According to new research, breastfed babies typically won’t have to be deceived into eating fruits and veggies like recent popular cookbooks encourage. Instead, if their mom regularly eats fruits and vegetables, the baby will acquire a taste for healthy foods.
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The raw-foods lifestyle is becoming more accepted thanks to not only the obvious health benefits, but also the press celebrities are getting when talking about their experiences. High profile chefs have also created menus and restaurants around the concept of raw foods.

A raw foods diet, basically anything that’s not heated over 118 degrees, has been reported to clear your skin, reduce risks of disease, increase energy, improve moods, drop excess weight, eliminate headaches, sinus problems and heartburn, and clear your mind among other benefits.

Eating vegan and mostly raw, I’ve experienced all the benefits mentioned above and more. Before becoming vegan, I would regularly feel exhausted after a meal (consisting of meat, dairy or processed foods) feeling like I needed a nap, had low energy levels, mood swings, and was overweight.

Some of the benefits I noticed most were almost boundless energy, weight loss, a consistently “good feeling” and an incredibly clear and vivid “mental clarity”. It’s hard to explain the “clear thinking” because I didn’t feel “fuzzy” before, but in comparison, there is a distinctly clear difference in being able to focus with a clear mind.

I now taste the difference between fresh, organic foods and regular produce easily (organic tastes fresher, live and much better) and am able to notice the negative impacts of processed foods, meat, dairy, additives and preservatives clearly. I feel blessed to rarely get sick, don’t worry about my weight, rarely get tired and have seen improvements in almost every area of my life.

Now over 12 years into my vegan lifestyle, to say I feel great is an understatement! A true blessing.

Read more at: In the Raw – Newsweek Health Beat – MSNBC.com

BTW, the article above quotes some research that indicates vegans may have low bone denisty and a nutritionist that believes the USDA food guidelines are sufficient. As well meaning as that may be, the research doesn’t support those assertions. The study they refer to indicated that vegans has a lower bone density because they are lighter and consume less calories, not that they have risks of osteoperosis. In fact, the study mentions they will follow the subjects in the study to see if those risks develop. Also, USDA guidelines in the past have lead to our current health crisis and to say they are sufficient is careless and not founded in fact, in my opinion. Follow the links here in previous posts for more details. Of course, research well and make informed decisions.

What are your experiences?

To your best health!

Mark
http://vegandiet.blogspot.com

Raw foodist Angela was featured on CNN today, a great outlet to help others learn about the true power of the raw food diet in not only losing weight, but regaining optimal health.

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Eating legumes has benefits, you live longer! This, according to a study from the National Ageing Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia that followed a cross-cultural section of the elderly (over 70) to reveal the longevity benefits of eating beans, lentils, tofu, soy, peas, miso, and nuts.

PubMed, National Library of Medicine: “Legumes: the most important dietary predictor of survival in older people of different ethnicities.”

“Nutrition plays an important role in the maintenance and improvement of human life expectancy. … There is a 7% – 8% reduction in mortality hazard ratio for every 20g increase in daily legume intake. Conclusions: This longitudinal study shows that a higher legume intake is the most protective dietary predictor of survival amongst the elderly, regardless of their ethnicity.”

One of the longstanding myths about a diet that avoids dairy foods is that it can lead to osteoperosis. A new study not only proves that this isn’t true, it also reports that vegans, specifically those that follow a raw food diet, are overall healthier than the average American, have strong bones, lower BMI, lower markers for disease and have high levels of Vitamin D, which was surprising to researchers since dairy products are normally fortified with Vitamin D.

The interesting part about this study is the expectations the doctors had, particularly that they expected raw food vegans to have low levels of Vitamin D. This shows how flawed the dairy industry is in promoting “milk for strong bones”.

Additionally, although the study clearly shows that following a raw, vegan lifestyle is much healthier in all aspects tested (weight, disease prevention, BMI – and by a good margin), the lead doctors don’t advocate a vegan, raw food diet.

They do recommend eating more fruits and vegetables, which is a good start, but I think they are missing the point. Fruits and vegetables are only one part of a raw, vegan diet. Adding a variety of legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds is also essential to a well balanced diet. Additionally, if someone eats more fruits and vegetables (and no legumes, whole grains, nuts or seeds) but still eats red meat, a variety of dairy products and processed foods regularly, this will do little to improve their health. Apparently facts don’t make enough difference to make a recommended lifestyle change!

Read more about the study at: Yahoo! News – Raw Food Vegans Thin But Healthy, Study Finds

To your best health!

Mark
vegandiet.blogspot.com

One of the benefits of eating a raw vegan diet, meaning a diet of fresh, raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, is the ability to condition your body almost effortlessly.

Why do I say almost effortlessly?

Here’s why conditioning your body is quite easy when you remove the obstacles… remove the toxins, processed foods, cooked foods and most unnatural substances from your diet and environment.

You see, when your body doesn’t have to continue to struggle with obstructions, meaning the toxins we just mentioned, it can respond much easier to physical activity, and not need much recovery, if any to longer or more frequent activities.

For example, recently I found myself at a new aquatic center near my home. I normally don’t swim often since most pools I’ve been to in the past in the area use a wide array of chlorine chemicals. To my surprise, this new center uses a salt based filtration system so I decided to enjoy the water.

To give you a quick background, the most I’ve probably swam in a pool throughout my entire life is 2-3 laps continuously without stopping. That’s been the extent.

I noticed that there was a requirement for eligibility in order to be able to attend evening ‘lap night’ and found that you must be able to swim at least 20 laps without stopping. Oh my, 20 laps? Without stopping? Based on the fact that I hadn’t swam for more than 2-3 in my entire life, I wasn’t sure about 20.

Well, always enjoying a challenge, I decided to see how many laps I could do… without stopping.

30.

I was a little sore for a few minutes, but soon felt normal and energetic. In fact, I felt I could have continued (energy wise) but was getting a little dizzy :).

Now I’m not special, anyone can do this if they remove the obstacles our bodies battle with every day when we eat cooked foods, processed foods, ingest toxins and dangerous chemicals as well as being exposed to toxins in our environment.

On a raw vegan diet your body easily stays conditioned and you won’t experience cramps, soreness and have plenty of energy to accomplish anything you want. Run 6 miles? Sure. Go hike a mountain? Of course! Swim 30 laps non-stop? Absolutely.

Just stay active regularly and eat a pure, raw, fresh, low fat, whole food diet of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

And this isn’t just me, ask any raw vegan athlete and they’ll share the same story. I had a friend that could do most any exercise, in most any length of repititions or distance without exhaustion or muscle soreness. He could go on as long as he wanted and enjoyed every minute. Of course this was after he transitioned to a raw vegan lifestyle.

Another benefit to the raw vegan diet.

Peace!

Mark

Related:

Use these two exercises you can do at home, without expensive club memberships or equipment, to stay conditioned, lose weight or tone up.

Well, after almost 14 years of being vegan I realized that in the past few years, I’ve eaten mostly raw, and have continued to feel better as time passed.

Reflecting on this, well, I just had to stir things up a bit and decided to go 100% vegan/raw :). The transition has been exciting even though I’ve been almost there for some time, other than the few cooked/heated foods occassionally.

I’ve noticed some disctinct changes… although I’ve been vegan for so many years, I’m still going through some detox. One of the many wonderful experiences has been the increase in taste awareness and the literal “explosion” of flavors I experience. It’s quite amazing. The variety of whole, raw food meals is amazing and I look forward to trying something new every day.

Continued increase in energy, needing less sleep, mental awareness, vitality, weight loss, feeling light and vibrant are just a few of the many benefits I’ve been experiencing.

I’ve found food preparation not only easier, but faster (hey, it was already fast as a vegan!) especially since no cooking is needed. Clean up is brief… I’ve also dropped the use of my dishwasher to less than once a week.

There have been a few adjustments and I’m sure I’ll continue making them along the way.

Here are some resources I’ve found helpful through the transition to 100% vegan/raw:

• RawFood.com – the store for supplies, as well as the forum and resources
• theGardenDiet and The Anti-Aging Diet – Storm, Jinjee and their family are a real inspiration
• VegSource.com – especially Dr. Graham’s forum on Raw Food and Sports Nutrition
• AlissaCohen.com – Alissa has some great resources on the raw lifestyle, health benefits and recipes.
• Raw Secrets – Frederic Patenaude’s take on going raw, and how to avoid the mistakes most make in transitioning. His views are slightly different than the mainstream raw movement and make sense. They are a great contribution to anyone looking for advice on going raw.

More as my journey continues. Please share your questions, thoughts and comments!

Peace, joy and health,

Mark
http://vegandiet.blogspot.com