Cleansing Reactions

     One of the most common errors in various books and articles on raw diets is the failure to properly identify and describe the phenomena of cleansing reactions, why and how they are caused by an improvement in one's diet, and how to manage them successfully.  Being ignorant of this important process, many people jump right into a totally raw diet overnight, feel great for a few days or weeks, and then when the cleansing reactions occur; they are misinterpreted as "being sick", so the new diet is abandoned, the cleansing stops, and the person erroneously concludes that the old diet was better and the new one made them "sick".

     The body will, when fed excessively nutrient-dense and cooked cultural diets, accumulate large amounts of stored "fat", excess mucus (mucopolysacchrides and mucoproteins), and deposits of various toxins that were incapable of being excreted through normal processes over the years.  When the multiple, daily doses of excess nutrients and mucus-forming "foods" are reduced or eliminated, the body will then start to excrete these unhealthy stored deposits through all the normal channels of excretion: urine, feces, sweat, discharges of mucus through the nose and throat, vaginal excretions, tongue, and breath.  Common odors as those in human meat-eaters' feces, or decaying corpses.may be readily and permanently eliminated by dietary change.

     Since mucopolysacchrides are long chains of sugar molecules, and starch is basically polymerized sugars, excessive mucopolysacchrides may be formed in the body by consuming excessive starch, such as roots, grains, bananas, etc.  Mucoproteins are mucopolysaccharides which are combined with proteins, thus they may be formed by consuming both excessive starch and excessive proteins, especially animal proteins.

     Further, some cultural "foods", such as dairy contain the protein casein which is used to produce various adhesives, paints, sizing for paper and cloth, and plastics, all possible only as a result of casein's inherent adhesive properties.  Dairy products are the worst mucus-makers, and ignorant parents feed this bovine glue to infants!  Dairy is the main contributing factor to the "snot-nosed kid" syndrome and the frequent "colds/flus" of innocent children whose ignorant parents fall for the dairy industry's advertising: "Milk is good food!" or "Milk does a body good!"

     So, how do these cleansing reactions manifest?  They are exactly what we have been conditioned to believe are the "symptoms" of a "cold/flu", since the later are nothing more mysterious than periodic cleansing reactions the body initiates periodically, or by being triggered by a drop in temperature.  "Colds/flus" which have no cure as claimed by the medical establishment, which grows rich because of them, will be permanently eliminated from one's life by simple dietary change which eliminates the source of these excessive proteins and starches.

     The main channel through which the body eliminates excessive mucus is through the mucus membranes, which line the alimentary canal from the sinuses and throat through the stomach and intestines to the colon.  Thus, most voluminous and rapid elimination of mucus occurs through the classic "runny nose", sneezing, and by coughing up from the throat, and sometimes especially vigorous coughing spasms bring up hardened lumps of yellow or green mucus from the alveoli and bronchial passages.  A sore throat may occur.

     Since, in addition to copious, and sometimes spectacular, mucus discharges, the body will be eliminating stored toxic materials and these must pass through the blood stream on the way to the toilet bowel, they may affect brain functioning to produce a lack of energy, emotional instability or negativity, dizziness, fogged intellect, negative dreams -- that is, any possible consequence of disrupting normal brain chemistry.

     Because the body will increase its temperature to speed up its biochemistry when toxic, a fever may occur.  Sweating will accelerate the expulsion of toxins through the skin.  The tongue may become coated with foul-smelling excretions.  As one's energy is being devoted to detoxification, one will generally notice a lack of energy.  One will generally not feel hungry, since the body is telling you to stop eating so more energy may be used for detox and the normal excessive consumption of nutrients is not needed, and is indeed the cause of the problem.  Headaches may occur due to toxins or gas pressure in the colon, and they usually may be quickly eliminated by a plain, warm water enema: take an enema at the first sign of muscle tightening in the neck, if one's energy drops, or if gas is felt in the intestines.  Vomiting or diarrhea are sure signs that the body is rejecting material.  There may be swollen lymph nodes as they get clogged with proteinaceous debris.  There may be pimples or other skin eruptions.  In fact, I heard a lecture by a dermatologist at a Natural Hygiene convention wherein he stated that he had 100% success with all skin problems when the patient switched to an all raw diet and subsequently detoxed -- this indicates that the acne commonly seen in teenagers is a result of their eating more junk foods and their body trying to eliminate toxins and excessive fats through the skin, and thus is not as a result of "hormonal changes" as we are commonly told.

     The following is a spectrum of diets which produce cleansing in a decreasing intensity as one goes down the list; that is, the most rapid effects occur toward the top of the list.

1> fast (distilled water and enemas) [not recommended: too intense]
2> fruit juice
3> fresh fruit
4> vegetable juice
5> raw fruits, vegetables, sprouts
6> 5 with one ounce of nuts/seeds a day (nuts/seeds for a transition diet only)
7> 6 with SLIGHTLY cooked/steamed vegetables
8> 7 with more severely cooked vegetables
9> 8 with cooked starch (grains, pasta, potato, ...)

     So, for someone being years on a conventional meat/dairy/egg-oriented diet, a good place to enter would be at 9> and see what happens.  If one can maintain that for a week or two without any excessive discomfort, or cleansing reactions getting in the way of one's daily commitments, then move up a level or two to see what happens there.  If the cleansing gets too intense, then move down a level or two, for a few meals, to slow the cleansing and get stabilized.  When one does not have any commitments to be places and do things, such as the weekend, then one can try an all raw diet to speed things up.

     Or, if one likes intensity in one's life and rapid results, then one could just jump into a totally raw fruit and vegetable (at different meals) diet to begin with and move down a couple of levels temporarily to slow things down when necessary.  The basic idea is to learn how to use one's daily diet to govern how fast the cleansing occurs, like a control valve.

     Obviously, people who are grossly overweight will have a lot more to eliminate and it will take them longer and quite possibly be much more uncomfortable than people who have little excess weight to lose and can go through the transition much quicker.