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Discover the Magic of Nutritional Typing:

Nature’s Best-Kept Secret for Optimizing Your Health and Weight

DR. MERCOLA
My 35 Year Nutritional Exploration Journey

Many may not realize that I was not raised

in a home that taught me any nutritional
basics. I love my mother dearly, but she
was caught up hook, line and sinker in the
conventional thoughts of what was healthy.
My mother never graduated high school and
worked nights, weekends and most holidays
as a waitress. So what that meant was that
we frequently relied on highly processed
foods for our meals which could be heated
up long after she left to go to work.
There were plenty of snacks at home,
and I had my fair share of cookies, Pop
Tarts and Hostess Twinkies. Breakfast
usually consisted of cereal and perhaps
white bread toast loaded with margarine,
sugar and cinnamon.
I continued the toast and margarine
practice into my early medical school days,
but I did substitute whole wheat bread for the My sugar addiction begins at an early
age with an Easter basket full of candy.
white—and believed I was doing well.
Except for fruit, I rarely had raw food. I clearly remember one of my
friends in college eating a raw pepper, and I was aghast as I thought he
would surely get sick. My friend assured me this was a healthy practice
and encouraged me to consider it.
This was about the time I began to explore the importance of nutrition
with a subscription to Prevention magazine and a series of books written
by nutrition pioneer Adelle Davis. Later I studied Nathan Pritikin, who
convinced me of the importance of a diet that was high in carbohydrates
and fiber and low in fat and protein.

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Fit For Life? Not Really…

Later, I became further confused by reading and trying the Fit For Life diet in the late ’80s.
Unfortunately, as a Protein Type (I’ll explain what this is later) neither diet was designed for my
nutritional Type. Instead, they worsened my health. The “fruit only” breakfast that Fit For Life
advocates, quickly increased my triglycerides to over 1000 so I stopped that one relatively quickly.
In my attempts to be healthy, I ate the low-fat, low-protein, high-carb diet Pritikin recommended.
This was great for a Carb Type but a disaster for a Protein Type. For 20 years my diet consisted of
mostly vegetarian meals such as uncooked oats with water (I thought this was healthier than cooked
oatmeal), plenty of whole wheat bread, white rice, tubs of margarine, beans and produce.

Here’s me in my early 70’s “hippie days” training to dispense drugs.

This approach, combined with my running of up to 50 miles or more per week, plummeted
my total cholesterol level to 75, and this was without any drugs like Lipitor. Now at that
time most physicians, including myself, felt the lower your cholesterol the better. Of course,
this was not correct and was actually causing health problems for me, as an optimal total
cholesterol level is around 175 to 200.

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One of the primary problems with low cholesterol levels is that your body requires cholesterol as
a building block to build the vast majority of your hormones. It is a foundational precursor to
nearly all of your steroid hormones, and when it is low your hormones will become unbalanced.
Even though many often told me I looked gaunt and too thin, I tried to evangelize my fellow
med students, patients, and anyone who would listen to eat this same way.

My Medical School Nickname—Dr. Fiber

In medical school we had a system where

the 100 students in our class would rotate
and take very comprehensive notes so
we would only have to do take notes a
few times a quarter yet we would have
everyone’s comprehensive notes. This
helped us study and pass our exams.
When it was my turn to take notes, no
matter what the topic was, I would find
a way to insert nutritional advice into
the student notes. Unfortunately this
advice was typically geared to my earlier
nutritional understandings, which were
based on a high unprocessed grain diet.
This earned me the nickname “Dr. Fiber”
for my recommendation of whole wheat
high grain diets.
During my three years of family practice
residency, I frequently gave free nutrition
lectures, but the interest was minimal.
However, my enthusiasm for the high- Most of my life I was thin, wiry and weak, like you see
in this photo. Now, in my early 50s, I feel like I’m in my
carb, low-fat diet came to a screeching halt one prime. I’ve reached optimal health at last! (You’ll see how
fateful night when I attended a lecture by Dr. I look today at the end of this report.)
Ron Rosedale in Chicago in the fall of 1995.

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Dr. Rosedale opened up my eyes to how high-carb diets had the potential to increase insulin
to abnormally high levels. Furthermore, he taught that keeping insulin levels in the normal
range was central to optimal health and keeping disease at bay.

Eat Right for Your Type Caused Me to Have Diabetes

After I understood insulin, I took another sidetrack with Dr. Peter D’Adamo’s Eat Right
for Your Blood Type book, which appealed to me because it preached the individualization
of diet based on one’s blood type. There are four basic blood types, O, A, B & AB, and so
four different diets are offered. Dr. D’Adamo’s dietary recommendations can help to some
extent—primarily because he encourages his readers to stay away from refined and processed
foods and to eat whole, fresh organic foods instead.
Additionally, the most common blood type is O. In this system, blood type O’s are
instructed to avoid wheat and minimize consumption of almost all other grain products.
My experience has taught me that most people do tend to improve once they make these
changes, so it is my impression that these were the primary reasons why some people had
some success with the Blood Type Diet.

No More Food Cravings, Plus Weight Loss!

Shirley D. from East Windsor, NJ is 63 years young and is a retired nurse. She has a long history of being
overweight and having heart palpitations. As a new patient, she was about 100 pounds overweight and had
failed on all of the diet programs she tried. She was simply unable to sustain any significant weight loss.
Shirley started having heart palpitations in 1988 while getting ready for her daughter’s graduation. Eventually,
she was given the effective but dangerous calcium channel blocker Verapamil, which she continues to take—
although, she reports that she has not had heart palpitations for about 10 years.
In Nutritional Typing, she was assessed as a Protein Type. Her comprehensive blood test clearly indicated
that she had been over consuming carbohydrates, (Her insulin level was 10 and her leptin level was 29.4.
Also, she was deficient in vitamin D (18)).
For three months, Shirley followed the prime Protein Type meal plan as faithfully as she could and she
continues to feel much better. Specifically, her mood has dramatically improved, her energy is about 80
percent better, her mental clarity is sharper and it continues to improve.
The most remarkable aspect, though, is that she continues to be completely free of cravings for carbohydrates.
After a meal she can easily go for about six hours before she feels a need to eat again.
Additionally, after some adjustments were made in her portions of protein, fat and carbohydrates at every
meal, she has lost 11 pounds—without dieting.

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Me and my sister Janet running a major 10K run in 1987. She placed second in her age category as I was pacing her.

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Unfortunately, my blood type is A, and that diet is high in grains and low in meat. This is
the exact opposite of what a Protein Type like me should be eating to stay healthy. While
trying this approach to diet, my fasting blood sugar rose to over 126. This means I actually
developed type 2 diabetes from following this program.This is not unusual, considering
75 million people in the United States alone have diabetes and pre-diabetes. Plus, nearly
all of my paternal relatives have diabetes or have died from diabetic complications. So I
immediately got the clue and stopped D’Adamo’s Blood Type A Diet.
Although I am grateful to him for bringing attention to the concept of diet individualization,
I have reached the conclusion that there is a far more important factor than just your general
blood type that can help you determine what foods are best for you.
And that factor is: YOUR METABOLISM. Your blood type has absolutely NO direct influence
on your metabolism of protein, carbs and fats for energy. And energy metabolism is the key
issue of health.
Once I started recommending that my patients decrease the amount of carbs in their diets,
I noticed a dramatic improvement in their insulin levels and in their overall health. I was so
impressed with these results that I wrote a book about my experience called The No Grain
Diet, which eventually became a New York Times bestselling book.
However, there were still a fair number of people who did not get better with the diet that
I told all my patients to follow. This was despite their strict compliance, and I couldn’t
understand why.

My Experience with Vegetable Juicing

Right around the time of my experimentation with the

blood type diet, I was very impressed with how healthy
a few of my older patients were. There was one 70-year-
old woman who had followed nutritional principles for
many years, and she looked like she was 40. She believed
it was due to her vegetable juicing program. So I started
to research this and was impressed with the benefits of
raw food vegetable juicing. I started doing it myself and
recommending it to many of my patients.

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Unfortunately, I had never really struggled with any serious health issues and have, for the
most part, felt full of energy my entire life. So I was unable to appreciate any side effects
from juicing other than I started to become allergic to some of the vegetables I was juicing on
a regular basis, like Swiss chard and collard greens.

Extreme Anxiety Relief (Protein Type)

Jon from St. Charles, IL is a 44-year-old, highly successful entrepreneur running a half-billion-dollar company.
He was referred to me by a close friend for an 11-year history of chronic anxiety that had failed to respond
to some of the best psychotherapy in the country, including EFT.
Please understand that this anxiety was nearly debilitating and crippled him from leading a normal life. It
was an enormous hardship for him to run his business with this type of handicap.
What made the issue even more interesting is that he had a phenomenally healthy lifestyle. Aside from being
successful in business he had also competed as a semi-professional athlete and was in excellent health. He
clearly did not have an exercise deficiency.
He chose healthy foods but this turned out to be his Achilles heel. Although they were healthy, biodynamic,
organic foods they were not correct for his metabolic type. In fact, they were the exact opposite of what
his body required.
He was essentially eating a very healthy vegetarian, low-fat diet. Once we did his Nutritional Type and found
out that he was a Protein Type, miracles occurred.
His anxiety rapidly resolved by over 90 percent until he went off his program and avoided the extra fat and
protein that his body required.
Jon did find that eating a small amount of grain after eating some of his high-purine meat and vegetables has
worked to completely satisfy his appetite until his next meal. He still does experience a little bit of stress-
related anxiety, but he no longer experiences anxiety for no particular reason.

It wasn’t until I learned Metabolic Typing that I would understand that the juicing would
move my biochemistry in the exact opposite way I needed it to go. It was far too high in
potassium for my needs and actually speeded up my already far too fast oxidation rate.
However, this type of vegetable juicing was beyond phenomenal for many of the patients I
recommended it to and they had enormous benefits. Later, I realized those who benefitted were
the Carb Types. But my experience with other patients who did not improve with juicing made
me far more open to the Metabolic Typing principles that I would learn in a few years.

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The juicing program I developed back then is still used in our clinic and is one of the more
popular pages on my Web site. Mercola.com has ranked number one or two for the term
“vegetable juicing” on Google for the past five years. We still strongly recommend that all of
our Carb Type patients adopt this juicing plan to achieve a high level of health.
The positive benefits many of my patients experienced with vegetable juicing helped
convince me of the importance of raw food and really set the stage for my future
experimentation with raw animal foods.

My Next Nutritional Health Epiphany—Metabolic Typing™

Dr. Rosedale’s insights on insulin were finally some of the nutritional golden truths I was
searching for so many years. Nothing I have learned since then has altered or changed my
views of these truths. In fact, it has been quite the contrary. Most people normalizing their
insulin levels have produced profound improvements in their health.
The next stop on my nutritional journey occurred in early 2001 when I finally understood
the reason that a significant number of people did not respond to the insulin-control
program I had developed. That is when I encountered Bill Wolcott’s book The Metabolic
Typing Diet, which carefully explained that there are three basic types of human metabolism:

• Carb Type
• Protein Type
• Mixed Type

People metabolize the food they eat in different ways based mostly on their genetics, but a
number of other factors, such as chronic stress, can also influence our metabolic activity.

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According to Metabolic Typing, people can be classified as either Carb Types, Protein Types
or Mixed Types, based on how they answer a computerized questionnaire. Also, Metabolic
Typing defined two different kinds of Carb Types, two different kinds of Protein Types and
two different kinds of Mixed Types.
Discovering Metabolic Typing was a major epiphany for me and explained the years of
frustration I was having in trying to fit everyone into the same nutritional model.

There Is No Perfect Diet for Everyone

Once I adopted Metabolic Typing into my

practice, the patients who previously had not
responded well to our program started to improve.
I will be eternally grateful to Bill Wolcott for
revolutionizing the way I practiced medicine.
It is my belief that Metabolic Typing and
understanding the importance of insulin control
are the two most important principles of successful
nutrition counseling. They are both deserving of
the nutritional equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
I had previously recommended fresh organic vegetable juice to everyone, but realized after
learning about Metabolic Typing that this has the greatest value for Carb Types, has less
value for most Mixed Types and has the least value for Protein Types.
Metabolic Typing helped me to finally understand that the high protein, low-carb diet I
had been advocating as a starting point to all of my patients to normalize insulin levels was a
disaster for Carb Types, as these people actually needed a dietary approach that was closer to
what Pritikin advised.
Now, it is important to understand that I didn’t abandon all of the nutritional principles
I had acquired prior to learning about Metabolic Typing, such as eating lots of fresh, raw,
organic whole foods. My team and I actually incorporated this strong emphasis on food
quality at the very beginning of our practice of Metabolic Type nutrition.

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We also made the discovery—after just a few months of practicing Metabolic Type
nutrition—that it is not enough to make the right food choices, it is equally important to eat
your foods—at each meal—in the right order!
For instance, which food do you think would be the best one for Protein Types to eat first
at any given meal—meat or a vegetable? Which food do you think would be the best one for
Carb Types to eat first at any given meal—meat or a vegetable? And, which food do you think
would be the best one for Mixed Types to eat first at any given meal—meat or a vegetable?

Rare Childhood Disease Improves Dramatically

Krista from Mount Pleasant, MI was 4 years old when she visited our clinic and had been diagnosed with
Angelman’s Syndrome, which is a relatively rare disease. Children with this have a stiff, jerky gait, absent
speech, excessive laughter and seizures. Krista also had irregular heartbeats.
It is common for conventional medicine to develop very precise diagnostic criteria for relatively exotic
symptom combinations that result from not following natural medical approaches. They have no clue what
to attribute the cause to and are equally clueless about solutions.
About the only solace they provide to patients with these conditions is a worthless label. Krista’s Mom,
Karen, began feeding her a gluten/casein-free diet and she immediately slept better, her diaper rash cleared
up, her cognitive function improved and her staring spells diminished.
However, Krista continued to experience a number of other physical and behavioral symptoms that indicated
severe underlying metabolic imbalance. Her NT test showed that she was a ProteinType.
Krista continued to engage in aggressive behavior (kicking, biting, slapping, pulling hair) until it was discovered
that she was intolerant to any food that comes from a cow—even raw dairy. Avoiding all cow-derived foods
helped to improve Krista’s behavior.
Also, Karen has been feeding Krista raw bison, raw salmon and raw eggs, and she reports that overall Krista’s
progress has been “fabulous.” She has seen amazing improvement in Krista’s cognitive and learning abilities.
Krista has been talking, which was amazing in light of the fact that doctors had previously told Karen that
Krista would never be able to talk. She also has more awareness, seeks to be more involved in activities
and has learned to ride a bike. She no longer has constipation and eczema. Additionally, she is no longer
intolerant to beef.
This is an absolute amazing testimony to the power of natural foods that are right for a child’s Nutritional
Type. Application of very simple approaches has resulted in dramatic improvements in a condition that is
generally regarded as hopeless in conventional medicine.

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Protein Types should eat their meat first, Carb Types should eat their vegetable first and
Mixed Types should eat their meat and vegetable together! When this is faithfully practiced,
digestive and metabolic efficiency typically improves dramatically. This is indicated by:
• Improved meal satisfaction (and with smaller portions of food)
• No need for snacks in between meals
• No more food cravings

Over the course of the five years that we have using Metabolic Typing, we have:
1. Identified what is most valuable about the system that we started with…
2. Eliminated what we have learned is unnecessary and burdensome…
3. Come up with big nutritional improvements that have helped our
patients experience dramatic and even amazing improvements in their
health within the first month of eating right for their Nutritional Type.

When I told other clinicians who were doing Metabolic Typing with their patients how we
had improved the Metabolic Type nutrition plans, I was surprised to hear that they were
all eager to learn about what we were doing. This was because many of them had actually
stopped using Metabolic Typing in their practice. Why? They found it too complex and
burdensome for the average patient to implement successfully.
Our experience with thousands of patients has confirmed for us, over and over again, that
we have identified the most important nutritional principles that help people to achieve
dramatically improved health, without burdensome effort.
With our new simplified version, people can easily understand and rapidly improve their
health from adopting easy foundational health principles.

Raw Food Exploration

After I had become comfortable with Metabolic Typing, I learned more about the Weston
Price Foundation with Sally Fallon and Mary Enig. Their compelling literature started my
raw food exploration by using raw dairy. It took nearly two years to locate an Amish farmer
in Michigan who could drive dairy to my Chicago-area clinic, but it was well worth the wait.
I observed yet another improvement boost among many of our patients who were able to
access raw, unpasteurized dairy.

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From there I progressed to one of the only teachers of raw animal foods, Aajonus Vanderplanitz.
Vanderplanitz teaches that humans are the only species that cooks their meat. All other animals
eat their food and meat raw. Vanderplanitz was able to recover from some very serious medical
problems by eating a raw food diet and he has helped many people do the same.
While I don’t agree with everything that Vanderplanitz teaches, especially his liberal use of
raw honey, he has uncovered many helpful principles and his work is part of our new system
called Nutritional Typing.

Distinctions Between and Metabolic Typing (MT) and Our New System:
Nutritional Typing (NT)

Simplified Categorization

MT categorizes people into three main metabolic types, but there are six subtypes and nine
possible Metabolic Typing combinations.
In our experience though, all you really need to know is: Are you a Protein Type, Carb Type
or Mixed Type?

Food Quality

One of the most important distinctions between these two systems has to do with attention
to food quality. For example, MT emphasizes specific foods to eat but does not strongly
emphasize the quality of these foods. On the other hand, NT advocates that buying the
highest quality food that is available to you is vital.
Not only do we advise and help our patients obtain fresh, locally grown, organic food, but
we also recommend that you eat as much of your food raw as possible. Eating raw will serve
to preserve the nutritional integrity of your food.
If you do cook your food, and we know that most people will, then it is very important to
use our low-temperature cooking guidelines as often as possible, as this will minimize the
amount of heat damage that you cause to your food.
You might already be familiar with the differences between raw and pasteurized milk. Well,
similarly, if you cook (i.e. heat damage) other foods, they will lose much of their ability to
transfer their vital energy to your body.

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Supplementation
MT advocates that everyone should take a number of supplements (multi-vitamins,
enzymes and other products) designed for their type. However, NT does not at all focus on
nutritional supplementation as a primary means of improving your health.
The primary approach is to use food and rely on supplements only when indicated for
specialized conditions. It has been our experience that taking supplements hardly ever helps
people make big, nor lasting, improvements in their health.
Overall Nutritional Differences
MT nutrition plans emphasize making the right food choices based not only on whether
you’re a Protein, Carb or Mixed Type, but also takes into account your endocrine type and,
yes, even your blood type (although the list of blood-type-related foods to avoid are much
shorter and different than what Dr. D’Adamo teaches).
MT also emphasizes that you should be focused on the percentages and ratios of protein,
carbs and fat that you are eating at each meal. (It’s not surprising that many of our patients
became confused when we were practicing this approach.)
MT also places a big emphasis on supplements. Although supplements can definitely be
helpful at times, it has been our experience that taking supplements is not the key factor
leading to improvement in your health.
In NT, the emphasis is on making the right food
choices for your basic type—Protein, Carb or
Mixed—together with a big emphasis on food quality
and eating foods raw. Plus, emphasis is placed on the
best ways to cook your food, IF you are going to cook
it. Another factor includes always consuming your
most metabolically important food or foods FIRST,
thereby practicing the right kind of food combining
for your Nutritional Type. Last but not least, eating
consciously is an incredibly important facet of NT!
This is all much easier to do and, we feel, far more effective at improving your digestive and
metabolic efficiency than trying to get a handle on:

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Making food choices based on three different, and sometimes contradictory, concerns (Metabolic
Type, endocrine type and blood type), along with focusing on the percentages and ratios of
protein, carbs and fat that you are eating at each meal—while taking lots of supplements.
Also, we strongly prefer the term “Nutritional Typing,” over “Metabolic Typing” because
the emphasis is on NUTRITION. And, ultimately Nutritional or Metabolic Typing is only a
means to an end which is: knowing how to truly nourish yourself in the way that you truly
need to be nourished.
I have collaborated with about half a dozen leading nutrition experts who were trained in
Metabolic Typing, who felt that the system needed to be revised and simplified. We have
developed our own system for determining whether you are a Protein, Carb or Mixed type and
this revolutionary and cutting-edge refinement has just been developed in the spring of 2007. It is
literally hot off the press.
This information does not exist in written form ANYWHERE else in the world. It is my belief
that helping develop and provide an easy system for individualizing your ideal diet may be
the single most important contribution I ever make.
The potential for this program to improve your health is beyond extraordinary. It has been
our observation that most of the people who faithfully apply NT observe phenomenal
improvements in their health.

Why Do You Need Nutritional Typing?

Your Nutritional Type determines your individual nutritional

requirements and dictates your individual responses to what you
eat and drink. Foods and individual nutrients do not behave the
same way in people with different Nutritional Types.
So what exactly is your Nutritional Type?
Your nutritional type is primarily determined by your
genetically inherited ability to metabolize various foods into
the energy and building blocks your body needs to be healthy. However, environmental
influences, such as stress, can cause a functional adaptation in your metabolism that
temporarily overrides your genetics.

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Ultimately, your Nutritional Type, at any given time in your life, is determined by
identifying the primary characteristics of your metabolism.
And identifying your basic Nutritional Type is really quite simple because there are
only three basic types: Protein Types, Carb Types and Mixed Types. While there can be
significant variations within each one of these three basic types, everyone on this planet, at
any given time, will have a Protein, Carb or Mixed Type metabolism.

Why Nutritional Typing is NOT Just Another Fad Diet

Tens of thousands of books have been written on dieting and nutrition in the past 100 years,
each one with its own principles and teachings. Sometimes the diets seem to work, other
times not, and often they help one person but are devastating to another.
For example, some people feel great on the Atkins Diet (low-
carb) and quickly lose excess weight. Meanwhile, other people
have reported feeling sick, tired, moody and have gained
weight on a low-carb diet.
Unfortunately, nearly all of the dietary recommendations
that you read or hear promote a single regimen or approach
as being ideal or appropriate for everyone who applies it.
Remember that I have made this mistake too—several times.
And this is a terrible mistake in that it completely fails to appreciate the proven fact that we
do not all have the same nutritional requirements. Certain foods or a diet that works well
for one person may actually cause health problems for someone else. Unfortunately, this
profound truth is not “officially” acknowledged by the vast majority of doctors, dieticians,
nutritionists and other health care practitioners. It took me years to learn this for myself.
We have all been subjected to general and often vague food recommendations by so-called
experts, even though it has been over 2,000 years since the ancient Roman philosopher
Lucretius observed the profound truth that “What is food to one man may be fierce poison
to others.” (Over the years, this statement was re-phrased, and in modern times it is most
commonly known as “One man’s food is another man’s poison.”)

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For instance, we all need to be able to digest and metabolize protein. What makes NT so
different from any other “diet” you may have tried is that it guides you to the foods that
are the right sources of protein for you, together with teaching you how to optimize the
metabolic value of the protein.
Remember, what’s right for you could be very wrong for someone else, because although
we all have much in common with each other, we do have our differences—and it’s our
differences that make us unique.

The Details ARE Important

Granted, our differences are mostly in the details, but never underestimate the importance
of details. You may not have thought much about the nutritional differences between the
white meat and dark meat of poultry, but in Nutritional Typing it is known that there is a
significant difference in the value of these two foods.
Also consider the molecular formula for hemoglobin (which is the part of a red blood cell
that picks up and carries oxygen) is C738H1166FeN203O208S2 (C=Carbon, H=Hydrogen,
Fe=Iron, N=Nitrogen, O=Oxygen & S=Sulfur). Hemoglobin is a molecule containing 2,318
atoms, and only one of those atoms is iron. Compared to the entire structure of hemoglobin,
the one atom of iron could be viewed as a very minor detail. But that one very minor detail
makes it possible for the cells of your body to receive the oxygen that they need, without
which, you would die.
So the lesson here is: never take the details for granted!
Nutritional Typing gives more attention to the specific details of what you are eating than any
other school of nutrition, diet book or fad diet in history! And you will want to give faithful
attention to the details that we teach you once you experience the benefits of doing so.

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It is Highly Likely You Have Never Experienced Optimal Health

It may sound shocking, but it’s absolutely true. It’s likely that you
haven’t yet experienced optimum health. What does optimum health
feel like? It’s:
• Having more energy than you know what to do with
• Being free from aches and pains
• Feeling happy, optimistic and at peace emotionally

Being optimally healthy means that you feel this way almost always, as
opposed to feeling this way only rarely when you’re having a “good day.”
It is not your fault, though, that you likely haven’t reached this level of health. Our culture is
intertwined with pervasive corporate interests that are directly aligned with their self-serving
profit motives. It is designed to make these companies successful, often at the expense of
people’s long-term health.

Nutritional Typing is Actually Thousands of Years Old

Far from being a fad, Nutritional Typing originated as far back as

5,000 years ago, with the dawn of Ayurvedic medicine out of India.
Soon after Ayurvedic medicine came into existence, Chinese
medicine developed. This ancient system of medicine was also
based on a form of Nutritional Typing. Early Chinese practitioners
did not have the advantage of our scientific methodologies, but
their system was based on what they called five elemental types.
Similarly, Egyptian medicine used seven organ systems to define
a nutritional type. The Greeks, too, were very well known for
treating the person not the disease. So they were aware of the need to understand metabolic
individuality and the type of person, as opposed to the disease itself.

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The different Nutritional Types evolved very naturally through countless generations in all
the different areas of the world as a result of the natural forces of:
• Adaptation
• Natural selection
• Genetic mutations
• Survival of the fittest

These types of forces exerted their pressures on the local population. This caused each local
population to adapt to the foods that were from that environment.

NT Shows You How to Use Food as Your Medicine

Part of what our culture promotes is a medical system based on treating symptoms, and not
addressing the underlying cause of those symptoms. Because of this, conventional medicine,
although highly effective for many acute health challenges, really has a very limited ability
to resolve most all chronic illnesses. Therapeutically, this approach or paradigm is known as
allopathic medicine.
If you want a powerful visual analogy of this concept please view the seven-minute animation
I created a few years ago that demonstrates this. You can see it at:

http://www.mercola.com/allopath

Unfortunately, much of contemporary alternative medicine falls under the same strategic
approach. This stems from the lack of technology to effectively analyze and resolve the
biochemical imbalances that are the underlying cause of disease.

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This is not so with NT, however. Nutritional Typing is unlike conventional medicine
and most alternative medicine modalities in its unique ability to:
• Balance your total body chemistry
• Address disease processes at their causative level
• Prevent illness
• Rebuild health
• Provide uniquely long-lasting health benefits

When you begin eating right for your Nutritional Type, you will also begin to move toward
metabolic balance. And as you move toward metabolic balance, your body will be producing
energy more efficiently from the foods that you’re eating.
When you are in metabolic balance, you will then discover what it feels like to be truly
healthy. You will have created an inner environment that is conducive to you experiencing
your highest levels of:
• Peaceful energy
• Relaxed alertness
• Emotional poise
• Positive stable mood
• Great mental clarity

NT works for those who are healthy and those who are experiencing health challenges.
If your body is in need of healing, you will be helping yourself realize your full healing
potential. If you feel that you are already healthy, you’re in for a surprise! You will create
the possibility of truly knowing just how healthy you can be.

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How Will I Know I’m Eating Right for My Nutritional Type?

You will experience a profound difference in the way you feel before and after you begin
eating right for your Nutritional Type. When you are NOT eating right for your Nutritional
Type, you typically experience the following:

NOT Eating Right For Your Nutritional Type

Do not feel satisfied with your meals Have inconsistent and/or low energy

Have cravings, especially for sugar Are more prone to feeling anxious
and depressed
Experience mood swings Are more prone to addictions

Experience some degree of ‘brain fog’ Will be very prone to being overweight
or underweight
Have frequent and intense hunger Are prone to all types of degenerative
(especially true for Protein Types) processes

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, when you ARE eating right for your
Nutritional Type you typically:

Eating Right For Your Nutritional Type

Will be more satisfied with your meals Experience more consistently good energy

Can go for longer periods without eating Support on-going cellular repair and regeneration

Are completely FREE from ALL cravings Begin to realize your full health potential

Experience a more positive and stable mood Lose weight if you are overweight and gain
weight if you are underweight

Experience elimination of ‘brain fog’ and

heightened levels of mental clarity

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Nutritional Typing Eliminates Your Food Cravings…
and There’s No Counting Calories!

Nutritional Typing is about providing the correct fuel for your

body—for your specific cellular metabolism. The 100 trillion cells
in your body are all like little engines, and the food you eat is the
fuel that they use to run your body.
When you follow the right nutrition plan for your body, optimum
energy is available to your body’s cells, organs, glands and systems.
This goes hand in hand with good health.
When you don’t eat the correct foods for your Nutritional Type, your cells are starved
for energy. Your body does not get the right fuel, and you may experience a number of
symptoms from food cravings to frequent hunger to weight gain and disease.
Meanwhile, when you eat right for your Nutritional Type, the whole issue of how much to
eat takes care of itself. Your appetite will be completely satisfied. You won’t have any need
to count and restrict your calories. You won’t have to weigh your food. You won’t have to
worry about how much you’re eating.

Finally, the End of Dietary Roulette

Choosing what to eat without knowing your Nutritional Type is like a giant game of
roulette, because even if you’re choosing “healthy” foods, they may be pushing your
metabolism out of balance.
With Nutritional Typing, you can finally put a stop to the guessing game. There are
few things in life as liberating as discovering your Nutritional Type and coming to an
understanding of what nutrition plan will allow you to thoroughly enjoy your life
and live it to the fullest.

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When you start to follow the nutrition plan that’s right for you, you will experience plenty
of positive changes that will sharply improve the quality of your life. Some of these benefits
will occur immediately, while others will take a bit longer, but you can surely expect to
experience:
• Natural weight loss (if necessary) without dieting or restricting calories
• A reduced risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes
• Enhanced immunity and decreased coughs, colds and flu
• Slowing of the aging process

Hypothyroid and High Blood Pressure Improves

Lou from Santa Barbara, CA had a history of high blood pressure and low thyroid function. He developed
hypertension about five years ago, and he was shown to have a thyroid problem a year earlier.
He has been on Synthroid since August 2005, which was able to reduce his fatigue and brain fog.
He exercises religiously and has competed in two Iron Man competitions. His initial NT assessment in
November 2005 found him to be a Carb Type. For over 10 weeks he faithfully followed the prime Carb Type
meal plan and he experienced significant improvement in his energy and stamina.
Additionally, he had no cravings and was able to go four to six hours in between meals before he felt the
need to eat again. However, he eventually began to feel a need to increase his intake of raw butter and
felt less satisfied with his Carb-Type meals. He tried some raw red meat, which he enjoyed and found to
be very satisfying.
Around the same time, he increased the frequency, intensity and duration of his exercise and stopped
taking his medication for hypertension, and amazingly his thyroid disease remarkably improved. In February
2006, Lou repeated his NT assessment and in his second report, he was re-assessed as a protein type.
At this point, it was clear that Lou was initially only a functional Carb Type and now he may only be a
functional Protein Type. Time will tell, but it is likely that he is a Mixed Type. At this time, Lou continues
to feel very good eating an almost all raw food version of the prime Protein Type meal plan. His energy
is good and his blood pressure has been in a healthier range. He recently completed a half Iron Man
competition and felt very strong doing so.

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The Principles of Nutritional Typing

There are five primary principles that you will need to focus on to successfully eat right for
your Nutritional Type. The first three principles are actually of equal importance. We will
list them here in the order that they will need to be addressed as you shop and then plan and
prepare your meals:
1. Make the right food choices. Initially, choose all of your foods from your
Nutritional Type food chart. Buy the best quality food that is available to you.
2. Consider what you will eat RAW and what you will eat COOKED. When cooking,
never overcook your food. Use low temperature cooking as often as you can.
3. Always consume your most metabolically important food or foods FIRST!
For example, if you are a Protein Type eat your meat first, if you are a Carb
Type eat your vegetables first and if you are a Mixed type eat your meat and
vegetables together.
4. Practice the right kind of food combining for your Nutritional Type.
(This is especially important for MIXED types.)
5. Eat consciously! Pay attention to what you are eating and—if you do not already
do so—then begin to practice eating slowly and chewing your food thoroughly.
When you put these five principles into practice, you then set yourself up
for success with principle number six, which has to do with those perplexing
percentages and ratios of protein, carbs and fat that you are eating at each meal.
6. The truth is: the amounts of protein, fat and carbohydrates that you are eating
at each meal are definitely important—but please do not think about this in
terms of percentages and ratios. The amount of protein, fat and carbs that
you eat is also known as the macronutrient ratio, and it is the most dynamic part
of eating right for your Nutritional Type. But, the correct macronutrient ratio for
you can vary depending on a number of factors, including your levels of stress
and activity, and also the climate where you are living.
Perhaps you have heard about the macronutrient ratio, as it is the subject
of a book called “The Zone Diet.” This book proposes that to get in the “zone”
a person should strive to eat 40 percent of their calories from carbs, 30 percent
from protein and 30 percent from fat.

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 However, this is incredibly misleading, as there is NO macronutrient ratio that
is right for everyone all the time. (It’s another one-size-fits-all approach.) As
indicated above, even your own ideal macronutrient ratio can vary significantly
from time to time.
So how do you get your ideal amounts of protein, fat and carbs right at every
meal without turning your meal into a complex mathematical problem?
The answer is simple: Focus on making the right food choices (principle #1) and
eating your food in the right way (principles 2, 3, 4 & 5). As for how much you
should eat of any given food in your meal plan, initially, you should let your
appetite be your guide, then learn from your experience.
You must always listen carefully to your body, trust what it tells you and
remember what you have learned.
If you pay attention, your own body language (how you feel physically,
mentally and emotionally) will always let you know if you are or are not
nourishing yourself correctly. So while the macronutrient ratio is important, so
is figuring out your best macronutrient ratio in an intuitive way, rather than in
an intellectual way!
There is one more principle that needs to be addressed, especially for those
of you who do take nutritional supplements. And that brings us to principle
number seven, which is:
7. Only take supplements that are right for your Nutritional Type. Avoid
supplements that are wrong for your Nutritional Type.
While the right supplements for your Nutritional Type can definitely be helpful,
they are not essential for most people to experience dramatic and even
amazing health improvements. If you are on a tight budget, always prioritize
spending your money on the best-quality food that is right for your Nutritional
Type rather than spending it on supplements.

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 Blood Pressure Improves Dramatically
The story below is from someone who had struggled with very high blood pressure for some time. She had
applied the Atkins-type, low-carb, high-protein diet for her blood pressure challenge and it failed miserably.
She was even eating organic foods!
Why did it fail?
Because she was a Carb Type. If she were a protein type she would have had phenomenal results, just like
many of the successful Atkins proponents.
Fortunately, she was a subscriber to our site and had taken our online NT test that provided her with the
correct diet recommendations for her and, as you can see by her story below, it worked like an absolute
charm.
Mieltje is a 54-year-old woman who had her thyroid removed in1984. She gained quite a bit of weight over
the years and also had high blood pressure. She had always been able to control high blood pressure with
magnesium, but lately that had not worked.
Here is her story:
“After 10 days of the NT diet, my blood pressure has dropped 40 pts. I was getting readings of 200/160, and
yesterday I had 123 over 73. Still spikes, but is dropping steadily.
Unbelievable. I never believed I was a carb person, and have been avoiding them for years, still gaining
weight. Steady increase in blood pressure, despite eating healthy, organic foods.
And who would have thought the order in which you eat them matters. I always craved bread and potatoes more
than dessert. I’m in heaven finishing a meal with a red potato, or following egg for breakfast with flax wheat
toast. And the fog is clearing. Still waiting to see a weight drop, but the blood pressure change is amazing!”
—Mieltje, Deer Park, IL

Raw Foods and Low-Temperature Cooking

The second NT principle is all about how you prepare your foods, so ideally you will want to
eat them either raw or lightly cooked. Consuming foods in this form ensures that you get the
maximum nutritional value from the foods, and the least amount of toxic byproducts.
You may not realize that cooking foods, particularly at high temperatures, actually creates
health-harming compounds in the food, and this is something you definitely want to avoid.
Eating foods as close to their natural form as possible is a primary goal with NT.
So, whenever possible, you should seek out organic raw foods. This includes raw organic fruits
and vegetables, organic raw dairy products like raw milk, raw kefir, and raw yogurt, and organic
raw meats and seafood like steak tartar and salmon tartar, all according to your NT, of course.

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However, raw dairy products can be very difficult to come by in the United States. If you cannot
find a source of raw dairy products, you can substitute organic pasteurized dairy products, if they
are agreeable to your body. Meanwhile, some people are opposed to eating raw meats and seafood.
For this reason, it’s acceptable to lightly cook your foods using low-temperature cooking.
Low-temperature cooking conserves more of the naturally occurring moisture and flavor
in the food, plus, the food does not stick to the cookware. Most importantly, the food will
be easier for your body to properly digest, and you will be conserving much more of the
nutritional value of the food.

Low-Temperature Cooking Guidelines:

• Use a glass casserole dish with a cover. (The

cover is very important.) The tighter the cover
fits, the better. The size of the casserole dish
should be appropriate for the amount of food
being cooked. In other words, the casserole dish
should be about the same size as what you are
cooking, and should not be too big.
• Cook your food in the oven at 225 degrees Fahrenheit—No Higher!
• Allow for 12 to 15 minutes of cooking time per each 4 ounces of food
being cooked, but decrease or increase the cooking time as needed.
• Other healthy methods of cooking that are acceptable to use with NT
include crock-pot cooking, poaching, steaming your food lightly or
searing your food (on the outside, and leaving the inside very rare).

26
Can My Nutritional Type Change?

Your type can, in fact, change. However, for most people, once their Nutritional Type is
correctly identified, it does not change.
But while it is generally very uncommon for your NT to change over time, the ratios and
ideal proportions of your foods may need to be altered. For example, if you have three people
who are all Protein Types, not all of them would eat the same way for breakfast, lunch and
dinner. Some will have a much stronger need for protein and fat at breakfast and a lesser need
at lunch and even lesser at dinner. One person may be completely opposite, requiring most of
his protein and fat at dinner, while the other may require the same amounts at every meal.
As far as your NT changing, this is a matter of the difference between what we refer to as
your “genetic type,” or the NT that you were born with, and your “functional type”—the
NT that you are simply functioning at today.
In some individuals, their genetic type can weaken, and as a result
they move into a different NT pattern. This may be caused by:
• Eating the wrong foods for your Nutritional Type
• Stress
• Environmental factors such as seasonal changes

After these individuals start balancing their body chemistry, it is possible that they may move
back and forth between their genetic and functional types. Until the strength is restored in
their body, they may, therefore, move into different Nutritional Types.
However, if your genetic type is the same as your functioning type (and this is the case with
most people), then your NT likely will not change.
Either way, a change in your NT is not something you need to worry about. You simply
follow your program and retest occasionally to check on your Nutritional Type and see how
you’re doing. When you follow your NT, things just work out in a very natural way.

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What if I’m a Vegetarian and a Protein Type?

People who follow a vegetarian diet are often concerned about changing
their eating habits if they turn out to be Protein Types. Unfortunately,
some of the sickest patients I have seen are people who are Protein Types,
yet are clinging to the belief that they need to be a vegetarian.
This is because Protein Types need to eat high-purine animal protein
in order to be optimally healthy. The whole point of NT is to identify
what foods are right for your specific and unique biochemistry, and that goes far beyond
any theory or belief. NT has to do with what is right for your genes, and what is right from
a genetic standpoint in terms of the kinds of foods and kinds of nutrients that are right for
your metabolism.
While being vegetarian might be a choice that benefits some people, it is a choice that is
NOT conducive to health for Protein Types. People in this group tend to suffer terribly
by developing numerous health problems. They never achieve the level of health they are
seeking if they choose to remain on a vegetarian diet.

I’m Having Problems with Digestion…What do I Do?

In order to benefit from eating the right foods for your

Nutritional Type, you must be able to digest your food
properly. Your body, however, may be damaged and not able
to produce the hydrochloric acid and enzymes necessary to
properly digest your food.
If you are eating the foods that are right for your Nutritional
Type, yet are having digestive problems such as:
• Belching or burping
• Food seeming like it’s sitting like a rock
in your stomach and just not moving through
• Your digestion seems unusually slow
• You have heartburn or intestinal gas
• Any other signs of indigestion

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You should consider taking some hydrochloric acid and/or enzyme supplements with your
meals to help your digestive process. Taking a daily probiotic is also recommended. When
taking supplements, you should seek an experienced natural medical clinician to guide you
through the process.
You can also help your digestion by eating slowly. Chewing your food thoroughly ensures
that you’re mixing all of your saliva in with your food, which helps start the digestive process
properly. It is also important to eat your food under calm conditions.
You shouldn’t be watching upsetting news on TV, having an argument with someone, or
worrying about a problem that you’re dealing with while you eat. This is because stressful
situations such as these will shut off the digestive process and make it much more difficult
for you to digest your food.

Why Taking Supplements Can be Dangerous if you Don’t Know Your NT

I’m very much opposed to the indiscriminate use of supplements,

as they can cause far more harm than good. Foods can be wonderful
for you if they are right for your Nutritional Type, but the
challenging point for many to accept is that even locally grown
organic vegetables can be bad for you if they’re wrong for your
Type. And when you apply that notion to a disease process, such
as heart disease or high cholesterol, if you eat the wrong foods for
your Nutritional Type you may increase your heart disease or bad
cholesterol, even if those foods don’t contain cholesterol.
Foods are good or bad for you, depending upon what’s right for your Nutritional Type, and
the identical scenario is also true for supplements. Vitamins and minerals have highly specific
effects on your metabolism, so to simply start taking supplements because you read about
them in an article or you hear friends say that it was good for them, is actually an unwise
and potentially unhealthy thing to do. We do not recommend doing that.
Taking an individual nutrient or multivitamin that is wrong for your NT can cause or
worsen an imbalance in your biochemistry.

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 Diabetes Improves on HIGH-Carb Diet!
Paula from Fruit Heights, UT is a 64-year-old diabetic perspective, the value of our Carb Type nutrition
and she has struggled with high triglycerides and plan was shown in the dramatic improvements she
very high cholesterol. Her comprehensive blood test realized from her first blood test in April, compared
clearly indicated insulin resistant type 2 diabetes. to her second blood test in September.
Her previous physician enriched the drug companies It is important to keep in mind that these
by prescribing Lipitor, a drug that in no way, shape or improvements began to be achieved when Paula
form treats the cause of the problem but gives Pfizer started to eat right for her NT and used food as her
a cool $13 billion a year in revenues. Fortunately, she medicine! Also, keep in mind that she is 64 years of
could not tolerate it. (She probably got a ‘thank you’ age and she had only been eating right for her NT for
note from her liver for stopping the Lipitor!) three months when her blood test was repeated.
Paula is five feet tall and was about 30 pounds Test results from April 28, 2006
overweight when she visited the Optimal Wellness Insulin: 13
Center in April of 2006. As a new patient, she
expressed frustration that: “No matter what I do, I Glucose: 144
just can’t seem to lose weight and keep it off.” Triglycerides: 238
She also reported that she loves desserts. In fact, she Total Cholesterol: 298
has a history of having strong cravings for sugar and HDL’s: 45
bread. (Cravings for sugar or bread or other refined
grain products are ALWAYS a big clue that someone LDL’s: 205
is NOT eating right for their type of metabolism.) Test results from September 21, 2006
Through Nutritional Typing, Paula was identified as Insulin: 5
a strong Carb Type. Well, it took Paula some time to
Glucose: 85
do the planning and preparation necessary before
she could consistently eat right for her NT, but, in Triglycerides: 125
the middle of June 2006, she did begin to follow our Total Cholesterol: 259
prime Carb Type nutrition plan about 90 percent to 95
HDL’s: 48
percent of the time. Over the course of the next four
to five months, Paula realized the following benefits: LDL’s: 186

• She experienced a huge reduction She Did NOT Take Any Prescription Drugs!
in her cravings for sugar and bread Paula’s insulin and glucose levels from September are
• Her Carb Type meals were so satisfying not only no longer at diabetic levels—these levels are
to her, she could easily go for five to six outstandingly healthy for a Carb Type in her age group.
hours after breakfast and lunch before Her levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL’s &
she began to feel hungry again LDL’s still have lots of room for further improvement,
• Her energy, stamina, mood and but she is NO longer at high risk for heart disease. In
mental clarity all improved fact, every day that she eats right for her Nutritional
Type she moves further away from disease and she
• She lost 18.25 pounds—Without Dieting!
gets closer and closer to realizing her full health
All of these benefits really helped to improve the potential at this time of her life.
quality of Paula’s daily life. From a blood chemistry

30
When Will I Experience the Benefits of Nutritional Typing?

Most people will start to notice benefits of eating the right foods for their NT within the first
few weeks. However, it is important to appreciate that you will continue to realize your full
health potential over time.
If you are suffering from a degenerative process, you should give yourself a few years of really
being faithful to the program. At the end of that time, when you look back you’ll be amazed
at the changes that have taken place in your body, just by eating the right foods—and
stopping the wrong ones—for your Nutritional Type.

How Do I Find Out My Nutritional Type?

All of our patients at the Optimal Wellness Center (my health clinic just outside of Chicago)
were required to take the computerized Metabolic Typing analysis as part of their evaluation
in our clinic. The cost for that analysis, with a one-hour follow-up consultation with a
therapist, is $180 (typically covered by third-party insurance companies).
However, the high price of the analysis has prevented many people from taking this valuable test,
which we believe should be available to everyone. If you’re wondering why it cost so much, a
portion of that fee went to pay for the actual computerized test that was developed by Bill Wolcott.
To provide a less expensive alternative, we’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars to develop
a simpler less expensive test to Nutritionally Type you. Plus, we’ve added an online evaluation
and support forum, which is moderated by one of the nutritionists that works in our clinic.
So we now can finally offer the new Nutritional Typing test to our online subscribers for
$120 less than the patients in our clinic pay. The regular charge for the test will
be an extremely reasonable $59.95!

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That also includes one month of participation in the Nutritional Type Forum, where you
can access tens of thousands of questions that have been previously asked. You can ask your
own specific questions for one month as well. (If you need more time in the Forum, you can
continue for only $15 per month.)
But hold on…
To celebrate our newly redesigned and improved Nutritional Typing test, we’ve decided to
go even further—right now, you can sign up for your personalized NT test for another 50%
off. This brings your total investment down to a measly $29.97!
Why would we do this? Well, we want to make Nutritional Typing so affordable, that
anyone can do it…(Especially now that it’s only 1/5 of what it used to cost!)
I’m not so sure how long this 50% discount will last though, so I’d sign up right away.
Especially since the sooner you know your own Nutritional Type, the sooner you can
take control of your health.
We are extremely excited to be able to offer the NT program, as those who apply its
principles experience phenomenal health benefits. Give it a try for yourself, and experience
for the first time what truly optimal health really feels like.

CLICK HERE NOW to discover more information

about NT, including your bonus half-price offer!

32
 This revolutionary book contains exactly what you need to:
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achieve it)…
• Choose flavorful foods most
appropriate to your unique
biochemistry…
• Reverse your risk of diabetes
(and nearly every chronic
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your fat into muscle…
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This is me today, healthy and happy, along with my • And much, much more…
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For more information on Take Control of Your Health,

the culmination of my 3 decades of practice, CLICK HERE!

w w w.Mercola.com 33