The Stretch Run

Day 11 has begun of our 12 day saga and I want to reassure everyone that there have been no deaths, faintings or other serious medical episodes. Just a lot of sitting around trying to pass the time in an enjoyable way. As I noted in an earlier post, perhaps the biggest pleasure of food and eating is the ritual that is hidden in its very necessity. It is after all the reason we're on this planet, to seek out, harvest and ingest the best that nature has to offer.

The point of this blog of course is to offer a different vision of eating. One where obesity, disease and guilt are entirely absent. One where joy and communal participation are fundamental. It is a whole new ballgame so to speak. And everyone's invited to come and play. So please tell your friends, inform yourself as much as possible and if you have questions or objections please ask us via the feedback option.

You can email us too. The real goal is dialogue. That rare commodity in this the new Age of Twitter. Your voice is a powerful tool that can reshape the world. So why not use it to demand a new and more hopeful world for yourself and your children?

Dr. Joel Fuhrman:

"Whatever difficulties you are facing in your life, not having good health magnifies every problem. Having the opportunity to enjoy great tasting healthy food flown in from all over the country in modern times is a blessing unavailable to prior generations and almost any population in the history of the world.

This knowledge and the opportunity it gives you is a blessing. Sad that more people don't really know about it and how fantastic healthy food can taste. I hope you enjoy every bite with a smile. You can't do that when you go for that quick high with junk, it passes your lips in a minute but then gives you continual suffering that lasts.

But when you achieve that victory of earning good health back, you stand as an example to influence others into better health. Then you continue to gain personal satisfaction, and a victory that keeps on giving you that feeling of accomplishment every day of your life."

So until next time, be well little cell.

Day 8

We're well into day 8 of our 12 day fast and so far things are good. We take advantage of the enormous amount of free time to read, paint, chat, watch movies, listen to the radio or just meditate. It's lovely but at times difficult to fill all the hours. But we do our best and feel fortunate to have, each of us, our best friend to share this experience with.

Food is a type of distant consideration. To think of all the recipes and meals we love and await in our near future is at times consoling at other times torture. More than anything, we're reminded of the highly ritualistic nature of food in our lives. The simple pleasure of planning a new recipe, of going to the market, seeing again all those people who occupy the periphery of our lives. The cashier, the corner store attendant, the farmer at his open-air stall carefully selecting our spinach with his half-frozen fingers. All of the simple but essential elements that make up a life. Then returning home to pass the evening in pursuit of that magic alchemy that any true chef knows.


It's these things, as much as the final act, that rich pleasure of the palette, which we miss most during this period of self-imposed abstinence. It is a most spiritual experience, in so many ways. Living prior in a Muslim country I was always fascinated by the period of Ramadan, that month-long period of fasting during the day, and the implications it had for a society at large. I couldn't help but think how our own Western societies, which seem to totter ever on the edge of excess and gluttony, would react to such a practice of sustained fasting.

Would we finally realize how to live in more dynamic harmony with our planet and its resources? Would the experience of hunger and discipline help us to avoid the modern day tragedies of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers? Would we at last find the compassion to make poverty and famine the focus of our multi-trillion dollar combats instead of the so-called war on terrorism?

No one can say for sure but I can't help but wonder if some of our current social ills, obesity, massive debt, climate destruction, wouldn't be less rampant had we some periodic, daily practice of discipline in our lives. One thing I have learned from this little experience of fasting is that abundance has little to do with the material items we have in our lives. Be it food, money or our own physical bodies, the way in which I experience each morsel, each dollar and each moment is far more important than their sum worth.


If this sounds esoteric, just go a couple days without eating or spending any money and I assure you it will become a lot more concrete. And trust me, there's nothing self-righteous about a claim like this. This experience has been rewarding in ways we could've never imagined but we would have never done it had it been simply about self-denial and iron-will. We're no martyrs by any means. Just two people moving ever more deeply into all the beauty and pleasure this human experience affords.

So until next time, be well little cell.

"Fasting is not really that exciting when you do it. The vast majority of people feel not much different from when they were eating. Many people do not even feel significant hunger. When one does feel hunger toward the end of the first day, it disappears in the next day or two. The usual response I see is, "I can't believe I can feel so strong and well when I haven't eaten in for 15 days." This is the norm. When I did my 46 day fast, the only real complaint I had was boredom. Of course, I felt weak toward the end of such a long fast and had to rest in bed most of the day, but I actually attended my college classes full-time and felt great during the first 10 days."
Fasting and Eating for Health, Joel Fuhrman, M.D.


Ruth: Today is day 6 of our fast. And I feel great. My mind and body feel strong and I have more clarity and I'm not at all tired. And it is indeed uneventful. Uneventful, however, does not mean the process is not powerful. The process of fasting is also powerful. The time it takes to do this, paying attention to the rhythm of my body, curious by what I will feel, sharing the experience with others, and the empowerment I feel by giving my body a chance to rejuvenate itself all on its own. You could not convince me of a more beneficial source of health.

I appreciate food and water in a profound way too. Water tastes good and clear. Matthew said, "This water tastes great!" I replied, "Yeah, it's kind of steaky" : ) "I wouldn't go that far," he said. And I can't wait to cook again. Our kitchen has been shut down for the holidays. It looks lonely and I love to cook. I've been thumbing through cookbooks and promise to share anything fantastic with you.


"It is exciting to watch what a fast can do, because the power of the body to heal itself is wonderful to observe. This is especially striking because as a physician, I see almost no self-healing in patients treated conventionally. They either get worse or their symptoms are palliated with drugs, while their health gradually deteriorates. The fast allows for self-healing..."

"Humans have been fasting for more than 50,000 years, long before modern-day doctors began embracing a drug approach to treating disease. It's hard to understand how people developed such a misconception and fear of fasting. Perhaps it is because many people feel so bad when they skip just one meal, that they expect to feel that much worse if they skip so many more. The reality is, when you don't eat for a longer period of time, the discomfort quickly subsides and you actually feel better and better..." - Fasting and Eating for Health by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.


Ruth:
I think people are afraid of the idea of fasting only because they haven't been exposed to the solid research behind it. When Matthew and I have explained what we're doing to our family and friends, most everyone kind of "gets it" on an instinctual level, but are worried and ask "Is that safe?" Meanwhile, at the drop of a hat, when something goes physically wrong, we don't think twice about rushing to the doctor or emergency room for medication and without asking the same question. Is this safe? I think we might do ourselves good to ask the question when participating in conventional medicine. "Is this safe?" And then proceed by evaluating the role nutrition and fasting can play in the physical problem before we turn to meds.

I think we all believe that our bodies will heal themselves if we give them the chance. But, indeed we've been fed a lot of big business garbage from people we trust, like well-meaning doctors, who must support the pharmaceutical companies and have been trained to treat with drugs - all toxic for the body - and we've become profound believers in medications as cures for our ailments. And it's a difficult habit to break. The idea that you may know better than your doctor how to care for your own body is a radical notion. And it can be scary to take that kind of responsibility. That's why we build communities and support one another - in order to help break down some of the dangerous myths around what health care really is.

This is, of course, not at all to disrespect the role of amazing science in modern medicine and emergency life saving procedures. We are extraordinarily intelligent and have learned so much. We've just taken it a step too far is all and use medication for everything. Most all of our diseases can be treated with nutrition and fasting. There is a role for medication. It should not, however, be the first modality in treatment.


Also, to fast, takes precious time we often refuse to give ourselves and we maybe only utilize something like this that seems far fetched, as a last resort. I hope we can change our mindsets so these ideas become more mainstream.

Lastly, I think people are beginning to embrace these ideas of superior nutrition and fasting as a means of primary health care. I see it all around me. Especially, with younger people I know, who are very open and that makes me really excited for our futures.

I mean, honestly, with the chaos of our current health care reform, what could taking matters safely into your own hands really hurt? What could it hurt to eat more oranges, apples? To try some new vegetables, like kale, that were put here on the planet for our primate palates in the first place? What could it really hurt to learn about the possibilities of a plant-based diet and effects fasting have on your health and the health of our children? Isn't that a better option than to try to keep track of the toxic side effects of the medications you're on and how they might mix with your other toxic medications, all the while, not treating the cause of illness whatsoever but just managing symptoms that are there to help you understand the need for nutritional change in the first place? The choice seems like a no-brainer to me.



Until next time,
Be well hopeful cells,

Santa found us in France and we celebrated hope and human decency this holiday season. We hope you and your loved ones are together and reaping the benefits of love.

We're on the tail end of day 3 and it's going good. We watch movies, read and sit near the heater and sleep a lot. I've gone out a couple of times and when I pass the bakeries, I feel a little left out but not really super hungry. Tonight, I did find myself pulling out a couple of cookbooks to read through. I'm certain I'll feel inspired to cook once we break the fast on December 30, 2009. Here's a couple delicious recipes you might want to test for yourself:

This is an organic celery root. I love this one's heart shape.
It's delicious baked, with onions, cabbage and add some steamed spinach at the end.



Or shred it raw and add it to a coleslaw salad.
In fact, here is an easy delicious nutritarian cole slaw:
Shred some carrots, celery root and some raw beets too, if you're feeling brave.


Thinly slice some purple cabbage and green cabbage.



Add some sweet onions too, diced very small.
Add a handful of raw sunflower seeds and a handful of lightly toasted sesames seeds.


Mix together some fresh squeezed lemon juice, unsalted mustard, balsamic vinegar and a teaspoon of honey.
Pour it on, mix it up and enjoy!


We also wanted to share some interesting information that led us to make the decision to fast.

"Few health professionals are aware of the many, truly astonishing, physical adaptations that result from water-only fasting. Most believe that water-only fasting is simply “starving,” and that little or no benefits result from such an experience."

"In reality, water-only fasting is dynamic, complex, and involves many health-promoting processes. For example, studies have indicated that immune function is significantly enhanced during water-only fasting, an effect that few would suspect. There is also an enhanced mobilization and elimination of toxic products, including poisons such as PCP, dioxins, pesticide residues, and other pollutants.

It is now recognized that, in the industrialized world, most diseases are due to dietary excesses—especially of animal products and processed foods (such as oils and refined sugar). It turns out that voluntary, water-only fasting is often magnificent in its ability to assist the body in healing from the consequences of these excesses.

Fasting results in weight loss, elimination of excess cholesterol, triglycerides, and uric acid, as well as accumulated environmental toxins. Often, growths and tumors associated with dietary excesses, such as fibroids and cysts, are reabsorbed. Inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis, colitis, asthma, and hepatitis, often are greatly improved or resolved. Many enzymatic functions of the liver and other organs, including the insulin-resistance characteristic of diabetes, can rapidly normalize. For most adult-onset diabetes patients, medications become unnecessary...

Fasting also assists in an extremely important normalizing process—a process we call taste neuroadaptation. Many modern foods are not the normal foods of our species—they are foods that have been altered to create unnaturally intense taste responses. As a result, most of our modern foods are high in processed sugar, fat, and salt. Our taste buds adapt to these abnormal-but-appealing foodstuffs, making the consumption of whole natural foods less palatable by comparison. Water-only fasting helps to rapidly re-sensitize the palate, so that healthful foods can be fully enjoyed again. Of the many benefits of water-only fasting, this is, for many people, one of the most important."

--Fasting...the lost adaptation
Douglas Lisle, Ph.D., and Alan Goldhamer, D.C.
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We hope you're all having a wonderful time with family and friends. This is such a sweet time of the year.

Until next time,
Be well Santa cells,
Ruth and Matthew

Day 1 of 12 - Water Fast - I'm not even scared.


"Fasting, in the strictest sense, is defined as the voluntary abstinence from food and drink, except water, as long as the nutritional reserves of the body are adequate to sustain normal function. This is the state of physiological rest."
Fasting and Eating for Health, Joel Fuhrman, M.D.


We've been preparing to fast for a few months by reading Dr. Fuhrman's book on the subject. We did it once before for 3 days when Mati got sick and ever since, we have been interested in how our bodies would respond to a longer fast. Dr. Fuhrman recommends a longer fast for health and longevity once every 5 to 1o years. That's what we're doing now. It is not recommended to fast for longer periods of time without medical supervision. Matthew and I, though, have been eating a high nutrient diet for 2 years now and have the nutrient stores required to endure a longer fast. Also, neither of us are on medications or have an illness that needs medical supervision. We will however, be careful. We plan to monitor ourselves and our symptoms and will break the fast if necessary.

That being said, the timing is perfect for us. We're both on vacation and so is everyone else. It's quiet and beautiful outside and very cold. Perfect for staying in and recuperating. We bought matching pajamas. When I was a kid, we always had new pajamas for Christmas. I love this tradition and so we've adopted it for fasting throughout Christmas. We bought more paint supplies. We have a movie pile, books we like and music to listen to. We 're ready!

We found this fantastic snowman.

We appreciated our meals more than usual yesterday. We ate giant salads topped with eggplant and red pepper ratatouille, baked french fries with guacamole and for dessert we savored every delicious bite of our crepes caramel de buerre au salé - which are crepes filled with the most delicious caramel you've ever tasted. We feasted.

Today is Day 1 and it's 3:30pm. We woke up in our twin pj's at 12:30pm and its been a joy to sit here and write. Mati is reading something by Albert Camus and our bodies think we're the best bosses ever for giving them the holidays off for the first time in over 30 some odd years.

Until tomorrow, Day 2,
Be Well, Little elf cells.
"The health of our nation is not improving; in fact, we are getting sicker. Changes are developing in health care, and the public is more aware that a problem exists. Our economy is weighed down by an expensive and largely ineffective medical system that relies on expensive tests, treatments and last minute heroics to attempt to combat the harmful effects of a nation poisoning itself with a rich disease-causing diet."

"The self healing power of the body is often overlooked because it is rarely given a chance to act in a world that expects the quick fix. The power of the body is as evident as green grass, rainy days and sunshine."

These are excerpts from: Fasting and Eating for Health, Joel Fuhrman, M.D. 1995

I wasn't going to tell you this. I was afraid you wouldn't understand. But I realize now that I have underestimated the level of interest and acceptance our friends and families have in understanding the science of nutritional excellence.

So, over the next 12 days, we're going to be water fasting. While most everyone we know will be knee deep in Christmas fudge, we're going to take it down a notch, get in our pajamas and let our bodies do what they do best. Heal themselves.

We're going to begin our water fast on Sunday, December 20, 2009. We plan to break the fast on New Year's Eve.

Until Next time, Check out these Christmasy-like nutritarian dishes we made for our first Eat To Live Holiday Brunch!
And of course,

Be Well Little Cell

Christmas Soup

Pomegranate Clementine Salad

Our friends were creative and made delicious nutritious dishes without salt, oils, or animal products of any kind. It was a feast for the eyes as well as the belly.

If you're interested in finding out more about fasting and its benefits, we think Dr. Fuhrman's book, Fasting and Eating for Health: A medical doctor's program for conquering disease, is a fantastic read.

Food: the ultimate moral choice.

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
--Hamlet
Two years ago, Ruth and I decided to change our diet after awakening to the dangers associated with almost all Western-style diets. Cancer, heart attack, stroke, autoimmune disorders, global warming, pollution of our environment and water supply, obesity, antibiotic resistance.

The list goes on and on and in the end it all comes down to three basic factors: breakfast, lunch and dinner. We are literally poisoning ourselves and our planet with our food choices. Don’t believe me? I invite you to read on.

The science is clear. Food is the most powerful environmental factor in the vast majority of diseases. The laws of cause and effect tell us that most diseases are preventable and even reversible. As is the suffering they provoke for our planet and its inhabitants.


Despite all this, each day we choose a path that leads to disease, climate destruction, health care crisis, poverty and famine in the third world. We elect eloquent politicians who speak of change but we choose to ignore the real power each of us exercises each day with our wallets. Do we want change? It sure doesn’t look like it.

Not yet at least. We’re quite happy with our green energy compromises, our troop surges and our well-lit supermarkets with their promise of endless prosperity and material goods. I wouldn’t be so sure. Not with the specter of bankrupt health care, unemployment at 10% and the dollar sinking like a stone.

Or did you really think the American dream would last forever? The good news is that change is possible. You don’t have to worry about carbon taxes, nuclear-armed Pakistan or when the Fed will finally get around to raising interest rates.

If you don’t like the way things are you can change them. You don’t have to wait for your president, preacher or parents to tell you how. It’s pretty simple. Go to refrigerator right now and open it up. Take out everything that you didn’t personally grow or buy from a farmer in your community. Now take out everything whose origins or manner of production are unknown to you. Odds are that’s most of what was in your fridge.

Now give or throw all of that food away and replace it with things that come from your community or personal garden. Repeat with your cupboards, pantry, freezer, and second fridge until you’ve reestablished a link with where your food comes from, how it was grown and transported, and how the grower was compensated.

I’m not asking you to be a saint but I am asking you to return a notion of moral duty to your food choices. For the Jewish it’s called kosher, Muslims call it halal. Christians alike fast and avoid meat on holy days. This is change my friends and you don’t have to wait four years for it to come again.

If you want to put people back to work, always buy locally from organic farms, which require lots of manpower in the place of pesticides and chemicals. If you don’t want to buy all your food this way, start with 20%. Then work your way up. Can you buy a third or half of your food this way?

Each dollar spent is a vote for change and sanity in these insane times. Talk to your friends, support food co-ops and insist your politicians begin to discuss and support local, organic agriculture for a change.


If you don’t want to give up your daily cup of coffee, you can at least insist it be fair trade and organic. The same applies to all our food choices. The more we inform ourselves nutritionally and politically the more we will see that we don’t have to give away our power nor accept the mediocrity that has come to characterize American life.

And most importantly, if you want to choose a healthier lifestyle for yourself and the planet then stop eating animal products. This type of change won’t appeal to your ego nor will it win you the support of many of your friends and family at first. But it will bring about a radical change for both your health and that of the planet. What it lacks in sex appeal it makes up for in vitality. This, my friends, is the American way.

Breakfast Salad

We've discovered breakfast salads. Normally, back in the states, we'd blend a salad in the morning with kale, frozen fruits, nut butters, and some avocados. Here, though, we've opted not buy a blender since we're going home in July and we're trying to keep our lives free of machinery we won't be taking back with us. While blended salads are absolutely delicious and the nutrients absorbed very easily in liquid form, we're just eating the breakfast salad. It's simple, quick, refreshing, filling and its incredibly high in nutrients. It's also gorgeous to look at. Try it for yourself. It tastes even better if you use organic ingredients. And better for the world if you know where that organic produce came from. Go for it!
And tell us what you thought.

First, fill the bottom of a large bowl with lettuce and arugula and slice a banana on top.


Next, dice an apple and put that on top.


Take an orange, peel it, and dice and spread that on top.


Dice a 1/2 an avocado. Spread on top. Almost done.

Sprinkle cinnamon to your liking. And eat it up. Preparation time 5 min. Yum.

Until next time,
Be Well Little Cell