Tempering of Foods and Tampering With Glands

Webster defines the word “tampering” as: “To interfere with; to change by meddling; to make corrupt.” Defining “tempering” we find: “To make suitable, desirable or free from excess.” What has this to do with our glands–the important secretory organs in charge of hormones, which to a large extent mark our personality makeup?

Glands and Toxins

Remember, one of the most important functions of glands is the disburdening of the body of toxins. The greatest burden imposed upon the glands is caused by food tampering–the corrupting of foods by using their original state. Here is the real “stress syndrome” which is bringing about glandular insufficiency guised in the dark cloak of seemingly unrelated diseases with a background ranging from obesity and arthritis on through mental disease. A natural diet is the answer to the prevention of glandular insufficiency.. pure, plain, simple foods, as evidenced by the absence of these diseases in remate parts where untainted foods are eaten. Read Dr. Price’s book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration and McCarrison’s Studies in Deficiency Disease for all the evidence you want.

Quartermaster

The glands employ the material supplied by the diet, and, like the quartermaster of the army, determine needs of various parts and govern the distribution of such material. Each gland has charge of particular elements; the parathyroid and thyroid glands regulate the calcium-phosphorus ratio; the adrenals, the potassium-sodium ratio and the pancreas the sugar levels, in the main. We may speak of the mineral “tides” in the body, because, as the activity and demands of the glands are altered, so the proportionate levels of minerals are changed. Thus, when the thyroid activity is increased, the phosphorus (acid mineral) becomes dominant, calcium (alkaline mineral) being predominant when thyroid activity is· decreased. The potassium tide is high when the adrenals are underactive, sodium is high when the adrenals are overactive. It is these changes in the internal environment, largely under the influence of the glands, which maintain our bodies in homeostasis–an equilibrium necessary for survival.

Nerves and Glands

There is a definite relationship between the nerves and the glands. Dr. D. C. Jarvis, in his book Folk Medicine, describes the alkaline tide of the urine when a person is emotionally disturbed, the urine being persistently alkaline until a more tranquil state of mind is brought about. This represents an alkaline mineral loss in the “nervous patient” and is a factor to consider in the management of the mentally disturbed patient, irrespective of the possible psychogenic origin of the disorder. We may well look to the neuroses of today–through the glands–as being “mineral depleters” of the body, with a vicious cycle being formed–”nervousness” for one reason or another, followed by demineralization, which in turn increases the nervousness. It becomes obvious how this “psychosomatic cycle” can best be broken by looking to the nutritional interests of these patients. Calcium and potassium here may be the best “soothers of the savage soul.” The reward of such replacement of nutritional factors is a lowering of the threshold of irritability and frequently the subject is enabled to “get a hold on himself,” and the range of psychosomatic background diseases may be considerably reduced.

As can be presumed from our understanding so far, the glands are largely responsive only to specific needs brought about by changes in the environment both internal and external. This is what makes the use of hormones to correct glandular insufficiency so difficult. One can never be certain that the demand is being met with adequate amounts without the concomitant concern of administering an oversupply, because, unfortunately the hormones act upon the body–not the body upon the hormones–and thus an overdosage may cause equal or greater damage than a deficiency.

How much more logical to supply the minerals, precursors and dietary factors that the glands need to work with–their tools of trade, so to speak. It is surprising how function may be restored. Thyroid function in response to iodine is a good example. Is the hormone of the thyroid, thyroxine, the answer when the patient is deficient in iodine? We know that manganese is beneficial to pituitary function, potassium to adrenal, zinc to pancreas and undoubtedly other trace minerals play important roles yet to be discovered.

Appraisal System

All of these reports are due to comparatively recent findings resulting from scientific research projects at the laboratory levels. Unfortunately, the application of these facts to practical situations is lacking and unavailable to the average health-seeker. When our understanding of the biochemistry of the body in relation to glands and nerves reaches the clinical level, the healing arts will have made one of their greatest advances. This will soon be a reality. But it will require a system of appraisal at the clinical level based upon the study of the “whole person,” and not by the presently employed diagnostic methods which are largely simple chemical analyses revealing only physical pictures of damage already done–as antiquated as the old daguerreotype (tin plastic) photographs compared with the modern Polaroid-Land camera.