Category: Reader Q&A’s

Recent questions and answers surrounding natural hygiene and the Terrain Model submitted to our Facebook Group. Answers provided by Lauren Whiteman

To submit a question please join our group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/germtheory.vs.terraintheory

Reader Q&A

The Flu and Saunas

Question

What is the flu? After being at a sauna spa, I got bad flu symptoms. Would you say it is a detox or a virus I picked up in the spa?

Answer:

Flu symptoms are expulsions symptoms, this is a healing process. The Flu is a detox process in which the body is expelling poisons, toxins, or an overload of cellular waste that was recently encountered or had been building up in the body. Virus particles are simply spent cellular debris – pieces of broken-down cells. They cannot take any action because they are dead, inert, and have no nucleus, a requisite for life.

The body creates colds and flu when the level of toxicity in the body rises above the body’s tolerance limit. This occurs primarily because we are eating foods that are far removed from our natural diet and which are a burden on the body. As we eat cooked and processed foods day in and day out the level of cellular waste builds inside the body and the body is not able to keep up. When the level of toxicity reaches its tipping point the body initiates a healing event, which we call disease but in reality, is the solution to the already existing disease conditions.

Working out, and exposing ourselves to extremes in temperature from saunas or ice baths, or even very hot and very cold weather can trigger a healing event because we are overworking the body creating a large flush of excess waste. Saunas are detrimental to our health because of the strain they place on our cells. Our body works hard to maintain internal temperatures within very narrow ranges. Outside of these ranges, we will die. When we expose ourselves to extremes of heat in a sauna the body has to work exponentially harder to maintain survival temperatures. When our cells work harder they create more waste. It is the cellular waste that the body creates which creates disease conditions. So overworking the body by overheating creates lots of cell waste which then requires the body to initiate an expulsion event to catch up on the backlog of waste.

The more we eat our natural diet the easier it is for the body to maintain its temperature in extreme conditions, but ideally, we do not want to unnecessarily expose ourselves to extremes of temperature.

Lauren WhitemanLeave a comment

Raw Vegan Dies of Starvation?

HOW THE MEDIA SPINS CONTENT TO CREATE FEAR

Hi Everyone!   

You may have seen a recent article in the Murdoch-owned NY Post discussing the passing of Zhanna Samsonova, also known as Zhanna D’art on Instagram.  Zhanna was known to eat a diet composed of tropical fruits, sprouts, smoothies, and juices.  Though no official cause of death has been released, it seems the reporting has been very quick to blame her untimely death on veganism and a raw food diet.  Sadly the disease industry has never been shy of using tragic events to mislead the public with their fear-based campaigns and the latest article by the NY Post is no different. 

The pharma-funded news media release these fictionalized or manipulated stories as often as they can in an attempt to dissuade the public from researching how health is acquired.  They pounce on stories of people who are not eating the natural diet but have some type of overly restrictive diet that is unhealthy in order to poison the well and to act as gatekeepers against the exploration of the links between diet and disease. They use many dishonest rhetorical tactics including the use of misleading headlines, bait and switch, false correlations, and editorial conclusions not supported by the evidence to twist the story to fit the prescribed narrative and create clickbait.

Usually, these articles are about vegans killing their babies by starving them on a “vegan diet,” something which arguably does not even exist as veganism is an ethical philosophy predicated on minimizing the suffering of animals, not a diet. The issue has nothing to do with being vegan or eating a natural diet and everything to do with neglect and poor parenting which can happen with any diet.   However, this article provides a slightly different spin.  In this article, they take advantage of the tragic death of someone under medical care who clearly has an eating disorder to continue to wage their war on raw foods and veganism.   The bait and switch here presents veganism and raw foods as the cause of death rather than what the evidence suggests:  Underplayed is anorexia, mental health disorders, and medical interventions, of which they provide no information.  The piece admits we have no formal cause of death, and we are also missing information about the medical treatments received in the days or weeks leading up to her death.  This leaves us with an inaccurate and incomplete accounting of how the events may have transpired.

To me, there are a number of red flags in the article that jump out right away. While they don’t state the cause of death or go into any detail on the medical treatments this woman was put through, they do clearly admit that she was under medical treatment at the time of her death.  Commonly these medical treatments will include rehydration through saline drip, which I have addressed the high risk of death in this common treatment in my article here:  https://www.therawkey.com/the-dangers-of-saline-drips/


Additionally, without an autopsy or any official report of the cause of death, it’s impossible to say with any level of confidence what she died of.  It’s just as likely she died from iatrogenic medicine or a medical error.  However, the news stories won’t discuss that possibility, they have instead elected to pin the death on fruit and veganism.  

Another glaring oversight is that there does appear to be other issues that Zhanna was having that led her to pursue treatment.  Much of this information is not yet publicly available, but there have been friends and acquaintances that have come forward and discussed the issue of an eating disorder. 

She is clearly shockingly and dangerously underweight in most of the photos they include in the article, indicating she may have been suffering from anorexia.  If someone is suffering from anorexia and chronic under-eating, it doesn’t matter what type of food they eat.  They describe her diet as just “fruits, sunflower seed sprouts, fruit smoothies, and juices” and go on to comment that even her fruit intake was restricted to only a handful of different fruits.

It is also somewhat common for people with food issues or eating disorders to want to try diets that may seem more radical or restrictive, but it’s important to remember that an eating disorder is still a problem that can cause serious issues or even be fatal even if it’s the goal of the person to eat totally ideal foods.  It should be noted that the underlying cause of such a predicament is the mental anguish or issue that led to the eating disorder, not the food itself.

We have several reports of the types of foods she was eating, so now let’s discuss the issues here and how what she was eating is not optimal.  She was not eating leafy greens, nuts, seeds, or vegetables, all of which are integral to our health and provide the variety of nutrients required for long-term health.  

Leafy greens are central to the natural diet but here the article clearly admits that she was not including this essential food in her diet.    They cannot be omitted from the diet.  Even omitting them for short periods can lead to symptoms since the alkaline minerals, fiber, protein, and water they provide are essential to every part of our body. They help build our teeth and bones and help maintain the strength and structure of every organ, muscle, and vein. The most common issues that arise from a lack of sufficient lettuce greens in the diet are failure to gain healthy weight or put on muscle, teeth issues, and drawn-out symptoms often attributed to detoxing. 

Juicing and smoothies are also not a part of the natural human diet.  Juicing or blending is a process that damages the food we would eat.  Juicing and blending create nutritionally depleted fractionated food-like substances. Though they may confer some benefits over some other forms of cooked or processed foods, they are not natural and do not necessarily promote health.  They simply fill the body with inferior materials leaving little room for whole foods in their whole natural form.  If a person is chronically drinking juice and smoothies they are filling up on damaged materials and leaving very little room to consume health-building materials.  Excessive juicing can also result in weight loss and will extend healing times since the body has to dedicate so much of its healing energy to eliminating a heavily processed substance.  To learn more about why juicing and smoothies are not a health practice please refer to my article:   https://www.therawkey.com/juicing-is-not-a-health-practice/

In another article from the Daily Mail we find more concerning details.  “The raw food influencer also had previously touted online that her body does not require water.” “There were also periods when the 39-year-old would practice ‘dry fasting’ – where she would refuse to eat or drink anything for days.”   From her Instagram:  “I have not drunk water for the last 6 years. This is a common occurrence in those who are on a fruit diet.”

Dry fasting is an all-too-common practice in the natural health community, however, dry fasting and restricting water intake is not a healthy practice and goes against what we know is necessary to heal.   The conditions of disease in our body are largely due to chronic dehydration from eating cooked and processed foods.  One of the main goals of the natural species-appropriate diet is to rehydrate the body and rehydrate the lymph system so the body can eliminate old waste and toxins.   Dry fasting is not a part of natural hygiene, and is not and should not be considered safe for any length of time.  Remember the key to healing is getting the body rehydrated, not further dehydrated.  To learn more about why dry fasting is not part of natural hygiene and the terrain model please refer to my article: https://www.therawkey.com/dry-fasting/

The natural diet is all about abundance and eating abundantly of the right foods.  It is about filling ourselves up with nutrition, not about restriction or going without. When done correctly it will never lead to persistent or excessive thinness.  If you are currently struggling and see yourself getting this thin, please reach out for help or advice, because this is definitely not normal or healthy and is a sign you are making some mistakes that can probably be easily corrected.   To clarify, it is true that on occasion the body will tear down before it rebuilds, but if you are losing weight excessively and struggling to gain muscle then it can be safely assumed that this is not part of a detox.  If this is the case, feel free to reach out and we will help to troubleshoot your diet. 

The last issue we see is the consumption of sprouts.  In the natural health community sprouts have taken on this reputation as being a “powerhouse of nutrition.”  The reality is that sprouts are baby plants.  They seek to survive, grow and reproduce.  This means nature has put chemicals into the sprout that make it taste bitter or spicy to discourage eating.  These bitter and spicy compounds are toxic to the body and as such our natural inclination is to recoil from such foods as our instinctual senses are built to protect us from ingesting toxins.    While it’s okay to have the occasional sprouts as a topping on a salad or raw wrap, they should not be a regular part of the diet, they should be an occasional addition.  Also, they should not be considered a “superfood” with any magical properties.   This superfood idea is based on the false logic of “more equals better.”  Since they are seeds sprouting they have more protein than other foods per calorie and this is the logic behind calling them a superfood.  But there is no logic in assuming that more protein is a benefit.   Particularly if they have more toxins present.   Food is ideal based on a balance of nutrients, fuel provided, lack of toxicity, water content, and other considerations.   Just being higher in one macronutrient does not make a substance better or healthy.   Our senses tell us that sprouts are spicy and bitter and therefore contain irritants and we should limit them or avoid them all together.   

The loss of this young vibrant woman’s life is a tragedy.   While it seems she likely suffered through multiple social, psychological, and spiritual wounds that we can analyze and learn from, it is this feeding of the disease industry through misinformation and poorly reasoned reporting that seems to ring out loudest after her passing.  We currently see epidemic levels of disease and despair relating to multiple health crises, an ever-increasing cost of medical care, and more pharmaceuticals hitting the market every day.   May we all pray for peace for her family as they grieve this loss and may the vultures who attempt to profit from her tragic death to mislead others receive justice in due time.    Let us hope that her death is not in vain and can teach us all something so we can help reach others who may be traveling down the wrong path.    

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 Whiteman2 Comments
Reader Q&A

Dry Fasting

Question

Are there benefits to extended dry fasting? It seems really quite dangerous to me, especially since I live in a hot climate and very quickly feel the effects of not drinking sufficient water. I would think it would put unnecessary strain on the kidneys/elimination organs to not be properly hydrated.

Answer

Dry fasting is an all-too-common practice in the natural health community.  Dry fasting and restricting water intake is not a health practice and goes against what we know is necessary to heal.   The conditions of disease in our body are largely due to chronic dehydration from eating cooked and processed foods.  One of the main goals of the natural species-appropriate diet is to rehydrate the body and rehydrate the lymph system so the body can eliminate old waste and toxins.   Dry fasting is not a part of natural hygiene and is not and should not be considered safe for any length of time.

Dry fasting and restricting water intake is not a health practice and goes against what we know is necessary to heal. Click To Tweet

Dry fasting is extremely dangerous and can be damaging to the body. Acid wastes damage tissues and when we dry fast those acids become more and more concentrated. This means the waste will damage the kidneys and bladder on the way out if they are not diluted sufficiently. 

The body uses water to dilute the acids and protect the tissues as the acidic material is carried out of the body. When we dry fast we rob the body of that water that is necessary to facilitate the safe removal of acidic waste and toxins. 

The solution to pollution is dilution. Click To Tweet

This, very sadly, seems to be why we have seen well-known dry-fasting raw food advocates die quite young in the last few years. For all of the positive changes they are making with eating the correct foods they are undermining their health by neglecting their water intake.

If you were fed only the natural human diet from birth the body still would not benefit from the extra work created by dry fasting. Water is the universal solvent. It dilutes acids and keeps our whole system flowing efficiently. Our lymph system is a thick fluid that becomes easily clogged and bogged down when we become dehydrated. But most people are already starting out in a state of chronic dehydration from years of eating cooked and processed foods. We are also living in unnatural environments with forced air heating and cooling that further dehydrates our bodies. Most people have anywhere from 10 to 25 pounds of old dried-out fecal matter impacted to the walls of their digestive tract. All of this requires water to move and expel.

People often confuse more with better and the same is true for dry fasting. People think that because they have more visible sediment after dry fasting that the body cleaned out more debris. The reality is the body didn’t clean more, the sediment is just more concentrated because the body is more dehydrated. There is less urine because there is less water, and the waste matter is more concentrated.  

Disease is predominantly the result of dehydration, so any practice which further dehydrates us pushes us further into disease and leads to a shorter lifespan and more damage to the organs.

Dehydration can also result in mental confusion and delirium which can further impair our ability to heal and maintain healthy habits.

Unfortunately, within the natural foods community, there seems to be some confusion that is driving people to take on dry fasting or to believe it is a healthy practice. In nature, all frugivores drink from streams and ponds on a regular and consistent basis. Our anatomy is not set up to drink heavily, like a dog that can lap water easily, because our natural foods supply us with a lot of water. But we still find all the bonobos, chimps, and other apes drink from streams regularly and consistently. Sadly, many years ago we did not have this data and it was simply assumed that because it had not been witnessed, it did not occur. This is where the idea of frugivorous animals not drinking water came from. It was an erroneous and premature conclusion based on a lack of evidence.  

This then led to some in the natural health community declaring that we humans do not need to drink water. That we can get all of our water from our food.   The problem with this concept is that while watery fruits and salad greens are water-rich, the amount of excess water they provide beyond what is required for proper digestion and elimination is limited.   In order for a food to move unobstructed through the digestive tract it needs to be roughly 80% water.  This is water that must be retained with the food to ensure an easy exit at the other end.   This means fruit needs to be significantly higher than 80% water in order to provide us with excess water which our bodies can use to rehydrate chronic issues.  If we accept the contemporary figure that watermelon is about 92% water, then eating 10 pounds of watermelon only nets us about 1 pound of water, or about 16 ounces.  However, with a little practice, we can easily drink well over a gallon of water, which is just over 8 pounds of water, in a single day. 


We need water to help replenish our sweat, lubricate and move our lymphatic system, move out waste through our kidneys and bowels, digest and assimilate food, and move our blood, muscles, and nerves.  Demand for water within our bodies is high.  On a hot day working in the sun, you could easily sweat out a half gallon or a gallon of water over several hours. It would be impossible to replenish that on just fruits and salads even if you were eating only the highest water-content fruits.   The math simply does not add up.  

Based on my personal experience helping thousands of people heal over the years and healing myself I recommend drinking a minimum of 1 gallon (approximately 4 liters) of water per day if you are eating fully raw and drinking 2-3 gallons of water if you are eating cooked foods.   This is the amount where we see people consistently thriving.   

Water intake should also be adjusted upwards if you are exercising heavily, spending time out in the sun or in the heat, or any other activity that dehydrates the body.   Consuming dried fruits, nuts and seeds should also have us increasing our water intake to balance their low water content as needed.    

If you are not currently drinking enough water you can start increasing gradually by adding one quart of water to your current consumption and repeating this weekly until you reach 1-1.5 gallons.   My personal habit is to fill 4-quart jars each day.  I drink the first jar immediately upon rising, the second jar between 8 am and 10 am, the third right before my first meal which is typically around 12 noon to 2 pm, and then finish my 4th jar before dinner.    Others find it easier to use a gallon-sized water bottle that they carry with them throughout the day or a half-gallon bottle.   Either way, the larger the bottle, glass, or jar you keep in front of you, the more likely you will be to get in adequate water.   While it was initially a struggle to get in 1 gallon per day, I now find that I easily drink closer to 1.5 gallons and feel less optimal if I drink less than 1 gallon.  

One objection we commonly hear is, “I’m not thirsty.”   The issue with this is that when we become chronically dehydrated our thirst impulse can become unreliable and it can be difficult to tell whether we are thirsty or hungry.  Most people confuse thirst with hunger and eat instead of drinking.   Some people are so dehydrated that they can no longer get any real sense of thirst or they no longer recognize what thirst feels like.   In our support group, we consistently find that those who stick with the 1-gallon goal have their thirst impulse return within a few weeks and can easily drink 1-gallon after that point without having to put in much effort.   

Another common objection is that drinking more means urinating more, and while I can certainly understand the inconvenience this may pose in some working conditions we must keep in mind that urinating is one way we eliminate waste.  When we start to supply additional water the body will quickly start moving out excess waste so it is no longer damaging the cells internally.   This short-term inconvenience means long-term health, so while it can be annoying it is a small price to pay to return to better health.

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 WhitemanLeave a comment
Reader Q&A

Fat and Brain Development in Children on the Natural Raw Diet

Question

May I ask about fat & brain development in children? Is it true that children need foods labeled in this way to grow? It seems to be the main argument used when people want to refute natural diets for growing children. My son isn’t a fan of avocados so I may need to get this into a smoothie

Answer

The need for isolated fats is greatly overblown by the media and medical marketing due to the unfortunate error of developing a commercial baby “food” that led to poor brain development in children due to it being so far from what the child needs. Originally if a mother could not feed her child due to illness, weakness, deformity, or the death of the mother, a wet nurse was substituted and the child was fed on the breast of another mother. But as industrialization and then feminism took hold and the value of woman/motherhood was repeatedly denigrated and women were pushed into the workforce to become more like men the need for an artificial food to substitute for natural milk was created.

As a result, the drop in available wet nurses forced mother’s into what was referred to as dry feeding, where a concoction of some variety was made for the child, varying by region and economic status. “The Wabanaki and other Native American tribal nations of North America made an infant formula from nuts and cornmeal.” In the same time period, a growing acceptance for using cow, horse, sheep, camel, pig, or goat’s milk was growing while society was beginning to reject the concept of the wet nurse. “In 1865, chemist Justus von Liebig developed, patented, and marketed an infant food, first in a liquid form and then in a powdered form for better preservation. Liebig’s formula—consisting of cow’s milk, wheat and malt flour, and potassium bicarbonate—was considered the perfect infant food.”

Today we know that wheat is highly inflammatory, leading to bowel and brain inflammation, cows milk is not at all adequate containing a completely different nutritional profile than human milk and the processing of both creates chemicals which are known carcinogens.

The progression of commercial baby foods eventually led to chronic development disorders which eventually where blamed on missing DHA and ARA which are essential fatty acids and so began the fear of children missing out on fat. Over the years this fear has spread and grown and now has infected the minds of mothers around the world.

The reality is, what is fed to the child after birth is far less important ( but still very important) than what is fed during pregnancy to the mother. “The time of the greatest growth and development of the brain and nerves is during the prenatal period and the first two years after birth. This is the best time to lay the foundation of a good brain and nervous system. It is asserted that the whole future of an individual is determined by the time he is four years old, just as the whole future of a calf is determined by the time it is six months old. How very important that the mother supply her unborn child with the very best nutrition!” – Dr Shelton

“Human milk, on an average, contains about 7 per cent milk sugar, 3 to 4 per cent fat, 1.50 per cent protein, and 0.20 per cent of salts.” – Dr Shelton While human milk varies from birth to weaning its percentage of fat remains low and its percentage of carbohydrates high.

All fruits and lettuces contain essential fatty acids in the appropriate proportions for our bodies. Nuts and seeds also contain appropriate essential fatty acids in the right formulation for human physiology. Avocados can be fed as well, but they are concentrated fat and should only be fed in small quantities. Children’s senses if fed properly from a young age tend to be very in tune with their needs. If your son rejects avocado then trust in his senses. Most mothers find that overfeeding on avocados, nuts, and seeds leads to irritability in the child. ¼ of a small avocado a few times per week would be the maximum if a mother wanted to include this fatty fruit. Otherwise, a variety of fruits, and then as they age adding in tender vegetables, and greens would provide all that is needed. We do not have to overfeed on fats at any stage.

Keeping in mind that the child must be fed on breastmilk for the first 2- 3 years and fruits should not be introduced until the child has adequate teeth to support the eating of that fruit. The digestive tract does not develop the ability to digest solid foods until the teeth have developed. The solid food starting at 6 months as recommended by the medical business is very poor advice since the child has no ability to digest said food until their teeth have come in, which typically occurs around 18 months. Some fresh pressed juices can be used at younger ages in extreme conditions where the mother’s diet is severely inadequate, but otherwise, the child should remain exclusively on the mother’s milk until the teeth have sufficiently developed to handle each food without tools or processing.

Our brains are initially built in the womb out of cholesterol and require some fatty acids for development, but the brain itself runs on glucose, a sugar. The idea that the brain requires a lot of fat is another one of those bits of misinformation pushed by marketing. Sugar is the predominant need of the brain. It is typically those that wish to defend their addiction to their toxic diet that pushes the fat requirement and will, even though all of these needs are easily met by fruit, demand that the child must be poisoned with putrefying animal tissues or secretions, rather than getting the EFAs directly from the plant source that the animal is getting them from. Nature provides everything we need, even the things which science has not yet isolated. The further we stray from the perfection of God’s creation and into the hubris of men’s minds and alterations the more disease conditions we create.

Lauren WhitemanLeave a comment
Reader Q&A

Surgery vs Healing Tumors Naturally

Question:

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

Answer:

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

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

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

Lauren WhitemanLeave a comment
Reader Q&A

Herbert Shelton’s Death

Question

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

Answer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lauren WhitemanLeave a comment
Reader Q&A

Disturbed Sleep and Hip Pain

Question:

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

Answer:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Reader Q&A

Hair Loss and Using Essential Oils to Stimulate Hair Growth

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

Answer:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Reader Q&A

Hernias

Question

HOW DOES TERRAIN THEORY EXPLAIN HERNIA? MY FRIEND’S HUSBAND IS STRUGGLING AND IS WAITING FOR THE SURGERY. IS THERE ANY WAY TO AVOID IT AND TRY TO TREAT IT HOLISTICALLY?

Answer

Hernias occur when the muscle tissues have been weakened by the body being in an acid state for a long period. The strength of our tissues, muscles, veins, teeth, and bones is all a result of the alkaline minerals in them. As the body becomes more and more acidic from eating cooked foods, animal tissues, refined foods, etc. these alkaline minerals are pulled out of the muscles, veins, arteries, teeth, and bones which leads to these tissues becoming weakened. Then the weak areas when subjected to strain will break under the pressure. In this weakened condition a muscle can herniate and a blood vessel can rupture leading to an aneurysm or stroke.

Since the problem was created by a diet that is lacking in the volume of alkaline minerals we all need to maintain health, the solution is to provide those minerals so the body can replenish them. This of course can only be done by supplying fresh, raw, whole fruits and lettuce. It cannot be accomplished by using supplements because supplements are inorganic minerals, unusable and toxic, while the minerals inside plant foods are organic minerals in the correct form for use by our bodies.

Surgery cannot fix the problem because the problem is not the hernia itself but the conditions which created the hernia. Getting surgery on a hernia is like putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound, it might hide the superficial problem but it’s ignoring the serious conditions of disease that led to the rupture. Where there are muscles weak enough to tear there are also veins and arteries that could burst, there are bones that are weakening, and there are organs that are losing their structural integrity, ignoring the underlying cause and leaving the body in an ever-worsening state. Adding the acid burden, the drug burden and the serious injury to tissues caused by the surgery itself only furthers the conditions of disease in the body and pushes the body further along the disease spectrum.

The only way to correct the condition is to remove the cause, correct the diet, return to the natural foods the body is designed to operate with, and let the body heal itself.

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

Lauren Whiteman2 Comments
Reader Q&A

Stress, Health and the Lymphatic System

Question

HOW DOES STRESS AFFECT THE BODY, SPECIFICALLY THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM?

Answer:

The stress response itself is a natural and often life-saving response that under normal conditions would cause no issues. However, we do not live in normal conditions. The normal stress response is designed to be quickly initiated and quickly eliminated. For example, you see a lion, you run, the body releases stress chemicals to help you run faster and longer, then you are safe and you rest and the lymphatic system flushes the acidic stress hormones and returns to completely normal operation. This is how the response is supposed to work. A short burst of acidic chemistry that is easily eliminated by the healthy, hydrated body.

But in today’s world, we are often chronically stressed. Now a very large part of this chronic stress response is actually due to our cooked food habits. Putting toxic substances into the body creates anxiety and depression in the body which then in turn triggers the stress response. Eating cooked and processed foods also dehydrates the body, which in turn leads to a dehydrated lymph system. The lymph system is the body’s sewer system, flushing out waste. When this system becomes dehydrated the waste flows out more slowly or even comes to a halt if the dehydration of the system is severe. When this happens toxins, poisons, stress hormones, cellular waste and debris, and everything else toxic that the body needs to eliminate efficiently becomes backed up inside our body. This backup then leads to cellular malfunction and disease symptoms.

We also have unnatural work stress, financial stress, relationship stress, etc that instead of being a few minutes worth of reaction become all-day events. Extending out the length of a stress response magnifies its harmful effects.

When our stress response is being triggered for hours, days, or weeks on end this can add a heavy burden on the body. Acids are continuously created by the stress response altering the chemistry of the body. The alkaline minerals used to neutralize acids are being used up far more quickly. If we are not eating ideally this problem is magnified as the body is already limited in its supply of alkaline minerals and those minerals that are available are already being utilized to counteract the harm of cooked foods.

Stress is not a cause of disease on its own, but it can contribute to the overall burden on the system. However, it is important to keep in mind that if we are eating the natural diet our lymph system is properly hydrated and is able to easily handle stress. If we are eating cooked foods then the chronic injury to the cells caused by those cooked foods is creating stress in the body. The first line of defense against stress is putting the right food in the body so the body is not in distress continuously. Keeping the lymphatic system clean and well-hydrated maintains the body’s ability to eliminate stress hormones efficiently and effectively whenever they arise.

Learn more about the natural human diet.

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! Click here to join now or learn more!

Eat fruit and be well my friends.

Lauren Whiteman1 Comment