Radiant on Raw Blog: Raw and Living Foods, Holistic Health, Latest News and Reviews

10 Health Conditions the Raw Food Diet is Great For

Obesity – most vegetables and greens are low in calories but give a sense of fullness very quickly. When a person removes daily and animal products from their diet, they give their body a chance to heal, remove mucus from the organ linings, release toxins stored in fat cells and balance a metabolic rate.  Quite a few people experience a loss of 25-30 pounds within the first month of switching to the raw food diet.

Diabetes – it’s highly beneficial to eat a diet high in green leafy vegetables, low glycolic fruit and vegetables.  Dr. Gabriel Cousens have done an extensive research and has numerous success stories, which he shares in his latest book “There Is a Cure for Diabetes”.

Skin conditions – almost always associated with eating cooked foods and poor fat/oil digestion. Eating lots of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables with an ample amount of leafy greens is a guarantee these conditions will become a thing of the past.

Heart disease – heart conditions are caused by years of consuming cholesterol-rich animal products. Raw foods are low in cholesterol and harmful fats and help a body heal and restore.  “Food Matters”, a documentary dedicated to exploration of nutrition and how it’s related to health, clearly shows that it is absolutely possible to reverse a heart disease with simple dietary changes that include eating lots of greens, raw fruit and vegetables. Consuming cold-pressed olive oil also helps with preventing heart conditions; Mediterranean peoples who consume oil olive daily have a much lower incidence of heart disease than Americans.

Chronic migraines – coffee is the number one offender; milk is the second. Just by eliminating these two elements from one’s diet can bring relieve and healing of this condition.

Allergies – most allergies are caused by consumption of dairy products because they are very mucus forming and create acidic (disease friendly) environment in one’s body. Cheese is the biggest mucus forming food and should be completely eliminated from one’s diet. Eating more greens, fruit and vegetables help one’s body to eliminate mucus and restore alkaline environment.  Most people who switch to a high raw or all raw vegan diet experience disappearance of allergies, common colds and other mucus related conditions.

Liver problems – the liver is in charge of blood cleansing and toxins removal, so when problems arise the first thing to do is to fast to give the liver a long-needed break; then it’s necessary to eat fresh fruit and berries with lots of water. Some studies show that dark colored grapes can assist in the liver’s healing process.

Kidneys – the kidneys damage is caused by the high-protein diet. Consuming sweet fruit (such as watermelon, cantaloupe) is the most beneficial for the kidneys; one should exclude scallions, celery, spinach, and radishes from their diet.

Chronic constipation – raw fruit, vegetables, greens, and berries increase the water content of the stool making it easier to expel.

Diarrhea – If someone is suffering from severe diarrhea, it is helpful to have “apple days” – eating raw apples without their skin and nothing else relieves the symptoms in the digestive tract. Apples contain pectin, which helps remove toxins while simultaneously stimulating a bowel movement therefore speeding up the process of removing rotten matter and harmful bacteria.

 

© 2008 Radiant on Raw

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The Dangers of Drinking Coffee

 Caffeine is clearly the most prevalently used stimulant in the world. Americans are the largest coffee drinkers in the world - with a dazzling record of 420 million cups drunk every single day. Nine out of 10 Americans consume some type of caffeine regularly, making it the most popular behavior-altering drug. Coffee, tee, chocolate, cocoa, many soft drinks, and aspirin contain caffeine or very closely related substances. 

Coffee is a Drug

Coffee is a narcotic beverage. The caffeine in the coffee belongs to the same alkaloid group of chemicals as morphine, cocaine and strychnine. Alkaloids are bitter organic compounds, which are derived from plants bearing seeds. Aspirin, caffeine, cannabinoids, cocaine, morphine, nicotine, etc. are all alkaloids.

When the alkaloids are introduced into a body with an acidic biochemistry, they neutralize the acid and eliminate acid-induced pain. Alkaloids create a temporary high as acids are neutralized and the blood is alkalized. It is because of the effects of alkaloids on the body, that drugs, coffee, and the smoking of marijuana and tobacco are so popular.  The typical body, acidified by a cooked animal-food diet, is actually alkalized or balanced by the alkaloids in these substances and achieves glimpses of resonant states of consciousness. It is no surprise then why people have such a difficult time letting go of coffee.

Although it is not as deadly as tobacco, coffee has been officially added to the World Health Organization and the U.S. National Institute of Health's list of addictive substances.

Effects of Coffee on Our Heath

Through the ages, the stimulant quality of coffee has been used to wake people up after sleep as well as from alcohol intoxication and narcotic overdoes. When a rich, greasy, heavy diet is eaten, coffee helps stimulate the user through periods of sluggishness from toxic overload (remember alkaloids?).  Coffee also purges the bowels in individuals who are commonly constipated from such a diet.  But this is where the benefits of drinking coffee end.

Coffee drinkers are at risk of developing certain diseases. Coffee drinkers increase their likelihood of developing urinary tract ad bladder cancers by twenty percent. Coffee intake has been shown to be directly related to pancreatic cancer and heat attack – the more coffee consumed, the greater the likelihood of these conditions.  Even moderate coffee drinking of two daily cups or more raises cholesterol. Coffee consumption during pregnancy increases the rate of miscarriages and birth defects.

The acid in coffee eats away the villi of the small intestine, reducing their effectiveness in supporting nutrient assimilation. Drinking coffee and other caffeinated substances leads to a loss of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, and trace minerals. Heavy coffee drinkers create B-1 insufficiency. Symptoms of B1 insufficiency range form fatigue, nervousness, general malaise, general aches and pains to headache. To make matters worse, such mineral loss appears to be accelerated when caffeine is mixed with sugar. Most recently, zinc was added to the list of nutrients depleted by caffeine. Here are other facts about caffeine concerning women: caffeine causes iron deficiency; increases calcium loss and risk of osteoporosis; caffeine produces short-term mood elevation, but contributes to rebound depression.

Caffeine limits the secretion of Vasopressin, a pituitary hormone responsible for hydrating the body.  Chronic dehydration is typical for coffee drinkers.

Caffeine may also wreak havoc on your blood sugar levels, causing it to dip and rise which can masks true hunger and cause you to overeat (if your blood sugar is low) or undereat (if your blood sugar is high).

Food Matters - a Groundbreaking Documentary

“Let thy Food be thy Medicine and thy Medicine be thy Food” – Hippocrates. 

That is the message from the founding father of modern medicine echoed in the controversial new documentary film  Food Matters  from Producer-Directors James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch. 

The filmmakers have interviewed several world leaders in nutrition and natural healing who claim that not only are we harming our bodies with improper nutrition, but that the right kind of foods, supplements and detoxification can be used to treat chronic illnesses as fatal as terminally diagnosed cancer. 

The focus of the film is in helping us rethink the belief systems fed to us by our modern medical and health care establishments. The interviewees point out that not every problem requires costly, major medical attention and reveal many alternative therapies that can be more effective, more economical, less harmful and less invasive than conventional medical treatments. 

The production has remained independently funded from start to finish. “We wanted to remain as unbiased as possible in the way that we presented this information to the public,” says James, “especially on such a sensitive topic”.  

 

The film’s official trailer and website can be found at www.foodmatters.tv. 

Life Giving Water - Are You Drinking Enough?

All life on Earth came from water. Everything in nature, from microbes to elephants, needs water to live. When the space probe is sent to Mars, what is it looking for? Water! It is literally the essence of life. Without this wonderful liquid our beautiful planet would just be another rock flying through space. 

Our body is mostly water: the blood is 83% water, our brain is 85% water, nerve tissue is 80% water, even bones are make of 50% water. Water is involved in every chemical process in our body. When a baby is born, its body is over 75% water, but this percentage drops to 50% at old age due to our stressful lifestyle, poor diet and chronic dehydration. 

Water is obviously the most important substance we put in our body and yet it is often neglected. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue. In sports, 1% dehydration causes 5% drop in performance. Aging is caused by chronic dehydration and Alzheimer is a disease of dehydrated brain. Drinking just 5 8-ounce glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, and the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and the risk of bladder cancer by 50%. I think it is safe to say that proper hydration is the most important factor in keeping the mind and body healthy. 

In a dehydrated mode the body struggles to maintain its pH balance. It is a well-known fact that our internal body needs to stay alkaline (ideally at 7.365) to be healthy. Most cooked foods and animal proteins create acidity in our bodies. Some foods that contribute to an acidic level are meats, white rice, cheese, coffee, tea, alcohol, pasta, breads, cereals, sugar and chocolate. Most Americans maintain high acidity because of “acid-causing” lifestyle characteristics that include, diet, stress and a toxic environment. Prolonged pH imbalance decreases the body’s ability to absorb protein, minerals and other nutrients, decreases energy production in the cells, decreases the body’s ability to detoxify heavy metals and repair damaged cells. Where there’s too much acid, we lose minerals from out bones and teeth, muscles and nerves, and from arteries and joints, which results in heart problems, osteoporosis, arthritis (typical “aging” diseases). Therefore, “alkaline input” (ionized water, alkaline foods like fresh vegetables and fruit, better lifestyle habits) is essential to insure a healthy level of pH balance. 

We’ve all heard that we need to drink 8 glasses of water daily. However, it is not entirely true. The human body loses water through exhalation, perspiration, urination, and elimination (t takes a quart of water just to get a bowel movement). We expel up to 1 gallon of water in 24 hours. For a typical American lifestyle 8 glasses of water are obviously not enough. A good rule of thumb is to drink a quart of water per every 30 pounds of body weight. The best indication of good hydration is frequent urination (fluid should be light in color and almost odorless). If your urine is dark and smells of acid – you are already severely dehydrated. 

Two ways to get hydrated is to eat lots of water-rich, juicy raw fruits and vegetables and to drink plenty of pure, high quality water.  

How Humane Are We, Really?

I recently had a privilege of watching a documentary called “The Horse: Crucified & Risen”.  Terrifying and beautiful at the same time, this documentary is a masterpiece.

Created by Alexander Nevzorov, a Russian horse trainer who created Haute Ecole, a training school for horses that does not use metal rops or whips but love and patience with amazing results.  He created this documentary to reveal the true nature of equine sport and what horrors the horses endure during their short lives within this sport. I won’t go into much detail here, I really suggest you buy this DVD and watch it if you can.

Seeing the scope of pain inflicted on these gracious, intelligent beings really drove it home.  As a child I was mesmerized by horses, I never feared them, but always felt that they are these magnificent creatures with intelligent equal to our own.  A few years back I went to a petting zoo with my friend and her little son who wanted to see the animals.  I saw a gorgeous black horse in one of the corners and as I approached it the horse came up to me and put her head on my shoulder almost wrapping me with its neck as if hugging me.  I closed my eyes and for several minutes all thoughts left my head.  I felt deep peace and union with this animal, there was no separation, and at that very moment we were one.  To this day just a memory of that experience brings tears of joy to my eyes. 8 years ago I became a vegetarian because I could no longer eat meat and feel good about myself afterwards.

I was never a fan of horse races being quite aware of the pain and physical strains being causes to horses. I knew that most of the horses died early from disease and traumas.  However, when it came to equine sport, I never made that connection.  Somehow I believed that the sportsmen truly cared about their horses and that sport was more about a union of a man and an animal.

Boy, was I wrong!  The equine sport may just as well the cruelest sport there is out there that involves animals.  The documentary showed the unbelievable pain that is caused by the metal rods in horse’s mouth, the whips, the unnatural twisting of a horse’s neck for “pose” that caused muscle tears, spinal injuries, and eventual painful death to an animal. Most veterinarians agree that the horses are inflicted insane amount of pain during competitions and that the equine sport is cruel and violent and should be stopped.

So how did we come to this point? When did we, humans, become so disconnected from nature that causing unbearable sufferings to other creatures we consider entertaining and fun and even worthy of awards? I can hardly imagine one team member of a football team beating the hell out of another just so that teammate would perform. We act “civilized” towards other people, why don’t we do the same towards other intelligent creatures?

I have no doubt in my mind that the hardening of our hearts came from our dietary choices.  The first kill a man made for food separated himself from nature.  This was the true fall of humanity, not a Biblical apple.  For hundreds of years, at least, a man treated animals with respect and even when killing them for food there were rituals performed and gratitude was expressed towards the animal who was sacrificing its life for a man’s.  However, the growth of agriculture and meat/dairy industry brought even those practices to end. The more animal products we consume, the more disconnected we become from our consciousness and nature.  We’ve reached the point where we commit mass murders of animals on a daily basis and pretend that nothing is happening.  I think it was Gandhi (I may be wrong) who said that as long as we ate meat we would know no peace. Peace on earth is unattainable as long as we cause torture and death to other creatures that share this Earth with us.  As the violence of dead flesh enters our body, the violence of our thoughts and actions exits.  Americans consume more meat than ever, and look at the state of affairs we have: wars, teenage violence and school shootings, gangs, hate, domestic abuse, violence against women and children – where do you think all this is coming from?  Can you deny the connection?

The Power of Our Thoughts

A friend sent me this message today:

  "Every day, think as you wake up: “Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive, I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts toward others. I am not going to get angry, or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can".

 His Holiness The XIV Dalai Lama

 The power of our mind is undeniable.  A man is as he thinketh.  We are given this precious tool to use for good and I encourage you to follow the Dalai Lama’s advice and use your mind to create a better life for yourself and peace in your heart.  We are surrounded with messages of hate, violence, and anger on a daily basis and yet we have the power to choose not to react to them, to choose differently, to THINK differently.  Remember always, thoughts create our experiences in this life – be aware of your thoughts and choose the ones that will serve you and the world better.  You don’t have to be a part of any religion.  Just be aware of your thoughts, be kind, be peaceful, and one day you will wake up to heaven on Earth.

To Your Radiant Health,

 Alina V.

The long needed update...

I’ve “abandoned” my blog for a little while because I was in the process of moving to a new apartment – both an exciting and exhausting time in my life.

 Unfortunately, the move came right in at the end of my 30-day raw experience and let me tell you – I was NOT prepared for it.  I ended up abandoning my 100% raw way of eating on day 24 simply because I just couldn’t follow it due to all the commotion going on: my equipment was packed, I had no time for shopping or going to a healthy restaurant, no time for food preparation.  I felt bad about not being able to follow through my commitments but sometimes stuff just gets in the way.  I did try to do my best eating the healthiest choices of cooked food but the only raw meal was my breakfast.

 Was my experiment a failure? I certainly don’t think so.  I’ve learned from it and even being 100% for just 24 days was amazing. I felt energized, happy, full of energy (and that energy came in handy when I had to pack and then unpack over 20 boxes of books in one day!).

 A lesson learned – I will continue eating primary raw foods with a small room available for “emergency” situations.  I believe there should always be room for flexibility, otherwise we become rigid and almost religious about our food; raw foods are about enjoyment and feeling great, they are not about dogmas and limitations.  During my move my energy and attention were needed somewhere else and food just wasn’t my priority at the time.  I eat primary a raw food diet but if something happens and I don’t have an easy access to my foods of choice, then what? Then I just do what’s possible at the moment and move on.  Self-judgment and criticism is never a good thing and I truly hope you don’t do it to yourself.  There will always be tomorrow to eat optimally again.

 Now that the dust has settled and I am enjoying my new place, I can sit on my couch sipping my raw vegan veggie juice and think of all the blessings in my life, including an opportunity to relax, sit back, and prepare the foods that bathe my body in love, life, and nutrition.  I certainly not going to punish myself for eating cooked foods for a few days because it’s in the past and today is a new day.

 We all do the best we can under the circumstances - remember that.  Love yourself, love your food, love your body, and just be grateful for every minute you are alive.