Follow Ric Coggins’ journey into his cancer recovery
By Ric Coggins
Cancer has been referred to as a “disease of deficiency.” In other words, cancer occurs when the human immune system does not get enough nutrition and becomes ineffective at “taking out” the rogue cells we call cancer. Juicing is a way to quickly infuse high-power nutrition almost directly into the bloodstream. While science knows some of what juiced vegetables and fruits contain, the reality is that there is likely much more we do not yet fully understand. While science eventually unravels the inherent mysteries, we can put those mysteries immediately to work!
One of the first regimens I turned to after being diagnosed with cancer was juicing. I knew I needed to supercharge my immune system and I learned that juicing was a way to do it. In fact, on my first visit to Mexico to visit the doctors at the Hoxsey Clinic, I packed an ice chest full of fruit jars containing freshly juiced vegetables and fruit! Initially, I flooded my system, drinking them eight times per day on my road trip. This is the same regimen that Chris Wark elaborates on in his Chris Beat Cancer health blog series.
To fully comprehend the value of juicing, consider the normal process of what occurs when one eats solid food. The act of chewing food (mastication) is similar to juicing itself. It physically takes food solids and turns them into a more liquid form. Chewing breaks open cell walls, releasing vitamins, minerals, salts, antioxidants, enzymes and other phytonutrients. The more we chew food, the more of these wonders are released. Juicing is a great way to enhance this process. It separates out the fibrous parts of food and super-concentrates the nutrients into the liquid portion. In fact, it is believed that juicing releases up to 90 percent of a food’s nutritional content… fully three times the amount of what even prolonged chewing can accomplish. It also affords one the ability to consume, in a concentrated form, far more nutrition than one could otherwise practically accomplish. Even if we managed to chew 20 lbs. of vegetables and fruit in a day, it’s unlikely we could repeat it daily. Juicing allows you to concentrate that 20 lbs. of vegetables and fruit into eight, 8-ounce glasses of juice.
Juicing also gets nutrients into your bloodstream quickly, especially when taken first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Because the nutrients are in a highly concentrated form, your body doesn’t need as much time to sort out the fiber and solids from the liquefied nutrition, so juice goes almost directly into your bloodstream, to be immediately carried to your immune system.
One of the first in the world to use juicing as an immune enhancer to fight cancer was Dr. Max Gerson, M.D. A Jewish doctor in Nazi Germany, Gerson was “kept on” by the Nazis for his amazing work and its value to the Reich. Gerson, however, after learning that the Nazis had killed all of his siblings, escaped to America where he continued his research into juicing and other natural therapies. Unfortunately, the AMA and the FDA were less interested in his treatment modalities and ended up banning his work in the U.S. Like the Hoxsey Clinic, the Gerson clinic moved to Mexico to continue its work. Today, Gerson’s clinic in Mexico and affiliated clinics around the world use juicing as a potent immune system builder.
Juicing was a big part of my fight to beat cancer and remains a daily part of my maintenance program. I use many recipes, but gravitate to one from Chris Wark’s work. Essentially my juicing consists of equal parts organic carrots, organic beets (including the greens when possible), organic celery and organic green apples (core, seeds and all). I sometimes add fresh organic pineapple, fresh organic ginger and turmeric root, organic citrus (with peel) and fresh organic garlic (as much as I can tolerate). I consume an 8-oz. glass each morning before eating.
Ideally one should juice fresh daily to be able to take the nutrition in, at its most vibrant, rawest state. After returning to work, I started juicing larger batches and freezing my 8-ounce jars to be thawed for daily consumption. This is the second best to daily juicing, which is best for optimum nutrition.
Note: Store-bought, bottled juices have little value for this purpose. Even if they are organic with no sugar added, the fact that they are “canned” for shelf storage means that necessarily all “life” has been killed by high heat and pressure. While they have other values, the kind of juicing we are discussing here requires fresh, live, organic vegetables and fruits.
Whether as a means to fight a diagnosed cancer or simply as a preventative measure to keep your immune system in high gear to prevent cancer cells from succeeding, juicing is an amazing and important tool.
Bio:
Ric Coggins in a University of Arizona master gardener who grew up on a one-acre garden tended by his father, who was a regular contributor to Mother Earth News and Organic Gardening and Farming magazines. Ric continues his father’s “green” traditions on a one-acre organic garden urban homestead in Mesa that he calls The Fool on the Hill Farm.
