We are living in an age of amazing technological advances and progress. This is a time of great change and is easy to feel at this point that anything is possible. We should be proud of our progress and achievements, yet there still is so much we need to learn, to change. To do so we need to begin to shift our understanding and focus to ourselves. That is where real change and progress occur and the easiest way of bringing about this change is with our diet. In terms of diet there has also been great progress and changes made. There has been a wealth of great and real information as to the connection between the foods we eat and the affect they have on our health. We listen a bit generally but tradition and habit are usually the stronger voice and it is easy for us to ignore the advice and information of the medical and scientific communities. As a vegan I did listen and began my own personal quest with food. My quest began as a simple change towards a healthier diet but the more I thought about it the more some very evident facts were made clear. I noticed that with my change in diet I was also experiencing changes in my health, my metal ability and clarity and my energy. That led to my beginning to question the absoluteness of aging and death as I could I believed finally answer the question man has or should have asked themselves throughout all of history. It is a simple question: why do we age and die. The answer is as simple and hidden in our traditions and history. What I discovered and believe is that we age and die because we all eat foods that we always have without question and these foods age us, make us ill and kill us. I believe that 95-99% of all diseases and aging are caused by our dietary choices, and that making permanent and major changes to our diet we can greatly prolong our lives, and youth, as well as prevent disease.The Bible states that the average age of man is between 120 and 140 years of age. The medical community has also released reports that the human body can live to 140 years of age.This being true, it is certainly alarming that our current average life span is only 76 years of age. There are four diseases that kill people: M.S., Cancer, Diabetes and Aging ( which include a variety of proven and believed to be dietary based conditions such as candida, arthritis, auto immune disorders, dementia, Alzheimer's, heart problems and attacks,and eye and hearing ailments). It is true that by following a completely healthy diet you can prevent forever your getting these diseases. The only other medical conditions are STDS, these- AIDS, Hepatitis B and C, Herpes and HPV can all be controlled and the symptoms reduced or virtually eliminated by making dietary changes. The medical and health community have told us a lot but there is a lot they don't know. I've spent the last five years doing research ( books, internet, personal experimentation and thought) and I come up with a diet that I feel will allow us to do what the medical community has been telling us is possible but can't seem to figure out.I am not a doctor but from what I have learnt from my own experience and my research shows that not all medical knowledge is out there and not all of it is even known. In other words they don't know everything and what they don't know can kill you. This is my diet plan. I created it by trial and error, research and intuition. It worked miracles for me physically emotionally and mentally. It might be able to do the same for you as well. Three Basic Steps (Rules) for a Completely Healthy Diet 1. Completely cut out all sugar, salt and bad fats (animal and trans fat) from your diet. I have found that merely cutting back does not work. There are so many substitutes for these ingredients and the foods that contain them that it makes no sense to kill yourself eating them. This is in essence what you are doing as it is known that these foods kill. This step is hard as these ingredients are in everything. I shop in health food stores and do basically all my own cooking. The world is slowly catching on and someday soon more and more foods are now available that are salt and sugar free. Sugar causes diabetes, and dramatically and negatively impairs our immune system as well as our ability to think and feel. Salt causes stress, hypertension, anxiety, cancer,circulation and vascular problems, and wrinkles. Both cause aging, both makes us sick and both will in the end help to kill us. Bad fats will also without a doubt kills us. They clog and block our arteries and that leads to strokes and heart attacks, which are the leading killers of people. Bad fats are animal fats and trans fats which are vegetable fats that have been modified to act as animals fats which means that solid at room temperature. They are only found in animal fats and processed foods and the only foods that line and block our arteries.Plant fats, ie. vegetable oils, nut oils have degrees of saturated fats but they are not solid, do not contain any cholesterol and do have beneficial good fats which are healthy for us. 2. Become a vegan. Stop eating all animal products. This is the hardest and most extreme step but also the most exciting and rewarding. The truth is it is crucial to adding years on your life and energy to your daily life. Animal products are unhealthy for us. They are the only foods except that contain cholesterol as well as solid saturated fats, a fat our bodies cannot get rid of , which clogs our veins and kills us. They contain hormones and chemicals fed to livestock to make them produce more, or to grow more. They are dense food and do our bodies and organs a lot of damage in the process and effort of digestion. If you stop eating meat you will add years to your life. It is also humane, better for our planet, its people and much kinder to animals who lives as food is horrific and unimaginably horrible. Vegan food takes a while to get used to . Both your taste buds and your body will be reeling from the major change in nutrition. It took me a year to make the switch and it was tough, but completely worth it and delicious. Becoming a vegetarian is also far healthier. It is a good step to take towards vegansim and one that offers many health benefits as well as well as benefiting our planet. 3. Be aware of food allergies and their affect on you. We all eat foods we are allergic too. Some of these allergic reactions, such as fatigue and hyper activity are the reason we crave and eat these foods. They can be beneficial. That is in the case of mild allergies but in cases of extreme allergies and as we age we do need to start at looking at food allergies and how they make us feel act and age. Foods we are allergic to will age us as they cause a host of chronic physicalailments, such as yeast infections, and make conditions we have much harder to treat and control. Eating them alot and everyday eventually wears down and impair our immune system. When we eat foods we are allergic to we are eating foods that are toxic to us. Eating a toxic food forces our bodies immune system to react and fight the effects. When we are young and healthy we can fight these sysptoms such as fatigue, hives, skin conditions, shortness or breath to name a few but as we age it becomes a lot harder and eventually when coupled with a meat and dairy based diet,impossible. This is the part of my diet that most people do not yet understand. It is unknown by the general public that food allergies can cause cause emotional problems- rage, panic, depression, fatigue, shortness of breath, asthma, and chronic health problems- yeast infections, low immune responses. It is known that some people suffer from severe and life threatening allergies but the responses of human and the relation between allergies and ageing has never been explored. I feel it is the big breakthrough in terms of our ability to understand and live eternally. How do you know if you are allergic to certain foods. The general rule is that we are all allergic to some degree to the same foods and it is only a matter of time,age and general health before the effects of eating these foods becomes apparent. The way to find out if you are allergic to these foods or how much is by gauging your reaction after eating. Do you always feel exhausted after eating garlic bread, or unwell, fatigued after eating yeast containing foods or do you always end up fighting with your spouse after drinking alcohol? Most people can't tell how they feel after eating because the meat and other animal products we eat as well as the sugar, salt and fat in our western diet make us feel satisfied, yet unwell that we don't notice. We all go on the rush and energy of uncaring about our health as it feels like a freedom. It may be a freedom but one with enormous cost to our health, our youth and our life. Noticing the relation between the foods you eat and how you feel is the secret to keeping your youth, ability,health and for a long time. When I became a vegan, I really noticed my health. I noticed that there were a whole range of foods that made me completely out of it and exhausted. I realized through trial and error that by eliminating certain foods I eliminated these issues. There are many foods I still eat that cause mild allergic reactions in me. These foods I still eat and enjoy but occasionally, sparingly and with awareness of the reaction they will cause. Foods that commonly cause food allergies: Yeast, alcohol,vinegar, fermented foods, bacterial cultures, garlic, onions, spices( curry, cumin, coriander, etc), sesame and sesame oil, olive and olive oil, eggplant, zucchini, coffee, caffeine, chocolate, hot and regular peppers, mushrooms, vanilla. My diet is difficult to follow and at odds with our society tastes and lifestyles, but I am a living testament to it's ability to positively change one's life and health. It's a real commitment to your health but one I feel is worth it and well worth trying. ** Barbara Rose is a Toronto, Canada based animal rights activist, a writer and author of “The Eternal Life Cookbook” available December 2010, Lulu Publishing. BM
