I named this journal Eating Against the Grain because the way of eating I describe here defies some conventional norms. I learned this way of eating through the book Fit for Life, written by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. A generic term for this way of eating is called “natural hygiene”, in which they break it all down. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for more than my short executive summary.
What is natural hygiene?
First, it involves eating plenty of fruit, but only on an empty stomach. You basically end up eating two proper meals a day (lunch and dinner), but they have to be properly combined, meaning, that the meal does not consist of proteins and starchy foods at the same meal. Proteins like beef and chicken can be eaten with non-starchy vegetables, for instance. Likewise, Potatoes can be eaten with other veggies, starchy or not, as long as there are no proteins.
Nothing but fruit is eaten in the morning until lunch on an empty stomach. Fruit can also be eaten 3 hours after a starchy meal, or 4 hours after a protein meal typically as that is about how long a meal will stay in your stomach. Meals containing ample amounts of protein and starches together can remain in your stomach for 8 hours or longer.
Besides being properly combined, meals should also consist primarily of foods with a high water content. These foods are typically raw vegetables like lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes, etc. They differ from concentrated foods, which are things like any kind of meat, cooked potatoes, nuts, etc. A properly combined meal with a lot of high water-content food simplifies digestion while naturally cleansing the digestive system, i.e., natural hygiene.
The Purpose
But the purpose of this journal is not to explain how natural hygiene works. As mentioned above, for the best explanation of how it works, can be found in the book Fit for Life. The purpose of this blog is to write well-documented, reenforcing articles as to why this way of eating is the most ideal. I will also share some of my favorite recipes that adhere to natural hygiene principles.
And, of course, I encourage anyone out there to try to this way of eating, at least for a week. I believe that just one week is long enough for most people to notice a difference in the way they look and feel.
Personally I have had my biggest successes when I was single. This is because I controlled everything that came into the fridge or pantry. I also did not have the problem of preparing two different meals for the person(s) in your life that do not adhere to this way of eating.
Family members and friends will question the validity, and even the safety of natural hygiene if you try to adopt it yourself. I was scorned for eating this way myself by certain members of my social circle, even though I had already lost substantial weight, had more energy, and was clearly in the best health of my life.
So I am not saying that you need to follow natural hygiene strictly, unless you want to, of course — to derive benefits from it. But following it even occasionally can help you alleviate digestion issues, like bloating, or even heartburn, by making your body chemistry less acidic. But knowing the principles will help you make wiser choices, if not perfectly aligned with natural hygiene.
I myself am pretty good about following in the morning and through lunch. Dinner with a family is always hard to negotiate, and nobody else in the house tries to follow it at all. So sometimes I have a properly combined dinner, but sometimes I eat what everyone else does.
By eating well-combined, high water-content meals and fruit, at least for large portions of the day, or for a few whole days a week , it gives your body time to cleanse itself and regulate its body chemistry. By contrast, people who are eating what they consider healthy food, but is highly concentrated and processed all of the time, their body never has a chance to cleanse itself. This is when we have to rely on antacids and laxatives.
To put it simply, natural hygiene offers a way for our bodies to heal naturally from the most common of bodily ailments. I sincerely believe that anyone who adopts this way of eating, whether full or part time, has a much better chance of avoiding the use of medications used to mitigate the damage of an unhealthy diet.
