The Great American Health Hoax: The Surprising Truth About How Modern Medicine Keeps You Sick—How to Choose a Healthier, Happier, and Disease-Free Life

by Raymond Francis

Everyone who has studied this matter has arrived at similar conclusions: about 85 percent of all medical procedures have no basis in science. Based on anecdotal evidence, they have never been proven by scientific method to be safe or effective.

One of the great scientific minds of the twentieth century, biochemist and Nobel laureate Dr. Roger Williams, wrote that cells malfunction and die for two reasons: “First, because they do not get everything they need; second, because they get poisoned by something they decidedly do not need.” Dr. Williams is saying that we can live long and healthy lives if we do two things right. One is to provide our cells with all the nutrients they need. The other is to protect our cells from toxins. To the extent that we can accomplish these tasks well, we can prevent disease and extend the length and quality of our lives.

Having a cold or the flu is like a warning light on your car’s dashboard. Unfortunately, few of us pay attention to these alarms. We think that getting a cold or flu is normal, and that once the symptoms are gone we are well again. Not so. Healthy people do not get infections.

The name of your disease doesn’t matter, because there is only one disease and only one treatment.

However, the single largest problem is taking a prescription antibiotic; it is like dropping an atom bomb into this unique and vital community. Antibiotics indiscriminately kill everything in sight. Once this happens, your uniqueness is lost. As the microbe population reestablishes itself, you end up with a new set of players. Your original population that helped to keep you healthy and fight disease never returns to normal, and the new population opens the door to disease. This is why taking an antibiotic even once can damage your health for the remainder of your life.

Compared to women who took no antibiotics, those who had taken fewer than twenty-five antibiotic prescriptions had a 50 percent greater risk of breast cancer, while those who had taken more than twenty-five prescriptions had a 200 percent greater risk.

By destroying the normal assortment of flora in the gut, antibiotics contribute to virtually every imaginable disease—from the common cold to autism, asthma, and psoriasis.

Do not drink from plastic bottles, do not consume canned foods and beverages, eat only organic meats, and do not store foods in plastic wraps.

In addition to paying attention to deficiency and toxicity, regular exercise is critical for optimal thyroid function.

Building healthy cells starts in a mother’s womb. If an embryo suffers from a shortage of building materials or the presence of toxins, a child with birth defects will be the result. During pregnancy, certain parts of the fetus are being constructed during specific weeks—such as the brain and nervous system, the circulatory system, and the digestive system. If essential raw materials are unavailable at that crucial time or toxins are present, any of these systems can be affected, perhaps manifesting as heart defects, digestive problems, lower IQ, attention deficit disorders, and so on. If any body system is not constructed properly in the first place, it will never work as well as it should.

A teaspoon or two of refined sugar is sufficient to disrupt normal body chemistry and throw you into biochemical chaos for a period of six to eight hours.

Eating sugar is worse than eating nothing! In A History of Nutrition, Elmer McCollum cited experiments in which animals fed water alone lived substantially longer than those fed sugar and water. The body requires certain nutrients to metabolize the sugar you eat, including B vitamins, calcium, magnesium, chromium, and zinc. Refined sugar does not contain these nutrients, so the body robs them from your reserves, which creates deficiencies and throws the body out of balance, creating disease. The purpose of food is to supply nutrients, but sugar robs you of nutrients.

To make white flour, the whole grain is stripped of over twenty essential nutrients, including 72 percent of its zinc and 85 percent of its vitamin B6. Almost comically, when a handful of these nutrients are added back, the flour is called “enriched,” when it is really impoverished. White flour is inflammatory and enormously damaging to human health, disrupting vitamin, mineral, and hormonal balance.

While the problems with white flour are well known, most people are unaware that grains themselves are a problem, and that wheat is the worst and most dangerous grain of all.

No one should be eating wheat or other gluten-containing grains. Immune reactions to gluten produce free radicals and chronic inflammation. They also make the body more acidic, changing your pH balance. Choosing a diet that does not promote inflammation is essential for a long, disease-free life. Eliminating gluten is a foolproof way of getting a powerful inflammation promoter out of your life.

However, another problem may be even worse than gluten. Wheat and other grains contain a class of proteins called lectins. Hybridized wheat, with higher protein content, also contains higher levels of lectins than the wheat our ancestors ate. Research presented in a 2008 FASEB Journal, a 2000 Gut, a 1999 Lancet, a 1995 Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, a 1993 British Journal of Nutrition, and numerous other sources indicate that lectins may be the biggest problem with grain consumption. Lectins are powerful natural insecticides that plants use to protect themselves. Lectins attach to receptor sites on the cell membranes of bacteria and fungi and disrupt their function. This protects wheat and other grains from insects and infection. But humans have the same receptor sites! Consuming hybridized, high-lectin wheat is having a devastating effect on human health.

Whole wheat contains more lectins than white flour, and ironically may be an even bigger threat to your health.

Baked goods that contain yeast present a special problem. Many studies have linked bread and other bakery products with cancer because of the carcinogenic mycotoxins that baked products contain.

Most people think of wheat as a good food. However, sufficient evidence exists that wheat is instead a toxin and a major cause of disease. Anyone with a chronic illness should avoid all products containing wheat and other gluten-containing grains like barley and rye. Corn has also been hybridized and genetically modified to where it is highly toxic. Corn is rich in lectins that are known to damage gut tissue and reduce absorption of key nutrients. Certain lectins are capable of killing brain cells, and the lectins in corn can be especially toxic to people with brain diseases such as autism. High-fructose corn syrup is also neurotoxic. In the interests of living a long, disease-free life, most people would do well to either eliminate or at least minimize the consumption of all grains—most especially wheat. The safest choices would be occasional servings of buckwheat, amaranth, and quinoa.

Humans evolved on a diet that had a near equal 1:1 ratio of omega-6 and omega-3 fats, and these specific oils must be available when new cells are constructed. However, most Americans consume far too much omega-6 and far too little omega-3. The current ratio in our diet is about 20:1, and for some people it’s as bad as 50:1. It’s so bad that about 90 percent of the U.S. population is deficient in omega-3 fatty acids. A 1991 study in the World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics showed that 20 percent of us have so little omega-3 in our blood that standard tests cannot measure it. Biologically speaking, this is a disaster, not only for adults, but also for the unborn. A mother whose diet is deficient in omega-3 fats produces babies with impaired immunity and increased risk of developing allergies, as well as impaired brain development and cardiovascular health. Omega-3

Natural beef (grass fed and grass finished) is rich in omega-3s, but grain-fed beef is rich in omega-6s. If you choose to eat beef, eat grass-fed/grass-finished, organic beef. Just eating organic meats is not good enough. That just means the animals were fed organic grains. The meat contains fewer pesticides but still has the wrong fatty acid ratio—grass-fed/grass-finished is what you want.

A much better choice is coconut oil, which is a clean source of needed saturated fat and resists oxidation and degradation at higher temperatures.

Milk and dairy products are not part of a healthy diet. Even back when most of us were farmers, traditional milk from one’s own cow was not a healthy food choice, but it wasn’t a deadly poison either. Modern milk, on the other hand, is a highly processed and allergenic make-believe food that is a threat to anyone’s health. Commercially produced milk is a toxic soup loaded with fifty-nine biologically active hormones, dozens of allergens, up to fifty-two powerful antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, PCBs, dioxins (up to 200 times the safe levels), blood, pus, feces, solvents, viruses, excessive bacteria, and even radioactive compounds. Of

Paul Nison, author of The Raw Life, stated, “Dairy is the cause of most disease in the world today.” When a prominent Washington, D.C., pediatrician was asked in an interview what single change to the American diet could provide the greatest health benefits, Dr. Russell Bunai replied, “The elimination of milk products.”

Excess Animal Protein Makes You Old and Sick Protein is an essential nutrient, required to construct hormones, enzymes, and other indispensible molecules, as well as structural tissue. Without protein, life cannot be sustained. However, animal protein, in excess of the amount needed for growth, promotes aging and disease. Unlike plant protein, the animal protein in milk and meat metabolizes to strong acids—disrupting your acid/alkaline balance, lowering the pH of your cells, robbing your teeth and bones of minerals, and making your cell batteries weaker. The Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) for total protein is 50 to 60 grams per day. Many Americans get twice this amount. Our average consumption of animal protein alone is about 70 grams per day—more than the RDI for total protein. By contrast, most rural Chinese, who are far healthier than we are, average 7 grams of animal protein per day (about the amount contained in one egg). Averaging 7 grams or less per day of animal protein is a worthy goal—approximately one egg or a piece of fish or meat the size of the palm of your hand. The remainder of the RDI should be plant protein from vegetables, nuts, seeds, sprouts, legumes, and avocados.

Excess animal protein promotes kidney, eye, and brain diseases; autoimmune disorders; obesity; heart disease; diabetes; osteoporosis; and cancer. A 2014 study in Cell Metabolism found that people who ate a diet rich in animal proteins were more than four times as likely to die of cancer as those who ate a low-protein diet. In addition, those who consumed diets high in animal proteins were several times more likely to die of diabetes, as well as 74 percent more likely to die prematurely from any cause. A high-animal-protein diet disrupts hormonal balance by increasing the ratio of estrogens in the body, which stimulates cancer. People who are on high-protein diets to l...

Animal protein can be consumed safely and beneficially in small quantities. However, the source is important. A study by the Harvard School of Public Health concluded that a daily meal of hot dogs, bacon, or hamburgers raises the risk of dying from heart disease or cancer by as much as 21 percent. If you choose to eat meat, make sure it’s unprocessed and organic. The fish you eat should not be farmed, and the eggs should be organic as well. A good rule is to use animal protein as a condiment, not as a main course. You do not need to consume animal protein at every meal or even every day. Most of your protein should come from plant-based foods. People have been so conditioned to think of meat and dairy as their sources of protein that they don’t even think about the protein in plant foods. Who would guess that, calorie for calorie, spinach has as much protein as beef? Excess animal protein is an important facto...

You can improve health and reverse aging by lowering the amount of animal protein in your diet. At least 90 percent of your protein should be derived from plant foods such as vegetables, gluten-free whole grains, legumes, lentils, seeds, nuts, and sprouts. Fish and seafood are healthy forms of animal protein. Unfortunately, seafood is becoming increasingly toxic and dangerous to consume. An occasional small portion of fresh fish would be okay, but farmed or canned fish is not a good option. Farmed fish contain a lot of toxins and the wrong fatty acid ratios. Canning depletes nutrients and introduces toxins.

It takes a lot of awareness to eat a low-salt diet, but you can do it. In restaurants, soups often contain a lot of salt: Avoid them. Many restaurants use too much salt: Request less. Read labels carefully. To increase potassium, eat more fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Foods that are high in potassium include bananas, oranges, avocados, tomatoes, broccoli, lima beans, melons, cucumber, papayas, mangos, kiwi, and spinach. These same foods contain many other nutrients that our bodies need to stay healthy and biologically young.

Glutamates damage the brain and nervous system, causing problems such as migraines, seizures, learning disorders, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. Glutamates also cause diabetes, obesity, overweight, and heart attacks. Glutamates produce enormous amounts of free radicals in the body, resulting in inflammation. Regular consumption of glutamate-containing foods damages your brain and your health.

Federal guidelines recommend nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day, yet only 10 percent of us do that. While no consensus exists on the perfect human diet, consider gorillas, who are close relatives with DNA similar to ours; they consume almost 100 percent of their calories from raw plants. Most of us consume less than 10 percent from raw plants, and many consume less than 5 percent.

Hundreds of studies show that eating more fresh fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of all types of disease. For example, simply eating a diet of predominantly fruits and vegetables can cut your cancer risk by up to 75 percent. Fresh fruits and vegetables contain large amounts of phytochemicals, which are nature’s way of protecting plants against disease and environmental stress. Phytochemicals give fruits and vegetables their brilliant colors, and they are primarily responsible for the disease-prevention capabilities of these healthy foods. By choosing a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, you can provide your body with thousands of different phytochemicals that slow the aging process and offer enormous protection against all disease.

Fruits are healthy, but consume them in moderation because of their high sugar content. Fruit juices should be avoided completely. The sugar is too bioavailable, rapidly increasing blood sugar and insulin. Orange

The nutrients in vegetables can be made even more bioavailable by juicing or blenderizing. Using a juicer or powerful blender to mechanically break the tough cell walls of the plant releases more nutrition. In fact, you can get three times more nutrition from the same food than if you chewed it. Chewing makes only a fraction of the nutrition available. Making matters worse, most people don’t chew well. A combination of juicing and blenderizing is best. Juicing is less filling because it removes the fiber, which allows you to consume more vegetables and get more nutrients. Blenderizing retains the fiber, and most of us don’t get enough fiber. Many suitable juicers and blenders are on the market. Experiment with a variety of vegetables, and drink a glass of vegetable juice every day.

Ideally, at least 80 percent of your diet should be consumed raw. Cooking destroys nutrients and creates toxins. Eating the right foods is critical, but how you prepare those foods is also critical. Cooking food is a major change we have made in our diets, and it is an obstacle to meeting our bodies’ nutritional needs. Cooking reduces the availability of many nutrients and phytochemicals. Cooking carrots, for example, can destroy 75 percent of vitamin C, 70 percent of B1, 50 percent of B2, and 60 percent of vitamin B3. Produce such as apples, beets, cabbage, and cauliflower lose most of their anticancer activity when they are cooked. The higher the heat and the longer the cooking time, the more nutrients are lost. If necessary, the best way to cook vegetables—for example, broccoli or spinach—is to lightly steam or quickly stir-fry them. Cooking food is a poor choice, yet we have elevated this mistake to an art form. How

Any time you cook meat at high temperatures, whether by barbecuing, frying, or broiling, carcinogens are created. When you cook meat, it is best to slow cook it at a low temperature, such as in a Crock-Pot. Especially avoid melted cheese, such as in pizza or a cheeseburger, as heated milk casein has been shown to be the most carcinogenic protein of all. Avoid all kinds of caramelized sugar, toasted bread, and roasted nuts. The bottom line: All proteins cooked at high temperatures have been proven to cause cancer in laboratory animals, and numerous studies have shown that people who eat meat cooked at higher temperatures have more cancer. Eating raw food is best. Microwave

Different food categories require different combinations of digestive juices for proper digestion. Proper food combining means eating those foods together that require the same chemical environment for their digestion. Proteins need a very acidic environment. Starchy foods, such as grains in any form (bread, pasta, rice, etc.) and potatoes, are digested in a more alkaline environment. If you eat both a starch and a protein at the same time, expect problems.

When you eat a big meal and then have fruit for dessert, your stomach is already full and mixing in enzymes as it churns the meal. Along comes fruit, which is designed to pass right through, but now it cannot. It is stuck behind the meal. When fruit is forced to remain in the stomach with a starch, the mixture ferments and creates toxins that spread throughout the body. If the fruit remains in the stomach with a protein meal, digestion is again impaired, and the protein putrefies, similarly resulting in powerful toxins being released into your body.

If you eat three meals a day, have one fruit meal, one starch meal, and one protein meal (not necessarily animal protein). By digesting properly, you won’t feel sleepy after meals because digesting the food will not take all the energy from your body.

Eat starches with vegetables, but not with protein or fruit. Starches include grains, pasta, or bread, and starchy vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potato, corn, legumes, and beans. • Eat protein with nonstarchy vegetables, and not with starches. Proteins include nuts, seeds, eggs, meat, or fish. • Eat fruit alone. Sweet fruits should ideally be eaten after acid fruits, and acid fruits, such as citrus fruits, apples, mango, all berries, cherries, pears, apricots, and peaches may be eaten with raw nuts. • Melons should be eaten alone.

A chronic shortage of even one essential nutrient affects the entire system and causes disease. You need to be mindful of everything you put in your mouth. Every mouthful should supply the most nutrition for the least number of calories, and we have to train ourselves to think about food this way. To get the nutrition you need, you have to eat real food with the highest nutrient density. Real food is what nature provides—naturally ripened, freshly harvested, unprocessed, and loaded with nutrition.

As much as possible, follow these rules: • Eat a diet of primarily fresh plant foods. • Avoid processed foods. • Eat 80 percent of your diet raw. • Eat primarily organic foods. • Juice or blenderize fresh vegetables every day. • Be wary of restaurant foods, unless organic and raw. • Avoid processed, supermarket fats and oils. • Get on a high-quality supplement program. • Consume a balance of healthy omega-6 and omega-3 oils. • Include high-quality flaxseed, coconut, and olive oils in your diet. • Avoid sugar and wheat, and minimize grains. • Avoid dairy products. • Limit alcohol and coffee. • Avoid foods high in mold, such as peanuts, corn, and dried fruits. • Avoid barbecued and microwaved foods. • Minimize animal protein, and it must be organic and not grain fed. Supplements

Another reason modern produce is nutrient poor is the practice of harvesting crops before they are ripe. This helps get the food to you before it rots but reduces its nutritional content by up to 80 percent because much of the nutrition develops in the last day or two of ripening. Then there is the problem of distribution. Food is best harvested when ripe and consumed shortly thereafter. With each passing hour after harvest, nutrition is lost.

Certain food additives, which alone do not harm test animals, will kill them when fed to them in combination. A big problem is that chemicals are tested for safety one at a time, yet we are exposed to them in combination. Babies

As a practical matter, this means selecting from among the least toxic options in order to minimize the amount of toxins you consume. For example, bisphenol-A (BPA) is found in plastic water bottles. Eliminate your consumption of water packaged in plastic bottles—choose water packaged in glass bottles.

Mercury, present in fish as well as other sources such as dental fillings, causes cognitive dysfunction along with many other disease problems. Mercury damages the brain, and people with high mercury test lower for complex information processing. A 2012 study in Integrative Medicine found that people who eat the most fish have the most mercury in their systems.

Some of the most common food additives to avoid are benzoates, nitrites, nitrates, and glutamates.

About 90 percent of human exposure to many of these toxic contaminants comes from eating processed foods.

People with high exposure to pesticides have high rates of cancer and neurological diseases. Your exposure to pesticides can be cut by about 80 percent simply by switching to organic foods. When

On the other hand, here is a list of produce that you should buy organic because these foods are the most contaminated: • Apples • Blueberries (domestic) • Celery • Cherry tomatoes • Cucumbers • Grapes • Hot peppers • Lettuce • Nectarines (imported) • Peaches • Potatoes • Snap peas (imported) • Spinach • Strawberries • Sweet bell peppers