Nutrition: Summary of Lectures
‡ Folgendes hat anthroposofische Einschlüße ‡
[Otto Wolff]
Summary
Report on the Sixth Annual conference of Doctors, Medical Students and
Therapists in Wilton, New Hampshire - June, 1982
The theme
of this year's conference was Nutrition. The conference was dedicated to Karl
E. Schaefer, M.D., who was the motivating and focal personality who brought
together doctors, medical students, therapists and teachers
in major
yearly conferences and numerous regional conferences on Anthroposophical
Medicine over the past decade. Dr. Schaefer died just after Christmas, 1981. Though
his physical presence was sorely missed, his spiritual presence was felt by
many whose lives he had touched, weaving a remarkable harmony and strength into
our work this year.
Mornings
began with hygienic speech led by Brad Riley, a speech therapist and artist. The
morning core content of lectures was given by Dr. Otto Wolff of Arlesheim,
Switzerland. Dr. Wolff covered aspects of nutrition, incl.
the reasons
for eating, the role of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in our diet and their correspondence
to the members of man's being, the way certain substances are handled by the
human organization (such as steroids and endogenous hormones like vitamin D),
thereby creating unique substances suitable for the entry of higher soul and
spirit activities. Discussions of specific foods and diets -- meat and pork,
milk, vegetables, the grains, the differences among plant and animal oils,
butter and margarine -- were developed in the context of their roles in healthy
and diseased constitutions. The role of sugar in relation to the forces of the
ego was stressed. Finally, the proper preparation of foods and the function of
vitamins were discussed. In the afternoon sessions for doctors and therapists.
Dr. Wolff spoke about dietary therapies for a variety of clinical disorders,
including obesity,
rheumatic
fever, kidney diseases, the cancers, liver disease, sugar craving,
arteriosclerosis and the diseases of aging, and diabetes. For those familiar
with Dr. Wolff's extraordinary style, this "taste" of his
comprehensive knowledge served to whet our collective appetite for the menu of
next year's conference (see announcement at end of this Bulletin)!
There were
curative eurythmy and therapeutic speech sessions with Ruth Finser and Brad
Riley each afternoon. These wonderful artists poured themselves into the
healing stream of the conference.
Evening
lectures by attending physicians and guests brought a flood of information
unknown before this year. Included were presentations by Charles Davisson,
M.D., on "The Gerson Cancer Diet as Adjunct Therapy," and
by Warren
Metzler, M.D. on "Homeopathy and the Use of High Potency Remedies." There
were case presentations by Dr. Kaisy Lawrence, and Dr. Richard Fried from
Camphill Village at Beaver Run, PA. spoke on the
"Attaining
of the Therapeutic Moment" when working with children in need of special
care. Mark Eisen, M.D. gave a "Review of the Pathophysiology and Rationale
for the Treatment vs. Non-Treatment of Fever."
Dr. Michael
Evans, a guest from the Park-Atwood Clinic in England, spoke on the "State
of Anthroposophical Medicine in Great Britain." Professor Maria Linder, a
biochemist from the University of California, gave several presentations on the
"Role of Cholesterol-like Substances in Human Biochemistry." We were
fortunate to have Herr W. Junge, the developer of oil dispersion baths, give a
talk on recent experiments documenting the efficacy
of the
baths.
There were
64 people present at the conference this year, including 27 doctors and medical
students, nearly as many nurses, therapists, and teachers, and other interested
persons. It is our desire to enhance the scope of these conferences with broad
participation by the helping professions.
Summary of
Monday, June 21, 1982
There are
many controversial theories on nutrition and there are many kinds of
therapeutic diets. In practice, they all have success rates. How is this
possible? With a closer look we realize that the cure of a patient has come
about not
only through a change in diet, but also through a change of consciousness, a
different attitude towards the food, different ways of preparing the food, etc.
If we understand the nature of the food we eat, we can make informed choices
without becoming diet fanatics. Carbohydrate, fat and protein (and vitamins and
minerals) are the bearers or lire. They also contain a certain number of
calories, but to live, we need food which still contains
life ("vivum
e vivo," Francesco Redi).
What is the
essence of protein? The nitrogen (N) which is characteristic of protein,
accepts the forces of the astral world. Nitrogen is the main component of air,
and for the ancient Greeks "pneuma" meant both "air" and
"soul."
For astral
forces to manifest themselves in a living substance (animals, humans), nitrogen
(N) is necessary. Living substance becomes feeling substance by ensoulment
through the activity of nitrogen.
Protein
consists of four elements, C, N, H, and O. One could also say the four elements
are neutralized here in a unit; they form a compound, not a mixture. The
integrating element is sulfur (S) which works as a catalyst.
Sulfur (S)
represents cosmic warmth and is needed to bring the four elements in protein
together. Human protein is specific and each individual has its own
characteristic protein, which becomes more individualized with age.
The astral
forces work in two different ways:
1. During sleep they give a direction to the
etheric body through anabolic processes (upbuilding).
2. During waking they give a direction to
catabolic processes and thereby we become conscious.
How can
this be followed down into the biochemistry? During the breakdown of proteins
the astral forces are freed. This breakdown can happen in two ways. The basic N
- elimination occurs via oxydative deamination, where oxygen is added and the
corresponding alpha-keto-acid is formed. This is now a deastralized substance
belonging to the carboydrate and fat types of metabolism.
Ammonia is
then synthesized to urea and excreted via the kidneys. The astralic forces
which are freed can work either via the nerve-sense system (that is, catabolic
processes downwards, resulting in consciousness) or via
"kidney
radiations," or anabolic processes upwards.
The other
type of protein breakdown is decarboxylation: C02 is removed.
In this
substance oxygen is lacking and the C - N bond suggests that this substance is
on the way to the cyanides, highly toxic substances that block any oxidation. This
is a challenge for the organism, and in the process of detoxifying these
substances, we become conscious. A typical reaction of this sort is the
decarboxylation of histadine to form the potently vasoactive substance,
histamine.
Summary of
Tuesday, June 22, 1982
Fats are
substances that are poor in oxygen (a substance which leads materials into the
earthly state). Fats contain light and heat in abundance; 9.3 Kcal/gm vs. 4.1
Kcal/gm for carbohydrates and protein. All light and life
originate
from the cosmic light of the sun. As such, fats are bearers of higher life
(Zoe) which will not readily mix with water, the bearer of lower life (Bios). Emulsification
is necessary to Join the two -- bile, a complex fat derivative, serves this
function in humans.
Cholesterol
is a lipoid, or fat-like substance. It is present in abundance in cell
membranes, the brain, the skin, and the adrenal gland; these latter are all of
ectodermal origin. In the adrenal gland we see the medulla, which
makes
biogenic amines (epinephrine, etc.). These substances promote catabolism, which
has to do with forces of awakeness. The medulla is surrounded by the cortex
which elaborates steroids and other hormones which
promote
anabolism. The multipotential quality of cholesterol allows it to serve as an
"emulsifier" for the lower, biologic life and the higher soul life. Cholesterol
is a substance which represents a combination of forces.
Its very
bulkiness and emphasis on the C-H bond reflects its relationship to anabolic
(etheric) forces. Its transformational ability allows it to receive higher,
organizing and modeling (astralic) impulses and to carry them right
into the
life activities, giving the latter direction. The body produces 8-10 gms of
cholesterol daily.
In bile,
cholic acid is the predominant substance, having a greater affinity for the
watery environment of the enterohepatic circulation. If there is inadequate
transformation of the cholesterol on the one hand into bile salts and
acids, and
on the other into steroid and sex hormones (the former to help emulsify the
substances man ingests, the latter to "ensoul" the substance man has
built as his own), we see the effect in two ways. Locally, we see
formation
of stones; systemically there is atherosclerosis. The issues is not to reduce
cholesterol intake so much as to provide man with the forces which will enable
him to enhance the processing of cholesterol!
As
mentioned, fats lack oxygen. What is the being, the impulse, or defining
characteristic of oxygen? The oxidation process brings substances into relation
with the earth (Fe + O2 Fe2O3 <rust>). Oxygen is found bound into
the rocks
and minerals of the earth, indeed, in all earthly substances. Fats are cosmic
substances, standing neutrally between life and soul. They bear light and
warmth within and release them to the organism. In ancient times,
fats were
annointing agents -- they connected kings with the cosmic aspects of their
rule, and, used in the last sacrament, prepared one for re-entry into the
spirit worlds.
Some fats
have double bonds (are unsaturated) and this indicates a more
"sulfuric" quality. Seven-dehydrocholesterol, acted on by sunlight,
yields vitamin D1, the substance which directs bone mineralization.
As
magnesium leads light into life (through chlorophyll), so does vitamin D3 lead
the light of our higher life more deeply into matter -- to the skeleton!
Examining
other hormones elaborated from the cholesterol base, we generally find those
with more oxygen (especially at the C3 position) to be related to the male
polarity, and those with less oxygen to the female (-OH) at
C3
position). It was stressed that it is the soul that determines sexuality, not
hormones. The latter are instruments that work for the being who inhabits the
body. Cholesterol provides an "emulsifying basis" for ensoulment,
to be
expressed as sexual differentiation. This is food for deep reflection over the
problem of gender identity seen so frequently these days.
Summary of
Wednesday, June 22, 1982
Protein
bears astralic/cosmic forces on the one hand, and life and individuality on the
other. A meat diet may help a person incarnate more fully, but nowadays most
people are already too deeply incarnated. If the astral body becomes too strong
it can no longer be ruled by the ego. This happens when too much meat is eaten.
Seen
biochemically, meatless diets can lead to amino acid deficiencies (in an
extreme physical sense, cannabalism would be an ideal diet for humans). From
the viewpoint of Anthroposophy it is the forces we take in, not substances that
are important. Pork is similar to human substance in many ways, and its forces
also bear a resemblance to those of humans. Pigs have hair, not fur; they have
molars and incisors like man (cows are all "molar" rodents all
"incisor," and carnivores have hypertrophy of the canines); their
liver and other tissues are histologically similar to humans, which allows the
use of pork insulin, porcine heart values, etc.; pig manure even smells
like human
waste. Kosher law recognized these "forces" in certain animals and
forbade eating of them. More dissimilar foods are "overcome" in the
digestive process. We accept pork unchanged, thereby accepting an animal
astrality that is not a bearer of ego forces.
What of
milk? What is its being? It is made only by mammals and only to feed their
babies. In utero, the baby is fed by blood - why should we not continue to do
so? Milk is a protein substance that has had all the astrality "squeezed
out," leaving it full of life forces. It is remarkable that human milk is
very low in iron, protein, and calcium when compared to milk of most animals. Iron
is the bearer of activity -- children need to be protected from
this until
puberty. The more protein in an animal's milk, the faster the animal matures. Calcium
helps bring a child more intensely into the earth sphere. In contrast, human
milk is unusually high in a unique sugar, lactose.
More will
be said in later lectures about this.
The human
being is appropriately physiologically and developmentally retarded. His sexual
development is likewise held back. Any acceleration in development is a process
of animalization.
What are
fats? They are "typical cosmic substances" according to Dr. Wolff. They
are astralized but not like protein. They are similar to milk in that fats are
full of life but have no nitrogen. They solidify but never become
crystals
(that is, earthly substance). Fatty acids range from being liquid or volatile
to being waxlike (stearin).
We notice a
pattern in the distribution of fatty plant substances from the poles to the
tropics. In high latitudes are found oils with decreased saturation, a
decreased tendency to solidify, and a decreased melting point (compare
with solid
palm oil at the equator). Plants which give the oils are physically smaller at
the higher latitudes. The "activity," an expression of the
unsaturation, is high. The opposite is true near the equator. Too many
unsaturated bonds inclines the oil towards instability, oxidizability, and
carcinogenicity. Saturated fats are inert, like stones. Alchemically,
unsaturated fats are said to contain more warmth, that is, more "sulfuric"
substance. Some highly unsaturated fats actually contain sulfur. Hence,
unsaturated fats must be stored away from light, heat, and oxygen. Of course,
nowadays these more active oils are extracted and clarified with heat, stored
in clear glass in the
light, and
used for frying -- all destructive processes to the oils.
Where
"sulfuric" warmth is needed (in the higher latitudes) it is provided
by the very active, indigenous oils. In the tropics, where there is already an
abundance of heat, the oils are more saturated and inert. Olive oil (from the
middle latitudes) was extolled as the ideal general purpose oil -- all others
should be thought of as for special diets only. Sunflower oil is similar to
olive oil. For frying, the least active oils should be used.
They are
biologically poor, but safer to use. Formerly, lard was used for cooking. Nowadays,
shortenings are prepared by nickel-catalyzed hydrogenation to a mostly
trans-state, whereas most naturally occurring double bonds
are
cis-compounds. These shortenings are very dense and hard.
The
historical role of margarine (Greek = pearl) was discussed. It was developed at
the request of the French king by Marais. A cheap, non deteriorating fat source
was wanted for use in wartime. One of the ingredients,
rapeseed
oil (a poison in the unsaturated state) is hydrogenated artificially. Early
margarine use led to cases of xerophthalmia and blindness due to vit. A
deficiency. Margarine is now made with a starch marker (to change color with
iodine), and vitamins A and D are added. The hydrogenated vegetable oils used
are so hard that nitrogen is blown through and the margarine is whipped.
In
contrast, butter is a naturally occurring substance, composed of a broad
spectrum of fatty acids, long-and-short-chain, saturated and unsaturated. It is
harmonious and balanced -- really the prototype of a versatile substance.
It contains
its own vitamins A and D. Unfortunately, all butter these days is pasteurized,
further destroying its life forces.
Summary of
Thursday, June 24, 1982
Dr. Wolff
pointed out that man comes to physiological maturity more slowly than any
animal, and that the slowness of an animal's maturational process is correlated
with the smallness of the amount of salt and protein in that animal's milk. High-protein
food is thus inappropriate for human babies. Human milk has the smallest amount
of salt and protein found in any milk.
Human fat
has the lowest melting point of any animal's (70 degrees F); humans have oil
rather than fat, actually, and thus contain more warmth and light than any
animal. Saturation of fats gives a hardened, animalic quality.
This
suggests why the ingestion of hydrogenated fats (e.g. margarine) is
nutritionally a poor idea.
Ingestion
of meat protein leads to a strong quality of astral selfishness, ingestion of
dairy products decreases this quality. In the past, people who aspired to be
healers abstained from meat.
Human milk
has more sugar (specifically lactose, which is found uniquely in milk) than
that of other animals. Glucose is the basis of most carbohydrates (e.g. 2
glucoses = maltose). Lactose, or milk sugar, = glucose + galactose (milk in
greek). Galactose is found in cerebrosides (and thus in the brain and the
nervous system). It is found wherever there is consciousness interacting with
the environment: the brain, roots of plants, nuclei of cells. In plants, one
finds galactose in the roots, glucose throughout the plant and fructose in the
blossom and fruit. In man, galactose is found in the brain, glucose throughout
the body, and fructose in the testes. This is consistent with Rudolf Steiner's
description of the correspondence between the threefold plant and threefold
man. 3erusalem artichokes have fructose in their roots, an exception that
indicates this plant's potential as a remedy.
Sugar is a
mineralic substance that is also organic; it requires no preservatives. It
gives "energy but not life." The ego organization is the instrument
of the ego but not the ego itself. Sugar expresses the forces of the
ego-organization, it is not an alive but a crystallized substance and thus
fosters the ability to think. One can use sugar as a reducing agent chemically;
this demonstrates sugar's acceptance of light. It is crystallized light and
brings
light into
death, Just as the ego-organization does into the body. The ego-organization is
a product of the activity of the Elohim (a plural used in the singular in
Hebrew); the six-as-a-unit Elohim. The unit in sugars is also six: C6H12O6.
When
hypoglycemic, one feels not oneself, not in control of oneself. Sugar gives the
feeling of having a strong ego but it does not give a strong ego -- rather, it
gives the illusion of one. In fact, it weakens the ego.
"One
envoys sugar until disaster," says Dr. Wolff: it gives only energy.
One can
give sugar intravenously -- and the GI absorption of sugar is so quick -- because
it is a dead substance, with no "foreign-ness" to overcome. "Sugar
is like a mortgage," says Dr. Wolff, "the energy isn't your energy.
The damage
is not immediate."
Cleave's
The Saccarine Disease describes the problems with bone and tooth formation in
animals fed sugar.
Children
who have eaten sugar show its effects immediately: the illusion of ego
strength, e.g. pushiness.
The liver
metabolizes sugar, but the liver, as as etheric organ, needs life, and sugar is
dead.
Summary of
Friday, June 25, 1982
Why does
one eat at all? Not, as one might think, in order to obtain energy - in that
case drinking a cup of gasoline would suffice. We need life. In Lemurian times,
when the process of nutrition began, man really began to be separated from
life. He then needed to take in life from outside, from substances containing
it. Substance is a vessel for life -- life can't be stored. Generally one does
not eat carnivores -- carnivores don't eat carnivores either.
Pigs and
man (rarely) are the exception. Lobsters and crabs eat decaying meat; their own
meat is poor in vitality, destructive of the human metabolism, full of awful
astrality. (Ask people how they sleep after eating lobster.)
The plant,
not the animal, is the basis for life; it brings life down to earth. The plant
creates new life from light. "Light and life are on the same level." All
life comes from the plant (via carbohydrates) and thus from the sun. Animal
food is life "second-hand"; some of the life is gone, to give space
for the astrality. One should eat fresh food, the more life the better, but one
needs to be able to break it down (carbohydrate into glucose, but not farther,
i.e., into
the products of fermentation).
Note that
food breakdown in the intestine proceeds only as far as the "building
blocks," not farther; less or more is wrong. These "blocks" we
absorb. We need to build up our own protein, to protect ourselves against any
foreign life, to transform the otherness into self. These building blocks
contain a "certain force" but not the force of another specific
(foreign) astrality.
"Only
the brain," said Rudolf Steiner, "is made from the substances we
eat." ("This statement is a nuisance," says Dr. Wolff.) What's
created is a unit, a compound; thus, protein is a unit, too, not really a
mixture of amino acids. (The uniting of two amino acids results in a change of
structure -- a peptide bond -- anyway). "The origin of protein is protein,
not amino acids."
It is
difficult to understand what Rudolf Steiner meant by food going through the
"zero point"; in all but the food destined for the brain, the food is
destroyed in the process of digestion, and all human substance (except the
brain) comes from somewhere else. "The material is the end of the way of
God." When the spirit is broken, the material emerges.
One cause
of obesity is that not enough substance is transformed into warmth; parasitic
centers of warmth are created. Eating too much is not necessarily the problem.
R. Steiner saw the laws of conservation of mass and energy
as real
hindrances to knowledge: They are true only in a closed system. In the physical
sense only, the human being is such a closed system. Matter more or less
precipitates from the spirit: creation of substance is the end product of
spiritual processes. To "rederive" these processes is the way of
homeopathy (potentizing). To accept these forces is to recreate substance in
us. (Angelus Silesius: "Das Brot ernahrt uns nicht wohl.")
R. Steiner:
"We accept substance through eyes and ears" (our substance is created
from cosmic forces). The nerve-sense system accepts earthly substance and
cosmic forces (the sense organs); the metabolic-limb system accepts earthly
forces and cosmic substances. Only in the brain are there C24 fatty acids (very
hardened) -- nervonic and oxynervonic acid -- the only oxidized fatty acids in
the body. "The brain is a store" -- it needs to be transparent to
thought, as the eye is to light. The brain is a dead substance. Logical
thinking is unique to man. "The brain is on its way to bone" (R.
Steiner). A blind person's metabolism is different from that of a sighted
person; light affects
all aspects
of metabolism. Cataracts lead to metabolic disturbances that are not found in
cortical blindness.
Summary of Saturday,
June 26, 1982
Dr. Wolff
began by interpreting the Cain and Abel myth from the point of view of the
nutritional aspect of the childhood of humanity and of the individual. A
newborn eats dairy products (Abel) but should not start meat and vegetables too
early or he will be too bound to the earth (Cain's sacrifice was not accepted).
In these matters the wisdom of right timing is all-important. Dr. Wolff
suggests that we are now so bound to the earth that we should
be
increasingly turning to plant sources for food (and Steiner suggested that in
the distant future we will largely be eating more mineral food).
Most
healthy diets include recommendations to decrease meat and fat (which includes
dairy products) and to decrease the amount of processed food. Processing raises
the issue of cooking, i.e., of killing the food a little. Prometheus brought
fire to the earth (man's body has precise temperature regulation), and using
fire for cooking or heating is a kind of pre-digestion for man (Gk:
"pepsis" - cooking; digestion), so that man does not, like the
animal, spend most of his effort finding and digesting his food (with the
correspondingly dull animal consciousness). One can use this knowledge when
someone lives too much in his nerve-sense system: a raw food diet could
help to
bring him more into his metabolism. Also, in cases where there is formation of
pus, raw food again draws the person more into the metabolism. Cooking releases
forces from the metabolic system for a higher life (from Bios to Zoe), but
cooking must be an art, on the analogy of the ripening of an apple in the sun. In
the apple's ripening there is a change of color, smell and taste, i.e., the
astrality of the world working from within the apple after growth has stopped. Ripening
leads to a decrease of fruit weight during this partial breakdown of
carbohydrates to ketones, aldehydes and softer sugars. Cereals (grains) need to
be cooked (except oats) in order to bring about
these
changes for man.
Bread-baking
is also a pre-digestion, using fermentation by the yeasts (found on the skin of
any sweet fruit) or lactobacilli. A sourdough is made by letting the dough
stand for a day or so then having the dough refreshed by
new flour
and water; otherwise the lactobacilli produce a bread that is too sour. About
150 years ago yeast was introduced (and wheat began to be used instead of rye)
for bread-baking, which makes bread much less nutritious.
Dr. Wolff
stresses that much home baking, by adding sweetening and oil, makes the
nutritive value even worse, and he considers the yeast diseases a consequence
of excessive yeast use.
On the
subject of vitamins (whose name came from the prevalent search for substances
as the source of life; as this search inevitably fails, the name is bound to
disappear), Dr. Wolff considers A, D, B, and C to be fundamental.
A and D are
usually bound together in animals but sometimes separate in plants (e.g., D2 in
mushrooms). Vitamin A is found in the livers of animals who live at the earth's
poles and who must produce much more life to combat the crystallizing forces. Vitamin
A helps to produce life; symptoms of its deficiency are xerophthalmia,
keratitis -- drying and hardening -- and night blindness -- lack of
regeneration of pigment at night. Hypervitaminosis A
can lead to
too much organized water, e.g., brain swelling and headaches. Vitamin A, in
allowing in the forces of new life, acts like silver. It is useful in squamous
cell cancers (hardening of the surface). Vitamin E (similar to vitamin A) works
like selenium ("moon metal" in Greek), which acts at a level Just
below that of life (which explains the homeopathic use of selenium). The forces
of vitamin D are polar to those of A, bringing light forces (D3) into bone
formation; large quantities of D are found in deepsea fish. Vitamin D works
like lead; it should never have been added without vitamin A to milk,
especially since the real "vitamin" people need, as Dr. Wolff put it,
is light to stimulate their endogenous vitamin D production.
Vitamin C
is found in fruits. It is like life transformed from light. Its C6; structure,
the number 6, relates it to light in the sense of the relation of many natural
Six-sided forms having close relations to light (e.g., honeycombs, quartz
crystals). Vitamin C seems to stimulate the immune system to fight disease and
acts like the iron forces. The blood level of iron is related to the higher
life (Zoe). The level rises during the day. In infections, the serum
level goes
down as iron enters the cells, and it has been Dr. Wolff's clinical experience
that one should not be intellectually active during a fever.
The B
vitamins have affinities with the nervous system. They are like the copper
forces which take up the forces of light. Copper prepares us to accept forces
of iron. Dr. Wolff has given copper or B vitamins for cramps.
As there
are varied copper forces, there are also many B vitamins; he suggests that B17
prepares a cancer patient for iron forces to fight his disease. B1 works in the
nervous system, B6 in the kidney, and B15 supports the
higher
functions of the nervous system. Vitamins B and C work more on the level of the
higher life (Zoe), and many B vitamins contain nitrogen, whereas A and D seem
to work more on the level of the lower life (Bios).