So Ryan just bought this book, Dr. Jensen’s Guide to Better Bowel Care. Yes, it’s an entire book on bowel maintenance, and like a train wreck, it’s simultaneously horrifying and fascinating.
Dr. Jensen has spent his entire career studying the bowel and its relationship with the rest of the body. He believes that the average person has about ten pounds — ten pounds — of putrid, decaying fecal matter lodged in the colon, and that this buildup of toxic material is often the cause of chronic disease in other parts of the body. The book cites cases of patients who suffered from chronic skin conditions and other disease — even cancer — who were able to finally cure themselves after learning proper bowl maintenance and undergoing a cleansing program. Dr. Jensen asserts that with the typical American diet of fast food and poor nutrition, we are consuming things our bodies weren’t made to digest, and our ability to properly eliminate waste is compromised. When that happens, toxins begin to seep through the bowel wall, affecting our overall health and contributing to disease in other parts of the body.
To illustrate his point, the book contains full-color photos of waste eliminated by people who have participated in the cleansing program. This is not something you want to look at before eating. The photos show blackened ropes — some as long as four feet — of rubbery, rotten waste matter that has hardened to form the shape of the colon.
Since switching to a primarily raw food diet, I can definitely say I do not have problems in the area of (ahem) waste elimination. But I don’t doubt that my previous eating habits have probably left some questionable matter behind. Still, I’m not quite committed to going through the recommended seven-day cleanse, which involves a regimen of herbal supplements and a procedure called a colema, which is like an enema on steroids. The book includes diagrams and step-by-step instructions for performing colemas in the privacy of your own home, and it certainly doesn’t look like an enjoyable experience. The “light,” but less effective version of the cleanse, is to take the herbal supplements alone and skip the colema. This is the route Ryan is planning on taking, and I’m content to let him be the guinea pig.
Should I decide to delve further into the world of bowel care, however, expect to hear more about it later ….
