Foreword
by Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.
In no aspect of human behavior is there greater variety, controversy, and
dogma than there is in the field of nutrition. For many years, John
Tobby [tobe?] pushed the idea of a totally raw or uncooked diet, and yet,
he died in his 70's of cancer of the prostate. Anne Wigmore has also
pushed a diet that is largely raw. Nutrition varies from the average
American diet, which most intelligent people would admit is terrible, to
the Macrobiotic diet, the Pritikin diet, the Haas Eat To Win diet, and
the McDougal Plan. These latter four all have a great deal of cooked
food but are primarily five to ten percent fat and mostly complex
carbohydrate-containing diets. Proponents all make a number of claims
for their respective diets.
When I first heard from Severen Schaeffer about Anopson nutrition
and the statements that he was making about its efficiency, I found it
intriguing and somewhat hard to believe. Fortunately, I had an
opportunity to sponsor a workshop on Anopson, or instinctive nutrition,
therapy. My own reactions to this way of eating were fascinating, as
were those of other attendees at this small workshop. I consumed huge
quantities of plums and honey among other delicacies with a variety of
reactions to tell me when I was satiated. I tried to continue eating
this way and found it difficult, primarily because I could not find raw
fish or beef that I was willing to eat. I think it would be difficult to
practice the method correctly without these two foods.
Several other attendees at that workshop, however, have stayed on
it to a greater or lesser extent with remarkably encouraging results.
One dentist who had had severe psoriasis and micronychia has reported
marked improvement within a few months. He had tried many other
treatments without success previously. Increased energy and sense of
well-being have been reported uniformly by those attempting the diet,
most with mild modifications.
The video tapes of individuals in France who have had the optimal
Anopson diet are as impressive as anything I have ever seen in clinical
medicine. I have certainly seen enough in those video tapes and in the
response of those individuals attending the Anopson workshop to convince
me that Instinctive Nutrition deserves extensive, careful, scientific
study. For those individuals who have significant illnesses, I cannot
think of a better and safer approach than Anopsotherapy or Instinctive
Nutrition.
-- Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Shealy Pain & Health Rehabilitation Institute
Founding President, American Holistic Medical Association
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following from pages 7-9 of Instinctive Nutrition by Severen Schaeffer:
Instinctive Nutrition: An Overview
Most people today are aware that nutrition plays a vital role in their
health. You are probably concerned with eating a "balanced" diet
containing sufficient minerals, vitamins, fibers, etc., to fill your
needs. You are also probably a bit confused as to just exactly what
"sufficient" might mean. At various times you may have tried one diet or
another, one type of food supplement or another, one or another
nutritional philosophy. The chances are that for a time, or to a degree,
whatever you were doing made you feel more vital, or lose weight ... and
then, for some obscure reason, it didn't work so well any longer, or it
became difficult or unsatisfying to keep up. Then you just forgot about
dieting or supplements for awhile, until a new diet or formula caught
your attention. Until this one did -- except that it is neither a diet
nor a formula.
Alternatively, you may at some point have adopted a system such
as vegetarianism or macrobiotics, and decided that this was The Way, once
and for all. If you are this sort of nutritional "true believer," be
forwarned: Instinctive Nutrition will require you to forget your
*beliefs* and attend to your *senses*, and if you are unwilling to
attempt this, it will not work for you.
We are very literally what we eat. Food can make us healthy, but
it can also make us sick, and it can kill us. Much of what we generally
consume in quest of the former is doing the latter. It does so slowly,
however, so we fail to recognize it. Once you have learned to eat by
instinct, you will be able automatically to distinguish between foods
that produce health and those that destroy it. Paradoxically, they are
often one and the same, for "one man's meat is another man's poison" is
more than an allegory. In a moment we will see how this is so.
Food can both produce disease and cure it, and we are going to
discuss this at some length in order to give you a feeling for the
processes involved. We will show you a method for preventing disease and
healing it with foods selected by instinct. Its technical name is
_Anopsotherapy_, also called "Instinctotherapy." It has been shown to be
effective in curing even some coditions that are normally considered
"incurable." It is based on the discovery that man is as fully endowed
as any animal with a genetically determined alimentary instinct, and that
his built-in programming can guide him to the food that will cure him and
keep him well. It teaches us to use our senses to choose the nutrients
our bodies truly need, free from restrictive precepts or recipes. It is
emphatically _not_ a diet.
The Greek word "Opson" means "prepared food." The "AN" prefix
means "without" so that ANopson means "unprepared food." Here, however,
"unprepared" should be understood as synonymous with "original," i.e.,
food _in the state in which it is found in nature_. A food that has been
ground, frozen, cooked, mixed or otherwise denatured in any way does not
fit this definition of _Anopson_. Fruits or vegetables bred by artificial
selection and/or grown on chemical fertilizers, or animals fed hormones,
mixed grains, etc., are not strictly _Anopson_ by this definition (but are
all too often the only kinds available). Anopsology, or the "logic of
Anopson," is the study of what happens when men and animals consume foods
in their original, unmodified stae, selecting them by instinctive
sense-cues alone.
Anopsological (or Instinctive) Nutrition differs substatially
from the nutritional philosophy of "Crudivorism," that already existed at
the time of Socrates, and has become increasingly popular today. The
idea that "raw food is good for us" is correct as far as it goes, but is
inadequate and misses the point.
The human brain has been shown to be organized essentially on
three levels. Its lowermost structures are known as the "reptilian
brain," because they comprise our phylogenetic heritage from distant
reptilian ancestors. These structures are common to all vertebrates, and
organize basic survival behaviors: feeding, reproduction, flight/fight
reactions, etc. These functions are automatic, built-in, and operate
independently of learning from experience. They are what we commonly
call _instincts_
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