style is based upon approximately 75% industrialized food and 25% natural food, which explains the sick world we live in. However, natural, wholesome food in place of medicine has been used since the beginning of time until the past century. This has been documented since the late XIX century by European and later Early American pioneers.
This was not new to me as I had become acquainted with the therapeutic value of organic food, when in 1962, while living in Los Angeles, I met Dr. Bernard Jensen. Having started his practice in 1924, he is recognized as one of the greatest nutritionists of the past century.
Dr. Jensen invited me to his Hidden Valley Health Ranch, located in the hills of Escondido, CA, where he also developed organic agriculture to be used as the daily food diet for his patients.
Patients came from all over the US and abroad to be treated by Dr. Jensen at his Health Ranch. This was when I initially heard about food and diet as medicine, about the meaning of organic food, and the use of carrot juice for healing. At the Health Ranch, I was able to observe how patients recuperated quickly from their sick condition as a result of an organic food diet, plenty of vegetable juices, colon detox, and some extra dietetic supplements, including enzymes, vitamins, and minerals.
At Hidden Valley Health Center, I discovered the power of natural organic food coming from Mother Nature, which Dr. Jensen always spoke of. As a consequence, this experience was the trigger that drove me to change my life by adopting new rules, for myself first, as a better way of eating. I frequented health food stores to buy natural foods for the first time in my life in Los Angeles. I also often went to the
Central market where I could buy freshly made vegetable juice. I didn’t need to be convinced by scientific reports to start using natural food as medicine. At the same time, I bought several books by Dr. Jensen in order to better understand the nutritional value of food and how to start cooking healthy food for myself.
This was enough for me to realize that food is very important, when it comes to staying healthy, preventing disease, and being a support when treating diseases. However, until additional research and scientific publications on the value of food were published, it felt as if I had been walking alone and preaching in the desert. Meanwhile, the risk of developing cancer has jumped from 1 person out of 100 in the year 1900 to 1 person out of 3 today. Are we going to continue like that or finally do something about it?
SOME GOOD NEWS
During the last 20 years, science started to investigate in new directions that led to a reduced risk of cancer and prevention of cancer disease by searching not only to find new drugs, but with serious study associated with lifestyle, dietary style, and the properties of dietary agents. Today we have hundreds of scientific reports at our disposal focusing on the anticancer properties of certain foods.
According to the American Association for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund, it has been estimated that 35% to 40% of cancers can be prevented by changing to a healthy diet. Consuming an unhealthy diet intoxicates our body, inhibits our natural defenses, and decreases our disease resistance.
For decades, I have claimed that a cancer patient is not a healthy person, but only lately has this started to be a subject of discussion. We have to break the myth about someone being healthy and the next day he/she wakes up with cancer. Remember that tumors need a sick environment in which to develop, grow, and expand over many years before it can be detected. It is not found in a healthy environment or a healthy body. We can compare the cancer environment where we liken the soil in which vegetables are grown.
Today science admits that the tumor environment has as much importance as the tumor itself. In fact, it has been demonstrated that a tumor does not grow in a healthy environment. (see my lecture: “