Their diets consisted mainly of wild fruit and various plants eaten raw, with very little consumption of fat or animal protein. South Sea Islanders who consume great amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables and also masses of white flour and sugar demonstrate this point clearly. They suffer from degenerative diseases such as diabetes at alarming rates and their life expectancy is poor. To live almost exclusively on refined carbohydrates is a double disaster. Processed foods, artificial preservatives, sweeteners, colorings and flavorings add to the horror of bad health.
Physical fitness is the next factor that needs consideration.
Oxygen, nutritional foods and waste products cannot get into and out of cells when the circulation is sluggish. In the physically unfit, major blood vessels block, the microcirculation. Fortunately, and this is a major message in this book, these changes are often reversible. Surely this is a better way of handling the problem than open heart surgery or coronary by-pass operations that may relieve the pain. This represents, in my own lifetime, a complete reversal of principles.