Raw In Vietnam

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

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

"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

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

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

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

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...