Extract from Living Foods for Radiant health by Elaine Bruce

From Chapter 1 Natural healing with Living Foods, yesterday and today

The need for an up to date practical manual about the Living Foods lifestyle has become increasingly apparent during the last few years. The early books on the subject were written many years ago by the late Dr Ann Wigmore, who was the original pioneer of the Living Foods Programme and the greatest exponent of the use of wheatgrass juice. Since then there has been a widespread interest in raw food diets, juicing, and the nutritive and healing qualities of wheatgrass juice. This has been reflected in many useful and timely books on juicing and sprouting seeds. The last decade has also seen renewed interest in the early scientific studies of grass juices as well as related contemporary studies and clinical trials using nutrition as a therapeutic tool.
There are now many thousands of well-informed people, from the USA to Europe, from Japan to Australia, who wish to take responsibility for their own health. Among them are patients, parents, young people and their grandparents, all looking for a consciously chosen lifestyle to counter and minimize the effects of contemporary pollutions and pressures. If you have picked up this book for any of these reasons, welcome to a significant movement towards natural, rational health. This book is for you.
About this book
The present book aims to give you a comprehensive, up to date guide to the ultimate in healthy lifestyles. It takes you through every aspect of establishing the Living Foods Lifestyle for yourself. It addresses the needs of people today, in the context of today’s conditions and diseases, and offers appropriate corrective measures. It is written for those who wish to adopt this way of living as a whole or in part, to improve their present level of health and energy, and as an insurance policy for the future. The component parts of the full Programme, and discussion of the reasoning behind each part, are presented throughout the book. There is also a brief outline of the residential courses at the UK Centre for Living Foods, partly because everything in the book is included in the courses, and partly to emphasise that this is an accessible experience. We are not discussing theoretical possibilities, nor advising you to attempt something new or untried. Whether you decide to attend a course or start on your own, this book aims to reflect accurately the total picture, and to reassure you that many thousands of people have already started down this path.

Sunshine Food: some history.
Early in the last century, food reformers and natural health experts were concerned about poor eating habits and increasing ill health.
The philanthropist Oliver Cabana established his “Sun-Diet Sanatorium” in New York State in approximately 1920. He later appointed as Director Dr. William Howard Hay, whose advice on food combining, popularly known as the “Hay Diet” is still followed today.
The description of a healthy. part raw diet as “Sunlight Dishes” was coined as long ago as 1926 by Dr. Max Bircher-Benner, renowned for his successful treatment of TB patients.
As a new generation of enthusiasts for raw food emerges, variations on this theme make their appearance once again. However to Dr. Ann Wigmore must go our acknowledgement for the first and the last word on the subject of the supreme raw food: chlorophyll. Her practice and her writing went straight to the heart of the nutritive power of raw plants. As far as I know she never gave the label liquid sunshine to wheat grass juice, although this is what we call it at the UK Centre, because it describes it well and because of the way it can make you feel.

Dr. Ann’s Courses in Today’s world
Dr. Ann originally taught people to set up their own Living Foods kitchens. She gave her guests the healing and detoxifying experience of Living Foods, and, something which is sometimes overlooked, she set all this In the context of ages old naturopathic practice. She also called on women to fulfil their potential; to become healthy and strong so they could take a lead in teaching good nutrition at home and elsewhere to meet the increasing health challenges of the time.

Today’s living conditions, worldwide, are even more challenging than they were forty years ago. Pollution of water and air are widespread, chemically produced food is beginning to betray its legacy of ill health, processed and junk food have taken the place of fresh home cooking, and the soil is depleted in minerals. However, the picture is very far from negative. For every aspect of today’s problematic living conditions there are constantly evolving solutions; there is new research and the rediscovery of old methods. A great part of the solution lies in our own determination to be well and to bring up healthy children. There are still more women than men attending Living Foods classes but the men are now coming in increasing numbers too.

Naturopathic principles
Naturopathic principles are the glue which forms all this varied information into an integrated whole. Consequently to follow the Living Foods Lifestyle requires a greater personal investment than accepting conventional medical and nutritional wisdom without question. It offers in return a degree of control over our own health, which in itself is a powerful aid to healing.

Elaine Bruce, Director of the UK Centre for Living Foods, has presented the Living Foods Programme for today’s readers, in the UK and further afield. Every aspect is included and for the first time the naturopathic context is fully explained.
There are detailed chapters on pollution, soil care and personal care not found in the earlier books, and a synthesis of useful nutrition information brought together from leading experts. Whether a longstanding raw foodie or a newcomer, you will find much to interest you.