Food Combining for Health: The bestseller that has changed millions of lives

In A New Health Era Dr Hay related how this warning inspired him to treat his own symptoms. He did so by ‘eating fundamentally’, as he called it, eating ‘only such things as he believed were intended by nature as food for man, taking them in natural form, and in quantities no greater than seemed necessary for his present need’. (It is interesting to note that 60 years later, Surgeon Captain T.L. Cleave was to put forward similar concepts in his book The Saccharine Disease.) To the great astonishment of Dr Hay’s doctors his symptoms gradually disappeared, and at the end of three months he felt fitter and stronger than he had done for many years. He reduced his weight – he had been greatly overweight – from 225lb to 175lb and soon was able to run long distances without distress.

This experience, he wrote, deepened the conviction that had been growing over the past 16 years that medicine was on the wrong track; it was merely fussing with the end results of a condition instead of attempting to remove the cause, ‘for here was his own case recovering from a condition that the best authorities said was incurable’. It had taken a major health disaster and a hopeless outlook for the future to open his eyes to the possibility of treating disease along dietary lines, unorthodox although these at first seemed.

It was not, however, till the middle of 1908 that he had regenerated himself to his own satisfaction. By 1911 Dr Hay was virtually certain that he had discovered a ‘surefire treatment’ for diabetes. He little realized then that this same treatment would prove equally efficacious in the treatment of all disease.

For the next four years he devoted all his time to treating his patients along dietary lines in order to prove or disprove his contention that we are exactly what we eat and ‘that the body is merely a composite of what goes into it daily in the form of food and drink’. These four years provided proof in plenty that his contention was right and that anyone can be as well as desired if given the right food in the right way (provided, of course, there has been no serious, irreversible organic change). Thus he developed over the years the system of eating for which he became famous. He always claimed, however, that he had not discovered anything new, but had merely used the knowledge already made public by others and consolidated it, adding his own deep convictions with a dash of common sense. Moreover, he made no claims that he ‘cured’ any disease, and emphasized that this system merely removed the obstacles in the way of nature’s own marvellous healing powers.

The message in A New Health Era was simple: that no matter how diverse our diseases, there is one underlying cause – wrong chemical conditions in the body. These conditions are created through the manufacture and accumulation of acid end-products of digestion and metabolism in amounts greater than the body can eliminate. A state then develops ‘that is variously called auto-intoxication, acid-autotoxicosis, toxaemia, self-poisoning, or whatever you like to call it’. This results in a lowering of the body’s vital alkaline reserve leading, in turn, to departure from health. ‘The science of medicine takes no cognizance of this accumulation,’ wrote Dr Hay, ‘till disease, that is definite pathology, has developed.’

He taught his patients that there were four main causes of the accumulation of acid end-products of digestion: eating too much meat; over-consumption of refined carbohydrates – white flour products, refined sugar and refined carbohydrates of any kind; disregard for the laws of chemistry as these apply to the digestion of foods; and constipation.

Dr Hay also taught his patients that although many people, especially young people, build up a tolerance to incompatible mixtures just as people build up a tolerance for increasing doses of irritant poisons, they do so at a very considerable and continuing cost in vitality. This formed tolerance, he warned, is unnatural. But if compatible eating is followed long enough, it can be removed. Then, claimed Dr Hay, ‘you cannot go back to the practice of mixing starches and proteins without immediate notice from your stomach that you have made a mistake – one that you are not likely to repeat’. He promised that two weeks would be sufficient to convince anyone of this, and that the reward for the effort would be greatly improved vitality and health.

Dr Hay never forgot to teach the importance of other adjuvants to health – fresh air, exercise, daily baths, sunshine and rest. Nor did he forget to teach the importance of health to the spiritual man: ‘When the body and mind are in harmony, only then will there be an opportunity for proper spiritual development; for do not forget that the spiritual man is the first man, the mental man the second, and the physical the third man; and only when these second and third are in harmony can there be a proper spiritual state!’

Disbelief

In spite of the ease and speed with which people could prove for themselves the truth of the starch – protein concept, the Hay system received a battering of criticism.

The bitterest attacks came from Dr Hay’s fellow physicians. The teaching of the means of preventing disease had not, in Dr Hay’s time, caught on with the medical profession, simply because their entire teaching had been directed towards the treatment of disease, not its prevention. Dr Hay’s teaching was therefore stark heresy and naturally condemned as such.

As he became more and more convinced of the truth of his findings, so his colleagues became more and more sceptical. Ironically, while realizing success in his treatment of disease beyond his wildest hopes, restoring to normal health countless cases termed hopeless by the highest of medical authorities, he found himself written off as a simple quack. His frustration must have been immense when, armed not only with an inspired idea but also with proof of its truth, he was met with a blank wall of disbelief and incomprehension.

The medical profession was most certainly not ready for Dr Hay’s concepts. At that time doctors were fervent apostles of ‘the germ theory of disease’. They were also enthusiasts for the new wonder-drug era which promised ‘a pill for every ill’; so they believed that there was no need whatsoever for nutritional therapy. His concepts were rejected with scorn and he was constantly subjected to the vehement opposition of entrenched orthodoxy, even to slander, libel and the most diabolical of rumours. But he was a courageous man who never faltered in defending his beliefs and in countering all opposition with lucid and reasoned arguments, never losing his temper or his strong sense of humour. The latter attribute, and his great personal charm, endeared him to his patients and to all who had the good fortune to hear him lecture.

It is significant that many physicians attended his lectures in both England and Scotland, and many of these spoke to Dr Hay afterwards and said they were in full accord with everything he taught. Some admitted that they were students of the Hay system and were using it in their work with their patients. Many, moreover, told of results which could not have been achieved in any other way, except by applying the system with real understanding.

Dr Hay died in 1940, at the age of 74, a year after a serious accident, sadly, just as medical thinking was beginning to appreciate the important relationship of nutrition to health.

Vindication

That Dr Hay was ‘a prophet way ahead of his time’ has now been fully confirmed by the vast change in attitude towards nutrition today by many of the foremost medical authorities in both Britain and the United States. Despite all the marvels of modern medicine, despite the wonder drugs and the astronomical cost of our health services, the health of both nations is deteriorating and disease is attacking at an increasingly early age. Medical authorities are now frankly admitting that medicine is on the wrong track and are urging a switch of emphasis from curative medicine to preventive medicine – to dealing with the causes of disease instead of merely treating the symptoms. As a result, nutrition is now being promoted as the chief priority in preventive medicine. In fact, attention is now being focused as never before on the close relationship of nutrition to health, and on just such concepts as were held 60 years ago by Dr William Howard Hay, gifted surgeon and general practitioner of note. Witness the following signs and portents:

Since the 1950s, medical scientists have produced evidence of the close connection between refined carbohydrates and chemically adulterated foods and such diverse symptoms as allergies, depression, migraine, fatigue, skin diseases, schizophrenia and uncontrolled aggressive behaviour in children. The research, in particular, of Dr Théron Randolph and Dr Ben Feingold in the United States and of Dr Richard Mackarness in Britain, has been outstanding.

The McCarrison Society is pledged ‘to advance education in, and initiate, carry out and sponsor, research into the relationship between nutrition and health’. Formed in 1967, its members consist of doctors, surgeons, dentists, veterinary surgeons and community health workers. The society was named after the internationally-acclaimed British nutritional pioneer, the late Sir Robert McCarrison, whose book Nutrition and Health (McCarrison Society, 1982) should be mandatory reading for all health-conscious people. Dr Hay claimed that he owed much to McCarrison’s teachings.

In 1968, the validity of the germ theory of disease was seriously questioned for the first time in a leading British medical journal. In The Lancet of 18 May, Professor G.T. Stewart revealed its weaknesses in a revolutionary paper: ‘Dogma Disputed, Limitations of the Germ Theory’. Professor Stewart’s message was, in effect, that acceptance of the germ theory as the main cause of infectious disease has been responsible for orthodox medicine overlooking other more important, or equally important, causes such as genetic and metabolic effects, behaviour (smoking etc.), and certain nutritional deficiencies.

In the 1970s, an epoch-making book, The Saccharine Disease by Surgeon Captain T.L. Cleave, started off the present revolutionary medical preoccupation with bran and ‘fibre’, nutrition and preventive medicine. It postulated one common cause of many of the present-day degenerative diseases – the consumption of refined carbohydrates. Moreover, it has become the major reference work for the growing number of medical specialists throughout the world who believe – as Dr Hay did – that our Western-style diet is responsible for the vast amount of disease in today’s society.

Also in the 1970s, another important book, The Role of Medicine: Dream, Mirage or Nemesis, by Professor Thomas McKeown, contained the blunt message that more attention should now be paid to nutrition, and that the modifications of the conditions which lead to disease will achieve more than any medical intervention after the illness has begun. That, too, was Dr Hay’s message.

In 1972, the editor of the British Medical Journal exhorted: ‘We now have to learn the more subtle relationships that exist between nutrition and medicine, and how change in food habits and change in methods of food preparation may affect health. Medical education must keep pace with the rapid advance in this subject.’

In 1977, this same editor wrote: ‘Enthusiasm for fibre is sweeping the world. The journals are full of it, the popular press revels in it, and doctors take time off from prescribing it only to attend international conferences on it … in “discovering” fibre modern man is waking up to the fact that his food is systematically deprived of fibre on its journey from field to grocery shop.’

Also in 1977, the editor of The Lancet stated: ‘About five years ago dietary fibre burst into the consciousness of the medical world, having smouldered at the back of some minds for decades.’

In 1981, research carried out by the consumer magazine Which? discovered that more people than ever were clamouring for drugless treatment. (This, however, is not sufficient – people must also be willing to assume responsibility for keeping themselves fit.)

At the British Medical Association’s 150th annual dinner 14 December 1982, H.R.H. Prince Charles affirmed, in his presidential speech, with reference to drugs: ‘Wonderful as many of them are, it should be more widely stressed by doctors that the health of human beings is so often determined by their behaviour, their food, and the nature of their environment.’

In January 1983, in Homoeopathy Today, a doctor wrote that he advised his patients ‘not to eat high proteins with high carbohydrate foods’, and stressed the importance to health of recognizing the trinity of mind, body and spirit.

Also in 1983, remarkably, the potential for health of ‘fringe medicine’, now elevated to the status of ‘alternative medicine’, was being considered by a new research committee. Hospital Doctor of 14 April reported that ‘Alternative Medicine’ was to be ‘put under the scientific spotlight’ by the Research Council for Complementary Medicine, consisting of both conventional and complementary specialists. This council had been formed ‘because of growing public interest in acupuncture, homoeopathy and herbalism’. The committee believed that it would ‘help to stop the erosion of public confidence in orthodox medicine’.

In June 1983, in his speech on stepping down as president of the British Medical Association, H.R.H. Prince Charles urged: ‘Don’t over-estimate the sophisticated approach to medicine. It seems that account has to be taken of those sometimes long-neglected complementary methods of medicine.’

It would seem his message had the desired effect. On Wednesday 17 August 1983, the national press announced that in a revolutionary move, the British Medical Association was launching an inquiry into all forms of complementary medicine and that some might soon become available on the National Health Service. In the Daily Mail John Illman wrote: ‘The move marks a remarkable about-turn for the BMA, which for years has resisted what has been regarded as “quack medicine”… the background to the BMA move is the growing interest in Britain in health matters and preventive measures against illness.’

In this same article John Illman quoted Dr Malcolm Carruthers, author of The Western Way of Death: ‘There is a crisis of confidence in drugs. No medical system can afford not to take account of the public’s desire to play a larger part in determining their own medical treatment!’

John Illman also quoted Dr Anthony Fry, consultant physician in psychological medicine at Guy’s Hospital: ‘As a profession we have spent too much time giving Valium instead of teaching patients how to relax. We spend too much time treating symptoms and not causes.’ (My emphasis – D.G.) So affirmed Dr William Howard Hay, 60 years ahead of his time, throughout all his writings.

What better vindication could this prophet have than the decision of the British Medical Association to launch an inquiry into complementary medicine?

Since the 1980s, public interest in complementary therapies has continued to grow. Nutritional therapy is no longer seen as unorthodox but as an integrated part of healthcare. Governments have recognized the importance of encouraging people to eat healthily to prevent disease. In the UK, guidelines have been issued such as the ‘five-a-day’ campaign, urging us to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day because of the evidence that this may help to prevent cancer. The popularity of organic food continues to grow with supermarkets stocking an ever-increasing range of organic produce.

In 2003, a World Health Organization report recommended the reduced consumption of saturated fats, sugar and salt, especially in snacks and processed foods and drinks – these are automatically eliminated in the Hay diet.

A New Health Era

It would appear from these ‘signs and portents’ that the ‘new health era’ so dear to Dr Hay’s heart has indeed begun. If this book contributes to this era, even in a small way, by helping its readers to achieve greater health and happiness, its authors will perhaps have repaid a small part of the great debt they both owe Dr Hay for countless benefits received from his teachings. How better to end this chapter than in his own words:

To really live is to be in exuberant health continually, and when in that condition nothing palls on one, nothing is devoid of interest, and life is the swellest job in the world. When in splendid health every breath we draw is filled with inspiration, everything we do is full of interest, there are so many things to do, so much to accomplish, so many delectable prospects in life that even if we are poor and unknown we still may fully enjoy life, for life is a splendid thing if we are really alive.

CHAPTER TWO The Hay System Explained (#ulink_616ac411-2b6d-539f-8a1b-29d3ad8cc76b)

There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come.

The Hay system consists of five important rules:

1 Starches and sugars should not be eaten with proteins and acid fruits at the same meal.

2 Vegetables, salads and fruits should form the major part of the diet.

3 Proteins, starches and fats should be eaten in small quantities.

4 Only whole-grain and unprocessed starches should be used, and all refined processed foods should be taboo – in particular, white flour and sugar and all foods made with them, and highly processed fats such as margarine.

5 An interval of at least four to four-and-a-half hours should elapse between meals of different character.

The cardinal rule of the Hay system – not mixing carbohydrates (i.e., starches and sugars) with proteins and acid fruits – is generally misunderstood, although based on sound physiological principles long existing and long forgotten. In order to understand this rule it is therefore necessary to explain the classification of carbohydrates and proteins in the context of compatible food combinations:

The proteins are concentrated (20 per cent or more) animal proteins such as meat, fish, cheese and poultry.

The carbohydrates are concentrated (20 per cent or more) starches, such as grains, bread and cereals, potatoes; and sugars.