Some of us have decided to put the right foods in our body so we can obtain true health, not the kind of health that everyone else talks about where you mention that you are not sick then knock on wood as though you have simply been lucky up to this point.  These are the people who inevitably end up in the hands of doctors.  Those of us who consistently want to consume healthy foods are often labeled as “fanatics” obsessed about “eating correctly”.  There is even a term that has been invented for someone like myself who wants to stay healthy by consuming only what actually belongs in the body, Orthorexia Nervosa, which literally means “fixation on righteous eating”.[i] Those who consistently eat right and put in their body only what naturally belongs there are labeled “health food junkies”.

People who move to a Raw-food Diet sometimes do fixate on food, how it is prepared and tastes.  We are a society obsessed with food, which is why there are dozens of diet books on the market explaining how we can lose the weight that the hundreds of cookbooks instruct us to prepare in seductive ways.  Virtually every social gathering involves food, from weddings to funerals to parties of every kind, especially those around holidays.  Food and our obsession with it has been around for thousands of years.  Obsessing over raw foods is only the latest wrinkle on that tradition.

I will be the first to admit that obsessing over anything is not a good thing, but first we must define what an obsession is.  For instance, although we can obsess over consuming raw foods, how they taste and are prepared, if we simply eat a broad array of raw foods we will never be sick.  If that is the case, then I would rather obsess over raw foods than have cancer, diabetes or heart disease and find myself at the mercy of doctors who have no clue how to heal me.

Some raw foodists won’t eat foods that are chopped-up because it causes them to become oxidized, thus the energy force of the food is diminished.  Others will not eat hybrid foods such as carrots, bananas or anything grown inside a farmer’s fence because they have been changed by cross-breeding and therefore are not completely natural foods.  Others will not touch foods from the nightshade family, such as tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant because they believe those are somehow harmful as well.  I believe all this is taking things too far when considering the garbage the average person regularly puts in his/her body.  Although I have my preferences, I will eat any raw food that is not known to be poisonous such as water hemlock, foxglove or certain mushrooms.

If someone has decided to only eat apples, this could be construed as a harmful obsession because eating only apples and nothing else is unhealthy and will eventually lead to disease.  Cooked foods are an addiction and like any addiction we must remove these addictive substances from our lives.  All addicts know they should not expose themselves to their addiction because the temptation is too great, whether it is alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, gambling, soft drinks or chocolate.  However, to suggest that you should not be too strict with your diet and eat what you want instead of what your body requires is another way of suggesting that it is alright to be weak and give in to the harmful foods we are addicted to.  It is the sentiment of an enabler, someone who wants you to believe that foods which lead to disease are okay to eat and that a strict diet of raw foods is obsessive, damaging and unhealthy.  They say this because successfully moving to a Raw-food Diet is something that they probably can’t manage to do themselves.  If we are determined to obtain Great Health and know that moving to a Raw-food Diet is the only way to achieve it, then we are brave and smart to do so, not obsessed.

Eating foods that are detrimental to our health is a “deathist” mentality, meaning that since everyone is going to die one day, living any way other than sensuously is foolish and naive.  They believe that life is about pleasure more than anything else.  Pleasure should be just one of the many components of our lives, not its central focus.  Spirituality, morality, ethics, compassion and the satisfaction that comes from work, achievements and human relationships of every kind must also have necessary weight and authority in our lives.

In fact, Messier Rochefoucauld’s quotation at the beginning of this section is itself one of a weakling who has decided he will eat whatever he pleases, a slave to the whim of his taste buds, self-condemned to the inevitability of disease and an early demise.  Perhaps one even could say that it is the statement of a fanatic.

I spoke  in April 2011 at a couple of Raw Food Restaurants in Chicago.  One was on the subject of Radiation Removal from the body and the other was the Differences Between Me and Other Raw Foodists.  The later talk was given at a raw restaurant call Chicago Raw.  They’re in the French Market in ChiTown, which houses a variety of vendors offering a plethora of upscale items from chocolates, to wine, to cheese stores, and of course a raw restaurant.   Wow, great food and two wonder women who run it, Polly and Carole.

I talked for 40 minutes then took questions.  There are a few junk foods sold at the French Market, including hot dog carts, cheese stands, and others.  A woman with a giant spray of french fries sat down and the back and started complain about me stating that I, and others like me, wanted to “tell people what to eat”.  I didn’t hear any of it, but was told about it later.  I have been accused of this in the past, but it simply is not true.  I don’t want to tell anyone what to eat, I only want to inform people what is healthy for them and what is not.  What they do with that information is their business, not mine.  I’m the last guy in the world who wants to tell you what to eat, but the first guy in the world to tell people what’s healthy.

One of the ladies is a raw foodist from Luxembourg!  Luxembourg only has three raw foodist and one lives in Chicago!  Who’d a thunk it!  Enjoy great food at Chicago Raw.   You won’t be disappointed.

Someone asked me recently: “Why should I take any health advice from you?” Good question.   Why should you trust anyone’s health advice?  I have been in the natural health business since 1996 and I have met hundreds of health professionals, some self-proclaimed, others accredited in some way.

I am a Certified Nutritional Consultant and a Certified Master Herbalist.  I have certifications to perform Live Blood Microscopy.  I’m currently (2011) studying to become a Naturopathic Doctor.  I have learned a lot from taking these courses and seminars.  It has made me read books and watch videos that I would not have done otherwise.   And it gave me a formal background in human physiology and how the body actually works.  It’s a good thing for someone like me to know.  In particular, I have studied the human digestive system because all disease begins in, and ultimately stems from, the digestive tract, in my opinion.  All disease comes from our diet.  We inherit none of it.  Understanding the digestive tract is to understand the source of disease.

I have also talked to many people about health.  I had a radio show for 2.5 year, Achieving Great Health, the first radio show ever to promote a raw food diet and completely natural health.  I had over 150 guests, some several times.  David Wolfe, Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Viktoras Kulvinskas were all on several times.  Peter Ragnar was on 20 times and we created a CD set from our sessions.  I also talked to Peter for more than 20 hours off the air.  I learned so much from all of them.

But what I really have learned and know about health is that which I have experienced myself.  Every health guru that I invited on my radio program as a guest said the exact same thing.  We know it because we do it and it’s amazing.  We are not lucky.  Happenstance has not been kind to us because we have authored our health.  And if you are sick you are the author of that disease.

If you want to be healthy read lots, study, watch videos, documentaries and talk to people. But how do you know who to take advice from?  The answer is to look at how healthy the person looks to you.  What does their skin and hair look like?  Are their eyes clear or hazy? Do they look haggard or tired?  Are they clear thinking?  Over the years I have seen some of the most ridiculously unhealthy people trying to explain to me how to be healthy.  The MLM crowd is particularly amusing because many are promoting genuinely healthy products such as noni or mangosteen and yet they do virtually nothing else to be healthy, thus they look terrible.  Some of the people I have run into at health expos look ridiculous.  I’ll never forget the grossly obese guy in the Solgar booth at the Natural Products Expo a few years ago.  I wanted to ask him what he was doing so I could avoid doing it.

I’m not perfect, but for 53 I look far better than most people my age.  I can still run six minute miles, and I am no one special.  Anyone can do what I am doing if they are determined.  It only takes doing it.

If you are looking for health advice from someone, wonder to yourself if you would one day hope to look as healthy as they are now.

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Everyone wants to be healthy. No one wants to be sick or even divulge they ever get sick. Sadly, most will remain sick because of their refusal to leave the cooked-food world behind and start putting in their body what naturally belongs in it, that which can only make them healthy. Only what comes from nature will ever make us healthy. There is no substitute for nature because it is God’s ever-moving hand. And no matter what man creates to try and make himself healthy, it will only end in failure. God’s temple can only be properly served and maintained by the raw foods that are produced by God’s creation, that which we call nature.

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Rice also tends to cause a lot of gas, which is created mainly in the large intestines and is the result of undigested starchy carbohydrates. Foods that cause these problems become their own reason for removing them from your diet.  I slowly removed rice from my diet over the course of several months until I was eating it only once a week.

Eventually, I got rid of it completely. Only giving up dairy products did more to remove mucus from my body. It was the last profound positive change in my health I experienced, for now I was nearly 100% raw. From: Achieving Great Health – The 7 Components of Great Health.  It contains the original Raw Food Poster, by Bob McCauley, ND – many times plagiarized - often imitated, never duplicated.

Juicing is another side door to the raw food lifestyle. Juicing is a world unto itself. The human body is essentially a juicer in the sense that it is the juice from plants that contains the nutrients that the body must extract. Anyone seeking to truly obtain Great Health must include juicing as part of their daily protocol. There are many types of juicers. Most separate the juice from the fiber, a valuable and necessary part of the food. Other juicers grind up the entire food, including the fiber. These are preferable. (to be continued . . . )

From: Achieving Great Health http://watershed.net/achieving_great_health.aspx

Another important step we can make is to begin moving away from pre-packaged processed foods to fresh cooked foods. It helps bring us out of the repetitious habit of our daily lives that shackles us to the cooked world. It is merely habit to come home tired and look for something easy to prepare for dinner. There is nothing easier than something that is already prepared and simply needs to be heated. Of course the ultimate fast food is a raw food because it is immediately ready to eat at any time. (to be continued . . . )

From: Achieving Great Health http://watershed.net/achieving_great_health.aspx