Grandma Was Right

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Grandma Was Right

 

Granny the Doctor

 

If Grandma ate collard greens, turnip greens,

dandelion greens, beet greens, pigweed, or chard,

don't dismiss her as an eccentric old fogey. If you,

you-health-nut-you, enjoy crisp alfalfa sprouts on big

green salads, or mung bean sprouts in Chinese food,

great! These sprouts and greens are loaded with

minerals and vitamins. As my grandfather often said,

they're " good for what ails you. "

 

This is especially true when such foods are eaten

fresh and uncooked. Did you know that sprouts provide

virtually every vitamin, are a source of complete

protein, and contain more vitamin C ounce for ounce

than most fruits? Did you know that sprouts contain,

pound for pound, nearly as much protein as meat? Over

five hundred enzymes may be present in one sprouted

wheat grain. Sprouts are very good for you. They are

also economical. A tablespoon of alfalfa seeds will

grow into a cup of sprouts in four to six days. " All

you do is add water. " Well, they're not quite that

instant, but nearly so. Soak the seeds in water

overnight, and drain the next morning. Thereafter,

rinse and drain twice a day until ready to eat. The

only equipment needed is a few wide-mouthed jars.

 

A lot of garden greens get thrown away each year that

could be eaten for better health. Weeds like lamb's

quarter (pigweed), redroot, and dandelion are quite

tasty when young and tender. When you thin out your

beets or turnips, you can cook up the greens as you

go. Raw Swiss chard, kale or leaf lettuce is the

basis a fine salad, and is simple to grow even in the

smallest and most casual gardens. Any raw greens

supply roughage (fiber) and many vitamins to your

diet. Raw foods are especially good for your body.

Did you know that Garnett Cheney, M.D. treated one

hundred peptic ulcer patients with raw cabbage juice

every day? Relief from pain was rapid, as was total

time to heal. Said Dr. Cheney:

 

" Relief of pain occurred in this series of cases

without the continued use of any form of drug therapy

and without frequent feedings of food... The rapidity

of healing is emphasized when the average (cabbage

juice) healing times of 14 days for gastric ulcer and

12.9 days for duodenal ulcer are compared with the 42

days and 37 days cited from the literature. " (Cheney,

1952, p. 252)

 

Dr. Cheney's findings were published in California

Medicine. The Journal of the American Medical

Association (163:14, April 6, 1957, p. 1311) was not

overly impressed, but Dr. Cheney's cured patients

certainly were.

 

Raw foods and their enzymes have a definite effect on

the digestive tract and the entire body's response to

diet. Dr. Ralph Bircher, in an undated address in

Wisconsin entitled " A Turning Point in Nutritional

Science, " said:

 

" There exists a reaction which normally happens every

time a person begins to eat; we call it the digestive

leucocytosis. Some message sent by the palate to the

marrow through the vegetative nerve system releases a

deployment of leucocytes which swarm out to the walls

of the intestines, especially of the colon, as if to

defend a frontline... Kouchakoff of Lausanne

discovered that it does not happen whenever a meal

consists of, or even begins with raw vegetable food.

This fact was confirmed by several other research

workers. Then Tropp, Wurzburg, added another

discovery. There are specific enzymes in fresh and

living plant cells which are very delicate. They

perish when the plants are heated or even seriously

wilted. They were thought, therefore, to be of no

consequence to human health. But Tropp found out that

this is not true. The human organism knows how to

protect and escort these enzymes throughout the

digestive tract, so that they can reach the colon

without harm, and there they perform a basic change in

the bacterial flora by attracting and binding what

oxygen there is. Thus, they remove the aerobic

condition which is responsible for putrefaction,

fermentations, dysbacteria and intestinal toxemia. "

(Bircher, pp 7-8)

 

Raw foods do not elicit the stockpiling of white blood

cells (leucocytes) in the digestive tissues, nor do

raw foods signal the bone marrow to generate more of

the white cells. This may be of the greatest

significance to persons suffering from the disease

which Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary describes as

" An acute or chronic disease in man and other

warm-blooded animals characterized by an abnormal

increase in the number of leukocytes in the tissues

and often in the blood. " The disease just described

is leukemia.

 

Could leukemia possibly be a result of a diet of

always-cooked foods? Naturopaths have always

emphasized raw foods such as fresh fruits and

vegetables, sprouted grains and raw milk. If raw

foods fail to stimulate the excess production of white

blood cells, then perhaps an all-raw-foods diet should

be insisted on in leukemia cases. From now on, when

we talk of nature-cure therapies used against such

diseases in Europe and other countries, we will see

more clearly the basis for raw foods in them.

 

The enzymes that Dr. Bircher mentions as helpful to

digestion and the prevention of intestinal toxemia fit

right into the naturopathic approach to health.

Pollution or toxemia throughout the body has its basis

in what we eat and how we use it. Intestinal toxemia,

abnormal colon bacteria populations, constipation, and

putrefaction from an overcooked, starch and meat diet

are all root causes of illness. To prevent and cure

illness we therefore stop eating meat, we eat whole,

mostly raw foods and we clean out body wastes. These

are my " Three Quick Steps to Health. " Raw food

enzymes and the body's special response to them are a

time-honored key to nature-cure.

 

Dr. Bircher cited a paper by Swiss medical doctor Paul

Kouchakoff entitled " The Influence of Food Cooking on

the Blood Formula of Man " which was presented in Paris

at the First International Congress of Microbiology

way back in 1930. (If my references to early- to

mid-20th century research bugs you, remember that

Einstein's Theory of Relativity has held up pretty

well, and that's not any more recent.)

 

Further therapeutic benefits of raw foods diets are

discussed in the much more recent Survival Into The

Twenty-First Century by Viktoras Kulvinskas (1975),

Diet and Salad Suggestions (1971) by N.W. Walker,

D.Sc., Encyclopedia of Health and Nutrition by Max

Warmbrand (1962), and all works by Ann Wigmore (1964,

1982, 1983). Read more; cook less; feel better!

 

Reprinted from Chapter 9 of the book DOCTOR YOURSELF,

by Andrew Saul. Copyright 1980, 1981, 2000 Andrew

Saul, Number 8 Van Buren Street, Holley, New York

14470