In early 2011, I traveled to speak in the Pacific Northwest with my friend, author, nutritionist, and raw-food celebrity David Wolfe.
He said in one of our lectures, “If I were going to eat cooked food, I would eat sweet potatoes and oatmeal.”
Later that year, I was reading all of the materials produced by the Gerson Institute (and Dr. Max Gerson). The Gerson Therapy, whose track record against cancer far exceeds the success of modern oncology, features 13 glasses daily of raw vegetable and fruit and green juices. This did not surprise me.
But it also has featured, for 70 years now, lots of well-cooked potatoes, oatmeal, cooked Hippo soup, and occasional brown rice and sweet potato.
Why?
Gerson points out that, baked or boiled in its jacket, a potato is good food. It and oatmeal are high in vitamins and minerals.
But more than that, for immune-compromised people, it provides lots of bulk and fiber, for good digestion, for a feeling of fullness, and for a soft cushion in the 30+ feet of gastrointestinal tract. This slows absorption of the fresh juices and many vegetables called for in the Gerson protocol.
Only Level II participants in this detox will be juicing vegetables and fruits.
However, for many people suffering from chronic health problems, a buffer from the natural-but-strong power of many raw vegetables and pure juices can be soothing and easier to digest than just raw food alone.
Also, for an extended period of time, cleansing can be accomplished more comfortably if there is bulk in the stomach from these simple, nutritious, but soft and cooked foods.
My own family is deeply indebted to The Gerson Therapy, as my grandmother followed the diet to the letter in the early 1980s. She consequently beat metastatic melanoma cancer, which her M.D. in Houston told her was 99 percent fatal without chemotherapy and radiation.
The Gerson Therapy, which I have researched (and read hundreds of its detailed case studies of cured cancer patients), and the Dr. Ann Wigmore Institute, the Budwig Institute, and the Hippocrates Institute, all of which I have studied at, have heavily influenced my thoughts about good orthomolecular medication and nutrition. The principles and practices that underpin it have left a major imprint on this detox program.
I am grateful for the work of Dr. Max Gerson, Dr. Ann Wigmore, Dr. Johanna Budwig, Dr. Brian Clement, and others who have advanced the true principles that when the body is provided optimal living and plant-based food and juices, its natural, powerful immune function is stimulated and supported to eradicate many chronic degenerative diseases of the modern age.