100 Pounds Ago...I Started Learning How to Love Myself More Than the Pleasure of Food by Charles A. Postma - HTML preview

Chapter 10

The “Proper” Human Diet

As I stated in chapter 7, I do not believe there is one almighty and correct diet for everyone. Finding the right combinations of macronutrients is a mine field of trial and error and it is a journey that cannot be entrusted to others no matter how convincing their argument. From my foolish eating years, back in the 1980’s I ate too much pizza at one sitting and gave myself diverticulum. Those are the little sacks or pouches that can form in the colon walls. They will occasionally get something in them that causes an infection (diverticulitis) causing pain which can be serious and life-threatening. I’ve had probably a dozen flare-ups since then and just fast until the pain is gone. The cause of my flare-ups I’ve learned is corn, beans, or eating too much bread. Since I rarely eat more than a few slices of bread in a week I can rule that out as a future cause. I thought that maybe my fasting lifestyle had healed the diverticulum, but after a recent bowl of chili (with beans) I had my first flare-up in 14 years. Obviously, my fasts of 5-7

days were not sufficient to heal this menacing condition, but if I never eat corn or beans again, I should be okay. This is what I mean about the trial and error of determining what diet is right for you.

The Great Saturated Fat Hoax has sent many people to an early grave, please do not be one of them. Do your research. Hopefully, by now, your doctor has stopped recommending a specific diet to his patients, but if not, maybe you should consider a new doctor. Not because he is not telling what you want to hear, but because he can’t let go of the old dogma of the past. When I am considering a new car mechanic or a new medical professional, I like to ask them questions that I already know the answer to. I can tell if they are lying or ignorant. I refuse to trust my most precious mortal possession, my health, to someone who has no skin in my health game.

The closest popular diet to my Garden of Eden diet is the Paleo Diet except for salt. The Paleo diet demands no added salt. Even after losing 100 pounds I was still on blood pressure medication. One night we went out to eat with my daughter and son-in-law and I had the charcuterie board appetizer for my meal. Charcuterie is a culinary discipline using smoke, salt, and moisture control to produce a variety of delicacies. I took in more salt than I had ever eaten at one sitting and thought I would surely break my blood pressure meter the next morning at my regular check time. To my shock it was the lowest reading I had ever taken. I repeated this outcome 4 times before stopping my meds. Now, if my blood pressure begins to climb toward 130/80 I will take a shot of salt on my tongue a few days in a row until it gets back down to 120/70.

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Chapter 11

In Conclusion

I started writing this short book well over a year ago, but during those early several days of writing felt that I needed something more than I had at the time to make this a complete offering to someone wishing to make a better life for themselves. At that time, I was eating low-carb. A short time later I went strict ketogenic for a year. I’ve followed man’s wisdom when it comes to diet long enough to see it shift from one loud voice to another demonizing various food groups. Finally, it occurred to me to research what we were designed to eat which led to the inclusions at the end of chapter 8 based on the Book of Genesis. Keto gave me numerous electrolyte issues that have been resolved by what I call the Garden of Eden diet which includes all animal products, wild-caught seafood, fruits, and vegetables. All of my health markers continue to improve including my 30-day average resting heart rate.

So, Hippocrates was right when he said, “Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.”

Since a diet that excludes sugar, grains, and vegetable oils will prevent our myriad of diseases we can say that the cause of every disease and disorder you have, or ever will have is sugar, grains, and vegetable oils.

I have made four medical discoveries that have been of profound benefit to my health. The first was fasting, the second was that I needed more salt in my diet, the third was that I was “severely” deficient in iodine, the fourth was that a Garden of Eden diet has a healing power that is nearly as powerful as water-only fasting. Thank God for the internet. We can now ask questions of health professionals that we already know the correct answers to so that we will know their level of competence when it comes to “Standard of Care” dogma vs. State-of-the-Art medicine. These two modalities of health care have little in common. It has been said that technology advances one death at a time. This is a metaphor for older people clinging to old ways of doing things who are unable to accept new information or new innovations. Dr. David Williams did research on how long, on average, it took the medical establishment to accept major new discoveries in the field of medicine. Shockingly he found 50 years to be the average.

In my own field of engineering in 45 years of working as a contract engineer, meaning I worked for many companies, sometimes more than one at a time, only one used the metric system. By act of congress in 1866 the metric system became the only legal measurement system in the United States. Talk about slow acceptance! We have used a metric money system since colonial times. This is dogma at its worst.

Fasting and its healing power will hopefully be permanently placed in the medical industry’s tool kit even though it is free to the patient and will require career redirection of many displaced medical professionals. In the past three hundred years it has seen periods of revival after being the primary healing tool for thousands of years.

I have not placed research links nor foot notes for two reasons. First, this really needs to be a journey of personal discovery and reflection, you need to do your own research. Trusting the White Coat Savior for your health salvation is not working out so well for most people because according to studies done by the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University doing exactly what your doctor tells you to do is the third leading cause of early death in America. And second, so much new information about fasting and health in general is flowing from so many sources that anything footnoted here would be obsolete. I do not mean new as in discovery, but new in that modern physiological tools and procedures are proving what fasting practitioners have always known for thousands of years. At least people who 35

have trust issues might find the science behind autophagy reassuring and negate some of the fear of it that they might have.

Previously mentioned, but here in summary, is what a wholesome food diet and intermittent fasting lifestyle has done for me:

Reduced my 30-day average resting heart rate 19% (75 to 61 in 5 years as of 9/2023) Eliminated hypertension.

Eliminated plaque psoriasis.

Reversed benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Improved synaptic connections severed during surgery.

Improved reproductive system health.

Eliminated 100 excess pounds.

Reduced A1C marker.

Reversed fatty liver disease.

Complete recovery from a stroke.

Eliminated chronic pain from an old injury.

14% strength improvement while I lost 100 pounds.

Eliminated seasonal pollen allergies.

Eliminated insulin resistance.

Improved sense of taste and smell

Improved major organ function.

I Have Deep Regret

I found this lifestyle at 67 years old as a fat and sickly man and now 6 years later I’ve been at goal weight for 4 years and live a pain-free life in perfect health. I know I could have been this way my whole life.

Fasting and eating like I was still in the Garden of Eden has been available to me my entire life and for thousands of years before I existed. I watch people I care about eating the same foods that destroyed my health and can do nothing to dissuade them. They fear breaking away from the grip that food and the medical profession has on their minds. I was there once. Ignoring a learned professional’s advice is scary, but when they are wrong, you must strike out on your own and accept responsibility for the results of your actions. Doing what I have done for myself took some wisdom, knowledge, and courage.

Fasting/abstinence is a useful tool to mitigate many of our overindulgences. Addictions to alcohol, devices, sugar, pornography, risky behavior, whatever, can all be treated with abstinence. Going for extended periods of time without eating to break food addictions is an act of self-love. Continued abuse of our bodies by food is a slow, but delicious way to commit suicide which is an act of self-loathing. It is easy to understand and straight forward, just love yourself more than food.

About the Author

Chuck Postma is a retired project manager, Vietnam War combat veteran, husband to Sue, father of two children, and grandfather to three, living in the state of Michigan, USA.

If you have a question, comment, or suggestion you can reach him at cpostma@myyahoo.com. Chuck comments at several Facebook fasting groups as follows: Fasting for Seniors, Fasting and Autophagy, and The Fasting Method Network.

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