Super Health Through Raw Foods

The Greek doctor Hippocrates, considered to be the founder of modern medicine, uttered the famous words, "Let food be thy medicine."

How far we have fallen from his wisdom! First, let it be made clear that nothing, no outside object, "cures" or "heals" the body. The body always heals itself, and it alone has the wisdom to do so. As French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) once observed, "The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease."

But in order for nature to do the healing, it must be aided by the right nutrients, or building blocks. Thousands of modern-day people have enabled their bodies to heal themselves from all kinds of degenerative diseases using raw food diets, describing their journeys to health and full recovery from cancer, diabetes, heart disease, AIDS and other ailments.

A number of doctors have recognized the therapeutic value of raw diets in treating a host of conditions, including diabetes, ulcer, cancer, jaundice, Grave's disease, arthritis, fibromyalgia, asthma, ulcerative colitis, menstrual difficulties (including PMS), hormone disturbances, diverticulosis, anemia, circulatory diseases, weak immune system, hypertension, neuralgic conditions, gastrointestinal disorders, renal diseases, gout, obesity, myasthenia gravis and various skin diseases. Many of these ailments are not normally associated with nutrition. Section Two will present the science behind these seemingly outrageous claims.

It is very common, on a 90-100% raw diet, to be healed of supposedly "incurable" ailments and no longer need medications. I personally have met several people who had to take the drug Valtrex every day for many years for herpes. After going raw, they threw the drugs out and never had a breakout again. I have met people who no longer need medications for diabetes. I have also read of, and heard reports of, people with full-blown AIDS who became disease-free, sometimes the virus even disappearing from their blood and not showing up on blood tests. A number of the authors of raw food books were healed of cancer or other serious diseases using raw diet alone.

The immune system is vastly enhanced on a living food diet. A clinic in Germany (Klinik in der Stanggass, Berchtesgaden) documented the influence of a raw diet on the immune system. They found effects that yielded antibiotic, antiallergenic, tumor-inhibiting, immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory results. They recommend uncooked food as an adjunct to drugs in the treatment of allergic, rheumatic and infectious diseases.

Eskimos traditionally ate nothing cooked until very recently. They are the only Native American culture that has no history of a "medicine man" because they were extremely healthy until introduced to cooking.

Most people think of health as the absence of disease. Dr. Herbert M. Shelton was a renowned leader of the Natural Hygiene movement, a health reform movement that became prominent in the 1800s. He was quick to query, "Why must we accept as normal what we find in a race of sick and weakened beings?"

At his death, Shelton was writing a book to be called Normal Man, his vision of what true normal really is for our species. Perhaps we have yet to realize the full scope of our health potential.

Some people are motivated to get on the raw food bandwagon even though they were relatively healthy already. Some do it to prevent degenerative diseases. Much to their surprise, they soon encounter what can only be described as "ultra health" or "super health."

Gone is the need to sleep eight hours a day, and some even jump out of bed fully awake after three to six hours of sleep, with no desire for coffee or other stimulants. Excess fat melts off without any feeling of deprivation. The desire to overeat is diminished, as natural appetite control reestablishes itself.

Women find complete freedom from PMS, and for most, even their periods, which are a form of detoxification, dwindle down to one day. Birthing labor is sometimes painless and very brief.

Women who have been eating raw diets for several years prior to the onset of menopause report having neither signs nor symptoms that indicate they are passing through menopause. The only way they discover that they have gone through the passage is via blood tests for hormone levels.

Temperature extremes are suddenly tolerated more easily. Body odors vanish or greatly diminish after a year or two of eating 100% raw. Skin becomes soft and smooth. Hair grows thick and wild. Bad breath becomes a thing of the past. Air travel does not entail jetlag.

Various other complaints, like athlete's foot, acne, allergies, colds, flus, dandruff, herpes or cold sores, vanish.

The physical senses sharpen. The person's psychic ability and feeling of being "in sync" or "in the flow of synchronicity" flourishes. The person finds himself more dynamic, radiant, charismatic and confident.

There is a feeling of lightness that everyone new to the raw diet comments on because far less energy is required for digestion. Digestive time is also reduced: While 48-100 hours are needed for cooked food, only 24-36 (or even less) may be needed for raw food.

Athletes eating raw food diets have found their athletic performance enhanced. Dr. Elmer in Germany and Dr. Douglas Graham in the USA both experimented with athletes they train by having them go on purely raw food diets. The athletes improved remarkably in strength, energy and stamina.

Jan Dries tells of a cancer patient on his raw diet regimen who was actually skiing better than before she fell ill (The Dries Cancer Diet, p. 67). Comedian Dick Gregory became a remarkable athlete on a diet of raw foods and juices and occasional fasting. He ran 900 miles on fruit juice alone in 1974.

Since the vast majority of your body cells are replaced every two years, after two years on a raw food diet, a whole new "you" will be formed. Only this will be the first time your body will be rebuilt with living food, full of nutrients.

A common thing people say when confronting dietary reform is, "Well, I have to die of something!" This feeling of resignation relieves them of all responsibility to watch their diets. Dr. Robert Young, a nationally known microbiologist and nutritionist, responded to this "common cultural myth ... I disagree with this because I feel that it's NATURAL TO DIE HEALTHY!"

If you have no interest in achieving abundant health, consider that most illnesses do not show symptoms until the eleventh hour. For example, most people don't know they have cancer until it is in very advanced stages, and the doctor gives them about a year and a half to live, despite the tumor's having been there for up to a decade or so already. For about 40% of the people who have heart disease, the first symptom they experience is death by heart attack! (Sorry, the living food diet cannot bring you back from the grave.)

Although living foods can help your body cure itself even in advanced stages of disease, it is not wise to wait until you are ill. In the Chinese medical classic, the Nei Jing, it is said, "To administer medicine after an illness begins is ... like digging a well after becoming thirsty or casting weapons after a battle has been engaged." Therefore, even if you are currently content with your state of health, consider this diet as a powerful way to prevent future disease.