The Plain Truth:

Health is in your hands!

Most of my readers would agree health stems from making personal efforts to live in a way that bring about health results.. It does not stem from drugs or vaccines. As someone who has been into nutrition research for 64 years and is in good health at 91, I have no desire to use drugs or vaccines. However, I give a great deal of thought daily to eating foods, which will nourish my body and keep me well. I know what it feels like to suffer from eating wrong during my lifetime.. I have experienced the end result of eating foods that created serious problems and pain. People rarely give it a thought, when they are eating and drinking... that what goes into the mouth affects one’s health radically. We can get away with ingesting the wrong foods and indulging in other unhealthy pursuits, such as, using drugs (legal or illegal) and smoking for a period of time, but eventually these vices will cause illness.

Many focus on the taste of foods and eat for pleasure, However, I wonder if they ever think about the end result of eating the wrong food several times daily? Foods, which our Creator did not design for the human body to handle. Mankind seems to think that the human body can handle any edible substance. The Bible in Hosea 4: states “My people perish from lack of knowledge.” Many fail to realize that lack of knowledge about the functions of their body is setting them up for future illness. They have no idea that everything they put in their mouth can create either health or sickness. Their internal organs are being destroyed silently with every wrong food, drink, or drug, etc. they consume. The end result will be the breakdown of the body and pain.

Doctors can’t make you well, as healing depends on how well you care for your own body. Your body will heal, if you remove the stresses, which have made it sick. Medical doctors are into the treating of symptoms, but few try to determine the root cause of the problem. If one does not look for the cause, the problem simply can’t be solved. 95% of the time, the culprit is something people put in their mouth. If people ate their specific right foods, they would not even experience a sniffle, a cold or a cough for years. I know from experience. I have gone years without a problem, until I ate something I shouldn’t. Any kind of a negative symptom says that the person is doing something, which caused this reaction. People have to question what they did, when this happened?. What caused this reaction? There is karma related in continuing to do something wrong. For instance, putting substances, in the mouth, which damage the cells and organs.

People must think about the mouth and its function. It was designed for eating very specific natural foods to nourish the cells and organs in the body; providing energy. The processed foods on the shelves in the supermarkets would not be considered as natural food in any way. Heat processing has destroyed every enzyme, which leaves it totally devoid of nutritional value. In addition, it is loaded with chemicals and preservatives. People need to think about their mouths and not put substances in them that destroy their health.. They were designed for eating unprocessed foods; providing the fuel that runs the human body efficiently. They were not designed for the usage of hard alcohol, tobacco or drugs. If health is important, think before you put something in your mouth.

2400 years ago, Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, taught his patients what they needed to do in order to get well. Simply eat right and follow a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, this information will not bring in the money doctors need to thrive in the marketplace today; drugs and vaccines are far more lucrative. If doctors were able to teach this information and tell their patients what food to eat; patients would find the cures they needed to get well. America would not be in 47th place health-wise in the world. The word doctor comes from the Latin word docere meaning to teach. Doctors should teach their patients information that would keep them well…not dispense drugs, which contain health-destroying, toxic side effects.

Its amazing how many run to the doctor instantly, when a health problem occurs; without giving any thought to what they did, which would have caused the problem. It is understandable, because most people have not studied nutrition or the environmental problems, which we face daily. They have no way of knowing how the wrong food , or product with toxic matter in it; or an environmental hazard can create physical distress on the body. Unfortunately most doctors have not studied nutrition or environmental hazards, so they will not be able to tell you the cause of your health issue, but will give you a prescription at the close of your visit. It will not alleviate your problem, but it could set you up for a future problem, when the drug harms your organs internally and brings you back to the doctor’s office..

Many are indoctrinated in the belief that the Doctor is God and knows everything. Doctors in many cases make educated guess based on the patient’s symptoms. They also depend on their diagnostic tools, such as, x-rays and body scans, which can be considered invasive, because they emit radiation. Doctors are time-limited, because they have to see a certain number of patients daily in order to pay their overhead.. Today, many doctors only have 15 minutes for each patient. They let an assistant handle the patient’s ‘essentials.’ Then, they spend 15 minutes with the patient; and this gives them just enough time to write out a prescription, which will bring the patient back for another visit.

The plain truth, you and you alone have the means to solve the health problems you seek to overcome.The only way to do this is to discover the cause(s) and eliminate it. The human diet should contain wholesome natural foods… and avoid processed foods entirely. People need to eat as much raw food as possible, because it has live enzymes. The value of the food depends on the living enzymes and people must make a point of eating more foods that have not been cooked. I start out every morning with raw fruit; anywhere from 16 to 20 ounces or more. This is 4 to 5 servings of my daily fruit and vegetables. I aim for at least ten servings of fruit and vegetables daily.

Medical doctors who know little about nutrition, will warn their patients about eating too much fruit, but aren’t saying anything about avoiding processed foods. Fruit is the best source of food that does not need to be cooked. It has enzymes, bulk, fiber and nutrients. Fruit may contain a lot of carbs, but they come in a package of bulk and fiber., which slows down the digestion time. Fiber is ultra important and most people are not getting enough. Meat and dairy have none. Fruit juice’s fiber has been removed, when it was processed and pasteurized; and should be avoided. Drinking it, is the same as carb-overloading on sugar. Freshly squeezed orange juice should be avoided, too. There are some other fruits, which contain too many carbs, such as, dried fruits and dates. They are not good food choices.

Many people don’t want to give up the comfort foods they love, even though they are breaking down their health. Could there be anything worse than a real food addict? I did nutritional consultations for 30 years. People would have excellent results, but I would hear the same thing over and over, “I want more variety.” Variety might satisfy the taste buds, but in many cases the foods people love are causing health problems. I have been an observer ever since I was a child. I noticed what people around me ate and years later correlated it to their health outcomes. Many never give it a thought, when someone in their family dies, as to what actually caused the death? Then, they continue eating the same way , because they know nothing about nutrition; and they will wind up in the future with similar health problems.

People generally eat the same way their parents ate. They don’t question the foods that they have grown up eating. They assume that these foods are right for them. It is not easy to change people’s eating habits, unless they face a health problem and are willing to change. There are two foods in the marketplace, which people think of as ‘good’ foods, because of all the hype the industries have put out. They both slowly break down the internal organs in the body. Dairy is one of them and the other is Grain. Dairy throws the body out of balance. The composition of milk was designed for the 500 pound growth of a baby calf; and it can pack unwanted pounds on the human body, which will stress the organs and ligaments in the entire body. Grains are also used to fatten farm animals and contribute to their weight gain. They damage the joints and ligaments; and contribute to arthritis. They need to be cooked at high temperatures, which wipe out any nutrients in them.

People who follow the Bible should note what it says in Genesis 29 about tilling the land in order to grow food, after they were turned out of the Garden of Eden. In the Garden all they had to do was go to the fruit trees and pick fruit for sustenance. After they left, it says that now you are going to work very hard tilling the land, in order to survive; and the women are going to suffer hard labors. Grains definitely cause pain..

If health is important, one must do personal research in order to be healthy. These are just two of the books, which I would highly recommend for your reading matter. The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. It covered the foods that many thousands of Chinese ingested over a period of ten years in many different provinces. It pinpointed the areas with the most cancer and heart disease; and the ones with the least. This is valuable food information for people to know. People might not like the truth, but can’t disregard it, without harming themselves.

There are a number of books on the subject of grains today, but Dangerous Grains by James Braly, M.D. and Ron Hoggan, M.A. is one of the most informative. It is mind-boggling to think that grains can cause up to 200 diseases; ranging from arthritis to schizophrenia. Many people eat grains, thinking they are good and have no idea they can be the cause of their health problems; and even many doctors don’t have this information. I learned first hand in 1986, when I developed arthritis. I got rid of it by simply stopping the grains in just a short period of time. I had excruciating pain in my elbows and could barely lift up my arms, but took no medication. I wanted to see what I could do to get rid of it without using medication, which would mask the pain.

My personal library contains many books on nutrition and health, which I have collected for more than 50 years. I use them for reference work, when I write. For 64 Years, health has been my passion and I an still drawn to learning more. The search never ends. When I first started out, I had no frame of reference and totally accepted the information in the first books that I studied as totally valid. However, I was to learn through experience…don’t believe everything you read. Much of the information that I studied at first took my health downhill. I learned from Trial and Error.

There are only a limited number of books that I would recommend, because so many health books are loaded with misinformation coming from the Food Industry. The nutrition schools have all been funded by the food industry, which does the research, which will sell its products. Many writers depend on this information. There are a couple books, which I have found to be quite valid… Quality Longevity by Mark Lovendale. It is most comprehensive and covers every food imaginable. It provides a great deal of beneficial and interesting information. The other book: The 80-10-10 diet by Dr. Doug Graham. He was a former coach of the New York Knicks. While he was with them, they did a lot of winning following his food program. It contains a great deal of health information, which seekers of Wisdom & Knowledge need to know.

It’s very important for seekers to follow information coming from people who have a real track record, if one is truly interested in learning about Health and Longevity. My prime mentor was Dr. Norman W. Walker who lived well over 100 healthy years. I have written about him many times before. He wrote ten books on the subject of health and nutrition. When I wound up with a tumor in 1976, I said a prayer and one of his books came into my hands. I followed information in it…and the tumor disappeared in less than three months. I’d like to mention several of his books, which I found to be very valuable: Vibrant Health, Become Younger and Pure & Simple Natural Weight Control. You can check for Dr. Norman Walker’s books on the Internet. Most of his books are still available, even though he died in 1985.

The information on the internet regarding Dr. Walker’s age, as 99, is questionable. I have met people who actually knew him and for some reason he hid his actual age. I met a gentlemen at a health convention in the 1980s. He met Dr. Walker at his farm in Arkansas, when he was about 12 or 13. Dr. Walker would let him drive his car all around the farm. He told me that Dr. Walker showed him his Baptismal Certificate, which had a date on it of 1867. In 1982, I met a woman in her 80s who had owned a health food store in Long Beach in 1934. She said that Dr. Walker wanted to put his newly designed Norwalk Juicer in her store at that time.. She said that he looked to be close to 70 years old. She was in her thirties.

It is interesting to have met two people who actually gave me insight into Dr. Norman Walker’s actual age. He would have been 118 years, when he died in 1985. I started corresponding with Dr. Walker in 1976, after his information got rid of my tumor. He even suggested that I should open a holistic center in one of his letters, which I did in 1982. When he died in 1985, his wife sent me a copy of his eulogy A Legacy of love. I learned that he was out walking his usual five miles daily on a country road near Cottonwood, Arizona, when he was hit by a car. He did not die at that point, he lived another three months. Dr. Walker was a living example of someone who lived a long and healthy life. He was totally into nutrition, following. a healthy lifestyle, and he was very much into our Creator.

Truth is simple and good health stems from following valid information. It took 12 years of looking for health answers, before I became a vegetarian in 1973 at 39 years old. I can honestly say that it takes eliminating all the unnecessary foods and bad habits in order to bring about good health. I found that the key to good health was eliminating many things in my life, which were not beneficial. Over the years, I kept on eliminating many foods and items, which were stresses on my body. I found that my health improved exponentially by doing this. At 39, I was almost a ‘couch potato’ and had no energy. At 47, I wound up running a marathon non-stop in a little over 4 hours. In training for it, I worked up to running every day for several hours. It took me about six months of actual training to run a marathon.

What was I eating at the time? Primarily, large green salads and carrot juice daily. I also started using a very specific Spirulina drink, which boosted my energy. In the fall of 1980, I was driving back to Connecticut from California. I stopped to visit a friend in Phoenix who gave me some spirulina tablets, when I left her home. I was very surprised at the energy they gave me. I drove for hours without getting tired. Later, when I went to a health food store to buy them. I could not find the same spirulina tablets. I bought another brand, but It wasn’t the same. I felt nothing.. Several months later I saw an ad in a health magazine, advertising Dr. Christopher Hill’s Light Force Spirulina, so I sent away for his spirulina. After, I received it, it sat on the shelf for awhile, until I opened it in February 1981.

It was amazing. The energy I had felt on my drive east was back. I used tablets at first, before I started using the powder and putting it into my daily drinks. I would not advise people to use the lemon and honey I used in my drinks. They tasted really good, but they were not good for my teeth. It was at this time, in February 1981 that I felt so energetic that I joined a local runners group in Norwalk, Connecticut and got into running. I also had joined a gym in Norwalk and started working out regularly. I started out running at almost ground zero…and within six months of doing regular training, I wound up doing a marathon run in 4 hours and 23 minutes.

At forty-seven, I got into the best condition of my life and had professional photos taken. Two of them were published in The Vegetarian Times in September 1982. One of them was of me in a bathing suit. I was thrilled to think that at my age, after having four children that I could look so good. It is amazing how the spirulina worked for me and gave me so much energy that it changed my life. I wound up using it for 30 years. My daughter in the last few years bought some frozen raw spirulina, which I have used occasionally. I already have a good amount of energy at my age. I get up at 6 am and don’t usually go to bed, until 10 pm. I am busy all day, but I don’t exactly feel like running any more marathons.

Hippocrates said, “Let Food be Your Medicine; and Medicine be Your Food.” He was so right. What one puts in the mouth will either contribute to health or illness. The plain truth, if you want health it is up to you. You can’t buy it at a doctor’s office. It occurs from being consistent and simply doing all the little things, which will bring it about. It stems from setting up a healthy food program and exercise routine; and adhering to it on a daily basis. Think long term, aim ahead and set a goal of six months and see what occurs by following your health routine daily. The results will inspire you to keep on going.

Holistically Yours,

Barbara Charis