I was sorting through my health file the other day and came across a detox diet plan which I had torn out of an Alternative Health journal many years ago. It is called The Waerland Alkaline Detox Diet.
Dr Are Waerland (1876-1955)and his wife Ebba (1897 -1981) were two famous nutritional experts who ran a clinic in Sweden for many years. Are Waerland is reputed to have said “We are not concerned with diseases but with mistakes . . . of living. Get rid of the mistakes and the diseases will disappear of their own accord. We never cure a disease, only a sick body. A sick body can only be cured by restoring its original biological rhythm of working and living”
As a child Waerland suffered from various symptoms such as headaches, poor memory, chronic stomach problems and constipation. As a young man he was told by several throat-specialists that he had an incurable “catarrh of the throat” but with determination and perseverance he cured himself.
His wife Ebba suffered with many diseases as a child and spent the first 40 years of her life mainly in hospitals and sanatoriums. In 1940 she read a book by Waerland, followed his recommendations and gradually became healthy. She met him in 1944 and they were married in 1946. They opened the first Waerland sanatorium in Sweden in 1950.
To help restore the the body they designed a detox diet program of alkalizing foods which was originally designed more as a preventative measure rather than a treatment but in practice was followed by people who were already ill with great benefits.
This is the Alkaline Detox Diet Plan:
On waking:
1 -2 cups Excelsior Broth (see below)
Head and neck self massage
Cold shower
Dry skin brush
Morning Exercise or brisk walk
Note: It is more usual to do skin brushing before a shower. I don’t know why the program called for it after the shower unless it is to warm up the body again after the cold shower.
Breakfast:
Home made or live yogurt & fresh fruit
Between meals:
Herbal teas
Fresh fruit snack
Lunch:
“Kruska” cereal ( see below) with stewed fruit
Evening meal:
Large salad including beets, carrots, onion, green salad vegetables, baked or boiled organic potatoes, plus sour dough rye bread , butter and cottage cheese.
The program excludes salt, vinegar, pepper, mustard, strong spices, white flour, sugar, canned or processed foods, coffee, tea, alcohol,meat, fish, eggs and tobacco.
The Excelsior Broth neutralizes acid wastes, encourages the elimination of toxins and normalizes bowel elimination. It consists of a cup of vegetable broth with 1 tablespoon of flax seeds and 1 tablespoon of wheat bran added and left to soak in the refrigerator overnight. Next morning the the drink is warmed to body temperature and drunk without chewing the seeds.
The Excelsior broth is essentially potassium broth which is made from a variety of vegetables including organic potatoes with skins and water. No salt or stock is used. When the vegetables are cooked you strain off the liquid and you have your broth. You can save the vegetables to eat later if you like.
Here is a recipe for the Excelsior Potassium Broth:
Potassium Broth Recipe
The basic idea is to simmer the vegetables long enough to draw out the potassium and other minerals so that you have a mineral rich liquid to help the body detox and cleanse. It does not have to be exact. Make it to your taste.
It’s important to use organic vegetables if you can as you don’t want to add any more pesticides to your body to deal with.
2 large potatoes unpeeled
8 oz carrots
8 oz beet (beetroot)
8 ox celery with leaves
Dark greens
1 onion chopped
Place all vegetables in large saucepan. Add 3 pints water or enough to cover vegetables, bring to boil, put on lid and simmer gently for 1 hour. Strain and drink only the broth.
Put the vegetables in your compost. The broth can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Recipe for Waerland’s Kruska Cereal
1 tbsp each or organic whole wheat, whole rye, whole oats, whole barley, whole millet grains
2 tbsp wheat bran
2 tbsp raisins
Coarsely grind the grains. Place in a pot with 1.5 cups water and add wheat bran and raisins.
Bring to boil and simmer for 5 – 10 minutes.
Wrap pot in blanket or newspaper and leave to stand for several hours.
Serve hot with home made or live organic yogurt or home made apple puree or other stewed fruit, with no sugar of course!
The end result should be like a very thick porridge. You may have to experiment with the amount
of water to get the right consistency.
The same ingredients can be used without cooking by pouring boiling water over the ground grains, wheat bran and raisins and allowing to steep for half an hour before eating. This is more difficult to digest and should not be used by anyone with irritable bowel.
It’s unusual these days to include wheat and other gluten grains on a detox diet as they tend
to cause problems for a lot of people. Often the problem is because the grains have not been prepared or cooked properly. In Waerland’s day this recipe clearly was not a problem for his
patients.
Waerland believed that the day should begin with a light breakfast that encouraged detox because the blood was most heavily loaded with toxins at that time. He said that a large breakfast interrupted elimination which goes on until noon so it is essential to have a easily digested breakfast which aided elimination.
The diet was so successful that eventually 40 clinics using the Waerland alkaline detox diet plan were opened in various parts of Europe.
