Government Studies support diets that support big corporations

I read a study today that had 22 health experts rating diets.  A vegan diet barely met the 3.0 overall rating. The Raw Food Diet was rated as one of the worst 3.  Why? The article says

2. Raw Food Diet (score: 2.1) 

• Type: Low-calorie 
• The aim: Depends, but may include weight loss, improved health and helping the environment
• The claim: Raw food is packed with natural enzymes and nutrients that help the body reach optimal health — and you’ll shed pounds.
• Promotes: Raw food that hasn’t been cooked, processed, microwaved, irradiated, genetically engineered or exposed to pesticides or herbicides, including fresh fruits, berries, vegetables, nuts, seeds and herbs
• Reduces: Eliminates anything pasteurized, all processed foods, refined sugars and flours, table salt and caffeine
• Pros: Fruits and veggies dominate the menu; nearly guaranteed weight loss
• Cons: Tedious meal prep; equipment required; lots of rules
• Cardiovascular benefits: According to U.S. News, it’s unclear, but this diet could have a positive effect. “An eating pattern heavy on fruits and veggies, but light on saturated fat and salt, is considered the best way to keep cholesterol and blood pressure in check and heart disease at bay,” U.S. News stated.
• Why No. 19? Experts found this diet to be lacking in calories, calcium and vitamins B12 and D. Its safety was also questioned because experts felt the emphasis on raw and undercooked ingredients resulted in a high risk of food poisoning.

 

Let's get this straight, the only cons they came up with is that there is

1) Tedious meal prep? I guess if nuking food for 30 seconds and sitting on your butt in front of the TV is your idea of fun, preparing healthy meals from the rainbow colored fruits and veggies pictured above might be tedious. This attitude has most Americans eating out instead of making home made meals like our grandparents. But if you don't want to prep, eat them as is.

2) Equipment required?! Are you kidding me? Eating Raw Food intrinsically requires no equipment for basic preparation, it's raw, remember? For the advanced or "tedious" preparation I guess equipment is needed, but is their microwave, stove and bbq not equipment?  The only equipment I know of for advanced raw-food is a food processor, vita-mix and dehydrator.

3) Lots of rules?! One rule folks, don't heat past 118 degrees. 

I love that it's unclear to them that "an eating pattern heavy on fruits and veggies and light on fat and salt is considered the best way to keep cholesterol and blood pressure in check and heart disease at bay." 

The experts found this diet lacking in calories. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, obesity is now the fastest- growing cause of illness and death in America today. But hey, let's discredit diets that cut down on calories.

Lacking in calcium?! What because we don't drink pasteurized milk that actually weakens our bones? Sesame seeds, broccoli, kale, beans, almonds and walnuts which are all grown locally without mistreating animals are rich in calcium.

Lacking in B12?! Lifetime vegetarians in India don't have Vit B12 deficiencies. Maybe because Green Beans, Beets, Carrots, Peas, and under the sea vegetables like Nori and Spirulina contain Vitamin B12 as do fermented foods like Water Kefir, Miso and Fermented seed and nut cheeses. Vitamin B12 is necessary in miniscule amounts. It is needed in such small amounts it is spoken of in micrograms, not even in milligrams. Regardless of what authorities say, this much we can secure through a diet of fruits, nuts and vegetables as is illustrated by one of the most populated countries in the world, India, where the largest bio-diversity of vegetables is grown and consumed.

Lacking in Vitamin D?! Come on now, Sunshine is where we get Vitamin D and the sun shines everywhere. You can't blame food if you don't get up and get out in the sun. I walk to work every day to get my 40 minutes of sun. I guess getting out in the sun might be considered tedious by nutritionists too, but I call it logical. In India, as soon as the sun comes up, people go out in their courtyards which are in the middle of their homes and this is their living room where they actually live, eat, work and play. In America, the center stage of our indoor living rooms is the TV which promotes hiding from the sun and taking in more calories. 

Uncooked ingredients result in risk of food poisoning? Organic food is the purist, least poisoned food in the world. We can eat it uncooked and unwashed if we want to.  Cooking food doesn't kill the cancer causing carcinogens but I guess that's not food poisoning that's body poisoning which is making millions for these same nutritionists and dr's so they won't mention that.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.hellawella.com/dash-tops-list-of-best-diets-for-healthy-eating-atk...

May you not be duped into believing everything you read.  In the Bible, the Boreans were considered more noble-minded because they examined the scriptures to make sure that what they were being taught was true. May you too examine whether the meat diets this article is promoting is consistent with good health. Dr. Campbell and Dr. Esselstyn have demonstrated otherwise in "Forks over Knives" as did Joe Cross in "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead." "Dying to have Known" also highlighted the medical communities unjustified attempt to discredit people like Dr. Gerson. 

Like the article said pure food results "in weight loss, improved health and helping the environment", what could be nobler than that?

Yours in knowledge, scrutiny and health,

I remain

Ta-raw Hamilton
www.ta-raw.com 

Thank You

I tell everyone that comes into our 600 square feet of raw paradise that my goal is to be like the general store that existed in the olden days where customers knew the owner and the owner provided them with the basics they needed to stock their homes. Sometimes in this global economy where internet has replaced face to face communication, I think that my goal is far fetched. How happy I was to hear an entrepreneur speaking of how social media is returning customers to one to one marketing where they are developing a relationship with the businesses they shop with. My brother, Jas, kept harping on me that I needed to blog and make videos to share my knowledge with others. Despite the vast amount of time this takes, I have done so as a Thank you to my customers. Sometimes I felt that it was pointless because very few people give me feedback electronically. However, I'm amazed by people who come into the cafe and tell me that they read all my blogs, they record my shows and they follow us on facebook. I guess a local economy in a global world really is possible.

This blog is to thank you. I want to thank every person who cares enough to come into our store and support us with your purchase of groceries, food or smoothies. Thank you for taking the time to read my blogs and taking in knowledge about food, farming and community. Thank you for investing the time to learn how to make healthy food by watching our show Ta-Raw on KGMC Wednesdays at 4:00 p.m. or at our free uncooking classes Sundays at 1:00 p.m. Thank you for caring about your health. Thank you for being ambassadors of health to others. Thank you for returning to old fashioned values where your health, the farmer and the environment support each other and the city we live in. Thank you for rewarding my efforts to make nutritious food by coming in to enjoy it. Thanks for filling the social gap left in my life because I no longer go out with friends to eat unhealthy restaurant food. In the pecking order of perfect stranger, kind of stranger, acquaintance, friend and finally,-- family, our shared love of food and health has transformed us from perfect strangers and made us a close knit family and community.

As we approach one year of investing our lives into our cafe and market, I want to thank each and every one of you who has shown a vested interested in supporting my dream and goal for a healthier Fresno.

Yours in gratitude, health and love,

I remain,

Ta-Raw Hamilton

Flu Season and the holidays, any connection?

People have been sick or fighting the flu for a couple of weeks and will typically fight the flu until March. This is directly linked to the increased consumption of sweets from Halloween through Valentines day because sugar supresses the immune system. Many people excuse themselves from having to eat right during this holiday time because of the social aspect of food. However, I remember eating dinner with Ruth Mumby, who is treating her breast cancer naturally with treatment form the Hoxsy clinic. Since sugar feeds cancer, she didn't take even one bite of our desserts at the restaurant. She also had restricted choices because she couldn't have anything with tomato, vinegar or pork because it negated the effectiveness of her tonics. Feeling that her lifestyle was overly restrictive, I asked her if she found it hard to live this way all the time. She answered, "No, life means more to me than desserts and some food." I never questioned her choices again.

My husband was at Costco with our 5 year old son Daniel in the first week of October and Costco put out all the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas goodies right after Labor Day. Daniel saw a woman with a huge bag of halloween candy. He said, in his ever loud, robust voice "Wow, that sure is a big bag of candy. Dad, do you see that huge bag of candy. That's a lot of candy!" Mark tried to shush him and move on. Later, as they were checking out, the woman was in the next line. Daniel didn't see her. Another customer asked the woman where she got the candy, which made Daniel perk up and focus all his attention on them. The woman said to the man, "just take this bag". The man said "no, I don't want to take your bag, just tell me where it is." She said "no, really, I'm so sick of seeing this candy, just take it, you'd be doing me a favor." Although my son didn't mean to make her feel bad, pointing out what a large amount of candy the woman had in her cart, made her reconsider the wisdom of buying it. Daniel loudly proclaimed "I'm so happy she didn't buy that." You see the stores drown us in treats and junk food at this time of year and make it seem okay to indulge. However, since we only buy one treat at a time for our kids, it was unfathomable to Daniel that someone would choose to buy that much junk food because it wasn't good for them.

How about you? Has this holiday season brainwashed you into thinking that eating processed sugar, dairy and meat in large amounts won't affect your weight and health? I've just finished watching a movie "Dying to Have Known" which you can watch on netflix or for free at http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/dying-to-have-known/  This movie pointed out the link between food and health and also between food and emotions.

We are bombarded with images of happy family gatherings centered around food during this time of year, but we opened our store on November 22nd of last year and most people were far from happy eating turkey dinners, ham roasts and copious amounts of desserts. As one of Jehovah's Witnesses, I don't celebrate the holidays and although the store was closed, I went into work on Christmas Day to catch up on stuff. At least three people came in for something to eat because they were alone and hungry and everything else was closed. I made them smoothies and shared the warmth of my heart and store with them. Many people don't realize that more suicides happen during the holidays  than any other time of year. I know it's partially because of lonesomeness, but is it also partly because malnourished people make unwise choices? Although most people are eating far more food than usual, they take in far less nutrition then usual because they are indulging. Lack of nutrition is linked to depression.

Many of our customers admit to staying away from the cafe because they want to enjoy the holidays with their friends and family. They feel it's too hard to eat this way when the rest of America is absorbed in comfort foods. I have to admit, that in years past, junk food was a temptation for me too. Now though, I can make pumpkin pie, persimmon nog, pecan pie, sweet potato casserole, portabello steaks, falafels, pizza and truffles that are good for me. Most people indulge for two months and gain between 5-10 pounds and then spend January trying to work it off at the gym. Isn't it more logical to be an advocate for change? As you get invited to social gatherings, why not make love in the kitchen? Take a healthy dessert, salad, veggie platter with hummus, or entree with you. Use these invitations as an opportunity to introduce people to "real" food. The kind that cures cancer and other diseases. One of our challengers last month was supposed to take five shots a day for her diabetes. She went back to the doctor, after eating raw for 30 days and he couldn't believe her test results. He actually had to check that it was her chart he was holding.

Party food is like a one night stand, fun for a short while and then depressing in the morning. I don't know too many people who are impressed with a mate who is faithful 99% of the time, but our bodies are more forgiving. I'm not saying you can't indulge once or twice a week in a meal that isn't healthful-- but to eat junk food for an entire day, days, weeks or months because it's the holidays is punishment for your body. It can't defend itself against occasional processed food without a strong foundation of nutrition. More and more flu has been turning into pneumonia. The first sign that something was wrong for 25% of people that had a stroke, was the stroke that killed them. Don't let these holidays be the straw that broke the camels back. My show Ta-Raw which airs on Wednesdays at 4:00 p.m. on KGMC will show you how to make delicious, nutritious food that you can enjoy and share with others.

Don't trust your holidays to industrial food, take your health and your families health to heart, by making love in your kitchen.

Yours in health, truth and advocacy, every day

I remain,

Ta-raw Hamilton
www.organicfresno.com, 559.497-5085, Revive Cafe, 1807 Broadway Street, Fresno 

A land flowing with milk and honey

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years to live." the author of this quote is undetermined but the significance of bees to our food diversity is beyond question. Taggart Siegel's movie "Queen of the Bees" was eye opening. I was a vegetarian growing up and we drank buffalo milk and ate honey. Many people think that Indians revere cows but as a Punjabi, I didn't. However, we took good care of all our animals. When our goat or our buffalo gave birth, they were extra nourished and their milk was left for their calf or kid.  When the baby was grown, we had a symbiotic relationship. We fed the animal well, and, in exchange, it provided us with milk.  People tried to nourish the animal in the best possible way because the healthiest animals provided the most milk. I think the same principal applies to bees.  When we feed our bees well by providing lots of forage that is pesticide free, we have strong bees that produce more honey than they need and we can have the bounty.  Therefore, when the Israelites looked forward to a land flowing with milk and honey, to me, it signified that everything was in balance.  

We live in an environment that is extremely unbalanced.  Instead of nourishing cows so we can have an excess of milk, Dairies ensure the cows have calfs so their body produces a lot of milk. They then separate the calf from its mother and sell us the copious amount of milk.  Instead of protecting our plant life so bees can have an abundance of forage, we monocrop millions of acres with plantlife that doesn't sustain the bees. Corn, Soy, Wheat and Canola are not sources of food for bees.  Although almonds provide a few weeks of pollen for bees, the millions of acres of monocropped almonds means bees can't live here in the valley because they have nothing to feed on for the rest of the year.  I discovered that commercial bee keepers transport the hives thousands of miles to pollinate almonds and then feed them high fructose corn syrup. They hope that there is enough honey left in the hives so the bees can derive enough nutrition from it to stay alive.

Dairy cows used to live 20 years, now they live 4 or 5.  Pigs and chickens are bred to be so fat that they can't stand up. Beef cattle are fed corn that will kill them instead of grass that nourishes them. Bees are dissapearing despite efforts by man to increase bee production by breeding Queen bees and impregnating them. All our animals are being mistreated, and for what? So that you and I can eat meat?

When I was a young adult, I ate very little meat, but when I did, I loved veal parmigiana. Someone tried to tell me that cows bred for veal were not allowed to have a life and they were confined.  I didn't really care because I didn't know how they were being treated and I didn't think that my occasional consumption of veal was going to change anything.  My previous attitude towards meat is now personified by most americans. Because we are so far removed from how our animals are being treated, we think that our individual consumption of meat won't change anything. Because we are so far removed from farming and how our plants are being grown, we don't understand how the pesticides are killing our bees and us.

The Bible tells us that knowledge brings accountability. In Genesis, God told us to take care of the animals and to eat fruit and vegetation bearing seed.  Many will protest that Noah was allowed to eat meat and that we aren't under the mosaic law anymore. That is true, but Noah was only allowed to eat meat because there was no fruit and vegetables. Secondly, people were not far removed from the animals and plants like we are now.  In India, we didn't eat the buffalo or goat when it died. Those animals were a part of the family. Every day they had worked to provide milk for us. The oxen weren't eaten after their death, they had plowed our fields. 

Knowledge brings accountability. If humans started to live for 20 years instead of 80 because of an external force or treatment, an outcry would erupt. But our consumption of meat has created an environment where animals are mistreated and live only a quarter of their lifespan in degrading conditions. Many choose not to learn about our food by refusing to watch movies like Food Inc, Food Matters, The Future of Food, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, Forks over Knives and Queen of the Bees -- but ignorance is not bliss.  This ignorance is what is killing humans with diseases like diabetes, stroke and cancer in ever growing numbers.

Although Christians could eat meat, the apostle said that if eating meat made his brother stumble then he would never eat meat again. Although, we can eat meat, drink milk and eat pesticide sprayed vegetables, if our actions result in the mass slaughter and mistreatment of animals, should we not feel obligated to stop eating this way? Or, are we like the Israelites who didn't treasure the perfect food, manna, that Jehovah provided and demanded meat instead?

We have the grand privilege of living in California where there is a cornucopia of fruits and veggies that we can eat year round. We also have organic meat options that are pricey but reflect the cost of life. If everyone in Fresno woke up tomorrow and chose only to eat organic,-- overnight the meat industry and conventional farmers would start doing things differently. They are in the business of making money. If they can make money feeding us garbage and treating animals like dirt they will. If they can't because we demand humane treatment of animals and plants, they will change the way they farm.

If we can't care for our bees by being beekeepers, then the least we can do is grow, or purchase organic fruits and vegetables. This protects our bees who need to live in a pesticide free environment to survive. We should purchase only raw, local honey. This supports the beekeepers who carry the torch we can't.

May you take the time to take in knowledge. Then act on that knowledge. Remember if we are faithful in these matters that may appear to be little, then we will be faithful in much.  May the day come when all of us have the courage to faithfully honor and support a sense of community and well being for each other, in as much, as we have done it for those animals in our care from bee to calf.

Yours in health and kind treatment, I remain

Ta-raw Hamilton

 

Joe Cross's cup is half full, how about yours?

We've all heard the cup adage. Is yours half empty or half full? Listening to Joe Cross speak in person confirmed for me the part of his personality that I found most attractive: his optimism. In the movie when he talks about people who try to juice for 10 days and only get to 8 days, he doesn't consider them a failure, he says "good on you for trying". Similarly he spoke eloquently about his journey of health and the critical moment when he put his wealth before his health.  He was a successful entrepreneur and was spending 15, 16 hours a day working. He started to order in Pizza and consume larger amounts of fast food because his priority was work. He gained an average of 10 pounds a year until he was 310 pounds.

His expectation of doctors, like most American's was, your the doctor fix me.  He handed his health over to someone else. When he took ownership of his problem and made the movie, I loved that he didn't want it to be another movie that talked about the problems. He wanted to focus on solutions. How important is this attitude, and can it really make a difference to your health?

We've been entrepreneurs for many years and one of the most motivational speeches I heard was from one man who told about a childish experience that shaped his view for the rest of his life. He was too young to pour his own milk but was trying to do it anyway when he spilled the pitcher of milk all over the kitchen floor. His mother walked in and he looked up, scared, worried about the mess he made. His mom said "it's quite a mess you've made there isn't it?" He stopped being so worried and nodded his head. She said "well we have to clean it up, would you like to use a sponge, a cloth or a mop?" Now he started to get excited about fixing the mess and started to consider how best to do it. After he decided how to clean it up, his mom said "would you like to play in it before we clean it up?" He said that lesson affected his whole outlook on life. Every time a problem came up in his business, he was excited.  He knew he could fix the problem but he viewed it as an opportunity to learn something he wasn't planning for.

Joe Cross didn't think that his disease that affected him so severely that he couldn't touch anyone was a blessing at first. Now though, he says it was probably the best thing that happened to him because it made him think of his life and his choices. He's now in excellent health and has been for the last five years since he made the movie. People in the audience brought up problems like Monsanto genetically modifying our food but Joe said that he viewed the future positively. He believes that he's going to live to be 140 years old or so. He believes that future generations are going to look at the way we are eating and feeding our kids and they won't believe that we actually ate this way. We are headed towards positive change. People are realizing that they need to make health changes. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on health care in the last six months of their lives, children are realizing that they need to eat differently so they don't have the ailments their parents do.

He said he asks people all the time what the most important thing in their life is, my immediate thought was "my health", he said most people say their kids. When I became pregnant with my fifth child, I realized that I would be retired by the time he was grown and I didn't want him growing up worried about whether his mom was going to die. In order to take care of my two young babies, I put my health ahead of our successful printing business so I could be around to take care of them. Although I'm now a broke, organic farmer, I'm in the best health of my life. 

I believe that it's not our problems that who define who we are but how we rise to the challenge of meeting them. Although the health of Fresno residents is below that of the average California resident, my cup is not half empty, it is half full. Fresno came together as a community to listen to and support Joe Cross as he gave his talk yesterday. Today, I had at least four customers who have been inspired by him to start juicing. I have six healthy children, a daughter in law and son in law that love me as much as I love them. I have a grandson on the way. I have customers that make me happy to be at work although I haven't had a day off in 40 days. I was raised by the best parents in the world and I love all my siblings despite the distance between us. I love my God who gave us the perfect food that brings us awesome health. 

Instead of recounting all my challenges, I make it a point to count my blessings. I know my cup is half full, how about yours? Let me correct that, my cup is not half full, my cup runneth over.

May your cup runneth over with health and love, because you can't take wealth with you when you go. Invest the time and money in reaching good health now so you'll live long enough to see later.

Yours in health, love and hope

I remain inspired

Ta-raw Hamilton

Ta-Raw Warms up the Soup, Without killing the nutrition.

With the announcement that Steve Jobs died today at 58 of cancer, I had to ask myself why people are resigning themselves to death when they are so intelligent in other areas. I too believed there was no cure for cancer until I found out that most cancer is preventable and reversable. (see Forks over Knives and Max Gersons book). But, I have to admit, despite all this knowledge, in the rainy chill, my raw food soul craved soups comforting warmth.

When I first started learning about raw food last year, I thought I would never eat anything warm again. I took a raw food class where salad was converted to soup. The broth was hot and when it cooled down enough that you could touch it, we added the veggies. But I am a soup connoisseur and I have to say, I felt I was settling, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make for nutritions sake. A year later and many hundreds of raw recipes under my belt, I awoke at 5:30 a.m. having listened to the rain fall all night whilst dreaming up raw food soup recipes that would satisfy.

Two of my favorite soups are a coconut milk Thai soup and a tomato minestrone. My mission today was to make a raw version just as good as the cooked version. I started off with 9 large fresh young thai coconuts. I carefully scraped the meat from each one and blended it with the coconut water until I had over a gallon of coconut milk. But this milk did not a broth make. We used fresh ginger and garlic and vitamixed it with a bit of the milk until we had a fragrant broth. I then used soaked sesame seeds and sunflower seeds with coconut milk and vitamixed it until it was a thick creamy rue, like the one I used to make with butter and flour.  I folded my rue and seasoned broth into the coconut milk. I grated cauliflower and carrots into short strands and added them to my broth so I had a creamy, hearty soup. I chopped Portabello mushrooms and massaged them with salt and then I diced red bell peppers very finely. I kept these garnishes separate. I added berbere seasoning, grated lemon rind and salt to the soup until it was perfectly seasoned. A slight warm spice with a cool sweet taste from the coconut. Topped with the mushrooms and bell peppers, my Thai soup was beautiful and tasty. Everything my cooked soup used to be, except not warm. 

On to the tomato minestrone. Rachel was in charge of this one.  We used fresh tomatoes from Smith Family Farms and made a tomato sauce. She blended parsley in with a portion of the tomato sauce. She made her rue with almonds, lemon juice, chick pea miso, garlic, salt, black pepper and basil. We folded this into the sauce and it made a hearty broth. We added finely minced leeks and grated cauliflower to the soup. Next, we diced fresh green beans into small pieces and massaged them thoroughly with a touch of salt and folded them in. Lastly, we added some hot water to our tomato soup, making sure we could still touch it with our hands. Our heavenly tomato minestrone was complete.

Dehydrated veggie bread strips were our crackers. We also cooked some potatoes and quinoa for anyone who wanted them added to the soup. Many customers chose not to eat the soup because I think they felt it was commonplace. The connoisseur in me wanted to say "but this is soup, liquid libation to quench your soul." I refrained and secretly delighted in combining the two soups together for a blush soup that peaked at perfection. As each customer ordered, we warmed the soup so we could touch the bowl and the soup reached a cozy 110 to 115 degrees. Warm soup on a cold rainy day. Could there be anything better? No, not if with every bite your food whispers nutrition and keeps cancer and other disease causing free radicals at bay.

I must live well past 58 to see my two babies grow up. How fortunate I am that we run a raw vegan cafe and my lifes work is creating nutritious, delicious food. I think sadly of the visionaries like Steve Jobs whom we've lost to cancer -- but thank God that I left the corporate train behind to care for what matters most in life; my health and the health of those around me.

Encouraging you not to be such a visionary that you lose sight of the basic things in life: health, love and family,

I remain your fellow passenger on the SOL (Simple Organic Living) Train.

Ta-Raw Hamilton

 

Food moods, are you in tune with your body?

Growing up, I only thought of food when I was hungry. I didn't eat three set meals a day, I just ate when I was hungry and filled up so I wouldn't have to eat again too soon thereafter. As I got older I started to realize that even after I ate, I kept thinking of food.  My stomach would be full but my mind kept craving something more... I started eating sweets after my meal to see if that's what my mind was craving, then I'd try a few chips, then something else. Now my mind and my body are in sync. When my stomach is full, my mind says thank you and, like my younger years, I don't think of eating until I'm hungry again.

Would you like to know the secret to this food contentment? It's nutrition. Growing up, I ate organic veggies from our family farm or garden so my tummy was happy from Mom's amazing cooking and my mind said thank you for the nutrition. Corporate America changed that. In San Diego, we didn't have a garden and although my tummy said I'm full, my brain was saying, "nutrition tank on empty here!" Now eating organic, raw food, my body is in harmony. When my tummy is full from the amazing delights from Revive, my mind moves onto something else. That's a wonderful thing.

Face it, if you're thinking of food all the time, you're going to eat more. If you think of food only when you're hungry, you will eat to nourish yourself rather than with gluttony. Mind you, as the chef at Revive, I think of food even when I'm not hungry because I'm constantly planning future delightful meals to nourish your body and delight your taste buds but my food mood is happy and my spirit is one of caring and sharing.

Think of when you eat fast food or cooked food, aren't you tired after? Don't you want to take a nap? We eat breakfast and we're tired, after lunch we're tired and push through the afternoon so we can make it home for dinner time. After dinner we're exhausted and just want to watch TV. Food mood is red. It's on high alert. Our body is working as hard as it can to process the food we're giving it and our mind is stressed trying to muster up the energy to deal with the chores you want it to complete while screaming for you to give it nutrition. There is no better example of this than in the movie Super Size Me.  He certainly wasn't a vegan to start but he seemed like an intelligent, caring, well spoken person. At the end of the movie, he craved McDonalds, sat in front of the tv and his attitude towards his mate wasn't very caring.  

One couple that did the raw food challenge for 30 days said that after incorporating cooked food into their diet again, they were moody and they argued. They reflected on this and realized that they hadn't argued the month they were on the challenge. Feed the body, feed the mind. Depression can be a result of a lack of nutrition. Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Cancer, Autism, ADHD, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Candida are all treatable by diet too.  Do you think that these diseases aren't mood altering?

Bottom line?  Your body is your nearest friend, treat it well. If you took a date to McDonald's you might have a different evening then if you had a candle lit, home made dinner.  You are your bodies advocate, if you abuse it, who will protect it?  You want your body to work for you 7 days a week, 16-18 hours a day? Keep your body clean with pure water or water kefir, nourished with organic food, prepared with care to preserve the nutrition and seasoned with love to cheer your heart. Your body wants to love you and take care of you, do you dare to care and love it back?

I sing the same song for the inside and outside of my body -- Can't  touch this. Fast food, junk food, processed food, gmo food, pesticided food, pasteurized food, slaughtered food... can't touch this doo, da da, doo ... can't touch this.

In exchange, my bodies food mood is pretty much always green. 

Our Cooking Show "Ta-Raw, The uncooking show about healthy vegan food" will air again on Wednesdays at 4:00 p.m. It is a half hour show and airs on the local station KGMC Channel 43 or Comcast Channel 10. Learn how to love your body and mind this week. It will post on our website www.makeloveinthekitchen.tv after that.

Yours in health, body and mind.

I remain,

Ta-raw Hamilton

www.facebook.com/revivecafe
www.makeloveinthekitchen.tv