A Personal Journey to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

I Have a Dream

2015-01-09T21:18:00.002-06:00

What if we lived in a world where we had access to fresh, real, organic food at our disposal inexpensivly everywhere we went. What if our schools served healthy fresh meals to our children, hospitals served those same healthy meals to the patients and out of the cafeteria for the staff and visitors. How would it be if a vending machine dispenesd healthy food and you could go to a fast food restaurant and have a dollar menu with salads, fruit and veggies. I would love to live in that world. What about you?

We could have that world. A world of healthy people, not obese, sick and living on prescription medication. We have to demand that world. How do we do that you ask. By our shopping dollars. Every dollar we spend is a vote for a way of life. When we stop buying the foods that are hurting our health and buy the foods that heal our bodies we are telling the food producers what to provide. They will be forced to comply to our demands if they want to stay in business. Sadly it is more profitable for them to make and sell food like substances, loaded with chemicals, GMO's and unhealthy ingredients. These same companies can produce healthy, natural, organic alternatives to their products. We have to demand that they do so now.

There are many reasons we no longer have the world I am describing. The main reason is government subsidies to the wrong foods. Corn, sugar and other not so healthy foods are being subsidized to be cheap while basic nutritional foods are skyrocketing in price. This is why you don't see healthy food on the value menus. It is time we rethink our food, the damage it has done to our health and how if we made a few simple changes everything would be so different. I truly believe that we can change this way of thinking and our unhealthy food production. Our health and lives depend on it.

I have a dream. A dream of an America that has gone back to its roots literally and changed from the "SAD" western diet to the new "Happy Meal" the one that gives life, good health, restores our bodies to a healthy form and is available to everyone all the time. That is the world I want to live in.

Choose the best food for the best health.

Cherise Scally

Do we need expensive suppliments?

2012-09-06T11:42:00.000-05:00

     Although vitamin supplements are common, they might not be necessary. It is better for a healthy person to obtain vitamins through whole foods instead of vitamin supplements. Whole foods have nutrient combinations that cannot be copied in supplement form. Eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, meat and beans. Eating a variety ensures you obtain different nutrients that could be in one type of vegetable, for instance, and not in another. Foods also provide more nutrition than just the vitamins, including fat, protein and carbohydrates your body needs for fuel, fiber and antioxidants. If you take a vitamin in place of whole food, you will miss all of these nutrients. There are certain reasons where vitamin supplementation is recommended. Aside from treatment of certain conditions, vitamins are recommended for prevention of specific diseases. For most people, vitamin/mineral supplements are the most frequently used nutritional supplements. Much of this use represents an expensive and wasted effort. Well-planned diets can meet most of the vitamin and mineral needs of people. Obtain your daily quota of vitamins and minerals by eating a wide variety of foods. Relying only on vitamin supplements is dangerous – all the required nutrients may not be present in the supplement. There is another risk associated with vitamin supplements. Since fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) are stored in the body, toxic levels can easily be reached with careless supplementation.

     All nutrients, of which vitamins and minerals are two groups, are potentially toxic when ingested in sufficiently large amounts. Safe intake levels vary widely from nutrient to nutrient. They also depend on age and health. High dosage vitamin and mineral supplements can interfere with the normal metabolism of other nutrients and with the therapeutic effects of certain drugs. Deficiency states of one particular nutrient can be brought about by an oversupply of another nutrient. Most of the vitamins and minerals work in balance with each other. If one is present in a greater-than-normal quantity, the others become less-than-normal. The advantage of getting vitamins the natural way – by eating a variety of foods – is that they usually come in balanced proportions.
Of the water soluble vitamins, excess
B3 (niacin) leads to liver toxicity
C leads to red blood cell hemolysis
B6 (pyridoxine) leads to nervous system toxicity
      A simple multi-vitamin or mineral supplement that does not provide more than 100% of the daily value for any of the nutrients is unlikely to be harmful even if it isn’t actually helpful. However, “super” supplements, large doses or mega doses, are all likely to be harmful.

      Many people still believe vitamins can replace food. That is very simply NOT TRUE. All natural vitamins are only found in plants and animals and must be supplied through your diet or in dietary supplements when your body is not getting the adequate amount of nutrients it requires on a daily basis. Trying to follow all of the recommended daily dosages can make your head spin. Just remember too much of a good thing can also be harmful. Don't go overboard, stay within the recommended daily dosage and always check with your doctor before you add supplements. Eating smart can influence how you age and help you fight off disease. Here are three tips to a vitamin rich diet and a healthier you.

Eat a healthy diet.
Choose plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats.
Eat fish and poultry rather than red meat, potatoes, sugary drinks and salty snacks.

Who should take supplements?
Usage of nutritional supplements may be indicated in some circumstances including the following:

Women with excessive menstrual bleeding may need to take iron supplements
Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding need more of certain nutrients, especially iron, folic acid and calcium
People with very low calorie intakes usually have a diet that does not meet their nutrient needs
Strict vegetarians (no eggs) or vegans (no eggs or dairy products) may not be getting adequate calcium, iron, zinc and Vitamin B12 through food
Certain disorders or diseases and some medications may interfere with nutrient intake, digestion, absorption, metabolism or excretion, and thus change requirements
Old people who cannot chew properly and have a problem consuming a balanced diet may need to take supplements to get all the nutrients

Source Nutri Health

Do you know what you should be eating and what's in season?

2012-09-06T11:12:00.000-05:00

Eat local. Eat what’s in season. Eat organic. Confused by multiple messages about what to eat and where to buy it? Here’s why you should do it. Just a few generations ago, people were living and eating simply. The foods used to make dinner were often from local farms and were consequently seasonal. One bold benefit of seasonal food is that produce picked and eaten at its peak generally has more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants than foods harvested before they’re ripe and then shipped long distance. The emotional and sometimes spiritual connection that humans have with food is deeply ingrained. The reversion to locally grown seasonal foods satisfies people in a way that is immediate. They feel and taste the difference. If the former benefits are not enough, often season foods are cheaper. They do not require the costs of shipping or preserving that out of season foods do.

The convenience of super-markets and processed food should not dictate our eating habits. Seasonal eating connects us to the calendar and often to one another. If possible, grow it and pick it yourself - you’ll know exactly what went into growing those vegetables and you can enjoy them at their peak the day they are harvested. If gardening isn’t your thing, visit a local farmers’ market weekly or join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, some of whom even deliver the weekly harvest to convenient distribution locations. So determine what’s in season right now and dig in. You’ll be rewarded with high quality produce, packed with nutrition, at a lower cost. And your taste buds will definitely thank you for it!

Here are the main reasons to eat fresh locally grown in season foods:

1. Local Foods Are Fresher (and Taste Better)

Local food is fresher and tastes better than food that been trucked or flown in from thousands of miles away. Think you can't taste the difference between lettuce picked yesterday and lettuce picked last week, factory-washed, and sealed in plastic? You can. And fresh food? It lasts longer too.

2. Local Foods Are Seasonal (and Taste Better)

It must be said: Deprivation leads to greater appreciation. When does a cozy room feel best? When you've come in from out of the freezing cold. Fresh corn in season tastes best when you haven't eaten any in 9 or 10 months--long enough for its taste to be a slightly blurred memory that is suddenly awakened with that first bite of the season. Eating locally means eating seasonally, with all the deprivation and resulting pleasure that accompanies it.

3. Local Foods Usually Have Less Environmental Impact

Those thousands of miles some food is shipped? That leads to a big carbon footprint for a little bunch of herbs. Look for farmers who follow organic and sustainable growing practices and energy use to minimize your food's environmental impact.

4. Local Foods Preserve Green Space & Farmland

The environmental question of where you food comes from is bigger than its "carbon footprint." By buying foods grown and raised closer to where you live, you help maintain farmland and green space in your area.

5. Local Foods Promote Food Safety

The fewer steps there are between your food's source and your table the less chance there is of contamination. Also, when you know where your food comes from and who grows it, you know a lot more about that food. During the e. coli outbreak in spinach in 2006 I knew the spinach in my refrigerator was safe because I knew it was grown in Yolo County by a farmer I knew, and, as importantly, that it didn't come from Salinas County where the outbreak was. (The knowledge would have worked in reverse too: if the outbreak had been in Yolo County instead, I would have known to throw that bunch of greens and scrub down the fridge!)

6. Local Foods Support Your Local Economy

Money spent with local farmers, growers, and artisans and locally-owned purveyors and restaurants all stays close to home, working to build your local economy instead of being handed over to a corporation in another city, state, or country. Since the food moves through fewer hands, more of the money you spend tends to get to the people growing it. To make the biggest local economic impact with your food budget, seek out producers who pay their workers a fair wage and practice social justice in their business.

7. Local Foods Promote Variety

Local foods create greater variety of foods available. Farmers who run community-supported agriculture programs (CSAs), sell at farmers' markets, and provide local restaurants have the demand and the support for raising more types of produce and livestock. Think Brandywines, Early Girls, and Lemon Boys instead of "tomatoes."

8. Local Foods Create Community

Knowing where your food is from connects you to the people who raise and grow it. Instead of having a single relationship--to a big supermarket--you develop smaller connections to more food sources: vendors at the farmers' market, the local cheese shop, your favorite butcher, the co-op that sells local eggs, a local café that roasts coffee. Eating locally? It connects you to a larger world.

http://localfoods.about.com/od/finduselocalfoods/tp/5-Reasons-to-Eat-Local-Foods.htm

Your Natural Diet: Alive Raw Foods

2012-09-03T15:33:00.002-05:00

After reading this book I found it to be a spin off the 80/10/10 diet for the most part. It had some very good information and is a good place to start for those looking to live the raw foods lifestyle. I am including the low down on this book as well for you to chew on. I highly recommend reading this book and the 80/10/10 diet book and finding a way to implement gradually these ways of eating in a manner that you can do for a lifetime and that will benefit you and your health overall.

Your Natural Diet: Alive Raw Foods is written by Dr. T.C. Fry and David Klein. The authors state that the natural diet of human beings was composed of raw fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts and as such they advocate a diet composed entirely of raw plant foods.
They assert that every nutrient we need is available in fruit and other plant foods. Additionally they say that cooking causes the production of toxins that can have a negative effect on our health.
By following a raw food diet they claim that you will be able to overcome illness, achieve your ideal weight, gain more energy and restore your youth.

Your Natural Diet Basics

The authors explain how cooking food causes the production of a variety of toxins as well as destruction of important nutrients. They present research to support the concept that the natural diet of humans is primarily fruit. However, they emphasize that this does not mean that fruit should be the only food that we eat.
Your Natural Diet says that if you eat 70-80% fruit with the rest of the diet consisting of lightly cooked root vegetables and grains along with some raw nuts and seeds, this will not have a negative effect on your health.
The authors offer dieters four major criterion to assist with the selection of the best foods in regard to promoting health.

First criterion: Does the food taste good in its natural state?
Second criterion: Does the food introduce harmful or toxic substances into our digestive system?
Third criterion: Is the food easy to digest and assimilate?
Fourth criterion: Does the food contribute a broad range of nutrients?

The Natural Diet includes guidelines and suggestions for gradually transitioning to a raw food diet. Food combining is also explained and is recommended to enhance digestion.

Recommended Foods

Bananas, dates, figs, grapes, melons, oranges, kiwis, avocado, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, sea vegetables, sprouts, nuts, seeds.

Sample Diet Plan

Breakfast Fresh orange or grapefruit juice
Bananas with cucumber and lettuce

Morning Snack Fruit smoothie

Lunch Garden salad with tomato, avocado and dulse with carrot avocado dressing

Afternoon Snack Carrot juice

Dinner Almond cheese
Celery, cucumber and greens

Exercise Recommendations

Your Natural Diet recommends exercise because it makes the dietary transition much easier. It also improves will power, digestion, and elimination. The authors advise dieters to exercise vigorously at least twice daily to create true hunger.

Costs and Expenses

Your Natural Diet: Alive Raw Foods is also known as Raw Revelation and retails at $12.95.

Pros

Encourages a high intake of fruit and vegetables.
Will reduce the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.
Offers advice for transitioning to a raw vegan diet.
Acknowledges the psychological factors involved in overeating.
Encourages a holistic approach to good health.
Includes recipes.

Cons

Many dieters do not do well with such a high intake of fruit.
May not provide adequate amounts of protein and certain minerals to suit the needs of many dieters.
Most dieters experience some degree of discomfort such as headache and fatigue in the initial stages of adjusting to a raw food diet.
Difficult to eat out and in social situations.
Food combining rules may be overwhelming.
Some of the information in the book is outdated.
Does not include a detailed meal plan.

Conclusions

While most people can benefit from eating more raw fruit and vegetables, many dieters do not thrive on a diet that is based primarily on fruit. Your Natural Diet will appeal to dieters who are interested in learning more about a raw food diet but should be supplemented with more up-to-date reading material that addresses recent advances in nutritional research.

The 80/10/10 Diet

2012-09-03T15:28:00.002-05:00

Here is the scoop on the 80/10/10 diet. I thought this was good information to pass along that would be helpful in understanding the basics of this diet. I follow pretty close to this way of eating. I do not follow any way of eating 100% as I truly feel that everyone is unique and has to experiment with what works for them. You will find what works and where you need to tweak a concept for it to work for you. We are all individuals that live our own lives and what works for me or others may not work for you. This is why there are so many gimmick diets out there that people succumb to while desperately trying to find their way to a healthier new self. I firmly believe that if you do the research and apply it to your life you will see that it is as easy as just eating healthy, exercising and knowing what to eat and cutting out all man made processed foods and foods that contain antibiotics, hormones and are raised in factory farming conditions. Eat your food, drink your water clean and not adulterated and you will reap the rewards of a healthier new you.

The 80 10 10 Diet by Dr. Douglas Graham is a raw food version of a low fat plant based diet, similar to that popularized by Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. John McDougall.
Graham, who is a lifetime athlete, has been eating a raw food diet for almost thirty years. He has acted as dietary adviser to world-class athletes and celebrities including Martina Navratilova and Demi Moore.

80/10/10 Diet Basics

Graham proposes that the ideal ratio of nutrients to support health is:

80% carbohydrates
10% protein
10% fat

Other low fat vegan diets rely on cooked starches such as rice, bread, and potatoes as the main source of calories.
Starches and grains are low in nutrients and because they taste bland we usually add sugar, salt, and fats which compromises their potential health value.
Graham overcomes this problem by basing his program entirely on raw foods with fruit forming the foundation of the diet. He states that fruit is the ideal food for humans and supports his claims with convincing arguments and scientific research.
Dieters are encouraged to eat mono meals of fruit where a single fruit is eaten in large quantities.

For example breakfast might consist of 4 pounds of watermelon. Graham explains that it is necessary to eat fruit in such amounts in order to obtain adequate calories, which is necessary to thrive on this diet.

Graham also advises dieters to consume approximately a pound of leafy greens each day such as lettuce, spinach, and celery. Foods high in fat such as avocado and nuts are generally limited to a small serving every second day or so.
Although the diet is the foundation of the program Graham emphasizes the importance of addressing other lifestyle factors, which include exercise, sunlight, adequate sleep, and emotional balance.

Raw Food Benefits and Recipes

Recommended Foods

Fruit, vegetables, avocado, raw nuts and seeds, young coconut.

Sample Diet Plan

Breakfast3 lbs cantaloupe

Lunch1 lb bananas 1 lb mangoes

Dinner

Course 11 lb apricots

Course 2Orange Pepper Tomato Soup (8 oz romaine lettuce
8 oz tomatoes
8 oz orange or yellow pepper
Parsley sprig)

Course 3Heirloom Avocado Salad (8 oz romaine lettuce
8 oz cucumber
12 oz tomatoes
6 oz avocado
¼ cup cilantro)

Try other vegetarian recipes here.

Exercise Recommendations

An important aspect of the program is regular daily exercise. Graham advises dieters to aim to do some aerobic exercise every day and to engage in strength training three times a week.
Graham states that if you are not exercising on a regular basis then you are not following the program.

Costs and Expenses

The 80 10 10 Diet retails at $29.95.
There will be an increase in the cost of groceries due to the need for a large amount of fresh produce.

Click Here to purchase this diet online.

Pros

Many athletes have reported improved performance on this diet.
Good for dieters who like eating fruit.
Low fat diets are associated with a reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Higher in nutrients than low fat vegan diets that include cooked foods.
Encourages the intake of fruit and vegetables.
Encourages a physically active lifestyle.
Provides suggestions to gradually transition into the full diet plan.
Beneficial as a short term cleansing diet.
Food preparation is easy.

Cons

Highly restrictive. Difficult to eat out and in social situations.
Requires a complete overhaul of eating habits.
Many dieters will not enjoy eating this way.
Some dieters may have difficulty maintaining the recommended exercise guidelines.
Dieters will undergo withdrawal and detoxification symptoms in the initial stages especially if they are regular users of caffeine and alcohol.
Risk of nutritional deficiency especially if intake of leafy green vegetables is not adequate.
May be too low in protein, essential fatty acids and minerals including zinc and selenium.
May require the use of vitamin B12 supplements.

Too Extreme for Most

The 80 10 10 diet is an extreme approach to dieting that will not appeal to everyone. It is probably most suitable for individuals who are highly committed, such as professional athletes, or dieters who have a specific goal that they hope to achieve by following this plan.
Graham improves on many of the nutritional inadequacies of other low fat vegan diets and the intake of vitamins and minerals is much higher due to the inclusion of an abundant amount of fruit and leafy green vegetables.
However many people have reported problems following a raw vegan diet and it may be difficult to support optimal health without guidance or supervision from a qualified health professional who has experience with this approach to dieting.

Other Diets to Consider

Live Food Holiday Menus

2012-09-03T15:19:00.001-05:00

With the holidays coming I wanted to share some recipes with you that you can try this year that I found on the internet.

Here is a full meal-worth (with alternatives) to create a raw Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.

Enjoy.

APPLE-BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

10 apples, cored
1 lg. butternut squash, peeled
2 oranges, peeled
1 lemon, peeled
1 med. red onion, peeled
3 C almond milk
1-1/2 C pumpkin seeds
1 bunch parsley
1/4 C tarragon, dried

• In a food processor, combine all ingredients and process thoroughly.

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WALDORF SALAD

1 C celery, chopped fine
1 C grapes, halved
1 apple, peeled
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 C water

• Mix lemon juice and water.
• Dice apple, soak in lemon juice/water mix for 10 mins., and drain.
• Mix celery, grapes, and apple.
• Mix in pine nut mayonnaise to taste.

PINE NUT MAYONNAISE
1 C raw pine nuts
1/2 C water
4 T olive oil
3 T lemon juice
pinch sea salt
agave nectar to taste (optional)

• Blend all together in a VitaMix.

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TRADITIONAL SUCCOTASH

2 C fresh corn cut from cob (or 1 lb. frozen corn)
2 C fresh lima beans, (or fresh limas sprouted 2 days, or 2 C 2-day sprouted lima beans, or 2 C frozen lima beans) NOTE: it would be worth testing fresh lima beans to see how you feel about the taste, before making a decision to sprout or not.
1/2 C red bell pepper, diced fine
Salt and pepper to taste

• Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly.

VARIATIONS:
Add chopped fresh tomatoes
Add 1 green onion, chopped fine
Add 1 t curry powder
Add 1 t garlic
Add 1 T Spike or other seasoning of choice

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RAW MASHED “POTATOES”
1 head cauliflower, broken into florets
1/4 C cashews
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced (or to taste)
1/4 C olive oil, or to taste
sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste

• In a food processor, grind cashews fine.
• Add cauliflower, and garlic, and process fine.
• Add olive oil until mixture looks like fluffy mashed potatoes.
• Remove from food processor and sprinkle on black pepper to taste.
Serve with gravy.

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MUSHROOM GRAVY

1/2 C almonds, soaked 12 hours
1/2 C water
2-1/2 C shiitake mushrooms
1 clove garlic (or 1/4 t powdered garlic)
2 t Bragg Liquid Aminos
water, as necessary

• In a food processor, grind almonds fine.
• Add remainder of ingredients, and process to paste, adding water as necessary.

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AMAZING SWEET POTATOES

2 – 3 sweet potatoes (or yams)
1 C coconut, dried
2 apples
1/4 C ginger root
4 lemons juiced
2 oranges, juiced
1 C walnuts, chopped fine

• Chop sweet potatoes, apples, and ginger, and run through Champion juicer with blank plate. (Alternatively, grate sweet potatoes, apples, and ginger).
• Remove mixtureto a large bowl. Add shredded dried coconut, lemon and orange juices, and chopped walnuts.
• Mix thoroughly

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MOCK TURKEY

1 bunch celery
1 green onion
parsley to taste
1 C almonds (or pecans)
1 avocado
sage to taste

• In a food processor, puree celery, green onion, and parsley
• Drain (save juice for soup)
• In a nut/coffee mill, grind nuts fine
• Mash avocado thoroughly with a fork
• Combine all ingredients and mix well.
• Form patties. Place each patty on a leaf of lettuce.

Serve with cranberry sauce.

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CRANBERRY RELISH

1-1/2 C fresh cranberries
1 date (or 2, to taste)
1 orange, juiced
1 sm piece fresh ginger, grated (optional)
agave syrup to taste (optional)

• In food processor, grind cranberries, orange juice, and ginger to desired consistency.
• Add agave syrup (if used) to taste, and mix well.

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DILL STUFFING

1 C sunflower seeds, soaked
2 t dill seed
4 t lemon juice
2 T psyllium husk powder
4 t onion, minced
1/2 t salt

• Combine all ingredients in food processor.

SUNFLOWER SEED DRESSING

1 C sunflower seeds, soaked and drained
1 T flax seeds
1-1/2 C celery
1-1/2 C onion
1-1/4 C red bell pepper
1 T sage to taste (or use Bell’s Poultry Seasoning)
Salt and pepper to taste
Garlic to taste (optional)
1/2 C kalamata olives, chopped fine

• In a food processor, grind soaked sunflower seeds fine.
• Grind flax seeds fine in a coffee grinder.
• Remove ground seeds to a bowl.
• Place all remaining ingredients, save olives, in the food processor, and mince.
• Add olives and combine all ingredients thoroughly.
• Place in a pie tin, or rectangular tin of suitable size and dehydrate for six hours, or until dressing has reached your desired consistency.

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JUDY’S “JUST LIKE PUMPKIN” PIE
this is most amazing

2 C almonds, soaked
1 C walnuts or pecans, soaked
1 C unsweetened shredded coconut
20 dates, soaked overnight
2 C cashews, soaked overnight, and drained
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced.
3 t pumpkin pie spice
drizzle agave nectar

CRUST
• Combine almonds, walnuts (or pecans, and coconut in food processor or Vitamix, and process until ground fine and dough-like
• Pat the dough into two pie plates

FILLING
• Drain dates; reserve soak water.
• In food processor, puree dates, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie spice
• Remove mixture from food processor and set aside in a bowl.
• Set mixture aside in a bowl.
• Process cashews, agave nectar, vanilla, and date soak water as needed, until smooth and creamy.
• Combine cashew mixture and sweet potato mix puree
• Spread filling in pie shells
• Dehydrate for 6 hours, then refrigerate.

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CHAMPAGNE REJUVELAC
adapted from a recipe found at http://users.chariot.net.au

To make champagne rejuvelac the rejuvelac must be covered with a tight fitting lid during fermentation. In this way, CO2 gas created during fermentation remains in the finished drink, causing bubbles.

RECIPE

1 C whole millet
1 T raisins

• Sprout millet for 24 hours, then rinse and drain well.
• In a mortar, lightly pound the millet with a pestle, to bruise the grains.
• Place the sprouted millet in a large jar.
• Fill the jar no more than 2/3 full with fresh spring water (approx. 4 C)
• Add 1 T raisins.
• Tightly close the jar with an airtight lid.
• Ferment for 2 to 3 days, shaking the jar gently once each day.

Millet is most suitable for making Champagne rejuvelac as it produces a slightly more sour taste than do other grains, providing for a more champagne-like flavor.

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JEWISH HOLIDAY RECIPES

Here is a quick collection of some Passover/Holiday recipes I have amassed over the years. (I am still working on others… please check back!) I hope some of them will work for you.

BEET SALAD
2 beets, peeled and grated
1/2 lg head of cabbage, shredded
3 carrots, peeled and grated
1 C of raisins
1 apple, diced
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C oil
1/4 C water

Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH COOKIES

4 C butternut squash, peeled and chopped
1 C raisins
1 orange, juiced
1/2 t nutmeg
1 t cinnamon
3 T raw honey

• Process squash in food processor. Remove to a separate bowl..
• In the food processor, process raisins and orange juice.
• Add raisin/orange mixture, nutmeg, cinnamon, and honey to the squash, and mix thoroughly..
• Spoon mixture onto a dehydrator tray with screen.
• Mash each cookie to a 1/2 in. thickness.
• Set the dehydrator at 145 degrees, and dehydrate for one hour.
• Reduce heat to 100 degrees, flip cookies, and continue to dehydrate to desired consistency (10 – 12 hours)

CREAM OF CELERY SOUP

1 bunch celery, chopped
4 C water
1/4 C olive oil
1/4 C lemon juice
1 avocado
1 tomato, sliced
½ – 1 T honey
salt and pepper to taste

Blend all ingredients.

DOUBLE STUFFED TOMATOES
Reminiscent of baked tomatoes.
Remember to soak the seeds and sundried tomatoes the day before you want to eat this dish.

4 beefsteak (or other large) tomatoes
3 C sunflower seeds, soaked, drained, and chopped
1 C sundried tomatoes, soaked and drained
1/2 t paprika
handful fresh basil
1 clove garlic
5 black olives, pitted

• Cut off tomato tops and reserve.
• Remove seeds and interior flesh from tomatoes. (Reserve for other recipes)
• Process remaining ingredients to a cream.
• Fill tomatoes with mixture, to overflowing.
• Garnish with basil leaves
• Finish assembly by placing reserved tomato tops

ISRAELI SALAD

6 lg tomatoes, diced
6 cucumbers, diced
1/2 c scallions, chopped
2 lg carrots, grated
2 or 3 (or more) radishes, finely sliced
4 T olive oil
2 T lemon juice (or vinegar)
1 C parsley, chopped
2 T dill (optional)
2 t celery seed (optional)
salt & pepper to taste

• Mix first five ingredients in a bowl.
• Blend remaining ingredients for dressing.
• Toss salad and dressing.

ASHKENAZI STYLE TSIMMES
1/2 lb. prunes and raisins, pitted and soaked overnight in orange juice
1 lg sweet potato
1/2 lb. carrots
1 sm. butternut squash)
1 sm. turnip
1 sm. sweet apple, cored and chopped (optional)
1/3 C freshly squeezed orange juice
5 dates, pitted and chopped (optional)
1-1/2 t ground cinnamon (or to taste)
1/2 t ground ginger, or to taste

• Process sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, parsnip, turnip, squash, and parsnip, through Champion juicer fitted with blank plate (or process finely in a food processor) and set aside.

• Process soaked raisins and prunes to the consistency of a thick sauce, in a food processor to the
• add 1/4 of dates.
• Add cinnamon and ginger to the sauce.
• Mix sauce and vegetables as needed.

• Add chopped apple, and remaining soaked fruit.
• Mix thoroughly.
• Taste and adjust seasonings, if needed.

MACAROONS

2 C shredded coconut
4 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
1/4 C raw carob powder (optional)

• make the mashed bananas into little balls.
• roll the balls in shredded coconut,
• then in carob powder

KIBBUTZ-STYLE CHAROSET

1/2 C walnuts
3 med. apples, peeled and chopped
1 t honey, or to taste
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 C grape juice

In a food processor, process everything to desired consistency.

RAW GEFILTEFISH

1 C cashews, soaked overnight
1 C almonds, soaked overnight
1 C pine nuts, soaked overnight
1 sm. carrot
1 C green onion, or chives, finely minced
1 bunch parsley or fresh dill
1/2 C lemon juice
1 clove fresh garlic, or to taste
1 T kelp granules (or to taste) this gives the fishy, salty flavor

In a Champion juicer, fitted with the blank plate, process soaked nuts, and carrot. (Alternatively, process in a food processor.)
Combine carrot/nut mixture with lemon juice, kelp, and a water to a wet paté texture.
Add the onions, parsley, and garlic.
Adjust seasonings for flavor.

Form balls or patties, and let stand to develop flavor.
Serve on lettuce leaves with freshly grated
horseradish.

MILLET MATZOH

3 C millet, soaked 7 hours (reserve soak water)
1/2 C flax seed, ground
2 C millet soak water (add more water to make up 2 C, if needed)
1/4 C poppy seeds

In the VitaMix (or blender) process millet sprouts with water.
Remove to a large bowl and add poppy seeds and ground flax seed. Mix all ingredients well.
Pour mixture onto teflex sheets placed on dehydrator trays.
Place dehydrator trays in dehydrator and dehydrate at 105 degrees until slightly moist.
Remove dehydrator trays and using a knife, lightly score for twelve 3 in. squares (alternatively, use a fork to perforate)
Return trays to the dehydrator and continue dehydrating at 105 degrees until crisp.
Refrigerate until serving to avoid crumbling.

SPINACH POTATO LATKES

1 C macadamia nuts, soaked and drained
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 t sea salt
½ C lemon juice
1 C Rejuvalac or filtered water
1 C pine nuts, soaked and drained
6 C spinach, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
6 sm. red potatoes, grated
1 t paprika

* In a VitaMix (or blender), process first six ingredients until smooth.
* Add nut mixture, chopped onion, and grated potatoes to spinach and mix well.
On a dehydrator teflex sheet, shape tablespoonfuls of mixture and sprinkle paprika on top.
Dehydrate at 125 for 4 hrs.

ADDITIONAL THANKSGIVING/CHRISTMAS RECIPE LINKS
Pretty Smart Raw Food Ideas’ holiday recipes are not the only holiday recipe offerings out there, so I thought it would be nice to mention a few other raw vegan sites which offer raw vegan holiday recipes.

At first, I expected to just list the sites I link to on my blog, but, upon checking, I’ve found that a number of my favorite raw vegan sites have gone inactive. Not to be deterred, I’ve spent a few hours googling and come up with some new raw vegan recipe sites that I like. Since I don’t much care for digging through linked-to sites to find what I have gone there for, the links here are to specific pages for the raw vegan holiday recipes I have found.

I am adding this post to the bottom of the Pretty Smart Raw Food Ideas Holiday recipe page, for convenience’s sake. Nevertheless, because raw vegan sites have an unfortunate tendency to go inactive, if you find recipes that you like, I highly recommend that you copy and/or print them for future reference. (I have taken this advice to heart, myself).

As of October, 2011:
FOR FREE HOLIDAY RECIPE COLLECTIONS
CHOOSING RAW
Mostly Raw Vegan Thanksgiving Menu

ADDICTED TO VEGGIES http://www.addictedtoveggies.com/2010/11/easy-raw-vegan-recipes-for-holidays.html

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake
Harvest Pumpkin Stuffing
Raw Vegan Butternut Dumplings
Green Bean Casserole
Thanksgiving Mushroom Loaf
Corn Chowder
Oyster Mushroom Hash
Easy Raw Vegan Recipes for the Holidays (not exactly traditional)

FOODS FOR LONG LIFE
Raw Vegan Pumpkin Soup
Raw VeganBrussels Sprout Salad with Orange/Chia Seed Dressing
Raw Vegan Pecan Tart
Rosemary/Basil Tapenade

ANGELIC MONKEY
Raw Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes

FACTOIDS.COM
Recipes for a Raw Vegan Thankgsgiving Dinner

MOTHERING.COM
Raw Living Foods Thanksgiving Recipes

VEGAN BODYBUILDING & FITNESS
Holiday Recipes

THE HAPPY RAW KITCHEN
Pilgrim Brownies
Raw Caponata Turkey
Raw Cranberry Salad

VEGETARIAN.ABOUT.COM
Raw Cream of Mushroom Soup
Raw Herb Pate Stuffed Mushrooms
Arugula Cranberry Salad with Sweet Ginger Dressing
Beet Green/Basil/Cucumber Salad
Raw Stuffing
Raw Pumpkin Pie
Raw Cranberry Sauce
Raw Cauliflower/Parsnip Mashed “Potatoes”
Raw Cream of Broccoli Soup

RAW FOOD HOME RECIPES
Mock Turkey Loaf

FOR FEE HOLIDAY RECIPE COLLECTIONS

RAW FOOD REHAB ’s RAW FOR THE HOLIDAYS EBOOK

RAW FOOD RIGHT NOW RAW THANKSGIVING EBOOK

RAW FOODS NEWS MAGAZINE LITTLE EBOOK OF RAW THANKSGIVING RECIPES

THE GARDEN DIET THANKSGIVING RECIPES

Recipies

2012-09-03T14:55:00.001-05:00

I thought I would share with you a sample of some wonderful recipes that I found. Of course there are so many out there that this is just a sampling for you to get started with. I hope you enjoy them. I borrowed these from Rhino's Raw and Living Food Recipes that can be found online as well.

Hearty Main Course Dishes

**(Excerpts from Hooked On Raw by Rhio)**

Caribbean Wild Rice

CARIBBEAN WILD RICE

cup wild rice

med. onion, chopped (Vidalias are great to use in season)

large tomatoes (or 4 medium)

large red bell peppers

large yellow bell peppers

1-1 1/2

cups freshly grated coconut

2/3

cup Coconut Cream -see Desserts

tsp. chili powder

1-4

garlic cloves, pressed or minced

tsp. ground coriander

tsp. ground brown mustard

1 to 2

tsp. lime zest, optional (use only undyed limes)

lime, juiced

Nama Shoyu and/or Celtic sea salt (to taste)

Soak l cup wild rice for 36-48 hours, changing the water two times. Then sprout for 2-6 days, until chewy, rinsing twice each day.

When the rice is ready, finely chop the onion, tomatoes, and red and yellow peppers, and grate the coconut. Mix together in a large bowl and add in the wild rice, which will have expanded to approx. 3 cups.

In a separate bowl, mix the Coconut Cream,* or Almond Yogurt, lime juice and zest, pressed garlic, spices and seasoning. Pour over the wild rice and vegetables, and toss well.

Serves 4. Keeps for 2-3 days in the refrigerator.

*Coconut Cream can be made ahead of time and frozen in ice cube trays for future use. When frozen, It lasts for a long while. I've never been able to find out just how long because it always disappears in my house! To defrost, either leave out at room temperature, or put the cubes in a cup and set the cup in a bowl of hot water.

TOONA

cups walnuts, soaked overnight in filtered water, or for at least 3 hours (See Soaking and Sprouting in the Glossary)

cups carrots (chop first, then measure)

1/4-1/2

medium onion

cup celery with leaves (leaves add good flavor)

1/2

cup parsley or cilantro

1/2

cup fresh basil (other fresh herbs, such as dill, can be used in place of basil for a slightly different flavor)

1-2

garlic cloves (according to your own taste)

oz. lemon juice

Nama Shoyu and/or Celtic sea salt, to taste

Drain and rinse walnuts. Cut the carrots into chunks and measure out three cups. Process walnuts and carrots to a paté through a Champion or Green Power juicer, with the blank in place. If you don't have one of these machines, process in a food processor until smooth. You may have to add a slight bit of water. Set aside in a bowl.

Cut the celery into 1-inch pieces so that you don't end up with long strings (to get stuck in your teeth), then pulse chop garlic, onion, celery, herbs and lemon in a food processor until well chopped. Add to the carrot and walnut paté and mix well. Add Nama Shoyu and Celtic sea salt to taste.

Serves 4. Keeps for 2-3 days in refrigerator. Goes well with a crudité.

VARIATIONS:

In place of celery, use fennel for a different taste.

Use as a stuffing for nori rolls, adding in clover sprouts and matchstick-cut pieces of cucumber and tomato. Use in Fabioli. (see Recipe Index)

This recipe also makes delicious dehydrated crackers.

MASALA MUNG

cups sprouted mung beans (or lentils)

2-4

tbsp. freshly grated coconut

1 1/2

tbsp. sesame oil (or combination of sesame & flaxseed oils)

1-2

tbsp. lemon juice

1/4

tsp. garam masala

1/8

tsp. ground brown mustard seeds

1/8

tsp. ground cumin seeds

1/8

tsp. cayenne pepper (optional)

dash of Nama Shoyu and/or Celtic sea salt

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix well together. Adjust flavors by adding more lemon juice, coconut or seasoning to taste.

Serves 2-3. Keeps for 2-3 days in refrigerator.

CURRIED CHICK-PEAS
& CARROTS WITH ALMONDS

1/2

cup sprouted chick-peas (also known as garbanzos)

large carrots, thinly sliced (use Salad Shooter)

red bell pepper, diced

scallions, minced

1/4

cup sprouted almonds, blanched

1/2

cup Pine Nut Yogurt or Rich Yogurt (see Cultured Foods)

1/2

cup tangerine juice

tbsp. olive oil & flaxseed oil mixed together

garlic cloves, minced (or an amount that suits your taste)

1/2

tsp. fresh ginger, minced

1/2

tsp. ground brown mustard seeds

1/2

tsp. ground cumin

1/2

tsp. ground coriander

1/2

tsp. turmeric

cayenne pepper to taste

Celtic sea salt, to taste (optional)

Put the chick-peas into a food processor with the "S" blade and pulse chop lightly. Not too much - you just want to gently break apart the peas so that they are easier to chew.

Slice the carrots very thin using a SaladShooter® (see Kitchen Equipment) with the chip blade (or use other kitchen tool that slices the carrots thin). Mince the almonds with a mincing knife or cut into matchstick-size pieces with a knife.

Put the chick-peas, carrots, bell pepper, scallions and almonds into a large glass bowl and blend in 1/2 cup of Pine Nut Yogurt or Rich Yogurt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, stir the tangerine juice with the oil and spices. Add this into the chick-pea and vegetable mixture and mix well.

Serves 3-4. Keeps for 2-3 days in the refrigerator.

SQUAGHETTI WITH GARLIC & OIL

medium butternut squash

oz. olive oil (extra-virgin)

cloves garlic (pressed)

1/2-3/4

cup Pine Nut Parmezan (see Cultured Foods)

Celtic sea salt, to taste

garnish: minced parsley

Grate the butternut squash into spaghetti-like threads with a Saladacco (see Kitchen Equipment). Cut the threads a little so that they will be easier to eat.

In a small bowl, mix the oil, garlic and Celtic sea salt.

Toss the Squaghetti with the garlic and oil until well coated. Add the Pine Nut Parmezan and toss again. Optional: sprinkle with a little minced parsley.

Serves 4
VARIATIONS: To the basic recipe, you can add in other thinly sliced vegetables to taste. Try one or a combination of mushrooms, bell peppers, tomatoes, and basil.

Soup: Food For The Soul

(Excerpts from Hooked On Raw by Rhio)



"HOT" CREAM OF CAULIFLOWER SOUP

	1/2	cup carrot juice
	1/2	*cup Almond Milk* (see Beverages)**
	2	1" slices of ginger, juiced (or to taste)
	1	small cauliflower, chopped (approx. 2-3 cups)
	1/2	avocado
	2	oz. hot filtered water (optional)
	1	tsp. garam masala
	1	tsp. curry powder
	1	tsp. red bell pepper powder

1)	In a juicer, make the carrot and ginger juice.
2)	Put the juices into the blender with the Almond Milk and all the other ingredients, except the hot water, and blend well. After the soup is well blended, add in the hot water, blend briefly and serve "hot." The addition of the hot water makes this into a warm soup.
	Serves 2. Serve with Macaroon Chews (see Recipe Index) and you'll think you're in exotic India!

GREEN POWER SOUP

	2	cups cucumber juice
	2 1/2	*cups Marinated Collard Ribbons** (see below)**
	1/4-1/2	avocado (If you're on a reducing diet, use only 1 or 2 tbsp. to cream it up a bit)
	1/4-1/2	lemon, juiced
	1	garlic clove
	1-2	tsp. mellow white miso (optional)

1)	Prepare the cucumber juice in a juicer, then put it into a blender with all the rest of the ingredients and blend to a creamy consistency.
2)	Any sprouts which you have on hand, such as lentils, wild rice, mung beans, etc. can be spooned on top of the soup before serving.
	Serves 1 or 2. Best when eaten freshly made.
VARIATION: Instead of the cucumber juice, you could use a combination of celery and zucchini juice or you could use chard stem or collard stem juice. Chard and collard stems are the thick stalk or rib in the middle of the leaf.
NOTE: If you're using the soup as part of a body cleansing process, eliminate the miso.
*This also works with marinated kale, red and green chard ribbons, and beet tops (separately or combined). It is not absolutely necessary to marinate the leaves in order to make the soup. I usually use the leaves as they come, but marinating is suggested here because most people are not accustomed yet to the raw taste.

MARINATED COLLARD RIBBONS

	1	bunch collard greens
	SIMPLE MARINADE:
	1-1 1/2	tbsp. olive oil and flaxseed oil mixed
	1/2-1	lemon or lime, juiced
	1	tbsp. Nama Shoyu or a sprinkle of Celtic sea salt

1)	Wash the collard greens and cut out the stems or ribs which go almost all the way down the middle of the leaf (save for juicing).
2)	Lay the collard leaves one on top of the other and then fold in half and roll the whole bunch into a tight roll. Starting at one end of the roll, cut into very thin slivers. Put the resulting ribbons into a large bowl. Add the marinade and toss until all the ribbons are well coated. Cover the greens and let marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
	Serves 2. Keeps for 2-3 days in the refrigerator.
ALTERNATIVE: You could weigh down the greens by covering them first with some parchment paper and then putting a heavy weight on top of them, such as a half gallon plastic or glass water jug filled with water. Or you could use three heavy plates directly on top. The weight helps the marinade penetrate into the leaves to soften them up. Marinate overnight.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS:
Add sprouted, blanched, dehydrated almonds, red bell pepper julienne, and diced onions, shallots or scallions. Toss. Add mellow white miso mixed with a little water and pressed garlic. Toss. Use in Green Power Soup recipe.
NOTE: This is one of my favorite recipes, I could eat a ton of it and do! It's a good way to get greens into your diet. Check out the Down Home Greens recipe also.
*This recipe also works well with red and green chard leaves, kale and beet tops. Wild leafy plants, such as leaf amaranth (callaloo) and lamb's-quarter, etc. can be chopped and mixed with the marinade for a delicious alternative to cultivated vegetables.

REFRESHING FRUIT SOUP

	1/3	of a pineapple
	1	bunch grapes
	1	apple
	1	tomato
	1/2	lemon or lime

TOPPING: any of the nut or seed yogurts - try Macadamia Cream.
1)	Put all of the fruit through a juicer. Serve with or without a dollop of seed yogurt.
	Serves 2. Keeps for 2 days in the refrigerator.

Super Salads & Salad Dressings

(Excerpts from Hooked On Raw by Rhio)

Spectacular Salads



SPINACH CAESAR SALAD

	1	large bunch spinach
	1/2	cup pumpkin seeds, ground
	1-2	garlic cloves, pressed
	1/2	lemon, juiced
	1/2-1	tsp. prepared Dijon mustard
	2	tbsp. olive oil (extra-virgin)
	dash of Celtic sea salt
	sprinkle of freshly ground white pepper

1)	Rinse the spinach very well under running water, one leaf at a time. Make sure there is no soil or sand in the bottom part near the roots. Sand in your salad is not tasty! Once clean, spin the spinach leaves dry in a salad spinner and put into a large bowl. Tear or cut leaves into bite-size pieces.
2)	Grind the pumpkin seeds. I like to use a kitchen utensil called a Salad- Shooter¨ (see Kitchen Equipment), or you can use a coffee or nut grinder. Add the ground seeds to the spinach and toss well. (The pumpkin seeds are a substitute for the Parmesan cheese used in conventional Caesar salad recipes).
3)	In a small bowl, blend 1 or 2 pressed cloves of garlic, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, olive oil, a sprinkle of white pepper and Celtic sea salt. Pour over the spinach and toss well.
	Serves 2. Best eaten when freshly made.

CAESAR SALAD

	Substitute 1 large head of romaine lettuce for the spinach in the above recipe.

HOOKED-ON-ROOTS SALAD

	1	cup grated sweet potato
	1	cup grated daikon radish
	1	cup grated rutabaga
	1	cup grated Jerusalem artichoke
	1	cup grated beet
	1/2	cup pumpkin seeds, grated
	1 1/2	large avocados
	1-2	garlic cloves, pressed
	1-2	tbsp. lemon juice
	Celtic sea salt, to taste (optional)

1)	Wash the roots with a vegetable brush but don't peel, unless you see a part that looks bad. Cut all blemished parts out. Make sure the roots are not waxed. I've seen rutabagas heavily waxed, and in that case it is wise to peel.
2)	Grate all the roots and put into a bowl. A handy tool for this job is a Salad-Shooter¨ (see Kitchen Equipment). Add mashed avocado, grated or ground pumpkin seeds (the SaladShooter¨ works for seeds also), pressed garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of Celtic sea salt and blend well.
	Serves 4. Keeps for 2 days in the refrigerator.
NOTE: This is a delicious way to introduce raw roots to people who say they "just can't eat raw roots." (Experiment with other combinations of roots.)

WATERCRESS & RED BELL PEPPER SALAD

	2	bunches watercress, chopped
	3	red bell peppers, julienne
	1/2	cup pumpkin seeds, ground
	3	tbsp. dehydrated onion, flaked or powdered (or use fresh minced onion, to taste)
	1-2	garlic cloves, pressed
	small piece of fresh ginger, pressed (use garlic press)
	1/2	lemon, juiced
	1	tbsp. flaxseed oil (or use 1 tbsp. of half flaxseed oil and half sesame oil)
	Nama Shoyu or Celtic sea salt, to taste (optional)
	for garnish: clover or alfalfa sprouts

1)	Mix the first four ingredients together in a large bowl. Set aside.
2)	In a small bowl, blend the oil, lemon juice and seasonings, to taste. Pour over the salad and toss well. Transfer to serving bowls and garnish with clover or alfalfa sprouts all around the edge.
	Serves 2-4, depending on how hungry you are. Keeps 1 day in fridge.

CURRIED SUGAR SNAP PEAS

	3	cups sugar snap peas, Chinese snow peas or any edible podded peas, julienne
	3	tbsp. freshly grated coconut

1)	De-string the peas and prepare julienne.
2)	Mix peas with the freshly grated coconut and set aside in a bowl.

DRESSING:
	1	tbsp. olive oil (extra-virgin)
	1/2	medium lemon, juiced
	1	date, pitted, soaked and mashed
	1/2	tsp. ground brown mustard seeds
	1/2	tsp. ground cumin seeds
	1/2	tsp. garam masala
	1/4	tsp. turmeric powder
	pinch asafoetida
	Nama Shoyu to taste or sprinkle of Celtic sea salt
	garnish: 2 tbsp. freshly chopped cilantro
1)	Mix the oil, lemon juice, mashed date, spices and seasoning. Pour this dressing onto the peas and toss well. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro.

What's For Breakfast?

(Excerpts from Hooked On Raw by Rhio)



HEARTY BUCKWHEAT PORRIDGE

	1/4-1/2	cup hulled raw buckwheat (see Glossary)
	10-15	almonds, soaked overnight
	1/4	cup raisins or currants, soaked overnight
	1	banana (or 1/2 ripe plantain)
	1	small mango (or other fruit, like papaya)
	1/2	cup filtered water
	additional filtered water for soaking

1)	At night, soak 1/4 to 1/2 cup buckwheat in one cup of filtered water. Also soak almonds and raisins separately, using just enough water to cover.
2)	In the morning, strain and rinse the buckwheat well. It will release a mucilaginous liquid, but keep rinsing until the water is clear. Drain and rinse the almonds. Strain the raisins through a colander, reserving the raisin water.
3)	Heat up 1/2 cup filtered water on the stove only to the point where you can still put your finger in, and then turn off the flame. Pour the hot filtered water into the blender, add in the rest of the ingredients and blend to a cream. Thin out with some of the raisin soak water, if necessary.
	Serves 1.
VARIATIONS: This recipe can also be made with hulled, sprouted buckwheat, which is the way I prefer, because sprouting increases the nutrient content. Use sprouted quinoa or amaranth instead of buckwheat.

MELON FRAPPÉ

	1/2	*cantaloupe, honeydew, Persian, muskmelon, cranshaw or any other melon (or a combination)**
	1-2	tsp. raw honey (optional)

1)	Cut the melon into chunks and put into the blender with honey (not necessary if melon is sweet) and a couple of ice cubes. Blend to a frappŽ.
	Serves 1 or 2.
Try to peel the cantaloupe very close to the skin. There is a green chlorophyll layer just under the skin of most cantaloupes and some other melons. Take advantage of this by including it for optimum nutrition. Save the seeds to make Melon Nectar*.

BIRCHER M†ESLI

	1	cup hulled whole oats, soaked and sprouted (or rolled oats, soaked)
	1	apple, grated
	1	banana, sliced
	1/4	cup raisins, soaked
	1/4	cup almonds, soaked
	1/4	cup sunflower seeds, soaked
	1/2	lemon, juiced
	1/2	orange, juiced
	1	tbsp. lemon peel, grated (make sure you're using undyed lemons - organic is best)

1)	If you use whole (hulled) oats, soak 15-20 hours (change the soak water once), then sprout for one day. I prefer these because they are more natural. If you use rolled oats, soak overnight (or at least 1 hour). Soak in filtered water, just to cover, and the oats will absorb the water. (Rolled oats have been through two heat processes; first they are steamed and then they are flattened by rollers. The rollers build up heat in the process.)
2)	Soak raisins, almonds and sunflower seeds overnight in separate little bowls, using filtered water, just enough to cover.
3)	In the morning, drain the water out of the almonds and sunflower seeds, and rinse. Chop the almonds a little. The water you drain from the raisins can be used for drinking or in other recipes.
4)	Mix the oats, apple, banana, raisins, almonds and sunflower seeds in a bowl. Pour in the lemon and orange juices, add grated lemon rind and mix well.
	Serves 2 or 3 . . . or 1 hungry person!
VARIATION: Instead of the apples and citrus, use papaya or mango and fresh pineapple juice.

(This recipe did not make it into my book, Hooked on Raw, because of space limitations)

Delectable Desserts

(Excerpts from Hooked On Raw by Rhio)

Celestial Pecan Pie & Almond Milk


CELESTIAL PECAN PIE

	5	bananas
	1	papaya (or mango, or a pint of strawberries, sliced)
	1	cup pecans (soaked in water for 1 hour)
	1 1/2	cups pecans (don't soak)
	6	oz. filtered water
	5-10	dates, soaked
	1/2	vanilla bean, cut into tiny pieces
	1	heaping tbsp. raw honey (or to taste)
	dash of Nama Shoyu
1)	Soak one cup of pecans in filtered water. Set aside.

FRUIT CRUST:
2)	In a 9-inch glass pie pan, arrange one layer of sliced bananas (2 1/2 bananas should do it). Lay the banana slices in a spiral pattern with one slice slightly overlapping the other until you have covered the entire pie pan. Also put a layer going up the sides of the pie pan. Next, cut the papaya into 1/4 inch thin slices and layer the papaya over the banana. Over the papaya, put another layer of slightly overlapping banana slices. Now with your hands, compress the fruit down evenly. Set aside.

FILLING:
3)	In a blender, put 1 cup of soaked (drained) pecans, dates, 6 oz. filtered water and tiny pieces of vanilla bean and blend to a fine cream. Taste the cream, and if it is not sweet enough for your taste, add more dates.

4)	Pour the cream over the fruit in the pie pan. Put the pie pan into the dehydrator and dehydrate at 95¡ F for 3 hours.
5)	In a small bowl, blend the raw honey with just a little water and a dash of Nama Shoyu. Prepare the unsoaked pecans for the topping by tossing gently with the honeyed water to coat the pecans.
6)	After 3 hours, take the pie out of the dehydrator and place one layer of the prepared pecans on top of the pie. Place them artistically radiating towards the center of the pie.
7)	Chill the pie at least one hour before serving.
	Serves 6-8. Keeps for a few days in the refrigerator.

ALMOND ROCA

	2	cups sprouted almonds
	1/2	cup dried, shredded coconut (always dry coconut yourself in a dehydrator as the dried coconut that you can purchase, even in health food stores, has been bleached and pasteurized)
	1/4	cup raw wildflower honey
	1/2	vanilla bean, ground

1)	Put all the ingredients, except coconut, into a food processor and process until mixture holds together.
2)	Transfer to a bowl, add in the shredded coconut, and blend well by hand.
3)	Form into small ball shapes, and refrigerate. These are very delicious, but don't overdo!
	Makes 1 dozen. Keeps up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Variation: Instead of honey, use soaked raisins to taste. (Soak raisins for 24 hours in filtered water.)

RASPBERRY FRAPPÉ

	2	cups frozen raspberries
	3	frozen bananas
	2	tbsp. raw honey blended with a little water

1)	Put all the ingredients into a food processor and using the "S" blade, process to a creamy consistency.
	Serves 4.

CHOCOLATE SHAM ICE CREAM

	10	*oz. Almond Milk* (see Juices & Beverages section)**
	7	large prunes, soaked until soft
	4	large dates, soaked until soft
	2	oz. date water (water in which the dates were soaked)
	2-3	heaping tbsp. raw carob powder
	1/2	tsp. Vanilla Powder - optional, but good (to make Vanilla Powder, cut up 2 or more vanilla beans, put into a nut grinder and grind as fine as possible. Store in glass jar in the refrigerator)

1)	Put the Almond Milk and all the other ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust flavors. Pour into an ice cube tray and freeze overnight.
2)	When ready to serve, put the cubes through the Champion or Green Power juicer with the blank (homogenizer) in place. Out comes a great ice cream. While it won't fool hard-core chocolate aficionados - for the rest of us, it hits the spot. Best of all, it has no caffeine or theobromine to addict us.
NOTE: This can also be made without the carob powder for a mellower flavor.

COCONUT CREAM

	1	fresh coconut (look for a coconut with a light brown shell, as opposed to dark brown - it will be younger and fresher, or you could use the meat from Thai coconuts or Green Water Coconuts)
1)	With a flathead screwdriver poke a hole into one of the "eyes" of the coconut and pour out the coconut water.* The coconut water is not used in this recipe, however, it is an excellent water to drink.
2)	With a hammer, break the coconut open and separate the meat of the coconut from the shell. Rinse the coconut, then cut into pieces and put through the Champion juicer, using the juice screen. You are making coconut juice, which comes out as a cream. If you are juicing more than two coconuts, keep checking the juicer because it has a tendency to overheat, and then you will be cooking your cream. If the juicer feels hot, turn it off and let it cool before proceeding. a) Thai Coconuts come with the husk already partially cut down. They have a flat bottom and the top looks like a pyramid. The outside is an off white color. I open them like this: first, with a sharp knife shave off as much of the top pyramid part as will come off. Then with a big, heavy knife, hit the top on four sides (in a square shape). You may have to hit each side more than once. By the time you get to the third side, the coconut should already be open - I mean the small square on the top will be open. Peel back the shell and pour out the water. (Drink the water or save for another use.) Using the edge of a large spoon you can separate the meat from the husk and pull it out through the square hole you created. b) Green Water Coconuts unfortunately are not available everywhere. The water from these coconuts is excellent for drinking or fasting purposes. I have seen these coconuts in all the Caribbean Islands and Florida and they are made available in New York City. If you purchase these coconuts in Florida or the Islands, they are usually chopped off at either end and a straw is put in so that you can enjoy the water. At home, I've found an easier way to open them. Slice a section of husk off the side** with a sharp knife. Then with the end of a sharp knife, cut a hole into the side and pour off the water. When the coconuts are young and fresh, it is easy to do this. When they are older, the husk seems to petrify. It gets hard as a rock and then this method of opening them will not work. Also the water inside of these harder coconuts may or may not be good to drink. Some Green Water Coconuts are all water and do not develop meat, but others do have a thick layer of very delicious meat.
	One average coconut yields approx. 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Coconut Cream. To keep overnight, put into the refrigerator. If you want to keep it longer, freeze in ice cube trays.
NOTE: Coconut Cream can be used to make various ice creams and parfaits,and also some Caribbean style main course dishes, such as the Caribbean Wild Rice (see Recipe Index). It is also good by itself or as a topping for fruit salads.
Sometimes I've heard it called coconut milk, but it looks more like water to me. In Latin countries they call this "Agua de Coco" (water of the coconut). When it's fresh, it tastes slightly sweet or neutral, but if it's old, it can taste sour or soapy. You don't want to drink it then or use the coconut meat either. *I find that the Champion juicer makes the Coconut Cream easier than the Green Power juicer. (When making Coconut Cream with the Green Power juicer, it's best to put the coconut through first with the blank (homogenizer) in place, then put the resulting pulp through again using the juice screen.)

Live Food Menus

2012-09-03T14:36:00.000-05:00

I eat when I am genuinely hungry and usually one or two good meals will suffice. Often the only preparation needed is to wash the fresh fruits and vegetables to prepare a bounty on my table. There are times that I do cut up my fruits and vegetables or juice them when I want to have a variety all at ones rather than a whole mono meal of a certain fruit or vegetable. The idea behind this simple way of eating is to get your food in its natural state and to avoid, oxidation and fragmentation of food nutrients and loss of fiber during preparation.

Here is the link to the book pictured in my blog. I highly recommend getting it. http://www.alissacohen.com/raw.html

Here are a few live food recipes:

Free Live Food Recipes

AVOMATO SOUP

2 avocados
1/2 cup thick Nut Milk of choice
1 cup grape juice
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup minced green onion

Blend avocados, Nut Milk, and grapes. Stir in tomatoes and lemon juice. Chill thoroughly. Serve in bowls and sprinkle minced onion on top of soup. Serves 4 to 6.

SPICY PERSIMMON SOUP

4 large, super-soft persimmons
2 cups tangerine juice
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder

In a blender container, combine all ingredients until thoroughly pureed. Serve in bowls. Garnish with lime wedges and tangerine slices with a bowl of lettuce and celery for all. Serves 2 to 4.

CUCUMBER RELISH

3 cucumbers
2 ribs minced celery
1 large red sweet bell pepper
1 green sweet bell pepper
1 orange sweet bell pepper
1/2 cup dried blueberries or raisins
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon celery seed

With food processor, coarse chop the cucumbers. Sir in remaining ingredients. Chill thoroughly. Makes 4 cups.

GREEN SALAD QUINTET

1 bunch spinach
6 romaine leaves, 6 Boston leaves
4 escarole leaves, 2 endive leaves
6 radishes, thin-sliced
1 scallion, minced
1 large avocado, gently fine-diced

Tear leaves in bite-size pieces and slice endives. Combine greens with radishes and scallions. Toss lightly with avocado dices and juice of 2 oranges. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

CRANBERRY WALDORF

2 cups cranberries
1/2 cup grape juice
2 cups diced, tart apple with skins
1/2 cup seedless green grapes
1/2 cup broken walnuts
1/2 cup minced celery

Grind cranberries, cover them, and chill overnight in grape juice. Add apples, grapes, walnuts, and celery. Fold into a thick Nut Butter dressing of your choice or just use The GetWellHStayWell Sugar Bowl. Serve in large bowl lined with lettuce or in personal lettuce cups. Garnish with clusters of grapes. This is a great holiday side dish or main dish and would have gone great with the turkey you used to eat! Serves 4 to 6.

The "Victory Kitchen"

2012-05-02T18:13:00.002-05:00

     We Americans eat an average of 200 meals in the SAD food land a year. The other 895 we cook in our own kitchens. This is where we can make the biggest difference. How can we do this you ask? By setting up the ideal kitchen, Victory Kitchen, by getting rid of all our SAD foods. The following are 10 revolutionary steps to making yours a Victory Kitchen.

1. Get rid of every packaged, plastic wrapped, bottled, canned, frozen, jarred, tin foiled, boxed SAD food item in your pantry, freezer, refrigerator, counter or any other place in your kitchen and donate them, dump them and vow to never restock them again.

2.Gather up all cooking, toasting, rotissering, deep frying, microwaving, barbecuing, crock potting, kitchen utensil designed to render food toxic and get rid of them.

3. Save all the utensils that can be used for live food uses.

4. Collect raw food recipe books, food combining guide, 80/10/10 diet book and so on.

5. Get rid of all your SAD foods cook books.

6. Invest in a juicer, blender, food processor, large cutting board, a good set of knives, nut grinder, colanders, strainers, sprout jars, tiny sized ice cube trays, nut crackers, melon ball scoop, ice cream scoop, refrigerator storing containers and anything else used to prepare live foods.

7. Invest in serving materials that will add visual, aesthetic appeal and interest to your meals as well as ease of serving them. Such as a set of serving knives, tall spoons, straws, special serving dishes, trays, plates and bowls, cloth napkins, tablecloth, candles and other items you like.

8. Explain to your family that SAD food will neither be served nor allowed in your home any longer.

9. If your family is not on board 100% you stick to your live food diet and wait for your family to follow suit.

10. Kindly explain to family and friends who come to visit that your house is a live food home. This means if they want to bring treats that only live food will be welcome. Be enthusiastic when you share your new way of life with them, explain that when invited to dinner they will be eating the finest cuisine with the highest health benefits. You will soon win them over and possibly change their lives for the better.

    Once your kitchen is swept clean......the actual process may take a day and be painful so you might want to invite a friend over for support. Or you may want to do it alone. Either way understand you are beginning an adventure of a lifetime. You have consciously decided to declare your home a health seekers home. With your Victory Kitchen you are declaring health independence and are fighting the disease industrialist and you are not going to take it anymore. You are going to live your choice one day at a time on the road less traveled instead of the easier unhealthy way.

   The health hazards of cooking our food are many. First and foremost cooking our food destroys the oxidizable factors in food. They can no longer be oxidized in our body rendering them useless as food. Your health is directly dependent on your body getting a full range of nutrients. When it doesn't get these nutrients it is always hungry regardless of the calories consumed. Furthermore the destruction of nutrients results in toxic waste products that poison our system. Let us examine how food most fit for life become toxic through the "killinary" art.

1. Some or all vitamins are lost.

2. Some minerals are rendered unusable.

3. Proteins are coagulated and deaminized (pertaining to α-amino acids that have undergone the chemical alteration that removes ammonia (NH₃) from glutamate.).

4. Sugars are carmelized and disorganized.

5. Fats are disorganized and are rendered carcinogenic.

6. Some unsaturated fats become saturated.

7. Enzymes are totally destroyed at 120 degrees F and above.

8. Starches are rendered less digestible.

   Poor mastication results in decreased saliva and enzyme flow: food is therefore poorly prepared for digestion. Natural fiber is broken down, increasing transit time of food through the gastrointestinal tract. Decreased use of facial muscles results in wrinkles and an appearance of aging beyond one's rightful years. Carcinogenic charcoal forms during some cooking procedures. Leukocytosis (is a raised white blood cell count above the normal range in the blood. It is frequently a sign of an inflammatory response) increases upon ingestion of cooked food. Decreased dental health is noted. Cooked food is most often highly fragmented, highly chemicalized and is invariably prepared in utensils that give off toxic metal, plastic or paint particles. Cooked food is most often addicting and promotes overeating as well as obesity. It is toxic and energy expensive to digest and leads to Toxemia and in the future chronic illness, degenerative disease and leads to an early, miserable, painful and costly death.

     If you have to eat cooked food here are some guidelines to follow. Try to eat cooked food no more than once a week until you can go to never. Limit your cooked food to the transition recipes I will give you in the next blog. Lightly steam vegetables and eat them while still a little crunchy. Invest in a good quality stainless steel cookware set as studies show food cooked in such cookware is far superior to foods cooked in standard cookware. If you are an over eater go slowly so you don't binge on SAD foods because you feel deprived. If you are not an over eater move swiftly into this new way of eating and never look back! On a side note cooked foods and drinks when eaten very hot damage the mucosal membranes of the mouth and esophagus as well as the lining of the stomach causing irritation. The body has to form new cells more often to replace the damaged and killed ones from the frequent exposure to excessive heat of cooked foods.

   By now you should know that the root cause of disease is the toxic accumulation of waste in the bloodstream and tissue. For all the toxins we take into our body from the outside world we continue to be willing to ingest poisons from our foods and beverages. Excessive consumption of cooked foods leads us down the path of illness, disease and death.   Imagine not a super highway of fast food joints, all you can eats, mom's apple pie, all American hot dogs, or other pleasures of gluttony but of one with no hospitals, no drug stores, no doctors offices, no chemotherapy treatment centers and with the fountain of youth with a path of wholesome fruits, seeds, nuts, vegetables and free of illness. Personally I prefer the latter.

   Now for the question of Organic, meaning food grown without pesticides, fertilizers, not chemically treated with preservatives, hormones, antibiotics, herbicides, pesticides and defoliants.    The use of these products on our food supply makes it so the body is unable to metabolize and eliminate them. In many cases they are cumulative and will haunt and impair individuals the rest of their life. Make it a priority to stop poisoning yourself today. Seek organically grown food or grow your own. By eating organic foods uncooked we are relieving the body of the task of having to process and eliminate toxic food. By eliminating all meat and animal products from our diets we are cutting the toxic residues, chemicals, antibiotics, and other additives added to their feed from our bodies. Find a local fruit stand, farmers market or co op and make friends with them. Let them know about your way of eating. They will love you!   A side note here on the danger of food radiation. All uncooked foods sold in grocery stores are radiated. Radiation preserves food with dangerous rays up to 4.5 rads of gamma radiation-10,000 times the dosage lethal to humans! It results in the destruction of all the food enzymes and vital properties in the foods.

     When transitioning over to the Victory Kitchen way of life here are some things to consider so there will be no obstacles in your way.

1. Choose fruits and veggies that require little or no chewing.

2. Blend those fruits and veggies that you can and make smoothies.

3. Use a food processor to make the foods easier to eat.

4. Juice when you can.

5. Grind nuts if needed.

6. Soak nuts and seeds over night if necessary.

   Start making your own juices. There is nothing like fresh juice, fruit or veggie, to start your day. As you get comfortable with juicing you can make great mixes of veggies and fruits. Start transition foods until you can go cold turkey and live on whole live foods. Some things to remember are: you will be able to eat more than you do now on the SAD diet. Don't fear nuts and seeds but don't let them be more than 5% of your protein intake. Don't over eat avocados, nuts or seeds if you have a weight problem. Eat as many properly food combined meals as you can and mono meals of fruit or veggies. Feel free to omit or substitute items but be sensible and make the proper substitutions. Select the finest organic foods you can buy. Remove all inedible parts of the food. Use only raw nut butters. Strive for variety, harvest your own food if you can, try sprouting, omit any item that wont sit well with you and most of all enjoy the new bounty about to be laid before you. Remember progress-if not perfection-on the ideal diet is your aim. Start by avoiding all the SAD foods immediately. Limit your cooked foods. Stick to pure living foods. And if you fall off the wagon climb back on! Let perfection be your goal but be satisfied with your progress! Remember eat well, stay well!

   Join me for my next blog on the year in live foods menus with transition foods and recipes. I hope you are enjoying this series and I apologize for the delay in getting back to blogging. I will try harder to stay current with at least one to two blogs a week. I am wrapping up my classes for my certifications so that I can move on to my BS/Masters and then on to my Doctorate. I have found my calling and I plan on using it to its fullest.

Yours in health, happiness and freedom,

Cherise

How to Reach Your Ideal Weight Part 2

2012-04-12T12:06:00.000-05:00

    Today we eat for mere gratification, something previous generations were not able to do. Our eating habits are formed at infancy and are cultivated throughout childhood and youth. Many are lured to their doom by their appetites. Don't be fooled by the grumblings of your stomach. Real hunger comes without notice and with a craving for a specific wholesome food that is need by the body. Do not eat if not hungry! Hunger is the voice of nature telling us that food is required. There is no true guide as when to eat. So the next time your stomach growls think about are you truly hungry, does my body need something or is my appetite trying to sabotage my weight loss.

High fiber foods promote weight loss in many ways. First they require much more chewing and therefore discourages overeating by normalizing the hypothalamus or "appetite center." They are bulk foods that literally fill you up. They are much lower in calories and do not contain empty calories. Not only are they high in vitamins and minerals the nutrition is in its proper balance. The fiber rich foods on the Ideal Diet are not served with fattening condiments. Fiber absorbs large quantities of water as it passes through the intestines prolonging the feeling of fullness. It inhibits the absorption of dietary fats. Increased digestive time reduces amount of calories consumed. They do not strain the digestive system. Lastly they promote emotional balance as the consumer knows they have eaten the best possible foods for their health.

   If you are one of those people that as soon as you finish a meal you start thinking about the next meal the mono meal concept may help you to divert your thoughts to other things other than food and help you to lose weight. What is meant by the mono meal is when you eat pick one item and eat a meal of just that item for all your meals that day. This way when you wake up you know what you are going to eat that day and you can then think of everything else throughout the day. This helps you to not overeat and and no longer be a slave to the food fix.

   Nutrition is the sum of all the processes whereby the body is supplied with all its needs. Food nutrients are the micro elements from food that result from digestion and that are assimilated into the cells and used by the body at the cellular level. It is not what we eat, but what we appropriate at the cellular level that determines our level of nutrition. Once you have achieved your ideal weight and nutrition you will have developed new eating habits that will keep you from returning to the destructive habits you had before. Continue to seek energy enhancers and avoid energy robbers. Keep stretching, aerobic exercising and weight training. Be careful to follow the Ideal Diet. Don't let yourself start back on the SAD diet that got you overweight, unhealthy and toxic. Go easy on sweet fruits, nuts, seeds and avocados until your weight has truly stabilized at your ideal weight. Remember weight can be regained easily. Take care to stay well!

   This ends my blog on how to reach your ideal weight. I will be not be blogging for a few days as I will be testing on the information I have shared with you in these lasts few blogs. When I return we will be talking about setting up "The Victory Kitchen." Get ready to clean out your kitchen of all the SAD diet products and fill it up with good healthy living foods. Say goodbye to "SAD Food Land" and hello to "The Victory Kitchen" and "Garden" if you can plant one and grow some of your own food. Of the 1100 meals we eat, approx 900 are made right in our own kitchens. In order to claim victory over our weight and health we have to set up an "Ideal Food Fortress." So get ready to make a clean sweep of all the SAD vestiges and turn your kitchen into a "Victory Kitchen!" As always I hope you have learned something new and are enjoying the blogs.

Yours in health, happiness and freedom,

Cherise

How to Reach Your Ideal Weight Part 1

2012-04-11T11:58:00.000-05:00

     Approximately 75% of Americans are overweight by at least 10 pounds. An estimated 30% are clinically obese which means they weigh 20% more than their ideal weight. Many of these are children. This is a major contributing factor to many chronic diseases. Statistically only 5% of the people who lose weight will keep it off for more than 3 years. Most studies show this figure to be more like 1% to 1/2%. To me that is a sad commentary on weight loss. Who wants to be healthy or skinny for a short period of time? I don't think anyone would want that. However as bleak as it ma be that is what happens. So how do we change the statistics to our favor? By the natural weight loss system not by dieting! I will give it to you in a nutshell and then expand on certain talking points. I am going to break this down into 2 parts as well so I can give you detailed information and not get to lengthy on the blog as this is a topic of interest to many.

Nutshell:

1. Change to the Ideal Diet, ideally avoiding all cooked foods.
2. Minimize sweet fruits and dried fruits.
3. Emphasize vegetables.
4. Minimize nuts and seeds and eat them early in the day.
5. Minimize avocados or eliminate them all together.
6. Eat only 2 meals a day and if eating 3 meals a day make breakfast fruit and vegetables and salads for lunch and dinner.
7. Eat on a schedule.
8. Avoid all snacking between meals.
9. Eat no later than 6pm
10. Eat mono-meals occasionally.
11. Fast for one 24 hour period a week.
12. Fast for a 3 day period once a month on the weekend when you can rest.
13. Follow the Ideal Juice Diet for 1-10 days on lower calorie fruit and veggie juice sparingly and made fresh.
14. Dine only if you are in emotional balance.
15. Practice "Get well slow down behaviors" at each meal.
16. Keep a food journal and a personal thoughts dairy to become more aware of your eating habits and motivations for overeating.
17. Exercise regularly including stretching, aerobics, weight training to the extent that you are capable. Emphasize aerobics to increase caloric output.
18. Exercise instead of lunch or dinner.
19. When your tired rest!
20. Join a support group like Over-eaters Anonymous or church support group that wont base its program on the SAD diet.
21. Create a support system of family and friends.
22. Practice energy enhancers not energy robbers.

     The chicken feed factor refers to the equally inordinate weight gain of both chickens and humans through their food consumption of a poisoned food supply that precipitates fatty tissue formation. In the early 50's it took 14-16 weeks to bring a chicken to slaughter weight and required 3.4 pounds of feed to yield a pound of chicken meat. Today it takes just 7 weeks and 1.9 pounds of feed to yield that same pound of meat. This has been achieved by great cruelty to to the birds and health risk to the consumer. Chickens are fed arsenic, aspirin, antibiotics, tranquilizers and growth hormones all of which we consume when we eat these tainted birds. To get the fat off the hips and out of the arteries simply get the fat out of your diet. The SAD diet is 37% fat the Ideal Diet is 5% fat. We are the most overfed and yet undernourished country in the history of the world. The average American consumes 3,393 calories a day, the highest in the world. It has been noted overweight people underestimate their caloric intake by 833 calories a day. We are overfed in the sense that we are consuming vast amounts of highly caloric foods and undernourished because they are nutrient devoid calories. For each 3,500 excess calories we ingest we gain 1 pound of fat. So if you are 10 pounds overweight you have consumed 35,000 extra calories! High fat foods have 3 times the calories of a high carbohydrate food such as fruits, veggies and nuts including avocado who get such a bad wrap.

   For the vast majority of people food is the drug of choice. The television shows 10-15 food commercials an hour. We connect food to love, friendship and happiness. And with the supermarkets filled with food like substances and restaurants with entrees that exceed our daily allotment of all categories it is no wonder we are a nation rampant with eating disorders, unconnected, misdirected people taking in more food than needed.     Everyone is familiar with Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia but we don't always think of overeating as an eating disorder. Compulsive over-eaters are Bulimics without purging. Then there is those of us who just can't determine the difference between cravings and hunger. To put it simply true hunger is a genuine demand for food based on actual physiological needs of the body. Cravings are counterfeit hunger based on emotional needs food cannot fulfill and is stimulated by external cues: arrival of mealtime, sight/smell, thought/mention of food, certain places or people....almost anything!

     The hypothalamus or "The Appestat" is located deep in the brain. This spot in the brain is about the size and shape of a small clam shell. It has two functions one of which is to trigger an awareness of hunger and the other to sense satiety. If it works properly and the individual has a healthy relationship with food he lives a life at normal weight. Scientist believe the most important stimulus for triggering hunger is blood sugar. When blood sugar drops you will develop true hunger sensations. If you were to exercise aerobically for 20 minutes your blood sugar will rise to the level equivalent to eating a meal and hunger will disappear. So in reality exercise nourishes the body by releasing blood glucose from our fat storage. Regular exercise over a period of months causes people to eat less, to lose weight and feel better. On a side not the appetite thermostat works on a 20 minute time lag. The hypothalamus does not call for a halt to eating until insulin reaches a certain level in your spinal fluid. So what this means is that from the onset of eating it takes about 20 minutes for fullness to begin. The point is we can do a lot of damage if we over eat in that 20 minute time period. The frightening thing here is that many of the foods on the SAD diet require little or no chewing and a compulsive eater can consume 5,000 calories in 18 minutes!

     Now that we know about hunger and how we get hungry how do we short circuit overeating? Because the very act of eating has assumed such importance and been so perverted by the mass media, commercial interest, and social customs that many of us must literally be taught how to eat well. What we have to do is to determine the behavior that is causing our weight problems and address it by behavior modification. So for 21 days if you modify your destructive behaviors you will plant a new constructive behavior and be on your way to conquering your bad eating habits and ultimately your weight problems. Now I want to give you some get well slow down behaviors as the antidote to over eating. These will help you to slow down, enjoy your meals, restore controlled awareness and allow your appestat to function normally. Two critical things I want to note here: always eat in a designated eating area only (dining room), secondly eat as a pure activity, meaning except pleasant conversation, no distractions period! Now for the 10 simple antidotes.

1. Take 10 minutes to relax before you start eating.
2. Take at least 20 minutes to eat.
3. Put your utensil or food if no utensil is being used down between bites.
4. Take smaller bites.
5. Use a napkin between bites.
6. Stop for 5 minutes during the meal.
7. Keep second helpings at a distance.
8. Leave a little on the plate.
9. Leave the table when finished.
10. If possible rest after each meal even if it's just sitting down for 5 minutes to aide in digestion.

     The Ideal Diet and these antidotes will give you the nutrition you need and discipline you need to lose weight safely and healthfully. We do have a choice as to how much body fat we want to carry. It may not be easy but there is hope even if you have tried everything! Check back tomorrow for part 2 of this blog where I will go into more detail on food, nutrition , appetite and weight loss and maintenance. I hope you have gained new knowledge and are enjoying this series. Tell your friends to check it out.

Yours in health, happiness and freedom,

Cherise

The Ideal VS the SAD diet Part 2

2012-04-10T09:23:00.000-05:00

     We are going to start this part with the dis-service of the dead food disease industrialist food giants and how their products effect our health. There is three main things they do to our food supply. First they process our food, meaning they alter it from its original state by overcooking it. They refine it by breaking down food into various parts, resulting in fragmentation of the whole food into an unbalanced source of nutrition. And lastly they preserve it by the addition of chemicals (non-nutritive substances) which are poisons. The problem with food processing boils down to because the food is so far from its normal state of being an ideal food the body can't get enough even when the caloric intake is exceedingly high. It also breaks down fiber during the heating process. Case in point.....A fresh ear of corn has 1 mg of natural sodium and 85 calories. Canned corn has 250 mg of sodium chloride per 1/2 cup as well as added chemicals. Corn chips have 1000 mg of salt for 4 oz along with many chemicals. Sugar frosted corn flakes have 250 mg of salt per cup and 155 calories as well as preservatives. Or in the case of an apple, fresh it has 12 mg of sodium and 100 calories. It is perfect for weight loss if eaten in its natural state. Applesauce is low in salt but loaded with sugar at 230 calories a cup. Apple pie has 250 mg of salt per slice and 345 calories. An apple danish has 360 mg of salt and 400 calories and an apple cinnamon cream cake has 150 mg of salt and 360 calories a slice. As you can see there is great benefits to eating foods in their natural state. This is why you don't have to count calories and worry about your food intake when eating the ideal diet.    Refining is a process where the water and fiber has been removed along with certain vitamins, minerals and all enzymes. What was once an ideal food is now a fattening, disease promoting, irresistible, modern counterfeit food like product. These foods are empty calorie foods or naked calorie foods that are cooked into addicting, fattening and toxic products.

     High fiber foods are essential to total health. Fiber come in two forms: stiff (cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin) soft (pectins and gums). Vegetables are rich in the stiff fibers and fruits in the soft fibers. Fiber is measured according to 2 standards, crude and dietary. Fiber helps your system clean itself out. The average American gets less than half of the 25 grams of fiber a day recommended by the National Cancer Institute. This is wreaking havoc on our health and we have to change this dietary mistake immediately. Ideal foods as compared to refined foods have 4-5 times the amount of fiber in them and when eaten as a steady diet contain 2-3 oz. or more of fiber daily (60-90 grams). Because of this the ideal foods pass through your system in 24-36 hours whereas refined foods take 48-96 hours. They keep you regular and from being constipated and don't cause the many health conditions that refined foods do such as coronary heart disease, gallstones, diverticulitis, appendicitis, hiatus hernia, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, colon cancer, breast cancer, obesity, constipation (Stated bluntly, anyone who is not having at least 2 bowel movements a day is constipated. Yes, at least 2 (optimally 3) bowel movements a day are vital for optimal health!)diabetes and others.

   Now we are going to talk about the corruption of our food supply through preserving. Processing and refining of our food supply wreak nutritional havoc and contribute to the vast amount of illness and disease we suffer today.   The food giants can pump chemicals into our food which have no nutritional value and are toxic to us with impunity. When we buy these foods we are paying for the very stuff that that will trigger these aliments. These chemicals come in the form of preservatives, buffers, neutralizers, moisture content controls, coloring agents, flavorings, physiologic activity controls, bleaching and maturing agents, stabilizers, processing aids, nutrition supplements and many others. A word of caution if you can't pronounce it and a 5 year old can't read it DON'T but it! The easiest way to avoid these toxic food like substances is to not buy food with labels.

Salt is considered a toxin because it is not the natural occurring salt that is found in food. Added salt is sodium chloride the substance that is the cause of all the sodium sickness such as high blood pressure and edema and a long list of other illnesses I won't go into at this time. Salt acts upon the body in several ways which I will discuss in detail. We can refer to salt in terms of water attracting, water holding and water retention. When salt is added to food and ingested the body reacts by diluting the salt as it sees it as a poison to protect itself from the sodium chloride. For information sake 1 ounce of ingested salt holds 3 quarts of water or 6 pounds of excess bodily water and fluids. That means salt holds 70 times its weight in water! Sodium chloride causes us to lose our potassium which is not healthy. It is recommended that we consume no more than 280milligrams of naturally occurring salt a day. The SAD diet contains a whopping 4000 to 6000 mg of sodium chloride (20-30 times more than the body needs), the toxic form, and heavy salt users can consume up to 10,000 mg a day.   Sodium that is natural occurring is needed, sodium chloride the toxin is not, for our bodies to be healthy.

   The last thing I want to cover is the poisoning of our baby food and food hangovers. Mothers milk is best for babies to consume. It is recommended that an infant should take primarily mothers milk and fresh fruit juices from birth to age 2. From the age 2 on the child should eat of the ideal diet.    Due to the mother eating the SAD diet the poisoning begins before birth. When we feed our babies formula we are feeding them toxic chemical additives, lead, refined sugar (leads to obesity), high sodium content, not enough of the components in the correct balance to ensure healthy, normal development. Formulas with cow's milk contains too much fat and calcium and not enough tryptophan and lecithine for the child and they have been heated and processed being difficult for babies to digest and contribute to allergies/rashes/colds/nausea and other problems. The obvious drawbacks are that they are expensive, time consuming, bottles can become contaminated easily and for many moms it's the physical love bonding that only breastfeeding can provide.

     This final topic I want to discuss I have personally experienced anytime I cheat and eat anything from the SAD diet as I have detoxed my body and it is in a clean, healthy state now. It is the food hangover. This is what happens when you reintroduce the SAD foods back into your body, you retoxify your body.   Your body can no longer handle these toxins and when you "fall off the wagon" you pay the price just as I have on several occasions and as recently as today from eating vegetables with dairy in them. Your body goes into revolt as if it had truly been poisoned and it has! This aftermath can last hours to days depending on how much has been ingested and how clean your system is. It also will affect the degree to which you experience symptoms. The symptoms range from nausea, cramps, pain, rumblings in the stomach and intestines, gas, bloating, belching, vomiting and diarrhea, inordinate thirst, as much as 5-10 pounds weight gain virtually overnight, sleeplessness, trembling, chills, fever, weakness, headache, cold symptoms, itching and many more. The more strong the reaction the healthier you are and have become. For me I have had the mucus buildup from the dairy and numbing of my mouth from something in the peanut M&M's I ate for Easter. I have now gotten over those side effects of cheating for Easter and believe me they were not pleasant. As with any toxin/poison we ingest from foods/beverages our body adapts to them the more we partake of them. We adapt to the continual poisoning in our diet through a process known as disease. You will experience this until your body is free of the toxins that caused the retoxification. So the best way to avoid this is to detoxify your body and not retoxify it.

     I hope you have enjoyed this 2 part blog and have learned new useful information. Just in case you still don't believe in the Ideal Diet I highly recommend watching this video: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/ageless-woman. My next blog will be on how to reach your ideal weight. It is going to be interesting and I am going to be putting in to practice the things I learn from this chapter myself. I am trying to get that last 10 stubborn pounds off. So be watching for that blog to be posted. Sign up to get my blogs sent right to your in box so you don't miss anything.

Yours in health, happiness and freedom,

Cherise

The Ideal VS the SAD diet Part 1

2012-04-09T07:58:00.006-05:00

     Diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes
remain leading causes of death and disability in the United States. Research

indicates that diet can play an important role in prevention of such conditions.

Its findings indicate the great importance of diet to health. They demonstrate
that changes in present dietary practices of Americans could produce
substantial gains in the health of the population.  The Surgeon General's Report

on Nutrition and Health 1998

     The evidence strongly suggests that a dietary pattern that contains 
excessive intake of foods high in calories, fat (especially saturated fat),

cholesterol, and sodium, but that is low in complex carbohydrates and fiber,

is one that contributes significantly to the high rates of major chronic diseases

among Americans. It also suggests that reversing such dietary patterns should lead

to a reduced incidence of these chronic diseases.     The Surgeon General's Report 
on Nutrition and Health 1998

     The Basic Four Food Groups of The Standard American Diet along with the not

mentioned 5th food group consisting of pure junk food are the primary toxic source

of poisoning responsible for the rampant disease among the suffering people in

America today.  A little history here...the US Dept. of Agriculture created this diet

in 1956.  This government department was a strong supporter of the cattle-raising along

with milk and egg production and was staffed by top people of these industries.

So with the fact that so many Americans are so unhealthy why don't we make the

connection with the SAD diet and disease.

      The main objections to the SAD diet are the use of low quality food which is

unnatural and toxic to humans.  The destruction of food's nutritional value through

the cooking  process and processing and refining.  The use of chemical poisons in the

preparation, preserving, and garnishing of food.  The SAD diet is high in fat 90% of

which is saturated fats and is mostly of refined carbohydrates and sugar all of which

is a dangerous cocktail for our health. There is little wonder we are a Nation of sick

and suffering people.  The little known side effects are that the SAD diet encourages

overeating and eating disorders.  It requires maximal energy to digest, causes the "food

hangover", contributes to emotional unbalance, drains energy, strength and endurance.  It

precipitates and/or aggravates acute and chronic disease, ages the body and spirit

prematurely and makes the pursuit of happiness difficult and promotes suffering and early

death.

     We all know what is on our SAD diet pyramid but we don't know what is on the Ideal

Diets.  There are still 4 basic food groups but they are much different. First is fresh

and dried fruits, next is raw, wholesome and nontoxic vegetables, then fully sprouted

grains and legumes and finally raw unroasted nuts and seeds.  This is the food pyramid I

have been eating for over a year now with only 10% of my food coming from an animal (free

range eggs, free range cattle and chickens, Greek yogurt, probiotics smoothies, fresh fish

w/o mercury or other toxins).  A few things I wanted to share with you on why the SAD diet

is less than ideal one of which heated animal fats are linked to cancer and when cooked the

fats in the bloodstream reduce oxygen up to a third and causes a condition known as the

Rouleaux Effect and has been linked to strokes due to the reduced availability of oxygen

to the brain.  The fact that animal foods contain approximately 3 times the calories of

carbohydrates and twice the calories of proteins ounce for ounce is pale in comparison to

the abundance of man made poisons they contain.  Animals contain pesticides, herbicides,

artificial fertilizers, growth producing hormones and a dozen other chemicals that are

added to their feed and are passed on to those who eat them.  Because they are toxic at

the cellular level they cause a stimulation to overeat or eat compulsively.  They contain

no fiber and cancerous cells feed off protein and are characterized by "runaway" protein

synthesis and rapid cellular division.  This is why the 10% of animal products I allow

myself has to come from a clean, organic, toxic free environment.

     A note on the dairy industry for information sake.  For most Americans milk is

indigestible after childhood.  We are the only species that still drinks milk after being

weened.  After the age 3 the body produces little if any rennin and lactase.  These are

the enzymes that break down casein, a calcium/protein component of milk, and lactose, the

milk sugar.  When milk products are consumed our bacterial flora decomposes it, fermenting

part and putrefying part and toxic waste by products result.  Milk also causes mucosal

detoxification in the form of respiratory elimination:  common colds, asthma, sinusitis

and bronchitis.  Another problem is the pasteurizing, heating of the milk, which causes the

calcium that we are supposed to be drinking molecular structure to be altered making

it toxic and the casein to become coagulated and toughened making it less available.  The

inorganic and unabsorbed calcium is then deposited in the soft tissues and calcify leading

to a number of diseases.

     So as you can see eating animal product come with many negative effects that can be

minimized and avoided completely allowing you to become much healthier.  I know that many

will sternly object to giving up their animal products.  I was one of them.  If you read

my book I discuss this in detail.  The point I want to make was until I gave it up for the

most part I was not able to rid myself of my diabetes.  Because of my addiction to animal

products I could not be disease free.  This is why I am writing these blogs and going into

such detail trying to impart to you the knowledge I have gained over the last 3 years that

has allowed me to live a disease free life.  I want to briefly touch on breads and cereal.

The average American consumes 3/4 of a pound of toxic chemicals from eating 100 pounds of

bread.  Grains cause blood sugar levels to go up quickly, they are addicting and fattening.

All refined grains are highly starchy, devoid of natural fiber and moisture,must be cooked,

altered and processed before eating and are prepared with toxic chemical additives and they

acidify the body upon digestion and assimilation.  They also cause excessive mucus

formation and like animal products and refined sugar they cause the body to leach alkaline

minerals from the bones and teeth to correct the altered phosphorous calcium balance.

     The only objection to fruits and vegetables on the SAD diet is that there are too few

many in comparison to the other foods on the diet.  They are greatly altered from their

ideal state of whole and raw.  The vegetables are loaded with salt and are laced with

refined sugar and have many chemicals used as preservatives and flavor/color enhancers

whether dried, frozen or canned.  When consuming fruits and vegetables this way they are

no longer in their natural state and have lost their nutritional value.  On the topic of

junk beverages which is a vast array of drinks all of which are empty calories and toxic.

If your going to drink something other than fresh, filtered,nontoxic water drink fresh

100% juice that you juice or buy organically.  I think a good green, black or white tea is

fine but make sure it is toxin free. I do drink the occasional cup of coffee but I drink

organic decaf.  Synthetic foods are those foods that come with a label.  These foods often

only have 2-3 food items listed and the rest are chemicals.  This is because they are food

like substances, man made concoctions, "plastic" foods and are highly toxic. The Unites

States Department of Agriculture has declared a Fifth Food Group by giving "Junk Food" a

formal definition:  "food of minimal nutritional value....A 100 calorie portion contains

less than 5% of the RDA of any one of the 8 basic nutrients."  By eating junk foods,

comfort foods, fun foods as they are so called you are eating foods that are high in

refined sugar, high in fat, high in salt, high in chemicals, high in calories and highly

toxic and NO nutritional value.  These foods from the food giants are highly addicting,

fattening and toxic.  By consuming these junk foods you are consuming 130 pounds of refined

sugar minimum a year.  Refined sugar is beginning to be classified as a drug due to its

highly addictive nature.  Refined sugar contributes to diabetes/hypoglycemia. It promotes

emotional instability, heart disease, weight gain and has no nutritional value.

     Dr.David Reuben states..."People of America!  The greatest threat to the survival of

you and your children is what you are going to eat from your dinner plate tonight!"  Don't

cast your vote with the food giants! Don't support the SAD food industry with your dollars!

You will be sorry and live a life of disease if you do.  In order to give you a complete

look at the SAD diet and the effects it has on our health I want to cover this topic

completely so I am breaking it up into two parts so it wont be so long.  We have so much

more to cover so we can move on to how to reach our ideal weight, the "Victory Kitchen", The

year in live food menus/recipes and holiday menus and to wrap up this course and blog series

I will end it with 1-3 blogs on the medicine men yesterday and today with some interesting

tidbits on the good old days they didn't teach us in school.  Then when I start my next

course on the 80/10/10 diet we will go over that in detail which is the diet I primarily

follow and to wrap it up with my final course "Your Natural Diet:  Alive Raw Foods" which

after completion I will send off for my certifications and start my counseling practice and

prepare for my next step in my schooling while putting what I have learned to work for all

those who are seeking a healthy new life free of disease.  So join me for part 2 of the

Ideal VS the SAD Diet tomorrow and keep coming back for more information and tell your

friends to join in on the blogs.

Yours in health, happiness and freedom,

Cherise

The Ideal Diet: Whole, Raw, Plant!

2012-04-06T06:21:00.000-05:00

     This blog and the following 5 will clearly provide you with the information you will need to make the change from the SAD (Standard American Diet) to the Ideal Diet one of whole raw plant foods that will bring you to a new healthy skinny self dis-ease free! Bare with me as these blogs are longer than normal but I want to impart to you as much information as possible. I want you to reap the benefits of this information and to see the results that I personally have experienced and now my husband, Michael, is experiencing since he started to abandon the SAD diet. I hope you have enjoyed the blogs so far and enjoy the rest in the series while I study for my certifications. So lets get into the meat of things metaphorically speaking and start learning about our food, digestion, how to set up a "Victory Kitchen", some menus to help you get started on this new diet, recipes and holiday menus. All this and more to come in the following blogs.

   So here is the million dollar question everyone asks and wants to know......Will the ideal diet give me everything my body needs? And the answer is YES! You will get enough protein, calcium, vitamins and minerals, and everything your body needs and nothing it doesn't need. What is the criteria that separates the ideal foods from the less than ideal foods? First the food must be non toxic. Ideally the foods must be edible in the whole raw natural state. The foods must have sensory appeal. The food must be easily digested when eaten alone or properly combined. The foods must be efficiently digested. They must have protein adequacy. They must be adequate in vitamin content. They must be adequate in mineral salts. They must supply needs for essential fatty acids. They must supply our caloric needs. They must be water sufficient. Ideal foods are alkaline in metabolic reaction (7.4 pH). They are fiber rich. Does this describe anything you have bought at the store that is processed, packaged and sold to you as food? I would have to say NO. Those pretty packages that advertisers seduce you with are nothing more than food like substances with the a fore mentioned criteria stripped out of them and replaced with disease causing chemicals to make the food like substances look better, taste better and last longer. I don't know about you but I don't want to eat food that will outlast me!

   So lets look at food shall we. What exactly is a fruit? Websters Dictionary says: "A fruit is the reproductive product of a tree or other plant...the edible, succulent product, generally covering and including the seed...or mature ovary." From this definition nuts and seeds fall into the fruit category as well as many foods we commonly call vegetables such as tomatoes, squash, eggplant, cucumbers, pumpkins and others. What exactly is a vegetable? Vegetables are those plant forms that grow as stalks or leaf clusters or flowering plants that do not develop into a succulent portion of edible mesocarp surrounding a seed portion. Vegetables are classified into 4 main categories: Fruit bearing vegetables (tomatoes, squashes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant and pumpkin), Green vegetables (including all leafy greens, non-starchy vegetables, sprouts and all vegetables from the cruciferous family: kohlrabi, cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli), Tubers, bulbs and roots (are underground vegetables: carrots, beets, potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, parsnips and so on and also includes the somewhat toxic, non ideal foods such as radishes, onions, garlic, scallions, and leeks), Fungi (not considered ideal foods including mushrooms, algae, and some seaweed varieties)

     Dr. Alan Walker, an anthropologist of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, reported findings in May 15, 1979 in an issue of the New York Times that up to a point in relatively recent history we were fruitarians/vegetarians. He states that though we undertook omnivorous practices our anatomy and physiology have not changed: we remain biologically a species of vegetarians. A diet of any animal in its natural state is always found to agree with both its anatomical structure and with its physiological functions. This is where we get our classification system for animals: carnivores (meat eaters), herbivores (grass eaters), frugivores (fruit eaters), and omnivores (a combination thereof). So with that said when living organisms live in accord with the physiological laws of their own kind, they do not develop disease. They live out their life spans with high levels of energy and well being. We as a culture in America today have traded our natural dietary in on processed food. The corrupt food supply and our energy robbing lifestyles are doing us in! It doesn't have to be this way. Just a note I thought was fascinating: Humans absorb rather than eliminate uric acid when meat is eaten. The body reacts to neutralize this poison by drawing upon its alkaline reserves. In the absence of such reserves, the body draws upon calcium and other base minerals from the bones and teeth. Osteoporosis and dental cavities result. Furthermore, calcium urate crystals are formed and as a result of this neutralization. If the body can't excrete these crystals they are usually deposited throughout the body and lead to arthritis, bursitis, back pain, gout, edema, rheumatism, and hard arteries. This alone proves we are not equipped to handle flesh. Also I wanted to make clear is when we eat flesh problems result because our intestine is developed to retain its contents four times longer than that of a carnivore. In humans the putrefying meat lays in the gastrointestinal tract interminably, giving rise to numerous toxic products all the while. Uric acid is absorbed through intestinal convolutions and toxic retention follows. Other poisons are hydrogen sulfide, indols, skatols, purines, xanthins, mercaptans, methane gas and ammonia. So how is that steak sounding about now?

   I wont go into protein too deep here as I posted a blog on this subject prior to this. However I will hit upon a few tidbits for those of you that did not get to read that blog yet. Protein is easy to get enough of and we eat far too much and damage our health because of it. Most of the hype about protein is from the advertisements of the meat, dairy and egg industry. They have convinced us that it is so important that a life without meat, dairy and eggs is frightening. The RDA is 50 grams a day and Americans are consuming around 100 grams a day or more. Scientist have found that a more realistic amount is 25 grams a day. Patients with kidney failure, heart failure, coronary artery disease, and high blood pressure have eaten a diet of 20-25 grams of protein and their health improved. The only way to become protein deficient is to starve or eat exclusively foods that contain no protein (sugars and oils). All whole foods contain protein. For example, a banana and a pear have a gram; a stalk of broccoli has six grams; an avocado 4 grams; a carrot has one. Nuts, seeds and beans are loaded. a half a cup of almonds has 13 grams, 1/2 cup of beans has 7-8 grams. So as you can see there is no magic to protein and you will get plenty with this diet.

     I spoke briefly on food combining in a previous blog as well so I will touch upon this subject as well. Food combining is a term that refers to those combinations of foods which are compatible with each other in digestive chemistry and the goal is to aid in the digestive process. By doing this we avoid the poisonous byproducts of indigestion and its unpleasant symptoms. Food for thought is that the amount of energy expended to digest three conventional meals has been estimated to be the equivalent of eight hours of "working" energy! When your not using that energy for food digestion you have it for other activities. The fact that two billion dollars a year are spent on antiacids in this country testifies to the need for such information. The rise in digestive tract disease is increasing at an alarming rate. Rather than to take another drug for the symptoms why don't we look at the cause and remove it. Also on a side note as long as we continue to feed our children the SAD diet they will continue to suffer from colds, tonsillar troubles, gastritis, diarrhea, constipation, feverishness, various children's diseases, poliomyelitis, etc. The subject of food combining is too lengthy to go into here but I highly recommend looking into it if your suffering from any form of gastrointestinal disease.

   When you change from the SAD diet to the ideal diet your body will go through a detoxification phase due to the poisoning of the food that you had been consuming. During the period of dietary transition and healing this is to be expected but it will pass and you will feel better soon. Persevere in improving your diet and living practices until all bodily detoxification is complete and your highest potential is a living reality! You are then the epitome of "Living Health"! Your body was designed to thrive in vibrant health and be free of all pain and illness. Your body is continually detoxifying and repairing itself. All you have to do is allow it to do so by turning to healthful living practices. Don't rely on drugs of any kind to fix what ails you. Go to the root cause of your symptoms and start there, don't treat the symptoms. Remember a return to good health takes time and good health is not immediate. It took time for you to become unhealthy and overweight and it will take time to reverse the course. Don't let your life become your disease. Look at children with their endless supply of energy and who are oblivious to physical discomforts and then look at our older citizens some of which are so crippled with arthritis they can barely move. At that point in your life you are a full fledged member of the suffering class and every action carried out, every future plan plotted out, every dollar spent, every feeling felt, revolves around your disease. This is no way of life. Take the things you have learned and go do your own research and apply them to your life. I promise you that you will be glad you did.

Yours in health, happiness and freedom,

Cherise

Emotional balance, freedom from addictions, high self esteem and a purposeful life with meaningful goals

2012-04-05T06:04:00.000-05:00

     When we talk about health and weight loss we have to realize that health takes place on all levels. To be healthy you have to take care of your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual self. I am going to assume that everyone reading this blog has some place in their life where things could be better. Our emotional health is key to our health and weight loss. For this blog I will be talking about the "killing emotions" and "loving emotions". Many of us suffer from depression, addiction, stress, burnout, low self esteem, self worth issues, we struggle with forgiveness, denial, or procrastination. All of these are killing emotions that we need to deal with so we can begin our road to health and weight loss. We need to concentrate on love, faith, gratitude, exercise, visualizing our new healthy skinny selves, positive addictions/alternatives, and becoming a peak performer. I will try to expound on these things without going into lengthy detail so that you understand how they are and can affect you positively or negatively. So lets get started.

   When we look at the killing emotions we see the very things that are at the core of all disease in our society. I like to look at the word disease as dis-ease. When we are ill, overweight or struggling in our daily lives we are at dis-ease with our healthy self. Think about that every time you hear that word and try to apply the thought of dis-ease to it. That has helped me tremendously on my journey. What we want to do is to leave our old self with the killing emotions behind and to embrace our new self with the loving emotions. Remember a person who is loving, forgiving, positive, joyful, and healthy is in a better place than the person who is not. We have learned killing emotions and the good news is we can unlearn them and put into practice the loving emotions that will take us to better health.

   The medical profession believes that the 3 main causes of disease are wrong nutrition, under exercise and over stress. We have discussed the first 2 in my last blogs so now we will look at stress. We suffer from stress in all aspects of our lives and this is something we do have control over. We can learn to deal with stress by applying healthy habits of exercise, meditation, visualization and other coping mechanisms that will help us be less stressed.    Stress leads to disease, overeating, weight gain and is a killing emotion that will wreak havoc on your health. This is certainly something we have to deal with in order to have emotional balance in our lives.

   Nathaniel Branden points out that nothing is more important to man in his psychological stance and in the success he finds in life than the judgements he passes on himself! I don't know about you but this is a biggie for me. So what does Branden mean by this? Self esteem is THE single most important factor that decides one's quality of life and that most people are totally unaware of its existence! A strong self esteem is a basic human need and it is unconsciously set during the early years of life. We have developed our low self esteem and weak personal efficacy from the people who raised us and were in our networks growing up. Worth and efficacy is what we want as a strong self esteemed person. Worthiness is the belief that you have value, in and of yourself. Personal efficacy is the belief in your own thought processes, dependency on yourself to make the right decisions and correct the wrong ones. That my friends is the loving emotions we are striving for in our quest for health and our new self.

   I wanted to share a couple of thoughts here to show you how we can be the destruction of our own selves. "Thus, the things a man seeks for pleasure or enjoyment are profoundly revealing: they are the index of his character and soul." "If a man's values are such that he desires things which (in reality) lead to his destruction, his emotional mechanism will not save him-instead, it will urge him on toward destruction." This is how we cultivate unhealthy living practices, addictions, sickness and emotional torment (killing emotions) and how it brings destruction to ourselves. So how do we get high self esteem? Through emotional balance and nurturing relationships. "He who is hostile lives in a hostile world. He who is loving lives in a loving world." This is where our loving emotions come into play.

     Gerald Jampolsky states: "The only reality in life is love." "Our attitudes determine whether we experience peace or fear, whether we are well or sick, free or imprisoned." The other component is faith or "The Faith Factor". The regular practice of faith and quieting the body through meditation helps you to achieve a restful, healing state which leaves you more relaxed, peaceful, positive, better able to cope with stress and less likely to behave compulsively. Dr. Hans Selye states if we operate from peace, goodwill, and gratitude, we enhance the quality of our own lives and that of others. In living this way we achieve a state of functioning that is totally conducive to ideal health, a state he calls"altruistic egoism." Now isn't that what we all want?

     It is no secret how the mind can effect awesome changes in the body. It is perceived that the body gets sick on the mental/emotional side before it gets sick on the physical side. Negativity of all kinds and especially the killing emotions of anger, fear, resentment, hatred, jealousy, revenge, and self pity create a physiological, endocrinological, biochemical, nervous disorder throughout the body that poisons and unbalances a person until he succumbs to disease. Visualization helps because our mental/emotional states can either drag us into disease or boost us into health. Studies have shown that terminally ill patients have survived by using visualization techniques. Let this be a reminder of the old saying "mind over matter" as your mind truly is an amazing thing and controls your body in all matters.

   Love: To love thy neighbor as thyself. If you are able to surrender to love, peace, gratitude, goodness, and your faith then you have realized your highest potential and live your true essence as love and in service to others. That is some powerful stuff there. If you can't love yourself or your neighbor you won't have true health. The other side of this coin is affirmations. Affirmations are much like visualizations but instead of seeing it in your mind you are speaking it to yourself. The power of the conscious and subconscious are directly employed to reprogram our thinking/feeling habits. We have to be able to turn off the self talk we have been listening to our whole lives and talk to ourselves with kind, healthy, loving words. It is time for joy, beauty and sweetness to replace the old self and embrace all that is good and wholesome.

   As the last blog was on exercise I won't go into to that here but I do want to mention a few things as it pertains to positive addictions in this blog. Exercise is a way to also strengthen the person who is too weak. Positive addictions like exercise will help release the new self. Dr. Glasser states that what makes strong people strong is the ability to find love and worth in life and their belief that they deserve both. To me those are powerful words and puts exercise in a new light. Dr. Glasser states the P A State of Mind (Positive Addiction/Alternative) opens up more pathways in the brain, which lead you to experience more positive alternatives in day to day living. A positive addiction can be anything that a person chooses to do that does not harm others or himself! They often fall into two categories: Physically demanding or physically non-taxing activity and total passive activity. When exercise has become a positive addiction you will know because you will crave it and feel withdrawal symptoms when you miss a session. These types of addictions have helped people get control over their lives, give up bad eating and living habits effortlessly. These same people have reported sharpened mental alertness, increased self awareness, and an improved physical sense of well being and confidence. They also report they are more tolerant and less angry, in better physical shape with more energy and less need for sleep and increased mental strength and self esteem. I can attest to that fact in my own life since I have developed a PA for exercise.

   Everyone at some point suffers from denial and I don't think I have to go into this but do know that denial is a robber of your nerve energy and is a killing emotion that we need to learn to control. When we are overweight, denial is a form of self destruction that will ultimately keep us from realizing our goals. Keep that in mind and remember it too is a dis-ease. Now, to wrap this up on a positive note. Don't be a procrastinator! One who puts off action until a further time. Become a Peak Performer! A peak performer is one who is motivated to be and do his best in all areas of his life. This is having the big picture in your mind, having a mission, a passionate commitment to something that matters, doesn't live just for today and has a commitment to an ideal that takes him to his long rang goals. This is where I am at today with my studies, my book, my blog, my future practice and life in general. I do hope you have been enjoying this series of blogs and continue to tune in for future blogs in this series. I hope you have learned a new thing or two and have taken away nuggets of information to help you in your journey. Please feel free to post comments and let me know if this has touched you in some way. Let your mission in life be seeking health!

Yours in health, happiness and freedom,

Cherise

Exercise and the ideal diet build great health.....Try it!

2012-04-04T07:24:00.000-05:00

     The benefits of exercise have been known to us forever but yet the average American leads a sedentary lifestyle. When was the last time you worked out a good half hour to an hour and broke a sweat? It is important to know that sustained aerobic exercise of 1/2 hour to 1 hour causes blood volume pumped from the heart to the aorta to increase several times over normal resting conditions. Blood transports nutrients and oxygen to the interstitial tissue fluid (The fluid found in the intercellular spaces composed of water, amino acids, sugars, fatty acids, coenzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, salts, and cellular products. It bathes and surrounds the cells of the body, and provides a means of delivering materials to the cells, intercellular communication, and removal of metabolic waste.). The blood and lymph transport metabolic waste and toxins to the eliminating channels. During exercise the accelerated oxygenation improves cellular metabolism. The higher the body temperature mobilizes waste by-products for the accelerated elimination. Because both blood and lymph circulation are greatly increased during exercise toxic build up is reversed. So to put it simply the best thing you can do for yourself is to break a sweat exercising daily for at least 20 minutes, eat the ideal diet of live nutritious food to rid your body of fat, toxins and cellulite.

   Something to keep in mind is that without sustained, strenuous sweating, subcutaneous fat of the dermis and epidermis are bathed so poorly that elimination of toxins is nil. Only aerobics will increase the blood volume enough to keep these cells free from toxic build up. This is evident by the unhealthy appearance of fat, cellulite and various skin symptoms such as acne and psoriasis. Exercise is work but it is worth it. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables are not enough. If we really want to be healthy and lose weight we must earn it by working for it!    We must get enough rest to avoid weakening our bodies and get enough exercise to avoid toxins building up in our blood. You will have to experiment and discover the types of exercise you can really enjoy and do daily and then make a commitment. Exercise does so much for for our bodies than removing toxins and aiding us to lose unwanted pounds. It also helps when we are over stressed. When we don't exercise all our muscles, organs, glands, circulatory and respiratory systems weaken and suffer physiological impairment. Our nerve energy runs low, we have trouble with elimination of waste, toxins build up and disease sets in.

     The good news is all this can be avoided simply by adopting an exercise routine with stretching, aerobics and weight training at least three times a week for an 1/2 hour to an hour. All three forms of exercise I mentioned above build agility, coordination, muscle tone, poise and a healthy glow called "Exercise High". Make sure when doing aerobics you get the "training effects" by reaching your target heart rate. You must stimulate your heart not to its maximum but between 65 and 85 percent of its maximum. For example for me at age 46 my maximum heart rate would be 175, my target heart rate at 75% would be 131 with a goal of 70% to 80% which would translate to 123-149 beats per minute. As you get older this number drops.

     The problem with most exercise programs is that people do not stick with them. We join health clubs, purchase lifetime memberships and quit after going only a few weeks or months. This is unfortunate because exercise only works if it is done for the long haul. I believe the reason we quit is because we don't know what to do exactly so we don't see results and we get board quickly and we quit. This is why "New Years Resolutions" never stick. It has to be a choice for a lifetime not for a short time. What does it take to make a lifetime commitment to exercise? It takes a program that is natural, pleasant, safe, convenient, practical, economical and easy to do anytime and anywhere. What would that be? Walking! Jogging is hard on your body and is the cause of many injuries. Aerobic walking if done correctly can give you a cardiovascular conditioning rated higher than many professional athletes.

   We discussed our set points in the last blog so now we're going to learn how to lower them through exercise. For aerobic activity you must use large muscle rhythmic activity such as swimming, brisk walking, bicycling and so on. The key is getting your heart rate to your target heart rate and keeping it there for at least min. As with any exercise always do a warm up and a cool down so you do injure yourself. To lower your set point you will have to exercise at least three times a week for at least minutes. Note it may take an hour a day every day for a month to make a sticky set point budge. Start at minutes and work up to the ideal one hour for the best results. If you have been living a sedentary lifestyle this could take some time to attain but make it your goal. You don't want to jump right in at an hour a workout or more and exhaust yourself and cause burn out. That is not the goal here. We want something we can do for a lifetime. The other factor in lowering your set point is the intensity that you exercise. this may be done at a moderate level. It is said that moderate exercise, practiced regularly, produces the best results for most people. This will first use up the blood sugar in the blood system and then to fuel the body fat is pulled out of fat storage and that is exactly what we want. Don't over do it!

     Do your best to enjoy your workouts, make it fun! Do a variety of exercises, mix it up, keep it fun. Always warm up and cool down, rest when you need to but for only about a minute. Drink plenty of water and keep hydrated. Vary the pace and intensity as needed so that you can increase your time to an hour. Do several sets of reps instead of one set. Do supersets which is 2 or 3 different exercises in a row without a rest. Visualize a new thinner, healthier you while you exercise. Exercise with a friend or family member to keep you motivated, on track and challenged. Keep a record of your starting weight, measurements and take pride in your accomplishments. Remember pick a day to stay in bed and do nothing but rest.

     Also when exercising you have to know and understand the lymphatic system and the role it plays in health. Your lymph vessels are similar to a tree. The trunk is the chest and the branches go into the arms and up into the neck and head the roots go down into the legs and feet. So what does the lymphatic system do and how does it differ from our circulatory system? Our circulatory system is a closed circuit that blood travels carrying nutrients and oxygen to the 75 trillion cells throughout the body and waste including carbon dioxide is carried away from the cells for elimination. The lymph system picks up the waste that the circulatory system was not designed to handle. The lymph system is not a closed system like the circulatory system. It originates in the countless spaces between the cells. The lymphatic system ends by dumping its contents into 2 major veins: the Thoracic Duct and the Subclavian Vein. Even though both systems are continually circulating fluids throughout the body they are independent of each other. This is also a reason to have an lymphatic massage. The fluid in the circulatory system is blood and the fluid in the lymphatic system is lymph. It is important to have a strong circulation of the lymph so that toxins wont build up causing disease.

     In conclusion the wonderful psychology of regular exercise is vast. It provides a strengthened respiratory and cardiovascular system, improved elimination of toxins from the body, blood vessels and muscles strengthen, it develops a more positive attitude and enhances the overall quality of life, it improves mental clarity and intellectual capabilities, it improves your will power to stick with your new lifestyle, it is a powerful rejuvenator, it improves your inner functioning on a cellular level and your looks which brings about better self esteem, it improves your mobility, it adds to your emotional calm and stability allowing you to handle stressful situations better, you are less likely to have to spend money on doctors visits for health and mental reasons as you will be healthier and not depressed, you will have high energy that can be used to fulfill your most meaningful, altruistic goals in life, your sex life will improve and last but not least taking time each day to exercise is an empowering message to yourself that you are in control of your own life! You will know when your program is working when you fall asleep deeply and quickly each night and wake ready to go each morning and maintain high energy throughout the day and become pleasantly fatigued at its end.

   I hope you enjoyed this blog and will join me for the continuation in the next blog on emotional balance/nurturing relationships and the ideal diet. I hope this was not to technical and you were able to grasp the information I have laid out and that it helps you with your weight and health problems.

Yours in health, happiness and freedom,

Cherise

A look at the diet trap and how to lose weight successfully

2012-04-03T11:51:00.001-05:00

     I know what you're going to say when I tell you I am here today to help you learn about the dieting trap and how to successfully lose weight. You're going to say "I know all about how to diet I have been doing it for years." I am here to tell you you're right you do but how has that worked for you? I will try to explain the diet trap to you in a manner in which you can understand by borrowing terms I have learned in my studies the last few days. I feel this information is vital to anyone with health issues not just diabetics. Also with that being said with the newest diet, the HCG diet, that is so harmful to your health I think this is a perfect time to lay it all out on the line for you. This will be a lengthy blog so hang on and follow me and learn a few new tricks to permanent, healthy weight loss through simple lifestyle changes that anyone can do for the rest of their lives.

     The first thing I want to teach you is about your "Set Point". Body fat is actually regulated by a control center in the brain referred to as the "weight regulating mechanism" which chooses the amount of body fat that it considers ideal for our needs and then works tirelessly to defend that level. So here in lies your "set point", the point at which your body at any given time and age is set to stay at a certain weight. Now in order to move that set point you have to do something to change it. You can raise it by over eating or you can lower it by healthy eating and exercise. You notice I did NOT say DIET.    So lets look at what a set point is and does. Think of your set point as a "Fat-O-Stat". Just like your hallway thermostat in your home regulates the temperature throughout the house your "Fat-O-Stat" is fixed in the internal hallway of your body and it regulates how much fat is put on at any given time. Just like the thermostat in your home can be turned up to burn fuel, your "Fat-O-Stat" can be turned up to burn fat day and night. You do this not by dieting but a healthy change in your lifestyle.

   Burning off fat isn't quite that simple. It depends on the foods you eat, amount of rest and fasting you do, other lifestyle practices you have that combine to affect the fatty disposition on each individual person. So lets look at how the set point works in two important ways. Based on your nutritional needs you get a message to eat. At this point you don't have control over your eating drive but you do have control over what you will eat and how much. Diets don't work because when you consistently restrict your set point demands the drive to eat becomes so strong that you no longer have control causing you to eat quantities and kinds of foods that push the set point higher resulting in weight gain. The second way is the "weight regulating mechanism" also directs the system in your body to either conserve or waste energy (gain or lose weight) and is regulated by the amount of food you eat.

     The problem with diets is that all diets are restrictive in nature. They restrict calories, fat, carbohydrates or any combination of these. When you restrict your diet and activity it will lead to three other problems. First the restriction of diet and activity leads to a rise in your set point which starts a vicious cycle of hunger and energy conservation. Second it causes a loss in muscle tissue and less fat will be burned. Third it affects your response to insulin which causes an increase in fat storage. The last two are especially not healthy for a diabetic. It is no wonder overweight people are frustrated and retain their weight despite diets of 500-1000 calories a day and on other restrictions. As you can now see this is why diets have failure built in them. You train your body to run on less and less food at the same elevated weight. Trying to lose weight with restrictive diets is like bailing water out of a leaking boat. Water keeps pouring in no matter how hard you bail. Repeated bailings can make the holes bigger due to more rapid water flow in which makes the problem worse. In order to stop the boat from sinking the holes must be found and repaired! Successful treatment to weight problems require the same approach: Find the basic problem and fix it!

   So now I am sure your asking what do I do? Where do I start? First you have to get out of the diet mindset of "I want this but I can't" and change to " I need this and I can" attitude of a healthy lifestyle. Here are some tips to keep in mind. Exercising within 20 min after eating adds fuel to the flames of digestion to burn more calories. Aerobic exercise on a regular basis regardless the time of day increases your metabolism all day long. Aerobics also increases your muscle mass at the same time it burns fat and since muscle has a higher metabolic rate than does fat you will burn more fat. Also keep in mind there are other systems at work in weight loss.

     The second system that directs your body to conserve or waste energy (gain or lose) is your "brown fat". Brown fat can burn part of the food you eat and waste the excess energy as heat so it doesn't have to be stored as fat. People who can eat large amounts of food and not gain weight have more brown fat through genetic inheritance and therefore use brown fat activity to waste some of this extra energy. People who have weight problems have inherited less brown fat and therefore have less brown fat activity. Another system that naturally thin people have that overweight people don't is higher levels of sodium-potassium ATP-ase and can therefore waste excess energy much more. When you recognize the important role of these energy conserving and energy wasting systems in weight control you will then understand why restrictive diets don't work. When you decrease the amount you eat in an effort to lose weight your body slows down its metabolism to protect its fat stores. Think of it this way.....we were designed to be hunters and gatherers going sometimes great lengths of time in a famine situation and designed to store fat just for those times. In our world today we have no famine we have feasts and yet we are still designed to store fat for the famine that never comes. With that said we are a culture of starving people not because of lack of food but due to lack of proper nutrition. So as we eat our food like substances, or overeat, we store up for the famine and raise our set point higher and higher with each diet we go on and continue to starve at a cellular level while continually gaining weight. We are on a roller coaster to poor health, chronic illness and death.

     The good news is you can change your set point! You do this by lifestyle choices you make everyday. Exercise is the most crucial factor in weight control. Inactivity is always detrimental to your body. When you exercise and increase your activity level, the weight regulating mechanism senses the need for high mobility, the set point is then lowered, fat stores are willingly given up to produce a smaller, healthier, mobile body. As important as exercise is there is another critical factor in weight control and your set point and that is the type of foods you eat. High fat foods especially refined carbohydrate (sugar) increase hunger and if eaten regularly will raise your set point. When you understand these factors you can then begin a lifestyle that will promote the lowering of your set point and be able to eat more than you ever have before and still lose weight by simply adapting a basic, vigorous exercise program and nutritious way of eating. You will lower your set point, burn fat, build muscle and lose weight and be healthy and happy. This is what it take to get weight problems under control. A simple plan that is easy enough to do for the rest of your life with out restricting yourself.

     Join me for my next blog that is part two of this blog on exercising. We will finish up our new plan for weight control and learn a few more things as we go. I hope you have enjoyed this blog and that I laid it out in a way that you could understand and apply to your life. Get yourself out of the diet trap today. No more resolutions to start a diet on Monday and gorge all weekend in preparation of restricting yourself next week. You are smarter than that so don't fall for the diet trap one more day. Now you know why diets don't work and you can now avoid the vicious cycle of losing 30 and gaining 40-50. If you stay on that roller coaster you can diet your way to 300-400 pounds over a lifetime. We have all watched as Oprah did this on national television. Don't make that mistake one more day.

Yours in health, happiness and freedom!

Cherise

Thoughts on what I have learned in school so far

2012-04-01T11:41:00.002-05:00

First I want to apologize for the time since my last blog. I have been so busy with school and life in general. After thinking long and hard on what to blog about I have decided to talk about my first course in my certifications. I have been studying food combining by the hygienic leader Dr. Shelton (http://www.getwellstaywellamerica.com/Shelton/SheltonTimelinePg1.htm). I have been reading about the reasons behind food combining and how our digestive track works. Here is a brief rundown on food combining made easy.

THE BASIC RULES OF FOOD COMBINING

1. Do not eat proteins and starches together. Your body requires an acid base to digest proteins and an alkaline base to digest starches. Proteins and starches combine well with green, leafy vegetables and non-starchy vegetables, but they do not combine well with each other.

2. Generally fruits should be eaten alone or with other fruits. If fruits seem too sweet, then eat a handful of nuts (80% fruit, 20% nuts). Fruits digest so quickly that by the time they reach your stomach, they are already partially digested. If they arc combined with other foods, they will rot and ferment.

3. Melons digest faster than any other food. Therefore, you should never eat melons with any other food including other fruits. Always eat melons on their own.

4. Do not mix acid and/or sub-acid fruits with sweet fruits at the same meal. Acid fruits, such as grapefruits, pineapple, and strawberries, can be mixed with sub-acid fruits, such as apples, grapes, and peaches, but neither of these categories can be mixed with sweet fruits, such as bananas, dates, or raisins.

5. Eat only four to six different fruits or vegetables at one meal as a fruit meal.

6. Fats and oils combine with everything (except fruits) but should be used in limited amounts because while they won’t inhibit digestion, they will slow it down.

7. Wait the following lengths of time between meals that don’t combine:
a. Two hours after eating fruit.
b. Three hours after eating starches.
c. Four hours after eating proteins.

“FIX IT” FOR FOOD COMBINING

· If you eat PROTEIN and STARCH during the same meal, eat some legumes.
· If you eat NUTS, eat an acid fruit with them.
· If you still eat DAIRY, make sure to eat an acid fruit.
· If you've overloaded on PASTA, eat an apple the next morning.
· If you’ve eaten too much PROTEIN, eat papaya the next morning.
· If you’ve, eaten too much SUGAR, eat grapes the next morning.
· If you’ve eaten too much SALT, eat watermelon the next morning.

You can find the beginners guide here: http://www.trustedhands.com/content/fcbeg.pdf

As with anything I have found that there are people that don't support this method. I am still on the fence as to the importance of this but having an open mind I am continuing my studies and putting food combining to practice in my own life. My whole journey to reverse my diabetes was an eclectic combination of all the information I learned. I don't believe there is a one size fits all plan. I have studied so many different people, information and diets that I have taken the best from each one and made it my own. I myself am a Veganish, raw food, plant based,whole foods, juicing kind of gal. This is what I hope to bring to my clients/patients if you will when I start counseling this summer. With that being said I am considering when I receive my certifications, before becoming a doctor, going to the Integrative Nutrition school (http://www.integrativenutrition.com/lp/health-and-nutrition-school-2/what-is-integrative-nutrition) so that I can bring to the table a wealth of healing principles while I study to become a doctor. This is a book I highly recommend reading! (http://issuu.com/integrativenutrition/docs/rosenthal_complete_pdf?mode=embed)

I hope you have found this information helpful and will check back for my next blog on weight loss and the diet traps and to follow a blog on exercise. I have so much information I want to share with you and I hope you learn from it and enjoy it.

To borrow a closing from a health pioneer....

"Yours for Health, Truth and Medical Liberty",

Cherise

Starting my certifications

2012-03-11T13:19:00.001-05:00

     As of Thursday March 8, 2012 I started my certifications for Natropathic Practitioner and Holistic Nutritionist. I am excited about finishing these courses so that I can start my counseling services while I get my Bachelor of Science in this field. I look forward to sharing my new tools, information and and knowledge with you as I complete my courses. I hope you find a wealth of information in them that you can apply to your new healthy life.

     For those of you that have purchased my book and would like to start your journey contact me through my email, FB or this blog and we can set up free at this time consultations, field trips or anything else you may need to get you started on your new journey. I am always here to answer any questions you might have as well.

     Please pass this blog and my FB book page along to anyone who would enjoy or benefit from the content of these pages. Also keep in mind even though my book is about my journey to reverse Type 2 Diabetes, the information is valuable to anyone with chronic illness and disease.   Most of the chronic illness and disease we suffer from today is due to lack of proper nutrition, exercise and environmental factors. All of which can be changed, controlled and improved very easily and ridding yourself of a diseased life.

     Be watching for my upcoming blogs and follow me on FB for better health and a new you :)

Cherise

Life Tastes Better!

2012-03-10T16:43:00.001-06:00

    Since July 18, 2011 I have gone to the gym after night's out and staying up too late, gone when I could only see out of one eye on 3 different occasions, gone with countless other medical issues and have never missed a workout. Why? Because "Life Tastes Better!" Life tastes better than any food I no longer eat, better than missing a day at the gym, better than having to go to the doctor, better than anything I can think of. With that being said there is nothing that could make me go back to the way I was living my life, making excuses and cheating my life with diabetes because I, for what ever reason couldn't taste life anymore. Is that where you are today? Maybe it is someone you love who is there. Don't wait till it hurts too much that you decide to get up and do something about your health. Don't wait until the fire alarms are sounding to make a change in your eating, exercising and bad habits.

     We have such a short time here on earth so taste life and don't waste life! Make today the day you make the changes and reap the rewards from them. Why wait one more day to experience health? My friends, I can honestly tell you I wasted too many years. Find what it is that motivates you. Maybe it's your child, spouse, family, grand child, volunteering, a hobby, your passion. Whatever it is let it fuel your fire to seek a healthier new you.

     Life tastes better when your healthy! I can assure you it does.

Cherise

What do you want to hear or learn about and other thoughts

2012-03-08T09:00:00.000-06:00

I thought I would get some suggestions from everyone so I can get out information you are interested in. I am going to be learning all kinds of wonderful new information that I will be passing along to you as I complete my certifications. In the meantime I will strive hard to come up with thought provoking blogs that will make you think. Making you think is the main goal of my book. You see we have been conditioned to have people think for us and to not ask questions. If you don't believe me pick up the book "The Underground History of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto. He points out how our school system is designed to make us not question and to be told what, when and why to think. I absolutely love this quote that I used in my book.

"If the people let government decide
what foods they eat and what medicines they take,
their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state
as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."

-Thomas Jefferson

This is where we are right now my friends. You hear it everyday in the mainstream media. Our schools are trying to classify pizza as a vegetable. There are countless pharmaceutical ads daily with new conditions and the magic pill to treat the symptoms of the American people. Our Standard American Diet isn't fit for anyone who wants to be healthy and now here we are. Collectively, Americans are the unhealthiest people of all the world and yet we have the best medical care. This is where I see what Thomas Jefferson so eloquently stated so long ago has come to fruition. It is high time we stand up, question, think and no longer live under this food tyranny. Learn about GMO's, Monsanto, HFCS, and the likes. Know what your putting into your bodies, your children's bodies, grandchildren's bodies. Get involved in the food revolution and make these big corporations label these cancer causing ingredients. If they are so proud of these new man made frankenfoods then why do they not want to label them.

So I leave you with this thought. Next time you go to buy or eat food think about what it is you are truly eating, where it came from, how it was grown, how it got to your plate and what it is going to do to your body.

Cherise

What's the deal with protein?

2012-03-07T12:14:00.000-06:00

The way Americans obsess about protein, you'd think protein deficiency was the number one health problem in America. Of course it's not. What is on the list? Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity -- diseases of affluence. Diseases linked to eating animal products. According to the American Diabetes Association, which looked at all of the science on vegetarian diets and found not just that they're healthy, but that they "provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases." "Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence ... Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than non-vegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer."

Beans, nuts, seeds, lentils, and whole grains are packed with protein. So are all vegetables as a caloric percentage, though they don't have enough calories to sustain most people as a principal source of sustenance. And these protein sources have some excellent benefits that animal protein does not -- they contain plenty of fiber and complex carbohydrates, where meat has none. That's right: Meat has no complex carbs at all, and no fiber. Plant proteins are packed with these essential nutrients.

Since plant-based protein sources don't contain cholesterol or high amounts of saturated fat, they are much better for you than meat, eggs, and dairy products. It is also worth noting the very strong link between animal protein and a few key diseases, including cancer and osteoporosis. High-protein foods, particularly excessive animal protein, dramatically increase the risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, and many other illnesses. In the short run, they may also cause kidney problems, loss of calcium in the bones, and an unhealthy metabolic state called ketosis in many people."

Borrowed from an article at http://www.alternet.org/health/86942

So what is all the hype about protein then? It's just that hype, myths and flawed logic. A well balanced vegetarian or near-vegetarian diet is a vast improvement over the typical American meat centered diet our "SAD" Standard American Diet . In my book I point out that the only way to reverse these devastating chronic illnesses is through a plant based diet. You don't have to do this quickly, you can do it like I did gradually. It has been a life saver for me and now my husband. I do still get 10% of my protein from a good healthy animal source which is enough to satisfy me. I don't have to live on meat 24/7. Humans also are the only species that continues to drink milk after it's been weaned. I never gave that much thought before but you have to question why. As with the meat consumption, if cows and other animals can live off of plants and water why cant we? We can and we did for the most part until the 1900's, before that meat and dairy were not available for ordinary people until the factory farms and modern meat processing plants came on the scene along with refrigeration. Between the 30's and 50's Americans spent 23-26% of their income on food. Today we spend 9.47%. Americans have demanded cheap food and we got it to our detriment. This is why the plethora of diseases we have at alarming rates can be called diseases of affluence. We now eat more food for less money and the quality of the food we are eating now pales in comparison to what our previous generations ate. Compared to what was grown only fifty years ago, today's foods contain far fewer vital nutrients, particularly minerals that our bodies need. Compounding the problem is the fact that millions of Americans rely on the standard American diet of convenience foods, which are far more deficient in minerals and other vital nutrients than fresh, whole foods. Many commercial products, such as breads, muffins, and pastas are typically made from refined white flour, which has been stripped of up to 90 percent of its minerals during the refinement process. Even modern food preparation methods add to the problem. Overcooking vegetables, for example, significantly reduces their nutrient content. So with all that being said why do we continue to worry about protein? The way I see it we have bigger things to worry about. For me the answer is simple. When you eat the from good clean unadulterated food sources you cant go wrong and yes even on a plant based diet you will not be lacking in protein. Just some food for thought.

Cherise

Revelation at dinner last night

2012-03-06T09:47:00.000-06:00

     I have to start by saying that I am the only 90% vegan in our home. My son is about 70% and husband well lets just say he has a long way to go as he is sitting on the 50 yard line. So with that said I still buy organic grass fed beef and chicken. The last shopping trip I made to Kroger I found this Chef Bruce Aidells all natural, no MSG, no nitrates, no gluten, no added hormones, no artificial ingredients and minimally processed roasted garlic with Gruyere cheese chicken sausage marked down half price at $3.59 for 14 ounces of sausage. What a steal! Now those of you that have read my book or know anything about what I look for in food know I was excited because I could eat this as well. It fits all of my criteria. The ingredients are so simple: chicken, Swiss cheese, roasted garlic with olive oil, salt, Gruyere cheese, milk, parsley, spices, rosemary in a pork casing. A 4 yr old can read all the ingredients which is key to anything I buy in a package. I have to say it was amazingly delicious. My husband cooked the sausage, a chicken kabob for me and a Nolan Ryan steak for himself. I made us all huge organic salads with nuts, dried cranberries, seeds, croutons, oil and garlic dressing from HEB that is just wonderful and Spanish and Kalamata olives. I put some roasted red pepper humus and almond crackers on my plate. We were ready to eat. My son wanted a couple of bite of steak and so I decided I would put a couple on my plate. As we all began to eat I started smiling because I was eating my humus and salad first and they went straight to the meat. They are not quite there yet. As I finished up my vegan part of my meal I went on to take a bite of the chicken and sausage which was melt in your mouth amazing.

   Now we are to the point of my blog, my revelation at dinner last night. I watched as they enjoyed their steak and decided I would take a bite of mine. I put it in my mouth and with my first chew I wanted to spit it out. I did not like the taste of it. I gave my husband the other two bites I had on my plate and tried desperately to get the taste out of my mouth. It is still there this morning. I have come a long way on this journey and I can remember when I sat in my friends living room and she said "Cherise just give up meat and you wont have diabetes anymore." and to that I said "I can never give up my meat!" Well my friends I have given up my meat and I don't miss it and I am diabetes free! I am sure the meat was fine. This isn't the first time I have tried to eat something I used to love and thought I couldn't live without and it tasted horrible to me but everyone else said it tasted just like it always has. That is the wonderful thing about this new way of life. When you get your body clean and free of all the junk, toxins, chemicals and additives you have poisoned your body with over a lifetime your body won't let you go back. It rejects what it sees as a threat to it's now pure state. I still find it hard to believe I have made these changes and I don't miss any of the things that kept me sick for almost 12 years.

     I challenge you to start once a week and have a meatless day, then two, three, four, five and see the difference it makes in your life. I promise you it wont kill you :)

Have a blessed day,

Cherise

The Hippocratic Oath or Not?

2012-03-05T10:00:00.000-06:00

While researching for my book I decide it was important to include the Hippocratic Oath. So I looked online to find the original version and what I grew up to know as the "Do no harm" oath that I thought all doctors took. Well to my surprise the "oath" isn't what we were led to believe it was. Here is a direct quote from a website that had posted what they thought was the "Modern Oath".

"The AMA has a code of ethics, but there is, in fact, no version of the Hippocratic Oath that the AMA espouses or promotes. This is the information we have received from the AMA's Ethics Division. Our own research on the Hippocratic Oath, inspired by the discovery that our posting of the Modern Oath did not originate from the AMA, has been most interesting. While it is common knowledge among both doctors and the lay public that doctors take an oath that says, "Never do harm," the fact is that not all medical schools require their graduating doctors take the Hippocratic Oath. In addition, Medicine's use of the Oath changes over time. Here are some items for your consideration, the results of a study by Robert Orr, M.D. and Norman Pang, M.D., in which 157 deans of allopathic and osteopathic schools of medicine in Canada and the United States were surveyed regarding the use of the Hippocratic Oath:

1. In 1993, 98% of schools administered some form of the Oath.
2. In 1928, only 26% of schools administered some form of the Oath.
3. Only 1 school used the original Hippocratic Oath.
4. 68 schools used versions of the original Hippocratic Oath.
5. 100% of current Oaths pledge a commitment to patients.
6. Only 43% vow to be accountable for their actions.
7. 14% include a prohibition against euthanasia.
8. Only 11% invoke a diety.
9. 8% prohibit abortion.
10. Only 3% prohibit sexual contact with patients.

From - "The Use of the Hippocratic Oath: A Review of 20th Century Practice and a Content Analysis of Oaths Administered in Medical Schools in the U.S. and Canada in 1993." by Robert D. Orr, M.D. and Norman Pang, M.D.

UPDATE
The British Medical Association, in March 1997, published their first draft of a revised Hippocratic Oath to be considered by the World Medical Association.
If you would like to hear the critique of this proposed revised Oath by The Gersten Institute, click here.
"The Oath, a set of ethical principles derived from the writings of the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, has been updated to put patients first. It aims to be a unifying force, superseding national, ethnic, religious and cultural boundaries by focusing on widely shared values.
The new wording can be adapted by nurses, paramedics and other health professionals."
Commenting on the revised wording, Dr Sandy Macara, chairman of the BMA Council, said:
"It is as important now as ever it was for doctors to have an agreed statement of ethical principles. On qualifying, doctors need such a statement to make a public commitment to the professional responsibilities they are assuming. Thereafter these principles should provide guidance in the increasingly difficult ethical decisions they will make throughout their professional lives.
"The value of this update will be all the greater if it comes into use by every doctor qualifying from every medical school in the world."
The BMA has been campaigning for the past five years for a revitalisation of the Hippocratic values. It has gathered examples of ethical codes from all over the world and common points from these have been integrated into the new wording.
The BMA has undertaken this work on behalf of the World Medical Association as the first stage of a revision of the current international code of medical ethics, the Geneva Declaration, which celebrates its 50th anniversary next year.

Appendix I
DRAFT REVISION OF THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH
The practice of medicine is a privilege which carries important responsibilities. All doctors should observe the core values of the profession which center on the duty to help sick people and to avoid harm. I promise that my medical knowledge will be used to benefit people's health. They are my first concern. I will listen to them and provide the best care I can. I will be honest, respectful and compassionate towards patients. In emergencies, I will do my best to help anyone in medical need.
I will make every effort to ensure that the rights of all patients are respected, including vulnerable groups who lack means of making their needs known, be it through immaturity, mental incapacity, imprisonment or detention or other circumstance.
My professional judgement will be exercised as independently as possible and not be influenced by political pressures nor by factors such as the social standing of the patient. I will not put personal profit or advancement above my duty to patients.
I recognise the special value of human life but I also know that the prolongation of human life is not the only aim of healthcare. Where abortion is permitted, I agree that it should take place only within an ethical and legal framework. I will not provide treatments which are pointless or harmful or which an informed and competent patient refuses.
I will ensure patients receive the information and support they want to make decisions about disease prevention and improvement of their health. I will answer as truthfully as I can and respect patients' decisions unless that puts others at risk of harm. If I cannot agree with their requests, I will explain why.
If my patients have limited mental awareness, I will still encourage them to participate in decisions as much as they feel able and willing to do so.
I will do my best to maintain confidentiality about all patients. If there are overriding reasons which prevent my keeping a patient's confidentiality I will explain them.
I will recognize the limits of my knowledge and seek advice from colleagues when necessary. I will acknowledge my mistakes. I will do my best to keep myself and colleagues informed of new developments and ensure that poor standards or bad practices are exposed to those who can improve them.
I will show respect for all those with whom I work and be ready to share my knowledge by teaching others what I know.
I will use my training and professional standing to improve the community in which I work. I will treat patients equitably and support a fair and humane distribution of health resources. I will try to influence positively authorities whose policies harm public health. I will oppose policies which breach internationally accepted standards of human rights. I will strive to change laws which are contrary to patients' interests or to my professional ethics.

APPENDIX 2
Translation of the Original Hippocratic Oath by authors of this BMA draft.
"I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgement, I will keep this Oath . . . "
Commentary from The Gersten Institute
1. Be it declareth this date, October 4, 1998, that the above Revised Hippocratic Oath, herein and hereafter referred to as RHO is a wee bit dry. Okay, let's get to the point. There is not enough heart in the RHO. It does not move or inspire. As a physician who has no recall at all if my medical school administered any version of the Hippocratic Oath in 1975, the year I graduated, I strongly believe that if doctors are to take an Oath ONCE in their lifetime, it should be a powerful, impassioned Oath that carries, at the very least, the spirit of the original Hippocratic Oath.
2. RHO is couched in a good deal of legal terminology. Perhaps that is necessary in this era of medicine, but it only adds to the growing distance between doctors and patients and does not, in my opinion, advance the real issue, namely quality of care.
3. The philosophy and principles contained in the RHO are good and sound.
4. The BMA translation of the original Oath is interesting. Instead of the correct translation in the first line, which refers to the Greek Gods Apollo, Aesculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea, this translation mis-tranlates "Hygeia" as "Health" and "Panacea" as "All-Heal." We should have a genuinely honest translation before we can consider revisions.
5. Gallup polls in the 1990's show that 95% of Americans believe in God and that 50% of atheists and agnostics PRAY! 50% of patients would like their doctors to pray with them. While it is correct to "drop the Greek Gods," is it a disservice to both doctors and patients to totally leave out the spiritual dimension in the RHO? I think so. It is an impossible task to try to capture the spirit of the original Hippocratic Oath while throwing out all mention of God, holiness, sacredness, and spirituality. It is necessary and sufficient as physicians to swear to practice according to the highest dictates of our conscience, with God (as we know and call Him or Her) as our witness.
6. With these items considered, perhaps the world should consider this Revised Hippocratic Oath. On the other hand, perhaps Hippocrates knew what he was doing. Perhaps we should keep the original Oath and simply make note that Apollo, Aesculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea are not universally accepted. Nor is Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Krishna or Ahura Mazda.
Dennis Gersten, M.D"

I found this quite interesting. So if you take the statistics in to count then it explains why we have a medical profession that does not live up to the standards set before them in the beginning. It is no wonder that we have doctors that are beholden to the pharmaceutical industry and why 57% will not hold themselves accountable for their actions and if you look at 6 to 10 the percentages of "in a patients best interest" is appalling to say the least. I ask you "Do you want your doctor to swear to the original Hippocratic Oath or some new modern version that has been rewritten to conform to the times?" I personally want my doctor to be one from the old school thought that they should "Do no harm."

I apologize this is such a long blog but this has been weighing heavily on my mind since I sat behind my laptop and started pounding out my book. I have lost sleep thinking back to conversations I had with doctors and then resorted to researching things myself because I never felt like they were doing enough. In several cases that is exactly what happened. Once I diagnosed my husbands Mononucleosis before the doctor did and the doctor had labs and medical expertise as well as 3 weeks to come up with the diagnosis. I have several stories just like this one and I shouldn't have one. I understand we are human, we all make mistakes but when those mistakes on countless occasions have almost cost our lives and have cost others their lives it is unacceptable.

I want to leave you with this last thought. Why is it in the late 5th century BC the Hippocrates felt that the people need an oath for the physicians to uphold certain medical ethics and today we don't hold our physicians to the same ethics? I believe this is where our esteemed medical profession derailed for lack of a better term. No more do our physicians as a whole truly put the patient first. I believe this because of what my husband and I have endure at the hands of this profession.

Cherise

"So honey what is your first blog going to be about?"

2012-03-04T17:07:00.001-06:00

Since my first blog entry my husband asked "So honey what is your first blog going to be about?" and I said "I just wrote it!". So to that question my first official blog is this:

As of 4:30 today I have officially started the enrollment process into school for my certifications of Certified Natural Health Practitioner & Certified Holistic Nutrition Practitioner thanks to my best friend and supporter Jacque Hoffman who I can't thank enough for her support personally and financially.

I look forward to starting school in the next week or two and being able to start helping people soon. I know this is just the tip of the iceberg in my new journey but it is a place to start. I am so excited with the progress this journey is making in such a short time. I still can't believe I have arrived at this moment in my life. I never quite knew what it was I wanted to do when I grew up and what my calling was. I have heard all my life that God gave each of us our own special talent to use to his glory. I have been searching for that my whole life. In looking back it was always writing for me. Not the writing you were forced to do in school but the creative writing that burned in your soul. Now I have an opportunity to feed that fire and develop it to the fullest. I look forward to the challenge of keeping you informed and entertained with this blog.

I hope this has answered my husbands question and gotten the blogging juices flowing so I can post again soon with something new and thought provoking. Please bare with me as I maneuver these uncharted waters of blogging. With that said I will bid you a farewell until my next blog.

Cherise