Most, if not all, of the so-called ‘diseases of civilisation’ are quite avoidable. Many that have become entrenched can be cured or ameliorated. In all of them, our eating patterns are the major factor, although often other lifestyle factors play a role too.

Not surprisingly, eating naturally is most likely to give you the best chance of improvement. By eating naturally you are removing the factors from the diet that are causing distress to your body biochemistry. You are eating in harmony with the way your body is designed.

In Chapter Two, The Rewards, we looked at some of the maladies that find relief in eating naturally. In this chapter we shall look at just what exactly can make the difference in each case.

All the recommendations are supported by a plethora of scientific studies: clinical trials, epidemiological studies, anthropological studies (studies on primitive peoples) and of course our understanding of how our Pleistocene ancestors adapted to their food supply.

Not surprisingly, the reader will note that there are common factors too. These all go to reinforce the notion that eating naturally really is the only sensible way to go.

Scientifically, there is still enormous ignorance about what different foodstuffs contain. It’s a theme that we come back to frequently in this book. By clinical trials and population trials, we are zeroing in on the foods that are helpful, without always being able to explain why.

We know that there are literally tens of thousands of active compounds in the foods we eat, particularly fruits and vegetables. We can’t define exactly how all these compounds work, but we ignore their importance at our peril. 

For example, a tremendous amount of damage is done in the body by free radicals. Free radi­cals are molecules charging about, looking to unite with another molecule and oxidise it. If the target molecule is in a vital part of the body, its function is destroyed or perverted. Our bodies have developed great defences against these rogue molecules. The very first, and most important barriers are antioxidants.  These are molecules which scav­enge the free-radicals and neutralise them. 

Where are anti-oxidants found? Almost exclusively in fruits and vegetation. There are literally thousands of anti-oxidants and only in a very few instances do we fully understand how they operate. The better-known ones are vitamins such as vitamin C and  vitamin E; and minerals like zinc and selenium.

 There are also the carotenoids, of which there are over 600. They give the colour for exam­ple to carrots, oranges, tomatoes and melons.

 Then there are the 5,000 phenol compounds. They too are present in all fruits and vegetables. They are strongly present in tea, coffee and wine.

 And again, there are the 7,000 terpene compounds. Terpenes too are omnipresent in all plant foods. They are particularly present in all kinds of spices and aromatic herbs. The terpenes appear to have a particularly strong suppressive effect on cancer cells, even to the point of causing them to behave like normal cells again.

 We must not forget the thousands of bioflavonoids, yet another vast range of compounds that are essential to the body. We know that they are important to optimum health and the only way to be sure of getting them is by eating plant foods.

 Note that supplements are not the solution: what supplement contains the 5,000 phenols, the 7,000 terpenes, the 600 carotenoids, the thousands of bioflavonoids, the dozens of trace minerals and the essential vitamins? There’s only one place they all come together neatly packaged, in fruits and vegetables!

So the message is: for optimum health ‘eat naturally’. That way you are sure of harmonising your intake of nutrients, to the needs of your body. Today of course, hardly anyone eats this way and as a result the population is suffering various ‘deficiency diseases’.

The ‘diseases of civilisation’ are deficiency diseases.

There is a huge variation in people’s genetic make-up and in their ability to cir­cumvent deficiencies in the diet. That is why, even though eating the same way, different people will break out in different illnesses.

The rest of this chapter is devoted to setting out our current knowledge of what foods are helpful and what foods are not helpful for specific illnesses and what we should do about it. If you suffer from any of these conditions, then you will do well to concentrate, in the first instance, on the recommendations specific to that condition.

Nevertheless, when all the recommendations are put together, you will see that they converge on the Golden Rules for Natural Eating. So why take a chance? Think about going the whole hog straight away.

Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteo-Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus

These diseases are made more difficult because their causes are often multiple: a malfunctioning immune system, allergic reaction or a deficiency in the diet of essential nutrients. Diet is not always going to be the main culprit, but getting the diet right will stack the cards in favour of resolving the condition.

Arthritis both Rheumatoid and Osteo- has been linked to a deficiency of antioxidants. Yes, plant foods again. Many studies show that arthritis sufferers have a history of low consumption of fruits, salads and vegetables, and that they have abnormally low blood levels of anti-oxidants like vitamins C and E and beta-carotene. There are certainly many other compounds in fruits and vegetables (read the first few paragraphs of this chapter) that are essential too. The first priority of an arthritis sufferer is to boost dramatically his intake of plant food.

Rheumatoid Arthritis is linked to the overproduction of inflammatory chemicals induced particularly by ‘Omega6’ oils. These oils are complete novelties to the human diet, having become common only since World War II.

In the body, Omega 6 oils are transformed into all kinds of chemical messengers. Some of these are histamines and leukotrienes. These are substances that instruct cells to inflame, swell and secrete mucus. This is the perfect recipe for encouraging rheumatoid arthritis. 

Osteo-arthritis is, in part, due to poor bone and cartilage building. Here again, omega-6 oils depress the hormones that build bone and cartilage.

So the second big priority is to cut out Omega 6 oils.

Osteo-arthritis is of course also connected to simple mechanical wear-and-tear on the joints – and the commonest source of stress to joints is carrying around excess weight. So yes, slim down to a healthy weight – and if you are into weightlifting, really monitor closely what damage it is doing to your joints.

A third culprit is saturated fat in all its forms: animal origin, plant origin and man-made (margarines, trans-fatty acids and hydrogenated fats). Saturated fats block and interrupt the work of helpful chemical messengers. It is essential to follow Natural Eating principles in this matter and reduce saturated fat consumption to a minimum.

The counterpart to that is to consume some ‘Omega 3’ oils. These are transformed in the body into chemical messengers that do the opposite to ‘Omega 6’, by instructing cells to stop inflaming, secreting mucus and swelling. So it is a high priority to consume modestly Omega3 oils. This action must be accompanied by a ruthless reduction in the bad fats (Omega 6 oils, saturated fats, hydrogenated fats and trans-fatty acids.)

 Oily fish contain similar compounds to Omega 3 oils and so are also recommended.

 Finally, arthritis is often triggered by an allergic reaction. Some of the commonest allergens are foods that humans were never designed to eat: wheat, corn and dairy products. Refer also to the segment on allergies later in this chapter.

 Multiple Sclerosis and Lupus: These are diseases that remain largely a mystery to medical science. However, studies show that at least two factors are implicated, a dysfunctional fatty acid metabolism and low levels of blood anti-oxidants. Starts to sound familiar?

 If you suffer from one of these conditions you will certainly stack the deck of cards in your favour if you adopt the Natural Eating precepts. Dramatically increase plant food consumption and get your essential fatty acids balanced (see ‘fats and oils’ in chapter 5.)

 Lay particular emphasis on the “helpful foods” below. Read the segment later in this chapter that deals with auto-immune diseases.

 

Fridge Door Summary

Cardiovascular Diseases (2)

 

Cholesterol

 

Helpful Foods - definitely favor

Unrestricted Salads and Vegetables: see Table 1, Appendix1

Unrestricted Fruits: see Table 1, Appendix 1

Omega 3 oils (moderation): Canola oil, walnut oil, flaxseedoil, hemp oil

Oily Fish (moderation): salmon, tuna, sardine, mackerel

Nuts (moderation): particularly walnuts

Sundry: tea, ginger, red wine (moderation ), hard drinking water

 

Harmful Foods

Meat: cut out beef, lamb, pork, bacon, sausage, ham, salami and other cold meats.

Dairy: cut out milk, cheese, yogurt and its products – Appendix 1.

Bad fats: cut out lard, shortening, dripping, butter, margarine, cream, whole milk, full fat yogurt, palm oil, coconut oil, trans-fatty acids, hydrogenated fats.

Omega 6 Vegetable Oils: cut out sunflower oil, safflower oil, corn oil, peanut oil, evening primrose oil etc.

Bad Carbohydrates: cut out cereals, bread, pastries, sugars, honey etc. (see Table3 Appendix 1)

 

Other Helpful Lifestyle Activities

Reduce Stress:  Stress raises cortisol and adrenaline levels, raising cholesterol levels. Experiment with stress reduction programs: yoga, meditation and so on.

Exercise: Exercise rebalances cholesterol-producing hormones helping to ensure that your body is making the right kinds of cholesterol and in the right proportions. Exercise is also a great stress reducer in its own right. Make sure you get the minimum exercise for your type – see chapter 11.

 

 

The Immune System

Cancer & Auto-Immune Diseases (allergies, migraine, asthma etc..)

 

Cancer

Overview

 

We are all walking around with pre-cancerous cells in us. The only reason that they are not expressed is because our immune system is keeping the lid tightly closed on them. Even when they are expressed, sometimes a dramatic regression of the cancer can be achieved by getting the immune system up to speed, and by not undermining it with unnecessary tasks.

 

Our body is a community of cells in which each one has its place and role. Normal cells are programmed to stay stuck in the tissues where they belong. On the other hand, cancer cells are vagabonds that gatecrash other tissues. That is what distinguishes cancer cells from ‘benign’ tumours. That is what makes cancer cells so lethal: it is their ability to colonize other parts of the body. That is, ‘metastasize’ and create ‘malignancy’.

 

In fact, cancerous cells have to overcome dozens of obstacles before they express themselves in a malignancy. These are the 10 main lines of defense that must be breached:

- Cells must, unnaturally, detach themselves from their original location.

- Cells must burrow successfully through the basal membrane that acts as a mechanical barrier.

- Cells have to find their way to a blood or lymph vessel and burrow through its wall.

- Cells have to travel safely to a propitious distant location, avoiding marauding immune system macrophages.

- Cells have to avoid self-destruction (‘apoptosis’): normal cells are programmed to commit suicide if they find themselves alone. Cancer cells have to switch off that function.

- Cells have to attach themselves to a new blood vessel wall again.

- Cells have to tunnel safely through it.

- Cells have to penetrate the basal membrane at the new site

- Cells have to invade the new tissue

- Cells have to successfully begin multiplying

 

At every one of these steps, cancerous cells must escape the many controls that have evolved over eons to keep cancers in their place. It is estimated that only 1 in 10,000 cancerous cells successfully makes it through this minefield of defenses to establish a new colony. The wonder is that cancers can ever occur at all. It is a terrible indictment of our lifestyle that we so sabotage our bodies that cancer has become such a prevalent disease.

 

Yes, cancer is a modern disease. Remarkably, for all the tens of thousands of mummified ancient Egyptian bodies studied, no sign of cancer has been found. The same is true when we look at peoples who live in the traditional primitive way. Why should this be? Why should cancer be a disease of modern industrial societies?

 

We can be fairly sure that the primary rea­son is the way we eat. Added to that are certain lifestyle factors like smoking, obesity, lack of exercise, and alcohol.

 

All the research shows that a diet that is high in plant foods is the best protection against cancer. For the Natural Eater, the reason is simple, our bodies were designed to work that way. Nevertheless, scientifically, we like to know the detail of how and why. We know that the antioxidants and other phyto-chemicals are important. But they are only effective if eaten as plant food, and not when taken as supplements. It is clear that there are many more essential compounds in plant food that we still don’t know about. We do know that they all need to be present together to be effective.

 

Here are two examples of some clinical studies:

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, USA, have confirmed that sulphurophane blocks cancer growth. It is found concentrated in broccoli sprouts[2][a], and in good quantities in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts.

 

Harvard University researchers find that the carotenoid lycopene, found particularly in tomatoes protects against prostate cancer. Other research shows that allicins found in onions and garlic are protective against cancer.

 

Another helpful practice is to avoid saturated fats and Omega 6 oils. They depress the immune system. On the other hand studies show that an adequate supply of the essential fatty acid, alpha linolenic acid Omega 3 oil, (vitamin F₂) reinforces the immune system and is protective for cancer.

 

In fact, a low fat diet is a prerequisite for a healthy anti-cancer diet

.

The anti-cancer diet is high in low-glycemic plant food and low in fat.

 

Other habits to avoid are fried foods and charbroiled meats. The compounds formed from the burnt fats are thought to be carcinogenic.

 

The Five Chief Things we can do to Beat Back Cancers

 

1. Eat a Strictly Low Glycemic Diet

Remember the Abnormal Insulin iceberg in Chapter 5? Insulin levels are out of control in 90% of Americans and in 75% of Europeans. Those high insulin levels depress the immune system and feed cancerous growth.

 

Did you know that when doctors want to highlight a cancer on the x-ray they inject you with glucose? The cancerous cells gorge themselves on the sugar and they light up like a Christmas tree on the x-ray negatives.

 

Cancers need food to survive – and the best food is a nice rich supply of blood sugar. In the West we unwittingly oblige by gorging ourselves, and all those pre-cancerous cells in us, on a high starch, high sugar diet.

 

Just follow the Natural Eating precepts in this book and you will automatically starve cancers of nutrients and boost your immune system.

 

2. Be slim

Everything we know about being overweight tells us that it increases dramatically the risk of cancer. In fact, being slightly thinner than ‘normal’ is even better. In a macabre way, it has been observed that there are no new cases of cancer in a concentration camp. Of course, there all sorts of other good reasons against being so skeletal, but a body mass index around 20 with a concomitant low body fat percentage seems to be optimum for restricting cancer.

 

3. Eat a Diet Rich in Micronutrients

Yes, as described earlier, a diet rich in low glycemic plant food is essential. This is where all those tens of thousands of essential immune system boosting molecules come from. Even the residues from plant food that arrive in the colon have their part to play: the ‘good’ bacteria grow on them and feed the immune system with ‘short chain fatty acids’ (SCFA’s) such as butyrate and propionic acid. These are absorbed through the colon wall into the blood stream where they act to depress cancer cell proliferation.

 

There is a bonus. These self-same short chain fatty acids are potent ‘bad’ bacteria killers, cleaning up the colon from infection.

 

4. Have a Low Fat Diet With Essential Fatty Acids in Balance

As described in chapter 5, “Fats and Oils”, we are unwittingly depressing our immune system with a diet overloaded with omega-6 oils. Drive these out of your diet and favor the omega-3 oils at every opportunity. But don’t go too far! The ideal is the 1 to 1 balance – you don’t have to micromanage it – just Eat Naturally and the ratio works out just fine.

 

The Japanese have the lowest incidence of cancer in the industrialized world. We know that this is due in part to their traditional, very low fat diet – less than 10% of calories. A low fat diet is cancer fighting.

 

Finally, the really bad fats. Many studies have shown that saturated fats, particularly hydrogenated and trans fats are powerful immune depressors. It is not surprising that these ‘bad’ and artificial fats should disrupt healthy body functioning – and cancer suppression is one of the casualties.

 

5. Practice Good Food Combining

Remember what was said in chapter 5, “How we Eat”? Poor food combining does a number of things to undermine the immune system and drive up cancer risk.

- It favors ‘bad’ bacteria and ‘bad’ funguses that escape into the blood stream. The immune system has to be diverted from cancer fighting to clearing up and disposing of these intruders.

- It increases porosity of the colon (‘leaky colon’) meaning that a much higher percentage of foreign bodies get into the bloodstream.

- It depresses the production of immune boosting short-chain fatty acids as described in point 3, above.

 

Moral? Follow the Natural Eating pattern, get those bad, new (for humans), food groups (starch, sugars, dairy) out of the diet -- and eat fruit on an empty stomach.

 

Three Ancillary Points

We cannot leave the general question of cancer without covering some more important points.

1. Exercise.

Yes, exercise is a fundamentally important to make sure the immune system is working at optimum efficiency. It doesn’t have to be incredibly intense or of long duration. Just make sure you exercise regularly in accordance with our naturally adapted exercise pattern as set out in Chapter 11.

 

2. Soy.

Soy is much touted by the marketing men as a great cancer fighter. The reality is much more ambiguous. Soy is loaded with anti-nutrients, as described in Chapter 6, subsection “Vegetable Protein”. Some of these antinutrients do appear to help fight some cancers, but they also increase risk of other cancers (e.g. breast cancer, pancreatic cancer). Soy and other legumes were never part of the human naturally adapted diet. All the other harm that they do to health means that soy should be only consumed sparingly if ever at all.

 

3. Pollutants.

Many people worry about pesticides, radon, smog and other pollutants in our air, water and food. The reality is that these are of far less importance than the “5 Points” above.

 

As has been reported in many studies, people get the relative risks of possible carcinogens completely distorted. As one study^[i][1] mentioned, over a thousand chemicals are reported in roasted coffee: more than one half have the potential to create cancerous cells in rats. (There are more carcinogens in one cup of coffee than carcinogenic pesticides in the average American diet in the course of a year!) BUT, in reality, human biochemistry not only detoxifies coffee chemicals extremely efficiently, coffee also has many great cancer fighting chemicals too. This is another example of how these situations are so complex. In fact, coffee comes out with a clean bill of health. The net effect of coffee drinking is protective from cancer[ii][2]. As for pesticides, humans, like other animals, are extremely well protected by many general defense enzymes that are equally effective against natural and synthetic chemicals. 99.99% of the pesticides we eat are naturally present in plants to ward off insects and other predators.

 

However, if you are a farmer, do follow the safety instructions on the agro-chemicals you are using. Accidental mega doses can certainly bring on cancers. Better still, move over to organic farming.

 

Other methods of preserving food are highly detrimental to good anti-cancer nutrition. For example torturing beautiful fruit into an indestructible shelf life by freeze-drying[3][b] destroys protective compounds in strawberries[iii][3] and other fruits and vegetables. Foods preserved by salting or curing and smoking are bad too[iv][4].

 

 

Breast Cancer

 

Everything said about cancer in general applies to breast cancer in particular. Nevertheless, there are some special remarks to be made.

 

Remember the saying that ‘we are what we eat’? A woman’s breasts furnish a good example. A woman who eats a lot of saturated fats and trans-fatty acids (hydrogenated fats) has more of those bad fats stored in her breasts. Such women are at much higher risk of developing breast cancer. Cut out the bad fats, margarines, milk, etc.

 

Next, let’s consider the insulin connection. High insulin levels increase the number of estrogen receptors in the breast by a factor of 12. This is a formula for increased tumor growth and proliferation. Moral? Keep insulin levels within normal limits, avoid the bad carbohydrates.

 

Finally, the anthropological connection. Breast cancer is practically unknown outside the West. You don’t even have to clamber over the Himalayas or the Andes to find peoples who live breast cancer-free. Take a comfortable plane to Tokyo, Singapore or Hong Kong and you will immediately be amongst peoples who live longer than Westerners do, and whose women do not suffer from breast cancer. Their secret? They eat very little meat, and no milk, butter, cheese or yogurt. They have very low fat, low glycemic diets.

 

Let’s look at the detail:

A low fat diet in general is protective^[v][5]: the NORMAL Japanese diet, at 10% of total calories is so low in fat that it is much lower than the typical ‘low fat’ diet (20% of total calories) heavily recommended, but rarely achieved, in the West. The Japanese have very low incidence of breast cancer, just 3 deaths per 10,000 women compared to 16 per 10,000 in the United States^[vi][6].

 

In a study^[vii][7] of 700 European women, those whose bodies had high levels of trans-fatty acids and low levels of polyunsaturated fats had THREE times the risk of breast cancer. Trans-fatty acids are artificial fats made by ‘hydrogenating’ an oil and turning it into a fat. The obvious examples are margarine and vegetable shortening. These are much beloved of food industrialists who use them liberally in a vast range of pastries, cookies, pizzas, ready meals and convenience foods.

 

In another study^[viii][8], increasing flaxseed oil consumption to bring the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio close to 1 SLOWED growth of breast cancer tumors down. The French carried out studies^[ix][9] on a homogeneous population of  women in central France. Those women whose breasts had LOW alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) levels were THREE times more likely to get breast cancer than those who had HIGH ALA levels. The usual sources of ALA are fatty fish and oils like Canola (rapeseed), flaxseed, hemp and walnut. (See ‘Fats and Oils’, Chapter 5.)

 

In other words, women should make sure that of the little fat they consume, it should be DEVOID of trans-fatty acids (‘hydrogenated oil’) and it should be rich in ALA.

 

Another major risk factor is being overweight and obese. In one study[x][10] the fattest women had DOUBLE the risk of breast cancer compared to the thinnest. The Italians[xi][11] found a similar result. Other studies[xii][12]^,[xiii][13] put the finger on the likely mechanism: insulin resistance. Yes that dreaded condition brought on by the HIGH GLYCEMIC DIET. There is no mystery here; high insulin levels increase the number of estrogen receptors in the breast by 12 TIMES. With twelve times the number of receptors, there are 12 times as many chances that one of the receptors will become cancerous. An Italian study²⁶ confirmed INCREASED risk with consumption of bread, cereals and sugar.

 

You will not be surprised to hear that there is a plethora of studies[xiv][14]^{,[xv][15],[xvi][16]} indicating that a diet rich in low glycemic plant food is very protective. A case-control study[xvii][17] in Uruguay showed that a low vegetation and fruit intake increased risk of breast cancer by 2.5 times. The nutrients identified as being active (there are certainly others too) are folate, fiber, vitamin C, vitamin E, lycopene and phytosterols. A Finnish study[xviii][18] identified lignans, a group of diphenolic compounds found in all the higher plants, as being protective. Women with the lowest consumption had THREE times the risk of breast cancer compared to the highest plant food consumers. A three-year French case-control study[xix][19] on 345 breast cancer patients demonstrated the health benefits of garlic and onions. It also confirmed the benefits of a high fiber, low fat diet.

 

Women who had a LOW FOLATE intake are particularly at risk if they drink alcohol. Low folate consumers increased their risk of breast cancer by 60% for just one alcoholic drink per day[xx][20]. A case-control study[xxi][21] in Shanghai found that low folate consumers DOUBLED their risk. On the other hand high folate consumers found the protection increased yet further if they were also getting good levels of methionine[4][c], and vitamins B₁₂ and B₆. Where is folate found? In foliage! So mother was right to insist that you eat up your greens.

 

The famous, on-going Nurses Health Study continues to produce great insights into eating for good health. An analysis[xxii][22] by Dr Zhang showed the benefits of the carotenoids lutein, zeaxanthin and beta-carotene. (On the other hand SUPPLEMENTS of vitamins A, C and E were worthless.) In another prospective study[xxiii][23] he found strong benefits from alpha-carotene, vitamin C and vitamin A. Dr Toniolo found[xxiv][24] that women with low levels of beta-carotene had DOUBLE the risk of breast cancer. In addition, he found low levels of lutein increased risk by 100% and low beta-cryptoxanthin increased risk by 70%. These are all carotenoids present in most colored plants, notably raw carrots.

 

One group of vitamin E compounds, the tocotrienols, induce breast cancer cell death[xxv][25]. Tocotrienols have to be obtained through the diet. On the other hand, vitamin E supplements (which are mainly tocopherols) are ineffective.

 

An Italian study[xxvi][26] found positive benefits from a diet rich in raw vegetables, fish, beta-carotene and vitamins E and C. It confirmed that diets rich in bread, cereals, sugar and pork INCREASED breast cancer risk.

 

A vegetarian diet, of itself, is not hugely protective. The reason is that most vegetarians eat large quantities of potatoes, grains, pasta, bread and cereals. They have a high glycemic diet. On studies[xxvii][27] of South Asian women in England, only those women who consumed fruit, salads and vegetables rather than their traditional rice, were protected.

 

Like with many other cancers, there is a connection between eating charred meat and breast cancer. According to results from the Iowa Women’s Health Study those who consistently consumed well-done beef steak, bacon and hamburger had FOUR times the risk of breast cancer compared to women who eat the same products rare or medium done. Those who ate ANY kind of meat regularly had an increased risk of 78%[xxviii][28]. The usual suspects are implicated: heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These are compounds formed during high temperature cooking of animal foods.

 

The very recent advent of soy into the diet has been called a ‘miracle’. What is miraculous is how the marketing men have persuaded a whole nation that this poisonous bean loaded with anti-nutrients is a miracle food. Studies[xxix][29]^{,[xxx][30][xxxi][31]} now demonstrate how the plant toxin in soy, genistein, stimulates breast cancer. When genistein is removed from the diet, cancer cells regress. Worse, women who are being treated with Tamoxifen for breast cancer, find their treatment negated by the consumption of soy[xxxii][32].

 

In an interesting sidelight on breast cancer pathology, Dr Laszlo Tabar of the Falun Central Hospital in Sweden has found[xxxiii][33] that women who have CALCIUM deposits on their tumors have only a 55% chance of 20-year survival compared to 95% who don’t have calcium deposits. Dr Laszlo sees this as an opportunity to avoid doing aggressive treatment on calcium-free breast cancers. We draw another interesting conclusion: calcium metabolism is a complex thing that we meddle with at our peril. How many women are taking calcium supplements (or worse, tumblers of milk) “for their bones” only to have the calcium put into a breast tumor? Don’t try to second-guess Nature. Eat naturally and calcium will go into the right places, just as needed, and will not be put into the wrong places as happens now.

 

Avoiding sunlight is another unsuspected way women do harm. We have overcompensated for fears of skin cancer by staying indoors too much! In a recent study, E M John found[xxxiv][34] that women who lived in the sunniest parts of the United States had THREE times less risk of breast cancer compared to those who lived in gloomy, overcast regions. Reason? Women in sunny areas were producing much higher levels of vitamin D under the influence of sunlight. We don’t need much vitamin D – just 10 to 20 micro­grams per day. It is toxic in large quantities. The body sorts this out just fine if the chief source is sunshine. However, some people mistakenly supplement with vitamin D and can easily overdose.

 

Some people worry about environmental pollution. The reality is that all the dietary measures mentioned earlier are far more important than pesticides and other pollutants. Studies[xxxv][35] have exonerated DDT and PCB’s from breast cancer. A Danish study[xxxvi][36] suggests that women who have done a lot of gardening might find that their exposure to Dieldrin has increased their risk of breast cancer. Dieldrin, which weakly mimics estrogen, was a popular pesticide for agricultural crops such as corn and cotton from the 1950s until the 1970s. It is the only pesticide for which a significant association has been found.

 

In fact, a great number of breast cancer-provoking factors can be traced back to the exposure to estrogen that they generate. For example, early menarche (onset of periods) and late menopause are risk factors. A girl who has menarche at 10 has THREE times the risk of breast cancer compared to menarche at 15. Menopause at 55 has DOUBLE the risk of menopause at 45 and THREE times the risk compared to menopause at 35. Quite simply, the woman’s breasts have been exposed to estrogen for a longer period of time. Early menarche is linked to obesity, to a high fat, high glycemic diet and a diet rich in dairy and soy products.

 

On the other hand, women who:

- have children,

- have children early,

- have many children,

- breast-feed,

all have REDUCED risks of breast cancer. There are many complex hormonal operations that have to unraveled and understood, but it does all come back to an elaborate minuet involving exposure to estrogen, progesterone and other sex hormones.

 

Finally, what about men? Yes, about 10% of breast cancer deaths occur in the male sex. The few studies that look into the matter identify OBESITY as a major risk factor. ‘Very overweight’ men had double the chance of breast cancer[xxxvii][37]. Lack of exercise and red meat consumption are also connected.

 

Breast Cancer Strategies

 

Harmful

- Diet:

o High Glycemic diet

o High fat consumption

o High saturated fat consumption

o High in calories

o Soy consumption

o Low in fruit, salads and vegetables

o Low omega-3 oil consumption

o High in meat, especially red meat

- Overweight and obesity

- Alcohol: high consumption

- Meat that is charred or cooked at high temperatures

 

Helpful

- Diet:

o High in fruit, salads and vegetables including onions and garlic (rich in micronutrients lignans, carotenoids, tocotrienols, folate, lycopene, allocines, vitamin C, E, B₆[5][d]_, B₁₂ etc.)

o High in soluble fiber (as obtained from the high plant food diet)

o Low in meat and animal proteins

o Low in sugars, grains and cereals

o Rich in fish and omega 3 oils

o Rich in lignans

- Good Body Mass Index (B.M.I). (i.e. not overweight)

- Exposure to reasonable amounts of sunlight.

- Reasonable amounts of exercise.

- Best to eat plant food raw. If cooked, use fresh or frozen foods. Cook lightly by blanching, sautéing and microwaving (Yes, the much-calumnied microwave is actually one of the least bad ways of cooking[xxxviii][38].)

Lung Cancer

 

This is entirely due to smoking, right? Wrong! Many people who have never smoked get lung cancer, and many smokers can greatly improve their chances of never getting it. Did you know that the Japanese are one of the heaviest smoking populations in the world – and yet one of the longest lived? Japanese longevity is not due to smoking but in spite of it! But they get away with it because they have a diet, whilst not perfect, is a lot better than the one that is common in the West. In other words, the Japanese diet, by chance turns out to be closer to the ideal diet for the Human species than eaten elsewhere.

 

Many studies show that what is good for fighting cancer in general (see “5Chief Things to beat Back Cancer”) is good for lung cancer too. A diet rich in low-glycemic plant foods is very protective[xxxix][39]^{,[xl][40],[xli][41],[xlii][42]}. And it is no real surprise. Those thousands of micronutrients and fibers[xliii][43] are all essential feedstock for our biochemistry to function properly.

 

Anyone who knowingly eats little in the way of fruits, salads and colored vegetables is KNOWINGLY laying himself open to cancers of all kinds.

 

Are there any particular compounds and plant foods that are particularly important in the fight against lung cancer? A high fruit diet, rich in flavonoids, is particularly important for good lung health. Of the major flavonoid sources, apples^[xliv][44] are the most effective against lung cancer. It is a flavonoid called ‘quercetin’ which provides the benefit. On the whole, smokers, perversely, don’t eat apples⁴⁴ (or other fruit[xlv][45]) much compared to non-smokers and so their resistance is lowered even more.

 

Of course the ‘SuperVeg’ (cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower) with their load of the micronutrient ‘isothiocyanate’ are also great lung cancer protectors⁵⁰ . Isothio­cyanate is a compound that also gives horseradish, mustard and radish their distinctive flavor. Other great lung cancer fighters are tomatoes^{48 , 64} with their lycopene, and onions⁴⁸ with their allocines.

 

Other studies⁶⁴ show that high levels of beta-carotene from food are good, too. But only in non-smokers! It seems that the chemicals in smoke react with beta-carotene to turn it into a carcinogen[xlvi][46]. So beta-carotene is carcinogenic for smokers. What does this mean? Simply that over-dosing by smokers on beta-carotene supplements is counter-productive. This just goes to show how we are meddling in immensely complicated processes. Happily, normal, healthy levels even for smokers are achieved through eating the Natural Eating type diet.

 

Adequate levels of dietary selenium[xlvii][47]^{,[xlviii][48]} are important. This is not too surprising. Selenium is an important antioxidant and lung cancer is very much a disease of smoke-induced free-radical damage. But it has to come from food. Supplements don’t work[xlix][49]. Vitamin E too from food is beneficial⁴⁰ .

 

Another critical, but often overlooked, compound is glutathione[l][50]. It is a micronutrient that is widespread in fruits and raw vegetables. Asparagus, avocado, grapefruit, peach, strawberries, orange, tomato, broccoli, okra, zucchini, spinach and walnuts are particularly rich sources. Glutathione is an extraordinarily effective systemic[li][51] antitoxin, yet no recommended daily intakes have yet been established. Normally glutathione is abundant inside cells and relatively lacking outside cells. One exception is the high concentration of glutathione in the external cells in the lower regions of the lungs, where it neutralizes the toxins[lii][52] inhaled with cigarette smoke. It also neutralizes[liii][53] free radicals produced by lung phagocytes[6][e]. Glutathione also helps the liver to detoxify chemicals, such as acetaminophen (the active ingredient in pain relief medication), copper, and cadmium. Many studies[liv][54] have shown how a healthy layer of glutathione-rich cells lining the deepest part of the lung is important to protect against tobacco smoke, particularly for filter cigarette smokers (see explanation below).

 

The role of alcohol is always of interest. In common with many other diseases, the consumption of moderate amounts of wine[lv][55]^,[lvi][56] reduces the chances of death from lung cancer – but the study shows that the benefits are “largely limited to non-smokers”. The reasons are not entirely clear. ‘Moderate’ drinking is defined as up to 150 g of alcohol per week, which translates to about 10 glasses of wine per week. On the other hand, risks were increased⁵⁶ by 36% for beer drinkers and 46% for spirits drinkers.

 

The Japanese unsurprisingly, have found[lvii][57] that one of their national dishes, raw fish protects against lung cancer. Just in case you don’t fancy that idea, they found that cooked fish is almost as good. However dried or salted fish was no use. Other studies show that fish liver oil⁶⁴ is beneficial.

 

Likewise it has been shown that supplements of the same micronutrients do not work. It is the recurrent theme, all these micronutrients have to be together and in the right proportions for them to function correctly. In other words, the nutrients have to be obtained through the right kind of diet.

 

What about risk factors for lung cancer? Round up the usual suspects! High meat diet⁶⁰ , red meat[lviii][58]^{,[lix][59],[lx][60],[lxi][61]}, dairy[lxii][62], fat⁵⁸ , saturated fat^{58 ,[lxiii][63]} and cholesterol⁵⁸ are all deeply implicated. In addition, the sorcerer’s apprentice syndrome[7][f] applies.

 

People who supplement with vitamin A INCREASE[lxiv][64] their chances of getting lung cancer. Smokers are notorious for consuming far lower^{44 ,[lxv][65]} quantities of fruit than non-smokers – this multiplies up the risks to their lungs. Cooking methods matter too: particularly frying⁶⁰ and barbecuing are bad.

 

Paradoxically, smokers of filter cigarettes have a steeply INCREASED risk[lxvi][66] of lung cancer, particularly the type known as ‘adenocarcinoma’. These are cancers that develop deep in the fine branches and the air sacs of the lungs. This explains the paradox: filtered smoke is milder and is drawn deeper into the lungs.

 

And finally, let us look at some of the falsely accused factors. For example, pesticides have no role to play. As has been reported in many studies, people get the relative risks of possible carcinogens completely distorted. As one study[lxvii][67] mentioned, over a thousand chemicals are reported in roasted coffee: more than one half have the potential to create cancerous cells in rats. (There are more carcinogens in one cup of coffee than carcinogenic pesticides in the average American diet in the course of a year!) BUT, in reality, human biochemistry not only detoxifies coffee chemicals extremely efficiently, coffee also has many great cancer fighting chemicals too. This is another example of how these situations are so complex. In fact, coffee comes out with a clean bill of health. The net effect of coffee drinking is protective from cancer⁵⁹ . As for pesticides, humans, like other animals, are extremely well protected by many general defense enzymes that are equally effective against natural and synthetic chemicals. 99.99% of the pesticides we eat are naturally present in plants to ward off insects and other predators.

 

Other methods of preserving food are highly detrimental to good anti-cancer nutrition. For example torturing beautiful fruit into an indestructible shelf life by freeze-drying destroys protective compounds in strawberries[lxviii][68] and other fruits and vegetables. Foods preserved by salting or curing and smoking are bad too⁵⁸ .

 

Lung Cancer Strategies

 

Harmful

- Diet:

o High in meat, especially red meat, salted meat and processed meat

o Consumption of dairy products

o High fat consumption

o High saturated fat consumption

o High in calories

o Low in fruit, salads and vegetables

o High omega-6 oil consumption

o Glycemic diet notably high in rice and maize

- Overweight and obesity, particularly in early adulthood.

- Alcohol: high consumption, particularly beer.

- Tobacco smoking (of course – it is the chief promoter of lung cancer).

- Foods preserved by salting, pickling, freeze-drying or curing and smoking.

- Nitrosamines[8][g](from meats cooked at high temperatures)

- Over consumption of vitamin A, also known as retinol[9][h].

 

Worthless or even Harmful:

- Dietary Supplements. The operations of cancer and the immune system are far too complex to submit to simplistic supplementation. It can even do harm by upsetting our biochemistry in unsuspected ways. (Sorcerer’s Apprentice Syndrome – see glossary.). Worse, one is tempted to imagine that, by taking the pills, it is unnecessary to undertake the real and important steps described in this chapter that are essential to cancer prevention and cure.

 

Helpful

- Diet:

o High in fruit, salads and vegetables (rich in micronutrients folate, lycopene, selenium, allocines, vitamin C, E, B₆[10][i] etc.)

o High in soluble fiber (as obtained from the high plant food diet)

o Low in meat and animal proteins

o Low in cereals, notably rice and maize (corn)

o Rich in fish and omega 3 oils

o Moderate wine drinking

o Moderate tea drinking

- Good Body Mass Index (B.M.I). (i.e. not overweight)

- Best to eat food raw. If cooked, use raw or frozen foods Avoid dried, salted, freeze-dried,[11][j] smoked and other preservation methods. Cook lightly by blanching, sautéing and microwaving (Yes, the much-calumnied microwave is actually one of the least bad ways of cooking[lxix][69].)

*

This sounds pretty daunting – but it all boils down to eating in the Natural Eating way. So just look back in the book and adopt these habits right away – there is not a moment to lose!

*

 

Colon Cancer

 

With approximately 135,000 new cases reported each year, colon cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, and it is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Studies have shown that a variety of diet and behavioral modifications reduce colon cancer risk in the general population.

It is hardly surprising that what you put in to your mouth can have dramatic effects on what happens at the far end of the digestive tract. We know perfectly well what you need to do to avoid colon cancer and what to do if you already have it.

You don’t even have to eat like a primitive tribesman to avoid colon cancer. It is virtually unknown among many societies such as the Japanese and Chinese. Some of the causes are really surprising – who would have thought that high insulin levels might be a factor? (see the “abnormal insulin iceberg” in Chapter Five.) But they are. So too are high fat diets and diets that are dominant in omega-6 oils. (see “‘Fats and Oils” – chapter Five.)

 

But perhaps worst of all is poor colon fauna. We have some 2 to 3 lb of bacteria and funguses in our colon. Under normal conditions for a human being these work in symbiosis with our bodies. They promote good colon health, “tight” junctions in the colon wall (see “intestinal health”, chapter five) and even produce immune system boosting chemicals like butyrate.

 

But the modern western diet does just the opposite. The residues that arrive in the colon promote the overgrowth of ‘bad’ bacteria and ‘bad’ funguses like candida. These work to make the colon ‘leaky’ and allow them to invade the bloodstream and subvert the immune system. Worse, there is no production of favorable immune system chemicals.

 

A diet that returns to our naturally adapted pattern soon sorts this out. It needs to have a high volume of plant food, rich in soluble fibers and very low in starches. “An increase of 10 grams per day of soluble fiber reduces risk of colo-rectal cancer by 33%”, Dutch researchers report[lxx][70] in the Seven Country Study. Another study[lxxi][71] has found that dietary fiber galactose, plentiful in fruits, vegetables and salads, but NOT in cereals, is a helpful factor. High consumers of galactose in the diet had HALF the risk of the low consumers. Today the average westerner just doesn’t consume anything like enough of these soluble fiber-rich foods – result – constipation and a colon wall under cancerous stress. A wide VARIETY of vegetation reduces risk[lxxii][72] by a further 20%.

 

In the same vein, consumption of ‘resistant starch’ is also useful[lxxiii][73]. Resistant starch is basically non-digestible and is found, for example, in bananas that are still green at the tips. (Once bananas get ripe and have black spots, the starches have been converted to ‘bad’ sugars.) Resistant starch is also found in ‘new’ (baby) potatoes that have been boiled and then allowed to go cold. That partly explains why baby potatoes are less glycemic than regular ones; a higher proportion of their starch is slow digesting. Even so, we are cautious about recommending either green bananas or baby potatoes. They are still borderline glycemic and the potatoes still contain those potato poisons – glycoalkaloids.

 

Other terrible colon aggressors are the anti-nutrients found in grains. Grain lectins increase colon porosity (known as ‘leaky colon’) and stimulate cancer cell proliferation[lxxiv][74]^,[lxxv][75]. Gluten strips out the delicate villi that line the colon wall and which are the mechanism by which nutrients are absorbed through the colon wall into the blood stream.

 

So much for grains: but there is a more obvious colon irritant – spicy food. Curries, chilies and all hot spicy dishes do terrible things to the colon wall. Worse, they also loosen up the junctions in the colon wall making it more porous, allowing all those mischief making bacteria, funguses and food particles to pass through and undermine the immune system.

 

Poor food combining too, adds to the misery. Improperly digested remains of poorly combined foods arrive in the colon where they encourage the proliferation of bad fauna[lxxvi][76]. (See ‘How we Eat’ - Chapter Five.) Because of bad food combining even undigested food particles pass through the intestine walls to create mischief in the bloodstream.

 

Many studies[lxxvii][77] have shown how a diet that is rich in salads, fruits and colored vegetables is extremely beneficial and reduces polyps[lxxviii][78]. One useful factor is the increased bulk of the stools. Harmful chemicals are diluted and they don’t hang around for so long. As a bonus, bad cholesterol (LDL) is reduced.

 

A diet rich in antioxidants like vitamin B₆ and vitamin E, is also critical to good colon health⁷⁰ .Those who consumed a diet deficient in folic acid are 2.5 times more likely to develop colon cancer[lxxix][79]. Some compounds, like polyphenol flavone (present in most plants), encourage ‘apoptosis’ (cell death) and are particularly efficient in getting colon cancer cells to commit suicide[lxxx][80].

 

As for high glycemic foods , notably starches and grains, they are harmful[lxxxi][81]. They raise insulin levels, which has the well-documented effect of depressing the immune system, in particular by provoking abnormally high levels of the ‘bad’ prostaglandin IGF’s (insulin-like growth factors). Dr Kaaks of the International Agency for Cancer Research, Lyon, France found[lxxxii][82] that subjects with hyperinsulinemia (abnormally high insulin levels) had THREE TIMES the risk of colon cancer compared to those with normal insulin levels. In Italy[lxxxiii][83]^,97 , people who had the highest glycemic diet had a 70% increased risk of colon cancer compared to those who had the diet who had the lowest glycemic diet. Other tests[lxxxiv][84] on rats showed that a high sugar diet increased the number of pre-cancerous lacerations in the colon.

 

One unexpected subtlety is that iron-rich[lxxxv][85]^{,[lxxxvi][86]} diets are colon carcinogenic. High fat increases the effect. This helps to explain why (fatty) red meat is colon-harmful^{71 ,}. It is loaded with iron-bearing ‘haem’ (the deep red component of red blood cells). Even so, both red meat and white meat[lxxxvii][87] are implicated in colon cancer. “An unnecessarily high intake of essential amino acids may be as grave a risk factor for Western degenerative disease as is excessive fat intake[lxxxviii][88].” For the past 20 years, The Adventist Health Study has contrasted the lifestyle of 34,000 California Seventh Day Adventists with their unfolding medical histories. Individuals who ate red meat once a week had a 38% higher chance of colon cancer compared to those who ate none. The figure was 55% increased risk for white meat eaters. The authors suspect that by-products of cooking, or ingredients used in curing and salting might play a role. Swedish researchers found[lxxxix][89] a risk increased by THREE TIMES for high consumers of charred and browned meats.

 

Of course fats, especially trans-fatty acids, figure in the role call of usual suspects. Older people (over 67) had a 50% increased risk of colon cancer if they were high consumers of trans-fatty acids[xc][90]. Curiously, post-menopausal women who were NOT on estrogen therapy (i.e. were ‘estrogen negative’) had their risk of colon cancer DOUBLED. Saturated fat, too, modestly increases risk⁹⁷ of colon cancer.

 

In contrast, omega-3 oils are protective. The Japanese found[xci][91] that high consumption of tuna oils (rich in DHA) suppressed the formation of colon cancer cells.

 

On the other hand there are many molecules that fight colon cancer. Compounds in black and green tea[xcii][92] suppress the production of the ‘bad’ prostaglandin PGE2, which has been implicated in the growth of colon cancer. In the study, 10 out of 14 subjects who drank two to three cups of tea per day had a 50% reduction of PGE2.

 

Other studies show that garlic⁹⁹ is protective.

 

The micronutrient lutein has been much studied. It is found for example in tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, oranges, carrots, celery and greens.

 

High consumers of lutein had the risk of getting colon cancer HALVED[xciii][93].

 

Let us not forget too the benefits of exercise^{71 ,[xciv][94],[xcv][95]}. The same dreaded prostaglandin PGE2 is present in much higher quantities in people who are overweight, who are sedentary or who are both[xcvi][96]. For example, a modest increase in BMI (Body Mass Index) from 24.2 to 28.8 INCREASED PGE2 by 27%. On the other hand, those who jogged 30 minutes per day had PGE2 concentrations REDUCED by 28% compared to couch potatoes. And the old nemesis of a high calorie diet increases risk by 50% over those who have a low calorie intake[xcvii][97].

 

Keeping alcohol intake below the equivalent of two glasses of wine per day is important for those who have a family history of colon cancer⁷⁹ .

 

It is reassuring to know that moderate coffee consumption is innocuous. In fact studies[xcviii][98]^,[xcix][99] that covered 10 different nations showed that people drinking four or more cups of coffee a day have a 24% LOWER risk of colorectal cancer. Is this a license to drink coffee at will? No, for other reasons it is best to limit coffee consumption to no more than four cups per day.

 

 

Colon Cancer Strategies

Harmful

- Diet:

o High in meat of any kind; particularly char-grilled meat, salted meat and processed meat

o High in fat

o High in calories

o Low in fruit, salads and vegetables

o High saturated fat and trans-fatty acids

o Glycemic diet notably high in starches, sugars and grains

- Overweight and obesity

- Tobacco smoking

- Nitrosamines (from meats cooked at high temperatures)

 

Worthless or even Harmful:

- Dietary Supplements. The operations of cancer and the immune system are far too complex to submit to simplistic supplementation. It can even do harm by upsetting our biochemistry in unsuspected ways. (Sorcerer’s Apprentice Syndrome – see glossary.). Worse, one is tempted to imagine that, by taking the pills, it is unnecessary to undertake the real and important steps described in this chapter that are essential to cancer prevention and cure.

 

Helpful

- Diet:

o High in fruit, salads and vegetables (rich in micronutrients folate, lutein, alpha-tocopherol, polyphenols and B₆)

o High in soluble fiber (as obtained from the high plant food diet)

o Low in meat and animal proteins

o Low in cereals

o Low in calories

- Green tipped bananas (in moderation)

- Regular aerobic exercise (equivalent to jogging 30 minutes or walking 60 minutes per day)

- Low Body Mass Index (B.M.I). (i.e. not overweight)

- Hormone replacement therapy (for post menopausal women)

 

*

This sounds pretty daunting – but it all boils down to eating in the Natural Eating way. So just look back in the book and adopt these habits right away – there is not a moment to lose!

*

 

Esophageal Cancer

 

The French were puzzled why the incidence of esophageal cancer is much higher in Normandy compared to Burgundy and Midi Pyrenees. Normandy is a strong dairy and apple growing area whilst the other areas have a more conventional French cultural and agricultural tradition. What the French found[c][100] was this: high consumption of butter and low consumptions of fresh fish, vegetables and fruits were the main risk factors. Worse, the Normans drank large quantities of their favorite liquor, Calvados (distilled from apple cider) and they drank it HOT. The French concluded that excessive consumption of butter and the habit of drinking hot liquor are potent risk factors for esophageal cancer.

 

Japanese men living in Hawaii have been studied too[ci][101]. Risk of esophageal cancer increased noticeably with increased consumption of rice, seaweed and tofu. Heavy consumption of beer, wine, spirits and alcohol generally was strongly associated with increased risk. Cigarette smokers (compared to never-smokers) had a THREE-fold risk of esophageal cancer. On the other hand, high consumption of fruit was strongly protective.

 

In South America, studies[cii][102] were carried out in high incidence areas. Guess what drives esophageal cancer in these areas? VERY HOT DRINKS! The local beverage is a kind of herbal teas called yerba maté. Maté was doubly guilty. It strongly provoked the risk of esophageal cancer even when cold (the reason is not known). When drunk hot, the risk of esophageal cancer was multiplied up by FIVE times. On the other hand, regular tea is protective at normal drinking temperatures but is risky when drunk at scalding temperatures. Other risk factors were high consumption of meat, salt and animal fats. On the other hand, daily consumption of fruit, salads and vegetables was PROTECTIVE. In Uruguay it was found[ciii][103] that high vegetable and fruit consumption reduced risk.

 

The Italians, too, found[civ][104] that butter and HOT SOUPS increased risk while plenty of raw vegetables and citrus fruit, reduced risk. Another Italian study identified consumption of nitrosamines[12][k] and mycotoxins[13][l] as a risk.

 

The Swedes found[cv][105] that a consumption of fewer than three portions per day of fruit and vegetables is a high risk factor. They also studied[cvi][106] gastro-esophageal reflux as a possible risk for esophageal cancer. So far no association has been found.

 

A study[cvii][107] on British women (who have esophageal cancer at three times the rate of other European populations) found the following interesting results: fat women and those who ate little fruit had a much-increased risk. Women who had breast-fed their babies were protected. Another study[cviii][108] showed that very hot tea drinkers and smokers had increased risk; salad eaters were protected.

 

The Chinese found in Hong Kong[cix][109] that hot drinks and soups, pickled vegetable consumption, infrequent consumption of green leafy vegetables and fruits, tobacco smoking and heavy drinking, all increased risk. In Jieyang City (China) they found[cx][110] that over-hot tea, fast eating, animal oil and meat consumption, all increased risk.

 

The South Africans investigated[cxi][111] some traditional foods suspected of increasing susceptibility to esophageal cancer. They found that solanum nigrum[14][m], beans and pumpkin (all of which contain antinutrient ‘protease inhibitors’) were responsible. Smoking tobacco too is a culprit.

 

Many patients with esophageal cancer find that their disease prevents them from eating normally and thereby sabotages the very process that brings succor – proper nutrition. Such patients have to be fed via a tube lowered into the stomach, a process known as ‘enteral nutrition’. Encourag­ingly, it has been found[cxii][112] that, provided the nutrients conform to the ideal, this is just as good as eating the right diet normally. In fact, patients with esophageal cancer often suffer from malnutrition because of the difficulties of eating normally. Particular efforts must be made to keep up good nutrition, even if it means feeding intravenously[cxiii][113], a process known as parenteral nutrition.

 

Case control studies[cxiv][114] have shown that good intakes of certain nutrients found in plant foods, are beneficial – soluble fiber, beta-carotene, folate[15][n], and vitamins C and B_6. In contrast, dietary cholesterol, dietary fat, animal protein, and vitamin B₁₂[16][o] all increased risk. Another study[cxv][115] has found that the linoleic acid (omega-6 oil) is converted into prostaglandin E2, which in turn “profoundly affected the normal pH and fluid content of the esophagus, thereby promoting cancer.” This effect was, surprisingly, found in a high maize meal diet (which contains high levels of linoleic acid).

 

Spanish studies[cxvi][116] confirm the high risk of smoking and heavy drinking.

 

Studies[cxvii][117] made in India confirm the high risk of low levels of zinc and folateⁿ (all readily found in a high plant food diet).

 

A Japanese study[cxviii][118] shows the importance of the micronutrient, molybdenum. This is only needed in microgram amounts and is present in abundance in a wide variety of foods, particularly nuts. It is very rare, even for someone on the average American diet, to be deficient in molybdenum.

 

American studies[cxix][119]^, [cxx][120]^, [cxxi][121] found that a diet high in calories, fats, beer, meats, calcium and vitamin A increases the risk and that a diet high in fruit and vegetables decreases the risk of esophageal cancer.

 

Esophageal Cancer Strategies

Harmful

- Diet:

o High in meat, especially red meat, salted meat and processed meat

o High in fat

o High in calories

o Low in fruit, salads and vegetables

o High saturated fat, notably butter

o High omega-6 oil consumption

o Legume consumption, particularly soy and tofu, but also lentils and various beans

o Glycemic diet notably high in rice and maize

- Overweight and obesity, particularly in early adulthood

- Alcohol: high consumption, particularly beer

- Tobacco smoking

- Over-hot drinks and soups

- Mycotoxins^l (from contaminated peanuts and grains)

- Nitrosamines (from meats cooked at high temperatures^k )

- Over consumption of:

o vitamin B₁₂^o

o selenium

o salt

o calcium

o seaweed

o pickled vegetables

o vitamin A, also known as retinol (found particularly in liver and in supplements)

o pumpkin

 

Worthless or even Harmful:

- Dietary Supplements. The operations of cancer and the immune system are far too complex to submit to simplistic supplementation. It can even do harm by upsetting our biochemistry in unsuspected ways. (Sorcerer’s Apprentice Syndrome – see glossary.). Worse, one is tempted to imagine that, by taking the pills, it is unnecessary to undertake the real and important steps described in this chapter that are essential to cancer prevention and cure.

 

Helpful

- Diet:

o High in fruit, salads and vegetables (rich in micronutrients zinc, molybdenum, beta-carotene, folateⁿ , lycopene, alpha-carotene, beta-sitosterol, vitamin C and B₆)

o High in soluble fiber (as obtained from the high plant food diet)

o Low in meat and animal proteins

o Low in cereals, notably rice and maize (corn)

o Low in legumes like lentils, white beans, black beans etc. and especially soy

o Low in calories

- Breast Feeding

- Low Body Mass Index (B.M.I). (i.e. not overweight)

 

 

 

*

This sounds pretty daunting – but it all boils down to eating in the Natural Eating way. So just look back in the book and adopt these habits right away – there is not a moment to lose!

*

 

Pancreatic Cancer

 

Pancreatic cancer is increasing rapidly in the industrialized world, and nowhere more than in Japan which, historically had extremely low rates of the disease. Recent studies[cxxii][122], 137 identify why. It is the increased consumption of wheat, rice, red meat and variety meats (“offal”) and the reduced consumption of traditional Japanese foods like raw fish, tempura (sautéed seafood) and vegetables.

 

The Italians too have had a close look[cxxiii][123],[cxxiv][124] at dietary changes. They find that an increased consumption of meat (including ham and sausage) and lower consumption of fruit increased pancreatic cancer by 25%. In addition, tobacco smoking increased the risks by 14%. Fish and olive oil consumption reduced risk. Alcohol and coffee had no effect.

 

In Shanghai, the Chinese found[cxxv][125] that vegetables, fruit, eggs, dietary fiber, and plant food micronutrients such as vitamin C, E and beta-carotene are protective. On the other hand they found that foods that were deep-fried, grilled, cured or smoked, increased risk of pancreatic cancer.

 

The Quebecois[cxxvi][126] found  that high consumption of salt, smoked meat, food cooked over firewood, fried food, dehydrated food, and refined sugar all increased pancreatic cancer risk. On the other hand protection was afforded by raw food, food free of additives and preservatives, and food prepared by microwave oven. (Yes, the much-calumnied microwave is actually one of the least bad ways of cooking.)

 

Studies that identify the Cancer Fighters

Studies show that ‘good’ levels of selenium128 , [cxxvii][127] beta-carotene128 , vitamin C[cxxviii][128] and folate[cxxix][129]. in the diet are necessary for pancreatic cancer prevention. Folate[17][p] is a vitamin of the B complex and is also known as folic acid and folacin. Other studies[cxxx][130] confirm that a high vegetable, salad and fruit diet is protective. Patients fed on fish oil (omega-3) had their condition significantly improved[cxxxi][131]. Omega-3 oils generally fight pancreatic cancer[cxxxii][132]. In an unconfirmed study[cxxxiii][133] there is some evidence that aggressive treatment with pancreatic enzymes[18][q] can significantly retard the progression of pancreatic cancer.

 

Other Risk factors for pancreatic cancer:

- A high fat[cxxxiv][134], high omega-6 diet “significantly increases risk of pancreatic cancer” [cxxxv][135]^{, 132} .

- Regular consumption of soy. Yes, that much hyped, but two-faced, bean contains a ‘poison pill’, trypsin inhibitors. These nasty antinutrients are sore provokers of pancreatic cancer[cxxxvi][136].

- High carbohydrate diets[cxxxvii][137] are another important risk factor. The high insulin levels depress the immune system and they provoke increased levels of the hormone ‘Insulin-like Growth Factor‑1’ known as ‘IGF-1’ for short. IGF-1 is a known cancer promoter. High carbohydrate diets are blamed for the vastly increased rates of pancreatic cancer amongst the Japanese and African Americans.

 

Pancreatic Cancer Strategies

 

Harmful

- Diet:

o High fat

o Low soluble fiber

o High calorie

o Low salad and vegetable

o Low fruit

o High glycemic, high carbohydrate

o High meat, including ham, sausages, bacon, variety meats (offal), smoked meats

o High saturated fat

- High Sugar consumption

- High Salt consumption

- Soy product consumption

- Cooking: deep frying, grilling, barbecuing

- Preserves: pickling, smoking, curing

- Smoking

- Low exercise levels

 

Worthless or even Harmful:

- Dietary Supplements. The operations of cancer and the immune system are far too complex to submit to simplistic supplementation. It can even do harm by upsetting our biochemistry in unsuspected ways. (Sorcerer’s Apprentice Syndrome – see glossary.). Worse, one is tempted to imagine that, by taking the pills, it is unnecessary to undertake the real and important steps described in this chapter that are essential to cancer prevention and cure.

 

Helpful

- Diet:

o Low fat

o High soluble fiber

o Low calorie

o Low carbohydrate

o Low meat and by-products

- Oils: a 1:1 ratio of omega-3 to omega-6

- Plant Food (low glycemic): Eat voluminous quantities of low-glycemic plant food (see tables for glycemic indexes in the book and in greater detail in the Toolbox/Manual). That way you will have a rich intake of all those immune boosting important antioxidants and phyto­chemicals.

- Eggs: omega-3 rich (and free-range)

- Cooking: Raw food best. Cook food blanching, sautéing  or microwave.

- Non-smoking

- Exercise regularly

 

Not significant

- Moderate alcohol drinking

- Moderate caffeine consumption

 

*

This sounds pretty daunting – but it all boils down to eating in the Natural Eating way. So just look back in the book and adopt these habits right away – there is not a moment to lose!

*

 

 

Prostate Cancer

 

Doctors who consumed 6 glasses a week of skimmed milk were 32 % MORE likely to have prostate cancer than those who consumed LESS than 2 glasses of milk per week. These are the surprising results of the Physician’s Health Study[cxxxviii][138] carried out on over 20,000 doctors who were followed for 11 years. Note that the milk was skimmed, so this result is nothing to do with the known carcinogenic effects of milk fat (cream). No, the increase in prostate cancer risk was linked to the increased CALCIUM intake! The authors conclude that “These findings serve to interject a note of caution into the current enthusiastic promotion of a higher intake of calcium in the United States.” Earlier research from The Health Professionals Follow-up Study found that men who consumed high amounts of dairy products had a 70 percent increase of prostate cancer. Those who took calcium SUPPLEMENTS had a threefold increase.

 

This is not the only hidden danger in milk consumption. Even more insidious is the use of HORMONES to increase milk production. In addition to all the other insults done to mother cows in order to produce milk, in the USA cows are injected with ‘bovine somatrophine’ (rBST). This is a compound that increases milk production but also increases Insulin-like Growth Factor‑1 (IGF-1) levels in human blood. This in turn increases prostate (and breast) cancer growth[cxxxix][139]. The European Union is currently doing battle with the USA to keep hormone treated milk out of the EU, where the use of rBST is banned. In fact high IGF-1 levels from whatever source drive up cancers of many kinds[cxl][140].

 

Many studies have shown that dietary saturated fat[cxli][141], especially from red meat (cattle, pig, sheep) are strongly linked to prostate cancer growth, particularly in advanced stages. Other sources of saturated fat come from tropical oils like palm oil (chiefly palmitic acid) and coconut oil (chiefly lauric acid). NOTE: all coconut products contain some coconut oil, which is why we don’t encourage their use. In some parts of the tropics, like Thailand and Indonesia, coconut and coconut milk are commonly used in cooking. Coconut milk has 25% of the concentration of saturated fat compared to coconut oil, and its use should only be an occasional exception.

 

Asian men[cxlii][142] who consume very little red meat, and vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists[cxliii][143] are 35% less likely to get prostate cancer. The Oxford Study on 696 British men found that vegans (no meat or dairy products) were nine percent less likely to get prostate cancer than meat eaters (defined as those who eat ‘meat’ on most days of the week).

 

So the major prostate cancer promoters are dairy products, red meat and saturated fat; no surprises there. What are the prostate cancer fighters?

 

Many studies show that a diet rich in low glycemic plant food¹⁴³ are very protective. Fruits, particularly those whose sweetness comes from fructose, are especially helpful as are tomatoes with their rich lycopene content[cxliv][144].  Healthy (but not excessive) levels of the anti oxidants beta carotene, selenium[cxlv][145], vitamin E, vitamin C[cxlvi][146], all obtained from EATING (not supplementing!) plenty of low glycemic plant food, are great to resist and regress prostate cancer. Scientists say that they still don’t know whether the cancer fighting power comes from these micronutrients or some still undiscovered mixture of nutrients. Our position is very clear – you can’t double-guess nature and you need to get the full complement of micronutrients present in a rich, low-glycemic plant food diet to get the full benefit.

 

Abnormal testosterone production is a major risk factor for prostate cancer. Some compounds, such as ‘lignans’, lock up testosterone and stop it from creating damage. Lignans are a kind of plant fiber.  They are converted in the gastrointestinal tract to compounds that have both estrogenic and anti-estrogenic properties. The highest concentration of lignans is observed in flaxseed, followed by squash, broccoli, carrot and asparagus. Studies[cxlvii][147] on flaxseed, which also contain high levels of omega-3 oils and fiber, show that they are indeed great cancer fighters. Reassuringly, men on high lignan diets had no decrease in libido or sexual function even though their testosterone levels were reduced. On the other hand, cancer cell suicide was much increased. This is good; cell suicide is an essential part of good health. All cells, after a few days or weeks, should kill themselves. Fresh, new, invigorated cells then replace them. Cancer cells cheat on this system, refuse to die off, become more malignant and rapidly crowd out healthy cells.  On the high lignan diet, cancer cell proliferation was much reduced.

 

Other studies[cxlviii][148], which look at the role of omega-3 oils, have found that their effect is broadly neutral. Curiously alpha-linolenic acid ALA, (one kind of omega-3 oil), in small proportions increases cell growth whilst in larger proportions it inhibits cell growth[cxlix][149]. Should you worry about alpha linolenic acid “in small quantities”? No, the trick is to follow the Natural Eating pattern and get it in sufficient[19][r] quantities by the use of Canola oil, flax oil or walnut oil. In fact, should you cut these oils out of the diet then consumption from the myriad of tiny sources in the diet would drop to the undesirable level.

 

Other kinds of  omega-3 oils present in oily fish, eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) and docosa­hexa­enoic acid (DHA) are ALWAYS suppressive of prostate cancers.  This is in accord with the proven immune boosting powers of omega-3 oils generally.

 

Finally, low fat, low calorie diets inhibit prostate cancer growth[cl][150]. This is in accordance with everything we know about cancer proliferation. Like an invading army, tumors need to build up their supply lines. In fact they construct a special network of blood vessels to bring in nutrients and to remove waste products. As Napoleon found out in his invasion of Russia, his army was defeated not in open combat, but by the Russians cutting off his supply lines. Tumors can be defeated the same way. Prevented from developing their supply lines, tumors are ‘malnourished’ and so their invasion of healthy tissue is halted. Animals on a diet with calories reduced by 20% had a prostate tumor weight reduced by 62%.

 

Prostate Cancer – Strategies

Harmful

- Diet:

o High red meat diet

o High fat diet

o High saturated fat diet

o Dairy consumption

o High calorie diet

o High carbohydrate diet

- Other:

o Calcium supplementation

o Hormone treated milk

 

Worthless or even Harmful:

- Dietary Supplements. The operations of cancer and the immune system are far too complex to submit to simplistic supplementation. It can even do harm by upsetting our biochemistry in unsuspected ways. (Sorcerer’s Apprentice Syndrome – see glossary.). Worse, one is tempted to imagine that, by taking the pills, it is unnecessary to undertake the real and important steps described in this chapter that are essential to cancer prevention and cure.

 

Helpful

- Diet:

o Low Glycemic Plant Food: Dramatically increase consumption of all types of low glycemic fruits, salads and vegetables (see the lists of good, low glycemic index foods in Appendix 1 and, more completely, in the Toolbox/Manual).

o High Lignan Foods: Increase consumption of all plant food but particularly broccoli, asparagus and raw carrots. If you like, fresh-ground flaxseed is great too.

o Low Calorie Diet: Decrease the amount of calories you are absorbing, particularly by reducing consumption of fats and oils. Just keep up a minimum of essential fatty acids.(The minimum of essential fatty acids is measured in milligrams and is obtained quite naturally just by eating in conformity with the Natural Eating pattern.)

o Oily Fish: Eat one serving (about 4 oz)  per day. (e.g. salmon, sardine, trout, mackerel, tuna, herring etc…)

o Omega-3 oils: use Canola, hemp, flax or walnut for all salad dressings and other low temperature uses.

- Other:

o Calcium Supplementation: Don’t!

o Particularly avoid hormone treated milk (you shouldn’t be consuming milk in any guise anyway).

 

*

This sounds pretty daunting – but it all boils down to eating in the Natural Eating way. So just look back in the book and adopt these habits right away – there is not a moment to lose!

*

 

 

Infectious disease

Having a finely tuned immune system means that you are much more resistant to infectious disease. Vulnerability to colds, flu, viruses and even food poison­ing is greatly reduced.

 

Modern industrial human beings do not have good resistance to communicable diseases. The slight­est whiff of gamy meat and they are sick. This is the phenomenon of ‘affluent malnutrition’. They eat lots, but their immune systems are still deficient in certain essential elements.

 

Out­breaks of E-coli in Scotland, for example, killed many people. It is speculated that the Scottish immune systems are depressed due to a lack of selenium, an important anti-oxi­dant. Meanwhile the Eskimo prefers his caribou (and his fish) well putrefied…

 

Auto-immune diseases

 Allergies, Migraine, Asthma etc…

There is usually a cocktail of causes for these diseases, and the whole story is far from com­plete. However, there are certain dietary habits that are known to be helpful, and others that are known to be harmful. If you suffer from one of these diseases, it makes sense to eliminate at least one possible cause, the one due to harmful diet. .

Migraine: some triggers:

caffeine, tyramine, mono-sodium glutamate, nitrates, phenols, hormonal fluctuations, weather changes,

medications, stress

 

Allergies, migraine and asthma have many triggers. Usually the sufferer is sensitive to quite a few allergens and the allergy only breaks out when several of them have cumulated. Then it is the last one that gets the blame. Even worse, often the reaction can be delayed up to 24 hours after exposure. The average sufferer has no way of making the link between the trigger and the onset of the allergic reaction. That is why it is difficult to isolate the culprit, there are many of them and the exposure from day to day will be in a different order.

 

Many foods, including cheese, peanuts, pork, citrus fruits, and alcohol contain compounds called ‘vasoactive amines’. These chemicals are related to the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine, chemical messengers in the brain, and have long been suspected of triggering migraines.

 

One of the meanest allergens is the medication that one takes to relieve it. Particularly with migraines, the sufferer has to start by cutting out the pain relievers. This can be tough, the process is akin to going ‘cold turkey’ from an addictive drug. But it has to be the starting point in the search for a migraine management strategy.

 

In any allergic condition, it may be necessary to go squarely onto an ‘elimination diet’. Fast for 24 hours on water and then gradually introduce a new foodstuff day by day. Sticking to the strict Natural Eating diet should make this easier. It is not surprising that the commonest aller­gens are the foods that are foreign novelties for the human race, like wheat and dairy prod­ucts. These are the very products that should be the first to be eliminated by any practitioner of Natural Eating.

 

 Lectins are major immune system disrupters. As described in Chapter Four, they are the most powerful anti-nutrients around. Cereals have developed these toxins to dissuade grain eaters from eating them. Naturally adapted seed eaters (which are mainly birds) have developed resistance to lectins. Primates, man included, have never been grain eaters and have no resistance to lectins.

 

What do lectins do? They are agglomerative molecules that pass into the blood-stream and disrupt the work of any body cell that they attach themselves to. They are powerful provokers of all autoimmune diseases including allergies, asthma, lupus and arthritis. They are even suspected of causing autism in susceptible children.

 

Worse, lectins, like the Trojan Horse, open the back door to the citadel. They cause the gut to be more porous thus allowing bacteria, funguses and food particles to flood in and create their own mischief.

 

Ruthlessly cut grains out of your diet if you have a disabling autoimmune disease. Allow about two months for this ‘detoxification’ regime to work.

 

There are of course many non-dietary triggers. One of the commonest is stress. Sufferers ap­pear to be allergic to their own stress hormones! Stress reduction technique should be part of any program to alleviate allergic disorders.

 

But allergens are only one side of the story. The other side is the abnormal reaction of the body. Why does it do that? Some people are less able to deal with some of the ‘novelty foods’ in the Western diet. Modern inventions like Omega 6 oils, transfatty acids, and other bad fats cause the body to make histamines and leukotrienes for example. These are substances that instruct cells to inflame, swell and secrete mucus.

 

The immune system is depressed by the bad fats and oils. It is also undermined by bad food combining. The gut secretes all kinds of harmful bacteria, toxins, fun­guses and food particles into the blood stream. The immune system goes crazy chasing them down and sweeping them up. These are gratuitous tasks that you and your immune system would rather do without.  Your immune system will be much more productive if relieve it of these gratuitous tasks and free it up to get on with the really important job of vacuuming up infectious  viruses like the common cold and influenza; infectious bacteria like tonsillitis and food poisoning;  and of course, cancer cells.

 

Don’t divert the immune system from its most important job: hunting down viruses, bacteria and cancer cells.

 

 

 

Fridge Door Summary

The Immune System Cancer & Auto-Immune Diseases (allergies, migraine, asthma etc..)

 

Helpful Foods

High volumes of Unrestricted Salads and Vegetables: espe­cially broccoli sprouts; important: broccoli, tomato, onion, garlic; also good:cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, collard greens, bok choi, carrots. see Table 1, Appendix 1.

High Volumes of Unrestricted Fruits: apples, oranges, pears, cherries, strawberries, plums, see Table 1, Appendix 1

Omega 3 oils (moderation): canola oil, walnut oil, flaxseedoil, hemp oil

Oily Fish (moderation): salmon, tuna, sardine, mackerel

Nuts (moderation): almonds, walnuts, brazil, hazel

Sundry: tea, ginger, red wine (moderation )

 

Other Helpful Lifestyle Activities

Low Calorie Diet – be slightly hungry most  of the time

Eat Plant Food Raw – by eating salads and low glycemic fruits copiously, this recommendation is easily fulfilled

High soluble fiber diet – by eating plant food copiously this condition is fulfilled

Physical Activity – at a minimum, exercising in accordance with the guidelines in Chapter 11.

Low Salt Diet – by following the Natural Eating precepts, this condition will be fulfilled

Low B.M.I

Sleep Well

 

 

Harmful Foods

Bad Fat: cut out lard, dripping, butter, palm oil, coconut oil, cream, milk, margarine, spreads, trans-fatty acid, hydrogenated fat

Omega 6 Vegetable oil: cut right down on sunflower oil, safflower oil, corn oil, peanut oil, evening primrose oil, etc.

Bad Carbohydrates: cut out cereals, bread, pastries, sugars, honey etc. see Table 3, Appendix 1

Red Meat: cut out beef, lamb, pork, bacon, sausage, ham, salami, bologna etc.

Dairy – cut out all milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products

Salt

Pickles

Processed meat

Calcium

Well done meat

 

 

Other Harmful Lifestyle Activities

Bad Food Combining

Stress

Smoking

Alcohol Abuse

Lack of Exercise

Overweight

Lack of Sleep

 

 

 

Diabetes

‘Adult Onset’ Diabetes (Type II)

This is a scourge of the western diet, and it is increasing exponentially. Fully one half of all amputations of hands and feet in the United States are due to diabetes. Similarly, it is a leading cause of blindness. People who are diabetic are much more likely to be obese and have heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, thromboses and strokes.

 

Why is diabetes increasing so much? Why do Eskimos, Aborigines, Polynesians and Ameri­can Indians have such fantastically high rates of diabetes as soon as they adopt a West­ern diet?

 

What is it about the Western diet that is so harmful? To answer these questions we have to remember that diabetes is due to a dysfunctioning blood sugar control system. Why does it suddenly cease to function properly? Because it has caved in to the onslaught of blood sugar making foods. As explained earlier, these are primarily the bad carbohydrates they are aided and abetted by the border­line carbohydrates.

 

Secondary causes are dietary errors like the over-consumption of meat, which drives up the demands on insulin secretion and omega-6 oils, which increase insulin resistance of the fat cells.

 

Diabetes (Type I)

This is a much more rare disease. It is an autoimmune disease. The immune system turns against the insulin-producing cells and destroys their ability to manu­facture insulin. Nevertheless, for these sufferers too, diet is a prime means of controlling the progress of the disease. It is just as important to reduce the needs for insulin injections as for type II diabetes. Which leads on to the topic of insulin.

 

Insulin

Cannot diabetes be cured by insulin injections? For many decades it was thought that insulin was a miracle cure. Overnight, a dying person could be ‘cured’ and given many years of more useful life. This is true.

 

It has slowly seeped into the con­sciousness of the medical establishment that there is a big downside. This is the side effect of insulin, as a hormone, acting on all sorts of other body functions. These give rise to the much higher risk of cardiovascular and myriad other diseases described in Chapter Five.

 

One big problem with insulin injections is that they present a sudden surge of concen­trated hormone to the body. This is nothing like the closely matched secretion, minute by minute, of the pancreas itself.

 

Perhaps half the number of diabetics do not need insulin injections at all. In spite of that, their risks are hardly lower. They still have insulin levels wildly out of con­trol, and the same risks of disease.

 

What can be done about this? Very simple, don’t put the body under blood sugar stress in the first place. The most important thing a diabetic and pre-diabetic can do, is to stop presenting unreasonable demands for insulin. Avoid demanding the body to treat foodstuffs that it was never designed to process. That way insulin levels are kept low all the time.

 

This is how our ancestors operated, and when Aborigines, Polynesians etc, return to their ancestral eating patterns, their diabetic symptoms improve dramatically. One last comment: exercise has been found to have a marked restorative effect on glucose toler­ance. Read ChapterEleven and make sure that you exercise at least to the minimum shown there.

 

Be under no illusion, if you are diagnosed with diabetes the battle is to the death. Take no prisoners, make no compromises! There is no time to lose. Go cold turkey on the ideal eating pattern to control diabetes – Natural Eating.

 

 

 

Fridge Door Summary

Diabetes

Diabetes Helpful Foods

Low Glycemic, non starchy Salads and Vegetables: eat copiously all unrestricted salads and vegetables, see Table 1, Appendix 1

Low Glycemic Fruits: eat copiously all unrestricted fruits, apples, oranges, pears, cherries, strawberries, plums, peaches, see Table 1, Appendix 1.

Omega 3 Oils: consume, in moderation, canola oil, walnut oil, flaxseedoil

Oily Fish: consume, in moderation, salmon, tuna, sardine, mackerel

Raw Unsalted Nuts: consume, in moderation, almonds, walnuts, brazil, hazel

 

 

 

Diabetes Harmful Foods

Bad Carbohydrates: cut out most cereals, bread, pastries, sugars, honey etc. see Table3, Appendix 1

Borderline Carbohydrates: cut out remaining cereals, dried fruits, etc… see Table 4, Appendix 1

Bad Fats: cut right down, lard, dripping, butter, cream, butter, margarine, spreads, milk, palm oil, coconut oil, saturated fat, trans-fatty acid, hydrogenated fat

Omega 6 Vegetable oils: cut out sunflower, safflower, corn oil, peanut oil, evening primrose oil

Animal Flesh: cut right down

 

 

 

Diabetes Other Harmful Lifestyle Activities

Lack of Exercise: good exercise dramatically improves glucose tolerance

Overweight: being overweight is one of the leading indicators of diabetes. Reducing weight is essential.

Smoking: diabetics are particularly vulnerable to poor circulation. Smoking causes blood vessels to constrict and reduce even further the circulation to the extremities, feet, fingers, eyes etc.

Stress

 

 

Overweight, Obesity

Everything we know about our prehistoric ancestors is that they were lean. Everything we know about our biology today is that to be overweight is unhealthy.

 

For our ancestors, food bonanzas were rare. Most of the time they were slightly hungry. We can imagine why. Getting food required work. They did the minimum work necessary for sur­vival. If they finished lunch hungry, they had a choice. Go off for an hour or two and find more food or have a siesta during the heat of the day. There was thus an automatic mecha­nism controlling the intake of food. You had to really want the food to go to the effort of getting it.

 

Humans, unlike some creatures, were not living surrounded by their food. We do not have a well-developed satiety reflex. That is to say, our bodies do not have strong signals telling us to stop eating. That never had to be programmed in to us in our Pleistocene past. On the contrary, we have a reflex that tells us to keep eating for as long as there is food around.

 

Human’s reflex is to keep eating food while the opportunity is there.

 

Today of course, in the affluent countries, we are surrounded by food. We can, with no effort, satisfy our desire for food. Today, we have to exercise self-discipline. Fortunately that self discipline can be exercised not so much on the amount we eat but on what we eat.

 

 

How much weight is excess? There is a rule of thumb known as the Body Mass Index (BMI). It is calculated as your weight (in kg) divided by your height (in meters) squared. The same figures apply to both men and women.

 

Really lean hunter/gatherer societies like the Australian Aborigines or the Bushmen of the Kalahari have BMI’s in the range 13 to 19. These peoples have low blood pressure, no heart disease or diabetes, and no cancer.

 

This seemingly is the ideal. An ideal that is hopelessly out of reach of the average Westerner. Fortunately it is not necessary to reach these very low figures for BMI. The studies show, and modern medical wisdom has accepted, that BMI’s in the range 20 to 25 are fine for optimum health. BMI’s of 25 to 30 are ‘overweight’, and already adverse health consequences are setting in. 30 to 35 is ‘obese’, Over 35 is ‘grossly obese’. With increasing levels of obesity, so the health consequences are the more grave.

 

This table gives some typical values of BMI. The full range is given in the Natural Eating Manual.

 

Body Mass Index and Weight
	Healthy	Overweight	Obese
BMI	20 to 25	25 to 30	30 to 35
Height	wt. - lb.	wt. - lb.	wt. - lb.
5’-3”	113 to 141	142 to 169	170 to 197
5’-8”	131 to 164	165 to 197	198 to 230
6’-0”	147 to 184	185 to 221	222 to 258

 

 

What can be done about being overweight? Live like an Australian Aborigine!. All right, in the real world that is not possible, so what are the strategies that we can deploy?

 

‘Fat makes you fat’. That is true, but that is not the whole story. If it were, Americans, who are paranoid about fat, would be the slimmest nation on earth. Instead, in spite of the 20-year drive against fat in the diet, Americans are fatter than ever!

 

No, there is a second factor, bad carbohydrates. Having got this far in the book, you will be well aware that the sugars, pastries, breakfast cereals, breads, pastas and potatoes are the new villains of the piece. Indeed as fast as manufacturers have taken fats out of their prod­ucts, so they have added sugars and other bad carbohydrates. The manufacturers are driven by sales, and what the public will buy is foodstuffs that are tasty. And sugars are cheap and easy taste enhancers.

 

Manufacturers find that sugars are cheap and easy taste-enhancers.

 

It is up to you, the public, to be more discerning. This book will have given you the tools to be so. Read the small print on all the food labels. Ruthlessly exclude fats and bad carbohy­drates.

 

 

Finally, there are the bad food combinations, especially starch/fat and starch/protein. Why are they so bad? Remember how starch increases the level of insulin in the blood, and how insulin is the fat storage hormone? Eat fat at the same time as starch and insulin will obligingly put the fat on the fast track into your fat cells. Bread and butter, French fries and potato chips are very fattening starch/fat combinations.

 

What about the protein? Here there is a double whammy. First, the protein magnifies the starch’s effect on insulin production so more of this pesky hormone is there to do its storing work. Second, there is always fat associated with protein. No meat, no fish, no cheese, no egg, is without an accompanying cargo of fat. Even most vegetable proteins (nuts, peanut, soy-bean, garbanzo) are not exempt. So, dishes that mix both protein and starch are very fattening combinations. Examples are: hamburgers (bread and beef), pizzas (pastry and cheese), steak and fries ( potato and beef), Spanish Omelette (potato and egg).

 

What if you separate them out? It is better to eat the cheese first then the baguette two hours later than to eat two cheese subs at two hours interval.

 

In both options, the same amount of food is eaten. In the first case, your insulin levels will have stayed low. There is nothing therefore to encourage the fat in the cheese to be stored in your fat cells. With a bit of luck the fat will be excreted unabsorbed.

 

But in the second case (the conventional one) the starch in the cheese sub will be levering the  cheese into the fat cells each time you eat it at two-hour intervals.

 

 

What about alcohol? Rightly, slimmers should be wary of alcoholic drinks and there are three reasons why:

 

· Alcohol interferes with the processes that instruct the fat cells to release their stores into the blood stream. This is another example of how what we put into our mouths can disrupt body biochemistry.

· Alcohol is empty calories.

· Many alcoholic beverages also contain sugar. The sugar is empty calories too, but worse, sugar is a bad carbohydrate. It is the sugars in beverages like beer and liqueurs that cause them to be so fattening. Dry wine drinkers are much less vulnerable.

 

This table gives values of sugar content and total calories for a selection of alcoholic drinks. For comparison, figures for two carbonated beverages are also shown.

 

Beverage	drink size	amount	calories	sugar
Sweet and Alcoholic
beer	bottle/can	12 oz	146	13g
wine, sweet	glass	3 ½ oz	158	12g
liqueur	jigger	1 ½ oz	186	21g
Dry and Alcoholic
wine, dry, white	glass	3 ½ oz	70	1g
spirit	jigger	1 ½ oz	97	0g
Sweet, non-Alcoholic
tonic water	can	12 oz	114	29g
cola	can	12 oz	150	35g

 

Referring to the table, the “sweet and alcoholic” drinks are much more fattening than the “dry and alcoholic” drinks, and it’s not just a question of calories, although that is important. The main culprit is the disruption to blood glucose mechanism caused by the sugar content.

 

The sugar content of various carbonated beverages is now common knowledge. Even so it is salutary to see how just one drink of cola contains 7 teaspoons of sugar. And of course, if they are mixed with spirits (a gin and tonic, for example) then the fattening effect of both drinks is multiplied.

 

 

In summary, focus your efforts on eating in accordance with the Natural Eating precepts. Don’t worry about how much you are eating. Weight loss will take care of itself.

 

Fridge Door Summary

 

Overweight and Obesity

Overweight, Obesity Harmful Foods

Bad Carbohydrates: cut out most cereals, bread, pastries, sugars, honey, etc. see Table3, Appendix 1

Borderline Carbohydrates: cut out remaining cereals, dried fruits, banana, rice, etc. see Table 4, Appendix 1

Bad Fats: cut out lard, dripping, shortening, butter, cream, milk, milk products, saturated fat, trans-fatty acid, hydrogenated fat, spreads

Omega 6 Vegetable oils: cut out sunflower, safflower, corn oil, peanut oil etc.

Animal Flesh: cut down beef, pork, lamb, meat products

 

Overweight, Obesity Helpful Foods

Salads and Vegetables: eat copiously all unrestricted salads and vegetables, see Table 1, Appendix 1

Fruits: eat copiously all unrestricted (low glycemic) fruits: apples, oranges, pears, cherries, strawberries, plums etc. see Table 1, Appendix 1

 

Overweight, Obesity Other Harmful Lifestyle Activities

Bad Food Combinations: see foregoing paragraph. Starch/fat and starch/protein combinations are very fattening.

Lack of Exercise: good exercise helps restore malfunctioning glucose and fat metabolism. It’s not just the calorie burning that is important.

Alcohol Consumption: some people reduce weight even though consuming alcohol moderately, for example a glass of dry wine a day. However, alcohol is empty calories and it inhibits the release of body fat into the bloodstream.

Stress: stress causes the production of adrenaline and cortisol. Both these in turn provoke insulin production - and insulin is the fat storing hormone.

 

 

OSTEOPOROSIS

 

The question of osteoporosis is one of the most misunderstood in popular nutrition. The authorities are exhorting us to take ever-increasing quantities of calcium supplements, while the incidence of osteoporosis (loss of bone calcium) is also becoming epidemic. What is going wrong? Basically, the conventional wisdom is focusing on only one side of the equation, the consumption of calcium. The other side of the equation is loss of calcium.

 

Today, our eating patterns cause us to lose calcium from the body faster than we can put it in. It is as though we are trying to fill the bathtub with a teaspoon, with the plug out!

 

The ongoing ‘Nurses Study[cli][1]’ has been carried out for over 20 years on some 100,000 nurses. It has come up with some interesting results: menopausal women who drink two or more glasses of milk a day are 40% more likely to suffer hip fractures than those who drink no milk. Yes, you read that correctly: drinking all that milk for its calcium had the opposite effect to that intended. It had the effect of de-mineralizing their bones.

 

How can this be? The facile reply is to say, “what are grown women doing drinking milk, a foodstuff intended by nature only for unweaned babies? ”

 

Putting such reflections aside, there is a mechanism well known to science called protein-induced calciuria. Indeed, it is a scandal that this phenomenon is not taught as a matter of course in the early grades at school. Put simply, excess protein in the bloodstream causes calcium to be lost in the urine. Americans already eat too much protein and, of course, there is protein in milk.

 

Excess protein wields a double whammy. Protein metabolism leaves the blood acidified (Chapter Four) so the body restores the blood neutrality by using alkaline calcium salts. Where do they come from? From the bones!

 

The second part of the double whammy is more subtle. Protein has a strange effect on the kidneys. Kidneys are there to filter waste matter from the blood stream. The membrane that controls this has to be finely tuned. It must only let through the waste products. It should not let through the good substances in the blood.

 

But, under the effect of excess protein, the kidneys lose this fine-tuning. They start to leak calcium. The body finishes up with a negative calcium balance and it has to make up the deficit from the stores in the bones.

 

This is a classic case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. We have been like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, meddling with processes that are not fully understood. How many of us learnt at our mother’s knee to drink up our milk “because of the calcium”?

 

We have fallen into the trap of thinking that because a foodstuff contains calcium, then it is a good thing to consume it. In fact there are a number of other considerations.

 

First of all, just because you’ve eaten calcium doesn’t mean that your body has absorbed it. A large percentage of the calcium we eat passes straight through the body and out the other end. The intestines are very good at just taking what the body thinks it needs at that time and letting the excess pass on. Frequently too, the calcium is not bio-available. It is suspected that much of the calcium in cheese, for example, combines with the cheese-fat to form insoluble salts that are simply excreted in the stools.

 

Secondly, just because calcium has got into the blood stream, doesn’t mean that the body uses it to build bones. On the contrary, the body is quite capable of laying calcium down just where you don’t want it. For example in the arteries, in the heart valves, as nodules in fatty tissue (e.g. breasts) and as painful spurs in the joints.

 

What is going on? Clinical and epidemiological studies have shown that populations in Asia and in Africa who, although consuming low levels of calcium, nevertheless have a low incidence of hip fracture. This counter-intuitive result indicates that there is some other, powerful factor at work.

 

This is the key to the osteoporosis question. Some of the most powerful factors in body metabolism are hormones. We know that calcium metabolism is under hormonal control. Our hormonal system, if it is functioning properly, lays calcium down where it is supposed to go. If it is not functioning properly you can have the worst of both worlds, osteoporosis and demineralization of the skeleton at the same time as you are getting athero­sclerosis and kidney stones.

 

But let us look a little closer at what is actually going on in the bones. A bone is made up of living matter in the form of a lattice girder. Its substance is constantly being removed and replaced. In a lifetime its substance will have been turned over several times. There are special cells that build bones, osteoblasts and others that dissolve bones, osteoblasts.

 

They are constantly at work, crawling all over the skeleton, removing and replacing bone. It is rather like workmen repainting a girder bridge. As fast as one team strips the old paint off, they are followed by a second team that puts on a fresh coat of paint.

 

Troubles arise if the stripping team works faster than the painting team, or if the trucker delivering the paint hits a traffic jam, or goes on strike. This is exactly what happens when the bone building team cannot keep up with the bone destroying team. Or when calcium is prevented, by hormones, from being collected from the stores, or from being delivered to where it is needed. This is the most important mechanism to understand about bone health.

 

There is another important phenomenon. Young people build up bone mass until the age of about 35. Building up and management of this calcium ‘capital’ is just as important as managing a retirement account. If you are fortunate enough to be under the age of 35, you have a wonderful chance to build up your maximum bone density. Remember, the deciding factor is hormonal balance, not calcium intake.

 

Recent studies[clii][2] have concluded that high intakes of micro-nutrients such as potassium, magnesium, vitamin C, fiber and zinc are associated with a higher bone mass. Where are these nutrients found all together and in the right proportions, in fruits! The study concludes that the best strategy for laying down calcium and ensuring good bone health is to eat fruits in abundance.

 

After the age of 35 your bone capital is vulnerable to depletion. You can choose to run down your bone capital fast, slowly or not at all. Most Americans run their capital down fast. Result: osteoporosis, collapsed vertebrae and hip and femur fractures in old age.

 

How do we avoid running down this capital? Innumerable studies show that however much you supplement with calcium, there is no improvement in bone density. Indeed, with the bone stripping team outpacing the bone building team due to dietary errors, supplementation does not even slow the rate of bone loss.

 

With the bath plug out, supplementing with calcium is ineffective.

 

On the contrary, over-supplementing on calcium can deplete other minerals in the body such as iron and zinc. It is the Sorcerer’s Apprentice syndrome again, meddling in processes that are only half understood and making them worse.

 

On the other hand, every time you eat some concentrated protein, such as a steak or hamburger, you are presenting a check to the calcium bank which it will pay out of your calcium capital!

 

The strategy has to be this: stop doing things that run down the capital. What are the most useful things?

 

1. Eliminate protein excess

The first measure, quite simply, is to not eat an excess of protein. Most Americans overdose on protein. Don’t forget it is in nearly everything you eat, including salads and vegetation.

 

Avoid overeating proteins.

 

2. Limit salt consumption

Excess salt causes the kidneys to raid the calcium bank to show this unwanted mineral the back door. Be frugal with the consumption of salt. Eat plenty of fruits. The potassium found in copious quantities both in fruits and vegetables mitigates the effect of excess salt and reinforces calcium metabolism.

 

Salt drains calcium from the body.

 

3. Maintain good acid/alkali balance

Consume plenty of plant food. Check back to Chapter Five. Plant foods ensure a good acid/alkali balance, a good hormonal balance and good bone health.

 

A relentlessly acid diet drains calcium reserves.

 

4. Consume plenty of micronutrients

Studies show that bone building is dependant on high current intakes of fruits. There are over 20,000 active compounds in fruits and they are far from all being identified and evaluated. Certainly adequate intakes of potassium, zinc, magnesium, fiber and vitamin C are important but not sufficient. You still have to consume the fruits and vegetables themselves to get the benefit of the other bone-building compounds!

 

Similar studies also show that those who eat a high fruits diet during the first part of life (up to about age 35) accumulate the highest bone mass.

 

Those who eat a high fruit diet have the highest bone mass.

 

 

5. Avoid overdosing on supplements

Remember the ‘law of unintended consequences’ in Chapter Four? Vitamin D is an important compound that helps calcium absorption. Mistakenly some people self-medicate and over-do it. Vitamin D over-doses accelerate osteoporosis. As ever, don’t try to micro-manage these processes.  For other reasons you should always be very wary about taking ANY dietary supplements.

 

Go easy on dietary supplements.

 

6. Keep bone-building hormones balanced

Remember that osteoporosis is a disease of hormone imbalances in which the bone destroying cells (osteoclasts) are more active than the bone building cells (osteoblasts). Their respective activities are controlled by hormones. The details are fiendishly complicated and have not been full worked out. Nevertheless, implicated is parathyroid hormone. Too much of it draws calcium out of the bones.

 

Phosphorous is one compound that excites unfavorable parathyroid activity. It is very prevalent in the Western diet in meat and in colas. People who eat a lot of animal products and/or drink more than the occasional can of cola are under­mining their bone health.

 

Avoid gratuitous phosphorous.

 

7. Estrogen therapy

If anyone still needed convincing that osteoporosis is a hormonal problem, just consider this: the only medication (as opposed to lifestyle pattern) that is helpful is a hormone, estrogen. Estrogen is used successfully to slow the deterioration in bone health of menopausal women. But why bother? Get your eating patterns right and osteoporosis will be a non-issue. (See also Menopausal women in Chapter Six.)

 

Some reassuring tips from recent clinical trials:

· Moderate consumption of caffeine, like two cups of American coffee per day, is harmless to calcium metabolism.

· Moderate consumption of alcohol, like one glass of wine per day can be modestly helpful.

· Modest consumption of fluoride, like the dose from using (but not swallowing. ) fluorided toothpaste, is helpful to calcium metabolism.

 

Our hominid ancestors never suffered from osteoporosis and bone demineralization. The first signs of these diseases only begin to appear in the archaeological record after the sea-change in eating patterns brought about by the farming revolution some 10,000 years ago. Our philosophy is to learn the lessons of evolutionary history and adapt these lessons to the modern world.

 

 

Fridge Door Summary

Osteoporosis

 

Osteoporosis Helpful Foods (as much as you can):

All Unrestricted Salads and Vegetables: espe­cially broccoli, collard greens and bok choi, see Table 1, Appendix 1

All Unrestricted (low glycemic) Fruits: see Table 1, Appendix 1

Nuts (in moderation): almonds, walnut etc.

Sundry: Fluoride, as obtained for example through using fluorided toothpaste. (Fluoride is toxic in larger doses)

 

 

Osteoporosis Harmful Foods

High Protein Diet: particularly limit proteins of animal origin

Acid forming starches: strictly reduce or eliminate grains, French fries, bread, cereals, -- see Chapter Five

Sundry: strictly reduce consumption of colas, salt

 

 

 

Osteoporosis Other Harmful Lifestyle Activities

Lack of Exercise: see Chapter Eleven. Exercise, particularly jogging is good, it activates bone-build­ing cells.

Alcohol Abuse: studies show that alcoholics have bone disease. Alco­hol directly prevents bone building. Bone so lost is almost impossible to replace.

 

 

 

DIGESTIVE DISEASES

Indigestion, Constipation, Colic, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Gastro-Esophageal Reflux, Colon Cancer, Diverticulosis, Diverticulitis, Piles.

 

In Robert McCarrison’s account (see Chapter Three) of the Hunzas at the turn of the century, he was amazed to find that this small tribe, despite living in the difficult conditions of the High Himalayas, had the most robust health. In particular they only noticed their abdomens when they were hungry!

 

McCarrison went on to make his fame as director of the Pasteur Research Institute in India. As a research scientist, he investigated all manner of aspects of human nutrition. He was ulti­mately awarded a knighthood in recognition of the outstanding contribution of his efforts. His dietary trials on groups of rats fed either a Hunza diet, a Bengali diet or a working class English diet ring down to us today. The ‘Hunza’ rats were remarkably free of disease and docile. The other groups suffered from diseases affecting every organ of the body and, further the English rats were neurotic and ill-tempered[20][a].

 

McCarrison’s work is cited to show how long the scientific community has known that there is something terribly wrong with the ‘civilized’ diet. Every study since has refined and reinforced our knowledge. And yet the population as a whole is being led by the nose in the opposite direction.

McCarrison concluded his remarks (in the 1921 Mellon lecture) by saying, “Indeed, their buoyant abdominal health has, since my return to the West, provided a remarkable contrast with the dyspeptic and colonic lamentations of our highly civilized communities.”

 

Nothing has changed in over 75 years! Today, if anything the situation is worse, with sales of indi­gestion remedies at an all-time high.

 

McCarrison continued, “I don’t suppose that one in every thousand of them [the Hunzas] has ever seen a tinned salmon, a chocolate or a patent infant food, nor that as much sugar is imported into their country in a year as is used in a moderately sized hotel of this city [Pittsburgh] in a single day.”

 

How does this relate to digestive problems then? Well, the digestive system is the starting point for everything. Get that wrong and nothing but problems will ensue.

 

Indigestion

There are only two reasons for indigestion: bad food combining and irritating foods. In the Western diet, the culprit is almost always bad food combining. The remedy is simple, follow the guidelines in Chapter Five. The benefits can be instantaneous.

 

Common irritating foods are, chili peppers, pickles, sauerkraut, mustard, curry.

 

Constipation, Colon Cancer, Diverticulosis, Diverticulitis, Ulcerative Colitis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Piles

If you don’t have a bowel movement at least once a day you are constipated. This is a com­pletely self-inflicted condition and the remedies are simple. Eat lots of plant food. Why? Because the bacteria in your colon live on the residue from them. The bodies of bacteria form the bulk of feces.

 

Don’t be sidetracked into eating bran products. Bran is abrasive and not at all what the intes­tinal tract is designed for. On the contrary it is designed for the ‘soft’ fibers like pectin and guar that are found in apples and other fruits. Oat bran is an exception. It contains quite a high proportion of soluble fibers. A bowl of oatmeal or oatbran from time to time is OK.

 

A cautionary note: most people’s digestive tract has been hardened into working only when it is whipped into action by the harsh, insoluble fibers. Shift the emphasis to the soft fibers over a period of several weeks. Give the intestinal muscles time to respond to the subtler signals. Give them time to find again their natural tone.

 

Primitive societies consume up to 100g of fiber a day from vegetation and fruits. Their intestines are healthy and they never suffer from intestinal diseases. The average American only consumes 11g of fiber per day. Even the recommended minimum[21][b] of 30g per day is way below the figure for optimum intestinal health.

 

Remarkably little is known about what exactly happens in the colon. We do know that the bacteria, both good and bad, get busy feeding on the residues and are, accordingly, creating new compounds that are usually reabsorbed into the blood stream.

 

So even the ‘indigestible’ elements of what we eat end up in our bloodstream. Some of these prod­ucts like acetate, propionate and butyrate have profound effects on both the lining of the in­testine and on body biochemistry (such as production of cholesterol).

 

Incorrect ratios can lead to the conditions known as colitis and irritable bowel syndrome. These two conditions can also be aggravated or triggered by an allergic response. The com­monest allergens? Wheat gluten, soy lectins and lactose (milk). Avoiding these three quite unnatural food elements is both rational and curative.

 

Similar conditions lead to colon cancer, piles and the diverticular diseases. The lining of the intestine is just not designed to have hard, toxic, bacteria laden feces hanging around. Contrary to earlier wisdom, eating plenty of fiber - but ‘soft’ or soluble fiber, the kind that is found in fruits and vegetables best treats diverticular disease.

 

The full story is being unraveled. But we don’t need to know the detail in order to eat wisely. We know from population studies and anthropological studies, what this book tells you. Eat naturally and all these matters turn out right.

 

Gastroesophageal Reflux:

This is the distressing condition whereby food in the stomach leaks back past the inlet valve into the esophagus. Stomach acid makes painful burns on the esophagus wall.

 

 Perhaps the most important cause is bad food combining (Chapter Five). It puts an unfailing stress on that inlet valve and the hormonal reflexes that control it

 

Drinking alcohol before going to bed is another common trigger to this dysfunction.

 

Fridge Door Summary

Digestive Disorders

 

Digestive Disorders Harmful Food Practices

Bad Food Combining: follow religiously the food-combining rules in Chapter Five

High Carbohydrate Diet: - cut out bad carbohydrates: most cereals, bread, pastries, sugars, honey etc. see Table3, Appendix 1

Consumption of Potential Allergens: - cut out dairy products, soy products, wheat products etc.

High Meat Diet: - cut right down consumption of beef, veal, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, meat products etc.

 

 

 

Digestive Disorders Helpful Food Practices

Practice Good Food Combining (Chapter Five)

High Vegetation Diet:: consume 3 lb. per day of all unrestricted salads and vegetables, see Table 1, Appendix 1

High Fruit Diet: consume 2 lb. per day of all unrestricted fruits, see Table 1, Appendix 1

 

 

 

Digestive Disorders Other Harmful Lifestyle Activities

Stress: stress causes the stomach lining to inflame and function abnormally

Lack of Exercise: encourages constipation

Alcohol Abuse: encourages constipation and disturbs proper functioning of gastric reflexes

 

 

CANDIDIASIS

Candida is a kind of yeast that is present in everyone’s intestine. It is a malevolent organism, but under healthy conditions it is kept at bay by the ‘friendly’ bacteria in the intestine which crowd out harmful organisms and the immune system, which is patrolling the body gobbling up foreign bodies.

 

Candidiasis is the condition caused when the candida organism grows out of control. It causes discharges from various mucus membranes, particularly the mouth and vagina. It also causes gastrointestinal upsets, constipation, itching rectum, gas, cramps and flu-like symptoms.

 

Candida growth is encouraged by:

· the foods it likes, notably the undigested particles of sugars and starches

· the absence of ‘friendly’ bacteria in the intestine

· a weak immune system

· a porous intestine, that allows the yeast to grow and spread throughout the body

· high levels of sugar in the blood

 

Strictly eating naturally would, of itself, be all that is necessary. However, it is important to focus on the measures that help this particular condition:

· reinforce the immune system (see Immune System segment)

· starve the candida of nourishment

· ensure good intestinal health (see Digestive Disease segment )

· provide nourishment to ‘good’ bacteria

 

Fridge Door Summary

Candidiasis

 

Candidiasis Harmful Food Practices

Bad Food Combining: adopt punctiliously the food-combining rules in Chapter Five.

High Carbohydrate Diet: cut out bad carbohydrates: most cereals, bread, pastries, sugars, honey etc. see Table3, Appendix 1, and borderline carbohydrates: remaining cereals, dried fruits, banana, rice, etc. see Table 4, Appendix 1

Bad Fat Consumption: cut out lard, dripping, cream, butter, milk, palm oil, coconut oil, saturated fat, trans-fatty acid, hydrogenated fat, spreads etc.

Omega 6 Vegetable oil Consumption: cut out sunflower oil, safflower oil, corn oil, peanut oil etc.

High Meat Diet: cut down beef, veal, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, meat products

 

 

 

Candidiasis Helpful Food Practices

High Vegetation Diet: consume 3 lb. per day of all unrestricted salads and vegetables, see Table 1, Appendix 1.

High fruit diet: consume 2 lb. per day of all unrestricted fruits, see Table 1, Appendix 1.

 

Candidiasis Other Harmful Lifestyle Activities

Lack of sleep: depresses the immune system

Lack of exercise: encourages constipation

Alcohol: depresses the immune system

Stress: depresses the immune system

 

 

MOREOVER

Complexion, Acne, Pimples

No need to draw up a table. Everything they say about a good complexion is true. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and avoid fried foods. Draw your inspiration from the Natural Eating principles and you will be sure of banishing acne, pimples and a pasty, unhealthy complexion to a distant unpleasant memory.

 

Autism

Elimination of dairy products, grain gluten and other food components dramatically improves the symptoms of children and adults with autism[cliii][3]. "Poorly-degraded food proteins leak from the gut into the blood," explained Dr. Ted Kniker[cliv][4] "Our study was extremely tight and very dependable. In our next study we remove soy products, peanuts, buck­wheat and grape. Autism is becoming a worldwide pandemic. It is clearly not genetic.  Environmental factors must be involved”.

 

Just so! Humans were never designed to eat dairy, beans or grains – and they suffer from it. The medical establishment is painfully discovering the harsh truth – that their ministrations will only be effective if they take diet into account as the prime suspect.

 

Cellulite

There is a multi-million dollar cellulite industry peddling all kinds of creams, remedies and nostrums to the gullible, hopeful and vulnerable. The fact is that none of it works.

 

So what are the factors that encourage cellulite? What does work? There is still much investigation to be done. But already the main principles are clear.

 

First of all, cellulite afflicts many more women than men. Furthermore the cellulite develops during hormonal changes such as puberty, pregnancy, menopause and menstruation. Significantly, hormonally feminized men are also afflicted by cellulite, just like a woman. 

 

This gives the most important clue of all: cellulite is, in great part, a hormonal problem. And, if you’ve learned nothing else in this book, it is this: that what you put in your mouth is the greatest force, for good or bad,  that manipulates hormones.

 

Poor feeding habits are the quickest way to provoke hormonal dysfunction

 

In particular, cellulite sufferers have dysfunctioning hormones that disrupt capillary flow, lymphatic drainage, fat deposition and connective tissue creation.

 

Secondly, being overweight is strongly associated with the occurrence of cellulite. And when we say ‘overweight’ we mean a body-fat percentage more than 22% for women and 15% for men. That means that you have to be lean!

 

Finally, exercise - and good muscle tone - are essential preventive factors. Check out chapter Eleven.

 

We could have guessed all this simply by referring back to what it means to be a human being. Cellulite is virtually unknown amongst the peoples who still practice the primitive lifestyle to which humans are naturally adapted.

 

So there is a fix – just no quick fix (however expensive). What is this fix?

Eat Naturally!

This will put you on the fast track to:

-straighten out those dysfunctional hormones

-trim you down to the ideal, lean, human weight.

 

Pre Menstrual Tension Syndromes (PMTS),

Curiously, these syndromes afflict women chiefly in advanced, Western societies. Is this  a self-inflicted phenomenon? Seemingly in large part it is. In one study[clv][5], women who consumed dairy products on a regular basis were FIVE TIMES more likely to have PMTS than those who consumed NO dairy products. In another study[clvi][6], a low fat, vegetarian diet was found to be helpful. Does this mean that you have to be a vegetarian? No, it is all to do with the fat side of things. Vegetarians will not be consuming the dreaded saturated animal fats that trigger the nervous mood and other disagreeable symptoms of PMTS. It is, rather, more correct to consume animal matter according to the Natural Eating template – low in fats and devoid of saturated fat.

 

Manic-Depression, Suicide And Post-Natal Depression.

There is a growing body of evidence that links low omega‑3 intakes to manic-depression, suicide, and post-natal depression.

 

Harvard researchers^[clvii][7] gave two groups of hospital­ized dep­ressed patients diets that were high in omega-3 and omega-6, respectively. The results were so dram­atic that after three months, the scientists were directed by a research over­sight committee to stop the experiment and allow all the subjects to eat up on omega-3.

 

Omega-3 is critical to the growth of brain cell membran­es. That is where all-important neuro­transmitters bounce bet­ween cells, communicating all sorts of messages, including those related to feelings of well-being. Yet another vindication of our crusade against the harm caused by the denaturing of our food supply to the point where it is making us so sick in so many unsuspected ways. Omega-6 oil is an all-pervasive component of modern human diets that rely heavily on processed foods, grains and grain-fed farm animals.

 

On the other hand major depress­ion is 60times greater in New Zealand than in Japan where omega-3-rich fish con­sump­tion is 4times as much.

 

Moral? The message doesn’t change! Drive those omega-6 oils out of the diet at every opportunity. Move over to Canola (rapeseed) and all the ‘good’ omega-3 oils. Eat oily fish (see ‘Fats and Oils’, Chapter 5)

 

Alzheimer’s Disease

There are many suggestive studies indication why Alzheimer’s disease has become a common scourge. Believe it or not, poor dietary lifetime habits are accused. Abnormal levels of the protein homo­cysteine in the blood double the risk of Alzheimer’s disease according to a recent study^[clviii][8]. How do you avoid abnormally high levels of homocysteine? By making sure you have a diet high in non-starchy plant food. That will ensure a sufficient intake of the key vitamins B6, B12 and folate. Another study showed that Alzheimer’s disease prevails when the diet is deficient in a cocktail of fruit antioxidants such as resveratrol, quercetin, catechins, and anthocyanins. Moral? Eat up your 2 lb. of fruit every day  – just like our prehistoric ancestors did

 

Other researchers[clix][9] have found a strong link between Alz­heimer’s disease and low intakes of certain micro­nutrients, notably folate and cobalamin (vitamin B₁₂). What do you know? Folate is found principally in foliage. And what is foliage? Why – nothing more than green leafy vegetables like spinach, broccoli, mustard greens, Brussels sprouts and many, many more. It is also present in avocados, filberts (hazelnuts) and asparagus.

 

And cobalamin? That is only found in foods of animal origin. We only need minute quantities and we get them easily from:

- eggs (of chicken, duck, goose, quail…),

- shellfish (clams, crab, calamari…)

- fish (salmon, mackerel, sardine...)

 

Other studies[clx][10] show that exercise, like jogging for half an hour a day, is important in resisting Alzheimer’s. Exercise causes certain genes to activate and secrete chemicals that protect the brain from ageing.

 

The Natural Eating lifestyle ensures that all the all the bases are covered to avoid senile dementia.

 

Epilepsy, Seizures

Johns Hopkins neurologists report[clxi][11] that a so-called ‘keto­genic’ diet (very low in grains, starches and sugars) markedly reduced sever seizure dis­orders (epilep­sies) in children. The researchers are puzzled as to why this should be. There is a ‘flurry of activity’ underway to reveal the biochemical reasons for the treatment’s success.

 

This is yet one more smoking gun pointing to the culprit – the modern, high glycemic diet. It is a biochemical disaster whose ramifications provoke all kinds of unexpected disorders.

Sex, Libido And Fertility

Studies show that a high fat diet diminishes libido and fertility. A diet high in fruits and vegetables is the most helpful. Yes, we do need to eat like rabbits to have the performance of a rabbit.

 

It is not surprising that our very existence as a species is dependant on a lifestyle identical to that for which we are naturally adapted. Eat naturally and get a new lease on life!

 

Menstrual cramps

Menstrual cramps are switched on and off by hormones known as prostaglandins. These are the famous products of the con­sump­tion of essential fatty acids. Which oil turns on the cramps? Omega 6 of course! Omega 3 turns them off.

 

In a double blind, placebo cont­rolled study[22][c] in Denmark, women with their EFA ratio improved to the ideal balance by fish oil stunningly confirmed this effect.

 

Moral? As ever, cut down on the omega 6 foods and boost the omega 3 foods.

 

Mental Alertness

Eating tofu in midlife leads to mental deterioration in old age.

The Honolulu Heart Program at the Hawaii Center for Health Research has published a damning report[clxii][12]. 8,000 men and women were studied for over 35 years. Those who ate two or more servings a week of tofu showed the most signs of mental deterioration in old age compared to those who ate none. The tofu eaters had the poorest cognitive function[23][d], the most brain atrophy and abnormal enlargement of brain ventricles. The researchers suggest that the isoflavone anti­nutrients are the cause. They block enzymes that are essential to the brain’s ability to learn.

 

We don’t always get a lot of thanks for pointing up the deficiencies in soybean products. But as we tirelessly point out, legumes (including lentils and beans) are Trojan horses in the human diet. We don’t resist their toxins well. The quantity of tofu eaten in the study, even by the biggest eaters, is laughably low by many people’s standards. Only two servings a week. Many people eat that many servings a day!

 

Until a few years ago, the soybean producers were embarrassed by the toxicity of their product. But that was before they had a marketing campaign. The advertising men soon made a virtue out of necessity – they vaunted the high protein content of soybean. They happily financed research to demonstrate an upside to soybean toxins – the estrogenic effect. Presto! A miracle food is born…

 

In another study, overweight and obese people report slower cognitive abilities in addition to all the other ailments such as increased pain sensitivity and impaired mobility. “Doctors should treat obesity as an illness, not a life-style change”, said Dr Neil Shear of the University of Toronto.

 

Make sure your tofu-free brain is in gear when you listen to the soybean marketing pitch. Eat Naturally, lose weight and keep  clear head.

 

Macular Degeneration

Retinal macular degeneration (a progressive and irreversible deterioration of the retina) is the most common cause of blindness in people over 65. Macular degeneration affects the macula, the part of the eye that distinguishes detail in the center of the field of vision. Over time, the macula breaks down, causing vision loss. Among other things, the macula is composed of lutein and zeaxanthin.

 

Studies show that people who consume a high plant diet, notably spinach, cabbage and broccoli, have a 60% lower risk of developing the disease. These vegetables are rich in the two carotenoid anti-oxidant compounds: lutein and zeaxanthin. These compounds filter into the retina and mop up free radicals.

 

In a more recent study[clxiii][13], Heidelberg researchers have shown that other foods that contain these compounds are also effective: kiwi, orange peppers, red grapes, zucchini, eggs, even wine. The researchers say that virtually all vegetables have lutein and zeaxanthin.

 

Surprising to many but not to the Natural Eater, those who eat foods high in mono­unsaturated fats, such as OLIVE OIL, have a 71% INCREASED RISK of retinal macular degeneration Dr. Seddon's team reports[clxiv][14].

 

Furthermore, those who ate foods high in polyunsaturated Omega-6 fats, such as MARGARINE, CORN and SAFFLOWER OIL had an 86%INCREASED RISK.

 

And what do you know? On the other hand, people who reported diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids and low (repeat – LOW!) in Omega-6 had a decreased risk of the disease.

 

Yes – you’ve seen it all before – in this book.

 

The Final Word

This chapter goes to great lengths to explain how foods can be helpful or harmful to almost all aspects of our well being. Remember, our feeding patterns are not the whole story. Not every condition is the result of poor eating patterns. Not every condition can be cured by the adoption of a healthy eating pattern. Nevertheless, these guidelines will ensure that you have played your cards as well as possible.

 

Think about this, all the above guidelines are the distilled wisdom of the latest scientific research. It all points in the same direction, to a pattern of eating that is identical to the Natural Eating principles.

 

It is not surprising that the painstaking unraveling of the workings of human body is gradually revealing the patterns of eating for which the human race is genetically programmed.

 

 

ENDNOTES