If You Ate It, Rotate It!

Medical Opinion by John F. Ruhland, N.D.

Dear Nature Doc: Every health "expert" has a diet they consider optimal. What diet do you recommend?

There are many well-meaning health professionals who promote a single diet for all people. This is typically the diet which helped them more than any other. To generalize their own experience to the general population is a grave error. Many authors have made a great deal of money selling their diet books. We are seeing clearly that none of these diets work for everyone.

In my practice, I give dietary guidelines, but always with the instruction that if the diet does not make my patient feel better, they can try the opposite. For example, some people do better on a high complex carbohydrate diet, with modest amounts of protein and diet. Others do better on a high protein diet.

There are certain foods almost everyone is better avoiding for a period of time, including wheat, dairy, and corn. A convincing theory suggests that our body will become sensitized to any food that is frequently present in our diet. The most important to avoid include refined flour products, milk, cheese, ice cream, corn in the form of the grain and all the varieties of corn sweeteners. Again, there are people that do not have problems with one or more items mentioned, but the vast majority of us do to some degree. People with weakness in the respiratory system should almost universally avoid dairy products. People with auto-immune conditions and/or joint problems should avoid wheat and/or corn.

One dietary guideline that you cannot go wrong by following is rotating foods. The rotation diet purist would eat a food on one day, and then avoid it for four days. Leaving several days before eating the same food is easier if one has many foods to choose from. Get some good cookbooks, and try new foods.

Dr. Ruhland is in private practice in Seward Park and in Beacon Hill, and can be reached at 206-723-4891. He is also featured in the Reappraising AIDS weekly television show. Call HEAL Seattle at 425-391-6910 for more information.