Darryl D’Souza went through 14 years of sickness & suffering that almost ended his life in 2004. His radical reversal from that state to a state of complete well-being within just 1 year of using Integrated Natural Therapies is a story that has inspired thousands across the globe lead healthier lives.
His book ‘Become Healthy or Extinct’ on curing chronic illnesses with integrated natural therapies finds readership in 200 countries.
Darryl is also an organic farmer, an environmentalist, a TEDx speaker, an ambassador of VeganNation and a speaker at The World Parliaments on Spirituality.
Below is the full text of his TEDx Talk titled “How I Cured Myself of Chronic Illness and Reversed Ageing” at TEDxPanaji.
TRANSCRIPT:
This is a photograph of me in 1988, when I was only 18 years old, and I’d never experienced any sickness in my life.
This next picture is of me at 25 years – two years after I survived a nearly fatal bout of pneumonia. But at this time, I was also suffering from amoebiasis, an infection in the small intestines, after drinking Mountain water.
And that just did not get cured so easily with allopathy, even with Ayurveda and Homeopathy.
And years went on till this next picture at — when I was 34 years in 2004. And at this time, I was not only suffering from amebic colitis but also irritable bowel syndrome, blood toxicity, internal heat, skin allergies, candidiasis, which is fungal growth in the intestines, and third-degree piles which had to be operated.
Now, which of these three photographs do I look like today? And what has happened to me since 2004?
Well, after all the modern systems of medicine failed to cure me, I switched to Natural Therapy. And just in about a year and a half, I was able to reverse all those illnesses that I mentioned.
And something else also happened on the way.
And it is called reverse aging.
Now this happened because I followed some very important principles about food, which I call the Natural Laws of Nutrition. And that is what I’m going to share with you today.
Now, nutrition is such a complex topic for the common man, that it’s very difficult to understand what is the right kind of a diet for you.
But let me tell you that nutrition has got nothing to do with the mind of how well-read you are. It has got to do with an experience that you are having.
Now if you look in nature, at animals, birds, and reptiles, you see them just going about their daily thing, whether it’s running around their territories, playing with each other, in the mating game or just scouting the area.
And in the middle of all that life, hunger happens automatically, like a feeling in this part of the system, your body.
So I invite you — imagine that I invite you to my home where I’m going to do this experiment with you on what is the real healthy diet for you. Because the bottom line is everybody wants to know, you know, what is the best kind of diet for me.
And I tell you that I will offer you all the foods that you eat, and even foods that you don’t eat if you think they are healthy for you.
So you come over to my place in Candolim and you give me this long list of foods. And I give you a room of your own, but you have all the facilities and even drinking water but no food, because all the experiments on food are going to happen in my dining hall — on a very long dining table.
So you come to my house at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. And we just sit down and get to know each other for a while, have a long chat.
And when it’s about 5 o’clock, I ask you: are you hungry? And you look at the time and say yes. It’s tea time and how about some tea and some snacks.
And I ask you again: Are you really hungry, because hunger for me is not a time on the wall or the clock.
And what I explained to you earlier, that is what real hunger is.
Now why does this happen? It is the first law of nature, which says that all beings who eat, eat food only after they are hungry. And from what I explained to you in the example that I gave, you think about it and just check yourself and you don’t feel those hunger pangs. So you say okay, I’m probably not hungry now.
Because maybe you’ve eaten lunch at about two o’clock. So we say OK, let’s do it when you’re really hungry.
And about a couple of hours go and it’s about eight o’clock. And then you come to the dining table, and you see everything elaborately laid out.
You see a platter of vegetables and fruits and nuts and beans and peas. And you also see that there’s a live chicken tied to the leg of the chair. That is the ingredient of your chicken biryani.
You see a live flesh, flopping flesh on its last few breaths, that is the [Ratured Bhangra] that you asked for. You see a cut out chunk — freshly cut out chunk of pork ribs and that is the glazed pork ribs that you asked for.
Now why have I done this? Because I’m following the second law of nature, which says that God or nature or the cosmos or whatever you want to call it, has provided for every being that eats food in its natural and unaltered state. And that is what I have given you.
So you look at all of this, and I tell you have a look at the pork once more and you see the detail of it, their skin, there’s hair, there’s mucus. You see severed veins and arteries and fat and blood and the smell is quite horrible.
And you say, take me away from that.
And now that if you’re feeling so hungry, what do you eat first? You go to the other end and you pick up some fruits.
And when you pick up, maybe your favorite mango, you’ve taken its fragrance and say wow, eat it. Maybe you put down a couple of mangoes, maybe some chicos.
And then as you’re getting filled up, your mind kicks in: hey, I need some protein. Where do you get that from? And you pick up some nuts and some seeds and you’re full up then. So then we call it a meal.
And you go back to your room, maybe you sleep — go to bed off at night.
And next morning, when you get up, you are really hungry again. So you come to the dinner table, dining hall and looking out for the food again.
You notice that there are no fruits or nuts, because I have taken them away.
What is the next thing you’re going to eat? The vegetable? Edible vegetable, what I call things like cucumber or tomato or carrot.
Next to it, there’s also some broccoli, some spinach. But you don’t feel like touching that right now. And there are the grains, rice, wheat, dals, the live animals, dead meat — what do you eat? Obviously you go for the edible vegetables. You make a meal of it.
The next time that you’re hungry and you come back, you don’t see the edible vegetables also. You just see the non-edible vegetables.
You’re staring at it for a while and thinking I’ve never done this before. But there are no options.
So well, you put down a few and satisfy that pain and hunger in your tummy. Maybe you don’t need a full meal.
The next time you’re hungry and you come back, even that’s not there. You’re just seeing the dried grains, the beans – kidney beans or rajma. You say no way, I can eat this. I have never done it before.
So I play a National Geographic video for you, where it shows primates when they’re eating grains and hard beans, they put it in their mouth and they don’t start munching it right away. They keep it there for few minutes and they soak it up. And when it gets soft, then they start eating it.
And so you get an idea for that, and because there’s no way out, you try the same. And it works for that time. Maybe you don’t need half a kilo, maybe just 100 grams or 200 grams. But your hunger is gone.
And then you think about it and you know, what’s going to happen in the next meal. And you’re there and even the grains are not there this time.
And you say, hey, you know, these scenarios do not happen in life. This is some twisted experiment that you’re doing.
And I say, no, my friend, these are the simple seasons of the year. You do not get fruits all throughout the year. They come and they go. And the vegetables come and they go. And the greens come and they go.
And you have the next season coming. But when something is not there we always do for the next — with the next best thing.
So now you think about it and realize what’s happening. But you put your hands up and say no ways, I can’t do the meat.
And I tell you, I can eat meat but it must not look like meat. Can you please make it brown or orange or green? It must not also smell like meat. So could you please add the fragrance of some herbs?
I can eat meat but it must not taste like meat. Can you please put some spices and herbs into it and fool my tongue completely? It must not even feel like meat, not that soft and gooey pork ribs. So can you please brown it up a bit and by the way also give me a fork and spoon?
So what is happening over here? It is, as per the next law of nature which says that the God-given senses of every human being will tell them every time food is presented to them what is their food and what is not their food.
And so this whole thing makes sense to you now. And I share with you the next law which says that you can only make the human body eat food, not designed for it, once you fool its five senses completely. And this is what we do today with modern cooking.
I could even feed you poison today. All that I have to do for you to eat it is just fool all of your five senses and you may drop dead from it tomorrow. This is what we do with food today and why food has become our poison.
Now, working with over a thousand doctors, healers, therapists and very very sick patients, and hosting three conventions on mind/body/spirit medicine, I have come to very clearly understand that 70% of all the chronic illnesses in society, what you call lifestyle illnesses, like high BP, cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, hormonal imbalance, arthritis, kidney problems, liver problems — they all come from eating the wrong kind of food or preparing food in the wrong way.
And so what I am saying is that 70% of all these foods, I mean, all these illnesses can get cured if you eat the right kind of food.
This is what Edison said some time ago, “The doctor of the future will not treat the human body with medicines but would cure it through food,” and that time is now.
And the people who are going to do it are you, because nobody else is doing it for you and you are all getting sicker by the day.
This is what I had to do in 2004 to save my own life. And this is what I am asking you to do today for yourself.
It is not a very difficult job to do. You know, you already have all the senses you need for it.
Thank you.
Disclaimer: While some readers may find advice provided in this talk to be helpful, please do not look to this talk for medical advice.
