Now I have not read the Salt Flush Book yet but I have it on my shlef. The many positive testimonials would seem to merit further investigation. However, I have experimented with sea salts and have achieved positive results. Dr. Murrays book is a great reference in understanding why this occurrs - it is the positive influence of trace mineral content.
http://www.acresaustralia.com.au/bookstore/prod285.htm

However, Gerson conclusively demonstrated the adverse effects of salt almost a century ago when he used a saltless diet to cure many patients of lupus and other diseases - end of discussion.
http://gerson-research.org/docs/SauerbruchF-1951-1/index.html
This is further elaborated in detail in his brilliant book, "A Cancer Cure -50 Case Histories"

So what can we make of all this. Yes, it is not easy to arrive at the truth. There is just too much propaganda. I believe that one of the biggest mistakes that is made by health seekers and Gurus alike in regard to many substances is to adopt the rigid stance that a substance is either "ALL good" or "ALL bad" without exception.

I have come to the conclusion that many products that you will find in your local health food store can have a positive influence in specific conditions but may typically have adverse "side-effects". In this regard they are essentially like another class of natural isolates - pharmaceutical drugs. In some cases the long term side effects can eventually be lethal. To quote one author in regard to a common popular shelf food item, "At best it is a drug - at worst it is a poison".

I try to take on board the experiences of researchers who have devoted a large amount of time to a certain area and incorporate it into my knowledge or at least file it away for further reference. Given the personal growth that only time and thought can provide, we may eventually be able to make sense of the matter.

Her is a quote from a previous post of mine:

On day I hope to get around to reading the Flush Book.

Good Heath,
Neo.

Hi Rawgosia,

You name kept haunting me and now I know why.

About a year ago when you posted this I was very disgruntled. I thought you reply was dismissive and arrogant as you offered neither explanation, supporting references nor arguments. I thought that if this is typical of the response I am going to get on this forum it is not worth my time so I left the forum for a full year.

Since resuming the chat forum, I have come to know you better and realize now that you are actually a good and helpful person. Perhaps you were being defensive?

I disagree with your position on hybridization. Two classic examples are type A (unhybridized cow's milk and spelt flour. People who typically have adverse reactions to either of these have no reaction to the original generic product.

I find myself in good company on this point.

Milton Mills, an authority in vegan nutrition (Vegsource) also takes the same position in regard to vegetable produce.

If you have read Joel Fuhrman's book which - along with the Nelson's who host the Vegsource site - I regard as probably the one of the most important nutritional works of recent times, this argument essentially forms the basis of his approach to good health which he describes as Nutrient Density. Health = Nutrients/Calories.

Modern produce has been Taylor made, hybridized for caloric consumer taste.  Nutrient density and equally important fiber content, the value of which has only been realized in recent times have both been sacrificed in this single minded goal. The outcome is calorie bloated, fiber poor nutrient diluted produce.

Now no one can say that any of these modifications are either good or irrelevant. When man tampers with nature's kitchen the results are invariably for the worse. Perhaps not as regards quantity but definitely as regards quality.

I do not see how this argument could be dismissed as invalid as it flies in the face of natural common sense.

Nature knows best,
Neo.

Arnold Ehret would have to be my favorite author during my early years. He was dedicated insightful and intelligent. His book on Rational Fasting is brilliant and he was one of the few authors of his time to recognize the importance of the colon in the course of disease. Particularly prominent were his endurance feats, outlasting an Olympic class cyclist on one occasion and also his fasting feats - see below for more details. It has been a long time since I have read his books but looking back, they had a profound impact in my quest for health.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Ehret

Arnold Ehret
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arnold Ehret (1866–1922) is the author of several health and fitness books.

Professor Arnold Ehret, revered as the original father of naturopathy, is considered to be the most important researcher and author regarding the health and preservation of the human body by his followers. These followers, called Ehretists, believe that no other scientist, doctor, dietitian, or author has surpassed Ehret’s work concerning the cause and cure of chronic disease and human illness. Ehret is claimed to have discovered that the human body is an “air-gas engine” that is powered exclusively by oxygen and that a diet consisting of starchless fruits and green-leafy vegetables is the only food fit for human consumption. Ehret produced a dietetic treatise entitled the Mucusless Diet Healing System.

Arnold Ehret was born July 25, 1866, near Freiburg, in Baden, Germany. His father was a farmer who crafted all of his own farming equipment. Like his father, Ehret would be endowed with a passion for studying the cause and effect of phenomena. His interests were physics, chemistry, drawing and painting. He also had an affinity for linguistics and could speak German, French, Italian, and English.

At the age of 21 he graduated as a professor of drawing and was drafted into the military only to be discharged because of heart trouble. At the age of 31 he was diagnosed with Bright's disease (inflammation of the kidneys), and pronounced incurable by 24 of Europe’s most respected doctors. He then explored natural healing and visited sanatoriums to learn holistic methods and philosophies. In a desperate attempt to quench his misery Ehret decided to stop eating. To his amazement he did not starve but gained in strength and vitality.[citation needed]

In 1899 he traveled to Berlin to study vegetarianism, followed by a trip to Algiers in northern Africa where he experimented with fasting and fruit diet. Due to his new lifestyle, Ehret claimed to have cured himself of his diseases and to be able to perform feats of physiological strength, including an 800 mile bicycle trip from Algiers to Tunis. He claimed that pus and mucus forming foods are the cause for all human disease and that “fasting (simply eating less) is Nature’s omnipotent method of cleansing the body from the effects of wrong and too much eating.”(Hirsch 1994, 9)

In the early 1900’s Ehret opened a hugely popular sanitarium in Ascona, Switzerland where he treated thousands of patients considered incurable. During the latter part of the decade Ehret engaged in a series of fasts monitored by German and Swiss officials. Within a period of 14 months Ehret completed a fast of 21 days, one of 24 days, one of 32 days, and one of 49 days. He lecturered throughout Europe. In 1914 Ehret moved his sanitarium to California.

On October 9, 1922, at the age of 56, Arnold Ehret fell sustaining a fatal blow to his skull. According to Ehret’s disciple Fred Hirsch, he was walking briskly on a wet, oil-soaked street during foggy conditions when he slipped and fell backward onto his head. Hirsch did not actually witness the fall but found Ehret lying on the street. Another one of Ehret’s disciples, Benedict Lust, maintained that Ehret was wearing his first pair of new dress shoes and slipped as a result of his unfamiliarity with the footwear. (Lust 2002, page preceding i) To this day the true nature of Ehret’s death raises many suspicions among Ehretists. Ehret’s powerful healing successes along with his influential and revolutionary new lifestyle terribly threatened the medical, meat, and dairy industries. Due to these factors many believe that foul play was involved in Ehret’s untimely death.

Arnold Ehret was protagonist of the emerging back-to-nature renaissance in Germany and Switzerland during the latter part of the 19th century. (Kennedy 1998, 9-10) The influence of this renaissance spread to America and influenced many of the countercultural movements including the beat generation, the vegetarian driven “hippie” movement, veganism, fruitarianism, and breatharianism.

Mucusless Diet Healing System

The Mucusless Diet Healing System consists of all kinds of raw and cooked fruits, starchless vegetables, and cooked or raw, mostly green-leaf vegetables. It uses a combination of long and short-term fasts and menus that progressively change to non-mucus-forming foods, and colon irrigation. Ehret asserts that the body is an air-gas engine that is not designed to eat mucus and pus forming foods and offers the equation Vitality=Power-Obstruction (V=P-O) to demonstrate his assertion. He also claims that the lungs are the pump in the body while the heart acts as a valve.

Bibliography

    * Ehret, Arnold. Prof. Arnold Ehret’s Mucusless Diet Healing System. Los Angeles, CA: Ehret Literature, 1924.
    * Ehret, Arnold. Rational Fasting For Physical, Mental & Spiritual Rejuvenation. (ISBN 0-87904-005-X)
    * Ehret, Arnold. Physial fitness through a superior diet.
    * Ehret, Arnold. "Thus Speaketh the Stomach and the Tragedy of Man's Nutrition".
    * Ehret, Arnold. The Story of my Life: As Told to Anita Bauer. New York: Benedict Lust Publishing, 1980.
    * Ehret, Arnold. Mucusless Diet Healing System (ISBN 0-87904-004-1)
    * Child, B. W. “Biographical Sketch of Prof. Arnold Ehret.” In Mucusless Diet Healing System, 22 ed. Professor Arnold Ehret, 13-22. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Ehret Literature, 1994.
    * Hirsch, Fred. “Introduction.” In Mucusless Diet Healing System, 22 ed. Professor Arnold Ehret, 9-12. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Ehret Literature, 1994.
    * Gordon Kennedy, ed. Children of the Sun: A Pictorial Anthology; From Germany to California 1883-1949. Ojai, CA: Nivaria Press, 1998.
    * Benedict Lust. “Biographical Sketch of Arnold Ehret.” In Arnold Ehret’s Mucusless Diet Healing System. Arnold Ehret, unnumbered page preceding i-xix. New York: Benedict Lust Publishing, 2002.

Find Ehret's Definite Cure of Chronic Constipation at SoilandHealth.org

Good Health,
Neo.

Thanks for the help guys.

I got a new Sunbeam for my girlfriend for Xmas. We are still sussing it out but it looks good.
At 1200 watts with a tamping paddle, it is of similar design to the Vitamix.

I also got a Semak for myself. It retails for about $800 and is made in Australia.
Once again, it is very similar to the Vitamix also with a tamping rod and it even has titanium blades!
I got it for less than half retail.

The other alternative that I looked at is the Powermill blender which also looks good.
The sellers claim that it is the equal of the Vitamix at a reduced cost.

Now to figure out what to do with it. My girlfriend is the expert - I am just clueless.

Good Health,
Neo.

Hi Nikita,

Thanks for that post.  It's the first one I have seen by another person beside myself that recognizes that not all free radicals are bad.

There are actually good free radicals. It all depends on whether they are manufactured by the body as part of a natural healthy body chemistry and part of your immune system or the aberrant distorted chemistry of an invasive molecule from unnatural processed and unhealthy food.

The free radical theory has been twisted beyond recognition by the Health Industry spin doctors in their never ending quest to extract another buck from a gullible public with yet another new fad.

The far reaching health benefits Oxygen Radical Therapy testify to the benefits of good free radicals.

Ever wondered if there is a single underlying body chemistry responsible for detoxification?

Oxygen radicals would definitely fit the bill! Ed McCabe claims that Hydrogen Peroxide is our body's first line of defense and our immune system it's second line - every single cell in our entire body manufactures Hydrogen Peroxide.

Good Health,
Neo.

Hi,

I experienced similar opposition as a vegetarian pearl diver. They either did not believe that I could do the work or wanted to pick a fight with me!  Guess they must have felt threatened somehow.

Funny how life turns full circle though. The guy who gave me the worst time all those years ago, met up with me again recently. He was as round as a barrel and was suffering from angina and severe coronary occlusion.

He said that his eyes had now been opened albeit too late in life. He was trying to stay alive long enough to see his daughter get married.

If that guy can change - anyone can.

Take Heart,
Neo.

What a fantastic idea:

To contact Ronald the details are on the Hippocrates Website:

http://www.hippocrates.com.au/contact.html

Good Health,
Neo.

According to Ronald Bradley who runs Hippocrates Australia: Cooked food vegans can suffer from B12 deficiency. Raw food vegans do not.

I have much research on the B12 controversy. Viewed as a whole it seems that we still have a long way to go before we come anywhere near a mature understanding of the science behind the B12 vitamin.

Some interesting snippets though:

An equal proportion of meat eaters suffer from B12 deficiency.

From memory, Doug Graham has observed improved B12 levels during extended fasting!

Probably the best discourse on B12 I have ever read come from the unlikely source of a cookbook:
"Classic Vegetarian Cooking" by Jean and Sue Easthope. I enclose the following snippets from it:

The process by which vitamin B12 is absorbed is unique among nutritional substances. The parietal cells lining the stomach wall secrete a substance, termed 'intrinsic factor', which combines with the B12, called "extrinsic factor', before this vitamin can be absorbed by the body. This combined complex then moves through the digestive tract to the ileum, the distant portion of the small bowel where it is grabbed by a group of receptor molecules located on the gut lining; these receptors seem to relish B12 and nothing else! The B12 is then bound to a protein transporter in the blood stream and carried to the many growing cells. Any unused B12 is excreted, mainly by way of the bile and so poured back into the intestinal tract. As the excreted bile passes through the ileum about two-thirds of this excreted B12 is re-absorbed and again made available to the body; a neat economical process.

The source of vitamin B12 is also unique. B12 is manufactured only by certain bacteria, a small number of moulds and a few other micro-organisms that occur in soil, ponds of water and even sea water, and their presence in these natural habitats leads to very low concentrations of B12 in the soil and natural springs. So animals browsing in the fields and drinking from streams and dams easily pick up adequate vitamin B12 for their daily needs. The carnivores, including meat-eating man, who use these animals for food, get their vitamin B12 by appropriating this material from what has been stored in the tissues of their victims.[/u]

Studies have been carried out on vegans of long-standing, and the results arc interesting. Over four to five years after adopting the vegan diet the reserves of vitamin B12 are gradually used up and the serum level of B12 stabilizes around 100 milligrams per millilitre, a level generally considered bordering on the danger line of low. But the test individuals were enjoying excellent health and not taking vitamin B12 supplements in their diet.

Of course, if we were not so inhibited by our excessive regard for cleanliness and hygiene, we would not be worrying about vitamin B12. The vegetarian cultures we have referred to have managed for centuries, but then they do not put their water supplies through chemical purifying processes and they don't scrub, peel and boil their vegetables as conscientiously as we do. Rhesus monkeys live on a fruit diet and in hygienic captivity they sometimes suffer from vitamin B12 deficiency, though they are healthy in the wild.[/u]

The primary cause of vitamin B12 deficiency is considered to be the lack of this particular vitamin in the diet, [u]but the secondary cause is more important— malabsorption of the vitamin. There are many causes for this malabsorption: relative lack of the intrinsic factor produced by the parietal cells of the stomach lining[/i[/u][/b]] as a result of disease and/or surgery of the stomach; diseases of the small bowel and, in particular, of the ileum, the principal site of absorption;


Good Health,
Neo.

In Broome our mango season is just about over for Kensingtons but there are still plenty of other varieties which will see us through the next month.

Mangoes abound up here and my freezer is full and I am looking for more space.

We use a champion juicer to make mango icecream throughout the off-season - yum!

Good Health,
Neo.

Rock salt is sodium chloride mined from mineral deposits plus whatever impurities may accompany it.
I am unfamiliar of any processing it might undergo.

Sea salt is the result of dissolved sodium chloride which is the main constituent of sea water after it has been subject to evaporation in large salt pans. The sodium chloride is the first mineral to precipitate from solution. Typically the remaining slurry which still contains desirable trace and other minerals is then discarded.
Typically aluminum is added as an anti-caking agent so the salt will pour freely without clogging the spout.

In the case of whole sea salts such as Celtic Sea salt, mineral precipitates are not harvested till the entire solution has evaporated so it contains the complete mineral profile of the parent sea solution which is globally consistent aside from local pollution. Good products will contain no other additives.

All salt will contribute to mineral displacement in the body tissues, disrupting healthy body chemistry and typically result in edema.

However, a the trace mineral profile in a tablespoon of seawater used every so often is a fair trade-off for the small amount of sodium chloride it contains. Fortunately trace minerals exert profound effects on health in trace quantities so you don't need a lot. Watering vegetables and wheat grass etc with diluted sea water will result in increased crop health, growth and pest resistance. See " Sea Energy Agriculture" by Dr. Maynard Murray.

Good Heath,
Neo.

Hi there,

I have a Champion and an Oscar.

Nothing makes fruit ice cream quite like the Champion and i keep it just fro these occasions.

The Oscar is a slower true type masticating juicer which produces superior quality juice and is one of the better choices.

Although I have yet to try it, I am told that it can also juice wheatgrass.

Feel free to PM or email me for help. I am at your disposal.

Good health,
Neo.

Help...... anyone?

Hi again,

Well it seems my earlier comments have caused some ill feeling. It is not my intention to cause personal offense to anyone, neither deprecate their efforts. I appreciate the privilege of being involved in a forum of this caliber and the contribution of it's members - especially since it probably the only one of it's kind in Australia. I certainly would not discourage anyone.

I am now 50, having doubled my estimated lifespan after making radical changes at age 17 because of extreme illness. The outcomes in my health were also radical. This was at a time when health food stores were anything but trendy! I have been studying health for over 30 years now.

I am currently involved in a health education program that I believe is the best FIRST step that the average person off the street can take towards  a healthier lifestyle. It does not exclude cooked food. Do I believe that this is ideal? Absolutely not, but the average person can at least live with it and it gives them options in addressing their personal health and a chance to grow.

http://www.chipglobal.org/

On this program which includes cooked food I have seen a lady blind from macular degeneration regain her eyesight in four weeks. I have also saved the life of a close friend and his family can now continue to enjoy his company for many years to come. So a good cooked diet can result in dramatic improvements. My measure of a diet does not rest solely upon whether it is either cooked or raw - perhaps I can give you an example:

I have been educating my girlfriend in healthy lifestyle and she is doing just great. She has gone from SAD to Hippocrates in 18 months - quite remarkable by anyones standards. She became taken with the raw diet craze and started buying up "raw cook books". Looking through their pages I was faced with a problem - their overwhelming reliance upon refined oils amongst other things. Even the best extra virgin olive oil will contribute towards cardiovascular disease.

After much searching, I found a couple of raw cook books that I could live with. The one I bought for her was "The Raw Gourmet by Nomi Shannon". So you can see from the title that I am not against raw gourmet provided it constitutes sensible nutrition. I was further encouraged in my choice when my girlfriend read from the back cover that Naomi Shannon is a certified Hippocrates Health Educator - a good endorsement.

Contrast this with the following book review by a well known raw food identity:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3RRBQJP3RA3BA

I am in complete agreement with him in this. Unfortunately these type of books outnumber the sensible choices available. So raw is only one factor in a healthy diet. An important one? Absolutely - but not the sole criteria upon which any diet should be judged. Common sense must still prevail.

I find raw food communities are a good bunch of health conscious people with whom I can identify and learn from. So I hope that you can live with my opinion and respect it. Till you guys came along, I was forced to loiter around American forums 

Good Health and Best Wishes,
Neo.

Hi Y'all,

I recently spent 2 weeks at Hippo's myself.

In defence of Ronald:
Yes I also recognized that he is rather jaded but who would not be after standing virtually alone for 22 years. Watching the hundreds of people come and go over the years only to forget what they have learned the following week, I think he must be more than a bit frustrated at trying to get his message across.

I would also like to distinguish his philosophy from the current "pop" raw food culture which has become the latest "health" trend to invade Australia. What most raw fooders eat on a regular basis, he would classify as raw junk food! (I think that Doug Graham put it succinctly when he said; "If it looks like pizza and it tastes like pizza, then it will digest like pizza".)

The program that Ronald offers is true to the principles of food combining and he walks a narrow path. But after years of observation he has refined the program to produce the best results possible.

He allows a concession on Friday night but I do not want to spoil the surprise - it is truly delicious.

Yes, you can be down on Ronald but I think he is a man to be greatly admired for his discipline and his accomplishments. At age 64 with a full luxuriant head of hair and smooth unwrinkled skin, he is a striking example of what healthy living can produce. He looks younger than a man in his 40's. This what brought home to me in no uncertain terms when I revisited my family in Brisbane. My brother is the same age and the contrast was stark to say the least.

Elaine who is in her 80's also provided a similar contrast to my mother of the same years.

Regarding the asking price:
For a walk-in, fully functional Health Retreat, I think the price is incredibly cheap! I wonder what the real-estate alone would be valued at? Yes, it needs to be brought into the 21st century and I think a lot more could be done with the grounds but to setup a similar resort from scratch for that cost and then setup the infrastructure including personnel - well I think you could spend a whole lot more time and money just to get the buildings up on a comparable acreage.

I only hope that the successors maintain the program without too much deviation as it may be the only one of it's type in Australia offering simple healthy raw vegan cuisine.

Congratulations Ronald on you outstanding life achievement and Hi to all the staff at Hippo's.

Good Health,
Neo.

How does your electric juicer handle wheatgrass?

Does it do as good a job as the old manual Porkert?

Interested to hear of your experiences.

Thanks,
Neo.