the unbalanced food element and eliminate it. It’ s usually either sugar or supplements; second-level culprits are white flour and juices in large amounts. I knew that Judy didn’ t eat sweets except perhaps at a party.“ Do you take vitamins?” I asked.“ Of course,” she said; they had not been prescribed. I suggested she eliminate them for a while and see if that made a difference. That same evening in class, Maria, one of my students, mentioned that she was never hungry.“ I eat because it’ s time, because I know I should, because I’ m with others … but never because I’ m hungry,” she said. As she looked to be in reasonably good shape, not too thin nor too heavy, I was puzzled. I questioned her about her intake of food and found that she was eating mostly natural, wholesome foods, hardly any sweets, adequate amounts of protein— no problem there. I couldn’ t find the logic for a disappearance of the appetite. Finally, I asked whether she took vitamins, and yes, she did. I suggested she eliminate them for a while and see what happened. A week later, while we were chatting about something else, Judy said to me,“ By the way, it worked. My appetite is back to normal since I stopped the vitamins. I don’ t get the munchies anymore.” Her experience had been the same as that of numbers of my students who had been in a similar situation and followed my suggestion. That evening in class, Maria blurted out,“ Guess what happened to me today!”“ What?” chorused the class. She was obviously excited.“ I got hungry! I actually woke up ravenous. Boy, did I enjoy breakfast!” We figured that the vitamins— superfluous in her well-balanced natural diet— had confused her appetite enough to keep it from signaling when it was time to go for real food. There are many psychological components, usually associated with body image, in the more serious and chronic eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia; it is not within the scope of this book to examine them. I also suspect that harsh birthing practices, bottle-feeding, a high sugar intake early in life, and perhaps even erroneous medication may all have some role in these conditions. In terms of diet, a number of my students with bulimia— the binge-vomit syndrome— have found that consuming only whole foods, with special attention to complex carbohydrates such as grains and beans, has been very helpful. They don’ t feel stuffed eating that way and are better able to make the psychological adjustments that allow them to accept nourishment without guilt and the consequent compulsion to force vomiting. However, even the smallest bite of something with refined sugar can make them feel unstable again. For a sweet taste, they rely on orange vegetables such as yams, pumpkin, and winter squash, as well as cooked fruit desserts. They have also reported feeling better eating only small amounts of animal food, and not every day. Anorexia, the pathological lack of appetite, is among other things a deep-seated fear of food; this can mean all food, or simply“ unhealthy” food. True anorexics usually don’ t show up in my classes until after they’ ve made the commitment to change, so my experience with them is limited, at best. I encountered a few cases in which a desire to eat healthfully had rigidified into a severely restricted way of eating; then, when the intellect dictated foods that the body wasn’ t attracted to, the appetite closed down and all food lost its appeal. Students in that situation responded very well to emphasis on sensory delight and the idea that food is our helper rather than our master, still within the context of healthful, but not rigid, eating. Female Disorders Without going into clinical detail, I can safely say that the first treatment for women with problems of the reproductive system is strictly to avoid all foodstuffs that relate to the reproductive system of animals or contain natural or artificial hormones. This includes milk and all milk products( they’ re a product of the cow’ s reproductive system), eggs( a product of the chicken’ s reproductive system), and the meat of animals that have been raised on estrogens. See chapter fourteen,“ The Effects of Food on Sex,” for a more extensive discussion. In my experience, such abstentions, coupled with a hearty health-supportive diet, have helped ameliorate symptoms in cases of PMS, periodic swelling and tenderness of the breasts, cysts, tumors, discharges, endometriosis, and infertility. Endometriosis is further helped by sexual abstinence during menstruation. It seems that coitus can push the secretions back up and through the fallopian tubes into the pelvic cavity. This endometrial tissue then remains there and causes acute pain and discomfort. Orthodox Jewish women, whose traditional customs keep them from having intercourse while they show the least bit of bleeding, have an extremely low incidence of endometriosis. The time frame for the reversal of these conditions seems to be from one month to eighteen months, depending on the severity of the problem. SERIOUS ILLNESS In this category I would like to place, first, those conditions that involve substantial accumulation of matter, malfunction, and structural change of the organs( cancer, advanced hardening of the arteries, cirrhosis of the liver, tuberculosis, Bright’ s disease, advanced arthritis) and second, the insidious autoimmune diseases of neurological disintegration that are becoming increasingly frequent( Alzheimer’ s, ALS, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis, and similar problems). Can a change in diet, or a cleansing fast, heal these disorders? Many books have been written attempting to answer that question affirmatively, offering many different dietary systems, with or without additional medicines, herbs, supplements, and physical therapies. Each of these systems can point to a number of successful cures, at times well publicized. As with conventional medicine, the