This nutritional option will help us all find a new relationship with nature and our plate. This holistic Blue Planet to Plate approach is in our opinion the best way to maintain maximum diversity with your macro and micronutrients. When you are selecting foods to fit the Planet to Plate Rainbow Diet, we will give you the freedom to eat anything under the rainbow. But there is a catch! It must be foods that come directly from this beautiful blue planet and the way mother nature intended them to be. Anything from nature that is in raw form, wild caught, biodynamic, farmer direct or organic is on the Rainbow Diet menu and yours to enjoy guilt free! Adding foods that have man-made influences can be tricky but there are many packaged foods like maca, cacao, collagen protein powders, vitamins, supplements, desiccated liver tablets and MCT oils that are a perfect complement to this diet.

Following the Planet to Plate Rainbow Diet takes discipline, time restricted eating practices and a hyper awareness of what goes into your body. You must read labels! This nutritional program takes the best from each diet we previously listed and lets you enjoy more diverse food choices. Anyone can do this diet. You can eat fish, vegetables, fruits, meat, nuts, seafood, sea vegetables, dairy, leafy greens, roots, good fats, mushrooms, algae like spirulina and chlorella, fermented foods and polyphenol rich foods like berries and coffee.  Anything is on the PPRD menu as long as you practice our planet to plate protocols.

10-Planet to Plate Protocols

#1- All these foods must be natural, raw, organic, or biodynamic. Look for non-GMO, gluten free, no additives or artificial flavors or colors. Avoid all grains, processed sugars, polyunsaturated fat, trans-fats, and avoid artificial sweeteners like the plague! They are microbiome poison!

#2-Your meals must be small. Eat to be satiated and not overstuffed. You will be surprised how little calories you really need to live the best life. Please no more than 3 meals a day. Eat a bigger breakfast, medium lunch, and a smaller dinner.

#3-Seafood Sundays, Meatless Mondays, and Water fast Wednesdays. Make one day a week with seafood on the menu, make one of your days a vegan day and one of your days of the week a fasting day. On meatless Mondays any animal products like eggs, butters, ghee’s, tallow, cottage cheese, yogurts, or whey protein are off the menu. You get to choose the days for these 3 mandatory protocols, but having a designated Seafood Sunday, Meatless Monday and Water-fast Wednesday is a great way to remember–More on fasting later in this chapter

#4-Make sure you are eating at least a hand full of fruits each day. Try to get as many different fruits as you can into your diet. Eat seasonally when the fruits are naturally available to you. Eating 4 to 5 Dates a day is a gut strengthening bonus.

#5-Mix up your proteins. Don’t feed strictly off beef. Include plenty of fish, lamb and if you can, wild animals like elk, bison, or venison. Avoid pork and chicken unless they are raised on a biodynamic farm. Butcher Box offers a wide range of meats that are humanly raised and fed a species appropriate diet.

#6-Throughout the week, include gut heathy food like spirulina, chlorella fermented foods such as Kimchi, sauerkraut, resistance potatoes, green bananas, greek yogurt, miso soup or tempeh.

#7-Invest in a juicer. Make fresh juice as many times as you can throughout the week. You can add your juice in addition to your 3 small meals if you wish. You still need to eat your cup of whole fruits as they have the fiber you need for this diet. On the Planet to Plate Rainbow Diet, juicing is in addition to what you are eating throughout the week. You can replace a meal with a juice, but never replace your daily cup of fruit. You can replace your Water-fast Wednesday with a day of juicing from time to time as well.

 #8-Include good fats such as, grass-fed butter, fatty fish, egg yolk, avocados, olives, nuts and seeds, whole fat dairy, ghee. In the next chapter coming up, there is a whole list of what good fats to use and what bad fats to stay clear of.

#9-Overt oils: Avoid fried foods as much as possible. However, if you do cook with an oil use:  use a good olive oil, coconut oil, or Fire in a Bottle. Also try to cook with grass-fed butter or ghee whenever possible. Also use the lowest heat setting possible to get the job done.

#10-Polyphenols- anything with bright colors like peppers, 70% dark cocoa, all berries, turmeric, red wine, teas, blueberries, onions, and red wine all are great sources for polyphenols. Wait did I say red wine twice? If you do drink wine, look for an organic biodynamic wine free of sulfites. All polyphenols come from plant sources. You cannot get these rich gut nutrients from any animal sources. Coffee has the riches source of polyphenols in beverages you can find– green tea is a close second. So, drink that black cup of coffee or green tea in the morning and know you are doing your gut and brain good!

This diet is not protein heavy but more of an even blend of proteins, fats, carbs, and fiber. All of which are important to our gut health. Diversity is the key. As we are learning more and more each day how important our gut diversity is, eating a more diverse diet is becoming the way of the future. Avoid mixing your carbs with excesses animal fats. The number one protocol for this nutritional program is to remove anything artificial from your diet. Pufa’s, glyphosate poisons, processed sugars, preservatives, MSG, food coloring, artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, gluten, trans-fats, hydrogenated fats, white table salt, white flour and grains are off the table for this diet.

If you are looking to cut for a bodybuilding contest or get shredded for spring break, then this diet is not for you. But if you are looking to give your body the best chance for optimal metabolic health and a long disease-free happy life, then the PPRD- Planet to Plate Rainbow Diet will be your best choice. At the end of the day, the goal of nutrition has a very simple explanation.  It provides us with the energy we require, it gives us our structural components to build health cells and to maintain a garden of strong and diverse microbiome.   When choosing a food, just ask yourself this question– is this food I am about to eat whole, natural, bioavailable, and good for my body.

In conclusion whatever diet you do decide to choose, don’t be the diet plan. Be it Vegan, Vegetarian, Keto, Carnivore Pescatarian, Mediterranean, or even the Planet to Plate Rainbow Diet, they all have shortfalls, and at the end of the day you must listen to your body. If Sherylea and I have learned anything about diet and nutrition, it is that no one diet plan fits all. It is more about tending to your specific gut health needs and eating foods that support a robust and diversified microbiome.

Food Combining

When eating planet to plate or on any diet plan you choose to follow, you must be careful about combining certain food groups together. Our body has special enzymes specifically designed to break down certain foods. When we eat foods, they go through the process of digestion. Special groups of proteins called enzymes are manifested in the mouth, pancreas, and small intestine to assist with the breakdown of these food groups and the role they play in our digestion are very specific. There are 4 basic rules for food combining. These food combining principles have been around for a very long time and practiced by millions. The way it works is like this, food is assigned into groups. These groups can be either acidic, alkaline, or neutral. By grouping foods in a specified order when you eat, will increase nutrient absorption, and prevent an upset stomach, gas, bloating and the buildup of toxins from undigested food.

The four hard fast rules for Classic Food Combining

  1. Fruits– Eat fruit on an empty stomach. Eat them alone and wait at least 20-minutes before you eat anything else. Melon is a unique fruit onto itself and should be eaten by itself.
  2. Starches– eat starches alone, or with cooked non-starchy vegetables. Starches require an alkaline condition, whereas the enzymes that digest proteins thrive in an acidic environment. So, if we combine starches and proteins together, we are asking are digestive system to be alkaline and acidic at the same time. (Example: Baked potato with butter and sour cream)
  3. Proteins– eat meat, dairy, fish, eggs, and other high acidic proteins alone or with cooked non-starchy vegetables.
  4. Nuts and seeds– eat nuts, seeds, and dried fruit alone or with raw vegetables. Nuts in your salad are A-Okay.

These 4 hard fast rules are the just the basic guidelines of what perfect of food combining is. There are whole books written on this subject and it can start to get as complicated are your chemistry class in high school. However, if you are looking to maximize the absorption of your nutrients and improve your digestion, this is the program you would follow. Food Combining is growing in popularity but there is not a lot of scientific evidence supporting these particular guidelines. On top of that, it is not the real world we live in today and I personally do not believe it is sustainable. In today’s modern society there are summertime picnics, birthdays, holiday parties and social events. We have kids to feed and grab lunches on the go.

Food combining sensitivities vary from person to person and some people are more sensitive to certain food combinations than others. If you are someone that is experiencing bloating, gets gassy easily or has an upset stomach after meals, then eating more simply and not mixing your food groups together might be a good Idea. Most of us are middle of the road and can tolerate combining certain foods. What we have constructed for you when following the PPRD- Planet to Plate Rainbow Diet, are some modified foods combining guidelines anyone can follow for a lifetime. This is not traditional food combining and certainly not perfect, but more of a realistic approach to eating. Always listen to your body, it will speak to you when something is off.

The Planet to Plate Rainbow Diet -food combining Regulations.

  1. Fruits– Do eat fruits alone, on an empty stomach and wait at least 20 minutes before you eat anything else. Fruits are the Formula One Race Cars of the foods we eat. They can past through the whole digestive process in less than 40 minutes. Meats and proteins can take up to 4 hours to digest. Do not mix any type of melons with anything other type of food–Eat melon alone or leave it alone!
  2. Proteins– all forms of Proteins can be mixed along with your vegetables and fats. Surf and Turf is on the menu!
  3. Starches-cannot go with fats. Sorry friends, you don’t want to be putting that slab of grass-fed butter on your baked potato! In fact, skip the potato altogether and load up on your vegetables. If you order a hamburger, skip the bun, and make it a lettuce wrap. It is okay to mix your starches with any protein. Otherwise, sushi and poke bowls would be off the menu. Plus 4 billion Asians can’t be wrong!
  4. Vegetables -can go with practically anything except for fruits. Remember rule #1-eat your fruits alone!
  5. Dairy-eating dairy can be tricky. It really should be eaten on an empty stomach and never mixed with citrusy or acidic fruits. These fruits are rich in vitamin C and if consumed with milk, it will coagulate in your gut. Yogurt and fruit such as berries are okay. Cheese and proteins are okay. With all that said, if you are lactose intolerant you should skip dairy all together and a high milk intake is not recommend for anyone.
  6. Nut and Seeds – eat them alone or with vegetables. You can put them on your salads if you wish. If you do eat any type of trail mixes, look for ones that are raw and do not have seed oils such as canola oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, or soybean oil. And M&Ms are not considered a fruit. They are banned from being anywhere near your trail mix!!!
  7. Desserts! Eating things such as cakes, pies, puddings, and ice creams after a meal is not a good Idea. After your perfectly proportioned protein to fat to carb meal, flooding your system with trans-fats, PUFA’s and processed sugars is a terrible Idea. Desert serves no nutritional purpose at all. DESERT THE DESSERT!

So, what’s is for dessert then?

Desert the dessert??? This does not sound like fun at all! Trust me I get it! Dieting can be…not so fun and the rewards can come very slowly. Diets can be very restrictive, a bit overwhelming and make you feel like a social pariah at times.

We understand that living in a western society it can be a bit tricky to navigate around what is good for you and what is bad. It just takes a little practice and awareness. In no time at all, you will find your groove and feel good about what you are putting into your body. We truly want you to live the best life possible. One that keeps you on point but lets you have the freedom to experience different culinary treats. Our Planet to Plate Philosophy is the 90/10 rule. 90% on point and 10% live your life. From time to time enjoy that after dinner dessert, or that glass of wine or slice of pizza. Just be smart about it! Eating a box of pop tarts at midnight or three slices of chocolate cake with ice cream at a birthday party never did anyone any good. Trust me on this, the first bite of that cake will taste exactly the same as the second. And before you get desert of any kind, you must earn it first! When we were children, we were allowed 15 minutes of recess in-between classes where we could run and play! But when that bell rang, we had better be back in our seats ready for the next lesson of the day. After dinner, homework came first before we were allowed to watch TV. As adults there is no one ringing a bell for us. Mommy and Daddy are not there to tell you that you can’t have cake for breakfast or to make you eat all your veggies. We find ourselves in the dietary playground all day 24/7 and that is why 70 percent of Americans are overweight or worse flat out obese! Getting your body right, strong, and stable is going to be your priority on a LifeSpanners program. Be the adult ringing that bell and do your nutritional homework first!  Then, and only then can you start to step outside the lines from time to time and enjoy any culinary treats.

Lastly, with any diet plan you choose; time restricted eating is not only encouraged but necessary if you want to give your gut the best chance to heal and your immune system to be your superhero guardian!

Another term for time restricted eating is called fasting.

Read our next blog: Intermittent Fasting