Dario Polisano - The Italian Reset Diet

The Romans and the Greeks were noted fishermen, and sheep-farming was very common as well, not to satiate milk-lovers but for the wool, a little bit of cheese, and meat (due to lack of pasteurization techniques, milk was not consumed all that often). The most widespread livestock species, then, were sheep and goats, not cattle; the latter were used as pack animals or for working in the fields.

As for fruit? Because of the lack of refrigeration, they could not preserve fruit all year. Fruit was consumed seasonally: apples and pears in September, persimmons in October and November. Then they waited for the warmer weather to start consuming apricots, strawberries, cherries, loquats, figs, etc. Certain fruits were dried so they could be eaten as sweets during festivities. I only wish that we would consume dried fruits as sweets today! Meanwhile, so-called “barbarians” actually ate only a few berries and nothing else. Nowadays, however, thanks to intensive cultivation, we eat fruit all year, in enormous quantities, including in the form of fruit juices. Fruit does not only mean fiber, vitamins and minerals, but also fructose, a sugar that is almost absent in green vegetables and that, when consumed in excess, becomes very dangerous for the liver, arteries and joints.

When it comes to the true “Mediterranean Diet,” the consumption of oily dry fruits (or nuts) during main meals as a second course or as a snack during working hours was very common, and they often substituted for bread or for other foods for long periods throughout the year.

The year 1492 is a very important date, not only because of the discovery of this “new” land, but above all due to the ensuing consequences. The European colonists immediately understood the enormous potential to exploit this “new” territory: the flora and fauna were almost completely different compared to those of the Western world. The American food products we find on our tables today include:

● Borlotti and cannellini beans, which, because of their yield, went on to substitute cowpeas, which then started to gradually go extinct;

● Peanuts, which unfortunately partially substituted Mediterranean dry fruits/nuts;

● Corn, which is used as the main ingredient in polenta;

● Prickly pears;

● Pineapples and other types of fruit;

● Hot peppers, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, and potatoes, which belong to the same plant family, the Solanaceae, (and we will see how they can cause serious problems for those who suffer from autoimmune diseases);

● Chocolate/cocoa, which was consumed in its bitter state by the American Indians. Yet the Spanish deemed it better to mix it with sugar, thus giving rise to the chocolate that conquered all the cafes in Europe. (And speaking of sugar, it was the very expanse of American soil which led to the great sugarcane plantations and then allowed the spread of the “sweet salt” in all of Europe.)

As you may have come to understand, when nutritional “experts” recommend a “healthy” dish of pasta with tomato sauce, deeming it the perfect “Mediterranean” dish, you get a pretty good idea of how “educated” they are. I certainly would not even let them write me up a Saturday cheat-night menu.

I hope that, at this point, a question has sprung forth in your mind: “But does the healthy Mediterranean Diet exist at all?” My answer is that it is called the Mediterranean Diet solely because when you are eating your pasta with tomato sauce you may be eating it in Italy; if you were on an island in the Atlantic if would be the Atlantic Diet. Joking aside, alas, the “Mediterranean Diet” no longer exists, but that does not mean we cannot honestly revive it again, making sure not to back the idea that in the “Mediterranean Diet,” one must eat a little bit of everything. Let’s just say that many experts love to be a little too egalitarian when it comes to food. I, on the other hand, love to improve people’s health, and if a particular food must be eliminated from a diet then it must be eliminated, period. Today, not even wheat is Mediterranean because of all the genetic selections that have taken place. Neither is milk, as its chemical composition totally changes because of pasteurization. Nor are many types of fruit, created by man through cross-breeding—genetic splices that would never occur in nature. What you eat every day is the fruit of human intelligence, which can think up of so much but seldom spares a thought to the unpleasant consequences that come with usurping Mother Nature’s place. Nature is very unforgiving.

● G.B., a 36-year-old female with fibromyalgia treated with morphine and antidepressants. After 20 days on the Italian Reset Diet, she solved her illness and discontinued the drug treatments.

● R.M., a 59-year-old female with hypertension, diabetes and migraines. After one month, she was able to control her blood sugar and blood pressure, and forgot about her migraines. After three months, she put aside all her medications, because all of her pathologies had disappeared. She lost 30 kg (approx. 66 lbs.) in five months.

● S.R., a 44-year-old male, lost 25 kg (approx. 55 lbs.) in three months and returned to his ideal weight.

● G.M., an 82-year-old male, successfully blocked his Parkinson’s tremors in one month. Today, he is able to walk and to eat without the fear of dropping the spoon from his hand. He has also resolved his insomnia issues. His tremors reappear only when he reintroduces wheat and dairy, which are severely forbidden, in his diet.

Macro- and micronutrients are the components of all foods. Macronutrients are all the components that, among their functions, also provide energy: fats, carbohydrates and proteins. Micronutrients are all the components that do not provide energy, such as vitamins and mineral salts; rather, they enable all metabolic processes to take place within our bodies. Your food intake is heavily centered on the abuse of macronutrients, especially carbohydrates, but is very lacking in vitamins and minerals. This means that while your organic machine draws its daily energy from macronutrients, it cannot use them effectively because of the lack of micronutrients, which also serve as the body’s organic sweepers. And so toxins accumulate, causing weight gain at first and the onset of pathologies later on.

The calorimetric bomb is an instrument used to determine the thermal power of a fuel. Its mechanism is simple: the container, a component of the calorimetric bomb, is filled with distilled water. Then a porcelain vessel, in which the substances to be analyzed are placed, is immersed therein. Pure oxygen is then injected into the container. The combustion is triggered by electrodes that enable the flow of energy toward the “fuel.” The generated heat will be absorbed by the distilled water and its temperature will rise, showing the reading on a thermometer. Through this equipment, scientists have had fun quantifying the caloric values of macronutrients, and therefore of all the foods we consume daily. I do not know about you—I may just be strange that way—but I have never seen a burner inside me! According to this concept, our bodies are regarded as a food-burning sack, not taking into consideration calories’ effect on our DNA and on our immune system. I will give you an example: if you took a kilogram of lead and a kilogram of feathers and threw them off the fifth floor, the lead would fall at a faster rate than the feathers because of air resistance, despite weighing the same amount. As far as food is concerned, these impact our bodies and our metabolism, which acts as our air resistance! Three hundred calories coming from legumes will be very different than three hundred calories coming from white flour, because the latter contains only energy without any minerals or vitamins. The ensuing impact on our bodies is catastrophic! The calorie concept is not totally wrong, but I think it is how it is applied that makes it totally useless if not potentially dangerous, because people convince themselves that they can eat their delicious crunchy snacks since they contain the same number of calories as a fresh piece of fruit. I have actually seen professionally-prescribed diets where these snacks, justified by their caloric value, were allowed as afternoon snacks. Can you imagine? It gives me the shivers! Happy people, totally unaware of the serious health impact of these foods, follow these diets and boast about eating this crap! This is why I have never written out an overly specific diet for my patients, instead opting for food regimens, and why I always worked on changing their lifestyles.