How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Grapefruit with Tanja Andrews

I love this video by Tanja Andrews from Freshtopia.net. It is so honest. Did you ever try to make a new (raw food) recipe with all kinds of expensive and fantastic ingredients and it came out really bad? I was laughing. It happened to me so often, especially when I first started with raw food. I mixed all kinds of great ingredients with a cup of, for instance, dandelion and my dish was ruined. I usually still ate it, because I didn’t want to throw it all away. Great to see, that I’m not the only one.

There is hope. Now most of my dishes come out great. Failure leads to success. After spoiling ten smoothies, you will finally find the perfect one and keep making it. Everybody loves it.

Keep experimenting, be creative and have fun. This is the way to success!

Deepak Chopra: Spiritual Exaltation Heals the Body

Deepak Chopra describes the effect of a deep spiritual experience.

According to the ancient wisdom traditions of India, when you get in touch with your spirit, in Western terms when you get a peak experience, you experience:
- love, you feel connected to everything, you feel the intoxication of love
- knowingness/intuition/insight/creativity, knowing what your need to know
- happiness, bliss

In physical terms, this means that your body produces:
- serotonin and dopamine, the happy hormones
- oxytocin, the pleasure hormone
- opiates, which provide a feeling of intoxication (high) and help regulate the immune system

This explains, why spiritual practices are so important for a good health.

Gratitude Meditation with Deepak Chopra

Experiencing gratitude is one of the most effective ways of getting in touch with your soul. You will feel connected to everything in the universe. Your ego goes out of the way.

Meditation with Deepak Chopra:
Close your eyes, bring your energy to your heart and think of everything, you could be grateful for. Sit there quietly. Come up with as many things, you can think of, to be grateful for. Experience the warmth, the love, the compassion, the understanding, the creativity and the sense of connection, that gratitude brings into your heart.
Slowly come back to the present and open your eyes.

This meditation makes me think of Masaru Emoto and “Messages from Water”. Words and emotions have a huge influence on the structure of frozen water molecules. The most beautiful molecules being created by the words love and gratitude, the word gratitude having twice as much impact as the word love.
If water already reacts so strongly to gratitude, guess what is does for us. We are mainly water.

Experiencing more love and gratitude can change this world.

I am grateful, among others, to have this blog to express myself and to have you, as a reader ;-)

A Brief Overview on How to Sprout, Part 5, Mixtures & Soaking

This is the fifth in a series of six articles on sprouting.
by Thomas E. Billings

Some Sprouting Seed Mixtures of Interest:
- mung/adzuki, fenugreek
- mung/adzuki, urid, dill seed
- lentils, blackeye peas, alfalfa, radish
- sunflower seed, moth, fenugreek
- alfalfa/clover, radish/mustard (for greens)
Experiment and develop your own favorite mixtures!

Soak Instead of Sprouting:
- Herb seeds: fennel, celery, caraway, cardamom, poppy, etc.
- Filberts: soak 12 hours; makes crisper, improves flavor.
- Pecans: soak 8 hours; long soaks can make mushy.
- Walnuts: soak 12 hours; flavor changes - you might like or dislike. - High fat nuts (brazil nuts, macadamias) may benefit some from soaking, but difference (soaked vs. unsoaked) is small.

Staple Foods for Sprouting:
- (first tier) wheat, almonds, sunflower, sesame, mung/adzuki, rye
- (2nd tier, obstacles) oats, barley, buckwheat, rice, lentils*, other legumes*
- (flavoring) fenugreek, mustard, radish, kale, cabbage * see question on legumes below

Easy for Beginners:
wheat, sunflower, almonds, lentil, mung

Indoor Gardening (grown indoors, in soil):
• Grasses: wheat, barley, oats, rye, kamut, spelt, triticale, and others.
• Vegetables: amaranth, mustard/mizuna, fennel, kale, cabbage, etc.
• Legumes: peas, snow peas
• Other greens: buckwheat, sunflower

I found this article at www.chetday.com. It's published on the blog with permission.

Yes, I Ate My First Raw Stinging Nettle Today. This is Fun!

Yes, I gave it a try today: to eat raw stinging nettles without preparation! And …. it is really possible without burning your hands, throat, stomach and all the rest. Thanks to David Wolfe, I learned something fantastic about a fresh raw superfood direct from nature .... ;-)
Watch David’s video elsewhere on the blog for the details.

Then we made the most delicious Green Mango-Stinging Nettle Smoothie.
Very easy and full of life force.

Ingredients:
1 ripe mango
½ blender stinging nettle
some lemon
1 cup water

Blend and enjoy.
It tastes really good. The nettle has a very mild taste.
This is the best and healthiest spring smoothie, you can think of.

To Your Health and Success!

Raw Food News: Kevin Gianni Starts Renegate Health Show

Kevin Gianni starts the Renegate Health Show. This show will be broadcast EVERY day Monday-Friday anywhere between 6-8:00 PM Eastern.

The purpose of this show is foremost to have fun. Health is a serious issue, but Kevin (and I) definitely think we can have fun and address serious issues at the same time. The second reason of the show is to educate you. To give you information that is relevant to your own health. “The Renegade Health Show” is here to give you real world health advice for real world situations.

For more information visit RenegadeHealth.com. Watch, learn, laugh and get back to your day/evening. Each episode will be on average 7-10 minutes.

The idea of Kevin with his show is very similar to mine with this blog. I hope we can reach many people by brining out the information in a fun and entertaining way.

Kevin, to your success!

How to Thrive: Secret Raw Ingredients for Health and Strength

Tim's Training at the Gym

Yesterday I added Tim VanOrden’s YouTube video, in which he says that diet and exercise don’t make you stronger. I didn’t see the rest of this video, but want to take this great subject one step further here.

I think Tim is right: we stress exercise and eating too much. Most western people are always stressed out and keep running around, while in fact the only thing they need is rest. Rest from work, rest from social obligations, rest from physical activities, rest from sports, rest from heavy meals, and rest from our own emotions and thoughts. Tim’s video makes this very clear.

But … I don’t totally agree with Tim. You don’t get stronger just by rest. What you need is training and rest. You need both. Training without rest doesn’t work and rest without training doesn’t work either. It’s like yin and yang, positive and negative, light and dark. One doesn’t exist without the other. You get really healthy and strong by both training and rest, challenging your body and giving it time to recover.

The same is true for diet. We need to get both, the nutrients from our foods and rest to heal and get stronger. I agree with Tim that a raw vegan diet is the ideal diet for this. If you eat heavy foods, your body needs a lot of energy to digest them and usually these heavy foods don’t even contain the nutrients you need. The best foods are foods high in nutrients and easy to digest. A great example of these foods are superfoods. And I’m sure Tim will agree with this, if I see his post-workout smoothie, loaded with superfoods.

So to really thrive, you need a balanced amount of exercise and rest, together with easy to digest nutritious foods, like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, seaweeds, herbs and superfoods.
This is the way to thrive.

For more inspiration and information about Tim VanOrden and his Running Raw Project,

visit RunningRaw.com

Running Raw: Exercise and Diet don't Make You Stronger

Tim VanOrden, a raw vegan athlete and runner talks about exercise and diet.
Exercise does not make you stronger or faster. It makes you weaker and more tired.
Rest and recovery make you stronger.

Diet is the same way. If you eat stressful foods, your body doesn’t have time to heal itself. Anything that has been processed or refined, anything that has been cooked or is an animal product, or especially cooked animal products, is a stressful food. Yes the body can survive on these foods. But we want to thrive, not just survive.

By eating stressful foods seven days a week, your body has no time to heal. Did you know that your body needs three days to breakdown one cheeseburger? In the meantime it has no time to do something else.

If you eat a raw food diet, best organic, you don’t stress the body. The food does its job and goes out of the way. Now the body has free time to heal itself. This is why a raw food diet can heal you and make you stronger.

Edible Wild Plants: How to Eat Stinging Nettle with David Wolfe

This is a fantastic video. David Wolfe shows you how to eat stinging nettles straight from nature.

How do you pick a stinging nettle? The younger leaves are the easiest. The older one sting more. You come from underneath, pull and grab the leaf, like a taco. If you do it wrong, you will feel the nettles sting in your fingers for a few hours. In your mouth they might sting, but it doesn't last longer than 30 seconds.

Stinging nettle is one of the most powerful wild foods, full with iron, magnesium and silicon. The real nutrition in nature is in stinging nettles and grasses. You can juice nettle, add it to smoothies or salads.

The juicing and blending take away the stinging. I used to put them in hot water for a few seconds and afterwards in cold water. You can do this for a salad. For a smoothie or juice, this is not necessary. Nettle is one of the strongest wild foods with a very mild taste. You can keep adding it.

Nettle is a great food to eat in springtime to build up your blood and energy. The root of stinging nettle is good for the prostate.

Chocolate Club, Raw Food Dinners and Parties in Amsterdam

“Hip to be Healthy, Cool to be Conscious”

This Saturday, I went to the Chocolate Club in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with my camera. And ... had a great evening.

The Chocolate Club is an intitiative of Mastercare, the Netherlands.
Every first saturday of the month, you can enjoy a delicious 3-course raw food dinner,
prepared with love.

Rawfood chef Jeramaya van Sterren serves his main course, consisting of, amongst others, courgette filled with the most delicious raw mushroom-nut pâté.

After enjoying your raw food dinner, you can choose whether to go to an energetic and fun dance party, with DJ and live show, or to stay in the café and relax.
In the café you can get natural superfood drinks, like alchemic raw chocolate, E3 live, goji juice, fresh wheatgrass juice, kombucha champagne or young Thai coconuts.
There are also raw food products for sale.

Or you can have a great chair massage with Clyde ....

The idea of the Chcolate Club is unique in the world. The slogan “Hip to be Healthy, Cool to be Conscious” is very original. Rawfood brings life, lots of energy, consciousness and more love in this world. It is wonderfull to see, how everybody participates in his or her own way, and share experiences with others.

Yes, raw food gives great energy. This is very clear at the Chocolate Club.

For reservations and information: contact@chocolateclub.nl.
Dance Street: http://www.dancestreet.net/, 1st Rozendwarsstraat 10, in the Jordaan, Amsterdam Centre, the Netherlands
Mastercare (internet) shop, raw food cafe: http://www.mastercare.nl/.
Chocolate Club Hyve: chocolateclub.hyves.n

The Seaweeds Nori and Dulse are Great Snacks for Kids

Watch this fun video. Toddler Calvin loves dulse. My friend Esme's toddler Julian loves nori. Seaweed is a great source of nutrients for kids and adults. It is especially rich in minerals and glyconutrients. And seaweed is a natural wild plant, full with life energy.

Another great food for kids and adults, related to seaweeds, is marine phytoplankton.

For more information on marine phytoplankton, look at:
http://rawfoodsuccess.blogspot.com/2008/02/david-wolfe-on-marine-phytoplankton-and.html

For more information on seaweeds, look at: http://rawfoodsuccess.blogspot.com/2008/01/david-wolfe-seaweeds-glyconutrients-in.html

A Brief Overview on How to Sprout, Part 4, Sprouting Legumes

This is the fourth in a series of six articles on sprouting.

by Thomas E. Billings

Alfalfa, Clover: For greens: soak 4-6 hours, sprout 6-8 days. Method: tray or jar.For use when short: soak 4-14 hours, sprout 1-1.5 days. Method: jar or cloth.Alfalfa and clover are most commonly grown as greens. A good non-traditional use for them is as flavoring additive in mixtures, for ex: lentil, alfalfa, radish is nice (alfalfa counteracts "heat" of radish). Alkaloid levels can be very high in alfalfa. Need alfalfa seed with very high germination rate (over 90%) to successfully grow greens in jar - else unsprouted seeds will decay and spoil greens.

Garbanzo group:
- Garbanzos, standard: Soak 12-18 hours, sprout 1.5+ days. Method: cloth or jar.
- Kala channa: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.5 days. Method: cloth or jar.
- Green channa: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.0 day. Method: cloth or jar. Garbanzos, also know as chick peas or ceci, are common in commercial mixtures. They sprout easily but they also spoil easily (bacteria or mold). Kala channa is a miniature garbanzo, sold in (East) Indian food stores, that sprouts reliably - try sprouting it instead of standard garbanzos. Green channa is similar, naturally green, and sprouts very quickly. Green channa has stronger flavor; best to eat with turmeric or ginger.

Large beans: Anasazi, Black, Fava, Kidney, Lima, Navy, Pinto, Soy, etc. Except for soy, these are irrelevant to the sprouter - raw flavor is truly horrible. Also, serious toxicity/allergy/digestibility issues with these raw beans. Except for soy (edible raw if grown long enough), these beans must be cooked to be digestible, hence are not of interest to the raw-fooder.

Lentils, brown/green and red. Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.0 day. Method: cloth or jar. The brown/green lentils come in a variety of sizes; the smallest sizes generally sprout faster than the larger. Red lentils are usually sold in split "dahl" form; for sprouting you must buy whole red lentils. Red lentils are red inside and brown outside; their Hindi name is masoor (brown masoor). Lentil sprouts have a spicy flavor and are very popular. Might find hard seeds in lentils from India.

Mung bean group:
- Mung beans: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 18 hrs - 1 day. Method: cloth or jar.
- Urid/urad: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 18 hrs - 1 day. Method: cloth or jar.
- Adzuki beans: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.0 day. Method: cloth or jar.
- Moth beans: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 12 -18 hrs. Method: cloth or jar. Urid (also spelled urad) is a black shelled mung bean, available in Indian stores. Stronger flavor than regular mung. Hard seeds common in mung and urid. Moth is a brownish bean, similar to mung, available in Indian stores. Very fast, reliable sprouter, with mild flavor - similar to mung. Discard "floaters" when sprouting moth. P.S. there is a mung bean that is yellow inside, in Indian stores, but so far have only found split (dahl) form.

Peanuts: Soak 12-14 hours, sprout 1.5 days. Method: cloth or jar. Must use unblanched peanuts; recommend removing skins to improve digestibility. Spanish variety peanuts have loose skin, can remove most before soaking. Other peanuts - soak 1-2 hours then peel off skins, return to soaking in new, clean water. With peanut peeled you will probably observe high incidence of (bright) yellow mold - possible aflatoxin.

Peas, Blackeye: Soak 12-14 hours, sprout 1 day. Method: cloth or jar. Flavor is too strong to be eaten alone. Makes good flavoring additive for mixtures, if used sparingly.

Peas, (Field): Soak 12-14 hours, sprout 1.5 days. Method: cloth or jar. Be sure to buy whole peas, not split peas (split won't sprout). Yellow peas are slower to sprout, and have stronger flavor than green peas. Flavor too strong when raw for many people. Insect problems common with peas in storage (beetle infestation); store in bug-proof containers. Can be grown as greens also.

Note: if purchasing kala channa, green channa, urid/urad, red lentils, etc. from Indian store, be sure to obtain the whole seeds, and not the split (dahl) or oiled form of the seeds.

I found this article at www.chetday.com. It's published on the blog with permission.

Healthy Raw Recipe for a Salad with Pineapple, Tomato and Walnut

Do you want to make a special raw food dish?
Try this delicious salad with pineapple, tomato and walnut.
Together with dehydrated crackers, you have a complete meal.

Ingredients:
1 pineapple, cut into cubes
4 big tomatoes, cut into cubes
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
12 black olives, in small pieces
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 tablespoons chives, minced

Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil, extra virgin
1 tablespoon mustard
2 tablespoons lemon
1 tablespoon agave nectar
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the salad ingredients in a big bowl.
Prepare the dressing and add it. Mix the salad.

Bon appétit!

Green Smoothie from Kale, Mustard Greens and Tropical Fruits

Another green smoothie with kale, mustard greens and lots of tropical fruits. As you can see, it is real easy to make green smoothies. It takes hardly any time, is healthy, and the smoothies taste good!

Raw Food Recipe for a Mango Green Breakfast Smoothie

This mango green breakfast smoothie is great to start your day with. It is nice and sweet from the mango, contains fruit sugar for energy, and a lot of vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, amino acids and enzymes to nourish your body.
The combination of fruit sugar and oils helps to take up the sugar slower, which gives a more stable blood sugar. Coconut oil and flax oil form a good combination for essential fatty acids.
You can also give this mango green smoothie to (your) children and see if they like it. Mine do.

Ingredients for one smoothie:
1 mango
1/2 cup parsley
1/2 cup romain lettuce
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon flaxseed oil

Blend and enjoy!