CHAPTER SIX:  Your Food Choices

THE P R O B L E M

Junk Food Junkies

Just two generations ago, people ate more fruits and vegetables because that was the most readily available food source. In all but the most urban areas, most people had gardens, chickens, and even their own cow. The food sources were truly organic and very fresh. In the 1940’s and 1950’s we began to see hamburger joints serving French fries and soda pop. More people went to grocery stores and a booming retail business was born. Thus began the marketing agenda to make us all into junk food junkies. We need to return to a simpler eating style if we want to be truly healthy.

How do I get good nutrition into my body?

1. Macronutrients are high-quality proteins, carbohydrates, fats and water.

2. Micronutrients are enzymes, greens, fiber, probiotics, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and essential fatty acids in the form of supplements.

What is a Macronutrient?

Macronutrients are food sources needed by the body in large amounts. The four macronutrients are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and water. Most people will benefit from a balanced meal with a ratio of 40% carbohydrates, 30%  protein, and 30% fat of caloric intake.  We should also cleanse and oxygenate our body every day with 70% of our body weight in ounces of water.

Any fad diet that requires the reduction of any macronutrient in relation to the other macronutrients is not balanced. The “low fat” craze in the 90’s caused people to cut all fats, which resulted in many serious illnesses due to a deficiency of good fats. A low carb diet is not feasible for most people because the body needs carbohydrates for energy production. High-protein diets can be very hard on your kidneys. Be wise and remember that balance is the key to good health.

What is a Micronutrient?

Micronutrients are food elements such as vitamins, minerals, enzymes, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids that strengthen or balance specific body systems. Micronutrients should be present in healthy foods that you choose. However, they are necessary to take in supplement form to supply what the body does not make on its own, to compensate for dietary deficiencies, or to strengthen a system that has been weakened.  

 Healthy foods should provide micronutrients.Unhealthy foods are not only deficient in micronutrients, but can actually deplete your body of micronutrients. The body has mechanisms for storing some micronutrients, but the supply needs to be replenished daily in both food and supplements.

Micronutrients for Illness

Selecting Supplements

Thousands of beneficial supplements are available on the market. How could you possibly know what they all do? We researched many product lines and selected a combination of products that offer the greatest number of benefits for your body.You no longer need to take 20 different supplements to accomplish 20 different things in your body. You can now take a combination of only 7 supplements that will have hundreds of benefits to your body.

I get so confused about what to eat, is there a simple plan I can do everyday?

STEP ONE: Always pick your protein first and then plan your entire meal around it.

Protein is the macronutrient that builds and maintains muscle. If you do not eat enough protein, muscle density is lost and metabolism slows down dramatically.  The opposite occurs when you have sufficient protein; muscle density increases and metabolism is enhanced. The body uses protein to rebuild and repair itself. Much of your body is made of protein, including your hair, skin, nails, blood, muscles, hormones, enzymes, and neurotransmitters. 

The body uses protein to rebuild and repair itself. If you do not eat enough protein, the body will start to break down existing body protein to supply itself. When this happens, muscle density is lost and the metabolism slows down dramatically.

Eating enough protein will also ensure that you don’t get hungry until your next meal and will help to keep you from craving sweets and junk food. 

Some good sources of protein are lean beef, skinless chicken and turkey, lamb, fish, cheese, eggs (or other dairy products), legumes (beans), nuts, seeds, low-fat tofu, protein powder, and many other plants.

STEP TWO: Select 1-3 Healthy Complex Carbohydrates

40% of your calories at each meal should come from complex carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates Affect Blood Sugar

Carbohydrates include such foods as vegetables, fruits, juices, legumes, starches, whole grains, and all sugary sweet foods. High-carbohydrate foods are digested bythe body and converted into glucose (blood sugar), which is then sent to the bloodstream to be burned as energy. When you eat a meal that is too high in carbohydrates, too much glucose goes to the bloodstream too rapidly. This generates a biochemical response that causes your body to burn glucose in the blood for fuel rather than stored body fat.

High-glycemic foods, such as white bread, white flour, pasta, rice and potatoes, release their sugars into the bloodstream even faster than table sugar does. Foods high in refined sugar are also highly glycemic. Choose low-glycemic foods whenever possible. If you must eat a high-glycemic food, combine it with a high fiber food. Fiber slows the release of sugar into the bloodstream.

A better choice is to eat carbohydrates that are high in fiber, low in starch, and low in sugar. Some good sources of such carbs are: apples, apricots, cherries, grapefruits, peaches, plums, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, oatmeal, rye, wild rice, black beans, kidney beans, and lentils.

STEP THREE: Select Healthy Fats in the form of sauces and condiments.

30% of your calories at each meal should come from healthy fats.

Watch Out for Bad Fats

Not all fats are good, either. The “bad” fats are called trans fats, since they contain trans fatty acids, and are found in hydrogenated oils. Start reading the ingredient lists on your boxed foods and you will see that many products contain hydrogenated oils. Keep these foods to a minimum or avoid them altogether.

Some sources of “good” fats are avocados, cold water fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna, herring, etc.), raw nuts, nut butters, seeds, safflower-based mayonnaise, flaxseed oil, olive oil, safflower oil, sesame oil, and sunflower oil.

STEP FOUR: Select just enough water to moisten the food you are eating, but not so much that it dilutes your enzymes.

Drink Before You Get Thirsty

Drink water even if you are not thirsty. By the time the thirst mechanism is activated, a person is already 2 percent dehydrated. A 2 percent drop in hydration correlates to a 20 percent drop in energy. Sipping water throughout the day is usually better for the body than drinking a large amount all at once.

Try not to drink water 20 minutes before or after meals because too many liquids will dilute your digestive enzymes. If you must have water with your meal, drink just enough room temperature water to moisten the food you are eating. Warmer water is easier on an active digestive system.

Benefits of Water

• Eliminates dehydration symptoms

• Flushes out the kidneys

• Reduces feelings of hunger

•Thirst is often mistaken for hunger. When you first feel hungry, drink a glass of water and see if the hunger craving goes away.

• Maintains energy levels

• Increases immune system efficiency

• Keeps skin looking young

• Keeps the brain active

• Purifies the blood

• Flushes out the small and large intestine

• Improves circulation

• Affects regulation of body temperature

• Lubricates the entire body, including muscles and joints

• Oxygenates the brain and body

• Assists the digestive and intestinal systems

Sources of Water

Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Chlorine is the element most commonly used for water purification in America and worthy of more attention from the public. Joseph M. Price, MD, believes that the present epidemic of heart disease, cancer, and senility began with chlorinating our drinking water. Other effective methods for water purification have been invented for use by city municipalities, but those methods are more expensive than chlorination.

Until changes are made to the general water supply, the best options for health are to use a water purifier at home or select purified bottled water. The best water purifiers use reverse osmosis and/or ozonation  to remove unwanted elements from drinking water. If neither of these options is available, it is better to drink tap water than to not drink water at all.

Your healthy food choices will help cleanse the impurities. For example, when filtered water is not available at a restaurant, ask for lemon with your glass of water when ordering. The lemon will help purify the water and make it more pleasant to drink.

STEP FIVE: Select the appropriate amount of micronutrients in the form of enzymes, greens, fiber, and probiotics to digest, absorb, and eliminate the meal.

• How many enzymes will you need so that you don’t get bloating, belching, or gas from this food?

• How many greens will you need to balance out the lack of vegetables and to balance the acidity of the foods you are eating?

• How many probiotics do you need to help you digest the food and to rebalance your immune system and put the “good guy” bacteria back into your intestine?

• How many fiber capsules will you need because the foods you selected are not high enough in fiber?

STEP SIX: Select micronutrients to make sure that you are getting an adequate amount of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids.

Are the foods you are eating full of fresh, unprocessed, raw vegetables, whole grains and good healthy sources of fat? If not, then you will need to supplement with a multi-vitamin/minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids. If your foods are somewhat healthy choices, you may only need a half of each of these supplements. Or, you may not need one of them, but you need the other two. A general guideline is to take one of each of the three mega-nutrients with each of your three meals. The only exception is to avoid taking a multi vitamin/mineral at dinner because the B vitamins in the supplement may keep you awake at night.

STEP SEVEN: Pay attention to how you are feeling.

During your meal and for up to about 2 hours after your meal, pay close attention to how you are feeling. Are you bloated, belching, gassy, tired, headachy, or have an acid stomach? You should feel better after you eat, not worse. If you feel worse, you didn’t select the right foods for what your body needed at that meal and/or you didn’t select the right nutrients to help you process the foods you ate.

DAILY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE

1. It’s the Least Expensive Way to Maintain Health

2. The Doctor Says to Do It

In his book, What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You, Dr. Ray Strand describes the misguided assumption that meeting the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for nutrients will result in optimum health. He contends that the RDAs, which were developed in the 1930s to prevent scurvy (deficiency of vitamin C) and pellagra (deficiency of niacin), are not sufficient to combat degenerative disease. For example, the RDA for vitamin E is 10-30 IU. According to medical studies, no health benefits will be experienced unless you are taking from 400 to 1000 IU of vitamin E.

Lest you think you can “just eat healthy” and get the nutrients you need, Dr. Strand says that you must consume the following quantities of these foods to get 450 IU of vitamin E: 33 heads of spinach, 80 medium avocados, 2 pounds of sunflower seeds or 23 cups of wheat germ. You would have to do that every day. His book details an amazing list of food quantities for other vitamins. One was particularly interesting. How many oranges would you guess you would need to eat in order to get an optimum amount of vitamin C? The answer is 22 medium oranges. Most of us think we are eating healthy if we eat just one orange per day.

3. Foods are Grown in Nutrient-poor Soil

As early as 1936 reports were being issued that described the alarming reduction of minerals in the soils used for farming in America. The situation has worsened since then. In fact, the Earth Summit of 1992 reported that minerals in North American soil had been depleted by 85% in the last 100 years. Farmers can barely afford to continue farming and that is why they do not spend extra money on organic fertilizers that contain all the minerals we need.

4. The Food Industry Puts Harmful Additives in Our Food

“Give us this day our daily calcium proprionate (spoilage retarder), sodium diacetate (mold inhibitor), monoglyceride (emulsifier), potassium bromate (maturing agent), calcium phosphate monobasic (dough conditioner), chloramine T (flour bleach), aluminum potassium sulfate acid (baking powder ingredient), sodium benzoate (preservative), butalated hurdroxyanisole (antioxidant), monoisopropyl citrate (sequestrant); plus synthetic vitamins A and D.  Forgive us, O Lord, for calling this stuff BREAD.” This prayer lists only a few of the up to 93 different chemicals that maybe added to “enriched” bread.

Americans struggle to eat properly due to our fast-paced lifestyle and perceived need for convenience. In a perfect world, we would eat plenty of raw organic fruits, vegetables, and organic whole grains and beans from rich soil sources, which would give us all the micronutrients our bodies need to maintain good health. However, we eat grocery store processed foods that not only may contain very few vitamins, minerals, and enzymes, but may also have an abundance of synthetic chemicals, preservatives, and additives. You could even be exposed to or ingest pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and hormones. Choosing foods with questionable additives and reduced nutritional value creates two problems:

1. The body becomes malnourished and overly toxic.

2. An overly toxic malnourished body is the perfect environment for illness to thrive. 

We are exposed to too many chemicals in the environment (five new ones each day), especially anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics, which harm beneficial intestinal flora. MSG, nitrates and sulfates added to our food and chlorine in our water also negatively affect our health.

One of the major battles we all face is eliminating the chemicals and toxins stored in our bodies after ingesting foods from questionable sources over the course of our lifetimes. Taking supplements helps your body battle toxic substances, lessen their negative impact, and remove them from the body. Keep from reintroducing chemicals into your body when you are working so hard to clean it out. Try to avoid cleaning supplies and other harmful chemicals.

5. We Haven’t Been Absorbing Properly

6. We Eat Cooked and Processed Food Instead of Raw,

Living Food

Cooking and processing destroys the vitamins and enzymes in foods. Scientists have used special photographic equipment to measure the energy in foods. Fresh broccoli has a large glow around it. A cereal flake has one tiny point of light. Raw Healthy Live Food Cooked and Processed Dead Food

7. Let’s Face It, We’re Never Going to Eat Perfectly

It’s a fact of life that we can learn about eating properly, but the American lifestyle still doesn’t allow for perfect eating. We are always on the go, requiring quick meals or eating out. If you really want to be healthy, you don’t have to give up everything you enjoy! Just learn to do more of the right things, like supplementing.

Understand the 40% Complex Carbs, 30% Protein and 30% Fats model a little better.

Most people who begin to evaluate their food combinations will be amazed that most of their meals are unbalanced. The typical American diet is highest in bad fat, high in poor carbohydrates, and low in digestible protein. In fact, 40% of the American diet consists of low-quality fats. Below is a table that describes how to properly combine the elements of your food into a “balanced meal.”

MACRONUTRIENTS

Healthy Carbohydrates, Protein, Fat, and Water that are naturally full of enzymes, greens, fiber, probiotics, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids

Complex Carbohydrates – Obtain approximately 40% of your total meal calories from the good carbohydrates (vegetables, beans & whole grains) that you can digest.

Simple Carbohydrates – Snack between meals on fruits, fruit juices and other healthy sweets with the majority of your water intake.

Protein – Obtain approximately 30% of your total meal calories from protein sources you can easily digest

Fat – Obtain approximately 30% of your total food calories from the good fats and from sources you can digest

Supplements that help compensate for nutrient deficiencies

Be sure to supplement your diet with plenty of these during and between meals.

Consider using the 80/20 ratio. 80 percent of the time, eat things that are good for you, and the remaining 20 percent of the time, eat what you really want. Many of us live the opposite way, eating what is good for us only 20 percent of the time.The reason we fail at choosing healthy foods is that we select foods from lists that are too restrictive or too bizarre. We can do something different for a while, but it must become a part of who we are or we will abandon it. You will find that after you eat healthy for a while, you will want healthy foods more than unhealthy foods.

Choose to live by principles instead of rules. Rules say, “do this and don’t do that.” Rules are made to be broken, right? Principles are statements of basic truth.  Truth cannot be broken. An example of a principle of healthy food choices is “Organic food is better than non-organic food.” The principle does not say, “Don’t buy non-organic food.” It’s just stating a truth. When faced with a choice between an organic and non-organic food, the principle will guide your choice.

Tips for Success

• Take this challenge: See if you can refrain from eating any white bread, white flour, pasta, rice and potatoes for two weeks. You will quickly see how much of your diet is based on these foods.

• Replace unhealthy, unbalanced meals with healthy, balanced meals.

• In the Alkalize and Absorb chapter, we described the importance of maintaining an optimum pH balance in order to maximize absorption of nutrients. One way to adjust your internal pH is through choosing foods that help adjust your pH. For a complete list of alkalizing foods order the book we list in the 7 Secrets for Success chapter called Alkalize or Die.

• Take some of your 7 supplements with each meal to make sure you properly digest and absorb nutrients and eliminate waste from the meal.

• Take some of your 7 supplements to make sure you get an adequate supply of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids with each meal.

• Listen to your body and eventually eliminate foods you know are not healthy for you.

• In between meals keep checking to see if you feel like you need any additional of the 7 supplements. For example, if you feel acidic, you might take more of the greens. If you feel bloated, you might take more of the enzymes and probiotics. If you feel like you’re getting sick, you may take more of everything.

• As far as you have the ability to choose, select foods that are certified organic.

•If you must purchase produce from non-organic sources, wash the produce thoroughly with a cleanser safe to be used with food (a waterrinse is not enough to remove pesticides or wax coatings).

•Consider growing your own vegetables.

•Eat food that looks like you harvested it yourself. Any food that does not spoil is not truly alive.

• Put a good water purifier between your glass and the water tap spigot.

• Always keep an adequate supply of your DAILY 7 supplements. Get in the habit of ordering when the bottles are about ¼ full so that you have time to pick them up or have them shipped. If you run out of one or more of them continue to take the ones you do have until your new supply arrives.  Something is better than nothing. However, the full benefits occur with all seven ingredients working together.

• Ordering products on line at www.daily7.com is the most efficient way to order both workbooks and supplements.

•The DAILY 7 vitamin boxes are inexpensive so we recommend keeping several of them full of the products in all the locations where you eat, such as on the kitchen table, your desk at work, your car, your purse, coat pocket, and your favorite chair by the television.

• Help others regain their optimum weight and health by sharing your DAILY 7 success stories with them and helping them order their own Superpack .  Share some of your DAILY 7 supplements with them to let them try it.

Important Note

Success is found in implementing all of the DAILY 7 Nutrition for Life concepts. If you are not getting positive changes doing the DAILY 7 system, please re-read the book. The more of these concepts you can implement, the faster you will see results.

Remember this is a health journey, not a one-time event. It took many years to get into your current health and weight situation and it will take diligence and consistency to reverse it. This is not a program to try; it is a DAILY system to utilize for the rest of your life.

Eat the appropriate combinations of nutritious and digestible proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and water.  Balance your body with a full spectrum of enzymes, greens, fiber, probiotics, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids through supplementation.

1. Select 1 healthy protein.

2. Select 1-3 healthy carbohydrates.

3. Select healthy fats in the form of sauces and condiments.

4. Select the appropriate amount of healthy beverages (preferably water).

5. Select the appropriate amounts of enzymes, greens, fiber and probiotics to make sure you digest, absorb, and eliminate everything you are eating.

6. Select the appropriate amount of multi-vitamin/minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids to make sure you are getting an adequate amount of nutrients.

7. Pay attention to how you are feeling during and after your meal.

Selecting Foods for Each Meal

Select the items in order for each meal. Choose 1 protein from the list, 1-3 Complex carbohydrates, and 1 fat. Drink minimal liquids during meals. The best choices are at the top of each list. When shopping, look for products with these labels: Certified organic, organic, fresh, raw, locally grown, in season, free range, natural, and whole.

 Step 1 - Select 1 healthy protein

Turkey, Chicken, Eggs

Fish (tuna in water, sea bass, flounder, sole, halibut, cod, wild Alaskan salmon, trout, talapia)

Legumes: beans, lentils, peas

Soybean products:  tofu, miso, tempe, veggie burgers, soy cheese

Nuts: almonds, cashews, chestnuts, hazelnuts, nut butters, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pistachios, walnuts

Seeds: sunflower, sesame, pumpkin

Protein Powders:   soy, whey, rice, vegetable

Beef:   lean, grass-fed

Dairy:   milk, yogurt, cheese

 Step 2 - Select 1-3 healthy carbohydrates

Vegetables: many contain protein

Grains: whole grains

Vegetables: artichoke, asparagus, beans, legumes, bean sprouts, beet, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, garlic, kale, leaf lettuce, mushroom, olive, onion, parsley, peas, potato, pumpkin, radish, red peppers, spinach, squash, sweet potato, turnip, watercress, yam

Rice: brown, wild, couscous, kasha

Grains: (whole) wheat, millet, rye, spelt, rolled oats, wheat germ, flaxseed, bulgar, barley, rice, buckwheat, corn, sprouted

Pasta: whole wheat, rice, spelt, vegetable 

Eat Simple Carbohydrates between meals:  Fruits: apple, apricot, banana, blueberry, cherry, cranberry, coconut, fig, grapefruit, grape, kiwifruit, lemon, lime, mango, melons, orange, pear, pineapple, plums, prunes, papaya, peach, strawberries, tomato, watermelon

Step 3 - Select healthy fats in the form of sauces and condiments

Avocado

Nuts: almonds, cashews, nut butters, pecans

Oils: coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil

Butter (organic)

Mayonnaise (Organic or homemade)

 Step 4 - Select the appropriate amount of healthy beverages

Water: Purified

Tea: green, herbal

Soy milk

Coffee: herbal, decaffeinated

Fruit juice:  100%, fresh

Select the appropriate amount of multivitamin/minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids (fish oil) to get adequate nutrients with that meal.

 Step 7 - Pay attention to how you are feeling during & after your meal

Pay attention to how you feel during and after your meal. Take more supplements if needed.