Reading about Darryl D’Souza and his initiation into natural remedies, ancient wisdom and food consciousness can get anyone very worried especially if you’re the kind who has been indulging in fast food, juicy meat dishes and drooly deserts. Wait, even if you thought you were the ‘sensible’ sorts who dutifully lived on pulses and grains or even chose pasta made of wheat, you are in for a rude shock. Apparently, most of us are doing it wrong. Before you take up cudgels with him, be warned; everything he says comes from practising and living it himself. He single handedly tried to cure himself and reversed his aging by 15 years, never falling sick or needing medicine since 2007! Now, that is some feat.
Darryl, an engineer by profession suffered from a near fatal attack of pneumonia at 20 and went on to suffer from amoebiasis, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and piles by the time he was 27. Fatigued by his constant illness and having tried allopathy, ayurveda, homeopathy, home remedies and healers, none of it helped. His situation was only further aggravated by a horrible skin allergy that made him dismal to the point of being suicidal. The light came in the way of Ashvin Dalal, an acupressure specialist based in Mumbai. Says Darryl, “Within 3 days of acupressure and being on internal cleansers with herbal powders for cleaning the gut, I felt better. Gradually, my medication came down and energy levels shot up. I was so impressed that I wanted to learn this technique and went on to learn from Dalal.”
He started helping other people with cases of high Blood Pressure, cholestrol, obesity, hormonal balance, thyroid and migraine through acupressure but noted that the malady reappeared after a couple of months of treatment. Explains Darryl, “I realised that something was missing. Further analysis helped me understand that the missing link was diet and that led me to learn about food, following the laws of nature. Humans seem to have veered away from these universal principles.” A believer of integrated natural therapy, addressing the Body, Mind and Spirit; in the last 4-5 years Darryl has been working on a Diabetes Reversal Programme focusing on diabetes reversal mainly through diet.
A proponent of natural foods like fruits and vegetables and opposed to meat,milk, dairy products, sweets and processed foods, in 2011, Darryl went on write his book, ‘Become Healthy or Extinct’ in which he focuses on health, nutrition and metaphysis of the human body that offers natural cures without medication. From then on, there was no looking back. This was his mission in life and he went about being an evangeliser of wellness and healthy living. Countering the fact that he isn’t a doctor or a dietician with a degree, Darryl calmly responds, “I am not educated by a system that is based on an incomplete understanding of the human body. I am a researcher who works with all systems of knowledge and believes that the tools of healing are present in our bodies and they relate to our direct level of perception and understanding that are seldom wrong. We must move from reactive healthcare to preventive healthcare and look at health more holistically.”
Given that the usual staple of rice, wheat and pulses have been given the shove off, just what can we eat? Darryl justifies, “Firstly, we should consume food seasonally. Overconsumption / all year round consumption of wheat and rice is harmful for health. We should be eating wheat and pulses mostly in the winter months. Eating a lot of grains in the summer months damages the digestive organs in the long run due to continuous presence of acidity and internal heat. Besides, the constant conversion to sugar overworks the pancreas by forcing them to produce insulin leading to Type 1 Diabetes. This further leads to insulin resistance by various organs, a protective mechanism of the body wrongly labeled as an autoimmune reaction and this dysfunction is labeled as Type 2 Diabetes. Millets like jowar and rajgirah should be had in the summer.” He advises to soak any grain or dried bean overnight for easier digestion.
Darryl is happy to suggest the composition of an ideal healthy diet, “Fruits, Sprouts, raw vegetable salads, vegetable soups, nuts, beans and peas are healthy. Healthy grain such as millets, quinoa, sorghum, amarnath or corn with cooked vegetables, vegetable curry or stews and herbal teas & fermented foods such as miso, vegan yoghurt, cultured vegetables, kimchi or a probiotic drink like kombucha are all good.”
Meat and Milk are shown the expected red flag. Says Darryl, “Amino acids from Meat protein is not easily absorbed by our body. The body has to break down the improper protein of meats into amino acids and then recompose these amino acids into proteins that can be assimilated by the body. This inefficient process causes the formation of excess cholesterol and puts unnecessary stress on the stomach, intestines, kidneys, liver and pancreas. There are extensive plant based, meatless sources of protein options available which are far more nutritious. In any case, adults need a lesser amount of protein on a daily basis than growing children.”
According to him, with regard to milk, besides human milk and that too only till the age of 3, no other milk is needed by the human body. Explains Darryl, “Cow’s milk contains three times more protein than human milk. This when broken down creates a low lying level of acid in the body and is responsible for the leeching of calcium from our bones and magnesium from our muscles. Let’s not even consider the high levels of growth hormones, pesticides and carcinogens that cause autoimmune disorders, asthma, bronchitis and chronic cough & cold.”
If all of this sounds alarming and makes you cynical, Darryl comments, “People who are cynical are those who perhaps have not fallen ill yet. Don’t wait till you get to a severe case. We must try and be aware of how food, our mind and our spirit affects our body. There is a reason why there seems to be a shift in consciousness and a greater pull towards the alternative.”
Typically people consulting him come for help with high blood pressure, cholestrol, diabetes, hormonal imbalances, obesity, gall-bladder stones, kidney stones, asthma, migraine and spondolytis. Darryl adds, “Success depends on how well they follow the advice. Over 50% show tremendous improvement, 20% come back with positive feedback and some residual issues from not following through recommendations completely and 30% are the lazy or experimental sorts who don’t even do the treatments.”
Taking his mission seriously, Darryl consults at his Rejuvenation Center in Candolim. He also organises the ‘Earth Keepers’ Market’ selling organic and local produce at at the Rejuvenation Centre and at Saraya, Sangolda. He is the President of The World United, Goa (a forum that connects people across 50 countries committed to personal and planetary evolution and is currently working on conducting talks across India on ‘Small Changes for a Big Impact in Your Life’. It throws light on various flawed choices we have made about our foods, habits, consumables and surroundings that have a damaging effect on our health and environment as a whole.
If all of this diet change and holistic well being seems too daunting, remember to be open to old wisdom yet question the best approach. After all, there is no denying that we are what we eat and if our body is our temple, we better devote some serious thinking to it.
