In the last about 10,000 years or less, the change in diet, steadily incorporating more carbohydrates, has resulted in deterioration of health, greater tooth decay and a high incidence of what we see even today as the major prevalent diseases.

Also while our hunter-gather ancestors ate up to 500 different local roots, herbs and other plants in a year, a typical modern diet includes only at most 17 different plant crops. It is not surprising that our gut has a few problems with a dietary change on that scale.

Evolution, as geneticists tell us, takes about 1000 to 10,000 generations to allow any substantial changes to take place. Which means to allow our bodies to adjust to the high carbohydrate diet, if at all possible, will need at least an additional 10,000 years. However, seeing that the last 10,000 years do not seem to have made any change in this direction it will be better for us now to follow a proper diet regimen that takes into consideration our present circumstances.

We have evolved eating real foods not individual ingredients or types of fat. Hence though we would do well to approach our eating with a proper understanding of the affects of what we eat, we should stick to a good balance of real whole foods (meat, eggs, nuts, yoghurt, non-starchy vegetables and occasionally some fruit). Limit your net carbs (carbs minus fibre) intake and avoid all processed foods and those that contain artificial or chemical preservatives and colourings. As a guide, for the carb content in vegetables, the darker the leaves the less net carbs they have.

In the last few years, a lot of research has gone into recognizing the importance of nutrients and the effect of many foods on our health. Also a lot of research in this field in Europe from the 1940’s and 1950’s and even thereafter, which has been neglected by the USA and other English speaking countries, has begun to be translated, validated and accepted more widely today, even in the USA. It is not surprising that much of all such findings also validate some of the wisdom in ancient traditions, such as Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Folk traditions.

This Guide seeks to also incorporate much of such knowledge into a practical regimen for Total Wellness, and in order to enable you to better understand it all, explains each important factor in the respective understanding sections herein.

As Giulia Enders advises – we should stop thinking of our body as a two dimensional cause and effect machine. “The brain, the rest of the body, the bacteria and the elements in our food all interact with each other in four Dimensions… the nutrition we receive from our bacteria and the way they affect our immune system, is not only important for fighting flab but also for our health.” (See – ‘Gut Microflora and Obesity).

It is not purely over eating, it is what you eat and when, and in what combinations, and what finally gets into your blood that matters. Look more at ‘Nutrients’ in what you eat than just ‘Calories’. Just reducing calories can lead to your body resetting its metabolic rate to a lower level and just become more efficient with the lower caloric intake. (See – ‘Glossary – Metabolism’).

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