Intro: You Are What You Eat!

If our bodies are temples as many wise men have said, we should treat them with respect. This implies that we should be aware of everything we put into our bodies, and not disrespect or abuse them by ingesting unhealthy foods.

Eastern philosophy and medicine teaches us how our bodies seek balance and how various food items can upset that balance or restore it. Our health depends upon the quality, quantity and nature of what we eat.

Modern society treats all food items as commodities, and as people lose touch with their agrarian roots, their awareness and concern about what they eat fades. Complicated lists of ingredients in industrially processed foods are meaningless to most people. Likewise, the impact of such foods upon their bodies, much less upon society as a whole is ignored.

To live a healthy, balanced life, requires an awareness of what constitutes a healthy diet and the knowledge of various alternatives to the commercially processed products being mass-marketed.

This class will explain these alternative diets, why they are healthier than eating processed foods, how to heal and regenerate your body through conscious dieting and fasting.

By understanding your own body and its response to various food items, you can consciously improve your health. And by consuming healthy foods you help restore the balance to the greater society which has become overly dependent upon processed, unnatural, and unhealthy foods.

Syllabus

I will introduce various holistic diets, one at a time, explaining how they work to keep you healthy. Students will be expected to select one diet to try themselves for a period of time (at least a month). After that period, students will report back about the experience and any observable changes to their physical and mental health.


For each diet, there will be at least one book reference for students to research.

If students need to purchase these books, please use our links below so the Free School gets a small percentage of each sale. Thanks!

Tentatively here are the books:

Survival in the 21st Century by Victoras Kulvinskas (Raw Foods)


Mucusless Diet Healing System by Arnold Ehret (Mucus-Free diet & Fasting)

To Buy or Not to Buy Organic: What You Need to Know to Choose the Healthiest, Safest, Most Earth-Friendly Food by Cindy Burke (Organic Foods)

World Peace Diet: Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony by Will Tuttle


The Raw Food Detox Diet: The Five-Step Plan for Vibrant Health and Maximum Weight Loss by Natalia Rose


The New Becoming Vegetarian: The Essential Guide To A Healthy Vegetarian Diet
by Vesanto Melina


Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe

Disclaimers: I have practiced some of the diets I will be teaching. I was a vegetarian for 11 years, and a vegan for most of that time. I have many friends who've benefited from the various diets we will be discussing, so I know their value to our health.

However, I am not currently following any of these diets specifically, although I incorporate their wisdom into everything I eat!


If you are under a doctor's care, or are taking medications, you should discuss your diet plan with your doctor to find out about any side effects such a diet might have upon your medications. This is especially true for anyone considering fasting for more than a day. Some meds must be taken with solid food, so beware of what you do!

This course is for educational purposes. None of what is discussed is to be considered advice for your personal situation. Whether you follow any of the outlined diets or fasts is completely your responsibility, as is the outcome of such a change in your usual diet. The instructor bears no responsibility whatsoever.

 

I haven't read that one yet, but it's got great reviews, and apparently it's very popular, and probably part of the recent raw foods fad.

The last raw food fad was 35 years ago! Now they have restaurants (esp. in my region) that specialize in just raw foods. What a change of consciousness (for some anyways - for others it's just another weird diet fad!)

But a Raw foods diet is worth trying.

I haven't started a thread on that, but I will soon.

I will mention here that students needn't dive right into a new diet 100% in the beginning. It's usually better to ease your way into a new diet gradually, perhaps just one meal a day, to learn what things you like to eat and to let your body adapt to the changes.

You also don't want to go too far too soon because you might have a more difficult time adapting and get discouraged.

Fasting in particular needs to be approached gradually. Some people have great difficulty attempting say a week long fast right away.

I'll discuss this more in the fasting thread.

 

Welcome to the class!

I didn't feel good using the word diet either, but there aren't too many synonyms I could use...

The mucusless diet isn't a weight loss diet, but a permanent lifestyle diet for health, so that concurs with what you're seeking.

Other than fasting, none of the diets we will be discussing in this class have the sole goal of weight loss. In fact the fasts are more for cleansing than weight loss too.

I asked whether people considered themselves currently overweight to see if that is the reason they want to change their diet, as opposed to other reasons.

I can almost guarantee that any of the diets we discuss will result in weight loss if the student is currently on a typical American type diet with lots of processed foods full of fats.

But that shouldn't be the primary goal of adopting any of these diets. The goal should be better health overall, and a growing awareness of how food affects your health. If weight loss occurs, then that is a beneficial side effect, not the goal. OK?

 

Good point!

 

LOL! I love pulling words apart like that to find their hidden meanings...

Diet Definition: "regular food," c.1225, from O.Fr. diete, from M.L. dieta "parliamentary assembly," also "a day's work, diet, daily food allowance," from L. diaeta "prescribed way of life," from Gk. diaita, originally "way of life, regimen, dwelling," from diaitasthai "lead one's life," and from diaitan, originally "separate, select" (food and drink), often with a sense of restriction since 14c.; hence put (someone) on a diet (c.1440). The verb meaning "to regulate oneself as to food" (especially against fatness) is from 1660. An obsolete word for this is banting (q.v.). The adj. in this sense (Diet Coke, etc.) is from 1963, originally Amer.Eng.

Source: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=d&p=9

Interesting that it originally meant 'way of life' in the original Greek. That is much closer to the definition I have in mind when I use it.

 

Yes, the Owsley Bullshit diet is well known by debunkers!

Next time you talk to him, ask him about his health presently....

His arteries are probably ready to give out by now.

He does live in a very UNPOLLUTED area, so that would help.

But I really doubt that diet is real. He'd have to take dietary supplements for essential vitamins.

I've never met Bear, but I've communicated with him. I wasn't impressed with his current condition and attitude, but hey, he can do what he wants.