Apologies for my lengthy silence on RBTI. If anything, I took a lot of time to let it all soak in, and to see what really stuck. As you may know, the personal benefits I got from RBTI included fat loss eating to appetite ? even eating lots of palatable processed foods, disappearance of chest pain that I had suffered from for years, and tremendous improvement with some pain/weakness I had in my feet that had gotten worse over the year prior. Plus my nostrils seemed to become less inflamed as well, allowing me to breathe deeper. I thought my pet allergies were gone forever too, but it turned out that I was only not allergic to the pets I was around during my RBTI education.
I of course saw that it could do some impressive things for others as well. But like any set of dietary guidelines, the results are extremely mixed. Some people do great and have some extremely bizarre and strange positives take place ? from moles and skin tags falling off to sudden improvement in lifelong ailments like ringing in the ears, cancer, diabetes, or emotional problems. Others get bloated, ill, fat, and depressed.
I’ve been thinking a lot more about the whole experience and trying to figure out exactly what kind of relief that people with certain health problems could expect and why. I mean, what is it about the program that caused the great results for the people who experienced it?? Likewise, why did those who failed miserably and had significantly poorer health on the RBTI program see those results? Anyway, here’s an update on what I think about many RBTI-related things?
Pork ? This is one thing I continue to avoid. It has a verifiable effect on body chemistry. It has a tendency to cause urea levels, salts, and urine brix to become overly elevated in the short-term, with continued consequences as body chemistry tries to sort itself out from the dramatic and sudden change. I believe that foods like shellfish and the big game fish like marlin, tuna, shark, etc. trigger a similar, but more modest effect. Because one of my biggest problems ? chest pain, was most likely eradicated by lowering my urea levels and getting these out of my diet, I continue to avoid them. The other ?no-no? foods, like nuts, chocolate, and so on I’m not so concerned about. But that is just me personally. If I had a chronic constipation issue I might take the consumption of nuts or popcorn for example, much more seriously.
Lemonade ? I don’t think that there’s any question that the biggest trigger of problems for people who don’t do well on the program, is the drinking of the lemonade ? and drinking on a schedule in general. This triggers more problems than anything else, and, because it is the weirdest and most tedious and annoying part of the program, you probably won’t catch me advising anyone to do it. While it may have some purpose for some conditions ? and I would hate to deter someone away from trying it if they have a serious condition, for most people it’s a strange, obnoxious, and TOTALLY unsustainable and unrealistic practice. I cringe anytime I have to squeeze a lemon after my 4-5 months of lemonade making.
Min-Col ? I’m repeatedly impressed with Min-Col specifically. Just taking it regularly for two days is enough for me to notice an appreciable difference in my overall well-being, and in the strength of my teeth, fingernails, etc. I’m still pretty damn enthusiastic about this mineral supplement, and feel that it makes sweating over the mineral content of the foods you eat a lot more irrelevant.
The Refractometer? – Man I’m blown away by this, and have more to say about this than any other RBTI component. To me, the greatest discovery of RBTI is the connection between urine solute and what’s going on at the cellular level. I believe that sugar and salt are the primary fuels for driving true mitochondrial and metabolic activity, and there are TONS of people making the mistake of drinking too many fluids ? thus diluting the concentration of salt and sugar at the cellular level and leaving them feeling cold, flat, depressed/anxious/irritable, and hypometabolic with cold hands and feet.
Just the other day I spoke with a gentleman who has been following the work of Ray Peat for over a year who was seeing his body temperature plummet by day, with serious problems with cold hands and feet. He was drinking 2-3 quarts of milk per day and a quart of juice as well, which was way too much fluid and was washing him out. He had problems for months but this seemed to basically clear up in a day or two of eating more solid food.
I think in the RBTI world many have led themselves to believe that sugary things like fruit will ?raise the sugars? and plain water is the only thing that can bring it down. But this simply isn’t the case. Any excess fluid of any kind can make you urinate frequently with urine that is too clear with too little solute (another reason I have a huge problem with the drinking schedule, 8 ounces of fluid per hour is more than anyone but the most obvious ?high sugar? people can tolerate). Any fluid can dilute your system too much. Noticing this has led to me making some recommendations that I haven’t heard elsewhere in RBTI when someone has a tendency to crash, urinates too frequently/clear urine, and has symptoms that coincide with it including cold hands and feet?
Low Water Content Foods:
The hardest time for most people to hold on to their salt and sugar is from about 10am to lunch. Because of this, you might note that eating foods with a high water content causes greater sugar crashes. When I was on the full program, eating a breakfast of say, oatmeal with juice and a big slice of watermelon and then trying to drink the water and lemonade?? Fuhgeddaboudit! I would be peeing every 15 minutes with urine solute well below 0.5 brix ? and feeling cold and flat.
Enter the pancake? Eating pancakes, waffles, muffins, banana bread, fried eggs, cookies, fruit pie ? without much food with a higher water content such as milk, juice, and fruit?? Now that’s what I’m talkin? bout. These foods will make you much warmer and keep your sugars from crashing. I think one of the greatest benefits of processed foods like this isn’t even that they are more digestible but the fact that the water content is lower. This is a godsend for those who are really in a low metabolism rut, as even the smallest amount of fluid from food or drink beyond the bare minimum requirement to stay hydrated can cause some pretty violent crashing. Even having breakfast cereal with milk can be too much fluid for some.
Salt:
Consuming more salt really keeps sugars from crashing, but only because it has the opposite effect of drinking/hydrating. The salt restriction of RBTI seems to be pretty nonsensical anyway. You will probably notice some great benefits by eating food that is pleasantly salty instead of trying to eat a low-salt diet.
Dried Fruit:?
When sugars crash below 1.5 on a refractometer, the standard advice I heard was to eat a ?[bite] of fruit.? Fruit has a high water content. A fruit that is not very sweet and has a very high water content, like an apple, will do precisely nothing to bring your ‘sugars? up. It’s like one step forward and one step back. I have been steering people toward foods with zero water content to bring sugars up more effectively. Eating a handful of dried fruit, a very sweet Medjool date especially, works much better. Something salty might be even better. I suspect a handful of pretzels would be the ultimate snack for the low sugar dip.
1.5 Refractometer reading:
This is considered ?ideal.? Don’t look at a set number and attribute an ideal status to it, especially if you are not following the full RBTI program and are not testing (like most people). At 1.5 I feel pretty much like ass, with cold hands and feet and many obvious signs of being ?washed out? I like to call it. You may notice that you don’t feel really toasty and happy until your urine brix gets up into the 3’s and 4’s. I would encourage most casual RBTI?ers like myself who are trying to take advantage of some of the basic ideas without it cutting into your lifestyle, to pay more attention to biofeedback to determine your ideal ‘sugar level.
Overfeeding:?
It’s obvious that this increases the sugar level for most people, preventing crashes, increasing warmth and circulation, decreasing frequency of urination, and so forth.
Anyway, I hope this was an interesting read for those of you who were Jonesin? to hear more about RBTI. I will keep bringing up some things on it periodically, and may even do a short book on the refractometer and ?hypoglycemia? this spring. Stay tuned.
For those still interested in the RBTI package I put together last year, I have just lowered the price from $59.95 to $39.95 to make it a little more affordable. If you haven’t heard about RBTI, you can read a little bit about what this eBook/audio/video collection on the topic is all about HERE.
Lastly ? the image at the top of the page as well as the nice RBTI graphics you see off to your left are the work of the wondrous graphic designer Chuck Johnson ? aka Castle Grok. If you need any graphic design work done, he does some great work at the absolute cheapest price you’ll get quality work. Remember him if you do need some work like this done. You won’t be disappointed.
Excellent post Senor Stone. Good observations, I got some useful things out of it…like the dried fruit.
Ayo Matt! What brand or where are you getting your Min-Col? Just any Min-Col or you buying heavenly water Min Col?
I just ran out of Heavenly Water Min-Col and just ordered some from Garrett Smith’s site http://www.repairrecoverrestore.com
Matt, I was looking at a list of minerals in that product and noticed the following:
Arsenic
Cadmium
Benzene
As far as I know, these elements and compounds are extremely hazardous to humans. Why would they be intentionally put into a supplement?
I don’t think they were specifically put in there. I think Min-Col is from water filtered through mineral rich soil and there is some of those minerals in the soil.
It may be ok, but it’s hard to know. Benzens is listed as 0.308% doesn’t sound like a lot but I don’t know what a toxic dose of Benzene is.
“How benzene works
Benzene works by causing cells not to work correctly. For example, it can cause bone marrow not to produce enough red blood cells, which can lead to anemia. Also, it can damage the immune system by changing blood levels of antibodies and causing the loss of white blood cells.
The seriousness of poisoning caused by benzene depends on the amount, route, and length of time of exposure, as well as the age and preexisting medical condition of the exposed person.”
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/benzene/basics/facts.asp
Benzene, not Benzens
ackshully, they aren’t added, they are there naturally. weird, huh.
Arsenic is one of the major minerals for heart health…
Thanks for jumping back to RBTI again. I too cannot handle the drinking schedule of 4oz every half hour. I tailored mine to around 2-3oz. I am also someone who cant tolerate the lemoade. That stuff is powerful if you seem to be sensitive to a lot of things.
Another helpful component that’s interesting is the use of a few drops of gin in your drink of you’re having trouble keeping your brix above 1. Alcohol in that minuscule amount seems to keep the brix higher. Another component that I consider essential now is the green drink. Since juicing wheatgrass every morning, I feel much more stable towards the end of the day and my brix doesn’t rise above 3. It seems to keep the pancreas functioning better. Those are just some thoughts of mine as well.
Thanks Tyler. Interesting about the green juice. I would do it more often I think if I wasn’t so lazy about stuff like that at the moment (once you’ve had buffet, it’s hard to stay at home juicing grass!).
Yeah it’s a real pain growing and juicing. Growing is actually the easy part compared to the process of juicing and cleaning out the juicer afterwards! I also use a manual juicer too.
Yeah I’ve had great results with the green juice thing too. But it is a real pain in the arse to grow and juice all the time.
Right now I’m on the fence when it comes to RBTI. I still think that long-term focus on remineralization can be beneficial, and it’s cool that RBTI claims to provide a framework for that. But it obviously doesn’t work for everyone, and we actually don’t know what kind of success rate it has (same applies for every health system out there).
As for the systematic drinking, no way! Never again! I’ve tried a lot of crazy things before, from drinking my own urine to eating no carbs for 6 years to doing the milk diet for 2 whole freaking months to eating “high meat” a la Aajonus, but the systematic drinking is by far the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of. Anybody who thinks it’s not a royal pain in the ass is completely delusional and/or masochistic.
Min-Col is a great source for calcium and phosphate, but personally I’m still not completely sold. Nobody has provided a satisfactory answer as to why we’re not supposed to worry about the metal content, especially aluminum. 3 capsules of Min-Col provides 79 mg of aluminum, and although there’s no official “safe limit” for aluminum, that’s way more than anybody gets in a normal diet. 3 capsules of Min-Col also provides 45 mg of iron, whereas the RDA is 8 mg for men and 18 mg for women. Excess iron is extremely toxic. The best argument is provided by Beddoe, who claims that cows fed soft rock phosphate didn’t have toxicity in their milk, but any practitioner who deals with heavy metals will tell us that body fluids are not good indicators for intracellular heavy metal stores. So I dunno.
There are some aspects of RBTI that just give me the creeps. The RBTI followers will tell you that if you don’t eat Min-Col everyday and drink the lemonade systematically, then you’ll never be healthy. But let’s be real. RBTIers aren’t known for having exceptionally long life spans or youthful looks or physical fitness or any sort of health marker. Sure, there are testimonials of people overcoming disease (just as in any other health system), but we don’t have many examples of people who followed RBTI for 30-40 years while maintaining optimal physical, mental, and emotional health. In fact, if we look at the most well-known practitioners who have been doing RBTI for the longest, they aren’t exactly shining pictures of health.
I can’t completely abandon RBTI because despite the weirdness, it contains some important truths. Just the idea that fluid can lower your sugar is monumental! Although I probably won’t be continuing the full-fledged program in the immediate future, I definitely think it’s worth paying attention to.
Peace
Didn’t realize min-col was that heavy in iron. That’s definitely unfortunate, although, what you take in doesn’t always equate to what you store. I’m sure your typical primitive human must have taken in tons of iron. I know Weston A. Price reported pretty huge iron intakes amongst the native diets he studied. I’m not convinced that iron is inherently good or bad, but just is. But it’s something to keep on the radar screen.
You are correct in thinking that long-term adherence to RBTI doesn’t afford one great health. That’s not something that any practitioners of it seem to have. I knew that from the beginning and had no delusions about that walking in. But I still remained open-minded to the possibility that it was a useful tool for those in really bad shape. And I still think certain priniples of it, particularly management of urine brix for those with chronic low sugar problems, are great tools.
But getting the benefits out of it seem to me, to be much simpler than they are made out to be.
Matt, I agree that “what you take in doesn’t equate to what you store,” but the entire justification for Min-Col’s safety is the claim that it’s like a little “solar system” that can’t be broken down by the body, so we absorb it completely. According to RBTI, we DO absorb everything in Min-Col. And I have Weston Price’s book, but I don’t recall any mention of high iron intake, especially anything near the levels found in Min-Col.
I’m not saying that iron is inherently bad, but it’s something to be aware of. Especially for us men, since we don’t lose blood regularly like women. And I’ve yet to see a valid argument for the aluminum issue.
Not trying to be alarmist, but I think this is an important issue that hasn’t been fully addressed. The RBTI followers just believe everything that RBTI practitioners say, despite the fact that some of the theory is more style than substance. There are many colloidal mineral products besides Min-Col, and they’re manufactured in the same way. Take some clay, use water to disperse the colloids, then siphon them off. The only difference is the source of the clay, but they all suffer from the same problem of high metal levels. And none of the companies selling these products have ever provided a valid explanation as to why they’re supposed to be safe.
Just trying to get to the bottom of all this. :)
hi Jung – i am wondering where you found the milligram content of Min-Col. i found a percentage assay from 1939 on page 164 of Dr Beddoe’s big book, but i wouldn’t know how to translate this into mgs. where did you find your information?
Katheraw, according to Daily Mfg, 3 capsules of Min-Col contains 324 mg of elemental calcium. According to the assay in Beddoe’s book, calcium makes up 19.78%, calcium carbonate 8.04%, and tri-calcium 3.82%. I compared the percentages of aluminum and iron to the total percentage of calcium compounds to estimate the milligrams.
I just realized that my calculations aren’t completely accurate, since the calcium compounds aren’t 100% elemental calcium, so the levels of iron, aluminum, etc. might be even higher than my initial estimates. (I’m not a scientist, so if there any other errors in my method, please let me know!)
There hasn’t been a full mineral assay done for Min-Col since 1939. It’s extremely surprising that Daily Mfg hasn’t done this, considering that Min-Col is their flagship product.
that really needs to happen – Daily do a new assay. I have been taking Min-Col for a month, along with Algazim and some small amounts of other basics- also distilled water, some lemon , etc, but i have the same questions you do, and i admit i take the min col on pure trust! Reams was obviously a genius, way beyond anyone else, students, or practitioners, and he was trying to “dumb down” his genius revelations to such a level that it just didn’t work that well. HE could see so much farther than anyone else, but we just have to bumble and fumble around to a great degree, and experiment on ourselves, which, by taking min-col, i feel i am doing, because of all that damn ALUMINUM…..
Kathereaw, Reams was definitely a genius, but that doesn’t mean that he was 100% right about everything. Some of the things he said were just pulled out of his butt, so instead of swallowing his words blindly, we need to separate the theory from the theology.
yeah i’m afraid that because i have drunk the rbti kool aid i am going to wake up one morning a christian!
Jung, I always like your skepticism . It helps to keep me more rounded. I agree that many of the RBTI followers, including myself just take all these statements for granted sometimes. I’d really like to find out more about min-col too. Are you still taking it?
Tyler, I’ve discontinued the Min-Col for now because I don’t feel comfortable taking it. I’ve also stopped the distilled water and went back to the awesome spring water I used to drink.
Dr Reams has had explained that all of the mineral in theMin-Col are in the collodial form and in that form are not toxic to the body but actually 100% bioavailable. It is their chemical structure to be in the collodial form not in the collodial size. I hope that that helps.
On the other end of the spectrum, if you constantly eat dry foods and take in very little liquid, would there be adverse reactions?
Yes. You don’t want to be chronically dehydrated or have your cells and therefore urine to become overly concentrated. Supposedly having levels that are too high lead to problems as well, particularly things like headaches.
Most will find if they monitor their urine with a refractometer that they have certain times of day where they tend to be too low, and times of day where they tend to be too high. For me, I tend to drop after breakfast, and so drinking very little and eating foods with low water content for breakfast makes for the ideal breakfast. But later in the afternoon they tend to rise too high, and so I have way more fluids with lunch, eat foods with a higher water content, and then drink any water, milk, or juice that I’m going to drink more in the early afternoon and evening.
not to mention terrible digestion from being severely dehydrated.
Nice, Matt. I always have dates when my sugar crashes and it certainly seems more effective than normal fruit. Also, it softens the blow of a sugar crash… it’s like the tastiest possible “reward” for a negative outcome. I have been getting into experimenting with lower water content breakfasts and adding back salt just in the last week, and this motivates me to continue with that… I can still fall below 1 in the morning. One question on your drinking recommendations… on 3 ounces of water only every half hour (from 8-3, taking it only on the hour from 10-2) my sugars don’t crash, but on 4 ounces of only water on the same schedule, they do. Challen seems to believe you have to stick with 4 ounces if you’re my weight (155 lbs.–but very slight at 6’3″) and the sugar crashing is just something you deal with or that’s maybe even “good” for you… it seems like you would advise going down to 3 ounces or even less, though, yes? I just wonder if that (33 ounces total) is enough when I already have a tendency to drier stools. Or are my stools dry because I’m losing excess water because of taking in too much water, or because I’m diluting my sugars, leaving insufficient energy for the bowels to move everything out in the proper time?
I don’t notice much of a connection between stool moistness and fluid intake, personally. That seems to have more to do with speed of transit time than anything – and keeping sugars higher and metabolism cranking a little harder seems to keep food moving through the gut faster. At least that’s my initial impression of it.
Glad to see you say that about fluid intake, Matt. A gastroenterologist I went to years ago told me that I could drink 5 gallons of water a day, and it wouldn’t do diddly for my stool. (I have very low motility) However, he also told me that I was doomed to a life of laxative taking at prescription level, so I wasn’t too sure if I believed him about the fluid intake. Thanks for mentioning that!
Matt, that’s interesting that you say that. I’ve been drinking less water lately and have been having a lot more regular bowel movements each day, and not only that, but they are mostly the “wipe-free” kind! :) Or were you saying the opposite? haha.
2016: Whoops! Matt stool moistness seems to be 90% a function of healthy gut biome (bacteria). If you have chronic constipation, you can test this. Get store-plain-yogurt. Take one copy in 1.5 cups of water at room temp. Sweeten to taste if you wish. I use raw stevia powder. Take this twice a day, first thing eaten in AM and last thing before bed. I saw a dramatic disappearance of constipation no amount or schedule of any fiber ever gave me.
If you are blood type O you’ll enjoy goat yogurt over cow. Yes, you can make your own yogurt too.
Beyond this is Bravo yogurt. Best deals are here http://www.bravocoop.com/
Will there’s only one manufacturer making min-col and that’s Daily Manufacturing. You can call and order from them. There are other people out there making their own but it’s a process and probably not worth the effort.
2016: Best deal by far is Daily’s Min-Col on Amazon. They may be elderly and prefer Amazon to do their shipping.
Um, Yeah. There’s no pork here! (quickly hides the Canadian Bacon) Nope, not in this house! Not us!
Can’t wait to see you, pork free of course :-)
deb da hagg
Hey Matt, that Min Col seems quite high in iron. You concerned about that given your recent post on iron/vitamin C and Colpo’s theories about heart disease etc?
I think I have finally found an explanation for these episodes I was getting a couple years ago in the early afternoon. Sort of an unsteadiness, like a little weak and dizzy, foggy, stuffy eyes, tired…like the worst possible things for trying to read books and prepare lessons which I had to do at that time. Well, I was teaching and drinking water all morning because my mouth was dry. At the time I couldn’t figure it out, it seemed like maybe dehydration, but drinking more water didn’t help…obviously!! I probably wasn’t eating enough for breakfast or lunch either because our budget was really tight at that time.
When I was in high school, I hardly drank anything, because I just wasn’t thirsty, and probably went to the bathroom 3 or 4 times all day most days. I was a lot healthier then than I am now.
Also, when I’m feeling a crash, I always crave dry, starchy, salty foods like pretzels or crackers. I guess I should make sure the pantry is stocked with them. You know, for my health. :)
Yeah, drinking a lot during the morning hours and not eating much food can definitely cause some serious malaise for those with low sugar tendencies.
Hi Matt! Thanks for the candid observations of RBTI. Very very interesting!! It’s so funny you mention pretzels – I rarely keep these in my house because I tend to want to eat the entire bag, but when I hit my typical slump in the day (between 4 and 5pm), the one thing that makes me feel better is eating pretzels or crackers. I hate it because I feel like it is so unhealthy, but I finally feel back to normal. Interesting observation you’ve made!
So how would a person prone to hypoglycemia deal with dehydration? The first time I went to the hospital for my ruptured appendix (undiagnosed during this visit) the phlebotomist had a hard time hitting a good vein for my i.v. Usually it’s very easy to hit a juicy vein on me. They declared me dehydrated. I promptly drank the fool out of literally gallons of Gatorade, water, coconut water and sprite. It never helped to hydrate me, though, because the 3 weeks I spent in the hospital, they stuck me over 3 dozen times, trying to get a good i.v. and withdrawing blood for tests (until they finally installed a PICT line, which was awesome.) I still don’t have the large, strong veins on the top of my hands that I had going into the whole ordeal.
Drinking more is very dehydrating I find. And as far as vascularity and veins popping out, when my sugars are low I have no veins popping out at all, but when my sugars rise, vascularity increases tremendously, and I have veins popping out. I have always tended towards low blood pressure and very little vascularity. But getting my sugars and salts up and drinking less water makes me feel like the Ultimate Warrior. http://www.metalinjection.net/upcoming-releases/ultimate-warrior-guest-appearance-winds-plague-album
I suppose that would be a good use for all that coconut oil we’re no longer guzzling – to rub it all over our highly vascular bodies.
Well, you know a tablespoon here and there is probably okay. But yes, we should rub it all over our bodies. Highly vascular or not.
Hopefully feeling like him but not ranting and raving like him :)
I don’t know, Matt. I’m someone that did not do well at all with the RBTI meal patterns and I think I’m different somehow in body chemistry because I’ve had very different reactions than the ones you describe. These days, I start the day with a glass of water with a lemon squeezed into it. This is making me feel really good. I’m drinking much more water than I was during the RBTI time, and my blood sugars are much more stable. I drink to thirst. If I don’t drink enough I get headaches. Today I had a big lunch followed by a couple of cookies, and my blood sugar felt like it soared and then crashed later. It did not feel good. Having a good, whole foods dinner made it better again (no sugar, but I did use salt, on starch with a little protein and veggies). Min-col did not make me feel good either, though I haven’t tried it recently and nothing was feeling good during the RBTI time so maybe I should try min-col again sometime.
The only things that have really been helping me are taking olive leaf extract (an immune booster) and maca (which balances hormones) and eating my usual rrarf-y diet and listening to my body. I’ve been taking some other supplements, too, like calcium, magnesium, zinc and some other minerals. Plus iron. The iron has helped a lot, I think. Some of them have gelatin in them. Do you think that small amount of pork is problematic, or not worth worrying about?
Anyway, if this tells you anything, I’m curiouos, but a lot of the “findings” you’ve listed above did not hold true for me.
Oh, and even though I drink a lot of water I don’t think I pee an abnormal amount. I probably use the bathroom 3 times during my workday and maybe once in the evening when I’m home (not counting at bedtime).
Nowadays I don’t adhere to any type of eating schedule across the board, although those with a typical pattern (crashing in the morning, high in the evening) definitely seem to fare better eating a nice, carby breakfast. I would rather see people basing their eating decisions off of biofeedback than anything else. Like yesterday afternoon I was feeling colder than normal in the feet from having too much fat and too little carbohdyrate at lunch. So I ate something late and washed it down with chocolate milk and was sweating with no covers on by the time I went to bed. It was the right decision. If I was strictly following RBTI I would have been afraid to eat a cupcake and chocolate milk after 2pm, and I would have suffered from adhering to this rule in this particular situation. RBTI is rigid, and doesn’t account for daily variations, individual variations, etc. Some people are high in the morning and crash in the afternoon, and do better by drinking water early in the day and eating lightly and then pigging out at dinner. Or what if you have a stressful event occur at 9pm? People should be eating ice cream after such an event, not be afraid of eating at that time.
As far as your experiences, one mistake like a flawed drinking schedule is enough to ruin all of the results you might have obtained otherwise. Or having an eating schedule that is in disharmony with your tendencies (I think having someone monitor their urine brix every time they whiz for several days is about the most revealing data one can gather with RBTI… in fact, just turning someone loose with a refractometer is probably enough for someone to figure it out on their own… figure out a) what number they feel the best at b) when it tends to be too low or too high c) how to keep it close to their perfect range all throughout the day).
So it’s hard to say.
Yeah, I was going totally based off of bio-feedback before the RBTI time and I think that is why I was doing better back then. I’m trying to stick with that now, and I know that starch is my friend, and I love a diet of plenty of carbs (brown rice especially), with some leaner meats and veggies, with a little bit of organ meat and broth thrown in and occasional fruit. And olive oil and ghee, I’m back to this now. Maybe I’ll try the refractometer to monitor stuff for awhile. Hard when I’m at work all day, but maybe on a weekend.
By the way, I had a hair analysis done as part of my return-to-health quest, and I came out with extremely low levels of pretty much every mineral, except for an excess amount of copper (thank you, years of birth control pill). So, obviously, my body is depleted, which is not a surprise given that I had an eating disorder for most of my 20s. But I think my very depleted state might account for the sensitivity.
Also, you didn’t answer my question on gelatin in supplements. Is it something to worry about? Or is it only eating regular pork in diet that should be avoided?
Hi Matt,
I’m working under the care of Su from Promise Outreach and when I told her about the no meats/sweets/starches after 2pm rule, she told me that Doc Reams never said that and that we don’t exclude any major food group from any of our meals. She said that it is true that we should try to keep our lightest meal at night, but that in no way means we can’t have meats/starches/fruits at night. Because I’m in the same situation as a lot of people out there, my sugars are so low that she wants me to eat plenty of carbs and that means eating them at the evening meal too!
I noticed when I started allowing myself higher carbs at night, my morning temps are finally rising and I’m going later and later with the time I get up to go pee at night. I’ve gone from a consistent 96.4 temp to finally getting it up to 97.5. This is huge for me!
This all makes me wonder how much information about the TRUE rules of RBTI are accurate. Half the time, when I would bring up what I thought was a rule in RBTI to Su, she’d dispel it saying Doc Reams never said that. The closest thing I could find online about the no sweets after 2pm rule was, he was thought to have said no fruits after 4pm, but again who knows. For me, I just trust in what Su says since she worked at Doc Reams retreats with him for over nine years and has had such great success with Osteoporosis. Works for me!
I really agree with your whole biofeedback approach much more than the so called rules. If I would of kept worrying about doing RBTI based on what I thought were the true rules, I would have continued the low blood sugar issue, as I tend to crash at night.
It really goes to show how different every one is and I’m starting to wonder if, along with the keeping track of your brix/sugars, half it’s success is believing it will work. After talking with you on the phone and when I started taking the min-col I believed I was going to heal. I guess it can be equated to the placebo affect. Give me a sugar pill and tell me it’s medicine that will heal me and I find I do get better. lol!
I came down to the conclusion recently that I’m the one that truly holds the success of my health and recovery in my own hands. Maybe it really is all in my head. If I set my mind to it and believe I will get better, I just know I will! I don’t want to keep sounding like a broken record, but I really think the mind body connection to health can’t be ignored. So much of what we do and how we react to stress and situations in life come from our past whether good or bad. Just think how these mental imprints/memories really affect not only our digestion and assimilation of nutrients, but our spirits. Who knows just how much these factors and past experiences play a role in our health and well being. Will you ever consider exploring in more depth on this topic if you haven’t already done so(sorry if you have as I haven’t read all your posts yet)?
When I started working with Su, she kept telling me to look at the bible passages(Promise Outreach does a Christian approach) that mention the bones and I will be able to tell what emotions are connected to them. I have never been a religious person, just very spiritual, so to be honest I didn’t even know where to start. When I did a few google searches I came up with one particular passage that says…silence makes the bones grow old. If I look at the fact that I have a dexa score reading worse than an 85 year old and I’m only 30 and considering I was a very silent child and did everything I could not be noticed, to the point of even keeping being molested as a child, I find the correlation that bible passage makes quite fascinating. I’d be very curious to see what other organs are tied to certain emotions/brain waves. I wouldn’t want the bible correlation to turn others off or steer people from looking deeper into it. I’m thinking more in scientific/spiritual well being terms.
Anyway, I wont babble anymore. I guess we can say I finally got my voice though! :-) One of the many good things that came from my accident!
Blessings,
Jennifer
Jennifer,
If you want to investigate further the body/mind connection check out German New Medicine. It’s quite fascinating.
Lisa
Lisa,
Thank you so much! I will definitely look into that. I really am fascinated with what I’ve come across so far!
Blessings,
Jennifer
TCM Kidney meredian covers bones. KD emotion is fear.
I had a similar experience this evening. My toes, fingers, and even tip of my nose were getting cold. I was trying be careful with my calories (seems to be counter-productive these days) but then decided to hell with it and ate some orange sherbet (fake, with HFCS). Shortly thereafter I felt like doing a few pullups and my extremities got nice and warm. Brix also went up to around 5.5. I might be better off with a Brix in the 5-6 range because it seems like a feel better when it’s over 5 rather than under. Under 5 and my pee is really light. I have to be careful though because if it gets too much over 6 I get headaches. Trying to find the right combination of salt + sugar to keep it where it needs to be. Too much salt and my body forces me to drink something.
“Trying to be careful with calories” is such an excellent way to put it. It’s all that don’t eat too much hyperbole we’re continuously fed. I know logically and scientifically those arguments don’t really stack up, but in the face of not knowing what really causes obesity, we continue to run in silent fear of the one thing we possibly do know.
But we really fail to give the body credit. I’ve been in that state plenty of times where I’m kind of cold but at the same time not really hungry. So typically I will not eat. Concepts still creep in the way. Should I or should I not eat? I don’t know. Well I’ll just eat later, or tomorrow, when I’m hungry.
Some scenarios allow me to let go of those concepts though. I had a dinner party at my house a few days ago for which I ordered gyros, kebobs, samosas, hummus, etc., from a local Middle Eastern deli. The food was delicious and there was way too much of it. I consumed plenty more than I usually do and sipped alcohol the entire night. By the time I went to bed, I was roasting. I had to lie on top of the sheets and turn the thermostat way down.
Great job here.
I do think that the accessibility of RBTI is a balancing act. People might get overwhelmed by the whole equation, but at the same time, I think having a basic understanding of the whole equation is essential to be able to do ‘RBTI Lite.’
For example, a saliva pH of 6.4 or below, when the other numbers are out of range A, indicates a need for B-12. Anytime that the numbers are out of range A, it indicates an iron, iodine, vitamin A and calcium deficiency. A urine pH above 6.4 indicates a need for cationic calciums; a urine pH below 6.4 indicates a need for anionic calciums.
There’s a lot more than that, and then you have the task of seeing ‘the picture.’ A 1.5 Brix could be really low if the numbers looked like this, for example:
1.5, 5.8/5.8, 18C, 4M, 6/4
That would also show a severe calcium deficiency, anemia, potassium deficiency and other things that I don’t know enough to recognize yet.
But while being able to interpret these numbers really well is difficult, I honestly don’t think that getting the basics is that hard. You don’t look at just one number, but when you’re just learning, you can’t do anything but look at just one number. You have to go one by one until you can slowly start to understand the bigger picture.
This is really a great article. What I really would love to see eventually, though, is an article like this that includes examples of patterns, and ways to simply deal with those problems without getting obsessive or hardcore into RBTI.
Personally I don’t think RBTI is to blame for people’s adverse reactions to it, but the misapplication of it. RBTI theory works, but the way it’s applied is still in its infancy. The lemon is important, for example, but I think what’s more important is the idea of providing the liver with ‘raw material.’ I wonder if this can be done simply with citric acid. There was an article called something like ‘vinegar for a long and healthy life’ by a Japanese guy that mentions the Krebs cycle (citric acid cycle) and how vinegar and/or citric acid can play a large role in keeping the body healthy.
RBTI theory stays the same. But the application of it changes. There are so many practicioners recommending so many different things. This isn’t a discrepancy in RBTI, but in the application of RBTI.
The reason I’m pointing this out is because I just think that RBTI is so valuable, and regardless of what people choose to do with it, making people aware of the whole equation is important. There’s just too much information that it reveals to be overlooked. The refractometer is easily the most accessible and easy to understand device used in RBTI, and if I could only recommend one tool to a person out of all of them, it would be that.
So I think you’re right on the money there. And realistically speaking, getting people to recognize the refractometer as a valuable tool would be TREMENDOUS. It’s wishful thinking to want people to embrace not only that but the entire RBTI equation and all the measurements taken — but I think it’s important, no less.
The main issue is how to present this information in a non-intimidating, user-friendly way. The whole equation just seems like too much for most people to handle, but I don’t think it has to be that way.
I think that, just as you simplified the use of the refractometer here, and pointed out ways that people not into RBTI can use it (which is great, really, and I hope this message gets out to as many people as possible)…
…I think the use of the pH test, conductivity test, urine cell debris test and urea test can be simplified in the same way. And I think the ‘picture’ of the whole equation can be simplified in the same way too.
Is this the best idea? Maybe not. But I think it’s worth taking into consideration.
The biggest stumbling block for the accessibility of RBTI is the cult-like aspect of it. The more I learn, the less of a cult it seems like, and the more accessible it is. I don’t know where that vibe came from in the first place.
I just don’t think it would take as much effort and painstaking labor as people might think for someone to get a basic understanding of the equation and be able to apply basic principles of it. I think the main problem here is that a lot of the teachers of RBTI have made it seem a lot more confusing than it actually is.
Casual RBTI has to be accessible, and I think it’s a worthy goal to make the entire equation eligible for ‘casual RBTI’ or ‘RBTI Lite’ status. It can be done. The recommendations could be, instead of working out a full program, something like you’ve recommended here:
-More solid food, less watery foods like oatmeal and fresh fruit
-Rest and relaxation – no high intensity exercise, only light to moderate like walking or yoga, etc.
-Supplementation: this would get tricky, as it’s pretty much impossible to do this properly without regularly monitoring the numbers, but you could always stick to simple, whole-foods based supplementation such as blackstrap molasses and fresh vegetable juice (carrot, leafy greens, grasses, etc. – which are all getting a lot more popular now, which helps a lot since for a lot of people already into health this isn’t much of a leap, and not a leap at all if they’ve already done it in the past, or are currently doing it). I also think Min-col, as you pointed out, is a fantastic and unique supplement and anyone can take it.
-Emphasizing variety in the diet
…the list goes on and on. But you could look at someone’s overall set of numbers and make general recommendations that would be safe to follow long-term. I think taking blackstrap molasses in reasonable doses is safe long-term, as well as taking Min-col, as well as varying the diet, as well as drinking fresh vegetable juice on a regular basis.
And people could be educated to know enough to keep basic track of their numbers to make general ‘programs’ for themselves, that are just as general as the example I just gave.
This would go more into the realm of ‘supervised biofeedback’ than straight RBTI, but it would still take advantage of RBTI principles, and would help get the message out to people about the value of RBTI and the legitimacy of the test results. And maybe most importantly, without overwhelming people or making them feel like RBTI is some kind of distant, esoteric field of knowledge that only the educated few can have access to.
I would’ve worded this more concisely if I knew how to. But these are thoughts I’ve been having for a while and they’re starting to crystallize over time. Just throwing this out there in case you might find something about it to take into consideration. This article did a really good job of pointing out the fact that RBTI can get overwhelming, but that fact is no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Accessibility is the magic word here. Personally, I think of it like guitar. I can play some extremely difficult things on guitar that took me years to learn. But I bet you I could teach someone what I know in half the time it took me to learn it. That’s because I know it so well, I can tell people to avoid the mistakes I made, and I can show them the quickest route. I learned on my own and didn’t have that advantage.
This is a universal principle, so naturally, RBTI works the same way. One person has to sweat it out and learn everything the hard way, but once that person does that, the people they teach can learn it a lot faster than they did, if that teacher can teach well.
I also like the fact that you research everything and though you appreciate RBTI your focus doesn’t revolve around it. I think RBTI can (and does) co-exist, or actually complement, other areas of research in health and nutrition. I also feel a lot better mentally since looking at the whole world instead of just RBTI, and seeing that there’s no reason any of these things have to be in conflict with each other. The world’s a big place.
blah blah blah. Just had to get that out. It’s probably because I’m anxious. No surprise with acid pH and low sugar…. ;)
Thanks for sharing.
That’s really such a great comment Jib. It’s clear the RBTI breaks down with the application, not with the theory per se. I suspect that there probably should be wild differences from one person’s diet and “program” to another’s. I have no problem applying a great deal of variation.
Plus, so much depends on a person’s lifestyle. Maybe some people are too busy at work to eat their main meal at lunch. So we have to create a way for them to get better results with the schedule they’ve already got. And there is a lot of useful stuff from the RBTI realm for how to accomplish that – even though you may be eating a totally different meal schedule. But if you eat a different meal schedule, the whole program has to change. If you eat late at night for example, you need to be drinking all your fluids at night. You wouldn’t want to eat heavy at night and drink light at night. That would be mixing two RBTI components that don’t go together.
Anyway, thanks again for the great comment. I will continue to be thinking about all this RBTI stuff and better ways for people to integrate it without realizing they are even doing “RBTI.”
I’m kinda confused Matt. I first found your website when u were into the HED but sticking 2 whole foods with the occasional splurge of processed foods. U say RBTI helped u with plugged up nostrils and other various symptoms that your having. Now ur promoting eating processed crap like pretzels chocolate milk and waffles. I’m wondering if u strayed 2 far away from the original HED into eating shit food more than just the occasional splurge. U don’t think that’s what was causing your symptoms in the first place? I’m a fan of your work man I think your getting a little 2 far back into the SAD which is what started poor health in the first place. In an earlier comment u blamed eating a high fat meal for causing a negative response, u don’t think eating all this processed shit has anything 2 with that? Eating garbage can affect ur body’s ability 2 digest natural foods like fats. Does it not? Like I said I’m just kinda confused on some of your advice here lately
Great comment. If we really want to broaden RBTI and get a much greater understanding of everything, it definitely needs to be more accessible to the average person. You can really tell that RBTI is more popular with an older generation and subset of people. Just try looking for valuable information about it online – it’s very scarce, which is weird in this day and age of everything under the sun being available for free online.
Having worked for a Microsoft partner as a software consultant, I’ve had the chance to build up some cool software for certain needs. I have this vision of utilizing and developing on some of that software to create this RBTI number tracking system that would completely be a game changer in making more sense of numbers and symptoms. If we could get thousands of numbers with correlated symptoms as well as a food log, there could be some amazing discoveries. It seems like most practitioners today don’t really have great tools for teaching the correlations and then they sell expensive and overpriced material. More of this needs to get out to the internet and explode with new ideas and information.
hi tyler, i have found out a lot from reading 14K posts on the yahoo newsgroup RBTI moderated by Rex Harrill. It would be a sea change for the world if reliable software could be developed. i learned that at least two teams of people have marketed such. it is reviewed in detail on this newsgroup and the verdict is not good at all. it’s much harder than we would imagine. that’s also why Dr Reams was able to heal so dramatically – he truly was a genius beyond everyone else and could see relationships and connections no one else can. GIGO is the word.
in addition, the reason it will probably never be all that popular is that it requires a high level of responsibility and understanding to do it and stick with it. people want instant results – a pill, an operation – the last thing they want to do is change. just ask the consultants how many people actually do what is recommended. Dr Reams saw the same thing.
Thanks for the info. Building such software from the ground up would be quite the task. I’ve already used the RBTI log software over at RBTI.info. I think that’s a great and useful start. I would like to take this to the next level by building it up on Microsoft Dynamics CRM (xRM) business software which already has a solid foundation of reporting, analytics, relationships, easily extensible custom upgrades .. all on a powerful SQL Server that has the ability to process and cut through the data to display the information in any form that you can think of. I highly doubt anyone has built such a powerful system for RBTI yet and I just can’t help but think of all the useful possibilities it could have.
Hi Tyler,
I am a Software Engineer and I have had similar thoughts myself. If you are truly interested in working on such a system, I would like to discuss the practical aspects of it with somebody. Send me an email at AFontaine79 (at) yahoo’s email service and we can talk.
Jib,
Cool insights with this comment. Would love to learn where to get more info so as to extract lots more details from the numbers aside from basics. I get the general concep behind, brix, conductivity- their relationship, the meaning of the PHs, and so forth. But I would love to learn more on how these numbers relate data such as specific mineral/ vitamin deficiencies, etc. for example, from your comment:
“For example, a saliva pH of 6.4 or below, when the other numbers are out of range A, indicates a need for B-12. Anytime that the numbers are out of range A, it indicates an iron, iodine, vitamin A and calcium deficiency. A urine pH above 6.4 indicates a need for cationic calciums; a urine pH below 6.4 indicates a need for anionic calciums.
There’s a lot more than that, and then you have the task of seeing ‘the picture. A 1.5 Brix could be really low if the numbers looked like this, for example:
1.5, 5.8/5.8, 18C, 4M, 6/4
That would also show a severe calcium deficiency, anemia, potassium deficiency and other things that I don’t know enough to recognize yet.”
More of this would be awesome to learn. Truly appreciate it my friend. Thanks
amazing post! half way through I was saying to myself “but Matt!… I barely drink any fluids during the day and my sugars are still crashing!!” and then you made sense of the apples i eat, the grapes, the oranges… during those morning hours. I only have myself to blame! thanks matt… yous a genius.
Hi Matt,
So glad you posted about RBTI again. I feel like folks like me who are doing “RBTI Lite” have no place to “hang out” and compare notes. Whenever I post anything in the RBTI Facebook group, I am told that if you don’t have a practitioner or test your numbers, you are not really doing RBTI. And yet I have things I want to share and ask about. Frustrating! Can you start a “Stone Biological Theory of Ionization” page? (That ought to piss some people off!) Or how about the “Pizza and Pie Diet” page?
I continue to marvel at the health benefits I am experiencing with RBTI Lite. In addition to the slow but steady weight loss, and the reduction in inflammation (in my skin, muscles, joints, etc.), my sleep schedule continues to amaze me and everyone who knows me. After fighting my delayed sleep disorder for my entire life, the fact that RBTI “cured” this problem within 48 hours is just astounding. I have tried every trick in the book to cure this and never found a “cure” that worked for more than a week or 2. Since starting RBTI 3 months ago, I have NO trouble going to sleep by midnight (instead of my former 6 A.M.!) and waking up around 7:00 A.M.. And now I wake up feeling refreshed and energetic, ready to jump into the day, instead of dragging myself around in a fog all day like I did when I woke up around noon.
My most recent RBTI “miracle” seems to involve my lungs and breathing. About a month after I started following Ray Peat’s advice last year, I developed asthma for the first time in my life. I attributed it to living in a home that had a lot of mold growing behind the drywall, completely hidden. I finally got so sick that I had to leave my home. We had multiple remediations and all the mold was removed, but my breathing problems persisted. So we sold the house! But no matter where I went, I still had breathing problems. It seemed I had become sensitive to practically EVERYTHING. I felt very frightened and vulnerable because I just seemed to get worse and worse.
Two months after quitting “Peat eats” and following RBTI Lite, my asthma problem is about 100 times better! I cannot believe the difference! I followed Ray Peat’s recommendations for a year and my asthma started a month after beginning with “Peat eats” and got steadily worse (as did my sleep problem, plus I gained 30 lbs!) over the course of a full year. After 2 months on RBTI, the improvement in my breathing was amazing! (Now I am starting to wonder if it was the “Peat eats” that caused the asthma in the first place!)
I am on a trip right now, and have stayed in various hotels for the past 2 weeks. Before RBTI, I could NOT have done this. I tried a few times last year and always had to leave the hotel immediately. I simply could not breathe in the motel rooms, I was so sensitive to the “bad air”. I couldn’t get out of the places fast enough. Sometimes I even had to sleep in my car because I had no choice. Now, 3 months after RBTI, and I am going in motel rooms and sleeping like a champ! I do take a negative ionizer with me, which helps. (Props to Ray Peat for recommending that.) But RBTI has enabled me to travel again, and feel like a normal human being. What a gift!
And also, as a small aside, a mole on my “chinny chin chin” has not fallen off, but I could swear it has become much softer and flatter and I am secretly hoping it just might disappear one of these days! :-)
Cathy, what guidelines do you follow for RBTI lite?
I follow the recommended meal times and avoid most of the no-no foods, most of the time. I drink distilled water and the lemonade, but not on any particular schedule, just according to my body’s desire for it.
I am still doing lots of tweaking. Since I am diabetic type 2, I find I feel better if I have a good balance of protein and carbs for breakfast, as well as lunch and dinner. I tend to crash more if I just do the carbs at breakfast, but not all the time. I can tell by the way my body feels what kind of balance I need. I find I am getting much more in touch with my body, eating this way.
The subject of Min-col and heavy metal toxicity recently came up in the Facebook group and here is what Thomas Giannou had to say about it:
“Min-Col is non-toxic. A colloid of Min-Col consists of 66 mineral compounds clustered together around and energy source. Dr. Reams never figured out what that energy source was. These colloids do not come apart into those separate mineral compounds. Those colloids can’t be made by man, but they can be analyzed. The colloids are so small they can go between molecules of glass in a test tube.
These colloids are vital to the health of plants, animals, and humans and are part of the core molecular structure of every cell in our bodies.
Good luck finding people who have replicated Dr. Reams experiments. I have listed some of my own observations about Min-Col and colloids below.
I tried making Min-Col from soft rock phosphate and the Pyrex bowl I was using started out being crystal clear and is now cloudy from the colloids that have gone into the glass. This occurred after heating distilled water with soft rock phosphate suspended in the water. It’s an expensive way to make Min-Col.
By the way, Dr. Reams and Jim Daily never used a water separation method to make Min-Col. I have a letter sent to me from Jim Daily, Jr stating that they had purchased the equipment and a bunch of soft rock phosphate from Dr. Reams that was used by Dr. Reams to make Min-Col. The equipment consisted of Sieves. Neither Reams nor Daily have used water separation to make the Min-Col they made / make and distributed.
Reams also found that those colloids do not conduct electricity and are repelled by positive and negative charges. Min-Col dissolved in distilled water does not register any conductivity on my EC meter.
I have a Hannah Dist 6 EC meter and it measures TDS in parts per trillion and it registered zero on the Min-Col solution. Evidently, non-conductive colloids are not picked up by that EC meter.
I couldn’t get a line to show up on my 0-32 brix refractometer. I don’t own an electronic refractometer which might pick something up.
Reams also said that the colloids defied gravity. I ran some hard rock phosphate through a mill in my garage. The colloids that went into the air from that mill could be seen in the sunlight as they exited my garage and went straight up in the air. I found the same thing happened when running soft rock phosphate through a hammer mill.
Reams found the colloids penetrating into glass and had to purchase platinum test tubes in order to do an accurate analysis. Platinum is dense enough to keep the colloids from penetrating. Reams charged $10,000 to analyze soft rock phosphate samples. Reams said other labs would charge $25,000 to analyze soft rock phosphate samples. A Mr. Porter who made his fortune in aspirin was purchasing soft rock phosphate mines in Florida and hired Dr. Reams to do his analysis work.
I haven’t been able to find any labs that would analyze soft rock phosphate colloids for me. I’m inclined to take some Min-Col or Soft Rock Phosphate into a lab and have them analyze the sample for aluminum, lead, and iron. I think I can get those tests done for about $32 each. They use spectrophotometers. It would be interesting to see what the results were and how close they come to the published mineral assay.
Diane, take some Min-Col and put it in your hand. Then rub it into your skin and you will find that it can penetrate into the skin. Obviously, making a test tube out of material as porous as human skin would not make a very good medium for doing a reliable chemical analysis. You would lose too much of the sample you are testing.
Just because the colloids are quite small and can fit in between molecules of glass or into gel cap material, that doesn’t mean they are all going to escape. Unless you have something that will draw the colloids through the materials, the colloids will just fill up spaces between molecules.
Dr. Reams found that the colloids went into the glass test tubes and that skewed his analysis results because he was losing material from his test sample. That’s why he purchased platinum test tubes for doing his test protocols. In his day, platinum test tubes cost a lot of money.
If I wanted to pay a lab to check on all 66 mineral compounds in the Min-Col colloids it would be about $32 per test or about $2,112.00. I can spend about that amount of money purchasing a spectrophotometer and I might be able to do several tests with that instrument, but I’d have to purchase some pure compounds that are known to be in Min-Col to serve as standard solutions for the spectrophotometer tests and all that costs money too. I would also have to build some sort of clean room and the money out really can go up with building your own lab room. If material must be weighed accurately so one knows how much mass is present, then you better get a bunch more money set aside to purchase a scale that will be accurate down to precision levels that are needed for good quantitative analysis results.
My point here with all of this is that you can do these things yourself, but you are going to need a pile of money to get precise results and any lab testing this sort of material is going to have to have equipment that will enable them to give you reliable results. I suspect this is why I haven’t been able to find any labs that are set up to give precise analysis results and I just don’t have the money to invest in those kind of tests.
There might be some data out there somewhere that tell us how small these colloids are and how porous different materials are at the molecular level. We might find part of that information in the Handbook of Physics and Chemistry or in facts about material porosity from different manufacturers.
Lesley, remember that Reams taught that colloids like what are in Min-Col (soft rock phosphate) don’t conduct electricity. They are repelled by negative and positive charges. I suspect if we look at the circuits in a conductivity meter, they are running some kind of electrical flow to make the meter work. These colloids won’t accommodate the electrical flow, so the meter won’t work with them.
If you want to try to gain higher levels of health without Min-Col, I really think that’s wishful thinking. Nitrogen, carbon and water, calcium, P2O5 colloids like in Min-Col, and potassium serve as the basis of the beginning molecular structure of our cells. There are also many other minerals involved. And lastly, the cell is coated with vitamin A and then with vitamin C.
Diane, toxic heavy metals that are problematic are generally in the form of salts which are simple compounds. They are one of the 48 different salts that get too high in the blood of many people. The colloids in Min-Col are not in that form. They are non-toxic and do not act like the toxic heavy metal salt compounds.”
Yet none of that addressed the issue of the heavy metals in Min-Col. This is a controversial topic, since all colloidal mineral products (not just Min-Col) contain high levels of heavy metals, especially aluminum. I would love to take Min-Col due to the calcium and phosphate colloids, but I have yet to find a satisfactory answer to the question, “Why are the heavy metals in colloidal mineral preparations supposed to be safe?” I’ve done a lot of research into this, and if anybody can assuage my concerns, it would be greatly appreciated!
This was also posted from Beddoe’s:
“The reason is that all the elements are in a chemical colloid complex. This complex is just like our solar system. It operates as a single unit. In other words, all the elements in a colloid of this type cannot be separated from the complex even though they can be found by laboratory analysis. They stay together in a special operational configuration that man is not able to alter. This is why the use of Mincol from soft rock phosphate will never cause a toxic situation in animals or humans.”
—
I think what they are getting at here is that all the elements are stuck together in colloidal form and so the toxic metals will never be able to separate and go somewhere in the body that they’re not supposed to go.
I don’t know, man. You might have to find a different way to go at it.
For example: Can we know for a fact that there are people who took Min-col for 10, 20, 30+ years and never had any symptoms of metal toxicity? Could someone who’s taken it for awhile get tested for toxicity to see if they have abnormal levels of toxicity? That kind of thing …
hi there me again! I am in the process of combing thru all the past posts on the yahoo rbti forum and guess what – i came upon one by Thomas Giannou about aluminum as a part of the biological system. it is number 11586 – it’s quite long, or perhaps i’m just too tired to summarize it …..
Hi Jung,
Not sure if this helps,but I checked my book from Promise Outreach about the colloids and it seems to answer a lot of the questions you have. I know I had questions about their water processed colloids vs. the air blown method so I had a long conversation with Su about it. I wanted to make sure if one was really better than the other.
Anyhow, if you read in the book about the colloids they have clinical proof of it’s effectiveness along with never having one case of toxicity. If your still working with Jody I would bring up your questions and concerns with her if you haven’t already done so. Not sure that is the “Proof” your looking for that will ease your mind, but maybe she can give you some answers.
Again, I’m not sure if this means much, but I just had a 4 month checkup with my Endocrinologist and when I took of my winter jacket for her to see my spine, she was shocked at how straight it has become. Also, the test she ran on me she said shows I’m building back cells quite fast. For the record it was actually a special urine test she ran. Seems mainstream medical is finally catching on to the effectiveness of analyzing ones urine. The only things I’m doing differently are Su’s food recommendations and the supplementation.
Blessings,
Jennifer
So which one is better and awhere do you order the different types?
Hi Aaron,
Promise has their own made for them that are for their clients,but if you check out Michael Olszta’s site, he carries both the air blown version and the water processed one called Min 66. Min 66 is more expensive the mountain minerals air blow colloids, but you can get it in bulk and save some money by not getting it encapsulated. The water process is more time consuming thus the higher price tag. You could even email Michael and he can give you some information on the pros and cons of each method. He teaches RBTI courses online so he is a wealth of knowledge and is always willing to share what he has learned.
As for air blown vs. the water processed, there is much debate on the Yahoo RBTI group forum as to which one is better or if there is even a difference. Supposedly, Mr. Daily bought Doc Reams equipment to make the min-col and that Doc Reams made it by the air blown method and to this day Dailys still makes it that way. My thoughts are… even if air blown was the original method used, people can improve on things after Doc Reams passing. That is what he wanted after all. For people to take RBTI to the next level as new things are learned. Which one he would of approved of more…I guess we’ll never know.
I just know that I trust my consultant with what she says and feel very blessed to be able to take the one I’m taking. She has a lot of “Proof” to it’s effectiveness so that’s good enough for me! :-)
Blessings,
Jennifer
Hm,,…
so can i say Mon-Col is the one supplement that I ever need??
What kind of Min-Col are you using Jennifer, the water extracted or air blown-method?
…and how much supplements do you use, please list them, thanks.
Hi Sylwester,
I take the water extracted colloids. I’m constantly changing the supplements I’m taking based on the results of my labs every month. The only supplements that have stayed the same from the beginning are the colloids, the calcium gluconate, a German B6 vitamin, calcium hydrox , an antioxidant, two different cleanse powders and a sugar/starch enzyme to help me break down my carbs . I’m now also taking a B12 since I don’t eat meat and for the time being I’m taking fermented cod liver oil, but I hope to be off it soon since I’m trying to stick to a vegetarian diet.
Writing all that I realize I pretty much sound like a dealer for a supplement company. lol! I’m coming from a pretty severe deficiency so we’re working on getting my system straightened out with the goal of getting off most of these except for the colloids, cal gluconate and I will probably continue to take the B12 because of the vegetarian diet. I want to be on the safe side. Okay… are you now sorry you asked, Sylwester? :-)
Blessings,
Jennifer
No I am very glad! :D
You said a german B6, are you living there? Because I am!
Okay, so I think the diet straightened up your back, and not the supplements alone?
Greetz
Sylwester
Enter the pancake? Eating pancakes, waffles, muffins, banana bread, fried eggs, cookies, fruit pie ? without much food with a higher water content such as milk, juice, and fruit? Now that’s what I’m talkin? bout. These foods will make you much warmer and keep your sugars from crashing. I think one of the greatest benefits of processed foods like this isn’t even that they are more digestible but the fact that the water content is lower. This is a godsend for those who are really in a low metabolism rut, as even the smallest amount of fluid from food or drink beyond the bare minimum requirement to stay hydrated can cause some pretty violent crashing. Even having breakfast cereal with milk can be too much fluid for some.
Very interesting! I’ve been kind of amazed to watch my temps come up over the past few months, since I pretty much doubled my intake of food in October. I’ve also been getting in my jammies by 6 or 7 pm and getting in bed between 9 and 10 pm. And sleeping in pitch darkness on an earthing mat. Anything to lower the stress and increase the relaxation!
OK, so my temps have REALLY started to come up AND stabilize — just in the past few weeks. I’m averaging around 98.2 during the day and a BBT of 97.8.
What have I changed in the past few weeks? I’ve been testing recipes constantly for my new cooking class called Healthy Whole Grains. Holy waffles, pancakes, muffins, cookies, bread and crackers, Batman! I’ve been eating grains (mostly whole grains but sometimes white flour for testing purposes) at every meal. I’ve been working long hours so I forget to drink water (and am off the hook with the lemonade).
I think the red spots are starting to lighten ever so slightly.
I wonder if my low thyroid/adrenal function is rooted in the hypoglycemia which was caused by skipping meals and low-carbing (HA your spell check changed that to low-crabbing — a “crabby” Freudian slip).
Needless to say I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing — very excited to see these temps coming up! Thank you, Matt!
Oh and I’d love to see a hypoglycemia book in the spring!
Can’t wait to get my REFRACTOMETER!
I too would love to see more hypoglycemia info as I believe this to be the root cause of my hormonal and panic/anxiety issues!
It probably is, you’re right about that!
Crabs, carbs… can’t wait to see you this weekend cheese! To pee or not to pee! That is the question!
PS: Love love LOVE the Castle Grok pic. Priceless!
Here’s what I like about RBTI:
It Treats the Cause, Not the Symptom
According to RBTI, poor nutrition is the cause of disease and good nutrition is the cure. It’s theory or methodology may be wrong, but at least it has the right goal ? cure the cause, not the symptoms.
Western medicine, on the other hand, is focused on curing symptoms but not their causes. Western medicine has no plan for achieving optimum health that does not require Western medicine. How’s that for a conflict of interest!
It’s Not One Size Fits All
I now see this as the most glaring problem with all mainstream diets. Just by purchasing $10 pH strips it’s easily proven that 1) people have different pH levels 2) different foods have different effects on pH 3) different pH levels correlate with different conditions.
Ray Peat’s one-size-fits-all recommendation of Orange Juice was very bad news for an already acidic person like myself. It was hard to keep on believing in Peat-atarianism when it gave me diarrhea for weeks on end.
It Gives You Something to Measure
Being able to measure something may not prove that the numbers are ideal, but it can prove that changes are actually occuring.
My Brix and Conductivity are high. Is it better if they are lower? That’s what they say, but I don’t know for sure. Does drinking more water actually lower them? Yes! This I know for sure. I’ve tested it.
It’s Fringe
Mark Twain said, “If you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.”
Think about it. When has the majority ever been right? When has a great discovery ever come from someone who wasn’t ridiculed or marginalized or dismissed?
If you regularly visit this blog, you’re probably familiar already with just how dead wrong mainstream health and nutrition ideas can be.
I’ve found this to be true in many areas of study: if everyone believes it, you can bet it’s probably wrong.
It Encourages Self-Discovery
Many people get diagnosed with a disease and then resign themselves to being medical patient and a drug customer for the rest of their lives. This just doesn’t seem right to me. Sure, there are somethings we can’t control, but I would never want to just take a doctor’s word for it that there’s nothing I can do.
Modern medicine has somehow convinced the average person that disease strikes randomly and for no apparent reason. It’s just bad luck. Random chance. You got diabetes? Damn, tough luck. Your hair is falling out? Damn, tough luck. You’ve got no libido? Damn, tough luck. And what do they say next? “There’s a pill for that.”
RBTI takes the position that health is our natural state and if we don’t have health, it’s because were doing something wrong. Which means, if we do the right thing we can get our health back.
RBTI theorizes that disease is a problem that can be solved. That’s the kind of “false hope” that leads revolutionary discoveries.
—-
RBTI may not be the whole solution, but I’d be willing to bet that any effective methodology will share these same principles.
Awesome comment SIRCH. You know I’m fully on board with pretty much all you had to say.
I reckon being dumped on a bountiful island full of life would be the best health cure only armed with the knowledge of nothing. Just go eat, soak the sun, breathe the air and to not ever know that health ever existed.
Matt, I agree with what you said. But again, this health stuff just goes around in circles.
You say you feel warmer at 3-4 brix and assuming feel better, which just throws the whole rbti equation out the window which throws the whole thing out the window. The concpet of the equation sounds good but where is the proof that any of it is ideal, assuming that it was even possible to get there?!
The Mincol thing concerns me too. The only way to be healthy is to take this one and only supplement made by only one manufacturer. What happens if this supplement stops being produced, will the human race have no chance, (of course not)? The idea of a system, formula that demands the use of only one brand of supplement does sound like a great supplement selling business. Beddoe says to take it for the rest of your life, but of course! What a perfect way to lock in repeat business, based on a health formula that might probably not be ideal and never attainable. The whole woohoo about it being a solar system and blablabla, yea.
Calcium: RBTI says calcium is deficient in modern food, and the reason why the ph is not stable. You will read other people say the opposite. Too much calcium, not enough magnesium. Too much calcium may not even be healthy, especially as a supplement. We are consuming tons of dairy in the modern world, certainly are not lacking calcium.
What is it with all the RBTI gurus, they have websites that look like they were erected at the same time as the pyramids. A website that looks like it was programmed by a school nerd in the 90’s scares me off, especially ones with pages of supplement sales.
Beddoes ebook is a piss take too. Never in my life have I encountered a bigger pain in the arse to read something.
Don’t get me started on choose life or death, wowzers what a pile.
Correct on the water schedule being a pain in the arse also. Maybe it makes sense though. If you imagine we are supposed to be naked, spend all our lives outside in nature, possibly eating a high plant/ water based diet then maybe the little bit of water often makes sense. We eat dry foods, live inside, breath dry heated air, wear clothes, everything that takes moisture away from us. Drinking water may be the only way.
I think bottom line is: There is no way to attain superhuman health. I was happier and possibly healthier when I did not care what I put in my gob, smoked a few, drunk a load and did slightly silly things.
Trying to be “healthy” is boring.
Enough of my ranting, I’m off to destroy the part of the internet that holds all the health and diet information; before I try to find the next thing that will make me superman.
Superman? Are you talking about the guy that wears underwear on the outside of his clothes? Or that durianrider guy? I confuse the two. It’s hard to tell them apart sometimes.
Yes, the magic health superman industry is largely a scam.
The RBTI books and websites are a trainwreck. Your commentary on them is absolutely epic by the way, particularly on the websites.
And yes, trying to be healthy is boring. My personal goal of late seems to be achieving the highest ratio of health/health food of any living human. It’s working pretty well!
Matt, I’d also like to hear about your thoughts on iron in Min-Col. Though I think my condition might provide some answers to this in the future since I have hemochromatosis and I supplement with ~5min-col a day.
If my ferritin levels rise much quicker with Min-Col than without (something I can easily test in the next 2 years) then would be likely that the body can alter mineral colloids.
I think you’re going to have to be our guinea pig and let us know how the min-col affects your ferritin levels. I really don’t have anything definitive to say about it. Nor do I have anything definitive to say about it in terms of hemochromatosis.
I can’t really make sense of it either. But I’m excited about being the gunea pig in my own experiment :-D
I’m doing very well on the water wash of distilled water on the 1/2 hour. I have a tendeny to high urine brix and conductivity and have immediately seen a difference with this. I put weight on with eating more carbs than normal…pancakes etc.. but if I get my heavier carbs in in the morning and adhere to the 2pm cutoff and eat only steamed vegeies in the evening I feel great. :)
Thanks for the comment Rob! Glad to hear you are still doing well.
This is all really interesting. Cool, actually, to see how you’ve distilled and integrated what you learned with RBTI.
So, how much _is_ frequent urination? I pee a lot, but three-four times a day sounds like very little to me: is it normal? (I go three or four times that!) So interesting about the dry breakfast. I probably drink about a gallon of herbal tea, etc, at breakfast–I just always seem to need a lot of liquid that time of day. Just a bad habit?
I think your sugars are crashing and dehydrating you like crazy, and making you really thirsty in the morning. Similar to a night of heavy drinking. I would make sure that your urine has some good yellow color to it – always. Not most of the time, but all through the day. And adjust your diet and drinking in accordance to achieve that.
Matt, could you please lead me in the direction or tell me what are the usual causes of kidney stones? My friend told me he “broke” his down with lemon juice. I’d hear of people having stones when I was younger and I’d always think of “too much salt not enough water” in my head. And yet the whole don’t drink too much, conductivity etc.. thing makes sense to me. But it’s still scary. I want to be able to tell people how they got their stones and how to get rid of them too =)
These comments for this post are tremendous. I need more time to read! Sirch’s stuff is incredible. I feel like that’s how I’d want to comment if I had the time. Likewise for Lee, I found the opposition refreshing and funny lol. All of you though, great work. Great job to you too Matt for siftin’ out the useful and realistic stuff.
Any of you familiar with Dragon Ball Z? I seriously always think about the need of a hyperbolic time chamber to complete what my mind is hungry for! If only I drove a tow motor and could listen to audiobooks =P jus kiddin.
Can someone please say something about kidney stones? lol
Ahhhh a hyperbolic time chamber. I would kill for one of those. I just watched some DBZ for nostalgia sake the other day…
I think what this all boils down to…. stop reading about what you should do, forget everything you think you should do, then do what you want.
Dammit.
Lee for prez!!!
Matt for Vice!
Jung, masochistic? Are you serious? My thirst mechanism is so trained now that i actually look to drink fluids about every 1/2 hour. I am seriously of the opinion that Challen somewhat clouded Matt’s outlook on the whole program due to his rigid nature and “I’m right” way of thinking. Dr Manthei taught some very interesting concepts and encouraged his students to continue to develop RBTI in the way that they see fit. The whole stopping fluids at 4pm thing for Challen, and his 4oz of water at each drink, is kind of ridiculous. For myself, and at least a dozen others who are doing this with me, we’ve cut down on the ounces of water per drink, at extended drinking to 12-15 hours per day, and it’s worked wonders. Also, using fruit juice diluted with distilled water helps to bolster brix levels for people with tendency to low blood sugar.
What makes RBTI so controversial is that there isn’t really one way of doing it. Reams had his way, and he taught his students to expand upon it. Unfortunately instead you have people like Challen who say “my way is the only way” and if that way sounds ridiculous to some people, or doesn’t work for them, it causes controversy and misunderstanding of core concepts.
I appreciate Matt’s honesty, but for me, it’s been close to 90 days on the program and I can say nothing but the best things about it. I love how it allows for personal tinkering and experimenting to find out what works best. And I’ve never looked better in my whole entire life; at least 5 people over the holidays said I look like I’m aging in reverse. It’s all RBTI.
Yes Rick. Just a small tinkering of something like the fluid intake can make or break the program. I’m so glad you went beyond the constraints of a rigid system and made it work with your own self-experimentation. This is why I will never let RBTI go. Its potential value is obvious, and its ability to work when all the moving parts are dialed in and working synergistically with an individual and their needs I assume to be unmatched.
Rick, do you and these other people have a message board or something where you post everything? I would love to start learning more of RBTI and using it differently beause conceptionally it relaly seems to make sense but some of the Challen stuff is akward and I feel it could be better. I would love to hear what you all are doing and perhaps join the crew. Can you email me at dadrooooo@hotmail.com?
-drew
I don’t know much about RBTI but what you said about excess fluid causing sugar crashes is ringing a bell with me. I suspect I’ve always had low-ish metabolism (low blood pressure, feel cold a lot, always carry about 10 extra pounds) and I used to experience daily sugar crashes that were often debilitating. Guess what I used to love to eat? Cereal with milk! I would have it for breakfast, mid-morning and often in the later afternoon or before bed at night. I kicked my cereal addiction and haven’t had a bowl of cereal in years, and my sugar crashes pretty much went away. I credited this to eating less carbs and have since done some low-carb dieting ( which wrecked me by the way, made me MUCH MORE sugar sensitive) but after reading this I wonder if it was possibly the fluid intake, not the carbs. I’ll do some experimenting now.
Yes, low-carbing will absolutely crush many people’s glucose metabolism. Did mine. I couldn’t eat a banana at one point without crying like a little girl. Even I get some chilly toes with breakfast cereal. With cinnamon rolls I’m good to go. Nothing wrong with some meat and fat, but you don’t want to become dependent on that to keep your sugar from crashing. It causes a slow, downward trend into metabolic oblivion from what I’ve seen.
I see you’ve come to a lot of the same conclusions about RBTI that I have. The only difference I have is that I find the 1.5 number to be just about right on the money. And when I get up in the morning my body wants to get there as fast as possible. I probably glug 4oz from the cooler first thing after getting into work and sip heavily until I hit that point, I’m going to the bathroom for the 2nd or 3rd time and urine is light yellow. Then I don’t drink much until lunch or so.
I’m also super-impressed with Min-Col, but I’d like to know your thoughts on Algazim as well. I think that’s a super clever idea to provide dried sea vegetables as a supplement.
I just ordered some Algazim and will be taking it for a while. I haven’t taken it personally up until this point.
I noticed a difference instantly when I added Algazim. I’m not going to use it anymore after this first bottle, except occasionally when I have extra money, but it’s noticeable.
Right now for me it’s Cal Lactate, Min-Col and Algazim with meals, and between meals it’s B-6, C and E. I’m still tending towards alkalinity, haven’t had the pH under 6.6 in about 3 weeks. It’s all the foods i’m eating; I know which foods to eat to turn me more cationic but unfortunately they aren’t conducive with the local produce we’re getting here in Pgh.
I noticed a difference too when I started taking Algazim – I had for several years had a frustringly low rate of healing (like a little scrape on my hand would take a month to heal) which changed dramatically within a few weeks of taking Algazim. Hoo-effing-ray!
I thrid the greatness of algazim!
I just scrolled through the Testimonials page and saw mine! :D Made my day.
Hee hee
I initially found the drinking schedule to be a pain but after coming off drinking LITERALLY a gallon of water a day (you know…8 8oz glasses, then additional for your weight-what a moronic concept) I sure found not peeing thousands of times a day a relief and couldn’t believe 4 oz each hour (or half hour) was going to quench my thirst when I could put away a good 24 oz at a time previously. But yes, the drinking schedule is a pain…when I’m busy I tend to forget to watch the clock to make sure I drink, but am doing the lemon water regularly, coffee w/breakfast so no water other than lemon until after lunch and some afternoons don’t even want or drink water, just the lemon ’till it’s gone.
Still troubled that I have to get up twice at night to pee…am following all RBTI rules but if it’s my sugar dropping, not sure how to counteract that in the eves.
By the way, LOVE the graphic of the vials. HILARIOUS!!
And Jib and sirch great concise comments!
Do you find that all pork products cause the negative changes in body chemistry? I’m thinking of the recent Wise Traditions article the compared fresh pork with marinated or cured pork products.
In terms of soul-satisfying foods, bacon would be right up there with ice cream for me.
This may be nit-picky but it’s not really an equation. Equations have equal signs and usually other math symbols, +, -, X, /. Unless you count the 2 /s, there are none of these. If this was mentioned somewhere else, I missed it.
I have not studied RBTI at all so I don’t have an opinion on it. But I did have a thought. Maybe that’s what’s missing. Maybe the reason some people feel so bad, even with good numbers, and good with high numbers is that there should be an equal sign and some variables on the other side. For instance, if someone feels good with a brix higher than 1.5 with there salt above optimal, maybe those are good numbers because they would balance out with some variable on the other side. Of course I have no idea. It was just a thought. Feel free to add anything or criticize.
yes the correct term is “array” – a set of numbers in relationship – but not an equation with “an answer”
Or else set of equations. Like this:
1.0 <= Urine Brix <= 2.0
6.2 <= Urine pH <= 6.8
etc.
Hey, I recently started taking powdered ant extract to see if that could act as a mineral supplement and an easily digestible protein source. So far it’s been awesome. My appetite has gone down, my strength and mood have increased, and my digestion is stronger.
It’s called Polyrachis Ant, and my source is Hyperion Herbs.
Thanks for the summation Matt. I totally agree with you about the lemonade drink. Couldn’t stand the regimentation and basically had no time except to drink and pee for the duration of whatever amount I was supposed to drink. That didn’t last too long, quickly quit it and was very happy about it. I had the strange thought that if only I continued…..kinda like the thoughts I had when I was a vegan but not a pure raw food one. Anyway.
I thought there were some interesting thoughts on the RBTI forum but also some hostility towards a certain person there (who seemed to be the most knowledgeable and had the most interesting thoughts on RBTI) which kind of threw me considering the RBTI’ers seem to be very religious orientated. I also dropped off their list. Which makes me an RBTIer dropout! I have sinned! Pray for me Matt.
Interesting thoughts on water content of foods. I’ll think more about it. Pancakes certainly do sound good.
The one thing I have pretty much kept is using distilled water. I remineralize it using liquid trace minerals instead of the maple syrup or molasses.
Again I think your summary is well thought out and would be considered blasphemous on the RBTI forum. Which makes me sure you’re on the right trail.
What are your thoughts on diatomaceous earth? I went and checked out the Min-Col you recommended and it seems awfully similar to diatomaceous earth, but maybe I’m mistaken. I’m just curious because my husband and I have been taking DE for a few months off and on, but I’m on the fence about it. Mainly taking it because it’s supposed to help detoxify the body and it has a super high silica content, plus it seems to help me sleep a bit better. Anyway, just curious if you have an opinion about it!
Hi Kelsey. I havent researched this at all but if you go to the Repair Recover Restore site they have a supplement called K-Min which is Min-Col plus the diotamaceous earth. I emailed the site about it and they said that Reams (I think it was him) found that DE works better when taken with Min-Col. I decided to try the K-min for the heck of it and havent noticed a difference since taking it a couple weeks ago or so. But thats just me, could definitely be worth a try for you. I did it to make sure I dont have any gut parasites.
I did RBTI to a good degree for about three months.
The good: I was regularly well hydrated and the light dinners help me wake up in the mornings easier.
The bad: it jacked up my immune system! 6 weeks into it I started getting rashes around my mouth and reactions on my lips (fat lips) from everyday foods that were fine before. Then I started getting hives all over my body! They’d come and go I couldn’t figure out a specific cause. This went on for 6+ weeks. I hadn’t had hives since I was kid (I’m currently 45). Even after I abandoned the plan toward higher fat/protein, which I was fine on before, I was still getting hives.
Finally last week I went back to the muscle tester/nutritionist/acupuncturist I was going to before. He uses “Nutrition Response Testing” to diagnose all your body organs and systems, way beyond the usual. I think he’s developed it to such a degree that it’s largely his personal intuition, as he barely even pushes on my arm–it’s more like he just touches it. He said my immune systems was in a super hyper state, thus attacking my own body, and the virus in my liver he had been treating me for before had gotten worse. He prescribed 4 supplements and I see him again in 3 weeks. The hives aren’t completely gone but they’ve reduced in a just a few days.
I think I’ll keep the refractometer, conductivity meter and ph strips, but if anyone wants a chemical test kit for PH and urea that has been used less than half a dozen times, I would sell it. Got it from Pike Agri-lab.
I still don’t like many of the eating rules of RBTI. Some just make no sense, and I don’t like the “one diet fits all — everyone needs to eat this way” idea. It’s the same reason low-carb or high-carb appears to work for some and not for others. I think metabolic typing has some validity.
Jason from Sacramento
My immune system got wrecked by following the RBTI meal patterns (that’s really all I was doing – that, restricting fluids and avoiding all no foods, and taking some min-col), and all the fluctuating blood sugar patterns it caused. Months later, I’m still recovering and had to start taking an immune boosting supplement, which is finally helping me feel better. I think it affected me spiritually/emotionally, too, which all the restrictions and not being able to listen to my body. Definitely net negative for me. I’m continuing to avoid the pork and shellfish when possible and nuts and chocolate because that made sense (still allowing to be socially normal and eat it when it’s the only thing served, though). And I use kosher salt now but am not obsessive about avoiding stuff with sea salt. But that is it. And my body finally seems to be healing.
As to the water content of food, I was just reminded of the book Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond and the “natural hygiene” philosophy. Might be before your time Matt but man was that a fad. They were all about high-water content foods (fruits and veggies). If you want steak, slice up a little and add it to your salad. Ha.
Jason from Sacramento
I’ve actually got that book but haven’t read it. Figured I needed it as part of my education. Didn’t want to be stumped by somebody on a Fit for Life pop quiz. High water content foods reduce appetite tremendously, and you eat less and typically lose weight. I’m sure that was the premise. Or their observation.
When I first started reading about health stuff when I was 16 formerfatguy.com was where I was getting most of my information. The webmaster and former fat dude Rob Cooper would actually email me sometimes and try to help me out. I food combined for a long time because of Rob, and his interview with Harvey himself. I listened to that interview so many times…It makes/made so much sense and Harvey is such a nice guy and is so enthusiastic about what he is saying it’s amazing. Definitely something you should probably listen to.
i’m old enough to remember the enthusiasm when that book came out, and how good looking they were, and how they were raising their kid with hygiene principles… i googled them both a few months ago and saw a horrible video of a haggy, toothless old dude hawking his packaged up enzymes….. read about how their son was convicted of some kinda bernied madoff deal…. and the mom has a website with her dressed up in red leather and thigh boots. enjoy.
Jason. I’m interested in your “stuff” but am not sure about shipping to Canada.
Thanks for the response, Matt. I appreciate it — and I appreciate your work here a lot. It’s easy to take it for granted, but I’m always excited to read your new posts and they keep me encouraged to keep working on my health and not give up. Been listening to “You’re The Best Around” a lot.
As for all the people talking about RBTI not working for them or writing it off: Please don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Your criticisms and skepticism are all completely valid, but PLEASE understand that a lot of the bad rap that RBTI gets is due to individual practicioners’ presentation of RBTI, not RBTI itself.
I want to drive this point home because it looks like a lot of people are getting turned off to RBTI just because of a bad experience with a practicioner, or a bad presentation of RBTI by a practicioner. Such as:
-If you’re not doing the lemonade, you’re not doing RBTI
-If you’re not drinking exactly on the half hour and hour, you’re not doing RBTI
-If you’re not taking the exactly right supplements in the exact right amounts, you’re not doing RBTI
-If you eat any sweets after 2PM, you’re not doing RBTI
-If you eat a big dinner, you’re not doing RBTI
…and the list goes on and on.
None of this is true. Yes, these are some vague principles in RBTI: you want to be taking the right supplements for your body chemistry, you want to have the biggest meal at lunch. But there are also a lot of variables. Depending on your body chemistry and your career, you might do better having a bigger dinner instead of a small, light dinner. And I never drink exactly on the half hour. Yes, some people will criticize me about that and say it’s extremely important that you drink exactly on time.
Well I don’t, and I’m still seeing improvements. And to me it’s only realistic to expect people to follow this long-term if you make it seem more flexible and adaptable.
And really, it is. To me, if you’re monitoring your body chemistry on a regular basis (e.g., once a week for a full test, or however often you want just using a refractometer and conductivity meter, or pH strips/bromthymol blue), and making adaptations to your supplements and lifestyle based on those numbers, you’re doing RBTI, regardless of whether you’re doing it well or not.
If your numbers aren’t getting in range, you’re still doing RBTI. It just means that you’re not doing it very well.
And I think that’s an important point to bring up too. A few months is not that long at all on RBTI. I’ve been doing it for 5 months and I still don’t consider that even a decent trial, since I haven’t managed to get my numbers in healing range and keep them there for any length of time. It’s tricky to do that.
And for the people saying they feel better at 3 or 4 Brix: the reason for this isn’t in contradiction with RBTI. According to RBTI, you might actually be better off having a 3 or 4 Brix, depending on what your other numbers are. If you were very acid, for example, it would probably be better to have a higher Brix, because a double acid situation is a high energy loss situation, and having more energy coming in as opposed to less will be better. I would much rather have a Brix of 3.5 or 4.0 with a pH of 5.5/5.5, for example, instead of a Brix of 1.5. A Brix of 1.5 with a pH of 5.5/5.5 would be very low, because those pHs show a lot of energy loss. pHs that low show a severe calcium deficiency, anemia/B12 deficiency (low saliva pH – 6.4 or below when all the other numbers are out as well), and not enough resistance in the digestion, so food will be passing through but you’re getting very little energy out of it. With the UpH that low, too, it’ll be very difficult for you to efficiently absorb a wide range of minerals.
I’m a newbie to RBTI and by no means is what I just said an accurate and complete analysis. It’s just an example of how RBTI itself is different from how practicioners present it.
The truth is you have to experiment. No one at all can know what’s going to happen with certain supplements and drinking regimens. It has to be tested according to what that practicioner thinks would help the most – you try their ‘best practice’ (as William often says) and then take it
from there.
…(continued soon)
This is why I prefer doing RBTI on my own. Yes, it’s harder, because I don’t have much help. But that’s not completely true because there’s a forum now, there’s the Facebook group, and there are books like Beddoe’s.
And it also isn’t as cult-like as I thought. With all the crazy stuff that people do, is taking some supplements and establishing regular meal times really that out there? The drinking regimen can be a pain in the ass, but as tedious as it can be, I’m finding that it works very well.
And that said, is it really that weird? A lot of people carry water bottles around with them.
Matt’s recommended some things to people with low Brix readings. And it will likely help them a lot. I work with someone who says they wake up regularly at night craving tons of sweets. I asked them if they have a lot of fluid at dinner, and they said that’s when they have most of their fluid. I told them to try having only fruit juice at dinner, and only if they’re really thirsty and craving something, and to not drink anything at dinner if they’re not thirsty.
I haven’t heard back from them yet but I’m curious to see if that helps. It sounded like a dead giveaway that they were having lots of fluid at dinner and then waking up in the middle of the night with dead giveaway signs of a sugar crash – craving sweets, and saying things like they couldn’t have just one or two, like they had to have at least nine cookies, and then once they had that they could go back to sleep.
Now, on the other hand, if someone has very high refractometer readings, it might benefit them a lot to follow the drinking schedule, and if not that, to at least drink water throughout the day.
The rest of the equation simply gives you a better idea of what’s going on. The refractometer reading is very revealing, but if someone’s not feeling well according to your recommendations, looking at the conductivity can also help.
Bryan over at the RBTI forum is working with Jacqueline and you can read about that there. He has a very high Brix and very low conductivity. Matt mentioned hypoglycemia, but also hyponatremia – low salts.
Bryan is the kind of person that would have the opposite problem of someone like me. I drink too much water and I will have ‘hypoglycemic’ episodes, while my conductivity (salts) stay high. If he drinks too much maybe he will be having ‘hyponatremia’ episodes, while his Brix (sugar) stays high.
The conductivity meter just gives a better reference for what’s going on, when you use it together with the refractometer. The pH will also help. And the cell debris count, and the ureas. All the numbers work together.
That said, I think the conductivity meter and refractometer together are much more effective than the refractometer alone. Jacqueline has a great post over at the RBTI forum:
http://rbtinotes.com/forum/main-forum/distilled-water-and-the-conductivity-vs-brix-ratio/
Some general guidelines she mentions are:
“If the ratio [of the Brix reading to the conductivity reading] is lower as 4-5, sweeteners in the fluids are not required and are not beneficial.
The amount of water a person takes is determined by the amount her/his body can handle at that time, but if we do not keep that into account, we could simply state it as followed:
If the conductivity is below 6-7C you are drinking too much water
If the conductivity is above 10C AND not steadily declining, you are drinking not enough water
IF the conductivity to Brix ratio is above 5 you need more sweetener.”
This is a perfect example of how “no number is perfect unless all the other numbers are perfect.” RBTI does not say 1.5 is perfect Brix – it’s only perfect in the context of the perfect equation. If the rest of your chemistry is out, then 1.5 Brix could be low sugar.
This is why there’s the Healing Range. This is flexible, unlike the perfect equation, which is fixed.
Brix: 1.2-2.0
pH: 6.2-6.8
Conductivity: 6-12C
Cell debris: 4M or higher
Urea total: 12-20
And you’re only in healing range if the rest of your numbers are in healing range. For example, I would not consider this healing range:
1.5, 6.4/5.0, 12C, 4M, 6/4
This person would have low sugar problems (based on the interpretation of the Brix-conductivity ratio, which is high, indicating low sugar – higher concentration of salts in the bloodstream compared to carbohydrates), a B-12 deficiency (low saliva pH), a potassium problem which could turn into a deficiency if their numbers stayed in this range (total urea = 10)
So the 1.5 Brix is ‘perfect,’ the 6.4 UpH is ‘perfect,’ the 12C is ‘perfect,’ and the 4M is ‘perfect,’ as far as healing range goes. Just the saliva pH being out, the ureas being low and the Brix-conductivity ratio being high makes labeling all of those numbers ‘perfect’ or identifying them as being in ‘healing range’ absolutely meaningless.
Now again, keep in mind that I’m a beginner, and I’m only giving a very vague interpretation of the numbers. By no means do I really know what I’m doing yet and I’m not writing this to teach people about the RBTI equation or how to read it, but to illustrate a conceptual point I’m trying to make about RBTI. I’m talking about generalities and concepts here, not specifics.
So hopefully you can see there’s a lot more to it than hard and fast rules or some kind of religious rite. It’s all based on the numbers and RBTI theory. Yes, the RBTI theory can get a little hinky sounding, but it’s still important, because that’s where the equation came from.
It *is* an equation, too, by the way.
CS + 1.5, 6.4/6.4, 6-7C, .04M, 3/3 = PH
‘CS’ stands for “common sense” and ‘PH’ stands for “perfect health.”
And I know that also sounds kind of hinky but it actually makes sense when you think about it. Common sense is important and Reams talked about examples of people with very ‘good’ numbers that ended up with problems simply because they didn’t use common sense. Like pushing themselves too hard when they needed to rest. Your numbers can be very ‘good’ but all that ‘good’ means is you’re healing as fast as you can. It doesn’t mean you’re better or that you’ll automatically feel great when you hit that range. It might take you three months or more of being in that range consistently, and doing the program properly, to really start feeling good.
And I wouldn’t know, because I haven’t managed to do that on my own yet. Although I have seen a lot of improvements doing RBTI, such as a lot less fatigue and exhaustion, which I attribute mostly to eating breakfast regularly, drinking enough fluid to keep my body clear of wastes (on my first test, my urea was on the high side – 10/9, 19 total – and my conductivity was on the high side too – 18C. Which isn’t too bad, but it’s still high, and I think drinking enough fluid every day is really helping me feel better.
And before RBTI I hardly drank much at all, which was probably resulting in an accumulation of more waste in my bloodstream than my body could handle without the help of water. It’s not rocket science here – the use of agricultural lab equipment might sound wu-wu at first, but the idea that not drinking enough water can be stressful to your body, just like drinking too much can be, sounds pretty down to earth and logical to me.
Okay, almost done…!
I don’t want to come off as defensive or like I’m attacking anyone here, either. The complaints people have are all completely valid. I’m simply trying to shed some light here on what’s really going on — which, as I said before, I think has more to do with the application of RBTI as opposed to RBTI itself.
People’s complaints are valid, but when they’re based on an incomplete understanding of RBTI, it’s very damaging to the reputation of RBTI and can turn a lot of people off to something that has an incredible amount of potential to help people *WHEN PROPERLY APPLIED*.
And also keep in mind that, just like the rest of the nutrition world, RBTI is in its infancy. This is why you have people who stick to ‘old school’ RBTI, and people who go out on a limb and do enzyme testing and all this other stuff while still following the RBTI equation.
I’m on the conventional medicine route in at least one way: I was diagnosed with a compound heterozygous gene mutation for the MTHFR gene — C677T mutation and A1298C mutation. MTHFR.net has lots of great information and I’ve been relying on that because no one else seems to know as much or take MTHFR gene mutations as seriously.
Anyway, I’m doing RBTI to the best of my personal ability, and also working with things like this. RBTI isn’t the only way, but because it’s not, it’s also not incompatible with other practices. Like RRARF.
There’s a lot of weird stuff in RBTI, like people’s chemistry looking really messed up, then changing around a little while later and looking much better. So who knows. If you do RRARF, maybe your numbers would show that your body is extremely stressed and your numbers look awful, but if you stuck it out until your body temperature came up, your numbers would stabilize and start looking better.
RBTI is unique in that it’s timeless. A blood test for some specific thing will only tell you that one specific thing. RBTI is like blood tests on steroids x100. You get an overall picture of what’s going on in your body with every test, instead of what’s going on with just one small part of your chemistry, like one organ, or one mechanism like insulin production. It paints a picture, and that’s timeless.
Theoretically you could use RBTI in conjunction with any other therapy at all, as a reference. That’s what’s so great about it. That’s where the potential of RBTI lies – the timelessness of the perfect equation. It’s self-contained, and because it’s self-contained, it’s not limited by the boundaries of other practices. So it has the potential to grow right alongside every other alternative practice. RBTI can’t be outdated. Only the application of it can be outdated, and that can be revised and edited and tweaked ad infinitum.
I don’t know why I said ad infinitum. I almost said ad nauseum but that’s too ironic. But also kind of funny because we’re talking about health and stuff. Get it? Nausea? …yeah.
Anyway, that’s all I have to say for now.
Sorry I couldn’t keep pace with the comments here. I was travelling all day yesterday and will be way too busy making fun of women on steroids with Debbie Young at the L.A. Health and Fitness Expo this weekend to get caught up here. But I will try on Monday.
Love the post, Matt. Thanks for the update on your thinking about RBTI. Funny thing, now I feel like I have permission to tweak the program and experiment more! I guess I was way too hung up on thinking there is only one way to do RBTI, even though it wasn’t nearly addressing all of my issues. Hugs, Pamela
Carey Reams is to the liver and calcium as Ray Peat is to estrogen and polyunsaturates. In both cases, almost all problems point to these things!
But I have hope in Carey Reams. Although, I’m not at all ready to do any of this strictly, as it would most likely cause a “healing crisis” (nausea, vomiting and blackouts) as described here: http://www.brixman.com/REAMS/hypoglycemia.htm. I have a low tolerance for stress, and a terrible aversion to throwing up. I thought that all people were like that until I met someone that really did not care about throwing up, and I witnessed it for myself. I wonder if this weakness of mine is due to a lack of reserve minerals and stuff. So, my plan is to do this lightly, in order to build up some strength before any real “healing”… if I ever feel up to it.
I really like the “light” approach to RBTI. I think there’s a lot of helpful truths to be found even if one does not want to do the program. What I’ve gotten out of it so far is realizing that my digestion is really slow and impaired (consistently alkaline spit), and it’s probably due to a really weak liver. And this is the cause of my really low energy– whenever I eat a heavy meal, there goes my energy for the day, and possibly the next day too. So, I think if I go super-easy on my digestion, I’ll have more energy. I wouldn’t have guessed that meat was a problem (and especially after 2 pm). I can’t believe I’m eating vegetarian! That’s something I can do; however, no sweets I can’t (unless I want to torment myself with lack of sleep). And I just can’t handle a really big lunch, so I sort of snack lightly for the rest of the day. I’m hoping the calcium supplements will help out my liver gradually. Also, I’m hoping lemonade (not systematic!) and HCl/enzymes will help me to absorb them.
They say, “Oh no, you’d be better off not doing RBTI at all than to half ass it!”, but I don’t see how I could possibly hurt myself with this approach. I really don’t know why Reams insisted on being strict and sudden with it. Maybe for people who were dying, but otherwise…
More things to help the liver: Apparently, Reams thought chlorophyll was important for it, so that’s good to know. Also, I really don’t think swallowing pills is good for someone with sensitive digestion. So I experimented with putting Min-Col and Calcium Gluconate in soda, and I think it dissolved really well! This might be a superior way to take them. (It’s like how they say soda will dissolve a tooth overnight. It’s either the carbonation or the phosphoric acid.) Also something that helps digestion: A microwavable heat pack to put over the stomach.
The weak liver and slow digestion could also explain my acne (all pretty much life-long). It makes sense to me that acne could be caused by build-up of waste products, though Reams said acne is simply due to lack of Vitamin A, which fails to be absorbed when the liver isn’t working well. (Probably due to lack of Vit C, due to lack of oxygen, due to lack of calcium in lungs… it ALWAYS goes back to calcium with Reams, haha. See here for more on that: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/IOYiT4Px8GF9hFivxDWrSMQY85JNZ_XlXImLZH1K10ADjOpPArNaJf0ds49bjikuV6PLIo-EnUQBoYNqRWON0UNRYUtBZNwWs9nyanO6CI60S4bYbg/ARM%20FLOW%20CHARTS/Vitamin%20C%20Flow%20Chart%20Notes.pdf)
hi jared, i too am doing rbti like you are – gently, with understanding as much as i can about each aspect of what’s going on. i figure i can remineralize steadily and gradually – and when my body is stronger, it can handle a detox reaction better. i started drinking lemon water right away and i realized it was too much (my kidneys hurt bad) so i backed off, and now i have a little bit now and then. i take min-col, cal gluconate, and algazim and some of the vites. one thing i highly recommend is Bedddoes’ big book. it’s expensive, but worth it. a real textbook that will teach a lot.
you understand it’s all about remineralization. oh yeah you might need some betaine hcl to take with your food to strengthen your digestion as you build up your own organ strength with the supplements and food. i’d like to get a consultant, but i’ll need to learn to test first, and the more i learn, they aren’t geniuses and they disagree about recommendations bigtime. so until all that comes together, i plug along with the basics that build mineral reserve in a general way – cal glu, mincol, algazim.
After three months on RBTI, I got incredibly sick and saw a cancer I’m battling actually grow at a rapid pace. I quit RBTI’ing, but have continued to test. I find I can keep my sugars and salts stable with filtered water (instead of distilled) and not even drinking it every half-hour to hour. I personally think RBTI seems to be all or nothing. Either great results, or tragic ones. Anyone reporting anything in between? For those who’ve gotten great results on it, more power to you. I, for one, have moved on. Currently I’m following the anabolic/catabolic method of eating for my particular (according to this theory) imbalance. So far, I am able to maintain both pH’s at 6.4 using this method. While the cancer hasn’t regressed yet, it has at least stopped growing, and I have more energy. In a few months, we shall see how this method pans out. Thanks for your honest approach to these types of things, Matt.
L.S. I have belonged to yahoo’s cancercured group for years (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/cancercured/?yguid=342931546), I highly recommend talking to Vincent Gammill in the group. You can read his posts to get a feel for where he is coming from, he is very knowledgeable and very genuine, He is in remission from a very virulent cancer that he has used a lot of his own formulations to treat.
There are a lot of people who are in between, actually. Feeling benefits but no regrowing limbs or anything like that, at least not yet!
Although I think Carey Reams was a genius ahead of his time, I believe that there are some weird aspects of RBTI that I just can’t reconcile. Matt and others have pointed out what I have observed – the cultish fervour for RBTI among its followers. You have to do RBTI 110%, you can’t stop RBTI once you start because you’ll get sicker, you have to follow all the rules exactly as they are. As Jennifer pointed out though, some practitioners have certain rules wrong!
My big concern is something that seems really common among natural health practitioners – they see great results using one particular health system and then become entrenched in that system. It’s never that the system is wrong for the patient, it MUST BE something wrong with the patient! Whether it’s blamed on detoxing or non-compliance or ‘you haven’t done it long enough’, it seems that many RBTI practitioners and followers are completely sold on it. I think this modality can offer amazing insight into the body, but it’s not final word on health.
As Matt has observed, aspects of RBTI are well worth our time and consideration. However, some it seems unjustifiable to me. For example – pepper and nutmeg are bowel irritants? The kernels of popcorn get stuck to a person’s colon? I cannot fathom how Reams could credibly come to these conclusions from his saliva and urine tests. Perhaps these foods negatively impact a person’s numbers, but how they impact specific parts of the digestive tract is mere guesswork. The dogmatic acceptance of the affect of these foods on the body raises a red flag for me.
The skeptic in me wonders whether simply cleaning up people’s diets brings a lot of the positive results from RBTI. Apparently Reams did some dietitian training early on. He applied this knowledge from the very start to his diet. It was all good stuff – eat a wide variety of veges and fruit, etc. From the small sample of Beddoe’s textbook that I’ve read, the basic RBTI diet seems very healthy. I’m leaning towards very healthy base diet + some of the RBTI dietary specifics from the numbers probably accounts for the good results.
Bennuto, I completely hear what you are saying. People eat such garbage that any kind of diet that requires that they actually cook some veggies( gasp!) will in turn improve their health a little. Be it RBti, gaps, bed, paleo, waif, vegan, gfcf, whatever…..if it requires changing from boxed canned sugar chemical slop to The foods God created for us then you will feel better. However, I woould like to point out that our family ate extremely healthy prior to RBti. Our health was destroyed due to co exposure. Maintaining our previous diet was not healing us. We couldn’t eat even healthy foods without having severe symptoms. The reams labs revealed where the problem areas were and then matched specific foods to re energize those systems.
Pepper and nutmag
What do you mean by “co-exposure” exactly?
Carbon monoxide exposure/ poisoning.
Hi MI, you wrote the words ‘pepper and nutmeg’ as if you’d left a note for yourself to write about these. Were you intending to write about them? Please feel free to school me on pepper and nutmeg as I’m happy to be proven wrong on this.
Sorry, baby in lap while typing…ment to ask you where you read that info? Have been missing my pepper and nutmeg. For some reason I thought I read it was taxing on kidneys,not the colon. But right now my brains in major repair mode so some things are fuzzy..I do know that right now they make me super nauseous.
I have tried to find the source of this information but I can’t locate it. It may have been on Brixman’s Youtube video for no-no foods (I’m at work currently and can’t watch Youtube videos). I’ve heard someone say that the edge of pepper and nutmeg molecules is abrasive to the bowel wall. Someone also described them as ‘sandpaper’ to the bowel.
I reached pretty much all the same conclusions as you, Matt, a few weeks ago. Great minds and all that. My experience with RBTI gave me some valuable insight into why I peed so much, for sure. I never drink straight water anymore. Keeping the evening meal light works well with all the kids’ afternoon/eve activities. And sugar/snack/chocolate cravings (which were horrible at night) are gone. I’m not gulping water all night long anymore either.
So, how do you feel about sea salt now? I still really hate regular salt, but if sea salt is linked to cottonmouth…
Don’t really have any big thoughts about sea salt. It certainly doesn’t seem like a magic substance just because it’s more “natural.”
Hey Matt,
how would insulin resistance and elevated blood sugar fit into all this? Are people with high blood sugar naturally more prone to having a higher brix due to a higher amount of solute in the blood? I guess what I’m asking is if the urine brix is dependent on both the amount of blood sugar (and I guess salt as well) in the blood as well as the amount of fluids in the system (which taken together determine the concentration in the blood). That would make sense since RBTIers are told to eat sugar and stop drinking fluids when urine brix drops too low.
Also, how does high sugar affect the body compared to low sugar?
These are great questions, Charles. I hope Matt answers you! As a type 2 diabetic, I am VERY interested to see what he says!
High sugar people have a pancreas that doesn’t produce enough insuline. Hence, there is too much sugar in the blood. Low sugar people have a pancreas that overreacts and produces too much insuline. Therefore, they have too little sugar in the blood. Water dilutes the blood, which is nice for high sugar people and not so nice for low sugar people, who still need water, however, to keep the salt and nitrogen levels down.
Our family is working with su at promise outreach. We ( mom,dad, 4 babes) had co poisoning last fall and pretty much fell to pieces. Dad looked like a chemo patient, mom had miagraines, seizures, kids lost tons of weight hair fell out vision loss, etc…. Thanks be to god we found su because the docs had no answers… After a little more than 2 months the kids have shown dramatic changes and mom and dad are much better. The reams labs found what the co hit hard : hypothalamus, liver,kidneys, adrenals, thyroid…. Because of that our digestion was nil. It was a rough go for some time but we stuck with it and now we are getting better. RBti works. We ate an extremely healthy diet but it wasn’t helping us because the co exposure was so severe. RBti shows you what organ systems are low in energy and what foods you need to reenergize them.
We are also doing solid state therapy in conjunction with Gdv diagnostics. The Gdv camera images are like having someone read your lifetime journal. If you can find one in your area get your images done and you will know exactly where you have issues… The same with the 24 hour reams.
MI – how did you get co poisoning? a leaking heater?
Faulty oven. 4 years of chronic moderate level exposure.used the oven near every day, at times2/3 times a day. All health broke loose in feb of last year…began to realize it was our house making us sick when all of us started to go bad.
Hi, Matt,
Sometime back, with my sugar habit, I was researching adrenal failure. Someone in a comments section in a blog mentioned RBTI. Researching that, I found your blog, which I had come across before looking for health info.
This was in November. Back then, you had RBTI posts 24/7. I was intrigued with the idea that
there was a way to ‘monitor’ your health……can it get better than this?
Well, I went to see Challen Waychoff. Very nice gentleman. Didn’t get a clean bill of health by
a long shot: diabetes, etc. around the corner. Of course he prescribed the lemonaide, etc.
Since I’m overseas, lemons are easy, but it’s hard to source what I need. Also, there’s nobody around these parts to do any readings. Still finding my way.
Matt, please answer this: I told Challen how I managed to calm down my asthma with the Weston A. Price Foundation recommendations on real food: yes – eating lacto-fermented veggies and raw goat milk cheeses did do the trick. But these are recommendations you see on many other sites, not uniquely theirs.
But when I told this to Mr. Waychoff, he said the most surprising thing – that he’s met members of that organization and that they could be ‘mean people’. Something to the effect that their diet recommendations were causing behavior like that.
Today on my RBTI group, I found this:
—————————
I have seen an infant raised in reams suggestions of skim milk, sweetener and a little oil, and the child is an extremely healthy 10 month old. Has all her teeth coming in beautifully. I have seen plenty of kids raised on the WAPF reccomendations and they are a complete mess.
In fact, where I pick up my milk, the man has a ten month old baby raised on those reccomendations you posted, and she is very behind developmentally. Especially when compared to the infant I’ve seen that was raised on skim milk.
Babies do not NEED excessive saturated fat. I am not feeding a baby right now, but was looking for the reams reccomendations so that I could pass them on to this man feeding his baby whole jersey milk, with morfat added. I’m sorry, but I have only seen people become I’ll, or stay very I’ll on Weston Price Foundation reccomendations.
————————–
Matt, please give your expert opinion. Are RBTI and Weston A. Price mutually exclusive?
This is so confusing!
Thanks and appreciate your integrity, Helen
No, not mutually exclusive. I would definitely not blindly follow either dogma. Fally Challen? Yeah, I just said Fally Challen!
Let us know how things are progressing. There are always ways to make things work better. It just takes a little research and experimentation and fine-tuning. In other words, if things aren’t totally working like you would like them to, don’t abandon it completely – but make some adjustments until everything is clicking as it should.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to drink less. Salt levels will rise. The sugar : salt ratio shoud be between 1:4 and 1:5. Can you maintain that by drinking less? I can’t, so I sweeten my lemonade so it tastes nice and sweet and drink plain juice on the half hour. I put some gin in both, which helps digestion tremendously. So does the lemon. It gave me some reactions at first, but those are gone for good. Also, I eat a fourth meal between breakfast and lunch, partly because my job forces me to eat lunch late. Actually it’s quite nice to drink / eat this way – I get my calories without ever having to stuff myself. Green juice at night, and my sugars are pretty stable now. What can still make them crash is stress or overeating, especially sweet stuff. The latter doesn’t really happen though, unless I let myself get too hungry, cold, or stressed.
I am not sure why everybody in the world calls this a sugar to salt ratio when it is a salt to sugar ratio. Can we please start calling it correctly? I am not nitpicking. There is one main reasons for this. It is that it can be not only confusing for the newcomer, but they question credibility of this. As everyone knows, many are skeptical. That is the nature of our culture. It is not helped by this terminology. Further, it is just a good habit for all of us. Please try not to be defensive here. Just genuinely trying to help the cause.
Hey Matt! My friend just turned me on to your blog. Thanks! I’m interested in casually doing RBTI. Do you think it a good idea to get your RBTI Package and a refractometer and just implementing what seems to make sense?
That’s probably a good way to go about doing it. RBTI is instantly helpful for those who have low refractometer crashes frequently. Just getting a refractometer and learning how to avoid those crashes is life changing for some in that regard. Don’t go too overboard with suppressing your own cravings, desires, appetite – our lives and nutritional needs are always in flux. Reams practiced his work at a retreat where life was totally under control and stable. The rigidity of the program is its downfall when trying to take it into the real world I find. So be flexible!
Hey there Matt. Thank you so much for these articles and taking the time to help everyone.
I suspect the refractometer monitoring could really help me out, i’m just not sure how. I am frequently thirsty throughout the day causing me to constantly drink water, and urinate quite a bit as well (usually clear). I wake up completely dehydrated in the morning, and feel like i’ve been hit by a train. also have to pee a couple times a night, and drink nearly 24 ounces of water throughout the night. Is this low sugar? High sugar? I’ve done so much experimenting but just can’t seem to get a handle on it.
Also, how do you see peat-a-tarianism meshing with RBTI principles? They seem quite opposed, but do you think there is overlap?
Thanks!
Brad
Ok, so I just finished your diet recovery ebook (loved it) and after reading all this RBTI stuff my head hurts. I thought we are supposed to make things easier and not over analyze things? After ones metabolism is higher and they are feeling better shouldn’t they be able to eat a balanced diet and not worry about whether their sugars are crashing or how much salt they are getting? I get that things can change with added stressors or lack of sleep in our lives, but after reading through these comments, etc it is all very overwhelming and feels like it brings me back to square one on what I should do for my health, which is the classic over stressed mom of 5 kids. Now I haven’t even read all the RBTI stuff so maybe I am way off base with my comment for now, but so far reading through the blog leaves me thoroughly confused :)
Yeah, don’t let RBTI do your head in. I found that the biggest gem to come out of it was seeing how significant urine concentration was. But that’s an easy thing to address. Just eat more salt and foods with low water content and consume fewer fluids – particularly solute-free fluids consumed by themselves. That’s the main thing. And what we’ve been talking about lately in recent posts.
Hello!
Should lemon water still be consumed as your liquid source? I’ve read that lemon solution should only be done for three months.
When you give your water schedule is that for the lemon water or plain water?
Matt:
I came across this site in mid-January and have been reading your posts with great interest, especially those involving allergy issues. I have suffered from allergies my entire life – not to food, so far as I know, but to “environmental” triggers such as pollen and dust, and to the fur and saliva of certain animals (I was “scratch” tested at one point and my list of allergy triggers is enormous). I went through a round of allergy shots (so-called “immunotherapy”) about 10 years ago, and have taken antihistamines every day since I was in college, but still usually had mild symptoms (sneezing, runny/stuffy nose) every day, especially in the morning. About 6 months ago, I decided to quit my high-stress job in NYC and travel in South America for a year. I spent 6 weeks in Colombia, with no change to my allergies, and then spent 3 months in Argentina, during which my allergies steadily worsened. I eventually began having periodic allergy attacks that would last 1-2 days, involving prolonged bouts of sneezing and uncontrollable sinus drainage. In desperation I started searching online for something to alleviate my suffering. After finding your website, I have made a number of changes to my diet. Other than the allergies, I always thought I was pretty healthy. I’m physically fit, don’t diet, don’t exercise excessively, and avoid high-sugar food. For years, though, I have often skipped breakfast (and sometimes lunch – not for dieting, just because I was too busy and stressed out to take a break), tried to avoid high-fat foods, and ate a good amount of processed foods such as breads, canned soups, vegetable oils, etc. Now I make everything fresh, from scratch, and try to achieve a good balance of carbs/protein/fat in each of 3 daily meals. I’ve also cut out processed foods, vegetable oils, white flour, sugar and caffeine (alcohol has been more of a challenge). The only type of “milk” readily available down here is UHT (Ultra High-temperature Treated), which comes in a box and does not have to be refrigerated until opened (it tastes as bad as it sounds), and the butter is similarly treated, so I also cut out all dairy (except yogurt), thinking I might be experiencing a dairy-related digestion/allergy problem. About two weeks after I made these dietary changes, we left Argentina to spend a month in Brazil. Once in Brazil, my allergies improved until, about half way through the month, I stopped taking my antihistamines – no sneezing, no stuffy/runny nose – it was awesome! Two weeks later we came to Chile (where I am now), and the first full day here (Feb 28th), my allergies returned with a vengeance – an all-day attack, followed thereafter by a return to allergies-as-usual (mild symptoms if treated with antihistamines, moderate to severe if untreated). Given the timing, I figured the problem was not the milk. I started using butter again (and lots of it), and milk or cream if a recipe called for it. About two weeks ago I had an allergy attack that lasted 3 days. Yesterday, I made a crab bisque that called for 2 cups of cream – more dairy than I’ve had in a long time – and in the night I woke up with cramps and a stomach distended like a melon. All day today I’ve been having an allergy attack. So, probably the dairy does play a role in my allergies, but since they returned while I was still on a milk-free diet, it seems like there must be something else at play here. I have been doing research in the “archives” of this website, and looking at other resources (there is so much conflicting advice out there – it’s baffling). I’m considering doing a 2-3 day raw vegetable/fruit cleanse (like the one you outlined in an earlier post), and then returning to a balanced carb/protein/fat diet, but no dairy. I’m at my wits end. Do you have any advice for me?
Thanks for listening to my story, and thanks so much for creating this website!
-Laura
jsears
Jung has overestimated the mineral content of Min-Col, rather than underestimated the mineral content. Mineral Atoms make up only a part of a mineral compound. This would mean less toxic mineral to worry about.
Hi Matt,
First time I read about RBTI — sounds interesting but not enough for me to grasp completely what it is about. It could be my own sugar crash I am currently experiencing or I am just not as sharp as I thought I was… LOL.. The whole sugar breakfast thing made me confused… maybe more so because all of a sudden I might be able to have a delish corn muffin for breakfast :D
having been astudent of rbti for 30 years i thought the comments were excellent and spot on. i have belonged to rex’s group since it’s inception. i to have my own spin on rbti as i have studied with many different practitioners. my only concerns here is the lack of the agricultural aspects of rbti. mineral rich food. with it rbti is more successful. without it it is more difficult. start using that refractometer to test your foods. timmy
I’m trying to buy your cooking books to use in my clinic but am finding it very difficult to find how to do it. Are you still operating with RBTI.
Cheers
No, not anymore. Learned some interesting things with RBTI though.
Hey Matt, I didn’t follow the whole RBTI thing from the beginning but I saw one post where you seemed very pleased and optimistic about it. Can I ask why you quit following it?
Because it’s fucking tedious and most of it silly garbage.