By Health Educator Sylvester Johnson, Ph. D. Applied Physics For personal consultation service, please see

by Health Educator Sylvester Johnson, Ph.D. Applied Physics

For personal consultation service, please see SylvesterJohnson.com.

Contents (Just click on the page number to go to the chapter.)

How to use this book

If the stress imposed by that type of diet is relieved, the body can work more effectively to prevent development of a disorder, or possibly ameliorate and even reverse the course of a disorder. Health is the natural state that the body seeks; removing obstacles to health supports healing. (Please see “Reversing advanced clinical disorders”.)

To benefit from adequate nutrients, and to maintain an optimal weight as well as robust health, everyone, whether a minimalist omnivore or vegan, needs to avoid junk foods and emphasize almost exclusively savory dishes and sweet treats made with plant-based, unrefined foods. Supplementing Vitamin B12 is critical.

The relationship of complementary and alternative nutrition to medical matters has been my hobby for decades. Many nutritional controversies as well as lesser known startling issues have fascinated me. In case you might also have an interest in such matters, I’ve prepared this book.

The bulk of the book consists of a great many tips and issues regarding health-seeking. Rather than reiterating well-known lifestyle changes that can improve health such as exercise, this book describes lesser-known issues.

Supplementary to this book, slides, an online video and transcript are available free from my presentation “Heart Disease and Cancer: Scientific Studies in Prevention and Reversal”, with selected slides donated by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., co-author of China Study. They can be downloaded from SlidesHealthPresentation. Research is described about food’s impact on cancer and heart disease, also suggesting that health can be supported by consuming mainly plant-based, unrefined foods. Transcripts of six hours of interviews with Dr. Campbell are linked from SylvesterJohnson.com.

For the many reasons detailed in this book and substantiated by referenced scientific studies, it can be concluded that a health-supporting diet encompasses a variety of unrefined plant-based foods with only moderate fat and more complex carbohydrates, while avoiding milk products, whether bovine or from goats, as well as minimizing other animal-based foods to no more than a card deck’s worth (a standard serving) a day, or eliminating them.

Within those guidelines, varied approaches can support healing and robust health. Examples include the macrobiotic diet that features mostly cooked food, optionally including a small amount of fish [The Macrobiotic Way by Kushi www.kushiinstitute.org], and the near- or fully vegan diets, some of which feature a significant component of raw foods like the optimal Eat to Live [by Joel Fuhrman MD www.DrFuhrman.com]. A popular diet includes say 40% of calories in varied fruits [The Raw Secrets by Frédéric Patenaude ISBN 0-9730930-0-5 www.fredericpatenaude.com].

I’ve tried all of these approaches, from 100% raw plant-based foods to vegan macrobiotic. Rather than defining my diet strictly, now I prefer an open-minded approach that includes more or less of various foods as needed. For example, more raw fruit could be enjoyed during the summer, more boiled legumes, grains, and root veggies such as sweet potatoes during the winter.

This book can be used as a possible guideline for improving diet step by step. As one notes improvements in health, one can find motivation for taking further steps. After all, if we can have the goal of continuous improvement in business, how about for our health also?

If one is motivated to experience more quickly the benefits of a dietary approach cheaply accessible by visiting the produce section of the supermarket, then see the sections “Tricks to transitioning one’s diet” and “Reversing advanced clinical disorders”.

At the risk of jinxing it, I want to report that over more than 25 years I’ve not gotten the flu, without getting any flu shots. I “hardly ever” get sick, missing exercise at most one day a year if that due to concern about getting a cold. “Taking the dietary road less traveled” has been working for me. I feel that I’ve discovered the fountain of… extended middle age.

I’ve found that moderate supplementation maximizes my vigor [I don’t sell supplements]. (Please see “Appendices: Author’s diet and exercise”.) I first became interested in alternative health in 1971 when my mother in law got me to start taking nutritional yeast. She’d noticed that I was often depressed and the B vitamins in yeast support the nervous system. My moods immediately evened out, and I’m still enjoying the yeast, as well as taking a B-complex supplement, and refrigerated freshly ground flaxseed and vegan DHA, which help provide the physical foundation that the brain needs. (DHA is not the hormone DHEA.–Please see “Outstanding Omegas”.)

Beyond many years of self-education in health, my background includes: a year of college biology, Health Educator (certified by Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida, but I’m independent, not receiving any compensation from Hippocrates), PhD Applied Physics (Cornell), BSc Accounting (Villanova). My CV is linked from SylvesterJohnson.com.

I wrote this book as a voluntary public service because I feel joy and satisfaction whenever anyone gains insight as to how to improve support of health or healing. No income is expected or desired.

If you eventually experience benefits as a result of knowledge gained, please consider a donation to charity. If the practice of family planning doesn’t succeed, population may grow to such an extent that all charitable causes are overwhelmed. Therefore a possibility for donation may be the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (www.ppfa.org) or one of the local chapters of the PPFA that contribute so many services to our communities.

I have no business association with the author or publisher of any of the books mentioned, nor with any of the suppliers. I’d be delighted if anyone wished to forward all or any part of this book to anyone who might take an interest, or copied any of its contents for use in their own writing. I do not claim a copyright.

Scientific studies supporting statements made in this book either accompany the statements, or can be found in “Appendices: References, Categorized”.

To your health and that of your loved ones! May your healthspans be robust and lengthy!