The Orthomolecular Diet: Eating Like Our Ancestors Did

What is an orthomolecular diet?

Any orthomolecular diet tries to capture the food and eating habits of our ancestors who over the generations learned what was best to eat. Groups of extant people who ate their ancestral food have been described in an earlier blog on Weston Price.

Characteristics of an orthomolecular diet are (see Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone by Hoffer and Saul):

1. Whole foods: grains, milk, fruit, and vegetables must be whole.
2. High vitamin content: Vitamin content must be several times that specified by typical recommended daily allowances (RDA). This can be obtained from animal fats, animal organs, whole milk from green-grass fed animals, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
3. High fiber content: Whole grains and vegetables naturally have high fiber content.
4. High mineral content: whole grains and vegetables are naturally high in mineral content.
5. Several small meals: Our ancestors foraged for food and thereby likely ate several meals a day.
6. Fresh food: food kept for long can lose its nutritional value, and even become toxic.
7. Locally sourced: There is no universal orthomolecular diet. An Eskimo orthomolecular diet may be unsuitable for those living on the equator. 
8. Sugar free and processed food free: Our ancestors were lucky not to eat modern sugary and processed foods. 
9. Allergen free: We must avoid foods we are allergic to.
10. Plenty of Vitamin D3: In case we don't get plenty of Vitamin D3 from skin exposure to sunlight daily, we have to compensate by eating Vitamin D rich foods. As an aside, 70% of people in India are Vitamin D deficient in India which has plenty of sunlight.

 It may turn out that despite serious efforts to follow an orthomolecular diet one may still fall short of vitamins and minerals. This is because our eating habits are so far from those of our ancestors that we need to make non-trivial changes to our diets to eat like them. Weston Price mentions that the groups he studied ate 10 times the amount of fat-soluble vitamins than the typical (US) diet of his time. To get 2 grams of Vitamin C, which is at the lower end of the daily intake recommended by Linus Pauling, one would have to eat 20 Indian gooseberries (Amla) or 40 oranges.

Linus Pauling recommended the use of Vitamin supplements to fill the gap between what we eat and what we need. Supplements are not as good as eating food high in vitamins and minerals. However, they are next best. Moreover, supplements are fairly inexpensive. Pauling suggested that people use low-cost individual vitamins instead of expensive multivitamins.

How to determine a good orthomolecular diet?

1. Eliminate sugar, polished rice, and white flour
2. Eliminate all food we are allergic to: A skin-prick test or an elimination diet can help identify what we are allergic to.
3. Introduce whole grains, plenty of vegetables and fruit: These can give you a good deal of water soluble vitamins (B and C). You can find a list of micronutrients and foods high in them on the website of the Linus Pauling foundation.
4. Eat animal fats and organ meats: These are high in vitamins. For example, liver contains high amounts of Vitamin A, several B vitamins, Vitamin C, and iron.
5. Drink whole milk from animals fed green grass: Such milk contains a substance key for cardiovascular health, healthy teeth etc. which was termed Activator-X  by Dr. Weston Price. Activator-X is now thought to be Vitamin K2.
6. Supplement with Vitamins and minerals if necessary: See if you are getting the vitamins and minerals in quantities recommended by orthomolecular experts. For more details on such recommendations, see my next blog titled Vitamin Popper or Vitamin Pauper.

DISCLAIMER: The content on this website is intended for informational, and educational purposes only and not as a substitute for the medical advice, treatment or diagnosis of a licensed health professional. The author of this blog is  not a health professional, and shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, punitive or other damages arising from any use of the content of this website.