Be Well Little Cell

Bike Life in Long Beach - Revised

2011-09-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

I learned some stuff this summer.

I learned that bike life in Long Beach is not about the bike at all.

It's about living life without a car.

It's about what life is like if you don't get in and zip on over any time you like.

Life without a car is calculated and slow paced.

At first I thought I might be missing out on something.

I wasn't sure what but I could see from the pace of cars zooming past me, I was

indeed missing something.

I missed out on fabulous events that happened far away.

I missed on out many of my friends' lives and that has been a sacrifice.

I missed out on opportunities that called out to me from even farther away places that you can only get to in a car.

But after a very short while, I gained a new perspective about what I really need.

Which is really nothing much. And that has turned out to be a true luxury.

I learned how to plant a garden and water it and wait for things to grow.

I learned that my neighbors, who are older and ailing, have gifts to give me.

I learned that I am needed right around me, in ways I would have never thought of.

And I have simple gifts to give too. Mainly my time and attention.

The beauty of choosing not to drive is this:

I feel awake. Alive and available.

Without a car and so many places to go really fast, I am wide-eyed, alert and ripe for the interactions that cross my path.

I don't have the burden of choice. It's miraculous.

I am available in a full and thoughtful manner for the spontaneous moments.

I give more to the planned events of my life. Slow and steady - on my feet. Ready.

It's good to be without the car.

We've renewed our no-car commitment for a second year

and continue our journey into radical wellness.

Until next time,

Be well little cell.

Ruth

Bike Life in Long Beach - Part 1

2011-01-06T08:46:00.000-08:00

When the tall Italian and I began this blog, he wrote our profile description. He described that what we are expressing here is about our journey into "radical wellness" through the simple but profound implications of diet, exercise and emotional balance.

The thing about the big Italian is he is a master manifester. If he states it, it becomes real. He doesn't often say much, as many can attest, but when he does, watch out. Things happen. So here we are, back from France, in Long Beach, and definitely on a journey. I feel content to be having this experience in this particular body and so I suppose we are indeed on a journey into radical wellness. Extreme well-being.

It started with our introduction to an unsung hero, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D., and an extreme diet change 3 years ago. Now, I am proud to say, with the exception of being enthusiastically altered from time to time after drinking champagne or a few ice cold brewskies, I have not been medicated for any illness at all in 3 years. Not even for a tiny little cold.

The only doctor visit I make is to my friend, the genius, Dr. Khelly Webb (http://www.centerforhealinglife.com) for an occasional chiropractic tune-up which clears the road blocks and traffic jams through the nervous system allowing the brain and spinal cord to communicate more freely with the rest of the body's cells. I love my brain and spinal cord so much.

All this is to tell you that when we came home from France, we made the decision to navigate our lives without a car, and without even realizing it, propelled ourselves further along into the aforementioned journey.

I remember clearly, the conversation we had, when I felt myself commit to this. We were living without a car in France but we didn't have bikes. We discussed how much more at ease we both felt not being in the car all the time and mapped out how we could do this once we got home. We'd rent an apartment close to the bus lines that could get us both to work. We'd make sure we were close to parks to see nature's green stuff instead of concrete all the time in order to maintain our sanity. Mati would get his bike all tuned and cleaned up and I'd get myself a brand spankin' new one complete with baskets. And that was it. We committed.

We knew it was going to be a big change to come home and be without a car since Long Beach is a different kind of city. We've been home from France since mid-July. For six months we've been living in a city designed for cars, without a car. And let me tell you, it's been quite a ride-on the bus or on the bike.

Most of the time, I feel a lonely sense of freedom when I'm on the road riding my bike. There are people all around me but we're all separated from one another by large steel moving containers. They can see me and I them, but all I hear is the roar of the tires on the pavement. We make eye contact to confirm nobody will be injured, then go our separate ways. I've been hearing and reading about Long Beach taking actions to create "the most bike friendly city in the nation" but for now, its a lonely ride.

I see others on their bikes enjoying the outdoors and exercise but I relate to the car driver more, because we're doing the same things; running errands, buying groceries, going places. I don't actually love bike riding, in fact. I might ride for recreational purposes from time to time, perhaps to see a pretty sunset or go to the beach, but I don't love riding for the sake of riding like some people do. The bike has two wheels and it gets me places faster than if I walk. That's why I ride.

And on the up side, I didn't absolutely love going to the gym either, but I did so for my health and now I don't even need a gym membership because I'm always pushing the damn bike around town with my legs or lifting it up and down stairs.

My legs are as strong as they've been - even when I was lifting weights. I have a sense that my body is doing something it was designed to do. I've lived half of my adult life in the gym, pushing around weights or riding stationary bikes or treadmills or stepping up and down on boxes.

When I was training as an athlete for a basketball game or some athletic event, it felt okay. When I was in the gym just to stay in shape, my perspective began to shift. It seemed silly a little, that I would drive my car to to the gym, to "work" my body.

But if I want food, I have to ride for it, and that incentive inspires me to get out there when I would have otherwise chosen to camp out at home watching movies. If I had a gym membership and a vehicle, I'd have easily rebelled and opted for another episode of House, M.D.

Humans are smart and creative. "Work smarter, not harder" is a phrase I often hear tossed around. We're very good at that. So much so, in fact, that we've set up a society of moving house vehicles, comfy couches, remote controls, computers and cell phones. We have set up our lives so we don't have to move really at all and we don't have to think much for that matter.

We don't have to actually roll down our windows in the cars anymore, we press a button. We don't have to walk up stairs, we take the elevator or escalator. We don't have to remember phone numbers, they're programmed into our phones. We've completely outsourced all the jobs our bodies used to do. As a result, our bodies are in the same crisis as the American jobs market.

Driving a car has its virtues, of course. But today, had I been driving for meals instead of riding, I would have missed Wilson High School's marching band funkin' out to Give Up The Funk or the rather wise man who cleans up the tree scraps in the park and then kneels prayerfully to sleep in the grass for the entire day or the man in the Bronco who said, "You go girl" as I rode by or the gas man who happily volunteered that he, too, rode his bike to work today.

For these experiences, I'll gladly get up and ride again tomorrow.

You've got a real type of thing going down, getting down
There's a whole lot of rhythm going round
You've got a real type of thing going down, getting down
There's a whole lot of rhythm going round

We want the funk, give up the funk
We need the funk, we gotta have that funk

We're gonna turn this mother out
We're gonna turn this mother out

Until next time,
Be Well Little Cell,
Ruth and Matthew

2010-09-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

We've just covered the cells in my human anatomy class – our bodies are made of 75 trillion or more of them. As I teach about their structures, how they have organelles (little organs) whose jobs are to take the products from metabolism and turn those products into useful or not useful tools in our bodies, I am reminded how significant the last two and a half years have been for both Matthew and I. It was two and a half years ago that we evaluated our lifestyle and food choices and gave our kitchen and diet a complete overhaul.

Our friend says we have “Super Cells” and that stuck with me. We do have super cells. Most everything Mati and I eat on a daily basis is useful to our 75 trillion cells. Our cells are happy to utilize so much of what they need from the high nutrient foods we eat and then manufacture those materials' building blocks for a long and healthy life. We have super cells. Isn’t that cool?

I’ve been remiss to write lately about our lives around food because frankly there’s so much confusion around nutrition and “diet styles” that I found myself wanting to move away from any analysis about what we eat.

I’ve found that to try and express the science around our “diet style” is confusing. It’s not that the material itself is difficult but who cares? If you’ve already tried and read a thousand different authors and heard a thousand different news stories and experts telling you what to eat, you don’t want to hear it from a couple of little dumb asses with a blog telling you to do it “this way”. I understand that. I realize I’d rather not tell you what to do anyway. Unless, of course, you ask. In that case, I’ll be happy to boss you around the kitchen!

In addition, I’ve always had a strong aversion to labels. So I’ve found myself becoming increasingly reluctant to talk about “our food”. Or to explain that we do indeed eat animal products - just not regularly (by not regularly, we mean once a week) and only certain unadulterated animal products if possible and in very small portions. That, no we’re not vegan and not vegetarian and no we don’t eat for our blood types or low carbs or high protein or for weight loss or gain or like our ancestors and no we’re not master cleaning ourselves.

The sheer number of distinct and different conversations I’ve had recently around what people eat and why has been an eye opening experience that reveals the true confusion around what is best for us to put in our mouths. Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who we get a significant amount of information from, would say we’re nutritarians. He coined that phrase. It’s a good one, but I don’t intend to call myself that either. I’ve always had a strong aversion to labels.

So like I said, I’ve been remiss in writing recently about our “diet” because I hadn’t found a manner to express what I want to say. I have a deep respect and reverence for the food we eat and the meals we create in our lives and eat together at mealtimes, so it seems disrespectful to always be analyzing the science and the why of it all when sometimes the textures, the colors, the beauty of what’s on my plate and the understanding of how it got there just takes my breath away.

It seems disrespectful to talk so much about the science of food and why we’re eating it. It’s like talking during the symphony. I’d rather, for now, for this blog post, just pause to appreciate that for the last two and a half years, I’ve been feeding this organism I live in, called a human body the most excellent stuff I can gather. And that is enough.

So lately, I’ve been more quiet and prone to celebrating nature’s bounty. People who grow things for us to eat are heroic. I’d like to honor them. The produce that magically shows up on my doorstep on Tuesday mornings is unimaginable to me. When you don’t drive a car anywhere and you live in a place that is so spread out that its difficult to not have one, I realize how overwhelming certain things are. Growing something to eat and growing enough of it seems hard. Most of us don’t grow everything we eat so we can’t really wrap our brains around the idea of that.

We get a box of organic produce delivered to us once a week. It’s called the Monster Mix from an organization called Farm Fresh To You. And it’s gorgeous. It’s all organic local farmers’ produce. This week we received a huge bounty. The farmers send a note with farm news and recipes and things happening in the community. The farmer said that he hopes we enjoy our boxes this week since the beginning of fall is in them.

Thaddeus writes in his newsletter: Fall Shower …“Rains do not all smell the same, and the first rain of the season always smells the best. There is a musty, earthy, life-building smell in the first rain – a smell that compares to the smell of freshly baked bread, a good cup of coffee on a cold winter day or the fragrance of the spring’s first citrus blossom. I stood under the cover of the house porch breathing deeply, feeling calmed and refreshed with my existence.”

This week the farmers delivered a huge bouquet of green chard, 4 baby bok choys, a large bunch of carrots, lettuce, plums, apples, pears, figs, lemon cucumbers, beets with the greens attached, radishes, zucchini, potatoes. And us, we have the privilege of eating what their love and mastery of the earth has created.

So today, what I want to say is this. It’s the simplest and most artistic thing in the world to reclaim the health and beauty that your human organism wants desperately to express. It’s simple though, only after you’ve fallen in love with the idea of changing your life and it's only simple after you’ve made and given yourself over to the commitment – like a good marriage. And your local farmers will be glad support your commitment.

And that’s as scientific as I want to get today. I’ll save the rest for the students in class tonight.

Until next time,
Be well little cell

The French Paradox

2010-04-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

Today I'd like to dive into one of the dietary clichés so often bandied about by Americans: the French Paradox. The idea that a couple glasses of wine, a nice piece of foie gras and a healthy dose of joie de vivre are all you need to live a long, healthy and happy life. For it's an idea that many Americans seem to buy into.

Certainly one can be relatively happy eating almost any type of diet. And happiness is too broad an art form to reduce to the sum of what you put on your plate each day. Rather it's the first two adjectives I'll humbly take exception with in this post. That's to say, are the French really any healthier or longer living than Americans?

To begin with, the health claims of the so-called French Paradox have long been overblown if not downright false. Any supposed difference in heart disease is more than offset by the similar disease rates from which the French suffer in almost all other areas of health. Disease rates that mirror other countries that eat a similar Western diet.
Indeed, healthy adult life expectancy varies little between Western countries. A few years of generally declining health does not constitute a reasonable dietary goal in my opinion. Nor does the prospect of diseases like cancer or Alzheimer's that can seriously diminish not only the quantity but the quality of our lives. So all health claims aside, lets take a look at the other inherent claim to the French paradox, the pleasure principle. Fiction or fact?

Before we begin, let me say that the French do a lot of things right in my view. Selection and preparation of ingredients is taken seriously. The variety of fresh produce and other items is impressive and affordable. Once the meal prepared, much more time is dedicated to the ritual of dining than in the US. Meals are eaten with friends and family in a setting that befits them.

The culture of fast food, while making further inroads each year, remains far less evident in France than in America. There still exists a strong social taboo in regards to snacking between meals, whose hours you can literally set your watch by. For an American in France, these social rules can surprise by their unbending rigidity. But how does it all translate in regards to pleasure?

First, let's say that the French in general are far thinner than most Americans, a fact that's true though of almost every other nation on Earth. Thinness is of course a relative standard and the French are far from immune to obesity or excess weight. Lets just say that not all French women are skinny bitches by any means. But more importantly, those that are in my experience are almost just as paranoid about their weight as many American women.

For no sooner does one of their infamously rich entrées or desserts arrive at table than a barrage of fat-phobic dialogue fills the air. "Oh, ça fait grossir" (Oh, how fattening). Or "je vais faire exploser ma balance" (literally: I'm gonna make my scale explode). I have nothing against a woman wanting to stay thin but its this type of behavior that can put a guy positively off his appetite.

For surely there is no less pleasurable way to eat a meal than with this type of guilt or anxiety surrounding it. This type of "bad faith" as Sartre would call it has become as entrenched in the flow of many dinners I've attended as the detailed descriptions of the origin and character of the wine or cheese selected for the meal. I find it incredibly bad taste to subject your neighbor to your own dietary hang-ups at the moment of crowning pleasure of the meal.

Because if you do occasionally partake of rich cuisine you can either honor how your body will handle it or continue to play the role of the tortured gourmand. I would argue for the former. For there is a beauty in the fact that your human body has been honed through millennia of rich evolution with its environment to look upon this piece of foie gras or camembert as an excellent chance to stock away extra calories for a rainy day.

It is a luxury most people throughout human history would not have taken nearly so lightly. For in their simple wisdom lay a truer understanding of what feasting should mean. Only in a society of such decadent abundance could we so pervert our natural instincts, swapping gratitude for guilt and joy for vanity.

But a truer understanding would let you happily enjoy your dessert because you'd have ample faith in the excellence of the rest of your diet to keep you thin, healthy and happy. Gone will be the tortured choice between thin and happy, between pleasure and pride. Such a recognition represents one of the rare chances remaining for us to break free from our body-hating culture and make friends once more with the most elemental part of ourselves, the body.

And one shouldn't deny the beauty of a thin, capable body in this world for it's one of the most divine forms of our human condition, a true work of art. But if it comes at the price of anxiety and worry, we will have made an enemy of our body. And such a trade-off should never be justified. Nor should we sacrifice a thin, healthy body in the mistaken belief eating will thus be pleasure-less and dull.

This world exists for you to be free in and anyone who tells you otherwise is surely no wise man nor artist. For you can have your cake and eat it too. The art is entirely in knowing how.

So please be happy and well little cell.
Until next time,
Matthew

Migraine Diva

2010-03-02T04:43:00.000-08:00

Before we introduce you to another one of our friends venturing into the world of nutrient dense eating, we want to give you a quick update.

For those of you following our friend Rose's progress, she recently finished the first phase of switching to a nutrient dense diet. What we mean by nutrient dense is that 95 percent of what she eats is power packed with nutrients and void of empty calories or processed foods. That means nearly all of what she eats is plant-based beans, green veggies and fruits and nuts and seeds - all full of disease fighting, anti-aging nutrients.

We're impressed. She's lost 2 pant sizes and tells me she's feeling much better. What the weight loss means for Rose is not purely aesthetic. The more important part of weight loss is how her body is getting better at processing insulin and not making as much. Her risk for cardiovascular disease is diminishing as is a whole host of other diseases related to eating a diet void of nutrients. We encourage you to check out Dr. Joel Furhman's books if you haven't already picked them up.

Interview With Another Nutritarian Friend

Rayanne is our friend who appears glamorous even when she is in severe pain with a migraine headache. She has been battling certain health issues and decided to give her diet a closer look to see if she could make some improvements. Because recurring migraines are not glamorous. Here's what she had to say.

1. Why did you decide to make a change in your diet?
I lived in Thailand for 3 years when I was younger, moving back to the UK in 2000, when I was 14. Ever since, I have had digestive problems; starting with simple stomach pains, escalating to being tested for Crohn’s, being diagnosed with IBS, cutting out wheat, dairy and meat from my diet and losing two dress sizes in weight. Yes I was a size 10 but I didn’t go through a week without experiencing extreme fatigue or constipation or diarrhea or vomiting…and it just seemed to be getting worse. Intense migraines were added to the list recently which was a real motivator to find out the cause behind my body’s weakness.

All of my New Year resolutions for 2010 are to do with feeling good. At the beginning of this year I went to see a chiropractor, a dentist and also a kinesiologist. This last appointment was really eye opening. I was told that my stomach, liver and intestines were under a lot of strain and as a result my body’s overall health was at 50%. The cause? Parasites. Three gastro squatters had set up camp in my gut in Bangkok and had been living there rather luxuriously for 10 years. I’m happy to say I kicked them out and claimed my digestive system back.

Changing my eating habits seemed to me the natural next step. I owed it to my body to overdose on nutrients to make up for a decade of deficiency. Step in Dr Furhman.

2. Did you read the book Eat To Live and how did it affect you?
Yes. Yes. Yes.

In three days. The logic behind every word was so inspirational.

It got me painting again.

3. What did you change about your diet and how did it affect the way you live?
On finishing the book I decided I wanted to do it properly. After cleansing my kitchen and filling it with muddy market marvels I dove head first into the 6 week regime - a diet consisting basically of fruits, nuts and raw and cooked vegetables. The end of Week Four is fast approaching and I do feel pretty bloody good.

In terms of changing the way I live I wouldn’t say anything drastic has happened. I guess the main difference is where I shop and my acute awareness of the foods I buy – 90% of it comes from the local farmer’s market.

And as a result of the 90% rule I can actually live my life. Of course I have been a little ill with detoxing and adapting to the diet but nothing compared to what I was going through. I have more energy to do the things I want, I feel satiated when I eat, I’ve had the privilege to try new and exciting foods I never knew existed and I’m honored enough to have wonderful fellow nutritarians to inspire me. So actually in conclusion I take it back. The way I live has changed quite dramatically and in a fucking awesome way.

4. What have you learned most about yourself?
That I am normal! Minus Wilfred, Winifred and Winston the worms, my body is pretty good at digesting. I have avoided fruit (among so many things) for so long but now I live off apples and oranges, mangoes and strawberries, pears and kiwis and so many other colourful, tasty and gorgeous foods pain free, it’s wonderful.

I’ve also learned that I am quite a good cook, I am dedicated to this life change, motivated to continue it and proud that I’ve kept it up and am in it for the long haul.

5. What have you learned about the world around you?
Do not underestimate the power of denial.

People are stuck in tradition and are so blindly loyal to what they have been taught they can’t and don’t want to believe in anything else, irrespective of irrefutable research and results. There is a thick blanket of ignorance over the Western world in regards to nutrition and despite the saying “You are what you eat” being commonplace, the majority of the population are happily tucking into servings of cholesterol, platefuls of heart attacks and side dishes of cancer.

People are willing to eat themselves dead and are equally prepared to omit the natural healing foods their bodies need. Armed with nutritarian knowledge, I now notice this widespread ignorance everywhere and realize change won’t come easy.

6. What were or are the obstacles or difficulties you face with changing your diet?
Firstly, I get bored of chewing, I feel like a cow. Lettuce yeah it’s wonderful for your system blah blah but I’m bored of green shit! But I have come across some delicious recipes to jazz up our Leafy Friends which have stopped me (more than once) from throwing the head of lettuce out the window.

Secondly, I was prepared for a serious detox at the beginning of this diet but it never came. I figured my body was too busy with all the vitamins, nutrients, minerals and proteins I was gorging on. However, last weekend I had my first real migraine in a month and this time I had to stay away from the codeine. Pain, nausea and blindness in my right eye for 36 hours = horrendous. The relief when I finally woke up feeling restless and migraine free was immense; my body had finally realized it was getting no prescription help and it came through.

7. Do you feel better/worse? Do you think you look better?
My body feels as though it’s in sync. It’s hard to explain but I feel more spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced.

8. Was or is there anything about changing your diet that has surprised you?
How easy it was. It feels as though I’ve only ever eaten this way. Of course, I’m not a saint, I crave fries and chocolate and deep fried goodness and who knows, after 6 weeks maybe I’ll have some. But knowing what I know now I’ll be much more aware of what it is I’m eating.

9. Has your decision to change your diet affected other people in your life? How?
I wouldn’t say so. I suppose living with a fellow Dr Furhmanite has helped as there are no temptations in the house and we support each other.

On a side note my mother is not very impressed. She thinks I’m starving myself because there is no fish or meat or other animal products in my diet. She has even asked a friend of hers (who suffers from extreme food allergies and helped me I when I moved back to England) to talk to me about ‘what I’m putting my body through.’ I’ll let you know what she says.

Until next time,
Be well little cell.

Overdosed America

2010-02-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

Ruth and I know that so many of our readers are hungry to learn more about how to navigate the complicated world of modern medicine and scientific research. That's why we gladly recommend Overdosed America, by John Abramson of Harvard Medical School, the detailed account of "how the pharmaceutical companies are corrupting science, misleading doctors and threatening your health." Not only is Abramson's advice and research clear and science-based but it cuts through the lies and inaccuracies that have led us as a nation down the path to chronic disease and financial ruin.

It starts with a simple notion, but one that has been nearly lost in current medical practice: if you suffer from diabetes, hypertension, autoimmune disease, depression or even simpler problems like mild fever, headache or a sore throat, you should not think of drugs as your first choice. Medications have their place in extreme cases, but modern science is very clear that the most effective treatments are nutrition and lifestyle change. And this is what your doctor should be telling you first instead of reaching for the prescription pad.

Abramson goes on to explain that symptoms, be they headaches or weight gain, are the body's way of pointing out problems we must address to bring our health back into alignment. To cover up these symptoms with medications that treat the effects rather than the root causes of disease is a dangerous practice because all drugs are by nature toxic to some extent and they do little to nothing to improve your overall health. Insulin, cholesterol-lowering drugs, even simple Tylenol will do almost nothing to make you substantially healthier in the long run. They simply reduce your symptoms and give you a false notion of health.

The idea is, of course, not to avoid all drugs but rather to return them to their proper place. That is to say as a last resort and only until more effective modalities can be substituted. The body is a miraculous, self-healing wonder when allowed to do its job. Yet we have succumbed to the temptation to treat it as a piece of machinery with a pill for each and every little thing that ails us. If the result was greater health both individually and collectively it would be hard to find fault with this approach. But in a nation where 73% of Americans are obese or overweight, where 58% of Americans die needlessly of cardiovascular-related disease and where our collective health is threatening the economic survival of our nation, I'd say there's a problem.

In the evermore confused and confusing debate on health care, we feel that knowledge is our only hope. We must work to educate ourselves as consumers so as to better scrutinize the information that affects our health decisions. The political and monetary influence of drug companies has polluted medical practice and distorted reporting on scientific research for too long. And the myth of better living through science has made us the sickest people in history. It's high time we as Americans choose a different path.

But to do so, we must say no to the lies proffered by drug companies at our expense. There will be no cure for cancer unless it is lifestyle and diet-based. So let's stop throwing our money at pharmaceutical giants in the well-meaning but misguided attempt to help the millions of people who suffer needlessly from cancer. The science is very clear on this subject. Yet it has not had the chance to be heard by the American public. Make no mistake, the so-called "War on Cancer" is too good a business to allow scientific truth to get in the way.

That's why we as individuals must do more to promote the lost idea that nutritional intervention and lifestyle changes are not only more effective but far more affordable in avoiding, treating and even reversing the vast majority of the diseases that are bringing this nation of ours to its knees. Not only is it good science, but it makes good sense for everyone involved: our health care system, our communities, our families and ourselves.

Education and word-of-mouth are helping to create a veritable revolution in the health and vitality of our nation. The wisdom of researchers and doctors like Joel Fuhrman, T. Colin Campbell and John Abramson is helping to change the lives of millions of people. We can no longer continue to ignore their work and research and the positive changes they are introducing into so many people's lives.

The only question that remains is are you ready to get on board? We invite you to do so, both for your sake and for the sake of each and every loved one in your life. This isn't a sale's pitch, this is your health. It's time to take back control. It starts with education. Educate yourself, your friends and your family and you will change your world in ways you could've never imagined. I promise you that.

Loafin' Around With Our Friends

2010-02-07T04:01:00.000-08:00

**Lentil Loaf Recipe Below

Well Cell’s Interview with a Nutritarian
By answering the following questions and allowing us to share some of your experience on our blog, you will most likely inspire others and help them to feel supported in their own efforts to change their lives for the better so thank you in advance for participating with us and also for being an inspiration to both Matthew and I.

Please be as honest as you comfortably can since many of our blog readers will likely relate to your feelings, difficulties, if any, and your inspirations.

Why did you decide to make a change in your diet?
The reasons I decided to make a change in my diet are many. First and foremost, I’m severely overweight and have been for more than a decade now. And although I’ve been told my weight gain as well as the maintaining of the weight throughout the years served as a sort of protection due to emotional issues, I finally realized that I was in fact slowly killing myself through food. For many years I’d been in denial about having any health related side effects due to my being obese. But I could not ignore the fact that diabetes runs in my family as well as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. In the last four years I was forced to face this reality head on when I became a caregiver to my grandmother on my dad’s side of the family. I had to see my beautiful grandmother deteriorate due to many bad food choices she had made throughout her life. After decades of not eating healthfully, her diabetes was out of control and she had acquired a heart condition. She could no longer walk without the use of a walker and her obesity became a huge burden due to the fact that she couldn’t clean or dress herself. She had to be cared for as one would care of an infant. This was my grandmother who had been so strong and hardworking throughout her life. A woman who raised 11 children and countless grandchildren. Someone who always put everyone else’s needs before her own.

I believe subconsciously, I was thinking about myself at my grandmother’s age, IF I even made it to that age. I started to feel as if there was an onslaught of disease and health problems coming my way. As a matter of fact, in 2007 I began to experience lightheadedness, migraine headaches, and dizzy spells, as well as high blood pressure. I went to see a doctor and she attributed all of these symptoms to stress. But I asked myself, what if? What if these are the first signs to other issues to come. Diabetes. Heart attack, etc., etc.

Another reason I chose to make a change in my diet was due to the fact that I was tired of being fat, plain and simple. I was tired of not being able to do simple things many people take for granted. Fitting comfortably into an airplane seat, a movie theater seat, narrow chairs, rides at amusement parks, and so and so forth. Dancing, playing sports, and other simple physical activities. Wearing things like a bathing suit, or just wearing fun clothes. I was basically tired of not being able to do anything and everything I wanted to do. I felt as if my weight was holding my back and preventing me from REALLY living.

Quite simply, it was just TIME to make a change.

Did you read the book Eat To Live and how did it effect you?
I did read the book. Actually, I’ve always been a sort of stickler for the rules. Dr. Fuhrman recommends everyone reads the books in its entirety before beginning the diet and I did. I even postponed starting the diet at the same time a friend of mine started it since I’d yet to finish the book.

The book affected me in the way that I was very surprised as well as horrified to learn just how crappy we Americans eat. To read the truth about so many things I considered “healthy”. Chicken for example. I was so sad to hear about many of the harmful products, additives, and hormones in many of our foods. At times I even thought it’s no wonder why so many Americans are considered overweight.

The book also inspired me. I loved reading about the many people who had successfully lost weight and who had achieved there goal weight no matter how much they had to lose. I also loved reading about those people who had been scheduled for some sort of invasive surgery as a last resort only to go on the Eat to Live diet and no longer need surgery or medication, for that matter.

What did you change about your diet and how did it affect the way you live?
I changed my diet completely. I “detoxified” my kitchen and threw out all of the processed foods I had been consuming on a daily basis. I got rid of the salt, oil, butter, dairy products, meat, and other “no-nos”. I began to eat fresh products only. Fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts.

My life was affected in the following ways: 1) I began to cook more. Before, I hardly ever cooked and did a lot of eating out. If I did happen to cook something, it was basically something quick and easy. Frozen pizza, pasta, bread and cheese, sandwiches, fast food, tuna salad with chips, french fries, and other unhealthy foods.

2) I no longer eat at restaurants. I eat all of my meals at home. I think I will eventually begin to frequent restaurants but once I’ve figured out a way where I can still maintain a healthy handle on my food intake. Restaurants tend to use a lot of the things I no longer want to eat. Oil, salt, creamy sauces, to name a few. The good thing is that in the US, there are many restaurants that are beginning to cater to health conscious people.

3) This goes along with 2, I no longer plan my social events around food. Plus, food is no longer my number one priority. I don’t plan my day around food. My meals are a way to sustain myself but they are no longer the most important part of my day. I’m taking a bigger interest in my hobbies and interests. This actually helps to keep me from giving in to my cravings. I try to do all of those things that bring me comfort and joy that don’t revolve around food and eating. I still get together with friends to watch movies, crochet, and do art, I just don’t plan these things around dinner or lunch as I used to.

What have you learned most about yourself?
I think what I’ve learned about myself is just how committed and strong willed I can be. I used to honestly think that I would forever be overweight and that I could not lose weight. I didn’t “like” diets and didn’t really believe in them but I think it’s because I was afraid to set myself up for failure. I’ve always been an overachiever and I felt that this was the one thing I would not be able to do. I learned that I do have it in me to achieve this. I also learned that for me it was not about the food. The food was just a means to an end. I used food to keep myself overweight. I DO like healthy food. I DO like vegetables and I CAN eat super healthy food. Plus, I DON’T need fast food and fatty foods.

I also learned that I’m a product of my society and my family. I was never taught the importance of eating a healthy balanced diet and the few times that it was mentioned at school with the whole “food pyramid”, it was completely misleading.

What have you learned about the world around you?
I’ve started to see just how unhealthy peoples diets really are. I line up at the grocery store and I’m amazed at what people are buying. I see how children are being taught unhealthy eating habits. I see just how unaware people are about what they put in their mouths and into their bodies. I also see how amazing and wonderful the world is without the need to eat all the time. I no longer eat all of those things I used to “enjoy” eating and I’m still enjoying my life.

What were or are the obstacles or difficulties you face with changing your diet?
I think a big one is not being able to eat at restaurants and travel is greatly affected by this. I know that eventually I WILL be able to eat at restaurants and there are ways to get around traveling while maintaining a healthy diet but I still feel a bit vulnerable and not quite ready to do it. Another thing I’ve found difficult is sticking to an eating schedule. I used to eat whenever I was hungry or when I finally had the time. Most of the time I never even ate breakfast. I would have two meals a day, lunch and dinner and as I said, they weren’t ever at a set time. I would eat late into the night and go to bed right after. I was never one to snack in between meals but I would overeat sometimes when I was very hungry.

Another biggie has been knowing what to eat and how to make it. As I’ve said before, I was never much of a cook and that has presented a few problems for me. There have been a few times where I don’t know what to make or I don’t have the drive to cook something and I will just end up skipping the meal altogether. Little by little I’m overcoming that since I have been getting cooking lessons from Ruth. I do still get anxious sometimes when I run out of stuff to eat and have to make more but every week I’ve had a lot of leftovers and have been able to survive on these delicious dishes I’ve learned to make.

Sometimes cravings pose a problem, as well. I haven’t had many cravings but sometimes I can’t think of anything but getting a big cheese burger and some onion rings with ranch dressing. Thankfully, I’m in France and I can’t really get that here. Plus, they don’t last very long, these cravings, and I just ride them out but God help me when I’m watching TV and I get a craving. I obsess about what everyone is eating.

Do you feel better/worse? Do you think you look better?
I feel GREAT! Really. I no longer have any dizziness, headaches, or “food coma” symptoms. My clothes are super loose and I can do little things like cross my legs. I don’t get very tired after a long day of teaching and climbing the stairs at the university, here in Rouen. I’ve been told my face has really thinned out and I can now notice it in the mirror. My cheekbones are more defined. I still have a long way to go but there is a marked difference which only serves to inspire me and fuel my fire. At night I sleep harder if that makes any sense. I was having a hard time sleeping but that is all changing which is great since I’ve always liked to sleep and I believe sleep is so important to one’s body and good health.

Was or is there anything about changing your diet that has surprised you?
Yes, I can REALLY taste food now. I’m constantly surprised at how sensitive my taste buds are becoming. I love the flavors of the vegetables, fruits, and nuts I’ve been eating.

I was also surprise at how easily I was able to change my diet completely and give up regular coke.

Has your decision to change your diet affected other people in your life? How?
My sister was inspired to do the diet with me. I also feel closer to people since I’ve made it a point to be more honest with myself and about my thoughts and feelings. Slowly, I’ve been exploring all of the reasons I let myself get to this weight. My sister and I created a blog where we share our experiences. Whether good or bad, these posts have served as a sort of therapy as well as further inspiration. By talking about these things, I’ve been able to process a lot of baggage I’ve been caring around. This questionnaire is a part of that and I hope that it helps other people make that first step to a better, healthier life. Courage!

Lentil - or any other bean you like - Loaf

2 cups of cooked lentils (I like the coral ones b/c they're fast and get kind of mushy, but any lentils or other unsalted cooked beans will do nicely)
Add all of the following to a large mixing bowl:
2 shredded carrots
1 shredded zuchini
1 cup of oats (not instant and preferrably organic)
1 large handful of chopped fresh basil
1 large handful of fresh chopped chives or green onions or leeks
3 small handfuls of raw sunflower seeds
1 small handful of raw sesame seeds
1 Tbspn garlic powder
2 Tbspn dried parsely
4 Tbspn of tomato paste

Mix all the ingredients together with your hands - because it's fun - and form into a loaf or you can put into a loaf pan. Moi, I just make a loaf and put on a sheet of tin foil and cook that little sucka on 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes or until nicely browned.

2010-01-25T08:10:00.000-08:00

We have nutritarian friends everywhere! Meet our friend Rose. In this photo, we're making whole wheat flat breads from organic whole wheat flour and water. Those are the only two ingredients!

They're so easy and they are really good with soups and salads or stuffed with veggies like a sandwich or wrapped up with beans and veggies like burritos. They're versatile and tasty and inexpensive to make. You should try it sometime!

Rose has been studying Eat To Live and recently decided to make a life changing commitment by renovating her diet. And she's going to allow us to share some of her journey here on our blog. In fact, many of our friends are making huge and remarkable changes in their diets and each of them agreed to answer questions and share their experiences with us and you too. So you can look forward to reading about friends and family members who see the value in changing their eating practices.

In the past few weeks I have been moved to tears to see how active our friends have become in embracing a nutritarian diet. I have been truly inspired and my life has become even more rich here in France as we are now able to share more meals together, cook together and share ideas.

I have never had an experience like this and feel a sense of true community developing. It's the start of a new paradigm in a new world and I don't think we should underestimate the political voice these activities have. We're not only taking our health care into our own hands, we're creating a new community based on delicious, festive recipes prepared with friends on a regular basis.

Each person who eliminates meat from their diet, is one less person perpetuating factory farming. That means one less person buying foods which are packaged or highly processed, which means one less person making pathogenic garbage which will be thrown into the landfills. But most importantly, it means more people to share your delicious recipes and ideas with.

Seriously, eliminating risk for disease and helping to save the planet. How can you refuse this change my friends? And when you're ready, we're here. And there are so many others now to support your truly powerful decision. As powerful as your vote, maybe more so, is your decision to change your diet. It doesn't have to be personally political but if you've been inspired to improve your health by changing your diet, you will inadvertently improve the health of your nation and that is as political as anyone really needs to be.

Shredded Veggie Soup #1

Add the following to a large soup pan

2 shredded carrots

2 shredded zuchini

1 shredded eggplant

1 shredded red, green and yellow bell pepper

2 diced onions

2 minced garlic cloves

1 bunch of fresh basil, minced

Cover the veggies with water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer the soup for another 30 to 40 minutes. Add 3 humongous handfuls of sliced fresh spinach, chard or bok choy, cover the pot with a lid and turn the heat off. Allow the greens to wilt and then garnish with dried onion flakes and slices of avocado. Go make this recipe right now and eat it with a huge salad and tell us what you think.

Assignment, should you choose to participate: Go to your kitchen right now. Throw away your salt and anything in your refrigerator with salt in it. Go on, be brave.

And until next time,
Be Well Little Cell

The Thin Man

2010-01-12T13:33:00.000-08:00

In January 2008, Ruth and I were listening to public radio in Long Beach when we heard an interview with author Mike Anderson. He referenced Dr. Joel Fuhrman and his book Eat to Live. We went out and picked it up at a bookstore and never looked back. Two years later, we are still enthusiastic followers of his advice on diet and lifestyle. The change was by all means huge. Even though we thought we were eating a good diet at the time, we soon discovered some important clues that would tell us otherwise.

I have always been thin. Since I was a kid I've hardly carried a pound of excess weight. On the contrary, I always had to work hard to put on even a few pounds of muscle through exercise and weight training. I ate whatever I wanted, absolutely anything, without ever putting on weight. Some people said I was lucky, but for me it was just my reality.

I was alway an athlete too. From the age of 6, my life was a balance of homework, practice, sports camps and summer leagues. I played college baseball and rowed crew at Long Beach. I was active and thought myself a model of health. But as I mentioned, there were subtle signs that I had been ignoring all along.

From at least the age of 18, my first year of college sports, my blood pressure had always been in the 135/85 range. Although I had no idea at the time, this was not only well above the recommended reading of 120/80, it was on the border of certified hypertension, which is defined as anything above 140/90. Doctors would sometimes ask if I had any history of hypertension in my family, but I had no idea and none of them pushed the issue.

It was only after reading Eat to Live in 2008 that I realized just how serious a threat my high blood pressure was to my overall health and longevity. It turns out they don't call it the "silent killer" for nothing:

"Truly "normal" blood pressure readings should remain below 115 over 75. A recently published meta-analysis pooling the results of 61 studies demonstrated that for every incremental increase of 20 mg of systolic blood pressure above 115, heart attack death rates doubled. High blood pressure is also associated with an increased risk of heart failure, kidney failure and strokes (CVA – cerebral vascular accidents). It also predisposes to dementia and heart arrhythmias."

In other words, my healthy waist-line measurement was just a cover for what was a serious long-term health risk. One that if left untreated would have doubled my chances of suffering a fatal heart attack or other cerebral vascular accident. I also can't help but think that at its root, my so-called "luck" at being able to eat rich, high-fat foods without fear of weight gain was almost certainly a factor in helping promote my dangerously high blood pressure:

"Over 90 percent of adult Americans who die in car accidents show atherosclerosis in their coronary arteries on autopsy. The unfortunate reality is that if you eat the Standard American Diet you will have a 90 percent chance of developing high blood pressure when you get older. You cannot escape from the biological law of cause and effect. The Standard American Diet is simply heart attack and stroke causing."

I consider myself lucky to have stumbled across a doctor like Joel Fuhrman. Because of the numerous doctors I'd seen for sports physicals throughout my late teens and twenties, not one raised more than a slight concern at what should have been seen as a dangerously high blood pressure reading. But this is not abnormal as it turns out:

"You may have been told in the past that, if your blood pressure is below 140/90, it is normal. Unfortunately, this is not true. It is average for those above the age of 60, but certainly not normal. Being average in America means you are heavily diseased...The only reason the 140 over 90 figures had been used in the past is that it represents the midpoint of blood pressure readings of Americans older than sixty. The risk for strokes and heart attacks starts climbing at 115/75."

So to paraphrase, I had a normal blood pressure reading for a diseased American senior citizen. And this since the age of 18. How's that for a wake-up call? Needless to say, it was more than sufficient motivation for both Ruth and I to completely revolutionize our diet.

And now more than two years later, I can say that not only has my blood pressure returned to a truly healthy level (around 110/70), but I live a richer and fuller life in every way because of it. Our food is truly more delicious and nourishing than it ever was before. The lack of a future heart attack or stroke is simply one component of a new, happier and more vital life with my best friend Ruth.

Current readers of our blog will know that we've been blessed to spend the last year and a half living in the Normandy region of France. One of just a long list of dreams we plan to realize before this wonderful adventure we're sharing is over. All the more reason to stay strong and vital each step of the way. That's why we said no to heart disease and stroke.

"In the United States, about 400,000 people a year suffer from strokes. Forty percent of these strokes may be fatal, but the 60 percent that live are often doomed to a life of suffering and disability. The cost of strokes is not just measured in the billions of dollars lost in work, hospitalization and the care of survivors in nursing homes, but the major cost or impact of a stroke is the loss of an independent lifestyle that occurs in 30% of the survivors. After a stroke, a self-sustaining and enjoyable lifestyle may lose most of its quality as the person can no longer walk, feed, or express him/her self normally. The family members find themselves in a new role as caregivers; it is a true tragedy. What makes these events even more heartbreaking is that they never had to happen in the first place."

Just remember, it never has to happen for you either. Because there's a big, wide world out there that awaits you. So until next time, be well little cell.

Matthew and Ruth

Hope for a New World - 2010

2010-01-03T04:50:00.000-08:00

When the clock struck midnight to bring in a new decade, Matthew and I toasted the new year with a champagne glass full of water and an organic orange. We savored each juicy morsel too. And though the 12 day fast was uneventful in the way of excitement and glamor, the benefits for our bodies' immune system and all the other 10 intimately connected body systems and our spirits will continue to surprise us for a long time to come, I'm certain.

I don't really want to go on and on about the fast except to say that I am thankful we've had the experience and I know my body is still carrying on the good work it started during the fast.

I'd like to speak on the topic of trusting our bodies. I haven't always trusted mine to do what I wanted it to do or what it is supposed to do. But I've not always put my body in the best possible position to do so either. Say, for instance, heal. But over the course of the last two years and a drastic change in diet, my body consistently reveals its own miraculous healing mechanisms to me. And I'm learning to trust that more and more.

I had a knee surgery in 2005 that was "routine". It was routine for the surgeon, not for me. He performs these surgeries on a regular basis. And on elite athletes. The Lakers, even. My knee surgeon is a God [sarcasm]. He is handsome, articulate, confident and talented. I trusted him and he performed the surgery. My knee was scheduled to return to 100% "normal".

And now almost 5 years later, I'm just now getting used to the idea that I was knocked out and then my knee was sliced open and fixed by a stranger. I'm amazed at the technology. I'm dumbfounded by the level of skill it takes to remove part of a ligament from one area of my body and then afix it to the injured area, replacing the damaged ligament and then closing my knee up to heal. It took months of rehab and I'm just now beginning to feel balance in my body.
Why am I talking about this?

Because the surgery was not life threatening. Because I had time to choose. Because, I thought long and hard about whether or not I elected this process and then I decided yes. But the surgery was not at all routine for me. The surgery was traumatic. The surgery was frightening. Going under anesthesia was unnerving. All of it. Not routine. At all. It had an impact on my physical body and mental well-being. That was an elective surgery.

And I think we should consider heart surgeries elective surgeries as well.

So what does this have to do with high nutrient eating? Well, I was thinking how we come to trust our doctors, surgeons and pharmacies more than our own instincts. I was thinking, in the time I had while I was fasting that we've become rather complacent in our own problem solving. I mean we're rather sophisticated humans in this day and age. I hear folks talk all the time about open heart surgery with the language used by a surgeon. The routine nature of it. The necessity of it all.

I beg to differ, my friends. The routine nature of the surgeries are for those brilliant mechanics that perform them. Brilliant and skilled? Yes, indeed. Necessary? Most often and in even the seemingly most deadly of cases, NOT necessary. Can you really imagine and let it sink in that a group of people you barely know will give you a risky pharmaceutical that will put you to sleep, then they'll skillfully, but unnecessarily, of course, "harvest" vessels from other areas of your body to graft or "sew on" to your own heart.

www.bem.fi/book/06/06.htm

Next, they'll have to slice through your skin, muscles, nerves to get to your sternum and then use a powerful jigsaw to cut through your sternum, a very thick bone designed to protect the contents of your chest cavity. Yeah, they'll cut that in half in order to access your precious life giving organ, hoist your chest open with a vice, while they re-direct your blood flow to a machine that takes over oxygenating your tissues while they STOP your heart, and then the real unnecessary work begins of attaching and fixing and clearing diseased vasculature.

Meanwhile, if you'd stopped to consider another less invasive option, you might've made some changes to your diet and avoided all that heart-stopping stuff to begin with.

Now given the option of the above described procedure or consulting with someone like Dr. Fuhrman or any other number of doctor's who are equally as brilliant and knowledgeable as the surgeon and who aid in the reversal of this condition with what you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I'm going with the latter option. How about you?

So, my question to you all is this: We manage to creatively solve thousands of problems in our lives. We've learned how to handle extraordinary tasks, jobs, families, stock portfolios, and businesses with all their obstacles and need for problem solving skills. Why is that when it comes to our health, we opt for giving all of our empowerment away to drugs and surgery?

Heart disease is reversible through diet - as is diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic headaches, depression, and a whole host of other disease that ail us regularly.

You don't have to your sternum or the sternum of someone you love sawed open and held that way with a vice while the beautiful heart organ is stopped. Not routine. Not necessary.

Until next time,
Be well little cell
Ruth and Matthew

The Stretch Run

2009-12-29T17:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-26T17:52:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-25T04:30:00.000-08:00

"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.

2009-12-22T13:54:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-20T04:13:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-18T12:25:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-17T01:24:00.000-08:00

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

Lean on me.

2009-11-11T02:18:00.000-08:00

We have a few friends who have begun the process of really taking drastic measures to change the course of their health, the health of their families and the incidentally the health of the planet. It isn't always easy but it's worth it. One of our dear friends is Myriam. The following is a letter Matthew wrote in a time when Myriam reached for support as those around her couldn't grasp the importance of what she is attempting. We all thought you might benefit from the support too. You can do it!

Hello Myriam,
I've been wanting to write to you for awhile now both to offer support in your transition to a healthier and more fulfilling lifestyle and to just to tell you what's been going on for us here in this little corner of the world. It's unreal how fast time goes. Entering our second year, it seems like it's going faster than ever, not necessarily in a bad way. We are loving everyday here and feel blessed to have this opportunity to be in a fascinating and rich culture like France. At the same time, we are both very excited to come home again. To rediscover the unique people, places and choices that life offers us back home. Oddly enough, my appreciation for my own country and culture continues to grow the more time I spend here in Europe.

For me, it's really been one long lesson in gratitude. European life is in certain ways much simpler and immediate than life back home. Having no car, we walk most of the places we need to go. The city is beautiful and pedestrian friendly and Ruth and I have both found that walking is a lifestyle choice we prefer, both now and for the future. The body feels better as does the soul. There's less stress and without even trying I've found it to be a sort of active meditation which allows me to air out the little frustrations that our busy modern lives encourage. Cause make no mistake, however romantic and enchanting French life can be, it is every bit as full of the little daily challenges and difficulties as life back home. I really believe we go too fast for our own good.

That's why we've made the decision to continue with a very modest yet vital lifestyle. We have quite happily spent the majority of our time in our little city. Many people would consider this odd or even tragic to have voyaged so little outside of our region. But to us, it has been a choice which has paid rich dividends, so to speak. We have an abundance of time, very little stress, kind and interesting friends and the liberty to do truly amazing things. Next week, we go to Paris for three days to watch tennis, visit a museum and check out whatever else interests us. We feel at home here in many visceral ways. So why come home many people ask?

Because we honestly feel that our home country is just as rich and fascinating as European life. I have a hard time understanding why so many Americans have accepted the mediocrity that has come to characterize their country. To us, America is a place of loving family and friends, incredible opportunity both personal and professional. It's has some of the best thinkers and doers in the world today. You just gotta dig a little to find them. We feel blessed to come home to this country, to be welcomed by you and Kerry, to see our family grow and to have the opportunity to continue to do the things which we are passionate about. We are truly blessed to have this choice.

In regards to food, I think you're making some amazing progress towards the goals you've set for your life. I encourage you not to think in black and white terms. Let pleasure be your guide and invite discipline into the mix only to the extent that it is able to peacefully coexist with that pleasure. Remember that every bite of high-nutrient food is both a blessing and a victory for your cells regardless of whatever nutritional goals you might have. And what we call discipline is often just the ability to create space apart from an admittedly crazy society and its eating habits. So start small.

When you are alone or with others that share your nutritional goals, try to create an environment with all your favorite nutrient-dense food choices and only those foods. Give yourself the gift of discovering the pleasure these foods can provide when they don't have to compete with salty, sugary foods. If you can create a home environment that offers only pleasurable, high-nutrient food choices, you will restore a more deliberate aspect to your food choices. Each time you desire something outside this diet, you leave the house and go and get it. Walk if you can because it will allow you plenty of time to meditate upon that choice without judgment.

If you can create this opportunity for yourself, you'll have a great foundation to build upon as you go forth into the world. If someone brings food into your house which doesn't correspond with your nutritional goals, tell them if you have the courage. If not, throw it out or give it away as soon as possible. It's only after you've been able to create a disciplined and highly pleasurable home food environment that you'll be able to extend it to your work, social outings and other events as you desire.

In the beginning, don't expect to be successful in the most challenging food situations. For instance, worrying about food in a party or social outing with all the excitement and craziness that entails is neither fun nor healthy. We know foods can be addictive so treat that knowledge with respect. An alcoholic doesn't kick his addiction with his old drinking buddies, nor a sex addict in a strip club. If you choose to go to a party do your best to find pleasure in whatever high-nutrient choices are available but don't beat yourself up if you desire other foods. If you find no joy in your actions, you won't succeed.

There's nothing inherently wrong with eating any type of food. Your nutritional goals are there to invite more pleasure into your life. The more you break from your diet, the more you'll naturally have to ask yourself if you want to reach the nutritional goals you've set for yourself. If you do, then you'll either start accepting fewer invitations to parties (knowing it's natural to snack at them) or you'll start creating more pleasure in the situations you've already mastered (at home, with a few friends, etc.) so as to resist the temptation to overeat at parties.

This is the best advice I have in addition to continuing to educate yourself about personal nutrition and well-being. We have such blessings in the West and such untapped power to introduce peace and justice into the world simply by bringing more presence to our personal food choices. Each dollar spent and each forkful consumed is an opportunity to remake the world. An opportunity we can no longer afford to take for granted. I think you're exactly where you need to be. Welcome to a conversation that matters.

Bonne continuation et tiens-moi au courant.
Matthew
Until next time,
Be well little cell.

Take An Honest Inventory

2009-11-04T03:09:00.000-08:00

An autopsy study in the New England Journal of Medicine found more than 85% of adults between the ages of 21 and 39 already had atherosclerotic changes in their coronary arteries.

Aside:
Fatty plaques and streaks are the beginning stages of atherosclerosis. If there are atherosclerotic changes in the vessels near the heart, that also means the vessels everywhere else in the body have fatty plaque changes too. Brain vessels for instance and the vessels in the genitalia - vessels of particular interest to me. Vessels are vessels and fatty plaques don't just choose heart vessels.

The 1992 Bogalusa Heart Study looked at autopsies performed on children killed in accidental deaths. The study confirmed the existence of fatty plaques and streaks in most children under 12 years of age as well as teenagers!

And why is this the case, you may ask? I'm convinced it's because we all go around thinking we're the ones who feed ourselves and our kids a "healthy" diet.

I think we need to re-evaluate the language we use.

Do we and our children eat 90% of calories from whole unrefined, unprocessed foods, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and beans every day? If you've answered no, how about 50%?
If you answered yes to 50%, try for 80%. If you answered no to 50%, even though you can't tell, you're setting yourself and your children up for future health care problems. Maybe its time for a change of heart, pun intended.

And we don't seem to care because why again? Because we've heard it so many times already and we're just too damn busy, right? Because we can't seem to wrap our brains around our nation's love affair with low nutrient foods and our own poor choices around them? Why is this still okay with us?

Because each of us, individually, think we aren't the ones. But we are. I am. You are. We are the Americans we're talking about. Those are our children in those autopsies with the fatty plaques in their blood vessels and we're more concerned with what? What could possibly be more important than this?

So let's take an honest inventory. It's important to put the ego aside here and try not to get angry and try not to make excuses for yourselves and one another.

But even if you do get angry (which is what I did at first); think about it some, sleep on it and see how you feel tomorrow. We'll try again, then.

Here's an easy way to take inventory right this minute and a good rule of thumb in general.

Sit up straight, reach down near your belly button and grab the extra flesh there.

If you're a man and you can pinch more than a 1/2 inch near your umbilicus, you're overweight and at risk for health complications.

If you're a woman and you can pinch an inch of flesh or more, you're overweight and at risk for health complications.

Yes. You.

An inch is not very much, I know.

And you can keep saying things like "live fast, die young", "death by chocolate", "life is short, play hard."

You can say that but I don't believe you.

I have a very dear friend who is dealing with her father's decline from Parkinson's disease. When she reports to me how things are going with him, my heart aches for her in a way that I cannot easily describe. Before I go to sleep at night, I ask the universe to please bring dignity to him as he nears his tragic death, which is taking a toll on too many people, mostly him. I'm certain we would make changes now if we could foresee our own death similar to his. I bet he would if he could.

And yes, your diet in early childhood and what you eat right NOW indicates what kind of death you will die. And yes, diet does have an impact on autoimmune diseases and too many other preventable diseases that we, Americans, die needlessly of. Yes, indeed, it does.

And so I don't believe that you really don't care about the kind of death you will die or the kind of death your children will face or your parents. With all due respect, I don't believe you. I bet you want for yourself, The Good Death.

The death where you go peacefully in your sleep without morphine, medicines, tubing stuck in every orifice, diapers on your ass, mind numb and confused, unable to recognize your surroundings. You don't want that, I'm sure of it.

The Good Death is after having spent so many delightful years with your spouse, children and their children, memories intact, all 11 body systems working together in sweet synchronicity, walking, laughing, and participating, right up until the very end. I bet you want that for your parents, yourself and for your children too.

Up until recently, I really tried to hide the drastic changes we've made in our diet, feeling rather embarrassed that we don't eat the same way others do. I'd sheepishly salt my soup dishes when having friends over. One time I brought a gorgeous veggie packed quinoa salad to my neighbor who gently, of course, said it was "a little bland" and she salted the shit out of it and poured some yogurt on top. I felt embarrassed of myself. But no more. From now on I'm not hiding. I'm saying it out loud. Fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds, beans every single day, every single meal for me please. No thank you on the salt. No thank you on the cream. No thank you on the daily dose of packaged, refined, processed toxic diet. No thank you.

I'm looking for The Good Death. The long, clear, agile, laughter and joy filled life, followed by an uneventful and peaceful passing in my own bed. That's what I want for myself and those who will be responsible for me during my eldership.

It's my dream for you and yours too.
Until next time,

Be well little cell.

References: Eat To Live by Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Ch.1 pg 15 - Digging Our Graves with Forks and Knives - The Effects of the American Diet, part 1.

Bender, R., C. Traunet, M. Spraul. and M. Berger. 1998. Assessment of excess mortality in obesity. Am. J. Epidemiology. 147 (1): 42-48; Wolf, A.M., and G.A. Colditz. 1998 Current estimates of the economic cost of obesity in the United States. Obes. Res. 6(2) 97-106.

So What?

2009-11-02T07:54:00.001-08:00

I changed my diet last year and I lost 30lbs. So what? I saw on the news, this guy, who weighed 900lbs and had to be evacuated from his home by emergency rescuers. Who cares if I lost 30lbs because we've all lost our perspective. A human who lost 30lbs is nothing compared to a human who should consider losing 750.

We have been so heavily bombarded with nutritional and dietary information that we can't really care that much more about the less sensational words or testimonials.

A drastic, potent, and life-altering change in diet where one person loses 30lbs off her overburdened skeleton can not compete with the sensations of technology and the lethargy and boredom from heap-upon-heap of nutrition and dietary information. Just more words. Who cares?

But for me, losing 30lbs by eating a 90% plant-based diet rich in micronutrients and phytochemicals has relieved my knee and hip pain.

Losing 30lbs by eating a "nutritarian" diet means I no longer have headaches, premenstrual symptoms, I sleep soundly at night, my outlook on life is a happy and satisfied one, I feel more alert, I wake up happy to face the day, I enjoy exercising, my moods no longer fluctuate, I take no medications - ever - for anything, I'm rarely sick and when I do get sick, it never lasts long and I always recover 100% without relapse. My vessels are pliable and my beautiful cabernet colored blood flows through its tubing without effort delivering all my high nutrient packages to open-armed cells, happy to receive these necessary building blocks for a long healthy happy dementia, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, auto-immune disease-FREE life.

So for me, losing 30lbs was sensational.

And 30lbs is a lot of weight. This little cutie weighs 10lbs. If you strapped one on your back, one on your chest and held the other in your arms for a while, you would feel the weight of 30lbs. It's a lot.

Be well little cell.

Can I Get a Hell Yeah!?

2009-10-13T21:00:00.001-07:00

Before we begin this next dialogue, it's important to note that Matthew and I are not vegan and we are not vegetarian. We don't have a label for the changes we've made in our diet but if we adopted one, we'd go with "nutritarian". Nutritarian is a label coined by Dr. Joel Fuhrman which describes someone who eats a nutrient dense diet. That means, first and foremost, everyday, we eat the foods available to us that contain the highest amount of nutrients possible. We don't eat animal products on a regular basis anymore. What does 'regular basis' mean? That means we eat less than 3 servings A WEEK of animal product type foods (ie. meat, fish, cheese, milk, eggs) One serving is about the size of the palm of your hand or a deck of playing cards.

We do live in France and we have tried the cheeses, the meats, and the pastries. And they are tasty. But not any better than the meals we prepare at home that are full of gorgeous colors, textures and variant flavors. The way we eat adds an enormous amount of joy to our lives. Our bodies are healthy, strong and fit. We still have fun and are definitely not deprived. Okay, so with that said, on with the post.

High nutrient food for thought:
EnvironmentalHealthReport.com

Kevin: Great. You mentioned global warming, again, and I think we should probably talk about that because it was an added portion of the film, "Eating." What are some of the implications of the way we eat, as related to global warming and the environment?

Mike: It's methane, that's the major thing that's been overlooked. I'm no expert in it, but what I did was summarize what the experts have said. It's hard for people to visualize this, but there are hundreds of millions of cows, and other livestock out there, that emit methane, both through the mouths and their rear ends. It goes into the atmosphere and methane is a powerful heat-trapper, much more powerful than carbon dioxide.

Ruth (not part of the transcript, by the way): So, he's talking about cow farts and cow burps and breaths. That's kinda funny isn't it?

Carbon dioxide will stay in the atmosphere much longer, but methane really traps heat. Studies have shown that, in fact, methane has caused nearly half of the global warming to-date. The number one source of methane is the animals we raise and eventually eat. So, the good thing about methane is that it only stays in the atmosphere for eight years. If people would cut back on their consumption of animal products, you could recycle out very quickly. There could be a more immediate impact on global warming, on cooling. That's not going to happen, but, say, everyone in the world cut back 1/3 of their meat consumption and reduced the livestock accordingly. That could have a major impact on global warming, and quite soon. Whereas carbon dioxide that stays in the atmosphere for so long. It's not going to have such an immediate impact on it and that's what we need is an immediate impact, because we're right there, as they call the tipping point.
-Mike Anderson – Author of DVD film EATING and book, The Rave Diet

And in a related story....(CNN) -- A Belgian city has decided to go "veggie" for a day in an effort to highlight the environmental and health costs of eating meat.

Ruth: "eating meat" means all meat - beef, pork, fish, game and foul.

Stock breeding is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions.

The city authorities in Ghent, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Brussels, have declared Thursdays "Veggie Day," (Veggiedag) and are asking residents to get involved and opt for vegetarian meals at least one day a week.

It says Ghent is the first city in Europe to try such a scheme.

According to the city's campaign publicity, eating less meat can help to minimize the ecological footprint of your food because stock breeding has a detrimental impact on the environment.

It points to data from the United Nations which says livestock is responsible for generating around 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

It is also hoped that Veggie Day will have a positive health impact in the fight against diet-related illnesses such as obesity, cancer and diabetes.

On Wednesday organizers provided residents with meat-free recipes and a list of vegetarian restaurants at a "launch party" in the center of the city. Ghent claims to have more vegetarian eateries per inhabitant than Paris, London and Berlin.

The organisers cite UN data arguing that meat production and consumption are to blame for 18% of greenhouse gases – more than cars. "If everyone in Flanders does not eat meat one day a week, we will save as much CO2 in a year as taking half a million cars off the road," said the EVA.
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Ruth: I'll say it again different than I've said it before. If we could come out of our cheeseburger induced happy haze for a minute and feel the true gravity of some of this relevant information being provided to us, we would change.

If the government didn't subsidize industrial meat farming, you would pay somewhere around $90.00 per pound of meat, which would make buying meat cost prohibitive on a regular basis anyway. Doesn't the idea of this make you stop and think?

C'mon people, wake UP!!
The American Diet consists of the following:
51 % Animal products = meat, dairy, fish, foul, game and pork
40 % Packaged and processed - SCARY and DANGEROUS.
4 % Fruits and veggies - HOW SAD IS THIS??!! -
5 % Grains

When you see statistics like this, and you know eating this way ourselves and feeding this diet to our children - who will not outlive their parents if we don't change what we feed them - don't you want to make DRASTIC changes and make them TODAY?
Don't you?

I mean, can we really continue to feel cool and cute going around saying things like "If it moves I'll eat it" or "I just love cheese tooooooo much". I mean really? Is that all we've got? If we're the GREAT AMERICA that we like to go around spewing that we are, we should really think about getting in the game with the big dogs in Belgium and make a MOVE already. Try to save ourselves, our children and the freakin' planet. Let's do this already.

October has pumpkins and pumpkins are delicious and easy to cook.

Potimarron soup = Mini pumpkin soup

INGREDIENTS: Small Pumpkin, white beans (dried), onions, carrots, leeks, spinach or chard (lots and lots of greens)
Directions:
1. Cut the pumpkin in half, clean out the middle and chop into large chunks (don't take off the peelings)
2. Dice the onions, the carrots and the leeks and water sautée them in a large stock pot for a couple of minutes.

3. Add the beans and the pumpkin

4. Cover with water about 3 inches over the top of the veggies and cook until the pumpkin is soft and falls apart and the beans are soft all the way through.

5. Add the spinach/chard/or other leafy green of your choice at the end.
6. Turn off the heat. Let the greens wilt. Mix them in with the soup and serve it up.

Eat it and feel proud. Leave out the salt.
Know that your body, your child's body, and the planet thank you.

Be well little cell.

The Salad is the Main Course

2009-10-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

If we could really consider the gravity of these statistics, we would change.

The average American consumes 3600 calories per day, yet the Center for Disease Control estimates that 95% of all Americans are significantly undernourished.

The Center for Disease Control estimates that for the first time in our nation's history, the current generation of children will not live as long as their parents.

Source: Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Eat Right America Food Scoring Guide, www.EatRightAmerica.com

If you can't possibly make the jump to a mostly plant-based diet, Dr. Fuhrman recommends eating the salad first.

Feed yourself and your family a large salad first. Then serve the rest of the planned meal. Here is a list of high nutrient veggies. Build up those nutrients in your cells. Decrease the toxins.

Make the Salad the Main Course

Nutrient-dense, low calorie foods must be the backbone of any healthy diet. Rather than juggling proportions of fat, carbs and protein, we should focus on getting as many micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals) in as few calories as necessary. True hunger is satisfied by adequate micronutrients, not a set number of calories. You can eat many empty calories without feeling full. This is how you end up overweight. Or you can eat delicious foods that contain few calories but satisfy your hunger in addition to preventing heart disease and cancer, our two biggest American killers.

But what are these foods? Below is a list of the healthiest foods on the planet. Bon appetit!

Top 30 Superfoods / Nutrient Score
1. Collard, mustard and turnip greens 1000
2. Kale 1000
3. Watercress 1000
4. Bok choy 824
5. Spinach 739
6. Brussel sprouts 672
7. Swiss chard 670
8. Arugula 559
9. Radish 554
10. Cabbage 481
11. Bean sprouts 444
12. Red peppers 420
13. Romaine lettuce 389
14. Broccoli 376
15. Carrot juice 344
16. Tomatoes and tomato products 190-300
17. Cauliflower 295
18. Strawberries 212
19. Pomegranate juice 193
20. Blackberries 178
21. Plums 157
22. Raspberries 145
23. Blueberries 130
24. Papaya 118
25. Brazil nuts 116
26. Oranges 109
27. Tofu 86
28. Beans (all varieties) 55-70
29. Seeds: flaxseed, sunflower, sesame 45
30. Walnuts 29

And here's a quick and delicious salad dressing that we love

Raw almond butter - 1 or 2 tablespoon
Balsamic or fig vinegar - 1/3 cup
Unsweetened fruit juice - 4 tablespoons
Mix it up with a fork, don't add salt, pour it on and eat it up!

And until next time,
Be well little cell.

What's cookin' good lookin'?

2009-09-27T00:37:00.000-07:00

This is an example of a nutrient dense dinner.
Dinner
Veggies, bean and rice taco-style sandwiches
Loads of Steamed Chard with sautéed shallots
Shredded Carrot and Mache Salad
Dessert
Basil Fruit salad with raw almonds, walnuts and sunflower seeds

First, a gentle reminder that cancers, diabetes and heart disease begin decades before they're even detected in the human body as symptoms and are primarily a result of our feeding practices. We'll touch more on our magical cell factories and they're machinery in later posts.

But me just say this again in a different way.
Diseases of affluence are diseases like cancers, diabetes and heart disease. These are the diseases that Americans are sick with more than any other country in the world. Cancer, diabetes, and heart disease are diet-related and most importantly, unnecessary diseases, people.

The war on Cancer is already won - if we let it be. It's already won with the veggies, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds as the unsung heroes in this epic battle. The battle is indeed epic too because the same high quality food heroes that can beat cancer and reverse heart disease and diabetes can also beat the asses of chronic migraine headaches, depression and autoimmune diseases.

If you want to live strong, don't wear a yellow rubber-band around your wrist and give your money to the next 3 day walk for the cure. Go to the freakin' produce isle and start eating the greenest stuff you can find and feed it to anyone who comes to your house for dinner. And feed that stuff to your kids too. They'll eat it if you eat it. They'll eat it if they have no other salty, sweety, *processed type stuff to choose from and you'll find a way to help them eat it if you understand that feeding them anything else on a regular basis is contributing to their future as a sick adult and even sicker nation.

*processed = any product that is sold to you in a package with more than 2 or 3 ingredients.

And don't be fooled if you think you're exempt. I thought my diet was pretty nutritious too until I had some very real diabetes symptoms. It's natural to think we're not the ones who'll be sick. But unless you eat a high nutrient, mostly plant-based diet, which means that 90% of what you eat is plant-based and high nutrient, you're not exempt. Even if you don't have symptoms of disease now does not mean the disease process hasn't begun in your body. Childhood feeding practices play a large and important role the disease process.

Take an honest look at what you eat each day and then recognize that the act of eating and what you put in your mouth is one of the most powerful acts you take part in each and everyday. You could provide for yourself and your family a powerful act of kindness, respect and healing by introducing a new nutrient dense way of eating into your life. You and your children could live a healthy, long, uninterrupted, pleasurable life without prescription medications and without the fear of chronic, debilitating illness in old age.

So, give yourself the gift of a few hours to play around in the kitchen. Give yourself the gift of spending some time with beautiful food magical enough to reverse even the most stubborn diseases. Give yourself and your family the gift of making your kitchen a happy and vital place to be. You're making the home. It's a lost art. And it's a gift that can help save humans and the planet.
Seriously, how can you refuse?
The quantities that you buy of these ingredients will depend on how many people you're feeding. We cook for the 2 of us and we eat a lot. It may take some experimenting to find out how much you need to buy and cook for yourselves. Make enough so that you actually get full and if you make too much, the leftovers are fantastic the next day.

When we first started shopping in the bulk and produce isles, it seemed rather expensive, but then we crunched the numbers and we were spending about the same amount of money that we would spend going out, taking out and buying packaged and processed meals and foods.

When we began buying most of our foods in the produce isle and local open air markets, the quality of our food increased, which means the nutrient levels in our cells increased, which means our cell factories, the magic factories that make up our entire body, have less toxins and more nutrients. And the garbage we made by buying less packaged product decreased, including recycling, which is still ultimately garbage. So take note that when you shop this way, you buy less in the way of packaging. Children and the planet will thank you since you won't be contributing as much to our hidden and dangerous landfills.

Sidenote: Eating a high nutrient diet is the most effective fight against the Swine Flu. Your immune system gets strong by feeding the cells micronutrients. The most nutrient dense foods are plant-based. Bottom line. So eat the veggies, beans, nuts and seeds first. And then wash your hands about 3,000 times a day. In that order.

So, on with the menu for tonight along with a few recommendations.

We recommend you really try and give yourself plenty of time to cook and make the atmosphere in your kitchen enjoyable. My favorite atmosphere changes regularly depending on the season and such : ) Right now, I'm really enjoying good jazz and a glass of quafable red wine with Mati at the table too. I cook, he DJ's and we chat each other up. We've been enjoying Art Blakey lately with a little Herbie Hancock thrown in. But it changes frequently.

The ingredients are documented below in the form of a shopping list. You should only have to go to a few isles in the grocery store; the produce isle, the isles with the grains and beans and maybe the section with the condiments.

Shopping list:
Beans and grains section
Whole wheat (organic) flour (3 cups)
Bulk dry kidney beans or a bag
Brown basmati rice
Produce Section
Red leaf lettuce
Mache or Baby Spinach
Cucumbers
Red peppers
Yellow peppers
Red onions
Tomatoes
Carrots
Avocados
Shallots
Swiss chard
(Buy and make lots of this. It's highly nutritious and delicious and should be a major part of your meal)
Bananas
Melons
Oranges
Any other fruits you'd like to mix in. The more variety, the better. Go for it!!
Nuts - Make sure they're unsalted and preferably not roasted
Pine nuts
Walnuts
Almonds
Sunflower seeds
Condiments and Spices
Stone ground dijon mustard- unsalted
Balsamic vinegar
Dried onion flakes (A delicious staple in our kitchen)
Bay leaves

I’ll keep this as simple as I can. Read the instructions first and print it if you need to and most of all Have FUN

Okay, so in the order of efficiency, first put your kidney beans on to cook.
You'll want 3 parts water to 1 part kidney beans and 2 bay leaves.
Bring them to a boil and then turn them down to medium heat.
They'll need an hour or an hour and a half to cook.
You'll know when they're done because you can pierce them easily all the way through with a fork.
Whole Wheat Tortilla Time
3 cups of whole wheat flour(organic, preferably) in a big bowl
1 cup of water added gradually and you mix with your hands
Work the mixture into an elastic-y ball of dough and then divide it into about 12 or 13 equal dough balls.
Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat.
On a smooth surface, roll a dough ball into a little flat tortilla and cook it for 30-40 seconds on each side. (you’ll need extra flour to use for your surface so the dough doesn’t stick to the rolling pin or the surface you’re rolling on)
If you don’t have a rolling pin, which I didn’t for a while, you can use a bottle. It works too.
Or you can just stretch them out. Be creative.
You may need to remove your pan from the heat from time to time until you get your timing down. Rolling the dough and cooking your tillas at the same time can be tricky but its you’ll get it.
If you can’t bear the thought of this, buy yourselves some quality whole wheat tortillas without salt. – but I highly encourage the handmade method. It’s like working on art in the kitchen. You are a painter, sculpture, artist person with magic tools and even if its hard at first, it will eventually be rewarding. Your kids will think its fun too.

Next the Rice.
Once you put your beans on to cook, in a medium pot, put 2 parts water to 1 part rice and bring that puppy to a boil.
Then turn in down to a simmer and let it cook for 15 minutes or so.
You’ll know when it’s done because the water will have cooked away and the rice will taste yummy ; )

Wash and chop your veggies
Wash your red leaf lettuce and shred it. Put it aside or in a big bowl or something on the table.
Peel the cucumber if it’s not organic and slice it into thin rounds or match sticks or whatever shape you feel like. Be creative. and then put them on a platter or in big bowl.
Slice your red peppers. and put them in with the cucumbers
Slice your yellow peppers and put them in with the cucumber too
Slice your red onions very thin. Very thin so as not to overpower the other veggie flavors and put them in with the cucumbers too.

Check on your rice if you haven’t been.
And your beans.
Maybe give yourself a refill on the vino : )

Wash your swiss chard and chop it.
Use those big white celery like stems too. Rich in nutrients.
Slice your shallots

Now for the Dessert.
Chop, slice and dice all the fruit and put it in a big salad bowl.
Put the salad bowl in the fridge to chill.
Coursely chop the walnuts and almonds and put them aside to top the fruit salad.
Keep some extra fruit washed and by the whole piece in a bowl for those who’d like more dessert. Plus it looks so pretty on the table. You’ll have a fruit frenzy.

Next make your Carrot Mache Salad
Grate at least 4 carrots. I like about 1-2 carrots per person. You’ll have A LOT of grated carrot.
Put the carrots in a big salad bowl.
Diced your tomatoes small. Throw 'em in with the carrots.
Wash and coursely chop the mache. If you don’t have mache, baby spinach will work too.
Put that in the bowl with the carrots and tomatoes.
Add Balsamic vinergar and mustard to taste.
Mix a handful of pine nuts in there and you’re good to go.

When your beans are done cooking, and you’re just about ready to eat, time for chard steam.
Water sautée your shallots
When they’re translucent, add all that magic swiss chard.
Turn off the heat, add a lid and let the chard wilt.
Put it in a bowl on the table.

Put in all on the table.
Eat it up.

Divide the chard between the peeps eating and serve it up.
Combine the beans and rice in a bowl and give everyone a hearty helping.
Put the nice warm pile of tortillas on the table.
The mustard too.
The dried onion flakes.
Put the carrot mache salad out too. Give everyone a hefty helping of that.
Isn’t it pretty?
And the giant bowl of mixed veggies.
Chop the avocados and put those on the table too

Me, I like to spread mustard on my tortillas
then smash some bean and rice mixture
add all the veggies I can and eat it like a taco. It’s my favorite.

We'd like to build a strong community of exchange, dialogue and tasty high nutrient recipes.

So, if you do indeed, try our dinner menu, leave a comment and tell us what you think. Or ask a question if you have one.

Until next time,
Be well little cell.

Make no mistake: the science is clear.

2009-09-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

Book Review 1

All of us have a friend or family member who suffers from diet-related diseases like diabetes, cancer or heart disease. Can we really continue to turn a blind eye to evidence that may radically change our lives for the better? With the right tools we can take back the power and become our own primary care providers.

The most important question when assessing any piece of research is to know who authored it. Dr. T. Colin Campbell is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University. He has more than seventy grant-years of peer-reviewed research funding. Remember that peer-reviewed research funding is the gold-standard for ensuring honesty and transparency in the research process. Dr. Campell has authored more than 300 research papers in more than forty years of research.

“By any number of measures, America’s health is failing. We spend far more, per capita, on health care than any other society in the world, and yet two thirds of Americans are overweight, and over 15 million Americans have diabetes, a number that has been rising rapidly. We fall prey to heart disease as often as we did thirty years ago, and the War on Cancer, launched in the 1970s, has been a miserable failure.

Half of Americans have a health problem that requires taking a prescription drug every week, and over 100 million Americans have high cholesterol. To make matters worse, we are leading our youth down a path of disease earlier and earlier in their lives. One third of the young people in this country are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.

Increasingly, they are falling prey to a form of diabetes that used to be seen only in adults, and these young people now take more prescription drugs than ever before. These issues all come down to three things: breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

--The China Study, Introduction

The China Study is the result of 20-year project jointly arranged through Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. The New York Times described the book as the “most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease.”

The China Study examined "more than 350 variables of health and nutrition with surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan." Researchers sought to compare disease rates in China and Taiwan with those in rich Western countries. They wanted to know why Americans and other Western populations die of cancers and cardiovascular disease while the Chinese and Taiwanese almost never did at the time of the study.

The book’s authors claim to "conclusively demonstrate the link between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer." But don't take their word for it. Judge for yourself.

Among the claims the book makes:
•Drugs and surgery don’t cure the diseases that kill most Americans.

•The genes that you inherit from your parents are not the most important factors in determining whether you fall prey to any of the ten leading causes of death.

•Vitamins and nutrient supplements do not give you long-term protection against disease.

•Type 1 diabetes, one of the most devastating diseases that can befall a child, is convincingly linked to infant feeding practices.

•Heart disease can be reversed with diet alone.

•Breast cancer is related to levels of female hormones in the blood, which are determined by the food we eat.

•Your doctor probably does not know what you need to do to be the healthiest you can be.

In Dr. Campbell's own words:
“What made [The China Study] especially remarkable is that, among the many associations that are relevant to diet and disease, so many pointed to the same finding: people who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease. Even relatively small intakes of animal-based food were associated with adverse effects. People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease. These results could not be ignored. From the initial experimental animal studies on animal protein effects to this massive human study on dietary patterns, the findings proved to be consistent. The health implications of consuming either animal or plant-based nutrients were remarkably different.”

When someone of Dr. Campbell's credentials makes the above claims you might want to pay attention. And he’s not the only one. In the following weeks we’ll bring you more doctors, scientists and authors who represent the very best in the American spirit. Do yourself a favor and check them out. It’s your life we’re talking about here. So be well little cell.

The China Study website: www.thechinastudy.com/about.html

2009-09-14T08:29:00.001-07:00

With a formal apology for not posting these recipes a year ago, I dedicate the following recipes to Golden West College Summer Anatomy Class Lab Lunch Crew 2008.

Thank you, to all the anatomy students I've had the pleasure of teaching, for being wide-eyed, wonderful and curious about nutritional excellence.

May you all introduce radical nutritional wellness into your future health care practices. May you initiate nutritional protocols before medications. And may you go forth to help heal the planet and the people who suffer unnecessarily with preventable and reversible disease.

You are the heroes and heroines of our future.
Sincerely,
Ms. O'Donnell
Human Anatomy - GWC and LBCC

Its not easy to make a major change in your diet especially if you're not accustomed to playing around in the kitchen with recipes.

We'll post the recipes we think are delicious, nutritious and easy to prepare.

"Easy to prepare" is relative, though, if you're used to popping a hot pocket in the microwave, but cooking is creative and therapeutic and when you trust that you can prevent and reverse disease through the dishes you prepare for yourself and your families, you might even feel inspired. : )

Changing your diet will change your life in many ways you might not expect. We get most of our medical and dietary information from Dr. Joel Fuhrman. He's a family doctor in favor of radical well-being through nutritional excellence. His office is in New Jersey. He seems to have dedicated his life to educating families and individuals on how to take control of their health. For us, he's provided a profound voice of reason and new inspired sense of hope.

I encourage people to work through the discomforts and the changes of detoxing and in learning the art of "home"making through nutritional excellence.

*** Important Note***
Most all people switching to a diet of nutritional excellence will have detoxification symptoms. Most all people who are unaware of the idea of food detoxing will mistake it for hypoglycemia, protein deficiencies etc. and may be easily convinced this way of eating is not good for them.

Do Not be misled. Detoxing is favorable for your body. Let your body clean itself up. That's what it's designed to do and you may feel discomfort at first. As an alcoholic might detox or a new exercise program might make you feel uncomfortable at first, allowing your cell factories to eliminate a lifetime of wastes may feel uncomfortable. Don't throw in the towel just yet. Give yourself three dedicated months and then see how you feel.

Let your body do what it needs to do. Trust it. And get the extra support you may need at www.drfuhrman.com and www.diseaseproof.com

We're also happy to talk about our own experiences and to provide support and resources if you need it.

When you make a profound diet change like this, all 11 body systems will show their appreciation to you in ways that will surprise even the most resistant cynic. So, let's start by posting a few recipes I promised my summer school students at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, California.

Oatmeal Breakfast for 1 person
**********************1 apple - diced and put into a big bowl
1 banana - sliced on top of that
1 big spoonful of flax seeds
1 big spoonful of raw sunflower seeds
cinnamon to taste - I love a lot
1/2 cup of cooked oats - whole oats -
**not more oats than fruits
and any other fresh fruits you like (blueberries and strawberries for sure).
Be creative.

Fruit Salad Breakfast
*********************
This is fantastic when its hot outside or after a workout.

5 or 6 lettuce leaves per person
Butter lettuce is a good one for this
Place a handful of shredded lettuce on the bottom of a large bowl.

1 sliced banana per person
Cubed melon - cantalope, casaba, watermelon or any combination - try one you've never had before
A handful of grapes per person
A half an orange per person divided into individual sections
A handful of raw almonds, walnuts and sunflower seeds
And diced avocado if you feel adventurous

Place all the ingredients atop the lettuce leaves and enjoy.

Note: It's important to have some avocado, nuts and seeds with your meals in place of oils, butters, creams and salt.

Chocolate Blueberry Spinach Smoothies
for Breakfast or Lunch jammed pack with nutrients and kids love them too.

** Dark leafy greens are amongst the most nutrient dense foods on the planet.
When you put spinach in your smoothies, you increase the amount of micro-nutrients in your body and you can't taste the green-ness of it.

First blend the spinach, soy milk and pomegranate juice.
Then add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
Serves 2.

2 handfuls of organic baby spinach
1/2 cup of soy milk
1/2 cup of pomegranate juice
1 medium banana (freeze banana chunks to give it an ice creamy quality)
1 Tbspn. natural unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups of frozen blueberries
1 Tbspn. ground flaxseeds

Lentil Spinach soup
This recipes makes a large pot and will last for a couple of days depending whose eating and how much.

1 diced onion
3 diced carrots
2 diced zucchini
2 large cloves of fresh garlic
2 cups of water
1 28 oz can of diced no salt tomatoes
(any other vegetables that suit your fancy : )
1 cup of red/coral lentils
1 Tablespoon cumin
Ground curry to your liking - start with a teaspoon and add more if needed.
Lots o’ spinach or swiss chard – 3 or 4 large handfuls of chopped greens

Water sauté = add water to cover the bottom of the pan, heat the water to boil, add the ingredients and sauté as you would with oil.

On medium heat, in large stock pot, sauté onions, carrots, garlic and other veggies (except the spinach) for about 5 minutes in water.

Add the cumin and curry – sauté for another minute
Add the tomatoes and water and lentils
Simmer for 30 minutes or until lentils are tender
Turn off the heat
Add the spinach and cover
Let the spinach wilt
Mix all together and serve

This recipe is easy, comforting and quick. I usually make it in the crock pot but you don't have to - especially if you're using canned beans. The most important thing about this recipe is to use UNSALTED canned beans.

*For lunch we have the soup and a slice of whole wheat sprouted bread (Alvarado or Ezekial bread) with avocado mashed and green salsa on top and maybe a banana and handful of walnuts for dessert.
*For dinner, we include a large salad with variety of raw vegetables including avocado, nuts and seeds and dressing.
*Typical dressing: dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, fresh squeezed orange juice and a clove of garlic pressed in, stir it up and pour it on (no oil necessary).

Clean up your palate! Once you do, you will start to prefer a cleaner tasting foods, like vegetables and fruits and your cravings for processed and refined foods will begin to diminish.

Dessert a la Dr. Fuhrman Healthy Times Newsletter (www.drfuhrman.com)

Macabanana Popsicles
1 cup raw macadamia nuts
2 bananas
2 medjool dates
1 tsp. cinnamon
Blend all ingredients in a blender,food processor,or VitaMix.
Pour into popsicle trays and freeze until hard for an unusual summer treat.

***Important Note*******
If you are just beginning your change in diet, its oh so important to know that your meals may not taste as delicious to you as they do to us - YET. Be patient. The rewards will astonish you. You must allow time for your palate/mouth/tastebuds and body to adjust. If you eat a diet high in salt (which almost everyone does), it will take some time before you can taste the subtle flavors of delicious veggies and fruits. The longer you take to cut out salts and dairy and meats, the more difficult it will be to enjoy this way of eating. Remember that your body will do some detoxing.

****Another VERY IMPORANT NOTE*****
We are not doctors. If you have an illness and you are making a change in your diet, we recommend you get in touch with Dr. Joel Fuhrman (www.drfuhrman.com). We don't work for him or anything, we just trust him.

We changed our diet radically towards nutritional excellence a year and a half ago. Many of our loved ones and friends see the positive changes. Most of the most important beneficial changes cannot be seen, however. Matthew's blood pressure was curiously and dangerously high despite his lean body and active lifestyle. Within a month of our diet change, it was within a healthy range. I no longer have diabetes symptoms. I've lost 30lbs, which I wasn't expecting but it came off rather quickly. My complexion is better. My digestive system works distinctly and noticeably better. Food tastes way better. I sleep better. I no longer have premenstrual symptoms. And we both have a curious sense of inspiration that is intangible really, just knowing we are on the right path.

And lastly, this is not at all boring. We buy organic whenever we possibly can. We don't eat animal products - that includes dairy - except for special feasting days and occasions. We eat approximately 2 pounds of veggies and fruits per day (1lb. cooked, and 1lb raw), and that sounds like more than it actually is. If you weigh it out, its not as much as you think.

I am a lover of everything food, fun and festivity related. I promised myself if I felt deprived, I would rather deal with the weight, any disease and die younger, than to adopt a diet style that did not bring joy to my life.

And I am here to tell you that I have it all. We eat our nutrient-dense meals with gusto and feel better than we ever have. We feast with friends, occasionally, and enjoy those feasts outside our normal diet in ways we could have never appreciated before. We just don't eat feasting-style 3 meals a day, 7 days a week. It's been a true joy, this change. We think you'll like it too.

Until next time,
Be Well Little Cell

Ruth and Matthew : )

The Time is Now

2009-09-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

We found that our approach to our meals can help heal the planet, restore our health and give us a voice that feels more powerful than casting a vote.

And it's time to talk about it. We might even consider talking and debating the subject of diet styles in the same way we're speaking and debating feverishly over the public option, the senator's outburst and Obama's approval ratings.

Since the subjects are distinctly intertwined and we would be remiss, frankly, to do otherwise. So let's talk about it, okay?

It's been a one and half years since we made the switch to a mostly plant-based diet.

The formula is pretty simple but the commitment is complex and since many of our friends and family have expressed an interest in hearing more about how we live and eat, we're going to express what we can here in the way of observations, ideas, book reviews and recipes.

So this is the formula, if you will, that we've adopted from our research.

We eat:
All kinds of beans and lentils.
A mad variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Our main fat source is: All types of nuts, seeds and avocados.

Our table is always beautiful.
We're never hungry.
We always have dessert.
We're happier, healthier, stronger and more physically fit than either of us were when we played college basketball and baseball.

And yes, we get enough protein. We'll discuss myths and truths in our diet in later posts. And we'll footnote and reference the science for those of you who would like to read for yourselves, what we're reading.

Cancers, Diabetes, Migraines, Autoimmune diseases, Obesity, and Cardiovascular diseases can be prevented and reversed through changing your diet. Oh and don't forget depression.

Did you hear that people????

Cancers, Diabetes, Migraines, Autoimmune diseases, Obesity, and Cardiovascular diseases can be prevented and reversed through changing your diet.
Oh and don't forget depression.

With the exception of emergency medicine and rare cases, we are now convinced there is NO NEED FOR MEDICATIONS.

With the proper nutritional protocols, nearly ALL people taking medications for nearly all illnesses, diseases, and depression could be drug-free if they really want to be. The science is there and it's really good science.

The vast majority of doctors, though well-meaning, are nutritionally misinformed. This is due to the influence that large drug corporations and lobbies exert on the scientific literature. Yet there exist a handful of doctors, scientists and journalists who are interested in creating a new paradigm and helping to heal people through nutritional excellence, without drugs and without confusion.

So we're here at the Be Well Little Cell Blog.
And we're going to discuss it.

Until next time...
Be Well Little Cell.

2008-09-18T04:42:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends,
We are here in France and we are getting settled which has indeed taken such a long time. We hope you have not given up on us. For those I promised posting recipes in a timely manner, I must apologize. I am very very sorry it has taken so long to come back to this site. I have been dreaming of time to spend posting smoothie recipes and delicious soup recipes. Please bear with me a bit longer while we are getting set up at home with the appropriate technologies.

For now, we are learning a new way to live here in France and there is so much to talk about in the way of food. The markets are everything people said they would be.
This is enchanted area in the way of open air markets. I have not been disappointed.
The vegetables and fruits are amazing.

You may know that Matthew and I changed our diets drastically back in January and I will review that in my next post. Since we have been here in the city of Rouen now a little over a month, we're beginning to find ways to stay close to the diet style we've become accustomed to.

We're reading a couple of very interesting books too. Mati is reading, The Omnivore's Dilemma. I hope he will post a review of the book. I am reading a book by the same author, called, In Defense of Food. We'll talk more about these and other good stuff we read and also post those recipes we spoke of so long ago.
For now, though, I must sign off, in the name of going to work.

I look forward to connecting back here very soon to post photos and indulge in the topic of interesting foods, recipes and other life changing food type topics.

Until Soon,
Ruth and Mati

Wake Up Call

2008-06-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

The World Health Organization now ranks the United States as the most obese nation on earth.

The American diet consists of 52% processed foods and 41% meats and dairy products.

Fruits and vegetables--the most healthful foods--make up only 7% of our national diet.

The average American consumes 3600 calories per day, yet the Center for Disease Control estimates that 95% of all Americans are significantly undernourished.

The Center for Disease Control estimates that for the first time in our nation's history, the current generation of children will not live as long as their parents.

Source: Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Eat Right America Food Scoring Guide, www.EatRightAmerica.com

Meet Your New Best Friends--Yummy!

2008-06-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

Nutrient-dense, low calorie foods must be the backbone of any healthy diet. Rather than juggling proportions of fat, carbs and protein, we should focus on getting as many micronutrients (vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals) in as few calories as necessary. True hunger is satisfied by adequate micronutrients, not a set number of calories. You can eat many empty calories without feeling full. This is how you end up overweight. Or you can eat delicious foods that contain few calories but satisfy your hunger in addition to preventing heart disease and cancer, our two biggest American killers.

But what are these foods? Below is a list of the healthiest foods on the planet. Bon appetit!

Top 30 Superfoods / Nutrient Score
1. Collard, mustard and turnip greens 1000
2. Kale 1000
3. Watercress 1000
4. Bok choy 824
5. Spinach 739
6. Brussel sprouts 672
7. Swiss chard 670
8. Arugula 559
9. Radish 554
10. Cabbage 481
11. Bean sprouts 444
12. Red peppers 420
13. Romaine lettuce 389
14. Broccoli 376
15. Carrot juice 344
16. Tomatoes and tomato products 190-300
17. Cauliflower 295
18. Strawberries 212
19. Pomegranate juice 193
20. Blackberries 178
21. Plums 157
22. Raspberries 145
23. Blueberries 130
24. Papaya 118
25. Brazil nuts 116
26. Oranges 109
27. Tofu 86
28. Beans (all varieties) 55-70
29. Seeds: flaxseed, sunflower, sesame 45
30. Walnuts 29

Source: Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Eat Right America Food Scoring Guide, www.EatRightAmerica.com