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

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

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

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

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

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

Dr. Joel Fuhrman:

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

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

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

So until next time, be well little cell.

Day 8

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

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


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

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

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


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

So until next time, be well little cell.

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


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

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


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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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



Until next time,
Be well hopeful cells,

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

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

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



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


Thinly slice some purple cabbage and green cabbage.



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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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