4. Questions & Answers

I would like to have you explain why it is that so many persons can appear to be so healthy in spite of the fact that they eat cooked food which, according to you, cannot long sustain life?

That is a good question. You see, we all come into the world with an inheritance. It is our legacy from the past. Some of us have huge vitality reserves in our health bank account, others, less fortunate, have a lesser amount; still others possess a bare minimum to sustain life for only a short time. The greater vitality we have, the more value we will receive from the food we eat because our nerve energy allows for greater digestive efficiency. If our vitality has been reduced for one reason or another, we will not be able to digest, absorb, transport or assimilate nutrients with the same degree of efficiency. In time, our vital force will dwindle away and we will become more and more vulnerable; that is, subject to disease because we will become malnourished and enervated. Toxicosis becomes our companion, instead of radiant health.

If we have always eaten mostly of cooked foods, can we change immediately over to eating raw foods entirely?

I must give a qualified answer here simply because there are many variables to consider. Let me state firmly and without equivocation, however, that nothing but good can come by making a radical and complete changeover from eating all cooked food to eating all uncooked food provided it is food to which your body is adapted by structure and by function, namely, fruits, vegetables, a few nuts and edible seeds. However, not all persons can do so without being subject to certain psychological hang-ups and, if their bodies are quite toxic, to "withdrawal" symptoms of one kind or another. Age is certainly a determining factor. In our practice we find very few elderly people who can make abrupt changes without worrying unduly, even to the extent that their health is adversely affected by their emotional state. In such cases, it is our belief that until the mind has been reeducated, it is better to make changes more slowly. When persons are willing to fast, having come to an understanding of the benefits to be accrued thereby, then, of course, they should fast and following the cleansing of their body, they should immediately become "raw-fooders." But, let us emphasize that, all other things being precisely equal, nothing but good can come from introducing more uncooked food into the dietary regimen, even though the initial steps be small and hesitant. Keep at it. Your entire body will say, "Thank you!"

Dr. McCarter, what is life?

I wish I knew. I'd probably win the Nobel Prize! But, seriously, no one knows this secret. It is locked up within all living creatures. We know certain things that happen within a living cell but we are just beginning to take our first hesitant steps across the membranous barriers via electron microscopes and radioactive isotopes but even our most liberal scientists admit that the inner world of life is still a vast unknown of maybe's and perhapses. Everything that is alive has the power to receive impressions and to react there—from or thereto; it also has the power to reproduce itself and, in the doing, to make certain that LIFE continues. Certainly we know when something is dead, without life; but, to spell out exactly what this phenomenon of life is and what makes it so, is beyond man's knowledge and probably will always remain the Creator's secret.

I always thought the acids in the stomach would destroy all life. Do not these acids destroy the "life" in food?

Let me ask another question in answer to yours. The cells in the stomach, are they not alive? Of course, the answer is "Yes!" But, they are not destroyed by the gastric secretions. Food is not alive in this same sense. Uncooked food, however, should be capable of producing life if it is returned to the soil. For example, we can take a portion of carrot, place it in the soil, water it and see to it that it receives all the requisites of its organic existence and it will send forth leaves and grow. Raw food contains the food for life: enzymes, minerals, vitamins. In other words, uncooked foods contain the essence of life and it is this that is imparted to us when we eat of them and it is this essence that will sustain our own life in health.

If we eat always of raw foods from the day of our birth, will we live forever?

Probably not. Lewis Carrell, a Nobel prize winner, a renowned physician and surgeon, proved that when cells are correctly fed and kept in a friendly environment with proper drainage of wastes, they could continue living and reproducing themselves indefinitely. Perhaps if man lived ideally and always under ideal conditions, he might also live indefinitely in health but it is doubtful that we will ever be able to live under such ideal circumstances. There are too many variables to guarantee life. We are all subject to physiological assaults of one kind or another and each one leaves an imprint, each one subtracts some measured amount from our vital force bank account.

You talk about our vital force bank account? Can't we use some of that vital force and then put it back by proper eating and living?

Probably not. Once used, it cannot be replenished by changing our ways and assuming a more correct lifestyle. However, this does not mean that all is lost. By no means. We will no doubt have a diminished supply of vital force, but we can, by constructive application of principle and devotion to the sacredness of life, learn to use our vital force more efficiently. Most people dissipate fully two-thirds of their quota of vital force by the time they reach the age of thirty but if they learn how to live correctly and to eat foods adapted to the human structure and how to eat that food and to see to it that they eat a minimum (adequate) amount of food, then they will extend their life span far beyond those who continue the common pattern of living and eating.

You talk about using our vitality more efficiently. What do you mean by this and how can we do it?

Let me give you an example. Foods have differing orders of digestibility and it is interesting to know that those foods that are most easily and thoroughly digested are the foods that are best for our health. When we eat a meal which contains meat, potatoes, bread, butter, a vegetable or two and then top it off with a rich dessert, such a meal and its remains after the digestive process has been concluded may remain in the alimentary canal for several days, especially if more food is eaten during the day. This is the common practice and it is exceedingly wasteful of energy because the digestive organs and glands are required to work at full capacity for hours on end trying to cope with such a heterogeneous mixture of food. But, to the contrary, when we eat mono meals, say of fruit, the food will be in and out of the stomach in less than an hour in most cases, and the entire trip from mouth to anus will be travelled and the residual wastes disposed of in less than 24 hours, often in half that time. Can you imagine the savings of energy to say nothing of the increased efficiency of digestion obtained by eating only those foods which are best' adapted to our digestive equipment? We conserve our energy in order to live long and in health.

I had always been told that raw foods contained molds and germs and that this is why it is better to eat of cooked food. Can you address this issue?

Gladly. Germs and molds are made up of protein. They will be digested in the stomach just like any other protein. The only time they will be able to gain a foothold in the digestive canal is when it becomes highly toxic. Then, they find a smorgasborg of food laid out before them and ideal conditions under-which to live. They will, of course, become fat and healthy, reproduce rapidly adding their own toxins to those already present, placing their host's well-being in jeopardy. But, in the normal (and we mean really normal as in "healthy" person, they will simply be digested. Incidentally, the only way to rid the intestinal tract of unwelcome pests is to remove their food supply since all living things require food. The best way to do this is to fast using only distilled water to satisfy thirst.

Should a person never eat any cooked food?

If a person's stomach is highly inflamed due to past indiscretions and perhaps filled with mucus and catarrh, then he may have to continue eating cooked food but his meals should be simple ones, if he eats at all. It would be far better to have such a person, fast until his alimentary tract has been both cleansed and health and then introduce raw foods one at a time, reeducating his digestive tract and his mind to accept this new way of eating. With older persons who are afraid to fast, we lay out menus to follow which are, at first, made up of all cooked food properly combined and then proceed to introduce more and more uncooked food. We have great success using this approach. They especially seem to adapt well to lightly stewed or baked fruit for their first meal as, for example, a baked apple. After a week or two, we then show them how to make a date sauce made in a blender using raw dates and distilled water which they then pour over their baked apple. They usually accept this combination well, both mentally and physiologically and by their acceptance and enjoyment of this one dish become more receptive to our next suggestion! As they watch their health improve, they often become completely converted and eat nothing but uncooked food.