From the ancient Latin stem of aliment the noun alimentum refers to food and maintenance. Hippocrates once said, “That we should make a medicine of our food and of our food a medicine”. In doing this successfully the “maintenance” definition of the Latin word alimentum becomes reality.

The ancients noticed that colors and shapes of food affected the body’s processes’ they resembled. As well the ancients were very adept at paying attention to the world around them and through simple observation noted the affects of foods on the individuals health, lifestyle and performance. Obviously ancient Greek warriors that took a break from battle and participated in the truce known today to us as the Olympics had a different diet than that of a kalamo pushing scribe who spent all day writing on papyrus.

Five of the strongest and most important foods for healing, health, disease prevention, recuperation and maintenance are: Almonds, Oats, Asparagus, Sea Food and Water. Westerners have been raised with the idea of “take a pill for a couple of days and everything is fine” or “eat this for two weeks and see the difference”.

In the Neipian (Inner Chapters) volume of the Baopuzi an ancient manuscript of Chinese Alchemy and Medicine attributed to Ko Hung (Ge Hung) during the Jin Dynasty, there are recommendations that some food products be eaten for as long as ten years before the results would manifest in the consumers body. Ge Hung asserted that that one who masters the internal work could attain immortality.

In addition to this many of the diets that are recommended from the ancient Chinese Alchemical and Medical community along with the Indian Ayervedic Methods and techniques often prescribed the diet at the exclusion of all other foods. Westerners are notorious for thinking that if they add a small side salad to the order of fast food that they are going to see the results they want. And we wonder why sales of anti-depressants sore through the roof!

Like the earth the body of man is three quarters water. The need for proper hydration is obvious and yet rarely attained by most people. Oats are high in silica and silica is the “Surgeon of the body”. Asparagus is shaped and colored in a specific way and the symbolism of this is apparent. Almonds contain protein and trace minerals in such abundance it cannot be ignored. Seafood is high in iodine and other trace metals and minerals essential for health. Of all animal proteins fish and other seafood’s are the best and “lightest” of the animal protein sources.

If we are what we eat we should only eat incorruptible foods and animals that are intelligent. Go ahead and eat some more cows. 50 years from now email me and I bet you will be quite still and enjoying the solitude of the pasture. If our teeth are for eating only meat why do they fall out by the time we’re 80?

Caution any changes in the diet should be implemented slowly over the course of several years. “Make haste slowly and you will surely arrive.” An ancient chineses proverb.
Bon Appetite!!!!!!

Our teeth are made for eating everything, a characteristic of omnivores.

Interestingly, ancient Greek athletes ate a primarily meat based diet in opposition to the general populace that ate a primarily grain based diet. They understood high meat consumption combined with their workouts produced strength. Of course, their meat was all of the "range fed" variety.

I'm down with eating seafood, but fish aren't very intelligent.

One nice thing about the beef here in Mexico is that it is natural. Most of the cows here are corn fed. It tastes GREAT! Definately much more chewy- you actually need some chompers to put it down. Except of course the "corte entero".

Its interesting, I have a copy of the diet attributed to Hercules. Heracles of the Heraclidae, one of the Dorian Kings that believed they were entitled through divine lineage to own the property and land that is the Earth.

It was a mixture of a type of sea weed or kelp (the translation is not agreed upon), honey, mallow and cucumber seeds. It was all mashed up and consumed like a paste.

Interestingly enough in the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh finds the "Kelp of Immortality" (again the translation is not clear as to whether it was kelp or seaweed or someother plant like a sea cucumber) and then a snake eats it and he is robbed of immortality. Could Hecrcules have been eating this same "plant from the deeps of the ocean"?

OK-its definately time to go down to the coffe shop and have a double shot of latte (with seaweed!)