Kelley-Gonzalez diet

Kelley-Gonzalez diet

The Kelley-Gonzalez diet consists of large amounts of raw fruits, juices, raw and steamed vegetables, cereals, and nuts. When combined with massive quantities of dietary supplements and freeze-dried pancreatic enzymes, together with a “detoxification” process involving coffee enemas, it is said to slow the growth of cancer tumors.

Origins

The Kelley-Gonzalez regimen is based on a belief that enzymes from the pancreas are capable, like chemotherapy, of killing cancer cells. The use of pancreatic enzymes to treat cancer was first proposed in 1906 by John Beard, a Scottish embryologist. This idea received some attention at the time but was largely abandoned after Beard died in 1923.

During the 1960s, the concept was resurrected by William Donald Kelley, a controversial dentist from Grapevine, Texas. Kelley wrote a book titled One Answer to Cancer that outlined his five-pronged approach:

• Nutritional therapy: Beef pancreatic enzymes combined with numerous other dietary supplements.
• Diet: A carefully individualized diet, ranging all the way from vegetarian to all-meat.
• Detoxification: As few as three or as many as 52 weeks of enemas and laxative purging.
• Neurological stimulation: Various manipulations including chiropractic, osteopathic, mandibular, and physiotherapeutic.
• Spiritual therapy: Prayer and Bible reading.

Kelp

Kelp

Kelp (Fucus vesiculosus) is a type of brown sea-weed, moderate in size, that grows in regions with cold coastlines, including those of the northwestern United States and northern Europe.

There are several varieties of kelp: true kelp, which thrives in cool seas; giant kelp, and bladder kelp, which grow in the North Pacific. Giant kelp is so named because it grows to 213 ft (65 m). Kelp anchors itself to rocky surfaces via tentacle-like roots. From these roots grows a slender stalk with long, leaf-like blades.

Kelp belongs to the Fucaceae family. Other names for Fucus vesiculosus are kelpware, black-tang, bladderfucus, cutweed, and bladderwrack. The main constituents of kelp include phenolic compounds, mucopolysaccharides, algin, polar lipids, and glycosyl ester diglycerides. Kelp also contains protein, carbohydrates, and essential fatty acids.

Kola nut

Kola nut

The kola nut, or bitter cola, (Cola vera, Cola acuminata, Cola nitida) is a seed part from a tree from the Sterculiaceae family. The trees are native to Central and Western Africa, but are now found in the West Indies and Brazil, where they were introduced by African slaves. All three species are used as a stimulant and are prepared in the same manner.

The kola tree grows to approximately 40 ft (12 m) in height, and has white to yellow flowers with spots that range from red to purple. The kola tree’s leaves are 6–8 in long (15–20 cm) and the tree bears fruit that is shaped like a star. Inside the fruit, about a dozen round or square seeds can be found in a white seed shell.

General use

Kola nut, which contains high amounts of caffeine, helps combat fatigue and is most commonly used as a central nervous system stimulant that focuses on the cerebrospinal centers.

Lacto-ovo Vegetarianism

Lacto-ovo vegetarian menu

Lacto-ovo vegetarians are people who do not eat meat, but do include dairy products (lacto) and eggs (ovo) in their diets.

The term vegetarian was coined in 1847 by the founders of the Vegetarian Society of Great Britain, although vegetarianism as a way of life has existed for thousands of years. The founders of the Vegetarian Society were lacto-ovo vegetarians.

One of the central ideas that has motivated vegetarians is that food choices should not require the death or suffering of animals. Thus, many vegetarians avoid meat but eat dairy products and eggs (on the grounds that store-bought eggs are unfertilized).

Lecithin

Lecithin

Lecithin was discovered in 1850 by Maurice Gobley, who isolated it in egg yolks and identified it as the substance that allowed oil and water to mix. The name is derived from the Greek word lekithos, which means “yolk of egg.”

Lecithin is a naturally occurring fatty substance found in several foods including soybeans, whole grains and egg yolks. It is often used as an emulsification agent in processed foods. It can be taken in various forms as a nutritional supplement, often derived from soybeans.

The body breaks lecithin down into its component parts: choline, phosphate, glycerol and fatty acids. The body’s highest concentration of lecithin is found in the vital organs, where it makes up about 30% of the dry weight of the brain and nearly two-thirds of the fat in the liver.

Lycium Fruit

Lycium Fruit

Lycium fruit is used extensively in Chinese herbalism. The fruit are the berries of Lycium chinense and more commonly Lycium barbarum. The roots also have healing properties.

Lycium is a shrub that grows to about 12 ft (4 m) in height. It grows wild on hillsides in the cooler regions of northern China and Tibet. However, it is also grown as a cultivated plant in almost all parts of China and in some other regions of Asia.

Lycium fruit is rich in carotene, vitamins B1 and B12, and vitamin C. The fruit also contains amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), iron, and trace elements essential to the body, including zinc, copper, selenium, calcium, and phosphorus.

Lycopene

Lycopene

Lycopene is a red, fat-soluble pigment found in vegetables, and most commonly found in tomatoes. It is one of a family of pigments called carotenoids.

Carotenoids are naturally occurring pigments responsible for the brightly colored fall leaves and the vivid colors of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. In fruits and vegetables, these pigments range in hue from bright yellow in squash, to orange in carrots, to bright red in tomatoes and peppers.

Although the human body does not produce lycopene, it is readily available through the diet. Minor sources include guava, rosehip, watermelon, and pink grapefruit. However, about 85% of lycopene in the U.S. diet comes from tomatoes and tomato products such as juice, soup, sauce, paste, and ketchup. A diet rich in carotenoid-containing foods is associated with a variety of health benefits.

Macrobiotic diet

Grains

A macrobiotic diet is part of a philosophy of life that incorporates the ancient Oriental concept or theory of yin and yang. The diet itself consists mainly of brown rice, other whole grains, and vegetables. It requires foods to be cooked over a flame, rather than by electricity or microwave.

Origins

The term macrobiotics comes from two Greek words; macro (great) and bios (life). The macrobiotic diet is believed to have originated in nineteenth century Japan, with the teachings of Sagen Ishizuka, a natural healer.

George Ohsawa (1893–1966), a Japanese teacher and writer, introduced macrobiotics to Europeans in the 1920s. Ohsawa claims to have cured himself of tuberculosis by eating Ishizuka’s diet of brown rice, soup, and vegetables.

Maitake

Maitake

Maitake, Grifola frondosa, is a mushroom found growing wild in Japan and in forests in the eastern part of North America, where it grows on dying or already dead hardwood trees.

The word maitake means “dancing mushroom” in Japanese; the mushroom was given this name because people were supposed to have danced for joy when they found it. It is also called “hen-in-the-woods” and can reach the size of a head of lettuce.

Because maitake comes from the polypores group, it produces a bunch of leaf-like clumps that are intertwined. During Japan’s feudal era, maitake was used as currency; the daimyo, or provincial nobles, would exchange maitake for its weight in silver from the shogun, the military ruler of Japan.

Mediterranean Diet

Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet is based upon the eating patterns of traditional cultures in the Mediterranean region. Several noted nutritionists and research projects have concluded that this diet is one of the most healthful in the world in terms of preventing such illnesses as heart disease and cancer, and increasing life expectancy.

Origins

The countries that have inspired the Mediterranean diet all surround the Mediterranean Sea. These cultures have eating habits that developed over thousands of years. In Europe, parts of Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and southern France adhere to principles of the Mediterranean diet, as do Morocco and Tunisia in North Africa.

Parts of the Balkan region and Turkey follow the diet, as well as Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon and Syria. The Mediterranean region is warm and sunny, and produces large supplies of fresh fruits and vegetables almost year round that people eat many times per day.

Natural hygiene diet

Natural hygiene diet

The natural hygiene diet is a system of healthy living whereby moral, physical, and environmental pollution is strictly avoided, and natural healthy food is chosen in preference over processed food. The principle is to provide everything the body needs to be healthy, and to avoid anything that may hinder health and well being.

Origins

Actually, early in the twentieth century, there were similar “natural hygiene” movements or health culture societies advocating exercise, the consumption of healthy foods, and massage. The American Natural Hygiene Society was founded in 1948, and as such is the oldest and largest natural hygiene organization in the world. The Society publishes the Health Science magazine.

The British Natural Hygiene Society was founded in 1959 by Keki Sidhwa and two other natural hygienists. Their magazine, Hygienist, which is published quarterly, was started in 1959, making it the oldest natural hygiene publication. Both organizations aim to educate and inform, and they can also recommend practitioners and clinics.

Margarine

Margarine

Hydrogenation, the process used to make liquid oils solid at room temperature, made possible a shift from animal fat to vegetable fat as a substitute for butter.

The resulting product — which may be blended with other milk products or animal fats (such as lard or tallow) and salt for taste — is margarine. It has been used as a butter substitute since the late 19th century. Sometimes it is referred to as oleomargarine or oleo. Oleo means oil and refers to the vegetable oil base of margarine.

Like butter, regular margarine is about 80 percent fat (actually, law requires this percentage of fat for the product to be labeled margarine) and has the same number of calories. One tablespoon contains about 100 calories and 11 grams of fat.

Nutrition

Food pyramid

Good nutrition can help prevent disease and promote health. There are six categories of nutrients that the body needs to acquire from food: protein, carbohydrates, fat, fibers, vitamins and minerals, and water.

Proteins

Protein supplies amino acids to build and maintain healthy body tissue. There are 20 amino acids considered essential because the body must have all of them in the right amounts to function properly.

Twelve of these are manufactured in the body but the other eight amino acids must be provided by the diet. Foods from animal sources such as milk or eggs often contain all these essential amino acids while a variety of plant products must be taken together to provide all these necessary protein components.

Omega-6 fatty acids

Omega-6 fatty acids

Omega-6 fatty acids are one of two groups of essential fatty acids (EFAs) that are required in human nutrition. (The other is the omega-3 fatty acid group.) Omega-6 fatty acids include linoleic acid and its derivatives.

Essential means that these fatty acids must be consumed in the diet because humans cannot manufacture them from other dietary fats or nutrients, nor can they be stored in the body. They must be consumed daily to meet the body’s requirements.

They are macronutrients, required in amounts of grams per day (compared to micronutrients such as vitamins, which are required in milligrams per day). EFAs provide energy and are also components of nerve cells, cellular membranes, and are converted to hormone-like substances known as prostaglandins.

Ornish diet

The Ornish diet was developed by Dean Ornish, M.D. Ornish was the first physician to demonstrate that heart disease can be reversed by natural methods, including specific dietary and lifestyle changes.

Before Ornish published his clinical studies of patients whose cardiovascular problems were improved by diet and other means, doctors believed that heart disease was irreversible.

Origins

It took Ornish several published studies before conventional medicine would accept his position that simple and inexpensive treatments, including diet, exercise, and stress reduction, could reverse heart disease.

Butter

Butter

Butter is made from the fat that comes from milk from cows, sheep, goats, horses, and other mammals. Most commercially produced butter in the United States is made from cow’s milk.

Butter making occurs in several stages. Cream that separates from milk is pasteurized (heated at a high temperature) to kill any organisms that might be harmful to human health. Then the cream is placed in a ripening tank for 12 to 15 hours. There, it goes through another series of heat treatments that give butter a crystalline structure when it cools, helping it to solidify.

The next step is to churn the butter. This process breaks down the fat globules in the cream. The result is that the fat is coagulated into butter grains.

Paleolithic diet

Paleolithic diet

The Paleolithic, or caveman, diet is a reversion to the foods eaten by humans prior to the advents of civilization, agriculture, and technology. Before those developments, the human diet during the Stone Age is thought to have consisted largely of lean red meat and vegetation.

Modern-day adherents to Paleolithic diets add vigorous physical activity to mimic the Stone Age’s hunter-gatherer lifestyle. In some cases, modern-day “Paleos” actually adopt such a lifestyle, hunting their own food in the natural environment.

Origins

The Paleolithic Period of human development, characterized by the use of chipped, stone tools, began about 2.5 million years ago. Whenever possible, Paleolithic peoples consumed large amounts of animal meat and offal, deriving 45-65% of their energy from animals.

Prickly pear cactus

Prickly pear cactus

A member of the Cactaceae (or cactus) family, prickly pear cactus, also known as nopal, grows in the United States, Mexico, and South America. It also flourishes in Africa, Australia, and the Mediterranean.

Although prickly pear cactus can tolerate a wide range of temperature and moisture levels, it grows best in sunny, desert-like conditions.

Over a dozen species of prickly pear cactus belong to the Opuntia genus, but all of them have flat, fleshy, green-colored pads that look like large leaves and are oval to round in shape. With a tendency to grow quickly and at odd angles, the pads are actually the stems of the plant.

Probiotics

Probiotics

Probiotics, as defined by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), are “live microorganisms administered in adequate amounts which confer a beneficial health effect on the host.”

The microorganisms referred to in this definition are non-pathogenic bacteria (small, single celled organisms which do not promote or cause disease), and one yeast, Saccharomyces.

They are considered “friendly germs,” due to benefits to the colon and the immune system. The word probiotic is a compound of a Latin and a Greek word; it means “favorable to life.” Probiotics is also sometimes used to refer to a form of nutritional therapy based on eating probiotic foods and dietary supplements.

Pritikin diet

Pritikin diet

The Pritikin diet is a low-fat regimen that promotes eating whole grains, vegetables, and fruit over animal protein, eggs, processed grains, and sugar.

Nathan Pritikin developed the diet in the 1970s. He was diagnosed with heart disease in the late 1950s but was not satisfied with his medical care.

Although he did not have a medical background, he spent the next 20 years researching diet and nutrition, experimenting with a variety of diets, such as eating only meats or only lentils.