>MAXIMIZE IMMUNITY by Bruno Cromby, 1994 Marcus Books. A translation from
>the French titled book "Nature contre sida" by a fellow who is an integral
>part of the French instincto movement. Bruno lived and worked for several
>years at the Chateau de Montrame (the Insincto-therapy center outside of
>Paris). This writing uses a discussion of AIDS as a springboard for an
>exploration of the theories of instincto. Lots of no-nonsense logical
>arguments displaying how cooked foods compromise one's immune system.
>Understandable to anyone but obviously written with a scientific audience
>in mind. Includes summaries of the usefulness of viruses and bacteria in
>detoxing and enabling the highest levels of human health. Should be a
>bombshell in the scientific community but has, to my knowledge, received
>no recognition at all. The translator did a great job! Can be ordered
>from Marcus Books, PO Box 327, Queensville, Ontario, Canada, L0G 1RO.
>phone:(905) 478-2201, fax: (905) 478-8338. They will fax you a catalog I
>think but didn't take credit cards as of 10/96. You mail a check and wait
>several weeks for it in the mail. Must reading.<
I posted the above a couple months ago as part of an "instincto resources"
post. Having spent some more time with the writing I thought I'd share some
more detail of the contents, and my impressions thereof. Especially since I
have not seen this book available in any bookstore (online or otherwise), I
doubt people would go out of their way to contact the publisher to order it
without more information to go on. It is definative "must reading" in my
opinion.
The full title is: "How You Can MAXIMIZE IMMUNITY and Unleash Your Body's
Best Defense Against Illness"
The book is 260+ pages and is divided into two main parts (as well as
important front and back matter which I will get to in a bit). Perhaps the
easiest way to share a feeling for the contents is to breifly annotate the
chapter titles, which, unlike many books in the fringe heath arena,
actually describe well the ideas spoken of in each chapter. ;)
The first part is 130+ pages and is subtitled "Food and Immunity: We Are
What We Eat".
Chapter 1: Starting Again from Scratch (5 pages of well-reasoned plea to
readers, and researchers, to keep an open mind regarding the hypothesis
that raw foods have a very symbiotic relation to immunity and health.)
Chapter 2: Animal Models (A 28-page review of animal studies which support
the proposition that a denatured diet is an important co-factor, and
probably the major factor, in immune disease, especially AIDS, but also
rabies and other diseases. Cromby contrasts the diets of wild and captive
animals with the average modern human diet. A chart listing many viral
diseases, along with the animal populations/diets in which they are found
to show symptoms, and more importantly animal populations/diets where the
animal is a symptomless carrier of said virus. The Chapter ends with
suggestions for futher reseach on the relatedness of a denatured diet to
viral symptoms.)
Chapter 3: The Dietary Taboo (5 more pages dealing with the problems of a
paradigm shift needed in order to view the relationship of denatured foods
and immunity from a new perspective.)
Chapter 4: The Immune System (14-page primer on the basics of the immune
system in relation to viruses and introducing the idea that denatured foods
contain antigens which exasperate the organism's attempt at keeping the
house clean, so to speak.)
Chapter 5: AIDS--An Immune Deficiency (20+-page primer on AIDS--it's
history, detection, nature, etc.)
Chapter 6: Current Treatments for AIDS (13-page review of the inefficacy
and probab,t toxicity of current approaches.)
Chapter 7: What Our Present Understanding Does Not Explain (8 pages
containing 21 questions of near sugical incisiveness which are unanswerable
within the current viral research paradigm.)
Chapter 8: New Light on Viral Illnesses (2 page introduction to his new
paradigm of immunity)
Chapter 9: The "Dietary Theory of Immunity" and "Useful Viral Theory" (15
pages of the "meat" of Cromby's new approach. He states the title theories
in less than two pages and then goes on to 42 "correllaries" which flow
from the basic "Dietary Theory of Immunity")
Chapter 10: Strengthening Your Immune System (3 pages of introduction of
the importance of the major immunity breakdown co-factors as he sees them:
tobacco and denatured foods.)
Chapter 11: Taking Steps Toward Healing (3 pages listing/discussing
Cromby's four point plan (very paraphrased here): 1] eat raw foods choosen
by sensory instinct, 2] facilitate elimination/detox, 3] decrease lifestyle
stresses, 4] desire to be healed/think positively)
Chapter 12: The Medicine of Tomorrow (2 pages podering the future of
medicine which, according to Cromby, will harken back to Hippocrates'
essentials)
The secong part is subtitled: "A 100% Natural Diet to Maximize Immunity".
It seems clear that the 3 short chapters which finish part one (10-13) are
simply paving the way for part two.
Chapter 13: What is Instinct Therapy? (an almost 40-page exposition of the
central theoretical threads, and supports, of instincto-therapy in
recoveing human health. This section ends with a 6 level transition diet
which starts with a partial restriction of dairy and ends with an all-raw
unmixed regime selected by sensory pleasure.)
Chapter 14: Potential of the Dietary Approach (3 pages of results which
might be expected when following a pure instincto dietary.)
Chpater 15: How to Begin (more theory on why 100% is best, and a welcome
suggestion of not prostelytising and/or engaging in initial battles with
the medical establishment)
Chapter 16: Return to Health: Detoxification (18 page discussion of
detoxing and a support of fasting when no food appeals--ends with three
models/graphs depicting how detoxing might happen for various individuals)
Chpater 17: Healing by Pleasure (less than one page detailing the
uniqueness of the pleasure principle in instincto-therapy)
Chapter 18: Gentle Medicine for a Tough Disease (less than one page
attempting to bridge the opposing pardigm of allopathy and wholistic
medicine--only two paragraphs, but two paragrahs which have not yet been
written elsewhere, at least I haven't ever seen them put so well)
Chapter 19: The First Results, and 20: Patient Testimonials (31 pages of
AIDS case histories and testimonials includes an interview)
Chapter 21: The Future Dawn (6 page of summary, conclusion and hope for the
future)
There is also (as I mentioned earlier) extensive introductory notes, two
prefaces (from French MDs), and the usual disclaimers. The book was
translated from French by Thomas T. Rieder from Toronto, Canada. Again, he
did a superlative job, or so I assume, being as I am unable to read
Cromby's original in French. Back matter includes a epilogue by a (one
assumes) eminant French professor, a glossary of abbreviations, as well as
289 references.
Bruno comes from a physics/mathematics background and his respect for the
scientific method is apparent. He has other witings published (mostly in
European languages, unfortunately) including books on the details of
instincto-therapy, stress reduction, how to stop smoking, and "power
sleep". He is simply not one to avoid controversy it seems: he has a book
out proposing nuclear energy as a large part of the solution to the planets
environmental woes! I have not read any of them, but after reading MAXIMIZE
IMMUNITY I sure would like to. Indeed, while reading an exposition
supporting nuclear energy I suspect I would feel like most medical doctors
reading MAXIMIZE IMMUNITY--incredulous. But I'm off topic...
MAXIMIZE IMMUNITY is easily the clearest, most scientific rendering of the
ideas that have been bandied around since Shelton (and earlier) regarding
the role of nutrition and disease. Instead of the ideological rantings of
TC Fry, Bruno presents a level-heading consilitory prose which encompasses
a paradigm which will likely be judged very well by history. If you want to
see the next lodical step NH theory you would read Bruno's book. (He also
has a web page...
http://www.lookup.com/homepages/70485/comby.html
I have quibbles with some of the content: ie, the 10,000 ya dating of the
widespread use of fire is the youngest I have _ever_ seen and I have looked
into the matter pretty carefully, and I find there to be exceptions to the
usefulness of alimentary instinct which are not much discussed. But in the
case of the former I will be digging into his references to the degree I
can (many are in French) before entering any debate on the dating of
fire--a snaggly-tooth arena if ever there was one. As for the latter, I
can't really expect him to engage in a full-fledged discussion of the
problems with instincto in a volume clearly designed to appeal to
researchers and a popular audience at the same time.
Such quibbles aside, rawists finally have a book which they can hand to
their neighborhood MD, parents, or university-trained dietitions which
reasonably expouses raw foods as central to human health without being
combative. If I had an extra twenty thousand dollars, I would be tempted to
mail copies off to researchers across the USA to get his message out into
the university/scientific arena where a serious debate would likely ensue.
Indeed, MAXIMIZE IMMUNITY is the _only_ raw book I have ever seen which is
well-researched, carefully written, and accessable to both a lay audience
and researchers. It is so far-reaching in its theoretical formulations, so
"scientific" and logical, that it appears as the first book which can be
seen as proof of the "maturing" of the raw foods paradigm. Whether its
clarity will ever be heard from above the noise pollution one finds in
Nature's First Law or its kin, I don't know...
Nevertheless, I can see a real convergence happening these days.
Evolutionary biology, Darwinian medicine, paleo-diet research, and
instincto are all in their infancy as sciences and are all quite
controversial. Even Sally Fallon and Aagonus Vonderplantintz are adding
arrows to the "cause". They all seem to be on a trejectory to a point where
they will not only be rubbing elbows, but where they will collide into a
more modern wholism of nutrition and its role in human health. When that
happens, the shit is going to hit the fan. I only hope it is within my
lifetime so I can watch from the sidelines and give an occasional hoot of
delight.
Cheers,
Kirt
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