We press on Toward Optimal Health

Posted 2/26/19 to Facebook
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We Press on Toward Optimal Health
People talk about returning to the diet of our ancestors but I don’t believe we should be returning to any diet except maybe that of the Garden of Eden. That was probably the last time people ate the ideal diet.
After the Garden of Eden people ate anything that they could to satisfy their hunger and stay alive. I believe it was mainly plants in the beginning but as time went on and food was scarce nothing was off limits. Surely this was especially true when people moved to colder climates. They probably developed the appetite for meat during the cold winters, out of necessity. Whatever could satisfy their desire and need for protein, fats, and carbohydrates is what they ate.
Now, we don’t have to eat just whatever we can find. We now have in our wealthy society the ability to eat like kings. And that is a major part of our problem we do eat like kings and we have the diseases of kings: obesity, diabetes and heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, etc.
We can eat food out of season which may or may not be a good idea but we can do it. We can fully nourish ourselves with the best food that there is and we can bring our body to the best state of health that humans have ever had. But with all this knowledge what we’ve chosen to do is eat the easiest food that satisfies our cravings and has the longest shelf life. The problem with satisfying our cravings is our cravings were designed to keep us alive not necessarily to bring us to a state of optimal health. We crave the food that we are used to being nourished by, so when we crave protein we think of meat when we crave carbohydrates we think of ice cream. We crave fats now we think of eating fried food or adding oil to our salads and stir-fries. I believe Dr. Fuhrman was the one who called this “toxic hunger”.
We have come to the understanding of what a good, healthy diet is through the scientific experiments and epidemiological studies of knowledgeable people.
Unfortunately, because people are people, these studies are usually biased in some way. Sometimes they are biased just by the philosophical beliefs of those doing the study. The beliefs may be that the vegan diet is the best, a high protein diet is the best, or processed food is as good as any. Other times the bias is related to who finances the study. It may be financed by the beef industry, the milk industry, the grape growers, the broccoli growers, and the pharmaceutical industry. etc. Then they may tell us meat is necessary for health, or dairy. Others may believe grapes contain the fountain of youth, on and on and on.
Some of this research produces valuable information, even the biased ones. We should be extra cautious when the results of research supports the bias, but not discount it entirely. We should look at it logically and compare it to the results of other research.
I say to look at these things logically, but even our logic can be flawed when based on beliefs that are false. Like the earth is obviously flat. We can tell by looking at it. The reality is quite different. Some research results can be counterintuitive also, but accurate.
So now with the knowledge we have and the availability of almost anything, we can design a diet that will bring us to a much better state of health than mankind has ever had.

Plant Based Diet Coaching