Day 65: Raw/Living Foods
Raw/Live Vegan Food on The Spectrum of Diet; Best Raw/Live Research; Update to Dr. Paul Kouchakoff’s Research on Leukocytosis; Applications of Raw/Live Foods; Health Secrets of Live Foods; Drawbacks of Raw/Live Vegan; Beyond Raw/Live?
Welcome to Day 65!
Today we look at the Raw/Live Vegan stage along the Spectrum of Diet. Now this is my (David Rainoshek) area of expertise – I studied for my M.A. in Vegan/Live Food Nutrition with Dr. Gabriel Cousens for 3 years plus 2 years of post-graduate work. I also ate Raw/Live Vegan for 6.5 years, mostly in the southwestern U.S.
But right off the bat, you might be thinking that since I call Raw/Live Vegan a “stage” along the Spectrum of Diet that something interesting is afoot. You are correct.
Raw/Live Vegan is a high-level dietary approach that has become increasingly popular in the west over the last 100+ years, and thanks to the internet, more people have been able to share their experiences about this dietary approach than ever before. This has led to a great surge in healthy expressions of Raw/Live Vegan: major benefits, research, books, and even new insights into pitfalls and limitations of various approaches within a Raw/Live Vegan context.
We are going to consider several important questions with today’s material:
+ What does placing your dietary “Center of Gravity” on Raw/Live Vegan accomplish?
+ Who are the principal proponents of Raw/Live Vegan?
+ What is the best Raw/Live Vegan research?
+ Is Leukocytosis from Cooked Food Real?
+ What are the principal ways Raw/Live Vegan can be applied for health and human development?
+ Does Raw/Live Vegan have drawbacks?
+ Why is “Integrated” beyond Raw/Live Vegan on the Spectrum of Diet? What does that mean?
While no page of this sort could be a FULL treatment of the topic, the resources here today point to probably over 90% of the thrust behind the Raw/Live Vegan movement and/or approach. So let’s get into it!
What Does Placing your Dietary “Center of Gravity” on Raw/Live Vegan Accomplish?
First, it probably evolves you beyond the limitations of dietary approaches that are prior to Raw/Live Vegan on the Spectrum of Diet. Wheat, soy, corn, pasteurized juices, dairy, meat, processed foods, and (over)cooked foods are gone. This likely removes a huge burden off your system in terms of agrochemicals, industrial chemicals, additives, preservatives, mucus-forming foods and agents, glycemic load (pasteurized juices are high on the glycemic index, for example), to name some of the big issues.
Another way to say it is that you remove a lot of the foods and dietary approaches that many people find are advancing them up the Seven Stages of Disease (remember Day 39: The Seven Stages of Disease).
What you get in return is a very clean diet of raw/live hydrating foods. The diet is high in fiber which relieves constipation (even if you did not know you were constipated), and this is a major source of toxemia for westerners, leading downstream to a whole pandora’s box of health challenges, as you know. Raw foods are also loaded up with phytonutrients and antioxidants, so inflammatory markers are decreased and you experience less pain and fatigue.
You also find that your dietary choices have been dramatically simplified and clarified. You are mainly in the produce section of the grocery store, or going to farmer’s markets and/or local farming projects. Fresh is best, so the more local, the better. This gets you integrated more closely with the sources of your food, because you care about the organized complexity of your food.
Your worldview is also shifting even further to one of non-harming, vibrancy, life, locality, and deeper meaning. You see even more clearly than ever before the power of diet to heal many of the major health challenges and diseases that ravage western society. “If only everyone could do it!” Your desire to help others as your own healing is underway is overwhelming, and many of us – despite our fears of being in public – get out there and make videos, blogs, books, and public teaching events to help spread the good news about healing with Raw/Live Vegan foods.
And why wouldn’t someone want to increase the happiness, joy, and healing?
In short, Raw/Live Vegan is a major advance physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and even interpersonally in terms of developing greater compassion and actualizing care for others through teaching and advocacy about eating well beyond the processed SAD diet.
Principal Proponents of Raw/Live Vegan
And so we look leaders who have already been there – who have mapped the territory before us. Experience and sage wisdom is extremely valuable, and so one develops quite the library of books written by Raw/Live Vegan authors. When I got started in 2004 with Raw/Live Vegan, there were not many books out there. Now everyone seems to be an author. Here are the principal proponents of the Raw/Live Vegan approach:
Dr. Gabriel Cousens, MD, Viktoras Kulvinskas, Brian Clement, ND, Dr. Jameth Sheridan, Victoria Boutenko, Sergei and Valya Boutenko, Shazzie, David Wolfe, Frederic Patenaude, Steve Prussac, Paul Nison, Cherie Soria, Kris Carr, Jay Kordich, Steve Meyerowitz, John Rose, Douglas Graham, Matt Monarch, Angela Stokes
We also had the Raw and Living Foods Summit for several years, a group of Raw/Live Vegan leaders from around the world who gathered at Hippocrates Health Institute to create a statement of agreement on what was most important in a Raw/Live approach. You can see Katrina and I among the small group of Summit members in this photo from 2007 at Hippocrates Health Institute:
When you are looking for experience and data – both clinical and real-world – you cannot do better than to follow up on the works of these advocates.
Best Raw/Live Vegan Research
Your best books with academic and clinical research supporting live foods will be found in the Great Books section on today’s page. I (David Rainoshek) studied for an M.A. in Vegan/Live Food Nutrition for 3 years with 2 years of post-graduate work (including writing There is a Cure for Diabetes), and the books listed today are the sources from which I have gathered over 90% of my Raw/Live-specific information.
When it comes to considerations not made by Raw/Live researchers, and perspectives of those who have eaten Raw/Live Vegan and have shifted their diet outside the dictates of a Raw/Live Vegan paradigm, we will get to that on Day 81: The Spectrum of Diet.
What are the Principal Ways Raw/Live Vegan Can be Applied for Health and Human Development?
The industrial and technological revolutions of the last 200 years have brought us many benefits:widespread printing and availability of books; inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogues on an unprecedented global scale; mobility; the liberation of the sexes from biologically-determined gender roles (which also subjugated women); the end of slavery and the rise of civil rights; religious, artistic, intellectual and scientific freedom; and more.
But we have also been inundated by the slow and massive corporate takeover of agriculture and food preparation, leading to agribusiness and the advent of processed food.
As we have been exploring in-depth in the Juice Feasting Program, these reductionistic approaches to food that ignore the importance of cultural, spiritual, and nutritional depth of our foods has ravaged western society, and very likely your own health.
Plant-based live food approaches are an understandable and appropriate response to the extreme health conditions we find ourselves facing in this new century.
Principally, Raw/Live Vegan can be applied in the following ways:
1. Short Term to Heal Tenacious Health Challenges
2. Religious/Spiritual Growth and Development
3. Athletic Performance
4. Getting Beyond Processed Foods Addictions
5. Long-Term as a Dietary Lifestyle
6. Juice Feasting for 1-92 Days
Health Secrets of Live Foods
We present this excerpt from Dr. Gabriel Cousens’ excellent and must-have Raw/Live Vegan book Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine. Dr. Cousens presents some excellent updates on Raw/Vegan research from his book Conscious Eating, as well as some new information. Here is a brief overview of what is in today’s file download:
Benefits of Calorie Restriction
Live Foods—A Natural Way of Calorie Restriction
Cooked vs. Raw Foods
Phytonutrients
Table: Rainbow Phytonutrients
Enzymes
Extra Energy in Live Foods
Live-Food History and Modern Research
. . .cooking foods usually results in destroying 50% of the protein, according to the Max Planck Institute, and approximately 60-70% of assimilable vitamins and minerals, up to 96% of the B12, and 100% of enzymes and phytonutrients.
In other words, one need only eat approximately half the amount of food and calories on a live-food diet as on a cooked food diet to get an equivalent amount of vitamins, minerals, protein, and phytonutrients. On a healthy live-food regime one automatically gets the anti-aging calorie-restriction effect without having to diet. On live foods, one normally achieves what I consider a healthy weight. This is the optimum weight for life-extension and protection against chronic disease. Using myself as an example, my weight has ranged somewhere between 148 and 152 since 1983. I have no special diet. I do not do anything but eat live food. And I reached what Dr. Berger considers the optimal weight. It happened totally naturally on live foods long before I read Dr. Berger’s work.
In summary, the Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine is the optimum diet for longevity, quality of health, hormone balance, and for your individual constitution. Not only is this diet low-glycemic, but it is extremely high in minerals. David Wolfe, an internationally recognized live-food expert who has surveyed the world literature on the topic of mineralization, points out that high-mineral foods are often low-glycemic, and that high mineral intake is essential for optimal organ, endocrine, and mental functioning and expansion of consciousness. This diet also supplies the minimum of 30% protein foods, what research shows is needed to have the glucagon effect that produces the good prostaglandins.
In a personal observation of this diet, in my [Gabriel Cousens, M.D.] sixtieth year I was able to do 601 consecutive push-ups.
Although we haven’t done any extended clinical research, I consistently observe that people who follow this diet have the highest energy, clarity of mind, endorphins and neurotransmitter production, and optimal joy in life.
The individualizing of the constitutions, as we adjust the protein and carbohydrate input, gives us an optimal situation to turn off the compost button, enhance neurotransmitters, enhance prostaglandins, and enhance optimal physiology. In this way we enhance our quality of life.
In addition, by being organic, this diet supports the healing of the global ecology, as well as our personal ecology. In avoiding pesticides, herbicides, and genetically engineered food, we decrease the amount of neurotoxins and carcinogens that we take into our system.
By eating live food, you naturally get all the benefits of the longevity produced by a low-calorie diet. You can eat half as much food to get the same amount of nutrients, including protein. The result is that you naturally go to an optimal weight for longevity as well as an optimal protein-carbohydrate-fat mix according to your constitution for your neuro-hormonal balance, neurotransmitter production, endorphin production, and a stabilization of blood sugar and therefore the mind. We have the optimal diet that matches your constitution and brings you to optimal qualities of health for self and the planet.
Optimal health simply requires the appropriate adjustment of your natural fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, algaes and sea vegetables, in the raw form (the way they were meant to be eaten, like every other living organism on the planet eats them). This takes us to optimal health-physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
Is Leukocytosis from Cooked Food Real? The UPDATE to Kouchakoff’s Digestive Leukocytosis Research
In 1930, research was conducted to demonstrate the effect of food (cooked/processed vs. raw/natural) on the immune system of cats. It was tested and documented at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in Lausanne, Switzerland, under the direction of Dr. Paul Kouchakoff.
Dr. Kouchakoff’s discovery concerned leukocytes (the white blood cells of your immune system).
It was found that after a cat ate cooked food, his/her blood responded immediately by increasing the number of the white blood cells. A rise in the number of leukocytes after eating was a well-known phenomenon called “digestive leukocytosis.”
As someone with an M.A. in Vegan/Live Food Nutrition, I can tell you that we in the Raw/Vegan Community have held up this study to be a potent example of why a person should not eat cooked food. However, there are some serious flaws with this line of thinking, and as such, the Leukocytosis study of Kouchakoff should be dismissed.
Below in today’s file on Leukocytosis, I will present to you with GREEN headers the STANDARD RAW/VEGAN explanations on the Kouchakoff’s work, and then in ORANGE headers the critiques and updates.
What does it all mean? When advocating Raw/Live foods, don’t cite this study – it is erroneous. There are a lot of reasons and studies which do support the benefits of Raw/Live foods, this is just not one of them! Enjoy this update.
Does Raw/Live Vegan Have Drawbacks?
Yes. God Bless the internet. So many of us in the last decade have written openly and honestly about our experience over time with a Raw/Live Vegan approach, with both the incredibly good news of healing, and the potential bad news for doing 100% Live/Vegan long-term or applying the approach to pregnancy or developing children.
Here are the main drawbacks many advocates, leaders, teachers, and mere mortals are finding with an all Raw/Live Vegan approach long-term (greater than 2-5 years):
Low Vitamin B-12. I present this issue in full in the Vitamin B-12 Exposed Webinar. Even Dr. Cousens has fully acknowledged in the last decade that a Raw/Live Vegan approach does not provide adequate B-12 no matter what plant-foods or superfoods you are eating. Check out my presentation if you have not done so yet! It’s good stuff.
Excessive Sensitivity to Cold. You might notice that most of the long-term and major Raw/Live Vegan advocates live in southern climates: Hawaii, southern California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Central/South America, Australia… not all, but most. Raw/Live Vegan is a very hydrating, cooling diet. It digests quickly, and does not contribute to the development of body fat. In the case of the need for weight loss and the healing of health challenges, these are major asssets. But once a healthy weight and healing has been achieved, many Raw/Live Vegan advocates – ourselves included – have found that cold weather on this approach is particularly uncomfortable. It can even contribute to health challenges that would otherwise be healed by a plant-based approach.
For example, I David Rainoshek developed prostatitis and a bladder infection that lasted over 2 years. When did that arise? After 6 years of 100% Raw/Live Vegan, when we moved to the damp, cold, sunless Pacific Northwest in 2008. We had the fireplace going in June. In JUNE! (They call it June-uary up here).
I tried everything I knew from a Raw/Live Vegan paradigm to heal my condition, and nothing worked for two years. No warming raw foods, herbs, supplements, acupuncture, fasting, teas, exercise, yoga… nada.
And yes, I consulted with all my mentors and close colleagues. NONE of their guidance turned things around.
What turned it around? An Integrated dietary approach, which we dive into on Day 81: The Spectrum of Diet.
Tooth Decay (particularly in children). We spoke to this on the children’s health days earlier in the Juice Feasting Program, but it bears repeating. The first Raw Vegans we heard talk about this issue were the Boutenkos – the Raw Family. They noticed their teeth got significantly better during the first 2 years of Raw/Live Vegan. Cavities went away, gums healed. Then after 2 years or so their oral health started to decline, and tooth decay set back in. They realized it was due, in part, to eating and munching all day long on the foods they were preparing for the books they were authoring.
A personal example is my (David Rainoshek) oral health on a Standard American diet and then Vegetarian, Vegan, and Raw/Live Vegan. I had 2 small cavities growing up on a SAD diet. That was it. Otherwise beautiful teeth and perfect oral health. It was not until going Vegetarian and Vegan that I developed significant cavities requiring many drillings and porcelain fillings in numerous rear teeth. Raw/Vegan did not slow the decay… I had a significant portion of a tooth break off while working at the Tree of Life with Dr. Cousens, and my teeth were sensitive to cold. Since adopting an integrated diet, my teeth are no longer sensitive to cold, and my rear teeth have stabilized from my years as a plant-based eater.
This has also been raised in full, in reference to the dental development and health of children, by famous Raw/Vegan mother and author Shazzie in her book Evie’s Kitchen and also on this blog post:
That article is an absolute must-read, and explains in detail the preponderance of evidence from our whole community that a 100% Raw/Live Vegan approach (particularly if unsupplemented) is not wise for raising children. Lots of fresh, raw plant foods is, however. And she goes into detail on supplements any parent would want to offer their child no matter what diet they are offering. But we are not finding healthy teeth among Raw/Vegan children in many, many cases.
Amenorrhea (skipping one’s menstrual cycle). Contrary to what some Raw/Live Vegan advocates might say, the stoppage of a woman’s menstrual cycle during her normal reproductive years is not a sign of health – something has been set off balance. Regular menstruation in accord with the cycles of the moon has been an important feminine trait, and cultures worldwide have ascribed all kinds of mythological and spiritual significance to this fusion with women’s biochemical relationship with the cosmos.
But some women who do Vegan or Raw/Live Vegan for some time do notice that their menstrual cycle does not just lighten, but stops altogether. If this is the case, it is time to reassess one’s dietary program, and for many Vegan and Raw Vegan women, this has meant the incorporation of some animal products such as eggs, fish, and chicken.
Infertility. So Amenorrhea can be a sign of infertility. While Raw/Live Vegan can be just the approach necessary for women with challenging cycles or infertility brought on by a westernized processed diet, application of a Raw/Live Vegan diet for too many years can bring amenorrhea and infertility. Not necessarily – but it can. And women who have reincorporated cooked foods and some animal products after many years of a Raw/Live Vegan diet have regained their periods and fertility.
Dissatisfaction with Raw Foods: Craving for Cooked Foods and Animal Products
The Feeling that Something is Missing…
Why is “Integrated” Beyond Raw/Live Vegan on the Spectrum of Diet? What Does That Mean?
Well, that is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Is there something beyond the benefits and potential detriments of a long-term Raw/Live Vegan approach? We will get into that on Day 81, so stay tuned!
But in short, an Integrated approach includes the benefits of all previous stages, jettisons the detriments, makes up for the missing pieces, and transcends all prior stages one has experienced. New capacities and understandings arise from such a leap in development, and we will talk about the realities and significance of such an evolutionary leap on Day 81!
See you in The Green Room!
Why and How to be Successful on a Live Food Vegan Diet by Gabriel Cousens, M.D. Gabriel Cousens is the author of thirteen internationally acclaimed books including Spiritual Nutrition and Creating Peace by Being Peace.
Theme Music: "Stayin' Alive" by The Bee Gees with footage from Saturday Night Fever.
Problems of the Vegan Diet - Gabriel Cousens, MD
Today’s Downloads
health secrets of live foods
Dr. Gabriel Cousens’ Raw/Live Vegan perspective on longevity. This file covers Calorie Restriction, Cooked vs. Raw Foods, Phytonutrients, and Live Food History and Research. A recent piece of writing by a life-long researcher and practitioner of Live Foods. A must-read.
enlightened eating: the truth, beauty, and goodness of calorie prudence
I wrote this piece as a chapter for the book Raw Food Works, and it looks at the benefits of what I call long-term “Calorie Prudence.” This writing differentiates the science of Calorie Restriction from the practice of Calorie Prudence, and dispels some myths about longevity. From the introduction: “We in the overfed, nutritionally undernourished countries are headlong into a major global debate about what to do. You have three main views to consider: Business (and the political policies owned and dictated by business); modern medical advice (driven by Big Pharma which profits from sickness); and most dear – our own internal experience that hears/listens to (read: is socialized by) the first two, and shops for and eats food, often confused and confounded by our bodies.” I worked my ass off on this important and engaging topic. Enjoy.
leukocytosis: an updated look
In 1930, research was conducted to demonstrate the effect of food (cooked/processed vs. raw/natural) on the immune system. It was tested and documented at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in Lausanne, Switzerland, under the direction of Dr. Paul Kouchakoff. Dr. Kouchakoff’s discovery concerned leukocytes (the white blood cells). It was found that after a person eats cooked food, his/her blood responds immediately by increasing the number of these cells. A rise in the number of leukocytes after eating was a well-known phenomenon called “digestive leukocytosis.”
But WAIT… is the research VALID? Or should we be promoting fresh live foods with different research? Find out in this important UPDATE.
study: raw vs. cooked vegetables and cancer risk
This review of the medical literature from 1994 to 2003 summarizes the relationship between raw and cooked vegetables and cancer risk and examines whether they may affect cancer risk differently. Twenty-eight studies examined the relationship between raw and cooked vegetables and risk for various cancers. Twenty-one studies assessed raw, but not cooked, vegetables and cancer risk. The majority of these assessed risk of oral, pharyngeal, laryngeal, esophageal, lung, gastric, and colorectal cancers. Most showed that vegetables, raw or cooked, were inversely related to these cancers. However, more consistent results were found for oral, pharyngeal, laryngeal, esophageal, and gastric cancers.
Nine of the 11 studies of raw and cooked vegetables showed statistically significant inverse relationships of these cancers with raw vegetables, but only 4 with cooked vegetables. The few studies of breast, lung, and colorectal cancers also suggested an inverse relationship with both raw and cooked vegetables, but these results were less consistent. In the two studies of prostate cancer, there was no association with either raw or cooked vegetables. One of two bladder cancer studies found an inverse relationship with cooked, but not raw, vegetables. Possible mechanisms by which cooking affects the relationship between vegetables and cancer risk include changes in availability of some nutrients, destruction of digestive enzymes, and alteration of the structure and digestibility of food.
Both raw and cooked vegetable consumption are inversely related to epithelial cancers, particularly those of the upper gastrointestinal tract, and possibly breast cancer; however, these relationships may be stronger for raw vegetables than cooked vegetables.
Online Articles
The Food Irradiation Plot: Why the USDA Wants to Sterilize Fresh Produce and Turn Live Foods into Dead Foods by Mike Adams
There’s a new plot underway to sterilize your food and destroy the nutritional value of fresh produce. The players in this plot are the usual suspects: The USDA (which backed the “raw” almond sterilization rules now in effect in California) and the American Chemical Society — a pro-chemical group that represents the interests of industrial chemical manufacturers. The latest push comes from USDA researchers who conducted a study to see which method more effectively killed bacteria on leafy green vegetables like spinach.
To conduct the study, they bathed the spinach in a solution contaminated with bacteria. Then, they tried to remove the bacteria using three methods: Washing, chemical spraying and irradiation. Not surprisingly, only the irradiation killed nearly 100 percent of the bacterial colonies. That’s because radiation sterilizes both the bacteria and the vegetable leaves, effectively killing the plant and destroying much of its nutritional value while it kills the bacteria.
Great Books
By Susan Schenck
The Live Food Factor is the first comprehensive guide not only to the raw food diet, but also to the raw food movement itself. This diet is sweeping America as people discover its power not only to make a body lean, but also to keep disease at bay and bolster the immune system to heal from what are typically considered “incurable” diseases. Everyone who eats should read this book! The first edition won the IPPY award as “most progressive health book of the year.”
The second edition of the “Live Food Factor” is an updated, expanded, and revised comprehensive guide to the raw food diet, with a section on inspiration, a section on science, a section on the history of raw foodism, a complete how-to section, including frequently asked questions & answers, and recipes. It contains 66 scientific studies to support the superiority of eating raw. This second edition brings a summary of all the benefits of Natural Hygiene as well. It includes several chapters written mainly by Victoria BidWell, including the true cause of illness, how to detox and an entire chapter on fasting. It also includes a new chapter written mainly by Dr. Vetrano and Dr. Tosca Haag on how to get children to eat raw.
There are new testimonials, many new recipes, updated science studies, and even 3 new appendices. It is packed with new and updated information. In fact, this edition has about 37% more information! It also contains forewords by Dr. V.Vetrano, DC, hMD, PhD, DSci (who worked extensively with Dr. Shelton of the Natural Hygiene movement) and Victoria Boutenko (one of the most noted leaders of the raw food movement). It was carefully edited for accuracy by Bob Avery, expert on the raw food diet and former editor of the M2M magazine, as well as by Victoria Bidwell and Dr. Vetrano for accuracy in the Natural Hygiene components.
By Dr. Gabriel Cousens, MD
Medical researchers have found that a high-fat, high-sugar diet, combined with environmental pollutants and stress, can lead to a buildup of toxins in the body collectively known as chronic degenerative disease. Here holistic physician Gabriel Cousens addresses the dangers of foods that have been genetically modified, treated with pesticides, microwaved, and irradiated—and presents an alternative diet of whole, natural, organic, and raw foods that can reverse chronic disease and restore vitality.
Both a guide to natural health and a cookbook, Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine features over 250 revolutionary vegan recipes from chefs at the Tree of Life Cafe, from Buttery Butternut Porridge to Raw-violis to Carob Coconut Cream Eclairs. Combining modern research on metabolism, ecological consciousness, and a rainbow of live foods, Dr. Cousens dishes up comprehensive, practical, and delectable solutions to the woes of the Western diet.
By Dr. Gabriel Cousens, MD
Conscious Eating has been referred to as the “Bible of Vegetarians,” for both beginners and advanced students of health. This classic work in the field of live-food nutrition is an inspirational journey and a manual for life.
Included is new information on enzymes, vegetarian nutrition for pregnancy, and an innovative international 14-day menu of gourmet, Kosher, vegetarian, live-food cuisine, plus 150 recipes.
By David Wolfe
Since its first publication, The Sunfood Diet Success System has been the definitive book on the raw food lifestyle. Now after more than seven years, David Wolfe has rigorously rewritten the entire book, beginning to end, in order to offer the most complete, up-to-date nutrition information possible. No where else will you find the kinds of empowering information and insight that is present on every page of this truly inspiring work.The Sunfood Diet Success System is a groundbreaking book in the field of raw-food nutrition.
The book describes exactly how to adopt, maintain, and stay centered on an 80, 90, or 100% raw-food diet by balancing different types of foods through David Wolfe’s innovative Sunfood Triangle. Success is inevitable with day-by-day menu plans, delicious recipes, and the best information available on detoxification, fasting, mineralization and success technology all neatly bundled into one book.Each chapter is filled with inspiring quotes, facts, and tips. Dozens of beautiful, never-before-seen full-color images have been added to this brand-new edition, including many stunning Kirlian photographs. The Sunfood Diet Success System also includes a comprehensive listing of raw-food restaurants, healing retreats, and organizations. Be prepared for nothing less than total transformation!
By David Wolfe
In Eating For Beauty, author David Wolfe, one of America’s foremost nutrition experts, describes how to cleanse, nourish and beautify by utilizing the benefits of a fresh-food diet. The lessons contained within this book can be applied to improve one’s appearance, vitality, and health. This book is about how to become more beautiful, not just how to maintain beauty or even slow the aging process. It is about rejuvenation at the deepest level, and the enjoyment of life.
This book contains the key for creating beauty within oneself through diet and other complementary factors. Though it explores the role of yoga, beauty sleep, and the psychology of beauty, this book is primarily about the way to eat for beauty. The Beauty Diet is based on principles of raw nourishment—representing the cutting edge nutritional science.
With scientific explanations of the human body’s chemical reactions to various elements of nutrition, physical activity and sleep, this book provides a guide for how to reach your potential for beauty. More than 30 gourmet “beauty recipes” and in-depth descriptions of beneficial foods help to steer beauty-seekers down the path of aesthetic enlightenment. The magical, beautifying secrets held within this book will help the human race reclaim one of its most divine attributes: beauty, inside and out.
By Victoria Boutenko
Everyone knows they need to eat more fruits and vegetables, but consuming even the minimum FDA-recommended five servings a day can be challenging. In Green for Life, raw foods pioneer Victoria Boutenko presents an overlooked powerhouse of nutrition in this equation: greens. For their bounty of minerals and nutrients, greens exceed other vegetables in value. Green for Life details the immense health benefits of greens and suggests an easy way to consume them in sufficient quantities: the green smoothie. This quick, simple drink benefits everyone, regardless of lifestyle, diet, or environment. Green smoothies eliminate toxins, correct nutritional deficiencies, and are delicious as well.
Green for Life includes the latest information on the abundance of protein in greens, the benefits of fiber, the role of greens in homeostasis, the significance of stomach acid, how greens make the body more alkaline, the healing power of chlorophyll, and more. Also included are the results of a pilot study demonstrating the effectiveness of adding just one quart of green smoothies a day to one’s diet, without changing anything else in dietary intake. Green smoothie testimonials and recipes give readers confidence and motivation in exploring green smoothies for themselves. This updated edition offers important new research on the role that omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids play in metabolic health and includes nutritional data on select green smoothies and updated findings on organic versus conventional produce. Offering more in-depth nutritional and experiential information than Boutenko’s recently released Green Smoothie Revolution, Green for Life makes an ideal companion piece to its recipe-rich successor.
By Victoria Boutenko
Why do we overeat time and time again? Why do we make poor diet choices while we want to be healthy? What makes losing weight so difficult? These and many other vital questions are addressed in 12 Steps to Raw Foods in an open and sincere dialogue. Based on the latest scientific research, Victoria Boutenko explains the numerous benefits of choosing a diet of fresh rather than cooked foods. This book contains self-tests and questionnaires that help the reader to determine if they have hidden eating patterns that undermine their health. Using examples from life, the author explores the most common reasons for people to make unhealthy eating choices.
Rather than simply praising the benefits of raw foods, this book offers helpful tips and coping techniques to form and maintain new, healthy patterns. Learn how to make a raw food restaurant card that makes dining with co-workers easy and enjoyable. Discover three magic sentences that enable you to refuse your mother-in-law’s apple pie without offending her. Find out how to sustain your chosen diet while traveling. These are only a few of the many scenarios that Boutenko outlines.
Written in a convenient 12-step format, this book guides the reader through the most significant physical, psychological, and spiritual phases of the transition from cooked to raw foods. Embracing the raw food lifestyle is more than simply turning off the stove. Such a radical change in the way we eat affects all aspects of life. Boutenko touches on the human relationship with nature, the value of supporting others, and the importance of living in harmony with people who don’t share the same point of view on eating. Already a classic, this enhanced second edition is aimed at anyone interested in improving their health through diet.
Media, Films, & Documentaries
[Audio Interview] David Wolfe: The Top 7 “Biggest Mistakes” People Make While Adopting A Raw Food Diet
In a nutshell, here are the 7 Mistakes:
Big Mistake #1: They make “transitional foods” their main staples.
Big Mistake #2: They go 100% raw from day one.
Big Mistake #3: The confuse a raw “cleansing” diet with a raw food “nurturing, healing” diet.
Big Mistake #4: They don’t know the difference between raw food and “live” food
Big Mistake #5: They wait until they’re hungry before preparing the foods they can eat for the day.
Big Mistake #6: They use a raw food diet to stand out rather than fit in.
Big Mistake #7: They think looking like “skeletor” is a good thing.
Supercharge Me | Documentary | Jenna Norwood
SUPERCHARGE ME! is a life blessing message for everyone, said one reviewer. Ever wonder what the opposite of the film SUPER SIZE ME would be like?
With a tip of the headdress to Morgan Spurlock of SUPER SIZE ME, Jenna Norwood takes us on her journey to see what happens when she enrolls in a raw food detox center and consumes only organic, raw, enzyme-rich foods for 30 days. It is all in an effort to fit into a Las Vegas showgirl costume for Halloween, but the experience has some surprising results.
Meet experts (David Wolfe), celebrities (Ben Vereen & Kathy Sledge) and others seeking to resolve serious health issues on a raw food diet. Takes the mystery out of colon hydrotherapy, too. An entertaining, educational and inspiring documentary. A detoxifying experience! Unofficial PG rating, according to MPAA guidelines. Get your very own copy of the highly-acclaimed, award-winning film to see what happens when Jenna Norwood goes RAW for 30 days. Viewers call the film entertaining, educational and inspiring.