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Whole Foods Diet

Posts to Ask Dr Stoll BB regarding Whole Foods Diet

There have been several posts to the Ask Dr Stoll
Bulletin Board (BB) regarding Whole Foods Diet.
Many of them have been archived here. The archive is roughly
chronological. I hope you find it useful.

There is also a lot of discussion on water filtration
and purification.

Summary discussion about the rationale behind a "whole foods diet":

First, I am sure everyone interested in health has noticed that every few months, now, a new essential nutrient is discovered. This past year, bioflavinoids (For nearly 30 years bioflavinoids had been removed from nutrition textbooks since they were thought to have no function.), phytochemicals and arabinogalactans are examples. How many more do you think will be discovered in the next 50 years? It was less than 100 years ago that vitamins were discovered!

The point is that the only place where these essential nutrients can be found is in whole foods. Until they are discovered, they cannnot be supplemented. ALL of the essential nutrients are known to work in concert with each other SO, if we wait to get these by supplementation, we will not get the teamwork benefits even after they ARE available by supplementation.

Further, there is a big difference between the nutritional doses of these known (and unknown) molecules and the pharmacological doses (much larger) that have very different effects. SO, the most effective place for supplementation is for the pharmacological doses we cannot get from a healthy diet. For the teamwork, trace, essential nutrients, by far the best source is in the foods in which they are found AND in the proportion in those foods in which they exist.

It takes knowledge and determination to take the correct doses of essential nutrients needed to actually treat any chronic condition and, even then, we will not get the full effect without using the foundation of all the other nutritional doses of as yet undiscovered substances. Therefore, at least for the forseeable future, the healthiest people will be those who live on whole foods.

Whole foods are those that man has not yet refined. The basic reason for refining has been so that the shelf life will be much longer (No self-respecting fungus or bug will eat it. They know better.) The only reason humans survive eating refined foods is that we are the most complex organisms on the planet. That does not stop us from becoming chronically ill, though.

For example, an unpeeled potato is "whole" and a peeled one is not. Most of the essential nutrients are in the peeling. Nearly all the calories are in the white stuff inside. An unpeeled wheat grain is "whole" and the refined wheat has had the "peeling removed" = white flour. Brown rice is whole and white rice is not.

BY FAR the best reference for being able to actually DO a whole foods diet is Beth Loiselle, RD's classic: "The Healing Power of Whole Foods". Call (800)870-5378 or visit her website for information.

Some of the most dramatic reversals of poor health to good health I have seen have been in those people who took Beth's book and just did it for a week or so PERFECTLY.

THEN, if you still have questions, put them on the BB (bulletin board).

Walt Stoll, MD

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