Watershed Wellness Center Health Blog The Truth About Health

Updated Regularly by Bob McCauley

Write to me and let me know your thoughts about this blog or any health matter.

Drive-by Critics
August 10, 2006

I am frustrated with my critics. The problem is that they throw verbal and written stones at me then drive away, even after I have politely responded to them. Thus I refer to them as my drive-by critics. They have linguini for spines. My desire is to engage them in a debate in order to discuss our differences. Unfortunately, they are interested in one thing: insulting and belittling me. Once they've done that, off they go never to be heard from again.

I have sent several emails over the years criticizing authors and their websites. Most have not answered me. A couple of them have dismissed me completely, but no one has ever tried to make me understand their point of view as I did with JF, my latest detractor. The reason is because I believe in what I am saying and I stand behind the words that I write. When I find someone of prominence who disagrees with me and my health protocol I respond to them in politely, civilized, professional manner. I don't know Dr. Andrew Weil and I have nothing against him personally, but I disagree with his assessment of Spirulina, chlorella, ionized water and raw foods, which are all central tenants of my health protocol. Here are links to my responses to Dr. Weil:

Bob's Response to Dr. Weil's Opinion of Ionized Water
Bob's Response to Dr. Weil's Opinion of the Raw Food Diet
Bob's Response to Dr. Weil's Opinion of Spirulina and Chlorella

Below is an email from my latest detractor:

 ----- Original Message -----
From: "JF" <withheld>
To: < watershed@mindspring.com >
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 6:02 PM
Subject: Your comments on Dr. Weil

Without going into details about the many inaccuracies on your "Response to
Dr.Weil..." essays, I would like to ask two things...

1) Have you read any of Dr. Weil's books?  I am nearly finished with his
first book (and my first of his that I have read).  If you had, you would
realize that many of your attacks on Dr. Weil's approach and take on
medicine are blatantly false, and quite laughable.

2) What is your scientific background? BS? MS? Not PhD or MD or else you
would have that behind your name.  Even with my bottom-of-the-ladder BA in
Biology, I can spot many an error in your discussion of pH in the body.
Unless cited otherwise, I have no idea where you get your ideas from!

Sincerely,

JF

MY RESPONSE TO JF:

----- Original Message -----

From: The Watershed Wellness Center
To: withheld
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 6:44 PM
Subject: Re: Your comments on Dr. Weil

Dear JF:

Nice to hear from you.  I have not read Dr. Weil's books in totality, but instead I refer to his website on the issues of ionized water, spirulina, chlorella and raw foods .  I like Dr. Weil a lot, but I don't agree with his assessment of these issues, unless he has changed his thinking on them.  All of them are key to my health protocol, thus I respectfully take issue with his conclusions about them.  In fact, he couldn't possibly be more wrong about them.  I have even voiced that opinion to his PR assistant who I met in person.

As far as my credentials, I have a BA in journalism and do not have a formal scientific background, as I proudly state in all my books, articles and on my website.  I love to have those with "credentials" explain science to me because I am a science buff, not a professional.  Fortunately, you don't need "credentials" to be healthy and I am healthier than 99.9% of the population at the age of 49, so I must be doing something right.  Gabriel Cousens, MD, wrote the introduction to my last book, Achieving Great Health and he found almost nothing to disagree with in it.  Dr. Cousens certainly does have credentials.

As for my assumptions on body pH, please be more specific as to where I have made my errors.  I'm always ready to learn more.  But I think you will find I certainly am not alone in my thinking and health philosophy.

Sincerely,

Bob McCauley
The Watershed Wellness Center
www.watershed.net

I am still waiting for JF's response . . . . .

The "Open-minded" Scientific Community
August 2, 2006

The "scientific community" does everything it can to keep natural health from flourishing, while at the same time keeping the pharmaceutical complex and its advocates at the FDA. Here is an email I recieved from a "love-filled" scientist who said I should be ashamed and myself and wanted to watch me on my death bed being assisted only by the technology I promote.

It's nice to receive fan-mail and be so loved. His email and my response are below. I withheld his name.

- Original Message -----
From: <withheld>
To: < watershed@mindspring.comt >
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:34 AM
Subject: Product & Company Inquiries - Feedback from visitors

> The following form contents were entered on Wednesday, July 12, 2006
> MailSubject = Product & Company Inquiries - Feedback from visitors
> uname: Terry H.
> phone:
> email: withheld
> comment: It would be my fervent hope that when the day comes that you
> require medical attention, that only the "technology" upon which your
> products are based is employed in your treatment. That would be a show
> that I would pay to watch once.
>
> You should be ashamed of yourselves.
>
> (Professional chemist with extensive pharmaceutical & industrial product
> development experience.)

Dear Mr. H:

I believe in nature and the power of what nature can do for the human body.  I believe in nature because nature is God.  There is zero evidence of chronic disease (not bacterial or viral) in nature.  Animals in the wild do not have chronic diseases of any kind, only humans do, as well as those animals we domesticate and feed a diet of cooked and processed foods.

You believe in man and his puny, laughable attempts to control disease.  Which one of your pharmaceuticals has ever cured anyone of any disease?  We are all waiting for the miracle drug or treatment that will cure a person of cancer, diabetes or any other disease.  Where is the drug that's free of side effects?  My health protocol's side effect is Great Health.  Allopathic medicine's attempts to control disease through drugs are pathetic and dangerous because they mislead people and fill them with false hopes that a drug will make them healthy when nothing could be further from the truth.

I promote health products and I do so in good faith.  I'm sure you do the same.  However, I am ashamed of nothing and in fact am quite proud that I have helped improve the lives of thousands of people who have followed my health protocol.  The very "technology" that you scorn has brought me incredible health that I have now experienced for 10 years.  Have you tried it?  No, of course not.  Yet you denounce it and it is typical of your ilk to do so.  You know nothing about our products and their technology because it is not in one of your text books therefore it has not been sanctioned by the scientific community. 

It is "debunkers" like you that restrain so many from learning the truth about health because it is easy to denounce breakthrough technologies that don't fall neatly into current scientific thinking.  You are like those who scoffed at Galileo for his radical ideas.

Sorry to inform you that scientists such as yourself are medieval thinkers in a modern world.  You should be ashamed of yourself for being so narrow-minded.  In the meantime, I will be busy spreading the truth about what really leads to health, not what misleads people to an early grave.

Sincerely,

Bob McCauley
The Watershed Wellness Center
www.watershed.net
watershed@mindspring.com
1-888-826-4448
1-517-886-0440

Aging Should Not Mean Decline
April 12, 2006

I don't want to end up as a sack of bones and flabby flesh when I'm old. Most people will shake their head at the idea of living to be 90 or 100 years old because they have only seen cooked foodists who are that age and for the most part, they are not a pretty sight. Half the people over age 85 are senile and have lost touch with reality to some degree. Most cannot walk without assistance, nor perform basic maintenance on themselves, such as bathing and caring for their own nails. Most are incontinent and need assistance when going to the bathroom. They are sacks of bones and blood, mere shadows of what they once were. When someone dies of “old age” it simply means that they had so many diseases it could not be determined which one killed them. Given these circumstances, I would not want to stay alive to that age either.

However, if I was able to still perform all those tasks, including doing most of the things I did when I was in my twenties, I would want to stay alive another day as much as anyone else. Why would anyone ever want to die at a certain age? If you believe you probably will want to die before the age of 100 simply because you have lived long enough, then why don't you believe that at 30, 40 or any age for that matter? We are conditioned to think this way because we have our health when we are young. We feel our whole life is in front of us. It is only when we are faced with no longer being able to function normally as a human that we want to die gracefully and no longer be a burden to others. It is only when we are diseased and dilapidated that we will no longer want to live. Once we have lost our dignity, we want to give up and die because it is too humiliating to live having others care for us as they would a baby. It is humbling to have the children you once raised now care for you. Becoming a stick figure ready to be snapped into pieces by a strong gust is what you have to look forward to as a cooked foodist. However, as a raw foodist you will never decline in such a remorseful fashion unless you go back to your cooked-food ways.

We must know that just because we age does not mean we have to decline physically and mentally. Adopting this attitude is a key step forward toward Achieving Great Health. We are programmed to believe that we will be lucky to live a “long life” of 90 years, but that the last few years will be spent dying of some disease until we inevitably succumb. This lie we believe in must be wrecked. We need to abandon the preconceived notion that death by disease is involuntary and there is nothing we can do to change it. Our life will be as long and healthy as we chose it to be if we live on a Raw-food Diet and keep ourselves constantly hydrated and invigorated with daily exercise.

We do not build lofty edifices out of our bodies, but rather drive them into the ground by what we put and don't put in them. The human body wilts before our eyes because of our cooked-food diet, lack of exercise and not having the attitude that declares I am unstoppable . Those of us who hydrate ourselves and eat raw become human towers. Our bodies are modeled and beautiful regardless of our age. We reach high to grasp and hold what our hearts most desire. We live to our full potential. We are raw foodists. Nothing can stop us from achieving our goals and we know it.

Skin Test
March 14, 2006

I was tested for skin carotenoids last weekend while attending the Arnold Fitness Classic in Columbus , Ohio , which was a total bust this year. But a highlight for me was stopping by a booth that was offering the scan which uses a low-energy blue light laser to obtain an immediate reading of the carotenoid antioxidant levels in your skin-your Skin Carotenoid Score. The unit is made by Pharmanex . The skin is a particularly accurate measurement of our health because it takes approximately 30 days for nutrients to reach the skin, whereas something like the blood is more immediate and subject to sudden change.

The person who was testing knew nothing about the machine he was using, but did know about the supplements that he was selling. He didn't even know what the laser was measuring in my skin, but he did say there was no upper limit. According to him, his score was quite low, only 20,000. However, he had only started on the supplements he was selling a month earlier and they not had too much time to work. He explained that a score of 35,000 was good and 40, 000 was exceptional. He was working with a young lady who had a score of nearly 36,000 after taking the supplements for a year. I filled out their questionnaire that asked if I took supplements of any kind and if not why. I stated that I ate raw fruits and vegetables because they were far healthier than any supplements that could possibly be consumed. The test only took a couple minutes and when my score came back 59,000, the man taking it was astonished. His chart only went to 50,000. He had never heard of anyone getting over 50,000. Even the founder of the company only had a score of 48,000. He asked what my diet was comprised of and I told him I was on a 99% raw food diet. I didn't see a light bulb come on over his head, but one should have. It is raw fruits and vegetables that give us youth, great skin full of antioxidant and incredible energy, not supplements. Supplements are extracts and concentrates that look good on paper but can't supply the body with the full nutritional compliment if it is not consumed raw. Supplements slightly prolong the inevitable slide toward old age and disease. Raw foods lead away from that “inevitability”. They are the only thing that gives you life and evidence of that is a carotenoid score of 59,000. Best of all, I am no one special. ANYONE can do what I am doing even if you are just getting started! See the Test Results Here

Why we don't sell supplements
March 13, 2006

I just attended an intensive live blood analysis workshop last weekend in Chicago . Seeing your blood under a 40x microscope is a fascinating window into your body. Although it is not at all conclusive about what you are looking at and it should not be used as a diagnostic, you can determine whether you are healthy in general. For instance, if your blood cells stick together, which is known as Rouleau Disease, it may be an indication of several different diseases. It would be impossible to determine what disease one actually had from seeing blood cells that are problematic. People who conduct live blood analysis will show someone their blood then recommend several different supplements, probiotics and food enzymes. In short, you are still shooting in the dark. When you look at live blood, the condition of the blood cells, platelets, B-cells and T-cells, and observe that they do not look healthy, you can make several suggestions as far as to how the person can correct the problem. Invariably, this includes the use of supplements and digestive enzymes of every imaginable kind. I have purchased a microscope and begun doing this work as well. It is absolutely fascinating to view live blood, but it fails as a true diagnostic tool because it cannot determine exactly what the problem is. For instance, you may see evidence of excessive oxidation, however it cannot be determined exactly what caused it. When I do a live blood viewing, I use it as a tool to allow people to see what is going on inside them. When they ask what they should do to correct the problem, I always suggest the same thing, raw foods, spirulina, chlorella, ionized water, probiotics and exercise. Supplements don't work. They are a Band-Aid, not a solution. That's why we don't sell any at The Watershed Wellness Center.

The New Drug Plan
February 22, 2006

President Bush acknowledged that his new drug plan has major problems . But of course, government will figure it out and everyone will be happy, just like we always are when the government does anything. There are many out there who would love to socialize medicine and have the government administer the whole thing. I would hope this is a warning to them that demonstrates that the government would do nothing but ruin the health care industry.

However, there is a more important point to be made here. If you have made yourself sick by living on the wrong diet most of your life then you have a choice if you want to be healthy again. You can change your diet, begin drinking more water and begin exercising. Or you can start taking medications and cover up the symptoms of your disease, but there is no hope of ever truly being health again. Read my most recent book, Achieving Great Health , and you see exactly what I'm talking about.

But an even more important point to make is this: if you have made life choices that have made you sick. If your diet has been comprised of primarily cooked foods, especially fried foods, fast foods and other highly processed low-quality foods that have made you sick, why should someone like myself who has stayed healthy by living on the right diet have to pay for someone's medicine who hasn't? It is especially wrong to make the healthy pay for choice drugs such as Cialis and Viagra, which are prescribed to those who have lived their lives on a cooked food, processed food diet. Those of us who live on raw foods and keep ourselves alkalized, hydrated and detoxified should be forced to support those who didn't bother to take care of themselves.

The Medical Establishment and
Their Wrong-headed Basic Premises

Lowering Your High Cholesterol Number in a Natural Way

January 29, 2006
It becomes more obvious than even that th e medical establishment as a whole still does not understand the basic tenants of human health. If they did, they wouldn't suggest that there are two sources of cholesterol, those of diet and genetics. Doctor's have labeled the condition a disorder and called it familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), which means you are only partly responsible for your cholesterol, that what you eat. But the other half is due entirely to your family.

“The cholesterol levels of people with this disorder may reach as high as 550 milligrams per deciliter – almost four times the level considered desirable for the average person. With cholesterol this high, people with FH are at a high risk for an early heart attack, regardless of the presence of other risk factors. If FH is suspected, children as young as two years of age may be appropriate for a cholesterol screening.” 1.

Only after two years on the wrong diet, a perfectly healthy baby can have high cholesterol. While this is an absurd notion, it is quite true. However, my protocol states that we can become healthy in 90 days or less if we subscribe to the entire program. If you have both high cholesterol and triglycerides then you have another disorder that the medical establishment has termed it familial dysbetalipoproteinemia .

The statin drug, Crestor , (manufactured by AstraZeneca from Shionogi & Co LTD, Osaka, Japan), instills this notion in us with its incessant television commercials which insists that cholesterol comes from our diet and family history, when in fact cholest erol levels are derived exclusively from diet and have nothing to do with family history. Your uncle's cholesterol level has absolutely nothing to do with your cholesterol level. We do not inherit disease from our family members. Rather, we inherit dietary habits from our family members and then contract the same diseases they have, whether it is diabetes, cancer or high cholesterol. When we continue eat the way they eat, we continue to have those diseases.

If we wish to wish to lower your cholesterol you need only to change your diet. Chlorella is one of the best foods known that actually lowers cholesterol. I have personally seen people lower their cholesterol more than 40 points in three months by taking 12 grams of Chlorella each day. However, if you don't stop eating the things that give us high cholesterol, such as meat and dairy, it will be one step forward and one step back. Chlorella will lower your cholesterol even if you don't change your diet at all. But if you can lessen your intake of animal food sources (meat, fish, eggs and dairy) and include 12 – 15 grams of Chlorella each day, your cholesterol will be substantially reduced within a 3 – 6 month time frame. How much it drops will depend on other factors as well, such as what is the rest of your diet is comprised of. How much Raw Foods are in your diet. How much do you exercise and whether you take probiotics. All these things all contributes to your cholesterol number and whether it is high or low will be because of those factors and not Uncle Fred as the advertisements insists. All disease, including high cholesterol, comes from our diet, not our genes.

1. American Heart Association. Newsletter. 2002.

My response to Andrew Weil, M.D. and his opinion of Ionized Water

September 26, 2005

In a reply to a question about the validity of ionized water (alkaline water) on his website, Andrew Weil, M.D. ( www.drweil.com ) completely denounces the use of ionized water for better health. However, he could not be more wrong with this sentiment. He states in his reply “ your body needs absolutely no help in adjusting its pH. Normally, the pH of blood and most body fluids is near seven, which is close to neutral. This is under very tight biological control because all of the chemical reactions that maintain life depend on it. Unless you have serious respiratory or kidney problems, body pH will remain in balance no matter what you eat or drink.” This highlights the incredible lack of understanding by the medical establishment and the failure of our medical schools to instruct doctors on the most basic elements of body chemistry and the effects of the foods we eat have on it. While it is true that the body's blood pH always remains within a specific range (7.25 – 7.45), body pH can vary tremendously and is a precursor to all disease when it drops below pH 6.5. All disease lives in an acid environment and won't thrive in an alkaline environment. For instance, when a cancer patient becomes rife with cancer their body begins to produce ammonia as a chemical response to the extreme acid condition that has been created by the cancer. This is the smell that one experiences when visiting a cancer ward. One of the three things we must do if we want to be healthy is alkalize the body. The other two are hydrate and detoxify the body.

Dr. Weil continues in his response: “Unless you have serious respiratory or kidney problems, body pH will remain in balance no matter what you eat or drink.” Dr. Weil is suggesting that no matter what substances we put into the body, its body pH will remain balanced at around 7.0. This sentiment, which is also promulgated by the medical establishment at large, demonstrates their incredible misconception that our diet is not of any real critical importance when it comes to disease. All chronic disease comes from our diet and has almost nothing to do with genetics as the medical establishment have led us to believe. Dr. Weil obviously does not accept this basic premise, and like the medical establishment, he points to genetics as the culprit as to why we get diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, etc. What we inherit from our parents and grandparents are dietary habits that are passed from generation to generation; and it is from these habits that we contract the same diseases that we assume “run in the family” . The best evidence to prove that diet has everything to do with disease and nothing to do with our genes is that there is no evidence whatsoever of chronic disease in the wild. We are the only species on Earth that has chronic disease other than the animals that we domesticate and put on a cooked or processed food diet. Once we remove them from the environment of the wild where all foods they consume are raw, they contract every disease that we have.

As for water, Dr. Weil once again demonstrates in the same reply he knows little about the subject he is discussing and offers this opinion: “As for water, you should consider the fact that alkaline water is common throughout the western states but to my knowledge it has not protected anyone from the diseases and disorders that occur elsewhere in the U.S. ” I am not aware that water is alkaline in the western part of the United States or that it even tends to be more alkaline than water in the Eastern portion of the U.S. Being a medical doctor and a prominent member of the medical establishment, surely Dr. Weil would have a study or set of government statistics on what the pH of water is throughout the U.S. And as to whether it has protected anyone from disease, how would Dr. Weil know one way or the other whether the pH of water they drink had helped protect those consuming it from disease. The truth is that it is impossible to know whether it has or not unless studies have been done in that regard and which none have been. Dr. Weil is guessing. He is tossing out opinions that have absolutely no basis in fact. Yet we are suppose to assume he knows what he is talking about simply because he is a doctor and doctors are not be questioned about such things.

I have written two books on ionized water ( Confessions of a Body Builder and Achieving Great Health ) and the fundamental principles of ionized water are easily demonstrated through scientific measurement such as pH and ORP ( oxidation reduction potential - the degree of completion of a chemical reaction by detecting the ratio of ions in the reduced form to those in the oxidized form as a variation in electrical potential measured by an ORP electrode assembly). When we ionize water, the pH and ORP change dramatically. The pH can be raised on the alkaline side to 10 or higher, which is 100 times more alkaline than the body ought to be at a pH 7. (pH scale is logarithmic, meaning every move to the right or left is a move 10 fold) When we consume substances that are this alkaline, the pH of the body will rise. On the contrary, when we consume substances that are very acid, such as soft drinks which are pH 2.5 (50,000 times more acid that the body ought to be at a pH 7.0) the body is going to become more acid. All cooked foods are slightly to extremely acid. All raw foods are slightly to extremely alkaline. Dr. Weil assumes to ignore these basic principles of chemistry and the undeniable link between body pH and disease. It is a fundamental principle of health that the medical establishment as a whole has yet to learn. They see no link between diet and disease other than to pay passing attention to it and suggest it is one of many components that cause that mysterious thing called disease. Disease is not mysterious. It occurs only when we trash our bodies by putting the wrong things into it. When we put the right things into it, disease disappears and does not return. Once again, when it comes to disease the medical establishment could not be more wrong about what causes it and what can be done to prevent and cure the body of any disease.

Dr. Weil sites a study, published in the March 28, 2005 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine , which states that calcium and Vitamin D were both low in those living on the Raw Food Diet. These kinds of deficiencies could very well happen to someone who is on the Raw Food Diet if they do not follow The Watershed Wellness Health Protocol of Spirulina, Chlorella , Raw Foods and Ionized Water. Those who simply stop eating cooked foods and go on a vegan raw food diet will be healthy, although they can become deficient in many areas of their health if they do not use Spirulina and Chlorella for their protein, drink ionized water and have a broad array of raw foods in their diet. I eat between 150 – 225 different foods every year. Health is about variety and consuming only raw foods. Dr. Weil could not be more wrong in his assessment of the Raw Food Diet.

January 5, 2005
Cancer has now surpasses heart disease as the biggest killer of Americans under 85. Cancer deaths are most prevalent in men, especially cancer of the lungs and colon. My Way New Story here. About 1/3 of the cancer comes from smoking and 1/3 from pour diet according to the American Cancer Society, which was a sponsor of the Cattleman's Ball in Atlanta, GA, in 2004. The irony of the American Cancer Society getting so chummy with meat producers speaks volumes about who really wants to find a cure for cancer and who wants to raise money for an organization.

Dr. Walter Tsu, president of the American Public Health Association, said: " "We know a lot about how to treat cancer but we need to know more about how to prevent the disease in the first place."

In my opinion, the methods of treating cancer in 2005 are medieval. Most are completely ineffective and none of them rid the body cancer. Only the body itself can do that. What causes cancer is our diet. Diet is the source of all disease and it is the source of cures. We can attempt to overcome the natural mechanisms of the human body through artificial means, but we will can never accomplish the goal of curing the body of disease by doing this. We can only prevent cancer by same way we cure cancer and that is by living on a diet of raw foods and staying away from cooked foods.

Medical research is not any closer now to a cure cancer than they were 50 years ago. They have learned how to manipulate the body in order to keep it alive a few years longer, how to stave off the inevitable, but they have not and never will cure cancer, or any other disease for that matter. Anyone who suggests that they can is nothing other than an enabler urging someone to stay on the diet that has made them so sick.

Other Articles By Bob McCauley

My Response to Dr. Robert Young and his book:
The pH Miracle. Balance Your Diet, Reclaim You Health

December 15, 2005

I recently read The pH Miracle. Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health and found several points to disagree with in the book, which has recently become very popular. Dr. Young has done great work and I have a lot of respect for him and many of his concepts on health. However my areas of disagreement with him are profound because they refer to critical components of human health. We disagree on several other minor points such as the fact that he doesn't encourage us to exercise, but others cannot go unchallenged because they are misguided in the most fundamental way. In my opinion, Dr. Young should reconsider his position on the following stances:

Dr. Young promotes the consumption of fish, which is a problem for two reasons. First, almost everyone cooks the fish they eat. Cooked foods acidify the body and lead to nearly all disease. However, even if fish is consumed raw such as with sushi, it has become extremely laden with heavy metals, in particular mercury. The US pumps 40 million tons of methyl-mercury into the atmosphere, China over 300 million tons and Russia reportedly even more. Because of this, mercury has accumulated in fish, especially larger species such as Tuna, Albacore, Sword and Shark. Heavy metals are replete throughout our environment, having accumulated because of industrialization over the last 200 years. Cooked animal protein is one of the leading causes of disease. Eating raw meat, fish, eggs and dairy is not a health hazard as long as it is organic, non-medicated and disease free. The higher we eat on the food chain, the more concentrated the toxins we consume because animals have hundreds and sometimes thousands of meals that contain toxins that become concentrated in the flesh of the fish, animal or the milk and eggs they produce. When we consume animal flesh, we are consuming those concentrated toxins found in the animals. Because of these reasons, I would never suggest anyone eat fish.

Dr. Young promotes a diet that is only 80% raw, 20% cooked. He offers many cooked food recipes in the back of his book, something I would never do. People don't need to be tempted with cooked foods, nor instructed on how to make them in delicious ways. Of course, I want people to be eat as many raw foods as they possibly can. If someone is only able reach 20% raw foods in their diet, it is better than nothing. On the other hand, I encourage everyone to strive for a diet of 100% raw foods. Most of us won't reach that goal. It has taken me many years of hard work to reach a 99% raw food diet. When I first started eating raw foods, I believed that 20% of our diet should be comprised of cooked foods, mostly starchy carbohydrates such as rice or potatoes. But after four years of eating that way, I eventually realized that chronic disease does not exist in the wild not because those animals who live disease free do so on a 100% raw food diet, not 80%. There are others who promote less than a 100% raw food diet, but they do so in ignorance. Or perhaps they want to rationalize their inability to reach a 100% raw food diet. It is very difficult to achieve that goal, but that is no excuse for promoting anything less. It may appear to be a practical approach to encourage people to eat cooked foods, but that will only encourage and sustain their addiction to cook foods. It is no different than offering an alcoholic a beer occasionally because you think they need it. Giving an alcoholic a drink is encouraging alcoholism in that person and suggesting anyone eat cooked foods is telling them to engage in an activity that prematurely ages us and leads to all disease. If you do suggest anyone eat cooked foods under any circumstances, then you are an enabler. People often will ask me which cooked foods are healthy and I answer that none of them are. And as to which raw foods are healthy, they all are, which is why I promote a 100% raw food diet and attempt to eat that way each and every day.

Dr. Young states that “spirulina and algae supplements . . . thrive in acid conditions and . . . are the scum you see growing on the surface of stagnant ponds and lakes.” While you may find algae mixed with scum growing on a pond, it is not scum itself and should not be confused with it. There are over 70,000 species of algae and most are quite nutritious. I quite often hear nutritionists and dietitians refer to algae as pond scum and it demonstrates a profound ignorance about some of the most powerful foods on Earth. They regurgitate this ignorance of the facts because that is what they are taught during their college years and they have never bothered to research it themselves. It does not take a lot of research to discover the truth about the miraculous health properties of certain species of algae. Dr. Young also states that algae are drawn from natural sources such as lakes. All the Spirulina and Chlorella found on the market is grown in a controlled environment in ponds and not harvest in lakes such as Klamath Blue Green Algae, which is sold under various brand names. He also states that the vitamin B12 derived from algae is “made by bacteria that get into the algae via bird feathers and droppings. ” Spirulina and Chlorella naturally contain the entire vitamin B-Complex, including B-12. The body will not easily assimilate vitamin B-12 when it is not consumed from a natural food that contains the entire vitamin B-Complex, such as Spirulina and Chlorella. Dr. Young also suggests that broccoli and algae are equally nutritious, which is an absurd notion. “Fortunately, a day's dose of algae differs little from a serving of organic broccoli, so you can reap the benefits without facing the risks.” A nutritional analysis of broccoli will show it to be a food that contains a very narrow range of enzymes and other organic chemical nutrients that are particular to that food. Nutritional analyses of either Spirulina or Chlorella reveal them to be the two most nutritional foods known. They contain the broadest array of nutrients and are the most nutritionally dense foods known. They also happen to be the two most scientifically researched foods in human history.

4. Dr. Young also promotes the consumption of soy. Soy is rarely consumed raw unless it is sprouted. Nearly all soybeans are eaten after they are processed into tofu, textured protein or fermented into foods such as tempeh. Once you have cooked or processed any food, you have altered its natural chemical structure. Heat is a chemical reagent that radically alters anything it comes in contact with, including the foods we consume. The energy footprint of soy is unlike any other food we commonly consume. All raw foods contain negatively spinning ions, which are advantageous to our health and in fact are an absolute necessity if we want to be healthy. However, soy contains positively spinning ions, which are counter productive to our health, as are all positively charged particles. There are plenty of other problems with soy and its negative effects on the body, such as it produces a lot of gas for many who consume it. Other digestive problems often disappear when soy is removed from their diet, including infants. Processed soy products are rich in phytohemaglutinin (PHG), a glue-like substance that unbalances body chemistry, slows circulation and thickens the blood, numbing the immune and nervous systems. Enzyme inhibitors found in soy interfere with the action of trypsin, a digestive enzyme that breaks down protein. Soy also contains goitrogens, which suppress thyroid functions; phytic acid, which can block the absorption of essential minerals such as calcium, copper, magnesium, iron and zinc in the intestinal tract. The high amount of manganese found in soy-based infant formulas, 200 times that of breast milk, can cause brain damage in babies and a slowing of brain functions in children. One study concluded that the last thing women should do to prevent breast cancer is to consume soy. Another study showed accelerated brain aging in those who regularly consumed soy. Women who are pregnant should avoid soy because of the risk of breast cancer. Soy has also been linked to pancreatic cancer. Soy can slow sexual performance because isoflavones interfere with estrogen function. In one major study, Asian men who ate tofu increased their chances of getting Alzheimer’s Disease. “Soy can be used as a transition food to move away from meat and other animal protein to plant protein, that of Spirulina and Chlorella. But once that bridge has been crossed, it must be burned and soy should be completely avoided.”

5. Lastly Dr. Young offers rather confusing advice regarding the most important component of human health, that of water. “Getting liberal amounts of alkaline water (having a pH between 9 and 11) neutralizes stored acid wastes and, if consumed every day in conjunction with a good diet, gently removes the acids from the body.” This is essentially true and I agree with Dr. Young, although I don’t recommend drinking water with a pH over 9.9 because it has become too caustic at that level. Ironically, Dr. Young promotes consuming purified water produced by distillation or reverse osmosis. He claims: “Distilled water comes closest to rain water, which, if our atmosphere wasn’t so polluted, would be the ideal source of water.” Distilled water is not anything like rain water. Rain water is full of oxygen and crystallizes into snow flakes unlike distilled water which has no crystalline structure. Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese researcher, first introduced the concept of micro-cluster water molecule clusters. Using Magnetic Resonance Analysis, he demonstrated that water which had been distilled, polluted or passed through the body after consumption had lost its structure or inner order. It has been changed beyond its natural structure the same way cooking foods changes the natural chemical structure of food. The water found in plants is quite similar to distilled water in its purity. However, when we consume a plant such as a carrot, we do not only consume the water, but the whole plant as well, thus the water is buffered by the alkaline nature of minerals and enzymes of the plant. But to extract that water and consume it without neutralizing its purity and acidic nature, our body becomes the buffering agent and alkaline minerals are leached from it. I have written extensively in both my books about the dangers of drinking purified water. “[purified] water – like rainwater—have more oxygen atoms or hydroxyl ions (OH-), and fewer hydrogen ions (H+). More hydrogen makes water acidic.” Purified water is acidic, yet Dr. Young prescribes drinking both purified and alkaline water. Ionized Water and purified water are the exact opposite from one another in every way. Purified water is acid; Ionized Water is alkaline. Purified water leaves the body dehydrated; Ionized Water is extremely hydrating. Purified water leaches minerals from the body; Ionized Water provides minerals to the body. Purified water does not provide the body with oxygen; Ionized Water does. Purified water does not scavenge for free radicals; Ionized Water does. Purified water encourages oxidation of the body; Ionized Water reduces oxidation. On the other hand, Dr. Young seems to promote ionized water and even helps promote a water ionizer.

If Dr. Young wishes to be considered someone who promotes true health, he needs to re-examine some of the basic tenants of his ideas about health, particularly those I have outlined in this article.
Other Articles By Bob McCauley
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Endnotes:

The pH Miracle, Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health, by Dr. Robert Young. Time Warner Book Group. 2000. Pg. 120.

Mercury In Your Fish, by Ken Cook, President of the Environmental Working Group.

The pH Miracle, Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health, by Dr. Robert Young. Pgs. 117 – 118.

Ibid. Pgs. 86 – 87.

Ibid. Pg. 87.

Ibid. Pg. 87.

Ibid. Pgs. 63 – 64.

Phytohemaglutinin: Phyto=Sun hema=blood + glutin=glue or blood glue.

Nutritional status and phytate: zinc and phytate X calcium: zinc dietary molar ratios of lacto-ovovegetarian Trappist monks: 10 years later, Journal of the American Dietetic Association 88:1562-1566, December 1988.

Dietary estrogens stimulate human breast cells to enter the cell cycle. Dees, C. et al., Environmental Health Perspectives (1997) 105(Suppl. 3):633-636.

Dr. Lon White, Honolulu Heart Program. 1965-1993.

Oncol Rep 1999 Sep-Oct;6(5):1089-95.

The USDA trypsin inhibitor study. I. Background, objectives and procedural details Rackis, Joseph J. et al., Qualification of Plant Foods in Human Nutrition, vol. 35, 1985.

Heather Patisaul et al, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. 2003. Study done with rats produced blood levels of the isoflavones similar to those in women regularly taking the supplements.

White LR, Petrovich H, Ross GW, Masaki KH, Association of mid-life consumption of tofu with late life cognitive impairment and dementia: the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Fifth International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease, #487, 27 July 1996, Osaka, Japan.
White LR, Petrovitch H, Ross GW, Masaki KH, Hardman J, Nelson J, Davis D, Markesbery W, Brain aging and midlife tofu consumption. J Am Coll Nutr 2000 Apr;19(2):242-55.
ACHIEVING GREAT HEALTH. How Spirulina, Chlorella, Raw Foods and Ionized Water Can Make You Healthier than You Have Ever Imagined In 90 Days or Less, by Bob McCauley. Pg. 52 – 54.

The pH Miracle, Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health, by Dr. Robert Young. Pgs. 92 – 95.

Ibid. Pg. 94.

Effects of alkaline ionized water on formation & maintenance of osseous tissues, by Rei Takahashi Zhenhua Zhang Yoshinori Itokawa (Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Dept. of Pathology and Tumor Biology, Fukui Prefectural University).

pH is Critical to Our Health

November 15, 2005
Our diet has changed radically over the last seventy years. We have abandoned our time-honored balanced diet of raw fruits and vegetables. The advent of processed foods, and the mania over fast foods and junk foods has changed all that. We no longer eat foods that contain natural enzymes; they have either been cooked, pasteurized or otherwise processed out of our food and therefore out of our diet. Without enzymes, our bodies cannot take in vital nutrients. For instance, there are the familiar stories of old ladies who seemingly fall down and break their hips. Come to find out all those old ladies did not fall down at all. Rather, their hip bone snapped and they fell over. Because of the lack of proper nutrition and the necessary enzymes, their bodies lost the ability to take in calcium, a condition known as osteoporosis . Once our bodies become depleted of enzymes, it becomes increasingly difficult to take in nutrients. If our organs must devote a large portion of their enzyme manufacturing potential to making digestive enzymes, it weakens the whole body.

However, what make this situation worse is that processed foods, fast foods and junk foods create an acidic condition in our bodies that over time becomes an ideal environment for diseases to start. For instance, cancer does not live well in an alkaline environment but flourishes in an acidic environment. What we consume either raises or lowers our body pH (pH relates to acidic and alkaline), which should be between 7.2-7.4 pH. For example a soft drink such as a cola has a pH of 2.7-3.0, which is extremely acidic! A soft drink with a pH of 3.0 is going to have a much higher pH after it has passed through the body; it is going to have close to the same pH as your body, about 7.0. It reached that pH level by stealing precious minerals and fluids from your body! Putting soft drinks and other high acid foods in your body lowers your body's pH making it more acidic, thus more suseptible to disease. It does not give you disease; rather it helps to create the ideal environment for any disease that may come along to get a foothold, may it be environmental, genetic, diet related or by other means. The vast majority of cancer patients possess a very low body pH, ranging from 6.0-5.0 or lower. Our bodies simply can not fight disease if the our body pH is not properly balanced.

In short, our diet is killing us. One in three people in the United States will get cancer in their lifetime. These are staggering statistics, yet if you look at the rise of processed, over cooked, fast and junks in this country, you will notice the rates of cancer and other diseases rising at the same rate.

The question remains: what to do about this situation. There is something we can do about it.

My Response to Dr. Weil's Opinion of the Raw Food Diet

October 28, 2005

Dr. Weil does not support moving to a Raw Food Diet, the only diet that is actually healthy for us. As I often state, all disease comes from our diet and is not genetically inherited. In his article , the reason Dr. Weil does not approve of the raw food diet: “ I'm not a proponent of the raw foods diet. First of all, when you eat everything raw, you lose much of the best flavor, texture and appearance of food. ” My question to Dr. Weil is: Are we talking about the health or the flavor and appearance of the foods we eat? If it is only the flavor of our foods we are interested in, regardless of whether they are consumed raw or not, then we cannot expect to be healthy when we eat the foods that we cook. In my opinion, foods should be consumed with regard to whether they are healthy, not whether they taste good and look appetizing, although raw foods can be prepared to make them both taste good and look appetizing. The only reason we eat cooked foods is for taste and because we are conditioned to believe they are healthy for us. We are addicted to cooked foods. It is the greatest addiction of human history. As it is with most doctors, Dr. Weil understands everything about medicine and very little about true health. It is true that cooked foods are tasty, although I would argue that you “ lose much of the best flavor” of raw foods when you cook them. In fact, just the opposite is true. Cooking a food robs it of much of its true, robust flavor.

Dr Weil also states: “you can get lycopene, the carotenoid pigment that protects against prostate cancer, only from cooked tomatoes, not from raw ones. The carotenoids in carrots are more bioavailable from cooked carrots than they are from raw ones.” Cooking any food transforms it from an alkaline to an acid substance. Lycopene, an anti-cancer agent found in tomatoes, is a perfect example of this. Lycopene is found in greater concentration after heating tomatoes above 120°F. But the overall detriment to the tomato is not worth the extra lycopene the body may absorb from it. Also, the smaller amount of lycopene will be absorbed more efficiently by the body from a raw tomato than the larger amount of lycopene found in the cooked tomato. This is essentially true of any food once it has been cooked.

Dr. Weil states: “ Alfalfa sprouts contain canavanine, a natural toxin that can harm the immune system.” This is a misleading statement because Canavanine is found in miniscule amounts. Canavanine is a non-protein amino acid that's toxic in high amounts. In the dry seed it serves as a storage protein, a growth inhibitor, and a defense against natural predators. It is also known as an enzyme inhibitor, meaning that once you sprout a seed such as alfalfa it quickly dissipates to insignificant levels. A 150 pound person would need to consume 14 grams (14,000 milligrams) of Canavanine all at once for it be dangerous to their health. There are insignificant amounts of toxins in nearly all foods if one looks close enough, but they are harmless to us, especially if we live on a raw food diet. Copper, zinc, selenium, vitamin A and iron are all potentially toxic if we consume too much of them, but that is essentially impossible when we receive these nutrients from raw foods. It is when we consume them in bulk in vitamins after they have been extracted that they become dangerous. Spirulina , for instance, has large amounts of iron, however, since we consume it unprocessed and it is contained within a natural whole food it will build up in the body and become toxic.

Dr Weil continues: “ celery produces psoralens, compounds that sensitize the skin to the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation in sunlight. All of these are broken down by simple cooking. Although our bodies have natural defenses against these toxins, a raw food diet can add to the toxic load we're already dealing with. ” We develop unnatural sensitivities when we live on a cooked food diet, as the vast majority of us do. Psoralens, or oxalic acid found in beet greens and other foods, become a problem for us only when we create unnatural imbalances by living on a cooked food diet. Quite the opposite as suggested by Dr. Weil, raw foods do not add to the toxic load when we live primarily on a raw food diet. However, in the cooked world anything is possible because of the myriad number of imbalances we create through the wrong diet of cooked foods.

Dr. Weil sites a study, published in the March 28, 2005 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine , which states that calcium and Vitamin D were both low in those living on the Raw Food Diet. These kinds of deficiencies could very well happen to someone who is on the Raw Food Diet if they do not follow The Watershed Wellness Health Protocol of Spirulina, Chlorella , Raw Foods and Ionized Water. Those who simply stop eating cooked foods and go on a vegan raw food diet will be healthy, although they can become deficient in many areas of their health if they do not use Spirulina and Chlorella for their protein, drink ionized water and have a broad array of raw foods in their diet. I eat between 150 – 225 different foods every year. Health is about variety and consuming only raw foods. Dr. Weil could not be more wrong in his assessment of the Raw Food Diet.

January 5, 2005

Recent studies have determined that another drug, Celebrex, on the market is dangerous for human health. Celebrex, which is a painkiller, has been shown to be dangerous after finding that patients taking 400mg to 800mg of the drug daily were found to have a risk of 2.5 times increase in having heart problems. The stock price of the drug's manufacturer, Pfizer, plunged on the news, which is about the only thing that can really hurt a pharmaceutical company because all they are about it profit.

January 20, 2005

Cancer has now surpassed heart disease as the biggest killer of Americans under 85. Cancer deaths are most prevalent in men, especially cancer of the lungs and colon. My Way New Story here. About 1/3 of the cancer comes from smoking and 1/3 from poor diet according to the American Cancer Society, which was a sponsor of the Cattleman's Ball in Atlanta, GA, in 2004. The irony of the American Cancer Society getting so chummy with meat producers speaks volumes about who really wants to find a cure for cancer and who wants to raise money for an organization.

Dr. Walter Tsu, president of the American Public Health Association, said: " "We know a lot about how to treat cancer but we need to know more about how to prevent the disease in the first place."

In my opinion, the methods of treating cancer in 2005 are medieval. Most are completely ineffective and none of them rid the body cancer. Only the body itself can do that. What causes cancer is our diet. Diet is the source of all disease and it is the source of cures. We can attempt to overcome the natural mechanisms of the human body through artificial means, but we will never accomplish the goal of curing the body of disease by doing this. We can only prevent cancer by the same way we cure cancer and that is by living on a diet of raw foods and staying away from cooked foods.

Medical research is not any closer now to a cure for cancer than they were 50 years ago. They have learned how to manipulate the body in order to keep it alive a few years longer, how to stave off the inevitable, but they have not and never will cure cancer, or any other disease for that matter. Anyone who suggests that they can is nothing other than an enabler urging someone to stay on the diet that has made them so sick.

December 15, 2004

Finally someone has stood up in the US and said that fast food has no place in a hospital. The new head of the Cleveland Clinic, Toby Cosgrove, has kicked out Pizza Hut and is trying to get rid of McDonald's, although the fast-food chain is fighting it.

It is a pivotal moment in health history. We are seeing the beginning of the end of the fast food industry and the charade they carry on that their menu is even remotely healthy. McDonald's does not want to go because they think their food is healthy when in fact is is pure poison. Washington Post Story Here. "Our menu is something we're all proud of," said Marty Ranft, a McDonald's vice president. "We've got a great relationship with the Cleveland Clinic. We are not interested in closing the restaurant."

McDonald's President, Charly Bell, recently stepped down to fight his battle with cancer, a disease that can be cured by the body is we simply move to a raw food diet, alkalize, hydrate and detoxify the body. He is undoubtedly a victim of his own company's food and the cooked food lifestyle in general, which leads us to all disease.

If you haven't seen the movie Super Size Me, I highly recommend it. Everyone needs to see how fast foods actually chemically addict people to its foods. All cooked foods are addictive because we do not need them to live and be healthy.

We also need to get soft drinks out of our diets because they are the worst substances we can possibly put in our body that is sold repeatedly throughout the world. Soft drinks are poison. Top 10 Reasons Never to Consume Soft drinks.

Other Articles By Bob McCauley