This food plan is designed to assist your body in its ability to create and maintain "balanced body chemistry." Dr. Melvin Page’s food plan is not only extremely helpful but in many cases essential to control blood sugar and hormone imbalances and balance all types of imbalanced body biochemistry. At the famous Page Clinic in Florida, blood chemistry panels were done every three to four days on all patients. Dr. Page based his food plan from the research of Drs. Price and Pottenger, who showed the relationship of diet to health, both physical and emotional. The diet plan was proven true when blood chemistry panels of thousands of patients normalized without any other intervention. Many of today’s popular diets are based on Dr. Page’s work. Dr. Page emphasized removing absolutely all refined carbohydrates (such as sugar and processed flour) and cow’s milk from the diet. On the food list sheet attached, notice the percentage of carbohydrates is indicated. Dr. Page felt that it was not only important to eat quality proteins and fats, but quality carbohydrates as well.
The longer you are on this program and the more closely you follow it, the easier it will be to stick to it. This will result in your feeling and looking so much better than you did on your old way of eating. As you become healthier, your cravings for those foods that are not the best choices for you will diminish. Old habits are hard to break, so take your time to change your diet habits so you don’t slip into your old way of eating. If this happens, e-mail Dr. Kaslow (drkaslow@drkaslow.com) to determine what imbalanced your biochemistry. Nutritional supplements may be needed to assist you to get back on track by reducing cravings, etc.
Foods to Eat and Not Eat
Proteins: Eat small amounts of proteins frequently. It is best if you have some protein at each meal. It need not be a large amount at any one time. In fact, it is best if you eat smaller amounts (< 3-4 ounces of meat, fish, foul, or eggs at a time). Both animal and vegetarian sources of protein are beneficial. Choose a variety of meat products and try to find the healthiest options available, i.e. free range and organic, whenever possible. There is concern about pork because of its similarity to humans and an inability of pigs to sweat that result in an accumulation of toxins that is independent of their diet. About 70% of the chickens grown for meat in the U.S. are fed roxarsone, which contains arsenic. Some of the arsenic is retained in the chicken meat you eat. Organic chicken should be free of arsenic additive. Beef and lamb should be grass-fed and organic - grass provides healthier fat than the grain fed meat (no risk of “mad-cow” either). For most people, eggs are a high quality source of protein. Eat the whole egg; the lecithin and other nutrients in the yolk are essential to lower blood fat and improve liver and brain function. With any protein, the way in which you prepare it is critical. For beef, lamb, and fish, the closer to raw or rare the better it is for you. Avoid frying. Grilled, broiled, steamed, soft boiled, or poached is best.
Vegetables: Eat more, more, more! While almost everybody can eat more vegetables, it is an especially important for you. Eat a variety vegetables as outlined in the chart you received, although make the green leafy type your preference. This includes spinach, chard, beet greens, kale, broccoli, mustard greens, etc. Sorry, chocolate is not a vegetable.
As above, the quality of your produce (fresh and organic preferred), and the method of preparation is important. The vegetables should be the vegetables that are in season. Raw is preferred with lightly steamed or sautéed as your second choice for the all vegetables. Get your children to have vegetables with a dip if necessary. The goodness in the vegetable outweighs most of the negatives of the dip.
Sauté only in butter or olive oil. Use lettuces with a rich green color, sprouts and raw nuts for salads. Iceberg lettuce is one of the least nutritious types. Don’t make salads your only choice for vegetables. Substitute nuts for croutons.
While vegetable juice does sound healthy, the act of chewing is important. Chewing activates the part of your brain that controls your appetite and prepares your GI tract for digestion. Wheat grass and the "green food" products should also be mentioned. For many people who are depleted in nutrients, these seem to provide a lift. But large amounts of green foods can be irritating to your colon and should be used sparingly as well. Remember that man is not designed to be a grass eater. Trying to outsmart the maker with "super foods" may not only be ignorant but arrogant as well.
Fruits: In addition to the advantages with chewing your food, there is an even more important reason not to drink fruit juice. Fruit juice is loaded with the simple sugar, fructose, which is shunted into forming triglycerides and ultimately stored as fat. Without the fiber in the fruit, juice sends a rapid burst of fructose into the blood stream. When you do eat fruit, only eat one type of fruit at a time on an empty stomach; second, avoid sweet fruits (like very ripe bananas and the tropical fruits on the food Phase 2 list available at the office); and third, eat only fresh and organic when possible. Wild berries are a good choice for fruit intake.
Carbohydrates: This is a very tricky area. Most people classify carbohydrates as either complex or simple/processed. Unfortunately, for most patients suffering with imbalance problems almost any carbohydrate is a no-no. It is a physiological fact that the more carbohydrates you eat the more you will want. Craving carbohydrates is a symptom of an imbalance; use this craving to monitor your progress. Overall, eat vegetables as your carbohydrate choice and limit grains (even the whole grains can be trouble). When you do eat whole grains, only have in moderation and only at dinner. If you start the day with carbohydrates, you are more likely to crave them throughout the day, and then you’ll eat more and it’s down hill from there. Absolutely stay away from breads (100% rye only bread is the least of the evils), muffins, cookies, candies, crackers, pastas, white rice and most baked goods.
There’s another dark side to carbohydrates that isn’t talked about much – the connection to weight gain, elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, and cancer. You don’t even need to know the details to get the idea how much trouble are carbohydrates.
Grains: There has been a tremendous amount of debate regarding grains. Whole unprocessed grains can be rich sources of vitamins and minerals, but with soil depletion and the special strains of grain that modern agriculture has developed, it isn’t clear what nutrients remain. When scholars study disease patterns and the decline of various civilizations, many of the degenerative diseases developed when cultivation of grains became part of their culture. Allergic reactions, chemicals naturally found in certain grains, lack of the appropriate enzymes, and the carbohydrate content of grains make them a source of trouble for many individuals. My opinion at this time is to minimize grains such as wheat and barley. Unprocessed rye, rolled oats, and brown rice can be considered on occasion to give you more variety. Some of the Danish and German brown breads like pumpernickel seem to be nutritious. Sprouting or soaking grain in water overnight seems to alter its character to a more valuable and probably safer nutrient.
Sweeteners: Use only a small amount of raw Tupelo honey or Stevia as sweetener. Absolutely no Nutra-Sweet, corn syrup, or table sugar. Although Dr. Page did not allow raw cane sugar, it does provide the nutrients to aid in its metabolism. If you cheat, be smart. Use only raw cane sugar (called Succanat or Sugar In The Raw® in the brown bags) in small amounts and only with a meal. Saccharin and Sucralose in small quantities are the lesser of the sugar-free evils, but the “need for sweet” suggests that there is an imbalance in your biochemistry. Aspartame creates more problems than it solves because it stimulates the tongue as being sweet, which in turn stimulates brain receptors for anticipation of sweet. When it does not arrive, you crave sweets to satisfy what the brain expected to receive. It is no wonder that studies show that more calories are consumed by those who use artificial sweeteners than those who consume whole foods that are natural sweet.
Fats: You may be surprised that most Americans are actually deficient in fat – specifically fats called essential fatty acids. So please use olive oil (cold pressed, extra virgin), walnut oil, flaxseed, sesame and grapeseed oils. These are all actually beneficial. Cook only with raw organic butter, sesame oil or olive oil. Avoid all hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats – margarine, crackers, chips, fried foods, etc. They are poisons. Because peanut butter, even if raw and without the typical hydrogenation, is actually 28% carbohydrate, use peanuts and peanut butter sparingly. Eat as many avocados and raw nuts as you wish.
If you think eating fat will make you fat, think again. When you eat fat, a chemical signal is sent to your brain to slow down the movement of food out of your stomach. As a result, you feel full. It is not surprising that recent research is showing that those who eat "fat-free" products tend to actually consume more calories than those who eat foods that have not had their fat content reduced. In addition, fats are used not only for energy, but also for building the membrane around every single cell in your body. Fats also play a role in the formation of hormones, which of course make you feel and function well. It is far worse to be hormone depleted from a low fat diet than it is to over eat fat. The sickest patients I see are the ones who have been on a fat-free diet for a long period of time. Like carbohydrates, choose your fats wisely – this program is not suggesting fried or processed foods.
Milk Products: Forget pasteurized cow milk products (milk, certain cheese, sour cream, half & half, ice cream, cottage cheese and yogurt). If you only knew all the potential problems from pasteurized milk, you’d swear it off forever. Dr. Page found out that pasteurized milk was actually more detrimental than sugar for many people. Avoiding dairy will make it much easier for you to attain your optimal level of health and hormonal balance. Raw butter, however, is an excellent source of essential nutrients and vitamins. Raw goat’s and sheep milk products are better alternatives because their genetic code and fat content is apparently more like humans. I’d still be cautious with these, however.
There has been a lot of hype about using soymilk and rice milk to replace dairy. While they sound like healthy alternatives, what they really are is highly processed foods that are primarily simple carbohydrates. You are better off doing without these as well. Of course Vitamite®, Mocha Mix®, and the other dairy substitutes are highly-processed nutrient-depleted products that honestly should not be considered a food.
Liquids: Water is the only substance that qualifies as an ideal liquid. Most diseases could be explained on the basis of dehydration. It should be considered the first and largest part of your food plan. The minimum number of ounces of water to be consumes is ½ your body weight in pounds. It should be consumed in small amount throughout the day rather in large glasses sporadically. You might set your water glass or bottle near you to be sipped frequently. All water consumed should be chlorine and fluoride free. Spring water that has a low mineral content seems to be best for most people’s needs. Tap water, even when purified by charcoal and reverse osmosis, is often not as pure as it should be in terms of mineral content. Nevertheless, it is more important to consume water of even modest quality than it is to substitute it for other liquids.
Avoid all soda and especially those with artificial sweeteners. No coffee until you are fully recovered, and then only in moderation if you have the metabolism for it. For every cup of coffee, you need to drink an extra equivalent amount of water since coffee is a diuretic. Fruit juices are forbidden because of their high fructose content and dumping of sugar into the blood stream. An occasional small glass of vegetable juice with a meal is probable okay, but I hope you’ll feel the difference that using water in adequate quantity throughout the day will be enough to convince you how much better water really is…
The most important life-giving substance in the body is water. The daily routine of the body depends on a turnover of about 40,000 glasses of water a day. In the process, your body loses at a minimum of 6 glasses a day, even if you don’t do anything. With movement, exercise, and sugar intake (that’s right) etc. you can require up to over 15 glasses of water a day. Consider this – the concentration of water in your brain has been estimated to be 85% and the water content of your tissues like your liver, kidney, muscle, heart, intestines, etc are 75% water. The concentration of water outside of the cells is about 94%. That means that water wants to move from the outside of the cell (where it is diluted) into the cell (where it is more concentrated) to balance out things. The urge water has to move is called hydroelectric power. That’s the same electrical power generated at hydroelectric dams (like Hoover Dam). The energy made in your body is in part hydroelectric. I just know you wouldn’t mind a little boost in energy.
If you enjoy wine or beer and still insist, there are some guidelines. First, drink only with meals. Red wine has less sugar and probably more of the beneficial polyphenols than white wines. Most of the good foreign beer is actually brewed and contains far more nutrients than the pasteurized chemicals called beer made by the large commercial breweries in the United States. Trader Joe’s usually has a good selection. Less is better. Occasional rather than regular. Because coffee and alcohol force you to lose water, you’ll have to drink more water to compensate.
Eat smaller amounts more frequently
Eating a smaller amount reduces the stress of digestion on your energy supply. Eating small meals conserves energy. Give your energy generator a chance to keep up with digestion by not overwhelming it when you eat a large meal. Avoid overwhelming your body with too much to do at one time. If you don’t digest your food – indigestion, yeast overgrowth, gas, inflammation, food reactions, etc. result.
Another reason for eating smaller meals is to prevent the ups and downs of your blood sugar level so you end up craving less sugar. As mentioned earlier, you can overwhelm your digestive capacity. You can also overwhelm your body’s ability to handle sugar in the blood. Since the body will not (or should not) allow the blood sugar level to get too high, insulin and other hormones are secreted to lower the blood sugar. Often times, the insulin response is too strong and within a short period of time insulin has driven the blood sugar level down. As a result of the now low blood sugar, you get a powerful craving for sugar or other carbohydrates. You then usually overeat, and the cycle of up and down, yo-yo blood sugar results. Eating a small meal will virtually stop this cycle.
Eating smaller meals also has advantages for your immune response to ingested food. It turns out that a small amount of food enters the blood without first going through the normal digestive pathway through the liver. As a result, this food is seen by the body not as nourishment but as a threat and you will stimulate an immune reaction. Normally, a small immune reaction is not even noticed, but if a large amount of food (or if a food is eaten over and over again), the immune reaction can cause symptoms. Over time, disease develops.
By eating smaller amount, the size of the reaction that occurs is small and inconsequential. A large meal, and thus a large assault of the immune system, could cause many symptoms of an activated immune system including fatigue, joint aches, flu-like symptoms, headaches, etc. This reaction was called the Metabolic Rejectivity Syndrome by the late nutritional pioneer, Arthur L. Kaslow, M.D. Through thousands of his patients’ food diaries, he compiled a list of high-risk foods that is much the same as Dr. Page’s. Dairy and wheat products were at the top of his list.
I realize that eating five smaller meals is not always practical. After all, you do have a life. One concern with eating your meals too far apart is you may tend to get too hungry and overeat when you do get a chance to eat. A small (healthy) snack between the main meals of the day is like an ounce of prevention. If you’re an individual who says "once I start eating, I can’t stop," then you will most likely require additional help with nutritional supplementation, at least initially.
Supplementation
In reviewing the many diets used all over the world, there are pros and cons to each. For example, the vegetarian diet tends to minimize tissue degeneration but may not support tissue rejuvenation due to a lack of complete protein and fats found primarily in animal products. The major concern I have had with the Page program is that most people do not eat enough vegetables and therefore do not get adequate amounts of minerals. Since the fats and proteins tend to promote acid production in the body, it is very important to get enough alkalizing minerals to buffer the acid load. For this reason, minerals that are specific to your needs should be taken to get you healthy…
Final Note: When in doubt, don’t eat it. If it isn’t on the list, wait and ask the doctor or nutritionist. The diet plan is designed to help you to optimal health just as it has for tens of thousands of Dr. Page’s patients, many of whom are in their later years without signs of degenerative diseases such as heart disease, arthritis, cancer, osteoporosis, etc. The Page Diet is not intended to make you suffer or sacrifice, in fact quite the opposite. As you attain balanced body chemistry, you will be delighted with the physical and emotional improvements you experience from the food your body was designed to run on optimally. And what you eat or drink at the occasional party or evening out is not going to be significantly harmful to your nutritional balance in the long run, so enjoy it.
Lastly, as with all things that are beneficial to your health, it’s hard to start, but the longer you use this diet, the greater the benefits that you will realize from it.
Blood Type
In general, avoiding the foods associated with your blood type is worth a try…
A = avoid dairy, mango, oranges, potatoes, tomatoes, and papaya.
B = avoid chicken, buckwheat, and peanut.
O = avoid wheat and corn (neither are on the Page Fundamental Diet anyway).
Foods are best eaten closest to their raw state. Do not overcook your food!
TAKE FLUIDS MORE THAN ONE HOUR BEFORE OR MORE THAN TWO HOURS AFTER MEALS.
LIMIT FLUID INTAKE WITH MEALS TO < 4 OZ. BUT DRINK AT LEAST ½ YOUR BODY WEIGHT IN POUNDS OF WATER SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
AVOID ICE AND VERY COLD BEVERAGES BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER MEALS BECAUSE THEY REDUCE DIGESTIVE FUNCTION.
NO MARGARINE, PROCESSED GRAINS OR CEREALS, WHITE FLOUR, SUGAR, FRUIT JUICES, or SUGAR SUBSTITUTES.
CONSIDER AVOIDING FOODS BASED ON YOUR BLOOD TYPE 8 March 2005
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Effective digestion: Creating the right pH environment for optimum nutrient absorption
This material is derived from work published by Howard Hay, M.D., Daniel C. Monro, M.D., L.M. Rogers, M.D. and George Goodheart, D.C.'s observations from over fifty years in practice. Dr. Goodheart was perhaps one of the finest clinicians of our generation and practiced well into his 80’s. It was a great loss to mankind when he died in March 2008 at 89 years of age.
When we eat what we eat has a lot to do with how much good we get from it.
The proper combination of foods has had much said on it and there has been some controversy. From all the known facts and informed opinions leads to one conclusion. Despite encountering resistance from those to whom the idea is a new one, those to whom eating bread and potatoes with meats seems so natural that they can't accept the thought that such a combination is a bad one. Many of our oldest habits are unsound and should be changed, not lightly or for a whim, but with convincing reason.
The theory of dietetics is based upon the hypothesis that inadequate absorption of food causes degeneration of tissue, and that for perfect metabolism do not combine foods high in starches with food high in proteins or fats in the same meal. It is, of course, impossible not to combine proteins and carbohydrates in the same meal. Practically all foods have some protein, some carbohydrate or some fat. However, a meal can be predominantly protein or predominantly carbohydrate.
The contention of these doctors is that a combination of high protein and high starches inhibits the absorption of all the nutritive factors of foods and results in an unnecessary burden upon the entire digestive apparatus.
Thus, it is possible to eat large quantities of nutritious foods and get no benefit at all from them if we eat other foods at the same time that interfere with the proper digestion of vitamin and mineral bearing foods. If we eat cheese, rich in calcium, and at the time it reaches our small intestine, an alkaline digestive process is going on there, then very little (if any) of that calcium will be available to us. The calcium will make a chemical combination with the alkali and become non-absorbable, it will pass through and out of our body unused! No matter how much cheese we eat, we may still suffer from calcium deficiency--if the calcium is not absorbed. But if this food reaches the small intestine when an acid condition is present, much of the calcium will be utilized.
Obviously then, we must be certain that when we eat cheese, our small intestine will be acid and not alkaline. But How? The answer is clear and incontrovertible: by not eating any high carbohydrates at the same time.
When we eat carbohydrates - starches and sugars - our small intestine becomes alkaline, and a condition is created by which essential factors in other foods cannot be used. These same carbohydrates may interfere with the digestion of certain proteins in the stomach itself, and partially digested protein food actually becomes toxic material. Research has found that proteins may be split up by imperfect digestion into large protein molecules that may be absorbed into circulation as macro-molecules, which then initiate a cascade of immunologic reactions that can cause symptoms and disease. Instead of being split up into smaller molecules (amino acids) proteins eaten with carbohydrates may actually become toxic due to incomplete digestion, absorption to our tissues, such as, the allergy producing and poisonous amines.
These are two distinctly different types of digestion: an acid digestion for proteins (meat, fish, eggs, and cheese) and an alkaline digestion for carbohydrates (sugars and starches).
All physiologists agree that proteins are digested largely in the stomach , by the gastric juice, which is acid in reaction. One of the most important constituents of the gastric juice is hydrochloric acid. Another important ingredient of gastric juice is pepsin, which splits protein only in an acid medium. In other words the stomach must be acid in order to digest protein.
Carbohydrates, on the other hand, are not digested in the stomach, but are digested largely in the small intestine, principally by the pancreas secretions, which are alkaline. One of the most important constituents of this process is amylase, which splits the starch only in an alkaline medium. On their way through the stomach to the small intestine, the carbohydrates not only inhibit the secretion of hydrochloric acid in the stomach but also combine with some of the free hydrochloric acid there.
Fats follow a different course - they leave the stomach largely unchanged and upon entering the small intestine cause the gall bladder to empty bile into the small intestine. Bile emulsifies the fat and releases fatty acids, which can neutralize alkaline secretions in the small intestine. If these fatty acids are produced in the intestine while carbohydrates are being digested there, the alkaline secretions that are part of the carbohydrate digestion will be neutralized, and the action of the amylase will be inhibited. The undigested carbohydrates will be left free to ferment and produce gas.
Hence the following rule, which is not only logical and physiologically sound, but has been proved highly valuable by clinical observation:
RULE 1: Do not combine pure fats (butter, cream, bacon fat) with high starches (potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, cereal, sweets) at any one meal. If you're having primarily carbohydrates at a meal don't eat any fats. If you're having potatoes for lunch and a sweet dessert, don't put butter or sour cream on your potatoes. Likewise, if you're having fats don't eat any carbohydrates. If you're having bacon or eggs for breakfast, don't eat cereal or bread.
In the past many physicians have practiced this rule unconsciously, by advising patients to cut out all fats and high starches, or greatly restrict them. Obviously this produced good results, because patients who ate neither could not combine pure fats and high starches. But, with a restriction of fats there was always the serious danger of running into a deficiency of essential fat-soluble vitamins and fatty acids. Neither fats nor starches have to be eliminated or restricted on that basis in most cases. Simply eat them at different times.
Interesting evidence that the high starches and pure fats are incompatible came as a sidelight from the observations of Dr. Joslin in his famous diabetic clinic in Boston. He established the fact that if you cut down in high fats in diabetic diets, you can add more carbohydrates without getting any increase of sugar in the urine; without increasing insulin, if it is an insulin case.
Primitive man did not eat fats with carbohydrates. The food had fat in the animal meat; but in millions of years he never found lumps of pure fat attached to any vegetable (carbohydrate) foods. As he evolved he never needed to digest fats and starches at the same meal - he never developed such mechanism - and today we still haven't any.
Eat fats with meats, or with any other proteins - fish, eggs or cheese. In fact you must be sure to eat fats with meat, they not only can be combined but they must be combined.
One of the most important studies ever made on an exclusive high protein and fat diet, was conducted by explorers Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Karsten Andersen. The purpose of the test was to demonstrate that man could live on a purely animal diet in our climate for an indefinite time, and in this case it was extended over a period of one full year. The conclusions reached by this study were: (a) It is possible for man to live for long periods on meat alone. (b) No ill effects whatever were recorded. (c) The diet, in order to be adequate had to contain large quantities of fat, some liver, and that lean meat alone was not tolerated. (d) The tissues of one animal contain everything that is essential for another animal, in this case, man.
Important clinical observations in this test support the thesis that there is greater absorption of foodstuffs when eaten in the proper combinations. There was much greater absorption, no gas and a distinct simplification of putrefactive organisms in the intestine. There was no constipation. A further important observation was that both men showed no increase in blood pressure, and one of them actually showed a decrease of 20mm in his systolic pressure.
This experience and its conclusion was that fats and proteins are an excellent combination. Since protein is digested largely in the stomach by acids, and since the pepsin only works in an acid medium, when pepsin and protein get into the small intestine, if fats are being digested there at the same time and they have liberated enough fatty acid to acidify the intestine and prolong the action of pepsin so that the digestion of the protein would be carried further. Fats, proteins, acids, they all go together and help each other. Associate in your mind: fats with proteins with acids.
It's a different story with carbohydrates. Carbohydrates (starches and sugars) are digested by alkalies. Naturally, if any acid is combined with carbohydrates it will tend to neutralize the alkaline digestive juices they need. The more acid present, the more alkaline secretion will be required to neutralize the acid before it can begin to digest the carbohydrates.
RULE 2: Don't combine acids and carbohydrates. Don't take buttermilk, orange juice, lemon juice, grapefruit juice or vinegar at any meal that also includes high starches and sugars.
Patients have often said they "can not take orange juice because it causes an acid stomach." On questioning they have had it at breakfast with cereals, toast or other carbohydrates. When told to take it alone or with protein foods only, they did so with great satisfaction and no bad effects.
If you have had trouble with orange juice, just try it with bacon and eggs only.
It should be remembered, of course, that many healthy people combine orange juice and starches without feeling any distress or evidence of impaired digestion. But the impairment goes on just the same! Every time a healthy person combines acids and starches he is making trouble for his digestion, he is getting less value from his foods, and he is hurting himself. The body has remarkable ability to adjust itself to the most terrible treatment. You have heard many people exclaim, "I have the digestion of a horse," or, "I could eat nails and it wouldn't hurt me." Fifteen years later some of these people are wrecks.
RULE 3: Do not combine high proteins (meat, fish, eggs or cheese) with high starches (potatoes, cereals, breads, sweets) at the same meal.
This prohibition is based not only on extensive clinical findings but also on sound physiology. Let us review the evidence. We know that proteins require acid for their digestion in the stomach. We know that carbohydrates require alkalies for their digestion in the small intestine.
Some years ago in a Mayo Clinic study on sugars two things were made clear:
1. Sugars inhibit the secretion of the hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
2. Sugars combine with the free hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
Both of these actions, by lessening the amount of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, interfere with the digestion of proteins, which must have that acid. Conversely, if proteins are being digested in the stomach and there is more acid there for the sugar to combine with (pick up and take along to the small intestine), then it will require just so much more alkaline secretion from the pancreas to neutralize the extra acid before it goes to work on the sugar. And the same is true of starches that are potential sugars. Not only do the sugars interfere with the digestion of the proteins, but the proteins make more difficult the digestion of the sugars!
In a study reported in the American Journal of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition (1936) a graph showed the acidity of the stomach contents at varying times from five subjects; first after protein meals, then after starch meals, then after a combined protein and starch meal. After the meals, the stomach contents of the protein meal were most acid, the starch meal least acid and the mixed meal half way between.
100 c.c. of the protein meal stomach contents required 60 c.c. of the alkaline solution to neutralize the free acid, and the graph was going up sharply.
100 c.c. of the starch meal contents required only 20 c.c. of the alkaline solution to neutralize the free acid and the graph was falling rapidly.
100 c.c. of the mixed meal stomach contents required 40 c.c. of the alkaline solution to neutralize its acid, and the graph was coming down very slowly.
This means that when the starch meal entered the small intestine comparatively little alkali would be required to neutralize the acid it had "picked up" in the stomach, but when the mixed meal reached the small intestine just twice as much alkaline pancreatic secretion would be needed to neutralize its acid before starch digestion could begin.
It is also clear that when the mixed meal was eaten, the proteins in it were being digested under difficult conditions. Instead of the normal acidity required, as shown by the all-protein meal, the acidity was reduced. The starches cut the acidity to one-third less! Just such conditions are most likely to produce imperfectly split up proteins - the large toxic protein molecule.
When high proteins and high carbohydrates are mixed, this investigation proves, there is not enough acid to digest the protein part readily, and too much acid to digest the starch readily.
Now the bad effects of this abuse are not always immediately apparent. The digestion of youth has abundant juices but improper food combination places an extra burden. If we deplete that abundance, dip into our reserve power of accommodation, by the time we reach mid adulthood impaired digestion is evident. This may not make itself known by distressing symptoms, but the digestion is nevertheless chemically impaired. This contributes to an increasing deficiency of food elements, and that, in turn, leads to more tissue degeneration. Minor disturbances are directly created, serious diseases are made more probable, and one more obstacle is raised to our being able to live a full, long life of glowing health. Those with perfect health at present, please take note.
Nearly all foods contain some starch elements and some protein elements. This fact has misled many doctors since it seems to indicate the mixture of starches and proteins is natural and therefore presumably healthful.
Meat does contain carbohydrate - but in a form unlike other carbohydrates - glycogen. This is a carbohydrate was eaten by the animal and then metabolized and stored in its muscles. Little digestion, if any, on our part is required to make this sugar ready to be absorbed - it is ready to be absorbed as soon as it is liberated from the protein of the meat.
Similarly, the amount of protein in starchy vegetables is small indeed in proportion, and because of its negligible quantity presents none of the difficulties in digestion that result from combining large quantities of high protein with high starches.
While man, as he evolved, developed two types of digestion for the types of food he ate, other animals confined themselves to one type of food and correspondingly one type of digestion. What do they show us?
Herbivorous animals, such as the cow or sheep, eating only vegetable food, have specialized on alkaline digestion. They are equipped to eat large quantities of food in proportion to their size, compared to humans. They all first alkalinize their food by prolonged chewing (their saliva being alkali), and they all rechew their food (chewing the cud). They all have a large sack or pouch where man has his tiny appendix.
Carnivorous animals, such as lions or wild dogs, have specialized acid digestion. They bolt their food in large pieces and chew it as little as possible, if at all. Actually the less they chew it, the better it is for them. An experimental study was carried out at the Mayo Clinic in which dogs were fed meat fed in large chunks or meat ground up, and the contents of the small intestine examined for the results of digestion. The big pieces were digested far better than the ground meat.
It is highly significant that meat-eating animals have no appendix or a very small one. Man, with his small appendix, seems on this basis to fit the meat-eating animals, rather than the herbivorous animals with their large pouches. Our inability to handle starches and sugars advantageously seems to stem from fundamental physical sources. This parallels the findings from which the Page Fundamental Diet plan was developed and has been borne out over several decades.
With the atrophy of our appendix, we lost our ability to get enough protein from vegetable sources to produce the bet possible physical man. We cannot chew our cud.
According to Goodheart, when we eat meat, we should chew it as little as possible; but when we, like herbivorous animals, eat vegetable food, we should, like them, chew well and thoroughly.
Americans are notoriously calcium-deficient. Not because we don't eat foods rich in calcium, but largely because we don't eat them in combination or form in which the calcium can be assimilated. Animals never eat high proteins and high carbohydrates at the same meal. They have excellent teeth, they have strong bones, and they take no calcium supplements.
As mentioned earlier improperly digested proteins which, instead of splitting up into their proper end-products, split up into intermediate or large protein molecules that are actually toxic. Some of these molecules are the substance called histamine, an irritant and vasodilator associated with allergies such hay fever, asthma, eczema, coryza, migraine headaches and general malaise. Goodheart observations gave him unmistakable indications that mixed diets (combinations of fats with starches or high proteins with high carbohydrates) produce more histamine in the system than the combinations he recommended.
Histaminase is a substance developed from the intestines of certain food animals, it has the property of splitting up histamine and thus destroying its toxic effect. It serves as a way of testing for histamine and for finding the extent bad food combinations produce toxic results. Goodheart found that when patients eat a mixed meal, they require more histaminase to control their symptoms than when they eat proteins only or carbohydrates only! He concluded that the mixed diet produced more histamine! Many allergic patients, in fact, lost their symptoms entirely by simply avoiding bad food combinations; they actually lost their hay fever or headaches by eating the kind of meals he recommended. However, as soon as they slipped and ate an unwise meal, back came the symptoms.
Although theoretical physiology, laboratory tests and other research confirm it, your own experience must be equally convincing for you.
Extracts from the adrenal gland controls allergic reactions. According to Goodheart, the adrenal gland takes care of the normal amount of histamine produced in the body; but when years of improper food habits have given us certain deficiencies and degeneration's, the combination of excess histamine and food deficiencies depletes the adrenal glands, the control is lost, allergic reactions appear more readily and we are well on our way to serious bodily degeneration. The evidence on histamine production alone was sufficient to justify his recommendations on the food combinations!
The Amino Acids
Not all proteins are of equal value in nutrition. Proteins vary widely in chemical composition and in their ability to satisfy the body's requirement of nitrogen; they vary in the degree to which they supply the amino acids essential for tissue building and tissue repair. Ten amino acids have been shown to be essential to human nutrition and must be consumed in the diet since they can not be manufactured by humans.
The value of any protein is measured by its ability to supply some or all of these essential amino acids. A protein is called complete if it supplies all of essential amino acids. Unfortunately few proteins are ideal and therefore the diet must be properly varied from not only the muscle tissue of animals but also the connective tissues and tissues from their organs, plus eggs. Eating in this manner will usually supply all the essential amino acids in sufficient quantity.
Goodheart's Dietary Rules for Health
The general rule is to be sure you eat enough of the vital food elements; and be sure you eat them in the right combinations.
1. Eat all kinds of meats, fish, eggs, leafy vegetables, citrus fruits (and carbohydrates only if you must) as the safest way to avoid deficiencies.
2. Do not combine pure fats (butter, cream or bacon) with high starches (potatoes, cereals, breads, cakes or sweets) in any one meal.
3. Do not combine acids (citrus juice, vinegar, buttermilk) with high starches at any one meal.
4. Do not combine high proteins (meats, fish eggs, cheese) with high starches at any one meal.
5. Eat fats freely with proteins and acid solutions.
6. Be sure you get enough of each essential nutritional element as follows:
a. Meat, fish, fowl and eggs: One serving of each, or two servings of one per day with butter or other fat.
b. Milk, buttermilk, or cheese: Two glasses of raw organic milk or buttermilk, or two and one-half ounces of cheese a day (or one glass of milk or buttermilk plus an ounce or more of cheese).
c. Raw, low-starch fruits and raw green and yellow vegetables: Two servings a day or one large salad bowl a day.
d. 1 or 2 tablespoonfuls of a plain cod liver oil, or its equivalent in other fish liver oils, or their concentrates in capsules. But if you use capsules, then be sure to take plenty butter fats and cream; your liver must have fats, if it is going to make bile for you.
e. If you are a carbohydrate eater, supplement with yeast or other equivalent Vitamin B Complex. Other natural fats and oils may also be necessary as the fact remains that natural fats and oils are absolutely necessary in ample quantities for natural, healthy metabolism.
How quickly you feel noticeable improvement depends largely on how good your health is to begin with, and how bad your eating habits have been in the past.
1. If you are now in fine health, have been eating plenty of protein, have no digestive troubles, no marked deficiencies, you may experience no detectable effects of this diet in one month's time. But you will later. If you will come around in ten years' time I can tell if you have been following perfect eating habits by just looking at you.
2. If you now suffer from occasional flatulence, indigestion, "acidity" and gas, a month on this regimen with no cheating will work wonders. Your ailments will probably disappear.
3. If you now feel "all right" but sluggish and under par, if you have been eating unwisely--too much carbohydrates and not enough of the other food factors - you will experience a new feeling of wellbeing and full health which perhaps you did not believe possible.
Be certain to eat enough high proteins without fear of eating too much unless you have no control over your appetite or have a specific medical condition that dictates otherwise. Although you may continue to exist on a relatively low protein intake, there is ample evidence that a more liberal intake favors the development of better physique and improvement of general health. Any excess of proteins, above your body's requirement for growth and repair of tissue is used as body heat and energy.
Referenced from http://www.drkaslow.com/html/food_combining.html on 211009
When we eat what we eat has a lot to do with how much good we get from it.
The proper combination of foods has had much said on it and there has been some controversy. From all the known facts and informed opinions leads to one conclusion. Despite encountering resistance from those to whom the idea is a new one, those to whom eating bread and potatoes with meats seems so natural that they can't accept the thought that such a combination is a bad one. Many of our oldest habits are unsound and should be changed, not lightly or for a whim, but with convincing reason.
The theory of dietetics is based upon the hypothesis that inadequate absorption of food causes degeneration of tissue, and that for perfect metabolism do not combine foods high in starches with food high in proteins or fats in the same meal. It is, of course, impossible not to combine proteins and carbohydrates in the same meal. Practically all foods have some protein, some carbohydrate or some fat. However, a meal can be predominantly protein or predominantly carbohydrate.
The contention of these doctors is that a combination of high protein and high starches inhibits the absorption of all the nutritive factors of foods and results in an unnecessary burden upon the entire digestive apparatus.
Thus, it is possible to eat large quantities of nutritious foods and get no benefit at all from them if we eat other foods at the same time that interfere with the proper digestion of vitamin and mineral bearing foods. If we eat cheese, rich in calcium, and at the time it reaches our small intestine, an alkaline digestive process is going on there, then very little (if any) of that calcium will be available to us. The calcium will make a chemical combination with the alkali and become non-absorbable, it will pass through and out of our body unused! No matter how much cheese we eat, we may still suffer from calcium deficiency--if the calcium is not absorbed. But if this food reaches the small intestine when an acid condition is present, much of the calcium will be utilized.
It is well known that many illnesses are due to deficiencies of certain essential food factors--vitamins and minerals. These deficiencies produce degeneration of certain tissues, and this degeneration results in loss of resistance. Infections then invade us and produce disease. It is not enough to have the essential elements in the food we eat--they must actually be utilized by our bodies, they must be available to our tissues.
Obviously then, we must be certain that when we eat cheese, our small intestine will be acid and not alkaline. But How? The answer is clear and incontrovertible: by not eating any high carbohydrates at the same time.
When we eat carbohydrates - starches and sugars - our small intestine becomes alkaline, and a condition is created by which essential factors in other foods cannot be used. These same carbohydrates may interfere with the digestion of certain proteins in the stomach itself, and partially digested protein food actually becomes toxic material. Research has found that proteins may be split up by imperfect digestion into large protein molecules that may be absorbed into circulation as macro-molecules, which then initiate a cascade of immunologic reactions that can cause symptoms and disease. Instead of being split up into smaller molecules (amino acids) proteins eaten with carbohydrates may actually become toxic due to incomplete digestion, absorption to our tissues, such as, the allergy producing and poisonous amines.
These are two distinctly different types of digestion: an acid digestion for proteins (meat, fish, eggs, and cheese) and an alkaline digestion for carbohydrates (sugars and starches).
All physiologists agree that proteins are digested largely in the stomach , by the gastric juice, which is acid in reaction. One of the most important constituents of the gastric juice is hydrochloric acid. Another important ingredient of gastric juice is pepsin, which splits protein only in an acid medium. In other words the stomach must be acid in order to digest protein.
Carbohydrates, on the other hand, are not digested in the stomach, but are digested largely in the small intestine, principally by the pancreas secretions, which are alkaline. One of the most important constituents of this process is amylase, which splits the starch only in an alkaline medium. On their way through the stomach to the small intestine, the carbohydrates not only inhibit the secretion of hydrochloric acid in the stomach but also combine with some of the free hydrochloric acid there.
Fats follow a different course - they leave the stomach largely unchanged and upon entering the small intestine cause the gall bladder to empty bile into the small intestine. Bile emulsifies the fat and releases fatty acids, which can neutralize alkaline secretions in the small intestine. If these fatty acids are produced in the intestine while carbohydrates are being digested there, the alkaline secretions that are part of the carbohydrate digestion will be neutralized, and the action of the amylase will be inhibited. The undigested carbohydrates will be left free to ferment and produce gas.
Hence the following rule, which is not only logical and physiologically sound, but has been proved highly valuable by clinical observation:
RULE 1: Do not combine pure fats (butter, cream, bacon fat) with high starches (potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, cereal, sweets) at any one meal. If you're having primarily carbohydrates at a meal don't eat any fats. If you're having potatoes for lunch and a sweet dessert, don't put butter or sour cream on your potatoes. Likewise, if you're having fats don't eat any carbohydrates. If you're having bacon or eggs for breakfast, don't eat cereal or bread.
In the past many physicians have practiced this rule unconsciously, by advising patients to cut out all fats and high starches, or greatly restrict them. Obviously this produced good results, because patients who ate neither could not combine pure fats and high starches. But, with a restriction of fats there was always the serious danger of running into a deficiency of essential fat-soluble vitamins and fatty acids. Neither fats nor starches have to be eliminated or restricted on that basis in most cases. Simply eat them at different times.
Interesting evidence that the high starches and pure fats are incompatible came as a sidelight from the observations of Dr. Joslin in his famous diabetic clinic in Boston. He established the fact that if you cut down in high fats in diabetic diets, you can add more carbohydrates without getting any increase of sugar in the urine; without increasing insulin, if it is an insulin case.
Primitive man did not eat fats with carbohydrates. The food had fat in the animal meat; but in millions of years he never found lumps of pure fat attached to any vegetable (carbohydrate) foods. As he evolved he never needed to digest fats and starches at the same meal - he never developed such mechanism - and today we still haven't any.
Eat fats with meats, or with any other proteins - fish, eggs or cheese. In fact you must be sure to eat fats with meat, they not only can be combined but they must be combined.
One of the most important studies ever made on an exclusive high protein and fat diet, was conducted by explorers Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Karsten Andersen. The purpose of the test was to demonstrate that man could live on a purely animal diet in our climate for an indefinite time, and in this case it was extended over a period of one full year. The conclusions reached by this study were: (a) It is possible for man to live for long periods on meat alone. (b) No ill effects whatever were recorded. (c) The diet, in order to be adequate had to contain large quantities of fat, some liver, and that lean meat alone was not tolerated. (d) The tissues of one animal contain everything that is essential for another animal, in this case, man.
Important clinical observations in this test support the thesis that there is greater absorption of foodstuffs when eaten in the proper combinations. There was much greater absorption, no gas and a distinct simplification of putrefactive organisms in the intestine. There was no constipation. A further important observation was that both men showed no increase in blood pressure, and one of them actually showed a decrease of 20mm in his systolic pressure.
This experience and its conclusion was that fats and proteins are an excellent combination. Since protein is digested largely in the stomach by acids, and since the pepsin only works in an acid medium, when pepsin and protein get into the small intestine, if fats are being digested there at the same time and they have liberated enough fatty acid to acidify the intestine and prolong the action of pepsin so that the digestion of the protein would be carried further. Fats, proteins, acids, they all go together and help each other. Associate in your mind: fats with proteins with acids.
It's a different story with carbohydrates. Carbohydrates (starches and sugars) are digested by alkalies. Naturally, if any acid is combined with carbohydrates it will tend to neutralize the alkaline digestive juices they need. The more acid present, the more alkaline secretion will be required to neutralize the acid before it can begin to digest the carbohydrates.
RULE 2: Don't combine acids and carbohydrates. Don't take buttermilk, orange juice, lemon juice, grapefruit juice or vinegar at any meal that also includes high starches and sugars.
Patients have often said they "can not take orange juice because it causes an acid stomach." On questioning they have had it at breakfast with cereals, toast or other carbohydrates. When told to take it alone or with protein foods only, they did so with great satisfaction and no bad effects.
If you have had trouble with orange juice, just try it with bacon and eggs only.
It should be remembered, of course, that many healthy people combine orange juice and starches without feeling any distress or evidence of impaired digestion. But the impairment goes on just the same! Every time a healthy person combines acids and starches he is making trouble for his digestion, he is getting less value from his foods, and he is hurting himself. The body has remarkable ability to adjust itself to the most terrible treatment. You have heard many people exclaim, "I have the digestion of a horse," or, "I could eat nails and it wouldn't hurt me." Fifteen years later some of these people are wrecks.
RULE 3: Do not combine high proteins (meat, fish, eggs or cheese) with high starches (potatoes, cereals, breads, sweets) at the same meal.
This prohibition is based not only on extensive clinical findings but also on sound physiology. Let us review the evidence. We know that proteins require acid for their digestion in the stomach. We know that carbohydrates require alkalies for their digestion in the small intestine.
Some years ago in a Mayo Clinic study on sugars two things were made clear:
1. Sugars inhibit the secretion of the hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
2. Sugars combine with the free hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
Both of these actions, by lessening the amount of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, interfere with the digestion of proteins, which must have that acid. Conversely, if proteins are being digested in the stomach and there is more acid there for the sugar to combine with (pick up and take along to the small intestine), then it will require just so much more alkaline secretion from the pancreas to neutralize the extra acid before it goes to work on the sugar. And the same is true of starches that are potential sugars. Not only do the sugars interfere with the digestion of the proteins, but the proteins make more difficult the digestion of the sugars!
In a study reported in the American Journal of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition (1936) a graph showed the acidity of the stomach contents at varying times from five subjects; first after protein meals, then after starch meals, then after a combined protein and starch meal. After the meals, the stomach contents of the protein meal were most acid, the starch meal least acid and the mixed meal half way between.
100 c.c. of the protein meal stomach contents required 60 c.c. of the alkaline solution to neutralize the free acid, and the graph was going up sharply.
100 c.c. of the starch meal contents required only 20 c.c. of the alkaline solution to neutralize the free acid and the graph was falling rapidly.
100 c.c. of the mixed meal stomach contents required 40 c.c. of the alkaline solution to neutralize its acid, and the graph was coming down very slowly.
This means that when the starch meal entered the small intestine comparatively little alkali would be required to neutralize the acid it had "picked up" in the stomach, but when the mixed meal reached the small intestine just twice as much alkaline pancreatic secretion would be needed to neutralize its acid before starch digestion could begin.
It is also clear that when the mixed meal was eaten, the proteins in it were being digested under difficult conditions. Instead of the normal acidity required, as shown by the all-protein meal, the acidity was reduced. The starches cut the acidity to one-third less! Just such conditions are most likely to produce imperfectly split up proteins - the large toxic protein molecule.
When high proteins and high carbohydrates are mixed, this investigation proves, there is not enough acid to digest the protein part readily, and too much acid to digest the starch readily.
Now the bad effects of this abuse are not always immediately apparent. The digestion of youth has abundant juices but improper food combination places an extra burden. If we deplete that abundance, dip into our reserve power of accommodation, by the time we reach mid adulthood impaired digestion is evident. This may not make itself known by distressing symptoms, but the digestion is nevertheless chemically impaired. This contributes to an increasing deficiency of food elements, and that, in turn, leads to more tissue degeneration. Minor disturbances are directly created, serious diseases are made more probable, and one more obstacle is raised to our being able to live a full, long life of glowing health. Those with perfect health at present, please take note.
Nearly all foods contain some starch elements and some protein elements. This fact has misled many doctors since it seems to indicate the mixture of starches and proteins is natural and therefore presumably healthful.
Meat does contain carbohydrate - but in a form unlike other carbohydrates - glycogen. This is a carbohydrate was eaten by the animal and then metabolized and stored in its muscles. Little digestion, if any, on our part is required to make this sugar ready to be absorbed - it is ready to be absorbed as soon as it is liberated from the protein of the meat.
Similarly, the amount of protein in starchy vegetables is small indeed in proportion, and because of its negligible quantity presents none of the difficulties in digestion that result from combining large quantities of high protein with high starches.
While man, as he evolved, developed two types of digestion for the types of food he ate, other animals confined themselves to one type of food and correspondingly one type of digestion. What do they show us?
Herbivorous animals, such as the cow or sheep, eating only vegetable food, have specialized on alkaline digestion. They are equipped to eat large quantities of food in proportion to their size, compared to humans. They all first alkalinize their food by prolonged chewing (their saliva being alkali), and they all rechew their food (chewing the cud). They all have a large sack or pouch where man has his tiny appendix.
Carnivorous animals, such as lions or wild dogs, have specialized acid digestion. They bolt their food in large pieces and chew it as little as possible, if at all. Actually the less they chew it, the better it is for them. An experimental study was carried out at the Mayo Clinic in which dogs were fed meat fed in large chunks or meat ground up, and the contents of the small intestine examined for the results of digestion. The big pieces were digested far better than the ground meat.
It is highly significant that meat-eating animals have no appendix or a very small one. Man, with his small appendix, seems on this basis to fit the meat-eating animals, rather than the herbivorous animals with their large pouches. Our inability to handle starches and sugars advantageously seems to stem from fundamental physical sources. This parallels the findings from which the Page Fundamental Diet plan was developed and has been borne out over several decades.
With the atrophy of our appendix, we lost our ability to get enough protein from vegetable sources to produce the bet possible physical man. We cannot chew our cud.
According to Goodheart, when we eat meat, we should chew it as little as possible; but when we, like herbivorous animals, eat vegetable food, we should, like them, chew well and thoroughly.
Americans are notoriously calcium-deficient. Not because we don't eat foods rich in calcium, but largely because we don't eat them in combination or form in which the calcium can be assimilated. Animals never eat high proteins and high carbohydrates at the same meal. They have excellent teeth, they have strong bones, and they take no calcium supplements.
As mentioned earlier improperly digested proteins which, instead of splitting up into their proper end-products, split up into intermediate or large protein molecules that are actually toxic. Some of these molecules are the substance called histamine, an irritant and vasodilator associated with allergies such hay fever, asthma, eczema, coryza, migraine headaches and general malaise. Goodheart observations gave him unmistakable indications that mixed diets (combinations of fats with starches or high proteins with high carbohydrates) produce more histamine in the system than the combinations he recommended.
Histaminase is a substance developed from the intestines of certain food animals, it has the property of splitting up histamine and thus destroying its toxic effect. It serves as a way of testing for histamine and for finding the extent bad food combinations produce toxic results. Goodheart found that when patients eat a mixed meal, they require more histaminase to control their symptoms than when they eat proteins only or carbohydrates only! He concluded that the mixed diet produced more histamine! Many allergic patients, in fact, lost their symptoms entirely by simply avoiding bad food combinations; they actually lost their hay fever or headaches by eating the kind of meals he recommended. However, as soon as they slipped and ate an unwise meal, back came the symptoms.
Although theoretical physiology, laboratory tests and other research confirm it, your own experience must be equally convincing for you.
Extracts from the adrenal gland controls allergic reactions. According to Goodheart, the adrenal gland takes care of the normal amount of histamine produced in the body; but when years of improper food habits have given us certain deficiencies and degeneration's, the combination of excess histamine and food deficiencies depletes the adrenal glands, the control is lost, allergic reactions appear more readily and we are well on our way to serious bodily degeneration. The evidence on histamine production alone was sufficient to justify his recommendations on the food combinations!
The Amino Acids
Not all proteins are of equal value in nutrition. Proteins vary widely in chemical composition and in their ability to satisfy the body's requirement of nitrogen; they vary in the degree to which they supply the amino acids essential for tissue building and tissue repair. Ten amino acids have been shown to be essential to human nutrition and must be consumed in the diet since they can not be manufactured by humans.
The value of any protein is measured by its ability to supply some or all of these essential amino acids. A protein is called complete if it supplies all of essential amino acids. Unfortunately few proteins are ideal and therefore the diet must be properly varied from not only the muscle tissue of animals but also the connective tissues and tissues from their organs, plus eggs. Eating in this manner will usually supply all the essential amino acids in sufficient quantity.
Goodheart's Dietary Rules for Health
The general rule is to be sure you eat enough of the vital food elements; and be sure you eat them in the right combinations.
1. Eat all kinds of meats, fish, eggs, leafy vegetables, citrus fruits (and carbohydrates only if you must) as the safest way to avoid deficiencies.
2. Do not combine pure fats (butter, cream or bacon) with high starches (potatoes, cereals, breads, cakes or sweets) in any one meal.
3. Do not combine acids (citrus juice, vinegar, buttermilk) with high starches at any one meal.
4. Do not combine high proteins (meats, fish eggs, cheese) with high starches at any one meal.
5. Eat fats freely with proteins and acid solutions.
6. Be sure you get enough of each essential nutritional element as follows:
a. Meat, fish, fowl and eggs: One serving of each, or two servings of one per day with butter or other fat.
b. Milk, buttermilk, or cheese: Two glasses of raw organic milk or buttermilk, or two and one-half ounces of cheese a day (or one glass of milk or buttermilk plus an ounce or more of cheese).
c. Raw, low-starch fruits and raw green and yellow vegetables: Two servings a day or one large salad bowl a day.
d. 1 or 2 tablespoonfuls of a plain cod liver oil, or its equivalent in other fish liver oils, or their concentrates in capsules. But if you use capsules, then be sure to take plenty butter fats and cream; your liver must have fats, if it is going to make bile for you.
e. If you are a carbohydrate eater, supplement with yeast or other equivalent Vitamin B Complex. Other natural fats and oils may also be necessary as the fact remains that natural fats and oils are absolutely necessary in ample quantities for natural, healthy metabolism.
How quickly you feel noticeable improvement depends largely on how good your health is to begin with, and how bad your eating habits have been in the past.
1. If you are now in fine health, have been eating plenty of protein, have no digestive troubles, no marked deficiencies, you may experience no detectable effects of this diet in one month's time. But you will later. If you will come around in ten years' time I can tell if you have been following perfect eating habits by just looking at you.
2. If you now suffer from occasional flatulence, indigestion, "acidity" and gas, a month on this regimen with no cheating will work wonders. Your ailments will probably disappear.
3. If you now feel "all right" but sluggish and under par, if you have been eating unwisely--too much carbohydrates and not enough of the other food factors - you will experience a new feeling of wellbeing and full health which perhaps you did not believe possible.
Be certain to eat enough high proteins without fear of eating too much unless you have no control over your appetite or have a specific medical condition that dictates otherwise. Although you may continue to exist on a relatively low protein intake, there is ample evidence that a more liberal intake favors the development of better physique and improvement of general health. Any excess of proteins, above your body's requirement for growth and repair of tissue is used as body heat and energy.
Referenced from http://www.drkaslow.com/html/food_combining.html on 211009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Articles on the Acid-Base Balance Hypothesis
For more information see the Acid Base Forum at http://www.saeure-basen-forum.de/. In particular, there is a detailed list of acid and alkaline foods at http://www.saeure-basen-forum.de/pdf/IPEV-Food_table.pdf .
The following information is reprinted from this page http://www.saeure-basen-forum.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=52 .
From the European Journal of Nutrition 40 (2001)
Editorial
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:187-188
Original article PDF-Download (67 KB)
Friedrich Manz:
History of nutrition and acid-base physiology.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:189-199
Original article PDF-Download (349 KB)
L. Frassetto , R. C. Morris, Jr. , D. E. Sellmeyer , K. Todd , A. Sebastian:
Diet, evolution and aging. The pathophysiologic effects of the post-agricultural inversion of the potassium-to-sodium and base-to-chloride ratios in the human diet.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:200-213
Original article PDF-Download (525 KB)
Thomas Remer:
Influence of nutrition on acid-base balance - metabolic aspects.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:214-220
Original article PDF-Download (613 KB)
Hermann Kalhoff, Friedrich Manz:
Nutrition, acid-base status and growth in early childhood.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:221-230
Original article PDF-Download (539 KB)
Katherine L. Tucker, Marian T. Hannan, Douglas P. Kiel:
The acid-base hypothesis: diet and bone in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:231-237
Original article PDF-Download (283 KB)
David A. Bushinsky:
Acid-base imbalance and the skeleton.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:238-244
Original article PDF-Download (319 KB)
Jean-Luc Riond:
Animal nutrition and acid-base balance.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:245-254
Original article PDF-Download (679 KB)
H. Kiwull-Schöne, H. Kalhoff, F. Manz, L. Diekmann, P. Kiwull:
Minimal-invasive approach to study pulmonary, metabolic and renal responses to alimentary acid-base changes in conscious rabbits.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:255-259
Original article PDF-Download (439 KB)
Referenced from http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Lacidbasebalance.htm on 131009
The following information is reprinted from this page http://www.saeure-basen-forum.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=52 .
From the European Journal of Nutrition 40 (2001)
Editorial
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:187-188
Original article PDF-Download (67 KB)
Friedrich Manz:
History of nutrition and acid-base physiology.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:189-199
Original article PDF-Download (349 KB)
L. Frassetto , R. C. Morris, Jr. , D. E. Sellmeyer , K. Todd , A. Sebastian:
Diet, evolution and aging. The pathophysiologic effects of the post-agricultural inversion of the potassium-to-sodium and base-to-chloride ratios in the human diet.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:200-213
Original article PDF-Download (525 KB)
Thomas Remer:
Influence of nutrition on acid-base balance - metabolic aspects.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:214-220
Original article PDF-Download (613 KB)
Hermann Kalhoff, Friedrich Manz:
Nutrition, acid-base status and growth in early childhood.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:221-230
Original article PDF-Download (539 KB)
Katherine L. Tucker, Marian T. Hannan, Douglas P. Kiel:
The acid-base hypothesis: diet and bone in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:231-237
Original article PDF-Download (283 KB)
David A. Bushinsky:
Acid-base imbalance and the skeleton.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:238-244
Original article PDF-Download (319 KB)
Jean-Luc Riond:
Animal nutrition and acid-base balance.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:245-254
Original article PDF-Download (679 KB)
H. Kiwull-Schöne, H. Kalhoff, F. Manz, L. Diekmann, P. Kiwull:
Minimal-invasive approach to study pulmonary, metabolic and renal responses to alimentary acid-base changes in conscious rabbits.
Eur J Nutr (2001) 40:255-259
Original article PDF-Download (439 KB)
Referenced from http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Lacidbasebalance.htm on 131009
Twelve Ways to Restore Acid/Alkaline Balance in Your Body
If your saliva is too acid you may wish to increase the alkalinity of your body. Ways to do this include:
1. Eat mostly alkaline foods. The general "rule of thumb" is to eat 20% acid foods and 80% alkaline foods. Minimize the "strongly acid" foods.
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It is the sulphur in the concentrated protein of meat, fish, eggs and hard cheese, and phosphorous in meat and soft drinks that makes these foods so acidic.
Fats and oils have a neutral pH, neither acid nor alkaline. Plant-based beverages (tea, coffee, cocoa, herbal teas, beer, wine, juices of fruits and vegetables) are generally mildly alkaline. The above summary is based on a detailed Acid Base Food Table you can download. If you want more information, there are some articles you can read here 1, 2, 3. The most economical cesium dietary supplement we have found is cesium carbonate powder available from here.
The healthiest dairy products to consume have never been pasteurized or homogenized. Look for "raw" milk, and cheese made from raw milk. The healthiest way to consume grains and legumes is in the form of sprouts.
2. Supplement your diet with alkaline minerals. The main alkaline minerals in the body are calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. These minerals complement each other. For example, calcium is needed to contract a muscle and magnesium is needed to relax it. At a cellular level, your cells maintain a balance of potassium inside and sodium outside, but this pumping of potassium and sodium requires magnesium. The calcium concentration in cells is controlled by sodium. All four of these minerals work together in the body. Problems arise in the body when one or more of the minerals are deficient or when the minerals are out of balance with each other.
People in North America tend to consume too much calcium and sodium and insufficient magnesium and potassium. This is often reflected in urine tests which show calcium and sodium being excreted while magnesium and potassium are being retained. (This is why we are not interested in urine pH. An alkaline urine simply shows that some alkaline minerals are being discarded by the body. Of much greater interest is the pH of saliva, which reflects your success in creating an alkaline condition within your body.)
In the North American diet, excess calcium is coming primarily from dairy products, and excess sodium is coming from "prepared foods" that are loaded with salt. Largely missing from the diet are magnesium and potassium that would come from eating fruits and vegetables. A diet based on fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes, with a small amount of dairy, would give the body all four of the alkaline minerals in better balance. This is the diet we recommend in point number 1 above. Given that the kidneys will excrete excess minerals and retain what the body needs, it is not necessary to be overly concerned about consuming "right" amounts of calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. Just make sure that your diet contains all four of the alkaline minerals in reasonable balance.
Bones and teeth are made from calcium phosphate. You can consume calcium in the form of bone meal or calcium hydroxyapatite which contain the needed phosphate, or you can take your calcium with a separate source of phosphate, such as lecithin. To preserve your bones and teeth it is good to consume at least one gram of calcium and one tablespoon of lecithin daily. We mention lecithin in several places on this website because it provides many benefits to the body. Vitamin D is needed for absorption and utilization of calcium, and doctors are recommending more (the Canadian Cancer Society recommends at least 1,000 IU daily for all Canadians) as the benefits of vitamin D become known. Teeth are held in the gums by connective tissue, and formation of connective tissue needs vitamin C. About 3 or 4 grams of vitamin C daily is required to prevent receding gums and the formation of pockets between the teeth and gums.
Tooth enamel is rebuilt both from within and without by an enzyme called adenosine diphosphatase. This enzyme is one of dozens of enzymes in the body that are inactivated by fluoride. It is best to avoid all sources of fluoride.
The positively charged H+ ion in acid saliva will pull the negatively charged phosphate ion right out of the tooth. Alkaline saliva is necessary to preserve and rebuild tooth enamel. Drink acidic liquids (eg. lemonade) through a straw to minimize contact with the teeth. Rinse the mouth with water after consuming an acidic food or liquid.
Calcium supplements generally contain some magnesium, but it seems that more is needed. Magnesium supplements are readily available on the Internet. You can use services such as www.shopzilla.com to find the lowest price. Or take a tablespoon of "milk of magnesia" (available from drugstores) before going to bed. There is evidence that magnesium helps to prevent cancer. After nine months, women on magnesium supplements increased bone density by about 11%. - Journal of Nutritional Medicine, 1991; 2:165-178.
One teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) can be mixed with water and taken morning and evening. If you take your vitamin C in the form of crystals, you can mix a teaspoon of vitamin C crystals with the teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate. Add water and wait until the fizzing stops before drinking it. The sodium bicarbonate will neutralize the acidity of the vitamin C. (Make sure your baking soda does NOT contain aluminum. You may need to buy it from a health food store.) Alternatively, there is a nutritional supplement that contains vitamin C buffered as magnesium ascorbate, sodium ascorbate, calcium ascorbate, and potassium ascorbate as well as other nutrients designed to heal the arteries and prevent heart disease. Highly recommended!
If you want to eat salt, use unrefined sea salt. It is gray in color and comes in large crystals. Put it in a grinder and keep it on the dining table beside the pepper grinder.
Dr. Gerson (page 246) gave his cancer patients a 10% potassium solution. Perhaps you can find a potassium drink in your local health food store. Potassium tablets are commonly available. Potassium chloride is often found in grocery stores as a dietary salt alternative to sodium chloride. Search on the Internet for a suppliers of potassium chloride, potassium bicarbonate, potassium citrate, and potassium iodide if you cannot find them locally.
Salts of the alkaline minerals cesium, rubidium and potassium have been found by Dr. Brewer to be particularly effective in fighting cancer.
While it is well known that calcium needs vitamin D in order to be absorbed and utilized, most people in northern climates tend to be deficient in vitamin D, particularly in winter. Even in summer, recent advice from the medical profession to avoid the sun and to block ultraviolet light from reaching the skin through the use of sunscreens leads to vitamin D deficiency. Better advice is to experience the sun in moderation in all seasons. Stay out of the sun during the hottest part of a summer day, but otherwise utilize the sunlight to maximize your vitamin D production. Plus, consume vitamin D dietary supplements in all seasons. There is evidence that vitamin D helps prevent cancer. A good source of vitamin D is fish oil. Fish oil also contains vitamin A, and there is evidence that vitamin A helps cure leukemia. Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer, affecting children as young as two or three years of age. Why not give your children a spoonful of cod liver oil each day?
While it is commonly understood that the body needs calcium to build bones, what is not generally known is bones are a complex matrix of many different minerals and if all the required minerals are not present then strong bones cannot be built. There are at least 18 key bone-building nutrients essential for optimum bone health. The implication is that it is easier to destroy bone through excess acidity in the body than it is to rebuild bone. Furthermore, as farm soils become depleted of many trace minerals the foods grown on these soils contain less and less of the required nutrients. At last count, the human body requires 90 different nutrients for optimum health, and the list is growing year by year. A good nutritional supplement is no longer optional.
3. Supplement your diet with freshly made fruit and vegetable juices. As a treatment for cancer, some doctors recommend one 8 oz glass per hour for every waking hour of the day. We could never eat the amount of nutrition we drink with these juices.
4. Learn and practice Transcendental Meditation (TM). TM is a non-dietary way to increase the alkalinity of your body. TM gives a level of rest twice as deep as sleep and is an effective antidote to stress. Stress is insidious because it affects us 24 hours each day. Stress causes the heart to beat too fast, the muscles to be too tense, the entire metabolism to be too fast. Metabolic waste products are acids (lactic acid, uric acid, etc.), which is one reason why dissolving stress increases the alkalinity of the body. The effectiveness of TM is evidenced by a 53% reduction in overall health care costs and a 55% reduction in cancer (Psychosomatic Medicine 49 (1987): 493-507, American Journal of Managed Care Volume 3, Number 1, (1997): 135-144).
The above 4 ways to increase the alkalinity of your body should be effective for most people. If you have difficulty becoming alkaline, here are eight more ways for you to try.
5. As people age, the digestive system weakens. The result can be nutritional deficiencies in the body, even when the diet is adequate. It is not just what you eat, but what you absorb that is important. Chew each bite of food until it is liquid before swallowing it. Smaller meals are easier to digest. To improve your digestion, it may be helpful to take supplementary hydrochloric acid (in the form of "betaine hydrochloride"), digestive enzymes and bile with each meal. Bromelain (the enzyme in fresh pineapple) and papain (the enzyme found in fresh papaya) are very helpful. We suggest eating fresh pineapple and papaya regularly.
6. Bypass your digestive system by adding minerals to your bath or foot bath or rubbing them on your skin. Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) can be added to your bath or foot bath. Magnesium chloride brine from seawater, called "magnesium oil" (8 oz spray, 64 oz bottle) can be added to your bath or rubbed on your skin. If you have a problem with muscle cramps, try rubbing magnesium oil on the skin over the cramped muscle, or drink some milk of magnesia, or both. Iodine is another important anti-cancer nutrient that will be absorbed through the skin. DMSO is a natural solvent that the body uses as a nutrient. DMSO when rubbed on the skin will carry other nutrients into the body. Another way to bypass the digestive system is sublingual absorption of nutrients. Sublingual vitamin B12 (methylcobalamin) tablets, for example, are the best way to absorb this nutrient. Vegetarians and the elderly should supplement with vitamin B12 daily. Vitamin B12 is needed for a healthy nervous system. Many health problems experienced by the elderly are actually due to vitamin B12 deficiency.
7. Blood is a colloidal solution. The overall negative electrical charge (called zeta potential) in the blood is what keeps the cells and nutrients in suspension (like charges repel each other). When the negative electrical charge becomes weak, then particles in blood tend to clump together and fall out of solution. Plaques form on artery walls, in the brain and other places. The blood loses its capacity to carry nutrients. The value of the nutrients you consume is lost if the blood cannot transport them. About half the population has badly sludged blood (the cells have coagulated), and most of the remainder have some degree of sludging. Everyone needs to learn how to maximize their zeta potential and the nutrient carrying capacity of their blood.
One lab found that best results in reducing intravascular coagulation were obtained by drinking 8 glasses per day of reverse osmosis filtered water with a mix of potassium citrate and potassium bicarbonate added sufficient to raise the pH of the water to 8.0 to 8.4. The minerals MUST be taken with the water in order to be effective, because dehydration is also a factor. Potassium works better than sodium to reduce intravascular coagulation, in fact too much sodium in the diet is part of the problem. The lab recommends that everyone replace table salt with a mixture of 60% potassium chloride and 40% sodium chloride to better reflect the potassium/sodium balance found in foods.
The recommendations of this lab are remarkably similar to Dr. Gerson's cancer therapy which includes drinking one glass of freshly made fruit or vegetable juice (high in potassium) each waking hour of the day supplemented with a 10% potassium solution. This suggests that Dr. Gerson's therapy strengthens the nutrient carrying capacity of the blood.
To increase your zeta potential you must avoid aluminum. Aluminum is used in water treatment plants to cause materials to settle out of solution. It does this by reducing the zeta potential. In your body aluminum does the same thing. Aluminum is found in municipally treated water, cooking utensils, vaccinations, non-clumping salt, baking powder, anti-perspirants, antacids, drugs (read the label carefully), soft drinks and other canned goods where the plastic liner has cracked during sealing, and in other unexpected places. A reverse osmosis water filter can remove aluminum from your drinking water. Malic acid removes aluminum from the body. Malic acid is found in apples and apple cider vinegar.
Sodium and calcium decrease zeta potential. Potassium increases zeta potential. The form of potassium that has maximum effect on zeta potential is called potassium citrate. Potassium citrate is available on the Internet. You can read more about zeta potential here. (Editor's note: Citric acid combines with alkaline minerals to form citrate. Citric acid is readily available in citrus fruits and their juices.)
8. Proper kidney function is essential to good health. All nutrients in the blood are filtered out by the kidneys. Then only nutrients the body wants are re-admitted to the blood through the kidney membrane. This way the body needs to know only what it requires.
Proper functioning of the kidney membrane is needed for nutrients to be available to the body. "The fine filter systems in the kidneys consist of extremely thin lipoid membranes which contain unsaturated fats existing there because, as filters, their surface activity is essential." - Budwig page 16.
Kidneys are damaged by the standard American diet which contains an abundance of unhealthy fats and oils such as hydrogenated oils, oils heated to high temperature, rancid oils, and most of the modern vegetable oils. Particularly helpful to healthy kidney function are coconut oil and flax oil. See our page on healthy fats and oils.
Omega 3 essential oil available from flax oil and ground flax seeds is probably the most common dietary deficiency today, and this unsaturated oil is required for proper kidney function. In fact, Dr. Johanna Budwig had good success treating cancer patients with a mixture of flax oil and quark (a kind of cottage cheese).
Also required for proper kidney function is drinking lots of water or fresh juices.
9. A nutrient called DMG (Dimethylglycine) together with supplemental B vitamins (folic acid, B6 and B12) improves oxygen utilization within cells which reduces lactic acid formation, thereby increasing the alkalinity of the body. Supplementing the diet with DMG and B vitamins yields many health benefits including cancer prevention, inhibition of cancer metastases, improved heart health, increased energy, improved oxygenation of the tissues, improved mental functioning, and prevention of many of the damaging effects of aging. DMG and B vitamins are very economical and we recommend this for everyone.
10. There is an intestinal disorder known as celiac disease that disrupts the ability to absorb calcium and vitamin D as well as other nutrients. Many people with osteoporosis actually have celiac disease. Celiac disease is the result of intolerance to the gluten in wheat, barley, oats and rye. Following a gluten-free diet may improve both digestion and bone density. If you are having difficulty increasing your alkalinity, you might try a gluten-free diet for a few weeks or months to see if it helps. Gluten-free grains include brown rice, wild rice, amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat.
12. Populations of bacteria, fungi, etc. may be thriving throughout your body without causing acute disease, yet producing inflammation and copious acid waste products. These stealth infections may underlie a variety of degenerative conditions. Bacteria are found in arthritic joints, arterial plaque, and many other places. Reducing these populations by strengthening your immune system, hyperthermia, exercise, meditation, electro-medicine and other means can help alkalize your body and free up immune system resources to fight cancer.
Osteoporosis Drugs Backfire
Women taking bisphosphonate osteoporosis drugs (such as Fosamax) for over five years are experiencing severe fractures with little or no provocation. Since these drugs accumulate in the bones, even stopping taking the drugs will not prevent problems from occurring in millions of women.
These drugs interfere with the natural process of bone destruction and rebuilding. During weight bearing exercise, tiny cracks appear in the bone. The natural process of bone repair involves dissolving the damaged bone and rebuilding it stronger than before.
By preventing the destruction of bone, the drugs produce an increase in bone density at the expense of non-repair of cracks. In time the cracks accumulate, eventually resulting in fractures with little or no provocation.
- New England Journal of Medicine, March 20, 2008, Volume 358:1304-1306.
- Journal of Bone Joint Surgery, 2007 Mar;89(3):349-53.
- The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 2005 Vol. 90, No. 3 1294-1301 (For more information see all the citations at the end of this article).
"Any stressor that the mind or body interprets and internalizes as too much to deal with, leaves an acid residue. Even a mild stressor can cause a partial or total acid-forming reaction," Alkalize or Die, Dr. Theodore A. Baroody, Jr., 1993, Eclectic Press, Waynesville, NC 28786, page 157.
"Adjusting a cancer victim's pH is an absolute must at the start of any treatment, whether orthodox or wholistic (non-toxic). I consider it a gross oversight that this major modality has been ignored for so long. Could it have been overlooked because the cost is only about five cents a day?" What I Would Do If I Had Cancer Again, Carson E. Pierce, N.D., 1996, page 89.
Referenced from http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/salivaphtest.htm on 131009
1. Eat mostly alkaline foods. The general "rule of thumb" is to eat 20% acid foods and 80% alkaline foods. Minimize the "strongly acid" foods.
It is the sulphur in the concentrated protein of meat, fish, eggs and hard cheese, and phosphorous in meat and soft drinks that makes these foods so acidic.
Fats and oils have a neutral pH, neither acid nor alkaline. Plant-based beverages (tea, coffee, cocoa, herbal teas, beer, wine, juices of fruits and vegetables) are generally mildly alkaline. The above summary is based on a detailed Acid Base Food Table you can download. If you want more information, there are some articles you can read here 1, 2, 3. The most economical cesium dietary supplement we have found is cesium carbonate powder available from here.
The healthiest dairy products to consume have never been pasteurized or homogenized. Look for "raw" milk, and cheese made from raw milk. The healthiest way to consume grains and legumes is in the form of sprouts.
2. Supplement your diet with alkaline minerals. The main alkaline minerals in the body are calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. These minerals complement each other. For example, calcium is needed to contract a muscle and magnesium is needed to relax it. At a cellular level, your cells maintain a balance of potassium inside and sodium outside, but this pumping of potassium and sodium requires magnesium. The calcium concentration in cells is controlled by sodium. All four of these minerals work together in the body. Problems arise in the body when one or more of the minerals are deficient or when the minerals are out of balance with each other.
People in North America tend to consume too much calcium and sodium and insufficient magnesium and potassium. This is often reflected in urine tests which show calcium and sodium being excreted while magnesium and potassium are being retained. (This is why we are not interested in urine pH. An alkaline urine simply shows that some alkaline minerals are being discarded by the body. Of much greater interest is the pH of saliva, which reflects your success in creating an alkaline condition within your body.)
In the North American diet, excess calcium is coming primarily from dairy products, and excess sodium is coming from "prepared foods" that are loaded with salt. Largely missing from the diet are magnesium and potassium that would come from eating fruits and vegetables. A diet based on fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes, with a small amount of dairy, would give the body all four of the alkaline minerals in better balance. This is the diet we recommend in point number 1 above. Given that the kidneys will excrete excess minerals and retain what the body needs, it is not necessary to be overly concerned about consuming "right" amounts of calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. Just make sure that your diet contains all four of the alkaline minerals in reasonable balance.
Bones and teeth are made from calcium phosphate. You can consume calcium in the form of bone meal or calcium hydroxyapatite which contain the needed phosphate, or you can take your calcium with a separate source of phosphate, such as lecithin. To preserve your bones and teeth it is good to consume at least one gram of calcium and one tablespoon of lecithin daily. We mention lecithin in several places on this website because it provides many benefits to the body. Vitamin D is needed for absorption and utilization of calcium, and doctors are recommending more (the Canadian Cancer Society recommends at least 1,000 IU daily for all Canadians) as the benefits of vitamin D become known. Teeth are held in the gums by connective tissue, and formation of connective tissue needs vitamin C. About 3 or 4 grams of vitamin C daily is required to prevent receding gums and the formation of pockets between the teeth and gums.
Tooth enamel is rebuilt both from within and without by an enzyme called adenosine diphosphatase. This enzyme is one of dozens of enzymes in the body that are inactivated by fluoride. It is best to avoid all sources of fluoride.
The positively charged H+ ion in acid saliva will pull the negatively charged phosphate ion right out of the tooth. Alkaline saliva is necessary to preserve and rebuild tooth enamel. Drink acidic liquids (eg. lemonade) through a straw to minimize contact with the teeth. Rinse the mouth with water after consuming an acidic food or liquid.
Calcium supplements generally contain some magnesium, but it seems that more is needed. Magnesium supplements are readily available on the Internet. You can use services such as www.shopzilla.com to find the lowest price. Or take a tablespoon of "milk of magnesia" (available from drugstores) before going to bed. There is evidence that magnesium helps to prevent cancer. After nine months, women on magnesium supplements increased bone density by about 11%. - Journal of Nutritional Medicine, 1991; 2:165-178.
One teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) can be mixed with water and taken morning and evening. If you take your vitamin C in the form of crystals, you can mix a teaspoon of vitamin C crystals with the teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate. Add water and wait until the fizzing stops before drinking it. The sodium bicarbonate will neutralize the acidity of the vitamin C. (Make sure your baking soda does NOT contain aluminum. You may need to buy it from a health food store.) Alternatively, there is a nutritional supplement that contains vitamin C buffered as magnesium ascorbate, sodium ascorbate, calcium ascorbate, and potassium ascorbate as well as other nutrients designed to heal the arteries and prevent heart disease. Highly recommended!
If you want to eat salt, use unrefined sea salt. It is gray in color and comes in large crystals. Put it in a grinder and keep it on the dining table beside the pepper grinder.
Dr. Gerson (page 246) gave his cancer patients a 10% potassium solution. Perhaps you can find a potassium drink in your local health food store. Potassium tablets are commonly available. Potassium chloride is often found in grocery stores as a dietary salt alternative to sodium chloride. Search on the Internet for a suppliers of potassium chloride, potassium bicarbonate, potassium citrate, and potassium iodide if you cannot find them locally.
Salts of the alkaline minerals cesium, rubidium and potassium have been found by Dr. Brewer to be particularly effective in fighting cancer.
"A mass spectrographic analysis of cancer cells showed that the cell membrane readily attached cesium, rubidium and potassium, and transmitted these elements with their associated molecules into the cancer cell. In contrast cancer membranes did not transmit sodium, magnesium, and calcium into the cell: the amount of calcium within a cancer cell is only about 1% of that for normal cells. Potassium transports glucose into the cell. Calcium and magnesium transport oxygen into the cell. As a consequence of the above, oxygen cannot enter cancer cells so the glucose which is normally burned to carbon dioxide and water undergoes fermentation to form lactic acid within the cell. This anaerobic condition was pointed out by Warburg, as early as 1924.
Potassium, and especially rubidium and cesium are the most basic of the elements. When they are taken up by the cancer cells they will thus raise the pH of the cells. Since they are very strong bases as compared to the weak lactic acid it is possible that the pH will be raised to values in the 8.5 to 9 range. In this range the life of the cancer cell is short, being a matter of days at the most. The dead cancer cells are then absorbed by the body fluids and eventually eliminated from the system." - Dr. Brewer, High pH Cancer Therapy With Cesium, page 5.
While it is well known that calcium needs vitamin D in order to be absorbed and utilized, most people in northern climates tend to be deficient in vitamin D, particularly in winter. Even in summer, recent advice from the medical profession to avoid the sun and to block ultraviolet light from reaching the skin through the use of sunscreens leads to vitamin D deficiency. Better advice is to experience the sun in moderation in all seasons. Stay out of the sun during the hottest part of a summer day, but otherwise utilize the sunlight to maximize your vitamin D production. Plus, consume vitamin D dietary supplements in all seasons. There is evidence that vitamin D helps prevent cancer. A good source of vitamin D is fish oil. Fish oil also contains vitamin A, and there is evidence that vitamin A helps cure leukemia. Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer, affecting children as young as two or three years of age. Why not give your children a spoonful of cod liver oil each day?
While it is commonly understood that the body needs calcium to build bones, what is not generally known is bones are a complex matrix of many different minerals and if all the required minerals are not present then strong bones cannot be built. There are at least 18 key bone-building nutrients essential for optimum bone health. The implication is that it is easier to destroy bone through excess acidity in the body than it is to rebuild bone. Furthermore, as farm soils become depleted of many trace minerals the foods grown on these soils contain less and less of the required nutrients. At last count, the human body requires 90 different nutrients for optimum health, and the list is growing year by year. A good nutritional supplement is no longer optional.
Healthy Joints
Magnesium is a precursor to an important substance in the body called hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid levels in the body are higher in people whose diet contains an abundance of magnesium. Hyaluronic acid is necessary for connective tissue formation and helps maintain healthy joints, prevent skin wrinkles, prevent hernias, and promote the healing of wounds and surgical incisions.
An abundance of B vitamins, is also necessary for healthy joints. Absorption of B vitamins is facilitated by beneficial bacteria in the intestines. Many drugs interfere with these beneficial bacteria. For more information see Dr. David Williams Alternatives October 2006. (Editor's note: The use of niacinamide (the amide form of vitamin B3) to reverse arthritis and joint pain, and rebuild damaged cartilage was discovered by Dr. William Kaufman in the 1930's. Dr. Kaufman divided the total daily dose into ten small doses to be taken periodically through the waking hours in order to maintain a constant level of the vitamin in the blood. For more information do an Internet search for "niacinamide arthritis kaufman".) Niacinamide supplementation may also help prevent type 1 diabetes.
Dietary supplementation with DMG (Dimethylglycine) improves oxygen utilization throughout the body, and is particularly useful in areas such as joints which receive little oxygen. People with many different joint problems are found to respond favorably to DMG.
Dietary supplementation with SAMe (S-adenosylmethionine) and B vitamins (folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12) helps reduce pain and inflammation while rebuilding cartilage.
This combination of B vitamins, DMG, and SAMe works magic in many areas of the body, helping to prevent cancer and metastases, heal the arteries, cleanse the liver, strengthen the immune system, reverse the damaging effects of aging and much more. Many people may already have sufficient DMG and SAMe in their body, with their utilization hindered only by insufficient B vitamins (folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12). We would suggest starting with B vitamin supplementation, followed if needed by DMG supplementation because it is inexpensive. Some of the DMG will be converted by the body into SAMe. Save the more costly SAMe supplementation for last and only if necessary. Diagram of the metabolic pathways.
Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate. Folate gets its name from the Latin word "folium" because it is found in leafy greens (foliage), which are also a good source of magnesium.
3. Supplement your diet with freshly made fruit and vegetable juices. As a treatment for cancer, some doctors recommend one 8 oz glass per hour for every waking hour of the day. We could never eat the amount of nutrition we drink with these juices.
4. Learn and practice Transcendental Meditation (TM). TM is a non-dietary way to increase the alkalinity of your body. TM gives a level of rest twice as deep as sleep and is an effective antidote to stress. Stress is insidious because it affects us 24 hours each day. Stress causes the heart to beat too fast, the muscles to be too tense, the entire metabolism to be too fast. Metabolic waste products are acids (lactic acid, uric acid, etc.), which is one reason why dissolving stress increases the alkalinity of the body. The effectiveness of TM is evidenced by a 53% reduction in overall health care costs and a 55% reduction in cancer (Psychosomatic Medicine 49 (1987): 493-507, American Journal of Managed Care Volume 3, Number 1, (1997): 135-144).
The above 4 ways to increase the alkalinity of your body should be effective for most people. If you have difficulty becoming alkaline, here are eight more ways for you to try.
5. As people age, the digestive system weakens. The result can be nutritional deficiencies in the body, even when the diet is adequate. It is not just what you eat, but what you absorb that is important. Chew each bite of food until it is liquid before swallowing it. Smaller meals are easier to digest. To improve your digestion, it may be helpful to take supplementary hydrochloric acid (in the form of "betaine hydrochloride"), digestive enzymes and bile with each meal. Bromelain (the enzyme in fresh pineapple) and papain (the enzyme found in fresh papaya) are very helpful. We suggest eating fresh pineapple and papaya regularly.
6. Bypass your digestive system by adding minerals to your bath or foot bath or rubbing them on your skin. Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) can be added to your bath or foot bath. Magnesium chloride brine from seawater, called "magnesium oil" (8 oz spray, 64 oz bottle) can be added to your bath or rubbed on your skin. If you have a problem with muscle cramps, try rubbing magnesium oil on the skin over the cramped muscle, or drink some milk of magnesia, or both. Iodine is another important anti-cancer nutrient that will be absorbed through the skin. DMSO is a natural solvent that the body uses as a nutrient. DMSO when rubbed on the skin will carry other nutrients into the body. Another way to bypass the digestive system is sublingual absorption of nutrients. Sublingual vitamin B12 (methylcobalamin) tablets, for example, are the best way to absorb this nutrient. Vegetarians and the elderly should supplement with vitamin B12 daily. Vitamin B12 is needed for a healthy nervous system. Many health problems experienced by the elderly are actually due to vitamin B12 deficiency.
7. Blood is a colloidal solution. The overall negative electrical charge (called zeta potential) in the blood is what keeps the cells and nutrients in suspension (like charges repel each other). When the negative electrical charge becomes weak, then particles in blood tend to clump together and fall out of solution. Plaques form on artery walls, in the brain and other places. The blood loses its capacity to carry nutrients. The value of the nutrients you consume is lost if the blood cannot transport them. About half the population has badly sludged blood (the cells have coagulated), and most of the remainder have some degree of sludging. Everyone needs to learn how to maximize their zeta potential and the nutrient carrying capacity of their blood.
One lab found that best results in reducing intravascular coagulation were obtained by drinking 8 glasses per day of reverse osmosis filtered water with a mix of potassium citrate and potassium bicarbonate added sufficient to raise the pH of the water to 8.0 to 8.4. The minerals MUST be taken with the water in order to be effective, because dehydration is also a factor. Potassium works better than sodium to reduce intravascular coagulation, in fact too much sodium in the diet is part of the problem. The lab recommends that everyone replace table salt with a mixture of 60% potassium chloride and 40% sodium chloride to better reflect the potassium/sodium balance found in foods.
The recommendations of this lab are remarkably similar to Dr. Gerson's cancer therapy which includes drinking one glass of freshly made fruit or vegetable juice (high in potassium) each waking hour of the day supplemented with a 10% potassium solution. This suggests that Dr. Gerson's therapy strengthens the nutrient carrying capacity of the blood.
To increase your zeta potential you must avoid aluminum. Aluminum is used in water treatment plants to cause materials to settle out of solution. It does this by reducing the zeta potential. In your body aluminum does the same thing. Aluminum is found in municipally treated water, cooking utensils, vaccinations, non-clumping salt, baking powder, anti-perspirants, antacids, drugs (read the label carefully), soft drinks and other canned goods where the plastic liner has cracked during sealing, and in other unexpected places. A reverse osmosis water filter can remove aluminum from your drinking water. Malic acid removes aluminum from the body. Malic acid is found in apples and apple cider vinegar.
Sodium and calcium decrease zeta potential. Potassium increases zeta potential. The form of potassium that has maximum effect on zeta potential is called potassium citrate. Potassium citrate is available on the Internet. You can read more about zeta potential here. (Editor's note: Citric acid combines with alkaline minerals to form citrate. Citric acid is readily available in citrus fruits and their juices.)
8. Proper kidney function is essential to good health. All nutrients in the blood are filtered out by the kidneys. Then only nutrients the body wants are re-admitted to the blood through the kidney membrane. This way the body needs to know only what it requires.
Proper functioning of the kidney membrane is needed for nutrients to be available to the body. "The fine filter systems in the kidneys consist of extremely thin lipoid membranes which contain unsaturated fats existing there because, as filters, their surface activity is essential." - Budwig page 16.
Kidneys are damaged by the standard American diet which contains an abundance of unhealthy fats and oils such as hydrogenated oils, oils heated to high temperature, rancid oils, and most of the modern vegetable oils. Particularly helpful to healthy kidney function are coconut oil and flax oil. See our page on healthy fats and oils.
Omega 3 essential oil available from flax oil and ground flax seeds is probably the most common dietary deficiency today, and this unsaturated oil is required for proper kidney function. In fact, Dr. Johanna Budwig had good success treating cancer patients with a mixture of flax oil and quark (a kind of cottage cheese).
Also required for proper kidney function is drinking lots of water or fresh juices.
9. A nutrient called DMG (Dimethylglycine) together with supplemental B vitamins (folic acid, B6 and B12) improves oxygen utilization within cells which reduces lactic acid formation, thereby increasing the alkalinity of the body. Supplementing the diet with DMG and B vitamins yields many health benefits including cancer prevention, inhibition of cancer metastases, improved heart health, increased energy, improved oxygenation of the tissues, improved mental functioning, and prevention of many of the damaging effects of aging. DMG and B vitamins are very economical and we recommend this for everyone.
10. There is an intestinal disorder known as celiac disease that disrupts the ability to absorb calcium and vitamin D as well as other nutrients. Many people with osteoporosis actually have celiac disease. Celiac disease is the result of intolerance to the gluten in wheat, barley, oats and rye. Following a gluten-free diet may improve both digestion and bone density. If you are having difficulty increasing your alkalinity, you might try a gluten-free diet for a few weeks or months to see if it helps. Gluten-free grains include brown rice, wild rice, amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat.
The most sensitive and specific blood test for gluten/gliadin sensitivity that's presently available is called the tissue transgluaminase (tTG) test. It's the one I've used since it became available. Others include the endomysial antibodies (EMA) test and the antigliadin antibodies (AGA) test. These two screening techniques check for specific antibodies produced in the body after ingesting grains. The EMA tests measures mostly "short-lived" antibodies and the AGA test checks "longer-lived" antibodies.11. Unhealthy intestinal bacteria and yeasts excrete lactic acid and other organic acids that are absorbed by the body and turn the blood acidic. This situation is often associated with inflamed and swollen intestines that are less able to absorb nutrients. People who are unable to alkalize their body using steps one to four above may be helped by the Specific Carbohydrate Diet that denies unhealthy intestinal flora and fauna the undigested carbohydrates that they eat. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet is explained in the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall.
- Dr. Jonathan V. Wright
12. Populations of bacteria, fungi, etc. may be thriving throughout your body without causing acute disease, yet producing inflammation and copious acid waste products. These stealth infections may underlie a variety of degenerative conditions. Bacteria are found in arthritic joints, arterial plaque, and many other places. Reducing these populations by strengthening your immune system, hyperthermia, exercise, meditation, electro-medicine and other means can help alkalize your body and free up immune system resources to fight cancer.
Osteoporosis Drugs Backfire
Women taking bisphosphonate osteoporosis drugs (such as Fosamax) for over five years are experiencing severe fractures with little or no provocation. Since these drugs accumulate in the bones, even stopping taking the drugs will not prevent problems from occurring in millions of women.
These drugs interfere with the natural process of bone destruction and rebuilding. During weight bearing exercise, tiny cracks appear in the bone. The natural process of bone repair involves dissolving the damaged bone and rebuilding it stronger than before.
By preventing the destruction of bone, the drugs produce an increase in bone density at the expense of non-repair of cracks. In time the cracks accumulate, eventually resulting in fractures with little or no provocation.
- New England Journal of Medicine, March 20, 2008, Volume 358:1304-1306.
- Journal of Bone Joint Surgery, 2007 Mar;89(3):349-53.
- The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 2005 Vol. 90, No. 3 1294-1301 (For more information see all the citations at the end of this article).
"Any stressor that the mind or body interprets and internalizes as too much to deal with, leaves an acid residue. Even a mild stressor can cause a partial or total acid-forming reaction," Alkalize or Die, Dr. Theodore A. Baroody, Jr., 1993, Eclectic Press, Waynesville, NC 28786, page 157.
"Adjusting a cancer victim's pH is an absolute must at the start of any treatment, whether orthodox or wholistic (non-toxic). I consider it a gross oversight that this major modality has been ignored for so long. Could it have been overlooked because the cost is only about five cents a day?" What I Would Do If I Had Cancer Again, Carson E. Pierce, N.D., 1996, page 89.
Referenced from http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/salivaphtest.htm on 131009
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