Testing a 100 % raw vegetarian diet of lentil sprouts, sunflower sprouts, fresh corn, and greens (lettuce, carrot leaves, etc.) My aim here was to try to find a diet of 100% raw foods that the mice and equally humans could live on that would provide all the factors needed for excellent health, free from any deficiencies which invariably seemed to arise in almost all of the most popular recommended raw food regimens. Also, since most of the books written by alternative health practitioners recommended the use of 100% raw vegetarian diet as the initial phase in attempting to reverse cancer, it seemed to be the best way to begin the search for an ideal raw food program. I began this diet by providing this cage of about twenty mice with fresh lettuce leaves (mostly outer iceberg and occasionally Romaine) and occasional carrot leaves, soaked overnight lentils, and unroasted sunflower seeds as well as corn on the cob. These foods were given twice a day in two meals.
10th day: Mice are doing well and are very lively. No fatalities so far.
20th day: So far, the mice are doing very well and are full of great energy. No deaths at all. I added raw yams (which they didn't eat much of).
26th day: All are still doing fine. I tried soaked soy beans three days ago, but discontinued them because they like the lentils better. The mice in this cage (No. 1) looked 100% better (cleaner, bigger, and heavier) than the cage No. 2 mice who had fruit alone as the only carbohydrate in a complete protein diet (in a test diet which I began two weeks later).
34th day: One female gave birth to four healthy babies.
37th day: Today in cage No. 1 is the 37th day of this soaked lentil and sunflower diet, with lettuce, occasional carrot tops, and occasional raw yam, and nothing else. The mice look well-fed, are large in size, very energetic, and quick in their movements and appear very healthy in all respects. There have been no deaths at all, for this extended period, which thrilled me no end. (None of this food grown organically.)
Conclusion: This 37 day diet, which is the human equivalent of 37 months, may now safely be recommended as an excellent introductory diet for advanced pathology conditions such as cancer, tumors, arteriosclerosis etc., in my opinion. This is a raw food vegetarian diet. The sunflower seeds and lentils complement each other in amino acids to produce an excellent complete protein. (See Diet for a Small Planet by Lappe.) I gave the sunflower and lentils two times a day in this cage, one handfull of each, each time.
Adding soaked grains to above raw diet At this point, I was satisfied and convinced that the mice could have remained on this regimen indefinitely, but I would have added a variety of nuts and other additional legumes, etc. But since for humans 37 months was more than enough time to reverse many if not most pathological conditions, I decided it would be timely to add raw, soaked grains to avoid a possible overload of protein (in legumes) and fat (in the sunflower seeds). I may be wrong in this, but a patient of mine said she felt stronger when she added grains to her raw nut, fruit, and vegetable diet, which made me decide to try adding grains.
Nevertheless, I concluded that this diet had been complete in all particulars for that period of time, so far.
On the 37th day I added soaked grains (overnight) such as rye, brown rice, hulled millet (which they preferred to rye).
10/18/85: Today is the seventh day in a row of added soaked grains to the preceding diet and they've been eating the brown rice and millet (raw, soaked) with the soaked raw lentils. I stopped soaking the sunflower seeds and give it to them dry and raw.
10/22/85: They love all of these foods and it is now the eleventh day on this added grain diet. It is also the seventh day that I've been giving soaked and drained brown rice as the only grain, along with sprouted lentils and dry sunflower seeds.
10/24/85: Today is the thirteenth day of added grains and the ninth day in which the soaked brown rice is the only grain. I found the first death today. All mice look very healthy and some are pregnant. The house mice who have escaped love the soaked rice and go after it no matter where I put it, even if I hang it up in a bag on a string. For a long time now they've been eating my raw, dried brown rice in the boxes. I trapped six mice today in a cage and put them free in the street.
10/27/85: Today is the sixteenth day of added grains and the 12th day in which the brown rice is the only grain. Today I found a second dead mouse and its body was intact and uneaten. Weather was excellent today. The causes of these two deaths was indicated.
11/10/85: Today is the 30th day of added grain. A third death occurred. The rest look very healthy.
11/12/85: Today is the 32nd day of added grain. A fourth death occurred. The rest look very healthy.
11/19/85: Today is the 39th day of added grain. A fifth death occurred. The rest look very healthy.
11/27/85: Today is the 47th day of added grain. A sixth death occurred. The rest look very healthy.