Author: Lauren Farris

Why do Natural Hygienists Drink Distilled Water?

and how much water should we be drinking?

The distillation process removes chemicals, toxins, and inorganic minerals.   Most people understand that we don’t want to be drinking toxic chemicals but few understand the importance of not overloading the body with inorganic minerals.   Inorganic minerals are minerals that are in rock form, this is contrasted to organic minerals which are found in fruits and vegetables and which are utilized by the body.  Our bodies require organic minerals and are injured by inorganic minerals.   I recently wrote an article on the effects of inorganic minerals on the body and how they lead to a slow petrifaction (turning to stone) of the body. You can read that article here:  https://www.therawkey.com/the-slow-petrifaction-of-the-body-from-inorganic-mineral-consumption/   

“What we as scientists and the public have never realized is that minerals collected in the body from water are all inorganic minerals, which cannot be assimilated (digested) by the body. The only minerals that the body can utilize are the organic minerals (from fruits and vegetables). All other types of minerals are foreign substances to the body and must be disposed of or eliminated.” “Distilled water then is water of the purest kind. It is odorless, colorless and tasteless. The divine purpose of water is to act as a solvent. In nature, water in evaporation is so fine that your eye cannot perceive it as it is drawn up into the clouds. Then it falls as rain, keeping the earth from being parched and burned. As a solvent, it dissolves rocks and soil. It figures in the transport of nutrients into plant life. In the human body, water fills similar functions. …Distilled water acts as a solvent in the body. It dissolves food substances so they can be assimilated and taken into every cell. It dissolves inorganic mineral substances lodged in tissues of the body so that such substances can be eliminated in the process of purifying the body. Distilled water is the greatest solvent on earth —the only one that can be taken into the body without damage to the tissues.” 

The less inorganic minerals we can put into our bodies, the less burden our bodies are under, but there is an added benefit to distilled water that most people don’t think about.  An early proponent of the science of Natural Hygiene, C.W. Delacy Evans explains why distilled water is superior to all other waters for humans as follows: 

“Used as a drink, distilled water is absorbed directly into the blood, the solvent properties of which it increases to such an extent that it will keep in solution salts already existing in the blood, prevent their undue deposit in various organs and structures, favor their elimination by the various excreta, and tend to remove these earthy compounds which have already accumulated in the body… There is no doubt as to the high value of distilled water used freely as a retarder of the ossifying conditions which appear to constitute the conditions of old age.” 

If you have ever put sugar into a glass of water you know that water can only hold so much material before some settle out.   If we keep adding sugar eventually the water becomes saturated and no matter how much we stir there will still be sugar in the bottom of the glass.  Minerals in water take up space in the water and the water reaches a point of saturation.   Distilled water, being free from any minerals is then free to pick up inorganic minerals as it travels through the body.  Since it is not already saturated in minerals it is free to absorb these harmful substances.  It is also not going to be depositing any inorganic minerals in our tissues if it doesn’t contain any to start with.  This means distilled water is the only water clean enough to remove the inorganic harmful minerals which make us age faster and become stiff over time.  

Water is used in every elimination process, from our kidneys and bowels to our skin and lungs.  Chronic dehydration limits the expulsion of waste, slowing down our healing processes and keeping us backed up with waste. 

“It may safely be taught that THE ONLY ABSOLUTELY PURE WATER IS THAT PURIFIED BY DISTILLATION. Instruct the public how distillation can readily and cheaply be done. It furnishes a fruitful yield for the genius that will devise a small distilling apparatus for the use of every family. It would be safe to teach that the GENEROUS USE OF PURE WATER both within and without the body has never yet done any harm; that the functional ailments that affect the great host of mankind, are in a great part due to the fact of the imperfect elimination of waste matter, and that GENEROUS LIBATIONS OF PURE DISTILLED WATER is a most potent agent TO FLUSH THEM FROM THE BODY, through the skin, the lungs, the kidneys and the bowels. The diseases caused by impure water are numerous and fatal.” —Dr. Arthur R. Reynolds, M.D., Health Commissioner of Chicago

 “You should DRINK AT LEAST ONE GALLON of distilled water a day. Most of us drink only at mealtime and when we’re noticeably thirsty. Wrong. You can develop a habit of NOT drinking water and walk around being 66 or 67 percent water, instead of 74 percent, which is what your body needs. When you don’t have the water in you, you won’t ever have the energy you need. The very first thing I do to get people’s energy up is to increase the amount of water in their diet. Immediately, their energy goes up. When someone has dementia, the first thing I do is give them lots of cold water all day, every day. About three weeks later, I start to see their dementia dissipate because they have rehydrated their brains. Unfortunately, your brain actually shrinks as you dehydrate. By DRINKING LOTS OF PURE DISTILLED WATER, you get better neuron activity and better cellular chemistry, and you’re able to detoxify the cells with water. Water has to be pure, free from fluoride, chlorine, and chemicals, which is why I recommend DISTILLED water. To achieve optimum health, I recommend that you DRINK A HALF GALLON TO ONE FULL GALLON PER DAY.” — Dr. Gary Null, Ph.D., from, “Gary Null’s Ultimate Anti-Aging Program,” 

” …it is important that we GIVE TO THE BODY A SUFFICIENT QUANTITY OF DISTILLED WATER in order that the blood may be kept in its normal fluid condition, and the disease-producing effete matter eliminated. THERE IS NO CLEANSING AGENT AS IMPORTANT AS WATER, not only for the exterior of the body, but for the interior from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. It is a simple matter to drink a glass of water, yet the results of the act are marvelous. A very small portion of it enters the intestines, but by far the larger quantity is absorbed into the blood and enters immediately into the circulation of this life-giving fluid.” “ONE IS ALMOST DRIVEN, if he be particular as to his water supply, TO THE USE OF DISTILLED WATER.” — Bernarr Macfadden, from Macfadden’s Encyclopedia of Physical Culture, 1911. 

Quantity and quality are both of the utmost importance in keeping our bodies young, lean, and flexible and to avoid us slowly turning to stone.  Water in fruits is distilled by the plant.  The plant pulls the inorganic minerals from the soil and converts them into organic minerals in the fruit and leaves.  The only source of minerals we should be consuming is those supplied by the plants we eat.   Cooking plants changes the structure of the minerals again, causing them to be unusable by the body and contributing to the slow turning to stone of our bodies.  

“By using succulent fruits and vegetables in scurvy, or acidosis, MUCH DISTILLED WATER IS FURNISHED THE BODY WITH WHICH TO FLUSH OUT THE ACCUMULATED PUTRESCENCE. Fruit and vegetables contain over ninety percent water.” — Dr. J. H. Tilden, M.D., from IMPAIRED HEALTH, ITS CAUSE AND CURE: A Repudiation of the Conventional Treatment of Disease

As most humans on earth have been assaulting their bodies with salt, an inorganic mineral and many of us have been duped into taking in supplements filled with inorganic minerals and we all eat cooked foods there is no doubt that we all have an abundance of inorganic minerals that our bodies would love to eliminate.   The more distilled water we provide, the more the body can eliminate these and eliminate any calcifications or mineralization of the tissues.  

REVERSE OSMOSIS FILTER OR COUNTERTOP DISTILLER?

Distillation is a process where water is boiled and then condensed leaving the minerals behind in the original container and only clean pure water in the new container. The process mimics nature, the sun evaporates, and clean water condenses in the clouds, and then it rains back down.  Unfortunately, today we have so much debris from air pollution in the air that rain catches all of that on its way down, so rainwater is not clean.   In our homes, this can be accomplished manually by boiling water on the stove and then using something to catch the steam and direct it into a sealable glass container for storage.  The far easier option is to have a countertop distiller (like this https://amzn.to/3JENZO4)  which produces 4 liters of distilled water in a few hours just by flipping a switch.   The important things to look for in a countertop distiller is stainless steel and glass containers to hold the water and the finished water vessel should be sealable to keep out any airborne impurities that can be deposited into the water. 

Reverse osmosis filters get the same end result as a distiller but using a different process.   In reverse osmosis filtration, we are pushing water through multiple filters.  Each progressive filter has a smaller, microscopic mesh that the water alone can push through and the larger minerals get left on the other side of the mesh.   Reverse osmosis systems (like this one: https://amzn.to/3jsm5dh )  can be installed on your kitchen sink as a convenient way to have fresh, clean, distilled water at all times.   

There are a few pros and cons to each system.  With a distiller most only process one gallon at a time.  If you live alone that might be fine, but if you forget to run it you will be waiting for water to drink.  It would be best to have a separate container to store the water in so you can have multiple gallons available.   If you live in a household with multiple people who are striving to stay hydrated at 1-2 gallons per day, the countertop distiller becomes problematic.  The distiller requires regular cleaning and wastes very little water. 

The reverse osmosis systems typically come with a 3-gallon or larger storage tank that continually refills.  If you use all 3 gallons at once it takes a few hours to refill but most people will be taking off a quart or a half gallon at a time and the tank will simply keep topping itself off.   The downside to reverse osmosis is the need to change the filters regularly – most are 3 months and 6 months.  Another downside to the reverse osmosis filter is that they waste water, on average they use 2 gallons to produce one gallon which is much improved over the older models that were 4 or 5 to 1.  There are also low-waste models that are a bit more expensive but that is an option if it is something you are concerned about. 

SIPPING, GULPING, HOW MUCH SHOULD WE DRINK IN AN HOUR?

Our kidneys can process roughly one quart of water per hour.  Drinking more than 1 quart in an hour can put a strain on the kidneys.    

Sipping or gulping?  We should drink to our own comfort.  Sometimes that means just sipping and other times that means gulping.   Often in the mornings when I first arise I will gulp down a full quart of water in a few minutes.   The rest of the day I will tend to drink more slowly.    If you are drinking too much too quickly your body will tell you by creating discomfort in the stomach and nausea.  If you feel nausea simply stop drinking and give your body a few hours to process the water you put in before you drink any more.  

When fasting we can often get an upset stomach or nauseous if we drink too much too quickly, so it’s often best to sip water when fasting or drink more slowly but consistently across the whole day. 

HOW TO GET IN 1 GALLON PER DAY EASILY

If you drink a 1-quart jar as soon as you wake up. Drink a second in the first 2-3 hours in the morning, drink a 3rd just before lunchtime, and a 4th before dinner you will have drank a gallon each day.

URINATION

Most people’s biggest concern with drinking more water is how many times they will have to pee in a day.    When we first start drinking more water there are two reasons that the body will start eliminating more frequently.  The first is that the more water we provide the more waste the body can eliminate.  The body wants to catch up on the backlog so when we first start drinking more the body has a greater urgency to eliminate frequently.  The wastes coming out are acidic and burn the cells of the kidneys and bladder so the body often wants to eliminate them urgently and we may find that we are running to the bathroom rather than walking.  

The second reason is the more dehydrated the body is, the more it rejects water at first.   If you have ever forgotten to water your plants you have seen this evidenced.  If you try to put water into very dry soil the water runs right out the bottom of the pot very quickly.  The soil remains dry and the water just keeps running through.  You have to keep repeatedly watering until it starts to absorb.  The same is true of our bodies.  We need to keep watering until we start to absorb.   

Setting realistic expectations, most people eating the natural diet will urinate more often throughout the day than when eating cooked foods.  This is how the body is supposed to function.  We are supposed to eliminate waste frequently so it is not stuck inside causing damage.   Some eating cooked foods are so chronically dehydrated that they might only urinate once or twice in a 24-hour period.   Normal should be somewhere between 7 and 12 times per day, and while we are detoxing heavily we might be closer to 15 or even 20 times if the body wants to eliminate urgently.   

If you are working a job that limits your access to a bathroom you may need to do a little planning when you first start increasing your water intake.  Drinking first thing in the morning before you start your morning routine will allow the water to be processed in the first hour of the day before you head off to work.  Typically we urinate within the hour of drinking, but each person is different so testing things out on the weekends is a good way to manage the work week.  Also, slowly increasing over several weeks will allow you to better manage when limited potty breaks are available.   

Making changes to our habits can always be tricky and require a bit of discipline or planning but increasing your water intake and drinking distilled water is well worth the trouble. The benefits to our health are innumerable. On that note, I shall leave you with a few more quotes about the benefits of distilled water to inspire you to push through and get rehydrated.

 “DISTILLED WATER IS ’empty’ water – a hungry water, A WATER CAPABLE OF ABSORBING BODY POISONS. You have had the experience of trying to use an old post office blotter on the desk. Everybody has used it and it is so full of ink that it will not suck up any more. So it is with a ‘full’ water, a water full of chlorine, aluminum, etc. Such water does not have the capacity of absorbing body impurities.” —Dr. Charles McFerrin, writing in the July 1955 issue of Nature’s Path 

“The late Dr. Lambe, of London, was so thoroughly convinced of the IMPORTANCE OF THE PUREST WATER in the treatment of Cancers, Scrofula, and Cachexias generally, that HE RESTRICTED HIS PATIENTS TO THE USE OF DISTILLED WATER. And his success was remarkable.” — from Herald of Health, Volume 2, in the article, “The Hygiean Home” by Russell T. Trall, M.D. 

 “The greatest damage done by inorganic minerals (hard)—plus waxy cholesterol and salt—is to the small arteries and other blood vessels of the brain (75% water). Hardening of the arteries and calcification of blood vessels starts on the day you start taking inorganic chemicals (and minerals from tap water) into our bodies.”

“WHEN DISTILLED WATER ENTERS THE BODY, IT LEAVES NO RESIDUE OF ANY KIND. It is free of salts and sodium. It is the most perfect water for the healthy functioning of the kidneys (83% water). It is the perfect liquid for the blood (83% water), the ideal liquid for the efficient functioning of the lungs (86% water), stomach, liver (85% water) and other vital organs. Why? Because it is free of all inorganic minerals. IT IS SO PURE THAT ALL LIQUID DRUG PRESCRIPTIONS ARE FORMULATED WITH DISTILLED WATER.” — Dr. Paul Bragg, N.D. Ph.T., from “The Shocking Truth About Water” 

“A frequent development while fasting is a dislike for water. This is particularly true if the water is “hard”. “HARD WATER” that, while one is eating, tastes pleasant enough, IS REJECTED BY THE SHARPENED SENSE OF TASTE. IN SUCH CASES WE FIND THE USE OF DISTILLED WATER, TO BE SATIFACTORY.” — Dr. Herbert M. Shelton, N.D., from The Science and Fine Art of Fasting, The Hygienic System: Vol. III

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Why do other raw feeding models like B.A.R.F, P.M.R, and R.M.F. fail to heal our pets completely?

If you have been researching a raw food diet or natural food diets for dogs and cats you may have come across the Prey Model Raw  (P.M.R.) or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food (B.A.R.F.) diets both of which market themselves as the natural diet for our canine companions.  They have significant differences but both have their proponents who argue each is the natural model.   In this chapter, we will look at both and compare them to nature to see what best mimics the natural diet.   If you have dug further you may have come across Rotational Monofeeding (R.M.F) which is closer to the natural model, but still strays from nature on a few points, we will discuss the pros and cons of this model as well. 

If you venture into social media groups of P.M.R. and B.A.R.F. feeders you will find post after post of people having issues with their dog’s health and looking for recommendations for treatments to deal with these issues. Their digestion, healing from serious conditions and chronic disease, allergies, itchy skin, and eye discharge all lead pet parents to seek out treatments that ultimately will lead to less-than-ideal health.  

While both  P.M.R. and B.A.R.F. are huge improvements over kibble and canned foods and they get a lot of things right, it is the small mistakes in observing nature that lead to health issues over the long term and digestion issues over the short term. 

While they are one of the closest marketed diets to a natural feeding model both make fairly significant errors which over time lead to symptoms of disease. First, let us lay out the basics of each model and then we can discuss where they have gone astray from nature.

THE BASICS:

Prey Model Raw focuses on feeding a rotation of raw meats, excluding all plant foods. The B.A.R.F. feeding model is similar to P.M.R. however they also include some plant foods. R.M.F is a lesser-known model which stands for Rotational Monofeeding and is built on the concept of feeding plants and meats separately and in closer alignment with the natural model.   

P.M.R. MODEL:

According to Perfectlyrawsome.com, “the Prey Model Raw (PMR) diet eliminates processed foods and provides dogs with a natural diet that mimics what their ancestors and wild cousins consumed. A complete PMR diet is based on whole, wild prey animals and does not include plant ingredients.” 

WHAT DO THEY GET RIGHT?

The PMR model encourages whole prey, raw meat, and bone.  They eliminate all grains, cooked foods, and processed foods and for the most part, they seem to stay away from oils, although some adherents include fish oils. The model has done a good job of eliminating a large number of burdens that commercial dog foods supply.  Since disease conditions grow relative to the burden the body is under, switching from kibble or canned foods to a PMR model diet will for many dogs result in a relative increase in health.  However, there is still an excess burden in this diet compared to what we observe in nature and full and complete health will not be achieved with this excess burden.   

WHAT DOESN’T ALIGN WITH NATURE?

When we look at wild dogs, coyotes, and wolves we see that they all consume between 20 and 80% fruits and other plant matter.  (See “Evidence that Canids eat Fruit in the Wild” https://www.therawkey.com/evidence-that-canids-eat-fruit-in-the-wild/) Fruits are a large part of the wild canid diet.   Removing this important source of nutrition leads to a burden of excess protein on the PMR diet or protein poisoning.  Unfortunately, at some point, humans simply assumed that wolves and coyotes are exclusive meat eaters and that information has led to the idea that our dogs should feed exclusively on meat.  In the short term, taking a dog from a kibble diet to an all raw proteins diet will alleviate a considerable burden and allow for improvements to overall health, but long term that excess of protein is going to catch up with our pets and their health will begin to slide downhill again. 

B.A.R.F MODEL:

According to Perfectlyrawsome.com “the recommended guidelines for a BARF diet consists of 70% muscle meat, 10% raw edible bone, 7% vegetables, 5% liver, 5% other secreting organ, 2% seeds or nuts, and 1% fruit.”

WHAT DO THEY GET RIGHT?

The B.A.R.F model also promotes a fully raw diet with raw meat being the predominant food.   They eliminate all grains, cooked foods, and processed foods. They incorporate some plant materials, predominantly vegetables using the rationale that the only plant matter that would be eaten in nature by dogs is the stomach contents of their prey, which would be predominantly grasses and vegetable matter.   The B.A.R.F. model has also done a good job of eliminating a large number of burdens that commercial dog foods supply.  Switching from kibble or canned foods to a B.A.R.F model diet will for many dogs result in a relative increase in health in the short term due to the burden they are lifting.  However, just like the P.M.R. model there is still an excess burden in this diet compared to what we observe in nature.  

WHAT DOESN’T ALIGN WITH NATURE?

The B.A.R.F. model has many of the same issues as the P.M.R. model and a few issues unique to their model. As mentioned above, wild dogs, coyotes, and wolves consume between 20 and 80% fruits and other plant matter.  That means the average dog in the wild is eating a meat meal once every 3 to 7 days, not every day.  They are grazing upon fruits and other plants between their prey meals.   While B.A.R.F incorporates plant matter into the diet they do not incorporate it on a scale that matches the natural model.  The reasoning behind incorporating plant matter is to stimulate the stomach contents of the prey animal which would be a very small fraction of the plant matter eaten in the wild.   Additionally, this plant matter in the stomach and digestive tract would be predigested.  In nature, wild dogs, coyotes, and wolves are eating fruits directly from trees, bushes, and vines in large quantities.   

The next issue we run into with the B.A.R.F. diet is food combining.   Dogs, like humans, only have one stomach.  This means that their stomach is only capable of digesting one type of food at a time.   All foods require digestive enzymes to be broken down and assimilated by our bodies.  Different types of foods – starches, proteins, fats, sweet fruits, acid fruits – all have different enzymes that break the material down into its usable parts.  Some of these enzymes also neutralize other enzymes.  If we combine two food types that have enzymes that neutralize each other we end up with neither of the food types in the stomach getting properly digested.  Instead, the food either ferments (fruits/carbs/starches) or putrefies (meat).  When this occurs the body is not getting full use or benefit from the meal and as a result, the body may need to expel the food rapidly through an expulsion process like diarrhea or vomiting to get the putrefying or fermenting substances out of the system.   This is because the ferment creates alcohol a cellular poison and the putrefaction creates ammonia an even stronger cellular poison.  While the B.A.R.F model adds in a small amount of plant matter, they are not taking into account the natural physiological processes of digestion and therefore they are creating more burden on the body than simply feeding the proteins alone.  

The next issue is in the bone ratios.  B.A.R.F. recommends 10% raw edible bone, the problem with this is when we look to the natural prey animals our dogs would be hunting if left to their own devices we often find that the ratio of bone to meat is much higher than 10%.  Small birds like cornish hens are roughly 39% bone, chickens are roughly 32% bone.  Feeding a whole cornish hen or a whole chicken with intact organs is going to be a much closer approximation to nature than trying to recreate that piecemeal.  Wild prey has a wide range of bone content so our dogs are built for some variety meaning this is a relatively minor issue, but one worth noting as we look at the whole picture of each feeding model.  Rigid adherence to a specific bone percentage is not in alignment with the variety found in nature. 

Whole Chicken…32%

Whole Quail…10%

Guinea hen…17%

Squab (pigeon)…23%

Wild Duck…38%

Pheasant whole…14%

Cornish Game Hen (cleaned)…39%

Whole goose…19%

Dove whole…23%

Mouse whole…5%

Rat whole…5%

Guinea pig/cavies…10%

Rabbit Whole (cleaned)…28%

Rabbit Whole prey, unprocessed, with fur…10%

Turkey whole (cleaned)…21%

Whole duck (cleaned)…28%

Source: https://www.rawpetsrule.com/bone-percentage-guide.html

The last issue we find with the B.A.R.F model is 7% vegetables, 2% seeds or nuts, and 1% fruit.”  Since evidence from the Voyageurs Wolf Project shows us wolves eating up to 83% of their diet from fruits during heavy fruiting periods (See: https://youtu.be/0-QzCFs6-SY)  and Coyote feeding studies confirm seasonal fruit consumption ranging from 20% to 60%  (See for example: Seasonal Coyote Diet Composition at a Low-Productivity Site Morgan B. Swingen, Christopher S. DePerno and Christopher E. Moorman https://bioone.org/journals/southeastern-naturalist/volume-14/issue-2/058.014.0219/Seasonal-Coyote-Diet-Composition-at-a-Low-Productivity-Site/10.1656/058.014.0219.short ) we can be confident that fruits are both a suitable food and necessary to maintain the health of our dogs. 

What we do not have support for though is the evidence of vegetables.   Vegetables are the fare of herbivorous animals which have flat molars for grinding and breaking down the tough cellulose found in vegetables.  Dogs are not equipped with grinding teeth and they lack the starch-digesting enzymes that would be necessary in lieu of those teeth to allow for proper digestion.   Cooking of vegetables breaks down the starches into sugars and weakens the cellulose allowing for some increase in digestibility, however, we are then returning to the same question “Who has ever seen a dog turn on the stove?”   Cooking also damages foods, so any benefit in digestibility is countered by the loss of nutrition and the alteration of the food as well as the creation of carcinogens such as acrylamide that increases based upon the cooking temperature.  (For more on why cooked foods cause disease see: “The Folly of Cookery: https://www.therawkey.com/the-folly-of-cookery/ ) Based upon our observations of nature and our knowledge of physiology and chemistry we should therefore rule out vegetables as a source of food for dogs but significantly increase fruit consumption to better match the natural model.  

WHERE BOTH P.M.R. AND B.A.R.F MISS THE MARK

Where both diets missed the mark is again in fat content . The raw meats available to us in the grocery store come from commercially raised animals. These animals are fed an unnatural diet which creates excess fat on the body of the prey animal so even if you feed raw the meat you’re getting from the grocery store is going to be far higher in fat than natural wild-raised prey.

As we can see in the photo below, the wild rabbit (right), eating its natural foods, has almost no visible fat.  Compare this to the commercially raised rabbit (left) with its large deposits of fat at the bottom end and also a coating of fat on the ribs.   

In nature, eating their wild prey, our dogs would be consuming very little fat.  Most of us however require to get our meat from the local grocery and as such we are left with a product that has an excess of fat.  Over time this excess fat that our companions are consuming will overwhelm the body and slowly lead to less ideal health and eventually into chronic disease as our companion’s age.

When we buy commercially prepared raw foods there is often even more fat being supplied as the meat is first trimmed for sale to humans and then the leftover carcass of mostly bone and fat is what is ground into raw prepackaged foods for dogs and cats. Whether you are preparing the food at home from the grocery store or buying a pre-made PMR or BARF model raw food product the fat issue is going to cause issues in the long term.   

R.M.F. MODEL

According to RMFPets.com, “RMF diet is based mostly on the wild model and partly on what has been observed to work in domestic dogs. It essentially involves the feeding of raw meat and bones on some days and plant-based meals (some cooked, some raw) on other days. The dog owner determines how many days of each, based on the dog’s age and other factors.”

WHAT DO THEY GET RIGHT?

The R.M.F. model is far and away the closest to a natural model.  They incorporate plant meals that are both separate from the meat meals as they would be found in nature and they incorporate plants in a high enough rotation to mimic nature.   R.M.F. also recognizes the issue with fat consumption, saying on the RMFpets.com website that “The high animal fat content of commercial dog foods and even some home prepped diets is the most common cause of the health problems that dogs experience.”   

R.M.F.’s focus on raw meat and bone alternated with plant meals eliminates a significant amount of burden on the body of our animals, far more than the P.M.R. and B.A.R.F. models thanks to the reduction of meat meals in exchange for low burden plant meals.  However, there is still an excess burden in this diet compared to what we observe in nature.  

WHAT DOESN’T ALIGN WITH NATURE?

No animal in nature cooks its food. Over 700,000 species exist on this planet and only the chronically ill human species cooks our foods. 

Humans are the only species capable of creating fire and setting fire to our food and the consequences of that decision have led to the epidemics of chronic disease we humans experience and now put on to our pets.  The RMF model continues this tradition by including cooked foods including cooked sweet potatoes, cooked quinoa, and certain cooked vegetables.  While these are not absolute requirements of the diet, it is evidenced in the online support group that these cooked foods are used heavily, often in lieu of fruits.   To learn more about why feeding cooked foods is harmful see “The Folly of Cookery” https://www.therawkey.com/the-folly-of-cookery/

Are you ready to switch your companion to the natural diet and watch them thrive? Get our free feeding guide here:  https://www.therawkey.com/the-animals-key/  and join our Facebook group here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/700078481585631/

Have more questions? Need one on one help getting started or troubleshooting feeding or healing issues? Need help with  a serious health condition?  I offer consultations here: https://www.therawkey.com/consultations/

Lauren Farris6 Comments

Do you know what hunger really feels like?

TRUE HUNGER VS HUNGER PAINS

How do you know when you are hungry? Do you often feel hungry first thing in the morning? Is your hunger more ravenous after a night of eating poorly or drinking alcohol? Most people associate hunger with a feeling of discomfort in the stomach and gut area.  You may be surprised to learn that this is not hunger at all.  In fact, true hunger is very rare in the Western world.  It’s not uncommon for people to go years, decades, or their entire lives without experiencing true hunger.

True hunger is a pleasant feeling that we tend to experience in the throat. True hunger is never uncomfortable or unpleasant. It is experienced as a pleasant knowing that our body desires food.

“The fact that most people mistake irritation and vital symptoms of recovery for hunger does not mean hunger exists. An emptiness in the stomach means that the food has been passed from it. That is not hunger. Hunger is felt in the mouth and throat just as thirst is. It is not unpleasant and it urges us to eat just as thirst urges us to drink.

What we commonly mistake for hunger that drives us to eat are pathological symptoms not unlike the “withdrawal” symptoms of tobacco, coffee, alcohol, condiments and other drug addictions that drive us to go back for another fix. When the body is without its fix for a while, it begins clean-up operations. These usually involve unpleasant symptoms that drive us to get another fix. Another fix engages the body in activities that depress vital functions, especially eliminative functions. Thus we are satisfied for a while, in fact, quite a while in the case of foods that are not of our adaptation.” – T.C. Fry

So what is the pain we experience most mornings before we break our nightly fast?

The pain we feel in our stomach is a result of the body trying to clean and repair.  When we eat cooked foods, salt, spices, spicy peppers, drink coffee, tea, alcohol, or otherwise consume irritants, the body repairs the stomach lining each day.  This pain or discomfort we feel in our stomach is a result of the expulsion of the less ideal foods and the waste materials from the damaged cells that occur from eating those foods.  The rumbling stomach and the growling stomach are not true hunger but actions being taken by the body to repair damage incurred from the previous meal of less-than-ideal foods. 

“Although genuine hunger is a mouth and throat sensation and depends upon an actual physiological need for food, muscular contractions of the stomach accompany hunger and are thought by physiologists, to give rise to the hunger sensation.

Carlson, of the Chicago University, found that in a man who had been fasting two weeks, these gastric “hunger” contractions had not decreased, although there was no desire for food. The same has been observed in animals. Indeed these contractions are seen to increase and yet they do not produce the sensation of hunger. I do not consider these so-called “hunger-contractions” as the
cause of hunger. Real hunger is a mouth and throat sensation.

But there is a difference between hunger and what is called appetite. Appetite is a counterfeit hunger, a creature of habit and cultivation, and may be due to any one of a number of things; such as the arrival of the habitual meal time, the sight, taste, or smell of food, condiments and seasonings, or even the thought of food. In some diseased states there is an almost constant and insatiable appetite. None of these things can arouse true hunger; for, this comes only when there is an actual need for food.

One may have an appetite for tobacco, coffee, tea, opium, alcohol, etc., but he can never be hungry for these, since they serve no real physiological need. Appetite is often accompanied by a gnawing or “all gone” sensation in the stomach, or a general sense of weakness; there may even be mental depression. Such symptoms usually belong to the diseased stomach of a glutton and will pass away if their owner will refrain from eating for a few days. They are temporarily relieved by eating and this leads to the idea that it was food that was needed. But such sensations and feelings do not accompany true hunger. In true hunger one is not aware that he has a stomach for this, like thirst, is a mouth and throat sensation. Real hunger arises spontaneously, that is without the agency of some external factor, and is accompanied by a “watering of the mouth” and usually by a conscious desire for some particular food.” – Herbert Shelton

True Hunger is pleasant

True hunger is described by most who experience it as a pleasant feeling in the back of the throat or simply a thought which floats into their mind that it is time to eat. We are accustomed to overfeeding ourselves with constipating and dehydrating foods which destroys this delicate feeling. Instead of a pleasant feeling our overeating and eating of substances that are not our natural foods leads the body to respond to each subsequent meal with pain.

“It was said that nature plainly says: “Eat of my compounds what you like best, and I will signify when you have eaten enough . . . The instant hunger is satisfied is the time to cease eating. If you persist in eating beyond this time, then I will send you another real friend–pain–who will compel you to cease eating before you do yourself irreparable harm. I shall make you suffer so much that you will lack all excuse for eating too much at a later time.” How common is the practice of smothering the disciplining voice of pain and discomfort with a drug after meals!” – Herbert Shelton, Man’s Pristine Way of Life

Weakness is not hunger

Feeling weak or drained is also not hunger but is a result of the body’s need to take energy away from our muscles to utilize in the repair of the stomach. These are warning signs from our body to stop inputting food so it can make repairs, unfortunately, when these processes feel unpleasant we have been conditioned to stop them temporarily by eating another meal. The addition of more food to the stomach temporarily halts the cleaning and repair processes. Sadly, this reinforces our wrong choices leading to ever more burden upon the body rather than a lifting of burden.

We can avoid “hunger” pains entirely.

“By avoiding pungent condiments we also obviate the principal cause of gluttony. It is well known that the admirers of lager-beer do not drink it for the sake of its nutritive properties, but as a medium of stimulation, and I hold that nine out of ten gluttons swallow their peppered ragouts for the same purpose. Only natural appetites have natural limits. Two quarts of water will satisfy the normal thirst of a giant, two pounds of dates, his hunger after a two day’s fast. But the beer-drinker swills till he runs over, and the glutton stuffs himself till the oppression of his chest threatens him with suffocation. Their unnatural appetite has no limits but those of their abdominal capacity. Poison-hunger would be a better word than appetite. What they really want is alcohol and hot spices, and, being unable to swallow them ‘straight,” the one takes a bucketful of swill, the other a potful of grease into the bargain.” – Herbert Shelton
 

If you take a moment to think about it, you may start to recognize that when your hunger pains were at their worst this coincided with a more harmful food choice the night before.  Often when people have a hangover they become ravenously hungry and seek out fatty, slow-digesting, difficult-to-digest foods that shut down the cleaning process and calm the stomach.   After eating a spicy meal the night before you might wake up extra hungry the next morning.    When we eat salt we feel hungry more often.  All of these are examples of when we have consumed something that irritates the stomach and the hunger pain is the consequence of the injury to the body that the prior meal or meals caused.

Next time you feel pain in the stomach try delaying your meal as long as you can and try to think about what you ate last that may be causing this pain.  Perhaps sip some water. When we eat our natural diet these painful symptoms no longer exist. As you eliminate those irritants you will find it becomes easier and easier to delay your meals to the ideal window and eat less often because you will not be injuring the digestive tract and will not have the pain as a result.

Have more questions? Want to get answers about your specific health issues or concerns? I offer consultations, learn more about them here: https://www.therawkey.com/consultations/

Ready to make changes but not sure how to begin? Need some motivation or accountability? Why not join our 30-Day Terrain Model Diet Support and Education Group: New Groups start on the 1st of every month! https://www.therawkey.com/terrain-diet-support-group/

Eat fruit and be well my friends.

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

Healing Hairloss in Cats

Question

My 9-year-old cat started losing her hair about a year ago. After changing her food, she seemed to improve temporarily, however, she is now worse than ever. She also has a number of tiny red spots on her skin. I spoke to a vet and she said they would probably recommend steroids. I would prefer not to go this route. I have changed her food again. We give her dried and we are now back to tins after giving her freshly cooked food.

Answer

When the body has an excess of waste it will push that waste out through the skin and as a result, the hair follicle becomes damaged. Steroids will temporarily stop the symptoms for some cats but at great cost to the health of the animal. The body is creating this symptom because it is in distress and it is trying to alleviate that distress. Using steroids is akin to shooting the messenger, it hides the symptom for a little while by impairing the ability of the body to push the waste out through the skin, but it does nothing to remove the cause, so the cause continues to build internally, and since the original waste cannot use the skin as an outlet the body has limited choices of what to do with the waste. The end result of this process usually results in the body creating tumors to store the waste since it is being stopped from eliminating the waste through the secondary channels.

In a healthy body, all waste is eliminated through the primary channels – kidneys, bowels, and lungs. When the burden on the body becomes too high from feeding the wrong foods – cooked foods, processed foods, mixed foods, etc – the body cannot keep up with all of the waste through its primary channels and it will start to open up secondary channels. When it does this we see waste coming out of the skin, the ears (diagnosed as ear infections), eye discharge, nose discharge, red or irritated skin, and paws.

The body itself is creating all of these symptoms to get the excess waste out because the waste damages the cells and causes them to malfunction. If the waste backlog becomes too high then the body will no longer be able to function and life will cease, so the body’s ability to create these expulsion symptoms is crucial to survival.

So the symptoms are the result of a backlog of waste which means too much waste is being created. We can then fix this issue by stopping the input. We do this successfully for all disease conditions by returning the animal to their natural diet. When we correct the diet we lift the burden, there is no more excess waste being created and the body can start to catch up on the backlog. Once the backlog is cleared the body will stop pushing waste out through the skin because it will no longer need that pathway.

You can find the cat feeding guide here: https://www.therawkey.com/the-animals-key/

It includes everything you need to know to get started. Let me know if you have any questions!

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Reader Q&A

Surgery vs Healing Tumors Naturally

Question:

Why do tumors have a better chance of reoccurring after surgery than after healing via a return to the natural human diet?

Answer:

When a tumor is removed via surgery nothing has been done to remove the reason why the body created the tumor in the first place. Since the cause is not addressed the same conditions remain in place, so the natural progression is for the same end result. If you keep making the same mistakes you should expect to keep getting the same results.

When a tumor is removed by the body after a person corrects their diet, the conditions which created the tumor – the wrong foods being eaten – have been removed. There is no longer a need for the body to create a tumor because the conditions of disease no longer exist. The cause has been removed therefore the effect does not occur.

In addition, when we undergo surgery a tremendous amount of additional damage is done to the body requiring even more cleaning and repair work to be done by the body. Tumors are created by the body as a solution to an excess of cellular waste and debris that the body is not able to remove. The body is not able to remove that waste because the across-the-board burden on the body is too high. When we add to that waste burden yet again, the body is still under the same burden it was originally but now it has additional waste to remove but even less energy than it had before the surgery.

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Reader Q&A

Herbert Shelton’s Death

Question

Would you care to speculate why Shelton lived only to 77 years of age and died with neuromuscular disease?

Answer

Well first, Shelton lived to almost 90 years old, so I’m not sure where you are getting 77 from. He was born October 6, 1895, and died January 1, 1985, making him 89 years and 3 months at the time of death. He continued to run his health school until 1981 (age 86), and started his final book with Jo Willard and Jean Oswald in 1982 at age 87 which was published shortly after his death in 1986.

Shelton outlived any reasonable expectations and was mentally cognizant until his last days. That is more than we can say for most people today. Shelton’s father died at age 78, his mother was 82, and most of his cooked food-eating siblings died in their 60’s and 70’s or younger. Shelton was the firstborn yet outlived all but Juanita, the 13th child, and Sam the 10th child. He truly got the maximum life out of the generational hand he was dealt.

Parkinson’s is a condition brought about by many factors, significantly influenced by inherited weaknesses passed down through the generations (susceptibility), similar to a 2×4 having a lot of knots which makes it susceptible to early failure when stressed.

Shelton was born two months premature, weighing less than 3 pounds, he was frail and weak and barely survived, kept warm in a wooden cigar box near the iron stove. Being born premature means a lack of full, required biological development from the start, in the womb, making a person less vital overall and slighter of build as he also was. He was born into a cooked food meat and dairy-eating family and only discovered raw foods as a teen/young adult. His father had chronic health conditions including Asthma, I am not sure about his mother’s health conditions. The real question is why did Shelton last so long given the weaknesses he inherited from birth?

Parkinson’s is a long-term degeneration of certain parts of the central nervous system, developing slowly, sometimes from a very young age, and involves a loss of brain cells in a particular area of the midbrain called the Substantia Nigra.

One factor associated with Parkinson’s symptoms is brain trauma/injury. In 1945 Shelton was involved in an accident with his horse, he was kicked in the head by his horse, leading to him losing several teeth over the coming years, which can give us some indication of the severity of the jarring his brain underwent at that time.

While the body replaces most cells, brain cells are not replaced when they die. Additionally, brain trauma injury kills a lot of cells in a large area. Once gone, they remain gone, leading to decreased ability for the brain to control itself and the body. This is a factor to consider in the development of degenerative diseases or injury of the brain. Brain and nerve injuries are extremely slow to heal and some will never heal in our lifetime. So when we incur an injury to the brain or nerves these often lead to degeneration which cannot be remedied by the body.

Shelton was a busy, active man, particularly intellectually. He used his brain and his body fully, never letting up his entire life. He wrote prolifically, ran a large, successful fasting clinic for decades, wrote endless books, articles, essays, and newsletters, lectured around the world, raised a family, and faced endless opposition and harassment from the medical industry, including being jailed on multiple occasions, he organized and fathered Natural Hygiene Science and so much more. He worked his body to its maximum, and just from that, it’s easy to see how he may have overworked a certain part of his brain/nervous system, let alone the abnormal stress and lack of proper growth caused by his brain injury and premature birth. When he died, that’s the day he stopped writing and working endlessly, he only rested during sleep.

Shelton faced a brain deterioration issue that nothing was going to stop from happening, no matter how well he ate or behaved, all he could do was limit its progression, which he did incredibly well. He lived almost 90 years (89y 3m), Parkinson sufferers always die an early death, but he did incredibly well and was more active into his 80’s than many people are capable of in their 50s or younger.

We are all coming from a deficit, born to parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who have been eating far from their natural diet. We are all born to previous generations with chronic disease symptoms. The question is, do we continue to pass down those degenerative habits to the next generation, or do we create the least harm possible to our cells in this generation so the human species can begin to recover its natural lifespan?

For anyone interested in an accurate picture of Shelton’s life the book “Yours for Health: The Life and Times of Herbert M Shelton” by Jean A. Oswald https://amzn.to/3r7MoFs is a great read.

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

Desire Health? Return to the Garden of Eden

Our society promotes this false idea that we can do 100 things wrong feeding our body but then fix it all by popping a pill. For many that pill will be a pharma drug (pharmaceutical from the Greek pharmakeia- “poisoning, sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it”).

For others it will be an equally harmful vitamin or supplement, pill or powder, they have been told cures this or that ailment, or maybe they just fear they are lacking in their nutritionally devoid diet.

Either way you can never fix a wrong by adding a second wrong. You cannot poison a body back to health. You cannot make up for the plate of chicken and rice by taking a powdered fruit and vegetable supplement because it’s not the missing vitamins and minerals that are creating 99.9% of disease. It’s the dehydration, it’s the lack of fiber, it’s the overworking of the digestive system. It’s the fact that you are eating so far removed from your natural diet of watery, sugar-rich, raw fruits, sweet, tender, water-rich,leafy greens and nutrient dense nuts, seeds and vegetables.

There is no shortcut to health. If you want a healthy body you have to supply the conditions which allow the body to operate under normal parameters. You need to supply the foods which your body was intelligently designed to consume. When we follow God’s word and return to what he gave us for food in the Garden of Eden – Genesis 1:29 – our bodies return to perfect health. When we obey the lesson of Daniel 1:8-20 setting aside the rich and heavy foods and wine for our natural foods and water we thrive.

The natural diet of man is fruits and tender leafy greens, with small amounts of nuts, seeds and vegetables. These are all foods we can eat raw, in their whole natural form without any tools, fire or weapons. When we return to the natural diet God originally given to us in Eden all disease conditions reverse.

When we sin against our bodies, we are made to suffer. But we are provided every answer to stop the pain, should we choose it. The more you open your eyes, the more you see, this world is biblical and you have been given a guide book should you choose to accept it. The medical industry practices pharmakeia, their symbol is the snake ⚕️and the rod. Health never comes from the poisoning arts but they have most of our loved ones under their spell. No cures for any disease ever yet we continue to fund them $100 trillion a year. Open your eyes to see, open your ears to hear, the answers are laid out for you. The battle is good versus evil, health versus disease, if you don’t know which side you are caught up in, if you are blind to the reality of this world, there is nothing anyone can do to return your health to you. If you are caught up in the trappings of this world, only misery awaits.

Have more questions? Want to get answers about your specific health issues or concerns? I offer consultations, learn more about them here: https://www.therawkey.com/consultations/

Ready to make changes but not sure how to begin? Need some motivation or accountability? Why not join our 30-Day Terrain Model Diet Support and Education Group: New Groups start on the 1st of every month! https://www.therawkey.com/terrain-diet-support-group/

Eat fruit and be well my friends.

Read more about the Natural Human Diet:

The Natural Human Diet

Our Natural Foods Do Not Create Discomfort or Disturbance to the Body

The Slow Petrifaction Of The Body From Inorganic Mineral Consumption

Humans are herbivores, Comparative Anatomy

The Carnivore Delusion

Lauren Farris2 Comments
Reader Q&A

Disturbed Sleep and Hip Pain

Question:

I would say I have a fairly healthy diet as in food . But I do drink a fair amount of alcohol mainly because, its only way I can get any sleep . I would like ideas to change this . I also have excruciating pain in my right hip, for past 15 to 20 years . I work in Pharmacy and spend 9 hrs a day on my feet . Would appreciate any advice please.

Answer:

We cannot have “a fairly healthy diet” we either eat things that provide the conditions of health, or we don’t. If we eat a little bit of cooked foods our body will be in a state of disease. If we eat a lot of cooked foods our body will be in a state of disease with more symptoms. If we have symptoms then we are not eating a healthy diet, the evidence in front of us that we are not in a state of health proves this. Health only exists in the absence of disease. Disease is dis – lack, ease – comfort, a lack of comfort in the body, so any straying from the normal efficient operation of the body is a body in a state of disease. Once we realize this we can achieve health by stopping the injury of our cells.

If you are not able to go to sleep it is because your body is being irritated and stimulated by the food, drugs, and other poisons being put into it. If you remove the cause of the irritation then the body will return to normal function. If you find the substances that are keeping you awake and remove those, they you will not have to try to drug the body with poison to go to sleep.

Alcohol does not help us sleep, it creates tremendous stress upon the body which has long-lasting effects. It actually makes it much harder to sleep because it makes the body so uncomfortable that the body is in a chronic state of irritation which impairs our ability to sleep. Falling asleep using alcohol is not sleep, it is placing the body into a coma because the level of toxicity of the body is so high that the body cannot keep you awake and survive at the same time.

As to the hip issue, there are a number of reasons why we get pain in our joints but ultimately all are correctable by putting the conditions of health into place. The only exception is if the bone of the hip has been remodeled by years of damage then the body may or may not be able to correct that condition. The most common reason for pain is inflammation. Inflammation is the 4th stage of disease and is the point at which the body is trying to make a massive effort to expel waste. When this process is allowed to take place the inflammation will lead to healing. But if we are continuously adding to the cause the body will never be able to complete the cleaning process. It’s like someone putting a sewer hose through your front window and you sitting there trying to sweep the floors clean without first getting the sewer hose out of the window, you will never get a clean house if the cause is still in place.

If we remove the causes of the inflammation the process will complete and healing will be achieved. If we do not remove the causes then eventually the body will move from the 4th stage of disease, into the higher states of disease which are all degenerative conditions. You can learn more about the seven stages of disease here: https://youtu.be/w4PBOuXiqPA The video also discusses in depth how we reverse the conditions and return to a state of health.

If you are eating cooked foods, drinking alcohol, taking stimulants like coffee, tea, soda, chocolate, eating salt, eating wheat, all of these will disrupt your ability to sleep. Stopping these will allow for restful sleep to return.

Anxiety, restless thoughts, the type of thoughts that keep us awake at night are not random, they are created by our diet. They are the body communicating its level of distress. If we remove the reason for the body being in distress then we remove the anxiety and restless thoughts that keep us from resting and being calm, cool and collected at all times.

We have to always remember that we are a collection of countless billions of tiny cells all working together in concert. Anything that injures one cell creates a chain reaction that affects every cell, so what may seem like a minor toxin exposure like eating some cooked foods actually becomes a major issue affecting the functions of every cell. Each small mistake builds upon the last making for less efficient processing of every cell, which in turn adds even more waste, which then makes the cells even less efficient. Every small mistake adds to our suffering.

If you are struggling to return to the natural diet fully we offer a support group for transitioning, with recipes, meal plans, daily articles to help you get through cravings, and lots of inspiration to help you learn how to eat to maintain health. You can find out more at https://www.therawkey.com/terrain-diet-support-group/

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Reader Q&A

Hair Loss and Using Essential Oils to Stimulate Hair Growth

Question:
I am losing a lot of hair. I’m on fruits until dinner and I’m mostly raw. What does terrain model say about using essential oils such as rosemary to stimulate hair growth? Many people have said that it’s helped them but I think the terrain model would probably not support the use of EO.

Answer:

Essential oils are potent plant toxins, they are harmful both ingested and topically.

Hair loss occurs primarily for 2 reasons. One, the body is pushing acids out through the scalp and this damages the hair follicles leading to hair loss. If we have corrected or improved our diet recently this will self-correct once the body has caught up on its backlog of waste. As long as we are eating sufficiently of leafy greens and other mineral-rich savory fruits we will have healthy hair, but in the short term the body can push the waste out through the skin and sometimes our hair is sacrificed in the short term for the long term gain of true health.

The second common reason for hair loss is excess fat in the diet or in the body. Fat blocks nutrients from being able to get into the cells and also from being able to get to the hair follicles. If the hair follicle doesn’t get the materials they need then the hair can suffer from a lack of materials to build healthy hair. This issue is also corrected simply by eating our natural foods and limiting our intake of fats.

The body can use the hair to expel toxins, so any hair growth that might occur from the essential oils would be more about waste elimination than having healthy hair. It would be a short-term fix with long-term damage. The essential oils touching the skin will cause irritation to the skin as well which can then lead to dandruff and rashes as the body becomes burned by toxins in the oils.

If we want strong healthy hair, strong nails and teeth, and a healthy complexion then we want to eat abundantly of leafy greens and savory fruits like cucumbers and tomatoes which are mineral rich. A large daily salad with cucumbers and tomatoes can not only build strong healthy hair and a beautiful complexion but can also help to sweep out the bowels, get the excess fat out of our system and help to keep the primary elimination channels, clean, clear, and moving efficiently. Our digestive tract is a muscle that requires lots of bulk to push against in order to work properly. Salad provides that bulk which allows for easy elimination and not overworking our cells. The muscles also get their strength and structure from the alkaline minerals found abundantly in leafy greens, so eating abundantly of those salad greens strengthens our elimination channels and further improves digestion and elimination.

If you are struggling to return to the natural diet fully we offer a support group for transitioning, with recipes, meal plans, daily articles to help you get through cravings, and lots of inspiration to help you learn how to eat to maintain health. You can find out more at https://www.therawkey.com/terrain-diet-support-group/

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

Enemas, Colonics, and Herbs for Constipation

In the natural health community, there are a number of regimens and protocols that are neither natural nor health-promoting and yet are aggressively endorsed by the community at the expense of our health.   Many of these are around speeding up the elimination of waste such as laxative herbs, enemas, and colonics.  Today I would like to talk a little about these tremendously harmful practices.  

Elimination is a subject that can be taboo to talk about and as such, we end up with a lot of harmful ideas about what is needed to eliminate regularly and how often we need to be eliminating waste.   Like most other things we want to run before we walk.  If we have been dealing with constipation we want it fixed right now and that opens us up to harmful habits and remedies which keep us trapped in the cycle of never healing our digestive system.  

“Enemas. juices, roughage, and other substances or practices do not result in a pure (unpolluted) healthy body. Health is the normal state unless toxicosis and disease are caused by anti-vital practices and foods.“ Marti Fry, “Why Herbs are Harmful”

Enemas & Colonics

The only place water is designed to enter the body is through the mouth. Putting water in parts of the body where it doesn’t belong is an interference with normal body processes. When we interfere with normal body processes we are immediately creating disease, because disease is the lack of the ability of any part of the body or any cells to process normally. 

Health can only be achieved when the conditions of health are put into place.  We cannot undertake a habit that would injure a healthy body and expect that habit to improve a weakened or sick body. 

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The tissues of our colon are extremely delicate.  They were only designed to handle the end-of-the-line waste.   The stomach, as the first line of defense, will expel by vomiting anything that is too harsh to go through the system.  Then the bacteria and stomach acid break down the toxins.  By the time waste has entered the colon much work has been done to it.

When we flush water up an exit-only orifice we wash out the bacteria, we disturb the mucus put in place to protect the walls of the digestive tract, we bruise and injure the tissues and with all of this damage, the ability of the colon to perform its duties is further decreasing.  Rather than the enema or colonic helping to clean it is adding far more waste to the system, it is damaging the tissues making them less able to work normally and perhaps most importantly it is slowing down healing and extending our suffering immeasurably.  

Coffee or Herb Enemas

As if the standard water-only enema is not damaging enough, humans have now turned to forcing harsh poisons up their exit-only orifice for even greater stimulation.   When a substance is toxic entering through the normal entrance the body at least has defensive mechanisms to protect itself from the enervating substance.  When these same poisons are forced into an area that was never designed for a liquid to enter, the body has no inbuilt defensive mechanism to protect it.  The damage done is magnified considerably.  

A poison entering an exit-only hole is no less a poison, it is an even greater poison.   The stimulating effect of the herbs and coffee to force elimination is not an effect of the coffee or the herb as we will discuss below, they are the response created by the body as a life-saving measure to rapidly remove poison in order to keep the organism alive.  

Herbs and Laxatives

Herbs are inert.  This means they are incapable of taking action.   The body takes all action against substances.  Therefore, when a reaction occurs after the ingestion of a substance to create a rapid elimination we know that the body is taking that action.  When the body initiates a rapid elimination it is because the body has been poisoned.  Therefore laxatives and herbs with laxative properties are poisons that injure the body and force the body to rapidly eliminate them in order to survive.   

Diarrhea is a life-saving effort, as such, it is a tremendous drain on our nerve energy.  If we are already constipated, which is an energy drain, and then we apply poison to the body to expel constipation by inducing diarrhea, then we thoroughly exhaust the body causing enervation.  

Enervation

It is enervating to take enemas or colonics, and enervation leads to toxemia and disease. We often mistake the euphoria following enervation as a health benefit.  

“The symptoms of enervation that people experience after an enema or colonic are usually mistaken for symptoms of well-being. This is a common error, but one that needs to be corrected if health is to be obtained. An analogy can be made between enemas and drugs. Amphetamines, also know as “uppers,” definitely give a feeling of well-being. Yet, they do not bring health and, in fact, are extremely detrimental to the health. Just because something makes you feel good (at first) does not mean it is good for you. It could be that it’s stimulating and enervating you and setting the stage for disease.”

Enervation is the first step in disease.  Nerve energy is generated by our bodies to handle the normal processes of life.  When our nerve energy is stimulated by encounters with poisons or health-draining habits our body is not able to eliminate at the rate required to keep toxins from overtaking the body.   At this point, the toxins begin to accumulate leading to toxicosis.  Enervation is the first stage of disease.  Toxicosis is the second stage of disease.  

When we employ enervating habits like ingesting toxic herbs to stimulate elimination or using enemas and colonics to clean out our bowels the body becomes impaired.  Because of this impairment less nerve energy is generated, and all of the body’s functions become impaired, including the elimination of endogenous metabolic wastes and exogenous poisons, leading to the second stage of disease.  

If we are employing habits that enervate the body we keep our body from ever reaching a state of health.  We are precluding health from existing within our body through our interventions which we think are cleaning our body.   We are immeasurably extending our own suffering. 

“We do not advocate the use of enemas because they are enervating and usually result in weakening of the muscle wall of the colon due to stretched and detached musculature.” – TC Fry

As we continue to keep ourselves trapped in this cycle of draining the nerve energy so elimination is slowed, followed by enervation with laxatives, enemas, and colonics, we are draining all energy from our eliminative systems.   This problem can only be corrected by stopping all enervating practices and allowing rest.   Our digestive tract is muscle contracting.  If you ran a marathon today you would need to rest tomorrow.  If you are constantly whipping your digestive muscles into work, they will need full rest to heal.  They will NEVER heal if you keep using enemas, laxatives, herbs, or colonics because you are never allowing the muscle to rest.  

Stimulants are subtly undermining

“So insidious in their action are all stimulants that the unwary are surprised by finding themselves more or less slaves to them when they are not conscious of using them to excess.

“The coffee headache is an example. A time comes when it is not convenient to get the usual breakfast cup. A dullness or languid feeling appears three or four hours after breakfast, that cannot be accounted for until some friend suggests that perhaps it is due to missing the coffee; but the victim is not convinced until he proves it true by trying it out several times. Some develop a headache, and still others are troubled with gaping or yawning and a feeling of oppression, due to the heart innervation brought on from the use of coffee.

“At first stimulus gently remove awareness – remove tire and actaute the mind and body. It should be obvious to reasoning minds that borrowed activity must be paid for sooner or later.“

“Using nerve energy in excess of normal production brings on enervation. Few people waste nerve-energy in one way only. Food is a stimulant. Overeating is overstimulating. Add to this excess one or two other stimulants – coffee or tobacco – excessive venery, overwork and worry, and one subject to the amount of drain of nerve energy will become decidedly enervated. Elimination falls far short of requirements; consequently toxin accumulates in the blood. This adds a pronounced auto-toxin stimulation to that coming from overstimulating habits, and completes a vicious circle. This complex stands for a disease producing Toxemia, which will be permanent except as toxin crises – so-called acute diseases – lower the amount of toxin, again to accumulate and continue until the habits that keep the body enervated are controlled. Perfect health cannot be established until all enervating habits have been eliminated.”  John Tilden, Toxemia Explained

The body does its own cleaning of its internal parts.

Human hubris tends to lead us into paths of destruction.  We determine that the body requires our intervention and in following that logic we repeatedly injure the body with our attempts to “help” or to “clean” or “to speed up detox”. 

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The body’s infinite intelligence knows when to eliminate.  You cannot control elimination without creating disease in your body.   If the body has slowed elimination it is because the body requires the elimination to be slow. It is not a mistake the body is making.   If you have put the conditions of health into place, eliminating all enervating habits then you know the body will return to normal function when enough burden has been eliminated.  If you have not eliminated all of the obstructions to health then you cannot expect health to be present.  There are no shortcuts, no magic fixes, and no ways to undo the damage of health-deteriorating practices through more health-deteriorating practices.  

“On its own, our inner wisdom will establish the necessary priorities, determine how these may best be addressed, lay out the plan, the ways and means, with exact directions and specifications; and then address each in its own manner and at the appropriate time. We are required only to provide the tools, then step aside and watch the magic within unfold.” – T.C Fry, Life Science Course Lesson 89 

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