Nutrition

Your one-stop A-Z nutrition resource.
Articles and information for optimum health:

Feature Focus: Cacao Feature Focus:Vanilla

(For more articles on positive thinking and living visit the wholistic living section.)

Izabella Siodmak- BSc, AdvDipNat, DipNut, DipHM, cert Life Coach

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Amino Acids and their Sources

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Vitamin B12

The subject of vitamin B12, especially in the vegan and living food lifestyle is a subject of much debate. Rather than offer you my perspective, I have chosen to offer you a perspective of one of the world's most renown living food Doctors, Dr. Gabriel Cousins.

To understand the significance of this issue, we need to understand a little about the importance of B-12 in the diet. The average non-vegetarian stores between 2,000 and 3,000 picograms (pg., same as micrograms) of B-12 and loses about 3 pg. per day. About 60 percent of the total amount of the B-12 in the body is stored in the liver and 30 percent is stored in the muscle. The body has a special circulation pattern between the digestive tract and the liver. Through the bile, we secrete 1.4 pg. per day of B-12 into the small intestine, and healthy people reabsorb about 0.7 pg. Research suggests that if people have a low B-12 intake, the absorption increases to even draw more B-12 into the system. However, there is still a general potential for slow loss, depending on the variation in this special, what is known as enterohepatic circulation, before we develop the potential of B-12 deficiency symptoms.

B-12 has two functions: one, methylocobalamin is used by the enzyme methionine synthase to change homocysteine into methionine. When this enzyme is not working, we increase the homocysteine in our system, which recent research has associated with the increased potentiality of heart disease and deterioration of the arteries and nerves. When the homocysteine is high, it appears to be a nerve toxin, as well as a blood vessel toxin. The second function of B-12 is as a coenzyme is using 5'-deoxyadenosylcobalamin in the enzyme methyl malonyl-CoA mutase in the conversion of methyl malonyl-coA to succinyl-CoA.

Elevated homocysteine also happens with deficiencies in B-6 or folic acid. One of the major symptoms of B-12 or folic acid deficiency is macrocytic anemia. Folate, also called folic acid, is needed to turn the uracil into thymidine, an essential building block of DNA. This DNA is needed for production of new red blood cells and for red blood cell division. B-12 is involved because it is involved in the pathway that creates methyl cobalamin. This B-12 also produces a form of folate needed to make DNA. So, if there is no B-12, folate can become depleted and DNA production slows down.

Another little side part of the methyl malonyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA conversion is that when the B-12 is not available, the methyl malonyl-CoA levels increase and are converted to methyl malonic acid, which accumulates in the blood and urine. Since the B-12 is the only co-enzyme required in this pathway, methyl malonic acid levels are considered the gold standard as an indicator of B-12 deficiency. Other causes of high methyl malonic acid (MMA) are genetic defects, kidney failure, low blood volume, dysbiosis, pregnancy and hypothyroid. The MMA test is important because the progressive medical community no longer considers serum B-12 levels an accurate measurement of appropriate amounts of B-12. In other words, a normal serum B-12 may not mean that B-12 levels are healthy. We need a urinary assay of methyl malonic acid to really determine that. This is an important point, because when I first wrote about this issue in Conscious Eating, the establishment of the methyl malo!
nic acid assay as the gold standard had not taken place yet. I based some of my statements at that time on the world research, which was using serum B-12. A serum B-12 of 200 pg. or less was considered deficient. As a result of the new gold standard and what we know about MMA and homocysteine, the B-12 serum levels should be around 450 pg. to maintain a normal homocysteine level. Therefore, serum B-12 levels less than 450 pg. may be considered as indicating a B-12 deficiency.

There are a variety of symptoms of B-12 deficiency, which are important to vegans and live fooders. The first is actually low energy. It could be a reason why some people just don't feel well on these diets, besides not getting the right protein/carbohydrate/fat mix for their constitutional type. There are specific neurological symptoms, often described as "subacute combined degeneration". Some of this damage can be almost irreversible, if it becomes chronic. This nerve system degeneration affects peripheral nerves and the spinal cord. Some of the typical neurological feelings include depression, numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, nervousness, paranoia, hyperactive reflexes, impaired memory and behavioral changes. With a B-12 deficiency, one can also have diarrhea, fever, frequent upper respiratory infections, impotence, infertility, sore tongue, enlargement of the mucous membranes of the mouth, vagina, and stomach, macrocytic anemia, low platelets, increase!
d bleeding, low white blood cell count. Some of the causes of B-12 deficiency are low dietary intake of B-12 and/or poor absorption, which usually comes through loss of intrinsic factor and/or a lack of stomach acid.

Consistent research over the last decade has shown that vegans and live food people of all ages and sexes have a much higher risk of becoming B-12 deficient. This does not mean that everyone becomes B-12 deficient. This deficiency is particularly true with newborn babies, especially babies of vegan live-food nursing mothers who are not using B-12 supplementation. In contrast to the average adult storage of 2,000-3,000 pg. of B-12, newborns of mothers with normal B-12 have about 25 pg. Studies have shown that the milk during the first week of life does contain large amounts of B-12. This means that the B-12 storage in infants at birth is normally adequate to last the first few weeks of life. Afterwards, they must get it from breast milk or other sources. If a vegan or live-food mother is already B-12 deficient during pregnancy, the baby may be born with seriously low B-12 levels and develop clinical signs of deficiency as soon as two weeks. The general research sugges!
ts that even among non-vegetarians, B-12 can be insufficient in infants, and that perhaps all breastfeeding mothers should consider B-12 supplements for themselves and their infants during the time of breastfeeding. This lack of B-12 in the mother's diet during pregnancy has been associated with a lack of myelin production, which is the coating of the nerves. It takes somewhere between one to twelve months to develop, and manifests as failure to thrive and slow developmental progression. The babies are often lethargic, lose their ability to use muscle adequately, and even their sensory attunement decreases. They also have irregular macrocytic anemia.

The good news that one major study in the United Kingdom in 1988 showed, in studying 37 vegan children was that there was normal growth and development in children who were breastfed for 6 months at a minimum, when there was B-12 supplementation.

Young childrenand teenage children who were supplemented with B-12 were found to grow normally. Adults who were vegetarian without B-12 supplementation for greater than six years usually had a lower B-12 than non-vegetarian adults in the general research. In one study of adults in 1994, 81% of the vegan adults had a B-12 lower than 200 pg. That is approximately the percentage of adults on a live food diet who are low in B-12. In my clinical experience, meat eaters, vegans and live-fooders tend to have a fairly high percentage of B-12 deficiency, although meat eaters do have less incidence. My experience is that cooked food vegans have a higher incidence of B-12 deficiency than live fooders, but there is still a significant occurance in live fooders. In vegetarians and vegans, there is also a high percentage under 200 pg., about 54%. A study in 1982 by Dunn and Scott of raw food vegans with 83 subjects from the Natural Hygiene Society showed that 92% of the vegans had !
a B-12 less than 200 pg., and in 53% it was less than 100 pg. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers B-12 deficiency to be less than 200 pg. The percentages of B-12 deficiency tend to increase over time on a natural hygiene diet. Another study in Finland in 1995 that examined B-12 status of long-term 100% raw vegans found that 66% of the people had a B-12 lower than 200 pg. One study done in 2000 by Donaldson at Hallelujah Acres on primarily live food diet people, but with some B-12 supplementation via nutritional yeast, showed only about 15% of the people were less than 200, and none of them less than 160. The supplementation with nutritional yeast was 5 pg. of B-12 from one tablespoon of Red Star Vegetarian Support.

Up until this time, many of us have felt that additional supplementation for live fooders with sea vegetables or probiotic formulas was sufficient for protection against B-12 deficiency. This does not seem to be the case. In macrobiotics, who primarily cook their food, we see a very high percentage of children actually having growth retardation due to low B-12 intake. Many of us have felt that spirulina, Klamath Lake Algae, all the sea vegetables had enough active B-12 to avoid a B-12 deficiency. Although the research is not fully in, we do know that, as I pointed out in Conscious Eating, these substances do have human active B-12. The problem is they also have a significant amount of analog B-12 that competes with the human active B-12. This analog amount was not measured in my studies. Using the methyl malonic acid reduction approach, which is now the gold standard, research showed that when people used dry and raw nori from Japan, the dried nori actually made the m!
ethyl malonic acid (MMA) status worse, which means it actually reduced the B-12 status. Therefore it could possibly worsen a B-12 deficiency. Raw nori seemed to keep the methyl malonic acid at the same level, meaning it did not harm the B-12 status, but the research showed it did not particularly help it either. No food in Europe or the U.S. has been tested for lowering methyl malonic acid. Research absolutely has to be done to answer this question fully.

There is one exception to this lack of vegetarian B-12 active food, which is that we do produce B-12 from bacteria in our large intestine, but since this B-12 is produced in the area below where B-12 is reabsorbed, it is really not available for absorption. Some people have argued that a lot of species of lower mammals do not need B-12. The reason why this is true is that a lot of species that are primarily vegetarian animals eat their feces. Human research also has shown if you eat your feces, you will get enough B-12. Dr. Herbert sponsored research in England where vegan volunteers with a documented B-12 deficiency were fed B-12 extractions made from their own feces. It cured their B-12 deficiency. So, there is a natural vegan way to do it. It may not be the most tasteful way, however.

Some have theorized that organic foods, in various regions, would improve the B-12 tests by lowering the serum malonic acid, but again, the research has not shown that washed or unwashed organic food has made a difference. Many animals, aside from eating their own feces, will ingest a variety of eggs, insects, small vertebrates or soils. For example, gorillas, who are the closest to vegan of all the species, will eat insects and sometimes their feces. So there are ways to do this for vegans, but again, they may not be the most aesthetic or tasteful. I would love, at this point, to come up with an alternative to this, however it doesn't seem to be the case.

There are many ideas of vegan foods that have active B-12, but few are proving to actually raise B-12 or prevent its loss. The research has shown, for example, that tempeh does not supply human active B-12. Research in both the U.S. and the Netherlands has confirmed this. There was one paper that showed that tempeh from one particular source in Thailand did have some B-12, but what they basically found was that fermented soybean did not contain B-12. Other foods such as barley, malted syrup, sourdough bread, parsley, shitake mushrooms, tofu, and soybean paste, had some B-12 in them. Amazake rice, barley miso, miso, natto, rice miso, shoyu, tamari, umeboshi, and a variety of nuts, seeds and grains did not contain any elements or even any detectable B-12 analog. My study using the earlier gold standard test for B-12 active bacteria did show indeed that arame, dulse, kelp, kombu and wakame had significant human active B-12. Other studies have shown that dulse did have a !
certain amount of B-12 analog per serving. Until research is done to see if it actually lowers the methyl malonic acid levels, the question has to be raised that we can't assume that because a food has human active B-12 it will help avoid a B-12 deficiency, because the actual non-human active analogs may be blocking the human active B-12. The same question arises now with the aphanizomenon flos-aqua and spirulina, as well as chlorella. So, until we actually do the gold standard test of these, through the methyl malonic test, to see if it actually lowers the methyl malonic acid, I think it is reasonable to eat these foods, but not expect that they are actually going to raise your human active B-12. My serum B-12 of 600 pg. may have thrown off my conclusions when I wrote my summary in 1990. I may have been in that 20% of vegans and live food people that don't seem to be affected. But I am more concerned about the other 80% that are B-12 deficient and that 50% whose B-12!
levels go down to less than 100 pg. A study done in 1991 by Miller f
o
, kombu, and other sea vegetables or tempeh in macrobiotic children. Other researchers feel that it is possible that raw nori, not dried nori, is a source of active B-12. Some of these conclusions are not finalized. This brings me to the next issue, which is, what is a normal level of B-12?

Now the next question really is, what is a healthy level of B-12 in the serum? The answer is that a serum level of 450 pg. keeps the homocysteine level within normal levels. Some might just say that dulse and raw nori and an algae called cocolithophorid algae, also known as pleurochritias cartera, may provide sufficient human active B-12. They have not been fully tested with the gold standard. The normal serum homocysteine level is 2.2 - 13.2 micromoles/liter. The normal adult urine MMA is .58 - 3.56 micromoles/mmol/cr. The normal level of B-12 for breast milk is 180 - 300 pg. per ml. The normal urine level for children is 820 - 11,200 micromoles/mmol/cr of MMA. The normal serum B-12 level of children is 160 - 1300 pg. per ml.

Using the methyl malonic acid study as the gold standard, elevated methyl malonic acid was found in subjects with a B-12 up to 486 pg. This is a really important statement, because up 'til this time, most of the studies in the world health basically say that 200 pg. and above is not considered deficient. That was somewhat how I based my ideas that B-12 in many vegans and raw foodists was low normal, but still within normal. Using the gold standard methyl malonic acid test, studies show that without supplementing with B-12, vegans have higher homocysteine levels than lacto-ovo vegetarians and non-vegetarians, which means they are deficient in B-12. The good news, of course, is that B-12 supplementation will decrease these high homocysteine levels back to normal range. High homocysteine levels are connected with the potential for heart disease, arterial destruction and neurological pathologies. Other diseases associated with an elevated homocysteine are: Alzheimer's, age!
related hearing loss, neural tube defects, recurrent loss of pregnancy, increased mortality. Many non-vegetarians also have a poor B-12 status because there are many factors that can cause B-12 deficiency. They include malabsorption or inadequate intake of protein or calories or B-12, radiation exposure, drugs, and a variety of toxins, paraminosalicylic acid, alcohol, pancreatic tumors, failure of the small intestine to contract and move food associated with bacterial overgrowth, oral contraceptives, fungal infections, liver and kidney disease, tobacco smoking and B-6 or iron deficiency. The research conclusion is that: it is a reasonably safe bet that about 80% of the vegan and live food population, over time, runs the risk of a subclinical or clinical B-12 deficiency and increased homocysteine levels. An even higher percentage of newborns run this risk. My suggestion, out of my concern for all of my clients, for my fellow live fooders and vegans is that it is well a!
dvised to supplement with an actual B-12 human active supplement. The vegan live fooders.

My general recommendation is that if you have symptoms of B-12 deficiency, you can even start with a 100 pg. injection, or according to the research, an oral administration of 1,000 pg. per day for two to four weeks is equal to repeated monthly injections. After about a month of the oral, the dose can be cut in half. One can even cut that in half again. I don't really recommend nutritional red star yeast, because of the fungal potential; I think that the safest and healthiest approach is via supplementation.

Some people eat according to their philosophy and belief of what is natural, and this may be an impediment. For example, the black Hebrews, a group of African-Americans who have migrated to Israel, have horrendously high levels of infant B-12 deficiency, as well as adult B-12 deficiency. They did not believe in taking supplements. Data in a 1982 study showed that of the infants who were breastfed for three months, and then were given diluted homemade soymilk for three months to one year, 25 of them (a significant percentage) had protein deficiency, iron and B-12 anemia, as well as zinc deficiency. In the 1982 study, three of the infants were dead on arrival, five more died within a few hours of hospital admission, despite treatment. Serum levels were low in 9 of 15 cases and undetectable in three of them. I don't feel this is a very good example of what we want to show to the world in the way we want to treat our children. We can make those choices. We have a theory !
of natural, and we also have a theory of what it means to be healthy.

This is the first time in history that we can be completely successful live food vegans. What I mean by being successful is completely healthy, including no B-12 deficiency and no elevated homocysteine levels. It is my medical opinion, as a vegan since 1973 and live fooder since 1983, and as a person committed to supporting all those who choose to become healthy live food vegans, that it would be wise to incorporate some B-12 supplementation in your diet. I believe it is more natural to be healthy than it is to be anything less than that.

Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D.(H), Dip. Ayurveda

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Before and after Raw Fooders!

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Before 24 years old, in 1992, at 180 lbs.
After 34 years old, in 2001, after three babies, at 135 lbs.

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300 Lbs to 150 Lbs in less then one year!

Was 280 pounds! Now 118 punds, dress size 3! yeah! Without the "RAW LIFE" I would be dead!

Shazzie before and after raw foods.

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Yes! It is the 'same' person! Thriving!

Susan at 25 years old and Susan at 55 years! 3 years raw!

10 pounds, Before raw, 29 years old...now 233 pounds, 8 months raw, 30 years old.

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Cacao

What is CACAO?

This is raw "chocolate". Raw, organic, wild, whole shelled beans, cacao butter and cacao powder now available here.

The seed of a fruit of an Amazonian tree that was brought to central America during or before the time of the Olmecs. Cacao beans were so revered by the Mayans and Aztecs that they used them as money!

In 1753 Carl con Linnaeus, a Swedish scientist thought that cacao was so important that he named the genus and of this tree himself. He named this tree: Theobroma cacao, which literally means "cacao, the food of the gods."

Cacao benas contain no sugar and between 12 and 50% fat depending on variety and growth conditions. There is no evidence to implicate cacao bean consumption with obesity.

Cacao is remarkably rich in sulfur and magnesium.

In fact, cacao seems to be the #1 source of magnesium of any food. This is likely the primary reason women crave chocolate during the menstrual period. Magnesium balances brain chemistry, builds strong bones, and is associated with more happiness. magnesium is the most deficient major mineral on the Standard American Diet (SAD)- over 80% of Americans are chronically deficient in Magnesium!

Cacao is high in the beauty mineral sulfur. Sulfur builds strong nails, hair, shiny skin, detoxifies the liver, and supports healthy pancreas functioning. Anecdotal reports indicate that cacao detoxifies mercury because it is so high in sulfur.

Cacao contains subtle amounts of natural caffeine and theobromine. However, experiments have shown that these stimulants are far different consumed raw than cooked.

Cacao seems to diminish appetite, probably due to its monoamine oxidase enzyme inhibitors (MAO inhibitors). These are different from digestive enzyme inhibitors found in most nuts and seeds. According to Dr. Gabriel Cousens, MAO inhibitors facilitate youthening and rejuvenation.

Phenylethylamine (PEA) is found in chocolate. PEA is an adrenal-relateed chemical that is also created within the brain and released when we are in love. This is one of the reasons why love and chocolate have a deep correlation. PEA alsos plays a role in increasing focus and alertness.

A neurotransmitter called anandamide has been isolated in cacao. Anandamide is also produced naturally in the brain. Anandamide is known as the 'Bliss Chemical' becuase it is released while we are feeling great. Cacao contains enzyme inhibitors that decrease our bodies' ability to breakdown anandamide. This meands that the natural and/ or cacao anandamide may stick around longer, making us feel good longer when we eat cacao.

A recent study showed that only 1 out of 500 people who thought they were allergic to chocolate actually tested positive. Allergies to chocolate are quite rare. It is typically that the person is in fact allergic to milk and dairy products.

What to do with Cacao Beans?

Peel them with your fingernails or a knife. Soaking them in cold water for 30 mintues makes peeling easier then:

Raw, organic, wild, whole shelled beans, cacao butter and cacao powder now available here.

Cacao Bar:

Blend: Cacao beans, Raw Jelly Bush Honey or Agave, Carob powder, Maca, Hemp Oil, Macadamia nuts.

Pour into a mold and freeze. Eat cold and experience the real food of the gods!

I also mix my cacao with various mixes of VANILLA, CAYENNE PEPPER, NUTMEG, CHILLI and HONEY - yum!

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Raw, organic, wild, whole shelled beans, cacao butter and cacao powder now available here. Buy Trial Packs of all cacao products and get FREE vanilla massive beans here.

More Cacao History:

Chocolate begins with a bean ... a cacao bean. It has been mashed and eaten for centuries. The history of chocolate spans from 200 B.C. to the present, encompassing many nations and peoples of our world.

The scientific name of the cacao tree's fruit is "Theobroma Cacao" which means "food of the gods." In fact, the cacao bean was worshipped as an idol by the Mayan Indians over 2,000 years ago. In 1519, Hernando Cortez tasted "Cacahuatt," a drink enjoyed by Montezuma II, the last Aztec emperor. Cortez observed that the Aztecs treated cacao beans, used to make the drink, as priceless treasures. He subsequently brought the beans back to Spain where the chocolate drink was made and then heated with added sweeteners. Its formula was kept a secret to be enjoyed by nobility. Eventually, the secret was revealed and the drink's fame spread to other lands.

By the mid-1600s, the chocolate drink had gained widespread popularity in France. One enterprising Frenchman opened the first hot chocolate shop in London. By the 1700s, chocolate houses were as prominent as coffee houses in England.

The New World's first chocolate factory opened in 1765 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Sixty years later, Conrad Van Houten, a Dutch chemist, invented a cocoa press that enabled confectioners to make chocolate candy by mixing cocoa butter with finely ground sugar.

In 1876, Daniel Peter, a Swiss candymaker, developed milk chocolate by adding condensed milk to chocolate liquor - the nonalcoholic by-product of the cocoa bean's inner meat. The Swiss also gave the chocolate a smoother texture through a process called "conching." The name was derived from a Greek term meaning "sea shell" and refered to the shape of old mixing vats where particles in the chocolate mixture were reduced to a fine texture.

Get your cacao recipe here!

Growing Cacao & Markets

The cacao tree is very delicate and sensitive. It needs protection from wind and requires a fair amount of shade under most conditions. This is true especially in its first two to four years of growth.

With pruning and careful cultivation, the trees of most strains will begin bearing fruit in the fifth year. With extreme care, some strains can be induced to yield good crops in the third and fourth
years.

The cacao tree has large glossy leaves that are red when young and green when mature. The tree sprouts thousands of tiny waxy pink or white five-petalled blossoms that cluster together on the trunk and older branches. But only 3 to 10 percent will go on to mature into full fruit.

The fruit has green or sometimes maroon coloured pods on the trunk of the tree and its main branches. Shaped somewhat like an elongated melon tapered at both ends, these pods often ripen into a golden colour or sometimes take on a scarlet hue with multicoloured flecks.

At its maturity, the cultivated tree measures from 15 to 25 feet tall, though the tree in its wild state may reach 60 feet or more.

Handling the harvest

The job of picking ripe cacao pods is not an easy one. The tree is so frail and its roots are so shallow that workmen cannot risk injuring it by climbing to reach the pods on the higher branches.

The planter sends his pickers into the fields with long-handled, mitten-shaped steel knives that can reach the highest pods and snip them without wounding the soft bark of the tree. Machetes are used for the pods growing within reach on the lower trunk.

Gatherers follow the harvesters who have removed the ripe pods from the trees. The pods are collected in baskets and transported to the edge of a field where the pod breaking operation begins. One or two length-wise blows from a well-wielded machete are usually enough to split open the woody shells. A good breaker can open 500 pods an hour.

A great deal of patience is required to complete harvesting. Anywhere from 20 to 50 cream-coloured beans are scooped from a typical pod and the husk and inner membrane are discarded.

Dried beans from an average pod weigh less than two ounces, and approximately 400 beans are required to make one pound of chocolate. Exposure to air quickly changes the cream-coloured beans to a lavender or purple. They do not look like the finished chocolate nor do they have the well-known fragrance of chocolate at this time.

The cocoa beans or seeds that are removed from the pods are put into boxes or thrown on heaps and covered. Around the beans is a layer of pulp that starts to heat up and ferment. Fermentation lasts from three to nine days and serves to remove the raw bitter taste of cocoa and to develop precursors and components that are characteristic of chocolate flavour

Drying the beans

Like any moisture-filled fruit, the beans must be dried if they are to keep. In some countries, drying is accomplished simply by laying the beans on trays or bamboo matting and leaving them to bask in the sun. When moist climate conditions interfere with sun-drying, artificial methods are used. For example, the beans can be carried indoors and dried by hot-air pipes.

With favourable weather the drying process usually takes several days. In this interval, farmers turn the beans frequently and use the opportunity to pick them over for foreign matter and flat, broken or germinated beans. During drying, beans lose nearly all their moisture and more than half their weight.

Once dried, the beans can be sold. Buyers sample the quality of a crop by cutting open a number of beans to see that they are properly fermented. Purple centres indicate incomplete fermentation.

The beans are sold in international markets. African countries harvest about two-thirds of the total world output; Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, and Cameroon are the leading African cocoa producers. Most of the remainder comes from South American countries, chiefly Brazil and Ecuador. The crop is traded on international commodity futures markets. Attempts by producing countries to stabilise prices through international agreements have had little success.

When you're first using Raw Organic Cacao, I recommend you use this basic recipe(from David Favor):

IMPORTANT: BEFORE ADDING RAW CHOCOLATE NIBS TO THE BLENDER BE SURE TO GRIND THEM INTO A FINE POWDER IN A COFFEE GRINDER OR USE A MORTAR & PESTAL

6 Tbl Cacao Nibs

1 Tbl Carob

1/4 tsp Himalayan Salt

1/4 Cup Agave Nectar

6 Cups Pure Water

1) Grind the Cacao in a coffee grinder or mortar & pestal.

2) Blend all ingredients till smooth.

3) Leave in glass container overnight to merge flavors and soften Cacao bits.

4) Drink with wild abandon.

ADD OTHER SUPERFOODS FROM OUR PRODUCTS PAGE

Chocolate Nut-Milk Recipe by David Wolfe

1 liter (4 cups) of coconut water 20 cacao beans (preferably peeled) 10 raw cashews (everyone loves cashews!) 3-5 tablespoons of carob powder and/or Organic Maca powder (maca is a powdered root from Peru that is an amazing high-protein superfood aphrodisiac, strengthener, and fertility enhancer. Organic Maca is available from alivefoods.com ) 3-5 tablespoons of honey and/or agave cactus nectar 2 tablespoons of hempseed oil 2 tablespoons of coconut oil/butter 2-3 pinches of Himalayan Crystal Salt 2-3 sprinkles of cinnamon

Blend all ingredients, drink, and arrive back on Earth in about 2 hours!

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Raw, organic, wild, whole shelled beans, cacao butter and cacao powder now available here. Buy Trial Packs of all cacao products and get FREE vanilla massive beans here.

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Cancer

Cancer

What is cancer?

It is the same as any dis-ease. It is a sign of your body de-toxifying from physical, emotional or other issues that have prevented from following the bodies natural course of healing. It is 'the last warning'.

By living within a natural, living foods wholistic system many have found themselves healed from otherwise 'incurable' symptoms.

Orthodox doctors fix the symptoms whilst natural therapists are able to assist the cause from being recognised, accepted and consequently healed. This often leads to the body withdrawing the symptoms.

Our bodies, our vehicles for this journey are powerful tools. They have the ability to create miraculous work that is beyond the comprehension of our minds or scientific systems.

(remembering hemp is the best source of EFA's and a very high source of protein all in one)

and now some words from the Hygeine people....

Can Cancer Be "Cured" By Hygienic Means?

by Dr. V. Virginia Vetrano, D.C., hM.D. Ph.D.

At one time, cancer was predominantly a disease of old age, but now it can be found at any age, in any organ in the body. Nevertheless, having cancer in the family does not necessarily mean that you will develop it, and a diagnosis of cancer does not necessarily mean that you cannot get well.

The Hygienic Definition Of Cancer
Hygienic doctors have a different definition of true "cancer" than that of the medical profession. (A Hygienic Doctor is one who has had training in a professional recognized school of any of the healing arts, be it medicine, chiropractic, naturopathy, homeopathy, or osteopathy, and who has thoroughly studied Hygienic literature, or who has taken the Life Science course and has interned at a Hygienic institution for at least six months, preferably for a year.) Cancer was not considered by early hygienists as genuine until the patient was cachectic, a condition of general wasting away from malnutrition which is usually associated with chronic disease, particularly cancer. Cachexia involves a slowly developing process of chronic septic poisoning, which is caused by masses of cells that are packed so closely together that the arterioles and capillaries feeding the cells are flattened and impede both nutrition and drainage. Being deprived of nutrients and oxygen, the cells ultimately degenerate and die. The poisons generated by the dying cells cause a general septic poisoning?cachexia. If the poisoning is serious and of sufficient duration, it results in death. The cachectic stage is usually irreversible.

Can Cancer Be "Cured" By Using Only Hygienic Methods?
The answer is a definite yes. Hygiene should be the first resort and not the last. Unfortunately, by the time cancer sufferers reach a Doctor of Natural Hygiene they are in the cachectic stage. Additionally, they have been frightened by the diagnosis of cancer and most have already submitted to harmful medical treatments. All tumors, including those labeled cancer, even though hardened and spread out, can be self-digested (autolyzed) while fasting or on very strict dietary regimens. Tumors will not regrow if the health seeker supplies all the conditions of health, and avoids as many causes of disease as humanly possible.

Natural Hygienists realize that the body can reverse most pathologies and that the body is acting upright, correctly? Orthopathically, in all states of disease, a tumor, even when it is labeled "cancer", is reversible. It takes many years before it becomes malignant.

The Useful Purpose of Tumors
The stance of Natural Hygiene is that a tumor serves a useful purpose in the body. Cells reproduce and pile up in one place as a defensive measure because of chronic irritation. It is a means of protecting the underlying tissues from any irritant, similar to the formation of a callus. Chronic irritation from many substances, including your own metabolic wastes in excess, can result in the formation of protective masses. The way to prevent cancer is to avoid all irritants.

The Evolution of Cancer
The evolution of cancer is marked by seven stages that Hygienic doctors recognized years ago. They are: 1. enervation (lowered nerve energy), 2. intoxication (an excess ofendogenous and exogenous toxins), 3. irritation (of tissues), 4. inflammation, (heat, redness, swelling, pain, and impaired function), 5. induration (hardening), 6. ulceration, and finally 7. fungation (cancer). The term "fungation" is used because at that stage cancer resembles a fungus, spreading out in all directions from the initial lump, whether small or large. Stages five and six are considered pre-cancerous. Stage seven is considered early cancer. Yet in this stage it is still amenable to Hygienic care. That is what is so marvelous! Even though the tumor has spread and lymph nodes have become involved, it is still easily absorbed by the body while fasting.

The medical profession is not familiar with the long term evolution of any pathology so they stage diseases differently from Hygienists. Medical pathologists stage cancer by microsocpic and macroscopic examinations of the lump and surrounding tissues. Many mistakes can be made by these methods and many lumps diagnosed as cancer are still pre-cancerous. It does not become genuine, irreversible cancer until after the 7th stage, called fungation. Since conventional medicine doesn't recognize the evolutionary stages of any disease they are unaware that it is reversible as well as its true cause.

Medical pathologists stage cancerous masses into several groups depending upon the types of cells found, plus other microscopic and macroscopic factors. For instance, if a cancer is "in situ," meaning that it is merely a local mass or lump in only one organ, and has no enlarged lymph nodes, it is still in stage one. Stage two, where the lymph nodes are involved, initiates the process of irreversibility.

Stages III and IV cancers have greater degrees of pathological involvement and a less hopeful recovery. In the medical approach, the identification of these stages is necessary for physicians to determine the extent of the tumor and how to approach its treatment. It is also a means of ascertaining a prognosis. "Does this patient have a chance?" Physicians rightly do not want to saddle the patient with a diagnosis of cancer unless this is fairly certain.

Medical Treatment Does Not Support Health
In the medical paradigm, successful treatment of cancer requires the extermination of all cancer cells at the primary site, as well as at distant sites if metastases have occurred. Regular physicians try their best to destroy all the cancer cells, but this is impossible. Only our living body cells know the difference between a cancer cell and a normal cell. No medical treatment in vogue can succeed in killing only abnormal cells.

The principal medical weapons used for the eradication of cancer cells are surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is very destructive of the Immune System. When the lymphocytes, killer cells, phagocytic leukocytes and monocytes have been greatly diminished in number by chemotherapy, they no longer have the collective power to destroy the abnormal cancer cells, which grow unchecked because the body's defense system has been disabled.

Rarely is only one type of weapon used; frequently a combination of two or three are relied upon. Combining the lethal assaults of each of the above therapies is called "multimodality therapy." All the treatments, even given separately, are destructive of bodily tissues other than the targeted cancer, injuring both the brain and our Defense Mechanisms. Furthermore, when one series of single or multimodality treatments does not bring about resmission, three or even four series of chemotherapy or radiation therapy is often the next step.

Hygienic Care: Tapping Into Our Innate Healing Intelligence
By adhering to physiological laws, Natural Hygienists encourage the innate intelligence of the human body to root out all abnormal cells. The body is equipped with numerous specialized cells whose job it is to seek out and destroy all foreign substances, as well as abnormal cells. This is specific microscopic self-preservation which takes place routinely in healthy people. The body is lavishly-equipped to destroy all cells with faulty proteins in their cell membranes, and even those within the cell and its nucleus. The body knows exactly which cells have changed from normal to abnormal because these are easily recognized by our Guardian cells. This marvelous organism of ours even proofreads and corrects its faulty DNA. The surgeon's knife can't do that; neither can radiation, chemotherapy, or any other treatment. Only the living organism has that wondrous power. It is divine "vision" at its best

In helping someone to become well, first and foremost the Hygienic doctor will search for all causes of disease in the Health Seeker's life and teach him/her 1. how to eliminate them, and 2. how to supply the conditions of health so the body can resume its normal self-protecting functions. By complying with Nature's Laws, one lives longer than those who resort to the killing methods, which generally gives a certain percentage of people in any of the stages of cancer, including stage one, only a five year survival time. Fasting at stage one provides for complete recovery in 100 percent of cases. Fasting (water only) is the quickest and surest way to autolyze all abnormal growths. The body digests the tumor while fasting, using the nutrients in the tumor for food, and at the same time rejects and eliminates all the unusable substances in the tumor.

Whether or not an individual with Stages III and IV cancer will recover is questionable, mainly because the person has usually had medical treatment by this time. A person is more likely to recover by Hygienic means even though the cancer may be highly malignant, if medical treatment has not taken place. Even if the cancer cells have spread to the lymph nodes and they are thus swollen with multiplying cancer cells, the body is generally still able to autolyze them while fasting. Yet, in spite of prior medical treatment, some people still get well with Hygienic care. Hygiene is far superior to medicine because even if the case is hopelessly advanced, the adoption of the Hygienic lifestyle can prolong life by many years.

I've cared for a significant number of people whose tumors were in the "irreversible" stage of cancer and have found that with few exceptions, they can extend their lives for years by fasting at least once a year for two weeks or more; living strictly on raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds; and obtaining all the other needs of life between the fasts. Several people with overt breast cancer, already discolored and draining, and which were attached to the overlying skin and underlying muscles, lived at least l5 years longer than they would have if they had resorted to medical treatment. At this late stage of cancer, surgery and chemotherapy promises only a 30 to 60 percent 5 year survival rate.

Nevertheless, those who have the greatest chance of recovery, under either medical or Hygienic care, are those who are still in the early stages of cancer. Most of the medical recoveries written about are not in the irreversible cancer stage, which is cachexia. Those who choose Hygiene at any stage, if they do not get well, at least prolong their lives. They have conquered the fear of cancer and have faith and courage because they realize that they possess a self-healing body.

In rare cases, I have recommended surgery for women with a huge hardened uterus, if the tumor is pressing on vital organs and impairing circulation. If the individual cannot take off to fast for the reduction of the pre-cancerous growth, then vital tissues and organs will begin to deteriorate from impaired circulation. However, surgery does not get rid of the underlying causes of tumors. If, after surgery, the woman returns to her former lifestyle, then she will be susceptible to tumors growing elsewhere.

Regarding "hopeless cases" Dr. Tilden wrote: "In those cases of cancer where there is absolutely no hope, if the patient will go without food he will go down and die normally and naturally, without pain, without discomfort, and can have the pleasure of conversing with his friends up to the last minute. And that is not all - he gets the last and best chance for a cure. Some of these cases that are said to be hopeless, and afterwards killed by drug reliefs, if they were put on an absolute fast they would fool the prognostication sometimes by getting well."

Intelligent Hygienic Action Is Your Best Ally
If you receive a "malignant" diagnosis, you will be able to think rationally and refuse to submit to the destructive treatments recommended by your physician if you understand that tumors are not trying to kill you, but, in fact, they are allowing you to survive in spite of your life-style errors?? you will use your intelligence and follow nature's ways.

A diagnosis of cancer is not always a synonym for death. I am as convinced, as were Drs. Shelton and Tilden, that many tumors which are diagnosed as cancer by physicians are not genuine cancer. Hence, they report their medical treatment of this as a cancer "cure" when it is no such thing. This leads to statistical falsehoods. To accept medical treatment first is to subject yourself to severe emotional and physical pain that ends with an early death.

The removal of tumors by autolysis is the safest, most reliable and quickest way to eliminate them. It has many advantages over surgical removal, because even brain tumors can be completely absorbed. Surgery is always fraught with danger; whereas, autolysis is a physiological process and poses no threat. Fasting permits the elimination of toxins and normalizes nutrition in each cell in the body, while at the same time improving the function of the nervous system, thus reversing enervation. Most importantly, tumors tend to recur after being surgically removed, but after they have been autolyzed by fasting, there is little tendency to recurrence. Furthermore, tumors often recur in a malignant form after they have been surgically removed, while the tendency to malignancy is averted by fasting. This process is best done under a competent Hygienic Doctor because in certain cases, such as cancer of the liver, one should not fast.

It goes without saying that it is prudent and best to fast when tumors are small so they can be autolyzed more quickly

: I am trying to gain muscle, but since going raw I seem to be losing muscle. Can you help me?

Dr. Douglas Graham's response: There are no foods whose consumption will result in muscle gain. If there were, all the body builders would spend their time in restaurants instead of gyms. Only by persistently and consistently participating in strength building activities can you realistically expect to see an increase in muscle size. Even then, such growth will only happen if other life needs are being met. These
include but are not limited to:
1. Eating sufficient calories to fuel growth;
2. Providing sufficient rest and sleep to allow for growth;
3. Getting adequate sunlight on your body.

Conversely, there are no foods whose consumption will result in loss of muscle mass. You may have lost water, hence the muscles appear smaller. You may have lost fat, again making the muscles appear smaller, but no food will cause muscle mass losses.

Enjoy your raw food diet, and your strength building activities, and over time you will develop the physique you are striving for.

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Coffee: The Great Energy Sapper

by Frederic Patenaude

Compiled by Frédéric Patenaude. Published in Just Eat An Apple magazine, Vol. 2, #2

Most of my readers are aware of the evils of coffee, and probably all of them have given up this habit. However, I often meet raw foodists or vegetarians who, otherwise following a healthy lifestyle, still drink coffee. It's their guilty pleasure they say. Others still have an occasional cup of green tea, maté, guarana, or other caffeinated beverages. Some may even think that these beverages are healthy. For many, it's chocolate, which gives the same strange "pleasure" as the beverages.

The effects of caffeine on the body are well researched, but you never hear about it in your newspaper. You never hear about it anywhere because the whole nation, if not the whole world, is addicted to caffeine. Doctors, journalists, scientists, writers, everyone drinks coffee. Those whose job is to inform us are usually heavy coffee drinkers. And few of them ever rise up to speak against this popular drug. But one did, his name is Stephen Cherniske, and he's a scientist who spent 10 years of his life researching the effects of caffeine on the body and compiling them in a shocking document, "Caffeine Blues."

On the first page of this book we can read: "Caffeine can't provide energy, only chemical stimulation and induced emergency state that can lead to irritability, mood swings, and panic attacks. Caffeine's ultimate mood effect can be letdown, which can lead to depression and chronic fatigue. Caffeine gives the illusion of heightened alertness by dilating pupils, quickening heart rate, and raising blood pressure. In fact, caffeine does not increase overall mental activity."

I have read "Caffeine Blues" and selected the most relevant information and quotes out of it for this article. The Great Caffeine Hoax You may have read somewhere, or have been told in school, that as long as caffeine was consumed in "moderate" quantities, it did not pose any threat to health. You were reassured. Once in a while, you may even read somewhere in the newspaper about the "benefits" of drinking coffee. So far, so good. Who could ever say anything against coffee? Mr. Cherniske responds: "I had been told only that caffeine was a mild stimulant and its association with health disorders was unproven. I was also told that caffeine is not addictive. Since I knew from my own painful experience that the opposite was true, I reasoned that perhaps I had been snowed on the whole topic."

"What I quickly learned was that everyone has been snowed - researchers, doctors, journalists, and especially the public. The deception has been well coordinated by an industry whose goal is quite simple: to get as much caffeine into our bodies as possible. The caffeine industry knows caffeine saps your natural sense of vitality, leaving you dependent on their products to get through the day. They know that you actually crave their products and, more importantly, that you suffer when you don't consume them. "It's a marketing dream, and it's legal. No wonder more and more companies are jumping on the caffeine bandwagon, churning out products from specialized coffees and teas to 'herbal' caffeinated energy pills, caffeinelaced fruit beverages, 'supercharged' soft drinks, caffeinated beer, and even caffeinated bottled water." (Caffeine Blues, page 4)

The Caffeine Stimulation: Not Energy, Caffeine is a poison.

The body has absolutely no use for it as it is a danger to its living function. It must detoxify it through the liver and reject it with great effort. The "stimulation" we feel after drinking coffee is nothing more than the expended effort in eliminating this poison. The Law of Excitation Herbert Shelton clearly explained the delusion of stimulation in his classic book, "Orthobionomics." "Whenever any irritating substance or influence is brought to bear upon the living organism this occasions vital resistance and excitation manifested by increased and impaired action, which, always necessarily diminishes the power of action and does so in precisely the degree to which it accelerates action; the increased action is caused by the extra expenditure of vital power called out, not supplied, by the compulsory process, and therefore the available supply of power is diminished by this amount…" "Under all circumstances, vitality or energy of any character whatever is invariably manifested or noticed by us, as energy, in its expenditure, never in its accumulation." In other words, what appears to give us energy is draining our energies. The stimulation people get from drinking coffee is an expenditure of vital forces, not real energy which can only come from rest.

Cherniske who well understands this, wrote: "Caffeine does not provide energy - only chemical stimulation. The perceived energy comes from the body's struggle to adapt to increased blood levels of stress hormones... Using coffee for mood enhancement is a short-term blessing and a long-term curse. While the initial adrenal stimulation may provide a transient anti-fatigue 'lift,' caffeine's ultimate mood effect is a letdown, either subtle or profound. Advertisers and coffee 'institutes' have kept this side of caffeine from public view... "While caffeine users may feel more alert, the experience is simply one of increased sensory and motor activity (dilated pupils, increased heart rate, and higher blood pressure). The quality of thought and recall is improved no more than the quality of music is improved when played at a higher volume or speed." The energy we get from caffeine is similar to the "energy" a horse gets when whipped. It is not energy gained but power spent responding to an injury.

Tolerance

About tolerance to caffeine, he says: "What is tolerable for one person may be excessive for another. Moreover, what is tolerable caffeine intake at some point in your life may actually cause health problems just a few years later." (Caffeine Blues, page 8) We often hear that caffeine is only bad when consumed in excess, but when taken in small quantities it is not dangerous, and could even be beneficial, raising "mental alertness." But since when can a poison be good for you? "... of all the thousands of research papers that have been published on caffeine, none have concluded that caffeine is good for you."

The truth is that the moderate coffee drinker is a rare gem, because coffee is so addictive that most consumers eventually end up drinking quite a bit. And the "average person" is a myth anyway. This person described by scientists in their research papers when they statistically analyze caffeine consumption simply does not exist. Not everyone reacts to a poison the same way, not everyone can detoxify it at the same rate, and not everyone consumes the same dose. Those who are purified by, for example, a raw vegan diet, will react more strongly to caffeine than the average person. Children are more affected too, because their organism is purer. So the same dose of caffeine will have different effect on different people. So we can see the fallacy of recommending "moderation" - because it doesn't mean anything. Moderation can only concern the healthy factors of life, not those that are damaging to it. Moderation in them is impossible. Any quantity will be an excess.

But how did we come to drink coffee? It seems that coffee beans were used as a drug long before they were used as a food. The practice of giving toxic substances to the sick has been in vogue for a long time and has not changed much today. A large percentage of today's pharmaceutical drugs contain caffeine as one of their "active ingredients." "It was not until the thirteenth century that Arab monks made a revolutionary discovery. Roasted coffee beans could be made into a drink. No more falling asleep at prayers! The news spread from monastery to monastery, then hit the streets in the world's finest coffeehouses." (Caffeine Blues, page 14)

"When coffee was first brought to European cities in the seventeenth century, people were repelled by its color and taste. They complained that it smelled and looked like roofing tar. But after they experienced its stimulating effect, the beverage was quickly proclaimed to be one of nature's miracles. Historians record this phenomenon without noticing the irony of what they are writing. Caffeine is, after all, a psychoactive drug, and human beings tend to crave substances that alter their states among them caffeine, morphine, nicotine, and cocaine. Indeed, all of these alkaloids are chemically related and, while they produce widely different effects, all are poisonous." (Caffeine Blues, page 17)

Now coffee has conquered the world to the point where almost everyone drinks coffee, if not tea, if not another type of caffeinated beverage, such as coca-cola. Americans are the largest coffee drinkers in the world - with a dazzling record of 420 million cups drunk every single day.

Toxicity of Coffee

Coffee is not a food, it is not a drink - it's a poison. It's a "mild" drug containing a whole array of toxic substances. In addition to caffeine, coffee contains hundreds of volatile substances including more than 200 acids. These the body must reject by a great expense of energy, which is the strange stimulation perceived as "energy." "Caffeine is a biological poison used by plants as a pesticide. The caffeine gives seeds and leaves a bitter taste, which discourages their consumption by insects and animals. If predators persist in eating a caffeine-containing plant, the caffeine can cause central nervous system disruptions and even lethal side effects. Most pests soon learn to leave the plant alone." (Caffeine Blues, page 17) But humans have fooled their instincts and tastes bud and transformed coffee into a drinkable beverage, often mixed with milk and sugar. The same holds true for chocolate. No one would ever think of eating cocoa beans, because of their horrible taste. So we mix it with sugar and fat and call it chocolate. But our sense of taste was right in detecting that poison - used by the plant as a pesticide to repel insects.

Caffeine, like theobromine (found in chocolate), has to be detoxified by the liver, and injures it overtime. Caffeine is a poison for the liver. But caffeine is not the only toxic substance in coffee. "Remember that coffee contains a host of chemicals, not just caffeine, among them a group of extremely toxic compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). You might remember them as the cancer-causing agents isolated from barbecued meat." (Caffeine Blues, page 53)

Chocolate

Chocolate contains a small amount of caffeine, but also contains a good amount of another substance called theobromine. This is an substance analogous to caffeine, producing similar physiological effects. When you combine the caffeine and the theobromine contained in a one-ounce piece of chocolate, you end up with the stimulating power of 40 milligrams of caffeine!

But everyone drinks coffee!

"When it comes to coffee, the most common reaction I hear is, 'How can it be bad for you? People have been drinking coffee for centuries.' "To a scientist, this observation is meaningless. History is filled with cases where millions of people made serious mistakes. There are herbs in China, for example, that have been used medicinally for thousands of years, and are still being used to treat sinus congestion. But repeated use of these herbs over time can cause cancer of the nose and throat. Epidemiologists (scientists studying the distribution of disease in populations) have estimated that this habit has caused premature and painful death for millions of Chinese people. Clearly, great numbers of people can be wrong, especially when they don't know the facts." (Caffeine Blues, page 49)

I have a saying: A lot of what popular wisdom holds true is wrong. With so much misinformation spread today, I rarely say this line inappropriately. "You should also question the sanity of common statements that we hear from friends, celebrities, and co-workers. In the movie Shadow of a Doubt, Joseph Cotten's famous line was, 'I can't face the world in the morning. I must have coffee before I can speak.' Now, substitute for the word coffee any other drug, say amphetamines. If a person said he or she can't face the world without amphetamines, we'd call him or her an addict. We'd whisk the person off to rehab and maybe even throw him in jail. But because coffee is a drug we consume ourselves, we wink and nod and say, 'Yeah, ain't it the truth!'" (Caffeine Blues, page 50)

Caffeine and Impaired Digestion

"Impaired digestion is more of a problem than most people realize - and it gets worse with caffeine. That jumbo 32-ounce soft drink or the double espresso we have with meals is a major contributor to the bloating, pain, and gas that roughly 50 percent of American adults experience after they eat. And these symptoms are only the physical signs of indigestion. Unseen are the harmful by-products of fermentation and putrefaction. Some of these by-products are absorbed back into the bloodstream, and the toxins that stay in the gut increase your risk of gastrointestinal disease." (Caffeine Blues, page 60)

Caffeine and Sleep Disturbance

"There is a popular notion that coffee before 3 P.M. can't disturb your sleep. In fact, caffeine at any time of the day can