Dr Nandita Shah gives a simple mantra to completely reverse diabetes, cardiac problems, and even cancer – the right diet.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in
India leads the world in diabetes, depression and heart disease. The numbers of cancer, HIV-AIDS and other auto-immune disease cases is also on a daily upswing in the country. What are we doing wrong?
Dr Nandita Shah, Founder, SHARAN, tells The Metrognome about what we’re doing to make ourselves sick – eating all the wrong food. She insists that simply cutting down on meat, salt, oil and sugar will not do the trick, it is time we all went completely vegan. In a freewheeling chat, Dr Shah explains the benefits of veganism and why it is the best option to reverse the most serious illness.
Excerpts from the interview:
How did you stumble upon the concept of reversing diseases through diet?
Being a doctor myself, I realised through my practice that real health is not about giving medicines to get rid of symptoms of a disease. I practiced homoeopathy, which is a holistic system of treating diseases. But even with that, people would get better with a remedy, but soon return with the same problem.
In 1981, when I began my practice, diabetes, hypertension, and cancer were rare and usually occurred only in the aged. Today, these diseases are not just striking a lot of the population, but even young people are developing them. Our bodies are designed to heal themselves, but we come in the way of the healing process. Observe animals in nature – they know how to heal themselves. They don’t need hospitals and doctors to the extent that humans do. I asked myself, ‘Are we causing our own diseases? And if so, how?’
We have a herd mentality; we do what others do. This also applies also to what we eat daily and how we choose to treat ourselves when we are ill. For instance, a diabetes doctor will ask you to cut sugar and carbs from your diet to lower your sugar levels, and we do this blindly even though we know that no one gets well from this regimen. Sugar is not the cause of diabetes, high blood sugar is the result of it.
The food we put into our bodies has a direct effect on our health.
What is the principal problem with our dietary habits that causes diseases?
The biggest problem is that we will put anything into our months. Eating is a completely instinctual exercise – all animals in nature eat according to their instincts but we don’t know what our instincts are. Take the example of a child. He will refuse to drink a glass of cow’s milk. So his mother coaxes him to drink it with sugar and chocolate powder added to it, knowing that these substances are harmful for him. No other animal, except humans, will drink another animal’s milk.
We are constantly brainwashed by the media and by other people to eat all the things that we shouldn’t eat at all; sugar, refined and processed foods are at the top of this list. The first thing I do in my practice is to connect patients to their instincts. I teach people to eat the right food. You would be surprised to know that even a long-standing 30-year-old diabetes can be completely reversed just by correcting the diet. Our bodies are interested in healing, but we don’t allow the healing to happen.
How does a vegan lifestyle impact the diseases or disorders we may be experiencing?
Like I said earlier, we eat anything and everything that comes our way, and this causes sickness. The first thing to do is, make a list of everything that’s being advertised, and then refuse to eat it. No one would spend money on advertising foods that are instinctual. We already know that we should eat them. Cut out sugar, cooking oil, animal products (including milk), and refined and processed foods from your diet, and see the difference it makes. When preparing food, use grated coconut or crushed peanuts in place of oil. Sweeten your food or drink with dates and raisins.
What has been your most interesting experience in reversing a disease in your patient?
That the ones who have minor illnesses are resistant to change, but those to whom doctors offer little hope will do anything to get better! I find that those who are willing to think and stand up for themselves, get better. People must realise that expensive treatment systems are not aimed at making you better, because they do not address the cause. They must understand that the solutions are often simple and available in nature, there is no need to take medicines just because everybody else does.
(Pictures courtesy SHARAN and abcnews.go.com)