Table of Contents
This book is dedicated to all who have come to me for care. Thank you for your faith and trust, and for providing me with so many great reasons to learn more.
And to the most fantastic woman on the planet, my wife, Kelly. Thank you for life.
FOREWORD
by Dr. Peter DAdamo
Woe to the book you can read without constantly wondering about the author! wrote the Romanian philosopher and essayist E. M. Cioran. I think Cioran makes a rarely recognized and unguarded point. People write books, and it is often the personality and skills of the author that make the difference between a series of accumulated platitudes and a cogent and effective call to action.
While most of the current popular books on cleansing and detoxification approach the subject from the perspective of fantasy and folklore, this book grounds itself in evidence and positions itself firmly on the side of science. Be assured that the valuable advice youll receive here is proven, factual, and safe. You will be reading the book finally written by the man who wrote the book on the subject.
Having known Dr. Walter Crinnion for over three decades, I can assure you that there is no better authority in nutritional medicine on the subjects of detoxification and cleansing. Better yet, I can report that the guidance you are about to receive from this book is given in that friendly, informal style that characterizes Walters genuine personality and temperament and that serves to make him such a popular instructor and a much sought after lecturer.
The one characteristic of Walters that I treasure above all others is the tremendous enthusiasm he has for this work and his mission. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek en theos, signifying the God within. Im sure that you will soon be wondering about this special person, whose first book is truly the result of being blessed with the ways and means to express those essential thoughts that are inside him.
A quick study of the books beginning, middle, and end can best allow us to appreciate the sheer conceptual scale of this work. Walter begins by taking you on a trip to the invisible world of the hidden toxins that permeate our everyday lives. He uncovers the hidden threats behind pesticides, PCBs, and DDT, and describes the nine classes of toxic compounds. In short order youll find out how to detoxify nonorganic produce and cleanse your home environment. Walters advice is sound and practical and ranges from the latest biochemistry and genomics to something as simple as taking your shoes off before entering your home.
After identifying the problem, the second part of the book launches into the basics of naturopathic detoxification. There is an extensive discussion of the importance of cleansing the bowelsadvice as valid now as when it was first offered by Hippocrates, the father of medicine, over two thousand years ago. How to block fat absorption using safe and commonly available herbal remedies, enhancing the detoxification mechanisms of the liver and the kidneys, balancing the good and the bad estrogens in the body, and some terrific supplement advice round out the second part of the book.
The final third of the book is where your clean, green, and lean program is developed. It allows you to work toward a cleaner, greener life through a guided step-by-step approach. Youll begin by purging and reorganizing your food pantry. Then youll learn how to keep a daily journal and use an elimination process to help identify problematic foods. This section is capped off by a terrific recipe collection and an extensive and helpful collection of outside resources.
Over the years, Ive seen Dr. Walter Crinnion give patients their lives back, often as the happy ending to an otherwise sorry tale of missed diagnoses, therapeutic dead ends, and thousands of wasted dollars. It is my great honor and pleasure to introduce you to his first book.
Dr. Peter DAdamo, a second-generation naturopathic physician, is the author of the New York Times bestseller Eat Right 4 Your Type. His book is now in its fourteenth printing in hardback and has been translated into forty other languages. He has an international following and conducts biannual conferences for those interested in the interface between diet, health, and human individuality.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book has been in the making for the last thirty years, since I first entered naturopathic medical school. I owe a debt of thanks to my teachers and mentors, Dr. John Bastyr, Dr. Joe Pizzorno, and Dr. Bill Mitchell being chief among them. My good friends and colleagues Dr. Davis Lamson, Dr. Peter DAdamo, and Dr. Soram Khalsa have continued to inspire and encourage me along my path and have been wonderful companions.
A huge debt of thanks is due to all of my patients who have come to me for care and have taught me so much in the process. It has been a great path of partnership and co-learning, and thankfully tremendous healing for so many of them.
To my great joy, my path has led me to my soul mate, Dr. Kelly Crinnion, who has done more for my life than can be put into words. She has taken life from existence to life, a daily joyful existence. Our co-creative power has been phenomenal and is hugely responsible for this book coming to fruition along with our beautiful daughter, Kate. Kelly has been a fantastic source of support and is responsible for all of the wonderful recipes in this book, and as you can tell, she is also a fantastic cook. I am indeed the luckiest man in the world.
I also need to thank my fantastic agent, Janis Vallely, for working her magic to make this book happen, and to Tom Miller at John Wiley & Sons, who recognized the potential power of this information. And finally, to Doug Wagner and Toni Robino of With Flying Colours, who provided the greatest support an author could have. They uncorked the bottle and helped my words flow smoothly onto the pages like fine wine.
To all of you, I owe my deepest thanks for your help on this delightful ourney.
INTRODUCTION
Whats Clean ? Why Green? How Lean?
How would you like to lose weight without starvation diets, counting calories, and complicated meal plans? With Clean, Green, and Lean you canand you dont even have to exercise, although its best if you do, of course. As an environmental medicine physician, I know that losing weight and staying healthy has more to do with getting rid of toxins in your diet, in your body, and in your environment than with following the latest diet fad. Clean up your diet, clean out your body, and clean out your house, and your extra pounds will melt away along with the toxins you eliminate. And by the way, so will most, if not all, of your health problems, including fatigue, aches and pains, allergies, depression, and other mysterious and nagging symptoms your doctor cant cure.
But theres more to this than how great youll look and feel. Sure, youll lose weight without being hungry or increasing the amount of exercise you do. Sure, youll be healthier, slimmer, and more energetic than youve been in years. But youll also be helping to save the planet. If youre cleaner and greener, the world will be cleaner and greener.
In the early 1970s, I was a premed student at the University of San Francisco. Id wanted to be a physician ever since I was very young, and while I wasnt sure what kind of doctor I wanted to be, I knew I wanted to help people to heal. During that time, I was introduced to a woman in her seventies named Grace Bliss (hows that for a wonderful name?) who had been a big believer in health foods and natural healing since the 1940s. Because of her influence, I began to change my diet and started colon cleansing programs to reduce the amount of toxins stored in my body. When I simply took refined sugar out of my diet, I was rewarded with two extra hours of energy every day. After beginning to see the power of natural foods in my life, I wanted to learn more about how to help others heal with them. I just wasnt sure how.
