[whitecrow]

Great thread! Everyone has made good points and good suggestions.

I'm neither a nutritionist nor a biologist but I do work in a health food store and I've learned a lot. My preferred diet is almost completely raw vegetables and fruit, with perhaps 4-8 oz of meat per week. I stay away from dairy except yogurt and cheese, and a bit of butter.

There are five supplements I think everyone should take: a good food-derived multivitamin; fish oil; probiotics; enzymes; antioxidants. Beyond that we can address our particular issues more simply....when the digestion is working properly, a whole cascade of other health issues often simply falls into place over a few weeks or months.

Approximately 80% of the energy our bodies use up is involved with digestion and nutrient metabolism. Everything else we do comes out of the remaining 20%. So the more efficiently we digest and absorb nutrition and dispose of waste, the more energy we have available for living.

By the way, this is why sick animals fast. They instinctively know that they need their energy for rebuilding at the cellular level, and so will eat very little until they know they are on the mend.