How the Diet for Minerals Compares with Dr. Larry Wilson's Diet for Rapid Development

by Jon Sasmor RCPC (Mineral Guide, MinBalance LLC)
Updated September 3, 2022

Dr. Larry Wilson recommends the "Diet for Rapid Development". Dr. Wilson's Diet for Rapid Development emphasizes nutrient-rich, fast-cooked vegetables and animal fats; a little bit of purple starch containing special nutrients; and sufficient animal proteins and red meat, but not so much as to overload iron.

Those following the Root Cause Protocol may recognize why such a diet promotes outstanding energy-making. Indeed, Dr. Wilson's diet resembles an organic, ancestral, whole foods diet. And, Dr. Wilson's diet includes specific foods and amounts of those foods to provide plenty of retinol-A, copper, magnesium, and other much-needed nutrients; but without excess iron.

The Diet for Minerals presented here on this website arose from Dr. Wilson's diet, but with more than a few important differences discussed below.

This article describes:

common elements between Dr. Wilson's Diet for Rapid Development and the Diet for Minerals,
why Dr. Wilson's concepts of yin and yang now require small changes to the diet, and
discussion of 19 minor, but important, differences you will find in the Diet for Minerals.

I. Common Elements

Common elements of the Diet for Minerals with Dr. Wilson's recommendations include:

Fast-cooked vegetables provide a mineral fountain of magnesium, potassium, and many other minerals. These nutrients are time-released naturally as your food digests.
Limitation on iron-increasing foods, such as red meat and egg whites.
Sufficient protein foods, but not too much.
A balanced omnivorous diet of animal and plant foods, providing the special nutrients from each.
Abundant whole food sources of Retinol-A, K2-MK4-the-Grass-Fed-Vitamin, copper, magnesium, potassium, and many other nutrients.
Emphasis on certain special foods that seem to work better, such as lamb, dark meat chicken, onions, carrots, and animal fats.
A small but significant amount of purple starch, enough to feed your brain and provide special purple-colored nutrients.
Grass-fed and organic foods, including healthy fats and oils.

II. Yin and Yang

We apply Dr. Wilson's terminology, adapted from macrobiotics, in turn adapted from Taoism. Dr. Wilson's diet strikes a remarkable balance of yin and yang.

The world has become a little more yin (chaotic, ungrounded, away from Nature) since Dr. Wilson developed his Diet for Rapid Development. Therefore, the diet now needs to be a little more yang (warm, grounded, animal-based) than the Diet for Rapid Development — though not much more.

This means the amounts of animal fats, egg yolks, and organ meats are a little more in the Diet for Minerals. The amounts of nuts and seeds, grains and legumes, and vegetable oils are less or even zero in the Diet for Minerals. These adaptations allow the Diet for Minerals to continue Dr. Wilson's extraordinary results in the present, more yin world.

III. Nineteen Minor But Important Differences

As noted in Origins of Diet for Minerals, the Diet for Minerals closely follows the Diet for Rapid Development designed by Dr. Larry Wilson.

The following are the minor changes that MinBalance suggests to Dr. Wilson's diet at this time. The saying aptly applies here: "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery."

Dr. Larry Wilson's diet saved me from burnout and gave me a new life. I consider the list below to be minor tweaks to Dr. Wilson's important innovations. They're presented with respect and gratitude for Dr. Wilson:

How to Replace Blue Corn Chips with Extra Grass-Fed Animal Fats and Okinawa Variety Purple Sweet Potato

Dr. Wilson recommends 8-10 blue corn chips per meal, 3 times daily. These contain ~200 calories daily from industrialized vegetable oils plus another ~200 calories daily from starch.

First, we can do better than those bad fats. Adding extra fish oil won't fix the problem with bad seed oils in the corn chips. The industrialized oils are damaging in more ways than just omega-6 fats. This is why I recommend substituting extra ancestral, grass-fed animal fats for the industrialized oil. The amount is an extra 2 Tbsp per day of ancestral, grass-fed animal fats for everyone, to match the 200 calories in the blue corn chips.

Second, blue or purple corn does contain special nutrients. However, many people react poorly to corn. A generation ago, corn may have worked better for more people. Now, we can obtain some of the same special purple starch nutrients from a different, traditional source: Okinawa variety purple sweet potato (tan skin, deep purple flesh). Also, the traditional Okinawa variety purple sweet potato seems to have significantly lower glycemic index (slower digesting) than orange sweet potato.

Okinawa variety purple sweet potatoes were a staple of the long-lived Okinawan elders. They have special nutrients associated with their purple color. Okinawa purple sweet potatoes are not as sweet and fast-digesting as orange sweet potatoes, so they may be better tolerated by many people. The darker the purple of the sweet potato flesh, the more beneficial purple-colored anthocyanin antioxidants are likely to be present.

Cook the Okinawa purple sweet potato together with your vegetables, at the bottom of the pot. Eat a few bites of it at the end of the meal. For better digestion, please chew extremely well until sweetness increases. The amount is 2-8 oz per day (weight before cooking). This provides around 50 to 200 calories from purple starch. Fast oxidizers may need to limit to 2-4 oz per day. Slow oxidizers may need 4-8 oz per day.

If you can't eat Okinawa purple sweet potato, eat one of the sweeter varieties of sweet potato, but in smaller amount. Other options include traditionally prepared gluten-free grains and pseudo-grains from the Occasional Foods list. You may also increase the amount of simple sugars from coconut water, other adrenal cocktails, or a little honey or 100% real maple syrup, so that you need to eat less starch.

Bone and Meat Broths

Dr. Wilson recommends broth only from beef due to concerns about lead toxicity in broths from lamb and chicken. However, the concerns about lead seem to be based on a few studies that didn't document well the conditions in which the animals were raised. Please see the Weston A. Price Foundation for more.

The Diet for Minerals permits broth from lamb, chicken, and other animals, as well as from beef. Regardless of which animal you choose, please only use meat and bones from responsibly raised, organic, uncontaminated, grass-fed animals. Include some meat and connective tissue in your broths, in addition to bones.

The Diet for Minerals agrees with Dr. Wilson about cooking bone and meat broths for less time than many people recommend. For poultry, pressure cook 15 to 20 minutes or boil 1.5 to 2 hours. For beef or lamb, pressure cook 20 to 30 minutes or boil 2 to 3 hours. If poorly tolerated, cook for a shorter time or drink less often.

Emphasis on Animal Fats

The Diet for Minerals emphasizes traditional animal fats. Unlike plant fats, organic grass-fed animal fats are the only natural sources of the forms of the fat-soluble Activator vitamins that our bodies need to work, including Retinol-A, Semi-Vitamin-D-Complex, and K2-MK4-the-Grass-Fed Vitamin.

Nose-to-Tail / Organ Meats

Native peoples treasured the entire animal, and made use of the unique nutrition in each organ. The organs from responsibly raised, grass-fed, organic animals provide wonderful gifts for you!

Fermented Foods

Natural ferments deserve a place in your everyday diet. The living organisms in them enhance the gut biome, mood, energy, and more. Fermented foods appeared on the tables of our ancestors, which is why we enjoy them too.

Egg Yolks Instead of Whole Eggs

Egg yolks are the nutrient powerhouse of the egg. They also may reduce absorption of excess iron, compared with whole eggs or egg whites. For more about this superfood, please see the article Why Eat Only the Egg Yolks?.

Interestingly, in June 2021 blog posts, Dr. Wilson briefly recommended switching to eating mainly the yolks, up to 12 yolks per week and only up to 1 egg white per week. But, a few days later, he reverted to his prior recommendation of eating whole eggs instead, 6 per week for women and 8 for men.

The change was a good idea, to eat a larger number of egg yolks primarily instead of whole eggs. Indeed, it seems to work better to go beyond Dr. Wilson's quantities to take advantage of this wonderful superfood, the runny egg yolk.

The Diet for Minerals recommends 3 to 5 pastured runny soft-boiled egg yolks a day for everyone!

The whites are optional, and no more than 2-3 whites per day should be eaten, if the whites are eaten at all.

Organic Parsley

The Diet for Minerals adds organic parsley as a special daily food. It provides an outstanding source of trace minerals. Think of parsley more as a main vegetable than as an herb. Eat 1-3 oz daily of parsley (raw weight). Cook the parsley with your vegetables, with the parsley on top. You may wish to eat it first at the beginning of your meal to stimulate digestion.

Broccoli; Basil; Rosemary; Oyster Mushrooms, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Other Special Mushrooms

These foods contain special nutrients. You may eat them frequently or daily.

Optional Almond Butter and Tahini

These nut butters are made optional instead of required. Some people do better with more liver, egg yolks, and animal fat instead.

Less Fish; More Cod Liver Oil

We need some polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), but not too much. Because the Root Cause Protocol includes cod liver oil (as a source of retinol-A and other nutrients), the amount of fish recommended is reduced. You already will be getting some fish nutrients from cod liver oil.

Emu Oil

Walkabout brand emu oil is a very special food from Australian traditions! It's the most concentrated known food source of Vitamin K2-MK4 the Grass-Fed Vitamin, in addition to containing many other synergistic nutrients. If you're able, eat 1/4 tsp of emu oil two to three times daily in Activator Goo.

Red Palm Oil

Red palm oil (especially the Nutiva brand) seems to have special beneficial properties, as a well-balanced fat. You may want to eat a spoon of it daily with your food.

Red palm oil is one of the options for a source of Whole-Food-Vitamin-E-Complex in the Root Cause Protocol. For more about red palm oil, please see the article How to Eat Red Palm Oil

Duck and Goose Fats

These are tasty animal fats to enjoy from time to time. It's difficult to find an organic grass-fed source. Also, they may contain more polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) than we'd like. However, these fats have the advantage that if the birds are fed grass or supplemented with vitamin K3, the fat will be rich in K2-MK4 the Grass-Fed Vitamin.

Less Grains and Legumes; They Must Be Properly Prepared

Many people react adversely to grains and legumes, often without realizing it. These seeds must be correcly prepared in traditional ways. I'd avoid any grain products with gluten, as reactions are so common. Grains and legumes aren't emphasized in the suggested Diet for Minerals.

Inclusion of Root Cause Protocol STOPs and STARTs

The suggested Diet for Minerals and the Root Cause Protocol work together beautifully to balance your minerals.

When I encountered the Root Cause Protocol, unlike many others, I was already aboard a nutrition and lifestyle program that was working extremely well — Dr. Larry Wilson's development program, with a diet similar to the Diet for Minerals.

Yet, including the Root Cause Protocol together with the Diet for Minerals has led to faster progress.

The Diet for Minerals offers a fountain of nutrient-rich foods. The Root Cause Protocol addresses crucial magnesium and copper-iron metabolism, with natural and gentle steps. And it removes some measures, like supplements containing ascorbic acid, vitamin D, and/or zinc, which often undermine positive results.

The Root Cause Protocol is needed to address the underlying mineral metabolism. Without RCP, copper can't activate and iron gets stuck. Then you have too much stress and magnesium gets depleted too.

The Root Cause Protocol and Diet for Minerals, together, are the fastest way I can suggest to balance your minerals.

Warning: Avoid Synthetic Supplements from the Root Cause Protocol STOPs List

While the suggested Diet for Minerals resembles Dr. Wilson's Diet for Rapid Development, please avoid most supplements Dr. Wilson recommends. The Root Cause Protocol approach works better. The reasons include:

Natural food-based nutrients contain whole complexes of related nutrients. These work better than isolated synthetic nutrients, which tend to imbalance the body, even if well-intended.
Supplements containing ascorbic-acid-C, zinc, and semi-vitamin-D will tend to wreck copper-iron metabolism by blocking copper's functions. Dr. Wilson's recommended supplements include these and others from the RCP STOPs list. Follow the Root Cause Protocol insead to optimize copper-iron metabolism.

Unfortified Nutritional Yeast

Nutritional yeast must be the unfortified variety, as per the RCP. Please avoid synthetic B vitamins, which may block the metabolism of natural forms of B vitamins.

Ocean-Sourced Trace Mineral Drops

Ocean-sourced trace mineral drops are added to the daily foods as a highly recommended mineral source. These are made of pure ocean water, left in the sun to concentrate the minerals (by evaporation) and remove most of the sodium (by precipitation).

Most of life's evolution occurred in the ocean. Indeed, sodium-reduced sea water still closely matches the mineral makeup of the plasma which is the foundation of our blood.

I highly recommend ocean mineral drops. The only brand I know that makes them is sold in the USA and Canada and internationally as Aussie Trace Minerals and in Australia as Amena's Daily Boost.

I agree with Dr. Wilson that land- or lake-based mineral drops usually contain toxins. Because life spent most of its time evolving neither on land nor in lakes, the mineral content of land- or lake-based mineral drops doesn't match the mineral balance for which we evolved. Therefore, land- and lake-based mineral drops remain on the list of foods to avoid.

For similar reasons, land- or lake-based rock salts should be eaten only occasionally. Eat sea salt instead.

Option for Cooked Vegetables with 2 Meals per Day Instead of 3 Meals

When doing the Root Cause Protocol, you obtain abundant minerals from ocean-sourced trace mineral drops (Aussie Trace Minerals or Amena's Daily Boost) and from adrenal cocktails such as coconut water with sea salt.

Cooked vegetables remain an important mineral source; but somewhat less so, due to the alternate sources included in RCP. Also, eating sufficient grass-fed animal fats will help you absorb more efficiently many of the nutrients in veggies. Therefore, the Diet for Minerals reduces the recommended minimum amount of cooked vegetables from 6 to 4 cups per day.

Note that some people with gut sensitivities do better with fewer vegetables. I don't always agree with Chris Kresser, but here's an interesting article of his: Got Digestive Problems? Take It Easy on the Veggies.

For those trying intermittent fasting with a longer fasting window, 2 meals can provide enough nutrition, if you do the RCP. I often eat vegetables with only 2 meals per day.