Vegetable that Heals: Health Benefits of Okra (Hibiscus esculentus), RECIPES, and more

Natural Human Diet according to Biological and Evolutionary Evidence

        The foods and influences to which a species is biologically adapted are those deemed "natural" to its disposition as derived by the sum total of their biological heritage from millions of years of evolution. Cumulative adaptations in each species over eons of time determines their natural dietary needs. For instance: The koala bear of Australia is adapted to eating a variety of gum leaves. The giraffe's long neck allows it to feed on the foliage of trees. The lion's fangs and claws allow it to kill and render animals for food. The eagle's keen eyesight and powerful claws make it a formidable predator of ground rodents and small game. Carnivores have become adapted to eating other animals. Non-carnivorous animals have adapted to eating vegetable matter as food.  Dietary adaptations more than anything else determine the features and characteristics of all creatures.

Table: Animal species classified on the basis of their natural biologically evolved diets.
{Dietary terms associated with vegetarianism}

Source: Dhillon, Sukhraj S. "A New Look at Vegetarianism: Its Positive Effects on Health and Disease Control” (ISBN: 1575150298). P P I Publishing, Dayton , OH , USA [1993]  

Humans Are Not an Exception  

        It is a basic premise of Natural Hygiene that humans, like all other creatures in nature are provided with all the materials and conditions required to maintain health. Species throughout nature intuitively restrict themselves to a limited variety of foods to which they are specifically adapted. We must conclude that humans are also intended to partake only of those foods to which we are physiologically adapted in order to live healthfully. Humans should be studied as a member of the whole biological community, and compared anatomically and physiologically with other species to ascertain our true dietary requirements. When considering the character of human anatomy and physiology relative to our natural diet we must do so within the context of nature, rather than in the artificial environment of modern life. In this way, we consider our natural foods as those that are consonant with our physiological faculties, rather than those that we have "acquired a taste for".

 Determining Our Natural Diet is Not a Matter of Belief.  

        Tradition and popularity are the poorest ways to determine a proper diet. Recent changes in our external environment do not alter our biological adaptations, our internal makeup, or our natural needs in order to establish optimum well being. Biological adaptations have been spurred on by stress over eons of time and by the need to adapt. They are slow to develop requiring extremely long periods of time to evolve.  Our highly industrialized environment involves more social adaptations or accommodations, and not physical or anatomical changes. By living according to our natural adaptations we can actually withstand the stress of modern life far better than if we transgress our biological needs.  

        The only authority we should rely on when it comes to determining what foods are best to eat is the human body. It is anatomy and physiology that decrees whether food is "acceptable" or "harmful". Determining our natural diet is not a matter of belief: its basis lies in scientific fact regarding our biological, biochemical, anatomical, and physiological features.  

      The first question in forming a scientific opinion about our natural diet is: What is our natural food? Are we true carnivores who secure their nutrient needs not only from raw flesh, but also from raw blood, bones etc, as tigers and wolves?  Are we true herbivores (grazers) who thrive on lettuce, grasses, raw grains, celery, etc., as do horses, cows and sheep? Are we granivores like birds who thrive mostly on raw seeds of grasses and grains? Are we natural omnivores who thrive in health regardless of the foodstuffs consumed? Or are we frugivores who can thrive on a diet of raw fresh bananas, grapes, apples, oranges, or melons meal after meal?

        The human digestive system and physiology determines our optimum diet.  By understanding the physiological processes that accompany food digestion and absorption, proper dietary habits can be scientifically determined.  

Teeth Comparison
        Most "nutritionists" assert that we have definite carnivorous leanings,  and some have even termed our incisor teeth "fangs" in defense of their erroneous position that humans are natural meat-eaters! If you look at the various species in the animal kingdom, each is equipped with teeth that are ideally suited to masticate a particular type of food.  Herbivores (like the cow) have 24 molars, eight jagged incisors in the lower jaw and a horny palate in the upper jaw. Their jaws move vertically, laterally, forward, and backward, enabling the herbivore to tear and grind coarse grasses. Omnivores (like the hog) have tusk-like canines allowing them to dig up roots. Frugivores (like the chimpanzee)  have 32 teeth: sixteen in each jaw including four incisors, two cuspids,  four bicuspids, and six molars. The cuspids are adapted for cracking nuts, and the uniform articulation of the teeth enables the frugivore to mash and grind fruits. On the contrary, carnivores (like the cat family)  have markedly developed canines that are long, sharp, cylindrical,  pointed, and set apart from the other teeth. Fangs and sharp pointed teeth that penetrate and kill, that rip and tear flesh, are a feature of all true carnivores (except certain birds). The powerful jaws of the carnivore move only vertically, and are ideal for ripping and tearing flesh that is swallowed virtually whole and then acted upon by extremely potent gastric juices. Human teeth are not designed for tearing flesh as in the lion, wolf or dog, but rather compare closely with other fruit-eating animals. Human teeth correspond almost identically to the chimpanzees and other frugivores. The complete absence of spaces between human teeth characterizes us as the archetype frugivore. The "canine" teeth of humans are short, stout, and slightly triangular. They are less pronounced and developed than the orangutan's, who rarely kills and eats raw flesh in its natural environment. Human canines  in no way resemble the long, round, slender canines of the true carnivore. Human teeth are not curved  or sharp like the wolves or tigers, nor are they wide and flat like the grass and grain-eating species.  Human teeth are actually like the fruit-eating monkeys, and the human mouth is best suited for eating  succulent fruits and vegetables.  It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for humans to eat raw flesh without the aid of fork and knife. To term our incisor teeth "fangs" or even to liken them as such is outrageous.  

                                                    Wolf                                                                                      Human

 Comparative Anatomy
        Natural carnivores have the inherent anatomical equipment provided as their birthright with which to apprehend, capture, kill, and rend their quarry. Dogs have powerful jaws that inflict fatal wounds to their prey.  Humans however, have no sharp claws for tearing; no sharply pointed fangs for slashing; nor are our eyes or olfactory senses well developed for hunting. Nor is the human body designed to run fast enough to capture prey. Humans cannot grab animals in their mouth as do dogs,  coyotes, wolves, jackals, lions, tigers, or cats. We instead inflict more damage with our hands and brute strength. Humans do however, have marvelous fingers, thumbs, and limbs for reaching, climbing and grabbing. Our natural food gathering capacity is very similar to the chimpanzees. Fruitarians of the primate order also have revolving joints in their shoulder, wrist, and elbow joints that allow for free movement in all directions. Frugivores have soft pliable, sensitive hands and fingers with opposable thumbs and flat nails that are perfect for grasping and gathering fruit.

         Regarding the extremities of the other species, herbivores possess hooves allowing them to walk easily about grassy plains, and carnivores possess sharp claws allowing them to violently attack their prey.  Tree-dwellers and fruit-gatherers also have stereoscopic binocular vision that makes vision precise enough to ascertain the position of tree limbs and objects.  

        Another anatomical comparison among species in the animal kingdom involves the structure of the skin. All vegetarian animals have abundant sweat glands. In carnivores, their sweat glands are atrophied and inactive. They are exempt from profuse sweating in order to prevent a large fluid loss that would cause concentrated precipitation of nitrogenous wastes (from flesh-eating). This explains why meat-eaters suffer in hot weather while vegetarians remain relatively comfortable.  

Comparative Digestive Physiology
        Among the various species throughout nature, the length of their particular alimentary canals also differs greatly in relation to their natural food. The gut of the carnivore is 3-6 times the length of their body. They require a short, smooth, fast-acting gut since their natural flesh diet becomes quite toxic and cannot be retained within the intestine for long without poisonous putrefaction taking place. The gut of the herbivore is sacculated for greater surface area, and is 30 times the length of their body. Its herb and grass diet is coarse and fibrous,  requiring longer digestion to break down cellulose. The length of the omnivore's alimentary canal is generally 6 times its body trunk size.  The gut of the frugivore (like humans) is also sacculated and is 12 times the length of its body.  The human digestive tract is about four times as long as the carnivores. The intestine of the carnivore is short and smooth in order to dissolve food rapidly and pass it quickly out of the system prior to the flesh putrefying. The human digestive tract is corrugated for the specific purpose of retaining food as long as possible until all nutriment has been extracted, which is the worst possible condition for the digestion and processing of flesh foods. Meat moves quickly through the carnivore's digestive tract and is quickly expelled. The human lengthy intestine cannot handle low-fiber foods including meat and dairy very quickly at all. As a consequence, animal foods decrease the motility of the human intestine and putrefaction almost invariably occurs (as evidenced by foul smelling stools and flatulence), resulting in the release of many poisonous by-products as the low-fiber food passes through, ever so slowly. In humans, eventual constipation may develop on a meat-centered diet. Colon cancer is also common, both of which are rare or non-existent on a high-fiber diet centered around raw fruits and vegetables.  

Stomach, Kidney and Liver!
        Stomach form and size among various species also vary markedly. In the carnivore the stomach is a small, round sack designed to dissolve flesh quickly and then pass it on for removal.  In plant eaters (particularly ruminants) stomachs are complicated adjoining sacks with ring-like convolutions. The frugivore stomach (including humans) is oblong and is characterized by folds called rugae which serve to retain food for relatively long periods.

        Organ sizes of various species also markedly vary. The liver and kidneys in the carnivore are much larger than in vegetarian animals. A lions kidney is twice the size of a bulls, and not much smaller than the elephants. This allows the lion to handle large amounts of protein and nitrogenous waste products contained in its natural flesh diet. The carnivores huge liver secretes larger amounts of bile into the small intestine than does the herbivores liver. There is a direct relation between the quantity of meat eaten and the amount of bile secreted.  Meat-eating therefore, places a strain on the small liver of humans which impairs the organ's function over a long period of time.  

        When you place humans on a diet for which they are NOT naturally adapted, this places unnatural stress on the organs of elimination.  Humans have never adapted to the carnivorous diet that is high in animal products. The human liver is smaller than the carnivores and as a result, we cannot detoxify the poisonous products inherent within animal foods such as uric acid (discussed below). Our kidneys are also smaller and become diseased from overwork caused by a diet high in animal protein.

 Comparative Digestive Enzymes
        The hydrochloric acid concentrations of various species are an additional determinant of their natural diet. A carnivores gastric juice is highly acidic, serving to prevent putrefaction while flesh undergoes digestion. Plant-eaters however, secrete a much less concentrated and less abundant quantity of hydrochloric acid that does not curtail the bacterial decomposition of flesh: a process that begins at the animals moment of death. Flesh is digested in an acid medium within the stomach.  Humans secrete a very weak concentration of hydrochloric acid relative to the carnivore, and little of the protein-splitting enzyme pepsinogen.  Carnivorous animals have concentrations of these flesh-digesting secretions 1100% greater than do humans. Lions can rip off and swallow your hand whole and quite readily digest it.  

Uric Acid: Toxic Component of Meat to Humans
        About 5% of the flesh volume of all animals consists of waste material called uric acid that is normally eliminated by the kidneys. Uric acid is a poison to humans because it is toxic and non-metabolizable. Nearly 100% of Americans suffer some form of osteoporosis which is due in large part, to the acidic end-products of meat (and grain) eating. All carnivorous animals however, secrete the enzyme uricase that breaks down uric acid so it can be readily eliminated. Humans do not generate this enzyme. Instead, we ABSORB uric acid when meat is eaten. As a result, calcium-urate crystals form and concentrate in joints, feet, and in the lower back. These deposits lead to arthritis, gout, rheumatism,  bursitis, and lower back pain. Humans are physiologically unsuited to utilizing meat as food. Natural carnivores swallow hunks of carrion almost unchewed, and the flesh is digested in the stomach with ease and facility. If humans were to do the same, we would digest very little of it before putrefaction set in and illness ensued. For humans, meat is a pathogenic and nutritionally deficient food.  

Saliva pH Varies Widely Among Species
        The saliva pH of various species is another determinant of their natural diet.  In carnivores, their saliva glands are small and secrete an acidic saliva having little or no effect on starch, which makes sense since flesh is virtually starch-free. Omnivores (like pigs) have tremendous salivary glands that secrete copious quantities of starch-splitting enzymes. Humans only have one starch-splitting enzyme,  versus a multitude of them in omnivores and other natural starch-eating animals. Our ptyalin is very limited. This rules us out as being true granivores (starch-eaters) which includes grains and cereals. Frugivores have salivary glands that secrete alkaline saliva, containing only moderate amounts of ptyalin, which initiates starch digestion. This tells us that humans and other frugivores can easily digest the small amount of starch contained in fresh fruits, nuts, and leafy greens, and that humans are not intended to subsist on a diet of highly starchy grain foods as many currently do.  (Diabetes mellitus is largely the result of consuming large amounts of refined sugars and starches. Even eating predominantly of whole grains and natural legumes as dietary staples can be injurious because of the need for excessive starch digestion).  

Science Verifies That Human Ancestors Were Frugivores

        Dr. Alan Walker, an anthropologist of John Hopkins University in Maryland , has done research showing that early humans were once exclusively fruit eaters. By careful examination of fossil teeth and fossilized human remains with electron microscopes and other sophisticated tools, Dr. Walker and his colleagues are absolutely certain that early humans until relatively recently, were total fruitarians.  Source: New York Time, May 15, 1979.

         "The natural food of man, judging from his structure, appears to consist principally of the fruits, roots, and other succulent parts of vegetables. His hands afford every facility for gathering them; his short but moderately strong jaws on the other hand,  and his canines being equal only in length to the other teeth, together with his tuberculated molars on the other, would scarcely permit him either to masticate herbage, or to devour flesh,  were these condiments not previously prepared by cooking."
-- Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), Regne Animal, Vol 1, p73

         In conclusion, our natural diet should consist primarily of fruits, nuts, and green vegetables.  We can be called frugivores because many "vegetables" are botanically considered fruits.

        Frugivores are physiologically equipped to obtain energy primarily from the natural sugar in fruits. Humans are bestowed with a kind of "natural sweet tooth" to guide us in the selection of foods that meet our biological disposition and our caloric needs: namely, sweet juicy fruits. Our anatomy is such that we are capable of picking fruits,  masticate, digest, and appropriate them with ease and efficiency. Fruits contain all the nutrients we need: vitamins, minerals, proteins (in the form of amino acids), fats, and carbohydrates. All seed-bearing foods are botanically defined as "fruit". This includes avocado, sweet pepper, cucumber, tomato, eggplant, even nuts and seeds.

        In Botany fruit is  mature ovary, and is made of two parts: the pericarp or edible flesh, and the seed portion itself from fertilized ovules.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=br_ss_hs/002-9285375-1842417?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&keywords=sukhraj+dhillon&Go.x=12&Go.y=9 

A NEW LOOK AT VEGETARIANISM

By Jonathan Reed

     With vegetarianism getting so much good and bad press, test your knowledge about the myth and reality of a vegetarian diet before you consider buying this guide.

QUIZ ON MYTH AND REALITY OF VEGETARIANISM

Answer the following questions as myth (M) or reality (R) and check your answers at the end.

1. Vegetarian foods cannot provide complete protein.
2. People become vegetarians due to religious and humanitarian reasons only, and the vegetarian movement is a kind of cult.
3. Over 75% of deaths in the U.S. that occur from heart ailments, stroke, and cancer can be reduced by adopting a vegetarian diet.
4. Green and yellow vegetables are helpful against cancer related to smoking.
5. Living exclusively on vegetables and fruits may cause deficiency of vitamins B12 and D.
6. Vegetarian foods are almost completely lacking in fat and cholesterol.
7. Vegetarians cannot compete in sports with meat eaters.
8. Our digestive tract and teeth are more suitable for plant foods.
9. Appropriate consumption of vegetarian foods can meet calcium requirements.
10. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains provide an excessive amount of carbohydrates which fatten us.

ANSWERS: (1) M; (2) M; (3) R; (4) R; (5) R; (6) R; (7) M; (8) R; (9) R; (10) M.

     This guide will provide scientific explanations to the above and 40 more questions.  In addition, it describes what is vegetarianism and why one should consider a vegetarian diet for health and disease control. The guide also contains vegetarian meal plans and sample menus.  You will have a fresh insight towards fruits and vegetables and will be able to enjoy a long disease-free life, full of health and vigor.

P.S. Remember, when you buy any one of these guides, you will receive FREE information on how to make THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS each and every month, LEGALLY and AT NO EXTRA COST TO YOU!!

Back to Guide List