How do our food choices effect us and others?

It’s a funny thing when you stop and think about it; our food choices and how they effect us and those around us. The spark for this article was a friend conveying her concern to another friend of mine. It was all third hand but didn’t make it any less real for me. I am sure if you have been a raw foodie for a while it is something you have dealt with personally. For me, the instance that I first think of is my 82 year old neighbor telling me that since I was vegetarian I was going to get Leukemia. Yep, that’s what she told me; in no uncertain terms mind you. For my friend it was that she would get Lymes dis-ease being holistic (she’s raw and holistically minded but makes conscious/informed choices). Obviously neither of these things are true but I am sure there are a number of you out there who are raw, or are just vegetarian/vegan that have gotten a similar response.

Well why do we do it then? I don’t know about you, but I do it for my health. Before going raw nothing else worked for my health. But then again, I will be the first to admit that when explaining my health choices to your average person, I don’t tell them I am raw and I do tell them that I am “vegan, for health reasons.” I just don’t want to get into it. When I was green to this, I got looks and comments from family and friends and I just don’t want to do it anymore. It’s not worth my time or energy to be perfectly honest. And, I really just don’t get why it effects them?! It’s my health and my choices, why do they care?!

Why DO they care? Well there could be a number of reasons. I have read a couple articles that state that Americans (I’m from the US so this is a logical leap for me…I am not familiar with the statistics for other countries) think the have good nutrition knowledge overall. This seems to hold true when I am talking to almost anyone – whether I feel their knowledge is good or not. We are talking about the average Jo(anne). That person you see on the street scarfing down a super sized fast food meal. Yep, chances are, if you ask them they will tell you they have a good grasp of nutrition. I don’t know about you, but I have been reading labels for at least 2 years religiously (and make the choice whether or not to eat something based primarily on the ingredients) and have been reading about nutrition for nearly 4 years. I have taken a few nutrition courses for animals (and although not the same, still applicable) and have personally read more articles and books then most people I know. But, I love nutrition! It fascinates me. So I don’t consider myself the average Jo(anne). My grandmother however has never had any interest in nutrition but has always fed her family very well when making stuff at home. I grew up with home made breads, fresh garden produce and home canned vegetables. Yes she used the more mainstream methods and ingredients, but it was home made which in my mind makes it leaps and bounds better then the fast food options out there or the microwave meals. I can also discuss my health choices with her in an intelligent manner without feeling like I am being judged or am going to hear some crazy bastardization of some health statistic that’s out there.

What I know. I know that people when offering up these rediculious theory’s aren’t doing it out of malace. In most case it’s lack of knowledge or lack of desire for that specific knowledge. There is a lot of truth to “ignorance is bliss,” those of you that have seen the Matrix and have taken the blue pill (I think that’s right color pill that changed his life…it’s been a while) know what I mean. Start doing your own research and gaining your own knowledge and opinions on things and your whole outlook/life can change dramatically. But it takes a lot of work and a lot of people aren’t ready for that part of their path yet (and may never be).

My answer to this? Well I don’t really have an answer per-se. I just trust my intuition. If I feel like I can talk to someone about the subject of health and my choices (or whatever else it may be) then I will talk to them. If I don’t feel as though I will be able to have an intelligent conversation with someone, I don’t bother. My time isn’t worth the frustration (and usually shock). A prime example is my 82 year old neighbor. We’ve been living here for almost a year and my husband hasn’t shared that he’s vegetarian with her and I haven’t gone any more into it. In her eyes I’m vegetarian (which means she brings us things like corn meal flap jacks and cookies and moon pies and stuff – so I can eat them too). She’s a sweet lady but really, it’s not worth my time. I can connect with her on other things like gardening or critters or talking about her kids.

The best thing to do in my humble opinion is TRUST YOUR INTUITION/INSTINCTS! Don’t ruin a relationship with someone over your diet choices. In the grand scheme of things, there is nothing that makes your diet any better or worse then anyone elses (healthier more then likely, but you’ve made it work for you, they do what works best for them). Everyone has their own path. My sister taught me a valuable lesson here. As upset and as hurt as I was at the time, she was a huge help! I can now talk to my sister about some stuff, but trust that she is going to make the best decisions for her and that me pushing my values on her isn’t going to get either of us anywhere! She is a very intelligent woman and on her own path. She doesn’t need me trying to drive my views and ideals down her throat! So thank you lil sis!

I guess I am off for now! Off to the market! Until next time…

xo

Why swine flu vaccines just don’t add up: Doing the (fuzzy) math

**I had to print this here (reprint from Natural News), I really liked this article. Sure makes you think anyway. Thanks Mike!**

(NaturalNews) Here’s a seventh grade word problem for you: If swine flu has infected one million people and killed 500, how many people might be expected to die if it infects 150 million people (assuming no major changes in the virus)? The correct answer, of course, is 75,000 people, and that’s within the range of the number of swine flu deaths now being publicly predicted by the White House.

But there’s another part to this word problem: How many vaccine shots and hand washings does it take to boost vitamin D levels in the average person?

The question, of course, makes no sense. Vaccine shots don’t boost vitamin D levels any more than eating pork infects you with swine flu. So why is the official advice on swine flu protection essentially limited to “wash your hands, get your vaccine shot and cough into your elbow?” (Seriously. I’m not making this up.)

The Associated Press has distilled swine flu advice to “10 things you need to know.” None of those ten things include boosting your nutrition, getting more vitamin D or taking anti-viral medicinal herbs. They do, however, include hilarious explanations like “If you develop breathing problems, pain in your chest, constant vomiting or a fever that keeps rising, go to an emergency room.”

Emergency room in a pandemic?

Whatever for? They don’t bother to mention that in a pandemic scenario that strikes you with constant vomiting, the entire emergency room is likely to be overrun with other people joining you in a hospital room vomit fest.

Nor do they mention some other important math: The very limited number of anti-viral medication courses available in the U.S. The last time I checked, that was roughly 50 million courses. If the U.S. population is roughly 300 million people, and there are 50 million courses of anti-viral meds available, how many Americans will have no access to those meds? (Ahem… 250 million people…)

Here’s an even more interesting brain buster for you: If each vaccine shot generates $25 in revenue for drug companies, and the U.S. government orders the production of 160 million vaccines, how much money is Big Pharma making off the pandemic? That answer is roughly $4 billion in net revenues.

But even that doesn’t count all the repeat business from the future victims who suffer neurological side effects from the vaccines and have to be institutionalized and subjected to high-dollar medical care for years on end. In all, a mass vaccination program could end up generating over ten billion dollars in revenues for drug companies.

These numbers just don’t add up

Now let’s look at some serious statistics: If one million people have already been infected with swine flu, and 500 have died, that’s a fatality rate of 1 out of 2000 people. Depending on which research you believe, vaccines might at most be credited with preventing 1% of flu deaths during any given flu season (and that’s being very generous to the vaccine). So here’s the question:

How many people have to be vaccinated with the new swine flu vaccine to save ONE life from a swine flu fatality?

(Notice, carefully, this question has never been asked in the mainstream media. That’s because the answer isn’t exactly what most people want to hear…)

This question is easy to answer, actually. If the vaccine were 100% effective (that is, they prevented every death that would have otherwise occurred), they could be credited with saving 1 life out of 2000, right? Because that’s the normal death rate for this particular virus (these figures are widely quoted by AP, Reuters and the White House, by the way).

But no vaccine is 100% effective. As I mentioned above, seasonal flu vaccines might — at a stretch — be credited with preventing 1% of the deaths that might otherwise have occurred. With this 1% effectiveness factor calculated back into the formula for swine flu (assuming the same 1% effectiveness factor), it turns out that you would have to vaccinate 200,000 people to save ONE life from swine flu.

That puts a whole new perspective on the vaccine push, doesn’t it? 200,000 vaccines costs taxpayers roughly $5,000,000, and it subjects 200,000 people to the potential side effects of these vaccines which have never been subjected to any long-term testing whatsoever.

It all begs the question: Is it really worth it?

Is it worth spending $5 million and exposing 200,000 people to potentially dangerous vaccine side effects in order to prevent ONE death from swine flu? And why isn’t anybody breaking down the numbers on this issue and providing a serious cost / benefit analysis as I’m doing here?

Let’s be generous to the vaccine…

Vaccine pushers might argue that the vaccine is far more than 1% effective at preventing swine flu deaths. In their wildest dreams, they might imagine a death reduction rate of, say, a wildly optimistic 10%. But even considering that, is it worth it? If the vaccine stops 10% of deaths that would have otherwise occurred, that still means you’d have to vaccinate 200,000 people to prevent the deaths of ten people.

I’m going to throw out a wild guess here and suggest that far more than 10 people will be killed by the vaccine itself, completely nullifying any net reduction in total deaths. Mathematically, you see, mass swine flu vaccinations make absolutely no sense given the very low rate of fatalities being observed right now.

Just do something!

Of course, public health policy is never based on sense. It’s based on politics. And the politics demand that “they DO something!” That’s what the public wants: Do something! It doesn’t matter if doing something is worse than doing nothing… they just want to see some action.

It’s the same story with breast cancer screenings (almost completely useless), prostate cancer screenings (now proven to be far more harmful than helpful) and of course ADHD screening tests (which are only designed to trick parents into drugging their kids). Much of western medicine, it turns out, is complete hokum. We would all be better off without the screenings and without the vaccinations altogether.

There’s a highly credible book on this subject by authors Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea. It’s called What if Medicine Disappeared? (http://www.amazon.com/What-Medicine…)

This book argues quite persuasively (and with the citation of many convincing studies) that western medicine offers virtually no net gain in quality of life to the very people it claims to serve. Doctors, hospitals, vaccines and cancer clinics could all disappear tomorrow and most people would actually be far better off. Of course, no one disputes the value of having emergency rooms to handle acute trauma and accidents, but when it comes to preventive medicine and protecting quality of life, western medicine is a near-total failure.

When it comes to swine flu vaccines, any honest look at the math reveals that 200,000 people will have to be vaccinated with a largely untested experimental vaccine in order to prevent the death of one person (or ten people, if you really believe in vaccines). Remembering that more than one person in 200,000 will almost certainly be killed by the vaccine itself, it really makes you wonder: What’s the point of all this?

The point, of course, is to sell vaccines. It’s the one math problem that everybody understands: To make money, you have to sell a product, and there’s no better way to sell vaccines to 160 million people than to scare them into begging for injections that are statistically opposed their own self interests. But I suppose anything is possible in a country where state governments can punitively tax the poor by convincing them to play the lottery. People who play the lottery are very likely to be the same people getting vaccine shots: It’s like a lottery on your health, except that your odds of “winning” are far worse than your odds of winning something in a state lotto.

Let’s see: You have a 1 in 1 chance of being injected with foreign viral matter, and yet you only have a 1 in 200,000 chance of your life being saved by it.

Allow me to put this into perspective: You have a 40 times greater chance of being struck by lightning at some point in your life than having your life saved by the swine flu vaccine. (Source: National Weather Service statistics.)

Mathematically speaking, getting a swine flu injection and hoping it will save your life is more foolish than buying a lotto ticket with your last dollar and hoping you’ll scratch off a multi-million dollar winning ticket.

And buying a lotto ticket doesn’t risk the health of your nervous system, by the way. You can always earn back a buck, but restoring your nervous system after it’s attacked by a rogue vaccine can take years or decades. Some never recover. (Thousands died from the 1976 vaccines.)

Pop quiz: What’s the actual cost of vaccinating 160 million Americans with an unproven, experimental swine flu vaccine?

Answer: $1.6 billion plus countless victims with strange neurological disorders, comas and sudden death — all of which will be written off as “coincidence” by the vaccine pushers.

Free flu shots for the unemployed

As this article was about to go to press, I couldn’t help but notice a new announcement by CVS and Walgreens pharmacies. The powers that be are so desperate to get all Americans injected with this experimental vaccine that CVS and Walgreens are now offering free swine flu vaccine injections to anyone who doesn’t have a job!

That’s right: Just show up, prove you’re unemployed, and you get jabbed at no charge. (Who said losing your job didn’t have some benefits, huh?) Conspiracy theorists might suggest this is a clever way to clear the streets of “useless eaters.” Just lure the jobless into some experimental vaccine program, inject them and send them on their way. Next, will retailers start handing out free Soylent Green too?

Additional sources for this story include:

National Weather Service:
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov…

Associated Press:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap…

Newsday:
http://www.newsday.com/business/cvs…

Source: NatrualNews.com

Raw Spirit Festival 2009 – Washington, DC

Fresh Coconut Anyone!

Wow, now that I have finally caught up on sleep from this past weekend I have time to post about it! For those of you who don’t know, it was the Raw Spirit Festival – East Coast weekend! It was a wonderful event! Much smaller than Santa Barbara but also much more intimate!

The volunteers that were there had driven in from all over the East Coast and we even had a few from California! Absolutely amazing people! I didn’t get to take many pictures but the ones I did take may be featured on Raw Food Nation. I got a couple good ones. I have also posted a few of them on my facebook page.

There was a great presence there though. High energy and good vibes. There was a sun dance done by volunteers and vendors on Friday because we were supposed to get rain all weekend. It worked wonders! It was hot and sunny on Saturday and the perfect temperature and sunny on Sunday! How perfect.

Khepra was cracking coconuts and making amazing burgers and kale salad the entire weekend. If you are from the DC area and haven’t had Khepra’s food you need to get to Senbebs! He’s always got a raw dish and it’s wonderful! His raw bread is to live for! There were a number of other raw restaurants but I can’t think of them right off the top of my head. One had taco’s that I didn’t try but my friend Jessica said were AMAZING! There was also a cafe doing iced hot chocolate that my friend Brent said was to live for! There was a lot going on and I didn’t get the chance to try everything!

The Purple People from Purple Mountain Organics were there with amazing produce and a full selection of their books. They also had a tent for their health center (forgive me I can’t think of it off the top of my head). I love these brothers and sisters! They do such a great job. I don’t know too much about them other then what they do in our local community but they are wonderful. At their health center booth they had essential oils, books, herbs and a multitude of other alternative therapy information. They are such a loving and generous group and I would highly recommend visiting them in Takoma Park! They aren’t far from the Takoma Park Silver Springs Coop (also awesome to visit)!

Onward and upward! Who else was there! Well there were speakers coming out of my ears! And great music! I didn’t get to see Singing Bear AGAIN! I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. Danial Vitalis didn’t end up coming but there were a ton of wonderful speakers (I only saw the very beginning of Phillip – it was hot in the sun!) and I didn’t get to see any of them really. I did however get to peruse Natrual Zing’s booth and check out a lot of their goodies! Jeff was there the entire weekend and what a wonderful presence! Helen and the kids were there for a good chunk of the weekend too! How wonderful! I went to their booth both days to get lemonade! It was sooooo good!

Vivapura was there (Chris W. is amazing if you haven’t ever heard him speak in general or about his products) with bells on! They had a new product that Chris was very excited about – Spirulina Crunchies. Both my friend Lisa Marie and I are kicking ourselves for not purchasing them! I will be putting in an order online! SOOO GOOD! My hubby did indulge in some Confetti Creme (absolutely delicious!).

Hooping Harmony was present and accounted for! They had amazing hoops. I even got one! Jim Dee has some pictures of people hooping on his facebook page! These ladies were amazing, if you are in the market for a hula hoop, they are the ones to talk to! Laura Marie is also a raw chocolate alchemist! Amazing ladies! If you have an event that you are planning or are looking for a fun class idea to do for your group they do classes and events! I highly recommend them!! Incredible knowledge and energy!

I know that I am forgetting people and I am sorry for that! Feel free to chime in with other people that were there as vendors/speakers!

We had such a wonderful time and it was just such a great connection experience!

Until next time!

xo

Trigger Foods: What are they and why do the effect us?

Nasty things, Trigger Foods. I am speaking from experience here. I have read multiple other accounts of people experiencing similar problems with certain foods. For some like Jinjee it’s Cocoa, for others it’s sweets and for me it’s salt & fats (but possibly sweets). Salts seem to be a big one though!

Right now I am a little more susceptible then I used to be to trigger foods but I am also much more aware. It appears that Salt that is not of the raw form will send me into a tail spin. And for those of you who don’t already know this, most sea salts that you get at the store are not raw. The best salts you can get are Celtic or Himalayan Pink sea salt (in my opinion). The reason I am telling you this is because that I find when I eat meals at pot lucks I start getting cravings after. I didn’t put two and two together until a recent event I attended where sea salt was being used (and I made a comment about it) and then the next day I was craving salty cooked foods.

I’m afraid to say it hasn’t stopped since. I had previously learned at another event that I need to stay away from the heavy nut items. I was doing so well, I stayed away from almost all the food that I knew would trigger a craving response (except a couple deserts that were made by people I knew and trusted). I felt a little bad about not trying everyone’s dish but find that my body really appreciates me more when I stick to what I know is good for me. As a result, I always bring an item that I want to eat and I bring plenty of it!

But I allowed myself to eat the items that had salt that wasn’t air dried in it and have been paying the price since! I know better now but wish that I would have known better to start with. I wasn’t having a problem staying 100% raw and I was feeling amazing, now I find that I am craving (and giving into due to outside parameters) certain foods that I know aren’t the best choices. But I am having a hard time restricting myself too.

Part of the reason I am having such a difficult time restricting myself is because I want to make sure that I am not “controlling” myself to the point where I am unhappy. I KNOW that living foods are better for me then cooked foods but I don’t want to put myself in a psychological place that makes me feel like I am going without. That just results in fear and anger in a lot of people (I am one of them). So I choose to make intelligent decisions about my non raw food choices. If my cravings can’t be overcome by ignoring them I will get what I am craving (but within reason).  Usually I don’t want a lot, I don’t binge, I will just eat it until it doesn’t taste good to me anymore (usually I get about halfway through). If it is something vegan I will generally eat the whole things but anything that is vegetarian (lacto-ovo) I usually don’t want a lot of. Legumes fall into that category too.

I know that I will get back to my 100% area and as long as I am staying away from refined sugars and only eating non raw items when I truly WANT them I don’t experience any real detox symptoms or other unpleasant things.

As much as I love the way raw foods make me feel, being kind to my emotions and trusting my body is also very important to me. My choices aren’t about control, they are abotu lifestyle changes and health. I will get back to the best place for me and I have learned a valuable lesson. I need to stay away from any salts that are not raw.

I love you all and hope this article speaks to you and finds you well!

Love, Blessings & RawHugs!

My Morning Smoothies – Lately

I haven’t been to into your typical green smoothies lately. But I do want to make sure I get my greens! I have been absolutely LOVING this recipe!

Sunshine Green Smoothie
2-4 oranges (depending on size)
3 tablespoons hemp seeds
1 cup water (depending on your thickness preferences)
1 cup frozen strawberries
Big bunch spinach and or romaine

Blend oranges first, then add the rest of the ingredients until smooth. I have also been adding VitaMineral Green and Earth (just because I have it).

It’s delicious! I hope you enjoy it!

My hubby will add a banana to it sometimes too.

Raw foodie vs. Supplements: Round Two – Vitamin D

A lot of raw foodies are completely aware of the importance of the sunshine vitamin, most of them make a conscious effort to get outside and enjoy the sun for a few minutes each day. Whether you can get the recommended 15 minutes or not, just getting a little bit of sun when it’s at it’s highest can be very beneficial! I have recently begun going out around lunch time and sitting on the hood of my car to enjoy a little bit to eat and then kick back and enjoy the sun! It feels so good, the fact that I am knowing I am doing something good for myself makes it feel all that much better! If you are fair skinned like me it really doesn’t require much time at all for your skin to make more vitamin D that you will ever be able to get through a supplement.

If my memory serves (I believe I read this somewhere a while back) Vitamin D stores in your liver for 6 months. For people with darker skin or who are in Northern climates it may be important to supplement, especially if you can’t get enough sun during the summer months (and in some Northern climates the sun never actually gets high enough in the sky for this to be helpful). For example, I grew up in Vermont. My sister had darker skin then I do and would experience bouts of depression come February. In Vermont you get your sun in the end of June, July and the beginning of August. I would be willing to guess that my sisters reserves had run out come February and that is why she had the experiences she did. Now she lives in a much warmer, sunnier climate and her health through the winter has greatly improved! Knowing what I know now, I am pretty sure she would have benefited from supplementing during the winter months!

This is only one example that I experienced personally. I had my own issues with depression that seemed to magically go away once I moved South of the Mason Dixon line. It took a couple years for my depression cycle to completely go away, but it did!

Sun block is another Vitamin D enemy! The use of sunblock means that they chemical reaction that takes place under you top layers of skin, when skin meets sun, can’t take place. Yes, if you wear sunblock, you don’t sunburn. That is well known. But you are also putting a layer of chemicals on your skin (in most cases) which has it’s own laundry list of side effects. If you aren’t raw, then you would be better off covering up after getting your needed exposure based on your skin tones (if you are concerned about cancer). If you are raw, your skin is much more adept at protecting itself. I rarely burn anymore. If I don’t take care to cover up after about an hour in mid day sun then yes, I will burn, but an hour is much more then I ever used to be able to endure previous to being raw!

So lets get to the questions that is on everyone’s minds!

Should you supplement Vitamin D?

There are many levels to this question. I am going to say that Yes, I believe you should supplement IF the following conditions apply to you:

1. You live far enough North that you have more cold weather then you do warm (This would include all of New England, Canada, Alaska and most of the other Northern states – I guess the same rule would apply if you were far enough South)
2. You wear sunblock religiously (you use skin care with sunblock already in it)
3. You experience seasonal depression (at this point, what’s it going to hurt! Try it! See if it helps! And talk to your Natural Health practitioner – the RDA may not be enough for you, I find that it isn’t for me)
4. You have darker skin and don’t feel that you are able to get enough sun between work and life!
5. You are a recluse! (I just had to cover my bases – and if you don’t go outside, no matter where you live you should consider supplementing!)

I am in no way an authority on this! I am just giving you my opinion. If you want to take a higher dose then the bottle says or feel that you might be Vitamin D deficient find a local Natural Health practitioner and work with them! If you are comfortable experimenting on yourself, do your research! Get on Natural News, read any book you can get your hands on, check out Mercola.com. Educate yourself!

Remember also, Vitamin D is important for bone health! It’s something you want to make sure you aren’t deficient in!

What’s the best type of Vitamin D to supplement?

Based on the research I have done the best supplement choice for D is D3. MegaFoods makes the supplement that I take during the winter months! There are other companies, I just choose to take MegaFoods supplement. It works for me. There are some very good sub lingual dissolving tablets, I just choose not to take them because of the artificial sweetener in them to make them taste good.

If you are taking a supplement because it tastes good and it’s not a whole food, you should really look at the ingredients. Even reputable companies sneak in “natural flavoring” here and there. If you don’t know what it is and want to continue taking the supplement you might want to call them and find out what they are using to sweeten that little tablet you put in your mouth every day!

Well I think that about covers my Vitamin D talk! I live in Maryland and still supplement during the winter. And I use more then the RDA. That’s what I am comfortable with and what I feel works best for me. As I mentioned in the previous article, I use Applied Kinesology and it works well for me! Do what works best for you! Educate yourself, get a Natural Health practitioner on your side and optimize your health!

Until Next time! Love and take care of yourself the best you can! You are the only person that is going to make you number 1!

xo

Caesar Dressing

This afternoon I was craving Caesar Salad. I looked in Bridgette Mars’ book “Rawsome” and found a great recipe (but didn’t have all the ingredients). So using it as a guide, I came up with this recipe! Enjoy!

Hemptastic Caesar Dressing

1 cup water
1/4 cup Lemon juice
1/8 cup hemp seeds
2 tsp granular mustard
1 tsp kelp granules
1/8 cup Olive Oil
1 clove garlic
Salt & Pepper to taste

Blend until creamy and smooth.

I didn’t use just romaine for this salad, I also used delicious fresh tomatoes from the farmers market and white onion (also from the farmers market) and for a little spice I added cayenne.

I hope you enjoy it!

Raw foodie vs. Supplements: First Round

Ding, Ding!

For those of you who aren’t neck deep in the raw foodie movement, this may be news to you; for those of us who have been around the block (or almost around the block) we are familiar with the ongoing controversy between raw foods and supplements. What, you may wonder, is this controversy? Well there are a couple different questions that are being asked by new and experienced raw foodies alike and I am going to attempt to give some basic information here (and possibly in following articles) to answer some of the basic questions! Please remember when reading this, these are just my thought’s, opinions and I am attempting to provide basic information. The key there is basic!

If I am eating a raw food diet, why should I need supplement?

Depending on the school of thought you follow (or the particular guru you are interested in that week) there could be a lot of confusion for you over this topic!

**A little disclaimer for those of you who haven’t been reading my blog or for those who don’t know me: I don’t subscribe to any particular school of thought. I am an intuitive eater and do a ton of research. My husband and I were at one of our favorite pre raw restaurants and have become friends with one of the managers, she was telling us all about how they are going to start having raw items on the menu and wanted to see if I wanted to try the new dressing on my salad instead of oil and vinegar. After this conversation, my husband said something to the effect of “Well, it’s starting to get trendy, I guess we will have to find something new.” He was joking, because he knows this is the only thing that works for my health, but the moral of the story is, I never do easy…or take the path less traveled. I enjoy doing my own research and making sure that I am listening to myself. The funny thing is, my intuition is what took us to the restaurant, I just had this nagging feeling we had to go. Well I think I have gone off on enough of a tangent! I will stay on point from now on.**

Are supplements important? As I said, it depends on who you listen to. There are multiple different deficiencies people are suffering from these days. For example, if you Google “Vitamin D Deficiencies in US” you will see statistics starting around 36% of American adults, but it doesn’t stop there! We’re just scratching the surface! Scientific America states in this article that “Three-quarters of U.S. teens and adults are deficient in vitamin D, the so-called “sunshine vitamin” whose deficits are increasingly blamed for everything from cancer and heart disease to diabetes…” This is only one of the umteen million supplements that stare at you from the shelves at your local health food store!

Well if you are a raw foodie, chance are you aren’t afraid of the sun! You probably fall in the 1/4 of Americans that aren’t deficient (during the summer months anyway). But what about the winter? What then? Should you supplement? We will cover this in a little more detail in a later article (Round 2 – Vitamin D).

If you were to listen to David Wolfe (this actually makes a lot of sense to me personally) there are a lot of good reasons to supplement. Shazzie also is a big advocate for supplementing. Bridgette Mars covers the importance of vitamins (and what whole foods you can get them from) extensively in Rawsome. These are only a few of our raw food celebs that cover the importance of specific vitamins (whether they are provided by whole foods or supplementation). Bridgette Mars gives a very unbiased position on vitamins (so I am not sure where she stands personally but LOVE her information!) David Wolfe, on the other hand, is an advocate of supplementation. His reasoning based on a talk I attended (and reading a few of his articles/books) is that our soils are depleted and a lot of them are essentially dead. Dead soil doesn’t grow healthy, thriving plants (same idea can be applied to humans – dead foods don’t promote supreme health). His views on agriculture are fascinating! His other point is that you aren’t always going to be able to get organic foods and even the organic foods aren’t as high in nutrients as they could be so it’s not a bad idea to take that extra step.

Shazzie also talks about the importance of supplementing. One of the major supplements that she talks about, which until that point I had never heard of, was K2. I am hoping to do another article on K2 in the near future, but that one is going to require some more research! She talks about a number of other supplements (mostly whole food supplements) in her book “Evie’s Kitchen.”

My conclusion (at this point – it could change! I am constantly doing research) is that supplementation is different for everyone. For me it’s important. I was pretty sick before going raw and can use ever bit of help I can get. Needless to say, if my health depended on taking a pill every day I would be in trouble. Whole living foods do make a HUGE difference on their own (I have seen that first hand!) I am not convinced that I will reach optimal health at this point without some supplementation though, because organic isn’t always an option and my body was so demineralized to start out with! I also came from the North East originally and am pretty sure that I had vitamin D deficiencies resulting in depression. Since moving South of the Mason Dixon line I am much happier. It did take a couple years!

I personally do supplement. I use applied Kinesology to determine how much and when I need certain supplements, but I do take them. I don’t freak out if I miss one, nor do I feel guilty. My health is 150 times better than it was a year ago and part of the reason I choose to supplement is because I want to be 200 times healthier then I was a year ago.

Do what works and resonates with you! In theory I shouldn’t have to take them, because my diet should supply all my nutrients. But it doesn’t. I also listen to my body. I don’t take a multi, but I do take K2, D3 (during the winter), an EPA supplement (which isn’t vegan – the vegetarian ones make me gag, I CHOSE to go back on Moxxor and I have had wonderful results) and B12. These are the ones that resonate with me. I also consume a lot of sea veggies to make sure I keep my Iron level’s up and dark leafy greens for calcium and other trace minerals. When I try to take a multi I always end up gagging and unable to get it down. There is something in the multi’s that my body doesn’t need/want, so I don’t take them.

It’s important that you do your own research, because ultimately you know you the best! Nutritionist’s and Doctors are great, but they should only be used as a guide (in my opinion). I don’t use either because I am confident in my knowledge and feel that I know myself the best and shouldn’t have to pay someone to tell me what to take when in general most Doctors and Nutritionists don’t know the first thing about a living foods diet. Just because this works for me doesn’t mean I expect it to work for everyone! Utilize any resource you can. If you have a receptive Doctor or Nutritionist, more power to you AND them!

Another aspect of this whole process (I believe) is intention. If you are taking the best supplements you can find with the intention for them to be for your greatest good, you are going to feel good! The supplements will work, and you will feel good about yourself. You still need to do this with a knowledge base, but how do you think people see a difference in their health when they take a “One-a-day?” Those things are “magic bullets” and don’t do a darn thing for you (in my opinion), but people that don’t know that take them and notice a difference, this is what we call the placebo effect. Why do you think that is? Intention. They are taking those things thinking that they are doing something good for themselves! And in a way they are. They are taking care of themselves (or making an effort to do so). It’s just like people purchasing Old Roy for their dog that they love instead of feeding table scraps because that’s all they can afford and their dog living until it’s 16 with perfect health. Love and intention play a roll in everything we do in our lives (for ourselves and the ones we care for)! Now imagine if you are taking one of the best supplements out there and doing it for your health because you love yourself! You are integrating supplements in with wonderful intention and love, you are doing a great thing for yourself!

If after reading this you choose to supplement: do your research, listen to your body and DO IT FOR YOU! If you are doing it because someone told you to and not truly for yourself, you won’t experience all the benefits! And most important, listen to your body! Really tune in. Don’t try to choke down that vitamin that’s making you gag (there’s a reason you are gagging – there may be something in it your body is allergic to or doesn’t want), pay attention to how you feel after (if you have a mini allergic reaction and are sneezing with a runny nose for the next couple hours – and this happens every time you take that particular supplement it might be time to find a new one), and do your research to make sure you are getting a high quality vitamin (you are just wasting your money on “magic bullets,” you might as well get something that is supporting your body with your wonderful intention and self love).

Until Next Time! (and I will be writing more frequently, I promise!)

xo

Being Defined by Your Food Choices

I am going to take this opportunity to discus something that I recently experienced for the first time. I went on a trip to visit my sister with my mother. My sister lives out West so it was a long plane ride and as I am sure most of you raw foodies out there are aware, planes aren’t very raw food friendly. On the way out I just had water, I was gagging at the smell of the ranch dressing the woman next to me was eating on her salad and I was appalled at what was being handed out for in flight snacks.  The reason I am telling you this is because I intend for it to be a segway into my main point of this posting.

My raw food experience has been surrounded by a protective bubble leaving me naive and rather taken aback when I enter the real world from time to time. Since going raw I have made exceptions for foods that I used to enjoy greatly like Sushi, but have not had anything made by Nabisco or any other similar processed food company. I was blessed with an amazing, aware, enlightened and supportive husband at the beginning of my journey down this path and that has not changed. He is still extremely supportive and understanding – and RAW! I love him profoundly!

Well the airplane was a shock, one that I overcame quickly. I admit I would have liked it better if I didn’t have my mother eating that junk next to me because she was hungry. I righted that on the trip back and brought all sorts of snacks for her! She is 100% capable (and entitled) to make her own decisions, but if there is an alternative to light 100 calorie Oreo cracker things, she is happy to eat that instead.

While on my little excursion out West I was amazed, I had to state on more than one occasion that although I am a raw vegan, my food choices (lets emphasize here CHOICED) absolutely do not define me. I CAN and DO eat whatever it is I want to eat; I CHOOSE not to eat certain things. One example was at the farmers market, I decided to try some raw goat cheese. I didn’t like it, but I tried it just to see if I might. Nope. Oh well… However, when I told my brother-in-law that this is what I was going to do the response was “I didn’t think you could eat that.” At this point please let me emphasize, he did not say this in a rude or disrespectful way. Erik is a very intelligent, polite and respectful person! But, this was probably the third or fourth time I had heard this, so I looked at him and said something to the effect of “What I eat doesn’t define me, I choose to eat this way but I can eat whatever I want.” I was frustrated, shame on me! He didn’t mean anything by it! I knew that!

Why is it when you choose to do something a little differently (or a lot) it suddenly defines you. It’s not about restriction; empowerment is the name of the game! I am convinced the only true way to make a change in your own life is by empowering yourself. If you want to change your lifestyle, empower yourself! Get your mind around it and then make sure no one can shake your resolve! Define yourself on your terms, instead of by the foods you CHOOSE to eat, the cloths you CHOOSE to wear or the friends you CHOOSE to keep! These are all choices which may change at any given point on your personal voyage through life, they are part of what makes you, you! They are not who you are, but instead they are a piece of what makes you unique and special! AND they can change as you learn and grow. Defining yourself within strict parameters leaves little room for growth and evolution, can leave a sour taste in your mouth and could ultimately be your undoing (whether it has to do with your health, your personal perception, clothing, friends…the list goes on).

What keeps you raw?

Right now I am sitting here at work (I know, shame on me) listening to Jim and Wendi Dee’s interview on Lets Talk Raw. I have been listening to a lot of Revvel’s interviews the past couple days – I think I needed the motivation. Revvel is amazing! She does wonderful interviews and includes the listeners on Lets Talk Raw and just does wonderful podcasts on Rawkin Radio. Yesterday I listened to some other wonderful interviews, one which spoke to me personally (Dhrumil). If you get a chance to become a member (or are already a member) of Lets Talk Raw I recommend downloading this interview. Dhrumil is WONDERFUL, INSPIRING, and just a beautiful person. He touched on family and this really rang true with me. I also listened to SunshineBoat! Sunshine was also amazing! Her interview is actually what inspired the subject of this post. I think her exact words were “(Re)Define your why.”

The reason this inspired me was because I have been struggling. Through willpower I was able to stay 100% raw for 3 months back in the beginning of the year. My why was clear! I had health issues and being raw made me feel better; leaps and bounds better! I’m not truly sure what happened but I detoured from my path. I started craving cookies! And I caved to the cookies! I was eating vegan, gluten free cookies. I am not sure why I was craving cookies or if it was directly related to the stress in my life (which had increased) but I wanted cookies (and carrot cake). If they weren’t vegan and gluten free I didn’t enjoy them but I would still eat them.

What was going on?! Was it emotions? I am thinking it was, but I am not 100% sure. As a result, I started eating some other non raw foods. For the last couple months I have been doing about 75-100% raw depending on the day. Some days I was eating out and having a vegan meal. I am not sure why this was happening, I was able to stay 100% raw through the coldest months of the year and then all the sudden I start craving white sugar, oil and flour! What’s up with that?

Right now I am having to redefine my Why. I have been experiencing anxiety and chest pain again. I also started noticing less energy and found that I crave chocolate a lot more? When I first went raw I wasn’t exposed to raw cacao and never wanted it. I tend to trust my body but part of me has to wonder about all the chocolate I have been consuming (it has tapered off recently). It’s interesting. The cooked foods I have been eating have been sugar loaded, and I am pretty sure that most of my health issues were directly related to my sugar consumption. Honestly I am not very surprised that I am experiencing health problems again but I do need to figure out a why that works for me because my health is my top priority. Emotionally I am not sure if I am prepared to be 100% raw, but for my health I need to be. It’s time for me to find a happy place with the two of those!

I am spending a long weekend with my mother and sister and am so excited about it! I think this will be huge for my emotional evolution! This is the first time I will be around them both since I have gone raw. I am so excited! This is where Dhrumil’s talk came in so handy! I really can’t thank Revvel enough for these wonderful interviews. I feel so empowered right now and am really looking forwarding to the evolution I feel coming.

Back to my new Why. I think I shall define my new “Why” as: To attain balance in my life relative to my health, both physically, emotionally and mentally. And as David Wolfe says “Have the Best Day Ever.”

I think that’s where I am at right now. Please forgive any babbling. I really needed this and greatly appreciate you reading this!

Love, Blessings and RAWhugs!

xo