Authors: Mary Enig
Food Cravings
Cravings arise when you don’t get vital nutrients from food. On our program, you’ll find that when your body is well fed, you won’t crave excessive unhealthy food.
The elements of Health Recovery—satisfying coconut oil, vitamin A–and D–rich cod-liver oil, and our traditional food preparation techniques—combine to enable you to fully assimilate your food’s nutrients. That’s why, on this diet, food cravings will fade away.
Fungal Infections: Candida
Either taken internally or used topically (on the skin), coconut oil has strong antifungal properties. Research indicates that the lauric acid in coconut oil, as well as the monolaurin that the body makes from coconut oil, kills fungus on the skin and in the gut.
Both antibiotic use and consumption of hard-to-digest foods (particularly unsoaked whole grains) can cause candida to proliferate. The candida fungus also feeds on simple carbohydrates (sugar and white flour). That’s why the best approach to candida is to remove sugar, refined grains, and improperly prepared whole grains from your diet.
At the same time, you need to include coconut oil with its antifungal properties. On Health Recovery, you’ll do just that.
Gallbladder Ailments
Coconut oil is the ideal fat for those suffering from gallbladder ailments because most of the fatty acids in coconut oil do not require bile for digestion.
Conventional medical thinking says that if you have stones in your gallbladder, it is diseased and needs to come out. But does the presence of gallstones really mean that the gallbladder is diseased?
Let’s take a closer look. When we eat fat, the gallbladder releases bile into the digestive tract to break the fat down into absorbable fatty acids. The gallbladder acts as a holding tank for the bile, which is secreted by the liver and is made out of cholesterol.
In our view, the presence of gallstones means that your body has increased its reservoir of cholesterol. If you have low cholesterol, your body needs such a reservoir on hand because it cannot be assured of getting adequate cholesterol from the bloodstream. Thus, it’s actually counterproductive to reduce the fat in your diet, for this would only increase the body’s tendency to store fat and hence to form gallstones. Instead, the best way to eliminate gallstones is to give your gallbladder the cholesterol it needs by eating adequate amounts of animal fats.
But it’s crucial to eat the
right
fats. When people eat a lot of vegetable oils and trans fats, the gallbladder can become inflamed easily. That’s yet another reason why eliminating those fats is so important. And when someone misguidedly follows a low-fat diet, the gallbladder stops working, still another harmful effect of the low-fat diets we’ve all been told are so healthy.
If Your Gallbladder Has Been Removed
What should you eat if you’ve had your gallbladder removed? While the conventional advice is to go on an extreme low-fat diet, we don’t recommend that. Your body still needs good fats and still produces bile to digest them. Even without your gallbladder, you should eat healthy animal fats and avoid processed vegetable oils.
The liver is a rhythmical organ that secretes bile at certain times of the day, ideally at mealtimes. If you still have your gallbladder, you always have bile stored and so do not necessarily have to eat at set times of the day. If your gallbladder has been removed, you should eat meals rhythmically: three meals a day at approximately the same time each day, with no snacks in between.
To enhance the sense of rhythm and supplement the supply of bile, we recommend a supplement of ox bile at each meal, taken according to the manufacturer’s directions (see Resources). Swedish bitters, ½ teaspoon mixed with a little water, taken just before each meal, may also be helpful.
A survey published in
The Lancet
in 1981 indicates that people whose gallbladders have been removed have an increased risk of colon cancer. In order to provide ample protection for your colon, be sure to take cod-liver oil and other foods rich in vitamin D. And avoid all processed and grilled meats and any foods containing carcinogenic substances.
Hormonal Imbalance/Women’s Diseases
The combination of ample vitamins A and D from cod-liver oil with other features of our diet helps keep your hormones balanced and your reproductive system healthy. Here’s how: vitamin D supports hormone production in both men and women. According to a study published in the
Journal of Nutrition,
1992, and confirmed in subsequent research, infertility is associated with low vitamin D.
Alice’s Story: Menorrhagia
For nearly four years, Alice, a San Diego caterer, suffered from menorrhagia, a debilitating condition characterized by extremely heavy menstrual bleeding along with severe abdominal, back, and/or leg cramping. She described it as “having a never-ending period.”
Since Alice knew that this spectrum of disorders is often caused by excess estrogen, and can be ameliorated by vitamin A, she began taking a small amount of cod-liver oil (supplying about 12,000 IU of vitamin A per day).
Although her symptoms improved a bit, they worsened whenever she was subject to stress. Once she had to cater a special dinner and got so stressed out that the menorraghia hit her full force, making it hard even to walk.
Then Alice joined the Weston A. Price Foundation and read our website and magazine. She discovered that much higher doses of cod-liver oil might help—as high as 90,000 IU. “I don’t know if I can get that down!” she told a fellow member. However, she decided to try it, and took two full tablespoons of high-vitamin cod-liver oil a day (providing 60,000 IU of vitamin A) for three days. After the first day, the bleeding was 50 percent less! By the third day, it was gone—and has not returned. A condition that had lasted over four years cleared up after just three days on high-dosage cod-liver oil. Alice also found that her sleep was more restful.
Alice now takes a daily maintenance dose of 30,000 IU of vitamin A, in the form of a liquid mixed with water, since after some experimentation she discovered that this method is actually more pleasant and easier on her digestion than taking a lot of capsules. Today she can fulfill her catering duties and is even thinking of training with renowned chef Jacques Pépin!
If you suffer from PMS, the cod-liver oil, mineral-rich tonics, and other foods on our diet will ease your symptoms, for studies show that additional dietary calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D can completely reverse PMS. These same foods will also help eliminate menstrual migraines, which are associated with low levels of vitamin D and calcium.
Even more serious reproductive disorders, such as PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), have been corrected by supplementation with vitamin D and calcium, according to a study published in
Steroids,
1999. And that’s not all. In a study reported in the
Mayo Clinic Proceedings
, 2003, women with PCOS also lost weight when they ate a diet with ample medium-chain saturated fats. And this weight loss lasted for at least one year.
Your body needs vitamin A, another key nutrient supplied by cod-liver oil, for every step of hormone production, from cholesterol to estrogen and progesterone. Fibroid tumors caused by hormonal imbalance have been completely eliminated with doses of vitamin A as high as 90,000 IU per day. As well as consuming nutrients key to reproductive health, you’ll need to eliminate trans fatty acids from your diet. These harmful fats actually interfere with the enzymes necessary to make sex hormones from cholesterol.
Hypoglycemia
The drops in blood sugar that bring on the symptoms of hypoglycemia—sweating, trembling, dizziness, anxiety, and so on—can be prevented by eating plenty of healthy fats at each meal. Coconut oil combined with the other traditional fats in our diet is a delicious way to do just that. It’s also important to keep sweet foods to a minimum, but with plenty of satisfying fats in the diet your craving for sweets will be much less.
Some people have found that eating properly soaked grains also helps minimize drops in blood sugar levels, a phenomenon that scientists have yet to explain.
Immune System/Autoimmune Disorders
The nutrients in coconut and cod-liver oil play an important role in bolstering the immune system. While saturated fats in general are immune system enhancers, the fatty acids in coconut oil do this best of all. The omega-3 fatty acids—particularly the EPA and DHA in cod-liver oil—are important for an effective immune response to injury or illness. And the fatty acids from coconut oil enhance their effect.
Monolaurin
In 1996, researchers at the University of Minnesota looked at the disease-fighting action of monolaurin, a compound the body makes from the lauric acid in coconut oil. Aware that it inhibits a variety of toxins produced by the pathogenic bacteria
streptococci
and
staphylococci,
they also found that monolaurin stimulates production of disease-fighting T cells.
Susie’s Story: Soaked Oatmeal Better Than Eggs and Bacon
Susie loved her morning oatmeal but had to give it up because it always led to a sudden plunge in her blood sugar at midmorning. By 10
A.M
. she would be ravenously hungry, with a headache, nausea, and trembling hands.
Susie concluded that she was allergic to oats, and sorrowfully gave up this delicious food. Then she learned about soaking grains and decided to give oatmeal another try. She soaked the oats overnight in warm water with a little vinegar added, and in the morning cooked them and ate them with maple syrup and plenty of butter.
This time, there was no midmorning letdown—in fact, at 1
P
.
M
. Susie was still going strong, without a hunger pang, even though she had put plenty of maple syrup on her porridge. Now she eats oatmeal frequently—in fact, she finds that it sticks to her ribs longer than a breakfast of bacon and eggs.
Vitamin D
Research published in 1994 in the
Journal of Cellular Biochemistry
suggests that vitamin D also contributes to a healthy immune system by regulating both the components of the immune system that fight infection and those that counter inflammation. Further research published in 2000 indicates that low levels of vitamin D are associated with several autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis, Sjögren’s syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis, and Crohn’s disease.
Vitamin A
is essential for the production of T cells, so cod-liver oil boosts the immune system in this way as well.
Supporting Liver Health
A healthy liver is essential for a healthy immune system. Thus, nutrients that support liver function are vital for combating immune system disorders.
Decades ago, researchers suggested that gelatin assists liver function. The liver uses the amino acid glycine—a major component of gelatin—for detoxi-fication, and its ability to detoxify depends on the amount of glycine available.
Fructose in fruit juices and anything sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup are very damaging to the liver because all fructose must be processed in the liver. Animal studies carried out during the 1990s at the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed that animals fed diets high in fructose suffered damage to their livers similar to that produced by diets high in alcohol. Anyone with an autoimmune disease (or any condition associated with poor liver function) should avoid these substances. (By contrast, saturated fats support liver function.)
Jenny’s Story: Breast Cancer
When Jenny was diagnosed with stage-4 breast cancer, her doctors gave her a 50-50 chance of surviving. She had a mastectomy, then chemotherapy, but her cancer kept spreading. Finally, she was told it was inoperable.
Then she read some articles by Mary Enig and others, describing the use of virgin coconut oil to treat HIV/AIDS by improving immune functioning. She decided to try boosting her own immune system with coconut oil, to make it strong enough to fight the cancer.
She followed our program, eating traditional foods, taking cod-liver oil, and using coconut oil for cooking, as salad oil, mixed in hot drinks, and on her skin. For six months she took no other medication. When she finally went back to her doctors, they discovered she was in remission, as she still is today.
Ronnie’s Story
Ronnie, a delivery-service driver, was friendly with Eleanor, who worked for a company where he made daily deliveries. One day, as he was leaving, Ronnie remarked that he was going on his lunch break but knew he wouldn’t enjoy it, since he had gastritis, which gave him stomach pain after every meal.
Eleanor suggested he try coconut oil and even ordered some for him. He began cooking with it—for example, gently frying chicken in coconut oil instead of the vegetable oils he had been using. His gas and other discomfort cleared up completely—until one evening when he had dinner out at a restaurant that proudly advertised its use of vegetable oils for cooking. That night, Ronnie’s symptoms returned with a vengeance—and he realized that vegetable oils really were not as healthy as proclaimed.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Colitis, and Crohn’s Disease
Our synergistic combination of coconut oil, cod-liver oil, gelatin-rich bone broths, and soaked and fermented traditional foods will help heal all the diseases of the gut.
IBS
In 2003, the
New England Journal of Medicine
published a major article on the causes and treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The authors pointed out that as many as 15 percent of American adults suffer from symptoms associated with this uncomfortable disease, including abdominal pain, cramping, bloating, gas, diarrhea, and constipation.
Since intestinal health is central to overall bodily health, it’s important to understand the properties of a healthy gut. So let’s take a closer look at what goes on in the digestive tract.