Ten Days to Optimal Health:
Book Review by Sally Fallon

Reproduced below is Sally Fallon's review of Kristina Amelong's Ten Days to Optimal Health from the Fall 2006 edition of the journal Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts.

Ms. Fallon is author of numerous articles and several books, including Nourishing Traditions and Eat Fat, Lose Fat. She is founder and president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, which publishes the Wise Traditions journal.

In the past, we have steered clear of the subject of detoxification through fasting and colon cleansing in these pages, in part because the medical literature provides little research on the subject, but largely because the many books promoting detoxification through enemas and colonics include abysmal fasting diets based on vegetable juices and mostly vegan, low-fat maintenance regimens.

Kristina Amelong's attractive book is different; her dietary principles are right in line with the discoveries of Weston Price and include healthy pasture-raised animal foods, animal fats such as raw cream, butter and egg yolks, bone broths, fermented foods, kombucha, raw milk and raw meat. "Raw meat rebuilds and repairs the body better than any other food," writes Amelong. "I personally was not able to heal, even after working diligently on my health for over six years, until I ate large quantities of raw meat."

For vegetarians, she recommends raw dairy and eggs — as much as one-half pound of butter daily and 10 to 20 eggs per week. (We don't agree with her that the whites should be eaten raw, however.)

Amelong places much emphasis on the importance of vitamin B6, found plentifully in raw meat and milk, noting the link of B6 deficiency with yeast overgrowth, a condition of which many sufferers turn to bowel cleansing, often with miraculous results. With the addition of raw milk and other raw meat, rich in vitamin B6, the patient has an even better chance of overcoming this debilitating digestive disorder.

Amelong warns against consumption of all grains and legumes, which is good advice for those suffering from the kinds of digestive disorders she encounters in her practice.

She explains how caffeine, alcohol, refined sugar, and artificial sweeteners contribute to chronic disease, citing a study in the Journal of Natural Medicine which found that one teaspoon of refined sugar paralyzes fifty percent of the body's white blood cells for five hours.

Her fasting program includes nourishing raw milk and bone broths along with vegetable juice blends.

In addition to all this good dietary advice, Amelong provides a comprehensive and well-explained program of colon cleansing involving either at-home enemas or in-office hydrotherapy, or both, noting the historical use of these methods and providing a good explanation on how they work. She describes in detail, the range of various equipment available, with information on the pros and cons, and the costs.

In the absence of double blind studies, we can turn to case histories, and Amelong provides several inspiring stories relating how this therapy has helped patients resolve intractable conditions ranging from skin rashes to fibromyalgia. For those considering this approach, start by reading the success stories in Chapter Ten, "Supportive Case Studies."