The Power of Juicing by Tatia Nelson M.H., Iridologist – Utah

Celery juice or pain killers?  If asked this question today, Al Godsey would say, “I’ll take the celery juice any day!”  For a man who was once crippled with severe and painful arthritis, his story is one we can all learn from. The year was 1959 aboard the USS Ticonderoga, Al was a Navy Structural Mechanic who could hardly walk after 13 months on the ship, due to pain and deformities in his feet.  He was moved to the Oakland Navel Hospital in California for medical care where he was diagnosed with a debilitating case of arthritis.  In just over a year of service,  his athletic running feet had developed heel spurs, an extreme high instep and “hammer toes”.  The bone spurs felt like knives cutting into the flesh of his heels causing bad enough pain that he was confined to bed rest for three weeks.

One day, while gazing out the hospital window, he felt a strong impression that changing his diet would heal him.  When he asked his doctor about nutrition, the young lieutenant, fresh out of medical school, quickly rejected the idea that a diet change could help.  Surgery was advised, but other patients who opted for surgeries said their condition never improved and their doctors “just kept cutting” with no results.  Opting out of surgery, he took a prescription for pain of 5 aspirin, 4 times daily.  With pain numbed, he moved to a wheel chair, then crutches, and finally used only a cane, but his condition never got better, just manageable with pain killers.  After a couple of months in the hospital, his time of service was up, so he went home, still walking with a cane.

At home, Al took a 180 degree turn with his diet and his healing process finally began.  He ditched the aspirin and turned to whole foods.  He switched to whole grains and cut out white sugar, white flour, and other processed foods.  He ate at least three pounds of green and yellow fruits and vegetables daily.  For protein he enjoyed nuts and seeds and if he ate meat, it was very sparing.  No pork was consumed and meat choices were very lean, fish being a favorite.  For probiotics, he consumed fresh, homemade yoghurt or bought it with live cultures at the health food store. He read books by alternative doctors to find ways to improve his health.  Many wrote about juicing live foods for health.  So, he got a juicer and began juicing daily.  His favorite juice combinations included: Carrot, celery & apple, apple & parsley, apple & beet, and other mixtures including lots of alfalfa sprouts, watercress, wheat grass, spinach, etc.  Al first experienced a dramatic change in his health after a juice fast consisting of a quart or more of juice a day for 6 weeks.  Celery juice offered the most pain relief, so most of his recipes consisted of 1/3 to 1/2 celery.

Within a couple more months, he stopped using a cane, and his bone spurs were gone.  He was once again running the full track of 2.7 miles around Green Lake near his home in Seattle, pain free! Al is my father, and now at the age of 73… he is still juicing!  He bottle fed me fresh juices and taught our large family to juice daily.  My dad is most grateful for celery juice, because after 52 years, the pain in his feet has never come back!

Tatia Nelson is a certified Iridologist and a Master Herbalist – graduate of The School of Natural Healing. Tatia currently consults in Utah, teaches in the community, and writes for local health food stores.

Visit www.herballegacy.com for more information