Nutrition – Sorting Through the Maze

Have you heard so many different opinions on nutrition that you are totally confused?

I’ve been there and it is no fun!

Fortunately, we now have a lot of excellent scientific research available on good nutrition – but you probably won’t hear about it from media sources.

Going Beyond Media Lies

In fact you may hear and read a lot of outright lies based on faulty research funded by special interests and quack doctors… I won’t mention any names.

I’ve spent five decades tracking down the latest and best nutritional information available. And I’ve finally narrowed down my list of trusted sources to just a few.

I don’t blindly accept everything they say, but on the whole I know they are on the right track, especially where they all agree.

My Favorite Sources of Nutrition Facts:

• Medical doctors who are or have been actively involved in their own clinics using nutritional healing practices, like Dr. McDougall, Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Goldhamer, Dr. Campbell and a few others. They have all come to the same conclusion that a whole plant foods diet is the key to good health and longevity.
• Dr. Greger who has made it his life’s mission to sift through all the confusing scientific nutrition studies in the English language. He weeds out the faulty studies and those paid for by special interests and shares what he has learned in short videos and blog posts. His findings support the same conclusions shared by the clinical doctors who promote whole food plant-based diets.
• Last, but by not least, there is Anthony William the Medical Medium, who is not a doctor at all. He gets his information from a non-physical being he calls Spirit of Compassion. I know many people may scoff at this, but after all the research I’ve done I immediately recognized the truth of what he shares. He has answered so many health and nutrition questions I had that were never answered by doctors or science – and his protocols WORK. I am living proof of that.

Put it to the Test

I and many thousands of others have healed lifelong health issues by following Medical Medium advice. And the great thing is that he generally agrees with all the doctors I mentioned above, but he does add a few more restrictions.

The main difference is that MM says to avoid gluten, soy, corn, canola oil, nutritional yeast and vinegar, (along with the eggs, dairy & pork that ALL the best doctors agree on). He doesn’t say people have to avoid meat as long as it is no more than one serving of wild or pasture raised organic meat or fish per day, but he chooses to eat a whole plant foods diet himself – and so do I.

If you are already pretty healthy, you can probably ignore the Medical Medium protocols and just go along with the advice of any of the other plant-based doctors. BUT if you have chronic health issues of any kind I highly recommend reading the Medical Medium books – or start by signing up for his free Healing Path course to learn more.

Attitude Trumps All

Bottom line, though our bodies require certain nutrients, nutrition is not the only key to health.

Dr. McDougall always says, “It’s the food!” However, in my experience, though food IS a very important factor in maintaining health, the mind is far more powerful.

Abraham-Hicks put it so well:

“When you’re outside the Vortex, anything and everything can cause an adverse reaction. And, as you’re scrambling around trying to figure out, ‘It might be this food or that food. I wonder if it’s sugar, or carbs? I’ll bet it’s the wheat, yes, it’s the gluten!’ And we say, it’s not any of that. It’s because you’re not in the Vortex.”

When we are outside our vortex (the uplifted feeling of pure positive energy and well-being), we tend to get into some bad habits that don’t support health and wellness and then it is even harder to get back into our vortex.

At that point it will really help to have some nutritional guidelines to work with. Once you start feeling better physically, it is a lot easier to stay aligned with positive feelings. Everything in your life starts getting better and better.

The most important work you can do to improve your health is to find uplifting things to do, and say and think about. Make your life more fun, more inspiring, more appreciative, more compassionate and more playful. You will naturally become healthier and you will also be more attracted to eating nourishing foods. It works both ways!

Why Nutrition Matters

One great way to get back into your vortex is to eat a healthy diet and detox regularly. We live in a toxic world and all of us carry multiple toxins in our bodies, even newborn babies!

The more we clear out toxins, the healthier and happier we will be. My favorite way to detox (and improve nutrition at the same time) is Anthony William’s 28 day raw fruit and vegetable cleanse:

• Eat all you want of organic raw fruits and vegetables
• Drink plenty of water and/or herbal teas – at least 2 – 3 quarts a day, or more if you are overweight
• Cut back on the amount of fat you eat (which on this cleanse means little or no avocado and NO animal products, nuts or seeds)

Depending on how toxic you are, you might have days where you don’t feel so good while on the cleanse. Just rest, move your body gently and frequently to move the lymph, drink more liquids and eat some avocado at the end of the day if you want to slow down the detox.

It will pass. It is just toxins being flushed out of your body.

It is not a good idea to detox too quickly. When you feel bad, eat a little avocado or cooked potatoes (in the evening) to slow down the release of toxins. You can also incorporate Anthony William’s heavy metal cleanse during the 28 day raw cleanse – instructions available here.

Daily celery juice on an empty stomach is an excellent addition, whether you are on a detox or not. It is very healing.

I’m a Nutrition Nerd

Healthy nutrition is one of my passions, so I’ve spent thousands of hours over 50 years searching for the optimal diet – reading, listening to cutting-edge experts, taking courses, watching videos, and experimenting with my own diet. As the saying goes, “Seek and you shall find.”

I am no 25 or 35 year-old “health guru” who hasn’t lived long enough to see the damage their dietary choices are causing. Sure, I’ve made mistakes, a lot of them, but I’ve also made some excellent choices along the way.

I can say that the choices I am making today as I enter my 70s are the best in my life and the proof is that I feel great, have plenty of energy and never take prescription drugs.

I hope all my years of trial and error can provide you with some benefit!

My top two sources for nutritional advice are:

1. Anthony William, the Medical Medium, offering intuitive guidance and information not yet discovered by modern science. I highly recommend all of Anthony William’s blog posts, radio shows, and of course his books. After a lifetime of searching, I feel that his information rings true intuitively and it also holds up in practical applications better than anything else I’ve tried. Don’t be put off by his goofy antics!
2. Michael Greger, M.D. of NutritionFacts.org is my second go-to resource for peer-reviewed, scientific health information. He takes cutting-edge scientific studies and presents them in simple and often amusing ways. Dr. Greger and his team review every single nutrition study in the English language and distill the contents for you!

Neither Dr. Greger, nor Anthony William have any investment in food or pharmaceutical products, and they do not get paid for sharing information (aside from selling their books), so you can trust that they are giving you unbiased facts. Both have written excellent books that I highly recommend, for your own education and as a way to support their work.

If you scroll down below, you will find lots of excellent tips on good nutrition and health, many of them gleaned from Anthony William and Dr. Greger. While you look them over, pay attention to how you feel. Anything that feels heavy to you is not good for you (takes you out of your vortex) in this moment. Avoid it until it feels good!

Find the tips that make you feel lighter and more uplifted and follow them. That is the truth I live by. That is living in my vortex.

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Your Doctor Probably Knows Very Little About Nutrition

Wonderful as doctors can be at patching up broken bodies, diagnosing disease and prescribing medications, very few of them know any more about nutrition than the average college student. Nutrition just isn’t a focus in medical schools.

Unfortunately, most of our modern nutritional research and media coverage is financed by biased commercial interests. That makes it hard to know what to believe or disbelieve when you read studies or listen to news reports.

Even respected medical journal editors and doctors have reported that close to half of all nutrition studies published in medical journals are false! To make things worse, high school, college and elementary school nutrition programs are riddled with propaganda from the meat and dairy industries.

Believe it or not, most medical doctors get less than 24 hours of nutritional education in all their years at medical school. Some get none at all!

Do Your Own Research

How can you depend on your doctor for health and nutritional advice when most are so ignorant about good nutrition? You can’t!

That’s why I feel it is so important to share what I have learned from five decades of research – and to provide a balanced source of information that is not based on economic motivation. It is based on what really works – and it’s FREE to you right here and on my PlantBasedVeganCoach.com website!

Good nutrition can make a dramatic difference in your quality of life. The overall state of health in America today, particularly in children, is alarming. Obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are on the rise and it appears (according to the media) that this will only get worse over the next few decades, yet we have had the solutions all along.

Which Diet is Right for You?

Though the exact same diet may not be ideal for everyone, there are general guidelines for human nutrition that can help anyone achieve optimal health. Within these guidelines, each person has to trust their own intuition and appetite to maintain a healthy balance of nutrients for their own body.

The longer you have been eating a poor diet, the more imbalanced your body will be. It may take several years to feel as good as you did when you were young, but if you stick with the following recommendations and cultivate a positive attitude, I guarantee that you will become healthier and healthier.

One day you wake up feeling great and free of chronic symptoms. That is one of the most wonderful feelings you could ever ask for.

Common Sense Nutritional Recommendations:

• Stick to Whole Foods – Avoid refined carbohydrates like white sugar, corn syrup, and white flour, as well as chemicals and processed foods of all kinds. They simply do not provide the nutrition your body needs, and they are often toxic. There are excellent whole-food alternatives available for all the products mentioned above.
• Choose Organic! – Organic foods offer a wider spectrum of nutrients than commercially grown, and pesticide residues are toxic! Include a variety of organic fruits and vegetables in your daily diet. Organic is better for you and better for all life on our planet!
• Completely Avoid or Strictly Limit Animal Products to Less than 10% of your Diet – Meat and fish should make up no more than 10% of your diet. The more animal products you eat, the higher your statistical chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. A whole plant foods diet, with vitamin B-12 supplementation, can easily supply everything your body needs for excellent health. If you still choose to eat animal products, make sure you choose grass fed, organic, pasture raised, and humanely treated meats and wild fish from clean waters.
• Avoid or Strictly Limit Eggs & Dairy Products Especially! – Dairy products and eggs have been linked with childhood diabetes, allergies, auto-immune diseases, and heart disease. The highest rates of osteoporosis are found in populations that consume the most dairy products! Excess phosphorus in dairy products and meat causes leaching of calcium from bones and teeth. There are lots of good milk, cheese, and ice cream substitutes you can buy or make from nuts or seeds for occasional treats.

For a satisfying cheese substitute, blend raw sesame tahini with chick pea miso, or follow one of the many vegan “cheese” recipes online. Add a dash of lemon juice and a pinch of black pepper, plus a bit of mustard for a sharper “cheese” flavor. The only commercial vegan “cheeses” I’ve found that are both delicious and made from healthy ingredients are made by Miyoko’s, Treeline, and Kite Hill. Ask for them at your natural food store. Miyoko’s makes a nice melty “Mozzarella,” great for pizza topping. (Most of their other cheeses contain nutritional yeast, so are not recommended.) Kite hill makes a great “ricotta,” and a good cream cheese substitute. Choose the ones in smaller packages with less or no added gums. Treeline makes wonderful soft cheeses in different flavors. More brands are coming along all the time. Just read the ingredients to make sure they are healthy.

• Avoid soy products, because unfermented soy contains toxins, plus almost all soy is genetically modified (GMO). Also avoid products containing carageenan, because it can cause inflammation.
• Consider Avoiding Gluten – Wheat and other grains containing gluten have been linked with auto-immune diseases, thyroid problems, and allergies. Many people simply cannot digest gluten properly. Pay attention to how you feel for three days after eating wheat, spelt, oats, rye, barley, and related grain products. If in doubt, leave it out! It can actually take 3 or 4 months to remove all traces of gluten from your body! You can get gluten-free organic oats in packets from Nature’s Path – the Homestyle plain oats are best, without suspicious “natural flavors” added. If do you choose to eat grains, make sure they are ORGANIC or it is likely they will have been sprayed with toxic RoundUp (glyphosate)! – According to the Medical Medium, gluten feeds viruses, so avoid if you have viral issues.
• Eat Sprouted or Soaked Seeds! – Sprouts have an amazing array of vitamins and amino acids – far more than the original seed and a great deal more than most vegetables. You can easily grow them yourself. They are the most living foods on the planet and they provide probiotics for a healthy gut.
• Eat a Whole Plant Foods Diet – Organic fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, and sprouts form the basis of the ideal human diet. Beans and gluten-free grains can also be a healthy addition to your diet – highly recommended by Dr. Greger. Multiple degenerative diseases have been closely linked to consumption of animal products, so it is best to avoid them completely.
• Take a Vitamin B-12 Supplement – B-12 deficiency is quite common in meat eaters as well as vegans and vegetarians, especially as we age. There is no test that gives an accurate reading of your B-12 levels, so ideally everyone should supplement. It is water soluable, so any excess will be flushed out in the urine. The best form of B12 is Methylcobalamin with Adenosylcobalamin in liquid or sublingual form. Global Healing Center B-12 or Vimergy are excellent brands.
• If you are Under a Lot of Stress, Dieting, or on “the Pill,” you may want to take a food-sourced Vitamin B Complex – Stress and/or the hormone disruption caused by birth control pills can cause your body to use huge amounts of B complex vitamins. Vimergy makes a good organic raw B complex.
• Include “Super foods” – Recent research has identified several foods that contain a super abundance of healthy nutrients: berries (especially wild Maine blueberries), broccoli (especially broccoli sprouts), seaweeds (especially Atlantic dulse), hemp seeds, chia seeds, almonds, walnuts, spirulina, raw spinach, and pumpkin. Enjoy them frequently for a boost in health and vitality. (Go easy on the spinach if you are concerned about kidney stones.)
• Eat Most of Your Proteins and Fats Later in the Day – Your liver needs time to regenerate, without having to process fats, so it can clear out toxins. It’s a good idea to save your seeds, avocado, and nuts (or animal products if you still eat them) for dinner time. Soaked or sprouted seeds (like chia, sesame, sunflower, flax), beans, and pumpkin are good lower-fat sources of concentrated protein – though it is a misconception that you need concentrated protein sources. There is plenty of protein in whole plant foods as long as you eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, including leafy greens.
• Balance Your Omega 3 and Omega 6 Fatty Acids – The typical American diet is so high in Omega 6 fatty acids (from sunflower, safflower, corn, cottonseed, and soy oils, and animal products) that it may be necessary to supplement with the Omega 3 fatty acids, supplied by hemp, chia, flax, spirulina, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds. (Avoid fish oils. They are all contaminated with heavy metals.) The ideal ratio is a 1:3 balance between Omega 3 and Omega 6. The body can create some DHA and EPA from Omega 3 ALA, but a marine phytoplankton supplement (like Ocean’s Alive! or OmegaAstin) may be needed by some people to insure adequate levels – if you test low. If you still choose to take fish oil, choose green lipped mussel oil to avoid some of the toxins from contaminated fish.
• Avoid (from Medical Medium books): gluten, canola oil, all soy products, corn, corn syrup, corn alcohol, eggs, dairy, nutritional yeast, vinegar, beet sugar, pork, farmed fish, MSG, all flavors (natural and artificial), citric acid, artificial sweeteners, fish oil, iron supplements, GMO foods, L-Carnitine, and glandular supplements.
• Get Some Sunshine – A few minutes of sunshine every day will give you many benefits beyond Vitamin D, including boosting metabolism and enhancing digestion.
• Take Vitamin D 3 in Winter – Vitamin D is a free gift that our bodies can make from sunshine. We need it for strong bones, healthy hearts, immunity, and calcium metabolism. But even if you spend a lot of time in the sun, you may still need to take a vitamin D3 supplement if you live north of the San Francisco latitude. Massive quantities are not necessary (1,000 to 2,000 units a day is good for most people). D3 is best taken with a small amount of fatty foods like nuts, seeds or avocado and maybe the daily recommended amount of Vitamin K2 (though the science is a bit sketchy on K2).
• Eat Your Greens! – Leafy greens supply more necessary nutrients than any other food. Have a big salad of organic greens everyday. Or blend greens in a blender with fruit to make delicious green smoothies. Blend greens with herbs, vegetables, nuts, seeds, chick pea miso, curry powder, or other herbs and spices for a super-healthy raw soups, and dips. Make sure to rotate to different greens every few days to get a variety of nutrients and avoid build up of possible toxins.
• Focus on Alkaline-Forming Foods – Alkaline-forming foods include leafy greens, most fruits and vegetables, most seeds, millet, amaranth, quinoa, black eyed peas, almonds, carob, cold pressed oils. These should be the predominant foods in a healthy diet.
  • Acid-forming foods are meat, eggs, fish, sugar, corn syrup, most grains, pasteurized milk and dairy products, most nuts, most beans, fried foods, coffee, chocolate, prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, recreational drugs, all artificial preservatives and flavorings, and pretty much anything you find for sale in a box or bag. Sounds like the typical American diet, doesn’t it? When your body becomes too acidic, it will leach calcium from your bones and teeth to maintain the proper acid-alkaline balance.
• Drink Pure Water with lemon or lime juice – Most people need one half ounce of water for each pound of body weight per day. Spring water (not stored in plastic bottles) is best. Filtered water is the next best option. The Berkey filter is the one recommended by the Medical Medium. If you live where water is fluoridated, invest in a Berkey with fluoride filter or a reverse osmosis filter – or try the ClearlyFiltered pitcher, which is priced very reasonably. Fluoride is a nasty toxin, and so is chlorine!
  • >Add the juice of lemon or lime, or a sprig of mint, to bring back the life force lost by storage or running through pipes. Start your day with an 16oz. glass of water and try to drink about half a cup every hour through the day. This can include the water in juicy fruits and smoothies. If the weather is hot or you are exercising or detoxing, you will need more water.
• Eat Some Raw Food at Every Meal! – Raw foods provide essential enzymes and vitamins that are destroyed by cooking. They also contain twice as much protein as cooked foods, because some amino acids are destroyed by heat. Including raw foods at every meal will aid digestion. Also, glutathione synthesis is dependent on an amino acid called cysteine that is destroyed by cooking, so all high-protein foods should be eaten raw whenever possible – that includes leafy greens.
• Soak Your Beans – Ideally, beans should be soaked or sprouted and steamed for easier digestion. Try adding a bit of chick pea miso to sprouted, steamed beans after cooking for a satisfying meat substitute! (If you want to eat them raw, make sure the sprouts are well developed, like Chinese bean sprouts or pea shoots.)

Email Bernadette Wulf
EFT – Reiki Master
Healthy Diet & Ideal Weight Coach

Final Thoughts on Nutrition

While your beliefs and positive thoughts can create health in spite of poor dietary choices, doesn’t it make sense to give your body the best possible nutrition just because you love yourself?

Try eating an organic, whole-foods, plant-based diet for one month and see how you feel. If you are like me, you will never want to go back to the Standard American Diet (SAD).

Don’t know where to start?

Check out my One Diet to Rule them All! 30 Day Health Transformation Course for all the information, meal plans, recipes and lots more to get you started on the best diet for your health and vitality.

Trust your natural appetite.
You will find that, after eating whole plant foods for a few weeks, most junk foods will lose their appeal. Sodas, cookies, and candy will seem way too sugary. Snack foods and a lot of restaurant foods will taste too salty. You will eventually find that you enjoy the tastes and textures of vegetables and fruits in their natural state much more.

By the way, if you have an insatiable sweet tooth it means you have too much fat in your system that is blocking your brain from absorbing the glucose it needs. Cut way back on heavy fats and only eat them in the evening, if at all. As long as you eat a variety of whole foods you will get all the healthy fats you need, even if you eat nothing but leafy greens and potatoes!

Go Ethnic!
Most ethnic cuisines have abundant vegetarian and vegan options, particularly Indian, Thai, Chinese, Ethiopian, and Middle Eastern foods. Try a Thai pumpkin curry, Indian Dahl with brown rice or quinoa, a Middle Eastern gluten-free quinoa tabouli with humus, or Chinese snow peas with shitake mushrooms and organic brown rice – make sure there is no MSG or GMO soy sauce!

I hope you will enjoy exploring all the delicious whole plant food options available, and create yummy dishes of your own. The choices are endless. And don’t worry about protein. If you eat a wide variety of whole foods, including beans and a few nuts or seeds, you will get more protein than you need.

The Choice is Yours
Be kind to your body
Be kind to our planet

This website is for educational purposes and is not FDA approved, but is protected under the U.S. Constitution rights of freedom of speech and your right to self medicate.

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