Hello,

I just finished reading "Fit for Life" by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond and
would like to pass on some of their ideas.

Their approach to diet is to try and optimize the digestive process.
They want to minimize the amount of time food spends in the digestive
tract and minimize the amount of energy needed to digest it.

They divide food into five groups:
1.  fresh fruit
2.  fresh vegetables
3.  steamed vegetables, raw nuts & seeds
4.  grain, breads, potatoes, legumes
5.  meat, fish, dairy, eggs

According to them, the foods in each level require more energy to digest
than the foods in the level above them.  They discourage eating foods
from levels 4 and 5--although i heard a rumor that in a recent interview
Harvey stated he is now eating meat on a regular basis.  They encourage
eating all foods raw to facilitate the digestion process.

By studying the digestive process they have established rules on how to
combine foods together in a meal.

I have just started a month long experiment to test whether their food
combining rules would help me to have more energy.  I eat only fruit
until noon; i eat raw free-range beef and raw vegetables for lunch; and
i eat nuts and vegetables for dinner.

Its interesting to me how they list many of the same foods to avoid as
listed in "NeaderThin" although their methodogy in coming up with the
list is much different.  Is their food combining rules consistent with a
paleo approach?  It could be that our ancestors used similar "rules" in
combining food, eg. if fruit was available perhaps that is all they
would eat until the supply was exhausted.

Experimenting,
mark