Many people come to me and ask, “What diet is right for me? Is it the Zone, Atkins, Ornish, Pyramid, or Blood Typing? I need to lose weight, gain energy, and get fit. I've tried and failed so many diets that I am ready to give up, but I can't. I feel lousy and look worse. I've turned my mirrors inside out to no avail. I am raging about my aging. I need help!”

For the past 25 years, I have been guiding people of all ages and stages of life with a myriad of health problems: some cosmetic, many life threatening. To address the wide range of issues my clients face, I devised a system -- not a diet – called Eating For Health™ (E4H).

Each one of us has unique genetic tendencies, needs, tastes, and tolerances, all of which should be factored into a customized food and nutrition plan. One size does not fit all when it comes to proper nourishment.

We all need differing amounts of healthful foods and nutrients to cope with a fast paced, stress-filled, and toxic world. Similarly, our metabolism is challenged to continually adapt to changes in seasons, situations, climate, and health challenges. It stands to reason that what we ate as children, a mediocre Standard American Diet (SAD), will not nourish us as aging adults.

Change is the one constant in our lives. Let's investigate how to change for the better and improve our health by supporting our metabolism, brain function, and ability to self-heal. Cleaning up the diet by clearing out the debris in our pantries, refrigerators, and medicine cabinets is a good start. Finding out how to shop for, prepare, and enjoy healthy foods is the key that unlocks the door to your rejuvenation.

A map can help you find your destination in the most direct way. Therefore, a great step forward on the path to nutritional wellness is to meet with a professional Nutrition Consultant to receive an in-depth assessment and analysis of your individual situation. If you are struggling with one or more health issues, the consultant can review and evaluate the latest research and advise you on the specific therapeutic foods, herbs, and nutrients that will support your healing.

You are the co-creator in the E4H process. Consider the foods that were nourishing and healing for you in the past, as well as the foods you currently rely on for energy or emotional gratification. Some of these foods are probably loaded with caffeine, bad fats, and sugar – ingredients that will sabotage you when the momentary distraction wears off, pleasure fades, and disease takes over.

Proper nutrition is a major form of health investing. It is safer than the stock market as a hedge against the risk of illness. When you eat poor quality food, you are dipping into the nutrient reserves in your bones, soft tissue, organs, glands, skin, and hair. You wear the results of being overdrawn nutritionally – an unhealthy appearance, and feel the warning signs of ill health – fatigue, pain, and mood swings.

Vow to wake up and Eat For Health by choosing fresh, seasonal, chemical-free, nutrient-rich, organic foods that can replenish the reserves that have been drained by the poor quality foods you have been living on.

The usual suspects, also known as health banditos, are the stimulants, sugars, pastries, pastas, processed cheeses, artificial sweeteners, and margarine found in white-flour-laden, over-processed, frozen, microwaved meals served in restaurants or grabbed on the run. Such foods are formulated in laboratories to over-stimulate our taste receptors so that we are no longer satisfied by the crunch of a carrot, the refreshingly sweet juice of a fresh mango, or the zing of fresh garlic. While it's easy to overeat nutrient-poor, sugary, salty, greasy snack foods, you can enjoy naturally satisfying, nutrient-rich vegetables, grains, seeds, legumes, and lean proteins in abundance.

E4H is a whole foods approach to nutrition developed to provide an alternative to the USDA Food Pyramid and other unbalanced diet approaches, ranging from the protein-heavy Atkins Diet to Fruitarianism. The E4H model guides us in choosing nutrient-dense and diverse foods that are organic, local, seasonal, and unprocessed.

The goal of this unique system is to provide optimal amounts of macronutrients (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates), micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), phytonutrients (plant alkaloids with protective value), and other vital factors (enzymes, tastes, energetic properties) that can be most efficiently digested and assimilated.

Eating For Health™ is a process, rather than a method. To differentiate E4H from other food systems, I developed the concept of the Four Levels of Eating. Each level has its place and reflects the awareness and maturity of a person when he or she is eating, a behavior that affords us abundant choice and delight but is often done with little thought. To create sustainability in one’s own and the planet’s health, we need to exercise greater levels of thought, awareness, and discrimination around food selection.

Let's visit the Four Levels of Eating:

Level One: Eating for Pleasure

This level is an immature and impulsive approach to eating, aimed at maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. Eating at this level is for immediate gratification: "I ate it because it tasted good" and "I ate as much of it as I wanted to" are hallmarks of this stage.

Refined sugar and flour, dairy products, and unhealthy fats are in this category. Food choices typically reflect what we were fed as young children to quiet and appease us. Examples are ice cream, cookies and milk, candy, and soft drinks. Excessive coffee, alcohol, or chocolate is also Level One eating. Emotional eating, which often means compulsive overeating, is a Level One adaptation to pain, tension, and stress.

Level Two: Eating for Energy

Blood sugar regulation drives one’s food choices at this level. We choose substantial foods that allay hunger. The goal is to fill up and not have to eat again for three to four hours.

In Level Two, carbohydrates become more complex; breads may have some whole wheat in them, but are still refined. Fast foods like burgers and burritos are common choices. Little concern is placed on the quality of the food, the likely nutrient loss due to processing, possible pesticide residues, environmental toxins, or added hormones, antibiotics, coloring, and artificial flavors. Animal proteins, peanut butter, breads, pastas, chips, and pizza are common Level Two foods. Fresh fruits and vegetables play a minimal role in the diet at this stage. This is a highly acid-forming, allergy-inducing, and clogging diet pattern.

Level Two eaters are typically unconcerned with the ecological impact of their food choices.

Level Three: Eating for Recovery

The inevitable cumulative effects of Level One and Level Two eating are poor body composition – frequently obesity – and diminished energy, health, and brightness of mood.

People experiencing these effects often go on a diet formulated by someone else that organizes foods into good and bad categories and limits quantities. It may or may not emphasize high-quality, organic foods. Examples of Level Three eating are diet plans such as the Zone, Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, Food Combining, Blood Typing, and Raw Foods.

The benefits of such diets are typically short-lived. There is an immediate positive effect from eating fewer refined and processed foods, but then we reach a point of diminishing return. The diet is no longer satisfying and no longer producing the promised effects. The tendency then is to stay with the rigid, reductionist approach even longer or to slip back to Level One or Level Two eating patterns.

This is a more mature approach than the first two levels, but it can be tiresome, judgmental, and sometimes supplement driven.

Level Four: Eating for Health

The goal of this approach is lifelong learning about optimum nutrition, the healing effects of foods, and an aesthetic and spiritual approach to the culinary arts. It shares some qualities with Level Three, but allows for more personal choice, variety, seasonality, and individuality according to one's personal needs, tastes, ethnic origin, and commitment level.

Food choices at Level Four are made not by formula, but rather by discerning what the body needs and what the best available choices are at a given time. At this level, we choose among a wide variety of healthy, organic foods. We exercise moderation in the amount of foods we eat, and take more time and care in its preparation and presentation. Food is understood and appreciated as an instrument of personal healing and sharing with community. Nourishing ourselves becomes a wise, mature, and loving act of awareness cultivated through daily practice.

The Eating For Health™ model provides a map for healthy eating that draws on many different systems and philosophies, including Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, naturopathy, cutting-edge biochemistry, and ecological sustainability. It was designed to help nutrition professionals guide their clients toward the most nutritionally sound approach for them as individuals. By eating well consistently, they learn what foods best nourish and sustain them during stressful changes that threaten health and impede recovery.

In Eating For Heath™, we embrace two powerful maxims – "food is the best medicine" and "know thyself" – and create a synergy that opens the way to wellness and service.

• Increase intake of local, seasonal, fresh, organic foods.
  
• Drink plenty of purified water each day, about one-half cup (four ounces) every hour. To determine the total amount you need, divide your weight in half and drink that many ounces of water.
  
• Read labels and avoid foods with artificial ingredients.
  
• Decrease intake of refined and artificial sugars, white flour products, unnatural fats, added hormones, preservatives, colors, and antibiotics.
• Diversify sources of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
  
• Ingest 1 gram of protein per kilogram (2.2 lbs) of normal body weight.
  
• Eat protein by ten in the morning and 1-3 more times during the day.
  
• Eat protein to curb sugar cravings.
  
• Minimize caffeine intake to 50mg or less (1 c. black tea, 3 c. green tea, or ½ c. coffee or espresso).
  
• Eat more monounsaturated fat (olives, avocados, almonds) than saturated fat (animal, dairy, coconuts) or polyunsaturated oils (soy, corn, sunflower).
  
• Decrease consumption of glutinous grains (wheat, rye, oats, barley) to prevent digestive disturbance and inflammation.
  
• Increase consumption of gluten-free grains (rice, corn, millet, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth), which are mineral rich and easy to digest.
  
• Increase consumption of leafy (e.g. kale), crunchy (e.g. broccoli) and starchy (e.g. yam) vegetables to provide abundant minerals.
  
• Eat three portions of vegetables in a meal to 1 serving of protein and 1 serving of fat for pH balance.
  
• If body temperature is cold, eat more proteins, essential fatty acids, seaweeds, and warming spices such as ginger and cayenne.
  
• If body temperature is warm, eat more cooling foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and green herbal teas and spices like mint, rosemary, lemongrass, and rooibus.
  
• Determine a diet direction according to your metabolic tendency: Building if metabolism is fast, Cleansing if metabolism is slow, or Balanced if metabolism is neither fast nor slow.
  
• Add booster foods to the diet to increase energy, detoxification, and antioxidant activity.
  
• Undertake a simplified diet or fasting program seasonally, including colon cleansing and increased spiritual practice.
• Enjoy your food and let others eat in peace.