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

A 12 year study of middle-aged women concluded that increasing intake of fruits and vegetables lowered the risk of obesity and weight gain in middle-aged women by 24-28%. The more they ate, the lower the risk. Read more at:

Study

Looking for a healthy, live-food dish? Try this satisfying and easy to make salad I call "Avo-Veg Delight".

What you'll need:

(all fresh, uncooked and preferably organic)

• 1-1 1/2 Avocado
• 1-2 Tomatoes
• Handful Cilantro
• 2-3 Kale Leaves
• 1-2 Green Onions
• 1/3 Red Pepper
• 1/2 Corn on the Cob
• 3-4 Large Romaine Leaves
• Handful Parsely
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon
• 1 tsp Cumin

Optional:

• Sea Salt to taste
• Flax Crackers (GoRaw makes a great -very thick- original flax variety)
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sunflower seeds

Here's How To Make It:

In a large mixing bowl mash up avocado. Add all chopped vegetables, squeeze lemon, add cumin and optionally sea salt to taste. Mix up well. Lay out 3-4 large romaine lettuce leaves and add one large scoop of salad on each romaine leaf. Eat as a salad or wrap lettuce leaves around salad and eat burrito style! Enjoy with live flax crackers or your favorite veggies.

Makes 1-2 servings.

This is a very satisfying dish! Enjoy experimenting with different veggies and have fun.

Enjoy and all the best for your health...with living foods!

Mark

This light, but satisfying Gazpacho soup is delicious!

What you'll need:
(makes 1 serving, adjust if necessary)

• 2 tblsp extra virgin, cold pressed organic olive oil
• 2 large tomatoes
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 tblsp raw honey (optional)
• 2 tblsps lemon juice
• sea salt to taste
• fresh basil to taste
• 1/2 avocado (cubed)
• 1/2 red bell pepper (cubed)
• 2 stalks of celery (cubed)
• chopped parsley
• 1/4 yellow or red onion (chopped)

Make organic produce your first choice whenever possible.

How to make it:

First, blend the oil, lemon juice, sea salt, tomatoes, garlic and basil. Add small amount of water if necessary and blend until smooth.

Pour the soup into a bowl and add chopped vegetables.

Mix all ingredients and top with chopped parsely.

If you like a little spice, add a dash of cayenne pepper... wow!

This is a wonderful soup to start your evening meal, or make several servings for a full meal. Easy to make, satisfying and delicious!

Enjoy and all good things,

Mark
The Vegan Raw Diet

You may know that I've been vegan for over 12 years. I had success with losing weight... in fact, in addition to the obvious health benefits, it's one of the reasons I decided to transition to a vegan lifestyle.

When I decided to transition further to a raw diet, something interesting happened... I lost more weight! 12 pounds in 2 weeks to be exact. This was interesting because I actually ate more food than when I was vegan. There is a reason for this and I'll it share with you in a future post.

Here are some interesting and very rewarding benefits about transitioning to a vegan/raw food lifestyle:

• You can eat as much as you desire and not gain weight
• Your body will find it's optimal weight naturally
• You can choose from a wide variety of delicious foods and never get bored
• You'll have abundant energy
• Your taste buds will come alive
• You'll lose as much weight as you need naturally
• You will become more aware of what your body wants (and needs)
• Your thoughts will be sharp and clear
• Most if not all your aches, pains and irritations will go away
• You'll lose taste for unhealthy foods and crave fresh, living foods

These are just some of the benefits I've experienced recently. I feel blessed for this experience and will share more in future posts.

If I can help or answer any questions, feel free to email to: vegancoach(AT)gmail.com (replace the AT with @).

Blessings,

Mark
http://vegandiet.blogspot.com

Looking for convenient, organic and raw whole foods? I highly recommend Whole Food Farmacy!

A recent international study found that consumption of animal fats was linked to higher blood pressure.

Lower levels of arachidonic acid, a fatty acid found in animal fats, shows to be linked to lower systolic blood pressure. The study found that reducing intake of animal foods was one of several healthy dietary changes that can be made to lower blood pressure.

A vegan diet, void of animal or dairy foods, has been known to have a large number of health benefits, including lower blood pressure.

Read more at Yahoo News.

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.