Patients, such as you, do best on a diet consisting of at least 60% raw foods such as raw vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and seeds. However, for optimal functioning you do require a certain amount of lean animal protein chosen from eggs and fish.

On this diet, we encourage our patients to use primarily organically grown produce as well as organic sources of animal protein. Organic fruits, grains, nuts, seeds and vegetables are grown without synthetic chemicals, fertilizers, or pesticides. Organic chickens and cattle are raised without the use of hormones, growth stimulants, and antibiotics. A growing body of evidence indicates that organic food sources are the cleanest, and certainly tend to be the most nutritious.

Most towns and cities have at least one good health- food store or co-op that provides good quality organic food at reasonable prices.

Vegetables and Vegetable Products:

There is no limit on the amount, or the number of servings, of vegetables you can eat each day. Basically, eat as much from this category of foods as you wish. The diet emphasizes raw vegetables, but we do allow some cooked produce. In terms of cooking techniques, vegetables can be gently steamed, baked, or stir-fried. Never boil a vegetable — when you do, many valuable nutrients leech out into the water, and then are lost when the liquid is dumped down the sink. Although there is no perfect way to cook, steaming does pre serve most of the nutritional content of vegetables. You can purchase a stainless steel steamer at any appliance store.

The following list contains vegetables that are generally easy to find, and which are acceptable on the diet. Use them as often as you wish:

Asparagus

Avocado

Broccoli Family: Broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower.

Green Leafy Vegetables: Beets, carrots, collards, escarole, kale, dark lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard.

Legumes (Bean Family): Black beans, chick peas, green beans, kidney beans, lentils, lima beans, pinot beans. You should, however, avoid peanuts, which harbor a mold that produces a very carcinogenic chemical. You should also avoid soybeans, which contain a potent enzyme inhibitor.

Mushroom Family: All edible varieties.

* Nightshade Family: Cucumbers, eggplant, peppers (green and red), tomatoes — unless you have an arthritic condition.

Onion Family: Garlic, leeks, onions.

Root Vegetables: Beets, carrots, potatoes *(peeled) radishes, sweet potatoes, turnips, yams.

Squash: All varieties, including zucchini,

Salads: Eat at least one salad a day, and more if you like. Use as many different vegetables as you like: the leafy greens, peppers, tomatoes, onions and sprouts, which are a particularly nutritious type of food. For imaginative salad suggestions, we suggest Dr. N. W. Walker’s book, Diet and Salad Suggestions.

Vegetable Juices: Freshly made, raw vegetable juice is absolutely critical to the success of your nutritional program. Raw juices are concentrated sources of many essential vitamins, minerals and enzymes; and are more easily digested than the whole, raw vegetable itself. Carrot juice, rich in beta-carotene, is particularly important. —Juices must be made fresh, as many of the important nutritional substances deteriorate within hours. You should make, and drink at least one quart of carrot juice each day. Other vegetables can be added to the juice: you might make your own vegetable mix: recommended vegetables for your punch include beet, cabbage, cucumber, endive, lettuce, parsley, potato, spinach and turnip.

Fruit and Fruit Juices should be diluted - pro vide many vitamins, enzymes and minerals, as well as good quality fiber. Fruits are also a good source of natural fruit sugar.

On this diet, all fruits are acceptable: apples, bananas, berries, *citrus (or oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, tangerines), kiwi, melons, nectarines, pears, peaches, plums, and tropical fruit such as mango, papaya, and pineapple. There is no* limit on the amounts of fruits eaten each day, but you should have at least three servings of fresh whole fruit.

We recommend fruit juices, at least 1-2 diluted glasses a day, as long as they are freshly made. You can use your juicer for this purpose. Store-bought juices, even if they claim to be freshly squeezed, are not acceptable as many of the vital nutritional factors begin deteriorating within hours. Keep in mind that the daily quota of fruit juice is in addition to the required vegetable juice. There are a number of good juicers available on the market.

Dried fruits are acceptable, as long as they are un-sulphured. You can find good quality dried fruits in any health-food store. Dried apples, apricots, bananas, currants, dates, figs, and raisins are among the more commonly available dried fruits and are all fine for you.

Canned, frozen, processed and sweetened fruits are completely unacceptable.

Grains: This category of plant product includes alfalfa, barley, buckwheat, corn, flax, rice, millet, oats, lye, wheat. Normally, grain products are eaten cooked, such as in breads, cereals and pasta. We prefer the grains raw, to provide the maximum nutritional benefit. However, grains cannot be eaten straight off the stalk. First of all, they’re too hard; and second, they contain enzyme blockers which must first be neutralized.

Sprouting, as discussed below, is an excellent way to prepare edible raw grains. Sprouted alfalfa and wheat berries, if made fresh, are actually quite tasty, even sweet: don’t confuse freshly made sprouts with those commonly available in your supermarket, which may be days old, and taste like it. Do not eat sprouts more than 5 days old.

In addition to sprouted grains, we recommend you eat at least 3-4 tablespoons of the fourteen-grain cereal. The fourteen-grain cereal consists of fourteen different beans, grains, nuts and seeds: alfalfa, almonds, barley, buckwheat, brown rice, corn, flaxseed, lentils, millet, mung beans, oat groats, rye, sesame, and wheat berries. This cereal was designed so that a human could literally live on it, and eat nothing else; it provides virtually all the nutrients, even the protein, we need for sustenance.

You can purchase the various ingredients for the fourteen-grain cereal separately at your health-food store. Each evening, you should grind up 3-4 table spoons in a seed grinder or coffee grinder. Grind the mix into a fine powder; place in a bowl; add apple juice or other fruit juice. Let soak overnight at room temperature. The following morning, you can add blackstrap molasses, honey or maple syrup, and eat without cooking. Many patients find the cereal “tasty;” others refer to it as ‘bird food.”

This diet allows breads, as long as they are made from 100% whole grains, such as whole wheat, whole oatmeal, sprouted wheat, whole rye, etc. Such breads should be made with out synthetic chemicals, additives, preservatives or sugar. Some nutrients will be destroyed during the baking process, but whole-grain breads do add variety to the diet; and also provide protein, complex carbohydrates and dietary fiber, as well as the B vitamins, and minerals, such as magnesium and zinc, and trace elements such as chromium.

You can have whole-grain breads each day.

You can have cooked brown rice as often as you like. With beans, rice makes a complete protein, and in this combination can substitute for animal products. As with bread, the cooking process will destroy some of the nutritional value, but cooked brown rice still provides many valuable nutrients.

You must avoid all refined grain products, such as white flour and white rice. These foods have been stripped of most of their nutrients, and should never be eaten. For example, during the refining process, essential nutrients, including fiber, are removed from wheat: 3-4 nutrients are then replaced, and the bakers label this depleted food as “enriched.” White rice, like white wheat flour, is also nutritionally inferior.

Nuts: Nuts of all types—Except peanuts— including almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, filberts, pecans and walnuts, are excellent sources of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and good quality protein. Nuts should be eaten raw, unroasted, without salt or sugar. *On this diet, we specifically request that you eat 10 almonds for breakfast and 10 almonds for lunch. Almonds, of all the nuts, are a superb source of protein. Should you have difficulty chewing almonds, two tablespoons of almond butter can be substituted for the whole raw almonds. Note that almonds, and other nuts, can also be sprouted.

Seeds: We recommend raw seeds, such as pumpkin, sun flower and sesame seeds, which are rich in protein, vitamins, minerals, certain trace minerals and the essential fatty acids. Seeds should be refrigerated or frozen, to prevent the fatty acids from turning rancid. Eat seeds as often as you like, at any time of the day.

Sprouts: Freshly made sprouts are a particularly nutritious food that make an excel lent addition to salads. You can have sprouts as often as you like, and as much as you like. Virtually any bean, grain, nut or seed can be sprouted. Such foods are valuable for a number of reasons. First, certain foods, such as beans, which cannot normally be eaten raw, can be eaten uncooked when sprouted. Sprouting also increases the nutritional content of many seed-type foods; during the sprouting process, the cells begin manufacturing nutrients and useful substances such as chlorophyll. Finally, raw beans, grains, nuts and seeds contain powerful enzyme-blockers, which are destroyed during the sprouting process. These enzyme-blockers can be harmful if eaten in the active form.

Sprouting should not be a time-consuming affair. For a straightforward discussion on sprouting, we suggest you read the chapter on sprouts in the Rodale’s Basic Natural Food Cookbook, from Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pennsylvania. Any good health-food store will also carry books on sprouting. When preparing sprouts, remember to use active seeds, uncontaminated with fungicides or other toxic chemicals. Seeds for sprouting are generally available at health-food stores.

Beans: Beans are an excellent food, rich in fiber, proteins, minerals, trace elements and vitamins. In addition to raw sprouted beans, we allow cooked beans. We recommend a particularly good way to cook beans, which you should have, 2-3 times each week:

Place two cups of any type of dried washed beans in a bean pot or covered ovenproof pot. Add five cups of pure clean water, five garlic cloves, and two tablespoons of olive oil, one teaspoon of sea salt and 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. You can add a tablespoon or two of molasses if you like. Cover the pot, place in your oven and cook at 200 degrees overnight (at least 8 hours).

This particular dish is very tasty and it speeds up repair, rebuilding and detoxification.

 Animal Protein: Your body can do extremely well with vegetable sources of protein, but for optimal nutrition you require some amounts of animal protein each day. Specifically, we recommend the following:

Eggs: Despite bad publicity because of their cholesterol content, eggs are a complete food, containing high quality protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins and important trace elements. We recommend at least one egg each day,* perhaps taken along with your fourteen- grain cereal. We suggest that you poach or soft-boil the eggs, as this form of cooking least disrupts the protein content.

*Dairy Products: The only dairy products initially allowed on the program include whole-milk yogurt and small amounts of butter. The yogurt can be flavored with fruit and honey if you wish. *We recommend a cup of yogurt daily.

Fish: Fish should be eaten 2-3 times a week. You will do well with lean white seafood (cod, flounder, haddock, halibut, perch, sole, trout, and whitefish) as well as fatty fishes such as bluefish, mackerel, salmon, swordfish and tuna. Because of serious problems with bacterial contamination, we strongly suggest you AVOID ALL SHELLFISH; the risks of illness are too great. Fish can be baked, broiled, poached, or stir- fried; but not microwaved or deep-fried.

 Poultry: Free Range Chicken only.

The Haimes Centre Clinic

Phone: 561 995-8484  w  Fax: 561 995-7773