ON WOMEN AND DIET:

"Women are favored by nature in that they are extremely efficient assimilators of nutrients. . . . In our society of affluence, that evolutionary advantage has turned into a curse. The overabundance of food, the reliance of nutrient-dense foods such as meat and cheese, the sedentary lifestyles, and the tendency to have few or no children -- more input than output, in other words -- have put a crimp in their energy flow, and women find themselves accumulating excess matter in their bodies . . . The family cook, therefore, need not be distraught if the man of the house eats three portions and the lady only half, if he eats the meat and she doesn't or if he'll have dessert and she won't. If such dietary food choices are natural and unforced, they are only the expression of some very real, and common, metabolic variations."

ON FEVERS AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM:

"For thousands of years, an elevation in body temperature was considered beneficial; it was thought to speed up the disease process and help the disease condition clear up. But for the past eighty years or so, pharmacological medicine has insisted that fever is no good and must be lowered as soon as it appears -- in other words, that the fever is the sickness.

"Fever generally starts in the intestines, and in my experience it is almost invariably associated with the consumption of animal protein. . . . An excess of this protein, if not moving fast enough through the intestines, will putrefy and invite bacteria as scavengers. Fevers then arise to burn up the putrefying matters as well as the bacteria. Interrupting this process with aspirin or antibiotics is akin to killing the cleaning lady in the midst of her spring cleaning . . . because the job doesn't get finished, all the debris is left lying around, including the corpses of the dead bacteria, and the stage is set for more extensive and complicated infections and illnesses later on . . .

"Each interrupted infection leaves debris and residue in the body. Subsequent ‘illnesses' attempt to clean up not only whatever problem is then acute, but also the leftovers of prior unfinished business . . . One day, the immune system takes a look at the mess and says, in effect, ‘this stuff doesn't belong here; let's take care of it,' and turns around and attacks the whole body. This could be the beginning of autoimmune diseases such as allergies, Guillain-Barre syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis, lupus, even cancer and AIDS."

ON AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS:

"Autoimmune disorders are probably the epidemic of our times. . . . As a majority of the Western world is also routinely immunized and frequently treated with antibiotics . . . I see a definite connection. . . . All the people I've seen with AIDS also had an extensive history of antibiotic use."

ON FOOD AND MENTAL ILLNESS:

"The most common foods to cause mental disturbances are sugar, milk, and milk products . . . Negative reactions to milk . . . such as depression, weepiness, and feelings of helplessness and inability to cope, are so widespread that they are almost considered the norm. . . . Sugar is very closely linked to feelings of alienation, despair and depression . . . I hope the day will come when, if we suffer from any of these feelings, we'll all know to first stop eating cake, ice cream, candy, pastries, chocolate, sugared cereals, and so on. Then we will wait four days and only then, if the feelings persist unabated, accept them as psychologically generated."

ON FOOD AND HEALING:

"No particular food or way of eating is a panacea. . . . good food is food which nourishes without causing stress . . . thus allowing our immune system to spend its energy in healing. . . . Thus many different diets will have healing effects. Often it's not what we eat but what we don't eat that helps us become healthy again."

ON CRAVINGS:

"Curiously enough, our bodies often tell us what to do: we get yens, cravings, deep longings. It is important to learn not to ignore these cravings simply because they may not fit into some nutritional plan or theory.

"How many times have we resolved to ‘be good', to take care of ourselves and eat properly, only to ruin the whole thing with some crazy binge? The trick: to find out what our cravings are telling us.

"Cravings which arise out of an imbalance . . . provide us with important information about our condition and if not heeded, will provoke uncontrollable binges."

ON FASTING:

"Fasting tacitly acknowledges the fact that ours is a self-healing organism. Healing occurs naturally if it is allowed; improper or excessive food simply thwarts the natural ongoing healing processes. Forcing a sick person to eat ‘to keep up his strength' overlooks the fact that digestion uses up strength too. . . . Also, as fasting appears to release a hormone that stimulates the immune system, it would indeed help speed recovery from fevers and infections. Not eating, in short, is as important as eating."

ON HUNGER:

"Hunger after a meal usually indicates that the nutrients are out of balance. Excess salt, sugar, or supplements, and low protein, low-fat diets can all bring on this symptom. Beans, fish, eggs, chicken, and meat are the foods that will correct this most efficiently. Nuts will help somewhat, as they contain protein and fats. . . . Fat will get rid of the hunger, but it does not satisfy the specific nutrient need of which the hunger is an expression . . . Adding balanced whole foods, namely vegetables and grains, does not correct this condition! Neither do sweets, cakes, or pastries, which are the first choice for many people."

ON MODIFYING YOUR DIET AS YOU CHANGE:

"As you heal, you have to modify your food intake so as to adjust it to your changing condition. In other words, as you yourself change, you must make changes in your manner of eating. If you fail to do so, you will become stuck, regardless of how "good" your food is..."

Spring 2005

When I wrote 'Food and Healing' in the early 1980's, towards the end of the book I allowed myself to dream a little bit, and wrote down what I wanted to see happen in the world of health and healing. I thought surely the editors would cut it out, but they didn't. And here it is, twenty years later, and lo and behold, with the rapid growth of 'integrative medicine' we are getting closer and closer to my original vision. I didn't have as much to do with this change as I envisioned, but that is even better. It's an organic change. More and more people learn to understand that human beings are so complex that they need many different ways to take care of their health. As Victor Hugo has said, 'An invasion of armies can be defeated, but not an idea whose time has come.' Here, then, is my original vision of the future of medicine.

A PROPOSAL FOR UNIFYING THE OPPOSITES

Man is one, and our salvation lies eventually in a mutual sharing of all knowledge.
-Richard Grossinger, Planet Medicine

It is becoming increasingly evident that, whatever our individual preference is in healing matters, our horizons must be broadened. “Holistic” or naturalistic types like myself must recognize the valuable aspects of technological medicine. Doctors and hospitals must admit that there are areas in which old-fashioned, noninvasive approaches to healing are more effective than their own. How can this dialogue be encouraged? If I lived in a fairy-tale world and all my dreams could come true, I’d like to see a worldwide meeting of M.D.s, chiropractors, acupuncturists, iridologists, bodywork professionals, and food people (including myself) during which we would agree on the following:

• A concept of the human being as a fully integrated, self-healing organism that can, at times, be treated like a mechanism and survive.
• A concept of health and disease as outlined in this book: briefly, health as the optimum functioning of human beings on physical, emotional, social, and spiritual levels; disease as information and an initially positive attempt to preserve function.
• Our respective areas of true competence, ineffectiveness, and overlap
• The value of anecdotal evidence—what the patient feels and describes—because of the infinite amount of uncontrollable, scientifically unknowable variables that comprise a human being
• Declaring allegiance to the uncertainty of practice rather than the certainty of theory
• The fact that the patient’s subconscious knows whether his or her condition is dangerous or not; that this subconscious can be consulted regularly through precise questioning and the “focusing” technique; and that, if its responses are carefully considered, it can be the healing professional’s best ally both in choosing treatment and in evaluating its effectiveness
• The fact that the healer’s most valuable tool is intuition rather than knowledge—although knowledge and practice are absolutely essential to sharpen and focus the intuition
• The fact that no one has The Answer, but that each healing method will solve part of the puzzle; and that serious professionals in any healing field have the obligation to know about others in related fields, so as to be able to refer patients to them
• The need to educate the public about the different healing methods available, so that each “health consumer” may in fact pick among them as he or she now picks among the different foods in a supermarket

• All conditions, but especially fatigue, mental fuzziness, colds, skin eruptions, recurrent infections in any part of the body, respiratory and digestive ailments, and other adjustments and discharges, as well as chronic conditions such as arteriosclerosis, arthritis, allergies, cancer, and so on, should first be treated by dietary management.
• Exercise should be routinely prescribed, especially for conditions of stagnations, sluggishness, and accumulation, such a cardiovascular diseases, slow digestions, overweight, and malabsorption.
• All minor problems such as headaches, fevers, colds, and digestive disorders would be treated with medicinal foods, herbs, and drinks. (See chapter twelve for some simple approaches to such conditions.)
• Problems with absorption and transformation of food can be treated with herbs and dietary supplements.
• Malfunctions such as diabetes and hypothyroidism, after treatment has done all it can, could possibly benefit from chemical medications, moderately used.
• Backaches and problems with the skeleton are probably best handled initially by chiropractors and osteopaths, rather than surgeons.
• Pregnancy should be treated as a normal event and not a disease, and should be managed by midwives in homelike settings. Only in the event of abnormal conditions or special risks—the mother’s illness, or structural defects—would it become a medical affair.
• Female complaints would first be treated by removing all hormone-related foods from the diet (dairy products, hormone-treated chicken or beef). Whatever complaints remain after ten or twelve months could then be treated by other methods.
• Malfunctions of cycles and movement (menstrual irregularities, glandular misfirings, and sluggishness in any organ) could benefit from energy manipulations such as acupuncture, polarity, bodywork treatments, shiatsu massage, or psychic healing.
• Structural problems and mechanical trauma, such as multiple fractures or tumors that impede the functioning of some organ, will need to be treated with surgery when indicated.
• Psychological disorders, including depressions, would first be treated by removing sweets, sugar, milk products, and ice cream from the diet; by ascertaining that the patient is not protein starved or overmineralized; by investigating the possibility of chemical allergies; and additionally by talk, inner reflection, vigorous exercise, therapy, psychic healing.
• Physical problems that resist diet, supplements, medicine, or other material manipulations could be dealt with by the same methods as the nonmaterial ones applied to psychological disorders.