I read this recently on the Going Raw Yahoo Group. It is one of the clearest descriptions of what to eat and how to improve one's health. I love its simplicity, directness, and intuitive honesty. It rings full of truthfulness.

One person's approach to health:

No drugs, simply plants 50% raw, 50% cooked either steamed, blanched
or stir fried in very little oil. Zero processed foods, no cheating,
no odd ball super foods / fad foods. A little DHEA, B-12 & D all
from vegan sources, a little sun, a little walking, nothing extreme.
Been several years now, heard all the stars of the raw movement and
arrived at my own theory, which is that it is way more important what
you do not eat, than what you do eat. Theory on what to eat is the
widest possible variety of plants, as Fuhrman points out plants
contain important phytonutrients and barely 5% have been identified,
so don't get stuck eating mostly the same dozen plants, try to eat
ALL of them.

I find the longer I do it, the more I cut back on transitional stuff
like nuts, avocados, etc., I still eat them, just not a lot of them.

After several years, the authors and things I suggest most are:
ravediet.com
drfuhrman.com
drmcdougal.com
heartattackproof.com

chinastudy.com

I happen to be more scientifically than emotionally oriented and
personally believe that there is a lot of really bad science in the
raw business. I trust the info at the above places. When people
tell me about theories from the 30's where all current study is in
some obscure place in a foreign language, my eyes glaze over.

As I have said before, I find no need to justify eating this way. My
heath was very bad and I was about to go over the cliff, I started
eating this way and everything got better quickly and the problems
went away. People ask me what the specific mechanisms are that are
responsible as though there is some sort of "active ingredient". I
reply that the specific scientific mechanism is that I stopped
eating crap, dead and decaying stuff and started eating 100% plants,
there ya go, the whole scientific explanation.

I think a highly overlooked factor is eating LARGE quantities of raw
plant fiber (thanks to Vitamix it's easy). Someone (MD) told me you
should eliminate something that looks like it came from an elephant
and it should take you about 10 seconds to so. This goes to the
various thoughts on colon stuff, which is basically that eating tons
of raw plant fiber is like eating a couple pounds of ground up scotch
brite pads, that ought to keep you pretty well scrubbed out without
doing anything else.

Seems to me that there is no point studying it in more detail, as
further study just seems to reinforce what we already know... the
leaner you are the longer you live, the lower your cholesterol the
fewer diseases you get. Refer to China Study, eat what the people
that are the healthiest, longest lived people eat. Want facts, buy
Fuhrman's "Eat To Live" and study the extensive footnotes (that guy
is a real scientist).

There is plenty of study on what to do, people don't need to study it
more, they just need to do it and be strict about it. Sure folks can
go off on their tangents as long as they are under the umbrella
of "eat plants" and everything should be fine.

Happy Holidays
Mark

It Ain't Easy

Yikes! I thought it was hard being as raw as possible here in Westerly. Living away from home was ten times as hard! Five weeks in Nicaragua followed by the Christmas Holidays. It could have been worse, but...

In Nicaragua, living in a hostel room, without hot water, I did my best. I kept a supply of pineapples, watermelon, bananas, and oranges in my window. Breakfast was no problem. What came after was. There were no green leafy vegetables to be had. I could get a mixed salad of cabbage, carrots, onions, and peppers, and often had that for lunch, but that was not filling.

I was able to get a fresh young coconut most days, either in the market in Leon, or from one of the young girls selling them on the beach. That was filling. But, after that, my choices for dinner were not good. I succumbed to eating animals.

On the plane home from Nicaragua all I could think about was having a big salad with green leaf lettuce and Gina's raw creamy balsamic dressing with flaxseed powder on top.

Being home has not helped. For one reason or another I've had to eat out almost every night and I have had problems there. Even when I ordered a Veggie Focaccia Sandwich at 84 High Street Cafe, they sent it with chicken.

So, my blood pressure is up, my weight is up, and so is my determination to figure out a way to make this work!

Tonight, I am going out to dinner with my kids. I promise you, I am going have so much salad before I leave this house that I will not be able to eat anything bad. Okay, I am allowing myself a little sushi, that's raw, isn't it?

What a freaking struggle this is. It's a struggle, but it isn't that bad. It's just that you always have to pay attention, bad habits just so easily work their way back into your life. I feel like I'm in a tug of war for what goes into my mouth. The minute I look the other way, poof, some dead animal ends up working its way through my digestive system. And neither of us are happy about that. There has to be a better way, and I am determined to find it. Meanwhile, I'm drinking my green smoothies and munching my huge green salads. I'm on the path, I just have to get farther along.