Grains and Beans in the Raw Food Diet - Gabriel Cousens

Some people do very well, if they start with a 100% raw food diet right away. For others it may be better to start more slowly. A balance of 80% raw food and 20% other foods is ideal for those people. What should those 20% be, if not raw foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, seaweeds, wild edibles etc.

In this interview Annet van Dorsser (www.RawFood.nl) asks Gabriel Cousens what he thinks about adding grains and beans to a raw food diet. Watch this video on how to transition to a raw food diet in the most ideal way.

Dr. Rick Dina on protein in a raw food diet

Do we get enough protein in a raw food diet? Do we need animal food to supplement? Do we need dairy to supplement? Can we get all the amino acids we need from raw plant food and thrive?

Listen to the very clear answer Dr. Rick Dina gives here. Yes, we can get all our protein from a raw plant food diet and get plenty. The quality is even better than that of cooked protein, we can absorb it better.

David Rainoshek on Juice Feasting and Eating as an Act of Love

Today I saw David Rainoshek at the Rawkathon.
You can still watch the interview at http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=2614605.
I was really impressed and started searching for more information.

Here is the video that I found on his website www.juicefeasting.com in which David Rainoshek, M.A. talks on Eating as An Act of Love, Juice Feasting, and the Spectrum of Diet within the context of a plant-based raw food diet. I really like it.

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David Wolfe - The best raw food diet

What are the best foods to eat? Listen to this talk by David Wolfe. It's very clear.
Add in: superfoods, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, seaweeds, sprouts, grasses and herbs.

We are out of the diet game. Add in all the good stuff. This naturally pushes out all the bad stuff.
You can't stay raw over a longer period of time just on will power.
Add in what your body really needs and eating raw will be "a piece of cake".

Viktoras Kulvinskas on applied kinesiology or muscle testing

Raw food expert Viktoras Kulvinskas shows how to use muscle testing or applied kinesiology to find out what is good for you. You can use this technique to test supplements, food, ideas, relationships etc. I've personally used it for over 30 years and it always works. Start to experiment and find your own answers.

Milk, the deadly poison by Robert Cohen - Health risks of milk

Is milk good? Watch this video about the health risks of milk and decide for yourself.
Yes, there are plenty of good alternatives to get your calcium, protein and vitamins. Green leafy vegetables, blue-green algae, superfoods, seaweeds, sprouts etc. On this website you can find all the information.

Joel Fuhrman M.D. - Nutrient density is the key to good health

In this video Joel Fuhrman speaks about the nutrient density of foods.
I think this is a very interesting concept. It clarifies a lot of things.
Why do so many vegans look grey and pale? Why are so many rawfoodies too thin?
What should you eat, if you don’t want to eat 100% raw?
These are questions I get all the time. Here is the answer!

Portion sized diets don’t work. We have to desire smaller portions.To do that we have to eat high nutrient, high volume foods. High volume foods are raw vegetables, fresh fruits, cooked greens and non-green vegetables.
You should know the nutrient density of foods. The food that is highest in nutrient density are green vegetables. Kale has the highest number, followed by collards, spinach and bok choi. Fruits and vegetables are all above 100. All the other foods are below.
Most people on a vegan diet get most of their calories from grains, potatoes and oil. That can’t be a healthy diet.

Joel Furhman doesn’t mention the superfoods in this video. Those are also high density foods. That’s why they are called superfoods. Examples are raw cacao, goji berries, maca, wild honey, bee pollen, hemp seed, spirulina, chlorella and green powders (from edible grasses). I also miss the edible weeds, sprouted seeds and seaweeds.
Some of these probably have a nutrient density above 1000 ;-)

A diet of raw vegetables, fresh fruits, edible weeds, sprouted seeds, seaweeds and superfoods is ideal, if you want to eat 100% raw plant based diet. If you want to add some cooked food, add cooked greens and non-green vegetables.

If you use the hyper farming techniques David Wolfe tells about to grow these foods, you have the best diet ever!
For David Wolfe’s video, watch below or go to:
http://rawfoodsuccess.blogspot.com/2008/05/david-wolfe-on-hyper-farming-using.html

Starting a raw food diet with the raw food conversion chart

Do you want to start a raw food diet and you don’t know how to transition?
Esme Stevens made a fantastic and easy raw food website for starters: thebestofrawfood.com.
This raw food conversion chart comes from the Best of Raw Food and tells you exactly how to transition.

Once you have decided that you want to try the raw food diet, you get a feeling of what not to eat. But now the question arises "what can you eat"? To help you with the transition to a raw food diet, Esmé made this raw food conversion chart, a great help for starters.

The conversion chart is divided into the following categories:

1. General Guidelines
   
2. Food
   
3. Beverages
   
4. Condiments and Spreads


5. Special Treats


6. Supplements

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1. General Guidelines

	Bad	Better	Best
Resources	Grocery store	Health store	Home made foods Green/farmer's market
Grown	Conventional grown	Organic foods Naturally grown No pesticides, herbicides, chemicals Local farmer's/green market	Wild Local and organic Own garden, sprouts
Processed	Junk Pre-packaged Fast food Grilled Microwaved BBQ Fried	Steamed Cooked Stir fried Baked at low temperatures	Raw Juiced Blended Dehydrated
Ingredients	Many ingredients Conservatives Sweeteners Chemicals E-numbers MSG, flavor enhancers, etc.	Few ingredients Ingredients you can pronounce	Home made All fresh ingredients

---

2. Food

	Bad	Better	Best
Sugar	All forms: - Dextrose - Corn syrup - Rice syrup - Malt	Raw honey Agave Maple syrup Raw fresh fruits Raisins Dates	Stevia Vanilla Cinnamon
Artificial Sweeteners	All forms: - Aspartame - Splenda - Xylitol		Stevia Vanilla Cinnamon
Salt	Table salt	Unrefined sea salt Unrefined Himalaya salt	Organic salt from plants: Celery Seaweed Phytoplankton
Flour	White flours from: - Wheat - Corn - Rice, etc.	Organic whole flours from: - Spelt* - Kamut - Quinoa - Buckwheat - Millet - Brown rice* - Other non stored grains *stored grain	Sprouted grains Almond flour Coconut flour
Bread	From supermarket	Home made Health store Yeast free Wheat free Sprouted	Dehydrated flax crackers Essence bread Lettuce wraps
Pasta	White pasta	Organic spelt or buckwheat Sprouted pasta	(Raw) pasta made from squash
Fat	Butter Shortening Margarine Chemicals Trans fats Animal fats Fermented fats	Cold pressed coconut oil Olive oil Hemp seed oil Flax seed oil	Whole hemp seeds Whole organic flax Seeds Nuts Fresh coconut
Meat	Cold cuts Processed meat: Hot dogs Bacon Salami, etc	Organic raised Nitrites free E-numbers free (EU) MSG free, etc.	Vegan nut pate's Raw "meat" balls made from nuts/seeds
Fish	Farm raised fish	Wild fish Not endangered	Wild Alaskan fish Caught same day Cold smoked wild Alaskan salmon
Eggs	Conventional eggs	Organic farm free eggs	Egg replacers: - Agar agar - Flax seed - Psyllium fiber
Cheese	Cheese From cow Pasteurized Not organic Homogenized	Organic raw goat cheese Organic raw sheep's cheese	Nut cheese Seed cheese Raw milk from seeds & grains Raw coconut juice & milk
Milk & Yoghurt	Milk, yoghurt From cow Pasteurized Homogenized	Organic milk Raw goat's milk Almond milk from store Rice milk Coconut milk	Raw almond milk Raw milk from nuts Raw milk from seeds & grains Raw coconut juice & milk

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3. Beverages

	Bad	Better	Best
Water	Water from tap	Plastic bottled water Evian, Poland Spring, Fuji Water	Distilled water Low mineral spring water Bottled in glass
Thee	Black tea		Herbal teas
Coffee	Coffee Decaffeinated coffee	Coffee replacer	Raw ("hot") chocolate milk
Soft Drinks	Lemonade Jam Soft drinks Fruit juices	Organic fresh juices Flash pasteurized	Freshly squeezed juice: Fruit juices O.J. Vegetable juices Green powder juice Juice fresh from juice bar Superfood drinks Coconut water (fresh) Smoothies Home made lemonade w stevia

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4. Condiments and Spreads

	Bad	Better	Best
Tomato Ketchup	Tomato ketchup From supermarket	Organic, sugar free ketchup Home made ketchup	Raw ketchup
Mayonnaise	From super marked	Organic, no sugar added Home made	Raw home made mayonnaise Raw mayonnaise made from avocado Raw mayonnaise made from nuts/seeds
Pasta Sauces	From package Cans Mac n cheese Ready made	From health food store Organic Home made Pesto sauce Tomato sauce Organic Cheeses	Fresh raw tomato sauce Raw pesto Nut cheese Salsa
Bread Spreads	Cold cuts Processed meat Jam Chocolate spreads Cheese	Organic almond butter Jam/Jelly 100% fruit Raw honey Raw cheese	Avocado Pesto Tapenade Salsa Guacamole Nut pates Nut cheeses Coconut butter

---

5. Special Treats

	Bad	Better	Best
Candy	Candy from supermarket Energy bars Diet bars Chips Cookies	Organic from health store: - Candy - Chips - Cookies - Popcorn	Larabars Raw Cookies Raw cakes Fresh fruits Dried fruits Dehydrated crackers/chips
Cookies, Cakes	Cookies from super marked Cakes from super marked	Organic from health store Home made cookies Home made cakes	Raw cookies & cakes Raw cakes & pies Dehydrated cookies

---

6. Supplements

	Bad	Better	Best
Supplements Vitamins	Supplements Vitamins From supermarket From drugstore	Supplements from some small companies	Whole foods supplements Super foods Green powders

For the best raw food website for starters, go to http://www.thebestofrawfood.com/

Gabriel Cousens: the ultimate truth about any (raw) diet

In this short video Gabriel Cousens tells you the most important aspect of any diet: learn to observe what food is good for you! This is the true meaning of conscious eating and spiritual nutrition. Get to know yourself better and find out what food suits you best.

If you compare this video to the one of David Wolfe below, you will see, that Gabriel says exactly the same thing.

I like the macrobiotic slogan: Non credo!
Don't believe anything, but find out for yourself.

In Chinese medicine, diet is a very personal thing. Nobody should have exactly the same diet as any other person. Everybody is different and every circumstance is different, so every diet should be different.

As you can see, they all agree.

This is also my personal approach, when I give dietary advice. Find out what food is good for this particular person. I use applied kinesiology to test food and my lifelong experience giving dietary advice, to find the ideal diet for a person.

Anna Maria Clement: living food diet for cancer, diabetes, obesity

Last Wednesday Anna Maria PhD, NMD and Brian Clement PhD, NMD were in the Netherlands for a lecture and interview with Raw Food Europe. This video is the first part of the lecture, in which Anna Maria explains why and how the raw living food diet works.

Together with her husband Brian Clement, she runs the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida. Brian and Anna Maria have over 35 years experience in health and nutrition and coach very sick people from all over the world. They have good results with cancer, diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Together with leading universities in the US, Brian and Anna Maria Clement do research on diet and health. They contribute highly to modern scientific insights about nutrition. A plant based diet (preferably 80% raw) turns out the be the best diet for health and longevity.

Brian and Anna Maria Clement on fruits, sprouts and weeds

Last wednesday Esmé and I interviewed Brian Clement and Anna Maria Clement in Amsterdam.
We asked: "What is the best food to eat, if you don't want to eat 100% raw".
Brian’s answer (from a scientific background) is remarkable.
It is very important not to eat too much fruit. Many people eat massive amounts of fruit and fruit sugars in their raw food diet. There are different reasons, why to avoid this.
Sprouts, greens and weeds are much healthier.
If you do want to add other foods to these sprouts, greens and weeds, it is best to add some cooked vegetables or grains like millet, quinoa, buckwheat and amaranth (up to 20% of your diet, when you are healthy).

David Wolfe and Tim Van Orden: protein sources in the raw vegan diet

How do you get your protein, if you eat a raw vegan diet? This is a question, we raw get all the time. In these video's, you get the answers of two raw food experts.

David Wolfe gives an overview of some foods in the raw food diet that are rich in protein: spirulina, seaweeds in general, seeds, nuts, bee pollen and vegetables. The protein in the raw food diet is highly absorbable, so you don't need as much protein as western nutritionists tell you.

Tim Van Orden has a somewhat different approach, which I think is very interesting.
You don't need protein, you need amino acids. Raw food is filled with amino acids in the
form of enzymes. Enzymes are nothing else than complex chains of animo acids.
Although Tim doesn't get enough protein according to western theory, he is 15 pounds overweight as an athlete, all muscle tissue. How is that possible? Watch these interesting videos.

How to eat raw in social situations? Our interview with David Wolfe

This inspiring video is part of the interview Esmé Stevens and I had with David Wolfe in Antwerp, September 30, 2007. We asked David how to deal with social situations.
What do you do, when your friends or family ask you out for dinner or prepare a delicious cooked meal for you.

The answer is simple. It doesn't happen anymore if everybody knows, you eat raw food. David eats raw food for 13 years now and everybody sees him as the raw food guru.
So what is our advice? Be a raw food guru yourself! Even if you know very little, it is usually more than the others know.

And if it does happen, that you are in a situation without raw food, you could decide to fast or ask for a glass of water. If you keep eating a raw food diet, there will be a moment at which cooked food is no longer appealing to you. You don't think about it as food anymore. This will happen effortless.

How to transition to a raw food diet and how to control your cravings

Kevin Gianni made a great video on how to transition to a raw food diet without stress.

Do you wonder how to transition to a healthy raw food diet? Do you have a problem to control your cravings? Do you wonder how others can be 100% raw. Do you start all over every time, but without success?

Watch Kevin’s video. I totally agree with him. Start with having the mindset for success. By the way, now you understand, how I came up with the name for this blog: raw food success. Your mindset is the most important. Everything starts there.

And … if you have the urge to eat something bad, don’t judge. Eat it or don’t. Don’t force something on yourself, you might not yet be ready for. Your body needs time. If you eat something “bad” and feel the consequences, maybe next time, you will make another choice.

I think the Chinese dietary system is great in this respect. Every food has its own unique qualities, there is no bad or wrong. It’s the same with Buddhism.
Ultimately, after eating healthier for some time, you and your body will change and the cravings will disappear by itself. Without realizing, you will find yourself eating 100% raw one day.

Have a fantastic day!

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.

Dr. John Green on The Benefits of a Raw Plant Based Diet

Scientific studies have proven, that people who live on a raw food plant based diet live longer than others. The China study demonstrates that those who eat a plant based diet, are much healthier, compared to those who eat a standard western diet.
We need to bring up the nutrients in our body tissues. These are necessary to attack the enemies, like toxins and cancers in their early stages. Raw plant food is most appropriate for this, it’s high in nutrients and energy and low in calories.
When you eat raw plant food, your vitality and clarity of thinking go up. You’ve got to discover this by experimenting. You need the taste of raw food, the feel of it, the smell of it. Once your hart says “Yes I want to try the raw food diet”, you will find the resources you need. Look for the best information available. Over time you can learn to minimize the amount of cooked food you eat.
The two fundamental concepts of optimal health and wellbeing are nourishing in and cleansing out. Raw plant food has these innate nourishing and cleansing properties. Therefore it is the best food for optimal health and wellbeing.

How to Succeed on a 100% Raw Food Diet?

To succeed on a 100% raw food diet, you don’t need a tremendous willpower, like with many other diets. It’s not something difficult, although it might seem so in the beginning.

If you think that eating a raw food diet means eating just greens and vegetables, I agree, this can be difficult. But … this is not the case! Eating a raw food diet is much more than eating just raw vegetables and fruits.

As you can see in the interview with David Wolfe below, (natural plant based) fats are also very important in the raw food diet. As are superfoods, seaweeds and good quality water.

When you learn, how to prepare the most delicious raw dishes from fresh green vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, seeds, superfoods and seaweeds, you will see that this diet is the most rich diet, you can imagine.
It’s not a matter of willpower to succeed, it’s a matter of education!

Study the raw food diet, learn to prepare the dishes, buy raw food books, read articles on the internet, go to lectures, watch YouTube video’s, go out to raw food restaurants, get new raw friends and learn. Then you will see, that this process is effortless. Before you know, you eat a 100% raw food diet.

I can see this process with my kids. They eat almost a hundred percent raw now, without even realizing. It’s all very easy. They love the raw dishes and enjoy to participate in the kitchen.

My youngest daughter all of a sudden realized, that she doesn’t eat cooked food anymore. Today she said: “Mommy, I think I’m born to eat raw”. I explained her, this is normal.

We are all born to eat raw!

David Wolfe on Why and How to Start a Raw Food Diet

Our digestion is like one big muscle. If we don’t use it, we lose it. Cooked food is so mushy, that your digestion becomes weaker. It's like a muscle that is not being used. To change this condition takes time. It's a process of working up to a raw food diet and detoxification.

Everything we need to live, to be in vibrant health and to be totally alive is simple. We need:
1 Green leafy vegetables, that’s where protein is and the minerals are. A cow is a thousand pounds of protein from grass. The green in the grass has all the elements to form the cow. The gorilla, the strongest animal on the planet, eats about 80% vegetation and 20% fruit.
2 Fruit: Fruit is like fuel. It’s the natural sugar we are designed for.
3 Natural fats, like nuts, avocado’s and durian.
Many people think they need protein, when in fact they need fats.
The best source of fats are raw plant fats.

Taking animal foods has a karmic effect, you are killing the animal, and you are getting all the toxins, the animal ate in his life. They are stored in its fat.
Try to include as much as possible: green leafy vegetables, fruits and natural plant based fats.

Is a Raw Food Diet without Milk Safe?

Most of us are brought up on milk and milk products. Therefore it’s hard to believe for us, that we can live without.
Our ancestors used just a little bit of milk on special occasions. We drink large quantities and almost every product in the supermarket has milk powder or another product made of milk in it. More and more people are getting overly sensitive to milk and have allergies because of this high milk consumption.
I just read a study, that suggests that children who consume high levels of dairy products, nearly 2 cups a day (not even that much), have a greater risk of developing colorectal cancer in adulthood. Source: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, December 2007, by Dr. Jolieke C. van der Pols and colleagues.
Did you know that the biggest part of the world population uses hardly any milk (products). In Asia people use soy as a staple food, rather than milk. Many eastern people don’t even have the enzymes to digest milk properly.
But what about calcium? Don’t we need milk to get our calcium?
The answer is very simple: no, we don’t need milk for calcium. If that would be true, almost all people in Asia would have a lack of calcium and there would be a high rate of osteoporosis. But this is not the case, they even have very strong bones.
There are many other good sources of calcium: for instance green vegetables, nuts and seeds. This calcium is easier to assimilate than the calcium in milk. Especially sesame seeds, again a staple food in Asia, is rich in good quality calcium.
And did you know, that magnesium and silicon are much more important for our bones than calcium? Almost every western person has a lack of these minerals. Adding them to your diet is far more important than adding more calcium.
Finland and the Netherlands, the countries where people eat the most dairy, have the highest rate of osteoporoses. If milk would be the solution, this could never happen.
But milk seems to do the contrary of what we think. Drinking a lot of commercially produced milk, full of hormones and antibiotics, is forming a lot of acids in your body. What does your body do to get rid of these acids? I uses calcium from the bones , which is very alkaline, to neutralise them. The result of this being a lack of calcium in the bones, caused by the milk. So we don’t need milk to solve osteoporosis, we need to avoid it to solve osteoporosis!
Other very important and often overlooked factors to create and keep strong bones are exercise and direct sunlight (vitamin D). Scientific research has proven, that older people who exercise, have much stronger bones, than people who don’t exercise. Sunlight helps to create strong bones by creating vitamin D. Vitamin D is also essential to build strong bones.
Do you want to be really healthy, have and keep strong bones? Focus on a fresh raw plant food diet, high in natural calcium, magnesium, silicon and other nutrients. Avoid (a lot of) milk. Exercise and make sure to get enough sunlight. You will be stronger than ever before.