Why am I sick after a 40 day Master Cleanse Liquid Fast???

I know Angela told you about this astounding place that we are staying at for 2 months in Golden Bay, and I am so excited about it I have to tell you more. There are about 200 sheep on this property. If you go outside, you hear cows ardently "mooing" from across the way seemingly competing to see who can be the loudest. You can see the ocean from the backyard! The house is literally right in the midst of nature. I LOVE IT!!! I don't know if I will ever leave this little area within the next two months, as everything is available here. Our next door neighbor sells really good produce. Raspberries, celery, cucumber, and their lettuces are AWESOME! This morning I ran down our quarter of a mile driveway and across the street to get some produce for juicing. I came home with freshly picked carrots, celery, cilantro, arugula, parsley and lettuce. There is also a fruit orchard here where we had wild sweet blackberries right off the bush. I can feel the difference when I eat straight from nature.

On another note, Dr. Flora has been writing with me lately about tomatoes and I have shared that with you in previous posts. Recently she wrote:
The tomatoes do so much more than just cause gas. As I mentioned, it withdraws calcium from the bones to buffer (neutralize) the acid. The citrus dissolves the endometrial lining of your intestine and causes little (or large) ulcers. The body, in it's wisdom, exudes mucus to protect itself from the acid, but a lot of things are set in motion that are not healthy. All of the nightshades are problematic. The tomatoes and other citrus will react with whatever you have in your stomach that is a starch and you and your cells will blow up like balloons.
I personally don't believe that tomatoes and citrus are an issue in moderate quantities. However, I was doing masses of them every day and I am excited to see what changes - if any - might happen from now dropping them from my meals... I have eaten tomatoes in mass quantities like this for many years...I had my blood tested, and everything was fine.

Anyways, I gave up the tomatoes and I've replaced them with grated cucumbers in my lettuce wraps. IT TOTALLY EMOTIONALLY SATISFIES ME!!! That is how I am able to improve my diet easily. I talked about the importance of emotional satisfaction in this post here. So my meal is pretty much the same as before, but I swapped the tomatoes with the grated cucumbers. When you grate the cucumbers, liquid comes out kind of like the tomatoes, making the mixture juicy. I make sure to use a potato peeler to take off the cucumber skin. I tried it both ways and the meal is so much softer without the cucumber skin. Also, the taste is not so overwhelming like the tomatoes, therefore, I am able to taste the other ingredients in the mixture so much more distinctly. I loved it! If my grandma was around, she would say that I am going to turn into a cucumber if I eat them in these quantities.

Just so you get an idea, the meal I just ate consisted of:
2 Tablespoons of home-made tahini/hazelnut butter
1 Tablespoon of Nut Paté that Angela made (sunflower seeds, garlic, sun dried tomatoes)
1 cucumber grated
2 Teaspoons of cut green onions
1 handful of Karengo Seaweed (My favorite! I am trying to get some for our store. I'll keep you posted!)
2 handfuls of Mung Bean Sprouts
1 big pinch of alfalfa, broccoli, Radish Sprouts
**All Mushed together with a fork
The above wrapped in butter lettuce leaves

When you do a massive fast, for 40 days, your body reaches a new level. You can't tolerate the processed foods that you used to eat anymore. When someone embarks on such a tremendous fast, the goal would be to come out the other end with an improved diet. 40 days is massive!

I just wrote an article about Juice Feasting, which is another long-term liquid fast. Read it and I hope you'll get a much better understanding of all this. When I say "other symptoms" in that article, getting sick is one of them. Another POSSIBLE symptom, if you go back to eating harmful processed foods, is the reoccurence of degenerative diseases. Here is a helpful excerpt from that Juice Feasting article:
No matter what your diet was like before the juice feast, unless you make an improvement in terms of decreasing your intake afterwards, there is a great chance that you will experience weight gain and/or other symptoms.

Even if you are on a 100% Raw Food diet and you go on a 92 day juice feast, you will reach a new level afterwards. Your body will now demand that you eat less quantity than the 100% Raw Food Diet that you used to be on. If you don't do this, it may result in excess weight. It is PROFOUND how much one cleanses when they do a 92 Day Juice Feast.

Before you embark into doing long-term fasting like this, it's important to understand these concepts and prepare yourself for an entirely new lifestyle. Some people jump into long-term fasting and are not psychologically and emotionally able to keep up with their cleaner body. They can't handle a new diet consisting of less food and it results in weight gain and/or other symptoms.
It sounds like your body is craving liquid again and your mind may be associating sickness with a past comforting "Illness remedy" of Chicken Soup. It seems perhaps you are dehydrated and need liquid. If you can't make juice, it may be a great idea to make an easy blended green smoothie that is not very thick. Or you may want to even just blend melons to drink. That should be really easy to do.

If you want to expedite yourself back to health 10 times quicker, then get a colonic. The purpose of colonics is to pull out the waste in your system. This sickness is simply waste just purging out of your body. This is the ideal time to do it!

HOWEVER, if I'm correct about the reason why you got sick , and if you cleanse the colon throughout this "flu-like" process, you will be ZAPPED right back to a cleaner state from the colonics. If you were eating processed foods before doing the master cleanse, (I am not saying that you were) the body needs time to adjust back and adapt to those processed foods and this current sickness would be part of that adapting process.
If you do not feel emotionally ready at this point to stay on the Raw Diet, you may want to consider just waiting out the cold instead of doing the colon hydrotherapy. That way, you won’t take yourself into as much of a clean state and your body will be able to handle and adapt to processed foods more easily.

Taking Therapeutic Enzymes on an empty stomach will also help you heal very quickly. Sometimes when I take enzymes on an empty stomach, I just feel the mucus get cut in my sinus cavity. I talk about our God-sent precious powdered enzymatic gold here.

Selia wrote me back the day after the above message to say that she did indeed have a bout with some non-raw, highly processed items after her 40-day cleanse and she also told me that she was still taking the Master Cleanse drink a few times a day.

Cleansing the colon is miraculous! If you continue on this journey, as you become cleaner and cleaner, that Master Cleanse drink that contains the Maple Syrup in it, may have a negative effect on you. At some point, your body will most likely ask you to eliminate it. I would be SPUN OUT if I did that Master Cleanser drink!

Since we are on the subject of enemas, Kathy wrote:

Hi Matt,
Love your blog .
Hey, I have a question. What is the difference between an enema and colon hydrotherapy? I am/was assuming it is the same thing and since I am still relatively new at this I wanted to ask. Thanks.
Kathy

Before I answer this, I would like to note something for the readers here. I have heard from many colon therapists that the people who are most nervous about doing colon hydrotherapy actually have the MOST EFFECTIVE sessions. The reason is that they come into the session really tense. When the speculum is inserted, they realize that it isn't so bad after all and their body goes into complete relaxation. This relaxed state enables their body to release masses of waste.

OK, back to the question. Colon Hydrotherapy is 10 times more effective than an enema. When you cleanse the colon with a colonic, you are guaranteed to reach water round to both ends of the colon. 10 to 25 gallons of water passes through the colon within an hour time period, while an enema is generally just a small portion of a gallon. Our colons hold anywhere from 1 - 1.5 gallons. When you do a colonic, the chances of "unclogging the GAS-Pressured, backed up sink" is MUCH greater than if you do an enema.

Additionally, a good colon therapist knows exactly what they are doing, whereas it may take some time to learn how to do an enema for yourself effectively. If you don't have the money to do a colonic, you can definitely do enemas with great benefit. Here is an excerpt from a past blog post:

If you know what you are doing, you can get away with a 1.5 quart enema bag but it would be more of a pain. If you could fill your entire colon with the 1.5 quarts, then that is good. You may need to do less at first to empty out the lower colon. If you want much better results, fill the 1.5 quarts entirely in your colon, hold it in, refill the bag, then take in 1/4 or MORE of the fresh water in the bag.

If you use one of these bags below, the effectiveness of the enemas goes up tremendously and the experience can be quite close to getting a colonic, if you know what you are doing. You would need to take 3 or 4 quarts into the body at one time. You may need to cleanse the lower portion of the colon first, before being able to hold that much water in one go.

I personally use the 6 quart enema bag on our site. It is quite expensive, so we found a 4 quart enema bag that is 1/4 the price, which is also on our website HERE. I personally would pay the extra money for the 6 quart bag.

Raw Children

We are making our way to the South Island in New Zealand and we stopped in a small town called Turangi. The walks here are absolutely breathtaking. In the photo to the right, I am the little point in the middle of this bridge we crossed today.

Mary Jo wrote:

How long did you stay on your Juicefeast last year? I just started and with the Global Feast coming next week could you dicsuss in your daily updates.I heard you speak in Davenport,Iowa a year or 2 ago and you have been a huge inspiration in my life!! thanks much and many blessings to you and Angela!

I did a Juice Feast for 30 days. While doing this Juice Feast, I saw where it was taking me and I didn't want to go any further. Most people go on a Juice Feast to clean themselves out while coming out the other end with an improved diet. They try to get somewhere close to near the vicinity of how clean I am now ;). I have been doing this for 8 years, while doing periodic colon cleansing. My body is always trying to move forward and cleaner. I have already reached a point to where I can't eat much. During this Juice Feast, my body took full advantage. If I did the entire 92 days, my body would be demanding even less food than I eat now.

Bonnie wrote:

Hey Matt,This Intermediate diet sounds interesting. I'm trying to follow a vegan whole foods diet, but not necessarily raw, and this diet sounds like it might be useful for me. Where can we get more info? Does Dr. Bisci have a book on it?Thanks!

The diet is in my book Raw Spirit. Dr. Fred Bisci doesn't have a book out yet but he does have it on paper. If anyone ever wants to make an appointment with him, his number is 718-979-7950. If you or anyone in your family ever develop a degerative disease, this number can save your life. I am so close to getting Dr. Fred Bisci to come to the Raw Spirit Festival with me this year. I'll know more this week.

I am so glad to hear that you are on a WHOLE FOOD Vegan diet. What you are doing is pretty much Fred's Diet. Some people become vegan and eat lots of refined sugars and processed starches. They end up eliminating the Animal protein and compensate by adding more of the processed starches, which is actually more damaging to the system than the animal protein. A vegan can experience tremendously more vibrant health by dumping the processed starches that contain wheat and gluten (wheat contains gluten). The starches included in Fred's diet are Brown Rice, Baked Potato, Basmati Brown Rice, Millet, Buckwheat, Quinoa, Corn Meal, and Tinkyada Pasta (which is wheat and gluten free). None of these foods can be eaten with animal protein which his diet includes (all except red meat). If you want to take the diet to the next level, you get rid of these starches. I know there is a lot of controversey on soy products but Soy and Rice Milk can be used on grains (White Wave Soy Milk, Westbrae Rice Milk or Silk Milk (1% or low fat). People do extremely well on his diet.

Lorna Wrote:

Hi Matt , I love your Blog , my husband John & I live in Yuba City Ca. ...I sure wish you would speak out hear ...I'm ready to go "Raw" but I have no idea how to go about it or what to eat . I really Not a meat & potoes type a person , so I know the transformation would be easy. I'm ready to go Raw. But I have no idea , what I would eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner that would be Raw ..can you give me some idea's / oh I signed up for your news letter ,like for dinner give me a good idea to start OK ...ha-ha...please help me to go Raw ....Lorna

I suggest going to my earlier blog posts and you will see what I generally eat. When I first became 100% Raw, I ate a lot more than I do now. I Iike to recommend people to take it slow and easy. Focus on what not to eat before you focus on what to eat. Becoming younger happens when you eat fewer kinds and quantities of foods, consistently. When you do this, you create less obstruction in the body, which enables you to detoxify, heal and regenerate. Refined Sugars and Processed Starches are the two most damaging foods. Let's say you start eliminating Processed Starches first. Since you are eating less detrimental foods you will start to become younger. This process of becoming younger may take 3 years or more (depending on your age, weight, etc.) Then at some point you will stabilize out on your new diet and catch up with what you are doing. Now you and your body may be ready to eliminate the next damaging thing, such as refined sugar. You will then become younger again for another 3 years (give or take) until you stabilize out and catch up with what you're doing again. The process just snowballs if you truly eliminate certain foods from your diet WITHOUT ANY EXCEPTION.

Make the commitment to omit certain foods from your diet completely without any exceptions and your diet should automatically change on its own. For example, let's say you eliminate all processed starches that contain gluten. When you are about to have your afternoon sandwich with meat and bread, you realize that white wheat bread is a processed, gluten-containing starch in that meal. You can then replace it with 7 grain bread, big lettuce leaves, or even just eat the meat with a salad instead. Although, I don’t recommend eating animal protein with any starches, that is still a HUGE improvement, if you are consistent.

If you really want to go raw, just omit everything but Raw Food. You'll figure out what to eat. Many people don't understand the ongoing detoxification process and this is why I believe many people don't last long on this type of diet. Have you ever seen a movie where they put a heroin addict in the hospital and they are forced to abstain from their drug of choice? They go absolutely !NUTS! from withdrawals. Not as extreme, but it is the same thing as the refined sugars and processed starches. If you eliminate them completely without any exceptions, you are going to go through major withdrawals. Additionally, other toxins that would not have left will also leave during this process and your body will just start to become cleaner and cleaner. The longer you do it, the cleaner you are going to become. At some point, your body may become so clean that it will ask you to eliminate the next most harmful food, such as the Animal Protein.

The following is a great question from a reader who read my book Raw Success. To understand this more clearly, in Raw Success I suggest that the more you leave out of your diet, the more healthier and sensitive you will become. However, I state that the "optimal diet" is the diet that you don't want to eat less than, as you may become so sensitive that it will affect your longevity, due to the poor environment. The optimal diet is the point at which the poor environment may actually age you more than the food you intake, in the LONG-RUN. (You may become younger by eating less than the optimal diet at first, but when you stabilize out and catch up with your new diet, it may effect you in the long-run) John Wrote:

Matt,

I just completed Raw Success - very interesting. Have been 90-95% raw for about a year, regular colonics/enemas, weekly fasts, and quarterly detoxes. My wife has been doing similarly. Your discussion on environmental buffering is (very) interesting, and timely.

Question: my wife and I are thinking about children. Having read RS, I'm wondering about your thoughts on raising children raw? From a "function" point of view, that would be terrific. From an environmental-buffering position, what are your thoughts?

Do others who have thoughts on this - or better, do additional books exist, about pregnancy, and raising children?

Many thanks,
John

Yes, it should be a great concern about raising children 100% Raw.

I have come across many healthy Raw kids among my travels. For example, Jinjee and Storm's kids are vibrant and healthy. They get so much exercise all day throughout the open space in their Ojai home. However, sometimes I see a Raw Child with teeth issues or something else. Many parents who raise their children Raw are new to eating Raw themselves and their eating habits aren't necessarily optimal. It is not easy to be balanced when adhering to a 100% Raw Food diet. These parents may overlap meals and eat all day long causing much fermentation and gas. Then to make up for their mistakes they will do enemas and colonics.

A child may pick up their parents habits. Sometimes children are even living in cramped, confined homes without the ability to get much exercise. The parents clean themselves up with cleansing the colon, while their kids' stomachs get bloated with gas. Raw foods are very powerful and if you have an unbalanced kid eating an avocado, then 15 minutes later a cacao/nut bliss ball on top of the still-digesting avocado, and just continual non stop eating throughout the day, it can result in an issue over time.

Below is an excerpt from my book Raw Spirit. It will explain about how we become sensitive to harmful foods and chemicals along with going into more depth about children. Depending on where you reside, the environment can be an issue in the long-run. I recommend living in a clean aired environment. A city life is not conducive to this type of lifestyle. Also, the same "rules" apply. A child could eat the "optimal diet", or more, when they get older. They just don't want to end up eating less than that or they may become sensitive to the point where it may affect their longevity. I would make sure they eat nuts when they are capable of doing that. The mother's milk will suffice for now. In the "Must-See" video, "The Story of Stuff", Annie Leonard states that mother's milk is at the top of the list of foods which have the highest level of toxic contaminants. It seems to me that this is one measure to prepare our children for this toxic environment and your child will be fine as he grows up.

Here is that excerpt from Raw Spirit:

Medical Drugs, Recreational Drugs, Cigarettes, and Alcohol

The chemistry and condition of one who has lived Raw for many years has reached a level of unparalleled sensitivity. What scares me the most about being Raw long-term is our increasing vulnerability to concentrated chemicals that in this day and age are used in minor surgeries, routine medical testing, and emergency procedures. When someone gets into a nasty car accident or medical emergency, doctors often use intravenous drugs in treatment. For the long-term 100% Raw Foodist, those concentrated chemicals can present a problem.

Here is a comparison: a person doing narcotics for 15 years has built up a certain tolerance and can handle much more than an individual trying them for the first time. In much the same way, a Raw Foodist is like a first time user. But the drug in this case is not crack or heroine; it is Western medicine.

What about raising children Raw? Imagine that you have a 10 year old child who has been 100% Raw since birth. He would be so clean and tight on a cellular level that it could be dangerous for him. Let’s say, for example, that he just met some new friends and is tempted to eat a hamburger. One or two bites and he may end up in the hospital. Raw children must be well educated about how their chemistry is different from the mass majority. And what about the possibility of your child in a car accident? If your Raw Foodist son or daughter was given a concentrated chemical such as morphine, there is a possibility that he or she could experience serious side effects.

There are special medical tags that withhold permission for use of hospital drugs. I have one that I wear around my neck, it reads: anaphylactic to pharmaceutical and intravenous drugs. Wearing this tag is a serious choice with life or death consequences. One would not want to revoke medical assistance unless they were sure their body was at the point where it would do more harm then good. 99% of those reading this book will not need to wear a medical tag. Although I want to share all the information I can, I do not and cannot accept liability for anyone who may choose to withhold permission for use of hospital drugs.

What about pets? The same rules of sensitivity apply to pets on an all Raw Diet. I just heard a story recently about a man and his dog. The poor dog was limping and had cyst-like bumps all over his skin, both signs indicating an overly toxic system. The Veterinarian said the dog's leg would need to be amputated. Desperate for an alternative, the man started feeding his dog all raw foods, including raw meat. On this 100% Raw Diet, the dog was back to normal in no time, and all the bumps disappeared. The man continued feeding his dog raw foods and many years later when the animal needed to be brought in for age related problems, the Veterinarian suggested a drug that might help. Even though the man didn’t feel good about it, he gave his permission. A few hours later, the dog died.

We all know that recreational drugs such as marijuana, cigarettes, and alcohol are not good for us. For someone that eats a Raw Diet, the harmful effects from these types of drugs are multiplied. If someone has a chronic substance addiction or habit, it is best for him or her to not become 100% Raw until they are through their addictions.

I met a woman the other day who was a chain smoking Raw Foodist. She doesn’t realize how much more harmful smoking is for her than the average person. If I were her, I would choose to either quit smoking or stop being 100% Raw. In my own experience, it’s painfully obvious that being around cigarette smoke hurts me a great deal more now then when I ate cooked food. When I became a Raw Foodist I stopped partying. Honestly, I just lost the taste for it. I remember the first drink of alcohol I had after becoming Raw. It was a small glass of natural, organic red wine. I didn't get tipsy or drunk; I got ill. My body can no longer handle alcohol, even if I wanted it to.

Intermediate Success

We spoke today in Tauranga, New Zealand, where we have been staying for the last week. I actually wrote this post yesterday and then couldn't find Internet last night, so I couldn't post it until now. Yesterday we decided to take a night trip to Rotorua. This place is know as 'Nature's Spa'. It is located in an area where the earth's surface is closer to the earth's core than most places. There are Hot Springs everywhere! The entire town smells like sulfur and whereever you look there is steam coming off bodies of water. You can actually see the steam behind us in the picture to the right. We stayed in a small Motel that actually has Hot Spring Pools throughout it. Right across the street was a huge HOT Sulfuric Lake! We soaked a loooong time in the pools last night... EXCITING!



Chris wrote:

Matt, with all do respect...when I first saw the pix of your mom, I thought it was you in drag. Love your blog...Chris from Wisconsin.communities.msn.com/WatercolorEnchantment

Ummmm. Thank you?

My Mom wrote:

Gosh, poor Dr. Perricone!! His skin products are phenomenal!! All he says is that the supplements are needed to enhance the diet! Believe me, he does phenominally with his skin products. Mine has never looked better! (I know the diet helps, too!) I buy them on QVC in kits made especially for them with various products at a great price; from his website and from skinstore.com sometimes. Not cheap, at all, but very good. I get compliments on my skin all over the place!

My mom started Dr. Fred Bisci's Intermediate Diet about a year ago. Before that she was doing the Atkin's Diet as it works very well for taking off weight. The premise of the Atkin's diet is to consume VERY LITTLE carbohydrates and refined sugars while allowing you to eat as much animal protein as you like. When you do something like this, the weight SHEDS off. However, many people run into problems on the Atkin's Diet in the long-run. The reason for this is they eat masses of animal protein which can easily create an acidic condition in the body. When an acidic condition exists in the body, it leaches mineral salts (calcium) from the skeletal frame, which inevitably may cause Osteoporosis.

However, if you were doing the Atkin's diet like my mom was, it could be a great diet. She didn't overdo the animal protein and ate a salad every single night. The reason I say it can be a great diet is because you cut down or eliminate the two most damaging foods (refined sugar and processed starches). The funny thing is that high carb fruits, such as bananas, are something to be avoided in the Atkin's diet due to their high carbohydrate content. My mom has always cared about her appearance and would stay away from any carbs, bananas included. So here we have my mom eating a salad every night and berries with cottage cheese in the morning. She ate other things too but this was the base of her diet every morning and every night. You would think that she was on a great diet and would be stabilized out at a certain weight. Well...

then...

She went on Dr. Fred Bisci's Intermediate diet.

This diet requires that you eliminate Refined Sugars and Processed Starches from your diet COMPLETELY WITHOUT ANY EXCEPTIONS WHATSOEVER. She still felt like she had to have her coffee in the morning, but everything else she followed completely. That was a big jump for my mom. Every family get-together that we have, chocolate cake and many other desserts and foods are a main family tradition. I don't know how she did it but she has been on Fred's diet for over a year now and she just turns down everything offered to her at those gatherings. She brings flax crackers and raw chocolate truffles to these events to eat, which I send her. She goes NUTS for these Chocolate truffles. Her favorite, at this time, is the Goji Cherry Truffles, however, it is always changing.

She was dumbfounded how the weight kept coming off of her. Keep in mind this is not on a 100% Raw Food Diet. This is an intermediate WHOLEFOOD cooked diet. On this diet you can eat MODERATE quantities of animal protein and dairy, brown rice, beans, 7 grain bread, steamed veggies, and much more. She even had a high carb banana and it DIDN'T MATTER! She lost well over 14 pounds to the lowest weight she has experienced in decades! She LOVES to show it off. The only problem is she had to get rid of a lot of her clothes. My mom really loves QVC and a few years after my brother left home, his bedroom became a SECOND walk-in closet. You can only imagine the charity offering she had. (oh! I am in trouble!)

If you eliminate refined sugars and processed starches from your diet completely without any exceptions, you WILL go through a healing crisis. It may take 3 days, 3 months, or even a year. For my mom, it was probably about 6 – 8 months. The best time to show off the power of colon hydrotherapy is to do it when you get sick. I have seen time and time again where someone was told they had to go on antibiotics and instead they did a colonic and INSTANTANEOUSLY they felt better and didn't need the antibiotics. The results are miraculous! All disease is the same! It is just all this waste that builds up in the system and tries to leave the body. For example, when someone develops psoriasis, it is "disease" trying to leave through the skin; bronchitis, the throat; zits (Acne), your face. A colonic is the most effective way of pulling this waste out relieving the pressure in these areas allowing for immediate healing. The colon is the central waste station of the human organism. Empty it out and waste from other areas in the body will be able to dump into it.

So... After about 8 months, my mom had a healing crisis and at this time my mom refused to cleanse her colon. She went to the hospital and they put her on antibiotics which took the cold away. Luckily, within a couple of weeks, her cold came back. She was very weak, as all her vitality was just trying to push this waste out of her. Before she went to the hospital a second time, she had a HUGE bowel release! For two days she poured out nonstop. (Now I am in REALLY BIG TROUBLE!!!!) When she came out the other end of this, she lost the desire for her coffee and stopped that too.

Dr. Fred Bisci told her that her life would be soooooo much easier if she just did a colonic. She wouldn't have to be going through as much pain. He also told her that he has recommended thousands to get colon hydrotherapy and never has anyone run into problems doing it. It is completely safe. I feel at some point she will do it. Fred recommended the product Colosan (which is now available HERE) in the meantime. It is not NEARLY as effective but it helps get rid of the "intestinal plaque".

I have to say I am soooo proud of my mom, more than ANYTHING!!!

Next post I may talk about Raising Children Raw!

Consistency

We were walking up that Mt Maunganui that Angela mentioned in her blog yesterday and there was this guy running right by us. I intuitively knew that he did this quite often. I yelled out, "How many times a week do you run this mountain?!" He said, "Once a day!" I told Angela that he has got to be on a consistent diet. If he wasn't, it would be much more difficult for him to do this monumental task each and every day. When someone is out of balance, and overeats for example, they are going to compensate for that. Within the next day or two, they may lack energy from eating too much or they may be heavily detoxing that extra food a couple days later, which in turn means they may not want to run up that mountain. Consistency is so important. This man running up the mountain seemed to be EXTREMELY healthy on a cooked food diet.

What a consistent diet means to me is eating the same kinds and quantities of foods each day; a consistent rhythm of any type of food, even cooked food. The diet doesn't have to consist of the same exact foods in each daily meal, but about the same quantities and proportions of the common foods a person normally eats. For example, when I ate the Standard American Diet every day, I was eating three meals a day, of almost always the same thing. I may vary up a tuna fish sandwich for a chicken sandwich, but it was the same amount of food.

For the majority, it is immensely easier to be consistent on an Intermediate Wholefood Healthy Cooked Food diet, compared to a 100% Raw Food Diet. I know of many people who are doing much better on this type of intermediate diet than a 100% Raw Diet. In my own experience, I had no problem being consistent (in balance) when I was eating cooked food. It totally satiated me, with no desire for more food. I got along well and exercised every day. Then I went 100% Raw! A great portion of my book Raw Spirit, goes into great detail about how when I became raw, eating wasn't so mindless anymore and how I was confused on all levels of my being. It is not easy to go from a balanced cooked food diet and then be balanced on a 100% Raw Food Diet. Massive confusion will most likely take place and it may take years to understand and succeed.

The MAJORITY of Raw Food Eaters that I have met are out of balance. They are eating all day long and throwing one meal on top of another without complete digestion. This is a sign of imbalance, an inconsistent diet.

No doubt!, the 100% Raw Food Diet is the optimal diet for the human organism... IF... you are doing it appropriately. There is so much hype about the 100% Raw Food Diet. One reason is that all these young people go on the 100% Raw Food diet and are healing from degenerative diseases. They do amazing at first. What you don't see, is the people that are not doing well on the 100% Raw Food Diet. As you likely know, my mentor Dr. Fred Bisci has been on a 100% Raw Food Diet successfully for over 40 years. He just got a patient recently who eats a 100% Raw Food Diet and developed cancer. Another person came to me and told me that they got Leaky Gut on a 100% Raw Food diet. I meet many people who are running into health issues in the long-run on a Raw Diet. These situations can be remedied, but it makes you think.

Where are all the Raw Food Eaters breaking the century mark? Are there any? They do well at first but as the years go by, it seems that gap closes and everyone seems to be dying at the same age, raw or not. I do believe that we have the ability to live WAYYYY past the century mark on a 100% Raw Food Diet if done appropriately. In my opinion, the key is to develop responsibility (consistency) as the years go by on the 100% Raw Food diet, make sure you are covering all grounds by getting assimilable nutrients, make sure you are cleansing and keeping up with the CONTINUAL outpouring of endogenous material that is being excreted on a cellular level & exogenous poisions from outside factors such as environmental toxins, and learn the information needed to get an understanding of how this all works.

My book Raw Success, goes into great detail about all this.

I don't mean to get heavy here, sometimes I just go a bit !!!NUTS!!! when an amazing person comes to me and tells me they are running into problems.

On another note, If you have looked at previous blog posts of mine, you will know that I practically eat the same thing everyday. The number one reason why people wanted me to keep documenting my meals was because it gives them ideas of meals they can make for themselves. Whenever I do a meal that is not something I generally do, which is pretty rare, then I will post it here. Yesterday I ate this meal.

6.5 oz of Dried Mulberries
1/2 large banana
175 grams of blueberries
All blended into a wet paste
1.5 oz of Dried mulberries left to soak in that paste
Handful of blueberries swirled in

I generally just soak 6.5oz of mulberries in just enough water to top it off and then blend that with hemp seeds or tahini and swirl in more dried mulberries to soak in this mixture for a while so they get soft. We've been wanting to try it without any fat, so I created the above and it was GREAT.

In my opinion, these dried mulberries are the best tasting dried fruit out there. They taste like caramel! And... they are lower glycemic compared to figs.

If you look at my past posts, generally I eat twice a day. One of my meals generally consists of nut butter, mixed with sprouts/veggies, plus around 4 - 6 tomatoes. The tomatoes give me bulk, which emotionally satsifies me. Tomatoes are great and nutritious but I feel it is not OPTIMAL to eat these quantities EVERY DAY. At some point, I am sure that the nmber of tomatoes I eat will diminish. No rush though. I am too emotionally attached right now to it. It may take a couple of years, but I'll get there.

My mom sent me an email a couple of days ago asking what I thought about this "new diet" by Dr. Perricone. He is a "good looking" older Doctor dressed in a suit, next to his microscope, who claims to get all these results from his program, which includes his ground-breaking diet and supplements... and of course, he has all the scientific information to support this. YES! He is getting results. This is not Rocket Science here. All these diets are the same - the Zone Diet, Macrobiotics, South Beach and this new one. Just like the others, Dr. Perricone leaves out the Refined Sugars, Processed Starches, Red Meat, and Pasteurized Cows' products, and then you can spend all this money on his supplements. It is the diet that does it! All you need to do is eliminate those foods and you are going to heal. Anyone can dress in a suit, put people on this diet (with slight variations) and sell you their supplements. No one food supplement will heal anyone. The body has God-given remedial capabilities to heal itself, once you eliminate the cause of dis-ease, which includes: Refined Sugars, Processed Starches, Red Meat, and Pasteurized Dairy.
Raw Spirit, has Dr. Fred Bisci's Intermediate wholefood healing diet in it. Dr. Perricone, if you read this, please don't take it the wrong way. I think you are doing great for a lot of people who follow you. Many people are healing. KEEP IT UP!

This is a picture of my Mom and Art, my step-dad of around 15 years. Everyone who sees my mom and I together thinks that I am a spitting image of her. What do you think?

Getting High...Awwwhh... On Avocado???

Eating nuts is our (100% Raw Food Eater's) greatest source of concentrated proteins and fats. If you remember my latest meals, I have been living off homemade Tahini. I started adding other nuts/seeds to this tahini mixture to get their valuable nutrients. Due to the valuable nutrients nuts possess, Dr. Norman Walker raves about the benefits of them... and... the three he is most fond of are Almonds, Hazelnuts (Filberts), and Pumpkin Seeds. The first nut I added to the mixture was Almonds, Walker's Number One Favorite!

Dr. Norman Walker says; Almonds, when fresh, raw and unsalted, are the most alkaline of all nuts, being particularly valuable as nourishment for the bone structure of the body, and especially for stengthening the enamel of the teeth. Due to the "California Almond Pasteurization Act", we are importing HIGH QUALITY RAW ORGANIC Almonds. They are available HERE.

The "California Almond Pasteurization Act" that passed is very saddening to me. Dr. Norman Walker goes on to say that almonds which have been pasteurized are harmful on account of the change which takes place in the fat under these conditions. The reaction on the liver and gall bladder is then detrimental and may sooner or later interfere with the complete and proper function of these organs.

Hazelnuts (Filberts) seem to be Dr. Norman Walker's second favorite, due to their valuable nutrient make-up. Generally they're not my favorite tasting nut but I just added filberts to my homemade tahini this week. WOW, the mixture was sooo good! I don't have Dr. Norman Walker's book, Guide to Diet & Salad with me now, or I would tell you the amazing benefits of the Hazelnut... I forgot... Blush**

The next mixture will be tahini and pumpkin seeds... Well, actually, we just went to this amazing Organic Health Food Store in Tauranga, New Zealand, and I also bought these amazing looking Raw Organic Brazilnuts. I can only imagine how that mixture would taste!?!

I did say that I would notate anything that I deemed worthy about my meals. As most of you know, when I first went Raw, I would eat 2 - 3 large avocados a day. As the years went by, the avocado quantity diminished. About 5 months ago I was eating only 1 avocado a day, 2 - 3 months ago I was eating a 1/2 of an avocado, and then about a month ago, I went down to 1/4 an avocado, replacing the rest of it with Nut Butter. I was able to do this successfully because the nut butters COMPLETELY satisfied my EMOTIONAL need for a meal. As I mentioned in a previous post, I loved the outcome it had on my body. Well... 2 weeks ago, I eliminated Avocado from my diet completely and replaced it with 3 tablespoons of Nut Butter... and... I emotionally loved it!

Today, Dr. Flora told me that:

1/4 of a cup or 2 ounces of avo is all your liver can handle at one time without storing it.

Dr. Norman Walker seemed to do no more than this amount of avocado at one time. Sometimes he would combine this amount with 2 tablespoons of nuts. Dr. Flora's statement totally resonated with me.

So... after abstaining from avocado for two weeks for the first time in 8 YEARS, I used 1/4 of an avocado with two tablespoons of Nut Butter today. WOW! It felt like the [nut butter/tomato/onion/sprout/etc.] mixture in my meal was filled with OIL! It was only one quarter of an avocado! I wasn't used to it anymore. It was sooooooo GOOD and SATISFYING. I can't believe I used to eat so much avocado at one time. As weird as this seems, I also got HIGH off of the 1/4 of avocado. I was relaxed, light-headed, with a smile, like a crack addict who'd got their fix. Maybe not so extreme but if felt GREAT.

Oh boy... I am getting "high" off avocado.

I hope that nobody feels they need to reduce their avocado intake due to this post. I have been doing this for 8 years now and I am in a different space to someone just starting out. Take your time and have fun. Emotionally bring yourself to eating less over time, for real RAW SUCCESS. It is so interesting how so many different perspectives are reading this post. Some of you, in contrast, are probably saying right now, "I never ate that much avocado and I never will".

Jo wrote (a different Jo from yesterday):

Hi Matt, love your blog, please can you give more info about your self administered enema.....do you travel with a bag? What about those special boards.What capacity is the bag, and do you just hang it up?Can you recommend a good one? PS why do people do coffee enemas if caffeine is so bad 4 u?XXX

If I put coffee in my enema bag, I WOULD NOT SLEEP FOR 3 DAYS!!! I just did a lecture in Auckland, New Zealand, and this lovely woman told me the benefits of doing enemas with pure urine and no water. She said that the alternative naturopath who recommended this would find old, dirty, junky stuff leaving the body after urine enemas. I personally will never attempt that, but it sounds interesting. I guess you would have to save your pee for a couple of days... oooooooohw… I personally only use purified water and NOTHING ELSE. Sometimes that means just using the water from a standard shower filter, depending on where I am. I haven't ever done a wheatgrass implant, or any type of implant for that matter, but I heard it is very beneficial and I definitely believe that. People claim to get "high" when they do that.

Here is an excerpt from Raw Success that will answer your other question:

I schedule a Colonic maybe two times a year, for deep cleansing and maintenance. When I first began my Raw adventures, I did Colonics frequently to clear out the major cesspool of cooked food eating. Then I switched to the at-home Colema Board, which I used a few times a month to keep up with the waste being eliminated, as my cells kept dumping years of toxicity into my system for elimination.

Now, I am pleased to share with you my latest discovery: the 6-quart Enema bag! Our colon can hold 4-6 quarts of water, depending on the individual. Traditional Enema bags hold 2-quarts of water, which is less effective for cleansing, as it only clears the lower colon. With some practice, you can do very effective cleansing for your entire bowel with the larger bag.

Whenever I feel sluggish, I do a 6-quart Enema. I usually fill and expel twice, using at most 4 of the 6-quart!

The importance of cleansing the colon cannot be emphasized enough. I know it is one of the key reasons I am able to stay 100% Raw. As I've said, those who run into problems on the 100% Raw Diet often do not know why. Periodic colon cleansing would mean SUCCESS for 95% of these cases.

I recommend a 100% Raw Food eater to cleanse the colon more often than anyone else, which may seem ironic at first. Eliminating everything from your diet but Raw Foods will cause your body to continually cleanse. For someone who is TRULY 100% Raw, I recommend they thoroughly cleanse the colon at least once a month. I personally use the 6 quart enema bag on our site. It is quite expensive, so we found a 4 quart enema bag that is 1/4 the price, which is also on our website HERE. I personally would pay the extra money for the 6 quart bag.

If you know what you are doing, you can get away with a 1.5 quart enema bag but it would be more of a pain. If you could fill your entire colon with the 1.5 quarts, then that is good. You may need to do less at first to empty out the lower colon. If you want much better results, fill the 1.5 quarts entirely in your colon, hold it in, refill the bag, then take in 1/4 or MORE of the fresh water in the bag.

Liz wrote:

Matt, In reference to Jo's email Could the Green Smoothie be raising her sugar,those are the symptons I get when my surgar level goes up from a green or any smoothie. What can we do to make the green smoothies so they don't raise our sugar levels. Liz

When I read Jo's message, my head just saw green juices and didn't even think of the green smoothies. The idea that green smoothies are raising her blood sugars may be the case but it is hard to tell. There are over 1001 variables going on in the human organism at one time. Additionally, we don't know her daily habits, weight, age, etc. Raising the vegetable and lowering the fruit quantities may help with the sugar levels. I went through a period of doing green smoothies with no fruit whatsoever. I used cucumber instead. I did put goji berries in it. I love to have something to chew so I would just throw goji berries in my green smoothies. When there isn't any fruit added, it feels sooooo clean. The cucumber makes it very gentle. In the past I have even blended an entire head of romaine lettuce and just ate it... and Loved IT! And... I never add water to my smoothies. I love to just use the water-rich ingredients. If you just do romaine lettuce, you'll need a plunger to push it down. Cucumber will help with the liquid content.

The vegetables are the "nourishers" of the body and the fruits are the "cleansers". This is just another small reason why I feel PURE vegetable juice is so important. It is PURE NOURISHMENT.

I am sure in a future post, I will just go nuts on vegetable juice and write pages. Wow! I am still HIGH off that Avocado...

Heavy Metals

Ohhhh!!! Yessss! We are out of the City! And... in one of the cleanest environments I have been to YET. Oh Piha... oh Piha, New Zealand... I Love You! If you walk out the front door, cross the street, walk about 10 more feet and you are on THE BEACH. Black fluffy sand, which I have never seen before. AMAZING!!! Well, the first day, I had so much energy from the fresh air, I RAN MY HEART OUT! It is so easy to exercise in fresh air. Fresh air also makes my "third eye" vibrate with INTENSITY. It feels like hot water bubbling, but it being frozen at the same time (OH, that's a good explanation!) I talk about my third eye opening experience when I first went 100% Raw in Raw Spirit.

So what else happens when a clean long-term Raw Food Eater is stuck on the city for 2 weeks and then is thrown flat straight into an almost pristine environment??? All those car, truck and factory toxins all try to leave at the same time! There is literally no gas pressure from the poor environmental toxins anymore. This "lack of gas pressure" on my cells, gave them the freedom to pour it all out. I woke up the next day with a huge runny nose. Also my lungs were coughing it all out that next day. At some points I was high and lightheaded from the toxins, I kind of liked it and didn't like it at the same time.

This detox can overtake the system confusing an individual if they don't understand it. In the evening when my body was at a low point filled with toxins, I pulled it all out by doing an enema which brought me into clean light headed spiritual bliss. Additionally, doing enemas at times like this brings this toxic outpour into ultimate full speed because you are eliminating A MASS of gas pressure. So the next day, I woke up with sleep in my eye and a bit dizzy. Drinking water flushed it right through my system. I am now right back on track.

This got me into thinking about Heavy Metals. No doubt that I was exposed to heavy metals this week. Additionally, they are more damaging to a Raw Food eater then someone else due to how sensitive we are. I felt them coming out all areas of my body, especially my lungs. There are so many things that you can do to aid in eliminating heavy metals from the body. In my opinion, the best thing that someone can do to eliminate heavy metals is to do Colon Hyrotherapy on a periodic basis. The next rung on the latter to get rid of heavy metals is to get in an infrared sauna. Unlike the traditional sauna, the infrared penetrates the skin three inches deep and pushes the toxins outwards. The traditional sauna heats you from the outside in. The infrared sauna in conjunction with Colon Hydrotherapy would be the BEST.

Here is an excerpt from Raw Success worth notating:

Can't I use some other healing method and get the same results?
While other cleansing methods are helpful, they are not nearly as effective as Colonic Irrigations. There is a reason for this. If you recall, the colon is the central waste station, the dumping ground for every bit of bodily debris. It follows then that a dirty colon is the "root cause" of most disease and symptoms of ill health. Waste in the colon is like the deeply embedded roots of disease, spreading like a tree throughout the body, affecting the entire system.

Colon flushing is so remarkable that it greatly boosts the potency of other cleansing tools, such as infrared sauna treatment. Getting into a sauna with a dirty colon will indeed skim off some debris. But, if you flush your colon first, removing the thick hodgepodge of waste, and then take a sauna, it affords the body an opportunity for deep cellular cleansing.

I feel that colon hydrotherapy is the answer for longevity on the 100% Raw Food Diet in this day and age. No doubt that those city toxins would have stayed within my structure for many days longer then if I didn't do this. Some people that have such a beneficial outpour after cleansing the colon don't understand what is going on and they blame the colon cleansing and mistakingly swear to never do it again. Cleansing the colon is the ultimate "gas drainage" outlet. When you pull these gases out, there is less gas pressure on the cells which enable them to detox. If you would like a deeper explanation on this, read Study the Blood Gas Theory here.

I have also heard that zeolite helps with ridding the body of heavy metals. John Evans from Australia tested out the zeolite for 30 days. He said that there was less carbon in his body after the 30 days then before.

Debbie wrote:

Hey Matt, Wanted you to know that your web article on the secret of raw food success led me to my first colonic and I cannot thank you enough!!!!
Thanks for all you do for the raw community!
rawk on
debbie
debbiedoesraw.blogspot.com

Thanks Debbie!

Anonymous wrote:

Hi Matt, could you PLEASE tell me where I can find that cat and print it out large to put it on my fridge. I have to remind me what caffeine did/does to me whenever I touch it. THANKS A LOT!

Nice!!! Go to google images and type in "caffeine".

Jo wrote:

Hey Matt,
Love your blogs and newsletters...... I so look forward to yours and Angela's each and everyday. Inspiring and thought provoking and supportive. so, thank you! I am about 80% raw. still do a cup of caffeine/green tea in the mornings only. thanks for the caffeine info today. any more info?
and yes, I'm starting to feel that my body may not need it anymore. sometimes I do hot water and lemon instead. My issue now with green juices or smoothies is that I feel slightly nauseous and shaky sometimes for about an hour after I consume them.
usually in the mornings. what's that about? It's like the green veggies are a shock to my body in the morning. however, in the afternoon, they aren't so much.
thanks for your positiveness, it means alot to me in a world of meat/ cooked food eaters all around me.
most people just don't get why I eat like this and seem somewhat threatened.
~Jo

I would try weaning yourself onto green juices slowly. Do 8oz instead of 16oz and then build up. If it bothers you in the morning, do it later in the day. The juice may be giving you enough vitality from the mass of nourishment to create a cleansing reaction, which is good. Additionally, our bodies cleanse at night and we wake up with the a mass of toxins in the morning. It may be a great idea to drink a liter of water upon rising which may help.

It sounds like you are lowering your caffeine intake while increasing your juice and "water-lemon" intake. It sounds to me as if you are going through caffeine withdrawals. The water-lemon combo is also a bit cleansing. You may want to try eliminating the caffine which may help with the nauseous feeling when you intake green juice. The juices may be giving your body the vitality to push the caffeine right out. If you eliminate the caffeine, please understand that uneasiness will be due to withdrawal/detox. Cleansing the colon will expedite the process. Juicing and cleansing the colon go hand in hand. The results are AMAZING. This process will push you forward to a cleaner state and your body will not be a "happy camper" if you decide to go back to your old habits.

Does this picture of the pizza make you salivate? The chemical reactions in your brain is going under the same process as a drug addict. An experiment was done with many humans. They hooked them up to a machine to where they could monitor chemical reactions in the brain and throughout the body. They would put an individual in a room to where it could see cooked food through a glass window so there wouldn’t be any smell involved. They monitored that each persons brain activity. Each one of these people underwent the same chemical reactions as a drug addict would for their drug. They did a second experiment to where they could not see the food but only smell it. The same case happened.

Makes you think huh?

Wine Please?

And the winner is... JAM PACKED INFORMATION!!! Double the amount of people chose the jam packed info option.

I love what Nicola wrote about this:

sure, i'd love your jam-packed info.
the daily menu seems to be consistently similar...
unless you need to report for your own accountability, thanks Nicola

Thanks Nicola! I will document any changes in my diet that I deem worth mentioning. If my consistency changes in any way, I will definitely report it.

We were walking home from the movies two nights ago through all the cars. I got so angry and fed up by the end of our walk, I said, "That's it! I am done! I am buying a car tomorrow and we are leaving. I can't believe I let it go on this long!" Whenever I make absolute statements like this, people roll their eyes and shake their heads. For example, when I decided to move to NYC, I got a lot of this. You won't find a place, you can't afford it, etc. Not only did I succeed, but I ended up subletting a penthouse apartment RIGHT IN THE CITY. Angela knows me well enough to know that we were moving on. The next day I bought a SWEET used car on a 'Kiwi' eBay online auction site. This younger kid drove the car over to us and I paid him about $675 US dollars for it. I really liked him and we got along. There was a good vibe there. We then found a beach house up north in a CLEAN & BEAUTIFUL area that a Lovely Raw Person offered us until our talk on Sunday.

NIKE, knows what they are talking about. JUST DO IT!!!


Olessia Wrote:

Hi Matt,
Since we're on the subject of polluting the raw body...
Does organic mate tea with caffeine do that? (I've been drinking quite a bit of it lately) .

..since going heavy on juices (a few days now -- thanks for the influence) I started feeling sick... generalized weakness, muscle ache, phlegm... all that good stuff.. Could that be it? Or I just took my cleansing to the next level with juices? I'm 100% raw... well, except for the tea, but I've never juiced until I started reading your blog...
Your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated:)
Olessia

I am really excited to answer this question about the caffeine. You said that you are 100% Raw except for the caffeine. If you are truly 100% Raw, besides the caffeine, then you made a HUGE jump. You left out the most damaging and obstructive foods from your diet but caffeine. Your body is now on a life-long path of becoming cleaner and cleaner. There will be a major detoxification process and when that silences, there will be this gradual detoxification that will never end. As you become cleaner and cleaner, your body is going to demand more and more from you. If you are truly raw, then at some point your body is going to ask you to stop the caffeine. It may result in a headache, runny nose, or something else. If I drank the tea, I would end up like the cat in the picture for 3 days!

After being 100% Raw for a few years, I went on a date. I went to Wholefoods and bought the purest organic Red Wine that I could find. I drank a small glass of it. I didn't get high, I got sick. My body was too clean to handle the wine and now it is no longer fun for me. Soooo... a couple of years later, I went on another date... aaaaaand... I bought some organic wine. This time, I literally only had 2 small SIPS!!! I was wAsTeD FoR 48 HoUrS!@#&$. I didn't like detoxing from the wine as my throat got inflamed and my nose was running like a faucet. I now choose to stay away from it.

In terms of the caffeine... Actually... for everyone who improves their diet tremendously... In terms of the caffeine, or an occasional glass of wine, etc... it could be ok for the time being. You have made a TREMENDOUS jump by eliminating all the processed foods from your diet. It can take YEARS to catch up with what you are doing. If the occasional glass of wine doesn't bother you yet, then have fun. If you are TRULY eating ALL Raw Foods, At some point your body will reach the point to where it has become so clean that it will demand that you stop. If you don't listen to your body at that time, then the caffeine and/or wine will actually have a more damaging effect on you now than before, due to how sensitive and clean you have become.

I can give you a real life example of this. My mom went on Dr. Fred Bisci's Intermediate diet, which is in Raw Spirit. She was so strict about everything, except that she would not get rid of her morning coffee that she "oh so loved". It took about a year on this intermediate diet before my mom went through a healing crisis from an improved diet. Since she is not 100% Raw, this process can take a bit longer, however, it is still very powerful. So... she got sick, expelled massive amounts of waste (sorry mom), and she came out the other end without the desire for the caffeine. IF she ever does it now, it is a very minimal amount. I think she may have actually kicked it for good now, though I am not 100% sure.

Secondly, congrats on the Vegetable Juicing. Juicing is so powerful!!! You are getting masses of nutrition every day now. It sounds to me that drinking that much vegetable juice may be giving your body the vitality to give off waste stored on a cellular level, causing this cleansing reaction. It may be good for you to do Colon Cleansing at this point, which will most likey provide epic results. In the beginning, juicing and colon cleansing go hand in hand and provide miraculous results.

Unlikely, but another possibility is that you are drinking too fast or drinking while an earlier meal is still digesting.

If you continue to drink GREEN juices your skin will start to glow! I can sense when someone intakes Green Vegetable Juices. They have that "Raw Food Eater" look. They have clear, shiny, smooth and glowing skin on the face. Green Juicing is a BEAUTY SECRET.

The ULTIMATE BEAUTY SECRET is to do the Green Vegetable Juicing WHILE doing the colon hydrotherapy. :) If you do that, WATCH OUT!!!

Many asked me the homemade tahini recipe / sesame paste recipe. We hi-jacked it off of Melissa Gilbert’s Website, which seems to be down at the moment:

Tahini AKA Sesame paste:
4 cups of sesame seeds (we like the lighter ones) your choice.
HULLED1/4 to 1/2 cup Cold-pressed olive oil
Celtic sea salt to taste ( I add a sm. pinch)

Place into a High speed blender or food processor. I like to chop up the sesame seeds and then add the olive oil as it is blending and salt as well. Blend until smooth, chill and enjoy.You will have to play with the recipe a few times to get the exact flavor/texture you desire. It took me 3X to get it the way we like it.It is so easy and inexpensive to make.This recipe makes 3 cups and will last several months in an air tight container in your cooler. Waiting for you to make something very special out if it
.Raw LoveMelissa

Angela posted the new "Insider List" on her blog yesterday. I got over 200 responses from people wanting to be on this list. If you want to join, or learn more about it, click here. This is going to be on a first come, first served basis, so act fast.

Danny & Kathy Living are the most beautiful Raw Foods Couple. They just opened a Raw Restaurant, called Borrowed Earth Cafe, in the Suburbs of Chicago. They were featured in a short segment on a local cable tv show that lets viewers know about new entertainment and eating places in the Chicagoland area. Check it out. Go to the website and look under VIDEOS and click play. Click Here!


So many people commented that they DID salivate when they saw the Pizza picture. In our next blog, I am going to talk about this experience in relation to addiction.

Who Needs Daily Meals Anyways???

Let's take a poll. I was thinking to spend all my energy on giving you jam packed information. Documenting my daily meals takes away from this. How many of you would like me to continue to document my daily diet? and how many people want me to throw all my energy into extra JAM PACKED information? Click Here to take the poll and I will post the outcome on the next blog.

Guy Commented about "peeing on the blooming flowers" post:

Warn me if you invite for dinner when you get settled in the US. I know Angela wanted a garden and now I know how its going to be watered.

I just do not know if you can drink that much water :)

Oh I laughed at that! I thought that I would share.

Pauline wrote:

A Raw Food author says he doesn’t recommend kombucha. He mentioned that he would like to have a bacteria sample of the product - the fact that it's fermented is a key issue for him. He even said that agave was just like corn syrup. :l

There may be some legitimacy to what he is saying. Many people fight over these "raw – not so raw" products, however, they will eat processed starches and refined sugar like it is going out of business. It is MORE important what we are NOT eating, then what we are eating. If someone takes the MONUMENTAL jump of eliminating refined sugar and processed starches from their diet completely, and they partake in Agave and Kombucha Tea on a daily basis, this is a GREAT thing. When you eliminate those processed foods from your diet, you will become cleaner and cleaner. It could take years to catch up with your new diet. At some point your body will become so clean to where it will say, "ok, stop taking the agave and kombucha now." Your body may be telling you this with a runny nose, headache, or something else. You can either obey your body at that time or accept these discomforts until you are ready to move on. Me personally, my body doesn't get along with the Kombucha or agave for extended periods of time. I love taking agave every once in awhile. I am pretty sensitive and I get stimulate from it.

This is GREAT! Juni Wrote:

Matt - wow, what new info on the pollution effect on the body! Can you clarify here or in a later post exactly why a totally clean body would be more vulnerable to the poisons? You'd think that it would be stronger and able to fight off negative effects. Does this mean that it's better to be a bit cooked if you live in LA or Portland, OR? NYC? also it's a bit demoralizing to hear that "if you don't eliminate processed starches and sugars you aren't going to progress much" -- doesn't eating even 50% raw do some healing to offset the bad that we may eat? sounds like it's all or nothing...thanks for all this cutting edge info! Hang in there – Juni

Let's start with the second question first.
Don't get me wrong, you can do better by eating less processed starches/refined sugars and more raw foods, but you are not going to do nearly as good as you can be doing if you eliminated them completely from your diet. When you eliminate these processed foods completely, you give your body the freedom to take it to the next level and you will EVOLVE on a cellular level. The following explanation applies to detoxing anything from drugs, caffeine and nicotine, to processed sugars, wheat and dairy. Our cells are filled with waste from all the years of poor eating and they have expanded and grown to accommodate this waste. A certain amount of detoxification always takes place immediately as soon as the quantity of drug or food is reduced. However, the body holds onto the toxins stored at a deep cellular level until the source of that particular toxin is stopped completely. To experience the next level of health, these buried poisons must be released. When you actually eliminate the drugs or foods completely, the toxins will leave your cells and now your body will have the freedom and the strength to take its healing to the next level.

There are so many diets out their that claim to get results. These diet do actually help people heal from degenerative diseases and lose weight. It isn’t "rocket science" why they get these results. All these diet succeed because they all eliminate the refined sugars and processed starches from the food plan. You name it those diets do it; South Beach Diet, Zone Diet, Macrobiotics Diet, Makers Diet, etc. This is one reason why I am not a fan of Weight Watchers or the Jenny Craig diet. They use a counting calorie system. No one food is eliminated.

It's NOT all or nothing. You don't need to be 100% Raw to be healthy. I know many people that do better on a healthy cooked food diet then a 100% Raw Food Diet. A healthy intermediate diet can consist of a moderate amount of animal protein (not combined with starches), whole grains, baked potato (by itself), brown rice, beans, and even a wheat and gluten free pasta (Tinkyada Pasta). My book Raw Spirit has Dr. Fred Bisci's intermediate diet mapped out if you want complete details on it. You can live on an intermediate diet like this for the rest of your life and be extremely healthy. I'd rather see you eating quinoa, millet, steamed veggies consistently, then a piece of pizza every once in awhile.

How many people besides me started salivating when they saw the picture of the pizza???

My mom actually went on Fred's diet over a year ago. She has always been on a 50% Raw Food diet eating many salads and berries. When she eliminated certain foods from her diet COMPLETELY (processed starches and refined sguar), amazing things started to happen. She used to religously watch her carbs. She was terrified to eat a banana or two due to the carb content. You would think she couldn't lose any more weight as to how keen she was on her intake. After she eliminated refined sugar and processed starches COMPLETELY, she started losing weight. She was dumbfounded that her weight loss continued while eating natural carbs, such as bananas and other fruits. She has been capped at a certain weight for years and then, she lost well over 10 more pounds on Fred’s Intermediate Diet!

And now your first question...
Juni, I recommend reading Raw Success, as it goes into great detail on this "cutting edge" information. It is a fascinating great portion of the book. I wouldn't call it cutting edge information. I am sure many of you that have improved your diet considerably, notice that cigarette smoke is actually damaging you more now then before? It is the same with the environmental toxins. In Raw Success I say we don't want to become too clean and I recommend not to eat less then a certain amount of raw foods as it may effect our longevity. I feel it is unwise to go raw with the decision to live the REST OF YOUR LIFE in a city. Living in a city is not conducive on this type of lifestyle. It will most likely take it's toll on you in the long-run. You can definitely get away with it short-term. If you look around the Raw Food community of people that are TRULY 100% Raw, they seem to all be living in relatively clean environments. When I went 100% Raw in NY, after a certain amount of time, I had to get out. It was too much. I think the best way to explain all this is to give you another excerpt from Raw Success:

Bottom line: Toxins have a more damaging effect on a cleaner body.
Exposure to these toxins will not shorten our life in the long-run. As healthy eaters, we rapidly heal from the damage done and will live a healthier, longer life if doing the 100% Raw Diet correctly.

However, if I were forced to live day and night in a smoky room with a 55-year-old man who had been Raw five years, and a man on a Standard American Diet, my seven-year Raw, early 30s body would suffer the most damage. The 55-year-old five year Raw Foodist would sustain minor cellular injury, and the SAD dieter may never feel a thing. Without new, good quality air and an opportunity to regenerate, my higher level of health would actually work against me in this situation.

Which brings us to this ironic fact: A body that is not full of vitality, and is in a weakened state, can endure and live longer under adverse conditions than a cleaner body. {Please note: This statement does not say that a less-vital body will “thrive and experience amazing vitality”, it merely implies survival.}

To illustrate this hypothesis, Hilton Hotema offers the perfect example in his book, Man’s Higher Consciousness.

In a clinical experiment, a group of scientists put Bird-A in a glass cage with no air outlets. Breath by breath, the bird exhaled CO2, and the air in the cage became increasingly more toxic. Because the process happened gradually, the bird was able to adapt to the CO2 rich environment. Bird-A was then removed from the glass cage. Bird-B was placed in the same CO2 rich environment. Bird-B died in moments from shock. Bird-B had no time to adapt like Bird-A, and the sudden extreme toxicity made it impossible to sustain life.

In addition to foods, we are very sensitive to air quality, to the toxic load we breathe with each inhale. Based on the bird example above, it stands to reason that if you took a man who walked this pristine Earth 5000 years ago and dropped him into the current polluted state of our planet, most likely he would not survive long.

Raw Food Makes Us More Sensitive
It is undeniable: I am dramatically more sensitive to cigarette smoke now as a Raw Foodist than when my diet was cooked. The damage to my cleaner, vulnerable cells is evident. In my first book, Raw Spirit, I wrote about a Raw woman who smokes cigarettes. She was unaware how injurious smoking was for her compared to someone on a typical diet. I encouraged her to either quit smoking or start eating cooked food, because the cleaner our diet, the more harmful foreign substances are to our body.

I strongly recommend reading Raw Success if this interests you. With all my might, I can’t explain it all here.

Lyn commented on our ongoing lemon/water discussion:

Hi Matt,
Just a note about brushing your teeth after drinking acidic juices - I have read for years that you should wait an hour or so after having an acidic juice before brushing your teeth as the acids soften the enamel and brushing teeth in this state is more harmful as the enamel can be damaged by the brushing action. Our saliva brings our teeth back to their usual hardened state after an hour or so. I always brush my teeth before having juice to avoid any acid-caused enamel erosion. Keep up the blogs - Angela's and yours are truly inspirational!
Love,
Lyn in Manchester, England

Wow!... Ummmm... So much advice from so many lovely individuals. I really want to drink hot water and lemon in the morning at some point to get the "Liver Flushing" benefits. Looks like I will need to brush my teeth first, use just a little bit of water, while using a glass straw, and doing three cart wheels & playing hop scotch, and then waiting an hour afterwards to brush my teeth again. ;)