Nutrition article: Are there foods that I should avoid to maintain optimum health?

We think so!

What you read in this nutrition article is based on years of research, our personal experience, academic study, and speaking with others. But we don’t claim to be the ultimate expert on what you should do, so form your own opinion from what feels right to you!

First of all let’s look at how our bodies evolved. As a cave man (thousands or hundreds of thousands of years ago) our bodies evolved according to the stresses placed upon them.

Back then we were probably very active, either running from predators, or chasing game or gathering fruits, nuts, berries, and anything else that was edible.

We didn’t worry about the makeup of our diet and actually it was probably feast or famine. If we killed some game then we ate it up. If we found a bunch of fruit we ate it up. Our bodies became very efficient at storing the extra calories as fat until we needed it.

Note also that everything that we ate back then was raw. Maybe later we discovered fire and started cooking our meat and veggies but we probably started out eating our foods raw.

So now fast forward to today. Everything is high tech, we aren’t very active and we rarely eat raw, whole foods.

So there is a very good argument for going back to a nutrition plan that:

• includes very few processed foods

• has a focus on raw fruits, nuts, vegetables,

• contains lean meats

. . . . as the major components in your daily nutrition plan.

(Note that we don’t necessarily recommend totally raw meats as it might be a major health hazard, but we have heard some extreme health proponents say that!)

These raw fruits, vegetables, etc should be organically or free range grown to ensure that you don’t ingest toxic pesticides, or other chemical additives.

In addition you probably need at least 8 glasses of water per day, but this is also somewhat controversial. If you are in a hot climate and/or you work out a lot then you probably need double that amount, but this varies from person to person, so at least get the minimum amount.

So in summary:

If it comes in a box/can or other fancy package and has been cooked, processed, refined, etc., then you should probably avoid it and go for the raw fruits, veggies, etc.

For more on recommendations in addition to this nutrition article, see Nutrition Pyramid.

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