What I Know For Sure About Dietby Jinjee Talifero - 2/27/04
We all know there is a problem with the Standard American Diet (SAD). But we are all confused about all the different diet solutions out there. After studying all the diets from Aromatrim to The Zone as a current Nutrition Research Assistant at Ekaya Institute of Living Food Education (E.I.L.F.E) I have come to realize what I do know for sure and what I don't.
For sure, the current Standard American Diet is toxic. Junk food, fast food, processed food, packaged food, factory-farmed food, produce grown in chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, and known toxins such as alcohol, coffee, and sugar, are for sure bad for your body. Meat and dairy are toxic and therefore probably also bad for you. When I say meat and dairy are toxic I'm looking at the fact that you can not eat them raw. This means that these foods are crawling with harmful bacteria that need to be killed by heating the foods. To my common sense this invalidates meat and dairy as foods fit for human consumption. If you can't eat it raw, if you have to cook it and kill it to eat it, then it isn't meant to be your food. Food is fruit that grows on trees. The Creator gave us trees for breathing, housing, and eating. Trees are our true cousins here on earth. Food is vegetation coming from the ground. These are full of nutrients, vitamins and minerals from the earth, the sun, the air, and the rain. These are definitely food. Should we eat animals? I'm not sure but I do remember reading somewhere that "Thou Shalt Not Kill". Should we eat dairy? I don't know. Does it make sense to consume a food that was designed to grow a baby calf into a 1000 lb. animal? Personally, I suspect that dairy is harmful to the human body.
However, your own beliefs and the collective beliefs of humanity do have a huge effect on your health. If people believe that meat and dairy are good for you, then they probably are. If they believe that meat and dairy are harmful for you, then they probably are. It depends in part on your own beliefs, and it depends in part on the beliefs of the collective human race. Furthermore, your beliefs have an effect on the beliefs of the collective and the beliefs of the collective have an effect on your beliefs. And at this moment there is a major shifting of beliefs going on. If you are strong in your own beliefs you can withstand and even influence the collective. It seems as though the collective, the critical mass of the collective human race, is shifting to a view that meat and dairy are not healthy to eat. Now, perhaps the truth of the matter is that The Creator and his fabulous crew did not make meat and dairy to be our food. Or the truth of the matter might be that they did intend it to be our food. However as I believe that we live on a basically good planet that is evolving in the right direction ever towards the good (despite the political and social events that would make it seem otherwise) I would place my bets that this shift away from meat and dairy is a change for the better towards a truer and clearer reality.
What I do know for sure is that we should avoid known toxins and chemicals. All packaged food has chemical preservatives, stabilizers, and flavoring. These are very harmful. This I know. All food that is not organically grown is grown using chemicals that harm the human body. This I know. Factory-farmed animals are sick and should not be eaten. This I know for sure. Can we live on unheated exclusively vegan (no meat and dairy) food? I know that my family is thriving on a raw-vegan diet. I see my husband who has eaten no meat or dairy for over 30 years thriving and aging much less rapidly than his peers. If you do eat meat, eat only organic meat. If you do consume dairy, consume only organic dairy. If you do eat cooked food make it from scratch with organic ingredients.
Here is my "What I Know For Sure About Healthy Eating Chart":
FOR SURE BAD:
coffee
alcohol
sugar
processed food
commercial (non-organic) produce
fast food
junk food
PROBABLY BAD:
meat
dairy
any heated foods
dehydrated foods
FOR SURE GOOD:
organic fresh fruit
organic fresh vegetables
organic germinated nuts
organic germinated seeds
MAYBE GOOD:
organic sprouted grains
fermented foods
supplements
Obviously, avoid the "for sure bad" foods and eat as much as you can of the "for sure good" foods. Live on the "for sure good" foods if you can. If you feel they are good, experiment with the "maybe good" foods. And if you must, eat a limited amount of the "probably bad" foods.
With all the diets out there, and all the many versions of vegetarian, vegan and raw-vegan diets being pushed now, you really have to learn to rely on your own intuition and experience. In fact, with the state of the media, corporate power, and the political arena today we need to develop this ability to trust ourselves in all things. Eating according to the above chart, exercising, getting out into nature (or better yet exercising in nature), getting sufficient sleep, staying happy and grateful, maintaining a relationship with a Higher Power, loving and being loved, and doing work you feel good about will all help you to become more in tune with your body and its messages regarding what it likes to eat. Listening and acting on these messages puts you on a path to greater self-awareness, an awareness that not only tunes you in to knowing what foods are good for you and what you should and shouldn't eat at any given moment, but that also spans your mental, emotional, and spiritual growth. This is because your body, mind and spirit are not separate, but are working constantly together for your greatest good and the simultaneous greatest good of the Universe.
About Jinjee Talifero
Jinjee Talifero is a 36 year old raw-vegan Mother of three home-birthed, home-schooled children. She is co-author with her husband Storm Talifero of several eBooks on Raw Foods including "The Garden Diet", "Raising Raw Vegan Children", and "The Anti-Aging Guide". She maintains a website about her family's experiences on the Raw Foods Diet at http://www.thegardendiet.com and an Internet Newspaper entitled "The Raw Vegan Times" at http://www.thegardendiet.com/news which is updated weekly. She also publishes "The Daily Raw Inspiration" and offers an Online Course in Raw Foods through her non-profit organization Ekaya Institute of Living Food Education (E.I.L.F.E.).
You can contact Jinjee via email at info@thegardendiet.com.
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