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

Copyright

Thorsons

An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published October 1984

© Doris Grant and Jean Joice 1984, 1989, 1991, 2004

Foreword © John Mills 1984

Doris Grant and Jean Joice assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780722525067

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2012 ISBN 9780007373918

Version: 2016-10-04

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Foreword

Introduction – A Personal Experience

An Appreciation – Doris Grant 1905–2003

Part One: The Theory and the Proof by Doris Grant

1 A Great Pioneer

2 The Hay System Explained

3 The Hay System and the Degenerative Diseases

4 Butter – Not Margarine

5 The Proof of the Pudding …

Part Two: The Hay System in Practice by Jean Joice

6 How to Begin

7 Menu Planning and Suggestions

Table of Compatible Foods

Part Three: Recipes for Protein Meals

8 Soups and Starters

9 Salads, Dressings and Sauces

10 Main Dishes

11 Vegetables

12 Desserts

Part Four: Recipes for Starch Meals

13 Soups

14 Salads

15 Main Dishes

16 Desserts

17 Bread

Appendix – Acid- and Alkali-forming Foods

Further Reading

Resources

Index

Recipe Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author

About the Publisher

INTRODUCTION A Personal Experience

As we eat so are we; our health is made or marred with our feet under the dinner table.

Food Combining for Health was first published in October 1984. Three months later it became a runaway bestseller as grateful and enthusiastic readers spread the word among their relatives and friends. By January 1986 it was arousing such interest that the Cumberland Hotel in London opened a buffet serving delicious Hay system lunches. The book has also created great interest abroad and, apart from an American edition selling in the United States and Canada, it has been published in Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Hebrew, Greek, Serbo-Croat and Finnish.

This is a wonderful tribute to the efficacy of the Hay system, and its success is constantly confirmed by the countless letters Jean and I receive from converts. Many claim that it has changed their lives – in some cases miraculously. Knowing that the Hay system does not ‘cure’ but merely allows the body to heal itself, we are continually amazed at the extraordinary inbuilt healing powers of the body revealed in these letters, and the unbelievable speed with which they often work. Readers report agonizing arthritic pains removed within two weeks; allergies and psoriasis of long standing completely gone in four days; chronic migraine and hay fever banished in a matter of weeks; two pounds of excess weight shed in one week without counting calories or feeling hungry. Many more similar cases have been reported.

It was the efficacy and speed with which the Hay system resolved my own health problems that turned me into a lifelong follower. In my late 20s, severely painful rheumatoid trouble in my joints nearly crippled me and took all the fun out of life. When all the usual medical therapies had been applied with no effect whatsoever, a doctor-cousin came to the rescue with a very unorthodox prescription. It consisted of three columns of foods – proteins, starches and acid fruits – accompanied with the instruction: ‘Don’t mix foods that fight!’

By the end of just one week this unusual prescription, conscientiously carried out, produced a totally unexpected bonus: the complete termination of nagging indigestion pains which had plagued me for 15 years. After another week there were more unexpected results: an ability to think more clearly than formerly and a great general feeling of wellbeing which inspired me to carry on. By the end of four weeks all the rheumatoid pains had gone and have never returned.

After a year I felt like a new woman. I was tireless and filled with a new energy that I had never before experienced. The more difficult the task, the more I welcomed it as a challenge to my newly found health and abilities. Yet, apart from not eating meat or acid fruits (apples, oranges, pears, grapefruit, etc.) with bread or sugared foods at the same meal, there had been no other change in my diet. I knew nothing whatsoever about whole foods, and was still eating white bread and refined sugar, to whose potential dangers I had not been alerted. This fact is of the highest significance; it provided unique evidence that ‘not mixing foods that fight’ really works. It also demolishes the claim by sceptics that any benefit derived from the Hay system is entirely due to a changeover to whole-food eating. During the past 40 years I have received many letters from life-long ‘whole-fooders’ who had been unable to resolve their health problems until adopting the Hay lifestyle.

Towards the end of my first year of compatible eating I discovered and carefully read Dr William Howard Hay’s inspiring book A New Health Era, and I found that there was much more to the Hay system than ‘not mixing foods that fight’. As a result of reading this book my diet improved still further. I felt I had set out on a marvellous adventure. I have to admit, though, that departing from orthodox eating habits was not at first a rose-strewn path. Relations and friends, especially medical friends, pooh-poohed the idea of any connection between food and health, and thought I had taken leave of my senses, whereas I was, in fact, just beginning to come to them. Friends argued that I was going to miss out on all the joys of eating: ‘What, no sugar? – no biscuits and cheese? – no apple tart? You poor thing!’

I found, however, that this way of eating was in no sense a wearisome, calorie-counting diet of constant self-denial, but was instead a delicious way of eating which ensures health and fitness, and minimizes the necessity for medical treatment. The fitter I became, the more convinced I was that we hold our health in our own hands to a very large extent.

By the end of four years of compatible eating I produced a much longed-for second child nine years after my first-born, despite warnings from doctor and gynaecologist after the first birth that I could never have any more children; there had been serious complications after an emergency Caesarean operation. But they had reckoned without the healing powers of compatible eating! Moreover, the second birth, according to the gynaecologist, was a ‘textbook demonstration of a beautifully normal birth’!

By the end of another three years I had proof in plenty of these healing powers, while writing long weekly articles on the Hay system for a well-known national Sunday newspaper – the now defunct Sunday Graphic – in 1936 and 1937. These articles continued for nine months and generated enormous interest, bringing into the Graphic office hundreds of letters every week.

The letters were an education, and most revealing: their almost monotonous burden was the virtually complete failure of medical treatment as far as the degenerative diseases were concerned; the ‘wonder drugs’ never effected the hoped-for cure. Often there were recitals of complete disaster in treatment, and of the ‘cure’ being far worse than the disease, frequently proving fatal.

As the weeks and months passed, however, there were many accounts from followers of the articles of greatly improved health. The benefits of the Hay system were often felt even within the first week. There were also reports of increased zest for living; depression replaced by optimism; digestion pains eliminated; freedom from colds; arthritic pains lessened and movement freer; and constipation a thing of the past. Many readers reported great relief from tiredness and chronic sleeplessness. One of the most unforgettable letters was from a woman of 70 who wrote: ‘I feel well for the first time in my life!’

These accounts provided convincing proof of Dr Hay’s contention: that the primary cause of disease is not the outside germ which always gets the blame, but the inside state of the body-soil, created mainly by wrong living habits and wrong eating habits.

The explanation for all this lies in the fact that the Hay system removes the obstacles created by these habits, which prevent the inbuilt healing powers of the body from restoring perfect health and wholeness. In other words, the Hay system allows the body to heal itself. The tremendous interest that this book has aroused, and the superior health and fitness that so many followers are now enjoying – some for the first time in their lives – is a reflection of the worldwide interest in healthy eating today. It would appear that Dr Hay’s ‘new health era’ is now well and truly with us.

Doris Grant

AN APPRECIATION Doris Grant 1905–2003

It was Doris Grant’s realization that we can all be as well as we wish to be, following her own speedy restoration to health after discovering the Hay system of food combining, that led her to study nutrition and its relation to health.

After meeting Dr William Howard Hay she produced two books based on the American editions of Hay system recipes and menus. The letters she received convinced her of the need to study further and her research into food, how it is grown and produced and its effect on human health, was wide-ranging and meticulous. She once said that it was like living in an exciting detective novel as more and more clues and discoveries emerged.

In 1944 her classic book Your Daily Bread established her as an author and doughty campaigner for natural whole food and wholewheat bread, then practically unobtainable unless made at home. Her easy no-knead recipe for bread became known as the Grant loaf and a sample was even brandished during a House of Lords debate on the use of so-called ‘improvers’ in white flour.

Doris wrote for women and their families, as titles such as Dear Housewives imply. Her style was friendly and direct but she pulled no punches when it came to describing the harm that could be caused by the use of agene in bread flour:

If you love your husbands, keep them away from white bread … if you don’t love them, cyanide is quicker, but bleached bread is just as certain and no questions asked.

Countless families have been influenced by her ideas for a balanced diet, her excellent recipes and her insistence on the importance of fresh, whole food. She had no time for highly-processed foods, especially the various margarines containing trans-fats that threaten our health.

Doris was a founder member of the Henry Doubleday Research Association and her extensive research and wide knowledge brought her into contact with many medical and other health professionals. She was a member of the prestigious McCarrison Society and corresponded regularly with many leading nutritionists who all respected her views, even if they didn’t always agree with them.

Her championship of the Hay system was a case in point. She remained a strict adherent to food combining principles throughout her long life and always said that she owed Dr Hay a debt of gratitude for her excellent health. The debt was certainly paid, for Food Combining for Health has remained a steady seller since its publication in 1984. Although the medical establishment has never quite come to terms with the Hay theory of digestion, anecdotal evidence in countless letters has shown that the system can indeed improve health and wellbeing.

Whatever Doris did was done with enthusiasm and integrity. Her capacity for sheer hard work even in her nineties was quite extraordinary. She always acknowledged most generously the help of friends and colleagues and, in particular, the support of her husband and family. She was a loyal friend and colleague and is greatly missed by all who knew her and have been inspired by her example and wise counsel.

Jean Joice, December 2003

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