12 Steps to Whole Foods

Introduction
Don’t I Need to Eat for My Blood/Metabolic Type?
The fields of diet and nutrition have so many competing voices, it’s no wonder that most people have tried
many diets. Contradictory philosophies include the high-protein Atkins diet, the high-complex-carb and lowfat
McDougall-Pritikin diet, macrobiotics, vegetarian or vegan, raw food, alkalarian, and many other food cults
or fads. Recently, many people have put their confidence in eating for their blood or body type.
From studying all of these diets and reviewing the responses of people to them, one fact emerges: some people
find that a specific diet works brilliantly for them, and others find them impossible to follow. This leads to the
new view that we are programmed differently, individually, to need a variety of ratios of protein,
carbohydrates, and fats.
As with virtually all of these diet programs, we’re likely to find some truth and some falsehood. What is true is
that people are different and each of us needs to find our optimal balance. In particular, some need more protein
than others. What’s false is that a heavily meat-based diet is necessary for those who need more protein.
Remember the China Study (covered in more detail in Chapter 1), the largest piece of nutrition research in
history: people who eat an animal-protein diet are not healthy people. People think that meat is necessary
because they have not tried to maximize proteins within the realm of plant foods.
Every time you make a change of any kind, your body and sometimes your psyche reacts. Allow for this to be
temporary. Discomfort, or change, is not always a bad sign. In fact, sometimes it is a good sign. Your body is
also likely to detoxify when you decrease or eliminate animal protein and instead give it high-nutrient foods. It
detoxifies because it can, finally, perhaps for the first time in a long while.
Whole-plant foods contain a wide variety of ratios of the three main food components. Without much stress or
effort, and just a little knowledge and planning, someone who needs high protein but wants the advantages of a
disease-preventative, high-fiber, mostly live foods diet can thrive. Gone are the days where people must
assume that plant foods leave people hungry. Just in the last 10 years, high-protein ancient grains have been
rediscovered and popularized (Chapter 6 and Chapter 9 of this book), spirulina and blue-green algae with 60-
70% protein (Chapter 12) have become widely available, and research offers us options for vegetables with
extremely high protein content. (Did you know that both broccoli and spinach have higher than 40% protein?)
Nuts and seeds are another very important solution for protein seekers, and in this book you’ll learn how to
make dips, crackers, desserts, and many other interesting dishes from them. You can eat a 60-80% raw, wholefoods
diet and get plenty of protein. These issues are discussed in each relevant chapter for those who are
concerned that plant foods are too high in carbohydrates.
What about Food Combining and Digestive Problems?
You may have encountered a theory about good and bad food combinations. The theory behind these theories
revolves around the idea that a food that takes 20 minutes to digest will ferment in the gut when it’s present
with a food that takes 8 hours, and different enzymes, to digest.
Some experts dispute that this is something we need to worry about, and I prefer to keep my advice simple and
uncluttered by unproven theory. However, if you do find that starches and sugars are a bad combination for you
(for instance, fruits or above-ground vegetables with grains), feel free to avoid those. One way to tell if certain
food groups should not be combined is if you experience intestinal gas and/or bloating.
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw 12 Steps to Whole Foods 19