Conscious Eating Part 24

IV. Developing the intuitive art of conscious eating.

Stage Four: Olympic Vegetarian Diet.

STAGE FOUR MARKS THE DIFFERENCE between a diet that simply aids health, well-being, and spiritual development and one that positively accelerates the process. Stage Four is 95-100% live food with approximately 50% biogenic food, about 50% bioactive food, and 0 to 5% cooked foods, like potatoes, or slightly cooked fibrous vegetables. So far, I have not been able to detect a significant difference between 100% raw and 95% raw in terms of day-to-day health or physical and spiritual energy. There may be a measurable difference in terms of longevity, however. My observation and hypothesis is that getting in touch with just the right amount to eat rather than overeating, even of biogenic foods, plays a more critical role for health than whether one has a 95% or a 100% raw-food diet. That 5% is important because it allows some social leeway, as well as keeps one from getting stuck in a perfectionistic-type thinking and eating.

Stage Four can be likened to the difference between a personal program of jogging, hiking, and aerobic exercises and a program actively training for the Olympics. Those who aspire to the "Olympic diet" in the context of a fully centered and balanced life become spiritual athletes who often partic.i.p.ate intensely in the s.h.i.+ft of planetary consciousness. This in no way means that anyone who is not living on a Stage Four diet is not partic.i.p.ating in the process of planetary transformation-we are all doing so in our own way, just by being alive on this Earth at this time. So being on a Stage Four diet is not a prerequisite for being "on the team." There are many spiritually active people who are working very hard for the planetary s.h.i.+ft in consciousness who are not even vegetarians. In time, for the reasons pointed out in this book, I feel that many of them will eventually make the s.h.i.+ft to a vegetarian diet.

Those who choose to adopt a Stage Four-level diet may find it hard to ignore the issues of planetary transformation, such as the ecology, peace, equal rights, and health concerns, et cetera. Their very lifestyle will impel them in life-positive, evolutionary directions where they will want to contribute to the greater good of humanity and all life.

A potential psycho-spiritual danger of the 95-100% raw-food diet is the tendency to follow it as some sort of obsessive, self-righteous, self-centered ritual in the hope of achieving happiness, purity, or G.o.d just from the diet alone.

As I've said in earlier chapters, one cannot eat one's way to G.o.d or even personal happiness. Happiness and G.o.d are never one's own. They are a state of awareness in which there is no "I" to claim owners.h.i.+p. G.o.d, when experienced as a state of noncausal happiness, is where the ego self or "I" is not. The "I" ceases to exist. It is a consciousness where polarities and distinctions of "I" and "Thou" end. Diet is a most important aid to this process, but the stabilized peace and happiness of G.o.d-awareness requires far more than just a well-thought-out and executed Stage Four diet. Intense focus on G.o.d with a clear heart and mind, supported by whatever psycho-spiritual tradition one chooses, has been the path for ages. Diet helps one walk more quickly and keep stabilized on that timeless path, but it is not "the path" in itself. I choose to eat at the Stage Four level because it is the diet which most powerfully enhances my communion with the Divine. I am grateful, but not at all surprised, that a diet that most enhances the communion with the One is also the most healthy and ecologically harmonious diet as well. It seems that everything that leads to the Divine inherently creates harmony.

Stage Four begins with a complete nondairy vegetarian cuisine of primarily live, soaked, or sprouted nuts, seeds, grains, gra.s.ses, vegetables, fruits, and sea vegetables. It is a 50-60% biogenic diet. As we progress in the process of the Stage Four diet, there is an increase in the amount of life-generating foods, such as all forms of soaked and sprouted nuts, seeds, grains, and gra.s.ses, including wheatgra.s.s. There is a progressive decrease in cooked grains, which are acid, mucus-producing, and devoid of life-force-filled enzymes. Eventually, there is very little cooked grain in the diet except on occasion as part of the cooked 5%. Depending on const.i.tutional type, one may vary the percentage of sprouted foods and fruits and vegetables. This diet also can be varied to balance acid-base ratio, yin and yang, and heating and cooling elements. The Stage Four diet can be modified to have a cleansing, rebuilding, or maintenance effect, depending on how one organizes it based on individual requirements.

Because this diet is a "jet fuel," high-energy one, to successfully make it work in one's life requires more attention, knowledge, and spiritual maturity. We can no longer afford the luxury of a single theory or understanding guiding us at all times. It is necessary to become, as much as possible, in tune with the "holistic pract.i.tioner" within.

To do this requires a certain amount of trial and error experimentation with a variety of live-food approaches, with real attention to acid-base balance and Ayurvedic const.i.tutional type. For example, one of my clients, who tested acidic, was primarily on live foods except for some grain each day. As soon as she stopped eating grains, her health improved considerably and her pH returned to the normal range. She also felt more balanced emotionally and spiritually. Theoretically one might claim that her new diet was incorrect because it was too yin, having eliminated the yang acid-forming grains, but the clinical results over time gave a total picture which goes beyond the limited theory of yin and yang balance in the diet as the only way to look at health.

My own diet is Stage Four with only occasional and incidental intake of raw or cooked grains. My personal and clinical experience is that grains slow down the movement of the spiritual energy in my body and dull the sensitivity to this energy. This may not be true for everyone, but this is the way grains work for me and many people I have observed. Although my diet may be yin, I balance it with the yang-generating heating energy of my physical activities of hatha yoga, fast walking, and pranayama each day; the heating energy of some herbs, like ginger, black peppercorns, cardamom, and cayenne, especially during the winter months; the heating energy of the fire meditation; the yang fire of the sun each day; the grounding nature of my holistic health work; and my full partic.i.p.ation in the running of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, humanitarian projects, and my intimate relations.h.i.+ps including those with my family. The harmony I experience comes from the balance of the overall net dynamic of yin and yang energies in my total life rather than just the mere summation of the yin and yang energies of my food. This is what I call the wholeness approach.

Diet is an important part of the delicate creation of a total, balanced, harmonious life rather than the focus of ones life in itself The Stage Four diet of 95-100% living food is a powerful, purifying, energizing, and spiritualizing force in one's life. This diet can help to activate or awaken the spiritual energy. It accelerates the detoxification and healing process on the physical, emotional, and mental planes.

The Latin root of the word "vegetarian" is vegetare, which means to "enliven." The Stage Four diet fulfills this definition to the utmost. It is so powerfully enlivening that to balance the energy created by the diet, one almost requires a life built on a spiritual foundation. Such a spiritual foundation may include some level of spiritual outlook or understanding, a supportive social and spiritual environment, a connection with nature, right livelihood, meditation, and love. Without these other supportive activities and structures in one's life, it is easy to get thrown off balance by the intense physical and psychological toxins that are initially released when one is on this diet. Whereas the Stage Three 80%-raw, 20%-cooked vegetarian diet is generally easy to attain for most everyone who is ready and motivated, the Stage Four diet is more intense and more likely to be successful for those who are mature and balanced in all areas of their lives. For most people, it requires several years of experience and self-experimentation to become balanced and grounded with the full life-force power of this diet.

In Stage Four, the practice of self-examination and observation is crucial. At this level of refinement our ability to absorb nutrients is continually improving. As already discussed, the 30-year research of the Wendts, a family of medical researchers, established that a high-protein diet clogs the bas.e.m.e.nt membrane. As the excess protein is eliminated by eating less protein and no flesh food, the bas.e.m.e.nt membrane becomes more and more porous. This allows the nutrients to be more easily absorbed. Using an electron microscope, photographs by the Wendts showed that the bas.e.m.e.nt membrane of babies is very porous. This may be why they can grow so rapidly on a breast milk diet that is only 5% protein. On a 95- to 100%-live-food diet, this process of clearing the bas.e.m.e.nt membrane occurs more quickly than on other diets so that one can eat less and still absorb the same amount of nutrients. Eventually, especially for slow oxidizers, sympathet-ics, and kapha type people, one discovers that one does not need to eat three meals per day In my own life, I have essentially eliminated the evening meal, except for occasional raw juices or fruit. It was fascinating and exciting for me to be able to comfortably make this switch and discover that my weight remained stable.

How Much Do We Need to Eat?

EATING TWO MEALS PER DAY may be more closely aligned with what a healthy organism actually needs, although this will vary with one's const.i.tution. As a baby, there is an intense growth phase with rapid gain in weight, brain and nervous system myelinization, and maturing of organs and enzyme systems. During this time, the baby feeds as much as every two hours. As children undergoing rapid growth and development, three meals per day and frequent snacks seem appropriate. In the teenage years there is another rapid maturational growth spurt in which the teenagers seem to always be eating. Sometime in the early twenties, physical growth of the organism is brought to a close and we s.h.i.+ft over to more of a "repair and replacement" metabolism. Much less food is needed to sustain this phase of the life cycle. If one continues to eat like a teenager, the primary physical growth that occurs is sideways! With this overweight condition come those unwanted "spare tires," but even more significant is the fact that waste builds up in the tissues and the circulatory system. When physical growth has reached its peak in early adulthood, for many, two meals per day will be quite adequate to support the physical function of the body.

Although two meals a day may appear to be undereating, it actually isn't because one's rested digestive system is more efficient in absorbing more nutrients from what one eats. If one doesn't eat after 2:30 PM until the next morning, the digestive system gets three-quarters of a day's rejuvenative rest every day. One of the ongoing issues in the Stage Four diet is eating too much based on one's increased ability to almost completely a.s.similate everything one eats. To clarify this concept, as the bas.e.m.e.nt membrane becomes more porous, less and less food is needed to give the same amount of nutrients. To eat more than is needed to fulfill one's nutrient needs, even if one eats only one-half as many calories as is recommended by government authorities, may still const.i.tute overeating when one's bas.e.m.e.nt membranes are clean.

Eating less is not a back-door invitation to anorexia. It is easy to tell if one is undereating because there will be noticeable weight loss and a lack of vitality and health. My clinical observation of appropriate, healthy weight levels is similar to the 1959 weight standards for health set by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and the weight chart for optimal longevity designed by Stuart Berger, M.D., in his book Forever Young. Dr. Berger's chart reflects the approximate weights that longevity researcher and professor at UCLA Medical School, Roy Walford, M.D., suggests with his calorie-limiting diet approach to maximize a healthy longevity. These weight levels are approximately 20% less than what Americans normally think of as an acceptable body weight. In looking at Drs. Walford and Berger's data on longevity, I was delighted to find that my stabilized weight was precisely what they recommended. My focus, however, has never been on weight charts or calories. It has been on developing the art of conscious eating which is eating just the right amount of food to be totally functional for every aspect of one's life and to enhance communion with the Divine.

Another factor to consider on a live-food diet is the improvement of the metabolic enzyme function as health improves. I have observed that some people initially need supplements, but after a while they need less and less. It seems that as health improves, enough life force is created to regenerate damaged and exhausted enzyme systems or even develop new enzyme systems. Dr. Kervan, in his cla.s.sic book called Biological Trans.m.u.tation, cites twenty-five years of research that shows how the body can make specific enzymes that can actually trans.m.u.te one mineral into another. Biological trans.m.u.tation is one explanation for how some people are able to live without food. They have created the prerequisite enzymes to biologically trans.m.u.te the basic minerals and other substances to make what the body needs. Obviously, not everyone is able to do this at present, but everyone theoretically has the capability.

There are several examples of people who have been observed to live on water alone. There is a Buddhist monk living in the Himalaya who was continually observed by medical researchers for forty-three months. During this time he only drank water. Theresa Neuman, a devoted Catholic peasant, is another individual who was observed to live just on water except for her once-a-week communion wafer. She too was observed continuously by researchers who acknowledged the veracity of her ability to live without food. The Taoists in China also mention certain masters who have achieved this ability to live on just air and water. Although living on water is not even a spiritual goal, it hints at our incredible potential as humans.

These stories are not told so that we should aspire to learn how to live on just water, especially since the water these days is not so reliable. The point is that our enzyme systems are constantly improving so one needs to eat less and less in order to a.s.similate the same amount of nutrients. Because of our different attachments on many levels to eating three meals including snacks, it is not necessarily so easy to give up these patterns. The secret to making these changes is to go slowly, patiently, and with a great gentleness on oneself. Make changes that are comfortable. Forcing changes in diet too quickly often results in reversals that are self-defeating.

On a living-food diet, I have personally found that it is easier to experience an extraordinarily exquisite, gentle, eternal flow of the Divine energy coursing through the physical and subtle bodies. The more we experience this energy, the more we are filled with it. The more we experience ourselves permeated with this Divine energy, the more we experience the truth of our existence as "That," and know that this divine experience is our primary ident.i.ty. This profound and continual experience is not the same, however, as awareness of the One, which is a totality beyond any experience of time, s.p.a.ce, senses, and energy, and especially beyond words to describe it. The experience of Divine energy helps us feel connected and a part of the flow of the universe. It is the reflection of the One in the mirror of the human body. It is a constant reminder of our eternal nature, of our Divinity. To me, this is the great blessing and grace of a living-food diet. If we are to be in this body, why not live in a way that helps us feel connected to the Divine energy? Why not live in a way that has us experiencing the grace of G.o.d's touch?

Preview of Chapter 25.

SAFE AND HEALTHY WATER is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain because of the high degree of water pollution throughout the world. In this chapter we discuss this issue and the ways we can create healthy water for ourselves. You will also get a chance to play biochemist again as we consider a new biological energy a.s.sociated with water colloid systems. It is called zeta potential. Are you ready to consider the seriousness of our water problem? Are you ready to do something to protect yourself and your family?

I. How did all of this water pollution begin?

A. The origins of our tainted water supply B. Cancer increase related to water consumption II. Finding or making healthy water A. Bottled, mineral, filtered, distilled water advantages and disadvantages B. Charcoal filtering C. Reverse osmosis D. Water distillers III. Structured water and zeta potential A. Liquid crystals in water-what they do B. Surface tension of water.

C. Our blood's colloid system and water.

IV. Factors that decrease zeta potential.

Safe and Healthy Public Water, A Nostalgic Wish.

JUST AS CONSUMING ORGANIC FOODS IS A WAY to avoid ingesting toxins, becoming aware of the quality of water one drinks and uses is increasingly essential in today's polluted world, since water can be a major source of toxins. According to Diet for a Poisoned Planet, less than 1% of the Earth's surface water is safe to drink. In some places in the United States and other countries, the term "drinking water" for tap water should be considered nothing more than a nostalgic euphemism. In order to best understand which water is safe to drink, bathe in, and prepare food with, one needs to know more about water pollution, how to purify water to make it safer for use, and also what form of water is healthiest to drink.

Second to oxygen, water is our most important nutrient. Without it, we would not be able to survive. Water comprises 90% of a baby's body and around 65-70% of an adult's. According to Patrick and Gael Crystal Flanagan, authors of Elixir of the Ageless, our muscles are composed of 75% water, our brain is composed of 90% water, our liver is 69% water, and even our bones are 22% water. They point out that in a lifetime people drink an average of 7,000 gallons, or 58,333 pounds of water. Water is a major component of all our foods. Cooked grains are 70% water.

In general, fruits contain the highest amount of structured water, approximately 85%, and vegetables contain slightly less, although some vegetables, like carrots, contain 88% water. The water in the cell structure of raw plant foods is the most biologically active available. This biologically active water is termed "structured" water. Structured water either already contains, or has the capacity to contain, more energy than unstructured water, such as distilled or spring water. Researchers have found that in structured water the angle of the molecular bonding between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms is different than uncharged, unstructured water. One can unstructure water simply by heating it (more on structured water in a later section of this chapter).

The problem of water pollution is very much in many people's awareness today. Since one can often smell, taste, and see water of questionable quality, the water problem is harder to ignore than invisible poisons in the food. Water that is visually oily, has a smell, or has an oily taste may be polluted with industrial wastes. If water smells like rotten eggs it may be intermingling with sewage. A metallic taste in water may indicate high lead or manganese levels. If the water is cloudy, it may indicate too much potentially dangerous organic matter or that the water is inadequately purified. A blue-green color may suggest a high copper level. If there is too much chlorine, one's stainless steel sink may become pitted or turn black. Color, taste, odor, and stains on fixtures indicate a high level of contamination. Lower yet still very toxic levels of contaminants are often colorless, tasteless, and odorless. A complete water a.n.a.lysis for microbial, inorganic, and organic contamination may be the only way to find out the quality and safety of one's water.

Radiation is one of the more deadly contaminants in water. Naturally occurring forms of radiation that are found in water supplies around the country come from uranium, radium, and radon in contact with the ground water. According to Diet for a Poisoned Planet, radium in the drinking water is one of the most important causes of birth defects and a cause of increased cancer rates. In Florida, elevated radium in the water has been a.s.sociated with increased rates of leukemia. In Iowa, an increased rate of cancer of the lung and bladder among males, and breast and lung cancer among females, was discovered in population centers where the radium in the water supply was greater than five picocuries per liter of water (the federal standard for maximum allowable radium in the water). Childhood leukemia rates were found to be nearly double in North Carolina and Maine in areas where the drinking water had high radium concentrations.

Maximum radon levels in the water should not be greater than ten pic-ocuries per liter. Since radon will leave water as a gas, an aeration unit to remove the dissolved radon gas from the water before it enters the home is an effective solution to the problem of radon contamination. Reverse osmosis water purification systems can remove uranium and radium. Activated carbon filters will remove radon. We will discuss these and other water purification methods later in the chapter.

In addition to naturally occurring radiation, the public now has to contend with radiation spills from several food and medical supply irradiation plants that have been built in this country. For example, in Dover, New Jersey, in 1974, the International Neutronics Irradiation Facility had a cobalt-60 spill which they tried to "clean up" from their radiation plant by dumping 5,700 liters of cobalt-60-contaminated water down the bathroom drains into the public sewer system.

The water that the general public uses comes from two sources: underground sources, such as springs and wells, and surface water, such as rivers and lakes. Presently, both these sources are becoming more and more polluted as toxic chemicals, acid rain, raw sewage, agricultural herbicides, pesticide runoff, chlorination, fluoridation, sewage landfills, and radioactive wastes are either dumped into or seep into these two types of water sources. One of the best-known examples of toxic water pollution to date is the infamous Love Ca.n.a.l, where according to The New York Times in 1984, thousands of tons of toxic chemicals were dumped, including 60 pounds of the deadly poison dioxin.

How Did This All Begin?

THE TRADITION OF PUTTING ADDITIVES in water by dumping questionably safe chemicals in the water started unwittingly with the addition of chlorine to water to protect us against waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and hepat.i.tis. Unfortunately, chlorine is a volatile chemical that likes to combine with the various industrial pollutants dumped into waterways. When chlorine combines with certain other chemicals it forms a cla.s.s of toxic chemicals called tri-halo-methanes (THMs). Some examples of THMs are carbon-tetrachloride and chloroform. If this were not enough, the dumping and was.h.i.+ng off of pesticides from the land brings many other chlorinated hydrocarbons into our waters, such as DDT, PCBs, and dioxin.

The pollution situation is so out of control that in monitoring cancer rates in Philadelphia, one researcher was able to correlate the different rates and types of cancer in the population with the specific river the people lived near. According to Steve Meyerowitz, in his book Water, the Environmental Cancer Prevention Center found that residents drinking from the west side of the Schuylkill River had 67% more deaths from esophagus cancer than those on the east side. Those drinking from the Delaware River on the east side suffered 59% more deaths from cancer of the brain, 83% more malignant melanoma, and 32% more colorectal cancers than those on the west side. This is just one of many studies linking specific water pollution to an increase in cancer rates.

The increase in specific cancers, and cancer in general, to epidemic proportions in the United States and other industrialized countries is not a question of mere negative psychological "cancer-producing att.i.tudes" held by isolated individuals. It is difficult to a.s.sess the precise degree to which our polluted waters are causing disease, genetic mutation, developmental abnormalities, and birth defects; however, no one today could coherently argue that this isn't a frightening and very real problem.

An herbalist friend of mine once said, "Pay attention to your elimination or it will eliminate you." Unfortunately, we are barely paying attention to our collective process of elimination. Even when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets standards of quality to protect our drinking water (as it did in 1979 by limiting THMs in drinking water to 0.1 parts per million), according to Water, the waterworks operators sue the EPA to rescind its protective standard. Meyerowitz points out that a congressional study in 1982 showed that many waterworks operators simply ignore the standards anyway. It seems that whenever the question of health versus profit comes into play, the choice by those in charge of disposal and storage of toxic wastes seems to be profits over health. For example, The New York Times, in October 1984, described one congressional survey in 1983-84 on the disposal of toxic wastes that concluded that less than 20% of 6,500-plus disposal and storage sites were actually in compliance with the law, and that the EPA had been deficient in upholding standards for protecting underground water supplies. Another New York Times article in November 1984 described a General Accounting Office investigation in 1983 that found 146,000 violations of the 1980 Safe Drinking Water Act. The New York Times article pointed out that the EPA had only referred 21 cases for enforcement in the history of the Act. The Natural Resources Defense Council, in a letter from its executive director, John Adams, reported that one-third of the United States' large wastewater dischargers were in violation of the Clean Water Act.

The point of this information about unrestrained water pollution becomes obvious. Since governmental agencies are not able to, or are unwilling to, enforce the laws to protect the quality of our water, and business people are choosing not to act responsibly for the greater public health and well-being, it follows that we need to take individual responsibility to protect ourselves from polluted and toxic water. The best way to do this is to take control of your own drinking and cooking water, and if you can afford to, your own bathing water as well, since toxins can be absorbed into the body through the skin.

The book Diet for a Poisoned Planet mentions a water testing company that I also recommend for a complete a.n.a.lysis of your water supply: Watercheck National Testing Laboratories, Inc., 6555 Wilson Mills Road, Cleveland, Ohio, 44143, phone: 216-449-2525. They can test for the following contaminants: microbiological, coliform, inorganic chemicals-metals, inorganic chemicals-other, organic chemicals-trihalomethanes, organic chemicals-volatiles, pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, and PCBs.

When someone asks if it is worth it to pay attention to water, I cite a California Department of Health Study that showed that California women who drank bottled water or filtered water had significantly lower rates of spontaneous abortions and babies with significantly less birth defects than those who drank tap water. Though there might be other factors responsible, who wants to take a chance when life itself is at risk?

Finding Healthy Water.

ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF WATER are bottled, spring, and mineral water; filtered water; distilled water; and water purified by various types of purifiers, such as ozone purifiers, carbon block purifiers, and reverse osmosis systems. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Bottled, spring, and mineral water that is packaged in plastic containers absorbs chemicals from the plastic into the water. The plastic taste in the water can be detected without much difficulty. If one is going to buy water from stores, it is much better to purchase water in gla.s.s bottles. Mineral water and spring water differ in that the mineral waters often come from therapeutic springs and generally have more minerals than spring water. Water that has 500 parts per million dissolved solids is defined as mineral water.

Some of the mineral waters are naturally carbonated and others are synthetically carbonated with carbon dioxide. In the human body, carbon dioxide is a waste product of cellular metabolism which, when combined with water in the system, makes carbonic acid. This carbonic acid makes our system more acidic. For some people it also creates gas and bloating. In other words, carbon dioxide in water is not particularly healthy, although it is considered fas.h.i.+onable.

Some mineral waters may be extremely high in a particular mineral or several minerals that could potentially create an imbalance in some people if consumed in sufficient quant.i.ty over time. One of the biggest problems with bottled water is that one really doesn't know what's in the bottle or if the bottle has been mislabeled to appear as if it is spring water. Some bottlers treat their water with ozone, deionization, or even chlorine in order to purify it. Some "spring water" is simply purified, city tap water. In India, I stopped drinking bottled water because, as a physician, I saw too many people who got sick after drinking bottled, "purified" water, which in some cases was just untreated water put into a clean bottle. Trying to stay with more well-known name brands is a good idea, but not a 100% guarantee of anything. In the mid-'80s, Perrier caught some unscrupulous individuals bottling New York City tap water and selling it as Perrier water. It is best to read the label and choose a company with a solid reputation. Brands labeled "drinking water" may be just tap water, although almost all bottled water is highly filtered. Look on the label to see if the water has been drawn from a spring or an artesian well.

Compressed, activated, charcoal block filters are an inexpensive way to get protection from the carbon-based organic pollution, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, PCBs, cysts, heavy metals, asbestos, VOCs (volatile organic chemicals), and THMs in our city water. They also eliminate chlorine and foul odors. They do not, however, absorb inorganic mineral salts such as chloride, fluoride, sodium, nitrates, and soluble minerals. For this reason, they are best for city water systems but not for well water systems, which have a potential to be polluted with high amounts of nitrates from agricultural wastes. A concern regarding granular charcoal filters is their tendency to be a gathering ground for bacteria, yeasts, and molds, and their inability to remove pollutants found in some drinking water. Some of the more sophisticated charcoal filters do have a reverse wash system in an attempt to compensate for this. Another problem with charcoal filters is that the charcoal can break down with age or from hot water and release the contaminants back into our drinking water. The best way to avoid this is to pay attention to any change in taste, smell, or color of the water, or a reduction in water flow rate. Duane Taylor, a water expert from North Coast Waterworks in Sonoma County, California, suggested in a personal communication that the main problem with charcoal filters is that the user does not replace the filter often enough. He recommends purchasing a filter unit that will stop the flow and make the user change the filter when its filtering capacities are used up. If one does not have such a filter, then he recommends changing the filter at 75% of the manufacturer's suggested lifetime. If one waits until there is a taste change, decrease in rate of flow, or smell to the water, the filter may already be dumping contaminants back into the water. Activated carbon is rated on its ability to remove iodine and phenols. The iodine number should be greater than 1000 on the measuring scale, and the phenol number should be 15 or less. Another important consideration for carbon filter effectiveness is the contact time of water with the filter. The slower the flow rate and the more carbon there is in the filter, the better job the filter does.

Reverse osmosis (RO) is one of the best systems to get pure water without using up a lot of energy. Reverse osmosis units (ROs) are able to remove bacteria, viruses, nitrates, fluorides, sodium, chlorine, particulate matter, heavy metals, asbestos, organic chemicals, and dissolved minerals. They do not remove toxic gases, chloroform, phenols, THMs, some pesticides, and low-molecular-weight organic compounds. When combined with an activated carbon filtration system, however, they can remove the entire spectrum of impurities from the drinking water, including organic and inorganic chemicals. Many RO units now have pre- and postfilters which take care of any residual impurities that the RO unit does not take out.

In RO, the water to be filtered is forced through a semipermeable membrane by the moving elements from more concentrated to less concentrated solutions. The membrane is permeable to pure water but not to most of its impurities. If conditions are right for sufficient water pressure and the water is not excessively hard, almost no energy is needed for the operation of RO systems. A pressure pump is needed if the total dissolved solids are greater than one thousand parts per million. The water is as pure as distilled, yet it is not heated as in distilled water and therefore not destructured, which is a great advantage. Sometimes a pressure pump is needed for extremely hard water, and this does require electrical energy. The main problem with an RO unit is the fragility of the semipermeable membrane. Some membranes can be destroyed by chlorinated water, highly alkaline water, or temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. If the water is chlorinated, a cellulose membrane is needed. A polymer membrane can be used if the water is not chlorinated.

In my home we use an RO unit, and we have had the membrane break in less than the expected three years. For this reason, it is good to check the water supply regularly. Newer and stronger membranes are now available on the market, but we are still in the habit of checking the water purity every four months and/or whenever there is a change in the taste. While RO units are similar in appearance and claimed performance, there are many complex, interdependent choices regarding pretreatment, membrane selection, and post-treatment systems. To select a system that fits your water filtration needs and to develop the best maintenance plan, it is best to talk with someone who has some in-depth knowledge of the many factors involved. If properly done, an RO unit may be the most energy-efficient and best way to protect your water. In the past, RO units required a lot of water to work properly, which is a disadvantage, particularly during times of drought. Some of the newer models have now been designed to operate with a minimal water usage.

Water distillers, although generally more expensive, remove most everything from the water, including bacteria, fluoride, nitrates, radionuclides, and organic and inorganic toxins; heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, and cadmium; and soluble minerals, such as calcium and magnesium. Some toxic organic compounds, such as THMs and dioxin, have the same as or a lower boiling point than water and therefore are not filtered out by the distillation process. Some of the more expensive distillers have built-in pre-boiler or postboiler filters as options which eliminate this problem. There are two major drawbacks to water distillers. One is that they are energy-intensive and expensive unless one has a solar water distiller. The other problem is that distilled water is dead, unstructured water so foreign to the body that one actually gets a temporarily high white blood cell count in response to drinking it. It is, however, possible to revive this dead, destructured water by the use of a product called Crystal Energy which will be explained below.

Water Ionization.

ALTHOUGH WATER IONIZATION is not necessarily a filtering system for toxins, the water ionization technology based on j.a.panese research is a revolutionary health breakthrough. The ionized water replicates the "living qualities" of high-alt.i.tude mountain spring water. Water ionizers perform three functions: (1) They micro-cl.u.s.ter the water molecule complexes into smaller units, which increases water intake into the cells by six-fold. (2) They separate water into alkalinized water for drinking and acid water for was.h.i.+ng skin and hair and wound healing. (3) The ionized alkaline water is filled with billions of -OH ions that act as powerful anti-oxidants that destroy free radicals. j.a.panese and some American hospital research has found ionized water useful for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, intestinal problems, liver problems, and other chronic diseases. Alkalinized ionized water can play a powerful role in reversing the chronic degenerative results of an acid system. Some ionizers have charcoal filters built in for removing toxins; others don't. I am presently researching the least expensive and most powerful home system. (Please see our website for updated information.) Water ionization could be one of the most important health breakthroughs in our era.

Structured Water.

AKEY TO UNDERSTANDING WATER is the concept of structured water. As was well-doc.u.mented in Spiritual Nutrition and The Rainbow Diet, the more structured water there is in one's biological system, the better the enzyme systems carry out their metabolic processes and the easier it is for vitamins and minerals to be a.s.similated into the cells. Another way to understand the concept is that the more structured the water is, the higher its SOEF energy.

Structured water means that the molecules in the water are more fully organized. When the water becomes structured, individual water molecules become grouped into high-energy, liquid crystalline units or crystal-like sh.e.l.ls. In structured water, the actual bond angle of the two hydrogen and one oxygen atom in a basic water molecule is different than unstructured water. According to Patrick and the late Gael Flanagan, the most stable water crystal cl.u.s.ter has eight molecules. Intermixed with these liquid crystal structures are free, individual water molecules that are not bound to any other water molecules. When water is highly structured, it contains a high percentage of these liquid crystal units. Most water in healthy biological systems is highly structured. In lakes, streams, and oceans we have mostly unstructured or bulk water. As water is cooled to the freezing point, the number of liquid crystals is increased and it becomes so structured that it forms an ice crystal.

The general findings of several researchers suggest that the more structured the water, the more life energy it can hold. The more structured the water in a biological system, the better the individual cells function. This seems to be true for all levels of our biological systems where water exists, such as in the blood and in interst.i.tial and intracellular fluids. The research cited in Spiritual Nutrition and The Rainbow Diet suggests that the more structured, intracellular water there is, the more balanced and concentrated intracellular ions there are, such as calcium, pota.s.sium, and sodium. Nuclear magnetic resonance studies reported by Carlton Hazelwood have shown that the intracellular water of cancer cells has significantly less structured water than normal healthy cells. Norm Mikesell has reported that when there is a decreased amount of intracellular structured water, the healthy intracellular ratio of sodium to pota.s.sium is disrupted. He concludes, as I do, that a decrease in intracellular structured water is a.s.sociated with a decrease in the general quality of health.

When the living organism takes in "bulk" water, it must first structure the water so it can be utilized by the system. High-energy colloids, or particles with a high electrical charge, act as "energy seeds" that attract the free water molecules to form liquid crystal hydration sh.e.l.ls. There are many types of colloids in nature. The most stable of the colloid systems are those found in living organisms. They are coated by neutrally charged polymers made of alb.u.minoid or fatty acid-type materials. The Flanagans point out in their book Elixir of the Ageless that this type of colloid is the same type found in the famous Hunza water, which the local people drink from their natural glacial streams. Some believe that this colloidal water of the Hun-zas, who are known for their life spans of up to 130 years, is the key, or at least one key, to their incredible health and vital longevity With precise instruments the Flanagans have verified that water can be structured by sunlight, crystals, magnets, or the energy from our hands. They also found that this structured effect would persist as long as the water was not disturbed in a turbulent way such as pouring into a gla.s.s to drink or by actually drinking it. Fortunately, they were able to invent a colloid solution, based on their understanding of the Hunza water, that would structure water in such a stable way that it would not be disrupted by various forms of mechanical means, electrical disruptions, or even microwave ovens.

In their research the Flanagans also found that the surface tension of the water was an excellent measure of the free energy of the water molecules. The more zeta potential, or free energy, a liquid has, the lower the surface tension. Unstructured water, such as distilled water, has a surface tension of 73 dynes/centimeter. Carrot juice, which has the lowest surface tension of all the juices (no data is available on wheatgra.s.s), has a surface tension of 30 dynes/centimeter. After sitting overnight its surface tension rises to 68, and after 24 hours it reaches the 73 dynes of unstructured dead water.

The most healthy liquids are those which have the highest zeta potential or free energy. They are the most structured. A high concentration of anions (negative ions) in water is also a.s.sociated with health because anions increase the zeta potential of the blood, the interst.i.tial fluids, and the intra-cellular fluids. In Elixir of the Ageless, research is presented to show that when cations (positive ions) are introduced into fluid systems, this diminishes the activity and function of our biological colloids, and hence decreases the zeta potential. When this zeta potential is decreased, our biological systems, which depend on the integrity of the fluids, begin to function sub-optimally In carrot juice, when the zeta potential is decreased and the colloidal particles lose their charge, the carrot colloidal system loses its integrity and collapses. The physical evidence of this collapse is the "goop-jell" that we often see in carrot juice several days after it has been made. When we talk about the blood's colloid system collapsing, one can visualize this carrot juice goop as an example. A colloid collapse in the cells and extracellular fluids impairs the transfer of nutrients into the cells and the excretion of toxins from the cells.

When the zeta potential decreases in the blood, the red blood cells tend to aggregate, blood viscosity or thickness increases, and the red blood cells lose their discreteness. This process can readily be seen with a special microscope known as a dark field microscope. This sludging effect has been a.s.sociated with general poor health and lack of oxygen in the tissues. In summary, what decreases biological colloid activity, and therefore zeta potential, also seems to be a.s.sociated with a lower energetic cellular functioning of the living organism. This obviously creates a lower quality of health.

Factors That Decrease Zeta Potential.

THE NEXT STEP IN OUR DISCUSSION is to use our understanding of structured water, biological colloids, and health to determine what factors decrease biological colloid activity, and therefore zeta potential. The Flanagans have found that ELF (extremely low frequency) signals from hair dryers, TV sets, computers, was.h.i.+ng machines, and clothes dryers all decrease colloid stability. They have also found that any type of food processing, such as cooking, microwaving, and food irradiation, breaks down the protein coatings of the biological colloid particles in the fluids of the food. The result is the destruction of the zeta potential of the foods. The zeta potential may be referred to as the "life force" in enzymes and live foods, as well as a measure of their SOEFs.

Cooking foods causes a destructuring of the biological fluids in our food. In essence, cooking causes a death of the colloid energy system in the food. Devoid of its colloidal life force, the food is essentially dead. Live food, on the other hand, has a high zeta potential and colloid structure.

It is important, then, to be aware of what factors can destroy the zeta potential of our biological colloidal system. According to the Flanagans' research, aluminum can cause severe destruction of the colloidal property of our biological fluid systems. Aluminum is used in some baking powders, antacids, deodorants, cookware, and canteens. The aluminum cans used in the soft drink and beer industries may leach aluminum ions into the liquid, despite the plastic lining inside. Aluminum silicate, as found in natural clays such as bentonite, is the only aluminum that the Flanagans found to be safe. Perhaps the biggest problem a.s.sociated with aluminum is its use in water purification plants. According to the Flanagans, most purification systems add too much aluminum. The result is that the excess aluminum ions end up in tap water. The munic.i.p.al water systems also routinely add cationic mineral salts which show up in the tap water. A high amount of cations (positive ions) in the water of any sort also destroys zeta potential. Aside from the aluminum cans, beer itself, because it contains large amounts of cationic minerals, drops zeta potential. Although beer is the worst offender of the alcohols because it is packaged in aluminum, even small amounts of alcohol will cause a coagulation of the liquid colloid system in our body. A high-salt diet will also diminish the zeta potential of our blood and other biological fluids.

The best approach to maintaining a high zeta potential in our fluid colloid system so that our life fluids stay in a highly structured, high-energy, healthy state is to take in fluids and foods that increase the zeta potential rather than decrease it. The best diet for this is one abundant in live foods, especially if they are high in structured water (high zeta-potential colloid liquids) and anionic electrolytes. Raw fruits and vegetables and fruit and vegetable juices fulfill this prescription.

After this brief but involved survey of colloidal chemistry, one begins to see that there is a natural order to things that makes life simple and healthy. If we choose to live according to the natural laws of nature, a high zeta potential is maintained without having to be biochemistry experts. One who eats raw foods and drinks structured water doesn't have to worry about zeta potential.

The Flanagans developed a stabilized, high-zeta-potential liquid crystal colloid product. Because it is made of microscopic-sized crystal colloids, they call it Crystal Energy. With eight drops per gla.s.s of water, this product reestablishes the zeta potential of the liquid, even if it is dead, unstructured, distilled water. I recommend adding this product, at one teaspoon per gallon, to distilled water or reverse osmosis water to restructure it. The Flanagans' research using a dark field microscope showed that within five minutes after drinking a gla.s.s of this liquid crystal water, red blood cells will unclump.

By maintaining a high zeta potential in our blood, our interst.i.tial fluids, and our intracellular fluids, we are less likely to have the zeta potential of our biological colloid systems disrupted or destroyed by the myriad of zeta potential destroyers to which we are exposed in our environment. The more energy in our system, the higher are the SOEFs, and the better organized and therefore healthier are all our biological systems. This is true on the level of DNA/RNA replication as well as for all the cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems of the body. Even the cellular mineral balance becomes more ideal.