Learn Which Foods Are Best For YOU

Discovering exactly which foods you should eat to achieve the optimum performance of your body, mind and soul could be the most beneficial health information you will ever acquire. However, you can’t learn merely by eating the same foods that your friends eat or by trying the latest fad diet. It takes focus and attention to understand that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ diet. The fact is there are diets that work for some people but not for others. There are diets that can heal cancer for some people while at the same cause cancer in others. Your only job then is to listen carefully to your body and learn the truth about which foods are best for you and which foods are not. With many simple, common sense, and tried and true tools at its disposal, The Nicholas Gonzalez Foundation can help you on this amazing health journey.

My late husband, Nicholas Gonzalez, M.D. devoted nearly 30 years of private medical practice to treating very sick people suffering from cancer and other degenerative diseases. He did this with his completely non-toxic, nutritional enzyme protocol. He created custom protocols based on a return to the traditional diets studied so well by leading thinkers such as Weston A Price and Vilhjalmur Stefansson. These were also built upon individualized detoxification and supplement programs that are completely tailored to address your specific metabolic type, and your acid/alkaline and autonomic nervous system balance. For more than 35 years The Gonzalez Protocol® has helped thousands of patients to restore health and life and in the interest of advancing the science behind my late husband’s work, we published his miraculous results with more than 150 cancer patient case histories with 21 different types of biopsy proven cancer.

Gonzalez Metabolic Types:

We start with determining your metabolic type. This is one of the pillars of The Gonzalez Protocol® and the basis of designing the right diet for each person. Your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) regulates certain body processes, such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and digestion. This system works automatically (autonomously), without your conscious effort. There are two branches of the ANS – the sympathetic system, which prepares the body for stressful or emergency situations and is associated with the fight-or-flight response, and the parasympathetic system, which controls the bodily processes during ordinary situations and is associated with rest and digestion. Our goal is to assess your metabolic type and then bring your two systems, (sympathetic and parasympathetic) into balance through specially designed diets and other natural, non-toxic means.

 “As long as we put the right fuel into our bodies by eating the right food for our metabolic type, the autonomic nervous system will be in balance, both branches and the associated organs and glands will function efficiently, the body will work beautifully, and our health will be ideal. However, with the wrong fuel, the autonomic nervous system will go out of balance, it will function less efficiently, the organs and glands will not work well together, and disease follows. “ – Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez

 During his nearly 30 years of private medical practice, Dr. Gonzalez observed that you must eat the right foods for your metabolic type for optimum health, and that if you consume foods suitable for another metabolic type (not your own metabolic type), you can end up sick. Very sick, in fact. For example, if a sympathetic dominant person eats red meat two or three times a day or a parasympathetic dominant person becomes a vegetarian, their autonomic imbalance will only worsen. Their bodies will have excess amounts of those nutrients that support the strong system and further suppress the weaker system, thereby causing disease.

“It is relatively easy to identify the characteristics of sympathetic and parasympathetic dominance. But the actual determination of how an individual is supposed to function—one’s metabolic type—is a complex and intricate process that requires the consideration of multitudinous factors.” – Dr. William Donald Kelley

We focus on your acid to alkaline, or pH state. An ANS that tends toward acidity is sympathetic and an ANS that tends toward alkalinity is parasympathetic.

 The seven basic Gonzalez metabolic diets range from more vegetarian (sympathetic) to more carnivore (parasympathetic) with a more balanced diet in the middle. However, none of Gonzalez’s diets are Vegan or all Vegetarian. They all include some form of animal protein. We will explain more about why these diets include animal protein in my next article about the revolutionary work of Dr. Weston A. Price. Dr. Price traveled the world for almost 10 years in search of the secret to health. His well-documented observations demonstrated that different populations around the world thrived on different types of diets when they consumed foods native to their regions. Therefore, our Gonzalez metabolic types consider one’s genetics and ancestry as well as a series of other factors.

In his private medical practice in New York City, Dr. Gonzalez would verbally ask a series of questions of his patients; different questions for different people based upon what he already knew about their medical history. The questions Dr. Gonzalez asked were geared towards determining the patient’s metabolic type, among other things. One of Dr. Gonzalez’s patients and his official biographer, Mary Swander, researched her ancestry and correlated it to her Gonzalez Metabolic Type. You can read about her discoveries in her Townsend Newsletter article, “Steak and Potatoes: Metabolic Typing on The Gonzalez Program.”

 Gonzalez Metabolic Type Test:

To help everyone learn their metabolic type, we created the Gonzalez Metabolic Type Test. It takes the guesswork out of your diet and provides you with your own road map based on your metabolic type. This is a digital self-test with 99 multiple choice questions. It is simple to take and auto-calculates your score. This test combines specific questions utilized by Dr. Gonzalez and Dr. Kelley in their clinical assessment. It was created in collaboration with Kettle Moraine LTD and the College Health Store, who manage Dr. Kelley’s procedures for metabolic self-testing. Together, we seek to help people around the world learn the best diet for their metabolic type and achieve optimal health.

Our carefully crafted test enables you to learn exactly what foods are best for you to achieve your optimal wellness. It utilizes seven basic Gonzalez diets ranging from more vegetarian to more carnivore and combinations in between with various animal protein, vegetables, and fruits. After you take the test, you will receive a beautifully designed, 18-page color document explaining exactly which foods are best for you and which are not, and the reasons behind these results. You’ll also receive instructions on the best way to prepare and cook these foods, what time of day to have your biggest meal, and a handy shopping list.

We recommend our test to anyone who is tired of listening to the so-called nutrition experts and who wants to learn to listen to their own body instead. You can finally make sense of what you should be eating for your own best health and build a strong immune system. (Please note that these diets are not suitable on their own for cancer patients or those with serious diseases. Those patients should be following the advice of their doctor.)

Generally, Dr. Gonzalez and our Gonzalez Guardian Doctors, who are now offering The Gonzalez Protocol®, have found that people are attracted to the foods that are best for their metabolic type. When a sympathetic dominant patient first meets to discuss their Gonzalez Metabolic Diet, they cringe at the possibility of eating red meat, while a parasympathetic dominant patient cheers when they learn that they should be eating fatty red meat. Your brain does know what is best for you, so you should listen to your cravings. Of course, these parameters require a healthy dose of common sense, as everyone craves processed and/or white sugar, which is strictly prohibited on all our diets.

Role of Magnesium and Potassium:

Gonzalez’s sympathetic dominant diets are loaded with potassium and magnesium. These are very alkalizing nutrients, and orthodox neurophysiology agrees that potassium tends to stimulate the parasympathetic nerves and magnesium tends to block sympathetic function.

 If you are a sympathetic dominant person with a very strong sympathetic system and a weak parasympathetic system, a vegetarian diet would tend to tone down the strong system and build up the weak system and bring you into balance. When Dr. Gonzalez toned down the sympathetic system and stimulated the parasympathetic system in a hard tumor patient, the tumor sometimes would go away in days.

Dr. Gonzalez believed specific nutrients and foods have specific, precise, and predictable effects on the autonomic nervous system. A more vegetarian leaning sympathetic diet emphasizes fresh fruits and vegetables, particularly leafy greens, and contains large doses of minerals such as magnesium and potassium. Furthermore, a largely vegetarian diet tends to be very alkalizing, and the neurophysiological research documents that in a more alkaline environment, sympathetic activity is reduced, and parasympathetic activity increased. So, whatever other effect a more vegetarian diet has, in terms of autonomic nervous system function, this diet will reduce sympathetic activity and stimulate the parasympathetic system.

Conversely, a more carnivore diet is loaded with minerals such as phosphorous and zinc, which tend to have the opposite effect. A high-meat diet stimulates the sympathetic system and tones down parasympathetic activity. Furthermore, this diet is loaded with sulfates and phosphates which in the body are quickly converted into free acid, which in turn stimulates the sympathetic nervous system while suppressing parasympathetic activity.

Gonzalez Metabolic Diets:

In his medical practice, Dr. Gonzalez had ten basic diets with more than 90 variations, which included modifications such as gluten-free, celiac, diabetic, candida and dairy-free. Essentially, there are basic food rules that apply to everyone, regardless of their metabolic type.

• Choose organic, locally produced foods
• Avoid processed foods
• Avoid synthetic and refined foods such as white flour
• Avoid soy products
• Drink vegetable juice
• Eat full fat food products (avoid skim milk and low-fat products)
• Eat good healthy fats (coconut oil, olive oil, flax seed oil, hemp oil and avoid corn, canola, safflower, and sunflower oils)

Then there are general guidelines for our broader metabolic categories:

• Sympathetic dominants: no vinegar or pickled foods, eat dark leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables, beans as well as eggs, dairy, beef liver and fish. Consume more uncooked foods than cooked.
• Parasympathetic dominants: no cheese, avoid dark leafy greens and citrus fruits, eat fermented and pickled foods, whole fruits, beans, cruciferous and root vegetables, eggs, dairy, poultry, seafood, and fatty red meat. Consume more cooked foods than uncooked.

Food is medicine. While sourcing your own food and preparing your own meals may seem expensive and time-consuming, it is empowering, and the health rewards are abundant. You can change your health with every single food choice you make. Choose the right foods for your metabolic type and build up your immune system to fight off any disease. Today’s world is loaded with confusing and misguided health advice. It doesn’t have to be this way! With The Nicholas Gonzalez Foundation’s easily accessible health tools, as well as numerous Gonzalez Certified Doctors around the world, healing your body has never been easier!