"Early to Bed - Early to Rise" Improves Brain Function

 

Yes, there is truth to this old saying by Benjamin Franklin. We were meant to get up with the light of dawn and to go to sleep at nightfall, our hormone levels adjusting to the rise and fall of daylight around us. Now, in our modern world we can fool our hormonal system with artificial light, which has a big impact on our health. Staying up late with bright lights shining in our eyes keeps our stress hormone cortisol high when it should be diminishing, and suppresses our sleep hormone melatonin, when it should be rising, which has an impact on our ability to deal with stress, lose weight, physically and psychologically repair our tissues, feel rested and be ready for the new day. So, try to get to sleep in a very dark room by 10pm, and marvel at how much better you feel!

A recent survey of university students in Utah has found that students who habitually go to bed late and sleep late the next day have lower grade point averages (GPAs) than students with early-to-bed and early-to-rise sleeping habits.

Researchers at Brigham Young University in Provo surveyed 184 of the school's freshmen and found that the later students slept in the morning, the lower their grades tended to be.

Out of all the factors studied, weekday and weekend wakeup times had the strongest association with students' GPAs. Each hour over the average that students slept in on weekdays was associated with a 0.13-point drop on the GPA (0.0-4.0 scale). A similar correlation was found for hours spent in bed on weekends, when many students catch up on sleep.

Eating breakfast each morning was also associated with higher grades, while having a night job was associated with lower grades.

Although many would automatically assume that alcohol consumption was a possible culprit for the connection between late sleeping and poor grades, since heavy drinking has been shown to damage academic performance. But the researchers point out that Brigham Young University is a dry campus where students sign agreements not to drink. "Alcohol-consumption behavior sufficient to cause morning hangover would be difficult to hide in the monitored residence halls of this university," the authors wrote in the report.

Journal of American College Health 2000; 49: 125-130

Here is strong evidence backing my "early to bed - early to rise" recommendations. The reason that this is so important is that our body's systems are tied to the natural circadian rhythms of the earth. Our bodys, particularly the adrenal glands, also do most of their healing during the early part of the night. Going to bed early is even more important in the winter when the sun sets earlier.

The Most Common Sleep Disorder: Insufficient Sleep

 

In April of this year, the Institute of Medicine issued a report that confirmed definite links between sleep deprivation and increased risks of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack and stroke.

Some scientists are also investigating connections between insufficient sleep and depressed immune function.

Sleep can work to activate or inhibit hormone production in the hypothalamus, which is the part of the brain that gives the body signals regarding when to adjust temperature, blood pressure, digestive secretions and immune activity. Insufficient sleep also inhibits the pancreas from producing insulin, the hormone required for the digestion of glucose.

A groundbreaking 1999 study showed that after six days on only four hours of sleep, healthy volunteers would fall into a pre-diabetic state. Sleep also gives the heart a chance to slow down, and those who less than six hours a night have as much as a 66 percent greater prevalence of hypertension.

The largest study of sleep duration and mortality followed over one million participants for six years. Those who slept about seven hours had the highest survival rate, and those who slept less than 4.5 hours had the worst. Nine hours of sleep or more each night was also associated with a higher mortality risk, however.

In general, a good night's sleep seems to be as important to good health as a nutritious diet and regular exercise. Experts tend to agree that the majority of people require about eight hours of sleep each night.

However, roughly 40 percent of Americans get fewer than seven hours of sleep on weekdays, and 71 percent get fewer than eight hours of sleep. As a result, most Americans accumulate two full weeks of "sleep debt" each year. The two main causes for sleep debt were long work hours and long commutes.

New Information on the Science of Sleep

 

Human beings sleep through one-third of their lives, yet why we sleep is one of the biggest unanswered questions of science. In the fascinating article from 60 Minutes, linked below, Lesley Stahl explores all of the latest scientific findings about the reasons for -- and functions of -- sleep.

Here is a sampling of what she found after talking with sleep researchers from across the United States:

• You can die from sleep deprivation, just like you can die from being deprived of food.
• Sleep can actually enhance your memories.
• A single night of sleeping just four, five or even six hours can impact your ability to think clearly.
• Sleep deprivation can cause changes in your brain activity similar to those experienced by people with psychiatric disorders.
• Sleep deprivation puts your body into a pre-diabetic state, and makes you feel hungry, even if you’ve already eaten.

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1. Would you like to have vibrant health?
2. Would you like to feel full of energy throughout the day?
3. Would you like to have a clear and sharper mind?
4. Would you like to feel emotional balance and calm?
5. Would you like to loose weight and keep the weight off?
6. Would you like to feel beautiful from the inside out?

There is a saying: “You are what you eat”.

Energy Soup for the Soul

Blender: Recommend a commercial grade blender with variable or high power such as a VitaMix. Use of a standard blender may result in clogging or a stringy soup, however, cutting the vegetables into smaller pieces will often work.

Quantity: This recipe is for a 2 quart blender capacity. Reduce ingredients proportionally for blenders with a smaller capacity.

Serving: Serving size is generally 1/4 to 1 quart per person depending on appetite and whether other entrées are served with it.

Spices:

1. Ginger (1/2 to 1 tsp size) to taste
2. Garlic (1/2 to 1 tsp clove) to taste
3. Parsley (1/3 of an average bunch)
4. Basil (optional) to taste
5. Cayenne Pepper (1/4 - 1/2 tsp) to taste
6. Himalayan Sea Salt (1 tsp) to taste

Ingredients:

1. Water (2 cups = 1 cup per quart)
2. Celery (4 to 5 stalks)
3. Bok Choy (3 to 4 stalks depending on size)
4. Kale (2 to 3 leaves depending on size)
5. Swiss (red or rainbow) Chard (8 to 12 leaves depending on size) add to fill blender capacity
6. Avocado (1 whole = 1/2 per quart)
7. Spinach (optional)
8. Fruit (optional)

Instructions:

The ingredients can certainly be added in any order; however, experience suggests that as the soup becomes thicker, some ingredients don’t blend as well. To thin the soup, simply add more water to your recipe. The following instructions are offered from experience.

Add water and spices (except salt and pepper) to empty blender and mix ingredients thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients one at a time, mixing thoroughly during the entire process or in between steps. Make sure to add each ingredient gradually and separately rather than stuffing them into the blender. This will allow the ingredients to get blended thoroughly. When adding the Swiss Chard, be sure to add only one leaf at a time to the blender with the stalk pointing up and the leafy part down into the blender. This helps to reduce splatter and allows the suction of the blender to pull the Chard leaf towards the blade.

Add Kale, Celery, Bok Choy, Swiss Chard (until blender is full), then add the Salt and Pepper, Avocado last

Taste soup and add additional spices as needed….. You are done!

The entire process of blending may take between 8 and 12 minutes, with the only cleanup being to wash the blender after serving.

 

Zucchini Pasta with Pesto Sauce

Blender/Food Processor: Used to prepare pesto sauce.

Zucchini Pasta Maker: Use to convert raw zucchini into zucchini pasta noodles. Can use any other type of knife, peeler, or slicer that can convert zucchini into edible slices, slivers, or curls.

Quantity: This recipe will make about 1 quart of pasta and can be doubled or trippled as necessary.

Serving: Serving size is generally 1/4 to 1/2 quart per person depending on appetite and whether other entrées are served with it.

Pesto Sauce:

1. Basil Leaves (3 cups = approx 3oz w/stems)
2. Garlic (2 medium size cloves) to taste
3. Olive Oil (1/2 cup)
4. Pine Nuts or Walnuts (1/2 cup) optional
5. Cayenne Pepper (1/8 - 1/4 tsp) to taste
6. Himalayan Sea Salt (1 tsp) to taste
7. Organic Lemon Juice (1/2 tsp) to taste

Other Ingredients:

1. Organic Zucchini (4 medium sized)

 

 

Instructions:

Wash and peel zucchini, then use zucchini pasta maker to convert zucchini into pasta noodles. Wash and separate basil leaves from stems. Add 1/2 of basil leaves along with pesto sauce spices to blender or processor as appropriate. Once spices are properly blended, add remaining 1/2 basil leaves and blend for desired consistency.

Place zucchini into bowl or vessel and use a knife to cut pasta noodles to desired length. Pour pesto sauce over noodles and mix contents together.

 

Raw Vegan Cheese Cake

Food Processor: Used to prepare all ingredients in recipe.

 

 

Cake Pan: Spring-form type or other appropriate cake mold.

Quantity: This recipe will make 1 large cheese cake.

Serving: Serving size is generally a 1/16 to 1/8 slice per person.

Bottom Layer:

1. Raw Dried Coconut (1/4 cup)

Crust:

1. Raw Almonds or Macadamia Nuts (1+1/2 cups)
2. Raw or Organic Dates (1/2 cup)
3. Himalayan Sea Salt (pinch) optional

 

Cake Filling:

1. Raw Cashews - soaked (3 cups)
2. Organic Lemon Juice (3/4 cup)
3. Raw Honey (3/4 cup) or other raw sweetener
4. Raw Coconut Oil (3/4 cup)
5. Raw Vanilla (1 tbsp)
6. Fruit (for fruit cheesecake) optional
7. Chocolate (for chocolate cheesecake) optional
8. Pumpkin (for pumpkin cheesecake) optional
9. Carrot (for carrot cheesecake) optional
10. Mix with different amount of cake filling to make layers, etc....

Fresh Topping:

1. Berries of choice (2 cups) frozen or fresh
2. Raw or Organic Dates (1/2 cup) as sweetener to taste

Instructions:

Sprinkle coconut evenly on the bottom of cake pan. Blend crust ingredients to create a granular paste (you'll see when it starts to get 'crusty') in food processor and spread evenly on top of coconut layer. Blend cake filling ingredients in food processor and spread evenly on top of crust layer. Blend topping ingredients in food processor and then spread on top of cheesecake layer immediately or store for use when serving. Place raw vegan cheesecake in refrigerator or freezer until firm. It can take up to 45 minutes in the freezer to become firm.

For serving, remove cake from refrigerator or freezer, remove metal cake mold, and cut into desired slice size. Apply fresh topping if not already applied to cake.

 

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Cooked food is a very severe addiction. Can you go to Russia and get all the alcoholics in Red Square to drink carrot juice? You can tell them that it's cheaper than vodka and it has beta-carotene and it's good for you, but less than 2% will switch. For six years I had been wasting my time because people cannot go on raw food without some form of therapy.

100% Success with the 12 Step Program to Raw Foods

In 2001 I created a therapy that is described in my book, 12 Steps to Raw Food and began another class. There were 45 people in my first class. When it was over, I waited 30 days, then I called everyone. I was praying that 30% were still on raw food. What do you think? 100% were still on raw food! Since then, for the past three years, I've been teaching 12 Steps to Raw Food very successfully.

The Four Levels of Addiction to Cooked Food

 

I have found that cooked food is addictive on four levels:

1. Chemical

All carbohydrates become sucrose when heated. Sucrose or white sugar is one of the most addictive substances in the world. Its molecular structure is very similar to cocaine. When people stop eating cooked carbohydrates, their personalities change a lot. They become calmer and happier and they even go through the same twitches that people go through when they quit taking cocaine. That is why cooked carbohydrates are the basis of all international cuisine. Mexicans eat tortillas, Italians eat pasta, Americans eat potatoes, Russians eat bread, Armenians eat lavash. What about white sugar? Have you ever had just one little candy and thought it was enough? You always want another. Other addictive substances in cooked food are caffeine, chocolate, MSG, aspartame, all of the excitotoxins, preservatives, colorings and flavor enhancers, almost 2,000 different things that are addictive. That's the chemical level.

2. Biological

When we are born, we are programmed to be raw fooders. We never request our mothers to steam their breast milk. We like it raw. However, when we're six months old, doctors tell mothers to introduce cooked foods to the baby. The instincts in our body are telling us to beware, SOS! Mother says "Mmmm", and the baby's body says "No". Baby spits it out, screws up his face. Pooh. They try it again and again. Then the next thing that happens, is a fast and smelly diarrhea. The body says, hey, ouch, quick, out of the body. But because this substance is addictive, it takes three times and the baby gets accustomed to it and begins to like it. We are now programmed to be cooked food eaters.

According to the book, Sacred Wisdom of the Human Body, when the body is programmed to cooked foods, two gallons of digestive juices per day are pumped into the system. When the body is programmed to be a raw food eater, it is only one cup per day. That means if you eat three cooked meals a day, your body produces 700 mg. of saliva, 750 mg. of pancreatic juice, 3 liters of stomach juice and 3.5 liters of intestinal juice. Altogether, two gallons per day. If you put your ear to your belly, what do you hear? Growling. That's those juices pumping. All those juices give you an uncomfortable feeling. You feel tension, light-headedness, weakness, irritability, even depression, hunger pains, headaches and withdrawal symptoms. The only thing that will give you relief is cooked food. You feel hungry, you feel starved. That never happens to people who eat only raw food. They could easily move the time of lunch for two or three hours, even miss it completely, and they don't feel any discomfort.

When we put a good cake or pasta in our mouth, we say, oh, it's so good, it's to die for. My book, 12 Steps to Raw Foods, has been translated into twelve languages including Chinese. In all languages there was no problem finding the equivalent of "to die for". We sarcastically call it by its true name and it does kill people because statistically, people who eat only raw food, never die from cancer or heart attacks, the two main causes of death today. If people who have cancer or heart problems simply go on 100% raw foods, statistics tell us their symptoms will go away. So, that is our biological level of addiction to cooked food.

3. Emotional

The next level of addiction to cooked food is the emotional level. Whenever we experience stress, we like to eat something because eating cooked food makes us sleepy and foggy. Eating cucumbers doesn't help. We need to eat something comforting. It's not that we are popcorn deficient. We don't call popcorn or corn chips nutritious. We call them comforting. When someone is feeling sad, you take them out for some ice cream or give them some chocolate. We don't know how to cope with our emotions, and if we are left alone with our emotions and we don't have anything to eat, it will be very uncomfortable. It could actually lead us to some spiritual discoveries, but we don't do that, we eat instead. So that's the emotional level, but the hardest level of all is the spiritual level of addiction.

4. Spiritual

We are all spiritual beings, and as spiritual beings we are all special. Maybe some of you have been brainwashed to believe that you are not really important, but deep inside you feel special because you know you have a special spiritual mission in your life. And when you don't follow the spiritual mission, you have problems. What would you like to have inscribed on your gravestone when you die? "She had a good credit history"? It looks like that's what we really care about, but if we don't follow our spiritual mission, we begin to develop spiritual pain and we experience this spiritual pain more and more as we get older. That's why the 12 Step Programs are spiritual programs. That's why the last four steps of the 12 Steps Raw to Foods are spiritual steps.

Help for the Addiction

 

We help you to reprogram your behavior. First, we help people to get out of denial. Food is the hardest case of denial. We don't give six month-old babies alcohol or cocaine, but every single person in the world has been given cooked food at an early age, and because almost everyone eats cooked food, it's hard for us to acknowledge that it's an addiction. Do you ever overeat? Do you feel good when you overeat? You don't want to overeat, but you know that it will happen because it's beyond your control. Your body just takes over and rationalizes, "I will only eat it this time, but never again."

If I can't handle it by myself, I need help. So the second step is to get a sponsor. We divide into sponsor pairs. Then you write down the three main reasons you want to eat your food raw on a business card. Some people say they have fibromyalgia, some are overweight, some want more energy. On the other side you write the cell phone of your sponsor and you carry it in your purse at all times. Whenever you have a wish to eat some cooked food, you have to call your sponsor and you tell them how delicious that food smells, and so you think you're going to eat some. Your sponsor tells you to take out your card and read it out loud. You read, "I weigh 280 pounds, I don't want to be dependent on my children". She says, is this still important to you? You say, oh yes. And then she says, what can you do instead? And you say, well maybe I'll go for a walk or buy myself a flower or a smoothie at the juice bar. Then you say, thank you, and she calls you when she needs help.

Article from Victoria, founder of www.rawfamily.com, author of books Raw Family, 12 Steps to Raw Foods and Eating without Heating.

Click here for links on raw food websites, Books, DVDs and support

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CARTOON: WHY BEING VEGAN

Why Vegan Diet?

FOR THE ANIMALS

 

Despite the common belief that drinking milk or eating eggs does not kill animals, commercially-raised dairy cows and egg-laying chickens, whether factory-farmed or "free range", are slaughtered when their production rates decline. The same factory farm methods that are used to produce most meats are also used to produce most milk and eggs. These cows and chickens live their short lives caged, drugged, mutilated, and deprived of their most basic freedoms.

On U.S. farms, an average of 7 egg-laying hens spend their entire lives in a battery cage with a floor area the size of a vinyl record cover. Living on wire floors that deform their feet, in cages so tiny they cannot stretch their wings, and covered with excrement from cages above them, these chickens suffer lameness, bone disease, and obsessive pecking, which is curbed by searing the beaks off young chicks. Although chickens can live up to 15 years, they are usually slaughtered when their egg production rates decline after two years. Hatcheries have no use for male chicks, so they are killed by suffocation, decapitation, gassing, or crushing.

As with any mammal, cows produce milk only when pregnant and stop after their calves have been weaned. When a dairy cow delivers a female calf, the calf becomes a dairy cow herself, born to live in the same conditions as her mother. But when a dairy cow delivers a male calf, the calf is sold to a veal farm within days of birth, where he is tethered to a stall, deprived of food and exercise, and soon slaughtered for meat. Life is only a few years longer for the mother. Because it is unprofitable to keep cows alive once their milk production declines, dairy cows are usually slaughtered at 5 years of age. Thus, a cow's normal lifespan of 25 years is cut 20 years short just to cut costs and maximize production.

Today's farms are not like the ones most of us learned about in school; they are mechanized factories where an animal's welfare is of little concern compared to profit. Veganism emerges as the lifestyle most consistent with the philosophy that animals are not ours to use.

FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

 

Animal agriculture takes a devastating toll on the earth. It is an inefficient way of producing food, since feed for farm animals requires land, water, fertilizer, and other resources that could otherwise have been used directly for producing human food.

Animal agriculture's dependence on higher yields accelerates topsoil erosion on our farmlands, rendering land less productive for crop cultivation, and forcing the conversion of wilderness to grazing and farm lands. Animal waste from massive feedlots and factory farms is a leading cause of pollution in our groundwater and rivers. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has linked animal agriculture to a number of other environmental problems, including: contamination of aquatic ecosystems, soil, and drinking water by manure, pesticides, and fertilizers; acid rain from ammonia emissions; greenhouse gas production; and depletion of aquifers for irrigation.

In a time when population pressures have become an increasing stress on the environment, there are additional arguments for a vegan diet. The United Nations has reported that a vegan diet can feed many more people than an animal-based diet. For instance, projections have estimated that the 1992 food supply could have fed about 6.3 billion people on a purely vegetarian diet, 4.2 billion people on a 85% vegetarian diet, or 3.2 billion people on a 75% vegetarian diet.

FOR OUR HEALTH

 

The consumption of animal fats and proteins has been linked to heart disease, colon and lung cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, obesity, and a number of other debilitating conditions. Cows' milk contains ideal amounts of fat and protein for young calves, but far too much for humans. And eggs are higher in cholesterol than any other food, making them a leading contributor to cardiovascular disease. The American Dietetic Association reports that vegetarian/vegan diets are associated with reduced risks for all of these conditions.

Vegan foods, such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans, are low in fat, contain no cholesterol, and are rich in fiber and nutrients. http://www.vegan.org

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Why Raw Vegan Diet?

 

Raw foodist: definition

 

Raw veganism is a diet which combines veganism and raw foodism. Raw foodism (or rawism) is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of 100% un-cooked, un-processed, and organic foods.

A Raw Vegan diet provides an ideal weight, while also preventing and healing most modern disease. It excludes all food of animal origin, and all food cooked above 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit). A raw vegan diet includes raw vegetables and fruits, nuts and nut pastes, grain and legume sprouts, seeds, plant oils, sea vegetables, herbs, and fresh juices. There are many different versions of the diet, including fruitarianism, juicearianism, and sproutarianism.

Cooking foods destroys the complex balance of micronutrients or trace elements which are the essential nutrients for health and longevity. Also in the cooking process, dangerous chemicals are produced due to the heat interaction with fat, protein, and carbohydrates. This chemical transformation of our food not only depletes it from the nutritional value but also result in being addictive. Most people eating cook food transitioning to raw vegan, experience a similar emotional withdrawn like a drug addict. For that reason it is important to surrender yourself with a supportive community when transitioning to raw vegan.

Spiritual and/or philosophical reasons

Raw vegan provides a diet at a higher energy frequency. Therefore, eating raw vegan has a direct connection with spiritual evolution and help with reaching higher consciousness. The raw food movement looks at the way food, living, treatment of the earth, our treatment of each other, and our quest for physical, spiritual, and mental health all fit together. Therefore, it is also a philosophy".

The Protein Myth

Stressful Foods

Acidic vs Alkaline Foods

Are All Raw Foods Healthy?

 

The Raw Vegan Diet

Article by Johanna Garrick

The Raw-Vegan Diet is reaching critical mass and is moving from the fringe to the mainstream via numerous retreats, restaurants and books. The most recent addition is especially notable; Roxanne's, a four month old 5 star restaurant in the Bay Area launched by millionaire David Klein and his wife Roxanne is attracting the attention of top chefs around the world for its all-raw haute cuisine.

According to John Robbins, there is a Food Revolution taking place. This is a movement towards eating more locally grown whole vegetarian foods for health and for the planet. A major movement within this food revolution is a rapidly growing health trend known as the raw-vegan diet. The raw-vegan diet is similar to the vegan diet (a diet that excludes meat and dairy) and adds the additional caveat that all food should be eaten raw. The raw-vegan diet consists of fruits, vegetables, sprouted grains and legumes, seeds and nuts. Raw-vegan food is considered healthy because of its living enzymes. The enzymes in food aid in digestion and are destroyed at 118 degrees of heat. Therefore in order to digest cooked food your body has to use its own metabolic enzymes which takes energy from your body and leaves you feeling sluggish. Heating also depletes food of vitamins and minerals which is why cooked food is thought to lead to excessive food consumption in the body's attempt to gain adequate nutrition.

According to Jinjee Talifero, co-author of The Garden Diet, "Not only does cooked food contain extremely limited nourishment, but it also contains numerous toxins. Scientists in Sweden recently discovered that heated carbohydrates contain a known toxin which renders water to be classified unfit for drinking when it contains this toxin in far smaller quantities."

The raw-vegan movement has been gaining momentum rapidly since 1995 via books, websites and email newsletters published by raw food authors such as Gerald (Nutman) Talifero at The Garden Diet and David Wolfe at Raw Food and educators such as Nomi Shannon at The Raw Gourmet and Paul Nison at Raw Life as well as literally hundreds of others. These include doctors, nutritionists, naturopaths and ordinary people who have become passionate about sharing the knowledge that helped them lose weight, heal or prevent illnesses, and feel younger and more energetic. Raw-veganism has also been called "sustainable eating" and is entering into environmental conversations and simplicity circles as the way to eat to save the planet.

Raw food is reaching critical mass and is moving from the fringe to the mainstream via numerous retreats, restaurants , and books. The most recent addition is especially notable; Roxanne's, a four month old 5 star restaurant in the Bay Area launched by millionaire David Klein and his wife Roxanne is attracting the attention of top chefs around the world for its all-raw haute cuisine.

Articles about raw food have appeared recently in USA Today and Women's World, as well as the San Francisco Chronicle, praising Roxanne's. Celebrities like Alicia Silverstone, Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore, Robin Williams, and Bryan Adams have all been seen in raw food restaurants and some are known to be full-time raw-vegans.

In a world where doctors receive four hours of training in nutrition during their entire education, it is no wonder people are taking responsibility for educating themselves about diet and nutrition.

We live in a culture that is literally built around cooked food, which makes the social implications of going raw full of challenges. However the alternative is at least equally fraught with difficulty. Obesity has recently been declared a National Epidemic by the CDC (Center for Disease Control). A recent episode of Investigative Report on A&E called The Supersize Generation relayed that one in three children and half of all adults North America are overweight. One expert on this special commented on our need for instant meals, the proliferation of junk food outlets and the ever-present temptation of processed foods, saying: "In order to make wise food choices in this society, you almost have to be a fanatic."

Fortunately, being fanatical can also be a lot of fun!

Click here for links on raw vegan diet.

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