The Low Inflammation Diet is how I treat the most difficult cases which come into me. Many need additional help. Many need supplements, hands-on work, acupuncture, chiropractic, visceral massage, ozone, etc. Many need help stabilizing emotionally because they are suffering symptoms of simply not being at peace with life. Whatever else they need, I feel that following the Low Inflammation Diet is foundational to being in a healing process. As they do so, they will feel better and better and will usually fully recover over time.

I ascribe to something one of my teachers, Dr. Richard Schulze, said that he liked to say to his patients: "Somewhere between your first glass of carrot juice and moving to the Himalayans to become a complete breathairian you will find healing."

He also said, "Getting well is easy. All you have to do is stop doing what made you sick and start doing what will make you well!"

He also said, "Start listening to yourself and never stop listening to yourself again!"

The healing process requires foundational understanding and after that, do whatever is required. This program is based off of 2/3 of the principles needed for anyone to heal. Those three principles are these:

1. Remove the burden off the body. Understand that the "public works" of the body (digestion, elimination/excretion) uses up 80% of the body's vital energy resources and if you want healing, the first step is to reduce the burden on the body coming from the gut and related processes. These burdens are not weighted equally, which is why we can give you plenty of food as long as we stay away from foods that create a burden (stimulation, waste, insulin, etc).

2. Fill the body with life. The body is smart. Anyone who is awake can see it. It is plenty smart enough to heal itself. But when it is filled with death (cooked and processed food and animal flesh) it is filled with stuff that blocks the intelligent impulses of life. When it is filled with live plant food, it is living in harmony and symbiosis with the earth and the intelligence flows into the body. For this, the food must be raw but also in the living, growing state. Dry seeds, dehydrated food and food with too much salt or sugar added (even raw sea salt or organic, raw sugar cane crystals) are in a state of inhibited life. This is okay to eat but must be kept to a minimum.

3. Restore normal nutrition. This is partially dealt with in this diet but realistically, if you are far behind on your nutrition (i.e. just about anyone alive today in the English speaking world was born deficient from parents who were also born deficient thanks to the post WWI vegetable oil and shelf-life food revolution), you are not going to recover without some supplementation. This is a larger subject and dealt with throughout the information on this site. Some variations in diet may also be required before a person can function normally on the ideal dietary instruction found in the Low Inflammation Diet.

The Low Inflammation Diet is designed to bring about rapid control of inflammation. It eases all digestive problems and cleanses the body effectively, quickly and without throwing the body out of balance.

The Low Inflammation Diet is much more idealistic than the clinical dietary instructions found under "Eating for Life" in our blog. Many people have made a lifestyle out of it. It is the diet I use for difficult clinical cases, cancer patients, diabetes and auto-immune cases. It is a practical program still for many people to follow. Later I will discuss what I believe to be the optimum human diet. This program is basically my own version of an "incureables" program.

The essence of the Low Inflammation Diet (LID) is as follows:

1. Very high percentage raw fruits and vegetables (fresh, high water content) which hydrates the body, removes toxins, assists, rather than burdens the liver, provides enzymes and micronutrients in the right place at the right time, brings life into the body (and this is the only way, as of this time, we know of to bring life into the body--dead, cooked and maimed food brings death into the body).

2. Simple and similar combinations. Instead of working toward stability (including freedom from addiction to food), which is what the low insulin program is about, this is about idealism where the body is not an engine for processing food, but is using food to bring in life and then it functions independent of food. Simple meals, maybe a monodiet, keep the burden on the body to a minimum.

3. Avoidance of things that stress the body, including things that might be healthful but which are common food sensitivities and congesting agents. This includes all non-food items, chemicals, chemical isolates, preservatives, unnatural and highly modified foods, etc.

Though the LID is idyllic, most people who decide to use it will move back and forth somewhat between that and a more common, everyday diet. For this reason, I put my Wife's Low Insulin (under "Eating for Life") program first, in hopes that everyone would understand that if they leave the idyllic diet program, or the optimum human diet, they need to keep the rules of low insulin or they will lose their health. Frequently my patients will leave this diet by only 10 or 20%--still eating a very high quality diet, but because they choose things which will spike insulin, they promptly start gaining weight and losing ground. From a purely atomistic, chemically-focused perspective, high INSULIN and resistance to it are the single cause of health problems today in the world. It is thence essential to understand that if you come off the LID you must watch carefully for foods that spike insulin and avoid those throughout life.

For those who have interest in diabetes, it is best to read that discussion (on Diabetes here on the blog) carefully as diabetes is not directly caused by insulin resistance as has most commonly been assumed (because of the obvious, direct relationship between them) but rather by an insulin-resistant person getting abnormal flora up into the pancreatic and bile ducts.

Now, back to the LID

There are, of course, some basic guidelines of the LID. These are common and similar guidelines to those found in natural hygiene. Many of these principles are taught in my wife's books (which I feel are the very foundational principles of whole food eating) where you will also find many splendid recipes which fit the LID.

Here I will offer the instruction needed to follow the program:

Before meals, 15 minutes before each meal to be exact, stir 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper into a cup of water and drink that down. If that is too strong, reduce the amount until tolerable. It is also acceptable to mix 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper into a 16 ounce bottle of water and just take a large swallow or two before each meal, but always 15 minutes before consuming any food. This, of course, saves some difficulty and inconvenience. It should keep at room temperature for 2 days.

Breakfast: fresh fruit first. This can be fresh juice (carrot, apple, ginger...with added Jurassic Green [in our store]) or a smoothie. The best choice is always whole fruit that you eat the old fashioned way unless you are cleansing, then fresh juice is the best. I have written another blog on cleansing.

Lunch: A raw salad with one concentrated food item. The salad is best if it is robust vegetables, like shredded carrots, cabbage, beets, sprouts, sprouted lentils or mung beans, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, avocado, cherry tomatoes. Dress only with olive oil and apple cider or red wine vinegar.

The concentrated food item should never constitute more than 25% of the meal (by weight). It may be sprouted grain or sourdough bread, grass fed beef, organic free range chickens, high fat fish, dry cooked beans, steel cut oats, wild meat, nuts and seeds. Green beans, peas and sprouted lentils are enough. It is not necessary to have something more concentrated than that. Animal flesh should be used no more than 2x per week. Less is okay. We do not need animal flesh normally. It can be useful for recovery of some deficiency and it is very useful when trying to lower insulin. Eggs are also okay at this meal, but eggs really should be organic free range (preferably chickens should be required to forage over a large area on grass and bugs) and should really be fertile (rooster present always with chickens).

Supper should be very simple. Only 4 items, one concentrated, low protein food and 3 raw vegetables. The concentrated food may be any cooked vegetable, steamed or baked small potatoes or cooked beets, sweet potatoes, etc. Starch or cooked vegetable is fine but no protein!!!

It is acceptable to have an entirely raw meal for the evening meal.

Some important details:

Dressings, flavorings, seasonings, etc, should be 100% natural, meaning you should be able to make them in a cave. Generally, these should be raw, organic and naturally occurring.

Do not eat between meals and do not skip meals. Keep the meals at about equal spacing throughout the day, like 9 am, 1 pm and 5 pm.

Finish the evening meal by 7 pm at the latest. The earlier, the better.

Another good rule for eating healthy is to never eat more than 2/3 of what is needed to make you feel satiated. Also, someone once said, "drink your solids and chew your liquids," which means to chew solids to a smooth paste and mix liquids with saliva before swallowing. Probably this, combined with the cayenne before meals, will solve all the malnutrition and poor digestion problems anyone could have.

I have included a protracted discussion on healing in general and also on the Low Inflammation Diet in another blog, along with 8 days worth of sample recipes.