Getting Started Reading List

Our Natural Diet

Our addiction to testosterone and dopamine fuelled behaviour tempts us to live life on the edge without regard for possible long-term consequences to our health, to society, our relationships, the animals that we share the planet and to the environment.

It is not natural for mammals to drink milk after weaning. Most people lose the ability to produce lactase by the age of 7. Lactase is an enzyme required to digest the sugar lactose which is found in milk. People who are lactose intolerant and drink milk can result in intense discomfort. ¹

Milk is toxic to approximately 75% of the world’s population.

Adults do not produce the enzyme lactase which is required to break down lactose (milk sugar). Children have this ability but the ability is lost by 7 or 8 years.

The production of cheese and yogurt around 9,000 BCE in the Middle East, allowed adults to consume dairy products without the ill-effects of bloating and diarrhoea.

By approximately 5,500 BCE, herders reached central Europe, a genetic mutation allowed lactase to be produced into adulthood, allowing milk to be consumed without discomfort.

As well as northern Europe, western Africa (Algeria, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea), Arabia, Pakistan & Gujarati have independently developed populations that are lactose tolerant as adults.

Lactose comprises of two simple sugars: glucose and galactose.

Research funded by The National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, and the US Department of Agriculture, tested a treatment for lactose intolerance by feeding patients with Lactobacillus acidophilus, which is found in yogurt. The study failed to show that Lactobacillus had any benefit. ²

Since galactose (and leucine) are routinely used by researchers to promote aging in animal experiments, it is apparent that evolution (or nature, if you prefer) has a good reason to ensure that our consumption of galactose is limited.

Chimpanzees chew food for up to 6 hours per day in order to digest their fibrous diet. According to Professor Katharine Milton, fruits comprise of 88.5% of the chimpanzee diet. Cooking allows food to be more easily digested. ³

According to Richard Wrangham, humans have small mouths and lips, weak jaws, small teeth, small stomachs, small colons, and smaller intestines compared with chimpanzees because of the use of fire and cooking. It is easy to argue that cooking is not natural. However, all societies rely on cooking and it is an essential part of human life – it is not a luxury. ⁴

Another big difference is that humans have significantly more amylase in our saliva than chimpanzees. Amylase is a group of enzymes that allow starches to be digested. Foods high in starch include potatoes, beans, corn, lentils, beans, chickpeas, yams, sweet potatoes, wheat, rice as well as wholemeal bread and wholemeal pasta.

As Professor William Roberts, a pathologist, cardiologist, long-time editor to the American Journal of Cardiology and a real expert in heart disease wrote: ⁵

Although we think we are one and act as if we were one, human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh was never intended for human beings.

Our closest relatives, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos and chimpanzees are all primarily plant-eating animals. Chimpanzees eat by far the most animal-source foods (approximately 5%) which are mostly termites which we do not find very appealing.

That is the bad news. The good news is much of these illnesses can be prevented and even reversed with the consumption of a whole-food, plant-based diet with NO added oils (or salt). Coconut oil, olive oil or mayonnaise are not healthy and are most assuredly NOT associated with a natural diet of humans (or chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans).

Testimonials

Francis Greger – A Death’s Door Patient

Tim Kaufman – Disabled to Ironman

Plant Based Diet After Losing My Dad to His Third Heart Attack

Overview

About Richard Harding

Introduction

Brief Overview of WFPB Diets

Getting Started on a Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet

Global Burden of Disease 2010

Seventh-Day Adventists and Loma Linda

What are the Benefits of a Low-Carbohydrate Diet in Treating Cancer?

Taiwanese Buddhist Study

Do Vegetarians Live Longer?

Historical Advocates of Plant Based Diets

Gut Bacteria, TMAO and Whole-food, Plant-based Diets

Deception from The BMJ

Academy of Achievement Address 2006 by Professor Michael Brown

When Vegan Diets Do Not Work

Plant-based and Animal-based Amino Acids

Methionine Dependent Cancers

Animal and Plant Protein – Leucine and Telomeres

Animal and Plant Protein – Lysine and Arginine

Hormonal Related Cancers

Information About Breast, Endometrium and Ovarian Cancers

Amber Bryant – Raising Money for Endometriosis Research

Antimicrobial Resistance, Antibiotics and Endometriosis

Auto-immune Diseases

Autoimmune Diseases, Biomimicry and Type 1 Diabetes

Rheumatoid arthritis – an autoimmune condition

The Cause of Type 2 Diabetes

Keto

The Keto diet slays the opposition? – not true

The Ketogenic Disadvantage

Autism

Dairy, Gluten and Autism

Dr David Tayloe – Adverse Reaction to DTP Vaccination

Last updated on Wednesday 8 April 2026 at 10:01 by administrators

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Footnotes

Curry, A. (2013) The Milk Revolution. Nature. 500.
Saltzman, J. R. et al. (1999) A randomized trial of Lactobacillus acidophilus BG2FO4 to treat lactose intolerance. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 69 (1), 140–146.
Milton, K. (2003) Micronutrient intakes of wild primates: are humans different? Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology
Wrangham, R. (2008) Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. Basic Books
Roberts, W. C. (1991) We think we are one, we act as if we are one, but we are not one. American Journal of Cardiology. 66 (10), 896.