Legendary Greek physician Hippocrates perhaps best summarised the rejuvenating wonders steeped in natural foods when he said, “Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.”
Set along the principle of turning to nature in its purest form so as to cure and heal ourselves, psycho-nutritional therapist Dr C Ashraf’s practice, for more than a decade now, has been relieving the woes of patients suffering from a range of illnesses.
Ashraf, who is usually busy at his Good Life Nature Cure Home in Kerala that has enjoyed favourable word-of-mouth and has become somewhat of a go-to place for patients suffering from lifestyle and psychosomatic diseases, was recently down in Doha to hold classes, upon the invitation of community organisations here.
“Eating raw food, that is fruits, nuts, grains, grams and vegetables in the uncooked form, and drinking fresh water – unboiled and untreated with chlorine or alum – and breathing fresh air can cure nearly any disease. Cooked food should be completely avoided until you are completely cured of that disease,” he says, as he discusses how raw food helps flush out the toxins from our system and also rectify the body’s deficiencies.
For the septics, Ashraf’s whole-hearted reliance on the endless benefits of a raw food therapy might seem hard to digest. But his results, in the form of healthy patients, are there for everyone to see. Ashraf, a PhD in Psychology, started off by digging deep with his thesis titled Psycho-nutritional Cure for Type II Diabetes Mellitus.
“35 diabetes mellitus patients – 20 males and 15 females – having an average age of 50 years and an average duration of eight years of illness were subjected to a therapy package intervention for a period of 40 days,” he explains, “During this period, they were on a strict raw food diet, did therapeutic yogasana, group psychotherapy sessions, and group dynamic activities. That gave us fantastic results. Following the session, they achieved normal sugar levels.”
This treatment pattern is what the patients at his clinic – those suffering from diabetes, kidney disorders, obesity, arthritis, and almost all lifestyle diseases – are put on, before they return home relieved and refreshed. “I have found a strict raw food therapy to be the central figure in my treatment process, while other techniques assist it in the process of healing,” Ashraf says, “I have achieved successful results even in cases of cancer patients, who have undergone chemotherapy, and patients who have suffered kidney failure.”
To monitor the progress, seven days after the start of the 41-day treatment plan, Ashraf records health reports of the patients, and then again on the 14th day, the 21st day, the 35th day, and the 41st day.
Faulty nutrition is at the heart of most diseases, and all the ancient medical concepts existing in various parts of the world agree on this point, says Ashraf.  “Nutrition does not confine to food alone. All the five basic elements – earth, water, fire, air, and space, known as ‘panchabhoothas’, which constitute the body are included in nutrition,” he explains, “The proportion of the constituent elements out of which the body is made up is the secret of health.  When this proportion is in balance, we experience constant happiness, defined as health. With an imbalance, the body experiences ill-health.”
Doha’s Shumaiz Ahmed, who has been suffering from migraine for the past 20 years, has visited several doctors and tried all sorts of medicines, but to no avail. Upon a recommendation, Ahmed checked into Ashraf’s clinic in Kerala, deciding to stay there for 15 days. “The first three days were extremely hard,” Ahmed recalls, “That’s because you change your entire diet. I told Ashraf I can’t do this and that I’ll have to leave.”
On the third day, Ahmed was down with a severe migraine attack. “I vomited four times but I continued to stay at the clinic. And that was the last migraine I have had till today. I underwent the whole course. I lost weight. I returned to Doha, corrected my food habits and reset my diet patterns. Now I know what we must eat and I know the importance of consuming a natural diet. I have now sent a diabetic friend of mine there,” Ahmed says.
Ahmed is one of the dozens of patients Ashraf has in Qatar and the Gulf. “We are planning to soon open a clinic here in Doha,” he says, having now thrown open the website www.glnaturecure.com for enquiries.
One of Ashraf’s favourite anecdotes about the efficacy of his treatment is of a 64-year-old woman back in Kerala, who suffered severe spinal damage due to a fall. “She also had high sugar and the doctors had nearly given up on her recovery from this accident. That was six years ago,” Ashraf recalls, “I had then gotten her admitted to my clinic, and till today, she is doing well.”
In fact, after one year of being treated under Ashraf, she was on her way to do Umrah. “She insisted that I come to Calicut airport to see her off, and to wish her well. There, she told me that she was the only one in her group who is going to the holy land without any medicines. That meant a lot to me.”

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