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Natural foods for health

Over 40 years ago, I began my training to be a state registered nurse at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. I remember that while I felt very sorry for the patients, deep down I always wondered if anything could have been done to prevent their becoming so ill in the first place. At a later stage in my training, I moved to a ward specializing in nutritional and metabolism problems. One particular night, I was assisting the doctors with some tests on a patient and we became involved in an in-depth discussion on nutrition. One doctor suddenly said, ‘If we all ate simple, natural food as fresh as possible, many of these problems and disorders could be eliminated.’

These words rang a bell in my brain – if a natural diet could help the patients, how about me? I had seen so much awful illness, I knew I wanted to stay well, and now here was a piece of information that was well worth trying. I started there and then, at the age of 19, to read everything I could find about diet and its relationship with health, and at the same time I focused my own diet on fresh natural foods.

I cut out all packaged and processed foods such as biscuits, sweets, cakes, chocolate, puddings, jams, jellies, pies and pastries; instead, I ate fresh vegetables and salads, fresh fruits and juices, nuts, eggs, cheese, grilled chicken and fish and fresh natural yoghurt. The results were incredible and I felt so well. I had much more energy, my skin was clearer and, although I have never been fat, I lost about 7 lbs in weight easily and without effort.

All the while I continued to read and learn. Most of all I wanted a beautiful slender body and super health – not gimmicks or quick fixes. I studied peoples such as the Hunzas who live in the Himalayan mountains and regularly are found working in the fields aged 100, frequently living to be 110 years old. I also read about the Okinawans who live off the coast of Japan and who are noted for their longevity. Both these have natural and fresh food diets and also benefit from mineral-rich water.

The thing that really made sense to me was to go back to our ancestors and discover what was the natural diet for mankind. Our Stone-Age ancestors lived on food that they could pick, trap or catch and studies show that their diet consisted of roots, berries, fruits, plant leaves, herbs, vegetables, a little honey (if they could find it), wild animals, birds, insects, reptiles and fish. Experts tell us that they ate most of their food raw. Scientific studies have shown us that Stone-Age man was tall and healthy with good teeth and strong bones. Today the isolated communities of the world who live on a natural diet of unrefined food are largely free from chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and arthritis. If we analyze the Stone-Age diet it turns out to be non-starchy and extremely low in carbohydrates, extremely high in vitamins and minerals, low in fat and high in protein and fibre. Whereas our modern Western diet is very high in carbohydrate and fat, low in vitamins and minerals and fibre and with a moderate amount of protein. Having read, researched and home-tested this fascinating subject I decided to make myself an eating plan to keep me in great shape and super healthy for life.

Our Paleolithic ancestors who lived some 40,000 years ago existed on a totally natural diet of fresh fruit and vegetables, leaves, roots, herbs, berries, birds eggs, animals, reptiles, insects and fish. Potatoes and bread did not exist, their soil was rich in minerals, they had no preservatives, additives or E numbers. Ready-made meals, sweets, cakes and biscuits were not available, food was eaten fresh or dried in the sun and in the main eaten raw. If they wanted to eat meat they had to catch it, find it or trap it. They had no idea what the RDA of their vitamins and nutrients were but experts tell us that they were very healthy, strong and muscular with no tooth decay and great bones. I think this is clearly the correct diet for mankind.

The further we, as humans, have moved away from the Paleolithic diet, the more susceptible we have become to Syndrome X* and other diet-dependent diseases. In a very real sense, the best anti-Syndrome X diet is the Paleolithic diet – or at least a more modern and convenient variation of it.

JACK CHALLEM, BURTON BERKSON MD, MELISSA DIANE SMITH

I started my plan when I was 19 and although I gradually modified it as I continued to learn more about nutrition, now at the age of 62 it is still much the same as it was all those years ago. It has kept me very well, very flexible, feeling great and I am the same shape and weight now as I was then. I am delighted to be able to share it with you now.

Caution: Before starting this or any other eating plan I do recommend that you check with your doctor or nutritionist to make sure that it is entirely suitable to your dietary requirements.