Food Combining for Health: The bestseller that has changed millions of lives. Doris Grant

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      How to plan these meals is described in Part Two.

      

      A word of warning is necessary here. Changing to any new dietary programme requires, at first, a certain amount of self-discipline. For this reason, compatible eating is not recommended for people who are quite content with their state of health, or who can eat incompatible mixtures without discomfort or apparent harm. Dr Hay warned that such people do not have the very necessary ‘burning desire’ to recover from some departure from health, or the willpower, ‘guts’ and determination to see the thing through. He therefore advised that any change in the diet should be made slowly, by degrees. It was quite sufficient, to begin with, he said, just to observe the starch – protein rule. When this change is well established, the natural whole foods – especially those in uncooked, salad form – should be gradually increased, and any refined carbohydrates, and other processed foods, should be proportionately decreased.

      The number of alkali-forming meals should then be increased. Especially recommended for beginners are vegetable or salad meals containing delicious potato dishes; they are not only less expensive but also more satisfying in our cold climate than meals composed of only vegetables, salads or fruit.

      Compatible eating, it should be pointed out, can be as cheap – or as expensive – as the housekeeping purse dictates. And it is definitely more economical, as small, correctly-combined meals are better digested and thus more satisfying than large orthodox meals; it is not the amount of food that counts, but the amount that is properly digested, absorbed and metabolized by the body. Proof of this fact for followers of the Hay system is the falling-off of any desire for mid-morning snacks and afternoon tea with cakes and biscuits.

      It is important to note that observing the rules for compatible eating considerably reduces the amount of fat in the diet, especially those fats arbitrarily occurring in so many processed, supermarket foods today – and this reduction takes place despite the culinary use of cream which raises compatible eating to delicious heights of enjoyment. Cream, in moderation, is almost a necessity for this way of eating. Health wise, there need be no cause for concern on this score as explained in Chapter 4. Cost wise, the extra expense of cream is balanced by the reduction which compatible eating makes in other food costs, such as those of expensive, ready-made, ‘convenience’ foods, and of the weekly meat bill. Apart from the starch – protein rule, the Hay system is in fact totally in line with the World Health Organization’s recent recommendations for a healthy diet (WHO report, 2003).

      It is even more important to note that observing the rules for compatible eating automatically reduces the acid-forming foods in the diet and automatically increases the alkali-forming foods rich in accessory food factors, thereby contributing to the alkaline reserve and a well-balanced body chemistry. In this correct chemical balance lies the secret of health and resistance to disease.

      An interesting analogy here is provided by the fact that the correct alkali – acid balance is also of importance in the soil. In the Soil Association Journal of December 1973, Michael Blake draws attention to this fact and stresses that the effect of an imbalance is not restricted to the soil, but is of ‘universal importance to all living organisms’.

      Finally, it cannot be repeated too often that the Hay system is not a joyless, wearisome ‘diet’ but a ‘philosophy of living’. Joan Hodgson, a convert to the Hay system, enthusiastically agrees. In A White Eagle Lodge Book of Health and Healing (The White Eagle Publishing Trust, 1983) she writes: ‘Harmonious food-combining is a way of life. Once the rules have become familiar, imaginative cooks can have fun thinking up the most delicious meals. This is not a régime of constant self-denial, but of rethinking the meals so that each one is based on family favourites with food combined in such a way that more nourishment can be extracted with less tax on the digestion, and consequently more energy for enjoying life.’

      Fifty years of ‘enjoying life’ on the Hay system, and the experience gained in helping countless people to regain health by its means, have convinced me that health is our normal state, that we were designed, created, born to be healthy. This experience has also provided proof in plenty that correct eating can not only greatly improve the quality of life but can also prevent many of the degenerative diseases.

^*In view of sprays that are used on potatoes today it is best to buy organically grown.

^*It should also be emphasized with regard to the classification of concentrated starches and concentrated proteins as ‘acid-forming’, that this refers only to their end-products in the body, and not to the mediums necessary for their digestion, i.e. an alkaline medium for starches, and an acid medium for proteins.

       CHAPTER THREE The Hay System and the Degenerative Diseases

       The hope of humanity lies in the prevention of degenerative and mental diseases, not in the care of their symptoms.

      DR ALEXIS CARREL

      There is a generally held belief today that people are living longer than formerly. Although more children survive to reach adult life, middle-aged people have scarcely improved upon the life-expectancy of their great-grandparents. The unpleasant truth is that, instead of living longer to a healthy and enjoyable old age, we are merely taking longer to die.

      Moreover, with each generation there is an increase in the ordinary diseases of degeneration, and these are appearing at ever earlier ages than formerly. All the ‘tremendous new discoveries’ in the drug field have been unable to stem this increase. Belief in the curative power of drugs has contributed to this increase by diverting attention from the positive promotion of health.

      As a result, the disillusioned drug-givers and drug-takers are now showing a healthy interest in the doctrine of ‘holism’ – treating the whole person rather than just the disease symptoms. There is a much greater emphasis among health professionals on disease prevention, educating their patients to eat healthily, drink sensibly and give up smoking. Complementary therapies such as homoeopathy, acupuncture and aromatherapy are now so widely used that they are no longer seen as ‘alternative’. This is completely in line with Dr Hay’s commonsense principles, which more than ever before are shown to be valid. He advocated the treatment of the patients themselves – not the symptoms – and argued that it was childish in the extreme to suppose we can restore a person to full health without first rooting out the cause of the disease; to do otherwise was just as stupid as bailing out a leaky boat without first finding and stopping the leak.

      Dr Hay also argued that this cause, in every case, is one and the same thing – food (over-consumption of refined carbohydrate, and incompatible combinations) – and pointed out that the degenerative diseases are just different manifestations of this one cause. The cure, he pointed out, ‘therefore lies in food always and only’.

      This unitary conception of disease bears a close resemblance to that advocated by Surgeon Captain Cleave in The Saccharine Disease (except regarding incompatible combinations with which he was not in accord). He, too, indicts food (over-consumption of refined carbohydrate) as the cause of disease and he, too, points out that the degenerative diseases are just different manifestations of this one cause. This concept, known as ‘the saccharine disease’ (i.e., relating to sugar), is now grudgingly conceded by the medical establishment, and enthusiastically accepted by a growing number of doctors both here СКАЧАТЬ