Generally, the best food groups to include in your diet are:

FRESH FRUIT, FRESH VEGETABLES, GRAINS - whole wheat, oats, millet, quinoa, aramanth, brown rice, corn; LEGUMES - all varieties of beans and lentils; SEEDS and NUTS and a smaller amount of meat. These food groups will ensure that you get a high quality source of calcium, protein and fiber as well as vitamins and minerals in your diet.

Here are some other guidelines for you to remember:

1. EAT MORE FIBER FOODS.

Fiber foods are whole grains such as brown rice, raw fruits and vegetables. The more fiber you eat, the less chance you have of getting bowel cancer. The National Cancer Society recommends we eat 25 - 30 grams of fiber a day. The average American only eats 11 grams. Incorporating whole grains and raw foods into your diet will send your daily quota skyrocketing. Optimum elimination is not once a day, as many of us believe, but three times each day. If you have to take laxatives, you better start eating more fiber foods immediately. Constipation is the root cause of all diseases. Remember - all meats, poultry and dairy products have no fiber whatsoever and are very difficult to digest.

2. EAT MORE RAW FOODS.

Over half of your diet should be raw. Plan your menu for a minimum of 60 per cent raw foods. Wow, that’s a challenge, isn’t it? I don’t always make it but it is something to aim for. If you want to feel alive you have to eat living foods. Most nutrients are lost when you cook fruits and vegetables. Raw foods are already baked by the life-giving rays of the sun and are brimming with nutrients ready to replenish your body.

How can you maintain 60 per cent raw food? Have a fresh raw salad every day. Snack on carrots, celery, broccoli, dried fruit and nuts. Another way is to eat fruit for breakfast and until noon. This suits some people whereas others prefer to start the day with a cereal. Not only will fruits revitalize your body but clean out your system with their high fiber content. Fruit is received straight into your bloodstream so it is instant energy.

3. ELIMINATE ALL REFINED FOODS.

Refined foods are deficient foods. They are dead, devitalized and dormant of life! They are the major cause of poor health, decreased energy and irritability, illness, cancer and premature death.

• Eliminate refined white flour and all white flour products! Use only whole grain flour.
• Never purchase devitalized white bread. If possible, grind your wheat and make your own whole grain bread. After reading Chapter 2, The Table – A Place to Feed the Body, have you started saving for a grain mill? Did you know that over 30 known nutrients are removed from the wheat when the wheat is professionally milled today?
• Avoid all saturated fats and hydrogenated oils; foods that contain palm and cottonseed oil, margarine, peanut butter that contains hydrogenated oils. These oils cannot be assimilated by the body and therefore lead to obesity and cholesterol problems. Buy pure olive oil.
• Eliminate white rice and use only brown rice. Check what you miss out on when you eat white rice:

• Refuse to purchase any more processed breakfast cereals. They cause hyperactivity, depression and irritability due to their high sugar content and lack of nutrients. Don't be fooled by the slogans, "Vitamin Fortified" or "Vitamin Enriched." Once a grain has been processed, its nutritional value is lost and adding a few synthetic vitamins will not replace the original vitamins and minerals.

Great ideas for breakfast are: fresh fruit or whole grain cereals such as oatmeal, millet or quinoa sweetened with honey; homemade whole grain bread or toast; muesli or granola. My morning breakfast consists of hulled millet that I grind freshly each day in a coffee grinder. You can also put it in a crock-pot the night before and set on low. Add chopped apples and raisins and in the morning you have a delicious breakfast. Eat with milk and honey as you desire. Millet is known as the king of all cereals. It has more iron and vitamins than any other cereal. It contains all B vitamins, alkaline and is easy to digest. It is low fat and high energy. It is the only cereal that can sustain or support human life when it is the sole item in the diet.

4. AVOID DAIRY PRODUCTS.

This is important especially if you are prone to coughs, colds, sinus, allergies, ear infections or stomachaches and headaches. Milk is often the cause of these common complaints. Humans are the only mammal species that continue to drink milk once they are weaned. Milk is a food that God has provided especially for infants.

The protein in cow's milk, casein, is 300 times stronger than in human milk. It cannot be assimilated by our bodies and forms a hard curd in the digestive tract. This leads to excessive mucous in the body and poor elimination. Thirty-five natural enzymes in raw milk are destroyed with pasteurizing. Without these enzymes milk cannot be properly digested.

But how can I get calcium you ask? You can obtain all the calcium you require from leafy green vegetables, fresh and dried fruits, seeds (especially sesame seeds), nuts and legumes. Plant based calcium is of a higher quality and is more readily absorbed by the body than dairy based calcium.

5. EAT MORE ALKALINE FOODS

It is important to keep a proper ratio between acid and alkaline foods. To keep in optimum health nutritionists advise keeping the ratio about 80 percent alkali-producing foods and 20 percent acid-producing foods. Here are some samples to give you an idea. This table shows foods with an approximate potential acidity or alkalinity in one ounce of food.

Alkali-Forming Foods

Acid-Forming Foods

6. ELIMINATE SUGAR.

Refined white sugar is a poison that destroys all the B vitamins (the energy vitamins) in your body. Sugar also makes a person more susceptible to illness as it inhibits the ability of the white blood cells to fight bacteria. Eliminate it totally. You don't need to have it in your pantry. Did you know that 64 food elements are destroyed in the refining of sugar? Did you realize that each tablespoon of ketchup has 1 teaspoon of sugar in it? Did you know that the No. 1 ingredient in Fruit Loops is sugar? Did you know that 1/2-cup jellybeans contain approximately 27 teaspoons sugar?

Watch for foods with sugar added. It is hidden in most tinned and packaged foods you purchase. There is even sugar in iodized salt! Substitute sugar with honey, maple syrup or sorghum, but still in moderation. You can also use a herb called 'stevia' for sweetening which you can obtain at most health shops. I don’t keep a grain of white sugar in my home.

7. REDUCE MEAT, CHICKEN AND FISH INTAKE.

The National Heart Foundation recommends that we eat meat no more than three times a week. Meat contains no fiber. It also contains approximately 14 times more pesticides than plant foods. If you reduce your meat intake, you will also reduce the chemicals, pesticides, growth hormones, drugs and antibiotics that are now part of the animals we eat. Did you know that 90 percent of all chickens are infected with a viral cancer, leukosis, when killed for the table. Do you still want chicken for supper tonight?

8. EAT ONLY CLEAN MEATS AND FISH.

Although we are not under law, it is advisable to use wisdom and follow the dietary laws that God gave for our protection and blessing. Read Leviticus 11:1-47, Deuteronomy 14:1-21 and Isaiah 66:1. These Scriptures will tell you all the meat; fish and birds that God says are healthy for us to eat.

Because all vegetation was annihilated after the flood, God allowed meat to be eaten, but only the clean meats. You will remember that God told Noah to take seven of each of the clean animals into the ark, but only two of the unclean.

Clean meats are those that 1) chew their cud, and 2) have cloven hooves. Pork is not clean meat because pigs do not chew their cud. Pork carries a trichoma worm, which if taken into the system will cause trichinosis, a disease, which although is not fatal, there is no cure. Did you know that over 80 per cent of today's pigs have pneumonia when they are killed.

God also tells us that the only fish that are healthy for us to eat are those that have fins and scales – all others are "an abomination." Leviticus 11:12 NIV says, "Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be detestable to you." Sorry folks, this wipes out oysters, shrimps, crabs, clams, eels, catfish, lobsters and crayfish and all shellfish. These are the scavenger fish that live on pollution. These 'vacuum cleaners' can concentrate awesome quantities of toxins in their tiny bodies. Oysters have been found to concentrate polioviruses up to 20 - 60 times that of their surrounding seawater. You are not under law, but I think it is wise to abide by God’s rules for health. He’s the One who knows best!

9. REDUCE YOUR SALT INTAKE.

Refined salt is sodium chloride, an inorganic mineral that cannot be used by any cell structure in the body. It is responsible for high blood pressure, kidney and liver diseases and obesity. Why do you feel thirsty after eating salty foods? The stomach is reacting to this foreign substance and is telling you to wash the poison out through your kidneys. Why do people have swollen legs and feet? When the kidneys can no longer eliminate the salt, the excess is deposited in various parts of the body, especially the feet and lower legs. Because it is a poison, the body seeks to dilute it by accumulating water in these areas.

You can get all the natural sodium salts you require in fruits and vegetables. How can you reduce the salt intake in your family?

• Remove the saltshaker from your table.
• Do not cook vegetables in salt. Add a little later if you need to.
• Use less salt in 'tasty' foods such as soups, stews, and casseroles. Look for natural salt substitutes such as herbs, Celtic salt, sea salt, or Bragg's Liquid Aminos. We would find it hard to do without ‘Bragg’s in our home.
• Try to decrease all commercial salty foods from your diet, such as potato chips, corn chips, salted crackers, salted nuts, all processed meats such as luncheon meat, corned beef, hot dogs, franks, sausages, salami, cured ham and bacon, canned soups and vegetables, sauces such as Worcestershire, ketchup, soy sauce and pickles.
• Avoid all MSG (monosodium glutamate) and additives containing MSG, as it is a major cause of asthma and other alarming allergies. Avoid any products containing MSG, kombu extract, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (which consists of up to 20 per cent MSG), natural flavorings (which usually contain MSG). MSG is used in most Fast Food Restaurants including Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonalds.
• If you purchase any tinned foods, make sure you purchase those that are "low sodium", "salt free" or "no added salt".

 Other foods high in salt are cheese, Baking Powder and Baking Soda. Baking Powder also contains aluminum - a cancer-forming additive. If you have to use Baking Powder for baking, look for one that has no aluminum. E.g. 'Rumford' Baking Powder.

10. READ ALL LABELS WHEN SHOPPING.

Get into a habit of reading all labels when shopping. Even whole wheat bread is full of poisonous additives. It is safer to make your own bread. Dried fruit is good, but watch for sulphur dioxide. Bright colored dried apricots have sulphur dioxide - avoid them and purchase the brown ugly ones! They're just as nice even if they don't have the same appearance.

Remember that any word that ends in 'ose' is a form of sugar.

11. DRINK ONLY PURE WATER.

We are told to drink 6 - 8 glasses of water daily. Some recommend an 8oz glass of water every hour. However, if you are eating a lot of fruit and have a reduced salt diet, you won't require so much. Here are the main rules on drinking. Don’t drink the water from the tap. It is a chemical cocktail. Drink only purified or distilled water. Get in the habit of drinking distilled water and eliminate soft drink, pop and all sweetened drinks from your diet.

12. EXERCISE

Many health problems can be corrected by regular exercise. Our bodies were meant to move. We have amazing muscles that we are meant to exercise. If they are not worked the tissues die. The more you exercise, the more energy you’ll have. Exercise speeds up your circulation, improves the function of all your internal organs and glands, ensures proper elimination, removes the lactic acid and other fatigue poisons from your body, builds new, stronger and healthier cells, builds coordination, balance, and control of all the muscles, increases your metabolism, and is the best insurance against disease and sickness

The best exercise is brisk walking. It also gets you out in the fresh air and you clear your head same time as you rejuvenate your body.

FOODS THE BIBLE SAYS WE MUST NOT EAT

1. We must not eat the blood. Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 7:26-27; 17:10-11,14; 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:16,23-24; 1 Samuel 14:33-34; Acts 15:20.29; 21;25.

2. We must not eat the fat. Leviticus 3:16-17; 7:23-25.

3. We must not eat anything that dies of itself. Exodus 22:31; Leviticus 22:8; Deuteronomy 14:21.

4. We must not eat animals that do not chew the cud or have parted hoofs. Leviticus 11:4-8; Deuteronomy 14:7-8.

5. We must not eat fish that do not have scales or fins. Leviticus 11:9-12; Deuteronomy 14:10.

6. We must not eat scavenger birds. Leviticus 11:13-19; Deuteronomy 14:12-18.

7. We must not eat flying insects that creep on all fours. Leviticus 11:20-25; Deuteronomy 14:19.

8. We must not eat animals that move about on the ground, e.g. the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the skunk and the chameleon etc. Leviticus 11:29-30

Prepared by Nancy Campbell