I just watched The Gerson Miracle at Hulu, click here to watch it.

According to the Gerson Inst "The Gerson Therapy is a safe, natural treatment developed by Dr. Max Gerson in the 1920’s that uses organic foods, juicing, coffee enemas, detoxification and natural supplements to activate the body’s ability to heal itself.  Over the past 60 years, thousands of people have used the Gerson Therapy to recover from so-called “incurable” diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and arthritis."  You can read parts of the book written by Charlotte Gerson "The Gerson Therapy" online on google books. 
You can see a full list of foods allowed and not allowed on the Gerson Diet here in pdf form.


Basically my take is that they are saying we are eating food lacking in nutrition, and living around chemicals which is abusing our bodies, and sooner or later our bodies can't protect ourselves the way they are suppose to.   I guess you could say it's kind of like boosting your immune system, that's not to say you can never get sick.  Your just less likely to get sick and more likely to get better sooner.  Can it really cure incurable diseases?  Maybe, maybe not, but I figure for me personally incorporating a few of the treatments into my life as a preventative measure can't hurt.  


What I Will not be Doing of the Gerson Therapy

Coffee enemas? 
uhhh...no...  

Will I go vegan?  
No but I do plan to have a little less animal products in my diet.  For example instead of having a huge steak, maybe I have a very small steak that grass-fed only and more veggies.  I will still drink cow milk, just less of it.  I plan to try to have a day a week that I do go completely vegan.

I Will Still Use Spices and Hot Peppers
If you take out salt fat sugar and spice you gotta leave something.  Plus there have been so many studies showing the nutrition benefit of a variety of spices.

I Will Not Stop Eating Beans

Unless I hear great evidence to the contrary I can't see any reason to stop eating beans.  I am not yet convinced.  (They only allow lentils occasionally).

I Will Not Stop Eating All Oils Except Flax oil.
coconut oil and oilve oil has great science behind their health benefits.  Now I will not use soy or canola oil.

I Will Still Eat Avocados
 Unless I hear great evidence to the contrary I can't see any reason to stop eating avocados.  Most of the health community considers the fats in avocados to be healthy.  I am not in the all fats are bad for you camp either. 


I Will Still Eat Pineapples and Berries

We know berries are loaded with vitamins and antioxidants.  If the B-17 cancer cure is true berries have a lot of it.  Pineapples can't be all that bad, I only have it every once in a while.

I Will Still Eat Nuts and Seeds
All the other diets I have studied strongly recommend eating nuts and seeds.


What I Will  be Doing of the Gerson Therapy

Juicing
Wow this has totally inspired me to juice like crazy!  Luckily I already have a juicer, the Jack Lalanne one which luckily is the 2 stage kind they recommend.  This is the part of the therapy I'm most excited about.  I mean how can having more fruits and vegetables in your diet be bad?  Think of all that extra nutrition you'll be getting. They drink 13 glasses a day!  Maybe 3-4 is more realistic to me.  One with each meal, and a glass, that's doable I believe.  Look for lots of new juicing recipes!  Here's my juicing recipe based off the Gerson Miracle.  I try to have at least one glass of this a day.

Take Flax Seed Oil Supplements 
I think an omega 3 supplement should be taken by everyone, as well as adding extra omega 3 into recipes whenever possible.  I currently take fish oil supplements, and add ground flax seeds to recipes whenever possible.  I plan to switch from fish oil to krill oil due to a substance in krill known as astaxanthin (a potent antioxidant and has anti-inflammatory properties.)

Buy Organic Fruits and Vegetables or Grow Your Own 
 Luckily I already do this, but looking at all the vegetables we will be eating and how expensive organic can be, well it makes me even more glad that I'm doing organic gardening, and makes me want to grow different vegetables then I would otherwise.  Since we are planning this years garden right now it's a great time to figure out what I will want to grow for juicing.

Try to Rid Your Home of Toxic Chemicals  
I have already been trying to do this.  I am slowly converting over products in our household to all natural alternatives.  Mostly cleaning products and personal bath and body products.  It's a process, that takes time.  Take it one step at a time. 

Stop Eating Soy Products
with the exception of an occasional asian stir fry (I can't not have any soy sauce) and miso (it doesn't inhibit nutrients if it's fermented) 

Eat Oatmeal For Breakfast With organic fresh Orange Juice 
From what I have read this is what they have every mourning  on the Gerson therapy for breakfast.  That's something easy every one can do.  I'd assume it's with no sugar.  I do steel cut oats with no salt and a teaspoon of brown sugar (cause you do need a little bit in my opinion, cinnamon and sprinkle it with ground flax seeds and walnuts. I'm assuming the orange juice is fresh pressed, but I would imagine organic OJ would be an ok if not less then ideal substitute.   Even if you do nothing else with the Gerson therapy your at least eating 1/3 of your meals the Gerson way if you do this one easy thing.

Stop Consuming Fluoride  
Fluoride free toothpaste here I come!  I am thinking a reverse osmosis may be the best bet for removing fluoride from the water.  All the more reason to make things from scratch.  Just think of how much fluoride is probably in processed foods.

 One thing I did was replace our plastic shower curtain and liner with a fabric ones due to the PVC that's released in the air when you shower.  It's great instead of just throwing the shower liner away when it's nasty, I just wash it!  I can't imagine how many shower liners I've thrown out in my life.  Funny how going green always seems to have an added health benefit!  Another example is we replaced our non-stick cookware with a stainless steel All- Clad cookware set.  We plan to eventually take out our carpeting and refinish our hardwood floors under with an all natural wax.


I look forward to hearing what you think about this!

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