By - David Kelly

The principles behind natural diet

“The Natural Diet” is a way of thinking about the foods we eat. It is based on the principle that the “healthiest” diet, is one in which the foods we eat are as close as possible to their natural state. It takes into account regional and historical availability and the traditional cultural knowledge about foods.

The underlying assumption is that digestion has evolved throughout history to be most efficient for dealing with natural foods found in the environment. Natural selection would have favoured certain foods in certain environments. It is likely that there is great variation in what is a healthy diet for any individual. Your ideal diet will be influenced by factors such as your genetic heritage, your cultural traditions and the climate you are in.

“The Natural Diet” is not a slavish devotion to the use of so called natural or unprocessed foods. A truly unprocessed diet is unpalatable and often indigestible. It maybe possible to eat this way, but it has been proven historically and culturally to not be as healthy as other diets. For example, raw meat is a potential health risk due to possible contamination with bacteria or parasites and many beans are coated with a digestion inhibitor that needs to be removed before we can benefit from them.

One key aspect to understanding “The Natural Diet” is that it is a combination of using minimal processing to obtain a high level of nutrient availability and cultural and historical understanding. “The Natural Diet” is not a development of scientific nutrition. While science can help us to improve our understanding of foods and nutrition, it is not considered to be the most reliable guide to dietary habits. The main reason for this is that modern medicine and chemistry take a divisive approach. They break things down to the smallest components attempt to control every variable. This is however impossible and leads far too often to “not being able to see the forest for the trees.” Diet should rightly be the domain of family and culture. You only have to look at the way the medical dietary information keeps changing every few years to understand that science can become lost in the detail.

The benefits of eating “The Natural Diet” are that it tastes great, meets your nutritional needs, takes into account your individuality and keeps you in radiant health.

Living “The Natural Diet.”

For some of “The Natural Diet” is our diet. However many of us have become divorced from our understanding of the natural diet, we have lost our traditions or are applying them in the wrong places.

Modern society is often fast paced and fast food has become a near universal phenomena. The modern supermarket and packaged food industries are some of the largest industries in existence. Unfortunately commercial interests drive these industries and they frequently seduce us away from the natural. As an example food has to be stored and fresh food is perishable so it is highly modified to allow longer shelf life. The profit motive often drives companies to use artificial colours and flavours even to the extent that some chocolate biscuits contain no chocolate or cocoa at all. Highly refined foods such as sugar are so unpalatable to life that they are used as preservatives. Many of the foods that people consume everyday could never be produced in the home, they are an industrial product that can only be produced in a factory.

The challenges to a healthy natural diet are not just from commercial interests. Many of us have transplanted or adopted cultural habits that are inappropriate. As an example, many people recommend that dairy foods should be avoided. If you are an Asian with intolerance to lactose it is wise advice. Even if you live in a hot tropical climate it may still be good advice. But for many Caucasians living in temperate climates this is bad advice. Another example is the tendency that we have to adopt parts of another culture but ignore others. There has been a trend in countries like Australia to move away from the consumption of red meat and to eat white meat such as chicken instead. For many this is due to the belief that the Asian diet is healthy and it is much lower in red meat than white. However the Asian diet often has foods like seaweed and soybean that are good sources of iron. Those that drop the red meat usually do not pick up these other foods and are becoming deficient in iron as a result.

If you want to follow “The Natural Diet” there are some simple guidelines that you can start with:

1. Try to choose foods that have less processing, use wholegrain flours instead of refined flours, use unbleached flour instead of bleached flours. Cook your own meals rather than use fast foods or pre-packaged meals.

2. Use natural rather than artificial, if you must have a sweetener use honey in preference to sugar, use sugar in preference to artificial sweeteners.

3. Choose foods that are local and in season. If a food grows in your area it is considered better than if it cannot. For example in a cold climate choose fruits such as apple rather than pineapple. Eat foods when they are in season, they will have ripened more and be better suited to the climatic conditions.

4. If your cultural history is local to the region listen to the cultural wisdom it provides.

The above principles are an excellent starting point and we will build on these in part two.