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Question
i need advice on the best diet. i have a friend that was diagnosed with fatty liver disease, and is a borderline diabetic. i don't want that to happen to me. i have tried every diet imaginable. can you offer me some tips on what has really been proven to work?

Answer
Well, I can only give you ideas relating to raw, palaeolithic diets, as that's  what's worked for me and others in a more effective way than any other diet.

I would strongly suggest first  reading Weston-Price's book "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration"(available from amazon), for  general background info  but ignore the rubbish he states about the supposed benefits of  raw dairy and fermented grain. These two   non-Palaeo foods have caused a lot of health problems  for many people, and are implicated in many auto-immune disorders.

Another useful book is Vilhjalmur Stefansson's book "Not By Bread Alone". Unlike the former book, it's out of print, but some online bookstores have copies. It's a very useful book which outlines the need for animal fat in the human diet. But, again, I would suggest ignoring his advice re dairy, as that is quite a problem for many people.

You might also like to look at any books by Loren Cordain, who's a paleolithic diet researcher.

All of the above authors, basically advocate a cooked animal food  diet, high in animal food, with some Palaeo elements. For info on rawpalaeo diets, which are the next step to health, I'd suggest reading Aajonus Vonderplanitz's book "The Recipe for Living Without Disease". Amazon.com is particularly slow for ordering this book, so try out this website, and click on the "Hard Copy" link to the above title:-
http://www.wewant2live.com/site/811618/page/371887

The problem with all rawpalaeo diets is that they incorporate various non-Palaeo or non-raw elements. Many of these can cause minor or major health problems for people and are, in my opinion, best avoided. Top of the list of don'ts is consumption of raw dairy  and juiced veg. Another thing to avoid is eating too much raw food -( raw food is much more nutrient-dense than cooked food, and it's nutrients are easier to absorb so it's not a good idea to eat raw food constantly throughout the day, as you'll just tire out your body's resources over a long period).

It's also an extremely good idea to gradually reduce intake of raw carbs(fruit/honey/veg) over time, as people tend to develop problems with them  in the long-term. Besides, people generally find that the higher the proportion of (fat-heavy) raw animal food in the diet, up to a point,  the healthier they become.

A major  consideration is the need for (raw) animal fat in the diet. Some diets like Aajonus' Primal Diet have diets too high in lean(tough to chew)  muscle-meat, whereas our Palaeolithic ancestors would mostly instead go for the (raw) organ-meats, especially the fattier ones like tongue, bone-marrow, brain, suet, hide fat etc. Fats from raw eggs are not quite as effective, from mine and others' experience, and the fats from raw dairy are a bad idea to depend on re health.

(Organic) Grass-fed meat is also a particularly good idea as (organic) grass-fed meat has a much higher nutrient-content than grain-fed meat, and people generally find it works faster re improving health:-
http://tinyurl.com/mjbu4


I realise that switching to a rawpalaeolithic diet can be a drastic step for some people. If you feel like only trying out a much milder(though less effective) version, I would suggest doing a cooked, non-dairy, non-grain variation  of the Weston-Price Diet, as a first step. There's a whole archive of websites under the WPF heading. The main site is here:-
http://www.westonaprice.org/index.html

If you're interested in following a raw, palaeolithic diet in full  then it's absolutely essential to read as much of the books I've already mentioned, even though many only focus on cooked Palaeo-style diets - they all have some useful data. I would also suggest checking some of the past answers I've given people, on the Special Diets Question Archive, as some of them may be of interest to those starting an RPD diet:-

http://experts.about.com/q/Special-Diets-768/index.htm

(There are 10 pages in all, just click on the links which have my name opposite them).

When I first started, I found that asking seasoned rawpalaeodiet veterans on the various Yahoo lists(and checking the Links pages) helped me a lot as well, to the point where I was even inspired to start my own Yahoo diet group- so it might be a good idea to check past posts of these forums etc.
Books are fine as regards theory, but are not so hot on the practical side such as where to find sources online of organic grass-fed meat etc

The 3 largest Yahoo  rawpalaeodiet groups are:-

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/live-food/

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/RAV-Food/

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawpaleodiet/


If you prefer the milder Weston-Price approach instead, the relevant Yahoo group is here:-

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/native-nutrition/

Hope This Helps!
Geoff  

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