I’m often asked why I choose to live on a mostly raw diet. When I began to understand that life creates life, it made the raw transition an easy one. Enzymes, which are present in live vegan foods, fuel the human body with nutrients that are almost completely devoid in cooked foods.
Since eating a roughly 80 per cent raw diet I have loads of energy, my skin has much better tone, my thinking is clear and I simply feel great.
Here’s are some basics:
Read More Post a comment (0)
As Christmas day nears, I’ve been thinking about jolly ol’ Santa and his love for milk and cookies … how his turning vegan could be the biggest gift to vegan activists everywhere.
Imagine the influence he’d have. Children worldwide would be begging their parents for freshly-made almond milk with a side of raw vegan truffle balls, forget the cows, thank you very much.
So, without further adieu, here is my letter to Santa this year—10 reasons he should go vegan. I just hope he gets it on time…
1. Your cholesterol levels, Santa, would be back to normal. No more need for those pesky GP visits and poisonous pharmaceuticals;
2. Your energy levels would skyrocket, especially if you adopt a mostly raw diet. Raw, live foods are packed with enzymes, which are the givers of life. Kids everywhere want to see you around for a long time to come. Eating raw and vegan is healthy for you, animals and the planet.
3. Santa, I know you love animals. What bigger gift could you give to them than not eating or wearing them?
4. I don’t mean to be rude, Santa, but being overweight is a serious risk to your health. Did you know tummy fat raises your risk for high blood cholesterol by about 50 percent? A healthy vegan diet will have you at your optimal weight in no time.
5. Most cookies are laden with butter and processed sugar. Many of the mass-produced kind are even worse, with ingredients made up of numbers and boasting names impossible to pronounce. Santa, do you know where your cookies came from?
6. Drinking cows milk has been linked to all sorts of dis-eases, including asthma, osteoporosis, heart disease, diabetes and more. Making milk from nuts is a cinch and doesn’t require harming animals or using massive amounts of the earth’s energy.
7. I hate to be the one to break it to you Santa, but that big fur collar that keeps you warm as you deliver your presents once belonged to real, live animals — defenseless creatures who were tortured and skinned without a second thought. I’ve also been told that fur has formaldehyde in it, which has been known to cause cancers. I don’t want you getting sick, Santa.
8. I know eating on the run must be tempting to a busy man like you, Santa. But I think you should know that fast food meats have thousands of additives that are addictive and fattening. Much of the meat on menus today are also full of pesticides and hormones.
9. Bacon and pork may be tempting, but did you know that pigs are more intelligent than dogs? Word has it they are intelligent as a three year old. I know you’d never eat a three year old, would you, Santa?
10. Those fancy leather seats in your sleigh may be comfy Santa, but did you know how many cows died to make them? If you compare your ride to the average Mercedes Benz, my guess is around seven.
So Santa, if you’re reading this, I urge you to take the pledge. Go vegan in 2010. Imagine the energy you’d have delivering presents next year. Those rosy cheeks would have a truly healthy glow, Mrs Claus could learn new culinary skills, whipping up raw vegan recipes to share with the elves. I’m certain Rudolph would be grateful too, knowing for certain he won’t be re-named venison when it’s time for retirement.
And to PETA, I think I’m onto something. I’ll let you take it from here.
I’ll admit I’ve been guilty of thinking certain celebrities know everything. As if they’re born with an inner knowing of the best way to do things; carrying with them buckets of life-enhancing advice, pouring it out to star-struck interviewers who pass on their golden words to beguiled fans.
But as I was watching Top Chef the other night, I was jolted out of my celebutastic faze when guest judge, vegetarian Natalie Portman, stared at a plate full of vegetables and remarked something along the lines of: “Where’s the protein? As a vegetarian I find it hard to get my protein and this dish doesn’t supply it.”
Say wha? Does the widely adored once-vegan not know that vegetables, especially the raw variety, are packed with enzymes, which are amino acids that contain protein? And that you can actually have too much of the stuff? That it’s just a big ol’ myth that those on a vege-based diet will never be golden protein children like our meat-eating pals? That man made protein powders are über bad for you? That protein is a word that has been over-hyped and over-sold by companies trying to make big bucks from us unsuspecting plant people? Apparently not.
While I still think Nat is a great role model for those considering a plant-based diet, I know that my favourite celebs, vegan, vegetarian or otherwise, aren’t always armed with the right or best info. It’s up to me to do my research, and not whip out to the shops to pick up the latest vegan-tastic product, that’s guaranteed to make me live longer and stronger, just because a movie star told me to.
Natalie searches for her protein
One of my big lessons over the past few years is never believe what you read in the mainstream media. Why? Because more often than not there’s an underlying reason why these outlets promote certain stories over others — and that reason usually boils down to cold hard cash. Give love to a particular industry or product and watch those advertising dollars flood in. Just check out any mainstream magazine and count how many big brand products appear in the editorial pages. Then count the ads from said company.
And what about those big old media conglomerates that feed us mere mortal readers with “facts” and “expert” opinions across newspapers, television and the Internet? Why do they get to decide what’s news or not? And why is 99 percent of it downright negative?
Case in point: this morning I woke to read an article from one of my favourite real news sites Natural News about how Amercia’s Associated Press have waged a war against alternative medicine in a series of stories, stating that “10 years and $2.5 billion of research have found no cures from alternative medicine”. Say what? I really don’t know where to begin with you, AP.
Here’s an excerpt from the Natural News story:
The AP, it seems, has decided to ally itself with pharmaceutical medicine and spend its time and money hiring writers who promote drugs and discredit anything natural. A recent story by Marchione, for example, claims that statin drugs help prevent swine flu! It’s quite clear that AP is following a specific agenda to destroy the reputation of natural medicine while boosting public perception of pharmaceuticals. And yet, in reality, it is Big Pharma that has delivered no cures. But the sick-care industry has delivered America into financial bankruptcy and helped our nation become the most diseased population in the history of human civilization. AP feels no need to report on that inconvenient truth. Rather, it sees its job as encouraging yet more pharmaceutical use in America while destroying the credibility of far safer and more effective natural therapies that could help turn around America’s health. The Associated Press is sadly misinformed about natural medicine, and yet their stories are syndicated across thousands of newspapers and millions of web pages each day.
What’s sad about this situation is that millions of people take the voice of mainstream media as gospel, without a second thought. I used to be one of them. Then I woke up. So, in light of mainstream media’s latest antics, I’ve compiled a list of top 5 tips to help stay mentally healthy, no newspaper subscription required.
Top 5 Tips for Staying Mentally Healthy
1. Turn off the evening news and cut off the daily newspaper subscription. If you must get your daily dose of mainstream news, look at it from an entertainment point of view. You’re the only one who can decide what’s news and what’s not;
2. Question any information you’re given. Just because someone is labelled as an expert, guru or has the word professor in front of their name, doesn’t mean what they say is true or right for you;
3. Put aside 20 minutes or so each day for meditation or quiet time. Clearing out mental clutter is a sure fire way to add clarity and greater purpose to your life;
4. Transition from a diet of animal flesh and animal-based products to a plant-based wholefood diet. Meat, dairy and anything else animal-derived not only pumps pesticides, parasites and disease into your body, it also creates a breeding ground for negative, foggy thinking. Raw organic wholefoods are packed with life-giving enzymes and all the nutrients a body needs (that includes protein);
5. Mainstream media may tell you to load up on the sunscreen and hide from the sun, but this is a recipe for a health disaster. Many sunblocks are laden with cancer-causing chemicals that bake right into the bloodstream through the body’s largest organ, the skin. Getting at least half an hour of sunshine every day is vital to good health and healthy thinking. The sun has been revered by cultures worldwide as a life-giver and isn’t the cancer-causer mainstream media has dubbed it to be.
I’ve been travelling a lot lately. Country hopping via long haul flights, sandwiched between lengthy hours on the road. Tripping from country to country has affected my diet much more than I expected. My usual raw food diet, which I eat around 80 per cent or so of the time, has turned to mostly cooked (gasp!).
The great thing about such a big change in my diet, besides the not-so-good noticeable decline in my usual joie de vivre? It has been a fabulous experiment.
I can easily tell the difference in my body from transitioning to mostly cooked, from raw, meals … physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. My energy levels have dropped, my thinking isn’t as clear and my usual Reiki practice and meditation has come to almost a complete standstill.
But why, one may ask, does eating cooked food make so much of a difference? Well, because I’m a) not thinking clearly and b) tired, I thought it best I get the lowdown from living-foods.com.
What are Living and Raw Foods?
They are foods that contain enzymes. In general, the act of heating food over 116 degrees F destroys enzymes in food (enzymes start to degrade in as little as 106 degrees F). All cooked food is devoid of enzymes, furthermore cooking food changes the molecular structure of the food and renders it toxic. Living and raw foods also have enormously higher nutrient values than the foods that have been cooked.
What are Enzymes?
Enzymes assist in the digestion of foods. They are known to be the “life-force” and or “energy” of food.
Why are Enzymes Important?
They assist in the digestion and absorption of food. If you eat food that is enzyme-less, your body will not get maximum utilization of the food. This causes toxicity in the body.
A raw creamy kale salad from chef Russell James. Delish!
