The Deadly Baker's Dozen

I've been thinking about reasons why people have a hard time accepting Natural Hygiene, and also why even we hygienists are sometime challenged to 'stay the course.' In the process, I came up with a list of 13 unhealthful patterns of thinking that are currently held by our culture, mostly for the benefit of food corporations and the much of the medical community. These patterns of thinking are so drilled into our heads that it is sometimes hard to think otherwise. In fact, many people are willing to die (literally!) before they change their thinking about them! Can you think of more that I can add to this list? 

Here are my 13 Deadly Baker's Dozen: 

1. Sick mentality: Alleviating my symptoms of disease means I'm "cured."  

Healthful mentality:  First, there is no such thing as a "cure." Secondly, the only way to true health is the elimination of the CAUSE of disease.

2. Sick mentality: Protein is a primary need--Where do you get your protein? 

Healthful mentality: Simple carbohydrates are our primary need. They always have been; they always will be. Protein is secondary and are supplied in just the right amounts in a diet of fruits and vegetables. Contrary to popular belief, protein does not build muscles; nor does it give you energy. In fact, eaten in excess and from improper sources, protein is linked to every degenerative disease known. The more important question is: How can I make sure I don't eat protein to excess? 

3. Sick mentality: I'm totally cool with doctors injecting me with chemicals (I'm also cool with them cutting me open and yanking things out.).

Healthful mentality: Only the body heals. All I have to do is provide it with the right conditions.

4. Sick mentality: Herbs can restore health.

Healthful mentality: Again...only the body heals. All I have to do is provide it with the right conditions.

5.  Sick mentality: Fasting is dangerous.

Healthful mentality: Fasting is the most efficient and effective way of establishing ideal conditions for my body to heal itself.

6. Sick mentality: It's important to eat from the 4 Food Groups (or any variation of this dictum) daily, preferably at every meal.

Healthful mentality: It's important to ONLY eat from the basic 2 Food Groups daily; these are fresh, ripe, raw fruits and vegetables. 

7. Sick mentality It's important to incorporate great variety at every meal, to ensure I'm getting all the nutrients I need.

Healthful mentality: It's important to eat fewer than 3 or 4 different fruits and vegetables at each meal. It results in less digestive distress and allows my body to absorb nutrients efficiently. 

8. Sick mentality: It's important to eat large quantities of food to ensure I'm getting enough nutrients, variety, etc.

Healthful mentality: It's important to eat an ADEQUATE amount of food to ensure health. Both excess and deficiency are unhealthful.

9. Sick mentality: I should strive to eat 6 small meals a day; it keeps my system properly "stoked" all day.

Healthful mentality: Ideally, 2-3 meals a day should be eaten, preferably two. Fewer meals means less digestive stress, and the extra vital energy can go toward extraordinary building and repairing.

10. Sick mentality: Everyone gets sick.

Healthful mentality: Sickness is not inevitable; it's a consequence of straying from the foods and behaviors of our biological heritage. Sickness is the result of unhealthful living; health is the result of healthful living. 

11. Sick mentality: We have to supplement our diets due to the depletion of the top soil.  

Healthful mentality: Fruit--our primary fuel--is not topsoil dependent. Fruit trees get their nutrients through their roots, which reach deeply into the earth, beyond the topsoil, for their nutrients. 

12. Sick mentality: The diet I use to lose weight ensures optimal health.

Healthful mentality: The diet I use to ensure optimal health, not only brings my weight into its normal range, but makes me extraordinarily healthy and vibrant, unlike any reducing diet can.

 

13. Sick mentality: It's boring and monotonous to eat fruit all day long.

Healthful mentality: Although eating is pleasurable, it is not my form of entertainment. Besides, with the plentiful array of luscious seasonal fruits, I eat freely of a variety of fruits everyday, unlike people who eat the same foods day after day on the Standard American Diet (SAD).