Observation is at the heart of every science. You and I, like every human being, whether a scientist or not, have the right to observe in order to draw our own conclusions. No scientific data can replace personal experience.
When a child is told: don't touch fire, this warning means absolutely nothing to him until he is burned. Only through observation can we learn to connect cause and effect and predict the outcome. For example, if we overeat late at night, it would be naive to assume that we would feel good the next morning. Knowing the inevitable consequences of any action gives us the advantage of acting consciously. Every day we achieve our desired goals through conscious actions, rather than blindly following the advice and instructions of someone "who knows better".
I grew up in the Soviet Union, where government and party structures dominated every member of society. From an early age, I was given clear instructions on what I was supposed to do, say, and even think. However, I was very fortunate in life to meet many outstanding people who taught me the determination to do things my own way.
I should definitely tell you about Alexander Suvorov, whom I met several times. He became my hero and inspiration for many years. Alexander completely lost his ability to see and hear when he was 3 years old. However, he was so eager to live life to the fullest that he learned to understand through the touch of his interlocutor's hands. Sasha graduated from high school with excellent results, then defended his thesis at Moscow University, wrote many brilliant scientific articles on helping deaf-blind children, and authored several books.
A documentary movie about A. Suvorov's life gathered huge crowds of viewers during several screenings in Moscow in the 70s of the last century. People were deeply impressed by Alexander's determination. I remember that after the movie ended, for a long time no one left the hall. We sat amazed and cried, consumed by a sense of shame for our pathetic worries and foolish fears. Alexander Suvorov, living in complete darkness and constant silence, dreamed of traveling. He learned two foreign languages and visited several countries on his own. When people asked him why he did so, he replied that he wanted to "see the world for himself."
When I meet incredibly courageous people like Alexander, or read about those who courageously stand up for their own position while remaining in the minority, I have a desire to explore life around me as fully as possible and learn the limits of my own abilities.
In the course of our lives, trying new things while seeking answers to the questions that arise, we gain a great deal of experience. Subsequently, we apply this knowledge and feel confident enough in any life circumstances (especially when a decision needs to be made quickly). And vice versa: when all we have is a set of other people's instructions, we can only hope that the authors of these instructions had good intentions and, most importantly, that they had deep knowledge. In this case, we hope, and for no good reason, that someone will take better care of us than we do.
When we let others decide for us, we are in a sense willfully willing to be blind and deaf. We have to follow someone else's directions and perform actions that we often don't understand the meaning of. We obey others and thus lose control over our own lives.
To observe is everyone's inalienable right. I believe that our own conscious observations are a thousand times more important than any authoritative statements.
Why have so many books on nutrition been published in recent years? Obviously, people have many health questions that the scientific community has no answers for. Most of us are completely deprived of direct communication with researchers, and scientists are also isolated from ordinary people. Why has this happened? After all, the primary goal of science is human well-being.
For ordinary people, access to the results of scientific research is often impossible or costly. For example, to get a two- or three-page document about medical research I was interested in, I had to pay hundreds of dollars sometimes. In addition, a scientific article is usually full of special terms and is incomprehensible to non-specialists.
I have noticed that the number of scientific fields is constantly growing, and in parallel, special terms specific to particular sciences are constantly multiplying. I have talked to many scientists from different countries, but I have never met a single specialist who was able to understand and explain research in different fields of the same science. As a rule, the more scientists specialize in one scientific field, the less they know about research in other fields outside their specialization.
This trend suggests that science is moving into the realm of "science for science's sake," which lies beyond the understanding of the average person. While people want to keep abreast of the latest scientific advances because they want solutions to the most pressing questions, the scientific world is becoming increasingly closed. The information vacuum is constantly growing, especially in the field of medicine, including dietetics.
To make up for the lack of necessary information, people are starting to create their own "science". It may not be completely accurate, but it is understandable to most people. As a result, we see hundreds, if not thousands, of books on nutrition and health, written by people who conduct various studies, often without medical training. Desperate readers absorb this abundance of information and often become even more confused.
I notice that many people trust what is written more than what is said. Because of their own lack of observation and their habit of taking any theory as if it were a truth carved in stone for centuries, many believe the first book they come across. Many books have been written about nutrition, often contradicting each other. As a result, people today have a wide variety of ideas about nutrition based on hundreds of theories.
When I started gathering materials for a book on greens, I was immediately hopelessly drowned in an ocean of information. In this critical situation, I had to "find the truth or die." I felt responsible not only for my husband and children, who followed me on a raw diet, but also for all the listeners of my lectures and readers of my books, who switched to raw food. In the end, I decided to put everything on hold for a few months, sit down and read every available primary source on nutritional research. I decided to discard all ready-made opinions and focus only on the scientific evidence, because other people's seemingly flawless logical reasoning very often leads the reader to erroneous conclusions with devastating consequences. (Later in this book, I will give examples of such errors, of which I myself have been a victim.)
I found some significant gaps in the books: for example, the composition and quality of certain foods had never been studied. Then I realized that if I wanted to draw the right conclusions, I had to do some preliminary research on my own. However, my life had long been an experiment in which I was the "guinea pig".
I firmly believe that it is safer to switch to raw food for a couple of weeks and observe the effect than to read dozens of books and follow recommendations without fully understanding their essence. By observing ourselves, we can clearly see the results of our actions.
Dear reader, with this book I hope to inspire you to start observing to create your own, most effective, program. I believe that you will become your own best healer.
