– Michael Pollan in “Food Rules”
Your body is a living organism subject to all the laws of nature.
Q: If you cook green beans and then drain off the cooking water
wouldn't you be discarding many valuable vitamins and minerals with that water?
A: Eat more beans.
This beef is organic, grass-fed, natural, sustainable, local,
hormone free, antibiotic free, ecologically farmed, responsibly and humanely
raised on small family ranches.
This is all very good.
But you did still need to kill the cow, yes?
Cows raised for beef are actually killed at a very early age - 1 to 2 years.
Their natural life span is 25 to 30 years so they are essentially babies
when they are slaughtered.
The same is true for pigs, sheep, turkeys, and chickens.
Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.
Saying that vegetarians only eat vegetables is like saying that Catholics only eat cats.
I have discovered an AMAZING, NEW, REVOLUTIONARY way to lose weight.
It is the eat-less-do-more-and-lose-all-you-want diet.
Some people believe that cell phones are dangerous – that the
EMF radiation they emit will cause cancer. In my mind it is
a question of Long Term Risk versus Short Term Benefit.
Cell phones are so convenient in the short term that the long term
risk (decades hence) really has no influence at all on the decision to use them or not.
A similar thing might be said for food and drink although the long term risk
is measured in years not decades.
Some foods are such that “The more I eat it the more I like it.”. For me oatmeal is that way. For others peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Each person has their own.
Note that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches can be a true health food if the bread is 100% whole grain, the peanut butter is just ground roasted peanuts, and the jelly is sweetened only with fruit. Yum!
Add a little to little and there will be a big pile.
A diet that will remedy a given condition will not necessarily
prevent it. A therapeutic diet is often purposely deficient in one or
more ways. An extreme example of this is a juice fast. It is
wonderfully healing and cleansing but if you keep on it too long
you will perish.
A simple rule for evaluating any new suggestions:
Is it natural? Does it make sense?
If I try to do anything 100% I get cranky
and that does not do me or anyone else any good at all.
If you take care to Pronounce correctly the Words
usually Mispronounced, you may have the Self-love of
the Purist but you will not sell any goods.
There is more simplicity in the man who eats caviar on impulse
than in the man who eats Grape-Nuts on principle.
Special foods for special occasions.
Special occasions do not happen every day.
Food for people not for profit.
Some people view their veg*ism as a kind of religion. Since it is not
a good idea to “mess with people’s religion” one needs to be careful
what you say around them. Other types of people simply love to follow rules
and therefore the more rules they have the better. When they go
to bed at night they evaluate their day by tallying how well they
adhered to their list of rules.
Eat Beans Not Beings
It would be easier to argue
that sugar
is not good for you
if it weren’t sweet.
There are so many things to eat. We don’t need to eat them all.
Nutritious and Delicious. Good and Good For You.
Our food is very close to our psyche.
Because in my lifetime there will be no radical vegan revolution
in our food system I need a strategy to live in peace while
being surrounded by the massacre and the myriad self-induced
health disasters.
One way to a peaceful existence is to not try to change others.
Early on I realized that no matter how non-proselytising
(of the veg*n health ‘gospel’) I
tried to be, others felt the implication that they should do
as I were doing. The social custom of sharing food goes that deep.
Breast milk is the most perfect and most natural
food for a baby – and the breast is a triumph of packaging.
I’d like to make a T-shirt with a picture of a lamb and a calf and the following words:
I don’t eat lamb or veal
because they’re baby animals.
On the back of the shirt would be a chart showing the age at which animals (not just lambs and calves) are killed for food compared to their natural life span.
Biologically, unless you enjoy the food you eat it will not be
properly assimilated.
I self-identify as a ‘mostly vegan lacto-ovo vegetarian’.
When being vegan borders on OCD or unkindness,
I accept (with no guilt) eating milk and eggs and refined flours and sugars.
I draw the line at meat, fish, and poultry – including
soups made with broths from such.
A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat scorched corpses.
Oh, come! That boot is on the other leg. Why should you call
me to account for eating decently? If I battened on the scorched
corpses of animals, you might well ask me why I did that.
You ask me why I am a vegetarian.
The real question is “Why are you not a vegetarian?”.
Everyone makes their own compromise – given their
unique circumstances – their body, their family,
their preferences, their social context, the state of their knowledge
and evolution. No one can really fault another for what they choose.
Is it not a reproach that man is a carnivorous animal? True, he
can and does live, in a great measure, by preying on other animals;
but this is a miserable way – as anyone who will go to snaring
rabbits, or slaughtering lambs, may learn. Whatever my own practice
may be, I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the
human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating
animals.
It seems that vegans have a certain regret that carnivores
do not suffer immediate
damnation or illness or repercussions of some sort
for their merciless, gluttonous, unconscious complicity
in the daily massacre. But they keep hoping.
Conversely, vegans feel a certain disappointment that their well-earned
good karma does not immediately manifest in vast wealth, fame, and good luck
as a reward for their daily act of compassion. It will come. It will come.
At least in the next realm, I'm sure.
Recommended movies that have food-related messages:
- Pieces of April
- Harry & Tonto
- Tampopo
- Babette’s Feast
- Big Night
- Mostly Martha
- Bound for Glory - "The more you eat the more you shit".
I baked a cake for my father’s 70th birthday.
Notice the cigarettes, the wine and the coffee. My father was quite addicted to all of the legal drugs. This was in a restaurant in 1992. One could still smoke in a restaurant in California. It was outlawed in 1995.
on a T-Shirt from Cafe Press:
What Do Vegans Eat?
|
Ajowan Seeds Anise Seeds Cardamom Seeds Caraway Seeds Celery Seeds Cubeb Seeds Cumin Seeds Coriander Seeds Dill Seeds Fennel Seeds Fenugreek Seeds Juniper Seeds Mace Mustard Seeds Nigella Seeds Nutmeg Pomegranate Seeds Poppy Seeds Sesame Seeds Sunflower Seeds
Corn Oil
Chocolate |
Artichokes Arugula Asparagus Eggplant Avocados Bok Choy Breadfruit Broccoflower Broccoli Brussel Sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Celery Chard Cilantro Collard Greens Corn Salad Endive Fennel Frisse Kale Kohlrabi Lemon Grass Lettuce Corn Mushrooms Mustard Greens Nettles New Zealand Spinach Okra Chives Garlic Onions Shallots Green Onions |
Parsley Peppers Radicchio Rhubarb Beets Carrots Celeriac Daikon Radish Rutabaga Turnips Wasabi White Radish Spinach Acorn Squash Butternut Squash Zucchini Cucumber Patty Pans Squash Pumpkin Spaghetti Squash Tat Soi Tomato Jicama Jerusalem Artichoke Potato Sweet Potato Yam Water Chestnut Watercress
Azuki Beans |
Apples Apricots Bananas Blackberries Blackcurrants Blueberries Currants Cherries Cherimoya Dates Durian Figs Gooseberries Grapes Grapefruit Huckleberries Jackfruit Jambul Kiwi Fruit Lemons Limes Lychee Mangoes Cantaloupe Honeydew Melon Watermelon Nectarine Oranges Peaches Pears Plums/Prunes Pineapples Pomogranates Raspberries Western Raspberries Rambutan Redcurrants Salal Berries Satsumas Strawberries Tangerines |
Wine Juices Vinegar Brandy Fruit Leather Dried Fruits Jellies Chutneys Jams Raisins Olive Oil Date Sugar Stevia Sauerkraut Pickles Spices Hot Sauce Salsa Tomato Paste Teas
Barley |
Palm Oil Coconut Oil Walnut Oil Peanut Butter Almond Butter Cashew Butter Almond Cheese Cashew Cheese Walnut Cheese Pecan Cheese Mushrooms: Chanterelle Cremini Button Enoki Morel Oyster Porcini Portabella Shitake Hard Tofu Soft Tofu Tempeh Mung Bean Paste Soy Sauce Tamari Sauce Mugi Miso Natto (Soy) Falafel Soy Mayonnaise Tofu Sour Cream Soy Ice Cream Vanilla Extract
Almonds |
| And More | |||||
from “Dietary Goals for the United States”
Published in February 1977. Prepared by the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs of the United States Senate – George McGovern, chair. Also Edward Kennedy, Gaylord Nelson, Alan Cranston, Hubert Humphrey, Robert Dole, Mark Hatfield.“The social, cultural and psychological significance of food in our lives can scarcely be overestimated. Sharing of food is one of the prime social contacts; provision of food is one of the prime signs of caring.”
The report quotes Bruno Bettleheim’s article “Food to Nurture the Mind” (in May 1975 School Review):
“Eating and being fed are intimately connected with our deepest feelings. They are the basic interactions between human beings on which rest all later evaluations of oneself, of the world, and of our relationship to it. Eating experiences condition our entire attitude to the world, not so much because of how nutritious is the food we are given, but because of the feelings and attitudes with which it is given.”
“The social climate of a mental institution changes immediately if the entire staff, up to the top of the hierarchy, takes its meals with the patients. The fact that patients, staff, and doctors eat together, and eat the same fare, immediately reduced the levels of tension, the potentiality of violent outbreaks. And this not just at mealtime but all during the day and throughout the institution. Nothing is more divisive than when people eat a different fare, in different rooms.”
From the statement by Dr D. M. Hegsted, professor of nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health:
“There will undoubtedly be many people who will say we have not proven our point; we have not demonstrated that the dietary modifications we recommend will yield the dividends expected. We would point out to these people that the diet we eat today was not planned or developed for any particular purpose. It is a happenstance related to our affluence, the productivity of our farmers and the activities of our food industry. The risks associated with eating this diet are demonstrably large. The question to be asked, therefore, is not why should we change our diet but why not? What are the risks associated with eating less meat, and more fruits, vegetables, unsaturated fat and cereal products – especially whole grain cereals. There are none that can be identified and important benefits can be expected.”
from “Following The Equator” by Mark Twain (1835-1910)
The brightest passenger in the ship, and the most interesting and felicitous talker, was a young Canadian who was not able to let the whisky bottle alone. He was of a rich and powerful family, and could have had a distinguished career and abundance of effective help toward it if he could have conquered his appetite for drink; but he could not do it, so his great equipment of talent was of no use to him. He had often taken the pledge to drink no more, and was a good sample of what that sort of unwisdom can do for a man – for a man with anything short of an iron will. The system is wrong in two ways: it does not strike at the root of the trouble, for one thing, and to make a pledge of any kind is to declare war against nature; for a pledge is a chain that is always clanking and reminding the wearer of it that he is not a free man.I have said that the system does not strike at the root of the trouble, and I venture to repeat that. The root is not the drinking, but the desire to drink. These are very different things. The one merely requires will – and a great deal of it, both as to bulk and staying capacity – the other merely requires watchfulness – and for no long time. The desire of course precedes the act, and should have one’s first attention; it can do but little good to refuse the act over and over again, always leaving the desire unmolested, unconquered; the desire will continue to assert itself, and will be almost sure to win in the long run. When the desire intrudes, it should be at once banished out of the mind. One should be on the watch for it all the time – otherwise it will get in. It must be taken in time and not allowed to get a lodgment. A desire constantly repulsed for a fortnight should die, then. That should cure the drinking habit. The system of refusing the mere act of drinking, and leaving the desire in full force, is unintelligent war tactics, it seems to me. I used to take pledges – and soon violate them. My will was not strong, and I could not help it. And then, to be tied in any way naturally irks an otherwise free person and makes him chafe in his bonds and want to get his liberty. But when I finally ceased from taking definite pledges, and merely resolved that I would kill an injurious desire, but leave myself free to resume the desire and the habit whenever I should choose to do so, I had no more trouble. In five days I drove out the desire to smoke and was not obliged to keep watch after that; and I never experienced any strong desire to smoke again. At the end of a year and a quarter of idleness I began to write a book, and presently found that the pen was strangely reluctant to go. I tried a smoke to see if that would help me out of the difficulty. It did. I smoked eight or ten cigars and as many pipes a day for five months; finished the book, and did not smoke again until a year had gone by and another book had to be begun.
I can quit any of my nineteen injurious habits at any time, and without discomfort or inconvenience. I think that the Dr. Tanners and those others who go forty days without eating do it by resolutely keeping out the desire to eat, in the beginning, and that after a few hours the desire is discouraged and comes no more.
Once I tried my scheme in a large medical way. I had been confined to my bed several days with lumbago. My case refused to improve. Finally the doctor said,
“My remedies have no fair chance. Consider what they have to fight, besides the lumbago. You smoke extravagantly, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“You take coffee immoderately?”
“Yes.”
“And some tea?”
“Yes.”
“You eat all kinds of things that are dissatisfied with each other’s company?”
“Yes.”
“You drink two hot Scotches every night?”
“Yes.”
“Very well, there you see what I have to contend against. We can’t make progress the way the matter stands. You must make a reduction in these things; you must cut down your consumption of them considerably for some days.”
“I can’t, doctor.”
“Why can’t you.”
“I lack the will-power. I can cut them off entirely, but I can’t merely moderate them.”
He said that that would answer, and said he would come around in twenty-four hours and begin work again. He was taken ill himself and could not come; but I did not need him. I cut off all those things for two days and nights; in fact, I cut off all kinds of food, too, and all drinks except water, and at the end of the forty-eight hours the lumbago was discouraged and left me. I was a well man; so I gave thanks and took to those delicacies again.
It seemed a valuable medical course, and I recommended it to a lady. She had run down and down and down, and had at last reached a point where medicines no longer had any helpful effect upon her. I said I knew I could put her upon her feet in a week. It brightened her up, it filled her with hope, and she said she would do everything I told her to do. So I said she must stop swearing and drinking, and smoking and eating for four days, and then she would be all right again. And it would have happened just so, I know it; but she said she could not stop swearing, and smoking, and drinking, because she had never done those things. So there it was. She had neglected her habits, and hadn’t any. Now that they would have come good, there were none in stock. She had nothing to fall back on. She was a sinking vessel, with no freight in her to throw overboard and lighten ship withal. Why, even one or two little bad habits could have saved her, but she was just a moral pauper. When she could have acquired them she was dissuaded by her parents, who were ignorant people though reared in the best society, and it was too late to begin now. It seemed such a pity; but there was no help for it. These things ought to be attended to while a person is young; otherwise, when age and disease come, there is nothing effectual to fight them with.
When I was a youth I used to take all kinds of pledges, and do my best to keep them, but I never could, because I didn’t strike at the root of the habit – the desire; I generally broke down within the month. Once I tried limiting a habit. That worked tolerably well for a while. I pledged myself to smoke but one cigar a day. I kept the cigar waiting until bedtime, then I had a luxurious time with it. But desire persecuted me every day and all day long; so, within the week I found myself hunting for larger cigars than I had been used to smoke; then larger ones still, and still larger ones. Within the fortnight I was getting cigars made for me – on a yet larger pattern. They still grew and grew in size. Within the month my cigar had grown to such proportions that I could have used it as a crutch. It now seemed to me that a one-cigar limit was no real protection to a person, so I knocked my pledge on the head and resumed my liberty.
from “Tortilla Flat” by John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
At about this time in California it became the stylish thing for school nurses to visit the classes and to catechize the children on intimate details of their home life. In the first grade, Alfredo was called to the principal’s office for it was thought that he looked thin.The visiting nurse, trained in child psychology, said kindly, “Freddie, do you get enough to eat?”
“Sure,” said Alfredo.
“Well, now. Tell me what you have for breakfast.”
“Tortillas and beans,” said Alfredo.
The nurse nodded her head dismally to the principal. “What do you have when you go home for lunch?”
“I don’t go home.”
“Don’t you eat at noon?”
“Sure. I bring some beans wrapped up in a tortilla.”
Actual alarm showed in the nurse’s eyes, but she controlled herself. “At night what do you have to eat?”
“Tortillas and beans.”
Her psychology deserted her. “Do you mean to stand there and tell me you eat nothing but tortillas and beans?”
Alfredo was astonished. “Jesus Christ!” he said, “what more do you want?”
In due course the school doctor listened to the nurse’s horrified report. One day he drove up to Teresina’s house to look into the matter. As he walked through the yard the creepers, the crawlers and the stumblers were shrieking one terrible symphony. The doctor stood in the open kitchen door. With his own eyes he saw the vieja go to the stove, dip a great spoon into a kettle and sow the floor with boiled beans. Instantly the noise ceased. Creepers, crawlers and stumblers went to work with silent industry, moving from bean to bean, pausing only to eat them. The vieja went back to her chair for a few moments of peace. Under the bed, under the chairs, under the stove the children crawled with the intentness of little bugs. The doctor stayed two hours, for his scientific interest was piqued. He went away shaking his head.
He shook his head incredulously while he made his report. “I gave them every test I know of,” he said, “teeth, skin, blood, skeleton, eyes, coordination. Gentlemen, they are living on what constitutes a slow poison, and they have from birth. Gentlemen, I tell you I have never seen healthier children in my life!” His emotion overcame him. “The little beasts,” he cried. “I never saw such teeth in my life. I never saw such teeth!”
“The Fable of The Day’s Work & The Morning After” by George Ade (1866-1944)
“Ade wrote this fable using the language and clichés of the moment. In other words, slang. He said that in order to let people know that he knew better than to use slang in writing, he decided to capitalize all suspicious words and phrases. He was mortally afraid that people would think that he was illiterate.”
The story beautifully illustrates how skilled we humans are at denial. I sometimes think that the gene that predisposes one to alcoholism is right next to a gene for denial; they are concomitant and expressed simultaneously.
PROMPTLY at 7.30 the Alarm Clock went off. The Rounder sat on the Edge of his Bed and wondered if there was Anything in it. His Tongue felt like a Rug. He was afraid to work his Face for fear it would Crack.
He took a Cold Plunge, rubbed some Pepper Sauce in his Hair, drank a Quart of Hot Water, gargled a Patent Preparation warranted to kill the Maroon Taste, and by that Time he was able to look at his Watch and realize that nobody in the whole World truly Loved him. He did not seem to have any keen Craving for Breakfast, so he drank two large ruby-red Cocktails, smelling like Furniture Polish, just as an Appetizer. After he got them placed he sat at the Window for a while, watching the Landscape straighten itself out. He remembered that he had two or three Friends, after all, so he decided to give this Earth another Trial. Accordingly he ordered up as many Ham and Eggs as could be forced on one Platter and two Stacks of Buckwheat Cakes, and he kept on until he had extinguished the Cocktails.
At an Early Age the Rounder had read in McGizzick’s Physiology that the Capacity of the Human Stomach is Three Pints. His Object in Life was to prove that McGizzick was away Off and must have got hold of a Youth’s Size.
After the Rounder had smothered the Cocktails under 80 Cents’ worth of Plain Food, he started for his Office, where he met a Drummer, who took him out to talk Business. They opened two or three Cold Bots and ate a few hillocks of Cottage Cheese, Souse, Dill Pickles, Radishes, Blutwurst and Rye Bread with Caraway in it, because they were Free. Then the Rounder excused himself because he had a Date for Luncheon. This light Repast consisted of Blue Points, Gumbo Soup, Fried Spring Chicken, Baked Potatoes, Cheese and other Food for the Gods floated to its Destination in a mixture of Ale and Stout, sometimes known as Liquid Buckshot. In the Afternoon our Hero went to his Club and played Pool, and whoever had it put on him had to buy what made Milwaukee famous for the Others. Along in the Middle of the Afternoon the McGizzick Theory did not have a Leg to stand on.
At Dinner Time he keyed up on Aqua Fortis and Bitters, which enabled him to take Nine Courses, with Red, White and Blue Irrigators to keep him Encouraged, and then four California Grapes for Dessert. By this Time, McGizzick, Author of the School Physiology, was a Liar by the Watch.
In the Evening the Rounder went to a Show. Between Acts he sauntered out with a few Western Gentlemen and seeped up frequent High Balls, accompanied by a little Snack of Oyster Crackers, the embalmed Herring known as the Blind Robin, Water Cress and Anchovies. After the Show they dropped in for their Broiled Lobster, Combination Salad, Welsh Rabbit and Nineteen Rounds of something to take. At a late Hour the Man who had demonstrated that McGizzick was an Ignoramus, went to his Brass Bedstead and lapsed into a State of Coma.
Next morning his Room was twisted. Some one had put a Bed of Live Coals under the Sheet. He felt as if he had swallowed a Steam Radiator and some one had gone down to repair it. He had a case of Bust-Head and a dry crackly Thirst. He sent for a Physician, and when the Learned Man came to make his Diagnosis, the Rounder said: “Doc, it’s my own Fault. I ate some Grapes last Night.”
MORAL: Avoid Fruit.
from “On Bread” by Sylvester Graham (1794-1851)
Sylvester Graham was one of the pioneers of dietary reform in the U.S. He was an ordained Presbyterian minister – hence the preaching tone of his language. The style of writing in the 19th century was generally quite complex and florid – witness Dickens and Melville.
But while the people of our country are so entirely given up as they are at present, to gross and promiscuous feeding on the dead carcasses of animals, and to the untiring pursuits of wealth, it is perhaps wholly in vain for a single individual to raise his voice on a subject of this kind. The farmer will continue to be most eager to increase the number of his acres, and to extort from those acres the greatest amount of produce, with the least expense of tillage, and with little or no regard to the quality of that produce in relation to the physiological interests of man; while the people generally, are contented to gratify their depraved appetites on whatever comes before them, without pausing to inquire whether their indulgences are adapted to preserve or to destroy their health and life. Yet if someone does not raise a voice upon this subject which shall be heard and heeded, there will soon reach us, as a nation, a voice of calamity which we shall not be able to shut our ears against, albeit we may in the perverseness of our sensualism, incorrigibly persist in disregarding its admonitions, till the deep chastisements of outraged nature shall reach the very “bone and marrow” of the human constitution, and fill our land with such a living rottenness, as now in some other portions of the earth, renders human society odious and abominable.
It would be difficult to ascertain at how early a period in the progress of society, mankind, in the preparation of wheat for bread-making, began to put asunder what God has joined together, and to concentrate the more purely nutrient properties, by separating the flour from the part commonly called the bran. The Bible speaks of fine flour or meal, as a portion of the meat offerings of the temple, but it is not probable this approached very near to the superfine flour of the present time.
We are informed also that the Romans, more than two thousand years ago, had four or five different kinds of bread – one of which was made of the purest flour, from which all the bran was separated. This was eaten only by the rich and luxurious. A second kind, in more common use was that from which a portion of the bran was taken; and a third kind, which was more generally used than any other, was that which was made of the whole substance of the wheat. A fourth kind was made mostly of the bran, for dogs.
But at whatever period in the history of the race, this artificial process was commenced, certain it is that in direct violation of the laws of constitution and relation which the Creator has established in the nature of man, this process of mechanical analysis is, at the present day, carried to the full extent of possibility; and the farina, and gluten, and saccharine matter of the wheat, are almost perfectly concentrated in the form of superfine flour. Nor is this all – these concentrated nutrient properties of the wheat are mixed and complicated in ways innumerable, with other concentrated substances, to pamper the depraved appetites of man, with kinds of food which always and inevitably tend to impair his health and to abbreviate his life.
Even bread, which is the simplest form into which human ingenuity tortures the flour of wheat, is, by other causes besides the concentration I have named, too frequently rendered the instrument of disease and death, rather than the means of life and health, to those that eat it.
from “Health Food Junkies” by Steven Bratman
This book is subtitled: “Orthorexia Nervosa – Overcoming the Obsession with Healthful Eating”. See the author’s quite interesting website in which he terms his book “extremely non-best-selling”.
“One of the primary features of orthorexia is the feeling that we are better than others because of our fantastic diet. Since the rest of the world does not adhere to the God-given laws of healthy eating (as we uniquely understand them), we can’t eat with the rest of the world. Besides, a great deal of our identity is tied up in diet.” ... “The net effect is social isolation. The ancient satisfaction of breaking bread with a friend is denied us; we must either bring our own bread (a concoction of potato flour, amaranth, and spelt that only an orthorexic could love) or eat alone. This isolation is a real emotional harm caused by orthorexia. As my health food guru realized in Chapter 1, “Rather than eat my sprouts alone, it would be better for me to share a pizza with some friends.“ A good half or more of the joy of life comes from relationships; when orthorexia interferes with those relationships, it causes a real impoverishment of our lives.”
from “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
In “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau analyses the individual’s relationship to the state and focuses on why men obey governmental law even when they believe it to be unjust. But “Civil Disobedience” is not an essay of abstract theory. It is Thoreau’s extremely personal response to being imprisoned for breaking the law. Because he detested slavery and because tax revenues contributed to the support of it, Thoreau decided to become a tax rebel. There were no income taxes and Thoreau did not own enough land to worry about property taxes; but there was the hated poll tax – a capital tax levied equally on all adults within a community.Thoreau declined to pay the tax and so, in July 1846, he was arrested and jailed. He was supposed to remain in jail until a fine was paid which he also declined to pay. Without his knowledge or consent, however, relatives settled the “debt” and a disgruntled Thoreau was released after only one night.
Thoreau may have also brooded over the reaction of Emerson, who criticized the imprisonment as pointless. According to some accounts, Emerson visited Thoreau in jail and asked, “Henry, what are you doing in there?”
Thoreau replied, “Waldo, the question is what are you doing out there?”
The Airola Principle
The following is verbatim [as close as I could get it, anyway] from the audio tapes of an 11-day seminar that Paavo Airola (1918-1983) held in 1980 at the Feathered Pipe Ranch near Helena, Montana. He is not a native English speaker so there are some grammatical flaws but he is such a good communicator that his message gets through quite clearly, nonetheless.
Paavo Airola died of a cerebral aneurysm at age 65. Some might say that this early death invalidates everything he advocated. In his books he addressed this point in this way:
“Do not follow my teachings because I say so. I do not go for the Hollywood concept of the exalted celebrity or the revered guru. Follow my teachings because they are true.”
“None of us know how long we will live. There are no guarantees. The important point is that without good health we cannot enjoy the years we do have. ”
As you read you can listen to Dr. Airola speaking:
When the typical American is faced with health foods he is often appalled at how untasty it is. He feels that there is a certain suffering involved to sacrifice all these goodies. He used to love beer and she used to love chocolate cakes. And others used to love hamburgers. Others, of course, loved wine. And some partying, occasionally. And all these things you sacrifice because you have become a health faddist. And any books that you read, any programs you go on, they all recommend that you stick to this health lifestyle and you become faddist and we become afraid. Some of us don’t want to do anything. And we don’t feel good about it. You know, being a faddist is alright but if you have a hard heart of a faddist then it becomes difficult to endure. Many of us think that we have to endure some sacrifice to be healthy. Just like with brewers yeast we hate the taste but we eat it anyway and suffer because it is healthy. So we suffer and endure certain regimes put on ourselves and feel restricted. We restrict ourselves for some benefits that we will reap – sometime – maybe now – sometimes just live longer or avoiding this and that, and so forth. And there are feelings like this.
So I have some very good news for you today.
There is no reason to avoid any of those things that you wish to do. Living a healthy lifestyle will not automatically prohibit us from doing any of those things. (The punch line comes now ...)
You can violate every health rule – any and all health rules – provided you do this no more often than once a month. Any rule whatsoever. And not only will this not do any harm (and this is the whole essence of it) it will actually do you lots of good.
(from audience:) “but not for sick people, right?”
Yes. We’re talking, of course, about those healthy people who are on a health routine. If you’re in a hospital under doctor’s prescription and your doctor says do such and such, don’t tell your doctor,
“listen ... Dr. Airola said that I can violate any rule. I have already been in the hospital a month and now my day of Airola Principle has come in and I want to go out on the town tonight, doctor.”
No, no. We’re talking about healthy people who live on healthful regimes to prevent disease. We’re not talking about sick people on therapeutic diets, we’re talking about people on preventive, maintenance diets, living healthy lifestyles.
Now, why would I say that not only will this not harm you (this maybe some of you can understand), but how can it benefit you? Here’s how that works. Our system is equipped with protective mechanisms, we have specific glandular systems, specific glands in our body, which excrete specific protective elements, antigens and other elements which protect us against all kinds of unexpected stresses in our environment, because our creator knew we will always be subject to unexpected dangerous stresses, whether it is from bacterial source, from toxins or stresses or abuses of some sort. When a bear runs towards us, a bear in the woods. What we going to do? Well, the smart thing to do is to don’t move too fast, sit down, relax, he looks at you, and maybe he walks away. But let’s say he already runs towards you very fast and you decide to run away from him. How are you going to run away from him at that speed that you have never done before? Some people say they jump over fences like deer when they run from the bear. Where do they get the power? The adrenaline and other elements in your body mobilizes immediately, we are prepared for emergencies, we have that mechanism. Imagine if you would structure your life in such a way that you do not subject yourself to any stresses, ever. Everything is so structured, you always sleep normal life, you never abuse yourself nutritionally, never do any kind of violations of any rule, and you are such a such a superb, perfect purist and perfectionist that everything you do is just absolutely perfect and perfect and perfect.
(from audience:) “that’s impossible!”
No, that is possible because some people come quite close to it. Then your mechanisms, the protective, defensive mechanisms in your system would atrophy gradually because it has never been subjected to anything. If your body is never subjected to any kind of poisons of any kind, like I said before, one mosquito bite may kill you because the body will have no defensive ability to protect itself. But if you subject yourself to occasional stresses, periodic stresses, then your body will develop a resistance against this, will be always on preparedness and ready to meet the demands of stress, and protect itself when it is needed.
I learned that principle interestingly in Canada when I lived there on a farm and I had made some observations. Down on my farm by the lake, we had a forest. I had hundred acre farm there. There was a beautiful forest with beech trees, huge beech trees, it was a high forest. Among those beech trees, we had white birch, beautiful white birch, growing between those beech trees. In order to reach the sun, that birch had to grow a long long way to pass all those big trees to come to the sun. Long, narrow and tall and all white, slim, narrow, beautiful birches. Among the wood, basically perfect white lines with little black dots, growing beautiful among those.
On the same farm, we had a hill behind our barn, little hill and rocks, and there grew birches also. I lived in birch area. There, I have seen in Sweden those birches, they grow in Hälsingland, in the mountains there. Helmer Osslund painted those in pictures very often, famous Swedish artist. The birches on the top of the hill, look like this, all curved and twisted. Because wind and storm blew them constantly all the time, to all directions, and they became very very crooked and twisted and short and all bent like that.
The Hunzas, every month or so they have festivities. They are vegetarians, they live frugal life and very healthy diet. Once a month, they have a fiesta of some sort, always some fiesta. They kill their pig, they roast their pig, make their homemade wine, and they eat and overeat, and drink and dance all night. At the big feast, maybe day or even two. If there is no religious feast available, it is a wedding or funeral – always they find some reason to celebrate like this occasionally approximately once a month. And when this is over and when the headache and hangover disappears, they go back to work and live another month and they live a frugal life, looking forward to a month later to have another fiesta. Here we come to the psychological benefits of Airola Principle. The psychological factor, knowing that you don’t have to suffer, you don’t have to sacrifice, you know that it is just temporary, you know that once a month you can allow yourself to go loose and do whatever you always wanted to do – without harm, but even with benefit. That gives you a psychological release from a strict discipline. Any kind of discipline has various sorts of killing, destructive, depressing, and repressing effects on human beings. Because we are free souls, we have to be free, we like to do what we want and yet we put ourselves in the discipline. Churches apparently recognize this need, this inherent need in human beings, for that release, that let-go period, and that’s why all these festivities apparently are structured there. Most sort of religious groups do that.
On this basis I developed my Airola Principle that goes like this: When you eat the optimum diet, and adhere to all these principles, take all the vitamins, live very good, and rest and exercise, and build your health and this sort of thing – if – now I don’t want to go so far as to say that you have to do the Airola Principle – of course not. If you are happy and perfectly in peace and satisfied and content with yourself that you can live always a highly structured and strictly disciplined life and never do any deviations from that – if that is your bag – by all means, do it. However, if you are not one of those, if you are one of those majority who feel that an occasional thing would a really release and would be beneficial for your mind, for your ego, for your whatever you like to do that – you know we are social human beings we like to have social events and we have to celebrate. Celebrations of all kinds are beneficial. You know we have to celebrate things, all kinds – even devise reasons to celebrate. If you are one of those, and if you want to do that, if you do that once a month – and that is the secret – no more than once a month – that will not only not do you much harm it will actually do you lots of good. In other words I want you then to do that without guilt because guilt is the important thing that you have to avoid here because now most of you are doing that anyway whether I say that or not but you have guilt that you violated something and something is wrong committed and you have that guilt. But if you know that that will not harm you but actually do you lots of good then it will allow you to do it without guilt.
Now the danger is – why I never wrote about this principle – why I never like to put it on the tape because many people misunderstand that. One of the things that first comes in their mind is, of course, that, okay, Dr. Airola likes to win lots of friends and no enemies so he allows to do anything of this sort and caters to the weaknesses of people just to please them. This is one thing that comes to mind. Well this is the farthest thing from my mind really because I long ago went over that stage. You already know me here that I am one who believes and says what I believe and call a spade a spade whether you like it or not. This is not much of my concern. I know what is truth and know what I believe and I tell the truth and I know that some people don’t like me telling the truth and are not pleased very much. I could win many more friends if I would be in the middle of the road and recommend you know just wishy-washy. I’m not one of those guys. So that is not the reason I am telling you that – the reason is really because I happen to believe that that principle is valid and based on solid scientific fact. Any questions?
(from audience:) “the Richard Jackson Syndrome”
Okay – The Richard Jackson Syndrome. One of my students was impressed by this and felt that it was a valid principle. I met him in Los Angeles last winter and we had dinner together – oh not together – I had dinner with my group and he had dinner with his wife or girlfriend.
“Where are you going?”, I asked him.
“I am on my way to Tijuana.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to use the Airola Principle that I have saved for five months and now I’m going to have five days off and have an Airola Principle binge.”
Okay, this is not the way to do it. No, you cannot do that. Even if you miss some you can do only one day and only once a month and you cannot just save five months and have a five day destructive thing. That is too much and you may damage your health too much by doing that. You see what I mean? That’s what we call the Jackson Syndrome because that boy’s name is Jackson.
Any other questions? Tell me – Any of you here feel that that principle is definitely ... oh that’s the way it goes ... like this [thumbs up]? Do you feel that that is a valid principle? Does it make sense what I told you? Well, wonderful, wonderful.
So remember – one month from now, from today – you can start this practice!