By Dr. Royal Lee
Summary: Many people know white sugar and white flour are refined products, but what about distilled or otherwise “purified” water? Although deionization or reverse osmosis can remove potential pathogens, it also takes away the minerals found in “unrefined” sources of water that are so critical to human health. Possibly the most important of these minerals, Dr. Royal Lee says, is calcium bicarbonate, a form of calcium that has the rare distinction of being easily absorbed by the human body. Other benefits such as natural bacterial antigens, which help build our immune system, and the absence of fluoride make natural, unrefined spring or well water the ideal drink for the human body. From Let’s Live magazine, 1958.
[The following is a transcription of the original Archives document. To view or download the original document, click here.]Ideal Drinking Water[spacer height=”20px”]
Spring or well water is the best for drinking—preferably a hard water containing calcium bicarbonate (the kind that leaves a calcium deposit in the teakettle). This kind of calcium is completely assimilated and builds bone by combining with the organic phosphorus found in cereals and lecithins of natural fats.
Polio, Colds, and Fevers
It is this calcium bicarbonate that is essential in the bloodstream to prevent our children from becoming susceptible to polio, colds, and diseases of childhood that produce fevers. In fact, calcium bicarbonate deficiency alone can cause a child to have recurrent fever, a fever that disappears at once upon the administration of calcium lactate or calcium gluconate (which forms calcium bicarbonate after absorption). Such calcium deficiency fevers are common in children during the ages of rapid bone growth, especially where the youngster is getting too much of cereal foods such as oatmeal and processed dry cereals without enough hard-water calcium. The phosphorus of the cereal is out of proportion to the calcium bicarbonate intake.
“Pyrogen” Antibodies
“Good water” is water that has been filtered through the ground to reach the well or spring and thereby has accumulated a load of antigens. These antigens are otherwise known to science as “pyrogens,” since they cause fever if injected into the bloodstream. They are the residue of disease-producing bacteria, and by drinking them we develop an immunity to the germ or virus that put them into the water. In foreign countries where polio is relatively nonexistent as a known disease, the bloodstream of the children has been found to be loaded with antibodies to polio, which prevented them from contracting the disease. These children were immunized the natural way, not by a shot of Salk vaccine. It is very probable that their diet of unrefined natural foods, which promptly supplies the necessary factors to make antibodies, was responsible for their freedom from polio.
Boiling of Water
Cooking or boiling water destroys the antigenic effect of the pyrogens, so while boiled water is safe in that it cannot cause infection, it cannot build the real health of the person who needs to accumulate his natural quota for immunities against the prevalent infectious diseases of his community. You may begin to see why the most carefully “protected” children may be the least robust.
Many dentists routinely prescribe calcium lactate tablets for young patients who show soft, chalky teeth and are nervous, restless, and unmanageable, as these are all symptoms of the typically calcium-deficient child. These children are worse in summer, for the vitamin D effect of sunlight acts to raise the blood calcium at the expense of the cell fluids, reversing the normal flow of calcium from the blood to the tissues.
Natural forms of vitamin D, such as cod liver oil, contain vitamin F as well as the D, the F being the essential partner of vitamin D that causes diffusion of the blood-calcium into the cells. Vitamin D by itself acts only to load up the bloodstream with calcium, and you can realize that a loaded transportation system is no guarantee of delivery unless some provision exists to unload the commodity at the destination. [Vitamin F is that provision.]
Butterfat is one good source of vitamin F. Babies fed on prepared baby foods that have had the butterfat removed and oleo or refined vegetable oil supplied in its place are the best candidates for vitamin F deficiency. Practically all present-day baby foods are of this kind.
Fluorides Damage Kidneys
Dr. Clive McCay at Cornell University recently reported that one part per million of sodium fluoride added to the drinking water of rats caused the reversal of the possible evidence of causing a harder tooth enamel [sic] (although probably an abnormal form that is more brittle). He found that in fact the fluorine created tooth decay where it otherwise did not exist and, further, caused kidney cell breakdown in the older rats. Dr. Alton Oschner, of the celebrated Oschner Clinic of New Orleans, has reported that older persons lose their teeth faster if they get any fluorides in their water.
Aluminum Cooking Utensils
You will soon understand how aluminum salts from aluminum cooking utensils may be jeopardizing your health if you read Lee Foundation Report No. 5, which states, in part:
“It is highly probable that a syndrome of symptoms of phosphorus and calcium deficiency can follow a long-continued intake of aluminum salts from aluminum cooking utensils, alum baking powders, or aluminum acetate in perspiration deodorants. Aluminum salts appear to rob other food elements of their phosphorus to form insoluble and nutritionally useless compounds, just as mineral oils rob the food of elements and tissues in the intestinal tract of their vitamin A content. Serious disorders such as ulcers of the stomach and duodenum, cardiovascular disease, heart failure, obesity, and varying degrees of paralysis of the sympathetic nervous system appear to be a consequence of aluminum poisoning.”
Check Points for Water
Look to the water you drink and cook with. Does it contain plenty of calcium bicarbonate, with the diet containing both calcium metabolizers, vitamins D and F? Has the water been robbed of pyrogens (immunizing mechanisms)? What about fluorides and aluminum salts ? There may be other things—such as copper coils in hot water tanks, a possible source of toxic amounts of copper if the water is used for cooking purposes—that need to be considered.
Water accounts for 70 percent of the adult bodyweight and is one of the most important factors in maintaining equilibrium of the various body systems. The ability to select food sources that will prevent deficiency disease and poisoning is incumbent on every living being. Any poison added to a food or drink is too much. Like emery powder in a gear box, the damage is proportional to the amount and shortens life accordingly.
By Dr. Royal Lee. Let’s Live, 1958.
