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ENZYME NUTRITION THERAPY BEYOND A RAW Foop DieET ENZYME NUTRITION THERAPY BEYOND RAW FooD DIET Although enzymes are generally associated with raw food and digestion, they have been shown to have clinical uses in treating disease and restoring health. Part 2 of 3 r Edward Howell, the pioneer in the clinical use of plant enzymes, began work- ing at Dr Henry Lindlahr's nature cure sanitarium in the 1920s near Chicago, Illinois. Dr Lindlahr is considered by many to be the "Father of Naturopathy", introducing the modality to the public after his own diabetes was cured by Father Sebastian Kneipp, a nature cure doctor in Bavaria. Father Kneipp used his "cold water cure" and herbs to restore the health of his patients. Dr Howell's research and observations led him to believe that if he could replace the enzymes lost in cooked and processed food, the nutrients could be better utilised. In 1932 he founded the National Enzyme Company to produce food enzymes to help in digestion. During his clinical practise, he witnessed hundreds of patients' cures from chronic degenerative disease. Dr Howell advocated at least a 75% raw food diet and taking digestive plant enzymes with the remaining cooked food. In an interview conducted towards the end of his life, he remarked that even if someone ate a mostly raw food diet, it still would be important to use concentrated plant enzymes. Replenishing what he referred to as the "enzyme bank" was a sure way to maintain one's health into old age and prevent disease. While eating an entirely raw food diet would seem ideal, in most s it would not be realistic for the majority of people at this time. Even the vegetables of the cruciferous family (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kale) should not be eaten raw. They contain thyroid-inhibiting factors that should be destroyed by cooking. Though there is a growing awareness of diet, nutrition and alternative medicine, the average person leaves it to someone else to "fix" them. Thanks to the media's flood of advertisements, they usually rely on over-the-counter drugs. The combination of propa- ganda and naiveté allows the average person not to take full responsibility for their own health. Changing the system so that raw food was the main staple of society would demand a complete alteration of the food and medical industry and require re-education on food preparations. It might even challenge belief systems in many cultures. It would confront the largest and most powerful industry in the world: the pharmaceutical/petroleum cartel. Monsanto would be the first to sue anyone having anything to do with it because it would invalidate the corporation's push for global market control of worthless genetically engi- neered seeds. Only organically cultivated seeds could be used because of the greater enzyme content inherent in the plants once they were grown. All food would be organi- cally grown, not only to prevent the pesticide/herbicide interference with normal bodily enzyme functions but because mineral content in organic food is far more abundant, min- erals being necessary co-enzymes. Appliance companies selling microwave ovens would be driven out of business unless they developed new products. All those cooking shows on cable television would have to reinvent themselves by coming up with novel ways to prepare raw food. There would be an ongoing debate, as there is now, on whether to be vegetarian, since eating raw meat would probably be seen as abhorrently barbaric. Nonetheless, Dr Howell specifically discussed how the Eskimo culture ate raw autolysed meat. Howell points out the original meaning of the American Indian word "Eskimo": "he who eats it raw". The technique of autolysis involves keeping meat in the proper conditions of temperature and moisture for the enzyme cathepsin, found in meat tissue, to break it down slowly. It has been practised for centuries. Traditionally, Eskimos survived brutal winters in the Although enzymes are generally associated with raw food and digestion, they have been shown to have clinical uses in treating disease and restoring health. by Mark Rojek © 2003 785 N. Dancer Road Dexter, MI 48130, USA Telephone/fax: +1 (734) 433 9267 Email: mrojek1@earthlink.net Website: http:/Avww.radianthealth.cc NEXUS = 21 THE CHALLENGES OF OUR MODERN WORLD by Mark Rojek © 2003 DECEMBER 2003 — JANUARY 2004 www.nexusmagazine.com