What Is Health? What Is Gerson Therapy?
PURE does not promote any specific protocols, but rather we share points of view for people to learn and decide for themselves. Health practitioners should be involved in your health decisions.
The Periodic Table of Juicing highlights Gerson Therapy. We had a long relationship with this therapy and its rigorous juicing protocol, and we were proud of the service we provided, delivering the highest quality juices for nearly 10 years.
Many in the wellness world may not have heard of Dr. Max Gerson and Gerson Therapy. We interviewed Dr. Patrick Vickers, Founder of the Gerson Clinic in Tijuana Mexico about this subject and for an understanding of its placement in the Periodic Table of Juicing. Dr. Vickers explains the basic principles of Dr. Max Gerson’s approach as he understands them.
A little history…
Back in Germany around 1900, Max Gerson was a medical student who suffered from severe migraines. As the story is told, his professors had little to offer him beyond resting in a dark room during episodes.
He took matters into his own hands and, according to the story, made radical changes to his diet, which included absolutely no salt, saturated fats, processed foods, coffee, and alcohol, and reported that his headaches went away.
He basically eliminated the standard German diet, which is also sadly known as the SAD (standard American diet), as well. He developed a fruit and vegetable regimen, filled with juices that we will delve into soon.
He began recommending this diet to his patients. Dr. Gerson shared his knowledge with thousands of patients and when he passed away, his work was carried on by his daughter, Charlotte Gerson, and now with the Gerson Institute and the Gerson Center in Tijuana.
The basics from the ‘Gerson’ perspective:
What is a healthy body?
According to Gerson, a healthy body starts in the gut and there is one word that he reiterates over and over again. That word is metabolism. Metabolism is the breakdown of food into energy. In his view, years of processed food, alcohol, antibiotics, sweets, etc. can compromise the gut and make it harder for the body to convert food to energy.
How does the Gerson approach address a gut that has been stressed for decades by processed foods, saturated fats, excessive sugar, salt, alcohol, and caffeine? It starts by eliminating ALL of the above and replacing them with loads of organic fruits and vegetables in the form of juice and food.
What is alkalinity and why is it so important?
When we speak about alkalinity versus acidity, we are talking about the pH (potential hydrogen acidity – or buildup of hydrogen in the body). In the Gerson view, saturated fats are also “saturated with hydrogen,” and too much hydrogen is thought to disrupt the electrical charge at the level of the cell membrane so that oxygen has a harder time getting into the cell.
In this view, when the body is acidic and oxygen tries to enter the cells so that the mitochondria can convert sugar to energy, the oxygen is repelled. Instead of energy, lactic acid is produced. The Gerson approach is to restore alkalinity through fruits and vegetables and to stop eating an acidic diet (highly processed and heavy in saturated fats and empty sugar).
When we juice and eat cooked, healthy meals with Gerson Therapy, all of those calories are well received and gentler on the system. They are easily absorbed. Dr. Vickers’ view is that sugar in fruits and vegetables is not bad: these are energy-giving foods!
What about OH negative and H positive? Restoring cell membranes.
Dr. Vickers explains that when you eat a fruit or vegetable, it gets broken down in the body to potassium hydroxide, or O H negative, oxygen-hydrogen negative.
Massive amounts of O H negative ions are being created when you drink juices and eat fruits and vegetables. We are trying to neutralize that one unbonded radical hydrogen, positively charged ion. The acidic hydrogen is H positive, while O H negative is alkaline. When you flood the body with the OH negative, they start to react. When you take OH negative and H positive, Two H’s and O are H2O – The two hydrogens are bonded and it becomes water. This creates a neutral charge. Those other hydrogen ions from the acidity are positively charged and repel oxygen away, the neutral charge of water and the alkaline charge of the OH negative ion, draws oxygen into the cell. By eating raw fruits and vegetables, you’re neutralizing the hydrogen.
The Gerson approach also aims to support the cell membrane. On Gerson Therapy there are absolutely no saturated fats at all.
The only oil Gerson found safe to eat was flax oil. He tried them all. Flax oil is a polyunsaturated fatty acid. It has absolutely no hydrogen bonded to the oil. In this view, flax oil supports the cell membrane and acts as a magnet to draw oxygen into the cell, unlike saturated fats which repel oxygen.
Why no salt?
Sodium chloride in all forms (including Himalayan salt) is eliminated on Gerson Therapy. The reasoning given is that sodium displaces iodine from the thyroid gland. The thyroid’s specific job in your body is to make mitochondria. Mitochondria convert sugar into energy.
The goal is to remain alkaline and get oxygen into the cells so that the mitochondria can do their job. If the body is acidic, the reasoning goes, oxygen can’t get into the cells, and sugar gets broken down into lactic acid. Sodium is also said to make the body lose potassium, and Dr. Vickers says that causes the cells’ integrity to collapse.
For that reason, salt is eliminated on Gerson Therapy. That is also why celery juice is not part of the Gerson Therapy protocol. Celery has health benefits for sure, but for those following Gerson Therapy, there is too much salt in the juice for their diet.
What does one consume on Gerson Therapy?
What are the juices?
On the Gerson Therapy, patients ingest 20 pounds of organic fruits and vegetables, every single day. They drink a fresh, cold-pressed juice every hour, on the hour from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM, which is 13 juices every single day! There is an all-orange juice in the a.m. There are four green juices every day. There is a lot of carrot juice on this protocol and that is because carrots are loaded with beta carotene, an antioxidant. Granny Smith apples are the apple of choice because of their malic acid.
Orange Juice
Ingredients for 8 oz / 236 ml Orange Juice:
- 2 organic oranges
GREEN JUICE
Ingredients for 8 oz / 236 ml Green Juice:
- 6-7 big leaves (with stalk) of romaine
- Red leaf lettuce
- 2-3 leaves of escarole
- 2-3 leaves of endive
- 3-4 leaves of red cabbage
- 2-3 young inner beet tops (inner leaves)
- 2 leaves of Swiss chard
- A quarter of a green bell pepper
- 3-4 leaves of watercress
- 1 medium green apple, Granny Smith, or as sour and hard as possible
CARROT/APPLE JUICE
Ingredients for 8 oz / 236 ml Carrot/Apple Juice:
- 3-4 organic carrots
1 large green apple, Granny Smith, or as sour and tart as possible
CARROT JUICE
Ingredients for 8 oz / 236 ml Orange Juice:
- 5-6 organic carrots
Dr. Vickers and his team at the Gerson Clinic add lemon, fresh aloe, and raw spirulina to the juices as well.
Cooked foods?
Many are curious why patients on the protocol eat cooked foods. Dr. Gerson was adamant that patients with a compromised gut have three cooked meals a day. The rationale is that such a gut has trouble breaking down raw vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, so they are cooked to make them easier to digest.
No nuts or seeds?
Nuts and seeds are considered hard on the digestive tract and the liver. Therefore, on the protocol even healthy foods such as cucumbers, strawberries, pomegranates, and almonds are not allowed.
Why coffee enemas?
Coffee enemas are part of the Gerson protocol. Dr. Vickers tells how Dr. Gerson came to use them: at the end of WWII in Germany there was no medicine left. Nurses used enemas for many reasons back then, and when they ran out of pain meds and all they had left was coffee, they added coffee to the enemas and the patients reportedly felt relief. Dr. Gerson built the practice into his protocol. The practice of using enemas was not uncommon 100 years ago for the flu and other ailments. *This is very different than drinking coffee, which isn’t allowed on the protocol, since coffee is a diuretic and we eliminate many vitamins and minerals when we urinate.
Gerson Therapy is built around supporting metabolism, starting in the gut, so the body can convert food into energy in a healthy, oxygenated, alkaline state. In many cases, followers make drastic changes to their diet. This therapy has been used by thousands.
Dr. Patrick Vickers is the Director and Founder of the Northern Baja Gerson Center in Rosarito, Mexico, which specializes in Advanced Gerson Therapy.
*Once again, we state that PURE shares this information on our blog today to allow you to learn about it and make your own informed decisions with your healthcare provider.
For more, see our Gerson Therapy resources.
We were proud to say that our PURE Juicer passed the Gerson Institute’s rigorous testing.
The PURE Juicer was officially approved and recommended for Gerson Therapy.
Used in Gerson Clinics and Healing & Wellness Centers around the world, our PURE Juicer preserved the naturally occurring live enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants in raw fruits and vegetables.
True cold-pressed juicing allows each juice to maintain its nutrient and vitamin retention and provides a concentrated amount of live enzymes that would otherwise be difficult to get from eating raw fruits and vegetables alone.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before changing your diet, especially if you have a health condition or take medication.