'Millions of years of simultaneous natural evolution of human beings and their food supply have enabled you to sense the value of your food by its living quality or vitality. Your ordinary senses of taste and smell are crude by comparison, capable of a very limited range of sensations; yet up to now, our scientific knowledge of appetite is based entirely on these.
We have never before been able to understand how a year-old baby can select just what he needs from a range of whole fresh foods without any nutritional knowledge! He simply hungers for the qualities lacking in his own signature and craves foods offering these qualities (Pamphlet C1).
That experiment does not work with modern refined, processed and preserved foods because they no longer have a living signature. The child is forced to depend on his ordinary chemical senses, craving for the sweetness, saltiness, acidity or bitterness which is all they can tell him. These isolated tastes only switch off when he is thoroughly glutted and sick of the food bearing them; by then he has had far too much. Anything less obviously tasty is dull by comparison; he will not show any inclination to eat it however nourishing it may be.
The result resembles an addiction: unbalanced nutrition makes the child crave for chemicalized food in huge quantities — his taste buds are briefly gratified but his hunger never is. Nutritional balance is lost along with physical and mental health. If this results in catarrh (Leaflet P22) or Zinc deficiency (Leaflet F06) his sense of taste is further impaired, which makes matters worse.
All this has been taken full advantage of by food manufacturers, who have never been in the forefront of fundamental nutritional research. Their chief concern is with freedom from germs, simplicity and cost of manufacture, cosmetics and taste. They vie with each other to synthesize ever more tantalizing flavours. Sugar, salt, acids and bitters are heavily used both as primary flavours and to enhance what little other characteristic taste the food has left. Newer flavour enhancers have since been added to this battery and a long list of secret flavourings is treasured by each chef to give his product that extra edge. Sales now depend so much on chemical taste, colour, texture and marketing that nutritive value had become a very poor second — until people began to notice what was going on.
We now know that hyperactivity (Leaflet P75), allergy (Leaflet P12), overweight (Leaflet F10) and anorexia nervosa (Leaflet F11) can sometimes be traced either to chemical food additives directly or to the faulty nutrition that results from dependence on the counterfeit refined foods created around them. Widespread public awareness of chemical additives (Leaflet F14) has made their absence from a manufactured food product a strong selling point.
Organic agricultural methods are our next target, to replace the chemicals in fresh foods with that vital quality to which our instincts can learn to respond. But it takes a long time to regain the use of senses long neglected. Meanwhile we must eat intelligently to cultivate those finer faculties again.
What to do
1. Go through your larder and take stock of the food you buy. Note how much of it is really fresh and alive until you eat it and how much is dead and unnaturally preserved; how much is still whole in its natural form and how much is refined and chemically processed. Decide not to buy a few of the most refined and chemicalized dead items next time.
2. Do not simply leave these out but substitute something tasty and better. Replace sweets with nuts and fruit, sugary cereals with porridge or whole wheat, white sugar with black molasses or malt. They cost more so buy and use less of them; they are much more nourishing and tasty, weight for weight.
3. Keep up the pressure once you have started, replacing each week a few of the worst remaining items. Learn as you go along how to serve them to best advantage. You are gradually changing over to the diet for health (Pamphlet F1).
4. Be firm with your children and get the change over quickly. The secret is to let them get really hungry if necessary. Tell them what you are doing and go right ahead. Serve three fresh wholesome meals a day, withholding all sugar and salt to start with. Replace squashes and cordials with diluted juices, and sweets with fruit. Show no concern at what they leave on their plates but do not allow any snacks between meals. Within a very few days they get properly hungry and begin to notice the subtle satisfaction proper food offers.
5. If they do not, they may need mineral or vitamin supplements (Leaflet F03 deficiencies can disturb their taste sensibility. Zinc (15 mg daily), Brewer’s Yeast (3-6 tablets daily) and Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine, 50mg daily) are the most useful to start with; but they may eventually need more, under guidance from a Naturopath (Leaflet C09), Nutritionist or Dietician (addresses S20).
6. Do not then expect them to empty every plate. Respect their appetites for good quality food, they will not need so much of it.
7. Ban chemical food treats at home. They will get quite enough at other children’s parties and you may be surprised at the disturbing effect this has on them. If they feel bloated or ill or are actually sick it is worth sympathetically pointing out the connection with the counterfeit food they are spared at home. Other children are adapted to this stress because they are regularly exposed to it. Better fed children resist the stress properly, because they meet it seldom and recognize its threat to their immunity (Leaflet S11).