Cooking Food
HDN: Did human disease begin when man started cooking his food?
HOWELL: This is what the evidence indicates. For example, the Neanderthal Man of 50,000 years ago used fire extensively in his cooking. He lived in caves and ate mostly roasted meat from the continuous fires which warmed the caves. These statements are documented by scientific evidence in my published and unpublished works. From fossil evidences we know that the Neanderthal Man suffered from fully-developed crippling arthritis. It's possible that the Neanderthal Man also had diabetes or cancer or kidney disease and so forth. However, we'll never know since all soft tissues have disappeared without a trace. Incidentally, another inhabitant of the caves was the cave bear. This creature protected the Neanderthal Man from the cave tiger, who also wanted the protection of the cave to avoid the frigid weather. The cave bear, according to paleontologists, was a partially domesticated animal and most likely lived on the same roasted meat that the cave man ate. Like the cave man, the cave bear also suffered from chronic, deforming arthritis.
HDN: Isn't it possible that cold weather, not cooked food, was responsible for the arthritis of the Neanderthal Man?
HOWELL: No, I don't think weather had much to do with it. For example, consider the primitive Eskimo. He lived in an environment just as frigid as that of the Neanderthal Man. And yet, the Eskimo never suffered from arthritis and other chronic diseases. However, the Eskimo ate large amounts of raw food. The meat he ate was only slightly heated and was raw in the center. Therefore, the Eskimo received a large quantity of food enzymes with every meal. In fact, the word Eskimo itself comes from an Indian expression which means, "He who eats it raw." Incidentally, there is no tradition of medicine men among the Eskimo people. But among groups like the North American Indian, who ate cooked food extensively, the medicine man had a prominent position in the tribe.
HDN: What evidence is there that human beings suffer from food enzyme deficiency?
HOWELL: There's so much evidence that I can only briefly summanze a small fraction of it. Over the last 40 years, I have collected thousands of scientific documents to document my theories. To begin with, human beings have the lowest levels of starch digesting enzymes in their blood of any creature. We also have the highest level of these enzymes in the urine, meaning that they are being used up faster. There's other evidence showing that these low enzyme levels are not due to a pecularity of our species. Instead, they are due to the large amounts of cooked starch we eat. Also, we know that decreased enzyme levels are found in a number of chronic ailments, such as allergies, skin disease, and even serious diseases like diabetes and cancer. In addition, incriminating evidence indicates that cooked, enzyme-free diets contribute to a pathological over-enlargement of the pituitary gland, which regulates the other glands. Furthermore, there is research showing that almost 100% of the people over 50 dying from accidental causes were found to have defective pituitary glands. Next, I believe that food enzyme deficiency is the cause of the exaggerated maturation of today's children and teenagers. It is also an important cause of overweight in many children and adults. Many animal experiments have shown that enzyme-deficient diets produce a much more rapid maturation than usual. Animals on cooked diets are also much heavier than their counterparts on raw diets. Another piece of related evidence is that farmers use cooked potatoes to fatten pigs for market. The've found that pigs on cooked potatoes fatten faster and more economically than pigs on raw potatoes. This evidence shows the great difference between cooked calories and raw calories. Indeed, from my work in a sanitarium many years ago, I've found that it was impossible to get people fat on raw foods, regardless of the calorie intake. Incidentally, another effect associated with food enzyme deficiency is that the size of the brain decreases. In addition, the thyroid overenlarges, even in the presence of adequate iodine. This has been shown in a number of species. Of course, you can't prove it on human beings. The evidence, however, is very suggestive.
HDN: What else is there?
HOWELL: Next, consider that the human pancreas is burdened with enzyme production far in excess of any creature living on a raw food diet. In fact, in proportion to body weight, the human pancreas is more than twice as heavy as that of a cow. Human beings eat mainly cooked food, while cows eat raw grass. Then, there is evidence that rats on a cooked diet have a pancreas about twice as heavy as rats on a raw diet. Moreover, evidence shows that the human pancreas is one of the heaviest in the animal kingdom, when you adjust for total body weight. This overenlargement of the human pancreas is just as dangerous - probably even more so - than an overlargement of the heart, the thyroid and so on. The overproduction of enzymes in humans is a pathological adaption to a diet of enzyme-free foods. The pancreas is not the only part of the body that oversecretes enzymes when the diet is cooked. In addition, there are the human salivary glands, which produce enzymes to a degree never found in wild animals on their natural foods. In fact, some animals on a raw diet do not have any enzymes at all in their saliva. The cow and sheep produce torrents of saliva with no enzymes in it. Dogs, for instance, also secrete no enzymes in their saliva when they're eating a raw diet. However, if you start giving them cooked starchy food, their salivary glands will start producing starch-digesting enzymes within 10 days. In addition, there's more evidence that the enzymes in saliva represent a pathological and not a normal situation. To begin with, salivary enzymes cannot digest raw starch. This is something I demonstrated in the laboratory. The enzymes in saliva will only attack a piece of starch once it's cooked. Therefore, we see that the body will channel some of its limited enzyme producing capacity into saliva only if it has to. Incidentally, there is some provocative animal research which I have done in my own laboratory some years ago. If you'd like, I can explain it now for your readers.
HDN: Yes, please do.
HOWELL: I fed one group of rats a cooked diet and one group a raw diet and let them live out their lifespan to see which group would live longer. The first group got a combination of raw meat and various raw vegetables and grains. The second group got the same foods boiled and therefore enzyme-free. I kept these rats until they died, which took about three years. As the experiment came to a close, the results surprised me. It turned out that there was no great difference between the lifespans of the two groups. Later on, I discovered the reason. It turned out that the rats on the cooked diet were still getting enzymes, but from an unexpected source. They had been eating their own feces, which contained the enzymes excreted from their own bodies. All feces, including those of human beings, contain the enzymes that the body has used. My rats had been recycling their own enzymes to use them over again. And that's why they lived as long as the rats on the raw diet. Incidentally, the practice of eating feces is almost universal among today's laboratory animals. Although these animals receive scientific diets containing all known vitamins and minerals, the animals instinctively know they need enzymes. Because of this, they eat their own feces. In fact, the animals on these scientific diets develop most of the chronic human degenerative diseases if they are allowed to live out their lifespans. This shows that vitamins and minerals alone are not sufficient for health.
HDN: How do you know that people would benefit from additional enzyme intake?
HOWELL: To me, the most impressive evidence that people need enzymes is what occurs as a result of therapeutic fasting. As you know, I spent some years in a sanitarium working with patients on various fasting programs. When a person fasts, there is an immediate halt to the production of digestive enzymes. The enzymes in saliva, gastric juice and pancreatic juice dwindle and become scarce. During fasting, the body's enzymes are free to work on repairing and removing diseased tissues. Civilized people eat such large quantities of cooked foods that their enzyme systems are kept busy digesting food. As a result, the body lacks the enzymes needed to maintain the tissues in good health. Most people who fast go through what is called a healing crisis. The patients may feel nausea, vomiting and dizziness. What's happening is that the enzymes are working to change the unhealthy structure of the body. The enzymes attack pathological tissues and break down undigested and unprocessed substances; and these then get thrown off through the bowels, through vomiting, or via the skin.
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