The value of proper nutrition cannot be emphasized enough. Your body's health
is directly related to what you put into it. Modern supermarket food is devitalized
due to contaminants and processing. Organic, fresh, raw foods possess forms
of energy not currently understood by orthodox science. Some of these esoteric
energies can be measured and detected, however. There is a instument available
today, the Vohl Dermatron, that can measure the "vital force" of food. A simpler
method (but no less accurate) is to use a dowsing pendulum to determine
this vital force on a scale of 1-10 for instance. Raw foods also contain digestive
enzymes that cooked and processed foods lack. The digestive enzymes that
Nature provides with the raw fruit, vegetable, or meat is the perfect match
for that particular food. If you don't get the digestive enzymes in the foods
that you eat, your body has to make them. That requires energy and
nutrients that's depleting of your energy resources. Many researchers
who study those elements that contribute to longevity feel that the human
body has a limited capacity and store of enzyme production over
a lifetime. When your enzyme producing capacity expires, you expire!
Vitamins and minerals are much more bio-available if they
are in the form provided by Nature (raw, unprocessed, unextracted). Once you
process food and strip away the vitamins, for example; merely adding denatured
vitamins back into the food through fortification will not give
you the equivalent quality or bioactivity of vitamins as originally
provided by Nature. This is the biggest error made by dietitians, the
nutritional arm of orthodox medicine racket. In considering the makeup of
foods, they look only at the chemical elements themselves (calcium, phosphorus,
etc.) and assume that as long as the element can be measured in the food or
added to the food, you are getting the equivalent nutrition and bioactivity
as provided by Nature. What stupidity! Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Despite the abundance of food in the United States, nutritional deficiency
is quite common. It is important to understand this because Americans are
often lulled into believing that foods are fortified with needed nutrients.
It's like computers, "Garbage in, Garbage out".
I've been talking to people for a long time about understanding the nature
of health and disease. Whenever I chat with someone with health problems and
we're trying to figure out why, the last thing he will consider is
his diet. "It's stress"; "It's genes"; "It's the
job"; "It's the wife'; "It's the mother-in-law", etc.
It's everything. but the diet. Folks, 99% of the time, ...it's the
Since nutrition is a rather large topic, I'll start with a few important
subjects and add to the list as time permits. For more information on nutrition,
please see our suggested reading list at the
bottom of this page.
Anti nutrients are substances to which we are all exposed through food and
water that antagonize nutrients needed for health. Some anti nutrients bind
to other nutrients, making them useless. Others tie up enzymes needed in digestion
and other body functions. Some cause problems by creating a greater need for
certain nutrients. Others cause nutrients to be excreted more rapidly from
the body. In our world of high technology, the level of anti nutrients to
which we are exposed is surprisingly high. Many of the anti nutrients have
either a direct or indirect effect on immune function. Anything you can do
to reduce exposure to anti nutrients will be helpful in preventing recurrent
Table sugar, food coloring, processed fats, additives like BHT, and most
of the 3,000 or so food additives allowed in the United States often act as
anti nutrients. For example, in 1985 it was reported that American agriculture
uses 1 billion pounds of pesticides each year. That is 4.5 pounds for every
man, woman and child in the country. These chemicals have many adverse effects,
and are more of a problem than most would imagine. Caffeine is another serious
problem that most people don't fully understand.
Pharmaceutical drugs constitute another important category of anti nutrients.
If drug therapy is short, the effects are minimal, but if one takes a drug
for a long time (months or years), the nutritional effects of the drugs must
be taken into account. Below is a sample of the nutrients adversely affected
by drugs. Taking drugs long term has more adverse effects than simply nutritional
ones, but we are focused on nutrition here.
Simply stated, sugar lowers immunity. In 1951, Benjamin Sandler, M.D., a
physician from Northern Carolina, wrote a book entitled Diet Prevents Polio.
Dr. Sandler's work with rabbits and monkeys convinced him that high amounts
of sugar in the diet made one more susceptible to polio. During the polio
epidemic of 1948-49, he appeared on an Asheville radio station urging parents
not to feed their children refined sugar or foods containing sugar such as
ice cream, candy, and soft drinks. His admonitions also ran in local newspapers.
In 1948, the incidence of polio in Northern Carolina was 2,402 cases. In 1949,
after adopting the "Sandler diet," the rate had fallen to 214 cases. During
this time, the national incidence of polio (39 states) had risen.
Was it a coincidence that the rate of polio dropped as the rate of sugar
consumption decreased in this state? Did removal of sugar from the diet improve
resistance to polio? You can come to your own conclusion, but there is good
reason to believe that sugar consumption lowers immunity. In a report published
in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 100 grams of sugar from
glucose, fructose, sucrose, honey or orange juice caused a significant
decrease in the ability of white blood cells to engulf and destroy bacteria.
This decrease in immune function was still present five hours after sugar
There are numerous other studies that show decreases in immune function following
sugar consumption. It is probably not significant when one only consumes sugar
on occasion. However, on a daily basis it can wreak havoc on your immune system.
The problem is sugar creeps into virtually every aspect of our diet, often
without our awareness. This is because sugar is added to almost every packaged
food sold today. The average adult American consumes more than 150 pounds
of sugar each year (teenagers can consume over 200 pounds)! This is 14 times
more than was ingested about 100 years ago. It's far too much for our bodies
To help illustrate the harmful effects of sugar, let's use breakfast cereals
as an example. Many of the most popular children's cereals contain almost
50 percent of their calories as sugar. The presence of large amounts of sugar
in the diet causes a gradual depletion of zinc in the body. As zinc levels
decline, the sense of taste declines as well. As taste perception declines,
there is a greater need to flavor the food in order to make it "taste good."
Usually this means adding more sugar. This leads to a further reduction in
body zinc levels, which further lowers the taste perception. As a result,
a child heaps more sugar on top of his cereal. The cycle goes on and on.
In his book Fighting the Food Giants, biochemist Paul A. Stitt says
that it is no accident that children's cereals are highly sugared. Food manufacturers
were the first to discover that sugar consumption leads to a gradual loss
of zinc, which in turn leads to a loss of taste perception. By marketing
cereal high in sugar, they were able to create virtual addicts to their products.
What parent has not heard screams of a toddler in the grocery store demanding
his breakfast treat?
It you want to have sweets, it's better to get it from fresh fruit. Not canned
fruit, not dried fruit, but fresh fruit. Honey or real maple (pure)
syrup is far better than refined sugar if you must make something sweeter.
Fruit provides a form of sugar called fructose. Because it's a natural
monosaccharide, it's handled differently by the body than table sugar
(sucrose) which is a disaccharide. There is one form of partly refined
sugar that I do recommend for non diabetics to be consumed on a routine basis,
but in a relatively modest amount. I'm talking about organic Black strap
Molasses. The nutritional advantages of bio-available iron and
sulfur (& other minerals) offered by black strap molasses far outweigh
its downside as a source of sugar. Back to the top
Cow's milk is often touted on television as the "perfect food." It is supposedly
needed by everyone. "If you don't drink milk, your bones will become brittle
from osteoporosis" is the message from the Dairy Council, advertisers, and
even some physicians. Yet, store bought cow's milk consumption has been shown
to contribute to many of the health problems commonly encountered. Excessive
consumption of cow's milk is often one of the major factors contributing to
susceptibility to common infections. However, raw, unprocessed milk from clean
cows raised in a wholesome environment is another story. The manner in which
milk is commercailly produced and processed has much to do with its reputation
for causing health problems. If we all hadThe
According to Dr. Schmidt in his book Childhood Ear Infections, simply
eliminating dairy products is often all that's required to solve the riddle
of recurrent ear problems in children. These sentiments are echoed by Dr.
Fred Pullen, an ear, nose and throat specialist in Miami, Florida. Patients
are referred to Dr. Pullen for the sole purpose of having tubes surgically
implanted in their eardrums. Before undergoing surgery, however, all patients
are first placed on a diet that eliminates dairy products. The result: "three
fourths [of these children] never need tubes."
If one does even the smallest amount of research, it becomes evident that
there is a wealth of information on this topic. One well written book is Principles
of Nutrition by Whitman H. Jordan, published by the Macmillan Company
of New York in 1912. On page 266 Jordan describes a German study detailing
the tie outcome of 49,362 children born in Berlin during 1890. Before the
end of one year, 12,623 of those children died. Of those who died, 8,008 were
fed on cow's milk. Only 1,588 had been breast fed. Let me quote from this
86 year old book:
"Further statistics show of those fed on
mother's milk one in thirteen died, while of those brought up by hand (bottle
fed), one out of every two died."
These figures require no comment. Do not think that cow's milk is only harmful
to children, though. The problems with cow's milk are so numerous that noted
professor of pediatrics at John Hopkins School of Medicine, Dr. Frank Oski,
wrote a book entitled Please, Don't Drink Your Milk. The following
are health conditions either directly caused by or associated with cow's milk
consumption, taken from MILK IS GOOD FOR __________ by Robert M. Kradjian,
"Among children the problems were allergy, ear and tonsil infections,
bedwetting, asthma, intestinal bleeding, nephritis, colic, and childhood
"In adults the problems seemed centered more around heart disease, arthritis,
allergy, sinusitis, and the more serious questions of leukemia, lymphoma,
cancer (colon, lung, prostate, breast, ovarian, and rectal.)"
"Even multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, and cataracts have been associated
with cow's milk consumption."
The other side of the debate includes healers like Dr. Hulda R. Clark (The
Cure for All Disease) who says the milk is an important source of protein
and calcium which is readily absorbed by the body. For very sick people with
AIDS or cancer, it may be a critical ingredient for their recovery. You can make store bought milk relatively safe from all pathogenic organisms,
by boiling it for only 10 seconds over a low heat and adding a small amount
of powdered Vitamin C (I use Calcium Ascorbate or Sodium Ascorbate) . Let the milk cool to room temperature, pull off the
'skin' which formed on the top of the milk from boiling, and place in a glass
bottle in the refrigerator. Another thought is to use Goat's milk which has a different effect on the body than commercial cow's milk. Organic goat's milk is preferred and raw goat's milk is said to be the best choice of all.
"Nothing will benefit human health and
increase the chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution
to a vegetarian diet." - Albert Einstein
A vegetarian menu is a powerful and pleasurable way to achieve good health.
The vegetarian eating pattern is based on a wide variety of foods that are
satisfying, delicious, and healthful. Vegetarians avoid meat, fish, and
poultry (although most of us here at Educate-Yourself do eat fish for protein).
Those who include dairy products and eggs in their diets are called lacto-ovo
vegetarians. Vegens (pure vegetarians) eat no meat, fish, poultry, eggs,
or dairy products. While there is a considerable advantage to a lacto-ovo
vegetarian pattern, vegen diets are the healthiest of all, reducing risk
of a broad range of health concerns.
Vegetarians have much lower cholesterol levels than meat eaters, and heart
disease is uncommon in vegetarians. The reasons are not hard to find. Vegetarian
meals are typically low in saturated fat and usually contain little or no
cholesterol. Since cholesterol is found only in animal products such as
meat, dairy, and eggs, vegens consume a cholesterol free diet. The type
of protein in a vegetarian diet may be another important advantage. Many
studies show that replacing animal protein with plant protein lowers blood
cholesterol levels-even if the amount and type of fat in the diet stays
the same. Those studies show that a low fat, vegetarian diet has a clear
advantage over other diets.
An impressive number of studies, dating back to the early 1920s, show that
vegetarians have lower blood pressure than non vegetarians. In fact, some
studies have shown that adding meat to a vegetarian diet raises blood pressure
levels rapidly and significantly. The effects of a vegetarian diet occur
in addition to the benefits of reducing the sodium content of the diet.
When patients with high blood pressure begin a vegetarian diet, many are
able to eliminate their need for medication.
This is just a small excerpt from the "Vegetarian Starter Kit."
You might like to know...
Percentage of pesticide residues in the U. S. diet supplied by grains:
Percentage of pesticide residues in the U. S. diet supplied by fruits:
Percentage of pesticide residues in the U. S. diet supplied by dairy products:
Percentage of pesticide residues in the U. S. diet supplied by meat: 55
Pesticide contamination of breast milk from meat eating mothers vs. non
meat eating: 35 times higher.
What the U.S.D.A. tells us: meat is inspected.
Percentage of slaughtered animals inspected for residues of toxic chemicals
including dioxin and DDT: less than 0.00004 %
**Srict vegetarianism in not for everyone though. Some people need meat protein to be strong and have strong immunity.
Read "Eat Right 4 Your Type" by Peter D'Adamo to find out the connection between blood type and the most suitable diet.
"Medical professionals of today do not understand the vital roles of water
in the human body. Medications are palliatives. They are not designed to
cure the degenerative diseases of the human body." - Dr. F. Batmanghelidj
Pure and simple, water is an essential part of a healthy diet. And to a
much greater extent than most would imagine. While unknown to the orthodox
medical community, dehydration is an extraordinarily common cause of an
astounding number of diseases. One of the leading researchers in this field,
F. Batmanghelidj, M.D., has explained this subject in great detail in his
book, Your Body's Many Cries for Water. The following are a few short
excerpts from Dr. Batmanghelidj's book, which should help convey the significance
of water in one's diet:
"The simple truth is that dehydration can cause disease. Everyone
knows that water is "good" for the body. They seem not to know how essential
it is to one's well-being. They do not know what happens to the body if
it does not receive its daily need of water."
"In advanced societies, thinking that tea, coffee, alcohol, and manufactured
beverages are desirable substitutes for the purely natural water needs of
the daily 'stressed' body is an elementary but catastrophic mistake. It
is true that these beverages contain water, but what else they contain are
dehydrating agents. They get rid of the water they are dissolved in plus
some more water from the reserves of the body!"
Currently, practitioners of conventional medicine are unaware of the many
chemical roles of water in the body. Because dehydration eventually causes
loss of some functions, the various sophisticated signals given by operators
of the body's water rationing program during severe and lasting dehydration
have been translated as indicators of unknown disease conditions of the
body. This is the most basic mistake that has deviated clinical medicine.
It has prevented medical practitioners from being able to advise preventive
measures or offer simple physiologic cures for some major diseases in humans."
"With the appearance of these signals, the body should be provided with
water for these rationing systems to distribute. However, medical practitioners
have been taught to silence these signals with chemical products.
Of course they have zero understanding of the significance of this most
gross error. The various signals produced by these water distributors are
indicators of regional thirst and drought of the body. At the onset, they
can be relieved by an increase of water itself, yet they are improperly
dealt with by the use of commercial chemical products until pathology is
established and diseases are born."
We urge you to read Dr. Batmanghelidj's book, Your Body's Many Cries
for Water, for further information. Dr. Batmanghelidj recommends drinking
8 - 10 glasses of water daily, and more if you are suffering from an illness.
Back to the top
Fiber, or roughage, has been a popular topic in the media of late. While
advertisers try to sell us many things we don't need, they're right when
they say high fiber cereals are important for good health. Lack of fiber
has been implicated in the development of colon disease, heart disease and
numerous other conditions. Dr. Denis Burkitt was the first to advance the
idea of fiber as an important contributor to health. He based his beliefs
on his research of African tribes. Dr. Burkitt found that African tribal
residents suffered from almost none of the modern diseases of the West such
as colon cancer and heart disease. However, when the Africans moved to the
West and adopted our eating habits, they quickly succumbed to our most common
Dietary fiber is as important to children as it is to adults. Foods high
in fiber are high in vitamins, trace minerals and essential fatty acids.
Take wheat for example. Almost all of the essential nutrients are bound
in the germ portion of the grain. During milling, the germ is separated
from the endosperm. The germ is sold separately as wheat germ (long known
as a high nutrient food) while the endosperm is further milled to make flour.
Milling of whole grain to make refined flour results in loss of 85 percent
of the magnesium, 86 percent of the manganese, 40 percent of the chromium,
78 percent of the zinc, 89 percent of the cobalt, 48 percent of the molybdenum
and 68 percent of the copper, in addition to comparable losses of selenium,
vitamin E and essential fatty acids. Moreover, heavy metals such as cadmium
(which are concentrated in the endosperm) remain in the flour. (Unfortunately,
the body's antagonist to cadmium--zinc--has been removed.) Since nutrients
are required to properly utilize all calories we consume, the intake of
refined food leads to a gradual deficiency of nutrients. This is a strong
argument for the use of whole-grain products.
The real test of the value of refined (fortified) foods would be to put
a group of lab animals on a diet of white bread and compare them to a group
fed a diet of whole-grain bread. In one such experiment, two thirds of rats
kept on a diet of enriched white bread died before the experiment was finished.
Fiber is also important because it helps keep the intestinal contents moving
through to their ultimate fate--elimination as stool. If the intestinal
contents move too slowly, toxic by-products of digestion and bacterial fermentation
remain in the bowel too long and are reabsorbed back into the body. Over
time, this can contribute to illness.
When one consumes a diet low in fiber, attachment of parasites such as
Giardia lamblia is easier. When fiber is present in the diet, the
intestinal contents move through more quickly and prevent the attachment
of such parasites. Recall that G. lambilia is one of the most common
parasites found in the United States. It contributes to immune suppression,
poor digestion, food allergies and numerous other problems. The ability
to decrease the likelihood of infection by this parasite by simply increasing
the intake of fiber is significant.
While fiber is necessary for children and adults, too much fiber can be
a problem as well, since excessive fiber can cause nutrients to be leached
out of the digestive tract. The problems for most of us, however, is not
too much fiber, but too little. (Never put a child on a high fiber
diet without consulting a health care professional.) Good sources of fiber
include fruit, vegetables, legumes and grains (oats, wheat, rice, barley,
etc.). Back to the top
Juicing, and the benefits of a juicing program have long been recognized
around the world. Since the early part of this century, researchers such
as Norman Walker, D.Sc., and Dr. Bernard Jensen have investigated the effects
of juice as part of the daily diet. Their studies show that juice can provide
all the basics of human nutrition, including carbohydrates, proteins, fats,
vitamins, and minerals.
Juicing adds to the benefits of vegetables and fruits. By juicing, rather
than eating the produce whole, the important nutrients and phytochemicals
found in plants are absorbed more easily by our bodies--sometimes within
minutes--without too much effort on the part of the digestive system. In
addition to this, more of the nutrients are absorbed.
Fresh vegetable juices are also rich in enzymes. Enzymes spark the hundreds
of thousands of chemical reactions that occur throughout the body; enzymes
are essential for digestion and absorption of food, for conversion of food
into body tissue, and for the production of energy at the cellular level.
In fact, enzymes are essential for most of the building and rebuilding that
goes on in the body every day. When foods are cooked, enzymes can be destroyed;
that is why raw foods and juices are so important. They provide an excellent
source of all-important enzymes.
Carrot's beta carotene and the ellagic acid found in fresh apple juice
are clinically proven anti-cancer agents.
Limonene from lemon's white pith is recognized as a potent anti-cancer
nutrient and is also effective in dissolving gallstones.
Apple's soluble fiber, ellagic acid and vitamin C, combined with celery's
healthy dose of minerals and electrolytes can cleanse and rebalance your
Digestive enzymes found in honeydew, papaya, and pineapple reduce inflammation
and energize the body.
An advantage of juicing over buying commercial juice is that when you make
your own juice you know exactly what it contains. You can be sure to avoid
adding sugar, sweeteners, and other additives. Also many commercial juices
are heat treated to extend shelf life, which can destroy nutrients. Back to the top
For those of you looking for a suggested diet, we recommend the following:
Consume a diet that focuses on whole, unprocessed foods (whole grains,
legumes, vegetables, fruits, seeds, etc.)
Reduce (or eliminate, if possible) your intake of refined sugar.
Drink at least 8 to 10 glasses of water daily.
Avoid animal products, with the possible exception of cold water fish
(salmon, mackerel, herring, halibut, etc.).
Eliminate dairy products, caffeine, and alcohol.
Eliminate coffee (besides caffeine, there are a host of other chemicals
poisoning your body). Try the many varieties of herbal tea available.
Avoid soft drinks completely.
Avoid white bread and refined flour products. They are devoid of essential
nutrients, including omega-3 essential fatty acids and others.
Avoid margarine and all commercial cooking oils. Use Butter and Organic
cold pressed Olive oil instead.
Consume organic Flax Seed Oil and cold fish oil (MAX EPA) daily.
Consume Miso soup, kelp, and shitake mushrooms regularly.
All information posted on this web site is
the opinion of the author and is provided for educational purposes only.
It is not to be construed as medical advice. Only a licensed medical doctor
can legally offer medical advice in the United States. Consult the healer
of your choice for medical care and advice.