Why Instant Gratification is Killing Us All. Welcome to the World of Addiction. Now go home.

WE WANT THE DOPAMINE, AND WE WANT IT NOW DAMMIT!!!

Is it easy to eat a whole-food/plant-based diet?

YES and NO.

It’s even harder to eat one that is completely uncooked. It takes a lot of discipline, although it can be done. I speak from experience.

I have more than 5 years of sobriety and am very thankful for A.A. as a support program that helped me attain that goal. After much reflection on what it means to be an addict driven by compulsive behaviors and less-than-stellar decisions, it has become very clear to me that alcohol was not the only thing I was addicted to. And I have a feeling we, as humans, are all addicts to one degree or another.

I discovered this as I moved away from eating foods made with animals. Not during the transition, but once they were gone. Cooked foods followed shortly thereafter. And with those things off the table added salt pretty much disappeared. There was nothing to put it on…LoL! Everything now was already full of flavor and didn’t need any help.

This…THIS is when I found out just how much of an addict I had been all of my life and what the true source of my many addictions was. Anything processed by the hands of man.

I have yet to look for scientific data to back me up, but I am pretty certain it has everything to do with the bacterial colonies that our body has to build up in our gut to deal with, ‘ALL THINGS PROCESSED.’ And the reason it must employ this additional digestive process is that OUR body is not meant to consume processed foods by nature, design, or evolution, whichever creative paradigm you believe in.

According to our best understanding, the human microbiome may weigh as much as five pounds. The microbiome is what some would refer to as our ‘gut buddies.’ And some people have more than others.

It is my suggestion that the combination of this biological process along with the introduction to processed foods in the last 200 years that we have all become creatures of habit or addicts. Not addicted to any specific foods really, but the reward one gets from eating processed foods. The instant gratification we get from putting anything processed in our body is the problem because we are taking a shortcut directly to the reward. We are skipping past all of the hard work of growing and harvesting our foods. We are skipping past all of the hard work chewing every last bite to a dehydrated, flavorless pulp before swallowing. And this is the problem.

Instant gratification by removing the risk and hard work that was part and parcel of human development over many thousands of years. And this is where an uncooked whole-food/plant-based diet is hard. At least at first because we have to get used to not being rewarded instantly, and that is a hard thing to walk away from.

WE WANT THE DOPAMINE, AND WE WANT IT NOW DAMMIT!!!

And this is where 5+ years of sobriety and understanding addiction to alcohol really helped me out. It made it very clear that consuming anything processed results in addiction and compulsive behaviors. We literally CRAVE the stuff. And I have a feeling processed food manufacturers know this.

All that to say…If you choose this lifestyle, it won’t be an easy transition. No easier than quitting smoking, alcohol, drugs, you name it. It is all addiction, plain and simple and it is not you craving those foods but the gut buddies(bacteria) inside of you that our processed/cooked food diets planted deep inside of our gut.

“Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.”

I’ve been studying human physiology and disease pathology for the last 4.5 years. A part of that study has been dedicated to observing the practices of the longest living people on Earth. Our centenarians. Groups of people that live in these specific five places called Blue Zones.

1. Okinawa, Japan
2. Sardinia, Italy
3. Nicoya, Costa Rica
4. Ikaria, Greece
5. Loma Linda, California.

There are a number of things that they have in common. One of them is a whole-food/plant-based diet. To be a little more specific, people in these so-called Blue Zones typically eat a 95% plant-based diet that’s rich in legumes, whole grains, vegetables, and nuts, all of which can help reduce the risk of death.

Strangely…None of these groups are fruitarians.

In late 2020, I was introduced to a practice called Natural Hygiene. The natural hygiene diet is a system of healthy living whereby moral, physical, and environmental pollution is strictly avoided, and natural, healthy food is chosen in preference over processed foods. The principle is to provide everything the body needs to be healthy and to avoid anything that may hinder health and well-being.

One of the hallmarks of this system, as it is practiced today, is a diet that primarily consists of juicy sweet fruit and gentle leafy greens. Small amounts of nuts and seeds are also on the approved list. This system also tends to focus on a practice called food combining and also the opposite which is mono-meals where only one kind of fruit is eaten until the consumer is full and then rotating through a variety of fruits and gentle leafy greens.

I have been practicing this way of eating for the past year myself and have found it to be very VERY beneficial in its ability to help the body heal and cleanse itself from the inside out. This will always be a part of my dietary practice.

But is eating this way what the human body needs to find its way to its fullest potential of living to 120 years and possibly well beyond to a place above 144 with a body that looks no more than today’s middle age?

I cannot say for sure, because there are no models that exist outside of religious texts that demonstrate this much less suggest this. And those practitioners that have been promoting this way of eating over the last 100-150 years have never themselves accomplished our fullest human longevity potential, much less in large communities. Or even small groups for that matter. Most haven’t even lived any longer than any average Joe that didn’t have any particular practice, but those in the Blue Zones have.

For me, I will continue on looking for better answers, and practicing what I preach. I will be continually pressing into the practices of what I can observe is working in the each and everyday practices of those that also practice what they preach. But I will not be so stubborn as to ignore the proofs that exist in our day in favor of rigid structures of beliefs in contrast to actual evidence of that which actually brings forth fruit.

I will continue to learn, grow and adapt. A wise man I knew once said, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.” Thanks for the wisdom Chuck(Smith).

In late 2020, I was introduced to a concept of health and wellness called the Terrain Model of Natural Hygiene. It is a way of understanding human physiology and disease pathology that is a more hands-off approach coupled with a whole-food/plant-based diet. A diet where adherents also take a hands-off approach to the foods they eat. Consuming foods the way they come out of the ground or fall from the tree. Consuming foods in a raw state without any prior processing or heating.

This made a lot of sense to me, considering I had been moving in this direction slowly over the two to three years leading up to my introduction of this way of thinking and living. In 2019, after a prolonged fast, I decided to remove all dairy from my diet. No more milk, cheese, or butter of any kind. A bummer at first, but I got over it pretty quickly, and my physical and emotional state started making a turn for the better that I didn’t expect or plan on. Shortly after that, and as a result of my studies, I concluded that it would be best also to step away from all things related to beef and pork. And then over the following year leading up to the summer of 2020, I removed eating any kind of meat whatsoever. No more fish or fowl as well. I did keep eggs in my diet until the end of November 2020. That was when I was introduced to a group on Facebook that promoted Natural Hygiene and the consumption of a fully unprocessed whole-food/plant-based diet.

This group, in particular, even goes so far as to suggest that much of what we call vegetables is not appropriate for human consumption and that the healthiest diets consist of only fruit and leafy greens. Some might consider this a little extreme, but I had already done most of the hard work in removing all animal-based food sources over the prior eighteen months.

Was it hard at first? Absolutely, I was eating as much as I wanted to, but never quite felt like I was fully satisfied until I started consuming a rather large salad every morning to set me off in the right direction for the day. From there it was all fruit and some occasional nuts until the evening. And what I can say for sure is that this way of eating is just what the doctor ordered. It really helped my body move to the next level of health and overall hygiene. But then there came a point where my body felt like something was missing. I began to suspect that this diet is/was not the full answer. That it is/was good for healing or cleansing, but that it alone was not what the body needs for ongoing health and wellness if one is trying to reach their fullest human potential.

I was really hoping I would be able to say that eating fresh fruit and leafy greens was all that was necessary for complete nutrition. I was standing at a crossroads and it was time to turn a corner.

Can we live on juicy fruits and leafy greens alone in our modern world? I cannot say that in good conscience. I cannot say that has been my experience because I am well convinced that the WAY our modern produce is grown for those of us that need to buy it is squarely where the blame is to be found. Not in the diet itself. Yes, plant-based/whole foods are still the answer, but alone they are just not quite enough on their own. Not until a more sustainable way of soil management is implemented on a larger scale. Fortunately, there are people that are currently working on that.

Not only do we need to be getting the right KIND of foods, but we also need to be getting a sufficient amount of the nutrients that are supposed to be in those foods.

Some might want to suggest that you can supplement vitamins and minerals in a daily capsule, but I would wholeheartedly say they likely make no difference. Especially considering, long-term studies of those in their 90’s demonstrate that there are no health benefits conferred to those that took a supplement daily versus those that did not. We are likely just making expensive urine for someone else’s benefit.

Simply put, our body needs the things that we call vitamins and minerals, but only in the form that nature creates them, bound up in their natural plant-based/whole food forms.

Two good options that can fill in some of the missing dietary components, even though not technically raw, in their cooked form, sweet potato, and legumes(beans) do seem to provide some of the things that would be missing in a fully uncooked whole-food/plant-based. Because of this, I would recommend limiting the intake of these two treating them like you would any supplement, consumed in smaller amounts. Sweet potatoes once or twice a week. Legumes could be consumed daily but should be limited in quantity to less than one cup, like in hummus as an example.

Another one which I’ve had the pleasure of trying out for the last month is called Daily Green Boost. Found at www.dailygreenboost.com. Currently, I am on their monthly auto-ship subscription program where they send out 4 bottles per month. They even cover the cost of shipping for a grand total of $91.76/mo.

It really seems to be filling in on anything else that might be lacking in my diet. I’ve even gone so far as to commit myself to this supplementation protocol for 6-9 months to see what difference it makes.

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Are We Getting Enough of the Right Stuff?

by Michael J. Loomis