The Future of Food

"The choices we make at the supermarket
determine the future of our food" 

- "The Future of Food" movie

 Director: Deborah Garcia.

I highly recommend watching it

to increase the awareness of food quality we buy on daily basis.

My grocery trips are longer because I made it a tradition to read the ingredients. For example, I was in the grocery store searching for ricotta cheese without a strange name  in the ingredients list.  All the brands had carbon dioxide as an ingredient so I didn't buy it.  I couldn't find online on carbon dioxide in food but so far I know it is the same gas that comes out of our cars, CO2. It's also used in sodas and beer to make it fizzy. One person argued that it's good for you, but I am still puzzled. If you know of a helpful article about the subject please let me know. Another example is bread. The whole bread isle (at least 50 kinds of bread) in my grocery store contained preservatives.  I had to make an extra trip to a local bakery.

This is just an example to show why we cannot allow ourselves mindless shopping if we care for our children's future.  There are many reasons to buy only organic and natural products. They may seem more expensive to buy, but when you know at what expense you are getting a cheap product, you'll realize, it's actually worth it.  Here are a few of many reasons to buy natural products:

- clean and free of pesticides, fertilizers, genetically grown products, and other unnatural substances.

- if you eat more green and less meat, you safe your money. Meat is more expensive to buy and especially much more expensive to make. 

- you shift the culture towards a healthier lifestyle where big corporations that control the food market have to become more mindful and ethical on what they offer to the society hence create a healthier environment for our children and grandchildren.
- there is already an epidemic of obesity in the U.S. Adding genetically grown foods to the picture has a potential of creating unstoppable mutation in species effecting the whole living world in horrific ways.

I'd love to continue adding more reasons on why should we choose natural and organic. If you have a reason in mind, please add it to the comments section!

Juicing with Toddler or Becoming Raw, Tip 4

My toddler is not into raw. In fact, she is a regular picky 2.5 year old. Thankfully, she loves fruits. However, I am always thinking how to make her interested in raw veggies. The problem is that whenever there is a birthday party or family gathering she is always exposed to a cake, ice cream, or cookies. If she forgot her first bite of cake when she turned one, she surely remembers everything now at this age and veggies are not the first thing she desires when hungry. Does it sound like your toddler too? If it does, please share how you make veggies attractive for your kids. Here is what works for us. 

Juicing with a Toddler or Becoming Raw, Tip 4

We created a ritual at home of making a fresh juice together - great bonding experience. Toddlers love repetition and she gets excited when I get the juicer out. All the moving mechanisms and the whole process is also pretty cool from a toddler’s eye. You can see it in the video how much she owns the juicing process these days : )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTodtCBzXsU

Even though she doesn't always eat her veggies on her plate, she will happily taste every piece of it and some times even more during juicing. She was so impressed by this large carrot, that she even drank half of my juice. We shared for dinner that juice (1 large carrot, 2 calary pieces, 1 large zuchinni, 2 slices of lemon with the skin, and a little bit of parsley ), avocado straight from the fruit (scooping out avocado with the spoon was fun for my toddler), and a piece of whole grain bread with cheese spread.

Now I have to figure out how to get her drink green juices and smoothies.  

Fasting for 3 days

Detox by Fasting

Has anyone of my blog readers done it? I am contemplating to try going on a fast starting next Thursday, April 22, 2010. Ideally, I would like to be drinking only water with lemon juice for 3 days. 3 days is a maximum of days suggested to fast in a home environment without a therapist involved. I already started to eat much more light food and intend to increase amount of green smoothies instead of meals starting tomorrow. Also endless amount of people suggest starting with............."colonics" or colonic hydrotherapy.. Not everyone can bravely talk about this topic but this is an easy one for all the raw foodists.  I am just a beginner and doing some research on it. I am not sure if I am mentally ready for it myself (bad childhood memories involving enemas) so we will see..

Since it's my first time I am very nervous that I won't have enough will power to restrain from eating. Feeling of hunger is close to impossible to control sometimes. I have learned that first 48 hours is the hardest time to fast as the digestive system keeps searching for food and sends strong messages to your brain - give me food immediately! However, after 48 hours our digestive system shuts off as I described in my article: "Fasting with Loren Lockman" and moves to a state of ketosis –metabolic process of burning primarily fat for energy and getting rid of toxins.  I would love to reach this awesome state!

With this said, if you happen to read my story and have fasting experience in the past, please don't hesitate to comment and give us the readers any advice!

I'll be recording my first fasting experience right here in this blog...

Morning Smoothie

It has been a little more then a year since I started my path to eating raw and growing sprouts and juicing them. After a summer break, I came back to juicing (veggies ad fruits) and increased my raw food intake and decreased processed meals, meats, and added sugars. I gave up on milk, beef, and pork completely. As of today, I have been free of any meat for almost a month now. I'm not trying persuade others to follow my path, rather I hope to share raw/vegan path with those interested in the lifestyle.

I just had a great discovery (it's about time :)) a few days ago! My friend Jaszy McAllister, a publisher of Modern Hippie Mag, told me that she tried her first smoothie at home. To my shame, after all the raw activities, I realized I had never made one smoothie. I always ordered a green smoothie if I saw it at a restaurant, but I never took my time to try and actually make it. I didn't think the green leaves would blend nicely in a green shake and I would have to chew them down. Wrong!

It turns out it's even easier to make than veggie juice! You also get much more in quantity. And how fun it is to experiment with different testes! In addition, you don't have to clean all the parts of your juicer for a change. Now, I have a smoothie for breakfast and a juice with a dinner.

This morning, I came up with a smoothie recipe and it was delicious:

* 3 kale leaves
* 1 banana
* coconut water to teste
* half a lemon

BTW, there is a new product in Whole Foods that I highly recommend! It's called VitaCoco 100% pure coconut water. It tastes great and you don't have to deal with opening coconuts. Here are some facts about coconut water (from the box):

* more electrolytes than leading sports drinks with 15 times the potassium
* has more potassium than two bananas (potassium keeps your body properly hydrated and prevents cramping)

* * * * *

Share your favorite smoothie recipe

here in the comments section!

“Detoxovacation”

I have been contemplating my first ever detoxification and I would love to do it at an institution or a wellness center to learn how to do it right. So far, I know that fasting is the best way to detoxify. You can fast by drinking only juices or you can chose the most effective way by fasting with only water. What a money saver! There is only one little problem – I hate being hungry! So needless to say being in the environment of a wellness center with lots of people like me will be helpful.

Here are four places that caught my attention either online or by recommendations:

• Hippocrates Institute in West Palm Beach, FL: I am dreaming to go there! People get extensive blood work and then customized recommendations on what your body needs or lacks and how to heal your sickness or prevent one. It’s a place to drink wheatgrass and other juices and eat strictly raw meals (fruits and veggies) and get educated on the health and longevity.

• Tanglewood Wellness Center: It's owned by Loren Lockman about whom you can learn more in my previous article. If you love the mountains and seclusion and if you are not afraid of fasting for at least a week on only water, this is the ultimate place to go. It’s in Panama and getting there is not as easy as getting to West Palm Beach J

• Vida Clara in Belize: It is also far away, but one of the things you need is quiet and tranquility while fasting and what can be better then the surroundings of nature in the tropics. I was impressed by their website. They give great information about fasting. For me, as a beginner, it was written in understandable language, precise and clear.

• Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Potagonia, AZ: This center has a very impressive array of services and a great explanation of each of them on the website. There, you can find detoxification programs, spiritual retreats, workshops, and even vegan vacations and spring break vacations. Impressive!

If you have any recommendations about good detox retreats or would like to share your testimonials about the places described above, please leave a comment and I will add it to this article.


“Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease”
– Hippocrates