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).