of feeling not just right—the beginning of an illness. Restful sleep or exercise can make the body more alkaline, while worry makes it more acid.
Food is by far the most important factor in maintaining an acid-alkaline balance in the human body, depending on the food’s acid or alkaline ash content. This was determined years ago. And the acidity or alkalinity manifests itself in the various fluids and tissues of the body, depending on how well balanced the body is in its state of health.
Thus, the food that we eat really gives us food for thought, doesn’t it?
The American Cancer Society had at one time a film available to loan entitled The Embattled Cell. Part of the research it portrays is the manner in which lymphocytes (white blood cells) move through the tissues of the body, attacking cancer cells and killing them. It also shows lymphocytes that have obviously been done in by the cancer cells. A war is constantly going on inside the body between the invaders and the defenders of the body.
It stretched our minds to realize that the awareness of the lymphocytes—as they sought out and destroyed the cancer cells—implied that all of the cells of our body must have their own type of consciousness, their own job to do in the physiology of the body.
Lymphocytes function normally in the slightly alkaline medium of the lymphatic stream. When the lymph becomes more acid, the lymphocytes cannot function normally. Thus they are liable to lose the battle. Much can be theorized about the effect of the acid-alkaline balance in the body regarding health and disease, but it has not been thoroughly researched, so there is no proof. A person does not need scientific proof, however, when good diet works astonishing changes in his or her own body.
As we studied what Edgar Cayce said about diet, we developed what we called a “Basic Diet”—one that will keep a person well adjusted as far as food is concerned. This is included later in the book.
As the years gave us more experience and as we worked with the concepts of physiology found in the Cayce material, we adopted what might be called a physiological approach to therapy. We found that the physiology of the body can be altered to move it toward more normal functioning.
It led us into a multilevel approach to diagnosis and treatment. We began to understand that poor absorption of foods in the upper intestinal tract does not stand by itself as a syndrome. Rather, other so-called “diseases” can arise as a result of the deficiency in food substances created by the malabsorption. The blood-forming organs may cease to function up to par, for instance, and the individual becomes anemic. A variety of secondary problems can arise from a lack of proper absorption or assimilation. To correct such conditions may require treatment of the intestinal tract, improvement of the diet, restoration of a better acid-alkaline balance, and changes in attitudes and emotional patterns—in short, the adoption of a new, more health-producing lifestyle.
Assimilation is the process that takes food through a multitude of steps. It begins with its entry into the mouth and its breakdown with the enzymes in the saliva. Then the food goes through the stomach and small intestine, where it is acted upon by the acids and enzymes and bile so that it is finally absorbed by the lining of the intestinal tract into the capillaries or the lymphatic stream. Finally it is taken by the lymphatics into the bloodstream, or more directly by the hepatic circulation through the liver, where it might undergo further change in preparation for utilization by the cells of the body where rebuilding of tissue can come about.
Then, when cells die in the metabolic process going on within the body, these remnants must be eliminated through the four eliminatory channels of the body—the liver/intestinal tract, the kidneys, the lungs, and the skin. Keeping the assimilation and the elimination proper and balanced helps tremendously in maintaining health. Cayce said it in one reading like this:
. . . [if] the assimilations and the eliminations would be kept nearer normal in the human family, the days might be extended to whatever period as was so desired . . .
311-4
But one great concept empowered me in my growing understanding of the body: the idea that the human body, if encouraged to return back to normal, will inevitably overcome any illness, if the right kind of aid is available and the patient is willing to continue applying those aids patiently, persistently, and consistently. The aids always include dietary adjustments and corrections. They nearly always include the use of the mind in changing attitudes and emotional patterns. But the goal is possible, if the directions are followed.
The first years of my practice expanded my medical school training into a variety of concepts—a horizontal kind of reaching out with my mind. In more recent years, Edgar Cayce has brought me into an understanding of the body—an in-depth vertical, spiritual study, which adds richness to exploring why we need to pay attention to the food we eat.
Much of what has been discussed here will be dealt with more extensively later on in the book, as we move first to an understanding of what the rules really are.
2
Many Diets—Many Values
This book came into being not because I really wanted to write about diet—in medical school we were never taught about foods, diets, or nutrition except that dietitians were trained to teach our patients about how they should eat. The book really came about because I recognized the reality inherent in the Edgar Cayce readings—and because I felt the importance of sharing what I had realized of that quality, as it relates to what we feed our physical bodies during this time we spend on the earth.
Such an approach might be typified by the current bit of wisdom that says, “If it works don’t fix it.” It’s not what you would call a scientific approach. Rather, it is an attitude toward something that says, “This is obvious! Let’s go ahead.”
Several years ago, a physician lectured about nutrition at the American Holistic Medical Association’s annual meeting. He was of the opinion that there were as many diets now available as there were physicians and self-appointed nutritionists.
Physicians do offer diets to their patients to treat this or that disease, and the medical profession has now grudgingly agreed that certain diets protect the human being from colon cancer and heart disease. People follow diets to lose weight, to gain weight, to stay healthy, and to improve their bodies, especially if they have fallen ill.
We probably don’t think of it often, but all of us are on a diet of one sort or another, whether we realize it or not. Most often, the diet is imposed on us by our appetites, not through the conscious action of choosing to eat in a certain way.
In looking at the field of nutrition, obviously we would not offer the same diet to a six-month infant that we offer a grown man. Nor would we expect a 220-pound man to eat the same diet that his 105-pound wife would need for maintaining health. We may know, for instance, that chocolate is not good for a clear complexion, but we like chocolate and so we eat it. Our unconscious wins out over our conscious knowledge because of patterns we call appetites.
In the light of the Edgar Cayce material, one should not only take these obvious facts into consideration, but also expand the picture by painting humankind in a different hue. Each of us, according to this body of information, is a spiritual being first and foremost. Each was created in the image of God, as a soul, made up of spirit, mind, and will. Then we came into the earth dimension as body, mind, and spirit, on an adventure to find our way back to where we started.
All of us have been here over and over, one lifetime after another, gaining spiritually in one life, losing in another. Within each of us, then, has been built a memory bank of information, habits, attitudes, and beliefs that indeed makes each of us unique among all the billions of individuals on the earth.
It makes sense, then, that our appetites would be our own, that our attitudes toward what we think would be a good diet also would be unique. In our unconscious minds each of us has built appetites from eating, over and over again, foods that we like. These then become habits that we call appetites. The foods we like are not necessarily the foods that would be best for us. We know