I am a NATURE GIRL. There’s a perfection in NATURE. The complex eco-system of LIFE on our planet is so wondrous, especially the way it is able to maintain BALANCE. Anything leftover, Nature intelligently recycles into herself with ants or bacterial decomposition back into the Earth. So, even if our human activities twist Nature out of whack, the pendulum of fate will always miraculously bring it back to a balanced state. Ha Ha! I’m waiting impatiently for that right now!

Why did I become vegetarian? 
It was not a sense of religious duty that made me become a vegetarian. I know a few highly spiritual Tibetan Lamas who eat meat. Instead, my decision was a personal wish to live in a world that’s more balanced and less VIOLENT. Nature is sometimes very violent. Carnivorous animals can kill, and this is savage violence. Yet this serves to cull the weak, thus strengthening the species they consume. Maybe this is Nature’s way of maintaining balance.

Our Paleo ancestors ate whatever they could hunt and gather.
Frequently it was roots, vegetables, fruits, and grubs. They didn’t have much choice, as food was often scarce, and hunting very risky. However, our Paleo ancestors did not have to eat modern GMO grains, refined fake-foods, factory grown animals, or lab-produced meat. They did not die of diabetes or cancer. Paleolithic people more likely died of animal attack, freezing, or starvation.

Violence is cruel. War is murder.
I believe our frequency vibration is higher when our food and our surroundings have not been infused with violence or disregard for life. BTW, I’m not a Vegan. I adore my Vegan friends. However in my healing practice, I observe most Vegans suffer from some kind of metabolic imbalance caused by four things: lack of protein, processed foods, unhealthy oils, and anemia. Vegans can become very dogmatic and religious about their diet. However, I prefer to maintain a sense of humor. I became a VEGETARIAN, which means I eat a few eggs and dairy.

I don’t want to be fundamental about my diet. In fact, I regularly break my diet completely, just to stay loose and free about it. My husband is shocked when I eat processed candy, lamb, or fried fish tacos. Sometimes it’s really fun. Sometimes I pay a price for occasionally “breaking my rules”. Ha Ha!

One of my secrets to health is that I pray a lot. I pray before eating food or drinking water, because I think this raises its vibration and helps me to be protected in this uncertain world.

Here are a few reflections on my Paleo-Vegetarian diet:

1. Original, unprocessed foods come direct from Nature.
   Of course this is the hallmark of the Paleo diet. Nothing is processed. Everything is fresh, wild. No chemicals. No violence. This is something to strive for, but we all know it is mostly impossible in modern times.

2. Sugar – the Ultimate Metabolism Destroyer!
My Paleo-Vegetarian Diet means I continue to avoid sugar in all things. Sugar is the ultimate pH acidifier of the body, which brings the destruction of all body systems. Our ancestors didn’t even understand the concept of sugar. Sweet was maybe a once-a year surprise by chance.

We don’t really need sugar. We all got addicted to sweet. Modern sugar diseases include Diabetes, Cancer, Sepsis, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis, Dementia, and Neuropathy to name a few. Don’t kid yourself. All kinds of sugar are toxic: Cane Sugar, Molasses, Corn Sugar, Fructose, Coconut Sugar, Palm Sugar, Rice Syrup, Date Syrup, Maple Syrup, etc. All sugars are an invitation to body acidity and terminal illness.

3. Paleo Diet Means No Chemicals in the Soil
That means we eat Organic or even better, Biodynamic farmed food. Of course the Paleo diet means no pesticides, no herbicides, no soil chemicals, sprays, and no genetically modified organisms. This goes without saying. A few toxic chemicals at the top of my “do not touch” list are Glyphosate, Chlorpyrifos, and Atrazine,. which are in most grocery store foods. But they’re all disgusting. We don’t need them.

4. Why No Chicken and Meats?
Our Paleo ancestors ate wild meat when they could find it. But our modern farm animals are mostly very badly treated. For this reason, I do not eat factory-raised anything. Our farm animals are often fed cheap, pesticide-laced, GMO grains, although many of the animals would prefer real grass or kitchen leftovers.

Sadly, lab-grown fake meats are even worse. We should especially avoid anything lab grown, vaccinated, containing nano bots, or GMO-treated. Of course Frankenstein meats are harmful to life. What are we thinking?

5. Be Careful of Fish
My worst allergy attack ever came from eating so-called “Wild” salmon from Whole Foods. It was labeled “wild” but the price was suspiciously low, and I fell for it. After that I stopped shopping at Whole Foods, and bought only the most expensive Alaskan salmon at the local market. If you study pollution issues in our oceans, you will be like me to think again about fish. Wild fish is compromised. Farmed fish is not safe. So, I stopped eating all fish.

6. What about Insects?
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with insects, bugs, and worms, I avoid packaged foods made with crickets (Acheta Domesticus) and other insects. These ingredients are often artfully labeled to conceal their presence in snacks, breads, or crackers.

7. I LOVE VEGETABLES!
Simple plants are the best food for me. I eat them raw, cook them, mix them, serve them with spices, stir-fry, blend them into mt favorite smoothies. Vegetables are my favorite food above all. I especially love cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower. Home grown veggies are fresher than anything you can buy! Start with an herb garden, and soon you’ll be on a fast-track to health. If you can’t grow them yourselves, find a neighbor or a local farmer so you’ll always have organic and fresh!

8. What about Fruits?
Fresh fruits are very nutritious and uplifting. However, here are a few cautions. I avoid fruits that are very high in sugar because they will create a dependency on fructose. Fructose is digested in the liver, and it is an invitation to disease. A few very sweet fruits are mango, grapes, oranges, etc. Don’t go overboard on sweet fruits.

Fruits digests very quickly, so they should always be eaten alone. away from other foods. Fruits need different digestive enzymes in the stomach, so they are best eaten separately from other foods. That’s why for a healthy gut, I eat my food in layers and practice food combining. The basic rule is to never eat proteins (meats, eggs) with carbs (potatoes, grains), and to eat fruits alone. For more information look for my detailed article on food combining.

9. Beans and legumes are a fantastic food for LONGEVITY.
They are high in protein and flavor. Some people maintain that beans are not part of the Paleo diet, and this is complete BUNK. While it is true that cultivated foods came later, our Paleo ancestors gathered plenty of beans and knew when to get them. They knew how to dry them, and how to soak and sprout them.

Recently scientists in Melbourne studied 785 elderly people in Japan, Sweden, Australia, and Greece, observing them for seven years. Researchers tracked their health markers and food choices in nine different categories: vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, cereals, dairy products, meat, fish, and monounsaturated fats. Read about the study here.

Surprisingly, the study showed that beans were the the #1 top predictor of long life! Number one! Legumes were the most important dietary predictor of survival among the elderly, regardless of ethnicity. In fact, for every 20-gram increase in daily legume intake, “they found a 7 to 8% reduction in mortality hazard ratio.” Wow! I truly believe beans have always been an important part of a healthy diet, even for our ancient ancestors.

These days very few people truly know how to prepare beans. So, they say beans are hard to digest and make you “gassy”. This is mostly poppycock. Ask your great grandmother. It’s so easy to just soak beans overnight. Then cook them very well to softness, depending upon the size of the bean. And of course, you have to CHEW your food. If you just swallow it right down, do you expect your stomach to magically grow teeth to chew it? Nope. Those unsoaked, unchewed beans are going to make you uncomfortable.

Yes! Beans ARE part of the Paleo diet. Don’t let anyone tell you our Paleo ancestors did not eat beans. Some of the longest-living centenarians such as the Japanese, enjoy beans frequently. Beans are an excellent source of protein, vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

10. What about grains?
I eat small amounts of organic whole grains, soaked, and well cooked. Our ancient ancestors gathered grasses, seeds, and all types of plants. I love Red Rice, Black Rice, Rye, Barley, Brown Rice, Quinoa, and Buckwheat. Whole grains are a mahhhrvelous source of complete nutrition. Flour is a different story, however, as it is processed, quite perishable, and goes rancid shortly after grinding.

Flour is refined. Yep, it is processed. Its most nutritious layers most often have been completely removed. So, why eat empty food? Whole grains are Paleo, as they could have been gathered in the wild. However, I do not consider flour Paleo. Flour is finely ground with machines. It is acidifying to the body and contains no fiber, so it tends to get stuck like glue in the intestines.  Yucch!

11. Eggs are a wonderful source of protein.
I do eat eggs and enjoy them every way possible. Eggs are an excellent source of complete nutrition. They can be prepared in so many ways creative ways to add variety and interest to your cooking and eating experience.

12. Fermented dairy is a must.
Fermented dairy is so easy to digest, and it’s loaded with beneficial bacteria to populate a healthy microbiome. Traditional fermented foods and authentic farm cheeses, represent thousands of beneficial bacteria, for a wonderful source of nutrition and pleasure.

However, factory dairy raised with chemicals will bring you the opposite of health. Factory-produced dairy foods are indigestible for me. So, if I can’t get raw, organic milk or unprocessed yogurt, I must skip dairy altogether.

13. What about Nuts?
I love nuts and as you can tell from my recipes I adore nut butters, nut sprinkles nutty snacks, nut flours, and coconut in all forms.

14. Which Oils are Paleo Vegetarian?
Healthy fats are of course part of every Paleo vegetarian diet. While I do eat butter and ghee, I primarily eat coconut oil . I do recommend avocado oil as well. I avoid all oils high in Linoleic acid such as seed oils and GMO oils, which are linked directly to cancer. See my article on oils for more clarification. I do not eat olive oil, as it is mostly blended with cheap, toxic GMO oils. I avoid olive oil unless I can find homemade or artisan olive oil that I trust.

Fried foods are mostly unhealthy due to the high heat, burned oil past the smoke point, or nutritionally empty due to overheating. So I avoid fried food like the plague.

15. What About Packaged Foods?
Packaged foods are not really foods. I don’t even look for the ingredient list. Any food that HAS an ingredient list is already processed, formulated to be tempting, packaged, marketed, marked-up 500%, distributed through the corporate network, and empty in nutrition. Just buy the fresh foods from nature. Do not let any packaged fake foods “jump” into your shopping cart. Especially when you consider the myriad undisclosed foods they can legally put into packaged foods. Anything less than 0.5 grams per “serving size” does not need to be disclosed by law. So you’ll never know about the nano-dust, the undisclosed chemicals, and skillfully hidden flavorings to make this food irresistible. Do you trust this corporation with your health and your life? Scary!

16. Eat an Early Dinner.
I like to quit eating by 4 pm. This is sometimes called “intermittent fasting”. So, I prefer to eat just two meals a day with maybe a snack in between. So, I have a big breakfast in the morning, a blended shake with fruit and or vegetables around noon, and then around 4 PM I have my last meal of the day. You can read more about this in my article on intermittent fasting. The gist of it is that you can really boost your immune system by allowing your body to be quiet for more hours. Let the body do its work to clean the blood and the lymphatic system while you sleep. So, if you give your body 12 to 16 hours to do that every day without having to digest or think about processing food, then you can be healthier. Your bone marrow will be very alive with new stem cells, and you might live healthier longer.

17. Whoops! I Almost Forgot Chocolate!
Yes, CHOCOLATE is one of my TOP favorite foods. If I’m addicted to anything, I’m addicted to chocolate. One reason is that chocolate is the #1 highest anti-oxidant food on the planet. Of course if you add SUGAR, it’s toxic. So I eat a few squares of 100% chocolate every day. Yep! Here are my favorite sources for the pure stuff!

18. Eat Good Food, and Eat Less
Let’s face it, most people eat way too much. When we eat the best quality food, and we eat LESS of it, we save a ton of money! We feel better. We save our bodies the trouble of sorting through garbage foods. Water is very important, in fact we need about 2 1/2 quarts of CLEAN water every day, in small quantities throughout the day. Yes, we need water, However, we don’t need much food.

Pat just requested an example of my meals.
OK, Here’s a sample few days of foods I love to eat!

Monday

• Breakfast 9:30 am  5-Minute Sprouted Buddha Bowl
  with a cup of green tea.
• Snack 12:00.   Sunrise Green Smoothie in 1-Minute
• Lunch 4:00.  Spiced Vegetable Dal, Nightshade-free!
  with raw crackers and yogurt.
• Optional Tea: Pumpkin Golden Milk and 1 or 2 squares of 100% chocolate bar!

Tuesday

• Breakfast 9:30 am.   Paleo Egg Foo Yong in 5 Minutes
• Snack 12:00.  Strawberry Beet Superfood Smoothie
• Lunch 4:00.  Creamy No-Tomato Soup in 10 minutes
  with a slice of Amazing Flourless Blender Bread and Paleo Guacamole, Nightshade Free
• Optional Tea: Chocolate Golden Milk and MCT Oil and a few pieces of 100% chocolate!

Wednesday

• Breakfast 9:30 am  Grain-free Paleo Squash Pancakes with Maple Fruit Sauce
• Snack 12:00. Chocolate Wild Blueberry Mousse in 1-min
• Lunch 4:00. Alkaline Watercress Salad with Cucumber & Avocado 
  with hard-boiled eggs, carrot sticks and homemade nut butter.
• Optional Tea: Spiced Chai Tea Latte.  and a few squares of 100% chocolate!

Sunday

• Breakfast 9:30 am  Special Occasion!  Paleo Huevos Rancheros  with ginger tea.
• Snack 12:00.  Detox Green Probiotic Smoothie with a Young Coconut
  and a handful of nuts, like cashews or almonds.
• Lunch 4:00  Zoodles in 1-minute flat,
  with Presto Pesto in 1-Minute Flat
  and for dessert, a slice of Luscious Lemon Yogurt Cheesecake!
• Optional Tea: My 1-Minute Turmeric Shot!

May you live long and healthy! Thanks for listening.

Jane