ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 Napoleon said “If I am tall it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants.” The giants of the fields of nutrition, alternative health and the ancient healing traditions of many diverse cultures have been both the inspiration and the source of much of the material in this book.
 Special indebtedness goes to Ruth Sackman who has generously been there for more people, more times than can be counted. She has made clear that she does not agree with absolutely everything in the book; however, I am confident that, in the main, the book reflects the philosophy of health and healing that I learned from her during the years that I volunteered for the Foundation for Advancement in Cancer Therapies.
 Special thanks also to Gregg Lalley, who has kept me company all through the building and growth of both La Casas. Much of the physical beauty of  La Casa Puerto Rico is due to his keen eye and his ability to translate ideas into structures and plans, from everything architectural to placement of light switches on the walls. As well, he manages La Casa Day Spa, seemingly seamlessly, certainly enthusiastically.
 Without Liz and Russell Pentz, La Casa Puerto Rico would be a different place today than it is. In terms of focus, service, the feeling of welcome and tranquillity that our guests received during their stay -- all these jumped ahead light years when Liz and Russell came on board. Many of the recipes in the cookbook section are Liz’s and it was only through her doggedness that we were able, finally, to put our recipes down on paper.
 I think it no accident that both of La Casa’s physicians have been women. Dulce Cepeda is our Naturopathic doctor and Carmena Carreras is our M.D. These two women have embodied, for me, the basic sensibility of the Feminine Principle that I feel defines La Casa. Both Dulce and Carmena have been important in La Casa’s evolution. They are models of what women can be: creative, independent, resourceful, generous. They have both suffered debilitating illnesses -- Dulce before I met her, Carmena during the time of our friendship. Their recoveries have been no miracle. Rather, recovery came from hard work and the strength of  conviction that natural methods of healing could do the job that western medicine could not. I aspire to have their Feminine Strength. Specific to Carmena, I knew from my first meeting with her that she was a soul sister; that feeling has never diminished.
 Thanks to Robin Traiger, who went far above and beyond the call of duty to help me bring this book to computer life and literally saved me hundreds of hours with her expertise as well as devotion. Truly, an act of love from her.
 I thank Sheila and Saul Zaretzy. They have come to La Casa Puerto Rico every year since its inception. Sheila is responsible for much of the beauty of the landscaping. Saul has been faithfully documenting the beauty of La Casa through his magnificent drawings. As well, his recovery from heart disease and his commitment to the Dean Ornish program for reversing heart disease has influenced our cuisine: for every dish that we use oil, we now know that we can make it just as deliciously without oil.
 Thanks to Dr. Gurudev Singh Khalsa who has greatly expanded our knowledge of yogic science as a philosophy of life as well as a discipline for health.
 Thanks to all our chef interns at La Casa Puerto Rico from The School of Natural Gourmet Cookery. Each of them surely qualifies as real artistes in food preparation.
 Thanks to Mikel d'Amico who generously shared with us some of the recipes he developed while studying at The Culinary Institute.
Thanks to Mike Shapiro who has supported all La Casa projects since our inception.
Thanks to Molly, my daughter, who did nothing whatsoever to contribute to this book (other than allow me to raise her according to its principles), but who does everything to contribute to my life.
 Finally, thanks to all the guests and clients of La Casa. Their interest and receptivity is the drive that has moved this whole, wonderful adventure.

Jane G. Goldberg

From the beginning of time, the peoples of the earth have set aside time to be devoted specifically to one’s physical and spiritual regeneration. These rejuvenative periods of time were, traditionally, a part of religious practices. Ancient healing traditions were embedded within the religious practices of the time and culture. Periodically, pilgrimages were made to sacred sites; rites of regeneration were performed for both earth and her peoples. In today’s more secular world, however, pilgrimages and rites have been largely replaced by visits to secular centers of healing and rejuvenation. Among these centers are places that we call, of course, SPAS.
This book, Insparations, is a compilation of collected facts, understandings and wisdoms. The knowledge collected for this book comes from all over the world. Each healing tradition, whether from the frigid region of the Baltic Sea or from the tropical islands of the Caribbean, has an essential “truth,” an understanding that helps us to center ourselves and to become ourselves. Some of the techniques proffered here go back 5000 years; the use of botanicals, seaweed, water, clay and herbs is as old as civilization itself. Other techniques described arise from technological advancements in understanding that are cutting-edge. The philosophy that underlines each understanding and each treatment, however, has a common thread. This philosophy that underlines this book is: the earth is an abundance of riches; Mother Earth has every ingredient, every substance that is necessary for both the maintenance and the restoration of health.
More and more people are choosing to spend their time in spas, day spas as well as resort spas. America is catching up, finally, with the European tradition, where spas are often considered to be the first line of medical intervention for health problems; some countries abroad actually provide visits to spas as part of their national health insurance. The recent surge of interest In the U.S. in spas surely reflects a need for us to find reunion with an ancient part of ourselves, and our mother, Earth, as well as a need to reclaim knowledge of health, healing and regeneration that had been, in our ancient past, an integral part of everyday, human life.
The inspiration for this book has come from the founding and operating of two spas, La Casa Resort Spa, located in the majestic Puerto Rican rain forest, and La Casa Day Spa, in New York City (and collectively called La Casa de Vida Natural). I have been privileged to own both of them. I have made the mandate of both spas the dedication of learning and therapies based on the notion that health and beauty derive from informed natural living.
 One of our country's earliest nutritionists wrote a book some years ago called Health is Your Birthright. It's a principle that many of us forget. The odds are heavily in your favor that you were born perfectly healthy, and that your progeny has been or will be born in this same state of perfect health. I believe that this natural state of health is not only your birthright, but your liferight, and that it can follow you to the end of your days.
 Since 1986, when La Casa de Vida Natural was founded, our guests have been insistent and persistent about their interest in having written material for them to bring back to their own homes. They have wanted recipes, information on detoxification, the rationale for distilled vs. bottled water, the health benefits of ozone -- all the material that is in the heads and hearts of the La Casa staff. This book is in response to that demand.
 There is a saying in Puerto Rico which reflects the warmth and hospitality of its people: mi casa, su casa; my house is your house. We would like to reverse that saying: su casa, mi casa; your house is my house. We would like to give to people the knowledge that will enable them to transform their own homes into their own version of our La Casa. We feel that this is the greatest gift we can give. All of the therapies as well as the recipes presented here were developed initially at La Casa Resort Spa.
As you will see when you read this book, both the therapies and the cuisine are truly international. Over the years, I and the La Casa staff have read, researched and studied most of the world’s traditions of natural healing, nutrition and methods of detoxification. We have integrated and implemented what we consider to be the best and most effective aspects of these approaches. We call our approach “5-elements healing.” We have found that even a short exposure to our program of healthy nutrition, detoxification and 5-elements healing is rejuvenating and brings to its participants a soul-deep calmness.
 We conceptualize our job as being about much more than teaching our clients about holistic health principles. Rather, we see our mission as being about helping people to get back to a more natural way of living; it means thinking and seeing things from a new perspective. Over the years, we have found that change doesn't come about by giving people rote formulas for health. Rather, we have found that if the ideas and principles of health are understood, then people can think for themselves.
 We believe in arming people with knowledge. We believe that knowledge leads to intuition and that intuition leads to wisdom. We believe that wisdom leads us to make the best choices for ourselves. In this book, we present ideas about cleansing, about food and its nutrient properties and about using the 5 elements of the earth -- the earth herself, as well as air, water, fire and sky -- for healing. We believe that you can transform your own home into a temple of healing and that each of you has the wisdom to choose, from moment to moment, which healing activity will offer you maximum benefit.
 

Jane G. Goldberg, Ph.D.
 December, 1996
at La Casa Resort Spa
El Yunque, Puerto Rico

I. CLEANING UP YOUR ACT

The 3 Basic Health Principles

Every ancient spiritual and healing tradition has ideas about rejuvenation. From the beginning of time, man has always understood that he cannot toil indefinitely. The Bible says: Six days shalt thy labor, but on the seventh day thy shalt rest.
 Included in each of the world’s traditions of health and rejuvenation are methods of cleansing. For all ancient healing traditions, cleansing body and mind is the sine qua non of a healthy as well as a spiritual existence.
 The American Indians would periodically purify themselves through their sweat lodges. Communally, the Indians would subject themselves to intense heat, thus eliminating accumulated bodily toxins, while also entering a state of meditative calm, facilitating the removal of psychic stresses. Similarly, the Ayurvedic tradition recommends Panchakarma cleansing three times a year, at the change of the seasons, in order to maintain well-being in healthy individuals or to restore balance in those who are ill. Panchakarma consists of a series of therapies, including colon cleansing, designed to remove deep-rooted biological and psychological toxins. The yogic tradition, too, has developed techniques for purification that lead to rejuvenation. In Sivinanda Yoga, these techniques are called kriyas, a word that means sacrifice. Yogis spend many years mastering elaborate techniques of muscular control in order to cleanse even deep internal organs. The Jewish tradition devotes one day a week -- the Shabbos -- to eating lightly and resting; Jews fast all day on Yom Kippur, allowing their bodies to detoxify as they turn their mental and spiritual attention to atonement, release from guilt and from negative thinking. Catholicism embraces the concept of abstinence in its celebration of Lent, also known as The Big Fast, a period of 40 days in which participants cleanse themselves of desire.
 These beliefs in abstinence, cleansing and rest are not frivolous notions. They are based on sound understandings of the nature of health. Ancient peoples understood that without setting aside specific times for periodic purification, vitality and regeneration were not possible.  They understood as well, the notion that the occasional denial of pleasure and desire leads to the greater benefit of consciousness and healing.  This notion is the essence of detoxification.
 Unfortunately, most of us in contemporary culture have lost our knowledge of many of these techniques. Today, rather than being interested in the process of elimination, rather than understand the need to not eat, we seem to be exclusively preoccupied with what we do eat (and how it tastes).
 Western dietary habits uniquely ignore the body's need to rid itself of its waste products. It has been estimated that the body contains somewhere between 70 and 100 trillion cells. To illustrate the absolute necessity of each of these cells needing to stay clean and waste-free in order to stay healthy, there is no better story than that of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Alexis Carrel. Carrel had kept cells from the heart of a chicken embryo alive by simply immersing the cells in a nutrient solution and changing the solution. Each day new nutrients were added and waste was cleaned out. This experiment continued for 29 years without a hitch. It was beginning to seem as though with the right nutrients and with proper waste elimination, the cells would go on living forever. Until a fatal mistake was made! Carrel’s lab technician accidentally forgot to change the solution, and the cells died from being immersed in their own waste products. The cells were, in effect, lethally autointoxicated. To clean out the over 70 trillion cells that comprise the human body, we need to pay a lot of attention to waste elimination.
 And so, we need methods of Detoxification. Detoxification is the first principle of health. It is absolutely primary, above even our need for nourishing food. All the nutrients in the world won’t do one whit of good in a toxic body.
 The beauty of a detox/rejuvenation program is that you can do it at your leisure, in between all your other activities, or you can devote a whole slice of time to it -- hours or even days. You get to pick your time and your level of commitment. For instance, you can decide to go on a rigorous fast for several days, including intensive colon cleansing. For this you would want to commit full time to your program and do a lot of resting. But you can also do something as simple as dry skin brushing -- a procedure that takes only about three minutes. Even this brief activity can make a significant difference in how you look and feel.
Bernard Jensen, one of the world’s leading nutritionists, tells the story of Samson, "the Saxon Giant," as an illustration of the health benefits of detoxifying through skin brushing. Samson was a weight lifter and wrestler brought to the United States from Europe by Florenz Zeigfeld. Samson was one of the features in the Zeigfeld Follies in the 1920's. Besides his strength, Samson was also known for his baby-soft skin, an attribute which Samson attributed to his daily regimen of skin brushing.
Then one year, Samson lost the world's championship heavyweight weight-lifting contest by just ten ounces. Jensen was able to examine Samson's diaries, and found a stunning theory. Samson attributed his loss of the contest to the fact that he had neglected to dry-brush his skin for three weeks prior to the contest.
Jensen decided to do a little experiment to see why Samson would have reached such a conclusion. He bought a skin brush and stood on brown wrapping paper while he brushed. After he had collected enough debris that had fallen from his body from the brushing, he sent the material to a lab. The lab found a lot of dead skin, which would, of course, be expected; but the lab also found dried catarrh, urea, sodium chloride, sebum and metabolic acid wastes. Jensen came to understand that when these substances are not removed from the skin by skin brushing, they can become backed up in the muscle structure and cause a loss of vitality.
Jensen himself is testimony to his own theory. He recently told his story of recovering from cancer at the age of 85 (he was 88 as he told the story with great vigor). He showed us the skin on his arms and legs; there was not a single wrinkle, line or blemish anywhere on this man’s body. He attributed the beauty of his skin, its tautness and elasticity, to his daily regimen of skin brushing.
Exercise is certainly a good way of detoxifying. Sweating cleans out the largest organ we have in our body -- the skin. When our skin is able to breathe more efficiently, the pores are better able to do their job of serving as a huge protective membrane, letting out what is supposed to be out, and keeping in what is supposed to be in. Elimination of up to two pounds a day of toxic wastes takes place through the pores in the skin. Some people are not able to perspire at all; many of them eventually get degenerative diseases. Another advantage of skin brushing is that it will clean out the pores such that the sweat glands in the body are enabled to function.
 Aerobic exercise cleans out the lungs. Mere movement of muscles releases stored lactic acid.
 But exercise alone doesn't give the organs a thorough cleansing. For instance, after years of eating processed foods and too much meat, the colon has almost always become so clogged as to be inefficient, at best, or worse, dangerously toxic, like Carrel’s chicken heart cells after the lab technician forgot about them. The cleanliness of the colon is tremendously important -- so important that we can say with great certainty that health cannot be achieved without it. The reason for this is that the colon has a large vein, the portal vein, which crosses from the colon to the liver. If the colon has malignant bacteria or toxic residue sitting in it, the portal vein carries this material to the liver. Then the liver, the organ whose specific job in the body is to detoxify, cannot do its job. It has become too overloaded from junk that was the purview of the colon. So we need to think about the colon, and how to assure its cleanliness in a direct way. Similarly, each of the body’s organs and tissues can become overloaded with toxins and this condition of toxicity will interfere with proper functioning of the organ.
 It is only after a program of detoxification has been implemented that we begin to think about Nourishment, the second health principle. Here, too, we have forgotten ancient wisdom. Ancient peoples were instinctively drawn to foods that were nourishing. Today, much of our food consists of non-foods that the human body does not have the ability to either assimilate, use or excrete.
 Yet, our innate wisdom about knowing what’s good for us will surface given the opportunity. Even as children, or perhaps we should say more accurately, especially as children, we already have a natural inclination to health. Children are not born with a love for sweets or junk food. To the contrary, left to their own devices, children will intuitively select foods that meet all their nutritional requirements.
 There was a study done some years back that demonstrates the point. The study was performed by Dr. Clara Davis, a researcher at the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She studied infants from six months to eleven months who had never been given any food other than their mothers' breast-milk. Each child was offered a wide variety of foods. All foods were unprocessed and natural, of both animal and vegetable origin. Davis' experiment lasted for four years. The results were astonishing in terms of the documentation of children’s innate wisdom in their self-care. All children ate well-balanced meals. Although some children went on food "binges" and ate unorthodox combinations of foods at various meals, the over-all pattern of eating met high nutritional standards. Even more astonishing was that the children seemed to intuitively know how to self-correct deficiencies and problems. Two children who began the study showing signs of rickets continuously chose high calcium foods, and actually "cured" themselves through their own, independent choice of foods. As well, many of the children were uninterested in milk, yet their bone growth was normal, showing that they intuitively understood that the calcium they were receiving from other foods was sufficient for their growth needs.
 Davis' study documents the life-preserving and intelligent natural inclinations of babies. As adults, we still retain this same wisdom. For many of us, however, our disinterest in it has led us far astray from what we instinctively know, but often pretend to ourselves that we don't know. Yet, it is possible to find a way back to these basic instincts.
 The food preparation described in this book is meant to provide maximum nourishment while continuing with a process of detoxification. Our main interest is in promoting an understanding of how and why foods work on and in our bodies the way they do. By this, we certainly mean our palate, because the palate is one of the first parts of our bodies that experiences food (after smell), making taste obviously crucially important. (To most of us, unfortunately, it's the only important aspect of food.) But we also mean all the rest of the body -- the stomach and the intestines, the colon, even the bloodstream.
 We believe in emotional nourishment as well as in nutritional feeding. We think that massage is one of the most powerful forms of emotional nourishment. It’s not just that massage feels good; it actually does emotional repair work, as well.
 Touch has been called the mother of the senses, the earliest to develop in the human embryo. Like other primate animals, we humans are contact animals. We expect clinging, riding, grooming, patting, muzzling, kissing, tickling. (Chimps actually draw a tickler’s hands to their bodies.) The genesis of the ability to love is licking, evolving into tooth-combing among lemurs, finger-grooming in monkeys and apes and hand-stroking in humans. This licking and stroking is the sine qua non of love and survival.
 Many of us have been raised with rearing practices that are desensualized; we were given bottles, blankets, cribs, playpens, toys and carriages instead of the old-fashioned breast-feeding, caressing, cuddling, hugging, rocking and patting. Most of us didn’t get our fill of tactile stimulation as infants and we try to compensate for that deprivation. We substitute self-manipulation in the form of thumb-sucking as children, and then later as adults by carrying worrybeads, chin-stroking, ear and hair-pulling, head-scratching.
 We must begin to think of our skin as a living, breathing organ that expands and contracts, senses and responds, knows as well as remembers, dies as well as becomes. When we treat ourselves to a massage, we honor ourselves through letting our skin be touched and loved by another’s hands.
All kinds of people can be helped through the application of basic health principles. You may be healthy and vigorous; or you may be enervated, barely able to walk. This brings us to our third principle of health -- 5-elements healing: the use of the five elements of earth -- fire, air, earth, water and sky -- from which  medicines can be derived.
 The following story from the yogic tradition tells of the profundity of the five elements in all aspects of life:

 There was once a man known as Avadhuta. He traveled far and wide and learned from every teacher he met. His teachers were each of the five elements -- Mother Earth, wind, sky, water and fire.  From his teachers, he learned everything there was to know. These are the lessons he learned.
 From Mother Earth, he learned the lesson of forgiveness. He came to understand Mother Earth’s profound ability to forgive by observing her tolerance of man’s abuse of her. He witnessed mountains of waste and pollution that man had heaped on Mother Earth; yet, still she never ceased giving him in return valuable minerals and food. The earth element operates in the human body in cooperation with the sense of smell. The earth element relates to the solid parts of body -- bone, skin, flesh, teeth, marrow. It is through our skin, flesh and bones that we maintain contact with Mother Earth as we feel her. This contact keeps us grounded.
 From the wind, Avadhuta learned to be unattached, to be constantly on the move and to be subtle and not perceptible. From observing wind, he understood man’s ability to be a mystic, to live in the depth of spirit rather than on the surface of existence. Wind corresponds in the human body to prana -- life force. Prana produces cells and all your precious seeds. The wind element circulates blood and all fluids around the body. This is why breathing is so important: when you balance the element of air, you gain self-mastery, you balance temperament as well as purity of thought.  The wind element symbolizes the interconnectedness of all people.
 From the sky element, Avadhuta learned that he was pure and unsullied. He observed that sky is the most subtle of all elements. The clouds on the sky appear to color the sky but in reality, the sky is always blue. Avadhuta came to understand that the sky element corresponds to the dirt of life which  appears to sully the soul; but in truth the soul can’t be dirtied by anything. In a heartbeat, we can always relate to the beauty and purity of our souls. No matter how ugly our behavior  -- no matter how immersed we are in sin or bad living -- somewhere within us, on our soul level, we remain unsullied and pure.
 From water, Avadhuta learned compassion and to purify all that comes in contact with him. He observed that water is flowing and progressive. Water can erode mountains drop by drop. Water cleans and washes; it quenches thirst and is essential for growth and survival. In the human body, water carries everything from debris (our waste material) to pleasure (nutrients from our food). Water can take any shape or form; it is soft and gentle in small quantities but can destroy towns in large quantities. In the body, the water element relates to taste. All gland secretions and semen start from water. Our glands are the guardians of our health and this explains why dehydration is one of the major causes of ill health.
 From fire, Avadhuta learned spiritual elimination. Fire gives warmth, heat and light. It removes fear and ignorance; it burns away impurities and sins and gives spiritual solace or comfort. The fire element in the body is related to digestion, absorption and elimination. Fire produces blood and other fluids and controls the body’s metabolism.
 Avadhuta learned, from observing each of the elements the profound interdependence of all things. He understood that the sun represents the fire element, but that the sun is comprised of gases and thus has a close connection to the air element. He understood that the water element is closely connected with the sky element, as water reflects sky. He understood that earth and water comprise the basic material of our planet and that these have the umbrella of air. He understood that sky both surrounds all the elements and contains all the elements.
 Avadhuta learned from his teachers how to live as a human being in harmony with nature, abiding by the cycles of the sun and moon on this, his Mother Earth, sharing her air and her water as part of the infinite cosmos.

*******
 Wherever you live, even in the midst of an urban concrete jungle or in middle America suburbia, you can still live close to the earth. You can use clay as a medicine for all kinds of ailments. You can compost all unused food, and use the nutrient-rich soil that is produced to fertilize your in-door plants and your out-door trees and bushes. Even the most basic activities can be health enhancing. A mere shower can be utilized as a transformative therapeutic experience.
Walking barefoot on grass when the morning dew hasn't yet evaporated yields a powerful electrical resonance with mother earth. When we do this, we are allowing our hair to serve as antennae, pulling in electrical energy from the atmosphere into our heads. This electrical energy is then distributed throughout the rest of our bodies, charging up our organs. Finally, the energy is released through our feet into the ground. When we wear rubber or synthetic soled-shoes, or socks or stockings, we prevent the release of our body’s electrical charge and it builds up as static electricity.
A thunderstorm gives an opportunity for systemic cleansing. Contrary to how most people think about ozone, in fact, natural ozone, created in the atmosphere during rainstorms is incredibly cleansing to our lungs and a powerful destroyer of bodily pathogens.
 Sitting outside on starry nights allows us to take moonbaths.  Our bodies absorb the soft reflected light of the moon. Science hasn’t determined what, if any, actual physiological effect moonlight gives to us. But, whether the effect is physical or purely psychological, those of us who partake in moonbaths say that this time fills them with a powerful peaceful energy.
 Even the most resistant, chronic diseases respond well to the medicinal use of the five elements. We have seen cholesterol levels drop 90 points after just five days of a nutritional program. Multiple sclerosis patients have abandoned their wheelchairs and progressed to walking canes after colon detoxification. Cancer patients who have followed holistic principles of healing have been told by their physicians that there is no longer any trace of the cancer. Over the years, we have witnessed not just dozens, but hundreds, of these “cures.” These are not spontaneous miracle cures (though we have seen our share of these, too); rather they reflect adherence to sound, scientific principles of health by individuals who have worked with diligence, patience, understanding and effort.
 We are fortunate to be blessed with an abundance of riches of the earth. Although most of you will not be able to walk out of your own homes to slather your bodies with naturally-occurring mud, or to take a refreshing dip in mineral-rich mountain streams, we have endeavored, in this book, to find ways of bringing these health principles and health benefits back to your home. Technology can’t improve on nature, but it can make nature more available to more people. We have found ways that you can carry out in your own home, with little expense and minimum inconvenience, virtually all of the health principles and health activities that are practiced at spas all over the world.
 You can avail yourself of health principles that are from ancient traditions, some 5000 years old, to modern-day appliances. For instance, you can clean out your nasal passages the same way they do it in India today and the way they have been doing it for eons. On the other hand, you can clean out your colons through the use of a portable home device that was invented only thirty years ago.
 This, then, is the real meaning of the holistic health revolution: for most of us, even those of us who are ill, our bodies still retain a resiliency for healing; the knowledge of how to heal ourselves remains a long-ago, forgotten memory. But we are able to access our memory through studying the healing traditions of other cultures that have been passed down through the ages. The health revolution is not about new learning; it is about coming to remember what we already know.

Dousing the Fire of Food Cravings

 Too much evidence now exists for any of us to not believe that the healthiest diet is the one with the highest amount of nutrients. Our bodies are living packages of energy, and they need to be fed with foods that are, similarly, alive and vital and energetic. This means food as close to its natural state as possible, freshly picked fruits and vegetables, whole grains, high quality proteins.
 But what we know and what we do are two different matters. We do not always choose to do what is best for us. (There are still hordes of smokers in this country; they have not all been living under a rock for the last 50 years, oblivious to the dangers of smoking; yet their habit persists.) This, then, is the important question: why do we not do what we should do and do what we should not do when it comes to food? Why do we finish off a perfectly satisfactory supper with a sugar-laden dessert, knowing that our guilt in the morning will be a justifiable penance? Why do we add more salt to our food than any competent heart specialist would recommend? Why do we engage in 3 a.m. eating jags, when a host of research shows that most weight gain is acquired from eating between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. when the body needs to be resting?
 Is the answer as simple as that we are at the mercy of our cravings? Well, maybe. But that answer doesn't really get us very far. It only leads to new questions. Why are most of our cravings for salt and sugar? Why do we feel hungry when our bodies are sated? In other words, what is the nature of food craving? If we can figure out the answer to that one question, we will have come a long way toward helping ourselves to be able to eat healthier.
 It has become popular to answer these kinds of questions from a psychological perspective. As a psychoanalyst, no one knows better than I the psychological components that go into food habits. Yet, after studying my patients as long as I have, and with my particular interest in their nutritional habits (because of my long-standing belief in its importance in mental health as well as bodily health), I have become convinced that there is more to the story. Food practices arise as much, if not more, because of biochemical reasons as they do for psychological reasons.
 The implications of such a premise are far-reaching. It means that our food decisions are not really choices, at all, or at least not in the usual sense of the word. Rather, they are rooted in biochemical urges -- more like what psychologists would term compulsions. The nature of a compulsion is that it actually by-passes consciousness; we just do it automatically.
 That's the bad news: that to the extent that we follow unhealthy dietary practices, it is often beyond our control. We may feel temporarily relieved at such news, but absolution of responsibility doesn't help us to improve our habits. It's like the criminal insanity defense. The murderer may not have known what he was doing, or whether what he was doing was right or wrong, but what's the consolation when the body is still dead?
 There is good news, however. The good news is that the human body operates like the United States government -- it has an elaborate system of checks and balances. Its proper functioning is as much a delicate balance as a trapeze act. When one system goes out of whack, another tries to compensate. The whole body is reading itself all the time, consistently and persistently making its adjustments to itself.
 So when we have a food craving -- the kind of feeling that leads us to choose a food without our conscious will -- all that's happening is that our body is engaging in its attempt to correct itself. It's one of the myriad ways it has of attempting to heal itself.
 So far so good. But if the body is attempting to right a wrong, why are our food cravings so often for foods that are bad for us? How many of us have craved a carrot -- a food rich in beta-carotene and vitamin B -- over ice cream -- a food rich in nothing except fat, sugar and cholesterol?
 The answer is that we are misreading the signals. When a craving develops, the body is in a mild case of stress. A biochemical situation has occurred in which our system of checks and balances leaps into action. Too much salt, for instance, will stimulate a craving for sugar. Similarly, too much sugar will make us want to taste salt.
 If we think about it, the food cravings most of us have always have to do with either salt or sugar. This itself is interesting and meaningful. Western science has identified four basic tastes to food: salty, bitter, sweet and sour. In traditional Eastern systems there are two others: pungent and astringent. Ancient East-Indian pharmacology and medical science enumerates 64 basic taste qualities. Yet, with all these varieties possible, most Americans crave the experience only of the two tastes of salt and sugar. In overindulging in these two cravings, we have essentially destroyed our palate's ability to experience the full range of possibilities of taste.
 The craving is deceptive, though. We think we want sugar or salt, and indeed, much of the time, we indulge ourselves in gratifying our craving. The deception, though, is more than problematic. It's outright dangerous.
 If we indulge our sugar craving by eating refined sugar, we satisfy our hunger but meet none of our body's nutrient requirements. All of the vitamins, minerals, fats and proteins that would have come from a food in its natural state are still needed by the body. These nutrients, then, will be pulled from the body's own reserves in order to support the metabolic activity stimulated by the sugar. A condition of nutrient debt is created. So, it is not just that sugar puts on weight. It is not just that it doesn't have nutrient value. It actually creates a condition of stress in the body. Given enough of these stressful events, the body will become exhausted.
 If we indulge our craving for salt, we create an imbalance in the potassium/sodium ratio in the body. Potassium is important for its role in the contraction of muscles, including the heart. An excess of sodium causes an accumulation of water, bringing about an increase in blood volume, blood pressure and heart rate. Too little potassium, which is found in fresh fruit and vegetables, and too much sodium is a sure trigger for cancer, heart disease, kidney failure and stroke.
 

 When we crave sugar or salt, most of the time what the body really needs (as opposed to wants) is simply pure H2O -- pure, clean, unadulterated WATER. In not reading the signal properly, we feed the body precisely what it needs the least of, the same salty or sugary substances that created the deception in the first place. The body becomes even more depleted of water.
 An overload of salt or sugar has created a condition of mild dehydration in the body, and the body is asking that its fluid demands be met. We read the signal as wanting more food (usually sugar). Yet, a mere glass of water will satisfy the craving.
 I know that this explanation sounds ridiculously simplistic -- too easy to be true. Yet, I, and other smart doctors and researchers who have understood the value of water, have recommended water as a cure for food cravings to scores of people with absolutely impeccable results. Unfortunately for all the people who have suffered needlessly, it is only recently that any of us have begun to see the error of the ways of traditional western medical thought in regard to water.
 When science began its inquiry into the human body, it followed the basic principles that had been established in chemistry. The 25% solid matter of the body was considered to be the solute, the substances that are dissolved and carried in the blood and serum of the body. The 75% water part was seen as the solvent, meaning that whatever it touches, it begins to dissolve that substance. Following the laws of chemistry and test-tube experiments, it was assumed that the solute composition of the body was the truly important part of the body. The solid materials were seen as the regulator of all bodily functions. The solvent, the water in the body, was seen as a mere space filler whose only function was a means of transport for the important solutes.
 This erroneous assumption prevented researchers from even asking the question of whether or not the regulation of the fluids of the body ever go awry. Now that we understand the multiple functions of the solvent, the water in our bodies, we know that the answer is that the fluids in our bodies can and do go awry, and much more often than we would imagine. Most of us have an undiagnosed condition of sub-clinical dehydration. The traditional assumption that we only need to drink water when we experience "dry mouth" is totally false, and is, as well, a dangerous assumption. In fact, dry mouth is the last outward sign of dehydration. Food craving, in particular sugar craving, is a much earlier sign, but one that is not read correctly, and thus not responded to appropriately. So is tiredness. Fatigue can occur when the body is trying to carry out its normal functions on a limited supply of water. Many of us eat when we’re tired in order to get the energy surge that food gives us; what we need, however, much of the time, is just water.
 Why is it that we experience wanting food when what our bodies need is water? And what is the relation between water and weight?
 It goes without saying, of course, that a healthy body is not overweight. It is now well documented that sating the body with water eliminates the craving for sugar and salt. Drinking sufficient quantities of water is not only the best diet you can go on, it is the last diet you'll ever go on. This is, of course, because it's not a diet at all. It's merely a way of rebalancing the body so that all the organs and tissues can do what they're supposed to do.
 In fact, incredible as it may seem, water is the single most important factor in taking off weight and keeping it off. Studies have shown that a decrease in water intake causes fat deposits to increase, and an increase in water intake reduces fat deposits. Water is essential to help the body to metabolize fat. It also acts as a natural appetite suppresser.
 The biochemistry behind the fact that drinking a sufficient quantity of water is the best way of losing weight is actually quite simple. The kidneys cannot function properly without enough water. If the kidneys are not doing their job well enough, then they will dump their overload into the liver. Normally the liver has the function of metabolizing stored fat into usable energy for the body. But if the liver has to do part of the kidneys’ job, then it can't do its own job well enough. It metabolizes less fat than it should, and the unmetabolized fat stays stored in the body. Weight loss cannot occur when there is excess fat stored in the body. When the body's need for water is met, the liver can return to its normal operation of metabolizing stored fat, and more fat is used as fuel. There is a loss of food craving almost overnight. Weight stabilizes automatically at the correct weight for every body type.
 But weight-loss is not the most important reason to drink sufficient quantities of water. Keeping the body well-hydrated is, as well, absolutely essential to keeping the body in good health. Now that we know that the solvent is as important to bodily functions as the solutes, we have been able to investigate all of the purposes of water in our bodies. The body uses water for virtually all of its functions -- for digestion, absorption, circulation, excretion, transporting nutrients, building tissue and maintaining temperature. So important is water for health that insurance statistics show that people who drink a lot of water live an average of five years longer than those who don't make drinking water a habit.
 Clinical studies at Johns Hopkins University have shown that low blood pressure can be corrected when the amount of fluid in the body is increased. Because low blood pressure is associated with chronic fatigue syndrome, elevating the blood pressure gives some relief from symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.
 It is now known that water has an essential hydrolytic role in all aspects of body metabolism. This means simply that there are all sorts of chemical reactions that take place in the body that need water to occur. Since the chemistry and the electricity of the body are intimately intertwined, without sufficient water, both the chemistry and the electrical energy of the body will be unbalanced. Water, too, is employed as an adhesive material in the integrity of the cell architecture. Also, proteins and enzymes of the body function more efficiently in well-hydrated, watery solutions. Water helps to maintain proper muscle tone by giving the muscles their natural ability to contract. Water helps the body to eliminate waste. Water is an important constituent of the body's lubricants, helping to cushion the joints and internal organs, keeping body tissues such as the eyes, lungs and air passages moist. It should be clear by now that without sufficient water intake, one simply cannot be healthy.
 What precisely happens when there is insufficient water intake? When the body is not getting enough water, it perceives that there is a threat to its survival, and it shores up its defenses. The body sets up a kind of drought management program. A priority distribution system is set up for the small amount of water that is available from the intake and for the small amount that may be left in the body's reserves.
 One of the things the body can do is siphon the water it needs from its internal stores.  For instance, one place where there is usually a lot of water is the colon. Water can be pulled from the colon to be redistributed to other parts of the body. But then the colon is left with too little water. A dehydrated colon is a plugged up colon, and constipation occurs.
 When there is insufficient intake, the body wants to hold onto every last drop of water that it has. Water is then stored in abnormal places, for instance, in the extracellular spaces (outside the cells). This condition shows up as swollen feet, hands and legs. Traditional medicine reads these signals incorrectly, and sees that the body is holding onto too much water. Diuretics are prescribed, which, in fact, force the stored water out and give temporary relief. But, nutrients are also lost, and the body is more depleted than ever of its water reserves. In fact, the body will naturally release its stored water when it has the quantity of water it needs for healthy functioning.
 Numerous diseases have been related to dehydration: stomach upset, rheumatoid arthritis, morning sickness, colitis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma and allergies, stress and depression and, finally, cancer.
 Most stomach upsets are symptoms of dehydration. We have seen relief from pain within 10-20 minutes after ingesting water. The principle is as follows: hydration is essential for the proper functioning of the mucosa, the innermost layer of the stomach. Normally, a portion of the stomach cells secrete sodium bicarbonate, and as the stomach acids try to move through the mucosa layer, the bicarbonate neutralizes these acids. Without enough water, or with too much salt, this protective mechanism breaks down. The acid is permitted to get through to the mucosal layer and pain ensues. Proper hydration provides a better acid barrier to the mucosa than any antacids or medication on the market. Even in the case of ulcers, hydration will allow the ulcer to repair itself in time.
 Colitis, constipation and abdominal pain are often related to the body's need for water. Colitis is often associated with constipation. One of the functions of the large intestine is to take water out of excrement so that there is a minimum loss of water from the body after food digestion. Proper hydration is essential for easy passage. Without enough water, the waste material will be dry and hard, and eventually the build-up of this undischarged waste will cause pain, or worse, inflammation.
 Arthritis is helped by hydration because the cartilage in bone joints consists of a large amount of water. Cartilage surfaces need to glide gracefully over one another. In well-hydrated cartilage, this gliding takes place with a minimum amount of friction. In a dehydrated cartilage, abrasion occurs, and this abrasion damages the cartilage, thus causing pain. Eventually the damage can become severe enough to cause osteoarthritis.
 The spine, too, as part of the bony structure of the body, needs water. In the spinal joints, not only is water a lubricant for the surfaces that come into contact with one another, it is also held within the core of the discs. In fact, 75% of the weight of the upper body is supported by the water volume that is stored in the disc core. The spine is one of the first places that systemic dehydration will show. The fifth lumbar disc, which causes low back pain, is almost always affected.
 At times, a state of bodily dehydration manifests as psychological problems. The brain needs water in order to generate electrical energy. We may experience the state of brain dehydration as depression or apathy. As well, stress may be related to a water shortage. When we describe that we are experiencing stress, we should remember that stress can be physiological as well as psychological. Dehydration is, in fact, a great stress on the body. When the body is in stress, it will assume a crisis posture and will begin to mobilize a "fight or flight" response. Hormones are poured into the bloodstream. One of these hormones is vasopressin, which has the job of regulating the selective flow of water into some cells. Bodily stress will create the production of too much or not enough vasopressin. Thus, stress is both caused by dehydration as well as causing dehydration. The malfunctioning becomes circular.

The Prescription:
 All of us have been told for as long as we can remember that we should be drinking three 8 ounce glasses of water every day. While this amount would be sufficient for a healthy body, most of us have for so long ignored our bodies' hydration requirements that we need to make up for lost time, and that amount may not prove sufficient in the beginning.
 We recommend starting each day by drinking three glasses of water. You can add a little chlorophyll to one of the glasses. This will cleanse the kidneys and wash away the residue that gathers overnight in the bladder. You can also make a big jug of lemon water in the morning so that you can easily partake of lemon water throughout the day. The lemon, too, aids in carrying off the wastes that have built up during the night. The lemon water has another beneficial effect. Chefs throughout the ages have known the secret of using lemon as a seasoning to cut down on the use of salt in food preparation. Lemon has unique qualities that curtails the craving for both salt and sugar.

Re-hydrating the body:
Start your day with 3 glasses of water. In one of the glasses, add a teaspoon of liquid chlorophyll. Another glass should be lemon water. For the rest of the day, we suggest that you alternate taking four ounces of water and four ounces of lemon water every half-hour. Essentially, you are rehydrating your body on a continuous basis.

Water (and all liquids) should always be drunk at room temperature. If cold liquids are drunk, the body temperature drops. The heart responds by pumping faster and the whole body is jolted.
You should stop drinking water a half-hour before you eat, not drink at all while eating, and you can resume drinking an hour after eating. Water dilutes digestive enzymes, thus making digestion more difficult. As well, drinking water with meals changes the way your body absorbs oils. People who drink water when they eat almost invariably suffer from dry skin. This is because small oily globules are released when you eat and then absorbed into the bloodstream. When you drink water while eating, the small oily globules become large pools of oil and water. Oil and water don't mix, and this holds true in the stomach as well as anywhere else. These oils are then sent to the gall bladder, then to the liver which either digests them or stores them for fat -- usually in your waistline. The oil never makes it to your skin, and, in addition, you grow fatter.
If you drink cold water when you eat, the problem is even greater. The cold solidifies the oils and turns them into grease. These oils in your stomach will be the same sludge as the oil that hardens after you fry eggs in shortening or oil. Then when the oils are burned in the liver, they leave ashes, just like the ashes in a fireplace. These ashes are tiny cholesterol crystals that deposit in your bloodstream and clog your arteries.
 Next comes the question of what kind of water to drink. If you’re living in an urban area, the chances are that your tap water could make you sick. In 1992 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found over 800 municipal water supplies polluted with dangerous lead levels: these water systems supplied water to over 30 million people. The National Resource Defense Council found that 43% of all water systems in this country violated federal health standards. Researchers in Montreal, Canada concluded that one-third of all gastrointestinal illnesses are caused by drinking water.
Most people assume that bottled water or spring water is cleaner and healthier than tap water. This is an incorrect assumption. In fact, there is no regulation for bottled water and often this water is more polluted than your municipal water. The kind of water that approximates purity without pollution is distilled water. Distilled water has the advantage of actually pulling out toxins and debris in the body as it winds its way down your digestive track. Distilled water helps to clean out our cells, organs and fluids. Distilled water is the water of choice for drinking and cooking.
 Because the skin is an organ of absorption, swimming is an excellent way of giving the body a good rehydrating boost. Swimming in the ocean rehydrates your body to a saline condition that your body will welcome because it is close to the original home that your body developed in -- your mother’s womb. Swimming in clean, fresh water also has advantages. Fresh water lakes, for instance, generally have algae growing in them. Algae brings oxygen into the water, so not only will you be rehydrating your body but you’ll be getting a good dose of oxygen, as well. Fresh water also has lots of minerals and will help your skin to be baby-soft. Fresh water can cause a mild detox reaction (runny nose and teary eyes), whereas the salty, ocean water generally clears up detox symptoms.
 Once you start adhering to this program of gradual systemic rehydration, you will be amazed at how quickly persistent health problems clear up. You will recognize other people who understand the importance of hydration because they carry water bottles with them at all times.

Salting Your Sugars

 One of the things that puzzles many devoted, die-hard vegetarians and health-food freaks is how frequently they crave oily, buttery, sweet-laden goodies. Vegetarians often assume that because their diet is pure, it is also balanced. What we don't know, however, is that sodium is absolutely essential to biochemical balance, and that if we do not eat sufficient sodium, we will be deficient in vital minerals, a condition which will effect the health of our entire body. Many of us don’t concentrate on the foods which are naturally high in sodium -- goat whey, okra, lentils, celery, turnips, raw egg, black figs, fish, spinach, cucumbers.
 A deficiency in sodium will create the same kind of craving for sugar and sweets that a need for water does. Ironically, not only does drinking sufficient water cure a sugar craving, so does eating pure, unrefined salt.
 Salt and water are, in fact, so intertwined in the body that we could say that they're married to one another. Not only are our bodies 85% water, this watery solution is salty. Our blood is salty, our tears are salty, our sweat is salty and our urine is salty. The very first environment that each of us experiences -- the intrauterine environment, and the amniotic fluid that suspends us weightlessly in the uterus -- is salty, actually equivalent to the ocean. In this, our first salty home, the embryo grows over three billion times in weight. We are in need of salt throughout the rest of our lives just as much as we were originally in our intrauterine home.
 The role of salt in sugar craving is similar to the role of water in sugar craving. Deficiency causes the craving. In the case of salt, sodium is essential for all stages of digestion. Without salt, no digestion is possible. Digestion begins in the mouth, and salt plays its first role here. Salt activates the first enzyme in the mouth, salivary amylase. Salt exposes food to the taste-buds, which is why we salt our foods "to taste."
 In the stomach, salt generates hydrochloric acid. Only when there is a sufficient amount of hydrochloric acid can food be  digested. Hydrochloric acid digests the glucides of cereal grains, breaks down the fibers of vegetables, and emulsifies fats and oils. If there is insufficient hydrochloric acid, the glucides are not transformed and the natural sugars in the food are not released through the process of digestion. The body then enters an internal state of a sugar deficiency, and there will be a felt craving for sweets. It is this deficiency which causes vegetarians and specifically macrobiotics, with their heavy emphasis on grains, to crave sweet desserts, even after having a balanced whole grain and vegetable meal. This sugar craving arises not from some psychological weakness, but from an actual physiological imbalance in salt intake.
 Sodium deficiency interferes with many bodily processes other than digestion. Our bodies, in fact, consist of a series of three miniature oceans, salty, watery solutions that comprise the 85% fluid of our bodies. These three internal oceans require frequent replenishment of trace minerals. Each of these internal oceans surrounds and circulates through our bodies. One forms the plasma of our blood; another forms the lymphatic circulatory system; the third forms the extracellular fluid that bathes every living cell. It is this mineral replenishment which occurs through absorption in the skin, that is why bathing in the ocean is so invigorating. A few minutes in ocean water has an immediate strengthening effect of the salty, watery lymphatic system.
 These three salty fluids are close in their chemical composition as well as in their physio-chemical and biological properties. They are intimately interconnected, and each bodily fluid can influence the others. Each requires trace elements which exist in both the earth's oceans and our bodily internal oceans. These trace minerals all work together to maintain balance and proper functioning of all of the body's systems.
 If any of our internal oceans are short-changed of trace nutrients, the bio-electric impulses which trigger all chemical processes of the body will be hampered. All nervous impulses depend upon a difference of potential between the inside and outside of the cells. This cellular integrity is accomplished through an accumulation of potassium and magnesium inside the cell and sodium and calcium outside the cell. The leniency for variation from this balance is extremely small. If there is more than a 1% change in the necessary amounts of these trace minerals, the cell loses its ability to control its ions, and pathology on the cellular level occurs. In particular, there is a breakdown of the regeneration and growth process of the cell, an essential process as a prophylactic against cancer.
 Salt deficiency is a major cause of fatigue. Sodium and chloride help stimulate the synthesis of anti-stress hormones from the adrenal glands. These hormones are necessary in that they regulate metabolism, maintaining circulation and boosting energy. Muscular weakness, muscle soreness and leg cramps are all symptoms of sodium deficiency. Furthermore, many of the common medications, including aspirin, cortisone, prednisone, diuretics and antacids deplete salt from the body.
 Since sodium is essential to so many bodily functions, we have to ask why salt has gotten such a bad rep. We have been led to believe that salt will kill us through high-blood pressure and heart disease. For 50 years medical studies have confirmed the relation between salt intake and high blood pressure: yet, all these studies were performed on refined, white table salt. This substance can, indeed, kill you, and in more ways than through heart disease. This salt, in fact, is not even made for human consumption. Salt that is eaten accounts for only seven percent of the total salt production, the balance used by the chemical industry and manufacturing. There is no distinction in origin of the salt, nor in the manufacturing process. Most salt comes from dried-up inland seas, dead salt lakes or dead salt mines. What is created, for eating and for industry, is a chemicalized, unnatural and biologically damaging substance. It bears little relation to salt in its natural state, either the salt taken relatively recently from our oceans, or the salt in our bodies’ internal oceans. In the industrial refining process, over 92 trace minerals and essential nutrients are removed. A single, devitalized, unnatural compound made of sodium and chlorine is left.
 Table salt also contains added aluminum and sugar. Sugar is added to enhance the taste; aluminum is used to make the salt slippery and prevent caking so it will shake easily from the salt shaker. (We already know the problems with sugar; aluminum has been implicated in the causation of Alzeimer’s.)
 In addition, most table salt is taken from cement-lined salt flats which draw their water from industrially polluted bays and coasts. This crude salt is unsuitable as a table food because it is filled with dirt, oily sand, concrete efflorescence and heavy metal pollution. This salt needs refining, and gets it. The refining process, too, introduces its own set of pollutants. The end result is a chemical substance which, indeed, causes heart disease as well as many other bodily dysfunctions and diseases which have not yet been linked directly to this refined salt.
 Many health-food practitioners who are even minimally aware of the refining process of salt have opted for sea salt, thinking that they are giving themselves a healthy alternative. This is false reassurance, however, and any commercial brand of sea salt will have the same dangerous effects as refined salt. Although the origin of the salt may be the ocean, the salt is still harvested mechanically by bulldozers from dirt or concrete basins. The salt is processed, using many artificial processes which degrade the quality of the salt and rob it of all of its essential minerals. Sea salt is heated to the point that its molecular structure is cracked. Finally, it is further adulterated by chemical additives which make it, like regular refined salt, free-flowing, bleached and iodized with inorganic iodine.
 We fare no better with most of the so-called "natural" products that include salt. The salt that is found in tamari, soy sauce and miso is Mexican in origin. This salt is crude salt that is shipped in bulk to Japan where most of these products are made. It is actually illegal in Japan for any individual or firm to make salt. The refining and sale of salt is a government monopoly. The entire supply of salt in Japan is imported and highly refined. This salt is then artificially remineralized with a few specific minerals so that it can be sold as a natural product. This salt is not a natural product. It is a pale imitation of natural.
 Many vegetarians believe that they get sufficient salt from the small amount of sodium that is in vegetables and other foods.  However, many vegetarians are not attentive enough to their sodium needs and don’t consume enough sodium to satisfy their body’s sodium requirements. When this happens, vegetarians will experience a craving for salty snack foods as well as for sugar.
 Meat-eaters, as well as vegetarians, can suffer from sodium deficiency. Many aboriginal peoples who were meat-eaters would only eat from a fresh-kill. They would drink the blood of the animal, suck out the marrow and gnaw on the cartilage. These habits increased the ratio of minerals to protein, thus giving the people necessary sodium and protecting them against many diseases, including heart disease. Today, however, we eat aged meat that has had the blood drained from it. With the high degree of meat protein that most meat-eaters today consume, and without the balancing trace minerals, it is almost impossible for the body to regulate itself adequately. The rampant extent of heart disease in western countries may be partially attributed to this habit of ours.

The Prescription:
 Our ancestors may not have known the chemistry to know the effective component was sodium, but nevertheless they understood the amazing health benefits of natural salt.
 Salt was so valuable in ancient times that it was regarded as worth its weight in gold. Much of the exploration of the Far East was for the rare spice that was salt. Wars, even, have been fought to gain control of the commodity of salt.
Our forbears knew that natural crystal salt was life-giving and a powerful healing agent. Initially, man probably began eating salt by using the rock salt of the earth, the same salt licks that animals used. Rock salt has high concentrations of calcium sulfate and potassium chloride, materials that are appropriate for the meat-eating nomadic tribes.
 In the warmer climates, however, concentrating and drying the brine from salt waters was a relatively simple procedure. Proximity to salt springs or to oceans became an important determinant in where people chose to live. Among these ancestors were the Celts, who revered three major symbols of life and harmony with the cosmos: wheat, which is the symbol of life; salt is the extension of fire, issued from the waters; and water, which bestows spiritual strength. Together, this trilogy gave these peoples a philosophy of life and a reverence for basic elements.
 The method these ancient Celts used to collect their salt is still in practice today in the coastal region of Brittany, France. The particular ecology of this region makes it among the most pristine in the world. In 1991 the French government proclaimed this area to be a national shrine, and the Celtic practice of gathering the salt to be a national treasure. Here, farmers in the tradition of their Celtic ancestors, use only the wind and sun as mechanisms for drying the salt. Salt crystals are harvested by hand in wooden spoons. This salt retains all 92 minerals that are in the sea, as opposed to common table salt which has had all but two minerals refined out. As well as trace elements, Celtic salt contains the valuable macro-nutrients of boron, lithium, iodine, phosphorous, ammonium, strontium and fluorine.
 We believe Celtic salt is the only salt that should be used. We feel that it is the highest quality salt available.  You can use it in cooked, raw and fermented foods. When using this salt for consumption,  it is important to not cook the nutrients out. Thus, you should add it to food only at the end of the cooking process. It dissolves quite nicely on moist food. You will notice that it actually has a sweet taste. As well, Celtic salt will not result in a water craving, as all other salts do.
Celtic salt, as well, makes a wonderful substance for skin cleansing. Feel free to rub it on your body and to use it in a bath. Any exposure your skin has to this salt will only be health-enhancing.
 Celtic salt can also be used as medicine. The salt is strongly alkalizing and will, in fact, rebalance acid/alkaline levels. Many illnesses include or are even caused by an acid/alkaline imbalance.  At the beginning of an illness, increase the quantity of salt you eat for just a few days and luxuriate in a warm salt bath. Meat-eaters will almost always suffer from an acidic condition since meat is strongly acidic. We encourage meat-eaters, particularly, to feel free with their use of Celtic salt to rebalance the acidity of the meat. You can also use this salt for burns, bleeding and acute localized infections.
 In ancient Celtic days, salt was the most precious element that could be given as a gift. Similarly, you could introduce this salt to friends and help them to understand the high quality of Celtic salt.

Tissue and Organ Cleansing

 A dramatic illustration of the importance of detoxification is the story of Selena. Selena reported that in just one month, she had lost 20 pounds. She lamented that every time she put any food in her body, she had excruciating abdominal pains and nausea. She hadn’t been able to eat any solid food for that entire month. Selena was scheduled for exploratory abdominal surgery the next day.
 At the eleventh hour, Selena opted for a natural approach. She first had a colonic, then drank some green water (see Let’s Eat) and soothing teas. That afternoon she had another colonic. For three days, Selena had two colonics each day. By the second day she was able to eat watermelon without pain and by the third day she was cheerfully chomping down a baked potato. Selena never had her surgery.

 Digestion
 Food, like germs, is recognized by the body as a foreign presence. The process of breaking down this foreign entity is the process of digestion. This is normally completed without ill consequences when the individual is able to break down the chemical components of the food.
 Digestion occurs in a part of the body that is not, topologically, inside the body. The body can be seen as a thick, misshapen cylinder, the outer surface being what we see, the inner surface being the alimentary canal. This digestive system consists of a single convoluted tube, some thirty feet long, open at its beginning, the mouth, and its end, the anus. Various sites in the tube, such as the stomach, are enlarged enough to accommodate the task of holding food and mixing it with glandular secretions. Some components of food, such as the cellulose in bread and vegetables, enter and leave the digestive tract never having entered the body itself. It is only when food components are broken down into small particles, simple enough to be absorbed, that the surface of the cylinder is finally breached, and nutrients enter the blood and lymphatic systems which, in turn, will carry them to every cell in the body. Toxins, as well as nutrients, enter the body systemically through digestion, and then through the fluid mediums, the blood and lymphatic.
 Digestion begins in the mouth with the release of the first digestive enzyme, pytalin, which changes (digests) starches to sugars. When the food has been chewed, muscles in the cheeks, tongue and roof of the mouth all cooperate together to form a kind of chute so that food can be pushed down into the pharynx, then, through involuntary movements, into the esophagus. From here the food passes into the stomach where the effect of hydrochloric acid will break down the food particles into still smaller units. Large quantities of digestive enzymes are secreted so that the food gets converted into a semi-fluid state called chyme. This chyme now passes into the beginning of the bowel, the duodenum, the first portion of the small intestine, where the enzymes combine to further digest the food substances. It is here in the small intestine that 90% of the absorption of all food constituents into the bloodstream takes place.
 By the time the chyme has reached the end of the small intestine, all that remains of what started out as food in the mouth is water and waste. This solid waste passes to the large intestine, the colon, for the final stage of digestion and elimination. The large intestine swarms with billions of friendly bacteria whose function is to accomplish the final synthesizing of nutrients. Rhythmic motions of the muscles of the five foot long organ, called peristalsis, push the solid waste toward the rectum and anus where it is eliminated from the body. The walls of the colon absorb most of the water which will be evacuated as urine.
 As we improve our diets, waste elimination becomes more important than ever. Nutritional factors become available to cells which they may not have had for years. As a result of this more concentrated nourishment, cellular metabolism will speed up and more metabolic waste will be dumped into the bloodstream. Usually the organs of elimination are not used to handling this larger amount of waste, and they will prove to be not up to the task. Uneliminated waste will then collect in the bloodstream, and we will experience the same kind of autointoxication that Carrel’s chicken heart cells suffered from (though usually not with lethal results, or at least not without 20 to 30 years of waste accumulation). Ultimately, we will even defeat the purpose of the original dietary improvement because the cells will no longer be able to utilize the fresh nutrients being provided by the nutritional program.
 Digestion and elimination of undigested food is only one of the means that the body has of ridding itself of waste. There are five eliminative channels of the body: skin, liver, lungs, kidneys and, of course, the bowel. Each of these organs will carry away waste adequately so long as the demands on the organ do not exceed its capability. Together all five comprise a multi-layered structure, consisting of a series of back-up systems. Exquisite checks and balances insure that should one eliminative channel fail, another is waiting to step in. Material that should normally be discharged through one organ will find its way to another eliminative organ. For instance, toxins that have not been eliminated through the colon may find themselves attempting to be released through the skin, causing rashes or other skin disorders. The body will attempt, always to find its way back to homeostatic balance.
 When the body has exhausted even its emergency back-up systems of elimination through its ordinary eliminative organs, it seeks even more drastic solutions. For instance, in cancer, toxins have been unable to find proper elimination, and they settle in the connective tissue of the body. Every cancerous tumor is surrounded by this connective tissue; wherever cancer has established itself in the body, connective tissue is found. When even this method of storing toxins fails, when the connective tissue can no longer receive any more material, then toxins will pass into the bloodstream and other tissues, thus creating systemic autointoxication.
 Heart disease, like cancer, begins as a healing response to an abnormal condition. The arterial system of the body is like an extraordinarily complex map. Tunnel-like vessels carry blood to every part of the body. In order to accommodate to the body, the vessels turn and twist incessantly, and in doing so, tiny wounds or tears are created. These internal wounds are quickly healed normally through the growth of new cells. In effect, internal scabs are formed. Cholesterol and fats form around the scab as it heals. This is a completely natural process, and one that is handled easily when blood flow is strong and when the amount of scarring is not too great. However, when there is more scarring than the body can handle, or when more cholesterol deposits around the scab than the body can tolerate, then the natural healing cannot continue. Further growth is promoted; the cholesterol actually begins to act as a carcinogen within the artery by promoting wild, new growth. The arterial wall becomes so coated with abnormal growth, called plaque, that blood flow is diminished. The coronary arteries are no longer able to transport an adequate amount of blood to the heart.
 It is clear that to stay healthy, we need to keep all of the eliminative channels of the body in good working order. Given how little attention we pay to our own bodily waste removal, it is actually rather amazing that we live as long as we do. But think about how long we could live if our bodies, on the inside as well as the outside, were clean.
 In fact, we are unique in our neglect of this facet of our health. Most cultures and traditions of medicines have practices designed specifically to eliminate bodily toxins. Among the most advanced are the techniques of the yogis. Sivinanda yoga teaches various kriyas -- purification practices which cleanse parts of the body that have a tendency to collect unwanted debris.
 You can take as your point of departure these various yogic traditions of cleansing. Some should be performed precisely as they have been practiced for thousands of years. For others, you can use convenient, modern techniques.  Now all of us have the ability to gain control over certain functions of our bodies without the steely discipline of a seasoned yogi.

 Cleaning the colon
 It is unfortunate that American doctors have contended for decades that the number of bowel movements an individual has is unrelated to health. They have convinced most of us that they are correct. Most people think that they are not constipated if they are having one bowel movement a day. Yet, we eat three meals a day. Where are the other two meals going if they're not being eliminated through the colon? The answer actually is somewhat frightening. The rest of the food that is not absorbed by the body as nutrients stays around the body in unlikely places -- against the colon walls, in tissues and organs, in arteries -- any place at all in the body can serve as a receptacle for uneliminated waste.
 Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of the famed Battle Creek Sanitarium, maintained that 90% of modern diseases are the result of improper functioning of the colon. British physician, Sir Arbuthnut Lane concurred after performing hundreds of bowel resections where diseased portions of the bowel were removed. He noticed that during the time that the patient was recovering from the surgery that other diseases, seemingly unrelated to the colon problem, were cured.
 Sir Lane came to understand that a large part of the problem in many diseases was the body's inability to adequately carry out its normal waste disposal functions. He calculated that a healthy intestine requires emptying every six hours, and that more commonly, it is emptied every 24 hours.
 There is scientific research, as well, showing the relationship between bowel functioning and health. British and South African scientists have shown a lot of interest in this issue and have conducted elaborate experiments involving the clocking and weighing of feces of human volunteers. It has been confirmed that too few bowel movements and too little bulk in the stool is related to a variety of disorders, including heart and gallbladder diseases, diverticulitis, varicose veins, hiatal hernia and cancer of the large intestine.
 There is also a study of over 1000 women with histories of constipation. Fluid was extracted from the breasts of the women. This fluid showed abnormal cells which are the same abnormal cells found in women with breast cancer. These cellular abnormalities occurred five times as often in women who moved their bowels fewer than three times a week than in women who did so more than once a day.
It is probably the case that Sir Arbuthnut Lane was overly optimistic about the bowel functioning of most of us. The truth is that most people don't know that their bowels are not functioning properly. Humans are the only animals who have such insufficient bowel functioning. Breast-fed babies, indigenous peoples, birds and animals all evacuate their bowels shortly after each meal.
 Normal bowel functioning means there is waste for everything that goes in except distilled water. We need to find those other, lost meals.

The Prescription:
 Basti is the yogic tradition of natural cleansing of the lower intestines. It involves the controlled use of muscles to pull water up into the colon, and then, after churning the water around to dislodge old waste products, the water, and whatever it carries off with it, is expelled. We have to admit, though, that this method of colon cleansing will appeal to an extremely small number of people.
 Fortunately, in the last few decades, there have been a number of natural health physicians interested in waste elimination. As a result, there are several methods of colon cleansing that are easier and just as thorough as basti.
 Colon cleansing can be approached from, so to speak, either the top end or the bottom end -- the mouth or the rectum.
 The simplest way of beginning colon cleansing is to add bulk to the diet. Fiber is present in all fresh, raw vegetables. Cooking softens the fiber and renders it ineffective. Dietary fiber in food is indigestible. But when present in the intestinal tract, it supports a multiplying population of intestinal bacteria, and this can be an aid in both digestion and elimination. The detoxifying powers of fiber were demonstrated in a study where rats were fed poison, and simultaneously put on a high fiber diet. These rats survived without harm, while other animals fed the same poison, but without the fiber, became ill and died.
 Many alternative health practitioners have begun to recommend adding whole psyllium husks to the diet.  Even traditional physicians generally recommend Metamucil, which is psyllium with added (unnecessary) sugar.  There are times, however, when psyllium can cause problems. First, these husks can be irritating to the intestines. There is a delicate layer of mucus membranes and villi in the small intestine.  These villi are important in the absorption of nutrients.  The psyllium husks can scrape against these finger-like villi and damage them, thus interfering with the absorption of nutrients.
 Bran is also frequently recommended as a way of increasing fiber in one’s diet.  Bran is even more irritating to the intestines than psyllium. Bran is a part of the wheat grain; it is a partial food rather than a whole food and thus can create a nutritional imbalance. Further, bran acts as an irritant to the lining of the digestive tract. The intestine, in order to rid itself of this irritant, attempts to rush the process of moving waste material through. Decreased nutrient absorption results because of the rapid transit through the tract. Further, constant use of bran can cause a chronic condition of intestinal lining irritation.
 Cleaning out the colon through the use of water injected directly into the colon most closely replicates the basti method. The water shooting through the alimentary canal acts as a gentle stimulus to dislodge old, encrusted fecal material. Methods include colonics, enemas and colemas.
 Most cities have colon therapists who specialize in helping people to know how to take care of their bowels. They also perform colonics, which is an intensive cleansing of the entire colon tract. Many people have an aversion to seeing or working with their fecal material other than at the bottom of a toilet. Colonics are sterile, painless and create an extremely thorough cleansing. This has recently become a popular method of colon cleansing.  Enemas are effective in reaching the low part of the colon, but have the disadvantage of not reaching the entire organ. Adding ingredients to the water in an enema can, however, greatly enhance its detoxifying power. Coffee enemas stimulate the liver; flaxseed tea enemas relieve the colon of inflammation; bentonite, or clay water, greatly increases the absorption of toxins from the colon walls.
 The colema board was developed more than thirty years ago by V.E. Irons. It is a home unit that combines the ease of the enema with the thoroughness of the colonic. It most closely approximates basti in that it is gentle, following the body’s own natural rhythm for retention and expulsion of water. The water enters the intestinal tract, and it is the colon's own spontaneous contractions that pushes water out. Thus, the colema works like an exercise program.  The water trains the colon to begin to correct its atrophied condition.  Because the muscles in the colon are stimulated, the colon sends messages to the rest of the body to release stored toxins and to bring them down through the normal eliminative channels.  Pockets of putrefied material embedded within the colon walls can be dislodged through the colema. We encourage the use of the colema board because the advantage of being able to do it yourself at home makes it economical and convenient, as well as effective. We consider the colema to be an essential part of any health program.

Cleaning the colon:
1) Eat flaxseed cereal: grind up 2 tablespoonfuls of flaxseed. Add yogurt, sunflower seeds and honey.
2) Eat prunes stewed in hot water
3) Do an enema, colema or colonic. Remember each has a specific effect. Choose the one that best suits your needs at that time.
4) Drink an aloe smoothie: blend one inch portion of fresh aloe leaf (with green skin on) with juice of a whole lemon, honey to taste (you’ll need lots to combat the bitter taste of the aloe skin, but the skin is the part of the leaf that has the purgative effect).
5) Herbal laxatives may be taken. Whole leaf aloe capsules are a good choice. There are many special formulations on the market. Laxatives with either senna or cascara sagrada will generally cause peristaltic cramping as they are both herbs that irritate the intestines. These  herbs should be reserved for occasional use.

 Remember that colon cleansing is a process that occurs only over time. It’s taken you a lifetime of bad eating habits to clog up your colon and it often takes many years of good colon cleansing habits to unclog your colon. Be patient with your body.

 Cleaning the skin
 One of the most wonderful things about the human body is that its largest organ is on its outside. This is, of course, the skin. Being on the outside means that the skin is ideally suited for non-invasive therapies. We can, and do automatically and continuously, both nourish and detoxify our bodies through the skin.
 The ability of the skin to accept substances and deliver them to the bloodstream is well-known, and used currently in traditional medicine. This is because the skin serves as a direct link to all the other organs. Physicians are now reviving the age-old practice of delivering medicine through the skin. Heart patients use nitroglycerin patches; cigarette smokers try to break their addiction through the use of nicotine patches. So great, in fact, is the ability of the skin to absorb substances that one drop of essential oil placed on the fingertip will show up in hair analysis ten minutes later.
 The skin's ability to excrete toxins, however, is not as emphasized. In natural health circles, the skin is referred to as the body's third lung, or third kidney. It aids tremendously in throwing off all toxins from the body. We absorb more impurities, and eliminate more waste through the skin than any other organ in our bodies (including the colon). Two pounds of waste are eliminated every day through the skin.  The skin works hand in hand with the kidneys. On hot days, we do a lot of our elimination through our skin, and our kidneys don't have to work as hard. Conversely, on cold days, our kidneys take over this function of the skin because the skin is not eliminating very much.
 The skin is often the first place that biological imbalance appears. When the other systems are overloaded in dealing with too many toxins, the skin is utilized as an organ of detoxification. Eruptions, blemishes, odors and colors may appear as the skin tries to do overtime in ridding the body of waste.

The Prescription:
 Once the skin is thoroughly cleansed, it becomes an ideal organ for the absorption of nutrients. This is the theory behind body wraps performed at day spas. In applying mud, herbs or algae to skin that is ready to receive nourishment, we are literally feeding the whole body. We’ve found two studies enlightening about the value of using the skin as an organ of absorption in the promotion of health. A study performed in Japan demonstrated that cancer growths of the skin, small intestine, stomach, lung and liver were significantly inhibited (by 75%) in mice fed green tea extracts. Researchers at Rutgers University of Medicine and Dentistry took this basic finding, replicated it and gave it a slight variation. This is when it gets really interesting. They reported that the green tea, indeed, suppressed tumor development, and that it didn't matter whether the tea was applied directly to the skin or included in the diet.
 Cleaning the skin is easy, fun and feels good.

Cleaning the skin:
1) Take a dry skin brush and brush up the front of the body and down the back. You will feel a warm glow as you help the body in sloughing off old cells and bring blood to the surface of the skin.
2) Alternating hot and cold water in a shower after the dry skin brush maximizes the effect. This hot and cold alternation exercises the tiny
muscles in the skin which control the opening and shutting of the pores.
 3) After the shower, sitting in a tub of water with either four cups of Epsom salts added or one cup of apple cider vinegar will further the
cleansing. The Epsom salts draw the toxins out; the vinegar restores the normal acid/alkaline balance to the skin.
4) To finish your skin cleansing, give your skin the best meal it could have. After you have towel-dried yourself to a warm glow, feed your skin essential oils made from the seeds of plants.

 Oils are the most concentrated form of botanical extracts. Because seeds represent the reproductive system of plants, the extracted oil feeds the human reproductive system, endocrine glands, nerves and brain (see Essential Oils and Your Immune System).

 Cleaning the lymphatic system
 Internal cleansing of the lymphatic system is essential because the lymph glands serve as one of the body's primary defense mechanisms. The lymphatic system is the only way the body has of cleansing out cellular debris that the bloodstream doesn’t take care of, such as viruses, bacteria and dust. The lymphatic glands are distributed throughout the body and serve as filters which absorb excesses of proteins.
 The lymphatic system is like the circulatory system: it moves a fluid -- which makes up about 80% of total body fluids -- throughout the body. This lymphatic fluid picks up debris as it moves along its path. Normally, excess lymphatic fluid is excreted through the skin, the kidneys and other eliminative organs.
 Unlike the circulatory system which has a pump, the heart, to keep the fluid moving, the lymphatic system has nothing to keep the fluid moving other than your own movement. Good breathing and exercise are crucial to keep this fluid going. When there is toxicity from improper diet or elimination, clothing worn too tightly, or not enough exercise, the lymphatic fluid gets blocked. The lymphatic glands then tend to swell under this toxic condition. This swelling is a sign that the body is overloaded with excess wastes.
 There are a lot of lymphatic glands around the breasts. As well, the female breast contains a lot of fatty tissue which tends to particularly accumulate toxins. The combination of these two factors is probably one reason why breast cancer is so prevalent.
 A French medical professor, Dr. Timothy Murrell, recommends regular breast stimulation to promote lymphatic drainage throughout the breast tissue. Dr. Murrell has demonstrated that nipple stimulation triggers a release of a natural compound called oxytocin. This chemical is important because as it seeps through the nipple, it carries with it a load of toxins, including DDT, PCB’s, dioxin and heavy metals. Nipple stimulation cleanses the breasts of these accumulated toxins and may go a long way toward preventing breast cancer.
 Having regular sex is, of course, a wonderful way of getting the release of oxytocin. But we can also stimulate the release of this chemical through a procedure of self-stimulation that can be performed each night before bed and takes only a few minutes.

The Prescription:
 Everyone should do a daily regimen of dry skin brushing. This brushing has a detoxifying effect that is specific to the lymphatic system. As well, jumping on a trampoline stimulates lymphatic drainage (see our chapter Newton, Einstein and Anti-Aging).
 For a more intensive lymphatic cleansing, we recommend a three-day citrus juice purge that was developed by Norman Walker. We have to take seriously anything Norman Walker had to say about health. He died at the age of 117, and was still romping around the hills of the southwest where he lived until the day he died. You will need to carve out time to do this fast, and to have no other plans for the three days. Hopefully you will be running to the bathroom quite a lot.
There is, also, a special massage technique called lymphatic drainage. This technique uses specially made gloves called Lymphatic Scrubbers. These are nylon gloves made with a rough surface that removes the layer of dead cells on top of the skin so that the skin can excrete toxins. As well, the scrubbers stimulate the lymphatic fluid that lies directly under the skin. This scrubbing is a technique that you can do to yourself with the gloves, but there are certain contraindications. Do not do this technique if you have a heart problem, have active cancer, tuberculosis, severe constipation, kidney dysfunction, or if you are menstruating.
 Finally, there is a special technique specific for lymphatic drainage of the breast.
 
 
 

Lymphatic cleansing:
1) Dry skin brush
2) Citrus purge
Begin the fast in the morning by taking either a bottle of Citrate of Magnesium or a tablespoon of either Epsom or Glauber salts dissolved in a glass of water. We find that most people prefer the Citrate of Magnesium because the taste isn't awful. Most drugstores carry it. Two hours later, or when you feel hungry, start drinking the citrus punch which is alkalizing to the body. To make the punch, mix 6 lemons, 12 oranges and 6 grapefruits in a gallon glass jar. Fill the rest of the jar with distilled water. Drink a glass of this punch every hour throughout the day, with no other drink, food or dietary supplements. If you develop any uncomfortable sensations such as headache, dizziness or nausea, feel assured these symptoms are signs that the fast is doing exactly what it is supposed to do -- cleaning out accumulated poisons from your body. This purge can be performed for one, two or three days (you get the most thorough cleansing from three days) and can be repeated every two months.  To augment the effect, you can go into a vegetable juice fast.  Do both fasts for the same amount of time.
3) Scrubbers massage
Begin with a shower or bath to make sure your skin is clean. Put 2 tablespoons of a cold-pressed vegetable oil (almond or avocado are both good) in a glass, porcelain or ceramic dish. Add a little essential oil to give your oil a scent. Then pull on your scrubbers and dip the
gloves into the oil mix. Massage gently in circles along your jaw line, cheeks, temples and forehead. Circle each place 5 times. Travel down the neck to the collarbone, still moving your massage hand in gentle circles. Circle both shoulders, each arm from shoulder to wrist, inside and outside. Circle above both breasts, on the outside of both breasts and then down the center between the breasts. Place both hands on the right side of the abdomen, fingers pointing down. Circle around the abdomen, going up under the rib cage, down the left side. Circle around the pubic area. Circle from your ankle to your groin on both legs, on both inside and outside of the legs. Circle each buttock. Circle both sides of your waist.
4) Rebounding
Jump in the morning; jump in the evening.
 

5) Breast cleansing
Lying down, raise your left arm over your head. Then gently stimulate your left nipple with your right hand by squeezing it for a couple of minutes. Then, take the lower portion of your left nipple, and move your right hand in an undulating motion, slowly moving the hand up into the armpit area. Repeat procedure with the other breast.

 The liver strengthener
 We all know the importance of the heart and take care to protect this organ. Most of us don't think too much about the liver, yet it is the liver that prevents the heart, as well as the brain, kidneys and pancreas from becoming diseased. The liver is the main organ of detoxification, and fortunately, it has developed the capacity to both break down and eliminate drugs as well as environmental poisons. The liver also metabolizes essential fats (cholesterol, triglycerides and lipoproteins) and digests and assimilates all fat-soluble nutrients such as vitamins A, D, E and K, lecithin and fatty acids. Without proper metabolization, these essential fats and fatty acids accumulate in the bloodstream where they form deposits on blood vessel walls, causing the disease atherosclerosis.

The Prescription:
 These two recipes help the liver to produce bile and keep the bile fluid.

Liver strengthener:
1) Shred 2 beets, add 2 tablespoons flaxseed oil with the juice of 1 lemon.  Eat a teaspoon every hour, 3 days a week for a month.
2) Blend 1 egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of black cherry concentrate in a cup of water. Drink three times a week.

 The liver-gall bladder flush
 The gall bladder and the liver work in concert with one another. The liver secretes bile and the gall bladder stores this bile. The bile carries off all liver wastes. Together, these two organs extract waste, and then carry the waste so that it may be eliminated through the intestines.
 It is not a normal condition for solid particles to remain in the gall bladder, but the health condition of many of us has created just this effect. The gall bladder cannot handle the elimination of solid material, so the free flow of gall bladder contents becomes diminished. The liver, then, becomes congested and cannot perform its detoxifying job. Fats, in particular, are not digested and the body suffers from the effects of poor assimilation of fat-soluble nutrients. We see this in such diverse symptoms as dry skin conditions (eczema and psoriasis), tendonitis, night blindness, hair falling out, excess calcium formation in tissues, prostate enlargement, hemorrhoids and varicose veins.

The Prescription:
 The liver/gall bladder flush was used extensively at the Lahey Clinic in Boston, Massachusetts. It successfully removes debris from the liver and gall bladder. It can be performed every two months.

The liver-gall bladder flush:
1) For 5 days, drink and eat normally, take any supplements that you are used to taking and drink as much apple juice or apple cider as you can. Of course, fresh juice is the best but not essential. Each day, add to the juice a total of 90 drops of Nutri-Phos Liquid (available at most health food stores). If you are sensitive to sugar (diabetic or hypoglycemic), simply dilute the juice with distilled water. Brush your teeth after taking the Nutri-Phos, as it is extremely acidic.
2) On the sixth day, two hours after lunch, drink 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt dissolved in 1 to 3 ounces of distilled water. This will taste awful, so wash it down with a little citrus juice (better if it’s fresh).
3) Four hours after lunch, give yourself either a colema or several clear water enemas before giving yourself a coffee enema. This will prevent the coffee enema from stirring up too many toxins.
4) For the coffee enema, make one quart of coffee from four tablespoons of coffee, and dissolve one-fourth cup of Epsom salt into the coffee. With this solution, give yourself an enema, retaining the solution for 15 minutes.
5) Five hours after lunch, repeat step 2, drinking 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt.
6) Six hours after lunch, eat as much as you want of a fresh fruit salad. Citrus fruit juice can follow the fruit meal.
7) At bedtime, drink half a cup of unrefined, organic olive oil blended with half a cup of citrus juice. After drinking this, lie in the bed on your right side with your right knee drawn to your chin for 30 minutes. This encourages the oil to drain from the stomach, moving the contents of the gall bladder and liver into the small intestine. If there is throwing up while drinking the blended oil, just continue drinking the solution until it is all down. Vomiting indicates that the gall bladder and liver have, in fact, been stimulated. It's wonderful to put a hot water bottle over your liver while you're falling asleep.
8) First thing in the morning, take either another coffee enema or repeat step 2.

 It is good to keep the diet light for the rest of this day. Eating raw foods, vegetable juices and some fermented foods would augment the flush.
 If you become nauseous, rest in bed and eat lightly until the feeling subsides.
 Don't be surprised if you find funny-looking, ball-shaped things in your stool as a result of this flush. These are the solid materials from the gall bladder which would eventually have turned into gall-stones and cause all manner of discomfort. If there're a lot of them, repeat the flush in two weeks instead of waiting the two months.

 Irrigating the nasal passages
 The nose, like the skin, attempts to keep impurities out of the body. It does this through filtering the incoming air. The nasal passages are lined with a thin layer of mucus that traps dirt, dust, pollen and other contaminants. These substances will generally move to the back of the throat, and then be swallowed, thus forcing the stomach to deal with added pollutants. Additionally, the mucus lining may become either too thick and dry, or too thin and runny. It then becomes easier for bacteria and viruses to penetrate the nasal passage. When this happens, the passages become swollen, and excess mucus is discharged because of the inflammation.
 It is a staple of folk medicine, as well as a widely practiced routine in India and other parts of the Orient, to use salt water to irrigate the nasal passages. Salt has an amazing effect on mucus. The molecules of salt are larger than the molecules of mucus. Through the process of osmosis, the salt draws mucus to it. Salt cleansing keeps the nasal passages open, draws mucus from the sinus area, and cleans and carries off impurities before the point where they are swallowed and enter the stomach.

The Prescription:
The Neti pot is a simple device used in India that resembles Aladdin’s lamp. Of course, the salt to use is Celtic salt (see our chapter, Salting Your Sugars), which should be ground first, and then dissolved in enough distilled water to fill the Neti pot. The technique is quite simple.

Irrigating the nostrils:
1) Bend the head over to one side.
2) Put the spout of the pot into the higher nostril so that it forms a seal.
3) Pour the saline solution through the nostril. When the saline solution comes out the other nostril, you'll know that the entire nasal passage has received the solution.
4) Follow this procedure for both nostrils. When you first begin this practice, you may have a lot of mucus that is becoming dislodged. Your nose may well run for a few minutes.

 Regular use of the Neti pot will give your breathing a lighter feeling. We've seen people who have had deviated septums from broken noses and who haven't breathed well for years benefit from the Neti pot. You can use it in the morning just to start the day with clear breathing. When you have a cold or allergy, you can use it several times a day. It's particularly good to use it in the dead of winter and the height of summer if you use air conditioning because both heated and air conditioned rooms dry out the mucus lining of the nose.

II. FOOD FOR THOUGHT WHILE WE'RE THINKING ABOUT FOOD

Making Your Kitchen a Medicine Cabinet

 The Japanese have a saying: Ishoken Dogen. It means that medicine and food have the same source. Nature has a cure for just about everything. We've found some sure-fire remedies using common substances found in most kitchens that relieve the most common ailments:

Food as medicine:
cough: chop an onion and pour honey over it. Let sit for an hour. The cough syrup will be the liquid made.
cold sores: cover the cold sore with yogurt, the longer the better. Leave the yogurt on until the sore disappears.
eye sties: cover the affected eye with a wet tea bag and bandage it in place. Leave it on overnight and, by morning the sty will have disappeared.
something in the eye: mince an onion and let the tears wash away whatever is in the eye.
poison ivy: crush several cloves of garlic and apply juice to affected area. Cover with gauze and repeat each hour 5 times. The itching and inflammation will dissipate almost immediately.
food poisoning: eat a clove of garlic every hour until pain and/or diarrhea are resolved.
aching feet: rub cayenne pepper into the soles of your feet. Voila; this is an instant cure.
headache: fill the bathtub with ice-cold water and walk back and forth in it until your feet feel warm. Then hop into bed and relax.
hiccups: inhale a little pepper -- enough to make you sneeze a few times. Sneezing almost always makes hiccups go away.
nausea: take a few cloves of garlic, a piece of cinnamon or a teaspoonful of powdered ginger in boiling water, let it steep, then drink.
earache: put 4 drops of onion juice in a container with 1 teaspoonful of warm olive oil. Put in ear 3 drops morning and evening until the earache goes away. To keep the oil in the ear, put cotton into ear.
Alternatively, sauté garlic in olive oil (as if you were about to make an Italian meal), and use the oil as your drops.
fever: bind sliced onions or garlic cloves to the bottoms of your feet. Your temperature will drop, and your breath will smell of the onion or garlic. (This is to be used only when the fever is uncomfortably high. Fever is an important aspect of the functioning of the immune system, and that you should say a prayer of gratitude when you get a fever. Fever is actually a prophylactic against cancer.)
asthma and bronchitis: 3 to 6 fresh or dried (unsulphured) apricots a day helps to correct lung and bronchial problems. Alternatively, crush several cloves of garlic and mix with honey, vinegar and raw flaxseed. Take a teaspoon of this several times a day.
impotence: eat tons of raw garlic. And make sure your partner likes the smell of garlic.
nosebleed: use your thumb and forefinger to pinch your nose right below the hard, bony part. Keep it pinched for 7 minutes.
having a bad day: eat some bananas. They have high amounts of serotonin and norepinephrine; these are the same chemicals they use in anti-depressants and which scientists have established helps to relieve depression.
hay fever: chew a bite-size chunk of honeycomb with the honey at the beginning of the attack. Keep chewing the comb until it turns into a ball of wax (at least 15 minutes). Sneezing and sniffles will be alleviated.

 There are certain foods that are so powerful in their nutritional value that they should be included as regular contributors to any health program. Of course, you won’t want to take each of them every day, but do make sure that you get regular exposure to these foods.

 Grape juice, not wine and not aspirin to lower your cholesterol
 By now everyone's heard that you can lower your cholesterol, and thus presumably reduce your chances of heart-attack by drinking wine. You may have heard about it on 20-20 on television; they reported that the French had a real health secret in loving their wine.  But the thinking person may wonder if wine, why not grape juice which has the advantage of being non-alcoholic? Recent research at Cornell University shows this thinking to be on the right track. The protective ingredient is resveratrol. Researchers now know that it is a naturally-occurring fungicide found in grape skins that is part of the plant's immune system: it helps the plant resist disease. In fact, grape juice is a more dependable source of resveratrol than wine. Wines differ in their levels because most inexpensive wines go through a process which removes tannins to make the wine less astringent. This same process, however, also removes the beneficial resveratrol. You can get a lot of resveratrol from expensive wines because they are aged naturally which removes the tannins naturally, but not the resveratrol. But the juice is the best source -- better even than the grapes themselves. Table grapes are usually picked from the best-looking grapes. Grapes grown for their looks are treated with more liberal amounts of chemical fungicides, thus reducing the plant’s need to produce its own fungicide in the form of the resveratrol. This is true for organic grapes as well because organic grapes are often treated with organic fungicides.
Recent researchers have now abandoned the wine connection and gone straight to the resveratrol connection with disease.  As the result of research published in the journal, Science, we now know that resveratrol can prevent cells from turning cancerous and can inhibit the spread of cells that already are malignant.
 As for the aspirin/heart disease connection: the discovery was made by John Folts, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin. However, as a result of new research, Dr. Folts has determined that grape flavonoids are more effective than aspirin in preventing heart disease.
You can find resveratrol in 70 different plants including mulberries and peanuts, but grapes are the richest source. But, to get the full power of the grape cure, you must take the whole grape, seed and fruit together. It’s difficult to get a therapeutic dose from your garden variety grape, so we recommend the soul grape, which is a young wild-growing grape that has not yet sugared. As Dr. Michael Wargovich, a cancer researcher at M.D. Anderson says, the discovery of resveratrol and the benefits of grapes "really hits a home run against cancer (and heart disease)."

Bee products
 One of the great things about bees is that they’re everywhere. This is particularly important because bee products -- honey, pollen, propolis and royal jelly -- are best when they come from your vicinity. Your local bees know your environment and their food reflects this knowledge.  Also, never use dried bee products.  The oils have been removed, rendering them a useless food.
 Honey is rich in vitamins and minerals and easily digested. It is antiseptic and was found in an Egyptian tomb 3300 years old in exactly the same condition as when it was put there. It is a natural diuretic, relieves asthmatic attacks, is an all-round energy food and is exceptionally good for the heart. It soothes pain and aids in healing, especially burns. Hospitals in England use it in dressings. We recommend avoiding orange and alfalfa honey because we find that people have developed allergies to these honeys, probably as a result of the sprays on the flower blossoms. We favor the dark honeys. Also, since heating honey changes its property, it's best to use it only raw.
 Pollen is the male seed of flowers. It is an amazing food. It is a complete food that provides all the nutrients necessary for the sustenance of human life, including the complete list of amino acids. Dozens of studies around the world have proven that it can reverse disease and chemical deficiencies. As well, it has a high concentration of the nucleic acids, RNA and DNA, which makes it an anti-aging food.
Propolis is the sticky resin that exudes from the buds of certain trees. The bees gather it and bring it back to their hive and use it like we use caulk -- to plug up holes or unwanted openings to the outside. Propolis is antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral. It is so powerful as a fighter against microbes that the Russians have done extensive research on it as an alternative to antibiotics and refer to it as "the Russian penicillin." As well, propolis regulates hormones. Finally, propolis effects the process of mitosis -- cell division. Since cancer is essentially a disease of too much cell division, researchers feel that propolis has promise as an anti-carcinogen.
 Royal jelly is the royal milk that is fed to the Queen bee. It is rich in natural hormones, vitamins A, B, C and E. It has 20 amino acids; fatty acids; gelatin, which is a precursor of collagen which is itself an anti-aging element; gamma globulin, an infection-fighting and immuno-stimulating factor; decanoic acid, which is a natural antibiotic; acetylcholine, which is important in the transmission of nerve impulses; and nucleic acids, RNA and DNA. All these properties make it one of the most powerful healing foods on earth, restoring youth and vigor as well as reversing disease processes.

 And, speaking of sweet, try Stevia
 If you've never heard of Stevia, we won't be surprised. This is because its importation into the States was banned by the FDA from 1991 to 1995. It's only recently become available. Your local health food store may not carry it yet, but you can encourage them to find a supplier.
 Stevia is a little known, natural sweetener which is quite remarkable for much more than its sweetening abilities.
 Stevia comes from a plant -- the Stevia Rebaudiana, which is in the chrysanthemum family. Stevia is 30 times sweeter than white sugar, yet non-fattening. It has no side-effects and is fully safe for diabetics to use. In fact, in South America where the plant is cultivated, it is used as a treatment for both diabetes and hypertension.
 Its taste is absolutely unique and changes from moment to moment. Along with its sweetness there is also a slight bitter taste which gives way to a licorice taste. Both the bitterness and licorice taste disappear when the Stevia is diluted in either water or other liquid prior to use.
 You can use the whole leaf product or a Japanese product  called Stevioside which consists of just the sweet glycosides refined out. For use as a sweetener, the Stevioside works fine but it is devoid of the health-enhancing effects of the real thing. For the health benefits, you will need to find either a whole-leaf Stevia product or a water-based (not alcohol-based) Stevia extract.
 Research shows a number of great effects from Stevia. It regulates blood sugar. It lowers blood pressure but does not effect normal blood pressure. It inhibits the growth of some bacteria and infectious organisms, including the bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease. Users of Stevia products report a lower incidence of colds and flu as well as improvement in tooth and gum health. It improves digestion and gastrointestinal function and soothes upset stomachs. It is reported by users that it reduces the desire for tobacco and alcoholic beverages.
 Among Stevia's most effective uses is its exceptional quality as a weight loss and weight management product. It contains no calories. It increases glucose tolerance and inhibits glucose absorption. If it is consumed every day, there will be a marked decrease in the desire for sweets and fatty foods.
If you can find premium quality pulverized Stevia leaves in a tea bag, you can use the tea as a sweet liquid for cooking and baking. Or tear the tea bags open and sprinkle the leaves over cereals, salads or vegetables. Both the natural flavor as well as the nutritional benefit of the food will be enhanced.

 The sweet smell of garlic
 Garlic has a long and honorable history of being used medicinally. It is mentioned in the Talmud as a parasite killer. In the Middle Ages, it was used to fight the plague. In the 19th century, Pasteur showed that it obliterated microbes. We know today that it helps to neutralize the toxicity of ultraviolet radiation. It’s a good idea to eat three cloves before each airplane flight.
 Garlic lowers blood pressure by thinning the blood, and lowers blood lipids such as triglycerides and cholesterol. It prevents sticky blood platelets from lumping together, which can lead to a stroke or heart attack. It's a much better choice for this effect than aspirin. German researchers have shown that garlic delays the stiffening of arteries, which, until recently, was considered to be an inevitable consequence of aging.
 One of the compounds in garlic, diallyl sulfide, has been shown to inhibit tumor formation in animals at both the Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston, Texas and at New York University Medical Center. Studies performed at China’s Medical Research Institute in Tianjin, China show that cancer deaths in countries where garlic is a staple are nearly 10 times lower than elsewhere. Researchers speculate that diallyl sulfide enables the liver to detoxify cancer-causing chemicals. It is likely that the bioflavonoids in garlic also play a role in cancer inhibition. This substance found in cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts has been proven to be effective against cancer. One other garlic compound, ajoene, seems to have the power to specifically target malignant cells for destruction. It has been seen to be twice as toxic to malignant cells as to normal cells.
 The compound allicin gives garlic an antibiotic effect. It makes garlic one of the most powerful antibiotics we have. This tuber saved thousands of soldiers' lives in World War 1 when their wounds were wrapped in garlic-soaked bandages. Allicin has been shown to hinder more than 23 kinds of bacteria, and at least 60 types of fungi and yeast, including candida albicans and salmonella.
 One study found garlic to be effective in increasing the potency of the immune system in AIDS patients. T-cell counts and macrophages were returned to normal after 10 weeks of garlic in AIDS patients.
 Raw garlic is the best garlic to use -- not powders, salts, or even cooked. The volatile oils of garlic are fragile; even light cooking destroys the antibiotic effect of the allicin. If you want to use it in cooking, peel it and let it sit out for 15 minutes. Recent research shows that when garlic is peeled an enzyme is released that begins a series of chemical reactions that create anticancer effects. While heating inactivates the enzyme, all it needs is a short 15 minutes and then it’s there even after you heat. Raw garlic is a wonderful addition to carrot juice. It adds a real zing. A clove a day is good protection.
 It’s best to eat raw garlic with fatty foods such as cheese, olive oil or avocados. The fat coats the stomach, reducing the irritating effects of the garlic on the stomach as well as trapping the volatile oils.
And yes, you will smell. But chlorophyll is the antidote. Chew on a sprig of parsley, or drink some chlorophyll water.

 Goat, not cow
 Truly, there was a man, George Sturdel, who lived on goat milk -- just goat milk, nothing but goat milk -- for over thirty years. So chock full of vital elements, it makes a complete food. Bernard Jensen has used it for years as a healing tonic and feels that it restores health like no other food. He used it to restore his vitality after developing cancer and fasting for six months on carrot juice and water. He was experiencing excruciating pain in his hip until he began drinking freshly drawn, raw, unpasteurized goat milk. After just four days on the goat milk, he was totally pain-free.
 To get the best therapeutic value out of goat milk, it needs to be raw. One of its constituents that is the most effective for health and rebuilding is fluorine. Fluorine is unstable and destroyed by heat.
 Goat milk has greater amounts of vitamin A, B and niacin than cow milk. Goat milk is higher than cow milk in minerals, calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus,