s
Raw foods and juices
Grain
Cooke d food
ALAR M SYMP TOMS
Const ant hunge r
Exces sive weight loss
Binge s and cravin gs
Excess weight loss, spaciness, brittle hair and nails, lack of concentration, depression
Bloating( this may be from not enough chewing), sluggishness, pallor or sallow skin, excess weight loss( not assimilating enough), weight gain, lassitude, cravings for coffee and cigarettes, overacidity, demineralization
Tightness, rigidity, lack of joy; possibly rickets in children
POSSIBLE CAUSES
Too many supplements; lack of protein foods; sugar
Not enough calories, uncomplemented vegetable proteins, insufficient beans or animal protein
Excess sugar, salt, supplements; protein lack; one-sided eating
Keeping the foregoing in mind will help you avoid one of the major pitfalls of taking responsibility for your own health: that of making it worse, which can happen if you are overly theoretical and not enough in touch with your body’ s signals. One young man who came to see me— let’ s call him George— was a perfect example of someone stuck in healing regimes that had swung him past the balance point. He had embarked upon a raw-foods regime to cure a strep throat. It had quick and excellent results, and he decided to stay with it, eating fruits, nuts, salads, figs, bananas, and other hot-weather foods. He had a wonderful time all summer and felt light, clear, healthy, spiritually uplifted. Yet as soon as the fall rains and chills arrived, he fell ill. He felt depressed, extremely cold, and at times had to wear several sweaters to endure the weather. He was also constantly hungry, although he ate large portions of the foods mentioned above, and often. In spite of the amounts he ate, he lost weight, going from 145 pounds( not much to begin with for a man almost six feet tall) down to 120. His friends and family worried, feeling something was wrong; but George believed the regime was morally and philosophically right and stuck with it. Eventually, when his pants wouldn’ t stay on his hips any longer and five layers of sweaters and undershirts were not enough to keep him warm, he changed his diet. From basic raw foods( all expansive) he flipped over into the macrobiotic regime of cooked foods: brown rice, beans, seaweed, root vegetables, miso( mostly contractive). He began to feel better, warmed up, and put on a few pounds, but not quite enough. He still became depressed and had coughs and bouts of anger. As with the raw-foods regime, he was told that his symptoms were still“ discharges of toxins.” One day he took a good look at his bony frame and wondered how many toxins he still could have to get rid of. He also got in touch with his core feeling that“ this is not OK.” Coughing was something new for him; he had had no bronchial or lung problems before that could now have been undoing themselves. It was then that he decided to look for help elsewhere and came to see me. We discussed the fact that he had no major health problem to cure except for that early strep throat and a bit of mucus accumulation. That had been taken care of months ago. He had restricted himself unnecessarily; and as his body didn’ t have too much excess matter to get rid of, it got rid of too much useful matter. To put it in Western scientific terms, he had become protein deficient. Each food philosophy has its dogma and its devils, its sin and its salvation. When we think our dietary path is