As I sat one day in my Wildlife in the Modern World class tapping my pencil against the bindings of my notebook and absorbing the contents of a Planet Earth DVD, several insights dawned on my consciousness. Tuning into the input of universal wisdom, while watching ducklings soar in slow motion from their tree nest, I realized that humans do not have the capability to even BEGIN to fathom the impact we have on the world. If it has gotten to the point where we have lived inside for most of our lives so that we need high definition cameras and brave cameramen to bring the outside inside, then who even knows if the efforts of this “green revolution” produces effective results? I wasn’t aware that ducks nested in trees, and those ducks aren’t aware that our pesticides are polluting their waters. There are so many delicate balances and intricate connections in all the ecosystems across this planet. Every second there are billions of people and animals, and trillions of plants and bugs, moving and causing and creating and destroying and interacting, for a billion different reasons. And so, I live in a small community and have big ideas, like many of us environmentally aware stewards. We are not gods we are the passengers. Our ideas are too simple and too general to fix the problems our world faces. We can not simply live the way we live and hope to patch up the environment. There are technologies, there are environmental cleanups, there are tree planting sessions, there are compostable products. These are all band-aids. In order to heal a wound one must ultimately be in the position of acquiring a terrific immune system, not a line of anti-septics, gauze strips, tape, and Neosporin. In order for the environment to heal, it needs to be put into a position of healing itself. That means looking at the ROOT of the problem which is consumerism. We can initiate all the environmental clean up projects in the world, but only in a 1 step forward 2 steps back scenario. Instead of doing environmental clean up projects, lets prevent trash from even piling up. Instead of treating an infected wound, lets build up our immune systems so the wounds won’t even get infected. Let us dig deep, prod around, warm up, and lusciously unfold the roots of all of our problems. Let us reconnect with the environment. Let us heal ourselves to heal the world.
All of the problems we face today are linked to consumerism. I literally had to stumble over this root sticking up from the ground, many times growing up. Now I am finally paying attention to it. The root of the problem is my friend, his wife, me, you, the principal of your school, my best friend, your next door neighbor, a mom, her sister, etc. We as individuals in this world are the catalysts of the problem and solution to the biggest challenges we face today. You can say “well I am not clear cutting forests or dumping chemicals in streams. Huge corporations do and they have influence on the government” Yes many are irresponsible and it would be nice if they had a pulse and a conscience. Well, if they have power and lobbyists and personal interests how can they be stopped? Well, what is the source of their power? It is money. Who gives them money? We do. Do we know what we are buying and do we know its reverberating effects? Not really. Uh oh. Bingo. The root of the solution starts with each individual, their well being, their impact on the environment, and most of all, their DOLLAR.
The title to my idea is Heal Yourself to Heal the Planet. If we as INDIVIDUALS are not balanced inside, our world will not be balanced. Our inner turmoil reflects our environments turmoil. If we are sick, if we are stuck with a 9-5 job, if we are bombarded with advertisements about food, pharmaceutical drugs, cars, and music, if we go through school systems that suppress our natural curiosity of learning, if we lose touch with our passions, if we are depressed, if we feel bloated, if all we desire to do is relieve the stress by sleeping in and drinking busch beer, if our families our all separating, then who has time to even worry about the environment? We keep buying quick fixes and convenient products without questioning the integrity of the service or product. Our inner turmoil is transmuted as neglect and un-awareness of our effect on the world.
It follows some basic principles, for example, the law of attraction, you are what you eat, and most of all BE THE CHANGE YOU DESIRE TO SEE IN THE WORLD. If we desire to reverse the processes of deforestation and political turmoil, and pollution, it makes sense to reverse the degenerative processes happening within us.
This is where I choose to offer a solution in my area of interest, raw foods. I work as a chef and teacher in a restaurant in Seattle called Thrive and we offer a rainbow palate of living organic raw foods. I teach raw food classes there, and am currently planning on traveling to Costa Rica to help set up a living food program at a retreat center called Shangri La with my good friend, a DO and also specialist in herbs, nutrition, and healing energy. The owners of this center Geoff McCabe and Joseph Mikrut own the place in Montezuma (this center we are visiting used to be a holistic addiction treatment center and is reinventing itself and looking to use raw foods. Here is the old website http://shangrilabiospa.com/outings.htm. check it out.)
The raw foods lifestyle includes foods of organic nuts, seeds, sprouted grains, vegetables, and fruits. The theory of raw foods in a cashew sized nut shell is that cooking our food above 118 degrees F kills all of the enzymes in the food, and alters the structures and shapes of important structures of proteins, fats, sugars, vitamins and minerals. On the most basic level, humans are born with a set amount of enzymes in their body. Enzymes are necessary for every process and function in the body. The only other source of enzymes we get is from our foods. Therefore if our food is compromised, and all the enzymes are killed with heat, we have to rob enzymes from our body to meet the demanding needs of digestion. If our organs and processes are robbed of the parts that keep them running, those processes will start to malfunction, and we start seeing mass number of people with degenerative diseases. These degenerative diseases can be reversed and people will and have gotten healthier at 50 than they ever were at 20. Raw foods is infamous for reversing all sorts of degenerative diseases, be it cancer, heart disease, obesity, early aging, diabetes, (type 2 AND type 1 check out simply raw the documentary by Gabriel cousins, he runs a healing center called tree of life in Patagonia Arizona) alzheimers, and other problems, like low libido, infertility, skin problems, ulcers, digestive problems, multiple sclerosis, constipation, mental problems such as depression and ADD, and allergy problems. When I first got into raw foods it seemed too good to be true, and thank god I found in my experience that it is an astounding system to regain health. If you were to plant a bunch of spinach, the key to that plant’s success is the soil. Our society’s problem is coming up with quick fixes that have harsh environmental effects. Most conventional farms have to fertilize every little spot they plant their seed because the soil doesn’t support the plant itself. The key to the vibrancy of that spinach plant is the terrain. It needs to have composted nutritional soil, perhaps mix diluted clean ocean water to add important minerals, or rock dust to add minerals, making sure the soil is full of great healthy microorganisms, and worms, and instead of using pesticides, use crushed up oyster shells to keep the slugs away. That way the plant is healthy and doesn’t require pesticides or herbicides or chemical fertilizer because it can stand strong in its own health. THE SAME principal is applied to the body. Feed your body with the highest live nutrition and instead of altering the chemistry of the food, eat it in the way nature packaged it for us to build a strong healthy body with a terrific immune system and more alkaline blood. It is about the terrain and health of the body, not whether if you have another quick fix drug to help the symptoms of a disease one is dealing with. The health of the environment is all about the terrain too. I will explain later about how raw foods will help the environment recuperate.
Here are some examples of people I know in my own community, Redmond, who have amazing healing stories. The first is Mia Dalene the person who introduced raw foods to me. She healed her traumatic brain injury, got some of the memory she lost back, and her creativity back, here is a little of her story http://www.dalenes.com/Site/about.html. Also Susan Armstrong of rawvegansource (the biggest distributor in the nation of raw food products under one roof on union hill) cured her papillary thyroid cancer through raw foods. A chef I used to work for, Adam Lewis of natures pantry in Bellevue, was able to heal himself of past addictions. Frank Sonata an acquaintance who lives in San Francisco is part of a documentary called May I Be Frank that documented his 30 day raw food challenge to help him achieve health and discover his happiness. His documentary is currently being entered in a film festival and is currently not yet in distribution.
Even if one isn’t struggling with a serious condition, one can still tremendously improve their health by increasing their energy, mental clarity, clearer skin and beauty, the weight that’s perfect for them, detoxifying their body from pollution, having healthier happier vibrations, a more positive outlook on life and relationships, and most of all being more connected with nature in a respectful, joyful way. My friends in the raw food community, we spend our time in the outdoors as much as possible, I personally feel a stronger connection with animals, plants, and beauty more than ever before, hence my interest in environmentalism and the connections I have made to healing the planet.
You may ask how all of this plays into environmentalism, and I am getting to the juice of the answer right now.
There are questions that people will ask about the raw food diet that every person has to explore for himself. Every BODY is different and everyones mentality is different therefore raw foods should be explored by each individual and in no way forced upon anyone. It is not a diet of restriction, it is a welcoming lifestyle of abundance and prosperity. Unlike some other diets that require you to take away certain foods and essentially restrict nutrition and amp up exercise, raw foods is simply about adding good foods into your diet and feeling the results. On my raw journey my good food choices lead to more good choices, and once I started feeling more energized and healthy, and my taste buds started to change, I started craving dark leafy vegetables, and simplicity in foods. Eating meat, cheese, bread, and any cooked food was something I simply didn’t desire or see the need to eat anymore. I can peruse through a garden, enjoy the bitterness of plain greens and be happily fulfilled. Not all people are 100% rawvegans a lot of people experience great results on an 80%,raw 20%cooked diet. A lot of people feel great after eating just one meal of raw food because instead of eating till you are full, you eat clean fuel until your nutritional needs are satisfied. Many people can eat 5 slices of pizzas, drink a soda, and have 4 breadsticks. Not many people can eat 5 salads, a green smoothie, and 4 sticks of raw flax bread in one sitting. Why? In the first scenario your body keeps eating in search of whole nutrition, and stops when it physically is stuffed and can’t take in any more food. In the second scenario you stop eating when your body gets all the nutrition and enzymes it requires, without the symptoms of fullness bloating and sleepiness. In any case, just introducing the population to raw foods, and incorporating food with higher integrity will have significantly improved benefits for their personal health and the environments health.
NOW FOR THE CONNECTION TO ENVIRONMENTALISM.
I am going to list my personal experience with my own health, and how being fully healthy myself has lessened my impact on the environment significantly, automatically, and almost effortlessly.
Raw foods has cleared my skin from blemishes and acne. I have a glow without wearing makeup. I do not spend money on toxic makeups, face washes, shampoos, body washes, hair dye, hairspray and other female products that pollute the environment and promote the use of animal testing. Instead I wash my face with spring water, use a combination of salt lemon and avocado to wash my hair, and my hair has gotten to be beautiful so that I like its texture its color, and it takes me 10 minutes to get out the door in the morning
I have learned that bleached feminine products such as tampons and pads have a very negative impact on our water, and environment. The chemicals and bleach they use for those products have contributed to negative symptoms I had while on my cycle. Tampons even warn of the possibility of toxic shock syndrome. Is this something we choose to have in our bodies even at all if after 4 hours you have to change your tampon? To free my body from the perfumes and chemicals they use in tampons and pads, I have used a product called a diva cup, made of the same safe material doctors use in surgeries, that doesn’t leach toxins in my body and is reusable. You only need to buy two diva cups in your lifetime, one for before pregnancy, and one after. This is a huge impact on the environment because half of the population is females, and mostly all of them have cycles. To clean the diva cup you just boil it in hot water, this is the website for the product. http://www.divacup.com/.
Raw foods has cleaned up the excessive mucus in my digestive system so that I do not have bad breath or body odor. I don’t use deodorants with aluminum to block the pores or perfumes with who knows what is in them. I use neem and peelu tree toothpastes, and raw plant fiber to keep my teeth white and my mouth healthy. I do not chew chemical filled gum and therefore it doesn’t end up on the ground or in a landfill.
Raw foods has given me the gift of health I haven’t caught a full blown cold in 2 years, most of the time if I have signs of catching a cold it gets taken care of within a day. I don’t use any prescription drugs, or over the counter medication at all.
Raw foods has gotten me to support local organic farms, and especially local because the freshest food and the most beneficial ALIVE food is food that hasn’t traveled far. Also I have a garden in my backyard and enjoy free food that reproduces on its own. Going organic has a huge impact on the agricultural system, and that systems’ money making abilities. If people switch to organic for their health, the use of pesticides, and other environmental pollutants will go down.
Raw foods has taught me an important concept about skin cancer. We do not need sunscreen if our cells our healthy. Our cells have a double phospholipid membrane composed of fat that dictates which foreign components may come in or come out. If the fat we get from our food is unnatural trans-fatty acid which is caused by cooking or rancidity, our cells will be composed of that kind of fat, allowing UV light to penetrate our cells in a destructive manner. Transfats also cause the mitochondria (energy source) of our cells to malfunction, causing low energy. On the other hand, many raw foodists that have great cells do not get burned and can tolerate the sunlight. Many sunscreens can in the long term cause skin cancer because of the chemicals they are made up of and the cooked fats they are composed of. Interesting concept.
Raw foods has introduced me to the highest protein sources on the earth way above any content of meat protein. They include spirulina (blue green algae), goji, and incan berries, and dark leafy vegetables with all the amino acids and building blocks of protein from clean plant sources. All of the largest, strongest, animals on the planet, the elephant, the gorilla, the giraffe, they all thrive on a diet composed exclusively of greens, grasses, and fruits. So does it make sense that to be big, you have to eat muscle? What are the building blocks of protein? Amino acids. Every plant is filled with amino acids. Instead of breaking down whole animal proteins and reassembling them, you simply assemble the amino acids into a sequence of a protein.
Raw foods has given my mental clarity so that I can concentrate more, follow my dreams more, have more insight on life, more appreciation and awareness for the relationships around me, and more opportunities to make connections with amazing forward thinking people. I am more positive and accomplished than before, I do not choose to listen to music on the radio, be constantly on the phone, surf on the internet, or watch shows on television because their subconscious influence is not what I choose to have in my life. Also the advertisements that most people are bombarded with cause them to subconsciously buy products because they feel they need them, despite the integrity of the product (or the fact they really just don’t need them).
If people choose to partake in other forms of entertainment and stimulation like sports, dance, hiking, wild food foraging, and drum circles, for example, the influence of these industries will have less of an effect on the mind. Also, using these appliances less means less energy use, and less electromagnetic chaos.
Raw foods has given me more energy to travel by foot, bike, and bus, significantly reducing my use of automobiles and pollution.
Raw foods has taught me to put plants and herbs in my home to increase the oxygen flow and cleanse the air, so I don’t use harsh air cleaners or other house products
Raw foods has eliminated the use of large appliances such as the stove, microwave, toaster, oven, and has eliminated the use of harsh dishwashing detergent for cutting cooked stuck on grease to pots and pans. My preparation tools involves small appliance like blenders, food processors, and knives that use less energy and less preparation time. It is also easier to wash a cutting board that I sliced tomatoes on, than to clean a pan with cooked grease on the sides, so I require water rather than harmful grease cutting soap to wash my dishes.
Raw foods has taught me that spring and well water is so good for my body. So I travel to local springs and wells for free clean amazing water, with my three 5 gallon glass jugs, that last me about 2 months for drinking water. I have eliminated my use of plastic water bottles almost completely.
Raw foods has given me better relationships with people, and better ability to solve problems and work together. Raw foods opens up the possibility of grassroots democracy and believing in ourselves to achieve any goal we desire.
Raw foods helps with so many health problems, that we could potentially not worry about pharmaceutical medications anymore. We would become our own health caretaker; we won’t need health care anymore except in the case of physical accidents, and won’t have to deal with toxic medications turning up in our water systems. We won’t have to deprive poor people from good health because medications are so expensive. It would also solve the problem of unethical animal testing.
We can solve world hunger through eliminating meat and dairy products, something pretty well known. We can increase that effectiveness even more and can feed 250% more people by planting orchards rather than having fields of grain that can not be eaten unless they are processed or cooked. We eliminate the suffering of farm factory animals, eliminate the use of antibiotics in animals, and the negative effects of pasteurization and homogenization.
By planting more orchards and more trees, especially fruit trees, the roots of those trees can get deep down and pull up minerals from deep layers of earth. When the tree creates its leaves and fruits they will be more full of nutrition and minerals, that when the fruit and leaves drop to the ground, they re-mineralize the top soil that is so often depleted of quality minerals. In this manner we can work to build up our soil to healthier levels. David Wolfe’s fruit tree planting organization has this vision at the core of its purpose.
We eliminate all the energy that goes into process and packaging a lot of food. Most raw foods require being fresh and unpackaged straight from the local farm or our own garden.
The raw food packages that come from far away are mostly superfoods like goji berries, nuts, coconuts, raw cacao, etc that are mostly organic and fair trade. Our impact as a nation on other nations will become more supportive rather than destructive. Coffee (obviously a huge agricultural product) isn’t a part of raw foods therefore deforestation to grow coffee fields will be lessened.
Raw foods has introduced me to a lot of local strong free wild edibles that taste great and help us deal with the environment we live in. The plants that grow in the same place as you live will help you deal with the effects one has living in that environment. It helps eliminate spring allergies (esp wild raw organic local honey) and since they are wild plants they are strong plants. For example dandelion is one of the must nutritious greens ever and it grows everywhere. My wild foraging sessions connect me with the environment and the animals that live harmoniously with it, and inspires me to be a courteous dweller on this planet.
Raw foods has encouraged me to eliminate fish from my diet, mostly because they are overly toxic from our polluted waters. Eating less fish means giving a chance for fish populations to recharge. In combination with less toxins being dumped into waters we could potentially clear streams and help fish repopulate, and also less energy would mean less obstructive dams.
Raw foods has encouraged me to be more conscious of our political situation and how propaganda is used in a negative way. I see a lot of potential healing with politics and big industries because the only way they thrive is through use of fear, and money, things that don’t control my being or actions anymore. I am powerful and can think for myself. I live in love and hard work, I do not let money stop me. I have a will therefore I have many ways.
Raw foods has encouraged me to wear organic clothing and also my beauty is not dictated anymore by the clothes or makeup I wear anymore. My weight doesn’t fluctuate so I don’t buy a new wardrobe every year, I buy fair trade organic clothing, buy used clothing, recycled clothing, or hand me downs, which eliminates child labor in foreign countries and the use of pesticides and synthetic materials in clothing.
Raw foods has introduced me to zeolites. The same material they used to divert the disaster of Chernobyl is present in a product called natural cellular defense. It is zeolites formed when lava meats the ocean and turns into a powder. This powder is further crushed and suspended in liquid to increase the surface area to be 8 times more effective than its original form. When ingested it eliminates toxins and heavy metals. It has a negative charge that attracts positively charged toxins and traps it in its cage like structure then safely eliminates it from your system. It is the only product that when tested at the tree of life center, has fully removed all 14 major pesticides found in human blood. It takes toxins out of our nervous system, muscle, fat, tissue, blood that chlorophyll wouldn’t be able to remove.
Think about this. We are the only species of animal that tampers with their food. We are the only species of animal that doesn’t live outside. When was the last time you went to the bathroom outside? We are the only species that doesn’t know how to build shelter, grow, forage, or catch their food anymore. We are the only species that drinks another animal’s milk. Not only that, we drink the homogenized, pasteurized milk for our whole lives. Milk is meant for a baby from the mother to build the immune system and receive nutrition for a short period of time. If we go back to raw foods, we go back to our habitat, we go back to our environment, and we live in harmony with the earth. We give the mother an opportunity to heal herself. Do you see those plants that grow in between cracks of concrete on the freeway? That is the will power of Mother Nature and the strength she has to recover, if we allow her the chance.
I have seen in so many ways especially within just the Redmond raw food community, that the raw food lifestyle opens people up to environmentalism, change, self empowerment, and consciousness more than any other group of people I have met. I believe the main problem with people not being self or environmentally aware is that they are too impacted with the negative effects our polluted airs, waters, propaganda, and food, that they simply have to heal themselves before they can awaken and heal the planet.
What are the most difficult points of environmentalism that hinders people from joining the movement? Negative mentality. Who wants to spend their money on organic whole fair trade food if they don’t know how it benefits them and the world? They live indoors all the time and literally can not see the peril our world is in. Perhaps they are just dealing with health problems, worried about keeping their jobs, trying to keep their families in school, and don’t have time to focus on anything but staying afloat. People don’t believe in vegetarianism or think GMOs are good because every radio and tv commercial has some message from the dairy and meat industry. Our own secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack is a GMO promoter. Yikes. That situation is only dangerous if we blindly listen, yes I said blindly listen, to propaganda, and don’t think for ourselves.
What if we could feel good about ourselves, while healing the environment at the same time? We do not need to resort to any agency or official or PhD professor to know how to heal the environment. We are powerful. It is not about sacrificing our time to fix a solution, it is about living in love for ourselves and our world and transmuting that energy around. My project is more than a clean up project, it is more than a highly technological solution. It isn’t even my idea, it is the earth’s highest choice and the ROOTS of her being. How do I turn this idea into a project? Through grassroots strategies of course. The possibility of this idea would not be promoted through any form of fake communication, because TV stations and radio stations require funding from corporations who can afford their costs and control their information. This message in no way would trickle from the top down; this message will be sent with meaningful eye contact and human presence.
My project is teaching raw foods classes to my community, teaching them delicious and satisfying recipes and their connection to environmentalism. This plants a seed in their consciousness and they will slowly begin to awaken to the world they live in. If people awaken, they will suggest it to their friends and family, and the message will spread. I have seen, for many people, that the concept of raw food clicks, and their own power begins to awaken within them. Real truth is always beautifully simple. Heal yourself to heal the world.
Date: September 26, 2009 Views: 10914 File size:26.3kb, 884.5kb: 2048 x 1536
