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Staying Healthy with Nutrition |
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by Elson M. Haas, M.D.
STAYING HEALTHY with NUTRITION
When I first began looking
at the relationship
of Nutrition to Health,
I was a new doctor way
back in 1975. At that
time I could find very few medical doctors
who would agree with my ideas and
interests. Now, 30 years later, you would
have to be in blind denial not to know
the importance of this basic relationship.
Our body, and how we look and
feel, is a result of our lives. And what
we feed ourselves is the basic building
block. Mind you, it may take 20 to 30
years to see the adverse effects of poor
dietary choices.
When I did my first Juice Cleanse in
1976, it was a dramatic positive effect
on my health and vitality (I wrote about
this experience in my first book, Staying
Healthy with the Seasons, 1981, 2003). I
realized then it mattered what I ate; my
food choices became part of me. And
since I found this new love for myself
and wanted to keep feeling great (and
trimmer and non-allergic, or really less
congested), I totally changed my food
from the basic American diet to the
healthy natural foods eating program I
still do today. And I believe I continually
experience the results from these wiser
lifestyle choices.
That’s why I wanted to share the basis
and excitement about the field of
nutritional medicine and applying diets
and nutrients in the healing arts. Therefore,
throughout the late 1980s and early
90s, I wrote and published a 1,200 page
book, Staying Healthy with Nutrition. It
was used by many people, lay public
and professionals, as well as a source
textbook for nutritional students. I was
very pleased that people considered it
so useful.
However, over the past 10–15 years,
nutritional science and research has advanced
incredibly, and I wanted to keep
up with the information and update this
essential nutrition text. I remembered
that Dr. Buck Levin had suggested a
decade before as a nutrition educator
at Bastyr university in Seattle that he
would help me update and reference
the text when I was ready. I called him
and he put out the incredible effort to
work with me the past five years to bring
the reader the latest, most updated,
and completely new 21st Century Edition
of Staying Healthy with Nutrition. And I
believe the whole team of people, along
with my long-time associate and book
developer, Bethany Argisle, and my longtime
publisher Celestial Arts/Tenspeed
Press, has done a superb job.
It is my intention in this edition of
Staying Healthy with Nutrition to
investigate and substantiate the significance of
food and nutrients as an integral and accepted
part of the world of medicine and
individual medical practice. I examine
the emerging politics of food cultivation
and what it takes to maintain healthy
elements of clean air and water, rich and
nutritious soil, and a sun that keeps shining.
Supportive nutrition and our alignment
with Nature are basic components
of health, and certainly factors in disease
when they are not present. A reasonable
knowledge of nutritional biochemistry
helps in the application of therapies that
relieve many symptoms relating to or resulting
from improper dietary habits and
the resulting inefficient body functions.
With the proper construction of a diet
and lifestyle plan, we can help rebuild a
patient’s health (or our own) before and
after illness or surgery.
Medical schools and doctors have
typically been oriented to treating disease
with drugs and surgery, and many
health care practitioners do not yet view
foods as “powerful medicine.” Although
nutrition plays a more important part in
preventive medicine than it does in the
treatment of disease, an understanding
of the body’s functioning at the nutritional
level can indeed help in the treatment
of a variety of problems. Clearly,
we now realize that diet plays a crucial
part in how the body looks and feels and
whether it stays healthy. Generally, these
effects—both good and bad—come over
time, years, and decades. We can change
our body and health as well as our energy
and vitality with different diets. I explore
these concepts in this new edition.
Nutritional medicine is an emerging
and fast-growing field; it is also as ancient
as medicine and healing itself, however.
It is a specialty much like other medical
specialties and should be considered as
such. Every practitioner should understand
and follow the basics of nutritional
application in health care. There is still a
great deal to learn about nutrition and
how it relates to illness and health, and
how it relates to each individual’s needs,
but this is true of all specialties.
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