When people go through a life-threatening illness there are various stages they go through. I see this all the time in the people who come to my classes. Not everyone is the same, of course, but there is often shock and anger at first, followed by denial, but eventually comes acceptance, and a sense of peace and healing – of the mind if not also of the body. This is sometimes referred to as a ‘journey’, and although I’m wary of labels like this it does seem strangely like a journey to me. As I write these words I am about to turn fifty, and it seems a good moment to reflect on those milestones that brought me here.
My journey has taken me beyond healing to a place where I am able to help others to help themselves, and that in turn adds to my own sense of purpose. I have also noticed that things seem to happen at the right time – is this pure coincidence, or is some greater Power at work? My illness led to my desire for information; my acquisition of information helped restore me to health and inspired me to tell others. My classes and lectures led to my talk at the big health show, which in turn led to the television slots. The publicity led to the writing of this book with my new friend Jane Ross-Macdonald. The experience of working on the book has brought so many things back to me that I feel I can empathize even more with the people who are now contacting me for help. Everything has fallen into place. And now, I hope, I am contributing to the bank of information from which people can draw their own sustenance on their own journeys – whether they are sick like I was, or whether they are enjoying good health and want to stay that way. I don’t know where my journey will take me next, but I thank you for accompanying me through my story this far.
But please don’t stop here. In the next few pages I have laid out, as simply as I can, the basics of my health plan. I call it ‘Change Simply’.
It is the most important part of the book.
Chapter Nineteen
Change Simply
‘When in the grips of disease it is seldom that one renders the courage and commitment to change their circumstance. Bernadette is a living example of what is possible when you honour and respect your life. Be well.’
BRIAN R. CLEMENT,
DIRECTOR, HIPPOCRATES HEALTH INSTITUTE
‘Bernadette is a woman whose courage and care are born of the dramas of personal suffering. Health is much simpler than we’ve been led to believe; in a world where experts make health appear too complex to understand, Bernadette shows that health can be simple and practical.’
UDO ERASMUS, PHD
NUTRITIONIST AND AUTHOR
This section is designed to be an easy-to-follow guide for you to start making the changes to your lifestyle that I guarantee will make you feel better. It is a short version of what I teach people in my classes, and I have laid it out in a step-by-step format so that you can incorporate the easiest changes first.
This is where you will learn why people have been beating a path to my door. There are four sections: juicing, water, foods and safe personal care. I explain my recommendations, and how to go about them. In order to help you get started, I have listed some useful information, including names and addresses of suppliers, at the end of the book. Obviously this is not exhaustive so do check the internet too.
Remember, I am just an ordinary woman. This ‘health plan’ is the result of extended research on my part and from talking to all the experts I could find. Anything that didn’t add up, anything that was recommended in one place and advised against in another – I re-checked again and again, and took what made sense to me. You will see that this plan draws heavily on what is available from Mother Nature, with an emphasis on enzymes. These are the catalysts which break up and assimilate food, and because they are so important you will read repeatedly about them here. I want you to think about what you are putting into your shopping trolley, what you are putting into your mouth and which toiletries and other products you are exposing your body to.
I believe that these simple changes not only helped to save my life, but improved it beyond measure. Are they expensive? Well, you’ll need to invest in a juicer and a new water system, and you’ll start putting different foods in your shopping trolley. But what I have found, with myself and with the people I have taught, is that as you become more aware of eating better, you naturally stop buying expensive, convenience junk food.
Don’t immediately reject these suggestions: remember I do call it change simply. I believe that if I, a mother of three demanding kids and on chemo, can make these changes in my life then so can you. Through my classes and lectures I have seen many hundreds of people already change over with not much difficulty. If you are fit and healthy, then you may decide to try one or two of the steps. If you are facing a health problem, then you urgently need to make some changes to your lifestyle now.
The choice is yours. Is it worth it? I think so.
Change a little. It helps a lot.
Step One: Juicing
Why Juice?
Because it is raw and full of enzymes. For me, this was a wonderful first change to make: it is easy and delicious, and I immediately felt the benefits. Juicing is a tasty way of increasing your intake of live vitamins, enzymes and minerals – and all without any artificial colourings, flavours or preservatives. It is the healthiest step you can take for your body, and here’s why:
• Recommended Daily Amounts
We already know, thanks to the media, that we ought to be consuming at least five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. Evidence suggests now that the figure should be closer to ten pieces. Juicing enables you to consume these greater quantities (and if you have children, juicing is a great way of getting more raw veggies into them). The point of increasing our intake is to provide our bodies with enough vitamins, minerals, enzymes and trace elements that it needs to fight disease and stay healthy. Processed foods are empty foods.
• A New Trend (actually, the oldest trend)
What we should know, but often overlook, is that eating these foods raw is far, far better than eating them cooked, for heating them above 43°C destroys almost all the enzymes (the most important group), nearly all the vitamins and some of the minerals. Even steaming is not as healthy as you might think: the high temperatures required to cook them means that, again, you are destroying the nutrients. With juicing, everything is raw, and raw fruits and vegetables retain the nutrients needed by the body for good health. Digesting food is one of the hardest jobs your body has to do, but when it is in juice form, rather than as whole fruits or vegetables, we can digest and assimilate their precious nutrients much more easily. Indeed, they are of particular value to people fighting disease, people with digestive problems or low energy levels. Although juicing eliminates some fibre which is important to health, in the course of the day this can easily be taken through food.
• Time
In just two 250ml glasses of juice per day you can consume around ten portions – ten separate pieces of fruit and vegetables that you would otherwise spend the entire day attempting to chew your way through. It takes about five minutes to make a juice and five minutes to clean up after. They should be consumed within fifteen minutes of preparation, while the enzymes and nutrients are at their best. If you are going out and decide to take a juice with you, store it in a stainless-steel vacuum flask with ice to slow down oxidation of the juice.
• Weight
If you have a weight problem, you will know that all diets allow you to eat as many vegetables as you like, although you should go easy on fruit as many fruits have a high sugar content and will lead to increased weight. Watermelon is a good fruit to use in juice as it has a low sugar content. Juices will fill you up between meals and reduce food cravings.
• Hydration
Juicing enables you to up your fluid intake, which is essential for a healthy body and good skin. (See Step Two on Water for more on hydration.)
• Taste
For me, this is one of the most obvious advantages. So much tastier than any packaged juices or cordials, when I try out
my favourite juices on my friends and students they can’t wait to get started.
Getting Started
There are two types of juicer on the market – this is an area where there is much confusion as to the best juicer to buy. Having done quite a bit of research before purchasing a masticating juicer, and having survived with a centrifugal juicer for some time, the following analysis of their relative effectiveness is not just my own opinion – it has been echoed by many experts I have spoken to.
Centrifugal juicers are cheaper and readily available in the high street, but I don’t recommend these as they:
can be wasteful (too much pulp produced)
extract mostly the water from the fruit and veg (clearly seen in the separation of the juice)
can destroy nutrients due to the heat produced from fast-moving blades
are difficult to clean (quite off-putting when you are just starting!)
Masticating juicers are used in natural health-care clinics throughout the world. They are more expensive, but certainly worth it. I favour them because they grind, crush and press the fruit and vegetables slowly rather than cut and shred (the speed is 110 revs per minute rather than 3000 revs per minute from the centrifugal type). The advantages of masticating juicers are that they:
produce good quality juice full of nutrients and enzymes
produce little pulp, and the pulp that is produced can be passed through the machine again and again to squeeze more juice from it
are simple to clean
are excellent for juicing leafy green vegetables and wheatgrass
What Now?
One large glass of fresh juice a day is a good start. Buy more fruit and vegetables when you go shopping, and gradually you will get a feel for how much you will be needing on a weekly basis. When you are ready to start, you can try the following powerful combinations. You will notice I do not give individual amounts as I think this only complicates what is a very simple process. Use whatever you have available:
Grape and Apple: tasty and sweet, a very popular juice. Always use apple seeds as they contain nitrilosides which protects us from disease (see p. 266 for more on this). Grapes contain selenium and zinc, and are good sources of antioxidants.
Apple and Carrot: hugely appealing to children, both in taste and colour. Carrots are rich in calcium, phosphorus, potassium, folic acid and carotenoids like beta-carotene. It is particularly good for the eyes and bones.
Celery and Cucumber; Parsley and Spinach: a combination of two or more of these juices is excellent for clearing up digestive problems, constipation and bad breath. I often think we are obsessed with cleaning our bodies on the outside and ignore the importance of cleaning the inside. Green juices are superb cleansing juices, and taken first thing in the morning they can move mountains (if you get my meaning).
Celery is high in potassium, a good source of Vitamin C and loaded with enzymes.
Cucumbers are mostly water, but they contain numerous enzymes, beta-carotene (which the body converts to Vitamin A), Vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, iron and potassium. They are often used to remove harmful substances (such as uric acid) from the bloodstream.
Parsley is high in iron, which helps anaemic conditions. It can also inhibit tumour-cell growth.
Spinach is rich in L-glutathione, beta-carotene, folic acid, Vitamin C, iron and magnesium. It also contains potent antioxidants and plenty of fibre.
Wheatgrass: this is the fastest-selling health food on the planet, and has become very popular because of its therapeutic value. Known as a ‘superfood’, it is extremely effective at fighting disease. It contains high quantities of minerals and is one of the richest sources of beta-carotene, and Vitamins C and B17, a substance that is said to destroy cancer cells. Indeed, it is so powerful that 1 oz of wheatgrass is said to be equivalent to over 2 lb of fresh fruit and vegetables in terms of vitamins, minerals, trace elements and phytonutrients. Today it is sold in many juice bars, but you can also try growing and juicing your own. It can be grown very easily from seed on a windowsill – the whole process takes about ten days. When first juicing wheatgrass you might find the flavour improved by combining the juice with lemon or celery juice.
The above suggestions are just a few ideas to get you started. I hope you enjoy the different tastes, let alone the benefits that juicing will bring to you. Remember: keep it simple, and enjoy it.
Step Two: A Clean Choice
‘Few things are as insidious as bad water. It’s dangerous for you and your children, but you usually can’t tell if you have it. And if you do, you may not be able to tell where the problems are coming from.’
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE,
SPECIAL WATER EDITION, NOVEMBER 1993
Why?
It should not be news to any of us that we need to drink more water – after all, our bodies are made up of about 70 percent water. Water, crucially, is the agent which flushes out toxins, aids digestion and prevents premature ageing and disease in the cells of our bodies. Sufficient water keeps us healthy, cleanses our system internally and gives our skin a gorgeous healthy glow. It’s importance cannot be stressed too highly.
Lack of sufficient water, on the other hand, can cause the following:
premature ageing: sagging of skin, breakdown in cell structure
a huge variety of illnesses, from asthma and ulcers to high blood pressure and arthritis
a general feeling of lethargy, headaches and tiredness
constipation
We can be dehydrated without realizing it – thirst is actually the last sign of our body’s craving for water, so in fact we should be drinking even when we don’t feel thirsty. Don’t fool yourself that because you drink plenty of liquid in the form of coffee and tea, sugary or fizzy drinks you are hydrated: these are all diuretics which actually cause your body to lose water, and caffeine leeches essential nutrients from the body.
There has been an explosion in the past few years of the sales of bottled mineral water, but:
Plastic bottles contain oestrogens which can pass into the water.
Spring and mineral waters contain dissolved solids which are difficult for the body to digest. (The body’s need for minerals is met through foods: plants pick up minerals and make them available to us.)
Quite apart from anything else, bottled water is expensive.
What about tap water? I know many people who feel bottled water is a rip-off and insist on a large jug of tap water when they are eating out – but what exactly is in our water supply? I’m afraid the news is not good, and just because the water coming out of your tap looks clear and fresh does not mean that it is clean. Think before you drink.
Tap water contains certain dangerous substances that are added to the drinking supply:
Fluoride is not approved for human consumption in any country in the world, and has never been safety-tested on humans. It damages bones and enamel, it is not recommended in pregnancy, and is unsuitable for babies. Fluoride accumulates in the skeleton, joints and glands and is linked to irritable bowel syndrome, cancer, arthritis and osteoporosis. According to Dr Dean Burk, the chief chemist from the US National Cancer Institute, fluoride causes more human cancer deaths than any other chemical. It has been rejected or banned by Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Wales and most of England. More insidiously, new studies have pointed to a link between fluoride and chromosomal damage. It has been used as rat-poison. Fluoride is a by-product of aluminium mining and contains high concentrations of heavy metals such as lead and arsenic – proven carcinogens. Surely here are just about enough reasons not to want this in our water, don’t you think?
But what about teeth, you will ask? Preventing tooth decay by adding fluoride to our water makes little sense as it creates an unacceptable toxic health hazard. All the evidence I have seen suggests that the jury is still out on fluoride being of any real benefit to our teeth. A recent Report
for the Department of Health and Social Security in the UK stated that ‘no essential function exists for fluoride in the diet’. The truth is that cavities are caused by bacteria and excessive acidity, not lack of fluoride, and good dental hygiene is the answer. Many health stores now stock safe alternatives (more of this in Step Four: Safe Personal Care).
Chlorine was used during World War I to gas people. Now it is added to our water supply because it is a cheap disinfectant which kills harmful bacteria (although not – it is important to note – the nasty bugs E. coli and Cryptosporidia). This is a good idea in principle, but unfortunately this practice may be hazardous to human health. While it destroys harmful bacteria, chlorine also kills good bacteria in the digestive system, it destroys Vitamin E, and can form chloroform, a known carcinogen. Studies have shown links with increased risk of heart disease, as well as many cancers, including prostate, colon, bladder and rectal. Chlorinated water also has an unpleasant taste and smell. Perhaps this is why we are all so dehydrated?
Aluminium is used to clarify the water. It also potentiates the effects of heavy metals like mercury, lead and cadmium – which are all present in our drinking water. The links of aluminium’s toxic effects with Alzheimer’s are well documented.
OK, so I think you have got the picture by now. The tap water we drink is not safe, despite modern treatment stations, and despite the best efforts of the water authorities. Quite simply, it is too expensive to clean our water sufficiently to make it healthy to drink. Indeed, even if today’s water-treatment facilities were able to purify water completely, it would become re-contaminated by old, leaky and outdated water mains and pipes.
The Choice Page 17