Hope that helps!
Scott

Are they contaminated with mercury or any other toxic substance? If so, is this contamination high enough to abstain from eating them?

Weston Price dedicated an entire chapter in his book to the issue entitled “Food is Fabricated Soil Fertility,” and it is something that most people tend to ignore for often very good reasons. A great article on how to get nutrient dense food that doesn’t rot can be found here: http://www.wolfrivernaturals.com/high-brix-farming-and-gardening.htm

Also grains, as another poster noted, were a healthy part of several of the groups that Price studied. However they did ferment their grains such that all the gluten was removed and the other “nastys” associated with gluten grains and grains in general were mitigated. You can buy properly prepared grains like that today, which were/are fermented for at least two weeks. You can also buy grain products that have been sprouted. But the standalone advice of “soaking, fermenting, and/or sprouting” is too vague, IMO.

Also, because of the anti-nutrients in most vegetables available today, it is not obvious that vegetables are automatically superior to fruit. Vegetables, like grains, have been traditionally properly prepared and not eaten raw to avoid some of these issues. Modern fruit that has been breed for a higher sugar content might be problematic, but traditionally fruit has been less problematic for many folks than vegetables.

An example of an…ahem…high carb group that thrives quite well on a diet that by western standards is high carb (but no grains), low total fat (though almost all saturated fat which is higher than western standards) low protein, and high calorie, can be found here: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/08/kitava-wrapping-it-up.html

As for post workout, fruit is going to preferentially refill your liver glycogen because the fructose has to be processed by the liver. I’d recommend sweet potatoes and fruit together to refill both liver and muscle glycogen. It’s not that fruit is a bad idea, just that I don’t think it’s a replacement for vegetables as the “5-a-day” campaign implies.

Honey is a sugar and as such is metabolized in the same way. It’s not something to go overboard on, but if you’re a competitive athlete, you have a bit more leeway. I don’t know anything about blood sugar stabilization from honey. Sorry.

Cheers
Scott

what on earth do you eat for breakfast? no grains, no cereals…what do you do?

also, as a collegiate runner, what do you recommend for recovery? i tend to go for almonds and an apple after a workout, but it sounds like fruit isn’t the best idea, and i’ve definitely been having more than one piece of fruit a day. i also don’t do dairy or red meat, or gluten for the most part, so recovery meals after major workout are tricky.

what about honey? it’s certainly naturally occurring, but i’ve heard that it metabolizes the same way sugar does. however, i’ve also read that honey stabilizes blood sugar in the long run. what are your thoughts?

thanks in advance.

Cheers
Scott

“Today’s fruits have been genetically engineered (that’s guided evolution, not genetic modification)”

but that is incorrect. genetically engineered crops are altered by scientists at the genetic level. the guided evolution you speak of is selective breeding, which is people taking two existing strains of a crop they like, and breeding them together.

in a post of this kind, thats an important difference.