The Skinny on Your Skin

Your whole body is covered with it. On average for an adult, it covers about 3000 square inches and weighs about 6 pounds.

It grows as you grow. It contracts as you get slim. It regenerates and repairs itself after most injuries to it.

Your skin is an important organ for releasing toxins from the body, through what many people prefer not to talk about — sweat. The skin also absorbs substances directly — topical remedies, environmental toxins, components of the water you soak in.

Your skin protects vital organs, aids in regulating body temperature, and gives you information through touch or sensations.

People spend thousands of dollars on skin preparations  to make their skin look a certain way, for example, younger or more radiant. Many of these products introduce chemicals into the body. Healthy facial products are also available for sale.

Raw Foods on Your Skin

Many health food advocates know the value of placing certain organic raw or living foods directly on the skin. Avocado, coconut oil, raw honey, aloe vera, raw apple cider vinegar, are among the popular favorites.

Cucumber slices soothe the eyes when you close your eyes, lie down, and put slices on your eyes. Raw honey soothes burns and heals abrasions. Raw apple cider vinegar acts as an astringent and fast facial cleanser.

We use a lot of aloe vera, directly from the plant leaf. We cut pieces for smoothies, raw soups, and salad dressings and then rub the rest on our faces. Topical application of aloe vera takes the discomfort and discoloration from a bruise.

Eating Raw Foods for Your Skin

When you start to eat raw foods after a long time of eating highly processed foods, you can have a healing reaction that shows on your skin. Acne, rashes, or other conditions can show that you are releasing toxins. When all your other releasing organs are working at maximum capacity, this is minor or non existent.

When your body is finished with its cleansing, though, you will see changes in the texture, tone, and vitality of your skin. Your skin will radiate. It will be well worth the discomfort (which you may not even experience).

Organic, living, raw foods provide you with the vitamins, enzymes, minerals, and amino acids your body needs for your skin. Raw foods are filled with water, so that you add moisture to your skin, from the inside out.

When your systems and organs are fed the nutrition they need to function properly, your skin advertises your health. When you get your nutrients and moisture from foods like leafy greens and apples and sprouts, you will know the real meaning of phrases like "inner beauty" and "inner glow."

When your body and skin are getting their nutrition with organic, raw, living foods, you’ll look and feel your best, naturally. Show the world your health with the glow of your skin!

Question from Heather
Can I lose weight by being on a raw food diet?

Additional Comments from Heather
I’ve been up and down on the scales most of my life. I don’t even like to get on the scales any more, but there is no denying how my clothes fit and how I feel. (Answer: not well and not well.) I’ve heard that eating raw and living foods is very helpful for losing weight. Is that true?

Joy’s Response to Heather

The direct, simple answer to Heather’s question is: yes, absolutely, you can lost weight on a raw food eating plan if you’re currently overweight and eat cooked foods. But there’s more to the answer, so please read on.

First of all, I have to be clear that I don’t claim to be an expert on weight loss. Come to think of it, many people who claim this expertise have very limited views, mainly because they have a one-size-fits-all mentality and/or a product to sell. I don’t fault any of them, but I want to acknowledge that you’re an individual who needs to find your own successful approach.

Based on what Heather has said and what I know about raw foods and body weight, I’d like to offer an approach that puts you in charge of your eating. While I’ve never had a problem of being overweight, I have sensitivity to the problem, as many around me do. I’ve also experienced food addictions which would have led to excess weight if left unchecked.

The Starting Place: An Empowering Purpose

When you consider changing to a raw food cuisine for the purpose of weight loss, that can either empower you temporarily or serve to sabotage you. So sometimes, it’s just better to have the purpose of "going raw" or "adding raw" for general health benefits. Likely, you’ll experience a variety of benefits, including slimming.

What I’m suggesting is that you make health, rather than the bathroom scales or clothes size, the primary motivator. Let how you feel guide you.

You may also be successful creating a series short term goals with the broader purpose of health based on eating foods that are filled with nutrition. There’s so much conflicting data, so I’m suggesting you simplify your eating plan and use your feelings to guide you.

Choose One Rule for Yourself

I’ve seen many people change their eating or other habits drastically. While a drastic change may ultimately be necessary, so often people can’t incorporate the changes if the changes are too many or dramatically different from their familiar patterns. Take one step at a time, one meal at a time, one day at a time.

Everyone’s different, of course, but I’ve found that if you have one simple "rule" or "guideline" for yourself, you’re so much more likely to follow through. A single idea will help you to organize yourself for success.

If you’re put off by the word "rule," choose another word. I’ve already suggested that "guideline" is an alternative. The key is that you want only ONE idea or action to remember to make the decisions at each meal easier.

In fact, this principle is the reason that so many people can lose weight if they follow one program diligently. However, you need to find a program or approach that can work for a lifetime, not one that you abandon after a period of time because you’ve reached your weight goal, experienced boredom, or passed the date (wedding, graduation, etc.) that served as an incentive.

One Rule I Chose Years Ago

I’ll give you a personal eating example, although it’s not related to raw food eating. It was many years ago when my children were very little and I was participating in various groups and meetings with other parents. And, oh, the food! People brought goodies that were enticing, pretty, laden with fat, and filled with sugar.

My One Rule was: Participate in these meetings without eating. It was like pre-making the decision so I wasn’t faced with re-making the decision each time. Of course, if the gathering was a meal, the rule didn’t apply, but I still passed on the dessert tray.

When I had made the "rule" — which felt good to me to make — I didn’t feel deprived. When I applied the rule again and again, I didn’t feel deprived. I simply was not tempted because I had a long-term purpose.

Perhaps you’d feel deprived under these circumstances. If so, it’s really important you create a different rule. You can choose a very difficult rule and still not be deprived. Or start with an easy rule that empowers you into success right away. Make it joyful.

One Rule to Stop or One Rule to Start

People feel inspired by different opportunities. My own example above was a rule I chose for myself to stop — to not take — an action. That worked for me, without making me feel deprived.

In choosing a raw, living food cuisine or just more raw foods, it’s so much easier to find a rule of something to start. That way, the stop actions are so much easier.

After mastering your first One Rule, you can add others or you can expand your One Rule. Be really gentle with yourself. Make joyful choices, one at a time.

Examples of One Rule Approaches in Living Foods

Here are some beginning places. All are stated positively, with nothing to stop, only items to include in your eating. With these few examples, you can easily construct your own One Rule. Remember, you want to start with something compelling, something that makes you feel empowered and not deprived.

1. Consume something raw every time you eat. This is a very helpful guideline if you feel ready for it. The "something raw" could be as little as a sprig of parsley. Or, of course, it could include a whole meal of raw food items. "Every time you eat" means every time and not necessarily every thing.

2. Eat two (or one or four or any number) Superfood items/servings each day. There are many superfoods. You can check the "Categories" in the left navigation bar for the articles I’ve written so far, with more to come.

3. When at home, eat all vegetables raw. At most restaurants, it’s also possible to ask for uncooked vegetables, but at least at home, you can have total control in your own food preparation.

Does any of these examples feel good to you? If so, adopt it adapt it and get started. If not, start with a different positive action you want to sustain about raw foods or start with One Rule that relates to a stop-action.

Examples of One Rule Approaches in Stopping Cooked Foods

Here are some beginning places to stop consuming non-living foods. You might find it very helpful to select one or two individual items to eliminate. However, this works most effectively if you make the One Rule broad enough to included many individual items, and specific enough to give you guidance at each meal or shopping trip, when you must make a single-item choice.

1. Stop eating cooked wheat. Wheat is not the staff of life anymore. It’s addictive and devastating to a large percentage of the population. I’ll write more about this as a follow up to this article.

2. Stop eating refined sugar. Refined sugar goes by many names, and the artificial substitutes are also extremely unhealthy. Both are addictive and play a large part in obesity and other gradations of overweight. More in a future article, including some sweet substitutes that are healthy.

3. Stop overeating. You’ve had enough food when you’ve eaten some and still feel comfortable. It’s surprising how little quantity the body needs when you’re properly nourished. One of the reasons that so many people crave large amounts of cooked foods is lack of nutrients in the cooked foods. With raw foods, and especially raw superfoods, the nutrients are dense so you naturally want less.

Does any of these examples feel good to you? If so, adopt or adapt it and get started. If not, start with a different stop-action you want to sustain or return to One Rule that relates to including raw foods.

I have Inspired Myself to Write More

Heather, thanks so much for your question. It has stimulated more ideas that I’d like to share in future articles. Quite honestly, when I received your question, I wasn’t sure I wanted to tackle it. It is a BIG question, and I’ve only touched the surface in this one article.

I plan to write a series of articles, returning to this one to expand on some of the ideas here.

You cannot expect to make a change in your body contour
without making some changes in your thinking and your behavior.

Needless to day, I grew up with the notion that "soup" meant something warm or hot. These days, I have soups nearly every day when I’m not traveling, and they’re neither warm nor hot! They’re raw and room temperature. My friend Jill calls my soups, "salad to blender to bowl."

Here’s a recipe with some alternatives. We prepare some variation of the soup rather regularly because we love sprouted peas. When the children were little, we found that they loved to watch the peas quickly sprout a little tail. We learned lots of ways to use the peas they sprouted!

Sprouted Pea Soup: 4 Servings
Ingredients 2 cups sprouted peas 1 cup snow peas or sugar peas 1 medium avocado 1 small-medium apple 1 ½ cups best available water ¼ tsp ground cayenne pepper Celtic Sea salt to taste (or use any highly mineralized salt)
Directions Prepare apple and avocado by removing non-edible parts. Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor until it reaches the desired consistency. See a variety of suggestions below.

Sprouted Peas. We sprout these ourselves; however, some health food stores are now carrying peas that have been sprouted. I’ve pictured sprouted peas above, as distinct from pea sprouts (below), which are long with a leaf at the end. We purchase our peas for sprouting at a variety of places (see the left navigation bar in the "Sprouting Seeds" section for suggestions). Our special favorite is the San Francisco Mix at Sprout People. We use the peas when they’ve sprouted about 2-4 days.

Snow or Sugar Peas. To be honest, we usually make the recipe with sprouted peas. However, snow peas or peas right out of the pod are a nice addition. We have also added pea sprouts, as shown above, as another texture.

Avocado. Nicely ripened avocado makes this soup creamy and green, adding healthy fat and subtle flavor. When we’re ready to make the soup but without a properly ripened avocado, we use raw, soaked nuts. They also require proper timing, as almonds need to be soaked about 24 hours and cashews or walnuts need to be soaked 6-8 hours. Allow 3-4 nuts per serving.

Apple. We’ve prepared this soup without the apple and it’s just as tasty. The apple adds wonderful nutrients, crunch, and crispiness. "An apple a day …." If you haven’t had your apple that day, be sure to add one to this soup.

Water. Opinions abound about the "right" water to consume. I try to stay away from the controversy; besides, some people cannot get the water that raw food purists consider to be the best. So, you choose what you believe is the best available water.

Cayenne Pepper. We use ground cayenne pepper often. If that’s not to your taste, you’ll still find this a wonderful dish if you omit it. Because peas have a more neutral flavor than many vegetables, experiment with your own favorite herbs or spices.

Celtic Sea Salt. Be certain not to spoil this wonderful raw soup with "regular" table salt. What you want here is a highly mineralized salt, of which there are many to choose from. Sea vegetables are another alternative, about ¼ to ½ teaspoon. Another alternative is celery. When we add celery to this soup, we place the water and celery in the blender first to break down the fibers. Then we add all the additional ingredients because they need much less blending.

Texture. Varied textures create different taste sensations. This soup, as many raw soups, can be successful as chunky, smooth, or pureed. We usually prefer a chunky soup, as that reminds us to chew. Chewing is an important part of the digestive process. Here are some considerations for experimenting:

• Blend these ingredients into a puree. If you do that, be certain to save out some of the sprouted peas or pea sprouts for garnish.
• Create a nice texture this way: blend the ingredients briefly, remove most of the soup to a bowl, puree the remaining, and add the puree to the briefly blended soup. This thickens the soup, but without any artificial ingredients.

Temperature. At our house, we eat most of our foods at room temperature. If you like a different temperature, consider:

• For a warm soup, heat the water (be careful to keep it below 118° if you want a truly raw soup) or place the soup in the dehydrator or on a warming tray enough to warm it. Some people, especially in colder climates, prefer warm foods.
• If you like it chilled, start with refrigerated ingredients, then place the soup in the refrigerator for a brief period.

Whatever you eat, eat with a smile on your face and love in your heart.

I eat raw cacao every day, in many different ways.

It’s a Chocolate World

Chocolate is everywhere in our society. However, most of it is highly processed, cooked, laden with dairy and flavored with refined sugar. It’s the processing of the chocolate that makes it a health hazard. It’s a strange world that has turned one of the most powerful, natural, nutrient-dense foods into an unhealthy, ubiquitous food item.

Raw cacao, which is highly nutritious, will be one of the foods that health and wellness advocates will want to know about — and use.

These days, cacao is more readily available than just a few years ago, in various natural forms throughout the United States. The most common forms are beans with skins still on (whole beans), nibs (broken beans), and powder (ground beans). However, I prefer raw, certified organic (or the equivalent), skinless, whole cacao beans. Perhaps your preference will be different from mine.

I suggest you start at Sunfood.com because that site will have the widest variety of the best available. When you get to the site, simply search for "cacao" to bring up the current selection of products. If you prefer to purchase in a local store, just read the label carefully. Pictured at the right is the way I purchase most of my cacao.

At the moment of writing this article, this item is out of stock at Sunfood.com. When I talked with one of the support persons, he said that the manufacturer has not been able to keep up with the demand. I purchased some nibs locally. Right away, I noticed the difference in taste. NaturalZing.com also has wonderful raw cacao.

The Real Stuff

Chocolate is made from Cacao (or Cocoa) Beans. Cacao is chocolate; chocolate is cacao. However, when you start with the one ingredient cacao and add healthy ingredients without cooking, you retain the antioxidants, minerals, and neurotransmitter rejuvenating properties.

The raw cacao bean is one of nature’s most outstanding superfoods due to its mineral content and wide array of unique and varied properties. Since many of the special properties of cacao are destroyed or diminished by cooking, refining, and processing, it’s important to consume it raw.

Cacao is hard. To eat it, you need to break it down. Typical ways are with mortar and pestle, high speed blender, regular blender, or your teeth.

Cacao is bitter. Bitter is one of the important tastes, but rarely do we eat bitter items alone. I can eat cacao straight — and often do! — but I think that’s an acquired taste. I also rarely eat a whole handful of cacao on its own. More likely, I eat 3-4 beans alone. Cacao beans are easy to transport in a suitcase, purse, or pocket for superfood nutrition on the go.

Sweeteners for Cacao

Stevia is the sweetener of choice by many people wishing to avoid refined sugar and the mainstream alternatives. In the US, stevia is marketed (by law) as a nutritional supplement and cannot be marketed as a sweetener.

Honey is extremely sweet to my taste, so I only use a very small amount occasionally.

Dates are a living food. Other dried foods serve as interesting sweetening and texture to cacao dishes.

Other natural sweeteners also go well with cacao, such as, dried fruit, mesquite pod meal, carob, yacon syrup.

Please note: I no longer recommend Agave nectar There are a few extremely expensive agave nectar products that are more healthy than most on the market. Since I’m not familiar with the brand names, I am simply avoiding agave and recommending it.

Uses

I add raw cacao to nearly every type of meal. It’s an essential ingredient of my Raw Fruit Smoothies and Vegetable Soups, and, in particular, Raw Food Energy Soup. Cacao adds valuable minerals that are often lacking in restaurant foods, so I’m certain to carry some with me at all times.

Cacao was used as money by the ancient Aztecs — so to them, money did grow on trees. But, make no mistake, they ate cacao also. So they associated both their wealth and their health with cacao.

Recently, I wrote about a different approach David Wolfe is using
that associates food and money.
You can read that article or
go directly to David’s Food that Attracts Money Video.

The Skinny on Enzymes

Enzymes act as catalysts for proper food digestion and assimilation.

At birth, each human receives a limited amount of digestive enzymes. Once gone, they’re gone; food enzymes must then be supplied from the outside.

Each plant contains food enzymes, the precise enzymes needed for proper human digestion of that food, if the plant is left in its raw state.

More About Enzymes

I find it’s most helpful to think of enzymes as catalysts, because that’s their function. They ignite life. It’s also true that most enzymes are proteins. As important as proteins are, enzymes are so small that it’s pointless to try to calculate them into your daily protein count.

Understanding that enzymes make food more digestible and able to be assimilated is key to understanding the importance of these little gems. Even if you don’t have a felt digestion problem, if you’re not properly digesting or assimilating your foods, then you’re not getting the nutrients that you need.

Food that’s not properly digested does not travel through the body properly and its nutrients are not used fully by the body.

Enzymes are destroyed when heated above 118° (or, depending who you read, 120°). Therefore, enzymes are only found in raw foods or foods that are dried at temperatures below 118°. Some enzymes survive the food-freezing process.

Enzymes continue to be alive even as they pass through the body, so they’re assimilated by the tissues of the body.

As you age, you require greater need for live food with enzymes, especially you’ve consumed cooked foods frequently. Lacking the proper enzymes to break food down, undigested foods accumulate. Accumulated foods create weight gain, aches and pains, inflammation, digestive problems, and fatigue. Living with such conditions makes it easier to attract even more debilitating illness.

The Practical Application

If you want to read scientific data about enzymes or you want to know which enzyme is needed for each type of food, I suggest a Google search or one of the three excellent books shown at the bottom of this article. I’ve read all these books and a lot of this type of information, which has been enormously educational.

However, I want to leave you with the bottom line of practicality: eat more raw and living plant foods. Adding seeds you’ve sprouted yourself, fresh cucumbers, young romaine lettuce, and other greens that you like will enhance your life

You’re at your own unique place with respect to eating raw foods. I think the most practical suggestion is to honor where you are right now (don’t make yourself wrong about anything). Add raw plant food to each meal. Make living plant food a regular part of your life. Limp carrots and wilted lettuce add little of value. Cooked foods have few nutrients (and no enzymes); many cooked foods and other popular substances drain the energy from you.

If you’re already eating many live plant foods, consider eating even more — in quantity, quality, and variety. You truly can get stronger with age.

If this is all new to you, be like a baby and take baby steps. Many people who make dramatic changes in their eating regime rarely stay with the new program for long. Gradual changes are easier to incorporate. Do what works for you. If you’re encouraging others to eat more raw foods, encourage gently and without judgment.

Clearly, there’s more involved in healthy living than food. The main reason that I wanted to write about enzymes is this: if you’re aging (and if you’re alive, you are), this is a good time to increase the enzyme intake through raw, living plant foods to moderate the decline with age.

It’s a beautiful thing to age;
it’s not such a beautiful thing to decline.

Lucuma Powder from Fruit

Quoting from David Wolf’s SunFood.com web site, "Lucuma is an excellent source of carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals -- including remarkable concentrations of beta-carotene, Vitamin B3 (niacin), and iron. Lucuma has a full-bodied subtly sweet flavor and has long been a culinary favorite of Peruvians and superfood enthusiasts worldwide."

Quoting from the NaturalZing.com web site, "Its unique and fragrant flavor resembles maple syrup. Lucuma is low in acid, low in sugar and contains an excellent source of carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins and minerals. It is especially abundant in beta-carotene, niacin and iron with significant amounts of calcium and phosphorus."

Lucuma Ice Cream from Powder

Quoting my daughter, Sarah, "I make some variation on lucuma ice cream every week. It’s easy, delicious, and always ready for unexpected guests."

We make Lucuma Ice Cream so often that we don’t use a recipe. And, yes, it’s a little different each time because we vary the ingredients and experiment. Always, though, we use raw ingredients; and with very few exceptions, we use certified organic ingredients.

However, it’s not fair to you for me to say, add a little of this and a little of that. So, I’ve written the recipe below, using the SunFood.com web site, which is itself a variation on the classic recipe, as a general guide for quantities. Below the written information, I’ve included a video with a different recipe.

Lucuma Ice Cream: 6-8 Servings
Ingredients 1 ½ cups really raw cashews, soaked ½ cup coconut cream, coconut meat, or raw coconut butter ½ cup organic lucuma powder ¼ to ½ cup sweetener* 1 whole vanilla bean 1 ½ Tbs psyllium hulls Approximately ½ cup best water available ¼ cup maca powder Celtic Sea salt to taste (or use any highly mineralized salt)
Directions Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend to a nice batter. Put in a container that likes to be in the freezer, and freeze until it’s the perfect consistency. An ice cream maker is not required, but you can certainly use one. Be sure to read additional notes below.

Cashews. Start with "really raw" or "raw, cool processed" cashews. They will be hard and dormant. Soak for 4-8 hours in the best available water. This softens them and makes them alive rather than dormant, which means you have the proper enzymes available in the nuts to digest them properly. Drain water and rinse the cashews.

Coconut. We’ve tried the coconut in all forms. If you’re purchasing it in a glass jar, look for raw, organic cream or butter if you want some of the coconut meat in it. If you’re purchasing fresh coconut, I recommend the Thai young coconuts if available; brown coconuts also make a great addition to this ice cream. You can use the liquid inside the whole coconut in place of the water in the recipe.

Lucuma Powder. Lucuma Powder is now more readily available in health food stores. Online, you can get it at SunFood.com and NaturalZing.com. This is, of course, the primary ingredient for which the ice cream is named. There’s really no suggested substitute.

* Sweeteners. Sweeteners are a large controversy in the raw food community and other health-conscious individuals. Sweeteners are yucon syrup, dates, honey, and stevia. I’ve tried all these, noticing that the different choices add flavors or textures to the ice cream. I no longer recommend agave nectar.

Vanilla. For the vanilla, the whole bean is the most wonderful tasting. We finely chop it before adding it to the mixture. Raw vanilla powder works fine, as does organic vanilla extract.

Psyllium husks make the ice cream slightly gelatinous and scoopable.

Water. Everyone has an opinion of the "best available" water. It has to be as you define it. Instead of water, use almond or cashew milk or coconut water.

Maca. A daily substance in our house, maca is also from Peru. Maca is a healthy complex carbohydrate, loaded with minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamins, and fiber. I’ll write an article about this extraordinary superfood in the near future. There are many varieties of maca.

Variations. After you’ve experienced this ice cream following the general guidelines of the recipe, experiment with other ingredients that you like. Be creative. If you stay with the raw, organic ingredients, even the mistakes will be yummy.

Video from Ani Phyo’s Raw Food Kitchen
Lucuma Ice Kream

I thought it might be fun for you to see a video of someone preparing this Ice Cream, so I found the following video. Ani includes the recipe she’s using. You’ll notice by the very loud noise when she adds the cashews to the blender that she has not soaked the cashews. I do strongly recommend that you allow the time for the soaking process.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bNRLR7pWo0

Happy Eating. Please let me know any of your experiences and/or variations.

Since becoming acquainted with Jeanie Marshall’s Ask Yourself Empowering Questions Video, I often consider what questions might be the most empowering for me to suggest that you ask yourself.

Perhaps you’ve come to this web site for answers. I certainly hope to provide you with some answers, or perhaps better yet, choices so that you can find the best answer for yourself. And today, I have some questions.

Do you Choose Food or Nutrients?

Some people who think "I’ve just got to have food" are likely to grab a pizza or candy bar or something else that’s readily available or advertised with an enticing jingle.

However, people who think, "I’ve just got to have nutrients" are more likely to think about getting such things as minerals, enzymes, amino acids, vitamins, pH balance, range of nutrition, or energy.

Many of the items readily available in stores, even so-called healthy stores, are so highly processed that they have few nutrients remaining. These products are so familiar and available that they have become the norm. It’s not that everyone eats them, but the demand is extremely high for items that are manufactured into a box so that they can sit on the shelf for years.

On the other hand, choosing fresh food that’s closest to its natural state is a choice for nutrients. An orange that you peel and eat is a whole food with enzymes and vitamins and taste; it will hydrate your system. An orange drink sweetened with high fructose corn syrup will pull nutrients from your system and dehydrate you, making you hungrier for more of the same or similar foods.

Do You Choose the Same Type of Food Today as Yesterday?

I remember reading several years ago that most people eat essentially the same 12 items regularly. That doesn’t mean that everyone eats the same 12 items, but that most people choose from a very narrow and similar selection each day.

Initially, the body usually finds unfamiliar items distasteful, then the items became familiar, and then they become the norm. Let’s take coffee, for example. The first sip of coffee is usually quite distasteful. It’s bitter. Some neutralize or sweeten the taste with dairy or sugar in some variation. Coffee shops have some very ingenious ways to disguise the taste of coffee.

Without doubt, drinking coffee is the norm in many parts of the world. Most people who have become accustomed to drinking coffee and then want to stop drinking coffee must make a conscious choice, often struggling for days or weeks with that choice. If you regularly drink coffee, it’s much easier to keep drinking it than to choose something else.

I’m using coffee as an example only because most people can relate to it. I could have chosen another example: donuts or chocolate or sugar or popcorn or carrots or smoothies. The key is that we all tend to gravitate to familiar foods and create a habit of eating them.

Are Your Favorite, Familiar Foods Giving You the Necessary Nutrients?

If you feel great physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually day after day, the answer may be yes. As time passes and your body has less tolerance for non-nutritious food, you can maintain or regain your health by being attention to your food choices. And more importantly, to choose foods that contain nutrients.

Years ago, the Movie Super Size Me (2004) was in the theaters. My husband and I had heard enough about it to know that we were not the intended audience. I’ve never eaten in a MacDonald’s and my husband has only a few times when avoiding it would have caused more problems than deciding to be with the guys. Later when the movie was on DVD, we decided to watch it.

It was a very difficult movie for us to watch. At the same time, I must say that it’s a very powerful presentation of how devastating it can be to eat foods that are devoid of nutrients, meal after meal, day after day. Yes, Morgan Spurlock’s experiment was an extreme. Or was it? For many, consuming foods without minerals or enzymes is the very reason for illness with age.

When You Eat Today, Will you Be looking for Food or Nutrients?

You make choices all day long about a variety of things. When eating or choosing not to eat something, you make a decision.

I honestly don’t know what the right choices are for you. I just encourage you to ask yourself this or a similar question that empowers you to make a choice that nourishes your body.

Once I tried the hemp powder or hemp protein powder. Only once. To me, it tastes like all those powdered "green" foods. However, if you’ve acquired a liking for that taste, you will surely have a superfood.

A superfood is a nutrient-dense food. I mentioned superfoods in earlier articles when I discussed another favorite superfood, Goji Berries and when I discussed Protein from Plant Foods.

The Nutrients in Hemp Seeds

I’m going to quote from two different online sources, both of which I trust and purchase from, as they have done the research. It may be just a little more than you really want to know. If so, skip to the next section on Taste and Use.

From Natural Zing … Shelled hemp seed is a great source of the essential fatty acids Omega-3 Linolenic Acid and Omega-6 Linoleic Acid, as well as the hard-to-get Gamma-Linoleic Acid. While most foods have little if any, hemp seed is over 36% Essential Fatty Acids, and in nature’s perfect balance of 1-to-3 omega-3:omega-6 (according to Dr. Udo Erasmus). It contains 31% complete and highly-digestible protein, 1/3 as edestin protein and 2/3 as albumin protein.

This protein profile is second only to raw uncooked soybeans (35% vs. 31%), and the amino acid profile is superior to soybean, human milk, and cow’s milk, and similar to egg whites. Excellent protein efficiency makes hemp seed ideal for medical foods and other special diets. We have yet to hear of an allergic reaction to shelled hemp seed, and it contains no gluten.

From SunFood.com … Hemp seeds are considered by leading researchers and medical doctors to be one of the most nutritious food sources on the planet. Shelled hemp seed is packed with 33 percent pure digestible protein and is rich in iron and vitamin E as well as omega-3 and GLA. A recent report funded by the Canadian government states that hemp protein is comprised of 66 percent high-quality edistin protein, and that hemp seed contains the highest percentage of this of any plant source. Hemp also contains three times the vitamin E contained in flax.

Because the human body produces no Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs), it is important that EFAs be consumed on a regular basis. It is estimated that more than 90 percent of Americans take in too little of one of the most important EFAs–omega-3–which is found in flax, walnuts, chia, and hemp seeds. EFAs are the "good fats" that doctors recommend as part of a healthy, balanced diet. Shelled hemp seed is comprised of 45% "good fats" in an ideal balance of Omega-3 Alpha-Linolenic Acid, Omega-6 Linoleic Acid, "Super" Omega-3 Stearidonic Acid, and "Super" Omega-6 Gamma Linolenic Acid. It is also rich in vitamin E and iron, and contains 33% protein. The quality of omega-3 is vital, and can be diminished by oxygen, heat, and light. Thus consume the freshest seeds possible and store them tightly sealed in a dark, cold environment such as a refrigerator.

In the definitive book on good fats, Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill, author Udo Erasmus states, "The best-balanced source of EFAs is hemp seed oil."

Taste and Use

So, from the above, you have plenty of justification for eating the delicious little seeds because they’re loaded with nutrition. And, oh, wow, the taste! Right out of the bag, you can sprinkle on salads, raw soups, cereals, smoothies. I eat them nearly every day.

Once the bag is open, they require refrigeration, so when traveling I only carry a small amount and put them in the refrigerator in the hotel room. Since I travel a lot, I’m often looking for foods that survive a flight in my suitcases and can be easily consumed in hotel rooms.

One of the easiest, tastiest protein drinks is made with hemp seed and water, which you can sweeten to taste (if desired) with stevia, dates, dried fruit, or honey. Cinnamon (which I find sweet) is another added taste sensation. Just throw what you want into any blender, swirl, enjoy.

While I would never apply any heat to these seeds, here’s a resource for food preparation.

Flax: A Powerhouse of Nutrients in a Little Seed

High in antioxidants, flax seeds are idea for folks with many adverse health conditions associated with free-radicals, including high blood pressure, inflammation, blood sugar disruptions, etc. For general health for generally healthy people, these seeds are also important. This humble seed is appropriately called a superfood.

Flax seeds are a complete protein with the added value of healthy fat. Flax seeds contain alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3 oil), soluble and insoluble fiber, including the special fiber, lignans. Proportion of omega-3 and omega-6 is key to health.

Regular flax seed consumption aids in soothing or reversing many compromised health conditions and adds to a greater sense of well-being. Flax is a regular part of my own daily food consumption.

However, taking a spoonful of whole flax seeds can give you a tummy ache and very little nutrient value. To be of maximum use to the body, you need to be attentive to using them in a form that the body can assimilate.

The Forms of Flax

We generally think of flax as available in three forms: whole, ground/meal, oil.

Whole flax seeds do not require refrigeration, but ground flax seeds need to be frozen or can be refrigerated for short periods. Flax seed oil is quite unstable and requires refrigeration. I store whole flax in a glass container in a cupboard away from heat.

Whole flax loves water and drinks it rather quickly. This happens inside or outside your body. If you feel bloated from eating whole flax seed, you can do one of several things:

• Soak the whole seeds in water first (this produces a gelatinous mess which you might not like), or
• Chew them very well to reduce this internal swelling somewhat, or
• Grind the flax into meal and soak before using.

Flax meal (or ground flax) is very unstable. If you purchase flax meal, be certain to check the label. I expect that manufacturers of ground flax add stabilizers. And if they do not, the meal will likely be rancid.

Here’s what I do: I grind my own flax. I have done this in all my grinding or blending equipment and find that it works, each with a slightly different texture. Occasionally I am tempted to purchase a flax seed grinder, but then I reason with myself that I have enough equipment! I grind enough for a week or two and freeze it. It is ok refrigerated for up to two days.

When I grind flax seed, I don’t over-grind, as I find it pleasant if the texture is a little uneven, some coarse and some fine. I use my high speed blender because I can get exactly the texture I want quickly. However, if I didn’t have a high speed blender, I’d simply use a regular blender or food chopper. (See my earlier article on Raw Food Equipment.)

Flax seed oil is also highly unstable. At one time, I purchased flax seed oil. When I did, I always made sure to purchase from the refrigerated section and checked the dates on the label. I get plenty of flax seed oil in my daily consumption of flax. When I want this type of oil in a bottle, I use something else, like hemp seed oil.

Selecting Flax

I usually purchase my flax at one of my local health food stores in a package, certified organic. I pass up the bulk bins as these are rarely certified organic and I have no way of knowing how long they’ve been in the bin or if the clean out the bins.

I also buy online if I’m placing an order for other items either at RawFood.com or NaturalZing.com. Both these outstanding web sites have whole flax and various raw food flax products. Visit either site and search for "flax."

Golden Vs Brown flax. My understanding from reading someone who was involved in the original project of producing golden flax, that there is no difference in nutritional value between these two varieties. There is a slight difference in taste (golden flax is milder). For my taste, I much prefer the darker variety and now purchase only that.

Flax Can be Added to Many Recipes

Flax adds a slight nutty flavor to foods. I add it to raw soups, salads, salad dressings, and smoothies. In most cases, I soak it at least ten minutes in liquid before adding it to other ingredients.

Whole flax seeds, soaked first in water for several hours to activate the gelatinous quality that acts as "glue," make an awesome cracker for the raw foodist who does not consume bread. Recipes are included in most raw food cuisine books.

My morning smoothie starts with ground flax seed, soaked overnight in a little water. To that I add whatever else I want. I’ll include some recipes in future articles.

I eat 1/8 to 1/4 cup of ground flax seed a day. It is important to start small and increase to that amount if you want to take that much.

In this blog, by "superfood," I mean a food that’s jam-packed with nutrients that the body can use. To me, a superfood is organic (preferably certified organic, but definitely free from pesticides), whole, raw, living, and with a wide variety of nutrients. They build the immune system and strengthen the body.

Goji Berries

I’ve sifted through a lot of the literature on Goji Berries over the last 10 years. I was first introduced to them by Ron Teeguarden, a Caucasian herbalist specializing in Chinese herbs and philosophy, when I took a course from him. He identified them as Lycium berries, from the Latin botanical name.

The berries that Ron imports (or at least did when he taught this class) are from Tibet. They contain more vitamin C than any other food known and other vitamins that make them a powerful antioxidant. The 18 amino acids and other nutrients put this little orange goody into a class by itself.

They grow wild in Tibet, in an area where pesticides are not used, nor is the designation "certified organic." They are naturally "dried" by the sun and harvested by shaking the bushes (so they are untouched). Many Asians attribute their beauty, strength, and longevity to Goji berries.

In Ron Teeguarden’s book, "The Ancient Wisdom of the Chinese Tonic Herbs," (and also re-told by Dr. Earl Mindell in "Goji: The Himalayan Health Secret"), is the story of Li Qain Yuen who is documented to have lived 252 years. His main food was the Goji berry. Goji berries are also used by the long-lived Hunza people throughout the Himalayas. And they are revered by Chinese women in China.

Some products called Goji berries may or may not be, and their place of origin does determine the nutrient density. Look in credible supply places and for words like "wild crafted," "organic," or "certified organic." Except for "certified organic," these are loose terms, but at least give you an indication. I was first introduced to the Tibetian Goji berries, so I’ve learned more about them. However, places in China also produce goji berries with equivalent nutrients.

For Purchase and Further Reading

Dragon Herbs Goji berries (Ron Teeguarden’s Place)

SunFood (David Wolfe’s Place)
(My recommendation and where I purchase most)

Eat Raw (I’ve purchased here as well)

Kitchen Doctor
I’ve not purchased them here, but it has a nice synopsis and some recipe ideas.

Goji berries tend to appear pricey on the retail market. They are surely worth it, though, as a few are jam-packed with bioavailable nutrition. Be wise in your purchase. Trust your source. As with many items, especially purchased on the Internet, you can get a look-alike. Wolfberries are generally inferior (although not always), are often sold in Chinatown shops in the US, and can even be chemically treated and colored. You do not want these!

A Secret of the Goji

So here’s a secret, shhhhh. Most of the long-lived persons drink the soak water of the goji berries. They also eat the berries, but the soak water is treasured even more. The soak water is more alkaline; the berries are more acidic.

It takes several hours for the nutrients to be drawn into the soak water. Goji berries soaked in water overnight give your morning a healthy start. You can also put them in a water bottle that you carry with you (and keep adding water to the same bottle). Great for joggers.

For consuming warm, put them in a tea pot on a warming tray that maintains a heat under 113º and sip the warm tea. (Caution: Do not boil the water or cook the berries.) If you want to alter the flavor of this "tea," add some vanilla.

If you choose to eat the plump berries in your goji liquid, you’ll find them a pleasant surprise in the middle of a sip of water or tea.

Fasting and Cleansing

In future articles, I’ll write about fasting and cleansing. When doing either a fast or a cleanse, consider incorporating Goji berry soak water. Fasting or cleansing is a great way to move from a highly acidic diet to one which is more alkaline. During a fast or cleanse, strain the tea and only drink the soak water. I usually drink until there are only berries and sometimes I discard them.

Eating Goji Berries Dry

You can certainly eat them right out of the bag. However, if you have any sensitivity with that practice, just soak them for a while to soften them and activate the alkalinity. Likely they are just too acid for you if you get a tummy ache.

Once, a friend called me to say, "Yuck, I hate these. I don’t like the taste and they upset my stomach. I bought four bags, do you want them?" First, I assured her I’d take them off her hands. Then I made some of the suggestions you find here. She called the next day to say that she was no longer eager to get rid of them. She had fallen in love with the goji tea with a little snip of vanilla bean.

Bottled Goji Juice

There are products called "goji juice" in bottles, which I’m unlikely to purchase, as these would be processed, probably with heat or additional ingredients or preservatives. What is marketed as "goji juice" is different from this soak water. Buyer beware. Check the ingredients. Ask questions. Make the choices that are best for you.

Enjoy Goji Berries for a Very Long Time!

Goji berries are one of the most wonderful foods in nature. When you start incorporating them and other such superfood items in daily eating, craving for unnatural foods disappears. It’s so much more fun to eat wonderful foods you like than to be concerned with restricting yourself. Living a long life is only fun if you’re healthy.