Notes on juices from Gawler

I spent some time last night reading Ian Gawler’s book You Can Conquer Cancer. The book was lent to me very shortly after my diagnosis and came inscribed with the phone number of its owner and contact details for Dr Juice. The book’s owner turns out to be a very healthy looking, friendly and helpful bloke who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer (metastatic I think) and who has now been in remission for a year.

Since receiving the book I have really only given it a quick initial scan, although I did manage an initial reading on certain topics, such as diet and meditation. Last night I returned to it and re-read some of Gawler’s recommendations, particularly regarding juice.

As mentioned in earlier posts, I have been following a juice regime since consulting Dr Juice in early January. Mostly, I manage to drink two largish glasses of juice (about 400ml each) per day. These consist of carrot, celery, beetroot, apple, but also cucumber, parsley, and lately, some small amounts of spinach. All vegetables are organic, except sometimes when I am out of the house, and I turn to one of the many apparently fashionable juice bars that have appeared about the place in recent times. I am also eating lots of organic vegetables in solid form, either in salad or steamed with brown rice.

Despite some problems with pain and some anxiety regarding some specific personal issues, I seem to be doing very well with this diet and often feel very well indeed; perhaps a little more energetic than I had previous to my observance of it (I have also dramatically cut my alcohol consumption).

As regards diet, Gawler seems to be particularly influenced by Gerson, who prescribes a rather demanding regime, which is supposed to be individually prescribed by a qualified Gerson practitioner. It has many prohibitions and various demanding preparation and cooking requirements. It is important though, says Gawler, to note the broad principles of the diet (following the broad principles of Gerson also suggested to me by Dr Juice).

Gawler says that for the “healing” diet (as opposed to his “maintenance” diet) one should drink “six to seven 200ml (7 oz.) juices” daily. He suggests (page 136):

• Citrus in the morning (orange or half lemon/half water)
• Grape and apple can be bought in bottles if organic product available, other juices should be made fresh
• Also include apple, grape, carrot, beetroot juices and one or two green juices each day
• Carrot and beetroot can be combined
• For green juices use: celery, green pepper, lettuce, a little cabbage, a little silver beet or spinach and a little parsley
• Wheatgrass is an option and he has a special chapter on that (not yet read by me).

Commercially prepared barley juice is suggested as an easier option than wheatgrass. Brand names are Barley Green, Green Magma and Clean Green Barley (page 104).

It is not clear to me whether Gawler’s advice that “carrot and beetroot can be combined” is meant to imply that certain other combinations are particularly unfavourable for some reason. I have been merrily combining all sorts at my whim and to my own taste. I am vaguely aware that some schools of thought propose that certain combination of foods may be very significant to their nutritional value, but I have no specific information about these beliefs to hand.

Also slightly confusing, is that Gawler talks about his partner needing to spend 12 hours a day preparing the juices but, to me, this seems an awful lot of time to produce a mere 1.4 litres of juice. Perhaps I have misunderstood this and further reading may make it clearer.

In the meantime I think that my current regime is quite close to the “broad principles” outlined. I might consider expanding it to include a wider range of fruit and vegetables. I could add a small citrus juice in the morning and a daily dose of wheatgrass or barley. Commercial organic grape juice might also make a good treat. I should also try to have a small “green” drink each day.

The juice regime certainly sees a great volume of vegetables regularly enter the kitchen. Admittedly, some of this volume is reduced to pulp and thrown out or composted, but the quantity of fresh vegetable matter that I consume has increased several times over.