Simply Raw

I went to the Newport Film Festival last night with my daughter Gina and son-in-law Steven. We went there to see Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days. The documentary is about six people with diabetes who answer an ad to come to Arizona and eat a raw food diet for a month. In the movie all of the participants experience a significant improvement in health. After being told that diabetes is incurable, they found out that by eating a raw food diet, diabetes could be cured and they were able to go off their insulin.

For me the film was inspiring. Most of the people there struggled with letting go of eating cooked foods. Even being away from home and secluded in the Tree of Life Center cravings for junk food tormented them. While temptation wasn't physically present it existed in their minds. One of the men did end up leaving even though his blood sugar went down and he lost weight. However, five of the six did overcome their doubts and weaknesses to complete the experiment and experienced life-changing differences.

As one of the young men so obviously struggled with, we all have been told in one way or another that we will always be the way we are. We can't possibly be healthy. His doctors told him he would always be on insulin. How do you get that belief out of your head when you have heard it so many times? And how do we stop eating animals and killing everything we eat with heat before we put it in our mouths when this is what we have seen for all our lives?

The affirmative answer to this question lies in the quality of our individual characters. If we have belief that change is possible we can do it. If we believe that life is stronger than death we can do it. If we believe that the Universe (God) wants us to be fully alive and healthy we can change what we put into our bodies. That is all well and good, but how do you get there?? All of us would love to have those beliefs, but they are not easy to come by. What can we do to get them?

The answer is simple: we get them from each other.

I believe that the world is made in such a way that we need each other to succeed, to live, to be healthy. It starts with thinking about others before thinking about ourselves. The surest way to help yourself heal is to learn how to heal others and in that learning you will be healed. This is one of the most important lessons I have ever learned and I need to learn it every day.

The people in the documentary who succeeded the most and had the easiest time of it were those who helped the others succeed. Do you want to be healthy? Don't do it for yourself, do it for your family, friends. Make the planet a better place to live. Share your struggles and successes with those who come into your life. Let's inspire each other. Let's inspire each other. Let's inspire each other.

(I have to say that I am very fortunate to have three children and one son-in-law who really inspire me with their wisdom, passion, and commitment to living life to the fullest.)