Is the 100% Raw Food Diet for Everyone?

I am giving a lot advice in this particular post and the information contained in this message is for education only and is not meant to diagnose, prescribe, or treat illness. It is valuable to seek the advice of an alternative health care professional before making any changes.

When mainstream people who are unaware of the 100% Raw Food Diet comes to me to seek healing, I generally recommend they do an intermediate diet. I had an old friend from college - Rosalie - who had a severe case of PCOS (Poly-Cystic Ovary Syndrome). She had 2 miscarriages; one single birth and then more recently she lost twins. As she was in the midst of this condition she gained about 83 lbs as a side effect. She desperately wanted a successful pregnancy. The doctor said that the next step would be to have surgery, as there were no other options and that there was a great risk that she could not get pregnant in the future. She discovered a picture of me on MySpace while taking a trip down memory lane. She had never heard of Raw Foodism before. She began doing tireless research and every way she turned, I kept appearing. She knew it was a sign.

I told her to go on Fred's Intermediate diet, while explaining that if she truly wants to heal, she is advised to ONLY eat the foods on that plan and NEVER deviate. I also recommended that she cleanse her colon a few times during her first month of doing this, plus also drink a couple of vegetable juices every day. When people come to me, it isn't very often that they follow all my suggestions verbatim and that alone sometimes makes the difference in healing completely or not. Lastly, I made sure she took masses of Dr. Fred Bisci’s Therapeutic Enzymes, many times a day on an empty stomach. I KNEW that would be the icing on the cake. Those little enzymes have the potential to provide miraculous wonders in healing people's conditions. Read the Therapeutic Enzyme Article I wrote HERE if you want more info on them.

I was talking to her daily for a week or so and then I didn't hear from her for months. I totally thought she fell off the wagon, which commonly happens. HOWEVER, three months later, Rosalie Wrote:

Hi Matt
I have great news!!! I had an ultrasound today to check on my PCOS and it is almost all gone!!!!!!! Before I began on my journey I had so many cysts that my ovaries looked like a galaxy of stars. Today the Doctor counted only ten on my left ovary and eleven on my right. I was so excited I could not believe what a difference changing my eating lifestyle would bring me. I tell my husband and anyone else that will listen that I feel alive again and most importantly I feel like a beautiful woman again. I will never be able to express to you in words how grateful I am to have you back in my life as a mentor and friend. Please share the news with others that there is hope and also with your mom and let her know again I appreciated her kind words a few months back. Next stop, a healthy pregnancy. I'll keep you posted
Rosalie

Rosalie is now pregnant again and HEALTHY. Yes, the diet played a HUGE role. The addition of the enzymes and colon hydrotherapy also sped this process up probably 20-fold. Those little powdered enzyme catalysts, when taken on an empty stomach go to work in the metabolic processes of the body. They speed up chemical reactions and create other beneficial chemical reactions in the body that would not have happened without their presence. They are MIRACULOUS! You may also want to read the Q & A HERE, where I talk a bit more about enzymes.

Teresa Wrote:

Hi Matt, Quick Question. Do you generally peel and or core your apples? I heard reasons both for and against. I'm curious about the opinion of a "purest", if you have the time. Thanks, Teresa

It's so funny to me that everyone is considering me a purest. I never really thought of myself like that but, hey, I guess I am, from some perspectives. The reason I don't eat typical "raw food condiments", such as nama shoyu and spices is because they mess me up and give me a runny nose. I would if I comfortably could. I would even eat Raw Goats' cheese/milk in moderate quantities, if I comfortably could. A few years back I tried a little raw cheese and I got lots of mucus. It's only because of how 'clean' I am now, at a cellular level.

It's funny, I go to some people's houses and they are absolutely DILIGENT about not having ANY household chemicals in the house. However, they eat refined sugars and processed starches. They are literally internally ingesting very harmful substances. Although it could still be a bit of concern, I'd rather see someone take care of what they put INSIDE themselves than the outside factors. As crazy as this may sound, I like to use those Chemical DOVE Soap bars and put it ALL over my body. I love how it just SUDS up everywhere! It's one of my remaining 'vices' ;)

OK... Now to the question. I'll throw the entire apple in a blender when I make food; the core, seeds, skin, and stem. I don't care! It doesn't bother me! ;)

Courtney wrote:

I've been reading your blog with great interest! I looked very carefully at your food blog, and you detailed everything very carefully...everything except your juice intake. It seemed though that you think though that vegetable juices are among the most important part of a rawfoodist's diet though, no? Could you give us readers a sense of how many ounces of juice you drink a day and/or how many pounds of green leafy vegetables and other vegetables you juice a day? Thanks so much! Keep up the great work--really enjoying the blog :)
Best,
Courtney

Yes, I believe that eating/drinking some kind of 'broken-down', assimilable nutrients daily is a necessity to succeed on the 100% Raw Food Diet in the long-run. I just got an email the other day from a woman asking me to take her off my email list because the Raw Food Diet did damage to her health and she didn't want anything to do with it. She said it's just not for everyone. Additionally, she wrote:

I'm following eastern philosophies (Chinese and Ayurveda) and eating only warming foods as I tend to be a very cold person. I guess the cooling nature of raw foods helped to put me out of balance. In that was, I see that it is not for everyone.

My readers, if you do this correctly, !!ANYONE!!, can flourish eating a 100% Raw Food Diet. Many people are unaware of the key details for success, or just don't want to do the extra necessary things to succeed with this type of lifestyle; THOSE could certainly be the reasons why it may seem this is not for everyone. As I stated in this blog HERE, the rules change when you become raw, and the body types/blood types/aryuveda types etc lose their potency. Now don't get me wrong, I think it is TOTALLY ok not to be 100% Raw and that you can still be extremely healthy that way. In fact, with over 50% of the people I consult with, I suggest that being 100% raw is not for them, for varying reasons.

Ok… Now to the question… I feel the optimal amount of vegetable juice for us to consume is two 16oz vegetable juices a day. All vegetables have different compositions of nutrients, so it is important to get a wide variety of them all (even beets and carrots). Greens have chlorophyll, which is the most beautifying element of food that a human can consume. Therefore, it would be in our best interest to make at least half of the juices we drink each day from greens. I personally don't usually mix fruit (the cleansers) with my vegetable juices. I love using carrots (veggies are the nourishers) to sweeten the juice because they are much more rich than fruit in vital elements needed by the body. I go into more depth about this in the blog post HERE.

I personally try to do two 16oz glasses of vegetable juices daily. Sometimes I will drink more than 16oz, if I make extra juice. I generally make about half the juice greens. Sometimes, I'll do a vegetable juice that is excellent for the liver and gall bladder that only has carrot/beet/cucumber in it. They all have different nutrients, just juice them all...

I quoted Norman Walker in my book Raw Success. He states that a 100% Raw Food Diet without vegetable juices is a deficient diet. I agree with him 100%. I keep seeing people running into marginal deficiencies in the long-run on the 100% raw diet. Even people who are balanced out and eating a couple of meals a day. Here is an excerpt from Raw Success:

A 100% Raw Food Diet without juicing vegetables is a deficient diet.

What I am about to share with you is very important and I want it said just right, so I will give a direct passage from Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices by Dr. Norman Walker:

An entirely Raw Food regimen, without the inclusion of a sufficient quantity and variety of fresh-Raw juices is equally deficient. The reason for this deficiency lies in the fact that a surprisingly large percentage of the atoms making up the nourishment in the Raw Foods is utilized as fuel for energy by the digestive organs in their processes of digesting and assimilating the food, which usually requires as long as 3, 4, or 5 hours after every meal. Such atoms, while furnishing some nourishment to the body, are mostly used up as fuel, leaving only the smaller percentage available for the regeneration of the cells and tissues.

However, when we drink Raw vegetable juices, the situation is entirely different, as these are digested and assimilated within 10 to 15 minutes after we drink them and they are used almost entirely in the nourishment and regeneration of the cells and tissues, glands and organs of the body. In this case the result is obvious, as the entire process of digestion and assimilation is completed with a maximum degree of speed and efficiency, and with a minimum of effort on the part of the digestive system.
(Norman Walker: Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices, Pg 9)

Juicing a wide variety of vegetables is the optimal way to supply the vitamins and minerals we need. Our bodies love veggie juice! The liquid flows straight into our small intestines, and is easily absorbed. Juicing is the best, most natural way to get vitamins and minerals in their most absorbable form ~ liquid, liquid, LIQUID! Try for a minimum of two 16oz vegetable juices every day.

Lena Wrote:

WOW MATT! That is TOO exciting that you are coming to Melbourne! But, I'm considering leaving the raw food diet :_( I've been having SO many problems with my iron, I don't know what to do? I just got my blood results on Monday and even though my ferritin levels have gone up, my serum iron levels have absolutely diminished. It is below its limits now. I have no idea what to do? I need the iron desperately (my hair has been falling out tonnes and I get very heavy periods, the next is due next week so I'm worried about that too!) but the only ways I actually want to consume the iron is a long, long process in terms of storage or something? Currently I'm taking Floradix and have been doing so for about three months. I guess that's what has bumped up my ferritin levels? Please help me? What do I do? Do I stay raw? (Note: I get minimal amount of ORGANIC fruit and veggies and greens). I went to see a naturopath yesterday, but they just gave me a new diet and said that this raw thing has left me seriously, seriously nutrient deficient. Then they prescribed a whole bunch of supplements. I wrote a plea of help on giveittomeraw. There have been some comments on taking something called Spatone and increasing my Vit C intake. I'm just getting worried, I don't want to be bald at 21! Desperately seeking iron,Lena

I am so glad that you got a blood test. If you are truly 100% raw, then it is normal that our levels are a bit lower than the normal range. If it was WAY Below, then it can be an issue. Molasses is really high in iron. I know it is not raw but if you take that with the raw diet, then that should cover and balance up your iron deficiency.

Additionally, it is important that you drink a wide range of vegetable juices. That is the "raw food eater's" multi vitamin. I would drink two 16oz green juices a day if I were you, for now. I would also cleanse the colon periodically to make sure that you are getting maximum absorption. Also, take a green food powder supplement every day. That will help you get nutrients too.
So, a break down of what to do is this:

2 green juices a day
Green food powder twice a day
Cleanse the colon fully AT LEAST once a month (maybe twice a month just for now)
b-12 supplement
And… The molasses for the Iron.

If you do all those things, you will inevitably succeed with flying colors. In the following post we give more advice on anemia.

I get emails like this all the time! If you do it correctly, then ANYONE can succeed. I personally get my blood test taken periodically and my levels are right where they should be. Drink the vegetable juices and cleanse the colon! I am going to continually preach those two things until I VOMIT! Generally when someone like Lena gets back to me in three months, they either flourish or regress and leave the Raw diet. In both cases they claim that they did these suggestions. However, as I question the ones who regress, I learn that this is not necessarily the case.

Today, January 29th I ate:

11 AM - 8oz of Grapefruit juice (for VITAMIN C - not produced by the body and we need it from outside sources. Crucial for the connective tissue of the body.)
1:00 PM - 16 oz vegetable juice (beets, carrots, cucumber, wild greens, green bell pepper, parsley)

2:30 PM - Meal 1:

3 apples blended into applesauce
1 cup of mulberries and 1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon soaked overnight in the applesauce
3 tablespoons of ground flax &
1 small handful of ground almonds
Swirled into the mixture

5:30 PM - 16 oz vegetable juice (beets, carrots, cucumber, wild greens, green bell pepper, parsley)

6:30 PM - Meal 2:

2 – 3 tablespoons of Sunflower Seed Pate’ (Sunflower seeds soaked overnight, strained, & blended with garlic and kelp powder)
1 cucumber PEELED and grated with cheese grater
1/4 of an avocado
MUSHED together really well
1 large handful of Karengo Seaweed (Similar to Dulse)
1 teaspoon of cut up green onions
This entire mixture put in lettuce leaves as sandwiches to eat

Lastly, Pumpkin seeds and various red foods are high in iron, such as: watermelon, goji berries, cherries, currants, strawberries, rasberries and other foods that are red. Avocado, dried figs spinach, parsley, dates, dried apricots, garbonzo beans, almonds, brazil nuts and sesame seeds have a pretty good iron content also.

Breatharianism?

My body keeps expelling and expelling waste, from being in this CLEAN AIR Environment. I feel like I am in this continuous healing mode. I feel myself becoming cleaner and cleaner, becoming naturally 'higher' and higher as the days pass. That UNIVERSAL COSMIC energy JUST DOWN POURS ON YOU! ;) Literally!

Do you notice how the body contracts when thrown into a cold environment? The Blood Gas Theory discusses how cells "contract" and give off endogenous poisons when someone improves their diet. Furthermore, the cells will contract when the body is put into a colder climate. Notice how you get a runny nose in the cold. This may be the reason why. Additionally, do you notice what time of the year the flu season comes around? It is generally the winter time. It is simply the cells contracting from the colder climate and everyone is detoxing waste on a cellular level. I wonder if this has anything to do with bears hibernating in the winter time. Hmmm?

Well... we've got CLEAN AIR and COLD CLIMATE jam packed into one! LOVE IT! I am not really a cold person but for now it is GREAT.

Raw diva wrote this to me on MySpace:

RawDiva wants to be your friend!
Wow, Matt, love your blog! Almost as good as Angela's (giggle). Looking for new friends here on myspace. Can I add ya?

Thanks Raw Diva!!! Yeah, I know... She is quite a gal!

Christine wrote:

So great that you are in my beloved New Zealand, and even in Golden Bay. I lived there at a friend's place halfway up a hill in the middle of nature just outside Takaka and in Nelson most of the time of my 2 years in this country. Hope I can return soon. Anyway, I wish you loads of fun and success in NZ. Oh, how are the blackflies treating you? Do they leave you alone? Curious how they react on a 100% rawfoodist. Enjoy the fresh air and the amazing landscape!Namaste!Christine

For any readers who are unfamiliar, 'black flies' are these little "Ant-Sized" flying insects that bite you. You can definitely feel the bite as it is a strong pinch. The real issue however comes after the bite. They leave the craziest itch on your skin.

The Raw Food Diet is not a panacea. Miraculous things can and do happen… However, I am getting bitten by these little critters. I have been bitten in the past by other flying creatures and the stinging itch lasted a lot longer in the past than now. Now, after one day it is gone.

Many people say that you become so clean on a 100% Raw Food diet that you will lose your allergies, insects won't bite you, you won't get sick and catch viruses, you can make any permanent STDs dormant such as herpes, etc.

Well... it can work both ways...

If you keep up with the endogenous material that is being excreted on a cellular level, caused from eliminating everything but 100% Raw Foods from your diet, then yes, there is a great chance that these things will happen.

However, many people don't seem to understand that if you go on a 100% Raw Food Die, you are going to detox at some level for the rest of your life (read, 'The Missing Link on the 100% Raw Food Diet' HERE for more information on this). If people are not keeping up with these endogenous poisons which are being released as a raw foodist, then they may be in worse shape than when they started. This can result in a very acidic condition to the body.

The most effective way to keep up with this endogenous waste is to thoroughly cleanse the colon. All disease is the same; it is this waste trying to leave the body. The poisons will leave via the weakest area of the body, which in the case of someone who is inflicted with Herpes, for example, can be the genitals. If you go on a raw diet and don't cleanse the colon, the body will look for every outlet to rid itself of this waste. People get out-breaks, pimples, hemorrhoids, mucus coming out of areas you wouldn't think is possible, diarrhea, rashes, etc. I have heard it all. This is the most confusing aspect and reason why people don't succeed on a 100% Raw Food Diet, whether they know it or not. In my opinion, if you don't practice colon hydrotherapy on a periodic basis, (a minimum of ONCE a MONTH if you are TRULY 100% Raw, or 2 - 5 times a year if you are on a whole food intermediate diet) then you are setting yourself up for CONFUSION and most likely a let-down in the long-run.

Rebecca wrote:

Thank you Matt! I am getting your emails now...they are awesome and inspiring. I plan to get your books soon and Angela's too very soon (congrats, by the way!).

I've been about 70 percent raw for a week now with lots of green juices, fruit smoothies and almond milk shakes. I'm scheduled for my first ever colon hydrotherapy session on Mar 4 at Clear Path Therapies. I'm a little nervous about that, but I know my body will thank me. It feels so natural and so right to get back into a raw/vegan lifestyle. My husband is even drinking some green juices with me. I was totally not expecting that!

I did want to ask you a question. In the blog about the girl who was ill after doing the Master Cleanse you said something about being wary of grade B organic maple syrup, but you didn't go into detail. I was curious what the pitfalls are because I love to use the syrup as a sweetener, especially in the almond milk shakes. Should I stop and if so what else can I use? I'm putting medjool dates into the shakes but they aren't quite sweet enough. Any suggestions? Thanks again for all that you are doing!

This blog post HERE, talks about how people who are nervous going to get colon hydrotherapy have the best sessions.

If the maple syrup is not bothering you, and you don't want to eliminate it, then that is ok for now. Selia was doing MASSIVE cleansing by doing a 40 day liquid diet. There is a great chance after doing that much fasting, that she may become so clean that her body may be bothered by the maple syrup. It's nothing to be alarmed by. Just like I became so clean that the popular raw food condiment Nama Shoyu now has an adverse effect on me. It gives me a massive runny nose every time I eat it, so I stopped.

The maple syrup is not raw, just like many of the foods I recommend to those who want to live on an intermediate diet. If you get to a point that you notice the maple syrup is having an adverse effect on you, you may choose to eliminate it at that time. If you can eliminate the maple syrup now by switching it with something Raw, then that could be GREAT. Dark Agave Nectar may be the PERFECT Replacement. Some extreme raw foodists say that it is not raw but I see it as an improvement to maple syrup. 100% Raw Honey would be an idea but be careful as it is really high in natural sugars and is very cleansing to the body.

The key is to stay consistent with ALL the TREMENDOUS improvements you made by going 70% Raw now. Becoming younger happens when you eat less harmful foods consistently, and that is what you are doing. It may take three years of detoxing and becoming younger before you stabilize out on your new diet. At that point, your body may ask you nicely to get rid of the next set of harmful foods in your current diet with signs of a runny nose, headache, or something else.

Almost 8 years of being 100% Raw and my 'addicted being' STILL salivates over pictures like the pancakes.

Juni wrote:

Matt - again, kudos to your great blogs. I must say you ARE a purist, setting a standard that few of us can live up to (yet) -- your comment that you "continue eating consistent amounts of food to hold myself back from being too pure" - your diet sounds pretty pure to me! How much purer can one eat? Please share your definition of a pure diet ---Thanks for leading the way in health,Juni in FL

Your questions always hit the SPOT! In the last post, I gave an excerpt from Raw Success that anyone can stabilize out on a diet much 'purer' than mine.

The cleaner you become, the more efficient your body becomes and the further and quicker it wants to push you to a cleaner state. Anyone can become even 'purer' than they are now if they eliminate more kinds and quantities of foods from their diet. For example, I can lower my average nut and avocado intake by half and I will become even purer. And yes... Because I left more kinds and/or quantities of foods out of my diet, I am going to detox even more. There is a direct correlation with how much one detoxes and how much they leave out of their diet completely. That is why water fasting creates the most detoxification.

Why would someone want to leave more and more foods out of their diet and become purer and purer? That UNIVERSAL Cosmic energy downpours on you more and more the less obstruction you have in your system - i.e. food to be digested. Raw Success goes into this deeply. Here is an excerpt from Raw Success:

Just as most people don't seem to identify with my spiritual life, I cannot accurately imagine the spiritual state of a successful long-term Liquidarian, who does appropriate internal cleansing. Through my journey, I have met Experimenters, those who have taken the leap to "extreme pure dieting" – taking in miniscule amounts of food for a considerable amount of time. Here is one story from an Experimenter: If a woman walked in the room without making a sound, he could sense they had entered and even knew if they were in their menses or not. The energetic sensory abilities these extreme dieters enjoy are way beyond what I can identify with. My own short fasts and juice fasting merely scratch the surface.

In your own process of exploration, please, please keep in mind the risk these extreme pure dieters have undertaken. In the long-run there is serious danger of shock from any inconsistencies in amount or quality of foods, and from the pollution in the environment. Most likely these individuals will suffer complications in the long-run. Yet, some people may make the choice for a more energetic vibratory life with a higher potential for spiritual experience, even at the expense of their lifespan.

Raw Success goes on to describe what I feel is the Optimal Diet. If you eat anything less than this optimal diet, then your longevity may be affected, due to our current polluted environment. If you eat any more than this optimal amount, then your longevity will be affected by the food. Of course, this is only considering basic factors. Clearly there are also elements to consider like the will to live, how polluted the environment is that we live in (the optimal diet shifts depending on how 'pure' it is where you reside), emotional & mental state, and much more.

Here is another quick Raw Success excerpt:

Many start the Raw Lifestyle to reach "ultimate health". Naturally there are some who wish to become as pure as possible in their Raw choices, excluding certain foods or combinations that feel too dense or not ideal. I personally do not recommend eliminating concentrated foods such as nuts and seeds. I want to comment further about this issue, as it is becoming quite popular with some Raw Foodists.

Some people think that eliminating concentrated foods such as nuts is a dietary improvement because the digestive system is less taxed, thereby bringing us closer to an optimal state. This is a half-truth. Many years ago, when the Earth’s environment was pure and pristine, eliminating concentrated foods would have been beneficial. If done correctly, the body becomes more vital, strong, and in tune to heightened spiritual experiences. However, in today’s compromised air quality, by cutting out nuts, one would ultimately shorten their lifespan because of their vulnerability to the current adverse conditions facing our planet.

In the long run, eliminating concentrated foods lowers our endurance for adverse conditions, and any inconsistent actions in the future will take a greater toll on our vitality. Why walk on a tight rope? Not only do I feel there are immense benefits from the nutrients nuts and seeds provide, but they also help to slow our body's evolution.

In my book Raw Spirit, I talk about how Hilton Hotema suggests that the less we use our digestive tract, the more our spiritual organs regenerate. I have to stop here though. I'll keep that in the back of my head to include in a future post...

And... Lastly... This 'becoming purer' process is never-ending and you can end up eating pretty much nothing, if you follow it through to its 'conclusion'. In my opinion, you can live on only air. However, you have to know what you are doing... and I have only met one that does know, besides which it is EXTREMELY dangerous. I keep toying about writing an entire article about Breatharianism for each of my newsletters, but I get reluctant for many reasons.

Quick Raw Whole Food Recipe:

Apple mulberry cinnamon recipe WOW!
Blend 6 apples
Throw an entire 16 oz bag of dried mulberries and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and mix thoroughly.
Let it marinate overnight in the refrigerator
The next day Grind 6 tablespoons of flax and mix that thoroughly in the apple, cinnamon, mulberry mixture.

This is a 'Gourmet' tasting, 'Purist', whole food recipe, void of complex spices and other typical "gourmet" raw food restaurant condiments. I have a couple more to share soon too...

Ahww! Fresh Air!!!

Mark my words!!! One day when I settle down in ONE place, I will be SURE to live in a "pure air quality" location. The air quality that we are living in right now is SO CLEAN.

Clean air will PUSH you into healing. Remember, it is what you leave out of your diet that heals you... and air quality is another 'food' of sorts. We are taking it in constantly, every day. So... guess what happens if you eliminate poor air quality from your diet. You got it! Detoxification of the old pollution. Clean air is such a healing tool. Have you ever heard of people going to the "countryside" to heal? It may be confusing to some people why they get 'ill' when they go to the countryside, especially as this detox may last quite some time. I have no doubt that people would benefit from spending a great amount of time in bed when they go to the "country" to heal.

I quoted Dr. Fred Bisci in Raw Success, saying:

I know some people from the US that went to South America, became Fruitarians. Many lost their teeth and did not do well in the long run. They couldn’t handle the sudden transition from a toxic environment to a very clean location and lifestyle. The release of endogenous [waste inside a cell] material is what harmed them. There was nothing wrong with what they were doing. It was just too much of a change from one extreme to another. They went from a bad environment to a good environment, and a bad diet to a very good diet. Maybe if they would have eaten greens and did Colonics down there it wouldn't have happened to them.

In the evening time is when we mainly cleanse, so I have been waking up with a minor sore throat and runny nose every morning recently. Then after I flush it down with water, WATCH OUT!

Whenever the air around me is pure, my third eye BUZZES like MAD. The vibration is orgasmic. Additionally, my body doesn't want to eat as much. It doesn't need as much food. Generally, my body is always trying to push me forward into eating less food, but out here, in this clean air, it is extreme. Food just slows me down. The air just pumps me with energy! It is very easy to eat very little out here. I feel this is why it is reported that people in "off the grid", pristine territories often live to be way past the century mark. They have all that clean air, which keeps them healthy and living long. Additionally, their desire for food diminishes and they thrive eating small quantities.

I make sure to eat my consistent amounts of food to hold myself back from getting too clean at this point. I know that my living situation is temporary and I will be back in many "less purified" places soon. When I am settled in my own 'purified' location, I will probably start to move in a cleaner direction with my food intake.

When someone becomes as 'clean' at a cellular level as the space I currently find myself in, the body is always trying to get you to eat less food and take it to the next level. It does this by giving you digestive discomfort after eating certain amounts. If my body had its way with me, I would literally be eating once a day, or maybe even once every other day.

Here is a GREAT excerpt from Raw Success that will explain in further detail:

Stabilizing Out happens when the body gets accustomed to a habitual quantity and a certain quality of food. Biologically, we stabilize out, no matter what our diet is like – whether we are on a cooked diet eating three fast food meals a day, or a Raw Diet eating two small meals a day. If we are consistent, eventually, our body settles into a “normal” food day; this is called “stabilizing out”.

Once you stabilize out, eating more than your usual amount of food often results in a feeling of illness or fatigue. Furthermore, because the body loves progress, even if you are “perfect” and eat exact daily portions, at some point, your body will again try to raise the bar by encouraging you to eat less food. Often this nudge towards progress will be felt as sluggishness after eating your typical meal. This is the body encouraging a reduced appetite, so that you can reach higher levels of health and energy.

Unless your diet continues to improve, at some point you will suffer sluggishness and begin to age. The danger is that the cleaner your diet, the faster this progression occurs, and the more sensitive you become to adverse environmental conditions as the years go on.

Giving In
To avoid discomfort and regain vitality, many give in to the body's prodding and eat smaller meals. Can you see how this process is never ending? The body is always moving toward greater levels of optimal health, becoming cleaner and more efficient, needing less to thrive. This applies no matter where you are starting.

For example, a long-term Liquidarian who has stabilized out in a routine of 4 veggie and/or fruit juices a day, would experience lowered energy and physical discomfort if they were to drink a 5th or 6th glass of juice. JUICE! What's more, their body will eventually encourage them to drink 3½ glasses of juice rather than their typical 4. At some point they will feel discomfort and sluggishness unless they reduce their juice intake.

Before becoming Raw, I ate three processed food meals a day – mostly microwave chicken patties, Subway sandwiches, In-and-Out Burger – the diet of a college bachelor. My body tolerated the menu well; I exercised, rarely overate, and felt energized. As a Raw Foodist, I thrive on much less. For years now I have consistently eaten two simple Raw Meals a day. My body has stabilized out. If I consume larger portions or more than two meals, immediately my energy drops. Additionally, my body is now trying to push me further by creating occasional bouts of sluggishness after a typical sized meal. It’s saying, “Eat less fat and sugar”. What’s incredible is that 99% of the human population would feel extremely hungry and energized on my diet, yet my body wants to keep moving forward, into less and less food intake.

Great air quality is quite profound. I feel like an alien in my own environment a lot of the time. I CAN'T STAND IT when I am driving slowly behind a BIG FUMING TRUCK and there is nothing I can do about it. Just as my dogs bark at the big trucks driving by, I feel like I go through the SAME INSTINCT. The environment is one of the major things that we (our health movement) are fighting for. Oh people! Let's use our creativity, technology and science, and bring our environment back to the pristine space it once was in! I heard a statistic that if we all stopped polluting the environment RIGHT NOW, COMPLETELY, that it would take 30 years for the atomsphere to clean out this junk. I personally see that as a good thing. It would be an easy detoxification transition back to a purer state for all of us animals. If the atmosphere cleaned out completely immediately, everyone would be detoxing like crazy, all around the world!

Another Quick Whole Raw Food Recipe for 2 - 3 people.

Blend three apples with around 1/2 lb of fresh raspberries

Pour an entire 16oz bag of Dried mulberries in it to soak overnight

The next day the mulberries will have absorbed a great deal of the moisture, making them soft.

add 9 tablespoons of ground flax and mix it in thoroughly.

Let the rest of the moisture absorb in the flax, then serve and ENJOY!

OR...

Soak 16oz of dried mulberries overnight in enough pure water to JUST ALMOST cover them.

Blend 13oz of the soaked mulberries with around 1/2 lb of fresh raspberries

Swirl in 6 - 9 tablespoons of ground flax and the remainder of the soaked mulberries

WOW! Serve and Enjoy ;)

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?