Testimonials

Schizophrenia and depression are obviously complicated diseases and I don't claim to be an expert, but I was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 1976, and spent a few weeks in a psych ward. I collected mental disability for 9 months after which I voluntarily quit it. I found in my recovery that diet was more effective than anything in reducing symptoms. The more I limited my diet in nutrition the less the symptoms. I had been worried about the threat of nuclear war and went to live along the Mexican border in case war happened. Still I continued to experiment with diet and by being vegan and cutting out salt, condiments, etc. was able to work. For safety I decided to move further south to the Suriname , South America . After an exciting journey I arrived in that fairy tale of a country that time passes by. I worked construction as a carpenter and started experimenting with the native tropical foods. The most popular vegetable was yuca, or cassava as the English say it. In the markets were many venders with big quantities of the roots. I found they had a remarkable effect on schizophrenia and other related disease symptoms when eaten in restricted diets for days at a time. It made working in a tight intimate work crew doable and even pleasurable. I continued to experiment by adding 1 food at a time to a base yuca diet to see effect. I returned to south Florida in 1983 (war or no war) and continued my diet and construction work. There were enough South Americans in South Florida so that the roots were available but hard to find. I discovered the medicinal anti-oxidant element in the roots - the cyanogenic glucosides linamarin and lotaustralin. These are analogous to the cyanogenic glucoside amygdalin popularized as Laetrile a semi-synthetic version used by alternative doctors to treat cancer in the 1970's till the Federal Department of Agriculture and American Medical Association accused them of peddling a worthless dangerous treatment. The whole movement disintegrated under that pressure but worse the research around anything containing cyanide became taboo. The value to me was that the Laetrilist did a lot of research and exposed the science and extent of cyanogenic glucosides in the animal diet at many level. Their theories may not have been 100% accurate but they got an A for effort in their individual battles against cancer and the due diligence they applied to their search for answers. In 1997 I discovered gari the course grain meal that the Africans make from yuca. You will find a big bag of gari in most African kitchens throughout the continent. Fresh roots and gari are a mainstay of their diet especially among the rural poor. The introduction of gari into my diet routine made it easier to maintain day after day as it is very tasty. Schizophrenia is for me controllable with diet alone. I tell you how I do it at my web site yucadiet.net. It is a simple theory that relates the disease to oxidation. The organic fear and and depression are real legitimate expressions of the organism under free radical attack and the consequent organ and systematic degeneration that chronic oxidative overload produces. Relieve the attack, the organism recovers (temporarily) and sanity and optimism return. Remember to keep it simple (fresh yuca, gari, decaf green tea) (supplements during the diet limited to small amounts of B-3, B-1, B-6, and folic acid [250 mg. ea.] ) Later after you see what the base diet can produce by itself you can tinker with it.