I’ve come to believe that the diets that are healthiest for us exclude foods to which we are allergic. Diets like the paleo or raw vegan automatically exclude many allergens: wheat, soy, dairy, eggs, etc. Somebody could be intolerant of beef or chicken or pork, and by giving up meat they feel better. They end up thinking meat is bad. But truly only a certain meat is bad for them.

I did really well on the paleo diet. Got rid of arthritis in my hips, occasional uncontrollable movement of my right eye, stick ankles and sore back in the morning, etc. Those problems were all because I’m allergic to wheat. (Never did get rid of the dizzy spells.)

But then these things started coming back when I learned how to cook Asian stir-fry and Thai food. I was also eating a lot of dairy. Turns out I’m allergic to dairy, soy and peanuts, and that’s why my health issues were coming back. And I think dairy is what gives me vertigo.

So you’re right. There is no one perfect diet for all. There’s only the perfect diet for each individual, and that’s a nutrient-rich diet to which the immune system doesn’t object.

And our health is based on more than the food we eat. It’s also our sleeping, our attitude, our relationships, our stress levels, clean air, community etc.

I think there are certain consistencies between the major healthy food philosophies and they are (it seems to me): lots of raw fruits and vegetables (especially greens, but realistically a variety is best), no sugar or processed foods of any kind. There are differences in terms of meat vs no meat, cooked vs raw etc, but the basic idea of eating unprocessed, fresh foods has got to be the simplest answer, common to all people. And if we focus on that, and listen to our bodies, perhaps we’ll just “know” what is right for us at any given time? I loved this: “I think that if we surrounded ourselves with whole foods from which we could select our menu, that our body would intuitively know what was needed.”

This is much more freeing than drawing a line in the sand and stepping either side of it to align ourselves with a particular philosophy that we may later decide we disagree with.

What do you think?

What is clear is that everyone is different. We have different genetics and different physical makeup because of the foods that built our bodies and control our metabolism. One person may do well–for a season–on a raw, vegan diet because their body at that point in time, constructed of certain prior foods, needed that change. Ditto the person on a paleo diet, or low-carb, or whatever. Some people run well on meat, some on vegetables, some on grains.

I’ve abandoned the “paleo” concept and am incorporating more carbohydrates into my diet. My body temperature is too low (and my feet are always cold), which happens on many of these diets that restrict certain macronutrients. Doug Graham boasts that 93 degrees is a healthy resting temperature for athletes on a raw vegan diet. I don’t buy it. (I think I read Patenaude claim that body temperature was low in the beginning because the body was healing itself from the inside out.) And some of my prior problems are resurfacing. So the paleo, low-carb was good for me for a short time, but that time is over.

Plus I’m just sick of researching and reading all the conflicting information about what to eat and living with guilt when I diverge from “healthy” eating. You know, you get to the place where you just know too much for your own good.

How did the diet of our ancestors 100 years ago differ from ours? Well, it wasn’t processed. They grew it or bought it locally and cooked it themselves. It wasn’t grown on depleted soil with chemical inputs. Their lives were simpler in many respects, they worked harder physically, didn’t spend all day on a computer, and they weren’t inundated by chemical toxins.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if man could eat just about anything from whole foods–and occasionally from junk–but no longer can because his body’s toxic burden is so great. And the effects of stress can ruin any well-intentioned diet.

Your idea of being more connected to nature helping us understand what our bodies need sounds good to me. And I think that if we surrounded ourselves with whole foods from which we could select our menu, that our body would intuitively know what was needed. But the nutritional “static” we health freaks hear all the time interferes.

I bet I would be a lot healthier today, and way less stressed about food, if I never learned a thing about nutrition.

I feel that it must be true that there is no “one perfect diet”, as Rawman and yourself seem to exemplify.

My understanding of myself and the world seems more and more immersed in the idea of evolution and the incredible complexities and interplay of life. I feel that sometimes we look at evolution as something that HAPPENED to us way back 200,000+ years ago, rather than something that HAPPENS to everything continuously. Perhaps there are cataclysmic occurrences in the balance of nature that lead to swift and profound evolution within species – ‘leaps forward’ – but the continual ‘experimentation’ inherent in nature and procreation happens always.

Perhaps we are not really all that much the same as we might think, and hence why there is so much debate and diversity of experience surrounding this issue of what to eat. If we were free to wander and eat from the countless variety of wild foods, perhaps we would be more intuitively ‘connected’ to our bodies and what they need, as opposed to society’s current understanding of ‘food’ as presented by the supermarkets: incredibly limited in variety and artificial i(including hybridized fruit and vege and even animals?)

I have not done much reading into the nuances of evolution on humans, but I wonder if you have read anything, Joanne, that might support or rebuke my ideas?

All the best

Prakesh: As for the 811 diet J, you tried it for 5 days and gave up? and you kinda blame the diet for it?

Joanne: My point that I thought I clearly made is that I tried going raw for years and could never last long because it was too difficult. And on the 80/10/10 diet, within 3 days my gums were bleeding, and within 5 days I had painful urination. A diet shouldn’t be this hard to adhere to, even despite cultural conditioning.

Prakesh: Organic fruit can get costly.

Joanne: It is very costly and environmentally unsound. I would have to rely on foreign countries to produce a great deal and fossil fuel to get it to me. Also, large tracts of land have to be converted to orchard. It’s easy for raw food gurus to expound on the wonders of coconut, for example, when they’re selling thousands of dollars worth of educational material or living in the tropics.

I’d rather eat a local cow living on pasture that sustains much more wildlife. Pound for pound the cow is also cheaper than organic fruit and I need to eat much less of it. And our land is preserved, our farmers are supported, and anyone with a little land can feed themselves year round. You can’t do that on a fruit diet. It is unsustainable.

Prakesh: 12 bananas a meal?? Well, do you workout? exercise? play?

Joanne: I have no interest in shoving that much food in my mouth three times a day to get my caloric needs met. I begin to gag after two bananas.

Prakesh: Start slowly as most of us have shrunk stomachs anyways due to the SAD lifestyles.

Joanne: I’m sorry, but this is nonsense that Graham made up. Considering I could put away a large Round Table pizza or a bowl of pasta and then of ice cream, I did not suffer from a shrunken stomach. But the human stomach has shrunk in the past 70 or so million years because we went from a low-energy plant-based diet to a densely nutritious meat diet. Monkeys and apes have large stomachs to handle plant matter. Ruminants have large stomachs. Humans do not. Eades wrote a great article on this subject.

No, I tried this diet and it was incredibly expensive, time-consuming, destructive to my health, isolating, and nauseating. Good produce is difficult to find in my city, but a pasture-raised cow was only an hour away and is now stored in my freezer to feed me for months. I could eat a steak for dinner tonight and not be hungry until dinner tomorrow. Living on fruit kept me hungry most of the time. And I like having healthy gums and urinary tract.

George, the video was great and so was the pdf article.

My two cents:

Vegans can get a bit too heady about their diets and choices. But I also know of vegans who let others be as they are and make their own choices. So not all vegans are bad.

As for the 811 diet J, you tried it for 5 days and gave up? and you kinda blame the diet for it? Well something as radical as you describe, needs to be tried and tested for a few weeks to give a fair chance and to measure the benefits or the lack of them on yourself. You shared certain opinions on why the diet won’t work. Let me share mine, why and how it works

a. Organic fruit can get costly. I agree. But when you compare it with the reduced costs in so many other aspects of your life, now and in the future, they all even out. I mean if one has to be healthy at 60, they have to start now! Also as more and more folks chose healthy fruit, there will be more demand, and with it the prices will eventually drop due to more supply. And among all the fruits, bananas are actually the cheapest. And when you buy in bulk, you get special discounts. I have built a relationship with my grocery store produce manager and get special cases and discounts reducing my fruit bill by almost 30 %! It’s all up to the individual if he can find solutions than find problems. I mean if you agree with the benefits of fruit and only discard the diet due to the cost factor, then my point is – Its NOT a factor, or not a big enough factor to stop the trial

2. Diet of only bananas. This is a myth. As you yourself mentioned in the video, the seasonal menu plan shares a variety of fruits. Not bananas only!

3. 12 bananas a meal?? Well, do you workout? exercise? play? The diet encourages us to be fit and agile and think and live like an athlete. Why do we think that fitness is only for pro athletes? We need to imbibe fitness routines in our life for a variety of benefits (I am sure you know why exercising is important at any age). When you workout, you will naturally get hungry and desire to fuel yourself. Instead of choosing meat, eat fruit. And you will notice, the 12 bananas just go down so easily.

But this doesn’t happen in a 5 day trial. You are making a paradigm shit for yourself and your body. Anybody starting something new, starts off slow. Start slowly as most of us have shrunk stomachs anyways due to the SAD lifestyles. Detoxification will happen, excess water is lost, and when you will feel light and limber, and start being active, you will naturally get hungry and eat more.

3. Its tough to do this alone to begin with. Find yourself online or real life communities around you and work with them. Or consult some 811 practitioners and work with them. Everyone needs a coach! Usain Bolt has all the world records he wants, but he hasn’t fired his coach(es).

My point – Give it a fair shot before discarding it for ever!