Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (19 page)

On the other hand, Asians tolerate grains better than other population groups, probably because of the length of time they have subsisted on grains. Those members of Asian societies unable to thrive on grains have long since been selected out through shortened life span and reduced fertility. This selection process may be the reason that Asians have pancreas organs and salivary glands up to 50 percent larger as a function of body weight that those of Westerners.
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These traits allow them to digest grains more fully and contribute to their high tolerance for rice, millet and wheat. The comparatively smaller salivary glands and pancreas of the Westerner often make it difficult for him to digest grains, especially gluten-containing grains such as wheat, corn, oats, rye and barley. Gluten intolerance is associated with a family history of alcoholism, arthritis, Down's syndrome and mental disorders such as schizophrenia and dementia.
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Gluten intolerance has been linked with vitamin B
₆
deficiency.

People with poor adrenal function are often unable to tolerate carbohydrates in any form. Others cannot digest meat very well, due to suppressed or absent hydrochloric acid production in the stomach. This may be due to a deficiency of vitamin B
₆
and zinc, both needed for the production of pancreatic enzymes, or of insufficient chloride due to a low-salt diet. Hydrochloric acid production often decreases with age, rendering meats less well tolerated by the older generation. Some individuals are sensitive to foods from the nightshade family—tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and peppers—and react with sore and painful joints, leading to arthritis. Certain fruits, such as tomatoes, almonds, apricots, peaches and nectarines, contain aspirin-like compounds called salicylates, which have been shown to contribute to hyperactivity and asthma in some children. Citrus fruits frequently cause allergies. Heavily yeasted foods, such as vinegar, barley malt, alcoholic beverages, commercially pickled foods, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and aged cheeses, often exacerbate the symptoms of chronic yeast infection.
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An easy way to determine whether you are allergic to a certain food is the following: Avoid the suspected food for at least four days. Then eat a moderate amount of it on an empty stomach. Test your pulse before and after eating the food. If your pulse rises more than a few beats per minute, or if you have any adverse reaction, you are probably allergic to it.
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We should always be alert to symptoms of food intolerance, such as rashes, fatigue, insomnia, headaches, joint pain and hoarseness. These are nature's warning signals, and it is the wise individual who heeds them.

Genetic predisposition is a major cause of allergies; another is poor diet in general, resulting in digestion that is less than thorough. A diet deficient in animal fats and other bodybuilding factors during infancy and childhood may lead to weaknesses in the intestinal walls, the so-called "leaky gut syndrome" in which partially digested food particles pass into the blood stream. Another contributing factor is enzyme exhaustion from a diet composed primarily of cooked foods. Consumption of sugar and caffeine leads to adrenal exhaustion, a prime cause of allergies. Sugar and refined carbohydrates in the gut can stimulate an overgrowth of
candida albicans
, naturally occurring fungi that break down dead or inert foods in the intestines. With overconsumption of dead foods, such as refined carbohydrates, these organisms multiply uncontrollably. Vinegar and other heavily yeasted foods also encourage candida overgrowth in some people. These yeasts actually change form, attach themselves to the walls of the intestine and grow into the intestine, causing holes in the intestinal wall that allow undigested food and toxins, including toxins produced by candida itself, to enter the bloodstream. These toxins and food particles will then trigger allergic reactions, especially when the immune system is weak or the body is under stress.

A final cause of food allergies is the present-day tendency to eat exclusively foods from just a few types or families. Of the 4,000 or so edible plant species that have fed human societies at one time or another in the past, only 150 are widely cultivated today and just three of them provide 60 percent of the world's food.
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Today our choice of foods is limited to about thirty species, and for many the choice is even more restricted. It is not unusual for some children to eat nothing but pizza, hot dogs and peanut butter sandwiches, or for those following the macrobiotic diet to consume mostly rice and soybean products with a few vegetables. Such diets will not only be deficient in many nutrients, but the constant call for enzymes needed to digest those particular foods can lead to the exhaustion of that specific digestion mechanism. The exclusive use of just a few foods can lead to severe food addictions—every bit as harmful and as difficult to break as addictions to drugs or alcohol. These food addictions, with their concomitant allergic reactions, nurture the biochemical disruptions that lead to more serious degenerative diseases.

If you have food allergies or sensitivities, you will need to eliminate some categories of food from your diet. The best defense against allergies to begin with is a varied and healthful diet from which all refined and stimulating foods—sugar, white flour, refined and hydrogenated vegetable oils, refined salt and caffeine—have been eliminated, and which supplies the intestinal tract with lactic-acid producing bacteria and food enzymes on a frequent basis.

Along with allergies, our genetic inheritance, constitutional type, age, race, occupation, climate and overall state of health all have a bearing on what we should eat. Elderly people and invalids, whose digestive mechanisms have been compromised or are in decline, should pay special attention to getting a good supply of enzymes in their diet and should favor foods that have been pureed, prepared with meat broths or predigested, like soaked gruels and porridges. Growing children and pregnant women need plenty of fat-soluble vitamins found in butter, cream, fish and fish eggs, eggs and organ meats. Those living in cold climates also need more foods rich in vitamin A. Those who do hard physical labor may need a steady supply of animal products in the diet; but those who lead a contemplative life often find overconsumption of animal products, especially red meat, a hindrance. People who suffer from an underactive thyroid condition often do best on a diet in which fats, especially unsaturated fats, are restricted; while others, notably hypoglycemics and individuals prone to seizures, benefit from a diet that is comparatively high in fats.

The wisdom of the ancients teaches us that there are appropriate times for both feasting on rich foods and for fasting on the simplest of fare. Periodic fasting is an age-old method for restoring and maintaining health. Fasting on meat or vegetable broth or on lacto-fermented vegetable juices allows our enzyme-producing and digestive mechanisms to rest so that other enzyme systems can work at repair, detoxification and healing. Many ancient physicians recommended a monodiet for the sick, such as ten days of rice gruel. Hippocrates often prescribed a diet consisting only of raw milk for those suffering from TB or psoriasis. Healing fasts work best when carried out in conjunction with a program of intestinal cleansing through enemas or colonics.

The danger of fasting is that it can be continued too long. The body temple may benefit from the occasional application of mops and brooms—broths and vegetable preparations—but this magnificent edifice is built strong and kept in good repair with bricks and mortar—nutrient-dense proteins and fats.

There has been much debate about the ideal proportions of protein, carbohydrate and fat in our diets. The Politically Correct diet is one that is high in carbohydrates and low in protein and fat; others suggest a diet in which carbohydrates are all but eliminated, especially for weight loss. Another school of thought suggests that a certain precise balance of macronutrients (40 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent protein and 30 percent fat) is the key to perfect health. Traditional diets, when analyzed, reveal approximate proportions of 40 percent carbohydrate foods, 20 percent protein foods and 40 percent fats,
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with the exception of arctic regions and certain cattle-herding groups that do not use much in the way of plant foods and whose diets can be as high as 80 percent fat.
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(Fats have twice as many calories per unit of weight as protein and carbohydrates. As protein and carbohydrate foods are more than 80 percent water, the amount of fat by weight in a diet that yields 40 percent of total calories is actually quite small. Thus, a lightly marbled steak with a mere ¼ inch of fat around the edge will contain about 50 percent of calories as fat.) These proportions should serve as guidelines only and not as rigid dogma that causes us to make a fetish of our eating habits. Systems that stress macronutrient
quantities
often overlook the importance of the food
quality
. A snack bar composed of protein powder, refined sugars and cheap oils should not considered an appropriate food, whatever claims are made for its macronutrient balance.

A recent popular book urges specific diets based on blood types, arguing, for example, that all people of Type A blood should be vegetarians and that only those with Type B blood should consume dairy products.
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This system is based on theories of human evolution that are impossible to prove and on research that is difficult to validate.
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Diet systems that emphasize high quality ancestral foods and proper preparation techniques have better chances for long-term success than those that assign the earth's entire population to one of four food lists, particularly when those lists include questionable foods like soy and exclude nourishing fats like coconut oil.

Other dietary systems that have enjoyed some popularity are those that deal with the acid-and alkaline-forming characteristics of our foods and their supposed effects on the pH value of the blood and tissues. When entirely burned, foods leave an ash or residue that is either acidic, alkaline or neutral. Breads, cereals, fish, meats, eggs and poultry usually leave an acid-ash residue due to high amounts of chlorine, sulphur (in the case of meats and eggs) and phosphorus (in the case of meat and whole grains). Alkaline-ash foods are those in which the elements potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium predominate, including most vegetables and fruits—even fruits with a high acid component like citrus and tomatoes, because these acids can be completely metabolized in the body into carbon dioxide, water and energy. As for nuts, almonds, chestnuts and coconuts are alkaline-ash foods, while Brazil nuts, peanuts and walnuts yield an acid ash. Most legumes are alkaline-ash foods except for lentils which yield an acid ash. Neutral-ash foods are the pure fats like butter and lard, because they can be completely burned, and refined carbohydrates like white sugar and cornstarch, because they contain no minerals. Milk products yield an alkaline ash due to high levels of calcium. Phytates in whole grains complicate the picture because they bind with alkaline-ash minerals and carry them out of the body. Additives found in various foodstuffs have an unpredictable effect on the food residue.

Under normal conditions, the blood, saliva and extracellular fluids are slightly alkaline, while the urine is slightly acidic. The pH value of these fluids is maintained by a series of complex feedback mechanisms in the body and, in general, is not dependent on dietary excesses of either acid or alkaline foods. After a meal rich in proteins, the blood will become more alkaline for a short period, which is in effect a balancing reaction to the secretion of large amounts of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Following this the blood then undergoes a short-lived increase in acidity, which is again a balancing reaction to the heavy secretion of alkaline enzyme-rich solutions from the pancreas. These reactions are completely normal and should in no way be interpreted as justification for avoiding high-protein, "acid-forming" foods.

In the most simple terms, the normal, slightly alkaline condition of the blood is maintained primarily by the action of the kidneys and the lungs regulating the balance between the amount of carbon dioxide and bicarbonate ions in the blood. Problems with the kidneys or lungs, dehydration, ingestion of certain drugs, diabetic conditions or other causes may lead to acidosis, with symptoms of drowsiness, progressing to stupor and coma. This acute condition may be relieved by taking an alkaline solution, such as bicarbonate of soda. The condition of alkalosis may likewise be caused by impaired kidney function as well as hyperventilation, ingestion of certain drugs such as diuretics or steroids, and loss of acid from the body due to vomiting or gastric drainage. Symptoms include cramps, muscle spasms, irritability and hyperexcitability. Treatment of this acute condition may include breathing expired carbon dioxide from a paper bag or taking an acidic solution, such as ammonium chloride.

Unusual chronic or long-term conditions of acidosis or alkalosis
may
be relieved by stressing more acid-forming or alkaline-forming foods in the diet, but such regimes can also lead to deficiencies that further exacerbate the condition. Many people with perfectly normal blood pH values have followed "alkalinizing diets" without realizing that there is no particular need to do so. One particularly dangerous theory suggests that the human diet should be composed entirely of alkaline-forming fruits and vegetables to the exclusion of protein-rich "acid-forming" foods. Under the vast majority of conditions, high-protein foods, such as meat and eggs, do not cause the blood to be pathologically acidic. On the contrary, good quality protein is needed for the body to maintain the proper pH values of the blood and extracellular fluids and to maintain the health and integrity of the lungs and kidneys, those organs which have the most to do with regulating the pH values of the blood. Phosphorus in whole grains, which is an "acid-forming" mineral, actually plays an important role in preventing the blood from becoming too acid. Dr. Weston Price found that the Eskimo, living on a diet composed almost exclusively of "acid-forming" high-protein foods, showed no signs of acidosis. When he analyzed the diets of healthy primitive people, free of tooth decay and disease, he found that they were high in both acid-ash and alkaline-ash foods, with acid-ash foods predominating.
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