Man’s Higher Consciousness
Page 13
CEREALS ARE A BAD FOOD
A German physician of note, Dr. Winckler, after enthusiastically adopting a vegetarian diet, was horrified to find in time that his blood vessels showed signs of cretaceous degeneration. With natural solicitude he applied himself to a solution of the phenomenon.
He said he found the explanation in a work by Dr. Monin, of Paris, who, in turn, had been directed to the explanation of atheroma (arteriosclerosis, hardening of the arteries) by Professor Gubler, of Paris.
The substance of the explanation was, that the mineral salts in the vegetables and the salt and seasonings used on the vegetables to make them palatable, are bad not only for their early effect on the body, but also because they induce the desire for, and the practice of taking, other and stronger stimulants.
In our work, “SCIENTIFIC LIVING,” we mentioned the case of Captain Diamond who, as a vegetarian for 30 years, proved on himself that vegetables are not the panacea they are believed by many to be. His diet as a vegetarian consisted of grains, cereal products, tubers and green vegetables. At 79 he was a chronic invalid, suffering from a serious state of hardened tissues and blood-vessels, with stiffness of the joints.
The muscles of his legs and back were so stiff that he could not sit down nor rise from a chair without great discomfort, and he often needed the aid of an assistant. The tissues of his hands and arms were so stiff that it was hard for him to hold his knife and fork to feed himself.
Orthodox doctors were unable to help him and pronounced him incurable. They told him that he could not live long. He turned to Nature, became a fruitarian, and recovered health sufficiently to outlive all the doctors who gave him up, dying at the age of 120.
Diamond’s and other cases of vegetarians supply data showing that vegetarianism is not what it is supposed to be. Grains and tubers contain large quantities of mineral salts that harden and stiffen the tissues, blood-vessels and joints, “and as a class,” writes Densmore, “are the worst adapted as food for man.”
Dr. Rowbotham adduced proof in his work published in 1841, showing that “cereal foods tend to ossification (hardening) of tissues and joints, and produce decrepitude and early death” (Natural Food of Man, P. 390).
FRUITS EASIER PRODUCED WITH LESS LABOR
Dr. G. Monin, of Paris, wrote:
“A vegetable diet ruins the blood-vessels and makes one prematurely old, if it be true that man is as old as his arteries” (P. 312).
All authorities, both sacred and profane, agree that man was a frugivorian before he became a vegetarian. They also show that not only are fruits easier produced with less labor, but that any given portion of land is capable of producing more human food, with less labor, in the form of fruit, than under any other mode of culture.
Down through the ages the body has been forced to adjust itself to everything man eats. Every herb of the field contains substances that are poisonous to him who has never eaten them. Not poisonous enough generally to kill him instantly, but often poisonous enough to make him sick even now, after having eaten them for thousands of years.
Certain foods still give some people diarrhea, yet they have eaten them all their days. To do that they must be poisonous to the body.
Green corn, roasting ears, often give people loose bowels. Strawberries, tropical mangoes, and other substances often cause a rash on the skin.
The fluid from the stem-end of a mango will poison some people as poison ivy will. If the wind blows through the damp foliage of a mango tree into the face of some folks for a sufficient length of time, their face will swell until their eyes are almost closed. A child of three years recently suffered from skin rash on much of its body from handling mangos and not eating them. The mango is considered one of the finest of tropical fruits.
When foods cause skin rash, some doctors order the eating of them stopped, while others say the rash is the result of a purging process that the body needs. The rash is similar to that of ivy poisoning, so why not be consistent and hold that the rash of ivy poisoning is the result of a purging process?
Vegetarians who read this will wonder what to eat. Melons contain no poisonous element and much distilled fluid that is good for the body. Tomatoes are not so good, but are better than many other vegetables because of their large liquid content.
Man should return to berries and fruits and become a frugivorian, and then to fruit juices as he progresses toward Breatharianism by constantly reducing food consumption and dissipating the hunger sensation.
The press recently reported the case of a man who has been unconscious for four years as the result of a car accident. During this time the nurse gave him a liquid diet. For that time he was a Liquidarian.
Could man perform what is termed manual labor on such diet? What we call manual labor is unnatural. Wild animals do not engage in it. God did not intend man should chop wood all day, shovel coal or dig potatoes or post holes, and come in at night so tired he can hardly drag one foot after the other. Such labor is not natural and is degenerating.
Spencer said that Perfect Correspondence must prevail. One thing calls for another to balance it. We must apply the Law of Correspondence to everything.
In that word “Adaptability,” lies the secret of degeneration and regeneration, advancement and retrogression. The Law of Vital Adjustment makes man correspond always with his work, his habits, and his environment.
Adaptability is the quality that makes this possible. Man’s existence depends on the flexibility, pliability and adaptability of his body in order that it may be able to accommodate itself to new and varying conditions.
The state of correspondence brings into operation the process of Vital Adjustment, and the purpose is to make man’s body harmonize with his habits, his work, and his environment. These things become simple when the basic principle is understood.
ALIMENTATION AND DECREPITUDE
Parallax in his “Patriarchial Longevity,” Easton and Bailey in their “Records of Longevity,” Hufeland in his “Art of Prolonging Life,” and Evans in his “How to Prolong Life,” all substantially agree that the CAUSE of decrepitude, called Old Age, is not the work of Time, but the result of ossification and the deposition of calcareous earthy matter in the body—and it comes from what man eats, drinks and breathes.
What are the causes of the difference between youth and old age? Why do the functions of the body weaken and the organs deteriorate? Why does man become decrepit and die?
In Old Age there is a fibrinous, gelatinous and earthy deposit in the body. The solid earthy matter which, by gradual accumulation in the body, brings on ossification, rigidity, decrepitude and death, is composed chiefly of phosphate of lime, carbonate of lime (common chalk), and sulphate of lime (plaster of Paris), with magnesia and traces of other earthy substances.
A process of solidification begins as soon as the infant begins to eat and continues without interruption until the body is changed from a comparatively fluid, elastic, and energetic state, to a solid, earthy, rigid, weakened condition, which terminates in death.
Infancy, childhood, youth, manhood and decrepitude are so many different conditions of the body, or stages in the process of solidification or ossification. The only difference in the body between youth and Old Age, is the greater density and rigidity, and the greater proportion of calcareous earthy matter that enters into its composition.
EARTHY SALTS CAUSE OLD AGE
Common table salt, so freely used in the preparation of almost every kind of food, contains a very large amount of calcareous earthy matter; and produces great damage to the body economy.
The theory is that the gradual accumulation of earthy salts in the system is the result of Old Age. Investigation shows that it is just the reverse. It is the cause of Old Age.
If the number of years man lives causes the ossification that accompanies Old Age, then, as like causes produce like effects, all of the same age should show the same state of ossification. Investigation shows this is not so. It is common to find p
eople of 50 who are as weak and decrepit as others are at 75 and 80.
Years ago an English doctor wrote:
“Age is an evil that is not at all inevitable. It is not a question of dates and birthdays, but a matter of natural tendencies and dispositions. The age of the body is irrelevant so long as its condition remains young. Youth is not a time of life, but a quality, a trait of character, a mental and physical state.”
In youth, the organs and structures are elastic, pliable, and yielding; the senses are keen, the mind active. In Old Age these qualities are usurped by rigidity, ossification. The senses are lacking in susceptibility, the mind in memory.
In Old Age the arteries have thickened the walls and are smaller in caliber, caused by fibrinous, gelatinous and earthy deposits. Thus the blood supply to the organs grows less and less, hence their deterioration and the failing of their functions.
Hardening and thickening of the blood vessels is not the work of Time, but of the earthy matter deposited by the blood—and the condition increases year by year, unless one changes one’s habits.
Analysis shows that the blood holds in solution the earthy salts, the calcareous and osseous substances of the same kind as the solidifying agents, and arterial blood contains more than venous. This shows that each cycle of the blood leaves deposits of these damaging agents. It is the common carrier that clogs the system. But its supply must be replenished. Whence comes the new supply? From air, food and drink, from drugs and medicines. There is no other source.
FRUITS HAVE LITTLE EARTHY MATTER
We are dealing here with vegetables and cereals. Water and air will be noticed in due course. Writers have little to say about water in this respect, and nothing about air. Evans writes:
“If man subsists on food that contains a large proportion of lime, a large proportion will enter into the composition of the chyme, the chyle, and the blood; and as from the blood the deposition of lime takes place, the greater the amount of lime that the blood contains, the greater will be the amount deposited in the system, the greater the degree of ossification, and the sooner will be produced that rigidity, inactivity and decrepitude which make him old and bring him to premature death.
“On the other hand, if the food and drink are selected from the articles that contain the least amount of lime, the least amount will enter into the composition of the chyme, the chyle, and the blood, the less amount there will be to deposit, the less degree of ossification, the less the rigidity, inactivity, and decrepitude, and the longer the life of man.”
Dr. Evans says,
“The cereals constitute the basis of modern man’s food. They contain large quantities of mineral matter and, as a class, are the worst adapted as food for man, in regard to long life. Bread, man’s so-called ‘staff of life’ is, to a great extent, the cause of his premature death” (P. 290).
Evans gives over twenty pages of tables of the analysis of foods, which show that fruits and nuts have the least proportion of earthy matter, as compared with their nourishing properties, of any of the foods now used by man. Next in order are animal foods, then come vegetables, and last are the pulses and cereals, which are shown to have the largest amount of earthy matter. Evans then observes,
“From the foregoing analysis we see that fruits, as distinct from vegetables, have the least amount of earthy matter. Most of them contain a large amount of water, but that water in itself is the purest kind—a distilled water of Nature.”
After quoting many authors on the subject, Dr. Evans says:
“We have traced to the blood these earthy compounds that are found in the system, and which increase as age advances. By the process of transpiration, they are gradually deposited by the blood. From the blood we trace them to the chyle, from the chyle to the chyme, from the chyme to the contents of the stomach, and thence to the articles of diet. Thus we eat to live, and we eat to die.”—How to Prolong Life, P. 28).
Evans filled many pages to show that food hardens and clogs the tissues and blood vessels, causing decrepitude and death. That is excellent evidence to prove that eating is not natural. If we grow decrepit and die because of something we do, then we should not do that thing.
In the light of late nutritional discoveries, it appears more correct to say—As we eat to live, we actually eat to die.
FRESH FRUIT
So long as man must eat, the best food is fresh fruits, berries and melons. These contain fluid of the best and purest kind, distilled by natural processes.
Some of these fruit juices are a wonderful solvent, opening the way into capillaries already clogged and hardened, provided the process has not gone too far.
One author says that with a course of fresh grape juice, people with sunken eyes, wrinkled skin and poor complexion have made surprising improvement in recovering a younger appearance.
LESSON NO. 17—CARNIVORISM IS BAD
“In nature a curious yet simple phenomenon is often observed—a rise and fall. If perpetual, it alternates and becomes a fall and rise. Man has degenerated. This degeneration is due solely to his diet. He has fallen; but we hope that he has risen to the highest point in the art of shortening his days, and that in the present generation he will commence gradually to fall back on his original and ordained diet. Since the creation, the days of man’s existence have been little by little decreasing—it has been a gradual fall; but both science and religion tell us that he must rise again, that his life on earth must be prolonged.”—Dr. Charles W. De Lacy Evans in “How to Prolong Life,” 1879.
Evans made that statement seventy-two years ago. Were he alive today he would see that man has not yet commenced to fall back on his original and ordained diet—fruits and nuts. He is also in error when he says that man’s degeneration is due solely to diet.
For more than half a century we have read book after book on food and feeding, and have closely followed the explanations and arguments. We found that those who favored Vegetarianism omitted all the bad features, and the same course was pursued by those who favored Carnivorism.
Books favoring Vegetarianism are composed by prejudiced authors who say nothing of the damaging qualities of vegetables and cereals. Those favoring Carnivorism are composed by authors who carefully omit the damaging properties of flesh.
Such authors do much damage by giving their readers half-truths. A half-truth can be more dangerous than a lie, as it is more misleading. We will be soundly criticized by all hands for giving the facts as we find them.
One author writes:
“The food of the natives of New Zealand and many South Sea Islands consists of fish, flesh, fowls, eggs, fruits, berries, leaves and sea-weeds, all of which contain a comparatively small amount of earthy matter. They are healthy and energetic beyond the age of 100 years, and are said to be equal to the finest young men in Europe after they have reached 100 years of age” (Densmore, P. 268).
We do not question these statements. But it is important to note that the instances of longevity mentioned occurred in the cases of those who lived in regions remote from the centers of civilization, and are free of the degrading influences and polluted air of such centers. We shall observe in due course some of the unnoticed dangers of polluted air that are striking people down in civilization at an alarming rate.
These South Sea Islanders live a more natural life, breathe better air, and subsist on a diet that damages the body less than the conventional diet of civilization. If these natives, in their favorable environment, ate only fruits and berries, it would no doubt double and perhaps triple their present lifespan.
BUTTER, MILK AND CHEESE LESS HARMFUL
The early Greek historian Herodotus told of a people of Ethiopia who, because of their unusual longevity, were called Macrobians. Their diet consisted entirely of roasted flesh and milk, both of which contain only a small amount of earthy matter. They were remarkable for their “beauty and large proportion of their body, in each of which they surpassed other men,” he wrote. They lived to be 120 and some to be muc
h older (Densmore, P. 268).
Fishermen and those living near the sea who subsist chiefly on fish, have good health and live to considerable ages.
Fowls that subsist chiefly on fish and flesh, as the pelican, vulture, hawk, eagle, owl, have much longer life-span than domesticated fowls, as chickens, turkeys and pigeons, fed large quantities of grain.
According to Captain Riley, some tribes of Arabs of the desert, subsisting entirely on the milk of their camels, have no sickness nor disorders, and attain to great age, with remarkable vigor and vitality. He wrote:
“I am fully of the opinion that a great many Arabs on this vast desert live to an age of 200 years and more. Their lives are regular from birth to death; their climate dry and unchangeable; they are not subject to hard labor, yet have sufficient exercise for the purposes of health.”
Camel’s milk contains little earthy matter and does little damage to the body; the people are not subject to the hard manual labor of the toilers of civilization; the climate of their region is not changeable; their lives are regular, and, more important, the Breath of Life they inhale is not polluted with the poisons of civilization.
John Smith cites the case of Ephraim Pratt, of Shutesbury, who died in 1804 at the age of 116. For forty years he lived very much on milk, and yet he could “mow a good swath” almost up to the day of his death (P. 275).
Smith mentions the case of “Paul the hermit” who lived to be 115. He spent nearly a century in the desert, and lived largely on dates and water. Also the case of a shepherd at Gompus, Hungary, who lived to be 126. He “subsisted entirely on milk, butter and cheese, and was never ill” (P. 277). But in those days the devitalized fluid termed “pasteurized milk” was unknown.