...If you truly want it, you'd already have it.
Notice, this also means that every part of your life exists to you because some part of you wants it to be there.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Eat Raw Food!
The Benefits
of Eating Uncooked Food
by Dr. Bernarr, D.C., D.D.
When food is cooked above 118 degrees F for three minutes or longer, its protein has become denatured, its sugar has become caramelized, its natural fibers have been broken down, which means it will take longer to move through the intestinal tract, up to 90% of its vitamins and minerals have been damaged or destroyed, and 100% of its enzymes have been destroyed. Cooked food depletes our body's enzyme potential and needlessly drains the energy we need to maintain and repair our tissues and organ systems, and shortens our lifespan.
Dr. Virginia Vetrano writes, "Heating any food, destroys much of its vitamin, mineral, and protein content, and poisonous inorganic acids are formed. The all uncooked diet is most healthful."
Marilyn Willison, of Hippocrates Health Institute, writes, "We should not cook our food. During this apparently harmless process, vital enzymes are destroyed, proteins are coagulated (making them difficult to assimilate), vitamins are mostly destroyed with the remainder changing into forms that are difficult for the body to utilize, pesticides are restructured into even more toxic compounds, valuable oxygen is lost, and free radicals are produced. According to Viktoras Kulvinskas, nutrient losses can be as high as 80% or more. Other studies suggest that cooked proteins (coagulated) are up to 50% less likely to be utilized by the body."
Dr. Francis M. Pottenger Jr., wrote about his experiments with 900 cats over a period of ten years. Pottenger fed some of the test cats raw meat and other test cats he fed cooked meats. Pottenger wrote, "Cooked meat fed cats were irritable. The females were dangerous to handle, occasionally biting the keeper..." The cooked meat fed cats suffered with "pneumonia, empyema, diarrhea, osteomyelitis, cardiac lesions, hyperopia and myopia (eye diseases), thyroid diseases, nephritis, orchitis, oophoritis (ovarian inflammation), arthritis and many other degenerative diseases." Over the years, the cooked food group gave birth to more unhealthy kittens, and became less able to conceive at all.
No cooked food is benign. Cooked foods act malignantly by exhausting your bodily energies, inhibiting your healing, and decreasing your alertness, efficiency and productivity.
Cooked foods suppress the immune system. The heat of cooking destroys nucleic acids, and damages fats, making them indigestible. The fatty matter becomes a local irritant and an oxidant.
Heat disorganizes protein structures, leading to deficiency of some of the essential amino acids. The fibrous or woody element of food (cellulose) is changed completely from its natural condition by cooking. When this fibrous element is cooked, it loses its broom-like quality to sweep the alimentary canal clean. The fibrous matter is changed from its natural state to an irritant. Raw food has the best balance of water, nutrients, and fiber to meet your body's needs.
Cooking causes the inorganic elements to enter the blood, circulate through the system, settle in the arteries and veins and deaden the nerves. After cooking, the body loses its flexibility, arteries lose their pliability, nerves' ability to conduct electrical signals diminishes, the spinal cord becomes hardened, the tissues throughout the body contract, and the human being ages prematurely. In many cases this matter is deposited in the various joints of the body, causing joint disease. In other cases, it accumulates as concretions in one or more of the internal organs, finally accumulating around the heart valves.
Raw foods are easily digested, requiring only 24-36 hours for transit time through the digestive tract, as compared to 40-100 hours for cooked foods. This unnatural transit time increases the threat of putrefaction and disease. When you eat cooked carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, you are eating numerous mutagenic (carcinogenic) products causes by the cooking process. Dr. Karl Elmer experimented with top athletes in Germany, producing improvement in their performance by changing to a purely raw food diet. Dr. Douglas Graham achieved similar results with athletes he trained. Raw food provides you with more strength, energy and stamina.
On raw foods, the mind (memory and power of concentration) will be clear. You will be more alert, think sharper and more logically.
Raw foods will not leave you with a tired feeling after the meal. There is a tendency toward sleepiness after a cooked meal. Eating a healthy raw food diet allows a more restful sleep and eventually requires less total sleep.
When we treat foods with thermal fire, we lose up to 97% of the water-soluble vitamins (Vitamins B and C) and up to 40% of the lipid soluble vitamins (Vitamins A, D, E and K). We need only one-half the amount of protein in the diet if raw protein foods are eaten rather than protein foods which are cooked. Heating also changes the lipids. These changed fats are incorporated into the cell wall and interfere with the respiration of the cell, causing an increase in cancer and heart disease.
After eating cooked foods, the blood immediately shows an enormous increase of leukocytes of white blood cells - corpuscles. The white blood cells are a first line of defense and are, collectively, popularly called "the immune system". This spontaneous multiplication of white corpuscles always takes place in normal blood immediately after the introduction of any virulent infection or poison into the body since the white corpuscles are the fighting organisms of the blood. There is no multiplication of white corpuscles when uncooked food is eaten. The constant daily fight against the toxic effects of cooked food unnecessarily exhausts the body's strength and vitality, thus causing disease and the modern shortness of life.
Cooked foods quickly ferment and putrefy in the intestinal tract. On a healthy raw food diet you will experience the elimination of body odor and halitosis. Cooked food causes allergies (hypersensitivities).
Raw foods are delectable. There is no need to jazz them up with unhealthful additives and condiments as is needed with cooked food. These flavor-enhancing additives can irritate your digestive system and over-stimulate other organs. Avoid these harmful additives: sugar, salt, pepper, spices, garlic, condiments, ketchup, mayonnaise, dressing and toppings.
Hannah Allen wrote, "Raw foods contain enzymes, which influence digestive efficiency - cooking destroys all enzymes. Moreover, the consumption of raw foods stimulates gastric enzyme secretion, necessary to initiate good digestion. Besides, the more raw foods you eat as your first course, the less cooked foods you will be able to eat. Ideally, we should never cook any foods."
Arthur M. Baker in "Awakening Our Self Healing Body", writes, "Cooked foods literally wreck our body. They deny needed nutrients to the system since heat alters foodstuffs such that they are partially, mostly, or wholly destroyed. Nutrients are coagulated, denatured, caramelized, and rendered inorganic and become toxic and pathogenic in the body."
Baker adds, "Virulent bacteria find soil in dead food substances only and cannot exist on living cells. Cooked food spoils rapidly, both inside and outside our body, whereas uncooked plant foods are slow to lose their vital qualities and do not as readily become soil for bacterial decay."
I have been a 100% raw food eater, for over 50 years.
by Dr. Bernarr, D.C., D.D.
When food is cooked above 118 degrees F for three minutes or longer, its protein has become denatured, its sugar has become caramelized, its natural fibers have been broken down, which means it will take longer to move through the intestinal tract, up to 90% of its vitamins and minerals have been damaged or destroyed, and 100% of its enzymes have been destroyed. Cooked food depletes our body's enzyme potential and needlessly drains the energy we need to maintain and repair our tissues and organ systems, and shortens our lifespan.
Dr. Virginia Vetrano writes, "Heating any food, destroys much of its vitamin, mineral, and protein content, and poisonous inorganic acids are formed. The all uncooked diet is most healthful."
Marilyn Willison, of Hippocrates Health Institute, writes, "We should not cook our food. During this apparently harmless process, vital enzymes are destroyed, proteins are coagulated (making them difficult to assimilate), vitamins are mostly destroyed with the remainder changing into forms that are difficult for the body to utilize, pesticides are restructured into even more toxic compounds, valuable oxygen is lost, and free radicals are produced. According to Viktoras Kulvinskas, nutrient losses can be as high as 80% or more. Other studies suggest that cooked proteins (coagulated) are up to 50% less likely to be utilized by the body."
Dr. Francis M. Pottenger Jr., wrote about his experiments with 900 cats over a period of ten years. Pottenger fed some of the test cats raw meat and other test cats he fed cooked meats. Pottenger wrote, "Cooked meat fed cats were irritable. The females were dangerous to handle, occasionally biting the keeper..." The cooked meat fed cats suffered with "pneumonia, empyema, diarrhea, osteomyelitis, cardiac lesions, hyperopia and myopia (eye diseases), thyroid diseases, nephritis, orchitis, oophoritis (ovarian inflammation), arthritis and many other degenerative diseases." Over the years, the cooked food group gave birth to more unhealthy kittens, and became less able to conceive at all.
No cooked food is benign. Cooked foods act malignantly by exhausting your bodily energies, inhibiting your healing, and decreasing your alertness, efficiency and productivity.
Cooked foods suppress the immune system. The heat of cooking destroys nucleic acids, and damages fats, making them indigestible. The fatty matter becomes a local irritant and an oxidant.
Heat disorganizes protein structures, leading to deficiency of some of the essential amino acids. The fibrous or woody element of food (cellulose) is changed completely from its natural condition by cooking. When this fibrous element is cooked, it loses its broom-like quality to sweep the alimentary canal clean. The fibrous matter is changed from its natural state to an irritant. Raw food has the best balance of water, nutrients, and fiber to meet your body's needs.
Cooking causes the inorganic elements to enter the blood, circulate through the system, settle in the arteries and veins and deaden the nerves. After cooking, the body loses its flexibility, arteries lose their pliability, nerves' ability to conduct electrical signals diminishes, the spinal cord becomes hardened, the tissues throughout the body contract, and the human being ages prematurely. In many cases this matter is deposited in the various joints of the body, causing joint disease. In other cases, it accumulates as concretions in one or more of the internal organs, finally accumulating around the heart valves.
Raw foods are easily digested, requiring only 24-36 hours for transit time through the digestive tract, as compared to 40-100 hours for cooked foods. This unnatural transit time increases the threat of putrefaction and disease. When you eat cooked carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, you are eating numerous mutagenic (carcinogenic) products causes by the cooking process. Dr. Karl Elmer experimented with top athletes in Germany, producing improvement in their performance by changing to a purely raw food diet. Dr. Douglas Graham achieved similar results with athletes he trained. Raw food provides you with more strength, energy and stamina.
On raw foods, the mind (memory and power of concentration) will be clear. You will be more alert, think sharper and more logically.
Raw foods will not leave you with a tired feeling after the meal. There is a tendency toward sleepiness after a cooked meal. Eating a healthy raw food diet allows a more restful sleep and eventually requires less total sleep.
When we treat foods with thermal fire, we lose up to 97% of the water-soluble vitamins (Vitamins B and C) and up to 40% of the lipid soluble vitamins (Vitamins A, D, E and K). We need only one-half the amount of protein in the diet if raw protein foods are eaten rather than protein foods which are cooked. Heating also changes the lipids. These changed fats are incorporated into the cell wall and interfere with the respiration of the cell, causing an increase in cancer and heart disease.
After eating cooked foods, the blood immediately shows an enormous increase of leukocytes of white blood cells - corpuscles. The white blood cells are a first line of defense and are, collectively, popularly called "the immune system". This spontaneous multiplication of white corpuscles always takes place in normal blood immediately after the introduction of any virulent infection or poison into the body since the white corpuscles are the fighting organisms of the blood. There is no multiplication of white corpuscles when uncooked food is eaten. The constant daily fight against the toxic effects of cooked food unnecessarily exhausts the body's strength and vitality, thus causing disease and the modern shortness of life.
Cooked foods quickly ferment and putrefy in the intestinal tract. On a healthy raw food diet you will experience the elimination of body odor and halitosis. Cooked food causes allergies (hypersensitivities).
Raw foods are delectable. There is no need to jazz them up with unhealthful additives and condiments as is needed with cooked food. These flavor-enhancing additives can irritate your digestive system and over-stimulate other organs. Avoid these harmful additives: sugar, salt, pepper, spices, garlic, condiments, ketchup, mayonnaise, dressing and toppings.
Hannah Allen wrote, "Raw foods contain enzymes, which influence digestive efficiency - cooking destroys all enzymes. Moreover, the consumption of raw foods stimulates gastric enzyme secretion, necessary to initiate good digestion. Besides, the more raw foods you eat as your first course, the less cooked foods you will be able to eat. Ideally, we should never cook any foods."
Arthur M. Baker in "Awakening Our Self Healing Body", writes, "Cooked foods literally wreck our body. They deny needed nutrients to the system since heat alters foodstuffs such that they are partially, mostly, or wholly destroyed. Nutrients are coagulated, denatured, caramelized, and rendered inorganic and become toxic and pathogenic in the body."
Baker adds, "Virulent bacteria find soil in dead food substances only and cannot exist on living cells. Cooked food spoils rapidly, both inside and outside our body, whereas uncooked plant foods are slow to lose their vital qualities and do not as readily become soil for bacterial decay."
I have been a 100% raw food eater, for over 50 years.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Welcome Home
I've just returned from a wonderful visit in Portland, Oregon. Planning to share some of the great adventures we had, but as I unwind and get back into the swing of things at home, here's one to tide y'over. By one of my favorites, Max Ellison...
The Little People
Hopes,
Fears,
Smiles,
Tears,
And short happy years;
These belong to the little people
Because only they are free
From all the grown up inhibition
That has trapped us.
Only the little people
Have seen me clear enough
To memorize my ways,
Earning the right to laugh at me
Because together we are not afraid,
And they have become;
The purest happiness I have known.
Tiny minds,
Sensing hurt and happy
deeper...
Than big people.
And a tear or two
That lasts only long enough
To make a path on a dirty face,
Because your grown up hand
Works miracles
And tears of fear
Become toys of joy
In the eyes of the little people.
And I am jealous,
Because I no longer have growing pains
To remind me of the little people inside.
From "Double Take- A Collection of Poems by Max Ellison." Published by CONWAY HOUSE, Conway, Michigan, 1973.
The Little People
Hopes,
Fears,
Smiles,
Tears,
And short happy years;
These belong to the little people
Because only they are free
From all the grown up inhibition
That has trapped us.
Only the little people
Have seen me clear enough
To memorize my ways,
Earning the right to laugh at me
Because together we are not afraid,
And they have become;
The purest happiness I have known.
Tiny minds,
Sensing hurt and happy
deeper...
Than big people.
And a tear or two
That lasts only long enough
To make a path on a dirty face,
Because your grown up hand
Works miracles
And tears of fear
Become toys of joy
In the eyes of the little people.
And I am jealous,
Because I no longer have growing pains
To remind me of the little people inside.
From "Double Take- A Collection of Poems by Max Ellison." Published by CONWAY HOUSE, Conway, Michigan, 1973.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Considering Meaninglessness
Leave the dishes.
Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.
Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.
Don't even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic- decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if we're all eating cereal for dinner
again. Don't answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in though the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.”
― Louise Erdrich
Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.
Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.
Don't even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic- decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if we're all eating cereal for dinner
again. Don't answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in though the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.”
― Louise Erdrich
Friday, February 24, 2012
Blast From the Past
I was feeling quite down this morning, for no particular reason, but an accumulation of things that I had not been allowing myself to fully consider. I cried for the first time in quite a while, and although it felt good, I was annoyed that I couldn't seem to overcome the sadness.
Later that day, I was at work when a lady walked up to me with a very excited "Hi!" She wasn't just any lady, though, she was the mother of a very close childhood friend of mind. A friend who lived next door to me growing up and with whom I was inseparable. I have not seen or heard from any of their family in about four years, and a lot has changed for over these past four years. It was such a surreal experience to get reacquainted with a woman who was at one point a second mother to me, and who saw me as her third child, as she said. We filled each other in on the important parts of our lives, and I assured her that our family's loss has really changed us all for the better.
Afterward, in reflection, I realized something... We weren't really getting reacquainted. This was the first conversation I'd had with her as a true adult. We were no longer child and adult, we were equals. How amazing it felt to stumble upon such a wonderful blast from the past, and also to kick my sadness in the ass!
I felt so refreshed, so awake, and so alive.
Later that day, I was at work when a lady walked up to me with a very excited "Hi!" She wasn't just any lady, though, she was the mother of a very close childhood friend of mind. A friend who lived next door to me growing up and with whom I was inseparable. I have not seen or heard from any of their family in about four years, and a lot has changed for over these past four years. It was such a surreal experience to get reacquainted with a woman who was at one point a second mother to me, and who saw me as her third child, as she said. We filled each other in on the important parts of our lives, and I assured her that our family's loss has really changed us all for the better.
Afterward, in reflection, I realized something... We weren't really getting reacquainted. This was the first conversation I'd had with her as a true adult. We were no longer child and adult, we were equals. How amazing it felt to stumble upon such a wonderful blast from the past, and also to kick my sadness in the ass!
I felt so refreshed, so awake, and so alive.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
2.24.2012
"Sometimes, if you
stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river
slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything
there is to be known."
-Winnie the Pooh
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Where Am I?
I have to admit something: I have no idea why I am writing this blog.
That's one of my favorite things about my life, though. If I really listen to my heart, and pay attention to my instincts, I'll be led to do some things for seemingly no reason, and then later down the road I'll become aware of the beautiful reasons. I've learned the hard way that everything- EVERYTHING- happens for a reason. In fact, everything happens for many reasons. Maybe some day I'll be ready to share some of my experiences with this lesson... maybe not.
In the end, as you can see, I've decided to play out the 'blog' thing, with a large amount of curiosity to find out where it takes me and readiness to enjoy myself along the way.
But for today, I'd like to share a bit about myself-- as I have come to know myself during the past year-long determined, aggressive, heartbreaking, life-altering, lesson-learning, infinitely rewarding, and many times painful processes of learning how to be honest with myself.
That's one of my favorite things about my life, though. If I really listen to my heart, and pay attention to my instincts, I'll be led to do some things for seemingly no reason, and then later down the road I'll become aware of the beautiful reasons. I've learned the hard way that everything- EVERYTHING- happens for a reason. In fact, everything happens for many reasons. Maybe some day I'll be ready to share some of my experiences with this lesson... maybe not.
In the end, as you can see, I've decided to play out the 'blog' thing, with a large amount of curiosity to find out where it takes me and readiness to enjoy myself along the way.
But for today, I'd like to share a bit about myself-- as I have come to know myself during the past year-long determined, aggressive, heartbreaking, life-altering, lesson-learning, infinitely rewarding, and many times painful processes of learning how to be honest with myself.
- I am 22 years old, living in Ann Arbor (technically Ypsilanti, I guess), working at Trader Joe's, attending community college and ever... so... slowly... working toward a degree in psychology.
- I was born and raised in Traverse City, Michigan (if you've never heard of it, look it up, it's incredibly beautiful... although I am a bit biased) as the youngest of five children. It was an excellent place to grow up, and I can see why anyone would want to raise children there. However, it has a tendency to shelter them from other races, cultures, religions, life styles, ideas... etc. For these reasons I am eternally grateful that *something* finally pushed me into moving away.
- To say that I enjoy the outdoors, nature, animals, the earth, the universe, might be the biggest understatement I'll ever utter. Everything I do, say, think, feel, eat... Everything I am, everything you are, it is all one in the same, and the derivative is simple to me. I guess it's hard for me to explain! :)
- I believe that my physical feelings, my thoughts, my emotions, my chemical make-up, and my decisions are all much more linked together than we're used to believing. I believe that the more united these aspects become, the more whole we are- with ourselves, others, life, and the world. It's this belief that encourages me to live a healthy life-style in as many ways as I can. Ultimately, doing so leads me to a higher level of enjoyment.
- I believe that my judgments upon others serve little importance other than to teach me- and only me- some kind of lesson. I challenge you to pay attention, from an outside point of view, to the judgments you place on people throughout the day. And, more importantly, to figure out why whatever it is about them bothers you so much, while it effects you little to none. I'll bet it has something to do with the way you feel about yourself.
- I believe thinking for yourself is the only first step one can take toward true happiness.
- I do not fear death. I know, it's kind of weird. I guess it comes from taking classes in existentialism, and also because...
- Just over a year ago now, I experienced the loss of my eldest sister. There is truly something to be said about experiencing great loss... And those who have been through it know what I'm talking about. But that discussion is for another time. Watching and feeling her slip away from us in her last few weeks on earth was one of the most surreal experiences I'll ever have. While it broke my heart, to an extent which I'm still unable to express, it forced me to wake up, open my eyes, and start examining every part of myself and the life I was living. The lessons I've learned and still learn from my sister continue to amaze me every day.
- I believe that everything contains beauty. In fact, everything is beauty. If there is ever something ugly to me, it is because my eyes aren't adjusted quite right. Everything in this world has its place and its purpose, with the ultimate goal to bring endless opportunities for peace, love, and enlightenment to blossom within each living being.
- I believe that love is the most beautiful of all things, and I'm certain I'm not the only one.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
In the Beginning...
"So this might sound weird," I said to my brother during one of our many enjoyable conversations, "but I've started to see life kind of like a building..."
Let's say someone blindfolded you and took you through the front door of a building with no windows. You take your blindfold off, and start to take in your surroundings. You explore. You become familiar with all of the rooms; in fact, you end up spending so much time here that you begin to feel at home. Days pass, years pass. Every feature, every characteristic of the building is known to you... or so you think. One day, you see a door you haven't noticed yet. And when you open that door... a flight of stairs going upward. All this time, you thought you knew it all, only to realize you were missing out on another whole floor of your building. You climb the stairs- you learn your first big life lesson. You explore these second-floor rooms and become familiar with all it has to offer. This time you really do know it all. Until one day, you notice another hidden door... And another flight of stairs...
How many stories does your building have?
Mine's inifinite. Good thing I love climbing stairs! ;-)
Let's say someone blindfolded you and took you through the front door of a building with no windows. You take your blindfold off, and start to take in your surroundings. You explore. You become familiar with all of the rooms; in fact, you end up spending so much time here that you begin to feel at home. Days pass, years pass. Every feature, every characteristic of the building is known to you... or so you think. One day, you see a door you haven't noticed yet. And when you open that door... a flight of stairs going upward. All this time, you thought you knew it all, only to realize you were missing out on another whole floor of your building. You climb the stairs- you learn your first big life lesson. You explore these second-floor rooms and become familiar with all it has to offer. This time you really do know it all. Until one day, you notice another hidden door... And another flight of stairs...
How many stories does your building have?
Mine's inifinite. Good thing I love climbing stairs! ;-)
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