Chapter
2-4 of Healing Foods by Walter Last
It is important that we take in sufficient water for
the smooth functioning of our metabolic processes, and especially to flush away
their end products. In normal health and on a diet that includes a fair amount
of fresh fruits and vegetables, an additional fluid intake of about one liter
daily would be adequate.
·However, in the following conditions
close to 2 liters of fluids are desirable - more if overweight:
·
If mainly concentrated foods are
used
·
On a diet high in protein
·
If the urine is cloudy or has a
strong smell or dark color
·
In hot conditions and while
breast-feeding
·
During cleansing periods and initial
stages of health improvement
This may consist of water, diluted juices and herb teas. Concentrated
drinks, such as coffee, milk, strong tea, do not count, as their water content
is needed to wash out their own residues. Occasionally you may check that you
produce about 3 liters of inoffensive urine per day.
In hot climates there is a high incidence of kidney
disease because many people do not drink enough water. For instance a high
incidence of oxalate-kidney stones among British troops in
If using large amounts of fluids, one must ingest
adequate amounts of water-soluble vitamins and minerals; otherwise deficiency
symptoms may develop. The time of drinking, too, is very important. One should
be careful not to dilute the digestive juices during and after meals, although
some liquid may be used after dry meals, as in the form of herb teas.
Generally, however, it is better to drink before meals, and to have the bulk of
the fluid intake before breakfast. This is especially important if the
digestive system is weak.
After drinking water, wait for about 20 minutes before
starting a meal, and after drinking juices, wait for 30-60 minutes, depending
on the quantity. It is good to drink a glass of warm water or herb tea first
thing in the morning to wash down mucus and debris.
Chlorine and added fluoride in drinking water are
always harmful. However, if the water is high in calcium then fluoride is less
harmful, because calcium fluoride is nearly insoluble and not well absorbed. On
the other hand, if the water is soft or rich in magnesium, iron or sulfur then
fluoride is rather harmful. Kelp and other seafood contain plenty of fluoride
in a safe form. Avoid chlorinated or fluoridated water for drinking or cooking.
Most of the chlorine can be removed by bringing the water to boiling and let it
cool down before drinking.
However, municipal tap water also contains other added
chemicals and a good water filter is recommended. As a strong enzyme poison,
fluoride is especially harmful for individuals with chronic degenerative
diseases. In countries where water fluoridation is common, you may suspect that
all commercial liquids with added water contain fluorides. Commonly these may
include all soft drinks, soymilk and even 100% fruit juice, which is usually
reconstituted by adding water to concentrates.
High levels of calcium in water are harmful for
elderly individuals with calcifications such as arteriosclerosis, high blood
pressure, joint calcifications or calcium kidney stones. For children and young
women water high in calcium can be beneficial.
Our magnesium intake has greatly declined in the past
60 years because calcium fertilizers have been overused. The death rate from
arteriosclerotic and degenerative heart disease is highest in countries with
the lowest levels of magnesium in water, notably
In six
Rainwater may be used in unpolluted rural areas.
Unfortunately, galvanized iron now commonly has added aluminum with its zinc
coating and this may increase the aluminum level of water collected from modern
galvanized roofs and stored in galvanized tanks. I do not know whether the
amounts of aluminum that might be dissolved are significant. Public water supplies
are routinely purified with aluminum compounds; a study in
Water rich in inorganic iron, which leaves brownish
residues, is harmful if used over long periods. Lead and sometimes even copper
accumulating in the body, contribute to chronic diseases. Therefore, if you are
in poor health, avoid drinking the water from lead plumbing systems and be
careful with new copper pipes. Older copper pipes are coated with more
resistant copper oxide. Plastic pipes may give off toxic substances as well.
The best metal for drinking water systems is zinc, as in galvanized iron pipes;
otherwise ceramic may be used.
Public water supplies are usually heavily contaminated
with chemicals and I do not recommend them for drinking or cooking. There are a
variety of filters and distillation units on the market; I prefer those based
on the principle of reverse osmosis.
Bore or spring water may be used safely only in remote
areas or if a chemical analysis shows it to be uncontaminated. It should not
have high amounts of calcium, copper or iron; otherwise a filter may have to be
used or the water boiled to remove excess calcium. Tap water is commonly low in
energy or life-force. In contrast, the very best water is fresh from a clear,
uncontaminated, sunlit, shallow and cascading stream. Preferably try to
energize your drinking water by exposing it to sunlight or other sources of
bio-energy - see Living Water.
I do not recommend drinking much fruit juice, except
some dark grape juice as explained earlier or neutralized acid juices. The
basic disadvantage of drinking fruit juices is the rapid assimilation of sugars
that stresses the blood-sugar regulation. However, some fruit juice may be used
to flavor drinking water if so desired.
Also I do not recommend drinking milk, except possibly
fresh raw goat's milk or cows' milk when it is still warm after milking. Use
coffee and tea in moderation. While they have some benefits, they can cause
problems if one becomes addicted to them. Alcohol too is best used only
occasionally in small amounts if so desired. Beer drinking encourages the
formation of mucus. Dry red wine is generally the least harmful and most
beneficial alcoholic beverage. It can assist in the digestive process and give
some protection against heart disease; grape juice offers similar protection
but is less concentrated in protective antioxidants. Avoid any kind of soft
drinks.
Vegetable juices
I highly recommend drinking a glass of freshly pressed
vegetable juice before most meals or whenever conveniently possible. A mixed
juice including young, green leaves is better than just juice of sweet
vegetables such as carrot, reed beet, pumpkin or sweet potato. You may also use
sprouted seeds, shoots of pumpkin and other edible vines, male pumpkin flowers,
carrot and beetroot tops, the rind of watermelon and so forth. Be imaginative
and experiment to find out what is acceptable to you.
However, if unsprayed vegetables are not available,
then avoid sprayed green-leaf vegetables and use the less contaminated sweet
vegetables. Pumpkin and watermelons are not normally sprayed. For individuals
with a weak sugar metabolism, those with diabetes or hypoglycemia, or a
tendency to these conditions, it is preferable to use mainly green juice of
leaves and grasses and only a smaller amount of sweet juice for flavoring.
Alternatively, slow down the absorption of sugars from the juice of sweet
vegetables by adding some olive oil and lecithin or ground linseed and drink
slowly and spaced out.
I strongly recommend grass juice, either on its own or
mixed with other juices. Also edible weeds are excellent and herbs such as
mints, lemon grass or rosehips may be used for flavoring. The more grasses and
young leaves and shoots are used for a juice the better is its healing
potential. Children and some adults may be persuaded to drink the juice only if
flavored with apple or pineapple. I recommend adding some ginger to the juice,
either use fresh ginger or ginger juice already frozen in ice cube trays. For
flavoring it is excellent to stir a few spoonfuls of bee pollen into the juice.
Start drinking the juice immediately after you have
made it, but slowly, and in sips. If your stomach is sensitive to juice, drink
it together with some food. If you make several juices during the day you may
need to thoroughly clean the juicer only after the last juicing but keep the
extraction unit detached in the refrigerator between juicing.
If unhealthy when beginning such a regimen, nausea or
skin reactions may temporarily occur from the release of stored toxins. In such
cases reduce the amount of juice for a while and drink lots of water and take
laxative foods. Start with small amounts of grass and weed juice, possibly
diluted and blended with other juices. When you got used to it, however, the
green juice may taste fine on its own; just avoid or minimize strongly flavored
leaves such as from radish. Gradually increase to a glassful one to three times
daily before meals, the more the better. While fresh juice is best, if you do
not have the time to make several juices daily, you may refrigerate or freeze
some of the juice for later drinking, also cool it and take it to work in a
thermos.
If you have a problem absorbing fats, add some
lecithin to the juice to improve absorption of beta-carotene. Sometimes, when
juicing sprouted seeds or the center of a pumpkin or some mucilaginous leaves
the residue seems to retain much of the goodness even after putting it
repeatedly through the juicer. In this case just add water to the residue to
make it sloppy before pressing it through again. As an alternative you may get
more nutrients out of the residue by making a hot broth: cover the residue with
water, simmer for 10 minutes, strain, add some herbs and spices or other
flavoring
Of greatest importance is the vitality or life-force
of the juice. This is generally highest in fresh young grasses, leaves and
shoots growing organically in mineral-rich soil. Good products to mineralize
the soil are rock dust, especially volcanic rock dust, seaweed and
sea-minerals. Use these liberally.
Juicers
Centrifugal juicers, which are commonly available, are
not suitable for grass and are inferior even for other vegetables. Static
electricity builds up on the outside wall, and discharges or inactivates
enzymes and colloidal suspensions of proteins and minerals. Non-centrifugal
juicers reportedly give much better healing results, especially for difficult
conditions.
A blender may be used and grass and other
leaf-vegetables liquefied with water and then pressed by hand through a
strainer. Unfortunately, air beaten into the liquid leads to oxidation. You may
minimize this by adding some ascorbic acid. Blend handfuls of grass repeatedly
in the same water to concentrate the juice. Alternatively, run the grass once
or twice through a mincer or a grain mill and then press the pulp by hand
through a strainer or cheesecloth.
Grass juicers, either manual or electric, are
commercially available and may be sold as fruit and vegetable presses. You can
easily find information and retailers on the Internet. They commonly have a
slow-turning press spiral. Manual wheat grass juicers are efficient and good to
train the biceps but not so good for others who do not have the energy to use
them daily. Also, I do not like the juice to be in contact with so much metal.
Cast iron juicers are much cheaper than their stainless steel brothers.
As a general
rule, the slower the speed, expressed as revolutions per minute (RPM), the
better the quality of the juice. Slow-turning juicers are available as single
auger or twin-gear machines. Both handle grasses and leaves very well with an
RPM commonly between 70 and 120 ppm. In comparison a medium-fast juicer has
about 2,000 RPM and the common centrifugal juicers 8,000 RPM. While low RPM
juicers produce the highest quality of juice, they are also dearer and slower
in pressing a given quantity; bigger twin-gear juicers may be twice as fast as
smaller single auger juicers. For a comparison of different brands see www.buyjuicers.com.
When
using a juicer that easily processes grasses and leaves there are considerable
savings in having to buy fewer vegetables. You can use lots of grasses, green
weeds, parsley, tops of carrots and other leaves that cannot be easily used
with other juicers. This may bring considerable savings and provides juice of
much higher quality than can be obtained from commercial vegetables. However,
there is also a drawback with low RPM juicers and growing your own wheat or
barley grass: it is very time-consuming.
While not so pleasant on the taste buds, fresh young
grasses and green edible weeds have a much greater healing potential than the
vegetables commonly used for juicing. In particular, they are very much higher
in their content of life-force and enzymes. Instead of working hard to maintain
a big vegetable garden, I believe it to be easier and healthier to let a large
part of the garden overgrow with suitable grasses and edible weeds.
To find out which weeds are edible, ask a
knowledgeable friend or neighbor, or observe what goats or poultry are eating,
or chew a bit of a leaf. If it is not bitter it is not likely to be poisonous
and there are no poisonous grasses. For a very cheap and healthy juice you may
just use grasses, young green weeds, the growing parts and male flowers of
pumpkin and flavor it with an apple, a beetroot and a carrot.
Juice made from young and fresh blades of grass is
most beneficial. These young blades have the highest vitality and are rich in
enzymes and growth hormones that are missing or at low levels in mature leaves
or plants as well as in elderly humans. Kirlian photography reveals that the
vitality of leaves starts to diminish soon after cutting and most of it is lost
within hours, though if refrigerated in a closed plastic bag it may keep for a
day. Most nutrients will still be available from commercially dried and
powdered grass, such as the commercial Green Barley, but young fresh grass
juice has a much higher vitality.
Best known is wheat grass but I believe that all
fresh, young grass grown in good soil has similar healing and rejuvenating
qualities, though the flavor and toughness may differ greatly. Barley grass
grows more vigorously than wheat grass and tastes quite good. Young ryegrass
(not the cereal rye grain), grown by farmers as pasture, has a pleasant flavor
and can give several months of repeated cutting from one planting.
Experiment with different varieties of grasses to see
which grow best in your climate and soil conditions and find one you like. I
like the broad-leafed couch grass for its flavor and luxurious soft foliage,
especially if watered well or grown partly in the shade. When using lawn grass
I cut it very short and, if available, mix it with some mucilaginous matter
such as the growing parts of sweet potato runners. To get the creamy juice out
of this material one needs to add some water to the residue and put it a second
time through the juicer. Often there is some foam on top of the juice,
especially with grass juice. This foam is high in chlorophyll and beneficial,
ingest it or rub it into your skin.
I find wheat grass juice somewhat too sweet on its
own, and prefer it blended with other grass. As barley grass does not taste
sweet, it may be better for individuals with blood sugar problems than wheat
grass. Normally, however, it may be good to mix both seeds and grow wheat and
barley together in the same garden-bed or tray.
In cool climates it may be difficult growing grass
outside in winter, while in the tropics it is sometimes difficult in summer
because it is either too hot or too wet and cereal grasses easily start rotting
at the stem. In the city it may not be possible anyway. In these circumstances
wheat grass or barley grass may be grown indoors behind a window or on a
balcony or veranda in seed boxes.
Soak the wheat barley for planting overnight and sow
very densely, except if molds are a problem in tropical conditions. Cover
lightly with a sandy soil or just with wet newspaper. Keep moist and expose to
light after leaves emerge.
When the grass is about hand-high you may start using
it for cutting into a salad or you may chew the grass and spit out the pulp.
You may begin to juice the grass when about 10 cm/4 inches high. Sometimes you
can get a good re-growth after the first cutting. The maximum yield of juice is
available when the grass is about 20 cm/ 8 inches tall. The higher you intend
to let it grow, the less dense you should sow the seeds. Compost the stubble
and other organic matter for re-use in seed boxes or outside planting. Add rock
dust to mineralize the soil.
Wheat produces about four times its weight as wheat
grass and this in turn yields up to 80 per cent of juice. Tougher perennial
grasses yield about 60 per cent juice. The vitamin and mineral content of
grasses and their juices differ greatly between different varieties but
especially with diverse soil conditions. The following table, which was
compiled from various publications, gives an estimate of the average nutrient
content of the juice from grass grown in good, mineral-rich soil.
|
Protein |
2-5% |
Fiber |
3-6% |
|
Lipids |
0.5-1% |
Kilojoules |
250/100 ml |
|
Carbohydrates |
6-11% |
|
|
|
VITAMINS/100 ml |
|
MINERALS/100 ml |
|
|
carotene |
10 000 IU |
calcium |
70-200 mg |
|
vitamin C |
60 mg |
magnesium |
50 mg |
|
vitamin E |
6 mg |
phosphorous |
50-100 mg |
|
vitamin B1 |
0.2 mg |
potassium |
400-1600 mg |
|
vitamin B2 |
0.4 mg |
sodium |
40-150 mg |
|
Vitamin B6 |
0.2 mg |
iron |
3 mg |
|
vitamin B12 |
1 mcg |
zinc |
0.5-2.5 mg |
|
pantothenic acid |
0.4 mg |
manganese |
1-10 mg |
|
niacinamide |
1.5 mg |
copper |
0.3-1 mg |
|
folic acid |
150 mcg |
molybdenum |
0.03 mg |
|
biotin |
15 mcg |
sulfur |
100 mg |
The protein content of young annual grasses is usually
around 4%, and of established perennial grasses about 2 %. Vitamin and mineral
concentrations can vary greatly and are highest in young grasses grown in soils
rich in minerals and organic matter.
While grass juice provides a high amount of easily
digestible protein as well as vitamins and minerals of superior quality, even
more important are the enzymes, growth hormones and other vital factors,
including coenzyme Q10 and superoxide dismutase (SOD). In animal experiments
old rats have been rejuvenated and chicken grew 15 percent faster with additional
fresh grass but not with other supplements. Many individuals attribute their
cure from incurable diseases to the generous intake of grass juice.
Grass juice has been shown to inhibit mutagenic and
carcinogenic activity. This inhibition was stronger from wheat grass juice than
from carrot or parsley juice; it has also been reported from barley grass
juice. We need growth hormones not only for growing taller but also for cell
division, skin and tissue replacement and for healing wounds. When growing older
we become deficient in growth hormones, and those found in grass juice help us
rejuvenate.
Most animals live on grass either directly or
indirectly. It is the perfect food, not only for grazing animals but also for
humans. The juicer replaces the complicated cellulose digestion of grass-eating
animals. I regard grass juice as the food with the greatest healing and
rejuvenating potential; it could sustain us during famines. Grass juice has
also been successfully used as retention enemas with cancer and other
debilitating conditions, as a vaginal douche or to rub into the skin. Juicy
grass pulp is excellent on wounds and speeds up healing.
For bottle-feeding babies, cereal grass juice could be
developed as a superior alternative to milk formulas. Wheat grass juice may be
preferred to other grass juices because of its sweetness, but it will also be
fine blended with the juice from other grasses. To match it more closely to
mother's milk, also other additions, such as cod liver oil and bee pollen might
be required. For sensitive individuals, on the other hand, the non-sweet juice
of barley grass or perennial grasses is preferable to the sweet juice of wheat
grass.
If
you want to make an all-out effort to improve your health or rejuvenate your
body, I recommend drinking about one glassful of grass juice daily (mixed with
other juices). However, on a long-term basis even half this amount is quite
good. The limiting factor is not the ability to drink that much but rather the
considerable time and energy required growing the grass and producing the
juice.
Chapter 2: FOOD GROUPS AND DIETS
·
Slimming
·
Recipes