Patrick:
Discovered your show on ITunes and have had a great time listening to all your interviews. Its just terrific! I especially like that you bring people on with very divergent views and show each person generous respect. the unfortunate side of that for me is that I have gone out to the store and purchased all manner of stuff to become more raw and organic. Then somebody will come on and say "No, no thats not the right stuff at all" and I will rush out to buy the new "correct" 
stuff. Consequently, I have wasted a fair bit of money as I now have new stuff that will languish because some interviewee will have another opinion of that particular product. But its all been great fun. Then I got some travel photos from a friend from Europe and there was lots of beautiful artwork all around. It got me to thinking, Patrick………. maybe we are approaching this business from the wrong angle. What I think might be  a novel way to approach all this food extremism is to look at the lives of great ones, like Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa and (since I am an artist myself any of the great masters who made truly inspiring art and lived long, healthful, productive and inspiring lives. Perhaps we should ask what they ate. I mean, we have their whole lives to appreciate whereas with some of this new generation of foodies haven’t lived all that long. So maybe the jury is out on some of what the new generation espouses. The point I am trying to make here is if you have a guy like Michaelangelo who lived what is undeniably an extremely productive, long and inspiring life, then maybe what he was eating might provide us with some general guidelines as to what works. I mean, old stuff counts, thats why one can trust Olive oil because its been around for eons ……… so it must have been good because it has lasted all this time. So my suggestion is maybe we should study the long productive lives that have preceded us and see what it was they ate and see if there is something to learn from that. It seems a shame to omit category after category of foods from our diets only to find at the end of the day that it didn’t make all that much difference anyway. This is not criticism of your show , simply a suggestion for possible diologue. I really enjoy the show and will continue to be an avid listener as its just the best thing out there! Another point, I enjoy the money guy a lot too! Love his mix of insight and cynicism. 
Please put more shows on however as I listen to so many of them over and over so that eventually I know all the content by heart. Thanks for what you do, as it a great joy to me to listen to your shows each day!

Robert

Dear Robert,

Very interesting thoughts Michael.

I am about to enter work with Dr. Stuart Nunnally that is following the Dr. Hal Huggins Study on tuning into our ancestral diet through blood work.  Stay tuned and we’ll see What we see.

As much as I love and respect the raw food/vegan folks we talk with…..after many years of looking into this, I suspect that raw/vegan diet as clean and light as it is…simply doesn’twork for all that many.

Raw in general I think has real saying power I suspect, and I’m experimenting with raw Animal products and eggs and getting stronger and sleeping better.  Only time will tell For me.

It is good that you try lots of things…

some ideas…listen to all the ideas that come your way here…..and then do your own experimenting.  A cool way to see if you do good on Kefir, for example, is cut it out completely for four days.  Take your pulse after sitting for a while.  Have a normal portion of kefir and take your pulse 10-15 minutes later…if it remains the same, good chance your body likes it…and, more importantly simply feel how you feel the next few hours…write down what you consume…monitor blood sugar and PH, write it all down, make a little chart and have fun with it….you will figure out just what works the best for you ongoing….and it will change.

Oh, the most important is bowel movements.  Chart those and the easier and more frequent they are the better what you ate yesterday was.

I find it challenging to vary my diet, but it is important to not eat the same things every day…one can easily get to a place where something doesn’t work well after eating it every dayfor a few months.

I really go by how I feel now.  For example today I had a salad with fermented seaweed on the top and some cool Coconut Bliss ice cream with nothing but coconut And a little agave..thats it.

I’ve been eating raw meat, eggs and veggies for a three months now, but some days it doesn’t feel right.

You are probably on to something with learning from the masters.  I suspect none of them cared or thought about what they ate and just ate "whatever" they liked and did their thing…focused on art, music or saving the world…..

Most died young, (except Mother Theresa who you mentioned, and I’ve read she doesn’t eat much of anything), perhaps the masters died from a "bad diet"….but, if they accomplished what they came Here to do…what does it matter how long they lived?  Amazing, most of the great composers like Puccini, Beethoven etc. died quiet young, were a bit wild and crazy, ate a lot of food and drink…..but, they did their thing and contributed.

I started to think after your email, what would it matter if I live to 150 if I never really do all the things that I need to do to truly serve and complete what I set out to do this lifetime?

Something to think about anyway. Glad you found us

patrick