The Healthy Food Pyramid

In school, the food pyramid that has been taught offers grains as the largest group, followed by vegetables and fruit split in to the second group, with nuts, dairy and meat following after that. Fats are then the absolute smallest food group so this encourages people to stop eating fat, which can lead to health problems. That appears to be the current approved food guide pyramid but there have been alternatives created intended to be healthier than the standard approved food pyramid. The food pyramid you see in this article is one I created which offers healthier and more important foods in greater quantities to less important, and even harmful food groups. Anything below the red line is necessary and anything above is unnecessary, and in some cases unhealthy.

The standard food pyramid suggests grains should be consumed the most often by humans. Grains are not actually a natural source of food for humans, and most of them are cooked before being consumed. Grains became the main food source of humans 10000 years ago when agriculture began, but before that, they were a nonexistent part of the diet. It is a better idea to place fruit in the largest food group, because it has many nutrients, calories, and both simple and complex carbohydrates including fiber. It is often said that fruit is the healthiest food a human can eat and humans are considered frugivores by some. Fruit is also eaten raw while grains must be cooked so it is obvious which one is a more natural part of the human diet.

Fruit and vegetables in the standard food pyramid are split in to the second tier but there is no reason why you cannot eat more fruit and vegetables than that. Vegetables are rich with nutrients but have much fewer calories than fruit so to get enough calories to function properly fruit must be consumed more often. Many vegetables can be eaten raw and are a natural part of the human diet so they should be consumed often and are very beneficial to health.

Nuts and seeds are actually fruit but they have their own group because they offer mostly protein and fats while sweet fruits are rich in carbohydrates. Nuts and seeds are full of healthy fat and fatty acids and also have one of the best sources of protein. They are very healthy but not eaten in as large of a quantity as other fruit or vegetables.

Legumes are above the red line because most of them are not consumed raw and they are not a necessary food type. They can be sprouted, but then they'd fall more in to the vegetable category. In general they are healthy and contain protein similar to nuts and many nutrients but should not be consumed more than the larger groups and some people do not consume them at all.

Grains are often highly processed, making them unhealthy and removing most of their fiber. I do not recommend that anyone eats grains that are not whole grains, but even then, this group is unnecessary for health and not recommended to be largely consumed. They are however a great source of complex carbohydrates making them ideal to be eaten early in the day. Some people choose not to eat grains at all because they are not a very natural thing to eat but in general, whole grains are not unhealthy.

The miscellaneous group contains anything else that a human would eat, and in most cases they are unnecessary. Or there might be certain situations where eating such things could be beneficial, such as eating meat when you cannot find sufficient plant sources, but that would usually only happen in the winter away from civilisation in some parts of the world.

Overall I think following this food pyramid instead of the official approved one makes much more sense and has a lot more reason to promote health. It also fits in well with what the other great apes are eating and eliminates the foods which are known to cause medical problems. However, this was just a sketchy drawing of it, so the sizes of each group should not be seen as exact.

How to Acquire the Taste for Foods You Do Not Like

A problem with eating healthy is that sometimes you run in to a food that you do not like to eat that has health benefits you need. For example, I recently included raw walnuts in to my diet because they are a rich source of unsaturated fat and omega-3 fatty acids. I was barely able to eat any because the flavour was unsatisfactory to me. But, after following a simple method, in no more than 2 weeks I am able to eat as many as I feel like straight from the packet.

The first thing you need to do is find a food that you like to eat that is similar to the food you do not like to eat, I had raw walnuts and raw almonds. Start out eating the food you like to eat and then slowly start adding the food you do not like to eat to your mouth. At first, I was eating about 1 walnut every 4 or 5 almonds. This should keep a strong flavour of the food you like in your mouth, but allowing you to eat the food you do not like.

When you are ready, start to increase the amount of the food you do not like. Your taste buds should acquire the taste of this food and over time you will be able to eat it without eating the other food at the same time. Not long after using this method I found that I was able to eat a few walnuts for every almond, and not long after that I am at where I am now, being able to eat walnuts alone.

The benefits of doing this is that you can increase the variety in your diet to include foods you've always thought you could not eat. Many people I've talked to are missing out on certain healthy foods because they do not like the flavour. When I share what I include in my diet they often find that they would not eat some of the stuff I eat. A good example is soy milk. A lot of people do not like soy milk because they've either never tried it or they have tried it once and hated it. When I first tried to drink soy milk it was horrible and left me with a weird taste in my mouth. After drinking it a few times and adding it to my cereal I am able to drink it with no problems at all. A lot of people just accept that they do not like some foods and then never eat them again and never gain the benefits of those foods. But for most foods, you can easily teach yourself to like the taste.

Humans Are Mostly Herbivorous

In developed countries, meat eating has become a regular part of the human diet because of factory farming and the ability to create meat more efficiently and profitably than before. This fad has lead to the assumption that humans are omnivores, capable of eating meat and plant food regularly. Consumption of meat products this often leads to poor health and increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, cancers and osteoporosis. This is simply because humans do not have a digestive system capable of consuming meat as often as most people in developed countries do. A human should eat at least close to 100% of their diet as plant, unless for survival.

Humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans are all part of the great ape family. The digestive system of these other primates are very similar to those of humans, so the diets of each should be similar. It is often believed that chimpanzees are omnivores because there is a video of a chimpanzee killing a monkey, but in fact, meat is only a small part of their diet. Gorillas are 100% herbivores and orangutans eat mostly fruit, with some insects. Since humans have the same digestive capabilities of these apes, and are in the same family as them, our diets should not change much. This is where the mostly herbivorous part comes in, while it is clear there is some meat eating going on, it is very small and not a necessary part of the diet.

If you measure the length of a humans body, from mouth to anus, then compare that to the length of the small intestines, the result should be that the intestines are 10x the length of the body. This is very similar to other apes, and our intestines are the right length to absorb the nutrients from plants particularly fruit. The intestine length of omnivores is shorter, about 4-6x the length of the body so that decomposing meat can exit the system quickly.

Some herbivores have much longer intestines than humans. These are herbivores that have digestive systems designed for consumption of grass or other plants that require a long time for the absorption of nutrients. The plants humans eat do not require extremely long intestines, but they are long enough to support a herbivorous diet.

The teeth of an omnivore are sharp, with some flat teeth for chewing. Humans lack the sharp teeth, and only have the flat teeth for chewing. Our incisors are well developed and capable of easily biting fruit but are not designed to be used to eat meat naturally. The cuspids are blunt and short compared to the longer and sharper cuspids of an omnivore. Our nails could not possibly help us catch an animal while omnivores tend to have claws to use as a weapon. Finger nails are much better at opening the skin of a fruit than the hide of an animal.

Omnivores and carnivores are much quicker than herbivores to allow them to catch their food. Most of their body temperature regulation relies on panting instead of sweating. Humans do not pant but instead rely on sweating to keep cool which means humans can run a long distance without overheating. Omnivores do not do this and cannot run so far without having to stop and rest until their body cools down. Herbivores must travel longer distances to find all the plants they need to eat which is done during the day, so sweating allows them to do this. They do not need to run quickly because the plants are not running away. Humans are slow, but can move long distances which supports a herbivorous diet.

It makes sense to eat what your digestive system is capable of. A healthy diet for a human should be largely fruit with other plants and very little or no meat. If humans were omnivores like people assume, a vegetarian or vegan diet would have no health benefits, and other great apes would eat more meat than they do. There is nothing found in meat that cannot be found in sufficient quantity in plant food.

Vaccinations are not as Effective as Advertised

Vaccinations are usually given credit for the reduction of disease in developing countries. People fear that without them, many people will start dying from diseases such as polio and that the only reason they no longer exist is because of vaccinations. In some places, a child requires mandatory vaccinations before he or she is accepted in to public schooling. Infants also are sometimes given dozens of vaccinations to "protect" them from horrible diseases. This is a website with a vaccination plan for children Vaccination schedule for children. But vaccinations are not really the primary reason that there is a reduction in diseases today compared to 50 years ago.

To start off with, vaccinations are actually very controversial. Most people do not know that many debate over the effectiveness and necessity of vaccinations, and just accept what they are given without looking in to what is contained in the needle. This web page, Vaccine Ingredients, has a list of the ingredients in vaccinations and what they cause, as well as other information about the ingredients. It is no wonder why some people pass out after taking vaccinations, and why supervision must be given for 15 minutes after receiving a shot. Although it is interesting to look in to the ingredients, most of my reasoning for not vaccinating myself is not here, as I feel this is where the endless debate is.

There are other causes for the major reduction in disease in developed countries over the last 100 years. Most of the reduction comes from superior living conditions which prevent the transmission of diseases. Eating a healthy diet strengthens your immune system which helps prevent disease transmission.

Proper Sanitary Conditions
Sanitary conditions have recently been improved with flushing toilets and greatly reduce the risk of transmitting diseases. Living arrangements in developed countries are not abundant in decomposing animal waste and are usually very clean. Compared to in the past and to developing countries, people have better living conditions that do not promote the spread of disease. Proper drainage and waste product disposal decreases the likeliness of disease and keeps people healthier and stronger to combat disease. Proper sanitary conditions is probably the biggest disease killer in modern developed countries.


Overcrowding
It is become normal for most people in developed countries to live in conditions that are not affected by overcrowding. Overcrowding can cause poor sanitary conditions and can hasten the spread of disease amongst a population by people being in close range with each other. If one person catches a disease it is likely that someone who comes in to contact with them will. The less people that the person comes in to contact with regularly, the less chance there is of the disease spreading.


Eating Enough Food
People in developed countries now eat plenty of food and are not malnourished, compared to people living in third world countries who are not always properly fed. Having enough energy for your body to combat disease is important in the reduction of disease as a whole as having the disease for less time gives less opportunity for it to spread. This is a big difference between the disease spread in developed and developing countries, as some incorrectly assume that the reason there is more disease in third world countries is that they don't get vaccinated as frequently. That is a big assumption and ignores the living and food conditions and is usually just used to support vaccinating in developed countries.


Eating a Healthy Diet
Eating a healthy diet is often overlooked as a form of disease reduction. It is far more effective than receiving vaccinations because it strengthens the whole immune system, not just supposedly make you immune to one specific disease. You can increase your immunity to every disease, not just to the ones there are vaccinations for.

As for keeping an infant healthy and avoiding disease, it is important that the breast feeding mother is as healthy as possible for herself and the infant. It is not necessary to give so many immunisations(which translates to partial immunity, not full immunity) and it is more important to be healthy and live in healthy conditions. While I do not feel vaccinations directly cause autism themselves, it is not outrageous to claim that having so many injections will have negative effects to the infant later on.


This is not to say, never take a vaccination. It is just that the main cause of the reduction in disease is not from vaccinations, it's from the change of living conditions. There may be some cases where it could be useful, such as if you are travelling to a place with a specific disease and you want an extra boost in immunity against that specific disease. But for general disease reducing purposes, vaccinations are only a minor contributor.