Free Radicals

Aajonus described cooking as an industrial process applied to food. When food is heated, the naturally occurring bonds that hold nutrients together in complex, cooperative units are fractured. In his description, the human body forms between 93 and 117 units of nutrients working together as a complete system. Cooking fractionates and explodes those units apart. Every metallic mineral in a food, once those bonds are broken, becomes a free radical because it no longer retains its ionic bonds, the natural chemical relationships that made it bioactive and utilizable.

He used salt as an explanatory model. Pure salt, he noted, is chemically explosive and profoundly unstable, roughly three times more unstable than nitroglycerine. When salt is naturally integrated into food through biological processes, it is part of a living system and harmless. When it is isolated and applied to food as a processed additive, it destroys nutrient bonds in the same way free radicals do, leaving cells to receive only one-fifth to one-half of the nutrients that were intended for them.

He stated that when you take an element that is a good element and cook it, you strip it of everything naturally bound with it, and all at once it becomes a toxin, a weapon, a free radical that will cause a great deal of damage. He made this point repeatedly with respect to metallic minerals specifically, including mercury, iron, lead, arsenic, cadmium, aluminum, and other trace metals that are nutritionally beneficial in their naturally occurring, ionically bonded, raw state. Once heat cauterizes those bonds, every one of those metals becomes a free radical. He specifically said that iron, mercury, and lead, in trace amounts within properly absorbed raw food containing all other ions, minerals, and vitamins, are none of them free radicals. Anything that is industrially chemicalized and concentrated becomes a free radical and causes heavy damage.

He extended this principle to all cooked food preparation. When shellfish or any food is cooked, the toxins within it are released and become free radicals. Lead and mercury that exist in a biochemic form in raw shellfish are bound in fat and are therefore good elements. Once heated, they are cauterized and become toxic elements because they are no longer bound in fat and no longer function as beneficial components.

The threshold he identified for the beginning of bio-link disassembly was heating above 104 degrees Fahrenheit. He stated that when a food is heated above 104 degrees Fahrenheit, bio-links are disassembled, forming free radicals that must be reassembled if they are not to cause complications. He also stated that by 118 degrees all enzymes are destroyed, and by 122 degrees all enzymes are cauterized.

Aajonus identified cooking as universal and continuous, but he also named several other sources of free radical production. Industrial chemicals from manufacturing, agriculture, food processing, and pharmaceutical contamination, especially vaccines, were named as causes of free radicals inside the body. He stated that free radicals inside the body are always the result of industrial chemicals, whether from manufacturing, agriculture, food processing, or medical contamination, including vaccines, which contaminate air, water, creatures, and land for centuries or longer.

He named pesticides, herbicides, industrially produced fertilizers, food additives, preservatives, and cleaning compounds as additional absorbed sources. He discussed ozone therapy specifically, stating that when he studied it approximately 14 years prior to the relevant conversation, he found that it oxidized fats in the body, causing more free radicals and toxins, and forced severe detoxification after several months of treatment. He declined to use it on the grounds that it could not create more benefit than side effects.

X-rays were identified as a source of radioactive free radicals. He described the process by which iodine, cobalt, and other naturally occurring metallic minerals in the body, when subjected to X-ray radiation, become radioactive isotopes that will remain radioactive for 25,000 to 50,000 years. These radioactive minerals in their area will irritate and damage the surrounding cells continuously. He extended the same logic to medical radiation therapy. He discussed his own experience of radiation therapy in 1968, which gave him blood and bone cancers and cauterized his spine, and he described that process as the therapy creating a painful envelope rather than a cure.

Electromagnetic fields were also noted as sources of molecular disruption. EMFs emit waves of neutrons and protons that exchange and change the molecular structures of most biological substances within their range.

He also noted that vegetable oils, when consumed by humans, contribute to pathology in the fluid systems, and that cooking those oils causes the metallic minerals naturally present in the food to become free radicals. Because the human body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, which is lower than the body temperature of animals that naturally eat vegetation (101 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit), vegetable oils harden, thicken, and crystallize inside the human body. Cooking the oils further fractionates their bonds.

The most detailed and repeated point Aajonus made about free radicals concerns where they concentrate inside the body. He stated that almost 80 percent of all heavy metals and free radical metallic minerals in the body are in the brain and nervous system. He gave a structural explanation for this: the neurological system operates by transporting light and electricity throughout the body, and it requires metallic minerals to do so, because metallic minerals reflect light and conduct electricity. Because the brain and nervous system need and attract metallic minerals for their function, they also attract those same minerals when they have become free radicals through cooking or other processing.

He stated that the brain is a minimum of 60 percent fat, and that the body stores its toxins wherever it finds fat. The fat in the brain holds free radical toxins in place, preventing them from immediately damaging surrounding cells, but this accumulation results in mass toxicity concentrated in the most important and complex tissue in the body. He said that if fat is not present, toxins get into cells and damage the RNA, the functionality, and the structure of those cells.

He linked this accumulation directly to the expansion of the human brain over evolutionary time, arguing that the brain has not grown larger because humans are smarter but because the brain is accumulating more and more toxic free radical metals. He connected the beginning of brain enlargement to the beginning of metal smelting, when humans first began releasing heavy metal pollution into the environment. He regarded this as a garbage-can function, not evidence of intelligence.

He described the consequences of this accumulation in neurological terms. Heavy free radical metallic minerals in the brain cause burning and dissolution of tissue, damage driven by their extreme over-acidity. When these metals dump out of the brain during detoxification, they exit primarily through the sinuses, tear ducts, earwax, gums, tongue, and salivary glands. He described the brain as the most polluted part of the body with respect to free radicals and heavy metals.

He specifically connected this accumulation to Alzheimer's disease, palsy, and various other neurological diseases. He also described how fat that has been removed from the modern diet, through low-fat dietary ideology, leaves the brain without adequate buffering, so that poisons that would otherwise be sequestered in fat instead get directly into cells and cause damage.

Aajonus addressed iron as a particular example of how cooking converts a beneficial element into a dangerous free radical. He stated that an iron problem can develop when a person eats a lot of cooked red meat, because much of the iron is rendered free radical by the cooking process. Free radical iron can then bind with bioactive iron and cause a bioactive iron deficiency alongside a toxic free radical iron level simultaneously. He noted that free radical iron that is not properly isolated in fat rusts in the body, causing further toxic and excessive iron accumulation.

He contrasted this with raw meat, stating that several healthy tribes eat almost exclusively raw red meat and do not have iron problems. Raw meat contains bioactive iron that is properly absorbed and utilized. He stated that iron supplements are never ionically or electrolytically active, that they are ineffective and harmful, and that free radical iron absorbed into tissue but not utilized cellularly often rusts in the body, causing severe degeneration. The only way to assure that iron is properly absorbed and utilized is to eat raw foods containing bioactive iron.

Aajonus described the mechanism of free radical damage in consistent terms across multiple passages. Free radical metallic minerals are acidic and acrid. They cause burning and dissolution of tissue, specifically because of their extreme over-acidity. The body must use alkalinizing minerals, principally calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium, in great amounts to bind with and neutralize these free radical acids, otherwise they will go into the tissue and melt, dissolve, and burn it. He described sulfur as a particularly damaging example, stating it will burn the system.

The process of using up alkalinizing minerals to neutralize free radicals depletes those minerals from their intended biological functions. He gave gum disease and tooth decay as a concrete example: the dental plaque that forms around the gums is predominantly calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium, which the body has used to bind with free radical metals dumping out of the brain through the gum tissue. He described this as the body performing necessary chemistry to protect itself from the burning effects of these metals, at the cost of mineral depletion elsewhere.

He described a wider systemic picture in which the presence of large quantities of free radicals means that nutrients are constantly being diverted to corrective and protective functions rather than normal cellular maintenance and function. He stated that the more damage one has from free radicals, the more nutrients must be spent on correcting that damage. He described how cooked foods cause elements that are naturally good to be stripped of everything bound with them, converting them into weapons that damage the neurological system, the blood, and the lymphatic system.

Massive free radicals and other toxins that store extracellularly or intercellularly cannot be converted to cellular food. Affected areas of the body then malfunction or rupture and become sites of disease. In the case of metallic free radical minerals in the neurological fluid system, the minerals do damage by causing burning and irritation to cells wherever they travel, rather than serving the electrical and light-conducting roles they would serve in their natural ionic state.

He also described a free radical chain reaction dynamic: free radicals are capable of causing rapid chain reactions that destabilize other molecules, generating many more free radicals inside the body. This compounding quality means that the presence of free radicals from one source increases the total burden exponentially, and more damage requires more nutrients to correct, leaving fewer resources for normal function.

When the body begins to move free radicals out of the brain and nervous system during detoxification, those minerals exit through specific pathways. Aajonus described the primary exit routes as the sinuses, tear ducts, earwax glands, gums, tongue, and salivary glands. He explained that the body mobilizes large quantities of alkalinizing minerals, particularly calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium, to bind with the free radical metals as they transit these tissues, which is why heavy plaque formation occurs around the gums during these detoxification events.

He gave mercury from vaccines as a specific example. Poorly developed asparagus that is high in mercury, herbs high in mercury, and cooked vegetables high in mercury will all release mercury as a free radical into the system. That mercury travels to the brain, stores there, and then eventually attempts to leave through the gums, at which point the body binds it with alkalinizing minerals to form plaque as a protective measure.

He described his own experience of a brain detox during one of his workshops, mentioning that he had a cold that year, his first brain detox in approximately ten years, and that he regarded colds as natural brain cleanses that eliminate free radical toxins accumulated in the brain.

He stated clearly that the neurological system, when detoxing free radical heavy metals, produces a highly acidic environment in the bloodstream, because most heavy free radical minerals are acidic, with barium being one of the rare alkaline exceptions. He recommended maintaining blood that is close to neutral during such detoxification events.

Aajonus stated unambiguously that if you eat raw, you do not get any free radicals from food. He said this twice in different passages with equal directness: there are no free radicals when you eat raw, and the brain and nervous system are vacant of those free radicals. He framed this as the fundamental distinction between a raw diet and any cooked diet, regardless of the quality of ingredients.

He acknowledged that a person can choose to eat one raw food in their entire life and they are adding nutrients to their body with that choice, and he respected individual autonomy in those decisions. But he was clear that the degree to which a person eats cooked food is the degree to which they introduce free radicals into their body, and the degree to which their nutrients must be diverted to correcting that damage rather than building and maintaining tissue.

He noted that antioxidants, uric acid, particular bacteria, and enzymes can neutralize free radical chain reactions. He also pointed out that a person eating 100 percent raw on the Primal Diet does not need antioxidant supplementation, because they are not generating the oxidative load from cooked food that would require antioxidant intervention. He described a conversation with someone who insisted on taking antioxidants while eating fully raw, and he predicted that over-suppression of oxidation in an already clean system would lead to inability to breathe properly and loss of energy.

For those who are not yet eating fully raw, or who are in the process of detoxifying accumulated free radical damage, Aajonus identified specific foods and substances that help neutralize free radical chain reactions and support elimination.

He listed the following foods as concentrated in bacteria and enzymes that help neutralize free radicals, all organic and all raw: no-salt raw butter and cheeses, raw milk and cream, raw coconut cream, raw berries, raw apple cider vinegar, raw coconut vinegar, raw cilantro or coriander juice, raw liquid whey, pineapple, and lime and lemon juices. He stated that a form of raw fat must be consumed with any of those foods that are not already fatty, because fats ensure that free radical toxins are contained and do not cause more damage on their way out of the body.

He specified that long hot baths will ensure that free radical toxins are eliminated through perspiration through the skin.

For radioactive free radical minerals specifically, he identified no-salt raw cheeses eaten frequently as a food that helps absorb and neutralize free radical radioactive minerals. He recommended pineapple eaten with no-salt raw cheeses to dissolve cellular radiation damage and harness byproducts. He also recommended no-salt raw butter eaten with no-salt raw cheeses to help prevent radioactive substances from entering cells and to buffer nuclear exchanges.

He described fat as central to the containment of free radical toxins, stating that if there is enough fat present when free radical metals are moving through the body, the fat can buffer the ill effects. He argued that this is why he prefers to maintain a high ratio of body fat, because fat chelates with toxins and prevents intercellular contamination and harm. The brain's 60 percent fat content is itself the main reason why free radical heavy metals accumulate there rather than causing immediate widespread systemic damage.

He also identified no-salt raw cheese specifically as a concentrated mineral source used to provide the ions needed for ionic attraction of free radical minerals, pulling them into a safer, bound form. He described white blood cells as one of three mechanisms the body uses to address free radical metallic minerals, alongside lipids that envelop them and alkalinizing minerals such as barium and aluminum that bind to them.

He stated that whenever a food is not already fatty, raw fat must accompany any free radical neutralizing food to ensure the toxins being mobilized are contained and do not cause additional damage in transit.

Aajonus connected free radical accumulation explicitly to a wide range of named conditions. He stated that free radicals cause cellular damage, degeneration, and death, resulting in multiple accelerated toxic conditions called diseases, including cancer and Crohn's disease, among approximately 2,000 others he referenced.

He connected the growing prevalence of heart disease directly to vegetable oil consumption, explaining that vegetable oils harden in the human body and cause hardening of the arteries, which was rare a hundred years ago and is now predominant. Cooking those oils further converts all their associated metallic minerals into free radicals.

He linked Alzheimer's disease and palsy directly to the accumulation of free radical heavy metals in the brain and nervous system, asking rhetorically why so many people are developing Alzheimer's and neurological diseases and pointing to the metal toxicity stored in the brain from decades of cooked food consumption.

He connected iron free radicals to leukemia and anemia, describing how if the blood must transport nutrients it was not designed to handle, including free radical minerals, red blood cells become damaged and the conditions of anemia or leukemia can develop.

He described tooth decay and gum disease as conditions caused by free radical chemicals that are overly acidic and dissolve bodily tissue, whether soft tissue like gums or hard tissue like bone. The plaque that forms is the body's protective response to free radical metals transiting through the gum tissue, using alkalinizing minerals to neutralize the acidity.

Aajonus addressed antioxidants as a partial and flawed response to the free radical problem. He acknowledged that antioxidants, uric acid, particular bacteria, and enzymes can neutralize free radical chain reactions. However, he was critical of isolated antioxidant supplements as a solution.

His view was that people who are eating cooked food have excessive carbon and carbon monoxides in their system from the combustion-like chemistry of cooking, and so they do need some antioxidant support. But a person eating 100 percent raw on the Primal Diet generates no free radicals from food and does not need antioxidant supplementation. He warned that using antioxidants when the body is already clean will suppress necessary oxidative processes, leading to inability to breathe properly and loss of energy.

The correct solution, in his framework, is not to add antioxidants to counteract free radical damage from an ongoing cooked diet, but to stop generating free radicals in the first place by eating raw food, and to support the body's own elimination of accumulated free radical damage through the specific raw food protocols he described.

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