Perfect Health Diet

Thanks for this wonderful post.

I've always suspected that a variety of foods is better than any one substance, until I discovered coconut oil. But even then, I eat more healthfully when I am not in the throes of emotional turmoil, because then my hunger cues scream for chocolate. And even when I hide the bar of chocolate way in the back of the highest shelf I manage to find it.

Hi Nando,

You might like our recipe for coconut bark, it combines your two addictions: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=2599.

My personal weakness is chocolate covered cranberries.

As I read this, all kinds of quackery sirens start sounding. As a non-scientist, I'll just make a few statements:
1. Some people are allergic to some kinds of foods.
2. Not everyone has access to the same types of foods.
3. Women have different needs than men.
4. Children have different needs. Elderly people have different needs.
5. People have different tastes, although these can be altered with some effort.
6. Chocolate is poisonous to dogs and cats, but not to people.

The best advice I can give is: eat a variety of vegetables and fruits, and drink enough water, but don't take nutritional advice from astrophysicists, software entrepreneurs, or people who have cured themselves.

Hi Anon,

We acknowledge your points 1-6: Differences in needs between children and adults, and pregnant and non-pregnant women, are discussed on our blog, and allergies and food sensitivities are considered in our discussion of food toxicity in our book and on our blog. But the dietary essentials are the same: it's best to nourish the body, and avoid toxins; all humans have similar body components, thus similar nutrient needs, and are poisoned by similar compounds.

Two points:
- Variations in nutrient needs across people are much, much smaller than the variations in nutrients provided by popular diets. Popular diets include extreme low-fat (macrobiotic) and extreme low-carb approaches, and everything in between.
- Considering diets in terms of nutrients, many different choices of food can provide the same nutrient mix. Different tastes in food don't necessarily lead to different diets. One can have "Asian" and "Italian" and "Indian" variants of the same basic diet.

Another point, which we didn't address, is robustness. Healthy people can tolerate imperfect diets quite well. So it may be difficult to tell that a diet is imperfect, until aging or infection brings dietary flaws to light.

As for your last advice, we never claimed authority based on credentials; the evidence presented in our book argues for itself, and so do the results of our readers (http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?page_id=4860).

Best, Paul

I have Borderline Personality Disorder and am taking a very low dose of risperdal (same drug in higher doses used to treat schizophrenia).

I have found that following the PHD diet (in particular, getting enough Omega 3 and not excessive Omega 6 and eating PHD "safe starches", etc., eliminating toxins (grains, legumes, vegetable oils, soy, etc.), taking all the recommended supplements, and doing the intermittent fasting (16 hour fast with coconut oil during the fast with 8 hours feeding)) has helped me tremendously. I feel so much better now: better mood, more energy, clearer thinking, happier, calmer, less anxiety, better able to cope with issues such as difficult people and - huge for me - no cravings/hunger like I had before because I'm not lacking nutrients.

This diet is super healthy and does allow plenty of choices: meat, fish, vegetables (peas & green beans are fine), nuts (not peanuts which are a legume), fruit, rice pasta, sweet/white potatoes and white rice, wine, healthy fat like lard, butter, cream, olive oil and coconut oil, dairy, chocolate, eggs, fermented vegetables and some safe sweeteners. No need to go hungry. And I'm not even hungry and don't suffer but feel great (and clearer thinking/more energy in the morning even with my risperdal) during my daily intermittent fasting (which is optional).

I had pretty much eliminated the toxins while doing low carb except for soy, peanuts and the excess Omega 6 and not enough Omega 3. I had been doing very low carb for many years and do now wonder if it actually made my symptoms much worse. (I was diagnosed with BPD while doing very low carb.)

The book is very detailed and the blog also has lots of information including Recipes (including kimchi and homemade ice cream + lots more), Q & A and Results sections. Make sure you read the comments on the blog too. Paul is so helpful and courteous and shares so much information.

So give PHD a try if you want to feel better and be healthy too. I highly recommend it - it really has worked for me.

"All healthy persons are alike; each unhealthy person is unhealthy in his own way." Made me ponder for a while. Lol but yeah, it's true. I agree with that quote from Tolstoy as well.
-forex contest

An interesting read on dieting, though it ended up on a fairly philosophical note.
Before you make major changes to your eating, be it intermittent fasting or some type of carb-cycling quackary, it's probably best to get a blood panel done and check for deficiencies.

An interesting read on dieting, though it ended up on a fairly philosophical note.
Before you make major changes to your eating, be it intermittent fasting diets or some type of carb-cycling quackary, it's probably best to get a blood panel done and check for deficiencies.