70 The Complete Home Guide to Herbs, Natural Healing, and Nutrition
major organs, and other natural regimes will help. Allergy treatments can
initially be useful, but they can eventually exhaust the patient because they
achieve their results through avoidance. A body that has become weak and
poisoned can cope with only a few foods, but this does not mean that one
will be so limited for the rest of one’s life. A balance has to be struck in
which a very broad range of foods comes to be tolerated as digestive
strength is built up, giving greater diversity and, with it, good health.
(Refer to sections on digestion throughout the book.)
Food Separation
One of the most noteworthy exponents of food separation has to be Dr.
William Howard Hay who, more than sixty years ago, devised a “nature-
cure” food approach based on separating out certain food
combinations — a process he called “food combining.” He ate many
vegetables, fruits, nuts, and unrefi ned grains, and small quantities of meat
and milk. He said that surplus acids are neutralized by the alkaline salts,
namely sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium (all found in fruits
and vegetables), and he suggested that acid wastes pile up in the body
tissue when our alkaline reserves are grossly depleted, creating many
problems. He suggested eating one totally alkaline meal a day. For some
people, a closer look at food combinations can be very useful and, in some
cases, vital. Perhaps one of the simplest ways to aid successful digestion is
to separate foods completely, perhaps by eating fruits at breakfast,
vegetables at lunch, and either protein or carbohydrates at dinner.
Cooked and Raw Foods
Cooking foods can be viewed on two levels. On the one hand, cooking
destroys many vitamins, enzymes, minerals, nucleic acids, and chlorophyll.
After a cooked meal, white blood cells increase in the stomach, thereby
decreasing the body’s immunity and leaving it more open to infection. In
addition, cooked food is more likely to ferment or decompose in the
intestines, resulting in toxicity. The stomach works at a temperature of
105°F, and food that is cooler or hotter can slow down the stomach’s
ability to function.
On the other hand, cooking adds certain energies into food, which
creates a feeling of nourishment and warmth. Cooking is vital for foods
that would ordinarily be indigestible or even toxic if left raw (including
meat and some grains and beans). It is also useful for people with
decreased stomach energy, which results in a lower metabolic rate and a
reduced ability to digest their food. Anyone with a compromised spleen
should take care that raw foods do not further weaken their spleen and
pancreas. However, many people will thrive on raw food, which often
food and nutrition 70