Metabolic Medicine’s Cancer Cure Diet
About the year 424 BC Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, made the statement, "Your food shall be your medicine and your medicine shall be your food." Try as we may, we have not been able to improve upon this basic truth. This is particularly true when it comes to the successful treatment of the cancer patient. At least 86% of all cancer conditions could be adequately treated and/or prevented by diet alone.
It never ceases to amaze me at the number of learned as well as ignorant persons who scoff when diet is mentioned. They all seem to believe that no matter what is placed into the body, by some magical process, it makes for perfect health. Yet these same people are very fastidious and concerned about what, how and how much food is fed to their pedigreed dogs and cats and their registered cattle and horses. It is ironic that they cannot see that their own health is equally dependent upon a proper balanced nutritional process.
From the first printing of this book in 1967 we have called our diet the "Kelley Almond Diet" because the principal protein is almond and vegetable protein.
Raw almonds are a very good source of protein and may be used as directed: 10 almonds at breakfast and 10 almonds at lunch.
A mixture of raw almonds, cashews, pecans, filberts, Brazil nuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds is recommended to supplement protein during the first six months when meat proteins are severely restricted. These should be eaten any time up to 1:00 p.m.
Cashew nuts are desirable, especially if the patient is also suffering from hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
Nuts, seeds, and grains should be stored in closed containers in a very cool location. Refrigeration is best if one has the space.
Some enzyme researchers do not recommend the use of raw seeds or nuts, claiming that the enzyme inhibitors in the seeds or nuts make proper digestion difficult. This is true in one sense — if raw nuts and seeds were swallowed whole without masticating them, a person couldn’t digest them properly. But if nuts and seeds are chewed well or soaked overnight (in RO filtered or distilled water) the activity of enzyme inhibitors is greatly reduced or nullified.
Should you have difficulty chewing whole raw almonds, you may substitute two tablespoons of pure raw almond or sesame seed butter.
Protein (Phase One)
We have maintained throughout this treatise that cancer is nothing more than a pancreatic enzyme deficiency. The greatest cause of this deficiency is the amount of cooked protein (mutated amino acids) fed into the body. The pancreas simply cannot manufacture enough enzymes to digest the large volumes of pasteurized milk and cheese and cooked meat we eat and have any enzymes left over to digest the foreign protein we know as cancer. If people would not eat protein after 1:00 p.m., 86% of cancer in the United States could be eliminated.
However, a cancer patient should never give up all protein, as they might be tempted to do when they first learn that too much protein in the diet prevents the pancreas from ridding the body of cancer. The pancreatic enzymes themselves consist of protein (amino acids), and unless the body is fed adequate protein, the pancreatic enzyme production will stop and the cancer tissue will make a very rapid growth. The total withdrawal from protein has been the fallacy of many cancer diets, such as the "Grape Cure." This is also the reason these diets have worked so well for the first few months — no protein — thus freeing the pancreatic enzymes to digest the cancer. Yet, over prolonged periods of total abstinence from protein, the pancreas fails. Proper balance and regulated intake is the answer.
It is not only imperative that the correct kind and quantity of protein be eaten, but of equal importance, it must be taken at a specific time. We have found that regular proteins should be taken at breakfast and lunch only. When this is strictly observed the pancreatic enzymes, used in digestion of protein, are used only about 6 hours. This leaves 18 hours for production of pancreatic enzymes to digest cancer tissue.
If the average cancer patient is carefully observed, it will be noted that they start the day with protein — a glass of milk, ham and/or bacon and eggs, or milk with cereal. By mid-morning they are ravenous and have a candy bar, peanuts, doughnuts or sweet rolls with a soft drink or coffee. For lunch they normally have a roast beef sandwich, or chicken fried in "trans-fatty acid" vegetable oil, or a hamburger. By mid-afternoon they are again hungry and have been attacked by low blood sugar, so they perk themselves up with coffee or a soft drink. Dinner consists of a charbroiled steak, or a piece of roast beef or other cooked meat with white flour gravy and cooked-to-death vegetables. For dessert there is ice cream or pie a la mode with another glass of milk. It is impossible for the pancreas to produce enough enzymes under these conditions.
Eggs are an unusually good source of protein — well balanced and the standard by which all protein is evaluated. They have all the essential amino acids in proper proportions. The cancer patient may have two eggs (preferably raw) each day at anytime.
Proper preparation of eggs is of vital importance. The eggs must be heated in the shell. We bring our eggs to a temperature of 140º F. to 160º F. (which is the normal temperature of hot tap water), for five minutes before cracking them. This destroys an enzyme just inside the membrane under the shell that prevents the biotin in the egg from functioning normally. When biotin functions properly, it greatly reduces the cholesterol risks of eating eggs.
After preheating before cracking them, the eggs may then be eaten, as you prefer them. Raw and soft-boiled eggs are the most preferable, though it isn’t absolutely necessary to eat them in these forms. In keeping with the use of as much raw food as possible, a good procedure is to eat the eggs raw in a blended drink of some kind, flavored to suit one’s taste.
There was a group of research doctors and dentists who, for at least a dozen years, had eaten two eggs daily (properly prepared as above), as part of a well-balanced nutritional program. Tests conducted on these people showed no increase in cholesterol. In fact, there was a significant decrease in the blood serum cholesterol level of each individual.
Misconceived beliefs of the orthodox medical world about eating cholesterol-containing foods have caused countless people to be unduly alarmed about cholesterol levels and the associated possibility of heart attacks. These misconceptions, carried on from the early 1950’s, have been proven false.
Liver is a wonderful energy food and cannot be surpassed as a blood builder. It is especially crucial for leukemia and lymphoma patients, as their blood is unusually weak. However, all cancer patients can benefit from the intake of raw liver before noon each day. In the mid 1960s, when Dr. Kelley was told he was in the final stages of pancreatic and liver cancer, he found that raw liver blended into carrot juice gave him strength when everything else he ate made him feel ill.
Raw organic, antibiotic-free and hormone-free liver contains a multitude of live enzymes, amino acids and other intrinsic factors that science has not yet identified, which are destroyed when the liver is cooked. (References to "intrinsic" or "unidentified" food factors are fairly common in nutritional literature. They result from clinical reactions, which cannot be linked to known nutrients. Raw liver for cancer patients is an excellent example of powerful therapeutic, but unexplained, effects.) There are no supplements or drugs that can take the place of raw liver; none are in any way comparable in their effects. Eating raw liver ensures thorough digestion and the replacement of expended nutrients, promoting excellent health.
Raw liver is best if it is organic, antibiotic-free, hormone-free and not irradiated. However, if this type of raw liver is unavailable, fresh muscle meat, steaks and ground, are acceptable even if you buy them at regular markets. Organically grown and not irradiated is always more nutritious and preferable. But if organic isn’t available, commercial is healthier than none. At least 3 and no more than 6 heaping tablespoons of raw liver should be taken daily.
Chewing the liver is best for proper digestion. However, if masticating it is too objectionable, it will digest well even swallowed whole, if it is sliced into small enough cubes, and if adequate hydrochloric acid and enzymes are taken.
There are two methods which people find suitable for preparing liver:
Meat (Cooked and Commercially Produced)
The cancer patient will want to give up cooked and commercially produced meat such as beef, pork, lamb and fowl immediately (except for raw liver — see above). Cooked meat is harmful for the cancer patient, as the very same enzymes used in its digestion are needed for fighting and digesting the cancer. All natural, self-made enzymes your body can produce should be used to fight the cancer. Commercial meat should be avoided for another reason; it has a high female sex hormone content. For commercial reasons most animals, especially beef and fowl produced in the United States have been fed large quantities of hormones. Since an overabundance of female sex hormones initiate cancer, meat of this type should be excluded from the cancer patient’s diet.
After being on Metabolic Medicine’s Cancer Cure Diet for 9 to 12 months, when the tumors are under control, one may gradually resume consumption of meat as long as one’s metabolic type requires it (see Chapter VIII, Metabolic Typing — Discovering Your Personal Nutritional Needs) and adequate enzymes and hydrochloric acid are taken to digest it.
If and when one does go back to eating meat, it will be extremely wise to make every effort to find a source that can provide meat, which has been produced without chemical feed, hormones, antibiotics, and pesticide residues.
Protein After 6 Months On Cancer Diet
After the first six months on Metabolic Medicine’s Cancer Cure Diet the cancer patient must increase the quantity of protein in his diet. At this time not less than sixty grams of protein daily should be included in the diet. You should, of course, continue all the above approved protein, but now you may include (or increase) such proteins as those found in deep sea fish, all forms of seeds, nuts (except peanuts), nut butters, whole grains, whole grain breads, and homemade, raw (unpasteurized) goats’ milk yogurt and/or buttermilk.
Raw seeds and sprouts are good foods for cancer patients, and may be eaten after 1:00 p.m. We freely use brown sesame, sunflower and pumpkinseeds. Many people enjoy sprouted seeds, such as alfalfa and mung beans, buckwheat, wheat and soybeans.
The most "living foods" are sprouted seeds. When seeds are soaked in water, their protective enzyme inhibitors are removed and the enzymes, which have been "asleep," become active, and in three days the nutritional values of the seeds are increased tremendously. The seeds also become much easier to digest.
For the best in nutrition, be sure to eat your sprouts raw. Eat as many as you desire.
Dry beans of all types are a good source of food for the cancer patient, and may be used two or three times a week at anytime of the day. The best way we’ve found to prepare them is to cook them at a temperature of 200º F. We place two cups of dried beans (washed) in a bean pot to which we add five cups of RO filtered or distilled water, five garlic cloves, two tablespoons of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of sea salt or kelp, and 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. We place the pot, (covered), in an oven overnight at 200º F.
Vegetable Juice and Fruit Juice (Phase Two)
Vegetable Juices (Fresh and Raw)
The second most important phase of our cancer diet is that of fresh raw juices. At least one quart of carrot and one pint of celery juice should be taken each day. As much other fresh raw vegetable juice in volume may be taken as desired. One should consider alfalfa, beet, cabbage, cucumber, dandelion, endive, lettuce, parsley, potato, spinach, and turnip juice. Vegetable juices are the builders of the body. Juice is better than the whole vegetable because so much energy is used to digest the whole vegetable. Juice has a proper balance of vitamins and minerals in a concentrated solution. We recommend that the juice be made fresh and used immediately.
Fruit and Fruit Juices (Fresh and Raw)
Fresh raw fruit and fruit juices are the cleansers of the body. The cancer patient may eat as much as desired of fresh raw fruit or fresh fruit juices. Small amounts of dried unsulfered fruit may also be taken.
Fresh Fruit Salads and Raw Vegetable Salads
The cancer patient may eat, in addition to his fresh raw vegetable and fruit juices, all the fresh fruit and fresh raw salad he or she can hold. These are good for lunch or dinner meals. The body needs bulk, as it is necessary to keep the digestive tract in good working order. For at least the first eight months on Metabolic Medicine’s Cancer Cure Diet, lemon should be used in preference to vinegar on salads. Unrefined, organic flaxseed oil may be used as salad dressing (see page 24, Formula F). Dr. N.W. Walker’s books, Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices and Diet and Salad Suggestions, are recommended reading for every cancer patient.
Whole Grain Cereal (Phase Three)
We have found that it is desirable in building the body to eat a mixture of raw whole grain cereals for breakfast each morning.
Mix together well in a large container one pound of each of the grains and nuts below. Store in refrigerator (if too large a quantity is mixed it will keep in a cool, dark pantry).
Objective: to obtain as many different nutrients as possible from as many different seed and grain gene pools as possible from as many different sources (fields) as possible.
Contents by equal weight of Organic:
Amaranth Pumpkin Seeds
Barley Rice, Brown long grain
Barley Flakes Rice, Brown short grain
Buckwheat Groats Rye Berries
Corn Meal Blue Spelt Berries
Corn Meal Yellow Sunflower seeds
Kamut Triticale Flakes
Millet Wheat, Hard Red Spring
Oat Groats Wheat, Soft Pastry
Adding Almonds, English Walnuts and Bananas makes a complete tasty meal.
Daily at bedtime:
A. Grind 1/3 Cup porridge grains in seed mill.
B. Add 1 Cup boiling water. Stir well.
C. Let soak at room temperature overnight.
D. For breakfast add fruit, concentrated fruit juice and/or unheated honey to taste.
After two years this porridge may be cooked as in oatmeal or other grains — best in double boiler or on low heat.
Flax Seed Oil (Phase Four)
Take two tablespoons per day of unrefined, fresh flaxseed oil for the first month of Metabolic Medicine’s Cancer Cure Program, and one tablespoon per day from the second month of the program to completion. (Formula F provides Essential Fatty Acids — Essential Fatty Acids must be provided in the diet, as the human body cannot make them.)
Johanna Budwig, a German researcher, did the lion’s share of the early work on flax oil and its therapeutic uses in the early 1950s. Blood samples from healthy and sick people were systematically analyzed, and the findings tabulated. According to her, blood samples from people with cancer, diabetes, and some kinds of liver disease consistently lacked Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs). She claims that blood from people with other diseases did not show this severe deficiency and that healthy people’s blood always contained EFAs. If cancer is a deficiency disease brought on by lack of EFAs, she reasoned, a diet high in EFAs should alleviate at least some of the cancer patients’ problems.
Unrefined Flaxseed oil, in practice, inhibits tumor growth and is useful in the natural treatment of cancer. EFAs, from refined oil, on the other hand, help promote tumor growth (due to trans-fats present in all American commercial vegetable oil). All oils except unrefined, fresh olive and flaxseed oil are forbidden on Metabolic Medicine’s Cancer Cure Diet.
Note: Fat that has not been heated above 96º F. in the form of unsalted raw butter, raw eggs, raw cream, the fat in and on raw meats, no-salt-added raw cheeses, avocados, fresh coconut and stone-pressed olive oil is acceptable on Metabolic Medicine’s Cancer Cure Diet. These fats are the easiest to digest, assimilate, and utilize and aid the body in binding with toxins and carrying them to the bowels and out of the body.
Golden Rule of Metabolic Medicine’s Cancer Cure Diet
The Golden Rule of Metabolic Medicine’s Cancer Cure Diet is: "Take nothing into the body that has been cooked or processed except items mentioned." Eat no Processed food for the first six months of Metabolic Medicine’s Cancer Cure Program.
The juicer is the most important appliance in the kitchen of a cancer patient. If necessary sell the stove and buy a good juicer.
The enzymes in foods that have been cooked have been destroyed or changed into a different compound (amino acid). Cooked food can only be used as food and not as enzymes, for it has no life. For example, if you plant a raw potato it will grow. If you boil a potato and plant it, it will not grow it will rot. Many enzymes are destroyed at 107º F. and almost all are destroyed at 140º F.
When a person eats anything processed he or she is not only eating "dead food" (those in which the enzymes have been destroyed), but he or she is adding a second very destructive force to his body, the destructive force of food preservatives. This may not be too significant for a normal healthy person, but for the cancer patient it may mean life or death. The liver must detoxify, destroy, or metabolize all foreign substances from the body. When one eats foods with preservatives, it adds an extra burden upon the liver, which the cancer patient cannot accept.
The cancer patient must give up pasteurized cows’ milk forever, except in the form of raw (unpasteurized), homemade yogurt, and for a while must avoid raw milk too, except raw (unpasteurized) goats’ milk. Cows’ milk, like meat, has too high a protein content and pasteurization compounds the problem as it alters or mutates the protein. Pasteurized cows’ milk requires too many pancreatic enzymes for digestion.
Also, an animal cannot produce milk unless the female sex hormones are present in extra large quantities; this causes too many hormones in milk for the person who has cancer.
But if raw goats’ milk is available, it is advisable to take 4 to 8 ounces of raw (unpasteurized), homemade goats’ milk (goats’ milk is similar to humans’ milk) yogurt each morning for breakfast. This will supply the intestines with adequate helpful bacteria. This is acceptable because the yogurt bacteria predigest the milk protein when added to it.
After following this diet for 9 to 12 months and if raw goats’ or cows’ milk is available. 9 to 12 ounces per day may be taken at any time during the day.
The cancer patient will also want to give up peanuts. First, the peanut is not a nut, but a legume. Second, the peanut also has too much protein for the cancer patient. Third, it has been found that a fungus grows on peanuts, which produces aflatoxin. To stimulate cancers in experimental animals cancer researchers use aflatoxin.
All concentrated foods are extremely hard on the liver and should be given up. White flour and all products containing white flour should be avoided. These are not only concentrated carbohydrates, but almost always have preservatives added.
Use fresh whole wheat bread, made from wheat grown free of all pesticides (another liver destroying chemical). The essential vitamins are oxidized within three days at room temperature; hence the need for grinding only as used. Freshly ground flour or freshly made whole wheat bread may be safely stored deep in a deep freeze for about a week. It is best, however, to use it within three days.
The cancer patient will also want to give up all white sugar and white sugar products. The concentrated carbohydrates are hard on the liver, but more important in relation to cancer, they are very hard on the pancreas. The pancreas, as noted earlier, is the first organ to be protected at all costs. White sugar has been processed (refined) and all the vital minerals are taken out. Cancer patients are always deficient in minerals.
For those who have a sweet tooth, these organic foods may be eaten as desired: dates, date sugar, figs and raisins obtained from a health food store. These are free of toxic pesticides and are not harmful to the pancreas or the liver. A cancer patient may also eat pure maple syrup or unheated honey, in that order. The first is preferable because it has a higher mineral content.
Soy products, except Lecithin, should be used very sparingly for two reasons: First, the protein content is too high for the cancer patient; Second, soy products tend to upset the delicate acid/alkaline balance of the body. Eating soy products may be resumed when Dr. Kelley’s Pancreas Self-Examination Procedure is negative (see page 17).
Lemon juice should replace vinegar altogether. Vinegar is too harsh on the delicate mucus membrane of the alimentary canal. Also, the ingestion of large quantities of vinegar causes the digestive tract to become too acid and thus decreases the efficiency of the pancreatic enzymes and the digestive processes. For at least the first eight months on Metabolic Medicine’s Cancer Cure Program, lemon juice should be used in preference to vinegar on salads. Unrefined, organic flaxseed oil may be used as salad dressing (see page 24, Formula F).
For the period of intensive detoxification and treatment, tea, coffee, soft drinks, chocolate, liquor, tobacco, pork, and white rice should be avoided. These also place additional stress upon the liver and pancreas as they are being detoxified.