Forgive me reader, for I have “sinned.” It’s been over a week now since my last post. 
This past weekend, I watched an interesting new documentary on Netflix, via their online viewing feature. It was totally by accident, as I was just browsing to find some mindless entertainment to cap a busy day giving RawDoneLight a facelift.
So, it was fortuitous that I came upon The Beautiful Truth (clever title, given Al Gore’s film). It was interesting in more ways than one. First, the information itself. This was really the reason I kept watching. The main premise was about treating cancer thru nutrition and how it is that known carcinogens are allowed to continue to proliferate in our environment. Indeed, in our mouths! I’d heard about the mercury amalgam claims before, but my dentist, whom I trust, had always satisfactorily withstood my grilling, so I was skeptical. Well, I’m starting to return to the concerned category. The images of mercury vapors being released by just (vigorously) rubbing on a filled tooth were fascinating, if not entirely believable. And some of the comments from people in the FDA, etc., seemed rather condemning admissions as well.
The second interesting part of the movie was the narration. Of course, a narrator is not unusual in a documentary, of which I’m a rather avid viewer, but this one was. He’s the main character’s father, and he drifted between roles as proud family member and neutral third party in retelling the story of his son’s school project (ostensibly, the reason for the investigations). His use of the phrase “the boy” was especially odd. Probably just a regional colloquialism; it sounded weird to this New Englander.
Anyway, it all piqued my curiosity enough to check out the Gerson Institute’s site. The movie wasn’t specific, but it did mention juicing and eating organic, whole foods, so I wanted to see whether the diet was actually vegetarian. Indeed, it may even be vegan, according to this blurb found therein:
The Gerson diet is naturally high in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, micro-nutrients, extremely low in sodium and fats, and rich in fluids.
The following is a typical daily diet for a Gerson patient on the full therapy regimen:
- Thirteen glasses of fresh, raw carrot/apple and green-leaf juices prepared hourly from fresh, organic fruits and vegetables.
- Three full vegetarian meals, freshly prepared from organically grown fruits, vegetables and whole grains. A typical meal will include salad, cooked vegetables, baked potatoes, vegetable soup and juice.
- Fresh fruit and fresh fruit dessert available at all hours for snacking, in addition to the regular diet.
Where it goes astray is in the supplements/medications. There you’ll find liver extracts, thyroid, and pancreatic enzymes. Oh, and coffee enemas. LOL.
So, overall, it was a heavily conspiracy theory-laden film, with strange narration, but some redeeming qualities and jumping off points for further inquiry. Their site also has a link to view The Gerson Miracle online, but I haven’t gone through the registration process yet. If you beat me to it, please leave a comment, and let me know what you thought.
Incidentally, this month marks the first of a controversial, three-part series on vegetarian supplementation in the newsletter. If you’re not yet a subscriber, this would be a great time to hop on board. After all, it’s free!
You’re sinning again ‘-)
Gerson therapy
I’ve not watched the film (or heard of this before!), just looked over their website and then talked to a few people about it… one alternative practitioner said they’d do chemo before they’d trust Gerson (from a very anti-chemo person)!
Did you find anyone not connected to Gerson that has anything positive to say about them?
My mother has been diagnosed recently with breast cancer. She relies a lot on naturopathy and this article stoked my curiosity. I do think that chemotherapy is very effective in the first few stages of cancer. I have heard of embryonic stem cell therapy being very beneficial in certain types of cancer too. One of my friends suggested homeopathy too. What is the success rate of gerson therapy with cancer? I asked her oncologist about the same. They were quite skeptical as it seems to be effective with Stage I &II melanomas only.
nice post, i think that our nutrition could really be the answer to alot of our problems. i think the major problem with that is that we don’t really want to eat well because it doesn’t taste as good sometimes.