protein & whole foods

Two Facts:

1. It's impossible not to get enough protein - unless you eat too many refined foods.

2. It's impossible to eat a "high protein" diet (more than 20% of your calories) - unleses you eat too many refined foods!

 

Isn't this a lovely paradox of complimentary facts?

 

Why is this? EVERY WHOLE FOOD contains protein. If you eat whole foods, you will have plenty of protein, and an abundance of amino acids (which is what we really need anyway).  But no WHOLE FOOD contains excessive protein, with the exception of some fish, I believe.

 

What "high protein" foods can you think of? Look at the nutrition facts. Chances are they are probably high FAT Foods, with around 15-20% protein per calorie. (Keep in mind, fats are 9 calories per gram whereas protein and carbs are only 4)  Other animal foods, like egg yolk or chicken breast or lean dairy products are NOT WHOLE FOODS. And it is unnatural to eat only part of an animal or animal product. NO NATURAL CARNIVORE will only eat the breast of a chicken - or only the muscles of a cow. Hence, they are refined foods.

 

Hence, eat natural, whole foods, and you won't have to count your calories or nutrients. Your weight will be fine, and you'll get all your nutrients.

Dr. Graham's FAQ

I recently discovered and am thoroughly enjoying Dr. Graham's website. He's got the best science out there, and it's all in favor of a fruitarian lifestyle. Here are a coupe FAQ that have been discussed on this blog within the past few months.

 

(p.s. Go to www.rawkinradio.com to hear an interview with Dr. Graham)

 

Should I continue taking medicine prescribed by my doctor if I adopt the raw food lifestyle?

The medical profession and its supporting industry, the patent medicine makers, operate from the theory that there are 400 or so separate illnesses whose symptoms can be treated or suppressed by ingesting synthetic chemical compounds. Our approach is entirely different. Other than a few genetically inherited abnormalities usually arising from generations of poor dietary and lifestyle choices, there is only one illness: toxemia, an uncleanness of the blood and tissues, caused primarily by poor diet and lifestyle. This toxemia, and its concomitant enervation, gets progressively worse over the years, leading to all manner of health problems. In order to "cure" a disease condition, such as diabetes, cancer, or cardiovascular disease, you must eliminate the underlying toxemia of which the "disease" is only a manifestation. With a raw diet, you no longer overload the body daily with toxic residue. The body will begin to clean the blood, tissue and organs of their toxicity, and the medical condition for which you are taking the pharmaceutical medicine will fade away, ultimately removing the need to continue taking the medicine.

Is eating sea salt all right?

Extracted sodium chloride, in any form other than the small amounts naturally occurring in whole plant foods, is an irritant and is toxic to the body. It causes a decay of the sense of taste, retards digestion/excretion, and impairs the critical cellular potassium/sodium ratio upsetting our natural water balance. Drinking sea water causes dehydration and results in death in only a few days due to the salt content; extracting the salt from the water and ingesting it leads in the same direction. "You would not drink ocean water, as the salt in it is vile, caustic, irritating and in quantity, deadly, even though it is diluted by a lot of water.

Love of work

Here's the part where this blog is geared more toward homeschooling. Actually this is more like unschooling, where your children learn educational as well as life lessons through every day experience.

 

If you're familiar with the story The Ultimate Gift, then you know how valuable a lesson is the love of work. Recently my 3.5 year old son has been asking to earn money (he wants to buy a toy, I said he'd have to earn some money to pay for it) so I thought of a few jobs he could do around the house. But the next day I changed my mind. I don't want him to associate housework with money. He needs to learn that work is part of daily living and to enjoy it! I decided I could pay him when he helps us with our economic work (like if he "helps" me list something on ebay, or helping Dad shred paper at his office) but as far as housework, we will do it together with joyful hearts.

 

So today we cleaned bathrooms. We made it fun. We started my mixing some baking soda and vinegar to learn about chemistry. I gave him the bowl of "soap" and a washcloth, and taught him how to clean the toilets, sinks, and bathtubs. This is fun for kids because they get to get in the tub or shower to do it! We had a fun time cleaning together, then I gave him a high-five and taught him about teamwork: how when we work together, not only is it more fun but the job gets done quicker.

 

With the lesson of teamwork, we went to the kitchen and made pizza together. I taught him to open cans, and he got to mix the toppings and spread the tomato paste. Mmm, teamwork tastes yummy :)

Goals now

I reviewed the book The Rave Diet. I think that is a great place to start if I am not ready to commit to the 80/10/10 diet. I can at least say, I will NOT CHEAT - I will NOT TOUCH these foods: Refined foods, Animal foods, and Oils. (Ideally, high-raw, low-fat and lots of veggies) And I will exercise. I will do some sort of daily exercise, no matter how short.

 

For instance, yesterday I was doing some push-ups and crunches on the stability ball. I got about 10 minutes (which in plenty sufficient to get your abs hurting) when my son interrupted me.... and I never got around to doing it more. But I did something! And that is great!

 

But I have had some good days. I've been doing yoga videos--lately my son will do it with me! I've probably done a good 3x/week this month. I am also going outside whenever possible. Taking the kids out on walks. Bike rides, but I only do that ten minutes at a time because I am not comfortable leaving Elisabeth much more than that. I am having fun exploring my new neighborhood since we recently moved into this new house.

 

So let's re-cap. I commit to eating No Refined foods, No animal foods, and no Oils until I am in my normal jeans. I will do some sort of exercise daily, even if just 10 minutes. Anybody want to join me? Maybe we should get MyHealingJourney group active again. I'll do it, if there are others.

My passion

Somebody e-mailed me about weight loss advice, so I sent her some things that I had typed up summer 2007. That was before I got pregnant, when I was REALLY into raw eating and cleansing. I wanted to do some mentoring so I typed up some lessons and motivational tid-bits. I started a yahoo group (called MyHealingJourney if you'd like to go through the archives). I was able to guide 2 people through some life changes but neither stuck at it (ironically they both got pregnant and had trouble sustaining their motivation). Anyhow, this new person now is making me think about my passion again, and how I wanted so badly to help others. I would do it for free. I would spend all day teaching, demonstration, telling my stories, and motivating them with my ideas. But life is too busy - alas, I am a busy mom! And currently I am working hard enough motivating MYSELF!! I was doing some meditating on how I was then, how I FELT, how I ate. I would NEVER touch some things I have been eating this past week. I used to NEVER cheat. I was just so thrilled and passionate about vegan whole foods. I have to get to that place again. I gotta do this.

update

So the 100% thing lasted 2 weeks, and then my husband shocked me with the fact that I had already spent my monthly grocery budget. Ouch. So I said, Can this, I am doing minimal shopping the rest of the month. Luckily I have 4 boxes of fruit in my garage to last the rest of the month. The problem is, they are not ripe! (I think what got so expensive was eating lots of salads, which are not very filling for the cost, as opposed to fruit.)

Anyway in those 2 weeks I didn't feel much different. The biggest difference in the way I feel is HOW MUCH I eat, regardless of WHAT I am eating. And I keep going back to my mainstay of high-raw, whole foods vegetarian - and I need to just put my efforts toward not overeating. I am now taking probiotics which should help with my energy levels and nutrient absorption.

...although I will say, as soon as I started eating cooked again (albeit salt and dairy, so it's hard to judge) - Elisabeth got congested. It's so hard to see her sniffling and having trouble nursing through the night. *Sigh*

Nutritional yeast

Holy cow!! Check out the Nutrition facts for nutritional yeast! It is LOADED with B-vitamins. And with the recipe I was using, I was eating probably 4 servings at a time. I wonder if it's well absorbed? Does anybody have info on it? I am a bit hesitant to recommend it though, in The Miracle Diet, he says it contributes to yeast growth in the body... so the verdict is out.

Guilty pleasure

My guilty pleasure lately has been MUSHROOMS!!!!!!! Who knew?? They are just the perfect texture and light flavor. So I add them to my salads or just make a marinade. My favorite marinade lately is a simple lemon juice with minced garlic and a bit of olive or flax oil. Also, dulse makes a great seasoning for marinades. So dinner last night was a bowl full of mushrooms, carrot chunks, and radishes, in this garlic dressing.

811RV cheese sauce

I wanted to try a raw vegan cheese sauce but could only find recipes that contained oils and other fats. So I took the basic outline and made up my own 811RV - here's the general idea:

 

lots of veggies (I used carrots and celery, but red bell pepper is a good choice)

garlic, onion

splash of aminos

splash of ACV

lots of nutritional yeast

cumin

just enough water to blend

 

It should be creamy. If it's too watery, add more veggies.

 

Then I dipped cucumbers and celery in it. Yum! It's actually been a long time since I have had celery, it was a refreshing, yummy treat!! What a great dinner when you're not really hungry for calories but you need to munch on something!

homeschooling

Very soon this blog is going to be more about homeschooling. I am getting excited! I talked with somebody the other day who works in the school district, saying the school we're zoned for is a good one. That's great. It got me thinking. Then today, Rychen was doing so great sounding out simple words, and I got really excited. HOW COOL to be the one teaching and witnessing your child's first discoveries. And it occured to me-- there doesn't have to be anything wrong with public schools. That is not why I am homeschooling. It's just that I get so much joy and fulfillment out of being with my children and teaching them new things. It's a great time for us to learn together, not just educational lessons, but life lessons, social lessons, communication, self-esteem, etc. (Of course, I am not saying your child won't learn those things if s/he goes to school). I am way excited to do this! But very new... I haven't done any surfing in regards to that yet. We'll see how it goes!

Fox News on orgasmic birth

Have you seen this Fox News article?  I am very thrilled and impressed to see that not only do they report on the concept of orgasmic birth, but that they do it in a very good light, and they seem to be supporting non-interventive birth, even homebirth! Here is a great read for any of you re-programming your beliefs for a better childbirth.

Ions

I read in Victoria Boutenko's 12 Steps to Raw Foods  about positive and negative ions. Negative are the good ones, found in the fresh outdoor air. Electrical machines put off positive ions, which harm our health. So I am starting these two practices:

 

(1) Turn off all electrics when you go to bed (and don't sleep near electrics!)  This might sound obvious but I mean turn them off ALL the way, i.e. No little red lights! We keep our TV/satellite/DVD in a wood armoir and when you open it, you can FEEL the hot energy field. It's scary! So give it a rest when it's not in use. Turn the surge protector off.

 

(2) Open your windows as much as possible (and in the summer, keep them open all the time if you can!)  In the winter, my ideas were this - to turn off the heat and open the windows for a given time each day (30-60 minutes) and it forces you to MOVE in order to stay warm! So listen to dance music or turn on a TV workout. My other idea was that if you are going to be away from home for several hours, turn the heat off and open all your windows to let it air out and refresh the ions in the air. When you get back home, it only takes a few minutes to get the temperature back up where you want it.

 

And speaking of temperature, Victoria also writes about how we have handicapped our bodies by regulating the environment, so we have lost our ability for self thermo-regulation. My husband and I decided to only use the AC/heat as much as we NEED and gradually learn to do with less and less. Get your body stronger and get used to it. Victoria goes into depth on the therapeutic practice of cold water baths (very intersting!!) and even the LDS prophet Brigham Young is quoted as saying that if a man is sick, putting him in a warm bed is not beneficial - he ought to be "thrown outside in the snow" !! That is hilarous, and very interesting. Think about it, all the other wild animals have been equipped to regulate their temperatures. You cannot say "But we don't have fur." We are a natural animal just as much as they are, and we were designed to do this also. But over the generations we have just lost this ability as we have handicapped ourselves.

Reduce waste!

This year I challenge you to reduce waste! Now that we're in our own home, we have a yard waste bin, which I use to throw out my food peels and cores. Salem also provides a HUGE mixed recycling container, and your choice of garbage can size. We got the smallest garbage can - the woman was surprised at this, and said it's usually for single-person households, as it only holds one tall bag of trash. I said that is fine, most of our waste is food scraps so it will go in the Yard waste bin. The next biggest thing is papers, which we can make an effort to put in the recycling. We don't throw away diapers, and we only have minimal plastic food packaging, since we don't eat processed food. Shopping at Costco is awesome because most of their produce containers are recyclable plastics, or cardboard for the shelf foods.

 

So under our sink we have 3 containers - recycling (a brown bag), a trash can, and a compost/yard waste can. We have not taken the trash out yet! But I take the yard waste out DAILY and the recycling probably 2x a week. 

 

I challenge you all to make an effort to RECYCLE your papers, tin cans, plastic containers, etc. and when you go shopping, use re-usable bags! Your plastic bags can be used as trash bags for bathroom garbages, or recycle them at Fred Meyer.

 

Minimize your trash!  

Raw Soup

Here's the raw soup I made up tonight, just following the Boutenko's generic template idea (fat, veggie, and 5 flavors).

 

splash of apple cider vinegar

splash of aminos

spoonful of honey

1 large avocado

3 tomatos

3 carrots

1 garlic clove

1 green onion

sprinkle cayenne, oregano, basil, dulse.

 

It has a rich orange color. Yum!!! Making up recipes is so fun. Keeps the variety alive, even though I am eating avocado meals most nights. This is basically an avocado spawned into a blenderfull of soup. Much more filling than just eating the avocado, wouldn't you say?

Having Faith

Just read the book by this title. Having Faith: an Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood.  Way awesome, perfectly suited for this crowd! Natural mothering, health, pregnancy, biology, ecology, toxicology, and poetry all rolled into one. There is some amazing information in it for education sake, as well as just celebrating motherhood! Also several chapters on breastfeeding and just dealing with a new baby, which were good for me to read. The toxicology is very interesting. I didn't realize how contaminated breastmilk is, since it's the top of the food chain (yep, it's an animal product unfortunately) and lactation is an eliminative outlet for the mom. That means you get healthier, but the toxins are dumped onto your baby. Still, the benefits outweigh any risks, and that is one reason why the book is called Having Faith!! She just recommends a vegetarian diet, eat low to the food chain, minimize environmental toxins, etc. and she really pushes political activism to try to change the industrial toxin by-products which cause it all in the first place. (so she is talking about industrial things like dioxins and PCPs, etc., not food toxins--she doesn't realize that while breastmilk is contaminated, formula is very toxic in other ways!) Overall, very good read. Skip the deep science if you have to, and read the parts you enjoy.

Cleanse: 4 days down

Not much time, here's a quick update. I am doing great on the raw thing!! Basically eating a blenderfull of green smoothie every morning for breakfast, then a snack of fruit and lunch is several bananas. For dinner I have done something with avocados (a huge salad or a avo/veggie blended soup) or last night I did make refried beans with soaked amaranth/quinoa/oats. YUM!! I added garlic, onion, cayenne, red pepper, paprika, cumin, and oregano. Then I put it on romaine leaves with tomato and avocado. Then halfway through, I just dumped it all together and ate like a taco salad. It was a bit spicier than I'd prefer, but I ate it all up!

 

Today I had some emotional cleansing. I had a lot of anxiety, going to our new ward and dealing with son's behavioral problem at the same time (he is doing the emotional thing too, candida dye-off I suspect). I just had to go into the bathroom stall and cry for 5 minutes! Get it all out, wash my face, and put a smile on. Yep, that's life.

Raw cereal

I wanted to also mention raw cereal, which is super for a budget raw diet. And it is great with a cooked diet (whereas fruit can cause bloating), so if you are starting out raw, I recommend this route.

You can buy raw oat groats and then soak them, put them in the blender with some honey, and then add raisins and cinnamon. It has the same taste and texture as regular oatmeal. Really! Try it. It's awesome.

Another idea is raw buckwheat, if you like a crunch. No need to blend it up. Just soak the buckwheat overnight and then rinse it off (it gets gooey) and add your choice of sweetener and flavorings.

There are many varieties of cereal. I did a gluten-free cereal for my son, consisting of buckwheat, amaranth, and quinoa. I soak them overnight and put them all in the blender. He likes adding sliced bananas. You could also add carob powder to make a "chocolate" cereal. We also love adding coconut flakes! Or you could add seeds and nuts for a granola, or add flavor extracts (orange, almond, etc.). If you want to save calories or if you are food-combining conscious, use Stevia instead of honey, and you won't have sugars.

Soaked grains are awesome. If you want to cut the fat in your raw diet, use soaked grains as your base in recipes instead of nuts. They work for cookies, other desserts, and for entrees also. You can make raw "refried beans" simply by blending wheat (or any grain) and adding the correct seasonings (cumin, cayenne, paprika, onion, garlic). Also you can make a pudding by adding your sweeteners and flavorings. Or a pate to fill a leaf wrap (choose your own flavors). The possibilities are endless.

Day 1 down

Day 1 of my 100% raw vegan month went pretty well, except for the detox headache and nausea. I had been getting a headache almost every day from the sugar I had eaten the day before, but I kept eating it. And I RARELY ever indulge in sweets, but being at somebody else's house got to me. It's so hard to keep up your diet when you're not at home. So anyway I finally said ENOUGH!! I refuse to eat anymore sugar! In fact I am going raw this month and cleansing, so this isn't even a craving anymore.

 

So on January 1st I ate:

B- several asian pears

snack - 2 bananas

L - blenderful of green smoothie

D - (not hungry, feeling sick, but had to slow the detox): avocado over a huge salad, with cultured carrots.

 

I didn't have much of an appetite yesterday. That amounted to about $4 for the day. - This diet does NOT have to be expensive, if you do your shopping right. (Also you have to eat bananas every day, they are SO FILLING and so cheap!)

 

My food is very simple, and I like it that way. I much prefer to eat luscious fruit as-is than to create fancy recipes. So the 80/10/10 diet really appeals to me. I don't feel like I am giving anything up. Rather, I enjoy going shopping and eating all the fruit I want! Knowing I am only nourishing my cells - finally - and easing my digestive system. We have an awesome little market that has incredible sales, and I was able to buy a whole box of oranges at 3 lbs/$1 and another box of apples (have you tried Melrose variety? Yum!), and then lots of Asian pears at .79/lb (which is an awesome deal if you eat those!) as well as a few other things, and I am also living hugely on Costco's .44/lb bananas (a case every week) and organic spinach, spring mix, and avocados.

 

Later this month I would love to do a Green Smoothie cleanse for a few days. They are so filling, so balancing, and eliminate all cravings, and keep you satisfied for hours. If you're having trouble feeling satisfied on fruit, you gotta try this! And you feel so balanced and just WELL when you eat them.

Read the fine print

Okay this seems to be happening more and more, and frankly I am sick of it. Mainstream dietary advice is so full of caveats which they somehow forget to tell you. I have been saying I'm vegetarian, and I stay true to not eating land or air animals save 1 or 2 times a year. But I have been eating fish, because it digests well and because salmon is touted for its healthy oils.

 

...but guess what? Now I learn that Omega-3 fats are heat sensitive. HELLO! Read the fine print. Basically your cooked fish is void of nutrition, it's just a lump of toxic animal protein. The only way you are getting omega-3's from fish is if you eat sushi. But lately I have been learning more of the contamination of fish, and I am just ready to can it altogether. Besides, I was lying to myself that somehow I wasn't really killing an animal when I ate fish. But a fish is just as much an animal as a cow and deserves the same ethical treatment. I am ready now to be 100% vegetarian. I will not eat flesh foods at all now. (I rarely ever eat animal foods at all, I just make certain allowances if I am eating at a potluck I don't read the ingredients when there might be dairy or egg as an ingredient, etc. and I am not ready to commit to no raw-cheese yet. I still do that every now and then.)

 

By the way, vitamin C is also heat sensitive so anytime store-bought juice says it contains vitamin C, it has been enriched with it after killing off all the natural nutrition in the fruit itself. Yay.

 

I am still learning about nutrition - what other nutrients have fine print?

It's a new year

I'm not really one for New Years resolutions, but since it follows a period of indulgence, January 2009 just so happens to be the month I am re-committing to eat heathfully. In fact, more so than I have ever done: I am committing to a month of 100% 80/10/10 Raw Vegan. I have never been good at this before because I will justify raw dairy products, but now I am serious about this. The main reason is because I feel I have strayed - in my mentality. I used to have a burning passion for this, and I used to have such radiant health, but lately I feel I don't. It's been hard to adjust with a baby--I am lazier altogether, and less of an idealist. This has been a good thing generally, but not when I justify junk food eating. Now my gut is clogged up (I can literally feel lumps), I get bloated most days of the week, and I require at least 10 hours of sleep at night! This is out of control. I want my body back, and I want my passion, my glow, and my energy back.

Another reason I am doing this is for Elisabeth's sake. She was formed from this food, and processed food particles are foreign to her, so they are especially difficult on her system. I notice a difference in her when my diet isn't good. Basically, when I eat well, she is happy for 2 hours between naps. But when I am not, she starts to get fussy after 1 hour and could go to sleep anytime. So she requires more sleep if her milk is contaminated or not at nutritious (probably needing the rest for detoxification). This goes for any foods that irritate her, not just junk foods. For example, a couple months ago I was doing the Body Ecology Diet and eating a TON of raw, cultured veggies (sauerkraut) and also a ton of cauliflower. She had symptoms of colic, fussing a lot and very difficult to get to sleep without a breakdown. It was so hard on me! The only way to avoid this was to put her to sleep exactly 1 hour after she woke up - she slept most of the day, making it impossible to run errands or have any sort of normal life! (she is a light sleeper and needs to sleep on me, or next to me) Then luckily I remembered that the Brassica family is hard on nursing babies. As soon as I eliminated those foods, the "colic" disappeared, and she was her happy little self again. Likewise, lately I have noticed she is irritable again and seems to need to sleep more than normal. It must be the sugar and processed foods, I have got to get it out!

So I commit for 30 days. After January I will return to my "high raw, vegan whole foods, low-oil" diet, with this improvement: I am ready to give up fish. I will tell you why in my next post.