, they make sense.
We have already touched on this subject in general terms (see Chapter 2, Knowing the
Enemy), but now we need to take a closer look at its practical application.
Hyper-alimentation : The answer to deficiency is to give the patient maximum amounts of
the best possible foodstuffs. However, seriously ill patients are usually unable to eat much. Their
appetite and digestion are poor, and their elimination is inadequate. Under the circumstances the
only way forward is juicing, since almost every patient is able—and normally willing—to drink
a freshly prepared glass of organic juice every hour. Once that routine is established, the nutrients
the body so desperately needs are in constant supply.
A few extremely debilitated patients, who cannot cope with the usual hourly 8-ounce glass of
juice, are given 4- or 6-ounce portions at the beginning of the treatment. To their surprise, after
only a few days of juicing and intensive detoxification they are able to eat three full vegetarian
meals a day, prepared from fresh organic produce, and drink 13 standard size glasses of juice,
besides snacking on fruit. Once they reach that stage of hyper-alimentation, each patient consumes
approximately 20 pounds of food a day.
Critics of the Gerson Therapy, who find the hourly preparation of fresh juices onerous, (which
it certainly is!) often suggest the use of vitamin and mineral supplements instead. What they
don’t realize is that the sick body is unable to assimilate and utilize pharmaceutically prepared
substances; which would simply pass through the organism without doing any good. Only live,
fresh, raw vegetables and fruits are absorbed, and exclusively in the form of juice, which bypasses
the digestive process and is immediately assimilated.
Detoxification : As soon as the body is being flooded with live nutrients, these are rapidly
absorbed and force accumulated toxins from the cells into the blood stream, which in turn
transports them to the liver, the body’s chief organ of detoxification. However, the patient who
embarks on the Gerson Therapy after a lifetime of living on a so-called normal modern diet has
already accumulated considerable amounts of food additives, residues of pesticides and other
agrochemicals, plus toxins from many sources that block his or her liver. As a result the liver is
unable to deal with the newly arriving toxins, driven from the tissues by the live nutrients.
Unless quickly shifted, this logjam of toxins could lead to life-threatening self intoxication
and liver coma; hence the vital role of the rapidly detoxifying frequent coffee enemas which
are a cornerstone of the Gerson treatment. There are several cancer therapies which use various
methods to kill tumor tissue, but without removing dead toxic material from the liver. In order to
allow the liver to discard its toxic load slowly and gradually, the treatment has to be interrupted,
which diminishes its impact. However, the Gerson method with its constant regular detoxification
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 8 6Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comis able to work continuously, which explains its effectiveness—and also why the coffee enemas
are an indispensable part of the protocol. Without them, the additional load of newly released
toxins could even cause new liver damage. Whoever wants to embark on the Gerson Therapy
must include the required practice of coffee enemas.
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 8 7Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comCHAPTER 8
Why Does The Gerson Therapy Work?
So far so good. The basic principles of the Gerson protocol are simple and clear and
obviously its practice has been yielding remarkable results over more than sixty years. But the
question remains: is there any current scientific research to confirm the methods Dr. Gerson
developed partly intuitively, partly through constant study and clinical observation, but without
sophisticated research facilities, all those decades ago? Putting it simply: has anyone discovered
just why this therapy works?
The answer is yes. Since Dr. Gerson’s death in 1959, a series of eminent scientists and
researchers have made discoveries that confirmed one or another of Dr. Gerson’s insights and
methods. It is the sum total of these piecemeal discoveries that explains why his protocol, used
in its entirety, is so effective. In the following we present a sample of the most striking scientific
endorsements.
In the late Seventies the physicist, mathematician and biophysicist Dr. Freeman Widener
Cope, M.D., wrote in a paper, “the high potassium, low sodium diet of the Gerson therapy has
been observed experimentally to cure many cases of advanced cancer in man.”1 In another paper
he stated that in cell damage of any kind, the same responses may occur in cells throughout the
body: “First the cell will lose potassium, second the cell will accept sodium, and third, the cell
will swell with too much water (cellular edema). When the cell has swollen with too much water,
energy production is inhibited, along with protein synthesis and lipid (fat) metabolism. Gerson
was able to manipulate tissue damage syndrome, which he recognized clinically in the 1920s,
by his dietary management, eliminating sodium, supplementing a high potassium diet with
additional potassium amendments and finding a way to remove toxins from the body via
the liver.”2 (Added emphasis.) This is a remarkably concise justification of all of Dr. Gerson’s
methods, including the strict restriction of protein and fat, which the damaged cell cannot handle,
the reason for increased potassium intake, and the need for liver detoxifi cation.
In 1988, Patricia Spain Ward, Ph.D., campus historian of the University of Illinois, Chicago,
presented an excellent monograph on the Gerson Therapy, under contract to the US Office of
Technology Assessment (OTA). Although her study is not based on new research, it is worth
including for its thoroughness and clarity.  Describing Dr. Gerson as “ a scholar’s scholar and a
superlative observer of clinical phenomena,” Dr. Ward reported his observation that patients
on a high potassium, low sodium diet excreted enormous amounts of sodium in their urine, and
that by eliminating animal protein from the diet, this amount was increased.  She added, “ The
medical insistence on large quantities of protein, Gerson showed, was wrong and he stopped
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 8 8Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comthe administration of dietary animal proteins for at least six to eight weeks.”3
Important research justifying Dr. Gerson’s withholding of animal protein from his cancer
patients was carried out by Dr. Robert A. Good, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota and
known as “the father of modern immunology.” He set up a guinea pig experiment, feeding one
group of animals protein-free lab chow, while the other group received the normal variety of food.
Dr. Good expected to see failure of the animals’ immune system on the protein-free regime, but
the opposite happened. The guinea pigs’ thymus lymphocytes became tremendously active and
remained aggressively so for a long time. Dr. Good realized that he had stimulated immunity
by the dietary restriction of animal protein, thus confirming the rightness of the Gerson
protocol’s identical insight.
Perhaps this is the place for pointing out that Gerson patients do receive adequate amounts
of easily absorbed plant proteins contained in the fresh vegetable juices, potatoes and oatmeal
that are essential parts of their diet. It is a widespread mistake to believe that only animal foods
contain protein. On the contrary: food animals, such as cattle, pigs and sheep are vegetarians!
The Canadian scientist, Dr. Harold D. Foster,4 of the University of Victoria, British Columbia,
approached the problem of cancer mortalities from the angle of mineral deficiencies in soils
and water supplies. He also carried out an initial computer analysis of 200 cases of so-called
“spontaneous” regressions of a wide variety of cancers, spontaneous regression having been
defined as “a partial or complete disappearance of a tumor in the absence of treatment capable
of producing a regression.” The result of Professor Foster’s painstaking research was that far
from being “spontaneous,” most of the regressions were due to a combination of conventional
treatments with drastic lifestyle changes and various complementary therapies. Of 200 patients,
10 followed the Gerson diet, and many more used parts of the Gerson protocol, e.g. raw
juices and detoxification.  Further dietary regimes mentioned in the sample were partly
or largely based on the same protocol, raising the percentage of those whose recovery was
to some  extent due to the Gerson treatment. The most important conclusion Professor Foster
was able to draw from his research was that cases of so-called spontaneous regression were far
from being spontaneous; and were only categorized as such by orthodox medicine because
they were the results of unconventional—alternative and complementary—therapies.
One of the most important


 ll rest
to the body. At the same time the body cannot
exist without water, for this purpose the body re-
serves are engaged, firstly from superfluous fat
(the body synthesizes water using oxygen from
the air and the hydrogen from the adipose tis-
sue).
During water fasting exogenous water (i.e.
from the outside) enters, and water is the main
factor of purification. Toxins are washed away
from the cells, from the intracellular space.
During DF, without water, there is no "wash-
ing" but rather a process of burning  the toxins
"in their furnace" meaning that every cell, in the
absence of water, begins an internal thermal
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frreaction. Each cell turns temporarily into a mini -
furnace, a mini -reactor. Water is absolutely nec-
essary, but the cells remain without, especially
the diseased and altered cells. In such circum-
stances the strongest, healthiest cells survive,
and whether they like it or not, in order survive
such extreme conditions they are forced to acti-
vate the production of own endogenous water,
of excellent quality. Based on the law of biologi-
cal efficiency, the endogenous water should be of
greater quality than the exogenous water. In fact,
the cell consumes a lot of energy and conse-
quently the quality of the final product must cor-
respond to the invested efforts.
Exogenous and endogenous water can be com-
pared respectively to a polluted river where a
chemical factory discharges its waste, and to a
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frmountain stream, which originates from the
depths of the earth and feeds on defrosted water
rich in healing potential. Du ring the dry fast the
old "dead water" is replaced by "living water" of
excellent quality and synthesized by the organ-
ism itself. In the meantime all the negative infor-
mation brought into our body from the outside
is eliminated. By making a relatively short fast
without water the organism is stimulated to
elaborate the water that it already contains
within, thereby renewing our information. This
is why at the end of the fast we are information-
ally uncontaminated; we are composed of a ma-
trix of information devoid of anything negative
coming from the external environment. Similar
mechanisms do not exist in any of the other ex-
isting types of therapeutic fasting. This
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frphenomenon is one of the main advantages of-
fered by this form of fasting. It is one of the main
therapeutic mechanisms of DF, which plays a
decisive role in renewing the energetic balance
of the human organism.

8.2. Anti -inflammatory and immune -stimu-
latory mechanism: the action of free forms of
glucocorticoids
The second therapeutic mechanism by im-
portance is an anti -inflammatory and im-
munostimulatory one. Life does not exist with-
out water and even inflammation cannot pro-
gress in its absence. Every part of the body that
is inflamed can be distinguished because of its
swelling. Microorganisms, viruse s and mi-
crobes, can only multiply in a sufficiently watery
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frenvironment. A lack of water compromises the
inflammation process. The dehydration occur-
ing in the body with DF triggers a ruthless com-
petition for water between the strongest body
cells and pathog enic microorganisms. The cells
of the body, full of their role as "home owners",
will subtract water from microorganisms. At the
same time, the organism is able to not only syn-
thesize endogenous water in sufficient quantity,
but also to absorb the water fr om the outside,
from the air, through the skin. This is because
during DF the organism functions in absorption
mode rather than in emission. Then, the healthy
and strong cells receive extra energy and water
from the air, by seizing it, while the sick cells, the
viruses and the bacteria cannot do it. This is why
it is fundamental to practice DF in the middle of
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frnature, preferably in the mountains and near
streams and waterfalls.
Without water, microbes, viruses and parasites
die instantly. 70% glucocorticoid  and sexual
hormones are linked to blood transport albu-
mins and only 30% circulate in the blood in a
free state. During DF, the transport albumins de-
cay and their amino acids are employed in sup-
plying the body's needs, mainly the needs of the
brain and the  cardiovascular system. During this
process there is a release of huge quantities of
hormones circulating in a free state in the blood:
the amount of glucocorticoids flooding the
blood is three times greater than usual. This ex-
erts a strong anti -inflammato ry effect, suppress-
ing all inflammation outbreaks present in the
body. Glucocorticoid hormones are in fact the
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frmost powerful anti -inflammatory agent in the
body. The powerful therapeutic mechanism of
dry fasting aimed at fighting inflammatory dis-
eases lies  in the action of free forms of glucocor-
ticoids.
As mentioned above, during a dry fast the tox-
ins burn "in their own furnace", which means
that every cell, in the absence of water, triggers a
thermal reaction, a particular radical method
within the cells that destroys all the superfluous,
excessive, and morbid elements. Each cell trans-
forms into a temporary mini -reactor that mani-
fests as an increase in internal temperature. This
temperature may not even be noted with a ther-
mometer, but during DF, patients c learly per-
ceived as a sensation of heat, internal fire or
chills. It should be emphasized that in this state
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frthe temperature itself is an important element of
defensive reaction. We know from experience
that with temperature all the waste, poisons and
even  cancer cells are destroyed and their activity
is suspended. This process accelerates healing.
By increasing in body temperature, the organism
causes microorganisms to slow their growth.
If the body does not receive food and dead and
heavy water, our blood  does not receive many
harmful substances, while it is instead cleansed
by the body, i.e. the same blood composition will
be repeatedly purified through the filter systems
until it becomes as ideally pure as possible.
The human body has a powerful weapon
against diseases: the immune system, designed
to safeguard our health with the help of organs
and tissues programmed for the detection and
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frelimination of foreign substances and harmful
microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria and
diseased cells. The main organs of the immune
system are the tonsils, the adenoids, the appen-
dix, the spleen and the thymus gland. Bone mar-
row, white blood cells and lymphatic tissues are
also important elements of the immune system.
All these elements work together and, when nec-
essary, trigger the body's immune response.
In a healthy organism with a strong immune
system it is quite difficult for viruses to survive.
Bacteria are destroyed before they can cause in-
fection. Altered or diseased cells are destroyed
before they can cause cancer or other illnesses.
But if the immune system is not healthy, it will
not work properly. In this case we can easily get
ill from colds, flu, infectious diseases and even
Copyright © Vera Giovanna Bani 2019 www.dryfasting.infoThis Ebook was purchased by Gilberto Franchi email: gilbertofranchi@hotmail.frcancer. Maintaining a healthy immune system is
the most important thing we can do  to preserve
our health, because this system is our main bio-
logical ally in the war against diseases.
But how does the immune system work? When
a foreign body invades the organism, whether it
is a virus or a splinter, the immune system begins
to effectively produce a series of complex chem-
ical reactions. From this moment the immune
system embarks on its mission: to find the out-
sider and to destroy it.
In our organism there is an entire


anana

1.
1	kiwi,	peeled

1.
1	apple,	peeled,	cored,	and	sliced

1.
1	cup	pineapple,	peeled	and	cut	into	chunks

1.
1	cup	crushed	ice

1.
1	tablespoon	chia	seeds

Directions

1.
Toss	all	ingredients	into	your	blender.	Cover	and	blend	until	the	mixture	is
nice	and	smooth.

2.
Pour	into	the	glasses	and	enjoy.Italian	Style	Smoothie
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1	tomato

1.
1	clove	garlic

1.
1	green	bell	pepper,	seeded

1.
A	few	basil	leaves

1.
A	dash	of	oregano

1.
2	kale	leaves

Directions

1.
Place	all	ingredients	into	a	blender	and	process	until	the	smoothie	reaches
your	desired	consistency.

2.
If	you	feel	it’s	needed

and	if	this	smoothie	is	too	thick,	you	can	add	a	water.

3.
Pour	into	the	glasses	and	serve.	You	can	serve	this	smoothie	as	a	chilled
soup,	too.Carrot	Mint	Smoothie
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1	carrot	with	greens

1.
1	green	apple,	cored	and	quartered

1.
1/2	cup	water

1.
1	small	cucumber,	quartered

1.
1/2	teaspoon	grated	ginger

1.
8	mint	leaves

Directions

1.
Combine	the	carrot,	apple	and	water	in	your	blender.	Blend	on	the	“chop”
setting.

2.
Then	add	the	cucumber,	ginger	and	4	mint	leaves.	Blend	until	smooth	and
uniform.

3.
Pour	into	two	glasses.	This	amazing	drink

naturally

improves	a	good
eyesight	and	digestion.Beet	Cranberry	Smoothie
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	2)

Ingredients

1.
1	beet,	with	greens

1.
1	cup	cranberries

1.
1	cup	watermelon

1.
1/2	cup	water

Directions

1.
In	a	blender	or	a	food	processor,	pulse	the	beet	first.

2.
Then	add	the	rest	of	ingredients	and	blend	until	the	smoothie	reaches	your
desired	consistency.

3.
Pour	into	tall	chilled	glasses	and	serve.Rejuvenating	Detox	Smoothie
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	3)

Ingredients

1.
1	small	sweet	potato,	cut	into	chunks

1.
1	beet,	with	or	without	greens

1.
1	carrot	with	greens

1.
1	cucumber,	quartered

1.
1	tablespoon	chia	seeds

Directions

1.
In	a	blender,	process	the	sweet	potato	and	beet	first.	Then	add	the	carrot	and
cucumber.

2.
Pour	into	the	glasses	and	enjoy	this	great	smoothie	that	fights	wrinkles.Spinach	and	Fruit	Smoothie
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
2	cups	baby	spinach

1.
2	pears,	peeled,	cored,	and	quartered

1.
2	bananas,	quartered

1.
1	cup	carrots,	chopped

1.
1	cup	orange	juice

1.
1	cup	fresh	blueberries

1.
1	cup	crushed	ice

Directions

1.
Blend	all	ingredients	until	smooth	and	thick,	or	1	to	2	minutes.

2.
Pour	into	tall	glasses	and	drink	immediately.Frosty	Vegan	Smoothie
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	1)

Ingredients

1.
1	cup	soy	milk

1.
1/2	cup	baby	spinach

1.
1/2	cup	water

1.
1/2	cup	frozen	banana,	cut	into	chunks

1.
1/2	cup	frozen	pineapple,	chopped

Directions

1.
In	a	blender,	combine	soy	milk	and	baby	spinach	first.	Mix	until	the
spinach	leaves	are	puréed.

2.
Then	add	water,	banana,	and	pineapple.

3.
Blend	until	the	smoothie	reaches	your	desired	consistency.	Pour	into	a	glass
and	drink	immediately.Energy-Boosting	Smoothie
(Ready	in	about	10	minutes	|	Servings	1)

Ingredients

1.
1	cup	water

1.
1/2	mango

1.
1	cup	baby	spinach

1.
1/3	cup	baby	carrots

1.
1/2	cup	cauliflower	florets

1.
1/4	cup	blueberries,	or	to	taste

1.
1	stalk	celery

1.
1/2	orange,	peeled

1.
1	tablespoon	honey

Directions

1.
Combine	all	ingredients	in	your	blender.
2.
Blend	on	high	speed	until	smooth	and	uniform.Pumpkin	Greek	Yogurt
(Ready	in	about	5	minutes	|	Servings	1)
Ingredients

1.
4	cubes	ice

1.
1	cup	milk

1.
1/3	cup	pumpkin	puree

1.
1/3	cup	Greek	yogurt

1.
1/2	frozen	banana,	cut	into	chunks

1.
1	pinch	ground	cinnamon

1.
1	pinch	ground	nutmeg

1.
1	teaspoon	vanilla	extract

Directions

1.
Place	all	ingredients	in	your	blender.

2.
Cover	and	blend	until	the	smoothie	reaches	your	desired	consistency.
	3.
Pour	into	a	glass	and	serve	immediately.INFUSED	WATER	RECIPESStrawberry	Infused	Water
(Ready	in	about	15	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
4	cups	water

1.
4	tablespoons	molasses

1.
6	cups	strawberries,

hulled

1.
2	limes,	squeezed

Directions

1.
Combine	water	and	molasses,	and	stir	thoroughly	until	it	is	well	combined.

2.
Mix	strawberries	in	a	blender.

3.
Add	strawberry	puree	to	molasses	mixture;	add	lime	juice.

4.
Lastly,	stir	well	and	serve.

The	water	helps	you	improve	overall	healthCooling	Orange	Delight
(Ready	in	about	15	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
2	cups	cold	water

1.
1	cup	fresh	orange	juice

1.
1	tablespoon	ground	fresh	ginger

1.
3	cups	sparkling	water

1.
Orange	slices,	for	garnish

Directions

1.
Combine	water,	orange	juice,	and	fresh	ginger	in	your	blender;	process
until	everything	is	well	blended.

2.
Strain	mixture	over	a	pitcher.	Pour	in	sparkling	water	just	before	serving.

3.
Serve	over	ice	and	garnish	with	orange	slices.Citrus	Sunrise
(Ready	in	about	15	minutes	|	Servings	4)

Ingredients

1.
1	small-sized	orange,	peeled	and	sliced.

1.
6	strawberries,	quartered,	frozen.

1.
Pre-steeped	Chamomile	leaves

1.
Water

Directions

1.
Mix	all	the	ingredients	in	your	blender	until	it	is	smooth	and	uniform.

2.
Add	water	to	a	pitcher	until	full	just	before	serving.

3.
You	can	add	new	water	when	your	bottle	or	a	pitcher	is	half-way	empty.


 and the ribs of Jean-Paul Marat, the
assassinated French Revolution leader and the subject of Jacques-Louis
David’ s most morose painting. All these skulls, all these bones and millions
of others, some dating back a thousand years, had been lying there, silently
collecting dust underneath the Garden of Luxembour g in the heart of the
Left Bank.
Leading the expedition was a woman in her early 30s with a purple-red
mane that draped over a faded camouflage jacket. She was followed by
another woman in a red pantsuit and a third in a fluorescent blue coat. They
wore knee-high mud boots and overstuf fed kitbags and looked like cast
members from the all-female Ghostbusters  reboot. I didn’ t know their real
names and was told not to ask. These guides, I would learn, prefer to be
anonymous.
At the foot of the staircase was a tunnel made of rough limestone walls.
As we pushed deeper, the walls grew a little tighter, eventually forming a
hexagonal shape—narrow at the feet, wide at the shoulders, and narrow
again at the top. The tunnel had been built this way for ef ficiency, to allow
ancient limestone miners to walk single file in as little space as possible.
But the curious result was that the hallways were the shape of a cof fin.
Fitting, perhaps, because we’d just entered one of the lar gest graveyards on
Earth.
For a thousand years, Parisians had buried their dead at the center of the
city, mostly in a plot of land that became known as Holy Innocents’
Cemetery. After hundreds of years of use, Holy Innocents’ became
overcrowded, and the dead were stacked in warehouses on top of one
another. Those warehouses became overcrowded too, until the walls
collapsed and spilled decomposing bodies into city streets. W ith nowhere to
put the dead, Parisian authorities instructed limestone miners to dump them
into wagons and wheel them into Paris’ s quarries. As new limestone
quarries were dug out to build the Arc de T riomphe, the Louvre, and other
great buildings, more bodies went under ground. By the turn of the twentieth
century, there were more than 170 miles of quarry tunnels filled with
millions of skeletons.
The City of Paris of fered a sanctioned tour of the quarries, called the
Paris Catacombs, but that only covered a small portion. I’d come here to
look inside the other 99 percent, where there were no tourists, descriptive
plaques, ropes, lights, or rules. Where nothing was of f-limits.A group called “cataphiles” have been exploring the nether regions of
this place since entering the quarries became illegal in 1955. They’ve found
their way down through storm drains, manholes, and secret doorways along
Rue Bonaparte. Some cataphiles had built private clubhouses within the
limestone walls; others hosted weekly subterranean dance clubs. There was
a rumor that a French billionaire chiseled out his own lavish apartment
down there and hosted private parties, where guests do who-knows-what.
Cataphiles made new discoveries all the time.
My guide, the woman with red-purple hair whom I’ll call Red, had spent
15 years mapping these dirty tunnels. She was fascinated with the stories
and history of the place. She told me earlier that she discovered a new
ossuary an hour ’ s hike from here in the crawl space of a cave. It was filled
with a few thousand victims of a cholera epidemic that ravaged Paris in
1832. This was the time in W estern history when small mouths, crooked
teeth, and obstructed airways became the norm throughout much of
industrial Europe. These were the skulls I was looking for.
W e passed through halls, over puddles of stagnant water, and crawled
face-to-butt like a human centipede through a kind of oversize rodent hole,
until we reached a stack of wine bottles, cigarette pack wrappers, and
dented beer cans. The walls were layered in decades of graf fiti: the initials
of two lovers, cartoon dicks, an obligatory 666. A few feet in front of us
was a stack of what looked like kindling.
It wasn’ t kindling, not wood at all. It was a heap of femurs, humeri,
sternums, ribs, and fibulas. Bones, all human. This was the path to the
secret ossuary.
•       •       •
By around 1500, the farming that had begun in Southwest Asia and the
Fertile Crescent ten thousand years earlier took over the world. The human
population grew to a half billion, 100 times what it had been at the dawn of
agriculture. Life, at least for city dwellers, was miserable: streams of human
waste gushed down city streets. Air was tainted by coal smoke and nearby
rivers and lakes ran with blood, fat, hair, and acids from manufacturing
runof f. Infections, disease, and plague were a constant menace.
In these societies, for the first time in history, humans could spend their
entire lives eating nothing but processed food—nothing fresh, nothing raw,nothing natural. Millions did. Over the next few centuries, food would
become more and more refined. Advances in milling removed the germ and
bran from rice, leaving only the starchy white seed. Roller mills (and, later,
steam mills) ripped the germ and bran from wheat, leaving only a soft,
white flour. Meats, fruits, and vegetables were canned and bottled. All these
methods extended the shelf life of foods and made them more accessible to
the public. But they also made foods mushy and soft. Sugar, which was
once a prized commodity of the wealthy, became increasingly common and
cheap.
This new, highly processed diet lacked fiber and the full spectrum of
minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and other nutrients. As a result, urban
populations would grow sicker and smaller. In the 1730s, before the onset
of industrialization, the average Briton stood about five-seven. W ithin a
century, population shrank two inches, to less than five-five.
The human face began rapidly deteriorating, too. Mouths shrank and
facial bones grew stunted. Dental disease became rampant, and the
incidence of crooked teeth and jaws increased tenfold in the Industrial Age.
Our mouths got so bad, so overcrowded, that it became common to have
teeth removed altogether.
The sideways grin of the Dickensian street urchin was not the af fliction
of only a few sad, impoverished orphans—the upper classes suf fered, too.
“The better the school, the worse the teeth,” a V ictorian dentist observed.
Breathing problems skyrocketed.
•       •       •
Back in the quarries, Red led me through the narrow opening of the ossuary,
across rocks and bones and broken bottles. She told me how the cholera
epidemic of the early 1800s killed close to 20,000 people. The authorities
had nowhere to put the dead, so they dug a big hole in Montparnasse
Cemetery and buried them with quicklime to disintegrate the flesh. The
ossuary was located at the bottom of that hole.
About ten more minutes of crawling and we reached it, a room
surrounded by piles of bones and skulls. I had expected this place to have a
horror -show creepiness, but it never materialized. Instead, entering there,
surrounded by remnants of all these ancient lives, there was only a long andheavy stillness, like the sound of a rock dropped in a well after the echoes
fade away.
Red and the cataphiles placed candles on the skulls and pulled cans of
beer and groceries from their packs. I turned and wormed myself deeper
into the chasm, pulling my body along the floor until it felt like my chest
might be stuck between two huge boulders. At one point, I considered that
if any of us might suddenly get trapped in here, if we were to break a leg,
panic, or lose our way, there was a good chance we’d never make it back
out. Our skulls would join the millions of others lining these walls,
becoming candle holders for cataphiles in some future world.
Onward and inward, another wiggle and another yank, and I was in the
thick of it—hundreds of more skulls in all directions. These people had
been city dwellers, and they’d very likely relied on the same highly
processed industrial foods. T o my eye, their skulls all appeared lopsided,
too short, their arches V -shaped, and stunted in some way. I stayed for a
while bathing in them, inspecting them, feeling them, comparing them.
Admittedly, I was very much a novice at inspecting skeletons, and
perhaps some of the jaws and other pieces were mismatched. Nonetheless,
there was such a clear dif ference in the shape and symmetry of these
specimens compared to the dozens of hunter -gatherers and other ancient
indigenous populations I’d seen in books and websites before coming here.
These were the Patient Zeros of the modern Industrial human mouth.
“V oulez-vous manger quelque chose?”  Red said, her words echoing of f
the bare walls. I shimmied back beneath the crawl space and joined the
group. They were smoking,


  you  want whole raspberries  to decorate cakes or for use in fruit salads,
the best way to ensure that they hold their shape during freezing is to fast-
freeze them individually. Arrange washed, completely dry berries in a
single la yer, without touching each other, on a cookie sheet. Fast-freeze for
1 hour. Pack int o freezer containers (no need to leave headspace). Squeeze
out air; seal, label and return to freezer.
or
b) Fill pint (2 -cup/500 mL) or quart (1 L) freezer containers with
raspberries to within 3 to 4 inches (7 to 10 cm) of the top. Pour dry
granulated suga r over top; use 1/2 cup (125 mL) sugar per quart (1 L) of
prepared fruit. Squeeze out air; l eave 1-inch (2.5 cm) headspace. Seal, label
and freeze.OR
Pack in Syrup:  In a saucepan, combine 2-1/2 cups (625 mL) granulated
sugar and 4 cups (1 L) water. Bring to a gentle boil over high heat, stirring
frequently. Redu ce heat and gen tly boil for 3 minutes. Let cool. Fill pint (2-
cup/500 mL) or quart (1 L) freezer containers with raspberries to within 3 to
4 inches (7 to 10 cm) of the top of the container. Pour syrup ove r top; use 1
cup (250 mL) syrup per quart (1 L) of prepared fruit. Squeeze out air; leave
1-inch (2.5 cm) headspace. Seal, label and freeze.
OR
Crush:  U sing a potato masher, crush raspberries in a non-reactive bowl (or
for s eedless purée, press through  a fine sieve into a non-reactive bowl). For
every qu art (1 L) of crushed ra spberries, add 1 cup (250 mL)  granulated
sugar. Stir until the sugar is diss olved. Pack into freezer containers, leaving
a 1-inch (2.5 cm) headspace. Seal, label and freeze.R h u b a r b
I LIST RHUBARB (RHEUM RHABARBARUM)  as a fruit because of the
way we use it, but in fact it is a vegetable belonging to the  buckwheat
family of plants. This is a plant that I see in both rural and c ity gardens
everywhere in southwestern O ntario, where I live, and all across North
America (except for southern states) because it thrives in climates where the
temperatures dip below 40°F (4°C).
In the early spring, when not much else is happening in the garden, plump,
oval bubblelike  growths are emer ging from the rhubarb crowns in the
barely thawed earth, sometimes even through snow. If you watch closely,
you can see that the thin membrane of the rusty red bubble splits under the
pressure of the growing sprout and a tightly curled red, purple o r green leaf
bursts forth. From that stage, it is usually less than a month be fore we can
begin to harvest the tart stalks of rhubarb. Each variety has slightly varying
degrees of tartness, but overall this is a crop that requires som e degree of
sugar coating.
Essential:  Leaves are poisonous.

Good Pr eserving V arieties
Rhubarb varieties are classed as red, green or speckled (pink ), with red
being th e most widely available. All rhubarb varieties stand up  well to the
rigours of canning and freezing. Some of my favourites are listed below.
Canada r ed:  P roduces shorter, more slender stalks than other varieties, but
is tender and very sweet, with good red colour.Cherry Red (also known as Cherry or Early Cherry):  Lon g, t hick stal ks
that are a rich red inside and out; an excellent variety for prese rving; juicy,
tender and sweet.
Crimson Red (also called Crimson, Crimson Cherry or Crimson
W ine):  Grows tall; plump, brightly coloured red stalks.
valentine:  Good hearty va riety for canning; has broad, deep red stalks tha t
retain a good rosy colour when cooked; somewhat lower in acid than other
red varieties.
victoria:  A speckled type that produces medium stalks that are sweet and
not toug h or stringy. Although there is some variation in stalk colour
depending on the cultivar, in g eneral the light green stalks d evelop pink
speckling, especially at the bottom.

Pur chasing/Storing
• 1 lb (500 g) trimmed rhubarb yields 2 cups (500 mL) coarsely cubed
rhubarb.
• Y ou will need 1-1/2 lb (750 g) for each quart (1 L) jar.
Select firm, crisp, thin stalks that are 8 to 15 inches (20 to 38 cm) long. Cut
rhubarb should snap when bent. T o harvest, twist of f the leaf stalk at the soil
line, cut of f and safely dispose of the leaf. Rhubarb can be stored for up to 2
weeks if tightly covered and kept in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator.

Good W ith
• Herbs such as bay, chervil, tarragon, sweet cicely.
• Sweet seasonings such as cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, vanilla.
• Savoury spices such as cardamom, cumin, coriander.
• Other fruit, such as strawberries, raspberries, peaches, nectarines, apricots,
prunes, plums.
• T oasted almonds, pecans and walnuts, currants.
• Egg puddings and custards.• Game birds such as goose, duck, pheasant, quail, grouse, partridge, guinea
fowl.

Pr eparation
Even if grown or ganically, rhubarb is still a plant that contacts the soil while
growing, so it sh ould be washed before using. Swish rhubarb in  a sink full
of c ool water to which a drop or two of food-safe liquid soa p has been
added. R inse well, drain and pat dry. Cut stalks into 1/2- to 1-inch (1 to 2.5
cm) pieces.
Canning Rhubarb
See detailed canning information, Methods.
1. Pr epar e Equipment:  W ash and heat pint (2-cup/500 mL) or quart (1 L)
jars, and  scald the lids, funnel, la dle and tongs ( Boiling W ater Method, Step
by Step ).
2. Stew with Sugar:  I n a M aslin pa n or canning kettle, combine 1/2 cup
(125 mL) granulated sugar for every 4 cups (1 L) of rhubarb chunks. Let the
mixture stand at room temperat ure until the juice appears. This  could take
30 minutes or longer, depending on the amount of rhubarb. Bring to a boil
over medium-high heat; remove from heat and skim of f any foam.3. Pack rhubarb into jars hot  (the tartness of rhubarb requires that it be
stewed with sugar and not packed raw).
Hot Pack Method:  Fill hot jars with stewed rhubarb, leaving a 1/2-inch (1
cm) headspace. Run a non-metallic utensil around the inside of the jar to
allow air to esca pe. Add more hot rhubarb, if necessary, to leave a 1/2-inch
(1 cm) headspace. W ipe sealing edge of jars with a clean, damp, lint-free
cloth. Position flat lids over the tops of jars and hand-tighten screw bands.
4. P r ocess rhubarb in a canner :  Use  a Boiling W ater Canner according to
the chart below.
OR
Process rhubarb in a Pressure Canner following manufacturer ’ s directions
for steam pressure and time at your altitude.
5. Cool, Label and Stor e:  L ift jars from c anner and place on a clean towel
or rack. Do not re-tighten screw bands. Let the jars cool to room
temperature. This may take from 12 to 24 hours. Remove and store screw
bands. Check lid seals ( Boiling W ater Method, Step by  Step ). W ipe and
label sealed jars. Store in a cool, dark place.
r h u b a r b  o r a n g e  c h u t n e yBeing a cool-season per ennial, r hubarb thrives in r egions that have
temperatur es below 40°F (4°C), because this is essential for the plant to
br eak do rmancy. I think every C anadian has a r hubarb story. Mine involves
a small bowl of sugar, a stalk of r hubarb and a quiet space between the
gar den and the or char d—a delic iously sweet-sour memory of simple times.
A good r hubarb patch will pr oduce for a decade or mor e.
MAKES 8 C


 in
coming up with some strategies for eliminating approval-seeking
needs. Below are some of the more common reasons—mostly neur-
otic in nature—for hanging onto approval-seeking. Payoffs for ap-
proval-seeking as a need include:
• Placing RESPONSIBILITY for your feelings on others. If you
feel the way you do (lousy, hurt, depressed, etc.) because someone
else didn’t approve of you, then THEY, not you, are responsible for
how you feel.
• If they are responsible for how you feel because of with-holding
their approval, then any CHANGE in you is also impossible, since
it is their fault that you feel the way you do. Then they are also re-
sponsible for keeping you from being different. Thus approval-
seeking helps you to avoid changing.
• As long as they are responsible and you can’t change, you don’t
have to take any risks. Consequently, hanging onto approval-seeking
as a way of life will help you to conveniently avoid any risk-taking
activities in your life.
• Reinforcing a poor self-image and therefore encouraging self-
pity and do-nothingism. If you are immune from the need for ap-
proval, you are immune from self-pity when you don’t get it.
• Reinforcing the idea that others must take care of you, and
therefore you can revert to the child in you and be coddled, protec-
ted—and manipulated.
• Blaming others for what you are feeling, thereby creating a
scapegoating effect for everything you don’t like in your life.
• Deluding yourself that you are liked by those others you’ve
made more important than yourself and thus feeling outwardly
comfortable even though there is a cauldron of discontent seething
inside of you. As long as the others are more significant, then the
outward appearance is more important.66 / Your Erroneous Zones• Taking solace in the fact that others notice you, which gives you
something to boast about to other approval-seeking friends.
• Fitting into the culture which applauds such behavior and
winning you the favor of the many.
These neurotic payoffs are strikingly similar to the rewards for
self-hate. In fact, the theme of avoiding responsibility, change and
risk is at the heart of all the self-destructive thinking and behavior
described in this book. Without all of the fancy diagnostic language,
it is just plain easier, more familiar and less risky to hang onto
neurotic behaviors. Approval-seeking as a need is obviously no ex-
ception.
A Look at the Supreme Irony of Approval-Seeking Behavior
For a moment, engage in a little fantasy. Assume that you really
wanted approval from everyone and that it was possible to obtain
it. Further assume that this was a healthy goal. Now, with this in
mind, what would be the best, most efficient way to obtain your
end? Before answering, think of the one individual in your life that
seems to get the most approval. What is this individual like? How
does he behave? What is it about him that attracts everyone? You
probably have someone in mind who is candid, direct and straight-
forward, independent of other people’s opinions, and fulfilled. He
probably has little or no time for approval-seeking. This is very likely
a person who will tell it like it is, despite the consequences. Perhaps
he finds tact and diplomacy less important than honesty. He is not
a hurtful person, just an individual who has little time for the game-
playing that goes with speaking delicately and being careful to say
it just right to avoid hurting feelings.
Isn’t that ironic! The people who seem to get the most ap-YOU DON’T NEED THEIR APPROVAL  / 67proval in life are those who never seek it out, who have no desire
for it, and who are not preoccupied with achieving it.
Here is a little fable which is applicable here, since happiness is
an absence of approval-seeking as a need:
A big cat saw a little cat chasing its tail and asked, “Why are
you chasing your tail so?” Said the kitten, “I have learned that
the best thing for a cat is happiness, and that happiness is my
tail. Therefore, I am chasing it: and when I catch it, I shall have
happiness.”
Said the old cat, “My son, I, too, have paid attention to the
problems of the universe. I, too, have judged that happiness is
in my tail. But, I have noticed that whenever I chase after it, it
keeps running away from me, and when I go about my busi-
ness, it just seems to come after me wherever I go.”*
So, if you want all of that approval, it is ironic that the most effect-
ive way to get it is to not want it and to avoid chasing after it and
to not demand it from everyone. By being in touch with yourself
and using your positive self-image as a consultant, much more ap-
proval will come to you.
Of course you will never get approval from everyone for
everything that you do, but when you see yourself as worthy you’ll
never be depressed when approval is withheld. Disapproval will be
viewed by you as the natural consequence of living on this planet
where people are individual in their perceptions.
Some Specific Strategies for Eliminating
Approval-Seeking as a Need
In order to cut down on your own approval-seeking behavior,
you will need to come in touch with your own neurotic rewards
*C. L. James, “On Happiness,” in To See a World in a Grain of Sand,  by Caesar
Johnson (Norwalk, Conn.: The C. R. Gibson Co., 1972).68 / Your Erroneous Zonesfor the continuation of the behavior. Beyond just thinking new self-
enhancing thoughts when you contact disapproval (which is the
most effective strategy you can employ), here are some specific
things you can work on to get yourself out of the approval-seeking
bind.
• Label disapproval with new responses that begin with the word
you. For example, you note that your father is not agreeing with you
and is even getting angry. Rather than shifting or defending yourself,
simply respond with, “You’re getting upset, and you feel that I
shouldn’t think the way I do.” This will keep you in touch with the
fact that disapproval belongs to him, not you. The you strategy can
be employed any time, and with amazing results if you master the
technique. You’ll have to fight your temptation to start with “I,”
thereby putting yourself in the position of defending or modifying
what you just said in order to gain acceptance.
• If you think someone else is trying to manipulate you by with-
holding approval, say so. Instead of turning wishy-washy for the
purpose of reaping some approval benefits, you can say out loud,
“Generally I would shift my position now in order to get you to like
me, but I really believe in what I said, and you’ll have to deal with
your own feelings about it.” Or, “I guess you’d like me to change
what I just said.” The act of labeling it will be helpful in keeping in
touch with your own thinking and behavior.
• You can thank someone for providing you with data that will
be helpful in your growth, even though it was something you didn’t
like. The act of thanking puts an end to any approval-seeking. Your
husband says that you’re acting shy and nervous and he doesn’t
like it. Rather than trying to please him, you simply thank him for
pointing it out. The approval-seeking behavior is gone.
• You can actively seek disapproval and work on yourself to not
be upset. Select someone who is bound to disagree and, flying in
the face of the disapproval, maintain your positionYOU DON’T NEED THEIR APPROVAL  / 69calmly. You’ll get better at not being upset, and not having to alter
your own views. You’ll be telling yourself that you expect this
“contrariness,” that it’s all right for them to be the way they are, and
that it really has nothing to do with you. By going after disapproval,
rather than avoiding it, you’ll build up your repertoire of behavior
for dealing effectively with it.
• You can practice ignoring disapproval and not paying any atten-
tion to those who attempt to manipulate you with their denunciation.
A colleague of mine was giving a lecture to a large audience in Berlin
and a member of the audience was obviously seething at certain
comments. Finally, he could stand it no longer and he picked on a
minor point the speaker was making and rattled off all kinds of ab-
usive remarks in the form of questions. He was attempting to bait
the speaker and to seduce him into a neurotic interchange. My col-
league’s response to his tirade was a simple “O.K.,” and he went on
with his talk. By ignoring the abuse, he proved that he wasn’t going
to evaluate himself on the basis of what someone else felt. The
heckler, of course, stopped. Had the speaker not felt good about
himself, he might have made someone else’s disapproval more im-
portant than his own good opinion of himself, and thus been upset
when it was withheld.
• You can break the connecting chain between what others think,
say and do, and your own self-worth. Talk to yourself when you
encounter disapproval. “This is her stuff. I expect her to behave that
way. It has nothing to do with me


 by hand, keep refrigerated. You may
open coconuts with an ax, and remove the ﬂesh with a big screwdriver. Another possibility is to remove the liquid through a hole and
freeze the coconut overnight. This tends to separate the ﬂesh from the shell. Coconut cream or milk, even more so than coconut oil,
is also good for topical application on any cancer-related skin problems.
Cod liver oil is highly beneﬁcial, partly for its omega-3 fatty acids and partly for its high content of vitamins A and D. Use only cold-
pressed cod liver oil, preferably produced or bottled under nitrogen and kept in the dark and refrigerated. With this, it has a mild smell
and taste; otherwise it is rancid and not good. When starting a new bottle squeeze several capsules of vitamin E oil into it. Use a
tablespoonful once or twice a day, best emulsiﬁed with lecithin (e.g. swish in the mouth or shake in a jar together with some lecithin
and juice). With signs of fat malabsorption (fatty stool, difﬁculty gaining weight, poor night vision) frequently rub cod liver oil into the
skin.
Linseed oil or 'ﬂax seed' oil must be as fresh as possible, and preferably refrigerated, even in the shop before purchase. Also see that
there is still a long 'use by' date. It should be manufactured below 40 - 45°C, ﬂushed with nitrogen and protected from light as in
brown bottles. The reason for all this care is that the oil oxidizes rapidly on exposure to air, light and heat. When rancid it has a bitter
taste. Use up to 2 tablespoons a day; never heat the oil. Add to cooke d food after cooling. Use less if it causes problems. When
opening a new bottle add some vitamin E from a capsule at a rate of about 2 mg per ml of oil. When starting a large bottle
immediately ﬁll into several small bottles and always keep refrigerated or for longer storage even frozen.
Ground linseed may be used instead of or in addition to linseed oil. It is cheaper and often safer than linseed oil, as it is protected
from oxidation until it is ground. It contains about 35% linseed oil, and is also recommended to improve bowel activity. Preferably buy
whole linseed and grind it yourself in a coffee grinder immediately before use. Refrigerate or better freeze what you do not use
immediately. Mix about 1-2 tablespoons, 2-3 times daily with meals or juices. Two to three heaped tablespoonfuls of ground linseed
contain one tablespoon of oil.
Purple Foods
Beetroot or red beet, black or purple grapes and grape seed extract, blackberries, blueberries, red cabbage as well as purple onions
belong to the important group of purple foods. They all contain highly unsaturated compounds in the group of Proanthocyanidins
(PACs or OPCs), which are strong antioxidants. Closely related to PAC's are the catechins in green tea and the ﬂavonoids and
bioﬂavonoids (biologically active ﬂavonoids) that are responsible for the scarlet, blue and purple colors of ﬂowers and fruits.
In addition to their protective antioxidant activity, and probably more important with cancer, these substances can normalize the
energy metabolism of cancer cells by replacing oxygen as an electron acceptor. This makes cancer cells less malignant.
As red beets are an important part of this diet, it is advisable to plan ahead in regions where supply is seasonal. Stock up when they
are plentiful. In a cold climate cover the beets with slightly moist sand or saw dust. Keep the tops exposed in a cool but frost-free
position. Use any re-growing leaves. Try different lots under different conditions, inspect from time to time. In warm climates you may
let the beets continue to grow in sandy soil in a shady place. They easily re-grow leaves and remain healthier than stored in a
refrigerator but inspect frequently. Alternatively, you may freeze a large amount of the juice.
Most of the color in purple onions is in the outer skin. Utilize these for making a tea. Also ingest the skins of grapes and as much as
possible the outside of beets. Skins are usually more highly pigmented than the insides. Small beets often have much deeper color
than large roots; therefore buy main ly small ones. Use plenty of purple food not only with the normal cancer diet but also with any
cleansing diet. The original recommendations for successful cancer treatment mention either 1 kg of beetroot or black or purple
grapes a day or 750 ml of commerci al juice of such grapes. Other things being equal, select the beetroot, grapes or grape juice with
the darkest color.
Papaya/Papaw
Papaw is an excellent source of proteolytic enzymes to digest tumors and other unhealthy tissue. The papain is highest in the white
sap and skin of green papaw. However, to make it more palatable it is best to use mainly mature green papaw that just turns yellow
inside. Preferably use with skin. It may be grated or juiced and the pulp used as well, or you may make it into a'smoothie', see
Recipes. If available use half a papaw twice a day during critical periods. Green papaw keeps well and can be easily shipped across
the country and refrigerated. If availa ble, you may also use pieces of fresh and raw papaw leaf or (male) ﬂowers or buds as digestive
aid.
Spirulina and Bee Pollen
Spirulina and bee pollen are commonly regarded as food supplements. However, I recommend using them in larger amounts as
foods. They contain easily digestible, high-quality proteins, rich in essential nutrients but low in pro-inﬂammatory phosphorus. If you
do not like the taste of spirulina, start adding it in very small and gradua lly increasing amounts to grape juice and other juices. Also
the sweetness of pollen makes the spirulina more palatable. The prote in content of spirulina is 60 to 70%, while pollen has about
25%. Spirulina contains about three times more vitamin B12 than liver.
Sprouted Seeds
Sprouted seeds and young shoots such as wheat grass provide a higher degree of vitality and rejuvenation than other foods.
Recently inositol, sometimes in combination with inositol hexaphosphate or phytic acid, has been used in cancer therapy. It slows the10/30/24, 4:46 PM Health-Science-Spirit - Cancer Diets
https://health-science-spirit.com/Diseases/Cancer/Cancer-Diets.html 3/8growth of cancer cells, prevents formation of blood vessels in a tumor, and may cause cancer cell death. Seeds are high in phytates
or minerals bound to phytic acid. These are not available in cooked seeds. During sprouting phytic acid is converted into inositol,
while minerals are set free and can now be absorbed.
I recommend sprouted seeds as a mainstay of a good diet as well as for cancer control. Most commonly used for sprouting are
legumes such as lentils, peas, mung beans, fenugreek and chickpeas but also almonds, peanuts and sunﬂower kernels may be
spouted. Sunﬂower and buckwheat seeds make a tasty salad when grow n in seed boxes and cut close to the soil when 5-10 cm/2-4
inches high.
Alfalfa sprouts are high in a detergent-like saponin that may damage the intestinal wall in sensitive individuals. They have been
shown to aggravate autoimmune diseases and possibly cancer. For others they may be a good food after allergy testing. Alfalfa
sprouts should be exposed to light after leaves have emerged while other sprouts usually taste better before leaves develop. Alfalfa
seeds easily rot in wet conditions. They are best sprouted in an upturned jar covered with muslin held in place with a strong rubber.
It is important to use seeds with a high germination power. Buy a small quantity for testing and if they sprout well buy a larger quantity
from the same source and keep them in an airtight container. Lentils and mung beans are easy to start with. Just soak the seeds
overnight and then rinse several times a day, drain well, spread out lightly and keep covered. Wash well again just before eating to
remove any bacteria and fungi. If seeds are of poor quality and start rotting easily, use them when the germs just start to appear,
otherwise wait until they are up to one inch long, which is usually within three days. Different compatible seeds may be germinated
together.
Mung beans may retain hard pieces after soaking that can damage the teeth. This can be avoided by pouring some boiling water
over the seeds initially and letting them soak in the cooling water. Peas and lentils, on the other hand, like it cool and sprouts easily
deteriorate in hot conditions. Sprouted seeds may be refrigerated in a closed container after they have reached the desired length.
Individuals who are rather sensitive to fungi and microbes may wash sprouted seeds in diluted hydrogen peroxide shortly before use.
If you have difﬁculty chewing or if sprouted seeds cause much wind, try using them as part of your fresh juice.
If seeds do not sprout well, the cause may be as follows:
•  Seeds may not be not viable - too old or poor storage
•


ician,	then	medicine’s	“hammers”—surgery	and
drugs—are	what	you	receive.	Unfortunately,	these	tools	are	designed	to	manage
and	suppress	symptoms,	not	to	cure	disease.
For	a	more	meaningful	understanding	of	disease	(cellular	malfunction),	we
must	consider	the	health	of	our	cells.	Remember	that	noticeable	health	problems
begin	when	a	large	number	of	cells	malfunction.	As	this	happens,	important
cellular	chemicals	are	not	produced,	cell-to-cell	communications	becomegarbled	and	the	body	ceases	to	regulate	itself	properly.	Our	tissues	suffer	and
noticeable	symptoms	appear,	e.g.,	allergies,	fatigue,	aches	and	pains,	colds,	flu,
depression,	anxiety,	cancer	or	any	of	thousands	of	other	complaints.
Categorizing	and	suppressing	the	symptoms	of	malfunctioning	cells	does	not
fix	the	problem.	This	approach	cannot	explain	why	the	problem	occurred	in	the
first	place,	cannot	prevent	the	problem	from	happening	again	and	cannot	prevent
it	from	appearing	elsewhere	in	the	body.	The	only	“cure”	is	to	restore	our	cells
and	tissues	to	health.
What	Is	Health?
Everybody	thinks	they	know	what	health	is,	but	people	asked	to	define	it	give
you	many	different	answers.	In	order	to	define	health,	perhaps	we	first	should
provide	the	definition	of	health	used	in	modern	medicine:	“Health	is	the	absence
of	disease.”	This	medical	school	lesson	is	not	a	very	good	definition.	For
medicine	to	recognize	disease,	it	must	be	diagnosable.	You	are	not	sick	until	the
day	the	physician	can	diagnose	something.	The	absence	of	diagnosable	disease	is
not	a	good	working	definition	of	health.
Modern	medicine	has	no	way	of
recognizing	or	diagnosing	disease	when	your	health	is	in	its	initial	decline.
When	I	was	sick	and	already	experiencing	disturbing	symptoms,	my	physician
pronounced	me	in	excellent	health.	He	had	never	been	taught	how	to	notice	and
measure	my	already	extensive	decline	in	health.	We	are	considered	sick	only
after	the	problem	has	become	serious	enough	to	produce	symptoms	that	fit
neatly	into	one	of	medicine’s	disease	categories.	This	way	of	looking	at	health	is
not	helpful,	productive	or	self-empowering.	Health	is	much	more	than	the
absence	of	a	diagnosable	disease.
When	your	cells	are	functioning	as	they	should,	you	have	ample	adaptive
capacity	to	thrive	in	our	constantly	changing	environment	without	ill	effects.
With	properly	functioning	cells,	you	have	strong	resilience	to	various	kinds	of
stress—	physical,	chemical,	biological	and	emotional.	You	have	the	ability	to
make	daily	repairs	to	your	cells,	the	ability	to	build	healthy	new	ones,	and	the
ability	to	efficiently	remove	pathogenic	microorganisms	and	toxins	from	your
body.	You	become	an	optimally	balanced	organism,	with	integrated	mental	and
physical	equilibrium.	Perhaps	most	important	is	that	achieving	good	cellular
health	gives	our	society	the	ability	to	produce	healthy	offspring.
While	the	above	descriptions	explain	the	practical	effects	of	health,	they	still
do	not	offer	a	single,	concrete	definition	of	health.	In	order	to	clearly	define
health,	as	a	concept	concrete	enough	to	be	understood	and	discussed,	let	us	work
with	the	following	definition:Health	is	the	state	wherein	all	cells
are	functioning	optimally.
Never	are	all	of	our	cells	functioning	perfectly,	so	the	challenge	is	to	keep
cellular	malfunction	to	a	minimum.	Even	in	healthy	people,	cells	are	constantly
being	damaged,	dying	and	being	replaced.	Our	bodies	produce	more	than	10
million	new	cells	every	second,	as	we	constantly	rebuild	our	tissues.	How
healthy	are	each	of	these	new	cells?	If	we	replace	sick	cells	with	sick	cells,	we
will	never	recover.	As	cells	die	off	are	we	replacing	them	with	healthy	cells	or
sick	cells?
Who	Succumbs	to	Disease?
Only	sick	people	become	sick.	Once	you	start	to	compromise	health,	a
cascade	of	events	follow.	Once	a	critical	number	of	cells	begin	to	malfunction,
internal	communications	and	self-regulation	systems	become	debilitated	and
destabilized.	As	the	number	of	compromised	cells	increases,	the	effects	are
compounded.	Before	anyone	can	exhibit	noticeable	signs	of	disease,	normal	cell
function	has	to	be	compromised	significantly	throughout	the	body.	Vulnerability
to	infections,	for	example,	is	created	by	widespread	cellular	malfunction.	An
infection	indicates	that	cellular	malfunction	already	has	weakened	the	immune
system.	Having	a	cold	or	the	flu	is	an	alarm	screaming	at	you	that	all	is	not	well,
because	healthy	people	resist	infections	in	the	first	place.	Few	of	us	pay	attention
to	these	alarms.	We	think	that	having	a	cold	or	the	flu	is	normal,	and	that	once
the	symptoms	are	gone	we	are	well	again.	Not	so.
The	level	of	your	health	and	immunity	determines	whether	or	not	the	presence
of	a	microorganism	results	in	an	infection.
You	are	already	sick	before	you	come
down	with	an	infection.
Otherwise	everybody	who	is	exposed	to	a	given	“bug”
would	become	sick,	which	is	not	the	case.	Contrary	to	the	common	notion	that
we	“catch”	diseases,	people	become	sick	only	after	their	cellular	health	is
already	compromised.	Disease	(cellular	malfunction)	comes	first;	active
infections	and	chronic	problems	follow.
The	skeptic	says,	“But	he	was	born	with	asthma	and	suffered	from	it	as	an
infant.”	“She	was	in	the	best	of	health,	took	great	care	of	herself,	and	then
suddenly	got	breast	cancer.”	Although	we	hear	these	kinds	of	statements
frequently,	the	notion	is	flawed	that	a	person	is	a	powerless	victim	of	disease.
This	way	of	looking	at	events	comes	from	living	in	a	society	that	does	not	have
an	accurate	understanding	of	disease,	or	of	what	is	required	to	create	and
maintain	health.Think	of	the	historically	healthy	societies,	such	as	the	Hunzas.	These	people
implicitly	understood	what	they	needed	to	maintain	their	health.	They	lived	far
longer	than	we	do,	without	the	chronic	degenerative	diseases	from	which	we
suffer.	The	principles	of	good	health	were	built	into	their	beliefs	and	lifestyles.
The	key	lesson	to	be	learned	from	these	people	is	this:
Healthy	people	do	not	get	sick.
Most	of	us	have	not	learned	to	think	this	way.	We	grow	up	in	a	society	where
almost	everyone	has	a	chronic	disease.	We	have	been	taught,	through
experience,	that	disease	is	a	“normal”	part	of	the	aging	process.	Diseased	people
are	typically	seen	as	the	helpless	victims	of	an	inevitable	and	“natural”	process.
Especially	when	the	symptoms	of	disease	develop	suddenly,	people	feel
surprised	and	victimized.	Yet,	the	two	causes	were	there	all	the	time,	gradually
wearing	down	cellular	competence	and	creating	an	opportunity	for	disease	to
“strike.”
As	part	of	the


 $3.3 trillion per year in the U.S. alone, 1 of every 2.15 people is expected to develop can -
cer, and soil depletion worsens annually, obviously it is time we each respond fully and wisely.
Let us start with the soil as our f ounda
tional life-support system, and establish a new,
consciously symbiotic garden-culture relationship with the Earth via soil, food, air, sun -
light, trees and vegetation.  Where else would one start?!  If enough individuals, families and local communities consume produc e fr
om organic, remineralized and composted
soil while extending their garden, orchard and farm land, and embracing the beautiful principles of the ever-more comprehensively described Natural Hygiene, I think we’ll see a Global Health and Earth Regeneration Revolution quickly underway.  What is the cur -
rent percentage of people who’d choose to trade their present quality of life and health for a life of human-and-planetary health-building w or
k and play in conscious coopera -
tion with friends, family and the Natural World?
While the addictive aspec ts of the
“rat-race” can be difficult to shake, those who have
seen the potentials of the Natural Design, encompassing health, sanity, meaningful work,
creativity, love, and joy, will surely opt for the “human race” to create Paradise on Earth. Losing this race due to lack of inspired responsibility could soon bring us to starvation in an impoverished Biosphere with very harsh climates.
Just as wholistic doctors (“teachers”) try to consider “the whole person, ” it is obviously
time to strive to become wholistic ecologists concerned with “the whole planet. ”  It seems the least we can do for the planet which gave birth to us and will sooner or later recycle our bodies.  As of 2018, I think a realistic view leans toward “sooner. ”  However, let us remember our great capacity for awakening, understanding, transformation, and love-in-action.  Why not do all we can to nourish these possibilities?  Let us each realize that we truly do reap what we sow!
f21
Fruiticulture
Above: A user-friendly Fruiticulture food forest
Below: Fruiticulture community garden planting, Sebastopol, California
22
FruiticultureAbove: Bill Mollison’s seminal book (first published in 1988)
Below: The authoritative 2014 book on soil remediation and CO2 sequestration via remineralization
23
FruiticulturePART I
DIET24
FruiticulturePathologies of Modern Diets
by David Klein, Ph.D., Dr. T. C. Fry &
Wes Peterson, N.D.
The Big Destructive Mistake
by Dr. T. C. Fry & David Klein, Ph.D.
The #1 mistake humankind makes several times every day is eating foods which we are
not designed to eat, that is, foods which are not suitable to our biological and physi -
ological constitution and which poison and destroy the body and mind, causing virtually every disease condition humans fac e
. We are not omnivores!  Omnivorous diets that are
high in grains and their byproducts and/or meat and animal byproducts are acidifying, toxifying, and deficient in nutrients.  They destroy human health, causing physical and mental degeneration, low fertility, most disease conditions from A to Z, stunted longev -
ity and they greatly contribute to the pollution of the world’s environment and the de -
cline of global societies.
Just as ker osene fouls up an automobile or air plane eng
ine, which was not designed for
it, so too will foods foul up human bodies if they are not designed to handle them.  If
you are not physiologically adapted to a diet, it will be repulsive to you in its raw natural state—you cannot relish the food nor sustain yourself on it in good health.  When you eat an unnatural diet by artifice, that is, by denaturing it by cooking and modifying and camouflaging its taste with condiments and so on, you are doing the following:
1.  Deranging and destroying most or all of the nutrients within the food.    2.  Deranging your taste buds through excitation with toxic substances to make the
unpalatable food acceptable.  3.  Potentially inflaming your or
gans.  All poisonous substances, including alcohol, pun -
gent spices, vinegars, salts, onions, garlic, chili peppers, hot sauces, and charred meat,
are harsh irritan ts tha
t can cause inflammation and impose insurmountable burdens 25
Fruiticultureupon the body’s defense system and organs of
purification and elimination.  A host of diseases results from their habitual use.
4.  Causing nutrient deficiencies by eating a par -
tially or wholly nutrient deranged “food. ”5.  Causing protein malnutr ition.  C
ooking de -
stroys proteins and amino acids.  Once oxidized
and destr oyed b y c
ooking, you can no longer de -
rive any benefit from proteinaceous substances other than, per haps “empt y calor
ies, ” that is, nu-
trient-bereft fuel.  Once oxidized, proteins are soil (food) for bact er
ia which putrefy (rot) it.  Bacterial
putrefactive byproducts are highly toxic and car -
cinogenic. These byproducts are methane gas (the source for smelly gas emissions when y ou ea
t
beans, for instance), hydrogen sulfide and mer -
captans (which yield the rotten egg smell when carried out by the methane gas), cada v
erine, putrescine, ammonias, indoles, skatoles,
leukomaines and a profusion of other toxic and carcinogenic substances.
6.  Laying the groundwork for putrefactive bacterial flora that will vitiate your intestinal
tract.  Eaters of cooked foods and wrong foods have about two pounds of bacterial flora up and down their digestive tracts.  Raw food eaters have only a few ounces.
7.  Laying the groundwork for alcohol and vinegar poisoning.  Heated sugars and carbo -
hydrates are readily fermented by fungi and bacteria with, first, alcohol as a byproduct
and then vinegar which is dozens of times more t o
xic than alcohol.
8.  Intoxicating your body with the toxic debris (deranged nutrients) of what once had nutrient value. Instead of materials your body can use, you have toxins that put the body into a frenzy and, if overwhelmed by the toxic load, into a pathological state.
9.  Overstimulating your nervous and endocrine systems, which in some people sends
their sex drive into overdrive, which is a prime cause of the world’s overpopulation.
26
Fruiticulture10.  Deranging our brain chemistry, resulting in reduced cognition and disconnection
from our elegant bio-spiritual nature, instigating aberrant behaviors and, consequently, worldwide turmoil.  This new study helps make the point:  “Intake of Raw Fruits and Vegetables Is Associated With Better Mental Health, ” from Frontiers in Psychology maga -
zine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5902672/.
As you can see, c ooked f
oods and condiments are a curse to our well-being.
There are many toxic substances that are commonly eaten.  For instance, all cooked oils
and fats, as in fried foods, meats, nuts and seeds, contain deadly carcinogens.  Their aerated fumes are worse in the lungs than tobacco smoke!  For the bare truth about cooking, refer to the landmark report Diet, Nutrition and Cancer (1983) that was commis -
sioned by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (https://www.nap.edu/catalog/371/diet-nutrition-and-cancer).
T
he list of toxifying pseudo-foods seems endless!  We Americans poison ourselves so
much that we have more health problems per capita than any other country on earth.  More than 16% of our national wealth goes down the disease rat hole.  Humanity must wake up to the fact that virtually all discomforts, illnesses and suffering are abnormal, unnatural and unnecessary.
f
Slabs of carcinogens27
FruiticultureIs Cooked Food Good for Us?
by Dr. T. C. Fry
In nature all animals eat living foods as yielded up by na-
ture. Only humans cook their foods and only humans suffer widespread sicknesses and ailments.
Those humans who
eat mostly living foods are more alert, think clearer, sharper and more logically and become more active. Best of all, live food eaters become virtually sickness-free!
Cooking is a process of food destruction from the moment
heat is applied to the foodstuff. Long before dry ashes re -
sults, food values are totally destroyed. If you put your hand just for a moment into boil-ing water or on a hot stove, that should forever persuade you just how destructive heat is. Food is usually subject ed t
o these destructive temperatures for perhaps half an hour
or more. What was living substance becomes totally dead very rapidly with exposure to heat!
Cooking renders food toxic! The toxicity of the deranged debris of cooking is confirmed
by the doubling and tripling of white blood cells after eating a cooked food meal. The white blood cells are the first line of defense and are, collectively, popularly called “the immune system. ”
As confirmed by hundreds of researches cited in the prestigious National Academy of
Science’s National Research Council’s book, Diet, Nutrition and


 we will create for ourselves. For example, the
mind, dominated by the pleasure of sex, will promote a The Eightfold Method of Yoga II 297
consciousness and way of life seeking sex. A mind domi-
nated by the joy of artistic inspiration will seek that.
Severe mental disorders involve more powerful lesser
Samadhis.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a Samadhi of an inferior nature, gener-
ally dominated by Tamas or delusion. The person may go
into a trance, see hallucinations, hear voices or other delu-
sory sensory phenomena in which darkness covers the
mind. The insane person is absorbed in his or her own fan-
tasies that no one else perceives.
All these are not merely aberrations in the brain. They
may include psychic abilities or psychic sensitivities but
are beyond the control of the person. The person may con-
nect up to the astral plane and lose contact with physical
realities. In these cases, the mind goes into an absorption
of the dull or blank type and sometimes an astral entity
comes in to use the mind. All severe mental derangement
involves such possessions by influences or entities, in
which we lose conscious control of the mind/5
Spiritual and Non-spiritual Samadhis
There can be a combination of higher and lower Samad-
his. These include powerful or enduring mystical experi-
ences that are mixed with egoism. The person has a legit-
imate deep experience but the ego colors it. We feel that
we are the avatar, Jesus Christ or some other great holy
person, or that God is giving a special revelation through
us. Some of the religious cults that have caused trouble in
the world are based upon such mystical experiences which
were authentic but of a mixed nature. Being exposed to a Ayurveda and the Mind
person in such a mixed Samadhi can be very deranging,
particularly for the naive or the unprepared. The authen-
ticity of their Samadhi causes one to believe their ego delu-
sions.
Lower Samadhis are externally directed and based upon
desire. The higher Samadhis are produced by the mind
itself when it transcends desire. Some intermediate Samad-
his exist in that there is desire but of a more subtle nature,
such as can be experienced in astral travel, in which we
may find subtle forms of enjoyment in worlds beyond the
physical. These also come under the Samadhis of the one-
pointed mind but can be mixed in nature.
Samadhi and Prana
Samadhi of some kind occurs whenever the mind
becomes fully absorbed in Prana or vital energy and its
functions. Our vital functions draw and hold the mind.
Moreover, extra Prana is required to sustain the mind,
which is very mobile, in any condition of absorption. If we
do not have the energy to focus the mind, it will wander
off. In Samadhi, the mind itself gets absorbed in the Prana
or the energy of an experience, which leaves a powerful
imprint on the psyche. Only those powerful experiences
which are invested with a great deal of Prana can hold the
mind. In this regard Prana is also of three types — Sattvic,
Rajasic and Tamasic.
Tamasic Prana operates in states of sleep, stupor, coma,
or under the influence of drugs — the Samadhis of the
deluded mind. The mind gets absorbed in this Tamasic
Prana and feels calm. However one's problems have not
been solved but merely covered over by ignorance.
Rajasic Prana operates during motor activities, like eat-
ing, drinking, eliminating, having sex, or during any state
of strong exertion like running or working, and during The Eightfold Method of Yoga II 299
sensory activities that are overwhelming, like experiences
of great pleasure, pain, joy, sorrow, fear or attachment.
These are the Samadhis of the disturbed mind.
Pranic experiences in general are dominated by Rajas
and so all powerful Pranic activities have an effect on the
level of the Rajasic mind. Any vital (Pranic) function
involves at least a temporary absorption of the mind, even
eating or defecating. The active Prana holds the mind for
the purpose of discharging its function without interfer-
ence from other activities. The mind is suspended until
Prana achieves the aim of its action. Whenever Prana per-
forms a vital function, the mind must be put in abeyance
during the time that function is discharged, even if it is
only an instance. Whenever Prana acts, the mind gets
absorbed to some degree. Observe how your mind inter-
nalizes, at least a little, during eating or any other vital
action.
Sattvic Prana operates during states of inspiration like
artistic inspiration, genius, and any sort of creative insight
or invention from the scientific to the philosophical. This
feeling of inspiration is itself a form of Prana. It results
from investing our life energy in some creative work. To
some extent, Samadhi of a Sattvic Prana occurs during all
our sensory perceptions, particularly seeing and hearing,
because the mind must be temporarily absorbed in a
Sattvic state of illumination for perception to occur. These
sensory Samadhis, however, endure only for an instant and
so are missed unless the mind is already very subtle and
pure.
Yogic Samadhis similarly require a special energization
of the Prana to achieve them and occur when the mind and
Prana are united consciously. For this reason Pranayama is
very important in creating yogic Samadhis. Without Ayurveda and the Mind
developing an increased energy of Prana, it is very difficult
to reach these yogic Samadhis. Prana and Chitta, the vital
force and our deeper consciousness, are connected, as we
have already noted in our discussion of Chitta. One should
not forget the role of Prana in Samadhi, either of a higher
or lower nature.
Psychoanalysis often fails because it does not get to the
level of Prana and Chitta — the subconscious mind in
which our mental afflictions are lodged — and the Prana
that these hold. Releasing the Prana behind our psycho-
logical states is not an intellectual exercise. One of the best
ways to do this is to practice Pranayama. As one does
Pranayama, the subconscious gets energized and deep-seat-
ed patterns come up. If one consciously breathes deeply
through these emotional afflictions, they automatically get
released, even if one does not examine the outer circum-
stances that originally brought them about. In this way
Prana can be used to clear our deeper consciousness and
lead us into higher states of absorption.
Samadhi and Ayurvedic Psychology
Ayurvedic psychology examines the lower or illusory
Samadhis and employs its methods, from diet to medita-
tion, to help remove their conditioning upon the mind. As
states of Samadhi, their impact on the psyche can be very
great and hard to remove. The general rule is: Only if a
higher Samadhi is developed can the effects of a lower
Samadhi be completely neutralized. In fact, all true spiri-
tual practices develop higher (spiritual) Samadhis to
counter the lower (worldly) Samadhis and their attach-
ments.
Yogic practices develop a higher form of Samskara
(mental tendency) using postures, breathing exercises, The Eightfold Method of Yoga II
mantra and meditation to create a state of consciousness
based upon love, peace and wisdom. Only a higher or
Sattvic Samskara can counter the effects of lower, Rajasic
and Tamasic, Samskaras. This alone can counter our ordi-
nary tendencies with their imprint of lesser Samadhis
based upon desire, disturbance and illusion. Once these
higher Samskaras are developed, they lead us to the spiri-
tual life in which we can transcend even them to a state of
pure awareness.
Lesser mental disorders usually involve attachment to a
lesser Samadhi, like addictions to sex, alcohol, or food.
Until the person learns a higher type of absorption, the
Samskaras of these lesser Samadhis will draw the mind
back to them and recreate their behavior. However, it is
not always possible to take people from the lesser to the
higher Samadhis. Sometimes it is necessary to proceed by
stages, developing Samadhis of the distracted mind to
counter those of the deluded mind and then Samadhis of
the imaginative mind to counter those of the deluded
mind.
Some of the lower Samadhis of the imaginative or dis-
tracted mind can be useful in treatment. If an emotionally
disturbed person can develop absorption in some useful
activity, this can help calm the mind. Getting patients to
take up some active physical exercise program (developing
a Samadhi of the distracted mind), and getting into the joy
of it, can help counter psychological problems. Similarly,
getting them interested in artistic expression (Samadhis of
the imaginative mind) can help them yet further.
To help a psychologically disturbed person discover
more wholesome Samadhis is the


 functions. That is why every health problem can be linked to
abnormalities in fat consumption: too much unnatural fats and deficien
cies in natural fats. Stick to the natural fats and make sure that your GAPS
patient gets plenty of them. You will see the results for yourself. 3. VITAMIN A
Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means that it comes as a part of
dietary fats. It exists in many biochemical forms. The parent vitamin A is
called retinol. Common dietary sources are organ meats like liver and
kidneys, dairy products, eggs and oily fish, like herring, sardines and tuna.
However, the richest sources are liver oils from marine fish, such as cod,
halibut and shark and from some mammals, such as the polar bear. The
most accessible liver oil available to us is cod liver oil.
Cod liver oil has been around for a very long time. Our parents remem
ber how their parents gave them a spoon of this oil every day to build up
their immune system. Cod liver oil contains omega-3 essential fatty acids
and vitamin D, but its most important asset is probably the vitamin A in its
natural pre-formed biochemical shape. Unfortunately, due to digestive
problems, GAPS children and adults usually cannot absorb or use other
forms of vitamin A, commonly found in supplements: retinyl palmitate,
retinyl acetate and others, A natural form of vitamin A found in cod liver oil
appears to be the best form for these patients.
But why do GAPS patients need supplementation of vitamin A?
Vitamin A deficiency is a big problem in the less developed world.
Approximately 350,000 pre-school children become blind each year
because of vitamin A deficiency and the majority do not survive (WHO
1996). But in western countries deficiency in this vitamin is considered to
be rare because of the wide consumption of dairy products, eggs and forti
fied foods. Also the body has the ability to store enough vitamin A, mainly
in the liver, to last at least for three months. On top of that vitamin A can be
manufactured in the body from a large group of plant-based substances,
called carotenoids. There are approximately 600 different carotenoids in
nature (in green leafy and brightly coloured vegetables and fruit), 50 of
which can be converted to vitamin A. Based on all this knowledge western
populations generally are not advised to supplement vitamin A.
However, all this applies to people with healthy digestive systems, which
GAPS children and adults do not possess. In people with digestive problems the picture is very different. The absorption rate of carotenoids
can be less than 5%, which makes them largely useless as a source of vita
min A. Also in order to convert carotenoids into vitamin A the body needs
magnesium, zinc, many amino acids and other vital nutrients which, in a
person with poor digestion, are always in short supply. To absorb retinol
(the pre-formed vitamin A) from dairy products, liver, eggs and other foods
a good supply of bile and pancreatic enzymes is needed. Many GAPS
patients have whitish pale stools indicating that their bile production and
fat digestion are very poor. In clinical practise people who cannot digest
fats always present with vitamin A deficiency.
Digestive system problems and vitamin A deficiency are in a "chicken
and egg" relationship, where it is not clear which is the chicken and which
is the egg. As we have already discovered, poor digestion causes vitamin A
deficiency. But vitamin A deficiency can cause digestive problems. In fact
gut disease is one of the symptoms of vitamin A deficiency, because the gut
lining is one of the most active sites of cell production, growth and differ
entiation. Neither of these processes can happen properly without a good
supply of vitamin A. Leaky gut and malabsorption are the typical results of
vitamin A deficiency.
According to WHO (1996), in western countries lactating women and
infants are two groups at high risk of being deficient in vitamin A. Lactating
mothers need to have much more of this vitamin in their diet, than the rest
of us, and due to all the modern factors many women in our society may
have poor reserves of vitamin A. So it is possible that many infants do not
get a good supply of this vitamin in the first months of life, which makes
their digestive systems prone to developing problems later on. As always
the health of the baby starts from the health of the mother.
It is not only the digestive system which suffers from inadequate supply
of vitamin A, its functions in the body are multiple, involving pretty much
every aspect of health. It is essential in immune response, brain develop
ment, vision, cell differentiation, embryogenesis, reproduction, growth
and many other functions.
One of the functions of vitamin A is its role in immunity. In fact, the
earliest name for vitamin A was "anti-infective vitamin". In vitamin A
deficiency both specific and non-specific immunity are impaired: the
humoral response to bacterial, parasitic and viral infections, cell-mediated
immunity, mucosal immunity, natural killer cell activity and phagocytosis.
Supplementation of vitamin A in children shows proliferation of normal B
and T cells and better response to antigens. Acute deficiency of vitamin A VITAMIN A 189
with night blindness and xerophthalmia in the west are indeed rare. But
vitamin A inadequacy in the absence of clinical acute deficiency is not rare
at all. More than 200 million children around the world suffer from vitamin
A inadequacy (WHO 1996). These children do not have any visual prob
lems, typical for deficiency, instead they are very prone to infections,
because their immune system does not function properly. Infections, par
ticularly with a high fever, destroy a lot of vitamin A in the body. In clinical
practice patients with febrile conditions require supplementation with this
vitamin. GAPS children go through numerous ear and chest infections with
fever in the first years of life, which would reduce their vitamin A reserves
in the body (if they had any reserves) and predispose them to further
infections.
Obviously the best way to establish whether your child has a vitamin A
deficiency is to test for it. But simply by analysing the clinical picture and
health history I would say that all GAPS children and most GAPS adults
need supplementation with a natural form of vitamin A, the best source of
which is cod liver oil. As always, nature knows best. Clinical experience and
some studies show that synthetic forms of supplemental vitamin A (retinyl
palmitate, retinyl acetate, etretinate, accutane and others) do not work for
these patients.
So, cod liver oil it has to be!
The question is - how much?
A typical cod liver oil would provide 800 micrograms of vitamin A per 10
ml of oil. A teaspoon (5 ml) of this oil would provide 400 micrograms.
Recommended daily allowances for vitamin A (UK, USA, Europe,
WHO):
• 0-12 months of age: 150-350 micrograms per day (roughly from a third
to an almost full teaspoon of cod liver oil).
• 1-3 years of age: 200-400 micrograms per day (half to a full teaspoon).
• 4-6 years of age: 200-500 micrograms per day (half to a more than a
full teaspoon).
• 7-10 years old: 250-700 micrograms per day (roughly two thirds of a
teaspoon to almost a full dessert spoon).
• 11-15 years: 250-1000 micrograms per day (from roughly two thirds of a
teaspoon to two and a half teaspoons of cod liver oil).
• Adults: 300-1000 micrograms a day.
• Lactating mother: up to 1300 micrograms per day (more than three
teaspoons of cod liver oil). We have to remember that these daily allowances have been established
for healthy individuals. Children with vitamin A deficiency can be given as
much as 60,000 micrograms of vitamin A as a single dose.
A lot of parents are concerned about overdosing on vitamin A. Indeed in
excess this vitamin can be toxic. However, to reach toxic levels you have to
have more than 10 times the recommended daily allowance for a period of
weeks to years. For an adult that is 20 teaspoons of cod liver oil every day
for weeks or years. For a small child -10 teaspoons a day. I cannot imagine
anybody taking that amount of cod liver oil once, let along on a regular
basis. To cause an acute toxicity an adult has to have 100 times more than
the recommended dose and a child - 20 times more, which translates into
20 teaspoons of cod liver oil for a child of three years of age.
GAPS patients may benefit from larger doses, than the recommended
daily allowances. To be completely scientific about it the person should be
tested for vitamin A status and according to the result of the test the indi
vidual dose can be established, taking into account that absorption of this
vitamin can be poor in a GAPS gut. The initial dose may be quite large.
Then of course the patient has to be re-tested


,visitore,andattendantsofthesick
toleaveoft’thisjn-acliceofattemptingto“cheer”thesickby
makinglightoftheirdangerandbyexaggeratingtheirproba-
bilitiesofrecovery.
Farmorenowthanformerlydoesthemedicalattendanttoll
thetruthtothesickwhoarereallydesiroustohearitabouttheir
ownstate.
Butthenitmustbethetruth.
ImeanthattherearephysicianfatalistsandPatientfatalists—
physicianfatalists,whowillconsiderthecaseofapatientwith
organicdiseasehopeless
;fatalistPatients,who,iftoldbythe1
73 NOTESONNDR8IN0.
doctorthattheyhaveorganicdisease,thattheymustgiveup
work,&c.,considerthemselvesasmuchdoomedtodeathasif
theywereontheirwaytohehung;andtheverysentencethat
theyhaveorganicdiseasedoesdoomthemtodeath.Theyare
nevertold,nordotheyconsider,howtheymightavoid,orat
leiiatdelay,thefatiilend.Theverysentencehurriesit.
Ineedhai-dlysaythatthisisnottellingthemthetruth.
Also,inthecaseofsickinfants,notellingofhopelessnesscan,
ofcourse,affectthepoorlittlesufferer,hutitmaythenurse.
Themoredevotedthenurse,thebetterforpoorhahy;anda
reallyefiicientnurseisgenerallyawomanofdeepfeeling.I
haveheardsuchanonecryout,“Oh!heshouldnothavetold
metherewasnohope.Ishan’theabletodoallthatcan
bedone,ifIhavenohope!”Shedoes“doallthatcanbe
done”tilltheend;butstillitwasscarcelytrue,scarcelywise,to
givehernohope.Childrendomakesuchwonderfulrecoveries,
ifallthatcanbedoneisdoneforthem“tilltheend.”And,on
theotherhand,sotriflinganeglectwillturnthescaleoflifeto
death!“Whilethereislife,thereishope,”istrue,andwhile
thereishope,thereislife,isalsotrue—inchildren’scasespis-
eminently.
But,leavingwell-foundedhopes,toreturnto“chattering”
hopes—
Uowintenseisthefolly,then,tosaytheleastofit,oftho
friend,beheevenamedicalman,whothinksthathisopinion,
givenafteracursoryobservation,willweighwiththepatient,
againsttheopinionofthemedicalattendant,given,perhaps,after
yearsofobservation,afterusingeveryhelpaffordedbythe
stethoscope,theexaminationofpulse,tongue,&c.,andcertainly
aftermuchmoreobservationthanthefriendcanpossiblyhave
had.
Supposingthepatienttobepossessedofcommonsense—how
canthe“favourable”opinion,ifitistobecalledanopinionat
all,ofthecasualvisitor“cheer”him—whendifferentfromthat
oftheexj>eriencedattendants.Unquestionably thelattermay,
andoftendoes,turnouttobewrong.Butwhichismostlikely
tobewrong?
Thefactis,thatthepatient*isnot“cheered”atallbythese
Thereare,ofcourse,cases,asInfirstconfinements,whenanassurancefrom
thedoctororexperiencednursetothefrightenedsufferingwomanthatthereis
nothingunusualinhercase,thatshehasnothingtofearbutatewhours*pain,niaj*
79 CHATTERINGHOPESANDADVICES.
well-mefiniDg,mosttiresomefriends.Onthecontrary,lieis
depressedandwearied.If,ontlieonehand,lieexeidshimself
totelleverybody,oneaftertheother,whyhedoesnotthinkas
theydo—inwhatrespectheisworse—whatsymptomsexistthat
theyknownothingof—heisfatiguedinsteadof“cheered,”and
hisattentionisfixeduponhimself.Ingeneral,patientswhoare
reallyilldonotwanttotalkaboutthemselves.Would-bein-
validsdo;butagainIsaywearenotonthesubjectofwould-be
invalids.
If,ontheotherhand,andwhichismuchmorefrequentlythe
case,thepatientsaysnothingbut“Oh!”and“Ah!”inorderto
escapefromtheconversationabouthimselfthesooner,heis
depressedbywantofsympathy.Hefeelsisolatedinthemidst
offriends.Hefeelswhataconvenience itwouldbe,ifthere
wereanysinglepersontowhomhecouldspeaksimjilyand
openly,withoutpullingthestringuponhimselfofthisshower-
bathofsillyhopesandencour.ogements;towhomhecould
expresshiswishesanddirectionswithoutth.atpersonpersisting
illsaying,“IhopethatitwillpleaseGodyettogiveyoutwenty
years,”or“Youhavealonglifeofactivitybeforeyou.”How
oftenweseeattheendofbiographies,orofcasesrecordedin
papers,“afteralongillnessA.diedrathersuddenly,”or“unex-
pectedly,bothtohimselfandtoothers.”“Unexpectedly ”to
others,perhaps,whodidnotsee,becausetheydidnotlook;but
bynomeans“unexpectedly tohimself,”asIfeelentitledto
believe,bothfromtheinternalevidenceinsuchstories,andfrom
watchingsimilarcases :therewaseveryreasontoexpectthatA.
cheerhermostefTectunlly. Tliisisadviceofquiteanotherorder.Itistheadvico
ofcxpeiicncetoutterinexperience.Buttheadvicewehavebeenreferringtoisthe
adviceofinexperiencetobitterexperience;and,ingeneral,amountstonothing
morethanthis,that^outhink/shallrecoverfromconsumption,becausesomebody
knowssomebodysomewherewhohasrecoveredfromfever.
1haveheardadoctorcondemnedwhosepatientdiduot,alasIrecover,because
anotherdoctor’spatientofadifferentsex,ofadifferentage,recoveredfromadi/-
ferentdisease,inadifferentplace.Yes,thisisreallytrue.Ifpeoplewhomake
thesecomparUonsdidbutknow(onlytheydonotcaretoknow)thecareandpre-
cisenesswithwhichsuchcomparisonsrequiretobemade(andaremade)inorderto
beofanyvaluewhatever,theywouldsparetheirtongues.Incomparingthedeaths
ofonehospitalwiththoseofanother,anystatisticsarcjustlyconsideredabsolutely
valuelesswhichdonotgivetheages,thesexes,andthediseasesofallthecases.It
docsnotseemnecessarytomentionthis.Itdoesnotseemnecessarytosaythat
therecanbenocomparisonbetweenoldmenwithdropsiesandyoungwomenwith
consumptions.Yetthecleverestmenandthecleverestwomenareoftenheard
makingsuchcomparisons,ignoringentirelysex,age,disease,place—infact,oUthe
conditionsesBentialtothequestion.Itismerestpossij;.
80 NOTESOMNl’RSINO.
woulddie,andlieknewit;butliefoundituscleastoiiisiatupon
hisknowledgetohisfriends.
Ontheotherhand,thereisnobodysocredulousasacredulouG
invalid,except,perhaps,thecredulousfriendsofacredulouo
invalid.Howoftendoesithappenthat,nosoonerhavethe
doctorandnursecometoaperfectundei’staiiding astowhat
mustbedone,thanthenurseissurprisedbyhavinganopinion
givenherastowhatoughttobedonefromsomebodyshenever
heardofbefore.Itissometimesanoldfriendoranoldschool-
fellowwhosuddenlyfindsoutthateverybody,patient,doctor,
nurse,hasbeenwrong,andth-atsuchandsuchothermanagement
wouldanswerbetter;andeverything isupset,confidence is
destroyedordisturbed,everybodyisannoyed,butonlyoneperson
isinjured,andthatisthepatient.Thiskindofinterference is
mostlyoutofmereofficiousnessorwilfulne.ss.Butitdoesmore
mischiefthan^tbemischief-maker atallknowsof.
Thecredulityofpatientsoroffriendsoftenleadstoquackery
ofamuchmoredangerouskind.Thereisamorbiddisliketo
callingintheregulardoctor,orheistooexpensive.Andthere
isamorbidcravingaftertheadviceofanyquackwhowilladver-
tisehimselfmostimpudently.“Bone-setters,”andotherssuch
arethescourgeofthepoor.Lifeistooprecioustobeplayed
withinsuchagame.Confidenceshouldbe