HEALTH | FOOD | LIFESTYLE| CHINA | DIET
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Taking your diet to the next level
The perfect diet is taken to the next level when it becomes a lifestyle, abundant in delicious foods that provide us with joy and health. Why not?
Previously in COMPLETENESS (↓), I shared some experiences that were shaping my current eating lifestyle. I told you about a champion bodybuilder whose diet consisted of little more than fruit. I also discovered the wonders of olive oil and the importance of not wasting our three essential fluids. Today I will continue with my story, beginning with a slip that put my health at serious risk.
When a Chinese doctor “pronounces” you dead
One day I ran into a friend on the street; we had not seen each other for a long time. When I asked him what he was doing there, he told me that he wanted to visit a Chinese doctor and greet him.
— A Chinese doctor?
— Yes, right there, in that white house, he said, pointing to a building.
— How so?
— When my wife became pregnant with our first child, she had life-threatening complications, and the doctors told us that we had to make an urgent decision. If my wife gave birth, she was very likely to die, so the other option was for her to have an abortion, and we would lose the child. We went to various specialists, and they all told us the same thing. We didn’t know what to do, and as if by a miracle, we heard about this Chinese doctor. We decided to come and hear his opinion, and for the next two weeks, she received daily acupuncture treatment and took some brown pills.
“Hmm, you’re dead. Water and not blood is running through your veins. You will have to come two days for an acupuncture session; you are going to take two black pills, a large plate of stock, and a big salad every day.”
— Wow! What happened next?
— After two weeks, my wife felt a strong movement in her womb: it was the boy who had finally taken the correct position and disentangled himself from the umbilical cord knot. When it was time to give birth, she delivered without issues, and neither she nor the baby had any problems. Now I am only coming to say hello to Dr. Chang and thank him.
My friend handed me a business card from this Chinese doctor. He told me he would ask for another one; “Take it, just in case you ever need it.”
Time passed, things were going well for me; I had just turned 25. I came up with a business idea and decided to save every penny I could to raise the capital needed. I began to eat poorly to keep as much money as possible; my diet was no longer varied, and my meals were of low nutritional value. As a result, my health deteriorated, and I became so weak that six months later, I came close to passing out while walking.
However, although I understood that I had gone too far, I could not decide on going to a doctor. Since my childhood, I had never visited one; therefore, I struggled between whether or not I should do so. I realized, though, that I needed help to restore my health.
Then I remembered the Chinese doctor.
Should I visit him? Without thinking twice about it, I called to make an appointment. When I arrived at the place, a Chinese man, speaking in Spanish, told me to wait a minute. After a while, Dr. Chang entered the office; he was an older man who did not speak Spanish. The first man served as a translator.
Dr. Chang asked me about the reason for my visit, and I explained my problem to him. Then he took my pulse and said something that the first man translated for me. “Hmm, you’re dead. Water and not blood is running through your veins. You will have to come two days for an acupuncture session; you are going to take two black pills, a large plate of stock, and a big salad every day.” He stood up and left the office.
The first man explained to me the restoration process: “Today, we’ll treat you with acupuncture. You have to come back in three and seven days for two more sessions. This technique will restore the fluidity of your energy. You must also buy two kilograms of beef, chicken, or fish bones (in the latter case, including fish heads) and bring them to a simmer in a large pot together with an onion cut into eight, 20 whole peppercorns, and 50 grams of ginger. Simmer until the liquid reduces by half, let it cool. Strain and store it in the refrigerator. Every day you should heat a large plate of this bone broth and drink it, adding some salt. Besides, you should take two of these black pills daily along with the broth. Finally, you’ll have to eat a big salad every day. It should include everything you can get: lettuce, tomato, carrot, asparagus, radishes, avocado, watercress, beets, mushrooms, hearts of palm… whatever you can get. In a month, you will feel good again.” He took the pills from a bottle in a desk drawer, counted a certain quantity of them, and handed them to me.
Within a fortnight, I felt like a new man, full of energy. Thanks to a change in my diet, acupuncture, and the mysterious “black pills” (I never knew what they were), I was on my way to total recovery. I didn’t ever play with my health like that again; it is too precious to do so.
It became clear to me that vegetables provide energy and life; they are powerful sources of them. But stocks or bone broths are fundamental in our diet because of their nutritional and healing characteristics (if you don’t believe me, ask Dr. Petrucci ↓). Soups should be prepared from them, which I frequently do. However, these stocks are not just the base of a tasteful and nutritious soup; they are potent flavor enhancers for stews and other preparations.
Going back to acupuncture, I’m watching a funny Korean tv series where this technique plays a central role. If you feel like having a laugh: Live Up to Your Name.
Aura’s sister and an odorless number two
On September 20, 1983, I met a fabulous 17-year-old woman who would be my wife shortly after. Among the friends we made was Aura, a young Colombian lady, mother of a five-year-old girl. She had a sister, Nina, also the mother of a girl who was about three years old.
I remember that I would have to prepare for the effort to pick up these girls: their weight was unusual, despite not being fat. I’m not sure how to express it: they were “compact” girls (with firm muscles, as the opposite of a flaccid body), which intrigued me a bit.
One day we were visiting Aura; her sister was there too. Suddenly, I felt stomach cramps and the urge to go to the bathroom (they had only one in that house). “May I use your bathroom?” I asked her as I clutched my stomach and held back the pain caused by diarrhea.
She ran to the bathroom and knocked on the door: “Hurry Nina, Victor needs the bathroom urgently!” It turned out that Nina was doing a number two! I thought, “how am I going to get into a toilet that must be stinking?”
“The doo-doo of dogs and other domestic animals smells so bad because the compound feed they give them is an incorrect mixture of components that are not compatible with each other.”
As soon as Nina came out of the bathroom, I went in. Curiously, there was no bad smell. I became intrigued and wondered if the reason was that these sisters were Adventists. Their lifestyle was peculiar in some respects, and their denomination had taught them not to eat meat.
When I got out of the bathroom, I did not dare to ask questions, but we went several times to visit Aura during the following weeks. I needed the subject to fell casually in a conversation to clarify my doubts.
The opportunity arose once Aura’s mother, herself an Adventist too, was visiting her home. I came on the subject with her as if by chance. My wife and Aura were chatting in the kitchen.
This lady asked me if I had ever smelled cow dung when countrymen burn it to prepare their food or as a source of heat. I remembered that in South America, I had seen this several times: in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. I said yes, to which she replied if I had found the smell to be unpleasant. I said, “no, I hadn’t.”
She told me then that omnivorous animals such as many small birds tend to hunt for and eat insects at certain times while seeking and eating seeds and leaves at others. “The foul smell of human excrement comes from poor digestion. It occurs when we consume both types of food: proteins and carbohydrates together. It’s even worse with the addition of sugars. The doo-doo of dogs and other domestic animals smells so bad because the compound feed they give them is an incorrect mixture of components that are not compatible with each other.”
Niket Sonpal, M.D., Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, says, “The over-arching theme is malabsorption, which occurs when your body’s unable to absorb the proper amount of nutrients from the foods you eat.”
When I studied and understood the subject, I changed my habits. For example, a steak goes very well with a salad. I serve beans (which I love) only with rice and salad, without any meat stew. Pasta is very healthy with pesto sauce or al pomodoro fresco, but not so good for our health if we consume it alla bolognese. The general rule of thumb is not to mix animal protein and carbohydrates in the same meal, and neither of them with sugar.
Despite being herbivores, the poor cows are not so lucky as we are: they can’t choose a vegetarian menu. Instead of eating grass and herbs, they frequently have no choice but to eat… meat! Stanley B. Prusiner, M.D, wrote a special article for The New England Journal of Medicine: Neurodegenerative Diseases and Prions in which he touches on the origin of mad cow disease. He says that cattle probably got infected by being fed meat-and-bone meal that contained either the remains of cattle who spontaneously developed the disease or scrapie-infected sheep products.
These and other experiences encouraged us to start making small variations in our eating habits at home, and in that change, my wife’s role was fundamental. She adapted our menus, understanding the need for a shift from a fairly typical “American” way of eating to one focused on minimally-processed, natural foods. Cooking became a celebration which integrated the power of (lots of) vegetables and whole foods into our everyday meals.
Interestingly, in this process, we also discovered that the food we prepared (we both cooked) was tastier than before! When we had gatherings at home, our friends used to ask us what was the “secret ingredient” that we put in our food.
As for Aura and Nina’s girls, their build was firm due to the healthy diet they had enjoyed since they were born.
“The cleanest newborn I’ve ever seen!”
When my wife got pregnant with our second child, she decided to stop eating meat during her pregnancy. At due time, she gave birth to our boy at an institution in Caracas.
Everything went very well, thank God, but when I was ready to take her back home with our son, they requested us to wait for the doctor who had helped her with the delivery. He was about to arrive at the institution and had asked to talk with her before she went home. We waited for him to arrive.
He was Dr. Vera, a famous Venezuelan obstetrician. Upon his arrival, he congratulated us on the newborn and asked my wife, “Madam, what did you do or eat during your pregnancy?” When we asked him what was happening and why he asked that question, he told us, “I have been an obstetrician for many years and have helped thousands of women with their deliveries, but in my entire career, I have never seen a baby born that clean! There was no need to clean him!”
When we explained to him what my wife had done during her pregnancy, he asked for details and took notes; he was impressed.
The fruit raiders
Three years later, our daughter was born.
We used to shop for groceries on Sundays. Part of the routine was buying seven varieties of fruit. For example, we would buy a dozen bananas, eight mangoes, a dozen peaches, a watermelon, a dozen prickly pears, two melons, and two dozen figs. We also used to buy seven kinds of seeds and dried fruits: almonds, walnuts, peanuts, cashews, pistachios, dried apricots, prunes, and raisins.
My wife would place both the fruit and the seeds and nuts on top of the refrigerator. The idea was that our kids could not easily reach them, leaving their mother with the task of distributing them every day. However, all that would be finished by Thursday as the kids would “raid” the area in question. They would devour those supplies while doing their homework or watching television. Both my wife and I used to “scold” them and pretended to be alarmed, but we were always rejoiced to know that we were raising healthy and strong children.
Then we moved to Curaçao. There I would have a stronger connection with olive oil, start my struggle with sugar, and flavor my life with unrefined salt. Much later, I would lose my mother, and some suspicions would fall on instant coffee as the alleged culprit. But all of this will be the subject of my next story.
Here’s to your future!
— Víctor Tapia —
Thank you for reading this article. If you have any questions or concerns, leave a comment below, I promise to respond.
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COMPLETENESS is the publication that studies the factors that restrict your freedom and prevent you from reaching your financial, health, and wellness goals. It analyzes the alternatives at hand and formulates and discusses actionable strategies.
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Víctor Tapia is a writer who specializes in bitcoin, internationalization, and wellness issues. For his website’s web presence, he writes and edits both English and Spanish articles, guides, and courses. Similarly, he focuses on producing material for other parties and produces Medium stories on various themes related to his field.
Víctor worked for many years in the field of food and beverages, both for the hospitality and food industries. Before founding My CBS in 2002, he was the General Manager at Parmalat S.p.A., the multinational food corporation, at its subsidiary in Curaçao. One of his activities is service coaching in any area of commerce and industry, including food and beverages.
You can get in touch with him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, follow his posts on Medium, Mixturas (Spanish) and Completeness (English), or by visiting his website, My CBS.
