In this article, Paul Nison shares raw food factors ranging from bananas to blood tests. Paul Nison is a raw food chef and educator. He is also the author of seven books, including “The Raw Life.”
Kevin: One of the questions asked was: “Is it bad to eat six or seven bananas in one day?” Many of the questions were about tall fruit. You mentioned tall fruit might not be the best idea, but if you are eating some fruit, what are the best fruits to eat?
Pablo: Well, it depends on the situation of each person, the occupation of each person and so on and also what else they are eating throughout the day. If someone is not on a completely raw diet and much of their diet is processed sugar, the fruit could put them on top. But if someone is eating a pretty good diet like Hippocrates’ lifestyle, with lots of vegetables in their diet, eating fruits will be fine. Obviously, a desk worker will need less than someone who is athletic. There is no one answer for everyone, that is the big problem that exists. Many people say that there is an answer for everyone.
I have to warn people that today there are many people on this 80/10/10 diet. The problem with the 80/10/10 diet … I actually think it’s a great balance, but the problem is how much people are consuming. They are using much more than necessary. If someone was eating small amounts of fruit and very small amounts of fat, that’s fine. But people, I think, are overeating. They are eating much more than they need. They don’t understand that when the body becomes cleaner, you can survive on less. I don’t like counting calories, but if we do it the right way, we don’t need to eat 8, 9, 10 bananas a day, no matter who we are or what our lifestyle is.
Certainly someone could enjoy the fruit. I am not against fruit. I am against overeating. That is the problem that people have today. They consistently overeat. Nobody likes the taste of fruit more than I do, but I know that eating fruit in excess is not good. Fred Bisci told me about all the natural hygienists of the past, that he knows, when I met him. He told me how much fruit they ate and how it was not good. I said, “I’d like to interview you,” because I was interviewing people for my book. He said, “You can’t interview them because now they are all dead.” I said, “Did they live a long life?” He said no. “
Then I met William Esther, who is a great man who practiced temperance and many things. I put him on and asked, “Do you ever fast?” He said no. “I asked him why and he said,” It is not necessary. I don’t eat excessively. “I said,” What do you eat? “He told me what he eats and it wasn’t much. It was a great interview. He was a hygienist who ate fruit, he believed in fruit, but he didn’t overdo it. It is the biggest problem and the problem that I address in my new book “The Daylight Diet.” People cannot stop and spend all night eating.
Kevin: Well, I got you. What about the opposite: high fat?
Pablo: Same answer: all individual situations. An Eskimo who lives in an igloo is going to need a different diet than someone who lives in the tropics where I am. Too much is too much no matter where you are in the world. It depends on our situation. I think exercising and exercising more so that I can eat more, I think it’s another type of eating disorder. We don’t need as much and the high fat content is another problem in the raw food movement. Many raw foods are now made with nuts and seeds and all of these other fats. A raw vegetable fat is much better digested than a cooked fat of any kind, but people still consume fat in excess. We have to find what works for us individually. The problem I find is that a lot of people look at raw food and say, “This guy said this” and “This guy said that.”
There is only one true way to know if something is working for us or not, from a physical point of view. That is to monitor our blood work. I think people neglect this too much in the raw food movement. They talk about what they think is best, but they don’t look at their own blood work, which really tells us what’s working and what’s not working for us. There are many different variables that come into play, besides diet, that can affect our chemistry and everything in between. But if our blood work is reviewed and things are working well, what we are doing is working for us. Now, will that work for the next person? Maybe not. But the best way to keep checking is by looking at our blood work.
Kevin: That’s a great point, Paul. I usually never voice my opinions in interviews, but I recommend anyone listening to listen to what Paul just said in the last minute or so. It is so important. Now how do you recommend that someone do a blood test? What do you think is the best way?
Pablo: Well, doctors, believe it or not, have a great way to get blood tests done, but the problem is that they don’t know how to read blood tests. Everyone can be too high on something and you may be perfectly fine, but a doctor will say you are low because the average person is too high. So you really have to go to someone who can read and understand these tests.
I have been extremely lucky to find Dr. Shandel here in Hollywood, Florida. He has an extensive longevity blood profile test and a cancer blood profile test. It has its laboratory on its premises. It has a full set of tests that I think are important for everyone to control. But to get everyone started, you need to do the basic chemical blood profile tests and that will get you started on the basics. Then if there is something suspicious there, you can start getting more expensive tests. My best advice to everyone is if you have drug insurance (I don’t call it health insurance, I call it drug insurance because it pays for the drugs, not for the health), go to your doctor and say, “I want to get tested for every as much as possible my insurance will cover. ” If something is lacking in your body, some warning signs will show up on those tests.
Another way is if you have a sign that something might be wrong, like if you are low in a certain nutrient, you could have chapped lips or rashes or something else, poor memory. If you know that this has something to do with a deficiency in something, let’s test for that particular nutrient and see if its levels are okay.
You also need to understand that all vitamins, minerals, and nutrients work synergistically. So just because one thing is perfect, we have to look at both sides of the spectrum here. For example, with vitamin B12 some people might be fine, but the homocystine might be too high and we would have to address that. If we have little vitamin B12, homocystine could increase. A good person who can read this, Brian Clement, Gabriel Cousins, Dr. T from Equalpolitan in Minnesota, and Dr. Shandel, are people who can read this. Anyone can take a blood test and mail it to these people and make a consultation over the phone. That’s why I recommend that you check your blood work once or twice a year and then take the appropriate steps.
Kevin: What do you think of vitamin D?
Pablo: I see today the biggest problem, from a nutritional or clinical point of view, and Hippocrates confirms it. I worked very closely with the Hippocrates Health Institute. I feel very fortunate to be a great friend of Brian Clement and now I teach at the Institute. They have more evidence, studies, results, and information than anyone else in the world. They have been doing this for over 50 years. They have discovered, and all the other raw food doctors have confirmed, that with vitamin B12 and vitamin D, there is a big problem in the raw food movement, or even any current movement, when it comes to nutrition. People suffer from deficiencies. So we definitely need to address them.
I would definitely recommend supplementing these two areas and monitoring them closely. I also have to say that I was blessed, my friend Rick Dina and Karen Dina, they were staying with me because they were in town with me for the Raw Summit. These are two doctors that I would recommend that people go to in a heartbeat. Not only do they know as much as the other people I mentioned about clinical trials and how to read them, but they are probably easier to get in touch with. They have great information and are going to publish a book next year. They teach at Living Light Culinary School in Fort Bragg. Rick Dina and Karen Dina are excellent sources for finding blood tests. I have had excellent conversations with them. I wouldn’t give anyone a high recommendation unless you know that’s true. These people I mention are definitely people that I recommend that you get in touch with.
I wouldn’t listen to people who are very charismatic but don’t really have a clue about this. There are a lot of people promoting raw junk food, claiming to be the brightest and smartest raw food leaders in the world, but they wouldn’t know how to read a blood test if someone gave them the information right in front of them. They just don’t know what they are doing and they put a lot of people in trouble. So we really have to show discernment about who we go to and what we do.