Diet

The diet in the NBP is arguably the most important part of the program. Compared to a typical western diet it is quite different, however once you get used to it, it is not too much trouble to integrate into your daily routine. In-fact , once people begin, they often are quite impressed by the ease and taste of it.

The basics of the diet is around 80% cooked vegetables, 15% animal protein and 5% carbohydrates if people can handle them ok. The program has some other extra products depending on a few factors. We also like people to add a sprinkle of good quality sea salt to each meal

One of the biggest issues for people starting the program is their sensitivities to carbohydrates and sugars. For some even carby vegetables like carrots and peas can be an issue. Click the shopping list link on your program report for a list of foods to eat. Foods with 2 asterisks** are foods that can be a problem for people too sensitive to carbs so please be aware of this. Most people are not even aware of how extreme their sensitivities are until they begin the program. 

We add a lot of COOKED vegetables to the diet because they are super rich in nutrients. We also find that cooking the food increases the overall nutrient density. It also condenses the food so you are able to eat more of them. For each meal you want to fill your plate with 80% of cooked vegetables. 

Along with vegetables we get people to eat some protein with each meal. Animal protein is the most common protein, we find that animal protein is very rich in certain nutrients and amino acids. It’s hard to heal properly without adequate animal protein, this is one of the reasons why we do not recommend vegan and vegetarian diets. We find unfortunately that vegetarians and vegans heal much much slower on this healing program as a result. 

If people can handle them we like people to eat 8-10 blue corn chips with each meal, Sometimes people need to skip the carb section for a while and just obtain their carbs from vegetables, this may sound extreme but some people are so sensitive to sugars they must cut the carbohydrate section out for a while or atleast drastically reduce. 

With each meal we ask people to add a little sea salt, we like the brands hain and hawaiian jade bamboo.

We do not recommend fruit. This is controversial but the reason is so many people are sensitive to sugars even the sugar from natural fruits unbalance people so we get people to skip fruits. We will go into further details below on what materials we will need on the diet and how to cook. 

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You will need a few things for the program to cook your food.

The most important thing you will need is a pressure cooker.

We cook the majority of our foods using a pressure cooker. We find that pressure cooking food works the best, it is quick, effective and it tends to lock In nutrients well. You want to be looking for a pressure cooker that is stainless steel, we don’t like to use aluminum pressure cookers because aluminum cookware tends to leach aluminum into foods which is never good.

Below are a couple of examples of good pressure cookers. The best brands seem to be Presto, T-fal, and Fissler. You can get a high-end pressure cooker like this one.

Or if you are more on a budget (like most of us were when we began) You can buy something like this which works just as well in most cases.

Most pressure cookers come with a steaming basket, however, some don’t, especially the cheaper ones so check before you buy. If it doesn’t come with a steaming basket you can buy one like this. These steaming baskets also become incredibly handy when you are travelling. You can carry these in a rucksack and they will fit nicely into a pan whenever you need to steam vegetables.

You can also buy fancy silicone ones like this.

We prefer pressure cookers but some people prefer to steam. We don’t recommend steaming as the first option but you can buy tiered steamers which steam your food well.

You can also buy electric ones, we don’t really recommend these because they are plastic, however, they can come in handy tremendously if you have to travel.

Another good addition to the kitchen is an air-tight, BPA-free storage container for the fridge. You can use this to store vegetables, we will talk about how we prepare and store vegetables later on in this section.

That’s about it for this section. Apart from the obvious, cutlery, plates etc, however, a general rule is to buy stainless steel. Some people like to drink carrot juice on the program if their blood sugar can handle it. In these instances, a good juicer is needed. Some people like to experiment with slow cooking which is ok but we prefer to pressure cook food.

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OK lets explore cooking and preparing the food. 

VEGETABLES

Vegetables are a HUGE part of the program and they will take up most of your plates. The reason why we eat a lot of vegetables on the program is because of many things. The most important is because vegetables are very nutrient-dense. They also have a lot of trace minerals. They are high in fiber, low in sugars, they produce a more yang effect upon the body and much more.

Below is a list of the vegetables we recommend on the program. Throughout the diet, you may see two asterisks** next to foods. This means that these foods can trigger people who are sugar sensitive (hypoglycemic)

For each meal you want to be eating a medley of between 8-16 of these vegetables. The best way to prepare vegetables is to use an airtight container and to chop up all your vegetables into the container along with any of the food additional extras. 

Try to eat at least 4 types of onions with each meal if you can. Also, have at least one cruciferous vegetable per meal. These include red cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccolini. The other vegetables can be rotated.

We recommend to only/mainly use the PREFERRED Vegetables from the list, personally, I only use the preferred vegetables but it is ok to add a few occasional ones into your diet now and again from the list below. Remember any foods listed that has 2 asterisks** may cause problems for people especially sensitive to carbs and sugars.

For a quick diet and shopping list cheat-sheet click here. 

Shopping list

PREFERRED Root Vegetables

Carrots** (standard orange carrots only – not the multi-colored ones or the baby carrots)

Shallots

Red onions

White onions

Yellow onions

Sweet onions

Gold pearl onions

Red pearl onions

White pearl onions

Boiler onions

Cipolline onions

Bulb onions

Green onions or scallions

Leeks

Rutabaga

OCCASIONAL Root Vegetables

Parsnips**

Turnips

Black radish

Red beets**

Celery root

Sweet potatoes**

Yams. **

PREFERRED Cruciferous vegetables

Red cabbage (but not green cabbage)

Savoy cabbage

Brussels sprouts

Broccolette, brocolini or baby broccoli (but not regular broccoli).

White cauliflower

Orange cauliflower

Purple cauliflower

Cauliflower stems and leaves (sliced finely so they cook).

OCCASIONAL Cruciferous Vegetables

Green Cabbage

Broccoli

PREFERRED Other Vegetables

Green beans

OCCASIONAL Other Vegetables

Corn on the cob**

Okra

Bok choy

Chinese cabbage

Swiss chard

Mustard greens

Collard greens

Spinach

Winter squashes** (acorn, butternut, buttercup, hubbard, spaghetti and other varieties).

We like everyone to pressure cook their vegetables. Cooking time will vary for people depending on the power of their stove, size of the pressure cooker, and other factors, however in general when the pressure cooker starts to steam it should be steaming for about 2-2.5minutes for the vegetables to cook. In order to cook the vegetables properly, you need to cook them so they have just turned soft. Undercooking them will leave them crunchy. Overcooking them leaves them looking dull, too soft and they lose their taste. You know when the vegetables have been cooked correctly because they still have their colour and often look brighter. You can buy a timer to keep track of how long it takes you to cook the vegetables. I have found in my kitchen that if I set the timer for 10minutes when I turn the pressure cooker on the food is cooked well. This gives around 8minutes for the pressure cooker to heat up and 2 minutes for steaming. It’s best to keep the pressure cooker setting on the lowest steam setting, the higher ones tend to damage the food a little.

I use a timer like this to ensure I am always cooking the vegetables for the correct time. 

If you are steaming the vegetables it can take up to 20-30minutes to steam. Try not to slow cook but slow cook no longer than 45mins. And no longer than 3minutes boiling when the water has been brought to the boil.

Do not bake, fry or roast vegetables. The reason is that oil is needed to cook them and cooking oils at very high temperatures feeds things like candida overgrowth which is very common in people and it often slows people down quite dramatically. This is actually a secret to healing, many people think stir frying or roasting vegetables is a great way to eat, but in reality it ends up causing issues by feeding candida and irritating the gut. 

HOW MUCH TO EAT?

You want to be filling your plate with at least 70%-80% or 3/4 of your plate with COOKED VEGETABLES. This works out to around 500-700ml or 2-3 cups. You want to be mixing your plate with at least 8-16 types of vegetables on your plate.

Try to use spring water, or carbon-filtered tap water for your cooking if possible. We recommend the Berkey water filter, we appreciate the Berkey is pretty expensive so for those more on a budget a berkefeld carbon filter also works well. The good thing about buying a carbon filter for your tap water is that you can use it for cleaning and for enemas to name a couple. If you want to know more about water and what types of water and filters to use checkout the beverages section.

OTHER POINTS

It is ok to puree vegetables if you wish, however try not to make the puree too liquid.

Try not to peel the vegetables, a good idea is just to wash them, under the tap is ok, you will need to wash the vegetables a little more usually if they are from a farmers market or local organic grower.

I appreciate that eating like this can be a little boring but we stress it is the best way of cooking and eating. If you are desperate for recipes you can download some free NB friendly ebooks from here https://susancachaynutritioncounselling.com/nutritional-balancing-lifestyle-shop/ 

PROTEINS

We like people to eat proteins with most meals. You want to be eating animal proteins with AT LEAST 2 meals per day. For the 3rd meal you can swap animal protein for 2 tablespoons of almond butter, however some people are too sensitive to the carbohydrate qualities in the almond butter, if this is the case eat animal protein for 3 meals. 

In general you do not want to be eating red meat more than twice per week. However, especially in the beginning of the healing program this is not so much of an issue because people are so malnourished in zinc. So we would recommend not going above 5meals per week with red meat. 

The animal proteins recommended on the diet are. 

Animal Proteins

 Lamb- Lamb loin chops are best – Eat two 4-5 ounce or 110-140 gram portions per week

 Chicken thighs, legs, wings

 Organic or grassfed beef- Eat two 4-5 ounce or 110-140 gram portions

 Eggs- Adult women may eat up to 6 eggs per week. Adult men may eat up to 8 eggs per week.

 Plain goat yoghurt** or soft goat cheese** (sometimes called chevre)- 8 ounces per week – add a little seal salt to these.

 Sardines- 3-4 cans per week

 Varibou-Up to 2 portions per week

 Elk- Up to 2 portions per week

 Deer- Up to 2 portions per week

OCCASIONAL Animal Protein

 Goat meat

 Turkey legs, wings & thighs

 Cheese** no more than 4 ounces daily

 Yoghurt** no more than 4 ounces daily

 Kefir** no more than 4 ounces daily

 Milk** no more than 4 ounces daily

 Smelt

 Herring

 Anchovies

To cook the meat it is usually best to cook in a pressure cooker. White meat should be cooked in a pressure cooker. Cooking times vary but I find a chicken thigh takes around 9-10minutes in the pressure cooker. Try to get the white meat cooked so it’s just turned from pink to white, it will probably take some experimentation to figure out what time(s) work best for you. I find it easier to first cook the vegetables, once cooked I will add the meat into the pressure cooker and cook for another 10minutes or so whilst I start eating my vegetables. Once the meat is finished using a timer I just add the cooked meat onto the plate and finish my meal. 

Red meat is the same as white however you want to be not cooking the red meat all the way through, it still should be red in the middle if you can eat it like that. Rare/medium-rare is best. Again pressure cooking is best, unless you want to eat lamb or mince meat which is a great addition to the meals. You can make burger size patties or even buy them from the shop if you can. You can then bring about an inch of water to the boil and then add these patties into the water. Don’t cook them for long and try to keep them red in the middle. I find around 40seconds on each side works well. These are very nourishing and tasty. 

Eggs are best pressure cooked or boiled. Ensure that the yolk is runny. Ideally do not scramble but it is ok now and again if you slowly scramble the eggs and ensure that the eggs are still a little runny. Dont quickly scramble them or fry them. 

It is easier to buy the fish in tins, tined fish have already been cooked and heads removed etc so generally they are easier to eat. However you can pressure cook fish also if you wish. 

All of the above can also be steamed, the times take longer but if you prefer steaming then that is ok too. 

Remember to add animal protein to atleast 2 meals a day. 

OTHER PROTEINS

To the third meal if you wish you can add two tablespoons of toasted almond butter is preferred..

Below are some other foods you can add however the almond butter is the best.

Other Proteins

 Almond butter** 2 tablespoons a day- you could add onto food

 Sesame tahini** 2 tablespoons a day- you could add onto food

 Plain goat yoghurt** or soft goat cheese** (sometimes called chevre)- 8 ounces per week

 White beans** or european soldier beans**- 2x per week

OCCASIONAL Other Protein

 Dried beans** (up to twice per week)

 Black beans**

 Aduki beans**

 Pinto beans**

 Split peas**

 Anasazi beans**

 Mayocoba beans**

 Tofu and Tempeh- eat a serving at most once a week.

 Cashew butter**- Tablespoon per week

 Pumpkin seed butter**- 1 tablespoon per week

 Hazelnut butter**- 1 tablespoon per week

GRAINS

Grains are important for health and energy, however they can be a real problem for some people, take care with grains and never over do them, they can seriously hold a person back on the program. Grains have a tendency to unbalance blood sugar. Some people can handle grains fine, for others they can spike blood sugar and aggravate candida and other opportunistic fungi. The biggest issue with grains is they taste nice, so sometimes 8-10 blue corn chips turns into a whole pack. 

The easiest way to add grains into the diet is to start off with 4-6 blue corn tortilla chips with each meal. It can be hard sometimes to not just eat a whole bag of these but please try to be diligent. It will pay off. If you feel you can handle them ok you can work up to 8-10 per meal. 

Some other grains occasionally to eat once or twice a week are. 

Steel-cut oats or oatmeal**

Rye**

Millet**

Quinoa**

Yellow corn as cornmeal or polenta** 

Amaranth**

Barley**

Rye**

SALT

Please add a pinch of salt to every meal, do not add salt to drinking water as this can unbalance body chemistry. Salt we recommend are. 

Hawaiian bamboo jade

Hain

FATS AND OILS, SLOW OXIDATION OR FAST OXIDATION

An important distinction in the program is whether to add extra fats and oils to food. Its pretty simple. If you are a FAST OXIDIZER as determined by a properly performed hair mineral analysis test then it is important to ADD 1-2 tablespoons of the below fats and oils onto food as an addition. If you are a slow oxidizer please do not do this. If you do not know what oxidation rate you are in yet then it is best to not add any extra until you know your oxidation rate. 

 Runny egg yolk

 Cream**

 Butter**

 Animal fats

 Olive oil

 Sunflower oil

 Safflower oil

 Other vegetable oils

 Tallow oil

OCCASIONAL Fats & Oils

 Coconut & palm oil- no more than once per week

 Avocado- No more than once per week

 Fresh hempseed & flaxseed- no more than once or twice per week

SPICES

Spices can be added to foods to improve taste and variety.

 Arrowroot powder

 Basil

 Caraway seeds

 Cayenne pepper, flakes or ground

 Cilantro leaves, dried

 Cumin seeds, ground

 Curry powder

 Dillweed

 Fennel seeds

 Kelp

 Mustard seeds, ground

 Rice polishings

 Sesame seeds, ground

 Turmeric

 Wheat germ

Food Additions

Getting this section precise is a more advanced part of the program. If you are just starting out don’t worry too much about getting this section perfect, this is more advanced and is recommended to work up to after you have got the basics correct. However if you can implement this at the beginning then that is great! 

 Chives- 3inch piece per meal

 Garlic- 2 cloves per week or 1nch of wild garlic per week

 Ginger- 2-3 small, thin slices per week.

 horseradish root- dime sized thin silver per meal

 Celery- 1/4 inch twice daily

 Golden beets- thin slice weekly, size of a quarter

 1 teaspoon of nutritional yeast

That is the bulk of the diet. It may seem overwhelming but it isn’t too difficult once you get the hang of it. In short, here is what I do. 

1. Cut up a variety of the recommended vegetables into a non toxic fridge container. 
2. Add any of the advanced foods into the container, for example, garlic, chives, ginger, horseradish etc. 
3. When it comes to eat I add around 2-3 handfuls of veg into the pressure cooker. I cook that for 10minutes. 
4. Once finished I will add salt to taste, add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil or another fat/oil as I am currently (2022) a fast oxidizer. 
5. After the vegetables are cooked I add meat into the pressure cooker and cook for around 8-10 minutes, whilst that is cooking I will eat the vegetables.
6. Once the meat has finished cooking I will add that onto my plate and finish the meal.
7. Eat 8-10 blue corn chips, for one meal per day skip the animal protein and add 2 tablespoons of almond butter.
8. Add salt 

That is a general routine. Sometimes I will add occasional foods, sometimes I may eat out with friends so I have to adapt to the situation. 

POOR BLOOD SUGAR

For a number of people including myself early on. Blood sugar regulation is so poor that eating three meals per day isn’t enough. If you feel your blood sugar is being spiked too much with 3 meals a day then the solution is to eat 5-7 smaller meals per day. You can also snack in between meals on things like chicken and salt. If you sprinkle a little sea salt and some cooked chicken or turkey it serves as a great snack to keep you from not feeling hungry and/or from not spiking blood sugar.

WHERE AND HOW TO BUY

There are three ways really to go about getting the ingredients for the diet.

1.      It is useful to find a good quality store that can supply most of the produce you need. In most countries there tend to be supermarkets that specialise more in organic foods. In the UK a good one is Waitrose for example. 

2.      Buy local. This in many ways is the best sustainably. However in a modern-day world with all its busyness and the time needed to rest I personally found visiting many local organic shops took a lot of time and sometimes I actually found the produce wasn’t so fresh (however this isn’t always the case, especially if you can visit farmers markets), was more costly than a good supermarket and I found myself driving around all day finding products. However, if you have the time to do this, it’s great to get to know your local shops, seek out excellent meat on farms, and of course shopping locally is great for your community.

3.     Buy online, this is a good option. The biggest problem I found with online shopping is that it can be more expensive, although it’s much easier to find the offers available. A great aspect of online shopping is that you don’t need to leave the house. So If you are very sick and debilitated this can be an excellent method or if time is limited. One issue is that you can’t pick the foods yourself, so you may get produce that’s not too in-date or produce that doesn’t look the best. 

As mentioned I have tried all methods above and find the best combo for me is to find a great supermarket like Waitrose and then buy some specialty products online.

DO YOU NEED TO BUY ORGANIC?

This is a common question asked by a lot of people on the program. In general of course organic, heirloom products are the best. They are the most nutritious, however, they are often the most expensive. This can be a problem for some people who are financially struggling. I myself didn’t eat organic when I first began the program solely because of this. Here are a few tips.

1.      If you can eat organic, try to get organic whenever you can. It took me a few years of healing and business building before I was in a position to do this, so don’t worry if you can’t at first you will still heal. 

2.     Second best is fresh non-organic. These are clearly not as good as organic but they are a little cheaper. You should try to wash all your produce before cooking them, but it’s more important to wash non-organic produce. By doing this you can get quite a lot of contaminants off the surface of the products that are often sprayed on when growing.

3.    The third best option would be canned food. The big benefit of canned food apart from the cost is the mobility. At times when I was traveling around but still trying to stick to the program canned food came with their own lunchbox- the can!. I would pick up a can of vegetables from the supermarket or a can of sardines and it worked great just remember to carry a can opener in your bag…

4.      Frozen- Frozen products are actually remarkably good and much cheaper. The benefit of frozen is that the nutrients are frozen pretty quickly once the produce has been taken from the ground or elsewhere. So its freshness is sort of “locked in”. The problem with frozen is the freezing process damages the cells within the produce and this isn’t too good. A big problem I found with frozen food is that once defrosted they tended to go off pretty quickly, especially peas so be aware of this. 

When I first began the program I was at university and could only afford frozen food, it worked well for me in the beginning and I still healed.

EATING OUT

One of the biggest problems for many people is eating out and being on the go.

Here are a few tips.

If you have to eat out I found that often especially when I was very sick it was almost impossible for me to find decent food. I tended to eat a meal before I left the house. That way when I get to a restaurant I often ordered a simple starter just of vegetables or something similar. The better restaurants for vegetables are Chinese, Thai, East Indian and Vietnamese. I found places like American diners, Mexican and Italian restaraunts are much worse. I found that in most restaurants however they had sides of vegetables. One benefit these days is the organic movement is growing so there seem to be more of these options when out and about. The biggest thing to try and stay away from is sugars and too many carbs. This can seriously hold someone back if you are not careful. So even just eating a steak is better than, say, a vegetable dish that has pasta or potatoes in it even though the vegetables are there.

One secret I used a lot when traveling is that I always took with me a steaming basket. Always check into self-catering rooms. Airbnb is a good place to find self-catering places to stay. All kitchens have a pan, so your steaming basket acts as a steamer when you put water in the bottom of a pan. This has been a Godsend to me on many trips away.

Always try and ensure you choose accommodation near a local food market and ideally an organic supermarket before you make your arrangements of where to stay. Or take your own food to cook.

If you are not traveling light, an electric steamer or a pressure cooker is good. These are pretty big of course, but you can usually fit an electric steamer Into your suitcase or bag. This is great because even if you do not have a kitchen you can use the electric steamer to cook vegetables in your room. Again often a lifesaver in certain situations.

I briefly mentioned earlier about canned food and mobility. Again in sticky situations, a can of vegetables and sardines can also be very useful. Make sure you carry around a can opener and a spoon!

I have traveled in the past and the biggest issue I found was you are automatically walking around and on your feet more. For someone fatigued and sick this is very challenging and you’re not always certain about when your next food break is and you are certainly not certain about whether the food stop will be good or healthy. So nipping into supermarkets when you can to grab canned food is very helpful. If I could cook vegetables in the morning and bring them with me I would. I remember one time putting them in a plastic carrier bag as transportation. Not ideal but it ensured I was eating as best as possible while traveling, sometimes you have to think creatively in challenging situations.

I understand these measures can seem a little drastic. But for many reading this you will know how eating food massively affects you. Not only did I and many others have blood sugar regulation issues but also would get very sick If I swayed away from the program diet. The above measures at least kept me sane whilst in traveling mode.