My body’s disease expression was diagnosed as mycosis fungoides. A cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
Regardless of what it is called, I don’t see it being anything different than one simple thing. Advanced aging and failure of the body to properly detox. But not because the body and how it functions was the problem, but my behavior was the thing that was keeping my body from properly detoxifying itself.
Maybe we are all wrong to one degree or another about which foods need to be going into our mouths when we should be looking for another or other factors altogether.
I probably spend way too much time researching/reading/listening to different people that are masters in their respective fields of understanding when it comes to aging and how to minimize the effects of it.
That being said, I’m beginning to see a pattern amongst them all and that is that we are simply spending more time per day eating than we need to be. And that if we could pack enough nutrients into one feeding per day, our body would be much better off than multiple meals and snacks.
One idea I’ve been considering trying is something like eating one of my giant 3-pound salads one day followed by coconut water the rest of the day. 2.5-3 pounds of sweet potatoes the next day + coconut water. And then a huge bowl of vegetable soup on the third day + coconut water. All fruit on the fourth day. Then maybe just a day of liquids. Rinse and repeat.
I think diversity and variety within a plant-based/whole food framework are more important than these disagreements we are all having. Even raw vs. cooked. I think it might likely be healthier to do both on different days to keep our internal micro-organisms guessing rather than us being predictable.
To my animal-eating friends. That is your choice, but there is a LOT of clear data to be found that demonstrates that in the long run, it does more harm than good.
Also, the idea of needing to eat three times a day along with snacks is probably just a dumb idea from the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the need to create human resources that needed to be working all day long.
There really seems to be something about allowing the body to rest as long as possible between feedings but not really something found in extended fasting unless death is looming.
Anyhow…These are just some thoughts.
P.S. And we should all probably be getting a little more direct sunlight on our skin regularly. And the more melanin one has in their skin, the more is needed.
Simply put…Insufficient electrolytes and subsequent imbalances. Not enough of ALL of the needed electrolytes, with excesses of some, like potassium.
Water and electrolytes are essential to our health. Electrolytes take on a positive or negative charge when they dissolve in your body fluid. This enables them to conduct electricity and move electrical charges or signals throughout your body. These charges are crucial to many functions that keep you alive, including the operation of your brain, nerves, and muscles, and the creation of new tissue.
Simply put, bad things happen over long frames of time that often go unnoticed because of the slow crawl towards the disease states of these deficiencies.
I am not suggesting salting your foods by any means. But I am suggesting looking at the ways to get ENOUGH of ALL of the needed electrolytes for OPTIMAL human functionality and longevity of years.
And a raw vegan diet in my humble opinion is not a way to accomplish that end.
I intend to attend my birthday at 120 years with a body that looks and feels no more than a robust 34. And I will do what it takes to get there. Even admitting when I have been wrong in practice.
“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 that is referred to as 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 to also 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 though 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 are not appropriate for human consumption and that the healthiest of 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 already in removing all of the 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.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could point to a Golden Age of dietary bliss as a standard for life?
I’ve been looking for the perfect diet for the last 4+ years of my life. Over that time I have continued to refine my own dietary and lifestyle practices in accordance with everything I am learning. If there is something I find that I have been doing that could be improved, I don’t hesitate. Out with the old and in with the new. My willingness to change for the sake of improvement is about the only thing still the same after these 4+ years.
One thing that has remained consistently true the whole way is efficiency and conservation of resources. That my body benefits the most when I meet its overall needs at the overall lowest metabolic cost. The greatest amount of nutrients assimilated for the least amount of effort. Simply put…Be easy on my body. Don’t make it work any harder than it needs to in accessing its energy and building blocks composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus.
I’ve found that the best way to accomplish this is with a whole-food/plant-based diet. And I’ve come to this conclusion, because of the design of our digestive tract, how it functions, and finally taking into consideration the microbial life that inhabits our digestive tract. Some five to eight pounds of microbial life just like the life I find in an acre of topsoil. Some 300 to 500 different kinds of bacteria containing nearly 2 million genes living happily with other tiny organisms like archaea, viruses, and fungi, they make what’s known as the microbiota, or the microbiome.
So I’m thinking…
What are the preferred foods of bacteria and the rest of his gut buddies? What would a thriving acre of topsoil best be served by? What would be the easiest for those topsoil inhabitants to digest and what would be the most difficult?
Seems like the answer should be simple for anyone to answer. Feed our body by properly feeding our microbes.
Reading Time: 3 Minutes – Author: Michael J Loomis
I believe that we are creators by nature. And in that sense, any creation implies a creator.
Good old Biofilm Earth is one continual act of creation. Birth, lifespan, death, and rebirth. And carbon is the basis of the clay in the hands of our maker as it is in ours and that which we make.
We love to build labor-saving devices. Technologies that extend our natural abilities to supernatural levels. Think John Deere and Caterpillar.
Go visit the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and just look all around. Then take a look back at yourself. See any similarities?
We are an assemblage of a host and the many other species living in, on, or around us, along with the ones that became us. Together we form a discrete ecological unit. Are we not a bio-mechanical extension of the other 99% of DNA-based species that call us home?
The components of a holobiont are individual species or bionts, while the combined genome of all bionts is the hologenome, THE HUMAN.
Maybe it is us that is the heavy lift for the microbial life that inhabits not only the internal terrain of Biofilm Earth, but also our skin, inside and out. Maybe it is us that accomplishes the greater good of those things that worked so hard for so many millennia to realize that they just needed a big help. And so we were formed from the dust of the earth.
Maybe it is not us that is genetically modifying our fruits and vegetables for our good. How selfish. Maybe it is those lifeforms that are utilizing us, influencing us to do their bidding of accelerating their genetic evolution. From a simple field of grass to an ear of robust corn and head of wheat to provide simple energy that just falls to the ground for our creator’s liking.
And all those bacteria, yeast, and fungi needed to do was create us. To do their bidding. To do their heavy lifting. To solve their food problem as they overpopulated Biofilm Earth.
Reading Time: 2 Minutes – Author: Michael J Loomis
I don’t think I could demonstrate this any better myself.
As I’ve been researching human physiology and disease pathology over the last four years, one thing has stood out very clearly. That everything associated with all forms of virus is ultimately resulting in the body detoxifying itself so that it can make it further down the road.
And detoxification is ALWAYS a good thing for longevity. However, some people live such a toxic lifestyle and are so filled with toxins that a detox event could ultimately be FATAL.
And this is the downside of viruses as we are now witnessing in the world today.
Please take a moment and consider this. Yes, we call it ‘DIS’ease because quite frankly, it’s not easy. It is just the opposite. ‘DIS’easy.
Reading Time: 4-5 Minutes – 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.
A carnivore’s teeth are long, sharp, and pointed. These are tools that are useful for the task of piercing into flesh. Omnivore’s (meat and plant eaters) teeth are similar to that of carnivores. Man’s, as well as other herbivore’s teeth, are not pointed, but flat-edged. These are useful tools for biting, crushing, and grinding.
A carnivore’s jaws move up and down with minimal sideways motion. The jaw motion of an omnivore is similar. These are tools that are useful for the tasks of shearing, ripping and tearing flesh and swallowing it whole. Omnivores swallow their food whole and/or with simple crushing. Man’s, as well as other herbivore’s jaws cannot shear, but have good side to side and back to front motion. These are tools that are useful for extensive chewing, crushing and grinding of grains and other high fiber foods. Animal flesh cannot be crushed, ground and chewed with the tools Yahweh gave man without some degenerating process such as cooking or frying.
A carnivore or omnivore’s saliva does not contain digestive enzymes. Man’s, as well as other herbivore’s saliva is alkaline, containing carbohydrate digestive enzymes.
A carnivore’s stomach secretes powerful digestive enzymes with about 10 times the amount of hydrochloric acid than a human or herbivore. The pH is less than or equal to “1” with food in the stomach, for a carnivore or omnivore. For humans or other herbivores, the pH ranges from 4 to 5 with food in the stomach. Hence, man must prepare his meats with laborious cooking or frying methods. E. Coli bacteria, salmonella, campylobacter, trichina worms [parasites] or other pathogens would not survive in the stomach of a lion.
A carnivore’s or omnivore’s small intestine is three to six times the length of its trunk. This is a tool designed for rapid elimination of food that rots quickly. Man’s, as well as other herbivore’s small intestines are 10 to 12 times the length of their body, and winds itself back and forth in random directions. This is a tool designed for keeping food in it for long enough periods of time so that all the valuable nutrients and minerals can be extracted from it before it enters the large intestine.
A carnivore’s or omnivore’s large intestine is relatively short and simple, like a pipe. This passage is also relatively smooth and runs fairly straight so that fatty wastes high in cholesterol can easily slide out before they start to putrefy. Man’s, as well as other herbivore’s large intestines, or colons, are puckered and pouched, an apparatus that runs in three directions (ascending, traversing and descending), designed to hold wastes that originally were foods high in water content. This is so that the fluids can be extracted from these wastes, now that all the useful nutrients and minerals have been extracted and the long journey through the small intestine is over. Substances high in fat and cholesterol that have been putrefying for hours during their long stay in the small intestine tend to get stuck in the pockets that line the large intestine.
Animal flesh, composed of the most highly complex type of protein that exists, requires vast amounts of uric acid to process. Uric acid is released into the system in amounts necessary to break proteins down into amino acids. Uric acid is a toxic substance responsible for the aging process and must be flushed out and dealt with. That is one of the jobs of the liver. In relative terms, a carnivore’s liver is a tool designed with the capacity to eliminate ten times as much uric acid as the liver of man or other plant eater.
A predator has a gait, large paws and claws, which enable him to hunt, chase and trap his prey. These are tools meant to kill. Man’s gait, as well as other herbivore’s is designed only for mobility. Examine your hand, fingers and fingernails. Is this an apparatus properly designed for catching, trapping, killing and ripping apart cattle, hogs, chicken and fish? How does this work for picking fruit from trees or harvesting vegetables? The foods your hands were meant to gather are typically, high in water content, high also in fiber to sweep the wastes out of those intestines, and collectively contain every vitamin and mineral necessary to sustain human life.
A carnivore’s frame of mind is totally geared for hunting and killing. Man’s frame of mind is compassionate, friendly and reveres life. When the lion spots another furry animal, something might instinctively click in his head that tells him to hurry up and get dinner. When man spots a furry animal, rather than show his children how to take its life and eat it, a more likely instinct is to pull over, get the camera out and take a picture. Put a young baby chick and an apple in a crib with a six-month-old baby. What will he instinctively attempt to eat and play with?
Man is not a natural hunter. Every predator, in order to go hunting, MUST be hungry. Man cannot go hunting if he IS hungry! He must have a meal first. Hunger must precede a predator to go hunting. Hunger must follow man’s desire to go hunting, it cannot precede it.
Just like the natural world around me, my body, in a sense, has a “Mother Nature.”
Let that sink in and simmer for a moment. I call It “Soma Nature.”
Soma Nature is a personification of my body’s nature that focuses on the life-giving, life-preserving, and nurturing aspects of my body by embodying it in the form of a parental figure.
