Raw Dish!

On Thursday, July 3:

Breakfast- 1/2 lb red seedless grapes, a 1/2 gallon smoothie: 1 head Romaine, 4 bananas, 2 Valencia oranges, 2 cups water

Lunch- 10 large juicy sweet red plums

I've always had difficulty getting my mind around the concept of Dr. Graham's July 3 calendar entry.  I believe that in adopting healthy habits such as leading a raw food lifestyle, our body can heal and repair itself.  So how does this jive with Dr. Graham's quote?  I asked him about this once when I saw him and he described it this way.  If you hit a tree with an axe, it will, in time heal, create new growth and cover over the wound.  However, within the tree, a scar will always be there, even if the tree is healthy.

I'm on Jinjee's (of http://www.thegardendiet.com/) daily email list and yesterday she share her thought about General Mills purchasing LaraBar.  "Yesterday I read about Larabar being acquired by General Mills. Today I read that 600 Starbucks coffee shops are being closed down. I think these moves in the corporate world reflect a shift in human consciousness - we want to be healthier!  In joy!  Jinjee"

I agree with Jinjee!

On Wednesday, July 2...

Breakfast- 1/2 large watermelon

Lunch- 1 1/2 lbs red seedless grapes

Dinner- 10 Medjool dates, a 1/2 gallon smoothie of 1 head Romaine, 4 bananas, 2 cups water

On Tuesday, July 1, 2008...

Breakfast- a 1/2 gallon smoothie of 1 large bunch dandelion greens, 1 medium sized pineapple, 6 Medjool dates

Lunch- 13 Medjool dates, 1 large head Romaine lettuce

Dinner- 7 Medjool dates, a smoothie: 1 large bunch of spinach, 5 Valencia oranges, 1 grapefruit

The dates were not so great addition to the breakfast smoothie but the pineapple didn't taste very sweet and I felt that I needed something else sweet in it to boost my calorie intake.  Unfortunately, the result did not taste fabulous and I don't recommend it.  My cupboard is full of fruit that is not quite ripe yet.

Dinner was after working out at the gym and I felt really hungry.  I thought about having a handful of pecans and a big salad for dinner but I thought about it and I  said to myself, "Stephen, you know that it is nearly impossible for you to eat just one handful of pecans. Just let it go for tonight and make a smoothie." 

That sounded like pretty good advice to me and I listened.  The spinach/orange combination was pretty damn good and I didn't miss the pecans one bit!

from The Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2008:

"Tomatoes are especially vexing because of the complex path they take from field to fork.  Because tomatoes are perishable, suppliers typically rely on more than one grower to fill orders.  Once the tomatoes come into a processing facility, they're usually sorted based on ripeness, size and grade, not origin.  Sometimes, the FDA says, tomatoes picked in Florida are shipped to Mexico for packaging before being returned to the U.S. for sale.  Once tomatoes are sliced, diced and mixed for salad bars, deli counters or supermarket salsas, tracking their provenance becomes nearly impossible."

I added the italics.  Can you believe this, how many people, pairs of hands, handle conventional food before it is sold to consumers?  How many runny noses drip on our food?  How many fingers that just wiped or picked a nose, scratched inside of and ear, or picked something from between a tooth touch our food?  How can we not expect to have outbreaks of disease?  I'm not faulting the behaviors; these are all very normal human animal actions.  It's when we forfeit our responsibility to take care of our health & food that we introduce countless unknown factors into our lives and put our health at risk.

Making a conscious effort to know where our food comes from would benefit every one of us. 

On Tuesday June 30, 2008...

Breakfast- 1 large cantaloupe, 1/2 gallon smoothie of 1 lb green leaf lettuce, 3 bananas, 1 cup blueberries

Lunch- 1 large cantaloupe

Dinner- 16 oz. carrot/celery juice, a salad: home grow by me Romaine lettuce, mint, parsley, basil, cucumbers; 3 store bought tomatoes; 1 tbs each tahini & coconut butter, juice from 1/2 lime, 1/2 tsp dulse flakes, 6 diced black olives

I didn't eat enough calorie wise today just due to my schedule, logistics, what was ripe, etc.  However, it was a sublime pleasure to eat food grown in my own little garden plot in the Clinton Community Garden on West 48th St.  I was filled with such gratitude for the food.  I picked the cucumbers and other ingredients at dusk and within 20 minutes I was sitting cross-legged on my living room floor eating/merging with what I had grown.  I feel silly writing the word "merging"; it seems excessively poetic, but that's how I felt, it's not easy to describe.

I've been enjoying eating all raw again and I am enjoying the results, namely abundant energy, mental clarity, fitness, etc..., all the things I've experienced before.  I don't want to recommend doing what I did, going back to eating cooked food for while, because it was a personal decision made for reasons too multi-faceted to write at the moment.  I'll probably eat some cooked food again on some occasion in my life, but not today.  I've never stopped believing that we're meant to eat raw, but I guess there are many roads to getting there.  We probably never "get there", we just keep experiencing the unfolding process-there I go again, getting poetic.