Scott's Raw Journey

Living on a 100% raw food diet seems so natural to me that I can no longer imagine eating or desiring to eat cooked food. But I can imagine plenty of people reading that statement and thinking I’m being more than a bit extreme. It doesn’t seem extreme to me at all. I don’t feel like I’m forcing this diet on myself, or adhering to it to prove anything to anybody or for some ascetic purpose for that matter. It feels completely natural and easy. Since most of my friends and family are not raw fooding their way to optimum health, I want to share some basic recommendations for things I would do as the next best thing.

Follow up:

Perhaps you may be imagining attempting to become a raw foodist yourself. On my journey getting to this point of feeling completely natural with the diet took some time and effort, around 4 years, during what is usually referred to as “transitioning”. There are plenty of people who have skipped the “transition” period altogether to a raw foods diet, so it is possible. It really depends on the person, and it is not recommended to follow someone else’s path. Better to forge your own and borrow the experiences of others for inspiration as needed. I switched to being vegan from omnivore (one who eats pretty much whatever) overnight. But the transition to 100% raw foods took some time. I will write more about transitioning in a future blog post.

I want the focus of this blog post to address those who may not have any intention of transitioning to anything in particular, but rather would like some simple diet-related suggestions to improve overall health and wellbeing. I do have some recommendations of things to add to your diet, but unfortunately, there really is no simple “pill” to take where you can expect to experience the vibrant life that many are denying themselves. It really does takes a concerted effort. The effects of making these changes are sometimes gradual and continuous, although sometimes a teaser of things to come can be felt immediately. (Sorry this is just a teaser.) Most importantly however, the process initially involves REMOVING things from the diet, rather than adding things.

I can list plenty of things to remove from your diet, but that’s not going to convince anybody to do so. After all, I’m just some schmuck with a blog. But I will recommend that you educate yourself and make the most informed decision you can make. Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion about nutrition out there, some of it intentionally generated that influences our opinions. Fortunately, it is possible to sift through the clutter and discover information that will change your life. Please refer to my recommended reading and see if anything strikes your fancy. If you still eat fast food, “Fast Food Nation” will be the nail in the coffin to that habit. If you eat meat and would like to give it up forever, “The Food Revolution” by John Robbins should do the trick. If you drink coffee, you probably haven’t read “The Caffeine Blues”. But if for some reason you don’t like to read and you want to just take my word for it, here is my list of things to avoid putting into your body, in no particular order.

Dead animal flesh
Salt (sodium chloride)
Coffee, caffeinated teas, Yerbe Mate
Processed sugar, including high fructose corn syrup, and fake sugars such as highly toxic Aspartame (Nutrisweet)
Flouride

These substances either inhibit the successful assimilation of anything healthy you attempt to add to your diet, or they neutralize or eliminate the valuable micro-nutrients and electrolytes that the body needs. Not only are these substances nutrient deficient in and of themselves, their overall effects on the body are anti-nutritive. You get negative health. Anti-health.

I know what it’s like to not know what truly vibrant health is, and I know what it’s like to be unable to imagine that there is such a thing beyond what you normally feel. Fortunately, through some act of grace, I was compelled to explore beyond my limited vantage point and poor dietary choices, to discover new levels of vibrancy and happiness that result from removing these items from the diet.

The next step is to begin using healthier alternatives. For some people, this may mean phasing out items from the list gradually, as you are able, and at your own pace. There is a school of thought, a small school but one I pay attention to, that says by adding certain nutrient-dense foods to your diet, the body, deprived of real nutrition for so long, will suddenly feel nourished to such a degree that it will not only begin to crave better nutrition, but effect your mind in such a way so that you no longer want foods that are anti-nutritive. What this means, is that you really don’t have to try too hard to quit anything. It’s great if you can, and if you can you should. But if that’s not your path, then by simply adding the good stuff, you will gradually and naturally phase out the bad stuff. In my experience, I quit certain things that I knew I could, like meat and dairy products, refined sugar, most processed foods, non-organic foods. Other things, such as alcohol, tobacco, and finally all cooked foods, phased out on their own with minimal effort as I learned to pay more attention to what my body wanted and what it was rejecting.

With all that said, we finally arrive at the EASY CHANGES to make to your diet. I consider these following recommendations to be the best starters in the effort to improve your diet.

BLUE GREEN ALGAE
I used to get colds every winter in Chicago, at least 2 or 3 each season. I started taking E3Live one year and I went through the entire winter without getting sick. I was a musician playing in smokey bars almost every night of the week. A year later, I worked in a small office, and I remember everyone in the office being sick at the same time, wheezing and sneezing. I didn’t catch it, and while it was going on, I KNEW I was immune. E3Live will build your immunity. Highly recommended.

E3LIVE

FOOD-BASED MULTI-VITAMINS
In an earlier blog post I made the distinction between food-based supplements and synthetic supplements. Synthetic supplements, such as the kind you find in the local drug store, are made with petrochemical byproducts, you know, oil. There is nothing natural about any of it. The body not only doesn’t recognize it as food, or as something it can assimilate, but rather treats it as a foreign, toxic substance and does whatever it can to get it out of the system. In worse case scenarios, the body may be confused by it and by attempting to uptake them, unwittingly prevents the real nutrients from being assimilated because the analog substance is now blocking specific targeted receptor sites.

A food-based supplement, on the other hand, has whole food ingredients that have been pulverized into tiny particles that are easily assimilated by the body. The highest quality supplements will be devoid of any non-food ingredient, including binders and fillers. The following recommendations are carefully formulated multi-vitamin supplements. They are so nutritionally dense, I think it would be possible to live on no other food source. But your taste buds may get bored!

One of the problems with these formulas, in my opinion is that if you are already eating a nutrient-dense diet, ie. lots of raw foods and superfoods, you may have difficulty keeping track of the amounts of the various ingredients. Let’s say, you could be overdosing on zinc or overtaxing the body with another mineral. Where these formulas have a place is when traveling if quality food options are limited. Also if your diet is primarily a cooked food diet, these formulas will give the body needed nutrients that the cooked diet is not able to provide. In this case, I recommend eating a tablespoon of the formula on an empty stomach between meals rather than with food. You will probably feel less hungry and eat less of the nutrient-sparse food as a result (and lose some weight!)

SUN IS SHINING
formulated by David Wolfe

PURE SYNERGY

VITAMINERAL GREEN
Formulated by Jameth Sheridan, N.D. of HEALTH FORCE

FOOD BASED VITAMIN C
We have been programmed to think of Orange Juice when we think of sources for Vitamin C. The truth is that orange juice is not very high compared to other sources. Carrot Juice has way more vitamin C. Pomegranate juice is also an excellent source. However, the fruit with the highest known source for vitamin C is called camu camu. It is a tart berry that grows in the Amazon river, yes the actual river. It is the size and texture of a large grape. I had the opportunity to taste one while I was in the Amazon, and it is very tart. It is usually juiced down there and diluted with water. Fortunately you don't have to travel to the Amazon to experience camu camu. Although that shouldn't stop you from going!

Pure Radiance C POWDER

POMEGRANATE JUICE CONCENTRATE
Don't bother with other pomegranate juices on the market. This is superior.

SALT
One of the best and easiest changes to make, especially if you prepare your own food, is to substitute high quality salt for common table salt. Common table salt is known as sodium chloride. It is a toxic substance that your body rejects. It is often confused with organic sodium, a trace mineral that occurs naturally. Plants chelate rock sodium through photosynthesis, and it turns into an electroly that the human body requires. In fact, sodium chloride (table salt) contributes to the depletion of organic sodium. I believe that many diseases can be attributed sodium deficiency. Organic celery and any sea vegetable are great sources for obtaining orgainic sodium. So keep this in mind when you read reports about salt in the mainstream media. The distinction is rarely made, even with medical doctors, who are poorly trained in nutrition.

High quality salt is going to be unprocessed and include many micro-nutrients and trace minerals. To learn more about how high-quality salt works synergistically with water (and hence the human body, since it is mostly water), I refer you to American Blue Green. There you will find instructions on making sole from Crystal Salt Stones. It's easy to do. I add it to my drinking water to mineralize it.

Celtic Sea Salt has been touted as a benificial salt. It's definitely better than table salt, but not as good as himalayan salt. It appears to also contain trace amounts of petroleum due to pollution in the sea from which it is harvested.

Although Himalayan salt, obtained from ancient dried sea beds, is the best quality salt, even the quality among the various producers will vary. The problem is that the grinders used to pulverize the salt stones are made with low quality grinders that shave down metal into the final product. That's why I recommend SunFire Salt, formulated by David Favor. This is an amazing product that you can use with your food preparations. I bought a 1 lb bag back in March and I still have some in November (and even gave away some.) So don't wig out about paying $12 a pound. It's worth it!

SUNFIRE SALT


OIL
If you are going to prepare cooked food, one of the best things you can do is replace cheap corn or canoli oil with coconut oil. The problem with the other oils is that when heated, they undergo a chemical alteration which causes them to become toxic. They are highly unstable. Coconut oil, on the other hand, is very stable when exposed to high heat. It also has many other nutritional benefits. There are many coconut oils on the market. I believe the best comes from Transition Nutrition.

Coconut Oil

THIS POST IS STILL BEING WORKED ON -- OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS COMING SOON