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you are exposed to the powerful effects the methods described within this book will afford you, there is no turning back. As a result of reading this book, you will come to view your own body in a completely different way and will inevitably take better care of yourself in the future. The clear comprehension of the causes of disease and how to maintain and achieve optimal wellness will crystallize in your mind, giving you a powerful tool to 25
    regain control of your own health even if you never undergo a fast.
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Chapter 2
Improper Nutrition:
    The Major Cause of Disease
    Man lives on one quarter of what he eats.
    On the other three quarters lives his doctor.
    -INSCRIPTION
    ON AN EGYPTIAN PYRAMID,
    3800 B.C.
    Modern research has confirmed the folk adage that eating less, and especially eating less fats and high-protein animal foods, prolongs life.
    Our rich, modern diet has been implicated as a causative factor in cancer, heart attack, stroke, hardening of the arteries, and diabetes, and the leading causes of death in this country can be prevented or delayed by adopting healthier nutritional habits. The same foods that cause premature deaths also subject us to misery and chronic illness in life.
    This is the main purpose of this book: to provide a more complete understanding of the cause of various diseases and to explain how to remove the obstacles to healing so you can recover your health.
    If individuals choose to undergo a fast for internal cleansing and rejuvenation of their system, or for therapy of a specific disease, they must combine the fast with a healthy diet before and after fasting to maintain the benefits they reap from the fast. In many instances the change in diet alone is sufficient to achieve a complete recovery.
    Many do not comprehend the relation between their food intake, their lifestyle habits, and their chronic illnesses, such as arthritis, osteoporosis, recurrent infections, allergies, acne, asthma, and sinusitis. Ironically, and sadly, health authorities, most physicians, and dieticians recommend the very same eating plans that cause these diseases to develop in the first place. Patients and their physicians generally rationalize that the problems they are facing are genetic, biochemical, structural, or otherwise beyond their control. Patients are frequently told the food they consume has nothing to do with the disease from which they suffer. This is simply untrue. Most chronic medical problems are not only caused by improper diet and lifestyle, but also can be reversed by adopting a more primitive and natural diet, one that our species was originally designed for.
    This information is not a ―new breakthrough‖ or medical discovery. Many 27
    renowned physicians, after reviewing the evidence collected over the last few decades, are taking a new approach to dietary recommendations. For example, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, headquartered in Washington, D.C., has recently asked the Department of Agriculture to replace the traditional four food groups (meat, dairy, grains, and fruits and vegetables) with four new ones: fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes. The reasoning behind this change is sound — it emphasizes the foods that protect against disease rather than those that cause disease.
    Unfortunately, we live in a modern society where suffering from preventable illnesses and chronic disease is the ―norm.‖ Half of us die from the totally avoidable occurrence of heart disease, and the majority of the individuals who do not die of hardening of the arteries die of cancer. Millions suffer from osteoporosis, deterioration of the musculoskeletal system, and chronic back and joint pain. The majority of people in this country are out of shape and overweight, and live their lives waiting for some disease to strike.
    From hay fever and allergies to hypertension and high cholesterol, all these chronic conditions can be prevented through optimal nutrition. We do not need to be a