Most likely, you have heard at least a little bit about the Golden Ratio. This ancient sacred principle is also known as the Divine Proportion, and it is often expressed by the Greek letter phi.
The Golden Ratio is found in the designs of iconic structures through the ages and across the globe: from the Great Pyramid to Chartres Cathedral to Stonehenge.
Luminaries such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Fibonacci all used the Golden Ratio to create their enduring works of genius. The transcendent beauty of a piece like the Mona Lisa owes itself to the ideal proportions of the Golden Ratio.
In the past, the Golden Ration was thought to apply mainly to arts and architecture. Now, innovative medical professionals are realizing the immense benefits to improve your health that can come from applying to Golden Ratio to issues of human well-being and health.
What Exactly is The Golden Ratio?
Put simply, 2 quantities demonstrate divine proportionate the Golden Ratio if…the ratio of the sum of the 2 quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one.
The Golden Ratio’s mathematical value is 1.6180339887…but for most of us, this concept is much better illustrated with a diagram than with words or numbers:
How and Why the Golden Ratio Can Improve Your Health
The Golden Ratio is expressed throughout the physical human body in innumerable ways, including our bone structure (for example, in the proportions of the sections of each finger and each toe of our hands and feet, and in the proportions of our faces).
These examples are just the beginning of the endless number of ways the Golden Ratio governs our bodies’ formation and functioning. Therefore, understanding this principle can have a profound impact on helping you achieve your ideal health and overall improve your health.
For Dr. Robert Friedman, the connection between the Golden Ratio and ideal health comes as no surprise.
During his medial residency in the 1980s, Dr. Friedman began observing the Golden Ratio throughout the human body—on the anatomical, physiological, and molecular levels. “The deeper I looked,” said Friedman, “the more deeply I discovered this incredible and ubiquitous Code to be embedded throughout the structure and function of the body…it only followed that the more one could harmonize with this grand principle, the more efficient and effortless life could be.”
A Heart of Gold
Friedman’s early intuition has since been supported by a variety of scientific studies. In December of 2009, the British Medical Journal published a study showing that the Golden Ratio can be an important predictor of heart attacks.
The study’s lead author— Professor Hanno Ulmer, from Innsbruck Medical University in Austria—says healthy hearts “exhibit the harmonious golden ratio.”
After analyzing blood pressure readings from over 160,000 people, Ulmer and his team found that those with a ratio of 1.6180 (the mathematical value of the Golden Ratio) between the systolic (maximum) and diastolic (minimum) blood pressure were significantly less likely to have a fatal heart attack.
The Golden Ratio Diet for Supercharged Health
Here in the United States, a baker and all-around Renaissance man in Maine is using the Golden Ratio to bake bread and change lives through an ideally proportioned diet. Stephen Lanzalotta, owner of Sophia’s Bakery and author of The Diet Code, has been interested in the Golden Ratio his entire life.
On his website, Lanzalotta notes that the mathematical school of Pythagoras, one of the earliest sources of documented use of the Golden Ratio, “saw such perfection in [the Golden Ration] they called it Hygeia, or health.” Lanzalotta uses the Golden Ratio his bread recipe. He also used it to create his now famous “Da Vinci Plates.”
Lanzalotta’s Da Vinci plates are the precursors to the Diet Code he developed. “When it comes to health and weight control,” said Lanzalotta, “the foods you eat are important, but the proportion in which you eat them is critical.”
He used the Golden Ratio to form the parameters of his diet plan:
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• 52% carbohydrates
• 20% protein
• 28% fat
“The same Golden Ratio formulas that structure the universe, the same math that describes the human body,” Lanzalotta writes, “naturally creates a diet that will give you everything you need (and nothing you don’t) to fuel your day and your life.”
Nature’s “Secret Nutrient”
Typically we think of nutrients as edible forms of sustenance, things that we can taste and swallow like vitamins, minerals, or herbs. What if there was another nutrient, a different nutrient, one with no mass, taste, calories or cost?
Renowned strategist and lifestyle coach Matthew Cross and immune system and longevity specialist Dr. Robert Friedman argue that just such a mysterious nutrient exists. They call it Nature’s Secret Nutrient (NSN).
Put simply, NSN stands for the application of the Golden Ratio to your diet and lifestyle. The idea is similar to the diet devised by Stephen Lanzalotta, but the ideas proposed by Cross and Freidman go much farther than the food you put on your plate.
Both men were drawn powerfully to the power and potential of the Golden Ratio. By age 12, Cross was already researching its practical applications. As mentioned earlier, Friedman’s fascination began during his residency. Prior to penning The Golden Ratio Lifestyle Diet, Cross and Friedman collaborated on two other guides to accessing the benefits of the ratio.
After 10 years of collaboration, the two experts compiled The Golden Ratio Lifestyle Diet. The remarkable book integrates the Golden Ratio into the fields of physiology, nutrition, health, and human performance.
Rather than addressing all those areas separately, Cross and Freidman use the rule of the Golden Ratio as a “common thread [to] pull together all of the vital factors which support optimal human health.”
The authors have identified 9 major drivers to improve your health and longevity…
• Air/Breath
• Water/Hydration
• Sleep/Rest/Recovery
• Nutrition
• Posture
• Exercise
• Detoxification
• Happiness/Inner Peace
• Natural Beauty and Attraction
They believe that knowledge of the Golden Ratio can help you to reorient yourself within the “Universal fractal of creation.” While this may sound quite esoteric, the book backs up these claims with real evidence of how the Golden Ratio can transform your entire life.
Overall, it can lead to “more happiness, health, and a stronger inner vitality to deal with the challenges of modern life.”
Best of all, applying the Golden Ratio requires no fancy equipment or complicated dietary restrictions. It’s just a simple principle that, when understood and applied in as many ways as possible, brings “greater efficiency, harmony and success” into your life.