Dietary Guide for Optimising Health & Helping to Overcome Disease

By John Claydon D.Hom

Having investigated and tried various ‘healthy’ diets over the last 30 years I would like to offer the reader some of what I have learnt from this process. It is interesting to note that what I believe to be the healthiest diet for myself and broadly others, is very similar, to that used by the healthiest groups of people in the world. It is the diet I enjoy most, is the most satisfying, and of course leaves me feeling most healthy.

Whilst this mainly raw diet places the least stress on the body and provides for the easiest absorption of high quality nutrients, I have found, somewhat surprisingly that herbs and nutritional supplements (mainly food state and live), are still required to root out the deep seated toxins and heavy metals I have acquired since birth, and also to help me through any cleansing crisis that may occur from time to time. In fact, with this diet and a combination of nutritional supplements. I find that I am improving in my health and constitution all the time, and am in ‘control’ of my health and well being.  

The most powerful therapeutic diet to help overcome disease is a special type of raw food diet; the basic structure can be used by anyone to achieve full radiant health.   An increasing number of people are discovering the incredible health benefits of raw diets that include raw vegetable juice, raw protein and raw fats. The examples below based on essential foods and principles, is offered as a guide to help you improve your health. This applies to those that are ill and also to those of normal or average health.  Even the normal or average health is way below what can be achieved - a state of high vibrant health.

Although a raw diet is our best chance of health and recovery, we may not want to do this completely, or for some reason do not want to take that seemingly revolutionary step.   Often the way we cook is an unknown cause of our sickness.  Please see information about this after the raw food section. We need to be flexible to find a diet that we can personally keep to.  As we learn and our body becomes more attuned to its needs, the diet can be developed.

The diet should include the following

Raw vegetable juice - use only chemical free or raw organically grown vegetables. Raw vegetables in bulk are difficult to digest and in practice will not be consumed in sufficient quantity, so juicing with an electric juicer is a healthy aspect of the diet. Personally I find one pint a day sufficient. The most common vegetables to use are carrots which are very beneficial in terms of nutrient profile, but are a high glyceamic food (high in carbohydrates/sugars). Celery is low glyceamic as are green juices. The cereal grasses such as Barley Grass Juice are the most alkalizing, nutrient dense and cleansing and are true superfoods. Wheat grass juice can be grown on trays at home but is bitter, personally I prefer to use Barley Grass Juice - this is available as a ‘live’ product since it has been low temperature dried it is still enzyme rich. The expressed juice of cereal grasses, wheat and barley have been used therapeutically, especially for cancer, by many individuals growing their own at home in trays, and in clinical situations as a main treatment for cancer. The properties of wheat and barley grass juice are virtually identical. Barley grass grown on volcanic soil until it reaches a few inches high has been found to be more concentrated in some vitamins than home grown grass, but obviously it would depend on how much sun the home grown variety had and the quality of the soil it was grown on.

From the point of view of the ‘purists’ one should only consume green juices for the most potent therapy. After 3 years on an 80 to 90% raw diet I have come to the conclusion that if one is too purist one will rebel and not keep up with the diet and not enjoy it.  Positive psychology is so important. Raw carrot juice is an excellent rejuvenator, but to avoid excess glyceamic effects drink slowly and one pint a day is sufficient. Mix with celery and other raw vegetables (only a little broccoli as this family of vegetables can slow thyroid metabolism). Try to take some cereal grass every day. Even though the Barley Grass flavour is far preferable to wheat grass, some people still find it hard to palate. Add the quantity of the powder you can tolerate (e.g from a teaspoon, up to two dessert spoons and blend in with an electric blender or, put Barley Grass Juice in the bottom of a glass and gradually stir in with a fork, the rest of the vegetable juice.

Raw beetroot, just a hundred grams or so daily helps the blood and is an aid to cellular oxygenation, and works synergistically with barley or wheat grass juice, we strongly recommend Zell-Oxygen or Live Cell Immunocomplex, to further oxygenate the cells. You can use a mixture of carrots, fennel, cucumber, celery, a little beetroot, broccoli, radish, sometimes a little parsley.

You can use Jack La Lanne’s Power Juicer available from Vector Direct, Northern Ireland, Bangor BT19 7TA Tel 0870 247 1111 this is a centrifugal juicer, the more gentle and more expensive Green star juicer, is reputed to be the best. The original champion juicer suffers from the disadvantage that 30% of the juice remains in the pulp and you have to feed that back in again to remove it.

Generally it is not advisable to juice fruit as the glyceamic effects are even stronger than the sweet vegetable juices. I do make the exception of including an apple in my daily blend as it is so beneficial, and I don’t seem to get round to taking one otherwise.

The importance of raw fats and proteins should be emphasized. This is where this diet wins over and above a raw vegetarian or vegan diet, (the exception being if one takes up sungazing,  in such a situation one obtains energetic information from the sun into the brain, and this in turn helps nutrition at cell level, see the information on www.solarhealing.com).

For raw protein, the most commonly acceptable source (it is a complete balance of all the amino-acids) is raw eggs. Please see our article on Raw Eggs to be reassured about safety issues. Only use raw eggs from healthy chickens, e.g. organic free range eggs. Do not keep the eggs in a fridge, they keep well, even stored in the cupboard in summer at around 20 C, for around 2 weeks, they are still palatable. If an egg is off it is extremely smelly and the contents black. I have only found this once in three years of taking raw eggs daily). I know personally many people including myself who have been consuming raw eggs daily for years with not one single problem (i.e. no salmonella poisoning). For myself, and most other people raw eggs are an essential aspect of the raw diet and holds it together like a central pillar. Most people are repelled by the idea of Raw Eggs. They are in fact almost tasteless and extremely easy to swallow one at a time, so, for the squeamish, be brave if you want to get well! However they can be blended with many things if you cannot face them neat, for example with  raw vegetable juice, with banana, and for health sake preferably with avocado, or raw milk. They can be taken in great quantity to build the body. If you are still concerned about the cholesterol issue you will have to study more. Dr. Mercola on the web is one point to start. However I, along with most other people who study nutrition for health and healing, believe in a balanced diet in terms of concentrated protein should be balanced by alkalizing foods. The main alkalizing foods I recommend are raw vegetable juice, especailly Barley grass juice, Sea Greens Pelvetia (live sea weed), this is also the best food state source of trace minerals and polysaccharides for cellular communication, and to alkalise the cells, Alka Vita is an extremely important therapeutic input.

The amount of eggs you should take daily can be instinctive selection but bear in mind that a typical adult is said to require in the region of about 40 grams of protein a day. Each egg supplies about 8 grams of protein (depending on its size of course). I have found that on average about 3 or 4 eggs daily suits me and with the other items in my diet brings the protein level up to the recommended guidelines. If I was more physically active then I would probably need more. The egg article sights a case of an elderly woman on her death bed with severe lung problems, who consumed 66 raw eggs over a weekend. She made a tremendous recovery! Raw eggs are one of the easiest things in the world to digest, the very young, elderly and sick can all easily assimilate them. Salmonella is a common micro-organism that is present in the air in many foods in small amounts and is more likely to multiply on cooked meat and eggs than fresh raw food. Raw eggs strengthen the immune system and energy of the person consuming them. If a person is repeatedly given antibiotics, then no matter what they eat they are open to all sorts of infections.

Raw eggs provide also a source of beneficial raw fats. Another convenient source of raw fats, and also some protein (higher than any other fruit) Is the avocado, see the Avocado Article. Without this fruit my raw diet would not hold together. The best healing diet should not be high in fruit, due to the high sugar/glycaemic aspect of fruit. Avocados are an exception as they have a very low glyceamic index, and high beneficial fat. They are also extremely nutrient dense and almost a complete food. In fact, I suspect that a combination of barley grass juice and avocado would supply all the nutrients required (but I do not advise this as a mono-diet!) I find avocadoes rather bland as I have a sweet tooth. In this situation one can use raw unheated honey. It can be difficult to find out if the honey is ‘cold-pressed’ the honey should not have been heated above 40 C in its processing, so that many valuable enzymes are still present. Raw honey is a great therapeutic tool and used in limited quantities can actually enhance the healing power of the diet. So if you have a sweet tooth you can add a little raw honey to the avocadoes. I find it very helpful with the diet to blend avocadoes with other ingredients as the main ingredient of one of my daily meals. One can vary the ingredients to suit and for taste, so this is just an example, experiment!

Three small to medium avocados, one dessertspoon of hemp oil, one dessert spoon of olive oil, one dessertspoon of lemon juice, yogurt- sheep’s or goats  or cows organic yogurt the amount you add will determine the liquid consistency of the product, example use, about four heaped dessertspoons, spices such as ginger and coriander, one level teaspoon each of the powder or to taste. One dessertspoon of raw honey, one dessertspoon of barley grass powder (makes the dish radiant green!). If you are trying to lose weight then the addition of one or two raw eggs can be helpful, and the meal can be consumed in two portions a few hours apart.   Finally, if you have a sweet tooth add a dessertspoon approx of raw honey. Blend the recipe in an electric blender. You may have to rock the blender backwards and forwards to enable the spinning blades to drag into the mixture, if the blades still spin, stop the blender add some more liquid such as egg, yogurt, vegetable juice or water, stir in with a spoon and re-start the blender. Some fruit such as kiwi, pear, apple and a banana may be added on top of this blend once in the dish, but keep the quantity of fruit low such as one kiwi and one small banana.

Raw Milk

Osler (Principles and Practices of Medicine, by William Osler, MD eighth edition), speaks of milk as being nothing more than white blood. Milk resembles blood closely and is a useful agent for improving and making new and better blood. Blood is the chief agent of metabolism. Milk is recognized in medical literature almost exclusively as a useful food and is a complete food. These days, milk is generally looked down on as being unhealthy. Indeed diligent health researches have concluded that pasteurised milk, especially from cows that have been conventionally reared with hormones, antibiotics etc, is counterproductive to health. Raw milk from healthy cows, whose main diet is fresh grass, taken raw and un-pasteurised has fantastic health benefits, as can be seen from the article Real Milk Cures Many Diseases by J. R. Crewe, MD. Raw milk can even be used as a single food (the only food that is taken for a period of time) for curing disease. Even though raw milk is exceptionally nutritious, surprisingly it is also detoxifying. It is even reported that regular consumption of raw cow’s milk can help clear the iris over a period of years, apparently an indicator of deep tissue cleansing.

It is worth mentioning that cow’s milk is a very rich food, goats milk is milder and may be more suitable for those who have trouble assimilating cow’s milk. Sheep’s milk is very concentrated, and can be diluted with water if preferred. The milk should be from organically raised cows or from healthy cows cared for in healthy way, including a diet largely of fresh grass from the field. The cows should be pesticide and anti-biotic free. Most asthmatics, whether they know it or not, are intolerant to cow’s milk and all cow’s milk products including un-pasteurised products.  About 20% of individuals who are allergic or intolerant of pasteurised cow’s milk are also allergic/intolerant of un-pasteurised cow’s milk and its products. The advice for these individuals is to use only un-pasteurised goats or sheep’s milk, the latter being delicious and especially difficult to obtain, probably only direct from the farms.

It is generally difficult to obtain raw milk, usually it can only be obtained directly from licensed farms, but sometimes raw goats or sheep’s milk can be obtained from health shops. However freezing of milk does not kill the enzymes or bacteria that are an important part of the food. So one can freeze quantities of milk, and obtain daily amounts daily from your stores. It is not ideal, but quick freezing will still retain most of the nutritional content.

There is evidence that cows milk consumption (pasteurised) tends to encourage breast cancer. This may be largely due to hormones given to the cows, but due to uncertainty, you may choose to avoid all sources of milk (unless you can do your own research to find out more) including raw. In the case of breast cancer, Plant Sterols and Sterolins are recommended, these are found in sprouted beans, seeds and grains, provide a highly beneficial form of food exceptionally rich in healing phyto-nutrients.  Alfalfa seeds can easily be sprouted at home in about 3 days.   Soak the seeds in filtered or still spring water overnight, or up to 24 hours. Drain and rinse thoroughly. Make sure there is no residual pool of water in the bottom of the bowl, (even better sprout in a Hemp Bag) and cover the bowl to retain moisture clinging to the seeds etc. Leave in a moderately warm place for 24 hours.  After 24 hours wash and drain as before, and replace the cover. Repeat this daily. After about 3 days when the shoots are about one inch long finally wash and drain very well (especially with the alfalfa) and keep the covered bowls in the fridge. (Do not freeze).  The article Plant Sterols and Sterolins gives an in-depth discussion of the wonderful health benefits of sprouted seeds. Plant sterols and sterolins from freeze dried shoots are available in capsule form as a product called NaturLeaf.

Raw Meat

Raw meat can be eaten in the ideal healthy diet, but most persons will choose not to. It does have special therapeutic properties. Personally after thinking about this for some time, and having some raw chicken, I have decided not to go this route. There may be some individuals that love meat and would like to try this. This is discussed on the website http://www.rawpaleodiet.org. Suffice to say here that the safety issues, like that of raw eggs are based largely on false information and paranoia. If raw meat is soaked in lime juice (for best results cut thinly or mince) for a few hours it becomes tender. I have found that heating it to around blood heat of 37C (do not heat at all above 40C) and serving on a warm plate makes it more palatable. Do not use refined salt at all in a healthy diet, use only the mineral rich Celtic Sea Salt or sea water, if you cannot obtain clean sea water locally, this latter can be obtained as a sun concentrate is called Ionic Liquid Minerals and Trace elements.

Raw Fish

This is generally more acceptable to most people than raw meat and is extremely beneficial. One can tenderize it with lime and also the milder flavour of lemons, although this has a milder tenderisation effect) I have found  that tuna and salmon are easy to use raw (avoid fish from fish farms, they contain toxic chemicals and are not fed on a natural diet). They can be sliced soaked in lemon or lime (plus a little olive oil and Celtic Sea Salt, or sea water) or they can just be sliced thinly and eaten thus. One can experiment. Recently I discovered that a rainbow trout when soaked in water at blood heat for a few minutes was perfectly soft and edible, but is more acceptable if served on a hot plate and eaten while still warm, there is usually psychological resistance to be overcome!

Salads

Coventianal salads with lettuce, cucumber etc are not particularly nutritious and should not be considered as good meals. On the other hand high value raw ‘salad’ vegetables like water cress, spinach and tomatoes serve as an excellent garnish for the main item such as raw fish.

Cooked foods

After 3 years on a 80-90% raw diet, I have come to the conclusion that eating the occasional cooked meal does not disadvantage my health, however I take the precaution to take a Digestive Enzyme capsule with the cooked meal. However select carefully, for example, I find I do not eat sufficient raw fish, so when I have cooked food I usually select a fish dish. As cooked vegetables are not so easy to digest, and I obtain the best value of nutrition form my daily glass of raw vegetable juice, I tend not to eat many cooked vegetables, except for a few potatoes by way of a treat. Some persons may need a little cooked starch for a while such as baked potato or a little boiled whole meal rice. For the first few weeks, I personally found I wanted one baked potato every other day, plus organic butter, not exactly a raw product, but still with some healing properties; since it is almost impossible to purchase raw butter in the U.K. I have since found a source of raw butter, please contact us for details.

Bread is basically a ‘no no’ with the raw healing diet as are grains in any quantity. Bread  is often the source of digestive and immune system problems. However on the other hand if we have been used to bread for many years, one slice of organic whole meal bread (if you can get it spelt wheat and also possibly dark German style rye bread so much the better as these are generally better tolerated) daily may help you maintain the diet and reduce craving for more definite starchy no no’s like cake etc.

(for a more extensive overview of the subject : Further reading - Ancient Dietary Wisdom and See the website www.rawpaleodiet.org  for a wealth of information on raw non-vegan/non-vegetarian diets. )

Foods To Avoid (also see the cooked food section for more things to avoid)

As much as possible, avoid cooked food especially cooked meat , egg and cheese. If consuming any of these, only occasionally and then take a Digestive Enzyme. Cooked protein tends to clog the system and form the basis of acid Ph. Over many years this can help lead to all the major diseases including cancer, especially if ones protein digestive output (secreted from the pancreas) is low which tends to happen as we age and in some people it is naturally low.

Apart from a little rolled organic oats (ideally these should be soaked in chlorine free water for several hours or overnight to reduce the amount of nutrient blocking phytates that grains contain), or occasional boiled brown rice as described above, all grains are excluded from a healing raw diet, and of course no, cakes or biscuits (apart from one or two pure oat biscuits occasionally).  

Absolutely no sugar or artificial sweeteners Molasses are a rich source of minerals (especially Potassium Phosphate an excellent nerve tonic) and may be used. The purists feel that molasses are a processed sugar and should therefore not be used. My understanding is that refined sugars 'burn' minerals out of the body since these are needed for its use, this is why sugar is so harmful. Molasses, having had the bulk of the sugar removed is a super-concentrated source of minerals, more than enough to buffer the sugar therein. Unheated, cold extracted raw honey can be used in small quantities and has some health benefits. No carbonated beverages, no colas or other manufactured drinks. Fruit juice sold in cartons and bottles is to be generally avoided, they have all been sterilized, only raw un-juiced fruits should be consumed and then only in moderation. Occasional small quantities of freshly juiced (chemical free) fruits are ok.

Summary

The Healing Raw Diet is made up of raw vegetable juice, wheat grass juice grown at home in trays, or barley grass juice (from the unheated powder) Eggs, fish, cream, cows, goats or sheep’s milk, of course all raw, un-pasteurised  and un-heated (up to blood heat of 37C is fine) Occasionally a little raw cheese, However even un-pasteurised cheese is difficult to digest, so un-pasteurised soft cheese is preferable, un-pasteurised butter is a really beneficial input to this diet. Organic / from healthy animals, sheep’s, cow’s or goat’s yogurt is acceptable but does not have as much healing power as raw milk since it has been sterilised prior to introducing the live culture, ideally one can make ones own yogurt from un-pasteurised milk.   Pollen is a useful boost to vitality and is a fantastic raw superfood. Once you get used to pollen, unless you are hypersensitive (or very occasionally allergic), you should be able to take one dessert spoon daily. If you are hypersensitive or allergic please request information to help with your condition. However a raw diet as described here will tend to make people more stable hence tending to reduce oversensitivity and allergy (for tendency to allergy Liquorice and Organic Germanium are common solutions.)

Raw oils such as Hemp Oil and olive oil. Some berries periodically are recommended. There may be periods in hot weather when more fruit is desired. I feel it is OK to follow the desire sometimes, (providing you are not on an anti-candida diet), but fruit can be very ‘moorish’ and instinctive eating does not work when it comes to fruit, as the fruit sugars carry their own addiction. red grapes are especially beneficial. A little cold pressed, non-heated honey that has not been subjected to any heat above blood heat during the extraction process is allowed, honey contains enzymes and other beneficial factors and may be taken in moderation. The Avocado is very important in the raw diet as are raw eggs.

Some people on this type of raw diet (sometimes referred to as a raw stone age or Palaeolithic diet) do eat raw meat, personally I feel the raw eggs are sufficient.

General Dietary Guidelines Including a diet with moderate amounts of cooked food

Absolutely no margarine or processed oils or fats! Every cell of our body is surrounded by a fatty membrane that allow nutrients and gaseous exchange. By consuming processed fats (hydrogenated fats as found in margarines, fried and roasted food), a layer of hardened trans-fats replaces the oily membrane. This is one of the major factors in health deterioration, disease, and degenerative disorders.

Oils/fats are extremely important to health. Raw oils and fats as is part of a natural diet for the healthiest people (and animals) on the planet can do no harm, e.g. raw fats from un-pasteurized milk (where can we get that these days!?) and Raw Eggs, also coconut, olive oil and fish are all important in positive ways. The whole low fat campaign is seriously flawed. Studies have found for example that persons with very low cholesterol have a higher mortality rate from all causes. Many studies conducted in many countries have disproved the myth that the amount of cholesterol consumed is related to hardening of the arteries or coronary heart disease. Cholesterol is an essential nutrient, and normally the liver manufactures on average, three times as much cholesterol as consumed in the typical diet.

What is dangerous however is consuming margarine. The chemical composition of margarine is similar to plastic. If a pot of margarine is left out in the open, it will remain essentially unchanged, no mould will develop, it will not rot and no animal no matter how hungry will touch it.

The most healthy peoples from around the world consume plenty of fat/oil that typically makes up around 60% of their calories. Raw butter (extremely difficult to get hold of), is an excellent health tonic especially if yellow (contains more X factor as discussed in the article Ancient Dietary Wisdom).  Olive oil and coconut oil are the safest oils to heat (as regarding formation of toxic trans-fats) but the advice is still to use low temperatures and do not brown/burn food, such a method of cooking is described below under the heading cooking methods.

Oils Summary - For Health’s sake

1) Do not fry or roast food, except at low temperatures, with a little olive oil or coconut oil.

2) Do not consume processed fats or oils, e.g margarine, hydrogenated fats, heat extracted vegetable or seed oils (unless it says cold pressed oil, it has been heated in extraction, with the possible exception of olive oil labels, purchasing a virgin olive oil pressing is by implication cold pressed). Most processed food contains hydrogenated fats and or heated vegetable oils.

3) Do consume Cod Liver oil (about one dessert spoon daily from October till march at least)

4) Do have regular Olive oil, unheated.

5) Do have period courses of Hemp Oil e.g at least one teaspoon daily.

6) Fish oil included in oily fish (includes salmon, trout, but avoid factory farmed ones)

The cold pressed and unheated oils such as fish oil, cod liver oil, Hemp Oil (for a balanced mixture of omega 3 and 6) and Linseed oil (high in omega 3 and low in omega 6) have important therapeutic properties and should be included in a healthy diet. Cod liver oil has many benefits including acting as a source of vitamin D (plus A) that persons in northern climates by in large, do not receive enough regular sunlight to synthesize vitamin D, making this a very important supplement. Without sufficient vitamin D our body cannot absorb and process many essential minerals including calcium, and many diseases are encouraged (For a handy and wonderful way to gain more benefit from limited sun go to www.Solarhealing.com).

New Information added June 2007 Concerning oils and Inflammation.