Many eminent and experienced homeopaths have died of cancer in recent years. Certainly, we’re all going to die, but we have at our fingertips the perfect tools for healing our illnesses, so why should this condition, the pinnacle of poor health, be so prevalent in our profession? What are we overlooking?
T.Colin Campbell PhD, https://nutritionstudies.org/the-china-study/, is a nutritional biochemist researcher of Cornell University in the USA, with over 65 years of experience in his field. He started out in his career, believing that meat and dairy were the answers to world health.
As his research continued, he began to question his early views. So in the early 1980s, with the help of researchers from Oxford University (UK) and the Chinese Academy of Preventative Medicine, he embarked on what must be the most comprehensive nutritional study ever undertaken.
Rural China was selected as the perfect research area as the population hadn’t been infiltrated by western diets and fast food. Their diets were traditional, stable and almost exclusively plant based.
In the early 1990s, the results began to be published. It confirmed Campbell’s growing findings, which were in direct opposite to his initial beliefs. It’s not easy for a scientist to do an about turn in his thinking. It can be career suicide. However, Campbell was brave, as well as honourable and honest enough to do so.
In 2005, he published his findings in his first book The China Study, co-authored with his son, Thomas, an MD by then. Many medical doctors of different persuasions, took this research seriously and started to introduce it to their patients. Medical doctors see far more patients than do most homeopaths, so when they present honest findings, it’s behoves us to take notice. And one always has to admire those MDs who suggest a change in life style over drugs!
Their clinical findings should have shaken the world, had they been properly reported. Serious diseases, chronic diseases, auto-immune diseases were being healed, simply by a change of diet. This occurred in a large majority of the patients. They remained healed as long as the diet was maintained.
Some of the practitioners who have adopted this diet include: Michael Gregor, Dean Ornish, Michael Klaper, Neal Barnard, John McDougall, Joel Kahn, Caldwell Esselstyn, the Sherzais, David Katz, Scott Stoll, Gabriel Cousens and others as the list continues to grow.
Others outside the medical field have made it an essential part of their holistic practices. Some are Pamela Popper, Brenda Davis, Douglas Graham, Brian Wendel, James and Laurentine Colquhoun, John and Ocean Robbins.
Samual Hahnemann mentioned the importance of diet in the Organon, but not in great detail or why, and so it’s not part of our training. Nandita Shah, of Sharan, has reduced her homeopathic practice, to provide courses and workshops teaching people how to manage this diet. The Other Song has integrated a plant based diet into their teaching.
In essence, the diet that kept the rural Chinese so healthy and active into ripe old age, was one that was low in fat and high in dietary fibre and based on whole food plant- based food. The terms Whole Food and Plant Based Diets were coined. This is different from a vegan diet, which could be very poor quality, such as beer and chips, or bread and jam!
It’s always satisfying to be able to confirm (real) scientific research conclusions from another angle. Anatomically, humans may be omnivores, but we’re very close to the herbivore end of the scale. This can be seen by comparisons:
– carnivores have sharp, spiky teeth, to crunch up bones
herbivores, and humans have grinding molars for the tough cellulose in plants
– carnivores have acid saliva with no pre-digesting enzyme, ptyalin
herbivores, and humans have alkaline saliva with ptyalin (plant cellulose takes a lot of digestion)
– carnivores have intestines about three times their body length, to allow digested meat to pass through quickly, so it doesn’t decay
herbivores, and humans, have intestines 10 – 12 times their body length, for the same reason as with the saliva
– carnivores have stomach acid about 20 times stronger than herbivores and humans. The stomach acid is which is needed to digest meat
Other anatomical differences include:
– carnivores have claws
herbivores, and humans, have no claws
– carnivores perspire though their tongue and paws and have no skin pores
herbivores, and humans, perspire through skin pores
The sketch below shows what I mean. Cats are carnivores, ie can only eat/process and flourish on a meat and bones diet. Horses are herbivores, ie can only eat/process and flourish on plant food. Along with dogs, humans are omnivores. However, dogs are at the carnivore end, as can be seen, not least, by their spiky teeth that are needed to crunch up bones. Humans are at the herbivore end as can be seen, not least, by their molars that grind up plant cellulose.
Having grown up on a largely vegetarian diet, I had no difficulty taking the next step, myself. In my personal practice, I have found it difficult to get my patients to read the literature or to take my dietary recommendations seriously, so I have largely moved away from that area unless asked. I leave it to the wisdom the of the healing prescription to do that work. People can make their own choices. The recent film What The Health has been an eye opener for many, so now I recommend they watch that.
Many of the above mentioned practitioners, who speak at the annual conference The Real Truth About Health have made videos, so I use these in my educational literature and marketing.
I believe this training should be a strong part of any holistic health practice. It cannot be overlooked. T. Colin Campbell has created an online course on his findings, backed by Cornell University.
Chris Wark, of ChrisBeatCancer.com, made a total recovery on this diet. He recently interviewed oncologist Patrick Quillin PhD, who has no hesitation in speaking his mind. This can be viewed on Chris’s website.
Had the recently deceased homeopaths included this diet in their treatment, they might still be here.
Cats and Dogs
What about our closest companions, the cats and dogs?
Unlike humans, our companion animals have no choice in the food they’re given. So when I treat cats and dogs, who are almost always in bad shape by the time I get to see them, the first thing I do is to hammer home the importance of the right diet.
I see a much greater compliance rate in this aspect than I do in my human patients! Possibly because they are, by now, desperate. And it’s easy to paint a really dark picture of the current, commercial pet food. They do leave themselves wide open. Scientific? Balanced? Complete? Natural? Yeah, pigs might fly.…
The most common problems any homeopath tends to get are those that the medical profession is unable to help – the chronic diseases, the rare diseases, the auto-immune diseases, the cancers. In my clinic the biggest problems I am presented with in cats tend to be stomatitis and renal failure. Both conditions are badly managed by the veterinary industry, almost always ending up with an early, and often ugly, death.
From the above anatomical comparisons, it can be seen that cats (carnivores) have an altogether different anatomy from ours. It’s hardly surprising that their daily diet of plant based food (that makes up the bulk of commercial cat food), is neither nutritious nor suitable for them. And the end result is serious diseases occurring at earlier and earlier ages, as each generation is weakened.
Changing a cat’s diet to raw meat and small bones to crunch on, can have a dramatic, and often very quick, transformation in their health. Their immune system can take a giant leap forward, leaving behind all those man made diseases that so plague the domestic cat.
Many holistic practitioners are unaware of the dangers of herbs, turmeric, CBD, apple cider vinegar, etc for cats and prescribe them thinking they’re helping. They may be good for us, but cats are very different.
Nick Thompson, a holistic vet in the UK is a strong voice for raw diets and travels Europe to encourage vets. There are a growing number in America, largely trained by homeopathic vet Richard Pitcairn, who embraced raw diets early in his career.
BARF diets and other raw food brands have made their way into this growing market. Most are good, or at least much better than the dry, canned, semi dried or rolls. At least for dogs. But as most contain plant-based food, as well as synthetic supplements, they can still be a hazard for cats.
Cats, true carnivores, are badly misunderstood by the veterinary industry. Yet it isn’t difficult to understand them.
Dogs, being omnivores at the carnivore end of the scale, can cope with more plant- based food in their diet. However, this would only occur in nature seasonally, such as the winter in the northern hemisphere, when the herds move to warmer climes. I don’t believe it to be a healthy long term diet.
I was introduced to the idea of the right diet for cats some time before my training as a homeopath. It made complete sense to me, but I stumbled around a good deal. Now I teach others how to convert the fussiest cat to a raw diet!
When I can steer people into feeding both themselves and those in their care, according to the species, then one of the major causes of disease has been removed. I have no doubt Hahnemann would approve!
Madelaine, in contrast to what you say, the diets I taught the veterinarians in my homeopathy training program always included the advice not to use the raw meat diets. This was because of the accumulated toxins. This advice was mostly ignored and the problem has become much worse. The 4th edition of our book that came out two years ago, has reworked recipes, balanced and complete, using plant-based for dogs and cats. There are some exceptions that a few included meat for cats, but most are plant based. FYI.
Is there any scientific evidence that a plant based vegetarian diet helps animals? I have read just the opposite, pets need MEAT especially CATS that are carnivores.. Don’t cat’s lack the needed enzymes to appropriately digest carbs and plant matter? From my own experience, my cats greatly improved when I switched to a raw species appropriate diet for my cats.
Amy, you are right. See my article “Everything You Know About Pet Care Is Wrong”:
https://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/tidbits-57-everything-you-know-about-pet-care-is-wrong/
I cannot find a contact for Dr. Pitcairn but I have used his older book for years to prepare my dog’s diet and dogs before him. My dog had lyme and lyme nephritis and I just went back to leaving the chicken raw. Without Dr. Pitcairn’s and Juliette Levy’s work, he would not be doing so well. I would really like more info on the toxins in the raw meat. I use not only organic chicken legs but ones from Bell and Evans. Their website is certainly worth visiting and seeing what efforts they go to in order to produce the safest and most humane chicken.. Not for me but for Jack the dog – I eat WFPB. I jjust ordered the new edition of Dr. Pitcairn’s book. If the meat, no matter how it is produced, should be cooked, I would really appreciate knowing if there are no exceptions. I will cook starting tomorrow but would love to know the reasons behind this. The old edition has been with me since it was printed. My local vet studied with Dr. Pitcairn so I consider myself and my dogs very fortunate.
This should be added to my previous comment. I just remembered that the recipes in Dr Pitcairn’s earlier book did not use raw meat. Seems that evolved over the years under other influences. However, the amount of meat in his diet for dogs with kidney disease is what I have followed. It sounds from his comment that he is now using all plant based. Is that correct?
Just to be clear, humans unlike hooved herbivores, cannot digest plant cellulose -that was a bit ambiguous in this article:”herbivores, and humans have alkaline saliva with ptyalin (plant cellulose takes a lot of digestion)” and “Humans are at the herbivore end as can be seen, not least, by their molars that grind up plant cellulose.” Cellulose is better known as fiber and works very nicely to create bulk in stools and facilitate elimination. I read Campbell’s China Study several years ago and adopted a PBWF diet. I had been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for over 30 years and the difference was remarkable. I agree with the author that introducing this idea to clients is often a real struggle. Corporate media has trained us too well.
Do you personally know each of these dear homeopaths who have passed away from cancer and that they did not follow a plant based diet? A rather presumptuous judgment if you didn’t. And to speculate they may not have died had they eaten a different diet is, to me, disrespectful. To borrow a phrase from Michael Pollan, it is also now our dilemma that our fruits and vegetables are not only contaminated with cancer-causing RoundUp, but in the case of GMO crops are grown with it imbedded within it.
And sadly, even our organic foods, unless grown ourselves, have been detected to have pesticides. It is hard enough to get our clients to give up coffee, let alone change their entire diet. It would be more realistic to suggest general guidelines to eat a whole food diet with as much organic as possible, the elimination of fast and processed foods; and a drastic reduction in sugar intake would make a vast difference.
Lastly, Dr. Hahnemann was very specific in regard to diet in the “Chronic Diseases” but you won’t like his advice. Among other peculiarities, he mentions, “Beef and good wheat – bread or rye – bread together with cow’s milk and a moderate use of fresh butter seem to be the most natural and harmless food for men.” And, “Next to beef, mutton, grown chickens and young pigeons can be used.”
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