Anyone who eats a diet of living foods automatically improves his or her health, slows aging, gains mental clarity, and boosts immune power. But the Hippocrates Health Program includes more than just diet. Other aspects of the program when combined with a living-foods diet guarantee absolute, optimal results. In addition to changing your diet, we recommend the following be done: careful food combining; fasting; colon cleansing; exercise; dry skin brushing; aromatherapy; taking saunas, steam baths, and whirlpools; massage; and electrical frequency and laser therapy.
One goal of the Hippocrates diet is to bring foods into the body that allow quick absorption of nutrients and quick elimination of waste. At the institute, I give a lecture that explains to our guests how the combination of foods eaten at one sitting can either hinder or help this process. Even if you eat a meal that is 100 percent living foods, you will lose some of the healthy benefits if those foods do not combine well in the digestive tract.
The principles of food combining are these:
The following pages show lists of foods grouped together according to speed of digestion (from fastest to slowest). Foods with similar digestion times should be eaten together, while foods with different times should be eaten at separate meals. These are only a sampling of foods. You can eat many more foods; just try to categorize them by type as indicated.
Wheatgrass (fully discussed in chapter 9) should be taken on an empty stomach or before meals. It can be used alone or with other vegetable and fruit juices.
Melons should always be eaten alone because they digest quickly When combined with other fruits (say, in a fruit salad), their digestion is delayed by the slowly digested fruits, and this can cause fermentation. Melons include cantaloupe, crenshaw, honeydew, watermelon, etc.
Although some fruits besides melons have approximately the same digestion speed, they should not all be eaten together. Acid, subacid, and sweet fruits each have a different water and sugar content and are more easily digested when eaten with fruits of similar type.
Acid fruits (1-1½ hours): grapefruits, lemons, oranges, pomegranates, pineapples, strawberries
Subacid fruits (1½-2 hours): apples, apricots, most berries, grapes, kiwi, mangoes, pears, peaches, sweet cherries
Sweet fruits (4 hours): bananas, all dried fruit, persimmons
Sprouted greens: alfalfa, arugula, buckwheat, cabbage, clover, garlic, kale, lentil, mung bean, mustard, radish, sunflower
Fruit vegetables: cucumbers, red bell peppers, summer squash, zucchini
Leafy greens: arugula, bok choy, cabbage, chard, collards, kale, lettuce, mizuna, mustard greens, scallions, spinach, watercress
Low-starch root vegetables: beets, burdock, carrots, parsnips, radishes, turnips
Sprouted grains: amaranth, barley, millet, quinoa, rye, teff, wheat
Sprouted legumes: chickpeas, lentils, peas
Winter squashes: acorn, butternut, hubbard, kabocha, spaghetti
Potatoes: sweet potatoes, yams
Seeds: pumpkin, sesame, sunflower
Nuts: almonds, Brazil nuts, hazel, pecans, pine nuts, walnuts (no peanuts or cashews; they contain a low-grade oil that is extremely difficult to digest)
The best way to combine food is to choose foods from the same group at each meal. If you do mix groups, remember these guidelines suggested by the Hippocrates Institute:
(Avocados, onion, and garlic are the only exception to the fruit/vegetable rule. They are easily combined with either fruits or vegetables, making them a truly versatile and important food.)
The art of proper food combining takes time to master because it challenges some of our established notions about “good” foods. Take an all-natural granola bar, for example: granola usually contains rolled oats (starch), nuts (protein), and honey (sugar) and dried fruit (sweet fruit) in a disastrously tasty combination. The protein mixed with starch creates various gasses, including sulfur. The combination of starch and sweet fruit creates fermentation and alcohol.
With practice and patience, soon you’ll be selecting your foods not only for their nutritional value but for their benefits in combination.
I believe that most disease begins with an accumulation of toxins and negative emotional/mental blockages. As a result, energy can be deeply locked within the body. But by following the Hippocrates Program and fasting one day every week, you can unlock the physical energy and allow it to penetrate and strengthen the emotional, mental, and spiritual areas. Throughout history, many great leaders, both spiritual and political, have used fasting as a mechanism to accelerate their health and understanding.
While most natural health proponents accept the benefits of fasting, two distinct schools of thought debate the process, with some convincing arguments on each side. One group strongly supports water fasting, arguing that taking any other type of liquid nourishment cannot be considered authentic. On the other hand, I believe that fasting with vegetable and sprout juices brings far better results, without the severe reactions that often accompany water fasts. Drinking only water greatly accelerates the cleansing process, causing massive amounts of toxins to be released from the body. This puts unnecessary stress on the organs of elimination. Juice fasting, while just as effective, causes less trauma and discomfort. And more important, on a juice fast you are nourished and strengthened instead of being depleted and weakened.
The first questions our guests usually ask about fasting are these:
1. What do I drink on my day of fasting?
Our experience and research indicates that for optimum results, green drinks (see recipes in chapter 11) should be the principal drink during the day. These drinks can be supplemented with purified lemon water, watermelon or cucumber juice, herbal teas, or small amounts of diluted freshly-squeezed fruit juice.
2. How much should I drink during the day?
I suggest consuming at least two quarts (eight 8-ounce glasses) during the day. Most of this should be consumed during the morning hours with the last drink taken at least three hours before retiring for the night, if possible.
3. When and what should I eat on the day following the fast?
Upon waking, consume liquid. If you do not have a sensitivity to sugar, try watermelon, apple, or pear juice mixed 1/3 juice to 2/3 water. If you are sugar-sensitive, try cucumber or squash juice or light herbal teas such as chamomile or spearmint. This allows your body to finish its housecleaning tasks. The first meal should be light. The best choices are a piece of tree-ripened fruit or some sprouts and light vegetables; these give your digestive system a chance to wake up gently. You may eat as soon as thirty minutes after your morning drink. For lunch and dinner, you may resume your customary eating program.
When the fast is over, you may want to know more about fasting. Common questions include these:
1. I was tired, achy, and irritable most of the day. Is this normal?
During the first few one-day fasts, this reaction can be expected. This is simply the release and elimination of stored toxins from the cells. Celebrate these experiences that signal the expulsion of disease-causing poisons. You can minimize these experiences by increasing the amount of liquid you consume during the day, especially the green drinks.
2. How often should I repeat this one-day fast?
Once every week. Choose a day when you have minimal demands on you and allow your body, mind, and spirit to take you where it wants to as you clean out. It will also enhance your performance on the other six days of the week. People who follow this program report that their fasting day becomes the most productive of the week. If you are ill and debilitated or have a blood sugar problem, use a clean mono-diet on your fasting day—for example, only green salad and extra juice.
3. Can I extend the fast beyond one day?
Only consider doing this if you are in good health—and then only up to three days maximum. If you feel you want to extend a fast beyond three days, you should locate a reputable fasting resort staffed with a professional to guide you well.
You should think of your fast day as being like any other day except that you are juicing your living food rather than eating it. A sample menu for a fasting day might be like the following:
Breakfast:
watermelon or cucumber juice (seeds and rind included) or juice of apples, grapes, pears, and berries. (Except for watermelon juice, dilute fruit juices one part juice with two parts water.)
In-Between:
purified water, lemon water, or herb tea as often as desired
Lunch:
Green drink/vegetable juices
In-Between:
water, lemon water, or herb tea as often as needed
Dinner:
green drink/vegetable juices
(Try not to drink again after dinner.)
Fasting is not required on the Hippocrates Health Plan, but it complements your efforts to obtain optimal health. Give yourself the opportunity to experience the liberation and lightness that liquid nourishment days will bring you. Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Mohandas Gandhi, Franklin D. Roosevelt and many others used this simple process for purification and enlightenment.
There’s no debate at all in medical literature: You need a clean and healthy colon to assimilate nutrients and dispose of waste. Yet millions of people have colons that are congested, twisted out of shape, and impacted with toxic waste. This can cause a multitude of bowel disorders and chronic diseases. This isn’t surprising—even though a person may have a bowel movement daily, there may still be several days’ or even a week’s worth of waste inside the colon. A badly impacted colon can be carrying an excess of ten pounds of fecal matter at one time. This provides a breeding ground for unfriendly bacteria that can cause problems such as headaches, flatulence, indigestion, colitis, and bowel cancer. When these wastes accumulate, the colon becomes weak and sluggish, causing constipation. The accumulations tend to harden in the pockets of the colon walls. This hardened material obstructs the peristalsis (the natural muscular contractions of the bowel) and more and more buildup occurs. This, in turn, interferes with final absorption and digestion; instead of absorbing nutrients, the undigested food putrefies, creating toxic conditions.
To achieve a healthy colon, start with these three simple steps:
In addition to the three simple steps, enemas and implants help the colon regain normal muscle tone and strength. Enemas and implants are especially helpful during the first few weeks of your change in diet when waste matter is sent to the colon from all parts of the body for elimination.
The Enema. A full enema can be self-administered using a sterilized long colon tube attached to an enema bag filled with water (usually one to two quarts). While lying on your back with a pillow under your buttocks, insert the lubricated tube (do not force it farther than it will easily go). Allow the water to enter the colon slowly. Let in as much water as you can comfortably retain and dispel the water when you feel the urge (never force it to stay in).
The Implant. Implants work to purge the colon and liver. They nourish the body via absorption in the colon; this keeps the electrolytes in the body healthy and strong. Follow an enema with an implant. To self-administer, fill the enema bag with at least four ounces of a fresh, high-chlorophyll liquid. This liquid may be wheat or barley grass juice. Blue-green algae and acidophilus powder dissolved in water, or green sprout juice (see chapter 11 for recipes) are not as powerful but at times may be used. Implant this juice in your colon using the enema procedure described above. Then remove the tube and remain lying down. Retain the implant for fifteen to twenty minutes before expelling it. Through years of research with guests at the Hippocrates Institute, I have found that enemas with implants actually restore a better electrolyte balance in the colon.
Some of our guests have bowels so badly impacted and damaged that they begin colon cleansing with colon hydrotherapy (colonics). A colonic is a continuous enema administered by a professional health-care provider. As water is continuously introduced into the full length of the colon, more and more pieces of hardened, putrefied waste are washed out. In most parts of the world, you can arrange to have a professional colonic treatment. Look for locations in health magazines or in your phone book.
Many people equate exercise with only weight control, body contouring, flexibility, and muscular strength. Actually, cosmetic results are less important than the internal benefits.
The vascular, lymphatic, circulatory, digestive, immune, and respiratory systems are profoundly dependent upon physical activity for efficient functioning. And we benefit immensely on an emotional level, too, because exercise reduces stress, anxiety, lethargy, and depression.
An exercise program is part of the Hippocrates Health Plan. Vigorous exercise directly influences these three important functions of your bloodstream:
An effective exercise program should place emphasis on overall body conditioning and should develop the major muscle groups of the body If an area is ignored or overemphasized, this results in imbalance.
You should incorporate three kinds of exercise into your program:
Aerobic Training. By increasing your heart rate, aerobic training increases oxygen levels in every cell of the body, provides for more complete utilization of available nutrients, neutralizes toxins throughout the body, and improves the body’s elimination processes. Outdoors, try bicycling, swimming, or walking. Indoors, try stair-climbing, treadmill, trampoline, or bicycling equipment.
Figure 7-2 Three types of exercise.
Stretching. Stretching enables your joints and muscles to limber up and become more flexible. To stretch, slowly ease into the desired position (avoiding pain). Back off slightly from this stretch position and hold for ten to thirty seconds. Never bounce!
Resistance Work. Free weights and machines are the two most common tools for resistance exercise. Water resistance, noncompetitive gymnastics, and hatha yoga are some other examples. A combination of free weights, machines, and isometrics provide maximum results and variety Heavy weights with few repetitions increase muscle mass. Lighter weights with more repetitions tone, rather than build, muscle mass.
Generally, muscles should be fatigued to gain the desired results. However, you should never demand so much from yourself during a workout that you feel excessive soreness the next day.
Schedule resistance or strength-training workouts three to four times each week (every other day is perfect). Daily workouts are not recommended except in the case of high-repetition, low-resistance work (such as exercises with ankle and wrist weights). On off-days, you can do low-impact aerobic exercises such as speed walking, swimming, the Stairmaster, or NordicTrack.
You can accomplish a great deal in thirty minutes, if the workout is at a sufficient level of intensity and if periods of rest between exercises are minimal.
Be sure you warm up before exercising. A warm-up should consist of three to five minutes of brisk walking, rope jumping, stationary cycling, or mild calisthenics to increase respiration, elevate body temperature, and stretch ligaments and connective tissue.
Your skin constantly breathes and eliminates toxins. (The average person eliminates about two pounds of waste through the skin each day!) If skin pores are blocked and can’t function fully, the kidneys, liver, and lymphatic system will have to compensate and will be overloaded with toxins. A dry skin brushing just before showering—or in a steam bath or sauna—helps remove toxins from the pores and stimulates the lymphatic and circulatory system. Try it every day.
You’ll need a long-handled, natural, hard bristle brush for the body and a soft one for the face and sensitive areas. Using both circular motions and straight strokes toward the heart, vigorously rub your entire skin surface beginning with your feet, including the soles, then moving up your legs, front and back, with firm sweeping strokes. Brush from your hands up your arms and across your shoulders, then brush your back and buttocks. On your front (abdomen, chest and neck) brush a little more gently. Not only does dry skin brushing help to clean out the average two pounds of waste that leave through the skin each day, it also rejuvenates.
Aromatherapy is a complementary therapy that strives for physical, mental, and spiritual health through the use of essential oils. Essential oils are natural aromatic liquid substances often considered to be the life forces of plants. These essences are capable of inducing a state of harmony and well-being in body, mind, and spirit and they can promote and maintain health by raising levels of resistance and immunity to disease.
Essential oils enter the body in one of two ways. They can be placed in misting units that dispense the fragrance throughout the room; the oil droplets are then inhaled and absorbed through the skin. The oils can also be rubbed directly onto the skin at selected pressure points. Whether in mist or liquid form, essential oils are able to penetrate through the skin due to their small molecules. They are then absorbed into the bloodstream and into the lymphatic system. They encourage the growth of new cells, thus delaying the process of aging by eliminating old cells more quickly. Here they stimulate various hormones to affect changes in the cells. Different oils affect different hormones, but the subtle changes that occur are the same: the weaker cells abandon the body and the remaining cells are stregthened. This delays the process of aging by encouraging the growth of new cells and eliminating old cells. Circulation can also be improved, pain relieved, fluid retention reduced, and nerves calmed and soothed.
Natural organic aromatic essences are extremely safe when used properly. They have an advantage over drugs because they are excreted, leaving no toxic residues behind. Side effects are virtually nonexistent. But because there are hundreds of essential oils—each with various health-promoting qualities—as well as oils that can be toxic if used incorrectly, it’s wise to use aromatherapy under the supervision of someone trained in their use like a professional skin-care specialist employed by many spas.
Saunas, steam baths, and whirlpools are both therapeutic and relaxing.
Sauna. The dry heat of a sauna can reduce the fat in oil- or fat-based organs such as the liver and gallbladder.
Steam bath. The moist heat of a steam bath is therapeutic to water-based organs such as the kidneys, bladder, and lungs.
Whirlpool. The stimulation of a whirlpool is beneficial to the nervous and lymphatic systems.
Massage is a therapy that not only reduces emotional and mental stress, but also benefits the body’s muscular, lymphatic, nervous, and skeletal systems. For thousands of years, massage has been used for healing; yet it is only recently that studies have shown us its enormous effect. Tiffany Field, Ph.D., director of the Touch Therapy Institute at the University of Miami, has headed studies addressing the psychological, psychiatric, and pediatric uses of massage. Her work has shown that through massage, our immune cells stimulate the nervous system to produce a brain chemical called endorphins that can lower blood pressure and regulate a rapid heartbeat.
Electrical and laser therapies are used internationally to safely treat a variety of ailments and to maintain a healthy body. For instance, electrical frequency therapies have been used for more than seventy-five years in sports medicine throughout Europe. These therapies help to reorganize the electrical circuitry of the human body, bringing about a speedy recovery from injury. The realignment of the electrical field of the body also helps to carry away any blockages or maladies. It is well understood that low-frequency lasers can help meet the same goals. Laser therapy helps reorganize cell patterns in human tissues; this acts like a conductor for healing and permits circulatory and electrical order to occur.
High-frequency, electromagnetic energy therapy is now widely used to treat trauma. This painless treatment eliminates edema, absorbs hematoma, and increases blood flow; these biological effects consistently reduce pain and swelling in damaged tissues. Significant acceleration of wound healing has been reported when electromagnetic energy has been applied to burn wounds, plastic surgery sites, finger transplants, and nerve repair. It is also found to relieve pain and inflammation in degenerative and nonarticulated arthritis, and has been successfully used to treat fractured bones (through strapping and plaster casts!) Reports of everything from arthritic pain to tumors have been reduced or eliminated through a series of these noninvasive treatments.
Many complementary health physicians such as naturopathic, osteopathic, and progressive allopathic doctors are now using this technology in their practices. Ask your health-care provider if these therapies would benefit you.