2 – Many raw fooders do not consume enough fiber, soluble and insoluble.
Solution: Drink more smoothies or energy soups instead of juices.

3 – People on raw food often consume too many fats. When they try to imitate cooked dishes, they substitute starches with nuts. For example, when making raw cakes, they mimic a wheat crust with a nut mixture.
Solution: use nut pulp left over from making nut milks, use more seeds and less nuts, and use more fruit and vegetable pulp from juices in your mixtures, to minimize the consumption of nuts.

4 – Raw fooders commonly try to become too perfect too fast. They don’t give their bodies a chance to adjust to such a radical dietary change.
Solution: gradually adjust and purify your own individual diet to help you ease into the healthiest diet for you.

5 – When people change their diets, they usually decide the other components that make up health are no longer important, such as: sun bathing, exercising, proper rest, fresh air, etc.
Solution: practice a well-rounded healthy life style.

6 – People on the raw food diet often over-indulge in some particular foods and neglect the variety of other fruits and vegetables. For example, orange juice is very healthy, but in extremely large quantities, it can be damaging to teeth and sugar levels. Large amounts of sprouts, berries, and anything else will inevitably create disharmonies.
Solution: eat foods in reasonable quantities.

7 – The biggest mistake that many make is that they listen to the raw food authorities and don’t trust the invaluable messages their own bodies communicate.
Solution: keep a diary of your daily food consumption and how it affects your well-being.

Valya’s DVD “The 7 Best Green Smoothies from Raw Family” brings Valya into your living room to show you how to prepare 7 of our all-time favorite green smoothies. In addition to demonstrating how easy it is to blend up exotic concoctions, Valya shares many timesaving tips and answers the most frequently asked questions about making delicious green smoothies. This DVD is a must see for anyone interested in becoming a green smoothie pro!

Sergei’s DVD “The Miracle of Greens: how greens and wild edibles can save your life” is a dynamic 90-minute workshop, where Sergei discusses the incredible health benefits that come from introducing greens into one’s diet. His extensive study of plants along with the latest scientific research makes it fun, easy, and safe to introduce mineral rich wild edibles into your diet. See for yourself how greens and wild edibles can transform the way you feel while simultaneously pleasing your taste buds!

This lecture covers topics such as:

The benefits of eating greens

Easy, delicious ways of incorporating greens into your diet

Overcoming illness with diet

The benefits of eating wild edibles

A virtual wild edible walk where Sergei demonstrates how to safely identify & harvest common wild edibles

We are officially kicking off the pre-sale with this special offer. Order both of these DVD’s before April 1st and receive $10.00 off your purchase, meaning  you get two DVD’s for $25

Q: Dear Victoria, I am 39 years old and my eye doctor wants me to start wearing glasses, because at times I cannot read close up. My eye doctor says that everyone needs reading glasses by the age of 40. Do you think diet could help? -Michelle

Victoria: I am 54 years old and I never used glasses in my life. That doesn’t mean that I never experienced blurred vision. Most of the time my vision is perfectly clear, just yesterday I was able to see a tiny font on a map while driving in twilight.

Ten years ago, I was fortunate to read books written by Dr. Bates and to attend lectures by Thomas Quackenbush. From these vision teachers, who I believe are the best in the world, I learned that it is normal for any human to experience blurred vision once in a while. Even young children may see in a blur when, for example, they are tired or have overeaten candy the day before. There are many factors that might temporarily cause one’s vision to blur. For instance, blurred vision is one of the symptoms of hypoglycemia, which means that every time our blood sugar level drops, we might see less clearly. Being stressed, tired, sleep deprived, having sunlight deficiency, or even a lack of circulation in the neck and shoulders area from sitting could all contribute to temporarily blurred vision. There are many more potential causes of this eye weakness.

Contrary to common assumption, wearing glasses does not cure blurred vision, but leads to further weakening of the eyesight. Quackenbush explains in his lectures and books that when we see in a blur, our brain receives a message from our eyes “I see in a blur, and that has to change.” This is a helpful message, because in this case the body does its best to recover clear vision naturally. Often rest, exercise, proper sleep and a healthy natural diet is sufficient to restore clear vision.

However, if when seeing in a blur, we hurry to use glasses, the brain receives a potentially damaging message: “I see clearly, and nothing has to be corrected.” That is why when we start wearing glasses, our vision gets weaker and weaker and never the other way around.

Of course, I don’t want you to put yourself in a dangerous situation by performing important tasks when you vision is blurred, such as driving, signing documents, or removing a splinter. Everyone must decide for themselves whether to wait until their vision becomes clear or to wear glasses. I would only go to an eye doctor if my vision is blurred most of the time.

For those who wear glasses already, Quackenbush recommends to always get a little weaker glasses than prescribed by an eye doctor. He also advices to attach a strap to your glasses, so that you can easily put them on and off at any time. Thomas Quackenbush lives in Holland, here is his website:http://www.naturalvisioncenter.com/about.htm

Diet greatly influences everyone’s vision. From my observations, the worst foods that harm our ability to see clearly are processed fats and processed sugars. Green smoothies seem to be very helpful for many people. I hear from my readers on a regular basis that they significantly improved their vision by adding one or two quarts of green smoothie a day.

I hope that you enjoy more green smoothies and better vision!

I would like to share with you my hypothesis about the conditions that may cause diabetes, candida and other diseases.

Ever since my son Sergei was diagnosed with diabetes, I have been collecting all the information about this disease that I came across. From reading hundreds of studies and talking to countless diabetic friends, I have developed my own theory about the cause of this illness. I kept my ideas to myself for many years because I am not a medical doctor, and cannot give medical advice to anyone. Now I have decided to share my thoughts with you, just as a woman, friend, and mother of a diabetic child. So please don’t take my words as a directive, and perhaps some of you will be able to benefit from my reasoning.

The liver is the main organ in our body that processes the fats that we consume and the chemicals that we ingest and are exposed to. Even though the liver is the largest gland in the human body, it has a certain limit on how much fat and chemicals it can process. An adult human liver normally weighs around three pounds and can only process a certain amount of fat per day. Let us suppose that the following yellow circle represents the maximum amount of fat that our liver can process per day, and the red circle represents the maximum amount of chemicals:

What happens when we consume more fat and chemicals than we can process on a daily basis? For example this much more:

While the chemicals keep accumulating in different organs of our body and cause a variety of problems, including nutritional deficiencies, it is not entirely clear what happens with the excess fat. In this article I would like to talk about fat.

When we consume more fat than our livers can process, the excess fat ends up circulating in the blood. Dr…. explains that fat cannot enter fat tissue without being processed by the liver. So if the liver is busy, the fat remains circulating in the blood until the liver has a chance to process it. When we consume this much fat:

the liver processes it and then either uses it for muscle work or deposits it into fat tissue. When we consume this much fat:

the excess fat that the liver cannot process keeps circulating in the blood. The liver cannot even deposit it into fat tissues because the amount of fat consumed exceeds the capacity of the liver. At this point, if we stop consuming fat for a certain number of hours or days, then the liver will have a chance to process it. The liver will either use the fat as energy for muscles (if we exercise) or deposit it into fat cells.

What happens if we already have excess fat circulating in the blood and we continue to consume more fat? Dr….. explains that the liver will first process the newly incoming fat and will leave the fat in the blood to be processed later (if there will be a chance!) Please note that if one frequently overconsumes fat, then the concentration of fat in the blood constantly rises.

Another complicating issue is that many people consume hydrogenated, cooked, rancid, or processed fats, which are a lot harder for the liver to deal with. As a result there will be even more fat circulating in the blood. A blood test at this time would show high triglycerides.

I believe that this condition is the cause for a great number of illnesses, including diabetes and candida. Again, I am nobody to theorize on this topic, and you don’t have to believe my conclusions. It is my personal observation that in today’s world, most people constantly have excess fat circulating in their bloodstream including those who have a hard time gaining weight. This condition instantly causes low immunity. I consider immunity to be the actual force of life. Immunity is life; when immunity is gone, death happens.

Fat in the blood interferes with most vital processes that happen in the blood. For example, the viscosity of the blood changes; it becomes thicker, which slows down the transmission of hormones, oxygen and other nutrients throughout the body. Have you noticed that it becomes harder to breathe after a heavy meal? People who have fat circulating in the blood seem to gasp for fresh air. They are short of breath because they are indeed suffering from a lack of oxygen that cannot be transmitted to the vital organs in adequate quantities.

I applaud Dr. Douglas Graham for his brilliant research about the damaging effect that excessive fat in the diet can have on human health. In one of his lectures, Dr. Graham explained how fat covers all particles in the blood with a very thin film, making it difficult for molecules to interact. For example, if molecules of sugar are covered with a thin film of fat, it makes it more difficult for the sugar to enter the cell and thus requires more insulin.  While this is such a complicated process that even academic scientists don’t know all the details yet, I will try to explain my idea in a very simple way.

Imagine there is a ten year old boy who has excess fat in his bloodstream. What happens when he eats a candy bar? As he eats it the sugar molecules get into his bloodstream and become covered with a thin layer of fat.

When there is sugar in the blood, this condition could be dangerous. It throws off the body’s chemical balance and causes extreme fatigue and other symptoms. The sugar must enter the cells as soon as possible, so the body begins to take action. The messenger is sent to the pancreas with a demand to produce insulin. The pancreas responds by producing insulin, but the layer of fat on the molecule of sugar makes the insulin ineffective. For some reason, the sugar still cannot enter the cell. The body keeps demanding more insulin from the pancreas. The thin layer of fat keeps preventing sugar from entering the cell. Eventually the pancreas becomes exhausted and cannot produce any more insulin.

If this situation continues to happen day after day, eventually the condition develops that we call type-one diabetes: the pancreas is unable to produce insulin. The body will rush the sugar out of the system with urine, which will contain a high level of sugar. Our boy will begin to experience a burning sensation in his urinary tract which in turn causes frequent urination and great thirst. These are the typical symptoms of diabetes. At this point, he is sent for a fasting glucose blood test. This test is called fasting because the patient is instructed not to eat before the test early in the morning. Then he is given a hundred and fifty grams of sugar syrup and the test is done to see how quickly his blood sugar will restore to normal. It is my understanding that the patient might still have excess fat in his blood at the time of the test, and therefore his insulin production will appear as if it is low. I know at least five people who retook this test after one week of a no-fat diet and tested remarkably better; their blood sugar was able to restore to a lower, more normal reading. I feel an obligation to spread this news.

I would like to emphasize again and again that I am not a medical doctor; I am just sharing as a woman and you don’t have to believe me at all. I suspect that the cause of the insulin-dependent type of diabetes lies in the presence of excess fat in the blood too long. I wish there would be a research study done to check this theory out. I dare to think that it is possible to reverse at least some cases of type-one diabetes by implementing a diet with a severely restricted fat intake. Please note that I do not suggest that anybody taking insulin stops taking medication and begins to play with one’s diet. I am only sharing my thoughts.

The situation is similar with candida, a yeast infection. I agree with Dr. Graham that candidosis is caused by fat, not sugar. The sugars may trigger the overgrowth of candida, but not cause it. When the blood is filled with sugar molecules covered with a thin layer of fat, it is a dangerous condition for the body.

Then candida comes in as a back-up plan for that person’s benefit. Candida consumes the sugar, saving that person from having a high concentration of sugar in the blood, the dangerous condition that throws off the body’s chemical balance and causes extreme fatigue and other critical symptoms. At the same time, candida is a nasty yeast infection, a parasite and while living in the human body it leaves a lot of its own waste, which is toxic and may cause fatigue and depression.

I know a lot of people, literally hundreds, who were able to successfully reverse the symptoms of candida by adopting a low fat diet. In many cases, severe candidosis was reversed by simply living one week with no fats at all. It was interesting for me to hear that many of these people were able to consume a lot of fruit without having candida return, when they continued to live on a low-fat diet.

In simple words, when we continually consume fat with every meal, we don’t ever give the liver a chance to clean the fat from the blood. When we stop consuming fats completely, not even eating healthy fats, such as avocados or oils or nuts, then the liver has a chance to completely clean the blood of excess fat.

While I don’t recommend anybody to stop taking their medication without seeing their doctor, I believe that anybody could reduce the intake of dietary fat for a few days without any health risks at all. I understand that this information is radical and contradicts many existing points of view. Therefore I appreciate constructive critique from any of you.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I am receiving a great number of emails these days; approximately 80 emails per hour, and I am unable to answer all of them. I would like to express my appreciation for your support and I love you all.

Green with Love,

Victoria

Not only do we feel this unexplained and unmeasured energy from humans, but we can also feel these same deep vibrations from different animals and plants. Have you seen, for example, how a blade of grass makes its way through a thick layer of asphalt? It’s difficult to believe that such a tender plant could break concrete. I cannot find any other explanation for this phenomenon other than the invisible, yet powerful energy that comes from the sprout, in an effort to survive in spite of any obstruction.

All living things are connected and communicate using different energies
and vibrations. Think about Canadian geese, which are able to fly long distances and find lakes without ever being mistaken. I am fascinated with their powerful ability to navigate without compasses or other tools, using their incredible instincts. Another example comes from my encounters with dogs. Instinctively they always know if I am afraid of them or not, and they are also able to transmit their present mood clearly to me, so that I recognize that they are totally aware of my emotions. Several times I have had powerful experiences with cats. I consider them small and fairly safe animals to approach, but once in a while, before I even decide to reach out with my hand and pet a cat, it sends a ray of energy that warns me to back off—without even curling its back or hissing. I brought up these examples to illustrate that every one of us deals with energies that are not visible, but very powerful, all the time.

Why are we given these vast energies? I believe these powers are given to us for a great purpose or mission.

I believe all human beings have their own missions in life. I also believe that to fulfill that mission is the most important purpose for every human being, because only then can one contribute the most to the rest of humanity. People who are able to do so mark history as the most gifted leaders, geniuses, writers, artists and philosophers.

How do we determine what our mission is? I think we can guess by observing our personal gifts and talents. Every single person in the world has some particular talent. I have been working as an employer or director of various companies for more than 20 years and I have noticed that all my employees have one gift or another. I’ve worked with dozens of people and have never met even one without talents. Usually when I get to know people more closely, I find that they have even more gifts than I thought. We definitely have different gifts and different missions for life.

My passion is participating in sincere conversations with other people. When I listen to another human being I forget about time, food, sleep…  I have been praised for my patience with people, which I don’t even notice. Luckily, I have found a way to make a living that utilize my passions. It took me many years to realize that doing what I love is more important  than the amount of money I could make. My family and I had to learn to live on less money, but the joy we get from doing what we love means far more to us than more money.

Often I read different reports in newspapers about how many people don’t like their jobs. They are suffering, counting the hours and minutes until lunch, a break or the end of the working day. They are spending their lives waiting, waiting for the end. Why can’t we do what we love? Why can’t we live more enjoyable lives? I find there are two main answers to these questions:
1. People don’t know what they love to do
2. People consider their life passions to be unimportant.

In this case, people often do something else they don’t like, hoping to get back to their passion upon retiring. Or they do what they love, but they apply their talents to destructive processes instead of creative ones. For example, I have a friend who is a very good salesman. He claims he could sell ice to an Eskimo. Obviously he is very talented, if he can inspire people to buy things they don’t need. I think that his real talent is to inspire people. I told him that he would make a great teacher or motivational leader, that he could inspire people to do beautiful, creative deeds. Another friend of mine is a gifted artist. Her paintings are unique and beautiful and they touch the heart. However, she has not created a new painting for many years, because she can make much more money designing for commercial promotional advertising.

When I observe many people participating in destructive businesses and
activities, manufacturing environmentally harmful products, pouring chemicals
into fields, distributing cotton candy in amusement parks, shooting B movies,
and many more, it becomes clear to me that all these people don’t understand the huge importance of following their mission. If a single blade of grass has the power to grow through thick asphalt, one can only imagine the potential power of human energy applied with passion.

How many people can you name that have made a significant positive difference for the whole world? For example: Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Byron Katy, J. Krishnamurti, Leo Tolstoy, Mother Theresa, Eckhart Tolley, Paul McCartney, etc. All these people passionately followed their life’s missions. I believe that anybody could start following their life’s mission at any time and make a difference in the whole world.

Because we are spiritual beings, our spiritual mission is more important for our spirits than obtaining money for other than spiritual needs. When we do not follow our true goals, we develop spiritual pain, which we feel as boredom and emptiness. Since as early as childhood, many of us begin to feel bored once in a while. It often happens when we are forced to do things that we don’t like, or when we are unable to do what we are passionate about. There is a vast difference between pleasurable activities such as watching television and visiting amusement parks, and things that help us evolve spiritually such as creatively working on projects that one has talents for. After watching movies we often feel drained and even more bored, while after working creatively, we feel empowered, inspired and fulfilled. With years of staying disconnected from our life’s mission, our spiritual pain accumulates. Sometimes we have attacks of feeling lost, lonely, bored with life, or losing sense in life. Often this pain is blamed on life problems such as loneliness, troublesome relationships, debt, disease, etc. Spiritual pain can be worse than physical pain and can become unbearable. Most suicides happen because of spiritual pain, not physical pain. 28 million people in America are taking antidepressants to be able to live through the day (Trebichavska). At this point, no amount of money would help. Yet it is everyone’s birthright to be happy.

I invite you to observe the feelings you encounter while performing various tasks, and let your passions guide your life.

Victoria left today to start her 3 month tour of Europe and Japan. In April she will also visit Thailand for an eight day ‘Joy for Life Retreat’. Please view our calendar to see where she will be teaching about how to recognise and avoid nutritional deficiencies, juicing v’s blending, the unique power of green smoothies, food combining and more. Victoria’s European Tour Schedule

This article is written by Sergei Boutenko. Sergei  is extremely passionate about wild edibles and has shared his knowledge through talks and guided hikes all over the world. Sergei will be touring Australia in April 2010, click here for more information.

Wild Edibles

By Sergei Boutenko

After several months of drinking green smoothies I got very tired of using kale and spinach. It was at that time that I first embraced weeds. I appreciate that weeds presented me with a practically unlimited variety of greens. This summer I discovered heavenly scrumptious and nutritious “new” foods such as: pumpkin leaves, grape leaves, chicory greens, young and tender borage leaves and flowers, tightly curled fists of young ferns, clover leaves and flowers, plantain, sorrel, and even lemon grass. Next year I plan to fill my garden a large variety of weeds.

Wild edibles often contain more vitamins and minerals than commercially marketed plants. Weeds have not been “spoiled” with farmers’ care in contrast to the “good” plants of the garden. In order to survive in spite of constant weeding, pulling, and spraying, weeds had to develop strong survival properties. For example, in order to stay alive without being watered, most weeds have developed unbelievably long roots. Alfalfa’s roots grow up to 20 feet long reaching for the most fertile layers of the soil. As a result, all wild plants possess more nutrients than commercially grown plants. I feel so silly now when I remember how I used to always pull out the “nasty” lambsquarters from my garden to let my “precious” iceberg lettuce grow.

The best way to learn which weeds are edible is to sign up for an herb walk with an experienced guide in your local area. This way you can learn to recognize particular edible plants by actually touching, smelling, and tasting them so that you can gather your “wild produce” on your own. Also, there are lots of articles and photos of edible weeds on the Internet. You may also find many books that help identify edible plants in your area. Please maintain caution when picking wild plants to avoid poisoning. There are usually only a couple of poisonous plants in one region, make sure you can identify them well.

Weeds:
Borage leaves and flowers
Chicory greens and flowers
Chickweed
Clover
Dandelion (greens and flowers)
Fiddlehead ferns
Lambsquarters
Malva
Miner’s lettuce
Plantain
Purslane
Sorrel
Stinging nettles

QUESTION: I am beginning to develop arthritis. What is the daily menu that would help me?

VICTORIA: The only reason for developing diseases is deficiency and toxicity. By adding green smoothies, going on a raw food diet, or improving your diet will bring you to health. We have accumulated deficiencies for seven generations. We undo deficiencies, not only from your life, but from your mothers and fathers, your grandparents and great-grandparents.

I remember the deficiencies my mother had. When I was about ten years old, my mother developed a condition and the doctors didn’t know what it was. Her old wounds opened. Even the one she got when she was four years old when she was bitten by a dog. It healed long ago and didn’t have a scar, but when this condition developed, this wound opened up on her cheek, it was bleeding and painful for her. The doctors were looking for the bug in her body and kept giving her antibiotic prescriptions and poultices. She was in tremendous pain and suffering. She switched doctors in June and started eating some green onions, dill and cilantro from the market. I think the greens are what healed her. At the time she was very happy about this doctor and gave him a big bouquet of roses and a bottle of cognac in addition to her thanks. Now I know that was a symptom of Vitamin K deficiency.

I have researched Vitamin K and found that 90% of people are deficient. Vitamin K is important for blood formation and cartilage (for example, face-formation). Our faces can become deformed due to lack of Vitamin K. I’ve looked at the paintings from the 16^th to 18^th Centuries and noticed that our faces have begun to change. We now have lots of deformities. For example, our noses could be bigger and our jaws could be different from what they are now because we don’t have enough Vitamin K. It is abundant in all greens. According to my research, there is two thousand times more Vitamin K in the leaves of beets than in the beet roots themselves. The roots of  beets are considered to be high in Vitamin K, yet the leaves are even more potent.

For arthritis, you have to have full nutrition. Greens have everything the human body needs. The ratio of nutrition we can find in greens is almost exactly what the USDA says for the human body to be healthy. Consume more greens in a way that your body can assimilate them and I think your arthritis will go away.

This sounds like a fantasy, however, this is just what your beautiful body can do! When you have a cut, the blood washes the dirt out and seals the wound, the skin begins to grow faster and within a matter of days you cannot find a trace of injury. If you ingest poison, your body will create diarrhea or vomiting to purge the unwanted substance as soon as possible. In the case of any injury, our body knows exactly to repair itself in the most efficient way.

Every living thing is dedicated to survival, to prolonging its life to the maximum. Each organism will do its best to adjust to any change in the environment in order to survive. This miracle is called the universal law of vital adjustment. This law has always existed and it always will. We can see as many proofs of this law as we want, in every blade of grass striving through the concrete, in every rabbit changing the color of its fur with the seasons, and in every human being surviving in today’s challenging and constantly changing world. It continues to amaze me how this universal law of adjustment applies to every one of us in many ways. When we understand this important law, we lose the fear that for some mysterious reason, our bodies could become ill and could kill us. Our bodies are dedicated to our survival, not our death. The disease-like conditions that our bodies create, such as coughing, sneezing, fever, pain of different kinds, high blood pressure, etc. are nothing but the body’s effort to survive. Ironically, when the body heals after taking pills, it most likely heals not because of, but in spite of the medicine. I feel sad that such a great misunderstanding exists even among many health professionals. I wish science would do more research on how to help the body heal itself instead of treating the symptoms. By suppressing symptoms, we counteract the wise efforts of the intelligent human body.

According to the law of vital adjustment, our bodies adjust to the changes in our environment, including the harmful changes, such as pollution, radiation, noise, lack of sunlight, etc. Similarly, the body adjusts to the consumption of harmful substances. It develops a new pattern that is actually the best way of coping with the situation. This pattern can quickly become a habit. That doesn’t mean that your super-intelligent body is craving harmful substances, but that it has adjusted to the poison. Unfortunately, our poor bodies have been forced to adjust to so many thousands of harmful circumstances, that they can scarcely distinguish the healthy from the harmful. I find it amazing, even amusing that the human body continues to survive in spite of so many damaging factors, like smoking, taking drugs, overeating harmful foods saturated with chemicals, spending lifetimes indoors without fresh air or sunlight, nearly motionless, surrounded by high voltage electromagnetic fields and radiation, breathing in all kinds of pollution, showering with fluoridated and chlorinated water, experiencing constant stress, etc; and on top of that we adopt numerous smaller ills that seem so innocent, like wearing high heels and makeup, sleeping in soft beds, wearing dark glasses, drinking coffee, eating candy and many more. It took many years for me to discover that many habits I was lovingly taught to acquire for myself, were actually harmful. In fact, I have changed so many commonly accepted habits that I don’t even want to risk putting them into this article. Yet those changes have made my body healthier and my life more joyous.

There is so much confusion in our lives today that we pay top money for workshops and seminars to learn how to do the simplest things that every animal knows naturally. The most popular classes today are not “Is there Life on Mars?” or “How to Become a Millionaire” but those that teach the most fundamental behaviors, like how to eat, how to sleep, how to run properly, how to relax, how to stand straight, how to sit correctly, how to see without glasses, how to exercise, how to spontaneously express emotions, how much water to drink, how to breathe, even how to go to the bathroom. There was a time that we knew all these things naturally. I try to imagine what a natural human being looks like and I cannot.

Every one of us is living with thousands of adjustments that our body has succumbed to in order for us to survive. We pay for each one of them with our health and life span. The way to better health lies in the unburdening of our organisms from having to adjust. However small, every effort towards natural living makes a difference. For example, eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, sleeping with an open window at night, wearing clothes made from natural fibers, drinking pure water, exercising, getting sunlight regularly, not suppressing sneezing, yawning and stretching, reducing stress, turning off electrical devices when not using them to rest from harmful electric fields, reducing use of soap and chemicals, buying organic produce, and thousands more, including giving your microwave to your enemy.

However, never introduce new changes into your lifestyle just because some authority recommended it. Always observe the reactions your body has to those changes. If you feel better, continue. For example, I used to have a habit of eating before bedtime. When I tried to eat just two hours earlier, I immediately began to sleep more soundly. My body showed me that this was a good change, and I adopted this new habit. I realize that these little changes add a great deal of health and enjoyment to my life.

Sometimes our body has adjusted to harmful habits so deeply, that it takes longer periods of time for the health benefits to surface. For example, I used to like to sleep on a soft mattress. Once, I read an article describing how healthy it is to sleep on a hard surface. I tried sleeping on the floor, but had such an achy back the next morning, that I immediately quit. Many years later, I went hiking in the Cascadian Mountains and slept on the ground for one month. In the beginning, I had an achy back for a week. Then my sleep became so sweet, as never before in all my life. Since then I have always slept on a hard surface simply because soft beds make my back achy.

I encourage you to follow your own intuition, your own feeling, and your own experience. I do not want you to do anything because I, or somebody else who is considered an expert, say so. We are each unique individuals with different body needs.  We need to be our own best expert.

Let’s do an experiment. If you went to an organic fruit stand right now and picked out one fruit, what would it be? A pear, apple, orange, fig, papaya, banana, grape, avocado, mango or cherry? Is everyone reading this article picking the same fruit? Probably not. We are all individuals. Your body knows what you need. Whatever fruit you choose, that is what your body is ordering from you today. Your job is to get your organism what it needs. Tomorrow your body may want the same fruit or something new. Let your body lead.

Let’s imagine that a piece of dust is falling into your right eye. Which eye will blink? Your right eye, of course. Your left eye won’t blink by mistake, because your body never makes mistakes. We have been created perfectly. When we underestimate the wisdom of nature, and stop listening to the messages our bodies give us, we get into trouble. For example, what is the standard response to fever in our culture? Aspirin. I trust that if my body has created a fever, than I need a fever. When the body creates diarrhea, then I’m glad to be saving money on a colonic irrigation. As I write these lines, I become fascinated with the fact that I used to have these, and other symptoms regularly, but since I adopted a more natural lifestyle, I haven’t been sick for many years now. Taking medication to stop fever, diarrhea, or other symptoms would work against the wisdom of the body. Our body never makes mistakes. If we listen carefully to our bodies, we can all know what we need to do to feel better.

I would like to share with you a story that illustrates how I first began to listen to my body. Ten years ago, when my family had only been on raw food for two months, my children began craving different fruits. Sergei asked for mangoes and blueberries and Valya asked for olives, grapefruits and figs. If I gave Sergei a mango, he would eat it right away and immediately want another. Once, I bought him a whole flat of mangoes thinking that would last him a week. He sat down and ate the entire flat in one day, peals and all. He then said, “I wish there were more mangoes!”  The same thing happened with blueberries. I bought him a two-pound bag of blueberries and he ate it in one sitting. Valya liked figs. She’d ask for fresh figs, dry figs, black figs or green figs. She could never have enough figs; she also liked eating olives and grapefruits.

That summer, we visited Dr. Bernard Jenson, a world famous clinical nutritionist. I asked Dr. Jensen what Sergei needed to eat to help him recover from diabetes. Dr. Jensen looked in his books and told me that the best thing for Sergei to eat would be more mangoes and blueberries. I was shocked. I then asked him what Valya needed to eat to help her asthma. He said, “figs, olives, and grapefruits.” I couldn’t believe his words. I said, “that’s exactly what my children have been asking for!” Dr. Jensen then asked me what my cravings were. I told him that I didn’t know because I always ate what was on sale.

Dr. Jensen helped me to understand that our bodies naturally crave foods that aid healing. My children’s bodies communicated with them sooner than did my poor confused adult body. My husband and I started to pay more attention to what our bodies were telling us, and within several weeks, we became aware of our own cravings.

Today, everyone in my family eats slightly differently. I know that when we develop an appetite for certain healthy things, (not coffee and doughnuts) it is our body asking for particular nutrients.  The human body is more beautiful and wise than we can comprehend. Just remember, your body never makes mistakes.