THE THREE FOOD CLASSES

General wisdom dictates that there are three components to the human diet—proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Proteins (made up of amino acids) contain the basic building materials of the body and are most useful when found in uncooked plant-foods. All the strongest, largest animals on the Earth feed their muscles and enormous bodies with plants—especially green leaves, plankton, and algae. Carbohydrates (sugars) are sources of quick energy and are best derived from mineral-rich sweet fruits. Fats consist of solid or liquid oils that lubricate the intestines and joints, and are sources of long-term energy. Fat is best derived from such foods as avocados, olives, olive oil, nuts, nut oils (cacao butter), many seeds, seed oils (coconut oil), and the durian fruit.

Fats, carbohydrates, and proteins form the necessary elements of the human diet. This means that each of these food classes must be present in some significant percentage in the diet. The percentage for each class varies from person to person depending on their metabolic type, current state of digestion, health history, health goals, etc. Some people, like myself, burn dietary fats as their primary fuel. This could mean that 60% of my diet on any given day consists of fats. Others primarily burn carbohydrates as a fuel. This might mean that 60% of their diet consists of carbohydrates. Others, though usually a smaller percentage, might burn protein (amino acids) as their primary fuel.

Proteins, carbohydrates, and fats form the points of a triangle. The goal is to stay balanced within the triangle. Let’s look at the different food classes and their roles.

FATS

Plant fats contain many oils that are favorable to our appearance. Avocados, olives, raw nuts, certain raw seeds, young coconuts, cacao (raw chocolate), and the Southeast Asian fruit called durian have impressive youthening qualities.

Many plant fats are cold-pressed to create wonderful oils such as olive oil, hemp oil, borage seed oil, primrose oil, flaxseed oil, etc. Cold-pressed oils retain more sensitive elements and delicate flavors than heat-processed oils.

Dr. Weston Price was a dentist who studied the beautiful teeth of people raised on traditional diets, as compared to the poor teeth of those raised on the demineralized foods of civilization. Based on his findings, Dr. Price authored the classic nutrition text, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. He discovered that fat-soluble vitamins found in raw fats/oils promoted the beautiful bone structure, wide palate, flawless well-spaced teeth, and handsome, well-proportioned faces that characterized members of isolated traditional cultures.

Raw or cold-pressed fats and oils are one of the best foods to include in our diet because they beautify the skin, lubricate the joints and intestines, strengthen cell membranes, and restore fat-soluble nutrients to the tissues.

There is a dramatic difference between raw fats/oils and cooked fats/oils.

Cooked fats/oils are not miscible with water. Since we are a water-based life form, this presents a challenge to the digestive system and liver. Cooked fats/oils tend to be broken down improperly. They lead to acne, skin disorders, liver stagnation, porous cell membranes, body odor, and nutritional deficiencies. Cooked fats/oils are fattening and lead to many health challenges. That is why we hear unfavorable reports about fats/oils in the media and in science journals.

Closer inspection reveals that animal foods advertised as being supposedly low in fat are still high in fat. Consider that lean ground beef provides about 54% of its calories in the form of fat; and 51% of the calories from chicken comes from fat, as do 40% of the calories of salmon. The best way to avoid a high cooked-fat diet is to abstain from cooked foods and animal products.

The quantity of raw fats/oils eaten should be within the limit of what an individual can handle based on his or her metabolism. As an example: for some, half an avocado per day is as much as can be handled; for others, two to three avocados a day is healthy.

Generally, it is a good rule to eat fats (especially raw nuts and seeds) with green-leafy salads for ease of digestion. The excessive intake of fats/oils, even if it is raw fat/oils, can lead to facial pimples and a general feeling of lethargy.

The spicy sulfurous elements found in hot peppers, onions, garlic, arugula, radishes, and watercress can be “cooled” or “cut” by eating fats such as avocados, macadamia nuts, olives, olive oil, and coconut oil. Fats help digest spicy sulfur compounds. The opposite is also true: spicy sulfur compounds help digest fats. Sulfur compounds cause fat to disperse in the bloodstream, preventing the fat from clumping (agglutinating) in the blood.

Types of Fats

The arrangement of hydrogen determines if a fat is saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated. The more hydrogen that is present (in the fat), the more saturated the fat.

The best saturated fats include cold-pressed coconut oil (sometimes called coconut butter), cacao butter, and palm kernel oil.

The best monounsaturated fats include avocados, olives, raw nuts (except polyunsaturated walnuts), stone-crushed olive oil, and durian.

The best polyunsaturated fats include hempseed oil, hemp seeds, chia seeds, primrose oil, borage seed oil, flax, flaxseed oil, and walnuts.

Excellent Choices for Dietary

Fat Fruits

Avocado
Durian
Olives
Stone-crushed olive oil

Nuts

Raw nuts of all kinds and raw nut butters
Cacao (raw chocolate)

Seeds

Pumpkin seeds or raw pumpkin seed butter
Sesame seeds or raw black tahini
Sunflower seeds or raw sunflower butter
Hemp seeds
Chia seeds
Flaxseeds
Seed oils (cold-pressed)
Young coconuts
Coconut butter/oil

CARBOHYDRATES (SUGARS)

The best source of carbohydrates is organic fruits or wild fruits that contain seeds. Organic and/or wild fruits sold at natural food stores and farmer’s markets always contain more minerals than commercially grown varieties sold at supermarkets. Generally, the richer a sweet fruit is in minerals, the better. Mineral content is usually detectable in fruit quality, flavor, texture, and the overall richness of the fruit.

Fruits contain simple sugars such as glucose and fructose. These sugars act as fuel for the body. Simple sugars are used by each cell’s power-station—the mitochondria. The mitochondria create nucleotides (ATP, GTP) that, in turn, fuel the inside of the cell. Some people require more operational fuel than others, depending on their metabolism and how much they exercise (more exercise requires more fuel/fruit). rice cakes, baked potatoes, potato chips, corn chips, high-fructose corn syrup, soy milk, alcohol, soda, seedless fruits, etc. All of these foods are derived from wheat seeds, barley seeds, soybeans, corn, beets, potatoes, and tree grafting processes. These long-domesticated, chemically grown, hybridized crops are high in carbohydrates, energetically weak, and low in minerals.

Foods that have the characteristic of being high in sugar (carbohydrates) and low in minerals contribute to an increase of mold and fungus (candida) in the body, causing lethargy and laziness. Mold and fungus are nature’s recyclers; they are always trying to weed out the weak plants. Mold and fungus find favorable growing environments in those who eat the weak crops described above.

The most weakening of all foods and drinks is soda or cola. Soda is not even a food, but rather, it is a strange mixture of chemicals and sugar (or artificial sugar). Soda has no relationship with anything natural.

Weak foods that are high in carbohydrates and low in minerals have an inflammatory, irritating effect on our tissues. They lead us step by step toward addictive relationships with foods (notice how addictive these

Often we find that the term “carbohydrate” is a fancy way of saying cooked sugar and/or starch. This term is frequently used to mask the quantity of sugar and starch found in such foods as bread, pasta, rice, foods can be). And then, eventually, they create conditions of hypoglycemia and sugar diabetes.

Sugar diabetes, sometimes called diabetes mellitus, is one of the most common diseases of the modern age. Mellitus is a combination of two Latin words: “mel,” which in Latin is honey, and “itis” for inflammation. People with sugar diabetes have a lifespan one-third shorter than non-diabetics.

In terms of outward appearance, the abuse of cooked carbohydrate foods makes the skin pale-white and often puffy. Internally, carbohydrate abuse steadily robs the pancreas, adrenals, and bones of vital minerals. It diminishes the effectiveness of the immune system.

Refined Sugar

Heroin is produced by taking the juice of certain poppy varieties and refining it into opium, then morphine, and finally into heroin. Similarly, refined sugar is produced from taking the juice of sugar cane or beet and refining it into molasses, then brown sugar, and finally into white sugar.

The beet was first hybridized (bred for sweetness) and processed into sugar by the Frenchman Benjamin Delessert in 1812. Napoleon awarded him the Legion of Honor and ordered beets to be planted everywhere in France in order to facilitate the ever-growing desire for refined sugar.

Refined sugar is a drug that causes artificial highs, mood swings, depression, and energy crashes. In the sixteenth century, refined sugar was considered to be a recreational drug in the royal courts of Europe.

It takes 1.1 kilograms (2.5 pounds) of sugar beets to create a mere 0.14 kilograms (5 ounces) of refined sugar. It is eight times as concentrated as flour. Refined sugar is essentially a concentrated, crystallized acid.

Refined sugar (chemically in the form of sucrose) is close in chemical composition to glucose, so it largely escapes processing by the liver. When one ingests it, the sucrose passes into the blood, where the glucose level has already been established in precise balance with oxygen. The blood sugar level is thus drastically increased.

Consuming refined sugar leaches precious minerals (chromium, zinc, sulfur, vanadium, calcium) from the body due to the demands it makes on insulin production and the blood sugar system. When refined sugar is ingested every day, especially by someone who is becoming more and more demineralized, it eventually produces an increasingly acidic condition with more alkaline minerals required from the bones to buffer or neutralize the situation. This eventually leads to spongy, weak bones (osteoporosis).

Carbohydrates are metabolized with the help of B vitamins. More B vitamins are needed for those who take in a large amount of carbohydrates. Refined sugar has the habit of robbing the body of precious B vitamins, which help the body deal with stress. A lack of B vitamins can cause chapped lips and wrinkles.

Refined sugar is especially damaging to the skin because it attaches to collagen molecules in the skin, causing cross-linking, stiffness, and inflexibility. I have also seen these collagen-damaging effects in some people who eat excessive amounts of fruit (especially seedless fruit) and/or carrot juice (which is extremely high in sugar). Age and liver spots on the skin are created when sugar and collagen react repeatedly over time, causing what is known scientifically as a Browning reaction.

I am not suggesting that you should diminish or control your intake of refined sugar (sometimes called high-fructose corn syrup). I am suggesting that you should completely eliminate all refined sugar from your diet. Use honey, raw agave cactus nectar, yacon root syrup, stevia, dried figs, or other dried fruits as sweeteners in the initial stage of dietary transition.

Understanding the Yin/Yang Balance

According to Oriental philosophy, everything in nature follows a yin/yang balance, including dietary patterns. Sugar is the extreme yin food, and red meat is the extreme yang food. These are two ends of a see-saw! Visualize refined sugar on one side, red meat on the other. Even though they are both toxic foods, together they will actually balance each other out in terms of the way they stimulate a person. If one is eliminated without the other, the see-saw will swing out of balance. Both must be removed from the diet at the same time. This is a key understanding in transitioning your diet.

In countries where meat, and red meat in particular, is rarely eaten, and where the diet is centered on rice (a carbohydrate), there is no balance to the see-saw effect created by refined sugar. This is why refined sugar has caused even more trouble in Asia than anywhere else in the world.

Improving Carbohydrate Choices

Improving the quality of your carbohydrates improves the quality of your health and life. Eliminating refined sugar and white flour then replacing those with whole foods and natural fruits (with seeds) is the core of any sensible diet.

The best choice is to select foods that are richly mineralized and are medium to low in sugar. Certainly organic, homegrown and/or wild fruits with seeds are excellent choices because they are always higher in minerals than the type of commercially grown fruits found in most supermarkets.

In terms of cooked foods, yams and sweet potatoes are a far better choice than regular potatoes because they contain half the sugar and twice the minerals as regular potatoes.

Excellent Carbohydrate Choices Raw

Agave cactus nectar (sap from the agave plant)
Apples
Berries of all kinds
Cacao fruit
Cherimoyas (includes atemoyas, sugar apples, paw-paws, and another sixty fruits in this class)
Citrus fruits with seeds
Dragonfruit
Durian
Figs
Grapes
Jackfruit
Mamey sapotes
Mangos
Mangosteen
Melons of all kinds (if they contain seeds)
Papayas
Pears
Sapotes
Stone fruits (apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums)
Yacon root syrup
Young Thai coconut water (excellent to mix with green superfood powders)

Cooked Choices

Ancient grain breads (kamut, spelt, wild rice)
Breadfruit
Sweet potatoes
Yams
Yucca root

PROTEIN

Proteins are molecular compounds integral to the life functions of every type of living cell. These large, complex molecules might contain as many as a thousand amino acid units. Of the twenty-two amino acids, only a few will be found in most proteins. The variance in the total number of amino acids present and the order of amino acids in the chain accounts for the vast number of different types of protein.

Most of the flesh in animals and most of the organic material in plants is composed of proteins. All enzymes, antigens, antibodies, and hormones are proteins.

All protein contains the elements hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and especially nitrogen, although some contain phosphorus and sulfur as well. Living cells use proteins (amino acids) as chemical building blocks for growth, repair, development, and a host of other vital tasks. In essence, it is amino acids that build muscle, strengthen tissues, repair cells, and maintain the structural integrity of the body.

Amino acids are vital in the formation of the two essential brain hormones serotonin and dopamine, which play a strong role in how we feel each day.

Research has shown that the complementary protein principle—the idea that foods such as beans could be eaten with foods such as rice to create a complete protein—is unnecessary, as the body pools amino acids and can use them to create proteins even when certain amino acids are absent from the diet for a meal, a day, a week, etc.

Beans and legumes contain coarse proteins that are unfavorable for beauty. To some degree sprouted grain also contains coarse proteins that, when excessively eaten, disfavor beauty.

Nuts are notoriously acid-forming and, as we have seen in the previous chapter, must be balanced by eating sufficient green-leafy vegetables.

In terms of protein, cooked animal protein is actually a poor-quality source. It is coagulated, difficult to digest, creates inflammation in the tissues, and is rough on the kidneys. The elastic, lightweight polypeptides (free-form amino acids) found in plant foods make them a superior and ideal source of protein-building blocks.

If you are new to eating raw foods, or simply new to dietary changes in general, I recommend that you include more proteins (amino acids) in your diet in the form of some of the protein-rich foods listed.

The Best Protein Foods

Almonds
Bee pollen (probably the best of all high-protein foods)
Blue-green algae (from Klamath Lake)
Brewer’s yeast (not good for those with candida or other fungal conditions in or outside the body)
Chlorella
Durian
Earth’s Essential Elements (E3 Live fresh algae)
Goji berries (14% protein)
Grass powders (dehydrated and powdered grasses)
Green-leafy vegetables (such as parsley, spinach, kale, collards, green cabbage, arugula, etc.)
Hemp seeds (contain the globular complete protein edestin)
Hemp protein (3 grams of protein per tablespoon!)
Incan berries (16% protein)
Maca (powdered root superfood from the Andes)
Marine phytoplankton
Mature grasses (chew on the blades before they have flowered)
Olives
Propolis (a resinous substance from saps collected by bees to help build the hive)
Pumpkin seeds
Pure Synergy or other green superfood formulas
Spirulina
Sprouted grains
Sprouted wild rice
Sprouts of all types
Vegetable powders (dehydrated and powdered green vegetables)

By David Wolfe in "Eating for Beauty for Women and Men", North Atlaantic Book, Berkely, California, USA, 2009, excerpts lesson 4. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

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