Dr. Thomas Cowan: Holistic Family Medicine

Digitalis, otherwise known as foxglove, is one of the most famous medicinal plants in human history. In the late 1700s it was identified as a medicine for what was then called dropsy, and which is now referred to as congestive heart failure. It was a medicine that allegedly made the heart glad. In the next two centuries, it became one of the most widely used plants for all manner of heart illnesses. The beautiful foxglove healed the failing heart; it resolved hearts that were beating too fast or too irregularly. Its effects were rapid, and in those with failing or irregular hearts, the effects were almost miraculous.

Digitalis has also been known as a potentially dangerous plant in that taking too much leaves the patient with nausea, anorexia (no appetite), visual disturbances (especially seeing blue halos around lights) and eventually even heart arrythmias and death. Digitalis leaves contain a wide array of constituents, including the main alkaloids digoxin and digitoxin. Currently it is thought that the main effect of digitalis on the heart is from digoxin, which is now prescribed in the semi-synthetic form of Lanoxin.

Some years ago many physicians noticed that their patients on digitalis preparations, especially those made from whole-leaf preparations which contain both digoxin and digitoxin, suffered from much less cancer, or recurrences of pre-existing cancers, than other patients. I share with you below some of the studies that confirm these observations, and some of the biochemical reasons why this effect may occur. For example, one study found that the recurrence rate of women with breast cancer on digitalis was less than 5% compared to about 30% of those not on digitalis. Other studies have confirmed this same result. Since the cancer therapy effect of digitalis is not thought to be found in the digoxin, but rather in the whole-leaf extract, that is the form that I use.

Please follow the directions for the use of digitalis carefully, as this is a plant that needs our utmost respect and care.

Following is information for those who wish to read further on the uses of digitalis, including selected papers from the National Library of Medicine and other sources, and several websites that might be of interest.

FYI, I have had numerous requests from patients who are undergoing treatment for cancer, particularly Iscador therapy, who would like to talk with other patients about their experiences. We want to act as a conduit to put people in touch with one another so they can get more information and share stories. The focus of this cancer discussion forum is on patients and their experiences. It will be wholly the effort of those who have an interest. I will not be involved in any way except as the initial facilitator for putting people together through a confidential email exchange. Click here for more information…

Please note that this material is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to replace consultation with a doctor.

Several websites provide additional information on the therapeutic use of digitalis. www.cancerwire.com

Johan Haux, MD, PhD, has conducted many studies and projects. His website keeps up with the latest in digitalis research.

www.annieappleseedproject.org/digitoxin.html

The Annie Appleseed Project includes a page on digitoxins.

http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/heart_drugs.html

In his paper Heart Drugs, Barry Groves talks about heart drugs and digitalis, leading with this quote: “Digitalis is the right drug being used to treat the wrong disease.”

I often treat cancer with Iscador, an alternative and nontoxic therapy made from a lacto-fermented extract of mistletoe (Viscum album L.) This treatment is one of the most extensively studied complementary medical therapies, particularly in Europe where it has been used as an adjunctive therapy for solid tumor cancers. An early 2005 study confirms the safety of complementary Iscador therapy in patients with high-risk melanoma. Equally important, the Iscador users had a significantly improved length and quality of survival and fewer distant metastasis than those who didn’t use Iscador. See below to link to the abstract or download a Booklet (PDF format) about the study.

Because I like to provide information to people to help them better understand their conditions and their options, I have included below a selection of papers, studies and trials that have been conducted using mistletoe extract therapy. Click on the link at Abstract to read the full abstract at the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s National Library of Medicine website, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. At the bottom of this page, I also include several other websites with additional information and links on Iscador and cancer therapy.

I have had numerous requests from patients who are undergoing treatment for cancer, particularly Iscador therapy, who would like to talk with other patients about their experiences. We want to act as a conduit to put people in touch with one another so they can get more information and share stories. The focus of this cancer discussion forum is on patients and their experiences. It will be wholly the effort of those who have an interest. I will not be involved in any way except as the initial facilitator for putting people together through a confidential email exchange. Click here for more information…

Please note that this material is intended for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to replace consultation with a doctor.

Weleda’s website has useful information on their product, Iscador, including information on published data and articles.

The Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients (October 2002)

Article on Mistletoe Extracts & Cancer Therapy

The following information is complementary to my Diet and Nutrition information sheet, in which I tried to make clear which foods I consider to be of the best quality for maintaining good health and promoting healing. In this piece, I do the same on the subjects of medicines and supplements. As with food, achieving optimal health or recovering from an illness requires bringing as much thought and insight to bear on this subject as is possible. We cannot afford to make the mistake of using unbalanced vitamins or inferior quality medicines in this quest for improved health. Currently, I use medicines and supplements from five sources. I would like to explain why I believe that these are the best sources of medicines and supplements available. But before I do that, I would like to talk about my general therapeutic strategy.

My Therapeutic Strategy
Generally, after I see a patient, listen to his or her story, and do whatever exams and tests are necessary, I then prescribe a course of treatment. It is important to know that I am not so much trying to fix what is wrong, but rather to strengthen patients so that out of their own forces they can begin to overcome whatever medical problems they came to see me about. I strive to do this without resorting to synthetic medicines if at all possible. The course of the treatment is usually as follows.

• A diet is suggested.
  

• Standard process medicines are given to supplement the whole food nutrients that I think will increase the patient’s ability to heal.
  

• I often will prescribe a Standard Process glandular medicine to augment the function of the gland I think is in need of support.
  

• Finally, I use Mediherb herbal extracts (the bottle of liquid) for their specific medicinal actions. For example, in a patient with repeated infections I may give Echinacea and Goldenseal. For a patient with anxiety, I may add Kava extract to the liquid. Finally, I often will supplement this liquid herbal extract with one of Mediherb’s herbal extract tablets to enhance the effect of the herbal treatment. Most often with the herbal treatment I prescribe medicines in three week intervals.

Medicines should be taken as directed as closely as possible. Just before the three weeks are up, the patient should call to discuss his or her progress. Often I will slightly tweak the formula to make it more effective. Treatments generally last between two to 12 months, depending on the condition and the patient’s response to treatment. Patients should expect to see some definite improvement in their condition within the first six weeks.

Now on to the supplements and medicines that I use in my treatments.

Weleda, Wala and Uriel medicines
Weleda, Wala, and now Uriel are the major anthroposophical medicine companies in the world today. These firms make a wide variety of natural medicines, skin care products and products for personal use. Both Weleda and Wala have been in existence for more than 50 years and employ some of the most enlightened and rigorous quality-control standards possible. As an example, Wala workers handpick all of the plants they use and perform all the homeopathic dilutions by hand, instead of using the big mechanical shakers employed by most homeopathic manufacturers. The plants used by all three of these companies are either picked in the wild under strict environmental guidelines, or are grown in a biodynamic way.
There are no better quality natural medicines available. I typically use medicines from these companies to treat a wide variety of acute problems (pneumodorons for coughs), to support organ function (hepatodoron for liver support), or for treating cancer (Iscador). These medicines are generally available by prescription only through physicians well-versed in the methods of anthroposophical medicine.

Note: WALA has recently stopped supplying medicines in the U.S.

Standard Process
I often ask my patients to stop all their usual vitamins and supplements, and to replace them with carefully chosen products from Standard Process. Why? Let me use the example of vitamin C to illustrate my reasoning. Many take some form of vitamin C supplementation, either all the time or when they feel ill. These people are often surprised to hear me say that, not only are they not doing themselves any good, they may actually be causing harm by taking the usual forms of vitamin C. Ascorbic acid, often erroneously called vitamin C, is a potent natural preservative found in small amounts in plants and in some animal tissues. It is an essential nutrient for humans, as we are unable to synthesize vitamin C on our own. Ascorbic acid is always found in nature as an organic mixture, which includes such things as magnesium, manganese, bioflavonoid, rutin and many other organic compounds. In order to be effective in us it must have all these other cofactors present, not just the ascorbic acid. Most vitamin C products, with very few exceptions, strip the ascorbic acid part of the complex and call this vitamin C. It is not; it is only ascorbic acid, actually the preservative part of the vitamin C complex. This ascorbic acid is then given in enormous quantities, far more than is ever found in natural food, and far more than our bodies can safely use. Not only can we not use these huge quantities of ascorbic acid, but our bodies also are forced to call on its own reserves to join with this ascorbic acid. This draws upon and eventually depletes our bodies of these other vital nutrients that make up the vitamin C complex.
Standard Process is one of only two companies that I know of that doesn’t make this mistake. When Standard Process puts vitamin C in their products, it is always the whole plant or animal extract dehydrated at low heat to preserve the integrity of the complex. Starting with vitamin C-rich sources such as rose hips, acerola berries, buckwheat shoots and animal adrenal glands, each tablet will contain only about 2-10 mg of ascorbic acid, which by federal decree is labeled as the vitamin C content. In fact, one cannot get more than about 15 mg of vitamin C into a normal-sized tablet. All the pills with more than this are nothing more than chemical ascorbic acid which, as I said, is a chemical preservative that we have no business ingesting in such huge amounts.
The same argument holds for all the other vitamins and all the other Standard Process products. This company is the only one I know of that grows much of its own source material on its organic farm in Wisconsin, processes the whole mineral, plant, and animal extracts at low heat, and puts them into appropriate supplement form. In addition, Standard Process has innovative products not found anywhere else. Two examples are the Wulzen anti-stiffness factor, isolated in the 1950s as the factor that prevents osteoarthritis, and a variety of whole organ extracts, used for centuries to combat various illnesses. It has been rare in my experience for patients not to notice improvements in their health when placed on the appropriate Standard Process supplements. Like other anthroposophical medicines, Standard Process products are available only through a health care provider.

Mediherb
With herbal medicines so commonly available in health food stores and even pharmacies, why choose a particular line of herbal products? Mediherb, an Australian company founded by Kerry Bone and distributed in the U.S. by Standard Process, is the most reliable producer of high quality herbal extracts that I know of.
The difference between Mediherb and all other herbal products lies in two particular areas. First, Mediherb guarantees that the material in your bottle is not only from the herb it says it is from but contains at minimum the amount of active ingredients listed on the bottle. It is the only herbal company that guarantees that it uses the whole herb or herb part and provides a known quantity of active ingredient. No other company combines this commitment to both wholeness and attention to active ingredients.
Second, Mediherb provides extracts, unlike most other herbal companies which use tinctures. Extracts are at least five times more concentrated than tinctures and are much more in line with the doses used both by traditional herbalists and in modern pharmacological studies. Often people who say they had no results using other herbs find that getting the right quality and quantity of the proper herb makes all the difference.

Women’s International Pharmacy and Carlson’s
Two companies I routinely work with are for very specific items only. I prescribe hormones from Women’s International Pharmacy, a reliable supplier of natural hormone products. In particular, I prescribe tri-est, a mixture of three estrogens that mimic the normal female estrogens, and progesterone cream. It also has testosterone and many other hormonal products.
I use the Carlson’s for its vitamin D capsules. Vitamin D is a nutrient often deficient in American diets, a deficiency which leads to a myriad of problems. Vitamin D is critical for calcium absorption from the GI tract, and calcium is needed for many processes in our bodies, including the regulation of the pH or acid-base balance of the body. If the pH is off, all of our biological functions are impaired. For this reason I give many patients extra vitamin D and calcium. As I described with vitamin C, we should use only vitamin D that is a whole-food extract. The most concentrated source of vitamin D is fish liver oil, and I often recommend that people use cod liver oil. In situations where more vitamin D is needed, I prescribe Carlson’s vitamin D.

I hope this information helps to answer any questions about the types of medicines and the therapeutic strategy that I use. If anyone has any other questions about the supplements I give or any other medicines being taken, please contact me by phone or email. For links and phone numbers for these companies, go to our Resources page.

An important part of the study of a healthy diet is the special needs of children, including transitioning from nursing to solid food. As most parents with children know, choosing and implementing the proper diet for our children is one of the most daunting tasks there is. Drawing on my years of the study of nutrition, my numerous pediatric patients over the years, and perhaps equally as important 18 years of feeding my own three children, I would like to outline what I see as a proper diet for our children.

The first principle I would emphasize is that choosing to eat well is a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate to our children such things as the value of work, where real things come from, and how human beings can be not only consumers but also producers of things of value. Hopefully, other activities in our homes will also demonstrate these principles, but many of us are not fortunate enough to have the skills to make our own furniture or even make our own music. It is perhaps the greatest gift we can give our child to teach him or her that things of value, things that are real can be made with our own hands and our own efforts.

With food, this lesson is readily accessible. All of us need to eat, and with minimal skill, effort and expense, we can participate in the procurement of our food every step of the way. Children readily understand these kind of lessons; they easily understand the value of work and how we humans transform the earth to nourish our bodies. They’ll understand the value of eating well if they see it, if they watch us grow and cook food, and participate themselves. Therefore, I encourage each family, no matter how limited their space, to grow at least some of their food. For some this may mean only a potted tomato plant; for others it can include a whole garden and the raising of animals. Of course, these gardens should be totally organic, not only for health reasons but also so children can learn to work with and respect the complexities nature offers to us.

For most of us, the majority of our food has to be brought into our homes from outside sources. As much as possible we should obtain this food from local organic farmers or community-supported farms. Again, the more connection the family has with the source of their food, the more children will develop a heart connection with their food. “These apples are from farmer Groh’s trees,” one child will say, while another will remark on how their rich, creamy milk came from a special cow that they know. These lessons and insights are also the beginning of an ecological awareness that comes from the heart and belly rather than the often abstract concepts of the modern ecology movement. I also think that the all-too-common modern phenomenon of food allergies is combated by a more personal relationship to the source of our food. After all, an allergy is a physical and soul reaction against food. This is less likely to occur if that same food has been lovingly nurtured by our own or our father’s hands. For these and many other reasons, the first step in developing a child’s diet is to expose them to how food is grown and procured, and to help them be part of this process in some way.

This principle of working with children so they see and understand how food is made does not stop when the food is brought into the house. After the food arrives, the work of turning it into nourishing meals can begin. Proper storage and processing of food is an important part of eating well. Again, I encourage all families to do some of their own food processing, be it bread making, including the nurturing of the sourdough culture and the grinding of flour, making pickles and other fermented foods, yoghurt and cheese making, and many other home food processing processes. Many of the techniques for this are described in Nourishing Traditions and other books on home food processing.

Again, besides the increased freshness and nutritional value of the food produced in this way, there is a valuable lesson for children in becoming creatively involved with their own nourishment. Children love to knead bread, churn butter and make berry preserves, and while doing so they learn firsthand how to turn the bounty of the earth into our daily bread. They learn to work effectively without wasting anything, valuable lessons for their lives ahead. It therefore goes without saying that as much as possible all the food fed to young children should be prepared by a family member. This is why I do not recommend or encourage prepared baby foods of any kind. All food should be freshly made and contain even the microorganisms that are actually living in their own house, not those of a factory. In a subtle way this actually helps children become grounded physically in their own home and in balance with their own micro-environment.

Now we come to the actual feeding of the child, by age group.

Formula

A very few times in the history of my practice a mother was unable to breastfeed her children. Even though we tried everything, these mothers could not produce enough milk to adequately feed their children. In these few cases, I advise supplementing with the formula described in Nourishing Traditions, which has always proved to be successful. The preparation of this formula does involve more work than simply buying formula from the grocery store, but all the women I have known who have chosen this route were very pleased with the robust health of their children.

Six Months to One Year

Children generally start to eat food other than breast milk between five and seven months of age. Usually, a child will give some sign that he or she is ready to eat, perhaps having trouble sleeping through the night, or just becoming very excited at the sight and smell of food. It is at this time that children no longer spit out the food but readily accept and swallow it.

In keeping with the principle that there are three major food groups, I encourage starting the child with one or two foods from each group as their first foods. These foods will be the main foods given for the first two weeks. From the animal food group, I start with egg yolks cooked for about 8-10 minutes, and butter, preferably cultured butter, as yellow as possible. The grain category will include brown rice and millet, both soaked for at least 24 hours, then cooked with plenty of water for a long time. The resultant, slightly sour, very thin porridge can be mixed with the other food eaten in this time. The vegetable group will be carrots and sweet potatoes, again cooked for a long time until they are very soft. The approximate proportions of this food should be a third of each or perhaps even up to 50% of the animal food category.

The most important nutrient for children are healthy fats. These fats help to provide immunity, development of the nervous system, and to protect them from micro-organisms. This category of food should never be lower than one third, if at all possible. After 2-3 weeks on this diet, more foods from each category can be introduced. In the animal food category during this next month or two introduce whole-milk yoghurt or kefir, slightly warmed whole raw milk, ghee, organic liver, and soup broth. Until about the end of the first year these are the only animal foods that the child should be given. In the grain category, all the other grains can be introduced in these next 3-6 months.

Of all the food groups, grains are the most likely to cause digestive disturbances or allergies if they are not properly prepared. All grains should be soaked for at least 24 hours before cooking and then cooked at low heat for a long time. Bread should be natural sourdough bread, hopefully made in your own kitchen. In the vegetable group, most vegetables can be added in these 3-6 months.

All the vegetables should be cooked, if only blanched or steamed, and should always be eaten with a liberal amount of fat, usually olive oil or butter or both. At this time lacto-fermented vegetables should be introduced into the diet. This not only aids with digestion and immunity, but also gets children used to enjoying the sour taste early in life. Once this taste is acquired, it seems to stick with children for a long time, perhaps even for life.

During this 6- to 12-month-old stage, fruit can be introduced, starting with berries then working up to apples, pears, and other non-citrus fruits. Citrus fruits should be introduced only much later.

With slight daily variations of vegetables and perhaps some variety in grains, this should be the diet for the child under one year old. If at all possible refined foods should be avoided in this critical first year. This especially includes pasta, boxed cereals, fruit juices, and sweeteners such as sucanat, honey and maple syrup. During this time the child should learn to enjoy the natural sweetness of grains, vegetables, and fruit. If this is allowed to happen, the child’s nutritional habits will be set on a strong foundation for the rest of their lives.

Another food worth mentioning is coconut butter, which should be started in the first month that the child is eating food. Coconut oil is nature’s richest source of Lauric acid, one of the predominant fats in human breast milk. This valuable fat helps protect the child against fungal and viral infections, thereby giving them a chance to build up their natural immunities.

One to Three Years

At the age of about one year, when a child begins to walk, the diet can be expanded a bit. This is also the time the child can be fully weaned from breast milk. This next phase of the diet will continue for the next two years until the child is three years old, when they enter the next major stage of development. During this period from one to three years, all of the above foods should be continued, keeping the proportions in the approximate balance of one third from each group. If you vary from this, it should be in the direction of increasing the percentage of animal food and fat in the diet. This is especially so if the child is at all underweight, has allergies, or in general seems to be unsettled.

During this time, the various forms of meat and fish can be introduced including poultry, lamb, and beef. The meat should be strictly from organic, grass-fed sources and probably eaten no more than once or twice per week. The fish should be from deep-water ocean sources. Also, the whites can now be included when eggs are used. During this period of development the most important foods from the animal food category continue to be egg yolks, butter, yoghurt, kefir, raw milk, and liver. Soup broth should also be used liberally as a base for the preparation of grains and soups.

To the grain category, which also includes natural sweeteners, deserts can now be added to the diet. They should not be given every day, as then the children come to expect sweets rather than experience them as a treat. Perhaps the best rhythm in this period is once or twice per week, including a festive meal on a special family day. The dessert can include berry pies, cookies made with butter, coconut oil and fruit, and other recipes found in Nourishing Traditions. Also added to the grain category are nuts and seeds, which can be eaten fairly liberally during this period. Again, please consult Nourishing Traditions for the proper preparation of nuts and seeds.

In the vegetable category, during this period raw vegetables can be introduced in the diet. A wide variety of salads can be offered to the child, always including a dressing made with olive and flax seed oils. The healthy fats found in avocados can also be introduced in this time. By the end of the third year, the diet of the child will look almost identical to that of the adults. The exception is that because children have a relative paucity of the enzyme that converts B-carotene into vitamin A, children younger than five years generally do not do well with vegetables. I tell all my parents not to worry about their children not liking vegetables, as this is normal in this stage of life. In fact, because they are slow in this enzymatic conversion, perhaps it is best left to the cow to do this conversion and for the child to eat butter and cream. This is actually probably more as nature intended it anyway.

Three to Fourteen Years

In the years between age three and 14, there is not much difference between the optimal diet for the child and the adult. The main issue at this age is how to account for the child’s tastes. To this the answer is often that unwitting parents often try to encourage a diet that actually does not suit their children. Children need and often crave fat. They need fat for proper neurological development in the early years, healthy immune function in the school age years, and for sexual development in the teenage years. If they are not provided with adequate good fats in the diet, invariably they will end up like so many American children as carbohydrate cravers. The only solution to the child who will eat only a white diet of rice, pasta, white bread and candy is a vigorous outdoor life and food with a liberal amount of healthy fats.

A healthy child’s diet in these years would look something like this:

Breakfast: French toast with homemade sourdough bread doused with fresh cream (crème fraiche), cooked in butter and coconut oil, topped with maple syrup and berries; porridge with soaked grains and lots of butter, cream, and fruit; eggs and naturally made sausage

Snacks: Always include at least a small amount of fat or it will not satisfy their hunger and they will get into the cycle of eating tremendous amounts of carbohydrate-type foods between meals. Examples could include whole-milk yoghurt and fruit, hard-boiled eggs, peanut butter on Essene bread crackers, or roasted nuts and seeds. All these are nutritious, balanced snacks that will curb the carbohydrate urges of children.

Lunch: Lunch often presents a challenge because the child is at school and must carry a lunch to school. Often there is also a hot lunch provided, which is inferior nutritionally. Again, with some effort nutritious and inviting lunches can be made. I often encourage parents to invest in a good thermos or hot lunch receptacle, which allows you to send to school things like soup or warmed up casseroles from last night’s dinner. The other standby is sandwiches, which can contain the three food groups: a turkey sandwich with cheese, homemade mayonnaise, lettuce, sprouts, and an apple often goes over well. Again, if you use a liberal amount of mayonnaise, the child will be less likely to seek out sugary desserts.

Dinner: Dinner should be a family time if at all possible, when the family comes together and talks about their day and their lives, when family tradition can be passed on. A good amount of time at dinner should be taken, as is the custom in many parts of the world. Dinner suggestions can be found on the Sample Menus page, and these are fine for the children of this age.

Other issues that come up around the feeding of children include choice of beverages and what if any supplements to give. The best beverages for children of this age are whole, raw milk if available, water, or fermented fruit beverages as found in Nourishing Traditions. Pasteurized fruit drinks, sodas, sports drinks, or other high carbohydrate beverages should be avoided for as long as possible. As for supplements, the only one I routinely give to children of all ages is 1 teaspoon per day of cod liver oil, especially during the winter months.

The final comment I would like to make on this subject is that during the teenage years one invariably loses a lot of control of the child’s diet. During this stage the child must be allowed to make his own choices about food when he is away from home. The only protection I can offer is that during these years and earlier, boys especially often love and need to eat meat. It is not unusual to need to feed a teenage boy some sort of meat three times per day. As long as the meat is of the best quality, this will actually foster a robust muscle development. Boys will have much less interest in satisfying their nutritional needs outside the home if they’re served plenty of meat supplemented with grains and salads. For girls the equivalent food is fat, especially cream and butter. These are necessary for hormonal development, functioning like meat for boys, helping to meet their cravings and to stop them from looking outside the home for food.

With these guidelines you should be well armed to meet the awesome challenge of feeding your children in accordance with the true requirements for their bodies and souls.

In my practice, I place great emphasis on the importance of good nutrition. Although many diets are popular today, I prefer to stress a few principles of good nutrition that everyone should follow, many of which are based on the ideas in Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. If one looks at virtually all the successful diets in the history of mankind, it is clear that there are three basic food groups that people have relied on for good nutrition. In many cultures people actually eat about a third of their food from each of these groups. This is the basic plan I recommend. For various situations or illnesses, I may suggest changing the ratios slightly, but in a healthy balanced diet you should eat about one third of your food from each group three times per day. For most people, eating three times a day is sufficient and helps to prevent snacking. Children have special dietary needs, and I tackle these principles in Feeding Our Children.

The Three Food Groups

Whole Grains

The whole grains food group includes brown rice, millet, oats, corn, buckwheat, rye, wheat, and alternative grains such as quinoa, spelt and kamut. About half of the grains you eat should be whole grain as opposed to flour, pasta, etc. People often choose brown rice or millet to eat as unprocessed whole grain because of their taste and ease of cooking. The other half of grains should be eaten as breakfast cereal, such as rolled oats, Ogi (a breakfast cereal made from millet, for which the recipe is found in Nourishing Traditions, as are all the recipes mentioned), hot cereal mixtures, sprouted grains (such as Essene bread), or flour products. Grains possess enzyme inhibitors that prevent them from sprouting prematurely. These enzyme inhibitors also make grains difficult to digest for many people. This problem can be overcome by first soaking or sprouting your grains and by grinding your own flour if at all possible. Specific instructions on these techniques and sources of grain mills can be found in Nourishing Traditions.

Vegetables

Vegetables should form the next third of your diet. You should try to eat vegetables at least twice a day; in fact, many people find a hot vegetable soup in the morning very satisfying. Among vegetables, there are three types and three ways to prepare them. Try to eat at least some of each type of vegetable, prepared in each of the ways, every day.

Studies repeatedly have shown that the daily consumption of lacto-fermented vegetables aids in digestion, relieves constipation, helps re-establish and maintain a beneficial intestinal flora and aids the immune system. A recent study in the medical journal The Lancet demonstrated that the daily consumption of fermented vegetables was associated with a decrease in allergies and infections in children. Lacto-fermented vegetables should be a part of everyone’s diet, and include sauerkraut, pickles, pickled daikon, kimchee and many other wonderful choices. Numerous recipes are found in Nourishing Traditions, or you can buy them at many health food stores. When purchasing lacto-fermented vegetables, make sure they are raw, lacto-fermented vegetables that have never been heated or canned. See our Resources page to find currently available, good-quality products.

Animal Foods

Although few people have difficulty accepting the beneficial properties of grains and vegetables, many question the wisdom of the consumption of animal products. In my articles on butter and raw milk, I go over some of these questions and explain why I feel it is important for everyone to include some animal products in their diet. Animal foods provide certain nutrients, such as vitamin B-12, cholesterol (necessary for hormone production and cellular repair), vitamin D (needed for calcium absorption) and fat-soluble vitamins, which are best absorbed when eaten in animal fat. Certainly, temporary periods without animal products can be cleansing, but all of the healthiest cultures ever studied included a liberal amount of animal products in their diets.

As with vegetables, there are three ways of eating animal products, and again it is wise to include something from each category in your daily diet. Also, it is especially important to choose organically grown animal products raised under the best conditions possible, prepared with minimal processing. This includes avoiding techniques that remove the fat, such as in skim milk or low-fat dairy products. The fat contains the necessary nutrients for absorption and utilization of the nutrients, including the protein and minerals. Do not make the mistake of eating low-fat animal products!

The three ways of preparing animal products are:

Raw – While it is foreign to most Americans to think of eating raw animal products, in fact, raw animal foods are the richest sources of the valuable food enzymes so important to our health. The best source of raw animal foods is dairy products. Especially beneficial is raw milk (especially for children), kefir (made from raw milk) and raw-milk cheese and butter. Fish can be eaten raw in various sushi dishes, and raw meat dishes (e.g. steak tartare and kibbeh) are the national foods of many cultures. Please consult the guidelines in Nourishing Traditions for advice on the best and safest way to prepare raw animal food dishes.

Cooked – This is the usual way of preparing animal foods, with a variety of cooking options. The only caveat I would add here is that, traditionally, the organ meats were the most prized part of the animal and considered the healthiest. Animal meat, whether beef, lamb, pork or poultry, does not need to be eaten in great quantities but rather should be alternated with eggs, organ meats and various dairy products.

Soup broth – In healthy, traditional cultures, when an animal was slaughtered, all the parts were put to use, including the bones, and to make mineral-rich broth. Our modern diet, having largely forgotten the use of broth as the basis of our cooking, is estimated to have less than half the mineral content of more traditional diets. This rich mineral content and the fact that soup broths greatly aid digestion are just two of the many reasons why everyone should make soup broth a part of their daily diet. Instructions for making of this broth can be found on our Recipes page and in Nourishing Traditions.

More Nutritional Guidelines

The above guidelines are only a start in making good food choices. I have included additional principles below in a list that is far from a complete but touches on some crucial points.

• Eat organic or biodynamic foods as much as possible. This is especially important for those trying to recover from an illness, children, and others trying to regain their health. It is also true for anyone concerned about the health of our planet, which we hope is all of us.
  
• Use non-fluoridated water for all internal consumption, even brushing your teeth. Fluoride is a potent enzyme inhibitor, and therefore is exactly the opposite of what I am trying to foster. We want to promote healing through the enzymes in your body and the enzymes in your food. The best water to use is deep well water or clean spring or mineral water.
  
• Use utensils made of stainless steel, cast iron, copper or lead-free enamel. Do not use aluminum utensils or cookware of any kind.
  
• Salt – Celtic sea salt and Lima sea salt should be the only salt that you use. These are the only two currently available commercial salts that have not had their minerals stripped during processing. Many illnesses are caused or exacerbated by trace-mineral deficiencies. These can be avoided by the liberal use of Celtic sea salt in your cooking and the complete avoidance of all other salts, all of which contain only pure sodium chloride.
  
• Beans, Seeds and Nuts – Beans, seeds and nuts are generally considered part of the grain category. Like any seed, they are, on the one hand, very nutritious, and on the other hand in need of proper processing. All seeds have enzymes inhibitors built in to prevent premature sprouting. These inhibitors need to be eliminated during cooking so they don’t inhibit our digestion as well. Improperly prepared beans cause digestive problems, as is well known. Seeds and nuts often leave a funny taste in your mouth or cause bloating if not well prepared. Pay careful attention to the preparation instructions in Nourishing Traditions when using these foods. Lentils and chickpeas are particularly healthful beans, and flax seeds are a seed that can be used on a daily basis. Peanuts are probably best avoided except occasionally.
  
• Soy – Although soy has gained a reputation in the past ten years as the new wonder food, there is a side to the soy story that is almost never told. Soybeans probably have the highest concentration of enzyme inhibitors of any commonly eaten food. Fermentation, which breaks down these inhibitors, was therefore part of every traditional preparation of soy beans. Choose soy products subject to long periods of fermentation, including such products as miso and natto. Eating nonfermented soy products will inhibit the absorption of calcium needed for healthy bone formation, zinc needed for immune system functioning and mental development, as well as other needed minerals. For this reason, I recommend using only miso and a small amount of tempeh for soy products, and completely avoiding tofu, soy milk, and other non-fermented soy products.
  
• Sea Vegetables – Sea vegetables, including nori, dulse, wakame, arame, etc., contain valuable trace minerals such as iodine, which are needed in small quantities in the diet. These vegetables should be eaten two to three times a week. Again, see Nourishing Traditions for proper preparation instructions.
  
• Sweeteners – Use raw, unprocessed, unfiltered, organic honey on a regular basis. Raw honey is full of the enzyme amylase, which greatly facilitates the digestion of carbohydrates, so a bit of honey adds to the digestibility of any carbohydrate meal. Honey should never, ever be cooked or heated in any way, as this causes it to lose all its beneficial properties. Raw honey provides benefits to allergy sufferers, people with prostate problems, and even diabetics. In fact, an article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that the more honey one ate, the longer one lived. Other sweeteners that may be used include maple syrup and sucanat, both of which can be used for baking. Everyone should take care with the amount of any of these sweeteners consumed, and people trying to lose weight should eliminate them almost entirely until their weight normalizes.
  
• Fruit – In my opinion fruit is an overrated food. Certainly, local, organic seasonal fruit in small quantities is a wonderful addition to anyone’s diet. Fruit is a good source of many water- soluble vitamins such as vitamin C. However, I would like to discourage a dietary strategy that emphasizes increasing the consumption of fruit or fruit products. Fruit juices, except lacto-fermented types, should be totally avoided as they are mostly nothing more than a form of concentrated fructose. Fruit dishes should be minimally cooked or eaten raw, as the beneficial properties of fruit are lost through the cooking process. Adding wild berries to the tops of pies, using apples and pears as snacks, and adding fruit to homemade hot cereal is the most satisfying and appropriate use for fruit.
  
• Fats and Oils – In the case of fats and oils, it truly pays to get the best quality products you can find. Virtually everyone would benefit from eating pasture-fed, organic cultured butter as their staple fat. Butter should be used both uncooked, as a spread, and in all cooked dishes. For those few people sensitive to butter, ghee (clarified butter) often can be tolerated. Olive oil is the other all-purpose oil for everyone to use, both uncooked, as in salad dressing, or in various cooked dishes. Most people will be helped by the addition of about 1 Tbsp/day of unheated flax seed oil, especially as part of homemade salad dressing. Another oil that should be used daily is coconut butter, a truly amazing food that can be used much like butter. Studies have shown that the predominant fat in coconut butter is lauric acid, which is found in nature only in human breast milk and coconut oil. Lauric acid is a potent anti-viral and anti-fungal agent, making it a very valuable food component. Lauric acid also increases thyroid function and therefore increases the rate of our metabolism, another widely beneficial effect. Plant oils should be purchased in opaque containers as light is detrimental to the freshness of the oil. Particularly good brands of oils are Omega Nutrition and Barleans. Plant oils besides olive oil should rarely be used for cooking, except sesame oil on occasion. Avoid as much as possible the use of any hydrogenated fats or any foods containing trans-fatty acids. Other animals fats such as lard and beef tallow can also be used, provided they are organic and not hydrogenated or processed.
  
• Fish – Fish has to qualify as one of the healthiest foods mankind has ever eaten. The question today is how to obtain fresh, unpolluted fish. The best advice is to always try to obtain your fish from a local fish market and choose non-farmed, deep-water ocean fish, such as white fish, some salmon, swordfish, halibut and herring. Most people can include fish in their diet two to three times a week.
  
• Herbs and Spices – Most herbs and spices can be used liberally for seasoning. Especially good are chives, garlic, parsley, and watercress.
  
• Beverages – By far the best strategy with beverages is to consume some lacto-fermented drink as your main beverage. Many examples are given in Nourishing Traditions, but my favorites include Kombucha, Beet Kvass and Rejuvelac. Each of these qualifies as a medicinal drink, as each is full of beneficial enzymes. Kombucha is on the sweet side, whereas Beet Kvass and Rejuvelac are slightly sour, so when these three are alternated, they provide an array of tastes. Other tonic beverages can also be used, as can lacto-fermented fruit juice. A wide variety of herbal teas can also be enjoyed, but all caffeinated products, soft drinks and fruit juice should be avoided as much as possible. The above fermented drinks are also much better than the popular sports drinks on the market, which are full of toxic artificial ingredients.