Healing our Bodies: Part 2 - Organic Fasting/Hyperalimentation

One morning in January, I woke up feeling like I caught the bug. I decided that I would do an organic fasting to fight it, which meant that I was going to have  only  organic food all day, mostly raw. Although I had somewhat started to eat this way for some months now, I had not done anything as intense as what I was planning.

This is a take off from the Gerson Diet, which is designed to heal our bodies. I  don't suffer from a chronic, serious disease so I am eating some foods that are eliminated in the Gerson diet for the treatment of cancer and other chronic diseases, like wheat, nuts, and dairy products. 

The focus of my fast is on juicing fruits and vegetables.  The juices are best taken on an empty stomach and they can take the place of the same amount of water you drink.To some, this is a means to detoxify. To me, it is also a way of bombarding my body with much needed nutrients, hyperalimentation.

JUICING: First, wash the fruit and vegetable ingredients  in filtered water with a capful or so of apple-cider vinegar (ACV), which acts as a disinfectant. I use purified water because it is partly absorbed by the organic fruits and vegetables which are soaked for, at least, 10 minutes. This keeps their organic origins from being contaminated by any toxins or other matters that maybe in the tap water. Then, drain off the excess water.

The next step is to cut up the ingredients into strips and bits, to fit the neck of the masticating juicer, as opposed to using the centrifugal type. Choosing the right juicer makes a world of difference in the resulting juice. The masticating juicer chews out the fruit and vegetable to a pulp, slowly, thereby squeezing more juice out with higher nutritional values, including glyconutrients.

This is an important feature because our bodies need to get the most nutrition out of raw food ingredients, the rebuilding blocks to get our bodies back into becoming healthy again, to the state where it can start healing from within without taking medication. 


I started my day with a glass of ACV + honey, diluted in filtered water to make an 8 oz. drink. After an hour, it was followed by...

1st Juice serving - Super Trio: broccoli, carrots, and a green apple.

Broccoli - has a large amount of Vit C which aids in iron absorption, prevents cataract formation, aids in treating the common cold.

* TIP: Carrot strips and apple strips are juiced alternately. The carrot pulp helps move the apple mush through the masticating part of the juicer.

2nd Juice serving - Basic Two: carrots and green apple

Carrots - excellent source for antioxidant compounds which protects against cardiovascular disease and cancer, richest source for pro-Vit A carotenes which promote good vision.

Apples - presence of phytonutrients (polyphenols and flavonoids) help regulate blood sugar. 

3rd Juice serving - OJ, pure orange juice with pulp

Oranges - the presence of phytonutrients plus it's Vit C gives it significant antioxidant properties; the most important flavanone can be found in the peel and the inner white pulp of the orange, which has been shown to lower cholesterol as well as have anti-inflammatory properties.

Using a microplane, I gathered the orange zest on the orange peel to add to my orange juice. (Please use this gadget with utmost care, as it is very sharp. When washing, always go with the direction of the tiny blades.)

Breakfast: half a a bowl of milk, with oatmeal and avocado, 
sweetened with agave syrup

Milk -  an ideal source for Vit A & B, calcium, carbohydrate, phosphorous, magnesium, protein, zinc, and riboflavin which aid our bone health, robust-looking skin, good immune system, preventions of some diseases (like hypertension), dental decay, dehydration, respiratory problems, and some forms of cancer. Severe deficiency of dairy product consumption may cause anemia and osteoporosis.

Oats -  a cereal plant high in calcium, potassium, magnesium and B complex - all necessary for a healthy nervous system; a good source for inositol which is important for maintaining blood cholesterol levels; good fiber source - protects us from bowel cancer; a natural anti-depressant; cooked oats relieve fatigue.

Avocado - the best fruit source for Vit E that protects against many diseases and maintains overall health; an excellent source for glutathione (antioxidant) for anti aging, cancer, heart diseases; a source for folate - lowers incidence of heart diseases; when eaten in a salad, it enables better absorption of carotenoids (lycopene and beta carotene) five times; a source for carotenoid lutein - protects against macular degenaration and cataracts.

Agave syrup - a good substitute to sugar and other sweeteners due to its low glycimic index; the agave nectar is used in folk remedy because of its medicinal properties.

Morning snack: a banana

Bananas - one of the best sources for potassium which is an essential mineral in maintaining a healthy heart function(in maintaining or lowering blood pressure and protects against atherosclerosis).

LUNCH: Entree: Mozarella Salad - mozzarella, tomato, parsley, 
seasoned with pepper and drizzled with olive oil

Tomato -  a good source for Vit C, and some Vit A & K;  a prominent source for lycopene - and antioxidant that helps protect the cells and other bodily structures from oxygen damage, protection of DNA (our genetic map) inside the white blood cells and plays a role in the prevention of heart disease. It is found to be protective against different types of cancer - colorectal, prostate, breast, endometrial, lung, and pancreatic cancer.  

Parsley - rich in Vit K and some Vit C

Main Course: Quinoa Salad - quinoa, cucumber, tomato, 

echalotte, garlic, with vinaigrette

Quinoa - a high complete protein source rich in essential nutrients; high in fiber content; rich in manganese and magnesium (good for migraine sufferers), zinc, Vit E, and selenium which control weigh; reduce the risks for heart disease, certain types of cancer and diabetes. It also is an an anti-oxidant that protects the body from free-radical damage; rich in riboflavin (B 2) essential in energy production within the cells; provides significant cardiovascular benefits for post-menopausal women.


Cucumber - a succulent with Vit C,caffeic acid, and folate; good for soothing skin irritations and swelling; cucumber skin is rich in fiber and the minerals silica, potassium and magnesium; the ascorbic and caffeic acid content prevents water retention;  when applied topically, it is good for eyebags, sunburn, and dermatitis.


Lettuce - a good source of chlorophyll and Vit K, A and C; has minerals like iron, calcium, phosphorus, folic acid, manganese, postassium, chromium; has high water content and low in calories; high fiber - helps with elimination of toxins and other waste materials. Juicing lettuce leaves ( the darker the better) can be used as natural home remedies for sexual disorders,  iron deficiency, weight loss, hair loss, insomnia, cardiovascular disease, and strengthening of weak bones.


Garlic -  may help improve iron metabolism; a good source of selenium; aids in keeping our blood vessels expanded and helps stabilize the blood pressure; research suggests that garlic consumption may actually help to regulate the number of fat cells that get formed in our body; has anti-inflammatory properties. 

4th Juice serving: Green Juice - cucumber, broccoli, green apple, celery

Celery leaves - have a high content of vitamin A.

Celery stems - are an excellent source of vitamins B1, B2, B6 and C;  rich in potassium, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, sodium and essential amino acids. It has many health benefits.

5th Juice serving: Basic Two 

6th Juice serving: Flavanones - sweet potato, carrots, Fuji apple

Sweet potato -  a very good source for beta carotene and Vit A.

Dinner: Soupe de Potiron - the remaining pulp from juicing squash, sweet potato, carrots and apples; plus onion, fresh parsley, potato (with skin) added during cooking. 

Squash - is a good source of Vit A and C, and also contains calcium and iron. It has two phytochemicals - cuomarins and flavonoids. The coumarins may be used for the treatment of venous and arterial thromboembolism, as in the case of transient ischemic attacks and strokes. The beta carotene is found in the skin and rinds and should be eaten.

Potato - is a high-fiber source which is needed for protection against cardiovascular disease and cancer; a good source of Vit C, Vit B6, copper, potassium, and manganese; it contains phytonutrients (carotenoids, flavonoids, caffeic acid, patatin) with antioxidant activity.

Onion -  a rich source for a number of sulfur compounds; it is effective against bacteria though it is not as potent as garlic; it aids in cardiovascular health and cancer prevention and other physical conditions such as relief in the treatment of coughs, colds, asthma and bronchitis, and decrease bronchial spasms.

Just a quick glance at the list of ingredients and their health benefits shows me how much nutrients I had taken in one day. A lot of it! I consumed close to 4.5 kilos (about 10 pounds) of fruits and vegetables. In the Gerson diet for people suffering from chronic diseases, the total consumption is close to 9 kilos (about 20 pounds) per day.


The following day, I woke up with a fever. I continued my program. Ingesting food in juice form bypasses the digestive system and goes straight into our bloodstream. In so doing, it carries with it the toxins - acummulated amounts of food additives, residues of pesticides and othe agrichemicals - to the liver. Plus, add the toxins that had previously built up in the liver, this could have caused a "toxin jam". An important part of the Gerson therapy is employing coffee enemas to detoxify the liver. I followed the directions and I had a coffee enema. After sometime, my fever was gone. I continued to juice.


Day 3: After I started my fasting /juicing program, I woke up and realized that I could move with ease, with out much pain in my neck and back from osteoarthritis, my chronic conditions of frozen shoulder and tennis elbow,  and my pinched sciatic nerve. I still followed my juicing regimen.


I continue to eat this way, as much as I can, because I have never felt this good in the last 25 years. And, to think that the orthopedist told me a year ago that there was no cure for my osteoarthritis, he was wrong. Now, I think I can gracefully age without complaining too much.


You, too, can be pain free or even be disease free! It takes more than a day or months to get to this point. For some, it takes years of being on a much stricter vegetarian raw-food diet to be healed.


Reference:  
Gerson, C. & Bishop, B. (2010). HEALING the Gerson Way - Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases. Gerson Health Media: California

Healing our Bodies: Part 1 - Choosing Organic Food

For most of my life, I have been eating and feeding my family with food that comes from the regular food chain, that ends in the market, whether that be a town/city market or a super market. Alarm set in in the last decade when problems arose, when food recalls became more frequent due to contamination, causing people to get sick and some dying from it.

At the beginning of the 21st century, mad cow disease made a splash in the headlines. Cows were infected from the feed that was given them, and to our shock we found out that they were eating diseased, dead animal carcass and bone meal. The spread of this disease went global, to include other animals, and the cause was mostly traceable to their feed products. Health alerts were issued, bans came into effect, and standards and guidelines  were reset about animal feed. Still, today,  this problem exist. Just early this year, Germany was caught in the midst of a toxic-animal-feed scandal that has affected the country's poultry industry.

For some, the solution is to go on a vegetarian diet. There are different types of vegetarians. Among them are the pescatarians -   fish is the only meat included in their diet; flexitarians - occasional meat eaters; lacto-ovo vegetarians - dairy products and eggs are part of the diet; vegan - the strictest form of vegetarianism where the food is free of any ingredient that may originate from any animal source; raw vegans - raw-food dieters of fresh fruits and vegetables; macrobiotic - includes unprocessd foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and eating fish from time to time, and a good deal of Asian vegetables like dikon and sea weeds.

With the onset of my diagnosed diseases - chronic-pinched sciatic nerve (causing numbness in my leg and toes), osteoarthritis ( pain from the neck down), cysts (in different parts of my body), severe allergy, plantar fasciitis and bone spurs on my achilles tendon, I went to the doctors and believed everything they said. The tradtional doctors had told me that there was no cure for them but they could be managed with pain killers, medication and vitamin/mineral supplements, and in the case of my foot problems - steroid shots. For awhile I went along with these treatment protocols, but realized I was not getting any better, for the long term.

When I heard that Shaquille O'Neal was addicted to pain killers, I stopped taking them and lived with the pain. Pain killers affect our livers and our brains. I also limited my consumption of other medications and resorted to alternative healing treatments. I was consuming supplements from A-Z, and my pain level was still increasing because of more diseases taking over my body. As my orthopedist had told me, it was all a function of aging. That was not a pleasant thing to hear, to be sentenced to a miserable life of pain and illness, just because I am aging.

My parents lived into their 90s. When I asked my mother, who was then in her seventies and I was in my forties, how she was managing her pain level, her reply shocked me - she said she had no pain. She and my father played tennis into their seventies . For half of their lives they were eating a healthier diet until the processed-food products hit the market.

My pain level started in my late twenties and escalated with each child I bore. In the last couple of years, I have been looking and trying out different means to heal myself. The most effective is the major dietary change I embarked on.  I have become a vegetarian of all types, giving major consideration to  where my food is sourced from.

How our food is produced and where they are coming from have become a major concern. With the alarming rate of so many people getting sick, even just among my family and friends, I began to question how do our bodies get weak and sick? It is the toxins that enter the food system, and eventually passed on to us - the consumers, that wreak havoc in our bodies. They affect the health of our cells and cause them to mutate. From my research, the worthwhile conclusion was to eat organic food, free of toxic substances. This conclusion was confirmed by my readings and further research about the Gerson Diet for healing cancer and other chronic diseases. The Gerson Diet is mainly a vegetarian raw-food diet.

To see how doable this was, I went to see what organic food supplies were in the market. To my surprise, I found a wide range - from fresh, dried, to processed and packaged foods. 

Here are some fresh organic produce - fruits and vegetables - they are not always perfect looking 

and they have a much shorter shelf-life. Their flavors are more intense 

and they are richer in nutrients. 

The packaged foods shown are honey, eggs, rice, beans. and oats.

The processed foods made from only organic ingredients are:  

cheese, yogurt, cookies, pasta, cookies, milk, and smoked salmon.

For the carnivores, there are special stores to get your supply of free-range chicken and beef products from grass-fed cows. They are considerably more expensive. The decision to buy organic food will be based on wether the health benefits from eating these will be all worth it to you or not.

I consider eating organic foods as an investment - investing in the present and future of my health. It is more costly, almost double in price. The end result is I will be in healthy shape in due time and will have little medical bills to worry about. I am convinced of this as I can see this happening now. I have become a mainstream organic foodie and what a difference it has made in my life. 

It is from organic fresh produce that we get the most of the much needed vitamins and minerals that have been missing from our regular diets. To make up for the depleted or low levels, juicing is a major part of my diet. Still, this may not be enough. There are supplements derived from real food to get the supplemental nutrients we need. If your vitamins have ingredients other than names of real food, those could be synthetic or chemicals and will not be as effective as the trace elements you get from food.

After months of starting on an organic food diet, I am determined to continue as I am beginning to feel much better. This is an indication that I am doing something right. This is my route to digress from developing any serious chronic disease. 

I wish that you, too, will find the health path that will be best for you. Be well. Keep healthy.