Richard’s Weblog

Natural Body Care

If you are concerned about what you put into your body you need to be concerned about what goes on your skin. Although the beauty and personal care industry has lead us to believe that the skin is an impermeable layer in which nothing can pass through, this is simply not true. Your skin is created of many different glands. In one square inch of skin there is 100 sebaceous oil glands, 100 hairs, and 650 sweat glands! Over all our skin contains about 20 million cells! Your skin is the largest organ of your body. It is a two-way membrane. Toxins are eliminated through the skin by perspiration and absorbed through the skin. Permeation of the layers of our skin can occur by diffusion via hair follicles, sweat and sebum glands, and by diffusion through our skin cells!

It is estimated that 60 percent of what you put on you skin can be absorbed directly into the blood stream. This has become apparent in the recently popular method of administering medications through skin patches. Just recently on T.V. I have seen advertisements for the nicotine patch and the hormone replacement therapy patch. Even though cosmetics are absorbed through the skin just like drugs, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) refuses to treat cosmetics as if they were drugs. According to the FDA, cosmetic manufacturers can use any raw material as a cosmetic ingredient without approval from the FDA and the FDA cannot require them to do safety testing on their products before marketing. Out of the 10, 500 ingredients used in personal care, only 11% has been tested by the cosmetics industry. That’s leaves 89% untested and unregulated! Also, just because an ingredient is tested it doesn’t mean that it’s safe. Be skeptical, the body care industry is out there to make profit, not keep you healthy! Worse yet, companies can petition the FDA if they have a unique new ingredient to not be disclosed for fear that another company will steal their formulation. Since it’s not disclosed, we have no idea what is in the products we are using and thier long-term effects. Also, cosmetic companies do not have to disclose an ingredient it they only use a small amount in their product.

Europe is way ahead of the United States when it comes to the testing of personal care ingredients. The European Union has banned 450 ingredients while the FDA has only banned 9! When they tested our products they found that 70% of them had one or more ingredients linked with cancer and other health problems.

The EPA has been testing personal care products and after 300 studies they have found that ingredients in our natural body care products are altering the hormones that control our reproduction.

In 1989 NIOSH (The National Institute for Occupational Safety) tested 2938 ingredients used in personal care products. And they found:

884 of the ingredients were found to be considered toxic with 778 of them being able to cause acute toxicity.

146 can cause tumors

218 of them can cause reproductive complications

314 can cause biological mutation (mutate the genetic code of our cells)

376 of them can cause skin and eye irritation.

This test was done in 89 and thousands of new chemicals are being introduced to us every year.

We have to remember that exposure is cumulative and it might seem like a little amount per day but it quickly adds up. For example Dr. Haushka estimates that a woman can absorb up to thirty pounds of the ingredients in moisturizers in 60 years. Aveda estimates that woman literally eat about 4 tubes of lipstick in their lifetime. We also have to remember that cosmetic companies use penetration enhancers so that the chemicals are more readily absorbed into our skin. These chemicals can then be stored in our fat cells and organs and eventually lead to problems. Combine the personal care chemicals, with the chemicals we are exposed to in our daily lives through the air we breath, the food we eat, and the water we drink, and we have a recipe for all kinds of problems including cancer.

When researching this article I came across the story of a woman who worked in the fashion industry applying make-up to models. She also used a lot of cosmetics and personal care products. Eventually she started to suffer from chronic fatigue, anxiety, hair loss, memory loss, and systemic yeast infections. When she got some lab work done the technician asked her if she worked in the cosmetics industry because her blood work showed toxic levels of heavy metals, pesticides, and chemicals in her body!

So what seems like harmless products are actually not so harmless after all.

Read Labels

If you want to stay away from these chemicals stay out of mainstream drug stores, department stores, and grocery stores. You can also make you own cosmetic products, which I will discuss later. Start shopping for body care products at Natural food stores but this is no guarantee. Some so-called natural companies are better than others. You still have to learn to read labels before you purchase or use anything on your body. Think of it this way; don’t put anything on your skin that you wouldn’t eat. Look for products made from herbs and plants found in nature.

Beware of these following claims:

1. Not tested on animals. Just because the finished product wasn’t tested on animals doesn’t mean that the individual chemicals in the product weren’t!

2.Natural- Means absolutely nothing.

3.Organic-Only one ingredient in the formulation has to be organic for this claim to be made.

Avoid Certain Ingredients:

I can’t possibly mention all the ingredients to avoid. Rule of thumb, if you can’t pronounce it don’t use it. Here are just a few:

1) Methyl, Propyl, Butyl, and Ethyl Parabens- Preservatives derived from petroleum used in 99% of all hair and skin products today and in many so-called ‘natural’ products. They are highly toxic, mimic estrogen, cause hormone imbalances, and are linked to reproductive cancer. They may play a role in falling sperm counts and rising breast cancer rates. Companies use these because they are extremely cheap and they extend the shelf life of the product by inhibiting microbial growth.

2.) Formaldehydes: DMDM hydantoin, Quaternium 15, Diazolidinyl Urea, Imidazolidinyl Urea, 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1, 3-diol-Widely used as preservatives second only to the parabens. They release formaldehyde at just over ten degrees. They are known to be irritating to mucus membranes, can cause an inability to urinate, skin rashes, internal bleeding, and are known carcinogens.

2) Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS)-This toxic synthetic (used for its foaming properties) is a harsh detergent believed to case urinary tract, bladder, and kidney infections, genital disorders, eye irritations, skin rashes, hair loss, scalp problems similar to dandruff, and allergic reactions. It forms carcinogenic nitrogen compounds when combined with specific ingredients. It penetrates the skin and has long-term retention in the body. Almost every “regular’ conventional shampoo contains it. Also found in toothpaste. It is frequently disguised in so called “natural” cosmetics with the explanation that the source is ” from coconut.”

3) Synthetic Colors- Labeled as FD&C or D&C, followed by a color number (such as FD&C Yellow 6) Developed from coal tar, aluminum salts, and lead. Lead toxicity primarily targets the nervous system, kidneys, bones, heart, blood and poses greatest risk to infants, young children, and pregnant women. Many colors are considered to be cancer causing. Some dyes are a risk to asthmatics, eczema sufferers and people sensitive to aspirin. Some cause hyperactivity in children, severe headaches, blurred vision and itchy/watery eyes and nose. (When you wear lipstick with these colors–and most contain them–you are EATING them!)

4) Synthetic Fragrances-When a label simply lists “fragrance,” it can refer to any combination of up to 200 cheap, synthetic, toxic ingredients that can cause headaches, dizziness, rashes, skin discoloration, violent coughing, vomiting, and allergic skin irritation. Fragrances can affect the central nervous system causing depression, hyperactivity, irritability, inability to cope, and other behavioral changes. They mimic estrogen, remain in body fat, and have been found in mother’s breast milk.

5). Parraffin -Derived from petroleum in the form of wax, mineral oil or petrolatum jelly. Paraffins promote sun damage, as well as coating the skin and interfering with the body’s own natural moisturizing mechanism. They mimic estrogen. They create the very conditions they claim to alleviate. Manufacturers use petrolatum because it is unbelievably cheap. Found in chap sticks, lip sticks, lotions, and other personal care products.

6.) Aluminum -Aluminum is mostly absorbed through the skin, lungs, and intestinal tract. Too much aluminum may cause problems with metabolic processes, particularly those concerning calcium, phosphorus and iron. Aluminum may also contribute to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and other neurological disorders. It is carcinogenic, toxic and mutagenic; a coloring agent found in eye shadows, toothpastes, hair dyes, antiperspirants, lipsticks and more.

7.) Sunscreen-Avoid conventional sunscreens. Avoid these ingredients: Octyl-Dimethyl-Para-Amino-Benzoic Acid and Oxybenzone. Research shows that a factor in skin cancer may be a result of the sunscreen chemicals absorbing into our skin and the toxins mutating in the hot sun. Look for natural sunscreen with Titanium Dioxide (a mineral) and other natural ingredients.

Other list of ingredients to avoid (not all inclusive): PROPELYNE GLYCOL, DMDM HYDRATOIN, TEA (Triethanolamine)/ DEA (Diethanolamine) , BEHENTRIMONIUM CHLORIDE, MERCURY, THIMEROSAL, LEAD ACETATE, FORMALDEHYDE, TOLUENE, PETROLEUM DISTILLATES, ETHYLACRYLATE, COAL TAR, DIBUTYL PHTHALATE, SELENIUM SULFIDE, DIMETHYLAMINE, ZIRCONIUM SILICATE, ACRYLAMIDE, PHENYLPHENOL, HEXACHLOROPHENE, LIDOCAINE, HYDROXYANISOLE, BHA, LITHIUM CARBONATE, DIMETHYL SULFOXIDE, IODINE, PHENACETIN, PHENOLPHTHALEIN, PROGESTERONE, ALUMINUM ZIRCONIUM TETRACHLOROHYDREX GLYCINE COMPLEX, ANHYDROUS, FERRIC AMMONIUM CITRATE, 2- AMINO- 4- NITROPHENOL, BRUCINE, DIPHENHYDRAMINE HCL, TETRAHYDROZOLINE HYDROCHLORIDE, LIDOCAINE HCL, 2- METHYLOXIRANE, HYDROABIETYL ALCOHOL, LITSEA CITRATA (VERBENA) OIL, DIETHANOLAMINE CETYL PHOSPHATE, TALC, LANOLIN, GLYCOLIC ACID, BISMUTH OXYCHLORIDE . . .

Most of the information from this article I got from: http://www.beautytruth.net/

Although it is best to make your own, here are some more natural alternatives:

Hair, Skin, and Body Care
http://www.aubrey-organics.com
http://www.sumbody.com
www.nonifruitleather.net (noni lotion)
Dr.Bronner’s baby mild soap
www.livingoilwealth.com

Coconut Oil
www.tropicaltraditions.com
www.nutiva.com
http://www.livingtreecommunity.com/

Cosmetics and Skin Care
Dr. Hauschka Mascara
The Organic Make-up Company’s All Natural Concealer
Dr.Hauschka Sun Block SPF 30 Stick
http://www.greenlifeorganics.com
(Look for natural mineral make-up with no talc or bismuth oxychloride)

Toothpaste
http://www.jason-natural.com
http://www.vitamyr.com
http://www.naturesanswer.com/dental/read_dental.asp

Homemade Personal Care
by Cecilia Benjumea

Deodorant (Once you eat all raw foods you may find that you do not require deodorant)
Coconut Oil
or
Essential oils
Water
Spray Bottle

Use coconut oil as a deodorant after your shower. Another option is to mix some 2-3 drops essential oils and water in a spray bottle and apply when needed.

Moisturizer/Make up Remover/Conditioner

Virgin Coconut Oil or other Virgin Oil such as Almond or Olive Oil.

As Moisturizer: After a shower slather your body and face with Coconut or Jojoba Oil.
As Conditioner: Add a little to your hair for a leave in conditioner or styling aide.
As Make-Up Remover: Gently apply oil to your face and wipe off with a damp wash cloth.
As a shaving cream: Spread coconut oil and soap on the area to be shaved..

Toothpaste
baking soda
1-2 drops essential oil of peppermint, cinnamon, anise, and/or clove.

Make a paste with baking soda, essential oils, and a little water. Use like toothpaste.

Shampoo
1/2 cup honey
Juice of one lemon

Mix ingredients in a dish and massage through damp hair and scalp. Rinse.

Flax Shampoo

1 cup flax soaked in water to cover over night.

Blend flax in high speed blender until thoroughly blended. There should be no particles of flax visible. Massage through hair and scalp. Rinse

Acne/Insect Bites

Tea Tree Oil

Dab tea tree oil on insect bites and acne with a cotton swab.

Minor Cuts

Colloidal Silver Spray or dab colloidal silver on minor cuts as an anti-bacterial.

Sun Burn/Skin Irritation/After Shave Balm
10 drops Calendula Herb Tincture
¼ cup Aloe Vera Gel

Combine the two ingredients and apply to irritated skin.

Facial Mask
¼ cup Aloe Vera Gel
1 teaspoon Jojoba Oil
1 teaspoon Kelp Powder

Mix ingredients together and let set on face for 5-10 minutes.

Can use other ingredients for facial masks. Bananas and Avocado for dry skin. Oatmeal for oily skin. Papaya for age spots. Don’t let papaya sit to long or it will burn skin. Have fun be creative!

What Happens to Food When It Is Cooked

by Frederick Mann

(a) Some of the nutrients are destroyed (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc.). Most conventional nutritionists agree.

(b) All the enzymes are destroyed. Enzymes are essential for proper digestion. Some enzymes speed up certain digestive processes a millionfold.

© The ratios of nutrients are changed. In the case of meat, relatively more vitamin B6 than methionine is destroyed, leading to atherogenic free-radical-initiating homocysteine accumulation. In other words, cooked meat causes heart problems. Cooked meat is also a carcinogen.

(d) Toxic substances are formed. More than 90 toxic substances have been identified that are formed when a potato is cooked. Some of these toxins are mutagenic and/or carcinogenic.

(e) Waste material is created.

(f) Cooking food has similar effects to the aging processes in the body. Cooking ages food very rapidly and very extensively.

(g) The water content of the food changes.

(h) The food’s life-energy and life-information are destroyed.

What Happens to a Human Body That Eats Cooked Food

(a) There is a rush of white blood cells towards the digestive tract, leaving the rest of the body less protected by the immune system. From the point of view of the immune system the body is being invaded by toxins when cooked food is eaten.

(b) A general augmentation of white corpuscles in the blood and a change in the relative proportions of different blood cells. This phenomenon is called digestive leukocytosis.

© Because all the enzymes are destroyed by cooking, the food cannot be properly digested. In attempting to manufacture the requisite enzymes, an unnecessary burden is placed on the body. It cannot manufacture all the necessary enzymes. The result is indigestion and sometimes ulcers. In general, raw food is so much more easily digested that it passes through the system in a half to a third of the time it takes for cooked food.

(d) The intestinal flora becomes putrefied (particularly from cooked meat), resulting in colonic dysfunction, allowing the absorption of toxins from the bowel. This phenomenon is variously called dysbacteria, dysbiosis, or intestinal toxemia (toxicosis).

(e) A build-up of toxins and waste material in many parts of the body, including within individual cells. Some of these toxins and wastes are called lipofuscin, which accumulates in the skin and nervous system, including the brain. It can be observed as “liver spots” or “age spots.” It is an important aging process: general toxemia (toxicosis).

(f) Malnutrition at a cellular level. Because such a high proportion of cooked food consists of wastes and toxins, individual cells don’t receive enough of the nutrients they need.

(g) Tendency towards obesity through overeating. Because the cells don’t get enough nutrients they are so to speak “always hungry” and hence “demand” more food.

(h) From time to time the body experiences detoxification crises (also called purification or healing crises). This happens when toxins are released through the skin or dumped in the bloodstream for elimination by the liver, kidneys, and other organs. The symptoms may include headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting, colds, bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, diarrhea, etc.

(i) The body can become so toxic that all kinds of particles, such as pollen, can cause detoxification crises, called “allergies.” About 80 million Americans suffer from such “allergies.”

(j) The immune system, having to deal with the massive daily invasions of toxins, mutagens, and carcinogens eventually becomes overwhelmed and weakened. Another important aging process.

(k) Auto-immune diseases (arthritis, rheumatism, bursitis, gout, multiple sclerosis, etc.). Parts of the body become so clogged with toxins and wastes that the immune system starts regarding them as foreign invaders that must be destroyed – the body starts destroying itself. Another important aging process.

(l) Some of the waste material builds up in the arteries and clogs them leading to high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis, strokes, etc. – killing nearly half of Americans.

(m) The toxins, mutagens, and carcinogens that build up within cells, eventually cause some cells to become cancerous – killing nearly a third of Americans.

(n) In general, many of the aging processes are accelerated by cooked food. (People who switch to raw food often become visibly and physiologically younger.

Should We Eat Living Foods or Dead Foods?

by T.C. Fry

Why should this question arise?

Because the peoples of America and the world suffer grievously from widespread disease. Recent research has revealed that the quality of nutrients we put into out bodies determines the quality of our lives. We are all aware that engines perform well or poorly, depending upon the quality of the fuel used. Few of us realize that food quality directly determines our physical and mental performance abilities.

I frequently receive phone calls and letters that go like this: Is it okay to eat corn? Potatoes? Oats? Bread? Prepared cereals? Beans? Tofu? And many other substances which must be cooked in order to be eaten.

When I facetiously say that it’s not okay by me, I get the inevitable “why?” Then I tell them we are all our brothers’ keepers and if you lose your health, it’s an imposition upon me and millions of other people whose lives your condition directly and indirectly affects.

What questioners really meant was why aren’t these foods okay? I must then tell them of the many evils and curses that result from the eating of foods that have been heat deranged I tell them: “If you can’t relish It in the fresh raw state, you shouldn’t be eating It at all.” To save myself a lot of letters and communications, I will, in this article, spell out many of the salient reasons why “dead” foods should never enter the human mouth.

The First thing I do with writers and callers is present the benefits of the living food enormous diet. For instance I might say:

Live food eaters feel better and are often in a state of euphoria.

Live food eaters have more energy and stamina.

Then I get the inevitable “why” which is a way of saying “prove it.”

I respond: “Just bear with me.” I proceed to heighten their curiosity with further statements like:

Those who subsist on living foods are better rested and better slept in less time.

Those who eat most living foods are more alert, think clearer, sharper and more logically.

Those who undertake the eating of live foods, especially in conjunction with an exercise regime, experience drastic weight loss. This is great for those people who need to lose weight.

Going on a living food diet sets of body cleansing which, at times, can be very intense. Body detoxification may entail some unpleasant symptoms.

Those who rely upon living foods become more active and precise in their motions and actions as well as their thoughts. Hence they perform much better and with more competence.

Living food eaters are less subject to stresses and nervous tensions than conventional eaters. Moreover, if an exercise regime of 15 to 30 minutes a day is followed, they are even less subject to stress.

Best of all, live food eaters become virtually sickness-free!

Of course a great deal of skepticism is often expressed- -after all, they need dispensation as well as justification for their love affairs with pizza, bread, potatoes and so on.

They may even tell me that this is all just anecdotal, that is, just like old wives tales.

I then tell them: “Why not try it yourself and experience the wonderful results. Then you can tell your own experiences anecdotally just as you are now anecdotally expressing your skepticism.” Then I proceed to start putting the clinchers on my case as follows:

In nature all animals eat living foods as yielded up by nature. Only humans cook their foods and only humans suffer widespread sicknesses and ailments.

Only humans regularly and consistently suffer premature death. Natural death in humans is so rare that it isn’t even listed as a cause of death in our almanacs or statistics.

Then the question often arises: “What’s so terrible about cooking foods? Everybody does it.”

To which I respond: “Just about everybody has cavities, poor eyesight that requires glasses, colds and other sicknesses, don’t they?” Then I answer further with some statements and citations that are obviously true:

Cooking is a process of food destruction from the moment heat is applied to the foodstuff. Long before dry ashes result, food values are totally destroyed. If you put your hand for just a moment into boiling water, or on a hot stove, that should forever persuade you just how destructive temperatures for perhaps half an hour or more are! What was living substance becomes totally dead very rapidly with exposure to heat!

Proteins begin coagulating and delaminating, as may be plainly seen in the case of eggs and cheese when their temperature reaches only 118 degrees. At temperatures commonly applied in cooking, they are completely devoid of nutritive values. Worse yet…

Cooked proteins are readily putrefied by bacteria in the digestive tract and give rise to some very potent poisons such as ptomaine’s, leukomaines, mercaptans, indoles, skatoles, ammonias, hydrogen sulfide, putrescine, cadaverine and yet more. These are absorbed into the portal blood and cause myriad’s of disease conditions.

Cooking renders foods toxic! The toxicity of the deranged debris of cooking is confirmed by the doubling and tripling of the white blood cells after the eating of a cooked food meal. The white blood cells are a first line of defense and are, collectively, popularly called “the immune system.”

As confirmed by hundred of researches cited in the prestigious National Academy of Science’s National Research Council’s book, “Diet, Nutrition and Cancer,” all cooking quickly generates mutagens and carcinogens in foods. When you eat cooked carbohydrates, proteins and fats you are eating numerous mutagenic (carcinogenic) products caused by cooking.

Vitamins are rather quickly destroyed by cooking.

Minerals quickly lose their organic context and are returned to their native state as they occur in soil, sea water, rocks, metals and so on. In such a state they are unusable and the body often shunts them aside where they may combine with saturated fats and cholesterol in the circulatory system, thus clogging it up with their cement-like plaque. Over 90% of Americans have plaque in their arteries! Worse yet, inorganic minerals are highly toxic. As an example we know iodine to be an essential nutrient. Yet, in its inorganic state, it bears the skull and crossbones. Take iron as an example. Essential as it is, if taken in the inorganic state it causes hepatitis and hemochromatosis.

Heated fats are especially damaging because they are altered to form acroleins, free radicals, other mutagens and carcinogens as confirmed in the aforementioned publication, “Diet, Nutrition and Cancer. “

Cooked foods not only take longer to digest but often prove to be indigestible and unassailable as in the case of heated proteins. Cooked foods quickly ferment and putrefy in the intestinal tract while living foods are almost totally absorbed before they’re oxidized enough for yeast and bacterial ferments and putrefaction.

This evidenced by the fact that the average conventional eater has about two pounds of intestinal bacteria whereas living food eaters have only a few ounces. About 20% of the feces of cooked food eaters is dead bacteria whereas living food eaters give off only a fraction as much dead bacteria.

If you cook a potato and put it on the counter alongside a raw one, the raw potato will last for weeks and even sprout whereas the cooked potato will ferment in one or two days. This gives you some idea about what happens to cooked foods in the intestinal tract where fermentation and putrefaction that may take place in a day or two in the open occurs in an hour or two in the intestinal tract. Again, indigestion is an indication that fermentation and/or putrefaction is talking place.

When a registered dietitian took Harvey Diamond to task and in effect called him an ignoramus and liar he discombobulated and made her statements obviously wrong with a single question: “Lady, did you ever vomit?”

Thus you can see that dead foods make dull, diseased and sooner dead people.

You don’t have to take my word for It! Get yourself some guinea pigs, white mice or white rats. What humans take years to exhibit, they manifest within weeks. Feed a control group their regular diet in a raw condition. Feed the other control group the same foods but cooked!

Better yet, you can go on a raw food or living foods diet and see the wonderful results enumerated herein for yourself! Of course you may have to go through discomforts when the body, with better foods, begins purifying itself.

I think this rather nicely sums up the most salient reasons why you should shun cooked foods–why you should, if you treasure health and happiness, eat only living foods!

Humans & Fruit: Symbiotic Partners in Life

by Dr. T. C. Fry
Taken from Living Nutrition Magazine vol. 6

While few biology books proclaim symbiosis and none that I’ve encountered proclaim our own symbiotic role in nature, we are symbionts as are thousands of species. Symbiosis is cooperation between dissimilar organisms for mutual benefit. Symbionts are cooperators in symbiotic living. While the word symbiont is supposed to apply only to the lesser of two cooperating organisms, I prefer to call both of the complementary cooperators symbionts for that is the only nomenclature that makes sense. Let us observe this phenomenon in nature.

We see flowers bloom and put forth tons upon tons of pollen for fertilizing the ovaries of female flowers. Both male and female flowers secrete nectar at their inner base to attract consumption by bees and other insects. In taking such a large reward the bees and insects become contaminated with pollen in the male flowers only to have it removed when they take the nectar of female flowers. The ovaries of female flowers secrete a sticky substance which the bee or insect must come in contact with in taking their nectars. Instances of symbiosis abound in nature.

The above is cited to demonstrate natural cooperativeness or symbiosis. In this case we see that the flowers of plants, both woody and nonwoody, attracted bees and insects to take the free meals provided. This is the way that plants uncannily solved the problem of fertilization, attesting to a high order of intelligence in plant life (which is perceived by few).

Humans do not collect nectar. Even if they did, it would be a very poor food though it sustains bees and insects well. Fertilization in this manner is necessary to certain forms of plant life to insure that seeds be created with which to propagate the species. As we know, plant life is stationary. Once it has created its seed progeny, a new problem arises, that of scattering the seeds so they will flourish. How did this uncanny wisdom in nature accomplish this?

Among the many solutions was that of creating yet another food around the seed or seeds. In attracting consumption of this food by mobile creature, there was the incidental distribution of its seeds to areas where they would not compete for space and raw materials with the parent plant. Of course, that same immense wisdom dictated the creation of seeds that were unappetizing so they would be discarded rather than consumed.

But the greatest wisdom of all, perhaps, was that which created the food package to proportionately meet the precise needs of its eaters: Those creatures which, in taking and becoming dependent on these foods, became the fruit plant’s biological symbiont. That this method of seed distribution was successful is evidenced by the thousands of kinds of fruits created around seeds in nature. Fruits attract human senses in nature and are gourmet delights in their natural ripened state, which ensures their survival. Also, fruits contain no poisons in the fresh ripened state whereas almost all plants and seeds contain components which we cannot metabolize, hence are toxic directly or indirectly.

Fruits in nature are in a predigested form when they ripen. Fruits ripen when their seeds are at a mature stage ready for reproduction. When fruits ripen, they change to brilliant colors and emit seductive fragrances to attract consumption from a biological symbiont. The tree, stalk or vine is rewarded in that its seeds are distributed, thus perpetuating its kind. They are beautiful to behold and emit captivating aromas and fragrances. This makes them irresistibly attractive to their biological symbionts. If all the water and fiber are removed from most of these fruits, the predigested carbohydrates are almost all the same, about 350 calories per 100 grams on average, more than enough to meet the energy needs of biological symbionts. This is about 88% of solids.

In like manner fruits supply from 4 to 8 grams of amino acids per 100 grams, almost every one of them with all the essential amino acids in about the proportions that humans require, plus, of course, other amino acids. The average amino acid content is about the same as mother’s milk for a growing baby. The average is about 6% of solids. When sufficient calories have been consumed to meet caloric needs, intake is almost double our actual daily amino acid shortfall from recycling.

Further, the fatty acids from almost all fruits other than avocados and olives constitute about 1% to 5% of solids other than fiber. These fatty acids are liberal in their supply of the essential fatty acids. The average fatty acid content of fruits is about 2%.

But, importantly, fruits are rich in mineral matter in the most utilizable form in all nature! Of its solids about 3% are minerals including, of course, ample calcium to meet our needs if we do not eat more than 20% acid-forming foods and if we do not cook and derange fruit nutrients.

Of the labeled macronutrients there are vitamins which are really micronutrients, so little as not to be ordinarily measurable. A year of the RDAs for vitamins would not fill a sewing thimble! Yet fruits supply many multiples of the RDAs of vitamins in almost every instance. For instance, vitamin C in fruits sufficient to meet our caloric needs is about ten times as much, on average, as the RDA for it.

As humans developed exclusively on fruits, they failed to develop water drinking faculties. Those on the fruit diet have 60% to 70% less need for water than those on the conventional diet, primarily because pathogens require inordinate amounts of water to hold them in suspension and carry them out of the body. Fruits supply ample water in its purest form to meet our needs. Fruitarians do not normally drink water but make as many trips to the urinal as anyone.

As a last consideration, fruits are alkaline in their metabolic end products. The body readily excretes excess alkalis whereas it must neutralize objectionable acids and excrete them if able. (Arthritis, bursitis, rheumatism, gout and yet other problems are caused by the body’s inability to excrete base salts from acid neutralization, usually calcium salts. For instance the uric acid of meats are neutralized into calcium urate crystals because we do not secrete the enzyme, uricase, as carnivores do. These salts have an affinity for cartilage in joints. Also having this affinity are the acid end products of grains, oxalic acids in vegetables like spinach, chard, beets and lamb’s quarter, most cooked foods, and meats.)

We are biological symbionts of fruit-bearing plants and in nature would eat very little besides fruits. Despite all this, there’s no particular harm in eating green leafy vegetables, stalks, stems and their fresh juices in the raw state. Even some steaming or conservative cooking of tubers, stalks, stems, roots, corns and selected legumes and grains (preferably sprouted), are not sufficiently deleterious to seriously harm our health. Of course, there are some toxic results from eating all this cooked fare and we’re better off without them. Yet, I repeat, there is no great harm in their consumption relative to what is suffered from conventional fare.

When ripened, fruits convert their carbohydrate components into glucose and fructose, simple sugars we can use without further digestion. Their enzymes convert their proteins into amino acids and their fats into fatty acids and glycerols. Thus, when we eat fruits, all we need do is savor their goodness. The fruit portions, that is, mesocarps, were specifically compounded to attract biological symbionts. Fruits perfectly meet their nutrient needs with predigested nutrients. For humans, no other food compares with fruits in satisfying all needs including, of course, our requirement for delicious soul-exalting fare.

Are we a species of fruit-eaters? I’m sure that you will agree through your own senses that fruits would be your primary food in a state of nature. Would you, in nature, relish ripe grapes, peaches, melons, bananas, apples, plums, oranges, mangoes, avocados, tomatoes, figs, berries and the thousands of other fruits? Would fruits attract your eye, tantalize your sense of smell, and be a gustatory delight in their raw natural ripe state? Would you prefer anything that occurs in nature to a juicy sweet watermelon? Man has always had a love affair going with fruits. Even through all his perversions, he has continued to relish fruits.

Fruits are the natural food of humans and the only food category ideally suited to all their faculties. This does not mean we should eat fruits totally and exclusively in our present circumstances, but it does mean that, in nature, that’s all we ate as attested to by anthropological evidence scientists have uncovered, notably Dr. Alan Walker of Johns Hopkins University.

Fruits really have it all; all that it took to make us into superb human beings; all that is required to sustain us in a healthy state insofar as food contributes to this condition; and all that we need to live a long, rewarding and happy life.

Conclusions and Observations
That we are biologically fruitarians is an inescapable conclusion on every count that we can relevantly and validly cite. What does this mean in practical application? Almost everyone you meet will condemn fruitarian fare. Almost everyone thinks from the standpoint that sickness is inevitable and must be prevented whereas, in fact, diseases simply will not occur unless we cause them, either through deficiencies or intoxications or both. If you eat 70% to 80% fruits and the balance in leafy green salads along with conservatively cooked tubers, roots and even grain products along with some raw nuts and seeds, you will not significantly or even noticeably impair yourself assuming, of course, that your other practices are good.

MSG – Slowly Poisoning America
Author Unknown
5-1-4

I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic, so did a friend of mine, John Erb. He was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo, and spent years working for the government.

He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called The Slow Poisoning of America. In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies.

No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so the scientists have to create them. They make these morbidly obese creatures by injecting them with a chemical when they are first born. The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats (and humans?) to become obese They even have a title for the race of fat rodents they create: “MSG-Treated Rats” .

MSG?

I was shocked too. I went to my kitchen, checking the cupboards and the fridge.

MSG was in everything! The Campbell’s soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavored potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the ‘healthy low fat’ ones. The items that didn’t have MSG had something called Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate. It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children everyday are filled with this stuff. They hide MSG under many different names in order to fool those who catch on.

But it didn’t stop there. When our family went out to eat, we started asking at the restaurants what menu items had MSG. Many employees, even the managers, swore they didn’t use MSG. But when we ask for the ingredient list, which they grudgingly provided, sure enough MSG and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein were everywhere. Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, every restaurant, even the sit down ones like TGIF, Chilis’, Applebees and Denny’s use MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST offender: MSG was in every chicken dish, salad dressing and gravy. No wonder I loved to eat that coating on the skin, their secret spice was MSG!

So why is MSG in so may of the foods we eat? Is it a preservative or a vitamin?

Not according to my friend John. In the book he wrote, an expose of the food additive industry called The Slow Poisoning of America, (www.spofamerica.com ), he said that MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it has on the human body.

Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby group supporting MSG at http://www.msgfacts.com/facts/msgfact12.html explains that the reason they add it to food is to make people eat more. A study of elderly people showed that people eat more of the foods that it is added to. The Glutamate Association lobby group says eating more benefits the elderly, but what does it do to the rest of us?

‘Betcha can’t eat just one’, takes on a whole new meaning where MSG is concerned!

And we wonder why the nation is overweight? The MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to their products. It makes people choose their product over others, and makes people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn’t added.

Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an addictive substance: NICOTINE for FOOD!

Since its introduction into the American food supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to the prepackaged meals, soups, snacks and fast foods we are tempted to eat everyday.

The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food. They claim it’s safe to eat in any amount.

How can they claim it is safe when there are hundreds of scientific studies with titles like these?

The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the study of exercise in obesity. Gobatto CA, Mello MA, Souza CT, Ribeiro IA. Res Commun Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 2002

Adrenalectomy abolishes the food-induced hypothalamic serotonin release in both normal and monosodium glutamate-obese rats. Guimaraes RB, Telles MM, Coelho VB, Mori RC, Nascimento CM, Ribeiro Brain Res Bull. 2002 Aug

Obesity induced by neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment in spontaneously hypertensive rats: an animal model of multiple risk factors. Iwase M, Yamamoto M, Iino K, Ichikawa K, Shinohara N, Yoshinari Fujishima

Hypertens Res. 1998 Mar

Hypothalamic lesion induced by injection of monosodium glutamate in suckling period and subsequent development of obesity. Tanaka K, Shimada M, Nakao K, Kusunoki Exp Neurol. 1978 Oct

Yes, that last study was not a typo, it WAS written in 1978. Both the medical research community and food “manufaturers” have known MSG’s side effects for decades!

Many more studies mentioned in John Erb’s book link MSG to Diabetes,

Migraines and headaches, Autism, ADHD and even Alzheimer’s.

But what can we do to stop the food manufactures from dumping fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing the obesity epidemic we now see?

Even as you read this, George W. Bush and his corporate supporters are pushing a Bill through Congress. Called the “Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act” also known as the “Cheeseburger Bill”, this sweeping law bans anyone from suing food manufacturers, sellers and distributors. Even if it comes out that they purposely added an addictive chemical to their foods. Read about it for yourself at: http://www.yahoo.com.http://story.news.yahoo.com/news? tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040311/ap_on_go_co/obesity_lawsuits_4

The Bill has already been rushed through the House of Representatives, and is due for the same rubber stamp at Senate level. It is important that Bush and his corporate supporters get it through before the media lets everyone know about MSG, the intentional Nicotine for food.

Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his concerns to one of the highest government health officials in Canada. While sitting in the Government office, the official told him “Sure I know how bad MSG is, I wouldn’t touch the stuff!” But this top level government official refused to tell the public what he knew.

The big media doesn’t want to tell the public either, fearing legal issues with their advertisers. It seems that the fallout on the fast food industry may hurt their profit margin.

So what do we do?

The food producers and restaurants have been addicting us to their products for years, and now we are paying the price for it.

Our children should not be cursed with obesity caused by an addictive food additive.

But what can I do about it? I’m just one voice, what can I do to stop the poisoning of our children, while guys like Bush are insuring financial protection for the industry that is poisoning us.

I for one am doing something about it.

I am sending this email out to everyone I know in an attempt to show you the truth that the corporate owned politicians and media won’t tell you.

The best way you can help save yourself and your children from this drug-induced epidemic, is to forward this email to everyone. With any luck, it will circle the globe before Bush can pass the Bill protecting those who poisoned us.

The food industry learned a lot from the tobacco industry. Imagine if big tobacco had a bill like this in place before someone blew the whistle on Nicotine?

Blow the whistle on MSG.

If you are one of the few who can still believe that MSG is good for us, and you don’t believe what John Erb has to say, see for yourself. Go to the National Library of Medicine, at www.pubmed.com
http://www.pubmed.com . Type in the words “MSG Obese”, and read a few of the 115 medical studies that appear.

We do not want to be rats in one giant experiment, and we do not approve of food that makes us into a nation of obese, lethargic, addicted sheep, waiting for the slaughter.

With your help we can put an end to this, and stop the Slow Poisoning of America. Let’s save our children

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Fluor…ng/message/1908

Hidden Sources Of MSG In Foods
From the book ‘Excitotoxins – The Taste That Kills’
By Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD
3-6-3

What if someone were to tell you that a chemical (MSG) added to food could cause brain damage in your children, and that this chemical could effect how your children’s nervous systems formed during development so that in later years they may have learning or emotional difficulties?

What if there was scientific evidence that these chemicals could permanently damage a critical part of the brain known to control hormones so that later in life your child might have endocrine problems? How would you feel?

Suppose evidence was presented to you strongly suggesting that the artificial sweetener in your diet soft drink may cause brain tumors to develop, and that the number of brain tumors reported since the introduction of this widespread introduction of this artificial sweetener has risen dramatically? Would that affect your decision to drink these products and especially to allow your children to drink them? What if you could be shown overwhelming evidence that one of the main ingredients in this sweetener (aspartate) could cause the same brain lesions as MSG? Would that affect your buying decisions?

And finally, what if it could be demonstrated that all of these types of chemicals, called excitotoxins, could possibly aggravate or even precipitate many of today’s epidemic neurodegenerative brain diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, ALS, and Alzheimer’s disease? Would you be concerned if you knew that these excitotoxin food additives are a particular risk if you have diabetes, or have ever had a stroke, brain injury, brain tumor, seizure, or have suffered from hypertension, meningitis, or viral encephalitis?

Would you also be upset to learn that many of the brain lesions caused by these products in your children are irreversible and can result from a SINGLE exposure of these products in sufficient concentration?

How would you feel when you learn the food industry hides and disguises these excitotoxin additives (MSG and Aspartate) so they can’t be recognized? Incredulous? Enraged? The fact is many foods are labeled as having “No MSG” but in fact not only contain MSG but also are laced with other excitotoxins of equal potency and danger.

All of the above are true. And all of these well known brain toxins are poured into our food and drink by the thousands of tons to boost sales. These additives have NO OTHER purpose other than to enhance to TASTE of food and the SWEETNESS of various diet products.

Hidden Sources Of MSG
As discussed previously, the glutamate (MSG) manufacturers and the processed food industries are always on a quest to disguise the MSG added to food. Below is a partial list of the most common names for disguised MSG. Remember also that the powerful excitotoxins, aspartate and L-cystine, are frequently added to foods and according to FDA rules require NO LABELING AT ALL.
* Food Additives that ALWAYS contain MSG *

Monosodium Glutamate
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
Hydrolyzed Protein
Hydrolyzed Plant Protein
Plant Protein Extract
Sodium Caseinate
Calcium Caseinate
Yeast Extract
Textured Protein (Including TVP)
Autolyzed Yeast
Hydrolyzed Oat Flour
Corn Oil

* Food Additives That FREQUENTLY Contain MSG *

Malt Extract
Malt Flavoring
Bouillon
Broth
Stock
Flavoring
Natural Flavors/Flavoring
Natural Beef Or Chicken Flavoring
Seasoning
Spices

* Food Additives That MAY Contain MSG Or Excitotoxins *

Carrageenan
Enzymes
Soy Protein Concentrate
Soy Protein Isolate
Whey Protein Concentrate
Also: Protease Enzymes of various sources can release excitotoxin amino acids from food proteins.
Aspartame – An Intense Source Of Excitotoxins
Aspartame is a sweetener made from two amino acids, phenylalanine and the excitotoxin aspartate. It should be avoided at all costs. Aspartame complaints accounts for approximately 70% of ALL complaints to the FDA. It is implicated in everything from blindness to headaches to convulsions. Sold under dozens of brand names such as NutraSweet and Equal, aspartame breaks down within 20 minutes at room temperature into several primary toxic and dangerous ingredients:
1. DKP (diketopiperazine) (When ingested, converts to a near duplicate of
a powerful brain tumor causing agent)
2. Formic Acid (ant venom)
3. Formaldehyde (embalming fluid)
4. Methanol (causes blindness…extremely dangerous substance)
Common Examples:
Diet soft drinks, sugar free gums, sugar free Kool Aid, Crystal Light, childrens’ medications, and thousands of other products claiming to be ‘low calorie’, ‘diet’, or ’sugar free’.
A Final Note…
Dr. Blaylock recounted a meeting with a senior executive in the food additive industry who told him point blank that these excitotoxins are going to be in our food no matter how many name changes are necessary…

Learn how to escape the dietary pleasure trap!

By Douglas Lisle, Ph.D.

When you climb into a hot tub, it pays to edge in slowly. The water can be so hot as to be unpleasant—until you get used to it. Then it will feel pleasant. When you step into a swimming pool, the water sometimes feels cold. But after a few minutes, you get used to it. The scent of pine trees or fragrant flowers is wonderful—at first. But then you get used to it, and soon you may hardly even notice it.

How is it that our internal experience can change so dramatically, even when our environment is staying the same? How is it that we so easily “get used to” things? It turns out that scientists have carefully studied this striking phenomenon, which they refer to as neuro-adaptation. This process is called “neuro-adaptation” because it involves nerves and adaptation.

Our sensory processes are dependent upon the activation of sensory nerves. It is through the activation of various sensory nerves that we are able to see, hear, smell, sense touch, and to taste. The activity of these various sensory nerves tells our brains what is going on, and to what degree of intensity. For example, when you are sitting in a dimly lit room, and you turn on more light, your visual nerves become more active. They help your brain to notice an increase in brightness. Similarly, if you increase the volume on your stereo, your auditory nerves become more active. They help your brain to notice the increase in sound intensity. This same principle works for all of the five senses.
Relative perception

We tend to think that our nerves provide us with a very accurate depiction of real-world stimulation, but surprisingly, this is not the case. Let’s go back to the example of sitting in a dimly lit room. If you turn on all of the lights, it will seem very bright. However, if you later go outside into full sunshine, that will seem brighter still. When you go back inside, it will seem dim—even though all of the lights are still on. Clearly, your nerves are not providing you with an “accurate” depiction of reality in these instances. They are providing a relative depiction. Your senses are highly responsive to change. They tell you when a new stimulus is brighter or dimmer, louder or softer, hotter or colder, and so forth, but not precisely how bright, or loud, or hot. Perception is largely a gauge of relative change.

The reason our nerves provide us with relative—rather than absolute—information is partly because our nerves are designed to adapt to a steady level of stimulation. When there is a sudden increase in stimulation, your nerves increase their rate of “firing” (the basic mechanism that communicates sensory information to the brain). Any change in the intensity of a stimulus results in a change in the firing rate of the appropriate sensory nerves. For example, when you brighten the lights, your visual nerves will increase their firing rate. When you later dim the lights, the firing rate will be reduced.
Dangerous adaptations

In this article, we shall focus on an aspect of “getting used to” things that can lead to enormous—often deadly—problems.

After we brighten the lights in a room, our visual nerves increase their firing rate—but only for a little while! After a few minutes, the firing rate will slow down, or “adapt,” to the new, higher rate of stimulation. Sometimes, the nerves may even slow down their response to the level that they were previously firing at the lower level of illumination. This is why even a brightly lit room will seem merely “normal” after your sensory nerves adjust to it.

All of our sensory nerves work in this manner. When we first enter an office, we might be distracted by a noisy air conditioner. But after a while we will likely cease to notice it. When a person first starts smoking cigarettes, he is acutely aware of the smell of the smoke. He smells it on his fingers, in his clothes, and in his car. But before long, he won’t notice it at all. He will have “gotten used to it.” He may never notice it again unless he quits smoking. Only then will his sense of smell re-calibrate to a more smoke-sensitive state. Then he will be able to smell the smoke—just like everyone else does.
Taste troubles

Like our other sensory nerves, our taste buds also will “get used to” a given level of stimulation—and this can have horrific consequences. The taste buds of the vast majority of people in industrialized societies are currently neuro-adapted to artificially high-fat, high-sugar, and high-salt animal and processed foods. These foods are ultimately no more enjoyable than more healthful fare, but few people will ever see that this is true, because they consistently consume highly stimulating foods, and have “gotten used to” them. If they were to eat a less stimulating, health-promoting diet, they soon would enjoy such fare every bit as much. Unfortunately, very few people will ever realize this critically important fact!
A gruesome tale

If a frog is placed in a pan of water, it often just sits there. If the pan is heated, ever so slowly, the frog may never notice that the water temperature is rising. He will “get used to” the increasing heat—and may be unaware that anything is amiss. Even with no barrier to his escape, he is as likely as not to sit in the pan—and boil to death. His sensory capabilities may fail to adequately warn him that action is required for his survival, and he may only survive if the heat is turned down.

For the past several decades, the modern American diet has been increasing in animal protein, animal and vegetable fats, refined carbohydrates, and added oil, salt, and sugar. In just the past two decades, our caloric intake has slowly escalated by 650 calories per person, per day. Not surprisingly, obesity and other diseases of dietary excess are at all-time highs. But just a few decades ago, our nation’s dietary habits were remarkably different. Meat was an expensive commodity—for some, a “treat.” The same was true for refined flour products, refined sugar, and oils. But times have changed. Today, almost everyone in America can have all they desire of these rich foods—and they do, virtually every day.

From the perspective of our natural history, a daily life with such dietary choices is extraordinary. For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancient ancestors scratched and ssweet joyed, struggling against the harsh forces of nature in order to get enough food to survive. Even today, in undeveloped countries, significant food shortages are still a great concern, with millions dying each year from starvation. Yet, in a mere blink of history’s eye—in just a few decades—industrialized societies have arisen from environments of scarcity and have transformed themselves into societies of unprecedented abundance. The most striking feature of that abundance is a virtually unlimited supply of food.
Artificial appeal

An abundance of food, by itself, is not a cause of health problems. But modern technology has done more than to simply make food perpetually abundant. Food also has been made artificially tastier. Food is often more stimulating than ever before—as the particular chemicals in foods that cause pleasure reactions have been isolated—and artificially concentrated. These chemicals include fats (including oils), refined carbohydrates (such as refined sugar and flour), and salt. Meats were once consumed mostly in the form of wild game—typically about 15% fat. Today’s meat is a much different product. Chemically and hormonally engineered, it can be as high as 50% fat or more. Ice cream is an extraordinary invention for intensifying taste pleasure—an artificial concoction of pure fat and refined sugar. Once an expensive delicacy, it is now a daily ritual for many people. French fries and potato chips, laden with artificially-concentrated fats, are currently the most commonly consumed “vegetable” in our society. These artificial products, and others like them, form the core of the American diet. Our teenage population, for example, consumes 25% of their calories in the form of soda pop!

Most of our citizenry can’t imagine how it could be any other way. To remove (or dramatically reduce) such products from America’s daily diet seems intolerable—even absurd. Most people believe that if they were to do so, they would enjoy their food—and their lives—much less. Indeed, most people believe that they literally would suffer if they consumed a health-promoting diet devoid of such indulgences. But, it is here that their perception is greatly in error. The reality is that humans are well designed to fully enjoy the subtler tastes of whole natural foods, but are poorly equipped to realize this fact. And like a frog sitting in dangerously hot water, most people are being slowly destroyed by the limitations of their awareness.
A pleasure trap

Figure 1 (above left) depicts a devastating dietary trap. People consuming a whole natural foods diet will experience a normal range of pleasure from eating low-fat, high-fiber, unprocessed foods—shown as Phase I. However, if concentrated, adulterated, processed foods are consistently allowed in the diet, they quickly will become preferred.

In Phase II, we see that these products are typically experienced as better—that is, more pleasurable—than natural foods. This is the result of the heightened pleasure-inducing characteristics of artificially-produced foods. However, within a short period of time (a few weeks), the taste nerves adapt to this higher level of stimulation, and reduce their firing rate. This reduces the pleasure experience of artificially-stimulating foods back down to normal levels (Phase III).

Phase III is the culmination of a process of extraordinary importance. It is within Phase III that most people live out their lives. And it is from within Phase III that most people will engineer their own health crises. Phase III occurs when we have become used to the extreme levels of stimulation present in artificial foods, yet ultimately experience no more pleasure than had we remained on a simpler, more healthful diet! Yet, we will rarely notice this process—just as we rarely notice the process of getting used to a brightly-lit room.
A challenging escape

Once in awhile, a person may actually become aware of important dietary knowledge. Despite the tremendous commercially-motivated misinformation campaigns waged by the dairy, cattle, and processed food industries, sometimes a person actually comes to understand the truth about diet. At such times, determined individuals might attempt to change their diet toward whole natural foods—in spite of dire and unfounded warnings from their families, friends, and doctors.

But along the way, they are likely to be met with a formidable obstacle—their own taste neuro-adaptation to artificially-intense foods. This challenge is depicted as Phases IV and V, wherein a change to less stimulating foods typically will result in a reduced pleasure experience. In the early stages, this process is dramatic because natural foods often are not nearly as stimulating.

Scientific evidence suggests that the re-sensitization of taste nerves takes between 30 and 90 days of consistent exposure to less stimulating foods. This means that for several weeks, most people attempting this change will experience a reduction in eating pleasure. This is why modern foods present such a devastating trap—as most of our citizens are, in effect, “addicted” to artificially high levels of food stimulation! The 30-to-90-day process of taste re-calibration requires more motivation—and more self-discipline—than most people are ever willing to muster.

Tragically, most people are totally unaware that they are only a few weeks of discipline away from being able to comfortably maintain healthful dietary habits—and to keep away from the products that can result in the destruction of their health. Instead, most people think that if they were to eat more healthfully, they would be condemned to a life of greatly reduced gustatory pleasure—thinking that the process of Phase IV will last forever. This is an extraordinarily deceptive and problematic situation that I describe as a “pleasure trap.”
A fast way out

For many people, knowing how this trap works is a great ally to their self-discipline. But for others, this trap can seem just too difficult to manage. For them, the road may seem too long, and even minor indulgences often keep them in the trap. Fortunately, there is a second method for escape—one that greatly speeds up the process of taste re-calibration.

A properly-supervised period of water-only fasting is a safe and effective way to quickly re-sensitize taste nerves so that whole natural foods can be fully enjoyed. At the Center for Conservative Therapy, we have noted that for most people, one week of consuming nothing but water in an environment of complete rest is enough to substantially re-calibrate their taste buds. Patients find that after a fast, healthful fare tastes as good as the artificially-intense foods that they may have been eating previously. Sometimes natural foods taste even better.
Avoiding the trap

The modern American diet contains concentrations of chemicals that we were never meant to consume. As food manufacturers have sought to compete with each other, foods have become increasingly artificial—loaded with ever-higher concentrations of pleasure-inducing chemicals, such as sugar, salt, and fat. But curiously, though the concentrations of these chemicals have escalated, the actual pleasure from eating has always stayed about the same. We now understand why.

As our modern foods have become increasingly stimulating, our taste nerves are becoming desensitized—neuro-adapting to the modern diet’s excessive stimulation. This sets the stage for a devastating trap, wherein a health-promoting diet is relatively unappealing.

Fortunately, you now understand what it takes to escape this deceptive dietary trap. With consistent discipline, or perhaps an occasional period of supervised, water-only fasting, you can always get yourself back on track. In doing so, you will discover—or perhaps re-discover—that the diet of our natural design can be very enjoyable.

DETOXIFICATION AND REGENERATION THROUGH DIET

By – Ede Koenig, Ph.D.,N.M.D. (F.A.C.N.)

The greatest misunderstanding and confusion in the field of nutrition is the failure to properly understand and interpret the symptoms and the changes which follow the implementation of a natural diet.

The highest quality of foods are the natural, raw foods, All the enzymes are found intact. The amino acids are in their finest form. The minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, trace minerals, and “life force” are present. The life force, in turn, is capable of reproducing HEALTHY TISSUE. WHEN THE QUALITY OF FOOD COMING INTO THE BODY IS OF HIGHER QUALITY THAN THE TISSUES WHICH THE BODY IS MADE OF, THE BODY BEGINS TO DISCARD THE LOWER GRADE MATERIALS AND TISSUES TO MAKE ROOM FOR THE SUPERIOR MATERIALS WHICH IT USES TO MAKE NEW AND HEALTHIER TISSUE.

This is the plan of Nature. The body is very selective and always will be unless our interference is too great. Only then do we fail to recover and degenerate further into disease. The self curing nature of many conditions such as colds, fevers, cuts, swellings, injuries, pain, etc. furnishes endless examples of how the body tends toward health always unless we do something to stop the process.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OR SIGNS WHICH BECOME EVIDENT WHEN WE FIRST BEGIN TO OMIT THE LOWER GRADE FOODS AND INSTEAD INTRODUCE SUPERIOR FOODS those which are more alive, more natural than we are accustomed to? When the use of the toxic stimulant such as coffee, tea, chocolate, or cocoa is suddenly stopped, HEADACHES ARE COMMON and a letdown occurs.

This is due to the discarding by the body of the toxins caffeine and theobromide which are removed from the tissues and transported through the bloodstream during its many bodily rounds. Before the noxious agents reach their final destination for elimination, these irritants register in our consciousness as pain in other words, headache.

The let down is due to the slower action of the heart the resting place which follows the stimulation of more rapid heart action forced upon the body by certain poisons called stimulants (that can be in the form of drug medications). The more RAPID HEARTBEAT (or pulse) PRODUCES A FEELING OF EXHILARATION, and the SLOWER action PRODUCES A DEPRESSED STATE OF MIND. USUALLY WITHIN THREE DAYS THE SYMPTOMS VANISH AND WE FEEL STRONGER due to the recuperation which follows.

To a lesser extent, THE SAME PROCESS OCCURS WHEN WE ABANDON LOWER QUALITY FOODS and replace them with better foods. Lower quality foods have undergone more preparation: spices, salt, and other ingredients have been added, which then tend to be more stimulating that less prepared and more natural foods.

Animal foods and products, such as meat, fowl, fish, cheese, milk, eggs, etc., are more stimulating than seeds, nuts, grains, and vegetable proteins. Consequently, the withdrawal of stimulation which follows the ABANDONMENT OF ANIMAL FOODS PRODUCES A SLOWER HEART ACTION A RESTING PLACE WHICH REGISTERS IN THE MIND AS RELAXATION OR A DECREASE IN ENERGY. THIS INITIAL LETDOWN LASTS ABOUT TEN DAYS OR SLIGHTLY LONGER AND IS FOLLOWED BY AN INCREASE OF STRENGTH, A FEELING OF DIMIniSHING STRESS, AND GREATER WELL BEING.

Now let us return to the symptoms which occur in the process of regeneration. The PERSON WHO STARTS A BETTER DIET, STAYS ON IT FOR THREE DAYS TO A WEEK AND THEN QUITS, WILL SAY, “OH! I FEEL BETTER ON THE OLD DIET THE NEW ONE MADE ME FEEL WEAK.” HE FAILED BECAUSE HE DID NOT GIVE HIS BODY A CHANCE TO ADJUST and complete its first phase of action: recuperation. If he had waited a while longer, he would have begun to feel better than before he started.

DURING THIS INITIAL PHASE (LASTING ABOUT TEN DAYS ON THE AVERAGE TO SEVERAL WEEKS IN OTHERS) THE VITAL ENERGIES which are usually in the periphery or external part of the body, such as the muscles and skin, begin to move to the vital organs and start reconstruction.
This shunting of much of the power to the internal organs produces a FEELING OF LESS ENERGY IN THE MUSCLES, WHICH THE MIND INTERPRETS AS SOME WEAKNESS. Actually, the power is increased, but most of it is being used for rebuilding the mire important organs and less of it is available for muscular work. Any weakness which is felt here is not true weakness, but merely a redeploying of forces to the more important internal parts. HERE IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE PERSON TO STOP WASTING ENERGY, AND TO REST AND SLEEP MORE. THIS IS A CRUCIAL PHASE, and if the person resorts to stimulants of any kind, he will abort and defeat the regenerative intent of the body.

IT IS IMPORTANT THAT HE HAVE THE PATIENCE AND FAITH TO JUST WAIT IT OUT, and after a while he will get increasing strength which will exceed by far what he felt before he began the new program. SUCCESS IN THE RECOVERY OR IMPROVEMENT OF HEALTH HINGES UPON THE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING OF THE POINT REALIZING THAT THE BODY IS USING ITS MAIN ENERGIES IN MORE IMPORTANT INTERNAL WORK AND NOT WASTING IT IS EXTERNAL WORK INVOLVING MUSCLE MOVEMENTS.

BE WISE TAKE IT EASY HERE AND RELAX. Just coast in your work and social obligations until you are out of the woods.

As one continues on the improved diet and gradually raises the food quality, interesting symptoms begin to occur. The BODY BEGINS A PROCESS CALLED “RETRACTING”. The cellular intelligence reasons something like this: OH, LOOK AT ALL THIS FINE MATERIAL COMING IN. HOW WONDERFUL; NOW WE HAVE A CHANCE TO GET RID OF THIS OLD GARBAGE AND BUILD A BEAUTIFUL NEW HOUSE. LET’S GET STARTED IMMEDIATELY.

“LET’S GET THIS EXCESS BILE OUT OF THE LIVER AND GALLBLADDER AND SEND IT TO THE INTESTINES FOR ELIMINATION. LET’S GET THIS SLUDGE MOVING OUT OF THE ARTERIES, VEINS, AND CAPILLARIES. THESE SMELLY, GASSY, BRAIN STUPEFYING MASSES HAVE BEEN HERE TOO LONG. OUT WITH THEM! THESE ARTHRITIC DEPOSITS IN THE JOINTS NEED CLEANING UP. LET’S GET THESE IRRITATING FOOD PRESERVATIVES, SLEEPING PILLS, ASPIRINS, AND DRUGS OUT OF THE WAY, ALONG WITH THESE OTHER MASSES OF FAT WHICH HAVE MADE LIFE SO BURDENSOME FOR US FOR SO LONG.”

“LET’S GET GOING AND KEEP GOING UNTIL THE JOB IS DONE UNTIL WE HAVE A BEAUTIFUL HOUSE AND FROM THEN ON WE’LL KEEP IT A BEAUTIFUL, IDEAL MODEL HOUSE.”

During the first phase (called catabolism), the accent is elimination, or a breaking down, of tissue. The body begins to clean house in short, to remove the garbage deposited in all the tissues everywhere.

During this period, the body removes the ashes from the furnace preparatory to getting a better fire,. Here the accentuation is on the removal of the gross and immediate body obstructions. Wastes are discarded more rapidly than new tissue is made from the new food. This becomes evident as weight loss. This persists for a while and is then followed by the second phase: stabilization.

Here the weight remains more or less stable. During this phase the amount of waste material being discarded daily is equal to the amount of tissue which is being formed and replaced by the newer, more vital food. This occurs after the excess of obstructing material in the tissue has been removed.

This stage persists for a while and is then followed by a third phase a build-up period (called anabolism), wherein weight starts to go up, even though the diet is lower in calories than it was before.

At this point, much or more of the interfering wastes have already been discarded; the tissues which have formed since the diet was raised in quality are more durable and do not break down easily. Also, new tissues are now being formed faster.

This is due to the improved assimilation made possible by the ceasing of wrong food combining., The body’s need for the usual amounts of food decreases, and we are able to maintain our weight and increased energies with less food. Many are able to function very efficiently on two meals a day and eventually even on one meal a day.

As the body progressively increases in efficiency and decreases in tissue breakdown under exercise so do we gradually need less and less food to maintain life. The higher the percentage of raw foods one lives on, the slower the rate of tissue deterioration which one evolves into. A sick body requires a gradual, carefully worked out entry into this stage where one is able to live on a 100%, unfired raw diet.

Returning to the symptoms which occur on a superior nutritional program, people who have bad tendencies in the past to recurring skin rashes or eruptions will frequently tend to eliminate poisons and harmful drugs through the skin with new rashes or eruptions. If they go to the doctor who in unfamiliar with the aspect of nutrition, he will diagnose it as an allergy. They ask, “How come? I’m eating better now than I ever did before, and instead I’m getting worse.”

They don’t understand that the body is “retracting”. The skin is becoming more alive and active. It’s throwing out more poisons more rapidly now that the body is building more power, which is saved from those hard to digest meals which have been discontinued. These toxins being discarded are saving you from more serious disease, which will result if you keep them in your body too much longer possibly hepatitis, kidney disorders, blood disease, heart disease, arthritis, nerve degeneration, or even cancer depending on your heredity or structural weaknesses. BE HAPPY YOU’RE PAYING YOUR BILLS NOW IN AN EASY PAYMENT PLAN.

WITH SOME, COLDS WHICH HAVEN’T APPEARED FOR A LONG TIME MAY OCCUR, OR EVEN FEVERS. THIS IS NATURE’S WAY OF HOUSE CLEANING.

UNDERSTAND THAT THESE ACTIONS ARE CONSTRUCTIVE, EVEN THOUGH UNPLEASANT AT THE MOMENT. DON’T TRY TO STOP THESE SYMPTOMS BY THE USE OF CERTAIN DRUGS, OR EVEN MASSIVE DOES OF VITAMINS, WHICH WILL ACT AS DRUGS IN HUGE CONCENTRATIONS. THESE SYMPTOMS ARE PART OF A CURING PROCESS, SO DON’T TRY TO CURE A CURE.

These are not deficiency conditions or allergic manifestations, not if you’re eating properly in quality, quantify, combination, and sequence. This is where experienced advice is of great value. Unfortunately, there are few books present today which give good guidance to the average reader. Try to find guidance through a doctor or teacher who has the requisite experience in this most confusing of all subjects: nutrition in relation to health and disease.

You may be eating perfectly in regard to quantity, quality, and observing all the correct rules, and still symptoms will occur.

THOSE WHO HAVE LIVED BETTER LIVES IN THE PAST, WHO HAVE EATEN BETTER FOODS AND WHO HAVE ABUSED THEIR BODIES LESS WITH OVEREATING, WILL HAVE REACTIONS RANGING FROM ALMOST NONE AT ALL OR VERY MILD TO SYMPTOMS WHICH MAY BE UNCOMFORTABLE OR ACUTE.

THOSE WHO HAVE LIVED WORSE LIVES AND POISONED THEMSELVES MORE WILL EXPERIENCE MORE SEVERE SYMPTOMS IF THEIR LIVER, KIDNEYS, OR OTHER IMPORTANT ELIMINATING ORGANS HAVE BEEN DAMAGED. WHEN THEY HAVE BEEN RENOVATED TO THE POINT OF FAIR WORKING ORDER, THEY WILL NO LONGER PRODUCE SYMPTOMS.

HEADACHES MAY OCCUR AT THE BEGINNING; FEVER AND/COLDS ALSO MAY APPEAR; THE SKIN MAY BREAK OUT; THERE MAY BE A SHORT INTERVAL OF BOWEL SLUGGISHNESS, OCCASIONAL DIARRHEA, FEELINGS OF TIREDNESS AND WEAKNESS, DISINCLINATION TO EXERCISE, NERVOUSNESS, IRRITABILITY, NEGATIVITY OR MENTAL DEPRESSION, FREQUENT URINATION, ETC. However, the great majority of people find their reactions tolerable and are encouraged to bear with them because of the many improvements which already occurred and are becoming more evident with each day. This acts as an inspirational force to them.

The symptoms will vary according to the material being discarded, the condition of the organs involved in the elimination, and the amount of energy you have available. The more you rest and sleep when the symptoms are present, the milder they are and the more quickly they are terminated.

BE HAPPY YOU ARE HAVING SYMPTOMS. REALIZE DEEPLY THAT YOUR BODY IS BECOMING YOUNGER AND HEALTHIER EVERY DAY BECAUSE YOU ARE THROWING OFF MORE AND MORE WASTES WHICH WOULD EVENTUALLY HAVE BROUGHT PAIN, DISEASE, AND MUCH SUFFERING. Those who have the worst symptoms reactions and follow through to their successful termination are thus avoiding some of the worst diseases which would eventually have developed had they continued the careless eating habits.

Don’t expect to go on an ascending scale of quality; that improving your diet will make you far better and better each day until you reach perfection. The body is cyclical in nature (on a circadian rhythm), and health returns in a series of gradually diminishing cycles. For example, you start a better diet and for a while you feel much better. After some time, a symptom occurs; you may feel nauseous for a day and have diarrhea with a foul smelling stool. After a day, you feel even better and all goes find for a while. Then you suddenly develop a cold or chills, and lose your appetite. After about two or three days (assuming you don’t take drugs or do anything else about it), you suddenly recover and feel better than you did for years.

Let us say this well being continues for two months, when you suddenly develop an itch or rash. You still don’t take anything for it. This rash flares up, gets worse, and continues for ten days, and suddenly subsides. Immediately after this you find that your hepatitis is gone and your energy has increased more than ever before.

The rash became an outlet for the poisons in the liver which produced the hepatitis. This is how recovery occurs like the cycles in the Dow Jones Average at the beginning of a bull market.

You feel better, a reaction occurs, and you don’t feel as well for a short time. You recover and go higher for a while. Then another reaction occurs, milder than the last. You recover and go even higher. And so it goes.

Each reaction milder than the first as the body becomes purer, each becoming shorter in duration and being followed by a longer and longer period of felling better than ever before, until you reach a level plateau of radiant health.

The first laws we must learn to obey are the laws of Nature. WE MUST LEARN TO EAT SIMPLE, PURE AND NATURAL FOODS, PROPERLY PREPARED AND COMBINED, AND OUR BODIES IN RETURN WILL CAST OFF ALL THE EVIL WE HAVE TAKEN IN DURING OUR LIVES. Nowhere is the principle of forgiveness of sins more manifest that herein our own bodies when we forsake our evil and destructive ways of eating (the defiling of the temple of the soul).

God (or Nature, if you please) gives us a whole new chance for a new glorious life. All repentance must begin here in the body through a purer diet and natural foods, Then, just have faith, sit back and watch what happens.

Before you own eyes, you will daily see signs that will cause you to wonder at this vast intelligence in operation that staggers the comprehension,. The mysteries of the body, the operations of Nature, the vital forces working in Nature, are far beyond what our mind are prepared to understand at present.

Also

The Healing Crisis

AKA: The Cleansing Reaction, The Detox Reaction, and The Herxheimer Reaction
What is it?
Also known as the “Herxheimer Reaction”, this reaction occurs when the body tries to eliminate toxins at a faster rate than they can be properly disposed of. The more toxic one’s bodily systems are, the more severe the detoxification, or healing crisis. It is characterized by a temporary increase in symptoms during the cleansing or detox process which may be mild or severe. You may feel worse and therefore conclude that the treatment is not working. But these reactions are instead signs that the treatment is working and that your body is going through the process of cleaning itself of impurities, toxins and imbalances.
Such reactions are temporary and can occur immediately — or within several days, or even several weeks, of a detox. Symptoms usually pass within 1-3 days, but on rare occasions can last several weeks. If you are suffering from a major illness, the symptoms you experience during the healing crisis may be identical to the disease itself. Sometimes discomfort during the healing crisis is of greater intensity than when you were developing the chronic disease. This may explain why there may be a brief flare-up in one’s condition. Often the crisis will come after you feel your very best. Most people feel somewhat ill during the first few days of a cleanse because it is at that point that your body dumps toxins into the blood stream for elimination. With a more serious condition there may be many small crises to go through before the final one is possible. In any case, a cleansing & purifying process is underway, and stored wastes are in a free-flowing state.
Cause:
The healing crisis is the result of every body-system, in concert, working to eliminate waste products through all elimination channels and set the stage for regeneration. The end result: old tissues are replaced with new. When any treatment or cleansing program causes a large scale die-off of bacteria, a significant amount of endotoxins (toxins within the bacteria itself) are released into the body. The more bacteria present, and the stronger their endotoxins, the stronger the cleansing reaction. When any treatment or detox causes the organs of the body (particularly the liver, which is a storehouse of drug and poison residues) to release their stored poisons and toxins, a cleansing reaction may occur. Any program, such as fasting, which causes a rapid breakdown of fat cells (which are a storehouse for toxins), can cause a healing crisis as toxins previously lodged in the fat cells are released into the blood stream.

Symptoms:
The healing crisis will usually bring about past conditions in whatever order the body is capable of handling at that time. People often forget the diseases or injuries they have had in the past, but are usually reminded during the crisis. There are a wide variety of reactions that may manifest during a healing crisis, the most common are:

Increased joint or muscle pain

Diarrhea
Extreme fatigue and/or its opposite, restlessness
Cramps
Headache (believed to be caused by buildup of toxins in the blood)
Aches, Pains
Arthritic flair up
Insomnia
Nausea
Sinus congestion
Fever (usually low grade) and/or chills
Frequent urination and/or urinary tract discharges
Drop in blood pressure
Skin eruptions, including: boils, hives, and rashes.
Cold or flu-like symptoms
Strong emotions: anger, despair, sadness, fear, etc.
Suppressed memories arise
Anxiety
Mood swings
New phobias develop

Easing Your Way Through the Healing Crisis:
Drink plenty of fresh water (especially water), juices, and herbal teas to flush the body of toxins. Some professionals recommend distilled water as the best. Drink from 2 to 4 quarts(liters) per day. This will help flush the toxins out of your system and speed along the detoxification.
If you are feeling fatigued, or sleepy, your body is talking to you, and telling you to rest. Be kind to yourself, and get the rest that you need.
Symptoms frequently disappear immediately after a good bowel movement, use an enema to provide relief.
For other symptoms, meditation, EFT, acupuncture or a good massage might be helpful to speed up the healing process, and reduce the discomfort.
And, on rare occasions, a reduction of the dosage or temporary cessation may be required.
Important: Always ensure your health by having a thorough medical check up: don’t assume that if you have any of the above symptoms that you are in a healing crisis: you may not be in a healing process, you may have a medical health problem.

FRUITARIAN EATING:

Dangerous or the Optimum Diet?

by Dave Klein

In past issues of this newsletter we have heard from Tom Billings about problems with fruit eating. Furthermore, the American Living Foods Institute and the Hippocrates Institute advise against eating more than a little fruit. In view of 1) the physiological fact that our digestive system is designed to handle a diet of mostly fruit, 2) scientific evidence that tropical fruit eating promotes optimum brain function, 3) the fact that fruit eating has been the best way for some people inside and outside of our group, and 4) because some have asked me to speak up in behalf of fruit eating, I’m grateful for the opportunity to offer my perspectives on the matter of fruit eating.

Why have some people taken to eating mostly fruit and why are they so expressive about it?

Because we sense deep in our bones, to the core of our essence, that sweet juicy luscious ripe fruit is the best and most harmonizing food to put in our bodies for nourishment. To us, eating fruit feels as natural as breathing air, and we love feeling and expressing how great we feel eating this natural diet. The emotion that fruit eaters express comes from a deep place of knowing. And we feel passionate about inspiring others to connect with their most natural food because we sense that fruit eating is the best way to help the inner joy shine through. We want others to enjoy for themselves the great benefits we feel, namely a clean body, clear mind and vivacious energy. Tom Billings has labeled certain expressive high-energy fruit eaters as “zealots”; I think of them as “passionate.”

How should one approach fruit eating?

Get the proper education and enjoy. One must understand every step of the way that most discomforts that arise when eating fruit are detoxification symptoms. And, the detoxification period will never end if we eat cooked food or junk food while eating a fruit-based diet. In order to enjoy the high benefits of eating fruit, we need to purify our bodies. That takes time – it can take years. If we choose to be healthy we need to persevere, and it is important to have an experienced health coach. The reward for living correctly, taking best care of ourselves and eating a fruit-based diet is high vitality and natural euphoria. That’s my experience – it took me 8 years to get there, after being ill and depleted from 8 years with ulcerative colitis.

Uncomfortable symptoms and problems when transitioning onto the fruit diet can also arise from: 1) poor food combining (fruit must be eaten on an empty stomach alone or, with only green vegetables); 2) existing bacteria in a dirty/mucusy alimentary csweet joy eating the fruit sugars and excreting alcohol and acids (the process of fermentation); 3) eating when there is no true hunger (we need to exercise to be hungry), 4) eating poor quality fruit (e.g., too acidic oranges, un-ripe fruit, or caramelized dried fruits), 5) emotional issues/overeating, and 6) lack of exercise. In every case of unsuccessful fruit eating I’ve observed, the major factors were lack of exercise and incomplete cleansing.

Is fruit too sweet?

Tom Billings has suggested that many fruit eaters are sugar addicts. My response has four parts: 1) To eat for optimum nutrition we must eat what is delicious. 2) Mother’s milk is sweet – surely suckling infants are not sugar addicts, and sweet fruit and mother’s milk have nearly identical nutrient compositions. 3) Overeating sweet fruit is a common problem, and overeating is often a problem on any diet. I often overate when I began my fruit-based diet, and I worked on that, and now I rarely overeat, and when I do it’s to a small extent. I have never been around any fruit eater or raw fooder who does not at least occasionally overeat, and most of us are aware of that and working on eating as healthfully as possible. If we overeat on sweet fruit, the problem is not the fruit but our actions. 4) There are superbly healthy and emotionally balanced people who have thrived for many years on a fruit-based diet.

If sweet fruit feels too sweet, we are toxic – we should stop eating it and do some cleansing with water and diluted citrus juices. Dried fruit is concentrated in sugar, so we should avoid it or eat it sparingly. Many of us feel “sugared out”, or tired and spacey from eating too much sweet fruit. Part of that may be fermentation. Part of that may also be impaired pancreas function (insulin production and secretion). Part of that may also have to do with the liver. The liver is the organ which is designed to receive all of the sugar in our blood, and it is not always receptive to the sugar. If our livers are toxic, sluggish or simply not in need of nourishment, the liver cells may not be able to take in the sugar, and then we get into an acute problem: too much sugar in the blood, leading to energy swings, emotional swings, jitters and fatigue. We also need to avoid over doing it with nuts, seeds and avocado – they can overburden the liver and impair sugar reception.

So what’s the answer to overeating sweet fruit? Conscious self control, or “conscious eating”, as Dr. Gabriel Cousens’ puts it. When hungry, it may help to minimize sweet fruit eating and to also eat non-sweet fruits and green vegetables. So instead of filling up on all sweet fruit, one might try eating only a handful of sweet fruit then go right for cucumbers and/or greens and celery, or wait 20 minutes and eat tomatoes if that’s appealing.

I eat about 95% fruit, and about 50 to 70% of that is non-sweet fruits: cucumbers and, when in season, tomatoes. I normally eat avocado only once per week, I rarely eat nuts or seeds and haven’t eaten cooked food in five years. This diet helps me keep my energy level at its highest, my body pure, and my blood sugar balanced. By the way, I do not label myself as a fruitarian – I think we are better off not identifying ourselves by how we eat or practice health.

We need to keep in mind that no diet works unless we exercise, including the fruit diet, because if there is not a cellular demand for all of the fruit sugar, the sugar will back up in the blood and we will have problems. Eating in the morning can make us sluggish if we do not exercise first. I run every morning before breakfast for five to fifteen minutes.

What about emotions and fruit eating?

It’s important not to overeat on sweet fruits when we feel unhappy and need an emotional lift that sugar can bring. Humans eat mostly for emotional reasons, to fill in the psychic hole in our stomachs and to cover up emotional pain with something comforting, like the soothing creamy feeling that food can bring. And fruit makes us feel good inside, so we may overeat. That’s not the fruit’s fault though! To become healthier, we need to observe our emotions relative to food, and learn how to do the right work which will allow us to feel comfortable with our emotions. We need to learn to put love in our tummies on our own, rather than using food for that. We also need to learn to satisfy only true hunger – that’s not easy, but it’s necessary to work on it.

Fruitarian eating is the lightest of all diets and gives us our lightest body, and we become most sensitive on fruit. Emotional armoring melts away as the body becomes pure, and that can be unsettling and make life more challenging on such an energizing diet. Some feel “ungrounded” on fruit. In regard to that, learning how to live with conscious awareness via yoga and meditation helps us develop emotional balance and mental composure. “Grounding” ourselves with heavier foods really just makes us duller and less conscious, healthy and alive.

Modern living is tough, especially if we live in a metropolitan area. It takes courage to “lighten up” and face our emotions. So fruit lovers have a choice: follow our senses, lighten up our diet, face our emotions, do the emotional work and become more whole, healthy and alive; or remain “dense” and emotionally closed off and live in contraction. I advise people to seek appropriate counseling or mentoring in the emotional and spiritual aspects of fruit eating. Just one half hour of appropriate help can work wonders. I know of at least eight other counselors who can help people in this area.

What about minerals and fruit-eating?

Well-grown fruit has minerals, but maybe not enough. I believe that everyone in this society needs to get more minerals from their diet. Based on my experience and observations, I feel it’s prudent for almost everyone, including fruit eaters, to eat some kind of algaes – single cell algaes like spirulina, or leafy algaes like dulse and nori. I personally prefer whole leaf dulse, for I sense that it is helping me to remineralize my body, as I have derived great health benefits since I added it to my diet.

Is fruit too cleansing to build muscle on it?

That’s the way it appears to many people, but it has not proven to be true for long-time fruit eaters Roe Gallo, Don Weaver, Tom Stone and myself. It can take a few years to build up on fruit. The body will not build up until it is essentially completely detoxified. If fruit eaters stay too thin, their emotions and perceptions about their body and what food is supposed to do for them may figure in that. To gain weight on fruit, we must have the desire to live in a fit body, and we must be relaxed. Weight training may be necessary to build muscle mass – only a little bit can yield pleasing results. If fruit eaters want to gain weight and they are not into physical culture, I suggest that they try a few lessons with a fitness trainer – they may discover how great it can feel to work their muscles, develop muscle tone and have a stronger spine. Dr. Bernard Zovluck in Los Angeles and Stephen Arlin of Nature’s First Law in San Diego are both 200 pound 100% raw food body builders who eat mostly fruit.

It is noteworthy that over the last year, Dr. Doug Graham, author of “The High Energy Diet” raw food recipe book, trained pro basketball player Ronnie Grandison. Doug is a chiropractor and fitness trainer for world-class athletes (he trained Martina Navratilova at one time) who teaches the Natural Hygiene approach out of his center in Florida. Doug recently informed me that Ronnie transitioned to a diet of about 90% fruit, and in October Ronnie made the New York Knicks team – the world’s first pro athlete raw fooder! Ronnie is 6′8″, 200 lbs., and according to Doug, is doing better than ever with regard to every aspect of his health and athletic performance. If you’re searching for a good reason (there aren’t many) to see the Warriors at least once this year, the Knicks are coming to Oakland on March 24. I’ll try to get as many tickets as possible!

How does a fruit eater stay warm in the winter?

It isn’t easy! My vitality drops to an extent every winter. Perhaps the best advice is to move to the tropics. Until we are ready and able to do that, here are some suggestions on how to cope with cold weather: 1). Dress as warmly as possible. 2). Keep your home as warm as possible. 3). Stay in as fit aerobic shape as possible. 4). Eat a little bit more avocado, and seeds and nuts if that works for you. Be aware that we cannot suddenly build an insulating layer of fat by eating a lot more avocado, seeds and nuts. These foods can help us feel better in the cold, by virtue of their fatty and amino acids and B vitamins. However, when we overeat on these foods, the liver and lymph can become congested, and we can become ill as putrefication and toxemia result. Eating warm cooked foods is not a healthful answer to cold weather. I recall that when I ate a bit of cooked food in the winter, after 20 minutes I felt colder and less happy than before I ate – cooked food is toxic, clogging and enervating! And I do not believe that hot soups and teas are the answer either. If we absolutely feel a need to warm up immediately after coming in from the cold, perhaps a hot shower or bath is the way to go.

Why have so few people been successful at eating a fruit-based diet?

Let’s take a look at healthy long-term fruit eaters in our community. Roe Gallo, Don Weaver, Tom Stone and myself have been thriving on 90 to 100% fruit for 12 to 22 years, we are definitely very healthy, and I have not observed any nutritional deficiencies in any of us. Why have we succeeded? Here’s what we have in common: 1) We all know how to live simply and live in our bodies – we love to exercise and keep fit, and we are in touch with our true food needs. 2) We know how to think critically and make healthful choices in life. 3) We understand human physiology. 4) We do not live our lives around food. 5) We have done emotional work or have had healthy emotional balance to begin with. 6) We eat no animal foods. 7) Only one of us eats cooked food, and a minimal amount at that. All but one of us eats algae for the minerals. 9) We all have a passion for living and being healthy and we do not allow anything to stand in our way of reaching our goals in life.

So, to find the answer to this question, please examine what it takes to succeed. It’s a wholistic process that takes uncommon intuitive thinking and complete dedication. A lack of any of those factors cited above is most likely the reason why people have not succeeded. I believe that anyone can succeed at eating a fruit-based diet, and if you’d like to succeed, I encourage you to learn from or “model” healthy fruit eaters and ask us questions – we love to help!

Should everybody concur that a fruit-based diet is best for them because other fruit eaters say so?

No. We need to find our own truths for ourselves through education, instinct, contemplation and experience and re-evaluation. When we learn how to keenly tune in to our body’s signals, we will know what foods we need to create the level of health we desire. And we need to question our perceptions each day, every step along the way, for we do not always think correctly and we are changing, and so do our nutritional needs.

How can we find out what the best diet is for us?

The answer resides in our bodies. Our bodies will tell us what food is needed when we learn how to tune in to its messages. That’s a life-long process, and in my opinion, the only way to survive and thrive. If you sense that fruit is the way to go and you have questions about how to succeed, talk with Roe Gallo, Don Weaver, Tom Stone and me to get a personal sense of why we are succeeding.

Is fruit eating dangerous?

I believe that fruit eating is the most natural and healthful way to go. If fruit is not eaten correctly, and/or if there are unhealthful lifestyle factors, fruit eating can lead to health problems (and so can any raw food eating style). Without an accurate education in physiology, the detoxification symptoms that come with fruit eating can be misinterpreted. Getting accurate education and coaching from experienced, long-term healthy fruit eaters is wise. Roe and I mentor fruit eaters of all ages and they do very well.

To those living foods scientists who say that fruit is bad for the body, I submit that they have never studied long-term healthy fruit eaters and learned from us.

What is the Fruitarian Raw Food Diet?

Courtesy of LivingNutrition.com

A typical Fruitarian eats and drinks:

Sweet Fruits: Oranges, bananas, apples, melons, grapes, papayas, berries, figs, dates, mangoes, etc.
Non Sweet Fruits: cucumbers, avocados, bell peppers, tomatoes, etc.
Vegetables: lettuces and other greens, celery, etc.
Nuts and Seeds: Sunflower and squash seeds, almonds, walnuts, soft coconut meat, etc.
Also: coconut water, juices, water, and other raw and living foods.

A Fruitarian doesn’t eat:

Meat, dairy products, grain products, bread, pasta, rice, cakes, soft drinks, junk food, processed food and other cooked foods.
The Basis for Fruitarianism
Fruitarianism may appear to be a new and quite radical concept, while actually it is a revival from a very ancient way of eating, dating back millions of years. As you might imagine, our ancestors did not live on bread and processed foods, but rather on the vibrant fruits and vegetables that are available in Nature. In the early 1900’s, a group called “Natural Hygienists” pioneered this revival. Natural Hygiene is a philosophy that teaches natural way of healing through diet, fasting and healthful, natural living. The Fruitarian Raw Food Diet is not a fad. Scientific proof is substantiated by intense research and studies on teeth of our earliest ancestors.

Also, according to our anatomy, our biology and physiology, we are actually “frugivores,” or fruit eaters. Our whole body system is geared for the Fruitarian Raw Food Diet. Fresh, organic fruit is the most nutritionally complete food for humans, and is the best source of glucose, which is the body and brain’s best fuel. Some of our Network members have been experiencing great level of health on the Fruitarian Raw Food Diet (which includes vegetables) for 5 to 50 years! Fruitarians experience superb mental clarity, physical strength and endurance, rejuvenation of youthful vitality, and renewed joy of living. Many have overcome all kinds of diseases via Fruitarianism, including all kinds of folks from children to college students to medical doctors to seniors. We are inspired to know that Leonardo da Vinci, Henry David Thoreau, and Mahatma Gandhi were mostly Fruitarians, or gearing towards that ideal, and that today there are several celebrities and professional athletes who are Raw Food Fruitarians, such as actor Woody Harrelson, singer Brian Adams and others.

The great, past Life Hygienist, T. C. Fry, wrote a beautiful essay titled: “Humans & Fruit: Symbiotic Partners In Life.” Mr. Fry wrote:

“But the greatest wisdom of all, perhaps, was that which created the food package (fruit) to proportionately meet the precise needs of its eaters; those creatures who, in taking and becoming dependent on these foods, became the fruit plant’s biological symbiont. That this method of seed distribution was successful is evidenced by the thousands of kinds of fruits created around the seeds in nature. Fruit attracts human senses in nature and are gourmet delights in their natural ripened state which ensures their survival. Also, fruit contains no poisons in the fresh ripened state, whereas almost all plants and seeds contain components which we cannot metabolize, hence are toxic directly or indirectly…..Fruits are the natural food of humans and the only food category ideally suited to all their faculties. This does not mean we should, in our present circumstances, eat fruit totally and exclusively, but it does mean that, in nature, that’s all we ate as attested by Dr. Walker.”

The Fruitarian Diet Ultimately Brings You and the Planet Great Health
A predominant Fruitarian Diet brings great benefits to our physical, mental and spiritual well being. The primary reason is that Fruit is a LIVE food! Fruit is laden with enzymes, and because of this it is already in partly pre-digested state. Fruit is ripened by the Sun and contains its energy. Fruit stays alive when picked. By eating fruit and scattering the seeds we do not destroy life — the seeds are ready for reproduction for the benefit of mankind and all other fruit-eaters in Nature!

Because a Fruitarian Raw Food Diet is very “cleansing,” bringing about a detoxification and elimination process, you may well need guidance and direction. The Fruitarian Worldwide Network of combined knowledge and experience can help and support you on the Fruitarian Raw Food Path.