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 While there are many different methods we can use to detoxify our bodies, superfood juice cleansing is associated with a variety of benefits, and will result in much better outcomes than generally occurs with other detox programs. In particular water fasting has a number of drawbacks that can potentially limit the effectiveness of a cleanse.
Firstly, when the only thing we ingest is water, the colon does not eliminate waste products effectively and adequately, and these are reabsorbed into our bloodstream. By incorporating the use of a superfood powder containing ingredients such as healing mucilaginous fibers, charcoal and zeolite, as occurs in the Intestinal Drawing Formula, toxins in the colon are neutralized and contained. To ensure that these wastes are then eliminated from the body we can use Intestinal Movement Formula, which gently stimulates the colon without resulting in dependency, as is the case with other laxative herbs.
During water fasting toxins are released from the tissues of the body into the bloodstream at a very rapid rate, which often can overwhelm our organs of detoxification. Adding fresh squeezed juices to a cleanse can help to control this by providing calories and slowing the rate at which toxins are liberated from fat storage. Juices also provide minerals that have an alkalizing effect that helps to buffer the acidic condition that tends to occur during water fasting.
Additionally, juices are rich in antioxidant compounds that can offset the damage that occurs to our cells when the tissues of our body are exposed to higher levels of toxins. Furthermore, juices can supply specific phytochemicals and other substances that actually improve the liver’s ability to detoxify effectively.
For best results ensure your juice ingredients are organic and that you include a significant amount of green leafy vegetables to provide alkaline minerals and to keep blood sugar levels stable. Vitamineral Green would be a wonderful addition to a juice fast because it provides a wider variety of greens than is generally available in our diet, and is also a concentrated source of chlorophyll; a powerful toxin-neutralizing compound.
Green smoothies can be utilized in addition to or in place of fresh juices and this is a more gentle option that is appropriate for those with blood sugar issues. The detox process may be slower with green smoothies but the results can be just as effective, especially if extended for several weeks. The other advantage of this approach is that it is much easier to maintain your work routine and other activities as most people find that it is much easier to sustain energy levels on green smoothies in comparison to juice fasting.
Other superfoods can be added to the juice or green smoothie cleansing protocol to provide extra antioxidants and to enhance the function of the organs of elimination, especially the liver. Liver Rescue in particular supports liver function and this can greatly assist with the management of the uncomfortable detox symptoms that are often associated with a cleanse. Additional superfoods to consider that also enhance this aspect of the detox process include turmeric, broccoli sprouts and pomegranate powder.
Another benefit of green juices and Vitamineral Green for detoxification is that they provide protein. You might be surprised to learn that many of the pathways involved in neutralizing toxins require amino acid precursors, so if protein is not supplied in the diet, this could potentially reduce the effectiveness of your detox. For this reason you may also choose to include raw vegan protein powders in your cleanse, such as Sun Warrior or Warrior Food, to meet the requirement for extra protein.
Spirulina and chlorella would also be valuable additions to a superfood juice cleanse for their high protein content as well as for their high content of minerals and chlorophyll. Spirulina and blue-green algae may also be considered due to their phycocyanin content, which improves the function of some other very important elimination organs; the kidneys.
Another helpful superfood product to include in a juice fast or green smoothie cleanse is Vitamineral Earth, primarily because it has a balancing effect. Whenever we abstain from solid foods or reduce our calories we have a tendency to become ungrounded, physically, mentally and emotionally. Vitamineral Earth contains herbs and superfoods that counteract this effect, especially when it is prepared as a warming broth, which would be particularly appropriate when cleansing during cooler weather.
Additionally Vitamineral Earth provides essential omega-3 fats in the form of sprouted chia and flax seeds, which can reduce the inflammatory response that occurs in our cells whenever they are exposed to a high level of toxins. This element is especially important when a detox program is extended beyond a week or so, to ensure that your intake of essential fats is adequate.
Finally, while we can do a great deal to improve the function of our elimination organs with superfoods, it is also important to recognize the other ways that we can support the cleansing process. Simple lifestyle activities such as walking, yoga, breathing and meditation can promote the removal of toxins via the lungs and lymphatic system. But they can also improve our emotional balance and ability to manage stress, which ultimately facilitates the flow of energy through our physical body, which will greatly enhance the outcome of any cleansing protocol.
 The raw food diet is one of the best-kept secrets in the path to creating optimal health, emotional balance and spiritual transformation. Although on the surface it may appear to be a simple act, changing your diet can have a profound effect on all of the other aspects of your life. Improved health is just one of the many benefits that will result from eating foods that are in resonance with your body’s requirements.
The negative effects of the modern diet on our physical health are undeniable. However what is often not recognized is the toll that a diet devoid of living energy has on our awareness.
You might think that changing your diet is a fairly straightforward action but it can actually be very confronting on an emotional level. Dietary adjustment can force you to let go of unhealthy habits that you may have been supporting for a very long time. You may feel that these habits provide a certain degree of comfort in your life but they are probably a strong hindrance to your progress and self-development.
Cooked and processed foods can disrupt your natural flow of energy and interrupt your ability to think clearly. When you eat foods that are no longer in their natural state you cannot rely on your instincts to guide you. These foods are responsible for creating a cycle of habit, compulsion and addiction that can severely cloud your perception more than you may realize.
When you start eating a raw food diet you will learn how to nourish your body with the nutrients on which it thrives. You will imbue yourself with the radiant energy that is contained within living foods.
Additionally when you stop eating in accordance with the social conventions you may begin to question all other aspects of life. Your newly gained clarity from eating raw foods can help to enhance this process and support your heightened awareness and mental perception.
You will find that you become more sensitive and aware. No longer are you held down in a state of fogginess or despair that is the result of eating foods that have had their vital essence destroyed by cooking and processing.
On a physical level, as the cells and tissues of the body are supplied with living nutrition, a process of regeneration starts to occur. The body is able to release toxins that are hindering the proper function of its cells and interfering with optimal biochemical functioning.
The energy pathways become clear and your life force can start to move without being impeded by obstruction. As you start to experience more energy and feel better about yourself you will find that you have so much more vitality for life. This energy can be directed into your true path so that you will be able to make the changes that you truly desire.
Finally you will be able to start living your life with the feeling of abundance that you know you deserve.
Visit the Living Transformation Community where there is an active group of people harnessing the power of the raw food diet to change their lives.
 My husband and I are fortunate to have been blessed with a visit from Genki Sudo this week. For those of you who don’t know Genki he is a famous martial artist in Japan who has now retired and is concentrating on starting his career in the music business. He took time out from his busy schedule in New York to fly down to visit us at our home in Costa Rica for a few days.
Genki sings, writes and produces his own songs as well as being a fantastic dancer. What we were very surprised to learn is that at the age of 32 he has written nine books about philosophy and spirituality, runs his own company and is also currently undertaking a graduate degree in political science! And despite what you may expect from a professional fighter he really is a lovely, genuine and very delightful man.
Genki came to visit my husband, Lujan Matus, because he loved his book, The Art of Stalking Parallel Perception, and he was interested to meet him and learn some of the shamanic movement that he teaches. While Genki was here Lujan started discussing the raw food diet and its benefits for health and enhancing perception.
I don’t think raw foods are really that popular in Japan yet and even though Genki is aware about organic foods he was intrigued that we eat our food raw. At the moment we are doing a two-week liquid only detox diet so we invited him to share some green superfood smoothies with us.
When I introduce people to raw foods I usually try to give them something that will taste great and so I went a little easier on the greens that I would when making a smoothie for my husband and myself. On the first day I made a simple smoothie with bananas, spinach, mango, coconut and vanilla protein powder. Later I put together a strawberry creme smoothie with fresh strawberries, red grapes, tocotrienols and macadamia nut milk with lettuce.
Yesterday I was inspired to create a new smoothie for Genki, rather than just sticking with our usual mango and spinach combination. I meditated on what to create and came up with the idea of using green tea as a base, which occurred to me because it is so popular in Japan. To this I added coconut milk, mango, greens and superfoods to create a special smoothie in honor of his visit.
Genki said it was really delicious and we agreed so now I am sharing the recipe with you. I hope you enjoy it as well.
I only used one cup of green tea to keep the caffeine content down but if you like you could substitute the water in the recipe for green tea.
Genki Sudo’s Green Superfood Smoothie
Serves 3
Ingredients:
1 cup organic green tea
2 cups water
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup romaine lettuce
Large handful fresh mint leaves
3 mangoes
1 small avocado
2 scoops Sun Warrior Vanilla Protein
2 tablespoons bee pollen
2 tablespoons tocotrienols
1 tablespoon spirulina
1/4 teaspoon stevia ( or to taste)
1 cup ice
Directions:
First brew your cup of green tea then let it cool to room temperature. Add to the blender with water and shredded coconut and blend until smooth. Strain in a nut milk bag or fine strainer to remove coconut pulp and return coconut milk to the blender.
Add romaine lettuce and mint leaves and blend well. Then add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into large tall glasses and sip through glass straws.
 KEVIN: I am extremely excited about this. So, why don’t we start talking about detoxification? What’s your story? How did you get involved in this?
GABRIEL: Well, initially I was exploring it from a spiritual point of view. In 1982, on my own did a 40-day fast.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: It’s not the…probably the best way to start - it was a great way for me to start but I don’t really recommend it for most people.
KEVIN: [Laughs]
GABRIEL: In 1988, I really began to do fasting retreats for people.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: And did a lot of different researches. We’ve got along, and in fact right now, we are in the middle of a spiritual yoga juice fast.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: So, it’s really, fun to share that at the same time. At the Tree we do, we’ve evolved really 2 different fasts. One is where people who come every once a week, and what we’d just called a detox-fast.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: Then we had a spiritual fast, which is like a week-long seminar. It’s really a 9-day fast. So, that’s kind of what we do. It’s one of the main things we focus on. So we’ve developed a lot of research in technology along the way with that. I think the most important thing to understand is that fasting is the most natural and most powerful way to detox. Paracelsus, the great Renaissance physician in the 16th century and so forth, talked about that the most powerful healer is fasting.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: And Hippocrates, one of the great Greek physicians, said again, that fasting is the inner doctor. So, why does fasting work? It’s because it activates a vital life force, and it’s the vital life force which energizes the body that gives it enough energy to detox.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: So, the model we can hold is that the cells are filled with toxins but they’re also overloaded.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: And so they’re not as able to get the toxins out. So when we fast, we stimulate a process of energizing the cells, and also I’m going to use it to call it a process of diffusion. What we mean by that is, as you’re pulling toxins out by the act of fasting by doing what we do, eliminating in several areas, we do skin brushing which we’ll talk about…we do enemas and colonics.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: We do kidney and liver cleanses. We do breathing to clear the toxins out of the lung. We help people out gas, so they, they - here in Arizona you can be in nude outside in certain areas so you are getting a whole body air cleansing. So, all those things start to pull toxins out naturally. And in that way, it starts with …of the cells. But the key truly is the vital life force, and that’s strongly activated by the power of fasting.
KEVIN: OK. And you talked about detoxification, I mean, what are some of the things that we need to detoxify from?
GABRIEL: Life!
KEVIN: [laughs]
GABRIEL: Really, we have physical toxins, emotional, mental, and spiritual toxins.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: And when people come here to Patagonia, Arizona they were getting a very, very clean air and clean water. People are able then to rest and relax because in most people in the modern day world have lost touch with their rhythm.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: What life is about, they’ve lost touch with the meaning about what life is about, and in essence their mission, their sacred mission in life. And so fasting is a time to reestablish so we get in touch with your sacred rhythm, your sacred design, and also get in touch with the rhythm of the planet. We live in cities, what rhythm in the planet, you know?
KEVIN: Yeah.
GABRIEL: You can’t see the sunset because the skyscraper is in the way, and it’s like that kind of thing. So fasting, in a deeper way, helps you PG.4 Visit http://www.liveawesome.com for more expert interviews on health, weight loss tips, longevity, self motivation, nutrition and optimum health! reconnect with your essential self. Now that being said, we are going to focus a little bit more on the physical part of it and different fasts have different effects.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: A 7-day fast is what we do. Now we - just to be clear, there are people who come here and fasted for 80 days.
KEVIN: Wow.
GABRIEL: 90 days, and had tremendous benefits. We will talk about that a little later. I think the one-week fast is maybe most appropriate for people and a good place to start. First of all, fasting is not a new thing. It’s 5000 years old. Almost every culture has done it.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: And in the animal world, dogs can fast up to 60 days. Salmon go upstream for months without food. Penguins go 3 months without food. It’s part of that - the cycle of nature.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: But why one week and why has that worked well. What we found is it takes about a week according to my research to get rid of the bowel toxins. Now, where do bowel toxins come from? Well, they come from this - most people have pathogenic bacteria in the bowel.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: And because we eat too much, and we’re not digesting well. And the …pathogenic bacteria begin to take the putrefied food, and it turns into toxins.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: That’s what we are talking about, specifically.
KEVIN: And those are being reabsorbed?
GABRIEL: And those get reabsorbed into the body. They go into the nervous system. They go into everywhere in the body. In 1917, just to make it clear, this is not some kind of a newfound idea, in 1917, Sedderly and Eldrich, two AMA physicians, okay?
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: Now, this is the way from what the AMA people do now. But at that time, they were on it. They cited 517 cases whereby clearing the bowel toxicity, people reverse their depression, their anxiety, their paranoia, their lethargy, their stupor, their general feeling of malaise.
KEVIN: Wow!
GABRIEL: Really impressive! Okay, so they understood that the toxicity in your bowel was affecting your - functioning of your mind. It was affecting your mood. It was affecting your clarity. OK, and it’s true! The Russians had done some research with schizophrenics. And they took supposedly incurable schizophrenics and put them on a water fast. We don’t really recommend water fast. There is some danger to it, but I don’t even know if they have any juicers in Russia, so we’ll just put it that way.
KEVIN: [laughs]
GABRIEL: And particularly when this research was done, and what they found was 28-35 days in water which is a severe water fast. That 65 percent of the schizophrenics became healed.
KEVIN: Wow!
GABRIEL: And the only time that they relapsed is that they ate meat. Now, what’s the reason for that is schizophrenics have a certain metabolic pathway or some schizophrenics at least 65 percent.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: Where when they eat meat, the putrefactive bacteria produce 6 times higher 5-hydro skatole. Skatole is one of the bowel toxins. And that is what was literally making - have a schizophrenic nervous system.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: So, that’s how powerful it can be. Now in 1933, Dr. Bassler cited 5000 cases where people healed from sinus, sciatica, almost every element you can think of, you know arthritis, again emotional problems, and related again to clearing the bowel toxicity. So these are not a metaphor in other words. These are real - toxins are real things. You got skatole. I’m not going to list all, ammonia.
KEVIN: And how do you know if you have them?
GABRIEL: Well, everybody has them.
KEVIN: OK. [laughs]. So this is like, this is a blanket, everyone has this. It’s just a matter of how much and what levels they have?
GABRIEL: Exactly. Now, when you’re fasting, when we fast because we’re doing fasting all over the world, we have a fasting center in Israel as well.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: By the Dead Sea, so very much and they have seen kind way of being.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: And were having fast here, or you - you know, frequently besides our weekly 10-day detoxing. And basically if you don’t like foods, and you’re not overeating … foods then you’re fasting frequently, you’re not going to have much bowel toxins. You’ll have a little bit.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: Most people tend to build it up overtime, particularly if they aren’t taking a lot of acidophilus. So, it’s pretty endemic. And the good news is really in a pretty short time within 1 week, we measured the indican which is a measure for bowel toxicity.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: In 1 week, by day 6, most people, no excuse me, a hundred percent of the people we tested no longer were showing indican in their urine.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: So we pretty much know by day 6 on a juice fast, you’re going to be done with your bowel toxin. And that’s also about the time people’s mental state begins to clear. And they begin to get a tremendous amount of energy. There’s a lot of energy that you get when you get the toxins out. On a 60th birthday 4 years ago, we - on day 5 or 6, I did 601 push-ups.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: And that was something that I couldn’t do while I was eating. I was up to 550 something like that. I wasn’t breaking the barrier.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: The reason is, there’s this - even if someone who’s - you know eating the right foods, 100 percent right foods, and you know juicing, and doing all of that on a regular basis, there’s certain amount of toxins that you build up. That’s something in everyone.
KEVIN: OK.
GABRIEL: And just that difference of 5 days juicing cleared enough the toxins to give the extra strength. Once after a 7-day fasting, we did Mount Chester that was in the ’90s. We walked up, a group of us walked up Mount Chester. Usually, it’s a 2-day trip to go to 10,000 feet, and on the 2nd day you go, and you camp out, and then you go over 2000 feet.
KEVIN: A-ha.
GABRIEL: We started at 3′ o clock in the morning. We reached the peak by about 11.
KEVIN: Wow.
GABRIEL: And we just walked straight too because we had that extra energy.
KEVIN: Wow. That sounds good. I think it probably just about everyone could use a little extra energy. [laughs].
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Kevin Gianni the host of “Renegade Health Show” - a fun and informative daily health show that is changing the perception of health across the world. His is an internationally known health advocate, author, and film consultant. He has helped thousands and thousands of people in over 21 countries though online health teleseminars about abundance, optimum health and longevity. He is also the creator and co-author of “The Busy Person’s Fitness Solution.”
 Photo courtesy of Schatz Isn’t it funny how you can have one apparently random thought that then transpires into meaning something really quite profound?
Take the phrase If You Eat an “Average” Diet, You’ll Have an “Average” Body for example. This is what came to me just a few weeks ago. I can’t remember exactly how or where it happened but I know I was comparing the physique of someone who looked slim and healthy with someone who didn’t. Not in a shallow way, you understand, but in a deeper, questioning, reflective one… And I thought, “You know, even though raw has a huge part to play in how we look and feel, what it really comes down to for someone, if they’re after a certain physique that is outstanding in some way, is to NOT do what most other people are doing, otherwise you’ll look like most other people.”
Common sense I know, but sometimes you just have to hear it or see it a certain way to really get it.
And with most people these days being out of shape, well, I know for my own part, that having an “average” western body is just not exciting to me! (I’ve been there and I was miserable; I felt permanently held back on every level. My body was a symptom of other “stuck” issues and vice-versa. I wanted to know how it would be to be slim and what a difference it would make. It made a BIG difference).
So…
If you are not happy with the shape your body is in right now, get ready for revelation! It’s time to grab a pen and paper and ask yourself some thought-provoking questions:
1) What am I eating right now on a regular basis that is “average”?
2) What am I drinking right now on a regular basis that is “average”?
3) What am I thinking about my body on a regular basis that is “average?”
4) What am I doing with my body (or not doing) on a regular basis that is “average?”
When you’re done, take your pen and next list out answers to all of the same questions but this time in terms of being EXTRAORDINARY. Ask yourself what you can do differently to be extraordinary rather than average and see what comes.
It’s a fun exercise isn’t it?
The fact is, doing things in an “average” or “ordinary” way will get you those types of results - and that’s fine if that’s what you want. (And trust me, I totally get why sometimes that is perfect for us - we always create the body that best serves us for whatever reason). But if it’s NOT what you want then doing things in a different or extraordinary way will get you THOSE types of results.
My guess is that you’re here to be extraordinary in one or more ways. If you are, you know what to do!
NB: If your body is not your concern then pick another area of your world that is and ask the same questions, tweaking to suit.
I look forward to hearing more about what you discover and commit to as a result.
© Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach 2009, www.TheRawFoodCoach.com
Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach publishes “Successfully Raw” - a free weekly eZine for raw food lovers everywhere. If you’re ready to look good, feel great and create a raw life you love get your FREE tips, tools and recipes now at www.TheRawFoodCoach.com.
 Photo courtesy of Sweethardt Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo has teamed up with Dr. Lindsey Berkson, author of the groundbreaking new book “Safe Hormones, Smart Women”, and the award winning “Hormone Deception”, the book that revealed the hormone disruptive nature of plastics, pesticides and a myriad of chemicals in our environment.
Together, they’ve created a set of free videos and a recorded teleconference to share with you secrets about balancing hormones naturally that even most doctors don’t know.
In a light hearted manner they address a very serious issue. All of their information is based on common sense, ancient healing wisdom and modern scientific research.
Get access to the free videos at www.vibranthormones.com
 Photo courtesy of Digital Wallpapers As a child I loved strawberry ice-creams and fast-food joint thick-shakes. Little did I know then what the ingredients were and what they were doing to my body! With the aim to recreate the same taste in a healthier form I came up with this very simple but even more delicious “strawberry ice-dream” recipe. Seeing as the weather is so hot for many of us right now, and knowing how we all love to keep it simple, I know that you’re going to love this recipe for its taste, simplicity and speed. Great for real kids too of course!
Ingredients:
* 1 cup water
* 2 frozen bananas (peel before freezing and freeze until hard)
* a small handful of fresh strawberries
OPTIONAL: small piece of vanilla pod OR a few drops of vanilla essence
Directions:
1) Put all ingredients into a Vita-Mix or blender (NB: If not using a Vita-Mix, allow the frozen bananas to thaw for a while first, otherwise your blender may find it too tough to handle).
2) Blend all ingredients thoroughly until thick whipped ice-cream like consistency is achieved.
3) Pour into a tall glass, serve with a strawberry on top and enjoy!
* RAW CHEF’S TOP TIP: You can swap the strawberries for many other different fresh or frozen fruits, or use combinations to create your own special recipe. Mango and strawberry are lovely together. Alternatively, if you haven’t had time to freeze your bananas, then use fresh ones and blend with ice instead of water.
© Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach 2009, www.TheRawFoodCoach.com
Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach publishes “Successfully Raw” - a free weekly eZine for raw food lovers everywhere. If you’re ready to look good, feel great and create a raw life you love get your FREE tips, tools and recipes now at www.TheRawFoodCoach.com.
Click here for more raw food recipes
 Photo courtesy of Indenture There has been much in the press and the diet world lately on the subject of alkalinity. Until recently no one knew anything about the acidity or alkalinity of the body, now it is the latest craze and if you haven’t yet used a pH strip to test your own body’s acid/alkaline balance then you may be a bit behind the times.
The balance of acid/alkaline in the body measures the pH (or potential Hydrogen). The scale ranges from one to fourteen. One is highly acidic and fourteen is highly alkaline with the ideal being somewhere around 7.35. An overly acidic body, which plagues most Americans, leads to a variety of illnesses, sickness and obesity whereas an alkaline system makes it nearly impossible for sickness or disease to survive.
Moving towards a more alkaline environment within the body results in improved energy, health and weight. Here are five easy steps to increasing your alkalinity.
1. Eat fewer acid-forming foods. Food is the most direct and most profound tool for creating a more alkaline environment. The most acid-forming foods are sugars, processed food products like pasta, breads, and cereals, meats, dairy, coffee, soft drinks, and artificial sweeteners.
2. Eat more alkaline-forming foods. Alkaline forming foods are nearly all vegetables, particularly green leafy ones, whole grains like quinoa, wild rice, millet and amaranth, ginger, green tea, fruits - especially citrus, mangoes and most melons and Stevia (as a sweetener)
3. Do something fun. Stress creates more acid in the body. The alternative to reducing stress is increasing fun. Take ten minutes out of your day to just have fun. Listen to some great music, call a friend, take a short walk, play with your kids. The more fun you have the less acid your body will be.
4. Calm yourself down. Since stress creates acid, consciously calming yourself down will create a more alkaline environment. Take one minute to breathe deeply, do some light stretching or yoga, set a timer for five minutes and do a short meditation. Anything that slows down the sympathetic nervous system (the fight-or-flight one) and activates the parasympathetic nervous system will reduce the acid levels in your body.
5. Smile. It’s probably the simplest thing you can do anywhere, anytime, and anyplace. When you smile your body releases feel good hormones into your system. Your smile tells your brain that life is good, there is no need to panic. The more you smile the better you feel. The better you feel the more alkaline your body.
High levels of acid in the body lead to weight gain, exhaustion, poor bone health and eventually sickness and disease. Our diet and stress levels contribute greatly to our acid/alkaline balance within our body. The more we take care of ourselves by engaging in fun activities, consciously relaxing ourselves, and eating whole, unprocessed fruits, grains and vegetables, the healthier, happier and more alkaline we will be.
I am Daphe Cohn, Whole Health Educator and CEO of Raw Food Mamas. Raw Food Mamas is about delicious living through conscious eating - energizing and nourishing the busy mom.
I have studied, practiced and taught nutrition and whole health for six years. I work with women around the world, helping to bring them greater energy, time and vibrant health through the art of food, fun and conscious thought.
To get your FREE guide: Avoid the Top Ten Mistakes Moms Make That Drain Their Energy go to: http://www.instantenergyformoms.com.
To learn more about Raw Food Mamas and sign up for the FREE weekly Mama’s Manual, go to: http://www.rawfoodmamas.com
 In this article, Jameth Sheridan shares on superfoods including cacao and raw chocolate. Jameth Sheridan is the co-author of Uncooking with Jameth and Kim and the co-founder of the superfoods company HealthForce Nutritionals.
Kevin: Let’s move into, there’s a bunch of superfoods and a bunch of stuff I want to talk about. When we were in the car on the way over here, we started talking about chocolate.
Jameth: Yes.
Kevin: And cacao. And so, I want to kind of, I just want to get your scope on it. What’s the deal, what’s your experience with it?
Jameth: Sure.
Kevin: Maybe that can instruct some people.
Jameth: Sure. As far as for flavoring of things, chocolate has replaced carob over the years on the raw foods community. The whole idea is that raw, cacao is what raw chocolate is really called, and the whole idea is because it’s raw, it’s healthy. Just like I talked about earlier, there are two categories of food, raw and cooked. So chocolate, that has negative effects on people, that actually kills a lot of animals, all of a sudden because it’s raw, now it’s good for you. I wouldn’t call it a half truth, it’s maybe like a quarter truth or a fifth truth..
If you have a regular chocolate bar, it’s got pasteurized milk, it’s got hydrogenated oil, it’s got white sugar, it’s got artificial flavorings. None of it is organic. It’s got pesticide residues. It’s absolute crap. I would consider that poisonous for the body. In addition, it’s got caffeine and theobromine from the chocolate. And the chocolate’s probably been heated up to a temperature that’s not raw for sure.
You then can move into, let’s say, a whole food vegan chocolate bar where you have organic cocoa butter, organic cacao, sweetened with some sort of organic, more whole food natural sugar and no flavorings whatsoever. That is much healthier than a regular chocolate bar.
When you move into a raw chocolate-type product, you’ve got cacao and cacao butter, almost always of which are organic. The sweetener, instead of let’s say a refined sugar or a less refined sugar, in the vegan chocolate bar, is now something like agave nectar, or yacon, or lucuma, which are whole food sweeteners. Vastly healthier. And, if there’s vanilla in it, it’s actually vanilla bean. If there’s coconut in there, it’s not coconut flavoring or coconut flakes, it’s actual coconut. So, the raw chocolate bar is much more whole foods. It’s much more blood sugar balanced. Everything in there is, for the most part, a healthy ingredient.
But, you still have a cacao in there. And, cacao still has, it’s either caffeine or theobromine or both in there, they’re almost exactly the same chemicals. And, caffeine is not good for you. Whether it’s in the form of yerba matte or cacao. Caffeine artificially increases your heart rate. It can give you heart palpitations, it artificially increases your respiration. If you take enough of it, you actually can die. You can induce death if you take enough of it because your heart won’t be able to beat that fast. And, I’ve seen it mess a lot of people’s health up. If you take cacao before bed, you cannot sleep, period, because it’s going to keep you awake. It’s similar, we also talked about it in the car, people take No-Doze, they take caffeine to keep themselves up, like a whole food version of that. I consider cacao a whole food medicinal, recreational drug. And I don’t think any evidence suggests anything otherwise than that, it’s just it has this cache it has this thing that because it’s raw we can have it in any quantity and just pound it in and I’ve seen people really mess up their health and their lives by following that advice and I think it’s actually reckless.
Kevin: And you had mentioned in terms of antioxidants, I mean it’s good compared to some things.
Jameth: It’s up there, it’s one of the higher whole food type antioxidants. But when you compare it to lots of herbs like sage or oregano or rosemary or even if you start to get into herbal extracts or some fruit and vegetable extracts like resveratrol from grapes has about 40 times more antioxidants than cacao in it. Cacao is an OK antioxidant but if you are looking to take cacao to increase you antioxidant levels it’s a bad way to do it because cacao increases your metabolism, in an artificial way, it makes your heart beat faster and creates, actually, adrenaline in your body. It actually uses up more antioxidants than it provides you.
I use cacao what I call ceremonially. If I’m going to work out and I’m tired anyway, and I figure you know, I’m not going to work today at all, I will take a little bit of cacao or other things sometimes or green tea or other things with caffeine to just kind of kick myself in the ass and actually go out and do an hour or two workout. But just a little bit. If it’s already late at night and my wife and I want to stay up and watch a movie we’ll have a little bit of cacao. But we use it very, very carefully because its unbalanced power can easily be upset.
Kevin: Yeah. Interesting. Let’s talk about another staple in the raw food diet which is nama shoyu, even tamari, for those people who find raw tamari, let’s talk about that.
Jameth: Sure. If I can start with that by talking about salt in general.
Kevin: Yeah, good.
Jameth: There’s the idea that some people think you should be on a completely low sodium diet because so much research has shown that low sodium diets lower blood pressure, it lowers your risk for kidney disease, for heart disease and so forth. Now that research is based on regular white table salt which is heated anywhere from 300 to 1200 degrees. It has chemicals added to it, it has inorganic iodine added to it, and inorganic iodine is toxic and can kill you if you have enough of it. Regular table salt is absolutely abysmal for your health and that should never be. Because that is so bad some people have thrown the baby out with the bath-water and say all salt is bad.
When you have no salt in your diet, or for example let’s talk about when you water fast, you have large amounts of water, no salt in the water and you would thing you would be extremely hydrated but when you water fast you’re actually slightly dehydrated. Because when you have too much salt from any source you hold too much water in your body, there’s too much water held in solution in your body you become puffy and retain fluids. If you have too little salt, salt is what allows you to hold on to fluids, you can’t hold on to enough fluids and no matter how much water you drink, in fact the more water you drink when you don’t have enough salt, the more dehydrated you become and the more work your kidneys have to do to maintain the salt you have in your system. So salt balance is essential.
Now you would think that on a natural diet you should be able to get enough salt from salty vegetables like celery or tomatoes and in some cases I think that’s accurate. But for anyone sweating or doing anything athletic or people who genetically have low blood pressure or most people in my experience need to have additional sources of organic sodium. If you look to animals in nature whenever there is a salt-lick around the animals flock to it and start consuming that salt- lick. Even animals in nature, you even find predator and prey near each other at salt-licks licking the salt because the prey is so drawn to that salt that they’ll risk getting eaten by a predator just so they can have that salt. There’s something very valuable about it.
The best form of salt in my opinion by far in any community is miso, because miso used to be considered cooked which was completely wrong because miso starts out cooked but it’s aged for two years. Usually it’s in wooden casks like they used to do in the old days and its treated with probiotics and enzymes and by the time miso comes out every square molecule of that miso has undergone enzymatic and probiotic action and miso actually has a huge life force field around it. It’s anti-cancer, it’s anti-radiation, it’s a tremendous antioxidant, it’s a tremendous healing food and only a small part of it is salt. To me it’s the number one, I actually consider miso a superfood. A hardcore superfood up there with any other superfood and it compares statistically and with research. It’s a live, living salt.
The next salt, the next things you would go to I think would be a shoyu type or tamari soy sauce. Years ago there was a mistake in the raw food community that someone thought or was led to believe that nama shoyu was raw soy sauce and tamari was not. People said tamari is poisonous crap, it’s cooked, and nama shoyu is the way to go. And let me tell you the truth on that, I’ve done a lot of research on this. Tamari is the world’s original soy sauce, made in Japan, back to recorded records. Miso was made, and the liquid that floated to the top of the miso was tamari, that was what was tamari. It was aged. It was fermented in a good way with bacteria and enzymes and no wheat was ever added to this there was no such thing as wheat in Asia. And today tamari is made on its own and fermented on its own.
Nama shoyu is a very recent, thousands and thousands of years there was tamari and the ingredients are soy beans, water and salt, enzymes and probiotics that treat this. Nama shoyu is made differently whereas today they add westernized wheat to nama shoyu. The wheat actually when it ferments forms a large amount of alcohol. So it has a less full bodied flavor than tamari and it has a larger alcohol content which isn’t necessarily a problem but there’s less flavor to it and since it has wheat in it people with wheat allergies and people with gluten intolerance which is a big percentage of the population cannot consume it. And tamari, unless someone actually went out of the way to pasteurize, it is not cooked. Tamari is raw, so is nama shoyu. They’re equally as raw, but tamari is made the traditional healthy way, has a stronger better flavor than nama shoyu and is completely gluten free.
Nama shoyu has destroyed, I mean absolutely reeked havoc, destroyed raw food cuisine for anyone who is wheat sensitive or anyone who has celiac disease which means they can’t have any gluten whatsoever. It’s just eliminated that for them and it’s less healthy for them than tamari. There’s no reason you need to be having wheat in your tamari, in your soy sauce. So to me, tamari, excuse me nama shoyu’s time has come due to an error, someone thinking it was raw and tamari was not and it’s now time for it to go. It has no place in the raw food community, I don’t think whatsoever, because we have superior alternatives and that would be gluten-free tamari.
Kevin Gianni the host of Renegade Health Show - a fun and informative daily health show that is changing the perception of health across the world. His is an internationally known health advocate, author, and film consultant. He has helped thousands and thousands of people in over 21 countries though online health teleseminars about abundance optimum health and longevity. He is also the creator and co-author of “The Busy Person’s Fitness Solution.”
 Photo courtesy of Food Thinkers This drink is delicious, refreshing and super-healthy. You can’t help but feel so much better for drinking it, even if you’re not used to drinking a lot of greens.
This recipe makes about 1 litre, and is the perfect drink to wake you up first thing in the morning or to drink after a session at the gym.
Ingredients:
* 1 medium RIPE pineapple
* 2 apples
* 1/2 lemon including its peel
* 1/2 lime including its peel
* 1 bag of organic spinach (approx. 200g)
* 5 sticks celery
* 1 whole cucumber including peel
Directions:
Simply juice the whole lot, pour into a jug, stir well.
Pour, drink, pour, drink!
Keep in the fridge any you can’t drink, and enjoy it cool later. Keeps well owing to the lemon and lime.
Let me know what you think!
© Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach 2009, www.TheRawFoodCoach.com
Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach publishes “Successfully Raw” - a free weekly eZine for raw food lovers everywhere. If you’re ready to look good, feel great and create a raw life you love get your FREE tips, tools and recipes now at www.TheRawFoodCoach.com.
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