6.20.12
TCM: How did you get started on your nutrition path?
DG: “When I was young, I was constantly fighting off one cold or lung infection after another. By the time I was a teenager, my skin began to break out with acne. This led me to be antibiotics for a long period of time.
When I ate the standard American diet and followed doctor’s orders, my health suffered. I became sick. I knew that I was not the only one having this experience. I knew that others around me were unknowingly sabotaging their own health. My body seemed to be growing more sensitive with time and with antibiotic use. It was not until I was in my 30s that I began searching for answers to all my health issues.
By looking at my own diet and pulling together bits of information that I found in several other disciplines, I was able to figure out why my body struggled to be well. After several years of searching, I slowly began to heal a lifetime of sensitivity and infection. I felt better than I ever had before. So I decided to put together what I had learned into a book that is easy for others to follow and to relate to. "
TCM: What makes the Body Ecology Diet different from other diets out there?
DG: “The Body Ecology Diet focuses specifically on restoring and maintaining the gastrointestinal tract, what I coined our“ inner ecology ”. Unlike most diets, the Body Ecology is not a one size fits all solution. While it incorporates many principles that are important for everyone, it also approaches every individual through the lens of uniqueness – each of us has to honor our unique constitution and health challenges.
The mistake most diet programs make is assuming everyone should start their healing process exactly the same way with exactly the same foods. Thus, the Body Ecology Diet is a complete system embraced by many doctors around the world. One of the main tenets of the Body Ecology Diet is the introduction of probiotic rich, fermented foods and beverages. A number of diets over the years, like GAPS, have changed their protocol to include fermented foods after I demonstrated how their systems were incomplete.
Fermented foods are no longer consumed on a regular basis. Maybe our great-grandmothers made these foods at home, but most of us have forgotten about truly fermented yogurt, sauerkraut and kefir. Fermented foods are extremely important to our health because they educate and inoculate the gut with a wide range of beneficial microorganisms. When these beneficial microorganisms are not present, harmful ones are. When we give our body reason to house harmful bacteria, it will. When we give our body the tools that it needs to build a thriving and balanced inner ecosystem, it will! ”
TCM: If people could remove one thing from their life to be healthier, what would it be?
DG: “Sugar consumption is at an all-time high - and growing. In the early 1800s, we ate roughly 5 pounds of sugar a year. Today, each of eats about 110 pounds of sugar a year. We are consuming sugar multiple times a day and our body is not equipped to handle this. Convenience food is loaded with sugar because it is a preservative. It also enhances flavor and drives up sales. Sugar is addictive. And sugar is extremely harmful to the body on multiple levels. It immediately weakens the immune system function, it blocks hormone receptors, it feeds disease-causing microorganisms and the list goes on. If we could drastically reduce the amount of sugar that we consume, I believe that we could greatly reduce many of the health disorders that are becoming ‘epidemic’. "
TCM: Can you give an example of a perfect Body Ecology dinner?
DG: “The first rule of thumb is to include fermented foods with every meal. The second is to follow the Principle of 80/20, which means that 80% of your meal is composed of non-starchy vegetables. About 20% of the meal would be a starchy vegetable, grain or animal protein. A lightly cooked piece of salmon, skin on, gives the body a small dose of long-chain omega-3 fats. We know that omega-3 fatty acids are good for healthy brain, joint and immune system function. I also always enjoy a glass of coconut water kefir or one of our fermented drinks with every meal.
So the perfect Body Ecology dinner would have a side of fermented vegetables, which add a flavorful kick to any meal. There would also be a side of lightly steamed vegetables topped with a healthy fat, like pumpkin seed oil, ghee or coconut oil and a handful of fresh, baby salad greens sprinkled with extra virgin olive oil and dulse, which is a type of ocean vegetable . "
TCM: Why is eating fermented foods such an integral part of being successful on the Body Ecology Diet?
DG: “Fermented foods are tremendously important because they safely deliver a complex range of healthy microbes to the digestive system. This cannot be accomplished with a probiotic capsule. You see, our intestines house millions upon millions of bacteria. And it turns out that these bacteria play a very special role in overall immune function and health! The Body Ecology Diet suggests that we eat foods that strengthen our immune system rather than weaken it.
The microorganisms found in fermented foods naturally assist with digestion. They also help to heal a permeable gut, which is at the root of many systemic infections and many chronic immune disorders... When the gastrointestinal tract becomes inflamed, we are more likely to develop allergies, autoimmune disorders and signs of neurological degeneration. Beneficial bacteria have been found to reduce inflammation. They also have been found to metabolize heavy metals that are inherently toxic to the body.
Most of us think that the digestive system is largely about transforming and using food. While this is true, it is also full of cells that related to the immune system and to the nervous system. The bacteria and microorganisms that populate the digestive tract have been found to do amazing things like communicate with the cells of our immune system and to even generate their own neurotransmitters, which the body picks up and uses! So of course, we want to do everything that we can to create a healthy and balanced environment.
TCM: How do children respond to the Body Ecology Diet?
DG: “Children do extremely well on the Body Ecology Diet. I think it is the solution to so many of the issues children are now facing-from obesity and diabetes to reduced immune systems and autism. I wish I could speak with Michelle Obama about her ‘Let’s Move!’ Program and her desire to fight childhood obesity. I have answers!
Through working with thousands of children over the years through our BEDROK Program – Body Ecology Diet Recovering Our Kids-we’ve found that proper detoxification, diet and supplementation can result in what many believe to be miracles. When we add good, nourishing fats to their diet while removing sugars and most grains, we find that these children thrive. The addition of fermented foods literally changes their desire for junk food, which many children are drawn to.
Once children begin the Body Ecology Diet, they are happier. They think clearly, perform well in school and many behavioral issues simply disappear. The Body Ecology Diet can also help to heal many of the digestive and immune system disorders that children face today. Whether a child has sensitivity to certain foods or to their environment, when parents change their child’s diet, they find that their child functions at a higher level and is susceptible to seasonal allergies and to infection. ”
TCM: What do you do in your free time?
DG: “ Research! I love finding information and putting together the puzzle pieces in ways that others have yet to do. Research not only helps me to be a better teacher, but allows me to give better guidance to others so they can live a happier, healthier life. "
TCM: What’s one thing people might not know about you?
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Start your review of The Body Ecology Diet: Recovering Your Health and Rebuilding Your Immunity
after the initial flu like symptoms of the first week, I woke up one day and noticed ... my arms were thinner, oh and so is my face .. wow .... it is
I have been following this book for about 2 months, it is saving my life, yes I believe that, I am over 400lbs and please! I have been through about every diet there is, worked with nutritionist, Doctor, health groups, OA (a great group who have helped me as well) I thought I was a hypochondriac because I had all these things going on in my body.
after the initial flu like symptoms of the first week, I woke up one day and noticed ... my arms were thinner, oh and so is my face .. wow .... it is working! do you know what? I was in tears because finally finally someone took time to take a scientific approach to this problem and it makes sense! I do not want to ever change back, I do not miss the cake cookies and pizzas, I eat fresh foods and love them. love the fermented veggies as well.
I must of made 100 mistakes on this diet because I had not read it closely enough, I was so excited and off and running.
It is o.k I am getting there, baby steps you know?
Listen if you are blessed enough to get this book in your hands, my advice is start slow, it "s o.k, it will be a bit overwhelming if you try to take it in all at once, baby steps.
realize you are letting go of how you lived up till now you are healing your body, getting all that inflammation down in your gut and reestablishing your natural balance.
It may not be everyones cup of tea, but if I could I would like to see everyone living by it "s principles, we would all be healthier. I have been longwinded here so let me say if you are still reading, try at first to make a list of things you CAN eat, chicken, fish, fresh veggies, eggs.add to the list once you find another item that is ok and you will just be fine. I am not offended by the endorsements for the products at all , I think she has lovingly made it easier for us to make these things if we do not want to make them ourselves.so what if she profits, she should, she put a lot of time and energy into helping all of us live better. God bless her and all of you.
Because doctors don’t is a gut-healing diet that I highly recommend. Its basic premise, building upon the foundation of what built in his book, is that many chronic issues are due to a buildup of yeast (Candida) in the body.
Sign up here for the webinar replay of my interview of Donna Gates about the Body Ecology Diet: https: //xn123.infusionsoft.com/app/fo ...
Because doctors don't offer systemic Candida infections as a diagnosis, it is often overlooked as a causative factor in autoimmune, neurological and hormonal diseases, disorders and conditions, even cancer, when, in my mind, it should be one of the first suspects ...
Most people don’t understand how the use of steroids, antibiotics, birth-control pills and even ibuprofen can negatively affect the gut’s ecosystem. The Standard American Diet (SAD) with its grain, sugars and starches also contributes heavily to a disrupted gut ecology.
It boils down to this: 70% of your immune system is located in your gut. If its inner ecosystem is overrun by bad guys, like Candida, it can leave you vulnerable to more virulent infections, diseases and disorders.
Not only that, but Candida can affect your ability to produce hormones, which is why people with candidiasis often have adrenal, thyroid and reproductive-hormone problems.
People with candidiasis are frequently fatigued, get sick a lot, have “female problems”, food allergies, chemical sensitivities, constant headaches and other symptoms that are often dismissed by the medical establishment.
To me, the Body Ecology Diet is the most comprehensive approach to healing the gut, and therefore the body, because addresses these hormonal balances; as far as I know, hers is the only gut-healing diet that does. She emphasizes the use of sea vegetables to heal the thyroid and adrenals, which is brilliant, in my mind.
She also emphasizes the consumption of probiotic foods that contain oodles of probiotic bacteria. Foods such as homemade kefir, sauerkraut, kim chi and other fermented foods.
If you think about it, before the invention of refrigeration, all foods that our great-grandparents ate were fresh, preserved with salt (real salt, not the processed white stuff we find today) or preserved with fermentation. These are truly health-promoting foods! That's why the subtitle of this book is "Changing the Way the World Eats with Probiotic Nutrition".
I won’t say it’s an easy diet to follow, although it is far easier than the basic anti-Candida diet, mostly because of the various principles upon which the diet is based:
Expansion and contraction
Acid and alkaline
Uniqueness
Cleansing
Food combining
80/20
Step by step
Because of the food-combining principle, you can have gluten-free grains on the diet (just not with protein), which is a nice highlight for people out there who feel better eating grains or those who need more carbohydrate-rich diets like children and athletes. To this end, Donna also includes's theory in the book.
However, food combining makes it a bit more challenging about when to eat things like olives, avocados, nuts, etc. If you’re eating out, it’s best to think Paleo-type foods (minus the nuts and fruit).
All in all, it’s a very well-thought-out and comprehensive diet that offers health-promoting principles for everyone.
As is often the case with good things, I stumbled upon Donna Gates's book The Sustainable Body Diet ( The Body Ecology Diet) while looking for something else. I ordered this book for myself and have since bought 2 more copies for other people. This book seems to have all the hallmarks of a "favorite book." In my copy, many paragraphs are underlined, and the margins are full of pencil marks, here and there self-adhesive notes are pasted in. I know that many of you nod and understand what I mean.
On the cover of this book is the following statement: “Required reading for those who want to be healthy. And for those who do not have the strength, there is overweight, digestive problems. Who suffers from viral diseases, candidiasis, cancer, nervous disorders such as attention deficit disorder, autism, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis "
The Green Body diet is radically different from all other diets. Donna says it's not so much a diet as a way of life in which food, eating right, is the foundation of wellness. Donna suggests looking at the book first to get an overview of the program before starting. There is so much new information in this book for me that one reading was simply not enough for me. I'm like Winnie the Pooh, who said: "I'm just a bear, and I have a very small head!"
I will tell you that I started reading this book and immediately put into practice some concepts. And I want to warn you that very serious changes in lifestyle are planned. This is fundamentally different from any diet I've ever met. One of the distinguishing features of this approach is that the emphasis is on improving the digestion process, strengthening immunity, and slowing down aging. Weight loss and desirable weight loss are, one might say, pleasant side effects of the good health that it achieves.
The Sustainable Body Diet is based on principles of Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine as well as naturopathy. Donna compares her approach to other authors' diets, including D'Adamo's "Eat right for your type" system, which many refer to as a blood type diet.
7 principlesgreen body diets
1. Uniqueness. We are all unique and no diet will work the same for everyone. The Sustainable Body Diet explores modifications to habitual diets such as low carbohydrate intake, vegetarianism, and raw food intake.
2. Step by step. Step by step. First you need to accumulate a certain amount of energy, restore proper digestion, defeat infections, remove toxins. And then move on to the next steps. It is impossible to achieve everything at once.
3. Cleansing. The body strives for purification. This is a good property. Unfortunately, in Western medicine this is often viewed as a disease. And we begin to heal in this condition, driving toxins deeper into the body. Welcome this process and help the body cleanse itself.
4. Balance. In traditional Chinese medicine, these are Yin and Yang. Donna readily uses these concepts, as well as "expansion" and "contraction". If we are too enlarged, we may be confused or hyperactive. If we are too tight, there is tension, as if we are constantly under stress.
5. Acid-base balance. The internal environment of our body should be slightly alkaline. When we are prone to the formation of acids, we suffer from fungal and viral diseases, the body is more prone to aging, the likelihood of developing cancer increases. We combat this by eating foods rich in minerals.
6. Combination. Avoid eating protein foods with starchy grains or starchy vegetables. Proteins and starch are not digested together. The result is fermentation and the formation of toxins, accompanied by the formation of gases and bloating.
7. The 80 to 20 principle. First, don't gorge yourself. Stay at 80%, leaving enough room in the stomach for normal digestion and not interfering with the production of digestive enzymes. Secondly, 80% vegetables and 20% proteins or starch.
More detailsaboutdiet
Balance « expanding» and « compressing» products.
Remember that over-expansion makes us hyperactive. The extreme cases of "expanding" foods are alcohol, drugs and sugar. This category also includes coffee and many fruits, dairy products: milk. Country cheese and yoghurt. All of them should be avoided. "Moderately expanding" foods that are considered acceptable when balanced include: certain vegetable juices, spices, teas, kefir, raw butter and vegetable oils, lemon, lime, cranberry, black currant juice.
Squeezing is associated with tightness and depression. Shrinking foods include hard cheeses, grains and seeds (other than those recommended by a sustainable body diet), nuts, and legumes. They should be avoided. Acceptable contraction foods to balance with expansion foods are fish and shellfish, poultry, meat, eggs, and sea salt.
Salads are examples of dishes that balance contraction and expansion properties. Raw vegetables, green vegetables, almonds (soaked and sprouted), red potatoes, ocean vegetables, root vegetables, winter squash, grains recommended by the sustainable body diet. These are great foods, but there are other principles to keep in mind: the 80 to 20 rule and combining foods. Plenty of vegetables and some grains.
80/20 food combination rule
Remember rules 6 and 7 above. For me, this is the basis of both individual dishes and the whole approach to nutrition. I suppose that for very many of us this will be a very significant departure from the established eating habits typical for our society. And since vegetables should make up 80% of our diet, it is very important to determine what they should be.
Most people will find this question simple. Unfortunately, after spending my childhood in the South, I later discovered that practically everything that we call vegetables, from the point of view of nutritional science, refers to "grains" or "starch." Unfortunately, potatoes, corn, and beans are not vegetables.
Vegetables are: green salads, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, leeks, onions, red radish, okra, yellow pumpkin, zucchini. The book provides a more complete list of vegetables.
Cereals
The Sustainable Body Diet recognizes only 4 grains. These are buckwheat, amaranth, millet, Chilean Mary - quinoa. Some of them should technically be considered seeds. Donna recommends steeping all of these grains for 12 to 24 hours before cooking. They have a “coating” that makes them difficult to digest, and soaking removes this “coating”. The book provides much more information about these grains and many recipes.
Fermented foods.
Fermented foods are the primary means by which the correct acid-base balance is achieved, which helps to reduce the incidence of disease. The emphasis is on cultivated vegetables and kefir. These fermented foods are high in beneficial bacteria. Although such products are not common in the American market, they are relatively common in other countries. Germans eat sauerkraut and Koreans eat kimchi. Fermented beverages like kefir are common in many Mediterranean cultures.
I searched and tried some ready-made recipes, but I didn't like them - they are too soft in texture, and they are also mind-bogglingly expensive. Information from Immunitrion.com helped me
Kefir is usually made from milk, and Donna does not recommend using dairy products in her program. She recommends kefir made from young coconut milk.
I think I have given you enough initial information on the Sustainable Body Diet and you can already decide if it is right for you or not. Get yourself a copy of the book and study it well.
The body's energy is supported not only by food. Food covers only 20% of the body's energy consumption, and the rest is provided by field influences. Of course, optimization of everything related to nutrition is extremely important, but what about ensuring environmentally friendly, coordinated human interaction with external energies.
The device, the Functional State Corrector, developed in Russia, is a means to "calm down" and "harmonize" external field effects on the body. From ancient Chinese folk medicine, we first received the notion that a person is an indivisible whole entity, and that he should be treated precisely as a single whole, as a single energy-information system. Chinese healers knew about the existence of energy channels inside the body, and about active points in those places where these channels go to the surface of the skin, and that life is impossible without the support of this energy frame of the body and knew how to influence the energies flowing through its energy channels ... At the same time, active acupuncture points serve as points of connection with the field of our Earth and with the field surrounding the person himself - his aura. Accordingly, through field influences, it is possible to transfer certain information to the body, which will contribute to the restoration of balance between its energy-information system and the environment.
The Functional State Corrector influences the human body at the information level, in this its action is similar to classical homeopathy. Its developer Sergey Valentinovich Koltsov managed to copy the fields with the help of which the mutual exchange of informational influences in living nature is carried out. In a form that is understandable to literally every cell, figurative information is given, taken from medicinal plants and recorded in the production process on a proofreader. In living nature, everything is built on the principles of resonance. And if the image of a certain medicinal plant, from the multitude of images that is contained in the FSC, is suitable for correcting the existing functional deviation, then thanks to such informational influence, the corresponding mechanisms are activated, aimed at regulating the action of the system or organ that has deviations. Thus, the informational impact of FSC creates conditions under which the body can cope much easier with the existing functional deviations.
Koltsov's plates have three types of effects on the body. This is, in fact, the correction of the functional state, which is briefly described above; protection of a person from electromagnetic radiation and geopathogenic effects; and structuring of liquid media. The correctors themselves perceive deviations in the frequency characteristics of the surrounding fields, and begin to work actively only when there are disturbances in the surrounding space. These devices work only when the need arises. After 10-15 minutes, the characteristics of the person using the corrector are normalized, the corrector stops receiving information that there is a mismatch, and it stops working. Correctors operate on the energy of the Earth's magnetic field, so the energetics of their impact is low, and users, as a rule, do not face exacerbations associated with the healing process. Like homeopathy, small but constant influences can trigger the necessary natural self-healing processes and correct existing functional deviations.
I talked about the cool approach and 7 principles for the successful work of the Body Ecosystem. Today I want to focus on her basic nutritional rules!
Let me remind you that we owe a lot to the tireless work of Donna Gates for literally a planetary breakthrough in understanding the importance of nutrition, the topic of digestion, good bacteria and enzymes. Donna is the founder of the Ecology of the Body project, author of books, product lines and educational programs about "nurturing" our "inner ecosystems". Her project is over 20 years old and she is one of the first to eliminate gluten, sugar, casein (i.e. dairy products) from the diet and include probiotics.
Donna has a real systemic approach to health and it is called BODY ECOLOGY. That is, she considers our body and organs as a ONE real Ecosystem (this is exactly what I write about in my book :)) !
So, the basics of the Body Ecology Approach.
1. Balance « expanding» and « compressing» products.
Remember that over-expansion makes us hyperactive. The most "expanding" foods are alcohol, drugs and sugar. This category also includes coffee and many fruits, dairy products, milk, country cheese and yogurt. All of them should be avoided. "Moderately expanding" foods that are considered acceptable when balanced include certain vegetable juices, spices, teas, kefir, raw butter and vegetable oils, lemon, lime, cranberry, and black currant juice.
Squeezing is associated with tightness and depression. Shrinking foods include hard cheeses, grains and seeds (other than those recommended by the organic body diet), nuts and legumes. They should be avoided. Acceptable "constricting" foods to balance with "expanding" foods are fish and shellfish, poultry, meat, eggs, and sea salt.
Salads are examples of dishes that balance contraction and expansion properties. Raw vegetables, green vegetables, almonds (soaked and sprouted), red potatoes, sea vegetables, root vegetables, winter squash, grains recommended by the sustainable body diet. These are great foods, but don't forget the 80/20 food combination rule. Plenty of vegetables and some grains.
2. The 80/20 food combination rule.
This principle has two components - one is about nutrient balance and the other is about quantity. Quantity means that when you eat, you fill your stomach up to 80%, leaving room for digestion. And the second helps you balance nutrients, including 80% vegetables and 20% protein or grains (such as millet, quinoa, amaranth, or buckwheat). Together, they can have a significant effect on digestion.
Most people will find this question simple. Keep in mind that from a nutritional science perspective, much of what we think is vegetables is actually "grains" or "starch". Potatoes, corn, and beans are not vegetables.
Vegetables are: green salads, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, leeks, onions, red radish, okra, yellow pumpkin, zucchini.
4. Cereals.
The Sustainable Body Diet recognizes only 4 grains. These are buckwheat, amaranth, millet, quinoa. Some of them should technically be considered seeds. Donna recommends steeping all of these grains for 12 to 24 hours before cooking. They have a "shell" that makes them difficult to digest, and soaking removes this "shell".
5. Fermented foods.
Fermented foods are the primary means by which the correct acid-base balance is achieved, which helps to reduce the incidence of disease. The emphasis is on cultivated vegetables and kefir. These fermented foods are high in beneficial bacteria. Germans eat sauerkraut and Koreans eat kimchi. Fermented beverages like kefir are common in many Mediterranean cultures.
Kefir is usually made from milk, but Donna does not recommend using dairy products in her program. She recommends kefir made from young coconut milk.
All Beauty and Radiance!
The Body Ecology Diet, or BED, was created by Donna Gates as she was trying to cure her own chronic battle with candida. She claims that following a BED will strengthen your organs and immunity by starving yeast and restoring normal flora. The diet includes seven basic principles that relate not only to what to eat, but also how and when to eat certain foods. Cultivated and fermented foods are welcome.
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Vegetables and herbs
Most of the vegetables on site are BED allowed, especially if grown or fermented. There are several ground vegetables that have been eliminated in the diet for various reasons. Vegetables high in natural sugars, including parsnips, indoor wheatgrass, reddish brown and sweet potatoes, are prohibited. Beets are only allowed when fermented. Members of the nightshade family, including tomatoes, eggplant and bell peppers, are not allowed to be eaten on BEDS. The only mushroom permitted is shitake. Donna Gates warns against bean sprouts, which she says often contain mold. Mineral-rich ocean vegetables are encouraged on the diet. Several common varieties include pulse, kelp, nori, and wakame. Herbs and sea salt are encouraged, and herbs for use especially liberally include cayenne, ginger, garlic, and curry.
Nuts, seeds and grains
Wet and sprouted almonds are the only nuts included in the body ecology diet and then only if they do not cause digestive problems. Sunflower, pumpkin and flax are seeds included in BEDS, and soaking and sprouting is recommended with seeds as well for better digestibility. Four grains are allowed in the diet, and they are all gluten-free. They should include only 20% of this food and include quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth and millet. Corn is permitted in milder cases or after some healing has already taken place. As with nuts and seeds, grains must be soaked prior to eating on this diet.
Oils and sweeteners
Stevia is the only approved dietary sweetener for body ecology, and Donna Gates is even co-author of a stevia cookbook. All fats and oils used in the diet should be unrefined and organic if possible. Coconut oil, ghee and butter are used in cooking, and seed oils are better for raw foods like salad dressings. Acceptable seed oils are safflower, sunflower, pumpkin seeds, hemp, evening primrose, borage, and flax.
Fruit
The first permitted fruits are lemons, limes, cranberries and black currants. Strong caution is not given to switch to sweeter fruits until candida symptoms resolve, which may take a year or more. The first fruits you should try at this point should be sour, not sweeter. Examples include kiwi and grapefruit.
Products for animals
When animal products are consumed on a body ecology diet, they should make up no more than 20 percent of the given meal and should always be eaten with cultivated vegetables. Organic meat is allowed in moderation, and fish is preferred over other meats. Eggs are encouraged, but the book provides advice on how and when to consume them based on your lifestyle. The only dairy products allowed on the BED are kefir and yogurt with no added sugar or other prohibited ingredients.