Earlier in my blog, I wrote about my personal experience regarding my hypothyroid diagnosis and needing to take medication for it. You can read that article here.

For the past year, during my research on the raw vegan food lifestyle, I would come across testimonies of others that had hypothyroid disease, and tested normal after following raw food lifestyle for about a year. This encouraged me, because I hate being dependent on pharmaceutical drugs or taking any kind of medicine. Doctors tell patients that once they begin thyroid treatment, it is a lifetime commitment. I’ve been taking thyroid prescription medicine since 2001, and even though I definitely felt better, I sincerely wanted to be well enough to not require it.

While in California this past summer on vacation, I went to a meeting presented by a naturopathic chiropractor and physician. He said that most thyroid patients can be cured of this disease and eventually no longer require medication to correct it. His guidelines were pretty simple, and most of them I was already following. I wrote a lot of stuff down while he was speaking, and now it seems I’ve misplaced my notes. But basically, he suggested following an organic, all natural, whole foods diet, avoiding any processed or manufactured food. Avoid baked foods as they now contain bromide, whereas they used to use iodine in processing. Bromide conflicts with the thyroid producing hormone. Avoid fluoride in water, toothpaste and any other foods that may contain it. Avoid chlorine in water. Get plenty of exercise, and sunshine whenever possible.

The one thing he did suggest that was new to me was to take iodine. I knew iodine was connected to thyroid health, but did not realize that it would actually improve a poor functioning or non-functioning thyroid. So when we got home, I started researching on the web to find the best possible type of iodine available.

After extensive research and looking over many different websites, I finally decided on Iosol Iodine. It comes in a small brown bottle with a dropper and I received it within a few days after ordering it. Plus, it was very affordable compared to many of the other alternative ‘thyroid’ products out there. It was only about $15 which is really cheap since I expect this one bottle to last me about a year!! The instructions were to put two drops into a glass of water each day, so I started taking the iodine along with my Armour Thyroid medicine.

Now I should add that the Armour Thyroid manufacturing company, Forest Laboratories, had discontinued manufacturing this medication sometime last Spring, and doesn’t plan to start up again until late October. Their website: http://www.armourthyroid.com/ actually says that their product is on ‘back order’ in some strengths due to a process change in manufacturing. Well, since my prescription dosage was 180 mg, that dosage strength was not available at any of the local pharmacies, or online pharmacies. I was only able to obtain my prescription in 60 mg. dosages. So as a result, I started taking two 60 mg pills each day along with my iodine. This means that I was actually taking less than what my doctor had prescribed.

I started this routine in June, and didn’t notice any new symptoms or issues in my thyroid health. Now I did start a new job which is actually quite physical, so I was pretty tired when I came home from work. I’m still trying to get used to this new job, since I’m only in my third week.

Last week I had my TSH levels tested with a simple blood test. I hadn’t had a blood test since June of 2006, and my doctor was not going to refill my prescription until she saw where my TSH levels were. My numbers in my 2006 test showed my TSH levels were 13.48, which is indicative of a low thyroid. Actually, that was the best number I’d had since being diagnosed. I remember my numbers being as high as 67!!

This time my numbers came out at .44!! That is almost hyperthyroid!! I thought the normal range was supposed to be 3-5 or somewhere around there. When I visited my doctor today, even she was surprised and asked me if there was something I was doing differently? I told her about how I’d changed my diet over a year ago to a high raw and organic vegan food lifestyle, that I do not eat any processed or packaged foods, avoid GMO foods, MSG, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, avoid fluoridated water and toothpaste, and that I’d been taking Iosol Iodine for the past two months now. She was visibly surprised, and pretty much speechless. Doctors are trained in med school that once a patient begins thyroid hormone treatment, they are on it for the rest of their life. I know because that was all I’d ever been told.

So she lowered my prescription dosage to 120 mg, and said to keep doing what I’d been doing. I can schedule another blood test whenever I want, and we’ll see how the numbers stack up in the next few months. She agreed that I do no not want to stop taking the medication cold turkey, but gradually reducing the dosage is fine. Needless to say, I’m very excited and happy that I am able to reduce my Armour thyroid dosage, and hopefully, someday soon, be completely healed and no longer require it.

Below is an article from Dr. Bryon Richards about thyroid health and iodine:

Iodine is absolutely vital for the formation of thyroid hormone in the thyroid gland.  Adequate iodine is also needed to block various compounds from binding to the thyroid (fluoride, perchlorate, goitrogens in food).  Iodine is also needed to assist the metabolism of estrogen in a healthy way (high estrogen blocks thyroid function) and iodine is needed to assist various hormone receptors throughout the body to work properly.  Iodine is essential for brain function and intelligence.

I rely on a product called Iosol Iodine for needed iodine supplementation.  I like it because ammonium iodine rapidly dissociates and forms free iodide, the exact form your body needs (1.8 mg a drop).  By comparison, Lugols and Iodoral contain the potassium salt of iodine which I don’t feel is as efficiently metabolized.  Many people use up to 5 drops of Iosol per day (if it can be observed that it helps the person warm up and sustain energy), I would never recommend 25 - 50 mg of a supplement containing potassium iodide.

In fact, I won’t put potassium iodide in any supplement I design.  One cause of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is excessive potassium iodine from sea vegetables like kelp, which is how the problem was first discovered.  This means that potassium iodine has been shown to clog the thyroid gland and shut it down on too much intake.  I have never seen such a problem from Iosol in two decades of use.

Thyroid hormone (T4) is composed of four molecules of iodine attached to one molecule of tyrosine.  A lack of either nutrient makes it difficult to form thyroid hormone.

To learn more about Iosol Iodine, click here for more information, and to purchase it.

We’re back home again after an awesome vacation and some much needed quality time spent with family. Unfortunately, it will probably be the last time we fly for awhile. It seems the whole experience was spent in a ‘hurry up and wait’ mode, and all the extra charges and security checks pretty much took the fun out of flying.

You are allowed to bring your own food aboard the plane, but not your own water bottle, or any other liquid unless you purchased it inside security for an inflated charge. So we guzzled the last of our water, then ditched our bottles before security check in. Fortunately, we had plenty of fresh fruit and trail mix to munch on until we got back home. I think next time we’ll drive out to California to see our family.

So I got to thinking about the best ways to staying raw on a road trip. I figured I’d post something here for those of you still getting ready for your vacation, whether it’s to see family, go to Disney World, or fly to another country. It’s important to know ahead of time and plan your meals so that you aren’t forced to eat food you don’t want in your system. Keep in mind that if you are spending any mealtimes with your family, you’re going to be in for quite a bit of scrutiny, questioning and ridicule.

As you can imagine, traveling is one of the biggest obstacles to maintaining a diet high in living foods. And you are much more likely to stay raw if you pack accordingly, and are prepared. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. Traveling with little preparation and then left to eat what is provided or available makes it difficult to get the support you need to stay raw while on the road. Good intentions are basically useless if you aren’t physically prepared with all your raw goodies to stay mostly raw. It simply does not matter how long you’ve been following the raw path - if you go somewhere without your raw food snacks you’ll find yourself being compromised!

Maintaining a live food diet while traveling can be easy if you have the right information. Once you’ve made the decision to go raw, the small inconveniences of your new lifestyle are quickly outweighed by renewed energy, rapid weight loss, and improved health. After a month or so, you should have an exciting repertoire of new foods to enjoy—some that involve more or less work than others, and some recipes that require special equipment like a dehydrator, a Vitamix, or a food processor.

So what should a “raw foodie” do when it’s time to hit the road? You can’t very well pack a five screen dehydrator and Vitamix in your overnight bag, can you? Fortunately, there are many quick solutions that will enable you to stay 100% raw and feeling great. I will say that I did pack my BlendTec blender and had fun making some raw food dishes, as well as smoothies to share with our family. But for most people, it is not realistic to pack a blender, unless you have a small portable one, like this one: Elite Cuisine Mini-blender.

So it goes without saying that you are much more likely to stay raw if you are prepared and pack accordingly. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. I found out the hard way myself when I showed up as a guest at someone’s house and I didn’t bring some of my own raw food. Good intentions are basically useless if you aren’t physically prepared to stay mostly raw. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been eating raw…if you go somewhere unprepared you’ll find yourself in a tough situation.

Grocery and Health Food Stores
Be sure to do your research before leaving to locate hotels with organic grocery stores within walking distance of your hotel. A simple search, for example, for “organic stores, Boston” provides a Google map of the city with about 15 choices. Find one you like, and then do another search for a nearby hotel.

What to buy:
• Salad in bulk (if there’s a big organic salad bar)
• Pre-packaged guacamole (make sure it’s dairy free), salsa, or olive tapenade to for dipping with carrot sticks or the crackers you made at home
• Lots of fresh fruit to keep around your hotel room in case you get hungry
• Buy a bag of pre-washed baby greens, some olive oil and raw nuts, and mix up a salad right in the bag!

Room Service
Room service is usually NOT what you want to eat, so don’t bother even looking at the menu…. Unless you need to order fresh fruit – but generally it’s best to get outside, get some exercise and find a fresh fruit stand (no, not a bakery or deli!)

Even if you are in a remote location sans organic food stores, order plenty of fresh fruit for breakfast, double portions of salad for dinner, and request olive oil and vinegar or a light vinaigrette dressing. Eat until you’re full—and stay away from the bread basket!

In Case You get Stuck in Timbuktu!
Always remember to pack a Live Greens type of supplement no matter where you’re going. You never know you might be out in TimbukTu and not a grocery store for miles. In case you end up in some far-flung place and no grocery store in sight, and unable to get any fresh produce—organic or otherwise—you can still travel stay raw. With a small mason jar, and filtered water, you can shake-shake-shake to health!

You might want to consider purchasing a battery-operated portable blender to pack in your suitcase. Throw in a banana and distilled or filtered water, mix with your organic green powder like Live Greens, and you will survive!

Keep up the Greens
A big challenge will be maintaining your daily consumption of greens at a proper level. I always travel with a big bottle of Live Greens, and bring along little mason jars for easy mixing while on day trips. It’s easy to simply add your green powder to filtered water and shake it up.

Remember the experience is more important than the food!
It seems when you travel, either to some exotic location or just to visit family, it always turns into a big eating fest. Shopping, planning and preparing the next meal before finishing the plate in front of you seems to become a time consuming endeavor. When you haven’t brought along any of your own food, it’s easy to become concerned about where your next meal will be coming from, or your hosts are concerned about having enough food available to feed you and your family. It would be great to learn to enjoy the vacation experience, sights, sounds, and smells of new and different places. Packing your own raw food makes this possible, because no longer are you concerned about your meals, restaurants, etc. And it puts less pressure on your hosts if you are staying with friends or family.

Also, the benefit of taking the pressure of meal planning and preparation away from your hosts is that you can prepare some of your favorite raw food dishes and introduce them to new flavors, and share the benefits of a raw food lifestyle.

When your vacation is no longer just about the food anymore, it provides you with time and opportunity to explore the area, such as historical museums, art, theater, festivals, shopping, and day to day life.

Travel with Raw Food Partner or Friends
It definitely helps to have a raw foodie partner or friend who shares and enjoys the same meals as you do. It makes the experience so much easier and definitely more fun. Together you can enjoy the raw food journey while traveling to exotic locations or simply visiting family. It also helps to have the support and encouragement that you can give each other. Larry and I enjoyed our raw food snacks together, and I helped him to stay strong when dealing with pressure to eat this or that from his family members.

If your friend or partner is not a raw foodist, then you’ll be able to share and example with them why raw food is important to you. Make time to sit down with them, go over menu ideas, food preparation suggestions, and really set the intention for what’s to come. Getting them excited will get you excited too, and you’ll be able to support each other along the way.

What to pack
Below are some suggestions to pack for your trip:
• Green Superfood: Live Greens are my favorite, but also Vitamineral Green, Sun is Shining, Pure Synergy
• Raw Honey or Agave: Only good quality dark agave or organic honey, forget about the cheap stuff, you deserve the best.
• Bee Pollen (some vegan purists don’t do honey or bee pollen)
• Goji Berries and/or Cacao Nibs
• Dried fruits and nuts: take it easy on these and always try to soak them the evening before consumption.
• It’s very important to pack a variety of easy snacks in your carryon bag in the event that you can’t find healthy snacks in the airport, train station, or hotel when you arrive. It’s easy to forget just how many options there are:
• Fresh veggies: carrot sticks, celery, broccoli and cauliflower.
• Dehydrated vegetables: sweet potatoes, white potatoes with salt and vinegar, zucchini, and yellow squash.
• Fresh fruits: a banana and grapes for the plane/train/car; apples, oranges, and pears packed in your bag.
• Dried fruits: dried apricots, apples, and pears; raisins, prunes, figs and dates.
• Raw cookies or snack bars: made in your dehydrator at home, last 3-5 days in Ziploc bags.
• Raw crackers: a huge variety can be made, a wonderful, crunchy treat when you’re craving salt.
• Granola: make a big batch in your dehydrator before you leave
Many organic grocery stores are beginning to carry prepackaged raw food bars. They’re a bit expensive ($3-5 US dollars each), so it’s best to make your own if you can, but some great brands are:
• Raw Organic Food Bars: cinnamon raisin is a favorite
• Raw Revolution bars: cashew is terrific
• Pure Bars: ginger snap—yum!
• Smart Monkey Bars: chocolate brownie
• Think! Organic: apricot coconut

Many of these brands can be pre-ordered by the case. Stock up before you leave. Note that international flights may not allow perishable items in carryon bags. Find out the rules before you leave.

Be on the lookout
Be alert for exotic fruits and try everything. Check the local paper for farmer’s markets, fresh fruit stands, and organic restaurants and shops. Don’t be discouraged, more and more towns and cities are providing organic and fresh vegetable shops. Don’t be shy, ask the locals where to find the organic food stores.

If you’re traveling overseas, you may want to look into the services of a local guide, who can be hired for as little as $1 an hour to show you around and help you locate organic foods by asking detailed questions to vendors like…”Are pesticides used? Do you have raw honey? Do you give discounts?” and so on.

Restaurants and Juice Bars
United States
• Atlanta: (live food truck that will deliver meals to your hotel or office)
• Boston: Grezzo (Alissa Cohen’s new restaurant, open 2/1/08)
• Miami: Tree of Zion (raw-friendly, fresh juices)
• New York: Pure Food and Wine (amazing gourmet raw food), Jubbs Longevity LifeFood Store (take-out live food)
• San Francisco: Alive! La Vie Cafe
International
• Amsterdam: Unlimited Health
• London: VitaOrganic
• Rio de Janeiro: Universo Organico (first live food restaurant in Brazil, great juice bar and raw food with local flavor, won Best of Brazil)
• Toronto: Live (affordable, delicious raw food), SuperSprouts and Remedy Café
• Vancouver: Eternal Abundance (organic produce, raw food in the back of the store)

Traveling Overseas
Traveling for pleasure overseas is a luxury for most, and if you’re going to a foreign country, remember to be a positive example of your home country…(The USA needs all the help it can in that area right now) … get a foreign language phrasebook or go online and write down some key phrases, like:

• Thank you
• Please
• Hello & Goodbye
• How much?
• Yes & No
• and of course, “cheaper?”

I think you get the point, a little goes a long way!

Needless to say a little planning definitely goes a long way. Kind of like the Boy Scouts’ motto: Be Prepared. Remember to pack your essentials, and your chances of having the best trip ever will skyrocket.
Safe travels…and never stop exploring. You will always discover more of yourself in the process.

Well, summer’s here and the living is easy… or that’s what they all say, right? We’re vacationing here in San Luis Obispo, California, our hometown. Came out for a family reunion, and it has been fun although VERY hot… record breaking heat of 110 degrees so far. Extremely unusual heat for this part of California. We thought we’d be out here cooling off from the heat and storms in the midwest!

So how do we stay on our raw vegan food lifestyle while on vacation? Well, to put it bluntly, it’s not easy!! Seeing our family is more important than our food, so we have to relax a little bit about what we eat. But our first challenge started on the airplane!! Going through security was no picnic (no pun intended) and we were not allowed to bring in our own water, only water that was bought inside security (for about $3!) so we waited until they offered beverages to get some water. Of course, they don’t serve meals anymore unless you want to cough up $6 for something that looks like it was rolled over by a freight train first then slopped on a plastic plate. We brought fresh fruit, raw trail mix, and my Raw4Healing Energy bars. That worked out just fine for us… but it’s important to remember when traveling by air or car to keep meals light. The stress of traveling causes my system to tighten up, and so I just have to live with the gas and bloating for awhile. I learned that this is true for most people. Trying hard to avoid IBS issues, we both kept it pretty light, but I still had to deal with some IBS that took a couple of days to pass.

Needless to say, keeping true to our raw vegan food diet has it’s moments and challenges while staying with my in-laws, who love food, and love to eat. Thankfully, they are very supportive of our healthier food choices, and have given us both lots of opportunities to share the benefits of a raw food lifestyle. There are quite a few family members here who are not yet ready to give up their favorite foods. I brought my blender and make green smoothies, which everyone enjoys. And I’ve also made a few dishes that have been well received, but it’s always a side dish, they still like their main meat or chicken dish and other cooked foods, and that’s fine. We didn’t come out here to force our healthy beliefs down everyone’s throat, because it’s a personal choice. Each person has to do what they feel is right for them. What’s more important is our precious time with our beloved family and friends, and catching up on all the new members (lots of marriages lately) and new babies. We can only try to be an example and let them decide. After all, as I always say, it’s your body, and it’s your choice. I just know what works for me.

Larry, of course, is surrounded by Mom’s cooking, in the house he grew up in. Kind of hard to break that tradition. He knows he’ll have some detox to deal with when we get home, and of course he doesn’t want to be rude either. I’m glad to say that he has been more disciplined about cutting back on his portions and filling up on salads and fresh fruit. He also told me that his system is starting to ‘bark’ at him a little due to eating more cooked and processed foods. Oh well, it’s only for a couple weeks… he’ll be back on track when we return home.

I made some really yummy raw cacao balls for our reunion potluck. I’m trying to think of a better name for them. Sounds like ‘cow balls’ which doesn’t quite sound right LOL! Maybe Cacao Coconut Balls? That’s better… here’s the recipe I made up:

Cacao Coconut Balls
Note: All ingredients should be organic whenever possible

2 cups cashews and almonds (soak for a few hours)
6 large dates, soaked for a few hours
1/4 cup raw honey
2 tbsp raw agave
2 heaping tbsp raw cacao
1 cup raw shredded coconut
1 tsp vanilla

Drain the water from the nuts and dates. Blend the dates and some of the nuts in a high speed blender til the dates are all pureed. Add the rest of the nuts, honey, agave, cacao, coconut, and vanilla and blend on high, stopping it to push everything down towards the blades. This takes a while, just keep blending on short spurts of high speed, and pushing it back onto the blades until it’s all blended well. It should be stiff and sticky. Empty into a bowl and begin rolling into balls. Dip the balls in shredded coconut and finely chopped almond. Refrigerate for a few hours. Eat and enjoy!! I like this because it is quick and very simple, and very good too! A big hit!

It’s always easy to share raw food desserts since they are so good, and people cannot believe that there is no sugar, no flour, no unhealthy fats, etc. And it tastes delicious! I have heard that some of the raw food gurus were introduced to the raw food lifestyle just from trying the raw desserts. We were invited to Larry’s brother’s house for dinner later this week, and he asked if I would bring a salad… sure I said. Then he was asking if rootbeer floats were okay, and I’m like, uh, no, don’t do soda, don’t do dairy, and I saw this didn’t help him at all… I said we don’t have to do dessert, but that didn’t fly, after all, Larry’s folks ALWAYS do dessert!! So I said, hey, instead of me bringing the salad, I’ll bring dessert. So I get to decide what to make. Thinking about my triple layer Raspberry Cacao NutCheese Pie with walnut crust? It’s so good… Here’s the recipe, you decide!

Raspberry Cacao NutCheese Pie
All ingredients should be organic whenever possible

Crust:
2 cups walnuts soaked several hours and rinsed
1 ripe banana
1 cup raisins
1 Tbs. fresh orange juice

Blend in the food processor until you get a sticky ball consistency. Press into your pie plate with wet fingers.

Candy layer:
2 Tbs. raw cacao powder
1 Tbs. coconut oil
1 Tbs. flax oil
1/2 tsp. raw honey
1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Mix well until smooth by hand and pour onto your pie crust. Place in the freezer while making the fillings.

Cashew layer:
2 cups cashews soaked 1 hour and rinsed.
1 tsp. vanilla
3 Tbs. coconut oil
1 Tbs. raw honey
1/2 tsp. salt

Blend ingredients in your vitamix or high speed blender only adding water if needed to blend smooth. You want this thick and creamy. Pour and spread over the candy layer.

Raspberry layer:
1 pint Mashed raspberries.

Spread over cashew layer.

Chocolate cream layer:
2 small avocados
1 tsp. vanilla
3 Tbs. raw cacao powder
2-3 Tbs. raw honey
2 Tbs. coconut oil
Just enough nut milk to blend (use your favorite)

Blend in the Vitamix until creamy and smooth. Spread chocolate cream over the raspberry layer and refrigerate the pie for several hours or until set up. You can also freeze it for 30 minutes for a quicker serve time. Do not totally freeze this pie because it will killl some of the enzymes.

Eating a dessert this rich may feel like a dietary sin, but it is ALL good! Eat, drink, and be truly merry!

Well, I don’t know if you have heard of Bill Maher, but he’s very vocal about how our food and water supply are deteriorating, and the increase of sickness and disease, along with rise of pharmaceutical use. This YouTube video has been around since September, but watching it again made me realize how right on he is. Hopefully it will help others recognize their dependencies on the pharmaceutical drug system, and make an effort to break free by changing to a healthier diet and lifestyle.

And to continue the topic about the medical and pharmaceutical industries, I came across this excellent video by Olivia Hadassah based upon her own personal experience. She studied to be a nurse and graduated with honors in 1990. In her profile on YouTube she writes: In 1990 I graduated from one of the top 10 nursing schools in the US with honors. Now I refuse to medicate patients and my blog exposes the Illuminati’s use of modern medicine to drug, poison and control millions in their pursuit of a New World Order.

Discover the truth about dangerous prescriptions, tainted vaccines, fluoride and chemtrails, and how to reclaim your health. Below is her expose on pharmaceutical drugs vs. nutrition and healing.

Check out her blog here: http://redpillreich.blogspot.com/

Larry writes: Hey everyone, thanks so much for hookin’ up with our Raw4Healing blog. I wouldn’t be here today sharing my personal testimony if it weren’t for my wife, Lauren. She is not only the best personal trainer, coach, and health advocate a guy could have, but also inspires me because of her passion for a raw vegan food lifestyle. I personally have been fighting the battle of the bulge in excess weight of around 30 plus pounds for several years now. It has been very hard and nearly impossible to accomplish this weight loss.

But today, is my day! I am proud to share with you that I have not only lost the weight, but feel healthier than I ever have ever felt before! I have a secret I want to share with you: raw vegan food is sustainable energy and good energy equals good health! It’s really that simple.

I want to start by saying click to read more…

As a vegan raw foodist, one of the hardest things to do is find high quality, organic supplements to enhance our existing diet of fresh organic fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains. There are so many products available, all of them touting their benefits to your health, etc. Personally, I think the only one that really benefits are the manufacturers and distributors that sell these products. Sure, many companies offer affiliate opportunities with their products, but they generally only pay about 5 - 10%, and requires the marketing person to continuously sell that same product over and over again.

Recently, as part of my business, I’ve aligned myself with a company that endeavors to produce only very high quality and organic nutritional supplements. Since I’ve done extensive research and have seen almost everything that is out there, I am proud to represent their products here on Raw4Healing.

BioGenX Global offers several nutritional products, but I am only going to feature just one of them here today. “Live Greens” is a nutritional raw greens powder that can be mixed with water, juice or added into your smoothie. Below are the ingredients of Live Greens.

Q: What makes the BIOGENX GLOBAL’s Live Greens so nutritious?

A: Each individual ingredient in the BIOGENX GLOBAL Live Greens are in themselves, nutrient rich, superfoods. When the ingredients were combined by our Master Formulator, he scrutinized each potential ingredient, to be sure that nutritionally, every need was met. Not only were they met, but they were exceeded. This is because each ingredient chosen to go into the Live Greens formula was nutrient dense, and had multifaceted nutritional value. Look at wheatgrass alone, it is considered to be a complete food in itself. The fact is that one pound of fresh wheatgrass is equivalent in nutritional value to 23 pounds of choice garden vegetables! Wheatgrass, Kamut grass, barley grass, and oat grass are just the beginning of this amazing formula. Besides the grasses, grains and seeds, we have included highly nutritious micro-algae, like cracked cell chlorella, and spirulina, which contain many B vitamins, chlorophyll, and minerals such as calcium and iron. Live Greens also contain seaweeds like Kombu and Wakame which are not only extremely nutritious, but also help to rid the body of toxins and heavy metals, while boosting immunity. The fruits and vegetables contained in this super nutritious formula were chosen because of their high antioxidant level, and their ability to provide many vitamins and minerals. Our Master Formulator also created a unique herbal formula, to support the assimilation of the nutrients. BIOGENX GLOBALs’ Live Greens contain many nutrition packed herbs, such as ginseng and olive leaf, to help the body heal and to boost the immune system. Last, but not least, included in the formula are enzymes, Omega fatty acids and probiotics to ensure that the body is able to assimilate the nutrition provided.

Q: Why are BIOGENX GLOBAL’s Live Greens So Unique and Powerful compared to similar products on the market?

A: Again, it is because of the structure of the formula. BIOGENX GLOBAL has gone out of our way to bring the most nutritious ingredients along with the most powerful herbs, and fruits and vegetables, regardless of cost to us. Many other Green products are made with the majority of the ingredient being the cheapest ingredients, such as alfalfa, which is a very cost efficient, and nutritious, but not as nutritious alone as it is when combined with many other nutrition dense foods, which over-lap each other nutritionally, guaranteeing you the most nutrition possible, per tablespoon, of whole food goodness.

For more information about Live Greens, click here.

Riff on all the raw food approaches, by Nomi Shannon

Water only

Juices too

Just green smoothies

What to do

Do it like Ann wigmore did

Just be sure to alkalize

Food combining is the way

Acid fruits are not OK

But yes they are –just before 10

Now I hear you should only eat the pineapple stem

Have you heard of 80-10-10?

What about Fit for Life and Zen

Let’s be reasonable apples only

But haven’t you heard of the grape fast

What about Joanna Budwig-quark and flax

What is quark and is it raw

I haven’t time to grow the sprouts

If they don’t sell it at McDonalds I have my doubts

Can I eat sweet potatoes, rutabagas and tomatoes?

What do they mean by mono meals?

Mr. Aajonus vonderplanitz says eat raw fat and meat

That sounds gross -but how will I get my protein

Better only eat low glycemic

I’m afraid I’ll become anemic

Fruits til noon and then my veggies

But where do I buy them and how do I make them

I need help and what did they say about nightshades

Don’t they go on top of lamps?

I think I’d better wait for awhile

and put if off until I know –just

Exactly the one right way

to eat better every day
If you are confused about how to begin… or want to renew your enthusiasm, Join Nomi and Friends today:

FREE WEBCAST EVENT

Join Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet, with Kevin Gianni of LiveAwesome.com and David and Katrina Rainoshek of juicefeasting.com for this FREE webcast event on Saturday April 19th, noon EST, 9AM PST.

Learn Nomi’s three secret fail-safe steps to success on starting and continuing your raw food diet.

Learn Kevin’s 8 step process that will prepare you to soar beyond the health and fitness goals you thought you could never achieve.

Learn about David and Katrina’s experiences in their 50th day of juice feasting and how it can affect you in your quest for better health.

EVENT: Spring Renewal, Begin 21 Days to Better Health
DATE & TIME: Saturday, April 19th at 12:00pm Eastern 9AM Pacific
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)

TO ATTEND THIS FREE EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…

http://www.instantteleseminar.com/default.asp?eventid=2534709

This will be an approximately 90 minute event.

The Raw Gourmet
PO Box 10396
Wilmington NC 28404

Make it Fun!
By Frédéric Patenaude

The scene looks like this: you’re hungry, you’re alone, and you’re going to eat another meal of romaine lettuce, tomatoes and avocados. And you’re bored. And these avocados are starting to be less interesting than ever. And it’s raining outside, and cold, and damp. And you’re wondering, is the fun of eating raw gone? Will I be able to eat like that forever? Can this really be healthy?

As pure and as simple as our raw meals can be, there comes a point for most of us where boredom can set in, when we require more variety or friends to share food with, else we will might face one thing: lack of enthusiasm.

I’ve told people that simplicity is best. That a simple meal of ripe mangoes when you’re hungry beats the best raw or cooked pie you’ve ever had. That making a great salad doesn’t necessarily involve putting everything but the kitchen sink in it and that, too often, raw recipes are too complicated and, as a consequence, difficult to digest. However, I did not mean that it is better to be a sad ascetic than a merry epicurean.

It may be because I’m a bit of an epicurean myself. I love food and, since I seem to be endowed with a few culinary talents, I get never bored. I like to vary my diet and introduce new fruits, new nuts, new vegetables and new recipes. And I encourage you to do the same for two things. First being bored isn’t fun. Second, it might not be healthy either.

I’ve noticed a few things in raw foodists. They don’t seem to vary their diet a lot. They often stick with the few foods that they like. I’ve noticed for example that many raw foodists eat avocados everyday. Others eat almonds everyday. Many raw-foodists told me that they eat a meal of romaine lettuce, avocados, sprouts, and tomatoes everyday. Sometimes they add some red bell pepper. Others bananas for lunch and nothing else almost every day of the year. Is this supposed to be what simplicity is about? Always eating the same thing? Is this natural?

Chimpanzees are known to eat over 120 different varieties of plant food in a year. While carnivorous animals always eat the same and never get bored, frugivores seek variety. Most of us, too, have been raised on a varied diet. When someone only eats porridge and potatoes every day, we know that things are not going well for him. As human beings we are used to variety and, if we don’t have variety, it’s usually because of a lack of means or sheer incapacity to cook (many divorced men find themselves in that situation!).

On a raw food diet, variety is even more important because raw fruits and vegetables provide nutrients in a less concentrated, more diluted form. Thus, a certain vegetable may lack in many important nutrients, which are compensated by what other vegetables can provide. It is not enough to look at the charts and calculate our nutritional intake because these numbers are wrong. A tomato grown in a farm in California doesn’t have the same nutritional value as another tomato grown in a local garden or one grown in a hothouse. The only way we can insure proper nutrition on a raw food diet is by constantly varying the foods we eat according to the season. Let’s review a few pieces of advice and add some more:

1) Vary the fruits — It’s easy to get stuck eating one food that we like and forget everything else. I know, personally, that when mangos are in season, I eat mangos. But fruit is fun. Fruit is what makes the raw food diet a lot of fun, especially when we include exotic fruits in the menu. So I suggest constantly varying the fruits that you are eating and discovering as many tropical fruits as you can. A durian cure once a year is allowed.

2) Eat according to the seasons — When I tell people to eat seasonally, most of them don’t understand. They think, if something can be bought in a store, it means it’s in season, right? Partly. It’s in season somewhere, but not necessarily in your hemisphere! Let’s consider the following: cherries are in season during the summer, but in our side of the world. So the cherries you may buy may be imported, but they are in season for you. If you find cherries in the stores in the middle of the winter, this means they have been imported from a far away country like Chili, which is situated in the southern hemisphere where the seasons are reversed! It is not only completely un-ecological to import foods from that far away, but the fruit is also picked way too early and eating it at that time doesn’t follow our own biological rhythm.

3) Eating simply doesn’t mean eating just one food at a meal — I don’t believe in mono-eating in the sense that every meal should be ideally composed of one food alone. I think this way of eating leads to abuse. For example, pineapples and oranges are acid. If we eat only these fruits at one meal, we’ll likely eat too many of them to satisfy our hunger and introduce too much acidity in the system. Dates are too sweet. Plums contain a particular acid which can give you the runs if you eat too much. Melons and papayas are rich in water but a meal of them doesn’t satisfy. So I recommend, when eating fruit, eating 2-3 varieties, ideally not more than that. And if you like, you can eat them one at a time like a true mono-eater.

4) Vary your vegetables — Your mum told you “Eat your vegetables!” And she was rights. But the chances are that even as a raw-foodist you may not be listening to her. First you may not be eating enough vegetables, and second you may not vary them enough. To eat enough vegetables, you have to be creative. A salad can get boring. So put your salad in the blender and make a raw soup sometimes! Check out some raw soup recipe books for ideas. Green vegetable juices are also extremely beneficial, and I recommend to drink some every day, if possible. I like my green juice to be tasty, so I mix enough celery juice in it and sometimes add a little bit of carrot and beet juice too. And as for variety, the key is to make the base of your salad out of a different vegetable every time and discover the unknown varieties.

5) Don’t eat avocados everyday — This is my advice for raw-foodists. Most of them tend to eat too many avocados and too often. Consider the avocado as one type of fatty food, not the staple of a raw food diet. I suggest eating avocados no more than once every other day. Try to eat some nuts instead, and discover new varieties. Seeds are also excellent. Hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and sesame seeds should be added to the menu more often. This will help provide a wider range of nutrients that avocados alone could not provide.

6) When in doubt, blend it up — Why shun all modern developments and insist to eat only whole fruits and vegetables when we have diabolical machines such as the blender that can transform them into liquid meals of unsuspected nutritional power? Hey, a little technology is good. One of my friends says, “I love my car.” With the same unabashed mien I say “I love my blender,” which just happens to be a Vita-Mix that I use almost everyday. Smoothies and raw vegetable soups are great ways to vary your diet and avoid boredom. And when we add young coconuts, soaked nuts, avocados and carob powder to the blending orgy, the possibilities for fun creamy treats are almost endless.

7) When wondering what to eat, go to the Chinese — The Chinese themselves like to say they’ll eat anything with four legs except a table. We‘ll close an eye on some of their unscrupulous ways and concede that they have helped us get out of the dark ages of raw eating in northern countries, when no durians were available. Chinatowns are full of surprises waiting to be discovered. I even found durian toys. Then you can learn to say “thank you” in Chinese (shiay shiay), or in whatever language the store owners happen to speak.

I gave you some basic recommendations on varying the diet. However, I didn’t tell you exactly how you can make your raw meals fun and exciting. I will now give you some ideas for quick and fun raw meals, which will hopefully open your mind to try out more.

A friend of mine, for whom I was un-cooking, told me with a shrewd look one day, “It’s all salad anyway.” I was probably preparing a raw spaghetti from zucchini lasagna with eggplant, and he told me, just like that, “It’s all salad anyway.”

Okay, it may all be vegetables, but first it doesn’t look like salad, and second it doesn’t exactly taste like a salad. The difference between a salad that looks like a salad and a vegetable mix that looks and tastes like something else is, as Mark Twain once put it, “the difference between lightning and the lightning bug!”

Here are some ideas:

1) Take a nori sheet. Spread some mashed avocado on it or one tablepsoon of tahini. Add grated courgettes and rinsed dulse. Roll up like and eat like a sandwich. Everyone will think you’re a genius.

2) For a great smoothies, blend some papaya and two whole ripe mangoes. Add any other fruit in season. Blend with some water and beware of flying socks if you have your friends try it out.

3) Soaked sun-dried tomatoes really add flavor. Put them in everything that is not sweet and be ready to discover great combos.

4) Blend frozen durian with other fruits. Let it thaw for a few hours and then blend it up with coconut water, mangoes, or other fruits. You can even blend it with some carob powder, coconut water, and a few dates for an “out-of-this-world experience.”

5) For a quick nut spread, blend in your food processor raw tahini and carrots together. Use more vegetables than nut butter. Add your favorite seasonings.

6) An easy dressing idea: blend 1-2 whole oranges with a small avocado. Add other herbs or vegetables if desired. Simple and delicious.

7) Here’s an easy soup that will surprise many: blend tomatoes with celery. Use 2-3 stalks of celery per tomato. Add diced tomatoes or cucumbers to the mixture. This will take care of any salt cravings you might have.

These were just a few ideas to vary your diet and avoid boredom. My motto is it should be tasty, healthy, and easy to prepare. When I open some raw cookbooks and find a recipe with a page long worth of ingredients I ask myself, “Do they really expect me to spend that much time just to eat?” Then I think of all of the time it will take to wash all the dishes and I give up. Are they kidding? I can prepare something in 10 minutes and it will be just as good, easier to digest and will leave me enough time to do the things that I really like to do, such as writing articles for Get Fresh!

So in conclusion, varying your diet doesn’t have to get complicated. It doesn’t involve becoming a raw gourmet genius. It just means having the attitude of, “Hey, I’m going to have fun with this and try something new everyday.” It’s about being open to try new foods you’ve never tasted before, and making sure you don’t eat the same thing every day.

And remember, the cure for boredom is curiosity. But there is no cure for curiosity.

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Our grandson came to spend the night with us while Mom and Dad spent the evening with some friends. We always enjoy Kincaid when he stays with us. We play games, read stories, play with his train set and just relax a little bit.

As usual, I had made my ‘purple green smoothie’ in the morning, and I always make enough to have in the morning, and again in the afternoon. I gave a small glass to Kincaid and was surprised at his reaction. He just loved it, and asked for more. In fact, at dinner time he just wanted to keep drinking his juice instead of the milk his folks sent with him. We never have milk, only almond or rice milk, but he just wanted the smoothie.

I gave him a smoothie again in the morning, and he again just drank it right up, asking for more. This is how you get your children pointed in the right direction for healthy foods, and maybe even raw foods. As a grandparent, it’s a little harder if your own grown children have their own ideas about what to feed their kids. But I believe that my son still remembers the food I prepared for him and his siblings when they lived at home. We weren’t raw foodists back then, only part-time vegetarian (I called it “flexatarian”). But we didn’t buy junk food, or use Hamburger Helper, or have bags of cookies in the the house all the time, and we rarely did the fast food thing. I was very much into health foods when the children were young, and hopefully, some of that stuck with them after they grew up and started their own lives. The challenge is when they marry and what their spouses bring to the table - literally! I am careful to not step on toes when it comes to sharing my firm beliefs about food and how it can help heal or destroy our health.

Anyway, enough of that. I wanted share a picture of Kincaid enjoying his smoothie, a picture of what a nice tall glass of smoothie looks like, as well as the recipe. It’s really very simple, and of course, it helps if you have a Vita-Mix, but if you don’t have one, you can use a regular blender, just start it on slow speed. You can also use a food processor to break up the chunks of fruits and vegetables, then transfer it to the blender.

So, check out my 2 year old grandson enjoying his smoothie, and start your kids or grandkids on the right track to healthy eating. Now I know the next time Kincaid comes to spend the night, he’s going to want ‘Grandma’s smoothie!’ and I’ll have one ready for him, no problem!!

I had to make my ‘green smoothie’ slightly less green because my husband was getting a lot of flack from his co-workers. So to save the embarrassment, I added blueberries and a little bit of beet to change the color from green to purple. But it still has just as many greens as it originally did.

So here’s the recipe for my Purple Green Smoothie:

First off, I don’t really “measure” anything, just cut stuff up and use what looks right. After awhile you’ll learn to use what you like and what you have on hand.

A handful of frozen strawberries
10-15 frozen blueberries
1/2 apple, core and seeds
1 pear, cut in quarters
2 - 3 slices of fresh pineapple
1/4 beet
2 raw dates
1 peeled Kiwi
2 scoops of superfood green powder
5 - 6 large leaves of organic romaine lettuce
2 big handfuls of organic spinach
large handful of alfalfa sprouts
2 cups of filtered water

Put the fruit, water, and juice in the blender, and blend until just pureed. Stop the blender and add the greens making sure they are pushed all the way down so they are picked up by the blades. Turn the blender back on, and blend on high for about 1 minute. I then pour the juice into a large pitcher and put the blender jar back on it’s base. Pour in another cup of filtered water. Turn the blender on high to ‘clean’ the blender. Pour that into the pitcher. Usually yields about 2 quarts of juice. Enjoy! Note: This is great if you’re just starting out with raw foods. Gradually begin to cut down on the quantity of fruit, and increase the amount of greens as you become accustomed to the taste. Experiment with different other greens like parsley, cilantro, kale, collards, sunflower, clover, alfalfa sprouts, etc.