Preface

The purpose of this essay is to share what I have learned over years of intermittent yet serious
consideration towards dietary choices. I'll do my best to remain factual, and if I do share popular theory
it should be relatively clear even if I do not make it known beforehand. I will also briefly discuss the
three other cornerstones that affect health and longevity- exercise, sleep and exposure.
Paying close consideration to an all-encompassing topic such as food is more personal than politics or
even religion, but fortunately it is a discussion that cannot be quickly spoiled by hearsay or conjecture.
Please put away any cultural pride, nostalgia, or irrational emotion that you have for food and consider
this resource as a convenient reference point based in fact. If you're reading this, it's because I care
about you, so please do not misconstrue my attempt at sharing knowledge to be a venture of
sanctimoniousness or condescension, but rather a gesture of love.
It seems unavoidable to reference political and cultural negligence in relation to our consumption of
food, but these are not topics I seek to closely examine herein. I simply ask you to understand that the
antiquated monolithic institutions that we rely on to survive are too constrained by political decisions, in
relation to the pursuit of profit, and as a result, the health of today's consumer, and the continuance of
societal health for future generations suffers greatly. The USDA and FDA, amongst the food giants,
ensure the unnatural incidence rate of countless different sicknesses in this country. Big pharmaceutical
companies profit thereafter, and it is very much contrived. These shortcomings are totally transparent
to any caring person, and seem nothing less than deliberate. There is no humane or holistic feel to the
resources we rely upon for survival, but instead there's a feeling of staunch corporatism dedicated to
profiteering off marginal consumers. We can change all of this by shifting our dietary habits en masse.
The profiteers will adapt to the will of the many.
The USDA, the FDA and Big Agriculture, like the DOD, Big Oil and Big Pharma have touched trillions of
dollars by enabling marginally more profitable 'solutions' at the cost of quality and sustainability, and
with a general disregard to the health and longevity of the American people. From a dietary health
standpoint, these marginal differences accumulate to make you feel lousy; like pharmaceutical
commercials mention, you may experience side effects like bloating, constipation, diarrhea, indigestion,
nausea, dizziness, sleepiness, insomnia, headaches, hot flashes, dry mouth, dry eyes, fatigue, anxiety,
depression, fussiness, irritability, congestion, inflammation, acne and fainting, just to mention a few of
the tens or hundreds of the very common issues we encounter from not just drugs, but our dietary
habits. And we experience these things much more frequently than we like to asses.
If you eat well on a daily basis you will feel good, and you will be happy. If you eat well your whole life,
then in the long run you will greatly diminish, if not eliminate, your risk of dying from a DISEASE OF
AFFLUENCE. By disease of affluence, I mean CANCER, ALZHEIMER'S, and HEART ISSUES, to mention
some of the most prolific and oftentimes most avoidable sicknesses. If you pass good eating habits on
to your children, then they will live long and happy lives and have healthy children of their own.
This guide will focus on the conditions around cornerstone dietary choices, and the variability you
should practically allow thereafter. I will also try to touch on some misconceptions that I think should be

addressed. Perhaps most importantly, I will have to update some of this in the future, because my
knowledge of different lifestyle choices and their effective application is always evolving.
The Apple Rule
A is for apple. And apples are simple. Organic apples that is, and we'll get to organic. Let me start
over- apples grown naturally, shit... we'll get to natural too. We even ruined the romantic and divine
simplicity of apples. Johnny would be pissed.
Ok, apples, grown without the direct application of man-made chemicals, are a simple and great
dietary choice. They contain a nice shot of vitamin C, and highly available energy in the form of
carbohydrates and fruit-bound sugar. You'll be hard pressed to eat too much fiber, and an Omega 3 to
Omega 6 ratio of 1/5 isn't too bad, so it's safe to say that you can happily eat an ethically grown apple
once or twice every single day for the rest of your life without any repercussion. I find that to be
reassuring, and just plain awesome.
An ethically-grown apple does not require an ingredients label; it is just an apple. This is of huge
importance when making dietary choices. Be very wary of consuming things that are not in their
simplest form.
Dairy
Right off the bat I wanted to start with a tough one. Dairy has been marketed to us so thoroughly
over the years, and so we buy it. The milk mustache, worn by great athletes and icons, was an
outstanding marketing tactic that many of us will never forget. That doesn't make Milk, or Subway, or
McDonald's, or countless other low quality food sources, a sound source of digestible energy. In fact, if
anything has to be thoroughly marketed to you, your first reaction should be one of suspicion and
wariness.
Strangely enough, if our social structure was more wholesome, I think the reliance on dairy would be
acceptable. Not ideal, but acceptable. I would imagine that, in a subsistence society of reciprocal
farmers, cattle could be maintained and used in the correct concentrations. Cows would be cared for
individually or in small groups, and they would live in the best conditions that an owner could provide so
that the milk and meat would be of the highest quality.
We don't have that today. Cattle are kept in filthy, downright appalling conditions. They're injected
with hormones and antibiotics. They're fed low quality, genetically modified feed. And many of our
cows never walk in the grass that they evolved upon; they fester in bins filled with their own urine and
feces until they die. Your dairy, nutrition and bio-availability now greatly diminished, then gets
pasteurized because that's the only way to market a food that comes from such disease ridden filth as
being safe. Pasteurization further denatures the final product, so by the time you purchase any of the
dairy found in our supermarkets, you're consuming absolute garbage.
Your body does not respond well to the consumption of dairy. We did not evolve by suckling at the
teat of dissimilar mammals, and as a result any nutritional content from even the finest of dairy just isn't

that bio-available. Check out the bioavailability of calcium. Research whether or not dairy does yield
health benefits- there are many sources, so connect the dots and judge validity. The world is at your
fingertips, and many people do care about this sort of thing regardless of the lack of profit. Lastly, look
into all of the health issues related to dairy consumption and figure out how many servings per week are
worth-it.
Sweets
Sugar is very bad. We shovel it in by the kilogram each week and it produces side effects akin to
those of the drugs we stigmatize. Sugar substitutes including stevia, evaporated cane juice, rice syrup,
honey and the countless other additives used as sweeteners are all bad for you. Do you ever have a
deep urge and compulsion to eat something sweet? Does it feel much more impulsive to consume, and
furthermore, harder to turn down sweets than it does for other foods? If yes, then like myself and many
others, you're driven by the addictive nature of sweets. The post sugar-high comedown of lack of focus,
fatigue, depression, anxiety and a weakened immune system just aren't worth the quick dopamine
response. Consume sweets sparingly. Consult the apple rule.
Sweets and dairy, along with alcohol, detract the most from our health and longevity, yet they are
over abundant in our grocery stores.
Fruit is good. Orange juice is bad. Don't look for scapegoats. Consult the apple rule.
Have I lost you yet? Stated the obvious? Good dietary choices are simple because they have already
been made for us over the course of our evolution. Certain foods are highly bioavailable and can be
consumed in plenty without fear of adverse health effects; some alleged health foods can be very
harmful if not consumed correctly. Let's take a look at some common-knowledge criteria for our diet.
Alkaline vs. Acid forming foods
Your organs work to keep your blood slightly alkaline. Most of your body is PH neutral or slightly
alkaline, but a ton of the foods we eat are acid-forming so your body has to use energy to maintain
homeostasis. Most fruits and veggies are alkaline forming; however, alkaline forming foods have a less
pronounced effect on your PH balance so they have to be consumed in higher concentrations than acid
forming foods to ensure that you maintain good health. The chart below shows a variety of foods and
their effect on your body. If the chart is too small simply Google "Acid vs. Alkaline foods" or something
similar. Hopefully by the end of the essay I will have made it clear that food experts and dietaryhobbyists have shared their knowledge on the internet for the world to utilize.

The reason I like this table is because it puts food in 6-7 columns of nutritional quality & bio
availability. We all know mayonnaise and cola are bad, but that bad becomes taboo sometimes and we
still eat them. These charts provide a great qualitative representation of how bad certain foods are, and
more importantly, what alternatives you have. If you don't know where a food falls, GOOGLE IT!
Note that 90% of food allergies are caused by acid forming foods.

Macro Nutrients
The three main macro-nutrients are fat, carbohydrates and protein and they all work in unison to fuel
bodily functions. The consumption of all three is totally necessary to maintain great health. If possible,
the three or four large meals that you consume each day should each have one or more portions of each
macro-nutrient.
Fat- avocados, almonds, chestnuts, olive oil, canola oil, hemp seed oil, flax seed oil, wheat germ oil, and
sesame, pumpkin and flax seeds just to mention a few.
Carbs- Most fruit except blueberries, cranberries, plums and prunes. Carrots, sweet potatoes and many
other veggies are good choices. Millet, quinoa, wild rice, brown rice. Kidney and Black beans.
Protein- Venison, cold water fish, turkey, chicken, lamb, oysters and clams.
Micro-nutrients
With a well-rounded diet, you should get enough vitamins and minerals to be healthy, but there are a
few I would like to mention, namely, fat soluble vitamins. The vitamins and minerals that I don't list
below are either water soluble, or very hard to consume in excess.
Vitamin A- too much pre-formed Vitamin A (retinol) that is found in animal products will negatively
affect your health if consumed in excess. Too much pro-formed Vitamin A (beta-carotene) that resides
in produce like carrots and sweet potatoes will not cause health issues and should be consumed daily.
Vitamin D- is very hard to get for us northerners in the winter time. The only highly bio-available
Vitamin D is the stuff you get from being in the mid-day (10am-2pm) sun. To compensate you can take
~500 IU Vitamin D supplements, but closely monitor how you feel to make sure you're not consuming
amounts in excess of what you need.
Vitamin E- is another hard to get Vitamin, but can be easily taken care of each day with almonds or
wheat germ oil (both alkaline forming), amongst a few other options.
Vitamin K- can be easily overdone. Kale is no super-food, because no one needs that much Vitamin K.
In fact, if you eat Kale every day you will end up getting sick. If you consume too many raw greens, they
can also negatively affect your thyroid. So either eat 1-2 servings of boiled Kale/Spinach/Collards a
week, or turn to more beneficial daily choices like Broccoli, Cucumbers, Celery, and Asparagus, to
mention a few.
Good diet, Bad diet
Bad Diet
I'm going to take my typical high school diet, break it down piece by piece and then do the same with
my current diet to showcase why I have a vastly better feeling of wellness nowadays. Look at the
numbers below and check out the criticism that follows.

Breakfast- Mini wheat's cereal with milk, orange juice

Snack- Pretzels
Lunch- Ham on wheat with mustard, Oreos, apple
Dinner- Chicken with BBQ sauce, carrots, spinach
Snack- Chips and Salsa

So right from the get-go, you can see that 64% of my diet was composed of carbohydrates, but nearly
all of those carbs were from low-quality, acid forming foods. In close relation, my glycemic load was 307
a day which is far too high. To this day I still have blood sugar issues due to my poor childhood diet

coupled with an excessive consumption of sweets that are not accounted for above. My excessive
consumption of alcohol in college also had long-term effects on my blood sugar, amongst other things.
My protein consumption, although not ideal, was higher than expected at 151g. Any dedicated athlete
should try to consume 1.5+ grams of protein per pound body weight. It should be noted that only a
portion of that 151 grams was from more bio-available, low acid-forming sources like chicken, which of
course was still adulterated with hormones and antibiotics.
Somehow at 55g of fiber I still had awful irregularity in bowel movements, and as a long distance
runner, having the feeling of constipation before embarking on a 7-mile run was pretty terrible. I'm sure
the 7000mg+ of Sodium that I consumed each day didn't have a positive effect on my digestion. It
should be noted that salt is one of the worst additives that we're exposed to.
The micro-nutrient distribution is obscured by the ground up vitamins in the 'fortified' cereal; these
are not bioavailable by any means. You didn't evolve by popping vitamins. Despite having a diet of low
quality, low bio-availability foods, I don't think I was starved of any micro-nutrient in particular. My
Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratio was far less than favorable at 1/20; nowadays I do my best to have an
average ratio around 1/5 or better.
Good diet
The irony of the good diet is that I have always thought I had 'good' dietary habits. By comparison, my
current diet is vastly superior to my high school choices, however, I dare not say that I have a great diet
nowadays because I have had too much success in disproving the alleged quality of certain foods. For a
stretch in the last year or two I ate mixed berries as part of my pre-workout snack. Then one day, as I
sat there full of wonderment for the dashingly handsome and ever-so cunning, 38-year-old Tom Brady, I
discovered the acid vs. alkaline diet. I no longer eat blueberries and blackberries, but I still get to enjoy
strawberries and raspberries (organic of course), and I enjoy them thoroughly!
Breakfast- Chicken breast, orange, shot of hemp & wheat germ oil
Lunch- Chicken breast, millet, black/kidney beans, avocado
Snack- Chicken breast, apple/pear/strawberries/raspberries
Dinner- Chicken breast, millet, broccoli, sweet potato/carrots, oysters (every 2-3 days)

My glycemic load is at a healthy level. The majority of my diet is alkaline forming. After adding in my
Omega 3 supplement, my ratio is around 1/6 (4/1-1/4 is considered ideal for disease prevention). I have
a pretty good micro-nutrient distribution that reads high on zinc and B12 but those values are actually

1/3 because I don't eat oysters daily. I should watch Niacin! My macros are actually very high, but I
don't mind waking up after a tough workout without any soreness. Still, I could probably be more
economical.
Folks often ask me, "don't you get sick of eating the same thing every day?" Well, where does that
expression come from? When Morgan Spurlock was puking up fast food while filming Super-Size Me,
was it because he was just tired of those great burgers and really wanted pizza instead? I think it's more
literal than our modern whimsical, stimulus seeking society lets on. Yes, consuming too much kale or
dairy or alcohol will make anyone sick, but for the food and portions specific to my diet, I never get tired
of it! In fact, every meal is like a feast. I especially love oranges, avocados, sweet potatoes and oysters.
Furthermore, I use a lot of spices and sauces that not only contribute to great flavor, but have various
therapeutic properties as well.
The nutrition tables above were made at http://nutritiondata.self.com/. It's a great website to track
your own diet, and look up specific food items. Please check it out!
Notice that this guide does not recommend caffeine for stimulation.
Exposure
There are many types of exposure. Let's start with the chemicals found in your food products. Go to
the website below for a comprehensive list of food additives. Go a step further and open this website
on your phone when you're food shopping to see how many times that you're rolling the dice.
http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm
Don't stop taking steps! Consult the apple rule! My current diet doesn't even flirt with the 'safe'
additives. If my ancestors didn't evolve on it, I don't think it's going to be helpful for my wellbeing.
I can't stand it when people say "everything causes cancer". Well no, excluding excessive exposure to
adverse environmental conditions, and the consumption of naturally occurring foods that we didn't
evolve upon, it's really only man-made things that cause cancer. Chemicals cause cancer. If you
couldn't find it 1,000 years ago, it's probably a chemical. To reemphasize an earlier point, if something
has to be marketed to you, be wary of it. BPA free is just another marketing gimmick; ok, my bottle is
BPA free, wonderful, but what then is it made of? Unless I'm drinking from high quality steel, glass or
silicone I don't want it.
Now don't freak out and move into a log cabin in the middle of the woods, just pay attention to the
products you consume and waste. Your bed sheets are inert, but the detergent you clean them with
and the residue that the detergent leaves may not be, but there are safe alternatives to most consumer
goods. If you have ever been near my shower, you may have noticed a moist brown log sitting in there.
That's just my Dudu. Dudu-Osun African black soap to be precise. I don't need to look at the ingredients
in Dove or Dial to tell you that they aren't really simple cleaning solutions, but rather overpriced
chemical concoctions. My Dudu on the other hand, is made of things like honey, shea butter and aloe
vera to mention a few. I take hot showers all winter and don't itch at all when I use my Dudu, but that

wasn't the case with other products. So if you don't mind the brown streaks and spots that Dudu may
leave in your shower, then I would highly recommend buying some on Amazon. Like soap, products like
toothpaste, detergents, deodorants, and cleaners amongst all other consumables have safe &
environmentally friendly options.
Organic (Exposure extended)
Organic generally means that your produce wasn't exposed to chemicals or radiation during its growth
and processing, and that the seeds were not genetically modified. Conditions for organically raised
animals are also much more favorable.
Strangely, I've seen organic foods, amongst other quality consumer goods and the culture built around
them, get stigmatized a bit. I used to think that Whole foods was a specialty store for stuck up people.
That's right, I thought of the $10 Billion market cap grocery chain as a specialty store for stuck up
people. For a time, I was too proud to go into WFM or Trader Joes. Passively agreeing to the notion
that those markets catered to hippies, hipsters, and the pretentious like, I would proudly head to the
every-man Shaw's, Hannafords, Market Basket or Stop and Shop. I told myself that I didn't need some
yuppie store to eat quality foods and that I'd stick where I grew up. I've caught myself being a jackass
more times than I care to admit.
Here's the deal- In decades prior you could head down town to shake the hand of Arty Demoulas your
wicked-nice super market average Joe, and talk Patriots Red Sox before grabbing your wholesome
foods, and that's wonderful and homely. Maybe in decades prior those foods were of reasonable
quality, and generally unadulterated. Unfortunately, Clinton, Bush and Reagan, back through Nixon, and
other politicians before them, enabled the awful food producing standards we have today. Those
conniving dirty dogs did so to make sure that their lavish cohort's at companies like Dupont and
Monsanto could run the show, and keep funding their political conquests. We are the collateral
damage. Our foods are very much denatured, depleted and adulterated. The giant food monopolies
contribute directly to the gross incidence levels of the diseases of affluence that we reap.
So when I go into Whole Foods now, it's not in the name of some perverse or obscured social notion. I
head to Whole Foods to buy organic Apples on sale for $2/lb. In fact, I only consume Organic produce
because the alternative is to consume items that are 'generally recognized as safe'. Spend some time
checking out what qualifies as GRAS and tell me if the extra $5 for organic produce each trip isn't worth
the expenditure. Aside from produce, the WFM goods that lack the organic label are usually of better
quality. For example, you'll find more sea salt than common salt, and cider vinegar instead of white
vinegar.
Whole Foods is too expensive? So why then does Chipotle, a mediocre, sodium saturated burrito
company trade at $760 a share? Someone is buying a lot of $10 burritos! Why do restaurants and
countless low quality food sources flood our towns? Please, avoid the high mark-up cost paid to orderout and take an hour or two each week to prepare your own high-quality food at home. You'll feel
better and save money!

The term Natural is unregulated and therefore means nothing. 100% Natural products still contain all
sorts of chemicals and should be avoided. Like Natural, Fresh, Healthy, and Organic-Ingredients are all
cheap marketing terms used to enable your impulses and make you feel better about eating certain
chemicals.
Nature
Our withdrawal from nature will be our downfall. The depth, wonder and beauty of the Earths
biomass cannot be overstated, but we take it for granted; our sterile cities and suburbs pale in
comparison to the wholeness of any of mother natures diverse ecosystems. Bio diversity is so
important, especially at a microbial level. Too few of the foods found in our grocery stores are still alive,
and that is very bad. In nature all biomass is born and dies, and we adapted to harvest and consume
that mass at its peak energy levels. With nothing more than some physical changes or simple chemical
alterations like fermentation or cooking over fire, we consumed food rich in the bacteria, fungi and
sometimes mold that helped produce it, and these organisms interacted with our own microbial culture
to make some magic happen. Food runs a lot deeper than your basic macro and micronutrients. In
supermarkets today you lose all of this; you lose the phytochemicals and other greatly important
intricacies that help food make us into good folk. Check out Cooked by Michael Pollan on Netflix. Mike
does a great job at shedding light on our perverse transitions in relation to food and nature.
Also, go live in nature for a month without food preparations. Ok, just a week then. Cant even
fathom it, can you? You would die right? Well thats a goddamn shame.
Exercise
Exercise is the second simplest of the big-four, right after sleep. To check this most crucial box, you
only have to elevate your heart rate to a cardio vascular beats per minute level for 20 minutes a day, 5-6
days each week. 20 minutes, that's it. Maintaining a cardio vascular heart rate for 20 minutes is very
difficult so if you need to do intervals, perhaps dropping down to a fat-burning heart rate intermittently,
that is still a great workout and perhaps only marginally less beneficial than a workout of constant
cardio. Both fat burning and cardio hear rates are functions of your age and can be found via a simple
Google search.
I recommend semi-intense interval workouts, however there are countless alternatives. Hiking,
swimming, biking, martial arts, snowboarding and countless team sports are great ways to exercise. Just
make sure that if you enjoy less strenuous physical activity such as golf, yoga, and baseball, to mention a
few, that you still find a way to boost your heart to high bpm's. Exercise induced fatigue is a great thing
and has countless great effects on your body in the short and long run. Flirting with your limits doesn't
just enhance your physical being, but can greatly fortify your mental wellbeing and this should not be
taken for granted.
The alternative to living an active lifestyle, is to be sedentary and thereby greatly increase your risk of
disease and sickness. Challenge yourself to move around at least 5 minutes every hour. Stairs are a
great way to get the juices flowing if you're trapped at work. If you have been living a very sedentary
life, don't dive into the figurative deep end; take time to map out a 30-60-90-day plan composed of

exercises that you enjoy to do, and also include things that you may be apprehensive to approach.
Goals are great, and mastering new things will keep exercising fun. If you like running but encounter
lower back pain, try to bike a few of the days that you would run. Like dietary choices, exercises have
many great alternatives that require little compromise.
Lastly, exercising after being very sedentary is tough. When you first commit to a plan (mapped out on
a calendar), you're going to reach a more awkward level of fatigue quicker than you will after 3 months
of consistent good habits. Maintain high bpm's and don't give up! Commit to 3 months of quality
exercise, good dietary habits, excellent sleep and limited exposure, and the results will be outstanding.
You won't look back after that.
Sleep
8 hours isn't quite enough if you want to be active. And for the record, 8 hours of sleep really means
30 minutes to fall asleep and wake up, with 7.5 hours spent in the sleep cycle. The human brain
completes one sleep cycle every ~1.5 hours or so, this is why you may feel weary after getting a
seemingly good night's sleep- you woke up mid cycle. The sweet spot seems to be between 8.5-9.5
hours spent sleeping. Everyone is a little different so find the schedule that works best for you and try
to stick with it. Also, eat your last meal around the same time each day. Coming home drunk at 2:00am
and slamming pizza really messes up your sleep schedule and other metabolic processes.
Prologue
How old are you? Interesting, so the Earth has circled the Sun X-amount of times and thats how old
you are? Well why do some folks with the same amount of revolutions not look as old as you? Why do
some look older? Its because old, and age, are totally different and only meet at the limits of our very
impressive evolution. Genetics? Thats why youre getting old? Please stop with the scapegoats
people! Its epigenetics! Its the big four- Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep and Exposure. Thats it! Those four
things determine your physical, mental and social characteristics. Its never too late to adopt great
habits that will ensure youre the best you can be!
Invest in Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep and Exposure, and we, as a people, will succeed and flourish! Or,
invest in goods that dont add value, have 3rd party repercussions, or have more sound alternatives and
we shall fail!
I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my
vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken
part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe
a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to
trace a line of delicate green.