Introduction
Toxic Foods: The Original Detox Diet
Over thirty years ago a handful of doctors, myself among them,
began working with what is today called a “detox” diet. We discovered that
foods could indeed be very toxic to an individual.
I’m not talking here about fast foods and manufactured junk—
or known poisonous plants—which are bad for everyone. I’m talking here
about intolerance of everyday foods; good foods; whole foods even! It was
an individual, idiosyncratic thing.
We had little notion then of the nature of minor genetic variants
in a person’s genome causing metabolic food intolerance. We thought in
terms of “food allergy”. It was a contentious idea. Colleagues argued; lines
were drawn; a furious battle broke out. Ultimately patients were the losers.
For while orthodox doctors were busily arguing that food could not cause
allergies on anything like the scale we were seeing, that hubris distracted
them from grasping the enormous importance of what we pioneers were
seeing in a clinical practice.
Over the years, and on seeing tens of thousands of patients, I
observed removing toxic foods from a person’s diet could cure a vast number
of serious illnesses including – but not limited to - eczema, dermatitis,
migraine, colitis, high blood pressure, obesity, anorexia, depression and
alcoholism, as well as a whole host of minor complaints, such as headaches,
bellyaches, joint pains, low moods, abdominal boating, catarrh, difficulty
waking in the morning, overweight, palpitations, panic attacks, inability to
concentrate (wooly brain), lack of libido and general fatigue.
Even cancer, schizophrenia and mental cases did better.
Getting rid of toxic foods also resulted in looking great, feeling
good, losing lots of weight without needing to feel hungry, getting rid of
age spots and wrinkles, all of which made a person look a dozen years
younger and brought boundless zestful energy
Yet it was relatively easy to do. Once properly identified, avoiding
a few toxic foods was far preferable to a life of suffering or chronic pill
taking.