Here's the definition of the ideal diet for humans from the book "The Health Seeker's Yearbook" by Victoria Bidwell
"Fresh, wholesome fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds - in their uncooked, whole, natural state - taken in modest amounts and proper combinations - while in a state of rest and Emotional Balance!"
Note: "Whole" refers to the food before it has been cut, sliced, blended, diced, minced, mashed, juiced, and so on. "Natural" meas just as the food comes off the vine, stalk, stem, branch, or out of the earth before any kind of processing, whatsoever.
Well, that's something to think about...
The ideal diet can also summarized in just 3 words:
1. WHOLE ...whole food is superior to fragmented food.
2. RAW ...raw food is superior to cooked food.
3. PLANT ...plant food is superior to animal food.
Most common thing that people fear when starting The Ideal Diet is that something essential is missing from the diet. Where do i get enough calcium, will i get enough protein? I ask: "If you dont get your vitamins and minerals from The Ideal Diet, then where would you get it? From cooked food? From conventional food? The answer is that fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds will provide you with EVERYTHING :)
So how to categorise our Ideal Food? Here is the criteria of Ideal Food:
1. Ideal Foods must be nontoxic. Toxic foods are anti-life, anti-vital foods and they are poisonous to our body. It doesn't matter if its poisonous in a big way or just a little bit. Do you want to poison your body just a little bit? The body cannot use toxic food for optimum nutrition. Ingested toxins in unnatural foods and drink are the primary basis for enervation and toxemia and future disease. Only fruits are virtually toxin-free, as are most vegetables, nuts and seeds.
2. Ideal Foods must be edible in the whole, raw, natural state. Fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds are very easily eaten that way and they are delicious! The food you cannot eat in a raw state and doesn't taste good in that was is simply not our Ideal Food.
3. Ideal Foods must have sensory appeal. Our Ideal Foods must look good to the eye, must give exciting aromas and be delicious to our taste buds. Fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds meet this criteria.
4. Ideal Foods must be easily digested when eaten alone or in proper combinations. Ideal Food digests very good without the formation of pathological debris. And the foods are easily assimilated and absorbed without requiring tremendous drain in nerve energy. The simple sugars from fruits are absorbed in less than an hour, which makes the the most easily digested food of all.
5. Ideal Food must be efficiently digested. The human digestive system was created to thrive on The Ideal Diet and to digest efficiently. But if we eat anything from steak and potatoes to hot fudge sundaes to root beer floats that the human digestive system runs inefficiently. The SAD diet is an energy drain, but The Ideal Diet is an energy enhancer.
6. Ideal foods must have protein adequacy. Proteins are broken down to amino acids by the body, which are immediately assimilable nutrients. Because the body recycles approximately 2/3 of its proteinaceous waste in what is called the "amino acid pool", the body needs only 20-30 g of protein daily, or less. The meat and dairy industries wants to make us believe that we need 3-4 times this amount! Such high amounts of animal protein could lead to protein poisoning and contributes to a number of chronic, degenerative diseases. A diet high in fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds provide us with enough high quality, nontoxic protein. The Ideal Diet is about 5% protein. (5% protein in terms of daily caloric value).
7. Ideal food must be adequate in vitamin content. Whole fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds - those what are not processed, refined and so on - are vitamin rich. When those foods are eaten in its "suncooked" form, no supplementation is needed. Supplements are unnatural and toxic.
8. Ideal Diet must be adequate in mineral salts. Ideal Foods are mineral rich. In Ideal Diet the minerals remain organic in form, since they come from whole, raw foods directly. Cooking and processing renders many minerals in foods inorganic through chemical alteration, evaporation and leaching. These minerals are not usable for the body and they are toxic. Likewise, mineral supplements introduces inorganic (that is, toxic) minerals into the system.
9. Ideal foods must supply needs for essential fatty acids. All the recognised "essential fatty acids" which the body requires but cannot synthesize are supplied in fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds abundantly. We need very little actual FAT to begin with! Studies estimate that conventional American diets are from 37 to as much as 45% fat, most of which is saturated and high in cholesterol. Raw fruits and vegetables are only 1-5% fat, low in saturation, with no cholesterol. (The % quoted refer to calorie content of given food).
10. Ideal foods must supply our caloric needs. Our bodies need fuel. It is estimated that approximately 90% of the body's nutrient needs are for glucose or "simple sugar". Carbohydrates, high in simple sugars, are the most readily usable form of body fuel. And fruits - of all the Ideal Foods - best meet this need. The carbohydrates in fruit are easily, efficiently converted to blood glucose, the body's primary fuel source.
11. Ideal Foods are water-sufficcient. The purest of water is found in fruits and vegetables, which are 78-95% water in the uncooked form. A diet of such foods will eliminate the need to drink liquid at all, except under conditions of vigorous exercise or warm climates.
12. Ideal Foods are alkaline in metabolic reaction. The healthy human body remains alkaline condition. The normal state of pH is 7.4, which is slightly alkaline. And we must supply our body with alkaline foods to remain in that condition. A food is classified "acid" or "alkaline" depending on which type of minerals predominate. The acid minerals are sulphur, phosphorous, choline, which predominate in meat, eggs, refined sugar and refined grain products and most nuts and seeds. The alkaline minerals are sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron, which predominate in virtually all fruits and vegetables and some nuts and seeds. to maintain the proper balance, the diet should be 80% alkaline and 20% acid-forming foods.
13. Ideal Foods are fiber-rich. The human diet needs fiber to insure stimulation of peristaltic throughout the gastro-intestinal tract. all uncooked fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds fulfill this criterion ideally.
