Tips
For Transitioning to a Healthier Diet
By Don Bennett,
DAS
The transition
diet initiates the detoxification process and helps to eliminate waste
products that accumulated from eating the Standard Western Diet. It also
allows the body to gradually shift from a diet of meat, processed foods,
sugar, white flour products, etc. to a healthy raw food diet that consists
of fruit, green leafy vegetables, and some nuts and seeds.
I.
The first phase of the diet consists of eliminating over-the-counter drugs,
meat, tobacco, alcohol, white flour, salt, junk food, and coffee. Decreasing
unhealthy food and substituting healthy food is an effective way to initiate
the transition diet.
II.
The second phase of the transition diet is the withdrawal of dairy products
and the optional substitution of seed milk and nut cheeses if you absolutely
need to (but go easy on these as they can also be unhealthy if consumed
in too high a quantity).
III.
The third phase of the transition diet is the withdrawal of cooked foods,
including: grains, cooked fruits and vegetables, crackers, legumes/beans,
bread, pastries, etc. Substituting fresh raw fruit and vegetables, and
the occasional nuts and seeds is the goal and the final step toward the
progression to a healthy raw food diet.
IV.
Some helpful additions to the transition diet include:
1. Include fruit
and salads of leafy greens everyday, nuts
in small quantities
only occasionally.
2. As an option, implement a one-time colon cleansing administered
by a good colon hydrotherapist (make sure the therapist will recommend
implanting probiotics after the sessions are completed, if not, find
another therapist). Avoid things like coffee and wheatgrass enemas
as they do more harm than good.
3. Reduce your intake of cooked foods gradually but steadily.
4. Consume raw foods (salad) before and after the ingestion of any
cooked foods (but do try and avoid animal products whether raw or
cooked), as this can aid digestion.
5. Start out by making breakfast a 100% raw food meal of fruit. Then
eventually add lunch as an all-raw meal.
6. Start a meal where cooked foods are planned with fruit and some
green leafies first (lettuces). Then leave some time for them to digest,
and then if you still want the cooked food, have some (you'll find
that the desire for the cooked food will be much less if you first
satisfy your body with some nutritious raw food).
7. Delay drinking water for an hour after a meal, but stay well hydrated.
8. Chew your food slowly and thoroughly, and take your time. Make
eating your meal the only thing you do; avoid watching TV, reading,
deep thought thinking, or engaging in "heavy" conversations
while eating.
9. Learn more about food
mis-combining (food separating), and only consume foods that are
easy on the digestive system.
10. Be watchful to not overeat. Plan to eat multiple small portions,
and ask yourself before going for another portion, "Do I really
want more?"
11. And very important, knowing not to overeat is of little help if
you don't know in what proportions to eat the foods that make up a
healthy raw food diet. And by proportions I'm referring to the ratio
between carbs, fats, and proteins. If you're eating the right amount
of calories for your needs, but those calories are coming from a diet
that is way too high in fat vs carbs, it doesn't matter that all the
food you're eating is uncooked and just fruits and greens; your health
will not improve (it may even get worse over time) nor will you be
as healthy as you could be. The books here
speak to this issue of proper dietary proportions of carbs, fat, and
protein.
12. Because the foods of a healthy raw vegan diet are grown by agri-industry
who grows for profit and not nutritional content, and because the
foods of a raw vegan diet are not fortified with any nutrients like
the foods of the typical Western diet are, it's important to add to
this "best" diet a nutritional
complement to the diet to compensate for the nutritionally sub-par
fruit and greens that most people buy (I don't sell it). This is something
you're not going to hear from those raw vegan educators who have a
philosophical aversion to nutritional supplements.
"The news isn't that fruits and
vegetables are good for you. It's that they are so good for you they
could save your life." David Bjerklie, TIME
Magazine, October 20, 2003
See also:
How
to be Successful on a Raw Vegan Diet
What
You May Experience When Transitioning to a Healthy Diet
Transitioning
to a Healthy Raw Diet, the Easy Way
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