In a quick search of the internet one can find no less than 571,000,000 pages containing the word “diet”. On TV the number of programs targeting nutrition has multiplied, and one need only scan the newsstands to see the topic as headlines on hundreds of both feminine and masculine publications. After suffering from blinding migraines (rendering him prostrate in his bedroom) it struck Grand Master Carlos Gracie sr. (Rilion’s father) that something had to change. From the words of the philosopher Hippocrates came the first clue: “Make your nourishment your cure”.

He also noticed, just like a farmer who controls the soil’s PH before planting the seeds, that the blood’s PH is a key element during the digestive process and that it must be kept neutral, which helps the transformation of the food. He observed, then, that a certain combination of foods kept the blood neutral, as opposed to some mixtures that made it acid or alkaline.

He brought all his study together and created the eating method known as the Gracie Diet, which went through careful research and was developed throughout the years, consuming most of the last 50 years of his life.

But that is not all. Beyond worrying about solid foods, Master Carlos sought to complement them with teas, using what nature offers as cures for man’s ailments. “Our body is machine running on blood. If the blood is pure, the machine runs well”, says Rilion Gracie. “My father’s objective was to make sure the family’s fighters were well, or in other words, free of any illness that might arise and make combat unviable”, Rilion concludes.

The following tables are the core of the Gracie method for a nourishing diet. By complying to the different combinations of the food groups, in accordance to the tables, you are able to keep meals as neutral as possible. As a result, you will balance out the pH level in your body, which will improve digestion, as well as prevent and combat illness.