There are lots of good resources out there which are now clarifying the powerful link between food and health. If our bodies don’t have the specific types of bricks and mortar they need to do maintenance and repairs, the consequences fall on our thinking, our emotions, our physical health, and the health of our children. People are using very similar diets to reverse dementia, to regrow hair, to heal autism, to recover from multiple sclerosis, to eliminate anxiety and panic attacks, to reverse diabetes, heart disease, and Crohn’s…

• Dr. Susan Blum has written a book called “The Immune Recovery Plan” about food and autoimmune diseases.
• Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride has penned “Gut and Psychology Syndrome” about food and its impact on mental-emotional health.
• Medical researcher Sarah Ballantyne has created a book called “The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease and Heal Your Body”.

When you analyze these diets, the differences between them are minimal. All these diets agree that processed food, agricultural chemicals, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are harming us, and that disease hardly affected humanity before we began eating starches (grains, beans, potatoes, etc.) as more than a condiment (think mustard on your burger).

Some diets allow more starches, some cut out prime allergens like dairy, gluten, corn, and soy, some support digestive recovery with home-made or other probiotics… but all of them encourage us to eat organic foods, to eat unprocessed foods, to eat fresh foods, and to eat at least some portion of our foods raw (so we’re getting good enzymes).  When your digestion is a mess, raw food works better as smoothies and juices… I speak from experience!

To heal, your body needs more protein, more good fats, more vitamins, more minerals, and more phytonutrients (the things that plants create to protect themselves from sunburn, fungal infections, viruses, etc.). If we try to get these mostly from manufactured supplements, our absorption isn’t great, and we often end up with fillers and other things that harm us accumulating in our bodies over time, or getting in the way of absorption of other things we need.

Your best bet is to eat about 95% fresh plant foods (juicing, smoothies, sprouts, and green drinks help), a high quality fish or krill oil to help your brain and cell membranes, and some deeply nourishing, easy to assimilate, high quality, organic, wild or grass-ranged proteins.  If I was to prioritize the changes, here’s my top five:

1. Go organic, or better, biodynamic.  Trust me, it costs less than poor health (or sick children).
2. Eat fresh foods only, preferably straight from your local biodynamic farmer.
3. Remove dairy, gluten, soy, and corn, plus other foods to which you’ve sensitivities or allergies.
4. Dry and lactoferment organic fruits and vegetables in season, so you’ve got treats in winter.
5. Learn to sprout non-starchy seeds, especially broccoli and pea sprouts.