1

Mono Diet
“Detoxification is the missing link in Western nutrition, and fasting and/or
juice cleansing is a pure and safe form (over water fasting) of detoxification.
Dr. Vasey’s very informative book brings light to this vital process through
one of the first approaches to cleansing, Johanna Brandt’s Grape Cure. There
are so many people and so many health conditions that can benefit from the
natural health approach found in The Detox Mono Diet.”
ELSON M. HAAS, M.D., THE DETOX DOC (WWW.ELSONHAAS.COM),
AUTHOR OF The New Detox Diet AND Staying Healthy with Nutrition
“Enthusiastic applause for the combined efforts of Dr. Vasey and the late Mrs.
Brandt! Give The Detox Mono Diet your full attention, and you will have the
foundation for success in self-healing.”
CARRIE L’ESPERANCE, AUTHOR OF The Seasonal Detox Diet
“Finally, a fully comprehensive and accurate dossier on how to rest the body
from complicated combinations of foods—and enable a return to vibrant
health. The Detox Mono Diet is inspiring and scientifically sound.”
NATALIA ROSE, AUTHOR OF The Raw Food Detox Diet

Contents
Cover Image
Title Page
Epigraph
Foreword by Rosette Poletti
Introduction
PART ONE

Detoxification and Regeneration
Chapter 1. The True Nature of Illnesses and Therapy
ARE GERMS THE CAUSE OF ILLNESS?
WHAT IS THE INTERNAL CELLULAR ENVIRONMENT?
ILLNESSES AND TOXINS
THE PROFOUND NATURE OF ILLNESS
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THERAPY
THE HEALING PROCESS AND THE GRAPE CURE

Chapter 2. Fasting
AUTOLYSIS
THE WISDOM OF THE BODY AND AUTOLYSIS
TISSUE REGENERATION
ELIMINATORY UPDATING
HEALING CRISES
FASTING AND ACIDITY
THE BENEFITS OF FASTING

Chapter 3. Cleansing Enemas
Chapter 4. The Grape Mono Diet

THE BASIC VIRTUES OF THE MONO DIET
PROPERTIES OF THE GRAPE
DOES THE GRAPE CURE CAUSE WEIGHT LOSS?
A SUMMARY OF THE BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF THE GRAPE CURE

Chapter 5. The Raw Food Diet
THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF COOKING
THE BENEFITS OF A RAW FOOD DIET

Chapter 6. Indications and Contraindications of the Grape Mono Diet
Chapter 7. A Practical Guide to the Cure
PREPARATION FOR THE CURE
THE CURE ITSELF
COMING OFF THE CURE

PART TWO

The Grape Cure
By Johanna Brandt
(abridged and reformatted)
Preface
Chapter 8. The Fourth of July 1927
THE TURNING OF THE TIDE

Chapter 9. The Story of the Discovery
Chapter 10. Directions for the Grape Cure
FIRST STAGE: IMPORTANT PREPARATION FOR THE CURE
SECOND STAGE: THE EXCLUSIVE GRAPE DIET
THIRD STAGE: THE GRADUAL INTRODUCTION OF LIMITED FOODS
FOURTH STAGE: THE RAW FOOD DIET
FIFTH STAGE: THE MIXED DIET
CONCLUSION

Chapter 11. The Grape

THE MONO DIET
THE GRAPE AS FOOD AND MEDICINE

Chapter 12. The Complements of the Grape Cure
THE DOCTORS OF NATURE

Chapter 13. The Secret of the Success of the Grape Cure
SIMPLICITY
BLOOD DISEASES
PURIFYING THE BLOOD
THE COURSE OF THE DISEASE
NO CAUSE FOR ANXIETY
CURE DURATION
DO I NEED THE GRAPE DIET?
HEALING CRISES
KNOWING HOW TO INTERPRET PROGRESS
OTHER DISEASES
INSTITUTIONS
APPEAL

Conclusion: Final Thoughts on Brandt’s Grape Cure
Resources
Footnotes
Endnotes
Also by Christopher Vasey, N.D.
About the Author
About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company
Books of Related Interest
Copyright & Permissions

Foreword

The book that you are about to read is a harbinger. It represents the result of
extensive work done by one woman on her own body during the 1920s. This
exceptional woman, Johanna Brandt, was then a nurse living in South Africa.
This book reminds us of the long path traveled by those who have gone before
us, the difficulties they encountered—and overcame—as well as victories won
by those with strong, clear motivation.
A new paradigm, a conceptual context—perhaps a better description would be
a “pair of glasses” that inspires us at the threshold of a new millennium to look
anew at health, illness, the individual, and his environment—was already at
work with Brandt. This steadfast and visionary woman, eager to share what she
had experienced, was in the avantgarde of a wave that has swept across the West,
a wave that can be described as the “holistic approach,” or global approach.
Essentially, from the holistic perspective, health is no longer viewed as the
absence of illness nor the opposite of illness. Health is neither a right nor a
product to be bought, but is rather a personal and collective itinerary, an
individual journey. It is:
a movement toward self-mastery and control over one’s relationship to
oneself, to others and to an ever expanding environment, toward clarity,
autonomy, and the discovery of an increasingly satisfying personal insight.1
From this perspective, people stricken by an illness can be “healthy”
nonetheless if they understand their illness and they have mastered the long-term
treatments required to maintain balance.
Illness of any kind can also be a growth experience; it can inspire one to
reorganize priorities in life and encourage the experience of self-reassessment
and openness to a larger spiritual dimension.
Brandt was wise enough to listen to her inner guide, to become a purposeful

and autonomous woman confronting the illness that had struck her. She sought
to learn all she could about it, she listened, and she personally tested the Grape
Cure with notable success. It enabled her to heal herself and, later, inspired her
to share what she had learned.
In her book she wrote:
Nothing has been said in this article about the mental aspect of healing. The
subject is too big. It forms the most thrilling story of my life, but I must be
now content to state that I became super-conscious. I had unerring
“hunches” and cultivated a bowing acquaintance with my subliminal self—
whatever that may be.
Almost eighty years ago, Brandt described the importance of each patient
taking responsibility for his or her illness, and of remaining open to the inner
guide, the healer we all carry within ourselves.
Brandt did not resist sharing her discovery of the grape diet and its effects.
Spurred on by a desire to provide help and comfort, she successfully publicized
the regimen that had contributed so much to her own healing. Today, almost
everyone who boasts knowledge of alternative approaches to health will
understand the beneficial properties of the grape as an example of a mono diet
cure.
Between 1927 and 2006, an explosion of health-related knowledge attained
dimensions never before imagined. Brandt wrote her book using the terminology
in vogue at the time. Scientists today seek a better understanding of Brandt’s
theories to support acceptance of her hypothesis regarding the Grape Cure’s
singular effectiveness.
This is what Christopher Vasey has accomplished. The first part of the book
prepares the way for Brandt’s findings by discussing the importance of the
physical environment in which illness and toxins exist. It offers particularly
useful information about fasting, autolysis, and mono diets in general. Further
on, the author discusses the virtues of grapes, of raw food diets, and, most
importantly, addresses the indications and contraindications of a grape mono
diet.
So many people interested in the Grape Cure as a preventive health measure—
or as a healing strategy against a serious illness—will find precise information
here to help them successfully follow this cure. They will also find a wealth of

scientific data explaining the reasons behind the effectiveness of this cure.
Of course, the human being is part of a whole, a global unit, and the Grape
Cure cannot be solely responsible for healing serious illness. In addition to the
healing properties provided by grapes, this cure represents an enormous effort of
will. It requires a decision, a willingness to take responsibility for one’s life and
to take charge of reorienting that life in a way that assists the body in its struggle
against an invader.
Those who undertake a Grape Cure accept the requirements to change, to
remain receptive, and to believe in the results. In other words, they act as “an
exceptional patient”—as described by Dr. Bernie Siegel in his book Love,
Medicine, and Miracles—as “care users” who dare to affirm themselves and
follow through to the end of what they expect will make them well. Thus they
care for the body and the mind.
The Detox Mono Diet is now available for those who want to learn more about
healing themselves.
Several years before his death, the psychologist Carl Rogers wrote:
You know I believe that no one has ever taught anybody anything. I question
the effectiveness of teaching. The only thing I know is that he who wants to
learn will learn. Any powerful teacher is a facilitator, a person who brings
things to the table and shows people how appetizing and wonderful they are,
and then tells them to serve themselves.
This is what Brandt and Vasey do for you. So serve yourself and walk to your
own rhythm to reach a higher level of well-being.
That is what I sincerely wish for you.
ROSETTE POLETTI, ADJUNCT DIRECTOR
OF THE SWISS RED CROSS COLLEGE OF NURSING

Introduction

The Grape Cure, the lemon cure, the maple syrup cure . . . the apple mono diet,
the rice mono diet, the carrot mono diet . . . the separate foods diet, Dr. X’s diet,
and so on—patients who seek healing by following a health regimen have an
embarrassment of riches to choose from. Health cures are numerous and their
promoters offer guarantees of exceptional, sometimes miraculous success even
for illnesses often considered incurable (such as certain kinds of cancer).
With numerous examples of successful healing combined with advanced
theoretical arguments to demonstrate the solid grounds of whatever cure is in
question, many people are inspired to follow such cures. However, lively
polemics often erupt between the partisans of one cure and those of another.
Every cure boasts its adherents and ardent defenders, but also its opponents.
The novice cannot help but be thrown off balance by the conflicting advice he
will hear when considering a wide array of cures. How is one to choose from
among so many options? And what to make of the fact that, despite their glaring
differences, they all arrive at the same result: healing the patient?
The novice will be even more unsettled to learn of cures that were carefully
followed and yet a patient’s health did not improve but instead grew worse,
requiring weeks to recover from the effects of the cure itself.
Faced with situations like these, doubts emerge concerning the effectiveness
of cures in general, and a person may reject all health cures. But rejection is
unjustified. Unsatisfactory results do not derive from the failure of the cure
itself, but rather because the patient erred in the choice of a cure. In other words,
the cure in question was not adapted to the needs and characteristics of the
patient, and circumstances required a different cure.
Health cures are, in fact, different methods to attain the same goal. Each
possesses distinguishing characteristics that make it more effective for certain
patients and certain temperaments. But beyond their differences, the healing

processes triggered by these cures are the same and function identically.
The purpose of this book is to show this unity so that patients can be fully
informed when choosing an appropriate cure. More than that, this information
can enable motivated patients to design their own cure and modify it over time to
meet new situations and new problems that arise.
To realize the many benefits of health cures, patients must understand exactly
what processes are triggered and why these processes encourage healing. Rather
than presenting this information in a theoretical and abstract manner, I offer it
through the example of one cure, perhaps the best known and most practiced in
our time: Johanna Brandt’s Grape Cure.
The first part of this book thus discusses the Grape Cure in the context of
natural medicine, according to concepts of health and sickness as laid down by
Hippocrates in the fourth century BCE and, more recently, by Dr. Paul Carton.*1
We will then examine various procedures in detail (fasting, mono diets, raw food
diets, cleansings, and so forth) that are aspects of the Grape Cure, allowing the
reader to grasp where the effectiveness of each cure resides and what curative
factors they all share.
The complex and challenging moments of the cure (healing crises and
detoxification crises) are also presented with care, so the person using the cure
can correctly interpret reactions that are triggered within the body and avoid
complications and problems. The first section of the book ends with a practical
summary of the important points to consider during a health cure.
The second section consists of Brandt’s book The Grape Cure, in which she
recounts her discovery and describes how to follow this cure. Shining through
each line is her enthusiasm for the benefits of a cure so simple yet effective—
even for acute illness.
Her original book comprised several articles and texts assembled into one
work. To avoid excessive repetition and to regroup the information she provides,
the original text has been lightly abridged and reorganized.
In effect, what the reader holds before him is actually two books: the first
explains the “why” of health cures; the second, Brandt’s book, explains the
“how.”

Part One

DETOXIFICATION AND
REGENERATION

1

The True Nature of Illnesses and Therapy

Johanna Brandt was born in South Africa in 1876. Her father was a Dutch
pastor; her mother was of French descent. During the harsh Boer War, which
raged in South Africa during the early 1900s, Johanna became deeply involved
in volunteer nursing. Not without danger to herself, she was able to conduct
important “resistance” operations such as transmitting messages and providing
supplies to the combatants, as well as providing them shelter and even hiding
them when necessary.
She, too, married a pastor, with whom she raised seven children while
continuing to lead an active life. During the course of World War I, she was
diagnosed with a severe stomach cancer. In 1921, her doctors gave her only six
weeks to live. Her desire to survive was so strong that even this somber news did
not overwhelm her.
She refused all surgery and courageously set out in search of a cure. She had
heard high praise for the benefits of fasting; tangible progress was rapidly
achieved when she tried it on herself. By experimenting on her own body this
way, she discovered the marvelous healing properties of the grape.
She attributed her complete recovery from cancer to the periods of fasting she
practiced at the beginning of her regimen and to the Grape Cure she followed
later. The extensively researched and progressive food diet she perfected enabled
her to live and enjoy excellent health for another forty years. Until her dying
day, at the age of eighty-seven, this amazing woman maintained total vitality.
This was how Mira Dunant-Brandt, Johanna Brandt’s daughter, recounted her
mother’s life to us.
The cancerous tumor that afflicted Brandt was diagnosed clinically and
radiologically. Based on the diagnosis, every doctor consulted advised surgery as

soon as possible. There was no doubt the tumor was present. The fact that
doctors gave her only six more weeks to live testifies to the seriousness of her
condition.
And yet Brandt recovered without an operation, using her own means, and
lived for another forty years. The simple and natural means she discovered to
address her illness gave birth to the Grape Cure, a cure that is now known
throughout the world. Thousands and thousands of patients since then have
followed her prescription and been cured.
Considering its simplicity and the amazing results it procures, one cannot help
but wonder: Why is the Grape Cure so effective? What makes it effective not
only against cancer but against numerous other illnesses as well? Routinely, a
remedy will work well against a specific disease but not against others. With the
grape, the opposite is true; the possibilities for effective action are varied and
extensive. This raises the question: Are we dealing with a remedy that has
numerous effects, or do these illnesses have a common nature?
Just what is this mysterious and powerful property of the grape? And why is it
the grape that works this way and not some other fruit or vegetable—or, more
pointedly, a medicinal herb? Brandt speaks of a mysterious healing substance
that the grape must contain—something yet undiscovered in her day that remains
unknown even now. But here again, if the identity of this substance were to be
discovered, a mystery would remain, because at present we know of no product
with such a wide and diverse range of action: destruction of cancerous cells,
reduction of painful inflammation in the joints, cure of tuberculosis, prevention
of tooth and hair loss, treatment of anemia, regeneration of necrotic or dying
tissue, and so forth.
The Grape Cure is disturbing by the number of questions it raises. It calls into
question so many medical concepts regarded as certain and definitive. Frankly,
why does the grape succeed where more sophisticated remedies fail? To be sure,
we can agree that with modern medications, while they provide relief to cancer
and rheumatism sufferers, for example, they rarely cure them!
Any attempt to deny the reality of the Grape Cure must ignore the factual
evidence. For example, tens of thousands of patients have been cured of a host of
illnesses with its help. Tens of thousands more could be cured by applying it
sensibly. The results are observable and reproducible and should, therefore, be
scientifically acceptable.
Rather than deny the cure’s effectiveness, it would be better to find out why it

is effective. This would open new vistas, new ways to understand how the body
functions and the role played by illness in this function. Therapeutic science—in
other words, possibilities for the art of healing—would be enriched with new
methods for positive treatment of the sick.
On many occasions, Brandt spoke of toxic substances that make us ill,
whereas many people believe that germs make us sick. So, which is it? What is
the actual cause of illness, germs or the poisons about which Brandt speaks?

ARE GERMS THE CAUSE OF ILLNESS?
First we must note that many illnesses are known to have no microbial cause—
germs are not involved in these illnesses either directly or remotely.
Furthermore, any attempt at therapeutic disinfecting (such as the use of
antibiotics) will have no effect on the course of these illnesses.
Examples of such diseases are: diabetes, asthma, cancer, heart attack, anemia,
rickets, migraine, allergies, depression, digestive disorders, circulatory disorders,
hormonal disorders, nervous disorders, and the majority of rheumatisms.
Clearly, many illnesses do not involve germs and many serious illnesses are
among their number.
Of course, germ activity is evident at times. Their presence is visible in
bronchitis, pneumonia, colds, flu, cystitis, gonorrhea, hepatitis, AIDS, nephritis,
and so forth.
Because observation repeatedly confirmed the presence of germs in so-called
infectious diseases, an apparently logical conclusion was that germs cause these
illnesses. In other words, it was enough for germs simply to enter the body for
illness to establish itself.
This may come as a surprise to some, but this deduction contains an error. Of
course germs can trigger illness; they can do it, but it is not inevitable that they
will do it. Furthermore, even those germs that do cause illness will not do so in
every case. History has shown that during epidemics of the flu and other
diseases, not everyone who comes into contact with the disease will contract it.
If the mere presence of the germ were enough to trigger illness every time, then
epidemics of typhus, cholera, plague, yellow fever, Spanish flu, measles, polio,
and so on would have long since wiped the human race off the face of the globe.
In actuality, during any epidemic, only a portion of the population is stricken.
Others resist the infection; their physical defenses prevent the germs from

surviving inside their bodies, where the microbes would otherwise develop and
demonstrate their destructive capabilities.
So it appears that germs are not the only factors to be considered. The body’s
state of receptivity and resistance must also be taken into account. The relative
strength of these two factors—the strength of the germs and that of the body’s
power to resist them—determines whether or not an illness can take hold. The
weaker the body’s defenses, the easier it will be for germs to gain a foothold and
multiply, thus causing illness. In contrast, the more resistant the body’s internal
cellular environment is, the harder for germs to survive and take action in an
environment they find unfavorable.
The body’s internal cellular characteristics—whether positive or negative—
are not only the determining factors in whether or not a disease will take hold;
depending on the germ involved, this internal environment may also determine
the form an illness will take. In other words, the nature of an illness that appears
may be more dependent on the body’s weakness than on the attacking microbe.
A great many microbes are not specific; for example, a streptococcus can,
depending on the internal cellular environment it has penetrated, cause an
angina, internal inflammation, blood poisoning, scarlet fever, or a skin infection.
A pneumococcus can cause a herpes vesicle as well as pneumonia or meningitis,
all depending on the state of the cellular environment it has entered.
The predominance of intercellular environment over germ is demonstrated
also by the fact that the same illness can be caused by different microbes.
Bronchitis, angina, and flu can all be caused by cocci as well as by bacilli and
viruses.

Germs
Germs are not the primary cause of illness. On the one hand, numerous nonmicrobial
diseases are known to exist, and on the other hand, the possibility that germs will cause an
infectious illness is subordinate to the strength or weakness of the body’s defense system.

These examples demonstrate clearly the importance of the receiver (the body)
over the received (the germ).
Although natural medicine considers the internal cellular environment to be
the primary factor in illness, this does not ignore the harm done by germs.

Germs, viruses, and parasites are real and represent potential dangers to the
human body, though considering them the primary cause of disease is a mistake.
The preeminent role of the internal cellular environment over the germ was
also recognized by Louis Pasteur, the French researcher to whom we credit the
discovery of germs and their action, as well as the realization of the first
vaccines. It is widely reported that on his deathbed, Louis Pasteur acknowledged
the position of his detractors—those who contested his view that germs alone
were responsible for infectious disease and who completed his theory regarding
the physical environment’s receptivity or resistance to germs. The phrase
attributed to Pasteur on his deathbed has since become famous: “The germ is
nothing, the internal environment is everything.”

WHAT IS THE INTERNAL CELLULAR ENVIRONMENT?
Why does the internal cellular environment play such a deciding role in health?
What is it exactly?
The internal cellular environment consists of all the fluids that irrigate the
body and in which the cells are immersed. This includes blood circulating in
veins and arteries as well as in capillaries, which are the hair-thin vessels that
permeate tissue; lymph, the “white blood” circulating in lymphatic vessels and
nodes; and the extracellular and intracellular fluids that surround and fill the
cells.
Cells cannot move about on their own either in search of nourishment or to
expel waste. To achieve these tasks, they depend on these bodily fluids, which
function as transporters.
Nutritive substances like vitamins and minerals, but also necessary oxygen,
are first transported by blood and lymph, then by cellular fluids to their final
destination: the cells. Cellular wastes follow the same path in reverse to exit the
body.
In this way, cells draw what they need from bodily fluids, but they also must
release their wastes into the fluids.
So bodily fluids are simultaneously a nourishing environment and a system
for eliminating toxins. The composition of these fluids constantly changes as a
function of the normal or abnormal presence of nutrients and toxins. An overly
high concentration of toxins—or, conversely, a deficiency of nutrients—will
change internal cellular characteristics and alter the cells’ ability to function.

The Internal Cellular Environment
This environment consists of all bodily fluids (blood, lymph, cellular fluids) that irrigate the
body and also bathe the cells. The ideal composition of the internal cellular environment can
be changed by a surcharge of toxins or a deficiency of nutrients, or even both happening
together.

The composition of physical fluids—in other words, the characteristics of the
internal cellular environment—thus sets the stage for the body to stay healthy or
fall ill. Everything depends on the internal cellular environment. Whatever
illnesses a person may suffer, the effects are not confined to localized symptoms,
but are connected to a deep overall imbalance caused by deficiencies in the
internal cellular environment. It could not be otherwise. This environment
provides the condition for symptoms to emerge, and not the other way around.
As we have seen, the role of germs in the genesis of these deficiencies is
secondary. So what, then, is the role played by toxins in the appearance of
diseases?

ILLNESSES AND TOXINS
When Brandt speaks of the causes of disease, she does not refer to germs but
always to poisons, toxic substances, and wastes. Do the facts confirm her point
of view? As we can see for ourselves, this is precisely the case. Observation of
illness reveals, in all diseases, the presence of an internal cellular environment
that is to some degree overburdened with toxins.
Phlegm encumbers the pulmonary alveoli in asthma, the bronchial tubes in
bronchitis, the throat when one coughs, the sinus in sinusitis, and the nose during
a cold. When people suffering from respiratory ailments cough, expectorate, and
blow their noses, they are trying to rid themselves of wastes stagnating in their
respiratory tracts.
Grit and crystalline precipitates inflame, block, and deform the joints of
arthritis and rheumatism sufferers.
Colloidal wastes (aggregates made up of waste substances) are eliminated by
the sebaceous glands in the form of acne, boils, and sweat-induced eczema.
Crystalline or acidic wastes are expelled by the sweat glands in the form of dry

eczema, chapped skin, and pruritus (itching).
Excess food substances present in the stomach and intestines cause
regurgitation, indigestion, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. When these substances
act as irritants, or they ferment or putrefy, they cause inflammation of digestive
mucous membranes (gastritis, enteritis, colitis), and the manufacture of gas
(flatulence, bloating).
Cholesterol and excess fatty acids are the culprits in cardiovascular diseases,
to which 37 percent of all U.S. deaths in 2003 were attributed.1 These
substances thicken the blood and form deposits on vessel walls (atherosclerosis),
deform vessel walls (varicose veins), inflame them (phlebitis, arteritis), and
obstruct them (infarction, stroke, pulmonary embolism).
In allergies, the guilty substances are allergens (substances that induce allergic
reactions); in kidney disease, they are protein wastes; in obesity, fats; in diabetes,
sugar; in gout, uric acid; in osteoporosis, acids; and in cancer—the disease
Brandt contracted that led to her discovery of the Grape Cure—carcinogens,
substances implicated in promoting the development of cancer.
Toxins are present in the mildest and in the most serious illnesses. They
impact health both by their number (the quantitative aspect) and by their
properties (the qualitative aspect).
Quantitatively, when a significant mass of waste stagnates in extracellular
fluid, the body’s cells literally bathe in a swamp that paralyzes all exchanges.
Oxygen and nutritive substances make their way to the cells with great difficulty.
It is equally difficult for cellular wastes to move out of the area, and their
presence further disturbs the internal cellular environment. The organs
containing these cells become congested with wastes and their proper function is
compromised. When organs then fail to function, disrupting the body’s wellbeing, we call it sickness. When the liver is congested, we speak of hepatic
disorders; pulmonary catarrh (inflammation) indicates an overburdened
respiratory tract; kidney stones and gallstones occur when the urinary system is
stricken.
On the other hand, some wastes are present only in small quantities, but they
have a disproportionately harmful toxic effect. They irritate and inflame tissues
(as in rheumatoid arthritis, for example), or they cause lesions and hardening of
tissues (as when nervous disorders and motor problems are caused by nerve
lesions or multiple sclerosis). Such toxins can also cause alteration of normal
cell function, causing cells to behave in ways harmful to the rest of the body (for

example, cancerous cells that infiltrate neighboring organs).

Toxins
Toxins are harmful to health because they congest the organs and poison cells. By
accumulating, they create a favorable environment for the development of germs.

Germ activity can increase the harmful effects of toxicity. However, germs can
develop only in a degraded internal cellular environment where they combine
with wastes that are already manifesting morbid effects. The noxious effect of
germs is, moreover, very close to that of toxins, insofar as the emergence of
illness is due in large part to poisoning caused by their wastes and the residues
they secrete.
Autointoxication (self-poisoning) and congestion of blood and organs thus
appear to be the profound nature of illness. This is not a new concept. Although
the idea has fallen into disuse, it dates back to remote antiquity and has been a
part of the medical tradition of all eras.

THE PROFOUND NATURE OF ILLNESS
According to our ancestors—and this remains valid today—the profound nature
of most illness is characterized by the presence of harmful substances in the
body. These substances have been identified by a wide variety of names over the
years. At present, they are known as toxins. They include cholesterol, uric acid,
and crystalline or colloidal wastes. To this list of undesirable substances, we now
add food additives (food coloring, preservatives), garden products (herbicides,
fungicides, insecticides), medical substances that are administered to livestock
(hormones, antibiotics, vaccines), medications we take ourselves (sedatives,
sleeping pills, antibiotics), as well as numerous poisons stemming from pollution
of the air, earth, and water.
The great doctors of every era have stressed the fundamental role played by
poisons. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, wrote: “The nature of all illness is
the same. . . . When the contaminated humor is abundant, it will take hold and
cast down into sickness all that is healthy. The entire body is attacked and
disorganized.”2

The great English doctor of the seventeenth century Thomas Sydenham
(1624–1689) provided a magnificent summary of illness when he said: “A
disease, however much its cause may be adverse to the human body, is nothing
more than an effort of Nature, who strives with might and main to restore the
health of the patient by the elimination of the morbific [disease-causing]
humor.”3
Closer to the present, Dr. Paul Carton—the Hippocrates of the twentieth
century—confirmed that “disease in reality is only the translation of an inner
effort to neutralize and clean out toxins, which the body performs for
preservation and regeneration.”4
Rudolf Steiner, the founder of a new and unique medicine—anthroposophical
medicine—observed that internal ailments stem from the fact that “undesirable
substances are dissolving into our fluid being.”
Whatever the terminology employed or the era when used, the cause of
disease has always been recognized as a buildup of substances that clog bodily
tissues. This clogging disrupts the system, and illness is a state of poor organ
function created by the presence of these undesirable substances. Disease is not,
as is too often perceived, a pre-existing external entity that makes the body sick
by entering it. It is imperative that we do not think of disease as an enemy inside
of us and our bodies as battlefields. Deficiencies in our internal environment,
and the poor state of our own bodies, are the fundamental problems we need to
work on. From this perspective, therapy is less like combat waged against an
enemy than help brought to a friend in trouble.
In every disease, we must deal with problems caused by clogged tissues and
the body’s attempt to neutralize and expel undesirable substances. A double
component exists: symptoms brought on by the presence of wastes and
symptoms stemming from the body’s defense system reacting to the internal
environment. In fact, when confronted by an overburdened internal cellular
environment—a threat to its existence—the body will not remain a passive
spectator. It reacts and seeks to rid itself of undesirable substances. To do this,
the body intensifies the action of filtering organs—emunctory or excretory
organs—which include the liver, intestines, skin, and respiratory tract.
For example, the obvious symptoms of bronchitis are due as much to the
presence of colloidal wastes that congest the bronchial tubes as they are to the
respiratory tract’s attempt to protect against these wastes (hypersecretion of
mucus by the mucous membranes) and carry them out of the body

(expectoration, coughing, asthma crises, inflammation). Rheumatism is a
response to aggressive acid wastes that irritate joints and create lesions and pain.
But a joint defends itself, which results in heat and congestion in the affected
region.

Disease
The profound nature of disease centers on the general deficiencies of the internal cellular
environment of the body. Disease symptoms are merely secondary manifestations—
superficial and localized—of this deep problem.

If the state of the internal cellular environment is truly responsible for disease,
the problem cannot help but be as general as this environment. This global
approach to illness contrasts to the current fragmented model that treats illness as
a localized disorder, confined to a specific region of the body. From such a
perspective, a person suffering from painful joints has sick joints only; the rest of
the body is not ill. It follows that a cancer sufferer is stricken only at the site of
the cancerous tissue; an eczema sufferer at the level of the skin; the constipated
individual has a problem with intestines alone; and so forth.
It is surprising that anyone would suggest diseases limit themselves to isolated
regions of the body, considering the interdependence of organs and the fact that
body fluids (blood, lymph, serum) are in constant circulation, which means
nutritive substances and poisons alike are distributed throughout the internal
cellular environment. To believe that wastes accumulate only in the diseased
region of the body hardly conforms to physiology. People with an acne outbreak
localized at their upper back do not carry wastes only in this area of tissue; waste
collects throughout their internal cellular environment. Excessive wastes spill
over and become visible in the afflicted area as the body attempts to rid itself of
toxins. A cancer sufferer does not carry toxins only in the neighborhood of a
tumor, but in every cell of the body, as evidenced by the fact that, along with
symptoms caused by the presence of a tumor, the individual will suffer from
additional disorders (digestive, nervous, circulatory, eliminatory, and so on).
Disease—and not its symptoms—is therefore general: it is the buildup of
congestion in the body’s internal cellular environment. There is no such thing as
a localized illness; diseases are always a sign of generalized problems. Given

these conditions, what therapy should be applied?

THE FOUNDATIONS OF THERAPY
We are accustomed to using medications that kill germs and cause symptoms to
abate. Should we now seek a whole range of medications to destroy each kind of
toxin?
Not at all! It is not possible to dispel toxins from the body by destroying them.
Destroying toxins means breaking them into smaller pieces; it does not mean
they have been reduced to nothing. The internal cellular environment will remain
congested with toxic residues, and their presence will remain unaddressed.
The tissues must rid themselves of these toxins stagnating in fluids by
expelling them from the body.
The body is equipped with specialized organs designed to extract such wastes
from blood and lymph and carry them outside. These are the excretory organs
mentioned earlier.
The basic therapy aims at correcting the cellular environment by eliminating
excess substances through the excretory organs. “All diseases are resolved either
by the mouth, the bowels, the bladder, or some other such organ. Sweat is a
common form of resolution in all these cases,” writes Hippocrates.5 In essence,
if disease is truly caused by poisons, only detoxification can successfully deal
with it.
Draining
Draining is the means by which this cleansing is achieved.
Draining consists of stimulating the body’s excretory organs to filter and
eliminate toxins. The means—or drainers—that effect this stimulation are varied.
They may include the use of medicinal plants, drinking juices or eating foods
that have detoxifying properties, adhering to a diet, stimulating reflex zones,
applying massage, cleansing the intestines, and using hydrotherapy (specific
instructions for attending to these issues can be found in chapters 6 and 7).
The liver, intestines, kidneys, skin, and respiratory tract are the essential
pathways through which draining is effected. In draining cures, therapeutic
efforts are directed at these organ systems to restore normal elimination or,
better, to increase elimination for a period to make up for lost time.
First, the individual excretory organ, when stimulated by one or more

drainers, will cleanse itself of wastes that lie stagnant in its tissues and clog its
“filter.” Once it has been cleansed, the excretory organ will regain its ability to
filter blood properly. The blood, in turn, irrigates deep tissues and rids them of
accumulated toxins, transporting wastes to the excretory organs.
Draining is thus characterized by increased waste elimination by excretory
organs. This increased elimination will be apparent to the person taking the
cure: material expelled by the intestines will be more abundant or evacuation
will occur more regularly. Urine charged with waste will take on a darker color
and will increase markedly in volume. The skin will sweat more copiously, and
the respiratory tract will free itself of colloidal waste that encumbers it through
increased coughing and inflammation.
The level of toxins trapped in tissues will fall with increased elimination. This
will cleanse the internal cellular environment and the body’s overall health will
improve, while symptoms of illness will diminish and gradually disappear. The
opportunity for healing obviously depends on how much the body has been
damaged by wastes, as well as on the various organs’ ability to regenerate. But
the principle of detoxification remains valid; the fact that specific local
treatments can be added to the basic therapy does not challenge the premise.
If draining toxins was not the logical response to the true nature of illness,
how could we explain that for the same patient, a single therapy—the general
draining of toxins—can dispel all health problems, despite the vast differences
that might characterize the disorders?
A multitude of patients, after running from one specialist to the next to treat
various disorders, eventually found themselves cured of all conditions by a
single causal treatment.
Importance of Maintaining Open Excretory Organs
The excretory organs serve as the obligatory exit doors for toxins. The following
figures illustrate the importance of these organs and emphasize the consequences
that may result when any of them slow down or lose function.
The kidneys should eliminate 25–30 grams of urea over a twenty-four-hour
period. If they eliminate only 20 grams, this represents retention of at least 5
grams per day, or 150 grams (1/3 pound) per month! These 150 grams of urea
will clog the tissues and overburden the internal cellular environment. The same
is true for salt. If the kidneys eliminate 12 grams of salt (NaCl) in twenty-four
hours, instead of the entire 15 or more grams that are typically absorbed from

food, this means 3 grams each day are retained—90 grams per month!
To be sure, these elimination figures are not precise, as wastes can be expelled
through more than one exit. Nevertheless, waste substances do accumulate in
tissues, as can be seen during dialysis.
During one twenty-four-hour period of blood dialysis—in which all blood is
extracted from the body and run through a filter that removes urea before the
blood is reintroduced through a vein—one can collect as much as 300–400
grams of urea, whereas the presence of merely a few grams (2 grams per liter of
blood) is considered fatal. These 300–400 grams of urea are obviously not stored
in the bloodstream; but because they cannot be eliminated by the excretory
organs, they are pushed deeper into tissues, where they contribute to congestion
of the internal cellular environment.
Recognizing Good Excretory Function
The criteria for good excretory function are as follows: the intestines should
empty once a day; the stools should be well formed but not hard and they should
not have a nauseating smell. The speed at which food travels through the
intestines is also important. Food should leave the body within twenty-four to
thirty-six hours after it is eaten. Hard, dry stools that are difficult to expel, are
accompanied by a foul odor, and are evacuated every two to three days or more,
are a sign of self-poisoning in the intestines, characterized by poor elimination.
Kidneys eliminate approximately 1.3 to 1.5 liters of urine each day. Urine
should contain certain wastes that can be detected only through analysis but
which give it a typical color and odor. Consequently, a kidney insufficiency is
indicated by urine that is too clear, has no color or odor, or is too infrequent
(meaning only two or three urinations a day). Urine that is highly charged with
wastes testifies to strong elimination capacity, but also reveals a high level of
contamination.
The respiratory tract (lungs, bronchi, nasopharynx, sinuses) is a path of
elimination for gaseous wastes (CO2). None of it should be obstructed by solid
or fluid wastes (phlegm, mucus, colloidal wastes). If there is congestion, it is a
sign that the body as a whole has accumulated too many toxins and is trying to
expel some of them through the respiratory tract. Except for a few waste
products present when a person rises in the morning, the nose should always be
clear and free of congestion.

Therapy
The purpose of therapy is to correct the internal cellular environment and not merely to rid the
body of symptoms. Cleansing this environment is achieved through draining and removal of
deeply embedded toxins.

With high-volume waste accumulation, draining may not be sufficient and
other treatments may be called for. In fact, wastes that are forced deep into
tissues will eventually become encrusted and as the buildup increases, they form
agglomerations with other wastes, making them difficult to dislodge. Opening
the excretory organs and cleansing the blood is not enough to reach them. To
clear these accumulations, a therapeutic process must attack the deeplying toxins
where they are concentrated, dislodging and breaking them down into particles
that can be picked up by the bloodstream and carried to the excretory organs.
This result cannot be achieved through the use of medications, but the body
itself can accomplish it with fasts and highly restrictive diets. In fact, depriving
the body of its regular intake of nutritive substances forces it to draw from its
own reserves, attack wastes, and break down deposits to obtain those substances
it is missing. This breaking down and dislodging of wastes occurs thanks to the
action of enzymes, which will be discussed in the next chapter.
A combination of dislodging and draining promotes restoration of the internal
cellular environment at the most basic level, and by changing the vital
environment of the organs produces healing.

THE HEALING PROCESS AND THE GRAPE CURE
The status one must achieve either to maintain good health or to restore it is the
same: one must attain a clean internal cellular environment. To enjoy such a
status, one must fight against the buildup of undesirable substances (toxins).
Logically, to realize this goal one must:
Keep the excretory organs “wide open” so that toxins cannot accumulate.
Periodically increase the filtration and excretion processes of the excretory
organs to compensate for potential “delays” in elimination.
Burn away the encrusted wastes accumulated in the depths of various
tissues so they can be carried back toward the surface to the blood and

excretory organs for elimination.
Stimulate the metabolism (conversion of foods to usable substances and
energy) in general so that the production of wastes is as limited as possible.
Maintain the purity of the internal cellular environment by adopting a
nontoxic diet that shuts off the source of excess substances.
How does one accomplish these aims? Though clearing the body of toxins has
been known to promote incredible healings, by itself the therapy cannot maintain
a patient’s health. The patient must avoid reintroducing poisons, hence the need
to adopt new habits and lifestyles, in particular a hypotoxic diet.
The Grape Cure perfected by Brandt has been so effective and has allowed so
many healings because it addresses each of the criteria listed on the previous
page.
Enemas, rubbing, physical exercises, and breathing exercises keep the
excretory organs open.
Eliminations are increased by the depurative (purifying) properties of the
grape.
Fasting breaks down the deeplying wastes and the diseased cells.
The unmixed, raw food diet adopted at the end of the cure stimulates the
metabolism.
The final diet is hypotoxic, which interrupts the intake of toxins.
Because the different procedures (fasting, mono diet, raw food diet, avoiding
mixing too many foods) and their value are only mentioned but not explained by
Brandt, the following chapters will examine these procedures separately, explain
how they work, and discuss the healing processes they trigger. This will make it
possible to use them advisedly, not only in the Grape Cure, but in whatever other
cure one may choose to take.

2

Fasting

To heal herself from cancer, Brandt fasted on numerous occasions. Her fasts
lasted from several days to several weeks. She even states bluntly that she
sometimes continued them beyond reasonable limits in an attempt to be rid of
her tumor.
So what is a fast and how does it work?
A fast is any period during which no food is consumed, only water. During
this time, there is no nutritional intake, as water is drunk solely to prevent
dehydration. The value of the fast and the effects it produces are due to the
complete absence of food intake, which forces the body to function as a closed
economy with no external assistance.
The first problem the body must surmount is obviously that of supplying itself
with nutritive substances like amino acids, minerals, carbohydrates, and
vitamins. These substances are essential for cell survival, organ function, and the
repair of cellular wear and tear. But as the body will receive none of these
substances from outside during the fast, it will have to find them elsewhere. The
sole option is to draw them from within itself.
How does the body achieve this?

AUTOLYSIS
During a fast the body will draw what it needs—nutrients it does not receive
from outside—from its own tissues through a process known as autolysis. This is
a kind of digestive process—the word literally means digestion (lysis) of one’s
self (auto). It takes place within the cells, by virtue of enzymes contained in
those cells.
Enzymes can be likened to “tiny workers” performing the biochemical

transformations the body requires. They are active not only during fasts but at all
other times as well. Their work consists of assembling complex substances out
of simple substances or dividing complex substances into their component parts.
For example, enzymes assemble isolated molecules of glucose to make long
chains consisting of more than 10,000 elements: the resulting glycogen is stored
in the liver until it’s needed for energy. Enzymes also put together amino acids to
form proteins, as well as assembling fatty acids and glycerin to make fats.
Conversely, their jobs include dividing proteins into amino acids, glycogen into
glucose, and so forth. A vast number of different enzymes are at work, each
specialized to perform a discrete function.
Enzymes’ transformational capacities are apparent in healthy tissue as well as
in diseased tissue. They are equally good at breaking down fats stored in healthy
reserves as they are at reducing pathological fat accumulations in obese tissue.
They will break down muscle proteins as expertly as they deconstruct proteins in
cancerous cells, and separate the minerals from bone tissue as well as those
contained in a cystic growth.
Autolysis is a natural and common phenomenon. When a splinter is
spontaneously pushed out of the body, the tissues that separate it from the
surface are gradually digested through autolysis, thus creating a path for the
splinter to exit. When the uterus resumes its normal size after a woman gives
birth, and when the mammary glands return to their customary size after nursing,
these changes occur thanks to the autolytic activity of enzymes.
During a fast, the body digests its own tissue to supply itself with nutrition.
The process of autolysis allows the body to survive during a period of privation.
However, one can legitimately ask if this process would not be dangerous for the
body. In fact, by attacking tissues at random during a fast, would this process
risk creating lesions in vital organs such as the heart and the brain, and therefore
prompt the faster’s death?
Furthermore, with the exceptions of fats and sugars, which are stored
specifically for periods when food is scarce, nutritive substances (proteins,
minerals, vitamins) are not set aside in special reserves, but are integrated
directly into the functioning tissues: into the skeleton, the skin, and the various
other organs. Given these circumstances, isn’t there cause to fear that by forcing
the body to draw nutrients from these tissues, it would deprive them of their
constituent elements and thereby make them ill?

Autolysis
Autolysis is a digestive process (lysis) that the body performs on its own (auto) tissues,
thanks to enzymatic activity.

THE WISDOM OF THE BODY AND AUTOLYSIS
Nothing takes place in the body by chance or without reason. To the contrary,
everything is directed, triggered, harmonized, and orchestrated in a controlled
and intelligent manner. Autolysis is no exception. It does not attack tissues
indiscriminately, ravaging everything in its path. People who have practiced
fasts, and those who have monitored fasters, have ascertained that the least
important tissues are digested before those of greater importance to the body.
This fact has been confirmed by studies and research among physiologists.1
Over the course of a fast, essential tissues receive necessary nutritive
substances thanks to the autolysis of less essential tissues. In other words, the
latter are sacrificed for the benefit of the former. For example, proteins and
minerals taken from muscles in the arm will be used to nourish the brain. Among
these less essential tissues, we not only include muscles, hair, nails, and so forth,
contrasted with more critical tissues of the brain, the heart, and the nervous
system. We also count among the less essential tissues such things as tumors,
goiters, abscesses, growths, pathologically fatty deposits, cellulite, and the like.
To complete the picture, we must also mention nonessential substances like
toxins that saturate tissues and congest organs (gluelike substances in bronchial
tubes, crystals blocking joints) and toxins circulating in blood and lymph.
Keep in mind that healthy organic tissue, unhealthy tissue, and toxins alike are
all built out of nutritive substances brought into the body by food (proteins,
minerals). The constituent elements of these can therefore be reutilized through
autolysis.
For instance, myomas (tumors of muscular tissue) can provide amino acids;
lipomas (tumors of adipose, or fatty, tissue) supply fatty acids; osteomas (tumors
of bone tissue) can furnish minerals, and so on. Moreover, cholesterol will
supply fatty acids, uric acid provides nitrogenous substances, and the list goes
on.
Once a fast has begun, the order in which tissues will be used is as follows: