Ok so here is a super easy ice cream recipe that will  take you seconds (great for small kids too). Freeze a sliced banana, blend it in a mixer, and voila! banana ice cream – so good…

Many people get confused about the difference  between juices and smoothies. A juice contains no fiber/pulp from the produce – it is the extracted water content of fresh fruits and vegetables. A smoothie contains fiber – it is the result of blending whole fruits and vegetables, then drinking the mixture without seperating the fiber from the liquid. You can turn any fresh raw smoothie into a juice by simply squeezing it into a nut milk bag to seperate out the solids from the liquid.

Both are great for you… If a juice is eaten on an empty stomach, the nutrients penetrate deeper into your cells, so eat this first thing in the morning.

(Info from A Juice Feaster’s Handbook by Angela Stokes)

“I feel like I’ve always been someone looking for the cutting edge of things that optimize your health and healing” – Demi Moore

(Image from NYDailyNews.com)

There is always a constant discussion regarding fruit, so let’s clear things up. I’m all for it, except if you’re trying to lower your cholesterol. Here is a few paragraphs from Skinny Bitch.

“…Fruit. Eat it. The most irritating thing about the low-carb craze is the resistance to eating fruit.  Fruit is, quite possibly, the most perfect food in existence. It is unique in that it barley requires any work to be digested. High in enzymes, it effortlessly passes through the body, supplying carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids, and cancer-fighting tannins and flavonoids. Because it is made up of mostly water, fruit hydrates the body and aids in cleansing, detoxifying, and eliminating.

Best-selling Fit for Life authors Harvey and Marilyn Diamond found that fruit best serves our bodies when eaten along because it is so easily and quickly digested. When we eat fruit with other foods, it cannot pass through our bodies as quickly. So it rots and ferments in our stomach. This can cause burping, bloating, and heartburn. To combat this, the Diamonds recommend eating fruit on an empty stomach, first meal of the day, and waiting 30 minutes before eating anything else.”

(Info from Skinny Bitch, page 25-26.)

Replace it with a juice and read this article by Frederic Patenaude (my mom’s favorite raw foodie). If it doesn’t make you stop, hopefully it will make you think.

Article below from: http://www.alivefoods.com/coffee.html

“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.’”

“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 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.”

“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.”

Get more facts in the link above! This is interesting stuff.

(Image from Intoxicoligsts.files.wordpress.com)

After a long day at work, I like to make things simple for myself… as in meals that only take 10 minutes to put together. Lettuce wraps are definitely easy to make. Buy huge leaves from your preferred greens category – I like swiss chard – and put any veggies you like in there, add a click of guacamole, and sprinkle some Celtic or Himalayan sea salt on top. Done and done. Dinner is served.

A single carrot will supply all your vitamin A needs for the whole day. Research has also shown that this vegetable has a protective effect against ultraviolet light ( in other words they will help you look younger, longer). Chinese medical practitioners recommend eating carrots to give your liver more energy.

Evertime I visit Sweden, I stock up on snacks from Renée Voltaire – she has an amazing assortment, which can be purchased in various stores or from her website.

My favorites include: Buckwheat Crunch, Raw Cacao Pieces, Raw Coconut Oil (BEST), Raw Revolution Cashew Spirulina, & Sweet Mango Slices.

One of my all time favorite places in Miami is Glaser Farms – a fresh organic market that opens up shop every Saturday in Coconut Grove, Florida. Try it next time you’re in Miami.

Your body is comprised of organs, blood, guts, etc. The food you put in your mouth will eventually pass through these parts and rebuild these parts. Do you want your foundation to consist of french fries? I don’t think so… Take a look at the food you eat and ask yourself if this is something you want to be. Simple as that.

Crisp Apple? Yes. Greasy Pizza? No. Beautiful Strawberry Smoothie? Yes. Artificial Gummi Bears? No. Keep it natural kids… Take care of your insides, just like you do with your outsides.

(Photo from becomenatural.com)