During my research I found some very unique individuals who realized that food can act as a powerful healing agent, most of them after years of experience in the medical profession. So, here I would like to present Dr Bieler, an experienced doctor who found himself consistently at odds with the American Medical Association because he insisted that drugs are harmful and advised his patients to follow a therapeutic diet.
Dr Bieler graduated from the Ohio- Miami Medical School in 1916. He suffered severe asthma attacks which worsened as time passed by. While in Medical School none of his professors was able to help him handle or cure his disease, until he met Professor Agustin Levinson. Professor Levinson traveled and gave lectures about healing dietary habits; he advised Bieler to undergo a therapeutic diet to treat his problem with asthma. To Dr Bieler’s surprise asthma was treated and he started to use Levinson’s formula and principles first for himself and gradually for his patients. Dr Bieler concluded that the human body has its own powerful inherent healing mechanisms and that disease can be cured through proper nutrition. He realized that wrong lifestyle choices, toxic diet and synthetic drugs (which had started to be very popular by that time, i.e. the pharmaceutical companies had already gained a lot of power in influencing the mainstream medical practice) were the root cause for most diseases that people suffered from. Dr Bieler was very successful in treating patients from various backgrounds and with very diverse syndromes / symptoms. He had many famous patients such as Greta Garbo, Anthony Quinn, Gloria Swanson and many more. Probably his most comprehensive book is the “Food is Your Best Medicine” which was published in 1965. This is a small paperback book which you can buy very cheap in amazon or in a second hand book shop.
It is very impressive to see doctors who reached the same conclusions as we are now, without them having any of the state of the art facilities or research material that we do. In fact, there is no need for all these, if we simply keep an open mind and are ready to accept the truth even if it contradicts “common sense”. I am not a doctor myself so maybe it was a bit easier for me to adopt a new paradigm about my health but this is not the case for a doctor who has spent many years training and studying this very same medical science he will eventually oppose. I can only convey feelings of gratitude and awe when I find a doctor who has the courage and true sense of responsibility to accept and then support such an alternative medical model that obviously works better for public health.
Dr Bieler created the famous now Bieler Broth which advised his patients to consume every day. It is a super easy broth to make and has astonishing results. The basic concept of this broth, as with many alternative therapies, is that it restores the pH of the body. The human body reaches its prime condition when pH is alkaline. Most of the modern foods and snacks we love today result in the body’s pH to become too acidic. According to Dr Bieler this is one of the basic reasons why we get sick and I can verify here that this is totally true. One of the first lessons in undergraduate Cell Biology is that the healthy cell’s pH is alkaline; the moment that the cellular pH balance is lost, a whole set of abnormal events take place, it’s like a chain reaction. Wrong pH in the cell means that the proteins and enzymes inside the cell cannot function as they are supposed to or they lose their functionality completely. The cellular biochemical balance is tightly regulated as it is a major factor that determines the condition and state of the cell. Of course it takes years of unhealthy dietary habits for a major devastating disease to establish in the body. By restoring the pH of the body is one the simplest and most efficient ways to reverse disease. Dr Bieler did not take any classes on Cell biology in Medical School so he had to come to this conclusion after years of experience; this makes his wisdom a million times more valuable.
Bieler’s Broth Recipe
1 pound string beans, ends snipped
6 medium zucchini (green), ends cut off
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 bunches parsley (cut stems, optional)
Several sprigs of tarragon or thyme, tied together
250 ml filtered water.
Put all ingredients in a large pot, add water, don’t freak out that it doesn’t seem like anywhere near enough water, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about half an hour. Take out the tarragon/thyme, pour into a blender (or use a hand-held blender if you have one of those) and puree everything into a thick soup.
In the 40s, determined farmers used coconut oil to fatten their animals. To their surprise they instead became lean and slim! Coconut oil has the ability to stimulate thyroid function; this means elevated metabolic rates and more efficient fat loss even while you sleep! In the presence of adequate thyroid hormone, cholesterol is converted in extremely important hormones (anti-aging steroids, progesterone, pregnenolone etc) that fight off heart disease, obesity, cancer and other degenerative diseases. The poor farmers of the story were obviously very disappointed to see their animals lean and fit so when it became known that coconut oil stimulates the thyroid function (leading to weight loss), they tried to feed the animals anti – thyroid drugs to shut the thyroid gland down and make them fat. While that happened, they also developed cancer in higher rates, messing up with the farmers’ ambitions once again. Then, they realized that they could have the fattening result without the immediate cancer problems if they just fed their livestock with soy bean and corn! Probably no company selling vegetable oils would ever promote these facts…