The landscape of nutritional information is vast and varied. It can be quite confusing to most people. There are so many conflicting opinions of what is correct nutrition that even most doctors really have very little understanding about it.

What we will share with you is what we believe to be the best guiding principles about nutrition. The fact is that there is so much genetic variation among people that there is no “one size fits all” approach.

We can make some general statements which will be true for humans, in general. Then there are even more statements which will be more specific to people from certain geographic regions (i.e., Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, etc.) Next, we can make more specific statements about certain body types, and about men versus women, and then in the context of family history. Finally, we can take the perspective of certain specific nutrients being superior over others, (i.e., high carb, low protein; high protein, low fat; vegetarian versus meat eater, etc.) Most of the books about nutrition have some merit. Our experience has been that they are correct in most of the information presented, but they are incomplete. To steal Paul Harvey’s phrase, there is always “the rest of the story”.

So, how do we make sense of all this?

There are some basic universal principles that are true about nutrition. (More on those is a moment.) Then there is your own personal physiology and how you have adapted or compensated to your environment. What we will do is take a look at where you are right now, using various tests, and then use that information within the context of the universal nutrition principles, to help you design a plan that is specific to your body, at this present moment in time. By looking at you on a cellular level, and with in the context of your current environment and past history, our process will help guide you from your current state of health (or lack of health) to a closer approximation of your genetic potential, over time. When rebuilding the body, there are no quick fixes!

So, what are these basic principles? (Note: This information is presented for educational purposes only and does not replace the guidance of a qualified health care provider.)

1. Food is energy.

When we say energy, we don’t simply mean calories. In a broader context, food is nothing more than solar energy.

If you understand that energy is never created or destroyed and that it only changes state, you’ll get that food is simply an altered form of solar energy. After all, what makes life on earth possible is our approximation to the sun. With out the sun, we would not exist.

Here’s how it works…

The sun beats down. It warms the soil which is laden with inorganic minerals. Seeds in the soil grow and through the process of photosynthesis, they grow by converting inorganic minerals into organic minerals…they absorb the minerals and make them part of the tissue of the plant. With out the right ratio and proportion of these minerals, the plan can not be optimally healthy. Now a little animal comes along and eats the plant. The animal’s body now converts the energy from the plant into building its body. The proper ratio and proportion of minerals in the tissue of the plant (which was based upon the ratio in the soil) will determine the optimal health of the animal. Along comes a person and either eats the plant, the animal, or both. Now the energy is converted into building the body of the human. The health of the human depends upon that person getting the correct “replacement parts” from eating the plant or animal. The right replacement parts are determined by the ratio and proportion of minerals in the tissues of the plant or animal, which was dependent upon the correct balance in the soil so that the suns energy could be changed into the tissue of a plant.

2. Minerals are the key.

As you can see from the discussion above, minerals are critical. We’ve all heard the saying, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” When you die, and if you are cremated, all that is ultimately left is about nine dollars worth of mineral ash. There are no proteins, enzymes, vitamins, carbohydrates, fats, etc.; just minerals.

To put the importance of minerals in the proper context, we use what we call the ‘UPS analogy’. If you think of a company like UPS or Fedex, its primary purpose is to transport things around so that other things can run properly. How efficiently and effectively that shipping system runs influences how well other systems run.

So, let’s look more closely at the UPS system.

There are a bunch of packages, boxes, cartons and the like. All these “deliverables” have a specific destination and purpose. Let’s say these packages represent the various vitamins, proteins, fats and carbohydrates that we eat.

Next, we have a bunch of trucks, vans, airplanes, cars, etc. These vehicles all operate on designated routes and carry specific types of packages. We’ll say that the vehicles represent the enzymes of the body.

So far, we have a pretty good transport system. We have a bunch of packages and a bunch of vehicles to move those packages around…what’s missing?

Drivers and loaders!

If we took broke the UPS system into the three groups and took the total weight each group, the people would make up a fraction of the total weight of the other two. Without them, though, the entire system comes to a screeching halt! If we don’t have the correct ratio of drivers for the various vehicles, the system will limp along, but it won’t operate at its peak capability or efficiency. That’s how important the minerals are to the body!

The only way your body can get the proper ratio and proportion of minerals is for the plants and animals you eat to have them. The only way that happens is for the soil to have the proper ratio and proportion. Only then, will the full power of the sun be converted into a usable form for maximum growth and regeneration of all the living systems on earth.

Here is a sad reality…

Today’s soil has been so horribly over farmed and the nutrients extracted at such a rate without proper replacement, that it’s virtually impossible to get the correct ratio and proportion of minerals from your food. Add to that equation the over processing of foods and it’s not surprising that Americans are so sick. Every symptom and disease is ultimately a nutrient deficiency! Every drug will create a nutrient deficiency! Knowing this, doesn’t it make sense to bring the body’s ratio and proportion of minerals back to balance rather than mask the symptom? Of course is does!

Here’s the problem, though. Bringing the body back to balance is not a quick fix. It takes time…sometimes a few years. But, by restoring it back to optimal balance, you are treating your condition at the foundational level. Once you do that, your body will make the best use of the foods you eat, it will convert the energy into optimal function and you will be much closer to achieving your genetic potential for health.

3. Only live foods make live bodies.

This is such an obvious statement that it’s not obvious.

Remember, it’s all about energy. A live food is not only a food that has a bunch of nutrients and calories in it. It also resonates at a certain frequency of energy. Man has NEVER been able to make a food in a lab that can truly replace what nature can produce. The reason is that we have not been able to figure out how to convert solar energy into the process. Therefore, man-made (or laboratory engineered food) may taste good (usually because it’s laden with a ton of chemicals that trick the brain into thinking it’s great tasting.) but it will never be able to supply the body with the correct ratio and proportion of nutrients, nor will it provide the body with the energy frequencies to help the cells repair and regenerate.

There is a simple principle we teach…If it rots, eat it…just eat it before it rots! (Unless you are purposely fermenting it, which, for some foods, is a great idea) Food with a long shelf life is not life giving food. This is exactly why Americans are over fed and under nourished. We have a ton of great tasting calories but we are not giving our bodies the “genuine replacement parts.

4. Everybody needs whole food supplementation in today’s world.

As mentioned above, the soil that your food is being grown in is depleted of minerals. It is also very toxic with chemicals and poisons. These toxins and chemicals get absorbed into the tissues of the plants and animals. The problem is compounded with drugs, hormones, and other chemicals that are fed directly to the animals that will enter your food chain. This creates a toxic and nutrient deficient environment in your body. The body, in its drive to survive, will “rob Peter to pay Paul” in order to maintain some semblance of balance. The problem is that the more it is forced to compensate, the more out of balance it becomes, and the more it will have to compensate. (Sound familiar from the discussion of structure?)

You body is designed to handle toxins. The problem in today’s environment, however, is that your bodies natural detoxification systems are not only overwhelmed by the amount of chemical stressors you are exposed to by simply living in this day and time, but the proper replacement parts are not being supplied in order to maintain optimal function. This is like a factory getting overwhelmed with work orders. It may be able to add shifts and workers to the assembly line in order to respond to the increased demand, but if it can’t get the right parts, everything begins to break down.

Many Americans are taking multi-vitamins. The intention is sound, however, the quality of the products are often inferior. If your supplements are not a whole food concentration, they will be of limited long term use.

5. Eat your fats!

This is one of the most highly charged topics among nutritionists, researchers, and doctors.

All the guidelines circulating through the medical associations and public health departments tout the benefits of a low fat, lean meat, high carbohydrate diet. As was proven by Dr. Weston A. Price and published in his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, these guidelines are terribly misguided.

Your body needs saturated fat and it needs cholesterol along with a number of other good fats. The cells of your body are made of saturated fats. Cholesterol is the building block to all the hormones in your body. Just because we have drugs that are able to make the total cholesterol decrease on a blood test, doesn’t mean we should be doing it!

Entire books have been written about this flawed hypothesis about avoiding saturated fat and cholesterol. The facts, when examined relative to the diets of the healthiest groups of people in the world, do not support it. The healthiest traditional diets consisted of high protein, high saturated fat, high mineral content vegetables and tubers, and relatively low grain. Heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes were virtually unknown in those societies. The fact is that those conditions were extremely rare even at the turn of the 20^th century in America. The incidence of all of them have increased exponentially since the 1950’s with the advent of highly processed, packaged foods and the use of hydrogenated vegetable oils in place of butter, lard and tallow. (Good sources of health giving saturated fats.)

6. Grains are a non-essential food.

When we say non-essential, we mean just that. You can have incredible health and never eat grain, bread, pasta, oats, etc. Now, do those things taste good? Of course. But the point is that the human body did not evolve with a high grain intake; certainly not the genetically modified stuff that is used today, for sure.

Grains were traditionally reserved for times of famine. When they were eaten, they were freshly and crudely milled, soaked, sprouted or fermented. They were put through some sort of process of “pre-digestion”. The guideline on eight to eleven servings of whole grains a day is far too much. (Try and find a true ‘whole grain’ today.)

The high dependence on grains in the American diet is a major part of the health care crisis. Grains are broken into simple sugars. Too much sugar in the blood stream shoots insulin levels through the roof. That begins a cascade of events that over time lead to a resistance to insulin. The various systems of the body start to break down. Your adrenal glands begin to stop working properly. Your thyroid becomes erratic. You immune system becomes compromised and there goes your health…in a long, downward spiral.

7. Stay away from artificial sweeteners.

To put it very bluntly and in non-medical jargon…if you don’t want your brain and nervous system to become like Swiss cheese, don’t eat artificial sweeteners! This includes any sweetener that is produced in a lab and not found in nature. Aspartame is one of the worst. In his book, Excitotoxins, Dr. Bruce Blaylock does a very good job at describing what happens physiologically to the nervous system over time with the increased consumption of these sweeteners, as well as with MSG.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is another artificial sweetener that is wreaking havoc on the health of unsuspecting Americans. It is derived from corn and is inexpensive to make, therefore it has become the preferred sweetener in most foods and drinks. Even “healthy” drinks contain high fructose corn syrup. The problem is that HFCS is absorbed directly into the blood stream through the gut wall and bypasses the bodies’ normal process of checks and balances that regulate your blood sugar. This leads to a cascading series of overcompensations in your body that ultimately lead to a high risk of Type II Diabetes, hormone imbalances, degenerative arthritis and accelerated aging.

Refer back to point number 3…Only live foods make live bodies. ANY food manufactured in a laboratory or factory is not food. It may taste like food; it may smell like food, it might look like food. It may provide calories for your body to burn as energy like food. It will even keep your body alive for quite some time like food. It will NEVER, however, supply your body with the proper frequencies of energy and the “genuine replacement parts” to rebuild, regenerate and thrive.

Artificial sweeteners are used in diet products because they taste sweet but do not supply calories. The assumption is made that if something does not contribute to the overall caloric intake, it is safe to eat without worry of gaining weight. The problem is that these sweeteners confuse the neurochemistry in a way that your body actually converts useable calories to fat at a higher rate. The bottom line is that diet foods actually make you gain weight. (You’d think the Federal Trade Commission would look into this practice of false advertising…)

The Bottom Line…

No matter what you may be suffering from, know that there is some sort of nutrient imbalance. If you have been on medications of any kind, you have even further deficiencies as a result, no matter how much the drug has helped your symptoms.

Nutrition will solve many underlying causes to the common chronic problems Americans suffer from today. Optimal nutrition is one of the key factors to optimal gene expression, and therefore, optimal health.

We use many different tools to assess your nutrition status. The first one we recommend is a Tissue Mineral Analysis (TMA) since this will show the current ratio and proportion of minerals in your cells, as well as any exposure to heavy metals such as lead and mercury. This test is not a diagnostic test for a specific disease process. Rather, it will indicate certain trends in your body which may lead to a higher risk factor for various conditions. By using the TMA as a primary tool to analyze imbalances, we can help guide you back to a state of optimal balance and restore your health. Other tests, such as blood, urine, saliva, and stool tests may be performed as needed based upon your history and current condition.

The importance of the proper mineral balance in the cells of the body in far too often overlooked. As you now know from the discussion above, it is one of the most important baseline factors which need to be established in order to restore anybodies health.

Keep in mind that our nutritional therapies are not designed to treat any condition or symptom, but rather to address the systems that have become out of balance. Symptoms are an indication that the systems of the body are out of balance. Drugs do a great job of getting rid of symptoms. Individually designed nutrition will handle the systemic imbalances which lead to the symptoms that you would take the drug for.

We leave the prescribing of drugs to the medical doctors. It’s not in our scope of practice to make any recommendations about pharmaceutical medications and we believe that drugs have their place in treating disease. However, if you are interested in addressing the underlying imbalances in your nutrition and are willing to take the time, make the needed changes and want to regenerate your body that is expressing a disease, we will be happy to help you.

As you have read, you will be exposed to a different way of thinking about your problems. Many of the recommendations we will make may sound foreign, unfamiliar, and fly in the face of the main stream. The fact remains that we have seen the benefits of our recommendations, not only in the restoration of the health of hundreds of our patients, but in our own lives, as well. The only truth that anyone can ever share is what they know. The only things that we truly know are what we have personally experienced. (For more perspective read Dr. Pete’s article, “How we developed the Seven Essentials for Real Health.”)