Access to all articles, new health classes, discounts in our store, and more!
The Low Stress Diet
Published in Herald of Health, December 1962.
* * *
A diet differs from a menu. A “menu” is simply a list of foods to eat, whereas a “diet” is a method of eating. Most so-called “diets” are really dull, uninteresting menus. What is needed is not lists of food to eat, but rather a diet which tells you how to select foods under any circumstances—a diet which is understandable to anyone and appeals to good taste and common sense reasoning.
When we speak of “moderation,” we think of it in terms of “lowering stress.” Now moderation is a word which means something different to everyone. We need to know what moderation really means in eating and in the selection of foods. The purpose of the low-stress diet is, therefore, to define unnecessary stresses upon the digestive system and metabolism so these excesses may be eliminated.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
In so evaluating these excesses, we may take into account four basic qualifications of foods. First: quality. Has heat processing (cooking) changed the amino acid pattern? Has it been processed, refined, adulterated with insect poisons, added preservatives, fumigated or been grown under devitaminized and demineralized circumstances?
Second: quantity. Is the quantity of food consumed within the limits of the digestive system and metabolic processes’ ability to manage? Note: Low-quality food and cooking are the main offenders insofar as excess quantity is concerned.
Third: concentration. Have the valuable nutrients—essential food elements—been removed and the less desirable elements thereby made more concentrated? Watch out for white flour and refined sugar in this respect—both are high carbohydrate foods lacking their nutritionally required vitamin and mineral metabolizers.
Fourth: digestibility. Does the food agree with you? Are you able to tolerate it without distress? Is it being assimilated?
RESULTS OF EXCESSES
There are three primary results of dietary excesses. First: systemic overload. When more food is taken into the body than can be efficiently utilized to serve its purposes, these excesses are absorbed into the blood stream and must be handled in one way or another. This places a stress on what are known as the “intermediate processes” (the fat, carbohydrate and protein metabolisms) and there is no reserve stored for tomorrow’s use.
Second: digestive overload. When more food is taken into the body than can be broken down into simpler substances—in other words, digested—we can only conclude that this food exists in the intestinal tract as undigested food particles which are foci for production of toxic end products; fats become rancid, carbohydrates ferment and proteins putrefy. Some of the many toxic end products (poisons) we can mention are histamine (a factor in allergies) and guanidine (a factor in arthritis and other diseases). When these toxic end products are found in the intestinal tract, we have a condition known as intestinal toxemia—certainly a condition to be avoided.
Third: foreign substances. When we take into our bodies substances foreign to its economy, the body’s defense mechanisms are stressed to rid the body of these foreign elements. The defense mechanisms include the liver, kidneys and glands. Drugs, smog, water supply, as well as food adulterants—all are avenues whereby these foreign substances may enter the body. (Read Poisons in Your Food by William Longgood for information on this subject.)
SUMMARY
We have been discussing the principles of the low-stress diet. The need for this to be discussed widely is due to the abnormal eating habits of man. Actually, the low-stress diet is the normal eating pattern followed by primitives throughout the world, as evidenced by the studies made by Dr. Weston Price who provided ample evidence for the value of “low-stress” methods of eating.
Moderation and low-stress eating is a “built-in” feature of the natural diet of man and is in conformity with natural law. In review, the low-stress diet is a method of eating which considers food from four basic viewpoints: (1) quality, (2) quantity, (3) concentration, and (4) digestibility. It is designed to eliminate excesses from the diet from three main categories: digestive overload, systemic overload and foreign substances.