 Hello Everyone,
I have the great privilege to have been invited by my dear friend Robert to be the Raw Food Chef & Holistic Health Coach for this awesome website! I am here to serve you each month with recipes and articles which I hope will inspire you, as well as to help you as a certified Holistic Health Counselor to create a dynamic, balanced and healthy lifestyle. My training has taught me to respect and address the bio-individuality of each person. I look forward to hearing from you! I believe this month’s article will help you understand how I came to appreciate, and moreover, revere the power of whole food in my own life. I am sure that if you have landed here, you too are seeking to understand this fundamental need and our birth right to eat unadulterated whole foods! -- In love and light, Denise
My love affair with food began growing up in a large Italian family. Every night around the dinner table there was a wonderful sense of contentment! Delicious food and animated conversation nourished us on many levels. It was a time of innocence when “delicious” was the only criteria by which to consider food.
My mother always prepared a balanced meal -- meat, two vegetables, a starch and a salad. Our chickens were purchased alive and freshly killed by my grandfather. The produce was fresh from the 9th St. market in Philie. The cold pressed olive oil came in great gallon containers from Italy.
One day things changed -- the food changed. But nobody noticed. The oil was an insipid blend with no flavor. The butcher closed. Tubs of margarine appeared. Vegetables were frozen or in a can and everything came from a big corporate supermarket. The wonderful conveniences of modern living arrived – or NOT!
Because what happened next is that my body also changed -- all our bodies changed! My once delightful family meals suddenly caused unbearable stomach aches! As a child I had no idea what was happening nor did my parents. All that I knew was that I was becoming ill. Eczema flared in my ears, I got my first flu.
All I wanted to eat was the romaine salad at the end of the meal. It felt fresh and easy on my body. Then in my early 20’s, I woke up looking like ET one morning – my eyes were creased and crinkled. My skin was flaking. All of my body felt wrong! I went to see a doctor, who sent me to a specialist and he sent me to another who sent me to yet another. I was seeing five specialists, who each gave me a different pill. With each passing day, I felt worse!
One day I found myself standing in front of a health food store. I went inside and wandered around, praying to understand what was happening to me. What happened next changed my life forever and led me to not only become a world class chef but to specialize in Raw Food. Click here to read full article ...
 Click Here for private Coaching with Denise.
Introducing leading anti-GMO Advocate & Our Newest Contributor, Jeffrey Smith
 The leading consumer advocate for non-GMO choices, Jeffrey M. Smith, is the author of the world's bestselling books on the dangers of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Jeffrey exposes how biotech companies mislead consumers, legislators and safety officials to put everyone's health in peril. Jeffrey founded the Institute for Responsible Technology in 2003.
Introduction by Robert Ross
As a raw foodist, you should be more concerned about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's) than just about anyone else - and EVERYONE should be concerned. Being a raw foodist requires that you maximize the purity, bio-availability and nutrient density of absolutely everything you consume, both foods and drinks. Anything less and it just won't work - you'll get hungry, cravings, and go on junk food binges...eventually building up a resentment for raw food and just giving up. I've not only seen it happen, it has happened to me. I just pick myself up and start again, like any diet program. No blame.
However, when you eat nutritionally dense raw foods that don't overload your immune system with toxic chemicals and poisonous DNA it cannot digest, the opposite happens - you feel completely satisfied with simple, delicious, nutrient-dense meals, overcome food addictions, feel more energy and enjoy what you do eat much more!
But for absolutely everyone, GMO's are such a significant health threat that I've arranged to include a monthly column by Jeffrey Smith, the leading anti-GMO advocate.
GMO Basics by Jeffrey Smith
A GMO (genetically modified organism) is the result of a laboratory process where genes from the DNA of one species are extracted and artificially forced into the genes of an unrelated plant or animal. The foreign genes may come from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even humans. Because this involves the transfer of genes, GMOs are also known as "transgenic" organisms. This process may be called either Genetic Engineering (GE) or Genetic Modification (GM); they are one and the same.
Where are GMO's? In most of your food! First introduced into the food supply in the mid-1990s, GMOs are now present in the vast majority of processed foods in the U.S. While they are banned as food ingredients in Europe and elsewhere, the FDA does not even require the labeling of GMOs in food ingredient lists. Although there have been attempts to increase nutritional benefits or productivity, the two main traits that have been added to date are herbicide tolerance and the ability of the plant to produce its own pesticide. These results have no health benefit, only economic benefit.
Currently commercialized GM crops in the U.S. include soy (93%), cotton (93%), canola (90%), corn (87%), sugar beets (95%), Hawaiian papaya (more than 50%), zucchini and yellow squash (small amount), and tobacco (Quest brand). Products derived from the above, including oils from all four, soy protein, soy lecithin, cornstarch, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup among others. There are also many "invisible ingredients," derived from GM crops that are not obviously from corn or soy.
Genetically modified foods have been linked to toxic and allergic reactions, sick, sterile, and dead livestock, and damage to virtually every organ studied in lab animals. The effects on humans of consuming these new combinations of proteins produced in GMOs are unknown and have not been studied.
Crops such as Bt cotton produce pesticides inside the plant. This kills or deters insects.... The plants themselves are toxic, and not just to insects. Farmers in India, who let their sheep graze on Bt cotton after the harvest saw thousands of sheep die! Comparative studies on the toxic residues in foods from such crops have not yet been done. Pollen from GM crops can contaminate nearby crops of the same type.... In fact, virtually all heritage varieties of corn in Mexico... have been found to have some contamination. The long-term effects on the environment could be disastrous.
Click here to read more by Jeffrey Smith ...
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All life-giving chemical reactions can only happen when electrons or energy flow between atoms. Cooking or processing causes food to oxidize, or lose electrons - the source of the energy your body needs. Things that are healthy 'contribute" electrons/energy, and are called alkalizing or "reducing." Things that are unhealthy steal electrons/energy, and are called acidic or “oxidizing” (which means to burn up, rust, break down or decay). Your body is designed to be alkaline, like the battery!
