DAY 36 ALKALINE YEAR Thanks, Dr. Sattilaro!

While waiting for my friends’ carpool to go to an auction on San Juan Island, I started thinking about Anthony Sattilaro, MD, whose 1980s book with Tom Monte, Recalled by Life, had boosted my resolve to begin changing my dietary preferences. Diagnosed with Stage IV prostate cancer in 1978 when he was President of the Methodist Hospital in Philadelphia, he became cancer-free for a few years and lived until 1989.  He attributed this to adopting a macrobiotic diet, with lots of brown rice, sea and land vegetables.  He was so inept at cooking for himself that he needed to hire people to cook for him.  If he’d known then what many people now know—the alkaline foods—he might well have lasted a lot longer.  What he came to believe—and it’s all dependent on our beliefs—was that brown rice (low ACF*), polenta (made with corn meal, medium ACF), noodles, tofu and other soy products (all high ACF) constituted along with the veggies a healthy diet.

Finding that the macrobiotic diet was not completely satisfying—I’m not fond of seaweed (high AF) despite having grown up where there’s lots of it--he returned to most of his previous nutritional choices before he died.  His ultimate demise (from either pneumonia or cancer) was hailed by some as meaning that diet, especially macrobiotic diet,  couldn’t do anything to prevent or cure cancer.  I think Dr. Sattilaro was going in the right direction without all the necessary tools.

I couldn’t have done this blog a few years ago because the scientific underpinnings just weren’t there.  Dr. Robert O. Young’s pioneering work, for instance, in The pH Miracle (2002).  The guide to managing pH levels of food in your body, by Dr. Susan E. Brown and Larry Trivieri (2006), is indispensable for planning meals and, for that matter, choosing foods when eating out.  At the auction today were sandwiches, a fruit salad, squash soup and cookies, plus lots of well-frosted cakes.  No surprise: I chose the fruit salad (most fruits are in the AF ranges) and squash soup (high to medium AF), enjoyed the auction action,  and held off bidding on the sugary foods; one almond cake went for $45, so I saved myself money as well as unhealthy eating.

Wrote Dr. Sattilaro [in Living Well Naturally (1984) p. 41]: “A good diet is your best defense against serious illness, but it is more than just protection against disease. . . [it] can make you feel better in body and mind.”  Thanks, Dr. S!

*ACF = acid forming;  AF = alkaline forming