So how do we maintain metabolic balance and accomplish the re­
moval of toxic waste from the system while still enjoying our food? There 
are three easy-to-understand and easy-to-follow principles, or tools, that 
can assist you in doing precisely that. The first of these critical and vital 
tools that can help you realize your goal of permanent weight loss is . . . THE THEORY OF METABOLIC IMBALANCE • 27 CHAPTER 
The Principle of 
High-Water-Content Food 
.L^efore describing this principle, I 
would like to invite you to participate in a simple and interesting exercise. List on a piece of paper everything you ate today. If you haven't yet eaten 
your day's fare, list everything you ate yesterday. By the end of this chap­
ter the list will serve as a powerful tool in making a certain important 
point. In listing the foods eaten, list everything, even "tastes" of things; 
i.e., your friend made her famous souffle and you had just one little bite. If you can remember, list everything to enter your body. Now put the list 
away for a while, and let's get on with this principle. As an absolute prerequisite of life, water is right up there with food and 
air. From the moment you are born until you leave this planet, your 
body instinctively craves food, air, and water for your survival. You know 
what happens to a plant when it is deprived of water. It wilts and dies. The same would happen to your body if it were deprived of water. Its 
importance is clear. What do I mean when I say high-water-content food? Consider that 
we're living on a planet that is over 70 percent water. If you were on the 
moon looking down on earth, you would see that 71 percent of the sur­
face of our planet is water. The other 29 percent is land. Everything is a 
• 28 ' microcosm of a macrocosm. If you go deeper into the planet and look at 
the animals of the class Mammalia, you will find out that our bodies are 
70 percent water, at least! When 1 first heard that, I found it very hard to 
believe. I couldn't see any, nor could 1 even hear it in movement. But 70 
percent of the human body is indeed made up of water. Now let me ask 
you a commonsense question. (And this is what Natural Hygiene is 
about. It's making use of your inborn sense of what is right.) If the planet 
earth is 70 percent water, and depends upon that amount of water for its 
survival, and your body is 70 percent water does it not make sense that for 
you to maintain a body that is always in its best condition, you must 
consume a diet that is at least 70 percent water? If your body is 70 percent 
water, then where will it get that water if you don't replenish it on a 
regular basis? From the moment you are born until the last breath you 
take your body is craving this essential of life. You must have water for 
survival. / am not talking about drinking water. Some people might be saying right now, "Hey, that's great, I drink my 
eight glasses of water a day." But in no way will drinking water bring you 
the success I am referring to. When I say high-water-content food, I am 
talking about two foods grown on this planet that naturally have a very 
high water content. Only two foods meet that requirement. They are fruit 
and vegetables. Anything else you eat is a concentrated food. Concen­
trated means that the water content has been removed, either by process­
ing or cooking. I am not saying you have to eat exclusively fruits and 
vegetables to lose the weight you want to lose. What I am saying is that 
since our bodies arc 70 percent water, we should be eating a diet that is 
approximately 70 percent water content, and that means fruits and vege­
tables should PREDOMINATE in our diets. The other 30 percent will con­
sist of the concentrated foods: breads, grains, meat, dairy products, 
legumes, and so on. There are two extremely important reasons why we need this water, 
and they're the same two reasons why drinking water will not fill the bill: 
nourishment and cleansing of the organism. Water transports the nu­
trients in food to all the body's cells and in turn removes toxic wastes. All the nutritional requirements that the human body has—all the 
vitamins, minerals, proteins, amino acids, enzymes, carbohydrates, and 
fatty acids that exist, that the human body needs to survive—are to be 
found in fruits and vegetables. The nutritional requirements are carried 
by the water in those fruits and vegetables into your intestines, where all 
nutrition is absorbed. If you are eating foods high in water content, that 
means you are eating foods that have all of the requirements of the hu­
man body. Some of you might be saying, "Well, I take vitamin-mineral 
supplements." That's not what we're talking about. The vitamins and 
THE PRINCIPLE OF HIGH-WATER-CONTENT FOOD • 29 minerals that I am talking about, that are usable by the human body, are 
to be found in abundance in orchards and gardens, not in drugstores. Besides carrying nutrients into the body, this water performs the essen­
tial function of cleansing the body of wastes. For our purposes, cleansing 
and detoxifying are the same. In the quest to lose weight, this cleansing 
or detoxification is of paramount importance. Everything you have, no 
matter what it is, has to be washed if you want it to be clean. In all 
likelihood, you took a bath or shower today. If you didn't, well, then you 
probably took one yesterday or will take one tomorrow. It's only going to 
be so long before you take a bath or shower, because you want to be 
clean. Same with your clothes. What if the clothes that you're wearing 
right now were not removed from your body for six months! You know, 
of course, that I'm being facetious when I say that. You wouldn't do that, 
because the clothes would become so foul that you would not be able to 
go near anyone. What if you didn't wash your car for six months and it 
didn't rain? You would not be able to see through the window to drive. That is how dirty it would become. That is how dirty anything would 
become if it is not washed. Guess what one thing is not being washed and cleansed on a regular 
basis in this country? The insides of our bodies! We eat and live in such a 
way as to never allow the insides of our bodies to be cleansed sufficiently, 
and that is why 62 percent of the population of this country is over­
weight. It is also a contributing factor to the fact that three out of four 
people in this country will develop some form of heart disease or cancer 
in their lifetime. The outside of the body is washed, but the inside, 
which is far more important, is not washed. I'm talking about some peo­
ple going for decades, THEIR ENTIRE LIVES, without ever doing what is 
necessary to wash out the toxic waste from inside their bodies. The only 
way this can be done is by eating foods that are high in water content. Drinking water won't do it, because drinking water does not carry the 
enzymes and other life-preserving elements into the body that the water 
in fruits and vegetables does, ALL THREE OF OUR BODY CYCLES FUNC­
TION WITH THE GREATEST EASE WHEN SUPPLIED WITH THIS WATER 
ON A REGULAR BASIS. It's interesting that we eat in such a way as to not cleanse but pollute 
our bodies. We eat in such a way as to clog them. We don't want to be 
clogged up any further, because the more we clog ourselves, the more 
we're going to put on weight, and the more difficult it will be to get that 
weight off. In fact, from now on when you look at the foods that you are 
about to eat, do just that—look at the plate of food that you're going to 
put into your body, and simply ask yourself this question: "Is this food 
that I'm going to put into this magnificent, intelligent body of mine going 
30 • FIT FOR LIFE to cleanse me, or is it going to clog me?" Stated another way: "Is this 
meal predominated by fruits and vegetables?" This is a very important 
question to ask yourself regularly. It's very simple. Am I eating a food 
right now that's going to cleanse me (detoxify me), or is it going to clog 
me? Most of the food we eat in this country is of a clogging nature. Our 
food clogs our bodies, and then, because we're clogged, we start to feel 
bad and we take measures to feel better, but at the same time we're still 
eating foods that are clogging up the system. So, from now on ask your­
self, when you look at a meal, "Is approximately 70 percent of this meal 
of a high-watcr-content nature?" Because I will tell you something with­
out reservation: If it's not, there is no way in the world you are going to 
successfully lose the weight you want to lose and keep it off permanently. If you truly want to be healthy and experience the body that you know 
you deserve to have, then it is an absolute prerequisite that you ask your­
self this question. The reason there are two hundred thousand heart by­
pass operations in this country every year is because people's arteries are 
clogged'. I would be willing to wager that few, if any, of these unfortunate 
two hundred thousand were on a diet predominated by high-water-con­
tent food. It's odd, but the things we receive for free we abuse the most. Because we are given these miraculous, incredible bodies at birth for free, 
we tend to take them for granted and abuse them. We must work with 
our bodies, not against them. One perfect way to do that is to cleanse 
them, not clog them. The reason we eat so much food that is clogging rather than cleansing 
is that we're prisoners. Prisoners! That's right. We're prisoners of our taste 
buds. We will do anything for our taste buds. If there is a food that can't 
outrun us, and it's not nailed down, and it will fit into our mouth?, and it 
tastes good, we'll eat it! We don't think twice about it. The only require­
ment we have about food is "How does it taste?" But what about the rest 
of the body? When you look at the tiny area of the body that your taste 
buds occupy, and then you look at the rest of your body (which is what 
has to deal with the foods that pass over your taste buds) you have to 
wonder why people place so much attention on one small part of the 
body and ignore such a large part. How many times have you heard someone say, "You know what, I 
woke up this morning, I was real late, I didn't have a chance to take a 
bite before I went out of the house. I ran out of the house to the office. 1 
had more work than I could possibly take care of, I never took a coffee 
break. I never took a lunch break. I worked straight all day long." You've 
probably heard that part before. But now five o'clock rolls around; it's 
time to go home. All of a sudden this person realizes how hungry he 
THE PRINCIPLE OF HIGH-WATER-CONTENT FOOD • 31 really is. He's rubbing his stomach and saying, "Man, am I hungry. I 
haven't eaten all day. I'm going out right now to get myself something 
that's going to wash out my intestines and cleanse my colon." No way! That is not what you've heard. It's more like "I'm going to get myself a 
pizza or a cheeseburger." The thing that people do when they're hungry, 
most of the time, is decide what is going to taste best and then go and eat 
that food. If you think exclusively of what is going to taste good, your 
body never has the opportunity to cleanse or detoxify itself. Therefore, 
you're always eating foods that just taste good, and then clog up the body, 
adding more weight, making the problem more difficult, and preventing 
you from ever taking that weight off. I am not implying for a moment 
that you have to eat in such a way as to not enjoy your food. I'm not 
saying you should eat food that does not absolutely delight your taste 
buds. No! What I'm saying is that you can eat foods that taste fantastic 
but at the same time meet the requirements of your whole body. All we're suggesting is to think in terms of eating meals that are 70 
percent high-water-content foods (fruit and vegetables) and 30 percent 
concentrated foods (everything else). Wait until you see what can be done 
with fruits and vegetables—far more than most people imagine. The cre­
ative, innovative, and tantalizing ideas supplied in FIT FOR LIFE will 
probably change your eating life-style forever. When you're hungry and 
you think of something to eat, you're going to know about some delecta­
ble, nonclogging alternatives. This can all be reduced to one simple sentence, IF YOU WANT TO BE 
VIBRANTLY AND VIGOROUSLY ALIVE, IN THE BEST POSSIBLE SHAPE, 
YOU HAVE TO EAT FOOD THAT'S ALIVE. You don't have to be a Ph.D. 
or a mental giant to get that. A live body will be built from live food! Food that's alive will be high-water-content food. If it does not have high 
water content, then that food is not alive. And if 70 percent or more of 
your diet is made up of food that is dead, processed, and denatured, 1 
leave it to you to imagine what will become of your body. Fruits and 
vegetables are enormously high in water. Other foods are concentrated, 
meaning the water has been either cooked or processed out. Something I like to do is compare us, as a species, to the other mam­
mals that are sharing the planet with us. Look at all the mammals. I am 
not talking about animals that we have as pets or in zoos, because they're 
under the dominion of humans and therefore have many of the problems 
of humans. But have you ever seen a fat tiger or impala in the wild? Have 
you ever seen animals in nature that have lost their teeth and use false 
teeth to eat, or have hearing aids to hear, or have glasses so they can see, 
or are wearing toupees because they went bald, or have pacemakers to 
make their hearts pump, or dialysis machines for their kidneys? Have you 
32 • FIT FOR UFE ever heard of a million animals a year dying of heart disease? Or a half a 
million dying of cancer? Or a quarter million dying of strokes? Or thou­
sands dying of diabetes? No! In part this is because animals in the wild 
survive only by eating well and staying fit. Otherwise the process of sur­
vival of the fittest would kill them off. But for the most part, animals in 
nature are magnificently healthy in comparison to the health that we 
humans experience. And they are not overweight! Now, why is that? All we have to do to understand this is look at the foods we are eating 
and look at the foods that the other mammals are eating. Other mam­
mals, the ones living in nature, are eating live foods very high in water 
content. They're not eating foods that have had the water cooked or pro­
cessed out. That is why they are experiencing a state of physical health 
much superior to ours. Even animals that are exclusively carnivorous, 
who eat nothing but meat, are eating high-water-content food. If you 
have ever had the opportunity, either in person or on film, to see a lion 
take down a zebra or wildebeest, you will have noticed that invariably the 
lion will rip open the underside of its prey, open its belly up, and go 
straight in and eat the intestines. I know that doesn't sound like a day at 
the beach, but that's how it is in the jungle! Why is it that when the lion 
takes down the zebra, it goes straight for the intestines? Because, by and 
large, carnivorous animals don't eat other carnivorous animals. Think 
about it: Lions don't eat tigers. Bears don't eat wolves. Carnivorous ani­
mals are eating animals that are plant- and fruit-eaters, because that is 
what all animals need. They have to have the food from the plant king­
dom. Either an animal will take its food directly from the plant kingdom, 
or it will eat animals that are eating that food. The reason a lion will go 
straight to the intestines is that there it finds the predigested high-water-
content food. Then it will eat all the organs, because they have very high 
water content. Then it will lap up the blood, because blood is over 90 
percent water! In other words, it goes from the inside to the outside. What is left at last is the muscle meat. So, what we should do is make sure that a good part of the time we are 
eating an adequate amount of high-water-content living food. Once in a 
while your day's food intake won't be perfectly balanced, with 70 percent 
water content food and 30 percent concentrated food. That's okay! We're 
not trying to give you some kind of jail sentence, like a diet. Once in a 
while concentrated food may predominate. Don't feel guilty! There is 
nothing to feel guilt)' about. You have certain cravings that you have 
built up over the years. It's going to take a certain amount of time for you 
to overcome these cravings. The idea is not to upset the balance more 
often than you maintain it. You eat heavy one day, and then the next day 
comes. It's a brand-new day. Considering that high-water-content food 
THE PRINCIPLE OF HIGH-WATER-CONTENT FOOD • 33 did not predominate the day before, the next day you should see to it that 
high-water-content foods do predominate. What is crucial, no matter 
what, is to keep in mind the importance of having this food high in water 
content on a regular basis. If it is absolutely ignored as if it made no 
difference, you will never be able to lose the weight that you're looking to 
lose and keep that weight off. The importance of eating in this fashion can be illustrated by the words 
of a gentleman who has been studying these principles for over half a 
century. Dr. Norman W. Walker is over one hundred and sixteen years 
old. He lives in Arizona. He grows his own vegetables and is still writing 
books. No one is pushing him around in a wheelchair or feeding him 
mashed bananas. He is completely independent. What is the key to his 
superior health and longevity? In his most recent book, Natural Weight 
Control, Dr. Walker stated, "Every plant, vegetable, fruit, nut, and seed 
in its raw natural state is composed of atoms and molecules. Within these 
atoms and molecules reside the vital elements we know as enzymes. En­
zymes are not things or substances! They are the life-principle in the 
atoms and molecules of every living cell. "The enzymes in the cells of the human body are exactly like those in 
vegetation, and the atoms in the human body each have a corresponding 
affinity for like atoms in vegetation. Consequently, when certain atoms 
are needed to rebuild or replace body cells, there will come into play a 
magneticlike attraction which will draw to such cells in our bodies the 
exact kind and type of atomic elements from the raw foods we eat. "Accordingly, every cell in the structure of our bodies and every cell in 
nature's foods are infused and animated with the silent life known as 
enzymes. This magneticlike attraction, however, is only available in live 
molecules! (Italics mine.) Enzymes are sensitive to all heat above 130 
degrees F. At 130 degrees F. they are dead. Any food which has been 
cooked at a temperature higher than 130 degrees F. has been subjected to 
the death sentence of its enzymes, and is nothing but dead food. "Naturally, dead matter cannot do the work of live organisms. Conse­
quently, food which has been subjected to higher temperatures above 130 
degrees F. has lost its live, nutritional value. While such food can, and 
does, sustain life in the human system, it does so at the expense of pro­
gressively degenerating health, energy, and vitality." In this book and every other book Dr. Walker has authored, he 
strongly emphasizes the importance of consuming high-water-content 
food if a slim, vibrant body is one of your goals, SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES! He's one hundred and sixteen years old and vibrantly active. I would 
listen to him. In 1980 the Los Angeles Times and Weekly World News carried articles 
34 • FIT FOR LIFE about a man living in China named Wu Yunqing. Mr. Yunqing is one 
hundred and forty-two years old and is shown riding his bicycle! When 
queried about his diet, he answered, "I eat corn, rice, sweet potatoes, and 
other fruits and vegetables." SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES! In January 1973 National Geographic had a story by a scientist named 
Alexander Leaf. Dr. Leaf went in search of the oldest people in the 
world. He found the three most consistently long-lived people to be the 
Abkhazians of Russia, the Vilcabambans of Ecuador, and the Hunzukuts 
of Pakistan. Aside from finding no obesity whatsoever among the Vil­
cabambans and Hunzukuts and very little amongst the Abkhazians, he 
discovered that these people were amazingly disease-free. No cancer! No 
heart disease! Plus most of them were living to be over one hundred years 
old and remaining very physically active. Dr. Leaf's inquiries into these 
people's dietary habits indicate that the Abkhazians cat approximately 70 
percent high-water-content food and the Vilcabambans and Hunzukuts 
eat over 80 percent. He and many gcrontologists were stunned to learn of 
these people and their magnificent longevity. But, I tell you, SUCCESS 
LEAVES CLUES! If you have written down a list of everything you ate in one day, please 
take it out and look at it now. I have two questions for you. First, is what 
you consumed about 70 percent high-water-content food (fresh fruit and 
vegetables and their juices)? And second, is it a typical day's fare? If 
the list does not reflect 70 percent high-water-content food and it is a 
typical day, then that list represents the major contributing factor to your 
weight problem. Not that other factors in one's life don't contribute to 
a weight problem; they do. Stress, psychological factors, one's job, emo­
tions, all contribute. But all the other factors combined don't equal the 
influence that food has on one's weight. The old cliche "An apple a day 
keeps the doctor away" was certainly on the right track. It should be "An 
apple (an orange, and a few other pieces of fruit) and a salad a day will 
keep the doctor away." A bit more cumbersome to state, but right on the 
money. Before continuing, let's answer the common question "What about 
drinking water? I drink eight glasses a day, and should I do that or should 
I not do that?" Actually, as you eat more foods that contain a lot of water, 
you will not have as much of a desire or requirement for water. In other 
words, people who are drinking eight glasses of water a day are doing so 
because they're not getting the water they need out of the foods that 
they're eating. Their diets are predominated by concentrated foods, so 
their bodies are continuously crying out for water, and they experience 
continuous thirst. You will find that you will have much less thirst if you 
are eating high-water-content food rather than eating foods devoid of 
THE PRINCIPLE OF HIGH-WATER-CONTENT FOOD • 35 water and then drinking the water separately. However, if you wish to 
drink water, you should drink distilled water if it is available. Mountain-
spring water is not ideal for the human body, because it contains in­
organic minerals that the human body can neither use nor precipitate 
out. These inorganic minerals tend to hook up with cholesterol in the 
system and form a thick plaque in the arteries. Distilled water does not 
have this effect. When you eat a piece of fruit or a vegetable, you are 
consuming distilled water. The minerals are taken from the soil, the 
plant distills them, and then you consume them. You may have heard 
that distilled water leaches minerals from the body. That is partially true. The minerals that are leached by distilled water are the inorganic miner­
als that the body cannot use. The effect, therefore, is healthful. Distilled 
water will not leach organic minerals that have become part of the struc­
ture of the cell system. Once a mineral has become part of the cell struc­
ture, it cannot be leached. One more comment about water, and this is important. It is very de­
bilitating to drink water with a meal. Many people eat and drink water at 
the same time. That is not a good practice, because there are digestive 
juices in the stomach that are breaking down food. If you drink water 
along with your meal, you dilute those juices, preventing the meal from 
being properly digested. This also greatly hinders both the appropriation 
and the assimilation cycles, which in turn negatively affect the all-impor­
tant elimination cycle while wasting a great deal of energy. In summary, by consuming high-water-content food, you will, in 
effect, wash the toxic waste from your body, thereby decreasing your 
weight. By continuing to eat high-water-content food, you will not allow 
the toxic waste to build up, and you will not put weight back on. We've 
made it apparent just how important the elimination cycle is in weight 
loss. NO PRACTICE WILL EXPEDITE THE ELIMINATION CYCLE MORE 
THAN THE REGULAR CONSUMPTION OF AN ADEQUATE AMOUNT OF 
HIGH-WATER-CONTENT FCXJD. It's the easiest thing in the world to ver­
ify, and you will be doing just that when you begin the program. As important as high-water-content food is the second tool to assist you 
in the detoxification of your body. It is an intriguing and fascinating 
phenomenon known as . . . 36 • FIT FOR LIFE CHAPTER 
\6J> 
The Principle of 
Proper Food Combining 
JLerhaps you may have already come 
into contact with proper food combining. It is becoming more and more 
popular (and justifiably so). The importance of proper food combining 
has been proved as a result of intense research time and time again over 
the last eighty-five years. In fact, one of the first people who studied this 
subject is probably familiar to you. Does the name Ivan Pavlov ring a 
bell? In addition to his experiments on conditioned reflexes, Pavlov also 
did a great deal of study of proper food combining, and in 1902 he pub­
lished a book entitled The Work of the Digestive Glands, wherein he 
revealed the basic fundamentals of proper food combining. Proper food 
combining works, and it works beautifully. There have been many stud­
ies done substantiating its value, most notably by Dr. Herbert M. Shel-
ton, who from 1928 to 1981 had a school in San Antonio, Texas, where 
he compiled the most extensive research data available on the proper 
combinations of foods. Dr. Shelton's work, backed up as long ago as 1924 in the Journal of the 
American Medical Association by Dr. Philip Norman, shows the effec­
tiveness and validity of food combining as a science. If it is violated, a 
host of problems result, which are an enormous hindrance to the suc-
• 37 • cessful loss of weight. It stands to reason that if the appropriation cycle is 
encumbered in any way, then the cycles following will also suffer, NOTH­
ING STREAMLINES THE APPROPRIATION CYCLE MORE THAN ADHERING 
TO THE PRINCIPLES OF PROPER FOOD COMBINING. Mow does proper food combining fit in with the loss of excess weight? How do you start your day? Do you jump out of bed with an incredible 
feeling of vitality, ready to charge into the day? Or do you drag yourself 
out of bed and gulp down some coffee to get the day going? Do you go 
through your day with a positive feeling of anticipation? Or are you 
thinking, Gee, I hope I can make it until Friday. At the end of the day 
are you still full of energy? Are you looking forward to spending some 
time with your kids, your spouse, or your friends? Or, come evening, do 
you barely have enough energy to get dinner down and then collapse on 
the couch in front of the TV prior to passing out? The difference between 
these two types of days boils down to one crucial element: energy! There's probably not a person reading this page right now who would 
not like to have more energy. It's like money. If I were to hand you a 
fifty-dollar bill, would you tear it up and throw it into the street? I doubt 
it. If you would not take a fifty-dollar bill and throw it away, would you 
do that to something far more important than money, your energy? You 
wouldn't knowingly, but unknowingly you may be doing that regularly. If 
you want to run, read, play, or do anything, you require energy. In fact if 
there is no energy in your body, it means that you are not alive. No 
energy, no life. Everyone wants to have more energy. Guess what function of the hu­
man body demands more energy than any other function? The digestion 
of food! Isn't that interesting? Have you ever felt sleepy after a meal? Who 
hasn't? That happens because all energies are concentrated on taking care 
of the food in the system. The digestion of food takes more energy than 
running, swimming, or bike riding. In fact, there's nothing you can 
name that takes more energy than the digestion of food. This energy is crucial for the all-important detoxification (elimination 
of toxic waste) of the body. If we can eliminate toxic waste from our 
bodies on a regular basis, we are going to lose weight on a regular basis, 
and not put that weight back on. It takes energy to eliminate, and the 
elimination cycle is of extreme importance. The body cannot eliminate 
toxic waste without your cooperation. The way we must assist the body is 
to supply it with readily available energy on a steady basis. This is the 
answer to being healthy and trim. It's having a sufficient amount of en­
ergy at the body's disposal to take care of detoxification. If the digestion of 
food takes more energy than any other function of the body, where is it, 
do you think, that we are most likely to be able to free up some energy fdr 
use elsewhere? From our digestive tracts, of course. 38 • FIT FOR LIFE Food combining is based on the discovery that certain combinations of 
food may be digested with greater ease and efficiency than others. The 
successful results obtained through the principles of food combining can 
be explained and substantiated by the facts of physiological chemistry, 
particularly the chemistry of digestion. Energy is the key, and nothing 
streamlines the process of digestion, which optimizes energy, more than 
proper food combining. Food combining teaches this: THE HUMAN BODY IS NOT DESIGNED 
TO DIGEST MORE THAN ONE CONCENTRATED FOOD IN THE STOMACH 
AT THE SAME TIME. This is a very simple but significant statement. Re­
member what is meant by concentrated food: ANY FOOD THAT IS NOT A 
FRUIT AND is NOT A VEGETABLE is CONCENTRATED. Proper food com­
bining merely states that because the human stomach is not capable of 
digesting more than one of these concentrated foods at a time, you 
should not eat more than one concentrated food at a time. It's just that 
simple. Every species of mammal has a specific type of digestive system biolog­
ically adapted to a particular type of food—from the lion, whose digestive 
tract is about twelve feet long, to the giraffe, whose digestive tract is about 
two hundred and eighty feet long! There are carnivorous, herbivorous, 
omnivorous, graminivorous and frugivorous animals on this planet. There is some argument as to what type of digestive system the human 
species possesses, but one thing is certain: Humans do not possess ALL 
these different types of digestive systems. However, we humans eat the 
diet of a lion, a giraffe, a pig, a horse, and an ape. And not only do we 
eat the different diets of all these animals, but we do so at the same meal! This places a tremendous burden on the digestive faculties, forces the 
creation of toxic waste in the system, and squanders a great deal of pre­
cious energy. I wonder if you have ever eaten meat and potatoes together. Fish and 
rice? Chicken and noodles? Eggs and toast? Cheese and bread? Cereal 
and milk? You might be saying, "Hey, wait a second here, what else is 
left?" Don't worry, there's plenty. What if I were to tell you that eating 
these particular combinations is not in your best interest and also insures 
that you will have neither the slim body nor the energy you want? In fact, 
regularly eating these particular combinations guarantees that you will 
never have the energy that you need. The cornerstone of weight loss is 
detoxification, and detoxification is entirely dependent upon energy. The 
improper combination of food in the stomach is exactly why we have an 
"energy crisis" in this country. It is also a contributing factor to why 
people in this country are dying at age fifty. Death means the body no 
longer has the energy to deal with its situation. And death at fifty is 
indefensible. THE PRINCIPLE OP PROPER FOOD COMBINING • 39 Nearly two thirds of the population are overweight. A great deal of that 
can be attributed to the fact that we eat foods haphazardly and indis­
criminately combined. This deserves further explanation. Let's use meat 
and potatoes, because that is something that probably everyone has eaten 
at one time or another. Even though I am talking about meat and po­
tatoes, I could easily be talking about fish and rice, or chicken and noo­
dles, or bread and cheese. Consider eating a steak. You prepare it the way 
you like it and then you eat it. Once in the stomach, this concentrated 
protein requires a particular digestive juice to break it down—an acid 
juice. At the same time you're going to have a baked potato. Now, you might be saying, "Wait a minute, potato—that's a vegeta­
ble." True, potato is a vegetable. If you were to bite into a raw potato and 
chew it up, it would be a high-water-content food in your stomach. But 
once it is baked, you can chew it until your jaw atrophies and it will not 
turn to water. Once it is baked, most of the water has been removed and 
it is of a very concentrated, starchy nature. So this concentrated starch 
enters the stomach with the steak. The digestive juice necessary to break 
this food down is not acid, but alkaline. If you have ever taken a chemis­
try class, you will know what happens when acid and alkaline come into 
contact with each other. They neutralize each other. So you have just eaten a steak and potato. They've gone into your 
stomach, and the digestive juices necessary to break them down have just 
been neutralized. What is going to happen to that food? The body, which 
is infinitely wise, immediately recognizes an emergency, because a 
number-one priority for the body is the digestion of food. The body is 
literally thrown into turmoil. It has to secrete more digestive juices. This 
takes time and energy. New digestive juices are secreted into the stom­
ach, and what happens? They are neutralized again. Now the body is 
really pushed to its limit. More energy is needed to secrete even more 
juices into the stomach. A long time is elapsing during this process. As a 
matter of fact, several hours are going by as the body is manufacturing all 
this digestive juice. Digestive juices are secreted into the stomach once 
again, and we begin to experience indigestion or heartburn. Finally the 
food, which has never been properly digested, is simply moved out of the 
stomach by the peristaltic action of the intestines. This undigested food is 
forced into the intestines after several hours of being held up in the stom­
ach. As if the stomach were saying, "Here, you take it for a while!" Exactly what has just occurred is important to understand. Most of the 
protein, being in the stomach for so long, has putrefied. Most of the 
carbohydrate has fermented. Putrefaction and fermentation are two ele­
ments the human body, under no circumstances, can use. Nutrients af­
fected in this way cannot be incorporated into healthy cell structure. 40 • FIT FOR LIFE Foods that have been putrefied or fermented generate toxic acids in the 
body. Because of the putrefaction and fermentation, there is gas, 
flatulence, more heartburn, acid indigestion, and R-O-L-A-I-D-S. If not 
Rolaids, then Turns, Gelusil, Pepto-Bismol, Alka-Seltzer, Bromo Selt­
zer, Mylanta, or milk of magnesia. The list goes on. We take antacids by 
the trainload in this country. Why? Because we are eating foods haphaz­
ardly and indiscriminately. When they are all thrown together in the 
stomach, the body cannot handle them. We're the only species in the 
world that, when finished eating, must medicate itself to move the food 
out of our guts. Because there's all this putrefaction, fermentation, and resulting acid, 
what actually is in the stomach at that time is a mass of spoiled, rotting, 
foul-smelling food. Now, I know that doesn't sound too appealing, and I 
don't want to be rude, but I do want to be real—and that is exactly what 
is happening inside the system. The food is forced to stay in the stomach, 
not being digested, and it is literally rotting. The nutrients that may have 
existed within that food are lost. It is in the stomach for a long time, 
while the body uses up an incredible amount of energy. Then the food is 
forced into the intestines, where it travels through some thirty feet of 
intestinal tract. Visualize it! Thirty feet of intestines are being forced to 
cope with this rotten food. That is why people are tired after a meal like 
this. That is why people have no energy. That food may take eight hours 
just to get out of the stomach and twenty to forty more to get through the 
intestines. In The Hygienic System, Vol. II, Herbert M. Shelton describes the 
work of Arthur Cason, M.D. Dr. Cason reported in 1945 that he and his 
aides conducted two groups of experiments that showed that eating pro­
tein and carbohydrates at the same meal retards and even prevents diges­
tion. He made control tests in which digestive rates were recorded and a 
final analysis of the feces was made. He said, "Such tests always reveal 
that the digestion of proteins when mixed with starches is retarded in the 
stomach; the degree varying in different individuals, and also in the par­
ticular protein or starch ingested. An examination of the fecal matter 
reveals both undigested starch granules and protein shreds and fibers, 
whereas, when ingested separately, each goes to a conclusion." If food is 
properly combined, it is fully broken down, absorbed, and utilized by the 
body. No undigested fragments will show in the feces. We also find when foods are eaten in incompatible combinations and 
fermentation results that alcohol is produced in the digestive tract, with 
the same consequences that would come from drinking alcohol and with 
the same potential for liver damage. The principle of proper food combining suggests only this: We don't 
THE PRINCIPLE OF PROPER FOOD COMBINING • 41 want to waste energy. We don't want food to sit around rotting in the 
stomach for eight hours and fouling up the intestines for twenty hours 
more. What we really want is food going into the stomach and being 
there approximately three hours with no putrefaction, no fermentation, 
no gas, no flatulence, no heartburn, and no acid indigestion requiring 
medication. We want food to pass quickly and efficiently through the 
intestines. The way to insure that is to have one concentrated food at a 
time, not two. Eating two concentrated foods simultaneously will cause 
the food to rot, and rotten food CANNOT BE ASSIMILATED! Improper food 
combining drastically thwarts the assimilation and the elimination cycles. There is a simple way to avoid this entire problem. If you want to have 
a steak, or a piece of fish or chicken, so be it. Just be aware that if you're 
going to have any flesh food, that is your one concentrated food for that 
meal. That means with it you should not have any other concentrated 
foods. Not potatoes, rice, noodles, cheese, or bread, but with it have 
high-water-content food. In other words, along with the steak have some 
vegetables, say, for example, some broccoli and zucchini. It can be any 
vegetable that you like. Understand that vegetables do not need their own 
specific digestive juices. They will break down in either medium, acid or 
alkaline. Let's say you lightly steam some broccoli and zucchini, or stir-
fry them, or saute them, however you like your vegetables prepared. (Keep in mind that the more you cook them, the more life and water 
content you cook out of them.) You prepare the vegetables, and along 
with the steak and vegetables you have a tossed salad. Now you're not 
going to go hungry eating like that, are you? Of course not. We're not suggesting that you starve yourself. What we're talking about 
is this: There are certain physiological limitations that the human body 
has, and they have to be respected, that's all. If you want to have the 
baked potato, great! Have a baked potato. Have it with some butter, pref­
erably raw butter if available. And with it have the vegetables: zucchini, 
string beans, broccoli, whatever you like, and your salad. Again, you do 
not have to go hungry. Can you see what food combining suggests? You 
want to have meat? Have meat with vegetables and salad. You want to 
have potatoes? Have potatoes with vegetables and salad. You want to have 
bread? Have bread with vegetables and salad. You want to have pasta? Have pasta with garlic butter and vegetables and salad. You want to have 
cheese? Take the cheese and chop it and put it in your salad, without 
croutons. Or melt cheese on your vegetables. This may sound overly 
simple to people who fear they will not get enough protein unless they eat 
meat at every meal—but I'll address that subject in Chapter 7. You see, you're enjoying yourself when you eat, you're eating the 
foods you like, but you're not throwing them all together and eating them 
42 • FIT FOR LIFE all at the same time. This practice not only optimizes the extraction and 
utilization of nutrients in the food (because there is no putrefaction or 
fermentation), but also puts an end to painful digestive disorders and 
substantially increases available energy. Violation of proper food combin­
ing has many negative consequences, and many positive results come 
from adhering to its principles. Let's go for the positive! POSITIVE 
NUMBER ONE: WEIGHT LOSS! It is occasionally argued that nature itself combines starches and pro­
teins in the same food, and if nature does, we may do so also. This 
objection is not valid. If a food that is a natural protein-starch combina­
tion (such as beans) is eaten alone, the body is capable of modifying its 
digestive juices and timing their secretions in such ways that digestion 
can go on with a fair degree of efficiency.' But when a separate starch 
food and a separate protein food are eaten at the same meal, this precise 
adaption of the digestive secretions to the character and digestive require­
ments of the food is not possible. There is a marked and important dif­
ference between eating a food that is a natural protein-starch combination 
and eating two foods, one a protein and the other a starch. If it's not good to mix a protein and a starch, is it okay to mix a protein 
with another protein or a starch with a starch? Actually, the most ideal 
situation is ONE concentrated food per meal, so that would preclude mix­
ing protein with protein or starch with starch. However, one of these 
combinations is acceptable: a starch with a starch. The reason that two 
proteins should not be mixed is that proteins are of such different charac­
ter and complex composition that the modifications necessary to meet the 
digestive requirements of more than one protein food are impossible. Therefore, both proteins putrefy in the system. This does not mean that 
two different kinds of flesh may not be eaten together or that two different 
kinds of nuts may not be eaten together; but it certainly means that no 
two different proteins—flesh, eggs, dairy products, or nuts—should be 
eaten simultaneously. Starches are not as difficult to break down as protein, so more than one 
starch can be eaten together. For example, if you wanted to have 
croutons on a salad and also wanted to have a baked potato, it would 
work digestively without fermentation. Rice and beans, although heavy, 
is another combination that can be compatible in the stomach. Or if you 
were having an avocado sandwich and wanted to have some corn chips 
with it, that would work as well. Of course, to reiterate, only one of these 
foods at a time would be best, because it would mean less work for the 
'We say fair because beans are notoriously difficult to digest. Most people after eating beans will 
experience gas and flatulence, proving the point that protein-starch combinations of any kind cause 
problems. THE PRINCIPLE OF PROPER FOOD COMBINING • 43 body, resulting in less energy expenditure. But two starches can be com­
bined without spoiling in the stomach. By introducing you to proper food combining we're suggesting that you 
start to alter some of your existing dietary habits. It is not something that 
has to turn your life upside down at all. It's something to be done as 
much as possible at your own pace! Of course, the more you practice it, 
the more success you will have. The more frequently it is done, the more 
quickly you are going to be able to lose the weight you're looking to lose. Can you see how simple this information is? What we're talking about 
here is a new way of eating. It's obvious that we need it! The way we have 
been eating in this country for the last hundred years or so has brought us 
to the point where over half of us are struggling with weight problems. We have never been taught the proper way to nourish the body. Ob­
viously, from what we have just learned, the standard approach to nutri­
tion—the four-food-group philosophy—does not work. It is an archaic, 
counterproductive approach to eating. I know that the four-food-group 
philosophy has been nutritional gospel for many years, but the evidence 
against it is staring us in the face. It has not worked, evidenced by the fact 
that so many people in this country are sick and overweight. And the 
problem is far from under control. At a recent conference on obesity at 
the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, attended by research­
ers and clinicians who deal with obesity, Dr. Gerard Smith of Cornell 
University Medical Center, addressing himself to the physiological cues 
that turn feeding behavior on and off, said, "We don't know where to 
look and haven't found the cues. The extent of our ignorance is total." The lunch served at this gathering consisted of roast beef with mashed 
potatoes and gravy, broccoli, Jell-O, and chocolate pie. Their ignorance 
of the principles of proper food combining is most assuredly total. Were it 
not for the time-honored belief in the four-food-group approach to eat­
ing, such grievous food combinations would not be so commonplace. For some, forsaking the four-food-group myth may be hard. But the 
only thing that makes it hard is the belief system people have built over 
the years. Belief systems can be the biggest obstacle to one's progress. If 
the belief in something is strong enough, no amount of evidence or proof 
of its falsity can dissuade the believer. Consider the plight of Galileo 
three centuries ago, severely chastised for his ridiculous belief that the 
sun did not orbit the earth. Galileo, whose theory was based on Coper-
nicus's earlier work, was sent to jail for insinuating something as pre­
posterous as the sun not orbiting the earth. Why, any fool could go 
outside in the morning and watch the sun as it traveled across the sky, 
plopping into the ocean or disappearing behind a mountain every night. Right? Wrong! I daresay that no one today believes that the sun circles 
H • FIT FOR LIFE the earth. But it sure looks that way, doesn't it? It's the same thing with 
certain dietary habits we have. They look as if they're right, but they're 
exactly wrong! Over three hundred years after Galileo's observations were 
made public, and even though he was right and everyone else was wrong, 
the Catholic Church is just getting around to exonerating him for being 
right! Traditions, no matter how fallacious they may be, die hard. Proper food combining does not prevent you from eating the foods you 
like; you just shouldn't eat them all at the same time. If you eat in ac­
cordance with the principle of compatibly combining foods, there will be 
no enormous loss of energy. There will be an energy surplus. Do you 
remember when you had your last Thanksgiving meal? After eating, did 
you happen to utter that famous sentence, "Uhh! I'll never eat again"? Many of us have used it. After the meal, you go to the living room and 
sit down and that's it. "I'm just going to watch the rest of the game. A 
cup of coffee? Okay. Huh, a piece of pie? Well, okay." You can't even 
bend over! You have to slide into the chair. Well, why? Because you had 
so many combinations of foods. You had the turkey, and I'm not saying 
not to have turkey on Thanksgiving, but along with the turkey, there was 
probably a roast beef or a ham, or both. You had a little of each. Then 
there are the mashed potatoes and yams. You had some of those. And the 
stuffing! Of course, you had to have the stuffing, with gravy. And those 
biscuits, and pumpkin pie. And a token vegetable on the side that nobody 
touches. You know what I'm talking about? I'm not suggesting that you 
not participate in Thanksgiving. But the reason the body is totally ex­
hausted after a meal like that is that there are so many different, concen­
trated, incompatible foods in the stomach at one time, the system is 
thrown into turmoil. Doing this once in a while, the body has a chance 
to deal with the situation. On a regular basis, however, the body breaks 
down. After nourishing the body, especially at a celebration, we should 
feel vibrant and ready to conquer the world. Instead, we're barely able to 
conquer the couch. Do you remember the lion that we were talking about before, that took 
down the zebra? When that lion ate the zebra, it wasn't having baked 
potato with it. It's strictly a la carte out there in the jungle. The animals 
in nature experience a much higher level of health than we do; not only 
eating high-water-content food, they are also properly combining their 
food. Animals in nature don't combine their foods improperly. That is the 
beauty of it. They eat one food at a time. Not like us. We eat anything 
we can get our hands on, including them! Here's something that may surprise you: Henry Ford was also a propo­
nent of food combining. In an article from Early American Life, David 
L. Lewis discusses the "Wayside Inn," a vocational school set up by Ford 
THE PRINCIPLE OF PROPER FOOD COMBINING • 45 in 1928 to "teach boys how to work with their hands and how to think." Underprivileged boys between the ages of twelve and seventeen were en­
rolled in the ninth through twelfth grades. They received training in agri­
culture, electrical and automotive engineering, plumbing, carpentry, and 
other vocations as well as academic subjects. "Along with a Ford-fi­
nanced education, the students had to suffer Ford's theory on diet. Sugar, 
candy, cakes, pies, puddings, and other kinds of sweet desserts were for­
bidden, as well as tea, cocoa, and table salts, STARCHES AND PROTEINS 
WERE NEVER MIXED BECAUSE THEY WERE CONSIDERED TO BE CHEM­
ICALLY INCOMPATIBLE [emphasis mine], while vegetable salads were 
served twice a day." All right, Henry! He wasn't about to feed them ill-
combined meals; they wouldn't have any energy left for work! It is essential that we start to respect our digestive limitations. We need 
to free up energy to get toxic waste out of our bodies. The digestive tract 
uses more energy than any other function of the body. Food combining 
frees up that energy so your body can work to detoxify itself. And the 
beautiful thing is you don't have to go hungry. How would you like to be 
ten pounds lighter ten days from now, while eating? Well, of course, 
anyone who is overweight would like to do that. Just by making use of 
your new understanding of proper food combining, it is possible for you 
to achieve that. Food combining works! This is not something that you 
have to take my word for. All you have to do is start to combine your 
foods the way I have described, and you will know exactly whether or not 
this information is true. That, after all, is what really counts, isn't it? Does it work? Whether it is proved or not proved means nothing. If you 
can dramatically increase your energy, do away with stomach ailments, 
lose weight, and feel good by properly combining, would it matter to you 
if it was "proved" not to work? Of course not. Don't believe me. Try it! Proper food combining simply creates the environment for weight loss. If you can eat food and have it go through your stomach in three hours 
instead of eight, there are five hours of energy right there that you have 
picked up—five hours to be put toward detoxification and weight loss. And you're going to pick up more energy as that food goes through the 
intestines with great ease. Some people have said to me, "This makes pretty much sense, I have 
to admit, but I'm a businessman, I go out for lunch every day, so I can't 
do this." Why not? You can adhere to this principle in any restaurant 
you wish. Any good restaurant will allow you to order what you want. You are the customer. You are paying. You can have what you want. You can go in with your business associates and say, "What is today's 
special?" "Today we have fresh trout, absolutely fantastic." 46 • FIT FOR LIFE "Wonderful! I'll have the trout, and instead of the rice that comes with 
the trout, what vegetables do you have this afternoon?" "Well, we have fresh asparagus and cauliflower." "Fantastic! I'll have the trout and vegetables, and would you please 
bring me a salad with that?" You're going to be able to participate in ordering and eat your lunch, 
and your business associates are not going to say, "Hey, how come you're 
not eating the rice?" No one's going to say anything. The beautiful thing 
is that when you and your business associates stand up, you are going to 
feel light and be able to finish the rest of your day with abundant energy, 
and your business associates are going to have stomachs full of rotting 
food that will hold them back. They'll feel tired and will have to pick 
themselves up with coffee or some other toxic, addictive stimulant. What's so fantastic about proper food combining is that it dramatically 
improves your level of energy and at the same time it frees up everything 
necessary within the body to rid itself of the excess toxic waste that is 
keeping you heavy. I know it sounds simple, and the marvelous thing about this method is 
that it is simple! You just make little changes. If it took you twenty, or 
thirty, or forty years to build up the problem, you have plenty of time to 
turn it around, but the important thing is you have to start. I get excited 
and carried away each time I discuss this subject, because 1 know how 
simple and obvious this information is. I have seen it work with thou­
sands of people, and I know that thousands of other people, including 
you, can start to experience this wonderful feeling of control, of knowing 
how to have a trim body, and then doing what is necessary to make that 
body appear. It's within your grasp—yours for the asking. By the way, the people of the United States spend some thirty billion 
dollars on drugs every year. They swallow twenty-five million pills every 
hour! Do you know what the number-one-selling prescription drug in the 
United States is? It used to be Valium. According to the Wall Street 
Journal, it is now Tagamet. And what is Tagamet for? Stomach disorders'. Could that possibly have anything to do with what people's stomachs are 
forced to deal with every day? As you start to experiment with the proper combinations of food, you 
will come to realize firsthand what a truly marvelous tool proper food 
combining is in the quest to lose weight. This brings us now to the third tool designed to remove toxic waste 
from your body. It is the one I enjoy discussing more than any other, 
since it revolves around . . . THE PRINCIPLE OF PROPER FOOD COMBINING • 47 CHAPTER 
The Principle of 
Correct Fruit Consumption 
An the broad subject of health there 
is surely no area that has been more misunderstood, more unjustly ma­
ligned, or more abused than the consumption of fruit. People do not 
know how to eat fruit in this country. I don't mean that they don't know 
how to pick it up and eat it; they have that down pat. I mean that they 
don't know when or how to eat it. The correct consumption of fruit is 
very closely associated with proper food combining. How many people do you know who truly detest fruit? Who really 
can't stand it? Probably none. Most of the people you will ever talk to will 
readily express their fondness of fruit. About the most negative comment 
you will ever hear about fruit is "I love it, but it doesn't love me." Or "I 
love it, but I can't eat it." Why they can't eat it and why they have to be 
careful with it is more often than not based on some misunderstanding 
about the nature of correct fruit consumption. At every seminar I have ever given, I ask for a show of hands from 
those who dislike fruit, and rarely, even in groups of seven hundred peo­
ple or more, does even one hand go up. The reason almost everyone 
expresses a liking for fruit is that our bodies crave it instinctively. With its 
sweet blends of rare flavors, delightful aromas, and eye-pleasing colors, 
• 48 • fruit is always an invitation to pleasure in eating. Fruit is, without doubt, 
the most beneficial, energy-giving, life-enhancing food you can eat. IF! If 
it is correctly consumed. What you are about to learn may be met with a 
certain amount of skepticism, as it attacks your belief system about fruit, 
and that's all right. It involves a new way of thinking about your body and 
how you nourish it. Young and old alike think of fruit as a treat. A cold piece of melon on 
a hot day—delicious! You eat a spicy meal and eat a piece of fruit, and it 
cools and soothes the palate. This may surprise you: The reason we instinctively crave fruit is that 
fruit, without any question, is the most important food we can put into 
the human body. It is the one food that the human species is biologically 
adapted to. On May 15, 1979, The New York Times ran a story on the work of Dr. 
Alan Walker, an eminent anthropologist at Johns Hopkins University. The story was a bombshell for those doctors, dietitians, and nutritionists 
not aware of the immense importance of fruit in the human diet. Dr. 
Walker's findings indicate that our "early human ancestors were not pre­
dominantly meat eaters or even eaters of seeds, shoots, leaves or grasses. Nor were they omnivorous. Instead, they appear to have subsisted chiefly 
on a diet of fruit." Dr. Walker developed a fascinating way of determin­
ing dietary trends by studying striations, or markings, on teeth. All foods 
leave distinctly different markings on teeth. In his studies of fossilized 
teeth Dr. Walker noted that, to date, "No exceptions have been found. Every tooth examined from the hominids of the twelve-million-year 
period leading up to Homo erectus appeared to be that of a fruit eater." wow! You can practically hear the gnashing of teeth over at the Cat­
tlemen's Association. Since fruit is what we are biologically adapted to eat, it is far more 
important for you to think in terms of how much fruit you're going to eat 
than how much protein you're going to get during the day. In fifteen 
years I've never met a person with a protein deficiency, notwithstanding 
the fact that it does exist in devastating circumstances such as 
kwashiorkor. Yet I have met hundreds with protein poisoning, and most 
of them were not eating a sufficient amount of fruit. Overconsumption of 
protein has been linked to breast, liver, and bladder cancer and to an 
increase in the incidence of leukemia.1 According to William J. Mayo, 
founder of the Mayo Clinic, in an address before the American College 
of Surgeons, "Meat-eating has increased 400 percent in the last 100 
years. Cancer of the stomach forms nearly one third of all cancers of the 
'Viktoras Kulvinskas. Survival into the 2lst Century. Wcthersfield, Connecticut: Omangod Press, 
1975. THE PRINCIPLE OF CORRECT FRUIT CONSUMPTION • 49 human body. If flesh foods are not fully broken up, decompositions re­
sult, and active poisons are thrown into an organ not intended for their 
reception. "2 Protein poisoning is hyperacidity in the body, which is dis­
cussed in Chapter 9. It was stated earlier that it is imperative for the system to be constantly 
cleansed of the toxic waste that builds in the body. The most effective 
way for this cleansing to be accomplished is with the consumption of 
high-water-content food. You can probably surmise the next sentence. FRUIT HAS THE HIGHEST WATER CONTENT OF ANY FOOD. All fruit is 
80 percent to 90 percent cleansing, life-giving water. In addition, all the 
vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, amino acids, and fatty acids that the 
human body requires for its existence are to be found in fruit. The life 
force inherent in fruit is unsurpassed by any other food. When fruit is 
correctly consumed, nothing can match its benefits. By its nature fruit 
affords the body the opportunity to cleanse built-up residue from the sys­
tem. In this cleansed state every aspect of your life is enhanced. Your 
body is capable of functioning at its optimum efficiency. As a tool in weight loss the proper consumption of fruit is unparalleled 
in its effectiveness and efficiency. In October 1983 a Yale University 
professor, Judith Rodin, presented some interesting data to the Interna­
tional Congress on Obesity in New York. Her studies of the benefits of 
fruit sugar indicate that "What you eat in one meal really affects what 
you will eat in the next meal." The Bergen Record reported that Ms. 
Rodin gave plain water sweetened with different kinds of sugar to a study 
group. "The people who drank the liquid sweetened with the fruit sugar 
fructose ate significantly less than people who drank either water or liquid 
sweetened with the common sugar sucrose." She and her fellow research­
ers noted that "the subjects who consumed fructose ate an average of 479 
calories less [at their next meal] than the people who had sucrose." Dr. William Castelli, medical director of the famed Framingham 
(Massachusetts) Study on Heart Disease and a faculty member at Harvard 
Medical School, indicates that "An amazing substance found in many 
types of fruit can cut your risk of heart disease or heart attack. The sub­
stance protects the heart by preventing the blood from becoming too thick 
and plugging up the arteries." Fruit is cleansing, not clogging. The ingredient essential for a vigorous life is energy. We already know 
that digestion uses more energy than any other physical activity. Here is 
where fruit performs a most vital and significant role, FRUIT REQUIRES 
LESS ENERGY TO BE DIGESTED THAN ANY OTHER FOOD. In fact, it 
demands practically none! 2Blanchc Leonardo, Ph.D. Cancer and Other Diseases from Meat Consumption. Santa Monica, 
California: Leaves of Healing, 1979. 50 ' FIT FOR LIFE Here's why: Everything consumed by the human body must eventually 
be broken down and transformed into glucose, fructose, glycerine, amino 
acids, and fatty acids. The brain cannot function on anything but glucose 
(sugar). Fruit is glucose in the body. Its digestion, absorption, and assim­
ilation require only a minute fraction of the energy necessary to break 
down other foods. Other foods spend anywhere from one and a half to 
four hours in the stomach. (And that is only if what is eaten is properly 
combined.) The less concentrated and the better combined the foods, the 
less time spent in the stomach. The more concentrated and ill-combined, 
the longer they spend in the stomach. The stomach is where the initial 
expenditure of energy takes place, FRUIT DOES NOT DIGEST IN THE 
STOMACH! Not even minimally. Fruits are predigested. All fruits (with 
the exception of bananas, dates, and dried fruit, which stay in the stom­
ach a bit longer) are in the stomach only a very short time. They pass 
through the stomach in twenty to thirty minutes, as if they were going 
through a tunnel. They break down and release their supercharged, life-
giving nutrients in the intestines. The energy fruit conserves by not having to be broken down in the 
stomach is considerable. This energy is automatically redirected to 
cleanse the body of toxic waste, thereby reducing weight. All this is true 
only when fruit is correctly consumed, however. What constitutes correct 
consumption? It is actually quite simple. Since fruit is not intended to be 
in the stomach extensively, correct consumption means that FRUIT 
SHOULD NEVER BE EATEN WITH OR IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING ANY­
THING. It is essential that when you eat fruit, it is eaten on an empty 
stomach. THIS IS UNQUESTIONABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF 
FIT FOR LIFE. If you eat fruit correctly, because it has so much water and 
demands so little energy to digest, it will play a major role in enabling 
your body to detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of 
energy for weight loss and other life activities. Fruit is the most important 
food you can eat. But if fruit is eaten on top of other foods, many prob­
lems result. Say you eat a sandwich, and then you eat a piece of fruit—for exam­
ple, a piece of melon. The piece of melon is ready to go straight through 
the stomach into the intestines, but it is prevented from doing so.
Fit_For_Life.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        So how do we maintain metabolic balance and accomplish the re­
moval of toxic waste from the system while still enjoying our food. There 
are three easy-to-understand and easy-to-follow principles, or tools, that 
can assist you in doing precisely that. The first of these critical and vital 
tools that can help you realize your goal of permanent weight loss is. THE THEORY OF METABOLIC IMBALANCE • 27 CHAPTER 
The Principle of 
High-Water-Content Food. L^efore describing this principle, I 
would like to invite you to participate in a simple and interesting exercise. List on a piece of paper everything you ate today. If you haven't yet eaten 
your day's fare, list everything you ate yesterday. By the end of this chap­
ter the list will serve as a powerful tool in making a certain important 
point. In listing the foods eaten, list everything, even "tastes" of things; 
i. e. , your friend made her famous souffle and you had just one little bite. If you can remember, list everything to enter your body. Now put the list 
away for a while, and let's get on with this principle. As an absolute prerequisite of life, water is right up there with food and 
air. From the moment you are born until you leave this planet, your 
body instinctively craves food, air, and water for your survival. You know 
what happens to a plant when it is deprived of water. It wilts and dies. The same would happen to your body if it were deprived of water. Its 
importance is clear. What do I mean when I say high-water-content food. Consider that 
we're living on a planet that is over 70 percent water. If you were on the 
moon looking down on earth, you would see that 71 percent of the sur­
face of our planet is water. The other 29 percent is land. Everything is a 
• 28'microcosm of a macrocosm. If you go deeper into the planet and look at 
the animals of the class Mammalia, you will find out that our bodies are 
70 percent water, at least. When 1 first heard that, I found it very hard to 
believe. I couldn't see any, nor could 1 even hear it in movement. But 70 
percent of the human body is indeed made up of water. Now let me ask 
you a commonsense question. (And this is what Natural Hygiene is 
about. It's making use of your inborn sense of what is right. ) If the planet 
earth is 70 percent water, and depends upon that amount of water for its 
survival, and your body is 70 percent water does it not make sense that for 
you to maintain a body that is always in its best condition, you must 
consume a diet that is at least 70 percent water. If your body is 70 percent 
water, then where will it get that water if you don't replenish it on a 
regular basis. From the moment you are born until the last breath you 
take your body is craving this essential of life. You must have water for 
survival. / am not talking about drinking water. Some people might be saying right now, "Hey, that's great, I drink my 
eight glasses of water a day. " But in no way will drinking water bring you 
the success I am referring to. When I say high-water-content food, I am 
talking about two foods grown on this planet that naturally have a very 
high water content. Only two foods meet that requirement. They are fruit 
and vegetables. Anything else you eat is a concentrated food. Concen­
trated means that the water content has been removed, either by process­
ing or cooking. I am not saying you have to eat exclusively fruits and 
vegetables to lose the weight you want to lose. What I am saying is that 
since our bodies arc 70 percent water, we should be eating a diet that is 
approximately 70 percent water content, and that means fruits and vege­
tables should PREDOMINATE in our diets. The other 30 percent will con­
sist of the concentrated foods: breads, grains, meat, dairy products, 
legumes, and so on. There are two extremely important reasons why we need this water, 
and they're the same two reasons why drinking water will not fill the bill: 
nourishment and cleansing of the organism. Water transports the nu­
trients in food to all the body's cells and in turn removes toxic wastes. All the nutritional requirements that the human body has—all the 
vitamins, minerals, proteins, amino acids, enzymes, carbohydrates, and 
fatty acids that exist, that the human body needs to survive—are to be 
found in fruits and vegetables. The nutritional requirements are carried 
by the water in those fruits and vegetables into your intestines, where all 
nutrition is absorbed. If you are eating foods high in water content, that 
means you are eating foods that have all of the requirements of the hu­
man body. Some of you might be saying, "Well, I take vitamin-mineral 
supplements. " That's not what we're talking about. The vitamins and 
THE PRINCIPLE OF HIGH-WATER-CONTENT FOOD • 29 minerals that I am talking about, that are usable by the human body, are 
to be found in abundance in orchards and gardens, not in drugstores. Besides carrying nutrients into the body, this water performs the essen­
tial function of cleansing the body of wastes. For our purposes, cleansing 
and detoxifying are the same. In the quest to lose weight, this cleansing 
or detoxification is of paramount importance. Everything you have, no 
matter what it is, has to be washed if you want it to be clean. In all 
likelihood, you took a bath or shower today. If you didn't, well, then you 
probably took one yesterday or will take one tomorrow. It's only going to 
be so long before you take a bath or shower, because you want to be 
clean. Same with your clothes. What if the clothes that you're wearing 
right now were not removed from your body for six months. You know, 
of course, that I'm being facetious when I say that. You wouldn't do that, 
because the clothes would become so foul that you would not be able to 
go near anyone. What if you didn't wash your car for six months and it 
didn't rain. You would not be able to see through the window to drive. That is how dirty it would become. That is how dirty anything would 
become if it is not washed. Guess what one thing is not being washed and cleansed on a regular 
basis in this country. The insides of our bodies. We eat and live in such a 
way as to never allow the insides of our bodies to be cleansed sufficiently, 
and that is why 62 percent of the population of this country is over­
weight. It is also a contributing factor to the fact that three out of four 
people in this country will develop some form of heart disease or cancer 
in their lifetime. The outside of the body is washed, but the inside, 
which is far more important, is not washed. I'm talking about some peo­
ple going for decades, THEIR ENTIRE LIVES, without ever doing what is 
necessary to wash out the toxic waste from inside their bodies. The only 
way this can be done is by eating foods that are high in water content. Drinking water won't do it, because drinking water does not carry the 
enzymes and other life-preserving elements into the body that the water 
in fruits and vegetables does, ALL THREE OF OUR BODY CYCLES FUNC­
TION WITH THE GREATEST EASE WHEN SUPPLIED WITH THIS WATER 
ON A REGULAR BASIS. It's interesting that we eat in such a way as to not cleanse but pollute 
our bodies. We eat in such a way as to clog them. We don't want to be 
clogged up any further, because the more we clog ourselves, the more 
we're going to put on weight, and the more difficult it will be to get that 
weight off. In fact, from now on when you look at the foods that you are 
about to eat, do just that—look at the plate of food that you're going to 
put into your body, and simply ask yourself this question: "Is this food 
that I'm going to put into this magnificent, intelligent body of mine going 
30 • FIT FOR LIFE to cleanse me, or is it going to clog me. " Stated another way: "Is this 
meal predominated by fruits and vegetables. " This is a very important 
question to ask yourself regularly. It's very simple. Am I eating a food 
right now that's going to cleanse me (detoxify me), or is it going to clog 
me. Most of the food we eat in this country is of a clogging nature. Our 
food clogs our bodies, and then, because we're clogged, we start to feel 
bad and we take measures to feel better, but at the same time we're still 
eating foods that are clogging up the system. So, from now on ask your­
self, when you look at a meal, "Is approximately 70 percent of this meal 
of a high-watcr-content nature. " Because I will tell you something with­
out reservation: If it's not, there is no way in the world you are going to 
successfully lose the weight you want to lose and keep it off permanently. If you truly want to be healthy and experience the body that you know 
you deserve to have, then it is an absolute prerequisite that you ask your­
self this question. The reason there are two hundred thousand heart by­
pass operations in this country every year is because people's arteries are 
clogged'. I would be willing to wager that few, if any, of these unfortunate 
two hundred thousand were on a diet predominated by high-water-con­
tent food. It's odd, but the things we receive for free we abuse the most. Because we are given these miraculous, incredible bodies at birth for free, 
we tend to take them for granted and abuse them. We must work with 
our bodies, not against them. One perfect way to do that is to cleanse 
them, not clog them. The reason we eat so much food that is clogging rather than cleansing 
is that we're prisoners. Prisoners. That's right. We're prisoners of our taste 
buds. We will do anything for our taste buds. If there is a food that can't 
outrun us, and it's not nailed down, and it will fit into our mouth. , and it 
tastes good, we'll eat it. We don't think twice about it. The only require­
ment we have about food is "How does it taste. " But what about the rest 
of the body. When you look at the tiny area of the body that your taste 
buds occupy, and then you look at the rest of your body (which is what 
has to deal with the foods that pass over your taste buds) you have to 
wonder why people place so much attention on one small part of the 
body and ignore such a large part. How many times have you heard someone say, "You know what, I 
woke up this morning, I was real late, I didn't have a chance to take a 
bite before I went out of the house. I ran out of the house to the office. 1 
had more work than I could possibly take care of, I never took a coffee 
break. I never took a lunch break. I worked straight all day long. " You've 
probably heard that part before. But now five o'clock rolls around; it's 
time to go home. All of a sudden this person realizes how hungry he 
THE PRINCIPLE OF HIGH-WATER-CONTENT FOOD • 31 really is. He's rubbing his stomach and saying, "Man, am I hungry. I 
haven't eaten all day. I'm going out right now to get myself something 
that's going to wash out my intestines and cleanse my colon. " No way. That is not what you've heard. It's more like "I'm going to get myself a 
pizza or a cheeseburger. " The thing that people do when they're hungry, 
most of the time, is decide what is going to taste best and then go and eat 
that food. If you think exclusively of what is going to taste good, your 
body never has the opportunity to cleanse or detoxify itself. Therefore, 
you're always eating foods that just taste good, and then clog up the body, 
adding more weight, making the problem more difficult, and preventing 
you from ever taking that weight off. I am not implying for a moment 
that you have to eat in such a way as to not enjoy your food. I'm not 
saying you should eat food that does not absolutely delight your taste 
buds. No. What I'm saying is that you can eat foods that taste fantastic 
but at the same time meet the requirements of your whole body. All we're suggesting is to think in terms of eating meals that are 70 
percent high-water-content foods (fruit and vegetables) and 30 percent 
concentrated foods (everything else). Wait until you see what can be done 
with fruits and vegetables—far more than most people imagine. The cre­
ative, innovative, and tantalizing ideas supplied in FIT FOR LIFE will 
probably change your eating life-style forever. When you're hungry and 
you think of something to eat, you're going to know about some delecta­
ble, nonclogging alternatives. This can all be reduced to one simple sentence, IF YOU WANT TO BE 
VIBRANTLY AND VIGOROUSLY ALIVE, IN THE BEST POSSIBLE SHAPE, 
YOU HAVE TO EAT FOOD THAT'S ALIVE. You don't have to be a Ph. D. or a mental giant to get that. A live body will be built from live food. Food that's alive will be high-water-content food. If it does not have high 
water content, then that food is not alive. And if 70 percent or more of 
your diet is made up of food that is dead, processed, and denatured, 1 
leave it to you to imagine what will become of your body. Fruits and 
vegetables are enormously high in water. Other foods are concentrated, 
meaning the water has been either cooked or processed out. Something I like to do is compare us, as a species, to the other mam­
mals that are sharing the planet with us. Look at all the mammals. I am 
not talking about animals that we have as pets or in zoos, because they're 
under the dominion of humans and therefore have many of the problems 
of humans. But have you ever seen a fat tiger or impala in the wild. Have 
you ever seen animals in nature that have lost their teeth and use false 
teeth to eat, or have hearing aids to hear, or have glasses so they can see, 
or are wearing toupees because they went bald, or have pacemakers to 
make their hearts pump, or dialysis machines for their kidneys. Have you 
32 • FIT FOR UFE ever heard of a million animals a year dying of heart disease. Or a half a 
million dying of cancer. Or a quarter million dying of strokes. Or thou­
sands dying of diabetes.
To maintain a healthy and optimal condition.
What is the main purpose of the human body's craving for water?
Consuming a diet that is at least 70% water content, which means predominantly fruits and vegetables.
What is the author suggesting as a key to maintaining a healthy body?
Drinking water is not sufficient to achieve weight loss; instead, it is necessary to consume high-water-content foods.
What is the author's stance on drinking water to achieve weight loss?
It is essential to avoid eating incompatible foods together, as it hinders digestion and energy production, and instead, eat one concentrated food at a time.
What is the author's argument about the importance of proper food combining?
Fruit is not only cleansing and detoxifying but also conserves energy, allowing the body to redirect it towards eliminating toxic waste and losing weight.
What is the author's claim about the benefits of fruit consumption?