Detox – What Symptoms to Expect When You Improve Your Diet
…or Improving your diet may cause you to feel sick
“Healing Crisis” By Dr. Stanley S. Bass, ND. DC. PHC
INTRODUCTION
If I were asked which is the area of greatest misunderstanding and confusion in the field of nutrition, I would immediately be forced to reply, it is the failure to properly understand and interpret the symptoms and changes that follow the beginning of a better nutritional program.
HIGHER QUALITY NUTRITION
‘What is meant by a better nutritional program? It is the introduction of foods of higher quality in place of lower-quality ones. For example, if a person replaces a protein-rich food such as a slice of pork with beef, the beef may be considered the superior of the two – due to its easier digestibility, lower and less saturated fat content, etc. Similarly chicken is superior to beef, and fish is superior to chicken because of its more rapid digestibility and lower saturated fat content.
Lima beans, lentils, or chickpeas, which are eaten at the same meal as vegetables, are superior in all the nutrients needed to rebuild health. As we go higher on the scale of quality, we begin to include protein-rich food which may be eaten in the unfired (raw) state, such as cheese which is made from raw milk and unsalted. Then we ascend to the nuts and seeds which are eaten in their natural state (raw and unsalted).
HIGHEST QUALITY – RAW FOOD
To summarize: the closer the food comes to the natural state in which it occurs, or the closer to its raw, unfired (raw) form, the higher its quality. In this condition, all the enzymes are found intact. The amino acids are in their finest form. The minerals, vitamins, trace elements, carbohydrates, and “life force” are present. The life force, in turn, is capable of reproducing healthy tissue.
This same classification of quality that we analyzed about protein-rich foods applies to carbohydrates (starch and sugar-rich foods), fats, and mineral-rich foods.
DETOX TOXIC SUBSTANCES
The quality of a nutritional program is also improved by omitting toxic substances such, as coffee, tea, chocolate, tobacco, salt, pepper, etc. from your diet.
FOOD AND RECOVERY FROM ILLNESS
What is the relation of quality of foods to recovery from illness? It is this in a nutshell: The higher the quality of food we eat, the quicker we recover from disease, provided we can digest and assimilate properly.
To this must be added the knowledge of proper food combining proper order of eating the different kinds of food at a meal: e.g. the most easily digested food should be eaten first, the more complex one second, and the most concentrated item last the correct quantity of food to be consumed (of each type) in the meal the correct time for eating (when hungry, and not by the clock).
REMARKABLE CHANGES
Now – what happens when a person follows these rules and makes a decided improvement in the quality of food consumed?
Remarkable things begin to happen to the body as well as the mind. The amazing intelligence present in every cell of the body and the wisdom of the body in its operation immediately becomes manifest. The rule may be stated thusly: When the quality of the food coming into the body is of higher quality than the tissues from which the body is made, the body begins to discard the lower-grade materials and tissues to make room for the superior materials which it uses to make new and healthier tissue.
NATURE SELF-CURING
This is the plan of Nature – the body is very selective and always aims for improvement for better health. The body always tries to produce health and always will, unless our interference is too great. Only then do we fail to recover and degenerate further into disease.
The self-curing nature of many conditions such as colds, fevers, cuts, swellings, injuries, etc., furnishes endless examples of how the body tends towards health – always – unless we do something to stop the process.
SYMPTOMS AND SIGNS of DETOX
What are the symptoms or signs that become evident when we first begin to omit the lower grade foods and instead introduce superior foods – those which are most alive, more natural than we are accustomed to?
Usually, within three days, the symptoms vanish and we feel stronger due to the recuperation that follows. To a lesser extent, the same process occurs when we abandon lower-quality foods and replace them with better foods.
LOWER QUALITY – MORE STIMULATING
Lower quality has undergone more preparation. Spices, salt, and other ingredients have been added, as they tend to be more “stimulating” than less prepared and more natural foods. Animal foods such as meat, fowl, fish, etc. are more stimulating than cheese, nuts, and vegetable proteins.
Consequently, the withdrawal of stimulation which follows the abandonment of animal food produces a slower heart action – a resting phase – which registers in the mind as relaxation or a decrease of energy. This initial letdown lasts about ten days or slightly longer and is followed by an increase of strength, a feeling of diminishing stress, and greater well-being.
AVOIDING FAILURE
Now let us return to the symptoms that occur in the process of regeneration. The person who starts a better diet stays on it for three days to a week and then quits will say, “Oh, I felt better on the old diet – the new one makes me feel weak.” He failed because he didn’t give his body a chance to adjust and complete its first phase of action – recuperation. If he had waited a while longer, he would have begun to feel better than before he started.
RECUPERATION – PHASE ONE
During the initial stage (lasting about ten days on average to several weeks in others), the vital energies which are usually in the periphery or external part of the body such as the muscles and skin, begin to move to the vital internal organs and start reconstruction.
This shunting of much of the power to the internal region produces a feeling of less energy in the muscles, which the mind interprets as some weakness. The power is increased, but most of it is being used for rebuilding the more important organs and less of it is available for muscular work. Any weakness which is felt here is not true weakness, but merely a redeploying of forces to the more important internal parts.
RELAX FOR SUCCESS
Here it is important for the person to stop wasting energy, and to rest and sleep more. This is a crucial phase, and if the person resorts to stimulants of any kind, he will abort and defeat the regenerative intent of the body. It is important that he have patience and faith and just waits it out. After a while, he will get increasing strength which will exceed by far what he felt before he began the new program.
Success in recovery or improvement of health hinges upon the correct understanding of this point – realizing that the body is using its main energies on more important internal work and not wasting it on external work involving muscle movements. Be wise, take it easy here, and relax. Just coast in, your work and social obligations until you’re out of the woods.
RETRACING – CLEANUP
Retracing: As one continues on the improved diet and gradually raises the food quality, interesting symptoms begin to appear. The body begins a process called retracing.
“Now we have a chance to get rid of this old garbage and build a beautiful new house. Let’s get started immediately. Let’s get this excess bile out of the liver and gall bladder and send it to the intestines for elimination. Let’s get the sludge moving out of the arteries, veins, and capillaries. These smelly, gassy, brain-stupefying masses have been here too long – out with them!
These arthritic deposits in the joints need cleaning up! Let’s get these irritating food preservatives, aspirins, sleeping pills, and drugs out of the way, along with these other masses of fat that have made life so burdensome for us for so long. Let’s get going till the job is done – till we have a beautiful house – and from there on we’ll keep it a beautiful ideal model house.”
Read more about retracing
CATABOLISM – ELIMINATION
During the first phase (called catabolism), the accent is on elimination, or breaking down of tissue. The body begins to clean the house. – In short, to remove the garbage deposited in all the tissues – everywhere. During this period. the body removes the ashes from the furnace preparatory. So getting a better fire.
Here the accentuation is on the removal of the gross and immediate body obstructions. Wastes are discarded more rapidly than new tissue is made from the new food. This becomes evident as weight loss.
STABILIZATION
This persists for a while and is then followed by the second phase – called stabilization.
Here the weight remains more or less stable. During this phase, the amount of waste material being discarded daily is equal to the amount of tissue that is being formed and replaced by the newer, more vital food. This occurs after the excess of obstructing material in the tissues has been removed.
ANABOLISM – BUILDUP
This state persists for a while and is then followed by a third phase – a build-up period called anabolism, wherein weight starts to go up, even though the diet is lower in calories than it was before. At this point, much or more of the interfering wastes have already been discarded. –
The tissues that have been formed since the diet was raised in quality are more durable and do not break down easily. Also, new tissues are now being formed faster. This is due to the improved assimilation made possible by the ceasing of wrong food combinations. The body’s need for the usual amounts of food decreases, and we can maintain our weight and increase energy with less food. Many can function very efficiently on two meals a day. As the body progressively increases efficiency and decreases in tissue breakdown under exercise, so do we gradually need less and less food to maintain life.
The higher the percentage of raw food one lives on, the slower the rate of tissue deterioration that one evolves into. A sick body requires a gradual carefully worked-out entry into this stage, where one can live on a 100% unfired (raw) diet.
SKIN RASHES From DETOX
Returning to the symptoms that occur on a superior nutritional program, people who have had tendencies in the past to recurring skin rashes or eruptions will frequently tend to eliminate poisons and harmful drugs through the skin with new rashes or eruptions. If they go to a doctor now who is not familiar with this aspect of nutrition, he will diagnose it as an allergy.
They ask. “How come. I’m eating better now than I ever did before, and instead, I’m getting worse?” They don’t understand that the body is retracing.
The skin is getting more alive and active. It’s throwing out more poisons more rapidly now that the body is building more power which is saved from those hard-to-ingest meals that have been discontinued.
TOXINS DISCARDED
These toxins being discarded are saving you from a more serious disease that will result if you keep them in your body too much longer – possibly hepatitis, kidney disorders, blood disease, heart disease, arthritis, nerve degeneration, or even cancer – depending upon your hereditary or structural weaknesses. Be happy you’re paying your bills now in an easy-payment plan.
CONSTRUCTIVE HOUSECLEANING
With some, colds that haven’t appeared for a long time may occur, or even fevers. This is nature’s way of housecleaning. Understand that these actions are constructive, even though unpleasant at the moment. Don’t, but don’t, try to stop these symptoms by the use of certain drugs, or even massive doses of vitamins, which will act as drugs in huge concentrations.
RESPECT THE CURING PROCESS
These symptoms are part of a curing process, and don’t try to cure a cure. These are not deficiency conditions or allergic manifestations – not if you’re eating properly in quality, quantity, combination, and sequence.
Here is where experienced advice is of great value. Unfortunately, there are few books present today that give full guidance to the average reader. Try to find guidance through a doctor or teacher who has the requisite experience in this most confusing of all subjects – nutrition about health and disease.
MILD OR SEVERE SYMPTOMS
You may be eating perfectly regarding quantity, and quality and observing all the correct rules, and still, symptoms will occur. Those who have lived better lives in the past – who have eaten better foods and who have abused their bodies less with overeating will have reactions ranging from almost none at all or very mild symptoms which may be uncomfortable or acute.
Those who have lived worse lives and poisoned themselves more will experience more severe symptoms – if their liver, kidneys, or other important eliminating organs have been damaged. When they have been renovated to the point of fair working order, they will no longer produce symptoms.
Detox Examples
Headaches may occur at the beginning:
fever and/or colds may also appear:
the skin may break out;
there may be a short interval of bowel sluggishness,
occasional diarrhea.
feelings of tiredness and weakness,
disinclination to exercise,
nervousness, irritability, negativity, or mental depression,
frequent urination etc.
However, the great majority of people find their reactions tolerable and are encouraged to bear with them, because of the many improvements which have already occurred and are becoming more evident with each day. This acts as an inspirational force for them.
SYMPTOMS WILL DIFFER
The symptoms will vary according to the materials being discarded, the condition of the organs involved in the elimination, and the amount of energy you have available. The more you rest and sleep when symptoms are present, the milder they are and the more quickly they are terminated. Be happy you are having symptoms.
YOUNGER AND HEALTHIER EVERY DAY
Realize deeply that your body is becoming younger and healthier every day because you are throwing off more and more waste which will eventually bring pain, disease, and much suffering.
Those who have the worst symptom reactions and follow through to their successful termination are thus avoiding some of the worst diseases which would eventually have developed had they continued their careless eating habits.
CYCLICAL IMPROVEMENT
Don’t expect to go on an ascending scale of quality, improving your diet will make you feel better and better each day until you reach perfection. The body is cyclical. and health returns in a series of gradually diminishing cycles.
For example, you start a better diet and for a while, you feel much better. After some time, a symptom occurs – you feel nauseous for a day and have diarrhea with a foul-smelling stool. After one day you feel even better than before and it goes fine for a while. Then you suddenly develop a cold, feel chills, and lose your appetite. After about two or three days (assuming you don’t take drugs or do anything else about it), you suddenly recover and feel better than you did for years.
Let us say this well-being continues for two months; when you suddenly develop an itch or rash. You don’t take anything special for it. This rash flares up and gets worse. It may continue for ten days and suddenly subside. Immediately after this, you find that your hepatica is gone and your energy has increased more than ever before. The rash became an outlet for the poisons in the liver which produced hepatitis.
DOW JONES RECOVERY CYCLES
This is how recovery occurs – like the cycles in the Dow-Jones Average at the beginning of a bull market recovery.
You feel better, a reaction occurs and you don’t feel as well for a short while. You recover and go even higher. Then another reaction occurs, milder than the last. You recover and go even higher. And so it goes, each reaction milder than the last as the body becomes pure. Each reaction becomes shorter in duration and being, followed by a longer period of feeling better than ever before until you reach a level plateau of vibrant health.
Here you become relatively disease-free.
CONCLUSION
We must learn to obey the laws of Nature. We must learn to eat simple pure and natural foods, properly prepared and combined, and our bodies in return will cast off all the poisons we have taken in during our lives.
The mysteries of the body, the operations of nature, and the vital forces working in nature are far beyond what our minds are prepared to understand at present. Every great physician or scientist who ever lived marveled in awe and humility at the wonders of nature. Yes – we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Stanley S. Bass, 1984)
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