8. Questions & Answers

You maintain that health is normal and that being sick is abnormal. How can this be? Doesn't everyone have something wrong with him, even though it may be very minor?

You are correct when you say that I believe health to be our normal (natural) heritage. People become sick when they do not adequately answer the needs of their bodies, either through ignorance or because of other circumstances. Many people are sick today simply because they do not have knowledge of what these needs are. They simply follow the herd and do just as everybody else does. This is, of course, especially true when it comes to eating. We WANT to eat like everybody else, eats but the laws of life decree that eating that way is probably the most usual cause of disease. Therefore, if we desire health, we must eat foods to which we are biologically best adapted.

Scientists and dietitians have proved by laboratory experiments that we all need a variety of different kinds of food. Why do you claim that this idea is all wrong and that fruits are a perfect food?

It was determined many years ago by a Yale researcher, by the name of Pottenger, that with cats, it takes three to four generations to prove the adequacy or inadequacy of a particular diet. I suspect that this is true with humans, also, and perhaps even many more generations since humans take far longer than cats do to mature. Laboratory research is more often than not unreliable when it comes to feeding humans. We are not static test tubes, we are nutritive process which is ongoing and extremely complicated. Furthermore, many feeding experiments are performed on test animals who are biologically quite different from humans. We cannot, as true scientists, make a direct correlation as to compared results with two biologically different beings. That is not scientific. We have far more reliable evidence and that is the evidence observed in certain tribes and peoples who have lived in a certain manner and eaten certain foods for thousands of years. The health of the Hunzas and of many others who live on a largely fruitarian diet is incontrovertible proof of the correctness of their diet. In contrast, we see the short, pain-filled lives of the vast majority of those who eat in ways contrary to human physiological and biological requirements. We can eat a
variety of fruits, if need be. We can eat vegetables, fruits and nuts, if we crave variety. What we don't need is food and ideas concocted in a laboratory setting. We are feeding MAN, not a test tube or some other animal.

Your I CAN! concept sounds like a good plan in theory, but how do you know if it will work?

We have seen it work! Even in our own lives. When Dr. Elizabeth was so ill and wracked by rheumatic pains, she felt trapped. At holiday times she would say to herself, "I must make this an especially happy occasion because I probably won't be here next year!" This is negative thinking. This is the kind of thinking that destroys. She kept getting worse. It really wasn't until we went to Europe and saw that people DID recover from many different kinds of illnesses when they learned what and how to eat that we and especially she, began to have the beginning of more positive thoughts. And when she first read Dr. Shelton's book, "Orthotrophy," Volume II of The Hygienic System, it was like magic. She KNEW she could get better and from then on it was clear sailing. I don't mean to imply that there were not healing crises. There were plenty of them, but she faced up to them and got over them because she continued doing what she knew was right to do! This is generally the case once people understand that nature not only revenges wrong doing but also rewards correct practices. Their whole attitude changes. They become filled with "Positivities!"

Does a person always have to change abruptly, immediately? I can see where this might be very difficult for some people.

No. A person does not always have to change abruptly. Of course nothing is to be gained by putting off making all the required changes and doing so immediately. Delay can sometimes make full recovery more difficult and prolonged. But, bear in mind that any change for the better is health-promoting, even though it be but minor. With certain timid souls, radical change is scary and with such people, we encourage them initially to take "baby steps." As they succeed in conquering little goals, they can then move on to larger ones until, suddenly, they realize they have gone the distance, ran the mile, as it were. They have been successful. Then, usually, there's no stopping them!