text:
Are you sure?
This action might not be possible to undo. Are you sure you want to continue?
gly recomtn(nd it to anyone who is moving into a live food li.festy:le, to any te,acher 0f liMe food,,, and tQ an.}r live food frit;,nd who needs Stllppor:t all any level. This book is one of the most supportive and nurturing offerings in the live food movement I've seen ill years. Victoria Boutenko has made ~ wonderful contributio'n with this hook, I am grateful for this breaktmrough!"
_. From the. forew~rd O-y. Gabriel CQuS'ens, M.D., M.D. (H), Oit<eetQ;I' liiffthe Tre@'ofL;ife Rej.l1y€natitul C.etr~€';4, At.juh0r @f Co,1'l&lf:i(m.~ BdtJi;f'bg'aI\Q·$jl~1.'ii11J~crl ~ij)Jltll'itilil:p:. ~1IIud lh@ Aai1lL~"W Diet
How to En Your Addiction to Cooked Food
"Because of ¥iictoria);s 12 Step program my famil-rand I experienee more out of life than we e-ver w'efUUed possib le, with even more life foroe, Rawis the 'best wa~ to beY
- Unt:la '&:runo, MeG1cail Henbalist, e.@roruli:Hflgien~$tJ lJ:jcd Je .. ;i$t
Th'e aUlthor, ¥itlori& B®l!I,te-n ~
"As "3 result of Vjj,etoria's 12 Step pro~r3JJ,i!11 eame to realize that I (ioliJ~ill be eating he@:lthrer1,amki e:niQywhr&n t. health and ,energy?'
«l can say,> without a doubt, ~hat Victod~'s 12 Step program.and the support that meets around it, has changed my life and has II<CWt me on the Law food path," - Gacy Cr-al:Ver
Copyright ® 2002 by Victoria Boutenko
• All rights reserved. No part of this book may be repnoduced or
tran unittedin any fOtJ11 or by any means, eleotronic or mechanical, including pboto'Copying, reeerding, or brany information storage and retrieval sy tern, withou the express written permission of the puhlisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations ill a review,
Raw Family Publishing
2253 Bighwny 99 Notth, #58 Ashland, OR 97520, U.S..A.
Photography on the front cover by Dragornir Vulwvic Edited by lan . Picknell
Cover and interior design by Lightbourne
library of Congress Ca talog Card Number 20011 'I 8915
Disclaimer: TIle information contained in this book is not intended
as medical advice. Vict(!)n.l Bourenko does not recommend cooked foods Or standard medical practices, The <tUUlOtS. publishers Meller distributors will net assume responsibility for anyadverse consequences resulting from adopting tile lifestyle described herein.
Whj,te the 12 teps, identified were Inspired by the TWfi'I.v.e Step 'of A.A., they are net really an adaptation, Rather, they were ereated spedfically for Ihi publication, and should 11 t be construed otherwi e. A.A., which is a program concerned only with recovery from alcohohsm, and Is nor in any way <,ffiliated with this publication
I dedicate this book to Donald 0. HJ>/ug17ey withmtl whose encouragement .tl1ishook WOllild net be possible.
1 thank all my dear friends throughout the world who inspired [n~ to present thinkiI1g.
1 thank all Editors, Reader and Artists for their kindness and patience.
Special thanks to Donald O. Haughey and Elizabeth and David Bechtold for financing my book.
Foreword by Gabriel Cousens Note From Author
Chapter One Chapter Two
PART ONE Why Eat Raw?
Life and .Energy The Human Body
Never Makes Mistakes
Clul1pt.er Three Chapter Four
The Law Of Vital AdjustTIlen,t 17 Bacteria, My Favorite:
Animal In The World
Chapter Five Chapter Six
Detoxification As Healing Tl1e Family Past
How To Slay Raw
Chapter Seven \rVhy Twelve Steps?
Chapter Eight Step One
Chapter Nine Step Two
Chapter Ten Step Three
Cl1ap.tcr Eleven Step Four
35 45
50 61 69 71 79
viii 12 Steps to Raw Food
Chapter Twelve Step Five 91
Chapter Thirteen Step Six ] 03
Chapter Fourteen. Step Seven ]07
Chapter Fifteen Step Eight 111
Chapter Sixteen Step Nine 115
Chapter Seventeen Step Ten 121
Chapter Eighteen Step Eleven 125
Chapter Ninetree,n Step Twelve 129
Chapter Twenty Gourmet Recipe 133 Resources
Don Ha/ughey; th,e OWNer of CHI The Value of Support
167 168
by Gabriel Cousens
T ,:elve Steps to. R.· aw Food is a breakthrou~h work for the . live food movement. The breakthrough IS the understanding, humbly articulated by Victoria Boutenko fOT the first time, that there are many people who are literally addicted to cooked food. Because of this addiction to cooked. food they have a very difficult time transitioning gracefully to a full live food diet. This book is an answer to their problems. Victoria, in a very thoughtful and compassionate way, outlines a breakthrough 12 Step program to support people suecessfully in their transition to live foods. She takes much of her understanding about the idea of cooked food addiction from the tradition of 12 Step programs. Starting with this as a base, slice has formulated a very compassionate system for helping people make a uccessful transition to Live food.
As a holistic physician, psychiatrist, family therapist, and a person on 100% live foods since 1~83, and who has been . helping thousands of people shift toward live foods, this book provided me with a tremendo~s new insight In my
12 Steps lO Raw Food
own life, my transition to live faods was motivated by an intense spiritual focus and my transition was done without the help of others or much knowledge. I was personally fortunate in that I never really experienced the difficulties of addiction. Because of this, I simply didn't have this insight to help understand the difficulties that many of my clients were having making the tran ition to live foods. At the Tree of life Rejuvenation Center.a live food rejuvenation center in Patagonia, AZ, where I am director, we incorporate many of the steps Victoria talks about for helping clients succeed with live foods, but not with the clarity that she creates in this book. Yes, we teach Step 2 that vegan Live foods are the dietary blueprint for the coming age of peace; and yes, we teach Step 3, the basic skills, raw recipes, and equipment use; we share Step 4, compassion and tolerance for people who eat cooked food; Step 5, of how to avoid temptation, Step 6, creating support groups; Step 7, finding alternative activities to eating; we address Step 8, personality repatterning and Step 9, the psychology of food addiction, giving healing techniques and processes with a special course called Zero Point for oeercoming these food addictions; Step 10, we show people to trust their intuition with food; encourage and inspire Step 11, the joy of spiritual awakening in our function as a piritual sanctuary, and Step 12. we encourage the genera] growth or the live food movement, giving support with books, and even offering a live food University Master'S Degree course. But, we missed the punch line, Step 1, helping those with difficulties to realize their uncontrollable addiction to cooked foods and the actual need for a formal 12 Step approach! Step 1 giv:'es power to all the other steps.
This breakthrough makes this book so valuable and clear.
It is this crystallization of this potent issue in the live food movement that I personally didn't quite understand until I began talking to Victoria about it and had an opportunity to read her book. I applaud Victoria and this book-for this breakthrough. I am very happy that this book is on the market. I will be recommending tills book to my clients that come to the Tree of Life. It speaks to a problem that perhaps not everyone has, but that many, many people do have. I believe that it will provide a vocabulary. understanding and a. compassion that will serve many people.
Victoria, by sharing the stories of her own transition and difficulties and that of her family, makes it a very per on able b001c Her anecdotes give people something concrete and human that people can identify with. Her genuine humbleness makes this book even more powerful The stories of her family's transition, of their struggles, and of the growth that they all experienced in this process. are an in piration. The reading of this book for many people is really a reading of their own struggles and a solution, or at least a pathway; to Success.
Althou.gh the most important contribution to this book : 15 the dean, clear insight that for many people, cooked food is an addiction, Victoria gives a very solid overview of the importance oflive foods for OUI health and our well being. She also shares insights into food preparation that are foundational and, in my opinion, are absolutely perfect in terms of getting people to understand that it's not about the recipes but about understanding and playing with food in a way that encourage u to make OUI own creations in the ~mplest ways to meet OUJ· needs. As I read her book I really appreciate her sophisticated understan.ding of the ins and outs of the
12 Steps to Raw Food
transition to live foods. For example, she makes the point that raw food has to be delicious, particularly in the beginning.because people need the psychological comfort of gourmet quality to make the transition. At the same time pointing out that once people are more involved in the licwe food way of life, there's less need for the gourmet level. She gives people gems to which they can hang on to help them to be very successful in becoming Taw food people.
Perhaps one of the most important elements is bel' cornpassion that comes through in he:r writing based on her own experiences and that of her family. She helps us look at the cultural attachments, social pressures, the programming from birth, the addictive quality of particularly the processed food, and artfully gives people ways to deal with all of these issues.
Another aspect that makes this book very positive fQ!' people is its supportfor turning people intotheir own best expert. There's a lot of confusion in all fields involved in nutrition, whether it's live foods or not. And her clear wax O,r approaching this is encouraging people, once they're thrQ,U'gb the detoxification, to trust their own body cravings because these cravings often tell a. personwhat they really need f0f thei.r bodily health at that moment, Another aspect to bel' work is a very excellent chapter on detoxification as part 0.1' the transition to healing, She skillfully covers ali the symptoms that people commonly have and roms the detox into a celebration. In fact, she turns this whole transition process, which for so many people is not the easiest thing, into a celebration - a celebration of life and of love for ourselves.
This book is destined 'to become a classic, lam grateful f()J the opportunity to write an introduction and I strongly recommend it to anyone who is helping others move into a Hv€
food lifestyle, to any teacher of live foods, and to any live food friend who needs support at any level. This book is one of the most supportive and nurturing offerings in the live food movement that I've seen in years. Victoria Bountenko has made a wonderful contribution with. this book. I am grateful for this breakthrough!
Blessings to your health, well-being, and spiritual joy;
Gabriel Cousens,M.D. M.D. (H)
Director of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, author of Consdeus BMing and Spirit~wl Nutrition and The Rahlbo·w Diet.
A Note from the Author
Dear Reader,
I believe that you cannot remember my thoughts or my words. You can remember only your own thoughts that you have while reading or listening. Then these are your own discoveries, and you shift yourself in your own way. That is why when I teach classes I always create a dialogue .. 1 form some key questions and ask my audience to give me honest answers.
1 will be asking you too, my reader, some important questions in this book as if you are in my class. I feel that to be honest is important for you. Not for me, because many of you I will never see. Please be as honest as you can. And I promise to be as honest as I can. This wav we will have a dialogue. A sincere dialogue is the best way ~o follow the truth.
When [say in my classes that cooked food is addictive, people laugh. When I say we should have "Cooked Food Anonymous:' people laugh even more. But in fact this is not ~lnny. Most people go on raw food for somecjerious reasons, like me, my husband and my children. To m~ going on raw
£; od meant choosing life over death. J was dying, I went on
12 Steps to Raw Food
raw food and I am alive, healthy and happy. I am grateful that I bad support from my family. When I was watching other people trying to be raw fooders, I have found that st~~ ing on the raw food diet is difficult without support. When we g9 on raw food, we are acting again teverything that is considered normal and expected around eating ..
Out of om passion to all people wh . experience difficulties staying on a raw food diet. with the support from my family, I have created this 12 Step program. I tried it for aRe year in many classes before putting it into a book. 1 have been teaching 1.2 Steps to Raw Food, that treat cooked food as an addiction. Students who have taken this program are staying successfully 100% raw. They are experiencing. no temptation to eat cooked food. Just Done. These 12 Steps help people t ' stay on raw food. no matter what. They work! Now, using thi.s program. people are organizing their own weekly support groups. They study 12 Steps to Raw Food in Seattle, Eugene, Silver SPl"IDg, ScU1 Mateo and many other cities. These groups are growing every day. If you want to contact them please see the information in the end of this book.
We wanted to try this program longer befere pllblishing tills book, but we received such an avalanche of requests from all over the world for it, that we decided to publish the book now. We will continue to work on the 12 Step program and are planning to publish a more complete edition lin the future.
In Part One of this book, we will discuss why eating raw food is the most healthy and nutritious wa)f to eat. In Part Two we. will explore how to stay on the raw food. dietu.sin't the 12 Steps to Raw Food progr-am.
Why Eat Raw?
Life and Energy
W hen people ta. lk ab .. out taw fo()d~ tb:'eY.·, usuailly talk ' .. about eiR.~ymes. Enzymes are: gnergy. :m.n~ymes are life. We cannot see '~nzyrn,es with our naked ere) but we f.1X1l see thel'ife (mcienergy that is the result of fl'tZ'Ymes. For exam~1'€:, ifl take two aImeD ds, one nn"l a nd one masted. and planUhem in the soil, withd..ll 'three weeks the masted a.l,n;t10:nd'l.vill have disintegrated into the soil. The raw
alm~n,a will remain where 1 planted ir. 10: spri:{lg~he snow nwtrs an the rneuntain and. flows down to water the soil, hilr"bino.t'S will be unlocked in the alrnsnd and it will have the petenrlal tbgive birth to 8 beautiful .. big almorrd tree, which will g.i'll-€ birth to thousands more beautiful almonds, As, this illll.stration shows, the clitference betweea the roasted al.Dl€lnd a,nd the raw almond is life ~d death .. One has enz.y:n'lCS and. one does not, One ca:1"Tievorithi.n, the l~Q,t:ential anire, the ether has had life cooked out, If I were. to take l:\~o abllO'f.lds (one rE'l:W and cue roasted) to' a ,fciE:Dtist and il~k for an nnalysh; of bethalmends, the scienjistwill see no lll1;kitional di:fferem:e between the tW'9 al:rr!,und$. Both
12 Steps to Raw Food
almonds have the same amount o£ calcium, potassium, spdj.,. urn, magnesium, zinc and copper as if they are absolutely equivalent nutritionally, However, as the example shows, ene carries life ill enzymes while the other does not.
In order to understand better how enzymes work, let us fantasize a story. On a beautiful Tune day you are wa11ting through an apple orchard. You look for apples, but they re still green and biding in the leaves. You cannot see them easily and they don't really smell. You return to the o:reharro. in July. The apples are big and red and they smell great. th€ apples seem to be calling to you, "See rne.smell me, eat m~'J You realize that to an apple, being eaten by an animal 01" a human being means the continuation of life, 'You reach eut and pick a large red apple, You take a bite. The apple is filled with live enzymes. As you enjoy the flavor and texture of the apple, the enzymes (likened to little handy-men with suitcases full of magic healing tools) work 00 your bO.dy.1i\& YOLl walk along, the enzymes work through your body as a healing team, repairing what needs attention. You feel goo€l and full of energy because the apple carries the enzymes within it to digest itself. YOur body does not have to put b t extra effort to digest the apple. Later the apple leaves you.,ti body in the form of fertilizer and continues to live. 'You have participated in the circle of life. Everything is circulas It is a universal law.
The following weekend you return to the orchard and pick a basket of apples. You take the apples home to ma~ baked apples with caramel and cinnamon) just like your grandmother used to make. 'You create your dish and pu it into the oven to cook. The baked apple looks pretty and smells delicious. It looks as nutritious as that apple y;ou
Life and Energy
picked and ate raw last weekend. But it is not. This apple has been cooked and the enzym€S are destroyed.
. You bite into the sweet baked apple, caramel and cinnamon stimulate your taste buds creating a pleasant sensation. You finish your serving and then go to lie down. You are feeling a little sluggish and tired. Inside your body your own enzymes have to leave their work, maybe cleaning the
liver, protecting you from tumors and evacuating toxins here and there, to come digest the cooked apple that does not have any enzymes of its OWl), When this apple finally leaves roLlf body> into the toilet, it is filled with your own enzymes. These enzymes are gone forever. Cooked food does not contain live enzym.es and so takes enzymes from your body to digest the food, These enzymes then leave your body, leaving you with fewer enzymes than you started with. Dr. Edward Howell, '(1 leading nutritionist, suggested that the average American at the age of 40; has only 3{))% of their enzymes left. We 'can still walk, talkand think at this point, but when we have only. 30'0;.0 of our enzyme left) plus they have to give about 75% of their energy to detoxify the body! we become less sensitive to other people, and to ourselves. We may survive physically but not spiritually.
The good news is that even if we have only 30% of our enzymes [eft, we still can live om portion of life) if we go on a raw diet and let the body purify itself.
There is a lot of misunderstanding and confusion in the field of enzymes. In fact marry licensed nutritionists don't Llnderstand the importance of enzymes in our food .. If you Want to have a proper diet, gaining complete clarity about ~nZYmes is crucial. For example, Ids 1000k at; the difference
etween raw fat and cooked fat. Why does fat exist? We all
12 Steps to Raw Food
need fat to lubricate our eyes so we can see, to lubricate- 01'Jr skin so it is soft and to lubricate our hair. We need fat ~m lubricate our joints, so whenever we move our joints w;e don't squeak like an old garage door. We cant get live fat from pasteurized milk, butter, sour cream or roasted nuts because it is all cooked] We could be very obese but ladt Jiea[ fat. Our bodies are desperate for raw live fat. The best $,~utces of live fat are avocado, young coconut, durian, olives, nuts, seeds and cold pressed extra virgin olive oil.
I remember when I was very obese. I was 120 pounds more than I am now, During that time I started to crave avocados .. l was able to eat eight avocados a day. Before that, to me, they tasted like soap. When I was eating avocados. 1 st2l1~tN ed to lose weight faster. This is because the enzyme in the :fat of avocados, lipase, was able to penetrate my saturated fat deposits, break them into smaller pi,eces, and take them out, of my body. Isn't that amazingi
Another example is calcium. When we lack calcium, we are advised by advertising to drink pasteurized milk. Y0u~ve' all seen the ads that ask "Got Milk?" I would argue that when we need calcium, the more appropriate question is t~
sk ec: 1 ""G d "'.-1'" rr >,.
a Got w teat grass? or at sesame seea milk: 0@WS
milk is not intended for human consumption; it does haw: calcium, bu.t it also contains very concentrated protein and produces excessive mucus, Secondly, pasteurized milk has. been heated until the enzyme activity has stopped. The enzyme-s are destroyed; there is no life. The body oply absorbs empty lifeless shells of calcium molecules ..
Wheat grass is where a cow gets her calcium and ,is ea yJ digested by the human body because the molecule of ch16:r;o~ phyll and the molecule of human blood are almost identital.
Life and Energy
Se,c;arne seeds are the richest in calcium among all other -seeds and nuts. Sesame milk is delicious and can easily l'~place cow's milk.
As 1 said earlier, enzymes are life and errergy. We are human beings and we are spiritual beings .. WfJ need energy so, we move and work andalso love, share, communicate and be sensitive to each oilier. Every time we eat cooked food we loose enzymes. In our cooked food filled bodies, our
enzylnes are doing hard work. Because cooked food does not have enzymes, our body cannot useir. Therefore, the body treats cocked food as a toxin and is only concerned with getring rid of it.
Can we replenish lost enzymes? There are different opinions ali that, Dr. Howell says that all living creatures have a fixed enzyme potential and cannot replenish them. Often people ask if they could replenish their enzymes with supplements. I believe we cannot. The enzyme supplements that are sold in the store are nothing but dehydrated raw food. For example, the supplements sold to. help digest cooked beef steak are made of raw dehydrated beef liver. I understand that the cooked beef steak has a different nutritional content than tbe raw dehydrated beef liver.
Can we eata lot of apples and store up the enzymes? I believe that we cannot take the enzymes from an apple and keep them in our body. They enter am body-and do some wO,r~ while they are there, but they don't stay there. This is my °puuon based 00 my reading. and experience, but no one yet knows the exact truth about replenishing enzymes. I can tell
you that J reblliJ't . I ltl h~ ,
fr my own nea a.not Ul'9'cause I got enzymes
. o~ Outside. but because I preserve l'I4Y own enzymes by not eating cooked food. My eI)zYl;lles are no. longer overloaded
12 Steps to Raw FtoQd
with the-work ofdigesting cooked ,food and 1 experience radiant h~alth and an abundance of energy.
1 also believe that if we follow 0 ur heart and do wha. ;Wll are meant to do with this life, then we become dedicate-Ii. spiritual beings, and we can be granted an extra pcrtion @I energy from the universe,
The Human Body Never Makes Mistakes
W·e each need to tr~st o:'-.r own body. I enca.urag~ -you to follow your own mtllltlOl1,your.own feeling and your own. experience. I do Dot waJ.1t you to do anything because 1 s-ay S0. We are each unique individuals with different body needs. -We need to be OUI awn best expert. If you change y@U); diet because Victoria saysso),it won't last .. Or, it may olllly last until the next "expert" presents you with a different ideea, on l:llealth. I suggest that you do something only because
YQ.u feel it is right for yo u. -
'Ther€: are many good teachers in the world today. Let's imagme f1'}llow~g .each suggestion. every good teacher makes. ?'n~ nutritionist advises us to avoid eating fruits, because tr,U.lts have sugar that can lead to cancer, Another popular nHtritionist advises us to eat only frui~s and no vegetables. Yet,
another ann} th t iaht h d d ci ill'
, ' <0' es a n~g. ts 'a es an.' citruses w ucause
arthriti" iu our b d· 'd ill nui b D H"1
. " ,1"0 Y an w: I Fum, our ones, ,I. 1 torn
12 Steps to Raw Food
Hoterna, who lived to be 100 year old, tells us not to eat green cabbage, kale or greens because they are from the opium family and are toxic. Another nutritionist has w.dtllelJ. a new sprouting book in which she stares that sprouts are so toxic not even animals will eat them. Another brilliant man and a good friend of mine, warns us not to eat grains as theM cause brain damage. Hygienists tell us not to eat nuts ex dried fruits because "it is concentrated food:' I heard mlMhel' popular teacher of raw foods say not to eat carrots, turpip;s e roots because they are hybrids and the body does not reco'&" nize them as food. If we follow the advice of all of these good teachers, do we have anything left to eat? Instead of a raw feeder I could become breatherian (one who lives by ~1J1j;lr breathing the air). How confusing. The only solution is te li - ten to your own body.
Let's do an experiment If you went to an organic frL'iJ1
tand right now and picked out one fruit, what would it he?
A pear, apple) orange, fig, papaya, banana, grape, avocado) mango or cherry? Is everyone reading this book picmg the same fruit? Probably not. We are all individuals. Your bdrly knows what you need. Whatever fruit you choose, that is· what your body is ordering from you today. Your job is'ti0get your body' what it needs. Tomorrow your body may waat the same fruit or something new. Let your body lead.
I've been following my body for eight years. DUIingtfiiE time r have attended many excellent lectures where the speakers have argued against eating one type of food or another. I remember one teacher arguing against eating grains, That day I was craving quinoa, so I said to the spel:'ik~ er, «I appreciate your opinion and your re earch, but my. body is my boss." When my body says it wants quinoa, I
The Human Body Never Makes Mistakes
sprout it and eat it. What else. could I do? I need to follow my bady. My body knows best. Listen to your body and your intuition £01' health and happiness.
Please believe in your own intuition and don't make the mistake of thinking that someoneelse knows better about yOW' body than you do. Your body is so beautiful and so wise. EVeIY cell of the 35 trillion cells in your body has its own soul andi:ts own wisdom and knows what to do. Let's imagine
that a piece of dust is falling into your right eye. Which eye will blink? Your right eye, of course" Your left eye won't blink by mi take, because' your body never makes mi takes. Your mother gave birth to a perfect baby. Our bodies are perfect. V\Then we start bossing OUT bodies around and not listening
fa our own wisdom, we get into trouble. FOT example, what is the standard response to fever in our culture? Aspirin ..
Right. I believe that if my body has created a fever, then I need a fever. When the body creates diarrhea, the body is sayin,g I need diarrhea. Taking medication to stop the diarrhea is working against the wisdom of the body. Our body never makes mistakes .. We all know what we need to do if we listen to Qlilrbody~
When my family had been on raw food for two month my children began craving different fruits. Sergei asked for mang0es and blueberries and Valya asked for olives and figs. The kids' cravings were so strong, I had to hustle to kee~ up with them. For example, I gave Sergei a mango. He ate It and wanted more. I bought him a whole case of mangoes thinking that would last him a week. He sat down and
ate the enti re case i d ki . h id "
. ase U1 one a:y, s n anti all. He t en sai 1
WlSJ1 th .
.ele were more mangoes," so I bought him another
crase. The.h:' . . _ .
same trung happened WIth blueberries .. I bought
12 Steps to Raw food
him a two-pound bag of blueberries and he ate it 1;0 O;il€ sit" ling. Yalya. liked figs. She'd ask for fresh figs, dry figs, blac~ figs, She could never have enough figs; she also lil{ea€'a1llng olives. During <rim travels that spring, we visited our fdettd Marlene. Marlene had a beautiful olive tree. There W:~f€ 0lives underneath the tree already starting to rot. Va1yasaiu" "1 Wa:.til!t to try them. Oh, they are delicious," I tried them. To, ml'!:-eh@y were too bitter. Val~a enjoyed the olives so much that she' gathered-them up in plastic: bags to take with us.
The next stop on our trip was a visit to Dr. Bernasd Iensen, a world famous clinical nutritionist. We asked -Ur. Jensen what Sergei needed to eat for diabetes. He lool~d in his hooks and told us that the best thing for diabetes is mangoes and blueberries .. Wow. Then we asked him wbat Valya needed to eat to help her asthma .. He said fig~ aT)cU olives. I told him that was exactly what our ehildeen ~ele asking for. Then Dr. Jensen asked me whatmy cr,a~gg were. I told him that I didn't know because I a_lw?1,'S w~S' eating what was on sale.
I understood then that our bodies crave certain fQe(iis because of need. QUI children's bodies talked to them saf1lI):€'J: than our adult bodies. After several more weeks. Igpl' -rutd 1 developed cravings. I remember one day when I had-a S€i~ lion attack. I suddenly sensed scallions everywhere. I l@IDk~d at the green wallpaper, and I thought, "1 want scaNie:e.s}lIJ went to the store and bought ten bunches of SCalliQB!S.·r craved scallions so strongly that by the time I got teth~~sh/, register, I had only nine bunches remaining, ] couiQf1rt ~l:a.in to the surprised cashier why r hadeaten an unwashed plllJci1 of scallions between the produce section and check @ut. I paid for the scallions, including the ones I'd eatel1,iiUq left
The Human Bocly Never Make;!> Mistakes
the ~t-oreJ leaving a puzzled c.a~hier staring after me. I went, home,!J1tixed the scallions with avocados and ate them all III one sitting. I called and asked Dr .. Jensen what he could tell me abou.t n;J:Y scallion attack. After all, ] had read that hygieniiStS say not to eat onions or garlic because they irritate our mwcusmembralles. Dr. Jensen told me that sometimes when peepte have a lot of mucus their body craves something like 0l1ioDS that will help to dissolve the mucus- and bring it out.
Have you eyer craved sweets?'When OUr body needs calciurn, we actually crave sweets. Calcium, in nature, has a sweet tast€. If we plant strawberries on a soil rich in calcium, the stIJawbemes will be very sweet. Sometimes we are so low in cak11um 'that we become addicted to sweets. I had a hard time gl?M:b'l.g off sweets. I did n,Qt eat them, but every time I went in the store I had to cover my eyes so 1 WOUldn't see them VI~hlle -Oli my way to the produce section. If I looked at thesw€:cts I suffered from wanting to go and trythem .. I shaned with a friend how much I craved sweets. He said, "V'ic;~orla. you are just craving calcium?' He told me to soak seSari(lC seeds and make sesame milk and drink it every day fijI' two weeks on an empty stoma-ch.
I followed his instructions. First, I made sesame milk fr:.et;n,ses-ame seeds with honey. In a few days I didn't want it to he as sweet, so I added less honey. After a week I didn't Wamt hOlley at all. Then I wanted a bitter taste, so I switched to, brQ.wn Sesame seeds. For tW0 weeks I didn't go anywhBre W:,thOlil.tmy big mug of sesame mille Two weeks later another ~nend o1if~red me a medjool date. r love medjool datesl I
took cne bite and 1 could Dot swallow it! I""was teo sweet for m~. The b~lance in my body had changed.J didn't want
SWeet th in· . . .. .. .. .
. gs anymore, not even good. sweet things, Fa.ntasttc!
12 Steps to Raw Food
Grapes were in season that umrner and I didn't want grapes, Se arne milk is the champion of calcium.
When Sergei broke his clavicle, the first thing he craved was wheat grass juice. and the second thing he craved Was sesame milk I carne home after being gone all day to Valla saying "Talk to him! He's exploiting me! He's forci):):g ~ to, make him sesame milk every 30 minutes! I cannot do anything! I cannot do my homework, I cannot go and play) I have to make sesame milk all day long f I thisguy!" Bee;al1se Sergei had a broken clavicle.he was craving sesame milk. When he healed, he didn't need physical therapy. We.were told by doctors that it would take about eight to twdve we-eles lor Sergei to heal, butSergei healed much more rap'tGIIy th;;I1'l, that because of the sesame milk In only-two weeks Serg€es body grew the calcified ball which causes the bones te g.I0W together so tbey can begin to heal
If you don't know what yOUT body is craving, yodll do what Valya u ed to do. She'd open the fridge, and defrost
it standing there, wondering "What do I want?" She €ouldtl t find anything that she wanted, so she d close the fridge. She knew she wanted something, but she Just didn't knQW wl at. Sometimes you, too, will crave something you have l1evet: tried in yOUT life. You'll look at the array of food offer..ea and nothing will look appealing, because you crave something that's not there.
To help you identify cravings, you can start buJing fruit and vegetables that you have not tried yet. \Vhat w.o,r1<s 'IeJiY well for one person doesn't always work for everyone. DOGe I was supposed to make lunch for 25 people. I wentout im;tCl! lfJ"Y yard and suddenly the dandelions looked so yu:m:my .. $'0 T decided to try one. The dandelions tasted sweet to me. They
The Human Body Never Makes Mistakes
were not bitter at all. I took a big bucket and I filled it with the dandelions, I told m),gtlests that we were having a very speciaillUlCh. I put six avocados and lemon juice into the food processor to make a dressing. I poured the dressing over the dandelions and mixed with my hands and my love. I put this piece of art on the table. My guests tried my Dew dish and €xclaimed, «This is so bitter!" I ended up eating my new creation all by myself The next morning I woke up and my skin was all yelJow. My dish created a great liver cleanse, Before the dandelion cleanse, my skin was white and pasty. Since that dandelion feast I have rosy cheek . My body knew I needed dandelions,
The human body is so beautiful, yet we take our body for granted. I want to tell you a few things about OUT miraculous body: 1 was toLd in chool that blood is something like red paint: it floats in our body because of gravity pushing down and then the heart pumps it back up, and it keep flowing down, and it pumps it back just like red paint. No! Blood is not red paint. Blood is a rniraculou fiver of life that travels througJl trillions of vessels at cosmic speed. It does not just flow because of gravity. Blood goes in any direction necessary according to the universal laws that we cannot even, understand. When I cut my finger, the blood washes the dirt out. Then the blood clots and seals the wound. The blood forms a Scab and when this scab peels off, I have new skin where the Cut Was,
The hurnan body is so fascinating .. Take our hand for example. The hand consists of 27 very 'intricate bones. My
band can zrab . ]' 1 b 11" ~1
. Il> c an app .e, pee a anana, pu roots from tne
grotlnd or hI' .
be p me to climb a tree. When I put my hand ill
't e Water tb
) ,e Water does not penetrate the skin, yet if my
12 Steps to Raw Food
body needs to sweat, I can sweat through my hand th_at jUsf a minut,€ ago seemed waterproof. Om bodies are so, miraen. lous that we have to be fascinated and thankful for e\\'~rr :IDgle hair we have on 'OW' head (before we lose it)!
OUT bod}l wants us to be beautiful. Every single' pelIi or,tts body wants to be beautiful and healthy. What stands iil~ 'the. way of the body? lance thought that I had bad luck be€aus~
I was born with an ugly body. 1 once thought that mY' bady was just horrible .. It always treated me with pain aE:_!;1 wiJ;u!ple~, and whatever I ate, I gained weight. Since I've been en lia~ foods, I'velnst 120 pounds. I have more energy than 1 ~er had in my life .. Now I can run and jmnp and play. I love Th1;,~ body. Yet, this is the same body that I bad eight y.ear.s tl!9. The same body that I thought was ugly and causing me pain. The same .body that I thought I was just unlucky-to get ~a:t changed! 1 got my "headucation' out of the way; I sta:rtecllis~ tening to my body instead of my head .. I eat raw I'oo<il~ because that's what my bo:d:y needs, The onJ'yins1lJ7aiU'ce't0 be healthy is to learn what your body wants-and needs, Qu.r bodies want us to be beautiful e!!nd healthy .. All we ll€ccl ttllrlO is listen to our body's intuition, and then follow,
The Law of Vital Adjustment
·The b.ady. of every li:i.n.g thi~l~ is d~di:ated to the survival
. til! the owner or SpU'lt that lives within. The hod~1 does I€Yer.y.tJ)rL{lg· to protect itself and to keep the species going} J;lO 'ma~twhat the obstacle. If the body has two choices, to be burt<'l.j11d 'poss·~b]r killed or to survive, it will always choose Sl!11~viv~L This iscalled the vital law of adjustment. We have S'Oliel"al examples of this adjustment.
Every living thing adjusts to its environment, For example, rabbits' change their fur from brown. in the sun1;Jliler to whi~~ in the winter. The purpose of the change in fur color is to oam~Hl&ge the rabbit in the fields in summer and the
StlowiJ . t . .. .. .
.. nwin er, This camouflage increases the chances of the
rabbit's sun-rival agai d If'·'· .}
• " .'. <l- amst pre ators, we Jump mto a very lot
;~~w:hr 1l1' the morning, we are like~l to 8. et scalded. If we glt:i
o t e s1l0wel' ith : deratel 1 . 1
'ih. .. WI. ) rno erate Y rot water, and then turn up
e:w t~r gradu ally w ke i 11·'·' 11 f 1~.
. . ,e can rna <:e It rea y .10t wit . out . eewlg
12 Steps [0 Raw Food
discomfort. The human body adjusts to the gradual tficrea~:e in temperature and we don't get burned. After spen4tng tb;€ winter 1n shoes.eur feet hurt when walking bare foot on gravel in the spring. Yet! by the end of summer, OUI t~e111'aye toughened up and it's easy and pain free to walk ong.ra~el. The micro muscles in our feet have become strougen and> when stepping on the gravel, the foot 'curves 'against arrd around. the gravel. The body has adjusted to take care of us. Or ha thi ever happened to you..? One day you are d.riv~g through the big-city and YOll get stuck in a traffic jam,;).. Yc;n.l turn on the radio to help pass the time. The next ID0InlU8i you get up early for work and very quietly go to your car; turn the key in the ignition, and auugh!! The .musietis
so loud it hurts your ear , How did tills happen? Tb~ aI;1SW€f is interesting. When you were in the city, your hearing adjusted to the noise of the traffic. YQU actually be<;ame cleaf~ perhaps by 20%. Your body made this adjustment beeaus€ noise is very harmful and if the body doesn't adjust )'f0lil could get a headache. Your body adjusts to the nQis€ ~apd then you go home to the quiet neighborhood and sle:ep. Your body now readjusts to the quietness of YOUrl1 bOn;l!ti., however} yOUT car doesn't.
If you go to Russia, the men there drink a b.otd.e bf vodka a day, They sell vodka next to the bread; ids '€on$id" ered part of the diet. If we find someone who never tlra;l1k. alcohol like a healthy child or Australian abol'igill€ v€getafl" an, and w€ giv.e him/her just one glass of vodka, th.i.s p!:e:J;spn could die of alcohol poisoning. Russian men, on. the ~ther hand,bave bodies that have adjusted to the ingestion of alcohol. In the book Mcm,!s Higher Consciousness b.y Dr. Hilton Hotema, I read about an experiment of C~auQe
The L.<1W of Vltal Adjustment
Bernard conducted with birds. He showed that if a bird is
lat!ed qndera bell-glass of such size that the air contained ~f{itbin "ViIJ permit the bird to live for three hours, and the bird ts removed at the end of the second hour, when it could ha\Ce survived another hour, and a fresh healthy bird is put
in p]ac~, the latter will die at once. The second bird was not adj.usted to the reduced oxygen. The bird that survived three l1,(!)urs adjusted to the oxygen changeslowly This €11abled the first bird to survive longer. The. econd bird did not have time to adjust. the change was too abrupt.
The point is that bodies adjust to survive. OUT human bodie have adjusted to marry outside forces and stimuli in erder tQ'Survive. Think of all we humans adjusted to: radiation from microwaves, wearing glasses, wearing shoes, noise pollution, air pollution, going to school, chlorinated
watlilii, violence, violent thoughts, the same temperature all the rime in. a room, television, music, lack of sleep) doughnuts ]a¢l<. of exercise, bad eating habits, electric lights, stress) pharm.aceutical drugs! driving, synthetic clothes, living in isolation, artificial foods, synthetic vitamins and many more. When our bodies adjust to something, we paywi;tb our hhlth. We pay with our energy and lifespan ..
Wli.at do we need to do to get more lifespan and more eneqzy- ll;OW? Be as natural as possible. Stay happy, End presS.ures. Stop the stress, SLeep outside. Sometimes get cold and Wet Outside and shiver .. Go on a camping trip. We can change What We eat We can go all raw food. This is doable.
If Cooked f d i > th id al ' , c
b . 00 isn t . e 1. e nutritional source lor our
ocUes h .. d'd' .
o ,ow 1 we get to a diet oj 90 - 95% cooked food?
ur great greiH .. .
F f .. > , great, great, great, great grandfather was a
aw ooaer 2000 cO .:
, -o 00 years ago. I imagine) on.e day there
12 Steps to Raw Food
was a big fire in the woods, all the tubers, plants, and s:e ,d8 were burned. There was no food, The family was hung:T;y, 50 he went into the burnt woods and be found a piece sf cooked deer there, and he thought to himself, "BatiI;rg this ~ foreign) but it' better than starving." The cooked m~a~ Was brought horne and consumed. Everyone agreed it Wi!~ better to change their diet than to starve. Their bodies, rellleting t@ tills foreign substance, had one of two choices, to reje:ct tbe cooked food and die of starvation, or to adiu t to the-cooked food and live. The bodies adjusted.
How does the body adjust to cooked food? The o@dy creates mucus and uses this mucus as a filter. All the urfaces of the digestive tract that are designed to absorb the nutrients from the food become covered with r.f.ll.Klll:S film that protects blood from toxins. The mucus film begias al}: the tongue and contin.ues all the way through the intes1Jj,]l'fs. Many people can see this mucus on their tongue. People who have iii thick mucus coating on their intestines :usually, have white tongues as if they just ate sou r cream. Tl1e
body creates a little mucus, to begin w-ith, to filter out the toxins from the cooked food. the more cooked fb~d we consume, the more mucus the body produces a-s pro.tecti'fi. The more harmful the fo-od substance are to the body, the more this mucous film builds up. As the years go by it becomes thicker and harder.
Our body initially creates mucus when we eat OUI frrst cooked food as a baby. The next time we eat cooked fond the toxins in the food do not penetrate the body completely because of the mucus protection. You may ask: what ~~ me. mucus made of? The human body, brilliant as always, creates the mucus from the cooked food itself Thistfi1:ICUS
The law or Vital' Adjustment
covers bur entire digestive tract to prevent us from absorbing the torins in cooked food that would make the body sick
We are afraid of e-coli, salmonella or other bacteria, so we ~oQkJ pasteurize and irradiate everything, Food is now highly proc.e-S$ed and. prepackaged. We eat a lot of cooked teon and therefore, our body creates a lot of mucus,
Nat1Hopa:th.s call this mucus in the intestine by the name @fm.u{loid plaque. Mucoid plaque looks like a green, rubbery hose about twenty-five yards long. Because of the mucoid plaque, out nutrient assimilation becomes law. The mucoid plaque protects L1S from absorbing toxins, but at the same time we cannot absorb nutrients. The more mucus we have, the fe-wer nutrients we (Can receive. After a number of years of eating cooked food, we develop severe nutritional deficiencies, become hungry and malnourished.
Wft become .hungrier and hungrier. We come to the point) like.l did eight years ago, that when I was leaving the table, I was alr.e.ady hungry again. Were constantly hungry becau e out b0dy is desperate for nutrients .. Our cells are crying for ail tlae 120 minerals we need. They are asking for sodium and for magnesium, and for copper and zinc. Oh please) I want some pIDtas tiurnl We're constantly hungry for something, but when we eat, only a small percent can be assimilated.
When we go 01;1 raw food and if we stay 011 raw food, this I'lb1UCOi.d plaque. can be dissolved. When the time is right, the ad wiD .
:y dIssolve it. The more we eat raw food the more
plaque gets d' I d· .
I 18S0 ve . If we go 100% raw, it goes away com-
l'~te]y and 0 " il . .
10" ur as lIT1 anon goes up. When we decide to go
"'% raw we d' . .'
• > . . on t need to sen~l telegram to all our organs
aJlnCi>l1J1lcjng th 1
beg.e c'lJ.nge. Om body hears the message and
.ll'1s to cha . h
nge rig t away and begins to celebrate. It
12 Steps. to Raw Food
s·ays. "Hey! He/she decided to. go raw, Did y<YO h€a.E:tibaij Hetshe~s going 100% r:aw!;)
The following table shows how the amount of: Geeitl:ed food w€ ear in our diet relates to the amount of feed that ,is assimilated in our body, This tabl€: is my hypothMi:s, . is th~ result of an extensive reading, together with a. studV lO~ ·s~ of :many people on a. raw food diet .. Sadly, I don't hi;y.;€, fund'S to conduct scientific research and p.rove my the0!:l.
Percentage Cooked Food to Raw Food, Cons.umed& Percentage Nutrition Asshn.ihrted
% ofnJwfQod % cooked food % .assi1:niiratiotQ.
5 95 .03
10 90 .06
25 75 .1
50 50 • .:l
75 25 1.0
100 .0 30,0 I'd like to explain this table by way of an illustratiPn" We'll call the maincharacter Iim, age between 4J;ha'Rd §@Jim eats very little raw food. He is always h1llOgt'y be~a.115e Jj~js not getting enough nutrients. FIe has -a big bcll~ b€'Cflufjf: he eats alot to try to fill the hunger in his body. tie has:! w.eaK back because of the big belly? and he's aI"Vi~ays tir:~.1i.m GO,G.sumes a :diet that is 5% .raw. Anyone who makes s3.JJdwic:~h.es or buys hamburgers is eating about 50/0 r:aw. because the tomatoesand Iettuee make up the 5%. At this p01nt li'01>s . body 1S assimilating approximately .03% of the FlutrF!tj:Oll,[1:
The law or Vital .. Adjustment
the fOOG .. Lds say Jim got reaJlr, really sick. He goes to a hea.lth tore and learns that he might feel better if he-eats a vegetarian diet He adds a 1,(')1 offi .. esl:t food to his diet.and
C1.1t Q.ut the ine~t. He is now consuming 25% raw food and 7f;OJh cOoked food. His assimilation increased three times to
.1 Wo or 1IlQ%. He's. starting to feel better and he has a little mo,J,f@ energy .. He hangs out with his new friends who are also wgetarial;HI. One of them iJJvit€S him to a raw food potluck .. Jim is sa rIDpn'esBed with the dishes and the presentatioa that Jl.e1l1ctease·s ais raw food intake to $0%. He is n.ow assimrlatiRa .S% 0'1 3'/10% .. A.s far asassimilation goes, this is a lot. Tl~i-8!.i~aetoaUy 10 times more than he had before. He sees
the aiff~tertce. He begins to ]~clgoad. Jim begll'ls to come to 8-vttr¥ wedcly potluckand he: increases his raw food intake to 75% ,while the cooked food intake is reduced to 25% .. He is n.owas:m:rtilating 1%. 10/0 is a lot, a good number, 30 times ,m€l'Ile fua;n h:€ used to have .. He begins to look like an interesti:mg man. Jim used to think that no wesnan would ever 10·01, at him, becattSe he was getting old and aching. Now he Looks Ill2Rlmy, he7~ looking younger and his color is corning back,
1m hl~gins to read a lot of hooks. on Jaw food eating and be e:Y:elil. begins to teach his own raw food. class, He is nQW ~nsUTfl.i.ng 99% raw food arid 1% cooked. food. And he.
IS a,Ss,Em}:ililt:l.ng abo t 301. J" I. ah h J..
1 0 . ~. <4 ~U . 7t1. .LID is so 1.:1e tr 'I now t lat he laol€;
E years Y(}1!lnger: He has a lot of friends and he is v€ry social.
\'et:)r""Q rre ] eves 1· ·"" W h· k . ~. 1. J' - ·1
Rl. .. . ..:... e ,C nee in wrtn irn severer yews later .
. e has read IDitD· ~ . £- db k d 1
lbl ... 'cy caw :00 . 00. s an . laS go.ne tel every pos-
51. e retreat a d cla a. . .
Wak . anu ~ ass offered 011 raw food. One morntng he
"~"d~ up.' and bears his inner vorce te~ .. g him to zive up
,"uvL'{e.d food all .. . ~ ~. c' ..
mal- ~ . . together and to go lOO~/() on raw food. He
:t\.e5 that choi. W' ,_. . , . ~. .
ceo Hum two or three months of consuming
12 Steps to Raw Food
only raw foods, his assimilation becomes 30%. Hisass.intila_ tion has increased from 3.0% to 30% in just two to three months .. Why did changing his diet from 990/0 l1awfood til) 100'''/0 raw food make such a difference in his assimilation rate? The 1% is significant because his body's defen e a.g1!in t cooked food is now taken away. He now begins to eatan1y once a day, a small bowl of salad, that's it. He only needs one small bowl because he is assimilating 30%. Remember when Jim was eating 95% cooked food and ate a lot to fec:d. his· starving body? At that point be was only assimilarlog ,Q3'IJ/m. Now on a 100% raw food diet, Jim is assimilating 30% nutrition. This is why he only need a small amount of food to satisfy him. 'I'hat's enough for this man. That's I;:tQW much I eat. That's bow much my husband eat. That's how much my children eat
When my son Sergei, who is ] 6, goes snow:bom~di:ng, he leaves at 6:30 a.m, and comes' home at 7:00 p.m.:FIE takes with him two organic oranges to eat on the shuttle bus. He eats one on the way up to the snow and one on the way b~r;k home. That's enough because he assimilates 30% ..
Sergei says that his snowboarding friends go S€!Vel:aL times to their lunch bags to drink hot chocolate and eat saudwiuhes because they get so hungry. They get hungry and hay€> "0onergy crashes and have to go eat. Meanwhile, Sergei.is SUQwbQa:rding all day and he's never tired, and all this on two erange.The secret is that he is assimilating 30% while they are a:sSlll1- ilating only between .03 and T %. Going back to Jim as all . I example, why did the final 1 % shift from eating 9.90/0 to lOO(}o raw food make such a difference in the assimilation rate? J gleaned the answer to this from the Alcoholics An:ot:rymOUS (AA) literature.
The Law or Vilal Adjustment
Alcoholics are encouraged at AA meetings to get 100% sober. If they return to the meeting and say they are 99% sober, beca use they drink only one shot of vodka. ev.ery other day~ they will he told that they are not sober. AA members ha'le noticed a JOJlg time ago that quitting 99% doesn't ever work. If someone wants to quit drinking he/she needs to go "cold turkey" or 100%. This last 1 %, no matter how small it is. will keep a body adjusted to being a drinker.
We can use this analogy for cooked food too. For example, Andrew has been consuming cooked rice since childhood, his b0dy has adjusted biochemically and psychologically to this consumption. One day Andrew became aware that white rice is not healthy for him. He decided to stop eating rice. As a result Andrew's body has developed strong craving for cooked riee, cravings are biochemical and emotional expectations of the bodY. His body has been adjusted to receive carbohydrate$ lmom cooked rice, Andrew started to consume carbohydrates from raw corn, sprouted grains and carrots .. After two mOl~ths Andrew' body readjusted and his rice cravings MGll'pe<i. If Andrew would continue to eat rice even in tiny quantities~ hi's bod)' readjustment would never be completed and An:dr-eww{)uld continue 1'0 experience cravings tOT rice.
e<;ond1y, when we eat, say; a baked potato is there a mark 00 the potato that says this is 1 %, this is 10%? Do we
always k11 'W h -
. e W en to stop? Also, our parents taught us that
we have to fini 1
c.L.:· - S) ODr food because there are children in
runa that are t· .
fOQd .. a:rvmg to death. So we cannot just throw
. away; we have to finish it, even if it's more than 1 %.
And Q wh II . .
ind 1 .' en we a ow 1 %, we leave the door open to
u ge when we £ Il·k '. . .
Ol' an .. ee J e It. When we are depressed or hungry
gry or tired that' h
. at S w en We overeat. That's when we
12 Steps to Raw Food
indulge in eating cooked food) drinking alCQb.ol,S111Qld:ng Q taking drugs. Giving up the last 1 % of cooked food in the diet is closing the door on cooked food all together. V\lhgn we c1os~ the door on cooked food we dose the door on temptation.
'When our family went on raw food 100% e:i,ght yeaJaS ago) our dear friend Judy also went OD raw foad. Bur she went on ra q food only 95%. I suffered for two mQn,t11s during my body's adjustment of going completely off ceeked food and eating only raw food, After two months, I "Was nQ longer attracted to cooked food. I had lost my ap,petiue fbr cooked food. I stopped paying attention to restaurants QJ; te the smells of foodor coffee .. r have lived for thIee·¥€a~ in Ashland, Oregon and I don't even know th€ name of one restaurant. I kaow three health food stores ami r knew a juice bar. I don't pay attention to anything else. Cooked food looks like plastic to me) inedible. That's how lied. I ilT<lQt tempted to eat cooked food because it no Imnger 1@0ks J~ food to me.
My friend, Judy, however, is still suffering. Sh€ stay'5- on raw food for weeks at a time, and then. company will c(!)me to visit and she'll eat cooked food again .. Sberepores, ('I s;rayecl for two weeks on 95% raw food diet and then my aunt came to visit and she made a beautiful baked cake and I herd to tr.y it. Then I started to eat more cooked f00d.1 failed. I f-ell back," She has also said, (tr was doing-very well until Thanksgiving, and then r decided I would take a break untll after Thanksgiving. It took me until the econd week in February to reclaim my 95% raw food diet:' By keC::,pi:l!lg t~e door to cooked food open, even 1 %, my dear frie:nd J'lI&115
prolonging her uffer~g. . . . . bat
On 99% we are still addicted and we allow ourseLv,e W
The Law or Vital Adjustment
'l'fe wan.t, when we want it. I have met many people who have . cbieved 99% raw food only to return to completely cooked ~ood month later. Thi tiny 1 % will inevitably lead us back to cooked food. What I'm trying to say is that going cold turkey is much easier. Yes, you might have to suffer through two months because every temptation will create suffering .. But after two months) life is easier.
Take all temptation (cooked food, processed food, take out menus) out of yo-ur house and don't go out to the restaurant, birthday parties and cooked food potlucks for at least two months. Create a temptation free zone. The easier way to be1::pme 100% raw is to make the change consciously. Do not beea-m€: a raw fooder until you feel completely ready.
When you understand that cooked food is addictive, you want to stay on 100% raw food. Becoming a raw feeder with'Out the necessary support is hard. I know some people who um.dersta:md raw food is good, and they became raw fooders and they stayed as long as six month, but at certain times they became hungry, or lonely> or depressed, or tired and
they returned to what is familiar to them, cooked food ..
Bacteria, My Favorite Animal In The World
I ~jant to s.~are with you my 811111seme,nt a,ud appreciation ,
. for bacteria. Ma~be your respect for It will grow after reading'this chapter. Bacteria is the world's greatest recycler,
Please thick about it: by transforming all dead organic matter into the soil, bacteria recycle useless garbage into the original Source- of all elements. Bacteria is unique, it is tiny and huge 'at the same time, Smaller than any living cell, bacteria can instantly increase its power br multiplying into. zillions mOre. Bacteria is God's brilliant invention and gift to us ill! We(lre constantly trying to destroy as many bacteria as possi~le because we don't under tand its purpose on Earth. Let us
lmag' lif .
me ire withour bacteria. There would be rocks but no
~oil in which to grow food. All dead trees, animals, birds,
:: e~ts. ~akC!s> human bodies or any organic matter would plletlln.t0 huge 111 0 unt ains , What a clutter that would he! til a natl1ral setting, bacteria in the rotting cycle does not
12 Steps to R'1W Food
cause an odor. Hard to believe? In the forest nobody rakes the leaves, n.oboBy buries the animals, S'verything is just left in the 'Open. The droppings of animals and birds are left where they've fallen, 1o~ would think the forest would smell really bad. So, let me ask you, the last time you were in the forest, didit 'smell bad? I bet your answer is "no:' In fact, when we go to the forest, we breathe in and Sa.y,,'y\.h, it smells so good!" If bacteria acting on: organic matter doesn't smell in the natural, habitat of the forest, then why do we associate rotting with odor? "Vby; in the civilized world, does bacteria begin to smell bad? This is because bacteria has a bard time recycling what we create. To test this statement.you can do ym.u· own experiment. Put raw fruits and vegetables into yeur compost. You willI notice that they will. roc and disintegrate without a bad odor, Now, add to yourcompost some cooked food such as cooked noodles.chicken soup or mashed potatoes. After a few days, you will notice an odor emanating from your compost. Thesmell will be so bad that your neighbors mightcall the police. 'fou will not be able te tolerate it. Yeu will have to put dirt on top, because of theunbearable smell, The smell is coming from bacteriatrying to break up cooked fond.
Another interesting fact is that bacteria will never touch anything that js still alive. Gigantic redwood trees are 1,000 to 2,000 years old, yet they remain Erect of bacteria, Their roots are always in the soil, yet bacteria does no r touch them. As soon as the tree dies, however the bacteria moves, lin to return the tree hack to the soil. Bacteria can tell what is living add what is dead and it is only interested in dead matter,
Leaking at nature as an example, we see that moss) mistletoe and lichens don't live on stroIil.g healthy trees In an
Ba·cter1a, My Favorite Animal ir:J the W.orld
organic garden, if the soil is balanced, the slugs 'stay cut, The worms don't e-at healthy tomatoes, Similarly,. bacteria and parasites don't live off of healthy flesh, We, as humans. have fallen aW'ay ftPffi being balanced inside by eating cooked food.
Can bacteria cause disease in hnmans] Yes ana no, Y€s; if a b uman body is filled with toxic waste. No, if a body is dean inside, Bacteria is not interested in our muscles, heart, eyes
or bran] butonly h) recycling toxins in our body. The more waste and toxic matter we accumulate in the bodr the more we attract bacteria. That is why people who eat mostly cooked food .get infscrions so" easily, If you are afraid of infectious disease, the best thing you can cia is keep your insides clean, Eating raw food is a good way to dn this,
The same applies to any parasites.Jf we keep our body dean, healthy and pure, parasites cannot live off it end even mosquitoes won't bite us. Once my family went to hik€
in Minnesota where the mosquito is IDe state bird, In the Boundary Waters Wilderness the forest raugers bad to wear mosquito nets around their heads, and we didn't even suffer one bite. There were' [lye of us, aJJ au 1(10% raw food. Borall five nigats we' didn't even put up tents. We'we:.re 1191 bitten, We think we beard thesemosquttoes talking to eachether and saying, "These are strange people! Theyare alkaline! Yhck!"
AU parasites leave a human bodX; when it becomes
clean, Here is<lJ;te$arople10 illustrate this point. Just after W~ began raw foods, we reada book about the parasites humans carry around if} their bodies. Wf?I,w€}"e so frightened by the thought of these parasites, that ~e decided tOI do a family pnxasite cleanse. For ten days we ate special tablets to cleanse
12 Steps to Raw Food
the body of parasites. Two months later we took a blood test and saw that the parasites were back. The tablet dean e amy kept us dean for two months. One and a half years latex, after being on a 100% raw food diet the entire time) we did the same blood test. Our b100d was pristine! There were no parasites at alll Our blood consisted of only blood cells; red blood cells, and white blo d cells. That's allthat was there. There was no bacteria, We were clean.
When we look at a per on's blood who eats cooked
food! we can usually see lots of bacteria floating in. between the blood cells. Once I invited a specialist. who performs Dark Field Live Blood Analysis, to my class to demon trate live Mood cell analysis. He took blood samples. from three volunteer. One of the volunteers was a young man of 19. His blood was, 0 penetrated with parasites and bacteria
that he became embarrassed!'
He said, UBut 1 take a hewer every day." I said, "Don't be embarrassed, the parasites and bacteria in, your blood have nothing to do with how many sh wer you take. Tell us about your lifestyle." He said, "Oh, I'm getting better." We aid, "Just relax, and ten LIS, what do you. eat? What are your habits? How have you been living the last 19 years of your Iifei"
He said, ' I've been taking drugs, I drink beer, I was diagnosed with AIDS~ I was diagnosed with testicle cancer I was smoking marijuana, I was eating junk food (pizza was my favorite feed), and I never liked salads."
We could see this in his blood. No matter DOW much we wash ourselves outside, inside wecan be very infected. Bacteria knows right away where the toxins are. Bacteria
l dedicated to irs work. Without any pain (thank Go.d it's smalll), bacteria penetrates inside the human body and Into
Bacter ia, My Favorite Animal in th WOTl,d
the ells multiplies and begins to work Bacteria is helping our body get rid of toxins ..
What 1 know for sure is that people who eat raw foods don't have pa,ra ites or harmful bacteria. People who have been tested and told by doctors 111at they have parasites have been able to get rid of these parasites by eating a 100% raw food diet. Doctors ar surprised when parasites disappear because usually it is hard to get rid of them. (parasite exist in all kinds of shape and different stages, and If you kill one stage, then another stage will continue to develop). When we begin to eat raw food, our body cleanses itself of toxins. There is nothing left fOT the parasite to eat) so they leave.
Detoxification as Healing
When we first eat cooked food, as a baby; the cooked food creates the first mucus in the body: Some of the mucu is u ed to create a film along the digestive tract while the excess mucus is stored in the most convenient place, the lungs. Mucus is not supposed to stay in lungs permanently, so the lungs have a. mechanism, similar to peristalsis, to move the mucus out, It looks Like millions of little fingers on the surface of the lungs that work as a moving belt to clear
mucu Gut the lungs. This mechanism takes pieces of mucus out of the lungs and moves them to the nose - then we see that the baby has a runny nose. When we feed our baby mucus-forming food, the baby will have a runny nose all the time as the body is trying to move the mucus out That 'Would be perfectly okay from ture's point of view: all the excess of mucus would get evacuated through the baby s nose and the lungs would stay clear. But, what do w€ do when
12 Steps to Raw Food
we see a runny nose in ow' baby? The typical response is, «Wow! 1V1y baby has a Tunny nose. The skin is already irritated. He has a rash around his poor little nose. 1 need to help my baby. I'll take him to the doctor." The doctor prescribes nose drops. We; feel better because we've done what we can to help our baby.
I want to argue that the nose drop are not nece sary, The baby is not nose drop deficient. The drops are toxic. They are so toxic, that the body stops moving the mucus out of the lungs and begins to concentrate on how to get rid of the toxins from the nose drops. So, the body tops the cleaning process, the funny nose stops and the mucus goes back into the lungs. We look at our baby and say, «Yes those nose drops worked. My baby is well." We don't realize that the nose stopped running because the body concentrated energy on evacuating the toxic drop . And that the red runny nose is not as dangerous as the lungs filled with mucus plus the body weakend by the toxic no e drops. Meanwhile, the mucu layer gets thicker. It takes a IGt of energy for the body to clear mucus out of the lungs .. When the body has built up enough energy, it will begin to clear the mucus again.
So, about three 11lO11ths later, the babywill start to haw a runny nose again. WhC:bt do we do? We think, "The runny nose is back, I'd better call the doctor" We take the baby to the doctor who tells LlS that Wft need trenger nose drops this time because there is more mucus now, and this mucus is more concentrated, so it makes the tonsils swollen. Mucus also creates a hoarse voice, because it. travels through the trachea) covering the vocal. chords.
The new, stronger medicine is so toxic; that the body stops detoxing in order to focus on clearing out the medicine. It
Detoxtfl caue.n as Healing
might take another severalmonths for the baby's body to build enough energy to create another effort to detox.
Think for a minute, when in your life do you usually have more energy-than average? You have more energy when you go on vacation, or on the weekend 1£ you are relaxing. When do you usually get sick? Have you ever said, "It never fails, I have some time off and I get sick," When your body receives extra energy, it rushes to 'use it before it is used fer something else. Your body uses thisenergy to detox, That is why we tend to get sick when we have "down" time.
To hasten the removal oftoxins the body creates fever.
Fever is not just a high temperature of the body> but is a complex process that requires time and energy. In order to create a fever, the body has to work hard. The heart has to pump 20 to 30 heartbeats faster per minute than usual All the hormonal glands have to do extra work. That :is why we feel tired, To conserve the energy u . ed to digest food, the body creates a no-appetite condition. The tongue is coated with a thick layer of mucus so we cannot feel the taste; the nose is stuffed so we cannot be tempted by the smell of the rood; the tonsils are swollen so it is hard to swallow. What happens when the body has a fever? The body g@es into a sweat so that the mucus can come out through the pores. Do you remember that particular sticky and smelly sweat that happens during high fever? The mucus becomes more liquefied and we get very runny noses.
A common response to fever is to take an aspirin. Why do we do that? We are not aspirin deficient. Aspirin is largely ulfur and sulfur is bad for us. i)ur body doesn't expect that kind of cruelty from us. Sulfur is so toxic that the body simply doesn't have enough energy to continue evacuation of
12 Steps to Raw Food
mucus. The important process of healing stops. All the body is concerned with now is a pirin in the blood. A priority is to get rid of it as 'Soon as possible, To do so the body is compelled to work so hard and gets so weak that it cannot even continue to maintain a normal body temperature. Our ternperature then falls below normal. We have to .stay in bed because we feel weak. The body's response to aspirin makes u feel so weak, not the fever.
To add insult to injury, when we are feeling weak, we eat heavy food, like chicken oup. We have no appetite. Our body is saying, "Don't eat!" And yet we think we need to eat chicken soup $0 that we will «have energy." I used to do that to my children. I used to say; "Have some chicken soup, you need energy," or I'd feed them something else high in calories. In response to eating in this "Don't eat" stage, if the body still has a little bit of energy left, it will. create a throw-up situation. It will say, «No, no not-this, I need aU of my energy for healing:' H we e-at when the body is in the «Don't eat" stage, the blood has to go into the stomach to pro<;es the chicken soup thereby taking the energy away from the detoxEatiug takes a lot of energy and can make us feel even weaker. This is how not cooperating with our body can affect us.
Recovering frOID. taking medication takes energy. After one illness, We may not get sick for a long time. That is because there is 1)0 energy in the body for detox, The body has to store up energy before it can begin a healing event again. That i why most adults never have such a high fever as they did in their childhood.
Meanwhile, the mucus in the lungs builds up. The fresh mucus layer is dear. The older mucus is green, or dark onmge, brown or yellow. To get rid of this heavy mucus build
D-etox Hi ca LIon as H ea l [ng
up, the body might create pneumonia. The body is .malsing a heroic effort to dear itself of mucus. This takes even more energy than fever and we feel very tired. There is a gasping and raspy sound when we bre-athe. When we have pneurnonia, we use penicillin. This stops the mucus evacuation and further weakens the body
FOI manyvears the body will have no more detox, except a little "cold" LlOW and then, which is a very weak attempt by
the body to detox The body will continue to store the excess tTI.L1CUS in the lungs until there is about one-third lung spac-e left, and at this point the lungs say. "I cannot take any more.
I need this one-third to continue breathing, to continue living .. I cannotlive on Jess oxygen than that." There is a little extra storage in the sinuses and in the forehead. The mucus moves to these areas. Next, the body begins to use a layer under the skin to store the mucus. When we have mucus and toxins stored in a layer under our skin, first we develop g(Jmse bumps or rough skin that is notvery silky. Then when we walk just a little bit we begin to sweat a little, and mucus begins to pour through our skin pores. This mucus is acidic;
it irritates the skirt. If you will pour lots of lemon juice 011 your skin and rub it in, you will feel itchiness. V\7hen this acid mucus comes through, our skin feels itchy. We call it an allergy. Why does an allergy happen?-why does it exist? We have lots of toxins in the body. People saY, "It happens when I eat citrus.' Citrus only dissolves this toxin, and helps move it through the skin faster. This is actually good for us. TIllS really means we have an enormous amount of toxins.
Sometimes, we accumulate l!;O much mucus In our body that we develop a condition of labored breathing with wheezing that is called asthma. We cannot breathe. We don't have
12 Steps to Raw Food
enough oxygen. We don't have enough space to breath we're so filled with mucus. The mucus stored in the forehead, very close to the brain, causes headaches, and potentially brain tumors. That space was not meant to be permanently filled up with mneus,
I'll give you a simple way to tell if you have mucus in your lungs. Run around the block. If you have mucus coming out of your nose, then you do. If yQIUG:an rUI[) two times around the block, and you have no mucus running out of your nese.you have clean lungs. If YO\l can breathe through your nose when you're running, you dsn't have any mucus. Have you ever noticed that professional runners have to spit up phlegm when they are in a race? They eat their cooked vegan or vegetarian diet with lots of high calorie meals like ric-e and baked potatoes which are mucus forming foods. When raw feeders run, they don't have any mucus, I kn.ow many raw feeders who run, anti they don't have any problem with mucus, they don't need to spit, and they can breathe through their noses. They have enough oxygen to tun and talk. Their lungs are clean.
Our body was meant to be cleaned by running. We are animals that are at least supposed to walk That is wliywe have a limited. amount of storage for the mucus. We were built to move. We have this mechanism, when we're moving and shaking, the lungs begin to pump an.d _push the mucus out. But if we don't run or rarely-walk, how do we expect our body to take out the mucus? Instead of helping our body to rid itself of mucus) we short circuit its effort and take an aspirin.
The body has to be verystrong to create a fever. When we are able to create a really good fever, we should celebra tel Be
D'etox tflcatron as '1-1 ea lin g
very happy, The body is dedicated' for you to be wry healthy. W'hen you have a fever, 'help your body by not eating food. Y01~ probably WQ.I'l't want to eat when you haJl€ a. fever; .anyway, When I was little and bad a fever, 1 never wanted ro.eat, and my mother was alway~ trying to feed me. She would give me hot milk. Milk, with butter 011 thetep. :And all kinds of yuck}" stuff, but 1. never wanted to eat it. If you want to help, you can do body wraps, 'Or alternate cold and hot showers) takea hath. Do what your body wants. Your b dy is clear about what it wants. You either want the covers off or on. But usually when I took my blanket off, .my mother would 5.ay,
( Oh no, no, no, keep that on. Don't ,get cold." My mother was doing what she thought was best for me. Now We know that the 'best we can do is to listen to OUl" bodies, All of us have toxins in our body. Detoxing is our body's effort to dear out thesetoxins, Detoxing is anavoidabl€ in order to besome healthy. What are the major 'symptoms of detoxification! Before I tell you this, I want ,to share with you a story.
When 1 worked at the Creative Health Institute (CHI), guests weuld come for two to six weeks to learn how to eat raw food. First they were put all a tWQ day juice fast, and
then they Were fed wheat grass, sprouts and raw. food . .Ev.ery day the guests met with the staff to assess and discuss the symptoms of detox er healing events. Guests would. report symptoms of rash, headache, diarrhea, Gold sores and weakness. There was usually one guest in everygrou P who had no symptoms at all. Rather than being good news, the staff knew that having no symptoms of detox was a warning sign. It meant that the guest's body hadaao energy left to create a healing condition, This is why 1 want you ItO celebrate the symptoms of healing events. When you g.o on raw foods,
12 Steps to Raw Food
you immediately give lots of energy back to your body. You are supposed to have a detox. If you don't have it, it could be the sign of some problem. So, if any of you decide to go 0[1 raw food, expect to have a healing event. Even if you have detox symptoms on an inconvenient day; when you have a presentation or are at a conference, it doesn't matter, be grateful. If you have d.etoxing signs, you need to celebrate! Feel happyl Rejoice!
What are the most common symptoms of detox? About 75% of people, when they go on raw foods, experience cold sores in the mouth. Cold sores happen because the saliva becomes very acidic, irritates the gwns and creates a cold sore. Cold sores are annoying, painful and irritating. There is nothing you can do. You cannot wash or rinse or put on any oil. You have to wait until your saliva changes. When you first go on raw food, your body is going to start cleaning you out by throwing all accumulated waste into the blood. This creates a temporary acidic condition. That's why when we are fasting, we smell bad. When we fast or change om diet radically, we smell like ammonia.
Another type of detoxing symptom is weakness. Most people experience a few hours of weakness in the first week. Once in a while, we will get so suddenly weak we cannot even move our finger. Then just as suddenly, it goes away and we have more energy than we did before. The weakness is felt when the body takes time and energy to dean certain organs. Imagine a scanning machine looking through the whole body. All of a sudden it finds an organ that needs fixing. The scanning machine sends a message out to the body's energy center. It says, "Oops, there's something in here. I need to spend some time in here, and I need to
Detcxf llcaucn as Healing
spend some extra energy" That's how the body works.
Another symptom is headaches. IT you have eaten a lot of white sugar in your life or had coffee or if you've taken painkillers, you will probably experience headaches. These headaches usually won't last for more than MO or three days) but they may seem unbearable. To help yourself feel better, lie down and rest, take a bath, sleep or give yourself an enema. Ask you body, 'What do you need? ' and listen ..
Rashes are another common symptom. About 90% of people experience a rash one to three times. Our body divides all the toxins into certain groups. One group is eliminated through the ears. Another is easier to eliminate through the nose. Some toxins have to be eliminated through the skin in the sweat. Whenever the toxin is being released through the skin, you will experience some kind of a rash. The more acidic the sweat is, the more unbearable the rash will be. What do you do when you have a rash? Take a hot bath and sweat. Go to the sauna. If you .go to the sauna, remember you need to wash the toxic sweat off. I go to the sauna often, because where I live there is a sauna. I have watched people get into the sauna. Their body works to sweat out all the toxins and then they go in the open, cold air, sit down and dry off. The body then reabsorbs all those toxins back! When our pores are open, OUI body is like a sponge, absorbing everything back. We need to wash off the sweat and the toxins. Cold water is best as the pores will squeeze extra toxins out as they close.
The next symptom is diarrhea. Some people have diarrhea, which is great. I once prayed for diarrhea and I didn't get it. Once my friend didn't pr<\y for it, and he had it for six months on and off. He couldn't go to the movies because he
12 Steps to Raw F00d
was afraid to go further than 100 feet from the house. I wanted diarrhea because I had a prolapsed colon) and I had been told that diarrhea would straighten my colon. Diarrhea is not bad and is not caused by bacteria. Diarrhea is caused by the body trying to clean itself.
When you experience detox symptoms, the first thing to do is to call somebody in the raw food community who will understand and talk with you. You can call another raw fooder and say, "I'm calling you because I'm dying! I am having such a terrible headache, everything is shaking, and T have weakness," And your friend, understanding the detox process. will say; "Congratulations, your body is working!" Why reach out to other raw foodersi It is important because, no matter how much I explain, when the actual detox happens you will panic. Everybody does. This is why jt is very important to call someone who can reaffirm your choice f01': health and that can reassure you that you are all right. Someone to tell you everything is okay and that what you are feeling is normal.
If you are experiencing a healing event, you may consider fasting on water or juice for 24-36 hours. Fasting will speed up the process of detoxification. Read books on fasting before you plan to do so. If you want to fast for a longer periad, going to a fasting clinic would be your safest choice.
CHAPTER srx
The Family Fast
Fasting is a p .. rivilege .. F~sti~lg is. joy. When is a gOOd. time to fast? You will know lt 1S time to fast when everything becomes untasty, You will eat your favorite food and it just won't taste good. That is the sign that your body is ordering you to fast.
[fasted on water many times from one day to twenty-one days. Sometimes I do a several day juice fast. Our family of four enjoys fasting together. Often we fast together one or two days while driving long distances to our workshops. That makes our trips easier and we don't get tired. As a family we have done several seven day juice fasts and many one or two day water fasts.
In February of this year our family completed a fourteen day water fast. It brought our family so close together! Every day we gathered at borne to share all the things that were happening with OUI bodies. We were all going through the same experience together. We aske each other: "Do you experience this? Do you experience ... that? You do? Oh good." On the third day; all of us experienced physical weakness.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Valya was answering the phone while I was gone for two bours. My phone is always ringing. Valya had to hold her
arm up to answer the phone. Her arm hurt for the rest of the day just from holding the phone. Sergei was on the mountain snowboarding that day. An hour after he arrived, he called home, "Can you come and get me) I can't even pull my snowboard in the snow." We decided that our weakness happened because our bodies were switching from feeding on actual food, feeding on bodily internal reserves. On the fourth day we all experienced energy. Sergei snowboarded all day. Sergei was so excited to tell his friends that he was on his third day of a water fast. His friends didn't believe him. One boy said Sergei was just making it up, and that he didn't look like he hadn't eaten. On the evening of our fifth day we hugged together a a family. "Guy, this is our fifth day!" We asked one another, "Are we going to fast another week and a half as planned? Gosh, another week and a half seems so long." Then we started to notice how much free time we had. During the day we saved a lot of time that we normally would have spent shopping, preparing and eating. Instead of food, for those two weeks, we decided we were goi.ng to go to the sauna, as
a family, at lunchtime every single day. Because we were missing the nice smells of the food, we bought lemon tincture and put it in the sauna and smelled lemon. We had lots of energy. We woke up right as the sun came up and went to bed around midnight. We liked to observe each Other's figures, and see what was different and how we were all getting into shape. We went swimming. It was just a wonderful experience! Sergei said, "I never knew I was so hooked on the ritual of eating."
Toward the end of the fast, Sergei called a friend and said,
The Fami IJ Fast
"Do you want my skateboard? Come and get it! I decided I'm not going to skateboard anymore. lis just a waste of time. I'm going to read more now." After finishing the fast, Sergei doubled his college classes, He doubled his music lessons. He wrote an article for a magazine .. He seemed to mature during the fasting process. Now he is teaching a raw food class in our town. After the fast, he became a little wizard. It was a beautiful experience to observe, Valya seemed to become more confident in herself after this fast, she was constantly in a very happy, joyous mood.
Towards the end of the fast, we began to e perience days when some of us during different time would experience weakness. That's when the body needed some energy for healing. Then we would lie down and rest. When the energy returned we knew that the certain part of healing was complete. We had lots of energy. Oh, precious energy!
On the thirteenth night of the fast, I had a dream. In the dream I was sitting on a tricycle. I was three years old and my father was spraying the garden with DDT. I got off my bike and walked behind my da.d towards the box with poison and put my hands in this white powder. It smelled so bad ... I woke up, and I had a DDT taste in my mouth. I went to the bathroom and started to wash my mouth, but the chemical taste wouldn't wash out. It came together with the actual memory from my childhood, when my father was spraying the garden with DDT, with me sitting on the tricycle. I also remembered that there was no asphalt for the street yet, I had to ride my tricycle on just boards. It is interesting to me that
I remembered this episode with DD';!; spraying so vividly. I know my body was now clearing out the poison that had been in my body since I was three.
12 Steps to Raw Food
In the end of the fast we wondered how should we break it? We have several fasting books and they each suggest a different way to break the fast. One tells us to break our fast with juice, another says, wheat grass, yet another says oranges, and another says peeled tomatoes. We decided to meditate as a family and listen to our bodies to see what they wanted. Then we heard the answer, just in time, very clearly. We were going to have grated organic Fuji apples, several chunks of organic pineapple and several pieces of prunes. Then we were going to stay on juices for three days.
The kids arrived home from coUege by bus at 5:20 p.m. and Igor and I had a beautiful table with flowers in the middle, and everybody had a platter with a pile of grated apple, chunks of pineapple, and soaked prunes, and the prune water in the middle. I made a poster "Congratulations Boutenko Family on Successfully Finishing Our 14 Day Water Fast!" When the kids came in, and they hadn't eaten for two weeks, and they saw this beautiful table with beautiful plates, and the food smells .. Wow! I!
We sat as a family and beld hands together. "Should we really eat?" Sergei said. "I wish we could wait another day!" Valva said. Then we started to eat. Oh, it was so good! None of us could finish even half a plate. We felt so full. Om stomachs had shrunk Oh, I wish I could eat more! We had to leave it for later. A couple hours later we finished everything, then we stood for a long time together, hugging and feeling how we were so glad we did it. Thank you, all of you! We were just feeling such a tremendous thankfulness, and togetherness, and joy.
During the fast.Valya was taking jazz lessons where they had really vigorous exercises. After she went twice during
The Farn i Iy Fast
the fast, she said, "You know Mom, I don't know if I can go a third time and really do everything, because I felt sometimes 1 couldn't really hold my hands up for a long time. I wanted to sit down and just rest." When the teacher would turn
away, Valya would put her hands down, and when the teacher rurned back, she'd put them back up.
J mixed a special drink for Valya. Half Thai coconut water and half distilled water in a cup had enough glucose to give her a little hit of energy. So, for the children in the last few days, if they needed to go to an exercise class, I gav;e them
one cup of this water mixed with coconut water, and it worked. Igor and I didn't take any coconut water, but Valya and Sergei did.
Fasting as a family was a beautiful experience. I encouraged our kids to take notes and they did. Now Sergei says
be would like to fast one or two times per year again as a family and write a book called Family Fasting. Both kids did lose almost 20 pounds each, and they did look thin, but they gained back 10 pounds within the first three days of juicing. It was amazing. We all enjoyed our newest experience in fasting. We cannot wait until the next time we fast as a family again.
How to Stay Raw
Why Twelve Steps?
I would like to ask YOll a question: Is food your number one pleasure? Before rushing to say no, think about how we celebrate special dates. Do we fast on our birthdays, OUf wedding day or holidays? Do we go for a walk to celebrate these occasions or do we make fancy and abundant feasts? "When we attend an anniversary party, do we expect to be nicely fed? How would we feel about the party if no food was offered?
Food is synonymous with celebration in our culture. For holiday dinners we plan delicious meals and buy the most mouth-watering items to eat. We even have pecial celebration dishes such as tortes, chocolate truffles, fancy cakes, candy and appetizers that we associate with each holiday. We look forward to eating as part of the holiday celebration!
How do you feel after a holiday dinner? Can you describe honestly how your body feels the next morning? Do you feel sleepy, tired or wrung out? Do you need coffee? Have you noticed that your body tends to fe~this way after big holiday meals? Even if we answer yes, does lis uncomfortable feeling stop us from planning our next holiday meal?
12 Steps to Raw Food
If we ate just for nutrition, would we eat potato chips Elf drink coffee or beer? When we go to the deli section and admire the fancy dishes in the deli case, are we admiring the nutritional quality of the food or the task potential and pleasure that the food offers? Most of us would probably answer pleasure. When we recognize that food is the number one pleasure for the majority of us, we can then become aware Gf the fact that we consume food not for its nutritional value, but for pleasure.
When we wan t our food to bring us pleasure first and nutrition second, then nutritional value is sacrificed for the taste. Because of this we end up with food that has very stimulating taste and very little nutritional value. These are the two main characteristics of cooked food. Raw food, however, can give us both nutritional value and pleasure ..
1 started to teach classes about raw foods eight years agQ, As soon as I lost my first 30 pounds, I gathered neighbors and friends in my house and started to tell them about the health benefits I had experienced by eating only raw foods. They got really excited and decided to become raw too. However, none of them lasted on raw food even through the next morning's breakfast. I met some of my students a couple days later at the store and I asked them how was their raw
life .. One friend said, "1 cannot become Jaw yet. I have to cook for my family" Others tried to avoid me. I decided that 1 did 110t do a good job teaching them how to eat raw if they couldn't stay on it. I decided to study more. I visited different alternative healing centersand read day and night. I started to teach again and this time I put all my talents into the class, I sang) I danced Russian folk dances. I told jokes. I tried everything I could to make enzymes and sprouts interesting.
Why Tw.e lve Steps?
By the end of the class, everyone got very excited and said, "Oh, I'm not. going to eat cooked food ever again in my life. I'm going to eat 0n]-)' raw," But as 1 learned later, my new students' raw food life didn't last through breakfast either. I met two of my students in the store the next week and they were hiding their muffins behind their back and saying, «Sorry Victoria, we couldn't make it!' I knew something was wrong with my teaching and I didn't like it that my friends were hiding from me as if I were the police! I decided to shut my mouth until r found a way I could teach so people would follow. My goal became to meet other raw food teachers and chefs and to l.earn from them how to teach the raw food lifestyle successfully.
For two and a half years we traveled around the country and visited many alternative healing centers .. We came across several places where the raw food lifestyle was taught. People with cancer, diabetes, allergies, asthma and other serious illnesses came to these health centers from all over the world and stayed, usually for two to six weeks, to learn the raw food lifestyle. The staff taught about raw food and explained why is it the best food for humans, Guests were served beautiful raw meals.
At OD.e such place, the CHI, we stayed for nine. months, CHI had the ideal conditions for making a raw food diet most. effective. Guests of CHI were completely isolated from any stress and temptations and were in a beautiful and homey atmosphere.
Most of the guests at CHT had been diagnosed with a fatal disease such as cancer. In most cases, tbey made their decision to try raw food as a last&"sort. Most had already gone through chemotherapy and radiation and their doctors
[2 Steps to Raw Food
had told them that there was nothing else that could be done to help them.
The guests of CHI wereintroduced to a 100% raw diet and. all 132 guests reported feeling better. They observed their tumors shrinking in a matter of weeks, other symptoms of disease were reduced and they felt good. The guests pledged to stay on Jaw food as it had helped them to feel better. When families came to visit, they were also supportive of the raw diet lifestyle as they could ee a difference in their loved one's health. It was dear to many guests that the raw food diet was enabling them to live longer. We were all very happy for the guests and their healing experiences. As they left, we wished them well.
As a follow up, I asked Don Haughey, owner of CHI, ifhe had done any research on how many of his guests actually stayed on the raw diet after they went home? He paused for a long moment, sighed and answered, "About 2%. When they go home they don't stay on thediet,' I was mystified. "Do they choose to die?" I asked. He didn't answer, a tear came d0WTI his cheek, I couldn't find an explanation as to why people were unable to stay on raw food even when they had personally experienced the extraordinary health benefits and were dedicated to the raw lifestyle. This became a real mystery to me and I wanted to solve the puzzle.
As I thought over this puzzle, I continued to teach classes, My students were always excited about going on 'a raw food diet and I taught them how w prepare delicious raw meals, but still not many of them remained raw; I was becoming tired and discouraged.
Then one day a friend invited me to all AA meeting that was open to the public. As I listened to the talk at the meeting
Why Twelve Steps?
I could see it all so clearly. Cooked food is an addiction! That is why will power and the best intentions do not keep one on the raw lifestyle. At last I got the puzzle answered.l felt 0 happy! It was a revelation!
I went to the public library and asked for books on addictions. The librarian showed me many shelves full of books. I asl ed, "How many books can I check out?" The answer was, "38 books." So, I checked out 38 books on all kinds of addictions, from drugs and alcohol to overspending and overeating. I read an 38 books and returned for more until I'd read them all The librarian was sure I had a BIG problem.
Next, I made a. trip to the biggest bookstore ill our town. 1 spent the whole day' there reading and brought more books home. One book was written by two medical professors and had a universal questionnaire on addiction to any chemical substance. If a person answered «yes" on more than three questions from the questionnaire, then that person had an addiction to that particular addictive substance.
As an experiment 1 made a copy of the questionnaire, whited. out «chemical substance" and typed in "cooked food." I gave it to all of my students in three classes and everybody answered "yes" to most of the questions. 1 thought, "Hallelujah, that's the proof, it's an addiction. Wowl That is so radical!" 1 felt as if I jumped off the Empire State Building. But the more I gave it a thought, the more it made sense to me.
There are hundreds of thousands of people who want to be raw fooders. They have learned about the health benefits of eating raw foods and sincerely VVriU1t to change their diets. Some of these people feel compelled to go on a raw food diet by a serious illness. But when these people begin to eat raw
12 Steps to Raw Food
food they discover that to stay on a 100% raw diet is so hard, almost impossible! 'Only a few people actually stay 100% raw longer than a year. Even some of the well-known raw food teachers admit that they can't stay 100% raw. VVhat seems easy from the first sight in reality appears to be extremely hard, because cooked food is addictive.
Open the AA Big Book and you will read that only one person out of maybe a 1, 000 could quit drinking alcohol by sheer will power alone. You will also read that 12 Step programs have helped hundreds of thousands. I believe that if the 12 Step program works for people with other addictions, it can also work for people with cooked food addiction.
I understand now that by teaching only why raw food is good, I could not help anybody. There is about 1 person out of 1, 000 that can stay on raw food with will power and without support. I have met two or three people who have been able to stay on raw food for over one year by using only willpower. The problem with will power is that in times whe-n you feel angry> hungry, lonely or depressed you turn to cooked food for 'comfort.
That is precisely why I developed 12 Steps to Raw Food.
In the last year and a half I have taught this program in Washington, Minnesota, Oregon, Arizona, Maryland, Colorado and California. At first I was afraid. I didn't know how people would react, I thought, "It's so radical and it's so different." But then the majority of students who went through the 12 Steps to Raw Food prog,ram have stayed on a 100% raw diet for several months to over a year and they are continuing to be raw!' It's a very powerful program already and, as I stated earlier) I keep working on improvements.
The 12 Steps to Raw Food program has more differences
Why Twelve Steps?
than similarities in comparison with other 12 Step programs. 1 believe that cooked food is much morecunning, more cruel, more subtle and thus much more difficult to overcome.
Cooked food is a legal addiction, easy to acquire and is advertised everywhere. It's not only accepted, but is encouraged. Ingrained in our culture, cooked food is thought to be normal, proper and healthy. It doesn't even occur to us that cooked food could be harmful, so we keep looking for a solution somewhere else until we have looked everywhere and don't find the night answer. All of us who turned to raw food bad some serious reasons for doing so, either health problems, ethical, spiritual or other reasons. For me, it was the matter of Life and death. I knew I would die if I didn't seek that truth for my eJf. All members of my family had very serious heal th problems before we went on raw food .. We have described our family story in our book Raw Fatnily.
Addiction to cooked food is harder and stronger than any other addiction. In most of the books on drugs they say the earlier the drugs or chemical substance are taken, th€ harder th.ey are to get off .. Think about the first time you ate cooked food. You were most likely about six months to a year old. Did you like cooked food when YOll first took a bite? Probably not. You don't remember .. Let us make an analogy. Think back to when you first tried coffee, How did it taste? Bitter .. Did you ask yourself, "How can adult" drink this?') Coffee is an acquired taste. We ignored our body's response of "ugh bitter" and kept trying coffee until we got used to it. We did this because coffee is a social drink and a4!Pymbol of adulthood. Did you like beer the first time you ttied it? What about a first cigarette? Do you remember your body's reaction? "No, get
1.2 Steps to Raw Food
that away from mel" When we first try anything that is not healthy, our body always gives us a warning. When you first tried cooked food, you probably cried. Maybe you even had a rash. But your mother thought you were teething. So your mother, with the best intentions, continued to feed you cooked food. Then you got used to it and then you got addicted to it.
However, there is a big problem in calling cooked food an addiction. Addiction has a poor reputation in our society. Addiction is a word we don't like to associate with ourselves. None of us want to say, "1 am an addict." We don't like others to look down on us. But the truth is that most of us are addicted to something, be it shopping, accumulating things, watching TV or eating sweets, etc. We call these bad habits .. We doth like to call them addictions. When we hear the word "addict" we imagine ditty and depressed people who steal money and hurt women and children.
I want to apo.logize if I hurt anybody's feelings. It is not my intention to offend you or make you feel uncomfortable. What I have found is so incredible and my intention is to share with you, for the good of alL
Step One
I admit that I have lost control
of my addiction to cooked food and my eating is becoming unmanageable.
The first step .is the hardest one. This is the time in my classes when some people get up, leave the building and slam the door on their way out. I never hear from them again. I apologize if this is the way you feeL Please don't rush to make up YOUl- mind. Let us do a little work.
Cooked Food Dependency Questionnaire
This is a questionnaire to determine addiction to cooked food. Please answer "yes" or "no" to each of the following
. If ct· » « be"
questions ... yon want to answer sometimes, may e or
"rare" then answer "yes," Please be honest.
1. If you are not hungry, but someone offers yau your favorite delicious food, do yo"" accept the offer?
2. If yon know that it is not good to eat before bedtime, but there is some delicious food on the table, do you eat it?
12 Steps to Raw Food
3. If you are feeling stressed, do you eat more food than usual?
4. Do you continue eating untiJ your stomach feels completely full?
5. Do you eat when YOll are bored?
6~ Do you notice restaurant signs even when you are not hungry?
7. If you are made an offer for a free dinner, do you always accept the offer?
8. At All-You-Can-Eat restaurants, do you usually overeat?
9. Have you ever broken a promise to yourself not to eat before bedtime?
10. Would you spend the last: $10 in your pocket on your favorite food?
11. Do you reward yourself with food for accomplishing achievements?
12. Do you eat extra food rather than letting it go to waste?
13. If you know that eating a certain food that you really enjoy will make you feel ill later, do you still eat it?
If you answered "yes" to th ree or more q u estions, then you may have a cooked-food dependency.
Sometimes raw feeders answer "yes" to more than three questions. Usually that happens to people who are not raying on. 100.% raw diet or they have just recently become 100% raw. For one and a half years after becoming a 100% raw feeder; I still viewed food as a comforting element. I was still thinking that food was a sign of love, that love was coming from food, and that food was the place to derive comfort and pleasure. This view of food changed when I reached the one and a half year mark. At this point I began to find other
Step On e
pleasurable things in my life. 1 no longer looked to food for comfort. If you are a raw fooder and you answered yes on three or more questions on the "Cooked Food Dependency Test," don't worry. You will shift your focus after awhile. FOT those of you who are on raw foods 99%, you may consider food comforting and pleasurable for the rest of yOUT life. Hanging on to that 1% cooked food in your diet keeps you craving cooked food. It's like someone who quits drinking but consumes one shot of vodka every Saturday. Is this person truly sober?
Have YOu heard the words "rock bottom?" Maybe you heard that one has to «hit rock bottom" in order to end addiction? Imagine people who have been drinking for many years, ruined their health, lost their families and job, their loved
ones begged them to quit, but they couldn't. Then suddenly they hit "rock bottom" and a miracle happened, they became sober for good. Have you ever thought about what happens at "rock bottom" and why exactly that place is so powerful? I used to think that the time when one hits "rock bottom" depends on the depth of despair and closeness to death. Do you also think so? Then I have good news for you; nothing is further from the truth! Have you noticed that everyone hits "rock bottom" at different levels of addiction? Some people get emphysema before they quit smoking, some are able to quit at a very early stage of addiction and some Lose everything and die but never quit. That means that hitting "rode bottom" is not connected to disease and despair but to something else. What? "What is that magic wand that returns people back to the fullness of life?
It is called THE POWER O.ijAD1'v1ITTING. In other words, facing the truth. This is the core of all the other 12
11 S teps to Raw Food
Step programs. Please try to understand clearly. The "rock bottom" happens when people honestly face that they lost control. Often a lifelong time of suffering happens before a per on gets ready t admit. That shows that many people are
cared of admitting the truth and don't understand why it is so important. Have you ever heard an alcoholic say ('Oh,1 could stop drinking anytime. I just don't want to," They don't want to admit they are out of control. That is called denial. Or have you heard a smoker say, "I could quit smoking but I really enjoy it and I feel fine." Do yoo see that this person is in denial? We all know that smoking is harmful to the body. Admitting creates a relief. By doing so we gain absolute clarity and there is no need to get Lata deep sorrow or become desperately ill in order to make a change .. When we do admit that we have a problem) then we can start fixing this problem and that is wh n the shift .happ ens. So let us hit rock bottom sooner than later. I wiH go first.
Hello, my name is Victoria Boutenko and I am a cooked food addict and T have been dean for eight years. I relapsed only once, and though 1 don't want to eat cooked food right now, I know that if I would try cooked food. then I would start eating and wanting cooked food. I know that about myself. I know that the desire for cooked food is a big giant sleeping somewhere in my body; sleeping right now, very soundly, ~t is not interfering with my experience of being completely alive and living my life fully. But 1 also know that 1 am a cooked food addict, and, that if I ate conked food) thi big giant could wake up and take. o:ver my life. There, I said it. I admitted to being a cooked fa d addict. The world is still here. No one fell over dead at my revelation. My husband till loves me. My children still love me. All is well. Admitting my
Step One
addiction makes me stronger. 1 have labeled it. I know how to take care of myself because of identifying it.Power is in knowing oneself.
Cooked food is so addictive. If we go to the .healtb tore and we see an organic mango and it's -oh boy- $2.99 for one mango) we think) "How expensive!" Then we turn around to the deli and mer are fresh bak d crois: ants for $2.99. We think "Oh boy, what a good deal, I'm hungry." We buy the crois ant for an illusion of quick pleasure or to numb something empty inside. That's what we call unmanageability. How many of us have said, "1 would really like to be a raw fooder, but when I come home and look in the fridge, I reach for the comfort food, not the raw food," Think about question two on the "Cooked Food Dependency Questionnaire." Do you eat late at night, even when you ar n't hungry, just because your partner begins to unwrap something yummy? This is when we have lost control. You have decided not to
eat late at nigh before bed, but you do it anyway because the temptation is there. The treat promises us some kind of pleasure. We remember times when the treat gave us pleasure. a we want it. This is addietiou, when the want and need overrides your decision not to eat before bedtime. I've seen 132 people who had cancer. and they carne to the health institute and they felt better. Their tumors shrank, and they decided to stay raw. They even applied to new jobs and applied to coIlege. But when they went home, and Christrna came, they all failed. AU of them died. They couldn't stay on raw food. They left children and loved ones behind because they couldn't resist the addiction to cooked food.Jhat is 'the truth. 1 know their names, I knew those people. twas teaching them bow to grow sprouts. I was talking to their families. Their families
12 Steps to Raw Food
supported them. But they couldn't resist their addiction to cooked food and they died. 1 remember Cynthia from Michigan who had support from her whole family. She was a schoolteacher, Her three SOl]S told her, "Mom, we're going to make juice for you. Just stay on this raw food diet and stay alive." Her husband said, "Stay raw, we all support you .. " She couldn't stay on the raw food diet. Her cancer came back. She died. Cooked food is addictive.
These stories from life show that the addiction to cooked food is stronger than the fear of death. It is stronger than the fear of disease, no matter how great the suffering and pain. The only way we can conquer cooked food is by understanding how addictive it is, by seeing that it has control over us and by using a 12 step program. Support is the mo t powerful force I know .. If I didn't have support in my family, I would probably die. Por a long time I didn't realize that in my home I had an AA group that gives me a hand whenever I feel weak. Yes, I've been 100% raw for eight years. I feel completely committed to eating raw. r have forgotten about cooked food. When I walk down the streets, I don't notice restaurants any more, When I go to Barnes and Noble I don't pay attention to the coffee smell. But I know that if I got hurt and I had go to tile hospital where they don't have raw food, and I took a little bite, I know the outcome would be horrible. I've seen this happen to many of my friends. Something happened and they went back on cooked food, even though they had been strong, solid 100% raw fooders for a very long time. So I know for myself that addiction to cooked food is still in my body. The following fragment of sharing from a workshop demonstrates responses of different people to Step 1.
Step One
Linda: I think 1 hit rock bottom. I had been on raw foods for a very long time. During Christmas my family came around and I decided I wanted a traditional holiday. I wanted to do all the things I used to prepare. I did pumpkin pie and almond roca, and all these comfort foods that they loved and itgave me great pleasure in preparing for them. Anyway, I got very ill after the holidays from eating all that cooked food. That was my rock bottom.
Dalia: My eating is definitely unmanageable, and I definitely have an addiction to cooked foods, and 1 think it's because my parents introduced me to cooked foods at a very young age, and reinforced behavior with cooked food.
Carol: I'm having a hard time with this one. Victoria: That is okay to have a hard time.
Carol: I guess I'm not at that point of admitting that I'm addicted.
Victoria: That's okay. Please feel welcome anyway. Carol: I'm really wanting to move in that direction. But
I'm struggling with talking about my addiction.
Victoria: I appreciate your sharing with us.
Bryan: I'm definitely addicted, and it's just unbelievable. Kathleen: I've been on and off of raw foods for almost
three years and I think it's really true that I am addicted. When I'm cooking tofu, or rice, or whatever for my family, I always know that I don't want to eat it, that I'd rather put energy into creating something raw. But I often end up eating cooked dishes with them.
Step Two
I believe that live vegan food is the most natural diet for a human being.
In Part One of this book, we have presented several reasons why raw food is the most natural diet for the human body. We discussed the importance of enzymes and how they relate to health. We discussed how the body has to adjust to cooked food by creating health-damaging mucus. We discussed the relationship between raw food and bacteria, parashes and disease.
In addition, I would like to share how raw food has changed the life of my family .. Eight years .ago we all became very sick I had arrhythmia and was severely depressed. My husband suffered frompainful arthritis. He had surgery scheduled for his hyperthyroid. My son Wi:1S diagnosed with juvenile diabetes and was prescribed insulin. My daughter had esthma, All these illnesses are considered incurable by medical doctors. We also had many other problems like indigestion, obesity, lack of
12 Steps to Raw food
energy, mood swings, dental problems and others.
However, after we all went on a raw diet, all four of us got completely cured. 'Ioday we experience radiant health and constant happiness. I believe that our health is beyond what most people experience. We don't have any medical insurance because we feel totally in charge of our health. We continually experience a high level of energy. Each one of u can run for many miles .. In 1998 we hiked across the United States on the Pacific Crest Trail. Other people may have doubts, but we know all the changes in our health started to happen when
we went on raw food.
Step Three
I shall gain necessary skills, learn basic raw recipes and obtain equipment to prepare live food.
HOW important is tasty ra~ fo.od? we, have agre.ed ~arlier that for rna t people eating is a first pleasure m life. Therefore most people WILL NOT stay on a raw diet if the food is not delicious. Can the raw food be as tasty as cooked food? Absolutely! r have learned how to pIepare very delicious raw food, and my family has been successfully teaching secrets of raw gourmet dishes to hundreds of men and WOmen of different ages. During the last few years T simply stopped telling people that my food is raw unless they asked.
Once a woman called me and asked) "1 heard you are a good cook. Can you tater for a wedding, for 50 people!" She did Dot ask for a raw wedding, but at that particular time r was not in a position to refuse the extra cash. So I aid, "Sure." 1 had so much fun preparing a %tier wedding cake, appetizers, oups, salads, portabella mushroom burgers, sundaes and ice creams! There were no raw feeders at that wedding ... All
12 Steps to Raw Food
guests were accustomed to a Standard American Diet (SAD),. Nobody complainedl The only question everybody asked was, "How come everything is so delicious?" Guests loved the food and they wanted to meet the chef. When I announced te everybody that all the food was raw and vegan, all people were very surprised "that healthy food could be so tasty."
You're not going to turn into a raw chef just by watching, as you cannot turn into a good s-wimmer by watching Olympic swimmers. In order to learn how to swim, you need to get wet, and cold, and get some water in your nose. If you want to become a good raw gourmet chef, you need to unpack your new blender, processor, juicer and dehydrator and place them on the counter in your kitchen. Don't just own them, use them, jump in and get messy. Get YOUT hands sticky. Spill the contents from the Vita-Mix all over the kitchen. It's unavoidable, so the sooner the better. Experiment, have fun. If your creation doesn't taste good yet, put it in your compost. All earthworms from your neighborhood will gather into your garden attracted by yourcuisine, You can only learn by trial and error how to make delicious food.
For five years my daughter Valva was afraid to make frosting for the cake, She said) «I won't make it. It won't taste good}' Once I was out of town and our close friend asked Valya to prepare a cake for a birthday. My daughter had to make the entire cake by herselfand she did, When I got home Valya told me "It was so easy! You just take nuts, dates and water, and blend it, and it's a frosting! If you want you can create different flavors by adding vanilla, or carob, or lemon peel aT other natural ingredients, but it s so simple!" Valya showed me a good dozen cute little tea cakes with
Step Three
different frostings on them. She was talking about this for the entire day. "It's so simple!" she said.
My husband Igor was afraid to make live gardenburgers. He said, "It was easy with real meat, you just cut a piece and fry it with oiL But now 1 am supposed to create a meat from carrots without a cow?" He saw me preparing live gardenburger hundreds of times but he was afraid that it was too complicated for him. For six years he never even tried to make one. Then we had an emergency situation when too many people showed up for a dinner. I was busy preparing soup, Who will make garden burgers? Igor didn't have a choice. So he did it! Even before I finished making soup he was done. Since then r have never made another live gardenburgerIgor took over. Now we call this dish "Igor burger."
Igor started to enjoy preparing raw food more and more.
He created many of his own dishes. His Russian Borodinsky crackers are popular all over the worlel In Iceland Igor was demonstrating how to create a raw sandwich. He put live gardenburgers on crackers and decorated with dry olives and paprika. When people tried his raw sandwiches they-were amazed how delicious Igor's sandwiches were. One woman exclaimed, "This sandwich is worth living fad"
If you want to learn how to prepare delicious raw meals, please read attentively the rest of this chapter. There is a principal difference between cooking meals and preparing live. food. The following table will help you to understand why in preparing raw dishes we cannot rely on recipes.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Comparison of cooking and preparing
• Ingredients ill cooked food a lways change their initial taste as a result of cooking.
• Cooked food has pale unattractive colors and textures.
• The original rich flavors of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds disappear almost completely after being heated.
• Plain cooked food is tasteless, requiring enhancement with salt, pepper and other condiments.
• The taste of cooked food is determined by condiments.
• Condiments have permanent taste.
• When making cooked food, to follow a .recipe is the most important.
• Ingredients in raw food never change their initial taste.
• Raw food is very colorful and naturally appealing to human eyes ..
• The original rich flavors of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds stay in th e food after preparing without heating.
• Raw food is naturally delicious and requires very litt1e or no condiments.
• The taste of raw food is determined by a bouquet of tastes of main ingredients ..
• Raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds have wide spectrums of tastes.
• When preparing a raw dish, following a recipe doesn't guarantee a delicious result. You need to always adjust the final taste.
Step Three
follow every step, measure everything and turn out with something different each time because of the variables inherent in live food. Cooked corn, cooked zucchini, cooked peas and other cooked vegetables taste almost the same and require oil and salt added, at the least. Raw corn, zucchini, peas and other raw vegetables, all have their own unique taste that is impossible to confuse. When I prepare a raw dish I use recipes only as ideas, as general guidelines or just for the ingredients. Then I adjust the final taste using a method of five tastes. There are thousands of different tastes in natural food but if we could balance five major ones) the food will be so delicious that everyone will say, "Wow!" These five tastes are: sweet, sour, salty, spicy and bitter. When you learn to balance the fixe tastes, TOU will make delicious food. When all five group of the taste buds on your tongue are excited you win say, "Wow!'
When you attempt to un-cook a delicious meal, make sure that ali five tastes are present 11,1 the final taste and not even one is missing. People who have been preparing raw gourmet meals everyday for many months, definitely could tell if one or two ingredients are missing by just tasting food once or twice. Other have to taste freshly made meals five times, asking each time a very simple question: Is it spicy enough] 1s it salty enough? Is it sweet enough? Is it sour enough? Is it bitter enough? The five tastes don't have to be strong but just enough for a particular dish. For example, the strongest tastes in a gardenburger should be sweet, spicy and salty with only a touch of sour and bitter, but all five have to be present. Otherwise the gardenburger will taste bland.
Usually, when you have just prepare a dish and go through your first round of five-spoon ~asting, two or three tastes are missing, Add ingredients fOJ- the missing tastes, mix
12 Steps to Raw Food
again and start five spoon tasting all over again. Continue until the five major tastes are balanced in the nice bouquet. I call this process "adjusting the taste." In the beginning adjusting can take longer than preparing. Don't be discouraged) your pace will speed up with practice. At the same time your raw food will become unbeatable.
Whether you pTepa.re a cake) a dressing or a nut cutlet, the bouquet of all five tastes needs to be present. We, for some reason, have this idea that if food is already healthy, it doesn't have to be delicious. So we throw the celery and lemon juice into the blender and mix and we don't even taste it. But when we begin to eat, it may be unbearably bitter or too sour. That's why we usethe taste test and add what is missing.
After approximately one and a half years of consuming 100% raw food you will start noticing that you prefer to eat whole food rather than prepared, more and more often. As a matter of fad, all whole foodsj if they are ripe, already have the most balanced bo uquet of taste in them ~lClturally. However, their taste is so delicate that unfortunately; after many years of consuming cooked food filled with condiments, our taste buds cannot enjo)( natural taste. That is why we need a. transition time ..
The following is a list of suggested ingredients for five taste groups ... This is only a fraction of what is available on planet Earth. Many plants possess different tastes but have one or two that are dominate. You have to apply common sense and Dot add vanilla to the soup or garlic to the candy. Please be creative, these are just ideas for you,
Fora sour taste add: Lemons, rhubarb, lemon grass, sour grass, sorrel, tomatoes, rejuvelac, nut or seed yogurt or apple cider vinegar.
Step Three
For a sweet taste add; Dry fruit such as figs) dates, prunes, raisins; fresh fruits such as ripe banana, mango) peach, pear; apple juice, orange juice) raw honey or fresh stevia leaves.
For a spicy taste add: Garlic leaves or doves, onion leaves or bulbs, ginger, mustard greens or seeds, radish, horseradish, cayenne pepper, wasabe sea weed, herbs fresh or dry such as basil, dill, cilantro, rosemary, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla or peppermint.
For a salty taste add: Celery; cilantro, dill, parsley) sea vegetables such as dulce, kelp, nori, arame or Celtic seasalt,
For a bitter taste add: Parsley) celery tops, endive, garlic, onion, dandelion, bay leaf, sage, poultry seasoning or cayenne pepper.
Step Four
I shall live in harmony with people who eat cooked food.
I have a question for you. What emotions do you feel
_ when SOmeone is telling YOl.) what to do? You probably had many instances in your life when another person was giving you advice and you didn't agree. What was your reaction? Can you remember a. time when a friend said to you something like, "Gary, you need to start jogging. You're getting fat." Or, "Tom, you should cut off these dread locks." Or, "Paula, you should stop smoking .. You have children." Did these suggestions help you? Probably not. Remember when you were a kid and your mom or your dad said, "You're running around in the streets too much, you really need to read more books .. " How did you feel? D.id Y0u feel drawn to books immediately? Did you say, "Oh, thank you, Dad, I'll go and read right now?" Chances are you felt rebellious and resentful and the last thiIij\ you wanted to
do was to go pick up a book, sit down and read. Here are what my students said in the class about the.ir response to
12 Steps to Raw Food
other people's "unsolicited helpful suggestions."
Nancy: I would breathe a little smile, but of course I wouldn't do it.
George: I just smile and ignore.
Dorothy: I would feel resistance, and I bate that feeling. T would hate being forced and l'd have to start being dishonest.
Bryan: I'd feel really sarcastic.
Whitney: I wouldn't do it, because it's not their choice. I'd have resistance.
Wendy: I want to please. I want to do what they ask me to do, but then I'll be secretive about it, and be resentful.
Carla: Depression, so bad.
Sam: Sometimes when they think I should change ornething even if I know it's right, I won t do it, but I'll get mad that I know it's right and I'm not doing it. I get alittle bit of anger too,
When someone tells us that they know better than we do what is good for us, we tend to feel angry and upset, like they're trying to control us ... We feel annoyed, negative, and we shut them and their advice out. We feel attacked, hurt and uncomfortable,
That is precisely how your family is going to feel if you come home and show off and say, "I am raw now." An announcement of a family member to be a raw fooder can be a frightening tiling for the rest of the family. Cooked food is what we all know and consider normal and expected in our culture. Do you want those you love to feel rebellious, negative, shut off, controlled or angry? This is exactly how they will feel if you tell them. one day, "I'm going to be raw now, so don't eat that crap in front of me! Just the look of it makes me sick!"
Step Four
We need to do just the opposite. When you decide to become raw, talk to your family as soon as possible. Explain to them> "You know darling, this is not about you. Eating raw food is the choice I am making for myself. I'm not asking you to eat raw food. It's really okay with me that you Continue to drink beer and smoke your cigarettes, and eat your favorite steak I love you the way you are. It's me who's trying to change. It's not about you. I don't expect you. to follow me, to be interested, or even to try my food:' Don't wait until your family asks if it's okay to eat cooked food in front of you. Go ahead and talk to them right away. Watch how they will sigh with relief.
We don't even have to speak to make those we love uncomfortable. Some of us throw certain glances that convey the same meaning as the words di cussed previou ly. For example, a woman in one of my classes said to me, "My family is angry with my raw fooclism even though I never pushed anybody to eat raw food. My husband has been vegan for 30 years. My son is 12 and they always ask me to prepare cooked meals. When I cook food for them I go off my raw food diet. I don't feel much support. My son makes all kinds of jokes about my green juices) and he wonders why I have to eat my cake with a spoon," I said to her, "You might he doing something that .irritates them that you're not aware of. Just watch yourself, and catch those moments. Don't watch others. Watch and see what you are doing to antagonize your family," The next week she came to class and said, "Yeah. I caught myself several times poking little pins in certain painful places. I'd say something hurtful err look disgusted or put out. I changed my attitude toward my family, and they, in turn, shifted toward me and it on 1r took one week. When I
12 Steps to Raw Food
started accepting them, then they accepted me back. Now my husband is making juice every morning and bringing it to me in bed. He says, 'Honey, I want you to stay on raw food:
Suddenly my house has become a peaceful place, and my son is willing to try everything I make."
I am making my living by teaching raw food classes and I have been on a 100% raw food diet for eight years. But if somebody had told me ten years ago to go raw, I would have been so mad. I wasn't ready. Cooked food is addictive. Giving up cooked food isn't easy. Everyone must choose their Own time.
Another example is my friend Tina from Denver. She had a serious health problem. For many months she had to go to the hospital to undergo a procedure that was very embarrassing and painful for her. When we came to town to visit, she saw what we were eating and she was. interested. She asked, "Can you show me how to do it? I'm willing to tty because I have surgery (a colostomy) cheduled in two weeks which I would rather not do." Within a matter of days, she started to have normal bowel movements. She went on raw food for good. She avoided the surgery. Tina understood that for her, there were only two choices: raw food, no surgery, life and health, or cooked food, colostomy and eventually death.
Tina chose life. At the time of our visit, Tina's four children were major junk food eaters and her husband enjoyed vodka, steak, pork chops and pig's fat, which he used like bologna. Tina did not tellher family that she was going raw, She kept cooking for them as she always did. She said, "I'm going to keep it quiet." I agreed with her. 1 said, "Don't even mention it to them. Don't irritate them. Let them just leave you alone. Tell them that you don't expect them to do anything." Tina
Step Four
didn't mention her diet change to them. One year passed. We were driving through Denver and we stopped by. I saw Tina's husband, Sam, and he looked different. I said, "Sam.Is something wrong? You have changed." He replied with a grin, "I became 100% raw one month ago. The family is all happy and the children are raw, too." I asked, "What happened?"
am told me the story of why he became raw. He said that one day, about a month ago, he'd gone to pick up Tina at work He arrived a little early and sat down within view of her desk to wait. He noticed that his wife was so beautiful He saw the customers flirting with his wife. He was looking at her through new eyes. He saw how she'd gotten so healthy, sexy and beautiful. .All of a sudden he felt so inadequate. He said, «1 ran to the restroom and I looked at myself. I saw puffs under my eyes and a red face and gray hairs sticking up all over. I opened my shirt, and I looked at these pimples all over my chest. Nobody is going to flirt with me." He told me that he realized Tina had been getting healthy and beautiful and he had just been aging. Sam decided he needed to make
a change so he could keep up 'With his wife. He said, "On the way back horne I begged her to please .help me to become
raw like you . "Tina was happy to help her husband become raw. Tina told m.e that as soon as Sam went raw, the children said they wanted to be raw too! Her daughter became thin and beautiful and was now taking part in an audition for the theater. Everything was just going wonderful1y. Tina said that she felt a call from God, and things happened like never before in their life. Tina isa very wise woman. She didn't say a word to her family about becomingsraw. She made her food and enjoyed it without putting any expectations on her family. Her body healed and her family observed the changes.
12 S teps to Raw Food
Because of her good example, her family made the choice to follow.
I can give you many similar examples that show the importance of living in peace with people who eat cooked food'. Do you understand how important it is? It is crucial! What do we do in our real life? We do the opposite. We ruin the peace around ourselves. We start the war. We make people irritated with raw food. Please make a conscious choice to Jive in peace with all around you. You can do this. This in when the miracles happen. When people are not afraid that you are going to put any-pressure on them, they are willing to cooperate. We have no right to control others. We have no right to expect other people to change when they are not ready. We have no right to tell them what to do. In fact, our duty is to explain to others that we don't expect them to change.
Does that mean that there won't be any more family dinnersr Why not? Go home. sit down with your partner, and say, "Honey, let's have a family dinner. You enjoy your pork chops and I'll enjoy my stuffed bell pepper. We'll talk about ow- day and we'll enjoy our time together," After all, family is about love. Family is not about food, When yoW" loved ones know that you are not expecting anything from them. they can relax around you. They can support you without feeling 'pressured to change. We raw feeders have made a choice for ourselves for serious reasons. We made the right choice for us, not the right choice for everyone.
When I went on raw food I did just the opposite of my advice to you. I went around telling everyone to go on raw food. I was chasing overweight ladies in Safeway, trying to explain to them how easy it is to lose weight. I was so excited about the healthy changes my family was experiencing, I got
Step Fou r
carried away. I made a lot of enemies before I understood that people need to find their own way and decide their own path.
When we .respect other people's rights we can ask for support from our loved ones. We need to be sincere and. not be afraid to tell them, «(My darling, please help me. I need support. I need to eat raw food for my health, because when I eat cooked food I feel as if I'm falling apart. When I eat raw food, I feel more energy and I have more love for you. Please help me. I don't need you to he raw; I have an idea. Instead of buying me chocolates on Sunday, will you buy me a ripe mango? Or any exotic fruit would be a great pleasure for me. I so appreciate your thoughtfulness. Those cookies that we have jn, the house, it would be so helpful to me if you'd keep them in. your truck so that I can't eat them in a moment of weakness. I appreciate your support so much?'
Be firm with your friends, co-workers and all your relatives. If you are not firm they will continue to offer you cooked food. Be vulnerable and tell your family and close friends, "Listen I Deed your help. It's very important for me and my health now, that J go on raw food. Without your help I cannot do it. Support me, don't offer me any cooked food. You can eat absolutely whatever you want but don't offer it to me please." To ask for support is different than to ask them to go on raw food. People would love to be supportive, because we usually have love in our families and among friends.
Millie is a good example. When Millie was diagnosed with breast cancer, she started raw food. Her whole family, three big sons and her husband, were hostile and just hated the word "raw." Then Millie attended the 12 Step class. With Step Four in mind, she went through and rearranged her
12 Steps to Raw Food
communication with her family .. I heard from her via email some weeks after the class. She said, "My husband is growing proud of mel. Everything worked just miraculously! My family 1.l0W understands that 1 need support." Because she has cancer, they understand she needs, upport, and since she doesn't want or demand them to be raw, she doesn't put pressure on them. They feel very balanced and in peace.
No matter how we would love the rest of the family to benefit from raw food, we can control only one person in the world, ourselves. It is not om business to control our children or our parents, even if they are dying from cancer. I learned. my lesson when my mother was dying from cancer and I flew all the way to Russia to put her on raw food so she would survive. I was working very hard, going to the farmers market, buying carrots and juicing them all day long. On the third day as soon as I left to the market, my mother whispered to my brother, '(Can you make me.some scrambled eggs? I'm starving!" When I returned my mother's room was filled with the smell of scram bled eggs. My brother said, "1 don't want to lie to you. She asked for it." At that minute I felt how cruel it was :for me to push my mother. If she really is not ready) what good does it do? We have already discussed how we feel when someone tells us something we are not ready for.
I know one young man from Seattle who told me that he is really sorry for his mother who is suffering from tremendous pain. He told me that he and his mother are the closest people in the world. He said, 'I wish she would go on Taw food S'O she wouldn't have to suffer." I asked him, "Do you know how you make her suffer even more from feeling that she is not meeting your expectation?" He said, "1 never
Step Four
thought of that" After he gave it a thought, he came home, and told his mother, "You know, it's okay with me if you're not going to try my diet." In C1 few days he called me back and said) "A miracle happened, Mom wanted to try my food!"
I met people who started to push their family OIl. raw food even before they tried raw diet themselves. Like Linda and Tim. After Linda visited just one raw food class she came home and demanded Jim go on raw food. She came to the next class and complained that her husband didn't support her. Somehow she dragged Jim to the last class .. He had already developed strong prejudice and resistance towards raw food. After listening to the lecture, Jim became very interested .. In two months Jim called me and told that he has been 100% raw for two months but Linda found it challenging and went back to eating cooked food.
If people around you have any suspicion that you will try to make them raw, they will criticize you to make YOll go off raw food. Don't argue with them and don't try to prove scientifically that you are right. Instead you may tell them, «1 am deeply moved by your concern about me but believe me, I feel very well. As always, food will continue to unite us. Now you will eat your plate and I will eat mine, and we will still eat together." When you make your food, don't just put a bunch of sprouts on your plate because your partner will think you are deprived of pleasures. Malee yourself some very nice looking dish. Later, your friends and partners will be drawn to try some of your food because it looks so nice.
Then they will try it once and say, "It's not bad."
Sometimes raw fooders put elItremely high pressure on their loved ones demanding then to change. In Phoenix Arizona, three anti-raw husbands united and organized a
12 Steps t~ Raw PDod
club for oppressed husbands of raw food wives. They meet once aweek and eat a cooked pi2[l,.a. Hopefully this chapter will prevent the need for more organizations such 'as this.
What about the children in YOUT house that you need to prepare meals for? '\/(fe have alteadr hooked OUf children 011 cooked foodsand we hallie to slewlyirrerease the ratio of raw food to cooked foed, Have plenty of naw fruits and vegetables handy fox snacks, Learn how. to' make Iive Ice creams" gut nulks, nut-milk shakes, smoethies, live candies, cakes and other kid-frierrdly foods. Show them raw food can be wonderful. Invite yom children .inte preparing r;'"LW food together. Buy them a cheap blenderat a garage sale, But the most important, be a goadexample and don't make a. big fuss 'about raw foods. Remember; ki4s learn what they see. Show them harmony and Iovearound the table. We can all sit together and enjoy one anether's campa?>,. Pamily is not about food.
I am often asked how to not Insult the relatives whoassociate food with love and to refuse their feod is disrespectful to them. To answer that, I will say that next time we meet I will bring a huge gallon of v;odkaJ and if you don't drink it with me right away" while standing up with a roast for health. you disrespect me, as a native Russian. T assume that most of you will have no problem find my correct words for refusing my offer without insulting me,
Wh.en 1 went to Russia and refused traditional RUSSfaTl food my relatives felt 'offended for a while, but then when they knew how serious raw food was tt~ me and my health, theyweren't offended any more, Ye$, I did lose: some people's, friendships, but gained so many mOT€ other friendships .. My family in Russia didn't completely under-Stand what 1w<'I.$
Step Pour
doing. They thought I was .turning 'into a crazy capitalist Or something, But when they knew how important raw' food was to me, because th,ey love me 'and I love them, I was able to explain to them that it's for my health. 1 showedthem my picture before and after. Wlleli1 I looked quire different two years apart. they could tell I really was better off than Twas before. They never.knew that 1 could look sogood, Hew-to avoid insulting the relatives? It's up to YOll. You will be able to find this out if YOll are really looking for answers.
If there is a .loving atmosphere in the- (aI'ni,ly;We can always work things out. Eight years ago when 1 first told my husband that I wanted to try to go on raw food for t'\:l/';O months, he told me,"No way,· I'm a Russian rnan, I'm, used to Russian borscht with irs fragrance of beef and pork and sp ices," He said) "Food 'unites people' and if you're going
to go on this diet alone, you'llsee, we're going to get divorced." That was his first .reactien, I understood where my husband came from. Hut I .knew that if the raw food was really: important for me, I would find the words to explain how L felt that there was no life for me without raw food, I clearly r!2h that raw food was a solution for me because J "Wacs literally dying, Raw food gave me a big hope .of survival. I knew that I would find words to explain this,
Step Five
I shall stay away from temptations.
I. magine a raw island where .all people are raw feeders. . There are no smells of cooked food on the street; U0 stoves or ovens in the kitchens, nebodyeceks their food and all the restaurants serve only live cuisine. the billboards ask, "Got wheat-grass juice?" and all children get baskets of exotic fruits for Halloween. Wouldn't it be ea~:r for us to live on raw food there? Why is that easy on the raw island and hatd ill our real life? There are no temptations on the Taw island and our real life is penetrated wittL them.
Let us first gain clarity On the word "temptation." What is temptation? Please try to find answers by yourself. I will help YOLl with a series of questions. Is there a difference between temptation and desire? Temptation includes desire but what else is therei When we desire to eat a cucumber or if we want to pet a puppy, we-don't expect anything bad to happen, right? As far as we know. We dSl't call it temptation, we
call it desire. VVll€D. do we call desire "temptationi" What
d 1 d"· .. "·b tlu ~I. d·"d· ,.,
oes t ae wo:r temptation . ave, nat me wor €SlIe
12. Steps La Raw Food
doesn't? Please try to think so that you have complete clarity about temptation. lees go to the root. We have to discover. Is there anything negative in temptation at all? We know we shouldn t have it. Why? 'Ne call temptation something that we know .is going to hurt us. In the long run, we will have either pain or disease or death 01' other problems. SOUIlds awful, but why is that tempting? Because it promises u; pleasure in the short term. How quickly do we experience pleasure? Instantly. How quickly does the punishment happen? In the long run, sometimes it feels like never.
So, temptation is a desire for something that promises us pleasure in the short term with the awareness of negative consequences later. We anticipate fast pleasure, This pleasure is so dear to us that we get tempted. Now that we clearly: understand what temptation is and bOW" it is different from desire, we can learn how to succes fully avoid temptation.
Do you believe that you can fight temptation by your will power? I personally, don't know anybody who can stand temptations. r only meet people who know how- to avoid temptations. That is why it's best f01' us not to 'be exposed to temptations.
There are two kinds of temptations avoidable and unavoidable. I consider avoidable temptations those that you can realistically stay away from for at Ieast a couple of
month . I call temptations unavoidable if you tan not control their presence.
Do you know what your biggest temptations are in a field of cooked food? They are always based on your personal weaknesses to some cooked dishes. Many students in my classes named one or more of the following: Coffee, chocolate, corn chips, baked potato, popcorn, candies, cheese,
Step Five
bread, pizza, pasta, rice, cookies, cake) and potato chips.
Most people are. aware of their weaknesses.Jf you have trouble figuring out which cooked food could possiblytempt you, the following questions might help. Vv.hi~h part of the cooked life will you miss most of all] Which cooked food could possibly make Y01,l slip off the raw diet? What is t.he most frightening for you in going OIl raw food? Knowing our biggest temptations helps us to become aware of the places of temptations. I'd 1ike to give you two examples.
Say your biggest temptation. is popcorn. Then the places of temptations fbr you are the movie theaters and sometimes other public places. r classify till temptation as avoidable, Of course, if you have a popcorn machine at your work. place, then 1 would call it unavoidable,
If your biggest temptation is coffee, then the places of temptations are: Coffee shops, such as Starbucks, aU deli hops, all gas stations, some parties, some offices, even Barnes & Noble Book Stores and many other public places. I consider this temptation unavoidable.
Do this exercise. Honestly try to remember all your temptations in the field of cooked food. Write them down. II there are too marry of them, group tlrem in categories. Then take two pieces of paper, On one sheet write "avoidable temptations" on the other "unavoidable temptations." Draw a vertical line on both pages .. List your temptations on the left side. On the right side of each temptation write down all the places of temptation you can think of, This exercise makes you aware of all the places where you could be tempted, so you could get prepared to meet t e challenge.
Let us first discuss avoidable temptations. Some examples of avoidable temptations are pel ita, cake, chocolate, specific
11 Steps to Raw Food
national food; all kinds of chip) unless, of course, you work at the factory that manufactures this food. Wben you decide to go on raw food, make a serious and conscious effort not to be exposed to these cooked products for about two months or longer in order to build up a resistance. Learn to substitute tho e foods with raw food dishes. Take all tempting cooked foods out of YOUT house, office and car. Don't leave a hidden
tash of your favorite cooked food in the bouse, because the thought of it will be chasing you until you eat it, you won't be able to relax or concentrate on work. When we are hungry~ angry, lonely or depressed, we think that eating our favorite food will help to numb us out and give us pleasure.
Avoid advertisements as much as you can for about two months. Have you ever noticed that when advertisers promote drinking, they portray a good time whereeveryone is smiling. The advertiser leave out the negative consequences of drinking such as hangovers, throwing up and fights. Magazines and TV are filled with advertisements of cooked or proces ed food. MOGt of theads connect cooked food to, happy social events. The idea is that if you eat the product advertised, you'll be as happy and fulfilled as the people appear to be in the ad. We all know the ad is staged and the people are just actors, but we still crave the food and the FEELING in the ad.
Don't go to parties until Y01::1 become firm, Go to raw food classes and potlucks instead. Spend your £ree time practicing how to prepare new raw food dishes. Later; when you will learn how to put together a couple of raw gourmet dishes, you could become a party celebrity as have many other raw feeders.
Feed yourself well before you go shopping so you won't
Step Five
be tempted by all the food screaming at you. Try 10 avoid stores that hand out free samples of food at every aisle. If you have to go there, stuff your mouth with raisins, nuts or raw crackers. Keep your mouth busy with raw food and shake your head "NO)~when offered samples. 111.e toughest time usually lasts about two months. Do what you can tosurvive all raw food through that time. Read some books on drugs.I found that helpful. Create a raw island mound yourself. Remember, what is impossible ill. the presence of temptations becomes very easy and enjoyable in a temptation-free zone.
Now let us talk about unavoidable temptations .. Some examples of unavoidable temptations are: Cooked food that other members of your family eat, vending machines at your office, a bakery across the street that smell every morning, free coffee at your work, delicious presents from your friends, free food samples at the store or in the mail, pizza day at school, business lunches.free candies at your bank, bulk food bins in the store, free cookie at your church, family reunions and many others.
When we were dealing with avoidable temptations, our main strategy was to withdraw ourselves from being exposed to them. There is no way-to apply the same str-ategy to the unavoidable temptations. What else can we do? Use our disciplineand will power? We have already mentioned that we cannot overcome temptations with will power, When we don't see tempta tions we are sure that we can stand them just fiue by our wHJ power. But in reality, when we are actually facing temptation, we fail again.
However, we can prepare ou elves psychologically to handle unavoidable temptati n without indulging in them. In order to know what to say in a situation when .somebody
12 Steps to R::1W Food
unexpectedly is offering us a tempting food, we have to think ahead of time what we are going to say> how we are going to react to tha t.
I teaeh a gam€ in my classes that helps people to deal with unavoidable temptations. By playing this game students p1'actice aying "No' to temptations with grace. First students identify their weakness. Then we role-play different situations where they might be offered these foods. When unexpectedly offered their favorite cooked food, people have to know ahead of time what they will say. The following is at) example of playing this game during one of the workshops, Lara volunteered to play the role of the "tempted" because she wants to stop drinking coffee. Now Lara is standing ill front of the class,
Victoria: Lara, are you sure that you want to quit drinking coffee?
Lara: Oh yes, T have been promising myself to quit for two years and the longest J was able to go without it was a week. Just enough for the headache to pass,
Victoria: Lara, what is your favorite brand of coffee and where do you usually get it?
Lara: Latte, I buy it myself at Starbucks,
Victoria to students: Please make tempting offers to Lara.
Be creative, so that your offer sounds real and hard to refuse,
Victoria to Lara: Lara, you will have to ay, "No, thank you," plus yOll have to do it in such a way that you. don't put people down. In a real situation, when somebody is wholeheartedly giving you something you don't tell them, "Get out of here) I don't dri:nk coffee." incerely express your appreciation for their thoughtfulness and make an alternative offer like, "Thank you very much, I am really touched, but can we drink juiceinstead?' If they insist, stay fum, tell them) "Sorry.
Step Five
I cannot drink coffee any more, I have health problems," Or say; "I have decided to quit drinking coffee," Or, "My doctor doesn't let me.')
Karen: Lara, guess what! I was at the Star bucks, theyhave an amazing sale there, and I bought you your favorite coffee Latte. Here:
Lara: Oh my God ...
Victoria to Lara: What do you say?
Lara: Oh, Karen, this is sa nice of you! hank you! But I don't drink coffee anymore. I have high blood pressure. But thank youl Do you t1 ink you could find somebody else who might enjoy it?
Karen: Sure] I understand.
Mike: I am your father. Congratulations! You have inherited a black: coffee factory from us, your parents. You are wealthy now. According to OUf old tradition, every morning you will taste the company's fresh coffee.
Lara: Mmm, thank you father, I am S0 moved! But my doctor is. seriously concerned about my blood pressure. Do
yc u think we could let our manager try the coffee? Or maybe J could symbolically hold the cup without drinking it?
Mike: I understand, daughter. We'll work something out. Sarah: Hey, Lara, T am so glad that r have you as a friend, because I have just won a certificate from Starbucks! For a year one can get free coffee of any kind. And you know that I don't drink coffee. So I am giving it to you! Ta-tal
Lara: That sounds so great I Thank you so much! But you know) Sarah, you are my good friend and you will understand me. J have decided not to rink coffee any more for health reasons. But I bet you Cal think of someone else to give such a gift.
12 5 teps to Raw Food
Sarah: Okay.
Jerry: Lara, we have been driving with you for several hours, it's 2:00 a.m. and we both feel sleepy, but we have to drive. Let us stop at the gas station and I will buy for us SO:1D.e coffee so we could continue driving.
Lara: Thank you, Terry; 1 don't mind if you buy coffee for yourself, but I know from my experience that coffee wouldn't help me anyway. So I would rather take a little nap while you are buying coffee. Maybe I could munch on some almonds.
Marlene: Hi, Lara are you ready for our monthly meeting at a coffee s110p? 1 have $0 much news to tell youl Let's g0 ..
Lara: I am sorry, Marlene, but I cannot go to the coffee shop,
Marlene: How can you say that? _Al:e you not my friend any more?
Lara: Oh, Marlene, of course I am YOUT friend and I cannot wait to bear everything, but my doctor doesn't let me drink coffee anymore, In will go to the. coffee shop I might be tempted, Let us ga. to a juice bar instead and r will treat you to a nice smoothie,
Marlene: But we have always met there, it won't be the same!
Lara: Listen, Marlene, I don't mean to offend you. You are my best friend and I need your support now.Please understand me,
Marlene: Okay, let's go for a smoothie.
Victoria: Lara, can you please share with the group about arty shifting inside of you during oUI game? Do you feel more empowered now?
Lara: I am truly amazed how real J felt. It was hard for me to say no, especially. in the beginning. Then it became easier
Step Five
and easier. I can tell now rhat this was my first time when 1 really was going to say no. Before this moment I .have never even realistically thought about this. I feel like I have paved my way. Now 1 have a whole repertoire to draw from in real situations. Thank you all for your creative effort.
All my students find this game very helpful because it give ideas for many tough situations. 1 recommend to play it in support grQUPS and at the raw potlucks. Everyone should have a chance to play at least ence,
Scientists who do research about drugs and addictive substances talk about a chain reaction. The reaction is harder to stop if we haven't decided beforehand how we will choose to act. For example, when an alcoholic has money in his pocket to pay the rent, but be meets his friend on the corner" he is much more likely to follow that friend into a bar and spend the .rent money on drinks. That's called the chain reaction, When you see the vending machine, you're going to go into a chain reaction of wanting what you see unless you have already figured out you-r response. The safest time to figure out how you will react is when you are at home or at a place where there are no possible temptations. This is the time to figure out what you are going to do.
Now go back to your paper of unavoidable temptations that you face in YOUl' life. On the right side across from each temptation write down your ideas or strategies on how to deal with them. For example, you could decide to stuff yeur mouth with raisins before you get near the vending machine. Or if you live in a home where you are the only one on raw food. YOLl might designate a paFt of your kitchen as a temptation-free zone.
When you have built some resistance, I want to encourage
12 Steps Lo Raw Food
you to go out to the restaurants. You don't have to sit home feeling isolated forever. To socialize is important. In the beginning to, go out with a friend would be easier. If you have three 01' four raw food friends you may go out together once a week. Decide where you will meet, and then call ahead to reserve a table. Everybody brings their own dressing, and you all have a super time socializing and eating delicious raw focd.In addition. somebody can bring TaW crackers or little sprouted seeds to PUt on top of everyone's salad and you all sit down and enjoy your time together in the restaurant. We all need social pleasure.
If you don't yet know how to make delicious dressing, mix equal proportions of Bragg's Liquid Aminos with good oil and apple cider vinegar, shake "it well and that's your dressing .. Have it always in the car. This dressing will stay fresh for a long time. 'Fake it to the restaurant, pour on top of ycur salad and enjoy your meal.
To make going out easier and more enjoyable] recommend that you use the wonderful card that my friend Jonathan put together. Copy the following card on a hard paper, cut it and keep in your wallet. When I go out to the restaurant alone or with friends, I don't have to feel embarrassed in front of everybody trying to explain to the frightened waitress my special request. Instead I handle her a card with a smile .. I think all the chefs appreciate a chance to be creative because my dishes always come so beautiful.
Step Five
Jonathan's Card
I would Iike a alad or vegetable plate with only fresh, uncooked items:
tomato avocado
carrot celery
cucumber radish cabbage bell pepper arugula
zucchini broccoli
ca uliflower spinach mushrooms
sprouts scallions parsley cilantro bokchoy
onion kale beets chard
Tilank you. for yourcreative eifm'ts!
Unfortunately; there are very few places that serve organic food. Still I think that to go out once a week with your friends is better than to be so lonely that you will go and eat pizza .. You won't get off your diet by eating an inorganic salad once a week. In fact, having the ocial interaction will support you in maintaining a raw food lifestyle.
By going out you. will get used to being exposed to temptations and not thinking about them. You cannot always
be cocooned in your own bouse. Sometime you have to step outside and be alale to handle that.
After a couple of months of staying away from temptations, you will notice that you stopped paying attention to the restaurants and any raw food in general, You might also get an illusion that your addiction to cooked food is over and you can eat or try small pieces ef cooked food once in a while, When you will try a bite of cooked food once, you
12 Steps to Raw Food
might not feel much, But on the next morning you might notice that you will begin to think about cooked food and to pay attention to whatever cooked food you'll see, If you will give into temptation once more, you might lose peace of mind. Then you would have to start all over. We described a story of Our relapse in our book Raw Fami7y.
Step SIx
I shall create support for myself.
In simple words, find yourself a "raw buddy" All you need to do is to find one persoll in your block, in your household or at your work with whom you meet daily to talk and share a meal together .. Tills step might seem to you as not important and hard to fulfill. From rny point of view, personal support is crucial both for the beginning of your raw foodismand for the long term. Becoming a taw fooder without personal support seems to me next to impossible. At the same time, staying raw with support is fun and e(lsy.
The most important is that your buddy is supportive of what you are doing .. You may tall this person your support group, your buddy, raw brother, ra:w sister anything you like. If you are really dedicated, I know YOI1 will find the rightperson for support. Everybody in my 12 Steps classes fOW1d a Support person. In some cases, the buddy is not even a raw feeder, It could be a relative wh~is supportive of the dear one who has an illness. For example.Aneta has cancer, and her husband, who is not a raw feeder, decided to be her buddy.
12 Steps to Raw Food
How does support work? Almost always, psychologically, other people's opinions are more important for us than our own. 10 break the commitment we made to other people is much harder [or us than to break the commitment we made to ourselves.
For example, when you go to a salad bar at a restaurant, you could talk your elf into eating something cooked. Your mind says, "Who knows for sure if the beans are really cooked. so go ahead and put them on your plate. And these beets) they could be raw. They may be just fermented .. Fermentation is good for you. So put it on your plate also. And this mayonnaise is less than one percent of your meal, so it's OK." But when you go to the salad bar with your friend who is aware and supportive of your effort) then your mind
huts up and behaves .. The most ideal situation is to share at least one meal a day with this person. Please don't think that it is too hard to do. You are having at least three meals a day anyway .. Why not share breakfast, lunch dinner or a snack with your buddy?
When dining alone, you can say. "Oh, I am too tired to prepare a meal, I will just eat an apple." When there are two of you gathering for a dinner you will have to prepare something more attractive. Sometimes you might become more inspired and create a special meal Nicer diningwill make your raw life more pleasant.
One person is limited in time and energy, and cannot dehydrate, grow sprouts, make raw pies and cookies, all alone. When there are two people, both of them will be involved into food preparation. For example, in the beginning you will be making salads and your buddy can bring a dressing. Later you can learn how to dehydrate crackers and
Step Six
cookies and your buddy will make live pizza or cake. Your buddy-ship will encourage you to learn how to be creative on raw food and will make your life more interesting.
When you don't have iii. buddy and, say; your friends are gathering for a cooked dinner, you may feel lonely and deprived and tempted. If the same situation is happening but you have a buddy) then a nice lunch or dinner will give you strength. Support helps us to go through the healing crisis without panic. Support helps us to see our own choices and actions in a clearer light .. I have seen that people with support were able to stay on raw food for a long time and much easier than people without a support group. Everyone I know who has maintained the raw food lifestyle for several years has had support.
Step Seven
I shall find alternative activities or hobbies.
My existence was concentrated around eating. I realized that as soon as I became a raw focder. When we eat cooked food) we live from meal to meal. We look forward to each snack. We reward ourselves with food. When we want entertainment, we eat. Very often our day is planned like this, breakfast, work, snack, work, Iunch, work} snack, work, dinner, TV with a snack, bed. Most people have little or no playing in their life.
When you go on a raw food diet, within a couple of weeks you will notice that your food intake will begin to shrink, In. a matter of months your eating could naturally reduce to two meals a day. Then you simply cannot continue to concentrate your life around eating. People who keep concentrating on food begin to feel deprived of joy-and fun and eventually get off the raw diet. If yosi like to eat more than anything else, you better change yO}.1r hobby.
On raw food your body will require less time for sleep.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Eating less will save you money. You will. also have more energy. What are you going to do with all this extra energy, time and money? Please don't say with a smile, "No problem!" Yes, we know how to handle extra money. However, extra energy could make us too nervous. Extra time could lead us into deep depression or into another addiction. Especially when the main pleasure in life, cooked food is not available. Time and energy are treasures if we use them properly, When you notice that you are eating less, your life cannot concentrate around food any more, You need to find other things and build your life around them.
Think of your life dream that you haven't pursued. In addition to fulfilling your dream, start a couple of hobbies. Pay attention to what other people create out of inspiration. Go to your Local YMCA or recreational center for ideas and feel what will attract your heart.
Below are some dreams that people shared at my workshops.
to do some art work;
to learn to speak French; to write a book;
to take flute lessons; to go on a hike;
to pend time with children; to take yoga classes;
to play with animals;
to plant a garden;
to take Salsa dancing; to travel;
to learn how to sew; to scuba-dive.
Step Seven
Every single person has a dream that maybe has been pushed back due to lack of time. Now you can pull out those sh ining dreams.
I recommend t.hat you also find some form of physical activity for yourself. It will balance the energy ofyou:r body and mind. If YOLL had a negative experience with physical exercise in the past, I have good news for you. When you go on raw food, any physical activities are going to be much more pleasant and easy fOT you to perform. No more stitches or cramps in your side, no more shortage of breath and hardly any injuries .. Raw food is till to be discovered by professional athletes ..
Step Eight
I shall let myhigher se1f lead my life,
Weare human beings, piritual beings. We are not only human bodies. But ho:man bodies are obviousand easy to feeL OUf piritual energy is not as obvious and we begin to ign re it. Our body runs on energy similarly to cellular phones run by electromagnetic waves. We can fed the phone by touch but we Cannot feel the electromagnetic waves. If we w@uld ignore these waves, our phones would be useless,
When we are born we are perfectly tuned to our spiritualself As we grow we learn to behave not as we feel but as ~I~ are "supposed" to behave, we attaina second, materialistic personality. This second personality i adjusted to the life in society so well that we use it more and more. Then We .begin to identify this second personality with Our own self. Finally, we forget wbo we really are. When we hear someone saying that we are spiritual being .1 we feel doubts, Our materialistic self demands proofs. All people are spiritual, nobody is m.ore spiritual than the other. However, mest of us forgot about that.
12 Steps to Raw Food
To be driven by a materialistic personality is safer and easier for the career and wealth. There are lUany other benefi~s. Only one thing is impossible for the materialistic personahty- TO BE HAPPY. Please, don't confuse happiness with pleasure. Pl asure is a short-term emotion. When I buy a new dre~s or eat a burrito I feel plea me. Happiness is a spiritual feeling, a permanent state of being.
When we are driven by the materialistic personality we become pleasw·e-orjented. Pleasures are addictive, That is why in order to quit addictions we need to try our best to tune in to our original spiritual self. How can we do that? T~e~e are several ways. None of them guarantees a complete spiritual awakening. But you should be able to feel a connection with your real self.
. Spend several days in nature. Your second personality will WIther away without worldJy upport. The en.ergy of nature will interact with your human energy and you will begin to feel h~ppy. Everyone III my family experienced a great happiness, III 1998, when we were hiking the Pacific Crest Trail for six: months ..
Fast on water for seven days aT more. Fasting tremen~.ously. increases your energy. You will feel a stronger connecbon WIth your spiritual self. Don't fast if you don't know how. Read books on fasting or consult with a specialist before doing so.
Speak sincerely to another human being for two hours or lo~g~r. Most people never spoke sincerely ill their whole life, so It IS not easy. We confuse "sincerely" with "negatively." To speak sincerely doesn't mean to say negative things about yourself, but to share your hidden feelings and passion. Find a good friend who will agree not to judge you for yOUI' words
Step Eighl
and feelings. When you speak sincerely your inner self speaks througb your lips. You could begreatly surprised by the power and wisdom in your Own words. Also don't confuse sincere talking with friendly chattering.
Communicate with animals. Dogs, horses, cats, goats, dear, etc. don't care how you are dressed, how big your house is and if you are free of debt. But they can feel if you are ar peace or angry. They appeal to your human nature and help you to feel connected with your real self.
Play with little children. They are less conditioned and less materialistic. Your second personality can relax around them.
If you meet a person who, you feel, is tuned to his/her spiritual self, being around such a person tan awaken your own imler spirit. Similarly; staying around very materialistic people may shut down your spiritual self.
When we are driven by a spiritual personality we feel complete and happy. In this state we simply forget about how we look and what we eat. When we are happy, we concentrate on the most important issues of our life. Food alone is only a small part of our existence. That is why I think to let: our higher self1ead our life is very essential.
Step Nine
I shall make a searching and fearless inventory of the real reasons for seeking comfort and pleasure from cooked foods.
In this sharing from one of my workshops you can hear the dialogue of other people on the same path. Maybe it will heJp you to find your own reasons for seeking comfort and pleasure from cooked foods.
Victoria: I would like everyone to share about your real reasons for searching for comfort in food. I want to repeat that when you speak sincerely everybody is interested in listening to you, it triggers in us similarities that we have. We are all different in the ways that we are conditioned, but we are all one in the way we feel. When we are honest, other people, even though they are not ready to express themselves, recognize their feelings in our sharing and they become braver. They might be thinking •. "Oh, how dare he? He's saying things that I am afraid to sa," After sincere sharingwe all feel a relief, we feel happier.
Paul: The food's in my mouth before I even think about it.
.[1 Steps to Raw Food
Sharon: I want to numb myself out with food. I have eighteen siblings .. When I was ten) my mother died. from cancer, That's when my desire to numb out started.
Simon: I am addicted to ice cream. It's comforting to reinforce who I think I am, even if I don't really lice it. The addiction continues to define me.
Donna: I am working long, hard days. At the end of the day I just want something to give back to me, to fill up the emptiness ..
Victoria: Maybe you can try other activities, like growing flowers or horseback .riding! You can look forward to them after hard working days, right? Those hard times are still going to be there sometimes, They don't disappear together with cooked food.
Paula: I crave chocolate cake because I am lonely and sometimes I am afraid to stand up for myself and say what r really need.
John: When I need energy I turn to food instead ef restmg.
Linda: When I was a young child my grandmother nurtured me with food. I realize now that I can nurture myself in a different way,
Mike: I eat from laziness and boredom. Vi.ctOIia:Why do you get lazy and bored" Mike: I live alone.
Victoria: Is living alone enough to be bored? Do you think that relationships will bring health and happiness? If we're lonely alone, we'll be lonely in relationship. Thank YOLlI Mike, for sharing and being open to discussion. So why do we want to eat cooked food?
Simon: Comfort.
Step Nine
Sharon: My growing up years were very structured and I had to eat at certain times, At. times I was hungry but I had to wait for dinner. I grew up with fear that there wouldn't 'IDe any food when I was hungry. I ate a lot so I wouldn't be hungry.
Julie: I lived in a family that had a lot of control. Food was one way I could have control in my own life. Nobody could take away my food.
Victoria: There is a magic trick in what we are doing now.
If you can clearly see the reason why you seek comfort in cooked food and if you can pinpoint what it is, that reason may disappear. Then it would be easier for you to stay on raw food. Please try to see clearly and say why you are looking for comfort in cooked food. Try to be precise and don't be afraid.
John: Whenever I come up against roy core emotions or feel vulnerable, I want sugar to numb me out.
Victoria: Do you know how to take care of these feelings without sugar?
john: I want to do it, but I keep postponing until next time.
Victoria: If we don't know how to deal with feeling lonely Of sad without cooked food or sugaT, we are going to he stuck there. Weare trying to figure out for ourselves how we can act as an alternative.
Simon: That is true. Recently I had one "major disappointment" in my life and it caused my returning to cooked food.
Victoria: What are you tryiug to numb or to comfort!
Why do you in particular want something tasty? For comfQTt? From what? Does everyone understand the question]
12 Steps lo Raw Food
We are searching fearlessly and sincerely for the cause of why we search for comfort in food. U1<e, we don't have enough pleasure from just being alive?
Donna: I'm bored and 1 want to break out of this routine, Victoria: Why is your life just routine? Life is beautiful!
Turn your life from routine into life. Does what I am saying make sense to you?
Donna: Yes, and sometimes I'm there. I want to find out why I give myself permission to lose it.
Victoria: We are afraid that without food we will feel uncomfortable. Where does this discomfort come from? Fear of what?
Linda: For me, it's fear of emptiness. I do things for others but not for myself, and then I become angry.
Victoria: Thank you for pinpointing it! You are not able to say "no" when you really want to say ('1)0." Then you fed. regret, and to comfort that, you eat food, It's important that if you see it new, maybe you won't do it any more. We all resonate with that. Many times when we first hear about raw food we have a deep fear because we think, maybe it won't fulfill us. We are afraid not of the raw food, it doesn't bite. We are afraid of that emptiness.
Mike: Sometimes I use food when I don't want to do something else.
Julie: I agree that I also eat to avoid doing other things I need to do.
Victoria: Interesting that you use the words "things I need to do." Several years ago I decided that I was not going to do anymore of the "need" to do. I decided to only do what I "love" to do. I had to learn to dean my house with love and to have TIm while filing some papers .. It is something to think
Step Ni ne
about. We can Iive without the heavy feeling that we must do this and that.
Susan: When I was a young child I had to.keep so many secrets. I felt a safety in being mediocre. I don't want to be noticed or to stand out.
Victoria: Can you observe any other ways of dealing with this .. .feeling safe? Maybe you can speak out all of that to somebody and YOll will feel safe.
Susan: I have, for ten years in therapy. Donna: There's so much shame there.
Victoria: Let us look at shame. What is shame? Caring what others think about us. How we feel about ourselves is important. I had so many things I was ashamed of all my life and when I spoke them out, r found out that it was not a big deal. Everybody T talked to said, I feel the same way. There's nothing extraordinary. But I kept secrets for years and my self-esteem was low. I had to pretend I was better because I thought I was bad. Not anymore. Congratulations to you, Susan, on your courage in speaking this in. front of thirty people) that's courage.
Sharon: I had a similar experience, 111at is why I kept weight on for a long time, now I have lost weight since I've been raw. I felt exactly what you are talking about, I was trying to avoid being more attractive, more «out there," it was worth it to go through my fears because lfinally can be happy in my body and I can finally get through this stuff instead of running away from it. I have freedom.
Victoria: We have made an inventory and found out that a real reason for seeking COlmar from cooked foods is to escape. When we seek pleasure .in cooked food or any other addiction, we are seeking escape from loneliness, boredom,
12 Steps to Raw Food
low self-esteem, anger, fear and oth.er negative emoticns. We escape to something from which we draw pleasure. Ciearly seeing the real reasons for searching comfort, we can address our unfulfilled needs directly, instead of uumbingthem wifil food.
Step Ten
I shall let my intuition help me.
Why do we need intuition? Aren't we, people, smart
- without it? Don't we haveenough knowledge? Don't we have specialists who can teach us how to stay hea1thy:? Why can't we rely on the information from computers. and microscopes? Knowledge can NEVER replace intuition!
Intuition is our natural instinct for survival. Natural instincts of all Eying things kept our planet in the perfect balance for billions of years ... Intuition is a universal Iaw, same as gravity; Paradoxically, we ignore intuition and rely on knowledge. We don't believe in om own intuition. We forgot how to follow it,
A little silly flour worm follows his instinct not to eat rolled oats if they have been steamed. That is thepurpose of steaming rolled oats, so that worms would stay away; The flour worm has no knowledge whatsoever, only Instinct. He follows his instinct and never eats, eoked. oats. Flour worms are very healthy. People look at th~ package of rolled oats to read the nutritional information. Then they eat cooked oats
12 Steps to Raw Food
and give it to their children. We wonder why is our health declining? If you really want to become healthy you need to learn how to listen to YOUI' intuition. We cannot blindly follow knOWledge. When we receive new information we need to test it with our intuition.
Please touch your cheek with your hand. Is it soft? Touch a rug on the floor. Does it feel different? How do you know? You feel that your cheek is soft and the rug is rough. How is your body able to let you know that? Have you ever thought of that? Do you completely trust your hands in dealing with surfaces? Why do you rely on your hands' feelings? Do you just simply trust? VVhat if I bring an expert who wears a $1000 suit and a beautiful tie and speaks very scientifically and prove that the opposite is true. Will you believe him? No? \'\n1y? Your body is justa dull matter) as we were told in school.
If we trusted our intuition w~ would rely on our body.
Then we could understand that our body never makes mistakes. Our body is constantly trying to communicate with us by creating certain sensations. When our body Jets us know that it is cold we know to put on a sweater. When our body needs [est it creates a sensation of fatigue. When the body needs water it makes us thirsty: If the body is filled with toxins it may reduce our appetite asking for a water fast Usually we ignore most of our bodily requests. We don't rest when we feel tired, we don't take off high heels when we feel pain in our feet and we don't stop eating when we feel full. That is why we all get sick.
If you would go around asking different people which fruit they would like to eat today, aU answers would be different. When you crave a certain fruit or vegetable, that is your
Step .10
bodis request for nutrients fOT today. Tomorrow it might change. Your responsibility is to make sure these orders are satisfied. People who are honoring the body's request are allowed to live longer and healthier lives.
I want to share with you how roy family survived in the wiLderness thanks to OUI intuition. When we had just started to hike the Pacific Crest Trail we planned to eat five medjool dates for each of us every day. We were not used to eating only five dates a day. In the first two days we had eaten what we were supposed to eat in ten days and our next package
was waiting for us seventy miles ahead at the next post office. vVe had nothing left to eat except a little bit of oil and a tiny bag of sunflower seeds. So we thought, we will fast. On our fourth day out au the trail we felt very hungry. We observed that the forest is full of animals. There are bears, squirrels, all kind of coyotes, lots of birds) insects and they are all surviving. They're all on a different diet. They're not dying. They have something to eat. All the animals, without coming to my class, know what to eat. If they can survive, we can survive. We began to develop a keen attentiveness to the plants around us. Some of the plants started to look yummy to us. Looking under a rock, something looked thick and juicy, and I tried it '" tasted medicinal ." like perfume. I gave everybody a bag and I said; «When you see something that looks good, just pick it up but don't eat." Soon we each had a big bag of plants. We sat down together and looked at what we had collected. We rubbed the plants with OUI fingers, smelled the leaves and tasted a little bit on our tongue, We threw away
the plants that didn't taste good, w re bitter or smelled had. Now we took the plants that were left and Igor said "I will eat somefrrst and we'll see how I feel and if I don't feel anything
12 Steps to Raw Food
bad, then we will all eat it." Igor took a little taste, we waited about thirty minutes and then Igor said, "I'm hungry, let's eat more." So we all ate.The next day as we walked along we filled OUT bags with whatever edible greens we found. We put our edible greens into a bowl, sprinkledit with sunflower seeds, several drops of oil and tossed it up. It was so delicious. We called our dish the "Hungry Hiker" salad. When we were eating the salad we all agreed that we wanted to contiaue eating this simply when we got back to town. In the forest we learned to rely on OUI intuition completely.
We lost OUf trail many times. After the third month we were not afraid to lose the trail. We were always able to find it. One time we lost the trail and had to travel seven miles to find it. We climbed a 7,000-foot mountain arriving at the snow covered peak. The map showed us that to recover the trail we needed to go straight north from the mountain. However, straight north from the mountain was a deep canyon and it was storming and we all had heavy, wet backpacks .. We ignored the map, took the way that felt right, and after .SL"'{ hours we crossed the trail. Our intuition led as through .. We met so many different animals along the trail. We were traveling as animals, relying on intuition. We found food when we thought there was none.
On a trail I developed such a keen intuition, I could tell when it was going to rain and when the Ull was going to be our. I cannot imagine how I could have lived. without this intuition most of my life. I wouldn't trade my intuition for anything in the world.
Step Eleven
Through clarity I will gain happiness ..
I :f you will follow your intuition for a while you might discover that your perception of life is shifting. Many of your favorite beliefs will seem to you as false. Many of your fanner opinions will seem to lose sense. That won't scare Y01.1 because in place of your former knowledge the CLARITY will COIDe. Clarity i the biggest gift that we could get.
When we don't have clarity we are trying to accumulate knowledge. Knowledge could never substitute for clarity: I used to believe that "Knowledge is Power." Now I am aware that knowledge is not even information. Knowledge is human's explanation and interpretation of life events. Clarity is a state of mind when we could see life events as they are, without the distortion from knowledge, Very often having knowledge prevents us from gaining a Teal clarity. Usually we confuse clarity of mind with clear explanation. For example, if I memorized the book Human A11.q,jomy and I could explain clearly anything from that book, it doesn't mean at all that 1 have clarity about how the human body works. We
12 Steps to Raw Food
have lots of knowledge and very little clarity. When we don't understand the difference between the two, we prefer to have knowledge rather then clarity. Clarity starts when we begin, to follow our intuition. When we follow intuition we are w~rking not against, but with nature. We become co-partners and co-creators with life. That enables us to clearly view the perfect harmony of the universe.
With Clarity we can see the spiritual nature of human beings. With clarity we can feel oneness with all living things. With clarity We feel true happiness. When we are truly happy' we don't look for pleasures. Only unhappy people are focused on pleasures, Happiness is a part of natural law. To gain clarity practice de-conditioning.
We all have lots of conditioning. To be conditioned means to have firm opinions on everything, to live from the past. To be unconditioned means to live in the present. For example, when we live next to the mountain.at :first we admire the beautiful view every minute. After two months we stop noticing that mountain. We become conditioned to know that it's there. Guests notice the mountain because they have a fresh, unconditioned approach to it. We can start noticing the mountain again. if we look at it every day with new, fresh eyes. In order to decondition ourselves we need to be able to see as many conditionings in ourselves as possible .. This sharing from my workshop might give you ideas of different conditioning.
Victoria: Please, everybody, share with us an instance where you saw you were conditioned and overcame it. I will start with myself. I used to be conditioned to finish my plate because children in Africastarve,
Linda: I was conditioned that I have to have eood ora des
t;! 0 - )
otherwise I am a bad person.
Step Eleven
Kelly: 1 used to be conditioned to think that 1 have to sn1ile to everybody and please them.
Jim: I used to be conditioned to being normal, just fit in.
Laura: I used to be conditioned to being busy all the
Mary: I used to be conditioned to pull myself apart from
other people, not to share myself with them, not to smile too
much, not to get excited.
Sharon: I used to be conditioned to make everything per-
fect around the house.
Simon: I used to be conditioned to be angry.
Donna: I used to be conditioned to think that men are
superior to women.
Val: I used to be conditioned to believe lam fat, ugly and
.Marlene: I used to be conditioned to be poor, to be inex-
pressive, that I can never have extra money or afford to buy anything rather than necessity.
Shannon: 1 used to be conditioned to think I am better
than others because I am from a wealthy family.
Sam: 1 used to be conditioned to be a workaholic, I
couldn't let myself go on vacation.
Molly: I was conditioned to dress nicely so people would
think nicely about me.
Chris: I used to be conditioned to be a pleaser, to think
that 1 am not worth it.
Victoria: Thank you! You see, there are so many con(ii-
tions that we all have in common. I felt very many of those in me. Conditioning is like chains :4hat don't let us be free. To find those conditi.onings in us is to our benefit.
Step Twelve
I shall provide support to other raw fooders,
Please remember the first person in your life who told you about raw food. Who was your first raw food teacher? Think of these people with gratitude. What was special about them? Why did you trust them? Were they patient and empathetic towards you? Did they share a delicious raw meal with you? How would your life be different if you never met them? Now you have finished a1112 steps and became a strong raw fooder yourself. The time has come for you to be patient and empathetic towards other people.
What could be more joyous than to help those. looking for better health? Being healthy and being a good example is the pest support you can give to other people.
Remember your first raw food potluck. Were you excited by the variety of dishes? Now is yOt;J.I turn to encourage others. Even if you eat simple now try to bring raw gourmet dishes to potlucks, don't just bring a couple kale leaves or a bowl of fruit. Take your time, spend an extra
12 Steps to Raw Food
$10-$15 and brighten new raw feeder's futures.
1 believe that we all are great world teachers. As teachers we have followers, \Nbo do you think would be your students? P'eople WJlO suffer from pain? Your loved ones diagnosed with terminal illnesses? From my experience this is far from the truth. Help those who are directly a king you about yOUT lifestyle. Become their "raw buddy." People who want to know more about a raw food diet don't have anybody else to count on. Spend time with them, talking and listening, preparing meals together, going out to restaurants, and loan them your books. Being a raw buddy is the best support for you too.
How many people do you honestly think you will influence in your life by being a raw food.er? Think of all the people you touch in a day. All your neighbors, relatives, coworkers and people who see you buying and eating healthy food. The cashier at your local store, seeing you buying 50 lb. bags of carrots, a ks, "Do you have a horse?') When your children go to' school and tell their teacher, «In our family we eat salad every day," don't they influence even the teacher?
V\lhat if I had U0t gone on raw.fcodi What would have happened to all of my students? Many of my former students are new making their living by teaching raw food classes ..
You never know when you're going to plant a seed. How many people can you influence in a lifetime? Eventually, 1 think, the whole planet.
Step 1- I admit that 1 have lest control of roy a~diction to cooked food and my eating is becoming unmanageable.
Step 2 - T believe that live yegan food is the most natmal diet Em a human being ..
Step 3 - I shall gain necessary skills, learn bruli.c raw recipes and obtain equipment to prepare live
Step 4: - I shall live :in harmony with people who eat
cooked food.
Step 5 -1 shall stay away from temptations. Step 6 - I shall create a support group.
Step 7 -1 shall find alternative activities or hobbies. Step 8 - I shalt let my higher self lead my life.
Step 9 - 1 shall make a searchiug and fearless inventory of the real reasons of eeking comfort and pleasure from cooked foods.
Step 10 - I shall let my intuition help me.
Step 11- Through clarity I will gain happiness.
Step 12 - t shall provide support to other raw fooders,
Raw Family Green Juice
Blend these ingredients well in a blender: 1 large bunch kale (chopped)
2 medium apples (chopped)
1 lemon with peel (chopped)
1 cup wate.r
Strain the liquid through a nut milk bag or sprouting bag,
Serves: 3-4 people.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Blend these ingredients well in a blender or Vita-Mix: 2 cups water
3 beets
1 small root ginger (slice it first) 3-4 large cloves garlic
6-7 bay leaves
Pour the mixture into a big bowl,
Blend the following ingredients for a shont time
(about 30 seconds):
2 cups water 2 carrots
2 .stalks celery
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3-4 oranges, peeled with the seeds out
(seeds will, make very bitter taste) 1 tablespoon honey
1 cup olive oil
sea salt to taste
Add'h cup walnuts and blend on low speed very quickl~
o they break in small pieces but not blended. Pour in the same bowl and stir.
Dice or grate:
If~ head cabbage 1-2 carrots
1 bunch parsley
Ado. grated ingredients to the blended mixture, Stir and serve. Serves 7-10.
Un - Chicken Noodle Soup
Blend together verywell for 1-2 minutes: 2 cups water
1/2 cup coconut (shredded, unsulphered)
Add the following and blend for about 1 minute: 2 cups celery (ch opped)
2 tablespoons Bragg's,Liqu:iclAminos 1 clove garlic
pepper to taste, if desired
Pour into a large bowl and add:
1 medium carrot (grated)
'/4 of a bunch parsley (chopped)
2 medium raw potatoes, grated or processed with Saladacco sliced mushrooms (optional)
12 Steps to Raw Food
Generic Recipe for Chowder
Blend .1 cup coconut with] cup of water fen 1 minute. m Vita-Mix or 2 minutes in regular blender.
Add I cup cashews and blend for another 1/2 minute. Add the rest of the following and blend well:
1 cup water
'l« eu p extra virgin olive 0 il 1 teaspoon honey
1 cup chopped celery hot peppers to taste 2- 5 cloves garlic
Now you have plain chowder. Pick the flavor:
For clam-chowder taste add: dulce flakes For broccoli: chopped broccoli
For mushroom: your favorite mushrooms, dry or fresh For tomato: chopped tomato
For carrots: grated carrots
For corn: cut corn off the cob or use frozen corn For pea.: fresh or frozen peas
Your own creation. ...
Sprinkle with dry parsley flakes before serving.
Note: this soup will become warm because of much blending. It's still raw. (Just don't let it" become hoti) Warm. soups are comforting i11 the cold winter time. Serves 5.
Reel p .. es
Blend the following ingredients in a blender: 1 cup water
2 cups fresh tomatoes (chopped) liz cup dates or raisins
1/1 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 cup dehydrated mushrooms 1 cup chopped celery
salt or Bragg's Liquid Aminos to taste 1-2 tablespoons spaghetti seasoning 1-2 tablespoons juice of lime OI lemon hot peppers to taste
2-5 doves garlic
1 bunch basil
Add Ih lb. of bean. pea, or lentil. sprouts. Don't blend! Sprinkle with dry parsley flake before serving.
Note: chili will become warm because of.much b~efilding. It'$ still raw. (Just don't let it become hot!) Warm dishes are comjorting in the cold wintertime. Serves 5-7.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Blend the following ingredients in a blender until smooth: liz cup water
1/4 cup extra virgin olive 011 5 large ripe tomatoes
2 cloves garlic or spicy pepper to taste
1 tablespoon raw honey (dates or raisins work just as good) 1/4 cup lemon juice
lh teaspoon of sea salt 1 bunch fresh basil
Now you have the gazpacho liquid.
Cut the following vegetables into 'f~ inch cubes: 1 large avocado
1 medium bell pepper 5 sticks celery
1 small onion
Mix aJJ ingredients in bowl and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serves: '4-5
Reel pes
Generic Recipe for Dressing
Blend the following until smooth in a blender:
Oil (any good oil) such as sesame, olive, safflower). Use enough
to cover the blades of a blender. 1 teaspoon honey (or any other natural sweetener, like raisins, banana,
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (or lime juice QJ apple cider vinegar).
j/~ cup water
1 cup chopped or 1 bunch herbs - preferably fresh! (one or more of: celery, parsley; cilantro, basil or any other)
spice to taste '(garlic, mustard, ginger,
jalapeno) etc.)
1/3 Cl:l,p seeds or nuts (the most COIDmon are sunflower seeds and tahini; also: walnuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, etc.)
Lh teaspoon, salt (sea salt, kelp, dulce, Bragg's Liquid Aminos) or to taste 0'1' no salt at all
Don't be afraid to improvise. You may sometime add more liquid, or skip one ingredient completely. If it tastes good, put it in, Good luck! Serves 7-10.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Igor's Crackers
Grind 2 cups of flaxseed in a dry Vita-mix container. Blend together:
1 C'tlP water
1 large onion (chopped)
3 stalks of celery (chopped) 4, cloves of garlic (medium) 2 tomatoes (optional)
1 teaspoon caraway seed
1 teaspoon coriander seed 1 teaspoon Celtic salt
Mix ground flaxseed in blended mix. by hand.
Cover the dough with a cheesecloth or a towel and let sit in a bowl, at a warm room temperature overnight to ferment slightly.
Using a spatula, spread on reflex dehydrating sheets. Divide into squares of desired size. Dehydrate only untildrybur not crispy if you want it to taste like bread. Or dry it well for crispy crackers to keep them for a couple of months. Makes 25-32 crackers.
Recj p es
Valya's Raw Bread
1 cup groundflaxseeds
1 cup kamut sprouted for 1 day 1 Gl,lp walnuts soaked overnight 1 cup chapped celery
2 teaspoons caraway seeds soaked overnight 2 tablespoons coriander
1 big onion
112 cup water
liz cup olive oil Ilz cup rais-ins
Juice of half a lemon 1 teaspoon salt
Blend soaked walnuts, kamut and onion in the food processor until finely chopped) transfer to a bowl and mix with the ground flaxseeds. Next blend celery) olive oil, raisins, and water ina blender. Combine both mixtures. Add the salt, coriander, lemon juice, and caraway and mix thoroughly. Shape the mixture into small loafs and place on a teflex dehydrator tray •. make Sure to decorate your loafs with crushed nuts or poppy seed. Place in the dehydrator at 100 degrees, for about 24-36 hours, You may need to flip the bread after approximately 12-15 hours so that both sides dryevenly; IViqkes 5-7 Loafs.
12 Steps 10 Raw Food
Live Gardenburgers
Grind l lb, of your favorite nuts in a food processor .. Combili)e the following ingredients and put through a Champion Juicer with the blank plate in or grind ill a food processor:
1 lb. carrots
1 medium onion
1 tablespoon sweetener (honey, very ripe banana, raisins)
1 tablespoon oil
1-2 ta-blespoons poultry seasoning (or other seasoning)
sea salt to taste
2-3 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optionai)
If the mixture is not firm enough, add one or two of the following thickeners: dill weed, dried garlic, dried onion, dried parsley flakes, nutritional yeast, psyllium husk powder, ground flaxseeds.
Form into balls, cutlets, or fillets and sprinkle with paprika a little before serving.
Note: If you want "fishburger" add seaweed (dulse kelp, nod) to the mixture. Serves 10.
Reci pes
Portabella Mushroom Burger
Grind 1 lb. of your favorite nuts ill a food processor. Combine the following ingredients and put through a Champion Juicer with the blank plate in or grind in a food processor:
1 lb. carrots
1 medium onion
1 tablespoon sweetener (honey, very ripe banana, raisins)
1 tablespoon oil
1-2 tablespoons poultry seasoning (or other seasoning)
sea salt to ta te
2-3 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
If the mixture is 110t firm enough, add one or two of the following thickeners: dill weed, dried garlic, dried onion, dried parsley flakes, nutritional yeast, psyllium husk powder, ground flaxseeds.
Form into 10 burgers. Slice 2 large, ripe tomatoes and 1 large red onion. Have the following ready:
10 small (or 5 large) portabeUa mushroom caps
10 leaves fresh spinach
Assemble mushroom burgers as follows: put mushroom cap up "ide down on a plate, put spinach leaf on it, put burger on spinach, put slice of tomato on burger, put slice of onion on tomato. You may secure your «sa dwich' with toothpicks. Serves 10.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Live Fries
Slice lib. jicama so it looks like French fries.
Combine in a bowl with:
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil sea salt to taste
1 tablespoon paprika
Serves 5.
Live Pizza
Grind 2 cups of flaxseed in a dry Vita-mix container. Blend together:
1 cup water
1 large onion (chopped) 3 stalks celery (chopped) 2 tomatoes (medium)
4 cloves garli c (medium) 1 teaspoon Celtic salt
Mix ground flaxseed into blended mix by hand. Spread on dehydrating sheets with a spatula. Divide into squares of desired size. Dehydrate only until dry) but not crispy.
Blend the following ingredients with as little water as possible: ] lb. of any nuts
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes I h cup raisins
juice of 1 medium lemon 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dry basil
Pour in a bowl. Add:
1 tablespoon dry onion ] tablespoon dry garlic
2-3 tablespoons nutritional yeast 1 tablespoon rniso
Mix well.
Making pizza:
Spread topping on squares of crust.
Decorate with grated yams, sliced cherry tomatoes) sliced !TIU hrooms, sliced olives and chopped parsley. Makes nine
'slices)' of pizza.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Pate mixture:
'h cup walnuts
2 cups sunflower seeds soaked overnight 3 doves garlic
1 cup chopped celery 1 I h teaspoons sal t
'/3 cup olive oil
'/1 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon curry powder (or your favorite seasoning)
Additional ingredients:
Slice the following into thin.Ieng strips:
Half an avocado
Half a large bell pepper 2 green onions
5 raw nori sheets
Blend all the pate ingredients in a food processor until cream:y:
Spread the pate OIltO a sheet of nori and add the thinly sliced vegetables. Roll up tight in nori sheet. Note: to make the nori sheets stick better you can moisten them a little with water, lemon, tomato or orange juice. Let the nori rolls sit for 10 minutes and then begin slicing them into 2 inch slices. Makes 10-15 110ri TOlls.
Reci pes
Shred or use Saladacco to create thin noodle-like-strands of botternut squash. Sprinkle with paprika and oil before serving. Decorate with fresh parsley.
Tomato Basil Sauce:
Blend 2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes. Add the following ingredients and blend: 2-4 cloves garlic
3/4 cup chopped fresh basil juice of 1 medium lemon 1 tablespoons olive oil
4 dates (or some raisins) 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes
Serves 7.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Nut or Seed Cheese
2 cups any nuts or seeds soaked overnight 1 1 h cup pure water
Soak the nuts and seeds in pme water overnight. Drain and rinse the nuts and seeds. Put into blender with one cup of pure water and blend well to break the nuts down into a fine cream. Pour .into sprout bag. Hang the sprout bag aver a sink or bowl (to pour off the whey) and let ferment at roam temperature for approximately 8-12 hours.
Transfer cheese to' a bowlmix with your favorite seasonings and stir well.
Yield 1 pint. Keeps far at least 7 days in a covered container in the refrigerator.
TO' flavor seed cheese you may use any combination of the following: garlic, lemon juice, chopped fresh cilantro, Bragg's Liquid Aminos or Nama Shay, curry powder, chopped or dry parsley, chopped or dry dill, sun-dried tomatoes, chopped scallions, basil, olive oil, sea-salt.
Reci pes
Valya's Spicy Almond Cheese
Mix the following ingredients in a bowl:
2 cups of pulp from almond milk (pulp should not be sweet)
I/~ cup olive oil
1/1 eu p lemon juice 1 h teaspoon of salt
l/~ cup fresh or dried dill weed I b cup diced onions
1/1 cup diced red bell pepper
Decorate with cherry tomatoes. Serves 4.
1.2 Steps to Raw Food
Pecan Pate
Mix the following ingredients in food processor until finely chopped:
3 cups raw pecans soaked over night 1 II cup of dates
3 doves garlic (spicy pepper works great) 1/4- cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
I/~ cup fresh cilantro I h teaspoon sea salt
Use pate to stuff bell peppers, cabbage leaves, nori rolls, etc. Serves: 5-6 people
Sunny Spread
liz cup walnuts
2 cups sunflower seeds soaked overnight 3 doves garlic
1 cup chopped celery 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup olive oil
lh cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon dry basil
Blend ingredients in food processor until smooth. Be creative and serve on cracker, rolled up in a cabbage leaf or stuff a bell pepper. Serves 12.
Re e i pes
Sergei's Hummus
Blend the following ingredients in a food processor:
2 cups garbanzo beans sprouted for 1 day 1 h cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup tomatoes (chopped)
1 cup celery (chopped)
salt or Bragg's liquid Aminos to taste 1-2 tablespoons (dry) or 1 cup (fresh)
dill or basil
1-2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice hot peppers to taste
2-5 cloves garlic
Sprinkle with dry parsley flakes before serving. Serves 5-7.
12 Steps to R"lW Food
Generic Cake Recipe
Combine the following ingredients, miring well: 1 eu p grou nd nuts, seed or grains 1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon honey
'h cup chopped or crushed fresh fruits or berries or ~h cup dry fruits, soaked for 1-2 hours, then ground
1 teaspoon vanilla
'h teaspoon nutmeg
'h cup raw carob powder
peel from 4 tangerines, well ground
If mixture is not firm enough, add psyllium husk or shredded coconut. Form into crust on a flat plate.
Blend the following ingredients well; add water with a teaspoon if needed:
1/- cup fresh or frozen fruit
1/2 cup nuts (white nuts look pretty) LI! cup olive oil
2-3 tablespoons honey juice of 1 medium lemon 1 teaspoon vanilla
Spread evenly over the crust. Decorate with fruits, berries and nuts. Give your cake a name. Chill.
Nuts, seeds and grains: almonds, walnuts, filberts, cashews, pine nuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, flaxseed, sesame or tahini, oat flour or rolled oats, buckwheat, kamut or barley.
Dried fruits: pitted prunes, raisins, apricots, dates, figs or currants.
Fresh fruits and berries: strawberries, apples, bananas, blueberries, pineapple, mangoes, apricots, raspberries or cranberries.
Serves 12.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Sergei's Young Coconut Dream Cake
This cake wen a contest at the Portland Raw Food Festival,
1 cup raw unsoaked walnuts
1/2 CLIp of your favorite pitted dates 1/2 cup young coconut water
4 tablespoons raw carob
1 small papaya
Blend the walnuts and dates in a food processor until the mixture is smooth. Mix in the carob and the coconut water. Spread one layer of crust out on a plate. Place sliced papaya on top of first layer. Place second layer on top.
1 cup young coconut meat
Water, enough to blend into thick topping 1 tablespoon honey
Blend aU the ingredients in a vita-mixer. Spread ici.ng on cake. Decorate with fruit slices and nuts.
Un-Chocolate Cake
Combine the following ingredients) mixing well: 1 cup ground nuts
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup raisins
1 cup raw carob powder
1 teaspoon Frontier's butterscotch flavor 1 teaspoon vanilla
lh teaspoon nutmeg, Nama Shoyu or Bragg's Liquid Aminos
peel from 4 tangerines) well ground
1 cup prunes soaked for 1-2 hours ground
Form into one-inch layer on a flat plate. Spread ground prunes between layers (form as many layers as you want).
Blend the following ingredients well; add water with a teaspoon if needed:
1 cup ripe avocado meat 1 teaspoon oLive oil
3 tablespoons honey juice of 1 medium lemon 1 teaspoon vanilla
4-5 tablespoons carob powder
Spread evenly over the crust, or squeeze using decorating bag. Decorate with fruits, berries and nuts. Chill. Serves 12.
1.2 Steps to Raw Food
Macadamia Date Pie
4 cups macadamia nuts 2 cups dates
juice of one orange 1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon of butterscotch or vanilla extract
Blend macadamia nuts in food processor until they are finely chopped and transfer to a bowl. Next blend the dates and orange juice in a food processor and add to the macadamia mix. Mix thoroughly together with salt and butterscotch extract.
Spread the crust out thinly on a normal size plate. Finely sliee bananas OJ: your favorite fruit and spread on top of the macadamia date crust. Next cover the fruit with another layer of the macadamia date mixture.
Decorate the pie with thinly sliced oranges and nuts or your favorite fruits. Serves 8-12 people.
Sergei's Amazing Truffles
1 cup raw unsoaked waJnuts
1/2 cup of your favorite pitted dates 1/.1 cup ymmg coconut water
4 tablespoons of raw carob
Blend the walnuts and date in a food processor until the m ixture is smooth.
Mix the carob and coconut water. Shape the mixture into small balls and roll the balls in carob, decorate with your favorite fruit. Makes 8-12 truffles.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Alla's Cranberry Scones
2 cups .grated apples
2 cups carrot pulp after you make carrot juice 2 cups raisins or chopped dates
1 cup cranberries (fresh or dry)
2 tablespoons honey
2 CUps almonds ground
1 cup flaxseed blended with 1 cup water ,I h cup olive oil
Mix with hands, You have to· experiment to get the consistency desired. Drop by spoonfuls onto reflex sheets ..
Dehydrate at 105-115 degrees for several hours. Approximately 4 hours on one side, flip for 3 hours on opposite side.
Makes 24 scones.
Reci pes
Sergei's Butternut Squash Cookies
»: .z-:
4 cups peeled butternut squash chopped into
medium sized chunks 1 cup raisins
juice of one orange
til teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons raw honey
Blend the chopped squash in a food processor and transfer into a bowl. Next blend the raisins and the orange juice in a food processor and add to the squash mixture. Add the rest of the ingredients into the bow.l andmix thoroughly.
Use an ice cream scoop and scoop the mixture onto a dehydrator tray, flatten each cookie untill they are one inch thick. Set the dehydrator for 100 degrees and leave in for 12-15 hours.
Makes 7-11 cookies.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Valya's Almond Orange Cookies
Blend the following ingredientsin a food processor until they are finely chopped: .
4 cups raw almonds soaked overnight
2 cups raisins
'I« cup orange peel
2 medium oranges whole 1/2 teaspoon salt
2. apples
When all the ingredients are finely processed, use a spatula 1!@ spread cookie mixture onto a dehydrator tray at 115 degrees for 20 hams or until dry. Decorate each cookie with sliced nuts or raisins,
Yields 10-12 cookies.
Re clp es
Macadamia Date Cookies
4 cups macadamia nuts 2 cups dates
juice of one orange 1 teaspoon salt
1/'1 teaspoon of butterscotch or vanilla extract
Blend macadamia nuts in food processor until fine and transfer to a bowl. Next blend the dates and orange juice in a food processor and add to the macadamia mix. Mix thoroughly together with salt and butterscotch extract.
Scoop the mixture onto reflex dehydrator trays and decorate with pine nuts. Set at 100 degrees and dehydrate for 12-15 hours. Serve warm.
Makes 7-12 cookies.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Sesame Cookies
A fabulous way to use all leftover sesame pulp after making sesame milk.
5 cups sesame seed pulp 2 cups raisins
3 tablespoons raw honey juice of one orange
Blend raisins and orange juice in food processor until mixture is finely pureed. Add to a bowl with the sesame seed pulp .. Add honey and mix thoroughly Spread the mixture onto teflex dehydrator sheets and using a spatula cut into squares. Sprinkle with poppy seeds and set in the dehydrator at 100 degrees. Dehydrate for 12-15 hours or until. dry. Makes 15-20 cookies.
Morning Cereal
Soak 1 cup of oat groats overnight Blend with 3/d cup water
Add 1/'1 cup of dates without pits or raisins and blend
Add 1 tablespoon of your favorite oil (optional)
Add salt to taste (optional)
Garnish with fresh fruits and berries before serving. Serves 3-4.
Buckwheat Millet Morning Cereal
Soak the followingovernight: 1 I h. cups millet
2 cups buckwheat
lcup coarsely chopped hazelnuts
Additional ingredients:
1 cu p raisins
3 tablespoons honey 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Using a rolling pin, flatten the millet and the buckwheat. Transfer the grains into a bowl and add the crushed hazelnuts. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Spread the mixture evenly onto a dehydrator sheet. It is important to avoid spreading the mixture too thin or too thick. Set the dehydrator for 100 degrees and dehydrate until the cereal is completely dry, which will take between lO~12 hours. Serve with nut milk.
Makes 3-6 servings.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Sergei's Favorite Smoothie
Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth: 2 oranges (peeled)
2 frozen bananas (other frozen fruit is optional)
Place the oranges towards the bottom of blender to make enough liquid to blend the frozen bananas.
Decorate with fresh strawberries!
Serves 2-3 (until you get addicted, then it only serves 1)..
Nut or Seed Milk
1 cup any nuts or seeds soaked overnight 2 cups pure water
1 tablespoon honey or 2-3 dates 1/4 teaspoon Celtic salt (optional)
Blend all ingredients in a blender thoroughly until smooth. Strain mixture through a sprout bag. Pour into a jar. Serves 4.
Reci pes
Un-Chocolate Almond Milk
1 quart almond milk 1/2 cup dates
1 young coconut (meat and water) 2 tablespoons raw carob powder
1 raw vanilla bean
Blend well in a blender. Serve chilled. Serves 5-7.
Nut Milk Shake
Blend the following ingredients ina blender until smooth: 3 cups almond milk
1/2 cup fresh or frozen strawberries 1 medium orange (peeled)
1 fresh or frozen banana
2 tablespoons honey or 1/4 cup of pitted dates
I "1 teaspoon sea salt
1 vanilla bean
]/2 cup of ice C e is not necessary if you use
frozen fruit)
Serves 4-5.
12 Steps to Raw Food
Nut or Seed Yogurt
1 cup any; nuts or seeds soaked overnight 1 I h cup P me water
Blend nuts with water in a blender thoroughly until smooth. Keep adding water, until you have the consistence of heavy cream. Strain mixture through a sprout bag. Pour into a jar and cover with a cheesecloth for the transfer of air and gases, Set your jar in a warm place where the yogurt temperatm€ can heat up to 90-100 degrees. It will be ready in approximately 6 to 12 hours or when it tastes tart and sour.
Nut and seed yogurts can be made from sesame seeds, almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews, sunflower seeds and any other nuts, seeds or their combinations. You may play with taste by adding honey, lemon juice, sea salt, vanilla, or other flavors. The longer your yogurt will stay in a warm place the stronger and more sour it will become.
Suggested combinations for making delicious yogurt:
Cashew and sesame Cashew, almonds
and sesame Cashew and sunflower
Sesame and almond Sunflower and almond Pecans and almonds Walnuts and pine nuts Sesame and hazelnuts
Creative Health Institute
(The Wheatgrass Place' Creative Health Institute teaches the
Dr. Ann Wigmore program of Living Foods.
Creative Health Institute celebrated its 25th Anniversary in Octob~r 2001. Founded by Donald O. Haughey> the facility was inaugurated by Dr. Ann Wigmore, who often taught here during her life. Our programs are designed to follow her teachings as best we can, as articulated in her' book Why Suffer? and Be Your Own Doctor.
Our leam-by-doing program includes the use of wheatgrass to detoxify and facilitate rejuvenation,.indoor/organic gardening, body-hygiene, enzyme nutrition, cornposting, . sprouting, meal preparation, energy soup, and gentle exercise focused on stretching and breathing,
This programis conducted as a detoxification and rebuilding system of nutrition, which participants take home and incorporate with their lifestyle. This experience is foundational to establishing a living-foods wellness way of life.
Thousands from around the world have traveled to Creative Health Institute, to learn prevention of illness and reversal of disease with the Living Foods Lifestyle. Come" join us in a great journey into healthful living during a time it is so needed on am beautiful planet.
Creative Health Institute www.creatii.nstitute.us
Phone: (517) 278-6260' e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com 112 W. Union City Rd .•• Union City. MIchigan 49094
by Raw Seattle Support Groups www.rawseattle.org
Using the 12 Steps to R;;lW Food that have been developed by Victoria Boutenko, RaW' Seattle has formed two weekly support groups. Much of the Raw Seattle community began living the raw food lifestyle as a result of her influence, and many of the members of our support groups began participating as soon as they finished Victoria's class, The support groups have matured into a mini-community of adventurous, caring and enthusiastic humans exploring the boundaries of their known world and creating entirely new ways of living life. In several other communities of the Northwest where Victoria has taught, students have also formed support groups that meet on a regular basis.
The transition from the cooked food world to the raw food. lifestyle has been very challenging for many of our members. Those who rely on will power alone to leave the addictions of the cooked food way of life often cannot make a permanent change. The support gr01,lp has provided a natural framework of assistance in achieving a 100% raw food lifestyle .. This facilitated environment of structure and confidentiality allows group members to share from the heart with sincerity what i_S' true for them according ttl their direct, personal experience.
We, in Seattle, are eager to shareour st01'Y in order to inspire other communities to form their own support groups'. If we can be of assistance, please contact www.rawseartle.org, The calendar will list the most appropriate contact person fOI the support group at that time.
Victoria Boutenko teaches classes on Raw Food at Southern Oregon University. Her classes are highly in demand. AJl a result of her teachings, many raw food communities, have been formed through the world.
When Victoria is not teaching or writing she enjoys hiking, swimming and hiking with her raw familyin Ashland Oregon.
The transfOTmatlon of Vi doria's family to raw food is described in their book "Raw Family:'
Order Form for books by
Raw Family Publishing Online orders: www.RawFamily.com
E-mail: email@example.com Postal orders:
Raw Family Publishing P.O. Box 172 Ashland, OR 97520
Please send ( ) copies of 12 Steps to Raw Food@ $11.95
Please send ( ) copies of Raw FamiIY@$11.95
Please send ( ) copies of Eating Without Heating@ $11.95
Please send ( ) copies of videotape "Raw Gourmet Dishes Simplified"
(Victoria teaches how to prepare 14 basic raw dishes) 2003 @ $19.95
Shipping and handling: $3 .. 50 for the first book or tape and $1.00 for each addltional Payment: Check or money order
Total $ _
City: State: Zip:
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Telephone:, ----3'---- _
E-mail address:
Wholesale discounts available on large quantlties.