1/2 pineapple approximately 10 oz, cut in chunks

2 medium ripe bananas

3 ribs of celery, cut in thirds

Blend pineapple and banana.  Add celery and blend to desired smoothness.

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Your food choices can be of tremendous benefit, not only to your own life, but to the less fortunate of the world as well. No self-deprivation is called for, but simply the understanding that the healthiest, tastiest, and most nourishing way to eat is also the most economical, most compassionate, and least polluting.

Heeding this message is without doubt one of the most practical, economically wise, and potent actions you can take toady to heal-not only your own life-but also the ecosystem on which all life depends. You benefit, the rest of humankind benefits, the aminals benefit, and so do the forests and the rivers and the soil and the air and the oceans.

John Robbins, 1988

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You have been given this day to use as you will.

You can waste it or use it for good.

What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.

When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind…let it be something good.

~ Author Unknown

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Kernels from 6 ears of corn

1 red pepper, diced

1 avocado, cubed

Combine above ingredients in a bowl.

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Combine the following in a blender:

1 clove garlic

1 small onion

1/4 jalapeno pepper

1/2 tsp cumin

juice of 1 lime

Blend ingredients and add the leaves of 1 small bunch of cilantro. Blend and pour over corn.

Can be eaten alone or as a salad dressing on top of a plate of greens or spiralized zucchini.

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The benefits of a healthy lifestyle are huge.  Some of the benefits include:

• Living longer
• Looking and feeling younger
• Having more energy
• Losing weight
• Lowering your cholesterol
• Preventing and reversing heart disease
• Lower risks for breast, prostrate and other cancers
• Prevent and treat diabetes
• Avoid osteoporosis, impotence, and stroke
• Prevent kidney stones
• Lower blood pressure
• Alleviate constipation
• Avoid Alzheimer’s disease
• And much, much more.

The following eight principles of food and health are taken from T. Colin Campbell’s book The China Study.  It is a great book with lots of information to support a plant based diet.  I highly recommend reading this book even though Dr. Campbell cooks his food….

What are the principles of Food and Health?

1. Nutrition represents the combined activities of the countless food substances.  The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

We don’t yet know everything that is in our food.  Scientists have said that we are still learning and identifying the numerous substances and chemicals in our fruits and vegetables.  What we do know is that cooking and processing our food removes important nutritional substances.  Since all of these things have not yet been identified, how do we know what we are missing if we are not eating whole, fresh, raw, ripe, organic fruits and vegetables?

2. Vitamin supplements are not a panacea for good health.

Isolated nutrients in supplements cannot make up for whole foods.  Consuming specific nutrients often leads to other in balances.  The nutrients in whole foods are complex along with the bodies process of using these whole foods so there is no way that taking supplements can make up for not eating whole, fresh, raw, ripe, organic fruits and vegetables.

3. There are virtually no nutrients in animal-based foods that are not better provided by plants.

Plant foods have dramatically more antioxidants, fiber and minerals than animal foods – page 231 The China Study. There is no reason why we need to eat animal products for good nutrition.  One reason why we don’t need to eat animal products is because they contain cholesterol.  Our bodies do require cholesterol but our bodies can also make all that we need.  Eating additional cholesterol simply raises our cholesterol which can lead to numerous health problems. Animal products also contain vitamins A, D and B-12 but it is not necessary to eat animal products to get these vitamins since our bodies can make these vitamins.

4. Genes do not determine disease on their own.  Genes function only by being activated, or expressed, and nutrition plays a critical role in determining which genes, good and bad are expressed.

Dormant genes do not have any effect on our health – page 233 The China Study. Nutrition in our body is the environmental factor that determines the activity of genes.  Studies done in The China Study show that people that have similar genes do not get the same diseases. The diseases that people get are largely dependent on their environment. You have the power to be sick or well and nutrition plays a huge part.

5. Nutrition can substantially control the adverse effects of noxious chemicals.

The real cause of disease is eating animal-based foods.  People began to get more cancer and heart disease when they started to eat more animal products; this is due to the nutrient imbalances and not the chemicals and hormones in the meat. Eating organic or grass feed beef maybe slightly better than regular beef but it is still not a safe choice.  Beef is beef and has similar nutrient profile; it contains cholesterol, no fiber, no phytochemicals and no antioxidants. Our nutrition primarily determines whether we will have disease or not.

6. The same nutrition that prevents disease in its early stages (before diagnosis) can also halt or reverse disease in its later stages (after diagnosis).

There are numerous studies done to show that a whole food, plant-based diet reverses advanced heart disease, helps obese people lose weight and helps diabetics get off their medication.  Even illness such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis sufferers experience improvements when eating a plant based low fat diet.

7. Nutrition that is truly beneficial for one chronic disease will support health across the board.

Good nutrition is good nutrition.  Eating right will go a long way to help you feel better and look better.  You can maximize your health by eating a diet of whole, fresh, raw, ripe, organic fruits and vegetables. There isn’t a special diet for heart disease, high blood pressure or cancer; it is all the same diet.

8. Good nutrition creates health in all areas of our existence.  All parts are interconnected.

Good nutrition helps us feel at our best.  Because we feel good we are more likely to exercise or participate in physical activities, both of which are needed for excellent health.  This combination of good nutrition and exercise offers us more health than the sum of each part alone. Physical activity also has a profound effect on our emotional and mental well-being.  Feeling better in all areas of our lives helps us feel confident and motivates us to treat ourselves better. This cycle of eating better and feeling better also benefits our planet.  By eating a whole foods diet, we use less water, less land, fewer resources and produce less pollution. All of these things are interconnected. Raw Food Rocks!

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¼ C sun-dried tomatoes, soak for 3 hours in water and drain.

After 3 hours, blend the following:

1 large Roma tomato

3 small dates

½ lime, juiced

Soaked sun-dried tomatoes

Pour into a bowl.

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Add the following to the bowl:

Kernels from 3 ears of corn

½ green or red pepper, diced

¼ C finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Combine all the ingredients.  Use the salsa as a salad dressing on top of a plate of greens or slice cucumbers and zucchinis and use for dipping.  Also great with celery sticks.

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3 medium bananas, peeled

3 oranges, peeled

1 C. red grapes

Blend above ingredients.

Add:

2 carrots, cut in 1 inch pieces

2 ribs celery, cut in 2 inches

Blend again.

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The short answer is a lot!

However, I know that probably doesn’t help much.  I know when I first heard about a low fat raw began diet (LFRV) I didn’t understand how much food I needed to eat.  I didn’t understand how to keep my fat at less than 10% of my total calories either.

Much of the reason for this was that before learning about a LFRV diet all I had heard from all the other raw foodies was that I had to eat my greens, lots and lots of greens.  It seemed like that was all they talked about, eating greens!  I ate many greens but they weren’t my most favorite thing to eat and they didn’t have very many calories…so to make them better and to keep from feeling hungry all the time I added high fat salad dressing to them.

I finally got it (LFRV) after reading The 80/10/10 Diet by Dr. Doug Graham.  The answer was that I had to eat more fruit, a lot more fruit!  I needed increase the volume of food that I ate.

How come no one mentioned this before, eating more fruit?

Just because I knew the answer, didn’t mean I could actually do it right away.  It took practice to be able to eat that much food.

So how much food do you need to eat?

Let’s say you need 2000 calories and you want to follow the 80/10/10 plan and keep your fat under 10% of your total calories.

You need to eat something like this:

Breakfast: 4 lb. cantaloupe, 617 calories.

Lunch: 1 lb. nectarines, 200 calories
1 lb. apricots, 218 calories

Total calories for lunch – 418.

Dinner: Course one: 1 lb. grapes, 313 calories

Course two: 2 lb. papaya and 8 oz. tomato blended, 395 calories

Course three: 1 lb. romaine lettuce chopped topped with 10 oz. pineapple blended with 1 T. Tahini, 299 calories

Total calories for dinner – 1007.

The totals for the day are: 
2042 total calories
85% of calories from carbohydrates
8% of calories from protein
7% of calories from fat

9 ½ pounds of fruit
1 ½ pounds leafy greens/vegetables

As you can see the volume of food needed is much more than we are accustomed to eating.  Most people wouldn’t even consider eating a pound of any one fruit or vegetable in one sitting.

If you can’t eat all of the above food in three meals, start with four meals a day until you get used to eating more food.  Gradually work yourself back to three meals a day.  Good luck!

Raw Food Rocks!

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To thrive on a low-fat raw vegan (LFRV) diet you need to consume enough calories.

I encourage people to track their calories online at nutridiary.com, cronometer.com or fitday.com. All three of these websites have free programs to track your calories each day.

How many calories are enough calories?

Here are some guidelines to follow:

First begin by multiplying your body weight (or your ideal body weight*) by 10.  This calculation will give a rough estimate of your resting basal metabolic rate (BMR).  Your BMR is the number of calories required to operate your brain, organs and all essential functions.

For example if you weight 150 pounds you will need around 1,500 (150 x 10) calories per day.  This is your starting point.

Next you need to determine your activity level.

Healthy athletic active people

Healthy athletic active people will want to consume additional calories in the same amount as their BMR.  This means that a healthy athletic person whose BMR is 1500 would consume 3000 (1500 + 1500 ) calories.

We all want to strive to be in this group.  The reason for this is we need to generate a need for calories because doing so will allow us to eat enough food to meet our nutritional requirements.  Said another way, consuming more food increases the amount of nutrients we take in.  To be healthy we need to get our needed nutrients on a regular basis.

Less active people

If you work  at a job with little physical activity and are relatively sedentary the remainder of you day then add 200 calories to your BMR.

For the 150 pound person this would be a total of 1700 (1500 + 200) calories for the day.  If you exercise, then you will need to add an additional 300-600 calories depending on the length and intensity of your workout.

If your job is more physically active then you will need to add an additional 800 to 1600 calories.

Calorie content comparison chart

*Ideal body weight calculation given to me by Dr. Doug Graham:

Ideal varies quite a bit, with physique, social upbringing, and activity choices.
A fairly standard guide is to start from 100 pounds for 5 feet tall, then add 1-4 pounds per inch over 5 feet if you are female, 2-5 pounds if you are male.
That will usually put you near the right range, unless you are of Asian build, in which case you start at 90 pounds.

The above information was taken from The 80/10/10 Diet by Dr. Doug Graham

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I really love to ride my bike and one of the best things about it is the eating after the ride!!

After our ride we had a meal of pineapple, strawberries, bananas, mangoes, figs and dates followed by the two salads in the picture below.

My salad dressing was 1 orange and 3 ounces of blackberries blended together.  Carl had the same dressing except he added a tablespoon of tahini to his.

The salad ingredients are: romaine lettuce, spring mix, celery, red pepper, cucumber, and zucchini.

RAW FOOD ROCKS!!

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