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CHAPTER NINETEEN
HEALTH THROUGH NATURAL FOODS Everyone knows that health is more than diet. However, even physicians may overlook the fact that good food is essential for health. Some diseases are obviously related to nutrition. Obesity, vitamin deficiency syndromes, and malnutrition in underprivileged groups are examples of these. Other medical conditions are either caused or aggravated by poor nutritional practices, but seem less obvious to the nonprofessional. Arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus and hypoglycemia, and essential hypertension are examples of this latter class. Nevertheless, to have perfect health, our blood must be pure, and the circulation unobstructed. Obedience to the health laws that promote both mental tranquility and physical vigor is directly related to our habits practiced in the dining room. As I have expressed earlier, our dietary practices established in infancy tend to perpetuate themselves long after teenage and adult years. Nutritional “seeds” planted in childhood bear fruit later, with resultant disease or a productive, happy life. In spite of numerous advances that medical science has made, more and more individuals living in our industrialized nation are “digging their graves with their teeth.” This slow form of nutritional suicide is even more insidious than that of the tobacco smoker, but is nevertheless as sure. Growing numbers of obscure and resistant infections, together with some common ones like colds and influenza, may be traced in part to dietary indiscretion. Many forms of cancer, especially those of the lower digestive tract are intimately associated with dietary habit patterns. I plan to examine in the paragraphs that follow several guidelines to aid you in choosing a more