If raw certified milk is available consume it as a whole food in itself, not in combination with other foods.

Dairy

"Cow's milk is meant for calves, and babies are meant to drink mother's milk until weaned from it.

Nature has designed both types of milk and digestive systems accordingly. 

It is a scientifically documented fact that calves fed on pasteurized milk from their own mother cow usually die within six weeks, so it stands to reason that pasteurized cow's milk is not a wholesome, life-sustaining food for calves, much less for humans. Yet not only do adult humans feed this denatured animal secretion to their own infants, they also consume it themselves.

Cow's milk has four times the protein and only half the carbohydrate content of human milk. Pasteurization destroys the natural enzyme in cow's milk required to digest its heavy protein content.

This excess milk protein therefore putrefies in the human digestive tract, clogging the intestines with sticky sludge, some of which seeps back into the bloodstream.

As this putrid sludge accumulates from daily consumption of dairy products, the body forces some of it out through the skin (acne, blemishes) and lungs (catarrh), while the rest of it festers inside, forms mucus that breeds infections, causes allergic reactions, and stiffens joints with calcium deposits.

Many cases of chronic asthma, allergies, ear infections, and acne have been totally cured simply by eliminating all dairy products from the diet.

Cow's milk products are particularly harmful to women. 
Milk is supposed to flow out of, not into, women's bodies.

The debilitating effects of pasteurized cow's milk on women is further aggravated by the synthetic hormones cow's are injected with to increase milk production. These chemicals play havoc with the delicately balanced female endocrine system. In Food and Healing, the food therapist Anne Marie Colbin describes the dairy disaster for women as follows:

The consumption of dairy products, including milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream, appears to be strongly linked to various disorders of the female reproductive system, including ovarian tumors and cysts, vaginal discharges, and infections. I see this link confirmed time and again by the countless women I know who report these problems diminishing or disappearing altogether after they've stopped consuming dairy food.

I hear of fibroid tumors being passed or dissolved, cervical cancer arrested, menstrual irregularities straightened out...Even infertility appears to have been reversed with this approach in several instances.

Many women, as well as men, consume dairy products because their doctors tell them it's a good source of calcium. This is fallacious advice.

True, cow's milk contains 118 mg of calcium in every 100 grams, compared to 33 mg/100 grams in human milk. But cow's milk also contains 97 mg phosphorus/100 grams, compared to only 18 mg in human milk. Phosphorus combines with calcium in the digestive tract and actually blocks its assimilation. 

Dr. Frank Oski, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the State University of New York's Medical Centre states: 'Only foods with a calcium-to-phosphorus-ratio of two-to-one or better should be used as a primary source of calcium.' The ratio in human milk is 2.35 to one, in cow's milk only 1.27 to one. Cow's milk also contains 50 mg sodium/100 grams, compared with only 16 mg in human milk, so dairy products are probably one of the most common sources of excess sodium in the modern Western diet.

Besides, cow's milk is not nearly as good a source of calcium as other far more digestible and wholesome foods. Compare the 118 mg calcium/100 grams cow's milk with 100 grams of the following foods: almonds (254 mg), broccoli (130 mg), kale (187 mg), sesame seeds (1,160 mg), kelp (1,093 mg), and sardines (400 mg).

As for osteoporosis, it is caused not so much by calcium deficiency in the diet as it is by dietary factors which leach calcium form bones and teeth, especially sugar.

Sugar, meat, refined starch, and alcohol all cause a constant state of acidosis in the bloodstream, and acid blood is known to dissolve calcium form bones. The best way to correct osteoporosis is to consume the non-dairy calcium-rich foods mentioned above, while simultaneously cutting down or eliminating acidifying calcium robbers from the diet. A daily supplement of 3 mg of the mineral boron also seems to help bones assimilate and retain calcium.

From the traditional Chinese medical point of view, milk is a form of 'sexual essence. For the human species to drink the sexual essence of another species can only lead to trouble, especially for females, because the hormones it contains will upset the sensitive balance of the human endocrine system.

If you insists on consuming dairy product, your best bet is goat's milk, which approximates the nutritional composition and balance of human milk.

The only safe products made from cow's milk are fresh butter, which is a digestible fat, and fresh live-culture yogurt, which is predigested for you by lactobacteria, but even these should be consumed in moderation and preferably prepared from raw un-pasteurized milk.

Eggs

"Eating too many eggs can cause a highly acidifying and putrefactive excess of protein, especially when the diet already includes meat and seafood.

The traditional Chinese dietary guideline stipulates that one or two eggs per week is sufficient for human nutritional needs.

Women with ovarian cysts and other reproductive organ problems should abstain completely for eggs, because eggs are products of the hen's own sexual reproductive system and can therefore aggravate such problems in women.

Today, most commercially sold eggs come from chickens cooped up in small cages under bright lights and fed on dry feed laced with synthetic hormones and antibiotics. Such eggs do more damage than good to the human system and should be avoided.

Try to buy free-range eggs, and don't eat them every day. The best way to cook eggs is soft-boiled or lightly poached, with the yolks remaining soft and intact for maximum nutritional value and digestibility.

Raw egg yolks, without the whites, are an excellent source of protein such as lecithin, amino acids, and other nutrients."

Meat

"Westerners consume a far greater percentage of their calories from meat then Orientals do, and it shows in the complexion, body, fat and body odor.

Meat is highly acidifying and warming (yang qualities), as well as putrefactive.

According to the tenets of traditional Chinese medicine, elderly people require more meat than the young or middle-aged because of its warming yang properties and concentrated nutrients, but only if their digestive systems are in proper order.

The biggest problem with meat in the Standard American Diet (SAD) is the pervasive contamination of US beef with antibiotics and steroid hormones.

About 40% of all the antibiotics produced in the USA are fed to cattle and other livestock, and this is passed on the consumer in every hamburger, steak, and other food products made with US beef. 

This daily dietary intake of antibiotics depresses the human immune system and is an important contributing factor in acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AID's).

In addition to antibiotics, US cattle are fed synthetic hormones to accelerate growth, increase fat deposits, bring entire herds of cows into heat at the same time for breeding, increase milk production, and induce abortions in pregnant cows scheduled for slaughter.

These hormones are suspected as a major cause of the high incidence of breast and ovarian cancer in American women, as well as premature puberty in American children.

Since steroid hormone's cause cattle to grow fat fast, it also stands to reason that they cause obesity in humans who consume the meat and milk of such contaminated animals.

This is especially true for growing children, and is confirmed by the fact that whenever big American fast-food chains featuring beef and milk products set up operations in Asian countries, the once healthy children there soon show all the signs of chronic ill health that plague American children: obesity, acne and pimples, respiratory infections, premature puberty, and behavioral abnormalities.

US cattle also absorb all the herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers used to grow the feed crops on which they are forced to gorge, and a high percentage of these hapless creatures arrive at the slaughterhouse riddled with cancerous tumors and tuberculosis.

All this poison is passed directly on to the consumer, so if you like to eat beef, be sure it has been organically raised without drugs and hormones, and preferably range-fed than pen-fed.

For different reasons, pork is also a poor choice in meat. Owing to the pig's omnivorous diet, pork is even more acidifying than other meats.

Pork is very hard on the liver, largely because lard is difficult to digest.

Researchers in Canada have established a close link between cirrhosis of the liver and pork consumption in sixteen countries studied. In countries where pork is consumed together with alcohol (beer and sausage, wine and schnitzel, etc.) the likelihood of liver cirrhosis rises by a factor of 1,000.

Commercially raised chickens are also kept confined to cages and fed on denatured feed contaminated with antibiotics, hormones, and pesticides.

Chinese physicians have always recommended 'earth chickens' (tu-jee) as the only safe dietary source of chicken and eggs.

Called 'free-range chickens' in the West, they run free around the farm, eating wild vegetation, insects, and worms and getting plenty of fresh air and exercise.

The best choice in domestic meat is lamb. Sheep generally graze on open ranges, out in the sun and fresh air, and they are usually not contaminated with drugs.

Lamb is the richest source of carnitine, which is required to deliver fat into the cells for metabolism.

Lamb has always been the meat of choice in the Middle East, Mediterranean, and Himalayan regions, where arteriosclerosis and heart disease have never been major problems. Even better than lamb is wild game, such as deer, elk, pheasant, and quail, although these products are hard to find these days.

Red meat should always be consumed as rare as possible, and preferably with horseradish or strong mustard, which stimulates the liver and gall bladder to secrete the juices required to break down the proteins and the fats. Fresh ginger root aids the digestion of meat."

Seafood

"Deep-water ocean fish such as tuna and salmon are excellent sources of protein as well as fish oils that are rich in essential fatty acids called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosaheyaenoic acid (DHA).

EPA and DHA rank among nature's most effective blood thinners; they prevent sludging of blood platelets, dissolve clots, and dredge blood vessels of excess cholesterol and fatty deposits, thereby improving circulation and preventing heart attacks.

Countries which consume a lot of deep-water fish, such as Japan and Pacific islands, have significantly lower rates of heart disease than non-fish-eating countries.

Like meat, fish is warming and acidifying yang food.

It is most easily digested and yields the most nutrients when eaten raw, such as sashimi in Japan, poissons crux in the South Pacific, or when lightly steamed or poached.

Owing to the pollution of lakes, rivers and streams throughout the world, freshwater fish is no longer such a good choice.

Shellfish and reef fish should also be avoided because the shallow sea beds they inhabit are polluted."

Grains

"The cultivation of cereal grains for food marked the transition from nomadic hunting and gathering to a sedentary lifestyle that permitted the rise of permanent cities and civilizations.

Whole grains contain sufficient protein for most sedentary human requirements, plus the complex carbohydrates needed to provide the sort of sustained energy associated with mental rather than physical work.

Meat-eating hunting societies have never been renowned for their intellectual prowess. Note, for example, the carnivorous Mongols, who conquered half the world on horseback, only to be seduced and absorbed by the elegant civilization of the grain-eating Chinese.

Due to their protein and carbohydrate content, grains are warming, acidifying yang foods, and like meat they should be balanced with cooling, alkalizing vegetables.

Whole grains also contain fats, vitamins, minerals, and fiber, which makes them a truly 'whole' food. Most of the world's population depend on either rice or wheat for the bulk of their calories.

But as a result of modern milling methods, which scrape away the nutrient-laden bran and germ and leave only the starchy white pith, most commercial grain foods are nutritionally naked. Only whole-grains provide whole-nutrition.

Grains can caused indigestion and flatulence if they are not thoroughly chewed and salivated in the mouth before swallowing.

That's because all carbohydrates must begin their digestive journey in the mouth, where an alkaline enzyme called ptyalin is secreted from salivary glands to initiate the breakdown of starches.

Another way to make grains more digestible is to roast them until golden brown before cooking. This process is call dextrinization, and it converts much of the hard-to-digest starch into easily digested simple sugars. for the same reason, it's always a good idea to toast bread well before eating it.

A serious problem with many grains on the market today is long-term storage in huge silos, which permits the growth of moulds that produce afaltoxin, one of the most potent carcinogens in the world.

Corn is especially vulnerable to afaltoxin contamination, but so are wheat and other grains. Unless you have access to relatively freshly harvested grains, it's a good idea to take daily antioxidant supplements as a preventative measure against afaltoxin poisoning."

Beans

"Beans compliment whole grains as plant sources of essential amino acids, which is why they are often served together in meatless meals.

Chick peas and millet, lentils and barley, rice and dhal, corn bread and black-eyed peas, rice and kidney beans are common example of the grain-and-bean protein team.

Together they provide the full spectrum of essential amino acids required for human nutrition, usually in a proportion of one part beans to two parts grain.

Except for Soya beans, beans are warming, acidifying yang foods, like grains.

Though much touted as a 'whole protein' food, Soya beans and tofu are not very easy to digest, and they can also interfere with the absorption of zinc.

Zinc deficiency is a common problem in vegetarian diets, and using tofu as a meat substitute only aggravates this deficiency.

Furthermore, since zinc is vital for proper function of sexual glands, Soya-bean products such as tofu can cool sexual energy, which is why tofu is a popular staple in Oriental monasteries, where celibacy is the rule. 

Unfortunately, when processed into tofu, Soya beans lose most of their vitamin, mineral and fiber content.

Beans may also be sprouted before consumption, in which case they may be eaten raw. Bean sprouts are rich in vitamins, enzymes, and amino acids, and are far easier to digest than whole beans."

Vegetables

"Vegetables are the earth's most effective alkalizers, especially when consumed raw in salads or as freshly extracted juices.

Cooling and cleansing, they are also high in fiber, which helps sweep post-digestive putrefactive debris from the intestinal tract.

Their chlorophyll content protects the body against cancer, neutralizes toxins, and helps keep vital fluids pure. Easy to digest and non-putrefactive, fresh vegetables go well with meats as well as grains and help counteract the acidifying effects of both.

Crucifers

Cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, and cabbage. 

These vegetables seem to have potent protective properties for mucous membranes, especially in the lungs and digestive tract, and they are therefore effective guardians against cancer, ulcers, and infections in these vital organs. 

Rich in antioxidant nutrients such as betacarotene, vitamin C, and selenium, crucifers guard your body against all sorts of toxins absorbed from polluted environments. Crucifers have always played important roles in traditional Asian diets, especially in China.

Roots

Root vegetables are rich in minerals and replete with the stabilizing energy of the earth in which they grow. A few roots, such as carrots and turnips, are commonly consumed as ordinary vegetables, but most of them are used as condiments, seasoning, and side dishes. Many, such as ginger, garlic, and burdock, also have potent medicinal properties.

Horseradish, a traditional condiment served with beef in England and with sashimi in Japan (where it is called wasabi), stimulates the live and gall bladder, which are required to process proteins and fats assimilated from animal sources.

Ginger has always been noted for its digestive properties in Chinese cuisine, and it is said that Confucius refused to eat a meal without it. Onions help clear congestion and cut through excess mucus in the digestive tract.

The most protective of all root foods is garlic, which has been used for millennia throughout the world for its well-known healing powers as well as its pungent flavor.

In recent years, garlic has been shown to possess the following properties: inhibits growth of tumors; increases activity of white blood cells and macrophages; raises antibody production; provides a rich dietary source of the rare trace element selenium, which is a potent antioxidant; destroys fungus and yeast such as candida.

Not only is garlic one of nature's most powerful immune-system boosters, it is also prized in the Orient as a potent sexual tonic, which is why it is strictly prohibited in monastic kitchens throughout the Far East. Most practicing Taoists include fresh garlic in their daily diets.

Leaves

Leafy greens contain abundant supplies of chlorophyll, one of nature's best cleansers and detoxifiers. Eating plenty of fresh leafy greens helps eliminate unpleasant body odour by neutralizing acidity and protein putrefaction. Fresh coriander is a particularly effective dietary deodorant.

Thanks to chlorophyll, green leaves have the capacity to convert the pure energy of sunlight into vegetable matter (E= mc2 again), and when we consume and metabolize green vegetable matter, this solar energy is released into our own systems. 

Leafy greens thus serve as transformers and storehouses of revitalizing solar energy.

Nightshades

Among the most popular vegetables in Western diets today are certain members of the Solanaceae family, known as 'nightshades', which include twenty-two general and over 2,000 species of plants. Among the nightshades are tobacco and many potent medicinal plants, some of them highly poisonous. Common foods from this shady family include potato, tomato, eggplant, and chili peppers.

The distinguishing feature of all nightshades is their rich alkaloid content. Alkaloids are potent plant chemicals, similar in molecular structure to proteins, with powerful physiological effects when consumed and metabolized.

Caffeine, morphine, cocaine, nicotine, and belladonna are all alkaloids with well known psychoactive effects and toxic properties. There is growing evidence that the alkaloids present in nightshade foods may have deleterious effects on human health, at least for some people.

It is interesting to note that, with the sole exception of eggplant, the traditional diet of China did not include nightshades, and that Taoist dietary guidelines have always strongly discourages the consumption of nightshades, including eggplant.

Tomatoes, for example were brought to China from the New World by Spanish traders during the sixteenth century and were named 'foreign eggplants' by Chinese. Potatoes, which the Chinese call 'foreign yams', were also imported from the Western world, as were chili peppers. Before this, the Chinese used nightshades only for medicine, not food, and even in the West tomatoes and potatoes were once regarded as poisonous.

Today nightshades such as tomato and potato have become ubiquitous in Western diets, particularly in fast food in the form of French fries and potato crisps, tomato sauce and ketchup. Potatoes and tomatoes are fast-growing, inexpensive and easy to store.

Recent research has implicated nightshades in the calcification of soft body tissues, a condition known as 'caliphylactic syndrome', which has become one of the most prevalent pathological conditions of all modern industrial societies.

This syndrome, which occurs when nightshades remove calcium from teeth and bones and deposit it in tissues, where it does not belong, is associated with arthritis, arteriosclerosis, cerebral sclerosis, kidney stones, gout, migraine, high blood pressure, bronchitis, osteoporosis, lupus, hypertension, and other common maladies.

May people have reported rapid recovery from these ailments when they completely eliminated nightshades from their diets. That includes smoking, because tobacco is also a nightshade, so smoking tobacco only compounds the severity of tissue calcification.

If you suffer from any of the above conditions, try abstaining entirely from all nightshades, including tobacco, for a period of six months.

This cure works only if eliminate all traces of nightshade alkaloids from your system, including those hidden in processed foods and condiments in the form of potato flour, tomato sauce, paprika, cayenne, Tabasco, and so forth."

Fruit

"Fruits are alkalizing and cooling, except for certain tropical fruits such as mango and lichee, which are warming.

Fruits are very easy to digest and metabolize, but only when eaten on an empty stomach.

In fact, most fruits go straight through the stomach into the duodenum for digestion, which means if you put fresh fruit on top of a big meal, it has to sit and wait in the top of the stomach until the other food is digested, during which delay bacteria attack the fruit and ferment it, gobbling up all the nutrients and leaving you with gas and metabolic wastes.

The best rule to follow with fruits is; 'Eat them alone, or leave them alone.' This is particularly true for melons and citrus fruits.

Fresh fruits are even more cleansing to the digestive tract than vegetables.

A good way to detoxify and balance the pH of the entire alimentary canal is to eat nothing but fresh fruit for a period of one to seven days.

It is best to select just one variety of fruit for cleansing purposes, top choices being grapefruit, lemon (as juice, diluted with water), watermelon, apple, or black grapes. 

You may eat the fruit whole or as a juice, the latter being somewhat more effective for cleansing purposes."

Processed food

"If you wish to remain healthy and avoid ailments of the digestive organs, particularly cancer, you'd be well advised to eliminate all processed food completely from your diet.

In the age of fast food, precooked frozen diners, packaged snacks, and other 'convenience food', abstaining from processed food may seem difficult, but in fact it's not.

It is just as quick to eat an apple as it is a package of potato crisps, just as convenient to have nuts and seeds and dried fruit for breakfast as packaged cereal with cow's milk, and just as easy to make an avocado sandwich as a hamburger. It's all a matter of habit.

Today, over 6,000 synthetic chemicals are officially condoned for use in the processed-food industry, including some that are known to have carcinogenic properties.

Furthermore, processed foods also contain high levels of the debilitating, denatured ingredients we wish to avoid, such as white sugar, refined starch, pasteurized cow's milk, land mined salt, and hydrogenated vegetable oils.

The human immune system correctly recognizes chemical food additives as toxic foreign agents and fights hard to rid the body of them, causing severe biochemical reactions and putting great stress on the immune system.

After years of daily exposure to such inorganic chemicals, the immune system finally breaks down and burns out, leaving the body vulnerable to attack by microbes, toxins, and cancerous cells.

Although the food industry has duped the public as well as government health agencies into believing that their products are safe for human consumption, there is abundant scientific evidence to the contrary, and this information is in the public domain, openly available to anyone who seeks it.

Ignorance is therefore no longer a valid excuse for poisoning yourself with industrially adulterated foods. 

Only you control what goes into your mouth and down to your stomach."

Nuts and seeds

"Nuts and seeds are rich sources of amino acids and essential fatty acids, but you must eat them raw and as freshly harvested as possible to gain the full spectrum of their nutritional benefits.

In the dry state, nuts and seeds can be quite difficult to digest due to their enzyme inhibitors, which enable them to be stored for a long time without going rancid.

The best way to eat them is to cover them with water and let them soak overnight in the refrigerator. This inactivates their enzyme inhibitors, softens their fibers for easier digestion, and renders their nutrients easier to assimilate.

Vegetarians can easily get all the essential amino and fatty acids which meat eaters get from animal protein, simply by eating a handful or two of raw nuts and seeds everyday.

The best nuts for nutrition are almonds and pecans, and the best seeds are sunflower, pumpkin, and flax seed. 

Flax seed is particularly good for the colon (large intestines) and pumpkin for the prostate."

Fermented foods

"Fermentation is at least as old a method of food preparation as cooking with heat.

Yeast and other 'friendly' bacteria are added to raw ingredients and set aside to ferment, during the process the microbes break down complex carbohydrates and proteins into more easily digestible elements.

Fermentation increases the vitamin and enzyme content of foods, aids digestion, and facilitates assimilation of nutrients.

Fermented foods also colonize the intestinal tract with friendly flora, which control putrefactive bacteria, maintain proper pH balance in the colon, and increase the bulk and frequency of bowel movements.

However, people with chronic yeast infections such as candida and those who are sensitive to salt should abstain from fermented foods.

Almost all culinary traditions include some form of fermented food in the diet. Western cultures make yogurt, houmus, and kefir (a yogurt-type drink) from milk, beer from barley and hops, and wine from grapes.

In the East, Koreans eat fermented cabbage (Kimchee) three times a day, China has various fermented soya-bean products such as tofu and Soya sauce, the Japanese make soups and sauces with fermented miso paste, Thai cuisine is laced with a pungent ferment fish sauce called nam-pla, and Indians drink a delicious beverage called lassi made with yogurt that is freshly fermented every day.

It is a good idea to include a moderate amount of fermented food in meals that are rich in animal protein and fat, in order to aid digestion.

That's one of the reasons why wine and beer are such popular accompaniments to the meat-heavy meals of classical Western cuisine's.

Even the Bible advises one to 'take a little wine for the stomach's sake'."

Salt

"Salt is absolutely essential to human health and nutritional balance. Salt alkalizes blood and other vital fluids, helps retain water, and is deeply involved in the biochemistry of metabolism.

It's not salt per se that's so bad for human health, but rather the industrially refined, land-mined,  mineral-deficient table salt sold on the market and hidden in packaged and processed foods.

One to three grams of salt per day is a good measure for human nutritional requirements, but most Americans today consume 12-15 grams of salt daily.

In refining commercial table salt, manufacturers remove virtually all the minerals and trace elements, leaving a white crystal that is 98 per cent sodium chloride.

Among the nutrients removed is magnesium, which is essential for proper immune function. Magnesium supports a process call phagocytosis, which enhances the assimilative power of scavenger cells that are responsible for controlling infectious bacteria and other unwanted microbes.

Magnesium is also essential for proper function of nerve and brain cells, is involved in the metabolism of sugars and fats, and has been shown to lower mortality dramatically in heart-attach patients.

A study in Canada showed a 66 per cent drop in the death rate of heart-attack patients who were given intravenous injections of magnesium, and Dr. Cass Igram reports that magnesium injections resulted in a 90 percent reduction in heart-attack mortality in a similar study in the USA.

Owing to modern farming and food-processing methods, magnesium is deficient in almost all foods today, including fresh vegetables and whole grains. Dr. Igram reports that 76 per cent of all Americans are deficient in this vital mineral.

The only viable dietary source of magnesium these days is whole, unrefined sea salt, especially the coarse grey variety harvested by hand along the Brittany coast of France, known as 'Celtic sea salt'.

The Epsom salts some people take as a magnesium supplement contains magnesium sulfate, which is rapidly excreted through the kidneys and therefore difficult to assimilate. Whole sea salt contains magnesium chloride and magnesium bromide, which are easily assimilated and metabolized in the human body.

The big ballyhoo in Western media and medical circles about avoiding salt to cut down on sodium and thus control high blood pressure is all based on the detrimental effects of industrially refined, land-mined table salt, which is 98 per cent sodium chloride.

The health problems caused by this kind of salt is another typical example of how the processed-food industry has cornered the market on a vital food element, then refined and denatured it for 'convenience' (i.e. higher profits), duping the public into daily consumption of a product that undermines rather than supports health.

By contrast, Celtic sea salt contains only 82 per cent sodium chloride. Furthermore, the magnesium salts it contains naturally drain excess sodium from the body, thereby preventing the edema, kidney malfunction, high blood pressure, and other ailments associated with excess sodium intake."

Introduction

"Though it requires individual effort, self-discipline and personal responsibility, preventative health care is always a good investment, in time as well as money, because once you fall ill, it takes a lot more time and costs a lot more money to acquire vibrant health again.

Furthermore, every time you lose your health, the road to recovery gets longer and rougher, demanding a growing investment for diminishing returns. By investing in your immunity now, you insure your future health and guard your life at minimum cost.

Most modern maladies are caused by prolonged exposure to a combination of negative lifestyles and toxic environmental factors, including junk food and malnutrition, pesticides, antibiotics, microwaves, chemical pollution of food, water and air, lack of exercise and chronic stress.

These factors are further aggravated by the failure of modern medicine to recognize them as agents of dis-"ease" and death and the consequent failure to take preventative measures against them.

By rebuilding immunity, health is naturally restored and disease disappears. If health and immunity are thereafter conscientiously maintained, the individual is no longer vulnerable to disease.

Dr. Russ Jaffee, who specialized in the treatment of AIDS, categorically states: "I do not believe that healthy people will get AIDS".

This is heresy to the Western medical establishment, but there are significant external factors associated with the groups at high risk of AIDS.

Junkies, who do not usually lead healthy lives, have been dying of AIDS-like symptoms caused by blood poisoning ever since the hypodermic needle was invented.

Gay men often use immuno suppressive drugs such as amyl nitrite and antibiotics for venereal disease; anal sex is also a risk factor, because when semen is introduced into the anus, it triggers a heavy auto-immune response.

In central African countries, many pesticides and toxic pharmaceuticals, which are now banned in the West and many parts of Asia, are sold cheaply over the counter.

In the opinion of many traditional healers, AIDS is caused by a failure to guard the Three Treasures (essence, energy, sprit).

This does not mean that you need not bother with safe sex, because unsafe sex can lead to common VD, which requires heavy antibiotic treatment, which in turn is one of the main destroyers of immune function.

What it does mean is that the sort of health care required to restore immunity and prevent disease begins at home, not in the clinic, by eliminating factors which impair immunity and cultivating habits which boost it.

The allopathic (Western) approach to treating disease is at least partly responsible for the world's health crisis, because many of the chemical drugs widely prescribed have side effects which are cumulative and impair immunity.

The very fact that allopathic doctors dispense antagonistic drugs at the slightest sign of disease or dis-"comfort" indicates a basic lack of faith in the innate power of the human body to heal itself.

That power is what immunity is all about, so lets take a look at how it works and how you can immediately benefit from this.

Immunity: The body's defense department

Immunity is a manifold defense system which protects the body from external threats such as harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites and toxins, as well as from internal hazards such as cancerous cells, arteriosclerotic plaque, cholesterol deposits and free radicals.

This defense complex works on all three levels of essence, energy, sprit.

On the basic physiological level of essence, the body is endowed with numerous glands and tissues that produce immune factors when prompted by proper signals from the brain via the central nervous system.

Primary among these defense installations are the following:

Thymus Gland

Located behind the sternum near the heart, the thymus produces special immune factors cal T-cells, which roam constantly throughout the body in the bloodstream on search-and-destroy missions against foreign invaders.

Bone Marrow

The bone marrow is responsible for producing several varieties of white blood cells that attack, kill and digest foreign invaders as well as malfunctioning pre-cancerous cells. Bone marrow also products red blood cells, which carry oxygen from the lungs to all tissues of the body. The white blood cells generated by bone marrow also produce specific antibodies to fight specific bacteria and viruses.

Spleen and Pancreas

These organs are actually large glands which produce and secrete vital enzymes as required by the body. Diets consisting largely of overcooked and processed foods diverts so many enzymes into the stomach and intestines for digestion that immunity is compromised owing to insufficient supplies of enzymes for antioxidant and other immune functions.

Pituitary and Pineal Glands

These two tiny glands are located in the mid-brain and their secretions regulate most of the body's basic functions and biorhythms, including immunity. Especially important for immune functions is the growth hormone secreted by the pituitary gland.

Adrenals

Located on top of the kidneys, the adrenals secrete a wide range of vital hormones involved in sexual functions, immunity and the fight-or-flight response. The latter response is triggered by stress and severely impairs immune functions. When balanced and undisturbed by stress, adrenals secrete hormones that play important roles in immunity; they also function as "batteries" for storing the primordial energy which feeds the radiant shields of protective wei-chee around the body.

Lymph

Lymphatic fluids absorb toxins and wastes from tissues and blood, transporting them to the colon, lungs and pores for excretion.

Liver and Kidneys

These two organs are responsible for filtering toxins and metabolic wastes from the blood, thereby purifying it so that it can properly perform its nourishing and cleansing functions throughout the system. The liver is also responsible for manufacturing many enzymes that are essential for optimum immunity.

Cerebrospinal Fluids

The vital fluids of the spinal cord and brain regulate all communication within the human system and trigger either immunisupportive or immunosuppresive responses by mutual biofeedback with hormones, depending on one's state of mind and emotions. These fluids are the messengers through which mind and body communicate and cooperate to guard health in the cerebro-physical defense system knows as psychoneuroimmunology (PNI).

On the level of energy, the body is protected by an aura of radiant energy that envelopes the entire body and shields it from invasion by aberrant environmental energies, including such natural elements as wind, heat and cold, as well as artificial sources such as microwaves, power lines and electrical appliances. The strength and protective power of this shield depends upon nutrition, breathing, purity of blood, regular exercise, supplements, emotional equilibrium, positive mental attitudes and other basic factors of health.

In addition, each of the 60 trillion cells in the human body generates its own electromagnetic field, which protects the cell from invasion by aberrant energies. When a cluster of cells in a particular tissue lose their electromagnetic shields through extreme toxicity, stress, injuries, heavy metal deposits, or other adverse factors, they become vulnerable to invasion not only by aberrant energies, but also by pathogens such as viruses and toxins.

If the cells are not promptly rebalanced by corrective measures, the cumulative harm eventually reaches their nuclei and causes genetic damage, which in turn can cause cancer and other cellular derangement's. While protective energy depends upon nutrition, emotions, mental attitudes and other factors of essence and spirit, the primary mechanism for enhancing it is deep abdominal breathing and internal energy circulation.

On the level of spirit, immunity is strongly influenced by thoughts, emotions and attitudes. These mental factors are mediated by biofeedback between the nervous and endocrine systems, which form the powerful immunological mechanisms of PNI.

Consistently ignored by orthodox allopathic physicians, who try to impose matter over mind with drugs but feel threatened by the innate powers of mind over matter, the mental factors which trigger the PNI system constitute the human body's most effective and most powerful defense mechanism.

By cultivating this innate psychophysiological healing response with meditation, chee-gung, and the power of positive thinking, individuals can learn how to cure and prevent disease at home."

How to maintain optimum immunity?

Maintaining optimum immunity revolves around the following primary factors:

Clean blood and lymph

Blood plays a front line defensive role by delivering nutrients and immune factors to diseased and toxic tissues and carrying away metabolic wastes, toxins and pathogens. Lymph in turn keeps the blood clean and also purifies cellular fluids. The efficiency of their defense functions depends entirely upon their degree of purity, including proper pH balance. Clean blood also depends upon proper maintenance of the liver and kidneys, which filter the blood.

Balanced endocrine function

In order to produce the hormones required for immunity, the entire endocrine system must be maintained in proper balance, for glandular secretions influence once another by biofeedback. Endocrine balance is achieved and maintained by the parasympathetic branch of the autonomous nervous system and excessive stimulation of the sympathetic branch throws the endocrine system off balance.

Active elimination

In order to keep the body clean, the immune system needs a place to dump all the garbage it dredges from the system. Therefore, all the excretory organs, including colon, lungs, kidneys and skin MUST be maintained in proper working order. Whenever excretory functions are impaired, the body dumps its garbage into joints, body fat, lymph nodes, colonic sacculations and other nooks and crannies seemingly isolated from the bloodstream.

Nutrition

Proper nutrition is absolutely essential for maintaining immunity, for nutrients are the building blocks of human defense installations. Nutrients are also required for antioxidant protection against free radical damage, rebuilding injured tissues and metabolic conversion of essence into energy.

Physiologically, the traditional Chinese view of the human immune system is remarkably similar to the modern Western model. In the Chinese system, the first line of defense is provided by the thymus, adrenals and spine, followed in order of priority by the bone marrow, blood, brain (pituitary, pineal and hypothalamus), liver and kidneys, spleen and pancreas.

The Chinese however, also attach great importance to the immunological powers of energy and spirit, which are factors consistently ignored and misunderstood by modern Western medicine, much to the peril of patients.

Traditional Chinese doctors and Taoist healers frequently prescribe chee-gung to boost immunological response and meditation to mobilize the immunological powers of the mind, usually in conjunction with herbal and dietary prescriptions that work synergistically with energy and spirit.

Without sufficient energy, neither drugs, herbs, nor nutrients can be properly utilized in defense of health and negative mental attitudes such as cynicism, doubt, fear, confusion and self-loathing can negate the therapeutic benefits of even the most potent medications.

While modern Western medicine has a firm grasp of the "essence" of immunity, it has much to learn from traditional Chinese medicine about the "energy" and "spirit" of the human immune system and the sooner it does so, the better the health of Western societies will become.

Traditional Chinese immunology attaches particular importance to the role of the adrenal glands in guarding health and recent Western research on the immunosuppressive effects of stress scientifically validated the Chinese view. The Chinese refer to the adrenals as the "Root of Life" and cite them as the primary source of pure primordial energy, sexual vitality and immunological resilience. Since they are attached to the kidneys, the technical Chinese term for the adrenals is "kidney glands" and their functions are directly influenced by kidney organ energy.

Fear, for example, is an aberrant emotional energy associated with the kidneys in the Chinese system and chronic fear is thus regarded as a major suppressant of immune functions. This view is confirmed by Western medical science, which cites fear as a form of stress that triggers adrenal secretions of adrenaline and cortisone, two hormones known to suppress immunity severely. When fear of any other source of stress becomes chronic, adrenal burnout soon follows and the victim acquires a chronic immune deficiency that renders the body easy prey to formerly harmless microbes in the environment.

Adrenal burnout and elevated levels of cortisone in the blood are major contribution factors in chronic fatigue syndrome, AIDS, cancer, sexual impotence and infertility, allergies, migraine and other debilitating conditions.

According to the Chinese system, weak adrenals not only impair immunity on the level of essence, they also weaken resistance by cutting the main source of energy which maintains the radiant shell of protective wei-chee round the body. And since kidney organ energy governs bone marrow and brain tissue, deficient kidney/adrenal function also impairs production of white blood cells, hormones and other immune factors in these vital tissue.

Therefore, the traditional Chinese view of the kidney/adrenal complex as a primary regulator of immunity functions on all three levels of essence, energy and spirit has been confirmed by modern medical science and provides adepts of Taoist alchemy with a powerful protective mechanism that can be cultivated with physical, energetic and spiritual practices.

Traditional Chinese medicine cites four major forms of immune deficiency, or "immune emptiness": blood, energy, yin and yang. The term "empty" refers to a condition of energy deficiency that impairs the vital functions of the organ, gland or tissue which that particular energy governs. In Western medicine, which does not recognize the roles of bio-energies, various forms of immune burn out, bone marrow impairment, cerebral insufficiency and so forth.

In order to gain a proper perspective on the rapidly growing problem of immune deficiency, we will now discuss some of the primary causes and most effective remedies in terms of essence, energy and spirit.

Immunity and Essence

"Until about 1960, the biggest killer of children under the age of fifteen in America was accidents, but now it is cancer.

Most cases of immune deficiency begin during childhood with the first glass of pasteurized cow's milk and the first bowl of processed cereal sprinkled with white sugar. The overall physical and mental health of American children has been declining at an alarming rate and the primary reason for this is their diet.

In adulthood, the debilitating effects are compounded by alcohol, drugs (medicinal as well as recreational), contaminated beef, artificial fats and other factors. Let's take a quick look at some of the most immunosuppressive elements that people routinely allow to enter the inner sanctum of their bodies.

Sugar

Refined white sugar triggers the release of insulin from the pancreas. With daily consumption of sugar, the bloodstream is always laced with insulin, which suppresses secretion of growth hormone from the pituitary. Growth hormone is a prime regulator of the immune system.

Hydrogenated vegetable oils

An ingredient in virtually all processed foods, baby formulas, non-dairy creamers, salad dressings etc., these artificial fasts rapidly oxidize in the human system, releasing a deadly barrage of free radicals which destroy cells and cause genetic damage. They impair the immune activity of white blood cells and have been conclusively linked to increased risks of cancer.

Beef and cow's milk

Steroid hormones, antibiotics and other drugs routinely fed to cattle are absorbed by the people who consume the meat and milk of such contaminated animals, throwing the endocrine system off balance and impairing immunity.

Malnutrition

Malnutrition is a primary cause of immune deficiency throughout the world, not only where people are starving. The most glaring deficiencies in modern diets are essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, both of which are required in the production of immune factors such as white blood cells and antibodies. The thymus gland and lymph tissues for example, immediately begin to shrink an atrophy when these nutrients are absent from the diet.

Heavy metals

Toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, mercury and aluminum suppress all branches of the immune system, inhibiting T-cells, B-cells and antibodies and depressing bone-marrow function. Cadmium also blocks assimilation of zinc, which is an essential element required by the body to manufacture the potent antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase, one of the body's most important immune factors. Heavy metals enter our bodies in tap water, contaminated fish, polluted air, fresh produce grown with synthetic fertilizers and cigarette smoke.

Antibiotics

These commonly prescribed drugs are powerful immunosuppressors and also destroy the friendly lactobacteria in our intestinal tracts, thereby permitting candida and other harmful yeast's to proliferate throughout the system, where they further inhibit immune functions.

Recreational drugs

Coffee, alcohol, tobacco, opiates, barbiturates, amphetamines and other popular drugs, when used to excess, severely inhibit immunity by releasing toxic by-products into the bloodstream and suppressing liver function. Coffee has been specifically linked to increased risk of pancreas cancer; the offending agent is not caffeine, but other elements contained in coffee beans. When coffee is consumed with refined sugar and no-dairy creamer, the immune system gets battered with a triple blow.

Immune deficiency can be prevented and cured by first eliminating as many immunosuppressant elements as possible from your diet and lifestyle, then taking some or all of the following immunity-boosting foods and supplements daily."