Ebook 37392715

How to have the BEST odds of
Avoiding
Degenerative
Disease
The Operation and Maintenance
Manual for Human Beings
How to give yourself the best chance of

avoiding unnecessary disease, needless
suffering, and premature death, and how to
feel better than you ever thought possible.
Don Bennett, DAS

Layout and Design: KayLastima Concepts
Cover Concept: KayLastima Designs
Copyright: © 2006 KayLastima Publishing Company

First Edition, June 2006
ISBN: #-####-####-#
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced by any means, except for brief quotations
accompanied by credit, without express written consent of
the author. The eighteen articles that appear at the end of
this book are the exception; you may freely copy and
distribute them provided the author’s name and website
are included.
Table of Contents
Dedication, Thanks, and a Warning .......................................1
Foreword ............................................................................2
Preface ...............................................................................3
Why I Wrote this Book ........................................................4
Introduction .......................................................................5
An Important Note about Reality...........................................7
A Disclaimer Wor th Reading .................................................9
CHAPTERS
1. How Healthy Do You Want to Be? ................................. 11
2. Disease: Prevention vs Avoidance.................................. 15
3. Healthful Practices: Opinion or Fact ............................... 20
4. Dealing with Conflicting Info and Controversies ................. 22
5. Health 101 ...................................................................... 24
6. The “Basics of Health” .................................................. 30
7. Knowledge is Power? ....................................................... 33
8. Basics of Health – Diet ................................................. 36
9. Basics of Health – Physical Activity .............................. 103
10. Basics of Health – Water............................................. 122
11. Basics of Health – Sunshine ....................................... 127
12. Basics of Health – Toxin Avoidance ............................. 132
13. Basics of Health – Sleep ............................................. 137
14. Basics of Health – Stress Management......................... 143
15. Basics of Health – Education ....................................... 146
16. Most Often Asked Questions ...................................... 157
17. Food for Thought ...................................................... 169
18. In Conclusion............................................................. 186
APPENDICES
Appendix A – About the Author......................................... 188
Appendix B – Continuing Education ................................... 189
Appendix C – Resources .................................................. 195
Appendix D – Author’s Favorite Quotes .............................. 196
Appendix E – Experts’ Erroneous Notions........................... 199
Appendix F – Health Assurance Policy ............................... 210
Appendix G – Thought-Provoking Articles........................... 211
Special Features of this e-Book
By clicking the “Bookmarks” tab to the left, you can quickly
navigate to a specific section, chapter, appendix, or even to one of
the 18 articles in Appendix G, in addition to a few other places in
the book that I felt were appropriate to bookmark. Also, the blue
bookmarks are links that will take you to a webpage if you are on-
line (connected to the Internet).
All of the underlined text in this e-book is a link to a webpage.

When you “mouse-over” this text with your pointer it will change
from a to a . If you are on-line, clicking the link should open
your browser and take you to a webpage... and since there are over
70 clickable website addresses, this is a nice little feature!
Also, using the Ctrl+F keys you can search for specific words in
the blink of an eye. Or click Edit and then Find on the menu bar.
Text styles used throughout this book
To help you distinguish who’s “speaking” as you read

through this book, different fonts (type-faces) were used.
The author used this style font, and it’s the one you’ll see most often.
Quotes from other contributors in the book use this style font,
and this font also (which is an italicized version of the above).
The eighteen articles written by the author that appear in Appendix G

use this “standard article” font.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my Mom, who taught me, by example,
the importance of speaking out when something needs to be said,
even if it won’t be popularly received.
Thanks
I wish to express my gratitude to all the pioneers of the science
of healthful living, and their modern-day counterparts, who have
helped bring to light what it means to be human as it regards health.
Thank you to Esther Joy for her invaluable copyediting skills, and my
sincerest thanks to Michelle for her ever-present encouragement and
support; a true friend is indeed the rarest of all blessings.
Warning
This book contains some hard-hitting, honest, straightforward
information. You will not find any sugarcoated, sanitized, tell-’em-
what-they-want-to-hear journalism. This book is for those who want
to raise their level of awareness, and know what’s really going on,
and how it affects their most valuable possession; their health.
“The real voyage of discovery lies not

in seeking new landscapes, but in
having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust
1
Foreword
By Professor Rozalind A. Gruben-Graham
There is a distinct difference between sensationalism and the

sharing of stark truths. The former is a deliberate distortion of reality
in order to bring about a desired response. The latter is an authentic
communication in the pursuit of honesty. Evidence that our personal
day-to-day habits are by far the greatest influence in sculpting our
health has been collected, documented, and largely kept hidden from
the public eye.
For decades, any meaningful information relating to diet and
lifestyle's influence on human health has been trickling down from the
scientific community as diluted drops of valueless advice, while stark
truths accounting for the causes of all types of diseases, from the
degenerative to the acute, have been aggressively guarded.
By keeping these truths under bureaucratic lock and key, medical
professionals are assured that we will continue to rely upon them for
our healthcare, and spend billions of dollars each year on drugs,
surgery, and other invasive procedures. As long as we remain in the
dark, we enable medical researchers to perpetually secure billions of
dollars in grant money from pharmaceutical companies and other
healthcare-related industries. The irony is that much of the research
being carried out is for the purpose of finding cures for diseases that
can be prevented.
The evolution of westernized people has resulted in most of us
having strayed so far from our natural instincts, common sense, and
innate body wisdom that we have become disempowered to the point
of seeing life as a continual struggle to avoid suffering. We have
become totally dependent upon an invasive, aggressive, and illogical
system for our physical survival. But a few brave visionaries have
dared to defy the medical and pharmaceutical dictators, offering the
only real escape route from the clutches of drug and knife. Such
revolutionary thinkers have arisen from the ashes of pain and
suffering, flung open the windows, and let the light of truth flood into
the darkest recesses of our diseased society. A few of them have been
met with mere distain, while many have been subjected to ridicule,
violence, and ostracism.
The book you’re reading is a courageous attempt from one
exceptionally brilliant man to offer you stark truths about your health.
2
What is offered within these pages is not sensationalism of a radical
philosophy, but a sincere attempt to contribute to the healing of our
world. The words contained within were born from one man's
passion; a passion that ignited in his heart upon discovering
fundamental natural laws which, if honored, hold the secret key to
your personal health liberation and the survival of our species.
Preface
The main purpose of this book is to acquaint you with the things
a human being requires to experience vibrant health, and with the
things a human being requires to have the best odds of avoiding
degenerative disease. You will likely find this book to be thought-
provoking, and it will no doubt challenge some of your long-held
beliefs. This is a good thing, especially if those beliefs are based on
false and/or misleading information; in-other-words, beliefs that are
not in your best interest, health-wise. If you can temporarily suspend
any disbelief you may experience while reading this book, and read
what follows with an open mind, you’ll be able to take advantage of
the enlightening and empowering information contained within. On
the other hand, if after getting through a few chapters, you lose
interest and stop reading this book, you will have made those who
fear independent thought, and those who profit at the expense of ill-
health, very happy. But if you can come to embrace some of the
views of healthful living outlined in this book, you’ll be very happy.
“Be not the slave of your own past – plunge

into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim
far, so you shall come back with new self-
respect, with new power, and with an
advanced experience that shall explain and
overlook the old.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
3
Why I Wrote This Book
At the conclusion of many of my lectures and classes I was often
told, “You should write a book.” Unlike many writers, there was no
inner force driving me to write this book; I much prefer presenting
this information in person. But after hearing the above suggestion
enough times, I got the message – a book would help get my
message out to a larger audience... so here it is!
But ultimately my motivation for doing what I do, whether
through my writings or my talks, is this: I don’t like seeing people
being taken advantage of. I had a taste of this as a child, and I didn’t
enjoy it. And I couldn’t relate to those who took advantage of others.
How could they do it? I would never do it. Was I being judgmental?
Was it simply a matter of “to each their own”? Well, no, it wasn’t,
because behaving this way harmed other people, so it was wrong;
period. It doesn’t matter if it’s one person taking advantage of
another, or if it’s an industry of people taking advantage of a nation
of people… it’s wrong. And if what you lost was just some dollars, it
wouldn’t be all that bad; money comes and goes. But if what you lost
was your health, your ability to be happy, and some of your lifespan,
THAT’S unforgivable! So with that in mind, I penned this book. And
my hope is that it will help you recognize when you’re being taken
advantage of at the expense of your health.
I also don’t like being lied to. Untruthful information makes it
impossible to make decisions that are in my best interest. And I don’t
like seeing other people being given false information either. The
person giving it to you may believe it’s true, and may honestly have
your best interest at heart, but if the information is false, it’s
potentially harmful. You’ll find this book filled with both fact and
fiction. The good news is, they are labeled accordingly.
“A lie travels around the world while

the truth is putting on its boots.”
Winston Churchill
4
Introduction
Animals in Nature don’t need an instruction book to know how to
live so that they can be vibrantly healthy. Their health is a product of
their environment, and since they don’t have free-will, their instincts
will guide them accordingly. So as long as they remain in their
biological “eco-niche”, and get enough to eat without being eaten,
barring accidents (and human intervention), they’ll most likely live
out their longevity potentials in reasonably robust health.
But when you take an animal out of its natural environment, and
place it in an unnatural environment, all bets are off; his hardwired
instincts will be of little help. Look at what happens when other
animal species live in our society. They no longer get to eat what
they would in Nature, very often their ability to be physically active is
hampered, and there may be some stress associated with not being
able to roam as they would in their natural habitat. The end result is,
they’re not as healthy as they could be. One only needs to look at
the abundance of animal hospitals, veterinarians, and services that
automatically mail your pet’s medications to you on a monthly basis,
to see that domesticated animals suffer from many of the same
diseases we do... diseases they would not suffer from in the wild.
PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE DEER

They are wild animals, not pets or domestic animals,
and they experience problems when they are given
foods that they would not encounter in nature.
Sign at Redtop Mountain State Park, Acworth, Georgia
In a sense, today’s human beings are not unlike the domesticated

animals we live with; we no longer roam the great outdoors, finding
our food where it grows, and getting plenty of physical activity, fresh
air, clean water, and sunshine in the process. But that’s what we’re
designed to do! So unless we find a way to approximate that behavior
in our current culture, “bio-logic” dictates that our health will suffer
accordingly. And the consequence of our living in an unnatural
environment is evidenced by today’s ever increasing ill-health.
5
Humans are a very programmable species. Unlike other animals,
we don’t come into this world knowing what we need to do to
survive. If our parents abandoned us at birth, and we were left to
fend for ourselves, we’d be goners. We need to be raised; to be
patterned. We learn by observing the actions of others, and
mimicking what we observe. This serves us well when what we
experience is health-enhancing behavior. But if the programming we
receive from our parents, peers, and the media cultivates habits
within us that erode the vibrant health we were born with, and
promote ill-health as we age, then we truly need a “maintenance
manual” if we want to be able to take advantage of our health
potential.
What we really need to be healthy is a healthy dose of reality.
Just keep in mind that it may be hard to swallow because of how
you’ve been conditioned.
“One sees what one wants to see when there is

in mind a pre-conceived notion... A fervently
believed idea, even if wrong, dies hard.”
Hal Hellman
6
An Important Note about Reality
When comedian Robin Williams said, “Reality; what a concept!” it
got me thinking. When we think in terms of how a person looks at
life, we often classify them as either an optimist or a pessimist. But
there’s a third category; not as emotionally stimulating as the other
two, but a real way of looking at things never-the-less. It’s called
being a realist. And although realists are not fun to converse with if
they rock your boat-of-beliefs, if you want to base your beliefs on the
truth, realists are precisely the people you want to cozy up to.
So let’s get real for a moment. If you’re not living in the real
world, you’re living in a ________ world; fill in the blank. Fantasy can
be far more enjoyable than reality; just ask anyone who’s spent time
at Disneyland. But eventually you’ve got to get in your car and head
back to the real world. Reality is where your liver, brain, blood, and
intestines live. Your emotional “heart” may be elsewhere, but the
heart that pumps blood all day exists in the real world. Indeed, every
cell of your body is subject to the physical laws of Nature, and
although your state of mind influences their operation to a degree,
making believe you don’t have cancer if you have it isn’t the best
remedial route to take if you want to be healthy.
If you want to have the best odds of living a happy and healthy
life, you need to be a realist when it comes to your health. I mention
this because much of the information most people have regarding
health and diet comes from a fantasy world; a world where you can
have your cake and eat it too; literally. In that world, it’s a fact that
you can eat whatever you want, and lose weight. In the real world
however, this is fiction. Oh you will lose weight, but you’ll lose it
along with your health. That’s the reality of it. You can choose not to
believe the reality part, but your health will follow the laws of Nature
regardless of whose information you follow.
This book is for those who want to know the realities of health.
It’s for those who want to know the truth “though the heavens may
fall”, meaning you may not always like what you hear; indeed, a lot
of what you’ll discover will tick you off. But no one likes being taken
advantage of. And when you realize this has happened to you, and
it’s at the expense of your health, and it was for the sake of profit, it
should frost your cookies.
7
This enlightening information would be frustrating if you didn’t
know what you could do about it, so the goal of this book is to be
both informative and educational. You’ll be empowered to be able to
adjust aspects of your life for the better… for your benefit, not the
benefit of some industry’s financial bottom line.
“Reality isn't the way you wish things

to be, nor the way they appear to be,
but the way they actually are.”
Robert J. Ringer
8
A Disclaimer Wor th Reading
First, why the need for a disclaimer? The information shared with
you via this book threatens the financial bottom lines and power
bases of certain industries, associations, and organizations. And if
you think they would sit idly by when someone has any significant
success in helping others regain and maintain their health naturally,
you’d be mistaken. Therefore...
Based on my experiences, the experiences of many others, much
empirical evidence, basic physiology, nutritional information
regarding the use of plant-based foods in the human diet, and
(un)common sense, it is my opinion and my firmly held belief that
living in harmony with Nature is a path towards restoring and
maintaining good health, and is a way to live to your health and
longevity potentials. I also believe it is the most effective
preventative measure for maintaining vibrant health and avoiding
disease, and that it is the best “health insurance” you can have.
That being said, the sentiments expressed herein are my opinion,
and the opinions of those I’ve quoted, and the reader would be wise
to question and verify everything for him or her self.
I do not claim to cure disease. I believe only a properly nourished
body that is still capable of healing can cure disease. I am not
offering or dispensing “medical advice”. I would not practice medicine
without a license, nor with a license for that matter (in my opinion,
for the most part, the current medical model doesn’t help people heal
from their health problems, nor does it help people prevent getting
sick in the first place, it mostly manages their symptoms...
emergency, poison, burn, and trauma medical care not included).
If you have specific health challenges, or you simply want to get
another opinion regarding the effectiveness of the information
contained herein, you may want to seek the counsel of a “qualified
healthcare professional”. It is up to you to define that term, as you
are the one that is ultimately responsible for your health, and you are
the one that must live with the consequences of your decisions. If you
believe your health problem is a “medical problem”, then you may
want to see a “medical doctor”. If you believe your health problem
would best be served by seeking the counsel of people either instead
of or in addition to a medical doctor, that decision is up to you.
9
For what it’s worth, the statements made in this book have not
been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The
information and products mentioned in this book are not intended to
diagnose or treat any disease. While it is the purpose of this book to
share information that may improve your quality-of-life, there may be
aspects of your health that could be adversely affected by the use of
this information. I make every effort to state warnings where
something may adversely affect your health, but use common sense
if you are taking any medications which may interact with anything
mentioned in this book, or if you have any conditions which may be
adversely affected by the use of the products or information
mentioned in this book.
It is your right to use the information contained in this book, in
any of the books that are mentioned herein, or from the
health101.org website, without the approval of anyone but yourself,
assuming you are of the “age of consent”, and that you have not
signed away this right knowingly and willingly via a legal document.
Obviously the use of this information is at your own risk, but its use
may be to your benefit as well.
(Now here’s the stuff written by the lawyers.) Liability: Neither
health101.org, the publisher, Don Bennett, nor any third party
involved in the creation of this book, will be liable under any theory
for any incidental, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of
the reader’s access to, or use of, the information obtained from this
book, or from any of the other writings of Don Bennett.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The above relates to human law, which very often can be broken
without punishment; Nature’s laws however can never be broken
without paying a price.
The Natural Laws of Health: Laws which so necessarily agree with the
nature and state of human beings, that without observing their maxims,
the highest vitality and happiness of a person can never be created or
maintained. Knowledge of the Natural Laws of Health may be attained
merely by the light of reason (by a mind unencumbered by harmful
sociological programming), and from the facts, and of their essential
agreeableness with the constitution of human nature (physiology,
anatomy, biology).
10
1
How Healthy Do You Want to Be?
If there’s one thing that has amazed me about human nature,
it’s the vastly different degrees to which people value their health.
For some, it’s one of their highest priorities, while others couldn’t
care less.
Obviously this book is for those who do care. But it’s important
that you understand why some people care very little about their
health, because as you make health-enhancing adjustments to your
lifestyle, those people are going to take notice, and they may see
your new lifestyle habits as a condemnation of their own, even
though you haven’t said a word to them about what you’re doing.
I’ve met people who lead miserable lives, and wouldn’t consider
doing anything that would prolong their unhappy existence. And I’ve
met people who were in love with life; who cherished every minute,
and these folks were all ears when it came to hearing of ways to be
healthier. Think of the difference like this: Have you ever been at a
party where you were having the absolute worst time? It wasn’t so
bad that you’d leave the party prematurely, but the end of the party
couldn’t come soon enough. This is in contrast to being at a party
where you’re having an absolutely marvelous time, and you don’t
want it to ever end. The sad truth is, some people are just not
“enjoying the party”; and you may think this is simply a psychological
issue, but your physical state of health greatly affects your emotional
state of health.
The Mind-Body Connection gets a lot of press. You can’t pick up
an alternative health magazine without finding an article about how
your state of mind affects your physical health. But what about its
counterpart, the Body-Mind Connection? It plays just as big a role,
but we don’t hear much about it.
Your physical health greatly affects your emotional well-being;
more than most people realize. But the pharmaceutical industry
would rather you control your emotional state with drugs, and the
food industry would rather you alter your mood with food (grain
products contain opioids, dairy products contain caso-morphine,
1. How Healthy Do You Want To Be? 11

and there’s a substance in chocolate that can make you feel like
you’re in love). But these methods negatively affect your physical
health, which in turn negatively affects your emotions, which makes
you gravitate towards mood altering foods and pharmaceuticals; a
vicious cycle, but one that’s very profitable for certain industries.
If you want to be able to experience your “happiness potential”,
there’s one thing you must do: become physically healthy. I’ve had
experience with many people who’ve modified the way they lived in
order to deal with a serious health problem, and who invariably
reported the side benefit of being happier, less stressed, less snippy,
more tolerant (of things like being stuck in traffic and “the kids”),
and this emotional change for the better was not merely as a result
of being glad they were no longer plagued with a health problem.
The less irritated the body is, the less irritable you will be. The less
burdened the body is, the less burdened you will feel. Make no
mistake about it, these things go hand-in-hand.
Ever notice how easy it is to make some babies smile, and how
other babies are cranky a lot? The easy-to-smile and laugh state of
being is our normal state. But if that baby is irritated on the inside,
he will be irritated emotionally. Try this exercise: Think back to a time
when you laughed heartily. Now, in your mind, go back to the moment
just before you laughed, but this time you’ve got a headache, a
toothache, and you just hit your thumb with a hammer. And now
here comes the funny thing that made you laugh… Did you laugh this
time? This illustrates how your physical state affects your emotional
state. As your body’s health goes, so goes your emotional health.
Other aspects of the physical realm that directly affect mood are:
not enough sunshine, being sub-clinically dehydrated, nutrient
deficiencies, not enough physical activity, and consuming hormones
which cause hormonal imbalances. These will be covered in later
chapters.
So if the people who are not currently “enjoying the party” could
be made to understand the Body-Mind Connection, and they possess
the wisdom and wherewithal to make adjustments in their lifestyle
habits, they would then have the opportunity to be at a party they
hope never ends.
There’s another category of individual, one who definitely enjoys
life, but doesn’t give a rat’s rump about his health. These folks
couldn’t imagine living without their beer, cigarettes, burgers, ice

cream, coffee, donuts, recreational drugs, etc. And they are being
perfectly honest with you when they tell you that they know their
lifestyle will kill them prematurely, and that this is fine-‘n-dandy with
them. Although I personally can’t relate to their way of living, I
respect their decision to live the way they do because they are not
fooling themselves into thinking they can burn the candle at both
ends and it won’t affect their health.
My experience has been that when you become healthy, those
mood-altering items mentioned above make you feel worse instead
of better. To say that when you regain vibrant health you can then be
“high on life” wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Hard to imagine? Of
course it is... until you experience it.
And let’s not forget about those who simply believe it (disease)
won’t happen to them. Children’s subconscious feeling of immortality
lets them do some very unwise things, but they (hopefully) learn
from their unwise decisions. Some adults are no more than children
in older bodies. And even if presented with compelling evidence of
the health-damaging effects of holding a cell phone up to their head,
they’ll dismiss the information out-of-hand and continue the practice
because that’s what they want to do. The problem is, learning from
these kinds of unwise decisions may include needless suffering and
premature death... and that’s one heck of a serious lesson.
It may feel nice to have an optimistic outlook and believe “it”
won’t happen to you, but realistically, unless you’re doing what’s
necessary to support your belief, it’s nothing more than wishful
thinking. And in my experience, those who have this unrealistically
optimistic outlook, and won’t listen to anything having to do with
healthful-living habits, are very similar to the type of individual
mentioned above who knows that their lifestyle choices are going to
do them in, except that these folks are not being honest with
themselves.
You DO Have a Choice!

Let’s take a survey. If you had a choice, what would you rather
die of: A) accident, B) degenerative disease, or C) natural causes (old
age in reasonably good health)? Everyone picks C, but they’re quick
to say that this is a silly survey because most people today die from
a disease. And the Center for Disease Control (CDC) would confirm
that. Hardly anyone is dying from old age anymore. But there was a

time when many people did! There was a time when “natural causes”
was on the CDC’s “Top 20 Causes of Death” list, but not anymore.
Why not? It’s no longer “statistically significant”. And that’s sad. But
the survey did say, “If you had a choice...” and the fact is, you DO
have a choice; you DON’T have to die from a degenerative disease
(but you wouldn’t think so by looking at today’s society). If you chose
choice C you’ll love this book because it will help you achieve that
most valuable commodity: vibrant health.
All or Nothing at All?

This book wasn’t written to give you better odds of avoiding
degenerative disease, it was written to give you the best odds. But
must you embrace all the healthful-living practices outlined in this
book? Of course not. There are some folks who, for one reason or
another, will adopt some healthful habits, but not all; and their health
will improve proportionally. The more healthy lifestyle habits you
embrace, the healthier you will be and the better your chances of
avoiding disease. And although what you’re willing to do plays a part
in your decisions, remember, how much you do should depend
heavily on how healthy and disease-free you desire to be. Being that
old habits die hard, make sure your desires drive your decisions,
because that will give you the best chance of achieving your health-
improvement goals.
“Your soul will shout for joy and triumph

over all misery of life, leaving it all behind
you. For the first time you will feel a
vibration of vitality through your body that
shakes you delightfully”.
Arnold Ehret commenting on the benefits of
regaining your health through healthy living.

2
Disease: Prevention vs Avoidance
Mmmm, a sunny day, comfortable temperatures, fresh air; feels
good, doesn’t it? But could you enjoy beautiful weather if you had a
migraine headache, a tooth that needed a root canal, arthritis,
asthma, and you were undergoing kidney dialysis, chemotherapy,
and were on 12 different medications? Probably not.
As I pointed out in the previous chapter, the healthier you are
physically, the easier it is to enjoy life. I just wanted to re-plant that
thought in your mind so you would keep it close at hand while you
ponder this very important chapter.
First, let’s take another survey: Please pick one...
A. I’d rather get cancer and try and get rid of it.
B. I’d rather not get cancer in the first place.
Everyone answers “B”; it’s a no-brainer. But what is the best way to
achieve this most worthy goal? There are many differing opinions.
And to complicate matters even further, there are “experts” who say
that there is very little you can do about it. Some say there is no way
to prevent cancer. And they also say, “We don’t know what causes
cancer”. The fact is, we do know what causes cancer, and other
degenerative diseases. So, do the experts not know? Or do they
know, but aren’t saying? There must be a reason the information
isn’t made public. Could it be because there’s a huge amount of $$$
involved? (Today there are more people making a living from disease
than dying from it, and when an industry is big business, don’t
expect to get the truth from it – or from anyone it influences – if the
truth will jeopardize the industry’s profit margin.)
Now let’s look at cancer prevention. But don’t look to sources like
the American Cancer Society for information on prevention. They
have a long-standing track record of indifference and even hostility to
cancer prevention. Why? The ACS is a society whose charter says that
they will disband once cancer is no longer an “epidemic”. Maybe the
hefty salaries of their upper management might be affecting their
judgment? But due to increased public awareness even they are now
being a little more forthcoming with healthful information.
2. Disease: Prevention vs Avoidance 15

Some health practitioners advocate early detection as a way to
deal with disease. This is not my idea of prevention (see the survey
on the previous page). Should you avail yourself of the things that
cause cancer until cancer is detected, and then stop doing the things
that caused it and begin treatment? Or should you take a pre-
emptive approach, and stop doing the things that cause cancer
BEFORE cancerous cells get out of hand. (Note: We all have cancerous
cells in our body every day. Cancerous cells are NOT the problem. As
long as our body can stay ahead of these cells growing into a mass,
we’ll be fine, and we can live our entire lives without “cancer” as we
know it today.) Modern medicine is essentially reactive; be proactive!
Some health practitioners recommend consuming pills or potions
or doing therapies to fight a disease that you’re “predisposed” to, as
a preventative measure. This too is not my idea of prevention.
So I don’t use the term “prevention” because its meaning has
been co-opted. I say let’s avoid disease. Let’s not get it and then
fight it. I say let’s not let it begin getting out of hand in the first place!
THAT’S how to have the best chance of never being diagnosed with it.
So how do we avoid cancer, arthritis, heart attacks, diabetes, etc?
First let’s look at the one basic cause of all degenerative disease:
The Cumulative Effects of the Contributing Factors

This is what causes cancer and other diseases; the contributing
factors’ effects over time. So once you know what the contributing
factors are, there’s no reason for you to get cancer, or any other
degenerative disease for that matter. Here now are the contributing
factors (they will be covered in more detail in later chapters).
DIET – Eating foods that contain toxins (like pesticides, dioxin, PCBs,
mercury), eating damaged foods (foods that have been exposed to
something that damages and/or destroys nutrients, like microwaves,
or heating the food above 115ºF), and eating low water-content
foods like chips, meat, and bread. The more fresh, ripe, organic,
whole, undamaged fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds you eat, and
the less cooked animal products you eat, the better your chances of
avoiding disease (milk products, for example, are a rocket fuel for
cancer).
EXERCISE – Not getting enough. Cancerous cells are eliminated from
the body via the lymphatic system. Lymph fluid is circulated by the

motion of the body. When the body doesn’t move enough, the lymph
fluid stagnates, and cancerous cells stay put and can multiply.
Vigorous walking and jumping on a trampoline are best. Running is
good for the lymph system, but not so good for the skeletal system.
Do something that’s good for both.
SLEEP – Lack of sleep, especially deep sleep, is a causative factor in
disease. Don’t eat just before bed, don’t take problems to bed with
you, sleep in a 100% dark room, and get an alarm clock that doesn’t
wake you out of a deep sleep.
SUNSHINE – Lack of sunshine on our skin allows cancer to grow by
hampering our body’s ability to deal with cancer. Myth: Sun causes
skin cancer. Reality: It doesn’t. It can be a secondary factor if you’re
eliminating toxins through your pores and you get a sunburn, but in
most cases it isn’t the primary cause (there are cultures that get tons
of sun yet don’t get skin cancer, and there are folks who get
malignant melanomas that never got a lot of sun).
WATER – Chronic dehydration is a big factor in disease. Drinking with
your meals is not good. If you feel the need to drink with a meal,
then the meal is probably a low water-content meal, and we’re
designed for medium to high water-content foods. Drinking water
that contains toxins is a major factor in cancer; don’t drink unfiltered
tap water, use a high quality solid carbon block filter. Filters that claim
to alkalinize, oxygenate, or structure the water are a waste of money.
STRESS – If you want disease, one of the best ways to get it is to be
stressed. Stress severely taxes our immune system which allows
disease to flourish. The good news: the healthier you are physically,
the happier you will be emotionally, and therefore the less stress you
will experience.
TOXINS & POISONS – This is a big contributing factor, but one that
we have a lot of control over. Eat organically grown foods, don’t drink
alcohol, don’t smoke, don’t put products on your body that contain
chemicals, don’t damage your food (which creates toxins), and don’t
hold your cell phone up to your head while you’re talking (use an ear
piece). Toxins are a huge cause of cancer because of what I call the
Double Whammy Effect. Toxins do two things: they cause cancerous
cells, AND they burden the body’s ability to deal with those cancerous
cells... a devastating combination.

How much of those recommendations would you consider
embracing? I guess it all depends on how much you want to avoid
cancer (and all the other degenerative diseases that are caused by
the same things that cause cancer). Do you think your odds of not
dying from cancer would be better if you embraced the above
recommendations before you received a diagnosis of cancer, or after?
Silly question, yes, but most people wait until they get a disease to
start doing something about it. You have a choice to not be one of
those people.
And what about the hundreds of therapies that are touted to help
prevent cancer? Those seven items mentioned above are the Basics
of Health. As I’ve said, if you’re not paying attention to these basics,
all the therapies in the world are going to have the same affect on
disease prevention as you spitting into the ocean has on the ocean.
Strong words, yes, but it needs to be said. Too many people who
have put their faith in therapies and treatments, while not paying
attention to the Basics of Health, have died from diseases that were
preventable. This is a serious situation. Today about one out of 1.4
people will get cancer, and people who are diagnosed with it will die
prematurely. Make no mistake about it, many are dying not from a
chemotherapy deficiency, but from an information deficiency.
Harvey Diamond, author of Fit for Life – A New Beginning, writes...
“Cancer is not the problem, it is the end result of a

problem. And because this simple truth has been so
universally misunderstood, billions upon billions of
dollars have been squandered in a futile attempt to
treat and/or cure people after it’s too late, and they
are in jeopardy of losing their life. Worse yet is that
so many millions of people suffer immeasurably
before ultimately dying unnecessarily from something
that could have been prevented in the first place. In
fact, I am hard-pressed to think of any malady easier
to prevent than cancer.”
This goes for all other degenerative diseases too. It’s amazing how
many conditions you’ve been led to believe aren’t preventable, but in
fact are very avoidable... if you’re aware of the realities of health.

Disease Timeline
Disease doesn’t occur overnight. In most cases it can take years,
even decades, to progress to the point where you get symptoms; the
diagnosis of a serious disease may seem sudden, but the disease
was a-long-time-in-the-making to get to that point.
DISEASE STARTS GETTING

OUT OF CONTROL*
DIAGNOSIS
CAN BE 30+ YEARS

UNHEALTHY
LIFESTYLE
* Disease progresses faster than the body can deal with it.
By respecting your body, and the laws of Nature, you can have
the best odds of experiencing a much different timeline...
DISEASE STARTS GETTING

OUT OF CONTROL* NO
DIAGNOSIS
UNHEALTHY HEALTHY
LIFESTYLE LIFESTYLE
* Disease progresses faster than the body can deal with it.
“When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal

itself, art cannot manifest, strength is not to be
found, wealth becomes useless, and reason
becomes powerless.”
Herophiles, 300 B.C.
Physician to Alexander the Great

3
Healthful Practices:
A Matter of Opinion or a Matter of Fact
For some people, healthful practices are a matter of opinion. But
for optimal health, healthful practices need to be a matter of fact,
based on Nature and the sciences of physiology, anatomy, and
biology. When personal preferences and unfounded notions dictate
beliefs, the opinions that result may sound plausible, but may not be
in one’s best interest, health-wise.
Here’s a wellness practitioner’s health plan that advocates both
very healthy and very unhealthy lifestyle practices. No wonder people
are confused.
First, a very good list of things to avoid...
Aspartame and artificial sweeteners • Trans-fatty acids (cooked foods

containing fats) • Artificial preservatives and chemicals • Carrots and
underground (root) vegetables • Pork: ham, bacon, pork roast and
chops • Shellfish (shrimp, lobster, crabs, clams) • Chewing gum
(overworks organs that produce digestive juices) • Coffee, tea, soda,
diet drinks, store-bought fruit juices • Birth control pills or estrogen
for menopause • Breathing from upper chest only • Minimize or avoid
drugs (OTC & prescription) whenever possible • Items applied to the
body containing chemicals (antiperspirants, makeup) • Peanuts •
Refined sugar • MSG • Potatoes • Cor n • Grain products • Tap water •
Milk and dairy products • Soy products • Electric blankets • Waterbed
heaters • Microwaved food • Fluoride toothpaste • Immunizations
That was a very good list indeed. But now here are some very
unhealthy recommendations from the same person...
Eat cooked poultry: chicken, turkey, ostrich • Eat cooked game meats:
venison, buffalo, lamb • Eat cooked eggs • Avoid bananas and oranges
• Eat beans according to your blood type • Breakfast idea: double
dinner and eat the leftovers next morning
3. Healthful Practices: Opinion of Fact 20

Unfortunately this scenario is far more common than you might
think. And this is precisely why you need to be educated in the
realities of health; you need the information this book has to offer so
you’ll know when someone is giving you health-enhancing
information or health-damaging information, or more importantly,
both!
And wouldn’t it be great if people advocated either one or the
other; all truth or all fiction? That would make it easier to know
whose information to consider and whose information to avoid.
But in the real world, when making decisions regarding the
improvement of your health, how do you know what to believe? A
little common sense, an open mind, and the understanding that
Nature doesn’t lie, go a long way towards helping you recognize truly
healthful lifestyle practices. Avoiding preconceived notions and
personal biases are necessary too. Seek sincere people who have no
trouble saying, “I don’t know.” Keep health number one on your
priority list, and know that what can do you the greatest harm is
what you know, that just ain’t so.
In the next chapter, we’ll explore how to tell fact from fiction in a
little more detail.
“By ‘honest’ I don't mean that you only tell

what’s true, but that you make clear the entire
situation. You make clear all the information
that is required for somebody else, who is
intelligent, wise, and open-minded, to make up
their own mind.” – Richard P. Feynman
3. Healthful Practices: Opinion of Fact 21

4
Dealing with Conf licting Information
and Controversies
At a very early age, I realized there was “the truth”, and there
was “people’s interpretation of the truth”. I firmly believed that it was
in my best interest to know what was true and what was false. So
since I had a keen desire to know “the truth” (synonymous with
“reality”), I had to come up with a way of recognizing it.
Here are the criteria I use to find the truth of any given situation:
1. Seek the truth “though the Heavens may fall”.

2. Use your common sense, not someone else’s.
3. Have no biases. Easier said than done, but doable.1
4. Don’t have preconceived notions.
5. Don’t assume the most expensive product or service is the best.

(And don’t seek to buy the least expensive product or service, your
health is worth more than any money you’d save).
6. Don’t look at things in isolation. Weigh both the positives and the
negatives, and give them equal attention. Drinking red wine has
positive effects on the body... but on balance the negative effects on
the body far outweigh the positive ones.
7. Don’t assume that someone with a degree is more knowledgeable

than someone without a degree. Unless they’ve gone on to seek the
truth on their own, people with degrees can only know what they’ve
been taught, and curriculums can be influenced by industries and
special interest groups that have agendas that are not in your best
interest.
8. When someone tells you something, ask, “What is that based on?”
If they can’t give you an intelligent sounding answer, and one that
makes sense to you, don’t accept their statements as the gospel
truth simply because what they say sounds good to you.
4. Dealing with Conflicting Information 22

9. Keep in mind that people who disseminate information may have
erroneous “facts” based on their biases, prejudices, addictions,
personal preferences, and/or mis- and dis-information.2
10. Read the fine print: “Results not typical”, “Lipator has not been
shown to reduce risk of heart attacks”, and look for what’s not being
said.
11. When you’ve reached your conclusions, try with equal vigor to
disprove them.
12. When dealing with health issues, above all, look to Nature (i.e.
how does the body work). Nature doesn’t lie.
Also, when learning something, don’t be a student, be a researcher.

Students accepts as fact everything they’re being taught, and they
don’t question their teacher. Oh sure, they may ask questions of
clarification, but they don’t question what they’re being taught. This
is fine if what you’re being taught is 100% correct information, but if
it isn’t, you’ll be better off taking it in as a researcher, because you’ll
not automatically accept it as the Gospel truth, and instead will seek
to verify it, and therefore you’ll uncover anything that isn’t correct.
And keep in mind that a diet plan with just 10% incorrect information
could be the difference between you thriving and failing to thrive.
“We get rid of bad health by building good

health, not by treating the symptoms of bad
health.” – Hilton Hotema
1 For this to work, your priorities must be in order. If it’s a health

issue you’re researching, and health isn’t at the top of your internal
list of priorities, you may draw inaccurate conclusions.
2dis-information: Deliberately misleading information made public in
order to influence public opinion and habit. Information that the
provider knows is false.
4. Dealing with Conflicting Information 23

5
Health 101
When I ask people, “How do you feel?”, many times I hear,
“Fine!” But I have experienced, first-hand, that even while feeling
fine, degenerative disease can be developing. And if you’re like most
Americans, it probably is. I’m not trying to scare you, but the
numbers don’t lie.
And like many people, you probably aren’t experiencing optimal
health. Why is this?
• Optimal health isn’t good for certain industries: (health-care,

medical, pharmaceutical, media, and certain food-product
industries)
• Public school didn’t teach you how to attain and maintain

optimal health.
• Today’s mainstream media wears blinders regarding the

dissemination of objective, optimal health information.
• Today’s medical schools don’t advocate a natural approach

to health maintenance, instead focusing on diagnosis and
treatment of disease and its symptoms, therefore...
• The vast majority of medical professionals can’t help people

attain optimal health because they don’t know how; they
can only practice what they’ve been taught.
• You’ve probably been conditioned to some degree to believe

the following...
...ill-health, aches, pains and disease are a

natural part of aging and are inevitable.
...your diseases can best be treated by the

medical/pharmaceutical industry.
...anything in moderation is okay.
5. Health 101 24
...you’re gonna be dead one day anyway, so
eat, drink, and be merry.
...certain things are healthy for you (when

they’re anything but).
It’s no wonder why most people never experience their true

health potential.
Now ask yourself, “If I could feel better, enjoy a higher quality-of-
life now and in the future, reduc e my odds of needing hospital
visits/invasive surgical procedures/medical treatments by greatly
reducing my risk of cancer, coronary artery disease, stroke, diabetes,
arthritis and who knows what else, wouldn’t I want to know how?”
Now, if your first thought is, “I’ll bet this’ll require tons of
sacrifice, and sure I’ll be healthier, but I’ll be miserable...”, you owe it
to yourself to ask yourself this question: If after attaining a high level
of health (where you really look and feel better) you were to realize
that although you’ve made some lifestyle adjustments, you don’t feel
like you’ve sacrificed anything; and you’re not only not miserable, but
you feel better mentally and emotionally too, wouldn’t you want to
give yourself the chance to attain this?
Most people would, but they don’t try because they don’t know
it’s even possible, and they don’t have the necessary information. So
they’re destined to live a normal life, with all its physical maladies,
aches, pains, various degenerative diseases, and common ailments,
and to live out what they’ve all come to believe is a normal lifespan.
In reality what they’re likely to get is an average lifespan, and this
may be the norm, but it certainly isn’t normal for a human being. And
it isn’t the lifespan Nature intended; it isn’t natural.
Please remember this: There’s a big difference between normal
as in “the norm”, and normal as in “natural”.
Normal: 1. Conforming with a standard; typical; average; the norm.

2. The expected result; the natural outcome.
Natural: Conforming to the usual or ordinary course of Nature.
5. Health 101 25
When you look at the number of people who have had their lives
turned upside down due to their own degenerative disease or that of
a loved one, or you see those who simply experience a crummy
quality-of-life and die prematurely, and you realize that this is the
average person, health-wise, do you really want to be one of the
average people? Or would you rather have a natural level of health?
What is “natural health”?

Let’s look at the life of an automobile. We can assume that if we
give it the fuel it’s designed for, and we maintain it by not doing
things to it that would lead to its premature demise, barring any
defects or accidents, it will “live out” a normal lifespan, and run at
peak performance. This means that even though you could put vodka
in its fuel tank, and it may appear to run just fine, you would, never-
the-less, be shortening the life of the engine and other associated
systems, leading to the car’s premature “death”.
If you treated it in a way it wasn’t designed to be treated, you
would, over time, wear out and degrade certain parts so that you
would not attain the full potential from those parts, and, again, this
would contribute to its premature death.
And if you were to maintain the car according to what some well-
intentioned, but misinformed person recommended, you may also
find that your car didn’t last as long as it could have. And you might
seek out the advice of a professional who, unbeknownst to you,
performs unnecessary procedures on the car, which wastes your time
and money, and may contribute to additional procedures being
necessary in the future.
Or you could educate yourself (much to the dismay of the
professionals) and maintain the car on your own, or at the very least,
be an “informed consumer” who knows when they’re being given
professional advice that is not in their best interests.
The above analogies also hold true for the human body. There
are things it needs, and it needs these things in certain amounts. If
you don’t give it these things, and in the amounts it needs, you
probably aren’t operating anywhere near peak performance, and
you’re probably not experiencing your maximal quality-of-life, and
you may be shortening your body’s potential lifespan. (Please keep in
mind, too much of a needed thing can be more damaging to your
5. Health 101 26
body than too little. Most degenerative diseases today are diseases of
excess, not of deficiency.)
And let’s not forget about the things your body doesn’t need and
doesn’t want (even though you may want them). These things are
usually contributing factors to ill-health. Do you really want these
things? Or have you been conditioned to desire them for the sake of
some industry’s profit, at the expense of your health? (I don’t know
about you, but I don’t like being taken advantage of.)
What can you do to give yourself the BEST chance of living a
healthy life?
1. Listen to your body... ignoring it can be disastrous. Pay attention

to its warning signs... learn what they are. And look for the
underlying causes of these signs/symptoms, instead of merely
treating the symptoms.
2. Decide who you are. Are you your own person, or are you,
instead, someone whose behavior is dictated by corporations for the
sake of their financial bottom line (to them, you are simply a revenue
generating unit). Who do you want to be?
3. Question the wisdom of your actions. Do you work against your

body’s natural desires? If it wants to perspire, do you decide
otherwise and seek out a chemical that will stop the process? If your
body wants to correct less than perfect vision, do you hinder this
process in some way so that you short-circuit your body’s attempt at
correction? (I wore glasses, but no longer need to. At first I thought
this was amazing, but now I see it’s just Mother Nature doing her
thing). Do you wear certain articles of clothing that cause you
discomfort because “it’s what a woman/man wears”? Or would it be
wise to refrain from wearing things that could contribute to back
pain, breast cancer, allergies, etc.? Do you eat or drink things that
taste “good”, but bring you discomfort?
4. Question things you took for granted. Take what you see on
television at face value... think about it... consider such things as
agendas, motives, and the economics of advertising. Remember, it’s
called television programming for a reason. Do you believe that
television presents information in a fair, even-handed, and unbiased
way? Beware of half-truths and misleading info. The same holds true
5. Health 101 27
for other forms of media, and for things such as for-a-fee alternative
health care newsletters and services.
5. Get introspective. Question why you do what you do. Are you
doing it because you really want to, or are you doing it to conform to
what society or certain industries want you to do. If it’s the latter,
these lifestyle choices may not be in your best interest, health-wise.
(Remember, these industries have powerful motivational armies
consisting of ad agencies, radio and television programming, and a
very influential but unwitting sales force made up of your friends,
family, and co-workers... people who are both consumers and
defenders of these industry’s health-damaging products).
6. Educate yourself. Learn to distinguish between mis-informative

“facts”, and real facts regarding natural health. Read books on
natural healing (99.9% of the time only the body is capable of
accomplishing complete and permanent healing; drugs and herbs do
not cure, only the body can cure). Look into the science of health
(called hygiene, the word is now taken to mean “cleanliness”, but
that was not its original definition).
7. Seek a health strategy that bases its practices on Nature and

scientific principles. If it doesn’t offer you an in-depth understanding
of your true health needs – fresh wholesome foods, adequate
nutrition, appropriate physical activity, sufficient rest and sleep, fresh
air, pure-as-possible water, not-too-much-not-too-little sunshine,
toxin avoidance, self-esteem, laughter, and healthy interpersonal
relationships – then you’re doing yourself a disservice if your goal is
to live to your health, happiness, and longevity potentials.
“He who knows nothing is nearer to the

truth than he whose mind is filled with
falsehoods and errors.” – Thomas Jefferson
5. Health 101 28
Hygia
The Greek Goddess of Health
(One of the lesser known Goddesses.)
This book is based on the principles of hygiene.

A turn-of-the-century dictionary definition of
hygiene was “the study of the science of
health”. Hygiene may be further defined as
being the science and art of restoring and
preserving health by those substances and
influences that have a normal relation to life:
food we’re designed to eat, sufficient nutrition,
pure water, strong enough sunshine, rest,
sleep, relaxation, appropriate amounts of
physical activity, play, comfortable
environment, and positive social relationships.
It covers the total needs of humans, and not
merely a few of their requirements. Hygiene is
neither a practice of medicine, a “healing art”,
nor a system of therapeutics. It offers no cures,
does not pretend to cure, and in fact strives to
debunk the popular notion of cures. Instead,
hygiene emphasizes that adherence to its
principles, which are based on the Laws of
Nature, permits the body to heal itself.
5. Health 101 29
6
The Basics of Health
Any discussion of health requires a basic understanding of some
of the maxims of health. A maxim is simply a truism. It doesn’t
require multiple peer-reviewed double-blind studies to validate what
it says; it simply is so.
Maxim of Health: Unless you are paying attention to all the Basics
of Health, it is physiologically impossible to be as healthy as your
body is capable of being.
Maxim of Health: Unless you are paying equal attention to all the
Basics of Health, it is physiologically impossible to be as healthy as
your body is capable of being.
Many people focus on one or maybe two Basics of Health, and
don’t pay much attention, if any, to the others. Some concentrate on
diet while not being physically active, some diligently get the exercise
their body needs but feed it unhealthy food, and some work at
keeping their stress levels low but don’t get enough sleep. In today’s
society, diet seems to get a disproportionate amount of attention
compared to the other basics, but the others are just as important;
they’re all part of our everyday lives just like eating, and they impact
our health each in their own way. Another thing the Basics of Health
have in common is that many of them are tainted with so much
misinformation that people can make only ill-informed decisions.
Maxim of Health: If you’re not abiding by all the Basics of Health,
all the therapies and practices in the world...
Antioxidant Therapy, Aromatherapy, Energy Therapy, Essential Oil Therapy,

Chiropractic, Transformational Breathing, Acupressure, Acupuncture,
Biofeedback, Hypnotherapy, Colon Therapy, Crystal Therapy, Consegrity
Therapy, Color Therapy, Chelation Therapy, Craniosacral Therapy, Reflex-
ology, Neuro-muscular Therapy, Urine Therapy, Reiki, Bee Venom Therapy,
Passive Positional Therapy, Bach Flower Therapy, Therapeutic Touch
Therapy, Herbal Therapy, Sound Therapy, Applied Kinesiology, Bioener-
getic Synchronization Therapy, Oxygen Therapy, DNA Activations, etc...
6. The Basics of Health 30

...aren’t going to do you much good. And if you are adhering to all
the Basics of Health, you probably wouldn’t benefit much from
therapies (assuming they are, in reality, beneficial).
Also, drugs and therapies can give people a false sense of
security, and therefore might be used in place of truly helpful things
that could be of real benefit.
A few clarifying points regarding therapies: I don’t consider
massage a therapy, I consider it a healthy part of one’s lifestyle;
colonics may be useful in certain situations but not on an
ongoing/regular basis; if your breathing is shallow, you may benefit
from a breathing workshop; if you wear glasses, you may benefit
from an eyesight improvement workshop.
Maxim of Health: The more in harmony you live with (your)
Nature, the healthier you will be.
Simply put, the further away you live from Nature’s Basics of
Health, the less healthy you can be.
The Basics Factors in

of Health Disease
Physical activity Physical activity
Diet Diet
Water Water
Sunshine Sunshine
Sleep Sleep
Stress management Stress management
Toxin avoidance Toxin avoidance
Information Misinformation
As you can see from the two lists above, the same things are
involved in both health and disease. For example: In health, enough
and appropriate exercise; in disease, not enough and/or worthless
exercise (or worse, harmful exercise). In health, enough sunshine; in
disease, not enough sunshine. When you think about it, in both
health and ill-health, you need the exact same things: enough sleep,
enough relaxation, enough water, enough stress management,

enough sunshine, enough toxin avoidance, and enough food (which
may be none when you’re ill). Vibrant health and ill-health are a
continuum; they are two sides of the same coin. Just as you can
cause ill-health, you can also cause vibrant health. The difference is,
today, causing ill-health is as easy as falling off a log, but causing
vibrant health requires some conscious effort.
And being healthy is not simply a lack of symptoms. Cancer can
take decades to grow to the point where you begin to experience
noticeable symptoms. And those folks who succumb to a fatal heart
attack usually get no physical warnings of what is about to happen
(although their lifestyle practices often suggest the probability).
Many people today are quick to accept ill-health as the normal
consequence of getting older, and if you agree with that contention,
it then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you assume that aches,
pains, and symptoms requiring medication are inevitable, then you
won’t be open to hearing information that suggests otherwise. In
today’s society vibrant health isn’t the norm, but it’s what you deserve,
and will very likely get when you respect the Basics of Health.
“Vitality and beauty are gifts

of Nature for those who live
according to its laws.”
Leonardo da Vinci

7
Knowledge is Power?
Before I start sharing with you my knowledge of the Basics of
Health, it might be a good idea to look at what “knowledge” really is.
Many of us have heard this expression: Knowledge is Power. To fully
understand this phrase, we first need to define knowledge:
1. Truthful information. 2. False information believed to be true.
If you possess knowledge which consists of truthful information,
you’re empowered. If, however, the knowledge you possess is untrue
(as is often the case when this knowledge comes from industries and
individuals that place a higher priority on profit than on people), then
you may feel empowered, but in reality you are not. If you make
decisions based on false dietary knowledge for example, you will not
be empowered to make positive changes in your health, and you will
very likely negatively affect your health instead.
You should also know that knowledge by itself is often not
enough; if you don’t have an understanding of the knowledge you
possess, it may be difficult if not impossible to put it into practice.
And, even more importantly, if you simply accept knowledge as the
gospel truth, without a proper understanding of it, there’s no way to
determine if the knowledge you possess is made up of truthful
information. And if it isn’t, you aren’t going to be the one to benefit;
someone other than you will.
How do we acquire knowledge? 1. Passively 2. Actively. T V is an
example of passively acquired knowledge. When you watch television
programming, as the name implies, you are being conditioned to
believe many things; some of which are untrue. Were you lied to?
Probably not. Luckily for us, it’s hard for an advertiser to get away
with an outright lie. But that doesn’t stop them from programming
you with misleading information. Here’s an example. The following
was a T V commercial; it was just black text on a milky white screen:
“Calcium is good for strong bones” Next screen: “Milk has plenty of
calcium” Next screen: “Got milk?” Notice the dairy industry never
said, “Milk is good for strong bones”, because they can’t, because
they know it isn’t, and they know they’d be taken to court in a
7. Knowledge is Power 33
heartbeat if they said it was, so they never say that. But this doesn’t
stop them from letting you draw that conclusion from the two truthful
statements they did say. In the advertising trade it’s described as
letting you make the “association”. I call it “indirect lying”.
“If you tell a lie big enough, and keep repeating it,
people will eventually come to believe it.”
Joseph Goebbels
If you rely on only passively acquired knowledge, your health is
probably being compromised. Only actively acquired knowledge can
protect you from the damaging affects of certain human’s nature. If
you care about your health, you’ll want to actively seek out accurate
health information so you can have truthful knowledge. One way is
to read books. But the problem with books is, which books? There
are books that recommend you drink your own urine for optimal
health. True, you’d probably have some healthy skepticism about a
book like that, but what about the books that recommend eating a
high protein / low carb diet, and the books that recommend eating a
low protein / high carb diet? Do you have the expertise to read both
and make, not just an educated decision, but a correct decision? And
in the case of your health, correct decisions are essential!
While at a major bookstore, I saw a table that sported about two
dozen books on diet – and these were just the latest ones – with
names such as the Abs Diet, the Reverse Diet (eat dinner for
breakfast and breakfast for dinner), the Eat Whatever You Want Diet,
the Eat On The Run Diet, and the Diet for Chocolate Lovers. Two
things struck me: In looking through these books I noticed they all
pandered to the public in one form or another and had loads of
incorrect dietary information, and that some of the best books on
dieting weren’t on the table (or in the store at all); some are
mentioned in Appendix B. When it comes to health, books that tell
the truth will never be on the New York Times best seller list (Fit For
Life by Harvey & Marilyn Diamond was one notable exception).
Although this book will help you develop a better understanding
of issues such as the high protein vs low protein debate, books don’t
offer you the ability to voice your questions and confusions, and it’s
harder to get a feel for the author’s integrity when you read his
words rather than hear him speak them. That’s why I’m an advocate
of “interactive learning”, which is an excellent example of actively
acquired knowledge. When combined with reading material, learning
from knowledgeable people, face-to-face as in a classroom
environment, can make the difference between acting on correct or
incorrect information.
When it comes to your health (the most important thing you
possess) a course of study taught by knowledgeable, sincere people,
who care more about your best interest than they do about how
profitable their class is, will go a long way towards helping you live to
your health and longevity potentials. Select a class with a curriculum
that’s based on anatomy, physiology, biology, anthropology,
comparative anatomy, nutrition, and hygiene. Make sure it’s not
based on what the instructors would rather believe, or on what
they’d rather have you believe… it should be based on sound,
scientific information, and not on junk science, loaded studies, or
personal preferences. The information should be presented in a way
that everyone can understand, and the course should help you make
sense out of the tons of non-sense that has become part of today’s
health and wellness issues. And remember: the most costly class you
can take is one that teaches incorrect information.
And take it from someone who has spent thousands of dollars on
research, lectures, and classes over the last 30 years; education is
not as expensive as ignorance. And since what can do you the most
harm is “what you know that just ain’t so”, knowing the facts about
diet, exercise, and all the other equally important basics of vibrant
health is powerful information indeed. When you’re armed with the
truth about health so you can prevent needless suffering and
premature death, that’s when Knowledge is Power!
“The doctor of the future will give no

medicine, but will interest his patients in
the care of the human frame, in diet, and
in the cause and prevention of disease.”
Thomas Edison
8
The Basics of Health – Diet
We’re going to delve into the subject of diet first. Not because it’s
the most important, but because of all the Basics of Health, diet is
the one topic that has the most misinformation and controversies
associated with it, and therefore can be the most confusing. And
because of this, it’s the one lifestyle practice that has the biggest
potential to damage your health.
When you’re born into and come of age in a society where a
particular diet is the norm, it can be difficult to swallow a way of
eating that is different from what you’re used to. But when you come
to realize that an unnatural diet can steal decades from your lifespan,
and lessen your quality-of-life, and that eating a healthier diet can
help you look and feel a lot better than you do now, it doesn’t take a
tremendous effort to become healthier once you “get it”.
For most people, there’s a lot of room for improvement in this
category, so it’s also the one lifestyle practice that has the greatest
potential to positively impact your health. And that’s another reason
why it’s the largest chapter in this book.
First let’s explore those aspects of diet that contribute to
degenerative disease. They fall into three basic categories.
1. Eating Things You’re Not Designed to Eat

If your car’s engine is designed for 91 octane fuel, and you decide
to give it 87 octane fuel, you will damage the engine. Notice, I didn’t
say you may damage the engine. It’s not a matter of opinion, it’s a
matter of chemistry. Our bodies are no different. If you give it what
it’s not designed to have, and if these things are bad for the body
(which they usually are), there’s gonna be trouble. It’s not a question
of if, it’s a question of when. I don’t get any debate on this point; but
opinions sure do differ when it comes to what we aren’t designed to
eat, which we’ll tackle in a moment.
8. The Basics of Health – Diet 36

2. Not Eating What You Are Designed to Eat
Again, no debate here; if you’re not eating enough of what you
are designed to eat, your body, and therefore your health, is going to
suffer.
3. Damaging the Things You Do Eat

Regardless of what you eat, if the food’s nutrients are damaged,
your health is being adversely affected. The things that damage
nutrients are: microwaving, heating the food over ~115ºF (as in
cooking or pasteurization), situations where the food rots (either
before or after you eat it), and, in the case of fruits and vegetables,
a long period of time between harvesting and consumption.
Humans are the only animal that consumes cooked food. One
theory of how this practice got started is this: A looooong time ago,
before the invention of the wheel and the mastering of fire, humans
were not the king of the jungle. In fact, we were other animals’ prey.
And we didn’t like that very much. But unlike other prey animals, we
were able to consciously ponder how we could prevent becoming
dinner. How could we hold our own with a saber-toothed tiger, for
example. It was reasonable to assume that to be like the tiger, maybe
we needed to live like the tiger. So we observed how the tiger lived.
For one thing, he slept a lot. No problem there, we could do that.
And he ate animals. Hmmm, that would be a big change for us, for
up until that point, we ate what was easy to get, that was delicious;
those were our criteria. But to eat animal, this would be a challenge.
At first, we tried eating the carnivores’ leftovers. But since they
eat the organs first, most of what was left was muscle; not easy to
eat, and definitely not appetizing (steak sauce had yet to be
invented). Then one day, during a storm, lightning hit a tree, and a
fiery branch fell upon an abandoned carcass. The smell attracted our
attention, and we discovered that it was way easier to eat animal
flesh if a burning limb had been in contact with it for a while.
We figured that waiting for lightning to catch a tree on fire was
impractical, and that if we could start fire whenever we wanted, we
could partake of tiger food a lot easier. So some of us embarked on
the challenge of mastering fire, some tackled the problem of
catching our own animals so we wouldn’t have to rely on leftovers,

and some worked on perfecting our tiger roars. (See the article
So Much for the Hunter/Gatherer Theory at health101.org)
Even in more modern times, when it comes right down to it, we
seem to prefer fresh fruits over animal foods. There was a show on
T V called Colonial House. It was PBS’s version of a reality show.
Seventeen people gave up normal life to live as we did in colonial
times (1628). “Can they do it?” the promotional commercials asked.
They certainly found it harsh. They ate salted meat and fish, cooked
items made from dried wheat and dried peas, goat’s milk, and
cooked eggs. They didn’t relish this food very much (no condiments
back in 1628), but they sure chowed down on wild blueberries with
glee when they managed to find some! I think this speaks volumes
about the human diet.
Regardless of why we began putting fire to our food, it was a
turning point for the human species, for had we not gone down that
road – if we had continued to eat what we were designed to eat –
we, today, would no doubt be a much kinder, gentler society.
Now let’s explore the above three topics.
The Foods We Are and Aren’t Designed to Eat

If you recognize some of the “aren’t” items to be ones you
currently partake of, please remember, I am not the food police; I am
not the one to tell you that you should no longer consume these
things (that’s up to you to do). And please don’t shoot the
messenger, I’m just reporting the facts; take this information in the
spirit in which it is given.
First let’s look at five methods of determining our dietary design.
1. THE SCIENCE OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY

A horse, zebra, donkey, and a mule look different on the outside,
but their insides are very much the same. Placed in the same
geographical environment, they’ll all eat the same basic diet. So if we
could find another animal that we resembled on the inside, and were
able to observe what they ate in the wild, we’d have some good
clues as to what we’re likely designed to eat.
So who is our closest “relative” in the animal kingdom, genetically
speaking? Most people would answer “the Chimpanzee”. Indeed, I
see brand new documentaries on PBS that say this very thing, but it’s

wrong. We have about 92% in common with a chimp, DNA-wise. But
the Bonobo and I share about 97%; so they’re closer to being
human than the Chimpanzee. But since comparisons to the chimp
have been used forever, and since Bonobos behave very differently
from chimps in important ways that relate to humans, we’ll not likely
see many attempts to correct this in the near future.
So since the digestive workings of a Bonobo are most like ours, it
can reasonably be assumed that their diet is most like the one we’re
designed to eat. (See page 260)
“...amongst all primates, there is a very interesting dietary

preference being discovered. Throughout the monkey kingdom,
as monkeys increase in intelligence, their fruit consumption
also increases. Amongst the anthropoid primates, those that
are our furthest genetic cousins, and are the least intelligent,
consume a diet of almost exclusively vegetable matter. The
anthropoid primates that are our closest cousins, the Bonobo,
who are the most intelligent of all the anthropoid primates, eat
a diet almost exclusively made up of fruit, including only a
little bit of greens.” – Doug Graham
2. HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY
Another way to tell what we should and shouldn’t be eating is to
look at our own physiology. For every species of animal on the
planet, diet is dictated by the design and function of their digestive
system. And those who say that humans should base what we eat on
our blood type, “metabolic type”, hair color, or zodiac sign, are way off
base. (For an in-depth explanation of why eating for one’s blood type
is nonsense, see The Blood Type Diet: Fact or Fiction? at health101.org)
We’ve created convenient categories to define different types of
diets: carnivore, omnivore, herbivore, frugivore, etc. Humans have
been labeled an omnivore. But let’s explore the real meaning of
omnivore. An animal that’s a “univore” eats just one food, grass for
example. So you might assume that an omnivore can eat many
different types of foods, and he can. But are they all equally as good
for him; do they all digest equally as well. Is it a case of six-of-one-
half-dozen-of-the-other. In a word, no.

Although an omnivore is able to eat different foods that have
different digestive requirements, there is one diet that he is most
suited to, one diet that is optimal. If the foods of that diet aren’t
available, then, unlike a cow who is a univore, an omnivore can
survive by eating other things... but make no mistake about it,
surviving is not the same as thriving! If an omnivore wants to thrive,
and not just survive, he’ll seek out his optimal diet, and not merely
one he is capable of eating. There is more than enough unassailable
science that shows that humans are designed to eat a plant-based
diet. Those who say otherwise may do so because it’s what they’d
rather believe... but a strong belief doesn’t make something so.
3. LOGIC
Whether you believe in creation, evolution, or both, does it make
sense to assume that when humans began, they were suited, not for
the foods that surrounded them in their “original” environment, but
for a diet that would have to wait for the invention of machines and
ovens to be able to be eaten? Isn’t it reasonable to assume that our
“original” diet would have been one we could have consumed
without the need for machines, tools, fossil fuels, electricity, or fire,
and would have been one that consisted of foods that could be
enjoyed “as is”?
4. EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
Another way to tell what we should and shouldn’t be eating is
how various ways of eating actually affect our health. If we were
designed to eat an animal-based diet rather than a plant-based diet,
then wouldn’t our health decline if we changed from eating an
animal-based diet to a plant-based diet? It should; but it doesn’t. In
fact humans do far better, health-wise, when we eat a plant-based
diet. And there is nothing that a cooked animal-based diet gives us
that we need, that we can’t get from a plant-based diet. And an
animal-based diet gives us things that we don’t need or want (because
they’re health-damaging) that a plant-based diet doesn’t have.
True, if you change from an animal-based diet to a plant-based
diet overnight, you may feel worse before you feel better. And when
some people feel worse, they misinterpret this to mean that a plant-
based diet isn’t for them. (This reaction is actually a good thing, and
the reason for it will be explained in a later chapter.)

5. COMMON SENSE
Does it make sense that our original diet, obviously devoid of
processed foods and anything we couldn’t easily eat, was an inferior
diet compared to what we are capable of concocting today? Doesn’t
it make more sense that our original diet was superior to what we
are eating today? Do you think we appeared on this planet without
access to the diet of our biological design, and that the plan was,
“Let’s see if they can evolve to the point where they can figure out
how to eat animals and cook their food so they can eat the diet
they’re designed to eat.” I think not. And to those who say that it
was the inclusion of animal food into our diet that allowed us to
evolve such wonderful brains, I’d offer that it was the inclusion of
animal and the exclusion of fruits and vegetables that led us to
evolve into an aggressive, warring, unhealthy species that is way
behind technology in the wisdom department, and that if we’d never
begun putting fire to our food, we’d today be a gentler and disease-
free species... just like the Bonobo monkeys.
And does it make sense that if you must process something to be
able to eat it, maybe it’s not a food you’re designed to eat? If you
must do things to it for it to taste good, maybe it’s inferior to
something that tastes good as is. Is meat delicious without the
sauces, spices, marinades, seasonings, condiments, and cooking? To
be tasty, does a slice of honeydew melon need sauces, spices,
marinades, seasonings, condiments, or cooking?
Give a toddler a choice between a piece of ripe mango and a
piece of meat (prepared without sauces, seasonings, or marinades)
and which do you think his hardwiring will draw him to? That’s a
pretty good test of a natural food.
Speaking of which, it would be helpful to have some tests that
could assist us in determining criteria for our diet. Here are three
good ones.
1. “AS IS” TEST

Our foods would be those we could eat, in their natural,
unaltered, unprocessed state, and enjoyed.
2. “YUMMY” TEST (a.k.a. the “Mmmm” Test)

Sample the various components of the things you eat prior to

preparation/processing, and note your palate’s reaction relative to
other foods. I make the loudest yummy noises when eating fruits,
especially tropical fruits. In fact, the intensity of these noises is far
greater than they ever were for any Standard American Diet dish
(the reasons for this are explained in an article that appears in
Appendix G). If you were to sample wheat, raw meat, raw fish
(without any condiments), raw beans, or even raw milk straight from
the cow’s udder, I doubt you’d be smacking your lips in delight as
you would when eating a scrumptious piece of fruit.
True, when you cook and prepare non-human food, it can taste
explosively delicious too, maybe even more so than foods from
Nature, but what’s the reason for this?
“Why do some cooked foods seem to taste better than some

raw foods when they are nutritionally inferior to raw foods?
How is the body ‘fooled’? Exotic molecules in cooked food
stimulate neuroreceptors in the brain that produce pleasure,
much as electrodes to pleasure centers in the brain or
psychedelic drugs injected into the body stimulate
pleasure.” – Bruno Combe, instinctive eating researcher
3. “CAN YOU MAKE A MEAL OF IT” TEST

Choose one ingredient from a dish that you currently eat. Can
you make a meal of that one ingredient? Wheat (that goes into pasta
or bread or buns), cow milk, uncooked beans, uncooked animal flesh,
yeast, pepper, salt, garlic, etc. Just because we figured out how to
turn an inedible grain (wheat) into something we could eat (cereal)
doesn’t mean we’re designed to eat wheat. Indeed, we’ve figured
out how to do a lot of things that aren’t in our best interests.
Milk can be a meal all by itself,
but milk is the diet of infants, not
adults. And just as infant cows
shouldn’t drink the milk of humans
because their bone structure
wouldn’t develop normally,
neither should infant humans
drink the milk of cows...
Milk is a natural?
...the two milks are different; they are designed for the specific
requirements of each mammal. Humans are the only animal that
continues to drink milk after the time of weaning has passed. Why?
Because it was turned into an industry. When milk was first treated
as a product in America, it wasn’t consumed as milk; it was used to
make butter, the fat of which could be stored to help settlers survive
the long, cold winters. Now-a-days we’re led to believe that drinking
milk helps build strong bones, when actually it does just the opposite.
Damaging the Things You Eat

There are many industries on this planet; do you know which one
is the largest? It’s not the auto industry, it’s not the fossil fuel
industry, it’s not even the medical industry... Hint: It’s the only one
that doesn’t have its own trade magazine. It’s the “cooked food
industry”. While not an official industry, try walking through a
supermarket and identifying which items could be considered part of
a cooked food industry. When you include pots, pans, aluminum foil,
scouring pads, cooked foods of every stripe and kind, raw and
cooked beef, fish, chicken, all pasteurized items, barbeque charcoal,
and even fresh produce that’ll become part of soup or stew, you’ll
quickly see that it’s well over 95% of the store!
When there’s big $$$ involved, expect to hear misleading
information. Here’s one of my favorites. You get more lycopene (an
antioxidant) from a cooked tomato than you do from a raw tomato.
This is touted as a reason to eat cooked food. But the people that
are telling you this are not sharing with you the fact that there’s
plenty of lycopene in a raw tomato to begin with (either because
they don’t know or they know and aren’t saying). And if you eat a
variety of fruits and vegetables, you’ll get more than enough
lycopene (and all the other antioxidants) your body needs.
They also don’t address another very important point: Even if it
were true that cooking a tomato makes lycopene a bit more
bioavailable, what about the hundreds of other equally important
nutrients that cooking damages or destroys altogether! Looking at
how cooking affects one substance in isolation is not looking at
cooking’s effects on balance ; all things considered. This is an
example of how a little information can be a dangerous thing.

Here then is what cooking can do to food:
• Vitamins damaged / destroyed

• Minerals rendered unusable
• Proteins denatured (changed)
• Fats become sticky and an oxidant
• Carbohydrates caramelized & A.G.E.’s* produced
• Enzymes totally destroyed
• Some antioxidants destroyed
• Increases digestive load
• Produces toxic compounds
* Advanced Glycation End-products: Attacks cells' mitochondria (a cell’s energy producer)
Okay, I hear some people reacting to the “Enzymes totally

destroyed” item. Some authorities tell us that we don’t need the
enzymes in food to digest the food. To these “authorities” I say:
READ THE OTHER EIGHT ITEMS UP THERE! Sorry to raise my voice
like that, but it really presses my cider when people try to justify
unhealthy dietary practices with confusing debates that end up
misdirecting our attention from the big picture.
But since I brought up the “you don’t need the enzymes” issue,
and since my job is to educate you as to the truth of the matter, and
since you may be wondering why I included that bullet if we don’t
need the enzymes, I’ll explain...
While it’s true that we don’t need the enzymes in the food to digest
the food, we DO need enzymes to digest the food. And if they don’t
come from the food, our body must make them. And although our body
can make enzymes for digestion, it would rather spend its enzyme
manufacturing capabilities on making metabolic enzymes, which are
used for things like dealing with cancerous cells. And since we have a
finite ability to manufacture enzymes in general, doesn’t it make sense
to leave the enzymes in the food intact in case we can use them?
But you’ll find people who will argue this point to death, and will
insist that the enzymes in food aren’t used for the food’s digestion,
so it doesn’t matter if you destroy them or not. Folks, my advice is
this: Don’t get sucked into these kinds of meaningless debates.
Meaningless, because of the other eight items that no one in their
right mind would challenge (although there are some who will)...

• Vitamins damaged / destroyed
• Minerals rendered unusable
• Proteins denatured (changed)
• Fats become sticky and an oxidant
• Carbohydrates caramelized & A.G.E.’s produced
• Some antioxidants destroyed
• Increases digestive load
• Produces toxic compounds
And now here’s a demonstration of what happens to protein

when it is cooked.
BEFORE COOKING AFTER COOKING

(USABLE) (UNUSABLE)
Those round things are amino acids, which are the building
blocks of protein. When you ingest a protein, your body snips
(cleaves) the bonds between the amino acids, and files them away in
28 separate file cabinets. When your body needs to make a protein,
another department (the Protein Manufacturing Department) takes
what it needs from those file cabinets.
But cooking “denatures” protein, as shown in the second diagram
above. (See the video at health101.org/booklink#41 )
www.
“The most significant consequence of denaturation is that

the protein loses its characteristic biological activity.”
Biology textbook, 1970
“...the protein loses its characteristic biological activity...”

Translation: It’s broken. Although technically still a protein, it’s
unusable as protein.
And if that’s not bad enough, it’s now unrecognizable by the
body, meaning that it is now a “foreign invader”. And we know what
our body does with foreign substances: Alarm bells go off, and it
creates anti-bodies to destroy the foreign bodies. A wonderful
process in-and-of-itself, but the problem is that the damaged protein

was originally a substance that the body would have recognized (and
welcomed). Antibodies are created using a “lock and key” design,
meaning that the antibody that’s made to deal with a damaged
protein is made to deal only with that damaged protein, so the
antibody’s design matches the damaged protein’s design. But before
being cooked, the damaged protein was a “good guy”, and looked
similar to other “good guy” tissue in the body. So the antibody ends
up being a match, not only to the damaged protein, but to healthy
tissue as well, and ends up attacking the healthy tissue too. In the
case of the antibodies created to deal with damaged milk proteins,
they also attack the beta cells of the pancreas (the cells responsible
for making insulin), and this is a contributing factor in diabetes. They
also attack the myelin sheath that surrounds our nerves, implicating
damaged milk proteins in Multiple Sclerosis.
The above scenarios are examples of an “auto-immune” reaction.
And when this occurs enough to give you symptoms, it becomes an
auto-immune disease. And all because you ate damaged (unusable)
protein as part of your diet. Indeed, many knowledgeable people
agree that prior to cooking what we ate, auto-immune diseases
would have been non-existent.
No discussion of the effects of cooked food on the human body

would be complete without visiting the subject of...
Digestive Leukocytosis
Any doctor will tell you that when your white blood cell count
rises, it’s an indication that your immune system is fighting a foreign
invader. Well guess what happens when you eat cooked food... yes
indeed, your white blood cell count goes up. Eat cooked celery, up it
goes; eat raw celery, no change. After more than a decade of not
eating cooked food, my body no longer needs to keep such a large
“standing army” of white blood cells, so my white blood cell count is
now lower than average, but it’s normal for a healthy human being.
Okay, now we have some good tools to help determine what
we’re designed to eat and not designed to eat, and we have a good
understanding of what happens when we cook what we eat. You’ve
heard me say, more than a few times, that eating things you’re not
designed to eat paves the way to ill-health. On some level we all

know this is true, but it may help you to embrace healthier eating
habits if you knew why this is true.
Digestion
When we eat food, our body has no choice but to digest it. There
are reasons it would rather not, and we’ll look at them in a moment,
but first we need to understand just how energy-intensive the process
of digestion is. And to do this, we need to know what energy is.
We hear the term “energy” being casually tossed around all the
time, and when you hear the term, most people think of the energy
that food gives us... the calories. True, food has an “energy
potential” from the fuel it possesses, measured in kilocalories
(calories for short), but there’s another kind of energy that we need,
which does not come from food’s fuel, or from food at all. It’s called...
Nervous System Energy

...and I’ve given it prominent display on this page because of its vital
importance to vibrant health.
Nerve energy is electrical in nature, is made up of ions, and if you
were to measure it you’d need an extremely sensitive meter. And,
most importantly, it isn’t replenished by eating... it’s replenished by
sleeping. It is a fuel source, but unlike the fuel for your muscles
which is measured in calories, nerve energy is measured in microvolts.
It powers every process in your body, allows your brain to communicate
with every one of your trillions of cells, and when it gets too low, you
fall asleep, whether you want to or not. Even if you’re driving a car
and your brain knows that if you fall asleep you may very well die,
your eyes are going to close... its replenishment is THAT necessary.
An analogy to nerve energy would be the tiny spark that ignites
the fuel in a car engine’s cylinders. The car’s fuel is akin to the fuel
we get from food, but the spark comes from the stored energy in the
battery. This was demonstrated to me very clearly when I was driving
on the highway, and my alternator gave out, so it no longer recharged
the battery as I drove. Mile after mile my headlights grew dimmer
and dimmer, and I could visualize the sparks in those cylinders
getting weaker and weaker, and eventually the car “went to sleep”.
And until I recharged its battery, that car wasn’t moving a muscle.

It’s interesting to note that for many centuries, we had no idea
why we required sleep; it was obvious we needed to sleep, but we
hadn’t a clue as to the reason. Now we know.
So what does nerve energy have to do with digestion? The
process of digestion is unarguably the most energy intensive process
that goes on in our body. It can range anywhere from requiring 40%
to 60% of our daily nerve energy supply.
Out of the 100% of nerve energy we have for any given day,
about 30% is used for “basal metabolism”. If you woke up and didn’t
get out of bed, and didn’t eat, read, or watch T V, or even think, and
then went back to sleep 16 hours later, you’d burn approximately 100
calories for every 10 pounds of body weight, and you’d use about
30% of your daily nerve energy supply simply to exist; this is your
basal metabolism.
So let’s deduct that 30% from the 100% to see what you actually
have to use for everything else, including digestion.
100% - 30% = 70%

Now let’s take that 70% and deduct those two digestion figures...
70% 70%
- 40% - 60%
30% 10%
So for these two different “digestive loads”, one leaves you with
20% more nerve energy than the other. May not sound like much,
but the increase from 10% to 30% is 200%!
Mathematics aside, it’s the difference in how you feel, and how
well your body is able to deal with developing disease that is the real
difference between the two digestive loads. When you feel this
difference, “20% more” doesn’t begin to adequately describe it.
Now here’s a depiction of what constitutes a diet that requires
60% of your daily nerve energy supply, and a diet that requires 40%.

Burgers, Muffins,
Shakes, Fries,
Cake, Donuts,
Ice Cream, Beer,
Coffee, Chicken,
Cereal, Soda, etc.
REQUIRES ~60% REQUIRES ~40%
Note: There are other foods of your biological adaptation that are not
shown in the photo, but you get the idea.
Think about it, having only 10% left at the end of the day doesn’t
leave you with much for things like playing with the kids, being
active, and for any serious healing that needs doing. And if healing
suffers, I don’t think it needs to be said that you’ll eventually suffer.
Why do the foods on the left require more energy to digest than
the foods on the right? It’s what I call, “The Three I’s”
Incompatible combinations
Improper ratio of carbs to fats to proteins
Insufficient water content
First we’ll look at incompatible combinations. Here’s why antacids
are the biggest selling over-the-counter medication today. Different
foods have different digestive environment requirements. The body
makes digestive “juices” based on the particular food you eat; you’ve
got an amazing chemical processing plant in there! If two foods that
require different digestive environments are eaten at the same time,
something’s gotta give, and neither one will have justice done to it,
digestively speaking.
Different foods also have different digestive “transit times”; the
time it takes for the food to go from one end of your digestive tract
to the other, assuming proper digestion. And these times can vary
widely. A meal of watermelon speeds through you like a rocket ship
compared to a meal of pecans. Eat them together, and you’re
begging for a belly ache. But the ache isn’t the worst part.
When foods are either “held back” in the stomach or leave it
prematurely due to incompatible combinations, they’ll either putrefy,

ferment, rot, or decay depending on their chemical composition and
on the length of time they’re delayed or on how incomplete their
digestion was. If these results of indigestion start, they’ll continue
even as the food makes its way through your intestines. Not a pretty
sight... and an even less pretty smell. Many years ago when I ate
dead animal parts, I used deodorants and colognes to mask the
resulting body odor. Sure I showered and did a lot of laundry, but
that doesn’t help when the problem is inside your body. Today I don’t
need any deodorants or colognes... and I don’t need to do laundry as
often either.
The mixing together of foods is referred to in some circles as
“food combining”; or more accurately, “food mis-combining”. Knowing
what combinations to avoid goes a long way towards freeing up
nerve energy for more important tasks, like disease avoidance.
There are tons of books written on the subject of food combining,
but as far as what doesn’t mix well with what, the gist of it is this:
• A high water- and low water-content food
• Fruits and starches (breads, root vegetables)
• Fruits and proteins (meats, dairy, fish)
• Complex carbs (breads, rice), and proteins
• Fats and proteins
• Melons and anything else
• Fats and sugars (excessive fat impedes sugar’s transfer from
blood to cells contributing to diabetes and candidiasis)
What are the best combinations?

• A banana combines best with another banana
• Lettuce and celery combine well with almost anything (and
can be used to slow down the uptake of sugar when eating
sweet fruit for those who have hyper-sensitive blood sugar
regulatory systems)
A good rule of thumb when combining foods...

• At a meal, eat high water-content items first and leave some
time for them to move along. Eat the lowest water-content
items (densest) last.

Also of note: Animals that eat a variety of plant-based foods never
gather those various foods together and eat them at the same time;
they always make a meal out of just one item. To ensure they can
get enough variety, they don’t stuff themselves to the gills at a meal;
if they did, they wouldn’t be able to eat as often, and that would
hinder their ability to eat a variety of foods.
Next let’s explore the very important concept of...
Improper ratio of carbs to fats to proteins

First, you should know that these three nutrients are the only
nutrients that can provide an animal with fuel. Vitamins, minerals,
water, phyto-nutrients, rare earth elements, trace minerals, and all
the as-of-yet undiscovered substances that animals require in their
food, have no caloric value. Only carbs, fats, and proteins can be
used as fuel. But as you might guess, these three “caloro-nutrients”
are very different from each other. So logic dictates that one of them
is the worst source of fuel, one is a better source of fuel, and one is
the best source of fuel. Which one is which depends on the animal’s
digestive system, not on the animal’s blood type, “metabolic type”, or
eye color. A mammal’s digestive system includes: saliva, teeth,
digestive juices, stomach(s), pancreas, gall bladder (if any), and
intestines. And these items vary widely from species to species as to
their fluid pH, types of teeth, digestive enzymes, intestinal length,
etc. Each digestive system is suited to the specific animal’s natural
diet.
But back to carbs, fats, and proteins. The diet of a natural
carnivore, like a lion, will be higher in fat and protein than the diet of
a Bonobo monkey, who eats primarily fruit and no animal. And
conversely, a lion’s diet will contain much less carbohydrate than a
Bonobo’s diet. So it stands to reason that their two digestive systems
will be very different... and they are.
Just like a Bonobo, a human’s body runs on glucose for fuel; and
only glucose (glucose is a “simple” carbohydrate; a sugar). I did say
earlier that an omnivore can survive on food other than his optimal
food. So if an omnivore whose cells can only use glucose for fuel
can’t find foods rich in glucose (or other simple carbs that easily
convert

to glucose), he can eat “fatty” foods, and the fat can be converted to
glucose; fat being the second best source of fuel.
You may be wondering, how do I know that our body “prefers”
carbohydrate (glucose) for fuel, over fat or protein. For one thing,
biochemistry says so. If we stop eating, our stored supply of
carbohydrates (glucose in the form of glycogen) gets used first. We
have only a day or two at the most of stored carbs, so after they run
out, fat is then used for fuel. And after all available fat has been
used, then and only then is protein touched for fuel (obviously not all
fat is used for fuel because fat is a part of our cells, brain, skin, and
nerves). Why is protein considered by the body to be the worst
source of fuel? It doesn’t convert into glucose nearly as well as fat,
and your body would rather use fat as fuel over protein because you
don’t really store protein. If your body must use protein for fuel, it’s
going to come mainly from your muscles, and you’d rather not have
your muscles weakened because that would hinder your ability to
find food; so it’s good that your body prefers fat over protein.
Another way to look at this issue is this: Your cells can’t run
directly on fat or protein, so which makes more sense, feeding your
body a high carb/low protein diet, or one of the popular low
carb/high protein (and fat) diets?
Your car runs on gasoline. Which is easier: Using gasoline, or
using crude oil which you must turn into gasoline. Imagine if you
couldn’t buy gasoline, and could only buy crude oil which you then
had to refine into gasoline in your garage. Wouldn’t it be easier on
you to use gasoline? Why waste your energy converting oil into
gasoline, if you could simply use gasoline to begin with! So
rather than eating things your body must convert into glucose,
why not eat things that already contain glucose
(fruits). Remember, the easier it is for your body
to work on the stuff you put into your stomach,
the more nerve energy is available for other
things like healing and feeling vigorous.
If you’ve had surgery, and can’t take in
food by mouth, how does the hospital feed
you? An IV. And what do they put in the IV...
is it filled with fat, or a protein drink? Hardly;
you’re dining on carbohydrates. The hospital is

giving you carbs because it knows that carbs are the human body’s
fuel of choice.
So now we see that carbs are used by the body as the primary
source for fuel, and since you are designed to eat every day, your
need to store carbs is small; that’s why you only have a couple of
days worth of stored carbs.
But what are the other two nutrients – fat and protein – used for?
Fat replaces damaged fat cells, it’s used to make hormones, and it’s
needed for the utilization of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.
Proteins are “building blocks” making tissue as you grow, and new
tissue to replace old as you age, and for other biochemical processes.
But how much replacement, hormone making, and building do you
really think goes on in a day? Not a lot compared to fuel use.
If you had to guess how much you needed of each of the “Big 3”
nutrients, knowing what you now know about what they are used for,
what percentages would you assign to them? Try closing your eyes
and imagining all the carbs your body is burning for fuel during the
day, (which accounts for the heat your body gives off), and how
much fat and protein is used in comparison to carbs.
For human beings, it breaks down like this:
<80% carb >10% fat >10% protein

Not less than 80% carbs, and not more than 10% fat or protein.
Obviously this is not the profile of a “low carb” diet (the absurdity of
low carb diets is addressed in detail on the health101.org website).
The above ratio of 80-10-10 does, however, describe a plant-based
diet perfectly (as long as it contains fruits, and doesn’t contain an
overabundance of nuts and seeds).
All your fat requirements, including all the Essential Fatty Acids
(EFA’s), and all your protein needs, including all the Essential Amino
Acids (EAA’s), can be met with a plant-based diet. (And, yes, you can
be sufficiently muscled eating a diet of only 10% protein... as long as
you don’t cook the protein-containing food; and by-the-way all foods
contain protein!)
The average Western diet is tons higher than 10% from fat, a bit
higher in protein, and obviously much lower in carbohydrates than an
80-10-10 profile; which is one of the reasons our society’s health is
on the decline.

There’s a great book that’s all about the 80-10-10 profile; check
health101.org/booklink#19 for details.
www.
(By-the-way, if you’re wondering why the guy on page 52 looks

unhappy, it’s because he was doing a low carb diet.)
The last of “The Three I’s” is...
Insufficient water content

The diet we’re designed to eat is comprised of medium to high
water-content foods. Nuts and seeds are the exceptions to this, but
they represent a small portion of the diet, and are consumed
(hopefully) in small quantities. If you’re properly hydrated, these
small amounts of nuts and seeds shouldn’t present a problem from a
water-content perspective.
If a large part of a meal is made up of low water-content food,
digestion will be impaired. Low water-content food is one reason
people feel the need to drink with a meal, but this further impedes
digestion by diluting the digestive juices.
Do processed products tend to be low water-content foods? The
foods industry asks us: Why eat an apple, when you can eat baked
apple chips? The container of this once healthy food brags,
“100% Natural Fruit Chips”, as if that means they’re
healthy. It also says that the chips are “Packed with
Vitamin C”, and there’s “a pound of fresh fruit in every
can”. The last time I looked, fresh fruit was loaded
with water. And unless they added vitamin C after
they cooked these abominations, there is no vitamin C
there at all, just 105 empty calories. This cleverly
disguised junk food is just one of thousands designed to
fool you into thinking that it’s a healthy alternative
to other (truly) healthy food.
Wow, the subject of digestion took eight pages! Which illustrates

just how important a topic digestion is when it comes to disease
avoidance. The bottom line: The simpler your meals, the healthier
you’ll be, as long as you eat enough variety and don’t over-eat.
Which brings us to the next topic...

Over-Eating and Obesity
To fully comprehend why more than 66% of Americans are over-
weight (and half of them, or 33%, are clinically obese), and why 22
million kids under the age of five are over-weight, we need to have
an understanding of why we eat.
Our bodies need food for two reasons...
FUEL and NUTRIENTS

...and naturally, the foods of our biological design provide both. But
our daily requirements of these two needs vary from day-to-day, and
they don’t parallel each other. And because of this, Nature can’t
provide us with a food that has both just the right amount of fuel
and just the right amount of nutrients. So to ensure we get enough
nutrients without getting too much fuel, Nature packs our food with
more nutrients than we would need, so that when we eat according
to our caloric needs, we are assured of getting enough nutrients. The
“extra”, unneeded nutrients are simply excreted.
So it can be said that our foods have a ratio of fuel to nutrients, or...
FUEL : NUTRIENTS
Another way to view this is...
FUEL NUTRIENTS
The vertical lines are the amounts contained in a food, and the
shorter horizontal lines indicate the level of our needs.
This is a good design, and it works well, unless something
disturbs this ratio. If we cook the food, watch what happens...
FUEL NUTRIENTS

Our fuel needs are satisfied, so our fuel depot tells us we needn’t eat
any more, but the department that oversees our nutrient needs is
saying, “Keep eating!” And so we do, until our nutrient needs are
(hopefully) met. But in so doing, we over-eat.
OVER-EATING
FUEL NUTRIENTS
And there you have it, the major physiological reason for being
over-weight; you’re starving for nutrients, not for fuel. Isn’t it
interesting how you never hear about this connection. Because we’re
a society of cooked food eaters, this cause-and-effect scenario is
never addressed by weight-loss professionals or nutritional experts.
If word got out, people’s health might improve, and that would be
devastating to many industries, and to the economy itself. This “take
home point” needs to be clear in everybody’s mind because a major
cause of degenerative disease is over-eating, and more specifically,
over-eating on non-human foods that need to be cooked to be eaten.
When someone who is obviously over-weight says they are
hungry (and let’s assume they are being honest, and have a real
appetite for food), it’s obvious they’re not in need of calories; they
could go for weeks without food (on just water). So it must be
something else their body needs that’s giving them an appetite...
and that something else is nutrition.
Is this ability to give us an appetite not just for fuel, but also for
nutrients, an adaptive one? Did it come about over the millennia by
necessity as a way of coping with our adoption of a cooked food
diet? No. Our bodies have always had the ability to give us a craving
for a specific nutrient. Here’s how this mechanism works.
It’s a given that at any point in time, our body knows what it
needs in the way of nutrients. The reason primates eat a varied diet,
as opposed to a univore, is that it gives our bodies the ability to fine
tune our “nutrient palate”. Back in the good ole days, when we ate
bananas as a meal (when hungry, until satisfied, and then didn’t eat
again until we were hungry), our body had no problem knowing that
a banana was a good source of potassium. And so, when it needed
potassium, it could give us a craving for bananas. But now let’s skip

ahead to modern times: If every time in your life that you’ve had a
banana, it’s always been part of banana pudding, banana pie,
banana smoothie, banana bread, etc., and you’ve never had a
banana all by itself, your body would have no way of knowing what
was in a banana, nutrient-wise, so it couldn’t give you a desire for
bananas when it needed potassium. This underscores the importance
of eating “mono meals”; a meal of just one item (this, and the obvious
ease of digestion).
The Other Problems with Eating Animal

When you eat an animal, you’re also eating what he ate. If his
food contained pesticides, you’re now eating, not just pesticides, but
concentrated amounts of pesticides. When toxins and poisons enter
the body, and the body doesn’t have the ability to eliminate them, it
does the next best thing and locates them where they can do the
least amount of damage; it puts them in fat cells. So when we talk
about how the American diet is way too high in fat, we must keep in
mind that along with this fat comes concentrated doses of toxic
pesticides; pesticides damage cells, and damaged cells can become
cancerous.
Since humans are designed to eat a plant-based diet, we’re not
designed to ingest hormones. When we consume foods with hormones
(all animal foods), they unbalance our own hormonal levels, and
“over-hormone” us, contributing to hormone related cancers,
osteoporosis, PMS, aggressive behavior, and noticeable menopause.
An animal-based diet is higher in protein than a plant-based diet
(assuming you’re not overdoing the nuts and seeds). When the body
digests animal tissue, the proteins metabolize “acidically”. (Remember,
proteins are made up of amino acids.) We’re designed to eat an
“alkaline-forming” diet. This is all about pH, so let’s get a better
understanding of what these terms, “acid-forming” and “alkaline-
forming” mean.
If you light a piece of paper on fire in an ashtray, and burn it until
there’s nothing left to burn, is there anything left in the ashtray when
you’re done? Yep, ash. And just as with all matter, that ash has a pH.
Your body doesn’t use fire to “burn” what you eat, it burns it
chemically, but the resulting “ash” has a pH, and the pH of the ash
from all the food you eat affects your body’s pH.

Here’s the pH scale:
0 7 14
ACID NEUTRAL ALKALINE
Your blood has a pH too; it needs to be kept at around 7.3, just

slightly alkaline. If it falls much below 7.0 you die instantly; the
blood’s ability to deliver oxygen to your cells depends on it being
within a very narrow, mostly alkaline, pH range. So as you might
expect, your body does everything it can to keep your blood’s pH
within that range. But if you eat things that result in an acid ash
(animal foods, grain products, beans), it will affect your body’s pH,
including your blood. And when your blood’s pH starts to move
towards 7.0, alarm bells go off. There’s no time for your body to give
you a craving for green leafy vegetables (leaves an alkaline ash), it
must immediately buffer the acidic condition with something alkaline,
and the best source of buffering material in your body is calcium (it’s
alkaline, and there’s lots of it). So the body does the “lesser of two
evils” and draws out calcium from your bones to keep your blood pH
stable. The result of its efforts? You don’t die instantly, but over time
you get osteoporosis, the complications from which may kill you.
Something else you should know about an acid-forming diet...
CANCEROUS CELLS THRIVE IN

AN ACIDIC ENVIRONMENT
0 7 14
ACID NEUTRAL ALKALINE
ANIMAL-BASED DIET, FRUITS,

GRAINS, BEANS, VEGETABLES
NUTS, SEEDS

Yes, nuts and seeds metabolize acidically, but they’re a small part
of the natural human diet, so, on balance, when eaten with a fruit
and vegetable diet, your overall pH will be alkaline.
A discussion of the problems with an animal-based diet wouldn’t

be complete without mentioning the hazards of dairy products.
Whole books have been written on this subject, so I’ll just touch on a
few of the more important issues. And no one says it better than the
“Not Milk Man”, Robert Cohen...
IGF-1, A Hormone We Have in Common

“In 1962, a protein hormone was identified and named Insulin-like
Growth Factor One (IGF-1).
There are approximately 4,700 different mammals in the animal
kingdom, and millions of different proteins and hormones in Nature.
Life has such remarkable diversity, yet there is one hormone that is
the same in two different species. The most powerful growth hormone
in the human body is IGF-1. That is also the most powerful growth
hormone to be found in a cow’s body. Protein hormones are made up
of amino acids. Human IGF-1 and bovine IGF-1 each contain 70
amino acids in the identical sequence. Bovine IGF-1 and human
IGF-1 are the same!
Humans manufacture IGF-1 in their bodies, but we can also get it
from milk, cheese, and ice cream. IGF-1 has been identified as a key
factor in the growth of every human cancer. Consume dairy products,
and you double the amount of (free and unbound) IGF-1 in your body.
The nations with the highest rates of breast cancer include Denmark,
Norway, Holland, and Sweden, closely followed by the U.S. These
nations also have the highest per-capita consumption rates of milk and
cheese. Coincidence?
When consumed in cow’s milk and other dairy products, IGF-1
survives digestion (and pasteurization). Breast feeding works to
protect lactoferrins and immunoglobulins from digestion (which
benefits the nursing infant); milk is a hormonal delivery system. By
consuming dairy products, you deliver IGF-1 in a bioactive form to
your body’s cells. When IGF-1 from cow products alights upon an
existing cancer, it’s like pouring gasoline on a fire; what were once
cancerous cells under control, is now cancer as we know it today.

The “healthiest” organic milk from the most pampered cow
naturally contains powerful steroid and protein growth hormones, but
these are meant for baby calves, not for baby humans, and certainly
not for adult humans. But if this fact weren’t bad enough, the
February, 2006 issue of the journal Dairy Science contained a study in
which levels of IGF-1 were measured in stored dairy products.
Researchers found that after milk was homogenized, the
bioavailability of IGF-1 becomes significantly higher when compared
with that of un-homogenized milk.
Milk Builds Bigger Bodies, Not Stronger Ones

Blood serum levels of IGF-1 were measured in Danish children at
the Department of Human Nutrition and the Centre for Advanced
Food Studies, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University,
Fredericksburg, Denmark, and the Department of Growth and
Reproduction, Copenhagen.
Researchers had previously noted that intake of milk protein is
associated with “greater velocity of linear growth in childhood.” The
objective of this study was to “examine associations between protein
intake, serum insulin-like growth factor one (IGF-1) concentrations,
and height in healthy children.” Data led the scientists to conclude:
“Milk intake was positively associated with IGF-1 concentrations
and height. An increase in milk intake from 200 to 600 ml/d
corresponded to a 30% increase in circulating IGF-1.”
When you combine this with the hundreds of studies in the
scientific literature that have previously established that IGF-1 is a
key factor in the proliferation and growth of every human cancer,
shouldn’t every parent be advised of the danger of ingesting cow
IGF-1 for his or her children? And shouldn’t every child be equally
concerned for their parents and grandparents?
Milk and Cancer

“Human Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and bovine IGF-1 are
identical. Both contain 70 amino acids in the identical sequence.” –
Judith C. Juskevich and C. Greg Guyer. SCIENCE, vol. 249. August
24, 1990.

“IGF-1 accelerates the growth of breast cancer cells.” – M. Lippman.
Science, Vol. 259, January 29, 1993.
“IGF-1 has been identified as a key factor in breast cancer.”
– Hankinson. The Lancet, vol. 351. May 9, 1998
“A strong positive association was observed between IGF-1 levels
and prostate cancer risk.” – Science, vol. 279. January 23, 1998
“Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), in particular IGF-1 and IGF-2,
strongly stimulate the proliferation of a variety of cancer cells,
including those from lung cancer. High plasma levels of IGF-1 were
associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. Plasma levels of
IGF-1 are higher...in patients with lung cancer than in control
subjects.” – Journal of the National Cancer Institute, vol. 91, no. 2.
January 20, 1999.
“The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system is widely involved in
human carcinogenesis. A significant association between high
circulating IGF-1 concentrations and an increased risk of lung, colon,
prostate and pre-menopausal breast cancer has recently been reported.
Lowering plasma IGF-1 may thus represent an attractive strategy to
be pursued.” – Int J Cancer, 2000 Aug, 87:4, 601-5.
“Serum IGF-1 levels increased significantly in milk drinkers.” –
Robert P. Heaney, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, vol.
99, no. 10. October, 1999
“Increased circulating insulin-like growth factor one (IGF-1)
concentrations have been associated with increased risk of several
types of cancer, including colon, prostate, and breast.” – February,
2005 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2005
Feb;81,2:503-7)
“For prostate cancer, epidemiologic studies consistently show a
positive association with high consumption of milk, dairy products,
and meats.” – Giovannucci E., Adv Exp Med Biol 1999;472:29-42
“Higher intake of meat and dairy products has been associated with
greater risk of prostate cancer...” – Willett WC, Salud Publica Mex
1997, Jul-Aug;39(4):298-309

“Positive correlations between foods and cancer mortality rates were
particularly strong in the case of meats and milk for breast cancer,
milk for prostate and ovarian cancer, and meats for colon cancer.” –
Rose DP, Cancer 1986, Dec; 1;58(11):2363-71
“Diets high in dairy products and meats are related to higher risk of
prostate cancer incidence or mortality in most ecologic, case-control,
and prospective studies.” – Giovannucci E., Cancer Causes Control
1998, Dec;9(6):567-82
“Suggestive positive associations were also seen between fatal
prostate cancer and the consumption of milk, cheese, eggs, and meat.”
– Snowdon DA,Am J Epidemiol 1984, Aug;120(2):244-50
“The strongest and most consistent effects are positive associations
with animal products such as red meats, eggs, and dairy foods, and
possibly by implication, fat.” – Giles G, Ireland P., Int J Cancer 1997;
Suppl 10:13-7
“Biomarkers, including testosterone and insulin-like growth factor,
and nutritional factors, especially meat, fat, and dairy intake, have
been linked to greater risk of disease.” – Chan JM, Semin Cancer Biol
1998, Aug;8(4):263-73
“I’m allergic to milk”... Good; you’re supposed to be!

As for lactose intolerance, Consumer Reports promotes the
antidote – products containing lactase – while ignoring the real
problem. The Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology reported that
“lactose malabsorption is a chronic organic pathologic condition
characterized by abdominal pain and distention, flatulence, and the
passage of loose, watery stools”. Researchers noted that the
introduction of a lactose-free dietary regime relieves symptoms in
most patients... patients who remain largely unaware of the
relationship between food intake and symptoms.
Consumer Reports explored whether milk is safe for kids. They
ignored the advice of the most respected pediatrician in American
history, Dr. Benjamin Spock, who said that no human child should
ever drink cow’s milk.
They ignored the advice of Dr. Frank Oski, former Chief of
Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, who advised all people to not drink milk

or eat dairy products. Oski wrote that at least 50% of all children in
the United States are allergic to milk, many undiagnosed. Oski
believed that dairy products are the leading cause of food allergy,
often revealed by constipation, diarrhea, and fatigue.
Consumer Reports has a clear agenda. They wish to preserve their
subscriber base. People hearing that dairy products are unhealthy
usually respond by attacking the messenger.
Milk and Asthma

What could be the cause of today’s rapidly exploding worldwide
asthma epidemic? “Many cases of asthma and sinus infections are
reported to be relieved and even eliminated by cutting out dairy” says
Dr. Oski.
On 4/19/03, the New York Times reported that one out of four
children living in Harlem has asthma. Scientists tested 2,000 children
under the age of 13 living in one 24-block New York City Harlem
neighborhood and found that 25.5% of the kids had asthma. The
researchers observed that asthma rates doubled since 1980, yet they
blamed soaring rates on environmental causes such as house dust.
For many children, living in Harlem means living below the
poverty level. The USDA runs a “nutrition” program called WIC
(Women/Infants/Children). The foundation of WIC’s food giveaway
program is milk and dairy products. Our government also feeds 28
million school kids each day with their National School Lunch
Program and School Breakfast Program (SBP). Those milk meal
giveaways cost U.S. taxpayers over 6 billion dollars per year, which
does not include the cost of medical treatment for asthma attacks and
asthma medicine.
In attempting to explain exploding asthma rates, the New York
Times article reported, “Some of the worst triggers, studies have
found, are most prevalent in poor communities, including the feces of
cockroaches and dust mites, cigarette smoke and mold and mildew.”
But a study which explored this possible connection had said,
“Clinically, there seems little point in reducing allergen levels in the
home as a way of preventing asthma and allergies... Our findings
suggest that reductions in domestic allergen exposure alone are
unlikely to have a major impact in decreasing the incidence of these
diseases in childhood.” (October issue of the journal Thorax 2004;
59:855-861)

Eighty percent of milk and cheese protein is casein. When casein is
isolated from milk, it becomes the glue to adhere a label to a bottle of
beer, and hold together wood in furniture. Dairy is a major part of
Harlem’s in-school food culture. The poorest children in America
begin their day at school with milk and cereal for breakfast. Snack
time provides chocolate milk and cookies. Lunch means macaroni and
cheese or pizza. The casein within the mozzarella and cheddar
cheeses ensures poor digestion, and sets into motion a 10-12 hour
reaction by which the bronchioles of a child’s lungs clog with mucus.
Today’s slice of pizza may trigger tomorrow’s asthma attack.
Milk and Diabetes

The March, 2005 issue of the European Journal of Clinical
Nutrition (2005 Mar;59(3):393-8) contains evidence to settle the
dairy/diabetes debate once and for all.
Hoppe, et. al (Department of Human Nutrition and Centre for
Advanced Food Studies, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural
University, Fredericksburg, Denmark) determined that high intake of
dairy products increased insulin resistance in 8-year-old boys. (Insulin
Resistance: State in which the body does not respond to the action of
insulin although enough insulin is produced. This occurs often in
people with type 2 diabetes, which is 95% of all diabetics.)
In the dairy group, insulin resistance doubled when compared to
the control group. The study results indicated that a short term high
milk and dairy intake increased insulin resistance dramatically.
[Yet recently on T V I saw a spokesperson for the dairy industry –
who was introduced as an independent researcher – telling the
viewers that dairy foods can help prevent diabetes!]
Milk for Building Strong Bones?

Amy Lanou, M.D., Susan Berkow, Ph.D., and Neal Barnard, M.D.,
have researched and published a landmark paper that has undergone a
rigorous peer-review process by one of America’s most respected
scientific journals. Their article concludes that neither dairy products
nor calcium supplementation plays any role in building strong bones.
“Scant evidence supports nutrition guidelines focused specifically
on increasing milk or other dairy product intake for promoting child
and adolescent bone mineralization.” – Pediatrics ‘05 Mar;115(3):736-43

Milk and Osteoporosis
It’s not how much calcium you eat, it’s how much calcium you
prevent from leaving your bones.
Why Does Calcium Leave Bones?
In 1988, N.A. Breslau and colleagues identified the relationship
between protein-rich diets and calcium metabolism, noting that
protein caused calcium loss. His work was published in the Journal of
Clinical Endocrinology (1988;66:140-6).
A 1994 study published in the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition (Remer T, Am J Clin Nutr 1994;59: 1356-61) found that
animal proteins cause calcium to be leached from the bones and
excreted in the urine.
More Supporting Evidence
“Osteoporosis is caused by a number of things, one of the most
important being too much dietary protein.” (Science 1986;233, 4763)
“Increasing one’s protein intake by 100% may cause calcium loss to
double.” (Journal of Nutrition, 1981;111,3)
“The average man in the U.S. eats 175% more protein than the
recommended daily allowance, and the average woman eats 144%
more.” (Surgeon General’s Report on Nutrition and Health, 1988)
“Consumption of dairy products, particularly at age 20 years, were
associated with an increased risk of hip fractures... metabolism of
dietary protein causes increased urinary excretion of calcium.”
(American Journal of Epidemiology 1994;139)
The dairy industry’s milk mustache campaign has been proven to
be one enormous deception. Bones break because women eating the
wrong foods create an acid condition in their own bloodstreams,
which must be neutralized by available calcium. The body achieves
balance by taking calcium out of its own bones. Ergo, people eating
the greatest amount of total animal protein are the ones experiencing
accelerated rates of bone loss. The same Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
(1995; 61, 4) confirmed this truth:
“Dietary protein increases production of acid in the blood which can
be neutralized by calcium mobilized from the skeleton.”

Eighteen years earlier, as the Harvard Nurses study was just
beginning, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1979;32,4)
reported:
“Even when eating 1,400 mg of calcium daily, one can lose up to 4%
of his or her bone mass each year while consuming a high-protein
diet.”
And speaking of milk mustache ads: The milk industry, through
their promotional campaigns, paints very nice pictures of strong
bones, slim figures, and even uses sex to sell their product – actress
Elizabeth Hurley leaves nothing to the imagination as she poses in a
skin-tight white t-shirt and skimpy bikini bottom in a milk mustache
ad in the 2006 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. See past examples of
“How to market milk by selling sex” at health101.org/booklink#3
www.
Milk and Heart Disease

Heart disease is America’s number one killer. Dairy products
represent America’s number one food group.
In 1980, the British journal Lancet (ii: 205-207) reported, “More
patients who had suffered a myocardial infarction [heart attack] had
elevated levels of antibodies against milk proteins than was found in a
comparable group of patients without coronary heart disease.”
In 1994, the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (48:305- 325)
found, “Milk consumption correlates positively with cholesterol
levels in blood as well as coronary mortality. In comparisons between
17 countries, there is a good correlation between national cholesterol
levels and mortality from ischemic heart disease.”
The May, 2000 issue of Medical Hypothesis provided an
important clue as to how dairy compromises the heart, “Excessive
milk consumption may adversely affect the circulation due to the high
calcium content of milk, and because lactose promotes the intestinal
absorption of calcium. Excessive calcium intake may cause
calcification and rigidification of the large elastic arteries, which
could be an important factor in causing myocardial ischemia.”
“Milk and milk products gave the highest correlation coefficient to
heart disease...” – A Survey of Mortality Rates and Food
Consumption Statistics of 24 Countries, Medical Hypothesis 7:907-
918, 1981

“Milk and many components of milk (butterfat, milk protein, calcium
from milk, and riboflavin) were positively related to coronary heart
disease mortality for all 40 countries studied.” – Circulation 1993;
88(6):2771-2779
Milk and Attention Deficit Disorder and Autism

Eighty percent of cow’s milk protein is casein. It has been
documented that casein breaks down in the stomach to produce a
morphine-like substance called casomorphine, an opiate.
Florida researcher, Robert Cade, M.D., and his colleagues have
identified a milk casomorphin as a probable cause of attention deficit
disorder and autism. They also found Beta-casomorphin-7 in high
concentrations in the blood and urine of patients with either
schizophrenia or autism. (AUTISM, 1999, 3)
In May of 1996, Julie Klotter, MD wrote in the Townsend Medical
Letter:
“In reality, cow’s milk, especially processed cow’s milk, has been
linked to a variety of health problems, including: mucous production,
hemoglobin loss, childhood diabetes, heart disease, atherosclerosis,
arthritis, kidney stones, mood swings, depression, irritability, and
allergies.”
Although Dr. Klotter was primarily concerned with adult reactions
to milk opiates and milk proteins, of her eleven symptoms, take note
of numbers eight, nine, and ten: mood swings, irritability, and
depression... symptoms of A.D.D.
Yogurt Lies
I am often asked: “What about the benefits of yogurt? Isn’t the
acidophilus added to yogurt good for you? Don’t Hunzas who eat lots
of yogurt outlive every other society?”
The truth is that the acidophilus bacterium added to yogurt is not
absorbed by the human body. It doesn’t work. It’s simply an unethical
marketing tool used by dairy producers on a trusting public. The
Dannon Yogurt company scientists admit this truth, but Dannon
executives continue to lie to the public.
During the 1950’s, researchers discovered that Hunzas regularly
ate yogurt and seemed healthy. The Pakistani Muslim Hunzas living
in one of the most isolated areas of the world craved the new found

attention. One year after all of the excitement of discovery, a group of
60 year old Hunzas mysteriously became 75. The next year, they were
90. A few years later, they were over the age of 100. The Hunza myth
(Dannon’s lie) has been exposed in great detail in a book by Wilcox,
Wilcox, & Suzuki, called “The Okinawa Plan.”
Why would one small region of Pakistan, a nation roughly the size
of California, have the average person living past age 100, while the
average expected age of a Pakistani at death is 64.
The Hunzas are not a small tribe living in a remote mountain
village with 12 goats and a few sheep, as Americans have been led to
believe.
Why would the Pakistanis of Hunza be any different from those
living in Murree, Quetta, Ziarat, Swat, Kaghan, Chitral, or Gilgit? The
truth of the matter is that the people of Hunza are no different.
Pakistanis (including the Hunzas) eat similar diets and drink similar
water. The answer to this mystery perpetrated by Dannon is that the
Hunza myth was invented, and it is pure fraud.
The Dannon Yogurt research foundation publishes a newsletter.
Here are excerpts from a column written by Cathy J. Saloff-Coste:
Lactobacillus Acidophilus
In the mid-1980’s acidophilus was first suggested to
have health benefits for humans. Acidophilus occurs
naturally in the gastrointestinal tract but tends to
grow slowly when added to milk (yogurt), leading to
the risk of undesirable organisms. There is no direct
proof and no consensus among researchers on
whether or not added acidophilus in yogurt adheres
to or colonizes in the intestines. Few human studies
have been performed. A recent study reported that
yogurt did not alter immunoglobulin secretions.
These results show no health benefits from yogurt
consumption.
Thank you Dannon! So let’s set the record straight, what exactly is
yogurt? It’s a deliciously designed snack consisting of jelly, starch,
and flavorings, with naturally occurring pus, hormones, and glue.

Marketing geniuses have convinced consumers with a series of clever
lies that this high calorie product is a healthy dietary option. It is
delicious, just as ice cream is delicious. Healthy? You can bet your
life that it is not.”
And thank you, Robert, for your diligent efforts to expose dairy
product misinformation. Mr. Cohen’s book, Milk: The Deadly Poison is
an excellent addition to your health library, and it comes in handy
when trying to explain to someone why you no longer consume dairy
products ( health101.org/booklink#9 ). There are also three excellent
www.
websites that offer the truth about dairy products (see

health101.org/booklink#32). And if you want to see how the dairy
www.
industry uses sex to sell milk, read the article, A Milk Message on the
health101.org website.
On page 57, under The Other Problems with Eating Animal,
I mentioned that when you eat animal products, you’re consuming
the toxins that were stored in the animal’s fatty tissue. In the case of
milk products, it’s important to keep in mind that it takes about 10
pounds of milk to make a pound of cheese or ice cream. Which
means that cheese and ice cream are concentrated sources of
pesticides, and are also concentrated sources of hormones, both
naturally occurring (IGF-1) and the synthetic ones injected into cows
to make them give more milk and yield more beef.
Got Milk? A better question is: Want Milk?
Okay, that wraps it up for the hazards of an animal-based diet.

But the Standard American Diet has the distinction of also being a
grain-based diet; most Americans are closer to a grainarian than a
carnivore in their eating habits. Think about it, what role do grains
play in your diet? Aren’t they part of meals that contain no meat at
all? They’re in breads, biscuits, oatmeal, cakes, cookies, pies, pasta,
pizza, pretzels, chips, pastries, rice dishes (rice is a grain), bagels,
muffins, donuts, breading, breakfast cereals, and even soda
(sweetened with grain sugar).
Not only do grain products not pass any of the “food fit for
human consumption” tests, but they bring to the table their own
unique set of problems...

The Problem with Grain Products
As I mentioned earlier, a good test of whether or not something is
fit for human consumption is this: Can you eat it as it appears in
Nature, without any processing or cooking or condiments, and find it
enjoyable? Bread is basically made from water (a very healthy
natural beverage), yeast (can’t make a meal of that!) and grain. If
you try and eat grains as they grow in Nature, you’d no doubt find
them unpalatable. Indeed, I found eating wheat disgusting. The
farmer who witnessed me eating his wheat said that wheat, as it
grows in the field, is the food of birds and rodents. So just because
humans figured out a way to turn grain into bread (which you
wouldn’t eat without putting something on it), doesn’t mean we’re
designed to eat grains.
Here are four substances in grain products that make a pretty
compelling case to reduce or eliminate the amount of grain-
containing foods in your diet.
Phytates – Mineral binding “anti-nutrient”. Binds to zinc, iron,

calcium, and magnesium, and blocks their absorption by your body.
Phytates are found in whole grains and beans. The more whole grain
and bran a food contains, the more phytate it contains. (So although
rice is not a healthy food to eat, white rice is actually “healthier” than
brown rice because white rice has no phytates.) Phytic acid also
causes calcium to be excreted in your urine (a contributing factor in
osteoporosis).
Lectins – Proteins that bind (crosslink) carbohydrates. Lectins are

considered the major food “anti-nutrient”. Lectins were originally
identified by their ability to c lump with red blood cells, but they
actually can bind and interact with every cell in the body. Lectins are
also found in dairy and beans (see health101.org/art_lectins.htm for
www.
more info).
Opioids – Acts like a morphine-like drug. Eating foods that contain

opioids creates a subtle and temporary “high”. This is why grain
products can be one of the most difficult things to eliminate from
your diet (especially pizza, which also has cheese that contains caso-
morphine!)

Gluten – A protein found in wheat, oats, barley, rye and spelt. Can
cause headaches, migraines, neurological problems, digestive
problems, skin conditions, fatigue, recurrent miscarriages, and
intrauterine growth retardation (a condition in which a baby is born
significantly smaller than normal). And there have been patients with
advanced liver disease who reversed their liver dysfunction by
adopting a gluten-free diet. Of course, humans’ inability to process
gluten has been given a name – Celiac disease. And it has also been
called a “gluten allergy”. But it is neither an allergy nor a disease; it is
a normal, natural reaction (because grains are not a natural part of
our diet). And just because you don’t exhibit any of the above
symptoms when eating gluten-containing products, doesn’t mean the
gluten isn’t adversely affecting your health.
Some other things that make grain products a poor choice for a
human diet are...
Insoluble fiber – We often hear that fiber is good for us, but what
we rarely hear is that there are two types of fiber, one good, and one
not so good. Grains contain insoluble fiber, which have “sharp” edges
that scratch the intestinal lining (not so badly that you’ll see blood in
your stool, but enough so that the lining is irritated, and in need of
repair). Soluble fiber, found in fruits and vegetables, have smooth
edges. Soluble fiber will “broom clean” your intestines without
scratching them.
Low Water Content – Grains are also super-low water-content.

Compare a bagel (even with jelly) to a mango. We are designed for
medium to high water-content foods. Grain products rob the body of
water... the very water that is needed to become part of the digestive
juices used to (attempt to) process the grain itself! The last thing you
want to do is to eat something that dehydrates you.
Complex Carb – One of the things that makes the carb issue so
confusing is that we hear some people say carbs are good while
other people say carbs are bad... and they’re both right! The reason
there’s so much misunderstanding when it comes to carbs is that,
just as with fiber, there are two types of carbs, affectionately known
as “good carbs” and “bad carbs”.

Simple carbs, found in fruit, are good for us to eat; they require
no processing to be utilized as fuel. Complex carbs (grains, beans,
starchy foods) are not good for us to eat. (And I decided that it is
difficult, if not impossible, to turn to mainstream nutritionists for
input on this issue. I decided this when I heard two nutritionists
arguing about whether glucose was a simple carb or a complex carb.
They both thought they were correct, but obviously only one of them
was. So if nutritionists can be wrong about something as simple as a
name, it’s no wonder some of them are clueless when it comes to the
information contained in this chapter. But bless their hearts, they
mean well; they’ve just been saddled with some very flawed
education.)
Recommended Reading: Grain Damage by Doug Graham
( health101.org/booklink#4 ), Going Against the Grain by Melissa
www.
Diane Smith (available through major book stores).
The Problem with Soy Products

When public awareness of the health-damaging effects of an
animal-based diet began to rise, and significant numbers of people
began joining the ranks of those who abstained from eating animals
for moral and ethical reasons, the food industry saw an opportunity:
Provide foods that mimicked the animal-based fare that society was
accustomed to eating, but manufacture them from a plant-based
source.
The soy bean industry was already in place to do just that. For
decades it had provided soy-based feed for livestock. Why feed soy
to animals? It messed with their thyroid causing them to grow bigger.
And when you get paid for your cattle by the pound, the bigger the
better. But the soy industry’s rationale for manufacturing soy foods
for cattle didn’t stop them from making soy foods for people.
Today, soy products are all over the place: soy burgers, soy
turkey, soy chicken, soy milk, soy ice cream, soy non-dairy creamer,
soy fish sticks, soy hotdogs, soy bacon, etc. And just because soy is
a plant-based substance, doesn’t mean it’s a healthy alternative to
animal foods; it just means it’s an alternative.
Soy products bring with them their own set of health problems,
and this is summarized nicely by William Campbell Douglass II, MD.

“Despite its status as the darling of the vegetarian world, soy is
NOT a health food. In fact, it’s neither healthy nor is it food, if your
definition of that word includes some measure of actual nourishment.
And it isn’t merely worthless as a food, it’s downright harmful.
Hundreds of studies have linked soy proteins and derivatives to:
• Heart disease
• Cancer, especially of the breast
• Allergies and reduced immunity
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Malnutrition and digestive problems
• Nutrient deficiencies
• Reproductive disorders
• Cognitive and mental decline
And these are just the NATURAL side-effects of soy foodstuffs. I
shudder to think of how many other ills we’re risking by ingesting the
residues of the acid and alkaline baths, petroleum solvents, and who
knows how many other hazardous chemicals involved in the
manufacture of some of the most common soy variants.
These facts notwithstanding, soy byproducts and proteins have
found their way into just about everything. In fact, it’s estimated that
60% of the refined foods on store shelves and sold in fast-food joints
have some kind of soy protein in them.
And if those madcaps over at the Food and Drug Administration
have it their way, the amount of soy Americans are consuming will
likely double in the very near future. Why? Because they’re about to
allow the manufacturers of every breakfast cereal, veggie burger,
energy bar, milk substitute, and every other doggone thing under the
sun that contains soy protein or soy byproducts in it to claim that it
PREVENTS CANCER.
Yep, you read that right. Despite the findings of stacks of bona-
fide research, the FDA is about to buckle yet again to the Big Food
business (like it did with that Food Pyramid farce) and let them claim
their soy and sugar-saturated junk food is the key to dodging cancer.
Absurd as the notion is, the FDA is about to give a big rubber
stamp to refined-food makers that says ‘Prevents Cancer’ on it.

This, despite the fact that many toxicology texts list the plant
estrogens found in soy protein products as CARCINOGENS. How
can this happen, you ask? As usual, it’s all about money. This move
will mean billions in the pockets of American food makers.”
For more detailed information on the problems with soy, read the
article, Newest Research on Why You Should Avoid Soy on the
health101.org website.
And be forewarned, there are some health advocates who will
caution you about the health hazards of consuming meat and dairy,
but will speak highly of soy products. In their quest to get people to
stop eating animal products, they either look the other way or are
unable to consider the research regarding the harmful effects of soy.
But their well-intentioned agenda shouldn’t discredit the truthful
information they provide on the health hazards of consuming animal
products.
Before we leave the subject of how diet contributes to

degenerative disease, and look at how diet can contribute to vibrant
health, a few other points need mentioning.
Junk Food – Empty calories; takes up valuable stomach “real estate”

that could otherwise be filled with health-enhancing food; dehydrates
the body; wastes nerve energy due to its abnormal digestive
requirements. And since junk food provides virtually no nutrition, but
requires nutrients to process it, it’s essentially an “anti-nutrient”, and
that’s the last thing you need to eat!
Chemical Additives – Poisons the body; can create cancerous cells;

can negatively affect mood; can change hormone levels; have been
implicated in a number of degenerative diseases.
Food Allergies – Do you know anyone who has a wheat allergy or a

milk allergy? For the record, it’s impossible for a human being to
have an allergy to milk or wheat. (If you’re an allergist, this is going
to be hard to hear, but try.) If you ate soap, and had a bad reaction
to it, would you conclude that you must be allergic to soap? No, you
wouldn’t, because you know that soap is not part of a natural human
diet. So why when we eat other things that are also not part of a

natural human diet, and we have a bad reaction to them, do we
describe that as having an allergy? This implies that our bad reaction
is abnormal, and that we should be able to eat these items without
any adverse effects, and we should seek a remedy so that we may
partake of this food without an “allergic” response. The fact is, a bad
reaction to something we’re not designed to eat in the first place is a
normal, natural response. Those who react badly to wheat and dairy
are better off than those who aren’t vital enough or who aren’t
sensitive enough to react accordingly. But these normal adverse
reactions are treated as conditions that can be dealt with by using
remedies such as Dairy-Ease, and things like lactose-free dairy
products and gluten-free grain products.
And since we’re on the subject of allergies, what about ragweed,
pollen, animal hair, etc. These are naturally occurring in the air we
breathe, so are they really “allergens”, and can we really be “allergic”
to them? Or are some people merely over-sensitive to them, and if
they were truly healthy maybe they wouldn’t react to them the way
they do. But this symptom (oversensitivity) of an underlying problem
(over-burdened immune system) is treated as a condition, with tons
of prescription and over-the-counter medications to the rescue. At
one point I was “allergic” to ragweed and cat hair, but now I’m no
longer bothered by them. How did I “cure” myself? Healthy living.
If you were in perfect health, and had a bad reaction to ripe,
organically grown, nutritious bananas, that would be an allergy.
Some specifics on diet’s connection to diabetes and candidiasis
will be found in the chapter on education, but I think it’s getting plain
to see the extent to which diet has an impact on our health.
“When you consume, dead, devitalized, depleted,

and denatured foods, your cells, your thoughts,
your behaviors, and even your relationships
reflect in some way the deficiency and disorder
of an inadequate, improper energy source. The
optimum natural fuel of raw foods is a vital and
necessary step to any real and lasting positive
change in your life.” – Kofi Kwatamani

The Foods of Our Biological Design
Okay, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about the foods we’re not
designed to consume, and by this point you may be thinking,
“There’s nothing left to eat!” But believe me, there’s plenty to eat, it’s
just not what most people think of when pondering, “What’s for
dinner?”
Using the criteria and tests outlined in the beginning of this
chapter...
THE SCIENCE OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY
LOGIC
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
“AS IS” TEST
“YUMMY” TEST
“CAN YOU MAKE A MEAL OF IT” TEST
...it is obvious that the foods of our biological adaptation are...
FRUITS
VEGE TABLES
NUTS & SEEDS
And the relative amounts of each of the above are based on the
same criteria, and fit perfectly within the 80-10-10 caloro-nutrient
profile outlined on page 53.
First, it’s important to understand a few things about eating a
natural diet, and this will take some getting used to because it will no
doubt require some un-learning of things that have been with you for
a long time.

Fruit: Anything with a seed(s)
Categories of fruit:
Sweet fruit
oranges, melons, dates, bananas, many tropical fruits
Non-sweet fruit
cucumbers, red bell peppers, tomatoes
Fatty fruit
avocado, semi-fatty tropical fruits
Vegetable: Does not contain a seed(s)

Leafy greens (romaine lettuce, spinach), celery (kale is to be
avoided until you normalize your iodine levels)
(Root vegetables are not foods designed for humans)
How should a diet of these foods be consumed?
Whole
Fresh as possible
Ripe
Undamaged
Organically grown
Eat a variety
Eat only when ________
(We’ll fill in the blank in a moment)
Whole – Our food comes to us in Nature in a perfect package. But

when we use tools to fractionate and process food, the further away
from Nature we get, the less healthy the food will be for us; this is
simply a Maxim of Nature.
Just because we invented machines that can blend up or juice the
rind of a watermelon along with the delicious fruit that the rind

protects, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for us to do so. If Nature
intended for us to eat the rind too, it would be edible and delicious,
which it is not.
If the watermelon came from the store in a plastic bag, you
wouldn’t put the bag into the machine; so too should you not put
any other “packaging” into the machine. In fact, if you can avoid the
machine altogether, you’re better off (although using a blender to
help masticate your food if you suffer from a “weak” digestive system
may be of benefit until your digestive system regains its vitality).
When you resort to unnatural processing, there are always going to
be caveats. In the case of food from a blender, with nothing to chew
on, digestive juices don’t get flowing, which can hinder digestion. So
now you should chew some gum prior to eating the blended mixture.
And since you’re not chewing, saliva doesn’t get mixed in with the
food, so now you should spit into the blender! My point being, unless
you must use a blender, try not to, or use it minimally.
Fresh – The fresher, the better. In Nature, the amount of time

between picking and eating is a few seconds; in civilization, it can be
months. The longer the lag time between harvesting and
consumption, the more nutrient loss, which is why locally grown
produce is superior to trucked-in produce.
Ripe – As a fruit ripens, its starches turn into sugars. Which tastes
better, a green, unripe banana, or a yellow ripe banana? The trick
here is to eat a fruit at or near the peak of ripeness. Some fruits stop
ripening when they are picked, so you are at the mercy of the grower
(who sometimes picks prematurely to get his product to market
before his competitors). And some fruits continue to ripen after they
are picked; these you can choose to eat when they are ready, and
there are things you can do to speed up or slow down the ripening
process.
Undamaged – By this, of course, I mean uncooked. But also watch

out for small areas that may be rotting due to a cut or bruise.
Organically grown – The main problem with conventionally grown

produce is that it contains pesticide residues. But because you don’t
drop dead instantly from consuming a piece of fruit that contains
pesticides, the agri-chemical industry has been able to keep the

detrimental effects of its products out of the public’s collective
consciousness.
Pesticides are designed to kill living things, and while it’s true that
eating one conventionally grown apple won’t lead to your premature
death, what do you think the probability is that eating pesticide-laden
food at every meal, every day, for decades will contribute to
degenerative disease, which is a cause of premature death.
One of the articles in the back of this book is entitled, Better to be
Safe than Sorry. And in the absence of knowing the science behind
the hazards of pesticides, this is probably a good philosophy to follow.
Pesticides can cause cancerous cells to form, and pesticides can
also burden the body’s ability to effectively deal with cancerous
cells... the Double Whammy Effect, which has undoubtedly
contributed big time to today’s higher-than-ever cancer rates.
So it’s best that as much of your food as possible be organically
grown. The foods I would never eat if they weren’t organic are: leafy
greens, grapes, strawberries; anything you eat whole without
peeling. If I wanted some bananas, and I couldn’t find any
organically grown bananas, I have been known to buy non-organic
ones. The same goes for watermelon. I’m not saying that some
pesticides don’t find their way into the pulp of the fruit, but I’m
trying to be realistic. But you still couldn’t pay me to eat
conventionally grown items that can’t be peeled.
The other difference between organically grown produce and
produce grown with pesticides is the nutritional quality. Let’s face it,
conventional crops have never been grown for nutrition, they’ve
always been grown for yield. When these foods were nutritious, it
was because of the soil’s natural fertility, not because of something
the farmer did to make them nutritious.
When it was discovered that all you needed in the soil to make
plants grow were three nutrients (nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus),
the agri-chemical companies responded with three-nutrient fertilizers.
But what happens when, due to soil-overtilling, the crops suck all the
trace minerals and rare earth elements out of the ground, and the
farmer doesn’t put them back in? If they’re not in the soil, they’re not
going to be in the plant. And if they’re not in the food you’re eating,
you ain’t getting ‘em (unless you take supplements, which is a
section all by itself).

Even if they are in the soil, crops grown from genetically modified
seeds may not uptake the nutrients they normally would when grown
from un-modified seeds. (What hath man wrought!) And if the crops
are harvested too quickly, the plants don’t have enough time to
uptake some nutrients (not all nutrients are uptaken at the same rate).
A recently published review of 41 scientific studies from countries
around the world comparing the nutrition of organic and
conventionally grown foods, found significantly higher nutrients in
organically grown crops.
Nutritional Quality of Organic Versus Conventional Fruits,

Vegetables, and Grains, published in The Journal of
Alternative and Complementary Medicine, found organic
crops, on average, contained 29.3% more magnesium, 27%
more vitamin C, 21% more iron, 13.6% more phosphorus,
26% more calcium, 11% more copper, 42% more manganese,
9% more potassium and are 15% lower in nitrates. In crops
such as spinach, lettuce, and cabbage, organically grown
crops showed even higher nutritional superiority.
A possible reason for the above? Farmers who don’t use pesticides
tend to take better care of their soil, leaving some fields fallow for a
year or more so the soil can be fertilized by Nature. And some use
natural fertilizers that replenish 100 nutrients, and not just three (if
you have your own farm or garden, see health101.org/booklink#25
www.
for information on the BEST soil remineralizing techniques to use).

Another reason organically grown food is healthier is the little
known fact that plants produce substances that are good for us (like
bioflavonoids) in response to attacks from insects in an effort to fend
off the pests. Plants sprayed with pesticides never get attacked, and
therefore never manufacture these beneficial substances.
Variety – Research reported at the American Institute for Cancer

Research (AICR) International Conference on Food, Nutrition and
Cancer, by Rui Hai Liu, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues at Cornell
University concluded that, “Different plant foods have different
phyto-nutrients; these substances go to different organs, tissues and
cells, where they perform different functions. What your body needs
to ward off disease is this synergistic effect – this teamwork – that is
produced by eating a wide variety of plant foods”. (Emphasis mine)

We’ve heard, “Eat a diverse diet,” a recommendation that has
been a part of many dietary guidelines for decades. But few studies
have explored the relationship between dietary diversity and the
adequacy of nutrient uptake. With a grant from the USDA, scientists
carried out a first-of-its-kind analysis of the adequacy of nutrient
intakes as a function of diversity, and the study arrived at some very
unsettling conclusions.
First, a surprising percentage of men and women eating a typical
Western diet are not consuming an adequate intake of 15 key
nutrients. For men, the probability of adequacy for five key nutrients
was under 50%, with vitamin E at only 14.1% and magnesium and
folate at 36% and 34% respectively. For women, only 6.8% were
likely to consume an adequate amount of vitamin E, 20.9% for
folate, and just as with men, there were a total of five nutrients
under 50%.
Because organically grown food tends to be higher in nutrition
than pesticide-containing crops, eating a variety of organic fruits and
vegetables can help bridge the gap between an adequate and
inadequate consumption of the nutrients we need to be healthy.
Now onto that last item listed under How should a diet of our
biologically adapted foods be consumed?
Eat only when ______

Have you filled in the blank yet? It’s one of the most important things
you can do to improve your health... Eat only when hungry!
I’m sure you remember that non-essential digestion wastes nerve

energy, which is one of the main reasons to not over-eat. And one of
the best ways to avoid over-eating is to eat only when you are truly
hungry. But to do this you must understand what true hunger really is.
When I ask people to show me on their body where they feel
hunger, they will always place their hand on their stomach. Whatever
you feel happening in that area, it’s not hunger. True hunger is not
that much different from thirst; it’s felt in relatively the same area of
the body, the chest. If I put my ear on your body when you were
feeling thirsty, I wouldn’t hear anything; the same goes for when you
are truly hungry. If you placed your hand on the area of your body

where you felt thirst, you wouldn’t feel anything either; it’s the same
with hunger. The rumblings, growling, and gurgling you feel and hear
that you think are signs of hunger, are actually signs of some form of
incomplete digestion (indigestion); it’s not your body telling you it’s
time to eat.
A friend of mine once commented, “I’ve been having hunger
pains for the last hour...”. They may have been pains, but they had
nothing to do with hunger. Pains may be unpleasant, but hunger
pangs are not.
Many people eat according to a schedule, and not when they are
truly hungry. In the morning, whether your body wants food or not,
most people eat something for breakfast. And when 12 o’clock rolls
around, it’s lunchtime; time to eat whether your body wants to or
not. By dinnertime your body may actually be hungry for nutrients,
so you may have an appetite because your body is starving for
nutrition, but that’s not the same as being hungry for fuel.
So since many people eat “ahead” of true hunger, most people
have never felt the pleasure of actually being hungry (for fuel). And if
you’re eating ahead of true hunger, you’re over-eating and getting
more calories than you need. Another thing to consider: If your body
wants to fast (no food, just water) it initiates this by not letting you
get hungry; if you eat ahead of hunger, you won’t know to fast.
There are also people who get light-headed and must eat
something sweet, or they’ll “conk out”. This light-headedness is also
not true hunger, and is likely due to a malfunctioning blood sugar
regulatory system (hypoglycemia: low blood sugar). But this can be
remedied by living according to your biological imperatives.
When people find out that I eat a diet of uncooked fruits, leafy
greens, nuts, and seeds, I’m often asked, “What did you have for
breakfast/lunch/dinner?” And I reply, “I don’t eat breakfast, lunch, or
dinner’.” I then respond to their puzzled looks by explaining that I
don’t give names to my meals because those names are associated
with eating at a certain time of day, and I don’t eat that way anymore
because it doesn’t respect my body; I eat when I’m hungry, I don’t
eat when I’m not; it’s as simple as that.
Eating this way may strike you as being more difficult, but it’s
actually easier than eating on a schedule. Making the adjustment is
like anything else that’s new... it just takes getting used to; it’s not
difficult, it’s just different.

Unhealthy Diets
A wise man once said, “Dieting is not healthy; a healthy diet is
healthy”. I can’t talk about a healthy diet without mentioning the
unhealthy diets that are a part of today’s culture. There are many
ways to lose weight, but only one is healthy; the others disrespect
your body and erode your health even further.
Eating For Your Blood Type

Knowing what I know about diets, and knowing that one’s diet is
dictated by one’s digestive system, when I heard about this diet, I
was naturally skeptical. But a skeptic does not mean “him who
doubts”, it means, “him who investigates”. So as I was researching
this diet, I found myself wondering if other animals – specifically
primates – had different blood types as we do. Since all primates in a
particular geographical area eat the same diet, if they had different
blood types, that would tend to shoot down this theory of different
diets for different blood types. And sure enough, other primates do
have different blood types. Hmmm.
Further investigation proved that this diet was nothing short of
ridiculous. For a more detailed explanation of why it’s just so much
nonsense, see the article, The Blood Type Diet: Fact or Fiction? on
the health101.org website.
High Protein / Low Carb Diets

We have the intelligence to journey to the moon. We’ve figured
out how to split the atom and harness the resulting energy. We’ve
had the smarts to build a telescope so we could view galaxies billions
of light-years away. Is it likely that we don’t know what the natural
diet of a human being is?
Pick any other animal on the planet, from the tiniest insect to the
largest mammal, and you’ll discover that we know exactly what
they’re supposed to eat. So it’s hard to imagine that we don’t know
what we’re supposed to eat. With so many contradictory diets, you’d
think the diet we’re designed to consume must be a complete
mystery to us?

From watching the tons of T V food commercials, it would appear
that we’ve finally discovered that we’re supposed to eat low carbs
and high protein. Wow, it took us until 2004 A.D. to figure it out!
Well, everything you’ve ever seen on T V touting low-carb-this and
low-carb-that can’t be further from the truth. The ads tell you what
the food companies want you to eat, not what you’re designed to
eat. They want you to chow down on chicken, bacon, beef, ice cream,
cheese, low-carb beer, low-carb cereal, low-carb cookies, and the list
goes on and on. Besides being low-carb, what else do these things
have in common? They’re not foods designed for human beings. As
I’ve demonstrated, we’re built for high carbs and low protein, not the
other way around, as the T V ads would have you believe.
And as I’ve mentioned, there are two
types of carbs; the carbs we’re designed to
eat are called simple carbs, as in fruits and
veggies, the carbs we’re not designed to eat
are called complex carbs, as in breads,
pastas, cereals, and rice. The discussion of
these two carbs is conspicuously absent from
the many low carb books and magazines...
yes, it saddens me to say there are actually
low carb magazines.
The initial weight loss from these “Atkins” type diets is not from
losing fat, it’s from losing water. These diets eventually place a heavy
burden on the kidneys and liver due to ketosis (fat metabolism), and
ketosis suppresses appetite, which helps you eat less, but remember,
you eat for nutrition too.
If you’re avoiding simple carbs (the body’s fuel of choice), you
must get your calories from somewhere, so your daily intake of fat or
complex carbs increases to compensate. And it’s the high amount of
fat (and the protein that usually accompanies the fat) that accounts
for the epidemic of degenerative disease we have today, not too
many carbs. Yes, too many complex carbs and empty carb foods are
unhealthy since we’re designed to run on simple carbs from
nutritious food, but substituting fat and protein for carbs is a recipe
for disaster. And so is eating for your “metabolic type”. The notion
that some people are designed for more protein than carbs flies in
the face of human physiology. By the time you’re finished with this
book, you’ll understand why.

Caloric Restriction and Appetite Suppression
As you’ve seen, if your diet has an unbalanced FUEL : NUTRIENT
ratio, consuming less calories means you’re getting even less
nutrients than you did before. This is why diets consisting of cooked
food that simply limit calories are unhealthy, and are destined to fail
sooner or later. They remain popular because you lose weight in the
short term. And diets that have you eat things (fiber) that curb your
appetite will help you lose weight at the expense of nutrition.
“Lose all the Weight You Want for $19.99”

To test the integrity of one of these types of establishments, I
asked a friend of mine to join up. She was 5' 5" and weighed 100
pounds. She definitely didn’t need to lose weight (in fact most people
felt she needed to gain weight). I was hovering near the reception
desk when she came in and said that she wanted to lose about ten
pounds. When she was cheerfully given an application to fill out, I
butted in and said, “Excuse me, this woman doesn’t look like she
needs to lose any weight... I think it’s irresponsible of you to let her
join.” And I was sternly told, “Sir, this is a decision that our clients
make for themselves; it is not for us to say how much a person
should or shouldn’t weigh.” What a load of horse-hockey! But again,
these places are a business, so let the buyer beware.
Bariatric Surgery
More appropriately called “Barbaric Surgery”. There was a famous
T V personality who was over-weight, and who wanted to be slim, but
said that he had tried “every diet” and nothing had worked, so
bariatric surgery was his only option. In reality, this person was
aware of the information you’ve been reading, but didn’t want to eat
a healthy diet; his criteria for a diet included being able to eat his
favorite foods, so bariatric surgery filled the bill nicely.
This surgery doesn’t just make the stomach smaller; that
wouldn’t work because you could simply eat more often. The thinking
here is: calories are absorbed into the body by the small intestines,
so let’s remove some of the small intestines! Brilliant. But the small
intestines are also responsible for absorbing nutrients, so bariatric
surgery hinders your ability to derive nutrition from your food.

Considering that five percent of those who undergo bariatric
surgery die from the surgery, and that if people would simply try
eating a healthier diet they’d lose weight naturally, this is a pretty
extreme choice for managing your weight. But ever since that T V
personality popularized this procedure, these billboards have been
popping up all over the place...
Obese?
What Are You Weighting For?
Bariatric Surgery
Weight-Loss Plans and Potions

When you see those unretouched photos on T V, they look pretty
convincing...
BEFORE AFTER
Results not typical
But your gaze is so transfixed, and your mind can’t help but picture
you as the “after”, that you miss the fine print on the bottom of the
screen. Here, let me enlarge it so you can read it more easily...
Results not typical

Those words aren’t incredibly small by accident. The company
doesn’t want you considering that since you’re a typical person,
you’re likely to get typical results; and the typical results are...
BEFORE AFTER
“You can lose 54 pounds in 6 weeks!”

Despite what the ads say (I LOST 54 POUNDS IN 6 WEEKS
WITHOUT DIETS OR EXERCISE!!! or LOSE 10 POUNDS THIS
WEEKEND!), you cannot lose a pound of fat unless you burn off
3,500 calories. To lose 54 pounds in 6 weeks, you would need to lose
9 pounds in 7 days, or 1.3 pounds per day. That 1.3 pounds of fat is
equal to 4,500 calories, so you would have to burn off 4,500 calories
per day. The only way to do that would be to eat nothing AND run a
marathon every day, and do this for 42 days. That’s impossible. The
only way to lose that much weight that quickly is through
dehydration or liposuction. The ads are lying.
Drink Milk to Lose Weight

Mammalian milks are designed for babies, and besides eating,
pooping, and sleeping, what are babies busy doing? Growing! So milk
is designed to put on weight and help babies grow. How absurd then
is it to promote milk as a weight-loss product. But you’re asked to set
common sense aside by the dairy industry’s latest claim: Drink milk
and get skinny. The dairy folks are quite willing to risk insulting your
intelligence by suggesting that a substance containing fat, plenty of

calories, and powerful growth hormones can be considered a weight-
loss product. But they know they’re not really risking anything
because people’s desire to be slim can easily get in the way of good
judgment.
The milk ad says, “Drink Milk. Lose Weight?” Why do they put
a question mark after “lose weight” and not a period? Because they’d
be sued for making a statement that’s not borne out by the facts. A
question mark lets you decide if it’s true.
Their ad goes on to say, “Looking to drop a few pounds?
Including enough milk in your reduced-calorie diet could
provide the nutritional support you need for healthy effective
weight loss… Emerging research suggests that drinking three
glasses of milk daily when dieting may promote the loss of body
fat…”. I’ve emphasized two of the most powerful words in an ad
agency’s arsenal; could and may are used all the time to cover legal
behinds. If they had said “will”, off to court they would go.
And guess who commissioned the “emerging research”? Right;
the dairy industry. “Loaded” studies are done all the time, and they’re
done to prove something that someone wants proved.
The ad continues with, “The calcium and protein in milk may
help explain these weight loss benefits… It’s time to add healthy
weight loss to the already extensive list of good things that milk
can do for your body.” Again, the magic word may ; and I’d love to
see the science behind those items on their “extensive list”.
Let’s examine a bit of real science: a June, 2005 publication in
the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reports of a
study of 12,829 American children in which it was determined that
those who consumed more than three servings of milk per day were
35% more likely to become over-weight than those who drank little
or no milk. And in the March, 2006 issue of the American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition, researchers from the Department of Epidemiology
and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the
Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard School of
Public Health say that the dairy weight-loss claim is not backed up by
real facts. The scientists concluded: "Our data do not support the
hypothesis that an increase in calcium intake or dairy consumption is
associated with lower long-term weight gain in men."

Too Thin?
When transitioning from an unhealthy to a healthy diet, you may
become lower than your natural weight for a while. This is normal;
it’s part of the body’s rebuilding process. As long as you have energy
don’t be concerned; your weight will eventually rise to your normal
set-weight (what you’re meant to weigh when living healthfully).
Another thing to consider: When most people who have been
over-weight get to their normal set-weight by eating a healthy diet,
they’re often of the opinion that they look too thin. What needs to be
understood is that most people who are over-weight are over-fatted
and under-muscled. So when they reach a normal body fat content,
they look “too thin” because their musculature isn’t as developed as
it should be; and muscle weight is a part of that number you see
when you step on the scale.
When improving your health, what should be focused on is not
“losing weight” but losing the over-fat condition and gaining
appropriate amounts of muscle... and doing so will result in a shift of
body weight. Yes, if you were over-fat, you’ll weigh less when all
weights have normalized, but your weight won’t be “too low” if you
also gain muscle. The next chapter will address this issue.
Also worth noting: Body fat percentage is a better indicator of
health than your Body Mass Index (BMI, which is the relationship of
your total weight to your height). And a healthy body fat percentage
is lower than most professionals have been taught.
To Summarize Unhealthy Diets

Knowing what I know about nutrition, I am appalled by what I
see today. Food companies taking advantage of people’s taste buds,
and weight-loss companies taking advantage of your desire to be
slim… all for the sake of profit, at the expense of your health. But
you can’t blame businesses for caring about profit; it’s not their
responsibility to care about your health, it’s yours. And eating the
way the T V news reporter said you should, or doing a diet because it
lets you have your cake and eat it too, is likely to be in someone
else’s best interest, not yours. There’s only one truly healthy way to
lose weight, and that’s Nature’s way.

Eat a Balanced Diet
As I’m sure you’re beginning to realize, if you didn’t already, there
is a lot of misinformation when it comes to diet.
Steven Anderson, president of the National Restaurant

Association, reacted with annoyance to the notion that fast
food is addictive. “Dieticians will tell you that all foods can fit
into a diet. Anything that compares tobacco – which does have
addictive properties – with food is misleading,” he said. From
“Burgers are ‘as bad as heroin’ activist claims” by Simon English
“Dieticians will tell you that all foods can fit into a diet.” And that’s
the scary part. Unfortunately those people we assume will give us
the straight scoop when it comes to diet are not in a position to do
so. In Appendix E – Experts’ Erroneous Notions – you will find
examples of just how misinformed many diet professionals are.
But what about our own government? They provide nutritional
information too. It wouldn’t be a
stretch of the imagination to think
that politicians might be influenced
by industries that have something to
gain from us eating their products...
products that are non-human food.
Back on page 73, Dr. Douglas
made reference to the “Food
Pyramid farce”. Because you might LATEST USDA FOOD PYRAMID
have the USDA Food Pyramid thrown in your face (to prove that you
should be eating grain products, dairy products, and meat), a short
discussion of the Food Pyramid is in order.
The latest pyramid does make some healthy recommendations:
Eat more dark leafy greens.

Eat a variety of fruit.
“Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables as part of an overall
healthy diet may reduce risk for stroke, coronary heart disease,
type 2 diabetes, may protect against certain cancers, such as
mouth, stomach, and colon-rectum cancer, may reduce the risk

of developing kidney stones, and may help to decrease
bone loss.”
Very nice recommendations indeed. But it goes on to recommend
eating even more grain products than the previous pyramid. Strike
one. Here are some other less-than-healthy recommendations.
Eat more root vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes.

Eat at least 3 ounces of whole grain cereals, bread, crackers,
rice, or pasta every day.
Eat more dried beans and peas like pinto beans, kidney beans,
and lentils.
Go low-fat or fat-free when you choose milk, yogurt and other
milk products.
(if you can’t drink milk) choose lactose-free products or other
calcium sources such as fortified food and beverages.
Make most of your fat sources from fish, nuts, and vegetable oils.
(I’ll take this opportunity to mention that oils should be avoided

like the plague; there is no such thing as a “healthy oil”. And you can
make delicious salad dressings without using refined oils.)
If you visit the Food Pyramid’s website, you’ll be treated to some
of the finest examples of misleading information available today... no
doubt courtesy of industry influence. Here are some of my favorites
(I could actually feel the hair on the back of my neck standing up as
I typed these into my computer)...
Consuming milk and milk products provides health benefits.

People who have a diet rich in milk and milk products can
reduce the risk of low bone mass throughout the life cycle.
The intake of milk products is especially important to bone
health during childhood and adolescence when bone mass is
being built.
Milk products are the primary source of calcium in American
diets.

Diets that provide 3 cups or the equivalent of milk products
per day can improve bone mass.
Consuming foods rich in fiber, such as whole grains, as part of
a healthy diet, reduces the risk of coronary heart disease.
Eating grains fortified with folate before and during pregnancy
helps prevent neural tube defects during fetal development.
Most of the fats you eat should be poly-unsaturated (PUFA) or
monounsaturated (MUFA) fats. Oils are the major source of
MUFAs and PUFAs in the diet.
Meat, poultry, fish, & eggs supply many nutrients.
Proteins are one of three nutrients that provide calories (the
others are fat and carbohydrates).
B vitamins found in the MEAT group serve a variety of
functions in the body.
Many teenage girls and women in their child-bearing years
have iron-deficiency anemia. They should eat foods high in
heme-iron (meats).
And if you had any doubts that our government doesn’t try to
convince us to eat grain and animal products, observe how they
word the following statement...
For a 2,000 calorie diet, you need the amounts below from
each food group.
GRAINS: Eat 6 ounces every day
MEAT & BEANS: Eat 5½ ounces every day
MILK: Get 3 cups every day
VEGETABLES: Eat 2½ cups every day
FRUITS: Eat 2 cups every day
This wording implies that you need to eat from each food group.
A 2,000 calorie diet consisting of just fruits, vegetables, nuts, and
seeds is a healthier diet than the above recommendation, but the
food pyramid doesn’t reflect this. Thus the “Food Pyramid farce”.

Every health organization in the world suggests that we eat way
more fruits and vegetables than we do, and the above
recommendation of two cups of fruit and two-and-a-half cups of
vegetables a day is a snack when compared to the amounts you
should actually be eating in a truly healthy diet.
So it’s clear that turning to the USDA for healthy dietary
information is not much better than consulting a medical doctor.
“One of the biggest factors in disease

prevention is diet. Yet, nutrition training of
doctors is not merely inadequate; it is
practically nonexistent... The bulk of these
nutrition hours are taught in the first year
of medical school, as part of other basic
science courses... When nutrition
education is provided in relation to public
health problems, guess who is supplying
the ‘educational’ material? The Dannon
Institute, Egg Nutrition Board, National
Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National
Dairy Council, Nestle Clinical Nutrition,
Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, Bristol-Myers
Squibb... Do you think that this all-star
team of animal food and drug industry
representatives is going to objectively
judge and promote optimal nutrition –
which science has shown to be a whole
food, plant-based diet – which minimizes
the need for drugs?”
T. Colin Cambell, The China Study

Supplements
Last but not least is the issue of “to supplement or not to
supplement”. For some people, that is indeed the question. For
others, the question isn’t whether or not to take nutritional
supplementation, it’s what is the best supplement to take.
It’s safe to say that all the health advocates who embrace the
principles of living in accordance with our biological requirements
agree far more than they disagree. But the issue of supplementation
is undoubtedly the one that produces the most discussion.
There are people who steadfastly refuse to take any pills of any
kind. They won’t consider the science; for them it’s more of a
philosophical issue, and they remain firm that “we shouldn’t have to
take anything”. I know some of these folks, and some have gotten
themselves into trouble, health-wise, from their rigid position.
At the other end of the spectrum are those who, without any
investigation or research at all, take dozens of different supplements
every morning, even if doing so upsets their stomach. If a vitamin
company’s promotional material sounds good to them and the price
is right, in their shopping basket it goes. And just as with those
above, there’s nothing you can say to these folks to get them to
reconsider their approach to wellness.
In between are those who lean one way or the other, but who
keep an open mind because they realize we’re not living in our
biological “eco-niche”, and haven’t been for many generations. So if
something comes along that they find compelling, they’ll give it the
attention it deserves.
At one time, I was of the (unconsidered) opinion that there was
no reason I should have to take a dietary supplement; there was no
reason I couldn’t get all the nutrients my body needed from the food
I ate. Then I became aware of certain reasons to revisit the matter.
After about ten years of eating no animal products, and five years
of eating uncooked fruits and vegetables, something told me to get a
checkup. It’s useless to have a mainstream doctor review your test
results because, as we’ve discussed in these pages, average results
are not the same as normal results. And since some of the more
“telling” tests aren’t even prescribed by mainstream doctors, I went
to an MD who ate a vegan diet, and advocated eating lots of raw
fruits and vegetables (vegan means no animal products).

Long story short, my body wasn’t getting enough vitamin B12.
B12 is normally made in the gut, but for some reason, my gut wasn’t
up to the task yet. Since I didn’t eat any animal protein, or anything
that would supply me with too much methionine or cysteine (two
“sulphur” amino acids), a serum homocysteine blood test would be a
good indicator of B12 utilization. A normal level is under eight. Mine
was 22; way too high! I took an under-the-tongue B12 supplement,
and a month later my homocysteine level was down to eight.
This got me thinking, and after 15 years of research,
experimentation, much soul-searching, with a break now-and-then
for a reality-check, I’ve come to some personal conclusions about
supplementation, which I will share with you for your consideration.
Our nutrients are supposed to come from the plant matter we
eat. The plants get them from the soil they’re grown in. On page 78
where I spoke about the importance of eating organically grown
food, I made the point that if the nutrients aren’t in the soil, they’re
not going to be in what’s grown in that soil. So I had to wonder,
since the foods I ate weren’t being harvested from the wild, and
even though they were organically grown – which would tend to
make them a more nutritious choice over conventionally grown fruits
and vegetables – did they have enough of all the nutrients my body
needed, not just to survive, but to thrive ?
What I concluded was this: Unless I was growing all my own food
in soil that I knew to be nutritious, I probably wasn’t getting
everything I needed nutrient-wise. (See the short video at
health101.org/booklink#40 for a more detailed explanation.) Using
www.
logic, common sense, and some research, it wasn’t difficult to reach

this decision, but figuring out just what supplementation to take can
be a nightmare; there are literally thousands of choices, all
maintaining that they are the “best”.
At first I was against synthetically manufactured supplements
because I felt that this industry is an “anything goes” industry; no
regulations except that the pills had to be made to food grade
standards; the same standards as a potato chip. And wondering if
there were the maximum amount of rodent hairs allowed by law in
my one-a-day didn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling.
Also, a laboratory-made supplement couldn’t include the
substances that are in plant matter that we require that we haven’t
discovered yet.

So I set my sights on a “whole food” based supplement; one
made from plants. But there I ran into the same quandary that led
me to consider supplements in the first place; if the soil doesn’t
contain all the nutrients I need, it won’t be in the supplement either.
This hinged on how knowledgeable and caring a particular
supplement manufacturer was.
While researching who made a decent whole food supplement, I
revisited the idea of a laboratory-made multi-vitamin. I decided that
it had to be one that was manufactured to a pharmaceutical grade
standard, and not a food grade standard (not that I advocate pain
meds, but if the Tylenol label says there’s 500 mg of acetaminophen
in each tablet, there’s no doubt that this is what’s in each tablet). It
was disheartening to discover that only a handful of vitamins were
made this way; profit margins dictate business decisions. But at least
it made my search easier.
But when dealing with a lab-made vitamin, its formulation was a
huge consideration. Were the nutrients that needed to be in specific
ratios with other nutrients, quantity-wise, formulated that way? Were
the ingredients chosen based on hard science, and not on junk
science? Were the forms of each ingredient the most bioavailable
form (usually the most expensive)? Were the substances that held
the pill together and the ones that helped the pill dissolve in the
stomach, high quality ones (also the most expensive)? The more
educated I became, the less impressed I was with what I found.
I did learn a few important things though:
1. When considering a whole food supplement, a “green powder”
product is the way to go, if for no other reason than to avoid pill
casings, coatings, excipients, and binders. Another advantage of a
powder is that it can be mixed with food, allowing it to spend a lot of
time with your small intestines (where nutrients are absorbed).
2. A whole food product should be made from a land-based plant as
opposed to sea vegetation, should be processed so it never exceeds
115ºF, and should be made from organically grown plants.
3. Some people may need to take B12, D, and/or iodine supplements,
but this should be done under the direction of a qualified health
educator… someone who knows the correct way to test for
insufficiencies of these nutrients, and someone who knows the
appropriate recommendations to make.

4. Just because a particular multivitamin doesn’t make you feel better
doesn’t mean the supplement isn’t superior to a worthless one you
may have been taking previously. Unless you were suffering from a
severe nutrient deficiency, you will not feel noticeably better from
taking a multivitamin. The benefit of pharmaceutical quality
supplements (nutraceuticals) is that they help ensure that your body
(immune system especially) is receiving the nutrients it needs to
adequately deal with any developing disease and with the aging
process. The results of this won't become apparent until you reach a
ripe old age and find that you're doing quite well compared to the
general population (who took a worthless multi or nothing at all).
And most importantly...
5. Supplements are not a substitute for a healthy diet. As the name
implies they are meant to supplement a healthy diet.
So which one is better to take, a whole food based supplement or
a lab-made supplement? My conclusion: Both. They are complementary,
each helping to satisfy your nutritional requirements.
And besides a multi, there are the few individual nutrients – like
B12, D, and iodine – that many of my clients needed to take to
regain their health because the amounts of these that are in a multi
are not enough to resolve a deficiency once you have one.
Because my research is always ongoing, I’ll refrain from listing
here the supplements I like, except to say that the plant-based
supplement I use was recommended to me by someone who I firmly
believe to be one of the most knowledgeable people on the planet
when it comes to soil nutrition and plant health, Don Weaver (Get his
free book To Love and Regenerate the Earth at
health101.org/booklink#25).
www.
If you’d like to know which supplements I currently speak highly

of, visit the LINKS and PRODUCTS pages at health101.org
Bottom line: If your diet isn’t providing you with all the nutrients
your body requires, your quality-of-life and how well your body deals
with any as-of-yet undiagnosed disease will be adversely affected.
Supplementing your diet can be a way to help ensure your body gets
what it needs, but taking something that provides no benefit, and is
instead a burden on the body, is worse than taking nothing at all.
I expand on this very important subject in an article at this link:
health101.org/booklink#42
www.

Diets rich in fruits and
vegetables may reduce the
risk of some types of cancer
and other chronic diseases. –
National Cancer Institute
Sticker on a banana (it was a really big banana)
Benefits of Eating a Healthy Diet of Uncooked Food

• Plant-based diet with associated benefits
• Low saturated fat, high soluble fiber, zero cholesterol,
no damaged animal protein
• Free of any chemicals, animal hormones
• Lower calorie diet
• Healthy FUEL : NUTRIENT ratio
• No refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, coffee, tea,
sodas, protein drinks, etc.
• Free of poisonous form of sodium (salt)
• Free of irritants: garlic, onions, pepper, ginger
• Free of refined oils and margarines
• Free of refined grains
• Very high in fruits and vegetables
• Free of preservatives, colorings, flavorings, etc.
• Improves odds of avoiding disease
• Raises awareness of the importance of eating
organically grown foods
• You don’t have to count calories

Healthy Dietary Guidelines – A Review
• The first meal of the day should be water, on an empty stomach.
If you wake with food in your stomach, you ate too close to going to
sleep and/or over-ate your last meal of the day – avoid this. It’s
better to go to sleep a little hungry, than to eat just before bedtime.
Try not to eat within three hours of going to sleep. If you must eat
something closer to bedtime, make it a piece of juicy fruit like melon.
It will digest quickly, and since it’s only a small amount, it shouldn’t
interfere with you falling asleep.
• Don’t eat your first meal of solid food until hungry. This may not
be until late morning or even early afternoon. When depends on a
number of factors: How much did you eat yesterday? How active are
you? How much in need of nutrients are you?
• While you are transitioning to a healthier diet, try making the first
solid meal of the day just fruit, and if possible, just one kind of fruit.
The next time you’re hungry, try fruit again. During the day, have a
salad, which can consist of non-sweet fruits and a green leafy veggie
like romaine lettuce or spinach. If you eat a salad and find yourself
wanting something sweet afterwards, it means you haven’t been
eating enough sweet fruit... your caloric requirements aren’t being
met. Remember, non-sweet fruits and green leafy veggies are
(supposed to be) a good source of nutrients, but not a good source
of fuel.
• Don’t eat a meal until hungry, and always eat when hungry. But be
mindful not to over-eat. Dish out one small portion at a time. Eat
multiple small portions instead of one big portion. Each time you go
for another small portion, ask yourself, “Do I really want another
one?” Be honest.
• More smaller meals throughout the day are healthier than a few
large meals; your metabolism will be higher, helping you stay slim.
• Eat slowly and chew each mouthful well... don’t rush.
• Try not to do anything else while eating: talking on the phone,

watching T V, reading, carrying on a conversation. Take the
opportunity to relax and enjoy each delicious mouthful.

• Prepare simple meals. The simpler thy meal, the healthier thy life.
(And see Transitioning to a Healthy Raw Diet, the Easy Way at
health101.org)
• The healthiest meal consists of just one food. Try making meals out
of just one food. This allows your body to update its food nutrient
database, something it can’t do if you’re always mixing foods together.
If you must combine foods, avoid the “bad” combinations.
• A healthy diet consists of mostly fruit, some green leafy vegetables,
and occasional small amounts of nuts. Note: The fruit category
consists of sweet fruits (kiwi, melons, oranges, mangos, apples,
grapes, etc.), non-sweet fruits (cucumbers, tomatoes, red bell
peppers, etc.), and fatty fruits (avocados 77%, durian 30%). Sweet
fruits are your best source of high quality (simple) carbohydrates,
and should make up the largest portion of the fruit category. Non-
sweet fruits come next quantity-wise, and mix well with romaine
lettuce in salads. The fattier the fruit, the more sparingly it should be
eaten… we don’t need a lot of fat, but we do need some.
• A healthy diet consists of mostly simple carbohydrates, and some
fat and protein. 77-13-10 is a good ratio to hold to, with the fat
content’s range being 8-18% of total calories depending on your
level of physical activity (more active, less of a percentage). These
numbers are just to give you an idea of the proportions, and are not
meant for you to actually calculate the caloro-nutrient ratio of each
meal; and remember, they are percentages, not amounts.
• A healthy diet consists of organically grown food. Pesticides are one
of the two biggest causes of cancer (the other being inactivity).
Organically grown food is also more nutritious than conventionally
grown food. If you can’t buy all your food organic, then buy the ones
that you eat whole – like lettuce – and the foods with thin skins – like
mangos. Bananas and melons have thick skins so the pesticides are
not as problematic. Strawberries and grapes are highly sprayed and
should never be eaten unless they’re organically grown.
• Don’t drink with meals. If you feel like you must drink, you are
probably dehydrated and/or eating a very low water-content meal.
• Avoid “fractionated” foods; oils in particular. Grain products too.
Juices are also fractionated foods, and fruit juices should be avoided
because the fiber is removed and the sugars are concentrated.

• A good test of whether a recipe is good for you is: Can the
individual ingredients be eaten as they appear in Nature, and can
you enjoy them like that.
• If you feel you’re eating for emotional reasons, stop and talk with
someone. Seek out support. Emotional over-eating can be a vicious
cycle that can derail an otherwise healthy diet. But don’t beat
yourself up for doing it. Simply recognize why you did it, treat it as a
learning experience, and move on. An occasional “two steps forward,
one step back” does not constitute a failure. Unless you were raised
on a 100% plant-based, uncooked diet, an occasional backslide is to
be expected. They will one day no longer occur, and healthy eating
will become second nature.
• Socialize with like-minded people, people who are on the same
path as you (though maybe not at the same place on that path;
some may be further along, and some may be where you once were).
• Avoid: grain products, cooked food, dairy products, animal products,
salt, artificial sweeteners, and junk food.
• Always wait at least 20 minutes after drinking before eating.
What Gets You the BEST Results?

It’s the harmful things you leave out of your diet combined with
the addition of some very healthy foods like fruits and leafy greens
that will benefit you the most.
Well, that sums it up for the chapter on diet. I highly recommend

you consider obtaining the books on diet mentioned in Appendix B.
“The news isn’t that fruits and vegetables

are good for you. It’s that they are so good
for you they could save your life.” – David
Bjerklie, TIME Magazine, October 20, 2003

“A diet of uncooked food is inherently healthier than
a cooked food diet, but it is also capable of being an
unhealthy diet. Just as we’ve figured how to cook and
prepare meat to be able to eat it, we’ve also figured
out how to make uncooked “meat” and “cheese”
from nuts and seeds which then allows us to make
traditional dishes such as lasagna, pizza, and burgers
(with buns made from sprouted grains). Some raw
foodists also eat raw rice, raw milk, raw fish, and
raw meat. Although none of the above is cooked, it’s
still a non-human diet. I know people who’ve been
100% raw for over a decade, and they’re still over-
weight, and they still have health challenges. If you
analyze what they eat, their carb-to-fat-to-protein
ratio is not much different from those eating a
Standard American Diet... way too much fat, but in
their case, it’s from nuts. And some folks over-eat on
sweet fruit to the exclusion of leafy greens and non-
sweet fruit. And those who don’t eat enough sweet
fruit over-eat on nuts (or turn to cooked complex carb
foods) to satisfy their caloric needs. Additionally, some
folks – who would never eat meat or dairy – feel that
eggs should be a part of their diet. Although eggs may
supply some needed Omega 3 fatty acids, and, yes,
conceivably humans could have eaten eggs “in the
wild”, eating eggs as part of one’s diet does not
mean eating them scrambled four times a week with
hash browns and bacon. A few raw eggs from free-
ranging animals (and not necessarily chickens) once
every few months may be, for some who benefit from
it, the definition of eating eggs as part of their diet,
but understand that eggs are probably acting as a
supplement, and not as a natural part of our diet.
– Don Bennett, from the book Avoiding Degenerative Disease

9
The Basics of Health – Physical Activity
Unlike the subject of diet, the topic of physical activity isn’t as
hotly debated... but that doesn’t mean it isn’t without its share of
misinformation.
There are many aspects of diet that have a lot of people doing a
lot of thinking. The subject of exercise, by comparison, doesn’t have
people giving much thought to what they do.
No one will argue the point that humans need to be active to be
able to achieve good health. It’s the types of activity, and the way
they are performed, that this chapter will address... and it will do so
in the usual thought-provoking manner. And, as with the chapter on
diet, please don’t shoot the messenger; I’m only tell’n it like it is.
Health and Fitness, You Need Both!

In this book I discuss the ways to be vibrantly healthy. But what
good is being in perfect health if, at age 90, you have trouble getting
out of a chair unassisted, or you can’t walk around for very long?
What good is being free of disease if you can’t be physically active
because you’re out of shape?
In truth, health and fitness go hand-in-hand. In reality, it’s
impossible to be as physiologically healthy as you’re capable of being
if you’re not also physically fit. But it’s also possible to be as strong
as an ox, and succumb to cancer because you didn’t pay attention to
the other equally important Basics of Health. I see many people who
go to a gym regularly but who eat a horrible diet, and some who
even smoke. They look great on the outside, but if you could take a
peek inside, it wouldn’t be a pretty sight.
A strong immune system is nice, but a strong immune system
and a strong body is even better. If you want to be both as disease-
free as possible and as “fit-as-a-fiddle”, keep your eyes on both
prizes!
9. The Basics of Health – Physical Activity 103

Over-fat and Under-muscled
As we discovered in the last chapter on diet, most people in
today’s society have too much fat and not enough muscle on their
bones. And if you lose the excess fat without gaining needed muscle,
you may look too thin when you get down to a normal body fat
content.
And let’s face it, improving your health isn’t just about avoiding
disease, it’s about feeling great! And to feel the best you can feel
you’ve got to have a normal level of activity.
How Much is “Not Enough” and “Too Much” ?

It’s easy to recognize “not enough” when it comes to physical
activity; a sedentary “couch potato” is obviously not getting enough.
But over-doing it can be just as bad as not doing enough; the
detrimental effects are just different. My experience has been that
people are doing either too little or too much. This chapter will help
you understand that when it comes to exercise, more is not
necessarily better.
The Best Exercise is...

To be able to walk like a champ when you’re 90, the best exercise
to do to be able to achieve this most worthy goal is to: walk. To still
be able to sprint when you’re 90, do the best exercise for sprinting,
which is sprinting. If you’d like to be fit enough to be able to climb
up the ladder of your grandson’s treehouse, climbing is the best
exercise. You get the idea.
Efficient Exercise
Your body strives to be efficient in everything it does, and
therefore it loves when you do the things that it requires in an
efficient manner.
Which do you think is more efficient, running one mile or walking
one mile? Here’s a test you can do at home if you have a treadmill:
Adjust the speed of the treadmill so that you are walking as fast as
you can without feeling forced to shift into a running gait (or without
walking in an unnatural manner). Let your heart rate stabilize, and

note the beats-per-minute. Then, without changing the speed of the
treadmill, switch to a slow running gait. Again, let your heart rate
stabilize. Now, do you think your heart rate went up, went down, or
stayed the same when you changed your manner of locomotion?
(And remember, you’re still going at the same speed). The answer:
Your heart rate went up. Why? Because walking is a more efficient
form of locomotion than running.
When you walk, there is always one foot on the ground; your
entire weight is always being supported by at least one leg. When
you run, with every stride you become airborne; your weight is not
being supported by either leg at that moment. To get the entire
weight of your body temporarily supported by nothing takes more
(caloric) energy than allowing all your weight to be constantly
supported by your skeletal system. This is why, for the same speed,
running requires more energy than walking.
How Good is Exercise for Weight Loss?

Now you might be thinking, “But since I’m trying to lose weight,
isn’t it better if the exercise I do is less efficient?”
Of all the ways there are to lose weight, exercise is the least
efficient method. I know this doesn’t sound right because all the
fitness centers imply that by joining their gym and working out you’ll
lose weight and look like the people pictured in their T V ads; slim
and in shape. They will push any buttons they can to sell
memberships... and weight loss and looking good are big buttons
with most people.
The reason the burning of calories (more correctly stated: the
burning of fuel measured in calories) is such an inefficient way to
lose weight is this: To prevent the calories from a slice of junk food
pie from going to your hips, belly, or butt, you’d have to run, huff’n ‘n
puff’n, for many, many miles. Why is this?
If I were to ask you what you considered to be good gas mileage
for a car, what would you say? Forty miles-per-gallon (MPG) is pretty
good; this number represents a car’s “fuel efficiency”. The fuel
potential of gasoline is measured in BTU’s, and ours is measured in
calories. The two units of measure can be mathematically converted
from one to the other (a gallon of gas contains about 31,000
calories). If you do the math, you’ll find that a human being’s fuel

efficiency, in equivalent miles-per-gallon, is around 300 MPG… (and if
we eat right, we’ll have zero emissions). If your car got 300 MPG, it
would take a lot of driving to burn up all the fuel in the gas tank. And
that’s why trying to burn off excess fat through aerobic exercise is
the least efficient method.
So if you want to prevent the calories from that slice of pie from
becoming body fat, the best way to accomplish this is to not eat the
piece of pie in the first place. Stated another way: The most
effective way to lose weight and maintain the weight you’re
supposed to be is by what you put and don’t put in your stomach.
Even though exercise is the least effective way to lose weight, it
is key to maintaining normal weight. (Muscle has a higher metabolic
rate than fat, and burns calories even while you sleep).
Recreation vs Exercise
Humans are designed to do three physical activities really well:
walking, climbing, and sprinting. And therefore we should do things
that promote fitness in those three areas. Anything else you do that
is not a “normal human activity” should be regarded as recreation...
do it for fun, not for fitness. When your fitness-building exercise
consists of activities that you wouldn’t normally do in Nature, those
activities crowd out the ones that would benefit you the most.
Meaning, if it’s healthier to walk for an hour than it is to run for an
hour, walk. I’m not saying you shouldn’t run, I’m saying use your
exercise time to your best advantage, and then make time for
recreational sports; activities you enjoy doing.
Although I do see people walking for exercise, it seems many
people will do anything except those three activities mentioned
above.
Why Do We Exercise the Way We Do?

Eons ago, before the invention of the wheel or any other
technology, we got from place to place by walking. There were no
clocks, so there were no schedules, so there was never any, “Wow, I
am so late... gotta run!” The only time we ran was to escape danger,
and then it was in the form of sprinting (running as fast as you can).
Prior to eating animals, we didn’t have to run to catch our food; it sat
there waiting for us to pick it.

So how did running, as practiced today, come into being? When I
ask runners why they run, I’m invariably told “for my health”. But if I
ask them on what are they basing this, I’m looked at as if I have
three heads. “Everybody knows it’s good for your health!” I’m often
told at that point.
Humans very often adopt practices without giving them any
independent thought; after all, who has the time to question
everything. But when living in an unnatural environment, we need to
give c lose scrutiny to the things we do if we want to have vibrant
health in the winter of our lives.
Obviously we weren’t designed with automobiles, elevators,
escalators, and wheeled machines in mind. Our travels were to be
courtesy of our two feet. When technology rendered our two feet
obsolete, this removed one of the Basics of Health – physical activity
– from our lives. When we then realized that we had to get physical
activity back into our lives in order to be healthy, we didn’t do it with
an eye towards Nature, instead we allowed industries, product
manufacturers, and self-styled health gurus to dictate our physical
activities.
Our body isn’t designed to fit a bicycle, the bicycle is designed to
fit our body, and this distinction is very important. If you drive
alongside a cyclist and watch him ride, and as you do this imagine
the bicycle is invisible, you will quickly recognize that the form and
motion of the cyclist’s body is not a natural one; you don’t see people
walking around moving their legs like that, with their necks bent in
such a way, and their weight supported by their butt instead of by
their legs.
Don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t cycle, or
you shouldn’t rollerblade, I’m saying do these things as recreational
sport, not as exercise. One of the Maxims of Health applies here too:
“The further away from Nature you get, the less healthy you will be.”
So for exercise, do those activities that best benefit your body:
“spirited” walking, climbing, and occasional sprinting.
Besides not being the best you can do, certain non-natural
exercises can lead to muscular developmental imbalances, which is a
fancy way of saying that some runners and cyclists can have an over-
developed lower body and an under-developed upper body. And
some people over-develop their “six pack” abdominal muscles –
which can lead to posture problems and poor stabilization of the

spine – while not paying enough attention to developing the
opposing back muscles. And over-developing the abdominal muscles
can also lead to muscular imbalances within the pelvis, trunk, and
abdomen which can affect breathing, blood circulation, digestion, and
elimination. When you do the activities the body was designed to do,
these problems simply can’t happen.
Under- Normal- and Over-Active

In today’s society, most people are under-active. And even if you
transition to a healthy diet, you may still not be getting enough
nutrients if you’re not active enough.
There’s an interesting and often overlooked correlation between
activity, calories, and nutrients. First, you need to remember that
nutrients are used for many processes in your body, and not just to
support your daily physical activity. If you’re not getting the amount
of physical activity that you’re designed to get, you won’t be
consuming the amounts of food needed to fuel that activity. And the
less-than-normal amount of food you’ll be eating will contain less
nutrients than an amount consumed to support a normal level of
physical activity. In-other-words, you may be under-eating on
nutrients even if you’re eating the healthiest of diets, simply because
you’re not active enough. The more active you are, the more food
you’ll need to eat to fuel that activity, and therefore the more
nutrients you’ll get in the process.
Being active enough so that you eat a normal amount of food
becomes even more important when you eat simple meals of just
one (or two) items. The more food you require, the easier it is to eat
a variety of foods because you can eat more meals during the week.
Fact or Fiction? “To keep fit, exercise 30 minutes a

day, three to five times a week”
Do you exercise the way you do because you’ve heard that’s the
way it should be done? Is it possible that the current way of working
out could be good for some parts of our body, but bad for others...
are we doing more harm than good? Are we spending more time
exercising than we need to? Is there a healthier way to exercise?

The Facts
In order to produce permanent physiological adaptations, our
body requires a significant stimulus. This biological fact means that
we need to look at three fundamental variables that govern exercise:
INTENSITY – Our bodies are homeostatic organisms that are very

resistant to change. To stimulate adaptive changes, exercise intensity
must cross a certain “threshold” before the body will respond.
Forcing muscles to move enough resistance until that back and forth
movement becomes impossible allows us to cross this threshold. And
we do this by exercising to “momentary muscular failure”.
TIME – When intensity is high, it is physiologically impossible to

workout for a long time. Doing more exercise than is minimally
necessary to stimulate adaptive changes (or to maintain a proper
level of fitness) drains bodily resources and compromises recovery.
A properly performed workout should last no more than 45 minutes.
FREQUENCY – Upgrading physical fitness is a metabolically expensive

process that requires sufficient time. After a “request” that adaptive
changes be made, the human body needs recovery time to effect
those changes, and for repair and replenishment. Exercising too
often serves only to interrupt the recovery phase, drains bodily
resources, and hinders improved physical fitness. Exercising intensely
once every five to seven days is enough exercise to improve and
maintain your level of fitness. More is not necessarily better when it
comes to exercise... more is better when it comes to recovery. Think
about it, since you don’t know the precise moment recovery is
completely finished, you will work out again either before recovery is
done or after it is done. Common sense would dictate that it’s better
to wait until recovery is definitely finished before another intense
workout is performed, which means you should be working out after
you’re done recovering. If you work out a few days before you
should have, you will interfere with your recovery. If you work out a
few days after you could have, you will not lose anything you’ve
gained thus far.

Two Training Methods in One
The popular belief is that two training methods are needed to be
physically fit: working with weight for muscular strength, and
aerobics for cardiovascular fitness. This is untrue. One of the biggest
jobs of the cardio-pulmonary system (heart and lungs) is to service
the muscles. If the cardio-pulmonary system were a retail store, the
muscular system would be its biggest customer. When your muscular
system works harder, the cardio-pulmonary system works harder; it’s
not the other way around. Think about it, you can’t raise your heart
and respiration rates without using your muscles (unless someone
sneaks up behind you and scares you, but that doesn’t count towards
working out). So, working your muscles as hard as possible will force
the cardio-pulmonary system to keep up; muscular work of sufficient
intensity requires the cardio-pulmonary system to work hard to meet
muscular demands. So, one activity takes care of both muscular and
cardio-pulmonary fitness. And that activity is strength-building and
strength-maintaining exercise.
Although most of the fitness industry remains blind to the above
facts, strength training will provide you with every exercise-related
health benefit you could possibly want. Doing “cardio work” is a
waste of time and physiological resources, and may actually be
counter-productive. There are so many people huff’n and puff’n for
miles on end, thinking they’re doing something good for themselves,
when all they’re doing is wasting bodily resources, sabotaging
recovery, and they may even be over-working their most important
muscle, their heart... the one thing they think is being strengthened!
The following letter from Dr. Philip Alexander will help dispel the
popular notion of how exercise should be done.
Monday, Sept. 27, 1999
Good Morning, John Coleman,
I happened to see your September 20th column in the Clarion-

Ledger on “SuperSlow”. I’m glad you wrote about it, and I know
exactly how you feel because I was the same way until about three
years ago.

For years, my colleagues and I have been telling our patients to
walk, run, or ride 30 minutes a session, three to five times a week.
That was almost religious dogma in the cardiology world. And for 20
years I ran ten miles, four times a week.
But many of us made the observation that one of the best ways to
objectively measure the aerobic benefits of endurance exercise was
the HDL (cholesterol) level, and that these three activities usually had
very little effect on HDL. We here are now following 29 patients on
this high intensity (SuperSlow) protocol (17 minutes in the gym every
5th day), and 28 of the 29 have more than doubled their HDL’s, mostly
from the low 20’s to the mid/high 50’s. (Show this to your doctor and
see if he knows of any drug or activity that can double HDL!)
Additionally, the post-menopausal women in the group are
averaging a 1% increase in their bone mineral density monthly. (Show
this also to your doctor, and ask him how this compares to Fosamax
or Miacalcin.)
A patient of mine who consistently ran 20 miles, three times a
week (60 miles a week – how much more “aerobic” can you get?!)
had an average HDL of 36-38. For the past year, on only the program
described above, his HDL averaged 56-59. (Okay, I guess you’d
better show that one to your doctor also.)
I believe we are coming around to the conclusion that what was
recommended for years by the medical community (30 minutes of
“aerobic exercise” 3-5 times a week, getting the heart rate up to 80%
max. for age, etc.) has been inadequate, and of too low an intensity
level. When an activity is of sufficient intensity, and not of a certain
duration or repeated a certain number of times, the body will initiate a
total-body response (metabolic, HDL, glucose tolerance, blood
pressure, bone mineral density, immune competency, etc.) It appears
that if this level of intensity is never reached, regardless of the amount
of time spent or the frequency it is repeated, the beneficial response
by the body never occurs, or is at least blunted.
Also, it stands to reason that if something is done that is very
intense, it can’t be done for very long. Therefore, we could walk on a
treadmill for an hour, and do that daily, without much problem – or
gain. But an activity that is very intense, by necessity, can be done
only briefly, and should be done infrequently (to give the body time to
recover, and then to compensate, which means growth).

The SuperSlow protocol is only a means to an end; and that end is to
provide exercise to the body that is intense enough to stimulate the
body to make its own internal improvements.
Philip Alexander, M.D.

Chief of Medical Staff, College Station Medical Center,
Texas A&M University College of Medicine
Tips for Effective and Efficient Exercise

1. Work out no more than once every five to seven days. (Why work
out more often than that if you don’t gain anything from it and you
hinder recovery and improvement?) If, by necessity, it’s occasionally
every eight or nine days, that’s fine!
2. Do only one set of each exercise. Doing multiple sets is wasteful
and counterproductive. Numerous research studies have shown that
there are no significant differences when performing either one, two
or three sets of an exercise, provided, of course, that one is done
with an appropriate level of intensity.
3. Move v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y but smoothly. “Explosive” movement is
not only non-productive, it can also be dangerous. Plus, moving
slowly eliminates momentum, which ensures constant muscle
loading. Make a movement last about ten seconds. (A chin-up should
take ten seconds from the lowest to the highest point, and then
another ten seconds from the highest to the lowest point; same goes
for a push-up.) There is nothing to be gained from fast movements.
Moving slowly prevents injury. (There are over 30 million exercise
related injuries annually in this country, and most of these can no
doubt be attributed to high-force movement.) Keep your movements
low-force and high-intensity. An analogy: If you attempt to lift your
car quickly, you will likely injure yourself even if using proper form. If
you try lifting it slowly and intensely, your chances of injury are nil.
Think of how you drive your car over speed bumps... doing it fast will
cause damage to the car’s suspension, going slow will not.
4. Don’t do X number of repetitions. The number of repetitions isn’t
the key factor – time is. Simply exercise until momentary muscular
failure (when you absolutely cannot do another rep no matter how
hard you try).

5. Even when you can’t complete another repetition, keep trying to
complete this “impossible rep”. Even though you aren’t moving,
metabolic work is being done, and a more thorough “inroad” to
muscular failure is accomplished. “Pushing to failure” signals the
body to upgrade its capabilities (“adaptive response”), something it
will not do unless given a good reason to.
6. If an exercise can be done for more than 90 seconds, increase the
resistance so that momentary muscular failure occurs within 45 - 90
seconds (this is considered “high-intensity” exercise). If you can do
sit-ups for ten minutes, the intensity is insufficient to cross that
threshold mentioned above, and you’re just wasting valuable
physiological resources (although sit-ups will work the abs, a better
exercise for the abs is climbing). If you can’t do even one rep, reduce
the resistance, i.e. if doing a push-up, change from being on your
toes to being on your knees, or start from the top position and slowly
lower yourself; if using a machine, choose a lower setting; if using
free-weights, pick a lower weight; if doing a chin-up, use a chair to
boost yourself up to the top, then take your feet off the chair and
slowly lower yourself. As you get stronger, you won’t need this kind
of help.
7. Work with your own body weight whenever possible (as you would
when climbing). It’s better to work your biceps with a chin-up bar
than with a machine because you could eventually set the machine
with too much resistance, more than what your own body would
provide using a chin-up bar, and thus over-develop your biceps. This
is one reason I don’t recommend free weights or machines; you
could either use too little a resistance/weight or too much.
8. Movements should be over a full-range of motion for the joint(s)
involved. Walking/running works muscles through a limited range of
motion. Studies have shown that full-range exercise is necessary for
a full-range effect. Climbing is a full-range motion, and works every
muscle group of the body! (But what piece of equipment was
removed from all children’s playgrounds across the country? The
jungle gym, a.k.a. monkey bars, the best piece of exercise equipment
for a growing child!)
9. Move from one exercise to another as soon as you “catch your
breath”... optimally within 30 - 60 seconds.

10. Do exercises that involve multiple muscle groups, as opposed to
isolating a particular muscle. Chin-ups are preferable to bicep curls
with a dumbbell (unless you can’t pull yourself up even once, in
which case use light hand weights until your arms are strong enough
to pull up your body weight, and by “body weight” I mean your
normal body set-weight).
11. Work the whole body during one session. Exercising different
muscle groups on different days is counterproductive. Your whole
workout should take no longer than 45 minutes! (Forty-five minutes,
once a week for a high level of fitness... who can’t find time for
that!)
12. Never hold your breath. Keep breathing as you exercise.
13. Cool down after you finish your workout. This prevents blood
from pooling in your exercised muscles. Walk around with a bounce
in your step, move your arms in slow circles; keep moving until your
breathing has returned to normal and your heart rate has slowed.
14. Stretching is useful only upon awakening from sleep... it is not
necessary prior to working out. As muscles become stronger, their
associated tendons and ligaments will be stretched appropriately
during the actual exercise, and you will have “functional flexibility”,
which is all you need. Many people are over-stretching their
ligaments, and this leads to joint instability which increases the
chance of injury. Unless you are engaged in martial arts, ballet, or
are training for the Olympics, you do not need to consciously stretch
anything prior to a workout performed as outlined here. I’ve been
told, “If I don’t stretch before I work out, I’ll injure myself.” If doing
an exercise would injure you if you didn’t stretch, this isn’t an
indication that you should stretch before doing that activity, it means
that you shouldn’t be doing that particular activity.
15. If you don’t feel like working out, don’t! Listen to your body. Just
because it’s your “scheduled day” doesn’t mean you must workout. If
your body is taking a little longer to recover than usual, so be it. It
won’t hurt you to lay off for an additional day or two; you will not
lose anything you’ve gained. If your body isn’t ready, it’s better to
skip days than to workout before your body is ready. Every

seven days is only an approximation (some people have found every
eight or nine days reap the same benefits, and they feel better).
16. The best time to do intense workouts is between noon and 3 PM.
If you workout in the late afternoon or early evening, your cortisol
levels will interfere with your body’s attempt to wind down in
preparation for sleep.
17. Make sure you get a good night’s sleep, especially on the day
you’ve worked out. This is crucial! Repair takes place during deep
sleep. Your body normally gets a few deep sleep cycles during the
night. If your alarm clock cuts short or eliminates one of these
cycles, it’s not a good thing. On your exercise day you’ll need to get
a bit more sleep than usual; plan for it. Go to sleep a little earlier.
Don’t worry, after an intense workout you should have no trouble
falling asleep (especially if you use a clock/lamp that simulates sunset).
18. Make sure you stay hydrated (but don’t over-drink). Even mild
dehydration hampers recovery. The drink of choice? Water! And for
mineral replacement, especially sodium, I make sure my diet includes
celery, spinach, and the mineral supplement I recommend.
19. If you’re eating a truly healthy diet, you’re getting an adequate
amount of usable protein (about one gram per five pounds of body
weight). As you increase lean muscle tissue (to go from under- to
normally-muscled), your body will require a little bit more protein
than usual, but you needn’t go out of your way to eat more
protein, you’ll get it automatically as you eat more food (because
you’re burning more fuel than usual). A high-quality source of protein
is – c’mon, say it with me – uncooked fruits and leafy greens.
Remember, it’s very difficult to get too little protein; most people get
too much, and too much protein is a cause of degenerative disease.
20. If you experience pain while working out, STOP! Although moving
slowly drastically decreases the probability of injury, common sense
dictates that if you feel pain, stop and try again a week later. Maybe
you weren’t hydrated enough, or maybe you need to reduce the
resistance. And pain is not to be confused with a “burn”. The
expression, “No pain, no gain” is misleading. Pain is a warning to
stop. A burning sensation simply means you’ve worked the muscles
very intensely, which will lead to a gain.

Points to Consider
• Exercise isn’t supposed to be fun or enjoyable (that’s what
recreation is for). Exercise is a means-to-an-end. It shouldn’t be
something you look forward to nor should you dread doing it, it
should just be part of your lifestyle; you sleep because your body
needs to, you should work out your muscles for the same reason.
• Strength building exercises will improve cardio-pulmonary efficiency.
The cardio-pulmonary system exists to service the musculature
(among other things). You “get at” the cardio-pulmonary system
through the skeletal muscles. When demands are made of the
musculature which strengthen it, all systems that service the
musculature will be “strengthened” accordingly. The cardio-pulmonary
system doesn’t care what exercise you do. (However, the joints,
ligaments, and tendons do, and while they don’t mind the occasional
sprint, they’d rather you not pound them on concrete with high-force
activities for miles-on-end.) If the exercise protocol outlined above
results in excellent cardio-pulmonary fitness, why would you want to
do more than you need to do? (And there are studies which suggest
that doing more than you need is actually harmful to the heart!) And
besides, the BIGGEST factor in “aerobic efficiency” is the muscles, it
is not the heart, lungs, or blood; for most people, those components
of the cardio-pulmonary system are as fit as they’re ever going to be.
• The more walking, the better. It’s great for stress reduction, good
for digestion, and wonderful for the lymphatic system (if you’re
walking with a spring in your step), but just know that walking does
little for weight loss.
• If you’re looking to control your weight, exercise is the least
efficient way to do it. You’d have to run for hours to keep the cookies
you ate from adding to your waistline. It’s far more effective to not
eat the cookies. Making fruits and vegetables a larger part of your
diet will help crowd out the foods that don’t offer much in the way of
nutrition and add weight that shouldn’t be there. Also, as you build
lean muscle tissue, your body will lessen its fatty tissue, and your
shape will change. If you’re over-weight, you’re not trying to lose
weight, you’re trying to lose fat. If your goal is to look and feel great,
strength building exercise will accomplish this while making you fit in
the process. Doing only aerobic exercise will not.

• After you are born, your body grows and develops, and after you
reach your peak of development, you lose muscle tissue every day
up until your death. The rate at which you lose muscle tissue
significantly affects how fast you “age”. Strength building exercise
will keep this natural loss of muscle to a minimum. Would you rather
age quickly or slowly? What kind of shape would you prefer to be in
when you’re in the autumn and winter of your life?
• No, strength building exercise will not make a woman look like
Arnold Schwarzenegger. It will, however, reshape one’s body (male
and female). Toned muscle will displace fatty tissue. And with less fat
and more lean tissue, you will, without a doubt, look (and feel) better.
• Exercise produces no benefits. Only the body can produce benefits.
The only things exercise can produce directly are the stimulus to
attain those benefits, and injury.
• A daily four-mile run improves physical fitness specifically for
running four miles. The fitness gained does nothing for your ability to
unscrew the lid off a jar, nimbly climb a ladder, rearrange your
furniture, or pick your grandchildren up over your head. Since it’s
unlikely you’ll need the ability to run four miles, and since running
can damage joints, and since you’d more likely need the ability to
walk, sprint, and climb, it’s best to walk, sprint, and climb.
• Strength building is an expensive metabolic process. Although we
see it as building muscle, our body is making global metabolic
adaptations. It is upgrading its metabolic efficiency by synthesizing
more enzymes to better serve metabolism. This includes aerobic
metabolism, anaerobic metabolism, gluconeogenesis, glycogen
breakdown and transport, blood buffering agents, and of course, new
muscle fiber growth. All of this new synthesis is very metabolically
expensive, which is why your body will not make these changes unless
an intense stimulus is applied, and then the body is left undisturbed
for a sufficient period of time so that it can make these changes.
• You needn’t be totally inactive in between intense workouts. Walking
is a super-low intensity activity, and therefore can (and should) be
done every day. And if it takes you 14 chin-ups until momentary
muscular failure, doing two or three in between the intense workouts
won’t hinder recovery, and may actually help the improvement
process. Do non-intense recreational activities in between workouts.

“Train intensely, train briefly, and train
infrequently; it’s valid, and will work for
everyone.” − Mike Mentzer, Trainer to
Dorian Yates (1992-97 Mr. Olympia)
The Best Activity

Climbing works out every muscle in your body; it’s impossible not
to be fit if you climb regularly. If you can, buy some extension
ladders and permanently set them up in your back yard so that as
you climb up and down, you can climb from one to the other. If your
hands get sweaty, use the hand powder rock climbers use. (It may
be prudent to lay out some air mattresses at the bottom in case you
lose your grip.) There are also “climbing gyms” that you can join.
The Definition of a “Healthy Exercise”

1. One that can be done at age 9 or 90 with virtually no inherent risk
of injury. Walking, climbing, and sprinting (if you’re in good shape)
qualify. Running as it is practiced today, does not. And I personally
wouldn’t participate in any sport that has an injury named after it:
“tennis elbow”.
2. The activity’s movements are those that you would do in Nature.
3. The activity uses no technology that doesn’t respect the human
body’s biomechanics, only technology that allows the body to move
as it would in Nature. (Yes, I do recommend resistance bands, but
I’ve got to be practical: we need to keep our upper body strong too,
and most people are not going to find ways to climb... and resistance
bands are safer than free-weights. The ones I recommend are
pictured at health101.org)
Can I Be Fit on a Plant-Based Diet?

World-class athletes from almost every sport, including tennis
legend Martina Navratilova, NBA pro basketball player Ronnie
Grandison, track Olympic sprinter Doug Dickinson, as well as the

United States Olympic Diving team, and the Norwegian National
Bicycling team all have one thing in common: the training regimen
that worked best for them has been sufficient sleep, sunshine,
proper hydration, rest, and a raw, plant-based diet. Would it be any
different for someone not training for the Olympics? Except for
needing fewer calories, no.
Spirited Walking: An Uplifting Physical Activity

Walking is a great activity; the more walking you do, the better.
But to really get your lymphatic fluid flowing (which helps prevent
disease), try walking with a “spring in your step”. To see this motion
without walking, stand with your feet side-by-side, a few inches
apart, and gently bounce up and down on your toes. Your toes
should not leave the floor, and your heels should almost contact the
floor on the downward part of the movement. You have your calf
muscles to thank for this.
Now, as you briskly walk, add a little bounce into your step. You’ll
find if you shorten your stride it will make “bopping along” feel more
natural. Yes, when you add a spring to your step you’ll tend to walk
slower than if you weren’t walking spiritedly, but remember, it’s not a
race; you want to get the most benefit out of your walking.
Am I Doing it Right? – If you’re doing it correctly, you should feel

your chest area bouncing (both men and women). For women, this
does not mean that you must now switch to a more “supportive” bra;
on the contrary, if you want to lessen your risk of breast cancer, you
WANT your chest bouncing when you walk briskly (see Bras & Breast
Cancer at health101.org). So-called sports bras actually increase
your risk of breast cancer. (see Bras & Breast Cancer... I know I’m
repeating myself, but breast cancer is more preventable than you’ve
been led to believe; breast cancer is avoidable if you know the facts.)
The Benefits – The motion that spirited walking produces causes

your lymphatic fluid to circulate (it doesn’t circulate much when
walking slowly, cycling, or rollerblading). The movement of lymph
fluid is critical to preventing disease! Spirited walking is also a great
workout for your calf muscles and other leg muscles. And since your
steps are shorter, your footfalls are less “heal intensive”, which

means less impact transmitted to your knees and spine. And since it’s
a walking gait (body weight always supported by at least one leg),
it’s gentler on your joints than jogging or running.
What Do I Do With My Arms? – Keep them, you need them to hug

people. Seriously, let them swing naturally. Avoid using hand weights.
If your mood is such that your arms also start bopping, great! At this
point, you may find yourself whistling... and you may also notice
other people looking at you wondering what you’re so happy about.
The Variables – The three things you have control over while strut’n
your stuff are:
1. The amount of bounce. This is controlled by how much your calf
muscles are working. You don’t have to bounce so hard that things
start falling out of your pockets, just make sure you can feel your
chest bouncing.
2. The length of stride. The longer the stride, the harder it is to
bounce, so don’t walk like you’re late getting somewhere. Enjoy your
walk.
3. The speed of your walk. This variable is based on your energy
level; some days you’ll walk at a brisk clip, other days your pace will
be slower. But remember, ambling, strolling, or moseying may be
nice to relieve stress and smell the roses, but those slow paces don’t
do much for your lymph system.
By varying the above three things, you’ll discover many combinations;
find the one that feels most natural to you.
A Great Indicator – As its name implies, spirited walking is easier to

do when you’re in good spirits. If you’re down-in-the-dumps, you
may not feel like bopping down the boulevard, but you should give it
your best shot. Getting your body moving up and down not only
benefits your physical self, it also does wonders for your spirits. So
spirited walking doesn’t just describe how it looks, it also helps
improve your mood. Accordingly, the easier you take to this type of
walking, the healthier you are in body, mind... and spirit!

Are You Doing What Your Body Wants,
or What YOU Want?
One last, but very important point regarding exercise: Are you
working out the way you do because of how it makes you feel? If the
running you do on concrete or blacktop occurs with enough force to
cause even microscopic damage, endorphins are released.
Endorphins are a natural pain killer that the body gives off to
suppress your normal inclination to stop doing whatever you’re doing
if you feel even the slightest pain. If you’re running, your body has
no idea that you’re doing it for recreational purposes; it assumes
you’re running away from danger (the “flight” in “fight or flight
response”). So if you are sustaining a level of injury that would cause
pain, endorphins are released to mask that pain so your “escape”
won’t be slowed down. The problem is, endorphins feel REALLY
good, and you can come to associate that feeling with the activity.
And it’s such a wonderful feeling that if you are presented with
information which suggests that you may be doing more harm than
good by exercising this way, you may not want to hear it. Which is a
shame, because you originally started running for reasons of health
and fitness. Something to think about.
“Dr. Kenneth Cooper (author of Aerobics, The New

Aerobics, and Aerobics for Women), the U.S. Air Force
Cardiologist who coined the term ‘aerobics’ and has
promoted its use for over 25 years, now admits that he
was wrong. According to Dr. Cooper, further research
has shown that there is no correlation between aerobic
endurance performance, and health, longevity, or
protection against heart disease. He will admit, however,
that such activities do carry with them a great risk of
injury. Further, he concedes that gross-overuse
activities, such as running, are damaging to the body.”
Ken Hutchins, SuperSlow Exercise Guild

10
The Basics of Health – Water
Water; the body’s drink of choice. Water is available today with
many additives such as artificial coloring, sugar, salt, phosphoric acid,
carbonation, coffee beans, alcohol, hops, barley, chemicals, herbs,
milk solids, fruit and vegetable solids, and a vast number of other
ingredients. And water is also available in the plain variety with
nothing added (hopefully).
“Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.” This sentiment
was uttered by someone adrift at sea; seawater being harmful to
consume. Today we’re fortunate to have water piped right into our
homes. But is this water also harmful in some way?
To prevent bacteria from hitching a ride on the municipal water
supply lines, chlorine is added to kill these potential threats to our
health. But unfortunately the water suppliers don’t take out the
chlorine at its point of use. Why? The EPA does not consider chlorine
a water contaminant. This is ludicrous, but it’s also politically
expedient. All EPA maximum contaminant allowables are politically
negotiated figures that do not necessarily have any basis in reality.
Many represent a compromise between the ideal, and what can
practically be done by water treatment plants. So, if the water you
drink comes from your tap, many people agree it’s prudent that the
chlorine (and its by-products) be removed.
The first line of defense for my home drinking water is a high
quality solid (as opposed to granular) carbon block filter. Carbon is
the best known treatment for organic chemicals, VOCs (Volatile
Organic Compounds), pesticides, herbicides, and chlorine and its by-
products. Chlorine removal is what carbon is best at, and nothing
else equals carbon’s ability to remove chlorine. And although carbon
itself does not destroy coliform or cysts, some of the very tight solid
carbon block filters now on the market do a great job at removing
bacteria and cysts like giardia and cryptosporidium. My favorite brand
of filter, and the one I use in my motorhome, can be seen at
health101.org. It uses a 1/2 micron filter, which has holes about ten
times smaller than cryptosporidium organisms (microns are a
10. The Basics of Health – Water 122

measurement of the pore size, so the smaller the number, the
“tighter” the filter). Although other types of very tight filtration might
work as well, the very dense carbon block filters now on the market
are very effective against certain forms of microbiological
contaminants. These tight filters will last eight to 12 months
depending on usage. A filter that promises to last three to five years
can do so only because it lets everything smaller than a bowling ball
pass through.
Replacing your carbon filter cartridge when its effectiveness has
diminished is very important. Some people wait until they detect a
chlorine smell before replacing their cartridge. Remember, carbon
filters have a different removal capacity for different contaminants.
Most carbon filters will begin to allow other chemicals to pass
through long before they begin to allow chlorine to pass. So to ensure
you’re not drinking any trihalomethanes (chemicals that are formed
when water containing organic matter is treated with chlorine),
replace your cartridge at least once a year. And if the output flow
diminishes before then, it’s time for a cartridge replacement.
Some people advocate drinking distilled water. Distillation
removes the water from everything else that was in it. I started out
using a distiller, but now only use a solid-carbon block filter and a
fluoride filter. If I were seriously ill, I’d drink distilled water (that I
made myself) because it would have the added benefit of relieving
my body of the task of filtering out the inorganic minerals that are in
water (minerals our body can’t use; they’re used by plant-life).
Because distillation removes everything from the water, some
people add minerals to it to make the water more alkaline. This is
unnecessary; your diet does more to affect your body’s acid/alkaline
balance than the pH of your water (as you’ve seen, animal products
are very acid-forming). And some folks feel that drinking distilled
water leaches minerals out of your body. This is more myth than fact,
and I don’t share this opinion, but whether it does or doesn’t is a
non-issue because it’s not the water you should be drinking on a
regular basis anyway.
Reverse Osmosis (RO) is a system that forces water through a
thin membrane. These systems can dump about four gallons of water
down the drain for every one gallon they purify. And if the membrane
inside a cheap RO tank develops a tear, you’d have no way of
knowing that you’re now drinking unfiltered tap water. A high quality

solid carbon block filter is adequate for most water sources, but
some water supplies that contain radionuclides should have a solid
carbon filter combined with a high quality RO system (see the article
The Hazards of Water Fluoridation at health101.org)
Getting a goodly amount of water (and most people consume
way too little) would necessitate a lot of lugging of store-bought
water. That’s one reason I purify my own. The other reason is that
some bottled water can contain unfiltered tap water (bottled water
regulations are ridiculous).
Another thing to keep in mind: If you’re eating mostly fruits and
vegetables, which are medium to high water-content foods, and
you’re not consuming any diuretics (things that cause the body to
pull water out of its tissues to dilute poisons or irritants like spicy or
salty foods, alcoholic beverages, teas, coffee, sodas, artificial
sweeteners, and medications), you wouldn’t need to drink the
recommended eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day (or half your
body weight in ounces)… this is for people who eat a low water-
content diet filled with various diuretics, which is most people. But
you still need to drink according to thirst. But lack of thirst is not
always a reliable indicator of proper hydration. If too dehydrated, the
thirst signals may not be easily noticed. So if you’re feeling tired,
confused, irritable, have a flushed face, or your urine is dark, strong
smelling, and the amount is small, you are most likely dehydrated.
Make water your first meal of the day. When you’ve been
breathing relatively dry air (compared to the humidity level in your
lungs), you’ve dehydrated yourself while sleeping. First thing in the
morning is a good time for replenishment (assuming you have an
empty stomach). Then don’t eat for at least 20 minutes.
It’s best not to drink with meals because this dilutes digestive
juices which impedes digestion (and if you’re eating high water-
content foods, you won’t feel the need to drink with a meal).
Drinking immediately after a meal does the same thing.
If you indulge in diuretics or low or no water-content foods, you
are dehydrating yourself.. If you’re not regularly going to the
bathroom (6-8 times a day), you’re not drinking enough. If you get
thirsty, it’s time to drink. If you put off drinking when your body says
drink, you’ll become dehydrated, and dehydration is a major
contributing factor to ill-health. The best thing you can do to prevent
delayed drinking is to carry water with you at all times.

Although most people suffer from sub-clinical dehydration
because they don’t get enough water, you can also drink too much
water. People who run and sweat a lot often over-indulge on water
either because they’re trying to “stay ahead of thirst”, or because
they’re dehydrating themselves, getting thirsty, and then over-drink.
Athletes should drink water only when thirsty

A health and performance rule cherished by 30 million
American runners, and legions of other exercise enthusiasts,
is dangerous, has no basis in scientific fact, and should be
trashed. That’s the message going out to doctors about the
idea that athletes should “stay ahead of your thirst,” drinking
as much water as possible during strenuous exercise even if
they don’t feel thirsty. The new advice: "Listen to your
thirst," and consume only as much water to quench it. It
finally is trickling out to a broader audience, months after
growing acceptance by a sports community long uncertain
about the actual amount of fluid athletes should drink for
good health and peak performance. "Perhaps the best advice
is that drinking according to the personal dictates of thirst
seems to be safe and effective." – Dr. Timothy D. Noakes.
Although you can dehydrate yourself by eating a dehydrating
diet, there are other things people do that are dehydrating. Take the
case of an avid runner who runs so intensely that he sweats... a lot.
You’re really not supposed to be sweating that much. Perspiration is
a defense mechanism; it’s the body’s way of cooling itself when it is
overheated (via the evaporative cooling effect).
Some people who over-exercise try to keep from becoming
dehydrated by drinking a lot of water. But if you drink till you’re
about to burst, you’ve probably over-drank, which can cause
hyponatremia (low sodium blood concentration from too much water
and/or not enough natural food containing sodium).
To suggest that being an “athlete” can over-burden the body, and
that people would be better served by adopting a sensible program
of physical activity, would no doubt be scoffed at by some of the
athletic community. It is known that avid runners can damage their
hearts and knees, but this usually falls on deaf ears; endorphins and
the desire to have that “look’n good” body are very powerful
motivators, and can often get in the way of good sense.

Unfortunately the term “moderation” is not in the vocabulary of those
who push their bodies to the max.
Between the sports drink industry and the “to the max” physical
activity enthusiasts, recognizing correct information is difficult at best.
But common sense to the rescue! As long as you’re not emotionally
addicted to the physical rush of endorphins (and you don’t own stock
in a sports drink company), you can figure out what and how much
you should be drinking as long as you remember...
1. Unattended thirst = dehydration, and dehydration = cellular
debilitation, and that’s very unhealthy, especially when you do it on a
regular basis.
2. Don’t over-do activities to the point of severe thirst. Remember
that perspiration is a defense mechanism; if you’re sweating, your
body is over-heated.
3. Water and water alone is the best hydrator; the minerals the
sports drink companies rave about are supposed to come from fruits
and green leafy veggies (and when they do, they’re much more
usable by the body). If you’re sweating out so many minerals that
you need to drink them, you’re sweating too much.
4. If you are suffering from signs of dehydration, try to drink cold
water; it will get to where it needs to go faster than room
temperature water. And don’t eat immediately after drinking; leave
time for the water to re-hydrate you, and then eat ripe bananas and
leafy greens.
Some Water Facts

• Dehydration impairs judgment and mental functioning
• Dehydration is a MAJOR contributing factor to many common
conditions and diseases
• Many symptoms of dehydration are labeled as a disease
• Dehydration can cause various levels of sadness and depression
• Dehydration causes the vascular system to constrict, leading to
high blood pressure
• The healthiest beverage is water
• Bananas are 75% water, melons 92%, burgers 14%

11
The Basics of Health – Sunshine
Whether you believe in creation, evolution, or both, humans
came from a geographic region very different from the one in North
America. Most of us now live in areas that makes it extremely
difficult for the sunlight that shines on our skin to create vitamin D.
A lighter than normal skin tone makes vitamin D production easier in
a latitude that’s a goodly amount north or south of the equator, but
this adaptive mechanism – which kicked into high gear when humans
migrated from where we originally lived – can only do so much. The
further away from our natural environment we get, the harder it is to
be vibrantly healthy, and as far as sunlight goes, most people today
are certainly “out of our environment”.
Adequate vitamin D production is important for calcium utilization
and strong bones. And there is growing evidence that sufficient
vitamin D levels may reduce the risk of breast and prostate cancers,
type 1 diabetes, PMS, and polycystic ovarian syndrome.
A Scandinavian research study found that babies who were given
50 micrograms of vitamin D per day as a supplement had about one
sixth of the incidence of type 1 (juvenile) diabetes compared with
those not given the supplement. The higher above the equator you
are, the less sun you’ll get, and Scandinavia is further north than the
United States of America.
An often overlooked role of sunlight is its job of penetrating our
skin and cleansing our blood and lymph fluid, and if we’re not getting
enough sun exposure, our kidneys have to work that much harder to
accomplish this, burdening these most likely overworked organs.
If you’re eating a healthy diet with no fortified foods and no
supplements, you might be susceptible to a drop in vitamin D stores
in the winter (when the sun’s angle through the atmosphere allows
less ultraviolet light to penetrate), especially if you did not build up a
good store of D from sun exposure in the months preceding winter.
To protect yourself against a vitamin D deficiency, get frequent
short periods of exposure to the sun on as much skin as possible
when the sun is high enough in the sky (about 40 degrees or more
11. The Basics of Health – Sunshine 127

above the horizon). Twenty minutes of exposure is adequate for
maximum vitamin D generation in those with light skin tones; people
with darker skin tones may need up to an hour in the U.S. depending
on the time of year. Sun-bathing much more than that increases the
risk of cancer-promoting sunburn without any additional benefit.
The amount of vitamin D produced when your skin is exposed to
the sun is proportional to the area of skin exposed. If you live where
it isn’t warm all the time, and if, because of social customs, you can’t
go through your daily outdoor activities in your birthday suit, your
clothing further hampers your body’s ability to get enough vitamin D.
So the less clothing the better, especially when sunbathing. If after
you’ve received enough sunshine you want to remain outdoors, wear
loose fitting, white, thin, cotton clothing and a wide brimmed hat, or
sit in the shade; avoid using sunscreen (has chemicals, c logs pores).
Many unhealthy foods are fortified with vitamin D, and if you’re
moving away from these foods, you need to be sure to get enough
sunshine on your skin, and possibly consider high quality
supplementation if you live in an area where this is difficult to do.
Also, most light bulb type tanning booths may make you look
healthier, but they do nothing for vitamin D production. And if you’re
living much above the equator, artificially darkening the skin impedes
vitamin D production, as do sunscreens… but that doesn’t stop the
sunscreen companies from using fear to get you to buy their product.
A T V commercial depicting a somber mother – you can see her
daughter in the background – has her saying, “Ever since my
husband died of skin cancer, we use sunscreen all the time... not
just at the beach... My family is too important.” Powerful stuff!)
Here’s a very enlightening article; keep in mind that England’s
sunshine is even less intense than it is in the U.S.
Health Benefits of Sunlight are Denied by

Current Public Health Policy in the UK – By Oliver Gillie
Human beings need regular exposure to sunlight on their skin so
that they can make vitamin D which is vital for health. Yet the British
government advises the public to “cover up, keep in the shade”. This
advice is mistakenly modeled on a program developed in Australia
where a tropical to Mediterranean type of climate provides much
more vitamin D. Faulty calculations made by the National

Radiological Protection Laboratory have misled UK government
advisers into thinking that casual exposure of hands and face to the
sun in the UK will provide sufficient vitamin D for health, when in
fact casual exposure does not provide enough vitamin D in the British
Isles, and the majority of people in the UK have an insufficient level
of vitamin D in their blood, particularly in winter.
The risk of skin cancer from sun exposure is much smaller than the
public has been led to believe, while the risks of vitamin D deficiency
or insufficiency, which are seldom mentioned, are now known to be
very substantial. Insufficient vitamin D at crucial times of life or for
prolonged periods appears to increase the risk of several cancers,
including breast and bowel cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure,
schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, and many other
chronic diseases including even tooth decay.
The UK government campaign for prevention of skin cancer, led
by Cancer Research UK, has, in effect, been a campaign against
sunbathing. Perhaps its most misleading aspect has been the slogan:
“There is no such thing as a healthy tan”. This ignores evidence that
people who have a deep tan are less likely to get melanoma (the most
serious form of skin cancer), multiple sclerosis, and prostate cancer.
My report, Sunlight Robbery, explains how government policy has
gone badly wrong, and urges people to sunbathe whenever they can,
wearing as few clothes as possible, while taking care not to burn.
Download a copy of this free report at health101.org/booklink#10
www.
And here are some thought-provoking comments on sunshine

from Dr. Bernarr Zovluck...
“Sunbathing helped heal the skin cancer of Dr. Harland Call. His
skin cancer was diagnosed by two medical doctors, one of whom was
a surgeon who recommended surgical removal. Dr. Call employed
sunbathing of the affected area. Within a short time, the skin cancer
disappeared, after which he reported back to the M.D. who had
recommended surgical removal. When the local doctor examined him,
it was confirmed that the skin cancer was gone.
Cancer is helped by sunbathing, says Dr. Zane R. Kime. Kime
writes that those who get more sunlight have less cancer. Sunbathing
helps heal cancer by building up the immune system, and increasing
oxygen in the tissues. Sunlight does not cause skin cancer. Healthy
people do not get skin cancer. Repeated sunburning, not suntanning,
causes skin cancer, writes Dr. Michael Gray. Chronic sunburn

combines with free radicals to cause skin cancer. Free radicals, dietary
fat, cholesterol, and deranged antioxidants from cooked foods can
cause skin cancer. Cooked foods have had their antioxidants,
particularly vitamins C and E, reduced or deranged by cooking.”
So don’t view the sun as your enemy. Sure it can be toxic in too
high a dose, but so can water. Just pay attention when you’re
sunbathing. Don’t read, don’t carry on conversations that could
distract you from noticing when it’s time to call it quits, and of
course, don’t fall asleep.
And avoid sunscreens and tanning butters (and all other topical
chemical concoctions); when not possible, use the sunscreen at
health101.org/booklink#43. Another good reason to avoid sunscreens:
www.
The FDA is being asked to declare all currently available sunscreens

containing engineered nanoparticles as an imminent health hazard
(see the article on the dangers of nanotechnology at health101.org).
Also, there are “tan-through” bathing suits that let the sun
through, but not the view. These will help you sun yourself where
“the sun don’t shine”. See health101.org/booklink#8
www.
As wonderful as the sun is, you should avoid the sun if you are
taking certain kinds of medications. Your doctor may warn you of
this, and you will see a warning on the side of certain medication
bottles to avoid the sun. These meds make you more susceptible to
sunburn or rash if you sun yourself. And wearing sunglasses, unless
you absolutely positively must wear them, is very bad for the eyes.
And lastly, this from Mike Adams: “If it seems surprising to you
that the American Cancer Society – which claims to be against cancer
– would dissuade people from taking supplements that could slash
their cancer risk by 77% (vitamin D), then you’ve got much to learn
about the ACS. In my opinion the ACS is an organization that
prevents prevention and thus supports the continuation of cancer. It’s
the wealthiest non-profit in America and has very close ties to
pharmaceutical companies, mammography equipment companies,
and other corporations that profit from cancer. The idea that the
cancer industry could lose 80% of its patients due to widespread
education about vitamin D and sunlight scares the living daylights out
of the cancer industry.” See health101.org/booklink#36 for more info.
www.
Do read health101.org/booklink#37 for the latest info on the

vitamin D issue. And did you notice, the front and back covers of this
book sport a beautiful photo of sunshine!

Wisdom circa 1947
Notice on the bottom, “Eat more fruit and keep fit”

12
The Basics of Health – Toxin Avoidance
We don’t have to be told that smoking is harmful, and it’s
common knowledge that drinking alcohol damages your liver. Some
forms of toxins and poisons are self-evident. Others, however, need
to be spelled out because their existence is sometimes kept from the
public consciousness by various industries and those who do their
bidding. Here are some you should be aware of.
• Chemicals in body care products. The skin is a sponge when it
comes to toxins, but these are easily avoided. If you must use these
products, look for all natural ones that have no chemical ingredients.
• Toxins in water (covered in chapter 10). Easily avoided if you drink
and shower with filtered water – you can absorb more toxins through
your skin from showering than from the water you drink; a great
shower filter is at health101.org/booklink#5
www.
• Chemicals in food: pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, preservatives,

additives, etc. Easily avoided if you eat a healthy diet and buy
organically grown produce.
• Cell phones are toxic if you hold them up to your head. Use a
speakerphone or an earpiece (but when doing so, don’t clip the
phone to your belt, let it sit on a table or, if you are walking around,
let it hang from a lanyard you hold in your hand.)
• Microwaved food: Creates toxic substances. Easily avoided. For
more information on this issue see The Hazards of Microwaving Food
in Appendix G.
• Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame are poisonous to the body.
Can create Multiple Sclerosis-and Grave’s Disease-like symptoms. See
health101.org/art_aspartame and health101.org/booklink#11
www. www.
Remember, toxins are a huge cause of cancer because of the

Double Whammy Effect; they cause cancerous cells to form, AND
they burden the body’s ability to deal with cancerous cells... a
devastating combination.
12. The Basics of Health – Toxin Avoidance 132

If you steer clear of all the avoidable toxins in our society, the
ones you do take in – from the air for example – will easily be
handled by your body, assuming you live a healthy lifestyle.
People eating the Standard American Diet and living the average
American lifestyle shouldn’t be shocked if they found the following
toxins in their colon (large intestines): henol, cadaverine, agmatine,
indol, sulfuretted hydrogen, cresol, butyric acid, botulin, putrescine,
histidine, ammonia, muscarine, methylmercapatan, indicant,
methylgandinine, idoethylamine, urobilin, sulpherroglobine,
ptomarropine, pentamethy, lendiamine. These poisons are highly
reactive and can produce detrimental effects, even in very small
quantities. And these toxins can seep out of the colon, enter the
bloodstream, and poison the rest of the body.
Poisons from the colon can...
• weaken and stress the heart
• go to the skin and cause blemishes, psoriasis, liver
spots, and other skin conditions
• irritate the lungs and cause foul breath
• disturb mental functions and cause “senility”
• go to the joints and cause pain and stiffness
• go to the muscles and cause weakness and fatigue
• ruin your health, and cause you to age prematurely
Unborn Babies Carry Pollutants

Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including
mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides. Tests of umbilical-cord
blood taken by the American Red Cross found an average of 287
contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, and
pesticides. “Of the 287 chemicals we detected in umbilical-cord
blood, we know that 180 cause cancer in humans, 217 are toxic
to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or
abnormal development... If ever we had proof that our nation’s
pollution laws aren’t working, it’s reading the list of industrial
chemicals in the bodies of babies who have not yet lived outside
the womb.” − New York Rep. Louise Slaughter
The good news is that you have a lot of control over how many
toxins enter your body.

A Word about Detoxification
If you’re in an unhealthy state of health (and you can be without
knowing it), it’s unlikely you got into this condition overnight; it
probably took years, even decades. So when you decide to get
healthy, it isn’t going to happen overnight. It’ll take time (so
obviously the time to start is now). And you may feel worse before
feeling better. It’s important that you understand what accounts for
this, because if you don’t you may draw the wrong conclusions.
A long time ago there were very few toxic substances you could
take into your body. And those that were toxic would let you know it;
if a plant tasted bitter, odds were it was probably poisonous, and the
bitterness was a signal to not eat it… so you wouldn’t. In this way,
you were protected from consuming toxic things. But today, that
natural taste bud protective mechanism doesn’t do us much good;
things that taste delicious can contain toxins. And even if a substance
tastes “yuk”, many people still consume it because it is the “social
thing” to do. To me, whisky and beer do not taste yummy, so I don’t
consume them, but I did drink beer at one time… my buddies did, so
I did too. But that was very disrespectful of my body, and not
respecting your body is a big mistake if good health is important to
you.
When toxic substances enter the body, the body tries to keep
these things from harming its tissues. If the body doesn’t have
enough vitality to expel the toxins as they come in, it has only two
choices: leave them in the system where they can go around hurting
things, or put them someplace where they’ll do the least amount of
damage. Naturally it tries to store them somewhere (in fat cells).
When someone who is losing weight feels sick, it is often because
those toxins that were stored in their fat cells are now becoming
systemic; their storage containers are shrinking.
If you’ve been exposing your body to toxic substances every day
for years, and then you stop doing this, your body is finally able to
rid itself of the stored toxins, and begin the task of repairing the
damage caused by them. The process of expelling stored toxins is
called detoxification (detox)… and it is never pleasant. And since you
feel terrible, many people mistake detoxification as a sign that their
body did better when it was given beer, cigarettes, or non-human
food. And when they go back to doing these things, they feel better.

Why? Because the detox process stops! (Some people call the
detox process “withdrawal”, but that’s a very inaccurate term.)
Once you understand that detoxification is supposed to feel bad,
and you stick with it, how best is detox handled? First of all, these
three things are very important: rest, rest, and rest. Detox and
healing are very (nerve) energy intensive processes, and since you
want to get the detox over with ASAP, the more energy you allow it
to have access to, the sooner you’ll feel better. The more energy you
expend on being active, the less is available for detox. Similarly, the
more energy you use for digestion, the less is available for detox (as
we’ve seen, digestion uses a lot of energy). This means stop eating if
you have no appetite. Almost everyone can go a few days without
eating. And during detox (if you’re resting), your body probably won’t
want food anyway (although you may want to eat because you’re
certainly not happy about how you’re feeling). The less you eat, the
better the body is able to deal with the detoxification process. If you
are truly hungry, eat lightly: fruits only, one fruit at a time as a meal,
don’t eat until stuffed/full, eat high water-content fruits (melons,
strawberries, cucumbers), and eat only when truly hungry.
Drinking (in between meals) is very important; during detox you’ll
want to be urinating more than usual, as this is a major toxin
elimination system. And remember, the drink of choice is water; plain
water. It is not the water in soda, coffee, tea, or juice.
The body will concentrate on the most important detoxification
first, and if you have been abusing your body for a long time, the
detox process will continue for a while, although its unpleasantness
will lessen as time goes by. There is a “hump”, and once you get over
it you’ll feel a lot better.
If you began the detox process because of symptoms of some
sort, and you rest and detoxify until the symptoms go away, it
doesn’t mean that you are “cured” and can now go back to doing the
things that caused the symptoms in the first place. If you clear your
body of toxins, and then reintroduce them, you’re going to severely
shock the body, doing great harm, especially if the body has
dispensed with the need for the special defense mechanisms it
utilized to deal with the constant barrage of irritating, non-human
food and its associated toxins.
“Cleaning house” is one of the best things you can do for your
health; not damaging it with toxins and clogging it up with non-

human food also goes a long way towards keeping disease from
knocking on your door.
There is another class of substances that places a heavy burden
on our main detoxifying organ (the liver)... pharmaceutical drugs.
That’s why most drugs carry a warning that you should consult a
doctor if you’ve had liver disease. To me, it would make good sense
to avoid consuming substances that burden the liver, but one of the
pharmaceutical industry’s objectives is to get more people taking
more drugs.
Also, since the body stores toxins (that it can’t eliminate) in fat
cells, toxin intake is a contributing factor to an abnormally high body-
fat content; to be your normal weight, you need to get as many
toxins out of your life as you can.
“Many a mother sets a table that is a

snare to her family. Flesh meats, butter,
cheese, rich pastry, spiced foods, and
condiments are freely partaken of by
both young and old. These things do
their work in deranging the stomach,
exciting the nerves, and enfeebling the
intellect.” – Ellen White, 1890

13
The Basics of Health – Sleep
For many years, science did not know why we slept. It was
obvious that we did, but we had no idea why. Even though we now
know why, it isn’t common knowledge, and it really should be
because sufficient sleep is vital for vibrant health.
Some refer to sleep as “recharging your batteries”, and this is
very close to the truth. It has been estimated that 85% of the U.S.
population is “under-slept”, and this, in addition to other violations of
the Basics of Health, helps account for the tons of serious
degenerative diseases plaguing our society today.
To understand how important sleep is to your physical and mental
health, we need to understand what happens during sleep. As I’ve
mentioned, your body manufactures two types of energy: caloric
energy and nerve energy.
Nerve energy doesn’t get a lot of press. It’s not taught in schools,
or even to most healing practitioners, but its role in healing is of
extreme importance. It’s the stuff nerve impulses are made of. It
powers the brain, it sparks the muscles to move, including your heart
muscle (86,000 times a day). It inhabits every one of your ten trillion
cells. It’s responsible for growth, thought, and healing. You replenish
caloric energy by eating; you replenish nerve energy by sleeping.
When you’re low on nerve energy, you are “enervated”. Things that
sap your nerve energy (like anger and over-eating) are called
“enervating”, and the more enervating things you no longer
participate in, the better off you’ll be both emotionally and physically.
When you’re low on nerve energy, you get tired. This fatigue isn’t
for lack of food. If it was, all you’d have to do is eat and you’d be re-
energized (which is what the Snickers candy bar folks want you to
believe). At this point I should mention that being low on nerve
energy is not the same as a low blood sugar level, which can also
make you feel tired. Assuming you eat right, when you get tired, you
need nerve energy replenishment, and you get it from sleep.
First we need to know some “sleep basics”. Sleep is divided into
four phases characterized by the type of brain wave activity in each.
13. The Basics of Health – Sleep 137

The lightest phase of sleep is Phase 1, the deepest phase is Phase 4.
You start out in Phase 1 then progress through 2 and 3 to Phase 4,
then back again, 3, 2, 1. Then you dream. Dreaming takes place in
Phase 1. Then back to Phase 2 and so on throughout the night. But
what takes place in Phase 4 is crucial to your physical well-being.
That’s when nerve energy gets replenished.
It’s also when healing takes place. How do we know? A study was
done where college students were given paper cuts, and then
monitored as they slept. When their sleep approached Phase 4, they
were prevented from entering. They weren’t woken up completely,
just prohibited from getting “deep sleep”. And guess what... their
paper cuts didn’t heal. But the paper cuts of the control group, who
were allowed to get Phase 4 sleep, did. Very telling!
During an average night’s sleep, you should be getting about
three or four cycles of each phase. But there are certain things that
can prevent you from getting a “restful night’s sleep” (getting enough
Phase 4). Eating just before going to sleep, going to sleep dwelling on
problems, too much unmanaged stress in your life, ingested irritants,
stimulants, and toxins (like pesticides), a bedroom that isn’t 100%
dark, sleep aids, medications, and external noises can get in the way
of a good night’s rest. And, of course, going to bed too late can
cause a Phase 4 deficit. Shortchanging yourself just one Phase 4
cycle in a night doesn’t seem like much, but when it happens night
after night for years on end, you’re not getting enough “healing time”
or enough recharging of your nerve energy. These deficiencies are a
major contributing factor to degenerative disease. If the recharging
of your car’s battery is shortchanged, the battery can be damaged
and its life expectancy will be shortened. Shortchanging the
recharging of your body’s nerve energy is no different.
You should wake in the morning feeling refreshed. If you don’t,
you’re asking for trouble. You shouldn’t need coffee or other
stimulants to “get going”. If you find yourself saying, “I can’t function
until I’ve had my morning coffee”, that’s not a good sign. That
scenario is a breeding ground for cancer. You should be so
re-energized from sleep that drinking coffee in the morning would
make you feel terrible... way too stimulated.
Another thing that can disturb Phase 4 sleep is the dreaded alarm
clock. It has no way of knowing you are in Phase 4 when it does its
thing at 6 AM. Being woken out of Phase 4 sleep is a disturbing thing;

not just to you, but to your body too. Humans are designed to wake
up from Phase 1.
When the sun first begins to rise, the light shines through your
eyelids signaling your brain that morning approaches. As the sun
continues to rise over the next 30 minutes, the brain brings you out
of the deeper phases of sleep, into the lightest phase. That’s how it’s
supposed to work. But if you must get up before the sun does, you
run the risk of being woken from Phase 4 (especially problematic
during the winter months when sunlight is scarcer). You’ll know if
you’re awakened from a deep sleep because you lie there not
knowing who or where you are for a moment. And you’ll probably
feel like falling right back to sleep.
But regardless of which phase of sleep you’re awakened from, if
you can fall back to sleep, you didn’t get enough. Sleep is one of the
Basics of Health that you can’t get too much of. There is no such
thing as “I slept too much”. If you sleep for ten hours and wake up
exhausted, it’s not because you had too much sleep, it’s because you
had too little deep (restorative) sleep during those ten hours.
Two other important points to keep in mind about the importance
of deep sleep: Lack of deep sleep sabotages attempts at improving
muscle tone and physical fitness, and insufficient deep sleep
contributes to weight gain and sabotages attempts at weight loss.
Here are some tips to help you get a good night’s sleep:
1. Your bedroom should be 100% dark. Any light can interfere with
your sleep mechanism.
2. Don’t eat within 3-4 hours of going to sleep (this will take some
practice). Your digestive system needs rest too, and it’s a big
consumer of nerve energy (that’s why the easier your digestion, the
more nerve energy is available for healing and general vitality). If
you must eat something near bedtime, make it a high water-content
fruit, and eat only a little bit.
3. Don’t take problems to bed with you. Pretend your bedroom is
your own private amusement park. Any problems will not be solved
in the short time between hitting the pillow and falling asleep. Don’t
worry, the problems will still be there tomorrow; you can ignore them
for a few minutes. If something troublesome pops into your head
prior to falling asleep, don’t dwell on it, just jot it down on a small
pad that you keep by the bedside, and deal with it in the morning. To

help you remember that the bedroom is no place for problems,
choose a name for your park, make a sign, and hang it above the
door to your bedroom (I’m being serious).
4. Don’t exercise after 6 PM; doing so keeps your cortisol levels high
at a time when your body should be winding down in preparation for
sleep, and this can interfere with a good night’s rest.
5. Do only fun things in your bedroom. No problem solving. No
fretting. No planning. Watch funny movies, read funny books. Try to
go to sleep with a smile on your face. How? As you’re falling asleep,
think of something that makes you smile. Trust me, it’ll make a big
difference!
6. If you get up to an alarm clock, get one that makes sure you wake
up in Phase 1. There is just such a “smart clock” that incorporates a
lamp that mimics sunrise. If you want to get up at 6 AM, you set it for
6 AM, and at 5:30 the light comes on, very dim at first, then over the
next 30 minutes, it gets brighter and brighter, just like the sun.
Assuming you went to bed early enough, when the alarm beeps at
6 AM (even the beep starts out softly), you’ll wake up gently and
easily. People who use this clock love the way it allows them to start
the day. You can find information on this clock at health101.org on
the Products page.
7. Prepare your brain for sleep. Normally, as the day ends, the setting
sun’s diminished light causes the brain to release melatonin, which
prepares you for sleep. But we keep our environment artificially lit
long after the sun has set thanks to Thomas Edison. When it’s time
to doze off, we switch off the lights and expect to fall asleep. The sun
would never set so suddenly, so our brain can’t properly prepare us
for sleep. The smart alarm clock mentioned above also mimics a
sunset, slowly lowering the “sunlight”, triggering your brain to
prepare your body for sleep… a must-have feature for anyone who
has trouble falling asleep.
8. Pharmaceutical meds can interfere with getting deep sleep, so
explore the possibility of being able to reduce or get off meds
(following the tenets in this book may help with this). And not
getting enough of the nutrients that your body requires can also
interfere with getting sufficient deep sleep, and fortunately this is
easily remedied with the help of a knowledgeable health educator.

Worth Repeating – A quick note on being “over-slept”. There is
no such thing as getting “too much sleep”. If you still feel tired after
sleeping for 12 hours, it is not because you slept too much, it is
because you weren’t getting enough deep sleep during that time.
You can get too much sun, water, and food, but not too much sleep.
If upon awakening in the morning, you can fall back to sleep, it
means you didn’t get enough (and more probably that you didn’t get
enough deep sleep). Try going to bed earlier.
Sleep is a vital necessity just as air is. Can you hold your breath
for as long as you want? No. Can you go without sleep for as long as
you want? Also no. Even when you know, and remind yourself, that if
you fall asleep while driving on the highway, you’ll crash and may
very likely die, you will eventually fall asleep at the wheel if your
body doesn’t have enough nerve energy to keep you awake.
What do some people do when they find themselves getting tired
during the day? Instead of going to sleep earlier, they take stimulants
(coffee, soda, sugary snacks) to keep them “energized”... the WORST
thing you can do to your body’s healing systems. And conversely,
taking sleep aids may help you fall asleep, but they can also interfere
with deep sleep (and if you follow the above tips, they shouldn’t be
necessary).
These days we focus on eating better, getting enough physical
activity, managing stress, and even drinking enough water; all
important factors if avoiding disease is your goal. But too little
attention is paid to getting enough restorative sleep. And as I’ve said
many times throughout this book, equal attention must be given to
all aspects of a healthy lifestyle if living a long and healthy life is on
your “To Do” list.

I depend heavily on my car, so I give it
only the best. The best battery, the best
tires and brakes (for safety), the best
gasoline so the engine parts stay clean,
the best motor oil, etc. I give it the best
because I depend on it. But I also depend
on my body, so shouldn’t I be giving it the
best too? We live in a society where most
people value their car more than they
value their body... Many people know
more about how their car works, than
they do their own body. And when you
don’t know how something works, and
you bring it to someone else for repair,
you can be taken advantage of very
easily. If this happens to your car, it’s not
the worst thing that could happen; if it
happens to your body however...

14
The Basics of Health – Stress Management
Although adjusting one’s diet and adopting a healthy lifestyle can
do a lot to restore physical and emotional health, the stress of “toxic”
situations can often impede the restoration of health.
Have you ever seen a pack of zebras being chased by a lion?
Once the lion catches a zebra, all the other zebras stop running and
return to grazing as if nothing had happened. One minute they’re
running for their lives, and the next, it’s back to chowing down. Their
“fight or flight response” doesn’t stay elevated because it doesn’t
have to; they know when the lion is no longer a threat to them. Our
fight or flight response, however, is constantly being called into play
almost every day to varying degrees, and to be healthy, we’ve got to
consciously work to keep that response to a minimum.
Being conscious of our eating can often make us more conscious
of our thoughts. A truly healthy lifestyle can bring an individual closer
to discovering certain stressors and obstacles to rejuvenation. Listed
below are a few tips on how to change counter-productive thought
patterns, and overcome psychological roadblocks to vibrant health.
1. Make a conscious decision to be willing to change negative

thoughts to more positive ones.
2. Think about some positive thoughts during your day-to-day

activities like:
• I can conquer every challenge.

• I am a strong, positive, and worthwhile individual.
• So what if I make a mistake; mistakes represent
learning opportunities.
There are a lot of other self-affirming statements that you can
invent. Be creative!
3. Look at qualities given off by you and others that illicit anger, and
make a choice to approach situations in a more positive frame of
mind. Seeing learning opportunities in every situation is a good start.
14. The Basics of Health – Stress Management 143

4. Have confidence in your ability to change; notice that the more
you lighten up on yourself, the more other people (and situations)
will too.
5. Realize that you are the initiator and controller of your own actions
and health, rather than a prisoner of them.
6. Minimize “perfectionistic” thoughts; they are intimidating and can

make your goals insurmountable. There’s nothing wrong with two
steps forward and one step back every so often. Treat “a fall off the
wagon” as a learning experience.
7. Become involved with a circle of friends and a support network

with whom you can discuss your progress, concerns, and ideas
regarding the positive changes you’re making in your life. If there
isn’t such a network, create one!
Cleaning your mental house after a lifetime of swimming in
negative mental thoughts is a bit like going on a good nutritional
program after a lifetime of indulging in junk foods; they both can
often create a healing crisis. As you begin to change your physical
diet, the body begins to throw off accumulated toxic residue, and as
this happens you can feel rather rotten for a period of time... worse
before you feel better. It’s the same when you make a decision to
change your mental thought patterns; some circumstances may
seem unsettling for a while until you get used to your new, more
positive way of looking at life.
Begin each day with a positive frame of mind, thinking thoughts
such as: “I see any resistance patterns within me only as something
to release, they have no power over me; I am the power in my
world. I flow with the changes taking place in my life as best I can. I
approve of the way I am changing, and I am doing the best I can do.
Each day gets easier. I rejoice in the rhythm and flow of my ever-
changing life. Today is a wonderful day because I choose to make it
so.” Or something to that effect.
Remember to make and take time for yourself. Very often,
negative states of mind such as irritability, distress, or agitation are
signals that we need time to ourselves to reflect, relax, or engage in
fun activities. Know when to release those negative thought patterns
by acknowledging and giving in to this need for “down time”.

A person can more easily experience a state of irritability, distress,
or agitation when they are malnourished, hungry, tired, or
dehydrated. Living in harmony with Nature can eliminate these
situations. The good news about improving your physical health from
a stress-management perspective is that you will automatically have
less stress to manage!
Stress can come from the physical world too. Our bodies are
designed to exist in a warm climate. And even when we’re walking
around outdoors in the snow, our body is still in a warm climate,
thanks to our clothing. When you think about it, our comfort zone,
temperature-wise, is pretty narrow. If we’re cold, even temporarily,
this is uncomfortable which is stressful to the body, and to our mind.
The healthier I got, the less I could tolerate New York winters. Now
I “winter” in South Florida; my body is a lot happier, and so am I. So
remember, a comfortable physical environment plays a role in helping
to avoid stress.
In general:
• Do deep breathing when confronted with an emotional issue (and

when relaxing and sunbathing too; in fact, whenever you think of it).
And contrary to popular belief, deep breathing means breathing out
deeply, and then breathing in naturally (without additional effort).
• Look on the bright side. Not always your first thought, and not
always easy to do, but doing so is very helpful.
• Find and focus on the positive.
• When stressed, focus on what you can do to “make it better”.
• Welcome positive change. Change in and of itself isn’t bad; change
can be both positive and negative.
• Keep in mind that the “power of positive thinking” is nothing more
than simply not being negative. Negative thinking and a negative
frame of mind are devastating to physical health.
• And above all else: Don’t worry about what other people
think. If you do what they do, and you think like they think (which is
when they are most comfortable with you), you’ll get what they get.
If you want something different, be different. Be you!

15
The Basics of Health – Education
If we were still living in our biological “eco-niche”, we wouldn’t
need books like this. Our water would be pure, we’d get plenty of
sunshine, we’d go to sleep when it got dark and wake with the
sunrise, we’d eat what tasted delicious and was within our grasp, and
we’d get plenty of physical activity foraging for our food and sprinting
to keep from becoming some other animal’s food, and as long as we
run faster than the person running next to us, all is good.
But you, dear reader, have been born into a society where all bets
are off... it’s truly “anything goes”. And this is why education is one of
the Basics of Health.
But it’s not just your education that this book addresses. The
education of those we’d like to be able to turn to for health
information has been influenced by people with special interests, and
therefore many health professionals are fed a curriculum that is filled
with missing information, and worse, misinformation.
Here now are a few typical examples that illustrate just how ill-
informed mainstream professionals can be.
Some Incorrect and Misleading Things People Say about

Eating a Plant-Based, Uncooked Diet
Unless otherwise noted, the quotes that follow are from the
article, Simply Raw which appeared in the Atlanta Journal
Constitution, May 21, 2002.
Note: The term “raw food” means uncooked fruits and vegetables (it
does not include animal products); the term “vegan” means a diet
containing no animal products of any kind.
“Some raw food theories run counter to common medical wisdom.” –

Deborah Geering, reporter
If “common medical wisdom” were correct, the incidence of heart
disease, cancer, and other degenerative disease would be lower
today than it was 50 years ago. But it’s not; it’s higher; much higher.
15. The Basics of Health – Education 146

“Common medical wisdom” comes from a curriculum taught to those
who wish to pursue a medical career. This curriculum is fraught with
both misinformation and missing information. Eating a healthy diet
comes under the heading of prevention, and medical doctors get no
training in prevention. Prevention runs counter to the
medical/pharmaceutical economy, so it’s no wonder it doesn’t have a
high priority, even though, from most people’s perspective, it would
be better to not get a disease, than to get it and then attempt to get
rid of it.
“There can be downsides to an all-raw vegan diet. One of those is

lycopene. The phytochemical which helps prevent prostate cancer and
is found in such foods as tomatoes and watermelon, is better absorbed
by the body when it is cooked, as are some other nutrients.” – Brie
Turner-McGrievy, registered dietitian.
You can look at anything in isolation and make a case for it. In the
above example, Ms. McGrievy claims there’s an advantage to
cooking, but fails to mention the many disadvantages. She mentions
one substance that is (supposedly) made more bioavailable, while
not mentioning the hundreds of substances that are (definitely)
made less bioavailable. As with all things, it would be prudent to deal
with food processing on balance. But, alas, most people don’t. And
she also fails to mention that the amount of lycopene available in a
plant-based, uncooked diet is more than adequate.
On the subject of downsides: “People who eat a lot of fruit and nuts
can end up eating too much sugar and fat, Turner-McGrievy warns.”
Lumping fruit and nuts into the same category is irresponsible. It is
the excessive eating of nuts that can sabotage an otherwise healthy
diet. Humans need far more fruit than nuts. The two are at the
opposite ends of the spectrum quantity-wise. It would be more
helpful to mention that people sometimes eat fruit to the exclusion of
vegetables (leafy greens), or eat sweet fruit to the exclusion of non-
sweet fruit (tomatoes, cucumbers, red bell peppers).
“It’s not the enzymes in them [raw foods] that matter; we produce our
own enzymes to break things down.” – Brie Turner-McGrievy

As I said on page 44, yes we can, but we wouldn’t have to produce
some enzymes if they were left intact in our food. In-other-words,
destroying the enzymes in food can cause our enzyme producing
organs to become overworked. That’s why cooked food eaters tend
to have a larger pancreas than non-cooked food eaters. (When an
organ is overworked, it can become enlarged.) And when our body
must supply digestive enzymes because they are not in the food we
eat, the production/utilization of metabolic enzymes can be affected
to our detriment (remember, metabolic enzymes are used by our
body to deal with cancerous cells).
“Followers [of a raw food diet] say the diet has cured their cancer,
curbed their diabetes, helped them lose weight, turned their gray hair
back to its original color, given them more energy. But little clinical
research has been done on any of it, and some members of the
healthcare community question the theories behind the diet.” –
Deborah Geering
The members of the healthcare community that question eating a
diet of raw foods simply don’t have the information necessary to
make an informed determination... but that doesn’t stop them from
passing judgment. They form their opinions based on the information
they’ve been taught... some of it incorrect, for example the need to
consume dairy products for strong bones. And many health experts
choose to call things “theory” when they are in fact based on hard
science. And the responsible thing to have said would have been, “To
my knowledge, little clinical research has been done on any of it...”.
“All say the sacrifices in their diet have led to improvements in their
health.” – Deborah Geering
I’ve spoken to many people who have shifted their diet towards
healthier fare, and they don’t use the word “sacrifice”. Most people
who transition from a cooked, animal-based diet to an uncooked,
plant-based diet don’t see the change as a sacrifice, especially not in
the long run. They feel and look so much better, that the term
“sacrifice” is hardly appropriate. Maybe Ms. Geering would see the
change as a sacrifice, as do most people who won’t consider
improving their diet under any circumstances (even serious illness).

“It’s a high-maintenance diet...” – Gene Lowe
It doesn’t have to be. Some educators who instruct people on how to
transition to a raw food diet complicate matters, and even
recommend recipes and ways of eating that are not health-
enhancing. For many people, eating a healthy diet can (and should)
be easier than eating the Standard American Diet.
“Most of the problem with disease-fighting is, we’re not getting

enough antioxidants and phytochemicals.” – Brie Turner-McGrievy
While it’s true that most people probably aren’t getting enough
antioxidants and phytochemicals, the biggest problem with disease
fighting in my opinion is that people still continue to do the things
that caused the disease in the first place. How can you expect to rid
yourself of cancer if you’re still burdening your body with the very
things that helped cause it? And if you are successful in “beating it”,
how can you expect it not to return if you’re still doing the things
that originally contributed to its creation.
“And though ‘the American diet is not doing the colon any favors,’
Turner-McGrievy says, a slow-moving colon is not the cause of all
ills.” – Deborah Geering
Maybe not the cause of all ills, but it is surely a cause of some, and a
contributing factor in many.
“Some raw foods are difficult to digest... You’re going to increase

fiber dramatically. And you may increase gas production
dramatically. If you have any digestive compromises, this diet may
not be for you.” – Jo Ann Hattner, registered dietitian
Unless you’re suffering from chronic renal failure, if you have
“digestive compromises”, a natural diet is precisely what you should
be eating! You just have to work up to it gradually. Digestive
problems are a sign of ill-health. Ill-health should be dealt with by
adopting healthful practices, including dietary practices. If you
transition from an unhealthy diet to a healthy one, you may indeed
feel worse before you feel better. The initial “feeling worse” is not a
sign that a healthy diet is not for you, as some dietary “experts”
would suggest. Just because you see the wisdom of eating

uncooked, plant-based foods, you may not be able to go there
overnight. While some people can, many people find more success
with a gradual transition.
“There may be some parts or principles in this [raw foods] diet that
may be healthful. I don’t want to say anything that is so emphatic
because maybe we’ll find that cooking some foods is going to be
detrimental. But I don’t think we’re gong to find it across-the-board.”
– Jo Ann Hattner, registered dietitian
Maybe cooking some foods is detrimental? This illustrates how little
dietitians know about food. Cooking damages or changes every
component of a food, and for the worse. We already eat food that is
less then fresh (it’s not fresh-picked), and may be grown in less than
healthy soil (which translates into a food that may be low in, or
completely missing, some essential nutrients), so why would we want
to further degrade the food by cooking it? Is that in our best
interests? Many knowledgeable people contend that cooked food is
one of the major contributing factors to degenerative disease. Yes,
there are other factors, but wouldn’t addressing as many of these
factors as possible give you the best chance of avoiding degenerative
disease, lessened quality-of-life, and premature death? Sure it would!
And diet, if not thee biggie, is certainly one of the biggest factors.
“Our diets certainly don’t have to be 100 percent raw, but going more
toward that direction can be beneficial.” – Brie Turner-McGrievy
Why would a registered dietitian declare that our diets don’t have to
be 100% raw? That’s a very broad and irresponsible statement in my
opinion. It panders to that segment of the public who would rather
not consider abstaining from cooked food; it gives them “permission”.
But what if you wanted the best health possible? What if you wanted
the highest quality-of-life and longevity possible? Wouldn’t your diet
have to be the healthiest diet possible? Sure it would. And if that
meant eating no cooked food, maybe you’d like to hear that this is a
worthy goal. But the above statement would not suggest this. Most
nutritionists and dietitians will not give you encouragement in this
regard. They themselves most likely enjoy eating cooked food, and
are not about to recommend an approach to eating that they don’t
practice, and they do not want to appear hypocritical if they advocate

eating a high or all raw food diet when they themselves don’t eat
that way.
“Althea Zanecosky, a registered dietitian and a spokeswoman for the

American Dietetic Association, and her colleagues cast a wary eye on
health improvement claims made by those who have adopted a raw
foods diet, pointing out that while heat alters the shape of some
enzymes, it also makes many nutrients more accessible to the human
body. Vitamin A, which benefits eyesight, is one such nutrient;
lycopene, which is being studied for possible cancer-preventing
properties, is another. “It’s all still the same basic chemical
compounds,” Zanecosky says. ‘The only thing that might be in ‘live’
food and not in cooked is bacteria!” – Finding Therapy in Uncooked
Food by Clea Simon, Globe Correspondent
This is another example of looking at things in isolation, and
mentioning a substance that is (supposedly) made more bioavailable,
while not mentioning the hundreds of substances that are made less
bioavailable. But to hear her tell it, there are no substances made
less bioavailable, demonstrating her ignorance of the subject matter.
(And vitamin A is NOT more bioavailable when cooked!). And I won’t
dignify her remark about the bacteria with a response other than to
say it again demonstrates her lack of knowledge (some bacteria DO
survive cooking). It’s sad to say that this is the spokesperson for the
American Dietetic Association.
More examples of experts’ erroneous notions can be found in

Appendix E.
This chapter is about education, so here are a few more tidbits of

empowering and potentially life-saving information.
Bras and Breast Cancer Connection

By Ralph L. Reed, Ph.D. reedr@ucs.orst.edu
Although I am an environmental chemist (Ph.D in biochemistry),
I have been doing a lot of literature research on breast cancer since I
saw an article in the National Library of Medicine database over a
year ago. That article documented an increase in breast cancer rates
between women who do wear bras versus those that do not.

That Harvard study fascinated me, and I searched the medical
literature for possible explanations. In January 1996 I discovered a
book by Singer and Grismaijer, and their explanation of impaired
lymphatic flow intrigued me. I have since read everything that I can
find on lymphatic flow, and what I have found has amazed me. In
essence, what Singer and Grismaijer discovered was that the odds of
getting breast cancer dramatically increased with bra-wearing.
• Women who wore their bras 24 hours per day had a 3 out
of 4 chance of developing breast cancer.
• Women who wore bras more than 12 hour per day but not
to bed had a 1 out of 7 risk.
• Women who wore bras rarely or never had a 1 out of 168
chance of getting breast cancer. The overall difference
between 24 hour wearing and not at all was 125-fold!
The results of this study are compelling, even considering that it
was not a controlled study for other risk factors. Bear in mind that
known (published in medical journals) risk factors for breast cancer
are mostly in the range of less than three-fold differences. It should
also be noted that Singer and Grismaijer surveyed bra-wearing
behavior of the past, which is excellent for a disease with such a long
development period. In their book, the authors show how most of the
known risk factors can be related to bra-wearing behavior and/or the
lymphatic system.
For example, breast feeding and pregnancy cause full development
of the mammary lymphatics. Also, women of higher economic status
have higher breast cancer rates, and one would expect that they would
wear their bras more hours per day. Women who exercise have lower
risk, which could relate to better lymphatic circulation (and I would
add, more breast movement).
To this discussion, I would like to mention that lymphatic
circulation in many tissues (especially the primary lymphatics) is
highly dependent on movement. When you sit for a long time on an
airplane flight, your feet and ankles can swell because lymphatic
circulation goes to near zero. Wearing a bra, especially a constricting
one with underwires, and especially to bed, prevents normal
lymphatic flow and would likely lead to anoxia (lower than normal
oxygen content), which has been related to fibrosis, which has been
linked to increased cancer risk.

Women evolved under conditions where there was breast
movement with every step that they took when they walked or ran.
My reading of the scientific literature about lymphatic flow shows me
that this may be as important as the constriction factor. Every subtle
bounce of the breast while moving, walking, running, etc. gently
massages the breast and increases lymphatic flow and thus cleans the
breast of toxins and wastes that arise from cellular metabolism.
Of course, there may be other mechanisms for the damage that
bras apparently cause. One such mechanism could be temperature.
Cancers can be temperature-dependent; breast cancer is hormone-
dependent, temperature can alter hormone function, and breast
temperature can be elevated by bra wearing.
All these facts are from the medical literature. By whatever
mechanism, someone will eventually explain why Singer and
Grismaijer found a 125-fold difference in cancer rates between bra-
free breasts and those constricted by 24-hour-per-day bra-wearing.
If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you read the book by
Singer and Grismaijer, Dressed to Kill, Avery Press, 1995. (By the
way, I have no connection to the authors.)
Also, just for an interesting experiment, the next time you walk
down the street, notice visually how constricting bras are. On many
women you can actually see “dents” around the sides of their chests
where their bras are, even in something as opaque as a black t-shirt.
A physical therapist friend of mine, after
reading Dressed to Kill, said that she was amazed
at what she saw in her practice at a local medical
clinic. She noticed how many women have red
creases and grooves on their bodies caused by
their bras. Singer and Grismaijer also suggest
that you simply stop wearing one for two weeks
and see how you feel.
Years ago, many people thought that the
idea of cigarettes causing lung cancer was
laughable. Even if further research regarding bras and breast cancer
with highly controlled studies only showed a difference of 5-fold, or
even 2-fold, it would be no laughing matter.
Please consider getting this book for yourself or for some-

one you love... it’s listed in Appendix B.

The Cure for Diabetes and Candidiasis
When we consume processed foods that are high in fat, the fat
can interfere with sugar getting out of the blood and into the cells.
When there’s too much sugar in the blood for a prolonged period, an
overgrowth of the yeast, candida, can develop as a consequence of
dealing with the sustained high blood sugar. Know anyone with
candidiasis? It’s easily avoided if you cut out eating high fat foods,
and eat “fatty” natural foods in appropriate amounts (There is more
to the candidiasis issue such as replenishing good intestinal flora
after taking antibiotics, but take heart, candidiasis is easily resolved –
there is no reason to have it for a prolonged period of time).
Diabetes can be caused by the exact same thing: too much fat in
the diet results in too much fat in the blood. And if that fat prevents
insulin from coming in contact with a cell’s insulin receptor, the cell
cannot take in the sugar. Result: The blood’s sugar level starts
getting dangerously high (and cells are starved for fuel). The poor
pancreas (and adrenals) becomes overworked trying to pump out
more insulin in an effort to bring down the excessively high blood
sugar level. Eventually the pancreas can get worn out; it isn’t dead,
only in need of a rest. I personally know people who were taking
insulin to control their Type 2 diabetes, who were able to come off
their medication and have normal blood sugar levels. The cure? A
whole food, plant-based diet that didn’t provide too much fat, and,
naturally, an adherence to the other Basics of Health as well. The
diagram below illustrates the condition that leads to diabetes and
candidiasis.
pancreas fat
insulin cell
insulin
receptor GTM
blood sugar

In this diagram, the round object inside the cell is the cell’s
Glucose Transporter Module (GTM). Normally, when the pancreas
releases insulin, the insulin comes in contact with a cell’s insulin
receptor which triggers the GTM to move to the cell wall and merge
its membrane with the cell’s membrane which allows sugar to move
out of the blood and into the cell. But the excess fat in the blood
prevents the insulin from touching the cell’s insulin receptor, so the
GTM gets no signal to move; and because this happens to many
cells, blood sugar rises.
There are other mechanisms that contribute to a dysfunctional
blood sugar regulatory system where excessive fat consumption is
the culprit, and too much fat in the blood can hamper a cell’s oxygen
uptake because the fat literally coats the cell; the bottom line: Lower
the fat, and eliminate cooked animal fat and processed oils, and
problems like diabetes can resolve themselves.
Can’t picture fat in the blood? Dr. Charles Attwood once described
a pint of blood he had drawn from a patient. Just prior to drawing
the blood, the young man had eaten hamburgers, fries, and a milk
shake. The blood was “murky and opaque,” according to Dr. Attwood.
“After 15 minutes, a one-half inch layer of fat had risen to the top of
the plastic package containing the blood.”
See also: The Conservative Management of Diabetes at
health101.org
“Let me state here my position on the eating

of meat. Neither I nor my wife eat meat. I
concluded long ago, through my studies, that
if I wanted to have the health and longevity
that Nature intended, I would consider the
consumption of meat a serious deterrent to
her work.” – Dr. Norman Walker

Raw Food Studies
Those who say there are no studies showing that a plant-based
diet is healthier than an animal-based diet, simply haven’t looked for
them... they exist. I’ve put some of these studies on the
health101.org website; here are a few excerpts.
Antioxidant Status in Long-Term Adherents to a Strict

Uncooked Vegan Diet
Rauma AL, Torronen R, Hanninen O, Verhagen H, Mykkanen H. Department of
Clinical Nutrition, University of Kuopio, Finland.
Am J Clin Nutr 1995 Dec;62(6):1221-1227
“...The present data indicate that the ‘raw food diet’ provides
significantly more dietary antioxidants than does the cooked,
omnivorous diet, and that the long-term adherents to this diet have a
better antioxidant status than do omnivorous control subjects.”
Effect of a Strict Vegan Diet on Energy and
Nutrient Intakes by Finnish Rheumatoid Patients
Department of Clinical Nutrition, University of Kuopio, Finland
Eur J Clin Nutr 1993 Oct;47(10):747-749
“...Shifting to the uncooked vegan diet significantly increased the
intakes of energy and many nutrients. In spite of the increased energy
intake, the group on the vegan diet lost 9% of their body weight
during the intervention period...”
Vegan Diet in Physiological Health Promotion
Hanninen O, Rauma AL, Kaartinen K, Nenonen M.
Department of Physiology, University of Kuopio, Finland.
Acta Physiol Hung 1999;86(3-4):171-180
“...The fibromyalgic subjects eating raw foods lost weight compared
to their omnivorous controls. The results on their joint stiffness and
pain (visual analogue scale), on their quality of sleep, on their health
assessment questionnaire, and on their general health questionnaire all
improved. It appears that the adoption of a vegan diet exemplified by
a raw food diet leads to a lessening of several health risk factors to
cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Rheumatoid patients subjectively
benefited from the vegan diet which was also seen in serum
parameters and fecal analyses.”
Knowledge is Power
16
Most Often Asked Questions
Q: Why do people fail on a healthy diet?
A: In my experience, here are the main reasons:
• Too much veggies, not enough fruit
• Too much sweet fruit, not enough leafy greens
• Too much nuts/seeds (and/or way too many avocados)
• Overeating, even on the healthiest foods
• The continued use of processed oils
• Purposely restricted calories in order to lose weight (which is
counter-productive)
• Didn’t eat enough sweet fruit (one banana is not a meal); can
lead to eating too much fat and/or cooked complex carbs
• Not enough variety of fruits in the diet
• Didn’t give it enough time (for detoxification and rebuilding)
• Didn’t eliminate harmful foods completely (allows defense
mechanisms to remain, continues to burden a body that may
be trying to heal a serious condition)
• Didn’t really want to do it to begin with; did it at the
insistence of someone else
• Didn’t pay equal attention to the other requisites of health
(sleep, exercise, sunshine, toxin avoidance, water, stress
management)
Q: But weren’t we “hunter-gatherers”, which means we should eat meat?

A: At one time we were indeed “hunter-gatherers”, but a better
question would be, were we hunter-gatherers from the very
beginning? A: We were foragers before we were hunter-gatherers.
But to support today’s massive animal food industry, the designation
“hunter-gatherer” is used exclusively to describe us, and you never
hear the term “forager” applied to humans. And just because we are
able to eat something without instantly keeling over dead, doesn’t
mean it’s a food of our biological adaptation. See the article So Much
for the Hunter/Gatherer Theory at health101.org
16. Most Often Asked Questions 157

Q: But since we’ve been eating cooked food for so long, haven’t our
genetics adapted to it?
A: If they have, you wouldn’t know it by all the disease we suffer
from today. The majority of serious degenerative illness is directly
related to cooked food. And we haven’t been eating animal for that
long a period of time if you consider how long humans have been
around. And keep in mind, genetics have a limited adaptive
capability; if grass became the only thing on this planet to eat,
humans would perish before we could adapt by developing three
more stomachs to be able to live off grass. Animals do not adapt to
new foods overnight, it takes many millions of years if adaptation is
possible at all. We have not seen other species suddenly change their
normal diet in such an extreme way, as it’s been suggested that
humans have. Besides, what would be the adaptive mechanism to
cooked food? Cooking damages nutrients; do we adapt by no longer
needing those nutrients? Cooking denatures food so it appears as a
foreign invader to our body; do we adapt to this by lowering our
immune system’s response to foreign substances? The fact is, our
digestive system is not much different than it was before we started
eating meat, and it still isn’t anything like the digestive system of
animals that are designed to eat meat.
Q: Don’t you feel bad that you’re depriving yourself of all the goodies
you used to eat?
A: Disciplining yourself is not depriving yourself. When you say no to
unhealthy food, you are exercising discipline, you are not depriving
yourself of anything. It’s impossible to deprive yourself of something
that you’ve decided you don’t want anymore. Having the discipline to
“just say no” is not the same as depriving yourself of something you
want. So my answer is always, “I’m not depriving myself of anything,
I’ve merely found delicious, nutritious foods to eat instead of the
unhealthy, nutritionless things I used to eat.”
Q: You said doing caloric restriction to lose weight wasn’t good, but
weren’t there studies that showed that animals who had their calories
restricted lived longer?
A: That one rat study which “proved” that restricting caloric intake
made the rats live longer was very flawed. The rats in the control

group who were allowed to eat whenever they wanted were not
eating as they would in Nature. It takes a lot of calories for a rat to
catch its food in the wild, and the food is limited to the extent of
what it can catch. In the experiment, food was available all the time
in unlimited supply, and the rats didn’t have to expend any calories to
get it. When another scientist could not repeat the results after
correcting those aspects of the study, he remarked that the study
only showed that over-fed, under-exercised rats lived a shorter
lifespan... sounds like another animal species I know.
Q: I’ve heard it said (in defense of eating uncooked food) that no

other animal cooks their food except for humans. But this is because
no other animal knows how to cook their food. If we have the
intelligence to be able to figure out how to eat something, doesn’t that
make it “our food”?
A: Not only are we the only animal that cooks its food, but we are
the only animal that has the ability to create something for our use
that is unarguably harmful; we’re the only animal that has the ability
to do things that knowingly harm us. This “free will” that we’ve been
endowed with allows us to do both incredibly wondrous and
unbelievably foolish things. Just because we’ve figured out how to do
something, doesn’t mean it’s good for our health. We’ve done many
things which, in retrospect, we probably shouldn’t have done;
biological weapons, pesticides, genetic engineering, atomic bombs,
global warming, and various “oops” (In 1989, staph infections were
relatively unknown to hospitals, but by 2002, nearly two-thirds of all
hospital infections were attributed to antibiotic-resistant staph
infections; this bacteria has been attributed to a new genetically
engineered version of staph, a superbug inadvertently produced by
Monsanto’s Bovine Growth Hormone. Oops! See the article Antibiotic
Resistance Growing in Scope at health101.org). There are many
humans that have the ability to know how to do many things, but not
the wisdom to know NOT to do them. Therein lies the problem with
our diet.
Q: It’s said that certain nutrients can only be made bioavailable if you
cook the food... Is this true?

A: False. At first it was said that certain nutrients are made more
bioavailable if the food is cooked, but this rationale for cooking was
quickly shot down when it was brought out that you’d get more than
enough of these nutrients when eating the food raw, while at the
same time avoiding the damage done to the many other nutrients
from the cooking process. So to counter that “defense of eating raw”,
the cooked food camp started circulating the lie that for some
nutrients to be made available at all, you had to cook the food.
I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.
Q: An animal-based diet contains more protein than a plant-based

diet... Can you get enough protein from just eating fruits and
vegetables?
A: Remember, there are two types of protein: usable and unusable.
There is more usable protein in an uncooked plant-based diet than
there is in a cooked animal-based diet. But the knowledge of how
much usable protein a diet has is of little value to you unless you
know how much you need. And we’ve been led to believe we need a
lot more than we actually do.
Q: Okay, how much protein do we need?

A: That’s a good question! And I’ll bet you can figure it out for
yourself... all you’re missing is one piece of information. Let’s start
figuring it out. What is protein mainly used for? Building. At what
point during your entire life from the moment of birth up until you
die do you need the most protein? The first few years; that’s when
you’re experiencing the most explosive growth, and new growth
requires more protein than “maintenance growth”. So your protein
requirements during those first few years of life are higher than they
will ever be as an adult. Now, how much protein are you eating as a
baby? If you’re being fed the diet Nature intended, you’re drinking
milk from your mom. How much protein is in this diet? About five
percent as calories. So if you need about five percent during the time
of your life when you require the most protein, why would you need
more than that as an adult? Bottom line: It’s very difficult to not get
enough protein. Most people get way too much, and it’s too much
protein that contributes to degenerative disease. And by-the-way, the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recommends that the minimum

is 2.5% of our daily calories from protein, while the World Health
Organization suggests 4.5% to be on the safe side... a fruit and leafy
greens diet has more than enough to satisfy these amounts.
Protein Content
• = Max = Average
15
10
Human Milk Fruits Vegetables
This chart shows that fruit and veggies have as

much or more protein than mother’s milk
Another “proof” that a fruit and veggie diet has enough protein is
the fact that this has been my diet for almost 15 years (with small
amounts of nuts and seeds on occasion), and my hair and nails are
fine (they would be awful if I weren’t getting enough protein), my
energy levels are excellent, and I’ve built new muscle on this diet (as
an experiment, I stopped exercising to lose muscle, and then built it
back up again). So unless I’m from another planet, there must be
enough protein in uncooked fruits and vegetables to sustain vibrant
health... if there wasn’t, I’d be dead by now. (But when I mention
this to people who believe that you need to eat animal to get enough
protein, they accuse me of lying, and insist that I must be eating
meat or using protein powders.) And let’s not forget cows, gorillas,
and elephants; massive animals who eat only plant matter (and a
gorilla could beat the tar out of any body builder). For a thorough
explanation, see health101.org/art_protein_propaganda.htm
www.
Q: Don, did you have a serious disease like cancer that you healed by
improving your lifestyle habits?

A: I don’t know; possibly. Maybe halfway through developing cancer
or heart disease, the improvements I made allowed my body to
effectively deal with a serious disease when it wasn’t able to before.
I’ll never know for sure, and that’s just fine with me! (revisit page
19, Disease Timeline)
Q: I’m concerned that there won’t be enough variety... Don, tell me

what you eat?
A: It’s been discovered that most people eating an animal-based diet
eat about 13 different foods throughout a year. I eat 13 different
foods throughout the week! True, there are 100 different ways to
prepare shrimp, but it’s still all shrimp. There is plenty of variety in a
plant-based diet (even if you count all the varieties of apples as one
food). During a day, I usually have bananas and leafy greens; but
other than those, there is no one food I have every day. Yet I eat a
lot of different foods throughout the week/month/year. Simplicity at a
meal, and variety during the year is the key.
Q: If I eat an uncooked plant-based diet, will I get enough calcium?

A: Fruits and leafy greens have plenty of bioavailable calcium, if you
don’t cook them. But if you are asked this question, it’s important
to acquaint the person inquiring with the concept of calcium balance.
Osteoporosis is usually attributed to a calcium deficiency, but as
you’ve seen on pages 58 and 65 this is not true. People with
osteoporosis are usually getting enough calcium, they’re just not
retaining enough. If you are excreting more calcium than you are
taking in, this is what contributes to osteoporosis. Also, getting
enough calcium is only half the battle; if you want strong bones, to
utilize the calcium you are getting, you need adequate sunshine,
weight-bearing exercise, and a healthy diet that contains the other
nutrients the body needs to make use of calcium (like magnesium).
Q: Isn’t “anything in moderation” an okay philosophy?

A: Unhealthy things, even in moderation, are not health-enhancing.
Poisons, in any amount, are still poisonous. Cigarette smoking is
health-damaging regardless of how “moderate” you smoke. Heroin,
cocaine, and alcohol are obviously not okay in moderation; the
unhealthy things that are not obvious are still not “okay” in
moderation if vibrant health is your goal.

Q: Why do people debate many of the obvious truths you mention in
this book?
A: They argue these points because these points challenge the way
they live their lives, so they can’t help but get defensive. And some
people will argue with you until you are blue in the face; there will be
nothing you can say, no proof you can offer, and no logic or common
sense that will mean anything to them. Then there are those whose
finances depend on their believing, advocating, and promoting
untrue health information; for them, their bank account’s health is
more important than their body’s health (or your body’s health). I’d
advise surrounding yourself with those who are curious to find out if
the things in this book are really true.
Q: Why is raw food better than cooked food?

A: Cooking destroys the food’s nutrients. Your body needs nutrients
for cellular repair and the manufacturing of new cells, for a healthy
immune system, and for many other functions. Cooking also
damages proteins. When the body doesn’t recognize a damaged
protein, an auto-immune response occurs, and this can damage
healthy cells. Cooking causes minerals to lose their “post-plant” form,
and they’re returned to their native state as they occur in soil,
seawater, and rocks. In this form they are mostly unusable, and may
combine with saturated fats and cholesterol in the circulatory system,
clogging it up with a cement-like plaque. Heated fats are especially
damaging to the body because they are altered to form acroleins,
free radicals, and other mutagens and carcinogens. Bottom line:
Uncooked (undamaged) food is in better shape... and the better
shape your food is in, the better shape you’ll be in.
Q: What improvements can I expect from eating more raw food and
eating less cooked food?
A: Digestion is an energy intensive process. The “lighter” your meals,
the easier they are to digest, and the less energy is required for
digestion. The better your meals digest, the less energy is used to
deal with the downsides of incomplete digestion. On any given day
the body has a finite amount of nerve energy (not to be confused
with the caloric energy that muscles use). The less energy that’s
used for digestion, the more there is available for other tasks. And a

pressing task for most people is “cellular housecleaning”! It is the
lack of this housecleaning that contributes to degenerative diseases
such as cancer. As your cells become healthier, they experience
improved functionality. If it’s the cells of your eyes, your vision
improves; if it’s the cells of your nose, your sense of smell improves;
if it’s the cells of your taste buds, your sense of taste will improve
(normalize). And the improved functioning of the cells of your
immune system will improve your chances of living a disease-free
life. Many bodily functions will eventually change. People usually find
disagreeable body odor goes away; they no longer need to wear
glasses; they don’t need as much sleep; they have more energy, and
their disposition improves. The more uncooked, and the less cooked
food in your diet, the more pronounced these changes. Bottom line:
The more your diet consists of uncooked food, the more your body
will repair and renew. But you didn’t get into the shape you’re
currently in overnight, so to undo any damage done will take some
time. This is a very individual thing, but everyone will benefit from
eating the way Nature intended. Just remember this: Going from
50/50 (uncooked/cooked) to 60/40 gives you a proportionate
improvement, as does going from 70/30 to 80/20. But going from
90/10 to 100% results in a very disproportionate improvement
(instead of 10%, it can feel more like 1,000%); this demonstrates
the effect that even a little harmful food has on the body (allows
defense mechanisms to remain, which can hamper nutrient absorption).
Q: I did read chapter 4, Dealing with Conflicting Information and

Controversies, but if you had to sum it up, what would you say is the
most important thing when dealing with all the debates on diet?
A: Use your common sense, not someone else’s, when deciding what
to eat. And don’t necessarily stay faithful to the first eating plan that
sounds good, or maybe got you some positive results. When you’ve
been eating a Standard American Diet and living a typical American
lifestyle, most of the time it’s what you stop doing that makes you
feel better, not what you start doing. Many people have healed
themselves from some serious maladies, not by drinking concoctions,
and not by eating according to their blood type or “metabolic type”,
but by respecting their body’s requirements, and giving themselves
what their body wants, and not giving it what it doesn’t want.
Remember, Nature has the last say in everything you do. Those who

think we can improve upon Nature will one-day experience a rude
awakening. Nature’s laws are immutable; you can’t break them
without being punished, like you can with human-made laws. To be
as healthy as possible, respect (your) Nature, and educate yourself
so you can see the diet debates for what they are.
Q: I don’t think I could ever eat just fruits and vegetables... How do
people do it?
A: Everyone who now loves eating the diet Nature intended, (fruits,
vegetables, with some nuts and seeds), said the same thing in the
beginning, “I could never eat just fruits and vegetables...” It’s a
mindset; it’s how you’ve been conditioned to think, i.e. fruit is a
snack not a meal. If you ask any of those people who today love
eating a natural, plant-based, uncooked diet, why they love it, they
will tell you they enjoy it more than the diet they used to eat. They
feel better, have more energy, sleep better, look better, have a better
outlook on life, or some other reason that makes it well worth it.
Even if today you can’t imagine eating just fruits and veggies, you
should ask yourself, “If I could get to a point where I would love it,
don’t I owe it to myself to try?” And let’s face it, we do things to feel
good, so if you would feel a thousand times better eating what you’re
designed to eat, why wouldn’t you! And remember, it’s not an
overnight thing, there is a transition (and “treat foods” that help get
you there if you need them).
Q: When I replace cooked food with uncooked food, I feel worse! And
when I go back to eating mostly cooked food, I feel better. Doesn't this
mean I'm better off eating cooked food?
A: It is easy to misinterpret the scenario you described. It’s very
common. Here’s what’s happening: Eating a diet rich in uncooked
food will free up energy for healing due to easier digestion. And if
you’ve been eating cooked food for any length of time, you have
some healing to do. When your body begins the long overdue task of
cellular housecleaning, it can be unpleasant... sometimes very
unpleasant! But don’t let that deter you from becoming healthy.
Understanding that you are purging toxic wastes that were
burdening/damaging your body may help you to have the resolve to
see it through. Some people, who experience very unpleasant

“detox” symptoms, add a bit of cooked food back into their diet in
order to slow the process down to make it tolerable. But if you can
tolerate it, stick it out, get it out, and get well. Bottom line: No one is
better off in the long-run eating cooked food.
Q: There seems to be more than one version of the “raw foods diet”...
how do I know which one is the healthiest?
A: People can be drawn to or turned off to a raw foods diet because
of irresponsible statements like “you can eat cake, pudding, and pie,
not work out, and just hang out and be lazy all day, and be in great
shape” (attributed to a famous raw foods chef). And people who
follow raw food diets that consist of lots of gourmet dishes often find
their over-weight problem remains a problem, and various health
challenges remain a challenge. If you look at their protein-fat-carbs
ratio, you’ll very often find it’s not much different than when they
were eating a Standard American Diet. Sure, the fats, carbs,
proteins, and nutrients are undamaged because it’s a raw diet, but
too much fat in the diet is unhealthy regardless of how undamaged it
is. And the “gourmet” raw food recipes are often made with too
many nuts and other high-fat ingredients, and irritants.
Then you have the raw food people who promote the
consumption of “Energy Soup”, “Veggie-Kraut”, “Rejuvelac”, and
wheatgrass juice, and who say to go easy on the fruit. And there are
even raw foodists who advocate raw meat, slightly cooked beans,
and grains... These are not healthy dietary recommendations.
As far as the different “living foods” and “raw foods” diets that
don’t contain animal, they all have one thing in common, they all
leave out some of the more health-damaging items that are in the
Standard American Diet (junk food, refined sugar, processed
starches, artificial sweeteners, cooked animal flesh). And this
common denominator is what accounts for the initial improvements
many people experience.
Even some of the more mainstream diets advocate leaving out
many of these health-destroying items, and this is why many people
feel better when doing these diets; not because these diets are
healthy diets, but because these diets are healthier than the
extremely unhealthy diets they were eating.
For optimal health however, simply apply the principles outlined in
this book, and you’ll clearly see what the healthiest diet is.

Q: If I’m out, and didn’t bring any fruit with me, and I get hungry, are
fast-food places really that bad?
A: Polydimethylsiloxane is a substance that is manufactured by Dow
Chemical and is primarily used in food-manufacturing factories as a
de-foaming agent for commercial boilers, and is not approved for use
as a food additive. Yet, Pizza Hut is using this silicone-based chemical
as a stabilizer for cheese on its pizza products. Some of those pizzas
go directly to schools and are served at lunchtime. In order to
preserve their frozen pizzas, Pizza Hut claims that their silicon
emulsifier is a necessary preservative. Silicon is not an approved
substance for human consumption. Neither is polydimethylsiloxane or
formaldehyde, which results as a byproduct when frozen silicone-
sprayed pizza is subjected to heat. It’s also my understanding that
Taco Bell uses meat from once-diseased cows (“measle meat”) that is
allowed to be sold for human consumption if processed a certain way
(how else could they sell their products so cheaply), and McDonald’s
sprays their french fries with milk and wheat gluten, which can make
some people sick (and those fries contain higher levels of trans-fats
than previously disclosed). I’m not singling out these fast-food
places, I’m sure they all do things they’d rather you not know about.
It’s better to go to a place that sells fruit. The hardest thing about it
is simply changing your way of thinking regarding “I’m hungry...
where can I get something to eat?”
Q: I can’t go all-raw overnight; what’s the best way to transition to a

healthier diet?
A: Start out by eating sweet fruit only for your second meal of the
day (the first is water). Reduce and eliminate animal-based foods as
soon as you can. Have healthy food with you so you can eat when
you get hungry. Remember, the Standard American Diet is a very
concentrated diet, very low in water and fiber. So you get a lot of
calories from not a lot of bulk. Healthy foods are higher in fiber and
water, so if you eat the bulk you’re used to eating, it won’t be
enough to get the calories (and nutrients) you need. You have to get
used to eating more bulk, and it may take a while for your stomach
to “stretch” so you don’t feel prematurely full. So if you’re eating
bananas, eat until you’re satisfied. And try not eating in whole
numbers; no other animal does. If your body says STOP when you’re
in the middle of your fourth banana, don’t feel like you must finish it.

If it can’t be saved, it’s better for your health that you discard it
rather than over-eat it; this also takes getting used to. Simply
continue to increase the amount of fruit in your diet. If you find
yourself wanting something “bad”, give yourself permission to eat it
but only after you’ve had a meal of fruit first. What you’ll usually find
is that after a healthy dose of healthy food, you won’t want anything
else. (The reason people, who have just stuffed themselves on tons
of cooked animal, want dessert is because their meal didn’t contain
enough fuel – simple carbs – and their body wants something
sweet!) And know that backsliding comes with the territory, but as
you become more comfortable with your new eating habits,
backsliding will occur less often. The more you succeed and the more
you give yourself a pat on the back, the easier it will be to fully
embrace this different way of eating you’ve chosen for yourself. (And
another helpful tip is to obtain the four books on diet in Appendix B.)
Q: Why do some raw foodists dehydrate food?

A: It simulates the low water-content foods that they consumed
when they ate cooked (low volume) food. Dehydrating is just very
slow cooking; the food is still damaged. But it allows people to make
nut meats and seed cheeses in order to prepare raw gourmet
recipes; the problem is, it also allows people to over-eat on fat. The
food of our biological adaptation is supposed to contain water;
dehydrating your food also dehydrates you. When improving your
diet, the idea is to change from unhealthy practices to healthy ones,
not from one unhealthy practice to another.
“Fix reason firmly in her

seat, and call to her tribunal
every fact, every opinion.”
Thomas Jefferson

17
Food for Thought
• Healing is a biological process. Vibrant health results from healthful
living.
• Vibrant health is the body’s natural state. Your body is self-

repairing, self-regulating, and self-healing, but only if you don’t get in
its way, and only if you give it what it requires.
• Health-care is self-care! Living in a way that restores, builds, and

maintains health is the key.
• Health and disease are a continuum. The same physiological laws

govern life both in sickness and in health.
• The symptoms which are associated with acute disease that are
generated by the body are important processes that are needed for
efficient and complete healing to occur. Suppression of these
symptoms may have negative, and even dire, consequences. To
recover health one must remove the causes of disease, and avoid the
all-to-common mistake of trying to suppress symptoms.
• If the trillions of cells in your body are operating sub-optimally,

caused by unnatural lifestyle practices, their function will be affected.
A cell’s function can affect eyesight, sense of taste, energy level,
emotions, immune system response, sex drive, weight, body shape,
skin tone, hair tone, motor skills... and the list goes on and on.
You’ve lived with your cell’s present level of functionality for so long,
it may be difficult to imagine how these functions can be better than
they are now. But when they are, and you think back to how they
were, you may find yourself saying, “I wish I had done this sooner”.
• Each year more than 800,000 people in America die from

preventable diseases. There is health information available that can
empower you to live a healthier, happier life than you ever thought
possible; and this information will help you avoid unnecessary
17. Food for Thought 169

suffering and premature death that conventional living brings to so
many people. This “manual” will help point you in the right direction.
• Very often what accounts for the positive changes in one’s health is
what one stops doing, as opposed to what one starts doing. The
improvements to health often attributed to drinking carrot juice, for
example, most likely came from the things the person stopped doing
around the same time he started drinking carrot juice, and not from
the drinking of carrot juice.
• When you juice a sweet fruit you do concentrate the nutrients but
you also totally remove a very important nutrient: fiber. One of
fiber’s roles is to control the speed with which the fruit’s sugar enters
the blood. And since juicing also concentrates the sugar, the absence
of fiber along with those concentrated amounts of sugar is a very
bad combination. And since the nutrients are now traveling through
your digestive system in liquid form, and not in a semi-solid form as
they were meant to, they aren’t spending as much “face time” with
your small intestines (the organ responsible for absorbing nutrients)
as they would have if they had remained part of the fruit, so you
aren’t really taking full advantage of those concentrated nutrients.
It’s better to eat the fruit whole if you can... just chew it well.
• Grain is known as the “staff of life”, and most people assume this
means that grain is an important part of our diet. But this expression
from “biblical times” actually means grains were a crutch to lean on
when “the good stuff” (fruits) wasn’t available... you could survive on
the things made from grain. Remember, at that time, a staff didn’t
mean a group of people who work for someone, a staff was a
walking stick used to aid people who had injured legs or who just
needed help negotiating the terrible roads of the time... a crutch of
sorts. With this in mind, you can now read this expression with a
better understanding of its true meaning, “Grain is the crutch of life.”
• Modern medicines stem from the wizards of olden times who were
both pharmaceutical companies and pharmacists rolled into one.
They knew not how their concoctions worked, only that the potions
did appear to cure what was ailing the king. They couldn’t have
known that their elixirs were simply masking the symptoms of an
underlying problem, and the kings held them in high esteem.

• Most people don’t start to value their health until they begin to lose
it. Good health is more than just the absence of symptoms; it’s more
than just being above room temperature and feeling no pain. Most
people are merely surviving and not thriving, and there’s a HUGE
difference.
• To help your digestion and to increase your appreciation of what

you’re eating, always eat in a peaceful environment. No matter how
hectic your day is, slow down and kick back when you’re eating. And
to help you eat only when hungry, avoid giving your meals names,
i.e. “lunch”, “dinner”, “breakfast”. There’s absolutely no need for your
meals to have names associated with them; this cultural convention
exists to facilitate the scheduling of meals, but this arbitrary
scheduling doesn’t respect your body’s needs.
• I mentioned in Chapter 8 how cooking specifically affects proteins

because of the connection to autoimmune diseases, but knowledge
of how cooking affects carbohydrates is good to know too. Cooking
“caramelizes” carbohydrates which produces acetic acid which
acidifies the body contributing to osteoporosis and cancer. The sugar
from the caramelized carbs is also made available to the blood at an
abnormally high rate, spiking the blood sugar level upwards and
ultimately spiking it in the opposite, downward, direction later; this
roller coaster ride contributes to blood sugar regulatory conditions
such as diabetes and candidiasis, and is the cause of the high and
low energy levels that many people experience throughout the day.
• Calcium is the most abundant nutrient in bone, but it is not the

most important. Calcium has received a lot of press, but this is
mainly due to the dairy industry. Without the other equally important
ingredients of bone, like magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, zinc, and
collagen to name a few, you’d have no bones. If you’re getting plenty
of bioavailable calcium in your diet, but no magnesium, your bones
will suffer. So is there a “most important” nutrient in bone? Yes there
is! It’s the one you’re most deficient in.
• Gorillas are a lot stronger than any human being, and they don’t
get osteoporosis. Where do they get their protein and calcium? From
fruits and green leafy veggies. Do they have dietary genetics that are
different from or superior to ours? No.

• This book explains what happens to protein when you cook it (page
45), but if you’d like to see what happens with your own eyes, you
can try this: Take the “white” of an egg (pure protein) and look at it,
touch it, smell it, and taste it. Then drop it onto a hot frying pan and
then look at it, touch it, smell it, and taste it. All four senses will
detect the radical changes which are caused by the application of
heat to the protein molecules; this is an observable demonstration of
denaturation (page 45). And if you run into people who still don’t
believe that the heat used in cooking damages organic matter, invite
them to put the palm of their hand on a hot frying pan.
• In today’s society, you personally can control the relative state of

your heath by more than 70%, and you can have a big affect on the
rate at which you age and your quality of life. What accounts for this
huge amount of control? The thousands of different unhealthy things
you can choose to partake of or avoid. These choices weren’t
available a long, long time ago. Today you can choose to eat an
unhealthy diet, but there was a time when you couldn’t; all you could
eat was a healthy diet. In those days you were whatever your
chronological age was; today your “Relative Biological Age” can be
very different from your calendar age. Relative to what? To the age
of the general population who eats a typical Western diet and has
health-eroding lifestyle habits.
Two Obstacles to Vibrant Health

1. Our current health-care system. It focuses on the relief of pain,
the elimination of symptoms, keeping the patient alive for as long as
possible, and on the management of disease vs helping you heal it.
2. Misinformation. There’s tons of it out there. Some is intentional
(defined as disinformation), and some is circulated by well-meaning
people who don’t know that the information is faulty. And it isn’t
restricted to mainstream industries who have things to hide; even
the alternative health care field circulates misinformation, both
unwittingly and (unfortunately) knowingly.
It’s a (Sad) Sign of the Times

It’s not a promising sign when there are clothing stores that cater
exclusively to women who have had mastectomies. I’m sure these

women are glad such stores exist, but we as a species should
vigorously question why there is such a need for a store like this. And
if we do, we’ll find that breast cancer is very preventable.
Addictions: All in Our Head?

On page 74, under Food Allergies, I said how it was impossible to
be allergic to something you’re not designed to eat in the first place.
The same goes for addictions. You can’t be physically addicted to
something you’re not designed to have, especially if it’s something
that’s harmful to your body.
As a colleague of mine puts it, what you’re addicted to is the
“shift in experience” you get from things like chocolate, marijuana,
alcohol, cigarettes, cocaine, etc. But because people feel worse when
they quit “cold turkey”, they assume they were physically addicted,
and their body had developed a need for whatever it was they were
partaking of. This is not true.
Although this shift in experience manifests itself in physical ways
(stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain), the addiction is purely
emotional in nature. If you’re born without a requirement for
nicotine, your body is never going to develop a need for nicotine, or
any other toxic substance.
One of the reasons you feel terrible when you stop using these
things is this: When toxins come in faster than the body can eliminate
them, the uneliminated toxins are stored, and once you are no longer
taking in these burdensome substances, nerve energy is freed up
and the body vigorously eliminates what was stored... and this
process feels awful. Commonly referred to as “withdrawal”, it should
be called what it really is, “detoxification”.
Unhealthy Cravings Aren’t Physical Either

I stopped eating fried chicken ages ago, and you couldn’t pay me
to eat even one piece today. But that doesn’t stop me from
experiencing pleasant memories when I smell fried chicken. I’m
reminded of the times when my family ate dinner together as a
family. We always ordered delivery of fried chicken. These were
pleasant times, and therefore remain pleasant memories.

So we can associate pleasurable experiences with certain smells
and tastes. These connections will always be there, even when you
no longer consume those foods. And your reactions to those foods
(their smell, the thought of eating them) need to be understood so
you can accept these reactions for what they are, and be able to
“just say no”.
The Remedy Mentality

Things like wheatgrass juice, echinacea, ginger, and cayenne
pepper don’t have the power to heal anything... only your body has
the ability to heal. Yes, it’s been said that cayenne pepper is good for
cleansing the blood. And why is it so good for cleansing the blood?
Because it’s soooo bad for the body! The body sees it as a serious
irritant, and all the appropriate systems get ramped up to deal with
the irritant, and the blood gets “cleansed” in the process, and so
people labeled cayenne pepper as a “great blood cleanser”. How
about letting the body cleanse the blood on its own schedule, and in
its own way (which would no doubt be a way that doesn’t harm the
body). Do we intervene with methods that force the body into action
because we feel the body won’t do it on its own? If we did, we’d be
wrong. If you ingest a lot of wheatgrass juice, you will damage your
adrenal glands. So how is consuming an amount that won’t
noticeably adversely affect your adrenal glands a healthy thing to do?
“Do Whatever Works for You”

A common piece of advice when experimenting with different
healthy lifestyle habits is to “do whatever works for you”. There is a
definite danger when following this advice, and it revolves around
the definition of the word “works”. If you’re not knowledgeable with
respect to what you’re experiencing when making significant changes
in one of your lifestyle practices, you may draw the wrong conclusions.
For instance: How you feel is not always a good indicator of what is
really working for you. If you switch from a Standard American Diet
to a healthy human diet overnight, you may feel worse before you
feel better. (On page 134 I discuss this in detail.) If you don’t realize
that this is normal, you may go back to what you were previously
eating as an experiment. And when you feel better – which you most

certainly will – you may misinterpret this and mistakenly conclude
that a plant-based diet doesn’t “work” for you, and that, for example,
eating a lot of protein does.
So be very careful when deciding what works for you; being a
well-educated consumer is your best defense against incorrect
conclusions.
It’s Okay, as Long as You Can Get Away with it

When companies who’ve discovered their products are actually
harmful to human health try and hide that information from the
public, don’t take it personally, they’re just trying to protect their
paychecks (usually very large paychecks). An overriding motto in our
capitalist society is “Let the buyer beware” (it’s your responsibility to
make sure the products and services you use don’t harm you), and
this allows these folks to sleep soundly at night. It’s kind’a like a
person who knows they’re not supposed to cross the street in the
middle of the block, but they do it anyway; if they can do it and get
away with it, then it’s okay. But the difference is, successfully
crossing the street in the middle of the block harms no one, but
Dupont’s successfully hiding the dangers of their product Teflon, used
in cooking utensils, potentially harms millions of people.
Is it Fun Having Your Buttons Pushed?

Printed on the back of a Frito-Lay’s truck: “Food for the fun of it!”
And that’s exactly what it is; fun food, not healthy food. The irony is,
after a lifetime of “fun food”, it becomes more difficult to have fun.
It’s hard to enjoy yourself when your vitality is gone, you’re on six
different meds, and you just got a diagnosis of something serious.
Remember, they’re called “Happy Meals” not “Healthy Meals”.
No Sweat!
There’s a money-making remedy for just about every symptom. If
you suffer from over-perspiration, you can go to the Hyperhidrosis
Center where you can try medications such as Botox, or surgery:

“For persons whose sweating is limited to the underarm...
surgical removal of the sweat glands in the armpits may be
worthwhile...These recently developed endoscopic techniques
now allow for...a rapid return to normal activities.”
Some of those “normal activities” are very likely what’s causing
the excessive sweating in the first place. If the body wants to sweat
(an avenue of elimination), wouldn’t it be considered disrespectful to
your body to spray on an anti-perspiring chemical, or to say, “Oh
yeah, not going to stop sweating huh. I’ll show you... I’m rip’n out
your sweat glands!”
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
If you disrespect someone who you should be respectful of, like a
teacher or parent, nothing good is going to come of it. The same
holds true if you disrespect your body. That which was responsible
for the design of the human body knows best what our body needs
and what it shouldn’t be exposed to. If you choose not to respect
that design, as with a car, don’t expect to get the maximum life or
best performance out of your body. And since “performance” has a
lot to do with how you feel, your emotional state, your energy levels,
and your ability to enjoy life, a lack of respect for your body affects
how you experience your existence in this world. If you try and
counteract less-than-optimal performance with mood-altering foods,
drugs, and stimulants, you will pay a price at some point, and if
you’re like most people, at that point, you will have regrets.
What’s For Dinner?

How do we choose what to eat at a meal?
• We eat by ethnicity (Chinese, Italian, Mexican,
Japanese, Indian, Thai)
• We eat what’s being served us
• We eat what’s handy
• We eat what’s cheap (you get what you pay for)
• We eat concoctions that have no equivalent in Nature
(pizza, burger, stew, casserole, soup, sandwich)

None of these ways of eating respects the body’s needs.
Disrespecting your body breaks one of Nature’s Laws... and we know
what happens when we do that.
Over-weight? It’s All in Your Genes

Diet experts are fond of playing the genetics card; your over-
weight condition is the fault of your genes because you may have the
“thrifty gene”. I’ll explain this nonsense this way: When humans
roamed away from an environment where food was plentiful to
places where food was scarce during certain times of the year
(because of a cold climate’s short growing season), the theory is that
those people’s genetics changed to allow them to store more fuel as
fat, and to suppress their “okay I’m full, stop eating” response so
that they could increase body fat to get them through lean times,
and the process would be reversed in seasons when food was readily
available. This survival mechanism may have been helpful then, but
in a society where food is always available, this “thrifty gene” is
supposed to work against us. The problem is, when people with the
“thrifty gene” find plenty of food to eat, their insulin resistance that
allowed them to store fat, and their insatiable appetite, should both
return to normal, but if you’re eating nutritionless food, this may not
happen.
Here’s what differing genetics really means: If you’ve inherited
this “thrifty gene” (from cultures with nomadic histories that explored
cold climates), yes, you will tend towards being over-weight if you
eat an unhealthy diet. But if you eat a healthy diet, you’ll weigh a
normal weight and look as good as those “lucky” people who can eat
anything and everything they want and are always slim. In-other-
words, if you eat a healthy diet it doesn’t matter what kind of genes
you have, or whether you have a “fast” or “slow” metabolism.
And as far as the “thrifty gene” being responsible for an
unquenchable appetite, it’s more likely that over-eating is caused by
lack of nutrition. So just give your body wholesome, nutritious food,
and even if you do have this “thrifty gene”, your body will assume
food is plentiful.
It’s interesting to note that the researchers studying this “thrifty
gene” are quick to point out that our environment and culture are as
much to blame for obesity as our genes are. This “thrifty gene”

research was done on the Pima Indians of Arizona who are assumed
to have this gene because of their culture’s history and their present
abnormally high rates of obesity and diabetes. The Pima Indians of
Mexico are closely related to the Pima of Arizona, but due to their
labor-intensive lifestyles and low-fat diets the Mexican Pima do not
suffer from obesity, diabetes, or other associated illnesses. Hmmm.
Though the Mexican Pima likely share the “thrifty gene” with their
northern neighbors, their thinness is more evidence that an
abundance of fatty foods and modern sedentary lifestyles are the real
culprits. So genetics, whether it regards diet or a specific disease
you’re supposedly predisposed to, is a non-issue.
And by-the-way, those “lucky” people who can feast on the worst,
most unhealthiest foods and are never over-weight are actually the
unlucky ones because they often eat that way wrongly assuming that
because they stay perpetually thin, this way of eating isn’t doing
them any harm. But these “lucky” people get the same degenerative
diseases as those who gain weight from just looking at a piece of
cake (with the exception of weight-related joint problems). This
doesn’t seem to matter to the pharmaceutical companies though.
They’re trying their darndest to develop a pill which will allow those
who gain weight easily to sit on the couch and watch T V all day and
eat to their heart’s content and not gain weight, just like those
“lucky” people. If you take this pill, you’ll look good alright... you’ll
look good on the way to your chemotherapy sessions, you’ll look
good when you visit the pharmacy, you’ll look good on the operating
table, and when people see you at the funeral parlor they’ll
comment, “My, doesn’t he look good.”
This Really Frosts My Cookies!

When the truth hits you, and the reality sinks in that you have
been conditioned to believe things that aren’t true, you may find
yourself getting anywhere from slightly irritated to downright angry.
But don’t take it personally, it’s just business-as-usual. At this point
it’s best to redirect your irritation into action, and do something
about it. You won’t be able to change despicable business practices,
but you can impact the sales of health-damaging products by no
longer being a consumer (or defender) of those products.

I Can’t Give Up Salad Dressing!!!
You don’t have to, just switch to a healthy dressing. A dressing is
nothing more than a fat and an acid (which emulsifies the fat). So,
orange juice and avocado makes a great dressing, lime and durian is
another. A great dressing doesn’t need more than two ingredients.
And, true, they’re not the best combinations, but the amount is small
compared to what you’re pouring it on. And instead of pouring it,
which can overwhelm and hide the natural taste of what you’re
pouring it on, put the dressing on the side and use it as a dip.
The Human Diet – Two More Clues

I often hear that my colleagues and I make a very compelling
case for the human diet being plant-based, but some people want to
know what else can be said in defense of a plant-based diet. Firstly,
we don’t need to defend the fact that humans are designed to eat a
plant-based diet. Those who attack this premise are merely arguing
with the facts, and the facts don’t need defending; they speak for
themselves to those who are open-minded enough to be able to hear
them. You’ll no doubt run into lots of differing opinions on the
subject, and that’s fine; people are entitled to their own opinions.
What they’re not entitled to are their own facts. That being said,
here’s yet another clue as to what we’re supposed to eat: All animals
are built with the equipment they need to obtain their food. Human’s
equipment consists of hands to pick, pluck, and grab our food, and
limbs to climb to get our food. Our teeth are designed for succulent
fruits and leafy greens and not for tearing animal flesh. Cooking
appliances and knives make the cutting of animal flesh easier, but
those items are recent inventions – human timeline wise. Just
because we’ve figured out how to eat animals and how to make
potato chips, ice cream, and bread, doesn’t mean we’re designed to
eat these things.
Another test of our dietary design (in addition to the ones
mentioned on page 76) is the “exclusivity” test. Can you eat a
specific food group exclusively, and not just survive, but thrive on it.
The only diet that human beings can do this with is fruit and green
leafy vegetables.

Where Does the Truth Lie?
People sometimes wonder if it’s best to balance the information
they receive from industries with the information available from
people like myself because they’re under the impression that the
truth may lie somewhere in between. Here’s my take on this is: Since
the truth can be located anywhere within a particular dialog, in my
opinion one of the best ways to examine information in order to get
at the truth is to “consider the source”. And by that I mean you
should take into account what could be motivating the person,
industry, or organization to say what’s being said; what is the
agenda, and is it a hidden agenda. When the dairy industry says,
“Drinking milk can help prevent the spread of breast cancer into
nearby bones according to research in Australia...Using mice,
scientists found that consuming a high calcium diet fortified bone
and prevented the spread of the cancerous cells.” – Hoard's
Dairyman (the National Dairy Farm Magazine), consider the source.
If you examine the information, you’ll find that a diet with an
adequate amount of bioavailable calcium can help prevent the spread
of cancerous cells into bone, but that statement gives you the
impression that milk, because it contains calcium, can help prevent
the spread of cancer, which it can’t. Why? Because the calcium in
milk is not very bioavailable; calcium needs certain other nutrients
along with it to be utilized by the body, and milk is woefully deficient
in magnesium, one of these co-factors. But the clever wording lets
you make the “association” between milk and calcium’s ability to help
prevent the spread of cancer cells. So obviously this is a misleading
statement, but one that industries can get away with. And it seems
disingenuous to me, considering what is known about the connection
between dairy products and cancer (see page 60), that it’s being
suggested to consume a product that is implicated in the cause of
cancer in order to help prevent its spread.
And it would be wise to consider the motivations of the
pharmaceutical industry when they say, “While there is nothing that
can reduce COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease like
emphysema, asthma)...” This statement appeared in an ad for their
product Advair. I know from personal experience that there are
indeed things that can be done to reduce and even eliminate COPD,
and I think it’s sad that an industry is trying to convince people that

drugs are the only way to go considering the fact that COPD is the
fourth leading cause of death. (And there is mounting evidence that
there may be an autoimmune component to COPD – see bottom of
page 45 for an explanation of how products thought to be safe to
consume can cause autoimmune disease).
What’s a good methodology to use when trying to figure out
what we’re supposed to eat? Take science and apply it to Nature.
When you apply the investigative and deductive principles of science
to Nature, you can uncover the reality of our physical requirements.
Nature doesn’t lie, and science (hard science as opposed to junk
science) has no inherent biases, so as long as you set aside any
biases/personal preferences you may have, you can uncover the
truth.
The Social Aspects of Healthy Living

How do you adopt healthy lifestyle practices (that the majority of
society doesn’t practice) without feeling like an outcast? There are
two routes. You can down play it and keep quiet about what you’re
doing so as not to call attention to yourself, or you can be just as
okay with your lifestyle as those who eat at McDonalds are with
theirs, so if anyone has a problem with the way you choose to live,
it’s their problem, not yours. Either way, having a firm working
knowledge of what you’re doing will give you the confidence to allow
negative comments to go in one ear and out the other; comments
like, “Oh no, you need to eat some cooked food!” and “What you’re
doing is crazy!” And if you don’t want to have to explain yourself
every time you go out to eat with friends, just say, “My doctor put
me on this diet” and add “...and I’m actually feeling much better!”
And for those who want you to eat the same way they do so they
feel “comfortable” there’s always “You’ll notice I don’t tell you how to
eat, please extend me that same courtesy.” But remember, some
people truly care about you, and are just looking out for what they
believe are your best interests, so be gentle with them. And don’t get
overzealous if you do talk about what you’re doing, and avoid getting
defensive. You’ll get through to a lot more people if you teach by
example. And another thing to consider: Adopting a healthier than
average lifestyle can reveal those who are your true friends; while on
this path you may lose some “friends” but you will make new friends
along the way.

I Couldn’t Have Said it Better Myself
Here are quotes from two very sincere and very knowledgeable
long-time raw foodists.
Dr. Doug Graham

“I have been a 100% raw foodist for over 18 years. The path was
long. It took me almost ten years just to find it. I tried many dietary
experiments as a high school and college athlete, looking for the
foods that would support my athleticism. I slowly started making little
changes, dropping meat and adding a little more grains, dropping
chocolate and adding carob. Eventually in college I decided to
become a vegetarian. I was vegetarian for almost eight years and
vegan for about two more. But from vegan to raw food was an
inspiration. One day the light just came on.”
“I think there are several key points in succeeding on a raw food
regimen. These include eating when hungry, as opposed to eating for
all the other reasons that people tend to eat; they’re upset, tired, or
“Aslooking
they’re just to methods there may
for something beI also
to do. a million and
find that the more I
simplifythen some, but principles are few. The person
my diet, the better my energy and the better my digestion. I
would say whooutgrasps
of the 14principles
to 20 mealscan
per successfully
week that I might consume, at
select
least 75% of them are mono meals. Mono meals being where I eat
their own methods. The person who tries
only one food at the sitting, like all the bananas or all the mangos that
methods,
I care for. I also findignoring principles,
that for success, is sure
we must to have
include variety in our
trouble.”
diet throughout – Ralph
the course Waldo
of the year.Emerson
This ensures a nutritional well-
roundedness.”
“I find that people who tend to live on an over abundance of citrus
products will bump into problems with their teeth. I have been told
that people who pick organic citrus straight off the trees experience
much less problems with their teeth than people who eat foods that
have been picked months ago and stored, or grown with chemicals.”
“I think nuts and seeds are certainly part of the natural human diet,
in their whole, fresh, raw state. However, I think that most people,
certainly when they transition to a raw food diet, tend to over-eat on
them for several years or more. I would caution them not to over-eat,
and to also become aware of some of the symptoms of this over-
eating, such as foods souring the stomach, bowel movements that
come out sour, foul gas or an increase in body odor. All of these are
almost immediate signs of possible over-eating of protein dense
foods. A good way to think about it is if I were to give you a

sunflower and say, ‘Eat all the sunflower seeds you want, just start
opening them up one at a time’. You would probably open some and
say they’re good, but you wouldn’t eat a pound of sunflower seeds.
Macadamia nuts are slow to open using a couple of rocks. Any nut
that you have to open one at a time is a painstaking process. It
reminds us that if you have the time to sit under a tree for an hour or
two, it’s unlikely that you would eat more than a handful of nuts on
any given day. You would get full or tired of the opening process long
before you overate.”
“I see no place in the human diet for grains. In fact, very few
creatures consume grains as a first choice. I believe that any food that
must be cooked in order to be consumed should be shunned.
Depending on the author, we have a five to ten million year track
record“Man’s
of successstructure,
as humaninternal and external
beings without compared
the consumption of grains.
We have
withonly
thatexperimented
of the otherwith grains inshows
animals, the lastthat
one fruit
tenth and
of one
percent of our time on this planet. All we have seen during that time is
succulent vegetables are his natural food.”
a period of rapid and dramatic health decay. If you were in a very
large field of ripe grains, and – Carolus
grains wereLinnaeus,
the only (1707-1778)
food available to
you, you would starve before you could ever get out of that field.”
“I Linnaeus
believe thatwasthethenatural
Swedish
dietnaturalist
of humanand botanist
beings fromwhothe models in
established the modern scientific method of classifying
Nature that we could compare to, is one comprised of fruits and
tenderplants
youngand animals,
greens. and hethere
I believe classified humans
is a place not astender young
for those
carnivores, not as omnivores, nor even as herbivores,
greens in a Fruitarian diet. They add a mineral density that we but don’t
asfind
tend to frugivores.
in high So it’s beeninknown
abundance fruits.for quite athe
I believe long time of
concept
Fruitarianism has a good base. There are paleontologists not
what humans are designed to eat. But our design is and other
respected by those industries that want us eating
research scientists who are looking into why humans experienced a other
things,
dramatic yet, in
growth to the
havesizeoptimal
of thehealth,
humanour design
brain must be to the
as compared
respected or we will suffer the consequences
other primates. It has been theorized that brain growth, in some
and form
hence an
or fashion, at some point.
increase in intelligence, was due to the consumption of a readily
available dense caloric supply. Most of the current researchers are
guessing that this meant consumption of meat, but they are carnivores
themselves, so that is their frame of reference. They just guessed that
because meat has a high caloric supply – because of its fat content –
we must have started eating meat to supplement our eating of leaves.
The discovery of nuts would certainly satisfy the requirements of the
paleontologists who are looking for a dense food supply. So would the
consumption of fruits. Both are consumed by our closest genetic
cousins in the anthropoid fields and throughout the primates. There
are other scientists who study animals; most of them would be

considered field biologists. They have come up with their own theory
of intelligence. What they are suggesting is that amongst all primates,
there is a very interesting dietary preference being discovered.
Throughout the monkey kingdom, as monkeys increase in
intelligence, their fruit consumption also increases. Amongst the
anthropoid primates, those that are our furthest genetic cousins, and
are the least intelligent anthropoid primates, consume a diet of almost
exclusively vegetable matter. The anthropoid primates that are our
closest cousins, the Bonobo, who are the most intelligent of all the
anthropoid primates, eat a diet almost exclusively made up of fruit,
including only a little bit of greens.”
“I’d like to recommend to people who are looking into the raw
food way, to consider it strongly. It is difficult to imagine what it is
like on a raw food diet from the outside looking in. I would
recommend that they make the transition comfortably, and as rapidly
as possible. A simple strategy for this might include something like at
“The
least one raw mealethos
a dayofforscience
a month,– and
open questioning,
then two raw meals a day
for a month,nothen
authorities, honesty,
three raw meals a daytransparency,
for a month. If you like the
reliance on evidence, peer review,
results, continue the experiment. If you are not happyandwith the results,
testability
you can always go back;– the
cancooked
makefood
the will
world
stillabebetter
available for sure.”
place by burying myth and dogma.
One of my favorite expressions of Doug’s is, “Eat food that you love,
Requisites
and that loves are respect for rational and
you back.”
honest discussion, and an intolerance of
distortion and misrepresentation.”
Dr. Fred Bisci – Lawrence Krauss
“I was always interested in nutrition. When I was a young kid, I
was an athlete. I was also learning disabled. Little by little I changed
my diet. I would say about 30 years ago I ran into a fellow who was
eating raw foods. At the time I thought he really was extreme or
radical, but I always had an open mind. I always believed in striving
for the highest ideals, therefore I decided to make a change and
pursue it. The more I did it, the closer I got to the point where I
decided that there is no doubt about it, eating a raw food diet is
definitely the way to go. Since then it has served me well.”
“To do this diet successfully, don’t be impatient, and persevere
through it all. Understand that you are not going to get it down right
away. You have to realize that the body will release endogenous
materials, and you are going to have cravings. You are also going to

have setbacks. It is important not to be discouraged. It is also
important not to set unrealistic goals for yourself.”
“I think one of the major pitfalls is the negative feedback you are
going to get from people around you; from your family and your
friends who are not into it. I think you have to surround yourself with
people who are knowledgeable and who have been successful at it.
That will help you a lot.”
On eating only organically grown foods: “It depends on whether
the chemicals permeate the outer layer of the fruit. Avocados and
things like that are questionable. You are much better off eating
organic as much as you can. The added chemicals mimic estrogen in
the male and female body. They lower the male sperm count, and they
elevate the female estrogen levels. This is why there are so many
estrogen-related cancers. What’s going on today with the chemicals
they are putting in food is a disaster. I think that eating organic is very
important, so make sure you do the best you can.”
“Our present system of commercialism has
As Fred istaken advantage
fond of saying, “It’sofmainly
us bywhat
misleading
you stop people
doing [that’s bad
for you] that makesclever
through the most significant to
advertising positive changes
persist in in your
health.”
health-damaging habits in order to
maintain the demand for drugs, proprietary
medicines, and artificial foods and drinks
which not only entail an enormous personal
financial loss, but also an appalling
impairment of health.” – Otto Carque

18
In Conclusion
If every month someone was stealing $100 from your bank
account without your knowledge, would you be mad if you found
out? Of course you would! But if you never bothered to check your
statements or balance your checkbook, and you never discovered it
was happening, would you be mad? Of course not, because you
wouldn’t know it was happening. But just because you didn’t know it
was happening, you were still being deprived of what was yours.
Your health is no different. Today, people’s health is being slowly
drained from them without their knowledge. It’s being taken by
health-destroying consumables, by toxins, and by misinformation.
And you’re also losing your health because the health-care industry is
not showing you how to keep from losing it in the first place. And
when you lose enough of it to get a diagnosis of something serious,
the health-care industry tries to manage your health loss instead of
helping you heal and regain what you’ve lost.
So now you know some things you didn’t know before, and now
you have a decision to make. And even if you delete this e-book
when you’re done and make no adjustments to your lifestyle at all,
that’s still considered a decision. So you’re going to make a decision
one way or the other... let it be one that’s in your best interest.
No one would think you’re nuts if they found out that you’ve been
investing for your financial future; it’s a wise thing to do. But how
many people are wise enough to think ahead and consider their
future health; sooner or later you’re going to be experiencing it. And
just like your future financial health, the time to start investing in
your future physical health is yesterday. If you wait to start investing
financially until the point when you need to reap the benefits of
financial investing, it’s obviously too late. The same is true for
investments in your future health. Don’t wait until your health starts
to fail before you start doing something about it, because at that
point it’s probably a case of too-little-too-late.
18. In Conclusion 186

We’re a society of “reactive” people, and because of this, we’re a
very unhealthy society. Consider taking a “proactive” approach to
health.
Many times a day, knowingly and unknowingly, we make
decisions that promote long-lasting life or premature death; decisions
that pave the way to vibrant health or needless suffering. If these
decisions are not accompanied by independent thought, they are
then essentially made by companies, industries, and society, and will
not likely be in your best interest. I’ve chosen those lifestyle practices
that lead to long-lasting life and vibrant health. Living this way is...
different, but for me it’s more enjoyable than the average American
lifestyle I once lived because my ability to enjoy anything is affected
by my physical and emotional health. All I can say is, try it... the
cooked food, coffee, chocolate, donuts, and the couch will always be
there if you decide you want to go back... whatever path you take,
just make sure it’s your decision.
I hope you’ve gotten something out of these writings, and if
you’re still reading this, then you’ll be happy to know there’s more
informative and enlightening information in the appendices that
follow (and some entertaining stuff too).
Be well, smile often, and laugh lots!
“Where you end up isn’t the most

important thing; it’s the road you
take to get there. The road you take
is what you’ll look back on and call
your life.” – Tim Wiley
18. In Conclusion 187

Appendix A – About the Author
Don Bennett, DAS
At a young age, Don discovered

inconsistencies within the health field,
such as doctors who smoked, and
nutritionists who ate foods that were
known to be harmful. Being a seeker of
truth, he set out to learn the realities of
health for himself. Discovering that
traditional curriculums were filled with
biases, hidden agendas, misinformation,
and missing information, Don became self-taught, avoiding
the hurdles set up by academic tradition. He took a common-
sense approach to such subjects as physiology, anatomy,
and biology, and learned the value of looking past the
“conventional wisdoms”. This approach, in conjunction
with studying the teachings of the pioneers of healthful
living and their modern day equivalents, and putting into
practice what he had learned, allowed him to discover the
realities of health. Thirty years later, as a Disease Avoidance
Specialist, Don now shares this wealth of enlightening and
empowering knowledge with others for their consideration
and benefit. Don lives his life by these two mottos: “Seek
the truth though the heavens may fall” and “Do unto others
as you would have others do unto you”.
188
Appendix B – Continuing Education
Here’s where the analogy to a car’s owner’s manual ends. Since
there is tons more mis- and dis-information surrounding the best way
for a human being to be healthy than there is for car maintenance,
you’ll need more than just an “owner’s manual” if you want to truly
know how to live to your health, happiness, and longevity potentials.
I’ve spent over 40 years, and more money than I care to
remember, amassing a health library... and it would fill a wall. But
fortunately, you need only a few choice books to fill out your
knowledge-base of truly healthful-living practices. Below are the six
books I wholeheartedly recommend you get; consider them
companion books to this book. The authors and I are all basically
playing from the same sheet of music; we all respect Nature, our
body’s innate wisdom, and your right to have the truth. Reading this
material will reinforce, support, and expand your understanding of
healthful living.
Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Bras & Breast Cancer

By Sydney Ross Singer & Soma Grismaijer
health101.org/booklink#13 (808) 935-5563
www.
The authors (one a woman) have collected striking evidence that

bra-wearing is a major risk factor associated with breast cancer:
women who wore bras more than 12 hours per day had a one out of
seven risk, and women who wore bras rarely or never, had a one out
of 168 chance of getting breast cancer. The snug fitting garment
inhibits the proper functioning of the lymphatic system (an internal
network of vessels and nodes that flushes wastes from the body) and
leads to a buildup of carcinogenic compounds in the constricted areas.
Women evolved under conditions where there was breast movement
with every step they took. This causes lymphatic flow which cleans
the breast of toxins and wastes that arise from cellular metabolism.
This book is a must-read for any woman who’d rather not get breast
cancer. (A discussion of this book appears on page 151)
Appendix B – Continuing Education 189

The Ultimate Raw Food Diet
Detox and Wellness Program
By Ellen Livingston
www.
To paraphrase an old expression, the truth shall set you on the

straight path to vibrant health. There is so much misinformation
regarding health and disease, and not enough honest,
straightforward guidance, but just such guidance awaits you within
this book. It belongs in every health seeker's library. In plain, easy to
understand terms, Ellen lays out the facts about how eating the diet
we're designed to eat can help your body cleanse itself and in so
doing, improve its operating efficiency and improve your chances of
living a disease-free life. There are also some simple ‘n healthy
recipes that can help with your transition to a healthier diet. If your
goal is to improve your health and well-being, then you are in for a
real treat as Ellen gives you food for thought and acquaints you with
the things necessary to create vibrant health.
The China Study

By T. Colin Campbell, PhD
www.
This is the most important health book to come along in 75 years. An

enjoyable book by a heroic nutrition researcher, presenting the
irrefutable facts about why the vegan diet (no animal foods) is
superior for preventing and reversing diseases and promoting superb
health. Presents tons of convincing information (without confusing
technical jargon) based upon the largest human nutrition study ever
conducted. Also includes astonishing stories of U.S. political-scientific
health policy perversions, and the author’s frank assessment of how
and why the power elite have lost their regard for human life. This
book should be the teaching model for every nutrition course and
program in the world.
190 Appendix B – Continuing Education

The Hundred-Year Lie – How Food and
Medicine are Destroying Your Health
By Randall Fitzgerald
www.
This book chronicles a massive number of events related to food,

medicine, and our environment that explain how the world around us
is literally poisoning us all to death, and it details how the processed
food and chemical industries have created this crisis. Reading The
100 Year Lie will help you understand why you need to heed this book.
The History of Natural Hygiene

by Hereward Carrington
It is vital that the true

meaning of “healthful living”
be thoroughly understood so
that your health practices
are rooted in the realities of
health; the ways of (your)
nature. And therefore this
book should be part of every
health-seekers library. It is
still available via
Amazon.com at
www.
Get it while it is still

available.
Fruitarianism: The Path to Paradise

By Anne Osborne
www.
A highly recommended book. It will explain the diet humans are

actually designed to eat, which can be very different from what some
raw food educators are recommending. Some of us may not be able
to eat this way, but we should know about the diet we're suited to
eat so we can move as far in that direction as possible.

It’s not just about your internal environment
What good is having robust future health if your future external
environment will have a difficult time supporting your body's needs,
or will be stressful on you emotionally? Global warming is no joke, it’s
denied at our own peril, and is something that needs to be addressed
“yesterday”. Yes, the best thing you can do to minimize your
carbon/methane footprint is to eat a vegan diet, but coming in a
close second is driving an electric car instead of one that runs on
fossil fuel. So it’s important for all our futures to learn about the
advantages of an Electric Vehicle to your planet (and your wallet).
Even if you don't own a car or don't intend to have one, you need to
know about this issue to be able to share it with those who do drive,
because their choice of diet and vehicle can affect their future health
as well as yours.
Here are some additional books, videos, and articles that are
important to take in…
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a

Fantastic Future
Book by Ashlee Vance
www.
Some Eye-Opening Facts about Electric Vehicles

You Need to Know
health101.org/ev
www.
A great video about electric cars

www.
Classes, Seminars, and Workshops

Naturally I’m going to recommend the workshops I teach, and the
free lectures I give. See pages 256 and 257, and health101.org for
www.
more information.
192 Appendix B – Continuing Education

Socialize with Health-Conscious Folks
www.
Humans are social creatures; we need social contact, and we are

happiest when it’s with like-minded folks who share our most
important values and philosophies. The most joyful events I’ve ever
attended were those produced by Dave Klein and his colleagues. If
you subscribe to the magazine on the next page, you’ll be kept
abreast of their wonderful events. As you’ve seen, this book focuses
on physical health, and as you saw in chapter one, the Body-Mind
Connection is very important to consider when thinking about your
health. But just as your body has certain requirements, so does your
psyche. One of Natural Hygiene’s tenets is emotional equanimity,
which is the ability to be composed, especially under tension or strain.
Being physically healthy will certainly help with this, but having social
relationships that put a smile on your face is definitely a Basic of Health.
Just as vegetarianism was once considered “weird” but now is an
accepted practice, healthy living is gaining in popularity. And because of
this there are now many raw food events and “raw food Meetup groups”
around the country (visit the above booklink for some great ideas).
But be aware that some raw food events focus on just food and recipes,
most of which are considered high fat recipes. So just know that there
are some people who are drawn to the raw food movement with the
promise of being able to eat all of your favorite foods, but now you
don’t have to count calories, carbs, protein, or fat because they’re made
with all raw ingredients, and are plant-based, so they’re healthy. But as
we’ve discussed, too much fat is too much fat, even if it is uncooked
and plant-based. And some recipes contain substances that are irritating
to the body, and some contain very incompatible combinations of food
which results in incomplete digestion.
So just be aware that some raw food groups focus on recipes and not
necessarily on healthy living. The raw “fruit-luck” events tend to attract
a more health-conscious crowd.

Counseling and Coaching Services
To give yourself the best odds of being successful when
adopting health-enhancing lifestyle practices, sometimes it’s a
good idea to counsel with someone who knows what it takes –
in the real world – to achieve robust health; someone who can
work with you on your specific needs. And sometimes we need
some coaching along the way. This is where the services of a
knowledgeable counselor and health coach come in.
“I am writing to express to you my appreciation and

admiration for your work. You are one of the most
valuable leaders in the raw food/natural hygiene
movement. Your obvious intelligence and insight, and
your impeccable ability to differentiate between truth
and lies is rare. So I just wanted you to know that you
are admired and appreciated. And I want to thank you
for your efforts to help others and make the world a
better place. You are indeed a jewel amongst men.”
– Elizabeth Westlund
More info on page 258 and at health101.org/counseling

www.

Appendix C – Resources
The two best pieces of exercise equipment...

health101.org/products
www.
Additional information on the SuperSlow exercise protocol...

www.
The best solid carbon block water filter...

www.
The best shower filter and Reverse Osmosis water filter...

www.
The best multi-vitamin...

www.
The best “green food” supplement...

(available at most good health food stores)
www.
One of the best (if not the best) B12 supplements...

(available at most good health food stores)
www.
Tan-through swimwear...
www.
The best, most natural shampoo made...

www.
I’ve mentioned the tropical fruit durian a lot, so here’s some info...
www.
Three excellent websites that contain the truth about dairy products...
www.
If you’d like to test your knowledge obtained from this book, there’s
a quiz you can take at health101.org/quiz
www.
Appendix C – Resources 195

Appendix D – Author’s Favorite Quotes
“Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity.” – George Bernard Shaw
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I’ve learned that if you want to cheer yourself up, you should try
cheering someone else up. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about
someone by the way they handle these three things: a rainy day, lost
luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that making a
living is not the same thing as making a life.” – Unknown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The incidence of disease has increased in proportion to the progress

of science... We should consider disease and premature death as a
personal defeat... It is impossible to do without medicine so long
as we consume cooked food... The only elixir is a natural diet.”
– Akbarali Jetha
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I used to think the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body.
Then I realized who was telling me this.” – Emo Phillips
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level

of thinking with which we created them.” – Albert Einstein
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but rather a manner of

traveling.” – Unknown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“When a man’s science exceedeth his sense, he perishes by his

ignorance.” – Chinese Proverb
Appendix D – Author’s Favorite Quotes 196

“When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the
masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and
its speaker a raving lunatic.” – Dresden James
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“There are two obstacles to vibrant health and longevity: ignorance

and complacency.” – World Health Organization
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so
he can tell when he’s really in trouble.” – Dennis Fakes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Fatal cases in all epidemics are food ‘drunkards’ who are very much
enervated, toxemic, and infected from putrescence in the bowels.” –
John Tilden, MD, 1909 (enervated: depleted of nerve energy)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Happiness begins by facing life with a wink and a smile.” – Chinese

Proverb
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Joy is natural to the human being; it is not something we have to

create. It is there already! All we have to do is clear away whatever is
in the way of our experiencing it.” – Leslie Kenton
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“All degenerative diseases and their incalculably-high economic,

social, personal, and familial costs, in addition to the global
environmental costs of animal-centric diets, and ‘medical systems’
themselves, are strictly the result of mis-information about diet that
has been programmed into the mass consciousness for the sake of
profit.” – Laurie Forte

“Isn’t man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife – birds, kangaroos,
deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice, foxes, and
dingoes – by the millions in order to protect his domestic animals and
their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eats
them. This in turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those
animals leads to degenerative – and fatal – health conditions like heart
disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills
millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere,
millions of other human beings are dying of hunger and malnutrition
because the food they could be eating is being used to fatten domestic
animals that so many humans eat. Meanwhile, some people are dying
of sad laughter at the absurdity of man who kills so easily, and once a
year sends out cards praying for “Peace on Earth.” – Excerpted from
Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm by C. David Coats, 1989
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and
the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and
endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the
best in others; to leave the world a bit better; whether by a healthy
child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, to know even
one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have
succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“When you argue with reality, you lose – but only 100% of the time.”
– Byron Katie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Anyone who thinks people lack originality should watch them

folding road maps.” – Franklin P. Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you
know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain

Appendix E – Experts’ Erroneous Notions
As Mark Twain said above, what can be most harmful to you is
what you know, that just ain’t so. And what some people know, who
should know better, is disheartening to say the least.
The following is excerpted from:
Experts Dispute Raw-Food Diet Benefits

By Shari Rudavsky
Knight Rider Newspapers
(All excerpts are from Shari Rudavsky unless otherwise quoted.)
Many nutritionists and scientists say that while some raw foods will
enhance your diet, an eating plan consisting totally of uncooked foods
puts anyone – particularly young children – at the risk of nutritional
unbalance.
This is an absurd and unfounded statement written by someone who
has not done their homework. It is a diet consisting of cooked food
that puts people at risk of nutritional unbalance. Like many writers,
this author has simply taken the word of supposed experts in the
field of nutrition.
Although raw fruits and vegetables are packed with vitamins, a raw
diet, without dairy or meat, may provide too little protein and too few
fatty acids, essential to growth and health, experts say.
Again, “the experts say”. The problem with protein is not one of too
little, but of too much. A human’s protein needs are far lower than
most “experts” believe. Cooking damages proteins, so it follows that
not cooking fruits and vegetables leaves the small but adequate
amounts of protein they offer intact and 100% usable, unlike the
mostly unusable protein in cooked foods. And there are plenty of
fatty acids in fruits and vegetables, again, undamaged by the heat of
cooking, making them a lot healthier for consumption.
In addition, some vegetables offer more nutrients when cooked,

nutritionists say, as the heat makes these nutrients more accessible to
our bodies.
Appendix E – Experts’ Erroneous Notions 199

This may (or may not) be true, but what about the other 999
substances that are definitely damaged by cooking? And what about
the idea that more is not necessarily better. What if the nutrients that
are made more accessible by cooking, are enough for our needs
when not cooked? Good news, they are. So, on balance, here’s the
score: uncooked 1, cooked 0.
“The burden of proof is on them to show that it’s a better diet,” says
Linda Bobroff, a professor of nutrition at the University of Florida in
Gainesville, noting that years of research stand behind the USDA-
recommended food pyramid and a solidly balanced diet with a mix of
raw and cooked foods.
No, the burden of proof is on professor Bobroff to show that a diet
containing cooked food is superior. Nutritional experts always shift
the burden of proof away from themselves because they know they
can’t prove that an uncooked diet is not a better diet. If they did,
they’d lose their funding and their jobs, and they’d certainly appear
hypocritical for continuing to eat a cooked food diet, which many
would undoubtedly still do.
“We don’t have any research to indicate that this is a better way to
eat,” says Cynthia Sass, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic
Association and a dietitian based in Tampa, Fla. “We don’t have any
concrete studies at this time.”
The reason why Ms. Sass doesn’t have any research is because she
has no motivation to find any. True, there isn’t tons of research done
on the effects of eating raw foods because it would hurt too many
powerful industries, and that’s simply not going to happen. But
studies do exist that show that an uncooked plant-based diet is a
healthier way to eat; the reason Ms. Sass is unaware of any studies
is because she doesn’t look for them. They are out there. (See
health101.org)
While cooking produces chemical changes in objects subjected to

heat, it does not change the molecular structure completely, says
Robert Wolke, emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of
Pittsburgh. The claim that enzymes are destroyed at 118ºF is similarly
specious, he adds. More than 1,000 enzymes exist and each one has

its own temperature at which it is denatured. “It’s like saying that all
substances melt at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s nonsense. Ice does, but
rocks don’t and peanut butter doesn’t,” he said.
It’s interesting how some very intelligent people can say the most
incredibly ridiculous things. Of course all the substances that are
damaged by cooking don’t head south at the same temperature.
One-hundred-eighteen is only a generalization. If the professor would
place his hand on hot frying pans of various temperatures, he’d find
that his cells would be damaged by all of them. Imagine what
happens to the relatively delicate vitamins and enzymes in the same
situation. When explaining the pros of an uncooked plant-based diet,
do I have to list the temperatures at which damage occurs for each
nutrient? Maybe professor Wolke does, but my audiences get the
point just fine without the irrelevant information.
Overcooking vegetables can decrease their vitamin content,

particularly vitamins B and C, which are volatile and susceptible to
heat.
What constitutes overcooking? If it’s anything much above 115ºF
then yes, overcooking food does decrease its vitamin content. But
Ms. Rudavsky is trying to say that cooking is okay, but don’t cook it
too long. I’d wager that if I asked her what constitutes overcooking
she’d hem and haw and have no definitive answer (or if she had one,
it’d be incorrect).
Cooked food, however, also has its advantages, the experts say. Heat
kills microorganisms or other toxins lurking in food. Soybeans
contain substances that in large quantities will interfere with digestion
and the absorption of zinc and iron. Cooking disarms these blockers,
the American Dietetic Association says.
If you’re healthy, any microorganisms on your fruits and veggies
represent little harm to you. Yes, the microorganisms on meat and
chicken do pose a health risk (the people eating it are not in the best
of health), and cooking does destroy some of the microorganisms
(but not all), but an uncooked plant-based diet doesn’t include
animal products. And neither does it include soy, which must be
cooked to be eaten. And by-the-way, some toxins are made more

dangerous when subjected to heat, and toxins are not “killed” by
heat because they are not alive in the first place.
Other foods just confer more benefits when cooked. Tomatoes do not
release lycopene, a substance that appears to prevent disease and even
cancer, unless cooked.
False. There’s plenty of available lycopene in an uncooked tomato.
The author is trying to put cooked foods in a good light and to
discredit a plant-based uncooked diet, and therefore will accept
bogus information like this without confirming it.
Mainstream nutritionists conclude the answer is not all-raw or all-

cooked but a combination. “In an ideal world you’re having a mix of
both,” says Leslie Bonci, director of sports medicine at the University
of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
An “ideal world” existed a long time ago, and back then we probably
ate what was easy to eat. We had no food-processors, no stoves, no
utensils, and no sauces, spices, or condiments. A meal of mangos
was a delight then as it is now. Am I to understand that this ideal
world wasn’t so ideal because of the absence of burgers, chicken
fried steak, and cheese? Mainstream nutritionists have to include
cooked foods so as not to lose their livelihoods; most are not about
to buck the system. Think about the thousands of mainstream
nutritionists who have read Ms. Rudavsky’s article; it certainly
perpetuates the party line.
Adults who avoid cooked foods and fail to eat nutritionally balanced
diets may suffer fatigue, muscle injuries or decreased immune
function.
Adults who adopt a balanced uncooked plant-based diet eventually
have less fatigue, more energy, and increased immune function.
True, if you eat a nutritionally unbalanced diet, even an uncooked
plant-based diet, you can suffer, but by not cooking your food you
are less likely to be malnourished.
Children, who have even greater nutritional needs to spur their

growth, can be at even higher risk, as they need high levels of protein
to help them grow.

Do they need a higher level of protein than that contained in
mother’s milk? The most explosive growth a human does is in the
first one-and-a-half years of life, and their diet (of mother’s milk)
contains only about five percent of its calories as protein. So why
would they need more than that later on? If they’re eating enough
calories to maintain a healthy weight,1 and they’re not damaging the
protein by cooking it, and if they’ve got plenty of energy, they’re
getting enough protein. I know many kids raised from birth on only
raw fruits and veggies, and some nuts and seeds, and they do just
fine. No milk. No meat. No illness. No “terrible twos”. Are these kids
from another planet? Have they been genetically modified to thrive
on an uncooked diet? No, they were just lucky enough to have
parents who cared enough about their health to weed through all the
information, both the sensible and non-sensical, and make informed
decisions that were in their children’s best interest.
They [children] also require vitamin D, found in milk, which is

forbidden in a raw-foods diet.
Forbidden? No; milk is simply not a part of an uncooked plant-based
diet. If the kids get enough sunshine in addition to a healthy diet,
they’ll get enough vitamin D.
Compounding the challenge, raw foods tend to fill you up quickly, so

you may stop eating long before you’ve met your nutritional needs.
This had me laughing pretty hard! If you’re even half full on the foods of
your biological design, you’ve got nutrients a-plenty, provided you didn’t
cook them, and provided you eat a varied diet. The opposite is what is
at the heart of today’s obesity epidemic: You cook the nutrients out of
the foods you’re eating so you continue to eat after your caloric needs
are met because your nutritional needs haven’t been met. People who
eat nutrient deficient cooked foods over-eat in an effort to get enough
nutrition. People who eat a raw food diet eventually find that they eat
way less than they had been eating on the Standard American Diet.
1Standard weight-for-age charts are not based on children who

eat a healthy diet; kids who eat a healthy diet may weigh less.

“A cup of vegetables may only have 25 calories, but it’s very filling.
You can imagine how many cups of vegetables that are raw you
would have to eat,” Sass of the American Dietetic Association says,
recommending that anyone who chooses a raw-only diet consult a
nutritionist. “The total caloric intake could easily become inadequate.”
A cup of vegetables is hardly a meal. But Ms. Sass is right,
vegetables aren’t high in calories. You’d have to eat dozens of heads
of lettuce to get enough calories for the day. But calories aren’t why
you eat vegetables; they’re a great source of minerals. The bulk of
your caloric intake should come from fruit (this statement would get
the “experts” warning about candidiasis and diabetes, however
neither is caused by fruit eating per se). So, yes, caloric intake could
become inadequate if you’re eating mostly or only vegetables. But if
you educate yourself, you’ll know that fruit is a very important part of
a balanced uncooked plant-based diet. And why would she suggest
consulting a nutritionist when they lack the training to make correct
recommendations regarding a raw food diet. Maybe because she
knows mainstream nutritionists will likely try to discourage you from
eating an all-raw diet?
Then, there’s the simple notion of deprivation. The diet rules out
piping hot soup, warm pastas and desserts featuring rivulets of melted
chocolate.
Rivulets of melted chocolate? Let me guess… Ms. Rudavsky likes
chocolate (or she’s attempting to push your buttons; if so, no
surprise there). And whether pasta is cold or warm, it is not as
healthy as fruits and vegetables (and besides, you can make pasta
out of vegetables instead of wheat, the type of pasta I assume Ms.
Rudavsky is referring to.)
If you do opt for this, the experts say, don’t point to science as your
guide.
I agree. Don’t look to loaded studies and junk science to help you
discover what a healthy diet is. A lot of so-called science today is
nothing more than a spokesperson for big industry. Look instead to
the branches of science that can’t be twisted around big business’s
little finger: comparative anatomy, biology, and physiology.

“Do anything you want,” says chemist Wolke, “That’s your personal
choice. Just don’t try to justify it by saying science proves it.”
Professor Wolke’s science doesn’t prove it, but science and Nature
are very often at odds, especially when it’s “junk science”. And in the
case of the optimal diet for humans, although you could, you needn’t
look to science at all… Nature proves it; and Nature has the final say.
And Nature also has the last laugh, and with what Nature knows, she
must be laughing herself silly at the non-sense that passes for
mainstream nutritional information.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Of course not all nutritionists are in the dark. When some of them
come upon information contrary to what they’ve been taught, because
they really care about disseminating the truth, they investigate. And
if what they find is credible, they do a “180” and speak out...
Excerpted from:
Dietitian Believes Physical Activity is More

Important Than Milk for Building Strong Bones
timesunion.com
Susan Levin, Staff Dietitian for the Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine, discusses her belief that drinking milk does
not protect against bone diseases like osteoporosis, but physical
activity does.
“As a dietitian, I know that, contrary to a recent letter [published on
that website], drinking milk is not a healthy or effective way to prevent
osteoporosis (Milk plays an important role in good health, Dec. 21, ‘05).
According to a recent review of the role of dairy or dietary calcium
and bone health in children and young adults, the majority of scientific
studies on this topic found no relationship between dairy or dietary
calcium intake and measures of bone health.
And in a 12-year Harvard study of 78,000 adult women, those who
drank milk three times a day actually broke more bones than women
who rarely drank milk.
Here in the United States, our level of dairy product consumption is
among the highest in the world, yet our osteoporosis and fracture rates
are also among the highest. But science shows that we can build strong

bones and healthy bodies by adopting healthier diets (including plant-
based sources of calcium) and increasing physical activity.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“It’s got a lot of protein to help keep you energized.” – TV commercial

for GoLean High Protein Breakfast Cereal
Enough deep sleep, being physically active, and simple carbs are
what keep you energized, not protein.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is from a study published in the February, 2003 issue of

Annals of Rheumatic Diseases , which the Arthritis Foundation no
doubt receives...
“Patients with rheumatoid arthritis can obtain better physical function

and increase their vitality by eating a dairy-free diet... Dramatic
results were obtained by placing subjects on a dairy-free diet for three
months.”
Yet, the Arthritis Foundation has been recently quoted as saying...
“Boost your calcium and vitamin D intake (to prevent the bone loss
associated with osteoporosis) while bypassing animal fats, with low-
and non-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese.”
Does the Arthritis Foundation not read their journals? Or could there
be another reason they promote dairy products?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Even our daily newspapers can’t be trusted to not spread

misleading information. Read what Robert Cohen has to say about a
New York Times article that suggests that high fat diets aren’t
unhealthy after all.
The Big Lie (New Scientific Study)

“The front page New York Times article was the first I read of the
newest big nutritional lie...

The New York Times
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2006
Low-Fat Diet Does Not Cut Health Risks, Study Finds

8-Year Trial on Women Finds No Change
in Rate of Cancer and Heart Disease
Then the news was reported on New York’s two all-news radio
stations, WCBS and WINS. Later that evening, T V networks ABC,
CBS, NBC, and FOX all reported their version of the following:
“Those eating high-fat diets experience the same rates of

cancer, osteoporosis, and heart disease as those eating
low fat diets with fruits and vegetables.”
Where did the New York Times get such a story (a story many
know can’t be true)? The February 8, 2006 issue of the Journal of the
American Medical Association (JAMA) concludes with a series of
articles that state that people who eat a high-fat diet do not suffer the
statistical consequences of cancer or heart disease any differently than
those who eat low fat diets. I sensed that something was very wrong
here, but where would I begin my own investigation? What’s the
catch, and where’s the bias? I always look first for the bias. Check out
the senior author. Oh...there she is, Barbara V. Howard, PhD. Who is
this Doctor Howard? Ah...here we go... She is a paid consultant for,
and an honorary member of, the nutritional board for The National
Egg Council.
Next let’s examine the design protocol of this study. Just who were
these human laboratory rats? They (Howard, et.al.) decided that the
fair way of doing American nutritional research would be to select
nearly 49,000 Americans to participate in the study. OK, so far, no
complaints here. That’s a respectable population.
What kind of Americans? Women. OK, nothing wrong with that.
What kind of women? Here’s where it gets interesting. Dr. Howard
decided that it would be appropriate to study post menopausal
women, but not just any post menopausal woman, mind you. Just the
overweight, older ones who ate unhealthy diets. Huh?

Rather than read the abstract or take the New York Times at their
word, I opted on the side of intellectual prudence and went to the
library to read the actual study. The average beginning age of this
study’s post-menopausal subject for this eight year study was 62.
What? 62? Isn’t that a bit deceptive? Let’s look a little closer at these
rather robust women whose waist size averaged out at 35 inches.
What did these women weigh? Here’s where the study begins to smell
like the neighborhood skunk who lives in my back yard. The average
weight of the 48,835 women in this study was 169 pounds. These
overweight female laboratory subjects have spent a lifetime eating the
standard American diet which consists of all of the wrong things.
High on meat and dairy, and low on fruits and veggies.
Was this study intentionally designed with fatal/biased flaws from
the very beginning? Was this what is known as a “loaded study”? The
obvious answer is yes, but the study protocol deteriorates as one
further explores the scientific deception.
In order to be accepted into the study, each female subject could
not have previously been eating a diet that was less than 32 percent fat
(calories). I’ll repeat that. If less than (approximately) one-third of
your diet consisted of fat, you were not eligible to participate in this
biased research. Biased? Absolutely. The results were known before
the study began!
What did the scientists do? They divided the participants into two
groups, and met with one group (the intervention group) once every
20 days for a year, teaching, instructing, and motivating those subjects
to eat a low fat diet high in fruits and veggies. The other group was
left alone to continue eating what they had eaten all their lives. After
one year, the scientists cut back to four meetings each year for the
next eight years.
The researchers then followed through with calls and interviews.
Hardly a controlled study. But what did they find? No difference.
Each group suffered through the same percentage of heart attacks,
strokes, and cancers. In other words, eating high fat foods (such as
eggs) made no difference in the final outcome of a person’s life.
The Egg Council must be pleased to learn these results. So must all
purveyors and marketing agents for the meat and dairy industry. Eat
fat; it does not matter, and it tastes great.
Never mind that the scientists had to take these folks at their word
that they really did adopt and stick to a lower fat diet, the scientists

intentionally ignored what brought these women to that point in their
lives when heart disease and cancer were the expected outcomes.
Previous (real) science has demonstrated that heart disease, cancer,
and osteoporosis are cumulative lifestyle diseases that are many
decades in the making. By age 62, only extremely drastic changes in
diet can reverse these typical American diseases. Weighing 169
pounds and having a size 35 waist was never normal for a 62-year-old
American female.
Soon you’ll no doubt be reading the conclusions of this story in
women’s magazines, accompanied by colorful recipes such as, The
High Fat Corned Beef and Bacon Sandwich with Hollandaise Sauce.
And feel free to partake because JAMA says that dietary fat does not
matter.
There have been no critics of this study to step forward and voice
their outrage. I say that fat does matter. A woman should not weigh
169 pounds at age 62.
My suggestion: The earlier one converts from saturated fat-eater to
plant-based food eater, the more it will matter in longevity and
health... unless of course you’d rather believe a seriously flawed
study. And shame on a newspaper that would print such a study; and
on the front page! If I could go to the library and discover what I did,
so could they... whose best interests do they have at heart I wonder?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Even Doctors can Dispense Unhealthy Info
“Drinking milk prevents breast cancer.” – Dr. Anette Hjartaker,

University of Oslo
“Consumption of cheese prevents colon cancer.” – Peter Holt, MD,

Columbia University, New York
“Drinking milk provides a simple and effective treatment in

premenstrual syndrome (PMS).” – Dr. Susan Thys-Jacobs, M.D. St.
Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York
Reader
Let the Buyer Beware
Appendix F - Health Assurance Policy
This policy guarantees the policyholder the best chance

of avoiding chronic degenerative disease, and the best
chance of living to their health and longevity potentials.
This policy further guarantees the policyholder the best
chance of avoiding medications, drug therapies, cardiac and
cancer surgery, and surgeries and treatments for various
degenerative diseases and other conditions including, but
not limited to, asthma, acne, arthritis, fibromyalgia, PMS,
allergies, candidiasis, high blood pressure, over-weight and
skin conditions, hormone related conditions, osteoporosis,
chronic fatigue syndrome and other syndromes.
Additionally, this policy guarantees the policyholder the best
chance of avoiding needless suffering and premature death.
The guarantees set forth above assume the policyholder
lives in accordance with their physiological imperatives,
which include eating a dietary regimen that is appropriate to
their biological adaptation, and that a respect for their body
is maintained.
The policyholder understands that equal attention must
be paid to all the requisites of healthy living, including
obtaining sufficient sunshine, water, sleep, physical activity,
toxin avoidance, and stress management.
NOTE: This is a health assurance policy. Unlike a health
insurance policy, which is only operative when the
policyholder’s health fails, this policy assures the policy-
holder of the best odds of living a long and healthy life
when the policyholder lives in harmony with Nature’s Laws,
paramount of which is,
“Give the body what it wants,
and don’t give it what it doesn’t want”
Information for the successful use of this policy can be
found in this book, and at www.health101.org
Cash value of policy is zero, but its health value is priceless.
210
Appendix G - Thought-Provoking Articles
by the Author
Some have said that I’ve saved the best for last. The articles that
follow will broaden your knowledge of healthful living, and will
expand upon the preceding chapters.
A few of the “take home points” made in the book are well worth
repeating, therefore you’ll come across them as you read these
articles, and doing so will help to reinforce this empowering
information. But these articles also contain some good points that
haven’t yet been mentioned, so if you’ve gotten this far, you’re sure
to enjoy the rest! And feel free to copy and share these articles; to
make that easy, I’ve placed them on the health101.org website along
with some other equally enlightening articles.
Better To Be Safe Than Sorry........................................... 212

Balance.............................................................................. 213
The Hazards of Microwaving Food .................................... 214
Jump for Joy! – Bounce your Way to Better Health ............ 217
Time to Clean Out the Misinformation .............................. 220
Belief and Reality – Truth or Consequences........................ 223
How Do You Feel?........................................................... 226
Who’s the Best Healer? ................................................... 228
Knowing vs Believing ...................................................... 230
High Cholesterol – Putting Things in Perspective................... 232
“Personal Taste” Explained .............................................. 235
Osteoporosis: An Information Deficiency Disease .............. 238
Diabetes Caused by Misinformation .................................. 241
Adult Diseases Begin in Childhood.................................... 244
At Least I Have My Health ............................................... 246
We’re all Different... Really? ............................................. 248
The Syndrome of Syndromes ........................................... 251
It’s Not Nice to Fool with Mother Nature............................... 252
Appendix G – Thought Provoking Articles 211

Better To Be Safe Than Sorry
By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
‘Tis Better To Be Safe Than Sorry. What ever happened to that old
adage? It’s a sensible notion, and would seem to offer a certain
measure of protection when applied to things that could affect your
health. But its practice doesn’t seem to be in widespread use today.
Why is this?
One reason that comes to mind is that it requires conscious,
independent thought. We, as a society, have been lulled into what
some might call a false sense of security. We assume many things to
be safe, when in truth, they are not.
(Before I continue, I need to define that word, “truth”. To me, truth
is synonymous with “reality”. There isn’t, “his truth, her truth, your
truth”; these are merely people’s perceptions of the truth. Now, the
truth may be difficult to find... but it exists nevertheless. And this is
the truth of which I speak, and have sought for the last 30 years.)
If you do have a false sense of security, it may be due to deceptive
practices. Here’s an example of a deceptive practice that is 100%
legal. Have you seen the T V ads for weight-loss programs? The
unretouched BEFORE and AFTER photos are indeed compelling, and
would lead one to believe that the program/diet/supplement is worth a
try. But on the bottom of the screen, in teeny, weeny print, it states,
RESULTS NOT TYPICAL. It’s there for all to see, yet very few people see
it. Now I ask you, what kind of results are you likely to get? Right!
Typical results. But I guess if photos of typical results were shown,
sales wouldn’t be as brisk.
Here’s another way people are conditioned to believe that which
may not be true. And it’s a bit more insidious. “The government’s
strategy for persuading Americans that our food supply is safe from
pesticides is simple: Say it over and over for a number of years.”
(Cooper Evans, special agricultural assistant to President Bush, as told
to a New York Times reporter). If you tell a falsehood, and keep
repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. Humans are, by
nature, very programmable. We need to be taught because we have
very little instinct. But we are capable of reason, and that’s what
Better To Be Safe Than Sorry relies upon.

So wouldn’t that line of thought apply to, for example, eating
organically grown food verses food containing pesticides? Naturally it
would. Yet I still find people who rationalize eating pesticide laden
food. They dismiss out-of-hand the dangers associated with pesticide
ingestion. When the meaning of “sorry” can include cancer and other
degenerative diseases, undue suffering, horrible quality-of-life, and
premature death, it’s a wonder how one can have an indifferent
attitude to an issue such as this. True, it may require a new learning
curve, and you may have to dig deep for the necessary resolve, but
aren’t you worth it?
I’m sure you don’t have a lab in your basement to test, for yourself,
whether something is safe or unsafe. Nor do you always have the time
to do the research necessary to unearth the truth. So if you care about
your health, Better To Be Safe Than Sorry may be a philosophy that
can help improve the quality, and quantity, of your life. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Balance
By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
One of the keys to a happy and healthy life is balance. We’d all
agree that having good balance as we walk is a good thing, and
balancing a checkbook for some people elicits a sigh of relief. And
there’s no doubt that emotional balance is what allows us to
experience the joys of life. So, on balance, balance is a good thing.
Now let’s talk about balance as it relates to information.
When you look at something in isolation, you can get a distorted
view. If you find and focus on a health-promoting aspect of
something, any health-damaging aspects that exist can become
overlooked. Indeed, if you try, you can take almost anything that
would be universally recognized as an unhealthy thing, and find
something positive to say about it.
An article on how to get a good night’s sleep can include, among
the healthy suggestions, the recommendation to drink a glass of warm
milk. With what is known about milk today, some people no longer
drink it (see health101.org/booklink#32). Why does the article
www.
contain the pro (milk can help you sleep), but not the con (contributes

to osteoporosis, cancer, contains hormones that can upset your
hormonal balance, pasteurization can damage nutrients). Wouldn’t a
tea containing valerian root be a better, healthier suggestion? Why not
suggest a healthier alternative that still fills the bill.
And an article that suggests that eating fish helps keep strokes at
bay, doesn’t mention the health-damaging aspects of fish (PCBs,
mercury). And since most fish is cooked, the healthful omega-3 fatty
acids are damaged in the process. So even though the fish oil may
indeed make blood less sticky and therefore less likely to clog blood
vessels, on balance, is fish such a good thing to eat? Isn’t there a
healthier alternative that can help prevent strokes without the negative
aspects of fish? Sure there is, but by not including that information in
the article, and by not mentioning the unhealthy aspects of cooked
fish, the article isn’t balanced.
Yes, drinking wine has been shown to improve cardiovascular
function. But the news stories that tout this don’t mention the health-
damaging aspects of alcoholic beverages, which, on balance, make it
a poor choice for maintaining a healthy heart and arteries (and it’s the
red in wine that’s healthy, not the alcohol). Isn’t there a healthier
alternative that still provides the same benefit without the harm? Sure
there is. But you don’t hear about it in that news piece.
What can you do about unbalanced information? If you don’t see
pros and cons, or, where health is concerned, healthier alternatives,
then there may be information you’re not getting. Important
information. Information you need to make an informed decision...
a decision that’s in your best interest.
So don’t focus on just the good or just the bad, focus on looking at
something on balance. In most cases this will require further research.
Yes, that’s time consuming, but, on balance, aren’t you worth it? 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hazards of Microwaving Food

By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
To nuke or not to nuke, that is the question. This article will
attempt to acquaint you with some facts about microwaving food.
Research shows that food cooked in a microwave oven suffers
molecular damage. When eaten, it causes abnormal changes in human

blood, and in the immune system. Not surprisingly, the public has
seen very little information on these significant health dangers...
Microwave ovens are big business.
I remember when no one I knew had a microwave. And now these
same people wonder how they ever got along without one. A better
question is: How will you “get along” with one?
Back in May of 1989 there was a radio announcement sponsored by
Young Families, the Minnesota Extension Service of the University of
Minnesota, that said, “Although microwaves heat food quickly, they
are not recommended for heating a baby’s bottle... Heating the bottle
in a microwave can cause slight changes in the milk. In infant
formulas, there may be a loss of some vitamins. In expressed breast
milk, some protective properties may be destroyed.” The deleterious
effects of microwaving food were known over a decade ago.
In early 1991, there was a lawsuit in Oklahoma that revolved
around a woman, Norma Levitt, who underwent hip surgery. She
didn’t survive the operation because she was given a blood
transfusion with blood that had been heated (a common practice) by a
nurse who used a microwave instead of the usual heating technology.
So evidently microwaving does do something to organic matter other
than just heating it.
Hans Hertel is the first scientist to conceive of and carry out a
quality study on the effects of microwaved nutrients on the blood and
physiology of humans. In the spring of 1992 this small but well-
controlled study showed conclusively the degenerative force of
microwave ovens on food heated in them. The conclusion was clear:
Microwave cooking altered the food’s nutrients so that changes took
place in the participants’ blood. And these were changes that could
cause deterioration to a human being’s physiology. These changes
included a decrease in all hemoglobin and cholesterol values,
especially the HDL (“good cholesterol”). “There is extensive scientific
literature concerning the hazardous effects of direct microwave
radiation on living systems.” Hertel said.
Leukocytosis is a rise in white blood cell (leukocyte) count.
Leukocytes increase in response to foreign invaders, and are often a
sign of pathogenic effects on the living system, such as poisoning and
cell damage. In this study, the increase of leukocytes with the
microwaved food was more pronounced than with all the other

variants (foods cooked in a convection oven). It seems these increases
were caused entirely by consuming microwaved substances.
The waves in your microwave are based on the principle of
alternating current. Molecules in food hit by this electromagnetic
radiation are forced to reverse polarity 1 to 100 billion times a second.
There are no atoms, molecules, or cells of any organic matter able to
withstand such a violent force for any extended period of time.
The oxygen in water molecules reacts most sensitively to the
radiation. This is how the heat in a microwave is generated; water
molecule friction! In doing so, molecular structures are torn apart and
deformed, becoming impaired in both quality and function.
In addition to frictional heat effects (thermic), there are also
athermic effects. Hertel said about these, “Athermic effects are not
presently measurable, but they can also deform the structures of
molecules, and have qualitative consequences. For example, the
weakening of cell membranes by microwaves is used in the field of
gene altering technology. Because of the force involved, the cells are
actually broken, thereby neutralizing the electrical potentials – the
very life of the cells – between the outer and inner sides of the cell
membranes. Impaired cells become easy prey for viruses, fungi, and
other micro-organisms.”
Besides the destruction and deformation of food molecules, there’s
the formation of new compounds (radiolytic compounds) that are
unknown to man, and more importantly, unknown to Nature. Their
affect on your body can be only one of three things: good, bad, or
neutral. Personally, I haven’t found anything on this planet that has
absolutely no affect on the body one way or the other (neutral), so
logic dictates that these radiolytic compounds are either good for us,
or bad for us. Which do you think they are?
“If you wanted to introduce a herbal supplement into the American
mainstream and make any health claims for it, you would be
subjected to exhaustive documentation and costly research. Yet the
microwave-oven industry had only to prove that the dangerous
microwaves could be contained within the oven, and not escape into
the surrounding area where the radiation could do damage to people.
So far, not one thought has been given by the industry to the
possibility that the nutrients could be so altered as to be deleterious to
human health.” – Acres, USA

Don’t wait for government or industry to address this issue... take
charge of your health! And if you need more incentive to relegate
your microwave oven to just the heating of a hot towel, remember:
The more uncooked, fresh foods you eat (fruits and veggies), the better
your health will be. But if you must heat food, do as little damage to it
as possible, so that you do as little damage to you as possible. (View
this article on the health101.org website to see amazing photos!) 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jump for Joy!

Bounce your Way to Better Health
By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
Don’t you just love the spontaneous joy exhibited by little kids!
They skip, they scamper, and they jump. Do you think it’s because
they understand the value of vigorous movement? Or is it because it’s
fun?
Yes, it’s enjoyable, but movement is also necessary. Why?
Because you have two circulatory systems, but only one pump. Your
heart circulates your blood continuously, delivering nutrients, oxygen,
and hydration to your cells. But what about your cell’s waste
products? Unlike your blood, your waste system’s fluid (lymph fluid)
does not need to be moving every second, so it doesn’t need a
“continuous duty” pump. But it does need to circulate. And that’s
your job! As you move around, the lymph fluid is moved from the
cells, to the lymph nodes, and on to the “dump”. But if you don’t
move enough – if you are less active than children – your metabolic
garbage container isn’t being emptied on a regular basis. And that can
spell trouble (lingering waste products are a major contributor to
degenerative disease).
Although running is good for the lymphatic system, over time it
can take its toll on your joints (and on your heart believe it or not). So,
on balance, running is not the best way to move your lymph fluid
around. Skipping, "spirited walking", and rebounding are your best
choices. Time to take a cue from kids – jump!
The trampoline of choice as a child was the bed, but today there’s
a device that makes jumping a joy. It’s called a rebounder; basically a

mini-trampoline. About 40 inches in diameter, and about eight inches
high, this low-tech device can do wonders for your well-being. The
better rebounders feel good, and are enjoyable to use. The cheaper,
store-bought ones feel stiff, and if you don’t like the way it feels,
you’re not likely to use it on a regular basis, and it then runs the risk
of becoming a dust collector – the more dust on it, the less it’s helping
your health.
Jumping on a mini-trampoline is known as “rebounding”, and is
enjoyed by young and old alike. And its benefits are numerous. Your
cells get the exercise they so desperately need, with no harsh shock to
your ankles, knees, spine, or to the ligaments that support your
internal organs. You can bounce gently, which moves your lymph
fluid around, but doesn’t make you huff and puff, enabling you to talk
on the phone or carry on a conversation. Or you can get your heart
pump’n if that’s your preference, but you’ll do so using the physics of
low force. Translation: You’re not likely to sustain injury as can occur
with high-force activities like running.
In addition to its ability to work out your cardio-pulmonary
system, rebounding tones your legs, thighs, abdomen, and hips,
increases your agility, circulates more oxygen to your tissues, reduces
fatigue, stress, and menstrual discomfort, tones up the glandular
system, stimulates metabolism, aids digestion, and improves your
sense of balance. Not bad for an exercise that’s actually enjoyable...
and the enjoyment doesn’t come from endorphins (pain-killers
produced by the body in response to injury).
And here’s some fascinating rebounding info: At the top of each
bounce, you are momentarily weightless, and at the bottom of each
bounce, you are actually resisting the Earth’s pull more than you
usually do. This alternating weightlessness and multiplied gravity
produces a pumping action which pulls out waste products from the
cells, and forces into them oxygen and nutrients from the
bloodstream. And it’s so gentle when compared to running’s forceful
pounding that it’s the exercise of choice for astronauts returning from
the weightless environment of outer space.
But again, rebounding’s big plus is its ability to keep your waste
management system in top form. There are three ways to move lymph
fluid away from your tissues and back into the main pulmonary
circulation, and rebounding addresses all three. There’s muscular
contraction, gravitational pressure, and internal “massage” to the

valves of the lymph ducts. Rebounding’s a cellular exercise with little
chance of injury, that’s fun, makes you feel good, and promotes good
health... Who could ask anything more from an exercise!
James White, Ph.D., Director of Research and Rehabilitation at the
University of California at San Diego explains how jumping improves
equilibrium, “Rebounding helps people learn to shift their weight
properly, and to be aware of body position and balance... My students
tell me it’s so much fun that they often exercise on the rebounders for
their own enjoyment.”
As mentioned earlier, all rebounders are not created equal. The
secret to a comfortable rebounder are the springs and the mat. The
springs should be wider in the middle than at the ends; in-other-words
not the same diameter from end to end. And the mat should give no
stretch during the downward landing while providing a resilient
rebound. The mats of low-cost rebounders are unyielding, and feel
jarring when compared to a rebounder made with a Permatron® mat.
Although the rebounder is a low-tech device, Permatron® is
unquestionably a high-tech material.
If you’re someone with less than optimal balance, a rebounder will
likely do wonders for you. The good news is that the high-quality
rebounders have, as an option, a stabilizer bar that attaches to the
rebounder, allowing you to hold on while you bounce.
If you have a place outdoors where you can set up your rebounder,
do so; it’s wonderful! And rebound in your bare feet! Your feet have
balance sensors; many small muscles responsible for balance. But
when we stuff our tootsies into those containers we call shoes, we
immobilize those muscles and make no use of those sensors. Our
bodies are frugal things, and will not upkeep anything that isn’t used.
So, over time, our sense of balance diminishes, and we attribute this
to old age. Nonsense! Rebounding in your bare feet will help restore
lost motor control and balance, and will help ensure that you maintain
good balance throughout your entire life.
And let’s not forget about happiness! Our ability to be happy is
affected in large part by the health of our cells. In general, the
healthier we are physically, the healthier we can be emotionally. This
is the Body-Mind Connection. Its counterpart, the Mind-Body
Connection gets most of the press, but the two are equally important.
So to increase your “happiness potential”, keep your cell’s trash cans

from over-flowing. Spirited walking and rebounding are great ways to
do this.
If you want to learn more about rebounding, visit health101.org and
navigate to the rebounder page. There you will find links to many
informative resources.
Do consider rebounding as part of an overall health-promoting
lifestyle. A few minutes a day will go a long way towards ridding your
body of accumulated cellular waste. And just like it’s a wise thing to
consider investments for your financial future, cellular exercise from
rebounding is a great investment for your future health. 
The best rebounder can be seen at health101.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Time to Clean Out the Misinformation

By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
It’s springtime! Time to do some serious house cleaning. But not
the house you live in; I’m talking about the house that houses you; the
‘ole noggin. What if you found your home cluttered with dangerous
stuff. Wouldn’t you want to get rid of it? Sure you would; but first
you have to know it’s there. If you’re like most folks, your head is
filled with gobs of misinformation; information that’s simply not true.
How did it get there?
When a product becomes an industry, powerful marketing and PR
firms do their best to convince you to buy and use that product. Many
industries produce products that have been found to be hazardous to
your health to one degree or another. When this discovery is made,
instead of voluntarily taking that product off the market (as would
happen in a perfect world), some companies do their best to create
information that suggests that the product is actually good for you. It’s
this information, or more accurately, disinformation, that influences
your decision-making, and can negatively impact your health.
The media plays a part as well. Here are some examples of how
the media contribute to misinformation.
Time magazine’s January 21, 2002 issue caught my eye. The
Science of Staying Healthy boldly graces the cover. “Want to keep the
doctor away?” it asked. Sounds good! “New discoveries can help

prevent everything from obesity to cancer to heart disease.” These are
the major killers of our time, so I was very interested in these “new
discoveries.” Would diet figure prominently, as it should? Read on.
The article on childhood obesity says, “Kids are born with a sweet
tooth, but they have to learn to enjoy other tastes.” Strike one. No
they don’t! All they have to do is have access to healthy sweets, and
not things like candy, pie, ice cream, cookies, gummy bears, etc.
Humans are designed to run on carbohydrates (despite what you may
have heard to the contrary). The best source of fuel for the human
body is fruit. So a “sweet tooth” is a normal, natural thing. The trick is
to satisfy it with a natural food, offering that food as a meal, and not
just as a treat or a snack.
Why has childhood obesity risen so much? The dairy industry has
tried to make you believe it’s because of soda. But the facts don’t bear
this out. We had no obesity epidemic in 1970 when children were
consuming far more soda than they do today. What do they consume
more of today? Cheese and other dairy products. No mention of this is
made in the article. Instead it advises “limiting children’s access to
treats and junk food, especially soda and fruit juice.” Fruit is the best
food for a child, but no mention of this is made. Fruit is considered
just a snack, and something that will spoil your appetite for dinner.
Have you heard of “Adult onset diabetes”? Now it’s afflicting
obese children! And no mention of this is made in the article.
Contributing factors to diabetes: too much fat, and dairy products.
Again, no mention made of this.
Why do kids over-eat? Cooked foods provide less nutrients than
their uncooked counterparts. If you’re eating because you need
nutrition, and you’re eating cooked food, you’re probably getting too
many calories. And does the article mention that grain products
contain opioids; addictive substances? No. Does it mention that dairy
products contain casomorphines? No. It’s tough to stop eating
fattening foods that have addictive properties.
The article, Can We Learn to Beat the Reaper? asks the question,
“Can we live longer?”. The very first sentence says, “Give the body
half a chance and before you know it, it tries to die.” How absurd!
The body tries to do the opposite, until it breathes its last breath. Then
the article goes on to say, “If it’s not cancer, it’s heart disease; if it’s
not heart disease, it’s a stroke. With all the ways the body can do
itself in, you would almost think it wanted to end it all. The fact is it

does.” The fact is, it does not! Your body wants to survive, and
moreover, it wants to flourish. How do I know? Easy. If you give it
the opportunity to flourish, it will.
Then the topper, “All the gains in length of life have been achieved
by treating diseases that used to kill us in youth or, at best, in what we
now consider middle years.” This is so false it’s funny. The four
biggest reasons for today’s increased life expectancy are: 1. Better
sanitation; 2. The advent of refrigeration (no more spoiled food and
deaths from botulism); and 3. Life-prolonging treatments and drugs
(but these deal with diseases and conditions, and while they may
prolong life, they foster a lessened quality-of-life!) 4. The recalculation
of the “ALE” (Average Life Expectancy). At one time, the ALE
included all deaths. If you died at 2 days, it was factored in. But when
the ALE was found to be falling, something had to be done. After all,
medical science was doing “wondrous” things, and there were new
drugs appearing weekly, so the ALE couldn’t be shown to be falling.
So the powers-that-be decided to discard all deaths under one year of
age when calculating the ALE. It doesn’t take a mathematician to
understand that when you take the lowest numbers (which in this case
are really low) out of a list of numbers, the average number will be
much higher. Then the media compared the ALE of ten years before
this deception, to the new ALE, and behold... We’re living longer!
And the public assumes this is due to the medical/pharmaceutical
industries. Why do they believe this? Well, just look at the above
statement in Time magazine. Of course, the public never knew of the
mathematic chicanery. If the media had compared the ALE one day
before the change in the method of calculation to the day after the
change, it would have looked like a miracle happened overnight.
Then there’s the article on walking. It says, “Walking is a great
way to lose body fat.” No it isn’t. It’s a so-so way. While great for
other things, for weight loss, it’s not. A great way to lose body fat is
eating what Nature intended. Exercise is the least effective way to
lose and maintain weight. And here’s another gem, “The older you
get, the harder it is to maintain your weight simply by restricting what
you eat.” Restricting? Caloric restriction is the absolute worst way to
control your weight. If you’re restricting caloric intake and eating
cooked foods, you’re in effect doing nutrient restriction big time;
cooking denatures proteins, damages vitamins and fats, and renders
minerals unusable. So caloric restriction may be good for your

exterior physical image, but your interior cells and organs will age
prematurely due in part to a sub-clinical lack of nutrition. (What you
do intake in the form of toxic and damaged substances and empty
calories contributes to ill-health too.)
So now you see how one’s noggin can become filled with
misleading misinformation, also known as “trash info”. Isn’t it about
time to take out the trash? 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Belief and Reality – Truth or Consequences

By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
The sun revolves around the earth. If I said that to you, and I was
serious, you’d think I was nuts. But if I said it at an earlier point in
human history, you’d have replied, “So tell me something I don’t
know!” Yes, there was a time when everyone believed the earth was
the center of the universe. But I’m willing to bet that when most
people thought the sun spun around the earth, it didn’t, even though
everyone believed it did.
So what does this mean today? It means that what you know to be
true, may not be so. It means that one’s beliefs may not have anything
to do with reality. How does this affect your life? If someone
mentions to you that something you’re doing is harmful to your
health, but you believe otherwise, you may be basing your belief on
misinformation, or worse, on disinformation (knowingly false
information that is purposely made public). And when it comes to
health information, there’s plenty of both.
Take it from someone who’s been seeking truths for over 30 years;
there’s a lot you know, that just ain’t so. When I was in my teens, I
discovered that when I asked an adult a question that warranted a yes
or no answer, I got definite yes’s and definite no’s to the same
question (and hardly any I don’t know’s by the way). Imagine asking
someone if the sun revolved around the earth or the earth revolved
around the sun, and you got an answer of yes to both questions. And
everyone answering you seemed so sure of their belief, and could
even tell you why they were right, and why the other person was
wrong. As a little kid, you’d be confused. As an adult who knew the
truth about our solar system, you’d realize that human beings are the

only animal on the planet capable of believing in something that isn’t
true. Only humans have the ability to dismiss, out-of-hand,
compelling evidence that challenges their beliefs. For many people,
choosing to reject reality, where it concerns their health, will subject
them to disease, unnecessary suffering, and premature death.
Being able to choose is a double-edged sword; it can work for you,
or against you. Regarding belief, you have a choice. You can believe:
1. What everyone else believes
2. What people and/or industries want you to believe
3. What you’d rather believe
4. Reality / the truth (they’re the same)
Which one do you think is in your best interest? Which one is in
industry’s best interest? Which one would most other people like you
to embrace?
If you love dairy products for example (cheese, milk, ice cream,
etc.), and someone presented you with evidence that dairy products
are not only not good for your bones, but are actually a cause of
osteoporosis and cancer, which of the above four choices would
dictate your reaction? Would you dismiss the info without a second
thought because you didn’t want to hear it?
Your decision-making depends on what’s most important to you. If
your health is higher on your sub-conscious list of priorities than self-
indulgent-pleasure-seeking-behavior, then you’ll look into it, and
you’ll try to make decisions that are in your best interest health-wise.
If however, self-indulgent-pleasure-seeking-behavior is more
important to you than your health, then you’ll likely utter those magic
words that protect you from internal conflict: “I don’t believe it” and
you’ll continue to feel good about doing something that, in reality, is
harming you.
Industries that produce items that are harmful to your health
depend upon our ability to dis-believe the truth about the damaging
affects of their products. They give billions of dollars to the media for
advertising, and to politicians for support (protection), so that truthful
information that would have a negative affect on sales is either kept
from you or discredited. They do their very best to influence your
beliefs so that you are not just a customer, but a loyal supporter who
will defend their products by telling anyone who brings you truthful
information about the products’ dangers that you don’t believe a word

of it. Every time someone refuses to believe what is true about, say,
dairy products for example, the dairy industry sits back with a big grin
on its face, delighted that their best-kept secrets are safe from the
public, and pleased that you are unwittingly helping to support their
deceptive practices as both a consumer and defender of their health-
damaging products.
“If you tell a lie big enough, and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it.” – Joseph Goebbels
What are the consequences of living in a fantasy world regarding

your health? Cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, arthritis, asthma,
diabetes, osteoporosis, lessened quality-of-life and premature death.
Yes, I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating because there’s
way too much of it, and most of it is avoidable because it’s caused by
mistaken beliefs.
Here are some strong sentiments from Michael Crichton, author of
The Lost World:
“Human beings rarely think for themselves, they find it too

uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species
simply repeat what they are told, and become upset if they
are exposed to a differing viewpoint. The characteristic
human trait is not awareness but conformity. Other animals
fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal
kingdom, human beings fight for their beliefs.”
To paraphrase W. K. Clifford, if a person, holding a belief which

he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down
and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind,
purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of those who
call into question or discuss it, and regards as sacrilegious those
questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it – the life
of that person will not be as glorious as it could have been.
Have as glorious a life as possible! Think not with the thoughts of
others, but with your own. Truthful information plus an understanding
of that information is when knowledge is power. Don’t dismiss what
disturbs you to hear. Investigate. Set off the “Independent Thought”
alarms at corporate offices around the globe. Reality will do right by
you, but only if you believe it. 

How Do You Feel?
By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
I hope this article finds you happy and healthy. But it can be hard
to be happy if you’re not healthy. Think about it. If you’re in good
spirits, but then smash your thumb with a hammer, or get a diagnosis
of a serious disease, you probably won’t be in the mood to laugh at a
funny joke. So I think we can all agree that being healthy is a good
thing.
But how do you know just how healthy you are? It’s not a black
and white issue; there are many shades of gray. If you rate your
present state of health on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst
health you could possibly have, and 10 being the best health you’re
capable of experiencing, how would you rate your health at this point
in your life? If you answered “7”, I’d ask you, “How do you know?”
Good question, right? How can you know you’re at 7 unless you’ve
experienced 10? Most people who believe they’re at 7, are actually
somewhere around 4! They could be soooo much healthier, and
therefore feel soooo much better than they could ever imagine.
We all have a “health potential”; this is the healthiest your body
can be, given ideal circumstances. And we all have a “longevity
potential”, which is a lifespan unaffected by conditions that cause you
to pass away prematurely. Since I want to live to my health and
longevity potentials – which means passing away in my sleep at a ripe
old age in relatively good health – I must live “differently” than the
average person, who lives to about 72 and spends their final years
battling some degenerative disease. (72 may be an improvement over
a previous average life expectancy of 55, but when compared to an
average life expectancy of 95, which human beings once enjoyed, it’s
not much of an improvement, is it.) So to reach this worthwhile goal
of living to my health and longevity potentials, I’ve made positive
changes in my life as it affects my health. And by doing this, I am a
lot healthier than I ever imagined I could be! My blood pressure is
down to 110 over 68, my cholesterol is 145, my white cell count is
now normal (down from average) and my homocysteine is under
eight. No more headaches, no more ills, and I’ll no doubt avoid
diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. And I’m a lot happier
too... Not because I won a lottery or went through counseling, but

because I’m physically healthier; and believe me, your physical health
affects your emotional health.
Is a healthy lifestyle for everybody? No. It’s just for those who
want to be healthy, and live a long, happy, and as disease-free a life as
possible. Attainable? Absolutely! You need just two things: truthful
knowledge, and the wisdom to put that knowledge into practice.
But back to the issue of how you feel. When I speak to people
about healthy lifestyle habits, many times I get resistance from those
who judge their state of health by how they currently look and feel. If
they believe they feel “fine”, they assume their health is fine, and
therefore feel that no changes to habits that affect health are needed.
From experience I’ve learned that this is not necessarily so. A more
accurate indicator of how healthy you are would be how your cells
and internal organs look; what shape are they in. But even if you went
by how you look and feel, as I said before, most people could look
and feel a lot better than they do now... they just don’t know they can.
When my dad started experiencing gastric problems and had it
checked out, he received a diagnosis of colon cancer. I asked the
doctor how long this fist-sized tumor took to grow to that size. He
said it could have taken anywhere from ten to 30 years. I asked my
dad how he felt for the last five years. He said, “Fine!” I learned a
valuable lesson that day. Just because you feel “fine”, doesn’t mean
you’re in good health. If you think a 4 on that 1 to 10 scale feels
“fine”, how would you describe how 9 feels? By today’s standards, it
would feel incredible, amazing, and unbelievable... and I guarantee
that you’d love feeling this way so much so, that you would never
want to go back to just feeling “fine”.
And I also guarantee you this: If you’re not giving your body what
it needs, and you’re giving it what it doesn’t want, there’s no way
you’re going to be as healthy as you can be, or feel as good as you’re
capable of feeling. This is not an assumption, it’s one of Nature’s
laws. But if you respect your body’s wishes, you can look and feel
unbelievably great!
It’s never too late to embark on the path of improved health, but,
naturally, the sooner the better. And, just like investments made for
your financial future, making investments now for your future health
is a wise thing to do if you want to avoid being broke, health-wise,
when you find yourself in the autumn and winter of your life. This is a

case where planning ahead can avoid needless suffering and
premature death... two things I’d certainly like to avoid.
When you wake up tomorrow, what better way to start the day
than with thoughts of improving your health. So don’t wait for New
Year’s Day, now’s a great time to start putting those thoughts into
action so that one day, if asked “How do you feel” instead of replying
“fine” you can say, “Incredible!” 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Who’s the Best Healer?

By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
If you’ve lived your life like most people, you’ve got a whole lot’a
healing to do, even though you may not know it! Even vegetarians
and vegans succumb to many of the same degenerative diseases as
their “Standard American Diet” eating counterparts, and there are
very good reasons for this.
There are many folks who either now need or will need help with
healing. There are people who claim they can heal you, and there are
people who can help you heal. If someone told me they can heal me,
I’d run away from them as fast as I could. Why? Because I’ve spent
over 30 years discovering how best to heal, and if there’s one thing
I’ve learned, it’s that only my body can heal me. No one, other than
yourself, can heal you. If, however, someone told me they can help
me to heal, I’d be all ears.
Pills, Potions, and Misinformation
If anyone tells you there are “healing foods”, run. Food has no
capacity to heal anything. Food only supplies raw materials which
your healing systems need to be at their best. But this doesn’t
necessarily mean you’ve got to eat while healing; many people have
healed some serious conditions while fasting (eating no food at all).
Other things like crystals, herbs, magnets, and “smart” water have no
ability to heal anything either, and may actually hinder the healing
process because they give the user a false sense of security, and he or
she may not look any further into the subject of healing. If you’re ill,
being in a positive frame of mind is a good thing, and placebos can

help you feel good about what you’re doing, but the false hope they
engender is counterproductive to healing. If you really want to get
well, you need to learn what is really responsible for healing.
Dealing with Symptoms or the Cause of the Symptoms
If your “check engine” light lit up on your dashboard, there are
two ways to make the light go out. You could remove the bulb, or you
could fix whatever’s wrong so the bulb goes out on its own. The lit
bulb is a symptom of an underlying problem. If you merely remove
the bulb, the problem is still there, and will most likely get worse.
Aspirin, antacids, acupuncture, chemo-therapy, drugs, and a host of
other therapies and treatments deal with the symptoms of a problem,
and not with the problem itself. Think about this: If you took your car
to a mechanic, and you noticed he was merely unscrewing the bulb to
deal with your complaint, you’d be furious! But if you took your body
to a health-care practitioner, and he dealt only with your symptoms
and not with their underlying cause, most people wouldn’t think twice
about it, in fact, they’d be grateful for the relief of their symptoms.
(Fortunately, sometimes the only way to alleviate certain symptoms is
to deal with their cause, but this is the exception and not the rule.) The
difference between the mechanic and the doctor above is that the
mechanic was taking advantage of you knowingly, and the doctor is
just practicing what he’s been taught.
If you’re in pain, like the “check engine” light, there are two ways
to make the pain go away: Mask or otherwise eliminate the pain itself,
or resolve the condition that is causing the pain; which do you think is
in your body’s best interest. Sure, it’ll be more involved to deal with
the condition that is causing the pain, and likewise it’s easier to just
pop a pill and feel better, but this is where wisdom comes in. Are you
wise enough to make the decision that is best for your body, and not
choose a quick fix?
If you decide not to go the quick fix route, alarm bells will sound
in pharmaceutical and medical corporate offices around the world.
They don’t like you taking responsibility for your health and fitness,
and they go to great lengths to get you to believe that “your doctor” is
the best one to decide what is best for you. I am my own doctor. I
may consult with others for an opinion, but it is my responsibility to
decide how best to deal with something that affects my body.

Do you need to go to medical school to learn how to do this? No.
But you do need information on healing. Correct information.
Practical information. Truthful information. You need to know that
effective healing requires goodly amounts of restful sleep,
unburdened digestion, sufficient nutrients, and a cessation of the
factors that caused your ill-health in the first place. And you need to
know how to get deep sleep, how not to overwork the digestive
system, how to get enough nutrients without getting more calories
than you need, and what actually caused your illness (and don’t let
anyone tell you “we don’t know what causes cancer/diabetes/etc”).
Medical school is fine if you want to be a medical doctor. But if
you want to learn how to heal yourself and be vibrantly healthy, a
course of study that is easy to understand, direct, to the point, and
based on the science of the human body and the science of health –
called hygiene – is what you should seek. Are there workshops such
as this? Yes! Do you have to spend tons of time pouring over
mountains of material? No. Simply learn from those who have already
spent tons of time pouring over mountains of material. Do you have to
spend sack-fulls of money to get empowering and enlightening
information? No. Those educators who honestly care about people
will make this knowledge available at an affordable price. And if
you’re trying to heal from something, you can’t afford not to have the
information you need to make an informed decision as to how best to
facilitate your healing; your body is depending on you to make wise
choices… don’t let it down. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Knowing vs Believing
By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
If I asked you, “Do you know your date-of-birth?” you’d probably
give me the answer right off the top of your head, right? But do you
really know the date you were born, or would the more correct answer
be, “I believe I was born on...” I make this distinction for a very good
reason. Even though you were there at your birth, you were too young
to remember much about it, especially the date. At some point in your
life, you relied on what others told you your birth date was, and your

birth certificate (something in print from an authority) backed up
those statements.
A friend of mine from many years ago thought she knew what her
birth date was. I’m sure, like most of us, she would have been willing
to bet money on it. Then one day a thoughtful friend gave her, as a
birthday gift, one of those newspapers that were published on the date
of her birth, from the area she was born in. She thought the gift was
“so cool”. But in checking the accuracy of the paper, she noticed the
weather at the time of her birth: “clear and sunny”. This didn’t jibe
with her mom’s account of the day she was born. My friend had been
regaled, on more than one occasion, with the story of how she was
almost born in the car because it was raining so hard that some of the
streets were impassible, making it difficult to get to the hospital. But
yet there it was in black and white: “clear and sunny”. Her first
thought was that the newspaper wasn’t what it was advertised to be.
So she decided to prove it (and being a righter of wrongs, make a
stink about it). But a check of the Farmer’s Almanac for that day and
area revealed that it was indeed “clear and sunny”; and the National
Weather Service agreed with the Almanac. Turns out, the date on her
birth certificate was off by seven days, and rather than her parents
correcting this when it was discovered, they simply celebrated her
birthdays to coincide with the printed document.
The moral of the story? You don’t know your date-of-birth… you
believe it is the date on your birth certificate. Knowing and believing
are two entirely different things. But sometimes the two are used
interchangeably. No big deal, right? It really doesn’t significantly
impact anything if your real date-of-birth is a few days different than
what you thought it was. But what if you thought (knew) that
something you consumed on a regular basis was beneficial to your
health, when it was actually harmful to your health. Many people I
speak to are certain that milk and dairy products are good for your
health. So it’s natural, since they “know” this to be the case, that
when they’re given information to the contrary, they dismiss it out-of-
hand… because they know milk is good for them. In reality, they
believe milk is good for them. In reality, milk is not a normal, natural
part of an adult human’s diet, and does way more harm than good.
So why am I making this distinction between knowing something
and believing something? If I asked you, “Is milk good for you?” your
ability to hear the reality about dairy products is greatly affected by

your answer. If your thinking process is, “I know milk is good for
me”, you might have a difficult time hearing the facts surrounding
this topic. If, however, your position was, “I believe milk is good for
me” (same as, “My understanding is that milk is good for me), then
you’re more likely to be open to hearing information about the topic’s
facts and fictions. And you’ll take at face value “facts” from
“authorities” (whether in print or on T V) instead of accepting them as
the gospel truth (remember, although from an authority, my friend’s
birth certificate was incorrect; no doubt an honest mistake, but a lot of
information regarding health is intentionally misleading).
Needless to say, being open-minded, especially about issues
dealing with your health, is in your best interest. And one of the best
ways to be open-minded is to realize that many of the things you
know to be true, you actually believe to be true… and acknowledge
that there’s a difference. Remember, “What can do you the most harm
is what you know, that just ain’t so.” 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
High Cholesterol:
Putting Things in Perspective
By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
Most people either have normal cholesterol levels, or their
cholesterol is “high”. If you have normal cholesterol levels, it doesn’t
mean you have a clean bill of health. Many people who have normal
cholesterol levels have heart disease, fatal heart attacks, cancer,
diabetes, arthritis, and other degenerative diseases.
If you have high cholesterol, it isn’t the only health problem you
have. This is because high cholesterol is usually due to a dietary
intake of cholesterol, which means there’s accompanying amounts of
saturated fat, hormones, and damaged animal protein. Yes, we need
cholesterol, but our body manufactures all that we need; we aren’t
designed to deal with getting exogenous (from the outside) cholesterol
(the pharmaceutical industry would have you believe that high
cholesterol is the fault of your genetics; this is a tactic to sell meds).
The abundance of Coronary Artery Disease in this country is caused
by unhealthy diets; diets containing cholesterol. But the container of

milk in your fridge implies that it is okay to consume cholesterol.
Under the “Nutrition Facts” section it says, “Cholesterol, amount per
one cup serving, 3% of Daily Value”. The fine print tells you the
Percent of Daily Value is based on a 2,000 calorie diet, and “Your
Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on your caloric
needs”. Doesn’t all this suggest to you that some consumed
cholesterol is okay, as long is it remains within your “Daily Value”?
If you’re not designed to consume cholesterol, the information on the
side of dairy product containers would be misleading.
If your cholesterol is high due to dietary reasons, your diet is
affecting you in ways other than just an elevated cholesterol level. If
you use cholesterol lowering medications to bring down those high
levels, you are bringing them down in an unnatural manner, meaning
that the natural way to bring down elevated levels is to discover why
they are elevated in the first place, and deal with the cause… and the
cause is not because you are suffering from a cholesterol-lowering
drug deficiency. But the medical/pharmaceutical industry feels that
the best way to deal with high cholesterol is not to stop eating it, but
to give you drugs that inhibit your body’s cholesterol manufacturing
ability (statin drugs), this way you can continue to eat things that
contain cholesterol and have a normal level. But the problem is, these
things can cause other health-damaging conditions as well.
If indeed your elevated cholesterol level is due to your diet, and
you use cholesterol lowering drugs to lower the level, you may feel
better about your health, but the health-damaging effects from your
diet are still there. And high serum cholesterol really isn’t the problem
anyway. A high level was thought to be a good marker of poor
cardiovascular health. Today it is beginning to catch on that your
serum homocysteine level is a much better marker of cardiovascular
health than your cholesterol levels. In my opinion (and in the opinion
of those far more educated in these matters than I), serum
homocysteine should be part of the “basic panel” of blood tests given
routinely during checkups (and certainly when people present
themselves to a doctor with any kind of health issue). Homocysteine
is an amino acid found in the blood that’s important for normal
metabolism. The body maintains safe levels of homocysteine by
converting excess amounts to a beneficial amino acid. Folic acid and
vitamins B6 and B12 play an essential role in this process, however,
this conversion system lags when there’s a shortage of these nutrients,

allowing homocysteine levels to become dangerously elevated. A
chronically high homocysteine level damages the lining of artery
walls, causing them to become thickened, inelastic, and lined with
plaque. Over time, this condition can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
A normal homocysteine level is around eight. If yours is 20, you have
four times the risk of a fatal heart attack during the next five years
when compared to someone with a normal level. To say that this is
statistically significant is an understatement.
I said above that your blood level of cholesterol really isn’t the
problem, it’s the cholesterol that has become part of the cement-like
substance that lines your arteries that’s going to cause trouble. But
that’s one of cholesterol’s jobs, to act as a type of Band-Aid to protect
a damaged area of your artery while the area heals. But if you insult
your body daily with things that end up in your bloodstream that
damage your arteries, there’ll be a proportional amount of repair work
going on. And over time, this excessive repairing can constrict blood
flow. Now let’s look at the real villain in heart disease.
Over 80% of men in the U.S. by age 58 have Coronary Artery
Disease which can be found by an angiogram, and over half with a
cholesterol level of 230 have at least one coronary artery already
closed by 50% or more. But Coronary Artery Disease is not very
deadly – the overall risk of death for people with affected arteries is
less than two percent per year, untreated. The blockages formed partly
by cholesterol are partial obstructions to heart blood flow, and are not
the life-threatening problem. Big blockages rarely close down the
arteries, and almost never cause heart attacks. The real villains in
heart disease, according to Dr. John McDougall, are “tiny sores
(volatile plaques) which explode inside your arteries, suddenly
forming an occluding blood clot. Fortunately, because the lesions are
recently formed, soft, and active, this deadly side of heart disease is
also easily amenable to simple methods.” A healthy diet can very
quickly subdue these little volatile plaque time bombs, and spare you
from unnecessary suffering and possible premature death. But how
does the medical field suggest dealing with arterial plaque? Adjust
your diet so the body can remove the blockages itself (which it can
do)? No. Their answer is an angioplasty! Let’s simply squish the
relatively soft blockage with a balloon, thus opening up your artery.
And when more plaque accumulates there causing another blockage
(which it surely will if you don’t modify your diet), we’ll squish it

again. Brilliant. Now instead of a soft, easy-for-the-body-to-remove
mass, there’s a hard difficult-for-the-body-to-remove mass. And only
a few angioplasties can be done before you need bypass surgery.
Statin drugs deal with a symptom (high cholesterol), not the
underlying cause of the high cholesterol. Eighty-five percent of the
people who die from heart attacks have normal cholesterol thanks
in part to statin drugs!
Many people’s recent attempts at weight loss via the low carb type
diets (Atkins, Zone, South Beach, etc) only add to the cardiovascular
system’s burdens. A diet high in fat and/or protein is a disaster
waiting to happen (please see health101.org/atkins.htm).
www.
What can you do when bombarded with potential health

misinformation? If you care about your health, question everything
you’re told (including this article). Get truthful facts. An industry’s
“facts” only serve the industry, and shame on those authors who try
and get you to believe something that isn’t in your best interest,
health-wise, because it will sell books.
So as you can see, there’s more to the cholesterol issue than most
people are aware. And the same thinking applies to high blood
pressure, diabetes, asthma, etc. Treat health care as you would any
other purchase; be a smart shopper and an educated consumer. 
See also health101.org/art_cholesterol.htm
www.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Personal Taste” Explained

By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
People have personal tastes in clothes, personal tastes in art, and
members of one gender have personal tastes in members of the other
gender. These tastes are somewhat subjective, but what about
personal taste when it comes to food? It seems this kind of personal
taste has a lot to do with the hardwiring in our brain, and the condition
of our taste sensing mechanisms… in-other-words, it has less to do
with preference, and more to do with physiology.
I’m sure you’ve noticed how some people find what you like to eat
not to their liking, and some things that other people love to eat, you
find distasteful. Many simply call this, “personal taste”, but what
exactly is personal taste when it comes to food? What accounts for me

making yummy noises when eating a durian (tropical fruit), while
others think it is the most vile thing they’ve ever tasted?
Your nose and your tongue dictate how something tastes to you.
First let’s talk about the 10,000 taste buds that call your tongue home.
But to get a thorough understanding of why there exists such a vast
difference in the way people perceive the same food, taste-wise, we
need to look even closer. What are taste buds made of? Cells; each
bud containing approximately 75 cells, therefore 750,000 taste
receptors stand at the ready to make you go “yum” or “yuk”. Your
nose has cells that are responsible for foods’ flavor too; in fact about
80% of “taste” is the nose’s job. Now on to the “personal” in
personal taste.
Your body has trillions of cells, each one responsible for a specific
task. The cells of your retina sense light, the cells of the Islets of
Langerhans in your pancreas make insulin, and the cells of your taste
buds react to the different flavors of foods; sweet, salty, sour, and
bitter. If a particular cell isn’t operating properly, the function it’s
responsible for will be adversely affected to a small degree. But if
most or all of the cells responsible for that function aren’t operating
the way they were designed to operate, that function won’t be “right”.
The cells of your taste buds, and therefore your sense of taste, adheres
to this law of health.
You don’t need much of an imagination to understand why a
cigarette smoker’s sense of taste can be way off; the smoke affects the
taste bud cells not only directly, but indirectly as well. The indirect
effect is because the smoke’s tars, nicotines, and other substances
wreak havoc with the body, affecting all the body’s cells, including
the cells of the taste buds and nose “buds”. Similarly, if someone is
engaging in any habit that is unnatural, the body’s cells will be
affected accordingly. Abuse of the human body is not restricted to
cigarette smoking; other lifestyle habits negatively affect cells too.
Consuming alcoholic beverages, recreational and prescription drugs,
and damaged food (cooked food), will negatively impact your cells;
some cells more than others… taste bud cells for example.
Many people who have transitioned from an unhealthy lifestyle to
a healthy one report the following: foods (that the human body is not
designed for) that used to taste delicious now don’t, and the foods (of
one’s biological design) that in the past didn’t taste so good, now taste
great! Why? Because the taste bud cells can regain their normal

functionality when the body’s health improves. This is why people
who are beginning to adopt healthy habits need to keep trying the
natural foods they at one time didn’t like… they’ll likely find their
tastes changing in favor of the flavors they’re designed to experience.
Another factor that contributes to how food tastes to you is the
taste buds’ sensitivity. Here’s a test you can try at home: After waking
up, and before eating anything, take a bite out of a nice, sweet, ripe
banana. Then put it down and take a bite out of a sweet candy bar.
Chew it good, making sure it spends a lot of “face time” with your
tongue. Then spit it out, and take another bite out of that banana.
Interesting how it tasted sweet a moment ago, but now it tastes like
cardboard. What this demonstrates is how your taste buds can be
desensitized. If day after day, year after year, you eat foods that are
loaded with refined sweeteners, you won’t be able to enjoy the natural
sweetness of Nature’s natural candy: fruit.
Why are processed foods so much sweeter than natural foods? It’s
simple: Humans are programmed to seek out the sweetest foods. This
fact is not lost on the processed food industry. If the sweetness of the
sweetest fruit is 100 on a scale of 1 to 100, food manufacturers design
their “food” to be 150 on the same scale. That’s why if you give a
toddler a choice between a piece of sweet mango and a piece of sweet
candy, after sampling both, he’ll go for the candy every time, because
that’s how our brains are hardwired. And that’s how companies take
advantage of our sweet tooth. And by-the-way, a sweet tooth is a very
normal, natural thing to have, so you needn’t apologetically admit you
have one. And as long as we’ve gone off-topic for a moment, you
should know that naturally sweet foods such as fruit (simple carbs)
are an optimal source of clean burning fuel for us (as opposed to
complex carbs which are not naturally sweet to the tongue).
The desensitizing of our taste buds by abnormally tasty processed
food isn’t restricted to sweetness; the same goes for salty as well. But
natural food’s saltiness is a more subtle taste than sweetness, so if you
eat salty junk food, or worse, if you add salt to your food, you are
never going to taste the natural saltiness in natural foods. And, over
time, you’ll likely have to salt your meals to be able to taste them at
all. But fear not, you can re-sensitize your taste buds simply by
avoiding unnaturally sweet and salty items.
A discussion of taste would not be complete without mentioning
two other things: 1. Organically grown food tastes better than food

grown with pesticides. Organic farmers tend to care more about their
soil’s health, and this translates into higher quality produce, nutrient-
wise. And the more nutritious the food, the better it tastes. 2. You can
judge how yummy a particular food is by the yummy noises you
make when you eat them. Now that my taste buds are back to the way
they were when I was a toddler, when I eat a delicious mango or
scrumptious durian, I make yummy noises, the likes of which I never
made when I ate the processed foods that most people describe as
being “out of this world”; and that says something about the power-
to-pleasure that the foods on Nature’s menu possess.
So remember, when it comes to food, personal taste isn’t just
affected by your use of condiments, it’s greatly influenced by your
lifestyle habits, including diet, sleep, sunshine, stress, physical
activity, toxins, and hydration. The healthier you live, the healthier
your taste buds will be. And the healthier your taste buds are, the
more sensitive your sense of taste, and so the tastier life can be! 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Osteoporosis:
An Information Deficiency Disease
By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
Many people would characterize osteoporosis as a calcium
deficiency disease. Nothing could be further from the truth. The
United States has one of the highest rates of osteoporosis in the world,
yet is one of the highest consumers of dairy products, products touted
for their high calcium content. It isn’t that we’re not getting enough
calcium, it’s that we’re losing more than we get; a “negative calcium
balance”. Because of this, osteoporosis kills more women every year
than cancer of the breast, cervix, and uterus combined. Why have 25
million people in this country been diagnosed with osteoporosis? This
doesn’t have to be!
There was a poster in a doctor’s office, put out by a
pharmaceutical company, that said, “Take [name of drug] to help
prevent the bone loss disease, Osteoporosis”. I was shocked! Like a
lot of other “diseases”, osteoporosis is not a disease; it is a symptom
of an underlying condition. It literally means porous bones. It’s not

caused by something their pill is going to address, but the drug
company would have you believe that it’s a disease, and since the best
way to deal with disease is to prevent it, take this pill. I say, find out
why your bones are losing their mass, and correct the cause. And like
I said above, it’s unlikely that you’re not getting enough calcium.
When bone mass is lost, bones are weakened and become more
susceptible to fracture. Americans suffer more than 1.5 million
fractures every year from osteoporosis. It’s a widespread problem,
affecting both men and women, with potentially devastating
consequences. Approximately 25% will never walk again unassisted,
25% will end up in nursing homes, and 25% will die within three
months of conditions related to the fracture. Like most other chronic,
degenerative conditions, osteoporosis is extremely rare among
cultures that eat traditional plant-based diets.
We replace about 20% of our bone mass every year, but with
osteoporosis, more bone is lost than is replaced. What accounts for
this? If you eat a diet that is high in meat, dairy, sugar, salt,
phosphorous, and caffeine, and low in fresh fruits and vegetables, and
don’t get enough exercise, and sunshine, you’re writing yourself a
prescription for osteoporosis. Specifically, here are some of the things
that can cause bone loss.
Meat is a high protein product. Animal protein metabolizes in our
bodies forming two strong acids, sulfuric and phosphoric. To keep our
blood pH slightly alkaline, our bodies need to neutralize (buffer) these
acids, and calcium is the best substance our bodies have to do this.
And the most plentiful source of calcium is, you guessed it, our bones.
Animal protein also contains large amounts of phosphorous, which
reacts with calcium to form an insoluble compound, inhibiting
calcium absorption. If you eat a diet high in animal protein, it doesn’t
matter how much calcium you consume, you will still lose bone mass.
“Dietary protein increases production of acid in the blood which can be
neutralized by calcium mobilized from the skeleton.” – American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1995
Dairy products are another factor in bone loss. If milk were really
good for our bones, Americans would have some of the strongest
bones in the world. Instead, we have some of the weakest! For the
same reasons as meat (high protein), the calcium in dairy products
causes a negative calcium balance; more calcium is lost than is

gained. Additionally, milk is low in magnesium, a needed co-factor
for calcium uptake. In-other-words, if you want to improve your
chances of getting osteoporosis, consume plenty of milk, cheese,
yogurt, and ice cream.
“The myth that osteoporosis is caused by calcium deficiency was
created to sell dairy products and calcium supplements. There’s no
truth to it. American women are among the biggest consumers of
calcium in the world, and they still have one of the highest levels of
osteoporosis in the world. And eating even more dairy products and
calcium supplements is not going to change that fact.”
– Dr. John McDougall
Another contributor to osteoporosis: Refined sugar. These sugars
are absorbed quickly, and rapidly increase the glucose levels in our
cells. These levels increase faster than the cell’s oxygen level, which
causes incomplete oxidation of the glucose, which form acids. And as
stated above, acids acidify the body, requiring buffering with calcium
which leads to bone loss. And processed sugars strip the body of
magnesium, which is needed for bone remineralization.
Soda containing phosphoric acid also contributes to osteoporosis;
the acid having to be neutralized with calcium.
While a major culprit, diet isn’t the only cause of osteoporosis.
Bone loss is also intensified by smoking, caffeine, alcohol, and lack
of weight-bearing exercise and adequate sunshine. But besides bone
loss, lack of bone gain also invites osteoporosis. Adequate absorption
of vitamins and minerals are necessary to form new bone. As you
might expect, calcium is a big player in this process. But it is usable
calcium that forms bone. Good sources of bioavailable calcium are
green vegetables like romaine lettuce and spinach, and various fruits
like strawberries for example (actually all fruits have some calcium).
Bone building also needs magnesium, which converts vitamin D to
its bioactive form necessary for calcium absorption. Exposure to
adequate amounts of sunlight will provide you with vitamin D.
Manganese is another player, needed both for bone mineralization and
for synthesis of the organic matrix on which calcification takes place.
A host of other nutrients are essential for strong bones. Folic acid,
vitamins K, B6, C, and the minerals silicon, boron and zinc play a
major role. Eating a plant-based diet consisting of a variety of fresh,
unprocessed, uncooked, organic fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds is a

great way to get these nutrients. Along with weight-bearing exercise,
enough sunshine, and the avoidance of lifestyle habits that interfere
with calcium absorption, you should be able to have healthy bones for
your entire life.
As you can see, osteoporosis is an avoidable condition (and not
one caused by a deficiency of calcium supplements). And the good
news is that if you adopt lifestyle practices that help prevent its
formation, you’ll also benefit by reducing the risk factors for other
degenerative conditions that are caused by the same things that cause
osteoporosis.
“The dairy industry has a powerful hold on the nutrition industry in this
country; it pays huge numbers of dietitians, doctors, and researchers to
push dairy products, spending more than $300 million annually, just at
the national level, to retain a market for its products. The dairy industry
has infiltrated schools, bought off sports stars, celebrities, and
politicians, pushing all the while an agenda based on profit, rather than
public health… Despite the dairy industry funding study after study to try
to prove its claims, Dr. John McDougall, upon examining all the
available nutritional studies and evidence, concludes: “The primary
cause of osteoporosis is the high-protein diet most Americans consume
today. As one leading researcher in this area said, ‘Eating a high-protein
diet is like pouring acid rain on your bones.’” Remarkably enough, if
dairy products have any effect, both clinical and population evidence
strongly implicate them in causing, rather than preventing,
osteoporosis.” – Bruce Friedrich 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Diabetes Caused by Misinformation

By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
We can all agree that misinformation is, in general, a bad thing.
But when it concerns health information, incorrect and/or misleading
information can cause needless suffering and premature death. This is
why people like me have devoted our lives to rectifying incorrect health
information, for how can you make informed decisions regarding your
health, when your decision-making process is hampered by false facts.

Let’s take diabetes for example. This is a serious condition.
Normally your body controls the amount of sugar that’s fed to your
cells. It does this every second of every minute of every hour of every
day. But when you take over this function and control your blood
sugar “manually” a few times a day, something’s gotta suffer. It’s one
thing if you have no choice, and your body is no longer capable of
doing its job, but my experience has been that there are a lot of people
with “diabetes” who honestly believe they can only manage their
illness, and hope that one day there will be a cure, when they needn’t
have this condition at all. Why do these folks believe something that’s
not true? Lack of information, or worse, having misinformation.
If you study the current diabetes info available on Medline, you’ll
discover there are almost 600 new diabetes studies featuring hundreds
of different theories and conclusions. A good example of
misinterpretation (and I’m being kind here), is the study that shows
that absence of breast-feeding is associated with the risk of type 1
diabetes, thus the search is on for the substance in breast milk that
helps prevent diabetes. Is it lost on mainstream researchers that if a
baby is not being fed breast milk, it is being fed something else, and
that maybe it’s what is being fed in place of breast milk that’s
increasing the risk of diabetes, and not the other way around. Well,
we usually have profit motive to thank for research going down the
wrong path.
But let’s now wander down the right path: is there research that
links cow’s milk consumption with diabetes? Have a look at this
study published in The Lancet on December 14, 1996, “Cow’s milk
proteins are unique in one respect: in industrialized countries they are
the first foreign proteins entering the infant gut, since most
formulations for babies are cow milk-based. The first pilot stage of
our IDD [insulin-dependent diabetes] prevention study found that oral
exposure to dairy milk proteins in infancy resulted in both cellular and
immune response...this suggests the possible importance of the gut
immune system to the pathogenesis of IDD.”
And four years earlier the New England Journal of Medicine
reported, “Studies have suggested that bovine [cow] serum albumin is
the milk protein responsible for the onset of diabetes... Patients with
insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus produce antibodies to cow milk
proteins that participate in the development of islet dysfunction [the
part of the pancreas that makes insulin]... Taken as a whole, our

findings suggest that an active response in patients with IDD (to the
bovine protein) is a feature of the autoimmune response.” So there is
mighty compelling evidence to suggest that those folks who are
predisposed to diabetes should refrain from consuming cow milk, but
I’ve looked, and I don’t see that warning printed on milk cartons (or
the warning that the hormone IGF-1 in cow’s milk acts like gasoline
being poured on a fire, the fire being any as-of-yet undiagnosed cancer
you may have). In fact, I recently saw an “independent researcher”
telling T V viewers that dairy foods can help prevent diabetes!
While strolling through a mall the other day, I was asked to donate
money to help find the cure for diabetes. Since the majority of people
with diabetes have type 2 (adult onset), and since I know that many
people with type 2 diabetes may rid themselves of it by eating a
“special” diet, as far as I’m concerned, there is already a “cure” for
diabetes. This “special” diet is nothing more than the diet a human
being is designed to eat (hint: you can find the majority of these foods
in a good grocery store’s produce department). The problem is, in our
culture, this diet is relatively unheard of, so when it is suggested as a
means of alleviating diabetes (or other maladies), people scoff at the
notion. But if eating what you’re designed to eat, and not eating what
you’re not designed to eat means your blood sugar level stays within
normal parameters without your intervention (testing and diabetes
medications), which means that, technically, you don’t have diabetes,
I’d go down that road because nothing does a better job of regulating
blood sugar than a well-functioning blood sugar regulatory system.
And if someone who is predisposed to diabetes gets diabetes because
they live a “non-human” lifestyle, especially diet-wise, well, to me
that sounds like a normal, natural response, and not something in need
of a cure. But since there are a lot of people who want to be able to
have their cake and eat it too (literally), a search for a cure will
continue... but don’t hold your breath. There is never going to be an
actual “cure” for diabetes, cancer, etc., because they are perfectly
natural conditions; they are a natural result of someone’s lifestyle. It’s
just like there will never be a cure for broken bones; if you fall off a
cliff and break bones, those broken bones are a natural outcome.
Bottom line, if you want the best odds of avoiding diabetes, and
other degenerative diseases, consider living as Nature intended, and
be on the lookout for one of the biggest causes of illness;
misinformation. 

Adult Diseases Begin in Childhood
By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
An important thing to understand about ill-health is that it doesn’t
develop overnight. In most cases, disease takes years, even decades,
to progress to the point where you get symptoms. The diagnosis may
seem sudden, but the condition was a long time in the making. Take
cancer for example. When my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer,
the tumor was as big as my fist. The oncologist said it can take
decades for a tumor to grow to be that size. How about diabetes? It is
estimated that in another ten years 95% of the U.S. population will
have it in some form. Ninety-five percent! Good news for the
medical/pharmaceutical industries, bad news for the human race. For
sale now are insulin pumps for children, decorated with their favorite
T V characters, this in an effort to make diabetes easier to live with,
and more acceptable. I prefer focusing on the cause, which is known,
it’s just not common knowledge. Avoiding degenerative disease is
certainly better than having to deal with it.
When I was in my late teens, I experienced “roller-coaster” blood
sugar levels. When my blood sugar was high, I couldn’t sit still and
couldn’t concentrate; when it was low, I was without energy, and my
thinking was fuzzy at best. When it was in the middle (normal), I felt
great, and I loved life! This blood sugar level behavior, if allowed to
continue, can lead to diabetes. If I hadn’t adjusted my eating habits to
halt this daily roller-coaster ride, I’d probably have diabetes today
(regardless of genetic predisposition).
When my niece, Tiffany, was nine years old, she experienced
abnormally high and low blood sugar levels (hyper- and hypo-
glycemia), but more profoundly than I ever did, and at nine years old!
When her level was low, you couldn’t carry on a conversation with
her, she was too out-of-it. And when it was high, well, don’t try and
take her anywhere in a car. The cause? Her diet. How do I know?
When she spent time with me, she didn’t get any junk food or dairy
products, only healthy fare (fruits and veggies), and her blood sugar
levels remained in the normal range. When she ate what a human
being is designed to eat, she was a delight to be with; creative,
articulate, bright, fun, eager to learn, and most notably, well behaved.
Diet can not only have a profound affect on one’s health, but it can
also influence one’s behavior... especially a child’s.

Many children have been put on drugs to deal with symptoms that
are most likely caused by an unhealthy diet. For most parents, this is
due to a lack of knowledge, which is easy to remedy. For some
parents however, even though they’ve been given truthful information,
it’s just easier to put the child on drugs than to impose, and have to
enforce, strict dietary practices (granted, most school lunch programs
don’t make this any easier). And shame on the pharmaceutical
companies that give school districts financial incentives to
recommend that students be put on Ritalin or other drugs.
It seems to be the thing now-a-days to see how many acronyms
can be created for “emerging” diseases. Is there an evil species on
another planet that’s pointing a ADHD/SAD/CFS beam, or a diabetes
ray, at this planet? Or is it more likely that an unhealthy diet and the
lack of attention to the other “Basics of Health” are to blame.
Even if a child’s uneven blood sugar level is sociably tolerable,
since it can lead to diabetes later on in life, isn’t this reason enough to
feed the child a healthy diet? Yes, drugs can control behavioral
problems, but what if they are behavioral problems caused by an
unhealthy diet. The drugs deal only with the behavior; what about the
diet’s damaging effects on the child’s internal organs. The pancreas
plays a big role in the management of blood sugar levels; damage the
pancreas, say hello to diabetes.
A healthy diet in childhood is an investment in your future health.
No one would argue that it is a wise thing to start investing for your
financial future early in life, but how many of us actually think about
investing for our future health? There are parallels between health and
finances; if you wait too long to start investing, it can be a case of too
little too late. An example of a good investment, health-wise: Eat
pesticide-free, organically grown fruits and veggies, and avoid dairy
and grain products.
Where do you go for sound, truthful health information? Well, I
know people who were told by their doctor, in no uncertain terms,
that they’d have to be on medication for the rest of their life. Yet, with
adherence to proper lifestyle practices, they were able to eliminate the
meds and the symptoms that warranted their prescription. Now, I’m
not suggesting you stop taking medication, just that there’s a lot of
misinformation out there, and many mainstream (and alternative)
healthcare practitioners are simply lacking truthful knowledge, so you
can’t blame them for relying on drugs when there are better options.

The remedy? Educate yourself, keeping in mind that there is nothing
more important than your health, or the health of your children. This
will help you stay well ahead of the too-little-too-late curve. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At Least I Have My Health

By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
This past Thanksgiving, I took part in the annual ritual of giving
thanks. One by one, in turn, people announced to those assembled
what they were thankful for. Some were thankful for the good fortune
they experienced during the year, some gave thanks for a blessed
event, and some were thankful to still be in one piece (there had been
a lot of severe hurricanes in 2005). But when I heard, “I’m thankful to
have my health”, something struck me.
After dinner, as people milled around sharing tales of hurricane
survival, I heard more than a few times, “...but at least we have our
health”. If I had asked these people, “How do you know you’re in
good health?” some of them may have given the question serious
thought, and no doubt some would have looked at me as if I had two
heads.
But it raises an important question: When does health fail? Do you
lose your standing of “good health” when, during an annual physical,
you get a diagnosis of something serious? Maybe technically, but for
all practical purposes, no. Are you in “good health” up until the point
at which you begin to feel “off”, enough so that you schedule an
appointment with a doctor? It may appear so, and if indeed what ails
you is an acute (sudden) illness, then the answer may be yes, but the
vast majority of disease today is not acute, it is chronic, from the
Greek word khronos, meaning time. The majority of disease plaguing
our society is degenerative disease (and it is, by all definitions, a
plague); you degenerate slowly, over time. So the diagnosis of cancer,
for example, may appear sudden, but it was a long time in forming to
get to the point that it was detectable by tests or that the symptoms it
caused caught your attention.
Symptoms come in two flavors: apparent and unapparent. Over the
course of 30 years you may not have consciously noticed a loss of

vitality; and if you had, you might simply chalk it up to “getting
older”. But what if it was a degenerative disease that was responsible
for this loss of vim and vigor. Loss of vitality and energy can be
symptoms of disease, and just because it happens over a long period
of time doesn’t make it any less a symptom.
So although one of the markers of good health can be the absence
of disease, the absence of noticeable symptoms is not necessarily an
indication of good health. Going by today’s statistics, and by what
science knows about disease progression, the majority of folks who
say, “At least I have my health” are a stone’s throw away from a
diagnosis (or an episode) that will rock their world.
Why do I bring up this issue? I mention it because if you want to
be able to say, “I have my health” and you want it to be an accurate
statement, you need to do more of the things that cause health, and
less of the things that cause disease. Now you may have just thought,
“I know you can cause disease, but can you cause health?” You
absolutely can! Health and disease are a continuum; they are two
sides of the same coin. Your lifestyle choices and habits dictate where
you are on that sliding scale. If you are all the way to one side of it,
the healthy side, does it guarantee that you will live a disease-free
life? No; there are no such guarantees. But what it does do is give you
the absolute best odds of avoiding degenerative disease, and the
needless suffering and premature death that go along with it. And it
gives you the best odds of having a vibrant, energetic quality-of-life
(which I feel is more important than quantity of life), and it gives you
the best odds of experiencing your “happiness potential”.
Who wouldn’t want the best odds of being disease-free! One
obvious answer is a cigarette smoker (who is not honestly trying to
quit). Another example is a person who claims they care about their
health, but when presented with compelling information that would
suggest they are partaking of something that’s health-damaging, they
dismiss the information out-of-hand because they can’t let themselves
believe it may be true. But if you are someone who truly wants the
best odds of avoiding disease, the best odds of feeling great, and the
best odds of being happy, then take the time to take stock of your
lifestyle choices. Don’t wait until you get a diagnosis of something
serious to start reversing disease; start reversing disease now, before
you experience symptoms or that dreaded diagnosis. A maxim of

health (health truism) is: “The sooner you start reversing any disease
you may have, the better your odds of not ‘getting it’.”
A good starting point in your stock-taking is to look at what are
called the Basics of Health – diet, physical activity, sufficient water,
fresh air, sunshine, sleep, stress management, toxin/poison avoidance,
and education (to be better able to recognize health misinformation).
And pay equal attention to each of these basics (if you focus on one
more than the others, it is physiologically impossible to be as healthy
as you can be). Make adjustments to your lifestyle practices that are
doable, “detoxify” yourself in a tolerable fashion, and don’t beat
yourself up if you take “two steps back”; that goes with the territory.
There’s a lot to discover, and uncover, about being truly healthy,
partly because our society is sick-care not health-care oriented.
Indeed, our so-called health-care system is based on disease
management, not disease prevention. Modern medicine is primarily
reactionary in nature, just as it was centuries ago. But to avoid
disease, you need to take a preemptive approach, and knowledge of
how to be healthy is an empowering tool to help you accomplish this.
So if you honestly care about your health (and your future health),
go ahead and make those positive changes in yourself, so that if you
say, “At least I have my health”, it’ll be the truth, and not merely
wishful thinking. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We’re all Different... Really?

By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
It’s hard to read health oriented literature without seeing something
that suggests that since we’re all different, we require different diets.
People who readily embrace this notion that we need different diets
because “we’re all different” very often believe this because they
want to believe it, for it allows them to eat the foods they want to eat,
as opposed to the foods they should be eating (health-enhancing
foods).
In truth, the inside of our bodies are more alike than different.
Speaking before a group of folks, I mentioned this physiological fact.
I said, “Everyone in this room has a liver, and all of your livers

function the exact same way.” With that, someone called out, “You’re
wrong; people’s livers work differently!” My response was simply, “If
you looked up the word liver in a medical dictionary, you’d find only
one definition; there isn’t a definition for Bob’s liver and one for
Sally’s, or one definition for the livers of people with Type O blood
and one for people with Type A. All livers function the same way;
what differs from person to person is the degree of functionality.” So,
all organs work the same regardless of which human being they’re in.
Therefore they all have the same requirements; they all need enough
vitamin C, enough rest, enough omega 3 fatty acids, etc. The amounts
needed may differ from person to person depending on the relative
state of health of the organ, but they all need the same nutrients.
Since our bodies need the same nutrition, our bodies need the same
diet. The idea that blood type, “metabolic type”, eye color, or zodiac
sign determines one’s diet is false. The article, The Blood Type Diet:
Fact or Fiction? at health101.org does an excellent job of debunking
the blood type diet. But with so much blood type diet books and
merchandise around, it’s difficult for some people to believe that it
could be a bunch of nonsense. There are over a dozen books that tout
the merits of drinking your own urine, and the practice is hyped at
fancy salons in upscale neighborhoods, and has followers around the
world… but regardless of how many seemingly intelligent people do
it, all things considered, it’s still an unhealthy thing to do. (Excellent
articles dealing with diet can also be found on the health101.org
website.)
How did we get so far away from Nature? How did so many
unhealthy things become part of our everyday lives? How did tons of
practices that are not natural become the norm? Free will, that’s how.
Humans are the only animal capable of consciously doing things that
are not in our best interest. We are the only life form that can
knowingly and willingly do things that injure our insides. We are very
programmable, and this natural human trait has been taken advantage
of by those who care more about their popularity or financial gain
than they do about other’s well-being.
I spoke above about being more the same than different on the
inside; but even on the outside we’re more alike than different. Think
about it. Unless we were born with a birth defect, or had an accident,
we all have two hands on two arms each with five fingers one being
an opposable thumb, a nose with two nostrils, two legs with knees,

ears with stereo hearing, color stereoscopic eyesight, bipedal
locomotion via two feet each with five toes, we’ve got hips, nipples, a
navel, skin (different shades of the same color), and our height is
within a very narrow range – at least it used to be before we began
eating hormones (from milk and animal flesh). So you see, we’re
more alike than different on the outside too! Sure, there are different
eye colors, hair colors, and skin tones, and some belly-buttons are
“inies” and some are “outies”, but so what! These differences are tiny
compared to the similarities, right? Yet, there were times in our
history when some people made a big deal if someone’s hair or eye
color was different, and just as ridiculous, if someone’s skin tone was
a different shade from someone else’s. Have we progressed/matured
much as a species? Well, there are still people today who hurt other
people because they are a little different on the outside. But what’s
worse, there are people who do things that hurt people’s insides, and
profit from it financially, and this is what accounts for the epidemic of
degenerative disease we have in this world today.
What dictates what we’re supposed to eat is not our blood type
anymore than it is our hair color; it is the form and function of our
digestive system; a system that is basically the same in all human
beings. Yes, some digestive systems function better than others, but
they are all designed to process food the exact same way, and they all
require the same nutrition. Why all the dietary confusion? A
combination of profit motive, and the fact that humans are very
programmable (i.e. conditionable, brainwashable). So how do you
separate fact from fiction (assuming you care about being the
healthiest you are capable of being)? Start thinking outside the box.
Take Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Dr. Aktins and the low-carb
industry, the diet pill pushers, the barbaric bariatric surgeons, the
processed food manufacturers, the “alternative healers” and all the
other diet “experts”, and put them in a box, and put the box in your
closet for a few minutes. Let’s explore a way of thinking that is more
in harmony with Nature, and thus in your best interest, health-wise.
How about a way of approaching lifestyle choices that combines
the use of observation, science, innate intelligence, reason, and
experience, and let’s use all these things together to effectively and
wisely live in balance with Nature, and make your lives more
pleasant, and your bodies less burdened. This way of living would
surely give you best chance of avoiding disease, unnecessary

suffering, and premature death. Sounds like this philosophy should be
taught in high school, but it isn’t because it would call into question
many of today’s societal norms – alcohol consumption, eating dead
animals and other things you aren’t designed to eat, cigarette
smoking, medicinal drug use, and unapparent destructive habits that
are pushed on your subconscious every day by the media. If enough
people became aware of these things, it would severely injure our
economy (the revenue of those industries that directly and indirectly
profit from your ill-health), so you’re not about to see truthful health
information in our schools or on your T V.
There are many outside-the-box articles on the health101.org
website. If you are looking to be enlightened, they will surely
enlighten you. If you are looking to be empowered, they will certainly
empower you. They will help you be the person you truly want to be,
and not the person profit-seeking industries want you to be.
You can now take that box back out of the closet… those in it can’t
wait to tell you that everything I’ve just said is ridiculous, and that
you’d be foolish to pay any attention to it. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Syndrome of Syndromes

By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
A new syndrome is upon us: AED, Any Excuse for a Drug. The
pharmaceutical industry has become very adept at taking a bunch of
already existing symptoms and assigning them a syndrome or disorder
(usually identified by a three or four letter acronym so it’s easy for
you to remember). But don’t worry, they’ve created a new drug to
manage this new condition. Ask your doctor if Restorall is right for
you... You needn’t suffer from RLS anymore (Restless Leg
Syndrome). The fact that AADD (Adult Attention Deficit Disorder)
might be avoided simply by eating the diet you’re designed to eat,
getting amounts of physical activity you’re designed to have, and not
consuming things that help cause this “disorder” in the first place, is
not something you’re going to hear from them. But who can blame
them; they’re not in that business! You can’t blame the shoe industry
from trying to get you to buy more shoes than you actually need, and

neither can you blame the drug industry for wanting everyone on the
planet to be on multiple drugs. Shoes that you don’t need will only
hurt your bank account; drugs that you don’t need will hurt you.
When you tell a child in school to sit still in their chair and pay
attention, the pay attention part isn’t the problem, the problem is the
sitting still in the chair when the child is full of vibrant energy and
exuberance (and maybe stimulation from a sugar-laden breakfast). It’s
not natural to expect a child like that to pay attention! And if his
attention is less than desired, then by definition, he’s got an attention
deficit. Make that attention deficit a disorder, and it’s Ritalin to the
rescue. Did you know that school districts are given financial
incentives to recommend students be put on Ritalin? If the school is
desperate for funds (and what school district isn’t), might it affect
their judgment in this matter?
Only healthy doses of knowledge will help rid our society of AED. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s Not Nice to Fool with Mother Nature

By Don Bennett, DAS
www.health101.org
The title of this article is a paraphrase of a T V commercial from
the 70’s. A woman depicting Mother Nature is shown sampling what
she thinks is her “rich, creamery butter”, and when told it is actually
margarine, she remarks in an angry tone, “It’s not nice to fool Mother
Nature!” She was understandably upset... and so am I. And it’s about
something far worse than butter or margarine; something that could
jeopardize human existence. I’m speaking of genetically engineered
food (also known as GMO’s - Genetically Modified Organisms).
Since the early 90’s, agribusiness has been converting a large
portion of our naturally grown food supply to one that is derived from
genetically modified seeds. Some of these crops include corn,
soybeans, potatoes and tomatoes, and approximately 60% of
processed foods contain GMO’s.
Many informed scientists express concern about the health and
environmental risks associated with GMO’s, and many renowned
biologists contend that the claim by the biotech industry and the FDA
that GM crops are not demonstrably different from those that have

been cultivated through cross breeding and pollination and are
therefore safe, is false. Genetic engineering has made it possible to
combine genes from species that would never exchange genetic
material in Nature.
During the genetic engineering of food, genes are taken from
animals, plants, bacteria, and viruses and are artificially inserted into
the DNA of food crops, which bypasses the relatively slow natural
evolutionary process, and in so doing, creates opportunities for
diseases and genetic weaknesses to cross over to completely unrelated
species. Genetic engineering uses techniques that can allow genes to
move spontaneously in the organism’s genetic material, which can
cause unexpected changes. These changes could have catastrophic
consequences to humans and the environment. While it’s true that
naturally occurring mutations can have similar effects, the probability
is greatly increased as a result of genetic engineering.
As an example of the possible harm GMO’s can cause, studies
have shown that genetic sequences survive digestion and can enter the
blood stream through the digestive tract, and then enter cells where
they can interfere with the immune system, or cause cancers.
Not only do genetically engineered crops pose a real danger to
human health, they can potentially do great damage to the
environment. GM crops can reproduce and cross-pollinate with non-
GM crops, and with closely related wild species. If a genetically
engineered plant creates unanticipated problems, it will be impossible
to remove it from the environment. Harvard geneticist Richard
Lewontin said in a New York Times Magazine article (10/25/98),
“There’s no way of knowing what all the downstream effects will be
or how it might affect the environment. We have such a miserably
poor understanding of how the organism develops from its DNA that I
would be surprised if we don’t get one rude shock after another”.
If all this isn’t bad enough, the FDA and other regulatory agencies
officially see GM crops as “equivalent” to natural crops, so new
products containing GM substances have been approved with nothing
more than a safety assessment done by the company who intends to
sell the product! Somehow this does not help me rest easy.
And here’s the part that initially caught my attention: Presently the
FDA does not require that processed foods with GM ingredients be
labeled with information about their genetically modified origins. And
the majority of GM crops are mixed with their natural, genetically

unaltered, relatives. The lack of labeling of foods containing GMO’s
is a flagrant infringement on the rights of consumers to make
informed choices about what we eat. And this lack of labeling is a
double-edged sword – if certain GM foods have harmful health
effects, it will be impossible to trace the origin of the problems.
Up to now, the biotech industry was trying to keep consumers in
the dark regarding GM foods. But thanks to the uproar in Europe
(which has led to an almost complete rejection of GM foods there),
and the growing number of protests in the U.S. against GM foods, the
biotech industry is endeavoring to win you over with a powerful ad
campaign to program you (via television programming) with a
positive attitude towards genetic engineering. You may have seen the
T V commercials about “Golden Rice”.
It seems we have “the smarts” to make a tomato that contains
genes from an arctic fish (in an effort to make the tomato more frost
resistant), but not the wisdom to test and make sure there are no
unfavorable side effects (By the way, these tomatoes were a
commercial failure because they bruised easily and consumers didn’t
like the taste). Nor do the powers that be (Dow, Dupont, Novartis,
Monsanto) have the wisdom to think better of what they are doing...
their goals are financial profit and control of the world’s food supply.
The widespread introduction of GMO’s into our environment will
result in one of the most profound transformations of our delicate
ecosystem that has ever occurred. There is currently no need for such
a transformation. Efforts to create a food supply from mostly
genetically modified crops only benefit the corporations involved.
The rest of the population – who have had no say in this decision,
either through the political system or as informed consumers – are
unwitting guinea pigs in what is essentially a massive and potentially
dangerous experiment.
Knowledge is power, and so is your dollar. Ask your grocer to
inform their distributors that you don’t want genetically engineered
food. Write or email your representatives in government and demand
that food items containing GMO’s be labeled as such. For other
suggestions, check out health101.org/gmo.htm and visit
www.
www.
Genetically Modified foods are creating a situation where “Oops!”

could mean the end of civilization as we know it. I think that’s a good
reason to get involved, how about you? 

Rest In Peace, Mr. Johnson...
As I sit here in my motorhome, putting the finishing

touches on this book, I am surrounded by Nature. During the
day I make my “home” in one of Florida’s finest State Parks.
Today the park is also home to some senior citizens from a
nearby assisted living establishment. I watched as they slowly
exited their bus, most everyone needing help in some form.
Walkers and wheelchairs were everywhere, and those not
using one walked with the help of a cane or someone’s arm.
Before long, oldies music filled the air, and after a while it
was announced that the food was ready to be served. “We
have burgers, hot dogs, chicken, steak, lasagna, and pork”
said the staff-person. There was no fruit, no vegetables, but
there was salad... potato salad, macaroni salad, and shrimp
salad. Knowing what I know, I couldn’t help thinking about
the effect these meals have on these fine folks, who are
trying to enjoy the winter of their years in the best health
possible.
After a time, I heard frantic goings-on from their picnic
area. I went over to investigate, and just as I arrived, so did
an ambulance. It seemed Mr. Johnson had a fatal heart
attack... he was 71. I glanced over to where he had been
sitting, and saw the remains of his last meal. Today’s serving
of cooked cheese, fat, and cholesterol was the straw that
broke Mr. Johnson. He left us 30 years too soon. I feel bad for
all the Mr. and Mrs. Johnsons out there... My sincerest hope is
that you will not be one of them.

To help put the information in this book into practice
and make it a meaningful part of your life, consider
taking a class on DVD. Here are two good ones.
Raw Foods
Foods That You and
Your Body Will Love
How the foods we're designed to eat can help you
realize your health, longevity, and happiness
potentials. Thrive, don’t merely survive.
• Discover how people become ill, so you won’t

• Learn what most nutritional experts don’t know
• Get the facts about the raw food diets
• Find out how physical health affects emotions
• See how to feel a lot better than you do now
It may surprise some people to learn that there are many

variations of the raw food diet, some very different than
others in the way they can affect your health. They all may
consist of uncooked, plant-based food, but that's where
the similarity ends. And if you want long term health
viability, and not just short term health improvements, you
need to know what you're designed to eat so you can
make informed choices; choices that will lead you down
the path that will give you the best odds of creating robust
health and of never getting a diagnosis of serious illness.
Video clips and more information at health101.org/DVDs

www.
256
A healthy diet is great, but it’s only one part of the
“formula for health”. If you want real robust health, a vibrant
spirit, and the absolute BEST chance of avoiding serious
illness and of effectively resolving it if you already have it,
this video is for you! If you have a solid foundation in
healthy eating, what you'll discover in this presentation
will help you get the most out of life; without paying
attention to the other equally important requirements of
vibrant health, it is physiologically impossible to be as
healthy as you are capable of being.
Just as a chain can only be as strong as its weakest link,
you can only be as healthy as the weakest link in your
"chain of health". But to know how your "chain" is doing,
you need to know some specifics regarding those lifestyle
practices that have just as much influence on your health
as your diet does.
Video clips and more information at health101.org/DVDs

www.
257
Counseling and
Coaching Services
Do you want to know how to avoid a diagnosis of

serious illness, and allow yourself to experience your
true health potential, longevity potential, and happiness
potential?
Did you know that only your body can cure you of
whatever's ailing you, and that it can do this if you start
supporting it with what it needs to heal you and stop
subjecting it to those substances and conditions that
interfere with its ability to heal you and that caused your
illness in the first place (the causes of serious diseases
are known, they're just not common knowledge).
True health-care is self-care! Take charge of your
health. Talk with someone who has seen how healthful
living yields a healthy, disease-free body, and (because
of the Body-Mind Connection) a happier disposition.
“...These changes in our lives would not have taken

place without your patient efforts to share what you
know about health with anyone who is willing to
listen. We all greatly appreciate your dedication to
natural health, and your kindness and support of
others who are looking for answers. You have made
such a difference in our lives.” – Sue Mahany, Publisher,
Natural Awakenings magazine
For more information see health101.org/counseling

www.
or call (954) 889-7178
258
To order copies of this book or
the book, “The Raw Food Diet
and Other Healthy Habits –
Your Questions Answered”
visit
health101.org/books
www.
or call (954) 889-7178
259
ESSENTIALLY THE SAME DIGESTIVE SYSTEMS
FOOD FOR THOUGHT

260
261

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How to have the BEST odds of

How to give yourself the best chance of

Don Bennett, DAS

Copyright: © 2006 KayLastima Publishing Company

All of the underlined text in this e-book is a link to a webpage.

Text styles used throughout this book

To help you distinguish who’s “speaking” as you read

The eighteen articles written by the author that appear in Appendix G

“The real voyage of discovery lies not

There is a distinct difference between sensationalism and the

“Be not the slave of your own past – plunge

“A lie travels around the world while

PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE DEER

Sign at Redtop Mountain State Park, Acworth, Georgia

In a sense, today’s human beings are not unlike the domesticated

“One sees what one wants to see when there is

“Reality isn't the way you wish things

1. How Healthy Do You Want To Be? 11

1. How Healthy Do You Want To Be? 12

You DO Have a Choice!

1. How Healthy Do You Want To Be? 13

All or Nothing at All?

“Your soul will shout for joy and triumph

1. How Healthy Do You Want To Be? 14

2. Disease: Prevention vs Avoidance 15

The Cumulative Effects of the Contributing Factors

2. Disease: Prevention vs Avoidance 16

2. Disease: Prevention vs Avoidance 17

“Cancer is not the problem, it is the end result of a

2. Disease: Prevention vs Avoidance 18

DISEASE STARTS GETTING

CAN BE 30+ YEARS

DISEASE STARTS GETTING

“When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal

2. Disease: Prevention vs Avoidance 19

Aspartame and artificial sweeteners • Trans-fatty acids (cooked foods

3. Healthful Practices: Opinion of Fact 20

“By ‘honest’ I don't mean that you only tell

3. Healthful Practices: Opinion of Fact 21

1. Seek the truth “though the Heavens may fall”.

4. Don’t have preconceived notions.

5. Don’t assume the most expensive product or service is the best.

7. Don’t assume that someone with a degree is more knowledgeable

4. Dealing with Conflicting Information 22

Also, when learning something, don’t be a student, be a researcher.

“We get rid of bad health by building good

1 For this to work, your priorities must be in order. If it’s a health

4. Dealing with Conflicting Information 23

• Optimal health isn’t good for certain industries: (health-care,

• Public school didn’t teach you how to attain and maintain

• Today’s mainstream media wears blinders regarding the

• Today’s medical schools don’t advocate a natural approach

• The vast majority of medical professionals can’t help people

• You’ve probably been conditioned to some degree to believe

...ill-health, aches, pains and disease are a

...your diseases can best be treated by the

...anything in moderation is okay.

...certain things are healthy for you (when

It’s no wonder why most people never experience their true

Normal: 1. Conforming with a standard; typical; average; the norm.

Natural: Conforming to the usual or ordinary course of Nature.

What is “natural health”?

1. Listen to your body... ignoring it can be disastrous. Pay attention