Ecotarian Diet: A sustainable way of eating for your body and your planet

AUTHOR

ENDORSEMENTS

I have dedicated the entire last decade of my life to the understanding of nutrition for the human body, peeling back the layers of confusion that are heavily attached to the health and wellness messages provided by modern day Health Marketing. I have searched for many answers. What is the most optimal nutrient program for performance? For healing? How does one attain general wellbeing and live an abundant lifestyle here on this planet? I have read almost every known health book, new and old, from the original naturopaths to the modern raw glamour health food celebrities. I have experimented with every type of dietary program marketed today, testing them under the extreme conditions that would be experienced by an ultra endurance athlete or as part of the healing program for an ill patient. Toni Toney has definitely created and assembled the most relevant, properly delivered health message of our time. The approach to health and the relationship to the environment is very clever as well as directly relevant. Topics addressing modern day fad diets, specific nutrient ratios, fat, sugars, Candida, diabetes, and even cancer are extremely precise and accurate. The information is balanced and spot on! When I first met Toni, within minutes of our first conversation, it was clearly confirmed that she is a true expert in this field, one of the best in the world. I highly recommend Ecotarian Diet to anyone on a health journey, from those transitioning to a more health conscious program to the long time health advocates and raw foodist. This book does an amazing job of clarifying many known myths, and misconceptions about health and diet, as well as provided a simple to follow path to live and thrive in a more Eco-conscious way.

–Nicolas Torrent, Celebrity Chef and Founder of The Juice Lab

Ecotarian Diet is a must-read standout in a crowded field of books on food and health. With this book you get more than just the facts you need to regain and maintain an optimized condition of health. What you will understand is the fundamental truth that lies at the core of existence—you create your own reality, inside and out. Take this trip with Toni and she will lead you into the realization that our planet’s environmental crisis is a reflection of our own environmental crisis—we are not separate things. This alone is reason enough to read this book.

–Thomas Campbell, physicist, author of My Big TOE

A fabulously written book that provides everything we need to know to significantly improve our health. From my own experience and studies, I can testify that the information in this book is accurate, well researched, and extremely significant. It provides numerous missing links that are much needed in the Western World today. If everyone in America followed the suggestions in this book, the American people would once again become the healthiest people on Earth.

–Richard Anderson, N.D. author of Cleanse & Purify Thyself

A captivating and inspiring book delving into why we must make wiser food choices. Toni has masterfully painted colorful images to help us better understand what creates health and a state of wellbeing for ourselves as well as our planet at large. The wisdom you’ll find contained within these many pages took her decades to attain. In following her guidance, you may save your life, the life of someone you love, and the life of your planet. I have dined at Toni’s Table and can personally verify that the food she serves is delectably satisfying and will nourish both your body and soul. Thanks, Toni, for putting it all together.

–Michael Ryce, N.D. author of Why Is This Happening To Me…AGAIN?!

Ecotarian Diet is an interesting and provocative work for those who are constantly striving to find the secrets of health. This book provides us with those secrets and more importantly, provides us with a plan that will assist us in achieving it. I’ve read hundreds and hundreds of books on health and nutrition and recommend Dr. Colin Campbell’s book, The China Study to all of my patients. Now we have Ecotarian Diet, which is the next step for those of us who want to integrate these healthy concepts into our day-to-day understanding and routine.

–Dave Carpenter, N.D. author of Change Your Water, Change Your Life

Not only can a low-fat vegan diet add years to your life, but eating clean and green, as Toni describes in this book, can revolutionize your palate and the planet. Toni shows readers countless ways to eat better, and with her fresh and delicious low-fat vegan recipes, you will soon make it a permanent fixture in your kitchen.

–Neal Barnard, M.D. President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

THE ANCIENT WISDOM OF TREES

To understand the wisdom of a tree is to understand the nature of life itself.

I have had the honor of standing by one of the world’s most famous trees of all: the Tree of Hippocrates in Kos, Greece where Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, taught his students the art of healing over twenty-five centuries ago. This 500 year-old tree is said to possibly be a descendant of the original tree, which allegedly stood there 2,400 years ago, in the time of Hippocrates.

It was there that I began to grasp the elemental world within and all around us. It was there that I realized that everything we see in the outer world is but a reflection of our inner world; that we also have a type of tree that exists within us—a spinal column with branches that spread throughout our entire organism, a tree that links us between Heaven and Earth, a tree that is sacred and must be honored so that our days upon our sacred Earth will be healthy, happy, and long.

Trees have long been held as symbols of physical and spiritual healing, transformation and liberation, strength and longevity, spiritual growth and union, fertility, and birth, as Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine understood. Often seen as sacred, trees have long held a symbolic meaning in Christian, Kabala, Shamanic, Hindu, Egyptian, Sumerian, Toltec, Mayan, Norse, and Celtic traditions. Trees represent our link between Heaven and Earth, Mother and Father; Mother, symbolic of the earthly tree rooted in the soil and Father, symbolic of the heavenly sky.

In lush valleys and forests where majestic trees stand tall, their splendor holds a reminder of ancient settlements and civilizations past. The dark rings on a cut tree hold a map of conception and, if you examine the shape and pattern of the rings, you can even piece together the tree’s whole history.

Trees are a vital and nurturing force providing us with a source of medicine, fruits of nourishment, and oxygen of life. Sadly, we often take them for granted, cut them down, and destroy them with environmental pollutants such as acid rain. But without them, there would be no life on planet Earth. We must therefore protect and honor the life of a tree, within our body as well as upon our Earth.

FOREWORD

Lorne Label, M.D.

Toni Toney’s new book, ECOTARIAN DIET, provides a unique and refreshing approach to our health and how it interfaces with the health of our planet. Toni Toney uniquely reveals various interlinking depictions of the human body and the earth and how we are polluting and destroying them both in much the same way. Simultaneously, we are provided an intuitively simple, yet sophisticated approach to both the workings and failings of the ecological world around and within us. Although the thrust of the book is proper nourishment for our bodies, we also learn that ecological balance creates health whereas ecological imbalances creates disease; not just for us, but for our planet at large.

Using both hard and soft science, Toni thoroughly elaborates on the ecological balance of the human body and the earth we inhabit. She explores the health and diseases of our bodies in a new way, comparing and contrasting them to the health and diseases of our planet. She presents an innovative insight into the types of food we feed into our internal environment, and how an acid diet loaded with toxic chemicals creates a type of internal acid rain. She then offers a unique and easy-to-follow explanation of the value and procedure involved in measuring the pH of the body’s internal waters to see if acid rain is negatively effecting the environment of the body.

We have long known that the earth has been devastated by acid rain and various other environmental pollutants, but what we haven’t known is that the human body has been devastated by this internal acid rain caused by ingesting acid food. The acidic wastes from chemical additives and processed foods may be the common denominator in many degenerative diseases. We know that in many medical conditions, the accumulated acidic waste causes organ damage.

Though still somewhat controversial in the field of medical studies, the information regarding the acid/alkaline balance and its involvement with disease is both intriguing and plausible. The theory behind the alkaline diet is that the human body is alkaline by design; and thus our diet should support maintaining a blood pH between 7.35-7.45. Since all foods that we eat, digest, and metabolize produce either an acid or alkaline base (bicarbonate) in the blood, it makes sense that our diets should be alkaline-producing.

In the past, it was questioned whether acid-producing foods actually promote the loss of essential minerals such as potassium, magnesium, calcium, and sodium as the body tries to restore equilibrium. In the October 2001 European Journal of Nutrition, Dr. Katherine Tucker wrote The Acid-Base Hypothesis: Diet and Bone in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study, supporting the role of base-forming foods and nutrients in bone maintenance. While more evidence-based studies in this area need to be made, medical science understands that certain foods have substantial anti-cancer effects, while others are important in preventing the formation of calcium kidney stones, osteoporosis, and age-related muscle wasting.

Ecotarian Diet lays the groundwork for the most ideal diet that, in my opinion, has ever been presented, both theoretically and practically, that we should all strive for. It is much more than just another diet book or a book on how to eat in an acid/alkaline type fashion. Toni has been teaching her internal environment dietary principles to students across the world for decades. Finally, she has assimilated her body of knowledge and described it in a straightforward approach. She explains why certain foods create a type of environmental S-O-S signal, a pre-disaster internal global warning that we must learn to heed. There are extensive lists and charts providing exact information of both the best and worst types of food we should or shouldn’t be burning for fuel into our internal environment. Proper preparation of these foods into delicious dishes is another highlight of this book.

This book is not a panacea. It is a call to action. It will make you think about how the internal environment of the body is a reflection of the outer, which will most likely change your approach to the kind of foods you eat. In fact, I believe it presents one of the easiest guidelines to follow in keeping the pH balance correct for excellent health.

Toni’s message throughout this book is: We are one. The earth reflects us and we reflect the earth. What is internal to our planet is our internal village. What is external to our planet reflects our external village. Toni says that to shift our planet’s environmental crisis around, we need to be the change and shift the crisis within ourselves.

I invite you to join us in this amazing crusade for health: a healthy body and a healthy planet. The time is now for each of us to Answer the Call.

So join Toni’s Ecotarian Revolution today—you’ll be glad you did!

Lorne Label, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.A.N.

Associate Clinical Professor of Neurology

David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA

INTRODUCTION

Howard Cohn, D.C.

It's been said that there are no accidents in the world. It is not an accident that you are holding this transformational book, Ecotarian Diet, by Toni Toney in your hands right now. In this book, Toni takes us on a journey of personal discovery and deep internal searching for truth. It’s written from personal experience from someone who was searching for answers as to why she had become extremely ill— seemingly out of nowhere—and had almost died. Her search took her all over the world as well as to the origins and history of how and why our internal and external environments have become what they’ve become.

With well over twenty years of experience as a nutritional researcher, environmentalist, and organic whole food gourmet chef and restaurateur, Toni shares with us what she has learned, which is that an alkaline environment is absolutely everything—for the outer environment as well as our internal environments. The food we are burning for fuel sets the stage for health and longevity or disease and premature death. It’s time to wake up! How we are treating our earth is how we are treating ourselves.

In this book, Toni eloquently demystifies and ties together the mirror that exists between human physiology and the realities of our ecological world. In his definitive text on human physiology entitled, Textbook of Medical Physiology, Arthur Guyton, M.D., states, The first step to maintaining health is to alkalize the body. The cells of a healthy body are alkaline while the cells of a diseased body are acidic. Since our bodies do not manufacture alkalinity, we must supply the alkalinity from an outside source to keep us from being acidic and dying. Like most doctors who were assigned Guyton’s textbook for human physiology classes, I read it, studied it, and was tested on it, but never really applied it. It was only when I started seeing patients, and observing the remarkable difference in the health and healing of those who led an alkaline lifestyle and those who didn’t, that the truth of that knowledge really landed.

So why is this book so important? If we want to save our planet for our children and grandchildren, we must first save ourselves. A drowning person cannot save a drowning person. Even when we board an airplane, we are told to secure our own life mask first before assisting others. For things to change, we must change. In this book, we not only learn why to do it, we learn how to do it. Toni educates us and holds our hand every step of the way.

There’s a famous Chinese proverb which states Don’t wait until you’re thirsty, to dig a well, which means that it’s a whole lot easier to stay well than it is to get well. A good portion of our world will have a fatal heart attack as their first symptom of heart disease. Science has shown us that a tumor can be growing for up to eight years in a woman’s breast before it is even visible on a mammogram. This book may very well be your wake up call. Do not reach for the snooze button; the time is now! The Alkaline Movement is here. It is not a fad; it is the truth.

Truth is, by nature, self-evident; as soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

–Mahatma Gandhi

It takes just one light to illuminate even the darkest of rooms. I believe that this timely message, given to us by Toni in her new book Ecotarian Diet, is the light that will lead everyone and our planet back to health.

Today, tonight, someone, somewhere, will take a knee in prayer, hoping that someone, somewhere, will share with them an answer to the suffering of a family member, friend, loved one, or themselves. This book and its life-altering message, when implemented as it is designed, may very well be the answer to the prayers of many. Live its message, share it, and change the world.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

–Mahatma Gandhi

Howard Cohn, D.C., Q.N.

Founder and Director, Cohn Health Institute

Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer,

SevenPoint2, The Alkaline Company

"Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

– Chief Seattle

PART ONE:

Our Internal Environment - How We Thrive and How We Die

CHAPTER 1

DISSOLVING THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION

We are not separate from our Creator, our planet, or anything or anyone that appears to be outside of us.

A warning signal has been sounding. Our planet is in the midst of an environmental crisis. But little did I know, thirty-three years ago, that my body was sending me a warning signal. In fact, my body had been sending me a series of S-O-S signals for years, but I kept ignoring them. I was too busy with my real estate career and two small children to listen, or so I thought. I just kept popping pills, ignoring my body’s attempt to warn me of a future disaster. All the while, a type of global warming was threatening my life.

I woke up one morning drenched in a feverish sweat. After collapsing to the floor, I was rushed to the hospital. Following a series of blood tests, I was admitted to an isolation room. For days, my white-blood-cell count continued to drop, despite rounds of intravenous antibiotics. Even the acclaimed immunologists studying my case had no clue to the cause and, therefore, no cure for my problem. They simply blamed my problem on some mysterious germ and told me that if my white-blood-cell count didn’t start to increase soon, I might not live.

Later that night, alone in my room, my life would change forever. The dark night was quiet. The only sound I could hear was the beating of my heart. The only sensation I could feel was the touch of my breath as it moved in and out of my nostrils. I had never thought about my breath before or had even taken the time to reflect on how grateful I was to be breathing; that is, until now. Gratitude swelled in my heart with each breath that gave me my life. I became aware that something inside of me was shifting.

Tears filled my eyes with the thought of leaving my two children. They were too young to lose their mother. My son was six and my daughter was only four.

With eyes closed, I prayed a mother's prayer, Please God, please; let me live—if not for me, for my children.

Then, out of the darkness, an Angel appeared out of a golden halo of light. It was beyond anything I had ever seen before. We began having an intimate, yet silent communication.

I'm dying and they have no cure for me! I cried, with eyes fixed.

The Angel replied, How can they have a cure when they don't understand your real problem?

So what's my real problem? I asked.

The belief that you’re separate from your Creator, your planet, and everything and everyone around you. If you will focus on your breath, the veil of separation will lift, and you will come to know what it means to live in Heaven on Earth!

With that, the Angel faded back into the dark of the night. A heavenly fragrance filled my room. All I wanted to do was breathe it in; and so I did, for what seemed like hours.

Then suddenly, I began to sense a divine presence within me. Tears streamed down my face as I viscerally felt that there truly was no separation between me and God; that it was the spirit of God who was breathing me; that God is love and that God loved me, even with all of my human faults. Truly, the world as I had always known it to be, was passing away. I fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.

Early the next morning, new labs were drawn. A few hours later, my doctor came through the door with the results. There was a puzzled look on his face as he said, I have no explanation for what has just happened, but your white-blood-cell count is almost normal!

Tears of joy filled my eyes and in a state of awe I replied with a smile, Please don’t try to explain. You might just explain away my miracle!

While I was relieved to know that I was going to live, every joint in my body hurt. I definitely wasn't living in Heaven on Earth!

HIPPOCRATES: THE FATHER OF MEDICINE

As fate would have it, Taylor, my real estate broker and friend, stopped by and told me that a few years earlier he too had had a brush with death. Shortly thereafter, he shifted his eating habits from the extremely acidic Standard American Diet (SAD), high in meat, dairy products, refined and processed grains, sugary desserts and drinks to an alkaline wholefood, plant-based diet, and experienced what others would call a miracle. Knowing that I had not only been eating the highly acidic Standard American Diet (SAD), but a highly processed, fast food diet, he encouraged me to do the same.

Taylor looked up at my IV drip and told me that Hippocrates, the father of medicine, believed that the main duty of a physician was to teach the sick how to heal themselves. He did not believe that physicians healed patients with drugs; rather that the body has the innate intelligence to heal itself and will do so, when provided the proper conditions.

Hence, he did not relate to the sick as patients, but rather as students whose role was to learn how health is achieved, and to adopt health-giving practices. Physicians, therefore, assisted students in their understanding of health as a natural effect of balance, and disease as a result of imbalance; they imparted knowledge of the body’s systems and functions, and prescribed tools (herbs, foods, exercise, therapeutic treatments like baths and massage, and the like). They then stood by to allow nature to do its job.

Taylor said, "I believe Hippocrates would turn over in his grave if he could see how the physicians of our time are using drugs as medicine and managing symptoms rather than effecting cures. If you truly want to heal yourself, you might want to consider checking yourself out of man’s hospital and into nature’s hospital."

He paused for a moment then said, "So check yourself out of here! Go home and follow Hippocrates’ advice: Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food."

THE INTERNAL TERRAIN THEORY

Before Taylor left, he handed me a few articles on Louis Pasteur’s germ theory and the alternative research of his contemporary, Antoine Béchamp.

Pasteur believed that the interior of the human body was sterile and static, like a spotlessly clean Petri dish. He believed that the cell was the elementary unit of life and hypothesized that harmful airborne microbes invaded the body, attacking us from the outside in, thereby causing disease. He taught that we are the prey, and the germs are the predators. This perspective is well known today as the germ theory.

Béchamp, on the other hand, believed that harmful