Maye Musk was the victim of an out-of-control sweet tooth. But once she declared her home a treat-free zone, she was able to lose 60 pounds. For years, Maye had struggled with a seemingly insatiable appetite. “Once I started eating, I couldn’t stop,” says the San Francisco model and registered dietitian. “I didn’t get full [...]

This appendix covers the drugs commonly used in allergy, and in some of the other conditions discussed in this book. Where food plays a part in such an illness, it may often be a question of deciding whether to alter the diet or control the symptoms with drugs. Almost all drugs have some side-effects and [...]

If you go through the withdrawal symptoms, feel greatly improved for a while, but then begin to go downhill again, this is a rather bad sign. It does not happen to many people, but if it does happen to you then you need to think very carefully about the situation. The most likely explanation is [...]

The purpose of the elimination diet is to ask your body questions about the foods it has to cope with, and give it a chance to tell you which ones make it ill. In order to hear the answers, you need a period of ‘silence’ – that is, a period with no symptoms at all. [...]

Even if the child is showing hyperkinetic syndrome, the problem may still be emotional rather than dietary, but certain clues point to food or additives as the triggers. Physical symptoms, such as muscle aches, stomach aches, rashes, headaches or bowel problems, usually accompany the mental symptoms in those who are sensitive to something in their [...]

Proteins make up our skin, hair and bones. They are major components of the nerves, blood and all other cells in the body. Specialized proteins in the muscles produce contraction by sliding over each other. Another hard-working protein, called haemoglobin, carries oxygen around in the blood, while strong, elastic proteins make up our tendons and [...]

When the black death, the plague, raged in the Middle Ages, terrified people scoured the woods and marshes for medicinal herbs. They dug up angelica by the running streams and in damp clearings, for they felt certain that this plant would help them. Next to a plant called butterbur (in German, ‘plague root’), angelica was [...]

Athlete’s foot and nail mycosis are stubborn infections. It is easy to acquire the fungus from infected scales of skin dropped on the floor of changing rooms in public swimming baths, or through contact with persons who suffer from the infection. If you want to treat these infections successfully you will have to cut the [...]

A healthy, unrefined diet will supply sufficient calcium, fluoride and other important elements to keep the dentine and enamel in perfect condition. Primitive people have such beautiful teeth because their crude diet supplies all the elements they need to preserve their teeth in a healthy condition, whereas we, with our denatured food, suffer from all [...]

I have noticed many times that we cannot be too careful with birthmarks. Take care not to scratch them; they are best left alone, for to try and get rid of them by means of remedies or surgery is not without danger. In fact, it can mean that cancer cells, which might be present, begin [...]