Raw In Scotland

Recent article by Brian Clement

After our discussions at the raw potluck this afternoon (which was very nice indeed, with some very healthy food and some recreational food that was way less unhealthy than standard fare) I thought people might be interested in this article by Brian Clement  - who I hope you will be lucky enough to see in Glasgow on 29th June!

Let food be thy medicine

Dr Brian Clement makes the case for eating for health, not recreation.

From the time we are babies, food is presented to us as a mechanism for pleasure and emotional sedation. The first drug pushers we meet are most often our parents. When we please them, they offer us sweets. When we disappoint them, these addictive foods are withheld. When we go out into the world on our own, most of us continue the learned unhealthy pattern of eating to pacify uncomfortable feelings. Consciously or unconsciously, we use food as a tool for veiling the emotional brokenness that we suffer.

Some of us are later provoked into leaving the standard fare of our heritage. If we are lucky, we springboard into the universe of natural whole foods and if we’re luckier still, we eventually arrive at the realm of raw foods. But unfortunately, our unhealthy emotional patterns around food often continue to prevail. Rather than traditional white refined sugar, we use sugar called agave (or other concentrated sweeteners, or bags of dried fruit). When these foods are consumed habitually, they create much the same disconnected consciousness refined sugar does.

The same goes for fats, which we formerly consumed from meats, gravies, butter, ice cream, and so on, and now derive from large amounts of oils, nuts and seeds, often mixed together in heavy concoctions. And raw chocolate, in my opinion, is like methadone for chocoholics. 

Many would say that to consume raw/living foods without the “recreation factor” of these stimulating foods would be to condemn oneself to a very dull life. Others believe that food should be chosen and consumed primarily for its nutritional – and even medicinal – properties, while recreation should be found elsewhere in life. This, by the way, does not preclude mealtimes from being times of companionship and sharing, suffused with ritual significance.

The point is, developing a passionate existence will carve food down to the role it should rightfully play in your life. So if you find yourself consumed with consumption, work hard to fill your heart up with real security and fulfillment.

Hippocrates recognized the medicinal properties of food, and this recognition informs everything we do at the Hippocrates Health Institute. Our founder, Dr Ann Wigmore, was a genius when she chose to name her organization after the father of Western medicine. He was the epitome of what our organization stands for. For example, the original text of the Hippocratic Oath includes the statement: “I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.” Most of you will also recognize Hippocrates’ words, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food”.

My foremost project these days is researching scientific studies that support this very premise, and it is clear that in coming years we will free healthcare from the shackles of symptom treatment, raising it to the level of system building.

A vast data bank of scientific work points to the disease-fighting properties of plant foods. No foods have greater healing power than raw sprouts, vegetables, herbs and fruits. One reason for this is their phytochemical content. Phytochemicals are natural bioactive substances found in plant foods. They are found in highest quantity in freshly harvested plant foods and they are either diminished or destroyed by modern processing techniques, including cooking. Research has shown that phytochemicals can both prevent and heal degenerative disease.

However, science has only just begun to identify and document the healing properties of these natural plant-based medicines. While we wait for studies to provide even more conclusive evidence, which kind of diet do you choose to consume? One that is low in these potent natural healers, like the standard diet of our era? Or one that is abundant in them? '

Good question......

Dr Brian Clement makes the case for eating for health, not recreation.

From the time we are babies, food is presented to us as a mechanism for pleasure and emotional sedation. The first drug pushers we meet are most often our parents. When we please them, they offer us sweets. When we disappoint them, these addictive foods are withheld. When we go out into the world on our own, most of us continue the learned unhealthy pattern of eating to pacify uncomfortable feelings. Consciously or unconsciously, we use food as a tool for veiling the emotional brokenness that we suffer.

Some of us are later provoked into leaving the standard fare of our heritage. If we are lucky, we springboard into the universe of natural whole foods and if we’re luckier still, we eventually arrive at the realm of raw foods. But unfortunately, our unhealthy emotional patterns around food often continue to prevail. Rather than traditional white refined sugar, we use sugar called agave (or other concentrated sweeteners, or bags of dried fruit). When these foods are consumed habitually, they create much the same disconnected consciousness refined sugar does.

The same goes for fats, which we formerly consumed from meats, gravies, butter, ice cream, and so on, and now derive from large amounts of oils, nuts and seeds, often mixed together in heavy concoctions. And raw chocolate, in my opinion, is like methadone for chocoholics. 

Many would say that to consume raw/living foods without the “recreation factor” of these stimulating foods would be to condemn oneself to a very dull life. Others believe that food should be chosen and consumed primarily for its nutritional – and even medicinal – properties, while recreation should be found elsewhere in life. This, by the way, does not preclude mealtimes from being times of companionship and sharing, suffused with ritual significance.

The point is, developing a passionate existence will carve food down to the role it should rightfully play in your life. So if you find yourself consumed with consumption, work hard to fill your heart up with real security and fulfillment.

Hippocrates recognized the medicinal properties of food, and this recognition informs everything we do at the Hippocrates Health Institute. Our founder, Dr Ann Wigmore, was a genius when she chose to name her organization after the father of Western medicine. He was the epitome of what our organization stands for. For example, the original text of the Hippocratic Oath includes the statement: “I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.” Most of you will also recognize Hippocrates’ words, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food”.

My foremost project these days is researching scientific studies that support this very premise, and it is clear that in coming years we will free healthcare from the shackles of symptom treatment, raising it to the level of system building.

A vast data bank of scientific work points to the disease-fighting properties of plant foods. No foods have greater healing power than raw sprouts, vegetables, herbs and fruits. One reason for this is their phytochemical content. Phytochemicals are natural bioactive substances found in plant foods. They are found in highest quantity in freshly harvested plant foods and they are either diminished or destroyed by modern processing techniques, including cooking. Research has shown that phytochemicals can both prevent and heal degenerative disease.

However, science has only just begun to identify and document the healing properties of these natural plant-based medicines. While we wait for studies to provide even more conclusive evidence, which kind of diet do you choose to consume? One that is low in these potent natural healers, like the standard diet of our era? Or one that is abundant in them? '

Good question......

Wild greens to pick for a spring tonic

I'm sitting in a warm sun room sipping green juice and feeling so appreciative of the WARM weather after such a long cold winter. Now everything is growing like crazy and there are plenty of wild leaves to eat. I pick dandelion leaves and sorrel in my own garden and nearby there are stinging nettles to juice, daisy flowers and garlicky ramsons flowers to put on salads. In fact, I might make a wild salad for the raw pot luck this week, . Some like the dandelions in salads. they are too bitter and overpowering for my taste so I eat them separately, usually straight from the plant in passing but occasionally with quite a robust dressing of their own. I feel all virtuous because they are good liver tonics.

Wild food isn't only good because it bypasses the budget, but because it is rich in nutrients, really rich. The plants grow in their ideal spots and they have never been subject to human breeding schemes. They are the most natural food in that sense, and the food of our ancestors. the American herbalist Susan Weed (yes, she did change her name...) describes wild plants as the original keys that unlock our human system perfectly, unlike the duplicate keys of domesticated plants that don't quite fit as well. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I do know wild foods have excellent nutritional pedigrees and are ideal food supplements and treats, and in some cases potent and effective herbal medicines - so long as you know what you are doing! Try Richard Mabey's 'Food For Free' as a reference book, and steer round the rarer plants which need our protection.

Bon appetit!