Citric Acid Cycle

Aajonus described the citric acid cycle's ratio with consistent precision. The 80% fat component can come from three sources: fat eaten directly from animal products, fat that the body synthesizes from dietary protein converted into an acetone or ketone form, or fat synthesized from carbohydrates that have been converted into an acetone form. Regardless of origin, fat constitutes the dominant substrate.

The 15% pyruvate fraction is derived from protein. Pyruvate is a protein sugar, meaning it is made from protein that the body converts into a specific sugar compound. Aajonus spelled it out as P-Y-R-U-V-A-T-E and emphasized that it has no advanced glycation byproduct, unlike carbohydrate-derived sugars. Eating eggs and meat is sufficient to supply the protein the body needs to manufacture pyruvate. In his words, "pyruvate is just eating like eggs and meat." The body handles the conversion internally.

The 5% carbohydrate fraction is described as the ignition component. Aajonus used phrases like "ignite," "fire," and "explode" to describe what citric acid or carbohydrate does to activate the fat-as-fuel system, though he qualified these terms by acknowledging that no actual fire takes place inside the body. The carbohydrate or vitamin C combines with pyruvate and in doing so allows the fat to be utilized as energy. Without this small carbohydrate fraction, the pyruvate itself tends to become the primary fuel rather than the ignitor, which shifts the body away from fat-based energy and toward sugar-based energy, a far less efficient arrangement.

He noted that the coconut is a food whose nutritional composition almost exactly mirrors the citric acid cycle ratio: 80% fat, 15% protein, and 5% carbohydrate. He used this as a reference point when explaining the ideal diet structure and when developing specific protocols around coconut water and coconut meat.

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Pyruvate receives detailed treatment in Aajonus's explanations of the citric acid cycle because it is the component most likely to be misunderstood or overlooked. The conventional model presents energy metabolism as a binary choice between fat and sugar, but Aajonus rejected this, saying explicitly, "Nope. There is a pyruvate made from protein." He credited this as a distinct third substrate class, not reducible to either fat or carbohydrate.

When the body lacks sufficient fat, Aajonus explained, a larger proportion of protein is converted into pyruvate because pyruvate then must function as the fuel itself rather than as the ignitor. This is a degraded arrangement. The actual ignitor is being consumed as primary fuel, which wastes protein and produces less efficient energy. The ideal situation is one in which fat is abundant and available, pyruvate occupies only its proper 15% role as facilitator, and carbohydrate or vitamin C supplies the 5% triggering fraction.

He made clear that the protein-to-pyruvate conversion happens naturally from ordinary protein consumption. There is no need to eat specialized foods or supplements to get pyruvate into the cycle. Eating meat and eggs as the bulk of one's diet supplies the raw material, and the body performs the conversion internally.

One direct quote captures his explanation of the relationship between pyruvate and the fat-burning mechanism: "The body makes pyruvate as part of the citric acid cycle. It helps vitamin C and the citric acids fire, explode the fats to burn fuel. If the fats aren't present, there are a lot more proteins used, made into pyruvate, because then it becomes the fuel instead of the fat being the fuel. The actual ignitor becomes the fuel, which are the sugars."

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The 5% carbohydrate slot in the citric acid cycle can be filled by several different substances, and Aajonus treated these as functionally interchangeable within the cycle's proportional logic. Raw fruit is the most common source, providing sugar that, once it reaches the digestive tract, ferments and becomes alcohol. Alcohol in small quantities serves a useful function in the citric acid cycle by helping to solubilize fats and facilitate their conversion to energy. Citric acid from citrus fruits and other acidic fruits is another valid source. Real vitamin C from whole food, as opposed to synthetic ascorbic acid, is a third. Even vitamin C found in raw meat qualifies. Aajonus noted that a pound of raw meat contains more absorbable vitamin C than five oranges, citing the work of the explorer and government researcher Vladimir Stefansson, who found that raw meat could reverse scurvy five times faster than oranges or lemon juice.

Carrot juice counts as a carbohydrate source capable of contributing to the 5% fraction. Celery, by contrast, does not contain enough carbohydrate to supply even its own digestion and is described as a "negative" or "minus carbohydrate food" in this context. It does not contribute to the citric acid cycle's carbohydrate fraction.

Aajonus noted that when carbohydrate is time-released alongside fat, the cycle operates more smoothly. He recommended eating fruit alongside or after fat-rich meals rather than on its own, so that the sugars enter the system gradually in the presence of the fat they are meant to ignite. Eating unripe fruit or low-sugar fruit like berries and cherries allows a gentle supply of fermentable sugar without overshooting the 5% threshold.

The body also has a mechanism for producing the carbohydrate fraction from within. Aajonus explained that "your body will take a certain amount of fruit and ferment it to utilize the fat as energy," and that by eating protein and fat together, the body can generate adequate pyruvate and small amounts of sugar internally, making fruit optional on some days.

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The primacy of fat in the citric acid cycle is the central reason Aajonus placed fat at the top of his nutritional hierarchy. Fat supplies 80% of the cycle's energy while producing the least metabolic waste relative to carbohydrate. He described fat as having two and a half times more energy per calorie than any carbohydrate or protein source. The energy is not produced through combustion but through a process of molecular disassembly that releases energy in a distributed, bioelectric form throughout the body.

Aajonus used the analogy of a battery-powered car versus a piston-driven combustion engine to explain the difference between fat-based and sugar-based metabolism. The body running on fat is more like a bioelectric system; energy flows cleanly without the toxic byproducts associated with sugar metabolism. He described the fat's energy product as a "fluid energy" that allows concentrated electrical activity in the body.

He also identified fat's role in toxic protection as inseparable from its role in the citric acid cycle. Toxins in the body are stored in fat, and fat acts as a binding agent for poisons moving through the system. This double function, as both the primary energy substrate and the primary toxin buffer, makes fat intake the most critical dietary variable in his framework. Without abundant dietary fat, the citric acid cycle cannot operate at peak efficiency and the body loses its primary toxin-management resource simultaneously.

The gorilla was invoked repeatedly as a biological reference point. Gorillas operate on a diet whose energy profile mirrors the citric acid cycle ratio and, as a result, have roughly ten times the muscular strength of a human being relative to body weight. Aajonus presented this as evidence that the citric acid cycle running on predominantly fat fuel is the design specification of the primate digestive system, not an aberration.

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Aajonus described in personal terms what happened to his own behavior and neurological state when he was eating too much fruit as a raw foodist. He was "an evangelistic vegetarian" who could "froth up the mouth" arguing against animal products. He described this state as a toxic high driven by excessive sugar intake. The behavior persisted until he reduced fruit to no more than 5% of his diet, at which point it resolved.

He explained the physiological mechanism through the citric acid cycle. When carbohydrate intake exceeds the 5% threshold, the excess sugar does not enhance fat-based energy production. Instead, it stimulates the nervous system in a way that he described as making children "go nuts" and producing manic behavior in adults. The body begins using glycogen and sugar as primary fuel rather than fat, which is a less efficient and neurologically destabilizing arrangement.

Too much fruit also drives excess detoxification. The solvents created from sugar break down accumulated material in the body, and if that detoxification exceeds the body's current capacity to process and eliminate the released substances, the person experiences symptoms. Aajonus noted that anyone who increases fruit intake should expect heavy detoxification and its accompanying symptoms, and should ensure they are eating proportionally more fat alongside the additional carbohydrate.

The advanced glycation end products associated with carbohydrate metabolism are another reason Aajonus cautioned against excess. He contrasted pyruvate, which has "no advanced glycation byproduct," with carbohydrate-derived sugars, which produce glycation damage in tissues when consumed in excess. Keeping the carbohydrate fraction at 5% prevents this glycation accumulation while still providing the triggering component the citric acid cycle requires.

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Aajonus singled out young coconut as a food whose macronutrient profile almost exactly mirrors the citric acid cycle ratio of 80% fat, 15% protein, and 5% carbohydrate. This made it, in his view, an exceptionally complete energy food, particularly for people struggling with energy depletion or weight issues.

He developed a protocol around young coconut in which the coconut gel (young coconut meat) was mixed with coconut water and consumed throughout the day. The rationale was that this combination provided the ideal fuel ratio continuously without requiring the body to source individual fractions from separate foods. People on this protocol did not get hungry and did not experience fatigue because the substrate for the citric acid cycle was being supplied in correct proportion all day.

His one reservation about this protocol was that it caused weight loss too rapidly, which he considered a problem because the speed of weight loss is associated with an accelerated release of stored toxins into the system. He therefore recommended that people use it selectively rather than as a continuous program, and he suggested careful monitoring when using it.

Durian and jackfruit were mentioned as high-fat fruits with elevated carbohydrate content, noted as requiring careful intake because their energy release is rapid and can produce a manic or charged state. Coconut, by contrast, has carbohydrate at only 5%, making it the fruit whose profile best corresponds to the citric acid cycle formula.

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Aajonus translated the citric acid cycle formula directly into dietary recommendations. He suggested that fruit should constitute no more than 5% of total dietary intake, that protein from meat and eggs should constitute approximately 15% in its role as pyruvate precursor, and that fat from animal sources should dominate at 80%. These percentages were not arbitrary but derived from the cycle's operating ratios.

He stated that one fruit meal per day is the appropriate frequency for most people, and that some people need only two to three fruit meals per week. For himself in his later years, he had reduced fruit intake to two and a half to four tablespoons of coconut cream equivalent on most days, with occasional exceptions in hot climates or during heavy physical activity when he might eat a large wedge of watermelon or more tropical fruit.

He also noted that carrot juice contributes to the carbohydrate fraction and can fulfill the 5% requirement. In his juice formulas, carrot appears as a source of carbohydrate that helps balance the citric acid cycle when included in appropriate proportions alongside celery, parsley, cucumber, and cilantro.

The formula was described as applicable to the whole body, not just the citric acid cycle per se. He described "80% fat, 15% protein, 5% carbohydrate" as the optimal fuel structure for the body generally, the same ratio that governs not only cellular energy production but also the ideal dietary balance when looking at what the body actually does with the macronutrients it receives.

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Aajonus took explicit issue with the language of "burning" as applied to metabolism, calling it a misnomer that creates a fundamentally misleading mental model. He stated that thinking of the body like a car that burns fuel "makes you think of the body like a machine," which prevents people from understanding how the citric acid cycle actually works.

In his framework, the body does not eat food and burn it. The body eats food, breaks it apart, and distributes the energy of that food throughout the body in a form that increases the body's bioelectric capacity. When fat is broken apart through the citric acid cycle, its energy does not produce heat or exhaust in the way combustion does. It produces a "fluid energy" that functions like a concentrated electrical resource, supporting cellular activity throughout the organism simultaneously.

He described the body as "more like a bioelectric system" and used the battery-powered vehicle as the better analogy. The three components of the cycle, fat, pyruvate, and the carbohydrate or vitamin C trigger, function together to allow the fat's stored energy to be converted into this distributed bioelectric resource. The carbohydrate and pyruvate do not supply the energy themselves in this model; they facilitate the release of the energy that is contained within the fat molecules.

This reframing had practical consequences for how Aajonus interpreted symptoms. Fatigue was not simply a matter of insufficient carbohydrate but of insufficient fat, or of a disrupted ratio between the three fractions. Providing more fat was his primary response to energy depletion, not increasing sugar or carbohydrate intake.

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