Chapter 13
The TRIAD Diet Program
Steps 1, 2, and 3 of the 9 Simple Steps to Optimal Health
- (Step 1) EAT whole, unprocessed foods (90 percent or more
as plant foods, if not all plant foods). - (Step 2) EAT at least half your food intake as vegetables.
- (Step 3) ELIMINATE all dairy products or eat from the Ba-
sic Elimination Diet (BED) for at least one month.
Most of the time, you can identify whole foods just by looking at
them—because they are just that: whole food in front of you.
In general, if something is in a package, box, or can, choose the
one with the least amount of things added to it. You just want the
food. Take canned beans, for example. I look at the label and try to
make sure there is no added sugar. (I don’t worry as much about
salt since I sweat a lot and am very active, but in general, I tell
patients to go salt-free and make sure there are no additives.) Just
the beans are what you want. And now it’s easy to get even canned
organic beans at stores like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods Market, and
natural food co-ops. These canned goods have fewer additives.
Of course you’ll want to eat more than just beans, so here are
my guidelines for a good diet—which are really very similar to
those recommended by the WHO and Unified Dietary Guidelines:
- Greater than 90 percent of your food intake should be unre-
fined plant foods. (Step 1) - Eat vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables, fruit, beans,
nuts, and seeds in their whole state and as close to how they
came out of the ground.