The following article presents my personal ideas about the concept of toxemia.
It is by no means complete, so all reactions, comments, additions and criticisms
are welcome.
Best wishes,
Jean-Louis
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Introduction.
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The concept of toxemia, used by Natural Hygiene to explain all diseases, is,
despite the lack of scientific foundation, common language in the vegetarian and
the raw-food movement. While many other factors than diet can contribute to
disease (micro-organisms, heredity, environmental or psychological factors),
there is of course no doubt that with a proper nutrition, the occurrence of
disease would greatly decrease. However, a diet can be "wrong" for may other
reasons than toxicity. An obvious one is deficiency: a substantial percentage of
the population, even in developed countries, is considered as malnourished
(despite a calorie-adequate diet). And even the opposite, i.e. the excess of a
certain substance, is not necessarily toxic in the sense Natural Hygienists
understand it, i.e. producing withdrawal symptoms (like with drugs) and
detoxification crisis (during which the toxins are supposed to be released). An
excess of sugar, despite causing diabetes, is not considered as toxic since
sugar is completely metabolized. The question of grains and dairy, which some
people claim to cause detoxification symptoms, will be discussed later. In fact,
the common belief is that the main toxins come from animal foods (and, more
specifically, meat) and cooked food, both of which are addictive, and keep being
detoxified for many years after switching to a "natural" diet.
Plausibility.
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A good indication whether the concept is valid or not comes from other diets,
like Paleolithic diets, which can claim to be at least as natural. It appears
that no Paleo-dieter ever blames the detoxification of grains or dairy for any
trouble, whereas raw vegetarians, and especially raw vegans, often complain
about "detoxification" symptoms (usually weakness, emaciation or sensitivity to
cold). One may argue that the cleansing process among Paleo-dieters is hindered
by their consumption of animal food, but again, current research shows that meat
can't be considered unnatural. Admittedly, there is a strong case against an
excess of saturated fat, but after all, is a modern meat abnormally high in
saturated fat more toxic than a modern fruit too rich in sugar?
That the "toxemia" rhetoric provides an explanation where medicine fails is
certainly not a proof of its validity. One cannot dismiss hundreds of volumes of
scientific results without explaining in depth why they are wrong. A new theory
should always integrate the old one. In addition, a theory has a scientific
value only when supported by various experimental data and quantitative results.
Instead, the language of Natural Hygiene always remains vague and ignores the
advances of modern medicine. The theory of instinctive nutrition seems to adopt
a more scientific language: the toxins have a name and their existence is
clearly acknowledged (Maillard molecules), some references in the medical
literature are provided, as well as explanations for auto-immune diseases such
as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis. While the theory is more
attractive to a science-oriented mind, it remains largely speculative and lacks
experimental backup. That Maillard molecules are toxic at the concentrations at
which they appears in cooked food hasn't been proven. Some good results among
instinctive eaters have certainly been obtained, but they may simply be due to
the suppression of wheat and dairy, as well as heavily processed foods. In fact,
it is thought that the main causes of multiple sclerosis are proteins from
dairy, cereal grains, yeast, eggs and legumes, as well as a high level of
saturated fat intake. See:
http://aspin.asu.edu/msnews/emb11297.htm
for more details.
The wrong signs of detoxification.
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We shall now discuss a few symptoms that are usually interpreted as
detoxification:
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1) Weakness, sensitivity to cold, emaciation
are the main complaint of those who come to a predominantly raw diet,
particularly among raw vegans. Even instinctos are not exempt because of their
usually high fruit intake. In fact, people who begin a raw food diet with a
moderate amount of carbohydrates and a fair amount of animal food are extremely
rare, if existent at all. The "transition" period seems to be longer and more
difficult for raw vegans than for those who include some animal food and/or some
cooked foods in their diet. The fact that the body functions usuallly normalize
after some time (which in some cases is a considerable amount of time) is
certainly no proof that it is a detoxification process. The more likely
explanation is that a high-roughage content diet is not well adapted to humans,
and that, for some reason, the digestive systems adapts more or less to the new
diet.
2) Allergic-like reactions
Some people have noticed that the ingestion of a supposedly innocuous food, like
watermelon, triggers allergic reactions (like runny nose), especially if grains
were consumed in a recent period. The tempting explanation (that watermelon
triggers the detoxification of grains) is of course not the only one. It is
known that the presence of one allergen increases the sensitivity to other
allergens, and that watermelon, like many other foods, contains allergens.
>From [Jor-Wag]:
"Cross-reactive allergens may be responsible for the clustering of food
allergies seen in patients hypersensitive to fruits and vegetables. The pooled
sera of six individuals were used to investigate cross-antigenicity among
freshly prepared extracts of celery (Cy), cucumber (Cc), carrot (Ct), and
watermelon (W). Each patient demonstrated clinical allergy to one or more study
foods and, with the exception of Ct in two cases, had IgE to all four extracts
by skin test or ELISA. In comparisons of each food against itself and the other
three antigens, ELISA inhibition assays demonstrated allergenic similarity among
Cy, Cc, Ct, and W by their similar slopes and 50% inhibition concentrations
(2.0-7.3 micrograms/mL) [...] We conclude that Cy, Cc, Ct, and W possess
shared antigens that may account for clustering of these food allergies in
patients."
>From [Ort]:
"We have studied 262 patients suffering from hay fever and oral allergy syndrome
after fruit and vegetable ingestion. The history and the results of RAST and
skin test for pollen showed a contemporary presence of systemic and local
symptoms in most of the patients; a close connection between age of onset of hay
fever and oral allergy syndrome; a frequent association between allergy to some
pollens and some vegetables, such as between apple, carrot, pear, cherry with
birch pollen and tomato, melon, watermelon with grass pollen."
See also [Enb].
3) The common cold:
is obviously not a detoxification reaction, but a disease caused by over 200
different viruses which mutate constantly (which explains why it is so difficult
to find a vaccine). Colds and allergies produce similar symptoms (runny nose,
etc), which probably explains why they are thought to be a detoxification
process.
4) Bad breath
has been extensively studied (its scientific name is "halitosis"), and many
causes have been identified. cf.
http://www.calpaclab.com/cbt/index.html
among many other sites.
5) Metabolic changes during fasting.
Some people believe that, since there are some metabolic changes during fasting,
they must be caused by the detoxification process. However, most of the symptoms
have been studied:
a] Nitrogen excretion: From [Ru-Pa], "Body protein is used as a fuel throughout
the period of fasting, functioning primarily as a source of raw material for
gluconeogenesis. However, the utilization of this protein decreases as fasting
continues, such regulation being essential because death occurs when one third
to one half of the body protein has been depleted."
Daily Urinary Nitrogen Excretion in a Male Subject During Fasting:
Days of fasting | Grams of urinary nitrogen per 24 hours
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1 | 13
7 | 10
14 | 8
21 | 6
28 | 5
35 | 4
b] Carbohydrate metabolism: from [Sam], "After fasting 24 hours or more, the
blood glucose level is maintained at 60-70 mg/100 ml", although there is a lot
of individual variability ([Key], p. 541). From [Key], p. 544, "there is an
indication of [an] adaptative process [to starvation] in the blood sugar levels.
This was shown in work with normal young men who were subject to a series of 5
4-day fasts undertaken at 1-month intervals, The blod sugar levels during hard
physical work were slightly higher during the fifth fast than in the first.
[...] The urinary excretion of acetone decreased when the starvation was
repeated. A similar interpretation could be made in the case of dogs which
exhibited during the second fast a more gradual weight loss and a much smaller
nitrogen excretion than during the first experiment".
>From [Sam], "In a normal man, during a fast of 2 or 3 days' duration, anout 180
g of glucose are produced in 24 hours. Of this the brain, spinal cord and nerves
use about 140 g, and the red cells 30 g".
c] Fat metabolism: the ketone bodies refer to 3 substances, acetoacetic acid,
beta-hydroxybutyric acid and acetone, which are produced mainly by the liver and
are used as a source of energy. People who are on ketosis, whether because they
are fasting or on a ketogenic diet, expire acetone, which has a distinct odor.
Conclusion
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The list presented above is by no means complete and many diseases are not (yet)
fully understood by medical researchers. The possibility that toxemia
plays a role cannot be ruled out completely, of course, but the point of the
present article is that in many instances, "detox" is a too easy explanation,
and a denial that anything could possibly be wrong with a diet that is perfectly
adapted to the human biological design.
References:
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[Enb] Enberg RN, et al.
"Watermelon and ragweed share allergens".
J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1987 Jun 1; 79(6): 867-875.
PMID: 3584742; UI: 87223609.
[Jor-Wag] Jordan-Wagner DL, et al., "Cross-allergenicity among celery,
cucumber, carrot, and watermelon".
Ann Allergy. 1993 Jul 1; 71(1): 70-79.
PMID: 8328718; UI: 93319169.
[Key] Keys et al., "The biology of human starvation", Univ. of Minnesota
Press, 1950.
[Ort] "The oral allergy syndrome".
Ann Allergy. 1988 Dec 1; 61(6 Pt 2): 47-52.
PMID: 3264668; UI: 89086737.
[Ru-Pa] T. C. Ruch and H. D. Patton, "Physiology and biophysics III",
Saunders 1973.
[Sam] Samson Wright, "Applied physiology", 12th edition, Oxford University
Press, 1971.
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