking in the mirror.
I didnt eat enough for a couple of days so I gave in to a craving of chicken curry and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I HAD to lay down and take a nap...no choice...it wiped my energy for about 12 hours while digesting.

Many of the things you mentioned are addressed in the free book I referred to. If I went to into detail on all the general statements, then it would end up turning into that book, however, very few people (and it seems like that may include you) seem to want to read that 400 page book.

"A few things, e.g. acne, have little-to-no evidence of food related cases. And they have been studied quite a number of times."

It doesn't matter to me what other studies say. I saw the very quick results in regards to decrease in acne on myself and the people around me who did the diet. I also saw on myself and others an immediate appearance of pimples or blackheads (within 24 hours) when to much of something as eaten or something was eaten that wasn't supposed to.

Here's a very interesting article I found:

Monkey's Choice
June 27th, 2007

From: ABC News Online

Animals at Copenhagen Zoo are going ape over organic bananas and other fruits, rejecting traditional foods left in their cages according to zookeepers. "For one reason or another, the tapirs and chimpanzees are choosing organically grown bananas over the others," keeper Niels Melchiorsen told the magazine Oekologisk Jordbrug (Organic Agriculture).

"Their choice is not at all random. The chimpanzees are able to tell the difference between the organic and the regular fruit," Melchiorsen reported. "If we give them organic and traditional bananas, they systematically choose the organic bananas, which they eat with the skin on. "But they peel the traditional bananas before eating them," he added.

Copenhagen Zoo, which hopes to be awarded a "green label" as an environmental zoo, began last year feeding its animals at least 10 percent organic products. It hopes to raise the level to 15 percent this year and reach 33 percent in 2005.

None of this surprises Australian nutritionist and international organic food expert Shane Heaton. Author of the major organic food report 'Organic farming, Food Quality and Human Health', Heaton suggests the animals may be choosing organically because of fewer pesticide residues, better taste, or higher nutrient content.

Heaton points to numerous published scientific feeding trials with rabbits, rats and chickens since 1984 that have consistently shown the same effect. 'But more importantly, more and more people are switching to organic food,' says Heaton. 'The organic market is growing by 20 to 30 per cent globally, because today's consumers want to know what is and is not in their food, and organic standards give them a very clear statement.'

German researcher Katrin Woese also reported in her 1997 literature review that 'animals distinguish between the foods on offer from the various agricultural systems and almost exclusively prefer organic produce'.

Heaton concludes 'Organic food is an important safe haven in today's polluted and processed world. Organic food is not a luxury. It is how food is supposed to be. Even a monkey knows that.'

Here's something pretty interesting.

I went to my dentist the other day for my regular cleaning. While I was there, I told her about the diet I was on and how my breath smelled totally neutral as a result. She said that eating raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and meats was much better for oral hygene. She said that much of the dental problems people have are a result of the cooked and process foods that they eat. By the way, she isn't a raw food person herself.

She also said how babies fed totally on formula had far more dental problems than babies that were fed breastmilk.