Category: Natural Hygiene Basics

Nuts

It’s winter in the northern hemisphere and that means we naturally gravitate towards denser foods like nuts and seeds.  Unfortunately, many of the raw food and fruitarian groups rail against nuts and seeds and this can lead to confusion about whether we should be eating them at all. 

Common questions come to mind about how many nuts are too many.  Are all nuts raw? Will nuts stop detox?   Often these questions can lead us to shy away from nuts and seeds.

In addition, it is easy to overdo a meal of nuts if we are eating them pre-shelled. Sometimes our digestion through the healing process can struggle with the nuts and seeds making us feel like we shouldn’t be eating them.  Lastly, we have many loud voices in the various raw and fruitarian communities spreading the false message that nuts, like greens, will slow down or stop the detox.   This is 100% false and nuts should not be avoided based on a fear of stopping detox. 

In short, both nuts and leafy greens are essential to a well-rounded diet which is essential to returning the body to a state of health.  Let’s see what some of the noted Natural Hygienists have to say about nuts and seeds.

Nuts in the Hygienic Diet

“Next to fruits, nuts are the most essential foods in a well-balanced and wholesome diet.” – Otto Carque, Rational Diet

“We should consume only pure water as thirst demands and wholesome raw ripe fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds as genuine hunger dictates. – TC Fry

“Nuts in general are the best, the most wholesome and most economical source of Protein, because while they are eaten unfired their protein is well balanced with the positive salts.”  – George Julius Drews

[Note: salts are minerals]

“Coming now to nuts, they are, as before pointed out, the great source of proteid – outside meat and certain legumes.  When thoroughly masticated, they are a wholesome and very nutritious article of diet…..They contain practically the elements of a perfect food in due proportion – supplying the system with proteids, fats, carbohydrates, and salts in a concentrated form, with but little waste.   In addition to the nitrogenous matter which they contain, they are also a valuable, and in fact the chief, source of fats….On the whole, it may be said that they are the most valuable articles of food that we know, and when supplemented by a few fruits, form a perfect and nutritious diet.”   – Hereward Carrington

Kellogg says that “nuts are the choisest of all substances capable of sustaining life,” and that in “nutritive value the nut far exceeds all other food substances.” Also, “The nut is the choisest aggregation of the materials essential for the buildnig of sound human tissues, done up in a hermetically sealed package, ready to be delivered by the gracious hand of Nature to those who are fortunate enough to appreciate the value of this finest of earth’s bounties.”

“Nuts, particularly the pecan, produce more food per acre than any other product and no one need eat animal products so long as these delightful foods are to be had. They are not to be considered as a “meat substitute.” The meat is the “substitute,” as Prof. Sherman, of Columbia University, says.”” Herbert Shelton, The Science and Fine Art of Food and Nutrition

“The digestibility of protein in 28 experiments with mixed diets, to which were added fruits and nuts, averaged 90 percent. …The digestibility of the carbohydrates in nuts, so far as the available data show, is about equal to that of the same ingredients in other foods…It would appear that, while it is not possible to state the exact digestion coefficients for all nuts, enough has been done to indicate their high nutritive value and digestibility…The distress sometimes experienced when nuts are eaten is undoubtedly often due to improper mastication or over-indulgence.  The investigations made at the California station indicate clearly that considerable quantities of nuts properly eaten do not cause distress…As a whole nuts may be classed among the staple foods, and not simply as food accessories.”  – Professor Jaffa, “Nuts and their Uses as Food” from “The Natural Food of Man”, Hereward Carrington

“Paleontologists tell us that primitive man was a nut eater. All over the face of the earth man has used nuts as food from time immemorial. There are many kinds of nuts and these have all proven excellent sources of food, not alone for man, but for the lower primates and many other animals, including many birds. They are rich in food values, delightfully flavored and keep for extended periods so that man, as well as the squirrel, may store them for future use. Many animals besides squirrels eat large quantities of nuts. Many of the birds make use of the nut as an article of food. Horses will consume great quantities of acorns. While they will eat fruit from the trees, they eat acorns off the ground after they have fallen. Hogs eat so many hickory nuts that in certain parts of the country they are called pig-nuts. Horses are also fond of pecans.

“It takes months of sunshine to perfect the nut and when it is completed it is a veritable storehouse of minerals and high-grade protein, emulsified oil and health-imparting vitamins. Packed in a nature-made, water-proof and air-tight shell, the nut-meat comes to us clean and wholesome. Hermetically sealed the nut does not become contaminated and spoiled as does meat, for example. Nuts are free from waste products, are aseptic and do not readily decay, either in the body or outside of it. They are not infested with parasites (trachinae, tape-worm, etc.), as are meats.” – Herbert Shelton

Nutrition in Nuts

“Scientific investigations prove that all the nuts, especially in the form of unroastes nut butter, furnish a relatively high amount of basic amino acids , and that nut proteins are of a high biological value.”  

“Animals that have declined on a diet devoid of water soluble vitamin, promptly recover when the almond, English Walnut, filbert, hickory nut, pine nut, chestnut and pacan were introduced.  

“Nuts are rich in minerals, particularly iron and lime. Pecans are rich in potassium, magnesium and phosphorus. Almonds, pecans, walnuts, chestnuts, and hazelnuts contain an average percentage of iron of about two and a half times that of fruit, three times that of vegetables, greater than that of cereals and more than average meats. The almond is rich in iron and lime. One pound of almonds contains as much calcium as twenty-five pounds of beef or eleven pounds of bread and potatoes. The almond is twice as rich in blood-building elements as meat and is very rich in bone-building elements, in which meat is sadly lacking.”  Herbert Shelton

“Most nuts are abundant in vitamins A and B. The researchers of Cajori demonstrated the abundant presence of growth-promoting vitamins in pecans, English walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, filberts, and hickory nuts. Most nuts are rich in oils. The fats (oils) of nuts are the most easily digested and assimilated of all forms of fat. Kellogg says: “The fat of nuts exists in a finely divided state and in the chewing of nuts a fine emulsion is produced so that the nuts enter the stomach in a form adapted for prompt digestion.

Nuts are fairly rich in starch and sugar, and are three to four times richer in vitally important salts than animal flesh, even richer than milk in these vital substances. Not albumen is easily assimilated and does not form uric acid. Nuts are rich in fat, which, like that of milk, is in a state of emulsion – that is, ready-made, prepared, or pre-digested, as it were – for circulation through the lymphatic system. 

Measured in calories, most nuts rank high. One example must suffice. Measured in calories, two ounces of shelled pecans contain as much food as a pound of lean beef.

Everything that can be had from flesh foods can be gotten in better condition and more usable form from other sources, and especially from nuts. Nuts are not only cleaner than meat, they come in hermetically sealed shells that prevent contamination.

Nut proteins are of the highest order, most nut proteins being complete. Kellogg maintains that nut proteins are the best of all sources upon which the body may draw for its supplies of tissue building substances and that the proteins of nuts are superior to those of ordinary vegetables or meat. “Nuts furnish perfect proteins.” Nut proteins are superior to those of cereals and are claimed to be more complete than those of eggs. Indeed, Kellogg says: “The special method of research adopted by Dr. Hoobler of the Detroit Women’s Hospital and Infant’s Home, provides a most delicate biological test for the nutriment value of food. The test shows the nut to be superior to meat, milk or eggs or all these foods together in producing the highest degree of nutritive efficiency. Nut protein is the best of all sources upon which the body may draw for its supplies of tissue-building material.” – Herbert Shelton

“Studies of the proteins of nuts by Osborn and Harris, Van Slyke, Johns and Cajori demonstrated that the proteins of nuts are at least equal to those of meat. This was shown to be true of the almond, black and English walnuts, butternut, pecan, filbert, Brazil nut, pine nut, chsetnut, hickory nut and cocoanut. Observations have shown that, in general, the proteins of oily seeds are complete proteins. Johns, Finks and Paul found that the globulin of the cocoanut is an adequate growth-factor in rats and that cocoanuts are almost completely sufficient as the sole source of protein in human beings. Para nuts have also been shown to be rich in superior protein. Not all workers are agreed about hickory nuts, many maintaining that these possess a low-grade protein. The others named are rich in high-grade proteins, promoting growth, development, reproduction,lactation, and the rearing of the young, not alone in animals, but also in man.”  – Herbert Shelton

“Nuts are acid-ash foods, as are all proteins, but they are not so much so as are animal proteins. The comparative degrees of acidity of the proteins run walnuts, 8; oysters, 15.3; veal 13.5; eggs, 12; chicken, 11.2; beef, 9.8; etc. Nuts contain less acid minerals than meat.” – Herbert Shelton

Proper Food Combining of Nuts

“Nuts are often used as a dessert after a heavy meal. In this case, they are harmful. Combined with fruits or vegetable salads, nuts make a complete meal in themselves, and their indigestibility in most cases must be attributed to a lack of wisdom in the choice of food eaten with them.  If nuts are thoroughly masticated and used in small quantities, and well combined, they are easily digested and utilized by the human body.” – Otto Carque

Carque goes on to explain that nut butters are an excellent option for those with defective and weak teeth who are not able to thoroughly masticate the whole nuts.   Nut butter should always be raw and without salt.   

Nuts pair well with greens and can also be paired with dried fruits.  Nuts can be eaten as a stand alone meal, prior to the salad, or after the salad.  They are often enjoyed as part of the salad meal, either as a salad topping or dressing.   

“It would be difficult to overestimate the tremendous gain that would accrue to the people of our country if the millions of acres now devoted to grain-raising were devoted to nut and fruit culture.”  – Herbert Shelton

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Fermentation

Burping, Gas & Bloating, what do they mean?

Frequently as people transition to the natural diet there is a period of digestion issues as the fast digesting fruits run into the constipation caused by a cooked foods diet.  In most people, this digestion issue passes in 1-2 weeks and fermentation is never an issue again.   But for some people, fermentation continues to be an issue and it can be potentially problematic, leading to chronic symptoms and dramatic weight loss.    In fact, fermentation is one of the biggest reasons that people lose excessive weight when eating the natural diet, or transitioning to the natural diet.   Fermentation can also lead to chronic fatigue, overeating, itchy skin, rashes, and extended periods of symptoms which might be written off as “just detox”.   

You should not experience burping, gas or bloating at all if eating correctly.  These are disease conditions and troubleshooting is required to correct them.   

Burping, Gas & Bloating are not normal and are a sign that what we are eating is not properly digesting.   The gas that creates burping and farting is from fermentation inside of the digestive tract.  Just like the bubbles that form in a bottle of champagne or beer from fermentation, the same process occurs in our digestive tract.  If we are fermenting that means we are producing alcohol in the digestive tract and poisoning ourselves.  

If a person experiences gas on the natural diet, a few things could be causing the issue:  

1.  Drinking water with a meal or too soon before or after.  

2.  Overeating.  

3.  Not properly chewing foods.  

4.  Not following proper food combining rules.   

5.  Eating too quickly.  

6.  Eating while stressed or upset.  

7.  Eating too early or too late.

8.  Eating unripe or overripe fruits.

9.  Eating melons or grapes when the digestion is not primed.  

10. Drinking smoothies or juices.

11.  Eating cooked foods which constipate, followed by raw foods that are high in sugar and digest quickly.  

Let’s first talk about why each of these factors can lead to fermentation, then we will discuss why fermentation creates symptoms and weight loss and last we will talk about how to fix fermentation issues if they are occurring.  

1. Drinking water with a meal or too soon before or after.  

Drinking water dilutes the digestive juices impairing digestion.   Our digestive juices need to be at full strength for proper digestion.   Do not drink water with your meal or for at least 1 hour after a meal.  For denser foods give 2-3 hours.   Drink 15 minutes before your meal, while preparing your meal to allow the stomach to empty the water before digestion. 

2. Overeating.  

If we put more food into our stomach than our stomach can handle the food will sit and ferment rather than digesting.   As we transition from a cooked foods diet our digestion will be weak.  Start with smaller meals spread 2-3 hours apart and naturally over time you will work your way up to large meals less frequently.   Most people need to start with 5-6 meals a day to reach adequate calories and eventually most people find that 2 large meals or 3 medium sized meals works best for them long term.  Don’t try to rush getting to 2 meals a day.  Let your digestion improve gradually.   

3. Not properly chewing foods.  

You have probably heard the saying “Digestion begins in your mouth”.  I like to say, “your stomach doesn’t have teeth, chew your food!”   We should be chewing our foods to a liquid before swallowing.  Decades of eating cooked foods that are soft and require little chewing create a habit of not chewing thoroughly.  It takes some attention when we are eating to retrain this habit.   When you eat, try to focus on eating and not being distracted by some other task.   

4. Not following proper food combining rules.   

Some foods digest well together and others do not.  Knowing how to properly combine your foods to avoid poor digestion is key.   We will have another post specifically on food combing.  

5. Eating too quickly.  

When we eat quickly we are often not adequately chewing our food and we are putting food in the stomach faster than our full signal can keep up.  When we eat slowly and deliberately we can better hear when our body is full and avoid overstuffing the stomach.   

6. Eating while stressed or upset.  

When we are in a state of emotional upset or stress our stomach shuts down.  It wants no food.  If we eat when we are upset or eat to soothe our emotions we nearly always ferment our foods because our digestion is sluggish.   When upset, avoid reaching for food and instead try taking a walk or going out into nature and letting yourself process the source of the upset before eating.  

7. Eating too early or too late.  

Digestion ramps up starting around noon, if we eat earlier than that we will have sluggish digestion that can cause the food to not digest fast enough.  If we eat when our digestion is sluggish the fruits, especially high sugar fruits are very likely to ferment.   If you must eat before noon choose a low sugar food – berries, salad, savory fruits like tomatoes to avoid the fermentation.  We will have another article on the ideal eating window and the 3 cycles your digestive system moves through each day that explains the importance of keeping our meals between 12 noon and 8 pm.  

8. Eating unripe or overripe fruits.

Unripe fruits are difficult to digest simply because they are not ripe and not meant to be eaten.  Unfortunately, due to the nature of our food system many fruits are picked unripe so they can be shipped long distances.   When shopping for fruits look for what’s on sale that week, frequently stores will put on sale the fruits that are coming ripe because there is an abundance of them and they need to sell them quickly. also look for climacteric fruit which will ripen on the counter even if they are picked  unripe at the tree

9. Eating melons or grapes when the digestion is not primed.  

Melons and grapes and other high sugar fruits our quick to ferment in our system. If we eat them first thing in the morning when our digestion is not warmed up and not moving as efficiently as it should the high sugar in these fruits can ferment very quickly causing “melon belly” or “grape belly“ fermentation symptoms.    if you’re eating before noon or your digestion feel sluggish skip the melons and other high sugar fruits and go for some thing slower digesting like bananas or savory fruits.

10. Drinking smoothies or juices.

When we cut fruit it starts to break down as it is exposed to the air. When we put food into a blender or a juicer we are creating thousands and thousands of little cuts and this causes the fruit to break down much faster. If you’re going to have a smoothie make a small smoothie and drink it quickly and remember to chew your beverages to get the saliva starting the digestion process. But ideally we should be predominantly avoiding smoothies and juices. Smoothies and juices are frequently fermented and also tend to lead to plaque on the teeth for the same reason.  

11.  Eating cooked foods which constipate, followed by raw foods that are high in sugar and digest quickly.  

When we are transitioning from cooked foods to raw foods it can be a challenge to manage the slow and sluggish digestion of cooked foods.   Frequently the body cannot eliminate cooked foods in a timely manner so they ferment themselves, but even more often the slow and sluggish digestion of cooked foods causes traffic jams in our digestive system when combined with a fast digesting fruit meal eaten afterwards.    The best option is to eat fruits early in the day and leave any cooked foods for the evening meal.   But even having cooked foods in the evening followed by fruit the next morning can result in fermentation if the cooked foods are very slow moving.    Fruit needs clear pathways.   High sugar fruits especially need clear pathways.   If you have eaten a cooked meal the night before its best to skip the high sugar or watery fruits and instead go with a salad, savory fruits or low sugar fruits like blueberries or other berries that will not ferment as easily.  Also keep in mind that cooked foods dehydrate us and dehydration causes constipation, so if you are eating cooked foods keep the water intake high to avoid getting clogged up!

Why Fermentation Leads to Symptoms and Weight Loss

Food is only useful to the body if it can be assimilated without an excess burden of waste. Health is not about the nutrient density of your food but the usability of your food.   Eating 500 calories of fruit that is fermenting in your digestive tract just results in the body rushing that food out of the system with little to no gain and with a loss of energy.   If you are consistently fermenting your fruits your body will be consistently rushing the food through and weight loss and muscle lose will be the result.    

As Herbert Shelton points out, “It has often been said: “You are what you eat.” More appropriately, this should probably be: “You are what you digest and assimilate.” Man eats everything. He considers himself an omnivore of the first order. Roots, nuts, tubers, seeds, eggs, blood, milk, fish, fowl, and fruit have all appeared on man’s plate. One culture eats worms and gnats with relish. Another culture considers decaying animals a delicacy. Man has practiced cannibalism both in the past and in the present. And so man brags: “I can eat anything. I have an iron stomach.” It is true that man’s physiology allows him to eat almost anything that does not immediately kill him… It is a mistake to assume, however, that the body can digest and assimilate everything that passes between our teeth, or that foods doing no immediate harm will not eventually cause problems. Consequently, most of what man eats is for naught, because much of the food eaten by the average human being is totally unsuitable for his digestive physiology.” 

Whether we are eating foods that are suitable or stuffing the body with useless food like substances we need to be able to digest and assimilate what we take in.  When we eat cooked foods we create a backlog of waste and cellular debris from the useless materials being a burden to our body.   But when we ferment our fruits we create alcohol and this alcohol can cause as much distress to the body as a cooked food meal.  

Below is an excerpt from John Tilden explaining why fermentation is problematic and keeps us in a state of disease.  

“WHAT BECOMES OF THE FOOD TAKEN INTO THE BODY?

Food enters the stomach and bowels, and then it is subjected to the action of solvents preparing it for absorption into the blood; after absorption it is further acted upon by the blood itself, which, in a true sense, is one of the most important digestive organs, for it refines the food elements and prepares them for cell digestion, the very last digestive process completing the metamorphosis of food into living tissue.

From the beginning to the ending of this process–from the chewing of the food, its solution and absorption into the blood, the transformation that takes place in the blood, as it is carried by the circulation to the lungs where it becomes oxygenated and decarbonized–is a subtle scheme of interorganic exchange of products; the blood being not only a common carrier, but a purifying and refining organ.

 Before going farther, the meaning of decomposition and toxin poisoning should be explained.

More food is eaten than can be digested properly, or it may be that the combinations are wrong, and instead of physiological, enzymic fermentation–digestion–taking place, pathologic, or bacterial, fermentation takes place. The germs of fermentation–the bacteria or microbes, or organized ferment, that are everywhere–set up fermentation in carbohydrate foods, causing acidity; and decomposition in proteid foods, and putrescence is a product of this fermentation; any and all of which when absorbed, or taken into the blood, causes toxemia. Where there are enough digestive ferments–enzymes–the ever-present germs (bacteria) have no power to act. When man is prostrate with disease–with the evil influence of bacterial fermentation–then he should not eat; for his enzymic power (power to digest) is already overpowered by germs, and to feed under such circumstances is to encourage bacterial fermentation and toxemia. In acute diseases, from a common cold to pneumonia on to typhoid fever, feeding complicates and increases the mortality.

To recognize germs as man’s enemy is a mistake; if, they were enemies they would not quit him when he is prostrate and refusing to take “good nourishing food.” When germ action is continued in disease it is when food is forthcoming in quantities that exceed enzymic power. Wounds, ulcers, abscesses, etc., are kept from healing when the food intake is beyond enzymic control.

As a result of bacterial decomposition, toxin is formed, and when absorbed it poisons the system. Toxins are also taken in from without the body. Any poison generated in the body or out of the body, and taken in, causes toxin poisoning. Any stimulating drugs–namely, opium and its preparations, alcoholics, tobacco, coffee, tea–overeating, overwork, both physical and mental, overworked emotions, etc., all stimulate and intoxicate, which produces enervation, and this leads to toxemia by checking elimination.

Yes, I believe in germs (ferments, yeasts), and I believe in enzymes (ferment, a digestive yeast built by every organized being). I do not believe that the presence of germs has any more to do with causing disease than the absence of enzymes. Both these ferments are necessary to man’s health and well-being. The enervation brought on by toxemia checks secretion and elimination, causes constipation and retention of other organic waste, which, joined with the toxins of fermentation and decomposition, prepares man for the affections or the diseases he develops.”- Tilden

How to correct fermentation issues

  1. Keep meals simple.  Eat one fruit per meal or follow food combing rules for multiple fruit meals but keep the mixing to no more than 3 fruits per meal for best digestion.
  2. Drink your water!   Dehydration is the most common cause of constipation.  We should be having one elimination per day in the morning, shortly after arising.   If you do not go regularly in the morning before your first meal of the day then you are constipated.   If you are going multiple times per day then you have diarrhea.  
  3. Eat your salad greens!    Greens sweep the bowels clean and get rid of any slow moving old waste. 
  4. If you have eaten cooked foods, follow them with a salad and avoid eating high sugar fruits the day before.  
  5. Drink water 15 minutes before your meal and wait at least 1 hour after
  6. Eat within the noon to 8pm window.  If you need to eat earlier than noon stay away from the high sugar melons and grapes.  
  7. Chew, chew, chew!
  8. Make sure all cooked foods are high fiber.   Steer clear of dry food like breads and pasta which will cause severe constipation.  
  9. Stay away from melons until your digestion improves.   High sugar, high water content fruits require very strong digestion.  If your digestion is weak they will ferment quickly.  If you experience melon belly stay away from the melons for a while.  Only enjoy them in the summer at their peak ripeness. 
  10. Eat smaller meals.
  11. Only eat when calm and relaxed.  Focus on your meal.  Don’t eat distracted.  
  12. Fast – If everything is fermenting and being wasted there is no benefit to continued eating.   Fast and rest and allow the digestive tract time to heal then start with small, simple meals, chewed well and eaten calmly.  

Last notes, when our body is trying to clean and heal our body will turn off our appetite and force us to rest.  If we continue to eat during an active healing event, for example, when you have cold or flu symptoms, your body will ferment food rather than digest it because energy is being directed away from digestion and into cleaning.  Therefore eating when we have cold or flu symptoms will only extend our suffering.    

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/the-natural-diet-support-group/

Eat fruit and be well my friends.

Lauren Farris4 Comments

Dental Health

One of the most common concerns that arise regularly in the various raw food circles is dental health. This concern, however, is not limited to the raw food community, it is just more highlighted as we improve all other aspects of our health. We expect our teeth to improve right along with our health but often the opposite happens and we start to notice more tooth decay and irritation as we heal instead.

“More than 36 million Americans do not have any teeth, and 120 million people in the U.S. are missing at least one tooth. In the geriatric population, the ratio of edentulous [without teeth] individuals is 2 to 1.” -American College of Prosthodontists

But this was not always the case, as evidenced by ancient skulls tooth loss is a modern problem:

“Geologists and paleontologists often unearth the skulls of peoples long dead, the teeth of which show no signs of decay and the enamel on which is often almost double the thickness and much harder than the enamel on our teeth.”

“Today most of the civilized portions of the race are a race of dental cripples. We are face to face with the fact that our teeth begin to decay in childhood. Indeed they sometimes have cavities in them when they erupt.” – Herbert Shelton

The decay of the teeth is due to malnutrition. It is a progressive condition that begins before we are even born. The health and strength of our teeth start in the womb based on the minerals available in our mother’s body.

The health of our teeth then progressively degenerates throughout our life due to the consumption of cooked and processed foods, acid-forming foods, and a lack of proper exercise of the teeth.

Hugh W. McMillan, D.D.S., M.D., of Cincinnati, says:

“To a careful observer of dental conditions at the present time in clinic and private practice, it is very evident the ravages of dental caries and diseases of the gums are daily increasing, in spite of the increasing number of dentists, in spite of the multiplicity of patented and personally-designated tooth brushes, in spite of proprietary pyorrhea cures and gum massaging pastes, in spite of acid, alkaline, neutral, mucin dissolving and film destroying tooth pastes and mouthwashes and in spite of the type of periodontologist who aims to prevent by either applying or removing something from the tooth surface in the same manner that some unintelligent physician might expect to cure by external applications a skin disease of general origin.”

OUR NATURAL FOODS KEEP OUR TEETH STRONG

Our natural foods are dense and require vigorous chewing which exercises the teeth, jaw, and gums. Just as a strength training exercise is recommended for the elderly to maintain bone density, our teeth require strength training to keep them strong and healthy. They of course also need adequate nutrients to build from, which are found in the organic minerals in fruits and vegetables but they need exercise in the form of us masticating thoroughly to put those nutrients to use.

“That the teeth and bones are similar in structure has been recognized by nearly all physiologists. Chemically they are very much alike. According to Hoppe-Seyler, the inorganic constituents are the same for bone and for dentin, about 85 percent, calcium phosphate and from 10 to 12 percent, calcium carbonate. The density of dentin cartilage is about equal to that of bone.

The processes of calcification are analogous. In the teeth the calcification occurs about the processes of the odontoblasts, just as in bone it occurs about the bone cells and forms lacunae. In both, the inorganic constituents are laid down in a colloidal matrix. It would therefore seem reasonable to infer that a pathologic condition which affected one might affect the other. This, however, has not been the opinion of dentists. They believe that dental caries is a purely local affair. The present theory is that carbohydrate material adheres to the teeth and, there fermenting, with theformation of lactic acid, forms the cavity of tooth decay. This idea has not been supported by animal experimentation. Twenty guinea-pigs, fed on a diet to which were added large amounts of sugars, viz., dextrose, lévulose, lactose, saccharin, dextrin and white flour, showed no dental effect at the end of a year. The sugars and starches adhered to the teeth constantly, and bacterial examination disclosed a fermentative flora ; but no dental effects could be detected.” – P. Howe “Decalcification Of Teeth And Bones, And Regeneration Of Bone Through Diet”

The problem we are often seeing in the raw food communities is that our already impaired dental health makes it difficult to chew and our weak jaws get tired working through a large salad or bag of apples. For this reason, many raw foodists turn to smoothies, juices, dips, sauces, raw soups, and other blended and processed fares which allow us to get in the nutrients but not the jaw and teeth exercise we need for strong teeth.

The same study goes on to talk about the destruction of teeth when fed a scorbutic diet, which is a diet devoid of vitamin c, scorbutic meaning causes scurvy. The study found an “increase of magnesium in pathologic décalcification of bone.” Even when adequate calcium is supplied the lack of vitamin C, most prevalent in leafy greens and fresh fruits, led to dental caries (cavities), inflammation of the gums, loss of teeth, and purulent discharge from the gums. The correction is also found, “Feeding orange juice is followed by complete clearing up of the trouble.”

Shelton confirms the need for Vitamin C in dental health as well as Vitamins A and D:

“Tooth enamel is made up largely of calcium and phosphorus with small quantities of iron. But the fusion of these substances into enamel requires the presence of vitamines A, C and D. At least half a dozen elements and factors are essential to the production of this tissue. In the absence of either of these factors the enamel of the teeth cannot be made. It is folly to feed much calcium in an effort to produce good teeth and to ignore the other essential elements of the teeth.”

And yet it is exactly this folly that most succumb to, seeking out calcium supplements of inorganic and therefore harmful sources of minerals, or seeking high calcium foods without asking what else might be needed here.

“If man were to subsist wholly on alimentary substances in their natural state, or without any artificial preparation, by cooking, he would be obliged to use his teeth freely, and by so doing not only preserve his teeth from decay; but at the same time and by the same means, he would thoroughly mix his food with the solvent fluid of his mouth.“ – Sylvester Graham

“Sugar and fruit acids do not injure the enamel of normal teeth. Sound teeth have been immersed in a sugar solution and in fruit acids for months without suffering any erosion. Dr. E. Howard Turison and others have proved this.”- Herbert Shelton

“Lactic acid does not injure the enamel of the teeth. No experiments have been able to show that bacteria of any type, when cultured on the teeth, are responsible for dental caries.” – Herbert Shelton

“Experiments by Drs. Howe and Hatch (1917) in America, and by Sir James McIntosh, Warwick James and Lazarus-Barlow, working together in England, in trying to produce dental caries by using acid forming bacteria all resulted negatively. Dr. Howe says that “so long as the diet is normal it has been found impossible to cause caries or pyorrhea by maintaining fermentation in the mouth or by feeding or injecting the bacteria believed to be most actively associated with dental caries.” – Herbert Shelton

OUR UNNATURAL COOKED DIET BREAKS DOWN OUR TEETH

“Cereals, especially, seem to induce defective teeth, particularly when not counter-balanced with large quantities of green foods and fresh fruits.” P. Howe

“Investigations have revealed that those races whose diets include no cereals have teeth and mouths practically free of any kind of disease, while those races whose staple diets are cereals and meat with relatively small amounts of fruits and vegetables have jaws and teeth like those so common in America. Wheat is the most damaging of all the cereals, regarded from the point of view of its acidity. Little meat and cereals and an abundance of fruits and vegetables produce teeth like those found in Polish and Irish peasantry and those of the vegetarian races of the Orient.” – Herbert Shelton

When we cook our foods we create a soft mass that requires little chewing. Our unnatural cooked foods diets are abundant in soft mushy foods – pasta, bread, cereals, oatmeal, mashed potatoes, and even the vegetables which would supply adequate nutrients to build strong teeth are softened to mush by cooking and have their organic minerals converted to inorganic minerals in the process. Uncooked food in comparison requires vigorous chewing, supplying the teeth with much-needed exercise.

WHY THEN DOES IT APPEAR SOMETIMES THAT DENTAL DECAY OCCURS AFTER TRANSITIONING BACK TO THE NATURAL DIET?

There are a few reasons why we might see an increase in dental decay when we begin to transition to the natural diet. As mentioned above, the heavy reliance on blended and processed raw foods that most use as a transitional tool does contribute to the underuse of our teeth. As the body begins to heal and release old acidic waste from storage the body will take alkaline minerals from the bones and teeth to neutralize those acids.

“…in order to neutralize the acids formed by the decomposition of excess protein, the body was forced to give up its mineral salts. Thus the teeth, bones, cartilages, nails, hair, etc., were leeched of these elements.” – Herbert Shelton

If we are properly exercising our teeth during this time the body will see the strength of the teeth as a necessity and will replenish the teeth faster than it pulls from them because we are supplying an abundance of minerals in the form of leafy greens, fruits, and vegetables. But if we are relying heavily on blended, juiced, and processed foods or focusing our diet too much on soft fruits and not enough on tough fruits, leafy greens and vegetables that require working our jaw and supply ample minerals, then the body will see the teeth as expendable compared to the vital organs.

Another reason some experience issues is that despite meat causing many health issues the gristly tissues are a workout for the jaw. The shift then from that workout without replacing it with another can lead to the weakening of the teeth during this time.

We are also dumping symptom suppressants along the way. Often as we learn to take better care of ourselves we also stop using fluoridated toothpaste which creates a false strength to our teeth while we are using them but which the body tries to eliminate as soon as we stop. The internal damage to our teeth has already progressed and when we stop the fluoride which fills the gaps where the calcium is missing, the holes show up quickly. If we are eating abundantly of mineral-rich greens and working our jaws these holes will fill back in eventually, but in the short term dental issues may arise.

Then we have the issue of dead teeth. Since dental decay is a progressive process that occurs gradually over time and from the inside out, we have been destroying our teeth since childhood but the major issues tend to begin to show up for all people between the ages of 30 and 50. If you are a woman who has given birth to children that may start even earlier as creating new life takes lots of minerals from the body to give them to the child. As the body starts to clean and heal it wants to discard the unrepairable. Sometimes this means that old filings are pushed out, and sometimes this means that damaged and dead teeth are broken down for their materials instead of being rebuilt. Only the body can decide whether a tooth is salvageable or in need of discarding.

WHAT CAN WE DO TO IMPROVE OUR DENTAL HEALTH AND MINIMIZE TOOTH LOSS?

“We examined the jaws of some of these animals after they had died. The jaws showed that while the guinea pigs had been on a vitamin-deficient diet, the bony structure of the jaw had been mined of its calcium and when the normal diet was restored, areas of calcium had been replaced, showing very definitely that the body calls on the bones for calcium when it is needed in the blood, and that the blood gives calcium back when there is an abundance of this element.” P. Howe

The good news is, our teeth can and do rebuild to some extent when we feed them adequately. Before I knew much about healing I used to say, “An apple a day keeps the dentist away as well as the doctor.” I had always noticed how much better, cleaner, and stronger my teeth felt when I was regularly eating apples and apparently both Tilden and Shelton confirm the benefits of the apple.

Dr. Tilden especially recommends apples for rachitic children, and for building good bones and teeth. Dr. Claunch stated that cavities in his teeth healed while he was on an apple diet. – Herbert Shelton

This makes sense when combined with our knowledge about the importance of exercising our teeth, as apples are one of the foods that work our jaws the most.

Oranges are another great food for dental health. Although they don’t require much of a dental workout they do supply a generous amount of building materials, including Vitamin C.

Leafy greens and tender vegetables are mineral-rich and a great workout for the jaw. I recall early in my journey how tired my jaw would get from all the chewing. Now I realize how weak my jaw was back then. Over time my jaw has strengthened and now eating a huge salad is a joy, but early on it was truly a workout.

A variety of fruits and greens are going to supply the necessary building materials for our teeth, but crisp fruits, greens, and vegetables are the keys to the working of our teeth.

As they say, “use it or lose it!” If we don’t work our teeth with vigorous mastication we will lose our teeth.

Overall though, there is no one thing, no magic cure for poor teeth, instead, we must focus on health overall and by correcting all of our bad habits that injure the body as a whole we then put the conditions in place for good dental health as well.

As Herbert Shelton so eloquently exclaims:

“Good teeth depend upon good health and not vice versa as the tooth-extracting fad proclaims. No cause of impaired health, however insignificant it may seem to be, should be neglected if the teeth are to be preserved. There seems to me to be no way to preserve the teeth by any plan that falls short of a complete system of health building. No one-idea plan can succeed. Soundness of the teeth will be preserved by the same mode of living that preserves soundness in all the tissues and structures of the body. We must learn to think in terms of health-building. We must learn to think in terms of health of the whole organism and cease thinking in terms of local health.”

This is an article from The Natural Diet Support Group. A new group starts on the first of every month teaching the natural human diet, how to transition away from disease-causing foods and how the self-healing body operates, to learn more about our support group or join click here-> https://www.therawkey.com/the-natural-diet-support-group/

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/

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

Hydration

The Importance of Hydration and Water Consumption in Achieving or Restoring Optimal Health

In our previous article, “Humans are Herbivores, Comparative Anatomy” we established that eating watery fruits and fresh greens is the optimal diet, what about water consumption? Many people seem to believe that if you consume optimally hydrating foods that water is no longer necessary.  However, this is a grave mistake. Perhaps if someone has been following this ideal diet their whole lives this may be the case, however, virtually all of us have spent years and decades consuming non-ideal foods:  Processed junk, meat, dairy, etc. Making sure you get enough water in addition to eating as clean as possible will help speed up your healing process tremendously.  Why? Virtually all of our unnatural lifestyle decisions will eventually result in dehydration.

Eating processed foods? Dehydration


Caffeine?  Dehydration

Pushing yourself too hard? Dehydration

Not drinking enough water? Dehydration

Eating acidic foods? Dehydration

Need to burn off excess fat for energy? Takes a lot of water

Consuming animal products? Dehydration

Alcohol?  Dehydration

Bowel troubles? Water will help clear it

Exercise or physical activities? Dehydration

Body temperature regulation? Consumes water

Eliminating oils and lymphatic waste? Consumes water

Virtually all bad diet and lifestyle issues lead to dehydration eventually.  Consuming more water will help reverse most health issues. Often since we are not accustomed to drinking appropriate amounts of water we go through phases where we can’t take in very much, which is why it is generally recommended to start slow and go by feel.

I was on a raw, fairly ideal diet for about 3 years before I put together the water piece thanks to Sam Kovalyov, and my health improved dramatically in just the few months after I began drinking water regularly again. At first I was only able to drink about 2 quarts per day and I was urinating constantly.  Only a few short months later I was up to over a gallon each day and I was no longer feeling a need to urinate all the time.

When I first began putting emphasis on water again in February of 2020, I went through phases of edema (swelling) in various parts of my body as the water pooled up in areas of my body which it was being used to help clean. Our bodies will use water to help dilute acids and waste as they are cleared out.  Just like raw diet, the water piece takes time for your body to become accustomed to and some time for your body to utilize it.

Frequent urination is usually a sign that your body is passing toxins.  This is very common for most people when they begin to drink more water because most people are chronically dehydrated. Water helps break up the toxic gunk and as it becomes urine, the urine is more harsh than normal, so our bodies want to pass it sooner rather than later.  Frequent urination is a great sign you’re doing some cleaning. This step usually won’t last very long.

Ideally you will get to a point where it’s easy and you feel better consuming about a gallon or more per day, but if you are not used to this yet, it is recommended to work up to it slowly. Start with maybe 2 quarts and work up from there. If you need to hold at 2 quarts per day for a week or two then that’s totally fine.  As usual, go at your own pace.  Frequent urination will slow down over time and it will be easier to drink more and more.

It took me about 3 months of habitual water drinking before I began to be able to feel my own thirst impulse again.  Talking to others in similar situations, this seems fairly normal.  Just try to go slow and don’t feel like you need to force excessive amounts of water down as this can result in other types of issues. Drinking excessive amounts of water can result in a condition called hyponatremia which happens when we drink so much water that the concentration of sodium or other minerals in our bodies gets too low.  Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, headache, confusion, loss of energy, restlessness, muscle weakness, and can even progress into seizures or coma. If you begin to suffer from these symptoms, simply stop drinking and wait and your body will utilize the excess water in your system and everything will rebalance naturally.

So again, as always, go at whatever pace is comfortable to you.

Healthy adult kidneys can process about 1 liter or 1 quart per hour at most, so exceeding this rate of consumption is not useful.

Ideally we sip and keep water throughout us throughout the day.

I recommend getting a large water bottle. I use a one gallon tank that I fill once or twice a day and lug around with me everywhere I go.


These days I also really prefer to get in most of my water in the mornings.  I usually wake up anywhere from 6-8 a.m., and I refill my gallon every morning right after waking if it wasn’t full from the night before.  I like to try to get a whole gallon in before my first meal of the day, which is usually somewhere between 12 noon and 2 p.m.  This way I can just sip water the rest of the day in between meals without feeling any pressure to try to stay ahead of dehydration.

Addendum / Clarification from Sam Kovalyov and Lauren Whiteman

Sam: Water helps keep our extracellular fluid hydrated and mobile so it can transport nutrients to where they are needed, when they are needed… intracellular fluid is best affected by the water from fruits and veggies because it has minerals in it that give it different physical properties from plain drinking water… toxins get recycled into our digestive system and back into our extracellular fluid over and over again until they are broken down enough to be eliminated by the kidneys or mixed with enough fiber in the digestive system that they make it to our colon for elimination… either way, water is a necessary component to this process… cellular hydration is a result of a fully hydrated extracellular environment, as the ECF will pull water from the cells if it is lacking, and since fruits and veggies contain substances in them besides water, they do not help to dilute and remove old toxins from the system as readily as plain water does. It is a currency that is spent in the detox process and thus gets to be replenished. As the need for detox goes down, so does our need for water, and the body communicates this to us with subtle signs of discomfort when drinking water, which should tell us that we’ve had enough to drink, just as we eat food until we feel subtle signs of discomfort, which tell us we have eaten enough food for now.

Lauren: We have always had the same position on water. All humans today require water because they have old waste compacted in their bowels. 1-2 gallons per day. Humans are not physiologically designed to drink water, but we are also not physiologically designed to eat cooked foods, so when we make the mistake of eating inappropriate foods we must counter that by replenishing the water lost via the cooking and digestion processes. We do not have a drinking anatomy because our anatomy was designed for fruits, but when we put in anything other than our ideal foods we must replenish that water to heal.

Nat FarrisLeave a comment

Heavy metal detoxing, cilantro, and the chelation myth

If you have been in the natural health community for any length of time you have probably heard about the supposed magical powers of cilantro to pull heavy metals from your body.   Heavy metal detox smoothies with cilantro, detox tinctures, powders, potions, and various other products claim to use the magical power of cilantro to pull metal out of your body.   

With heavy metals being the big scare tactic in natural health, anything that can “assist the body in detoxing” them has a huge appeal, which means money in the pocket of those who sell them.   You may have even seen popular terrain theory gurus like Dr Kaufman profiting off selling you some expensive cilantro concoction to help you “pull out heavy metals.”   

All of this marketing is a scam.  

The people pushing it may not realize it is a scam, having fallen for some false correlations, lacking an adequate understanding of why the body creates symptoms, or having missed some lapses in logic in these claims, but it is a scam nonetheless and one which ultimately is keeping true health out of reach for you.  

Cilantro is not a magical herb that can float around your body and suck out the heavy metals and there is nothing – no product, herb, pill, potion, or tincture – which can ever  “assist the body in detoxing.”  Anyone selling you on the idea of “assisting the body in detoxing” either is scamming you or is ignorant of how the body operates.  They are selling you science fiction that belongs in Star Trek, not real life. 

The body takes all action

When we consume any substance the substance itself is acted upon by our body.  The substance is inert, meaning incapable of action, or dead.  The food is chewed by the body and swallowed by the body.  It enters the stomach where it is broken down and softened by the contractions of the stomach. The body creates and releases enzymes and acids to break apart its bonds.  Then the body moves the substance from the stomach to the digestive tract, where additional contractions break the material down and the body’s bacterial colonies go to work on the substance.  The body breaks down the material and the bacteria moves the material to the cells by passing through the walls of the digestive tract.   Every step from the first bite to the elimination is an action taken by the body on a substance that takes no action.  

Let us compare this to the cilantro chelation myth.   In the claim, cilantro is said to attract heavy metals, pull heavy metals, remove heavy metals, or assist the body in removing heavy metals, often the claims state that it will remove heavy metals from our brains or improve cognitive function, presumably by its power of removing those heavy metals.   How is this possible?   Inert objects take no action.   As we just saw, all actions are taken by the body against the substance.   At no point does the cilantro gain the ability to direct its own action. The cilantro does not jump out of the stomach and swim up to the brain in order to work like a magnet to suck out heavy metals.  This is biologically impossible.   

Many people have fallen for this logical black hole, however cilantro is inert.  Perhaps when bottled and sold for $120 for 1.58 oz it can suddenly perform magical feats.  Back in reality, cilantro cannot push or pull, it can not attract or repel anything.  It can no more take action on the body than a virus can.   (https://www.therawkey.com/are-viruses-real/ ) Inert objects or substances cannot take action.  Until that changes, cilantro cannot assist us in detox. 

How did we get the idea that cilantro can detox us?

At this point, you might be wondering how this fallacy became a common claim in the natural and alternative health communities.   There must have been some type of science that led to these beliefs.  As with any bit of misinformation there is always some kernel of truth that they grow out of and the same is true with the idea of cilantro chelation.   

In this case, an observation was made, heavy metals in water moved towards the cilantro in water.  Much like a magnet pulling a metal paper clip, rather than remaining stationary the metal in the water moved towards the cilantro.  

Here is the problem:

In vivo is not ex vivo.   

In vivo means “performed or taking place in a living organism.”   Ex vivo means “that which takes place outside an organism”.   Cilantro in water is ex vivo, occurring outside of the body.  Cilantro in the stomach is in vivo, occurring inside of the body.   When we study something in science we are either observing an action in vivo, occurring inside the body, or we are observing ex vivo.   Things that occur outside the body do not react in the same way inside the body.  Outside the body, there may or may not be a living organism taking action against the substance.  In vivo, the body is taking action.  

Metal floating towards cilantro in a glass of water does not equal metal being pulled from the brain or some other tissue.  The cilantro remains in the stomach until the body breaks it down and eliminates the waste. There is no way for the cilantro to magically pull from the brain to the stomach.    The body takes all action.  The cilantro is inert; it is dead.   Nothing inert can move something from one area of the body to another. If anything was moved from the brain it would be by the action of the body.

Adding to the inaction of inert substances we must also realize that the stomach is a filter.  The digestive tract and the stomach are outside the body, not inside.  Picture the body as a donut and the stomach and digestive tract as the donut hole.  Substances enter the mouth and exit the anus and the entire time they remain in the tube which is the digestive system.   Only the body’s workers, the bacteria, and microscopic organisms can pass from the digestive tract to the interior of the body.   These workers break down the usable material and carry that into the body while leaving behind all of the unusable material.   The original food does not enter the body cavity, only the materials the body wants and can use will enter.   

Now that we are clear on how dead material cannot take action, let’s look at why some people are confused into believing that cilantro, as well as other toxic materials like herbs, liver cleanses, kidney cleanses, etc., are “assisting their body with detox.”  

Nothing can detox the body

When it comes to healing the body we cannot use products to start a detox, speed up detox, or influence detox in any way. All we can do is create a burden or not create a burden. What we can do instead is put the conditions in place to lift enough burden from the body so that the body is able to initiate the detoxification of old waste which is impairing cellular function.  Rather than initiating detox for new poisons, when we remove burden the body can remove old waste and improve cellular function. We can stop putting in the poisons and toxins that require detoxification or rapid removal from the body and instead, the energy can shift to repairing decades-old damage and removing old waste.

Most importantly we can stop burdening the body with foods that are difficult to digest, assimilate, and eliminate and that drain our nerve energy and steal that energy away from the cleaning and healing processes.

In other words, healing is all about subtraction and not addition. Healing requires us to put less in the body, put less burden on the body, do less, and rest more. Healing is not about addition. We don’t add things to assist the body, we take things away to remove the burden from the body.  To learn more about what detoxing is please read: https://www.therawkey.com/what-is-detox-really-its-probably-not-what-you-think/ 

Cilantro is a mildly toxic herb

Our body is equipped with certain defensive mechanisms to protect us from harming ourselves.  Unfortunately, over many generations of social conditioning, we have taught ourselves to ignore or fear some of our greatest defensive protections.   

The ones we fear are the expulsion symptoms: diarrhea, vomiting, coughing, sneezing, fever, and other symptoms. These are all used by the body to remove poisons, toxins, acidic cellular debris, and other waste that impair the body’s ability to function normally.   Modern medicine has taught us to fear these healing processes and to apply either pharmaceutical poisons or more natural plant-based poisons to shut down the body’s healing processes and suppress the symptoms, rather than addressing and removing the cause of the excess waste.    We apply poison to the body and then when the body responds by trying to remove the poison we apply more poison to the body until the body runs out of energy to expel it and instead moves further up the disease ladder. This is the basic premise of the medical model.

The defensive mechanisms that we ignore are our senses.  We are gifted with a sense of taste and smell which are designed to protect us from consuming irritants, toxins, and poisons.   When a food smells sour, we know that it is rotten and should not be consumed.  If we ignore this sense and eat some yogurt or fermented foods, drink alcohol, or otherwise consume a rotten substance the body has to deal with this via other means, usually diarrhea or vomiting.   

The sense is meant to protect us and avoid the expulsion symptoms from having to be used.  But most of us have been well trained by society to ignore this protective sense when it comes to certain traditional “foods” and toxic beverages.   

If we drink alcohol our first reaction is to pucker and have discomfort at the taste of the alcohol.  The alcohol is not pleasant to consume.  It is dry or bitter and if strong enough creates a burning sensation.  The feeling we register is not one of comfort, even if we have been trained to associate positive emotions with drinking.  This is our first warning that we are consuming a poison.  Next, our stomach will register discomfort.   We keep going though and eventually, we become intoxicated, which simply means we have been poisoned.  

The body responds by activating all of its defensive mechanisms.  If we are lucky we have enough vital energy in our body to vomit and remove the poisonous beverage out the way it came in, minimizing the damage to our cells.  If our body lacks the energy from years of chronic abuse then the poison travels through our system and the liver has to spring into action to break down the poisons.    

With each substance we consume our senses tell us if it is a beneficial substance or a toxic substance.  Our natural foods cause no discomfort when eaten.  https://www.therawkey.com/our-natural-foods-do-not-create-discomfort-or-disturbance-to-the-body/   

Toxic substances cause some form of discomfort.  The most common ways we register this discomfort are spicy, bitter, excessively salty, or sour (fermented).   When we consume these substances our body becomes stimulated as it takes action against the material to remove it.   This is akin to a red-alert, all-hands-on-deck reaction.  The body ramps up its energy to defend itself from the damage the substance is causing.  Unfortunately, we subject our bodies to these abuses from a very young age, long before we are capable of refusing the foods our parents force-feed us.   Many children spit them out and cry but well-meaning parents keep forcing them to eat, not understanding the rejection because they were force-fed these same substances long ago and no longer have the awareness to realize the discomfort they cause.  

This is how we have trained ourselves over many generations to ignore the senses God gave us.   We do so at our own peril.   

Cilantro is one of those substances.   If your system is clean and you have awareness and vitality you will notice that cilantro is bitter and spicy.   You would never sit down to a large bowl of cilantro because to do so would cause great stomach pain and likely vomiting.   In small quantities, the poisonous herb is added to cooked foods to stimulate us.  We eat it often enough that the body has stopped responding aggressively against the poison, the body simply doesn’t have the vital energy available to do so, but we do still get a mild rush from the injury that is caused each time it is eaten. This rush is stimulation and it is behind most of our food addictions and cravings.   

Cilantro is just one of many ways the average person ingests toxins each day. Since we are burdening the body on a daily basis the body must conserve its energy.  When we ingest a new irritant the body will respond to this with vigor, but if we eat irritants chronically the body becomes tolerant and conserves its limited energy for more concentrated poisons.   However, when we return to the natural diet and return vitality to the body, we immediately notice the burning, the bitterness, and the discomfort.   Regaining our connection to our senses allows us to omit this harmful herb from our plates.    

However, for those who are not eating naturally, their connection to their protective senses is dulled.  Instead of hearing the body’s warnings and heeding them, they consume the cilantro as a culinary spice or as a magic potion in hopes of ‘assisting detox’ and their body responds by ramping up detox symptoms.  Then the unwitting victim sees the detox symptoms and believes the cilantro is “assisting detox.”   What is really happening is the body is taking action against the cilantro itself, which is then taking energy away from the body being able to heal and do deeper cleaning.   By taking the cilantro, they not only are not assisting detox but they are both causing injury to the body and taking energy away from the body that the body could be using to detox and heal removing old waste.   Cilantro is not only not helping them detox but it is impairing detox by distracting and robbing energy.   

This same misunderstanding has been used to sell other detox herbs, tinctures, TRS and heavy metal detox sprays, spirulina, chlorella, and other non-food supplements.  In all cases, the increase in detox symptoms is a result of the body taking action against the supplement and not a removal of the heavy metals.   They are only impairing and slowing the removal of heavy metals.   

Only the body itself can remove heavy metals and the only way it can do so is if we stop causing the daily injuries that drain the energy from our body and impair the detox processes. 

Do you want to learn more about how our self-healing and self-cleaning body remedies disease conditions and returns to a state of health when the conditions of health are supplied?   Start by reading “Why do we get sick? – https://www.therawkey.com/why-do-we-get-sick/

Have more questions? Want to get answers about your specific health issues or concerns? I offer consultations, learn more about them here: Consultations – 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! Support Group Information and Sign-Up Form – https://www.therawkey.com/terrain-diet-support-group/

Eat fruit and be well my friends.

Lauren Farris7 Comments

Drug Addiction 

by Dr. Herbert M. Shelton

Science, as medicine is commonly called, is never-ceasing in its search for cures. In his syndicated column, Albert Edward Wiggam once wrote that science has not discovered a surefire cure for alcoholism, but it has found a drug that helps. He said that, after a drunken man sobers up the drug Equanil quiets his tense nerves and helps reduce the desire for another drink. This is to say, the drug substitutes for alcohol. The drug is sufficiently dangerous that it can be obtained only upon a physician’s prescription.

Drug addiction is frequently an aftermath of the employment of drugs in the treatment of disease. Sedatives, narcotics, and stimulants are employed with which to provide evanescent, but fictional, relief from discomfort and pain. Somatic awareness, no less than psychic awareness, is benumbed by the taking of sedative drugs and the housecleaning that is so urgently needed is not undertaken. Each repetition of the dose tends to build a drug habit. A rebirth of awareness follows the excretion of the drug. It is then that the drug user becomes aware of his actual condition. His physician will call his symptoms withdrawal symptoms. He should realize that they are the outcries of an organism that has been outraged with poisons. Drug addiction grows out of the search for relief from the unease, weakness, discomfort and pain that result from the employment of drugs and is not a genuine demand for a repetition of the drug. There is no craving for a drug, but a subconscious demand for relief.

For fifty years I have insisted that what is called drug addiction arises out of the search for relief from the unease, discomfort, distress and misery caused by prior taking of a drug. The narcotic addict obtains a brief respite from his misery by renarcotizing his nerves. The stimulant addict receives a brief illusion of renewed strength by goading his nerves with the stimulant the prior taking of which is responsible for his weakness. In July of 1971 a former drunkard was interviewed on television here in San Antonio. When asked what made him drink he stated: “I would drink today to get relief from the misery caused by drinking yesterday.” Thus speaking from his personal experience, he confirmed my view.

So persistent and so insistent is the demand for relief from the drug caused misery, the victim of the drug practice finds himself unable to resist the temptation to return again and again to the source of his misery for the temporary “relief” this affords. To provide this “relief” requires a progressive increase both in the size and the frequency of the dose. The standard procedures in such cases continue to revolve around efforts to break the vicious circle by a gradual reduction of the dose, both in size and frequency, and to substitute one addiction for another. Both of these plans have proved very unsatisfactory, for the reason that each of them continues to outrage the nervous system by continuing drugging and the search for relief through drugs. Instead of stopping the drug to which the habitue is addicted, it is continued or an effort is made to substitute another drug—one narcotic for another or one stimulant for another. The addict continues to be smothered in his drug-induced miseries. No effective means of promoting the health of the individual is employed, hence the addict does not recover normal health. In those few cases where apparent recovery from addiction occurs, the tendency to relapse is great.

Diseases and vices, growing out of the same general causes, and being essentially the same, are therefore, to handled on the same general plan. That mode of care that will restore health to the sick man, will just as effectually relieve the vicious man and vice versa. If it fails in one, it will fail in both. When either disease or vice becomes thoroughly matured, it is, to a large extent, beyond control of the will. A proper environment and a Hygienic life provide the best hope in this case. It is idle to suppose that a man who has violated nature’s laws until his sensations are all abnormal, and the mainsprings of his life are all befouled, representing poor diseased conditions and vicious habits, can merely exercise the will to recover, and even recovery would not be at all sufficient unless good habits and a thorough revolution of life follow. To appeal simply to the intellect and moral sense of a tobacco smoker or an opium eater or a drunkard, as a means of inducing him to relinquish his indulgence is generally about as effective as to ask an ague patient to stop shaking. [Ague – Fever with chills]

When Professor Carlson, who was a habitual cigar smoker, underwent a short fast in his studies of hunger, he found that after the second day of abstinence, he did not enjoy smoking. “In fact,” he reports, “smoking tended to produce nausea.” It is not an unusual experience for the fast to compel the smoker to discontinue the practice. Many have been able to continue smoking through a fast, but all who discontinue smoking at the outset of fast find that after two to three days without food, they have no more craving for the weed. The same is true of other forms (chewing, for example) of tobacco addiction. 

A similar experience is seen in other drug addictions. It is a simple matter to give up coffee, tea, marijuana, alcohol, opium, morphine, and similar addictions by fasting at the same time the drug is discontinued. It is best to abandon all addictions at once and abruptly. For example, the average alcoholic also smokes tobacco and drinks coffee. He will find it easier to discontinue the alcohol if he also abandons both the coffee and the tobacco at the same time. This will be easily understood when the true character of addiction is understood.

Most addicts think it will be easier to give up one drug at a time or to give up one drug habit and continue the others. An organization in California has a home where drug addicts are taken in. By a program similar to that employed by Alcoholics Anonymous, they slowly eduate the addict out of his addiction. Frequently two years or more are required to whip the morphine habit. The addicts eat a conventional diet, smoke tobacco and drink freely of coffee. This is the hard way: it is the long way and it probably registers many failures. There cannot be any doubt that their educational program and their cultivation of self-reliance are useful features of the rehabilitation of the addict, but the education program does not go far enough.

Faulty education is the chief, if not the only cause of all drug addiction. It may be and probably is true that individuals with neuropathic tendencies most readily fall prey to so called habit-forming drugs, but the fact remains that the initial use of drugs arises out of false education. Had the whole population not been wrongly educated from infancy up, they would not turn to drugs to “sustain” them when some unusual circumstance puts a heavy tax upon the nervous system. Pain, sleeplessness, profound and lasting emotions, losses, etc., cause the nervously unstable to turn to those sources of palliation they have been, educated to believe will supply the desired, relief. For this false education and all the evils that grow inevitably out of it, we are indebted to the medical profession and to no other.

The legitimate pharmaceutical industry has flooded today’s market place with great quantities of addictive drugs which are being sold, especially to the young, through, both legitimate and illegitimate channels. Most of the drugs now being taken by youth are supplied the drug pushers by duly licensed manufacturers of the drugs. If we assume as is popularly done, that these drugs have valid medical usage, we are still faced with the fearful fact that the drug manufacturers are turning out thousands of times more of these drugs than the medical profession can possibly find valid medical use for. So great is their profit hunger that the manufacturers of drugs are willing to destroy the minds of all of today’s youth in order to increase their dividends. I marvel at the apathy and indifference of the parents of this country that cause them to sit by and watch the destruction of their children, instead of rising in their collective might and putting an eternal end to the drug industry.

Reprinted from Fasting For Renewal Of Life

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

Nerve Energy

“The proper way to study disease is to study health and every influence favorable or not to its continuance. Disease is perverted health. Any influence that lowers nerve-energy becomes disease-producing. Disease cannot be its own cause; neither can it be its own cure, and certainly not its own prevention.”  Tilden, Toxemia Explained

Understanding our nerve energy and its functions is one of the most important keys to maintaining and recovering our health.   Without nerve energy our bodies cannot function.  Every cell and every elimination and cleaning process relies on nerve energy.  

Nerve energy is commonly squandered in modern life due to our lack of understanding of the importance of conserving our nerve energy.  Modern life promotes the constant misuse of this precious resource resulting in colds and flus and then chronic disease.  If we want to recover our health we have to adapt our habits away from the enervating habits taught to us by society and into habits of conservation.  

What Is Nerve Energy? 

Nerve energy is a form of electricity measurable in millivolts.  It is the electrical impulse that runs through our nervous system, allowing for the communication of every cell in our system with every other cell in our system.  Nerve energy is central to the cleaning and healing processes of the body and when it runs low our body’s ability to clean up after itself becomes impaired.    

“Demonstrating that nerve energy is electrical is easy. If you mashed your finger, a message would immediately go to the brain and back would come a command to remove the finger from that which applied the pressure. Moreover, the brain would command the entire balance of the body to cooperate in the extraction of the finger from the offending pressure. Only electricity is capable of such speedy transmission. No chemical process or circulatory process is capable of this dispatch. It occurs only through a network of nerves with conductive abilities, and electricity is the only form of energy it can conduct. 

If you take a weak voltage and hook up to it while holding someone else’s hand, the other person gets a shock immediately when you touch the live electrical source. I don’t think anyone can doubt that we do generate electricity, and that is the form of energy we use to conduct our physical and mental activities. Sensations are transformed into electrical stimuli and forwarded to the brain. The brain interprets these and sends out commands based upon the interpretation. Thus, if you put your finger to a hot object, the finger is commanded in a flash to withdraw from it.”  – T.C. Fry, The Life Science Health System

Why Is Nerve Energy Important To Our Health? 

“All diseases have an element of nerve derangement. Indeed, we must have enervation before any disease can develop and enervation may be brought about by anything–any influence–that uses up nerve energy.” – John Tilden, Impaired Health Vol. II

Diseases can be caused by any improper life practices, but generally are caused most by dietary indiscretions.  The primary mechanism that causes disease and root of all illness is reduced nerve energy.  Reduced nerve energy results in reduced ability of the body to eliminate the normal by-products of cell building and cell destruction.  

“In the process of tissue building— metabolism—there is cell building— anabolism—and cell destruction—catabolism. The broken down tissue is toxic and in health—when nerve energy is normal—it is eliminated from the blood as fast as evolved. When nerve energy is dissipated from any cause—physical or mental excitement or bad habits—the body becomes enervated, when enervated, elimination is checked, causing a retention of toxin in the blood or Toxemia. This accumulation of toxin when once established will continue until nerve energy is restored by removing the causes. So-called disease is nature’s effort at eliminating the toxin from the blood. All so-called diseases are crises of Toxemia.”  – John Tilden, Toxemia Explained

Toxemia/toxicosis may arise from many different sources: diet, water pollution, air pollution, injections, drugs, herbs and other poisons.  The toll toxemia takes and the reason we manifest disease symptoms when we are experiencing toxemia is because of insufficient nerve energy to eliminate the cellular wastes.  

“Obviously, to remain free of burdensome accumulations, both physical and chemical in nature, the body must have full use of its eliminative faculties. If these faculties are impaired by lack of nerve energy, if they have been disabled by toxic materials or if ingestion of toxic matters exceeds ability to cope, then elimination is likewise impaired. Accumulations further vitiate the elimination process until the body must undertake an eliminative crisis (disease) to free itself of its morbid load. – T.C.Fry

As nerve energy lags the body falls further and further behind in its elimination of cellular waste and this in turn further impairs the body’s ability to generate nerve energy.  The more nerve energy we squander the less we are able to generate until we crash. 

“…the body is primarily an organism that works on the amount of electricity it generates and which it has in its reserves. If this supply is depleted or otherwise insufficient to cope with the needs of the body, then body functions become impaired, including the processes of elimination of both endogenous metabolic wastes and exogenous poisons introduced into the body. This impairment begets further impairment including diminishing the body’s ability to restore depleted nerve energy.”  – T.C. Fry

This can be clearly evidenced in the individual who consumes coffee.  They quickly become dependent on having coffee every day, often multiple times per day because each cup of coffee makes their body more exhausted then the previous cup.  They begin to rely on the stimulation in a vicious cycle of fatigue and stimulation which drains their nerve energy and impairs the creation of nerve energy.

As we drain our nerve energy we build a backlog of waste that the body falls behind on eliminating.  Eventually the body must force a healing crisis to eliminate this cellular debris and at this point we experience a cold or flu healing event.  

“Due to unnatural practices or influences, humans frequently accumulate toxic substances in their bodies beyond normal capacity for elimination. When the accumulation becomes intolerable within the context of residual vitality, the body will preempt its nerve energy and redirect it to the task of extraordinary elimination or cleansing”  – T.C.Fry

Squandering Nerve Energy Leads To Disease  

The word toxemia means blood poisoning. Toxicosis refers to any disease brought on by poisoning.  In the normal daily processes of life our cells themselves produce toxic byproducts.  In a normal functioning body these toxic substances are rapidly eliminated from the area and the cell’s function is unimpeded.  However, when we squander our nerve energy the body’s ability to eliminate these normal byproducts of cellular metabolism becomes impaired.  The body becomes less able to eliminate, which then impairs the body’s ability to generate nerve energy, which then impairs every other function in the body. 

“Nerve energy is required to digest food; nerve energy is required to keep up secretions and excretions; nerve energy is required to prepare enzymes for digesting our food intake and keeping up a normal resistance to environmental influences as well as those that are autogenerated. 

When this nerve energy is up to the standard, we are poised–or balanced, as it were, with our environments–and we can eat a maximum amount of food, and take care of it. This being true, it should be obvious to those who care to reason that any influence which uses up nerve energy lowers the digestive powers of the body, and that an amount of food which can be utilized when the nerve energy is up to standard must necessarily be too much when the energy is used up in work, play, or sensual indulgence.

It should be obvious to any reasoning mind that a full dinner taken into a tired body cannot be digested properly; that a full meal, or any meal at all, eaten by one in great mental anguish over some great trouble, cannot be digested. And, when food is not digested, it becomes a poison.”  John Tilden, Impaired Health Vol I

“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 that 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 more nerve energy we waste the less ability our body has to clean out the cellular waste and debris that build leading to disease conditions.   As the body becomes more fatigued the disease conditions build and we move from minor discomfort to major chronic disease. 

How Is Nerve Energy Created? 

Sleep and rest are the only way that we can regenerate nerve energy.  When our sleep is disturbed or we ignore our bodies’ need for more sleep we set off a cycle of degeneration. 

“Enervation can be caused by depletion of nerve energy in any of hundreds of ways. Sleep regenerates nerve energy. Obviously, insufficient sleep will not supply us with our needs. It will not fully recharge our batteries. We need sleep to regenerate nerve energy for the brain and nervous system. Rest and total abstinence from food, liquid and solid, and reforming all enervating habits, will restore nerve-energy; the elimination of toxin through the natural channels will take place, and full health will return.”  – Tilden Toxemia

“Sleep is the condition under which the brain generates nerve energy with which to conduct body activities. The deeper the stage of sleep into which the body enters, the more efficiently can nerve energy be generated. There are five stages of sleep if we include the R.E.M stage, popularly called the dream stage, when there are rapid eye movements. Other stages are named after the brain wave frequency. The threshold stage of sleep is the alpha stage and the deepest stage is delta wave sleep. As nerve energy is the spark of vitality for vigorous activity and high level function generally, adequate sleep is very essential to well-being.”  – T.C. Fry

Closing our eyes and resting on the couch for a few minutes periodically throughout the day can also help to regenerate our nerve energy and allow the body to clean out and improve its efficiency.

“While sleep regenerates a fund of nerve energy, rest enables the body to restock physical stores as well as to “clean house.”” TC. Fry

Sleep is controlled naturally, your body will only sleep when sleep is required.  If you are tired and you force yourself to stay awake and push through you are only impairing your body’s ability to clean and heal.  When your body tells you it needs rest, obey it and it will pay you back in health and comfort.   Disobey and pain and suffering will be the end result. 

“We become sleepy when sleep is needed. If we don’t fight it off by taking pep pills or coffee, we naturally drop off into a state of unconsciousness when our bodies need sleep. And we will remain in this state until our nerve energy is sufficiently recovered— unless our sleep is prematurely put to an end by a jangling alarm clock or other disturbing influence. It is impossible to sleep if we do not need sleep. Sleep cannot be “stored up” for future use. – T.C. Fry

It can be tempting to just push through and use those stimulants to make it through our day, but by doing so we are selling ourselves short.   The rest we take today will pay us back in abundant energy.  The stimulant we take today will pay us back in erratic, nervous energy that makes us less efficient and less effective and will cost our energy for the rest of the day and the rest of the week.   

How Is Nerve Energy Wasted?

Sadly there are a great many ways in which we are wasting our nerve energy each day.  When we look at the list we must marvel at how well our body maintains some semblance of normal functioning with all of the mistakes in living that we throw at it each day.  Here is a list of just some of the ways that we squander our nerve energy:

  • Cold and heat – “Extremes of temperature require the expenditure of nerve energy to adjust to changes” – TC Fry   “If a person spends all his nerve energy in keeping warm, he has none left for taking care of food. All other influences work the same way. Anything that reduces the nerve energy lowers the digestive function. When any part of the nerve energy is used up in keeping warm, there is just that much less for digesting and assimilating food.” – John Tilden   “Deliberate cooling or heating of the body is exhausting of nerve energy and lowers the body’s functional abilities.”  -TC Fry
  • Seeking pleasure excessively  – “this condition may be brought on by exhausting the nerve energy in seeking pleasure–wearing out the nervous system enjoying, so to speak. Instead of taking a moderate amount of pleasure in going to the theater or picture shows, dancing, etc., the nerve energy is worn out taking these pleasures in excess.” John Tilden, Impaired Health Vol II
  • Excessive eating
  • Imprudent eating – “In processing food for use, we expend two kinds of energy. We expend metabolic energy, which is the chemical and mechanical energies expended, and we expend nerve energy. For instance, we use very little nerve energy in digesting watermelon. But, in processing foods to which we are not biologically adapted, an enormous expenditure of nerve energy is occasioned. Meats may cause nervous exhaustion due to the body’s frenzied activities in dealing with proteins, uric acids and other toxic substances in them. Though we may feel exhilarated while expending nervous energy just as we feel “a pickme- up” when taking coffee (which really drains nerve energy), the stimulation occasioned by eating unsuitable foods such as meat is an indication of the inefficiency with which the body handles it.” T.C. Fry
  • Eating wrong combinations
  • Fermentation
  • Consuming stimulants – Coffee, tea, chocolate and drugs all drain the body of nerve energy
  • Eating foods that are artificially prepared
  • Eating cooked and processed foods 
  • Eating excess proteins – “neutralization and elimination of the toxins of protein degeneration (putrefaction) uses up vast amounts of nerve energy which, though stimulating at the time, exhausts and debilitates the body.” T.C.Fry
  • Eating starches instead of fruits – “A larger amount of the body’s limited supply of nerve energy is used up when starches are used for fuel than when fruits are used because starches are, as you know, polysaccharides and must be broken down (digested) into monosaccharides before the body can use them. Fruits contain a preponderance of monosaccharides, which, as you also know, need no digestion at all. Therefore, fruit eating leaves more of the body’s energies available for other activities. This explains, in part, why people feel so “light” when they eat fruits and so heavy when they eat beans or bread.” T.C.Fry
  • Overwork 
  • Worry and fear 
  • Excessive emotions and outbursts
  • Arguments with loved ones
  • Stress 
  • Lack of discipline 
  • The use of stimulants of all kinds 
  • Carelessness in looking after the functions of the body
  • Any influences that will produce overstimulation, intoxication, enervation, or imperfect elimination
  • Overstimulation – Social media, television, even reading a book can be a source of nerve energy drain if done to excess, or to upset.

As you can see there is a wide range of ways that we can drain our nerve energy.  Some of these are behaviors that are required, like eating or enjoying ourselves, but when taken to a place of excess, like gluttony or lust, they become a negative habit, while in moderation they provide health.  Other habits are purely nerve energy depleting, such as consuming stimulants or watching negative television news or scary movies.  These are ways in which we trap ourselves in draining experiences.   Relationships can also be another form of energy drain, fighting with a spouse or child instead of having a calm and reasonable discussion can run us down leading to impaired function of our body.   Some of these things can be avoided while others we have little control over.  But the more aware we are of the various drains on our energy, the more we can adapt our lifestyle to meet the needs of our body through the healing process. 

“Intoxication occurs when we overload the body with toxic materials from the outside, or we fail to observe our capacities, and overwork, get insufficient sleep, or are subjected to great stress, or when any number of other factors deplete the body of nerve energy or prevent its sufficient regeneration. For instance, stresses, emotional shocks, or traumatic experiences can drain our bodies of nerve energy very quickly.” – T. C. Fry

The more we take charge of our life experiences the better we can mitigate the drain on our nerve energy.   

How do we conserve nerve energy as best we can?

“Insufficient nerve energy arises from dissipation, stress, overindulgence, excess or deficiency of the normal essentials of life, or pollution of the body with substances not normal to it. Accordingly, recovery from sickness can be achieved only by discontinuing its causes and supplying conditions favorable to healing.” T.C. Fry

“Find out in what way nerve-energy is wasted, and stop it—stop all nerve-leaks,” etc. I am appalled at my stupidity in saying to a patient to stop enervating himself, and allowing the matter to end by naming one or two gross enervating habits; for example: Stop worry; stop smoking;  stop stimulants; control your temper; stop eating too rapidly; stop allowing yourself to become excited. Stopping one enervating habit benefits; but dependable health brooks no enervating habits at all.” John Tilden, Toxemia Explained

As with all things health the answer is fairly simple but the implementation becomes more complicated.   The goal is to eliminate as much of the stimulation that is draining away our energy to make room for enjoyable activity that we can partake in because of our abundant energy.   The largest drain to our energy every day is digestion.   If you eat far removed from your natural foods the body will struggle in digestion and eat up nerve energy.   Correct the diet and a large improvement will occur.   

Next we must look at our sleep and rest habits.  Improve upon the quality of your sleep by getting to bed earlier and minimizing disruptions to your sleep.   Incorporate a nap into your routine, particularly after a meal or if you cannot nap at least close your eyes and sit quietly for a period.   

Lauren FarrisLeave a comment

Humans are herbivores, Comparative Anatomy

How do we determine what our natural diet is?

Here’s a look at some of the supporting evidence and how we arrive at the conclusion that humans are herbivores and that a diet of primarily fruits and greens is optimal.

The study of comparative anatomy clearly shows that humans are a type of specialized herbivore called a frugivore.

Comparative anatomy is the primary pillar of the modern taxonomy and classification of animals.  This branch of biology looks at the parts of the animal and puts them into groups according to similarities and differences.  The terminology of carnivore, omnivore, and herbivore come from this discipline because the anatomy and physiology of an animal are all geared toward how it acquires food to sustain itself.  

Carl Linnaeus, the man who is responsible for the modern taxonomy system classified humans as frugivores.  He wrote: “To say that humans have the anatomical structure of an omnivore is an egregious inaccurate statement. Man’s structure, internal and external compared with that of the other animals, shows that fruit and succulent vegetables are his natural food.”



Based on all the anatomy and physiology of humans, we are very clearly herbivores.

Why?  Let’s examine the evidence ourselves.  

We will take a quick look at our teeth, our jaws, our intestinal canals, our stomach pH, our hands and feet, our skin, and our livers and kidneys.

Our teeth are similar to other herbivores.   The most common objection here is that humans have canines, but guess what?  So do many other herbivores.  Hippos, baboons, gorillas, and even some types of deer and camels have massive canines or fangs.  Compare human teeth to cats, dogs, bears, lions, etc.  They are much more similar to cows, even though cows are ruminant herbivores and humans are frugivores.  Human teeth are nearly identical to ape and monkey teeth.

“Herbivores (like the cow) have 24 molars, eight jagged incisors in the lower jaw and a horny palate in the upper jaw. Their jaws move vertically, laterally, forward, and backward, enabling the herbivore to tear and grind coarse grasses. Omnivores (like the hog) can have tusk-like canines allowing them to dig up roots. Frugivores (like the chimpanzee) have 32 teeth: sixteen in each jaw including four incisors, two cuspids, four bicuspids, and six molars. The cuspids are adapted for cracking nuts, and the uniform articulation of the teeth enables the frugivore to mash and grind fruits.  On the contrary, carnivores (like the cat family) have markedly developed canines that are long, sharp, cylindrical, pointed, and set apart from the other teeth. Fangs and sharp pointed teeth that penetrate and kill, that rip and tear flesh, are a feature of all true carnivores (except certain birds). The powerful jaws of the carnivore move only vertically, and are ideal for ripping and tearing flesh that is swallowed virtually whole and then acted upon by extremely potent gastric juices.” (Source: http://dpcpress.com/natural_diet.html)



Human intestinal canals are also sacculated.  This means they have grooves which is a feature that only herbivores have.  The grooves are designed to slow down the transportation of digesting plant matter which is helped along by fiber to get all the nutrition and juices out.  

Omnivores and carnivores have smooth digestive tracts because the waste is much harsher from the flesh foods, and after eating and digesting it they are designed to eliminate the waste much more quickly.  

Carnivores and omnivores also have differences in their livers and kidneys to help with this waste management.  They are also capable of digesting whole bones.  If a human eats bone fragments, their stomach acid isn’t strong enough to break it down and digest it.  Omnivores and carnivores can break down whole bones with no issue because they are designed to do so.

“That brings us to stomach form and size: In the carnivore the stomach is a small, round sack designed to dissolve flesh quickly and then pass it on for removal. In plant eaters (particularly ruminants) stomachs are complicated adjoining sacks with ring-like convolutions. The frugivore stomach (including in humans) is oblong and is characterized by folds called rugae which serve to retain food for relatively long periods.

Organ sizes of various species also markedly vary. The liver and kidneys in the carnivore are much larger than in vegetarian animals. A lion’s kidney is twice the size of a bulls, and not much smaller than the elephants. This allows the lion to handle large amounts of protein and nitrogenous waste products contained in its natural flesh diet. The carnivores huge liver secretes larger amounts of bile into the small intestine than does the herbivores liver. There is a direct relation between the quantity of meat eaten and the amount of bile secreted. Meat-eating therefore, places a strain on the small liver of humans which impairs the organ’s function over a long period of time.  When you place humans on a diet for which they are NOT naturally adapted, this places unnatural stress on the organs of elimination. Humans have never adapted to the carnivorous diet that is high in animal products. The human liver is smaller than the carnivores and as a result, we cannot detoxify the poisonous products inherent within animal foods such as uric acid (discussed below). Our kidneys are also smaller and become diseased from overwork caused by a diet high in animal protein.” (Source: http://dpcpress.com/natural_diet.html)

The chief difference between the natural human diet and many modern diets is the inclusion of irritants, cooked foods, and excess protein.  How do we know that humans are designed to thrive on less protein?  Let’s look at human mother’s milk compared to other species and some commentary and analysis by T.C. Fry.

A table and excerpt from T.C. Fry on protein and mother’s milk

The first number is the average number of days a newborn takes to double its weight.  The second number is the average percentage of protein present in the mother’s milk of that species.

SpeciesAvg # of Days for a newborn to double weight % protein present in mother’s milk
man180 days 1.6% protein
horse60 days2.0 % protein
calf47 days3.5% protein
kid19 days4.3% protein
pig18 days5.9% protein
lamb10 days6.5% protein
dog8 days7.1% protein
cat7 days9.5% protein

“The highest need for protein in the diet occurs for most animals during the above periods when the newborn is doubling its birth weight.  It is important that we realize the protein content in mother’s milk, the optimum food nature has provided for rapid growth of the young, is far below the usual foods that are recommended because of their protein content (such as meat, nuts, legumes, grains, etc.).  Protein is indeed important for growth, but we might well question the alleged necessity for concentrated, high-protein foods.

The second role of protein is in the repair of tissues of replacement of worn-out cells.  After an organism reaches its full growth (usually between 18 and 22 years for humans), protein is needed only to supply the loss incidental to tissue waste.  Cell degeneration and waste occur primarily because of toxicity in the body.  If we adopt a lifestyle and diet that introduces a minimal amount of toxins into the body, then tissue waste will decrease significantly.  As a result, actual protein needs will also diminish.  After an individual reaches adulthood, the only protein needs are for the repair and replacement of tissues that have deteriorated, due largely to body toxicity.

Protein is not used directly as fuel for the body or for muscular activity.  In muscular work, excretion of nitrogen as a result of protein usage increases only very slightly.  Instead, it is the excretion of carbonic acid and absorption of oxygen that increase.  These changes indicate that an expenditure of energy is derived mainly from non-nitrogenous foods (such as carbohydrates and fats) and not from protein.  It is true that the body can use protein to generate fuel for physical activity, but it does so by breaking the protein down into a carbohydrate form.  Protein is used as fuel only when there is either an excess of proteins or a lack of carbohydrates.  When this occurs, the body splits off the nitrogenous matter from the protein molecule and uses the remaining carbon contents to produce fuel.  This process not only involves a net loss of energy, but it also places an unnecessary strain on the liver, kidneys and other organs to eliminate the unusable nitrogenous wastes.

It is for this reason that the popular high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets in weight loss and also why they are dangerous.  Since the body has to expend so much energy in converting the excess protein into the needed carbohydrates for fuel, a net loss occurs in the body and the dieter loses weight.  At the same time, he also places a heavy burden on his kidneys to eliminate all the uric acid generated by this protein breakdown and simultaneously overworks an already exhausted liver.

If more physical activity is anticipated, it is only necessary to increase the carbohydrate intake of the diet.  Proteins are very poor in fuel-efficiency and do not aid directly or efficiently in muscular activity.” – T.C. Fry, Life Science Course

Disease causation

Now how do we know that less ideal foods are causing disease issues?  Let’s go into a presentation of the seven stages of disease and a discussion of how disease is formed:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4PBOuXiqPA

We can see disease build slowly going through each one of these stages if we continue our bad habits.  We can also see disease melt away if we stop our bad habits and resume our natural diet.  I understand it’s a tough pill to swallow, but the gist is that eating less ideal foods causes far too much burden to be placed on our body’s waste management system – i.e., the lymphatic system.  As the lymphatic system gets overwhelmed and dehydrated, symptoms worsen and compound over time, and our bodies will do their best to respond with cleaning events that we typically recognize as colds or flu.

Then we tend to compound the problem by medicating the symptoms, be it with herbs, drugs, or even homeopathic remedies.  Ultimately treating symptoms just burdens the body further and interferes with the body’s natural cleaning processes.  Treating symptoms, at best, essentially just kicks the can down the road.  You may be more comfortable in the short term, but you’re not addressing the underlying cause that’s creating the problem.  That’s why we generally just recommend rest, drinking plenty of water, and eating as close to ideal simple meals as you can muster.  Of course, no one is perfect and it’s up to you how much you want to embrace this type of diet and lifestyle.  It’s just our passion to get this information out there so people can make better-informed decisions on how to care for their health.

Nat Farris10 Comments

The Nature and Purpose of Disease – Part 14

The following is part 14 of a 14-part post series on the nature and purpose of disease. If you prefer to watch a video on the subject see our presentation “The Seven Stages of Disease” available at the bottom of the page.

T.C Fry on the nature and purpose of disease:

5. THE CHARACTER OF DISEASE

In order to understand disease, we must understand health. Health is the enjoyment of full faculties and func­tioning power. Disease is not the opposite of health but an expression of healthy vitality while under the burden of toxicosis. Disease is a body-instituted and conducted crisis for the purpose of purifying and repairing itself.

Disease is caused by indulging in practices or being subjected to materials and influences not normal to the human organism: that to which we are not adapted will cause disease.

It is a misconception that we have to fight disease. It will not occur unless it is caused. A huge catalog of materials and influences which are abnormal to the body could be given, but it’s not that complicated. We need only to maintain the simple needs of life which build and sustain health. We should consume only pure water as thirst demands and wholesome raw ripe fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds as genuine hunger dictates. We are frugivores, and it is to a diet of fruits as nature delivers them that we are biologically adapted.

Further, we are adapted to pure air, sunshine, rest and sleep, pleasant environment, emotionally balanced com­panions – in short we are adapted to a harmonious world. We are so constituted that health results when all our physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, and aesthetic needs are met. Thus diseases other than degenerative ones may be said to be body crises for the purpose of restoring health.

The cause, purpose, and nature of disease have now been delineated. Certain questions will be explained below.

5.1 DISEASES ARE NOT CONTAGIOUS

STUDENT: Is it true that diseases are not contagious in any sense?

INSTRUCTOR: That is correct. Diseases are not conta­gious in any sense simply because they are body insti­tuted. We cannot transfer our toxic load to someone else. That should be self-evident. A Hygienist can go into a sickroom and not suffer a bit for it. Obviously most physi­cians and nurses and other people go to the sickrooms, even those housing the most so-called contagious diseases. They never contract the disease or suffer even though on occasion medics claim they do. You cannot transfer your toxic materials to another person unless you have it drawn out of you and injected into the person. The medics do, indeed, do that in transfusions. But the contagion here is medically induced rather than occurring within the realm of natural possibilities.

It is said that colds, flu, leprosy, and a number of other things are contagious. As we learn more, diseases become less and less contagious. Asthma, cancer, psoriasis, meningitis, poliomyelitis and a long list of other diseases have come off the contagious list. Measles, chicken pox, and other affections are still on the list of diseases said to be contagious. The only thing contagious about these diseases is medical ignorance. That is the most contagious of all.

5.2 HOW PLAGUES AND EPIDEMICS DEVELOP

The reason that there seems to be “epidemics” is that the true contagion is an epidemic of similar bad habits. We all eat pretty much the same junk, are subjected to the same seasons, the same type of housing and, in many other ways, indulge the same health-sapping practices. It’s no wonder that many of us suffer the same diseases. Like causes beget like effects. Of course this is modified in the human situation by the diathesis of each individual.

Thus we see that, within the context of a given family or group, people have more or less the same bad habits and suffer the same diseases.

This business about incubation periods of germs and viruses is strictly medical mythology. We’ll get into the depths of that and study it methodically in later lessons.

To what are plagues and epidemics attributed? Today’s epidemics are for the most part invented and publicized in America by the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a federal service that does yeoman service for the medical profession. When the drug companies want to sell lots of flu vaccine, measles vaccine, etc. they get CDC to release the scare propaganda that stampedes the public into the physicians’ offices for shots. To entertain the thought that vaccines injected into people makes them immune is an absurdity not worthy of serious consideration—it is a species of voodooism.

Epidemics today result, I reassure you, from mass indulgence of the same bad habits and subjection to the same pathogenic living conditions. It’s no accident that almost 90% of the affections labeled generally as colds and influenza occur within a seven-month period of the year.

The reason epidemics occur in winter and not in summer should be obvious. If anything, microbial life is more active in summer just as we are and their functions are depressed in winter. But lo and behold, microbial forms of life are said to be more active and to cause epidemics. That’s nonsense of course. In the winter we eat less wholesome food—we eat more junk. We do not exercise as much. We stay indoors and breathe foul air. In the summer we get more sunshine, more exercise, more fresh air, fresh ripe fruits—in short we live more health­fully in summer and less healthfully in winter. Conditions cause us to so live as to generate our diseases. General conditions cause general ill health. It is not contagion of germs but contagion of pathogenic conditions that create what are termed plagues or epidemics.

5.3 DRUGS ARE DANGEROUS TO BOTH BACTERIA AND HUMAN CELLS

Hygienists or Life Scientists deplore the medical practice of feeding the ailing and drugging them too. When ill, the continuance of feeding alone is enough to thwart the healing forces within. But the addition of drugs so destroys vital powers that the body must often redirect its purification efforts to freeing itself from the more virulent poisons administered. Thus it is seen that medical professionals are death-dealing rather than being life-enhancing.

Yes, drugs kill bacteria. But they’re just as deadly to all forms of metabolic life. That which deranges and destroys the metabolic functions of bacteria usually does likewise to the cells of all forms of life. Even physicians will tell you that drugs have no effect on viruses. Of course they don’t have any effect on what they call viruses because that is dead cell debris that can’t be made any deader.

In conclusion I assure you that disease is not something to fear. That’s like being scared of your own body. If you fear anything fear your disposition to indulge in unwhole­some foods and unwholesome living conditions.

Excerpt from:

Life Science Course LESSON 2 – The Nature and Purpose of Disease – Download the full PDF of this lesson

Have more questions? Want to get answers about your specific health issues or concerns? We offer consultations 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-challenge/

Eat fruit, get rest, and be well my friends. 

Go back to the beginning of the series: Part 1 or watch a presentation on the subject here:

Lauren Farris3 Comments

The Nature and Purpose of Disease – Part 13

The following is part 13 of a 14-part post series on the nature and purpose of disease. If you prefer to watch a video on the subject see our presentation “The Seven Stages of Disease” available at the bottom of the page.

T.C Fry on the nature and purpose of disease:

4. NATURAL HYGIENE OR LIFE SCIENCE CARE OF THE AILING

4.1 THE WORK OF DOCTORS TILDEN, CARRINGTON AND SHELTON

Just as there is one universal cause of disease there is one universal panacea! In mythology Asclepius had two daughters. Both were goddesses. One was the goddess of health and she was called Hygeia. The other daughter was Panacea. She was the goddess of healing. The name itself, in Greek, means all-healing or universal healing.

While these goddesses are mythological, they do represent valid concepts. Panacea can be achieved by a return to natural practices. Fasting is the quickest way to invoke the universal panacea. Just as the universal disease is a toxic-laden body, the universal panacea is establishing the most ideal conditions under which the body can cleanse itself of the toxicity and repair the damages suffered. Fasting is the answer. It works in all cases of constructive disease, that is, disease where organic damage of an irremediable nature has not occurred.

Some great luminaries have long since rediscovered the Grecian panacea. Dr. Jennings first employed it until Dr. John Tilden elaborated on it in his scholarly book, Toxemia Explained. Dr. Hereward Carrington wrote a few very illuminating volumes about Natural Hygiene. But Dr. Shelton probed deeper and farther afield than did all those before him. He built upon the shoulders of all who went before him and added a touch of his own genius. In our text section some observations of Dr. Carrington are presented. Here is a quote from Dr. Herbert M. Shelton about the nature of disease:

4.2 THE HYGIENIC DEFINITION OF DISEASE

“The Hygienic system teaches that disease is a remedial effort, a struggle of the vital powers to purify the system and recover the normal state. This effort should be aided, directed, and regulated if need be, but never suppressed. What is this mysterious thing called disease? It is simply an effort to remove obstructing material which we call toxic materials from the organic domain and to repair damages. Disease is a process of purification and repair. It is remedial action. It is a power struggle to overcome obstruction and to keep the channels of circulation free.”

Actually disease is really more than this if we view it in all aspects. Dr. Carrington has simplified Dr. Shelton’s presentation somewhat. He says the following:

“Disease is an attempt of the body to free its cells and circulatory system of clogging and toxic materi­als. It is a desperate body rallying its remaining re­sources to the task of purgation and restoration.”

We have many illustrious forebears in the elaboration and creation of what we call Natural Hygiene or Life Science. Most notable among our forebears have been some truly great women. While women were spurned in the medical profession, the Hygienic movement was truly an enlightened and unfettered one. It welcomed women with open arms and, if we leave the renegade M.D.’s aside, their numbers almost equal those of male Hygienic professionals.

How many of you have heard of Louisa May Alcott? Yes, all of you have. But how many of you know that she was a Hygienist? That her father was a Hygienist? That her brother William Alcott was a professional Hygienist and was also a brilliant writer?

I’m sure you’ve all heard of Florence Nightingale, who gave new dignity and direction to the profession of nursing. She was a Hygienist.

How many of you have heard of Ellen White? She was a Hygienist who founded the religion we know today as the Seventh Day Adventists.

There are many unsung heroines among women who were Hygienic professionals. Mary Gove, Susan Nichols, Linda Burfield Hazzard and others were a credit to both the profession of Hygiene and to womanhood.

Perhaps the most famous Hygienist of the fair sex was Florence Nightingale. Her daring on the battle fields of eastern Europe still draws our admiration for the courage of her convictions. The British were fighting the Russians and more soldiers were dying behind the battle lines than on them. The physicians and their treatments were killing off the wounded and ailing faster than the Russians.

When Florence Nightingale arrived on the battle scene she really took charge despite the physicians. What she did was a very simple thing: she went to the rooms of the wounded and ailing and opened the windows for fresh air. She would not permit drugs. She gave the patients water which was against medical policy at the time. She rejected heavy feeding and, in fact, for many, any feeding at all. Being confined to a battlefield hospital had been a death sentence before. Now almost all the wounded and sick became well speedily. It’s all history and Florence Night­ingale became famous because of her tremendous success employing the mere rudiments of Hygienic methods. This is all the more phenomenal when you consider that Ms. Nightingale lived in a medical age and in a man’s world. She defied the medics and won. She was truly a pioneer Hygienist. The world, despite its poverty on the health scene, is still richer for her having been amongst our forebears.

Excerpt from:

Life Science Course LESSON 2 – The Nature and Purpose of Disease – Download the full PDF of this lesson

Have more questions? Want to get answers about your specific health issues or concerns? We offer consultations 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-challenge/

Eat fruit, get rest, and be well my friends. 

Go back to the beginning of the series: Part 1 or go forward to read Part 14, or watch a presentation on the subject here:

Lauren Farris1 Comment