Sunday, May 20, 2007

Living With Raw Food

I was thinking that maybe I could do this raw food thing. Give me unlimited access to fruits, especially watermelon, pineapple, and bananas, and I'd be fine. Then the third book comes my way, Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine, by Gabriel Cousens, M.D. Why does everything have to get more complicated and extreme? I would have been fine with Eat to Live.

Dr. Cousens has been into this live food thing since the seventies and has done more research than he should have. According to Cousens the biggest problem with achieving optimal health is more complicated than just giving up animal products and cooking. The real problem is the toxicity in our blood caused by mycotoxins, which are caused by eating acid-promoting foods, stress, and our bad thoughts. (I can deal with the stress and thoughts, but what about these foods?)

Anyhow, these mycotoxins create all kinds of havoc: suppress the immune system, make bad cholesterol, cause cancer. (Pretty nasty creatures if you ask me.) Actually, the list goes on: depression, anxiety, PMS, fatigue, allergies, weight problems, colds, flu, gas, really bad health. I'm beginning to feel lucky to be alive. Essentially, it's the sugars and acid diet (along with acid thoughts and emotions) that makes the body self-compost. Yuk!! Double Yuk!! Think fungus, mold, and bacteria, giving off waste products, weakening our cells, bringing about disease.

Do you want holistic health? Get rid of foods high in sugar (sweet fruits), most grains, potatoes. There goes my watermelon and pineapple. Grains are high on the list because they are acid-forming and contain mold and fungus from being stored so long. Of course animal foods are off the list too, mostly because animals are fed grains infected with fungus.

Specifically, Dr Cousens warns us against eating sugar (and honey and maple syrup), flesh, dairy, yeast, corn, alcohol, coffee, caffeine, mushrooms, dried fruit, peanuts, cashews, soy sauce, and all processed foods.

What is allowed? Nuts and seeds, raw veggies, avocados, tomatoes, lemons, legumes, unheated oil, coconut pulp, and algae. As for fruits we can eat grapefruit, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, and cranberries. I'm in big trouble.

After a week of being vegan I don't have any cravings for meat or dairy, not even ice-cream. But how can I live without watermelon? At first I was thinking forget the whole thing. That just made me depressed. I've decided to just try and do my best. As my daughter Gina says, eat as many greens as you can and let the rest take care of itself. Fine. I'll use my green smoothies in the morning, my veggies in the afternoon, and my salad at dinner as my starting point and try to be as good as possible after that and see what happens.

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