                 DETOXIFICATION AND REGENERATION THROUGH DIET


        The  greatest  misunderstanding  and  confusion  in  the  field  of
    nutrition is the failure  to  properly  understand  and  interpret  the
    symptoms  and  the changes which follow the implementation of a natural
    diet.
        The highest quality of food are the natural, whole and  raw  foods.
    All  the enzymes are found intact.  The amino acids are in their finest
    form.   The  minerals,  vitamins,  carbohydrates,  trace  elements  and
    "life-force"  are  present.   The  "life  force",  in turn is of higher
    quality than the tissues which the body is made of, the body begins  to
    discard  the  lower  grade  materials  and tissues to make room for the
    superior materials which it uses to make new and healthier tissue.
        This is the plan of Nature.  The body is very selective and  always
    will  be unless our interference is too great.  Only then do we fail to
    recover and degenerate further into disease.  The self-curing nature of
    many conditions such as colds, fevers, cuts, swellings, injuries, pain,
    etc., furnishes endless examples of how the body tends toward health --
    always unless we do something to stop the process.
        What are the symptoms or signs which become evident when  we  first
    begin  to  omit  the  lower  grade foods and instead introduce superior
    foods --  those  which  are  more  alive,  more  natural  than  we  are
    accustomed  to?   When  the  use of the toxic stimulant such as coffee,
    tea, chocolate, or cocoa is suddenly stopped, headaches are common  and
    letdown occurs.
        This  is  due  to  the  discard  by  the  body of the toxins called
    caffeine and  theobromide  which  are  removed  from  the  tissues  and
    transported  through  the  blood  stream during its many bodily rounds.
    Before  the  noxious  agents  reach   their   final   destination   for
    elimination,  these  irritants register in our consciousness as pain --
    in other words, headache etc.
        The letdown is due to the slower action of the heart -- the resting
    phase which follows the stimulation of more rapid heart  action  forced
    upon  the body by certain poisons called stimulants (that can be in the
    form of  drug  medications).   The  more  rapid  heartbeat  (or  pulse)
    produces  a  feeling  of exhileration, and the slower action produces a
    depressed state of mind.  Usually within three days the symptoms vanish
    and we feel stronger due to the recuperation which follows.
        To a lesser extent, the same process occurs when we  abandon  lower
    quality  foods and replace them with better foods.  Lower quality foods
    have undergone more preparation, spices,  salt  and  other  ingredients
    have  been  added,  which  then  tend  to be more stimulating then less
    prepared and more natural foods.
        Animal foods and products, such as meat, fowl, fish, cheese,  milk,
    eggs,  etc.,  are  more  stimulating  than  seeds,  nuts,  grains,  and
    vegetable protiens.  Consequently, the withdrawal of stimulation  which
    follows  the abandonment of animal foods produces a slower heart action
    -- a resting phase -- which registers in the mind as  relaxation  or  a
    decrease  in  energy.   This  initial  letdown  lasts about ten days or
    slightly longer and is followed by an increase of strength,  a  feeling
    of diminishing stress, and greater well-being.

        Now,  let  us  return to the symptoms which occur in the process of
    regeneration.  The person who starts a better diet,  stays  on  it  for
    three days to a week and then quits, will say "Oh, I felt better on the
    old  diet--the new one made me feel weak."  He failed because he didn't
    give his body a chance to  adjust  and  complete  its  first  phase  of
    action--recuperation.   If  he  had waited awhile longer, he would have
    begun to feel better than before he started.
        During this initial phase (lasting about ten days on the average to
    several weeks in others), the vital energies which are usually  in  the
    periphery  or  external part of the body, such as the muscles and skin,
    begin to move to the vital internal organs and start reconstruction.
        This shunting of much of the power to the internal organs  produces
    a  feeling of less energy in the muscles, which the mind  interprets as
    some weakness.  Actually, the power is increased, but  most  of  it  is
    being  used  for rebuilding the more important organs and less of it is
    available for muscular work.  Any weakness which is felt  here  is  not
    true weakness, but merely a redeploying of forces to the more important
    internal  parts.   Here  it is important for the person to stop wasting
    energy, and to rest and sleep more.  This is a Crucial  phase,  and  if
    the  person resorts to stimulants of any kind, he will abort and defeat
    the regenerative intent of the body.
        It is important that he have the patience and faith and  just  wait
    it  out,  and  after  awhile he will get increasing strength which will
    exceed by far what he felt before he began the new program.  Success in
    recovery or improvement of health hinges upon the correct understanding
    of this point--realizing that the body is using its  main  energies  in
    more  important  internal  work  and  not  wasting  it in external work
    involving muscle movements.
        Be wise--take it easy here and relax.  Just coast in your work  and
    social obligations until you're out of the woods.
        As one continues on the improved diet and gradually raises the food
    quality,  interesting  symptoms  begin  to  occur.   The  body begins a
    process  called  "retracting".   The  cellular   intelligence   reasons
    something like this:
        "Oh!  Look at all this fine material coming in.  How wonderful--now
    we  have  a chance to get rid of this old garbage and build a beautiful
    new house.  Let's get started immediately.
        Let's get this excess bile out of the  liver  and  gallbladder  and
    send  it  to  the  intestines  for  elimination.  Let's get this sludge
    moving out of the  arteries,  veins  and  capillaries.   These  smelly,
    gassy,  brain-stupefying masses have been here too long--out with them!
    These arthritic deposits in the joints need  cleaning  up.   Let's  get
    these  irritating  food  preservatives,  sleeping  pills, aspirins, and
    drugs out of the way, along with these other masses of fat  which  have
    made life so burdensome for us for so long.
        "Let's  get  going  and  keep going until the job is done--until we
    have a beautiful house--and from then on we'll  keep  it  a  beautiful,
    ideal  model  house."   During the first phase (called Catabolism), the
    accent is on elimination, or breaking down, of tissue.  The body begins
    to clean house--in short, to remove the garbage deposited  in  all  the
    tissues--everywhere.

        During  this  period,  the body "removes the ashes from the furnace
    preparatory to getting a better fire."  Here, the  accentuation  is  on
    the  removal  of the gross and immediate body obstructions.  Wastes are
    discarded more rapidly than new tissue is made from the new food.  This
    becomes evident as weight loss.  This persists for awhile and  is  then
    followed by the second phase--stabilization.
        Here the weight remains more or less stable.  During this phase the
    amount  of  waste material being discarded daily is equal to the amount
    of tissue which is being formed and replace by the  newer,  more  vital
    food.   This  occurs  after  the  excess of obstructing material in the
    tissues has been removed.
        This stage persists for awhile and is  then  followed  by  a  third
    phase--a  build-up  period (called Anabolism), wherein weight starts to
    go up, even though the diet is lower in calories than it was before.
        At this point, much or more of the interfering wastes have  already
    been discarded--the tissues which have formed since the diet was raised
    in  quality  are  more durable and do not break down easily.  Also, new
    tissues are now being formed faster.
        This is due to the  improved  assimilation  made  possible  by  the
    ceasing of wrong food-combining.  The body's need for the usual amounts
    of food decreased, and we are able to maintain our weight and increased
    energies with less food.  Many are able to function very efficiently on
    two meals a day and eventually even on one meal a day.
        As  the body progressively increases in efficiency and decreases in
    tissue breakdown under exercise, so do we gradually need less and  less
    food  to  maintain  life.   The  higher the percentage of whole and raw
    foods one lives on, the slower the rate of tissue  deterioration  which
    one evolves into.  A sick body requires a gradual, carefully worked-out
    entry  into  this  stage,  where  one  is able to live on a 100 percent
    unfired raw diet.
        Returning to the symptoms which occur  on  a  superior  nutritional
    program,  people  who have had tendencies in the past to recurring skin
    rashes or eruptions will  frequently  tend  to  eliminate  poisons  and
    harmful  drugs  through the skin with new rashes or eruptions.  If they
    go to a doctor, now, who is unfamiliar with this aspect  of  nutrition,
    he  will  diagnose  it  as  an allergy.  They ask "How come? I'm eating
    better now than I ever did before, and instead I'm getting worse."
        They don't understand that the body is "retracting."  The  skin  is
    getting  more  alive  and  active.  It's throwing out more poisons more
    rapidly now that the body is building more power which  is  saved  from
    those  hard-to-digest meals which have been discontinued.  These toxins
    being discarded are saving you from more serious  disease,  which  will
    result  if  you  keep  them  in  your  body  too  much longer--possibly
    hepatitis, kidney disorder, blood disease,  heart  disease,  arthritis,
    nerve  degenerations,  or  even  cancer--depending  on your heredity or
    structural weaknesses.  Be happy you're paying your  bills  now  in  an
    easy payment plan.
        With  some, colds which haven't appeared for a long time may occur,
    or even fevers.  This is nature's way of housecleaning.
        Understand  that  these  actions  are  constructive,  even   though
    unpleasant  at the moment.  Don't try to stop these symptoms by the use

    of certain drugs, or even massive doses of vitamins which will  act  as
    drugs  in  huge  concentrations.   These  symptoms are part of a curing
    process--and don't try to cure a cure.
        These are NOT deficiency conditions or allergic manifestations--not
    if  you're  eating  properly  in  quality,  quantity,  combination  and
    sequence.   Here  is  where  experienced  advice  is  of  great  value.
    Unfortunately, there are  few  books  present  today  which  give  good
    guidance  to the average reader.  Try to find guidance through a doctor
    or teacher who has the requisite experience in this most  confusing  of
    all subjects--nutrition in relation to health and disease.
        You  may  be  eating  perfectly in regard to quantity, quality, and
    observing all the correct rules, and still symptoms will occur.
        Those who have lived better lives  in  the  past,  who  have  eaten
    better  foods  and  who  have abused their bodies less with overeating,
    will have reactions ranging from almost none at all  or  very  mild  to
    symptoms which may be uncomfortable or acute.
        Those  who have lived worse lives and poisoned themselves more will
    experience more severe  symptoms  if  their  liver,  kidneys  or  other
    important  eliminating  organs  have been damaged.  When they have been
    renovated to the point of fair  working  order,  they  will  no  longer
    produce symptoms.
        Headaches  may  occur at the beginning; fever and/or colds also may
    appear; the skin may break out; there may be a short interval of  bowel
    sluggishness,  occasional diarrhea, feelings of tiredness and weakness,
    disinclination to exercise, nervousness,  irritability,  negativity  or
    mental   depression,  frequent  urination,  etc.   However,  the  great
    majority of people find their reactions tolerable and are encouraged to
    bear with them because of the many improvements which already  occurred
    and  are  becoming  more  evident  with  each  day.   This  acts  as an
    inspirational force to them.
        The symptoms will vary according to the materials being  discarded,
    the condition of the organs involved in the elimination, and the amount
    of  energy  you  have  available.  The more you rest and sleep when the
    symptoms are present, the milder they are and the more quickly they are
    terminated.
        Be happy you are having symptoms.  Realize deeply that you body  is
    becoming  younger  and healthier every day because you are throwing off
    more and more wastes which would eventually have brought pain, disease,
    and much suffering.  Those who have  the  worst  symptom-reactions  and
    follow  through  to their successful termination are thus avoiding some
    of the worst diseases which would eventually  have  developed  had  thy
    continued their careless eating habits.
        Don't expect to go on an ascending scale of quality--that improving
    your diet will make you feel better and better each day until you reach
    perfection.   The  body  is cycllcal in nature (on a circadian rhythm),
    and health returns in a series of  gradually-diminishing  cycles.   For
    example,  you  start a better diet and for awhile you feel much better.
    After some time, a symptom occurs--you may feel nauseous for a day  and
    have  diarrhea  with a foul-smelling stool.  After a day, you feel even
    better and all goes fine for awhile.  Then you suddenly develop a cold,
    feel chills, and lose your appetite.  After about  two  or  three  days
    (assuming  you  don't  take  drugs  or  do anything else about it), you
    suddenly recover and feel better than you did for years.

        Let us say this well-being  continues  for  two  months,  when  you
    suddenly  develop  an  itch or rash.  You still don't take anything for
    it.  This rash flares up, gets worse and continues for  ten  days,  and
    suddenly subsides.  Immediately after this you find that your hepatitis
    is gone and your energy has increased more than ever before.
        The  rash  became  an  outlet  for  the  poisons in the liver which
    produced the hepatitis.  This is how recovery occurs--like  the  cycles
    in the Dow-Jones Average at the beginning of a bull market.
        You feel better, a reaction occurs and you don't feel as well for a
    short time.  You recover  and  go  higher  for  awhile.   Then  another
    reaction occurs, milder than the last.  You recover and go even higher.
    And so it goes..
        Each reaction milder than the first as the body becomes purer, each
    becoming  shorter in duration and being followed by a longer and longer
    period of feeling better than ever before,  until  you  reach  a  level
    plateau of radiant health.
        The  first  laws  we must learn to obey are the laws of Nature.  We
    must learn to eat simple, pure and natural foods, properly prepared and
    combined, and our bodies in return will cast off all the evil  we  have
    taken  in  during  our  lives.  Nowhere is the principle of forgiveness
    more manifest than here--in our own bodies--when we  forsake  our  evil
    and  destructive  ways  of  eating  (the  dwelling of the temple of the
    soul).
        God, Nature, Your Higher Power..if you please, gives us a whole new
    chance for a new glorious life.  All repentance must begin here in  the
    body--through  the purer diet and natural foods.  The, just have faith,
    sit back, and watch what happens.
        Before your eyes, you will daily see signs that will cause  you  to
    wonder  at  this  vast  intelligence  in  operation  that  staggers the
    comprehension, the mysteries of the body, the operations of Nature, the
    vital forces working in Nature, are  far  beyond  what  our  minds  are
    prepared to understand at present.

    Dr.  Ede  Koenig  is  the  founder  and president of the Radiant Health
    Institute and the School of Radiant Health, located in the mountains of
    Napa Valley, CA, where she conducts  a  private  practice.   She  is  a
    doctor  of  Nutritional  Medicine, an author and lecturer, and a master
    herbalist.

    EOF>
