“Let food be your medicine, and let medicine be your food.”
Hippocrates
In the mid-1950s, Ann Wigmore was in a mess. She needed help suffering from gangrene in her legs after a car accident and colon cancer. The doctors wanted to amputate her legs. She wanted an alternative. Born in Lithuania, which her grandmother partially raised, she remembered how her grandmother treated wounded soldiers returning from the First World War with herbs and weeds.
Ann experimented with various herbs and raw food and eventually cured both gangrene and cancer. Dissatisfied with overcoming the disease, she started researching to improve her health. This led to the creation of the Hippocratic Institute of Health with Viktoras Kulvinskas in Boston in 1958. years.
Guided by Hippocrates’ saying, “Let food be your medicine,” Ann set to work using raw foods such as sprouts, weed and grass juices, and fermentation. Wheatgrass became the main element because it was the easiest and cheapest to grow.
Wigmore died in a fire at her institute at the age of 83. years. Her work continues through institutes such as Ann Wigmore National Institutes of Health in Puerto Rico, the Ann Wigmore Foundation of New Mexico, and the Hippocrates Health Institute, which she founded and is currently managed by Brian Clement of West Palm Beach, Florida.
Hippocrates’ health program
Hippocrates’ approach developed over the years but remained true to Wigmore’s original research. The enzymes found in raw foods are the cornerstone of a healthy diet. Since enzymes are destroyed when food is heated to over 70 degrees, raw uncooked food is essential for our health.
Vegetables also play a key role, more so than fruits, in this program. Young vegetables such as white greens and sprouts are highly recommended. Germs are grown from beans, cereals, and seeds. Germs are used in salads and juices. The juice is often used to get the most out of fruits and vegetables without effort on the digestive system, especially during fasting.
The juice that is most associated with Ann Wigmore is wheatgrass juice. Chlorophyll, which is considered the plant’s blood and has human blood characteristics, can be obtained in concentrated quantities from various herbs’ juices; it is the best grass of blueberries.
Fermented food was part of the Hippocrates program under Wigmore’s administration, although it has recently fallen out of favor. Rejuvelac, a fermented grain drink, is still widely consumed.
In addition to this choice of foods, the Hippocrates program includes ideas regarding the proper combination of foods in a meal and cleansing. Eating certain foods together can lead to digestive problems and nutrients not absorbed properly. Cleaning the body must eliminate toxins acquired over the years by consuming the standard American and European diet.
Enzymes
Probably the best reason to want to eat raw food is enzymes. Cooking food above 117 degrees kills enzymes in food. According to Hippocrates’ theory, people are given only a certain amount of enzymes at birth. We lose enzymes when our bodies fight illness and stress. Enzyme deficiency leads to many health problems, such as heart disease and certain cancers.
By eating raw food, we can replenish enzymes and renew the body. Wigmore called enzymes the working force of the body. Enzymes are the life energy that metabolism is at work. The faster a person depletes enzyme stores, the faster he dies.
Wigmore wrote that enzymes are the key to Hippocrates’ diet. By digesting and breaking down food in the stomach, the body absorbs and uses nutrients more easily. The digestive system does not have to work as much, making more energy available for life and protection from disease.
When a person eats a raw diet primarily, it is easier for him to cleanse, repair, and renew his body. And enzymes are one of the reasons. By not cooking food above 117 degrees, you keep the enzymes necessary for good health.
Wheat grass
When you think of Ann Wigmore, you have to think of wheatgrass. Most of us do not know the main role that grass has and still plays in developing life on this planet. The grain from which we make bread comes from grass seeds. And, of course, so many animals survive on the grass. Herbs have been used for centuries as medicine in Eastern and Western cultures. Chlorophyll is a key ingredient in herbs that makes it so valuable.
Chlorophyll helps to oxygenate the blood. A diet rich in fats and proteins causes the blood to run out of oxygen. This, in turn, leads to less energy, poor digestion, and a weaker immune system. It can also cause cancer.
Exercise is certainly important for getting oxygen into the blood. But food can also help. Raw fruits, vegetables, juices, and sprouts contain chlorophyll, which is almost identical to human blood because it carries oxygen.
Wigmore discovered that one of the best sources of chlorophyll in wheatgrass juice. (Wheatgrass itself is too fibrous to eat.) Agricultural chemist Charles Schnabel conducted the original research in the 1930s. He dried the grass and sold it in cans. According to Wigmore’s writings, chlorophyll in wheatgrass is good for cleansing the blood, internal organs, and digestive system. It also lowers blood pressure by dilating arteries. It increases the number of red blood cells and stimulates metabolism.
The chlorophyll of wheatgrass is concentrated with vitamins, minerals, and live enzymes. Wigmore used it to treat ulcers and colitis, cleanse the colon and strengthen the immune system. She also used other herbs and seeds to extract chlorophyll from plants.
Brian Clement, the current director of the Hippocrates Institute, writes that chlorophyll of wheatgrass cleanses toxins’ body and suppresses the growth of bacteria. Wheatgrass juice is not very stable and should be consumed soon after preparation. Also, this juice is so strong that it can cause nausea or indigestion.
Calls
Another key contribution that Ann Wigmore has made to a better understanding of the components of a healthier diet is that sprouts are a source of super nutrition. According to her theory, enzymes reach the peak of activity between the second and seventh day after emergence.
Historically, germs have been used in various cultures to treat many diseases. The Chinese discovered them thousands of years ago. Germs contain significant amino acids (protein blocks), high levels of vitamins and minerals.
Germs have been declared “the food that is richest in enzymes on the planet.” Estimates suggest that germs may contain up to 100 times more enzymes than fruits and vegetables, depending on the type of enzyme and the variety of germinated seeds. The maximum enzyme activity in germs is mainly between germination and 7 days of age. “
Isabell Shipard, Naturopath
Germination of seeds, cereals, nuts, and legumes is a simple first step in the germination process that anyone could easily incorporate into their eating habits. The seed contains metabolic inhibitors that protect it while it is at rest. These inhibitors make the seeds less useful for the human body. By soaking, which starts the germination process, the inhibitors are removed, and the seeds begin to grow. At this point, starches become sugars, proteins become amino acids, and fats become soluble fatty acids.
I soak various nuts and seeds, telling you that they taste much better after soaking. Only they become moldy as quickly as possible when you carry them with you if you don’t keep them in the fridge.
The best thing about sprouts is that they can be grown cheaply and easily at home. Even automatic devices are available, making this aspect of healthy food production quite efficient.
Juices
While others are better known for promoting the value of drinking fruit and vegetable juices, Wigmore was first to include juices in her diet. Wheatgrass was not the only thing she extracted juice from.
In addition to fruit juices, vegetables and sprouts contribute to the Hippocratic diet. Germs are considered the ultimate live food for juice because they are the crudest of all raw foods. Vegetables are added for flavor.
Juices’ advantage is that you can consume vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, and sugars without creating great stress on the digestive system. Juices also add electrolytes and oxygen to the blood. Juices make the perfect drink to drink throughout the post. Juices are one way to supplement your diet without using supplements made in a chemical laboratory.
Fruits and vegetables
The Hippocrates health program places a much greater emphasis on vegetables than fruits. In fact, vegetables make up the bulk of the diet. It is recommended to eat large salads. By big salads, I mean, according to Wigmore, you should eat for half an hour!
In addition to the obvious benefits of vitamins, minerals, and proteins, vegetables also provide the natural fiber needed to exercise the colon and remove waste from our systems. Young greens are probably the best to eat.
Sea vegetables play an important role in the diet of Hippocrates. Because they are grown in the ocean, they can make available to humans minerals and trace elements that are not available from plants grown on land. Dulse, seaweed, nori, wakame, and others should be eaten daily.
Dulce and algae can be used to replace salt in your diet.
If you follow Hippocrates’ plan, you will not eat much fruit; only two to five pieces a day are recommended. However, Wigmore really recommends fruits, especially bananas, for weight loss. As far as I understand, although the emphasis is on eating vegetables, significant consumption of fruits is not discouraged.
Rejuvelac
Grind half a cup of sprouted pine seeds, put them in a few jars full of water, cover with gauze and let it stand for three or four days, and you will get Rejuvelac. Ann Wigmore recommended that eight to sixteen ounces of this fermented beverage be consumed daily. Wigmore thought that fermented food was good for the colon.
Cleaning and fasting
It often happens that when people start eating mostly raw food, they initially go through a period of cleansing and instead feel better. This is the cleaning phase. As the body releases toxins, many symptoms of the disease appear. This is just an inconvenience because a lot of accumulated waste leaves your system.
Wigmore recommended watermelon and watermelon juice for breakfast, Rejuvelac or juices between meals, fruit, and two large salads a day, with the addition of a diet of wheatgrass juice, sea vegetables, and green drinks from sprouts and vegetables. Rest, walking, and stretching were also included.
Colon cleansing is a big part of Hippocrates’ program. The large intestine is the primary organ for disposing solid waste for the body. Years of eating food he shouldn’t have eaten leave him clogged and poor. Also, most people have few healthy bacteria and many bad species due to taking prescription antibiotics or consuming antibiotics and hormones in the meat we eat.
In addition to eating raw foods, Wigmore was a big fan of enemas, wheatgrass, and colon implants. In some parts of the raw food movement, this has been taken to extremes, and some people even seem to be dependent on the above methods.
Although Wigmore did not initially recommend it, Fasting is now part of the Hippocratic program. Fasting one day a week on juices and purified water is part of the detoxification process. Instead of quickly saturating only on water, which will release huge amounts of toxins from its stored places in the body, fruit and vegetable juice slows down the process and represents a more pleasant form of fasting.
Combining food
A healthy diet is not just what you eat, and it also flows when you eat. Most of us eat multiple meals at once. Eating a certain food together, known as a combination of foods, can slow down the digestion process, and then we will not absorb all the nutrients from what we eat.
One of the Hippocratic diet goals is to enable the body to use food quickly and easily and then eliminate it. Understanding the right combination of foods will help make this happen. It is not enough to eat live food; you must eat it in a combination that promotes health.
Food that enters the body must be digested to release its nutrients. Two aspects of digestion are affected by the way these foods are combined. One is that protein foods that enter the stomach require acidic juices to be digested, while starchy foods need alkaline juices. When both types of food enter the stomach together, they tend to cancel each other’s digestive juices.
Another aspect of digestion is that different foods are digested at different rates. If the digested food enters faster after the one that is digested more slowly, the faster food will not be digested properly, which leads to a slowing down of digestion and poor absorption of nutrients.
Proper food combination includes the following guidelines:
1. Mono meals are best. That means eating only one food while sitting. Watermelon for breakfast makes a great purifying mono meal.
2. All melons, because they are digested much faster than any other food, should always be eaten alone.
3. Fruit is divided into acidic, insufficiently acidic, and sweet. These three types have different amounts of sugar and water and are digested at different rates. You can eat subacid fruit sour or sweet, but you should not eat sour and sweet together.
4. Do not mix fruits and vegetables.
5. Do not mix starch with proteins.
6. Do not drink with a meal.
7. Eat raw food before cooking.
Some of this may sound familiar to you if you’ve ever read Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. The Diamonds popularized the idea of properly combining foods back in 1985.
Three phases
Hippocrates ’health program today includes the concept that becoming a vegan of raw foods is a twenty-one-year journey. The holistic approach is that the program includes body, mind, and spirit.
The first stage answers the question: what am I made of? During the first seven years, you renew and energize your body. Physical changes include more strength and flexibility, a better digestive system, proper weight, and excellent health.
The second phase concerns the mind and answers the question: who am I? After achieving a more comfortable physical presence, the practitioner works for the next seven years towards better emotional health. Once the physical problems are overcome, the person can work on the mental aspect. Some, including me, would argue that mentally it should come sooner or at the same time.
The third phase raises the question: Why am I here? This is the spiritual phase, and now that the mind and body are healthy, one can begin the spiritual journey. Again, you could ask whether it is necessary to wait fourteen years before spirituality and health are taken into account. I believe that Brian Clement developed three phases, and I am not sure if Ann Wigmore would support that idea.
Best of the Ann Wigmore and Hippocrates Health Program
Ann Wigmore must be appreciated for being a pioneering messenger of raw food and live enzymes. I know intuitively that raw is better than cooked, but why? These are enzymes. Knowing this, it’s a little easier … to digest.
Germinate the seeds and get more nutrients from them. It’s simple and fast. Grow your sprouts. Ann Wigmore’s focus on germ benefits is something most people overlook. It makes sense to germinate and germinate seeds right in our homes. Germs are living food at their peak.
Although I can’t say that wheatgrass juice is something that everyone should drink, I greet Wigmore for drawing attention to the benefits of chlorophyll. You cannot stress the consumption of green leafy plants enough.
And last but not least, the benefit of drinking vegetable juice. I was a big fan of juices back in the 1980s thanks to The Juiceman, Jai Kordich, but I stopped making juices a few years ago. I’m tired of drinking carrot porridge every day. But Wigmore explains why we should squeeze all kinds of vegetables as a healthy dietary supplement. I also really like the idea of fasting on juices one day a week to rest the digestive system.
