If you're wondering why eating more raw and living foods is beneficial, view this insightful video from Brenda at Living Foods Institute and find out about cancer, doctors, prescription drugs and more. Select 'click to play' below. Enjoy!

Mark

More evidence that vegetable protein is the healthier choice and actually protects against developing heart disease. Good long term study (15 years) that suggests by avoiding red meat and dairy in your diet, your reduce your chances of developing heart disease by 30 percent.

Yahoo! News - Too Much Red Meat Bad for Long-Term Health:
"After following nearly 30,000 women for 15 years, investigators found that women were more likely to die from heart disease if they often substituted red meat for carbohydrates. In contrast, swapping vegetable sources of protein for carbs appeared to protect women from heart disease.

'Our main finding was that animal compared to vegetable sources of protein seem to have a different effect on dying from heart disease,' study author Dr. Linda E. Kelemen from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota told Reuters Health.

For this reason, she recommended that people who want to follow high protein diets should stick with vegetable proteins such as tofu, nuts and peanut butter, or healthier meats like chicken or fish."

80-10-10 author, 27 year raw foodist, athlete, coach and raw food expert Dr. Doug Graham will be online tonight for an exclusive one hour audio and video presentation and interview, and available at no cost for the next 24 hours.

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Recently, the only co-op in the Phoenix area, Gentle Strength, and a leader in locally grown, organic produce, went out of business.

Why?

Bottom line... not enough shoppers.

Sure there were probably a few other reasons, but the main one was lack of business.

It's funny, though, everyone I talk to in the area is disappointed and saddened by the closing (as I was). However, I believe there was too much talk and not enough action.

If we want to have better, fresher, organic and locally grown choices, we have to support those organizations. Support them with our shopping dollars and with our help in letting others know about the organizations.

Personally, I'll miss the co-op and the friends I've made there. They were the -only- central place to get fresh, locally grown greens and other produce. All the produce sold was organic and as much as possible was sourced locally. The only choices now are the national chains including Whole Foods and Wild Oats (now owned by Whole Foods), a few smaller chains and some traditional grocery chains that now carry some organic produce. I'm happy that they're all carrying more organic foods, although little, if any, is locally grown. Whole Foods advertises 'local' although a quick walk through shows just a few locally grown out of over 200 produce items.

Alternative sources include farmers markets and visiting farms directly. I've found a few farms and frequent farmers markets on weekends and can find some of the same items. Although not as convenient, it's a solution for now.

Find the local co-ops in your area and support them. It's a fact, traditional companies will continue to market non-organic products and source all over the world unless we 'vote' with our dollars. Using as much locally grown organic produce not only supports your community and the environment, the food is also more nutritious and benefits your health.

We can make a difference.. just do it!

To your best health!

Mark

Watch this video for the reactions people have after being offered fresh meat.
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One of the things many talk about when transitioning to a raw food diet is 'how do I travel when eating raw?'.

Some look at it as a challenge, some as an obstacle, some as the natural thing to do.

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The second case of Mad Cow disease in the US was confirmed last week.

What's interesting is that the USDA covered up this last case for seven months. It seems that the original test on the cow that died had mixed results (one positive and one negative) and that conclusive re-testing didn't take place until just a few weeks ago. Seven months is a long time in my opinion and an indicator that the inspection system isn't working.

Could it be pressure from outside sources to make sure beef exports continue and previous bans due to the first Mad Cow confirmation from countries like Japan and Taiwan were reversed?

Would it surprise you to know that currently the US only tests 1 in 90 cows? Back in 2003 it was 1 in 1,700. Japan tests every cow, European countries test 1 in 4.

I predict this is just the tip of the iceberg. With the manner in which meat is processed in the US, there is little chance of getting clean, disease-free, healthy (as nature intended it to be) meat on regular basis - in my opinion.

For example, did you know that the leftover pieces of a slaughtered cow is ground up and fed back to other cows? Well, it was the case until 1997 when they banned this practice. But they still feed cow remains to chickens and pigs. Dead chicken scraps are fed to cows, dead cow scraps are fed to chickens, dead pig scraps are fed to cows. And all the bacteria, disease, manure that's around gets ground up and fed back into feed as well. This just circulates germs, bacteria and disease. It also makes the strains of viruses more resistant to antibiotics. It's crazy! (but efficient) What happened to letting cows feed on grass?

Now let's take hamburgers for example. Did you know that one hamburger can contain hundreds or even thousands of animals? Dr. Robert Tauxe, Chief of food-borne and diarrheal diseases branch of the CDC in a PBS Frontline interview in 2002 disclosed this strange fact. Years ago, when you got a pound of ground beef, it was usually from one or two cows. Not anymore thanks to efficiency in the meat industry.

And if that isn't interesting enough, it's been estimated that as much as 78% of ground beef contains bacteria spread by fecal matter. This is from a study by the USDA and quoted in many books and articles on the subject.

Cows stand around in manure every day. Have you ever visited a dairy or meat processing plant? In my area of the world outside of Phoenix, Arizona there are dozens of dairies. I drive by them almost daily and live within 5-10 minutes of many. One thing you'll notice (or can't miss) when you drive by is the incredible stench (my daughter usually plugs her nose and points it out - if I hadn't noticed!). The cows are all crowded together, covered in mud and manure eating hay and feed. They don't move around much and never see grass. Next door a farm is being sprayed with pestisides and heavy, diesel trucks are moving dirt as a highway is being built around the corner. Am I getting an appetite for a burger and glass of milk after seeing this?

Some of the material above was inspired by Morgan Spurlock's new book "Don't Eat This Book". Haven't finished it yet, but half-way through, I highly recommend it.

Read the whole mad cow article at Yahoo News.
Read the USDA Mad Cow coverup article at the Organic Consumers Asoociation.

I'm glad I'm a vegan

Mark
http://vegandiet.blogspot.com