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The use of diets and coffee enemas to treat cancer is based on the teachings of Max Gerson, a German MD who practiced about 75 years ago when the biology of cancer was virtually unknown. He believed that cancer was a degenerative disease that developed when aerobic energy metabolism in the liver and intestine was converted to anaerobic metabolism by "poisons" from processed foods.
An Old Idea
The idea that purges could rid the body of its "corrupt humors" has been practiced by "healers" since the fifth century. Proponents promoting coffee enemas still believe that "an unpoisoned body" possesses reserves that can recognize and destroy cancer. Gerson's treatment requires patients to have a prolonged period of detoxification with coffee enemas and to adhere, for life if possible, to a diet of juices from raw fruits, vegetables, and calf liver, all produced without pesticides or fertilizers and prepared without sugar, starch, salt, or artificial coloring.
Proponents of the Gerson treatment allege that normal cells depend on oxygen and oxidizing enzymes to maintain aerobic metabolism. When this system is poisoned by "toxins" in processed foods, it falls back into anaerobic metabolism, produces inferior energy, and becomes cancer. Detoxification is accomplished with enemas containing coffee because coffee stimulates liver bile production and activates an enzyme, glutathione-S-transferase, which neutralizes the free...