The Plant Paradox by Steven R. Gundry, MD

This book was referred to me by a very dear client just before I went on holiday. “Sue you have got to read it and see what you think of it” – I went home ordered my copy from Amazon and unfortunately it didn’t arrive until after I had gone away – so I have been trying to get through the book since arriving home and I am sure has driven my husband and family ‘mad’ as usual.

Steven Gundry was a cardio surgeon in the USA and lastly Great Ormond Street, London. He now runs his own clinic in the States whereby clients go to him/often as a last resort to avoid heart bypasses/improve their health in all manner of areas. A choice is given to them “heart bypass” or “diet”??

His findings are phenomenal and do in fact reflect on quite a few of the books I have read on the biomes in the gut, except that he does not approve of wholemeal bread/pastas/rice etc., or eating copious amounts of fruit or indeed protein.   So I will never again stand at a check-out conveyor belt looking at the shopping of the person before me and feel smug “hurh this person’s not been educated yet they still eat white bread”! well in fact according to Steven Gundry that is what we should be eating (forget the stock of wholemeal products in the cupboard Sue) – white products are more gentle on the gut than the wholemeal variety that break through the intestinal cell walls leaving us open to all types of ailments and conditions as I believe many of my clients who have fibromyalgia/crohns disease etc will tell me.

Steven Gundry has produced a good few YouTube videos explaining the nature of his diet, encouraging us to eat no more than 2/4 ounces of meat/protein/fish a day, to start eating good platefuls of vegetables of seasonal broccoli, chard, spinach and cabbage etc., avoiding as much as possible pasta/rice/bread – in fact he says that eating shop bought white bread even though better than wholemeal bread is the equivalent of biting into a yoga mat nutritionally!!! Fruit to be eaten sparingly as it contains high fructose for a reason. Years ago we ate fruit that was seasonally available. So during the summer we had plums, apples, pears, blackberries etc., we had bread that was made over night by fermenting the grain with yeast) therefore releasing the lectins in grains and making them less harmful to us. Now breads are made in a couple of hours and the grains are sprayed with different pesticides and chemicals to enhance production and harvesting.

Steven emphasises that even if we are slim and fit (exercise regularly) it doesn’t mean that we don’t have a fatty heart arteriosclerosis and a person can just as likely drop dead on the field as in their arm chair, but obviously exercise does help considerably not forgetting the feel good factor that it gives one.

I intend to take on board Steven’s diet, I will need to tweak here and there and would love to hear from others that have been doing the same thing. I would say watch his YouTube video, read his book it is very well written in good humour and I believe that we can change our health so long as we stay on the diet.

I will follow up this blog once I have fully implemented his diet to let you know what I think, but for anyone that wants to look at making a change and improving their health minus a cocktail of drugs this is your book. I am your Reflexologist who is happy to support and discuss such dietary matters arising from this book or any others that are recommended. For a Reflexology appointment in the Hornchurch area: please contact me Thank you.