Reasonably, Rationally, and Realistically Raw

Back In Vietnam

2010-10-06T20:11:00.000-04:00

I'm back in Vietnam teaching English. I'll be here till May with a few weeks break to come home for Christmas. As you may know I love it here. The people, the climate (unbearably hot sometimes), and the food. I find it so much easier to eat healthily here. Lots of alternatives, exotic fresh fruits, fewer temptations to eat junk food, and interesting healthy Vietnamese options.

My mornings begin with some yoga stretches, and a 5 mile run along the beach. I've begun running barefoot on the cement sidewalk and my feet love the freedom. Today I ran the whole 5 miles without shoes. (My daughter Gina got me interested in the benefits of running barefoot.) It was nice because near the end I could just run into the ocean for a swim, run out, and continue my jog. I rehydrate with some water, a shower, and fresh coconut water. The young coconuts cost only 50 cents each.

I have a smoothie for breakfast, usually mango, pineapple, and fresh squeezed orange juice. I go teach a class and for lunch I snack on chopped up broccoli, carrots, and cucumber while I prepare a salad. I brought raw tahini with me so I could make that marinade dip I mentioned a few blogs ago. I absolutely love that dip! Between the veggies and the salad I'm feeling pretty good. I may have a durian if I'm particularly hungry. Or some small bananas.

I teach an early evening class every night and then usually eat out at a Vietnamese restaurant. The options are endless and I've really begun enjoying the different flavors. Even the nuoc mam (fish sauce) tastes good now. I will either eat vegan or a dish with very small amounts of crab, squid, or chicken for flavoring.

I've lost 6 pounds in the three weeks I've been here without even trying. Life is good. Thank you to those of you who have made comments to the blog, and especially Isabel from Denmark. And Teresa. And Jessica. And Renee. I feel a close spiritual connectedness to so many of you.

Succeeding With Your Help

2010-08-26T18:16:00.000-04:00

Those of you who have commented recently are awesome!! Your ideas and suggestions have really made a difference. I think you all have helped me get another step higher up the health ladder. Wonderful! This is what you said that made a difference:

Teresa suggested that I try drinking a large smoothie late in the afternoon to cut down on my evening cravings. I actually started doing that a couple of days before she posted that comment and had been having success. I've now been eating a simple, relatively light lunch, and at the same time making a banana chocolate smoothie and keeping it in a small cooler. Knowing that if I got hungry I could go for it. Usually sometime between 3 and 4 I drink it. This totally takes the edge off my cravings and I eat less for dinner and less after afterwards. So now I have a fruity berry type smoothie for breakfast, dehydrated flaxseed crackers and dip for lunch or a salad, a banana smoothie for late afternoon, and a light dinner and or snacks in the evening. Totally satisfying and no cravings so I can control my evening food consumption. Teresa I am completely on the same page and path as you. Thanks a bunch!

I want to thank A Little Bunny who shared about her headaches. She suggested that mine could be from the bananas. If they go past their prime they can trigger headaches. I've been watching for that and cutting out any parts that have turned brown and...no more headaches! I was blaming it on the cacao, I am so glad that was not it. Imagine a world with no chocolate!

A number of you also wrote about being 75% raw and the rest just trying to be vegan. I totally agree with you. Whole wheat pasta or steamed potatoes was suggested for dinner. I love both. Also hummus, which I like to have with flaxseed crackers, but that is more like lunch for me.

Well, thank you all for your ideas and support. I feel like I have made a significant advance. Actually, this may be enough. Let's see, what else do we need to do. Not much more. Blessings to you all!

A Spectacular Recipe!

2010-08-14T16:09:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while we come across a recipe that just blows us away. That happened the other day. I was so excited I literally ran around the house. And I found it quite by chance.

I was flipping through books and Almond Butter Marinade caught my eye. This is in Raw Foods For Busy People by Jordan Maerin. The only reason I tried making it was because I had almond butter in the cabinet that I wasn't using. What the heck? I'm not much of a marinade type of guy, but I gave it a try.

Here is the recipe with a few changes:
1/2 Cup Raw Almond Butter
1/2 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Honey
4 cloves Garlic
Lemon Juice to taste (I used one lemon)
Cayenne Pepper to taste
Crushed Red Pepper to taste
Sea Salt to taste

I generally don't waste time putting up recipes but this one is so good everyone should have this!

Just blend it all up and toss with your favorite veggies. I chopped up zucchini, carrots, and then put in cherry tomatoes. Marinade for 3 hours at room temperature or leave in the frig. Oh my god! This is sooooooo good!!!!!

A couple of days later I brought a small container of the veggies and marinade to the beach for lunch. It was so filling and delicious. This is one more easy to make addition to my raw food arsenal, what a great way to get raw zucchini into your diet!

Energized!

2010-08-12T19:06:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a while since I've written anything. That's because I refuse to write if I have nothing to say and I haven't had a thing to say for a while. That doesn't mean I haven't been...hum...thinking about things...and experimenting. Mostly it's been a struggle for I don't know how long. I've been stuck in the muck. As summer winds down I'm beginning to see something new going on.

As I've written before, if the day ended at 5pm I'd have no trouble living on the perfect diet of smoothies, and salads, and cereals. But come dinner time and after dinner and, well, I'm still waiting for the answer. The idea that if we just eat nourishing foods we will not want to eat the junk stuff any more is not true. At least it's not true for me. I want heavy crappy food by the time the sun starts to set.

Which brings me to where I have something to say. No, I don't have all the answers yet. But I'm beginning to get some clues.

My modest success starts with awareness and continues with planning. Just being aware that from 5pm on is when things get dicey helps. As we say in counseling...awareness itself is healing. I'm aware that I tend to make stupid eating decisions later in the day. Which leads me to the second thing happening. I plan for it. I have not found the answers yet to perfect night eating, but progress is being made. For one thing, I keep the poisons out of the house now. No junk food, no salty food, no fatty food. (I've only had ice cream sandwiches at my dad's all summer long. No Ben and Jerry's, no Cold Stone!)

I'm not satisfied that I've found the ideal foods to eat for supper, but they are better than the typical meals I was eating. Reading books by Dr. Joel Fuhrman and Dr. Max Gerson is giving me some reasonable alternatives, such as steaming potatoes. I have a feeling that the answer is going to be something simple like being happy with a salad and a tasty raw desert like my daughter Gina is famous for. Now that I think of it, a salad and her strawberry parfait...what's better than that for dinner?

To be continued...

Finding What Works

2010-05-26T09:45:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I posted a blog. That's because I haven't had anything new or worth writing about. I'm not sure that I do now but you be the judge of that.

What is happening in my life these days is that I'm trying to figure out what works best for me. Ideally I would like to be 90% raw and 100% vegan...and no junk food. These days I'm about 70% raw and 85% vegan...and more junk food than I would like. So I've been experimenting on how best to improve. I've also been having headaches which I believe has been caused by the raw cacao in my chocolate banana smoothies.

I'm not certain but I'm pretty sure the cacao has been giving me headaches. I've switched to carob and they have gone away. And the smoothies still taste really good as long as I put nutmeg in for more flavor.

My diet would be much better if I could control what I ate from 5 o'clock on. I have no trouble being raw and vegan all day long. I love my smoothies and salads and fruits, but come dinner time I have not found something that I can eat to fill me up and make the evening cravings go away. I try different things but nothing works. And that is where I am today. So, please, if any one has suggestions, I'm listening. I'll share something if I learn anything myself. But at this point I haven't got any answers.

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (Part Four)

2010-02-25T21:38:00.000-05:00

In the end I did make it to the end of the book, which was a surprise. Not only in finishing it, but that the book ended before the end. By that I mean that the second half of the book was just notes on the first half. Going through the notes I don't believe they added a thing to the book. All of this just led to a frustrating experience. I like it when my beliefs are challenged, which is what I was hoping for when I purchased this book. Instead, I got the run around. The feeling of this book was more like Wrangham was a paid consultant to the food industry than an actual research writer. He just never supported his claims with logical data.

I will give Wrangham this much, it is possible that his claim that cooking made us human is true. He doesn't prove it, but he brings up the possibility and I can accept that. I can believe that cooking animals allowed human beings to live in places that they couldn't have if they depended only on the foods that they evolved to eat. So, while our bodies are designed to eat plants, we can survive, at least to reproduce, by eating animals and cooking tough plants.

To this I say: So what? Cooking animals may have helped us live, but not live longer and healthier. And that is what I am concerned with in the 21st century. Over and over again Wrangham cites studies that show that cooked diets result in more disease and higher mortality rates. And, "The less processed our food, the less intense we can expect the obesity crisis to be." So why in the world this idiot rails against raw foodists is beyond me! He ends the book with this statement: "We must find ways to make our ancient dependence on cooked food healthier." Dear Dr. Wrangham the answer is staring you right in the face. You keep referring to it all through your book. We need a reasonable, rational, realistically raw food diet.

I am sorry you did not help me. I will still feel uneasy whenever I do give in to my love of...hamburgers.

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (Part Three)

2010-02-17T23:01:00.000-05:00

I am hanging in there with this book, though Wrangham is driving me crazy with his lack of logic. He constantly cites research that points to cooking being bad for food, then he argues that it is good. Most writers use research to support their claims, Wrangham does the opposite.

For example, in Chapter Three he talks about rat research that shows that "soft, well-processed foods made rats fat." The experiments results were that a softer (cooked food) diet led to obesity. And this is a good thing? For Wrangham yes, because there is more energy gain. I say "No! there is more fat! Idiot!

Someone please tell Dr. Wrangham that you can get softer, easier to digest, energy producing food, from...drum roll please...fruits!!!

There are more things for humans to eat on this planet besides meat and potatoes. Okay, fine, meat and potatoes are easier to digest when cooked. And they make you fat. And yes, humans were able to multiply in greater numbers by cooking and eating meat. But that does not mean it is healthier.

So, great, evolution did its job. More people were able to live long enough to have more babies and spread their genes. And if that is all you are interested in, fine. Wrangham you understand evolution. But you sure are not helping the rest of us who would like to live longer, healthier lives. For a guy who spent his life researching monkeys you sure did not learn anything about their eating habits!!!

I'm writing this after drinking a delicious smoothie made of fresh squeezed oranges, mangoes, and pineapple. I've got a bunch of bananas on my desk and a bag of lettuce in the fridge. You think I'm going to have any problem digesting my food? Dr. Wrangham, come over to my house for lunch some time will ya?

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (Part Two)

2010-02-13T23:46:00.000-05:00

I can tell already that I'm going to be trashing this book all the way through. I'm disappointed because I thought this would challenge my raw food beliefs. Instead I'm left thinking, "who are the people who are reading this book and think the author is rational?" Is it just because he is a Harvard professor? Yikes!

For instance, Chapter One, which goes right after the raw foodists, uses the Evo Diet experiment in England as proof the raw diets do not work. The experiment, Evo for evolutionary, took people with dangerously high blood pressure and kept them on a diet of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and a small amount of fish for a short time. In the end blood pressure went down to normal, cholesterol levels fell by a quarter, and everyone lost significant amounts of weight. So, why does Wrangham say that a raw food diet is dangerous? Because it causes people to lose weight. I am not making this up.

Wrangham's major premise is that only food that can deliver energy, and apparently more weight, can be considered safe and good for us. What planet is this guy living on?Does he not know that we are a country of fat people? A mostly raw food diet is healthy because it helps us bring our weight down to what it should be.

Next he brings up journalist Jodi Mardesich, who wrote about her experience with raw food. She claimed that a raw food diet made her feel energized, mentally sharper, and more serene. However, she too lost weight, and there you go, more evidence that raw food is bad for you. Throughout the chapter Wrangham keeps writing that raw foodists do not "fair well." He says that animals thrive on wild raw foods, but there is something odd about us humans, we need cooked food. Someone tell him that last time I checked humans were animals too.

His logic drives me up a wall. For instance, he says in Chapter Two, "Very little is known about how our detoxification system and enzyme chemistry differ from those of great apes, but studies should eventually provide further tests of the hypothesis that human bodies are adapted to eating cooked foods." In other words, there is no science to back up his claims, but we should take his word for it that some day there will be. It will be a miracle if I make it through this book without breaking my Kindle.

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (Part One)

2010-02-10T23:28:00.000-05:00

I am reading a very anti-raw book called Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. I believe that it is important to hear all sides of an argument. I truly believe that a raw diet, or mostly raw diet, is far better for people and the planet, but I want to hear all the evidence on both sides. So I'm reading the other side to see if my beliefs hold up.

This book targets raw foodists directly. There is no mistake about it, the author, Richard Wrangham, goes after those of us who do not like to set our food on fire. I have no problem about that. Maybe he will convince me that I don't have to feel guilty when I stray and treat myself to a burger and fries. Hey, boiled lobster and butter is awesome. Just please make a reasonable, rational, realistic argument for it.

For me, Wrangham gets off on the wrong foot right in the introduction. He states that humans began cooking nearly 2 million years ago. However, there is absolutely no archeological evidence for this at all. Controlled fire, and we do not even know that this involved cooking, only begins to appear 800,000 years ago. I don't like writers who play loose with the facts.

The worst part of the introduction is that first he states that "Little change has occurred in human anatomy since the time of homo erectus almost 2 million years ago", then he says that cooking changed our brain size, our jaws, and our hairy bodies. Which is it? Has human anatomy changed or not?

Wrangham's inconsistencies are one thing, but he draws conclusions that just do not follow logically. For instance, he says that humans had small jaws and teeth, not made for eating meat. So we had to have cooked it. It never occurs to him that maybe humans just didn't eat meat. After all, our bodies were not designed to digest meat, cooked or raw, like they for eating fruits and vegetables.

He goes on to say that the strongest voices that argue for cooking being a core influence on human nature are students of food and eating. Duh? How stupid does he think his readers are?

The main point of the introduction, and possibly the book, is that cooking increases the amount of energy our bodies can obtain from food. I'm looking forward to seeing how he proves this. I think what he should be saying is that by cooking foods, particularly meats, humans had more food and energy available to them to survive. I could agree with that. But being able to process sugar cane and make twinkies also allows humans to extract more energy from nature. That doesn't make it more healthy.

I was hoping for a good challenge to my raw beliefs, but when Wrangham says that human bodies are biologically adapted to cooked foods like cow are adapted to eating grass he makes breatharians look good.

Reasonably Raw in Vietnam

2010-01-28T20:13:00.000-05:00

I'm back in Vietnam for the rest of the winter. My main activity here is teaching English to Vietnamese university kids. I absolutely love it.

I would say it's nearly impossible to be as raw here as in the states. Not nearly as many standard ingredients here, like nuts, cacao, herbs, etc. But, the fresh fruits do make up for it and the variety of restaurants here in Nha Trang keep things from becoming boring.

Probably the best thing here is the low cost of fresh young coconuts. 50 cents each. I have the water and meat of one every morning after my 5 mile run. There is something about the water in a coconut that totally hydrates my body because I have very little thirst after drinking one. I make a smoothie after going to the market in the morning. Usually it consists of mango, pineapple, and oranges. Not a green smoothie because my travel blender will not break up greens very well. After that I really don't drink any water the rest of the day. To break things up once in a while I have watermelon for breakfast.

Lunch consists of a big salad with homemade raw dressing. I bring a few jars of raw tahini with me and make a tahini, lemon, garlic dressing. When I run out I'll buy olive oil and make a dressing of oil, lemon, and nutritional yeast (brought that along with me).

For dinner I usually go out to eat and try to be reasonable. I do eat some meat and occasionally have a burger and fries or Pad Thai Gai.

Life is good here. I usually lose nearly ten pounds not even trying. I do miss my afternoon banana cacao smoothies and homemade guacmole. Anyway, I can't be perfect, but I can be reasonable. And that's life here in Vietnam. Probably not much more to write about till I return home in April. Except that I've ordered a book for my Kindle which I will be reading shortly. It's called Catching Fire. Something about the history of cooking. It is supposed to be about how humans have always cooked their food. I'm thinking I should read something that will challenge my beliefs and see if they stand up. I will report back on that. In the meantime, I'm loving my coconuts!

Gina's No Jet Lag Exilir

2009-12-17T18:12:00.000-05:00

I spent the last 11 weeks living in Nha Trang, Vietnam. Hence very little raw to write about that I haven't already. Basically, exotic fresh fruit for breakfast and snacks throughout the day. A salad and granola for lunch. And a non-raw restaurant meal for dinner. Over all I felt great and lost 9 pounds! I return in 4 weeks to continue teaching English to college students.

Here's the best thing to report: I made a small fruit smoothie for breakfast and my daughter Gina made me a chocolate exilir smoothie for lunch and I had absolutely no jet lag today despite traveling yesterday for more than 24 hours! I know that the key ingredient was Vita Mineral Green.

I am more determined than ever to be reasonably raw. I realize now that the most important concept in nutrition and great health is getting enough nutrients and not over eating. Nutrients keep us from being hungry. And eating certain foods make us hungry. It's kind of like when we eat we open the flood gates. So, don't open those gates! Get nutrients and then leave the table. If necessary give yourself a treat later on. For me, in Vietnam, I knew that when I had the urge to have food pleasure I could go to the store and get a handful of Oreos. That did the trick for me. Whatever you do, just be reasonable!

Matt Monarch and Raw Success?

2009-08-04T11:52:00.003-04:00

This blog is not going to win me any friends in the raw food movement. But I got to tell the truth as I see it. This is all about Matt Monarch and his teachings about raw food. He and wife Angela Stokes were in the area this weekend and this is what I learned at his talk and while he stayed at my house.

I prepared for Matt's visit to Mystic and Westerly by reading his book Raw Success, which is available on line for free. Matt basically repeated essential concepts of the book in his talk. So, if you missed Matt or haven't read the book this is the message:

1. It's not what we eat that is important to our health, it's what we don't eat (refined foods being the worst).

2. You cannot be healthy unless you get colonics regularly, at least once a month.

3. The healthier we get, the more sensitive we get. Bad foods like a hamburger will put you into the hospital right away if you are a raw vegan for a long time like Matt.

4. Eating a healthy diet will make you spiritual like him. Your third eye will start working again.

5. The goal is to eat less and less food, eventually becoming a breathtarian, someone who lives only on air.

6. All foods are detrimental to your health, even good foods. That is why you want to eventually get to not eating foods at all.

7. We are born with cells that have the accumulation of all the bad food choices of our ancestors.

Those are all the main points of Matt's teachings, both live and in the book. So here is where I get into trouble. What a bunch of crap. The kid ought to go to school and read some serious stuff, not this new age garbage based on stories.

Here are my thoughts on Matt's teachings:

1. It's what we do eat that's important to health. We make bad food choices because we are not nourished. Fill yourself up first of good foods and you will slowly and gradually find that you will want less of the bad stuff. Think positive, not negative.

2. All the research that I have done points to colonics being a waste (pun intended) of time.

3. The healthier we get, the stronger our immune systems get. When we do make bad food choices once in a while our stronger bodies can handle it and other attacks to our systems.

4. I don't think eating better makes you more spiritual, but being more spiritual does make you eat better. (More on Matt's spirituality later.)

5. I agree that we all should for the most part eat less food, but really, if I had to give up food entirely...kill me.

6. Good foods are bad for me? How are we supposed to build strong bodies? The idea that good foods make us live shorter lives than if we ate nothing is so...lacking in substance.

7. The idea that we are born with "the sins of our fathers" nutritionally speaking is another new age idiotic idea. Not only do we not come into this world with bad cells, we can, by eating good foods make our cells more vibrant and alive.

Anyway, I'm writing this because Matt spends a lot of time promoting himself and spreads these ideas everywhere. I just want some people to be forewarned about what he is saying because besides wasting our time and money I think some of this can be dangerous.

I said that I wanted to say a little more about the spirituality thing. I was not impressed with it. My daughter Gina asked me if Matt and Angela could stay at my house because I have the room. I said fine. They were supposed to arrive by 10 pm Saturday night. I waited till midnight, no show, no call. Turns out their car was towed. I would have thought at some point when they knew they were not coming they could have called. While at my house they wanted no interaction and pretty much stayed in the office I set up for them to do work. They asked to use my washing machine to do their laundry, which I said fine, but when the left, they left all their dirty sheets and towels on the floor for me to pick up and wash. Matt and Angela, I'm sorry, but I'm not impressed with your sense of spirituality.

By the way, I'm sorry to say, I missed Angela's talk, which I heard was very good, but the break between talks was so long I went home. Of course, the time between breaks was used to sell the huge amount of product they brought with them. (Another pet peeve of mine...selling products that you are encouraging people to use in your talks. That's not very ethical in my mind.)

Sometimes I just wish raw food people would shut up and just help us all eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Make it more interesting and enjoyable. Keep it simple. Gotta go now, time to make my banana cacao green smoothie.

The Superfood Debate: Part Five (Gina Responds)

2009-07-02T06:46:00.005-04:00

The following blog was written by my daughter Gina Law, her third and final installment in the superfood debate. I had previously written about my concern over all this interest in superfoods. Gina offers another perspective.

Many cultures thriving in longevity are often surviving in undeveloped countries that have access to wild, mineral filled superfoods as part of their regular diet. These superfoods are the foods that they can access, many times in their own backyard. Most of the superfoods in question come from warmer climates, where many of the Earth’s less monetarily wealthy people live. True superfood companies are fair-trade, organic or wild-crafted. They offer to sustain an ecosystem and culture, rather than rape them of their land, ravage their forests and leave them with a barren land in exchange for a small sum of money. I once heard an argument in support of eating tropical fruits and vegetables shipped from third world cultures. The author argued that to purchase goods from a third world country fed the families of the farmer, where buying local produce would merely send the farmer’s children to college. I am not agreeing with this statement, but however you take it, a high percentage of that tropical fruit is conventionally farmed. This leaves the land unable to produce for itself and the workers in regular contact with chemicals, smothering them in dis-ease. The simple foods that many of the cultures of longevity are consuming are growing without these immoral chemicals, and they are the superfoods that we desire.   

In order to support fairly traded, organic products, the cost will be there. You vote with your dollar. My vote goes to paying real prices for real products verses buying produce from a store like Wal-Mart, conventional produce from Stop and Shop or even Whole Foods, just because it is less expensive. These products are not putting those people who are farming them in a good situation. The superfoods that I stand by are quality products. I support the superfoods that are grown in the highest quality, packaged responsibly, are fairly traded and have a positive effect on other cultures.

Some folks are concerned with superfoods being sold as part of a multi-level marketing company, namely Elements for Life. As someone who has bought her fair share of quality superfoods, I know first hand that they are an expensive product. The company in question has top quality products, sold at competitive prices. The intention of selling them as part of an MLM company is for those many times that I’ve turned people onto superfoods. I can now actually get a commission from referring them to the company. I am not pushing people to use these supplements. This winter, when my mother finally didn’t mention how tired I looked, I attributed it to one major change in my diet. I added in high quality minerals and nutrients, through products such as Vitamineral Green, Revitaphi, blue green algae, and my personal favorite, marine phytoplankton. People ask what I am doing different, or we will have them over and offer them a superfood tonic. They come back and tell us they feel great, that the next morning their vision was stronger, how their aching hands aren’t so stiff or how connected they feel. Instead of referring them to a company that will charge the same as Elements for Life, I will refer them to my personal website. I will receive a commission, and if they are excited and promote the products as well, I can make a bit of a profit from everyone they turn onto it. We have always been very generous, sharing our food and spreading knowledge, as many people on this path are. This is a chance for us to reap a portion of the monetary benefits of products we have long been promoting. Many of us have been using superfoods for quite some time. We have been paying the same amount through regular companies as it is being sold through companies like Elements for Life. For us to earn commissions seems like a good way to help the products pay for themselves. You don’t have to be a pushy businessperson in this company, all you need is to love and believe in these products. Most importantly you share them. These products speak for themselves. If you are feeling called, there is the potential to make money while you are learning so much that can help boost the health of your family and friends. At that point your job is literally to learn about health. As far as Elements for Life goes, they have an amazing resource for distributors that is not only information about their products but an extensive network of support on health and wellness in general. I know other MLM companies that have superior products that I love to support and have no affiliation with. I believe a network marketing company, just like any other company, should be judged on the integrity of the company and not on the label that it functions under.

We call ourselves Superheroes because we ARE Superheroes. We are Superheroes not because we sell superfoods. We are Superheroes because we are happy, healthy, loving, friendly people who are working together to better our world. We are all part of a paradigm where we need to radiate love, health and positivity to all beings.

Unconditionally.

In conclusion, I am not NEARLY as stubborn as my thickheaded father ;-)
(His words, not mine!)

♥Love is everywhere. Spread it unconditionally♥

The Superfood Debate: Part Four (Gina Responds)

2009-06-22T12:38:00.006-04:00

The following blog was written by my daughter Gina Law, her second installment in the superfood debate. I had previously written about my concern over all this interest in superfoods. Gina offers another perspective.

The buzz these days in the raw food world is superfoods. What are they? Are they the same thing as a supplement? Why would I want them in my diet?

While the word “superfood” does not actually have an official definition, the implication of a superfood is that it is a food containing many unique healthful properties. These properties may include, but are not limited to: antioxidants, EFAs, DHA, a wide range of minerals, complete proteins, blood sugar stabilizers, immune system modulators, hormone balancers. Superfoods contain an assortment of vitamins, they may be anti-inflammatory, detoxifying and the list goes on and on. Many plant and animal based products contain a couple of these traits. What puts a superfood up and above the rest? David Wolfe states in his new book Superfoods : the Food and Medicine of the Future, “ These include foods that have a dozen or so unique properties, not just one or two. For example, the goji berry is a source of complete protein, immune stimulating polysaccharides, liver cleansing betaine, anti-aging sesquiterpenes, antioxidants, over twenty trace minerals, and much, much more.”

The list of foods that I consider to be super foods are endless, and while yes, most should be used only as supplements, this does not make them any less important than the staple foods that provide to us the bulk of our diet. A supplement is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as being “ something that completes or makes an addition”. If you were to take a glass and fill it with stones you would fill the glass, but there would be many empty holes. You would need other objects to fill those holes; pebbles, sand, water. So is our body system. You can fill the bulk of your body with your staple foods. You need foods to complement your staple foods, foods that supplement the missing puzzle pieces. A different beast entirely is the “vitamin supplement” which is separated from the whole food and extracted into a pill or powder form for our consumption. Most people in the superfood world are not promoting this at all. The processing of most of the superfoods is simple. Most superfoods are not processed more than how raisins are dried, nut mylks are blended, wheat grass is extracted, or seeds are ground. Something like Marine phytoplankton is simply phytoplankton grown in water and spun to separate the ocean water from the phytoplankton, in order to concentrate the phytoplankton. How is this anymore processed than wheat grass juice being extracted from the blade, since that fiber is indigestible for our human stomachs? Maca is a root, not unlike a turnip, that is dried and powdered in order to retain its nutrients. Nothing is isolated and refined. To call these foods processed and concentrated is to also call a vegetable juice, honey, seed crackers and nutmylks, anything but whole food in its whole state processed or concentrated. Does this make these foods unhealthy?

Taking a superfood is much different than taking a product that is isolated and concentrated. They are different than a drug that is derived to push the body beyond its natural limits. Superfoods are whole foods, and YES our bodies ARE dependent on minerals, vitamins, amino acids. These are nutrients that we cannot deny. Our body will not run optimally with out them. To provide them at the levels that we need will help our bodies to function at a superior level. There is an artificial energy that comes with stimulants such as caffeine and refined sugar. It is sustainable energy when your body has sufficient minerals, vitamins and amino acids.

When my six year old daughter was presented with the idea that you don’t need to eat superfoods, her response was quite simple “You do, to keep you healthy.” There is a lot of wisdom in her response. Many of us “health conscious” New Englanders are eating so called “fresh”, “organic” produce that is trucked in from across the country. Let us consider this. Okay, yes, the west coast is much more fertile than the east coast. Geologically, the east coast has been much more stable for a much longer time, giving it ample time to loose many minerals into our ocean. However, many of the companies that we are buying our “organic” produce from are large scale. How truly “organic” are these large companies, and how much have they been depleting their originally fertile soils? They are over-cultivating the soils, even though they are “organic”. Next, I must consider, when was my head of lettuce picked? Or my leaves of kale separated from the plant? Most likely at the very least it has been a week. How many nutrients have been lost in that week? Your produce starts loosing nutritional value from the moment it is picked. And for my fruit, how green was it when it was picked? How long has it been ripening off of the tree out of the sun’s energy? I am a huge advocate of fresh produce. My family survives on green smoothies, nut mylks, salads, and more fruit than you can imagine. I believe that this food is the best path to my family’s health. I also believe that this food is not as optimal as it can be and that we are missing a lot of nutrition. There are many ways for us to improve our nutritional intake from our produce. Support local farmers who are stewards of the land. These are farmers who build mineral-rich soils, farming the soil… not the crops. There are farmers who practice permaculture, letting the land remain truer to itself. There are “weeds” that can be wildcrafted; dandelion greens, wild grasses, docks, sorrels, wild berries and roots. These have all proven to be strong by recultivating a barren land. Wild foods are those that survive when people have stripped the land. These plants are remineralizing our soils just as these plants will remineralize our bodies. These plants will keep our bodies strong and healthy. Many people, including myself, consider them superfoods in their own right. Scores of these wild foods are potent herbs that we literally walk all over when we step out our door. That is, of course, unless we have doused them with chemicals to rid them from our lawns.
It is beyond the scope of this article to begin to delve into the world of herbal medicine. I do, however feel that the powerful benefits of herbs must be acknowledged. Herbal medicine has been practiced for centuries and is embraced by most cultures. There are herbs to support, stimulate or calm every system of the body. You can order Amazonian herbs such as cat’s claw or pau d’arco. If you are knowledgeable in the medicinal mushroom realm you can harvest your own immune modulating mushrooms. You can walk out into your backyard and harvest powerful medicine such as dandelion, burdock, yellow dock, red clover, thistle and SO much more. I have a friend who is harvesting his own herbs while living in New York City. These medicines are free, or very inexpensive when bought. There are many classes and local herbalists, incredible books that you can work with to educate yourself. It wasn’t until modern times that we began to shun herbs and turn towards man-made drugs, to take the place of what nature has provided to us from the beginning of time. Herbs can be taken in many forms, tinctures, capsules or tea. Whether it be an infusion (pouring hot water over leaves or flowers) or a decoction (simmering roots and barks) a tea can be amazing medicine. Used either as a preventative tonic or relief for an acute or chronic problem.
Elixirs are herbal teas turned into nut milks, and blended with superfoods. They are a wonderful modality to take herbal tonics, add to them the sustained energy from nuts or seeds and to combine it with your choice of nutrient dense superfoods, in order to maintain health and longevity. If you are unfamiliar with elixirs, I highly recommend checking out Daniel Vitalis’s Elixir Craft videos on youtube.
Holistic health is not one straight path. It is a windy road with many options. There are many choices for you to consider in determining which is right for you. A combination of many modalities is what will keep you healthy. There is no one prescribed formula that will work for everyone. The healing path can include spring water, ferments, meditation, herbs, exercise, raw foods, superfoods, reiki and other energy healing arts, acupuncture, acupressure, massage, rolfing yoga, tai chi and other internal arts, among many other things. The balance that you establish will increase your energy and sustain your personal vitality.

The Superfood Debate: Part Three (Gina Responds)

2009-06-18T21:54:00.003-04:00

In May I posted two blogs describing my concern about all this interest in superfoods. (See The Superfood Debate: Parts One and Two). In all fairness I offered my daughter Gina an opportunity to respond to my blogs and give an alternate perspective. The following is the first of three guest blogs that she has written.

A brief introduction of the defense…

At the young age of fourteen, my father decided it would be a good idea to expose me to John Robbin’s Video of “Diet for a New America”. For any of you who have ever read the book, or worse, seen the movie, you can imagine the horror I felt. I’ll never forget the nausea as I tore into a piece of steak later that weekend. That was that, for the last eighteen years the thought of eating an animal has completely revolted me.

For many years I ate a pastatarian diet, which also consisted of bagels, pizza and coffee. As I progressed through my college years I began to learn about “health food”. I ate tofu, whole wheat, stir-fry, soy substitutes, and veggie burgers. My now husband and I experimented quite a bit with a vegan diet, but really, we were far from healthy.

When my oldest daughter was born we knew that we couldn’t raise her on these foods. Through Ruth Yaron’s “Super Baby Food” and Cynthia Lair’s “Feeding the Whole Family” we began to learn the value of a whole foods diet. We switched to brown rice, steamed vegetables, beans, lentils and homemade bread. We felt much healthier than we had for the years we survived on a processed vegetarian diet. We were learning the flavors of real food and the art of food preparation.

Four years ago I started learning the amazing benefits of a raw food diet. I became serious about it when I learned I had a health issue that required medical attention. One month later that issue was almost completely resolved and I was feeling better than I ever had in my entire life. I feasted on many varieties of greens, veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds. What an amazing summer! I was so full of energy and was at the top of my game.

Then came the fall. Living in New England, winter is when the weather gets colder and signals the time for heavier foods. Our bodies need warmth, grounding and the raw food was making my body cold, and a bit spacey. I transitioned to a cooked foods diet. I inevitably began again with wheat, cooked oils and dairy. These were substances that my body had already proven to me to be sub-optimal. I pushed through the winter, and in the spring we started the transition to a new level of health.

Each year the cycle was the same. Spring brought a new level of health, leading into an amazing living food summer. This was followed by a fall and winter that would leave much to be desired.

A raw foods diet is a detoxifying diet. It is an amazing tool that can do WONDERS for our health. The lightness, freedom and strength that accompanies living food is beyond anything that can be described. The speed in which this live food can heal dis-ease is astonishing.

Our bodies need to follow the seasons in their own right. They need a cycle of detoxifying, building and maintaining. Spring has an abundance of wild and cultivated greens and liver cleansing herbs. Summer brings its bounty of fruit, carrying vibrancy to every cell in our being. Fall is a time of rebuilding, grounding the lightness of summer for the hibernation of winter. In New England, we see this with our winter squash, roots, and autumn olives. They are crops that root us in the earth and supply us with our stores for the winter. Winter is a time for maintaining our connection to the earth and of feasting on stored grains and legumes.

The challenge that I face is that consuming starchy vegetables, legumes and grains on a daily basis keeps my body, mind and spirit feeling sluggish and puts my body in hibernation mode. Winter for me needs to be home-centered, nesting with my family. However, like many folks in this current paradigm, I cannot spend my winters following the rhythms of the sun. I am awake well after the last glimpse of sunlight and in the morning I wake while the stars are still bright in the sky. I am a mother of three wonderful and energetic children and need to be a bit on my toes during those winter months.

This winter I made new discoveries. I explored new passions. These connections made for winter months in which I felt a strength I had yet to experience. I stayed grounded and focused and accomplished more than I ever imagined.

And this leads into…

THE GREAT SUPERFOOD DEBATE!

My Relationship With Food

2009-06-15T11:38:00.003-04:00

I have not written much lately because food and I have not been getting along very well. Since returning from Vietnam I've gained nearly 10 pounds. While I have maintained an 80% raw diet I have also eaten much more than my body requires. Like St. Paul I know what I should do but I don't do it. And that has kept me occupied for the last two months, trying for figure out why I allow myself to eat crap after eating so well for most of the day.

This is what I have discovered: Food is like a person whom we have a relationship with. We love food, we hate food, we avoid food, we crave food, we abuse food. And that is where I found myself this week. I am not in a good relationship with food. I'm a selfish partner. I take the good, but when it comes to being considerate and giving, I'm a taker all the way.

I don't treat food with respect. Yes, I have a nice healthy green smoothie for breakfast and a super superfood chocolate banana smoothie for lunch, but comes 4 or 5 o'clock and I'm an unfaithful husband who cheats with every sweet little (and big) tart that comes knocking at my door. I swear to God I lose all sense of rationality and nearly binge on whatever tasty is in the house. And if that isn't enough I'll drive down to the nearest Cumberland farms and buy a Butterfinger, the extra large size.

Yes, my personal relationship with food needs some couples counseling. I need to love food, not as a consuming lover, but as a kind and considerate guy. I need to treat food with respect and eat it thoughtfully and slowly. I need to keep enough awareness so that I can be grateful in the process. If I treated a woman the way I treat food she would be gone before I swallowed my next mouthful of M & M's.

I am beginning to realize that food is not my servant. If anything, I should be serving food. I should honor food for giving me life and health. I know that by abusing food we only bring disease and suffering to ourselves. I need to become a gentleman with food and not act like some wild lover.

It is not going to be easy to change my behavior, but at least I know now that I have not been a good partner and that is a start. The next step, and it's a big one, is to be with my food and take the time to eat it consciously, slowly, and with awareness. I know this sounds dumb, but I'm going to try to treat food with the respect she deserves. No more wolfing down dinner. There's going to be a lot more romance at the table. Maybe even a candle or two.

A Simple Plan

2009-05-22T09:05:00.002-04:00

Every day I have a totally delicious green smoothie for breakfast. I make it with fresh squeezed orange juice, goji berries, pineapple, frozen blueberries, and frozen strawberries. Also blended in is a couple of handfuls of kale, spinach, collard greens, or Swiss chard. I drink it around 9 or 10 and I'm not hungry till 12 or 1.

Most days I have a banana chocolate super food smoothie for lunch. Because it is so different tasting from the fruity breakfast smoothie I don't get bored with it. The rich chocolaty flavor is a treat, not a chore. I start with a cup of cold water, then add two bananas, cocao, coconut butter, maca, spirulina, dulse, some nutmeg, and a frozen banana. I also blend in some leafy greens.

With my two smoothies I have gotten my fruits and greens for the day, raw and vegan. Before dinner I always have a large salad with homemade dressing. That is the basis for my healthy diet. It does not leave a lot of room for junk food, but I will admit that I still have cravings for something cooked and something sweet as dinner time approaches. I am sure it is more of a habit than need because I do not feel hungry. Eventually I will figure out how to make this part of my diet better. Until then, I still feel excellent.

The Superfood Debate: Part Two

2009-05-08T07:00:00.006-04:00

Somewhere along the line, some brilliant marketing person (David Wolfe maybe), began calling supplements superfoods. And now the line is blurred. I would like to clarify the distinction and explain why I have no problem "eating" superfoods but do have a concern about "taking" supplements.

The honest way to label these products would be to call superfoods only those that are actually foods. Supplements would be something that has been altered, made into a more concentrated form, no longer in its natural state, and more potent. If you want to call goji berries a superfood I don't have a problem with that. It's a food and a very good one.

Products like Gold Rush Colloidal Gold, Marine Phytoplankton, Island Fire, are not foods at all, but more accurately labeled supplements. To call them superfoods is a marketing ploy. (And why do people who are involved in selling these superfoods called superhereos?)

So what? Who cares, supplements or superfoods, what's the big deal?

Manny Ramirez just got busted for taking a "performance enhancing drug." If he were a raw fooder people might have said he was just taking a superfood. Actually it was a supplement, human chorionic gonadotropin, used to jumpstart the body's ability to produce testosterone. Apparently Manny had been taking a steroid which produced more testosterone than the body would make by itself. When Manny stops taking the steroid no more testosterone because the body forgot how to make it on its own.

That is why I am opposed to taking supplements: they do something for you that your body should be doing on its own. When we eat or drink things that are not foods our body changes. We become dependent on them. Eating our natural foods, our body functions as it is designed to do. We build strong immune systems and live with ease. When we take into our bodies unnnaturally occuring substances, even good things that have been concentrated or significantly altered, we risk screwing up our perfectly created body. Why risk it?

Your body works very hard to get rid of foreign substances, even when they are good. That is just how we are made. If it can't get rid of it, the body will adjust, and that is how addictions are formed. I do not want to be dependent on any man manipulated product, even if it is called a superfood, even if it does give me more energy (so does cafine, cocaine, and nicotine).

If these supplements that are being sold as superfoods are so good, why do they have to be sold through a multi-level marketing system? Historically, multi-level marketing (or fractal marketing as they are calling it with these superfoods) has been used to sell products of questionable value. Selling products with this method is more about earning an income and less about the true value of the item being sold. I am not saying that people who sell these products are intentionally ripping people off. I just think that their thinking is clouded by the potential to make some money on what would be a wonderful thing if it worked.

There is no short cut, no magic bullet, to good health. Ultimately, we have to eat good food, and stop eating the bad. It seems to me that the most ethical and loving way to eat would be a diet that is simple, inexpensive (one that everyone in the world could afford), leaves a small footprint, and is tasty too. I don't think the universe would support a diet that only the well off could consume.

If we eat whole fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, we will be getting nutrients in the form that our body was made to utilize and keep us healty. Why screw around with it? Why take the chance that we may be messing with the system? And why waste your money doing it? Rather than getting all worked up about supplements I would rather have help eliminating the junk food in my diet. Now that would make me a lot healthier!

The Superfood Debate: Part One

2009-05-02T09:52:00.005-04:00

The raw food movement isn't only about raw food any more. Yes, we do talk about raw foods and recipes and cooked foods, but the passion has moved somewhere else. It seems like there is more talk these days about superfoods, supplements, elixirs, and teas than smoothies, salads, nuts, and flaxseed crackers. What happened?

I got into raw food after seeing what it did for my daughter and son-in-law. The change in diet immediately made a profound impact on my health. I lost weight and my blood pressure became normal without medication. I started sleeping much better. I felt and looked better, much better. However, as it turns out, raw food isn't enough. And this is where the raging debate lies between my daughter and I.

"But Dad, after a while on raw foods you hit a plateau. That is why we need something more," my daughter told me. She's my guru and worse, she's as stubborn as her thickheaded father. "We need superfoods," she instructed me.

Hum. Ordinarily I would go along with her. I certainly don't want to cause any friction. I really like having good relationships with my three children. So I am going to tread lightly here. And this is the thing: I've been down this path before.

In my twenties I did yogurt because the Hunzas did and they lived to be 120. In my thirties I did juicing because the juiceman cured his cancer that way. In my forties I did tons of vitamins and mineral supplements because I met a man who was in his nineties and super healthy. Along the way I've invested in water purifiers, grown mushrooms, taken up yoga, learned to meditate, jogged the distance around the world at least once, and I'm sure a bunch of other things I've tried and forgotten.

And you know what, sooner or later they all end in a plateau and we come back to one thing: we all still get sick, we all get older, and eventually we all die. So when I consider superfoods and such I have to look back on all the other things I've tried over the years and say: "I'll pass on this one."

Ultimately I'm passing because I don't see anyone in the raw food movement living to be older than my parents and my parents eat more unhealthy food than a manager of Burger King. I just have not met any raw fooders who are exempliars of health. At least not here in America.

The people who are living long lives, well past one-hundred, now they are the ones I want to model my diet and life on. They don't take supplements, they don't eat processed superfoods. The eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. The get a lot of exercise. And they live useful lives. That is what I am trying to do. There is the only proof that I have seen that raw food and a mostly vegan diet make a difference.

There is a lot of talk about superfoods, I want to see results. And not just that they give you a lot of energy. Coffee does that for half the country. If anything, getting a lot of energy may be an indication of an amphetimine type substance. I want balance and strength and flexibility and endurance. The only diet that has proven to work there is the simple diet of the Hunza, the Abkhasia, and the Vilcabamba.

More about this in future posts.

Animal, Vegetable, Mistake...I Mean Miracle.

2009-03-30T18:48:00.003-04:00

Will someone tell bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver that the fats in dairy products are not healthy fats?! My God, okay, so yes, it's a good thing to buy local food. Yes, it's a great thing to grow your own food. But, because chickens and lambs live close by does that mean you have to eat them? And since cows are neighbors you have to make cheese and eat dairy products even when you are lactose intolerant like half the country? But, please! Do not eat any bananas from Guatemala or avocados from Mexico because of their carbon footprint. Lady, you have your priorities wrong.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (a year unless you are one of the chickens and turkeys that are going to get eaten) is Kingsolver's latest book. She is a wonderful writer and at times is inspiring. I can't wait to turn over the soil in my garden. I want to grow more of my own food after listening to her and will support my local farmers market more deliberately. But I will not stop eating pineapple and goji berries in the winter.

Barabara, if you really want to make the world a better place, and I think you do, forget about extolling the necessity of being "locavores" (one who eats mostly locally grown food) and write about the ethics of eating animals, about considering people in other countries ( buy local and help your local farmer send his kids to college, buy from Latin America and help farmers feed their kids).

Kingsolver writes about living on food that her family grows or is grown locally. When you live on a hundred acres, as she does, it is a little easier than for us urban dwellers. In order to be a locavor the family eats little fruit and leafy green vegetables in the winter. But, but they can freeze plenty of meat from their turkeys and chickens. In order to live more environmentally friendly they eat more animals and less fruit. They eat more cheese, probably the worse food product on the planet, and less lettuce.

While I'm on the topic let me say this to everyone who feels no guilt in eating animals as long as those animals have lived good lives on free ranging farms and such. First of all, only a small percentage of the earth's people can eat like that, most people couldn't afford what you can. Secondly, what does it matter if you have a good life and someone comes along when you are 20 and says, "okay, now, time to die so we can eat you. I hope you appreciate that you've had a good life up to now."

Whatever. There are so many arguments for not eating animals, from the ethics of it, to the huge consumption of fossil fuels, to the major health issues. Why would someone who seems to be writing to improve the planet end up promoting such...shit?

Elixir Smoothies

2009-03-17T13:02:00.007-04:00

I've never been big on elixirs, but I attended Franky G's raw food class this weekend put on by the Rhode Island Raw Food Enthusiasts Meetup Group, and Franky taught us all how he makes his. (Check out rawfoodfrank.wordpress.com for more on Franky G.) Since I recently had a great experience with my daughter's elixir giving me more energy I've decided to incorporate some of the elixir components into my afternoon superfood smoothies.

The changes I am making involve having the smoothie be lighter (not as heavy on the bananas) and more superfoods. I've written and videoed previously (youtube video) what I put into my smoothies so I won't do that here but just having more liquid, and less banana feels good. (I have a regular green smoothie with lots of fruit and berries in the morning for breakfast.) I'm thinking of this now as my elixir smoothie.

Okay, now here is the best thing of all! I added some nutmeg to my drink and it is out of this world! I am totally in love with this new afternoon beverage. I've got the best of both worlds. In the morning I get my shot of fruit for the day and in the afternoon I keep going with a little banana and superfoods. Both drinks are totally delicious!

If you want to see how Franky makes his elixirs I've posted a video of the class on youtube. Just click on the link: Franky G Elixir.

The Cure for Jet Lag

2009-03-13T09:50:00.007-04:00

I have made a number of trips to Asia in the past year and every time I go I have had terrible jet lag. Before going on this last trip I read everything I could on how to cope. I did all that was recommended and it did not work. However, when I came home, my raw food guru daughter Gina made me two elixirs.

I didn't think much of it until the day was almost over and I realized that despite having hardly any sleep the night before and my body being completely 12 hours ahead of my new time zone I had absolutely no jet lag! I had gotten up at 4 am and finally went to be at 10 pm, and fell asleep nicely. I had taken a short nap after dinner. That was it. No tiredness at all! I am not a big fan of superfoods but this is making me rethink things.

So, for anyone wanting to avoid jet lag here is what you do:

Take one shot of this tonic. Basically it's half an ounce of Island Fire, half an ounce of Colloidal Gold, a little ImmuneDetox, and some Marine Phytoplankton (all available from Elements For Life at www.noblelifeelements.com/ourlittlesprouts).

Second, drink a superfood elixir. Gina made me one with an herbal tea nut milk base, some maca, slippery elm, vitamineral earth, Irish moss, blue green algae, cacao powder, cacao nibs, figs, dates, lecithin, and cordycaps mushroom powder. This tasted delicious! For more info on this check out Daniel Vitalis and his Elixir Alchemy. Gotta love the energy these two superfood drinks gave me! Next time I travel I am definitely bringing this with me!

Raw In Vietnam

2009-02-26T18:31:00.002-05:00

I have been here in Vietnam now for almost a month. And it has been really hard to eat raw. The biggest problem isn't Vietnam but that I've been in school here for four weeks, going 10 hours a day. I leave the hotel at 8 am and don't get back until 7 pm. I have just enough time to make a smoothie and that's it. I do take bananas and a carrot with me and it's down hill from there.

For lunch I end up having rice or rice noodles and a small amount of meat. Dinner is often the same. There are durian here but I just haven't been wanting them. I don't feel physically terrible but when I go to the market in the morning and see the lettuce I do have a craving for it.

My classes end today and tomorrow I leave Saigon and will spend 9 days on Phu Quoc Island. There I will get back to a mostly raw food diet. I'll have time to make salads for lunch and eat more fruit. Not being able to make my own meals has made me appreciate my lifestyle at home, the huge salads and great dressings, my green smoothies, my vitamixer, and maybe most of all the raw cacao desserts that I was just beginning to learn how to make.

It is possible to stay mostly raw when being away from home, but not when you are working 10 hours a day. The only good thing is that it's only been 4 weeks and I have not overeaten, probably because it is so hot here. Well, in two weeks I'll be home and I am determined to find more raw recipes to work on. More than ever I want to be raw!

Raw Food and High Blood Pressure

2009-01-23T15:36:00.003-05:00

It is amazing how quickly food can make it's effects know on our bodies. Here I share how eating pizza and chips can raise blood pressure.

Our Daily Meds

2008-12-27T11:39:00.002-05:00

"Why is my doctor smiling?" That is what I asked myself when several years ago I was told that my cholesterol was high. He had this odd smile as he told me he would write me a prescription. I said no thank you, I'll change my diet. Now I know why he was smiling. He was seeing dollar signs.

I've just finished reading the book Our Daily Meds by Melody Peterson. The investigative writer for The New York Times documents how the pharmaceutical industry wines, dines, and pays doctors to push their drugs. Is it no wonder my doctor didn't first suggest that I try eating a plant based diet, which when followed does eliminate high cholesterol and heart disease?

I could fill this blog with page after page of evidence describing the corruption rampant in the health care industry, but I won't. ( Read Peterson's book for that.) But I will tell you that if you continue to eat animal products and abuse your body, modern medicine will not save it and it most likely will ruin what is left of your life. You will end up on pills and while the wonderful advertisements on television paint a rosy picture and gloss over the side effects, you will pay the price.

Need a by-pass heart surgery? Did you know that when they open your blood vessels after closing them to do the operation, the broken off plaque goes to your brain and causes little stokes? Say good-bye to some of your memories, as much as 20 percent.

Right now in this country the pharmaceutical industry has so much money and power they pretty much call the shots in our hospitals and doctor's offices. "They decide how patients will be treated, and the doctors follow along." Peterson.

Disguised as educators, these drug salespeople market their pills to make as much money as they can. And doctors are to be blamed also for being corrupted by gifts and money. Prescription drugs are right behind heart disease, cancer, and diabetes and the leading cause of death in our country.

Why am I telling you this? Why do I want you to be afraid of prescription drugs? First of all, because it is the truth and you should know it. Secondly, I am telling you this so you will take your health into your own hands before it is too late. You do not want the operations and pills to fix what you have done to your body. Begin right now to take better care of it. Get serious. Don't wait till you become ill. It may be too late. Things are going to get much worse before they get better. Fear can be a good thing. Let it motivate you to eat better. I do not want to end up like both of my parents taking all the pills that they are on. My father can barely walk ten feet without becoming winded and my mom's memory gets worse every day. They each take about eight pills daily. These are the side-effects.

I am sorry for the poor health of my parents, but seeing how they live truly inspires me to eat a mostly raw vegan diet. It is good for me, the planet, and the economy (health care now costs more than housing, food, cars, anything according to Peterson). So, have your green smoothie today, a nice big salad, some veggies and a raw dip, okay, and even treat yourself to a nice stir-fried rice and veggie dinner.

Surviving

2008-12-18T07:26:00.002-05:00

Man, oh man, oh man! This is never easy! I would have given up long ago if it weren't that my life depended on it. Whoever said that going raw was easy should be exposed for fraud! If wanting all the old favorite foods isn't bad enough, how about going out to dinner with friends?

Christmas party at the restaurant begins with talk about raw food, everyone is interested in how we do it. That lasts for about 14.5 minutes...then...that changes to grilling steaks and the best way to cook venison. That conversation lasts a lot longer. The restaurant last night had very little that appealed to me that would have been healthy, so I compromised, I had a burger without the fries. My body is so sensitive these days that even just the burger made me wake up with heartburn (which is really stomach acids eating my esophagus) in the midle of the night.

So, dear friends, I have surrendered again. I know it is impossible for me to be 100 percent raw. I learned earlier this week that I just can't do it. I don't even think I can be 100 percent vegan. Now what do I do? This is what I have decided: I will eat all raw all vegan as long as I can all day long. Then, when I have had my green smoothie, my superfood smoothie, my salad, my veggies and dip, my nuts and seeds, if I am still hungry I will eat something to satisfy whatever craving there is. I am not going to resist the cravings any more.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman, the most intelligent person on the planet when it comes to nutrition, says that if you feed your body with nutritious food you will not crave the bad stuff. Well, so far, in my experience he is dead wrong! Yesterday, and everyday, I did feed my body the best foods out there, and I still have those cravings! The only thing I can think of is that it takes time. So, here is my plan: oh, I already said what my plan is, eat raw vegan all day as long as I can, then do what I must. I will try my best to be conscious and not be too naughty. We will see what happens.

Long-term Travel Lessons From Vietnam

2008-11-11T05:18:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple of lessons I learned while traveling in Vietnam for nearly six weeks.

1. My small Tribest Travel blender works well for making fruit smoothies, but not for banana cacao superfood smoothies, so don't bother bringing superfoods. Do bring the cacao powder.

2. Do bring equipment and ingredients to make salad dressings, this is very important because olive oil, nutritional yeast, tahini (or sesame seeds), can be hard to find. Bring a salad dressing container.

3. Bring vegetable peeler, garlic press, juice squeezer, and small cheap knife, these all worked well.

For me I think it is impossible to be 100 percent raw away from home, unless I drastically change my eating habits, like going on a fast or juice feast. However, it is easy to be raw for breakfast with a fruit smoothie, and lunch with a good salad, then snack on fruit. Then for dinner a cooked meal, hopefully vegan. I think this is a reasonable and healthy approach that I can live with.

Reasonably Raw in Vietnam

2008-10-16T03:15:00.002-04:00

Despite falling off the wagon yesterday, I have been reasonably raw since leaving home and coming to Vietnam. I brought along plenty of raw food for the plane trip (although the banana leather that I made sucked).

The good thing about southern Vietnam is that there are plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. I am stuffing myself with durian. I have pineapple, oranges, bananas, mangoes, and other fruits I don't know what they are called. For the most part I am eating fruit throughout the day and a big salad at lunch time. Then for dinner I do eat something cooked, rice and steamed veggies. (Okay, I have had a pizza.)

All in all, it is a lot harder to eat healthy foods here than at home. Just the work of washing lettuce in the hotel room or making a smoothie. The travel blender I brought works good but it is small. I suppose one could be raw and travel, but I don't have that kind of discipline. Besides, I would have missed the great Vietnamese party that I went to yesterday...

A Few Successes

2008-09-29T10:56:00.002-04:00

Things have markedly improved since I began working on more substantial dinner alternatives. Two days this past week 100% raw. That was because I made an actual raw dish instead of trying to wing it. Another strong reason for succeeding was that I have emptied my house of cooked food options. So if I want to eat cooked food I have to actually leave the house. That really makes it easier to over come the after dinner munchies.

In the middle of the week I had friends over for a raw dinner, Mark and Gerre, and Mike. It went better than I imagined. We had crackers and hummus dip, Thai curry soup, portabello steaks, lasagna, and chocolate deserts. Gerre's response to the lasagna was the same as mine when I originally had it at my daughter Gina's, the flavors explode in your mouth! (I'll post the recipe on youtube tomorrow.)

So, all in all, things are looking much better. And as a result I get the added benefit of sleeping better and feeling better. To make things even more exciting, my son-in-law Steven had me over to his house yesterday to taste his raw Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. My god! It was unbelievable! Life does not get any better than this...

Successes and Struggles

2008-09-21T06:52:00.002-04:00

I thought by now I'd have it a lot easier. I thought I'd be able to be raw more than I am, but it is so difficult getting from 80 or 90 percent raw to 100 percent. This is where I am at. I have a green smoothie for breakfast at mid-morning (mostly berries and greens). I have a superfood green smoothie for lunch (bananas, cacao, etc.). I have a big salad around 4 or 5 o'clock. This is the success part. I love it, I feel great. Very easy to do. But...after that it is mostly cooked foods.

The thing is, I'm not all that hungry. It feels more like habit or worse...addiction. Often I will have several pieces of whole wheat bread to satisfy my cravings. Or I will make whole wheat pasta. It gets worse if I have to go out to dinner. I need to make the effort to find something else to eat at night.

My biggest problem is what to have that is satisfying. The enjoyable recipes in all the raw food books are complicated and require too many ingredients and take too much time. The easy dishes are not that appealing. Maybe I'm being lazy. I know I am. I need to make another effort to get to the next level. I know I need to take that next step because I don't feel good about the cooked foods. I need to improve on that last 10 percent of my diet. There must be a better way and I am determined to find it!

The Change Process - Becoming Raw (Part Two)

2008-09-08T06:33:00.000-04:00

Preparation

You have decided that it is time to change. Contemplation has brought you to the point where enough is enough; you are committed to making changes in your life. Hold on, admit it, there is a little ambivalence, you are not totally sure you can do this, but you are ready to try.

Research shows that it is best to do a little planning, even develop a scheme for action, be clear in your mind what to expect and how to succeed. Before jumping into the raw food world, be prepared. Your consciousness is raised, you are emotionally involved, now you must remove any ambivalence so that your commitment will be firm.

You are at the intersection of contemplation and action. Plan how you will succeed. Read more books on raw food. Find out the pitfalls, explore interesting recipe books, stock up on delicious raw foods and spices. But most of all, be certain of your commitment.

Commitment

As I said before, change is hard, very hard. If it were easy, everyone would be living wonderful lives—and most people are not. The most important concept and idea that you must get into your head is this—make eating healthily the most important thing in your life. Make change a priority. Think about all of the benefits and let them motivate you. Nothing is more important than your health, and making this change comes first.

Some of the steps of preparation and commitment involve going public (tell people your intentions). Nothing helps commitment like stepping out on a limb and exposing yourself. Prepare yourself mentally. I am a big fan of meditation and relaxation practices.

“It doesn't work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps.”

American Proverb

Probably more than anything, I believe reading books provides more information about how to develop a plan of action than anything else. Just reading this book will make a major difference in your chances of success. Closely related to this are online articles and online discussion groups. I highly endorse the yahoo group rawfood. (Rawfood – Raw Food for Health and Happiness)

Action

We have stopped denying that we have a problem with the foods we eat. We have learned that consuming more raw foods will make us and the planet healthier. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired. We have a plan to change what and how we eat. We are ready for action.

In the action stage we actually change our behavior. We change our surroundings and make the move. This is where we really have to be ready for problems. But, by having educated yourself about the stages of change, you will be better prepared to deal with the inevitable setbacks and frustrations.

“In order to change we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Author unknown

Remember, the action stage is only one stage in the process of changing and benefiting from a raw food diet. Also, our actions are only part of the process; we continue to change our levels of awareness, we involve our emotions, our thoughts, our self-images. Change is a cyclical means of becoming someone new.

The fact that you are aware of the dangers inherent in trying to change does not guarantee that you will be successful. In fact, I can guarantee that you will curse the day that you ever heard about raw foods. So, beware of taking the action step lightly, change costs; there is no easy way to improve your diet. That being said, here are several more processes that will help.

Countering

Countering is simply substituting healthy responses for poor behavior. It is also the most important tool in your change process toolbox. It does no good to give up eating animals and cooking most of your food if you do not have something to replace those behaviors. Countering is finding substitutes and healthy replacements. Here are a few countering techniques:

1. Relaxation and yoga, meditation and prayer.

2. Exercise. This is the most important thing you can do to succeed.

3. Active diversion. Find something else to do: read, walk, make love, etc.

4. Counterthinking. Change your way of thinking. Get positive.

5. Assertiveness. Don’t let other people keep you in your old way of eating.

Who would think that meditation and prayer would play a part in changing behavior? Certainly all of the people who have been helped by the 12-Step Programs. I am not sure what comes first, eating healthfully or a new interest in spirituality. Either way, the two seem to go hand in hand. Eating more raw food has improved my meditation practice and my meditation practice has helped me improve my eating habits. Maybe both help me to see things more clearly. Whatever it is, there seems to be a symbiotic relationship going on between these two aspects of my life.

Meditation is also an aid in counterthinking, as it gives you the tools to eliminate negative thoughts and replace them with positive. It is all about becoming more self-aware of who we are and what we are doing.

Exercise is essential to good health—physical and mental. (By the way, if trying to change your behavior makes you despair, research shows that vigorous exercise is the one thing that can be guaranteed to cure your depression.) I run five miles every morning before breakfast. I would not think of not running. I cannot imagine being healthy without a serious exercise program. Make it a top priority in your life.

Active diversion is simple: keep yourself busy, make your life interesting—otherwise you will eat poorly out of boredom. Watching television is not a good choice here.

Assertiveness is simply taking charge of your own life and not letting others get in the way. External pressures have a way of helping us to slip back into our old ways. I am sure that at first you will give in, but after a few times of being frustrated by the results, you will let your emotions give you the strength you need to assert what you want.

Environmental Control

Countering is an internal process; environmental control is external. Do you want to eat healthy food? Throw out the chips; remove all the food that you have chosen not to eat from your house. Replace the old recipe books with new ones on raw uncooking.

When we change our surroundings, we make it easier to change our actions. I find that if I have only healthy food in the house, I eat healthy food. If I eliminate junk food, at night if I have a craving for something processed and sugary, I will not get in my car to go out and buy something. Instead, if all I have is fruit, and if I’m really hungry and not just bored, I’ll eat that instead.

It is not cheating to modify your environment, it is smart planning. Why rely on willpower? Avoidance is perfectly acceptable when you are trying to change. If you were giving up alcohol would you keep beer in the refrigerator? Avoidance is not limited to objects; you can avoid people and places, too.

Maintenance

In the beginning we are really excited about raw foods and the changes in how we feel now that we are eating more healthily. It is an exciting time. We may be motivated by fear; we’ve had a health scare. We may be encouraged because we are losing weight fast. We might be experiencing renewed energy. Whatever it is, we are emotionally charged.

But the war is not won yet. We are only halfway there. To make change permanent we have to understand that this is a long-term effort. The changes we have made to our lifestyle need to be sustained, and it takes time for them to be firmly established. We need to build on what we started with.

First, realize that you will still be vulnerable. Habits take time to become ingrained. If you slip, do not beat yourself up, just start over again tomorrow.

Second, don’t forget to use the processes that got you here in the first place. Use all the strategies from contemplation to action. Keep up with the exercise, meeting with like-minded people, read, join a yahoo raw foods group, go to a festival or retreat.

Third, keep controlling your environment. Avoid people, places, and things that will make it easier to fall back into poor eating habits. This is not a sign of weakness, but one of intelligence.

Lastly, remind yourself every day, as I do, that this is the most important thing you can do for yourself. Health, energy, and fitness have to be worked at, they do not just happen. Let your mind help you. Cultivate consciousness.

Slips, Relapses, and Recycling

It is going to happen, you might as well be prepared. Most importantly, do not feel guilty, do not let others make you feel guilty; do not become discouraged. You have no idea how many times I have given in to my cravings. Do I feel bad? No. I looked at each slip as information, as a lesson in what was not working. The next day I tried something different. I have always had the attitude that my life is an experiment in living—healthy eating is no different. The only failure is to quit.

It certainly helps to think about what happened when you do slip up. Think about what you could have done differently. Learn from your mistakes. Understand that while trial and error will eventually get you there, it is not a very efficient way to change. Better to utilize the wisdom of those who have already made the change. That is why I am always reading what others have written about raw food. Besides learning new ideas, it is extremely motivating.

You should also understand that change, radical change as in becoming a raw food person, is more difficult than you expect in the beginning. You have a whole lifetime of being brainwashed to overcome. Willpower is not enough, you will need all of the processes discussed above and you will need them over and over again.

Termination

A word on termination—don’t worry about it. There will come a day when you do not have to think about how you are eating. It will be effortless. I do not know this in the world of raw food, but I do know it from changing other behaviors. Looking back on the changes that I have made in my life I can see the various stages and processes. I went through them without being aware of what I was doing—imagine how much easier it will be when we have a ready-made outline of the course ahead of time.

Personal Transformation

Change is not just a mechanical “do this and this will result” kind of thing. In other words, change is not a science, it is an art. Even more than that, change has a spiritual dimension—it is about personal growth and transformation. When the food that you eat causes less suffering for animals, less destruction of the planet, and more energy and health for you, it is not just your body that benefits. You will become a different person. I think your soul, the essence of who you are, will shine more and you and others will become aware of that.

I did my doctoral dissertation on personal transformation. After a year of research, writing, and reflecting, I discovered a few things about the process of change in human beings. Personal transformation is messy, it is mysterious, and it is multi-dimensional. As much as we like to think we are in control of our lives—we are not.

I found that while we cannot control the processes and events of our lives, we can chose to cooperate with them. We can surrender to the flow of life and the evolutionary forces at work on this planet. Change is chaotic and mysterious, paradoxical and transformational. But there are things that we can do, having more to do with attitude than with action.

We can learn to quiet our minds and become more aware—more aware of what is going on, on a deeper level. We can ask ourselves what is it that we are meant to be learning through this experience. We can surrender to the events and circumstances of our lives, changing what we can, accepting what we can’t. We can learn through our suffering. Pain is a wonderful motivator. I find that when I am in pain, I really try harder to be self-aware. All of this points to life and our life experiences as what really changes us. Are we really running our own lives?

The spiritual aspect of change is extremely significant.

“For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating.
For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.”

-Richard Bach, from "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

For Additional Reading on Change:

Changing for Good: A Revolutionary Six-stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward. Prochaska, James O., Norcross, John C., and Diclemente, Carlo C. (1994). Harper Collins.

The Change Process - Becoming Raw (Part One)

2008-09-07T11:16:00.006-04:00

You think you want to become a raw vegan. You want to try eating more fruits and raw vegetables. You want to convince your friends and family that raw food will make them healthier. You want to change. You know your past failures.

It is not easy to change; if it were everyone would be just the way they want to be. Do you know anyone who is satisfied with who they are, who doesn’t want to change some aspect of themselves? Change is a lot of hard work and commitment. I am here to tell you that anything worth having, including excellent health, comes at a price. So don’t complain, just reach into your pocket and pull out your wallet. But, there is hope, and it can be made easier.

One of the biggest obstacles that we face when we want to make changes in our lives is to underestimate the difficulty in changing and not understanding the change process. This all too easily leads to frustration, pain, and the end of putting into place the changes we want to make. This does not need to happen.

I have included this chapter on change so that you may find it easier to implement what you have learned in this book and be able to share your new insights with others in a more thoughtful and intelligent way. Attaining a healthy, energetic body, saving our planet, and reducing the suffering of other sentient beings is a sacred and noble undertaking; it deserves a serious and well-planned attempt. I hope to increase your chances of success by sharing with you my research on the change process; together we will explore the stages and processes of change.

The Stages of Change

There has been a great deal of research committed to the understanding of how people are able to successfully change their behavior. Much of the study in this area is focused on behavior involving drug abuse, smoking, and mental health. But the lessons learned there are fully applicable to changing eating patterns. In this chapter I draw from the work of James O. Prochaska, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Rhode Island. His book, Changing For Good, describes one of the most successful programs for implementing personal change ever developed.

“Things do not change; we change.”

Henry David Thoreau

In the raw food world, Victoria Boutenko says that we should go cold turkey to change our diet. And David Wolfe likes to encourage raw food progress by suggesting that we do it “little by little”; and that we should focus on adding raw food into our diets and not to be concerned with giving foods up. Who is to say which way is best?

We need to take into consideration that change is seldom a linear process, most of the time it is cyclical, spiral, and circular. If you are a “normal” human being, you will most likely take two steps forward and one step back. Sometimes you may take two steps back and one step forward. That is the way we learn and grow. There is no sense in fighting it, but it does help a lot if you are aware that relapse and setbacks are common and that you expect your journey to health to be a spiral one.

We become who we want to be by working, consciously or unconsciously, on life problems and finding their solutions. Change happens through a series of stages. The reason that understanding the stages of change is important is that each stage requires a different tool, demands a different approach. Each stage of change has its own process of change, as we will see shortly.

The six clearly-defined stages of change are: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination. We will be discussing each stage and its corresponding process shortly. Some of the processes that match certain stages of change are: consciousness-raising, social liberation, emotional arousal, self-reevaluation, commitment, countering, and environmental control. What I want to stress now is that by understanding each stage, by determining where we are (or where someone whom we want to help make changes is), we can match the appropriate efforts and processes to work through that stage to the next one and eventually reach our goal of healthful eating.

The experiences at each stage are predictable for all people. Each stage has its own task to be completed before moving on to the next. Warning! It is possible to get stuck in one stage. However, if we understand the stages and processes useful in each one, we will move through more quickly and easily. You will experience less guilt, shame, anxiety, and pain.

Precontemplation

The precontemplation stage is characterized by denial. There is no problem as far as one who is in precontemplation is concerned. The food they eat, what it does to them, the environment, the suffering caused, is not even on their radar screens. Total oblivion. A person in the precontemplation stage will deny having a problem, even if it is brought into their awareness. If they do not totally deny the problem they will at least minimize it. “I eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and have only chicken and fish for protein. What more can I do?”

When I was told that my cholesterol was 242, I first wondered how that could be. My doctor said that if I couldn’t get it down by eating better I’d have to take medication. I said I already am eating better. (This was before I started eating raw.) Then I went online to satisfy myself that 242 wasn’t all that bad after all and it was just the drug companies trying to sell more drugs. It wasn’t until my blood pressure became hypertensive that I finally admitted to myself that I had a problem.

“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”

Epictetus

Besides resistance, precontemplators are often demoralized. Since there is no possibility for change, they feel hopeless. “How can one live on just raw food? Where will I get my protein? What is the use in living without the enjoyment of a good steak, or lobster, or hamburger?”

Most people, when approached with the proposition that a raw food diet would be good for them, and the planet as well, will be in this stage. (You, the reader, are most likely not. If you are reading this book you and have gotten this far, you are at least at the contemplation stage.) What to do?

There are two processes of change that work for helping the person in the precontemplation stage—consciousness-raising and social liberation. (Yikes, what the heck is social liberation?) The goal of consciousness-raising is to increase information about the self and the problem. The goal of social liberation is to increase social alternatives to the old ways of living and eating.

Consciousness-raising

You have discovered the joy of raw food and the health that comes with it. You want to share this with friends and family. Heck, you want to save the planet. Why not? So, how do you do this? First, assume that everyone you meet is a precontemplator—at least as far as raw food goes.

In psychology we talk about making the unconscious conscious. Mental health is all about this and increasing awareness. (It is no coincidence that meditation practices and spiritual development also center around consciousness-raising. I strongly believe that our eating habits affect our spirituality.) When we increase the level of awareness, we are bringing new information to ourselves and others, increasing the possibility of making better choices regarding what needs to be changed.

"Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have—and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up."

— James Belasco and Ralph Stayer, Flight of the Buffalo

In short, in this stage we are increasing knowledge about nutrition, the differences between cooked food and raw food, the health benefits, the joy of eating raw food (and all the available options); we become informed or we inform others. This is the goal.

The first step in change at this level is to bring into awareness the defenses of precontemplation—denial, minimization, rationalization, projection, and internalization. The second step is to simply provide information about what happens when we eat the Standard American Diet and what happens when we begin eating more and more raw food.

That being said, it is essential not to rush anyone, including yourself, toward action. The research on successful change makes it clear that change must proceed through the stages. A raised consciousness about raw food does not mean we are ready to change. It means we may be ready to think about change. So let’s be patient with ourselves.

Social Liberation

Part of sharing the newfound joys of raw food involves sharing the alternatives that are available. The idea of just eating raw food sounds so utterly boring. I remember meeting my first raw food person while I was away at a colloquium beginning my Ph. D. studies. I thought, “What in the world is there for him to possibly eat?” Eating raw was the last thing that I wanted to do.

However, several years later, along comes my daughter Gina. She was the first person to tell me about the benefits (consciousness-raising) of raw food and the first person to invite me to a raw potluck dinner party (social liberation). Gina made me a number of tasty raw food treats. At the potluck dinner I was able to experience and enjoy foods that were totally satisfying and were every bit as tasty as the old cooked foods I was so used to eating.

Besides the excellent food at these raw dinners, I enjoyed talking to other people about their experiences. Being part of a small community like this also makes starting out on the raw journey seem not so crazy. Talking to my daughter nearly every day about some aspect of being raw helps to keep me motivated.

Contemplation

We reach the contemplation stage when we realize that we have a problem. In some way we become aware that maybe the food we are eating is not all that healthy. The evidence is too strong to deny, or minimize, or rationalize away. We may have a health crisis. Or, we might see something positive that awakens us. For me, seeing my daughter and son-in-law after they had been on a raw diet for one month, made me stop and think—they were literally glowing! (Even today, the sight of my daughter looking so healthy and beautiful makes me smile and thank God for the raw food movement.)

Openness is the essence of contemplation. We become curious. However, while we may want to change, there remains resistance and ambivalence—fear of the unknown. There is a sense of wishing we could change, but not quite enough motivation to change. Sometimes we try to change prematurely, and that can lead to failure and guilt.

The key to contemplation is that the contemplator begins to acknowledge that there is a problem. Faced with the facts of my high blood pressure, I had to admit that something was not right. It is in the admitting process that the emotions kick in, and that is the necessary requirement to begin work in this stage. This leads us to the next process of change—emotional arousal.

Emotional Arousal

Emotional arousal is the impetus to push along the change process. It is the motivating force, the fuel that gets us ready to prepare and then take action. For many people, coming face to face with a health crisis jump-starts our interest in raw food. Nothing gets you emotionally aroused liked pain, the fear of death, or even just looking fat. The loss of youthful energy can inspire people to consider making changes in their lives.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Fear is not often a good motivator—it is easily dismissed by our defenses—so I do not recommend focusing on that. Instead, become involved emotionally with the positive side of changing your diet. The thought of losing weight, fitting into better looking clothes and, having more energy can be inspiring. I like to think about not supporting the meat and dairy industries, reducing the suffering of animals, polluting the planet less. The feel of my clothes and a slimmer body motivate me still.

In a sense, emotional arousal is consciousness-raising but on a deeper, more personal level. At this stage it might be good to watch movies and documentaries about the effects of an animal-based diet or the benefits of eating raw food. Even better, go to a raw food festival. Emotional arousal comes with whatever motivates you. Consciousness-raising will only take you so far; if you remain at the intellectual level you will never take action. Learn how to become motivated.

Self-reevaluation

Self-reevaluation also involves the emotions and deep personal feelings. It involves an honest look at the life you are living and determining if how you are living corresponds to your personal values. Self-reevaluation is a time for asking tough questions. Do I really want to contribute to the suffering of animals? Is that the kind of person I am? Do I really want to contribute to the unnecessary waste of natural resources and the harming of this planet? Is eating so much cooked food worth an early death, or a life with barely enough energy to get by?

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”

--W. Edwards Deming

If we are in the contemplative stage we will use this time to consider the pros and cons of making the change. What is the cost of change? Some of the cons of increasing the consumption of raw food are: having to learn new ways of preparing meals, dealing with temptations at restaurants, not eating all of the foods we have grown up loving and, having to think about and plan meals in advance.

What, then, are the benefits and rewards of change? Some of the pros are: having more energy, a better physical appearance, clearer thinking, less pain from disease or worry about getting an illness. These are all ideas that arise in the contemplative stage of change. Considering these tough questions will prepare one for the time of action that is coming.

But more than looking at the pros and cons, we take stock of ourselves and honestly examine who we are and if we living in accordance with our values. This need not involve beating ourselves up for what we have been doing. Instead, we can look at the future and how we can make our lives better. We think about the consequences of eating differently.

Brainwashed

2008-08-28T11:05:00.001-04:00

“Brainwashing: The application of a concentrated means of persuasion, such as an advertising campaign or repeated suggestion, in order to develop a specific belief or motivation.”

The American Heritage Dictionary

Brainwashed is a strong, emotionally charged word. But it is appropriate when we consider our beliefs about food. Ever since the 1940’s, when Danish scientists discovered a link between the consumption of animal products and disease, there has been a concerted effort on the part of the food industry to brainwash the American people.

The American Meat Institute, the National Dairy Council, the National Dairy Promotion Board, the Cattlemen’s Beef Association, among others, spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year with the express purpose of increasing the demand for animal products. They do this in incredibly devious ways.

“For modern animal agriculture, the less the consumer knows about what’s happening before the meat hits the plate, the better…”

Peter Cheeke, professor of animal science

The obvious advertising that we see on television and in newsprint is only the tip of the iceberg. The hideousness of the work being done to convince you and me to eat more animals is executed behind the scenes, in the committees that make up the reports that make advertising more convincing and make the truth about what is healthy to eat and what is not more confusing.

Here is one area in how this brainwashing works: An Act of Congress created the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1863. NAS created IOM (Institute of Medicine), which has the role of advising the government on issues of health. A part of the IOM is the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), which makes recommendations concerning food, nutrition, and health. Since 1940 the FNB has been establishing principles and guidelines for adequate nutrition and the relationship between food and health.

The Food and Nutrition Board publishes highly respected findings telling the American people what is good to eat and what is not. They have been doing this since before many of us were born. We grew up with their published reports informing everything and everyone about nutrition.

Just for fun I googled several of the current members of the board. I started with the board chairman, pediatrician Dr. Dennis M. Bier. This is what I found in his conflict of interest statement for the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: Dr. Bier consults for ConAgra Foods (they produce many brands of processed foods and meat products), Mars (the candy people), and McDonald’s (you know who they are).

The previous chairman was a paid consultant for the National Dairy Council, Nestle, and Dannon. He is now a senior executive for a large food corporation. You might suspect that this is a payoff for his good work their agenda.

Next down the line, I looked up vice-chair Michael Doyle. According to Integrity in Science, he has received numerous grants from the American Meat Institute and is a paid consultant of Kraft Foods.

Jim Riviere is a paid consultant for numerous drug companies. Fergus Clydesdale receives funding from Kraft and owns stock in several food companies. Six of the eleven members have direct ties to the dairy industry.

While government scientists cannot receive personal compensation from the food industry, these academics serving on the FNB board can. Conflicts of interest abound. And these are the people given the responsibility to “render authoritative judgment on the relationships among food intake, nutrition, and health.”

“Although sponsorship by food companies is ubiquitous among academics and practitioners in the fields of nutrition, food, and agriculture, our community has paid scant attention to the conflicts of interest that might arise from this. Like drug and tobacco companies, food companies often sponsor academic work (and in fact many drug and tobacco companies own food companies).”

Marion Nestle, Dept. of Food and Nutrition, NYU

It was this committee that in its most recent report made recommendations stating that for good health adults should get 45% to 65% of their calories from carbohydrates, 20% to 35% from fat, and 10% to 35% from protein. They also said that it was okay to consume up to 25% of total calories from added sugars found in soft drinks, candy, pastries, and other sweets. We are told that by following these guidelines we will minimize the risk for chronic disease.

That means that you could have a bowl of Fruit Loops and a Snickers bar for breakfast, a cheeseburger for lunch, and pizza and soda for dinner, and still be within the FNB guidelines. Essentially, they’re telling you to eat whatever you want.

“My eight-year-old stepson, upon finding out that I don't eat meat or anything coming from an animal, told me that I will never develop any muscles because muscles come from animals.”

Kirsten, Internet e-mail posting

The FNB and committee members affect how people eat in a variety of ways. They establish the Food Pyramid. They influence the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs, the Food Stamp Program, and the Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Feeding Program. Approximately thirty-five million Americans are provided food by government programs based on what the Food and Nutrition Board recommends. In addition, what we eat in hospitals and nursing homes is determined by FNB.

The brainwashing doesn’t stop there. The food industry has its hands in many other important avenues of influence. Nutrition journals take money from the food industry and companies through corporate sponsorships. The food companies also sponsor nutrition conferences and the publication of academic papers. Sponsored papers are not even subjected to peer-review.

The Dairy Council and the National Cattleman’s Beef Association sponsor research sessions. Travel funds, gifts, and meals are used to gain influence and interest in products being sold.

Associations themselves cooperate. The American Heart Association receives money from Kellogg’s, and then gives its seal of approval on foods like Frosted Flakes, Fruity Marshmallow Krispies, and Pop-Tarts. The American Dietetic Association receives significant funding from McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, and other food companies.

The entire system of official information about food is under the control of the food industry. Is there any wonder why in America cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity have become epidemics? And if that doesn’t kill you, the health care system will (the third leading cause of death in the US). We are being brainwashed into eating foods that are killing us, and the food industry profits from our illness. At the same time big medicine is kept in business. They have major incentives to keep their mouths shut; otherwise they would be out of work.

The human mind is an interesting thing. It is capable of believing whatever it wants to. We select what we want to see and hear and believe. We want to believe that the big steak we are about to eat is good for us, providing us with protein. If it isn’t the steak, well then, the chicken, or the fish. Hey, pizza is a health food; after all it contains all the food groups.

You will never hear the food experts on the Today Show or Good Morning America tell you the truth about nutrition. Why? Because if they did, their sponsors would stop advertising with them. Even here the food industry manipulates the truth. The only place we find real research answers is where there is no influence from money—books and unsponsored Internet sites.

It is my hope that after reading this you will open your mind to some new possibilities. Just being aware of how you have been lied to and used all of these years will free you from much of the misinformation that you have been fed. Now we will get to ideas that are not being forced upon you so that someone, somewhere can make a buck. Let’s get at the raw truth.

Ann Wigmore and the Hippocrates Health Program

2008-08-24T07:16:00.001-04:00

This is a chapter from my soon to be published book. Ann Wigmore was one of the founders of the raw food movement.

“Let food be your medicine and let medicine be your food.”

Hippocrates of Cos

At midlife in the 1950’s Ann Wigmore was a mess. Suffering from gangrene in her legs after a car accident and colon cancer as well, she needed help. Doctors wanted to amputate her legs. She wanted an alternative. Born in Lithuania, and raised partly by her grandmother, she remembered how her grandmother treated wounded soldiers returning from World War I with herbs and weeds.
Ann experimented with various grasses and live foods and eventually healed herself of both the gangrene and the cancer. Not satisfied with overcoming her illnesses, she began research into improving her health. This led her to creating the Hippocrates Health Institute with the help of Viktoras Kulvinskas in Boston in 1958.
Guided by the saying of Hippocrates, “Let food be your medicine,” Ann went to work using living foods such as sprouts, juices made from weeds and grass, and fermentation. Wheatgrass became the major element because it was the easiest and cheapest to grow.
Wigmore died in a fire at her institute at the age of 83. Her work continues through institutes such as the Ann Wigmore National Health Institute in Puerto Rico, the Ann Wigmore Foundation in New Mexico, and the Hippocrates Health Institute, which she founded and is currently under the direction of Brian Clement in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The Hippocrates Health Program

The Hippocrates approach has developed over the years but has primarily remained faithful to Wigmore’s original research. Enzymes found in living foods are the cornerstone of a healthful diet. Since enzymes are destroyed when food is heated to over 117 degrees, raw uncooked foods are essential.
Vegetables play a key role also, more so than fruits in this program. Young vegetables such as baby greens and sprouts are highly recommended. Sprouts are grown from beans, grains, and seeds. The sprouts are used in salads and juices. To get the most out of fruits and vegetables without stressing the digestive system, juicing is often utilized, especially when fasting.
The juice most associated with Ann Wigmore is wheatgrass juice. Chlorophyll, which is considered the blood of the plant and has characteristics of human blood, can be acquired in concentrated quantities through juicing various grasses; grass grown from wheatberries being the best.
Fermented foods were part of the Hippocrates program under Wigmore’s direction, although they have fallen out of favor recently. Rejuvelac, a fermented drink made of wheatberry, is still widely consumed.
Besides this selection of foods, the Hippocrates program includes ideas regarding the proper combining of foods in a meal and cleansing. Eating certain foods together can cause digestion problems and nutrients not to be absorbed properly. Cleansing is needed to rid the body of toxins acquired through years of eating the standard American diet.

Enzymes

Probably the best reason for wanting to eat raw foods is the enzymes. Cooking food above approximately 117 degrees kills the enzymes in the food. According to the Hippocrates theory, people are given only a certain amount of enzymes at birth. We lose enzymes when our bodies fight illness, disease, and stress. A deficiency in enzymes brings about many kinds of health issues such as heart disease and certain cancers.
By eating raw foods we are able to replenish enzymes and rebuild our bodies. Wigmore called enzymes the body’s labor force. Enzymes are the life energy that is metabolism at work. The faster one uses up one’s enzyme supply, the faster one dies.
Wigmore wrote that enzymes were the key to the Hippocrates Diet. By predigesting and breaking down foods in the stomach, nutrients are more readily absorbed and utilized by the body. Then the digestive system does not have to work so hard, making more energy available for living and protection from illness.
When a person eats a primarily raw diet, he or she is making it easier on themselves to cleanse, repair, and rebuild their bodies. And enzymes are the reason. By not cooking food above 117 degrees you preserve the enzymes, which are needed for good health.

Wheatgrass

When you think of Ann Wigmore, you have to think wheatgrass. Most of us do not know the major role that grass has and still does play in the development of life on this planet. The grain that we make bread from comes from the seeds of grass. And, of course, so many animals survive on grass. Grasses have been used for centuries as medicine in Eastern and Western cultures. Chlorophyll is the key ingredient in grass that makes it so valuable.
Chlorophyll helps to oxygenate blood. Diets high in fat and protein cause blood to be depleted of oxygen. This in turn causes people to have less energy, poor digestion, and weaker immune systems. It may also cause cancer.
Exercise certainly is important to get oxygen into the blood. But foods too can help. Raw fruits, vegetables, juices, and sprouts contain chlorophyll, which is nearly identical to human blood in the sense that it carries oxygen.
Wigmore discovered that one of the best sources of chlorophyll was wheatgrass juice. (Wheatgrass itself is too fibrous to eat.) Agricultural chemist Charles Schnabel did the original research back in the 1930’s. He dried the grass and sold it in cans. According to Wigmore’s writings, the chlorophyll in wheatgrass is good for cleansing the blood, internal organs, and the digestive system. It also lowers blood pressure by dilating arteries. The red blood cell count is increased, and metabolism is stimulated.
Wheatgrass chlorophyll is concentrated with vitamins, minerals, and living enzymes. Wigmore used it to treat ulcers and colitis, cleanse the colon, and strengthen the immune system. She also used other grasses and seeds to extract chlorophyll from plants.
Brian Clement, the current director of the Hippocrates Institute, writes that wheatgrass chlorophyll cleanses the body of toxins and suppresses bacterial growth. Wheatgrass juice is not very stable and should be consumed shortly after preparation. Also, because it is so strong it may cause nausea or indigestion.

Sprouts

Another key contribution that Ann Wigmore made to a better understanding towards the components of a healthier diet is that sprouts are a source of super nutrition. According to her theory, enzymes reach their peak activity between the second and seventh day after sprouting.
Historically, sprouts have been used in various cultures to heal many illnesses. The Chinese discovered them thousands of years ago. Sprouts contain significant levels of amino acids (the building blocks of protein), high levels of vitamins and minerals, and when included with other foods make them more nutritious.

“Being eaten whilst extremely young, “alive” and rapidly developing, sprouts have been acclaimed as the “most enzyme-rich food on the planet”. Estimates suggest there can be up to 100 times more enzymes in sprouts than in fruit and vegetables, depending on the particular type of enzyme and the variety of seed being sprouted. The period of greatest enzyme activity in sprouts is generally between germination and 7 days of age.”
Isabell Shipard, Naturopath

The germination of seeds, grains, nuts, and legumes, is a simple first step in the sprouting process that anyone could easily incorporate into their eating habits. Seeds contain metabolic inhibitors that protect it while in its dormant state. These inhibitors make the seeds less useable by the human body. Soaking, which begins the germination process, removes the inhibitors and the seed begins to grow. At this point starches become sugars, proteins become amino acids, and fats become soluble fatty acids.
I soak various nuts and seeds, and I can tell you that they taste much better after soaking. The only thing is that they turn moldy quicker when traveling if you don’t keep them refrigerated.
The best thing about sprouts is that they can be grown at home cheaply and easily. There are even automatic sprouters available making this facet of building a healthy diet quite painless.

Juices

While other people are more famous for promoting the value of drinking fruit and vegetable juices, Wigmore was one of the first to actually include juicing in her diet. Wheatgrass was not the only thing that she extracted juice from.
Besides juicing fruits, vegetables and sprouts make an important contribution to the Hippocrates diet. Sprouts are considered the ultimate living food to juice because they are the most alive of all living foods. Vegetables are added for flavor.
The benefit in juicing is that vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, and sugars can be consumed without putting a lot of stress on the digestive system. Juicing also adds electrolytes and oxygen to the blood. Juices make the perfect drink to have when fasting. Juicing is one way to supplement your diet without using supplements made in a chemistry lab.

Fruits and Vegetables

The Hippocrates Health Program places a much greater emphasis on vegetables than on fruits. In fact, vegetables make up the largest part of the diet. It is recommended that large salads be eaten. What I mean by large salads is that, according to Wigmore, it should take a half hour to eat!
Besides the obvious benefit of vitamins, minerals, and protein, vegetables provide the natural fiber needed to exercise the colon and remove waste from our systems. Baby greens are probably the best of all vegetables to eat.
Sea vegetables play an important role in the Hippocrates diet. Because they are grown in the ocean, they are able to make minerals and trace elements available to humans which are not available from land-grown plants. Dulse, kelp, nori, wakame, and others should be eaten daily. A couple of tablespoons would be enough. Dulse and kelp can be used to replace salt in your diet.
If you follow the Hippocrates plan you will not be eating a lot of fruit; only two to five pieces a day are recommended. However, Wigmore does recommend fruit, especially bananas, to lose weight. My understanding is that while the emphasis is placed on eating vegetables, significant consumption of fruit isn’t discouraged.

Rejuvelac

Grind up half a cup of sprouted wheatberries, put them in a couple of jars full of water, cover with cheesecloth, and let it sit for three or four days and you have Rejuvelac. Ann Wigmore recommended that eight to sixteen ounces of this fermented beverage be consumed every day. Wigmore felt that fermented foods were good for the colon. This, however, has fallen out of favor at the Institute today, although Rejuvelac is still popular among many raw fooders.

Cleansing and Fasting

It often happens that when people begin eating a mostly raw food diet, in the beginning, they go through a cleansing period and feel sick instead of better. This is the cleaning stage. As the body rids itself of toxins many symptoms of illness arise. This is just the discomfort of a lot of accumulated waste leaving your system.
Wigmore recommended watermelon and watermelon juice for breakfast, Rejuvelac or juices between meals, fruit, and two large salads a day, in addition to supplementing the diet with wheatgrass juice, sea vegetables, and green drinks made of sprouts and vegetables. Rest, walking, and stretching, were also included.
Cleansing the colon is a big part of the Hippocrates program. The colon is the primary organ of solid waste disposal for the body. Years of eating foods that shouldn’t have been eaten leave it clogged up and in poor shape to extract vital nutrients. In addition, most people have little healthy bacteria and lots of the bad kind due to taking antibiotics by prescription or consumed in the meat that we eat.
Besides eating raw foods, Wigmore was a big fan of enemas, wheatgrass implants, and colonics. In some parts of the raw food movement this has been taken to the extreme and it appears that some people even get addicted to them. I don’t know how, but to hear them talk about it, well, let’s not go there.
Fasting, while not originally recommended by Wigmore, is part of the Hippocrates program today. A fast of one day a week on juices and purified water is part of the detoxification process. Rather than fast on just water, which will release massive amounts of toxins from their stored places in the body, a fruit and vegetable juice fast slows the process down, making the faster more comfortable and in a less weakened state.

Food Combining

A healthy diet is not only about what you eat, it also involves when you eat it. Most of us eat more than one food at a time. Eating certain foods together, known as food combining, can cause the digestive process to become derailed, and then we will not absorb all the nutrients that we could from what we are eating.
One objective of the Hippocrates diet is to allow foods to be quickly and easily utilized by the body and then eliminated. An understanding of proper food combining will help this to happen. It is not enough to eat living foods; they have to be eaten in a health-promoting combination.
Foods entering the body have to be digested to release their nutrients. Two aspects of digestion are affected by how those foods are combined. One is that protein foods entering the stomach require acidic juices to be digested, while starchy foods need alkaline juices. When both kinds of foods enter the stomach together, they tend to cancel out each other’s digestive juices.
The other aspect of digestion is that different foods digest at different rates. If a food that digests at a faster rate comes in after one that digests at a slower rate, the faster food will not digest properly, causing digestion to slow down and poor absorption of nutrients.
Proper food combining includes the following guidelines:
1. Mono meals are the best. This means eating only one food at a sitting. Watermelon for breakfast makes a great cleansing mono meal.
2. All melons, because they are digested so much faster than any other food, should always be eaten alone.
3. Fruits come in three categories: acid, subacid, and sweet. They have different amounts of sugar and water and are digested at different rates. Subacid fruits can be eaten with acidic or sweet, but acidic and sweet should not be eaten together.
4. Don’t mix fruits and vegetables.
5. Don’t mix starches with proteins.
6. Don’t drink with a meal.
7. Eat raw foods before cooked.

Some of this may sound familiar to you if you have ever read Fit For Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. The Diamonds popularized the idea of proper food combining back in 1985. Food combining is also a part of the Natural Hygiene approach to raw foods.

The Three Phases

Part of the Hippocrates Health Program today includes the concept that becoming a living-foods vegan is a twenty-one-year journey. It is holistic in the sense that the program involves the body, mind, and spirit.
Phase one answers the question: what am I made of? During the first seven years you rebuild and energize your body. Physical changes include more strength and flexibility, a better digestive system, proper weight, and excellent health.
Phase two concerns the mind and answers the question: who am I? After achieving a more comfortable physical presence, the practitioner works for the next seven years toward better emotional health. Once physical problems have been overcome, a person can then work on the mental aspect. Some, including myself, would argue that the mental should come before or at least at the same time.
The third phase asks the question: Why am I here? This is the spiritual phase, and now that mind and body are healthy, one can begin a spiritual journey. Again, it could be questioned whether it is necessary to wait fourteen years before considering spirituality and health. I believe that Brian Clement developed the concept of the three phases and I am not sure that Ann Wigmore supported the idea.

The Best of Ann Wigmore and the Hippocrates Health Program

Ann Wigmore has to be appreciated for being a pioneer herald of raw foods and living enzymes. I know intuitively that raw is better than cooked, but why? It’s the enzymes. Knowing this makes it a little easier to…digest.
Germinate seeds and get greater nutrition from them. It’s simple and quick. Grow your own sprouts. Ann Wigmore’s focus on the benefits of sprouts is something that most people overlook. It makes sense to germinate and sprout seeds right in our own homes. Sprouts are a living food at its peak.
While I can’t say that wheatgrass juice is something everyone should be drinking, I do applaud Wigmore for calling attention to the benefits of chlorophyll. The consumption of green leafy plants cannot be emphasized enough.
Lastly, and possibly most important, is the benefit of drinking vegetable juice. I had been a big juicing fan back in the 1980’s thanks to The Juiceman, Jay Kordich, but I stopped juicing a number of years ago. I got tired of drinking five-pound bags of carrots every day. But Wigmore explains why we should juice all kinds of vegetables as a healthy supplement to eating them. I also very much like the idea of fasting one day a week on juices to give the digestive system a rest.

Further Reading:
The Hippocrates Diet and Health Program. Ann Wigmore. 1984. Avery. (This book is an excellent introduction to Ann Wigmore’s philosophy of health. It also contains instructions for growing sprouts, gardening indoors, and many of her own recipes.)

Living Foods for Optimum Health: Your Complete Guide to the Healing Power of Raw Foods. Brian R. Clement with Theresa Foy DiGeronimo. 1998. Three Rivers Press. (Brian Clement has been the director of the Hippocrates Institute for more than twenty-five years. This book contains the most current thoughts and teachings of the Hippocrates approach to raw foods.)

Green Smoothies

2008-08-15T18:14:00.002-04:00

Okay, here is my recipe for a great green smoothie. I've used the principles of good food combining: the smoothie includes berries, oranges, and pineapple, with the greens so your body will love this. Great long-lasting energy. Tastes fantastic. Easy to make.

Green smoothies are the easiest thing to do to get serious about really super healthy eating. I highly recommend having them for breakfast, take it with you to work. Don't eat too early, give your system a chance to rest from digesting yesterday's food.

If you are starting out trying to add raw foods to your diet, don't worry about giving anything up, only add. And the first thing to add is a green smoothie, you will feel the difference and you will want to eat fresher healthy foods. Enjoy your smoothie!

George Bush and Raw Food

2008-08-10T19:45:00.002-04:00

Okay, now I know I'm losing it. I had a dream last night that I was sitting on an airplane next to George Bush. Yikes. So what do you think I talk to him about? Raw food. I was sitting there telling the president what a good thing raw food was and that if everyone in the country became a vegan, the oil saved from not growing corn to fatten the animals would be like taking every car off the road in America.

He looked at me like this a great idea. He didn't realize that. Laura was there and I think they were going to become raw foodists.

Then I woke up and realized that I've had a little too much raw food on my mind. Now, if the dream had Barack Obama in it, that would have made sense!

New Ideas

2008-08-01T09:06:00.003-04:00

Yikes! My daughter Gina called me up yesterday morning with a new recipe. I've got an over abundance of zucchini in my garden right now and I've been giving it away to her.

"Cut up the zucchini into cubes, put it in the blender, add some oil and nama shoyu, garlic. Blend and put into the dehydrator."

Sounds good. I did a batch with the oil. Did another with cherry tomatoes replacing the oil. Added some hot pepper sesame oil for taste. Both came out tasting great.

This gave me the idea to try my super food smoothie as a leather in the dehydrator. Why not? Dehydrate the smoothie and take it with you wherever you go. Great for traveling. I'll put up a video of that soon.

Too much cacao powder:
I started getting mild headaches a couple of weeks ago. When I thought about what I was doing differently I realized that it might be that I was eating to much raw cacao powder. Stopped it for a day and they went away. The lesson in all of this is to use only one tablespoon of cacao powder in the chocolate smoothie. Three are way too many.

Raw Vegan Durian Ice Cream Recipe

2008-07-30T21:19:00.005-04:00

Okay, how about a raw ice cream dessert using the tropical fruit durian instead of artery clogging cream? I make this usually once a week, I get 5 servings out of it, and it is yummy. This is raw, vegan, healthy, and tastes great!

Introduction: Chapter One

2008-07-24T05:44:00.004-04:00

This is the introduction chapter to my book on raw foods.

“Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I am not sure how or why I became interested in healthy living. My upbringing would not have suggested it. The only thing I can think of is that it must have been through reading. During college I began a daily running routine. The first time I ran, barely making a mile, I came home coughing, wheezing, coughing up phlegm.

Several years later, in 1977, Jim Fixx’s The Complete Book of Running came out and I got serious. Eventually I worked up to my current practice of jogging five miles a day. I’ve since added some weight training.

My first experiments in improving my diet involved making a breakfast drink of brewers yeast and milk. In 1987 Fit For Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond became a big hit. Based on the principles of Natural Hygiene, which is one of the raw food branches covered in this book, the Diamonds encouraged eating lots of fruit on an empty stomach, eating live high-water content foods, and proper food combining (an example would be not eating a protein and a carbohydrate together in one meal). I read the book and tried to follow its teachings. The end result was that ever since then I have always eaten fruit for breakfast.

Two years later, the Juiceman, Jay Kordich, came through town telling his story of how juicing raw fruits and vegetables saved him from cancer. I heard him on the radio and promptly bought a juice machine. I didn’t stop at one juicer; I kept buying them until I was convinced I had the best one. I juiced carrots everyday for about ten years. (I also forced carrot juice on my kids, with uncertain results, although all three are health-conscious now and my oldest daughter juices for my grandchildren.)

I was getting the message about health everywhere I turned. Still in the late 80’s I met a woman well beyond seventy years old. She looked years younger and told me of her thirty year old boyfriend who could not keep up with her. She said that yoga was her secret. So I started doing yoga. She also told me to read John Robbins’s, Diet for a New America. The book tells of the horrors of the meat and dairy industry and advocates a vegan diet.

So convincing was the book that I became a vegetarian for one year. My daughter Gina became one permanently. I desperately wanted to stop eating animals and dairy products but I did not have the will power. I felt guilty about the slaughtering of animals but my desire for hamburgers was greater. I knew that the animal food industry was a significant polluter of our environment. Still, I couldn’t make myself change my diet.

“Transformation is through the body, not away from it.”

Eckhart Tolle

For nearly twenty years I did not make any more health changes. I ran every day, I ate my fruits and vegetables, I was very conscious of what I put into my mouth. I should have been very healthy. I was doing much better than the average American, I thought. And then I went for a physical and the doctor told me, practically with glee in his voice, that my cholesterol was 242.

How can this be? “Doc, I eat healthy foods, I run.” To which he replied, “It’s probably your genes. If you can’t get your cholesterol down by changing your diet we’ll have to put you on Lipitor.”

Oh my God, you have got to be kidding me. I am not taking a pill. There is no way I am going on a drug. Putting a foreign substance into my body is not natural. Lipitor may make my cholesterol level go down, but will it make me healthier? If I don’t change my diet, have I really made things better or have I just masked the problem? It seems to me that drug companies make a lot of money and all you get is the false sense of security that you have done something when in reality you haven’t. Eliminating the symptom doesn’t get rid of the cause.

Meanwhile, my vegetarian daughter Gina informed me that she and her husband were “going raw.”

“What do you mean? You’re not eating cooked foods anymore? Gina, I’ve always admired you for not eating meat, but this is crazy. What will you eat?” I forget what she said but I walked away thinking that she had gone too far. I knew I shouldn’t have made her drink carrot juice.

A month later I saw her and my son-in-law Stephen—they were literally glowing. I could not believe it. They were radiating health. Now I was interested. I asked her for a book on this raw food stuff (of course, I need a book) and she gave me Victoria Boutenko’s Green for Life. I read the book, fooled around for a bit with green smoothies and salads, but then gave it up. I could not stop eating hamburgers, and French fries, and pizza, and ice cream, and you name it. I’ll live with the high cholesterol. I run five miles a day, there is no way I can have heart disease. I decided to take my chances—but the seed had been planted.

In the spring of 2007 I came down with a cold that just wouldn’t go away. Finally I went to a doctor for an antibiotic to put an end to it. The nurse took my blood pressure. “Your blood pressure is 160 over 100.” She tried my other arm. Just as bad. Now I have high blood pressure along with the cholesterol.

That was it. There was no longer any denying that given all that I was doing for my health I still had problems. Since I refused to start taking pills I decided I had to do something. I began reading and everything I read pointed to “going raw.”
In the beginning it wasn’t even about being raw that got me thinking and motivated. Three books ended up on my desk. They were about how to make changes, how the food industry in America works, and the ethics of eating animals. So before I even began the process of trying to eat raw foods, in all its wisdom, the universe gave me a few tools to turn away from a cooked, animal-based diet and taught me about how to go about making these changes.

Changing For Good, by James Prochaska, John Norcross, and Carlo Diclemente, explained to me that change is a process; it does not come all at once through will power. There are stages of change. We move little by little. Change involves consciousness-raising, finding alternatives to old behaviors, expressing and accessing feelings and emotions, taking action, enjoying the rewards of change, and helping relationships. There is a reasonable way to go about making changes.

And then I found myself reading Michael Pollan’s bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Here I discovered how many of our food attitudes and beliefs are controlled and influenced by big business interests. We as a country suffer from a national eating disorder and it is fueled by the marketing of corporations and their influence over the legislative process through lobbyists. We don’t eat what we would naturally eat, we eat what we have been manipulated into eating.

The book that kicked me over the edge into action was The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. I was confronted with the impact of my food choices and how they affected people, animals, and the planet. Singer and Mason describe the incredible cruelty that factory farming inflicts on the animals we eat. They reveal the lengths that the food industry goes to hide what actually goes on in those farms. Most alarming of all was the destruction to the environment caused by the food industry and the amount of natural resources consumed. (If Americans gave up eating animals the oil saved would be like taking every car in America off the road.) By this time, my emotions had joined what I knew in my head. I was ready to change.

Now I was ready to begin reading and experimenting with the raw food diet. I did more than experiment; I used the skills that I acquired in getting my doctorate to research what was out there on becoming a “raw fooder.” There are numerous people promoting various programs for eating a raw, living-foods diet, and many of them don’t agree. I soon found that I needed to determine who was helpful and who wasn’t. I needed to find out what was scientifically based and what was out there in la-la land.

I read everything I could get my hands on. To me, this was a life and death situation. I wanted the truth. I wanted to discount what was motivated by what people were selling; and people do have products to sell even in the raw food movement. I went to the Raw Spirit Festival in Sedona and saw first hand enough marketing and contradictory approaches to health to make my head hurt. (I had to escape and have a burger late at night when no one was looking.)

Ultimately, I had to write a book so that I could put all that I learned in one place and get my thoughts around what was the best approach to getting my health back. I am totally convinced that eating raw food is the way to go. Does that mean going 100 percent as most advocate? That is something you have to decide. I’ve tried to assemble the best of what is out there in this book. And I’ve tried to point out the best that each person has to offer. The answers to life’s challenges are not black and white. I think an eclectic approach works best; why not take what makes sense to you from everything that is out there. That is what I have done here. I’ve tried to find the common thread that runs through all the approaches to raw food. I hope it works for you.

This book is the result of what I found out as I made a serious commitment to change my diet, to change my thoughts about food, and to change my mind about what it is to live a healthy life. In the following chapters I take from all the many books I read and all the experimenting I did and try to give to you a simple guide to beginning a raw food journey. I’ve tried to inspire and motivate so you don’t have to be on your deathbed saying, “Geez, I really wish I had taken better care of myself.”

Eating more raw foods can save your life, give you more energy than you ever dreamed, and if you learn how to make some of the cacao recipes, you will certainly smile a whole lot more than you ever did. I know I do.

Books to Get You Motivated:

The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. 2006. Rodale (Holtzbrinck Publishers).

Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. 2003. Little, Brown and Company.

The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World, by John Robbins. 2001. Conari Press.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan. 2006. The Penguin Press.

Raw Pasta and Marinara Sauce Recipe

2008-07-22T18:35:00.004-04:00

On Sunday I brought a raw pasta and raw marinara sauce dish to a pot luck dinner. I usually bring a pesto pasta salad, cooked. I usually bring home half of it. This time the whole bowl was gone within an hour.

When I was leaving, several people saw me with the bowl and asked if I had made the spaghetti. I said yes. They wanted the recipe. They loved it! So, here is a video of how I made it that day.

Victoria Boutenko and 12 Steps to Raw Foods

2008-07-16T07:25:00.002-04:00

Here is my chapter on Victoria Boutenko and her 12 steps to raw foods:

I enjoyed the simplicity and inspiration of Boutenko’s first book so much that I decided to give her raw food book a try. Not that I was intending to become a raw food person, but I was interested in improving my eating habits. One doesn’t have to give up cooked foods entirely to benefit from including more raw foods in their diet.

The subtitle of her book is How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Food. It is kind of like a 12 step program for food abusers. And most of us, whether we know it or not, do eat food the way addicts consume drugs and alcohol. If you don’t believe me, try giving up cooked foods cold turkey for a day and see how fast you start craving your favorite cooked foods, any cooked foods.

I think I was in a good place to begin considering incorporating more raw foods into my life. I knew I needed to lose some weight. I knew from going to my doctor for a physical that my cholesterol was high. And I wanted more energy in my life. Besides, I had seen what it was doing for my daughter and son-in-law.

Part one of Boutenko’s book is about how cooking food destroys nutrients and increases the risk for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. She explains how cooking creates advanced glycoxidation end products (AGEs), very toxic molecules that get absorbed by the body and do such nasty things as stiffen muscles (including the heart), reduce flexibility in tendons and ligaments, cause inflammation, and speed up the aging process.

In part two of her book Victoria discusses how we have become addicted to food. We have become dependent on processed cereals and breads, pasteurized drinks, grilled meats and fish. I was amazed at how little I was eating was not a living food anymore. Salad and fruit and that’s about it for most of us, and those are only side aspects of our diets. Our main meals are almost always cooked foods.

These days I have to laugh to myself when I hear someone describe to me their healthy diets. They’ll say “I have hot oatmeal for breakfast with berries on top. Then I have a chicken salad for lunch and fish with rice for dinner.” Or something like that. I say to myself, don’t they understand that the oatmeal is cooked to a mush, the chicken is filled with antibiotics, and the fish is most likely farmed and they have antibiotics (along with other things), too? Of course, the rice is cooked to death. What makes all of this even more frustrating is that the so-called nutrition experts on television reinforce this fake healthy diet.

The idea that eating cooked food is an addiction is a major contribution to understanding how to improve our dietary habits. No one would think that the typical diet is an addiction, but try to go one day without cooked foods and you will see what I mean. This is a very important point that should not be missed. Cooked foods are an addiction, just as powerful cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, and relationships can be. Knowing this will help you to make healthier food choices.

When I began adding raw foods to my diet it was not the raw food that caused me any problems. The more recipes I tried the more fun I had. My smoothies were delicious. My salads and the interesting dressings that my daughter gave me were totally satisfying. And the mock tuna salad, the flaxseed crackers, and cauliflower “mash potatoes” tasted wonderful. But even with all of these foods, and not being hungry at all, I still wanted to have something cooked at the end of the day, even if it was only a piece of toast and butter.

Victoria does argue that just like an alcoholic we should give up cooked foods entirely, that it is actually easier in the long run. And I think that for some people that would be the way to go. I cannot do this. I don’t think I could bring myself to the point where I would never ever want a hamburger again. I may not eat one but for me knowing that if I really want cooked food I can have it without feeling guilty is important to my sense of freedom. After all, I am trying to be reasonably, rationally, and realistically raw, not absolutely raw.

You may be thinking at this point that the analogy that food is addictive is helpful, but a little of an exaggeration. Well, Victoria points out in her book that plenty of research shows that cooked foods contain opioid peptides that reach the opiate receptors in our nervous systems. These opioid peptides are particularly present in dairy products, meats, poultry, and fish. (Another reason to eat a vegan diet.) Believe it or not, cooked foods are at least somewhat physically addictive.

12 Steps to Raw Foods

Here are Boutenko’s 12 steps to transitioning to a raw food diet. I have altered them a little, adding some of my own observations and trying to be brief. I recommend reading the book itself.

1. Become aware that you do have an addiction to cooked foods. Be honest. Can you get through a day without cooked foods and not feel those cravings? Try it.

2. Add healthy foods to your diet; don’t think about giving anything up and depriving yourself. Many of our food cravings come because we do not get enough nutrients. Add a green smoothie and a large salad to your diet. Greens are the most nutritious foods on the planet.

3. Learn how to prepare raw food recipes. Get some raw cookbooks. Ask around for good ideas on what to eat. Find out what other people do. Get the tools for make raw foods. Buy a good blender and dehydrator. You probably already have a food processor.

4. Don’t judge yourself or others for not eating raw foods. Take the pressure off yourself, family, and friends. Have fun. Think of this as adding something to your life, not taking anything away.

5. Avoid temptations. For me this means not keeping cooked foods in the house and not going out to eat very often. I can’t help it; if it is in the house I will most likely eat it, so if I don’t want cooked foods I don’t buy them. It’s the same with restaurants. You can only order salad so many times a week. I also find that I am a lot less tempted on a stomach full of my green smoothie. If you are going somewhere where you know you will be tempted—eat first.

6. Get support. The encouragement and ideas from my daughter Gina have helped me every step of the way. I could not have made the changes to my diet without her support and help. Support also comes from reading books, raw web sites, newsletters, and attending festivals.

7. Gratitude and forgiveness. Be thankful for learning about this healthy way of living. We may slip at times, but at least we are on the path. We know about raw foods, most people are not even aware of what they are doing to their bodies by eating cooked food all the time. Forgiveness is essential, too. It is hard to make the right choices when we hold grievances against other people…and ourselves.

8. Actualize your dreams. Your life is going to change. You are going to feel happier than you have ever felt before. You will have more energy and need less sleep. Now you can live your dreams. And the best dreams are those that give back to others.

9. Utilize other healthy practices. Exercise is essential. Move your body. Run, walk, do yoga, swim, incorporate some form of exercise into your daily routine. Get some sunshine.

10. Gain clarity. Spend time with yourself just being aware. Meditate, read; learn to live in the present moment.

11. Find your mission in life. True happiness comes from helping others. Discover what you are meant to do. Where is your passion? What is it that truly gets you excited? Almost every person I know who begins eating a raw vegan diet finds a new sense of spirituality in his or her lives. What does this mean for you?

12. Give support to others. When you help others you are helping yourself. Every time you share what you have learned, you learn it all over again only better. Your life becomes so much richer. We can’t live a healthy lifestyle alone.

I met Victoria and her daughter at the Raw Spirit Festival in Arizona in 2007. Victoria gave an inspiring talk on how she discovered the benefits of green smoothies. Her daughter Valya was working on a raw food documentary and we talked about how different people experienced healing from various illnesses. I also attended a food preparation demonstration given by Victoria’s son Sergei. The children are adults now and were looking quite healthy.

I learned from Victoria Boutenko early on in my raw food journey the importance of adding healthy raw foods to my diet and not to think of this as giving up foods that I loved. I would not have taken the first step had someone told me that I had to give up cooked foods all together. But I could make a green smoothie, and by experimenting they became so enjoyable I had to keep myself from drinking them too fast.

By eating more green leafy vegetables my body became more nourished and being more nourished desired less and less of the junk food and animal foods that I was used to eating. Slowly my tastes we changing. A raw food diet didn’t sound quite so strange.

Victoria Boutenko and Green Smoothies

2008-07-12T06:56:00.003-04:00

Here is another chapter from the book I am writing on raw foods:

Victoria Boutenko and Green Smoothies

My daughter Gina and son-in-law Steven had been eating raw for several months and I had seen the difference it was making in their health. I asked Gina to recommend a book to get me started in all of this and she suggested two books by Victoria Boutenko, 12 Steps to Raw Foods and Green For Life. The Green For Life book was shorter and had a more interesting cover so I picked that one. It turns out that that book was the ideal place for me to begin.

Green For Life by Boutenko is not about giving up cooked foods and only eating raw; it is not about giving up anything, only adding green smoothies to one’s daily diet. While I wanted to get healthy, as were my children, I did not want to give up my hamburgers and french fries.

Boutenko and her family started eating raw foods back in 1993 when they all were experiencing major health problems at the same time. Victoria herself weighted 280 pounds and suffered from arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). Her husband had hyperthyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis, and a constant heartbeat of more than 140. Her daughter Valya had asthma and allergies. And her son Sergei was just diagnosed with diabetes. It was the thought of insulin shots and the eventual side-effects (kidney and eyesight failure) that pushed Victoria over the edge. She searched everywhere for an alternative for her son.

Several months later she found out about raw foods from a woman who claimed to be cured of cancer twenty years ago by changing her diet. This was enough for Victoria and after overcoming her husband’s initial resistance (he refused to give up eating his meat and potatoes until his doctors told him that he needed to have his thyroid removed, otherwise he would die—he decided to try raw foods instead) she threw out all of their cooked and processed food and the whole family ate only raw food from then on.

Obviously it was not easy going cold turkey, but the seriousness of their illnesses was a great motivator and they have continued to eat only raw food ever since. Victoria has written several books about her experience, all of which I highly recommend. Which brings us back to Green For Life.

While eating raw foods is a good thing, it is not easy to transition into, of course, unless you and your family are facing life and death health issues. Most of us are not motivated enough to give up the foods we have enjoyed all our lives. While I certainly wanted to enjoy the health that I was seeing my daughter achieve, I did not want to change my diet all that much. And that is why I feel that I was fortunate to begin my raw food journey with the Green For Life book.

Green For Life is not about giving up anything. It is about making one simple addition to your diet—a green smoothie. The Boutenko family had been raw for about ten years but they began to experience a plateau. While their old illnesses never returned, they felt that they could be healthier.

Victoria began researching. She wanted to find out if there was anything missing from her raw diet that could make a difference. Her search led her to investigate the eating habits of our closest relatives in the animal kingdom. Chimpanzees share more than 99 percent of our DNA sequence. Believing that humans have lost their natural way of eating, maybe chimpanzees could point her back in the right direction.

It turns out that a chimp diet in the wild consists of roughly 50 percent fruits, 40 percent greens, 7 percent seeds, nuts, pith, and bark, and about 3 percent insects. This was not how the Boutenko family and most other raw foodists were eating. Many people in the raw food movement tend to eat fewer greens and more nuts, seeds, and oils.

(Boutenko also discovered that chimpanzees mostly feed on fruit in the morning, take a nap or play, then eat mostly greens in the afternoon. They stop eating for the day by late afternoon. This is a pattern that I am sure would benefit most of us. I found it interesting that I had without thinking fallen into a similar pattern, eating fruits for breakfast and having most of my greens in a salad as part of dinner.)

Once Victoria understood the importance of getting more greens into her diet the problem became how to do it. Just chewing them would be a lot of work. Besides the fact that they require being ground into a creamy consistency to become absorbable by the body, many people have low levels of hydrochloric acid in their stomachs. Nutrients cannot be assimilated without both thorough chewing and a stomach pH level of between 1 and 2. Years of eating processed foods make this pH level unlikely. Also, as we age our bodies produce less hydrochloric acid.

Instead of trying to eat large quantities of greens Victoria experimented with “chewing” them in a blender. Initial results were disastrous. The smell and taste were just too nasty. However, she tried adding some bananas to the mixture and the fruit changed everything. Her first green smoothies consisted of one bunch of kale, four bananas, and a quart of water. She and her family loved them.

The result was impressive. They all began to see a difference. Boutenko claims that wrinkles disappeared, her nails became stronger, her vision improved, her energy increased and she felt lighter than she had in years. For weeks Victoria lived on nothing but green smoothies. She stopped craving fatty foods and salt. In the end she lost all cravings for unhealthy foods.

That was my introduction to raw foods. As you can see, it was not about giving up anything that I was eating. I simply added the green smoothie to my diet. For me this was easy. For years I ate only fruit for breakfast, knowing that it is best to eat fruit on an empty stomach, otherwise it tends to ferment behind other slow moving food.

Several years ago I bought a Vita-Mixer blender. This high power machine is an essential kitchen appliance for the health conscious human. I knew that blending ruptures plant cells at the microscopic level, making them more available for digestion and absorbable. I soon was making fruit smoothies every day for breakfast. Now all I had to do was adjust the fruit a little and add greens.
My original green smoothies were simple: two cups of water, four bananas, a handful of kale, and maybe some frozen blueberries or whatever else was in the house. I could never taste the kale. Spinach and romaine lettuce is pretty tasteless, too. Other lettuce may change the fruity flavor so I mostly stuck to the kale, romaine, and spinach.

Now, here is the good part. While not trying hard to give up eating meats and fish I slowly began to lose interest in them. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to eat hamburgers anymore; it was simply that they were less attractive by about a half. I didn’t want fried food as much either. At this point I was by no means a raw food person or advocate. I just began to feel a little better and the whole experience made me more interested in seeing what other improvements I could make to my diet without causing myself any pain or giving up favorite foods.

Holidays and Dinner Parties

2008-07-07T06:49:00.004-04:00

Trying to avoid cooked foods and stay raw on holidays and at dinner parties--for me--is probably impossible at this point in my life.But, it is possible to improve on past performance.

On the 4th of July my family has a huge picnic. With 10 brothers and sisters, on my mom's side, and all of them having kids, and their kids having kids, well, it's a big party. All the cousins are very close having grown up together. And everyone brings their specialty dishes.

My plan was simple. I filled myself up on fruit before going and I brought my superfood smoothie to drink once I got there. Then...let the potato chips fall where they lie. In the end I did have some barbecue chicken that my son made, some cake, and two hamburgers. Not bad compared to previous years.

Last night my friend Mike Ryan had a little dinner party at his beach cabana. Mark and Gerre were there, as were Mike's two dates, Susan and Christine. I just brought myself. There was another man there whom I don't recall his name. But I do remember his fixation on health care. I told him to change over to a raw food diet and he wouldn't have to worry about health care anymore.

In his invitation Mike assumed that I would bring something raw. I brought zucchini squash chips that I drizzled hot pepper sesame oil on and then stuffed in the dehydrator for a few hours.I also brought a dip for some of the chips that had no oil. I think everyone liked them because they were almost all gone by the end of the night.

The dip, or dressing (I use it as my favorite salad dressing) is made with:

2 cups of olive or flaxseed oil
2 TBS of Nama Shoyu or Soy Sauce
2 TBS of Tahini (raw if possible)
6 cloves of garlic
2 inches of ginger
2 the juice of 2 lemons
1/2 or more cup of nutritional yeast (most important ingredient)

Put everything into a blender until smooth. My daughter Gina gave me this recipe.

I came to the party after eating as much raw fruit and vegetables as I could so I wouldn't be hungry. That worked fairly well as I didn't do too bad. I did eat most of the my bowl of Mike's paella, I drank the wine that Mark and Gerre brought, and some other things. I think the health care guy brought bread...white bread. (He better keep thinking about health care.)

I will say this, we all spent the night laughing (and making trips to the john). I like raw food, reasonably, but I love my friends!

Gabriel Cousens and Conscious Eating

2008-07-03T05:53:00.002-04:00

Here is another chapter of the raw food book I am working on:

“The art of conscious eating lies in creating an individualized diet that reflects and supports one’s realization of the highest state of awareness, as well as one’s need to function in the world of everyday life.”

Gabriel Cousens

Gabriel Cousens has an M.D., an M.D. (H), and a D.D. He is a psychiatrist, acupuncturist, Reiki Master, medical researcher, Ayurvedic practitioner, and author. He is also the founder and director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona. Dr. Cousens has been a raw food vegan since 1983.

When it comes to the science of living foods and health there isn’t anyone more qualified to make statements and recommendations. Besides his medical background Cousens has spent numerous years studying spirituality with Indian teachers (both American Indian and Indian Indian), and he is an ordained Essene teacher.

Self-composting

Taking a medical doctor’s approach, Cousens search for extraordinary health begins with a close look at blood. He begins by drawing on the research performed by Antoine Bechamp in the early 1900’s, and concludes that the human body’s blood is not so much a liquid as it is a flowing tissue. Looking closer at this system Bechamp theorized that microscopic and colloidal elements, smaller than cells, were living in our bodies and fermenting sugar in our blood.

This microscopic digestion produced toxins, mycotoxins. These toxins are the forerunners of degenerative disease—illness. When the natural fermentation process speeds up due to excess sugar in the system these microzymas turn into bacteria, yeast, fungus, and mold. And that is when health degenerates.

Acid foods, along with acid thoughts, environmental toxins, lack of oxygen, all play a part in distorting what Cousens calls the “subtle organizing energy field.” This energy exists in the space between cells, which we know is relatively large. The body is continually recycling itself. In a healthy state this goes on undisturbed. But when fermentation begins, the body is essentially composting itself and a cycle of degeneration initiates and chronic disease gets a foothold.

Cousens teaches that a low-sweet, live-food, non-acidic diet can turn off the self-composting process. This means eliminating junk food, refined foods, and canned foods. We need to remove the causes of yeast and fungus. That means steroids, antibiotics, birth control pills, alcohol, and animal products. These acid-promoting foods create the conditions for mold and fungus to turn healthy blood into oxygen deprived clumps. Not a good system for delivering oxygen and nutrients throughout the body.

In the end we are left with a greatly weakened immune system, a pre-cancerous condition, as Cousens writes. The results: allergies, fatigue, depression, anxiety, colds, poor mental capabilities, diabetes, heartburn, vaginal yeast infections, joint pain, asthma, food cravings.

The Culprits

There are certain foods that contain large quantities of mycotoxins and fungus. Anything with a high sugar content contributes to self-composting. Other foods are animal fats, dairy products, mushrooms, table salt, soy sauce, microwaved foods, saturated vegetable oils.

According to Cousens’ theory foods high in sugar should be avoided more than any other type of food. This includes not only processed white sugar but also fruits with a high glycemic index. Sugar substitutes such as corn sugar, sorbital, maple sugar, and honey are to be avoided. Fruits include melons, bananas, mangoes, pineapple, papaya, kiwi, and apricots. Dried fruits are high in sugar content. White flour, white rice, and white potatoes raise blood glucose. Apple juice is the most dangerous of all because it contains a mycotoxin that research shows to cause mammary tumors in mice.

The central concern of Cousens’ diet is to eliminate foods that stimulate the production of yeast, fungi, and molds. High sugar foods and fruit are at the top of the list, grains come in second. This is because they are stored for long periods of time and begin to ferment. Non-stored grains, such as quinoa, buckwheat, millet, spelt, and wild rice, are not a health hazard.

Grains are acid-forming, not a good thing. Grains also contain coarse non-soluble fiber, which while being good for adding bulk to the diet, is an irritant to the colon. Grain causes food to move too rapidly through the intestines, reducing nutrient absorption.

The flour used to bake many products has been sitting around for more than a year, breeding mold and fungus. And we know about the governments allowing a certain percentage of insect parts and rodent fecal matter.

Animal products are another breeding ground for mycotoxins. First, animals are fed fungally infected feed. Secondly, we know that meats and dairy acidify the blood. Third, meals consisting of animal products contain more than a million times the pathogenic microorganisms found in vegan meals.

Other foods high in mycotoxins and fungi are corn, peanuts, cashews, oats, yeast (baker’s yeast, brewers yeast, and nutritional yeast), caffeine, tobacco, and coffee. All cooked foods should be avoided.

Keep in mind that this composting process thrives on sugar, which drives our food cravings. While sugar is found in the obvious places like sweets and sweet fruits, processed flours and grains are easily converted into sugars. The fungus living in our bodies creates the food cravings that many of us suffer from. Eliminate the fungus and we eliminate the cravings.

The Optimal Diet

While no single diet is best for everyone there are key principles to healthy eating. First, eat organically grown food if at all possible. This will reduce consumption of genetically modified organisms and toxic chemicals. These foods contain more vitamins and minerals, taste better, and have more phytochemicals. They are also better for the environment. At Cousens’ Tree of Life Center they practice what is called Nature Farming, where they attempt to build the soil and compost exclusively with plant materials, modeling natural forests and prairies.

The second aspect of a healthy diet is that it restricts calories. There is a great deal of evidence showing that longevity is linked to living on significantly less calories than we are used to. This is bore out in the long living peoples such as the Hunzas, the Abkhasians, and the Vilcabamban Indians. They live on roughly half the calories of the typical American.

My first thought about this is that I’d have to starve myself and I’ll be hungry all the time. However, according to Cousens’ research, and others, the reason we consume the calories that we do is that cooking destroys more than 50 percent of the nutrients in our foods. So we crave more food, we have to eat more food to give our bodies what it needs. By switching to a live-food, raw diet, we will eat less because we will want less. This is one of the most significant reasons for converting as much of your diet to live-food as possible.

Finally, the optimal diet, according to the Cousens program, is primarily one that includes low-glycemic fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, sea vegetables, and algae. Of course, these are all prepared without cooking. Low-glycemic fruits include blueberries, strawberries, goji berries, grapefruit, cherries, and lemons. Moderately glycemic fruits are allowed also, these include oranges, apples, peaches, pears, and plums. Fruits containing high quantities of sugar, such as melons, bananas, pineapple, grapes, mango, kiwi, and most dried fruits, should be avoided or eaten in moderation.

Vegetable fruits like avocados, tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini are good to eat along with all vegetables (especially green leafy ones), nuts and seeds, and sea vegetables (dulse, nori, kelp). Carrots are good, as well as fresh coconut (water and meat).

Conscious Eating

In Cousens’ tome Conscious Eating he offers his insights into a more spiritual approach to eating, health, and nutrition. He writes that conscious eating is being aware of how our food affects us holistically—body, mind, emotions, and spirit. We become aware of how our food choices affect other human beings, animals, and the entire planet. Conscious eating involves an awareness of the Divine.

Cousens’ approach to conscious eating expands nutritional awareness to include elements of the Hindu health care system known as Ayurveda, naturopathy, homeopathy, and acupuncture. Yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, and other spiritual practices have a place in acquiring a more healthy way of eating.

Conscious eating is the act of individualizing one’s diet. Each of us, being unique, must find a diet that works for ourselves. There is no one diet that applies to everyone. Creating a diet that works for us is helped by trial-and-error, experimenting, using our intelligence, to find the foods and their combinations most helpful to healthful living. In presenting a broad range of the most successful raw food leaders, I have attempted in this book to provide a sampling so that you could be exposed to a number of paths to healthy eating and find one or more, or a combination, that is best suited to your needs.

It is helpful when considering our diet to honor not only the needs of our body, but also one that promotes a clear mind and unfettered spirit. We want a diet that is in harmony with nature, considerate of animals, and contributes to peace on the planet. Does it make sense to add to the misery of sentient beings, both human and animal? Can we expect health when we do this? We will reap what we sow, especially when it comes to food, such a basic element of life.

Climate Change and Diet

2008-07-01T07:56:00.001-04:00

Here is a short chapter that I've written for my book on raw food.

Climate Change and Diet

“Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”

Henning Steinfeld, senior UN FAO official

Did you know that according to a United Nations report issued in 2006 that cattle produce more global warming greenhouse gases than all the cars, trucks, airplanes, buses, and trains combined? Did you know that livestock now use up more than 30 percent of the planet’s entire land surface? And I bet you didn’t know that producing animal products is damaging the environment through land erosion by overgrazing, depletion of scarce fresh water sources, water pollution, and deforestation (South American rainforest to make American hamburgers)?

Methane is 50 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide. Cows, 1.3 billion of them on the planet, produce more than 100 million tons of the stuff every year. This is the equivalent to 5 billion tons of CO2. Cows, being the ruminants that they are, break down their food by fermenting it. Every time a cow burps and farts, there you go, methane.

Eating animals contributes significantly to global warming. Eating animals contributes to the deforestation of our planet. Eating animals contributes to the destruction of farmland that could be used for feeding human beings. And eating animals contributes to the pollution of our waters. Is this a good reason to at least consider changing your diet?

The average person who consumes meats and dairy products requires 20 times the acreage of that of a vegan. The average non-vegan requires 100 times the amount of fresh water to raise the livestock that they will eat. Eating animals has become more than an ethical choice regarding cruelty to other sentient beings, it’s about destroying the planet that we live on.

If all of this were not enough, consider that two-thirds of all antibiotics in the United States are given to animals. This is necessary just to keep them alive long enough to get to the slaughterhouse after we have confined them for so long in our factory farms. The overuse of antibiotics is generating a new class of superbugs that are becoming resistant to antibiotics. What happens when antibiotics are no longer of any use?

If we in America stopped eating meat we would save enough food to feed the 60 million people who starve to death each year on this planet—ten times over! Granted, there are political problems to be overcome, but this gives you an idea of the food we are wasting.

David Wolfe, Superfoods, and the Best Day Ever

2008-06-24T10:33:00.007-04:00

The following is a chapter from the book I am writing on raw foods.

“Life is generous to those who pursue their destiny.”

David Wolfe

David Wolfe may very well be the most important figure in the raw food movement. He is the rock star (drummer in the Healing Waters Band), the super food king (Sunfood Nutrition), and the creator of the Sunfood Diet Success System. David Wolfe is the best day ever on steroids. You have to like a guy who has made chocolate into a health food.

For all the hype (he claims to be the world’s leading voice on raw nutrition), the groupies (Goji Girl, etc.), the nickname (Avocado), the unusual hairstyle, the relentless promotion of products (the world’s largest distributor of anything to do with raw food), Wolfe is probably the best overall resource and inspiration when it comes to raw foods. His book The Sunfood Diet Success System is one of the most comprehensive books on raw food available. He not only covers most aspects of becoming a raw foodist, but he offers plenty of motivational material and ideas.

Wolfe gives nearly a hundred lectures a year along with raw adventure retreats throughout the world. His goal, in his own words, is “to become the greatest promoter of The Raw Food Diet in the history of the world.” He maintains at least three different web sites to do this. To his credit he seems to draw from many different raw food authorities and teachers.

While not being a Natural Hygienist, his diet tends to conform closely to its precepts. According to Wolfe in an interview on the Living and Raw Foods web site his diet is made up of 80 percent fruit, 15 percent vegetables, and 5 percent nuts. He promotes a modified fruitarian diet and the more wild food the better. He also believes in just going raw cold turkey. Wolfe quotes Stephen Arlin, “You crave whatever is in your bloodstream.” Better to get cooked food out sooner rather than later. This is easier than becoming raw slowly.

Chocolate

You cannot talk about David Wolfe without first talking about chocolate, or what the Aztecs called cachooatl and the Spaniards called cacao. Cacao is the bean that chocolate is made from. But it isn’t chocolate itself that raw foodists are interested in; it is the cacao bean and its amazing health properties.

The cacao nut was so important in ancient Central America it was used as money. Workers were paid in cacao. Cacao was used as standard currency in Mexico until 1887.

Magnesium is the main reason for eating cacao. According to Wolfe magnesium is the most deficient dietary mineral in America. Cacao is the major source of magnesium in nature. Magnesium is necessary for strong heart muscle, a healthy brain, muscle relaxation, bone formation, and good bowel movements.

The cacao bean is one of the best sources of antioxidants, far superior to blueberries. It also contains tryptophan in large quantities. Tryptophan is necessary for the body to produce serotonin, which is a wonderful mood enhancer. Wolfe calls cacao nature’s Prozac.

For much more on cacao, it’s benefits, uses, and recipes, I recommend reading Naked Chocolate by Wolfe and Shazzie (no last name given).

Superfoods

Cacao is a superfood, but not the only one that Wolfe considers important to human health. Others include fresh water algae (spirulina and blue-green algae), sea vegetables (kelp), maca, goji berries, aloe vera, bee products, hemp seed, and Incan berries.

Superfoods are special because they contain high concentrations of vitamins, minerals, trace minerals, enzymes, and proteins. According to Wolfe they make it easier to detoxify, maintain ideal weight, and transition to a raw food diet. They eliminate the need for food supplements. In a sense, they are food supplements.

Fresh water algae (Spirulina and Blue-Green Algae from Klamath Lake) is a concentrated source of chlorophyll, protein, antioxidants, and omega 3 fatty acids. Algae may be the most nutrient dense food in the world. The soft cell walls make it easily absorbed and utilized by the body. Algae is also a source of B12. In one form or another, algae should be a daily addition to every diet.

Sea vegetables are basically seaweeds used as vegetables. They are neither plant nor animal and are another form of algae. Some sea vegetables are kelp, dulse, sea lettuce, nori, and wakame. Sea Vegetables are the foundation of the food chain and probably led to the formation of the first invertebrates.

The essential elements and trace minerals found in sea vegetables are important to our endocrine system and the regulation of the body’s metabolism. Sea vegetables help cleanse the intestinal tract and lymph system, stabilize blood sugar levels, purify and alkalize the blood, and inhibit cancer cell growth. They also promote healthy thyroid functioning, reduce cardiovascular problems, and have been shown to be anti-inflammatory. Powdered sea vegetables can be used replace table salt and are excellent sprinkled on salads.

Maca is a superfood that is found high in the Andes of Peru. It is a root vegetable and considered to have medicinal qualities. Maca is similar to a radish or turnip. Consumption of the maca root powder is shown to strengthen the immune system, increase energy, endurance and libido. In mice tests have shown that it reduces enlarged prostates.

The major benefits of maca are reduced risk of prostate cancer, increased stamina, improved memory, relieves stress and depression. Maca is touted as an alternative to Viagra. It also improves fertility.

Goji berries, known as wolfberry in America, are touted by David Wolfe as possibly the most nutritionally dense food on the planet. (I think he says this about a lot of fruits and vegetables.) In the Chinese system of herbal medicine Goji berries rank number one out of more than eight thousand. They have been used for healing for over two thousand years.

The goji berry is a complete source of protein, containing all eight essential amino acids. Goji berries have twice the amount of antioxidants as blueberries. According to Wolfe, goji berries are the only food known to stimulate of human growth hormone. This makes the berry “the world’s greatest anti-aging superfood.”

The Food Triangle

David Wolfe teaches that the secret to succeeding on a raw food diet and achieving high levels of health is a balance between three essential classes of food. Those classes make up the raw food triangle. Through his experiences of meeting hundreds of raw foodists and studying what works and what doesn’t he discovered a pattern.

The three essential foods are green-leafy vegetables, sweet fruits, and fatty foods. The three provide chlorophyll, sugars, and fats. Lacking any of these foods results in nutritional imbalance. In Wolfe’s travels, all successful raw foodists followed this pattern. People lacking one of these food groups always ran into trouble.

In most cases Wolfe calls for the three foods to be eaten in equal quantities. And for the best results all three food classes should be eaten every day. David personally suggests having sweet fruits as the main meal in the morning, green-leafy vegetables at lunch, and fats in the evening.

Green-leafy vegetables provide chlorophyll; chlorophyll is the blood of plants. Just like the old Popeye cartoons we get our strength from spinach (and lettuce and kale and parsley and dandelion greens and…). We get calcium, iron, magnesium, and other minerals. Greens help detoxify the liver. They alkalize our body chemistry, balancing acid-forming minerals found in nuts, seeds, avocados, and animal products.

Sugar comes to us through sweet fruits. Sugar is the fuel that runs our bodies and brains. We need fruit for energy. However, too much fruit can overstimulate the endocrine system and acidify the blood. Therefore, fruit needs to be balanced with green-leafy vegetables and fats. (This is something the natural hygiene people would disagree with.)

Wolfe warns us to avoid refined sugar, which should not come as a surprise, but he also points out that hybrid fruits (seedless) should be avoided. Seedless bananas, watermelon, grapes, oranges, etc. contain sugar that can act like processed sugar. A diet high in these fruits can lead to constipation, dehydration, and a slightly diabetic situation. This is avoided with lots of dark green-leafy vegetables and exercise.

Natural raw fats are the third part of Wolfe’s health equation. Raw plant foods such as avocados, durians, young coconuts, nuts, seeds, and oils provide essential fatty acids needed lubricate mucus linings and the body joints. They also are critical for skin and hair beauty. These plant foods also contain omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids.

One benefit of having fat with fruits, or fatty fruits like avocado, is that the fat slows the release of sugar into the digestive track. This makes for a longer release time and more energy over a longer time.

Plant fats contain no cholesterol. Raw plant fats help the body access and absorb the minerals in green-leafy vegetables. They will not cause excess weight gain as cooked fats do. Plant fats insulate the nerves and counteract against environmental pollution.

Here is something that those of us new to the raw vegan diet need to understand: when you are feeling hungry and feel the need for heavy protein food, that is not what your body is asking for. At times like those it is not protein that your body wants, it’s fat. Wolfe states that plant fats are an excellent bridge from cooked foods to a raw food diet. And if you are going to be eating nuts and seeds it is best to soak them first. This removes their enzyme inhibitors, their coverings that prevent them from sprouting.

(While Wolfe recommends a diet of one third fruits, one third green-leafy vegetables, and one third fats in his book The Sunfood Diet Success System, in a recent interview he stated that his diet consists of eighty percent fruits, fifteen percent greens, and five percent fats. Go figure.)

Superfood Smoothie

The cornerstone to David Wolfe’s raw food diet, in his own personal life, is a superfood smoothie. In a number of videos and interviews he discusses his daily smoothie and how he makes it.

The following recipe is taken from an interview demonstration Wolfe gave on the Internet television show Healthy Living shown on Supreme Master Television. The smoothie begins with a base of coconut water taken from a young Thai coconut. As an alternative you could use spring water, tea, or even coffee. Along with the water of the coconut Wolfe adds the meat to the drink also.

Next comes cacao. The cacao bean is what chocolate is made from. Wolfe uses about a tablespoon of the cacao nibs, a half-tablespoon of the powder, and a half-tablespoon of the cacao butter.

Following the base of water and cacao Wolfe includes two cups of frozen berries, strawberries, raspberries and or wild blueberries. He suggests that including foods of the full spectrum of color is best because that provides all of the possible anti-oxidants. In addition to the frozen fruit acai and goji berries are used.

Wolfe then puts in a handful of cashews for fat and flavor along with superfoods maca, hemp seeds, and spirulina. And that is it—David Wolfe’s superfood smoothie. David usually has this as a late morning breakfast. He usually has a large salad at 7 pm for his other meal of the day and snacks on fruits, nuts and seeds, and juices in between.

The Best of David Wolfe

Chocolate. Superfoods. Passion. Chocolate added to a superfood smoothie is heaven. When I began adding raw cacao powder to my afternoon smoothie I simply began looking forward to them as if I were having a real milk shake treat, not a substitute. While I don’t want to overdo it with cacao, the addition of cacao to my smoothies and the raw ice cream that I make with durian (another fruit introduced to me by Wolfe) has made eating so much more enjoyable.

The addition of superfoods to my smoothies is another part of my diet that David Wolfe has changed. In the past I took supplements in the form of pills. Now I take them in the form of superfoods. A little spirulina, maca, dulse in addition to lots of green-leafy vegetables and I feel that I’ve cover all my bases.

Finally, I can’t talk about David Wolfe without talking about passion for raw food. Listening or watching him is inspiring to the point of making one get up and doing something. If raw food can make David so energetic, why can’t it do the same for me? I’ve sat through one of his four-hour lectures and he just does not want to stop. He is doing something right.

Ice Cream Heaven

2008-06-19T12:10:00.003-04:00

There are times in your life that you will never forget, like being there for the birth of your children, that first kiss on your first date, the Red Sox winning the World Series. Today was another one of those days! I MADE RAW CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM THAT TASTES BETTER THAN BEN AND JERRY'S!

You'll have to excuse me, I'm having trouble catching my breath. Do you know what this means? We will no longer be dependent on the Middle East for oil. All over America dairy farmers can sell their cows and start growing durian trees, because that is what I used instead of cream. With this kind of ice cream we all can become vegans! Durian is the perfect substitute for cream! (You can buy them in a Chinese market.) Oh my God! This ice cream is simply unbelievable. It's raw, it's vegan, and it's good for you.

Here is the recipe:

2 cups durian
2 cups raw cashews (soaked for 4 hours)
1 cup water
1 cup raw agave (or other sweetener)
1/4 cup coconut butter
2 TBS vanilla extract
2 TBS dulse
4 TBS raw cacao powder
1 vanilla bean

Put in blender, chill, and then put in ice cream maker. Or, you can skip the ice cream part and eat it like a chocolate mousse. (Note: Even with a Vita Mixer you may have to blend half at a time.) To make even more yummy add cacao nibs and/or walnut pieces.

Okay, I'm going to go and meditate right now and thank God, the Universe, and all the angels, for revealing this miracle to me.

Our Daily Meds

2008-06-12T13:16:00.003-04:00

I happened to listen to the On Point Radio Program on NPR this morning while making my fruit smoothie. If you didn't catch it, you need to hear what was said.

The program was about the pharmaceutical industry. New York Times reporter, Melody Peterson, has written a book about it called Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves Into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs." The book title just about says it all.

Peterson described how doctors are paid to push drug company prescriptions and that the doctors are monitored, so they know if they do or not. The doctors are paid just to attend dinners and hear drug company spokesmen promote their drugs. Some doctors make more than $100,000 just from the drug companies by following their "orders." (I think there is a pun there.)

Worse yet, Peterson also told how Madison Ave. marketing firms are hired to write the medical articles that appear in journals promoting their drugs. Then doctors get paid to put their names on the articles. People, this was on NPR radio this morning, not broadcast from Russia or China. They also explained that the drug companies get away with this because they are the largest lobbying organization in Washington. (Not that long ago is was illegal to advertise like they do.)

Now you know why half the commercials on television are all about drugs that you should be asking your doctor for. It appears that there is very little unbiased medical literature written anywhere in this country. I've had my own run in with a doctor who wanted to do a biopsy when all the info that I read said not to. But, he would have made $1500 for my sitting on his table for all of 5 minutes.

So what has all this got to do with raw food? Plenty. If fact, it was my distrust of that doctor that motivated me to take my health into my own hands and since then I've changed my relationship to food. As the first doctor, Hippocrates, said: "Let food be your medicine and medicine your food."

I've fired all my doctors. And before I take another pill I'm going to make sure I'm eating the foods that my body is designed to eat. The alternative is too...well, fucked up.

Simply Raw

2008-06-06T06:17:00.004-04:00

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.)

Douglas Graham and Natural Hygiene

2008-05-13T06:03:00.005-04:00

Of all the approaches to health, Natural Hygiene makes the most sense to me rationally, intellectually, and instinctually. It seems to draw upon our natural diet and instincts rather than what the human mind has determined appropriate to eat. In addition, the Natural Hygiene people, Douglas Graham in particular, take a more holistic approach to nutrition.

The holistic view held by Graham and the Natural Hygiene movement questions the value of isolating nutrients and their affect on health. Instead, we need to understand that health-promoting food comes packaged in a combination of elements more numerous than we can know. Micronutrients, many not even discovered yet, work in conjunction with each other. To isolate one vitamin or mineral and think that more or less of it will improve health is to ignore the natural package that nature has provided.

It is possible that we have only discovered about 10 percent of the plant nutrients in existence. This means that our health depends on a lot more than getting what we often think of as all our vitamins and minerals. For Graham only a diet of whole foods will bring about a healthy body. Supplements may reduce and relieve symptoms, but only whole foods create health.

Eating By Design

Natural Hygiene makes the case, and a convincing one, that if you want to know what you should be eating consider what you are designed to eat and what would you eat naturally without cooking or altering the food. Douglas Graham, in his book The 80/10/10 Diet, points out that if you offer an animal all kinds of foods in their natural state the animal will eat what is best for itself. The same should hold for humans.

In Graham’s book he explains that if we were carnivores we would relish the idea of catching an animal with our bare hands and eating it, entrails, fat, blood, bones, flesh, and all. Also, our bodies would be designed to eat other animals. (We’ve discussed this in a previous chapter so we won’t do that here.)

So much for being a carnivore. But what about the other “vores?” Herbivores forage on grass, weeds, and leaves. Unless that greenery is flavored with a great dressing, we do not find it particularly appealing. And it looks that by design we are not really made to eat them either, lacking the proper enzymes for digestion.

Likewise humans, unlike birds, are not all that attracted to grains, the seeds of grasses. We also don’t get all that excited about eating raw tubers and legumes. Starches are just not very digestible by human beings.

How about milk? Surely dairy products do taste good, don’t they? At least in the form of ice cream and cheese. True, but when was the last time you had the urge to suck on the breast of a wild animal, or even a cow or goat? That aside, milk contains casein, possibly one of the most active agents in the cause of cancer and heart disease. No other animal in the world drinks the milk of another animal.

Dr. Graham also takes a swipe at nuts and all high-fat plants. Humans have a difficult time digesting them and the fats are trapped in the intestine for long periods of time, causing all kinds of problems.

Everyone knows that humans are omnivores. We can eat just about anything. Yes, that may be the case, but a true omnivore thrives on everything just mentioned. As was stated before, being able to do something doesn’t mean it is the best thing to do. Just because I can eat all of the above doesn’t mean that I should.

So, given that all of these foods are unnatural to humans, what then are we to eat? Fruit. Fruit is the only food that in its natural state is appealing to us. And, best of all, we are designed perfectly to digest and utilize the plentiful carbohydrates in fruit. Fresh, ripe, raw fruit comes wrapped with digestible fiber, making sure that the fruit sugars enter our system gradually and for longer periods of time.

Humans, according to Graham, are frugivores, designed to live on fruit and tender greens. Think about it, fruits are the only food that all on its own can attract human beings. We see fruit growing and eat it just as it is. Certain greens have the ability to attract us also.

In my garden, I go for the tomatoes, a fruit. At the same time that we are naturally attracted to the sweetness in fruit we just happen to be biologically designed to utilize and absorb the nutrients in fruits. This is the argument that really gets me. Of all the diets out there, the fruit diet makes the most sense logically and instinctually. We are naturally attracted to fruit and our bodies easily digest and utilize fruit.

Fruit: Facts, Fears, and Fats

Large quantities and even small quantities of fruit consumption is feared. Fruit is believed to cause high blood-sugar, which can cause diabetes, candida, chronic fatigue, and other illnesses. Eating fruit puts too much sugar into our blood. But Graham argues that fruit is not the problem, but fats.

Fruit, when eaten naturally, becomes a sugar in our body and then goes into the blood stream quickly and out of it into our cells, where it provides us nourishment. No problem. Primates eat enormous amounts of fruit.

The most significant contribution that Dr. Graham makes to our conversation here is this: a high-fat diet, one which nearly all of us have, makes it nearly impossible for fruit do get out of the blood stream and into our cells. Too much fat in the blood makes it difficult for fruit sugars to get out of our blood, causing high blood sugar.

Fatty food, making a thin coating of fat on the blood-vessel walls, cell receptor sites, and sugar molecules themselves, in essence, gum up the whole works. The fats in our diets prevent the fruit that we eat from doing its job. And then fruit gets all the blame.

The thing is, we need the wonderful carbohydrates that fruit gives us to do most of the things we do. Without healthy carbs all sorts of disease and distress occur.

Fats take a long time to pass through the intestines, blood-stream, and into the cells. The whole process can take up to twenty-four hours. I used to think that I was safe if I ate fruit on an empty stomach. Wrong. My stomach may be empty, but my blood is not. It may still have fat floating around if I haven’t gotten my consumption down to the level that Dr. Graham recommends.

If you remember anything at all from this chapter it is this: be very careful about how much fat you eat. Too much sabotages the essential work of fruit, and we all need lots of fruit. That is what we are designed to eat. So, if in the past you have had problems with fruit, it wasn’t the fruit, it was probably the fat.

Balancing Calories: 80/10/10

The cornerstone of Dr. Graham’s approach to excellent health is the need to balance the source of calories in one’s diet. We get our calories from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. The ratio of these three nutrients is vital to health, longevity, and energy. That ratio should be 80/10/10: a minimum 80 percent calories coming from carbohydrates, a maximum of 10 percent coming from protein, and a maximum 10 percent coming from fats.

This is the ratio that results when humans eat a mostly fruit diet. In the wild, primates like ourselves, thrive on mostly fruits and tender greens. According to Graham, this ratio for chimps, bonobos, and orangutans (our closest cousins genetically), is 88/7/5.

Another argument for this ratio is that the longest living peoples approximate these percentages. The Abkhasians, the Vilcabambans, and the Hunza, all consume around 70 percent of their calories in carbohydrates while obtaining about 15 percent from fat and 15 percent in protein.

Carbohydrates

Our bodies convert carbohydrates into simple sugars. Simple sugars, like glucose, are the fuels that run the engines of our bodies. We need carbohydrates for energy and health. Fresh fruits are the optimal source. Water-soluble fiber in fruit allows the sugars to be absorbed slowly into the blood stream.

There are other ways of obtaining carbohydrates, grains, tubers, and legumes, being the obvious sources. Corn, rice, wheat, potatoes, carrots, beans, all make up a significant part of the American diet. In fact, these are the carbohydrates that most people think of when they think carbohydrates.

Many people are even aware that complex carbohydrates are better than processed. Whole wheat bread is better than white bread. There is a problem though. Grains, primarily wheat, cause all kinds of illnesses. Gluten intolerance is involved in the development of diabetes, arthritis, asthma, constipation, fibromyalgia, and autism.

Refined carbohydrates are essentially junk food, providing empty calories, and leave the body with no nutritional value. These empty calories simply accelerate the aging process.

Fresh, whole fruits provide carbohydrates without the problems. Easily digested and utilized, fruit should make up 80 percent of our calorie intake. Fruit is the least toxic and most nutritious source of energy for the human body. Human beings originated in the tropics, we evolved eating tropical foods, fruits. This is what we are designed to eat, our natural diet.

Protein

The protein myth. The need created by the meat and dairy industry. Protein, we must have our protein. Where do I get my protein if I’m a vegan? The thing is: most of us eat way more than is good for us. We are not in danger of getting too little protein, but we are in danger of getting too much.

If anyone needs protein, it is a baby when growth is at its greatest. So how much protein does breast milk contain? Only 6 percent of its calories come from protein. If we do not need a lot of protein then, why would we need more as adults? How much does the typical diet provide us? Around 15 percent, three times as much. And the only reason it is as low as that is that the high protein foods we eat, meats and dairy products, have even more amounts of fat.

The overconsumption of protein is a serious problem. Too much protein causes too much acid to form in the human body. (This comes from acidic minerals: chlorine, phosphorus, sulfur.) The body wants the bloodstream to be in balance between acidity and alkalinity. Protein throws the balance off and so the body takes calcium, an alkaline mineral, from our bones and teeth, to restore this balance. This results in arthritis, osteoporosis, liver and kidney problems, autoimmune problems, and premature aging.

The thing is, animals are a bad source of protein anyhow. When we cook meat we destroy half of the protein. And what is left, the body has to break down into amino acids. The body doesn’t make protein from animal protein, but from amino acids. The advantage of getting protein from fruits and vegetables is that the body doesn’t have to break down the protein; it is already in the form of amino acids.

The best part of plant based protein is that you eat a lot less to get a lot more, more of what your body really needs. You are not adding more toxicity to your body in the form of hormones, antibiotics, and drugs given to the animals that you eat. Eat your fruits and vegetables and you don’t have to even think about protein again.

Fat

It is no surprise that a low fat diet is healthy. What is a surprise is how low low is. According to the USDA 20 to 35 percent of our calories should come from fats. Dr. Graham recommends no more than 10 percent. He is supported in this by Dr. Dean Ornish, the Pritikin Longevity Center, and Dr. T. Colin Campbell in his book The China Study. The only reason the USDA recommends more is a result of the influence of the meat and dairy industries.

Besides causing weight and cholesterol problems, why limit our fat intake? Because fat in our blood makes it difficult for oxygen to reach our cells. It prevents fruits from delivering the sugars that we need for energy and healthy bodily functions.

If you are going to consume fat it should come from whole foods and not oil. Oil is stripped of the fiber, which keeps fats from going rancid. Oil is pure fat. It is best to get your fats from fresh nuts, seeds, and avocados. Oil is a processed food providing empty calories.

Dr. Graham takes a chapter of his book to warn that many people who eat only raw food eat way too much fat. When people convert to raw food diets they tend to eat a lot of food with fat in order to feel satisfied. Many raw food recipes use nuts and seeds to mimic cooked foods. This negates all the benefits of eating raw foods. Also, by eating so many fatty foods they end up not eating as much fruit as they need to. Instead of feeling energized and healthy, their bodies become clogged up with too much fat. (Many vegetarians are not all that healthy because they consume a lot of dairy products.)

Making It Work

Natural Hygiene and the 80/10/10 diet are the most radical of all the approaches to raw food. They are the most difficult to implement. Since they require the reduction and elimination of so much protein and fat, a person trying to eat this way will starve and find it nearly impossible to do unless they significantly increase the amount of fruit eaten.

I honestly believe that Natural Hygiene is the healthiest way to go. Fats do hinder fruits from providing the fuel that our bodies need. Protein, besides causing all kinds of problems with too much acidity in the blood and the depletion of calcium, is a major factor in heart disease and cancer, as proven by the China Study. And fruits and vegetables are what we humans are designed to eat.

There is one problem in this. Getting rid of fats and proteins and living on only fruits and vegetables is an incredibly difficult task. How do they do it? According to the Natural Hygiene forums and testimonials it is done by gradually increasing the amount of fruit consumed at every meal. Always eat your fruit first so it doesn’t get stuck fermenting behind the heavier foods. Eat much more than you think you should. Successful people on this type of diet typically eat two pounds of fruit at a meal. They also eat a whole head of lettuce at dinnertime.

Whether you incorporate the whole 80/10/10 diet or not, the ideas in this program are the gold standard of the raw food movement.

The Best of Douglas Graham

The most important lessons from the writing and research of Dr. Graham are these: 1.) make fruit the central and largest part of your diet 2.) seriously keep your consumption of fats to a minimum 3.) avoid meats and dairy because they contain too much protein and fat. We need to eat a lot more fruit than we think. We probably are eating a lot more fat than we should. And a vegan diet is best because vegans do not stuff their bodies with animal protein, toxic hormones, and body-clogging fats.

While following Graham’s 80/10/10 diet may be hard to accomplish, at least seeing it as a goal to reach, or an incentive, this is better than being ignorant of the ideal. I could see a time in my life, especially as I get older, where a light diet, based on easily digested fruits, would be so attractive. The less our bodies have to work on digesting our food, the more energy we have left over to live our lives to the fullest.

Back Home

2008-05-11T07:36:00.005-04:00

I am back home from my trip to Viet Nam and still recovering from jet lag. More than anything I am missing my daily dose of durian. The stinky, spikey, delicious fruit, that I became addicted to is not available here in Rhode Island, but I'm going to try and find out how I can get some.

This was my first trip ever that I was able to eat more fruits and vegetables than I do at home. The selection of fresh tropical fruits was outstanding. Even the vegetables were special. I ate at least a head of lettuce a day.

I came home losing three pounds and my blood pressure being normal. That is a first. Usually I eat out for dinner when away, and I did this time, but the choices of healthy food in Viet Nam were excellent, so much better than Latin America. Even thought the food wasn't raw, it was light and mostly vegan.

Looking forward to going back in the fall. Thinking about getting certified to teach English as a foreign language. That would give me something useful to do in that wonderful country.

Reasonably Raw In Viet Nam

2008-04-17T23:02:00.002-04:00

If you are going to be away from home in a foreign land and want to eat raw, then Viet Nam is the place to be. After a five mile run and the beach and a quick swim I make a fruit smoothie with the travel blender that I've brought with me. I thought my smoothies back home were good. Pineapple, freshly squeezed orange juice, and the water and meat of a young coconut. Out of this world!

Later in the morning I've have bananas, a mango, and maybe watermelon. Yesterday I had my second durian. This one was much better than the first. I can't say it was delicious, but I might get to like it. It is filling and heavy, kind of like a custard or pudding. I don't know how to describe how it tastes, a little bit of vanilla, some sweetness, I give up.

Then it's off to the market for more fruit and lettuce. In the afternoon it's a big salad. With my blender I am able to make my favorite dressing with garlic, tahini, oil, vinegar, lemon juice.

Okay, dinner is not raw, but it's not bad either. Mostly rice and vegetables, or rice noodles and vegetables. It could be worse. It sure is better than the burgers and fries I often end up eating in other places.

Last night Hoa, my Vietnamese friend, treated me to a couple of fruits I had never eaten or seen before, they were excellent. I'll buy more of those today and find out what they are called.

Raw In Asia

2008-04-13T03:21:00.002-04:00

Greetings from Viet Nam. I came prepared this time. Loaded my knapsack with lots of raw food goodies for my 30 hours in airplanes and airports for my trip to Nha Trang. I brought fresh bananas and apples. But the best thing I did was bring lots of dehydrated stuff made at home before I left. Best of all was the banana-mango-cinnamon fruit roll-up. It was yummy. The goji berry-cacao-sesame seed wasn't bad either.

I made it through 8 hours of layovers in Chicago and Hong Kong without buying any airport food. I passed on nearly all the airplane food. Now I'm here in Nha Trang and I'm feasting on fresh squeezed orange juice and the best mangoes I've ever tasted. (Tried durian, didn't like it.)

I'm not saying that I'm all raw, but I'm not eating any junk. No fries, no soda, no animals. It is a lot easier to eat better here because the Vietnamese food tastes great without adding meat. There are a lot of choices without having to resort to burgers and fries. And there aren't burger joints everywhere.

I brought my travel blender and small food processor. Now if only I can find the ingredients for all the recipes I brought along with me. I may have a problem finding nuts. Went to the big outdoor market today and they had every kind of rice you could ask for, but no nuts. I think I bought sesame seeds, but I'm not sure. Anyhow, I'm feeling quite healthy considering all the obstacles. I think the key has been being prepared.

The China Study

2008-04-06T06:23:00.003-04:00

I've been writing about the findings in the China Study, another chapter in the next book. The New York times calls it:

“…the Grand Prix of all epidemiological studies…the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease.”

I think you will find this very interesting.

He began his career as a researcher at MIT promoting better health through eating more meat, eggs, and milk. Growing up on a farm, he believed that high-quality animal protein was necessary for good health. But later on, while researching why so many Filipino children were getting liver cancer, Dr. T. Colin Campbell discovered that the children who ate the most protein were the ones contracting the cancer.

Campbell became involved in a twenty-year research project, a partnership between Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, and the results became known as the China Study. The study researched the connection between diseases and life style factors in rural China and Taiwan. As the New York Times article states, it is “the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease.”

The findings were startling, more than 8,000 statistically significant associations between diet and disease. The people who ate the most animal-based foods got the most disease. The people who ate the most plant-based foods got the least. The most important finding out of Dr. Campbell’s research is that the greatest threat to good health is animal protein. It’s not fat, it’s not carbohydrates, it’s animal protein. That includes chicken and fish.

The China Project

The China Project studied the death rates from twelve different kinds of cancer in more than 2,400 counties, 880 million citizens, nearly 96 percent of the population of those counties. 650,000 people worked on the project, the largest ever of its kind. The results showed massive variations in the cancer rates among the different counties. What makes this study so significant is that those being studied came from similar genetic backgrounds. This suggests that cancer is caused by lifestyle and environmental factors and not genetics. In some cases cancers were found to be 100 times greater in one county compared to another.

What makes this study so interesting is that within China there are wide ranges of diets. It is also interesting because diet as studied in the West usually involves the contrast between those rich in animal-based foods and those very rich. In China the diets include mostly plant-based foods. This led to comparing incidence of disease in China to the West.

People in the study were chosen from rural and semi-rural parts of China in order to be assured that they lived in the same area for most of their lives.

Blood Cholesterol

A comparison of the prevalence of cancers, heart disease, and diabetes in each county studied in China with lifestyle and diet indicated that blood cholesterol is linked to these diseases with more than a 99 percent certainty. Lower blood cholesterol levels indicate lower rates of cancer and heart disease.

What was very interesting was that low cholesterol in China is not what we think of in America. In America we are told to keep it below 200. The average level in China was below 130. In some areas women had cholesterol levels of below 90.

Other studies show that the consumption of animal protein increases blood cholesterol. We have been told that saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, raise cholesterol levels, which is true, but animal protein is even more effective at doing the job. You think you are eating healthy by eating lean chicken, think again. It’s the protein that is responsible for cholesterol more than the fat.

Protein

Protein, yes, we all need lots of protein to build strong bodies. That’s what we’ve been told. It is interesting that when the human body is at its fastest stage of growth, the first several years, feeding naturally on breast milk, the protein percentage of breast milk is about 7 percent. Only 7 percent of a baby’s diet consists of protein, not the 15 to 20 percent or more of the typical American diet.

If a baby doesn’t need all that protein, why do adults? The answer probably does not have anything to do with good health but profits for the meat, dairy, and supplements industries.

Back to Dr. Campbell’s work, while trying to find out why the more wealthy children in the Philippines were getting cancer and the poorer were not, he came across an Indian research paper that pointed to protein as being the answer. Rats, predisposed to get liver cancer by being given aflatoxin, when fed a diet of 20 percent protein all developed cancer. Those rats fed a diet of 5 percent protein developed not one case. This led Dr. Campbell to examine more closely the diets of the Filipino children. It turns out that the more “well-fed” children consumed considerably more protein than their poorer counterparts.

Cancer and Protein

To get a better understanding for this, let’s look at how cancer develops. Cancer grows like a lawn. First the seeds get planted, then they sprout and mature, and then they spread and go wild. When we ingest carcinogens we plant the seeds of cancer. Carcinogens mutate healthy cells into cancer-prone cells. The seeds are there in our bodies ready to germinate. That in itself does no damage to the body.

The germination stage can last a long time. In fact, without the right conditions, the cancer will not ever sprout. Just as grass seeds need water and warmth to grow, cancer also needs the right ingredients. It is also known that, like in the growth of a lawn, if the right conditions are removed, the growth can be stopped. This is critical to our understanding of cancer and its spread.

If the favorable conditions persist we have cancer cell growth spreading out of control, creating tumors and moving to other tissues in the body. What does all this have to do with protein? Plenty. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Cancer Society, and the American Institute for Cancer Research, Campbell and others have spent the last twenty years studying cancer and nutrition. This is what they found:

Protein creates the conditions for the germination of the cancer seeds by increasing enzyme activity that allows carcinogens to bind to and mutate DNA. Campbell and his associates found that low protein diets protected again cancer growth by allowing fewer carcinogens into cells. Low protein diets actually reduced tumors.

Cell clusters that are precursors to tumor development, called foci, are entirely dependent upon protein to grow. Even the consumption of carcinogens did not result in tumors unless there was sufficient protein. In their tests with rats, foci did not develop until protein levels reached 10 percent. Above that level tumor development took off. Below that number not one rat developed cancer.

Further studies showed that not all proteins had the same effect on the cancerous cells. Plant protein, even at high levels, did not promote growth. Protein from cow’s milk, however, was the worst.

Fats and Cancer

In America we consume more than 35 percent of our calories as fat. Scientists have been saying that that is too much. But they haven’t pushed to go much below the 30 percent figure. Studies show a close correlation between fat intake and breast cancer. The China Study disclosed that fat consumption varied between 6 and 24 percent of calories from fat. And even at that level there was a significant reduction in risk at the lower levels. In other words, to be protected from risks of cancer dietary fat needs to be down around 10 percent. This sounds like what Dr. Doug Grahman teaches in his books that a healthy diet consists of 80 percent carbohydrates, 10 percent protein, and 10 percent fats. We will be discussing this in a later chapter.

Diet

So where does all of this leave us? Quite simply: the food we eat, our nutrition, plays are very big role in the triggering of disease. Plant-based foods lower blood cholesterol. Lower blood cholesterol is related to lower rates of disease. Animal-based foods increase blood cholesterol. Higher blood cholesterol is related to higher rates of disease.

What the China Study points out is that it is not enough to simply eat more fruits and vegetables…and keep eating our burgers, and chicken, and steaks, and salmon. A salad before a meal and bowl of fruit for desert does not begin scratch the surface. In order to enjoy the protection of good nutrition there needs to be a radical change. Even a little animal protein can trigger cancer in humans. Blood cholesterol has to be drastically lowered to prevent heart disease. Protein has to be reduced to prevent cancer.

Fat and cholesterol are factors in all kinds of illness, but what we miss in all of this is that it is the animal protein that we bring into our bodies that cause fat and cholesterol to be there in the first place. The meat and dairy industries want us to think we can lower our fat and cholesterol and eat their products at the same time. That just is not possible. All the lean hamburger, lean chicken, lean fish, in the world is not going to protect you. The problem isn’t in the fat; it’s in the protein. To eliminate protein we have to stop eating animals.

By the way, plant protein and plant fat, are good for you. In fact, they lower your risks of heart disease and cancer. It is also interesting that the Chinese in the study, consuming a plant-based diet, were ingesting more calories per pound of body weight than us Americans—and they are slimmer. Why? Because a plant-based diet allows the body to burn calories as body heat instead of storing them as body fat as do the calories from an animal-based diet. In addition, carbohydrates from plants provide more energy fuel than a more heavy and fatty food from animals. Are you starting to get the picture? It is no wonder when you read about people turning to a more live food way of eating proclaiming that they have so much more energy, need less sleep, have fewer aches and pains, the human body likes the lightness of a plant-based diet.

Principles of Good Health

In summary, Dr. Campbell promotes eight principles for good health as a result of his years of scientific research:

The nutrients in food are packaged together, they work in concert; it is too simplistic to think that one specific nutrient by itself will provide a benefit.
That is why supplements will not save you. Isolating nutrients will not provide the benefits that whole foods provide.
Plants provide all nutrients in a more absorbable and useful way than animals.
Research shows that genes do not determine disease alone. In most cases it takes poor environment and diet to express and trigger them.
Nutrition trumps toxic chemicals. Cancer causing chemicals are all around us. But research shows that nutrition determines if the chemicals cause disease.
Nutrition can halt or reverse disease in its later stages.
Good nutrition supports health across the board.
Good health is a holistic undertaking, it requires exercise, the caring for emotional and mental needs, and concern for the places where we live.

For a more complete understanding read:

The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-Term Health, by Campbell, T. Colin, Ph.D. and Campbell, Thomas M. II. (2004) Benbella Books.

The Long-Living People

2008-04-03T08:11:00.006-04:00

One chapter of the book I am writing on raw foods includes the long-living people. If there are people living long and healthy lives, could we not learn from them? Here is that chapter:

The Long-Living People

Considering the natural diets of our closest relatives in the wild, the primates, is one way to think about what we would eat if we were not influenced by culture or people selling a product for profit. It seems to me that a natural diet would be best. Another approach would be to find people and societies that live the longest and have the healthiest lives.

In the next two chapters we will do exactly that. First we look at four cultures where people live to be extremely old and healthy at the same time. Then we will examine on of the largest studies concerning the relation of diet to health ever conducted—the China Study.

The Abkhasians

In the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia live the Abkhasians. In the 1960’s the Soviets made claims that the people there were living to be well into their 100’s. One Abkhasian got his picture on a postage stamp for being 168 years old. The Dannon yogurt company went out there and made a popular commercial featuring a 110-year-old mother telling her 89-year-old son to eat his yogurt.

It turns out that these people were not as old as they claimed. They were probably “only” in the 90’s and early 100’s. More important than their years was their physical fitness and mental alertness. Researchers found them to be enjoying extremely good health. Only the very oldest had wrinkles. Few needed glasses and most still had their own teeth.

What was their secret? How did they keep healthy into old age? (You are probably wondering what this has to do with raw food.)

The Abkhasians did get a lot of exercise living in the mountains. There is no question that physical activity is essential. They maintained their physical fitness into old age by not retiring and working in the orchards and gardens.

The other factor contributing to their health is diet. Breakfast consists of fresh salad, cornmeal porridge, and a fermented drink made from goat’s milk. Between meals they eat a great deal of fruit. Nuts are also an important part of their diet. They eat almost no meat. They do not eat fatty foods, sugar, salt, or butter. Overeating is considered socially inappropriate.

The Abkhasians do not eat yogurt despite the Dannon commercials. The average cholesterol level of those over 100 is below 100. There is one more thing that may contribute to their long productive lives—the elders are respected and revered simply by being old.

The Vilcabambans

Three hundred miles to the south of Quito, Ecuador, high in the Andes mountains, is the village of Vilcabamba, it is also called the Valley of Longevity. Here the inhabitants frequently live into their 100’s with youthful vigor and vitality. Degenerative diseases do not exist there. No cancer, no diabetes, no osteoporosis, no Alzheimer’s. No heart disease or high blood pressure.

International scientists have studied the Vilcabambanas for half a century and the conclusion has been that their health is the result of their diet and high levels of physical activity. There are no supermarkets in Vilcabamba, no processed foods. Vegetables and fruits are picked fresh daily and eaten on the spot. Occasionally they have milk or eggs, but their diet is essentially fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, beans, and whole grains.

It is interesting to note that their protein comes from vegetables, whole grains, and beans. Their fat comes from avocados, seeds, and nuts. They do not consume a large amount of calories compared to American standards. Overweight people cannot be found in Vilcabamba. Because of where they live fresh fruit and vegetables are available year round.

The Hunza

Twenty thousand feet up in the Himalayan Mountains in northwestern Pakistan is Hunza. Probably the most famous of all for being a place where the people live well past 100 and where they have perfect eyesight, no cancer, no heart disease, and no crime. (Also, no money, no banks, no taxes, and no stores.)

It isn’t that these people just are not sickly, they are strong and active their whole lives. They swim in ice-covered streams, the build retaining walls for their gardens; they play wild games of volleyball and polo. What makes them so healthy?

Again, a look at their diet shows that it is quite different from what we have been told is necessary for health by the food industry. They eat less than half the protein and a third of the fat that we do. And it all comes from fruits, vegetables, and grains. They do not eat animals. No food is processed and it is all fresh. The closest they come to processing is drying their fruits. They have a law against spraying their gardens with pesticide.

The Hunzas eat a lot of apricots, and a lot of sprouts. Served at every meal is their bread called “chappti.” They call it a bread, but it is not really baked. After grinding fresh wheat, barley, or millet, they knead it with only water, no yeast, and then place it on a grill for a moment, just long enough to warm it.

The Hunzas and the other long-living people didn’t eat a mostly raw vegetarian diet because they wanted to—they didn’t really have a choice. High up in the mountains there isn’t a lot of wood for cooking and food to keep animals. So, they mostly eat plants and eat them raw.

It isn’t just that these people live to be old, it’s that they are disease free that is most impressive. The old do not suffer from fatigue, poor eyesight, high blood pressure, or obesity. Very much like the people of Abkhasia and Vilcabamba.

Besides extraordinary good health their diets are quite similar. Approximately 70% of their calories come from carbohydrates (in the form of fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains), 20% from fat (from nuts and seeds), and 10% from protein. The Abkhasia include about 10% animal products, but the Vilcabamba and Hunza only 1%. Almost no salt is used and no sugar or processed food.

The Okinawans

Birth records have been meticulously kept in Okinawa since 1879. So the ages of those long-lived people on this southernmost Japanese island chain are not disputable. Every city and town has a family register dating back well over a hundred years. And since 1975 the Japan government has been studying the health and longevity of these people.

There are 800 centenarians out of a population of 1.3 million. The Okinawans do not retire. Is this what keeps them healthy or do they not retire because they are so healthy? According to researchers there are four reasons for their extraordinary well being. Social support, psycho-spiritual attitudes, diet, and exercise.

Until relatively recently Okinawa was a separate country from Japan and evolved with a different culture, diet, and religious beliefs. And their incidence of disease is also different from Japan (and the West). Like the Abkhasians, Vilcabambans, and the Hunza, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other diseases are rare.

The Okinawan diet consists of a lot of sweet potato, green leafy vegetables, and protein from soy foods such as tofu and miso. They do eat a significant amount of fish, also. But diet alone is not the secret to their success. They get good nights sleep. That may be related to what they eat because it is hard to sleep well when your stomach is busy digesting a heavy meal. The Okinawans also have a strong sense of responsibility and hold themselves accountable for their lives.

Probably more than anything, and similar to the other long-lived people in this chapter is that the Okinawans do not consume a lot of calories compared to the standard American diet. By consuming mostly fruits, vegetables, and grains, they get the nutrition they need without the calories.

Living Long

Maybe we could learn something from people who seem to live long, active, disease-free lives. It only makes sense to pay attention to others who are succeeding at something. In this case it is something near and dear to all of us—our health.

It seems to me that exercise and working outdoors is primary. Eating a plant-based diet is also primary. Having some kind of spiritual practice is primary. And staying connected to other people is primary. None of these alone is sufficient. All of the long-lived peoples of the world incorporate all of these components into their lives. A life-style based on these principles, and not on what advertisers and promoters of products, would surely be an improvement for all of us.

Eckhart Tolle, Is He Really Sixty?

2008-03-28T07:50:00.003-04:00

Whatever he is eating, that's what I want. Eckhart Tolle is doing an on line web class with Oprah on his new book, A New Earth. I have learned a great deal from him and what I have learned has made a big difference in my life, spiritually.

Now, I just found out that the guy is sixty years old. He looks like a kid, maybe forty at most. No wrinkles whatsoever, bright eyes, vibrant. I don't know if he eats raw food or not, but whatever he is doing, that's what I want.

I have seen a lot of raw food, health nut types, and I've never been impressed. (Except for Jack LaLanne.) They look okay, but I'd never say, "wow, I want to be like that when I get old." But Eckhart Tolle should be the poster boy for good health. That is how I want to look at sixty, which isn't that far away.

All of this goes to prove that spirituality is more important that diet. Do you want to lose weight and get healthy? Start meditating. And read Tolle's books!

Are Humans Really Omnivores?

2008-03-22T10:13:00.003-04:00

I am researching the chapter on what kind of foods we are designed to eat for my book Reasonably, Rationally, Realistically Raw, and I see that carnivore is the name that we have given animals that mostly eat other animals. Plant eating animals we call herbivore. Omnivores eat plants and animals. Simple enough, right?

Well, I wanted to find out why animals ate what they ate. So I started exploring the anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry of the different groups. Carnivores are characterized by having claws, sharp teeth, short smooth colons and digestive tracts, rasping tongues, no lateral jaw movement, and an acidic saliva and urine. They also eat large meals, swallowing their food whole. They have no digestive enzymes. And they control their body temperature by hyperventilating.

Herbivores have flattened nails or hooves, broad blunted incisors and flat molars, long sacculated colons, smooth tongues, side to side jaw movement, non-acidic saliva and urine. They eat smaller meals more frequently, chewing and crushing their food. Digestive enzymes are important to their nutrition. And they perspire.

When it came to omnivores, I found that anatomically and physiologically, omnivores were almost identical to carnivores. Think grizzly bear.

As I researched herbivores I found that primates were not really herbivores, but frugivores (animals that eat mainly fruit). That made sense because primates do not have the same kind of digestive system that cows and other herbivores have. (Fruit is easier to digest than grass or seeds.) Our closest living relatives in the animal world, sharing more that 98 percent of our DNA, live on diets consisting of approximately 80 percent fruit. (Bonobo chimps.)

I have lived my whole life thinking I was an omnivore. Michael Pollan made a lot of money writing The Omnivore's Dilemma. So why all the confusion? Simple. We have confused the verbs "to do" with "to be." Just because we can eat other animals doesn't mean that we should. I may say stupid things, that doesn't mean that I am a stupid person.

Yes, people can eat animals, we can also eat cardboard, that doesn't mean that it's healthy.

Raw In Nicaragua

2008-02-28T10:29:00.002-05:00

In the past I have had real hard time eating raw, or mostly raw, or mostly vegan. Leaving for this trip I was determined to do better...and I have.

I brought with me a small travel blender, a coffee grinder, goji berries, cacao, nuts, seeds, and whole wheat spaghetti. This has made all the difference. I've had no problem eating fruits for breakfast and now that I have a refrigerator (I rented an apartment with a kitchen) I am keeping lots of lettuce and making large salads every day.

One big lesson I learned today: bananas are plentiful and healthy, but not a lot of fun to eat every day. Today I used them to make my green smoothie. Tasted great with a little pineapple and romaine. That leaves me a lot of other fruit to eat later on when I get hungry again. Then I'll have goji berries and cacao for lunch and some brocholi.

I confess that I have been eating meat at one meal a day. I just haven't figured out how to replace dinner. I dont' have other options like I do at home. If anyone has suggestions please send them. I know, I could just not eat any more and be satisfied with fruit and veggies. I will try. Maybe fasting would help. Or popcorn.

Inspiration

2008-01-02T07:15:00.000-05:00

I limped to the finish line of 2007. The Holidays were a struggle, especially having to eat out frequently. But that is over, I've learned some lessons there and now I'm ready to begin the new year. While I often did not eat as I know I should have I am building on what I learned this past year and moving forward.

And one of the lessons learned in 2007 was that success comes from being motivated. Most of my motivation last year came from the many books I read. Yesterday it came from watching a video. I highly recommend Get Healthy Now! available on Vegsource.com. Over 13 hours of inspiration on this video. I would buy it if only for the talk by my favorite doctor Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

Dr. Fuhrman gives practical information on how to actually go about eating healthy meals. His four food groups are Salads, Soups, Smoothies, and Sorbets. He gives directions for making great salad dressings, all kinds of healthy soups, green smoothies, and sorbets that may make me forget about ice cream. The best thing is that he provides outlines for the basics for all of these meals. I got totally inspired because most importantly he gave me hope, now I could see what I actually could make to eat and how to do it.

In 2007 I learned what not to eat and to eat as much raw food as possible. My resolution for 2008 is to learn what I can eat and how to prepare healthy delicious meals. This video from Vegsource is the beginning. After that...I think I'll take some "uncooking" classes.

For me the key is to get inspired, at least long enough until my food choices become habit and the old ways are totally gone. This is a start.

2007-12-23T17:43:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-22T11:36:00.000-05:00

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.

It's Such A Struggle, Or Am I Just Not Trying

2007-11-05T05:07:00.000-05:00

The purpose of this blog is to share, truthfully, the difficulties of changing my diet and becoming more of a raw foods person. So here is where I tell about how I seem to be going backwards.

I don't feel as if I'm eating worse, but the fact that I've gained back 4 of the 13 pounds I had lost says something. And Saturday night I went out to dinner with Cathy and ate half of one of those "blooming opinions." Then had a chicken sandwich and fries.

I am definitely struggling. I can do breakfast and lunch raw with no problem. It's dinner and after. (And going out to eat.) If I am going to do this I have to come up with alternative meals. Eating cooked foods and other things after super is taking away from all the good I am doing before dinner. The challenge is simple: I have to put the effort into learning how to make actual meals and making them for dinner. Until then I will not get to the next level of raw foods and healthy living. I will get to this, it's just a matte of time. There is no turning back.

Tomorrow I begin my winter traveling, I start with five weeks in Nicaragua. There is no way I can make raw meals there. This is going to prove a real challenge. I'll try to live mostly on fruits, veggies, salads, nuts, and seeds. It'll be dinner that will be the real challenge. I'll keep you posted.

Temptation Everywhere!

2007-10-28T12:33:00.000-04:00

I just barely escaped...from my parents house. I have told them a thousand times: "I do not want to eat cooked food, and definitely no meat!" So, of course, I come over for a short Sunday visit and the first thing my mom says is: "Want some pizza, I've saved some pizza for you?"

"No mom, I don't want any pizza."

Then my dad: "How about a taco?" They've got Taco Bell bags on the counter.

"No dad, I don't want a taco. How about that game last night?"

It has not been a good week. It had been two weeks since my last burger and fries and it was Friday night with nothing to do except go out and eat half a pound of ground up cow. I hated myself the next morning. On top of that I've been slowly eating some of the Halloween candy I bought for next week. I knew I should have left it over at my mom's house.

So here is the story. I really, really, want to eat a raw food diet. I know that my health depends on it. I have been motivating myself by reading all the books and joining a yahoo group on raw foods. I am immersed in it. But I am really struggling. (Am I sounding like an addict?) What else can I do? Maybe I'm being to easy on myself. I cut myself too much slack. It is so easy to go backwards.

When you cut out animal foods, cooked foods, sweets, ice cream, geeze...that doesn't leave you with much except fruit and salads...and nuts. The only hope, as I see it from this hole that I've dug for myself, is to dive into the recipe books and start making some tasty foods. The only problem with that is...I've never been much of a cook. Popcorn and cooking on the grill was about the extent of my chef skills. Anyhow, I don't have a choice, I can't go back to eating meat and rewarding myself with Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I'm gonna have to find my way around the kitchen.

Raw Spirit Festival - The Payoff

2007-10-18T16:48:00.000-04:00

Sunday

I spent most of Sunday attending cooking classes. This was great. I learned the basics of making raw dinners, salads, and deserts. Most of all, I learned the importance of experimenting. Try to include the five tastes (bitter, sweet, sour, salty, and spicy) in everything you prepare. Use a lot of cayenne pepper, tumeric, yacon powder. In recipes, use avocado instead of butter, macadamia nuts instead of dairy.

I did attend one lecture on Sunday, it was given by Matt Monarch. This was titled: Advanced Raw Living Talk. I figured that should be interesting. Matt walks around the stage like a rock star. So, what do you think is the key to advanced raw living? You guessed it...colonics. And lots of them! I swear to god, these people have issues! I walked right out of that talk, I'm not ever going to be an advanced raw person. I like my shit just the way it is.

Enough of the criticisms. While some of the big name speakers were less than impressive, the many people that I got to meet while waiting in the long dinner lines made the whole trip worth while. Here are some of their bits of wisdom, hard-earned over many years:

It takes time to change. I spoke to many people who had been raw for more than ten years. They all told of what a struggle it was in the beginning and that it took years before they ever became 100% raw, if in fact they were 100% at all. It seems that more than a few do eat some cooked food, but don't talk about it.
Don't beat yourself up about eating cooked foods some times. The idea isn't to be 100% raw, the idea is to be 100% healthy.
Don't think that just because it is raw it is good for you. Too much fat from nuts, seeds, avocados, hinders utilization of carbs from fruit.
Don't listen to everyone, experiment, see what works for you. We are all different. Most of all...don't go to extremes.
Make sure you take a B12 supplement, no matter what anyone says, if you are being vegan.

So, my trip wasn't the most fun thing I've done this year, but, it was inspiring. There were plenty of ups and downs, however, what I learned will bring me to the next step in my raw food journey. More importantly, it will help me to become more healthy. And that should be the number one goal.

Raw Spirit Festival - Sedona, Az. (Part Three)

2007-10-17T14:40:00.000-04:00

Saturday

I woke up this morning thinking that life's journey is not about what and where, but about why and how. How am I living my life, and why am I. The what and where is not as important. Think about that while you are drinking your green smoothie David Wolfe.

Cathy "Goji Berry" Silvers began the day with an inspirational talk on how her daughter was responsible for her becoming a raw food person. Sounds like me, right Gina? Cathy's father was Phil Silvers (Sargent Bilko for those of you old enough to remember), and Cathy played Jenny Piccolo on Happy Days. I met her at her booth, she has a new book out called Happy Days Healthy Living. It looks like a good introduction to raw foods. She brought David Wolfe on stage to read a poem. She is doing an Internet television show on healthy living with David.

Later in the morning I ran into Jenna Norwood, who's introduction to raw foods is chronicled in the documentary Supercharge Me! 30 Days Raw. She also was the executive producer. It is an inspiring video to watch as she takes off the weight and becomes healthy eating raw foods.

She was looking pretty good to me. The only thing I didn't like about her film was the part about colonics and watching what was coming out. I think poop should go right into the toilet and not through some see-through tube to be discussed.

After lunch Dr. Jameth Sheridan talked about the benefits of fasting. While we fast, the body is releasing toxins that have been stored. This is a good thing. However, too much detoxification clogs up the blood. High water fruits and veggies help. A juice fast is good. Then his talk turned into an infomercial and he told us about all the products he invented that will make our colons healthier. As for me, I'm of the opinion that if you eat plenty of fruits and veggies the indoor plumbing will take care of itself.

By now I was getting tired of all the big name speakers promoting their products so I went into the Food Demo Room to see what I really came for: to learn how to prepare some raw dishes. I couldn't escape the colon fixation as Chef Suki Zoe of the UK demonstrated how to make "bum friendly" food. She made a really good raw pesto sauce and something she called "squidge."

By 7 p.m. dinner had not been served so I left for my motel. The Red Sox are in the postseason playoffs so I figured I'd watch them. I went to Picasso's, which advertised gourmet salads, but there was a long wait to get in, so I settled on the Bar and Grill next to where I was staying. The Sox game was on the big screen TV, I settled in with some Coronas, and I admit that by the time the Red Sox had lost, I had consumed another burger and fries. I'm eating more meat at this raw food festival than I do at home. F**k.

Raw Spirit Festival - Sedona, Az. (Part Two)

2007-10-16T16:31:00.000-04:00

Friday

I spent the morning trying to see as much of Sedona as I could and arrived at the festival early in the afternoon, in time for several keynote addresses...two memorable, one not.

Viktoras Kulvinskas gave a lively opening presentation. He is the co-founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute and a pioneer in the live food movement. At 70 years old he looked fragile, but energetic.
I learned from the address that often it's not what we eat, but what we don't eat that can help us to get healthy. In other words, don't eat animal products. Our bodies store toxic waste, we need to keep it out of our systems. Heated animal protein causes oxygen depletion and that triggers cancer.

I learned that our belief system does more harm to us than chemicals and poisons. Viktoras said that it is easy to change our thoughts. The mind is stupid, if we monitor it we can silence the unhelpful tapes just by telling our mind to turn away. It is funny that if you tell your mind to stop thinking something, it will obey. Awareness is the key.

Victoria Boutenko spoke before dinner. It was her book, Green For Life, that got me interested in raw foods. Victoria told how humans share 99.4% of our DNA with chimpanzees. They do not get cancer or heart disease. She wanted to know what they eat, maybe that was the key to good health. She found out that their diet consists of 50% fruits, 40% green leafy vegetables, and 10% nuts, seeds, and insects.

So, when she tried to copy the chimps (without the insects) she had a problem...how do you eat all those greens? Eventually she hit on putting them in a blender, which tasted horrible. Then she added fruit to the mix and the whole thing tasted delicious. And Green Smoothies were born.

The advantage to blending greens, besides being able to consume more of them, is that they are much easier to digest having been liquefied. It was the Green Smoothie that got me interested in raw food because for whatever reason, after making them for breakfast everyday, I stopped craving meat.

Victoria recommends that we follow the example of our nearest relatives and consume lots of fruits, Green Smoothies, and a large salad at dinner time. So far, she makes the most sense to me.

Raw Spirit Festival - Sedona, Az. (Part One)

2007-10-15T20:25:00.000-04:00

Thursday

Within ten minutes of reaching Sedona, for the Raw Food Festival, I was at the McDonald's drive-through ordering a Big McTasty and fries.

I had been so good. I planned everything perfectly. I drank my Green Smoothie on the way to the airport. In the terminal I was not at all tempted by all the people eating greasy, on-the-go- breakfasts. When I missed my connection in Newark I ignored the pizzas and ate three bananas instead for lunch.

In Houston I had apples and an avocado for dinner. When I landed in Phoenix I ate almonds as I walked through the food court minefield. But by the time I arrived in Sedona, midnight my time, I had nothing left but hunger. My reward for trying so hard was a restless nights' sleep as the decaying cow flesh worked its way through my system.

Disastrous ending aside, it was not a wasted day of travel. Had I brought two more apples, or a little raw treat, I might have made it. I didn't count on that missed connection and arriving in Sedona so late. Anyhow, I spent a lot of time reading and meditating. Breathe in...healing; breathe out...forgiveness. I practiced awareness and being in the now. Tomorrow is a new day, I'm alive, and I'm learning how to change a lifetime of bad habits. That doesn't happen overnight. Tomorrow starts the Raw Food Festival and I'm going to learn a lot.