Comfort. Food.

Why do you eat?

You'll all say, "because I'm hungry," or "because I have to to live." I'd be willing to bet that anyone over age--maybe 10--has already started eating for a dozen other reasons in addition to hunger. These reasons will include but are not limited to:
boredom
sadness
the food's in front of me
celebration: there's special food being prepared
eating=being social
it's mealtime
food addiction (sugar is as addictive as cocaine)
distraction
huge portions at restaurants (and we probably all eat out too much)
sedative effect of certain foods (milk, alcohol, sugar) this is probably subconscious

Do you ever notice how a little kid will go from crying out of hunger to eating to leaving a half-full plate to go off somewhere else like it's yesterday's breakfast? And we freak out and say, eat! eat!

Well, it might be a shocking concept but: maybe the little kid isn't hungry anymore. He or she has instantly lost interest in their food because they have had enough. This is what it looks like to just stop when you're full.

Are we really all coincidentally perfectly full at exactly the time the plate is empty? I doubt it.

I read an article about the Slow Food Movement which basically is just about chewing your food thoroughly, stopping when you're full, paying attention to your body, not distracting yourself when eating, and being aware of and grateful for your food.

This also, incidentally, allows satiety signals to reach the brain which tell us to stop eating. If you wolf down a cheeseburger and fries in 7 minutes, you have no idea if you ate too much. You didn't give your body enough time to tell you.

Today at lunch, I made a sandwich and small side salad. While I made these, I also snacked on a handful of chips and hummus. After the snack and salad, I realized I was full (I was trying to pay attention to my stomach while I ate which I normally don't do!). I was amazed that so little had filled me. If I hadn't just read the article, I would not have noticed! I would have ate the sandwich anyway. I left it for later. I am now at a coffee shop, drinking the soy chai I would also have had even if I'd over-eaten at lunch, and I am still not hungry. (I even skipped my cookie today! I'm being so good!!) If I'm hungry in a couple of hours, I'll eat the sandwich. But if not, I guess I'll be having it for dinner.

The author of the article, after simply paying complete attention to hunger and fullness (and even through some family celebrations where she admittedly over-ate) still lost 5 pounds in a matter of weeks. She was already thin and not in major need of losing weight...but it was still that easy. I was amazed by that.

I also just read a very interesting book, Women Food and God by Geneen Roth. The author conducts retreats for people who are overweight and puts them through grueling exercises: making them all wait until every single person has been served before eating, for instance. She says they stare at her with daggers coming out of their eyes. These may be people with serious eating disorders, but how many of us feel the same anxiety when we sit down if we make ourselves wait long enough to, for instance, say grace? It's pretty startling to read these embarrassing facts and realize you are really not much different, just to a lesser degree.

The women at these retreats generally all had the same problem which was excessive eating to push down various emotional pains. I don't have any serious emotional pains I'm aware of, but I definitely have boredom or a desire to distract myself from things I should do but put off instead. That turns into going out, getting a snack somewhere, or sometimes drinking a couple glasses of wine. None of them life-threatening, but still--what's the point? Why burden my body because I'm feeling "off" today?

Is pain so painful? Mark Twain said (I paraphrase from memory), "In my long life, I've seen many hardships, some of which actually happened." We put ourselves through so much more misery than even comes close to what we technically go through.

I read a fascinating account of a woman who gave birth without painkillers. She explained how she coped with the pain, and what she said was to imagine you are in the ocean and there are waves coming at you. Rather than keep your head up and let each one smack you, what you want to do is put your head a little lower and immerse yourself in the water where it will push you but not knock you over.

When you feel pain, go into it. Immerse yourself in the feeling, dive into it. Energetically, what happens when you do this is that you actually put fresh, healthy energy and light into that area which will have manifested as congested, blocked, grayish energy in your aura. You can visualize this process too, if you want. When that happens, the gray energy dissipates and is released. The pain is gone. This is self-healing. It's that simple. If you resist negative feelings, you push them into yourself, and they stay. You will have to keep pushing them down to avoid them. This is very unhealthy and will manifest as disease eventually.

Pay attention to your body. The size of your stomach is not a mistake. Let it tell you when it's had enough. Don't exhaust your precious energy by giving your body a stuffed belly to cope with. You will love the feeling of lightness you have when you are never full to the brim with food. I've noticed I feel "thin" when I don't over eat, regardless of the size of my body, and I feel "fat" when I over eat, regardless of the size of my body. Do what feels good!

I watched Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story and have also been reading A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, and I have to say it's given me quite a different perspective. Most of us see our economic system and government as generally fine, only needing certain legislation here and there to fix the problems of the day.

What Capitalism: A Love Story suggests outright and what the book forces the reader to consider is that the economic and political systems that largely run our lives are fundamentally flawed and not fixable while still within them. I did not previously think a complete overhaul was necessary to solve our problems (poverty, joblessness, environmental degradation) but I now do.

What A People's History absolutely proves is that corporations must be dragged, kicking and screaming, to consider any interest outside of their bottom line, and that their lack of care for simple human dignity literally costs lives. Well, duh, but it's fascinating to read the history of this. We didn't start out generous and idealistic and nice. We started out conniving, controlling, manipulating, and cruel.

How well does an economic system "work" if the average person and-hopefully-politician has to constantly, relentlessly bully each industry, one by one, to pay a decent wage, stop polluting the environment, etc. It's horribly inefficient and, of course, maddeningly frustrating. Yet it's all marketed so brilliantly that even the sufferers of this pathetic machine support it.

I'm so often reminded of the children's story, The Emperor's New Clothes. Will anyone just point out the obvious here? Well, people do, but they are essentially ridiculed.

We live in a country where businesses have actually convinced us that they have rights. That, like people, they deserve help from the government (ex: subsidies) and that they have interests that should be considered. Like they are living and breathing, and they will suffer like any life-form if they don't get protection. (They're not alive!!!!) They are not people, who ask only to survive with enough food, shelter, and clothing. Businesses ask something completely different: obscene profits, increasing stock prices, exorbitant salaries, power, status, and--what it boils down to--food for their big, gigantic, enormous ego. These rights are somehow seen side by side with a request for simple human dignity and are weighed as though they have similar degrees of importance.

I was shocked to learn after Obama's student loan reform bill just got signed, that the government was previously handing out subsidies to private loan organizations. Excuse me? The government is giving money to banks or whomever so they can give me a student loan at 4 x the interest rate I would get if I'd gotten a government loan? But some schmuck business guy convinced the government to give his bank money to "help" students go to college. Why don't you just hand them profits in an envelope?

What Howard Zinn's incredible book shows is that the U.S. government formed for really one purpose: to protect the money of the elite of the country, and to make more for them through business and trade. This sounds like a cynical statement, but it is laid out very simply with direct quotes and hundreds of citations. It is too complex to detail here--please read for yourself before making up your mind. To describe the issue as a "conflict-of-interest" would be a pathetic understatement. It is hard to even come close to describing the corruption involved in the birth of this country. Our political party system is little more than a disguise to give us the impression of choice, freedom, and control, when everything has been set up ever-so carefully so that the interests of the rich "capitalists," as you may call them, can never actually be threatened.

I wish everyone would just read a hundred pages of this book and see the desperate, desperate attempts made to be simply allowed a 10-hour workday (instead of 16) and a 6-day workweek instead of a 7-day workweek. The marches to stop child labor. Requests for simple safety in the workplace. The strikes, demonstrations, arrests, union efforts, etc, etc, went on for decades. The corporations enlisted the National Guard to squelch strikes. The government itself used the military to kill people for asking for the tiniest dignity.

We may have evolved since those times (though I would argue that the evolution really means that what we used to be able to get away with in public we now have to do in secret), but it is important to see where these present-day institutions come from. They do not come from a tradition of charity, generosity, "freedom and justice for all." We must be at least educated and realistic.

Know what I read the other day? Pharmaceutical companies actually control medical school education in America. You can be sure your doctor never learned a thing about health in all those years of college--only disease and drug prescription. They can draw the chemical composition of Lipitor but don't know that eating oatmeal is proven more effective in lowering cholesterol than drugs.

The Tough Part About Raw Food is the Tough Part About Food

Raw bean burritos with guacamole, salsa, cilantro, and spinach wrapped in cabbage tortillas






The toughest part about eating raw is that you have to prepare all the food yourself, from scratch.

Notice anything funny about that sentence?

We're supposed to be making food from scratch!! Going raw just forces you to do this. Then we say, "going raw is so much work!" In fact, eating healthy in general is "so much work." At least, compared to what we're used to.

We have transitioned from one- to two-income households in these last decades and have gone to convenience foods in the process which involve either throwing packages into the microwave or into a pan of boiling water to prepare. Then there's fast-food or simply eating out too much.

For the sake of our health, we MUST go back to the old custom of preparing our own food at home from scratch. Certainly there are times and places for going out to eat with friends or to celebrate, but I do not feel there is a place for boxed, bagged, or microwaveable meals.

I think for most people, transitioning to making all food from scratch would be one of the hardest changes they could make, yet it would have an instant and powerful effect on their health for the better.

It's so funny--people think the food they eat at restaurants tastes so good because of some brilliant chef in the kitchen (which is surely the case at times), but really, it tastes so good because it completely over-stimulates your taste buds with salt, sugar, and oil. There's nothing magic there. If you want to reproduce the "superior" restaurant food taste at home, put four times the salt, sugar, or oil in whatever you are making. Then appreciate why it is so much healthier to be the one in control of your food.

Once you've been making all your food on your own, going raw won't seem like any work at all. You'll just be making different recipes than before. Pretty simple.

Food as Religion and Culture

Raw milkshake: walnuts, agave, raw chocolate powder





America is often made fun of as the country with no culture. We are a very young country and do not have the hundreds- and thousands-years old traditions that most other cultures in the world have.

However, this is not at all the case. Our culture may be a little less romantic, without the artistic architecture, traditional dress, or family and community structure, but it is practiced and ingrained just the same.

Taking food as an important example: we have a totally culturally-ingrained diet. I did not realize this at all throughout my life because I am, of course, part of this culture. I thought Americans had a moderate, relaxed diet and also must eat the way we do because it has been proven to be healthy. We love science and are always studying the effects of everything. If we are so modern and smart, we wouldn't be so rigid on something like food which we can learn so much about, and thereby adjust to suit our health. We would change the way we eat at a moment's notice if we knew we needed to, or if we thought it would help us lose weight. However, it is obvious when we look that we only make such changes as still fit within our cultural way of eating.

Remember in the '80s and '90s how we were warned that animal fat contributed to heart disease. This idea is not standing the test of further scientific study, as it turns out, but how many people went vegetarian when, for a couple of decades, this was the prevailing viewpoint? Vegetarianism has been on the rise for decades, but not in the numbers you would have expected considering how widespread this belief was and actually still is.

This type of tunnel-visioned approach was really obvious to me when I went to India. I have spent two months there total, and have just found it hilarious the way any Indian will back up the way they eat, 100%. Practically everything is deep-fried, even breakfast food. Rice and bread products are eaten at absolutely every meal and snack. The spice level can sometimes be just ridiculous. All of these things are taken completely for granted as healthy and delicious. When my husband and I would occasionally point out that, nutritionally, eating a mountain of rice twice a day really amounted to nothing and probably even did harm, his parents would mostly shrug and say, sure, maybe. It didn't change what they did, and it probably never will. The changes a typical Indian would be willing to make in their diet would amount to an inch in one direction or another.

I found this silly and sometimes frustrating, and, of course, thought Americans were above that.

Americans are not above this at all. The changes 90% of Americans are willing to make are also an inch in one direction or another. Our staple foods of meat, potatoes, dairy, pizza, burgers, ice cream, and soda will never be given up by the majority of the population. These are the foundation foods of our culture, some of which are, arguably, far worse than a mountain of rice.

We DON'T listen to science unless it shows us something easy or convenient we can change. Most of us feel we have to give up our entire identities to simply leave out certain foods and become thoroughly depressed at the idea. Isn't this strange? Americans treat their diet as a religion, as does almost any other traditional culture. We follow it on faith, and conversion is extremely difficult. We eat as part of our identity, part of our comfort, part of how we connect with other people. I don't believe there is a place for faith in diet, do you?

Witness the common offense taken by many meat-eaters when it comes out you are a vegetarian, which you will know about if you happen to be one. Honestly, I could more easily say I was a pathological liar to avoid the disdain and condescension I have encountered. I keep my eating habits a secret as long as possible until a meal comes up where I have to let it be known. At least with religion, though, we have some etiquette, as we are taught to accept those who have different beliefs.

I don't mean to guilt-trip Americans--as I said, it is entirely natural to hold on to diet and food habits as part of culture. But we MUST be aware that we are doing this. If we fool ourselves into thinking we eat based solely on scientific evidence for health benefits behind food, then we will stay laughably ignorant and probably very unhealthy.

I only wish that the rigid defenders of the American diet (not that they all are that way, by any means) would simply say, "I haven't spent much time researching health and nutrition, but I like to eat meat because it tastes good. I haven't heard anything bad enough to stop me yet." At least this includes self-awareness and honesty. The most important thing for us to be honest with ourselves about is that 100% of us believe what we are told until we are adults. At that point, each one of us has a responsibility to challenge our beliefs and learn from truly trustworthy and expert sources.

Such issues become obvious if you ever read the book The China Study which I am almost halfway through now. This is the largest and most scientifically strict nutrition study ever undertaken. It involves a conglomeration of a massive number of studies conducted over a period of 27 years. It isn't a book based on conclusions from a few skewed graphs connecting animal fat with heart disease. It is finally surfacing that animal fat does not contribute to heart disease in the ways we previously thought and that those conclusions were based on some very incomplete and improperly interpreted statistics.

The evidence for consuming a plant-based diet to avoid disease, based on this study, is simply incontrovertible. Yet this doctor, in undertaking the research, had to deal with other scientists who wouldn't even work with him or who claimed results had been mixed up because the findings ran so counter to everything they believed in. By every single rigorous definition of proper and strict rules of conducting science, this study surpasses them all. Yet his own very intelligent colleagues could not psychologically cope with the answers.

And why on earth has it taken me years of being a total nutrition nerd to even hear about and then read this book? Not because it isn't rigidly backed up by the highest standards while being published, study by study, in the most prestigious and reputable scientific journals. No, it's because people do not like the answers very much. And because it hasn't been packaged and marketed as a fad diet (yet).

This is the scientific, objective, progressive society we live in? We might conduct our studies well, even come up with good ones in the first place, but, as one doctor who studies the mind/body disease connection put it, "some end up in the Bermuda Triangle." They are not argued or disputed, but they disappear, ignored, and never to be heard from again. Even studies that can save thousands and thousands of lives. Inexpensively, with no side effects, and--heck, without health insurance.

Psychology and food must be gently unwound from eachother. Food is not a religion, and even culture is not a religion. People are dying by the thousands of easily preventable diseases, and we sit here still saying, "No! I don't want to change!" What is going on with people when to simply let go of certain foods induces a personal crisis and an extreme emotional reaction? Is this crisis preferable to getting sick? Granted, we are not given a lot of tools in this world to navigate personal crises, but I'll wing it at one of those before taking my chances in a hospital bed.

Wholly Holistic Healing

I am so excited that the concept of holistic healing is becoming very popular. Most people seem to know what that means--that more than the physical body has to be treated for healing to occur. We are multi-faceted beings, with minds, bodies, and spirits that all need to be in alignment for vibrant health to be experienced.

In my practice, I address physical and mental ailments with Pranic Healing and, in addition, place importance on healthy food and lifestyle choices in order to prevent illness and maintain health. (I will complete my nutrition consultant program by the summer and add this officially, including nutrition protocols to heal particular ailments.)

The first step is healing from present ailments, and the second is to prevent any more from occurring. However, there are several parts to each of these steps.

The first part of holistic healing is to heal past psychological trauma. This may involve blockages, specific traumatic events, chronic negative thinking, negative attachments, and unhealthy patterns. By releasing past negativity, a person is immediately freed to move forward, live in the present, and be fully empowered. Pranic Healing is a brilliant modality which heals even severe trauma in a fraction of the time it would take with conventional talk therapy. Forgiveness is absolutely key in this process, as lack of forgiveness can manifest as severe health ailments, and complete forgiveness is a requirement for total healing and moving forward. One must be completely ready and willing to Let Go.

Next is to heal any mental ailment (ex: depression), chronic pain, sickness, or other physical ailment. This can be done with Pranic Healing and nutrition therapy. Emotional issues could potentially surface again at this point, as disease is often a manifestation of our mental state. All processed foods must be eliminated and only whole foods, preferably organic, should be consumed. This means the body is getting real nourishment, allowing it to carry out its natural and powerful healing processes which are so often hindered by our food choices. Balanced nutrition is also key to emotional and mental health.

Fasting might have a place as cleaning the body and purging obstructions is very influential in allowing flow and also proper assimilation of nutrition. Again, emotional issues can come up during fasting as emotional experiences are stored in the body. This new freedom and emotional clarity can even be scary at times, but is necessary for health, a sense of well-being, and true personal power.

Other targeted therapies might be useful or required such as massage, chiropractic, or others.

The third part is to permanently alter lifestyle habits over a transition period. This allows a person to stay healthy and prevent future mental or physical illness. The point is to become as independent as possible in staying healthy and healing oneself. Health is our natural state and should not require frequent and regular intervention from healers.

At-home, from scratch, whole food preparation for 90% or more of meals is necessary. Purchasing pre-prepared meals, whether from grocery stores or restaurants means consuming substances which are not actually food and shouldn't be put into our bodies in the first place. Or, it means consuming excessive amounts of salt, oil, and other things which should be consumed in a moderate balance. Only by making your own food will you have control over your health.

A WIDE variety of plant foods should be eaten and raw dairy is preferable over pasteurized for much easier digestion. Meat must be hormone and antibiotic-free, free range, and beef should be grass-fed. Sugar should be practically eliminated, as sweets can be made at home easily without it. Pranic Healing is fabulous for food addiction healing, whether due to the physically addictive nature of sugar and caffeine or from the emotional addiction aspect of eating. An exercise and meditation routine has to be established as well, even if it only starts with just once a week for each. These might be dramatic changes for many people, and they won't happen overnight, but the goal is total health freedom, and these are, therefore, all essential.

Coping techniques for stress may be required for some, as well as overall stress reduction in general. Certain lifestyle changes could be required, perhaps as small as turning off the TV or as large as changing jobs. Life balance in all areas is required for peace, health, and sanity. Are you doing what you love? Do you at least have time for your hobbies, or time to yourself? Relationship assessment is also important, including family, friends, co-workers, and romantic relationships: toxic relationships do to our energy what toxic food does to our bodies. Energetic hygiene using Pranic Healing techniques is always taught: saltwater baths, cord-cutting, and keeping the home environment clean.

These elements combined will truly treat the whole person and make them health-independent, as every person has the natural right to be. Our culture has somehow gotten so far off track that such a system is even required, when all this should be natural. It is the right of everyone to feel vibrant, alive, peaceful, and fully healthy all the time.

Toxic Bodies, Toxic Minds

A suddenly major interest among health-conscious people is detoxification. The fact that we are toxifying our bodies in the first place is a subject worth serious consideration and is usually skipped over in the conversation about detoxing. Why should detoxification be necessary at all? Why do we have to "clean up after ourselves"? What are we putting into our bodies in the first place?

What is a toxin? In general, the word toxin refers to something chemical, not considered food or nourishment, and which does not belong in our bodies. Toxins can be chemicals in the air, water, beauty products, and food which we ingest or which are absorbed through the skin. Toxins are, in part, stored in the tissues and lymph fluid.

Toxins are not stored intentionally--why doesn't the body just get rid of them? The body does get rid of plenty of junk we ingest, however, not everything can be eliminated easily. The way that toxins end up stuck in the tissues and lymph is due to a simple process of diffusion. Immediately after eating cooked food, the blood becomes thick. This is the reason one cannot eat 8 hours before surgery: the blood is too thick for surgeons to safely operate. Due to this thickness, toxins diffuse into the lymph which is thin and light in comparison. When fasting or eating raw food, the blood becomes thin and toxins naturally diffuse out of the lymph fluid and into the bloodstream. Then they are eliminated.

More complicated than that, however, is toxic residue. Toxic residue is basically a layer of junk lining the intestinal tract. This junk inhibits proper absorption of nutrients, which is the purpose of the intestines. This reduces the nutrition we can get from our food, even when we are eating what we should in the first place. Where does this come from? Cooked food, especially animal products, which are difficult to digest and do not "burn" cleanly. Toxic residue keeps us out of touch with our bodies. Many people believe food cravings are messages from the body, and sometimes they are, but often we are just craving what we are addicted to. This layer of junk is a barrier between the real messages of our body and our awareness, and our bodies cannot communicate through it. Until you have detoxified, you will not hear very well your body's real messages.

This junk stuck in the intestinal wall can actually ferment by being stuck in the gut for too long, hence becoming toxic. This buildup does also leak continuously into the bloodstream and cause problems, however, as illustrated by Gabriel Cousens, MD in his book Conscious Eating:

"Many people think that the phrase 'toxins in the body' is just some jargon of food faddists. Research over the last 100 years shows that these bowel toxins actually exist. Not only do they exist, but they also have a tremendous negative impact on mental and physical well-being. Toxins usually come from a process called 'intestinal toxemia,' an overgrowth of putrefactive intestinal bacteria in the small and large intestines. These toxins are then released into the blood stream and from there affect both our mental and physical functioning. Intestinal toxemia is predominately caused by a high-protein and low complex carbohydrate diet. Intestinal toxemia not only has been associated with severe mental symptoms such as psychosis, but with a variety of mental imbalances.

As early as 1917, Drs. Satterlee and Eldridge presented 518 cases at an American Medical Association conference that had mental symptoms which were cured by removing the intestinal toxemia. The reported symptoms of intestinal toxemia which are familiar to many people: mental sluggishness, dullness, and stupidity; loss of concentration and/or memory; mental incoordination, irritability, lack of confidence, and excessive and useless worry; exaggerated introspection, hypochondrias, and phobias; depression and melancholy; obsessions and delusions; and hallucinations, suicidal tendencies, delirium, and stupor. Senility symptoms are also common with intestinal toxemia."

Gee, does anyone here know any Americans that seem excessively anxious, stupid, or sluggish??

I'm going to make the bold statement that toxemia is rampant in this country. I do believe that our food HAS made us dumb and complacent, quite easily managed and manageable by the so-called powers that be.

The long-term solution is to eat more raw food and less cooked food, especially less animal products. Eat lots of raw leafy greens and fruit which contain fiber. For a more sudden and possibly slightly painful detox process, you can do a fast which will rather quickly and dramatically release toxins into the bloodstream and then out of the system. This might put you through some unpleasant symptoms as all this garbage comes out from its hiding place. It can be mild to severe, from a headache or a little crankiness to getting a cold or major aches and pains in the body. However, I have heard of wonderful benefits to doing this such as lasting weight loss, disappearance of minor health problems, especially digestive problems, among other things.

The question in my mind is: if we are meant to eat meat and cooked food, why does it leave us with a ton of toxic buildup that causes mental disorders and requires a dramatic fast to get rid of? And then, as popular raw food author, Shazzie, points out: "detox to retox?" because it sounds good to do these fasts or detox diets for anywhere from 3-30 days, but if you're going to go back to your old diet again...? Well, still way better to do a twice yearly fast than none at all.

Getting "High"

One thing I wish I knew when I was in college is that putting toxic substances into your body is only one way to get high and, by far, the most painful.

Being "spiritual" sounds pretty dull to most people. In most religious traditions, it involved going off to live in a nunnery or maybe be a celibate priest. One was supposed to renounce earthly pleasures.

Modern spirituality has a different approach, however, and does not require anyone to ignore the fact that part of our existence is physical (the other part being energetic). In fact, I would say success is measured, in this system, by how much fun you are having.

I realize how completely hilarious this sounds, but experiencing regular meditation and spiritual growth is as close to living on the edge as you can get. Ha! There, I said it.

Think of a time when your mind was totally blown open. Maybe you read a book that blew the lid off your previously-held beliefs. Or you watched an incredible documentary. Or you traveled to another country and saw a completely different way to live. These examples are pale comparisons to what it is like to experience the metaphysical-and magical-reality we all live in. Meditating can be like learning half a book of new and incredible information without having to read, and a book that might never have been written, at that. For the rest of the day, things come into your mind from nowhere, making you laugh out loud or stop dead in your tracks.

Drugs and alcohol are toys compared to what every human has the capacity to experience. I have, more than once, gotten to work, having meditated right before I left (I work at a restaurant) and found it difficult to get oriented to even do my job.

Spiritual people love getting high! We've just noticed that messing up your body and going through the side effects of hangovers, comedowns, depression, exhaustion, sleep interruptions, bad dreams, regrets, and bar tabs is a terribly ineffective way to do so.