"Instinctive Nutrition,
A revolutionary Approach
to Nutrition & Health"
Schaeffer Severen L.
CelestialArts, Berkeley, California, 255 p. 1987,
ISBN 0-89087-502-2
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(97K)
PART I: THE HUMAN INSTINCT FOR FOOD INTRODUCTION
by Nornan Shealy, M.D.. Ph.D.
In no aspect of human behavior is there greater variety, controversy, and dogma than there is in the field of nutrition. For many years, John Tobby pushed the idea of a totally raw or uncooked diet, and yet, he died in his 70's of cancer of the prostate. Anne Wigmore has also pushed a diet that is largely raw. Nutrition varies from the average American diet, which most intelligent people would admit is terrible, to the Macrobiotic diet, the Pritikin diet, the Haas Eat To Win diet, and the McDougal Plan. These latter four all have a great deal of cooked food but are primarily five to ten percent fat and mostly complex carbohydrate-containing diets. Proponents all make a number of claims for their respective diets.
When I first heard from Severen Schaeffer about Anopson nutrition and the statements that he was making about its efficiency, I found it intriguing and somewhat hard to believe. Fortunately, I had an opportunity to sponsor a workshop on Anopson, or instinctive nutrition, therapy. My own reactions to this way of eating were fascinating, as were those of other attendees at this small workshop. I consumed huge quantities of plums and honey among other delicacies with a variety of reactions to tell me when I was satiated. I tried to continue eating this way and found it difficult, primarily because I could not find raw fish or beef that I was willing to eat. I think it would be difficult to practice the method correctly without these two foods.
Several other attendees at that workshop, however, have stayed on it to a greater or lesser extent with remarkably encouraging results. One dentist who had had severe psoriasis and micronychia has reported marked improvement within a few months. He had tried many other treatments without success previously. Increased energy and sense of well-being have been reported uniformly by those attempting the diet, most with mild modifications.
The video tapes of individuals in France who have had the optimal Anopson diet are as impressive as anything I have ever seen in clinical medicine. I have certainly seen enough in those video tapes and in the response of those individuals attending the Anopson workshop to convince me that Instinctive Nutrition deserves extensive, careful, scientific study. For those individuals who have significant illnesses, I cannot think of a better and safer approach than Anopsotherapy or Instinctive Nutrition.
- Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D. Director, Shealy Pain ~ Health Rehabilitation Institute Founding President, American Holistic Medical Association
Mankind's long road from darkness to light has been a pave-as-you-go affair, subject to washouts. It is not clear which end we stand nearer to. Periodically, bandits post signs saying "Nothing Exists Beyond This Point" - and proceed to rob travellers who are foolish enough to stop. But the builders are many, so the road has many branches. Some of them wind toward nowhere, but are so wide and well built that they appear to be direct routes. Others do go forward, but on paths so faint and narrow they can hardly be seen, so that no normal person with common sense will use them. Only abnormal people with uncommon sense venture forth upon these ways.
Late in the 15th century, a Genoese navigator and opportunist named Christopher Columbus advanced the absurd proposition that one might reach the east by sailing west. It took him nearly a decade to find a sponsor for such a voyage, for it was common knowledge at the time that the world was flat, and that vessels sailing too far from shore would fall off the edge. Although more by chance than by intent, this outrageous idea led to the discovery of the New World.
Some 150 years later, an Italian mathematician, Galileo Galilei, advanced another absurd proposition. The earth, said he, revolves around the sun. It was absurd because everyone knew that the earth was the center of the universe. But it was dangerous as well, because if it was true, it was a threat to the power of the church and other vested interests of the day. The Inquisition tried Galileo and shut him away, but failed to repress a discovery whose time had come.
Human beings are by nature believers. We conduct our affairs according to whatever representations of "reality" we take to be "facts." We value what we "know" to be "true," and may argue or even fight to keep our convictions intact. We are human, and paradoxically, intelligent but not "dumb" enough to be wise. Like monkeys, we are capable of fighting over bananas . . . unlike monkeys who will only do so when there are some.
The story that follows leads far from the mainstream of current belief, but must ultimately change its course. You may be tempted to dismiss it as "merely an interesting notion," and by expressing your certainty that we cannot be sure of anything (except, of course, your certainty), you can accomplish that. Then again, you may want to take it seriously. But how to do so? If multi-million-dollar research projects, employing thousands of biologists, chemists, etc., in laboratories so sophisticated that a degree is required even to understand their purpose - if these men and women have thus far failed to find a cure for arthritis, cancer, schizophrenia or the common cold . . . is it possible to take seriously the suggestion that the answers are not to be found in science at all, but rather in human "instinct"?
Hardly.
Because as usual, we are hot really prepared to accept ideas that are alien to our beliefs. If they are only slightly unorthodox and we have kept an open mind, we may grant them some space within our system of understanding. But suppose they are genuine heresy?
The theses set forth here are basic to human well-being. Like Columbus's, they will elicit objections and warnings - and lead to the discovery of new landscapes. Like Galile~s, they will endangr the Established Order. They will be obvious to children, perplexing to adults, anathema to cooks . . . and for many, nothing less than a godsend.
In the early fall of 1983, an erudite and somewhat defensive gentleman by the name of Guy-Claude Burger came to give a talk at the School of Medicine of the University of Paris, where I teach. He had reputedly cured himself with food of a cancer, and was going to tell us how he had done it.
I found his exposé fascinating. Informed by his physicians that medicine held no hope for his cancer (a Iymphoblastic sarcoma of the larynx), he had, at age 26, isolated himself on a farm in his native Switzerland and set forth to heal himself. Convinced that the artifacts of civilization were responsible for his "disease of civilization," he decided to "get back to nature" as closely as possible and took to living without electricity, phones, heating - or commercial foodstuffs. Over a period of several months his cancer receded and eventually disappeared.
Burger was a physicist, but an accomplished cellist as well, a member of a Swiss chamber orchestra. In order to avoid restauranb while on tour, he carried fresh fruit and vegetables in his suitcase. This meant he was frequently eating the same items, and his curiosity was aroused by a strange phenomenon: at one meal, cabbage would taste good, while at another, it would bite his tongue. And subsequently it would taste good once again.
Experimenting further, Burger discovered that with foods in their native, original state - but not with cooked foods - the taste as well as the smell would go bad at some point. He concluded that human beings possessed a built-in instinctive mechanism that was telling them when they had fulfilled their need for a particular food. Putting this into practice, he discovered that sick people could often recover rapidly, even from severe illnesses, once they began trusting their senses, eating a variety of raw, original foods.
It was apparent that Burger had touched upon something fundamental. He had conducted numerous experiments, over nearly 20 years, but had failed to document them fully. His theoretical explanations sometimes raised eyebrows, and some of his daims seemed extravagant. But his innovative thesis that men were genetically adapted only to foods in their original native state seemed sound, and a number of us became interested in knowing more. We suggested the system be called "Anopsology" to replace the "Instinctotherapy" label it had been going by.
When an Instinctive Nutrition center was finally opened in the fall of 1984, in an old chateau south of Paris, a few of us went there as observers. What we saw in some cases was truly astounding: people who had been ill or in pain for years, some of them medically "incurable," regaining their health with food. I have included some of their testimonials and case histories in this book.
Anopsotherapy obviously works - but why? The following pages attempt to answer that question. I have tried to formulate the answers in ways consistent with current knowledge in medicine, genetics, biochemistry, nutrition, etc. But I trust the reader will appreciate the fact that much of our understanding in these areas comes from the study of abnormally nourished people or from laboratory studies in vitro. Anopsology will, I believe, cause us to question many assumptions in medicine and nutrition that we generally take for granted.
I would like to express my appreciation to Guy Claude Burger for enabling me to live and work at the French National Anopsological Center for extended periods between 1984 and 1986, and for his patience and open-mindedness in replying to the endless questions, objections and observations I put to him. Thanks too, to Dr. Jean de Bonnefon, former clinic chief at Salpetrière hospital in Paris, who helped in obtaining and analyzing the case histories of former Anopsotherapy patients, and to Dr. Catherine Aimelet, consulting physician at the Center. Their comments are included along with commentaries from other physicians and from patients themselves. This material shows, I believe, that Anopsotherapy constitutes a major therapeutic technique, even though statistical data is as yet unavailable because the history of the discipline is so short.
I began personally to live Anopsologically near the end of 1983. Doing so cured me of smoking, tightened my gums so that my teeth no longer moved, ended a life-long history of colitis and ileitis, improved my vision, cured my allergy to cats, removed my cellulite, and left me in a better state of health than I had ever known, with an apparent general immunity to physical pain or infection. A growing number of people share my convictions as to its importance. Not a few among them, skeptical as I myself was at the outset, also became convinced of its fundamental validity from experiencing it for themselves.
This book is the first presentation of Anopsotherapy in the English language, and a first step to making it known and accessible in America. It is by no means "complete" and will require much amplification and amending as time goes on. It has several aims. If you are ill and suffering, it will show you a natural way to regain your health and alleviate your pain, if you will take the trouble to understand the principles involved and actually apply them. If you are among those responsible for raising, processing and serving food, it will, I hope, incite you to avoid methods that may harm those who eat that food. If you are a physician or other health professional, I hope it will inspire you to explore human dimensions that were never a part of your academic curriculum, so that you may truly help patients whom medicine would otherwise fail.
Severen L. Schaeffer
Paris. Françe
Most people today are aware that nutrition plays a vital role in their health. You are probably concerned with eating a "balanced" diet containing sufficient minerals, vitamins, fibers, etc., to fill your needs. You are also probably a bit confused as to just exactly what "sufficient" might mean. At various times you may have tried one diet or another, one type of food supplement or another, olle or another nutritional philosophy. The chances are that for a time, or to a degree, whatever you were doing made you feel more vital, or lose weight . . . and then, for some obscure reason, it didn't work so well any longer, or it became difficult or unsatisfying to keep up. Then you just forgot about dieting or supplements for awhile, until a new diet or formula caught your attention. Until this one did - except that it is neither a diet nor a formula.
ETC ...
