During the EU Championships in Liverpool I read a couple of interesting books about nutrition, The Enzyme Factor by Hiromi Shinya and The PH Miracle by Robert and Shelley Young. Whilst coming from different directions both books argued strongly for a diet consisting mainly of green vegetables, little or no meat, no dairy products and not particularly much of anything else.

Dr. Shinya is somewhat more lenient in that he allows grains of various types. He also suggests that a major factor in someone’s health is to enjoy life. So ever willing to experiment on myself I’ve been applying many of his principles for the last week or so.

I can’t say that I was particularly delighted with the outcome of the tournament (5.5/10 and some diminishment of Elo) but I’ve certainly felt very well. There may also be measurable benefits to this regime, Shinya has achieved remarkable results with cancer patients who’ve adopted it, the implication being that this is a cancer hostile approach to eating. My own reasoning is that if one can avoid two of the major killers of cancer and heart disease, there’s every reason to expect an improved life expectancy.

Apart from the possibility of extending one’s life, The Enzyme Factor is a fun read by a genuinely interesting character. Shinya is essentially a surgeon, but one who made records of the lifestyle of some 300,000 patients. With nutrition not being his official speciality he seems more at liberty to speculate about why various things should work, drawing on eastern philosophy for example. His own regimen involves 200 karate punches every morning after the shaking of arms and legs under his bedcovers and then opening a window. I hasten to add that he does not consider this obligatory but invites the reader to design their own approach.

Copyright Nigel Davies, 2008. All rights reserved.