THE ROUGHAGE DIET
Authors Note: Please be aware that this is by no means intended as an authoritative article on what I have termed the High Fibre Diet, but rather, it is intended to trigger ones curiosity and perhaps even get some of the readers to experiment with this diet for themselves.
What are the advantages of going on a cure of vegetable and fruit roughage?
1: During a water fast, the colon is resting, this can pose a problem since the body uses the intestinal tract to eliminate toxins, and when one is fasting, there is nothing to “brush” away the secretions from the intestinal walls.
Furthermore, there remains a thick wall of faecal matter which continues to putrefy while the intestines are resting.
2. By going on a high- fibre diet/fast the intestines can continue to work and produce the necessary secretions while the roughage is undertaking the task of mopping up the debris including all the dead tissue cells.
All this occurs without overloading the system of complex nutrients for the stomach and intestines to process since the roughage is mostly fibre with very little nutritional value.
3. The roughage will possibly also alkalize the blood and body since it is highly alkalized itself.
4. The intestines can continue to exercise and the peristalsis can continue to roll. This is a wave like motion which may have other benefits and functions than the more commonly understood digestive mechanism.
5. Psychological benefits are also evident since one is not actually giving up anything by eating a roughage diet. One is only diminishing the quantity of liquid juice content and with it the mineral and vitamin content. This may not be such a bad thing since even if one drinks one or two glasses of freshly squeezed juice per day this may in fact be too much for the body to utilize, thus requiring the body to eliminate and or store otherwise beneficial minerals and vitamins. Some such as vitamin c are easy for the body to handle. However, carotene and zinc are more difficult for the body to process.
6. The roughage diet also enables the body to chew, and in fact, chew more than one would normally do since it is simply not possible to swallow roughage wholesale since it is too fibrous and dry. The chewing process is not only good for the teeth and saliva glands but also for re-educating the system to eat slowly. there may of course be other benefits such as the balancing of gastrointestinal juices and possibly even hormones by exercising correct mastication.
7. The Roughage diet is not in any way supposed to replace water fasting since the benefits of having a complete rest are manifold, however, the roughage diet, can possibly introduced as a preparation to fasting and even a means to breaking a fast.
And maybe even a way to live a healthy life style when one is not indulging in heavy complex foods.
8. The best way to produce quality roughage is to use the by product of a fruit and vegetable juicer ( i.e. the roughage ) which is normally discarded after a juicing session.
David Feuerstein Copyright 2006
Fiber By Ken Adachi
Fiber, or roughage, has been a popular topic in the media of late. While advertisers try to sell us many things we don't need, they're right when they say high fiber cereals are important for good health. Lack of fiber has been implicated in the development of colon disease, heart disease and numerous other conditions. Dr. Denis Burkitt was the first to advance the idea of fiber as an important contributor to health. He based his beliefs on his research of African tribes. Dr. Burkitt found that African tribal residents suffered from almost none of the modern diseases of the West such as colon cancer and heart disease. However, when the Africans moved to the West and adopted our eating habits, they quickly succumbed to our most common illnesses.
Dietary fiber is as important to children as it is to adults. Foods high in fiber are high in vitamins, trace minerals and essential fatty acids. Take wheat for example. Almost all of the essential nutrients are bound in the germ portion of the grain. During milling, the germ is separated from the endosperm. The germ is sold separately as wheat germ (long known as a high nutrient food) while the endosperm is further milled to make flour. Milling of whole grain to make refined flour results in loss of 85 percent of the magnesium, 86 percent of the manganese, 40 percent of the chromium, 78 percent of the zinc, 89 percent of the cobalt, 48 percent of the molybdenum and 68 percent of the copper, in addition to comparable losses of selenium, vitamin E and essential fatty acids. Moreover, heavy metals such as cadmium (which are concentrated in the endosperm) remain in the flour. (Unfortunately, the body's antagonist to cadmium--zinc--has been removed.) Since nutrients are required to properly utilize all calories we consume, the intake of refined food leads to a gradual deficiency of nutrients. This is a strong argument for the use of whole-grain products.
The real test of the value of refined (fortified) foods would be to put a group of lab animals on a diet of white bread and compare them to a group fed a diet of whole-grain bread. In one such experiment, two thirds of rats kept on a diet of enriched white bread died before the experiment was finished.
Fiber is also important because it helps keep the intestinal contents moving through to their ultimate fate--elimination as stool. If the intestinal contents move too slowly, toxic by-products of digestion and bacterial fermentation remain in the bowel too long and are reabsorbed back into the body. Over time, this can contribute to illness.
When one consumes a diet low in fiber, attachment of parasites such as Giardia lamblia is easier. When fiber is present in the diet, the intestinal contents move through more quickly and prevent the attachment of such parasites. Recall that G. lambilia is one of the most common parasites found in the United States. It contributes to immune suppression, poor digestion, food allergies and numerous other problems. The ability to decrease the likelihood of infection by this parasite by simply increasing the intake of fiber is significant.
While fiber is necessary for children and adults, too much fiber can be a problem as well, since excessive fiber can cause nutrients to be leached out of the digestive tract. The problems for most of us, however, is not too much fiber, but too little. (Never put a child on a high fiber diet without consulting a health care professional.) Good sources of fiber include fruit, vegetables, legumes and grains (oats, wheat, rice, barley, etc.).
