The UN-TOX diet.

Detoxing? No such thing (ask your liver about this). But what about a 10 day conditioning diet to re-vitamin your body? I call it the UN-TOX diet and it's based on the work of Gaylord Hauser, the famous nutritionist of the 1920s (how very hipster, i hear some say).

This program was developed in the 1920s and is similar to the CRON diet (calorific restriction, optimum nutrition). It comes in at around 8000 KJ or 1900 Cals per day. We do it twice a year and try and afterward keep the principles of optimal nutrition in our daily diet, with a few added carbs. The program should be undertaken for ten days then carbs added. It is a better way to lose weight than intermittent fasting, especially when combined with Biblical model sporadic fasting every couple of months.

As mentioned in my last post, this plan focuses on the maximum amount of nutrients for the least calories. We're not just talking the same amount of nutrients on less calories, I mean nearly twice your average daily nutrient intake for a few less kilojoules. That's why it creates such vitality, and not the false alertness and edginess that intermittent fasting creates. 

Plus there's the weight loss benefits. Do the Vitality Diet for 10 days and you’ll lose about a pound a day. Then continue with a high-nutrient diet and occasional fasting and keep your protein at no more than 1g per kilo of body weight.

The UN-TOX diet (a.k.a the pound-a-day Vitality Diet to gain health and lose weight)

inspired by the original hipster, Gayelord Hauser circa 1920

Background to Vitamins for energy and relaxation

This diet helps you feel ‘vital’. We often feel tired and lacking energy and our diet has a lot to do with it. While you may think you just need food for energy, you also need the right foods to help you relax – proper relaxation and vital energy are two sides of the same coin. Once the body is healthy and vital it finds its best weight. Before we get to the diet here’s a little more on these vitamins:

Vitamin D, Calcium and Magnesium for relaxation

Although all vitamins and minerals play some part in helping you to relax, those most important are: Vitamins D and B6;  Calcium & Magnesium. (note: you can get the Calcium, Magnesium and Vitamin D all in one pill try Wagner’s Total Calcium complete – M)

Calcium, essential to the relaxation of both nerves and muscle tissue (aside from the bone growth properties which we all know), can be supplied by one or more serves of any kind of cheese – cream, cottage, cheddar etc.

Add cheese to your salad, eat as a dessert instead of chips or stir cream cheese through your steamed broccoli. Magnesium is even more important for relaxation – animals lacking this mineral become highly nervous, sleepless and appear to go insane. It is essential for peaceful nights sleep. Magnesium is best obtained from intensely green leafy vegetables such as broccoli, and all the Chinese greens, mustard leaves, parsley, kale, spinach, and beetroot tops etc. Take a glass of vege juice or try to get a serving each day.

B Vitamins for energy

These vitamins cannot be stored in your body and must be added daily.

Vitamin B1 plays an important role in making you energetic and in helping prevent fatigue.

Vitamin B6 is of great value in keeping your nerves relaxed.

Other members of the B family include B2 for skin health and bright eyes; Niacin for skin, blood and digestion; pantothenic acid to prevent old age changes; folic acid and inositol for hair health and growth; biotin for skin; cholin for the liver and maintaining a healthy weight; and adenylic acid which aids in producing energy. All these are part of the B vitamin family.

They occur naturally in many foods but the richest sources are foods rarely eaten today – liver, wheat germ, dried brewers yeast, black strap molasses, rice bran. Smaller amounts occur in unrefined grains, nuts, legumes and lentils including buckwheat, green peas, bran, oatmeal as well as meats such as lamb. Pork contains little of the B vitamins.  

One of the best ways to obtain B vitamins is to drink yoghurt and other cultured milk drinks. These sour milks contain bacteria which live in the intestinal tract and synthesise B vitamins for themselves such quantities that some is left over for their host. Folic acid and biotin can be largely obtained from drinking these sour milks. If you take fresh milk, use A2 milk as it’s easier for humans to digest.

Blackstrap molasses (unrefined molasses from the health food store – not treacle) has all B vitamins (except B1). It is extremely high in B6, panothenic acid, and inositol and well as minerals iron, copper, calcium and magnesium. It should be used as regularly as table salt and as a sugar substitute.

Get acquainted with the inexpensive super food, wheat germ to supply your B vitamins. Use it raw, cooked, in waffles, pancakes, muffins, biscuits, pie dough and even meat patties and meatballs (great in a soup).

Dried brewer’s yeast from the health food store is another superfood that gives you more for your money than any other food you can buy; stir it into water, milk, fruit or vege juice (pineapple works well); or get it in tablet form if you don’t like the taste.

Do not force yourself to eat foods you don’t desire, but takes steps to stimulate your appetite and allow it to normalise. The B group vitamins are hugely important and increasing their intake will benefit you in many ways. If the diet is too low in B vitamins, the stomach can produce too little hydrochloric acid. This acid is essential to both digestion of food and proper absorption of the vitamins and minerals into the blood. In order that you may have a good energy, normal appetite, excellent digestion and absorption of foods, and regular elimination, your daily food must be unusually rich in the vitamins of the B family. That means B vitamins from the food you eat, not only supplements.

Some suggestions:

·             Half a cup of raw wheat germ daily, either cooked or uncooked. Makes a nice hot cereal. Sprinkle on your cereal. Or mix into a yoghurt smoothie with some blackstrap molasses – vitamin boost.

·              A tablespoon of brewers yeast from your health food store stirred into your morning juice will also supply the most rich source of B vitamins you will find, in concentrated form.

·             Blackstrap molasses, a valuable food which has not enjoyed the popularity it deserves, is rich in vitamin B6, pantothenic acid, iron, inositol and as well as many other B vitamins. It should be kept on the table and eaten with each meal. Learn to enjoy it as a sweetening on your wheat germ cereal, with butter on bread, on porridge, in a hot A2 milk before bed. Use it as often as possible in your cooking. You can get even more B vitamins by eating nuts daily, wholegrain breads.

·             Finally, the amount of Bs supplies by the bacteria in the human intestine, provided a pint of yogurt is eaten daily, or at least 250g, is probably greater than that furnished by any one food.

Completely avoid all refined foods, including biscuits, chips, white flour and white sugar which cannot build health. Use black molasses as your favourite sweet. You will probably gain energy, vitality, and freedom from fatigue to an extent which you did not realise was possible.

SAMPLE Health/Vitality Menus for 10 days (great for slimming)

Menu 1

Breakfast         

Choose from:

1 glass tomato or pineapple juice ( with stir in 1 Tbspn brewers yeast)

Or

1 yoghurt smoothie consisting of ½ cup yoghurt, 1T brewers yeast, 1T wheatgerm,1 T blackstrap molasses and a low sugar fruit such as half a pear.

Or

1/3 cup cooked wheatgerm with full cream milk or yoghurt and 1 tspn blackstrap molasses.

Or sprinkle 1T raw wheatgerm on top of cold cereal (must be 1/3 cup only of raw muesli soaked in milk or juice overnight or for at least 15 mins, topped with fruit and yoghurt).

Calcium & Magnesium vitamin, plus one multivitamin

Snack

1 glass  fruit or veg juice or 1 tub non sweet yoghurt

Lunch

Fruit salad

Mushroom Omelet

1 slice Whole wheat bread

1 dish  full fat natural  yoghurt with blackstrap molasses

Snack

Fruit with/or natural yoghurt

Dinner

Soup
Tomato salad

Grilled steak with crisp bacon

Stir fried chinese greens or spinach sprinkled with wheatgerm

Mixed veges (Carrot, broccoli, cauliflower

Fruit salad and wheat germ cookie or oatcake

Before retiring:

Dish of yoghurt or a mug of hot A2 milk with blackstrap molasses, nutmeg (and brewers yeast if you like). Avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon.

-------------

Menu 2

Breakfast         

Choose from:

1 glass tomato or pineapple juice ( with stir in 1 Tbspn brewers yeast)

Or

1 yoghurt smoothie consisting of ½ cup yoghurt, 1T brewers yeast, 1T wheatgerm,1 T blackstrap molasses and a low sugar fruit such as half a pear.

Or

1/3 cup cooked wheatgerm with full cream milk or yoghurt and 1 tspn blackstrap molasses.

Or sprinkle 1T raw wheatgerm on top of cold cereal (must be 1/3 cup only of raw muesli soaked in milk or juice overnight or for at least 15 mins, topped with fruit and yoghurt).

Calcium & Magnesium vitamin, plus one multivitamin

Snack

1 glass fruit juice or 1 tub full fat yoghurt

Lunch

Egg salad with watercress and sliced cheese

Sliced tomatoes with lemon and oil dressing

Rye bread, buttered or toasted with molasses

Fresh fruit

Snack

1 glass juice or 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses

Dinner

Fruit cup

Grilled salmon

Stir-fried/short cooked kale or steamed broccoli

Apple crumble with full fat yoghurt or light cream

Before retiring:

Dish of yoghurt or a mug of hot A2 milk with blackstrap molasses, nutmeg (and brewers yeast if you like). Avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon.

-------------

Menu 3

Breakfast         

Choose from:

1 glass tomato or pineapple juice ( with stir in 1 Tbspn brewers yeast)

Or

1 yoghurt smoothie consisting of ½ cup yoghurt, 1T brewers yeast, 1T wheatgerm,1 T blackstrap molasses and a low sugar fruit such as half a pear.

Or

1/3 cup cooked wheatgerm with full cream milk or yoghurt and 1 tspn blackstrap molasses.

Or sprinkle 1T raw wheatgerm on top of cold cereal (must be 1/3 cup only of raw muesli soaked in milk or juice overnight or for at least 15 mins, topped with fruit and yoghurt).

Calcium & Magnesium vitamin, plus one multivitamin

Snack

1 glass fruit juice or 1 tub full fat yoghurt

Lunch

Prawn or salmon salad
1 slice Rye bread

Vege sticks

1 glass yoghurt

Snack

Fruit or natural yoghurt

Dinner

Coleslaw with raisins and yoghurt dressing

Meat patties mixed with wheatgerm and parsley

Stir fied spinach or chinese green, cooked quickly

Ice cream with berries

Before retiring:

Dish of yoghurt or a mug of hot A2 milk with blackstrap molasses, nutmeg (and brewers yeast if you like). Avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon.

-------------

Menu 4

Breakfast         

Choose from:

1 glass tomato or pineapple juice ( with stir in 1 Tbspn brewers yeast)

Or

1 yoghurt smoothie consisting of ½ cup yoghurt, 1T brewers yeast, 1T wheatgerm,1 T blackstrap molasses and a low sugar fruit such as half a pear.

Or

1/3 cup cooked wheatgerm with full cream milk or yoghurt and 1 tspn blackstrap molasses.

Or sprinkle 1T raw wheatgerm on top of cold cereal (must be 1/3 cup only of raw muesli soaked in milk or juice overnight or for at least 15 mins, topped with fruit and yoghurt).

Calcium & Magnesium vitamin, plus one multivitamin

Snack

1 glass fruit juice or 1 tub full fat yoghurt

Lunch

Fresh fruit salad with 1T nuts and 25g cheese

Whole wheat bread and butter

1 dish yoghurt with cinnamon

Snack

Apricot or prune juice with a handful of peanuts

Dinner

Soup
Apple, nut and celery salad sprinkled with wheatgerm

Beef stew with vegetables

Green vegetable

Mini whole wheat apple pie with yoghurt, light cream or marscapone

                                   

Before retiring:

Dish of yoghurt or a mug of hot A2 milk with blackstrap molasses, nutmeg (and brewers yeast if you like). Avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon.

-------------

Menu 5

Breakfast         

Choose from:

1 glass tomato or pineapple juice ( with stir in 1 Tbspn brewers yeast)

Or

1 yoghurt smoothie consisting of ½ cup yoghurt, 1T brewers yeast, 1T wheatgerm,1 T blackstrap molasses and a low sugar fruit such as half a pear.

Or

1/3 cup cooked wheatgerm with full cream milk or yoghurt and 1 tspn blackstrap molasses.

Or sprinkle 1T raw wheatgerm on top of cold cereal (must be 1/3 cup only of raw muesli soaked in milk or juice overnight or for at least 15 mins, topped with fruit and yoghurt).

Calcium & Magnesium vitamin, plus one multivitamin

Snack

1 tub full fat yoghurt

Lunch

Beef brisket or corned beef with parsley on whole wheat toast

1 dish yoghurt and cinnamon

Snack

1 glass juice or 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses

Dinner

Tomato salad

Grilled salmon or oily fish

Cauliflower and fennel casserole

Small new potatoes with parsley

Fruit with yoghurt or ricotta

Before retiring:

Dish of yoghurt or a mug of hot A2 milk with blackstrap molasses, nutmeg (and brewers yeast if you like). Avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon.

-------------

Menu 6

Breakfast         

Choose from:

1 glass tomato or pineapple juice ( with stir in 1 Tbspn brewers yeast)

Or

1 yoghurt smoothie consisting of ½ cup yoghurt, 1T brewers yeast, 1T wheatgerm,1 T blackstrap molasses and a low sugar fruit such as half a pear.

Or

1/3 cup cooked wheatgerm with full cream milk or yoghurt and 1 tspn blackstrap molasses.

Or sprinkle 1T raw wheatgerm on top of cold cereal (must be 1/3 cup only of raw muesli soaked in milk or juice overnight or for at least 15 mins, topped with fruit and yoghurt).

Calcium & Magnesium vitamin, plus one multivitamin

Snack

1 glass fruit juice or 1 tub full fat yoghurt

Lunch

Tomatoes stuffed with cream cheese

Whole wheat crackers

Milk or yoghurt with blackstrap

Snack

Fruit or natural yoghurt

Dinner

Crustless Quiche or cheese souffle

Short cooked beet greens or green vegetables

Green salad with light yoghurt dressing

Apple sauce with honey and mascarpone, ricotta or yoghurt

Before retiring:

Dish of yoghurt or a mug of hot A2 milk with blackstrap molasses, nutmeg (and brewers yeast if you like). Avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon.

-------------

Menu 7

Breakfast         

Choose from:

1 glass tomato or pineapple juice ( with stir in 1 Tbspn brewers yeast)

Or

1 yoghurt smoothie consisting of ½ cup yoghurt, 1T brewers yeast, 1T wheatgerm,1 T blackstrap molasses and a low sugar fruit such as half a pear.

Or

1/3 cup cooked wheatgerm with full cream milk or yoghurt and 1 tspn blackstrap molasses.

Or sprinkle 1T raw wheatgerm on top of cold cereal (must be 1/3 cup only of raw muesli soaked in milk or juice overnight or for at least 15 mins, topped with fruit and yoghurt).

Calcium & Magnesium vitamin, plus one multivitamin

Snack

1 tub full fat yoghurt

Lunch

Apple and celery salad with chopped nuts and a boiled or poached egg

1 dish yoghurt with cinnamon

Snack

1  tablespoon blackstrap molasses in hot or cold milk

Dinner

Soup

Grilled grapefruit half with blackstrap molasses

Watercress salad with creamy yoghurt mayonnaise

Baked beans and sausages

Baked apple with blackstrap molasses (serve with beans)

Before retiring:

Dish of yoghurt or a mug of hot A2 milk with blackstrap molasses, nutmeg (and brewers yeast if you like). Avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon.

Menu 8

Breakfast         

Choose from:

1 glass tomato or pineapple juice ( with stir in 1 Tbspn brewers yeast)

Or

1 yoghurt smoothie consisting of ½ cup yoghurt, 1T brewers yeast, 1T wheatgerm,1 T blackstrap molasses and a low sugar fruit such as half a pear.

Or

1/3 cup cooked wheatgerm with full cream milk or yoghurt and 1 tspn blackstrap molasses.

Or sprinkle 1T raw wheatgerm on top of cold cereal (must be 1/3 cup only of raw muesli soaked in milk or juice overnight or for at least 15 mins, topped with fruit and yoghurt).

Calcium & Magnesium vitamin, plus one multivitamin

Snack

1 tub full fat yoghurt or glass vege juice

Lunch

Poached egg and smoke or tinned salmon on 1slice rye bread (pumpernickel).

Green salad

1 dish yoghurt with cinnamon

Snack

1  tablespoon blackstrap molasses in hot or cold milk

Dinner

Soup

Rocket and pear salad with light vinagrette

Baked choko filled with minced spiced beef

Fruit and yoghurt

Before retiring:

Dish of yoghurt or a mug of hot A2 milk with blackstrap molasses, nutmeg (and brewers yeast if you like). Avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon

Menu 9

Breakfast         

Choose from:

1 glass tomato or pineapple juice ( with stir in 1 Tbspn brewers yeast)

Or

1 yoghurt smoothie consisting of ½ cup yoghurt, 1T brewers yeast, 1T wheatgerm,1 T blackstrap molasses and a low sugar fruit such as half a pear.

Or

1/3 cup cooked wheatgerm with full cream milk or yoghurt and 1 tspn blackstrap molasses.

Or sprinkle 1T raw wheatgerm on top of cold cereal (must be 1/3 cup only of raw muesli soaked in milk or juice overnight or for at least 15 mins, topped with fruit and yoghurt).

Calcium & Magnesium vitamin, plus one multivitamin

Snack

1 tub full fat yoghurt or glass vege juice

Lunch

½ a grilled chicken and steamed greens

I dish yoghurt

Snack

1  tablespoon blackstrap molasses in hot or cold milk

Dinner

Vegetable Soup

Chickpea salad with salmon and lots of greens

Fresh or frozen berries with

Before retiring:

Dish of yoghurt or a mug of hot A2 milk with blackstrap molasses, nutmeg (and brewers yeast if you like).Avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon

Menu 10

Breakfast         

Choose from:

1 glass tomato or pineapple juice ( with stir in 1 Tbspn brewers yeast)

Or

1 yoghurt smoothie consisting of ½ cup yoghurt, 1T brewers yeast, 1T wheatgerm,1 T blackstrap molasses and a low sugar fruit such as half a pear.

Or

1/3 cup cooked wheatgerm with full cream milk or yoghurt and 1 tspn blackstrap molasses.

Or sprinkle 1T raw wheatgerm on top of cold cereal (must be 1/3 cup only of raw muesli soaked in milk or juice overnight or for at least 15 mins, topped with fruit and yoghurt).

Calcium & Magnesium vitamin, plus one multivitamin

Snack

1 tub full fat yoghurt or glass vege juice

Lunch

One scrambled or boiled egg

1 sliced tomato

30g cheese

Green salad

Yoghurt or clear beverage

Snack

1  tablespoon blackstrap molasses in hot or cold milk

Dinner

Lean fish

Stewed tomatoes and zucchini

Cucumber and lettuce salad

Baked apple with cinnamon and topped with yoghurt

Before retiring:

Dish of yoghurt or a mug of hot A2 milk with blackstrap molasses, nutmeg (and brewers yeast if you like). Avoid stimulants such as tea, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon

To fast or not to fast?

After reading many studies, articles and blogs let me say there’s a lot out there about the benefits of fasting.

But I’ve come to the conclusion that not all fasts are the same.

Now this can be hard to believe because there are so many methods of fasting being promoted and they all claim to fix the same things – LDL cholesterol, IGF, blood glucose, brain cell growth etc. And indeed they all pretty much do, as far as current studies can reveal. It’s what they mess up that’s the question. 

There is a wide selection of fasts to choose from. Do I eat every 12 hours? One meal a day? Do I fast every other day? What about the 5:2 diet? Eat dinner only except weekends? Fast monthly, every three months? It’s enough to do your head in.

I want to make it simple. I’ve read nearly everything out there and I’m here to simplify it all. 

I would say that the biblical model of sporadic full fasting (either 24 hours monthly, or 3 days every 2-3 months) is the healthiest way to go.

The very popular paleo-evolutionary fasting (alternate day, intermittent, 20-hourly etc) known as intermittent fasting or IF, is the least healthy way to fast.

Regular fasting upsets hormones, circadian rhythms, cortisol and fertility. It makes you edgy and puts your body out of whack. But, perversely perhaps, it also fixes LDL cholesterol, IGF-1 and blood glucose, creates new brain cells and generally repairs the body.

“The effect of intermittent fasting on hormones and circadian rhythms is devastating. When one hormone-producing gland gets out of whack, you can bet that others will be negatively affected“ http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/971/The_Pros_and_Cons_of_Intermittent_Fasting_.aspx

 

But if you still want to fast, you might be asking ‘do I have to choose one over the other? Fast or not fast?’ Not with Biblical-model sporadic fasting. 

The body can be seen as an engine. The purpose of fasting is to shut down the engine and then conduct repairs. IF is like constantly turning the engine on and off, on  and off, so the engine is constantly in a stretched state of stress. It may be being repaired but at the expense of its proper running, and soon the engine starts to go out of whack. Biblical fasting , on the other hand, only requires fasting every few months. So you turn the engine off, do the repairs, then turn the engine on again. As your rhythms are only out of whack for a few days, your system comes back on line and gets back to normal pretty quick.

That’s how God designed humans, to fast only sporadically. Thus we benefit from all of the repairs fasting enables our body to do to our cells, but we resume our normal eating patterns quickly after the fast and the body’s rhythms can return to normal and stay that way until he next fast in a few months’ time. It may not be the key to quick weight loss, but isn’t it better to be able to sleep regularly and get pregnant if you want? 

Intermittent fasting may be concomitant with fat loss but there are better ways to lose weight, ones which don’t affect your biorhythms permanently.

If you want to want quick weight loss, try the much healthier Vitality Diet (which I posted in the previous post) which is a version of the current CRON diet (calorie restriction with optimal nutrition). The Vitality diet was developed by Hauser over 80 years ago and is identical in many ways with today’s CRON diet, which comes in at 8000KJ per day, which is around 1000KJ under the recommended intake. 

The Vitality/CRON plan focuses on the maximum amount of nutrients for the least calories. We're not just talking the same amount of nutrients on less calories, I mean nearly twice your average daily nutrient intake for a few less kilojoules. That's why it creates such vitality, and not the false alertness and edginess that intermittent fasting creates.

Plus there's the weight loss benefits. Do the Vitality Diet for 10 days and you’ll lose about a pound a day. Then continue with a high-nutrient diet and occasional fasting and keep your protein at no more than 1g per kilo of bodyweight.

The CRON/Vitality diets also leads to lower IGF-1 and lower blood glucose. Patients also report slowed degeneration of organs, tissues and faculties (in balance tests CRONERS over 50 years of age tested as well as a 20 year old). The increase in nutrients plays a large part in this, not just the calorie restriction.

With intermittent fasting we are not focusing on high nutrients, instead constantly switching between fast and feast, which may give us most of the benefits of sporadic fasts but at the expense of our fertility (for women), hormones and biorhythms. 

Most people choose IF because they don’t have the willpower for 3-day fasts, but note that the UK program Eat, Fast, Live Longer pointed to research which promoted full but sporadic fasts over intermittent fasting. It may be harder, but it’s better for us. And really, some things are only worth doing if they’re hard. Trying to make fasting easy will just lead to upsets elsewhere in the system:

"And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and dishevelled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth: that is the only reward they will ever get." Matthew 6:16