The Mind-Body Connection

Emotions have been scientifically proven to have a powerful effect on the immune system. Researchers in medical schools in the United States and other countries have discovered that immune cells such as T-cells, B-cells and macrophages (the white blood cells) have receptors for neuropeptides. Neuropeptides are created in our body every time we have a thought, and our immune cells listen for and react to the emotional dialog. Positive thoughts such as love, joy, happiness, forgiveness, and so forth, create health-promoting neuropeptides that boost the immune system, while negative thoughts such as fear, hate, jealousy, possessiveness, and so forth, create neuropeptides that can depress the immune system and lead to disease.
Negative emotions have also been shown to cause acidity in the tissues while positive emotions create alkalinity in them.
Tony Buzan explains in his cassette program, Brain Power, "There are thousands of documented studies of people who have recovered from illness simply through the power of the mind." He goes on to say, "Children can make themselves ill, and give themselves nose bleeds merely at the thought of an upcoming test" and, "Many people give themselves rashes in stressful situations."
Dr. Richard Anderson, N.D., N.M.D., states in book one of Cleanse & Purify Thyself: "Another factor in the ability to adapt a raw-food diet is emotions. Remember, thoughts and feelings are the primal directive forces that control our bodies; this includes appetites and desires. Some people will never be raw-fooders until they have transmuted certain emotions."
Stress has been scientifically proven to cause many health problems due to its effects on the nervous system. A few of these problems include insomnia, poor digestion, a weakened immune system and cellular repair system. Stress dulls the sense of touch, lowers IQ, can be a factor in cancer and heart attacks, and makes people generally meaner.
If you could only remember one thing from this book, I suggest you remember this. If there is someone in your life towards whom you feel animosity and refuse to forgive, you are not hurting them, you are hurting yourself. Forgive them and your health will benefit. I once heard someone say that holding a grudge against someone is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
People often ask me what I eat in a typical day, so I have included this section. The first thing on my menu is not food for my body but for my spirit. Yogic type stretching in a relaxed meditative state is very healthy and should be done on an empty stomach. Even if I have to get up very early, I will get up even earlier to have time to stretch. This has been shown by researchers to lubricate joints with synovial fluid and it makes me feel great! Remember, "If you don't use it, you'll lose it."
The first thing that passes my lips after water is fruit. Fruit is easy to digest compared to most other foods and it is rich in pure water and loaded with nutrients. Fruit is the original fast food and the best food to break a fast! I usually make a smoothie with a mixture of berries such as blueberries (the only food scientifically shown to reverse the aging process), raspberries, blackberries and strawberries and sometimes a banana. These berries are known to be among the richest of all foods in antioxidants. I also add barley green powder, flax seed powder, non-GMO lecithin granules, and acerola cherry powder (see Nature's Antioxidant Blast in the Recipe section).
For lunch, I usually eat vegetables with raw nuts and/or seeds. The vegetables may include carrots, celery, bok choy, tomatoes, radish, romaine lettuce, parsley, napa cabbage, broccoli, red pepper, sprouts of all kinds, arugula and zucchini. If I am on the go, I eat them whole, sometimes dipping them into raw, unsalted nut butter or guacamole. If I am in an appropriate situation, I might cut the vegetables up and toss a salad with cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil or an avocado whipped in the blender with water for dressing.
An afternoon snack might be sea vegetables such as dulse or bullwhip kelp, a coconut, some olives or a handful of raw pumpkin seeds or Brazil nuts.
Dinners vary and usually begin with a large salad with homemade dressing or fresh lemon juice and Essene bread with avocado or pate. Other dinners include spiralized vegetables with living marinara, curried vegetables, raw veggie-burgers, a sea vegetable dish or nori rolls (chopped vegetables on raw nori paper with avocado, or nut pate inside) and unpasteurized miso soup (served room temperature) with finely chopped vegetables in it. Recipes for all these dishes can be found in the Recipe section at the back of this book.
I occasionally take a Vitamin B-12 supplement in the sublingual form just to be on the safe side and I recommend this to you as well. Even people who eat animals can become deficient in this very important vitamin.
Since we are all different, what works for me might not work for you. This diet works best for me; it has for many years, and I've never felt better in my life!