Are you confused with all the different diets?

By: Ricardo Dacosta
aka: Raghavendra Giri

It is easy to be confused about what you should or should not eat these days. Hundreds of books have been written on different diets and yet they all contradict each other.

For example, if you read Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, you will feel like driving for miles in order to get raw milk and you will probably become a Raw Milk advocate. In the meantime, your best friend is reading "Don't Drink Your Milk!" by Frank Oski, MD, Director of Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where it says how absurd is the fact that humans are not only the only specie who drinks the milk from another animal, but who also continues to drink it for the rest of their life!

Diet books are becoming bestsellers! Nowadays we have all kinds of diet books: Regional diet books, like the hawaian diet or the south beach diet, Religious diet books, like the christian diet, the jewish diet, Celebrities' diet books, like Dr. Phil diet, we even have a diet book based on one the latest film, "The Da Vinci Code" diet! They all have one thing in common...they all contradict each other and make claims as why their diet program is the best. I am here to tell you one thing: "A Universal Diet Cannot Exist!" as we are all different and unique.

You are unique and so am I!

One of the things that I really admire from Oriental Medicine Traditions is the respect for the individual uniqueness, condition and constitution, when it comes to either prepare an herbal formula or design a dietary plan. The Ayurvedic way of eating from India, the Macrobiotic way of eating from Japan and the Traditional Chinese Medicine way of eating, have all that in common.

Although you may find general guidelines in each particular theory, the emphasis on all three is to first understand the condition and constitution of the patient through oriental techniques of diagnosis and then design a dietary plan that will support such condition & constitution.

Someone who lives in a tropical climate must eat different foods than someone who lives in a template climate. Someone who has an office job must eat different than someone who works physically outdoors.

Many people ask me whether a Raw Food diet is good or whether a juice fast is good? My response to such question, is always the same. There is not such thing as good or bad. Same way there is not one thing which is 100% Yin or Yang. Everything in the universe is in constant change. One type of food or food preparation may be good for you today, due to your present condition and constitution, but later on may even make feel sick.

Once you understand this principles, you will become free from all dietary theories and restrictions. If you are looking for an overnight solution to weight loss, I am afraid I cannot help you.

Copyright notice : None parts of this essay can be reproduce without permission from the author

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