and women trampled on the potatoes to destroy their skins. Still frozen, the potatoes were then placed into
a well base for several weeks to surround them with water. This removed 97 percent of the alkaloids and
turned the green pulps into a snow-white color. After pressing the potatoes, they exposed them to the hot
sun. You may ask: “But what about the so-important vitamins and minerals?” The Andes populations
with their high standards of health and stamina obviously preferred taste to nutritional values. They knew
that most bitter substances are poisonous and they trusted their taste buds more than any theories of
nutrition.
Ayurveda, the most ancient health science in the world, categorizes foods only according to their tastes
and after effects. It emphasizes that if the body receives all the six tastes, i.e., sweet, sour, salty, pungent,
astringent, and bitter, it will be stimulated to produce many of the important nutrients itself and thus
remain balanced. The sense of taste is our body’s supreme judge to know whether certain foods are right
for us or not. Situated in the taste buds of the tongue and in coordination with the constantly changing
requirements of the body, the sense of taste controls our natural instinct and desire for healthy food.
The taste buds for bitter taste are very developed and can detect even the slightest trace of bitter-tasting
substances. We have this facility because bitter foods may contain alkaloids and can be poisonous. If
toxins build up in the blood the body requires a bitter- tasting antidote or medicine that purifies it and
restores its balance. Blood-cleansing herbs or teas generally taste very bitter. The human body accepts
chocolate, coffee, tea, and beers, which are of predominantly bitter taste, only after our persuasive mind
or added sugar manages to override the taste barrier. Such foods or beverages become desirable quite
quickly because they contain morphine-type compounds. This may lead to a substance addiction. There
are many types of food that have a slightly bitter taste to them, including lettuce, broccoli, and leafy green
vegetables. Yet the bitterness of these foods is well balanced by their natural sweet taste, caused by the
sugar-composed carbohydrates. Hence these foods have a cleansing effect but do not poison you.
The natural Indian populations of South America eat potatoes only if there is a scarcity of food. But
when they eat them they mix them with clay from the Earth which is known to absorb any toxins that may
be left in the potatoes and remove them from the system. This practice also removes vitamins and
minerals, which seems to make no difference to their health. Clay is used by many types of folk medicine
around the world to absorb the toxins generated by bacteria during diarrhea.
The Aboriginals who live in the wilderness prepare their food similarly to our cooking procedures.
Each plant, seed, or root requires a separate process of preparation to make it edible. Certain roots, for
instance, are peeled, soaked for half a day, and then baked for thirty minutes. The sometimes-elaborate
preparation of their food serves a very important purpose, that is, the removal of natural food poisons or
plant antibodies, which the body treats as antigens.
Even animals “prepare” their food. Cows, for example, bring up their food and chew it again after it
has been “cooked” in the stomach. In fact they have 12 stomachs to make certain that the blood does not
absorb the ingredients of flowers, grains or grass before they are thoroughly detoxified. Birds are
equipped with goiters to soak (ferment) the grains before their muscle stomachs “chew” them up. Rabbits
have their own way of dealing with the potentially dangerous food; they eat part of their own feces, which
is an alternative to chewing the same food twice.
Low Nutrient Foods—A Key To Survival
The time-tested methods of food preparation may weaken the theory that we are supposed to eat our
food in the state nature has given it to us, with all the nutrients retained. But how could the original
inhabitants of our planet have survived for so many thousands of years without having sufficient vitamins
and minerals in their diet? They made certain that only very few toxins could enter their digestive