Tag Archives: Living la Vida Raw

15 Reasons Why You Should Consider a Detox

acne

RawGirlDetoxPlan_CoverThe word detox is thrown around so often nowadays in health and celeb-watching lingo, I’m sure most of us are used to hearing about the latest fad. Unfortunately, the focus in our popular culture tends to be on fast weight loss and getting so-and-so’s abs with the new fat flush diet, rather than achieving optimal health. Although you may have heard about the latest detox fad, do you really know what detox means? Detoxification is a key function of the body which happens naturally that involves elimination of metabolic waste  and toxins via our bodies’ major eliminatory organs: our skin, kidneys, colon, lymph, lungs, and liver. Toxins in our bodies’ are in the form of the toxic by-products of our own metabolism, the foods, drinks, and drugs we choose to consume which includes alcohol, cigarettes, prescription and recreational drugs, our household cleaning products, environmental pollution, and the effects of emotional stress and mental pollution.

We live in a toxic world, so obviously encouraging detoxification is a good thing, and keeps the body light, renewed, and refreshed.  Our SAD (Standard American Diets) leave the majority of us overloaded with animal protein, saturated and trans fats, and all the other aforementioned toxins. In our natural state the body is designed to be able to flush out unwanted substances. But due to the toxic overload, the bodies’ natural ability dampens, and toxins end up getting stored in our tissues. To counteract this our bodies’ surround this toxic waste with mucous (which later can become dis-ease) and guess what, FAT. Which is why when you opt for a diet that is cleansing the weight or “waste” seems to just fall off. Detox diets are designed to encourage, support, and facilitate the toxin elimination process. Some examples of regimens that encourage detoxification are juicing, juice fasting, and the raw food diet. The removal of cooked and processed foods from your diet for a period time, or the absence of solid food altogether, gives your body a chance to rejuvenate and flush out old waste.

Below are some of the awesome reasons why you should consider incorporating a regular yearly detox into your lifestyle. And…available for purchase beginning March 11th on a blog near you is Raw Girl’s 7 Day Detox. I’m excited about sharing this plan with you, which will include a power juice guide with recipes and nutritional benefits of ingredients, a shopping list and budget, a detox schedule which you can follow daily for a full week, and a manual which includes tips to make your cleanse stress-free. If seven days is too long for you to handle, a shorter 3 Day Detox Plan will also be available as a starter to The Acne Free Diet. Stay tuned! -XoXo Raw Girl


Benefits of a Detox:

  1. Releases addictions to processed foods
  2. Flushes out toxins from the body
  3. Balances hormones
  4. Boosts energy levels and increases circulation
  5. Improves digestion
  6. Strengthens immune system
  7. Lowers risk of dis-ease
  8. Improves concentration
  9. Improves quality of sleep
  10. Clears skin problems and acne

     11. Encourages regular bowel movements

     12. Detoxifies the organs

     13. Reduces stress

     14. Boosts libido/ Increases sex drive

      15. Encourages weight loss and maintaining healthy weight

DC Raw/Vegan Spot: SENBEB

DC raw food
Raw Meal from SENBEB

Raw Meal from SENBEB

How was your Valentines Day? I had a glorious time, and my Valentine took me to eat a meal at a spot called SENBEB, (meaning good health in Kemetic language), which has raw and vegan options! Luckily I remembered to take a photo this time before I devoured my food.

I had the walnut hempseed burger, creamy collards,  and garlic kale. Seriously the BOMB.COM. My Valentine tried their vegan soul food and had jerk “chicken” with rice, potato salad, and sweet yams. So exciting to finally find several incredible raw/vegan places in DC that really know how to season some greens. Did I mention it was super affordable? Only fifteen bucks for a raw plate, and it was so filling we had leftovers to enjoy for lunch today. If you venture over there to try some of their deliciousness, tell them Raw Girl sent you. Next time I’ll save room for dessert. -XoXo

For more info about SENBEB, check out their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/senbebcafe

Ten Immune Boosting Power Foods for Winter Wellness

cold

black_woman_sneezingChristmas is just around the corner and it’s been getting chilly lately, although we have yet to see any snow hit the ground. When the weather starts to fluctuate it can sometimes wreak havoc on even the most health conscious poster girl, if she happens to be unprepared and caught in the cold without a hat and gloves. I myself was visiting New York, and was exposed to just a little too much cold during my visit, which had my lymph nodes feeling like a sore throat or cough was about to come on by the time I returned.

What do you do when you get that not-so-great-runny-nose feeling? What I do is immediately grab some natural immune boosters that will stop that sickness in its tracks and have me barely missing a beat from my usual routine. Below is a list of some go-to immune boosting foods and supplements. Depending on how gangsta you need to get you may need more than one on the list. To beat the forthcoming cold that could have stopped me in my tracks, I added Spirulina in my juice, had some kombucha, drank tea with honey and lemon, followed by chewing on some ginger throughout the day, and seriously by the next day I was brand new. Remember also, sickness and mucus based illnesses also come from too much food consumption, consumption of the wrong kinds of foods (processed), or our colons being backed up. Which is why taking a break from heavy foods and doing soups, juices, teas, and water always accelerates your process of getting back to a 100% healthy you. – XoXo Raw Girl

ginger-root1Ginger is one of the best cold remedies on the planet. A staple in traditional Chinese medicine, ginger has been used for over 2,500 years to treat congestion, sinus pain, and sore throat. It has strong yang energy and warms the stomach and lungs. Ginger is also great for relieving nausea or indigestion. Eat ginger fresh, juice the root along with greens, boil it and steep to make tea, or add it to foods.

Garlic has been used the world over for warding off colds and the common flu. It is powerful because of it’s anti-viral, antibacterial, and anti-fungal properties. Eat fresh garlic cloves, juice them, take odorless garlic pills, make garlic tea, or add to foods.

830435_27547401Papaya is a very nutrient dense fruit packed with beta carotene, vitamin A & C, iron, calcium, folate, potassium, fiber, and more. A small papaya contains around three times the daily recommended value of vitamin C, which is a nice whopping serving that can send a common cold running for the hills faster than you can say “Bless you!”

Oranges are the typical go-to Vitamin C boosters that will help you fight a cold if you already have one, or keep the sniffles at bay. Eat them fresh or juice them fresh. Remember that the typical cartons of O.J. in the store are not only pasteurized (which kills of most nutrients) but they have other preservatives added to the juice that won’t necessarily do your body good. Fresh squeezed is always the best way to go, especially if you are trying to give sickness a run for it’s money.

spirulina2Spirulina is blue green algae that you can take in pill or powder form. Consuming this superfood regularly will boost your immunity enough that you will not have to worry about most illnesses. Read more about the amazing superfood Spirulina. 

Mung Bean Sprouts have pure forms of vitamin A, B, C, and E, along with K, calcium, iron, magnesium, pottassium, phosphorous, and zinc. One cup contains 1/4 the daily recommended value for vitamin C. Because of their high vitamin C content these power sprouts have been used since ancient times to ward off disease. Eat them fresh, add to soups, or salads.

Blog-27-ImageWheatgrass may be hard on the taste buds going down, but it’s worth the discomfort. About two ounces of this green stuff is equivalent to three pounds of organic vitamins and minerals. Wheatgrass is a complete protein and this antioxidant packed super shot helps to detoxify the body and remove toxins, energize, and will assist with relieving sinus issues and congestion. Contains vitamin A, C, E, and zinc to name a few, and can be taken alone as a shot or added to a juice.

Wellness Formula is a vitamin supplement that really works. I recommend it sometimes to people who get sick often or as a way to stop the onset of a cold. You can find it in most health food stores. Nowadays most vitamins are completely useless, but this formula delivers for warding off sickness, or helping you recover.

Green Juice is one of my favorite cure-alls. Got Chlorophyll? Add in a lot of ginger root and lemon, and you should start to feel groovy and sickness-free pretty quickly. Juicing nutrient packed greens and herbs like kale, chards, parsley, spinach, etc. will help bring your body back to one.

kombuchaKombucha Tea is a powerful tea created from fermenting mushrooms that can assist in healing numerous conditions. It has an anti-inflammatory effect and therefore can treat sore throats and common colds. If Kombucha is consumed regularly it has been shown to be an effective preventative medicine creating resistance to colds and flus in the majority of people. You can brew your own, buy it local, or find it at a health food store. When you find that magical brand, stick with it. The most powerful brands I have ever tried have always been locally made.

6 Ways to Make Healthy Resolutions That Stick

goals

New-Year-ResolutionsIt’s December already! This month and next are probably the best months for new gym memberships, nutrition plans, and health classes because of all of the enticing discounts that hope to get you to commit to a healthier version of you in the New Year. We all say we want to make changes come January, but then what happens? For many, by mid-year their resolve to stick with that new diet or workout regimen is completely gone and they are back to square one, right before bikini season. Below are a few thoughts on how you can make some resolutions that you will stick with in 2013. -XoXo Raw Girl

  1. Use Whatever Word Works for You. I personally don’t like the word resolution. I usually set goals for the New Year. Having a goal for me, is more activating than having a resolution. That’s just me and how the words affect me psychologically. Figure out what works for you and use the word that motivates you to make something happen, rather than just dream about it. Here are some other words you can use if you don’t like resolution: goal, objective, target, intention. Many people are afraid to even begin the process of resolution setting because they accept defeat from the beginning. Give yourself permission to dream but obviously don’t make your goals too far of a stretch so you don’t loose heart before you begin.
  2. Make The Resolutions Measurable. Avoid the tendency to set vague intentions for the New Year. Don’t just say, I want to lose weight, say I want to lose 10 lbs and decrease my body fat percentage by five points. Use numbers, use a time limit if you want, just make sure your goal can be easily quantified. If you want to go raw or eat more raw,  maybe you set a goal to eat completely raw three or four days a week. You get the idea. This is super important because without the specifics  you cannot know when you’ve reached your goal and should be celebrating, or what numbers or data you should be tracking on a regular basis to obtain the goal.
  3. Find Someone to Hold  you Accountable. It’s so much easier to fall off the healthy bandwagon if you have a goal an no one else knows about it. Then you can slip right back into your bad habits with no one to shame you but yourself. Having someone hold you accountable, whether it be a workout buddy, a trainer, a nutritionist, or your bestie may help you feel more motivated to stick with the plan. The trick here is that the person must be understanding but tough enough on you when you fall off so that you feel the need to get back on track. Don’t pick friends who will listen to your lame excuses for missing the gym for two weeks and tell you it’s OK.
  4. Have a Plan. As the saying goings, vision without perspiration is hallucination. Don’t say you are going to loose 10 pounds but not have a strategic plan. Write down in detail what you need to do daily and weekly to see that goal through, and be willing to seek advise of someone more seasoned in whatever area you are trying to change if you need pointers on how to go about it. Having your plan is also a way to hold yourself accountable to whatever actions are outlined in it. It saves you from being vague and missing your mark altogether.
  5. Write it Down and/or Visualize It. Apparently most people skip the essential step of writing down their goals. There is magic in writing it down, it starts the process of creation. It’s just on paper but its a start, now you can work from there to create steps to achieve it or even better let them come to you. As someone who is intense about goal setting, I have learned that it is possible and perfectly OK to have the goal and have no idea how to make it work. Just holding the intention can be magical and you will run into the right people or situations that point you to yor final destination. However, that can only happen when you have a clear, written objective. You can also do something I love to do and vision board it. Cut out images that correspond to your resolution, collage them, and put them in a place you will look at daily. I love the Vision Boarding application through Oprah.com called O Dream Board. It lets you make vision boards online using your images and stock images, collage them and make a jpeg image of the board. I made mine and then uploaded it as my desktop image on my computer.
  6. Track Your Progress. So you have the goal, you wrote it down, you visualized it, and maybe you also have a game plan. You are way ahead of the crowd, but still in danger of waking up mid-year wondering where the resolution went if you do not track your progress. A personal example I can use, is that I have workout goals I am trying to meet, so I track my workouts weekly and monthly. I have a calendar in my room and for each day I workout a sticker goes on the day with a brief description of what I did. This gives me a very visual evaluation of how I am doing. If I look at the calendar and its virtually blank by  weeks end I’ve missed my mark. Find whatever methods of tracking work for you and make sure they are fun and not obsessive. For me the sticker on the calendar thing is fun and I feel awesome when I see a month where I really put in work.

Raw Girl’s 3 Year Blogiversary!

blogiversary

Last Friday I got a notification from WordPress congratulating me on three years of blogging. Raw Girl is officially three years old! To celebrate I am going to take a walk down memory lane this week and reblog some older posts that are my favorite. Please read through old posts and share with others in celebration of our Blogiversary!

My first reaction was excitement, but then I have to admit to you, negative Nancy started to creep in and say her piece. By the time Nancy (the negative voice in my head) was done telling me how far I was from my ultimate goal and how tired I was blah blah, I was seriously considering giving up altogether and walking away from this blog. Whenever I have those moments though, you guys, MY AWESOME READERS seem to know and I get a slew of encouraging comments and motivation to keep going. At the end of the day, this blog has always been a labor of love. My goal is to be able to live my lifestyle to the fullest and inspire as many people as possible to begin taking control of their health. In the dream that I am convinced will come true because I am very close, I will be able to do this full-time around my other artistic pursuits, and invest myself or find an investor willing to take Raw Girl to the next level. Which would include remodeling the website, lots of video, more inspiration, and more recipes. Until that time, I’m here. Although I get tired sometimes, I know that every journey to a dream takes time.

I’ve come a long way from zero readers to over 15,000 of you all over the world a month. Please know that I appreciate your support and your willingness to receive the inspiration that I intend to give. Some of you have sent me unsolicited donations, you know who you are and I thank you. If you want to give back share the blog with a friend, or buy my e-book. Finishing my second e-book soon, putting in work today on a really awesome juice recipe book and detox plan. This blog journey has taught me patience, and also the importance of doing the work, one day at a time. Just like sticking to a new lifestyle or changing your eating habits, it’s best to focus on doing what you need to do each day, and letting the rest take care of itself. -XoXo RawGirl

Nutritional Benefits of Starfruit

antioxidants

I was just introduced to the strange-looking greenish colored fruit called starfruit also known as carambola. Starfruit is native to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.   My family was sent an entire box of these funny looking fruits, in addition to two GIANT boxes of avocados from our new friends in Florida who have starfruit trees growing in their backyard. I’ll get into the absolutely insane amount of avocados I have right now in another post sometime soon. When I first saw the star fruit, I was totally turned off. It looks really strange! At least to me it looked like some sort of alien fruit. Finally I got the nerve to look up more about it and how to eat it. When I took my first bite I was pleasantly surprised! To me it tasted something like a pear, plum, or grapefruit. It has a slightly sweet but sour taste. The coolest part about the fruit is the reason why it got its name. When you cut across it, it literally forms pieces of fruit in the shape of a star! You may have seen starfruit used as a garnish for cocktails for this reason.

Starfruit has some great nutritional benefits including providing 75% of the RDA of vitamin C, vitamin A, E, B complex, iron, fiber, and trace amounts of calcium, magnesium, selenium, copper, and zinc. The fact that starfruit is loaded with antioxidants and has a nice amount of zinc, makes it a great addition to an acne-free diet. There is also research being done on the fruit, because researchers believe that consuming starfruit helps to slow the aging process and delay the appearance of wrinkles. Some additional benefits of eating starfruit include: lowers your cholesterol, prevents heart disease, prevents and treats constipation, slows down agin, promotes weight loss, boosts immune function, and is useful for treating infection from bacteria like salmonella and e.coli. Starfruit has also been used as a natural remedy to recover from a hangover.

***WARNING!*** The only thing that is frightening is you should NOT consume this fruit if you have kidney failure, kidney stones, or are on dialysis. Starfruit contains oxallic acid which can be dangerous and harmful for anyone with kidney issues and cause hiccups, vomiting, numbness of limbs, decreased muscle power, mental confusion, and in bad cases, DEATH. This does not sound like something you want to mess with. In my research I read several accounts of people with kidney problems who died after consuming starfruit.  If you do not have kidney problems, please don’t worry, you’ll be completely fine.

If you are interested in trying this funny looking fruit, there are a few ways you can eat it. You can wash the fruit, and remove all blemished parts and eat as is, add it to fruit salads, smoothies, or use it as an exotic salad topping. You can juice starfruit as well, and it makes a great light sweetener for your green juices instead of apple. Hopefully, the next time you see this exotic fruit you won’t run for the hills like I almost did; I recommend you try it to add some variety to your fruit choices and get a nice serving of antioxidants to keep you youthful. A starfruit a day can apparently keep the plastic surgeon away. -XoXo Raw Girl

7 Essential Tips for Going and Staying Raw for Life

diet

I’ve been doing this whole pseudo-raw foodist thing now for four years strong, and I’ve been vegan now for over ten years. One question that always seems to come up is how do you go the distance? Especially with raw foods it can be extremely daunting at times to stay on the path, because doing so is never what is most convenient. It would be way more convenient to shove your face with processed foods, meat, dairy, and everything else widely available and cheap in our toxic world, but if we did, we would loose our sexy vegan badges quick! Besides that along with convenience comes bad skin, sour moods, and maybe even the inconvenience of a very large hospital bill years later.  What you eat catches up with you. To help you stay on the sexy and raw  track below I’ve listed some tips that I hope may be useful to you.

Don’t be a Raw Natzi. There are so many people out there preaching the gospel of raw like it’s a religion, and the best one at that. Please don’t let yoursellf turn into one of those preachy people. Nobody likes a Raw Evangelist anymore that they like Jehovah witnesses pounding down their doors every single day. I find the best way to make an impression on people with any ideology is to live it, not preach it. When you are preaching it a lot of times you are even trying to convince yourself. There is much more power in just doing your thing, and not feeling the need to impose your beliefs on others.

Release The Obsession With Being 100% Raw. It’s really funny how no matter who you chat with if you say you are a raw foodist they eagerly chime in “Are you 100%?” Please do not stress about this! At the end of the day your goal should be to be the healthiest version of you by any means necessary. When you are just starting just keep eliminating foods one at a time and keep increasing your amounts of raw foods. Maybe you’ll wake up one day and realize, that you are 100% raw and have no cravings for cooked food. Or perhaps you’ll end up eating 80%-90% raw foods and some cooked food and feel awesome! We all know there are benefits to eating raw and of course those benefits increase the more you eat that way, but you can be optimal without it. So, relax, please, and enjoy the process of adding living foods to your diet.

Find your SHE-ROES/ HEROS. This is something that always helps me get back on track. You don’t have to personally know a raw foodist who can mentor you or “show you the ropes” so to speak, but you can find online and through research stories of incredible people walking the path. Part of why I have the SHE-RO section on this blog is that the women I feature all inspire me to stick with it so I can see the same awesome results that they are experiencing long term. Watching a video on Annette Larkins, for example, always immediately makes me up my raw game. It’s visible proof of what is possible for you. Find those go to people and tap into their stories whenever you are feeling weak or you have fallen off the path. If other people’s stories don’t work, think about putting a visible reminder of  your personal reasons for going raw on your fridge or in your kitchen. It’s all about staying in touch with your motivation long term.

Get Your Nutritional Balance Act Together. It took me a whole year of being 100% raw when I first started to realize something was starting to be out of whack with my body. The major problem was that I was not supplementing B12 and I was not eating enough superfoods to ensure well rounded nutrition. This is incredibly important. When you are doing any diet/lifestyle right, your body is getting the nutrients that it needs which makes you in turn less susceptible to craving the bad stuff you left behind.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare in Advance. If you really expect to have any success being raw and not immediately give in to cravings that come up on a whim, you need to be prepared. This is not a fly by the seat of your pants kind of diet. If you know you are going on a road trip and you pack nothing, guess what, you will be cranky, and your stomach will be growling the whole way. If you are making more elaborate raw meals, which can be fun, you need to soak things sometimes days in advance or at the very least one day. Think through your schedule every day to make sure you are never stranded without raw rations. This will save you from caving in and eating fast food or whatever processed junk is at the only convenience store you can find.

Don’t Get Hung Up on Gourmet Meals. If you are just starting out I think its awesome to experiment and create some of the more gourmet raw meals that take a great deal of time. You may start doing it and fall in love with preparing food and have the time to do it. If you are a busy body like myself, please don’t feel bad that you are not feeling up to being Raw Rachel Ray today. Go easy and have meals that are quick but pack a strong nutritional punch like smoothies, sprouts, super foods, and power-packed salads. Then when you get a little breather time you can always make something more elaborate or take your sexy vegan self out to a nice raw restaurant and experience the bliss that is gourmet raw foods.

Surround Yourself With Positive Energy. This is definitely crucial. You do not want to be in an environment where people are intentionally or maliciously trying to keep you from sticking to your raw plan! It is already tough enough to commit to a raw diet, Lord knows you don’t need additional help falling off. When you begin this path, your family and friends may not understand, that is typical. Its up to you to gradually get more comfortable in your reasons for sticking to your diet, (you may want to start rehearsing a “Where do you get your protein speech”), and also ensure that you take care of yourself at social gatherings. Bring something with you to eat, or make something over the holidays so you won’t be starving. You’ll be surprised, some family members may end up eating more off of your plate. -XoXo Raw Girl

VOTE! Raw Girl 4 Obama #4MoreYears

Living la Vida Raw

My dear veggie lovers tomorrow is a Blog Holiday in light of the election, will resume normal posting this weekend. I was up at the crack of dawn casting my vote and have been volunteering today for the OBAMA campaign with my awesome Virginia team. I really hope you exercise your right to VOTE. If you need motivation check out my short film March ON, which won Best Documentary at the Vote it Forward Film Fest. Many people died and fought for your right to vote, please do not take it for granted.

As a woman, the daughter of immigrants, a girl with integrity, and a proud believer in opportunity and freedom for ALL regardless of sexual orientation, gender, race etc. I am voting for BARACK OBAMA. Do as you wish, just learn the real FACTS and exercise your right! -XoXo Raw Girl

Principles of Proper Food Combining (Cont’d)

food combinations

Dear Veggie Lovers: Below is a guest post from a new contributor, Lulu. You may want to read this article and also read my past post on the basic principles of food combining HERE. The biggest food combining mistake most of us are trained to make while eating the Standard American Diet is combining dense carbohydrates (like bread & rice) with dense proteins (beans, meat). If you are are experiencing problems with gas while eating raw foods, it may have to do with the fact that you are not combining your meals well. Learning to food combine is an essential as eating the right foods for optimal health, so don’t take it lightly. -XoXo Raw Girl

The food combining system is simple and easy to understand. Basically, food combining is based on the discovery that certain combinations of food may be digested with greater ease and efficiency than others. Correct food combination leads to an immediate improvement in health by lightening the load off the digestive organs. Better nutrition is achieved because of better digestion, better assimilation, less fermentation and less gas. So-called food allergies often disappear as a result of proper food combining. In his book Food Combining Made Easy, Dr. Herbert Shelton explains that starchy foods have to be eaten alone because starches are digested with enzymes different from those used for any other food group.

Dr. Shelton has found that combining green, leafy vegetables with every food group produces favorable results.There are several benefits of adding greens to other foods. Besides having high nutritional value, greens contain a lot of fiber. The fiber in the greens slows down the absorption of sugar from fruit. This makes drinking green smoothies, for example, possible, even for people with high sensitivity to sugar. Vegetables such as carrots, beets, broccoli, zucchini, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts, eggplant, pumpkin, okra, peas, corn, green beans, do not combine well with fruit due to their high starch content. While these veggies are nutritious, their high starch content makes them unsuitable for use in sweet smoothies.  If you do not want to mix sweet fruit into your green smoothies, you can use non-starchy vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, avocados, celery and others. You can also consider using low–glycemic index fruit such as berries (any kind), apples, cherries, plums, and grapefruit.

Any non-starchy vegetables (greens) may be combined with proteins or starch. Tomatoes should especially not be used with starches. The use of fat (avocados) with starch is considered acceptable, provided a green salad is included in the meal. Since avocados are high in fat, they tend to slow down the digestion of foods that normally require a shorter digestion time. They are only a fair combination with sub-acid and acid fruit. They are usually considered a poor combination with sweet fruit, especially dried sweet fruit.

Dr. Vivian Vetrano says that exceptions may be made in combining avocados with fresh sweet fruit, such as bananas, but that they should not be combined with dried sweet fruit, unless the fruit has been soaked overnight. The next best combination for the avocado is taking it with sub-acid or acid fruit. Avocado should never be used with nuts, which are also high in fat, nor should they be used with melons.

Melons are best eaten alone or with other melons. They are more than 90 % liquid and leave the stomach quickly if not delayed and fermented by combining with other foods. This is because the sugars in melons are in a less stable form and decompose quicker than those of other fruits. Alfalfa sprouts may be combined as a green vegetable. During the sprouting process, the carbohydrate and protein components of the sprouting seed tend to diminish, and the composition becomes more like a green vegetable instead of a legume, grain or seed.

In summary, all raw, fresh, whole, ripe fruit; chlorophyll, vitamin, and mineral-rich raw, leafy green vegetable, sprouted seeds and raw, unsalted nuts and seeds are valuable. Eat lots of them according to food-combining rules. Do not complicate them with oily dressings and your body will easily adjust and progress toward optimal health. -XoXo Lulu, signing in for Raw Girl

The Amazing Wonders of Spirulina!

algae

The word superfood is tossed around in common health lingo so often it’s hard to tell what is worth its weight in gold. Nowadays, everything seems to be deemed a “superfood” by doctors and health authorities alike. The word superfood is really an unscientific term to loosely describe and market a food or foods that offer incredibly high nutritional value. Nature is truly the body’s best healer and many fruits, vegetables, and herbs have nutritional content that is of value to anyone looking to obtain optimal health. But the word superfood, I feel, should be reserved for foods like spirulina, which when incorporated in your diet can have extremely profound affects on your energy level, nutrient intake, boost immunity, and promote healing and prevention of disease.

So what is this superfood spirulina? Spirulina is a blue green algae, a one-celled organism that gets it’s name from the Latin word helix or spiral, that has been consumed in Africa, Asia, and Mexico dating all the way back to the 9th century. It is the cousin of another algae called chlorella which is actually great for ridding the body of heavy metals like mercury but doesn’t have the same nutritional profile of super spirulina. What makes it so super? To start off spirulina has all eight essential amino acids that the body needs, with an additional bonus of ten of twelve non-essential amino acids included. For those that don’t know, whenever all eight essential aminos are available in any food, that makes it a protein powerhouse. Spirulina is 65-71% protein compared to around 22% in beef, and it’s protein is in a highly digestible form. What makes this an extremely golden plant source of protein is all the additional nutrients that come along with it. Essential minerals including potassium, calcium, zinc, iodine, magnesium, selenium, iron, and phosphorous are all in spirulina adding additional nutritional bang for your buck. Add to this nutritional profile, folic acid, niacin, B vitamins including super essential B12, vitamin D, vitamin K, vitamin E, carotenoids (which convert to vitamin A), and chlorophyll and you’ve got a great deal of nutrients needed to get you through your day. Chlorophyll, which has an almost identical molecular structure to human blood, is an important ingredient that gives super healing power.

Just to give you a taste of these healing powers, spirulina increases antioxidant protection, fights free radicals, slows the aging process, curbs appetite and promotes weight loss, supports healthy cardiovascular function, improves the digestion process and gastrointestinal health, creates beneficial flora in the digestive tract, and makes the body produce more red and white blood cells which kill germs and viruses. It can also relieve allergies, sinus issues, lower cholesterol, lower risk of stroke, heart disease, and risk of contracting cancer. To take it even further not only is this miracle food great for fighting candida, colds, allergies, influenza, measles and mumps, studies have shown that it can inactivate the virus associated with AIDS and HIV.

Spirulina has virtually no calories, and the small percentage of fat it contains are in the form of essential fatty acids. Due to all these amazing nutrients, spirulina can give any Plain Jane an energy boost that transforms her into Wonder Woman. Are you a working mom? Take spirulina and give some to your kids. You’ll be more energized and your kids’ immune systems will be strong enough to withstand viruses and colds that get passed around at school. Business woman and multi-tasker on-the-go? Spirulina taken at the beginning of your day can give you the energy boost you need to finish the projects on your plate. Are you addicted to caffeine to give you an energy boost? Try spirulina instead and you will feel naturally energized and get a nutrition boost that trumps any multivitamin on the market. Do you workout a lot? Spirulina can boost athletic performance. Did I mention that it can protect the body from harmful radiation? This legit superfood has a laundry list of health benefits too long to expound upon, the best way to truly know it is to try it for yourself.

You can find spirulina in powder form online or at your local health food store which can be mixed into liquids or pill form. Whatever method you choose to consume it keep in mind that the best way to take spirulina is gradually. Spirulina can have different effects on the body, one being a cleansing reaction if too much is taken too soon. In powder form, starting with as little as a teaspoon and later building up to a tablespoon or more is advised. It’s best if you slowly begin increasing over time as your body adjusts. Spirulina is great to add to smoothies or juice in the morning because it is so energizing. Take it at night and you may not be able to sleep. If you are suffering from hyperthyroidism, or are pregnant its smart to consult with your doctor before incorporating spirulina into your diet. If you have really severe allergies to seafood or iodine, it’s best to not consume spirulina. Whatever method and frequency you choose, I can personally vouch for the fact, that spirulina is truly a superfood that has the potential to enhance your health and boost your quality of life. -XoXo Raw Girl