Читать книгу Food Combining for Health Cookbook: Better health and weight loss with the Hay Diet - Jean Joice - Страница 6

Introduction

Although it is now more than a decade since Doris Grant and I joined forces to write Food Combining for Health, the number of Hay enthusiasts is steadily increasing as one successful adherent after another recommends food combining to Mends.

Soon after its publication in 1984 the book became a best seller and, since the mass market edition was launched in 1991, it has featured consistently in the top 10 best-selling paperback manuals. This in itself is a more or less unheard of success for a book that has been on the market for so long.

Perhaps the reason lies in the fact that it is not just another diet book, but a very practical guide to a healthier lifestyle based on Dr Hay’s essentially holistic teaching. For he taught that it is not only what you eat, but what you think, that adds up to the health of the whole person, that regeneration and returning vitality can only come through correct eating, exercise and rest, thus enabling body and mind to function harmoniously and accommodate the stresses and strains of twentieth-century life.

Over the years Doris and I have received many enthusiastic letters telling us about recoveries, often dramatic, from allergies, migraine, arthritis, colitis, indigestion and many other medically diagnosed conditions, and all testifying to increased vitality and energy.

One that really said it all arrived only a few months ago:

Since Christmas my children and I have followed the advice given (in Food Combining for Health) not because we had any particular problems but for the long-term general good of our health. This has had the unlooked-for advantage for me of the easy and gradual loss of one stone (14 pounds) in weight, and also the saving of quite a lot of money from food bills which now goes towards more luxury fruit and vegetables such as strawberries and asparagus.

This rather proves Dr Hay’s point that given a chance in the form of eating as nature intended, the body will heal itself and this includes weight loss as part of a normalizing process. It also shows that food combining need not be expensive as so much money can be saved by cutting out processed and junk foods.

So whatever your motive in reading this, whether to resolve a specific health problem, to lose weight, or just to feel better, be assured that from the hundreds of letters and other evidence received, food combining really does work.

Another happy outcome has been Jackie Le Tissier’s recovery from a painful arthritic condition known as ankylosing spondylitis after she had adopted the system. In due course she adapted it for vegetarians and wrote Food Combining for Vegetarians, another success story.

This cookbook is the result of a happy collaboration with Jackie in response to an ever-growing demand for more Hay recipes and ideas. It is also written for those who prefer a practical approach and who do not want to be bothered with too many lists and charts. The whole idea is to keep it simple as Dr Hay originally intended and, in three words, just do it.

Jean Joice