-    What you eat matters more than how much you eat, and why.

By Dr. James Carey, Ph.D. (computers)

Eight years ago, at age 50, I weighed 260 lbs at 5’9” tall. I decided to lose the excess weight. After a lot of research I went on a 1,500 calorie-a-day vegetarian diet, counted every calorie I ate, walked three to five miles a day, and at the end of 18 months I’d lost 20 lbs.

I was happy with myself, but I dreaded another 4-6 years on this boring “rabbit diet,” as I called it, if I was ever to get back to my ideal weight of 165 lbs.

At the end of that year one of my sisters (I have a lot of sisters and step-sisters) – already familiar with this – talked me into going to a hands-on Dr. Ann Wigmore Raw Living Foods Lifestyle training program. This program teaches that we should eat only organic, vegan, raw living foods. In other words, no animal products whatsoever, and only items grown organically, without chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. In addition, it recommends lots of fresh sprouts and other foods that, if planted in the ground, would grow (that’s why they’re called “living”).

Oh… and nothing is cooked.

Interesting, I thought, but I’m a tough guy that can live off the land if I need to, and I can tough anything out if it’ll make me stronger (and better looking).

So I went to Creative Health Institute in Union City, Michigan, USA. At the end of my first two weeks I’d lost 20 lbs. At the end the month I’d lost 30 lbs. All this without missing a meal, without counting a calorie, and eating all I wanted. The best part was, the food was delicious, filling and satisfying.

How could this be?

There were several reasons, but, first and foremost, I was toxic. Every time we eat non-organic, processed food full of chemicals and artificial preservatives we’re ingesting toxins.

Now the body is a marvelous, self-healing, self-cleaning machine. So we put a load of toxins into our body at breakfast, and the body goes to work processing and expelling them.

In the middle of this bodily, life-saving chore we eat a lunch consisting of more processed foods and toxins. Now the body is overloaded and can’t process the toxins out as fast as we’re putting them in.

So the body wraps fat molecules around the toxin and parks it somewhere for temporary safekeeping.  Over time these fat molecules accumulate until we find ourselves overweight, even obese.

That’s what had happened to me. When I went on the vegetarian diet I was still eating foods raised with pesticides, fungicides and herbicides – all toxins. Plus, I was still eating a lot of foods high in animal fats, like cheese and milk.

<– Dr. Jim at 260 lbs., December, 2000

When I went on Dr. Ann’s regime of raw, organic, living foods I greatly reduced the toxins I was putting into my body.

Sure, I was still ingesting some toxins – even the air we breathe, anywhere on the planet, has a certain amount of toxins. But the quantity of toxins I was ingesting was so much lower that it significantly changed my life.

Our bodies never rest, never take a day off, never decide to be lazy for a day. When my body said, “Oh, look, no toxins to process in this meal,” it then went looking for the toxins it had been storing in my body fat.

<– Dr. Jim at 170 lbs., August 2006, thanks to Dr. Ann’s detox lifestyle

My body took those fat-stored toxins, ripped off the fat molecules, discharged them, processed the toxins, and discharged them, too.

Voila, thirty pounds of fat gone in thirty days, without missing a meal or going hungry. All because of what I ate, not how much I ate.

In coming articles I’ll talk about digestive enzymes and stress, how and why they’re important to our health, and how the raw living foods vegan lifestyle interrelates with them.

Yours in Natural Good Health,

Jim Carey

Midville, Georgia, USA

Dr. Jim Carey, PhD, DD, has been a raw living foods advocate for six years, ever since the Dr. Ann Wigmore program changed his life. You can learn more about Dr. Wigmore, N.D., and Dr. Carey at AnnWigmore.com.

He is currently doing an American television series about the raw vegan lifestyle and Dr. Ann Wigmore. Episodes of his show can be seen at GrassyRoots.com.

Dr. Carey resides in rural Georgia, USA, where he loves to eat wild edibles, and travels extensively sharing the message of the raw living foods lifestyle.

Learn more at chiDiet.com

When it comes to green smoothies, there are some that just trump them all. Here’s a great smoothie to help get your day started just right!

Green and Gone Smoothie
Thanks to Christine

• 1 quarter to 1 half fresh pineapple
• 3 leaves of Kale – I use deep green “dino” kale, deveined
• 1 ripe banana (can use frozen)
• 4 fresh mint leaves, optional-to taste
• 1 quarter to 1 half inch of fresh ginger root (can use dry), to taste
• 2 to 4 cups water

How to Stay Safe on a Raw Food Diet

It’s more a way of life than a diet, but when you make a habit of not eating cooked food, you must be careful about not getting infected because your food is not fresh or is infested with bacteria and mold. Raw food organic diets keep you healthy and fit and rid your body of various toxins, but only if you’re careful about your personal hygiene and a stickler for rules when it comes to preparing and preserving your food. So if you’re a raw foodie looking for advice on safe eating habits, read on:

• Buy food items from outlets where you know the food is absolutely fresh.
• Store all your food items in the refrigerator as soon as you bring them home from the store.
• Never leave condiments out of the refrigerator for more than an hour – if you’re using them to prepare a recipe, put them away immediately after you’ve measured the required amount.
• Clean your cutting and preparatory cutlery and utensils so that one contaminated food item does not spoil the others.
• If you juice most of your food or blend it with other items, ensure that your blender is clean. Wash the blades well so that there are no food particles left behind.
• Avoid eating raw animal foods as much as possible – this not only includes meat and poultry but also eggs and dairy products as well. They’re full of bacteria and you could easily get infected.
• Don’t store meat products in open containers in your freezer – the bacteria spreads to all other foods that are stored with it.
• Avoid eating certain foods raw, like potatoes and grass, unless they are juiced first.
• Soak lentils and pulses or wait for them to sprout before you eat them.
• If you’re eating out, patronize restaurants that are popular and where you know cleanliness and hygiene are accorded high priority.
• Be careful when eating foods like mushrooms, some varieties of which are poisonous. If you’re not sure that it’s safe, don’t eat it.
• Raw food diets are most beneficial when you supplement them with nutrients like calcium, protein, iron and Vitamin B12, all of which are found in very limited quantities in food from plant sources which forms the majority of a raw foodie’s diet. So if you want to avoid deficiencies and chemical imbalances, focus on getting all the nutrients you need for good health from alternative sources.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Kathy Wilson, who writes on the topic of X-Ray Technician School Programs . She welcomes your comments at her email id: kathywilson1983@gmail.com

Balancing Your Alkaline Levels

In the beginning of the 20th century, scientists and Nobel prize winners made an incredible discovery. If our blood is unable to absorb enough oxygen, we become terribly ill. Heart problems, candida infections, arthritis, diabetes, and even cancer may result.

Our body is constantly trying to maintain a constant temperature 98.5F or 37C, which some may know, but were you also aware that your body tries even harder to maintain the right amount of oxygen in your blood? When our pH is too high or too low, we don’t feel well. In fact, our bodies begin to feel tired, gain weight, have poor digestion and get aches and pains.

Most people in the US and Europe are too acidic, where cancer, heart disease, arthritis,and diabetes are such an epidemic.

These are the four most common reasons for the high acidity levels:

Stress;
Toxins;
Parasites; and
The food we eat.

Acid Foods List

It’s really a shame that the foods we like most are the ones that make us most acidic and thus sick. Which foods are these? You guessed it:

Junk & Processed foods
Sugar
Coffee & Tea
All animal food (meat, eggs, chicken, fish, lobster, oysters)
Grains: (white) wheat, pasta, flour, bread etc
Dairy products (milk, cheese, butter)
Bad fats

That’s not to say that in moderation, and from the right sources, we can’t enjoy these foods. But the way that most of us get these products (fatty cuts of meat, bleached flour, homogenized cheese), there’s really no helping it.

Alkaline Foods List

During most of our lives, the majority of the foods we eat are highly acidic. These make us sick and tired whereas, by eating raw alkaline foods and drinks, we can help our body to heal itself:

Vegetables – especially raw green leafy vegetables.
Fresh Herbs & Spice – parsley, basil, cilantro, cayenne, ginger
Fruits – watermelon, avocado, cucumber, young coconuts
Wheat grass
Sprouts (alfalfa, broccoli, etc.)

The best alkaline drinks are alkaline water, vegetable juices and wheat grass juice. If you’re very acidic, however, you might need alkaline supplements to get you back in balance quicker.

How Acidic Are You?

How do you know your body pH? It’s actually incredibly easy to find out your alkalinity. You simply buy some pH test strips (also called litmus paper) at a health store and pee on it. The paper will tell you instantly what your pH is and thus, how alkaline or acidic you are.

The Best & Cheapest Alkaline Foods

Would you like to know the best and cheapest alkalizing foods? Edible wild plants. They’re highly alkaline, abundant, fresh and free! Just throwing a few of them in your salad will help balancing you.

That does mean, of course, to eat your crabgrass..or the pretty mushrooms in your yard.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She often can be found blogging about education and scholarships for college. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Because I am a teacher, and recommend our station WPBT2 to my students, I’ve been so excited to see your choices of the Brain Doctor and the President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to earn money to continue your excellent programming.

Dr. Barnard is able to help us on so many more subjects than merely curing diabetes on his http://www.pcrm.org/diabetes website, as his fellow physician Dr. Gabriel Cousens is doing in Arizona. With his 5,000 medical doctors on his staff, he has continuing free medical education computer classes, http://www.nutritioncme.org/ as well as in person classes at George Washington University Medical School, he has a bi-monthly computer seminar for physicians and other health care workers seminar, http://www.nutritionmd.org/, for information on approximately 90 common health conditions and help for health care providers and folks on adopting healthier diets with personalized meal plans, nutrient analysis, recipes, and shopping lists; http://www.cancerproject.org/ for comprehensive information on diet’s role in preventing, treating and curing cancer.

They have free food prep and cooking classes in more than 26 states. http://www.healthyschoollunches.org/, http://www.strongbones.org/, http://www.safediets.org/>  (for weight loss plans), PCRM.Safeshopper.com to find books and other helpful resources online, http://www.nealbarnard.org/ to view his latest books, and http://www.pcrm.org/ to explore nutrition’s role in preventing and curing a variety of illnesses and to discover the benefits of a plant-based diet for children and adults.

His close relationship with Drs. T. Colin Campbell (the China Study), Caldwell Esselstyn (Reversing and Preventing Heart Disease), John McDougall (the McDougall Plan), etc. keep him on the circuit on TV and on Facebook and Youtube bringing lifesaving information to those who cannot afford to travel to his classes.

Dr. Amen’s work showing the before and after pictures of the brain are invaluable. When one goes further in brain research and finds that there is not only the acid foods, habits and drinks, like colas, tobacco, alcohol and vinegars, that destroy our brains, but also common parasites, bacteria and viruses which invade the brain and do damage and that we are able to kill them with non-invasive treatments, we are able to take a collective sigh of relief and understand that we can have control of our lives and good health.

One word of caution, however. It’s important to note that some of the recommendations made by Dr. Amen are controversial in the medical and nutrition fields: i.e. his recommendation for essential fatty acid intake is supported, but the type he recommends, fish oil, has been found to be contaminated and rancid.

There are other forms of EFAs which are not and which are easily gotten from whole foods like avocado and almonds or walnuts. When one uses fractionated fats in the forms of fish oil capsules, this causes damage to the lining of the arteries.

Dr. Esselstyn will not allow any processed oils at all (not even virgin olive oil) in his successful Cleveland Clinic protocol for curing heart disease with a plant based diet. These oils will make a person bald because they shut off the oxygen and electrical energy to the hair follicle and one’s hair falls out.

Spinach is another problematic food. Although the shelf life is longer than other greens that are better for you, it causes a buildup of gall stones because of its oxalic acid content. It will neutralize the iron in itself and in other foods that it is eaten with, and we become anemic. The better choices are sunflower or pea greens, organic spring or herb salad mixes that are available in most every market, and young kale, collard, beet greens, etc.

The most dangerous recommendation by Dr. Amen includes the dairy protein casomorphine, otherwise known as whey or casein. As most research doctors know now, this protein is a causative factor in breast and prostate cancers, heart disease and diabetes, as this information has been widely circulated with the success of The China Study and the subsequent research in Europe and our country. Protein is in all foods. If we stay within a 10% fat, 10% protein daily intake, we will not be deficient with a plant-based diet. Please look up the site http://www.notmilk.org/ to begin an intelligent, scientific fact-based investigation.

And finally, the recommendation of chicken and salmon by Dr. Amen provides much too much protein, which causes calcium to be taken out of the bones to buffer the acid from the protein, and this results in osteoporosis.

Dr. Flora van Orden, ND, PhD
drflora@rawdoctors.com

I am a diabetic (for 20 years), on 8 meds plus a small evening insulin shot. When I found info on the raw food lifestyle, I also found material on reversing diabetes. My doctor & endocrinologist are both supportive of my efforts, surprisingly.

I made it clear that my ultimate goal was to be off most, if not all of my meds. After 3 weeks of green smoothies, not even every morning, and some small changes in diet, I had lost 9 lbs. and felt like I had some energy again. This is definitely incentive!

Thank you for the info you are providing on the internet, and I hope that the legal issues are soon resolved.

Ruth

—————–

Jim’s comments:

If I had the money and the resources, it would be great to do one of those big studies like the pharmaceutical companies do of “typical benefits.” I’d like to know just what percentage of people see a significant change in their blood sugar levels and energy levels when they convert to a Raw Living Foods program.

During my years as Director of Creative Health Institute every diabetic that went through the program reported a significant reduction in medication, usually within three or four days of starting the program.

The medical community says that treating diabetes is a matter of diet and exercise; well, that’s what Dr. Ann Wigmore’s Lifestyle Program is all about. It not only changes your diet, it also reduces your stress level and encourages you to get the proper types of exercise on a daily basis, “just what the doctor ordered.”

Congratulations to Ruth and to the many others that email me stories about reversing their diabetes – even to the point of getting off their meds – with raw living foods.

One does not have to be sick, but you do need to “choose” to be healthy. Here’s a link to our current, legally required “typical benefits and results” statement.

For more information about the Raw Living Foods program, here’s the DVD version: http://chiDiet.com

Here’s the same program in the green, online version: http://RawLife.org

What Dr. Ann Wigmore’s Raw Living Foods Lifestyle Did, and Does, For Me

by Dr. James Carey, PhD (applied microcomputer technologies)

For 23 years I lived in Key West, Florida, and built several computer companies. In ’98 I sold off the business, apartments, office building, house, and most of the stuff I’d accumulated. By January ’99 I was 48 years old, free and financially liquid.

I took almost two years off and toured the United States, traveled 60,000 miles, first with an Airstream trailer, and later with a Bluebird motorcoach.

I also spent the time overcoming my addiction to cigarettes, something I’d been dependent upon since I was 14 years old.

By Spring of 2000 I was rested, collected, and tobacco-free. I’d relocated to rural Georgia, adopted a dog, and started building a house with my own hands. I also weighed 260 lbs. I’d been watching my weight creep up over the years, from my college weight of 165 to around 220 by ’99.

I considered myself healthy because at 45 I could still shinny up a 30 ft. sailboat mast and repair the masthead while holding on with my legs. But a year or more of sitting behind the steering wheel substituting junk food and rich meals for the cigarettes I was trying to give up really put the weight on me.

Now I was almost 50, and single-handedly building a house. I considered myself to be in good shape, I was active and pain-free, but I sure was getting big.

Jim at 260 lbs.

Jim at 170 lbs.

So… January, 2001. New Year’s Resolution – go on a diet. I read about health and nutrition, then put myself on a 1700 calorie-a-day vegetarian diet. I walked at least three miles a day, five times a week.

In four months I lost 20 lbs., bringing my weight down to 240. I kept counting calories in my little notebook, I kept walking 15 miles or more a week, and by Summer – still 240 lbs.!

I could not lose any more weight. Frustrating. If I went off my diet for a weekend in Savannah I’d gain 5 lbs. in two days, then take a week – or more – to get rid of it.

Back to the Internet for more research. I read about people who had been on one diet or another, but after initial improvements their health deteriorated and they were facing new health challenges because of the inadequacies of the dietary regime they’d adopted.

The deeper I dug, the more one program stood out. The Raw Living Foods lifestyle, taught by Dr. Ann Wigmore. It was old knowledge going back thousands of years, and she was the most famous of modern advocates. What impressed me most were:

1) Testimonies by people that have lived the lifestyle for 20, 30 and 40 years, and are thriving on it.

2) What does the founder look like today, or what did they die of? Dr. Ann died of smoke inhalation while fighting a fire, at 84. She was fit and healthy.

3) Other raw fooders have died as a result of sports accidents in their 80′s and 90′s, not of disease or medications. All maintained an active lifestyle up until their passing over.

4) Dr. Wigmore’s Raw Living Foods Lifestyle combines raw living food, internal cleansing, body detoxification and plant-based supplementation. All of the elements of good health rolled into one.

5) There are hands-on training centers where one can go and experience the program for an extended period of time, and not just try to sort it out from books or weekend seminars.

6) Most hands-on centers are reasonably priced – I’ve paid as much for one night at a nice hotel for what they charge for a week’s stay.

7) Dr. Ann Wigmore’s program is educational, not “do this blindly because I say so.” At the training centers they teach why the body isn’t healthy, and what you can do about it. As an engineer and scientist, I appreciate this.

The more I looked at it, the more the Raw Living Foods Lifestyle stood out as being the program that would work for me – or for anyone!

Synchronicity also came into play. An old friend. When I mentioned Dr. Ann Wigmore’s Raw Living Foods program she told me that she’d studied with Dr. Ann at Hippocrates Institute in Boston, and credited the lifestyle with changing her life.

August of ’01 found me at Creative Health Institute, near Union City, Michigan. On a trip to visit family I stopped in for a three-day visit. I was so impressed with the personal experiences of the graduating students that I went back to Georgia, closed up the farm, and returned to Michigan to attend the two-week program. I still weighed 240 lbs.

In my first two weeks at Creative Health I lost 20 lbs. I never went hungry, I never missed a meal, I never counted a calorie. Indeed, I usually had seconds.

At the end of the first month I was down to 210 lbs. When I headed back for Georgia for Christmas I weighed 200 lbs. I’d lost 40 lbs. without even working at it!

Why did the program work so dramatically for me?

I was toxic. Not only did the organic, unprocessed food that Creative Health served reduce and eliminate the toxins in my body, Dr. Ann’s program helped my body eliminate toxins that I’d been accumulating all of my life.

By eating processed foods, I’d been putting toxins into my body faster than my body could remove them. I learned that my body was storing these toxins in fat cells in order to protect me. Once I eliminated the toxins I was ingesting, my body was able to process the backlogged accumulation and dispose of it.

I also learned that I had a large amount of impacted fecal matter. Most people do. Enemas cleared out this backlog.

From ’01 to ’05 I spent three to six months of the year at Creative Health, helping out as a volunteer as I helped myself get healthier. I weigh 170 lbs. now.

The other reason I kept returning to Creative Health was the good feelings I felt when I saw others overcome their health challenges. I’ve seen people heal diabetes, obesity, arthritis, colitis, after-effects of chemotherapy, breast cancer, hepatitis, heavy metal poisoning, asthma, wounds that wouldn’t heal, PMS, migraine headaches… all forms of health challenges.

I’ve seen people stop smoking, painlessly, in just a few days. They didn’t even notice that they’d quit. Wish I knew that back in ’99.

I’ve watched people perk up, heal, and get happy. Like Chantel from Zimbabwe. She came to Creative Health with rheumatoid arthritis, which she’d had since she was 16. She was 26. Upon graduation from the two-week program Chantel said, “I stopped taking my medication after I was here three days. I’ve not had any pain in more than a week.”

With tears streaming down her cheeks, she added, “This is the best I have felt since I was 15 years old.”

Some time later Chantel sent me an email: “While I am only 75% raw after these two years, I am not taking medication, and my pain has not returned. I am happy to tell you that I am now married and three months pregnant. Your program made this possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

What do raw living foods do for me?

Helped me lose over 70 lbs.,

Gave me an energy level that’s like being 25 again (I even took up skydiving – at 54!).

Instead of sleeping 8-10 hours a night, I wake totally refreshed after only 4-6 hours of sleep.

My bowels are regular and move easily.

I’m happier – all the time. I have a more positive outlook on life. People say I “glow,” and I smile all the time.

My taste buds have changed, and my cravings for snacks, sweets and caffeine have disappeared.

Most of all, I find my life more satisfying and rewarding than it’s ever been before.

I try to help Creative Health in their mission. I’ve installed computers and a network, rewrote the website, taught classes, mowed the lawn, started a newsletter, served as Program Director, done public speaking, fixed toilets, painted, produced videos, answered the phones, stuffed envelopes, and told my story on TV and radio

When I was answering the phone at Creative Health I repeatedly heard people say, either:

1) I have the time to attend, but just can’t afford it, or

2) Affording it is no problem, but there’s no way I can take two weeks off.

For those reasons I created the Home Study Program. From a file cabinet with over three decades of research studies and student materials, and two decades worth of videotape, I spent my winters assembling the most comprehensive overview of the program I could.

I now administer the Raw Living Foods Home Study Program in order to help those who:

1) Can’t afford to attend a center,

2) Want to have a comprehensive overview of the program to take home with them, or

3) Need training materials to help them share their wonderful transformation with others.

I’m finding it a great way to spend my retirement, and the second half of my life!

Jim Carey
Midville, Georgia
Learn more: http://chidiet.com

You can get your certification as a Raw Food Coach, Raw Lifestyle Coach, and Raw Food Educator with the Dr. Ann Wigmore Raw Living Foods Home Study Program.

DVD version: http://chiDiet.com
Online version: http://RawLife.org