FIT FOR 
LIFE 
Harvey and Marilyn 
Diamond 
o MINER BOOKS 
A Warner Communications Company ^ 
CONTENTS 
FOREWORD by Edward Taub, M. D. ?ct 
PART I—THE PRINCIPLES 
INTRODUCTION 
1. Diets Don't Work 
2. Natural Hygiene 
3. The Natural Body Cycles 
4. The Theory of Metabolic Imbalance 
5. The Principle of High-Water-Content Food 
6. The Principle of Proper Food Combining 
7. The Principle of Correct Fruit Consumption 
8. The Theory of Detoxification 
9. Protein 
10. Dairy Products 
11. Exercise 
12. You Are What You Think You Are 
13. The Most Frequently Asked Questions 3 
9 
13 
21 
24 
28 
37 
48 
61 
67 
80 
88 
92 
95 PART II—THE PROGRAM 107 
INTRODUCTION 109 
1. Breakfast 114 
2. Fresh Juices 118 
3. The Energy Ladder 120 
4. The FIT FOR LIFE Shopping List 122 
5. The Main-Course Salad 139 
6. Life-style Guidelines 143 
A FOUR-WEEK EXAMPLE OF THE FITNESS LIFE-STYLE 147 
IN CONCLUSION 223 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 225 
IN HEX 233 ^ 
FIT FOR LIFE is a breakthrough. No guilt, no burdens, no demands. Get 
healthy, thin, and vibrant very soon and determine your own pace. Rush 
down the freeway to health, or take your time to enjoy the last of the 
artificial flowers along the way—the chocolates, beer, pretzels, and por­
terhouse steaks. It's all okay, Harvey and Marilyn Diamond tell us. Even 
the slightest change, the least little consistent effort, and healthy fitness 
ensues. My own experience? I've lost eighteen pounds in two months. I occa­
sionally eat fish or chicken, hardly ever succumb to beer and pretzels, 
and can finally see a movie without the chocolate-covered raisins in 
hand. FIT FOR LIFE is an important work. It joins Ken Pelletier's Mind 
as Healer, Mind as Slayer, Harold Bloomfield and Robert Kory's Inner 
Joy, Joseph Murphy's Power of Your Subconscious Mind, and Norman 
Cousins's Anatomy of an Illness on the bookshelf of integrative medicine. integrative medicine is a new art 
and science based on health promotion and "wellness"—a natural ap­
proach to patients, regarding them not as diseases or problems, but as people needing assistance in balancing their physical, emotional, mental, 
and spiritual dimensions. These dimensions, when balanced or in har­
mony, reflect health, fitness, wholeness, and well-being—"wellness." The highest calling of a physician has always been to identify the dis­
ease process at its earliest moment of inception through skill, judgment, 
and wisdom, and to abate the problem with surgery, medicine, or irradia­
tion. The modern physician uses wisdom to prevent the disease process 
from occurring in the first place; the wellness-oriented physician works 
through fostering factors that contribute to homeostasis, the natural dy­
namic equilibrium of the body. Rather than concentrating on medicating 
symptoms of bodily deterioration or removing malfunctioning organs and 
leaving it at that, the "wellness" physician works to assist the patient in 
achieving emotional calm, mental tranquillity, physical fitness, and spir­
itual peace. The human body should last for a hundred and fort)' years, or twice as 
long as our present life span; so, although medical science has made great 
strides, it is important to remember that the job is only half done, FIT 
FOR LIFE and the Diamonds take us a giant step forward in extending 
both life's span and life's quality—a perfect example of integrative medi­
cine, FIT FOR LIFE regards nutritional appropriateness as a matter of en­
ergy balance: Efficient absorption of food energy and efficient elimination 
of food bulk balance the body, and it becomes neither too thin nor too fat 
and retains maximum power to regain health or resist disease. FIT FOR LIFE crushes orthodox medical dogma about the basic four 
food groups, milk as healthful, protein in the diet, and calorie-counting 
to lose weight. Nutritional sense is a matter of monumental importance in this age of 
stress. "Rechemicalization" of food with additives, preservatives, artificial 
flavorings, dehydration, concentration, freezing, and microwaving makes 
nutritional reeducation no less important than Ignaz Semmelweis's intro­
duction of physician hand-washing before surgery or childbirth. Only a 
hundred years have passed since that awareness descended on science. Only a hundred years have passed since science stopped the bleeding, 
purging, and leeching that was part of our grandparents' lives. Now all 
our attempts at dieting and counting calories may be looked at by our 
grandchildren as part of our generation's folly. FIT FOR LIFE is a perfect example of integrative medicine as an energy-
based science. Both integrative medicine and this book are consumer 
oriented to bridge gaps between previous biological understandings and 
newer psychological breakthroughs that have brought out of the closet 
healing chemicals that our bodies produce. We are finally starting to 
understand how enormous are our bodies' healing powers to become well 
xii • FIT FOR LIFE and stay healthy. Integrative medicine merges centuries of preventive 
medical concepts from hundreds of different cultures with the modern 
need to reduce stress, resolve conflict, avoid detrimental life-styles, and 
change behavioral patterns that lead to overweight, obesity, and then to 
coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, ulcers, backache, migraine, 
arthritis, stroke, and cancer. Integrative medicine pursues spiritual calm, emotional peace, and 
physical fitness; it merges the holistic concepts of the life-styles of the 
Western "lotus land" of California with the preventive medical concepts 
emerging from the "Mecca" of medicine in Boston. * The Eastern doc­
tors, traditional, with Harvard backgrounds, point out that physicians can 
no longer help 80 percent of disease, that medicine and surgery still cure 
only 10 percent of disease, and that the other 10 percent of disease is now 
caused by accidents of surgery and side effects of medication. They pro­
claim the health of the American people in the 1980s to depend not on 
what others do for them, but on what they are willing to do for them­
selves. The Westerners, upstarts from UCLA, Stanford, and Berkeley, 
heartily agree and point consistently to laughter, hope, faith, and love as 
primary health ingredients. It is integrative medicine that enables the 
twain to meet. Integrative medicine offers patients combinations of the 
traditional and the holistic: diet, exercise, sunshine, rest, massage, and 
prayer stand alongside medication, surgical feats of derring-do, and high 
technology's incredible machines. I have been honored to present integrative medicine to the California 
Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics in Detroit, 
and the National Academy of Science in Washington, D.C. It is a bio-
social, psycho-spiritual approach to understanding health and dealing 
with disease. Personal responsibility, self-value, and high regard and rev­
erence for life are seen as primary determinants of health. Integrative 
medicine regards any disease as potentially reversible through the mirac­
ulous power of the body to heal itself, understands the body as an energy 
system, and believes health is too important to leave up to science but 
also too important to be unscientific about. Science is only the human mind's attempt to explain natural laws; FIT 
FOR LIFE explains nutrition in terms of natural laws, not what human 
minds have concocted up to now. When Harvey Diamond asked me to 
review the Fit for Life manuscript, he told me that if there was anything, 
'California's best spokespeople for the holistic approach to health include Norman Cousins, George 
Leonard, David Harris, Charles Kleeman, M.D., Karl Pribram, M.D., Harold Bloomfield, M.D., 
Paul Brenner, M.D., Brugh Joy, M.D., and Ron Pion, M.D. The Boston proponents of preven­
tative medicine include Julius Richmond, M.D., Franz Inglefingcr, M.D., Rick Ingrasci, M.D., 
and Herbert Benson, M.D. FOREWORD • xiii even the slightest statement, that would offend my medical colleagues, to 
feel free to change it, as his purpose was to bring understanding and not 
resistance. Well, the book is a mind-boggier to medical theory but not an 
offense. It makes medical-school teaching about nutrition obsolete, even 
dangerous, and identifies our long-taught dogmas as merely unhealthy 
programming instilled by commercial interests representing milk, candy, 
meat, and restaurants. To my medical colleagues 1 can say only that underneath the morass of 
chemical equations we learned was energy. It's all energy. The body is an 
energy system. Organs are collections of cells with identical vibrational 
patterns. Not only do the cells have histological similarity; they have the 
same energetic frequency. Homeostasis keeps it together. Disruption in 
cellular energy is what we label disease. Energy systems function optimally with efficient fuel. Healthy, dy­
namic cellular equilibrium is maintained by energy intake that is equiv­
alent to energy output. Food fuel is most efficient in the form provided 
by nature, since our bodies are provided by nature. There are no fields 
flowing with white bread. Canned, microwaved, and boiled foods are not 
natural. Fruit is not found naturally in sugary syrups laced with chemi­
cals and preservatives. Streams are not filled with soft drinks. In the same 
way we now take food additives and junk foods for granted, for many 
years we took smoking for granted, and ignored its dangers. Energy pro­
vided by naturally occurring pure-state foods is the energy that is needed 
by naturally occurring pure-state bodies. A new wellness paradigm is now 
sweeping the country in a wave of consumerism attuned to jogging, aero­
bics, stress reduction, smoking cessation, and nutritional awareness, FIT 
FOR LIFE fits right in. It is an important foundation for health and future 
medicine—a system supporting wellness, not illness. Edward A. Taub, M.D., F.A.A.P. President, Foundation for Health Awareness 
Assistant Clinical Professor, University of California, Irvine 
Founder, Integrative Medicine 
xiv • FIT FOR LIFE PART 
Principles 
BY 
Harvey Diamond ^ 
For the sake of clarity, unless otherwise noted, Harvey's voice is used in Part I and 
Marilyn's in Part II. A Are you one of those people look­
ing for a way of living that will allow you to sensibly lose weight? Keep 
the weight off permanently? And accomplish this while experiencing all 
the joys of eating? If your answer to these questions is yes, then you can 
start to celebrate right now! Because this is the information that will en­
able you to do just that! This book is the culmination of over fifteen years of intensive study of 
the relationship between the foods we eat and the shape of our bodies. If 
you are fed up with the dieting merry-go-round and are looking for some 
practical and sensible information that can put you in full control of your 
weight, then here is some very exciting news. You are about to learn 
some secrets of how to lose weight, and lose it permanently, while eating. 1 know some of you feel that's too good to be true. I felt the same way, 
but I found out through experience that you can indeed eat your way to 
the weight you wish to be. Wouldn't it be ideal to eat and enjoy it, always feeling satisfied and not 
deprived, always looking forward to meals, and most important, always 
maintaining a comfortable body weight? This is what FIT FOR LIFE is all 
about. It is not a dietl It's a way of eating that can be incorporated into 
• 3 ' your life-style as a way of life, not as a dogmatic regimen. It doesn't 
require calorie counting; it is not a starvation diet; it avoids portion re­
strictions; it is not behavior modification; there are no drugs or powders; it 
is not a temporary measure. It is a set of dietary principles that you can 
use as much or as little as you wish, depending on your goals. The pro­
gram puts no pressure on you. You will be comfortable all the way along, 
having regular, progressive success as you incorporate this information 
into your life. FIT FOR LIFE brings about permanent results. Following its principles 
will teach you to stop "living to eat" and begin "eating to live." It may 
seem as if eating great food, not counting calories, not locking up your 
refrigerator, and not dieting are impossible dreams, but let us assure you 
it is no dream—it works. You may have reached a place in your life where you are absolutely 
sick and tired of hassling with your weight. You may have arrived at a 
position where, once and for all, you want to find an eating program that 
works, that you can trust. You want to feel confident at last that your 
body will be receiving all the nutrients it needs, your energy level will be 
high and consistent, and your weight, after a lifetime of major or even 
minor fluctuations, will stabilize. In short, you want to eat regularly and 
well, but at the same time you are determined to be free of that nagging 
concern over extra pounds and extra inches. The information in this book affords you the opportunity to do all that. With this much promise, however, you may very well be thinking, "Uh-
oh, nothing but alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, and wheat germ, with a bowl of 
grated carrots for dessert!" No way! We're not from that school of 
thought! To put your mind at ease, let's take a look at what one typical 
day could include. When you awaken in the morning, you can have a big glass of fresh 
fruit juice. Choose whatever you like, whatever is in season and most 
convenient for you. It can be orange, tangerine, or grapefruit juice that 
you make on a simple, inexpensive citrus juicer. If you happen to have 
one of the many all-purpose juicers on the market these days, you can 
make some fresh apple juice, or strawberry-apple, or watermelon, or wa­
termelon-cantaloupe. The point is that you are encouraged to start your 
day with fresh juice. If you prefer, or in addition to the juice, you can have a fresh fruit 
salad, or simply some fresh fruit. You can have any fresh fruit you like, 
but no canned fruit, and you can have as much as you feel like having. (We will explain later why canned fruit will not fit into the program.) Perhaps you had some juice and half a cantaloupe early in the morn­
ing, and then around ten o'clock you feel hungry again. You can then 
4 • FIT FOR LIFE have more fresh fruit, an orange or two, an apple, fresh peaches, more 
melon, fresh nectarines, or some cherries or grapes, depending on the 
season. If you have had some juicy fruit but are still feeling a little hun­
gry, you can have a banana or two. The idea is to eat fruit during the 
morning, until noon, whenever you feel hungry. At lunch you might have a big salad made with whatever fresh, raw 
vegetables you prefer. You can choose from a variety of dressings, and 
with your salad, if you wish, you might have some whole-grain toast and 
butter, or some soup. You might have a sandwich made from a combina­
tion of avocado, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, sprouts, and mayonnaise or 
butter. (By the way, if you have never had a big, luscious avocado and 
tomato sandwich, you are in for a real treat!) At dinner, if you have one of those all-purpose juicers, you might want 
to have a big fresh vegetable-juice cocktail while you prepare the rest of 
your meal. You can have buttered yams, rice, or baked potatoes with an 
assortment of lightly steamed vegetables and salad. Or you can have a 
special main-course Mediterranean Rice Salad or Steak-lovers' Salad. You can have your choice of meat, chicken, or fish with vegetables and 
salad. For a change of pace, you might try a delicious soup with some 
hot buttered corn bread and coleslaw. You might have an assortment of 
steamed, raw, or sauteed vegetables wrapped in hot tortillas with avocado 
and sprouts. There are so many options and lots of new ideas to try! There is no reason to have any concern about boredom, deprivation, or 
confusion. You can see that there is plenty of good food to eat—exciting, 
delicious food, in fact! The high quality and variety of the food directly 
correlate with how you will look and feel. Most of the dishes you will be 
eating will be familiar to you, making the program easy for you to follow. And there will also be many satisfying, original meals that are new to 
you. Emphasizing familiar foods, the program merely calls for some very 
simple changes on your part. What is completely new and different about this program is that IT IS 
NOT ONLY WHAT YOU EAT THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE, BUT ALSO 
OF EXTREME IMPORTANCE IS WHEN YOU EAT IT AND IN WHAT COMBI­
NATIONS. This when and how factor is what you have been searching for, 
the missing link that will insure your success! What is most exciting is that this is a sensible approach to weight loss 
that can be readily employed as a life-style. It works! It is innovative and it 
is fun! This system will give you lasting results\ It is NOT a fad diet, and it 
succeeds because, unlike fad diets, it is NOT a temporary solution! You 
will never again have to experience the disappointment of gaining back 
weight you have tried so hard to lose. You'll have at your fingertips some 
unique tools that you'll be able to use whenever you feel a few unwanted 
INTRODUCTION • 5 pounds sneaking back into your life. This system overcomes the built-in 
failure of fad dieting. The weight you lose on this program will be gone 
forever! FIT FOR LIFE is a safe and balanced system based on natural phys­
iological laws and cycles of the human body. And because it is based on 
natural laws, it will work for you. Everything in life is regulated by natu­
ral physical law, including your bodies, and so if we wish to lose weight 
effectively, we must do it in accordance with those natural laws. At the foundation of this system is a universal truth concerning weight 
loss that, until now, has not been very well understood: SAFE AND PER­
MANENT WEIGHT REDUCTION IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE AMOUNT 
OF VITAL ENERGY YOU HAVE AT YOUR DISPOSAL AND TO THE EFFI­
CIENT USE OF THIS ENERGY TO EUMINATE WASTE (EXCESS WEIGHT) 
FROM YOUR BODY. The key to this system is that it works with your body 
to free up energy. With this new energy pool, your body goes to work 
automatically to shed any burden of excess weight. The more energy 
freed up, the more weight you lose. Because you will be eating to free up 
energy you will have more energy than you ever had before. Consistently 
optimizing your energy is a critical part of FIT FOR LIFE. It has been 
designed not only for weight loss but also for the personal energy crisis 
that many people are experiencing because they are continually interfer­
ing with the proper functioning of their bodies. Even if you don't need to 
lose weight, we assure you that on this program you will definitely be 
aware of a significant energy boost. Let go of the diet mentality! If for some reason you have to get off the 
program, don't worry about it. Just get right back on as soon as you can. You can't blow this system! It is a life-style, not a temporary pattern of 
behavior. You can always pick it right back up at any point, and you will 
immediately begin to see results. Obviously, the fastest way to lose weight 
is not to deviate! For best results, adhere closely to the recommended 
program. In the Health Reporter Dr. Ralph Cinque of Hygeia Health Retreat, 
Yorktown, Texas, writes: "Americans have become accustomed to 
bulkiness, but this is by no means a universal plight. Virtually all the long-
lived peoples of the world, from Asia to South America to New Zealand, 
tend to be lean. In America, life insurance statistics show' that the greatest 
health, longevity and freedom from degenerative disease are found among 
those who are 15% under the conventional standards, since the norm for 
body weight is too high if judged by current health standards." A life-style that brings on obesity is often a life-style that brings on 
disease. The FIT FOR LIFE program has been designed to offer a new life­
style for the American people. Many of the problems of excess weight 
6 • FIT FOR UFE and the ill health it causes result from ignorance of how the human body 
works, ignorance of the critical role that energy plays in weight loss, and 
some very wrong ideas about how to eat. Joy Gross, in her book Positive 
Power People, tells us that "Life is based on awesome immutable laws. Ignorance of those laws does not excuse anyone from the consequences of 
their nonapplication or the breaking of those laws." This program is 
based on universal laws and physiological truths. Apply them to your life! Reward yourself abundantly with a youthful, slender body, beauty, vi­
tality . . . and physical, emotional, and spiritual health! About seventeen years ago a very close friend of mine said in a mo­
ment of anger, "Look, Blimpo, why don't you just go over there and be 
fat!" Blimpo? Me? This statement affected me as if someone had taken a 
big steel pot, put it over my head, and smashed it with a metal spoon. There were a couple of reasons that his statement so destroyed me. For 
one, I was certain that I was doing a fantastic job of cleverly concealing 
my girth with some very stylish, loose-fitting clothing, if you know what I 
mean. But what frustrated me more was that I had been making a career 
out of dieting, and my friend's comment made me realize how unsuc­
cessful I had been. Every program that ever came down the pike, I would 
try. If it called for nothing but eggs and cheese for thirty days, I would do 
it. If it called for nothing but celery and hamburger patties for thirty days, 
I would eat them. And I would lose weight. I would lose the weight, and 
then as soon as the program was over, of course, I would revert to my old 
eating habits and go right back to my old weight. If you have ever done 
any dieting, you know exactly what I mean, because—let's face it—what 
was I thinking about while I was dieting? FOOD! As soon as the ordeal 
was over I would run out of the house like a scalded cat to end my 
deprivation. I always found that no matter how much weight I had lost, it 
seemed that in less time than it took me to lose it, I had already put that 
weight back on, plus an additional five pounds. I hadn't been fat as a kid. But after I was released from the Air Force in 
my early twenties, I began to struggle with a weight problem that just 
wouldn't quit. During a time of my life when I should have been active 
and vibrant, I was nearly fifty pounds overweight. When I finally reached 
that much-dreaded two-hundred-pound mark and then passed it, I was 
desperate. At that same time in my life my father died at a young age, of 
stomach cancer. It was a terrible drawn-out ordeal, and the memory of 
his final days will never leave me. In his youth he had been a boxer and a 
longshoreman, strong and burly, over two hundred pounds. When he 
died he weighed under one hundred pounds. Soon after his death I 
awoke one night in a fever of fear, realizing that as a small-boned, five-
feet ten-inch, two-hundred-two-pound male, I had all the problems that 
INTRODUCTION • 7 had plagued him during his life. He also was over two hundred pounds, 
and also like me, he had never felt really well. My subsequent studies 
showed me that anytime you're carrying around an extra fifty pounds, 
you are going to have other problems as well. My dad had frequent colds, 
headaches, and stomach problems. A lack of energy was his constant 
complaint. I had these problems too. I didn't participate in sports or so­
cial activities. Removing my shirt at the beach was always a traumatic 
ordeal. When I made it through my workday, I had no energy left except 
to eat and feel sorry for myself. (I always seemed to muster the energy 
necessary to eat.) When my father died I felt not only sorry for myself, 
but also scared. This fear was the impetus for my turning point. My fear of dying 
young coupled with my desire not to be referred to as "Blimpo" propelled 
me at last to a determined course of action. I was prepared to throw down 
my ever-present Big Mac and Coke and commit myself to the resurrec­
tion of my body. In the heat of my enthusiasm and with great resolve I 
plunged dramatically into a series of diets that promised to take the 
weight off for good. I did my first diet, then my second, then my third. After a considerable amount of frustration and disappointment I came to 
realize that . . . 8 • FIT FOR LIFE CHAPTER 
Diets Don't Work 
a of the most ineffective and 
curious of all human experiences is the process of dieting. When else do 
people deprive and discipline themselves for days, weeks, and even 
months to achieve a certain goal, only to see that goal sabotaged the 
minute it is achieved? And as if this experience isn't frustrating enough, 
many dieters put themselves through this process regularly, enthusi­
astically losing a few pounds for a short time, only to gain them back. These dieters are draining themselves mentally, spiritually, physically, 
and emotionally, always searching, yet never quite finding the permanent 
result they seek. And this frequent, unsuccessful quest creates the undue 
stress and emotional havoc that dieters know too well. What exactly is a diet, anyway? People indulge themselves and indulge 
themselves until they can't look at themselves in the mirror or until their 
clothes no longer fit. Then they grudgingly force themselves to "diet" to 
make up for these past indulgences. It's like running out and locking your 
garage after someone has driven off in your car. It's too late; the damage 
is done. The "remedy" for these indulgences is usually deprivation, and 
almost every one of the "diet cures" on the market today requires the 
dieter to take off pounds at any cost. Diet schemes are an extremely expensive way to lose weight. Many times their real cost is a person's 
well-being. Why don't diets work? The answer actually is quite simple. What do 
you think about when you're on a diet? Just as I did, you are usually 
thinking about what you're going to eat when the ordeal is finally over. How can you possibly succeed on your diet when all you are thinking 
about is food? Depriving yourself is not the answer to healthy, permanent 
weight loss. It usually causes you to binge later on, which complicates 
the problem. Deprivation and bingeing become a vicious cycle, and 
that's just one of the many problems with dieting. Another is that diets are temporary; therefore, the results have to be 
temporary! Do you want to be permanently slim or temporarily slim? Permanent measures bring about permanent results. Temporary measures 
bring about temporary results. Have you ever heard anyone say, "I've 
been on every diet that's ever come on the market, and nothing seems to 
work"? Why have they been on every diet? They've been on every diet 
without success because dieting is the wrong approach! Diets fail because 
of the regimentation involved. Very few of us can be regimented suc­
cessfully for long when it comes to food. Yet many people, not having an 
alternative, continue to do what they have always done—diet—because 
they've never been presented with any viable alternative. They continue 
their search for that one panacea that will end—once and for all—their 
battle of the bulge. When we go on a diet, our systems are thrown into turmoil while they 
try to adapt to a new regimen. They then must readapt to old patterns 
when the regimen ends. It's like taking a metal rod and bending it over 
and over again. Eventually it will become weak and break. If you jerk 
your body back and forth over and over again by dieting, it will become 
weak and break down. But when I attack dieting, I attack an American institution. According 
to a Louis Harris poll, 62 percent of all Americans are considered to be 
overweight. Over forty-four million Americans are considered to be 
clinically obese; that is, twenty pounds or more overweight. More than 
half of the nation is dieting or has dieted. But the fact of the matter is that dieting doesn't work! It never has, and 
it never will. The sheer numbers should prove this to you. How many 
diets have there been over the last twenty years? Fifty? One hundred? If 
they really did work, why would there be a need for an unending chain of 
new ones? If diets worked, wouldn't the rate of obesity in this country be 
decreasing each year instead of increasing? In 1982 fifteen billion dollars 
were spent on weight-loss schemes in the United States alone. Fifteen 
billion dollars! If you had fifteen billion dollars to spend, you could spend 
10 • FJT FOR LIFE one million dollars every day for forty years and still have four hundred 
million dollars left over! If diets worked, that monumental amount of 
money would surely put an end to this problem, wouldn't it? The fact is 
that that incredible amount is increasing by one billion dollars each year. In spite of the new diets that come and go, the problem is becoming 
worse. It is obvious that people have had it with the diet mentality. Confusion 
and frustration are rampant because most of the diets contradict one an­
other. When the so-called authorities are at odds with one another, what 
is the layperson to believe? One popular diet says to eat mostly protein 
and very few carbohydrates. Another equally popular diet says to eat 
mostly carbohydrates and very little protein. Can they both be right? An­
other plan says to eat whatever you feel like at the moment and then 
wash it out with pineapples and papayas. Yet another says to eat a small 
concoction of whatever you like, but be sure to exercise and be positive. One more says to eat anything you can dream of, just weigh it first. And 
another says you should adhere to its program for only two weeks at a 
time. Many diets merely rely on tedious calorie-counting. The most dan­
gerous of all is the latest diet craze that substitutes drugs and "nutritional 
powders" for real food. The cost to one's well-being from these has yet to 
be measured. Since we have relied on diets so heavily in the past, and we 
know they don't work, what now is our alternative? YOU ARE READING 
IT! What we have here is commonsense information that people can use 
to determine for themselves what is best for them. It is time to take con­
trol and responsibility back from those who are arguing about who has 
the right answer. What we have is a new approach, a new way of think­
ing, a new way of eating, so that diets become unnecessary and as ob­
solete as sealing wax. It is obvious that diets are not working, so let's get 
rid of them and set ourselves free! Why not find out firsthand that the 
only permanent results you will see in weight loss will come when you 
STOP DIETING! That's what I did. I finally had had it. I finally gave up dieting. I 
resolved to find an answer that would make sense to me, that would be 
reasonable and permanent. After three years of driving myself crazy with 
diets, it became obvious that what I needed was to learn how to properly 
take care of my body. What I wanted to find was a course of study that 
would teach me how to acquire and maintain that slim and healthy body 
that I knew was inside of me. One evening at a music festival two thousand miles from home, I 
overheard two rather healthy-looking individuals discussing the idio-
syncracies of a friend in Santa Barbara, California, referring to his long 
DIETS DON'T WORK • 11 dissertations on the beauty of good health. My ears perked up. "Excuse 
me," I interrupted, "who is this fellow you are discussing?" In less than 
twenty-four hours I was on my way to Santa Barbara. Little did I know 
that I was on the brink of one of the most remarkable discoveries of my 
life. I was about to be introduced to a most extraordinary, age-old science 
known as . . . 12 • FIT FOR LIFE CHAPTER 
Natural Hygiene 
-L Natural Hygiene—when 1 first 
heard the term, I thought, Yeah, I know what that is, brushing my teeth 
and being sure to wash behind my ears. As it happens, that is what many 
people think when they hear this term. Actually Natural Hygiene is a 
most remarkable approach to the care and upkeep of the human body. The first time I heard the term, I was staring into the face of the 
healthiest person I had ever met. One look at him and I knew he had to 
know something about how to take care of his body. As I looked at his 
clear eyes, radiant skin, serene demeanor, and well-proportioned body, I 
could not help but reflect on all of the health professionals 1 had sought 
advice from in the past who did not exemplify the physical ideal any 
more than I did. When he met me, he said, "You know, you're killing 
yourself and you don't have to be." Well, I lit right up like a Christmas 
tree. That sentence was my introduction to Natural Hygiene and the 
beginning of a most rewarding friendship. In a matter of hours Mr. 
Jensen (pseudonym used per request) explained to me in a most concise, 
easy-to-understand way exactly why I was fat and why I was having such a 
struggle losing weight and keeping it off. It all made so much sense to me 
that I was dumbfounded at its obvious simplicity. Listening to this initial 
• 13 • explanation of how to achieve and maintain a truly fit body I could be 
proud of, I was filled with a sense of joy and relief I had never before 
known. Here was the information that 1 had known I would somehow 
find. I had the very good fortune to study with Mr. Jensen for the next three 
and a half years. And what an eye-opening experience it was! Not only 
did I have the daily benefit of his knowledge, but I acquired and read 
everything I could find on the subject of Natural Hygiene. I determined 
that the study, practice, and teaching of Natural Hygiene were going to 
be my life's work. After leaving Santa Barbara, I studied Natural Hygiene 
intensely for the next ten years. For several years I counseled people 
privately on how to use the principles of Natural Hygiene as a life-style, 
and I continue to do so. In 1981 I began a seminar program known as 
THE DIAMOND METHOD, and between then and now I have spoken to 
many thousands of people. The hundreds of enthusiastic letters I received 
from people of all walks of life and all ages attest to the effectiveness of 
this way of eating. Early in 1983 I received a doctorate in nutritional 
science from the American College of Health Science in Austin, Texas, 
the only institution in the United States to grant a degree in Natural 
Hygiene. One month after being introduced to Natural Hygiene, I had lost the 
fifty pounds that 1 had been wrestling with for so long. That was in 1970. I have not put any of that weight back on in all this time. And I love to 
eat. I'm one of those people who can put on a few pounds just by reading 
Gourmet magazine. The difference now, however, is that I have learned 
how to eat so I not only satisfy my desire to eat but also assist my body in 
maintaining itself at the weight that is most becoming to me. I've learned 
to eat to live, not live to cat. In other words, I have not put the weight 
back on in all this time because I did not take it off with a diet! I altered 
my eating habits. That's what did it. Mind you, the loss of weight is only one of the benefits of the incor­
poration of Natural Hygiene as a life-style. A phenomenal increase in my 
energy and an overall feeling of well-being have also become welcome 
additions to my life. I never dreamed I could experience such a consis­
tently high level of energy. I have such a surplus of energy all the time 
now, that some of my acquaintances find me annoying! As I pass forty 
years of age, I cannot help but be delighted at how much healthier I am 
now than I was when twenty-five! And I owe it to Natural Hygiene. Natural Hygiene can trace its history to early Greece. Four hundred 
years before the birth of Christ, Hippocrates stated its philosophy accu­
rately when he taught: "Thy food shall be thy remedy." The modern 
history of Natural Hygiene in the United States began in 1830, when an 
14 • FIT FOR LIFE organization was formed called the American Physiological Society. Eight years later it established a library and provisions store in Boston, 
which could properly be called the country's first health food store. Around 1850 four medical doctors, Sylvester Graham, William Alcott, 
Mary Gove, and Isaac Jennings, began the first major modern Natural 
Hygiene movement. Quickly many other members of the medical profes­
sion joined their ranks, wishing to add a more natural approach to tradi­
tional medicine. In 1862 Dr. Russell Trail formed a national hygienic 
association. In 1872 Dr. Trail published The Hygienic System, a work 
that was very well received. It preceded many works on Natural Hygiene, 
all of which taught the importance of diet in acquiring and maintaining a 
high level of health. One of the most well-respected and knowledgeable Natural Hygienists 
of our time is Dr. Herbert M. Shelton, now retired, who from 1928 to 
1981 ran a "health school" including a clinic, laboratory, and teaching 
program in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Shelton is generally considered to 
be the greatest oracle of Natural Hygienic philosophy, principles, and 
practice. He produced a wealth of literature with new findings and 
thoughts, and he added more to the science and art of Natural Hygiene 
than any other person. In Dr. Shelton's words: "The laws of nature, the 
truths of the universe, the principles of science, are just as certain, as 
fixed and immutable, in relation to health as they are in relation to all 
things else. Natural Hygiene is that branch of biology which investigates 
and applies the conditions upon which life and health depend, and the 
means by which health is sustained in all its virtue and purity, and re­
stored when it has been lost or impaired." Today's most eminent, active proponent of Natural Hygiene is most 
certainly T. C. Fry, the dean of the American College of Health Sci­
ence, a most brilliant spokesperson for health. In his words, "Natural 
Hygiene is in harmony with nature, in accord with the principles of vital, 
organic existence, correct in science, sound in philosophy and ethics, in 
agreement with common sense, successful in practice, and a blessing to 
humankind." His credo is "Health is produced only by healthful living." Dr. K. R. Sidhwa, a leading Natural Hygienist in London, recently 
described Natural Hygiene at the Third World Congress of Alternative 
Medicine as "the ultimate healing philosophy or technique." Natural Hygiene is practiced today by people around the world who 
enjoy long, healthy, disease-free lives. For information about Natural 
Hygiene or to receive the society's periodical, write to The American 
Natural Hygiene Society, 12816 Racetrack Road, Tampa, Florida 33625. What precisely does "Natural Hygiene" mean? You were on the right 
track in the beginning if you thought of cleaning your teeth. The word 
NATURAL HYGIENE • 15 hygiene connotes cleanliness. The word natural implies a process un­
hampered by artificial forces, THE BASIC FOUNDATION OF NATURAL 
HYGIENE IS THAT THE BODY IS ALWAYS STRIVING FOR HEALTH AND 
THAT IT ACHIEVES THIS BY CONTINUOUSLY CLEANSING ITSELF OF 
DELETERIOUS WASTE MATERIAL. It is the approach of understanding the 
effect that food has on the length and quality of one's life. Its focus is on 
prevention and healthful living. It teaches people how to eliminate the 
cause of their health problems rather than constantly battle the effects of 
continual violation of natural laws. The underlying basis of Natural Hygiene is that the body is self-cleans­
ing, self-healing, and self-maintaining. Natural Hygiene is based on the 
idea that all the healing power of the universe is within the human body; 
that nature is always correct and cannot be improved upon. Therefore, 
nature does not seek to thwart any of its own operations. We experience 
problems of ill health (i.e., excess weight, pain, stress) only when we 
break the natural laws of life. The most beautiful thing about Natural Hygiene is that it affords you 
the opportunity to control your weight by supplying you with useful tools. Some of these tools are inborn: common sense, instincts, logic, and rea­
soning. These are critical tools that we all have built-in, but for one 
reason or another as life goes on we rely less and less on these attributes. I 
can't count how many times I have heard people say, after hearing how 
Natural Hygiene explains a certain situation, "You know, I always kind 
of felt that's how it should be, but ..." Their instincts were telling them 
one thing, but outside pressures convinced them to do otherwise. Through the passage of time their instincts were heeded less and less until 
they were not given notice at all. Many examples of how to use common 
sense, instincts, and logic to control your body weight will be presented 
throughout this book. The greatest tool of all—indeed, the greatest gift of all—is the human 
body and the immense intelligence that directs it. The human body has 
to be nature's finest creation. It is unmatched in power, capacity, and 
adaptability. The intelligence inherent in our bodies is so vast that it is 
positively staggering. The human heart beats about one hundred thou­
sand times every twenty-four hours. Consider the fact that the heart and 
its pumping system, which scientists have attempted to duplicate without 
success, pump six quarts of blood through over ninety-six thousand miles 
of blood vessels. This is an equivalent of sixty-three hundred gallons 
being pumped per day. That is almost one hundred fifteen million gal­
lons in only fifty years. The six quarts of blood are made up of over twenty-four trillion cells 
that make three to five thousand trips throughout the body every day. 16 ' FIT FOR LIFE Seven million new blood cells are produced every second! This pumping 
system has the capability of working nonstop for decades without skipping 
a beat. And this is only the circulatory system! Consider the heat this machine must generate in accomplishing these 
functions, yet realize that it maintains a constant temperature of around 
98.6 degrees! The biggest organ of the body, the skin, is made up of over 
four million pores that are constantly acting as the cooling system for this 
machine. The digestive and metabolic systems have the remarkable abil­
ity to transform the food we eat into healthy blood, bone, and cell struc­
ture. Perfect balance is always maintained, and if it were off by only a 
small fraction, the balance would be destroyed. The lungs succeed in 
supplying the blood with the oxygen it needs. A complex skeletal system 
furnishes a supporting framework to allow the body to stand upright and 
walk. The skeletal system works in harmony with an amazing muscular 
system that allows locomotion. This machine can astonishingly reproduce itself! The force and 
wisdom necessary to turn a fertilized ovum into a fully grown man or 
woman are beyond our comprehension. The five senses alone can stun 
the intellect. The list of activities performed by your body on a regular 
basis could fill a book. At the helm of this pinnacle of perfection is the 
brain, overseeing all these miraculous activities, making sure everything 
is working with a precision that would make the work of a master watch­
maker look clumsy. The brain consists of more than twenty-five billion 
cells that are the most highly developed of any known. Looking at an individual cell, you will be even more impressed. A 
single cell cannot be seen without a microscope, yet what goes on within 
a cell is astounding. The wisdom of a single cell is said to exceed all the 
accumulated knowledge of the human race to date. Even the smallest 
cell in your body is about one billion times the size of its smallest compo­
nent! The cell is the site of more chemical reactions than all the chemi­
cal factories in the world combined. There are thousands of components 
in a cell: chromosomes, genes, DNA, organelles, mitochondria, en­
zymes, hormones, amino acids, and thousands of various chemicals and 
compounds too numerous to mention. And no one on this earth can 
explain what makes an individual cell operate. All the thousands of dif­
ferent functions can be categorized, but the force behind these functions 
is beyond our comprehension. In other words, the innate intelligence of 
the body is infinitely more sophisticated than our thinking minds. And to 
think there are over seventy-five trillion (75,000,000,000,000) of these 
astounding cells working with pinpoint perfection for some sixty, seventy, 
eighty years, or more! Inside each cell is a nucleus that contains chromosomes that contain 
NATURAL HYGIENE • 17 genes. And inside genes is the stuff of life: DNA. DNA is what deter­
mines what color your eyes are, or what fragrance a flower will have, or 
the iridescence of a bird's feathers. If you took all the DNA from all the 
genes of all your seventy-five trillion cells, it would fit into a box the size 
of an ice cube. Yet if all this DNA were unwound and joined together, 
the string would stretch from the earth to the sun and back more than 
four hundred times! That's almost eighty billion miles! Let's use an analogy to help you understand the size of the numbers we 
are talking about and what cooperation of titanic proportions is necessary 
to coordinate them. Consider that there are some four billion inhabitants 
of the earth. Now, I realize that it would be difficult to envision even a 
few million of those inhabitants getting together and cooperating harmo­
niously in all things. If that seems difficult, then imagine all four billion 
individuals on earth acting in unison. As impossible as it seems, com­
pared with the inner workings of the body, that is nothing! Imagine eigh­
teen thousand earths, each with four billion inhabitants and every last 
one acting in unison. All have the same political beliefs, the same re­
ligious beliefs, and the same intellectual beliefs, and all are working for 
the exact same goals. Ha! There's more of a chance of the moon being 
made of green cheese. But that is precisely what the trillions of cells in 
your body do every day! One human cell in the laboratory, free from all bodily influences, will 
divide some fifty times before dying. If all our cells divided that often, we 
would reach a weight of more than eighty trillion tons! Only with such 
staggering thoughts as these is it possible to grasp some idea of the infinite 
intelligence necessary to coordinate the activities of such an astronomical 
number of cooperating cells. As one last illustration, imagine yourself writing an extremely impor­
tant letter to a friend, while simultaneously watching your favorite TV 
program and listening to a positive-mental-artitude tape. How well will 
you perform these three functions? Probably not too well. Now, at the 
same time, prepare your dinner and wash the floor. Forget it. Trying to 
do those five tasks at the same time leaves no chance for any of them to 
be performed with any high level of efficiency. And that's only five ac­
tivities. Your body is performing quadrillions of processes twenty-four 
hours a day! Not millions or billions or even trillions, but quadrillions! And not haphazardly, but with pinpoint perfection, carrying on all the 
metabolic and life-sustaining processes of your existence. When we view 
the vasrness of the human body's faculties and processes, we must stand 
in awe of the enormous intelligence displayed. Considering these facts, is it at all conceivable that this truly magnifi­
cent machine would be left without the mechanism to achieve a proper 
18 ' FIT FOR LIFE body weight? No! It is inconceivable. Mechanisms for the body's self-
preservation are built in at birth, HEALTH IS YOUR BIRTHRIGHT, AND 
BEING OVERWEIGHT IS NOT HEALTH. The same way a plant will reach 
for the light source from wherever it is located in a room, so your body 
will forever strive for perfection. As an automatic biological process of 
existence, just like breathing and blinking your eyes, the human body 
ceaselessly strives to be fit. The secret is to learn how to facilitate the 
process rather than thwart it. Every way we interact with our environ­
ment affects our well-being, but in no other area of life are our biological 
needs violated more flagrantly than in our diets. If you have a weight 
problem, there is no question that the food you are putting into your 
body is the major factor contributing to that problem. From every area of 
the healing profession, more and more information is coming to light 
concerning the relationship of food to your well-being. A letter from Dr. David Reuben to his fellow physicians in his best-
selling book Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Nutrition 
said, "There is a whole category of substances that have a far more in­
tense effect on our patients than drugs. That category is food—and 
through no fault of our own, we have neglected that particular area of 
medicine. Our medical education neglected it, our internships neglected 
it, and our residencies neglected it. And for good reason—we had to take 
care of great masses of sick people. "But now it is becoming obvious, with each successive issue of our 
most responsible medical journals, that many of these 'sick people' are 
sick specifically because of what they are eating—or not eating." He then 
added, "People of America, the greatest threat to the survival of you and 
your children is not some terrible nuclear weapon. It is what you are 
going to eat from your dinner plate tonight." The Dietary Goals for the United States, prepared by the staff of the 
Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, United States Sen­
ate, states: "As a nation we have come to believe that medicine and medi­
cal technology can solve our major health problems. The role of such 
important factors as diet in cancer and heart disease has long been 
obscured by the emphasis on the conquest of these diseases through the 
miracles of modern medicine. Treatment, not prevention, has been the 
order of the day. "The problems can never be solved merely by more and more medical 
care. The health of individuals and the health of the population is deter­
mined by a variety of biological, behavioral, and environmental factors. None of these is more important than the foods we eat!" If it can be assumed that the incidence of the number-one and 
number-two killer diseases (heart disease and cancer) in this country can 
NATURAL HYGIENE • 19 be decreased by people knowing how and what to eat, imagine what it 
could do for the problem of overweight, often a precursor to these killers. How fortunate! Now that it is finally apparent that the foods we eat, 
obesity, and degenerative diseases are very much interrelated, we can 
relate that discovery to an entire field of knowledge devoted to the effect 
of food on the human body. It is interesting that the field of Natural Hygiene has existed in this 
country and been utilized by thousands of people for over a century and a 
half, and yet very few people have even heard of it. Very possibly you 
have never heard of it prior to this introduction. During my seminars I 
ask every audience, "How many of you have ever heard of Natural 
Hygiene?" Less than one percent ever raise their hands! It is strange that 
such a simple, practical, and successful area of health care is so un­
known. Aside from its not receiving very much attention in the media, 
the reason for its obscurity is that its principles have never before been 
capsulized into a viable program for people to utilize. What Marilyn and I have done is synthesize the basic fundamentals of 
Natural Hygiene into a series of commonsense, easy-to-follow dietary 
principles that facilitate the goal of eliminating obesity and alleviate the 
necessity for dieting. According to Jack D. Trop, past president of the 
American Natural Hygiene Society (which was formed in 1948): FIT FOR 
LIFE "simplifies the basic fundamentals of Natural Hygiene and brings 
them to a large public forum for the first time in history." Natural Hygiene is a vast subject with a tremendous amount to offer 
the serious student. For some in-depth material, books, periodicals, and, 
in my opinion, the finest correspondence course on Natural Hygiene 
available anywhere, contact the American College of Health Science, 
6600-D Burleson Road, Austin, Texas 78744. Going a little deeper now into the philosophy of Natural Hygiene, let's 
take a look at one of the more interesting phenomena of the human 
body. An introduction to this phenomenon is necessary to learn how to 
take weight off easily and permanently. In all likelihood, though you may 
have dieted extensively in the past, you have probably never come into 
contact with a fascinating and intriguing concept known as . . . 20 • FIT FOR LIFE CHAPTER 
The Natural 
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION 
W What are these cycles? Most people 
are not even aware that they exist! Yet extensive research on these phys­
iological cycles has been done, most notably by the Swedish scientist Are 
Waerland, by T. C. Fry of the American College of Health Science, in 
writings on biological clocks by psychologist Gay Gaer-Luce, and by myr­
iad researchers and scientists in their studies of the circadian rhythms. Information from these sources is the basis for our suggestion that the 
human's ability to deal with food relies on the effective functioning of 
three regular daily cycles. These cycles are based on rather obvious functions of the body. To put 
it in its simplest terms, on a daily basis we take in food (appropriation), 
we absorb and use some of that food (assimilation), and we get rid of what 
we don't use (elimination). Although each of these three functions is 
always going on to some extent, each is more intense during certain 
hours of the day. noon to 8 P.M.—APPROPRIATION (eating and digestion) 
8 P.M. to 4 A.M.—ASSIMIIATION (absorption and use) 
4 A.M. to noon—ELIMINATION (of body wastes and food debris) Body Cycles 
• 21 ' Our body cycles can become apparent to us if we simply witness our 
bodies in action. Obviously, during our waking hours we eat (appropri­
ate), and if we put off eating, our hunger tends to heighten as the day 
goes on. When we are sleeping and the body has no other noticeable 
work to do, it is assimilating what was taken in during the day. When we 
awaken in the morning, we have what is called "morning breath" and 
perhaps a coated tongue because our bodies are in the midst of eliminat­
ing that which was not used—body wastes. Did you ever notice what happens if you eat late at night? How do you 
feel the next morning? When you awaken, you feel groggy or "drugged." The assimilation cycle that proceeds after food has left the stomach has 
been thwarted. Physiologically our bodies want to eat early in the evening 
so that at least three hours can pass, the time needed for food to leave the 
stomach, and the assimilation cycle can start on time. Since the food is 
not yet digested, because you have eaten late at night, it is not ready to be 
assimilated. You have extended the appropriation cycle far beyond its 
limit, and you have postponed the assimilation cycle well into the time 
when the body wants to be eliminating. The regular eight-hour cycles 
have now been thrown into turmoil. The natural workings of your body 
have been thwarted; thus you awaken feeling "drugged." Similarly, if 
you have ever skipped breakfast, you have probably made it until lunch 
because your body was eliminating and didn't want to eat anyway. Going 
later than lunch without food, however, would be uncomfortable because 
your body had entered the appropriation cycle and was prepared to take 
in food. This program has been designed to return you to a life-style that is based 
on your natural body cycles. As we proceed and you become more familiar 
with the principles that are the basis of the program, the usefulness of the 
body cycles will become increasingly apparent. But for now it is sufficient 
to understand that those of us who are waging the battle of the bulge should 
be most concerned with the elimination cycle. If that cycle is facilitated, 
rather than thwarted, your success in releasing the thin body locked within 
you can practically be guaranteed. Understand that elimination means the 
removal of toxic waste and excess weight from your body. The reason that 
62 percent of the people in this country are overweight is that our tradi­
tional eating habits have consistently obstructed the all-important elimina­
tion cycle. In other words, we have been taking food in (at a record pace! ), 
we have been using what we need from that food, but we have NOT been 
getting rid of what we can't use. Since so many Americans eat a hearty 
breakfast, a hearty lunch, and a hearty dinner, far more time is spent 
appropriating than eliminating. Is it any wonder that so many of us are 
carrying around so much excess weight? 22 • FIT FOR LIFE So to lose weight, the secret of success is getting rid of the toxic wastes 
and excesses we carry around. Where does this toxic waste come from in 
the first place, and how does one get rid of it? According to Natural 
Hygiene, the explanation for why a person has a weight problem is . . . THE NATURAL BODY CYCLES • 23 CHAPTE-
The Theory of 
Metabolic Imbalance 
T JLoxemia—the term used by Natural 
Hygienic pioneers to describe what modern science now calls metabolic 
imbalance—was first written about by John H. Tilden, M.D. The hu­
man body is finely designed to stay in balance in terms of tissue building 
up (anabolism) and tissue breaking down (catabolism). An excess of one 
over the other is metabolic imbalance. In 1926 Dr. Tilden wrote a book entitled Toxemia Explained. Unlike 
all the "diet" books I had read, this was the first source that gave me a 
clear understanding of how my body worked and exactly why it did not 
seem to want to cooperate with me in terms of my weight. In the most 
easy-to-understand way it explained what was wrong, why it was wrong, 
what to do about it, and how to do it! For the first time I had the feeling 
that I could be successful in turning my waddle into a walk. Although 
this book addressed itself to the entire subject of health, it supplied what I 
needed to know quite specifically about WHY ONE GETS FAT! There have been many books subsequently written on toxemia, but 
Dr. Tilden's book is considered the tour de force in the field of Natural 
Hygiene. Dr. Tilden explains that a situation of toxemia in the system 
lays the foundation for putting on excess weight. By keeping your system 
• 24 • toxin-free you significantly increase your chance of having a comfortable 
body weight, because excesses of toxins in the body are the forerunners of 
obesity. So, what is toxemia? Where does it come from? And what can one do 
to minimize it? According to the precepts of Natural Hygiene, there are 
two basic ways it is produced in the system. One is a normal, natural 
function of the body; the other we regularly contribute to, either know­
ingly or not. Both demand energy for its removal from your body. The first way toxemia is produced is through the process of metabo­
lism. As you are reading this page your inner body is not still; it is hard at 
work. Old cells are constantly being replaced by new cells. In fact, three 
hundred billion to eight hundred billion old cells a day are replaced with 
new ones.1 These old cells are toxic (poisonous) and must be removed 
from your system as soon as possible by one of the four channels of 
elimination: bowels, bladder, lungs, or skin. This is a normal, natural 
process of the body and is not something with which to concern yourself 
unless for some reason this toxic waste material is not eliminated at the 
same rate that it is being produced. As long as there is a sufficient amount 
of energy at the body's disposal, this waste is eliminated properly. The second way toxemia is produced in the system is from the by­
products of foods that are not properly digested, assimilated, and incorpo­
rated into cell structure. In this country we have the most peculiar habit 
of altering practically everything we eat from its original state before eat­
ing it. Rather than a sufficient quantity of fresh foods dominating our 
dietary intake, the major portion of what we eat is processed. If it isn't 
processed to death before we get our hands on it, we alter it in some way 
ourselves. We fry, barbecue, steam, saute, stew, boil, or broil almost all 
the food we eat. Because the food has been altered from its original state 
and we are not biologically adapted to deal with so much of this altered 
food, the by-products of its incomplete digestion and assimilation form a 
certain amount of residue in the body. This residue is toxic. If these types 
of foods PREDOMINATE in one's diet, the system is overtaxed on a regular 
basis. So your body is building toxemia daily in two ways: through the nor­
mal process of metabolism and by the residue left over from the foods not 
efficiently utilized. As far as your weight is concerned, common sense 
will tell you that if more of this toxic waste is built than is eliminated, 
there is going to be a buildup of the excess. That translates as overweight. Adding to the problem, toxins are of an acid nature. When there is an 
'The number of cells that need to be replaced each day depends on how much cooked or caustic 
food is in the diet, causing cells to be lost from the alimentary canal. THE THEORY OF METABOLIC IMBALANCE • 25 acid buildup in the body, the system retains water to neutralize it, adding 
even more weight and bloat. Imagine working in a large corporation where your job is to shred 
twenty boxes of written material and throw it away every day. Now let's 
say that because either you don't have enough time or you don't have 
enough energy, or both, you can shred only fifteen boxes a day. That 
means the next day you'll be delivered another twenty boxes—but you 
still have five boxes left over from the previous day. Being able to shred 
only fifteen, you will have ten extra boxes after the second day. If you 
started on Monday and worked seven days a week, on the second Monday 
of your job after your delivery of twenty boxes, you will have a total of 
fifty-five boxes and be capable of dealing with only fifteen! After only one 
week you have forty extra boxes. These will have to be stored somewhere 
until they can be shredded. But where? If you have any kind of weight 
problem, the above predicament is exactly what your body has to deal 
with. If you build more toxic waste every day than is eliminated from 
your body, then it is going to be stored somewhere. Your body, ever 
attempting to protect itself and maintain its integrity, tends not to store 
this waste in or near the vital organs. It will be stored in the fatty tissue 
and the muscles. That means in the thighs, in the buttocks, around the 
midsection, in the upper arms, under the chin—all those places where 
we lament the bulges most. If the problem goes unchecked, the ultimate 
result is not only obesity but general discomfort and lethargy as the body 
expends a great deal of its energy in an attempt to rid itself of this accu­
mulated toxic waste. What Dr. Tilden was relating to his readers over half a century ago was 
this: Although the problem appears to be out of the individual's control, 
it is not! It is a simple physiological phenomenon that is not a mystery. Anyone can take control of the situation and direct it to whatever degree 
he or she desires. It is simply a matter of understanding toxemia and 
doing what is necessary to remove the toxic waste that already exists in 
one's body and see that it is not accumulated at a more rapid pace than it 
is eliminated. Having this understanding, can you now see the extreme importance 
of your elimination cycle being allowed to operate uninterrupted with the 
utmost efficiency? Can you see how if you interfere even unknowingly 
with your elimination cycle, you are going to force your body to retain 
and store the toxic waste that is the beginning of a weight problem? Of course, stating that all one has to do is remove toxins from the body 
and not build them back up is all well and good, but exactly how is this 
accomplished? This was our concern. This is what we saw could be de­
veloped out of my study of Natural Hygiene: a convenient life-style based 
26 • FIT FOR LIFE on the understanding of how to continuously cleanse the body of its toxic 
waste and never allow it to build to an unacceptable level. The most 
beautiful thing is that it's fun, not restrictive. Eating remains a joy; it does 
not become a clinical endeavor. This is a must for me personally, since I 
could never embrace an approach to eating that deprived my gourmet 
palate. That was what prompted my wife, Marilyn, to put her gourmet back­
ground to work and develop an approach to food preparation that would 
enhance the program and turn it into a truly delightful eating life-style 
(which will be presented to you in Part II).
Fit_For_Life.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        FIT FOR 
LIFE 
Harvey and Marilyn 
Diamond 
o MINER BOOKS 
A Warner Communications Company ^ 
CONTENTS 
FOREWORD by Edward Taub, M. D. ct 
PART I—THE PRINCIPLES 
INTRODUCTION 
1. Diets Don't Work 
2. Natural Hygiene 
3. The Natural Body Cycles 
4. The Theory of Metabolic Imbalance 
5. The Principle of High-Water-Content Food 
6. The Principle of Proper Food Combining 
7. The Principle of Correct Fruit Consumption 
8. The Theory of Detoxification 
9. Protein 
10. Dairy Products 
11. Exercise 
12. You Are What You Think You Are 
13. The Most Frequently Asked Questions 3 
9 
13 
21 
24 
28 
37 
48 
61 
67 
80 
88 
92 
95 PART II—THE PROGRAM 107 
INTRODUCTION 109 
1. Breakfast 114 
2. Fresh Juices 118 
3. The Energy Ladder 120 
4. The FIT FOR LIFE Shopping List 122 
5. The Main-Course Salad 139 
6. Life-style Guidelines 143 
A FOUR-WEEK EXAMPLE OF THE FITNESS LIFE-STYLE 147 
IN CONCLUSION 223 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 225 
IN HEX 233 ^ 
FIT FOR LIFE is a breakthrough. No guilt, no burdens, no demands. Get 
healthy, thin, and vibrant very soon and determine your own pace. Rush 
down the freeway to health, or take your time to enjoy the last of the 
artificial flowers along the way—the chocolates, beer, pretzels, and por­
terhouse steaks. It's all okay, Harvey and Marilyn Diamond tell us. Even 
the slightest change, the least little consistent effort, and healthy fitness 
ensues. My own experience. I've lost eighteen pounds in two months. I occa­
sionally eat fish or chicken, hardly ever succumb to beer and pretzels, 
and can finally see a movie without the chocolate-covered raisins in 
hand. FIT FOR LIFE is an important work. It joins Ken Pelletier's Mind 
as Healer, Mind as Slayer, Harold Bloomfield and Robert Kory's Inner 
Joy, Joseph Murphy's Power of Your Subconscious Mind, and Norman 
Cousins's Anatomy of an Illness on the bookshelf of integrative medicine. integrative medicine is a new art 
and science based on health promotion and "wellness"—a natural ap­
proach to patients, regarding them not as diseases or problems, but as people needing assistance in balancing their physical, emotional, mental, 
and spiritual dimensions. These dimensions, when balanced or in har­
mony, reflect health, fitness, wholeness, and well-being—"wellness. " The highest calling of a physician has always been to identify the dis­
ease process at its earliest moment of inception through skill, judgment, 
and wisdom, and to abate the problem with surgery, medicine, or irradia­
tion. The modern physician uses wisdom to prevent the disease process 
from occurring in the first place; the wellness-oriented physician works 
through fostering factors that contribute to homeostasis, the natural dy­
namic equilibrium of the body. Rather than concentrating on medicating 
symptoms of bodily deterioration or removing malfunctioning organs and 
leaving it at that, the "wellness" physician works to assist the patient in 
achieving emotional calm, mental tranquillity, physical fitness, and spir­
itual peace. The human body should last for a hundred and fort)' years, or twice as 
long as our present life span; so, although medical science has made great 
strides, it is important to remember that the job is only half done, FIT 
FOR LIFE and the Diamonds take us a giant step forward in extending 
both life's span and life's quality—a perfect example of integrative medi­
cine, FIT FOR LIFE regards nutritional appropriateness as a matter of en­
ergy balance: Efficient absorption of food energy and efficient elimination 
of food bulk balance the body, and it becomes neither too thin nor too fat 
and retains maximum power to regain health or resist disease. FIT FOR LIFE crushes orthodox medical dogma about the basic four 
food groups, milk as healthful, protein in the diet, and calorie-counting 
to lose weight. Nutritional sense is a matter of monumental importance in this age of 
stress. "Rechemicalization" of food with additives, preservatives, artificial 
flavorings, dehydration, concentration, freezing, and microwaving makes 
nutritional reeducation no less important than Ignaz Semmelweis's intro­
duction of physician hand-washing before surgery or childbirth. Only a 
hundred years have passed since that awareness descended on science. Only a hundred years have passed since science stopped the bleeding, 
purging, and leeching that was part of our grandparents' lives. Now all 
our attempts at dieting and counting calories may be looked at by our 
grandchildren as part of our generation's folly. FIT FOR LIFE is a perfect example of integrative medicine as an energy-
based science. Both integrative medicine and this book are consumer 
oriented to bridge gaps between previous biological understandings and 
newer psychological breakthroughs that have brought out of the closet 
healing chemicals that our bodies produce. We are finally starting to 
understand how enormous are our bodies' healing powers to become well 
xii • FIT FOR LIFE and stay healthy. Integrative medicine merges centuries of preventive 
medical concepts from hundreds of different cultures with the modern 
need to reduce stress, resolve conflict, avoid detrimental life-styles, and 
change behavioral patterns that lead to overweight, obesity, and then to 
coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, ulcers, backache, migraine, 
arthritis, stroke, and cancer. Integrative medicine pursues spiritual calm, emotional peace, and 
physical fitness; it merges the holistic concepts of the life-styles of the 
Western "lotus land" of California with the preventive medical concepts 
emerging from the "Mecca" of medicine in Boston. * The Eastern doc­
tors, traditional, with Harvard backgrounds, point out that physicians can 
no longer help 80 percent of disease, that medicine and surgery still cure 
only 10 percent of disease, and that the other 10 percent of disease is now 
caused by accidents of surgery and side effects of medication. They pro­
claim the health of the American people in the 1980s to depend not on 
what others do for them, but on what they are willing to do for them­
selves. The Westerners, upstarts from UCLA, Stanford, and Berkeley, 
heartily agree and point consistently to laughter, hope, faith, and love as 
primary health ingredients. It is integrative medicine that enables the 
twain to meet. Integrative medicine offers patients combinations of the 
traditional and the holistic: diet, exercise, sunshine, rest, massage, and 
prayer stand alongside medication, surgical feats of derring-do, and high 
technology's incredible machines. I have been honored to present integrative medicine to the California 
Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics in Detroit, 
and the National Academy of Science in Washington, D. C. It is a bio-
social, psycho-spiritual approach to understanding health and dealing 
with disease. Personal responsibility, self-value, and high regard and rev­
erence for life are seen as primary determinants of health. Integrative 
medicine regards any disease as potentially reversible through the mirac­
ulous power of the body to heal itself, understands the body as an energy 
system, and believes health is too important to leave up to science but 
also too important to be unscientific about. Science is only the human mind's attempt to explain natural laws; FIT 
FOR LIFE explains nutrition in terms of natural laws, not what human 
minds have concocted up to now. When Harvey Diamond asked me to 
review the Fit for Life manuscript, he told me that if there was anything, 
'California's best spokespeople for the holistic approach to health include Norman Cousins, George 
Leonard, David Harris, Charles Kleeman, M.
Harold Bloomfield and Robert Kory
Who wrote the book "Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer"?
The book "FIT FOR LIFE" does not focus on dieting, but rather on a new approach to eating and living that can lead to healthy and sustainable weight loss.
What is the main focus of the book "FIT FOR LIFE"?
The main difference is that "FIT FOR LIFE" is not a diet, but rather a lifestyle change that focuses on the principles of Natural Hygiene.
What is the main difference between "FIT FOR LIFE" and other diet programs?
The purpose of the book "FIT FOR LIFE" is to provide a new and innovative approach to eating and living that is based on the principles of Natural Hygiene and energy balance.
What is the purpose of the book "FIT FOR LIFE"?
The core concept of Natural Hygiene is that the body is self-cleaning and self-healing, and that it is the individual's responsibility to provide the necessary conditions for the body to maintain its natural functions, including the elimination of toxic waste.
What is the core concept of Natural Hygiene?