We all know families who have in their histories at least one death from appendicitis, the rupturing of an appendix, before there were antibiotics to deal with the spread of infection throughout the body. Usually, those deaths occurred among children or teenagers.

Just what is this organ that can wreak such havoc?

It's a sort of pouch that grows on the colon near where the small intestine and large intestine are joined. It is only about .4 of an inch! How could such a small organ be so powerful? And so dangerous? It is in the lower right part of the abdomen although the tip can be in various locations. Scientists report that they can't say for sure what its purpose is. In rare cases, people have been discovered to have no appendix and their immune and gastrointestinal functions seem normal. The most common explanation is that it once served to digest leaves and foliage. Because humans nowadays eat fewer vegetables and foods that are easily digested, the reasoning goes, we no longer need the appendix.

Some researchers claim that the appendix has infection-fighting lymphoid cells and might play a role in the immune system.

Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. If this occurs, the appendix is normally removed to avoid rupture. If it ruptures, peritonitis occurs. The primary symptom is pain in the abdominal area where the appendix resides.

Only after people began to cook their foods did the appendix get sick. It no longer had a reason to exist. Enzymes are destroyed when food is cooked, and these are required by our bodies for all the chemical reactions that take place–immune system functioning, energy production, brain activity. There are two different types of enzymes, metabolic enzymes and digestive enzymes. When food is cooked, fats are only partially digested, proteins and starches are not completely digested, and arteries and intestinal tracts are clogged. And the appendix? It's working overtime trying to do what it was intended to do, which is to aid in the digestion of the foods the body takes in.

Eskimos, who eat only raw food, don't have appendicitis, nor do they have arterial sclerosis. No high blood pressure. Even raw blubber will digest completely because it still has the enzymes to provide for its complete digestion. Our bodies produce only a limited number of enzymes, and every cooked meal makes demands on that reserve.

If the researchers are right that the appendix has infection-fighting lymphoid cells and plays a role in the immune system, if we eat only cooked foods, and the digestive system is constantly trying to come up with enough enzymes to digest it, the appendix is challenged. It is also reasonable that the overworked and constantly-challenged appendix becomes inflamed and eventually ruptures. Since the immune system is already being pummeled by the stress put on the digestive system by an all-cooked-foods diet, then the infected appendix can no longer carry on, and the rupture pours infection into the abdomen, with often fatal results.

Switching to a raw-foods diet like the Eskimos eat allows the appendix to do what it was originally intended to do, which is to keep us healthy and infection-free.

By TTS Cofounder Botanical Chef Omid Jaffari