What is the living foods diet? Is it another flash-in-the-pan diet fad or a future trend in nutrition? Can it really cure many "incurable" diseases?
Four years ago, stricken by liver cancer, 53-year-old Wang Su-yueh had surgery to remove one lobe of her liver. After her operation, she heard a report on Lai Chiu-nan's promotion of the living foods diet. Wang, already a vegetarian, decided to take her vegetarianism one step further and try this diet.
Wang has been using the diet for three or four years now and not only is energetic, fit and not given to catching colds, but has also recovered lost weight and seen her completely gray hair turn black again. She says persistence is important. According to Wang, "The doctor says that my body is in better shape than that of most normal people, and that a portion of my liver which had become cirrhosed has recovered."
Mr. Lee, a victim of cancer of the hepatic duct, was not as lucky. Although he rigorously adhered to the living foods diet for five years, and sought spirituality and emotional solace in religion, his cancer kept recurring. Last year, with the diet and the drugs no longer helping, Mr. Lee died. Just before he died, he couldn't refrain from telling his doctor how much he regretted his several years of sticking to a diet which had been unpleasant for him and difficult for his family. He felt it hadn't been worth it.
What is this living foods diet? Why do people have such different views of the diet and its effects?
A non-pharmacological approach
In spite of today's advanced medicines, there are still many illnesses which cannot be cured or controlled with pharmaceuticals. Many people have, therefore, begun to look for non-pharmacological "natural" treatments.
It is a fact that human beings are born with the ability to heal themselves. While in Africa doing epidemiological research, Joseph McCormick, author of Level 4: The Virus Hunters of the CDC, noted that whether it was hantaviruses or the then-unidentified and untreatable Ebola virus, there were people exposed to these diseases whose bodies produced antibodies and who did not get sick.
This year, the media has reported on many "natural healing" methods which stimulate the body's ability to heal itself, including the "natural treatment" from the recently popular A Great Revolution in the Brain World. Of these many approaches, the natural health lifestyle is one which has a bit more of a history and which is more familiar to Chinese people.
After getting her PhD in chemistry from MIT, Lai Chiu-nan, the creator of the natural health lifestyle, went to work at the University of Texas System Cancer Center doing research on cancer treatments. After 10 years of this work, it seemed to her that Western medicine had hit a dead end in its efforts to treat cancer and so she set out to find another way.
Lai was born in Taiwan to devout Buddhist parents and was thus introduced to Buddhism at an early age. In 1991, she combined Eastern and Western ideas about health care and established the Lapis Lazuli Light Institute in California. She also began making trips around the US and to Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China and Singapore to talk about and promote her concept of holistic healthcare involving the body, mind and spirit.
Lai's prescription for avoiding troubles and living a long life in the 21st century is vegetarian food, happiness, qigong and Buddhism.
A question of balance
How does the living foods diet-based on organic foods eaten raw-at the heart of this lifestyle help people avoid trouble and live longer? Lai's theory is based on the ratio of potassium to sodium in the body.
In her books and speeches, she always points out that under normal circumstances, there is 10 times more potassium than sodium in the cells of a human body. If cells become deficient in potassium, they begin to grow and divide. She thinks that the continuous growth and multiplication of cancer cells is linked to a lack of potassium.
Lai's theory is that if cells are to maintain their normal function, they must absorb potassium and expel sodium. There is a great deal more potassium in plant-derived foods than in animal-derived ones. For example, soybeans, pumpkins and bananas contain about 300 times as much potassium as sodium. Red meat, fish and poultry, on the other hand, contain only three to five times as much potassium as sodium. And cured foods such as ham actually contain more sodium than potassium.
Dr. Chiang Shu-hui, an advocate of the living foods diet for many years, explains the key to the diet's effectiveness in terms of pH balance.
Dr. Chiang points out in her book The Way of Health that a healthy body tends to be alkaline. When this is so, all kinds of internal processes can be fully carried out and wastes are quickly and completely expelled. But if a person has a poor diet, the body becomes acidic. Those organs involved in filtering the blood, such as the liver, kidneys, spleen and pancreas, have to work harder, causing illness. She says that in her past clinical experience, she found that many patients with gout, low-back pain and numbness in joints and limbs did not need to be treated with medications when she persuaded them to eat less meat and more fruits and vegetables.
The main point of Chiang's nutritional theory is that a food's acidity is determined by the kinds and proportions of minerals it contains. Fish, meat, eggs, milk, sweet foods and fatty foods are all acidic and should be given up. Vegetables, fruits, legumes and seaweeds contain minerals such as calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium and iron and should be eaten in abundance.
Food is the best medicine
There is a great deal of research which indicates that illness and diet are intimately related. Ailments of civilized man such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes are both caused by the consumption of inappropriate foods over a long period of time.
Epidemiological research also indicates that some fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of cancer. For example, cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower and kale contain large amounts of vitamins C and E, both of which are effective in resisting cancer.
However, with the modern use of large amounts of pesticides, antibiotics and growth stimulants to reduce the time from planting to harvest, reduce damage from insects and raise yields, it is not only impossible for people to eat their way to health, but also very possible that they can eat their way to illness.
For example, people use pesticides to kill bugs, never thinking that they are also harming themselves. Research indicates that only 1% of sprayed pesticides actually end up on the targeted bugs or bacteria, while 45% remains on the fruits and vegetables. The excess is dispersed into the air or seeps into the soil and waterways and is returned to people in that way.
Chan Chu-chin, head of the Taoyuan District Agricultural Improvement Station, says that the proportion of nitrate in chemical fertilizers is higher than that in organic fertilizers and once in the human body, nitrates are converted into nitrosamines, which are a factor in causing stomach and intestinal cancer; the organic phosphates in pesticides can cause pathological changes in the blood and nervous system; and the antibiotics fed to animals which are later consumed by people can also be carcinogenic.
Organically correct
The living foods diet isn't simply a vegetarian diet; it also stipulates that fruits and vegetables must be organically grown before they are considered to be high-energy.
Lai emphasizes that the source of people's health is a healthy planet. She therefore advocates environmentally friendly organic farming.
In fact, agricultural research indicates that organically grown fruits and vegetables are not only free of pollutants, but are also more nutritious.
According to research by Wu San-ho, a professor in the Agricultural Chemistry department at National Taiwan University, organically grown fruits and vegetables contain greater amounts of proteins, aldose sugars and minerals. Not only are they more nutritious, they are also sweeter to the taste. Wu gives organically grown bamboo as an example, saying that when the skin falls to the ground, ants come immediately, sensing its sweetness.
The problem is that over the years, a profit-first mentality has influenced farmers' growing methods and these same growing methods have affected the health of the environment and of consumers. Wu, who spends a great deal of time with farmers, says that they know that if they don't use chemical fertilizers and growth hormones their fruits have thinner skins and are sweeter. What they can't accept is that the fruits are smaller and not as pretty to look at and therefore are unwanted by consumers.
In addition, the labor costs of organic farming are higher and so the price of organically grown fruits and vegetables ends up being three to five times higher than that of ordinary fruits and vegetables. They are therefore not widely available and the cost to those who want to practice the living foods diet is quite high. And even if a living foods dieter has the economic resources and is willing to pay the price, it is not at all certain that he will be able to find genuinely organically grown produce to buy.
A demanding clientele
When Wang Su-yueh decided to go on the living foods diet four years ago, her first difficulty was that she couldn't find organically grown vegetables for sale anywhere. After searching unsuccessfully, she finally had to ask her mother, who lives in rural Tainan, to grow them for her.
Organic foods are not currently widely available in Taiwan; in the whole province, there are only about 100 retail outlets specializing in such products. As there is no body which can certify that the foods are truly "organic," there is a lot of non-organic food being sold as organic. Consumer demand, too, has surpassed forecasts.
Originally only seen in a few specialist stores such as Organic World and Organic Garden, in May of this year organic foods began appearing in the supermarkets of department stores such as Sogo and D'Urban, where consumer response has far exceeded expectations. The reason may lie in these stores' location in middle- and upper-income residential areas. Kao Ming-chang, manager of the supermarket in East Taipei's Sogo store, states that sales of organic vegetables have exceeded initial forecasts by three times. By the close of business every day, the counter on which the organically grown fruits and vegetables are displayed is usually bare.
Chen Chun-chun, CEO of Organic World, which he founded three years ago, says that Taiwan's organic foods market is growing quickly; annual growth is 20-30%. According to Chen, customers are mainly healthcare workers, teachers, people involved in environmental protection, people with illnesses and vegetarians.
A market survey conducted by the Miaoying Experimental Farm indicated that most consumers of organically grown fruits and vegetables are between 30 and 40 years old. The survey also revealed that 70% of those who purchase organic foods do so for health reasons.
Roughing it
There are many vegetarians in Taiwan and many people who eat organically grown foods, but neither vegetarianism nor the eating of organic foods is the same as following the living foods diet.
The living foods diet that Lai advocates is stricter than a vegetarian diet. In addition to being limited to fruits and vegetables which have been exposed to no pollutants in their production, it requires that these foods be eaten in a simple manner. In other words, organic foods and simple preparation are both fundamental to the living foods diet.
The living foods diet is very particular about a food's "energy." Lai believes that foods derived from animals, processed foods and foods exposed to pollutants (including fruits and vegetables that have been irradiated, frozen, or grown with pesticides or chemical fertilizers) all lose their energy. Eating such foods is not only of no benefit to the body, but may even harm it.
In her view, the simpler and less refined a food is, the higher its nutritional value. For this reason, the living foods diet doesn't allow the consumption of refined foods such as white rice, refined sugar and white flour. Instead, followers of the diet must eat cruder unpolished rice, brown sugar and whole-wheat flour.
Further, as cooking can destroy nutrients, the living foods diet emphasizes eating foods raw, or simply steamed or boiled. Frying in oil is absolutely out of the question. The diet also adheres to the principles of low salt, low fat and low sugar.
In order to try to smooth the digestive process, it also stipulates the order in which foods are to be consumed, with soup coming first, followed by raw vegetables and finally cooked vegetables. Fruit is eaten between meals.
Good for you, but good?
Although everyone is concerned about their health, most people find the living foods diet difficult to swallow. Wang says that after having been on the diet for four years, her family still can't accept it for themselves. "They say that eating this way means giving up life's flavor," she says with a smile. For most, going onto this kind of diet is not easy. For people who are not afflicted with a serious illness, it is hard to say whether they will have the perseverance to stick to the diet.
Lai Su-wei, who runs the Health Food Research and Counseling Center, also says that prevention is better than cure. She feels the value of the diet lies in its ability to improve the general condition of the body, not in its ability to effect cures. But the reason most people avoid the temptation to indulge in rich or gourmet foods and stick to the blander living foods diet is because they hope to cure themselves of an illness or prevent the recurrence of one.
Lai's center operates in the Minsheng neighborhood of Taipei. Usually it is people who are ill who come to her center for instruction. Her counseling center has set up a complete diet method which includes guidance on ingredients, preparation and how to eat. In addition, there are free classes every Tuesday and Saturday night which teach students how to grow vegetables and how to make "Rejuvelac," "Energy Soup" and other living foods fare. Her center also sells all kinds of organic foods.
Lin Yueh-kuei, who had surgery last year for ovarian cancer, comes to the center from Keelung every Tuesday morning to learn about the diet. Lin says that when she finished her chemotherapy, the ends of her fingers and toes were black and all her hair had fallen out. After being introduced to the living foods diet in March of this year, she threw out her medicine and began the diet. "It feels really good!" says Lin, whose hair has already begun to grow back. "The diet doesn't taste good, but it's better than taking medication." But she also admits that she doesn't always follow Lai's recommendation of a completely vegetarian diet. "Yesterday I had some chicken soup," she confesses, saying she still has to find a way to balance her family's feelings with the needs of the diet.
A false hope?
Given that the living foods diet demands that people eat their food raw and limit their intake of fat, salt and sugar, one might guess that it's no culinary delight. However, its flavor, good or bad, is a secondary issue. What people are really concerned with is whether or not it can provide hope for those with cancer.
The book How I Conquered Cancer Naturally, which tells the true story of how a woman with breast cancer treated herself with a "food cure," sold 300,000 copies in the US. Two years ago, a Chinese translation of the book hit the shelves in Taiwan and caught the attention of many people.
Lai's own books, such as Pursuit of Life and Make a Healthier Choice, and her lectures, cite many examples of people who have successfully battled cancer through diet.
The successful examples from both Taiwan and overseas have given hope to many cancer patients, encouraging them to bear the difficulties of the diet.
Lai, who is convinced that diet has an enormous influence on health, says that if a person one day becomes sick, that person must change their diet completely. They must give up what they most loved to eat before their illness and begin eating a lot of what they did not like. She says this is especially true of cancer patients, who must give up eating meat and rich foods because foods made from meat can stimulate the growth of tumors.
Dr. Tien Ming, a doctor of Chinese medicine, disagrees. He says that there is currently no evidence to indicate that the incidence of cancer is any lower among those who follow the living foods diet than those who do not. Even more to the point, most cancer patients have a poor appetite and therefore should be allowed to eat anything they want to. If such patients are forced to eat vegetarian food or raw food, it may take away what little appetite they do have, leaving them malnourished and still weaker. He says that there are numerous cases of cancer victims on the living foods diet suffering from anemia, stomach disorders and complete loss of appetite.
Wang Li-min, director of nutrition at the Sun Yat-sen Cancer Center, says that cancer patients who put themselves on the living foods diet end up malnourished, and some have even picked up infections. Such cases are often seen at the center's outpatients department. She says, "I haven't seen anyone who has gotten better eating the living foods diet, but many who have died from it." Wang appeals to cancer patients to pay special attention to their diet, particularly those who are undergoing chemotherapy. Such patients' immune systems are weak and they really should not be on the living foods diet because first, when a patient has insufficient nutrition, their immune system cannot recover; and second, if foods are eaten raw, bacteria and other microbes have not been killed and the patient may pick up an infection.
Wang Su-yueh, however, who actually follows the diet, says the problem of insufficient nutrition is a temporary one. "When I first went on the diet, my weight fell to 39 kilograms. My family couldn't bear to see me refuse poultry, meat and fish, and eat only vegetables." She says that her weight nonetheless gradually recovered to 46 kilograms and she now weighs more than she did before she became ill.
The raw and the cooked
For healthy people, the diet is just another way of eating, a balanced approach which offers more fiber and vitamins. But one thing which must be noted is that in Chinese medicine's view of food, vegetables are "cold." People whose bodies tend to be "cold" in this sense, may not be able to bear the diet.
Lai says that the living foods diet is too "cold" for some people, but it can be adjusted to solve the problem. For example, a little licorice and cinnamon can be added to an energy soup made of pur嶪d fruits and vegetables. This should alleviate problems with diarrhea or seemingly endless amounts of saliva. Asian pears eaten unpeeled are also not too "cold."
Even though the diet's emphasis is on eating foods raw to preserve their nutrients, dieters still need to know what to eat.
Chuang Yu-lung, an organic farmer who operates the Fulung Whole Foods Farm, says that even if vegetables are organically grown, not all of them can be eaten raw. If eaten raw, spinach, for example, contains calcium oxalate, which is harmful to the kidneys, while raw mustard greens contain erucic acid, which is bad for the joints. Cabbage and spoon cabbage, both cruciferous vegetables, are thought to be "cold" and will cause diarrhea if eaten raw.
Hsieh Ming-che, director of the School of Nutrition at Taipei Medical College, feels that although cooking vegetables does destroy some of their vitamin content, it also kills bacteria and softens their fiber content. Cooked vegetables are thus less of a shock to the intestines, and are better tasting besides. He says it's not necessary to insist on eating raw food just for its slightly greater nutritional content.
Exceptional cases
Can the living foods diet really give cancer victims a new hope for life? Some people are emphatic in their support while others scoff.
Dr. Tien, who uses a combination of Chinese and Western medical techniques to treat malignant tumors, doesn't feel that the living foods diet has any particular ability to effect a cure. However, he is not opposed to changing a patient's diet or allowing them to control it themselves. He also has a different view of the reasons for the living foods diet's successes in resisting cancer: "Perhaps it's strength from the patient's religious beliefs. Maybe it's a change of habits or attitude towards life. It may be due to a secondary treatment that the patient is using. . . ." Dr. Tien feels that all of these different factors are likely to have an effect.
Cancer is not necessarily terminal. In How to Eat Healthy, a book by Dr. Chuang Shu-chi which was popular in Taiwan for a time, Dr. Chuang discusses how to "live with cancer." According to Dr. Chuang, the human body has the potential to resist cancer. Dr. Tien says that in 5% of all cancer cases, a patient will live for five years without any sort of treatment.
Natural healing methods such as the living foods diet, mental and spiritual cures, and meditation have cured some people, but these can only be said to be the exceptions, not the rule. "No matter how many individual cases you cite, the majority of people are still not cured in this way," says Dr. Tien. "People who are ill should take the treatment path with the best success rate."
Dr. Tien says that if patients want to search for supplemental treatments outside of the mainstream of Chinese and Western medicine, that's fine with him. But to him giving up mainstream treatment entirely is just too risky.
Fitting the key to the lock
Dr. Pu Futong, a well-known mainland Chinese doctor of Chinese medicine who has cured a great number of people of a great variety of strange illnesses, responds to questions about his secret for treating illness by saying, "Different locks require different keys. In the same way, different patients require different treatments."
There is no panacea in this world, nor is there any one method which will cure everyone of a given illness. Likewise, the living foods diet's effectiveness in resisting cancer should not be over-emphasized.
Perhaps the living foods diet is a new environmentally friendly dietary trend. Perhaps, as Hsieh Ming-che says, it is just one fad among many. Like black bean eating and urine drinking, it will have its moment in vogue but then gradually go out of style.
Whichever it may be, the living foods diet at least reminds people to pay attention to their health and to love and protect the earth and its resources. A diet and attitude towards life that brings people closer to nature is certainly something worth thinking about.
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Organic vegetables grown in your own back yard or roof garden are the best ingredients for the living foods diet. Growing them also brings self-sufficiency and provides exercise.
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Wheat grass juice is one of the basic drinks of the living foods diet. (photo by Vincent Chang)
Ashitaba (Japanese angelica) is said to be the first plant to recolonize ground scorched by a volcanic eruption, and hence is seen as the most "vital" of life-giving plant foods. (photo by Vincent Chang)
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Mothers are the guardians of their families' health. Here they are learning how to make tasty and healthful living foods meals. (photo by Vincent Chang)
Natural lemon vinegar, used instead of industrially brewed vinegar, is an essential condiment for the living foods diet.
Plums have antibacterial properties and purify the blood. Hence they make an excellent health food. Pictured is a plum wine with added pine needles. (photo by Vincent Chang)
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Living foods can taste good too. These vegetarian baozi (steamed dumplings), made with sweet potatoes and powdered cassava, are both enticing and flavorsome.
Apart from organic vegetables, fruits and other foods, suppliers also offer full living-foods meals, to give people a taste of this style of eating.
Sushi made with a mixture of whole grains is mouth-watering even just to look at.
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Big, beautiful hydroponically grown sweet peppers make a fine ingredient for a raw salad. (photo by Vincent Chang)
Organic products are more expensive, yet their quality is not always up to scratch. Consumers should buy with their eyes wide open.
Natural lemon vinegar, used instead of industrially brewed Vinegar, is an essential condiment for the living foods diet.
Plums have antibacterial properties and purify the blood. Hence they make an excellent health food. Pictured is a plum wine with added pine needles. （photo by Vincent Chang）
Living foods can taste good too. These vegetarian baozi （steamed dumplings）, made with sweet potatoes and powdered cassava, are both enticing and flavorsome.
Apart from organic vegetables, fruits and other foods, suppliers also offer full living-foods meals, to give people a taste of this style of eating.
Sushi made with a mixture of whole grains is mouth-watering even just to look at.
Big, beautiful hydroponically grown sweet peppers make a fine ingredient for a raw salad. （photo by Vincent Chang）
Organic products are more expensive, yet their quality is not always up to scratch. Consumers should buy with their eyes wide open.
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