It really is that simple!

Experts suggest that healthy eating requires the mastery of glycemic indices, acid-base balance, nutrient-density charts and calorie counts.

by Don Matesz — 

The market offers a dizzying array of opinions on optimal human nutrition. Many in the Western medical community still deny that diet can cause, prevent or reverse disease.

Others have developed intricate and often expensive systems for personalized plans based on genetic, body, blood or metabolic type. Experts suggest that healthy eating requires the mastery of glycemic indices, acid-base balance, nutrient-density charts and calorie counts.

The mind easily believes that more is better and, therefore, that nutrition plans with higher cost, intricacy or scientific research are better than simpler diet plans. Fortunately, this is wrong. You can eat abundantly and regain health without counting calories or consulting a chart, ever.

Have you noticed that no one creates complex custom diets for dogs or cats? Most species live on very simple diets, sometimes only one food, and although every species is genetically unique, all thrive on the same basic diet — no customization necessary.

The same applies to humans. Healthy eating is simple. Historically, in traditional cultures, everyone ate the same basic, natural foods with equally good results.

No one sells customized diets for pets because no one would buy them. The plethora of plans for humans only reflects the hypnotic spell of advertising and our dysfunctional money-based economy driving the need to create a unique product in order to capture a market share.

Chinese medicine recommends a diet based on starches (grains and tubers), with vegetables, fats, animal products and fermented foods used as condiments. A perusal through history shows that many traditional cultures ate starch-based diets and enjoyed lean bodies with low rates of the modern diseases of affluence, which include breast and prostate cancer, diabetes, heart disease and menopausal syndrome.

Since we are designed to eat a starch-based diet, doing so can reverse disease, normalize body weight, reduce blood pressure and eliminate the need for medications. This diet not only sustains our health, but it also supports our environment. Amazing how that works. It really is that simple.

Don Matesz, a licensed acupuncturist, and Tracy Minton are both nationally certified Oriental medicine providers specializing in nutrition. They provide affordable natural health care and ongoing classes and workshops. 602-954-8016, www.thefoodway.blogspot.com or  www.barefoot-acupuncture.com.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 30, Number 4, Aug/Sept 2011.