CHAPTER 2: MANKIND'S SEARCH

FOR THE MAGIC ELEMENT

��

The search for the Magic Element is not new and it isnot limited to tobacco. For as we stated in the last chapter,the Magic Element is ubiquitous in nature. When tobaccohas not been available, humans have used and continue touse other sources of the Magic Element. Though they arenon-foods they all have the same characteristic� they arecarriers of the Magic Element. The reason for the consump-tion of these non-foods is because of the FIRE� biochemi-cally, there is an in�ammatory condition that is occurring inthe cell. This condition, in turn, is due to the consumptionof re�ned or fractionated foods. The cell is in desperateneed of the Magic Element because of it's special proper-ties in extinguishing this �ery situation. In this emergencysituation the cell will reorient the organism to attain thisElement. If it is not in our food, the cell will redirect ourdesperate physiology to acquire this Element� in non-foodforms.

Amazingly, this phenomenon has been observed and doc-umented for centuries. The Byzantine physician in the 6th

1

century by the name of Aetius of Amida used a Latin wordthat best described the principle of reorientation to him andthat was, pica� which is the Latin word for the bird Mag-pie. Why name a disorder like this after the Magpie? As re-lated by Marcia Cooper in her book on this disorder, Pica: AHistorical Survey, one of the traits of the Magpie is its inces-sant search for food by �itting from tree to tree �picking upa diversity of things to satisfy hunger�. Many of the thingspicked up by the bird seemed to be non-food items. Sothe name of the bird came to characterize a behavior whichhas been observed in humans from time immemorial� thehabitual eating or ingestion of non-foods.

If our diet is composed of fractioned foods (partial-foods)then the mechanism of reorientation will occur to mend thefracture� in other words, to acquire the missing nutrient inunusual ways� non-foods. It really is an ingenious systemwhen looked at from this angle, the perspective that sees thebody as exhibiting an intelligence of its own. As we surveypica in this chapter we will broach the cause of it� partial-foods� in particular, one that is consumed by the majorityof the population on earth. This partial-food borders onthe de�nition of a non-food however, yet it is not classi�edas such. In fact, it is an accepted part of the diet� noeyebrows are raised regarding this non-food even thoughbiochemically it poses a danger in that its use sets the stagefor the phenomenon of pica� the ingestion of non-foods.There is a supreme irony in this because this accepted food(or rather, non-food) is the gateway or tutor, so to speak,which leads and prepares individuals, biochemically, (causesthe FIRE in the cell) to the habits known as pica� one ofwhich is tobacco smoking.

2

THE GREAT SEARCHSera Young does research on ethnic peoples around the

world who engage in this behavior� a `nutritional anthro-pologist' who studies pica worldwide. In her book, CravingEarth, she tells of an instance when she encountered thisphenomenon. When she was on the island of Pemba, o� thecoast of East Africa, she was somewhat taken aback by thereply of one of the young pregnant women to her question.Young was wondering what she ate while she was pregnantand the woman responded, �Every day, twice a day, I take achunk of earth from this wall and, well, I eat it.� To furtherinquiries as to why the woman engaged in the act, all Younggot was a shrug of the shoulders� `I don't know. I reallydon't know. I just do it.' (pg.13 from the Preface)

Joel Wallach, in his book Rare Earths mentions the 18thcentury physician Agustus Mergiletus who wrote his doc-toral thesis on this condition and noted instances of thesame thing happening with women who were `addicted' toeating mud and mortar taken from walls. His thesis is a vir-tual compendium of these habits. Men who ate leather,girls eating their own hair and the threading from theirclothes (cotton) and women who even resorted to eatinghuman �esh. But the disorder wasn't limited to humans.He also recorded this phenomenon in animals as in catsthat would eat wood ash and horses chewing on hitchingrails. Even Wallach, a veterinarian, observed at one time,�a hundred pregnant sheep in Montana lined up along anembankment eating clay.� In reviewing the literature, Wal-lach lists the substances that are the object of this strangedisorder: Paper, metallic gum wrappers, ice, dirt, coal, clay,chalk, starch, baking powder, pebbles, wood, leather, paint,

3

chimney soot, hair, and cloth. Surely, this variety of sub-stances compels one to give up on �nding some kind of unit-ing property that might be satisfying a need in all su�erersof pica.

We see that this disorder ranges in time, historically,and as Sera Young discovered, in space, geographically. Shenotes in her book the diversity of objects of pica through-out the world, �Mama Sharifa eats earthen chunks from thewall of her outdoor kitchen in Zanzibar, while in Washing-ton, D.C., Pat crunches through a ten pound bag of ice fromSeven Eleven every day. In New Delhi, Simran starts hermorning every day with a handful of uncooked rice . . . inGuatemala, Carlita nibbles on little blocks of clay . . . whilein California, DeAngela buys ten boxes of chalkboard chalkfor snacking whenever she can get to a Walmart.�(pg.3) In-cidentally, pagophagia is the name for ice eating by indi-viduals and it turns out there are websites celebrating thiswidespread phenomenon of chewing lots and lots of ice withfellow ice chewers around the world.

Yes, we may feel repulsion at some of these proclivitiesbut this repulsion also occurs, initially, to anyone whosephysiology has been reoriented. People who engage in pica,typically, do not have a pleasant �rst experience with theclay or dirt or whatever was the object of their pica. Who-ever thought that their �rst cigarette was enjoyable? Prac-tically no one. But something keeps the individual comingback which countermands the repulsion of the taste mech-anism. That something is the cell because it has reorientedthe physiology of the organism� for the cell must feed andif the nutrients are not available in the food supply it willseek out alternative sources. It will search for anything that

4

has that missing nutrient.Can one nutrient explain the cravings for diverse items

such as clay and ice cubes? It really strains the mind tothink that there could be one nutrient that is being soughtin all those various items. The connection would have beenmade long ago if this were true, right?

ON THE (CLAY) TRAIL OF THE MISSING NUTRI-ENT

Clay eating was widespread in the 19th century Southas Robert Twyman reports in his article for the Journalof Southern History, The Clay Eater A New Look At an

Old Enigma. He cites various authorities and eyewitnesseswho observed this phenomenon that was not only prevalentamongst slaves but also a problem with poor whites in vari-ous regions of the South. In one instance it was reported asearly as 1709 in the Carolinas amongst white settlers. Butthe more interesting aspect of Twyman's article is his se-lection of quotes he garnered from various researchers wholooked into the matter in the South.

A predominant portion of the clay eaters were found tobe pregnant women. Comments that were commonly heardfrom women were, �You have to eat clay when you are car-rying your baby or it won't be born right.� This and othercomments that the women made give the impression thatthere seemed to be a common undercurrent of belief, in thissubculture of clay eaters, that the clay had some nutritivevalue. But even more astoundingly is the attachment andthe intense cravings that the clay eaters had for clay: �Ifeel awful, just about crazy when I can't get clay,� said onewoman. The researchers found this to be a common refrainof the clay eaters. Now, Twyman was not writing about

5

addictions but he weighed the evidence and came to an in-teresting conclusion/observation. He wrote that, much liketobacco, eating clay, �brings a feeling of relaxation and oralgrati�cation from the pleasure of chewing . . . once the

desire is created, the habit is soon �xed, a fact reported bythe earliest recorders of clay eating as well as by modernresearchers.� (italics mine) Tobacco smoking begins in thisvery way with an initial repulsion by the taste of the sub-stance but then a curious thing happens� as Twyman says,the habit is soon �xed.

The anthropologists Dickens and Ford found that clayeating carried on into the 20th century when they surveyed207 Mississippi school children in the early 1940s. Througha rather sophisticated survey they found that 25% of thechildren had recently eaten clay but both authors felt this�gure could have been much higher if they asked if the chil-dren had ever eaten dirt. They describe the breadth anddepth of this phenomenon in their paper entitled Geophagy

Among Mississippi Negro School Children: �. . . dirt iscarried long distances to people who can no longer get itthemselves. Some claim that Negroes in the South sendbags of dirt to Negroes who have migrated north. Negroeswho now live in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta are said to askNegroes who live in the hills of Mississippi to send a bagof "good dirt." Perhaps they acquired the habit when they,too, lived in the hills where clay was abundant. The dirtin the Delta is "no good" for eating. This hearsay and per-sonally obtained evidence gave support to the notion thatdirt eating is indeed a fact and rather widespread amongthe population here.�

Even the popular press has reported on this. Time mag-

6

azine in an article from July 28, 1967, reports on African-Americans who migrated from the South: �Those who mi-grate North sometimes receive packages of clay (known as"Mississippi Mud" in Los Angeles) mailed by friends backhome . . .� The clay is even known and referred to by anickname as far as Los Angeles?

We begin to see a picture of an extensive network ofdistribution drawn here. If we add in the physiological re-sponses of the individuals who were `clay addicted', we havea picture that seems no di�erent than the way we see drugs,alcohol and tobacco. Sera Young references several author-ities throughout history who noticed the �xation for clayrivaled the desire for alcohol or tobacco. Note the followinggeographical locations:

Jamaica in 1788: �Their attachment to earth is greaterthan even that of dram drinkers to their pernicious liquor�(J. Hunter Observations on the diseases of the army in Ja-

maica 1788)Georgia 1840: �From the oldest to little children, they

are as much addicted to the eating of clay as some com-munities are to the use of tobacco and snu�� (E.P. BurkePleasure and pain, reminiscences of Georgia in the 1840's

1871)England in 1842: �Powerfully do the morbid appetites

enslave a large portion of mankind� from the opium of Chinato the tobacco of Virginia, and from the beer of Englandand the whiskey of Ireland to the clay of Carolina� (J.S.Buckingham The Slave States of America vol 1 1842)

India in 1906: �The uncontrollable craving for this earthis like the opium or alcohol habit, and the ravenous symp-toms and anxiety in the faces and actions of the eaters are

7

similar to those found in the devotees of one or the other ofthese vices� (D. Hooper and H. Mann Memoirs of the the

Asiatic Society of Bengal 1906)In Pemba, where Young did some of the research, the

same word is used for addiction to cigarettes and other sub-stances as that used for pica. It was so widespread in Laosthat at one time authorities threatened arrest to any whoengaged in geophagy (dirt-eating).

What is going on here? There is obviously a propertyof clay that is causing the same emotional cravings thatapproximate those for cigarettes. But what do clay andtobacco have in common� much less, ice cubes and otherstrange non-food items like laundry starch?

LIKE TAKING DOPE"When I'm pregnant, it's just like taking dope," said

the Negro woman bearing her ninth child at the District ofColumbia General Hospital in Washington. "I can hardlywait to get home so I can get some more starch," she added,referring not to starchy foods but to laundry starch. "Some-times I'll eat two or three boxes a day." So goes the articlefrom Time magazine published July 28, 1967. Surely, thiswoman's experience is anomalous and not representative inany way. But the article goes on to say that �Northerndoctors have lately discovered that eating laundry starchis all the rage among Negro women�especially pregnantwomen�in many Northern-city slums. At D.C. GeneralHospital, Chief Obstetrician Dr. Earnest Lowe estimatesthat up to one-fourth of his patients are starch addicts. AtLos Angeles County Hospital, three or four patients a weekare diagnosed as having anemia apparently caused by starchbinges.�

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The theory at the time was that the clay eaters, whowere largely from the South, had substituted one form ofpica for another when they moved up North. Says the articlein Time, �According to the few doctors who have studiedthe subject, the craving for laundry starch is an o�shoot ofthe clay-eating habit still prevalent among some SouthernNegroes.�

What was not and still is not explained is why these for-mer clay eaters chose laundry starch. Is there some type ofconnection between laundry starch and clay? At the outsetit seems like there could not be two objects that are furtherapart in composition than laundry starch and clay. But thereason the former Southerners were going to the laundrystarch was that there is indeed a very intimate connectionbetween laundry starch and clay as pica substances.

In fact, all objects of pica have a connection that uni�esthem. That is, everyone who engages in pica is after thesame element which happens to be a nutrient in the humanbody. And somehow, someway, the human organism is ableto �nd it; depending on the environmental surroundings theindividual is in, whether it is in clay or laundry starch ortobacco, this element ful�lls the deep need and cravings ofthe cell that starves for it. What do cigarettes have to dowith clay and laundry starch and ice cubes? This book willanswer that they are all the same thing in that they containthe same nutrient. The reason for pica is a deep, inveterateneed for a single element that happens to be in all the ob-jects of pica disorder, whether clay, chalk, or laundry starchetc. But even more fascinating is that once the element isreplenished in the diet, the pica disorder disappears. Andthis includes cigarette smoking . . .

9

PRESCRIPTIONS FROM THE PASTHistorically, many observers who failed to understand

pica had their own theories as to causes and they rangedfrom insanity to hookworm infestation to low level of IQ/re-tardation to, as Twyman reports, the accusation by landowners that the slaves wanted to get sick so that they couldescape work. All of these were found wanting to some degreeor other.

Because of the ignorance of the cause, of course, we canonly expect the cures to be unenlightened. The Persianphilosopher Avicenna recommended imprisonment. The South-ern landowners were not too far away from that idea also,as Twyman relates, �In desperation, planters attempted toe�ect cures by con�ning the a�icted slaves in stocks, byattaching metallic masks or mouthpieces to them, and byother preventive measures to break the habit; but once thephysical restraint was removed the "patient" invariably re-turned to his old ways.�

Amongst this stream of thinking that treats pica as some-thing done willfully there does seem to be another streamof thought that has a long tradition attached to it that seespica as a disorder that can be treated nutritionally. Aetius ofAmida wrote that those who �crave for sand, oyster shellsand wood ashes�, could be cured by eating certain kindsof food. Though he generalizes with the �rst two items ofhis prescription, he is still rather precise in recommending,�fruits, green vegetables, pigs feet, fresh �sh and old tawnyfragrant wine.�(pg.5, Pica, Marcia Cooper)

There is a prescription from the 11th century that comesfrom a famous midwife, Trotula of Salerno who actuallywrote a text on common sicknesses of women. She writes,

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�But if she should seek to have potter's earth or chalk orcoals, let beans cooked with sugar be given to her.�(pg.102,Womens Lives in Medieval Europe, Emilie Amt) Again, wehave two things here:

1) the prescription is food2) the prescription is somewhat preciseThe reason for the precision in the foods prescribed, may

be because of a certain factor that was unknown or un-isolated until centuries later. Because in the 17th century wecome upon the physician Boezo who recommends, �one andone half scruples of iron dross taken for many days as won-derfully bene�cial for men and women.�(pg.10, Pica, Mar-cia Cooper) Though iron is not the Magic Element, it doeshave somewhat of a residue of the Magic Element (chapter9) which is why it works sometimes in treating pica.

THE GREAT WHITE WHALEOne of the problems with pica is that the object of

pica can cause additional or collateral damage to the body,as shown in the article from Time magazine, cited above,which stated that patients were regularly admitted to hos-pital because of severe anemia due to starch binges.

That is the price of seeking the missing nutrient in non-foods or even partial-foods� there will be collateral dam-age, such as with starch ingestion. The Magic Element is abare residue in starch (chapter 9) and therefore great quanti-ties must be ingested to get adequate quantities of the MagicElement but starch is a non-food or at best a partial-food.What this means is that it is mostly puri�ed carbohydrate(exclusively carbohydrate, no other nutrient) and carbohy-drate requires other nutrients in order to be metabolizedin the body. All these metabolizing factors have been pro-

11

cessed out of the starch� hence, it is a partial-food. If thesefactors are not available, a condition will occur that is notfavorable for the cell resulting in various pathologies� oneof which is anemia, as stated by the article. All of whichbrings us to Moby Dick . . .

The human organism's pursuit for the Magic Element, inpica, is something like the story of Captain Ahab's obsessionwith the Great White Whale� it doesn't end good.

Ahab ended up being taken down and drowned by theWhite Whale because he just couldn't control his �xation.As we have seen with pica, the cell must have the missingnutrient but if it is not in a whole food source then therewill be collateral damage, physiologically, because of whatelse may be contained in or left out of the object of pica,whether it is tobacco or clay or corn starch, etc. This col-lateral damage is the catch-22 of pica and reorientation. Wedesperately need the Magic Element but the pica object isjust a band-aid, not o�ering a long term solution to thespeci�c starvation.

This collateral damage is especially true with possiblythe two greatest items of pica in the modern era� re�nedgrains and re�ned sugar. Amazingly, these products containa bare residue, as in Boezo's iron prescription, of the MagicElement. So, one would think this is a good thing but thedanger of this type of sugar is the condition it creates inthe cellular environment� the biochemical FIRE in the cell.First of all, re�ned sugar is completely stripped of co-factorsand nutrients that help metabolize the sugar. Because ofthis, and because of its pervasive use, it is the PRIMARYcause of the FIRE in the cell. Thus, sugar is a non-foodor at best a partial-food. The ingestion of partial-foods

12

is really a form of starvation� nutrient speci�c starvation.Secondly, the cellular in�ammation that is caused by re�nedsugar causes a greater need for the Magic Element� andtobacco happens to contain the Magic Element in substantial

amounts. Cigarette smoking is really only a reaction to thecellular collateral damage being done by partial-foods likere�ned sugar. This collateral damage, or the FIRE, will bemore fully explained in chapter 4.

So, if the whole world is eating re�ned carbohydratesand re�ned sugar then why isn't the whole world smokingor ingesting some other item of pica? It is because con-suming re�ned sugar and re�ned starch is a form of pica�these re�ned products have at least a residue of the MagicElement. This is why the rest of the world is not smok-ing, because they are eating the most popular pica item allday long. But as Ahab found, it is a losing battle messingaround with the Great White Whale. The situation we haveis this:

-Re�ned grains and re�ned sugar contain the Magic El-ement in a bare residue form

-But the collateral damage that these products cause(FIRE or in�ammation) will make one seek more of theMagic Element so that, what will be consumed to a greaterdegree will be either:

A) tobacco or other objects of pica, orB) More and more sugar (since the Magic Element is a

residue)But herein lies the problem that Captain Ahab faced and

a hint (which will be covered in chapter 8) as to why somesmokers are able to quit. The alternative these smokerschoose�re�ned carbohydrates and re�ned sugar� is just

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another substance that has the Magic Element but in verysmall amounts. Therefore, MORE of the re�ned carbs mustbe consumed in order to maintain proper levels of the MagicElement� there must be a steady �ow, so to speak. Butwith more ingestion of carbohydrate a phenomenon occurswhich almost every ex-smoker knows� weight gain. This isthe collateral damage of the partial-food known as sugar�obesity, not to mention the pathologies associated with it.Presently, the medical establishment recognizes that obesityis correspondent to almost every `modern' disease. Chasingthe white whale (sugar) in smoking cessation will work butit is an option fraught with even greater di�culties.

In essence, we can not escape the need for the MagicElement. We may look down and frown upon the strangehabits of those people throughout the world eating clay orother strange things without realizing that we are engagingin pica that is far worse than those who eat clay� and thisform carries far worse consequences. Everyone has to havetheir source of the Magic Element and if you think you areexempt from this need you are greatly mistaken. If you wereto cut o� your source of the Magic Element, within a fewdays, your body WILL reorient your physiology to obtainit in another source. This book reveals, in chapter 8, thehealthy way to obtain this necessary element.

The cause of pica (e.g. cigarette smoking) is consump-tion of fractioned foods in general and speci�cally, in oursociety, re�ned carbohydrates. It would seem rational thatthe cause (partial-foods) should be implicated rather thanthe e�ect (pica). But which one is attacked and vili�ed inour society?

What you will see with sugar, in a historical sense since

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the early 1900's, is that the more re�ned sugar became apart of our daily fare the more tobacco smoking becameendemic. Since the re�ning of foods occurred on a mas-sive scale in the early 20th century (this process leaves be-hind just the isolated carbohydrate) there has been an equalrise in pathologies that were not common until white sugar,white bread� became our daily fare. Hand in hand withthis explosion of food re�ning and disease there was alsothe phenomenon of pica that was growing amongst the poor(clay and dirt eating) and middle and upper class (cigarettesmoking). Even if one only has a bare knowledge of popularculture� for a �fty year period (1920's to 1970's or the pin-nacle of the white bread and white sugar era)� who wasn'tsmoking?

CATCH 22The campaign against smoking and smokers has been

a successful one in terms of government and state actionagainst smoking and smokers. The `awareness' of the po-tential harm of smoking is brought to the consciousness ofthe citizenry at a very early age now. Consequently thereis less smoking in every age group according to the proudannouncements from various organs of information on thesematters like the CDC (Center for Disease Control).

This is a major deception and it is just sleight of handbecause by not realizing what the real problem is regardingpartial-foods, the crusaders in this anti-smoking cause canback-slap and congratulate each other all they want. Butthere is no government on the face of this earth that can stopthe cell from acquiring the Magic Element. The reason whysmoking has gone down is because individuals are acquiringthe Magic Element from the two greatest partial-foods in

15

the world� re�ned sugar and re�ned grains (which are thebasis for breads and pastas)� in greater quantities.

Another book could be written on the coincidence andparallels between the campaign against smoking and the co-incident rise in obesity but for our purposes we will use thetimeline from 1965 to the present, 2012. Certainly therewere rumblings going on before this but it was in 1965when the Surgeon Generals report came out that impli-cated cigarette smoking in cancer and other pathologies.From then on we see an outright war continually escalatedagainst tobacco until this very day when we see smokingbans in countries all around the world. But from 1965 tothe year 2012, obesity has been the biggest problem at ev-ery age range and for every country. The populations ofthe world just redirected where they were getting their sup-ply of the Magic Element from and that had to be re�nedsugar. But since the Magic Element is only a bare residue inthe re�ned sugar and grains much more of it must be con-sumed. Not realizing what the real issue was with smoking,the authorities, made the health of many decline even more.

The partial-foods of re�ned sugar and grains cause col-lateral damage at the cellular level� the FIRE or in�am-mation which occurs at the level of the cell (to be explainedin chapters 4 and 5). Eventually, if this is not treated, thein�ammation will grow to a higher level� obesity and thepathologies linked to it. Scientists now realize that obesityis an in�ammatory disease. But all the back slappers arehappy about the anti-tobacco campaign while the su�eringof obesity and weight gain extends to all ages.

YOUR BANK HAS LIMITED FUNDSOne of the characteristics of a whole food, a food that

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is not processed or re�ned, is that it is able to be incor-porated into your body without borrowing anything fromyour body� it does not put an excessive demand on yourbody. This process of incorporation is called metabolism.The whole food has factors, or nutrients, that are used forthis process, already in it. It doesn't need additonal factors.

We could picture the cell as being a gatekeeper that askseach molecule of food, �Do you have the necessary keys topass through?� A whole food says yes to this but a partial-food does not have the keys to pass� they are fragmentedand incomplete. But the gatekeeper (the cell), being kind,says to the partial-food, �Well, since you're here and since Idon't want you breaking the door down (the FIRE) I'll seewhat I can do� The gatekeeper then borrows the necessarypieces from friends of his that will make the keys of thepartial-food molecules complete so that it can pass and beincorporated.

In essence, because a partial-food is incapable of beingmetabolized fully, it becomes the cause of further or sec-

ondary nutrient depletion. Because of this, the human bodymust resort to a backup plan that requires attacking it'sown reservoir of nutrients. In other words, when you eata re�ned carbohydrate like sugar, your body must borrowvital nutrients from healthy cells to metabolize the incom-plete food you are taking in. Calcium, sodium, potassiumand magnesium are taken from various parts of the body tometabolize or make use of the sugar. In contrast, raw, un-processed cane sugar or any food that has not been re�neddoes not impose this reorganization upon the body becauseit contains these nutrients already in it's structure.

So we can see where this could lead. The body has a

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limited supply of these factors of metabolism such as min-erals. The consumption of partial-foods forces you to `dipinto a limited bank account.' When you overdraw on thisaccount then pathologies of various kinds will set in. Min-erals, for instance, not only are structural components ofbody organs and tissues, they are necessary in physiologicalprocesses such as osmotic pressure, acid-base balance andtransmission of nerve impulses� not to mention their func-tion in catalytic systems as enzyme components or activa-tors of enzyme systems. If these minerals are missing thenwe will see a correspondence of decline in these systemsand structures of the body. Eating partial-foods requiresthe body to steal from these vital systems and structures�hence, disease and mental illness both of which are the topicof the next chapter.

There are many examples of this `borrowing' in the sci-enti�c literature. In the journal Metabolism (Volume 35,Issue 6, June 1986, pages 515-518) a study was conductedwith 37 people involving two diets. For 12 weeks they wereon a reference diet �formulated by nutritionists to containoptimal levels of protein, carbohydrates and fat and othernutrients.� The following 6 weeks they were on a less thanoptimal diet that was high in sugar. This particular studywas fashioned to examine and study one nutrient� the min-eral known as chromium. The contents of both diets had thesame amount of chromium. After all was said and done theconclusions of the study were somewhat astounding. Thehigh sugar diet saw chromium excretion rates of 300% whileon the �rst diet which had less sugar the excretion rates ofchromium were 10%. The authors of the study conclude:�These data demonstrate that consumption of diets high in

18

simple sugars stimulates chromium losses . . .� But whereon earth is that extra chromium coming from in that highsugar diet? The startling conclusion is that it may be com-ing from stores in the body.

In the Journal of Nutrition (Volume 113: 1335-1345,1983) a study was done in which rats were fed a sucrosediet that was already de�cient in copper. The strange thingthat was discovered was that the high sucrose diet furtherdecreased the levels of copper in the mice. �Feeding sucrose. . . magni�ed the copper de�ciency and resulted in 60%mortality . . . the hepatic copper concentration of rats fedsucrose was reduced nearly threefold . . .�

In the European Journal of Nutrition (October 2007)a study entitled, Implications of oxidative stress in high su-

crose low magnesium fed rats, was published in which it wasfound that �Levels of various antioxidants fell signi�cantlyin plasma of HS (high sucrose ) rats.�

The body is being depleted by the consumption of thesepartial-foods. There will come a day when the funds (the nu-trients) will run out. At this point the partial-food moleculeswill break down the door causing damage. In essence, thisis in�ammation or the FIRE that we have talked about.This will increase the need for the natural FIRE-extingusherknown as the Magic Element. Unfortunately if the MagicElement is sought in re�ned sugar, in which it is a residue,it becomes a paradox of the highest order. With furtherconsumption of this partial-food the further the FIRE is ex-acerbated. The bare residue can not hold o� or mitigateagainst the bad e�ects of the sugar for long.

In this regard we can understand why Dr. David Reuben,author of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About

19

Nutrition says, �. . . white re�ned sugar-is not a food. Itis a pure chemical extracted from plant sources, purer infact than cocaine, which it resembles in many ways.�(pg.167) Partial-foods are the substances that cause in�amma-tion which in turn leads to an increased need for the MagicElement� pica or cigarette smoking. These two partial-foods of sugar and starch are ingested at an early age and inmany cultures around the world, on throughout life and theyare highly successful in preparing individuals (by means ofdisturbing the biochemical environment of the cell) for so-called addictions such as cigarette smoking� as we shallsee, they are the real gateway drug.

ONE SPECIAL PROPERTYMany researchers express puzzlement as to the wide ar-

ray of items that humans ingest in pica. It does seem oddthat there could be a unifying principle behind such items asice cubes, laundry detergent, talcum powder, raw rice andclay and of course sugar. But what will be demonstratedin this book is that ALL of these items have ONE elementin them that the human body is seeking but more so, espe-cially, the brain. As will be shown, the Magic Element isthe one nutrient that will solve the problem of pica in itsmany forms if it is taken in a whole food form.

Therefore, we can lump tobacco, ice cubes, clay, chalk,raw rice, white sugar and laundry detergent etc . . . all to-gether. Even though the nutrient is a bare residue in someof these items (which means more consumption) it seemsto be enough to requite the hunger of the cell if enough istaken in. These items, though they are not food, serve asa carrier of the one important nutrient� the Magic Ele-ment. Again, as carriers they are limited because they may

20

not have as much of the nutrient as is needed and/or theymay actually cause damage to the human physiology as, forexample, those women who developed anemia from the laun-dry starch. The damage they may cause includes causingfurther de�ciencies of other minerals such as iron. Thesemineral de�cits such as iron are collateral loss due to thecarrier being an incomplete food and/or having somethingelse it that causes damage to the physiology.

Eating partial-foods in which vital minerals and vita-mins are missing contributes to pica by causing in�amma-tion in the interior environment of the body. This calls fora bigger demand for the Magic Element which is a natural�re extinguisher. If this Element is not in the food supplythe organism will call upon the mechanism of reorientationto redirect itself to attain this nutrient in the environmentmostly through non-food forms.

As we have introduced brie�y, and will demonstrate inchapter 4, the cell is su�ering from mild to severe in�amma-tion due to the consumption of partial-foods� this is theinterior aspect of the FIRE. But this in�ammation makes itsappearance in the outside world in a thing known as disease.The diseases that result from the intake of re�ned productsa�ect mankind not only physically but mentally and, as aresult, socially. We must tell the whole story because con-suming the Magic Element by means of tobacco smokingis really only a remedial e�ect that the cell is undertakingin hopes that it can put out the FIRE. In other words, byengaging in pica the human organism is desperately tryingto remedy a situation which, if untreated with proper nutri-tion, will have far greater e�ects in our bodies, our minds,and in our society . . .

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