food and nutrition 59
2 parts rice plus 1 part sesame seedsDairy Products
Foods under this heading generally cause more concern and apprehension
than any other. I see more sick people who have overindulged in dairy
products than any other single food grouping. Milk and cheese are
particularly damaging to children, and they can contribute to sinus
problems, heart problems, allergies, colds, constipation, chronic fatigue,
headaches, obesity, and dental deterioration. Many of us do not have
suffi cient natural lactase to break down the digestible lactose present in
dairy products into assimilable sugars.
Dairy products often contain high levels of bacteria that can remain in
these foods after cooking and even pass into unprotected food stored
nearby. They do, of course, contain all the pesticides and herbicides the
cattle have grazed on, unless they are organic.
Yogurt, though made from milk and therefore potentially just as
harmful, does have the benefit of containing live cultures. Make it
from organic goat’s milk if you decide to eat yogurt.
Butter is almost free from mucus-forming substances and can be consumed,
but use small amounts as it contains roughly 83 percent fat and 1 percent
protein. But don’t forget that it is basically rancid and has lots of free radicals.
Avoid margarine completely.
Cheese is in a concentrated form and is often salted. Migraine headaches are
frequently caused by cheese consumption, owing to the presence of the
protein tyramine. Cheese causes excessive mucus production, which clogs
up the intestines and other areas such as the lungs. This mucus forms a coat-
ing on the inner lining of the stomach that hardens, making an impermeable
layer that prevents the absorption of nutrients. It can cause similar damage
in the bowel, producing chronic constipation.
Milk and cheese have a history of causing allergies, such as hives and skin
rashes. The reason is that they overstimulate certain stomach cells, produc-
ing a hydrochloric acid deficiency that results in proteins entering the blood-
stream. In fact, milk neutralizes the hydrochloric acid necessary for food di-
gestion, causing excessive mucus build up, which inhibits absorption of vital
nutrients from all foods. In addition, 50 percent of the protein in cows’ milk
is indigestible anyway. The late Dr. Spock, the well-known child psychologist
and nutritional expert, late in life advocated the withdrawal of milk from
children’s diet. In the book Diet for a New America by John Robbins (a mem-
ber of a family that made a fortune from ice cream), milk, and other dairy
products are cited as causing osteoporosis. Cows tend to graze on fields
sprayed with pesticides. One pesticide that has been banned in Israel is lin-
59 The Complete Home Guide to Herbs, Natural Healing, and Nutrition