How do get children to eat veggies?

   Did you every watch someone try to feed a baby their first processed foods? Most of the time, in my experience, the baby spits it out. Babies dont want it - its dead. After months of nice, living breast milk (hopefully), weaning a baby on cooked foods is, in my mind, almost a form of child abuse! They dont like it. You have to force them. Eventually, with enough games and tricks, or added sugars, you can get the baby to eat that stuff probably because they are so hungry theyll eat anything. You are "conditioning" the child to eat dead food and that is a conditioning that is hard to break later in life, even as adults.

   Instead, start your kids on fresh veggies when they are very young, so theyll develop a taste for unprocessed foods right away. You can give them blended salads made in your blender or food processor. You start your blender going with cucumber or tomato cut it into slices. Place these at the bottom of the blender/food processor. These vegetable have the most liquid and will start the process of blending. After that, you may add raw green vegetables. Very young children, they can also have scraped fruit. This will have the consistency of applesauce. Cut an apple or pear in half and scrape it with a spoon and its ready. You will create a fresh apple or pear sauce. Kids love papaya or mango sauce (blend these). But make sure you skin them, and take out the seeds.
   For a nutritious drink for the very young, especially if the mother is deficient in breast milk or not well, try this:
 - 1/3 glass of fresh carrot juice
 - 1/3 cup of raw goat milk mixed
 - green chlorophyll powder.
Blend ingredients. Work up to one tsp. How much you give to the child depends on age and the ability of the baby to digest the ingredients. This is an excellent substitute drink for children who are not breast fed.
   Fresh young Thai coconut milk is also an excellent drink. Open the top of the coconut and pour the coconut ater into the blender. Split the coconut. Scoop out the coconut meat and add to blender. Blend on high until the meat is completely combined with the liquid. It tastes like a wonderful malted and its rich in protein.
   For older children who dont like vegetables, use your dehydrator to make patties or flat breads from the vegetable pulp thats left over after you make your vegetable juice in your juice extractor:
 - 1 cup of carrot pulp or a mixture of vegetable pulps (avoid celery and beet)
 - one cup of ground sunflower seeds
 - poultry seasoning to taste
 - 1 tsp. of miso mixed with a small amount of water
Mix ingredients together. Make into patties and dehydrate for a few hours. Add tomato sauce, black olives and ground up pine nuts as a topping.

Is there a relationship between how much we eat and health?

   Yes, UCLA found that animals fed half of the amount of food that they normally ate, lived twice as long as animals fed their normal diet. This is called calorie restriction. The biggest problem with overeating is that it creates more toxins in the body. The animals that lived longer had less toxins in their bodies. The less toxins and excess materials in our body, the more efficiently our body can function. Of course, a raw, organic diet is naturally low in calories, but higher in nutrition than a high-calorie diet made up of cooked, processed foods.

What about recreational or prescription drugs?

   All drugs are metabolized in the liver and therefore damage the liver. The liver is probably our most important organ. It prepares all the nutrients that feed the entire body. It has a tremendous amount of functions. Drugs take a big toll on the body. Today, with so many drugs advertised on television, you can find a prescription for everything. However, in almost every case, the side effects are worse than the symptom they are trying to cure. There actually is a popular drug for hay fever (sniffles, stuffed nose, sinus congestion) that warns of infertility and leukemia as possible side effects. Obviously, you would be better off with the hay fever. But dont throw the baby out with the bath water. For crisis intervention (i.e., emergencies) you may need to follow a health professionals advice to save your life. In that case, bend the rules! You can cleanse and detoxify from the medical treatments when you are back on your feet.

Is there a more ideal diet to slow aging

   

    There is no perfect diet, but there definitely is a very ideal diet. The ideal diet includes plenty of green vegetables, some fruits, a few nuts and grains, plenty of pure water and whole food supplements including antioxidants. As we discussed earlier, the nutrients in todays food arent what they used to be. Our ability to absorb all the nutrients present in our food may be lacking. Our digestive systems may be lacking the necessary enzymes to digest the foods. Whole concentrated food supplements are easily absorbed by the body which gives our bodies a boost and help us to stay younger longer.

What about breads? How do you meet that need?

   Bread is not even a nutrient, or even one of the 12 food groups. You do not need bread and are better off without it. Most breads, of course, are made from highly refined white flour, which has had the good stuff removed. All breads, even whole grains, contain some gluten, which is a form of glue (remember when you made paper mache out of white flour). It clogs the colon and leads to a lot of disease. However, bread is addictive. Its a comfort food for many. In fact, its part of our addiction to carbohydrates and sugars, making it hard to give up...hence the feeling that it must be something your body needs. Instead, learn how to use a dehydrator to make healthful and delicious raw crackers.

Are avocados fattening?

   Avocados have anywhere from a 5-10% fat content, depending on the variety of avocado. They contain large amounts of lipase. The lipase which is an enzyme helps digests fat and is able to burn more fat than the avocado contains. If a person eats raw avocados and plenty of vegetables during the day, without cooked food or oils, chances are they will lose weight. A director of a famous weight loss program was put on an avocado and salad diet. In a very short time she went from a size 18 to a size 12.

Do we need fats in our diet?

   We need a lot of fats. I advocate good fats, such as avocados, unrefined oils, like olive oil and flax seed oil. Also wonderful tasting young soft coconuts, pine nuts, raw butter, tahini, almond butter and macadamia nuts. The raw free-range egg yolk has excellent fat and protein in it.

What about nuts & seeds and cashews or peanuts?

   The sunflower seed is a wonderful food. Make a sunflower cheese which is a base for some dressings, deserts, patties and breads. Use almonds and other nuts in making dressings and they are a base for loaves and sauces which youll find in this recipe book. Its also wise to use sesame seeds. They are a very rich source of calcium. Cashews and peanuts are not nuts. They are in the bean family. Dont advocate using legumes. Legumes are very hard to digest. Peanuts also carry aflatoxins which are not good for your health. If you ate cashews raw you would become ill. Raw cashews are steamed to get the poisons out.

Are fruits good for us at all?

   Its not good to eat fruit in any excess. For most people, especially in the beginning of a raw food lifestyle, they have far too much sugar. They also do not have a good mineral balance nor much fiber. The exception to that rule are the papaya and mango which have a higher mineral value than most vegetables but not much fiber. I also like pineapple, which is loaded with papain, a powerful digestive enzyme. If you have trouble with fruit because of the sugar content try eating berries, granny smith apples and prickly pears. Fruits that have a high good fat content are baby coconuts which are sold in Asian markets and health food stores, avocados and durians also sold in Asian markets. Foods that have a high fat content also contain lipase which eats up fat.

Are there any foods that can aid digestion?

   There are specific foods that can aid in digestion. Fresh pineapple and papaya eaten with each meal may aid in digestion. Spicy food such as kim chi, pickled food and salsa aid in digestion. People do much better with enzyme supplements. Our enzymes vary according to which part of the digestive system you are having a problem with. Sometimes you may need both animal and plant based enzymes depending on what part of the digestive track is not balanced. To have total success with nutrition and good health your digestive tract needs to be working well. Also a purification program works well for digestion because it helps rejuvenate the digestive tract.

How do you get a variety of foods only eating vegetables and fruits?

In the beginning you may get bored eating just fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. But that is because your body is adjusting. The truth is that you get bored and need variety only when you are starving, even slowly starving, on a typical cooked, processed diet. Your body knows what it needs nutritionally. After decades of not getting adequate nutrition, your body is desperately looking wherever it can to find something nurturing to eat, so you get cravings and a desire for a lot of variety.

 Conversely, after years of eating raw, whole, nutritionally dense foods, your body starts enjoying everything you put in it immensely. Everything tastes wonderful! In addition, you lose the cravings and the need for a lot of variety. You only desire what you need and you enjoy that more than enough to satisfy you. Its called intuitive eating or conscious eating and comes for most people after many years of cleansing and eating only whole, raw foods. Until then, during the transitional period, there are lots of things you can to that are not difficult to make whole foods more fun and appetizing and feed your need for variety. Preparation is the key to variety and taste. This recipe book describes how to change the textures and tastes of vegetables using your blender, food processor, dehydrator and juicer and by using herbs and seasonings. The variety of dishes that can be made from simple vegetables is only limited by your efforts and creativity.

How do you get your protein?

   When you mix two or more seeds or nuts together you usually get a complete protein. Many grasses and leaves, such as wheatgrass, have complete proteins. Thats why elephants get so big. They dont need to eat cows to do it.
   Combining any two of the following raw proteins will give you a complete protein: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pistachio, sesame seeds, almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts wild rice (soaked), pecans, raw red potatoes, black ripe olives, beet tops, steel cut oats, buckwheat. Bee pollen, brewers yeast, dulse, egg yolks (raw organic free range), raw cheese (goat) and mushrooms.

   You can also get some of your protein from raw organic food supplements in powder or tablet form - such as super green powders. If you use eggs in your diet, its best to get eggs from free-range chickens that have not been fed chemicals. Avoid eating the white of an egg raw. Its not digestible unless cooked. Some raw foodists continue to eat fish, especially during their transitional periods. If you choose to do that, get wild fish, not farm breed. You can soak the fish (dont use shell fish) in cold pressed oil and apple cider vinegar overnight (wild sockeye salmon is recommended) with cayenne pepper with other spices and a touch of tamari sauce. It will resemble and taste like cooked fish. You can use it for a sushi dish. If youre going to eat cheese use raw goat food products. Goats cheese and milk is easier to digest than cow products which are notorious for creating allergic reactions.

What about sprouts?

   Sprouts can be useful, particularly during a cleansing program, due to their dense nutrition and live enzymes. However, most mammals in nature do not eat sprouts that are grown in water in a jar. Also, many young sprouts, especially alfalfa, have toxins in the seed to protect them. As the sprouts grow, their toxicity becomes much less. Many prefer to grow and eat young greens, like buckwheat greens. They are almost like sprouts, but grown in soil and harvested while still very young.

What about tofu?

   Tofu is a cooked product and difficult to digest. Fermented soybeans, like unpasteurized miso, are great, however, because they sit in barrels for two years where they are left to ferment. This type of soybean is predigested and is an excellent protein.

What about legumes like lentil or beans?

   Raw legumes are very hard to digest. They also have a high concentration of protein that makes it difficult for the body to cope with. Soybeans can have 20-28% protein. Seeds or nuts are around 10% protein. Oats are around 10% protein. Other grains are around 12%. Some legumes, like mung beans and lentils, can be sprouted and are delicious.

What do you think about food combining?

   Food combining is based on two important concept: enzymes and transit time. Transit time refers to how long it takes certain foods to pass through the stomach. It turns out that under ideal conditions, all the food groups digest a little better when you eat only from one group or a couple of compatible groups. That is because they all use the same enzymes for digestion. So veggies digest better with other veggies, while fruits like to be with fruits. Then there is the issue of the transit time. Fruits digest faster than proteins. If you eat them at the same time, the fruits will sit in your stomach too long, until the proteins are digested. This is a recipe for autointoxication. Essentially, your stomach becomes an alcohol still, with the mixture of carbs, proteins and sugar fermenting into alcohol while you wait for digestion to complete. This is generally not a good thing hence we try to combine food properly, which is too long a subject to cover here. However, lots of info is available online.

   Food combining is less of a problem for beginners or people who are not 100% raw. For them food combining is sort of like fine tuning. If you are just starting out on a whole, raw lifestyle, there are more important issues to deal with so dont let the food combining issue get in your way.

What about minerals?

   The best organic minerals that come from plants. Plants absorb inorganic mineral from soil, water and air and convert them into live organic colloidal minerals. Minerals are best consumed in organic, colloidal form, in whole foods or raw food supplements. If you cook your vegetables youre going to need at least five times as much minerals to replace the minerals lost in cooking. Cooking foods or processing food converts the minerals into inorganic form that cant readily supply nourishment for the cells. Whole natural foods and food supplements are enzymatically alive. Synthetic supplements are dead chemicals, which the body may treat as toxic and which can cause deficiencies, imbalances or other bad reactions. They will not build health. Health requires live biochemicals that are readily accepted and used for maintenance, repair, energy and function. Your body know the difference.

Is it healthy to be a vegetarian?

   Whether you can be healthy if you are a vegetarian, even though a lot of research point to the fact that a live food vegetarian diet is an ideal diet for people. Vegetarianism, however, has gotten a bad rep, because many people try it then dont feel well, have less energy and maybe even get sick. This is not because its unhealthy. It because of the large amount of tissue destruction which most of us have within our body long before we started out on a vegetarian diet, plus dietary habits that dont provide complete nutrition that even vegetarians need.
   But you can make the transition and very successfully, if you decide thats what you want to do. It just takes some time and education. It begins with a first step that requires some work. The work of means the removal of a lifetime of your bodys accumulated toxins, heavy metals, chemicals, dead tissue cells and metabolic waste.

  If you are a vegetarian, its important that you have complete proteins at your meals. You can mix a combination of soaked seeds such as sunflower, flax, pumpkin, sesame, its best to have your proteins during the early part of the day before 4:00 pm, Digestion works best from 7:00 am till about 4:00 pm. thats why overweight people are told not to eat after 6:00 pm. To make sure you are getting adequate nutrition and assimilation, its best to take whole food raw supplements with your meals.
 
   The main theme to being and staying healthy is eating as much whole foods as you can enjoy and assimilate. Every opportunity the body has, it will attempt to cleanse itself, especially when you eat whole foods. The mode of cleansing is to release chemicals, metals, accumulated undigested food residues and old body waste into the bloodstream. The bodys job is to carry the toxic material to the organs of elimination for removal of the poisons from the body. Unfortunately in most people bodies, the organs of elimination are already overworked and are unable to successfully remove this waste fast enough. For the most part the waste will remain in the blood and lymph until it is reabsorbed among the tissues. Thats why during the transition period it may be beneficial if indicated, to check for heavy metal toxicity or for chemical poisonings. A purification program will support your body when it is triggered into a cleansing mode from eating tissue cleansing food such as fruits and vegetables. One way to make sure the body is utilizing whole foods is by using tasty recipes with condiments to make the digestive juices flow.
   Only drink 1/2 glass of water with your meal, when taking your whole food supplements, so as to not dilute the hydrochloric acid in your digestive system thats needed to digest. Again the best way to decrease the tissue destruction from within the body is through a detoxification purification program. Once the body is cleaned out you will get less tissue destruction, so you will feel better physically and mentally. Supplementation with whole, organic foods and herbs is the best way to handle problems that are present due to insufficient nutrition. Once you get the body cleaned up there will be less tissue destruction and less demand for the nutrients to replace destroyed tissue cells. Eventually you may be able to reduce or even eliminate a lot of the nutritional supplements you need at first.

How to find out if we get real raw whole food supplements?

   The word natural on a vitamin has little value. What you want to know is whether a supplement is a whole raw food complex or a combination of chemical substances. Most vitamin supplements are synthetic. Most so-called whole food supplements are a mix of synthetic or isolated vitamins, minerals, proteins and a little bit of dehydrated foods.

   Nature doesnt produce vitamins, minerals, or any other food parts in an isolated state. Everything is merged and blended for the bodys need. If you think that more is better in vitamins, youll soon be taking mega doses, or high potency refined separated nutrients which are artificially manufactured chemical supplements. These supplements are disassembled and unbalanced. This may appear work for a short period of time. It will stimulate or suppress your system just like a drug. Eventually this method will backfire and cause complications and imbalances. Your body will work to eliminate the excess and what it perceives as nonfood. Synthetic vitamins, herbs and isolated nutrients have drug effects on the body. The body strives to eliminate as much as possible as soon as it can. The liver works to render the product less toxic. The rate of circulation increases to get rid of the substance through blood vessels and the kidney tries to eliminate it in the urine. Properly taken, whole, food-based nutritional supplements improve the dietary deficiencies, aid the body in allowing additional opportunities to build, maintain and improve the function of the bodys deficient areas. Nutritional supplements help to compensate for poor dietary habits and nutrients lost in cooking or the processing of food, low food values due to chemical fertilizers, and nutrients lost as a result of poor digestion or absorption.
   Food based, whole supplements contain natural sources of nutrients in their original form - as mart of a whole food matrix that are always found together in nature. For example, you probably know that d-alpha tocopherol is the natural form of vitamin E and believe it is better than dl-alpha tocopherol, the synthetic E. Natural d-alpha is produced from refined vegetable oil - so is removed from its natural matrix. So neither form of vitamin E contains all the normal ingredients is has when found in nature. Taking alpha-tocopherol in its natural form still is a tiny, isolated portion of the whole complex and can create imbalances. At the very least, it can increases the need for other tocopherols. So I prefer using a whole raw food supplement to get my vitamin E. The same thing occurs with vitamin A and vitamin D. Fractionated or synthetic vitamins can be toxic. But its almost impossible to get too much from foods or raw whole food supplementation. Some B vitamins are produced through bacterial synthesis. These are bacteria that are cultivated to excrete large amounts of chemicals. While this bacteria is a natural source it is not really food for humans.
   Not suggesting that you throw the baby out with the bath water. After decades of making ourselves sick before discovering raw food, your body many need time to adapt - and what you do during this transitional period may be very different from what is ideal down the road. Also, there are times when our bodies need crisis intervention to reverse a chronic illness or even save a life. Thats when a doctor or health professional may prescribe medications or supplements in their most concentrated forms. Always tell people to follow their health professionals advice in these situations. After you are back on your feet, there are many things you can do to help your body recover.

Do I need supplements when I eat raw, organic foods?

   Yes ... and no. In an ideal world, everything you eat would be packed with nutrition and provide no toxins. Also, the food you eat would be free not only of chemical toxins, but antibiotics. So the natural flora or probiotics, in your guts would flourish, helping your body digest and absorb nutrition optimally. So there would be no need to take probiotics or digestive aids. That diet would be in total harmony with your environment, too. There would be no air pollution, increasing the need for nutrients that aid in detoxifying the pollution you breath. The water would be pure and clean. There would be no need to drink bottled water or invest in expensive filtration systems and your body wouldnt need to cleanse itself from the many toxins we drink in regardless. Finally, the home you live in would have no electromagnetic radiation coursing through its walls. There would be no need for your body to repair cells damaged by microwaves, radio waves, EM fields and geopathic stress.

   In this ideal world, you would be enjoying optimal health every day, and getting everything you need from whole, raw, organic fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables. But that world doesnt exist any more. Instead, we live in toxic environments floating in a sea of pollution, nutritionally deficient foods, stressful lifestyles and more. There is no escape, even if you choose to live in the most remote areas. Our bodies have been bombarded by toxins and disease for decades, and it wont stop soon. So now we have to bend over backwards to get healthy and stay that way. What was once natural and effortless for our ancestors is now inconvenient at best, and often down right difficult to do. Today we have to go out of our way to eat healthy. We may have to do colonics, liver cleanses, kidney cleanses and who knows what else just to counter the results of being on the planet. So we need to give our bodies as much support as possible. The first thing we can do is not put anything in our mouth that adds to the problem. Once we start on that, we need to help our bodies cope with getting healthy and staying that way. It isnt easy for a sick body to get well. It doesnt happen over night.
   Properly taken, nutritional supplements aid the body in allowing additional opportunities to build, maintain and improve the functions of the bodys deficient areas. With whole food supplementation you are compensating for years of poor dietary habits, low food values, nutrients lost in cooking and food processing as well as nutrients not absorbed by the body due to poor digestion. Its easy to believe that degenerative disease is inevitable and the result of living in our polluted world. But theres still more to trying to figure out this puzzle of wellness than that. The reason that its easy to believe this is because pollution does play such an obvious role in the breakdown of health. But the truth is that most degenerative diseases are in the blood, lymph, tissues and right down to the cells and began many years before symptoms appeared. The good news is that it isnt too late. A healthy raw food diet, natural cleansing aids and appropriate whole food supplements when needed will turn you around!

What can we do to prevent this?

   The liver works to filter the blood. What happens when the livers filter becomes congested with an excessive amount of waste? The liver must perform some 500 different valuable functions to keep the body well. When the liver becomes congested with waste from undigested, unusable food residue, especially refined fats, it can cause an excess of cholesterol which than forms on the arterial walls. As this cholesterol thickens on the arterial wall, small pieces flake and join the circulating blood. When these small particles contact each other, they stick together forming larger masses that the liver has to filter. This cholesterol will, over time, fill the gallbladder and clog the liver. Your gallbladder is an emulsifier, it acts like a detergent, breaking down fats and oils by turning them into a liquid. Once you have cholesterol build up on the arterial walls, it will eventually turn into plaque material. In time, in the gallbladder itself, these cholesterol crystals form little green balls of cholesterol in the gall bladder. This will start causing a backing up of the same material into the liver, creating a fatty liver, which again reduces the livers filtering capabilities. When the liver cant keep up with filtering enough of the cholesterol crystals from the blood, the blood starts to get saturated with a heavier concentration of the cholesterol crystals which increases the levels that show up in blood serum cholesterol test. The way to remove waste material from the body and help support the liver is to begin with a Purification Program. That way youre starting with a clean slate and you can get the most benefit out of your healthy diet.

How does a person gets a degenerative disease?

   Many degenerative diseases can be the result waste materials or toxins that have accumulated in your body over a lifetime. These toxins build up and begin to block vital processes in the body, creating chemical and energetic imbalances.
   Having a body filled with "garbage" then becomes an invitation for those critters thrive on garbage. If you left garbage in your backyard you can expect that you would have ants, roaches, rats and other creepy crawlies eating it up. The bugs are obviously there because of the presence of waste matter. Its the same in your body. Viruses and bacteria that your immune system may normally handle begin to thrive. Their presence causes the body to shift into a certain "red alert" reaction in the presence of accumulated waste. These reactions might be call infections, inflammations and allergies. So many, if not all, of these diseases are the result of a body that is out of balance, in disharmony or disease.

Is that the only reason my body has a hard time with whole food?

   According to the enzyme bank theory, we only have a certain number of enzymes inour body from the time we are born until we die. When you eat cooked, processed foods, your body comes to your rescue by providing enzymes to digest it. As you get older, you may not have the enzymes necessary to digest your food properly because you have used them up digesting cooked processed food.

   There are other reasons you may continue to have problems even though you are trying very hard to make positive changes in your health. Your digestive system  may be compromised after years of eating a Standard American Diet (SAD). Your intestinal tract maybe coated from old undigested foods, preventing good nutrition from getting into your blood stream. Your organs may be slowing down in their ability to process foods. This prevents good health due to clogged plumbing in your digestive tract from a back up of undigested foods that never left your body. You may have lost organs due to surgery. Poisons and toxic substances that are stored in body fat and in joints for years can cause aches and pain.
   As you go up the food chain, there is an increase in the toxic load on your body. Plants may have small amounts of pesticide residue on them - but these are water soluble so you can wash that off. A small amount of toxins make it into the plants, but a healthy body can usually eliminate those. Animals eat plants - tons and tons of plants. Their bodies then concentrate these toxins. For example,in the oceans, tiny animals eat plankton, getting tiny amounts of toxins like mercury. No big deal yet. But bigger fish eat smaller fish, concentrating the mercury at higher levels in their bodies. When you go all the way up the food chain to tuna, you get the highest concentrations of mercury.

What is the easiest way to switch from unhealthy to nutritious foods?

   If youve tried changing to a lifestyle based more on whole, live foods and are having problems with fatigue, indigestion, gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea and a host of other symptoms, your body is still trying to tell you something. Dont get disappointed if your health problems dont suddenly disappear. After many years, or even decades, of eating cooked and processed foods, your body may not be able to properly process natural foods. As your body adapts, cleanses and heals, many of these symptoms will disappear - and most will actually reverse. Youll discover more energy, better digestion, greater endurance and much more.

Does eating processed food lead to the decay of the body?

   Refining destroys much of the nutrition in our food. But worse, eating refined foods can use up more nutrients than they supply to the body. Processed foods also contain artificial ingredients, genetically modified ingredients, pesticide residues, antibiotic residues and numerous other chemicals, many of which create nutritional imbalances in the body. Too much of one nutrient may create symptoms of a deficiency of another nutrient.

   Whole natural and unprocessed foods are the most important foods you can eat. Some dark green, leafy vegetable greens, for example, can have a similar composition to blood. The fibers in the vegetables also sweep the waste out of your intestines. Processed foods must steal certain nutrients from the cells to complete their metabolization. This unhealthy situation can lead to poisons being trapped in the body.

Most Natural Weight Loss Program

Discover the easiest, fastest & most natural weight loss program available - raw, whole food !!!

   In todays world, raw food competes not only with cooked foods, but with convenience foods. How many diet plans have been abandoned by millions because they were not convenient, let alone fun! Today there are many new raw, organic snack foods becoming available, usually in health food store and markets. ForeverGreen, for example, offers many products that give you the best of both worlds - whole food products that taste great and are convenient to use! These are dehydrated, mostly organic and live, raw foods in convenient form - shipped right to your door.

Poor Nutrition Can Make You Fat

   Cooking food destroys many more nutrients than just enzymes. Many vitamins can be destroyed. Proteins can become caramelized, making then indigestible. Carbohydrates can be broken down into simple sugars that are not good for overall health in excess. Fats can become oxidized. Many nutrients can actually brake down, recombine chemically and turn into toxins like free radicals, carcinogens and mutagens. So you are not only getting less nutrition when you cook food, you are potentially making yourself sick. Less nutrition means you body could be starving while you are stuffing your face, making you want to eat more.
   When that happens, your body receives a signal that it needs to store fat to prevent starvation and will hold on to even more fat. This results in a vicious cycle of eating more and more and still feeling hungry. Combine the physical effects with the mental effects of poor digestion and insufficient enzymes with your natural reaction to all of this emotionally and it can lead to eating disorders, depression and anxiety as well.
   On the other hand, when you eat mostly fresh raw, whole foods, then you get dense nutrition and enough enzymes to digest your foods properly. If you eat cooked foods, youll be eating dead foods that have no enzymes. That means your body must scavenge enzymes for digestion from other metabolic processes in your body, wasting energy and resources. However, living food enzymes will over time restore energy and stamina and rebuild your healthy metabolism of all nutrients, including fats. When you feel better physically, youll feel better emotionally, too - and eat even less!
   Todays modern lifestyle kills enzymes in more ways than just cooking food. Stress can damage enzymes. Food additives can kill them. Frequent air travel, work outs, coffee breaks, air pollution, food irradiation and poor sleep - all kill enzymes. No wonder we are enzyme deficient! So eating raw, live, enzyme-rich foods is more than just a weight loss or digestion issue - it affects your whole life, your whole being. In fact, youll even be happier - and have more fun!

Your enzymes and your weight

  Heres the bottom line for weight loss: with a healthy digestive system, it is almost impossible to be gain weight on with whole, raw, live foods! Imagine that! You can eat anything you want, as much as you want (as long as it is raw, whole, live food) and not gain an ounce in most cases. Exceptions include people with digestive or glandular disorders - though they will probably do better on raw, live foods. When you first start eating more raw foods, you may need awhile to cleanse, detoxify and rebuild your digestive system before noticing substantial weight loss. A weight problem is not an isolated issue, but is part of your whole being. An imbalance in one part of the body effects your entire system. Weight is a symptom of what is going on with your elimination system, glandular system, emotions, sleep patterns, stress levels, liver, colon, skin, lungs, blood, spirit and energy levels.

   The enzymes found naturally in whole, live, raw foods help with obesity at the whole being level. You see, enzymes do much more in your body than help digest food. Enzymes are responsible for every single chemical reaction in every single cell of your body. All your minerals, herbs, vitamins and hormones cannot do their jobs without enzymes. Your cant lift an arm or think one thought without the help of enzymes. In fact, you could say that enzymes are, biologically speaking, the source of life. A diet without a source of live enzymes is removed from the source of life. Things removed from their source of life slowly begin to die. For us, that leads to disease, excessive weight gain, depression - many of the maladies that plague us today.
   Though it is true that your body can manufacture the enzymes needed for digestion,  believe in the enzyme bank theory, which says that our bodies have an enzyme account. Every time we make a withdrawal from the account unnecessarily, the lower the balance. So as we get older, we have less and less ability to make enzymes. So getting as many enzymes as possible in our diet can make it easier for our bodies in the long run, and may make more enzymes available to us if we are running low in our account.
   With weight loss, for example, lipase, a fat splitting enzyme, is found abundantly in raw, live foods. However, few of us eat enough raw foods to get enough lipase to burn even a normal amount of fat, not to mention any excess. Lipase helps your body in digestion, fat distribution and fat burning for energy. Lipase breaks down and dissolves fat throughout the body. Without lipase, fat stagnates and accumulates. You can see it on your hips, thighs, buttocks and the stomach. Protease is another enzyme for maintaining a healthy body. Protease helps break down proteins and eliminate toxins. Eliminating toxins is essential when you are burning fat. Your body stores excess toxins in body fat. As your body begins to burn this fat the toxins are released into your system. This can sometimes cause water retention and bloating. Since Protease attacks and eliminates toxins, it is crucial to have plenty of protease during fat loss.

Cleanse your mind, emotions and spirit

   With weight management challenges, you need to carefully watch for emotional and mental triggers until your awareness of these have reached a point where they change naturally. This is where many dieters give up. At first it can be very difficult to be detached and nonjudgmental about our triggers. We all to often end up eating so we dont have to look at what we see about when were not numbing ourselves with food. If we ever get past that point, true emotional healing and mental re-patterning can occur. So try to objectively observe what your triggers may be. Research this field for yourself and find the resources you resonate with, from books and videos to workshops and spas.

   Some activities can help re-direct cravings. Take a walk, dance to some good music, take a hot shower, drink some herb tea, do something creative, call a friend, prepare a new raw recipe that takes some effort and time, cuddle with a loved one, meditate, chant or pray, drink more water (should be drinking water every two to three hours anyway), inhale essential oils, read a book. Laugh and have fun! Some people like to get counseling or join a weight loss group. Take the risk of talking with others who are going through the same things you are. It will be invaluable support. If your emotional baggage is contributing to your weight, you might find that a release ceremony is effective for releasing past wounds, hurt feelings and fear based on past experience. There are numerous workshops, books, videos, audio programs and websites dedicated to these subjects. Research them for yourself to find the ones you resonate with and that are in harmony with your own beliefs.
  Of course, no weight loss program would be complete without including exercise. Planning on joining a gym and doing more exercise, but dont hold your breath! Also do Tai Ji Quan almost every day. Tai Ji Quan or Qi Gong is great for building energy, toning the body and enhancing lymph circulation and cleansing.

Build Your Body

   Once you get your body clean and feeling healthier, you can turn your attention to building your system up. This is a vital second step on the path to permanent weight loss. This is another area for personal research, but here are some areas to consider.
   Colloidal Minerals
One of the overall good health supplements for normal weight, pain reduction and just keeping the body functioning properly is colloidal minerals. There are many good formulas out there. You may not dont need minerals every day. Raw foodists eventually develop powerful intuitive eating abilities. Dowsing or muscle-testing is also great.

   Essential Oils
Nothing works faster to help me relax than a few whiffs of the right essential oils. The right oils can be a valuable part of your weight loss program. It’s similar in thinking to aromatherapy. Regular inhalation of certain essential oils, such as grapefruit oil, has been shown to aid in appetite reduction, while others work remarkably well for relaxation. The use of essential oils isnt a magic bullet. But they can help you with food craving and hunger. The aroma of essential oils like orange, lemon, grapefruit, rosemary and peppermint can also help provide energy during workouts and when you feel sluggish. Use oils every day. Since many are antibacterial as well, they are great for working and living in todays polluted world and I feel that they give me a certain amount of protection from toxicity in the air, foods and general environment.

Cleanse Your Body

      The Colon
   If you are not having two to three good bowel movements every day, you probably have a toxic colon. If the colon is not fully releasing the waste that accumulates there after each meal, that waste rots, turnings putrid and toxic. This toxic waste leaks back through the wall of the colon into your bloodstream creating dis-ease and making it harder to lose weight This also creates a condition where your body feels it needs more nutrition, sending you signals to eat even more food. When your system is toxic, you have less energy for exercise, which can also contribute to excess weight. In every instance of weight management with which I have been involved, there was toxicity of the colon. When the colon is toxic, it is also a breeding ground for parasites, causing yet another toxicity problem that can interfere with weight loss. Parasites are often hidden cause of colon toxicity, low energy and weight imbalance. You can pick up parasites almost anywhere these days: walking barefoot in the yard and house, if you have indoor pets, eating greens that have not been properly washed, swimming, eating cooked meats. A good herbal parasite cleanse might be just the thing for you. One of the first thing usually recommend for people who want to lose weight is a good colon cleansing. Remember, if you have any medical problems with your colon, such as colitis or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, please check with your doctor first - your digestive system can be gently healed with more live foods, but it may require a slower, specialized approach.
      Your Liver
   The liver is a vital organ for the health of your body. Its impossible to maintain good health with an unhealthy liver. Due to high pollution levels in air, water and cooked food, a liver cleanse can be helpful before beginning a raw diet. An effective liver cleanse can take weeks. Just taking something for a few days is not sufficient and not even a good idea as it can lead to a “healing crisis” or sudden shock to the body. If you havent done a good liver cleanse within the past 6 months to a year, a toxic liver may be part of your inability to lose weight. Research the various programs available and choose one for yourself. Prefer an herbal liver cleanse that includes milk thistle, one of the best herbs for cleansing the liver.
      Your Blood
   If the colon and/or liver are toxic, believe your blood is probably toxic, too. To support your body in losing weight, believe that it is good idea to cleanse your blood. As always, research available products and programs yourself. Prefer a gentle herbal approach that includes red clover, one of the best blood cleansers. Red Clover is gentle and very effective, even for children.
      Yeast
   Yeast is another hidden, insidious obstacle to weight loss. Make sure that you dont have a Candida problem. If you do, there are herbal products to deal with it naturally. Research and find a good formula. Eliminate sugar, wheat and white flour, MSG (monosodium glutimate) and Aspartame (NutraSweet) - this is automatic if you eat raw foods. Initially, as your cells dump the candida into your blood, it may seem worse, but eventually a raw diet will eliminate the excess candida.
      Misc
   For reducing heavy metal toxins, the herb Cilantro is good. Just munch on it fresh or make a tincture. There are many other cleanses (kidneys, lungs, etc.) but these are the major ones. Believe that it is important to eliminate the biggest nasties from your diet right away: refined sugar, MSG, aspartame (NutraSweet) and hydrogenated oils. Stevia is the best herbal alternative to sugar, though it may take some getting used to. An herb called Gymnema Sylvestre is also useful in dealing with reducing sugar in your diet, as it helps directly with sugar cravings.
 

Weight Loss is About More Than Just Diet

    Wellness is holistic - all aspects of what makes us human: mind, body, emotions, Spirit, affect our health and happiness. If you can accept this interconnected perspective of life, if you see your health as related to the emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of your life, then the raw food lifestyle is for you. Raw food isnt a magic bullet. Strictly speaking, it isnt even a weight loss program. It is part of a healthier, new lifestyle that requires responsibility, commitment and time to incorporate properly into your life.

   When you make that commitment, you are empowering yourself to take the first steps towards a lifestyle that is intrinsically based on nutrient dense organic whole food. Such a diet is naturally rich in all the nutrition your body really needs, while low in carbohydrates and calories. Numerous studies have proven that a low calorie diet leeds to weight loss and increased longevity, a longer healthier life. Thats simply the natural result of a raw foods based lifestyle - making it almost effortless once you learn how to do it and get comfortable incorporating it into your own life.
   The reason most so-called weight loss programs fail is because there are at least three things you must do before even starting a new diet and exercise plan that most of these programs dont even consider, which can lead to unrealistic expectations and impatience.
   If you dont prepare you body beforehand, you can experience uncomfortable detoxing as your body suddenly dumps toxins trapped in fat into your system. This can create cravings for cooked foods, believe it or not and other unhealthy things. You may also have deeply embedded lifestyle patterns that are difficult to suddenly change. After many years, or even decades, of eating cooked and processed foods that dont fully nurture your body, your body has made several adaptations at the metabolic level in order to survive. Changing these takes a little time and varies from person to person. So before attempting to jump into a raw food diet, it is important to do these three things, gently:
   1. Cleanse your body of toxins built up by years of cooked foods
   2. Re-build your body, especially your immune, digestive and elimination systems.
   3. Cleanse your mind, emotions & spirit.