Inflammation seems to be everywhere! Arthritis, gout, Crohn's Disease, Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), heart disease, liver/kidney disease, and various cancers have all been linked to inflammation in the body. The question then becomes where all this inflammation is coming from.
Attorney Emanuel "Mannie" Barling, Jr. and his wife Ashley Brooks became personally interested in this question when Barling was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, IBS, IBD, diverticulitis, and ulcerative colitis after an eight hour surgery where he lost several feet of colon, his entire ascending colon, and his appendix in the process of removing two malignant (cancerous) tumors. This was in 1997, when very few people had even heard of these illnesses, as opposed to 2010, a time when these diseases are household terms. But what really spurred Barling into creating his own plan and doing his own research was when he became ill again on the very diet prescribed to him by the hospital nutritionist.
Mannie Barling is not just any lawyer, but was in-house council for major health insurers and saw the increase in inflammatory conditions. He realized that every time he was sick the pharmaceutical manufacturers made more money from all the medication he had to take to get back to "normal." And he started to ask why.
In short, the very foods he was eating, and that we all eat, were causing the problem. Between the amount of acidic foods we eat, the amount of genetically modified foods we eat (almost every grain in the market has been modified by Monsanto to withstand the company's Round Up weed killer - "Round Up ready crops"), and the amount of preservatives, artificial additives, and hormones in all of our foods our poor bodies don't stand a chance.
Mannie's Diet and Enzyme Formula is full of information, including 70 pages of references and comprehensive lists of acidic foods, alkaline foods, and which enzyme supplements work best for him. This diet is based on slowly eliminating foods that cause you to feel bad. You will end up eating predominantly alkaline organic foods with a minimum of genetically modified, acidic, and chemically treated foods. The authors include tips for eating out, eating ethnic, and traveling outside of US.
This is not an easy read. The book itself is large and there is a lot of information with no images or sidebars to break up the text. However, this is really important information for everyone, especially people who are suffering from inflammatory illnesses.
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