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Top ======= Understanding Hinduism ======= Food Click on a Bookmarked topic to open paragraph There
are three kinds of food that a man Eating of flesh – Merits
and Demerits Health Your Personal Constitution Violent
rage makes the saliva poisonous The Destructive Effects of Rock Music Nutrition and physical degeneration Faulty food disease Balance between Space
and Time Pernicious Anemia & Vitamin B-12 Oxidation of foods Quality and Quantity Microwave oven Micro-waved Water - See what it does to Plants! Nutrition The poisons in your food "From purity of food follows the "Mind is surely made of food, vital force "Of curd when it is churned, that which is its ‘When nourishment is pure, reflection and higher From The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 17 The food also which is dear to each is threefold. That food which increases life, purity, strength, health, The foods that are bitter, sour, saline, excessively hot, pungent, dry and burning are liked by the Rajasic and are productive of pain, grief and disease. - Gita 17. 9 That which is stale, tasteless, putrid, rotten and impure From Sattwa (purity) arises wisdom or knowledge; from Rajas (passion) arises greed; and
from Tamas (inertia) arises heedlessness, delusion and ignorance. From Tattiriya Upanishad Out of Brahman, who is the Self, came akasha (space); from akasha, air; from air, fire;
from fire, water; from water, earth; from earth, vegetation; out of vegetation, food; out
of food the body of man. The body of man, composed of the essence of food, is the physical
sheath of the Self. Let him (the knower of Brahman) never The prana (vital breath or vital energy) is, verily food; He who knows this resting of food on food is established; he becomes a possessor of food. He becomes great in offspring and cattle (prosperity) and in spiritual radiance (luster of holiness) and great in fame. -Taittiriya Upanishad, III.vii.1 [Note: Comments by Sri Sankaracharya, translated by Swami Gambhirananda: Since Brahman
is realised through the portal of food, one should not deprecate food. The inculcation of
the vow is meant for the praise of food; and food is worthy of praise, since it is an aid
to the realisation of Brahman (The Supreme Reality).] Of all the restrictive rules, that relating to the taking of sattwic food in
moderate quantities is best; by observing this rule, the sattwic quality of mind will
increase, and that will be helpful to Self-inquiry. From The Mahabharata A Brahmin (priest) should abstain from meat. The sin of eating meat is ascribed to three causes. That sin may attach to the mind, to words, and to acts. It is for this reason that men of wisdom who are endued with penances refrain from eating meat. -The Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva, Section CXIV Well-dressed, cooked with salt or without salt, meat, in whatever form one may
take it, gradually attracts the mind and enslaves it. [Note: By eating meat, one feels the desire for meat increasing. A taste or
predilection for meat is thus created. Hence the best course is total abstinence from
meat.] The following commentary is by There
are three kinds of food that a man can eat. All foods have different properties. Different foods exercise different effects on different compartments of the brain or the mind. A confection of sparrow, meat, fish, eggs, onion and garlic excites passion. Fruits, barley, etc. render the mind calm and serene. The nature of food greatly influences the being of a man. Man feels a desire for particular foods according to his guna or temperament. The body is the instrument by which man accomplishes all his purposes in the world. It is the horse that takes him to his destination or goal (moksha or liberation). Therefore, it should be kept clean, strong and healthy. The body is a mould prepared by the mind for its activities. There is an intimate connection between the body and the mind. The nature and condition of the body has a vital effect upon the mind and activities. Therefore, the materials or foods that build the body and the mind should be pure, wholesome, nutritious, substantial and bland. Everything in this world is threefold. The food is either Sattwic, Rajasic or Tamasic according to its character and effect upon the body and the mind. You can find out the nature or temperament of a man from the nature of the food he takes. You can find out your own nature, whether you are Sattwic, Rajasic or Tamasic from your predilection to particular food and then abandon the Rajasic and the Tamasic foodstuffs and take to the Sattwic diet. Sattwic food Pure food increases the vitality and strength of those who eat it. It augments the energy of the mind also. Sattwic food produce cheerfulness, serenity and mental clarity and helps the aspirants to enter into deep meditation and maintain mental poise and nervous equilibrium. It supplies the maximum energy to the body and the mind. It is very easily assimilated and absorbed.A Sattwic man relishes juicy food and other foods which are attractive in form, soft to touch and pleasant to taste, which are small in bulk but great in nourishment like the words from the lips of a spiritual preceptor. Sattwic food is highly conducive to health. Eat that food which will develop Sattwa in you. Milk, butter, ghee, (clarified butter),fresh ripe fruits, almonds, dates, green dal, barley, wheat, cereals, tomatoes, parwar, torai, karela (names of Indian vegetables), plantains etc., are Sattwic. Abandon fish, meat, liquors, eggs, etc., ruthlessly if you want to increase Sattwa and attain Self-realisation. The mind is formed of the subtle portion of the food. "As is the food so is the mind"- says a Hindi proverb. If you take Sattwic food, the mind also will be Sattwic. The seven elements (dhatus) of the body (chyle, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow and semen) are formed out of food. Ideas and concepts are generated in the mind corresponding to these seven elements. As is the constitution of these elements, so is the constitution of the mind. Just as water is rendered hot when the pot that contains it is placed over the fire, so also the nature and constitution of the mind is according to the nature and constitution of the food or the seven elements. Rajasic food Food of a passionate nature produces restlessness in the mind, evil thoughts, excitement, craving now for one and then for another, pain, trouble and disease. The Rajasic man always plans to prepare various kinds of preparations to satisfy his palate. He takes salt, chillies, mustard, cloves, condiments, pungent pickles etc., in excess. Tears flow from his eyes and water dribbles from his nose and yet he will not leave the hot and pungent articles. The palate remains unsatisfied until the stomach is completely filled with pungent things, till the tongue is burnt with chillis. Ladies’ fingers (an Indian vegetable), puri, kachori (Indian food preparations), pungent condiments, meat, fish, eggs, sweets, fried bread, curd, brinjal, carrots, black-gram, onions, garlic, lemon, masur, tea, coffee, betels, tobacco are Rajasic articles of food.Rajasic food distracts the mind. It excites passion. Give up salt. It excites passion and emotion. Giving up of salt helps in the control of the palate and thereby the mind. The will power is also developed. Snake bite and scorpion sting will have no influence on a man who has given up salt. Onions and garlic are worse than meat. Tamasic food Cannabis indica (ganja), bhang, opium, cocaine, charas,chandoo, all stale and putrid articles, are Tamasic. The man whose taste is of a Tamasic nature will eat food in He and all the members of his family sit together and eat from the same dish or plate, food that has been mixed into a mess by his children. The food eaten by Tamasic people is stale, dry, without juice, unripe or overcooked. They do not relish it, till it begins to rot and ferment. They take prohibited foods and drinks. They take liquors, fermented toddy, etc. They are horrible people with devilish tendencies. Beef, wine, garlic, onions and tobacco are Tamasic foodstuffs. They fill the mind with anger, darkness and inertia. The eating of meat and alcoholism are closely allied. The craving for liquor dies a natural death if meat is withdrawn from one’s diet. The question of birth-control becomes very difficult in the case of those who eat meat. To them mind control is next to impossible. Mark how the tiger, eating meat, and the cow or elephant, living on green grass, are poles apart! The one is wild and ferocious while the other is mild and peaceful. The first and foremost step in the spiritual advancement of an aspirant is the giving up of meat. The Divine Light will not descend if the stomach is loaded with meat. Manu, Jesus, Buddha exhorted the people to refrain from using liquors, intoxicants and drugs as these are deleterious in their effects. No spiritual progress is possible without abandoning them. Purity of food leads to purity of the mind. Sattwic food helps meditation. The discipline of food is very necessary for the successful practice of Yogic sadhana. If the palate is controlled, then all the other senses are also controlled. Boil half a litre of milk along with some boiled rice, ghee (clarified butter), and sugar. This is called Cheru. It is an excellent food for Yogis. This is for daytime. For the evening meal, half a litre of milk will do. Milk is the best food for yogis but even a small quantity is harmful to some and may not agree with all constitutions. If one form of diet is not suitable, or if you feel constipated, change the diet and try some other Sattwic articles of food. This is common sense. Milk should not be boiled too much. It should be removed from the fire as soon as the boiling point is reached. Too much boiling destroys the nutritive principles and vitamins and renders the milk quite useless. A fruit diet exercises a benign influence on the constitution. This is a natural form of diet. Fruits are very great energy producers.A fruit and milk diet helps concentration and easy mental focussing. Barley, wheat, milk and ghee, all promote longevity and increase one’s power and strength. Fresh fruit juice and the water wherein sugar-candy is dissolved are very good beverages. Butter mixed with sugar candy, and almonds soaked in water, can be taken. These cool the system. Live a natural simple life. Take simple food that is wholly agreeable to your
system. You should have your own menu to suit your constitution. You are yourself the best
judge to select a Sattwic diet (that suits your constitution). From the Bhagavad Gita, Ch.6, Verse 16 & 17 Verily Yoga is not possible for him who eats too much, nor for him who does not eat at all, nor for him who sleeps too much nor for him who is always awake. 16 Yoga becomes the destroyer of pain for him who is moderate in eating and recreation,
who is moderate in exertion in actions, who is moderate in sleep and wakefulness. 17 From Samaveda, Uttararchika, Book 5, IX : O learned persons, free from partisanship towards other wise men, in your non-violent
religious dealings, appoint him as your messenger, who is learned, renowned, virtuous,
firm and patient among mankind, truthful, austere, forbearing, leader of men, taker of
non-stimulating diet like ghee (clarified butter), and ennobling. (1219). Top To top of this page Eating of flesh – Merits and
Demerits Yudhishthira said: Alas, those cruel men, who, discarding diverse kinds of food, covet only flesh, are really like great Rakshasas (demons)! Alas, they do not relish diverse kinds of cakes and diverse sorts of potherbs and various species of Khanda with juicy flavour so much as they do flesh! My understanding, for this reason, becomes stupefied in this matter. I think, when such is the case, that, there is nothing that can compare with flesh in the matter of taste. I desire, therefore, O puissant one, to hear what the merits are of abstention from flesh, and the demerits that attach to the eating of flesh, O chief of Bharata’s race. Thou art conversant with every duty. Do thou discourse to me in full agreeably to the ordinances on duty, on this subject. Do tell me what, indeed, is edible and what inedible. Tell me, O grandsire, what is flesh, of what substances it is, the merits that attach to abstention from it, and what the demerits are that attach to the eating of flesh. Bhishma said: There is nothing on earth that is superior to flesh in point of taste. There is nothing that is more beneficial then flesh to persons that are lean, or weak, or afflicted with disease, or addicted to sexual congress, or exhausted with travel. Flesh speedily increases strength. It produces great development. There is no food, O scorcher of foes, that is superior to flesh. But, O delighter of the Kurus, the merits are great that attach to men that abstain from it. Listen to me as I discourse to thee on it. That man who wished to increase his own flesh by the flesh of another living creature is such that there is none meaner and more cruel than he. In this world there is nothing that is dearer to a creature than his life. Hence (instead of taking that valuable possession), one should show compassion to the lives of others as one does to one's own life. Without doubt, O son, flesh has its origin in the vital seed. There is great demerit attaching to its eating, as, indeed, there is merit in abstaining from it. One does not, however, incur any fault by eating flesh sanctified according to the ordinances of the Vedas. The audition is heard that animals were created for sacrifice. They who eat flesh in any other way are said to follow the Rakshasa practice. It has been said that that religion which has acts for its indications has been ordained for householders, O chief of Kings, and not for those men who are desirous of emancipation. Manu himself has said that meat which is sanctified with mantras and properly dedicated, according to the ordinances of the Vedas, in rites performed in honour of the Pitris, is pure. All other meat falls under the class of what is obtained by useless slaughter, and is, therefore, uneatable, and leads to Hell and infamy. One should never eat, O chief of Bharata`s race, like a Rakshasa, any meat that has been obtained by means not sanctioned by the ordinance. Indeed, one should never eat flesh obtained from useless slaughter and that has not been sanctified by the ordinance. That man who wishes to avoid calamity of every kind should abstain from the meat of every living creature. Desirous of benefiting all men, the high-souled Agastya, by the aid of his penances, dedicated, once for all, all wild animals of the deer species to the deities. Hence, there is no longer any necessity of sanctifying those animals for offering them to the deities and the Pitris. Served with flesh according to the ordinance, the Pitris become gratified. One who has abstained from meat (under any vow) should not take meat even if it be sanctified with mantras from the Yajurveda. One should also avoid the flesh about the vertebral column (of any animal) and the flesh of any animal not slain in sacrifices. There is complete happiness in abstaining from meat, O monarch. He that undergoes severe austerities for a hundred years and he that abstains from meat, are both equal in point of merit. In the lighted fortnight of the month of Karttika in special, one should abstain from honey and meat. In this, it has been ordained, there is great merit. He who abstains for the whole month of Karttika from meat of every kind, transcends all kinds of woe and lives in complete happiness. He who abstains from meat for the four months of the rains acquires the four valued blessings of achievements, longevity, fame and might. Those righteous men who, from the time of birth, abstain from honey and meat and wine,
are regarded as Munis. That man who practises this religion consisting of abstention from
meat or who recites it for causing others to hear it, will never have to go to hell even
if he be exceedingly wicked in conduct in other respects. He, O king, who (often times)
reads these ordinances about abstention from meat, that are sacred and adored by the
Rishis, or hears it read, becomes cleansed of every sin and attains to great felicity in
consequence of the fruition of every wish. Without doubt, he attains also to a position of
eminence among kinsmen. When afflicted with calamity, he readily transcends it. When
obstructed with impediments, he succeeds in freeing himself from them with the utmost
ease. When ill with disease, he becomes cured speedily, and afflicted with sorrow he
becomes liberated from it with greatest ease. Such a man has never to take birth in the
intermediate order of animals or birds. Born in the order of humanity, he attains to great
beauty of person. Endued with great prosperity, O chief of Kuru’s race, he acquires
great fame as well. Addressing King Yudhishthira, Bhishma said: There are four kinds of compassion or abstention from injury. If even one of those four kinds be not observed, the religion of compassion, it is said, is not observed. As all four-footed animals are incapable of standing on three legs, even so the religion of compassion cannot stand if any of those four divisions or parts be wanting. As the footprints of all other animals are engulfed in those of the elephant, even so all other religions are said to be comprehended in that of compassion. A person becomes guilty of injury through acts, words and thoughts. Discarding it mentally at the outset, one should next discard in word and thought. Listen to me, O king, as I tell thee what the faults are that attach to the eating of meat. The meat of other animals is like the flesh of one’s son. That foolish person, stupefied by folly, who eats meat, is regarded as the vilest of human beings. The union of father and mother produces an offspring. After the same manner, the cruelty that a helpless and sinful wretch commits, produces its progeny of repeated rebirths fraught with great misery. As the tongue is the cause of the knowledge or sensation of taste, so the scriptures declare, attachment proceeds from taste. Well-dressed, cooked with salt or without salt, meat, in whatever form one may take it, gradually attracts the mind and enslaves it. They who eat meat applaud it highly, suffering themselves to be stupefied by its taste which they pronounce to be something inconceivable, indescribable, and unimaginable. Such praise even of meat is fraught with demerit. The Self-born Manu has said that that man who does not eat meat, or who does not slay living creatures, or who does not cause them to be slain, is a friend of all creatures. Such a man is incapable of being oppressed by any creature. He enjoys the confidence of all living beings. He always enjoys, besides, the approbation and commendation of the righteous. That man who having eaten meat gives it up afterwards, acquires merit by such an act that is so great that a study of all the Vedas or a performance, O Bharata, of all the sacrifices, cannot bestow its like. It is exceedingly difficult for such a person to observe the high vow of abstention from meat, a vow that assures every creature by dispelling all fear. That man who abstains from meat is never put in fear. All creatures seek his protection. He is an object of confidence with all creatures. He never causes any anxiety in others, and himself has never to become anxious. If there were nobody who ate flesh there would then be nobody to kill living creatures. The man who kills living creatures kills them for the sake of the person who eats flesh. If flesh were regarded as inedible, there would then be no slaughter of living creatures. It is for the sake of the eater that the slaughter of living creatures goes on in the world. Since, O thou of great splendour, the period of life is shortened of persons who slaughter living creatures or cause them to be slaughtered, it is clear that the person who wishes his own good should give up meat entirely. Those fierce persons who are engaged in slaughter of living creatures, never find protectors when they are in need. Through cupidity or stupefaction of the understanding, for the sake of strength or energy, or through association with the sinful, the disposition manifests itself in men for sinning. That man who seeks to increase his own flesh by (eating) the flesh of others, has to live in this world in great anxiety and after death has to take birth in different races and families. High Rishis devoted to the observance of vows and self-restraint have said that abstention from meat is worthy of every praise, productive of fame and Heaven, and a great propitiation by itself. He
who purchases flesh slays living One should never eat meat of animals not dedicated in sacrifices and that are, therefore, slain for nothing, and that has not been offered to the gods and Pitris with the aid of the ordinances. There is not the slightest doubt that a person by eating such meat goes to Hell. If one eats the meat that has been sanctified in consequence of its having been procured from animals dedicated in sacrifices and that have been slain for the purpose of feeding Brahmanas, one incurs a little fault. By behaving otherwise, one becomes stained with sin. That wretch among men who slays living creatures for the sake of those who would eat them, incurs great demerit. The eater’s demerit is not so great. That wretch among men who, following the path of religious rites and sacrifices laid down in the Vedas, would kill a living creature from desire of eating its flesh, would certainly become a resident of hell. That man who having eaten flesh abstains from it afterwards, attains to great merit in consequence of such abstention from sin. He who arranges for obtaining flesh, he who approves of those arrangements, he who slays, he who buys or sells, he who cooks, and he who eats, are all regarded as eaters of flesh. In this way, O monarch, the religion of compassion is surrounded by four considerations. I have thus declared to thee that religion which comprises all other religions within it. Listen to me as I tell thee what the ordinance is that has been laid down for the Kshatriyas. They do not incur any fault by eating flesh that has been acquired by expenditure of prowess. All deer of the wilderness were dedicated to the deities and the Pitris in days of old, O king, by Agastya. Hence the hunting of deer is not censured. There is equality of risk between the slayer and the slain. Either the animal is killed or it kills the hunter. Hence, O, Bharata, even royal sages betake themselves to the practice of hunting. By such conduct they do not become stained with sin. Indeed, the practice is not regarded as sinful. There is nothing, O delighter of the Kurus, that is equal in point of merit, either here or hereafter, to the practice of compassion to all living creatures. The man of compassion has no fear. Those harmless men that are endued with compassion have both this world and the next. Persons conversant with duty say that that religion is worthy of being called religion which has abstention from cruelty for its indication. The man of cleansed soul should do only such acts as have compassion for their soul. That flesh, which is dedicated in sacrifice performed in honour of the deities and the Pitris is called Havi (and as such, is worthy of being eaten). That man who is devoted to compassion and who behaves with compassion towards others, has no fear to entertain from any creature. It is heard that all creatures abstain from causing any fear unto such a creature. Whether he is wounded or fallen down or prostrated or weakened or bruised, in whatever state he may be, all creatures protect him. Indeed, they do so under all circumstances, whether he is on even or uneven ground. Neither snakes nor wild animals, neither Pisachas nor Rakshasas, ever slay him. When circumstances of fear arise, he becomes freed from fear who frees others from situations of fear. There has never been, nor will there ever be, a gift that is superior to the gift of life. It is certain that there is nothing dearer to oneself than one’s life. They that are covetous of meat are seen to be repeatedly cooked in the hell called Kumbhipaka. They are assailed and slain, and in this way have to travel repeatedly. There is nothing so dear to one as one’s life when one comes to this world. Hence, a person of cleansed soul should be compassionate to all living creatures. That man, O king, who abstains from every kind of meat from his birth, without doubt, acquires a large space in Heaven. They who eat the flesh of animals who are desirous of life, are themselves eaten by the animals they eat, without doubt. Even this is my opinion. Since he has eaten me, I shall eat him in return- even this , O Bharata, constitutes the character as MANSA of Mansa. (Mansa is flesh. Mam = me, sa = he. Me he eateth, therefore I shall eat him.) The slayer is always slain. After him the eater meets with the same fate. He who acts with hostility towards another (in this life) becomes the victim of similar acts done by that other. Whatever acts one does in whatever bodies, one has to suffer the consequences thereof in those bodies. Abstention from cruelty is the highest religion . Abstention from cruelty is the
highest self-control. Abstention from cruelty is the highest gift. Abstention from cruelty
is the highest penance. Abstention from cruelty is the highest sacrifice, the highest
puissance, the highest friend, the highest happiness. Abstention from cruelty is the
highest truth, the highest Sruti. Gifts made in all sacrifices, ablutions performed in all
sacred waters, and the merit that one acquires from making all kinds of gifts mentioned in
the scriptures; all these do not come up to abstention from cruelty (in point of merit
that attaches to it). The penances of a man that abstains from cruelty are inexhaustible.
The man who abstains from cruelty is regarded as always performing sacrifices. The man
that abstains from cruelty is the father and mother of all creatures. Altogether, the
merits that attach to abstention from cruelty are so many that they are incapable of being
exhausted even if one were to speak for a hundred years. By Sant Vinoba Bhave Food should be pure and clean. The food that a man eats can never be too pure. Our
society has performed enough tapas (austerity) for the sake of purity in food. In India,
many efforts have been made towards this. Thousands of years have passed in this
experiment. We cannot tell how much tapas has gone into them. It is only in India that
many entire communities have freed themselves of meat-eating. Even those who eat meat give
it a secondary place and do not take it every day, they even feel that they are doing
something improper; these too have in their minds given up meat. Top To top of this page Forbidden foods One should eat only such food as is not forbidden in the scriptures, abstaining from food of every kind on days of the new moon and the full moon. One should never eat the flesh of animals not slain in sacrifice. One should never eat the flesh of the back of an animal. The flesh of goats, of kine (cows), and the peacock, should never be eaten. One should also abstain from dried flesh and all flesh that is stale. One should not slay a bird (for eating it), especially after having fed it. All food that is forbidden in ritual acts should never be taken even on other occasions. The fruits of the Ficus Religiosa (sacred fig or Peepul tree) and the Ficus Bengalensis (in English:Banyan tree; as also the leaves of the Crotolaria Juncea (Sunn Hemp), and the fruits of Ficus Glomerata(cluster fig or Gular fig or country fig tree), should never be eaten by one who is desirous of his own good. The remnants of food and drink, as also the flowers with which one has worshipped the deities, should never be used. The man of intelligence should never eat any salt, taking it up with his hand. Nor should he eat curds and flour of fried barley at night. One desirous of food should never drink curds at the conclusion of a meal. One should never eat off the same plate with another even if that other happens to be of one's own or equal rank. One should never even touch the remnants of other people's dishes and plates. Nor should one ever eat any food that has been prepared by a woman in her functional period. One should never eat any food or drink any liquid whose essence has been taken off. Nor should one eat anything without giving a portion thereof to persons that wishfully gaze at the food that one happens to take. One should, with concentrated attention, eat once in the morning and once in the evening, abstaining entirely from all food during the interval. One should never eat any food in which one may detect a hair. Nor should one eat at the Sraddha of an enemy. One should eat silently; one should never eat without covering one's person with an upper garment. One should never eat any food placing it on the bare ground. One should never eat except in a sitting posture. One should never eat while walking. One should never make any noise while eating. One who sits to one's meals after having washed one's feet, lives for a hundred years. One should first wash one's mouth thrice with water before any food. Having finished one's meals, one should wash one's mouth thrice with water and twice again. One should eat one's food with face turned eastwards, restraining speech the while and without censuring the food that is eaten. If one eats with face turned eastwards, one becomes endued with longevity. By eating with face turned southwards, one acquires great fame. By eating with face turned westwards, one acquires great wealth. By eating with face turned northwards, one becomes truthful in speech. One should always leave a remnant of the food that is placed before one for eating. One should never take a meal without eating some sesame. Inviting a guest at night, one should never, with excessive courtesy , force him to eat
to the point of gratification. Nor should one eat oneself to the point of gratification.
After the meal is finished, one should wash one's mouth and face with the right hand only.
After washing, one should touch the crown of one's head with the right hand. Having
finished one's meals, one should mentally touch fire. Allowed and forbidden Foods Garlic, leeks and onions, mushrooms and (all plants) springing from impure (substances)
are unfit to be eaten by twice-born men. One should carefully avoid Red exudations from trees and juices flowing from incisions, the Selu fruit (Sebesten), and the thickened milk of a cow (which she gives after calving). The milk of a cow (or other female animal) within ten days after her calving, that of camels, of one-hoofed animals, of sheep, of a cow in heat. The milk of all wild animals excepting buffalo-cows, that of women, and all (substances turned) sour must be avoided. Among things turned sour, sour milk and all foods prepared of it may be eaten. Likewise, what is extracted from pure flowers, roots, and fruits may be eaten. Let him avoid all carnivorous birds and those living in villages, and one-hoofed animals which are not specially permitted to be eaten, and the Tittibha (Parra Jacana). Let him avoid The Sparrow, the Plava, the Hamsa (Swan), the Brahmani duck, the village cock, the Sarasa Crane, the Raggudala, the Woodpecker, the Parrot, and the Starling. Those which feed striking with their beaks, web-footed birds, the Koyashti, those which scratch with their toes, those which dive and live on fish, meat from a slaughter-house, and dried meat. The Baka and the Balaka Crane, the Raven, the Khangaritaka, (animals that eat fish), village pigs, and all kinds of fish.He who eats the flesh of any animal is called the eater of the flesh of that particular creature, he who eats fish is an eater of every kind of flesh; let him therefore avoid fish. But the fish called Pathina and that called Rohita may be eaten, if used for offerings to the gods or to the manes; one may eat likewise Ragivas, Simhatundas, and Sasalkas on all occasions. Let him not eat solitary or unknown beasts and birds, though they may fall under the categories of eatable creatures, nor any five-toed animals. The Porcupine, the Hedgehog, the Iguana, the rhinoceros, the Tortoise, and the Hare they declare to be eatable; likewise those domestic animals that have teeth in one jaw only, excepting camels. One may eat meat when it has been sprinkled with water, while Mantras were recited, .. when one is engaged (in the performance of a rite) according to the law, and when one's life is in danger. The Lord of creatures (Prajapati) created this whole world to be the sustenance of the vital spirit; both the immovable and the movable creation is the food of the vital spirit. What is destitute of motion is the food of those endowed with locomotion; (animals) without fangs (are the food) of those with fangs, those without hands of those who possess hands, and the timid of the bold. The eater who daily even devours those destined to be his food, commits no sin; for the Creator Himself created both the eaters and those who are to be eaten. "The consumption of meat is befitting for sacrifices", that is declared to be a rule made by the gods; but to persist (in using it) on other occasions is said to be a proceeding worthy of Rakshasas (demons). He who eats meat when he honours the gods and manes, commits no sin, whether he has bought it, or himself has killed the animal, or has received it as a present from others. A twice-born man who knows the law, must not eat meat except in conformity with the law; for if he has eaten it unlawfully, he will, unable to save himself, be eaten after death by his (victims). After death the guilt of one who slays deer for gain is not as great as that of him who eats meat for no sacred purpose. A brahmana must never eat the flesh of animals unallowed by Mantras; but, obedient to the primeval law, he may eat it, consecrated with Vedic texts. If he has a strong desire (for flesh) he may make an animal of clarified butter or one of flour, and eat that; but let him never seek to destroy an animal without a lawful reason. A twice-born man of virtuous disposition, whether he dwells in his own house, with a teacher, or in the forest, must never, even in times of distress, cause an injury to any creature which is not sanctioned by the Vedas. Know that the injury to moving creatures and to those destitute of motion, which the Veda has prescribed for certain occasions, is no injury at all; for the sacred law shone forth from the Veda. He who injures innoxious (harmless) beings from a wish to give himself pleasure, never finds happiness, neither living nor dead. He who does not injure any creature attains without an effort what he thinks of, what he undertakes, and what he fixes his mind on. Flesh can never be obtained without injury to living creatures, and injury to sentient beings is detrimental to the attainment of heavenly bliss; let him therefore shun the use of flesh. Having well considered the disgusting origin of flesh and the cruelty of fettering and slaying corporeal beings, let him entirely abstain from eating flesh. He who, (observing the rules given above), does not eat flesh like a pishach, becomes dear to men, and will not be tormented by diseases. He who permits the slaughter of an animal, he who cuts it up, he who kills it, he who buys or sells flesh, he who cooks it, he who serves it up, and he who eats it, (must all be considered as) the slayers of the animal. There is no greater sinner than that man who, though not worshipping the gods or the manes, seeks to increase the bulk of his own flesh by the flesh of other beings. By subsisting on pure fruit and roots, and by eating food fit for ascetics (in the forest), one does not gain so great a reward as by entirely avoiding the use of flesh. There is no sin (when permitted by law), in eating flesh, in drinking spirituous
liquor, and in carnal intercourse, for that is the natural way of created beings, but
abstention brings great rewards. Ayurveda and food By Dr.Robert E.Svoboda Although meat is mandated in Ayurveda for debilitated patients, for warriors (Kshatriyas) and for those who overexert themselves, it is very heavy for digestion, putrefies faster than other foods and produces Ama (internal toxins) quickly. Unless you exercise strenuously, regular meat eating will increase fat rather than flesh.It promotes speed rather than endurance, which is not good for Vata-affected individuals. Meat overheats the mind and warms the body, but even in cold climates, it should not be used to excess. Today's meat is also of poor quality, full of antibiotics and other drugs, taken from feedlot animals who never exercise so that all their Ama remains in their tissues. Esoterically, the fear felt by the animal as it waits to be slaughtered and the hatred it feels for the human who slaughters it change the composition of its flesh and increase fear and anger in whoever eats it. The more the violence involved in the collection of our food, the greater the violence in our lives. Also, because digestive wastes are partly excreted in sweat, a meat-eater sits in his or her own odour daily, breathing in chemicals which promote fear and anger, and projecting this fear and anger out at others. Food articles to which you should never become habituated because they are too heavy to be properly digested include unchurned yoghurt, pork, beef, mutton, dried meat, dried vegetables, molasses, and cheese, as well as any foods which are very cold, very hot, thoroughly tasteless, or too intense in taste. Garlic and onions are both Rajasic and tamasic, and are forbidden to Yogis because they root the consciousness more firmly in the body. Do not eat when angry, depressed, bored, or otherwise emotionally unstable, or immediately after any physical exertion.Bathe, or at least wash your hands, face and feet, before you begin to eat. Sit while eating, in an isolated clean area. Face east if possible, the direction of the sun, the earth's source of heat and fire. Eat alone, or with people you know and trust. Ensure that all your sense organs are satisfied by providing your dining room with pleasant music, fresh flowers, and the like. Avoid habitual use of restaurants. Most people who sell you food are more concerned with their own profits than with your digestion. Satiation is not determined by how much you eat. A small amount of food presented to you lovingly will satisfy your soul, whereas large heaps of food from a fast-food restaurant may temporarily fill your belly but will leave your mind and spirit unsatisfied. Only someone who loves you should be permitted to cook for you. Cooks in India are often selected from the priestly class so that there is at least some chance that while cooking some spiritually uplifting vibrations may be transferred into the food. Women should not cook when they are menstruating because they are undergoing a cleansing process and should be relaxing instead. It is best if your right nostril functions when you eat, since it increases your digestive fire. You can cause it to function by lying on your left side for a few minutes before the meal, By plugging your left nostril, by closing your left nostril with the middle finger of your right hand and breathing rhythmically through your right nostril for a few minutes, or by hooking your left arm over the back of a chair. Once all is in readiness, pray. Give thanks to Nature for providing you with food, and thank whichever deity you worship for being alive to eat it. Approach each food item with reverence and love, even if you are served something which you dislike but must eat. Suppose your mother-in-law, whom you dislike, serves you rutabagas, which you hate. If wishing to maintain family peace and you eat the rutabagas under duress, those vegetables will carry your dislike and hatred deep into your system and disturb your balance. Consume your food, even if you dislike it, with respect for the sacrifice it is making for you, and it will carry the harmonising power of your prayer inside you instead. Before you begin your meal, feed someone else. Traditionally in India a five-fold offering is made: to the sacred fire, a cow, a crow, a dog, and another human being, who might be a child, a beggar, or anyone else outside one's own family. This is a practical thanks to Nature, a feeding of some of Her children in gratitude to Her for providing you some of Her other children as sacrifices for consumption. And, it is another way of controlling Ahamkara (egoism), an admission that the food is intended not for mere self-gratification but for the greater good of all beings. Feed anyone - a pet, a plant, a neighbour, a stranger- so you can experience a little of Nature's joy, the joy which a mother feels when she feeds her children and watches them grow and develop in consequence. concentrate on your meal. No television, radio, stereo or conversation should distract your attention. Observe silence while you eat; sit and chat afterwards. Chew each morsel slowly and attentively many times. When feasible, eat with your hands so that your skin can send temperature and texture cues to your brain. Just as our bodies are made up of trillions of independent cells, we are all little cells in the universal organism. Like our cells, each of us humans has an individual existence but none of us is "free' enough to live independently of the whole. In fact, everything which exists in the external universe has its counterpart in a living being's own personal internal universe. Every cosmic force is represented, in altered form. The flow of nutrients into the body and wastes out of the body cells also characterises the continuous flow of nutrients and wastes into and out of plants, animals and humans. There is therefore no inherent difference between, say, cooking your food in a pot on the stove and cooking your food in the pot of your stomach on the stove of your internal digestive "fire". Both use heat to prepare the food for easier assimilation. Flames are used on the external stove and acid and enzymes on the inside, but the principle of cooking is identical to both. The Rishis (seers) used the theory of the Five Great Elements, more properly known as the Five Great States of Material Existence, to explain how the internal and external forces are linked together. Earth. The solid state of matter, whose characteristic attribute is stability, fixity or rigidity. Earth is stable substance. Water. The liquid state of matter, whose characteristic attribute is flux. Water is substance without stability. Fire. The power which can convert a substance from solid to liquid to gas, and vice versa, increasing or decreasing the relative order in the substance. Fire's characteristic attribute is transformation. Fire is form without substance. Air. The gaseous state of matter, whose characteristic attribute is mobility or dynamism. Air is existence without form. Space. The field from which everything is manifested and into which everything returns; the space in which events occur. Space has no physical existence; it exists only as distances which separate matter. These Five Elements condense to the Three Doshas: Vata, Pitta and Kapha, which are effectively Air, Fire and Water respectively.Vata is the principle of kinetic energy in the body. It is mainly concerned with the nervous system, and controls all body movement. Kapha is the principle of potential energy, which controls body stability and lubrication. The tissues and wastes of the body which Vata moves around are Kapha's province. Pitta controls the body's balance of kinetic and potential energies. all of Pitta's processes involve digestion or "cooking", even if it is the cooking of thoughts into theories in the mind. The enzymatic and endocrine systems are Pitta's main field of activity. At the cellular level Vata moves nutrients into and wastes out of cells. Pitta digests nutrients to provide energy for cellular function. The cell's structure is governed by Kapha. In the digestive tract Vata chews and swallows the food, Pitta digests it, Vata assimilates nutrients and expels wastes, and Kapha controls the secretions which lubricate and protect the digestive organs. In the mind Vata retrieves previous data from memory for comparison with new data. Pitta processes the new data and draws conclusions, which Vata then stores as new memories. Kapha provides the stability needed for the mind to grasp a single thought at a time. These three are forces, not substances. Kapha is not mucus; it is the force which when projected into the body causes mucus to arise. Pitta is not bile; it is the force which causes bile to be produced. Vata is not gas, but increased Vata causes increased gas. Vatta, Pitta and Kapha are called Doshas because the word Doshas means "things which can go out of whack." When Vata, Pitta and Kapha are out of balance with one another the system is bound to lose its own balance. Vata, Pitta and Kapha are all essential to life, but can cause great harm if they are allowed to fall out of harmony with one another. This two-faced personality exists because they are Doshas, things which are often in error. This is not really their fault, because they have such difficult jobs to do. Kapha must overcome the mutual indifference of Water and Earth and make them work together. Pitta must conquer the natural animosity which Water and Fire feel for one another. Vata is forced to use the inert Space to try to control the capricious Air. It is in fact surprising that they function as well as they do. Because they are so reactive the body cannot afford to store them within itself for long, any more than a nuclear power plant can afford to store radioactive wastes. They are therefore eliminated from the body regularly in the course of performing their functions. The force of Kapha is continually expelled from the body via mucus, Pitta is regularly expelled through acid and bile, and Vata is eliminated both as gas and as muscular or nervous energy. How much of each Dosha your body produces depends primarily on which Tastes you consume. The tastes influence the balance of the Doshas in the body. Like the Doshas they are derived from the Five Great Elements. They have profound effect on all parts of the organism and not merely the tongue.Sweet. Composed mainly of Earth and Water. Sweet increases Kapha, decreases Pitta and Vata, and is cooling, heavy and unctuous. It nourishes and exhilarates the body and mind, and relieves hunger and thirst. It increases all tissues.Sweet produces satisfaction or satiation. Overindulgence in Sweet Taste leads to its negative aspects, complacency and greed. Intense complacent effect increases the naturally inert, complacent Kapha, cools the anger of Pitta and comforts the fear of Vata. Sour. Composed mainly of Earth and Fire. Sour increases Kapha and Pitta, decreases Vata, and is heating, heavy, and unctuous. Sour refreshes the being, encourage elimination of wastes, lessens spasms and tremors, and improves appetite and digestion. Produces the searching outside oneself for things to possess. Sour causes evaluation of a thing in order to determine its desirability which selectively enhances certain appetites. Overindulgence in evaluation leads to envy and jealousy, which may manifest as deprecation of the thing desired, as in the "sour grapes" syndrome. Envious effect increases Kapha if envy of another's success incites you to obtain further success for yourself. Otherwise Pitta will increase as jealousy mutates into anger over the raw deal you feel you are getting from life. Envy does help reduce Vata, by focusing and heating up your consciousness. Salty. Composed mainly of Water and Fire. Salty increases Kapha and Pitta, decreases Vata, and is heavy, heating and unctuous. Salty eliminates wastes and cleanses the body , and increases the digestive capacity and appetite. It softens and loosens the tissues. Salty Taste increases zest for life, which enhances all appetites. Overindulgence in zest leads to hedonism, the craving for indulgence in all sensory pleasures physically available to the body. Pungent. Composed mainly of Fire and Air. pungent (which is hot and spicy like chilli peppers) increases Pitta and Vata, decreases Kapha, and is heating, light and dry. Pungent flushes all types of secretion from the body, and reduces all Kapha-like tissues such as semen, milk and fat. It improves the appetite. Pungent Taste is productive of extroversion, the tendency to excitement and stimulation, and particularly the craving for intensity. Overexcitement and over-stimulation leads to irritability, impatience and anger (pungent language or a sharp retort). Pungent Taste increases Pitta by actively increasing the flow of hormones and digestive juices, making it easier both to digest and to manifest anger. It relieves Kapha by decreasing self-satisfaction, and temporarily relieves Vata by permitting expression of bottled-up resentment. In the long run, however, Pungent increases Vata by exhausting the organs and glands, which, "dries you out", limiting your ability to project aggression or unhappiness outwards. Bitter. Composed mainly of Air and Space. Bitter increases Vata, decreases Pitta and Kapha, and is cooling, light and dry. Bitter purifies and dries all secretions, is anti-aphrodisiac, and tones the organism by returning all Tastes to normal balance. It increases appetite, and controls skin diseases and fevers.Bitter Taste produces dissatisfaction , which produces a desire to change. When you have to swallow a "bitter pill"' its bitterness dispels your self-delusion and forces you to face reality. Too much disappointment leads to frustration, which confirms your system in bitterness. Grief is also bitter.Bitter is best of all Six Tastes. As Dr. Vasant Lad says, "Bitter is better." in small amounts Bitter helps balance all other tastes in the body. Just as mild dissatisfaction with yourself or your situation impels you to change, Bitter dilates channels which are too constricted, thus reducing Kapha and its complacency , and constricts those which are overdilated, thus reducing Pitta and its anger. Overuse of Bitter increases Vata as dissatisfaction and continuous change induces insecurity and fear. Astringent. Composed mainly of Air and Earth. Astringent (which makes your mouth pucker) increases Vata, decreases Pitta and Kapha, and is cooling, light and dry. Astringent heals, purifies and constricts all parts of the body. It reduces all secretions, and is anti-aphrodisiac. Astringent Taste produces introversion, the tendency away from excitement and stimulation. Excessive introversion leads to insecurity, anxiety and fear. Astringency causes contraction, which makes you "shrivel like a prune." and clamps the "cold, bony hand of fear" around your throat. Astringent taste constricts, drawing one away from the self-satisfaction of Kapha, and the self-aggrandisement of Pitta. Its constriction increases fear of insufficient sensory "nutrition" and leads to increased Vata. All these tastes are essential for proper functioning of the organism, and reach us primarily through our food. Your personal constitution, which is your individual metabolic makeup, helps determine how much effect specific tastes and emotions have on you. This is why everyone who eats the same food does not necessarily suffer from exactly the same mental and physical effects from it. When all the members of a family enjoy a meal together, each individual's tastes and emotions will be affected according to his or her own individual taste and emotional balance.Your inborn metabolic pattern is called "Prakrti", which also means Nature, She who is the first creation. [See page "Maya"]. Your constitution is that set of metabolic tendencies which determine how your body and mind will instinctively react when they are confronted by a stimulus. Knowing your constitution allows you to know your body and mind better. You learn why there is no need to feel guilty for your dietary preferences, or for your mental traits like anger or fear. Once you understand that these traits are determined by your constitution, lifestyle changes can help your organism minimise their influence. Your constitution also influences your emotions. Your personal constitution was determined by the state of the bodies of your mother and father at the time of your conception. That certain sperm which could best endure the conditions prevalent in those two bodies won the race to reach the ovum, and its genes mingled with the genes in the ovum to form the new child. Your constitution is influenced by your parent's genetics, by your mother's diet and habits during her pregnancy, and by any abnormal events at the time of your birth. Once your personal constitution and its accompanying tendencies have been set they cannot be permanently altered. Like your genes, you have your constitution for the rest of your life, like it or not. You can ,however, learn to adjust for your constitution so that you are less affected by its distortions. You can learn how to prevent health imbalances and how to best treat them when they arise. You can know the prognosis of any disease you might contract, and you can determine which rejuvenation program will be best for you. Through study and use of Ayurvedic principles you can also understand why your spouse, children, relatives, friends, neighbours and co-workers do the things they do, and determine how best to interact with them for maximum inter-personal harmony. You can plan meals for your family according to what is best for each of their prakrtis. Because every individual is composed of a body, a mind and a spirit, the ancient Rishis of India who developed the science of Life organised their wisdom into three bodies of knowledge: Ayurveda, which deals mainly with the physical body; Yoga, which deals mainly with the spirit; and Tantra, which is mainly concerned with the mind. The philosophy of all three is identical; their manifestations differ because of their differing emphasis. Ayurveda is mostly concerned with the physical basis of life, concentrating on its harmony to induce harmony of mind and spirit. Yoga controls body and mind to enable them to harmonise with spirit, and tantra seeks to use the mind to balance the demands of body and spirit. Ayurveda was designed by the Rishis specially for those individuals who want to enjoy the world healthily. Its daily and seasonal routines, dietary guidance, therapeutics and doctrines of antidotes for the side-effects of addictions can keep you hale,hearty and having a high time well into your senescence if you can restrict yourself sufficiently to follow these precepts strictly. You must consciously choose how much you wish to indulge, which determines how healthy you will be. Related Articles: Obesity-Losing weight If you are overweight and suffer from all or most of the following symptoms, you urgently need to reduce your poundage (under professional competent guidance): Pendulous belly, breasts and buttocks; Puffing and panting for breath even on mild exertion; Profuse perspiration even when it is not hot; Excess thirst, especially at night; Intense food craving; Prolonged but unsatisfying sleep; unpleasant body odour; Inflammation where skin folds rub against one another; Generalised body ache; Loss of sexual appetite; Lack of zeal or enthusiasm for living. If you do not suffer from most of these symptoms you should not attempt severe dieting. You cannot be in any hurry if you want to make your weight loss permanent. Your body needs time to readjust itself and lower its fat setpoint, and until that setpoint drops your weight will not. All foods, which increase Kapha, tend to increase weight. Likewise, all foods, which control Kapha, discourage weight gain. You should especially avoid the following foods: Beef and pork; butter, cheese, ice-cream, sour cream, wheat and wheat products; white sugar and all products containing white sugar; alcoholic beverages; fried foods of any sort; junk foods and fast foods; all excessively sour or salty foods like pickles. Merely going on an anti-Kapha diet when you want to lose weight may be entirely inappropriate if you are a Vata person who needs Kapha promoting foods to maintain balance. It would be best for you to stabilise your diet first after removing all the objectionable foods above. Unless your Doshas are balanced your Dhatus including Fat will never become healthy. Permanent weight loss occurs only when the body's fat setpoint is lowered. The amphetamines in prescription diet pills and the nicotine in tobacco can temporarily lower the fat setpoint, but these effects last only as long as you use the drug. You are bound to gain weight as soon as you stop smoking or quit swallowing the pills. Besides, both amphetamines and nicotine are addictive drugs; nicotine is even more addictive than heroine. These two drugs lower the body's fat setpoint by speeding up the organism, making both body and brain work faster. Ayurveda believes in speeding up the organism in healthy, natural ways, such as exercise, certain supplements, and the use of light, non-Kapha producing foods, which control Vata while relieving the system of excess Kapha. It is a slower process, but in weight loss, as in all other aspects of medicine, haste makes waste. Change your diet gradually. Do not salt your food at all. If you want the salty taste, use "light" salt, kelp powder, or liquid amino-acid mixtures. Limit your use of sweeteners, but allow yourself regular use of honey, except in cooking. Honey has a mild fat reducing effect. Take bran or psyllium seed husk whenever you eat a lot of sweet. Fibre helps the body balance its response to Sweet. Even though fruits are sweet, their fibre usually does not permit their sugars to be absorbed too quickly. The fibre in whole grains also protects against exaggerated blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates like grains also increase brain serotonin, a chemical which makes you feel relaxed and "mellow". So, even though a high protein diet may make you lose weight faster, you will lose it more enjoyably and in a more relaxed fashion if you eat a reasonable amount of carbohydrate. Also, fat requires carbohydrate to burn, so trying to deny yourself all carbohydrate while you live on protein and vegetables makes the weight loss more difficult and less certain. As you feel it is safe and sensible to do so, reduce the quantity of food you eat at each meal. As you reduce your food quantity your stomach will shrink little by little and you will find your capacity for food reduced. Excessive eating is often more a problem with overweight Vata and Pitta types than it is with overweight Kapha types whose bodies tend to hang on to excess pounds even if they do not overeat. Eliminate all cold food and drink. You should eat nothing that is referigerator cold. Fat is the body’s insulation and increases naturally in colder climates. Continuous exposure to cold food and drink, and even to air conditioning, convinces the body that it should add extra insulation, so up goes the fat setpoint. Exercise, which helps heat the body, reduces its need for insulation. Reduce your overall water intake as you reduce the salt in your diet. You should drink when you are thirsty, but you do not necessarily need the 6 to 8 glasses of water daily, which some "authorities" advocate. Warm water or hot herbal teas help melt fat away. Even better is honey and lemon in warm water, with a pinch of black pepper powder. When you are fed up with all these restrictions, go out and binge without guilt, preferably on healthful foods, and then forget about it. Cravings for your old food friends are only panic reactions of your body or mind. If you reassure yourself with familiar food that you are not trying to starve to death, the craving to binge will become less and less frequent. It is wise to take vitamin and mineral supplements during this period of transition to ensure that your body does not lack any nutrients. These supplements cannot reduce your fat setpoint, although Ayurvedic herbal preparations can. These preparations mobilise fat from deposits and eliminate it. These are not appetite suppressants. They are substances which encourage permanent metabolic change so that dietary control and exercise can make the excess fat swiftly disappear and stay away once it is gone. Any bitter, pungent or astringent food, herb or mineral will exert some weight reducing effect, though some are more active than others are. A few active herbs are barberry, black pepper, gentian, golden seal, gotukola, red raspberry leaves, saffron, and tumeric. Some Ayurvedic compounds, which are prescribed in India for weight reduction, include: The powder called Triphala, a mixture of three fruits, especially when mixed with Trikatu, a mixture of equal parts of powdered ginger, black pepper, and pippali or long pepper. Fat is essential Dhatu and is good for you, in the proper amount. Food for Kapha constitution K people need to concentrate on Bitter, Pungent and Astringent foods, which invigorate their bodies and minds, and should avoid sweet, sour and salty substances, which help them remain set in their ways. K’s should never eat fried or otherwise greasy food, and should shun dairy products. Fat is the worst possible food for K types. Vegetables are best for K’s, who should limit the total amount of food they eat. Grains – K people need grain less than do V or P people. The hot, drying grains buckwheat and millet are best for Ks, followed by barley, rice and corn. K people do best with roasted or otherwise dry-cooked grains. All breads should be toasted, or better yet avoided. Wheat is too heavy, cold and oily to be good for K. Vegetables – All vegetables are good for K except potatoes, tomatoes, and water chestnuts. Cucumbers, though sweet, are also bitter and astringent and therefore do not aggravate Kapha. K people should avoid very sweet, very sour and very juicy vegetables. Otherwise they can eat as many vegetables as they like as often as they like. Leafy greens and vegetables which contain seeds (like squashes) should get preference over root vegetables, which are naturally more Earthy. Raw vegetables are good; steamed or stir-fried vegetables are easier to digest. Peppers are good for K types. K people who overdose on chilies, cayenne, or other hot pungent spices may use ghee to antidote any resulting Pitta aggravation. Fruits – K people should avoid both very sweet and very sour fruits, and any fruits which are very juicy. Dried fruits like prunes are good. The best fruits for Ks are apples, apricots, cranberries, mangoes, peaches, pears, and pomegranates. Flesh Foods – K people rarely need any flesh foods because their flesh is adequately nourished by other foods. When they do eat flesh it should be roasted, broiled, baked, or otherwise cooked dry, but never fried. They may eat chicken, eggs, rabbit, seafood, and venison. Legumes – K people should not overeat legumes any more than they should overeat meat, because their bodies do not require large quantities of protein. Legumes are much better for Ks than meat because of the lack of animal fat in legumes. K people should however avoid the heaviest of the legumes, such as black lentils, kidney beans, and soybeans. Well-cooked tofu is permissible for Ks in small quantities. Larger quantities are likely to increase Kapha. The best legumes for K people are black beans, mung beans, pinto beans, and red lentils. Nuts and seeds - K people do not need the heavy, oily energy of nuts and seeds and should avoid them. They may eat sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds on occasion. Oils – K people should avoid the use of oils. They may use almond, corn, safflower, or sunflower oils when necessary. Dairy - K types do not need the heavy, oily, sticky, cooling qualities of dairy products, which are very like Kapha’s own qualities. Small amounts of ghee are good, and goat’s milk is better than cow’s milk because it is "Hotter". Goat’s milk is good for respiratory diseases in any constitution. Yogurt increases Kapha because its qualities are almost exactly the same as those of Kapha. Honey reduces yogurt’s Kapha forming qualities, and spices antidote it even further. The addition of water to this spiced yogurt dilutes it, and churning breaks up its gel structure to make it less slimy and viscid. The resultant mixture aggravates Kapha very little and promotes digestion greatly. Sweeteners - Kapha is increased by sweets, and Ks should not use any sweeteners except raw honey, which helps reduce Kapha. Spices - Ks find spices useful to awaken their organisms; they can use all spices except salt, which increases Kapha directly. As for Vata people, ginger and garlic are best for Ks. The above suggestions are guidelines only. You will have to discover for yourself which
rules are most important for you to follow and which can be ignored safely on occasion. As
far as possible, you should avoid the foods, which are inappropriate for your prakriti
(constitution). From The Mahabharata Mahadeva said: Those that are righteous and desirous of acquiring merit always pursue with firmness the culture of the soul. The food that comes from cruel or fierce persons is censurable. So also the food that has been cooked for serving a large number of persons. The same is said of the food that is cooked in view of the first Sraddha of a deceased person. So also is the food that is stained in consequence of the usual faults and the food that is supplied by a Sudra. These should never be taken by a Brahmana (priest)at any time. The food of a Sudra is always disapproved of by the high-souled deities. If a Brahmana, who has set up the sacred fire and who performs sacrifices, were to die
with any portion of a Sudra's food remaining undigested in his stomach, he is sure to take
birth in his next life as a Sudra. In consequence of those remains of a Sudra's food in
his stomach, he falls away from the status of a Brahmana. Such a Brahmana becomes invested
with the status of a Sudra. There is no doubt in this. This Brahmana in his next life
becomes invested with the status of that order upon whose food he subsists through life or
with the undigested portion of whose food in his stomach he breathes his last. That man
who, having attained to the auspicious status of a Brahmana which is so difficult to
acquire, disregards it and eats interdicted food, falls away from his high status.
From The Mahabharata Mahadeva said: Those that are righteous and desirous of acquiring merit always pursue with firmness the culture of the soul. The food that comes from cruel or fierce persons is censurable. So also the food that has been cooked for serving a large number of persons. The same is said of the food that is cooked in view of the first Sraddha of a deceased person. So also is the food that is stained in consequence of the usual faults and the food that is supplied by a Sudra. These should never be taken by a Brahmana (priest)at any time. The food of a Sudra is always disapproved of by the high-souled deities. If a Brahmana, who has set up the sacred fire and who performs sacrifices, were to die
with any portion of a Sudra's food remaining undigested in his stomach, he is sure to take
birth in his next life as a Sudra. In consequence of those remains of a Sudra's food in
his stomach, he falls away from the status of a Brahmana. Such a Brahmana becomes invested
with the status of a Sudra. There is no doubt in this. This Brahmana in his next life
becomes invested with the status of that order upon whose food he subsists through life or
with the undigested portion of whose food in his stomach he breathes his last. That man
who, having attained to the auspicious status of a Brahmana which is so difficult to
acquire, disregards it and eats interdicted food, falls away from his high status.
Addressing King Yudhishthira, Bhishma said: One should never cause one's guest to go without food whether one resides in one's own country or in a foreign land. One should eat also without being seen. Top To top of this page From other sources Destructive Emotions The weakening influence of the destructive emotions- FEAR often kills outright. No greater annihilator is known than fear. Fear is upon all, especially is this true in distressing times of financial and economic depression , wars and rumours of wars, political uncertainties etc. Fear of war, fear of death, fear of losing one's position, fear of poverty- fear is upon all. No one escapes. Fear that does not find normal muscular expression is the most destructive of all emotions. It benumbs and paralyses the body and wastes nerve energy as few other things do. There is a striking similarity between great fear and freezing. In both cases the face is blanched, the teeth chatter, the body trembles(shivers), becomes cramped and bent, the chest is contracted, breathing is slow and comes in short gasps. Fear greatly affects the heart. In one case of death of an animal, through fear, the heart was ruptured. Violent fits of passion will often arrest , alter or derange the functions of the body as quickly as an electric shock. Digestion may be wholly suspended by a profound state of fear, worry, anxiety or suspense. Fright, anxiety or even sudden joy are often immediately followed by diarrhoea(running stomach). Many students who have been exceedingly anxious about their examinations have experienced a diarrhoea as a result. These same influences have all been observed to cause the appearance of sugar in the urine. Mental shocks, anger, melancholy, and all disagreeable or abnormal mental and emotional states render the secretions of the body more or less morbid. Violent
rage makes the saliva poisonous Anger quickly modifies the bile; grief arrests the secretion of the gastric juices; violent rage makes the saliva poisonous; fear relaxes the bowels, often resulting in a sudden and involuntary discharge of the contents of the bowels and bladder. It is claimed that many mothers have injured and even killed their nursing infants by furious emotions, which alter their milk. It is known that such emotions as fear, worry, jealousy, anger etc., will reduce the secretion of milk and impair its food value to such an extent that the infant does not thrive on it. As another example of the effects of fear upon secretion, there is the well known greying of the hair in those who have been profoundly shocked through fear or by some great horror. Men sentenced to death often become grey haired in a few days. This loss of colour by the hair is due to the suspension of the secretion of minute glands at the roots of the hair caused by fear. WORRY is a baby fear. It impairs secretion and excretion and depresses all the functions of the body. The secretions are altered and and nutrition is impaired. Poisons accumulate in the body. The victim gradually wastes away. None of the functions of the body are carried on properly under such a state of mind. The appetite is impaired and digestion is weakened. Everytime there is a panic in the stock market the stock brokers rush to their physicians to be cured of constipation or of a functional glycosuria (sugar in the urine). GRIEF is among the mental states that exert the most profound, far-reaching and powerful effects upon the body. As in fear, in grief also, the hair has been changed from black to grey in a few days. The secretion of the mother's milk is checked and altered as surely and as quickly by grief as by lack of or by change of food. One of the most immediate effects of grief is to reduce and impair secretion and function. Intense grief often kills outright. Sorrow, as in disappointed love often produces a wasted, weakened state of the body resembling consumption. Blighted love constitutes one of the most fruitful source of indisposition. Grief takes away appetite instantly. It will be a punishment to eat under such circumstances. Food consumed under such conditions would have fermented and putrefied and poisoned the body. A young boy disappeared from home. The mother was grief-stricken.Her very life was in danger. Her physician feared that if he did not return or send word of his whereabouts, she would die. Such is the power of grief to influence and impair the processes and functions of the body. It may cause collapse and death. Secretion and excretion are impaired, elimination is checked, digestion is deranged, nutrition perverted, profound enervation is produced and toxaemia grows daily. Weight is lost. Appetite is lacking. Disease and death may easily result. Other mental states that expend nerve energy Chess, card playing or any other similar game that puts the player under a mental or nervous strain is an enervating influence. Lying, stealing,cheating, gambling and all forms of dishonesty, produce enervation and hardening of the arteries. In all of these there is the fear of being found out. In gambling, there is tension and the fear of losing. Before conscience becomes hardened there is the stinging lash of remorse and loss of self respect. These things create a mental state that expends nerve energy. Excessive mental effort-mental work-is likewise enervating. As the mental state determines the physical state It does one little good to eat a perfect diet, if his mental state is such as to impair and prevent digestion. Gloominess and grouchiness lead to an early grave. Happiness, contentment and cheer should be cultivated with as much care and persistency as the gardener exercises in the cultivation of his plants. One who thinks hate, vengeance,spite all the time will quickly arouse corresponding emotions. He who thinks love, peace, goodwill, will be slow to anger. If man keeps his thoughts on things true, honourable, just, pure, love, courage, beauty, harmony, lovely, of good rapport and worthy of praise, there will be no room in his mind for things unchaste, dishonourable, unjust, untrue, of evil rapport and unworthy of praise. Our thinking largely determines us. As the mental state determines the physical state; so the mind makes its body. He who cultivates a philosophical view of life and strives after emotional poise may have it. It is as easy to cultivate cheer, courage and contentment as it is to cultivate cabbage. Dr.Paul Carton wrote:" People spiteful and vindictive towards other men, brutal and cruel to animals, destroying without reason inanimate things, live in a venomous and cataclysmic atmosphere. They doom themselves to unhappiness and sickness. Only those that are kindly and altruistic, that love not only their parents, their children, their friends, but are neither mean nor vindictive to their enemies, may enjoy complete physical peace and moral harmony." In our emotional life there exists a perennial need of a steadying and directive principle, such as religion and ethics can supply. The individual who can bury himself in some worthy cause, some cause that is bigger than he is, and devote his energies and efforts to this cause is doubly safeguarded against emotional over-irritation. The over-selfish person who works for nothing save himself is doomed to emotional destruction. Happiness is man's normal state, but excessive joy and happiness produce a weakening of
the system. Joy and happiness are essential to health. There are few hygienic influences
that are equally as conducive to health and long life as a cheerful, equitable state of
mind. Cheer is to the body what sunshine and dew are to the grasses and flowers. It
promotes digestion, paints the cheeks, puts a bright sparkle into the eyes and lends a
buoyancy and elasticity to one's tread. Any mental state that does not promote cheer, that
puts a harshness into ones words and expressions, that blanches one's cheeks and dulls the
natural sparkle of the eyes, exerts a depressing effect upon every function of the body
and plays havoc with all the forces of life. "To keep his mental and organic balance "When our activities are set toward a precise end, our mental and organic
functions become completely harmonious.... In order to keep his mental and organic
balance, man must impose upon himself an inner rule. The mind is hidden within the living
matter.... completely neglected by physiologists and economists, almost unnoticed by
physicians. Yet it is the most colossal power of this world." From the Mahabharata on mental woes Bhimsen said: There are two kinds of diseases, viz., physical and mental. Each springs from the other. None of them can be seen existing independently. Without doubt, mental diseases spring from physical ones. Similarly physical diseases spring from mental ones. This is the truth. He that indulges in regrets on account of past physical or mental woes, reaps woe from woe and suffers double woe. Cold, heat and wind ,- these three are the attributes of the body. Their existence in harmony is the sign of health. Goodness, passion and darkness are the three attributes of the mind. The existence of
these three in harmony is the sign of mental health. If one of these prevails over the
rest, remedies have been prescribed. Grief is checked by joy, and joy is checked by grief.
One, living in the present enjoyment of this , wishes to recollect his past woes. Another,
living in the present suffering of woe, wishes to recollect his past bliss. From The Mahabharata Asma said to Janak: The causes of all mental sorrows are two, viz., delusion of the mind and the accession
of distress. No third cause exists. All these diverse kinds of causes as also those
arising from attachment to earthly enjoyments, that overtake man, spring from such causes. From Anandmayee, The universal mother. A lady came to Anandamyee to seek solace. Her husband was in prison and she was in
distress. Ma said: "This swami (husband) causes you pleasures and grief, but That
Swami (Lord) never causes sorrow. Establish a relationship and you would always feel His
presence in your mind." Top To top of this page __________________ From The Mahabharata Pujani said: He who takes everyday food that is nutritive, be it bitter or astringent
or palatable or sweet, enjoys a long life. He, on the other hand, who disregards wholesome
food and takes that which is injurious without an eye to consequences, soon meets with
death. The Destructive Effects of Rock Music Mrs. Rattallack ran a series of trials with sweet corn, squash, petunias, zinnias and marigolds. Under controlled experiments, playing of rock music caused some of the plants at first to grow either abnormally tall and put out excessively small leaves, or remain stunted. Within a fortnight all the marigolds had died, but only six feet away identical marigolds, enjoying the classical strains by Hayden, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert etc., were flowering. More interestingly, Mrs Rattallack found that, even during the first week, the rock music-stimulated plants were using much more water than classically entertained vegetation. Despite this an examination of the roots on the eighteenth day revealed that soil growth was sparse in the well watered group, averaging only about an inch, whereas in the second, it was thick, tangled and about four times as long. Acid Rock Music Further experiments in which Mrs. Rattallack submitted her plants to Acid Rock Music, a particularly raucous and percussive type of music that subordinates harmony to volume and tempo, revealed that all the plants leaned away from this cacophony. When she rotated all the pots 180 degrees, the plants leaned decidedly in the opposite direction. The plants were definitely reacting to the sounds of rock music. Mrs.Retallack guessed that it might be the percussive component in the music that so jarred her plants and she therefore started yet another experiment. Selecting the familiar Spanish tune, ‘La Paloma’ she played one version of it played on steel drums to one chamber of plants and another version played on strings to a second. The percussion caused a lean of ten degrees away from the vertical, which was very little in comparison with the rock; but the plants listening to the fiddles leaned fifteen degrees towards the source of the music. At eighteen day repeat of the same experiment using twenty five plants per chamber including squash from seed, and flowering and leafy type plants from green houses, produced largely similar results.Ravi Shankar – Classical Indian Music Now she wondered how the plants would be affected by more sophisticated music of both east and west. She chose some Bach organ preludes and some classical Indian music played on the sitar by Ravi Shankar. The plants gave positive evidence of liking Bach since they leaned an unprecedented thirty-five degrees towards the preludes. But even this affirmation was far exceeded by their reaction to Ravi Shankar. In their straining to reach the source of the classical Indian music they bent more than half way to the horizontal, at angles of more than sixty degrees, the nearest one almost embracing the loudspeaker. The alarming effect which acid rock music had been shown to have on plants made Mrs. Rettallack wonder whether the nationwide craze for it among the younger generation might be extremely deleterious to their development. One longhaired musician, peering into the rock-suffused biotronic chamber, said to her; "Man, if rock is doing that to plants, I wonder what it is doing to me?" Related articles From other sources Nutrition and physical degeneration "The differences between the modern white civilisations and many of the primitive groups is interesting. Criminal tendencies in isolated primitives are so slight that no prisons are required." - Weston A.Price D.D.S."Among primitive races living in a primitive state childbirth was very simple and
rapid process, accompanied by little fear or apprehension ; whereas, in the modernised
descendants, even in the first and second generations of those individuals born to parents
after they had adopted the foods of modern white civilisations, serious trouble was often
experienced." It has long been known that primitive people, prior to their contacts with civilisation, had excellent teeth. It also has been established that teeth are a valuable indicator of general physical condition: excellent teeth and excellent general physique go hand in hand. Unfortunately, the converse of this is also true. The curse of civilisation - modern food refinement - is the chief offender. In addition any deviation in living or eating pattern interfering with a harmonious degree of body metabolism contributes to the decay found in our buccal cavities. The great American scientist, Dr.Weston A. Price, had an extensive dental practice in Cleveland, Ohio,(USA). He became tired of trying to remove a symptom by treating sick teeth from the outside.While his colleagues were experimenting with new methods for controlling dental caries, Dr.Price was conducting research to learn why the primitive had such good teeth, and how this knowledge could benefit his civilised brother. At the age of sixty, with great enthusiasm, the dentist explorer went around the world. By planes, ships, and by car, on horse back and on foot, the untiring gatherer of facts amassed a tremendous volume of evidence to demonstrate what happens when primitive people adopt the white man's diet. The evidence was shocking but irrefutable. He investigated groups all over the world; in the Swiss Alps, New Hebrides, Australia, Alaska, South America, Africa, among others. The climates, people and even the diets varied, but all shared one thing - excellent nutrition. These people, drawing from the sources nature provided, instinctively supplied all their body needs-just as did the Hunzas. Through laboratory analysis, Dr. Price discovered that although the foods varied according to the area, the total intake of vitamins and minerals was nearly identical. These admirable physical specimens possessed unbelievable endurance, and cheerful, even dispositions; their jaws were wide and well developed, and their teeth stayed free from tooth Decay, just as their bodies remained free of disease; cancer, tuberculosis, high blood pressure, kidney and heart diseases, polio, cerebral palsy and other degenerative diseases were non-existent. Every mother nursed her baby; a non-functional breast was unheard of. Mental health was as high as physical health. Isolated tribes were visited where all members had perfectly sound mouth structures. As long as the tribe would continue their established eating and living pattern, there would be no tooth problem- with even the oldest members having full sets of teeth with barely a single cavity. In every instance, Dr. Price was able to compare his people with people living nearby of the same racial stock; sometimes the healthy specimens could be compared to their offspring who had been exposed to the city. Man's diet of white flour, refined sugar, polished rice and caned foods. The deteriorating that had resulted was pitiful and obvious: faulty bone structure, crooked teeth, extreme tooth decay, high incidence of disease. Cancer was rampant among the very tribes that had stayed cancer-free on their native diets. In both his observations on these people, and through animal experiments, Dr.Price was able to demonstrate the devastating effects of bad nutrition, not only of the present generation but also - far worse - on their offspring. His book - Nutrition and Physical Degeneration- has scores of pictures testifying to the destructive results from the white man's processed foods. There was not a single toothbrush found by Dr.Price, whenever he found the enviable sets of glistening white and pearly teeth of primitives. Dr.Price urged a return to harmony with nature by choosing foods in their natural state: all untempered with by man. Dr.Price gives this warning: "...we cannot distort and rob ... foods without serious injury. Nature has put these foods up in packages containing the combinations of minerals and other factors that are essential for nourishing the various organs .... our modern process of robbing the natural foods for convenience or gain completely thwarts nature's inviolable programme... the robbing of the wheat in the making of white flour reduced the minerals and other chemicals in the grains, so as to make them sources of energy without normal body-building and repairing qualities.Our appetites have been distorted so that hunger applies only for energy with no conscious need for body-building and repairing chemicals." [Note: A good public library may have this book "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" by Weston A. Price]. __________________ Top To top of this page How the body is affected by the quality of food ingested Probably the most dramatic proof of how the body is affected by the quality of foods ingested was furnished by the British medical researcher, Major-General Sir Robert McCarrison, former chairman of the post-graduate Medical Education Committee in the University of Oxford and director of research on nutrition in India. As a member of the Indian Medical Service, Dr. McCarrison's duties included supervision of a people known as the Hunzas, in northern India. For centuries rumours of an earthly paradise hidden in an almost inaccessible valley in the high Himalayas intrigued the outside world with stories of a 'Lost race' who had learned to stop the ageing process. Occasional travellers returned with incredible stories of a nation where people stayed youthfully active for as long as they lived and where "young" oldsters of a hundred years or more were the rule instead of the exception. After two thousand years of almost complete isolation , the people of Hunza have made the secrets of their remarkable way of long and healthy life available to the rest of the world. They have evolved a way of living, eating and thinking that has substantially lengthened their lifespan and dramatically reduced susceptibility to most of the illnesses to which "civilised" people are prone. In Hunza, people manage to live to over one hundred years of age in perfect mental and physical health; and men father children at ninety. Cancer, heart disease, heart attacks, high and low blood pressure and childhood diseases are virtually unknown. In fact, sickness is extremely rare. There is no juvenile delinquency in Hunza, and divorce is a rarity. There are no jails, no police, no army. There is no need for them, as there has not been a crime reported for the last one hundred and fifty years. Dr.Robert McCarrison, the brilliant English surgeon, took up the study of certain diseases common to the people of Asia. He was interested in finding out to what degree diseases in Indian peoples were caused by faulty food. He was amazed by the remarkable health and vitality of these people. He wrote in his classic book 'Studies in deficiency diseases': My own experience provides an example of a race unsurpassed in perfection of physique and in freedom from disease in general. I refer to the people of the State of Hunza, situated in the extreme northernmost point of India (now part of Pakistan). Amongst these people the span of life is extraordinarily long. During the period of my association with these people, I never saw a case of asthenic dyspepsia, of gastric or duodenal ulcer, or appendicitis, or mucous colitis, or cancer. Dr.McCarrison puzzled over why the Hunzas should have enjoyed health so superior to that of their dyspeptic neighbours. He found that the Pathans, who live in the region of the Khyber Pass, were great hillsmen and adept at primitive agriculture. They are comparatively well and were by no means a lazy people.The Sikhs also fit into this category. In an article written by him in 1925, Dr.McCarrison wrote that the Sikhs, the Pathans and other Himalayan tribes "are of fine physical development and power of endurance, but by no means even compare with the Hunzakuts." The question that now absorbed his mind was: "How is it that man can be such a magnificent creature as the Hunzakut? And he proceeded to view the ills of both civilised and primitive man. The only difference he could find was in their diet. The Hunzas practised a Spartan form of agriculture, returning all organic matter to the soil. Their food consisted chiefly of raw fruits and vegetables, sprouted pulses, whole grains, nuts milk products from goats, and occasionally a small portion of meat, usually during holidays and weddings. Since chickens have a natural urge to peck at seeds, and since seeds are more valuable than money in Hunza, until recently no chickens were allowed in the state. The Hunzas grow apples, pears, peaches,apricots, black and red cherries, mulberries; and the stones of the fresh apricot are cracked open and kernels also eaten. They eat their vegetables mostly raw. They grow spinach lettuce, carrots, peas, turnips,squash, young leaves and various herbs, and they sprout pluses and eat them. Whole grains: wheat, barley, buckwheat, and small grains. Of cereal foods they eat wheat and a great deal of millet. By stone grinding the whole grain remains in the flour and as a result is very nourishing. Nuts: the Persian Walnut, almonds, pecans, hazelnut, apricot kernel. These are an excellent source of high grade proteins and fats. Very little fat of any kind is consumed by the people through ghee, butter apricot oil and negligible quantities of animal fats. Apricot kernel oil is the most important source of fat. Milk products: fresh milk, unboiled, unpasteurised and buttermilk, clarified butter(ghee) cottage cheese, yoghurt and sour milk. Meat does not form an important part of the Hunzan way of life. Most foods are consumed raw. Complete absence of foreign additives. Nothing whatsoever is added to either the soil or the food of the people or the animals. No sprays or spray materials of any kind are used on their crops, and no unnatural chemical fertilisers are used on their lands. All fruits and vegetables that are dried for storing have been exposed to the sun and air. No foreign substances are added or treatments used. All children in Hunza are breast fed. A boy child is breast fed for three years and girl child for two years. There is no specific prenatal care, and the good health of the mother is passed on to the infant...and the breast feeding gets the child off to an extremely good start. It is interesting to note that in Hunza no one eats before going to bed at night. None of the people, including children, eat between meals.There are practically no cases of overweight among the people of Hunza. Hunzans are light eaters. Their diet is comparatively meagre. They use less fat of any kind than most people found throughout the world. They have very little animal fat and no fish. And yet there are no more energetic people found in the world and they are continually active. We are taught that the diet should consist of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, vitamins, water and oxygen. However, it is doubtful that the Hunzakuts are aware of these facts. The scriptures say "Disease never comes without a cause. The way is prepared, and disease invited, by disregard of the laws of health and of nature. "A large part of our nutritional problems grow out of our refusal to eat natural foods. Our preference for the manufactured articles-those that have been demineralised, devitaminised, denatured, standardised, pasteurised, homogenised, cooked, canned, frozen, and in other ways rendered less valuable as foods-creates dietary problems that are not adequately solved by the present reliance upon supplements and substitutes. We go to great lengths to spoil our foods and then complain about the climate. We live on a diet of white flour products, degerminated and demineralised corn meal, denatured cereal, white sugar, pasteurised milk, embalmed flesh foods, canned fruits and vegetables, candies, cakes, pies etc., and expect to render such diets adequate by"supplementing" them with fish oils, brewer's yeast, wheat germ, black strap molasses, honey, yoghurt, powdered skimmed milk, cider vinegar, etc."-Dr.Herbert M.Shelton. "The strange absence of principle which characterises this generation, and which is shown in their disregard of the laws of life and health, is astonishing. Ignorance prevails upon this subject, while light is shining all around them."-Counsels on diet and foods. Dr.McCarrison noted that the neighbouring villages to the State of Hunza were addicted to white man's foods. To test his theory that foods made the difference, Dr.McCarrison began his historic feeding experiments in1927. For the first phase of his experiments, Dr.McCarrison chose healthy albino rats, then placed them in good conditions with fresh air, sunlight, comfort and cleanliness.He chose their diet from foods eaten regularly by the Hunzakuts: chapattis made of wholemeal flour, lightly smeared with fresh butter; sprouted pulse; fresh raw carrots; raw cabbage; unboiled milk; a small ration of meat with bones once a week, and an abundance of water. In this experiment almost 1200 rats were watched from birth to the twenty-seventh month, an age in the rat which corresponds to that of about fifty years in a man. At this stage some of the the Hunza-diet-fed rats were killed and carefully examined. Dr.McCarrison's report was remarkable: "During the past two and a quarter years there has been no case of illness in this "universe" of albino rats, no death from natural causes in the adult stock, and, but for a few accidental deaths, no infantile mortality. Both clinically and at post-mortem, examination of this stock has been shown to be remarkably free from disease. I have failed to find either clinical or microscopical evidence of any hidden disease. His experiments did not, however, stop here. Next he took diseased rats and placed them too, on the Hunzakut diet. They all became well. The results startled even Dr.McCarrison. Then he took batches of rats and placed them in clean, comfortable surroundings and fed them the food of the people of India. The rats living on the various Indian diets, which consisted of rice, pulses,cooked vegetables and condiments were soon plagued with diseases and miseries of many kinds. In every case the average health standard of the people whose diet was fed to the rats was mirrored in the health of the animals, including the percentage of specific diseases, and even mental condition and temper. The rats that ate the diet of the Hunzas had the same astonishing health, vitality and gentle tempers; the animals grew rapidly, were never ill, had healthy offspring, and autopsy revealed virtually nothing wrong with their organs. During the course of his experiments on some 2243 rats fed on faulty Indian diets, he found and listed diseases of every organ of the body. Among the ailments they suffered were diseases of the respiratory system, adenoids, pneumonia, bronchitis, pleurisy, pyothorax and infections of the nose; infections of the ear; infections of the eye; dilated stomach, growths, ulcer and cancer of the stomach, inflammation of the small and large gut; constipation and diarrhoea; diseases of the urinary passage, such as Bright's disease, stones, abscesses, inflammation of the bladder; inflammation of the womb and ovaries, death of the foetus, premature birth, haemorrhage; diseases of the testicles; inflammation of the skin, loss of hair, ulcers, abscesses, gangrene of the feet; anaemia of the blood; enlarged lymphatic glands, cystic and suppurating glands; goitre and diseases of the special glands; wasting, enlargement of, and inflammation of the muscle, and inflammation of the outer lining of the heart; inflammation and degeneration of the nervous tissues, diseased teeth and bones; dropsy; scurvy; feeble growth, feeble appetite, weakness, lassitude, and ill temper. Dr.McCarrison wrote, "All these conditions, these conditions of ill health had a common causation: faulty nutrition with or without infection. I found that when, growing rats of healthy stock were fed on diets similar to those of people whose physique was good, the physique and health of the rats were good; when they were fed on diets similar to those of people whose physique was bad, the physique and the health of the rats were bad; and when they were fed on diets similar to those of people whose physique were middling, the physique and health of the rats were middling." In later experiments, Dr.McCarrison gave a set of rats the diet of the poorer classes of England; white bread, margarine,sweetened tea,boiled vegetables, tinned meats and inexpensive jams and jellies.On this diet, not only did the rats developed all kinds of diseased conditions, but they became nervous wrecks:" They were nervous and apt to bite their attendants; they lived unhappily together, and by the sixtieth day of the experiment they began to kill and eat the weaker ones amongst them." As early as 1921 Dr.McCarrison wrote his book 'Studies in deficiency diseases' which he said provided experimental evidence that "appeared to me to warrant the conclusion that food of improper constitution" was responsible for a large proportion of ill health in Great Britain. "The eating practices of most people are matters of habit and custom, rather than of intelligent planning. Our people are influenced more in their eating by advertising than they are by any knowledge of foods. They eat what has been made to taste good, rather than what is truly good. They eat foods which they know contain poisons- chemical preservatives, coal tar dyes, artificial flavourings,etc-with no thought of these poisons, and reject good foods only because they have not learned to eat them. Seasonings, rather than flavours of foods, determine what is liked by their undiscriminating tastes."-Dr Herbert M.Shelton. [Note: A good public library may have books on "The Hunzas"]
Top To top of this page Faulty food disease What happens to healthy men when they are fed on a diet consisting of bread and butter, meat and mashed potatoes, eggs and milk, salt and vinegar, tea and coffee, sugar and condensed milk? We are relating to an incident that took place during the first world war. The Kronprinz Wilhelm , converted German cruiser, left Hoboken, Germany on 8th AUGUST 1914, and roamed the seas for 255 days, subsisting upon supplies taken from British and French merchantmen (cargo ships) before she sent them to the bottom. During this time she touched no port, depending entirely for coal and provisions upon her raiding ability and her speed in escaping from enemy warships bent upon her destruction. She was fairly busy during these 255 days. She sank 14 steamers and seized vast supplies of fine white American and Argentina flour , millions of pounds of the finest of fresh beef, enough to give every one of her CREW OF 500 MEN, three pounds every day for a year- a considerable quantity of fresh pork, hams and bacon, potatoes, canned vegetables, dried peas and beans, cakes, coffee, sugar and condensed milk. In JANUARY (after four months), the increasing pallor of the members of her crew was noticed by the chief surgeon. He also noticed the dilation of the pupils of their eyes and marked shortness of breath; but these symptoms were not considered significant, nor did anybody dream of connecting them in any way with the "high grade diet" upon which the men were living, it being in every way equal to that eaten daily by the "best people" of the United States. And the men went merrily along, drawing their typical American meals of fresh beef, with occasional rations of ham and bacon, potatoes, canned vegetables cooked in the juices that stood in the can, cheese, fine white bread, margarine, coffee, tea, condensed milk and white sugar, three times every day, with sugar cakes, champagne and beer thrown in between meals. In FEBRUARY, the Kronprinz Wilhelm sank a steamer loaded with a cargo
of wheat- whole ungrounded wheat. The germ and bran of that wheat would have been worth
more to the rapidly succumbing Germans than its weight in precious stones, but they did
not know that they were sick, nor how badly they needed that whole wheat, with its
alkaline calcium and potassium salts. Almost every week they added to their store of red
meats, potatoes, canned vegetables and margarine. Also in February, many of the crew complained of swollen ankles, pain in legs and arms. But they continued eating freely of the refined foods of high caloric value, now so extensively relied upon throughout the United States. In MARCH ( 7 months), alarming conditions developed; symptoms of paralysis, dilated heart, atrophy of muscles, and pain on pressure over nerves, with marked anaemia and constipation. Fifty of the men could not stand, and they were dropping at average rate of two a day. On 11TH APRIL 1915, ( AFTER 8 MONTHS), she made a dash into James River, and anchored off Newport News (USA), a floating hospital with 500 sick men on board, 110 of them in bed, and the rest coming down at the rate of four every day. Observe how "contagious" this malady is. From the first victim it seemed to spread to the rest with the rapidity of a prairie fire before a gale. The chief surgeon of the ship, E.Perrenon, M.D., had exhausted all his medical skills in his valiant efforts to check the spreading , devastating work of the "consuming monster". Then he ordered the ship into port and issued a call for help. Many dignified medical men, including the most famous physicians in New York, came in response to the call. But they found that not one of them had anything in their medical repertoire that would or could relieve the situation. Then Alfred McCann, a representative of the New York Globe, and a student of nature and health, not of medicine and disease, appeared on the scene. He knew what the matter was without making any examination of the ship or the men. He did not ask to see the men; did not care to look at their tongue, nor feel their pulse, nor listen to their heart. He did not need to examine the men’s sputum, or urine, or blood. From his knowledge of Nature, McCann knew that when men are forced to live any considerable length of time on strictly denatured and cooked foods, as these men had been forced to do, with no unfired (uncooked) fruits and green leafy vegetables now and then, to counter act and neutralise the destructive work produced on the body by cooked and denatured substances, they are liable to develop but never "catch" from another person, any of the many named acute disorders. These men were suffering from the evil effects of wrong food. They needed foods that furnished the body with vital elements not found in cooked and denatured substances. Nature makes no errors in her work that must be corrected by man. The foods she produces are perfect for the bodies that must always depend on her for complete sustenance and subsistence. Alfred MacCann’s study of Nature had told him all these things; and he knew that when this law of Nature is observed and obeyed, the results arising therefrom are and must be favourable, since they are controlled by the same force that regulates all things in life. Acting in accordance with this knowledge, MacCann gave the ship’s surgeon a list of simple, natural foods, assuring him that the cause at the back of the seemingly "contagious" malady was merely a lack of proper food. The ship’s surgeon did accept and act on MacCann’s advice, not because he wanted to, but because it was his last and only hope. And what happened? Results most amazing, because of their promptness and positiveness. Within ten days from the time the diet of natural food was begun, 47 of the men were discharged from the hospital, the prevalence of the "deadly disease" at once abated, and no more of the men succumbed to it. There is nothing mysterious or marvellous about this. Know the law and apply the knowledge correctly, and the results are as certain as the rising of the summer sun. The building of health and the curing of disease are not a matter of drugs and serums, vaccination and inoculation. It is a matter of right living. Wrong living has been followed so long , that it is regarded as the correct way to live, and right living is a thing unknown- except to a few men and to primitive people. Below is a list of the symptoms from which the crew of the Kronprinz Wilhelm suffered. Dr. Perrenon made to MacCann this statement:- "We had many cases of pneumonia, pleurisy, and rheumatism among the men. They seemed to lose all resistance long before the epidemic broke out. We had superficial wounds and cuts to deal with. They usually refused to heal for a long time. We had much haemorrhage. There were a number of accidents aboard, fractures and dislocations. The broken bones were slow to mend. Nature was not doing her duty. Food is indeed the cause of much disease. In nine months we can learn much that is not found in the medical textbooks." It is just as impossible for nature to build sound bodies with defective materials, as for carpenters to build substantial houses with rotten timbers. Meet nature halfway and see how perfectly she will perform her part. It is instructive to observe the list of symptoms presented as resulting from the use of a diet of cooked, denatured and refined foods of high caloric value, such as that recommended by the leading physicians and dieticians of the United States. These symptoms are (1) pallor, (2) dilation of the pupils of the eyes, (3) marked shortness of breath, (4) pains in legs and arms, (6) symptoms of paralysis, (7) dilated heart, (8) atrophy of muscles, (9) pain on pressure over nerves, (10) anaemia, (11) constipation, (12) loss of vital resistance, (13) cuts and wounds refused to heal, (14) haemorrhage, (15) broken bones slow to mend, (16) pneumonia, (17) rheumatism. Menu of the German sailors It is instructive to know more in detail about the menu of the Kronprinz Wilhelm which we are able to give from Alfred MacCann’s book ‘SCIENCE OF EATING’ He says;- "From the ship’s cook, with the chief surgeon’s assistance, I obtained the following chart, showing just what each meal consisted of . Upon inspecting the menu, we find that it included all that civilisation in general believes is necessary to sustain the body in health so far as food is concerned. These things are fed to patients in every allopathic hospital in the country; and if a man were served at a hotel with this variety of food, well prepared and in sufficient quantity, he would consider that his dietetic needs were abundantly and sumptuously provided for. Few men would have the faintest idea that these foods were slowly destroying their body. The raids never resulted in any large quantity of fresh vegetables or fruits. The fresh vegetables and fruits were reserved for the officers table, which they managed to provide with fair quantities from one raid to another. All the officers showed symptoms of anaemia and mild acidosis, but none of them was prostrated. From their tissues and blood, the lime, iron and potassium had not been robbed to the degree suffered by the tissues and blood of the crew. None of the officers were prostrated. They were saved from the fate of the men by eating the small quantity of fruits and fresh vegetables taken from the destroyed ships. Not much to be sure; yet this small quantity was sufficient, as we see, to furnish the body with just enough building material of the proper kind, to prevent the officers from collapsing as the men did. The menu of the German sailors LUNCH TUESDAY LUNCH WEDNESDAY LUNCH THURSDAY LUNCH FRIDAY Boiled rice, cheese, white bread, margarine, fried beef, coffee, condensed milk, sugar. LUNCH SATURDAY LUNCH SUNDAY LUNCH AT FOUR O’CLOCK At four o’clock every afternoon, the men were served with a plate of Huntley and Palmer’s fancy biscuits, or sweet Cakes with coffee, condensed milk and sugar. SUPPER Top To top of this page The situation facing Denmark was apparently desperate. Famine, disease, and death seemed to be staring her people in the face. Some drastic action had to be taken and that quickly. So the Danes on the orders of Hindhede killed off four-fifths of their hogs, and 34 per cent of their cows. If Hindhede had been a flesh- eating advocate, he would not have done this. How fortunate for the people of Denmark that he was not. By killing off this amount of stock, the food that would have been fed to the animals was reserved for the people. And the bran and the middlings of grain which until now was being fed to the stock, was incorporated in the bread, vegetables, cabbage soup, some fruit, a little dairy produce, but no tea, no coffee, no spirits and no beer. On this diet, the favourable effect produced on the health and mortality of the people was truly amazing. The mortality rate for the whole of Denmark, in the first full year of this sort of rationing, decreased by 17 per cent, resulting in a mortality of 10.4 per 1000 people – the lowest death-rate ever recorded in any civilised country. During the same period, the death rate of Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Holland rose, from 24 per cent increase for Norway, to 46 per cent for Spain. All this occurred in one short year; and resulted entirely from the non-use of flesh, and the use of whole grains instead of only the starchy portions of grains. Dr.Hindhede, Director of the Laboratory for Nutrition Research in Copenhagen, reported: "Denmark was spared participation in the war, but we nevertheless felt its effects acutely. We were put in a very awkward position especially by the complete blockade from February 1917. The situation seemed desperate but the solution of the problem was extremely easy. The fact merely was that both men and pigs could not live In Denmark, so we reduced the number of pigs to one-fifth, and reserved their food, barley and potatoes, for the people. In addition we reduced our cows by 34 per cent; and withheld the wheat bran from the cows and incorporated that in our rye bread. We thus obtained a bread that not only contained all the rye bran, but 12 per cent extra wheat bran as well. It was indeed the coarsest bread ever seen. Moreover, we forbade the production of spirits for consumption, and the English deprived us of coffee and tea. We thus arrived at an impossible diet, according to the old theory, but an ideal diet according to the new theory. What was the relation of health to this extremely Spartan diet? It was so remarkable that the rate of mortality for the whole country in the first full rationing year (1stOctober 1917 to 1st October 1918) fell by 17 per cent. We came down to a mortality rate of 10.4 per cent per thousand, the lowest death rate ever seen in any country. During the last three months of 1918, however, influenza appeared, which quite disturbed the mortality figures, but it is striking to note that Denmark was the only European country which had no higher rate of mortality in 1918 than in the years preceding the war. There is no reason to doubt that, under normal conditions-influenza, which rages furiously in our midst- would have put up the death rate in Denmark to the same extent as in the neighbouring countries. But we seemed to have saved this 25 per cent by our rationing. What were the active factors? It is safe to say that a diet consisting mainly of dairy produce, coarse bran bread, barley porridge and potatoes, and coffee substitute, was a healthy diet for the old people; but that it was less fortunate that, when rationing was abandoned, they returned to a heavier meat diet, with ordinary white bread and genuine Mocha coffee. I have worked for many years to convince my countrymen to return to the simple peasant’s diet, which they lived on in the country 50 years ago. I have maintained that this diet was the most healthy besides being by far the cheapest. During the period of rationing I had the opportunity of helping to introduce the old diet of the peasants again; and the results quite came up to expectations." The above report was published in - The Practitioner, London, March 1926. The lessons we learn: Based on this most remarkable report, the impression spread far
and wide that the food on which the Danes subsisted (on rationed food) during that time
was the ideal food for man. This is a somewhat erroneous impression. The report merely
indicates how highly destructive is the habit of eating flesh and foods made of
denaturalised grains, processed foods etc., and how quickly the body will regenerate
itself and increase its resistance to inimical influences, if given only half a chance. Top To top of this page "For 28 years I suffered with a skin affliction known as psoriasis. My entire body, from the top of my head to the soles of my feet, was covered with large blotches, which were covered with scale like formation. I consulted many doctors, and in this way spent much money, but my condition grew steadily worse. Then I heard of Dr. Clements and I was told that he was very successful in securing marvelous results in all sorts of ailments, and especially in chronic ailments of long standing. I also learned that he gave no drugs, but employed only the simple agencies of Nature in his work. This was a new kind of doctor to me, and coupled with the remarkable stories I heard of his work, I was anxious to see what he could do for me. So I lost no time in going to him. Think of my surprise when I say that Dr. Clements did not proceed to make the long, tiresome and expensive examinations, which are the customary practice with medical men. Dr. Clements simply looked at the eruptions on my arms and body, then asked me how long I had been in that condition, what I had done for it, and what my habits were as to eating, drinking and so on. I confessed to him that I had been a heavy eater of meats and pastries, - but whoever had any idea such foods have anything to do with an eruption on the skin? Do not physicians advise patients to eat plenty of good, nourishing food? And are meats and pastries not such food? I also confessed that I smoked cigarettes, and occasionally drank whisky and other alcoholic drinks. What did Dr. Clements prescribe? Well, I had anticipated something wonderful, something extra-ordinary; so when he told me what to do, it was such a shock that I know just how Naaman must have felt, when Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying: "Go and wash Jordaan and be clean." Dr.Clements merely advised me to eat only uncooked foods, drink only water, quit smoking and drinking, and observe all the habits of health such as exercise, cleanliness, sunshine etc. He told me that by these methods we build health, and that as we build health we cure disease. How simple. Why did I never think of that before? We cure disease by building health, and we destroy health by building disease, by bad habits. How can the average man discover anything so simple and so profoundly true, when his mind is befogged by the absurd education of the age, which teaches that disease results from germs, chilly winds, dampness, pollen from various wild flowers, and so on. There are people in large cities like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia who suffer from hay-fever, but who never saw a load of hay. We build disease by bad habits, and we build health by good habits, and as we build health we cure disease or as we build disease we destroy health. How marvelous! How simple! I can see now as never could before, that if health-building rules were as well and as widely known as musical and mathematical rules, diseases would soon disappear. Yes, Dr.Clements ordered me to eat no more cooked foods – to my great surprise. Dr. Clements advised me to select my food from substances that grow above the ground. Things that grow under ground, such as roots and tubers, have less vitality. Leafy green vegetables, and fruits such as melons, berries, grapes, says Dr.Clements, are what men should eat if they are interested in having good health I was so convinced with the soundness of his argument, that I left his office feeling like a fool because I had lived all these years and had not found the simple truths of Nature which he expounded to me so clearly in less than an hour'’ time. The 45 minutes that I spent in his office are really worth more to me than all the schooling and training of all the years gone by. ‘For what doth it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his health and life’? I rigidly observed Dr. Clement’s advice for three long weeks, eating things I had never eaten before in that condition. Just the plain uncooked cabbage and tomatoes as they came from the garden. Then I ate nuts. I also ate oranges, and bananas and apples, and drank only water. For three weeks I did this- and no appreciable change could I notice. I began to grow discouraged. I reported to Dr.Clements and told him that I believed he was wrong. But he urged me to stick to it a while longer. I did so at his earnest request. He appeared to have so much faith in the things he told me; and if his past experience had shown him that he was right, how could I have less faith in his advice than he had himself? One week more passed by. Four long weeks on this diet. It seemed like a year. But the fourth week was not so bad, nor did it seem so long as the first. I was beginning to like the new diet. It did not seem to leave such a tired, heavy feeling in my stomach and bowels. A bowl of finely chopped cabbage, lettuce, and celery made me a good meal, and it seemed so light on my stomach that I did not know I had a stomach. So different from the old feeling after a heavy meal of the old style. One more week went by, as I said. And what began to happen in that week? Could it be possible? Yes, it was true. The irritation was growing fainter. The large ugly red blotches, which had covered my flesh from childhood, were growing pale and smaller. The scale-like formation was gradually disappearing. The new skin was smooth and considerably clearer, and the itching, burning sensation, which used to grow so marked when I perspired, was growing less and less. When it finally dawned upon me that my condition was improving, I bubbled over with joy. I called on Dr. Clements and told him what was happening. I thought he would be surprised, but he wasn’t. He said that the rising of the summer sun did not surprise him as the event is governed by a law that cannot be defied. The human body is governed by a law just as fixed and certain. He said that he knew my condition would improve just as sure as the ebb and flow of the tide, provided I would follow his advice long enough. What an extraordinary doctor! And what faith he has in his methods! I wish I could tell the whole world about it. It has now been several months since my entire body has become free of that terrible affliction, which I had begun to believe I would carry to my grave. I have been through the fire and learned my lessons well. I only regret that I cannot tell what I know to millions of suffering souls. Just one more word before I close. Never mix your food. Eat one kind of food at a meal. I mean follow the mono-diet system. When you eat vegetables, eat only vegetables; when you eat berries, eat only berries; when you eat oranges, eat only oranges; and when you eat nuts, let nuts make up the entire meal." Lessons we learn: All skin disorders from pimple to pox, are primarily the result of
people eating wrong food and in wrong combinations. What is known in Ayurveda as
"Viruddha Ahar" (incompatible foods) is a science of correct food combining.
"Correct Food Combining" is explained elsewhere on this page. Get to Know your
constitution and select foods that are compatible with your constitution. The use of
poisonous pesticides, inorganic fertilizers, etc. calls for caution when using raw foods.
There is a worldwide trend towards organic farming methods. Look for their outlets. Top To top of this page The devastating effects of improper food combinations (different categories of foods eaten at the same meal) can ruin your health and vitality.Many diseases that will catch up with us in the future can be kept away by understanding the AYURVEDIC principles of "VIRUDDHA AHAR"(Improper food combination). ASTHMA SKIN DISEASES Treat all skin eruptions as external evidences of internal intoxication, set about correcting all the causes of intoxication at once, and watch the results. These results, being on the outside of the body, can provide an excellent visible demonstration of the effects of proper food combining, and its astonishing efficacy when faithfully carried out. Much of this internal intoxication arises from the fermentation and putrefaction of incompletely digested carbohydrates, sugar and white flour foods which are the chief trouble makers where skin diseases are concerned. A ten year old boy had eczema since birth. At the age of ten his eczema was so bad that his classmates shunned any contact with him. Members of his family were being kept awake at night with his moanings and scratching. His arms and legs were a solid weeping mass of eruptions. His mother was instructed by Dr.Hay to cut out all his sugary breakfast cereals, his colas and fizzy pop drinks, sweets,cakes and biscuits, and instead have fresh fruit at his main meal and at other meal time to use whole wheat bread. Ten days later she phoned to tell that the eczema had vanished, that nothing remained but shadows where the weeping eruptions had been. Dr.Hay was totally astonished at the sped of this boy's recovery in ten days after ten years of misery and the total failure of orthodox treatment. Beauty conscious women will be delighted to know that compatible eating also ensures a beautiful and flawless complexion. HEADACHES ARTHRITIS APLASTIC ANAEMIA A woman 65 years wrote to Dr.Hay: Three years ago I was seriously ill with aplastic anaemia, because my bone marrow was not making the red blood corpuscles I needed. I had no energy , could not walk far or do much, and some of my friends thought that I was going to die. My specialist said that I would need blood transfusions for the rest of my life. I had these transfusions in hospital every five and half weeks, and the outlook seemed bleak. Within three months of adopting compatible food diet, the time between transfusions gradually lengthened, until I lasted for eighteen weeks. Then I had my twelfth and last transfusion. Fifteen months after starting the diet, my bone marrow began to work again, and my haemoglobin (red cell corpuscle count) gradually began to rise, and two years later is continuing to do so. I am so well that recently I was able to tour The Rockies in Canada without fatigue. The specialist says that I may have reached the normal count for a woman of my age (sixty five years). Anyway, I feel marvellously well, and it is quite amazing when I think how ill I was three years ago, when the specialist intimated that I had no hope of a cure. OBESITY Compatible eating is especially effective, merely avoiding warring mixtures is sufficient gradually to reduce excessive weight- without even trying to do so and without feeling hungry. COMMON COLD Correct Food Combining PROTEIN-STARCH COMBINATIONS The hamburger, egg sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, ham sandwiches and other such protein-starch combinations are similar dietetic abominations. Dr. Tilden used to say that nature never produced a sandwich. How true are his words! Digestion of carbohydrates (starches and sugars) and of protein is so different, that when they are mixed in the stomach they interfere with the digestion of each other. An acid process (gastric digestion) and an alkaline process(salivary digestion) cannot be carried on at the same time in an ideal way in the stomach. In fact, they cannot proceed together at all for long as the rising acidity of the stomach contents soon completely stops carbohydrate digestion and this is followed by fermentation. The well-known experiments on dogs by the famous Russian scientist Pavlov showed that minced beef fed to a dog took about four hours to digest; starch by itself took one and half hours or less, (white bread took longer than brown). When meat was mixed wit the starch, this mixture took eight or more hours to leave the stomach. Beans contain about 25% protein and about 50% carbohydrates or starch. This doubtless accounts for their difficult digestion and the readiness with which they ferment. Beans are a bread and meat combination and each of their two principle constituents requires entirely different processes for digestion. The starch of the bean lies in the stomach while its protein is being digested, and except under the most favourable circumstances, ferments, producing gas and toxins. As a rule, avoid all beans. This does not include green beans which contain little starch. ACID-STARCH COMBINATIONS Never eat carbohydrate foods and acid foods at the same time. Do not eat bread, potatoes, or peas or beans or bananas or dates or other carbohydrates with lemons, limes, oranges, grape-fruits, pineapples, tomatoes, berries, sour apples, sour grapes, or other sour fruit. A weak acid will destroy the ptyalin enzyme of the saliva. With the destruction of the ptyalin starch digestion must come to a halt. Take a tomato sandwich as an example. Tomatoes should never be combined with any starch food. They may be eaten with leafy vegetables and fat foods. The combination of citric, malic and oxalic acids found in tomatoes ( which is released and intensified by cooking) is very antagonistic to the alkaline digestion of starches in the mouth and the stomach. Oxalic acid diluted to 1 part in 10 000 completely arrests the action of ptyalin. There is sufficient acetic acid in one or two teaspoonfuls of vinegar to entirely suspend salivary digestion. The acids of tomatoes, oranges, grapefruits, lemons, pineapples, sour apples and other sour fruits are sufficient to destroy the ptyalin of the saliva and suspend starch digestion. STARCH-SUGAR COMBINATIONS Jellies, jams, fruit pastes, white or brown sugars, honey, molasses, syrups etc.; added to breads, pastries, cereals, potatoes etc.; produce fermentation. Millions of our people eat cereals and sugar for breakfast and suffer with sour stomach, sour eructation and other evidences of indigestion. Sweet fruits with starch also result in fermentation. Breads containing dates, raisins, figs etc are dietetic abominations. If the starch is disguise with sugar, honey syrup, jams jellies etc.; this will prevent the adaptation of the saliva to starch digestion. Bread and butter taken together cause no unpleasantness, but if sugar or jam or marmalade is added trouble may follow. Mixtures of starch and sugar invite fermentation and its attendant evils. PROTEIN-PROTEIN COMBINATIONS Eggs receive the strongest secretion at a different time to that received by either flesh or milk. In our eating practices we habitually ignore such facts. Eggs should not be taken with flesh or milk. Recall the harm that was done to tubercular patients by feeding them the abominable combination of eggs and milk. Observe that for centuries orthodox Jews have refrained from taking flesh and milk at the same time. Such protein combinations as flesh and eggs, flesh and nuts, flesh and cheese, eggs and milk, flesh and milk, eggs and nuts, cheese and nuts, milk and nuts etc., should not be taken. One protein food at a meal will certainly assure greater efficiency in digestion. ACID-PROTEIN COMBINATION SUGAR-PROTEIN COMBINATION TAKE MILK ALONE In feeding milk to young children, a fruit meal may be fed and then half an hour afterwards milk may be given. The milk should not be given with the fruits, except in the case of acid fruits. MILK AND CEREALS Flaked cereal foods (various types of corn flakes and other such foods) are much in use. Chemical analysis shows them to be possessed of abundant food value, though actually, they are largely charcoal. They are said to be ready-cooked and pre-digested. This is a fallacy that the public must outgrow. They are pressed between rollers at intense heat and are rendered practically valueless as foods. Wheat is the most acid- forming of the cereals. Oats seem to have the worst effect on the teeth. Denatured cereals with pasteurised milk and white sugar is a predominantly acid forming breakfast, a horrible combination, and plenty of sickness as a result. BREAD But the combination of bread and meat causes even more trouble. Such a diet, when fed to experimental animals resulted in high blood pressure, Bright's disease and troubles which usually accompany these conditions in man. Neither do the animals grow as they should. POTATOES VEGETARIANS Never before in history have as much cereals and refined flour been consumed since the perfection of the rolling mill process in 1879. The continuous struggle with indigestible food mixtures and with the poisonous products of their bacterial decomposition sooner or later wears out the body. Doris Grant describes in her book 'Food combining for health', how Dr.Hay helped
countless patients overcome their diseased conditions by the healing power of the body
released through compatible eating. Top To top of this page Canned Foods- Processed Foods Balance between Space and
Time Sodium is the most Time of the elements used in nutrition, while Potassium is the most Space of the elements used in nutrition. Canned (tinned), processed and cooked foods decrease the ability to produce energy and increase the ability to produce substance. In other words, substance tends to make a person both sluggish and fat. In addition to this, Canning, processing and cooking reduces their vitamin contents and their enzymes are partially destroyed. This is a far cry from the balanced product turned out by nature. Dr. Werner Schuphan’s conclusions regarding Potassium losses in canned foods: 47 per cent in spinach, 51 per cent in tomatoes, 60 per cent At the same time Sodium increased by: 357 per cent in spinach, 368 percent in carrots, 450 per cent in Other researchers reached similar conclusions. Take beets. Canning them increased the
Sodium content from 60 milligrams per 10 grams to 236 milligrams and decreased the
Potassium content from 335 milligrams to
Canning reduced the Potassium content of fruits by as Cooking completely reversed some Sodium-Potassium
Processing produced incredibly high Sodium contents in
|
Cakes, pies, macaroni, spaghetti, breads- all the same story-
high in Sodium and low in Potassium. And then there was salt itself, with 38758 parts of Sodium to 4 of Potassium. When it is realised that the ratio between Potassium and Sodium in natural foods was at least 25 to 1 in favour of Potassium, it could easily be seen that anyone using the above foods in abundance was throwing his body so far out of balance that there had to be disease and malfunction sooner or later.The whole incredible story was unfolded by the Sodium-Potassium content of natural foods as against canned, processed or cooked foods, when The Agricultural research Service of the USA Department of Agriculture published handbook no.8 entitled "Composition of foods-Raw, Processed and Prepared."
How different is the picture when we look at natural foods, e.g. Almonds 4 parts of Sodium to 773 parts of Potassium.
| Natural Foods | Sodium | Potassium |
| Almonds | 4 | 773 |
| Walnuts | 3 | 460 |
| Avocados | 4 | 604 |
| Buckwheat | 18 | 448 |
| Grapes | 3 | 158 |
| Lemons | 2 | 138 |
| Radishes | 18 | 322 |
| Pears | 2 | 130 |
| Pumpkins | 1 | 340 |
| Chestnuts | 20 | 450 |
| Apples | 1 | 110 |
| Bananas | 1 | 370 |
| Cherries | 2 | 191 |
| Grape Fruits | 1 | 162 |
| Oranges | 1 | 200 |
| Peaches | 1 | 202 |
| Plums | 2 | 299 |
| Apricots | 1 | 281 |
| Figs | 2 | 194 |
| Onions | 10 | 157 |
| Garlic | 19 | 520 |
| Wheat germ | 3 | 827 |
| Green Beans | 7 | 243 |
| Horseradish | 8 | 564 |
| Peppers | 13 | 213 |
| Raisins | 27 | 763 |
| Brew.Yeast | 16 | 610 |
The way these two elements naturally occurred in raw foods was a perfect illustration of the balance between Space and Time and was obviously designed by nature to provide maximum benefit for animal life, since all animal life fed on natural fruits, vegetables, and cereals and was never fat and was never sick.
If you ate canned, processed or cooked foods, you were putting into your stomach a product that was greatly altered from the way it was originally produced by nature.
A diet of processed foods, even though supplemented with essential nutrients, produced deficiencies of Potassium in humans. Such persons developed listlessness, fatigue, gas pains, constipation, insomnia, low blood sugar. Muscles became soft and flabby; pulse weak, slow, irregular. These symptoms are suffered by millions of people. It is difficult to imagine how such deficiencies could occur when Potassium was supplied in all raw, natural foods. But people were now eating relatively few fruits and vegetables, the richest source. Moreover, when vegetables are soaked and boiled and the water discarded, the Potassium was thrown away. Medications such as ACTH, Cortisones, and diuretics cause Potassium to be excreted in the urine, as did Aspirin and many other drugs, including alcohol.
Potassium could be obtained naturally from fruits, vegetables, whole grain cereals, nuts, sunflower seeds etc.
High blood pressure, usually caused by an excessive sodium intake, had also been produced in both animals and humans by diets deficient in Potassium. High blood pressure also had been successfully treated by giving patient large amount of Potassium. Dr.Dahl, who had spent years researching the relationship of Sodium intake to high blood pressure, had found in all age groups that the greater the sodium intake, the earlier and more numerous were deaths from hypertension. The high sodium contents of prepared baby foods was an especial target of Dr.Dahl’s. By feeding baby rats canned meats and canned vegetables prepared for infants, he produced high blood pressure that was fatal in four months.
The greatest harm done by Potassium deficiency was probably its effect upon the heart. It has long been known that heart attacks were often associated with low blood potassium and a low potassium diet. In addition, experiments had shown that animals deficient in potassium suffered extensive degeneration of the heart muscles, and suffered from liver disturbances.
Whenever potassium in the cells was low, blood sugar was low. Low blood sugar or hypoglycemia, has become a major health problem in modern societies, causing fatigue, irritability, and foggy thinking. Low blood sugar caused still more potassium to be excreted in the urine. Then the eating of high sodium foods resulted in both potassium in the blood decreasing and blood sugar dropping, bringing a feeling of exhaustion.
Since lack of potassium allowed sodium and water to pass into the cells, increasing the potassium intake often corrected edema or water retention. Weight conscious women, wishing to be quickly rid of every excess pound, begged physicians for "water pills" Though the urine output was temporarily increased and pounds lost, the cells again retained water because of an even more serious lack of potassium. Blood sugar then dropped until exhaustion became unbearable. Amphetamines were then used for a "pick up". These made nerves tense and sleep evasive. Millions of women were caught in this vicious circle.
Dr.Max Gerson explained that cancer cells thrive in a sodium condition and die in a condition of live oxygen enzymes and potassium (So lavish in the Gerson cancer therapy). Every cancer patient that Dr. Gerson attended had high amounts of sodium in his or her body.
Americans spent more than 200 million dollars each year for pills to make them sleep, more millions to wake them up. More than 20 million tons of aspirin are consumed each year. Pills by the tons to alleviate constipation, to reduce weight, pills to improve the appetite, pills to cut down the appetite, pills to pep you up, pills to calm you down, pills to break the habit of taking pills.
Modern medicine has degenerated into a state of "pill prescribing". It has become so fragmented with so many specialists in so many areas of the human body that a patient can no longer find his way through the maze, and hospitals and medical services were pricing themselves out of reach. Why such chaos in modern countries of brilliant materialistic and technical achievements?
Quantity and quality prompted thought processes in modern consumer oriented societies, so the fruits, vegetables and grains of nature were sprayed, cooked, mashed, mixed, injected with preservatives, dyed, boxed, canned, frozen, tinned and moved out to the consumer by the ton. Not only was their nutritional value thus put in question but their freedom from poisons as well.
Perhaps the greatest harm done by excessive sodium intake was that it caused serious loss of potassium from the body. Potassium by activating many enzymes was essential for muscle contractions. Potassium heals and invigorates and stimulates the liver, sends messages through nervous system. Potassium is strongly alkaline. It makes tissues elastic, muscles supple and creates grace, beauty and good disposition. Without potassium, sugar (glucose) could not be changed into energy or stored for future use. Potassium stayed inside the cells and was balanced by sodium outside the cells. If potassium was deficient, however, sodium entered the cells, taking with it so much water that many cells burst. The result was water retention (edema0, damage to muscle and connective tissue, and scarring.
It is important to remember, however, that sodium, in proper balance with potassium is essential to life and health. Sodium aids digestion and is also described as youth maintainer in the body. Sodium seems to be the conductor of electric currents inside the body’s nerve cells.
Nature’s way of perfect health was fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, cereal greens- a vast array of variety and taste, regular storehouse of health, energy and vitality, a golden door to a vigorous life.
Mind was Space and body was Time. When correct balance existed between them there also existed perfect health. If a diet was too Time (many processed foods and animal products), it produced a Time imbalance in the person. He or she tended to put on weight, and his or her consciousness became overly materialistic. When a diet was too Space (overly weighted with carbohydrates), it produced Space imbalance in the person. He tended to become too thin, and his consciousness became overly spiritual. Diet, then, could be a powerful force for the elevation of consciousness, but it also could be a powerful force for the lowering of consciousness. Balance was the key to a healthy mind in a healthy body. The lives of saints and Rishis indicated that they had lived on such a diet
_____________________"Eat always from the table of God; the fruits of the trees, the grains and grasses of the field, the milk of beasts, and the honey of bees. For everything beyond these is Satan, and leads by the way of sins and diseases unto death. But the foods which you eat from the abundant table of God fed Methuselah of old, and I tell you truly, if you live even as he lived, then will the God of the living give you also long life upon the earth as was his."
– Words of Jesus from the Essene Gospel of Peace
_____________________"Although the human body is a marvelous machine, it cannot build sound, healthy tissues from foods that have been grossly adulterated for commercial purposes."
– Dr. Henry G.Bieler
_____________________"The path of civilisation is paved with tin cans."
– Elbert Hubbard_____________________
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Index Alphabetical [Index to Pages]Pernicious Anemia & Vitamin B-12
By Dr.Herbert M.SheltonIt has long been known that fasting results
in a rapid blood regeneration in anemia.Two and three weeks of fasting are often enough to double the blood count, even in far advanced cases of progressive pernicious anemia. For instance, a case of this kind with the blood count of 1,500,000 will often show a count of 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 in two to three weeks of fasting. Restore the nutritive powers of the body and it will be able to derive all the needed minerals, vitamins, proteins etc. from a well balanced diet of natural foods. Without the removal of impairing causes and the restoration of normal nerve energy, no diet will give satisfactory results. Nothing is to be gained by stuffing more food into an organism that is unable to utilise what it is already taking. Nor do we gain anything by overfeeding one or two elements. The whole body, and not just one or two parts, must be fed, so that the total diet must meet the ensemble of the body’s nutritive needs. The amount of any particular food element that is taken can be utilised in proportion to the amount of correlated elements present, so that any excess of one element over the others will prove of no value.
Dr.William Howard Hay recorded 101 cases of pernicious anemia and only eight of them failed to recover, and these were dying when they arrived for his care. It is not news to Hygienists that these cases get well; most abnormalities of the blood are corrected through fasting. We know that patients who have been on vitamin B12 injections for years without much benefit can take a fast and get well. This would seem to indicate that they still had the power to secrete the so called intrinsic factor. It would also indicate that, perhaps, they were suffering with a simple gastritis, and that after fasting the inflammatory condition healed, leaving them better able to secrete the necessary enzymes for good digestion. We do know the anemic get well while fasting and stay well if they continue to live properly. Why they get well could be due to a number of factors. The picture improves while fasting, though no extraneous vitamin B-12 is available.
Highly important, I believe, is the elimination of the toxic factor while fasting. This removes a great inhibiting influence from the blood forming tissues. After the fast, these subjects are fed properly combined foods of vegetable origin. Properly combining their foods enables them to digest and absorb all elements in the diet. If their gastric mucosa is damaged or atrophied, as in long standing cases, feeding food in compatible combination will not place a burden on the impaired organ and better nutrition is maintained despite the handicap.
Hygienically, it is thought that toxemia plays an important role in the production of pernicious anemia. Toxemia itself causes lowered functioning power, not only of the secreting glands of the stomach, but of every organ in the body, including the blood-forming organs. Lowered functioning power of the gastro intestinal system hinders digestion causing much fermentation and putrefaction. This in turn interferes with absorption of nutriments necessary for the production of blood and also causes the absorption of toxic products of indigestion, producing more toxemia which in turn causes more lowered functioning power and consequently less digesting and blood forming power.
Under Hygienic care, Weger says, "The only cases of pernicious anemia that fail to respond favourably to Hygienic methods are those in which the heart muscle has degenerated and in which a general dropsical condition has existed for a long time, accompanied (as is often the case) by cerebral manifestations or mania and profound hemolytic jaundice. These advanced symptoms indicate that the organism has passed beyond the power of recuperation because of nutritional devitalisation."
Dr.Hay in his ‘Health via Diet’ tells of his 101 cases of anemia where only eight failed to recover. Dr.Hay says of these: "The blood during a fast undergoes no visible changes as to cell count unless markedly abnormal when the fast is begun in which case there is a return to normal. For most of two weeks (in progressive pernicious anemia) the red erythrocyte count continues to fall before there is a regeneration in the blood making organs; then the microscopic picture begins to show round erythrocytes with regular edges, no crenelations or irregularities, and soon there is noticeable increase in the number of these with gradual disappearance of the adventitious cells present in the beginning. Not unusually there is a gain during the succeeding two weeks that brings the total back to normal five million erythrocytes count, even though this may have been at or below one million in the beginning".
At the Tilden Health School, 75% of the cases of pernicious anemia recovered and of the deaths he says "The deaths which represent the 25%, occurred within a few days of the admission to the institution. These cases were so far gone that nothing could be done, and no treatment was attempted, as they were dying when admitted".
Speaking of pernicious anemia Tilden says: "A fast of two weeks without anything at all except water, will improve anemia condition by increasing the blood corpuscles sometimes by five hundred thousand in that length of time".
There is poisoning from the digestive tract in all of these cases and it seems most likely that this befoulment of the blood with sepsis from this source is the cause of the failure of the blood making organs. A similar septic befoulment seems to exist in cancer, causing anemia in this condition. It should be emphasised strongly that no person suffering with anemia should undertake a fast except under competent supervision.
The body has wisdom in its very cells, and can heal itself, if we will give it the chance to heal. The fast is one way of cleansing the physical self, of giving rest to the body’s organs, often overtaxed by our own wrong living and wrong eating and over-activity.
Fast itself is not cited as a cure for anything. It is only a way of rest whereby the body – this complex and tremendous organism – will have a chance to perform its self-restoration to health and well-being, without strain or interruption, in quiet and peace and healing calm.
The improvement seen in the blood in anemia and in bones in rickets while fasting and the effect of sunshine in preventing the development of rickets in spite of a faulty diet, show unmistakably that in a great majority of cases of deficiency, factors other than dietary inadequacies are involved. In many cases these extra dietary factors are the sole cause, the diet being adequate.
In anemia it is not sufficient to supply iron to the body; it is essential that the patient shall be able to appropriate and use the iron supplied. His digestive and assimilative functions being much impaired, it is not possible that he can appropriate the iron supplied until these are restored to functioning efficiency. The failure of digestion and assimilation from whatever cause is the most common cause of deficiencies. This is true of both mineral and vitamin deficiencies.
If a few people out of a community of well-fed, healthy looking people, living on very much the same foods from the same sources, show evidences of deficiency, while rest of the people of the community enjoy ordinary health, there must be something else than diet in the lives of the few who show deficiency to account for the deficiency.
After rest and a correct mode of life have restored normal nerve energy, and fasting has occasioned a removal of toxins from the fluids and tissues of the body and as a consequence, functional efficiency and structural integrity have been restored in all the organs and parts of the body, a programme of correct eating, exercise, sunbathing, emotional poise and daily rest and sleep will build a state of positive health that will be the envy of the sick people that surround us on every hand.
_____________________By John T. Richter (Nature the Healer)
Meat eating in itself is one of the chief causes of anemia. The only remedies that will cure you of pernicious anemia are the ones that get the poisons and dead matter out of your body. When the body is clean, you are not only well, but are immune from any disease.
_____________________By John Wynne –Tyson (Food for a Future)
The matter has not been simplified by the realisation that B-12 deficiency is even more prevalent among meat-eaters than among vegans. [Note: Vegans do not use any animal products, not even milk or milk products.]
It is interesting and possibly very relevant that lifelong vegans seldom suffer B-12 deficiency. Where deficiency has been established, it has been mostly in people who have switched, perhaps too abruptly, from a diet based on animal products.
_____________________From Mind and Body
The New Family Health encyclopaedia
(A Medical Dictionary)Undeniably it is more natural to be a vegetarian, in that for the majority of people during most of man’s history, meat has been a rare item of the diet and vegetarianism as an economic necessity…. Even medical authorities often insist that vegetarianism is unhealthy and veganism certain to result in dietary deficiencies. The evidence does not support these assertions. Careful studies have shown that the most likely deficiencies to occur- vitamin B-12 and iron-are not found even in strict vegans.
_____________________From the leading article in the Lancet
(11.309.1969)Vitamin B-12 deficiency is a commoner cause of mental illness among omnivores than is generally believed, and screening of all psychiatric patients for pernicious anemia associated with deficiency has been advocated.
_____________________By V. Kulvinskas
Former director of research
Hippocrates Health Institute, BostonIt seems that vitamin B-12 needs of human and animal is adequately supplied by the intestinal tract bacteria. The best source of vitamin B-12 is the intestinal tract bacteria. They will be the major source of this nutrient as long as one follows good eating habits which discourage the growth of the putrefactive intestinal bacteria.
_____________________By Benerjee D.K. (British Journal of Nutrition 17:385,1963)
Vitamin B-12 content of some articles
of Indian diet and effect of cooking on itMany nutritionists base their criticisms of vegetarianism on the dietary absence of the anti-pernicious vitamin B-12. They overlook the fact that this vitamin is heat sensitive and over 85% of its effectiveness can be lost under normal cooking conditions.
_____________________By V.E.Irons (There is a Difference)
Orthodox nutrition depends on chemical analysis to determine food values but it is fundamental that live organic natural foods must be killed (and thus rendered dead and inert) to be chemically analyzed. Hence, they may show up as chemically identical to a synthetic food or vitamin, but the chromatogram shows the difference. It is wrong to think that dead refined foods, dead synthetic vitamins and inert materials are as beneficial as live natural foods with their live vitamins and organic minerals, all organized by the sun, air, rain, water, minerals, and the soil’s living bacteria. There is a vast difference and the chromatograms show it.
_____________________By Harvey Lisle (Chemist in foods)
Nature does not produce a food product with just vitamin A or Vitamin D or any other individual vitamin in it. Rather, nature produces a balance of vitamins in each of her many food products. Vitamins may be likened to an orchestra which is composed of many musical instruments all working in concert. To take an individual vitamin such as vitamin-C violates the law of nature. There has been more research work done on vitamins than any other component of food and yet the basic facts of vitamins are almost lost by both the researchers and laymen. It is impossible to analyze or separate out vitamins.
_____________________By Dr.Virginia Vetrano
American Natural Hygiene SocietyBerg states that vitamin B complex is present in a large number of foodstuffs and Best and Taylor state that vitamin B-12 is found in every food which has vitamin B complex in it. So vegetables have vitamin B-12 in them even if in small amounts. Vitamin B-12 is necessary in minuscule amounts. This, regardless of what the "authorities" say, we can get in our vegetable foods. We can store enough vitamin B-12 in the liver to last approximately two years or more. Some people who have had a total gastrectomy for one reason or another do not develop pernicious anemia until seven or eight years after the operation. The question is: can we get it from vegetables? I say yes. We need it in infinitesimal amounts and if one is eating a diet predominating in fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and nuts in the uncooked state, he will get sufficient vitamin B-12 to maintain him in good health for a lifetime.
_____________________By M.M.Wintrobe and G.R.Lee
Harrison’s principles of Internal MedicineProbably because of its less efficient storage, foliate deficiency is relatively common among the malnourished. In contrast, even in the strictest vegetarians (vegans), vitamin B-12 deficiency of a degree sufficient to produce megaloblastic anemia is very rare. Other factors being equal, folic acid deficiency is likely to develop more readily than lack of vitamin B-12 because storage of folic acid is less efficient than that of vitamin B-12.
The total vitamin B-12 content in the normal adult is about 5000 micro grams (range 2000 to 10,000 micro grams), of which 1700 micro grams is stored in the liver. Since bio-chemical evidence of deficiency is not seen until the total body content drops to less than 500 micro grams, the surplus of 4500 micro grams constitutes a large storage pool. The average daily requirement for vitamin B-12 in the normal adult is approximately 2.5 micrograms, but the requirement no doubt is increased during periods of rapid growth and in pregnancy.
Vitamin B-12, a reddish compound possessing a cobalt containing tetrapyrrolic ring, is synthesized by certain microorganisms. Efficient absorption of dietary vitamin B-12 (extrinsic factor) requires its interaction with a thermolabile glycoprotein with a molecular weight of about 70 000 (intrinsic factor), secreted in the gastric fundus. This substance has an unusually strong binding affinity for vitamin B-12. By attaching to specific receptors on the intestinal wall, intrinsic factor facilitates absorption of vitamin B-12 by the ileum. In the presence of intrinsic factor, about 70 per cent of ingested vitamin B-12 is absorbed; less than 2 per cent is absorbed in its absence.
Both vitamin B-12 and folic acid are essential to DNA synthesis. A deficiency of one or both vitamins is the underlying abnormality in the overwhelming majority of patients with megaloblastic anemia. Supplementary therapy with various vitamins is unnecessary. These can be and should be furnished in the diet in the form of food.
_____________________By Dr. Jack Goldstein (USA)
(Triumph over Disease – by fasting and natural diet).There seems to be much concern about pernicious anemia in people who don’t eat animal products, particularly vegetarians. The fact is that anyone can suffer a nutritional imbalance through ignorance, neglect or as a result of the fast pace of living. Doctors’ offices are full of people with pernicious anemia, almost all of whom eat meat and other animal products.
The present day diet of Americans is largely denatured. It is made up of white bread, white rice, demineralised cereal grains, pasteurised milk, white sugar, canned fruits and canned vegetables, cakes, pies, and thoroughly cooked foods, all eaten in abominable combinations. There is also the unlimited use of ther harmful "foods" such as salt, condiments, coffee, tea, deep-fried foods, alcoholic beverages, pastas, spaghetti, macaroni etc, food substitutes (i.e. egg substitutes, non-dairy creamers, etc.), and an endless list of items which denote "gracious living". I have always said that man will eat almost anything, even if it makes him sick or kills him. I venture to say that someone would eat it. The motto seems to be, "If it tastes good- eat it."
People have forgotten the taste of plain, wholesome, natural food. In Natural Hygiene, a vegetarian diet is followed. The diet consists mainly of fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and sprouts which are eaten, for the most part, unfired – raw. These foods supply the richest source of minerals, vitamins, and enzymes when eaten raw. Heat (cooking) destroys the enzymes, certain vitamins, and in general the life in the food. Many people maintain that they can’t handle raw foods. I couldn’t either, but after a fast to let the digestive apparatus heal itself, I am living on foods my doctors said I could never eat again. So it is with others, which indicates that a fast may be necessary.
[Note: Dr. Jack Goldstein was treated medically for six years for a debilitating disease – ulcerative colitis – which under standard medical care by qualified and respected physicians progressed to a point close to death. His only hope, he was told, lay in agreeing to submit to one of the most radical and drastic operations known to medical science – a total colectomy, or a complete removal of the large intestine and rectum. For the rest of his life he would be forced to wear a bag attached to his abdomen for the collection and elimination of waste. At this point, tortured by the thought of becoming a physiologic cripple and even contemplating suicide, he was led to a natural way of life which incorporated fasting and a vegetarian diet that actually allowed his body to heal itself. He undertook a six-week fast in a controlled environment and under the supervision of a doctor – which literally saved his life.]
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Index Alphabetical [Index to Pages]Oxidation
By Dr.Herbert M.SheltonFoods have been defined as oxidizable substances. Oxidation is the union of oxygen with another element. Oxidation may take place slowly or rapidly. Rapid oxidation is the process known as burning. Oxidation of foods takes place more rapidly at a high temperature, as in cooking, and more slowly at lower temperatures. Foods also oxidize at room temperature. When we peel an apple and slice it so that we admit the oxygen of the air to its inner structure, it soon turns brown.
This same thing happens when we peel and slice a peach or banana. When foods have been oxidized they are no longer serviceable as food. The more oxidation has taken place in a food the less food value it has. Nature protects the vital structures of plants and animals from oxidation by surrounding them with structures –skins, barks, etc. When foods are sliced, diced, cut, mashed, shredded or otherwise broken into small bits, and their inner structures are subjected to contact with the air, they undergo oxidation. The finer they are grated or sliced, the thinner the slices, the more of their inner structures come into contact with oxygen, hence the more oxidation they undergo. The longer these sliced, cut and shredded foods are permitted to stand before they are eaten the more oxidation they undergo.
Nuts that are ground in making nut butters, milk that is sprayed in the process of drying (dehydration), juices that are extracted from fruits and vegetables, are all permitted to come in contact with oxygen and undergo more or less oxidation in the process. It will be noticed that in nature milk flows directly from the producer to the consumer without coming in contact with the air. In this state, the milk has an entirely different flavour than it has after it has been in contact with the air for some time. Apples and peaches taste differently after oxidizing. Nut butters do not taste like nuts. Foods lose both food value and palatability from oxidation.
When fresh fruits and vegetables are chopped into small pieces, or when tomatoes are sliced thin, there is rapid oxidation of vitamin c. For example, when lettuce is shredded it loses eighty per cent of its vitamin c in one minute. The loss is almost as rapid in tomatoes when these are sliced thin. The same thing is true of the vitamin c in oranges, cabbages and other fruits and vegetables. Ripe tomatoes seem to lose vitamin c less rapidly than do the green ones when they are sliced. In all green leafy vegetables, the destruction of vitamin c by oxidation , when these are chopped or shredded, is marked. The mere act of grating raw apples or raw potatoes causes a complete loss of vitamin c.
Thus it will be seen that one may buy vitamin rich foods and then prepare them in such ways as to lose most of their vitamins. The grating of salads is destructive of food value. The widespread practice of making fruit and vegetable juices and drinking these also permits of great losses of food values.
It will always be best to take our foods whole or if they must be cut, cut them in large pieces. There will some loss, even in this way, but the loss will be insignificant when compared with the loss that occur when for example cabbage is shredded.
Much of the damage done to food by cooking is due to oxidation- heat being the catalytic agent in this instance. It was early discovered that the application of heat to foods destroyed vitamins. Even comparatively low temperatures, such as that used in pasteurizing milk, are enough to destroy many of the vitamins of foods. Cooking destroys in part, if not wholly, the oxidizable factors of foods. This simply means that cooking "burns" those portions of foods that the body ordinarily oxidizes. Once these substances have been oxidized, they cannot again be oxidized in the body hence they are useless as food.
Heat by speeding up oxidation turns food into ashes before it is eaten. For example, certain of the amino acids are destroyed by the regular processes of cooking. Two very important amino acids, Lysine and Glutamine are destroyed by the cooking process. The losses that are produced by cooking may not result in serious trouble until later in life and all of their effects do not show up for two or three generations. For example, Dr.Pottenger demonstrated that cats fed on pasteurized milk and cooked flesh could not reproduce after two to three generations. They usually died of arthritis, heart diseases or gastro-intestinal complications.
It is significant that when Dr.Pottenger had fed his cats on cooked foods for a few generations, they not only developed many very serious defects, including finally, loss of ability to reproduce, but they also became homosexual and lost their normal endowments of hereditary racial sex characteristics. Some day, perhaps, we may know just how much similar eating practices have to do with the growing alikeness of the sexes in country (USA). Tests have shown that with large numbers of boys and girls, it is impossible to tell them apart by their anatomical differences of height, shoulder and hip dimensions, etc. Viewed nude from the rear, they were identical in appearance. Accompanying this wiping out of distinguishing sexual differences, there is the growing increase of sterility in both sexes.
The loss of minerals from foods in the process of cooking is of three kinds, as follows:
It used to be asserted by advocates of cooking that heat bursts open the membranes or capsules that inclose the starch and other nutrients of vegetables, and thus renders them more susceptible of digestion. This was particularly thought to be so with regard to the starches of cereals, legumes, and potatoes. Raw starch was thought to be almost indigestible. The researchers of Strasburger and Heupke in Europe and of Hastings in America have shown this supposition to be incorrect. Indeed, the digestive juices digest the unboiled or uncooked vegetable cells as readily, or more so, as the cooked ones.
Viewed from every angle, the application of intense heat to foods constitutes a great waste of nutrients. The enzymes in foods, the roles of which in human nutrition are not yet fully understood, are also destroyed by heat. Let us look at milk again. Pasteurizing milk destroys the following enzymes contained in the milk: Protease, Lactase, Diastase, Lipase, Salolalase, Catalase, Peroxidase, Aldehydrase, Amylase and Phosphatase. It greatly impairs the value of chlorophyll and spoils the iron salts in foods. Animal feeding tests indicate that the regular processing of cooking reduce the nutritional value of food by at least one third, thus lending strength to the statement that we are nourished by the uncooked and but partially cooked portions of our foods and made sick by the thoroughly cooked portions.
By now it should be evident that the chefs and the mistresses of the kitchen cannot be trusted with our physiological welfare. These turn out a never ending array of heterogeneous mixtures that tax the strongest digestions; cook our foods until they have lost the greater part of their food value, salt them, pepper them, spice them, sweeten them. Put vinegar or other such material on them to hide their insipid character and feed them to us as the finest selections from among their many choice recipes. The alien taste given to the foods by the mixings and seasonings make the adaptation of digestive juices to the digestive requirements of the foods impossible, while the near foods, tars, charcoal and ashes that constitute great part of these abominable concoctions of the kitchen are materials that should never be taken into the human stomach.
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Index Alphabetical [Index to Pages]Quality and Quantity
Practical Classification of Diet
By Dr. Herbert M. Shelton (USA)1.The Building Diet
2.The Mature Diet - The diet of maintenance – adulthood
3 The Curative Diet-The diet of eliminationThe Building Diet
That a diet of fruits, nuts and green vegetables, to the exclusion of all animal foods, will suffice to sustain life, health and growth in human beings after the suckling period is past admits of no doubt. Whole tribes have lived on such for generations and demonstrated this to be so.
The Mature Diet
It requires much material to construct and complete a building but after it is completed it may be kept in repair with but small amounts of materials. Just so it is with the human body.
After complete physical maturity is reached and growth has ceased, one’s food requirements are very different to what they were in youth. As age advances it is usually best to decrease the amount of food consumed daily.
The diet of maturity should then contain but little protein. The diet should contain an abundance of those food elements so essential to normal elimination and normal secretions – the organic salts. This is imperative if one is to maintain health, strength and youth. These keep the body sweet and clean and ward off those disagreeable and annoying symptoms and disorders that usually accompany ‘old age’.
Diet of Elimination
Orthodox science considers foods to be ‘nutritious’ and ‘non-nutritious’ according as they yield much or little nitrogenous, carbohydrate and hydrocarbon substances. In keeping with this idea foods are classified as (1) proteins, (2) carbohydrates and (3) hydrocarbons. Fruits and green vegetables are practically unclassified. The wonderful vitalizing acid (organic acids) and salts, which they contain, are relegated to the ‘ash’ column and practically ignored.
The conventional diet is more or less deficient in alkali elements due to the fact that it is made up largely of the concentrated proteins, carbohydrates and hydrocarbons, and to the further fact that these have usually been deprived of most of their alkaline elements in the process of manufacture and cooking. Practically all the ‘staple’ articles of food used today show a relative predominance of acid forming over base-forming elements.
In disease, the process of growth, development and repair are slackened or stopped altogether, indicating that the body is in no condition to properly care for the normal amounts of proteins, starches, etc. and we find by actual experience that when these are eliminated from the diet of the sick they immediately begin to improve in health. On the other hand those patients that consume the protein and carbohydrate foods always improve very slowly, if at all.
True eliminating diet is one that is rich in mineral salts and lacking in the acid forming proteins and carbohydrates. The base-forming elements must greatly predominate in such a diet.
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Index Alphabetical [Index to Pages]Milk reheated in microwave ovens could damage baby's brains
London.- Milk reheated in microwave ovens could damage baby's brains, scientists say, because rapid reheating can turn harmless milk proteins into poisons. And adults could be at risk from the same poisons when food such as pizzas, curries and quiches are recooked.
The warning comes from a respected team of Viennese researchers led by Dr.Gerd Lubec.
They say microwaves can turn milk proteins into a variation of amino Acids, which the bodies of young babies cannot absorb.
The report warns of Microwave Poison Risk.
Microwaved Food caries a higher risk of food poisoning than conventionally cooked meals. Yet in spite of the use of a microwave in nearly half of all British Households, 97% of people are unaware of the potential health risk, says Report in the Food Magazine.Microwave cooking is less efficient than conventional ovens in destroying Salmonella and Listeria, and in the case of cook-chill meals, manufacturers' recommended cooking periods may not be adequate.
Bacteria: The Magazine quotes research in the United States which discovered that the Microwaving of Salmonella infected Chicken, following Manufacturers' cooking instructions, was unable to destroy contamination in eight out of nine cases.
Similar research carried out earlier this year by Leeds University discovered that Microwaving was unable to destroy Listeria Bacteria in five of the twenty-seven contaminated dishes that were cooked. The magazine now believes that the department of Health's guidance that Microwaved Food is safe if reheated to 70 degree for at least two minutes is wrong. In the Leeds study, temperatures of 91 degree were required to kill Listeria.
Although the Report falls short of saying Microwaving is intrinsically dangerous, it believes that misleading instructions for precooked food, together with insufficient understanding of how the microwaving process works, are responsible for a high proportion of food poisoning cases in the home and in catering establishments.
The Microwave Association, which believes that more than 70% of households will have a microwave within year or two, is also concerned.
Mrs.Gina Field, spokesman for the Association said: "Allowing food to stand after cooking is vital, but often ignored. If cook-chill food is contaminated, microwaving will not kill the bugs. We are also very alarmed at reports that small commercial caterers are using domestic microwave ovens to cook for hordes of people.
Domestic size ovens are not designed for constant use and will become less effective if they are used repeatedly.
Micro-waved Water - See what it does to Plants!
Our thanks to Marshall Dudley of Knoxville, TN for sharing his grand daughter, Arielle Reynolds’ experiment with us. Both Arielle’s mother, Christina, and Grandpa Have much to be proud of. Congratulations, Arielle, well done!
Below is a sience fair project that my granddaughter did for 2006. In it she took filered water and divided it into two parts. The first part she heated to boiling in a pan on the stove, and the second part she heated to boiling in a microwave. Then after cooling she used the water to water two identical plants to see if there would be any difference in the growth between the normal boiled water and the water boiled in a microwave. She was thinking that the structure or energy of the water may be compromised by microwave. As it turned out, even she was amazed at the difference.
The plants were genetically identical, they were produced from grafts from the same parent plant, so that variable can be eliminated.
Here's a simple test I just read about which coincides with Walt's comments: Plant some seeds in 2 pots. Water one with the cooled water that was microwaved and one that's from the tap. The seeds watered from the microwaved water will not sprout. I tried this comparing microwaved water as compared to conventional heating and it's true - the microwaved water prevented the seeds from growing! There is something to this. After having used a microwave for 15 years religiously, I finally stopped 2 1/2 years ago after doing some research. There is a wealth of info on the net about how microwaved food is chemically altered, etc. I just figured why not err on the side of caution and use other means of cooking. I use a flashbake oven which uses halogen light technology. The seeds sprouted when using water from this oven.
- Posted by GregoryI have known for years that the problem with microwaved anything is not the radiation people used to worry about, It's how it corrupts the DNA in the food so the body cannot recognize it. So the body wraps it in fat cells to protect itself from the dead food or it eliminates it fast.
Think of all the Mothers heating up milk in these "Safe" appliances. What about the nurse in Canada that warmed up blood for a transfusion patient and accidentally killed them when the blood went in dead. But the makers say it's safe. Never mind then, keep using them. Ask your Doctor I am sure they will say it's safe too. Proof is in the pictures of living plants dying. Remember You are also Living. Take Care.FORENSIC RESEARCH DOCUMENT
Prepared By: William P. Kopp
A. R. E. C. Research Operations
TO61-7R10/10-77F05
RELEASE PRIORITY: CLASS I ROO1a
Ten Reasons to Throw out your Microwave Oven
From the conclusions of the Swiss, Russian and German scientific clinical studies, we can no longer ignore the microwave oven sitting in our kitchens. Based on this research, we will conclude this article with the following:
- Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term - permanent – brain damage by "shorting out" electrical impulses in the brain [de-polarizing or de-magnetizing the brain tissue].
- The human body cannot metabolize [break down] the unknown by-products created in microwaved food.
- Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.
- The effects of microwaved food by-products are residual [long term, permanent] within the human body.
- Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all microwaved food is reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit, or the human body absorbs altered compounds that cannot be broken down.
- The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous free radicals when cooked in microwave ovens.
- Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths [tumors]. This may explain the rapidly increased rate of colon cancer in America.
- The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes cancerous cells to increase in human blood.
- Continual ingestion of microwaved food causes immune system deficiencies through lymph gland and blood serum alterations.
- Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional instability, and a decrease of intelligence.
Have you tossed out your microwave oven yet?
After you throw out your microwave you can use a toaster oven as a replacement. It works well for most and is nearly as quick. The use of artificial microwave transmissions for subliminal psychological control, a.k.a. "brainwashing", has also been proven.________________
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Index Alphabetical [Index to Pages]Nutrition
By Dr.Herbert M.Shelton
What constitutes nutrition? Certainly the common thought that food and nutrition are the same thing is a fallacy that needs to be discarded. It is one thing to eat an abundance of good food, it is quite another thing to have good nutrition. Food is one of the materials with which the processes of nutrition are carried on. Water is another, and air is another. But neither one of these, nor all of them combined constitutes nutrition.
Nutrition is a vital process carried on only by a living organism. It is a process of growth, development and invigoration. To eat good food, to drink pure water and breathe pure air are very desirable. But something more is needed in order to acquire health, strength and vigour.
Nutrition is function and we can have better nutritive function only when we have the capacity for better nutrition. Capacity cannot be bought. There are no drugs in the drug stores that can increase capacity, nor can they carry on the functions of life for us. The power to live, to breathe, to eat, to function resides within not without.
Food is of value only in its physiological connections with air, water, sunshine, rest and sleep, exercise and activity, cleanliness and wholesome mental and moral influences. In short, all the natural or normal circumstances, which we know to be necessary for preservation of health. It would be impossible to assign to any over the rest a superior value, the simple fact being that each is indispensable and it is only in their plenary combination and harmonious co-adaptation to the wants of the body that real health is maintained or regained, once it has been lost. They constitute not only the only means that the powers of life can make use of in the preservation of health, but also all that they can use in restoring health. They are nature’s only remedial means.
Food is inert substance and therefore has no power to make living organisms. It cannot act, but is acted upon. The living organism uses what it can of the food consumed and rejects the rest. A large supply of food does not increase the digestive and assimilative capacity of the invalid. Instead of studying nature and her laws, with the idea of using her laws, conditions and materials constructively, we seem to study her in an effort to discover how to cheat her. We seek not to obey the laws of life but to disobey them.
Often it is important to know what not to do as to know what to do. Thousands of patients are killed yearly and many thousands more are irreparably injured because their physicians do not know what not to do. There are times when one should not eat, there are conditions under which no food should be taken. It is not what one eats that invigorates one, but what one digests and appropriates; hence to know how to improve digestion and assimilation is of more importance than to know what foods to feed.
_____________________By John T. Richter (USA)
When you live on 100 per cent natural food, you build health every day of your life. You will get a better intellect, a stronger nervous system, a more powerful body and an excellent character, because you will be free from disease, pollution and evil. Then naturally and easily, comes the true beauty of life: power to love others. Nothing will build better morals, stronger character, bigger and more tender hearts, than the natural way of living.
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Index Alphabetical [Index to Pages]By William Longgood
FOOD ADDITIVES
FOOD DYES:These are synthetic dyes put together by man and are mostly coal-tar products. The majority of synthetic dyes approved for use in foods have been shown to cause cancer in animals; among them are chemical cousins to highly potent cancer-causing substances that actually have caused cancer in man. Some dyes, though not carcinogenic (cancer causing), are harmful to animals, even in tiny doses; on different occasions large numbers of children have been made violently sick from eating artificially coloured foods.
Dyes appear in everything from sweet potatoes to frankfurters. They are used in some processed breakfast cereals and in flavoured straws designed to beguile children into drinking their milk. Dyes are used as colouring matter in many household detergents; these dyes come from a chemical family that has produced cancers in rats.
In an experiment, ten out of thirteen synthetic coal-tar dyes, certified for use by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in the USA, and all in wide use, were tested. They produced cancers in rats when injected under the skin. Science writer Earl Ubell estimated that some people must get twice as much by mouth as some of the rats got under the skin.
The oil-soluble colours reportedly were "in general so poisonous when injected under the skin that the mice died before the scientists had a chance to see if cancer developed in many cases.
Cancer researchers have noted that carcinogens may start cancers even when not absorbed in the intestinal tract but merely by contact. The length of exposure to unabsorbed carcinogens- such as some of the certified food dyes- may depend on a person's state of health, diet, how long the food remains in the digestive tract and many other factors over which the average individual has little or no control.
The cumulative, irreversible effects of carcinogens always should be borne in mind; once they appear in foods, the damage cannot be undone by removing them. Discontinuation of the use of such dyes offers no assurance that it will not cause cancer years later in children who have already eaten it.
The threat to children is repeatedly stressed because of the number of years they have ahead of them after they get their doses of these dyes.
The dyes make it possible for the public to be deceived and cheated by masking inferior products and creating nutritional illusions, and they are among the most poisonous chemicals that go into foods.
FACTS: USA: 200 children were made ill from eating dyed popcorn at a Christmas party. The FDA announced decertification of the three dyes involved: Red no.32, Orange 1, and Orange 2.In announcing the ban, the FDA told food and beverage manufacturers they could legally use up previously certified stocks of the colours, but cautioned them that foods containing excessive quantities of these colours "can cause illness to consumers."
The list of damages caused in animals by the three dyes reads like a catalogue of biological horrors- and the amounts used were small (100milligrams weighs about the same as two postage stamps). The dyes caused everything from loss of appetite to death.
Red no.32 was fed to rats at a level of 2.0 per cent of the diet. All the rats died within a week. At a 1.0 per cent level, death occurred within 12 days.At 0.5 per cent most of the rats died within 26 days.At 0.25 per cent approximately half of the rats died within 3 months. All the rats showed marked retardation and anaemia. Autopsy revealed moderate to marked liver damage, enlargement of the right side of the heart
Tests on Orange no.1 were similar to those of Red no. 32. Red no. 32 had been used to colour cheese, edible fats, oils, candy (sweets),bakery goods and the skins of oranges.Florida and Texas orange growers insisted that if they waited for their fruit to turn orange it would be overripe and ruined. An industry spokesman said that more than half the Florida orange crops was run through a dye bath to give green oranges an orange colour; although it was conceded that orange peels are used in many ways: as candied orange peel, marmalade, in drinks as slices, and extensively in baking cakes and icings.
No colour can be added to a green skinned orange. First it has to be "degreened". This is done in what is known as the "colouring room", where it is shut up air-tight and then doused with a gas. The gas now universally used is ethylene gas (which can cause asphyxiation). This gas destroys or removes the chlorophyll from the rind and leaves it, according to the degree of greenness, all the way from a sickly or lemon colour to almost white. I have seen them come out of the colouring room looking almost like peeled potatoes.
While it is being gassed, the fruit is subjected to artificial heat and is sometimes held in this room for three or four days. It impairs its flavour and has a tendency to hasten its deterioration and decay. After coming out of the colouring room the fruit is washed and then run through the "colour added" machine- that is, if they want it to have any extra colour. The colour is added by passing the fruit through a vat or bath of hot dye or else spraying it on hot while the fruit is subjected to steam heat.
Practically all of the Florida citrus that goes to market through regular commercial channels before the first of the year is artificially coloured.
The international Union Against Cancer said that not one dye had been proved safe for use in food. The cancer experts listed twenty-nine food dyes as unsuitable and potentially dangerous.Some of these dyes and foods they appear in are listed below:
Orange no. 1- Fish pastes, carbonated beverages (cold-drinks),jellies, confectionery, custard, blanc-mange powder, biscuits, cakes, ice-cream, cordials, ice cream toppings, milk syrups, sausages, casings, puddings, frozen desserts, soft drinks,solutions for home use.
Orange no.2 - Cheese, margarine, candies, edible fats,external colouring of oranges.
Yellow no. 1 - Confectionery, macaroni, spaghetti, other pastas, baked goods, beverages.
Yellow no. 3 - (Yellow AB)- Edible fats, margarine, butter, cakes, biscuits, candies.
Green no.1 - Cordials, jelly, soft drinks, candy, bakery goods, frozen desserts.
Blue no.1 - Icings, cordials, jellies, ice cream, ice cream toppings, milk syrups, candies, cake decorations,
frozen desserts, soft drinks, puddings, bakery goods, solutions for home use.Dyes are added to Tandoori chickens to enhance eye appeal.
Baby foods are flavoured, salted and coloured with food dye to appeal to adult tastes, not child needs.
Unscrupulous traders are adding red dye to red chilli powder.
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ANTIOXIDANTS
BHT(butylated hydroxytoluene) and BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) are petroleum products that have come into widespread use as antioxidants in foods.
Natural antioxidants, which delay rancidity, are lost during the factory processing of refined oils and fats. BHT and BHA are used to restore the anti oxidation qualities. Most of these added materials with antioxidant properties are known to be toxic and are also considered by some authorities as possible cancer-inciters. At first they were used with fats, but later they were incorporated so extensively in other items that today you can scarcely find in your shopping basket any factory-processed food or food packaging material that does not contain one or both of these chemicals.
Various experiments have demonstrated damaging effects of BHT in test animals, including metabolic stress, depression of the growth rate, loss of weight, damage to the liver, increase of serum cholesterol, baldness, foetal abnormalities.
Both BHT and BHA have been demonstrated as harmful, and in sensitive individuals they produce more severe reactions. Consider the case of Mrs.X who had enjoyed excellent health and had been free of allergic reactions. Her food intake was mostly from sources known to her, and her meals were made largely from basic commodities that she prepared in her own kitchen.
After eating commercially processed instant mashed potatoes for the first time, she suffered severe reactions, with skin blisters and haemorrhaging in one eye. This processed food was the only newly introduced item in her environment. When she ate it again and the symptoms recurred, both her physician and ophthalmologist suspected BHA and BHT present in the instant mashed potatoes. They advised her to avoid foods containing these antioxidants. She did so, and the symptoms subsided.
At a later date, her symptoms flared up again. This time they were traced to a breakfast cereal, never before used in her household, which contained BHT and BHA. Mrs.X became a concerned label reader and studiously tried to avoid foods containing these two additives. Again the symptoms returned. This time the problem was traced to shortening that Mrs. X had previously tolerated. Upon examining the label closely, Mrs.X was astonished to find that the shortening was labelled "new and improved" with BHT and BHA added.
Reading the labels gives no assurance that one can avoid these materials. Since BHT and BHA may be incorporated in food-packaging materials, and in animal feeds, as well as in ingredients used for food-stuffs, they can enter the end product indirectly. Even if BHA and/or BHT added to a food, the consumer may not necessarily find them listed specifically. The FDA and the USDA allow the general terms "freshness preserver," "antioxidant added," or similar phrases to appear on the label, which give no clue to the exact material used.Is it BHA? BHT? Propyl gallate? Octyl Gallate? NDGA? Or some other antioxidant officially sanctioned?
In some quarters, officials have taken measures to restrict the use of these antioxidants. BHT was deleted from the list of permitted food additives in Sweden and banned in Rumania for use in foods. In Australia, where much of the BHT research has been conducted by the Commonwealth Antioxidant research Project, the substance has not been included in the government's list of permitted antioxidants.
BHT/BHA manufacturers suggest their use in animal fats such as lard, beef tallow, bacon,chicken fat, butter, cream, shortenings, and grease; fried foods such as potato chips, doughnuts, and processed meats and fish; baked foods such as crackers, pastries, cakes,candies, and cookies; vegetable fats such as shortenings, margarine, peanut butter, and salad oils and dressings; ground grain meals and grain germs; a miscellany of other food items, including nutmeats, raisins, milk, candied fruit, whipped topping mixes, imitation fruit drinks, breakfast foods, extracts, essential oils, spices, and pet foods; food packaging papers and containers such as cartons for milk; containers for cottage cheese, ice cream, potato chips, cereals, cookies, and pastries; wrappers for bread, butter and cheese; rubber gaskets that seal food jars; and household wax paper. They are also found in some beverages, chewing gum, cosmetics, drugs and animal feeds.
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EMULSIFIERS
Few chemical additives outrank the so-called emulsifiers as a bonanza to the food processor- and few are more suspect of causing damage to humans than some of those widely used compounds.
Emulsifiers have many uses in foods: they promote smoothness, and keep incompatible ingredients like oil and water from separating; they may also be used to give stale baked goods a deceptive appearance of freshness; and they act as substitutes for more costly and nutritious natural ingredients such as eggs, milk,butter, and vegetable shortening.
Some emulsifiers, in only moderate doses, have been shown to be extremely poisonous to animals, others have not been adequately tested.
Yet tens of millions of pounds of emulsifiers are used annually in foods. These compounds have a variety of names: softeners, surface-active agents, wetting-agents; some are very close chemically to detergents used in laundering and cleaning.
Two main categories of emulsifiers are used in foods. To the chemist the first is composed of mono-and diglycerides, the second of polyoxyethylene monostearate and related compounds. More familiarly, they are known as the glycerides and poly compounds. The former are artificial fats derived from glycerides; the latter are derived in part from ethylene oxide.
Chemicals which facilitate emulsions are the emulsifiers, but their action generally has to be supplemented with chemicals called stabilisers which prevent the emulsions from breaking down. Altogether, fifty seven different chemicals are permitted as either emulsifiers or stabilisers, with E-numbers in the 300s and 400s, plus lecithin (E322).
It was found that when small amounts of the glyceride compounds were mixed with shortening and incorporated into baked goods their use resulted in "more tender" bread, buns, cake, and other sweet goods.
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A POPULAR BRAND OF BISCUITS
[A brand that many mothers feed their babies with]A popular brand of biscuits lists the following among the ingredients:
Emulsifiers (E322,E471, E475), Preservative (Sodium Benzoate), Flavourant (Artificial),Raising agents (Bicarbonate, Ammonium, Acid Sodium Pyrophosphate), Citric Acid, Glucose, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, invert syrup, Proteolytic Enzyme, Flour Improver(Sodium Metabisulphite).
WHITE BREAD
"The average loaf of commercial white bread sold today is primarily the product of chemical ingenuity, clever mechanical technology and advertising guile. It is subjected to a bombardment of chemicals, stripped of virtually all nutrients, given a few synthetic vitamins, shot with emulsifier to keep it soft and, sold to the gullible public as an enriched product."--Willliam Longgood
For more than twenty-five years bread flour was bleached and "matured" with nitrogen trichloride, a gas known as Agene.Sir Edward Mellanby, a distinguished British physician and nutritionist , discovered that dogs fed bread made with Agene treated flour developed "running fits" or "canine hysteria". Some ten years after the substance was found to be a powerful nerve poison for dogs, the use of Agene in bread making was legally banned.
A substitute gas was found by the flour millers. This gas is known as Chlorine Dioxide. The authoritative publication 'Lockwood's Flour Milling' has this to say about the gas:
"The use of Chlorine dioxide is more powerful than nitrogen trichloride (Agene); the quantities used are one- third to half those of nitrogen trichloride. Chlorine dioxide not only oxidises the flour pigment but also has a valuable bleaching effect on the colouring matter of the bran, which makes it particularly valuable for bleaching low grade flours."
Use of chlorine dioxide was approved over the protests of many USA nutritionists. The FDA (Food and Drugs Administration of USA) lists the gas as a poisonous substance, permitting on grounds that it is 'probably safe as normally used'. The late Leonard Wickenden , a noted chemist, pointed out in his book 'Our Daily Poison" that "No one has yet discovered that it gives dogs running fits so it is considered quite safe."
While Agene and chlorine dioxide generally are called bleaches, their primary purpose is to age flour artificially. Aging is considered necessary to give some flours the right consistency, but to avoid costly storage and waiting for the process to take place, they are given a shot of gas.
Samuel Lepkovsky of the College of Agriculture at the University of California in Berkley, and author of "Bread problem in war and in peace", noted that "instead of being alarmed at the decreased nutritive value of white flour as shown by the inability of insect pests to thrive on it, the production of white flour was hailed as a great forward step."
In milling, flour is treated with improvers, oxidising agents such as persulfate, bromain, iodate, and nitrogen trichloride, which affect protease activity and gluten properties.
Bleaching agents such as oxides of nitrogen, chlorines and benzoyl peroxide convert the yellow carotenoid pigment to colourless compounds because of alleged consumer desire for white bread.
An obstacle to overcome is the common belief that there is little if any nutritional difference between white and whole-wheat bread. The baker is delighted to maintain this canard because white flour will keep much longer than whole-wheat. Several scientists have noted that bugs avoid bleached flour because it does not have enough nutrition to keep them alive. "Only humans eat it," said Dr. Carlson.
Sylvester Graham said that whole-wheat bread (whole wheat is wheat ground as flour but with bran and all other substances retained in the flour) was almost a complete food and in addition could cure digestive disorders such as constipation and diarrhoea. He also warned that removal of the bran by bolting or separating from the milled flour reduced the nutritive value.
Lepkovsky quoted a J.B. Orr as recalling that during the Napoleonic wars the men from northern England and southern Scotland who lived in the country side and had plenty of whole-wheat grain, milk, eggs and vegetables were big, powerful and energetic men who made the best infantry soldiers of Europe . During the Boer war a large percentage of the recruits from this same district were short, frail weaklings who could not be used as soldiers.
"A commission was appointed to investigate the cause of this striking change in the physical condition of these men, and it was found that many people who had moved off the land and had gone into the slums of the big cities had their eating habits changed. They were depending too largely on white flour and sugar".
Despite spirited opposition to white bread by many doctors and health officials, the milling industry laid down a massive propaganda barrage which buried its opponents. Anyone who attacked the nutritive values of white bread was denounced. Industry was aided in this campaign by organised medicine and the government. "The nutritional poverty of white bread as compared with whole-wheat was so great as to demand attention".
This led to the fortification of white bread.
To understand what is involved in fortifying bread, it is helpful to observe what happens to the grain in milling:
A grain of wheat or berry, as it is called, is composed of three principal parts: 1.the outer shell or husk, 2.the endosperm or kernel and 3.the germ from which the grain reproduces itself. When the grain is planted the husk protects the seed while it germinates, and the endosperm- a carbohydrate- feeds the germ until it gets a foothold and takes nutrients from the earth and air.
The modern steel flour mill is a devilishly clever device; it removes the husk and the germ of a grain of wheat, leaving only the endosperm. It is the endosperm from which flour is made.
The flour that emerges is little more than pure starch, containing only about seven to eleven per cent low grade protein. When mixed with water, the flour becomes an easily shaped paste. The miller loves white flour because of its long-keeping qualities and unattractiveness to bugs. But a secondary attraction is that he can sell the removed bran as feed for animals, and the wheat germ as a food supplement for human beings and animals.
Dr.Carlson said: "It is a tragedy to me... that we mill the best of our ingredients out of our grain and that the best part is fed to hogs and cattle while we eat the poorest part."
In the discarded parts are nutrients essential to human health and life. Some twenty natural vitamins and minerals are removed from white bread and are replaced with four or five synthetic ones at higher cost and call the product "enriched or fortified."
Numerous experiments have confirmed the nutritional inadequacy of "enriched" bread compared to the whole-wheat. In one experiment carried out by Dr.Estelle Howley, Associate Professor of Paediatrics and Nutrition at Rochester University, one group of rats was fed "enriched" commercial white bread and another was given bread made with the Cornell formula which was formulated by Dr. Clive McCay at Cornell, consisting of unbleached flour enriched with natural food products such as wheat germ, soy-bean flour, and a high proportion of milk solids.
Rats on the MacCay-Cornell formula thrived, as did their offspring through the fourth generation. Rats on the commercial white bread became sickly and starved-looking and produced stunted offspring. All died off and the strain became extinct before the fourth generation.
THE "FLAVOUR ENHANCERS"
MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (MSG)
MSG is one of the more concentrated sources of sodium. Because of this, it could not be permitted in diets in which sodium intake must be kept low. Dr. John W. Olney of the Washington University of the school of medicine in St Louis, said that he believed that pregnant women should not use MSG until further data are available.
To determine whether MSG causes more than transitory symptoms of acute distress resembling gall-bladder trouble, epigastric fullness, marked upper-abdominal discomfort, numbness at the back of the neck, general weakness and palpitation,tightness on both sides of the head, pounding, throbbing sensation in the head, laboratory experiments were conducted where larger amounts of MSG were injected into animals.It caused brain damage in in new born mice, and eye damage in new-born mice. As adults, the MSG treated animals showed stunted skeletal development, marked obesity and female sterility. The FDA requested the AMA's council on Foods and Nutrition to review the subject of MSG in baby foods. Dr.Olney had reported further findings. Brain lesions had in every species of experimental animals tested, including mice, rats and rabbits. The next species tested was a primate: a rhesus monkey. Dr. Olney reported that brain lesions occurred in infant rhesus monkeys.
It is virtually impossible to avoid MSG in processed foods. MSG is found in heat and serve convenience foods; meats, stews, and meat tenderisers; canned and frozen vegetables; sea foods, fish fillets, clam chowder, codfish cakes, canned tuna; poultry and chicken a la king; almost all canned soups and soup mixes; seasonings; mayonnaise, French dressings, salad dressings; imitation maple syrup; potato chips; crackers; tobacco; baby foods; etc.
SACCHARIN-AN ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER
" Saccharin is a noxious drug, and even in comparatively small doses it is harmful to the human system".-Dr. Wiley.
Saccharin, a coal-tar product synthesised in 1879, is intensely sweet, cheap, and not bulky to handle. Such qualities appealed to the food industry, which began to flood the market with candies (sweets), soft drinks and bakery products using saccharin as a sugar substitute.
"The Commission of the Health Association in France decreed saccharin harmful and forbade its manufacture or import. The German government limited its use, and expressly banned it from all food and drink. Similar actions were taken in Spain, Portugal, and Hungary. But attempts to keep saccharin out of food and drink in America and elsewhere have been unsuccessful."
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Index Alphabetical [Index to Pages]"MARGARINE-THE GRAND DECEPTION"
By Beatrice Trum Hunter From her book
'Consumer Beware. Your food and what's been done to it'.Margarine, in addition to its hydrogenation, has other objectionable features that make it an artificial product. An artificial butter like flavour and odour are achieved with Diacetyl. To ensure enjoyment of these these qualities, isopropyl or stearyl citrates are added.These additives are euphemistically labelled "flavour protectors".Additional attempts to achieve butter-like qualities are made with artificial colour, lecithin to imitate the frying behaviour of butter, and synthetic vitamins to "enrich" the product. Sodium Benzoate, benzoic acid or citric acid may be added as preservatives. The benzoates are known poisons, with severe reactions in sensitive individuals, resulting occasionally in death. In addition to these items, which usually appear on the label, emulsifiers (monoglycerides, diglycerides, and others) may be present but undeclared.
A fat is distinguished from an oil by its physical consistency. At room temperature if solid, it is considered a fat; if liquid, an oil. How is the liquid oil or soft fat hardened? It is exposed to a high temperature and placed under pressure. Hydrogen is then bubbled through the oil in the presence of nickel, platinum or some other catalyst. The hydrogen atoms combine with the carbon atoms, and the product becomes saturated or hardened. The new compound bears no relationship to the original oil. It is dark, malodorous or foul smelling grease. It is then bleached with corrosive chemicals to finish the change from an organic to an inorganic substance; from a live to a dead concoction.Technologists' skill are used to bleach, filter and deodorise it into a pure white, odourless, tasteless, highly artificial fat. It may be processed further for making shortening, lard or margarine.
The heating of the oil ruins its original character, with destruction of all vitamins and minerals as well as an alteration of proteins. The essential fatty acids (EFA) are destroyed or changed into abnormal toxic fatty acids antagonistic to EFA..The synthetic fat forms new molecular structure unacceptable to the human physiology. Dr. Hugh Sinclair at the Laboratory of Human Nutrition, Oxford University, has found that lack of EFA "is a contributory cause in neurological diseases, heart disease, arteriosclerosis, skin disease, various degenerative conditions such as cataract, arthritis and cancer".
John H. Tobe, in his book "Margarine- The Plastic Fat" wrote: "Finely pulverised nickel is used in practically all processes of hydrogenation. It is clearly admitted in a book entitled 'Industrial Chemistry' that all the nickel can never be filtered out no matter how hard they try. A quote from this book: 'The commercial procedure is to suspend finely divided nickel in the oil heated to 250 to 300 degrees F(121 to 149 degrees C) and blow in hydrogen gas... The nickel is used in amounts of 0.5 to 1 percent of the weight of the oil'.
I checked further and to my utter amazement I found that the product used by the industry at large is a substance called Raney Nickel. Very few people know, but the Merck's Index reveals that Raney Nickel catalyst is prepared by fusing 50 parts nickel with 50 parts aluminium, for use as catalyst for the hydrogenation of organic compounds with gaseous hydrogen. Usually from 1 to 10% of the substance to be reduced is employed. In 'Industrial Chemistry' they state 0.5 to 1 percent catalyst is used. Merck's Index reads from 1 to 10 percent is used. Doctors- good, respectable, intelligent,capable medical men of unimpeachable integrity - recommend and advise that their patients who are in danger of or have had heart troubles, give up the use of butter and instead, use margarine. May God in His mercy on the medical men who are giving this advice to their patients - and even more so on their patients."
Henry A. Schroeder, M.D. wrote in 'Journal of Chronic Diseases' : "There is no assurance that nickel, if used as a catalyst leaves no residue in the product. This element, even in minute quantities in the diet, is suspected of being a carcinogen (Cancer causing). In addition, the role of abnormal metals such as nickel has been studied in relation to arteriosclerosis. One metal can replace another and inactivate it in a biologic system, so that there is a possibility that the nickel competes with an essential metal in the enzyme system of the body and produces a vitamin B6 (pyrodoxine) deficiency. This vitamin plays an important role in converting saturates to unsaturates in the body."
Sir John McMichael, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of London says: "Many doctors have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by propaganda into widespread acceptance of a dietary fashion for polyunsaturated fats".
Margarine manufacturers have advertised their wares as containing unsaturates. Significant quantities are unlikely, regardless of the raw materials used, because of the hydrogenation of the product. Many claims fail to tell the whole story, and typify what advertising agencies call "avoidance of negative appeal". Slogans have been devised so that "a little inaccuracy saves a world of explanation". Advertising copywriters for margarine have shifted from direct to indirect health claims. References to heart disease or doctor's prescriptions are made less frequently. Instead these have been superseded by phrases like "high in unsaturates" or "low in saturated fats".
It is well to remember the observation of Dr.Franklin Bicknell about World War 2 in Norway where margarine factories had been destroyed, arterial diseases decreased. In England, during the same period, with margarine factories intact, arterial diseases increased. He commented:"...our increasing arterial degeneration ..is a preventable pandemic disease of modern foods and especially of modern bread, milk and margarine".
Despite the shocking implications of hydrogenation, the process is used almost universally by food processors. Far worse, it is accepted and fully sanctioned by government agencies responsible for the consumer's welfare. It is difficult, if not virtually impossible, to avoid hydrogenated fats, commonly used in restaurants, bakeries, and hundreds of consumer food products; packaged dehydrated soups, chocolates, sweets, bread, biscuits, etc.
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