Page 22 - Spring2015

Today all of Kellogg ran the Battle Creek health sana- tal in helping me fill in the gaps of my nutritional

the popular torium in Michigan, which was owned and awareness to address the growing problems
operated by Seventh Day Adventists. At the sana-
associated with vegan diets. Many discussions
cleansing torium, Kellogg recommended yogurt enemas, with natural health education colleagues such as
methods focus strict vegetarianism and a bland diet because he Carlo Gugliermo, Steve Gagne, and Steve Acuff
on stimulating believed that spicy, protein-rich foods increased were also extremely helpful as they had walked
sex drive while bland foods reduced it. He and a similar road.
the organs of his brother developed flaked cereals along with As I awoke from my dietary dream, I saw an
elimination. a number of super-bland foods for consumption explosion of methods that I had followed—lots of
For the at the sanatorium including, by accident in 1896, health gurus promoting cleansing through diet,
corn flakes. Corn flakes, with their high fiber remedies, fasting, and a host of other means.
majority of content, were created to be an anti-aphrodisiac. Cleansing has become big business, promoted
people these In the early twentieth century, John Tilden by everyone from Dr. Oz to the Juice Man and,
methods can and others promoted many ideas to cleanse the of course, late night infomercials. Books and
body of toxins. Toxemia or blood pollution was websites advertising everyone’s favorite cleanses
have very thought to be the cause of all diseases. Cleansing as the answer to weight loss, healing all kinds of
detrimental through diet, fasting, juicing, herbs, colonics, diseases, and anti-aging have taken off.
Even when I was promoting a vegan-style
effects on exercise and other methods were taught to be diet as a cleansing method, I was suspicious of
the cures.
health. During this time, many erroneous nutrition- cleansing protocols. My suspicions arose from
al theories were conceived to explain the cause the teachings of oriental medicines. In ancient
of toxemia. These included concepts such as the oriental medicines there are two basic approaches
putrefying effect from eating meat and dairy to cleansing therapies. One can cleanse by tak-
foods, an improper balance of acid and alkaline ing substances that speed up the function of the
foods, the supremacy of vegan diets, and various elimination organs such as the colon, liver, and
food-combining theories. I’ll explain why these kidneys, or one can cleanse toxins by strength-
theories hold no water later in this article. Un- ening the function of these same organs through
fortunately, these ideas are still promoted today food, lifestyle practices, herbs and exercise. The
by many contemporary proponents of cleansing second method was considered the most basic
protocols. and safer way of getting rid of toxins. The first
method was only recommended for very strong
THE MODERN CLEAN-UP people.
For decades I was a teacher, counselor, and Today all of the popular cleansing methods
promoter of a primarily vegan diet for cleansing focus on stimulating, rather than strengthening,
and better health. I have to admit that I taught the organs of elimination. For the majority of
most of the theories listed above—except for people, these methods can have very detrimental
Kellogg’s theories on sex. I saw first-hand that effects on health.
in most cases not only did the vegan approach
not clear toxins from the body but in many cases TRUTH AND MYTHS ABOUT TOXINS
did not promote healing. I had my epiphany that The truth about toxins is that we live in a
something was wrong when one of my teachers, very polluted world. Air and water pollutants
Aveline Kushi, developed cancer. Over time, abound. There are chemicals in our food, our
everyone I encountered on an unsupplemented homes, our household products, body care prod-
vegan-leaning diet either developed illness or ucts, and in our environments. There is evidence
poor health. In recent years, several prominent that these toxins can accumulate in the body
teachers of a vegan-style macrobiotic diet died causing harm.
at younger ages than the average person from Ridding the body of toxins can be a very
serious diseases such as cancer and heart disease. important part of healing diseases. The problems
Sally Fallon’s book, Nourishing Traditions, and with the most popular detoxing approaches today
the Weston A. Price Foundation were instrumen- arise from the methods being used. Just about
20 Wise Traditions SPRING 2015 Wise Traditions

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