This book is full of interesting advice on how to maximise our healthy lifespans and avoid deterioration in our health as we age as well as how to reverse deterioration. The evidence suggests that maintaining gut health is key.

Our intestines are lined with a single layer of mucosal cells (called enterocytes), which are locked tightly together to prevent material from entering or escaping. The more mucus you have the thicker your wall of protection from invaders, which means that calorie restriction works in part by strengthening your gut wall. The breakdown of our gut border is the main cause of ageing.

This mucus to binds and traps lectins before they can breach the gut wall. For many people that protective layer of mucus is in short supply or doesn’t exist at all. If your diet is high in lectin-containing foods, that mucus is constantly used up binding those lectins. What’s worse, without mucus, the mucosal cells that produce mucus are then open to direct attack by acids, bacteria, and more lectins. The result is less protective mucus. Unfortunately, without mucus to trap them, lectins bind with receptors (organelles that respond to a signal) along the gut lining and produce a compound called zonulin, which breaks the tight junctions that hold together your border wall. Imagine this happening on a large scale across your tennis court–sized border, creating spaces between the cells so foreign invaders (including more lectins) can forge through and reach your tissues, lymph nodes, and bloodstream. Once across the border, these foreign proteins are recognized as foreign by toll-like receptors (TLRs) located on your immune cells, especially your T cells leading to chronic inflammation! When lectins poke holes in the fence, they’re not the only ones that can make it through—they also clear the way for other invaders, including the bad bugs in your gut. One particularly harmful example is lipopolysaccharides (LPSs aka poop), molecules that make up the cell walls of certain bacteria in the microbiome. LPSs are fragments of bacterial cell walls that your bacteria produce as they divide and die in your intestines. They are produced in the trillions every day, and when your gut border is breached, they travel through your gut wall and into your body. But you don’t even need a leaky gut wall for them to gain access into the rest of you, as they can also hitch a ride on specialized saturated fat–carrying molecules called chylomicrons. The problem is that LPSs are not living bacteria; they are just the outer surface of bacteria. Since your TLRs on your immune cells cannot tell the difference between LPSs and living bacteria, they assume the LPSs are the real thing and attack them causing more and more inflammation.

In 2018, the results of a ten-year study in France offered the first conclusive proof that calorie restriction extends the lives of primates—in this case, a grey mouse lemur that shares many physiological similarities with humans. In the study, the life span of the calorie-restricted lemurs increased by almost 50 percent, and best of all, so did their health span. The aged lemurs had the same motor abilities and cognitive performance as much younger animals, without suffering from other common diseases associated with ageing such as cancer or diabetes.

How does this work? Well, one of the first things to happen when you restrict calories is that you dramatically decrease bacterial growth and reproduction. If you give your bugs less to eat, they make fewer offspring. This means fewer LPSs. A second bonus of eating less is that you aren’t eating as many foods containing lectins. These two factors dramatically decrease the amount of bacteria, LPSs, and lectins crossing the gut wall, which automatically reduces inflammation. Calorie restriction also improves gut wall function by stimulating autophagy in the gut, thinning the herd of gut bacteria down to the strongest and fittest ones that will work the hardest to maintain your gut wall integrity. This is where things get really interesting. Remember, the cells lining your gut produce mucus. There is a family of bacteria (called Akkermansia muciniphila, which literally means “mucus loving”) living in that mucus layer that love to eat the mucus lining. In other words, these gut buddies will never starve because even when you restrict calories, they happily live off that mucus. Now, that sounds like a real problem. You need that mucus to protect you against lectins and other bacteria, and these guys are eating it! But here’s the shocker: amazingly, when they eat the mucus, they send a signal to your enterocytes to produce more mucus. So, even though they are eating some of it, the net effect is an increase in mucus. The more mucus you have, the thicker your wall of protection from invaders, which means that calorie restriction works in part by improving the integrity of the gut wall. As you know, the breakdown of our gut border unleashes mischief and is a main cause of aging. Thus, these mucus-loving gut buddies are one of the keys to your longevity.

Mice that are given supplements of Akkermansia muciniphila show a decrease in inflammation and heart disease, because the muciniphila keep the gut barrier strong and impermeable.

NSAIDs (Non Steroid Anti Inflammatory Drugs) are now both the number one pharmaceutical seller and the number one cause of inflammation—the very thing they’re meant to treat!

Every course of broad-spectrum antibiotics you take affects your gut biome for up to two years.

We have known for centuries that a certain type of fermented green tea called pu-erh, which is popular in China, has many health benefits – particularly for gut health.

Ketosis creates stress in the body and signals stem cells to regenerate.

The best-known and most powerful polyphenol is resveratrol, which is found in grapes, red wine, and berries and is the reason red wine is protective against heart disease.

In fact, because of their reliance on grains, Italians overall have significantly high rates of arthritis, and Sardinians in particular have a high proportion of autoimmune diseases.

Our gut buddies, even in these long-lived communities, still haven’t adapted to eating grains, and that includes the new “in” grains such as quinoa and farro. It is recommeded to pressure-cook quinoa to remove the toxins; and farro is just wheat, plain and simple.

The average American ate 222 pounds of red meat and poultry in 2018, more than ever before in history.

Consuming protein from animal products directly ages you.

Vegan Seventh-Day Adventists who eat no animal products live the longest, followed by vegetarian Seventh-Day Adventists who eat limited amounts of eggs and no dairy products.

Animal protein is simply not a necessary ingredient for a long health span. As Dr. Fraser has demonstrated, completely avoiding animal protein produced the greatest longevity among an already extremely long-lived people. Further, the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease correlates directly with the amount of meat consumed. For example, when the Japanese made the nutrition transition from the traditional Japanese diet to the Western diet, containing far greater amounts of animal protein, Alzheimer’s rates rose from 1 percent in 1985 to 7 percent in 2008.

If you avoid animal protein, you can eat as much plant protein as you want and still trick your body into thinking you’re in a regression cycle, so it doesn’t stimulate production of IGF-1.

Iron ages us because it interferes with mitochondrial function.

In those without Alzheimer’s, brain-imaging technology has revealed a consistent correlation between cognitive dysfunction and iron deposition.

Yet another study on the effects of iron on brain function showed that when Parkinson’s patients reduced their iron levels by donating blood, their symptoms were dramatically reduced. Iron is incredibly aging, and it’s found in a huge supply in animal protein.

As a guide, your HDL level should be equal to or higher than your triglyceride level, which basically signifies that you’re recycling more fat than is being stored.

It’s therefore very easy to starve cancer cells to death. They cannot grow and thrive without lots and lots of sugar.

Walnuts, Macadamia nuts, Pistachios, Pine nut and Hazelnuts Chestnuts are extremely healthy for our guts.

To break this cycle, you need to heal your gut wall and nourish your microbiome. This will quell inflammation and enable you to stop taking NSAIDs or other pain medications. One of the critical steps in this process is to remove foods containing WGA from your diet. WGA is small enough to slip past the gut barrier even if it is intact. WGA is found in the wheat bran, so it is in all whole wheat and whole grain products, including pasta, bread, and crackers, as well as bulgur (cracked wheat), rye, barley, and brown rice.

This effect on autophagy and UPR explains why exercise has been shown to minimize the risk of cancer. When left to their own devices, worn-out cellular components and misfolded proteins can cause faulty information in cells, prompting cancerous changes. Rejuvenating the cells through autophagy and UPR helps keep you young and cancer free. It also allows your cells to heal after a trauma, even a heart attack.

This mean that exercise reduces your risk of cancer, arthritis, and heart disease, all by bolstering your gut wall and your microbiome.

Glutamate, an amino acid produced by your gut bacteria from glutamine, kills off dopamine-producing neurons. Where do you get glutamine? From MSG, the flavor enhancer present in so many prepared foods. Don’t see it on the label? The FDA considers it to be “GRAS” (generally regarded as safe), so its presence in a product is not required to be listed on a food label. If you see “natural flavors” on an ingredients label, run for your life (and your brain’s life)! Aspartame, also known as NutraSweet converts to glutamate in your gut. Think twice next time you sweeten your coffee. Aspartame was the preferred sweetener in diet drinks until very recently. Pretty scary stuff.

Curcumin is one of the few known compounds that can pass through the blood-brain barrier to quiet neuroinflammation.

The minimum amount of time between finishing your last meal and going to sleep should be four hours.

Amazingly, there is one food that can counteract nearly all of the damage discussed, dramatically reducing your likelihood of developing dementia or other neurological diseases, and it’s one that most people enjoy: good old-fashioned extra-virgin olive oil. Make sure you’re buying a first-cold-pressing bottle.

The olive oil in the Mediterranean diet offsets the negative effects of the grains’ lectins and can help preserve your brain well into old age.

Avoid canned foods (buy frozen foods if you can’t get them fresh), unless you see a label that says “BPA-free lining.” Use glassware instead of plasticware for food storage and never heat food in plastic in the microwave. Heat causes BPA to leach out of plastics into food. Use glass or stainless-steel water bottles instead of plastic. Make sure that any plastic toys (especially for young children, who will put them into their mouths) specifically state that they are BPA free. Ask for cash register receipts (which contain BPA) to be placed into your bag or just thrown away.

Avoid most grains, conventionally grown meats, and dairy products. Use glass or stainless-steel water bottles instead of plastic. Never heat food in plastic in the microwave. Read labels of all personal care products. Make sure they specifically say “phthalate free.”

Many conventional sunscreens are loaded with phthalates and other hormone disruptors. When buying sunscreen, look for products with a titanium oxide or zinc oxide base without preservatives such as parabens. But it’s even better to eat your sunscreen by consuming plenty of vitamin C. There is very good evidence that if we have plenty of vitamin C in our bodies, it will prevent solar damage to the skin. Guntry takes a time-released vitamin C supplement of 1,000 milligrams twice a day and have for years, and rarely sees the effects of the southern California sun on his skin. Humans are actually the only animals besides New World monkeys and guinea pigs that don’t make their own vitamin C and need to rely on foods (or supplements) to get enough of it.

Since animal studies suggest that you need plenty of vitamin C to maintain vital, healthy skin and blood vessels, a time-released vitamin C supplement taken twice a day should provide a lot of the sunscreen that you need.

Stop eating conventionally raised chicken. It is not a health food. Avoid most grains, particularly rice, as they contain arsenic.

To avoid azodicarbonamide: Never eat fast food. Avoid most grains. If you do eat bread, choose organic fermented varieties (such as sourdough) and for now only when traveling outside of the United States, owing to the presence of the herbicide Roundup in most of our wheat. But, spoiler alert! Roundup is now approved for use in Europe. Soon nowhere will be safe.

What if I told you that the death of our skin buddies and damage to our gut lining are the two predominant causes of skin problems as we age—not sun exposure, genetics, or anything else you’ve been led to believe? Let’s look at the evidence.

Guntry is a big fan of Bonicel that he uses in his own skin care formulations. It is also available in a wide range of antiaging skin creams, gels, masks, serums, body lotions, cosmetics, and hair care products.

Further studies have revealed that another type of polyphenol, ellagic acid, found in raspberries and blackberries, to name two sources, helped reduce hyperpigmentation (sunspots) on the skin when taken orally.

One of the best sources of polyphenols for your skin is cranberry seed oil, the result of cold-pressing cranberries, which are filled with various polyphenols, each of which benefits your skin in its own unique way. The catechins in cranberries, for example, help fight signs of aging in the skin such as wrinkles and sagging by preventing cell stress and death. They also have anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. Meanwhile, proanthocyanidins help protect the skin from the sun’s harmful UVA and UVB rays and help your skin buddies fight against viral skin infections.

The anti-inflammatory actions of cranberries make them just as good for your gut as they are for your skin buddies. Each part of the cranberry, from its seeds to its juice, is packed with compounds that work to keep you healthy both inside and out. Though they’re seasonal, you can still reap their benefits through the many supplements and cold-pressed oils available on the market. When it comes to eating the berries themselves, it is always best to do so when they are in season and in moderation to avoid consuming too much sugar.

The following are extremely good for our microbiome:

• Spices: Cloves, star anise, capers, curry powder, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg.
• Dried herbs: Peppermint, oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, lemon verbena, and more
• In-season dark fruits: Cherries, strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, huckleberries, pomegranates
• Natural beverages: Cocoa, green tea, black tea, red wine
• Seeds: Flaxseed (ground only), celery seeds, poppy seeds, black sesame seeds, Nigella sativa (black cumin or black caraway seed)
• Nuts: Chestnuts, pistachios, walnuts
• Wine, particularly red wine
• Oils: Extra-virgin olive oil, sesame oil, coconut oil
• Dark chocolate (70 percent cacao or more), cacao nibs (raw cocoa)

Wild Yam Extract If you read the labels of your favorite skin care products and see Dioscorea villosa, know that it is simply the scientific term for wild yam.

The wild yam is best known for its high quantity of a compound known as diosgenin, a specific type of saponin. Diosgenin is used as an anti-inflammatory and enhances DNA synthesis in human skin to restore skin cells. Diosgenin is also believed to be effective as a skin depigmenting agent, helping protect you against nasty age spots.

Wild yam is most commonly found as a supplement (dried as an herb in a capsule or tablet form) or as a 12 percent wild yam cream. It can also be bought as a liquid extract, which some people make into a tea.

In addition to tubers such as yams, jicama, and tiger nuts, rutabagas, parsnips, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, taro root (cassava), yucca, celeriac, Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes), chicory, radicchio, artichokes, and Belgian endive are all good sources of prebiotics, the last four also rich in our old friend Akkermansia’s favorite food: inulin.

But a word of caution: once ground, flaxseeds go rancid (oxidize) rapidly, so buy them whole and grind them in a coffee grinder, or buy the ground meal refrigerated.

Cashews are seeds, are full of lectins and should be avoided.

Other “nuts” such as peanuts are actually legumes. And legumes are lectin bombs. It’s best to stay away from peanuts, even if you’re not allergic to them.

The nuts your gut buddies like best are walnuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, and pistachios.

Of all the mushrooms tested, porcinis had the highest levels of polyphenols by far.

For instance, omega-3 fats from fish oil are anti-inflammatory, right? Well, not so fast. It turns out that the real anti-inflammatory compounds made from DHA and EPA (two types of omega-3s) in fish oil are called resolvins,6,7 and these guys are the superheroes of blocking inflammation in your nerves and eyes. But here’s the caveat: you need a little bit of the active ingredient in aspirin (salicylic acid) to get these effects. That’s why I recommend taking an 81-milligram enteric-coated aspirin a few times a week to activate that fish oil you’ve been swallowing.

So long live fish oil, algae-derived DHA, and arachidonic acid! And where can you get both long-chain omega-3s and omega-6s? Shellfish are probably the best choice, while egg yolk contains plenty of arachidonic acid alone. But there are plenty more interesting fats and oils. Here are some of my favorites.

Perilla Seed Oil - This little-known oil is derived from the perilla plant, which is in the same family as mint and basil. For centuries, people in China have used perilla seed oil to help ease colds and coughs and prevent the flu. And it’s the most popular oil in Korea. But it’s also wonderful when it comes to maintaining a healthy body as you age, as it supports both joint and heart health. It’s a pretty significant plant-based source of omega-3 fatty acids, making it a good option for vegetarians who need to increase their omega-3 intake. Like flaxseeds, it’s particularly rich in the omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which benefits your cardiovascular system, as well as rosmarinic acid, which has antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties.

For an extra longevity kick, try organic pu-erh tea. This fermented tea has been shown to reduce the oxidation of lipids.

Gut-Destroying Bad Bug Favorites The foods that follow are the main sources of nutrition for the bad bugs in your gut and should be avoided as much as possible. If you slip up and consume any of them, it’s okay; just refocus on feeding your gut buddies so they’ll proliferate and drive out the bad bugs. Then come back to this list for a reminder of which foods are your bad bugs’ favorites and therefore the worst ones for your longevity.

Simple Sugars and Starches. Whether it’s glucose, fructose, or sucrose, any type of simple sugar is the number one food of choice for bad bugs everywhere. And yes, that includes the sugar in fruit (which is fructose). We were never meant to consume fruit year-round. Before globalization, sweet flavors were readily available only during the summer and fall, when humans needed to store fat by gaining weight by eating fruits in preparation for the winter period of regression. But now we are living in an endless summer, and fruit, sweet treats, and real or fake sugars are available around the clock.

This is a driving factor of the obesity epidemic, which, of course is really being driven by bad gut bugs. The bad bugs love sugar, and remember, so do cancer cells. So as painful as it may be to begin with, cutting down on sugar is the best thing you can do to drive out bad bugs and help your gut buddies win the war.

In addition to table sugar, sweets, and other obvious forms of sugar, avoid the following fruits that are highest in sugar, especially when they are not in season: Grapes. Grapes are an easy snack, and most kids love them. Do you know why? Because they’re essentially tiny sugar bombs. A cup of fresh grapes has around 23 grams of sugar. That’s 6 teaspoons of sugar. It’s dessert, not a healthy snack!

However, when fermented into wine or vinegar, grapes are amazing for you. They’re a high-polyphenol food, and the fermentation process removes the sugar, making them much safer. So enjoy plenty of balsamic vinegar and moderate amounts of red wine—just skip whole grapes! But let me issue my famous proviso again: if you don’t already drink alcohol, don’t start!

Mangoes. Of course, a mango can vary in size, but according to the USDA, an average mango has up to a whopping 46 grams of sugar (that’s 12 teaspoons). Mangoes are full of all three kinds of sugar: glucose, fructose, and even sucrose. And as a mango ripens, all three types of sugar increase. This is why fresh mangoes are so delicious and so prized by the bad bugs in your gut. But unripe mangoes are pure heaven to your gut buddies, as they are pure oligosaccharides. I eat unripe mango salads regularly, and they are delicious.

Ripe Bananas. Before a banana ripens, it is made mostly of resistant starch. In fact, as you read earlier, green bananas are made up of almost 80 percent resistant starch. But once the banana ripens, this starch gets converted into sugars—so much sugar that a “serving size” is actually half of a large banana. Who eats just half a banana? And you’ll find sucrose, fructose, and glucose in a ripe banana. So stay away and opt for unripe green bananas instead. I promise that not only will you get used to them, but your gut bugs will thank you for the gift that keeps on giving.

Lychees. These little guys have a sweet, floral scent and a tart taste. They’re sometimes served with Asian-inspired meals. They’ll fool you because they don’t seem too sweet, but they’re chock full of sugar—about 29 grams, or 7 teaspoons, per cup. If you haven’t tried lychees yet, don’t start now.

Apples. You’ve been told since you were a kid that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” But did you know that one medium apple contains 19 grams (5 teaspoons) of sugar? So the saying really should be “An apple a day keeps the gut buddies away.” Now, apples are also really high in soluble fiber, so they’re not a complete no-go. But stick to in-season (that means August through November) apples, and think of them as a special treat, not a daily snack.

Pineapple. Pineapples taste sugary. And with 16 grams (4 teaspoons) of sugar in every cup, you can bet that I avoid them at all costs. You should, too.

Pears. Finally, a medium-ripe pear contains about 17 grams of sugar. But, great news, crispy pears such as Anjou and unripe Bartlett are full of resistant starches, so please enjoy them! And when that fancy box of pears arrives for the holidays, eat them just before they ripen, and consider them a gift for your gut buddies.

Sugar Substitutes. As you read earlier, sugar substitutes such as sucralose, saccharin, and aspartame are just as bad for your gut health as actual sugar, if not worse. They alter the gut microbiome, encouraging bad bugs to take over! A recent study showed that consuming sucralose, known as Splenda, promoted higher blood glucose and insulin levels on a glucose tolerance test in humans than did drinking water. Moreover, despite what the government has told you, sucralose is not inert and is converted into toxic compounds that may persist in you for weeks. Artificial sweeteners also promote weight gain. This is because when a sweet substance attaches to your tongue, your receptors taste sweetness. Then your tongue’s nerves spring into action. They tell the pleasure receptors in your brain’s reward center to get more of this amazing sugary food. Why? Because you’ll need it to store fat in anticipation when the season changes and there isn’t any food around. Artificial sugar is designed to send the same pleasure signal to your brain as real sugar does. But when the calories from real sugar don’t make it to your bloodstream (because you never ingested glucose to begin with), your brain feels cheated and gets mad that the sugar it was promised never arrives. As a result, it tells your body to go back and get more sugar. That’s why Guntry was addicted to eight Diet Cokes a day while still being obese! Stop frustrating your brain and your gut buddies by consuming artificial sugars!

Conventional Dairy Products. Got milk? I hope not. You already know about the dangers of casein A1, which can spark autoimmune attacks. These reactions, of course, get worse the more cow milk, cow cheese, and cow ice cream you ingest. In fact, most people who complain of lactose intolerance—and all the pain, discomfort, and embarrassing symptoms that come with it—are actually struggling with casein A1 intolerance. But don’t be dismayed. There are a number of herds of cows (as well as goats, sheep, and buffalos) that make a different protein—casein A2—which is much better for you. When it comes to dairy products, it’s simply a matter of choosing the right type of protein from the right type of animal. I’ve been delighted to see that since the publication of The Plant Paradox, casein A2 products have become widely available. Look out for them and go back to enjoying certain dairy products without destroying your health. Casein A2 is present in the milk of goat, sheep, and water buffalo and is found in imported cheeses from France, Italy, and Switzerland. There are even goat, sheep, and water buffalo butters, which have a translucent white color because goats, sheep, and buffalos transform the copper-colored beta-carotene in what they eat into colorless vitamin A, while cows skip that step. Have you ever tasted buffalo mozzarella, otherwise known as mozzarella di bufala? While the vast majority comes from the Naples region of Italy, a new manufacturer makes it from the milk of grass-fed water buffalo in Uruguay, imported to the United States as Buf. Look for it in Whole Foods, or visit its website to find a local merchant. Buffalo mozzarella has a creaminess that is unparalleled.

Bad Fats. Though fat in and of itself is not bad, there are certain fat sources that should be avoided for the sake of your longevity. They include the following. Saturated Fats. Many folks in the paleo and ketogenic communities laud the health benefits of saturated fats. But they are sadly overlooking a major problem with these fats: those sneaky LPSs, the fragments of bacteria that are constantly being produced as bacteria divide and die in your gut, travel through your gut wall and out into the body by riding on and hiding in saturated fats. Then they are transported directly to the hunger center in your brain, the hypothalamus. There, the resulting inflammation sparks hunger. This is why folks on the paleo diet are often sidelined by hunger. So say good-bye to saturated fats and the LPSs that come with them! Peanut Oil. When Guntry’s colleagues at the American Heart Association looked at the effects of different types of fat on the health of arteries (which are critical to healthy heart function), they found that peanut oil led to the most widespread and advanced atherosclerosis and the most severe coronary narrowing. Of course, we know that this is because peanut oil is full of lectins, which leads to the autoimmune attack on the arteries. Here is a short list of the most damaging fats that cause inflammation and allow bad bugs to take over: Grape seed oil Corn oil Cottonseed oil Safflower oil Sunflower oil Partially hydrogenated vegetable or canola oil

So in the end, the news isn’t that bad after all. You can avoid simple sugars, overly sweet fruits, artificial sweeteners, conventional dairy products, and bad fats for the sake of your gut buddies, can’t you? Just a few more tweaks to your daily habits, and your gut buddies will be relaxing in the comfort of their newly renovated luxury suite.

Foods to Avoid:

• All dairy products
• All grains and pseudograins
• All fruit, including all seeded vegetables, which are technically fruits
• All sugar sources
• Unapproved seeds
• Eggs
• Soy products
• Nightshade plants (eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes)
• Corn, soy, canola, and other vegetable oils
• Meat, chicken, and all other animal products
• All other foods on the “Gut-Destroying Bad Bug Favorites”

Foods to Include And what can you eat? Your gut buddies’ favorites, of course, which include the following. Vegetables. You can eat as much as you’d like of all the following vegetables, either cooked or raw. If you have irritable bowel syndrome, SIBO, diarrhea, or another gut issue, limit your consumption of raw veggies and cook the rest of the things you eat thoroughly. All vegetables should be organic and can be purchased either fresh or frozen. If fresh, they should be in season and grown locally with sustainable farming practices, if at all possible. Cruciferous vegetables: Bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Swiss chard, any color and type of cabbage, cauliflower, kale, mustard greens, collard greens, rapini, kohlrabi, watercress, mizuna, arugula Greens of all kinds: Belgian endive, all kinds of lettuce, spinach, dandelion greens, chicory Treviso: radicchio Artichokes Asparagus Celery Fennel Radishes and other root vegetables such as yams, taro root, jicama, yucca, cassava, turnips, rutabagas, horseradish Fresh herbs: Mint, parsley, sage, basil, and cilantro, Garlic and all kinds of onions: including leeks and chives Ocean vegetables: Kelp and seaweed, including sheets of nori

Intermittent Fasting is Highly Recommended Protein For these five days, you are going to go vegan. That means no eggs, meat, chicken, or dairy products of any kind. Do not worry that you will become protein deficient! Remember, you are probably eating too much protein right now, and your body recycles the protein that is already present. Eliminating animal products for five days gives your body a rest from digesting all that protein and allows it to become an eco-friendly resort for your gut buddies! Sources of plant-based protein that you can eat during these five days (in quantities of eight ounces a day or less) include but do not have to include: Tempeh (fermented soy, without grains) Hemp tofu and hemp seeds Pressure-cooked legumes such as lentils and beans Hilary’s Millet Cakes Approved nuts and seeds. Remember, your great-ape cousins and your ancestors got plenty of protein by eating leaves, and you can as well. Fats and Oils. Acceptable vegetable fat sources for these five days include: Avocado—feel free to have a whole one each day. First-cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil Olives of any kind Nuts: Walnuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, pine nuts, Marcona almonds, blanched almond flour Avocado oil Coconut oil Macadamia nut oil MCT oil Perilla oil Sesame seed oil Walnut oil Hemp seed oil Flaxseed oil Condiments and Seasonings Because of their sugar content (not to mention other harmful ingredients), avoid all commercially prepared salad dressings and sauces. Instead, use as much as you like of the following. Fresh lemon juice Vinegars Mustard Freshly ground black pepper Iodized sea salt Your favorite herbs and spices, minus red chili pepper flakes Beverages. Obviously, you will avoid all sodas (including diet soda), sports drinks, lemonade, and other commercially prepared beverages.

Instead, enjoy at least eight cups of tap or filtered water a day, as well as: San Pellegrino or other Italian sparkling mineral water (or Acqua Panna, a still mineral water). As much tea as you’d like—green, black, or herbal Regular and/or decaffeinated coffee (black or with unsweetened almond, hemp, or coconut milk) Stevia extract (preferably SweetLeaf), Just Like Sugar (inulin), or monk fruit to sweeten your tea or coffee, if you like I put this program together with my good friend Irina Skoeries, who also did the Three-Day Kick-Start Cleanse of The Plant Paradox, with rigorous standards to make sure you will get the right number of calories and amount of protein on each day of the “fast.” Using the following meal plan, you will duplicate the effects of a month of calorie restriction while stimulating stem cell regeneration and strengthening your gut wall.

Eat macadamias as your preferred nuts, with smaller amounts of other nuts.

Alternatively, you could take glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) in tablet form, which also bind lectins.

Black pepper enhances the absorbability of turmeric—anytime you consume turmeric, make sure you also consume black pepper! Most high-quality turmeric supplements contain both spices.

Good-quality algae-derived DHA is now widely available vegans. Guntry suggests you make sure that you are taking the equivalent of 1,000 milligrams of DHA per day.

During fasting Guntry recommends supplementing with milk thistle, D-limonene, dandelion, N-acetylcysteine, activated charcoal, and chlorella, the first four to activate the liver detoxification pathways and the last two to absorb the toxins and heavy metals re-excreted into the gut from the liver.