Key Points   •  The Monkey Diet is a low fat, high carbohydrate diet with only some animal protein and fat. •  Monkeys get maximum energy from plant-based foods, like fruits and vegetables. •  Monkeys only need a small amount of animal protein and fat.

What does that mean?
Typically, most Monkeys have alkaline blood pH or a pH level that is higher than normal. You may wonder how this could affect your health, but amazingly enough, it can. Very minute changes in pH can alter the way your body functions. The body is a delicate machine that can easily be thrown off balance with small changes in its physiology.

► People with alkaline blood pH tend to feel warm.
► They typically feel their best in cooler, less humid climates.
► They don’t mind winter and actually feel energized in the cold weather.

Foods that will make an alkaline person more alkaline are proteins and fats, including meat, chicken, fish, eggs, butter and oils. So what happens when a Monkey eats these foods? they don’t feel good. These foods will make an already alkaline person more alkaline. The Monkey must eat foods that make them less alkaline and push them toward balance; ie acidifying foods. Vegetables are a more neutral food that all Hauser Diets can consume.

Foods that make an alkaline person more acidic or balanced include complex and simple carbohydrates, fruits, coffee, and low fat dairy.

► Vegetables are neutral foods that can be consumed by all diets, but the Monkey needs to eat a lot of them.   

What about oxidative rate?
The modified glucose tolerance test reveals how your body metabolizes carbohydrates. You come in to the lab having fasted for 12 hours. We take your fasting blood sugar level and then three subsequent blood sugar levels every thirty minutes after you have consumed a 50 gram glucose drink. This will tell us how fast your body metabolizes the carbs. A balanced oxidizer of food will start out with a normal fasting blood sugar level (80-100 mg/dL) and then rise and fall in the normal glucose curve over time. The slow oxidizer of food may start out with a higher fasting blood sugar level that just stays high over the period of 90 minutes during the testing. The blood sugar level does not come back down.

What foods are metabolized slowly by the body?
Protein and fats. So if you are already a slow oxidizer of carbohydrates, you wouldn’t want to consume foods hat make you oxidizer your food even more slowly. Therefore you would want to consume foods that are oxidized more quickly, such as carbohydrates.

Can you see why the Monkeys need to eat the way they do?
► Both the pH and the oxidative rate point the Monkey toward more carbohydrates.  

The Monkey Diet can easily turn into a pasta and cheese pizza diet if you are not careful. You may be thinking that you get to eat “all the good stuff” like pasta, rice, bread, rolls, sweets, alcohol, coffee, and all the other sinful goodies. Well, actually you can eat these foods, but you must consider portion sizes as you must do no matter what you are eating. If you put more into your body than you burn off, then you will gain weight. It’s as simple as that.

What about exercise? Everyone needs to exercise. In our experience, Monkeys work too much and exercise too little. Monkeys need to exercise at least five days per week, but preferably every day. Monkeys need to work on muscle tone strength training, as well as cardiovascular exercise such as running, aerobics, or cycling, for example. Monkeys can become overweight and store a lot of fat. By building more muscle, they can become leaner and meaner! Muscle burns more calories than fat, so gaining muscle can also help Monkeys lose weight.

How should Monkey athletes eat during an endurance event? As you might realize, carb-loading is not necessarily a good thing for all of the Hauser Diet Types. Monkeys will do well with a carb load prior to a race. But they need to concentrate on eating vegetarian during the entire week prior to their event. One night of carb-loading is not going to make a difference in your blood pH. If your event is going to be in the heat, Monkeys need to drink cold beverages with ice, stay in cool air conditioned rooms, and eat vegetarian to keep their blood pH low. During the event, Monkeys should consume carbohydrates that work for them. This varies athlete to athlete, but many like Cliff bars, Sport Beans, Gatorade, fruit leathers, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

So let’s put it all together: Here are the take home points for Monkeys

1. Eat your veggies – this diet is a near-vegetarian diet.
    

2. Add whole grains to your daily meal plans, such as high fiber cereal, oatmeal, soy nuts, split peas and lentils.
    

3. Have a few servings of fruit per day.
    

4. Choose lean meats, fish, tofu, and legumes for your protein sources.
    

5. Drink regular coffee if you wish (but watch what you put into it – just a little sugar, no heavy creams for you).
    

6. Add a little acidic lemon or lime juice and/or slices to some water for a cool refreshing beverage.
    

7. When it’s hot outside, make sure you eat more vegetarian, lower the fat, and avoid high protein meals. When it’s cold outside, you can have a little more protein because the cold weather acidifies your blood anyway.
    

8. Exercise 5-7 days per week with a mix of strength training and aerobic training.  
    

9. Monkey athletes do well with carbohydrates, so stick to a strict vegetarian diet for a week prior to an endurance event.

Are you ready to be a healthy Monkey? You may feel that you need some assistance – diet tips, workout tips, shopping ideas, and the like. We’re here to help you with all of these things and more – give us a call and set up an appointment at the Hauser Diet Center! If you have yet to do Diet Typing – come on in! You can eat like an animal on the Hauser Diet – you just need to know which one!

Not Able To Lose Weight?
It Could Be Food Allergies

Here’s a case study about patient that couldn’t see the benefits of getting rid of foods he had allergies to until after we saw them for a follow up.

A 60 year old man who came to Caring Medical because of migraines and some other issues presumably related to hormones. After seeing the doctor, he was told to have Hauser Diet Typing and food allergy panel testing done along with his other labs. He typed out to be a Monkey, which is a diet higher in carbohydrates, but lower in fat and protein. Along with concern for the headaches, he was also interested in losing about 15 pounds. We discussed his diet and off he went, confident that this was something he could fit into his lifestyle.

He received his food allergy test results a few weeks later and then a few weeks after that, we met for a follow-up appointment. He said he had been following the diet almost perfectly since day one. He said he felt great and had a lot of energy and he had lost weight, but it took him a few weeks to start seeing the weight loss. K. also stated that he didn’t really notice any difference after eliminating the foods he was allergic to. We asked him when he got the food allergy results and when he started getting rid of those foods. His response was a few weeks into the diet. We sat there and smiled at him, waiting for him to make the connection. It was definitely one of those, oh moments. You know, the ones where something clicks and you get it? We pointed out that this is why many people don’t realize they have food allergies. Sometimes the “symptoms” aren’t those that some would associate with having food allergies. Weight loss or gain is just one of the many things we see that are linked to food allergies.

He now sees the value in eliminating those foods from his diets. His migraines are being addressed with the doctor using other techniques. The Diet Typing showed him how to eat so that his body can function most optimally. The food allergy testing definitely uncovered the reason for K.'s inability to lose weight! Just by having one simple test, he now feels better and isn’t fighting a losing battle with weight loss, plus he’s feeding his body foods that are good for HIM! If you think food allergies may be affecting you or you are interested in Diet Typing, give us a call, it’s easy to find out!

Monkeys and Allergies
Hauser Monkey Diet Types like you require diets that are lower in protein and fat with most of your diet coming from vegetables and carbohydrates. So Hauser Monkeys fill their plates primarily with plant-based products such as whole grains, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, eggplant, tomatoes, green beans, and the like, with the smaller part of their diets coming from animal-based products such as meats, chicken, and fish.

Interestingly enough, although knowing your Hauser Diet Type is crucial, you may be missing an important piece to your overall health puzzle: food allergies. Take the case of Whitney, a young patient who came to Caring Medical for weight loss.

She was placed on the Hauser Monkey Diet while she waited for her food allergy results to come in. When they came back, she found out she was allergic to gluten and rice. Unfortunately for Whitney, rice is a common substitute for wheat in pastas, breads, and crackers. However, Whitney soon learned about all of the gluten-free products out there that she could have – products made from millet, quinoa, potatoes, and corn. Her initial thought was that the diet was going to be too restrictive, especially in foods that are common on the Monkey Diet. With a little shopping, Whitney was able to find alternative products that tasted good and made her feel great. Not only did she start to lose more weight, but she noticed that her occasional headache and runny nose were completely gone – symptoms that she had for so long that she just learned to live with!

There are many people that have food allergies that don’t even know it. If someone has a sensitivity or allergy to a particular food it could be causing symptoms like low energy, headaches, inability to heal properly, mental fog, weight gain, and many other symptoms. These symptoms can be relieved by avoiding any foods you are allergic too! If you haven’t had your food allergies tested, it may be a good time to consider having that test done; your health will never be the same!