I think we have come almost full circle regarding nutrition. In my opinion, our grandparents ate the most healthy diet – everything was organic then, traditional food combinations like butter on bread, tomatoes with egg, etc all make perfect sense, cooking with stable saturated fats like butter – and even lard!
We have been so confused by fads, extremists, fake science through propaganda by food corporations trying to pass their rubbish unhealthy products off as healthy, taking notice of supplement sales info and studies into certain aspects of nutrients without understanding the full antagonistic and synergistic effects, etc. In some ways, the more we listen to our bodies and eat what is right for us as individuals and ignore all this ‘science’, the better we will all be for it!
Of course I am not putting down the way nutrition can be used therapeutically by holistic programmes such as the Gerson Therapy, but this would be only for therapeutic use and not long term general use!! However, it is not always beneficial to follow the Gerson Therapy. In some cases where we are in healing with the assistance of TB bacteria, it is essential that we increase our protein intake. Many people who begin ‘wasting away’ with disease are often suffering protein loss, which can be fatal. For more info on this read up on German New Medicine.
Below is a link to an excellent article on raw foods – it is 100% what I try to get across to people – eating with balance and not in extreme.
Anything in extreme can be harmful.
I have been very dubious about the raw fad as many vegetables and foods can actually be detrimental if eaten raw. An example is cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, spinach, broccoli, kale, etc, as they contain oxalic acid which is a goitrogen and causes imbalance in the thyroid, and therefore our metabolism and energy production. The oxalic acid is destroyed with cooking. I am quite disturbed to hear of some of the advice being pumped out by other nutritional therapists who condone regularly eating these foods raw. Others include starchy carbs such as potatoes, aubergine and sweet potatoes, squash, etc. The starch breaks down so quickly into sugar that you may as well just east spoons of sugar! Beans and pulses contain phytic acid which interferes with calcium utilisation and absorption, though this is destroyed in cooking.
Of course there is always balance to be found, and I enjoy at least 50% and up to 80% of my food raw. But the foods I eat raw are meant to be eaten raw such as salads and fruit. It is beneficial to eat raw as long as the are no health impacts, and foods such as raw (unpasteurised) dairy, raw honey, raw cacao, raw oils – raw as in virgin, unprocessed and as close to nature we can get. These raw foods are often more cheaply and really available in processed for which removes some of the components, many of which bring the food out of balance and cause it to be detrimental rather than beneficial to health. An example is raw milk which is extremely rich in all the necessary enzymes needed for digesting it, including lactase which digests lactose (many of my lactose intolerant clients thrive on raw milk!). In these instances, when we eat the whole food, ie nothing taken out or processed, ie raw, then we are getting all the synergistic effects of the nutrients and components.
I may write a more detailed article myself on this in the future, however I don’t think I can say it as well as Dr L Wilson! You can read his article here: http://www.drlwilson.com/ARTICLES/RAW%20FOOD192.htm
