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Ask the Expert
June 7, 2003
Question:
Do you have any suggestions on how to successfully follow the No-Grain Diet if I’m a vegetarian?
Answer:
Not a month goes by where I don't see one or more new patients who have chosen to be a vegetarian and have suffered a loss of their health. Typically they are able to rapidly recover their health after adding animal protein into their diets.
Most of the time, these patients were protein Metabolic Types who required large amounts of protein in their diets in order to function optimally, and their vegetarian diets were causing major problems.
But let's be quite clear--I am a huge fan of eating vegetables. I believe we all need varying amounts of raw vegetables in our diets in order to achieve ideal health. The simplest way to obtain this is by juicing vegetables.
Further, there are people who thrive on diets high in complex carbohydrates--in the form of vegetables, not grains--with very little protein. These people are likely carbohydrate Metabolic Types.
It is possible that these people could function quite well on a vegetarian-type diet, but in my experience most people benefit from eating reasonable quantities of animal protein. High-quality organic eggs and raw dairy products are the minimum.
Many vegetarians rely on soy as a primary source of protein, however unfermented soy is not a good choice. I regularly see women who have had thyroid problems as a result of consuming soy products regularly. Plus, unfermented soy has many negative digestive inhibitors and potent hormones that typically will not push your body in a direction of health.
Please recognize that fermented soy products are typically not associated with many of these problems and actually are reasonable to include in your diet. These products include miso, natto and tempeh.
Some vegetarians accept fish in their diets, which would be a healthy choice except that almost all fish are contaminated with mercury. Fortunately, there are ways to get the benefits of the omega-3 fatty acids in fish such as regularly consuming high-quality fish oil (I recommend Carlson’s fish oil as its quality has proved to be superior to the many other brands I have tried).
Additionally, I have done some research and have finally found a safe and delicious source for wild red salmon, which are harvested in Alaskan waters. I had the salmon tested through an independent lab and it was found to be free of mercury and other toxins. If you choose to accept fish in your diet, I confidently and enthusiastically recommend the Vital Choice brand of wild red salmon to you.
Vegetarians tend to correctly identify that there are huge problems with most commercial meat sources. We were not designed to eat cattle that were raised on grain and fed hormones and antibiotics to maximize their grower's profits.
However, there are other meat sources available such as grass-fed beef, organically raised poultry and wild game animals like ostrich and bison that do not violate these principles and are important contributors to optimal health.
I realize that many people who opt to eat a vegetarian diet have an emotional issue about killing animals for food. If you would like to include animal protein in your diet for nutritional purposes but are having a hard time doing this due to emotional conflicts, EFT, a type of psychological acupressure, can be quite useful in helping to resolve these concerns.
