Edgar Cayce on Healing Foods. William A. McGarey M.D.

body has gotten exceedingly cold or damp, these would produce (if fried) an acid, and become hard upon the system; while the same taken as mashed or as roasted with other foods would react differently.

      1411-2

      Then, more about the things that go on in the duodenum, and the early passages of food through the digestive tract:

      It will be found to be helpful, then, that the diets be not too much starch nor too much of the sweets or a combination of these. Proteins, citrus fruits, those activities that make for keeping an alkalinity would be well; or about eighty percent of alkaline-reacting foods to twenty percent of the acids. To be sure, ordinarily proteins are considered acid-reacting. But the activities of proteins in the system, when not taken with starch, bring the necessity of the hydrochloric activity in their digestive forces. So when proteins such as from fish, fowl or lamb are taken, their final reaction through the lower portions of the duodenum becomes nearer to a normal balance of alkalinity. For alkalinity begins with the glands themselves of the mouth. Then with the entrance to the stomach we have a combination of lacteals and hydrochlorics, dependent of course—upon the nature of the foods or more so the combinations of same.

      So, then, for this particular body, light wines or champagne or those of that nature would be helpful to add a bit of an alcoholic content with the food; that there may be kept those tendencies for a better elimination, a better coordination through those activities in the alimentary canal as well as the gastric flows from the pancreas, the liver and the spleen, as well as the activity of the gall duct for the lacteals’ assimilation.

      920-8

      If the body can be given the proper balance and combination of foods needed (we should probably call them “energies” after they have gone through the early steps of digestion and assimilation), then the defense of the body—the immune system—might be built up to act in a manner better meeting its potential. This means protection for the body from most illnesses and aid in overcoming most problems that affect it.

       The Role of Diet in Regeneration and Longevity

      Our bodies are much more wonderful than we ordinarily give them credit for being. Our life span, for instance, is not truly limited. No one has ever really died from old age. Rather, the pathologist finds that what appears to be natural causes really ends up being a disease of one sort or another.

      Cayce suggested that often an individual has fulfilled his or her purpose this incarnation and desires to move on. This desire is deep within the soul and often does not come through to the conscious mind.

      Today, many people are living to be more than a hundred years of age. Gerontologists—those working with the elderly—will venture different opinions as to the age a person might attain. There are thousands of people who are beyond the century mark both in this country and in Russia, where records are kept with a fair degree of accuracy.

      In my own experience in family medicine, I’ve cared for several centenarians over the years.

      Regeneration is simply a rebuilding of tissues of the body to their original state. In a sense, it’s making things young again, or rejuvenating the body. If you were to be cut with a knife, and the tissues were brought together surgically and sutured, a scar would develop. That may be healing, but it is not regeneration. Regeneration would come about when or if the tissues were cared for in such a way that no scar developed—or that the scar that had developed completely disappeared. A bone that is fractured goes through many stages but finally regenerates most of the time, since one cannot see where the bone was fractured if the fracture is treated properly.

      We need to look with new eyes at the questions of longevity and purpose. If regeneration is always theoretically possible—given that the proper conditions are met—then there are few willing to pay the price to live a long, long time. Or is it that when a person’s life purpose is met, then it is time to move on and try again another time?

      From the readings it is clear that rejuvenation or regeneration is possible, although as Cayce told one group of questioners, “The body may be revivified, rejuvenated. And it is to that end it may, the body, transcend the earth and its influence. But not those standing here may reach it yet!” (262-85)

      What part does diet play in achieving an active, healthy, long life? Some insights might be gained from several of the extracts taken from the Cayce readings:

      For as the body is the storehouse of all influences and forces from without, it has the abilities for the creating—with the correct firing or fuel for the body—that which is able to sustain, not only sustain but to recuperate and to rebuild, revitalize, regenerate the activities of the body.

      1334-1

      Then, keep that attitude of constructive, creative forces within self. For all healing of every nature must arise within the self. For there is the ability within the physical body to re-create or reproduce itself, as well as the activities for assimilating that from which the re-creation is to be brought about.

      1663-1

      Then there is the entity, the soul body—that may find material manifestation or expression in the ability not only of bodily