(Reuters Health) - Benign prostate hyperplasia is a common condition in older men, but the risk of developing the condition seems to be increased by obesity and high blood sugar levels, researchers report: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060727/hl_nm/obesity_prostate_dc_1.
Over the past 20 years, the incidence of gout - a debilitating arthritis caused by eating rich food - has doubled in the USA. Not surprisingly, this is an increase that parallels the growing epidemic of obesity.
Although gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis in men, affecting as many as 5 million men in the United States, this painful arthritic condition is essentially unknown in parts of the world where people consume a diet based on starches.
The most important cause is an increase in the intake of rich foods, which are high in uric acid precursors, known as purines. The muscles of animal meat, poultry, fish and seafood are the most abundant sources of purines.
Most people have large storages of uric acid in their tissues which may take months of healthy eating and associated weight loss to dissolve away: http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/june/gout.htm.
by Dr. James Carey, PhD (applied microcomputer technologies)
For 23 years I lived in Key West, Florida, and built several computer companies. In '97 I sold off the business, apartments, office building, house, and most of the stuff I'd accumulated. By January '99 I was 48 years old, free and financially liquid.
I took a year or so off and toured the United States, traveled 60,000 miles, first with an Airstream trailer, and later with a Bluebird motorcoach.
I also spent the time overcoming my addiction to cigarettes, something I'd been dependent upon since I was 14 years old.
By Spring of 2000 I was rested, collected, and tobacco-free. I'd relocated to rural Georgia, adopted a dog, and started building a house with my own hands. I also weighed 260 lbs. I'd been watching my weight creep up over the years, from my college weight of 165 to around 220 by '99.
I considered myself healthy because at 45 I could still shinny up a 30 ft. sailboat mast and repair the masthead while holding on with my legs. But a year of sitting behind the steering wheel substituting junk food and rich meals for the cigarettes I was trying to give up really put the weight on me. Now I was almost 50 and single-handedly building a house.
I considered myself to be in good shape, I was active and pain-free, but I sure was getting big.
 Jim at 260 lbs. |
 Jim at 170 lbs. |
So... January, 2001. New Year's Resolution - go on a diet. I read about health and nutrition, then put myself on a 1700 calorie-a-day vegetarian diet. I walked at least three miles a day, five times a week.
In four months I lost 20 lbs., bringing my weight down to 240. I kept counting calories in my little notebook, I kept walking 15 miles or more a week, and by Summer - still 240 lbs.!
I could not lose any more weight. Frustrating. If I went off my diet for a weekend in Savannah I'd gain 5 lbs. in two days, then take a week - or more - to get rid of it.
Back to the Internet for more research. I read about people who had been on one diet or another, but after initial improvements their health deteriorated and they were facing new health challenges because of the inadequacies of the dietary regime they'd adopted.
The deeper I dug, the more one program stood out. The Raw Living Foods lifestyle, taught by Dr. Ann Wigmore. It was old knowledge going back thousands of years, and she was the most famous of modern advocates. What impressed me most were:
1) Testimonies by people that have lived the lifestyle for 20, 30 and 40 years, and are thriving on it.
2) What does the founder look like today, or what did they die of? Dr. Ann died of smoke inhalation while fighting a fire, at 84. She was fit and healthy.
3) Other raw fooders have died as a result of sports accidents in their 80's and 90's, not of disease or medications. All maintained an active lifestyle up until their passing over.
4) Dr. Wigmore's Raw Living Foods Lifestyle combines raw living food, internal cleansing, body detoxification and plant-based supplementation. All of the elements of good health rolled into one.
5) There are hands-on training centers where one can go and experience the program for an extended period of time, and not just try to sort it out from books or weekend seminars.
6) Most hands-on centers are reasonably priced - I've paid as much for one night at a nice hotel for what they charge for a week's stay.
7) Dr. Ann Wigmore's program is educational, not "do this blindly because I say so." At the training centers they teach why the body isn't healthy, and what you can do about it. As an engineer and scientist, I appreciate this.
The more I looked at it, the more the Raw Living Foods Lifestyle stood out as being the program that would work for me - or for anyone!
Synchronicity also came into play. An old friend. When I mentioned Dr. Ann Wigmore's Raw Living Foods program she told me that she'd studied with Dr. Ann at Hippocrates Institute in Boston, and credited the lifestyle with changing her life.
August of '01 found me at Creative Health Institute, near Union City, Michigan. On a trip to visit family I stopped in for a three-day visit. I was so impressed with the personal experiences of the graduating students that I went back to Georgia, closed up the farm, and returned to Michigan to attend the two-week program. I still weighed 240 lbs.
In my first two weeks at Creative Health I lost 20 lbs. I never went hungry, I never missed a meal, I never counted a calorie. Indeed, I usually had seconds.
At the end of the first month I was down to 210 lbs. When I headed back for Georgia for Christmas I weighed 200 lbs. I'd lost 40 lbs. without even working at it!
Why did the program work so dramatically for me?
I was toxic. Not only did the organic, unprocessed food that Creative Health served reduce and eliminate the toxins in my body, Dr. Ann's program helped my body eliminate toxins that I'd been accumulating all of my life.
By eating processed foods, I'd been putting toxins into my body faster than my body could remove them. I learned that my body was storing these toxins in fat cells in order to protect me. Once I eliminated the toxins I was ingesting, my body was able to process the backlogged accumulation and dispose of it.
I also learned that I had a large amount of impacted fecal matter. Most people do. Enemas cleared out this backlog.
From '01 to '05 I spent three to six months of the year at Creative Health, helping out as a volunteer as I helped myself get healthier. I weigh 170 lbs. now.
The other reason I kept returning to Creative Health was the good feelings I felt when I saw others overcome their health challenges. I've seen people heal diabetes, obesity, arthritis, colitis, after-effects of chemotherapy, breast cancer, hepatitis, heavy metal poisoning, asthma, wounds that wouldn't heal, PMS, migraine headaches... all forms of health challenges.
I've seen people stop smoking, painlessly, in just a few days. They didn't even notice that they'd quit. Wish I knew that back in '99.
I've watched people perk up, heal, and get happy. Like Chantel from Zimbabwe. She came to Creative Health with rheumatoid arthritis, which she'd had since she was 16. She was 26. Upon graduation from the two-week program Chantel said, "I stopped taking my medication after I was here three days. I've not had any pain in more than a week."
With tears streaming down her cheeks, she added, "This is the best I have felt since I was 15 years old."
Some time later Chantel sent me an email: "While I am only 75% raw after these two years, I am not taking medication, and my pain has not returned. I am happy to tell you that I am now married and three months pregnant. Your program made this possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you."
What do raw living foods do for me?
Helped me lose over 70 lbs.,
Gave me an energy level that's like being 25 again (I even took up skydiving - at 52!).
Instead of sleeping 8-10 hours a night, I wake totally refreshed after only 4-6 hours of sleep.
My bowels are regular and move easily.
I'm happier - all the time. I have a more positive outlook on life. People say I "glow," and I smile all the time.
My taste buds have changed, and my cravings for snacks, sweets and caffeine have disappeared.
Most of all, I find my life more satisfying and rewarding than it's ever been before.
I try to help Creative Health in their mission. I've installed computers and a network, rewrote the website, taught classes, mowed the lawn, started a newsletter, served as Program Director, done public speaking, fixed toilets, painted, produced videos, answered the phones, stuffed envelopes, and told my story on TV and radio
When I was answering the phone at Creative Health I repeatedly heard people say, either:
For those reasons I created the Home Study Program. From a file cabinet with over three decades of research studies and student materials, and two decades worth of videotape, I spent my winters assembling the most comprehensive overview of the program I could.
I now administer the Raw Living Foods Home Study Program in order to help those who:
I'm finding it a great way to spend my retirement, and the second half of my life!
Jim Carey
Midville, Georgia
December, 2007
Jim Carey
As a bachelor, I'm into quick-and-easy food prep. Some accuse me of being raw because I don't have to cook. That's not true - microwave dinners are even easier than raw. But as regular readers know, I don't have a microwave any more.
I admit that it's rare that I create a Gourmet Raw Vegan recipe. Instead, I rely on regular visits to raw friends, and institutes like Creative Health for the yummy stuff.
I do, however, grow my own sprouts. Sprouts are about 1/4 of my diet, and I've found that I can grow my own for a fraction of the cost of store-bought with just a few minutes a day of attention. Here's a summary:
I use small quantities of seed in quart jars. Quick and easy. I usually have 6-10 jars of sprouts growing in the drainer, in different stages of development. One of the coolest parts is harvesting half a jar of sprouts, then finding the jar full again tomorrow!
Like I said, it's quick, easy and cheap. Non-organic sprouts cost $4-6 for a small tray at the supermarket. My fresh organic sprouts cost about a dime for the same quantity. I buy most of my organic seeds from wheatgrasskits.com.
Too much sugar turns off gene that controls the effects of sex steroids. #rawfoods
Eating too much fructose and glucose can turn off the gene that regulates the levels of active testosterone and estrogen in the body, shows a new study in mice and human cell cultures that’s published this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. This discovery reinforces public health advice to eat complex carbohydrates and avoid sugar.
Table sugar is made of glucose and fructose, while fructose is also commonly used in sweetened beverages, syrups, and low-fat food products. Estimates suggest North Americans consume 33 kg of refined sugar and an additional 20 kg of high fructose corn syrup per person per year.
The rest of the story: http://www.physorg.com/news113902673.html
The original report: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2066187&blobtype=pdf
[ See also "124 Ways Sugar Ruins Your Health" -
http://rawlivingfoods.typepad.com/1/2006/07/124_ways_sugar_.html - Jim Carey ]
You wouldn't know it by current world events, but humans actually evolved to be peaceful, cooperative and social animals.
In a new book, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis goes against the prevailing view and argues that primates, including early humans, evolved not as hunters but as prey of many predators, including wild dogs and cats, hyenas, eagles and crocodiles.
Despite popular theories posed in research papers and popular literature, early man was not an aggressive killer, argues Robert W. Sussman, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences.
Sussman's book, "Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators and Human Evolution," poses a new theory, based on the fossil record and living primate species, that primates have been prey for millions of years, a fact that greatly influenced the evolution of early man.
Our intelligence, cooperation and many other features we have as modern humans developed from our attempts to out-smart the predator, says Sussman.
Since the 1924 discovery of the first early humans, australopithicenes, which lived from seven million years ago to two million years ago, many scientists theorized that those early human ancestors were hunters and possessed a killer instinct.
Through his research and writing, Sussman has worked for years to debunk that theory. An expert in the ecology and social structure of primates, Sussman does extensive fieldwork in primate behavior and ecology in Costa Rica, Guyana, Madagascar and Mauritius. He is the author and editor of several books, including "The Origins and Nature of Sociality," "Primate Ecology and Social Structure," and "The Biological Basis of Human Behavior: A Critical Review."
The idea of "Man the Hunter" is the generally accepted paradigm of human evolution, says Sussman, who recently served as editor of American Anthropologist. "It developed from a basic Judeo-Christian ideology of man being inherently evil, aggressive and a natural killer. In fact, when you really examine the fossil and living non-human primate evidence, that is just not the case."
Studying the fossil evidence
And examine the evidence they did. Sussman and Hart's research is based on studying the fossil evidence dating back nearly seven million years. "Most theories on Man the Hunter fail to incorporate this key fossil evidence," Sussman says. "We wanted evidence, not just theory. We thoroughly examined literature available on the skulls, bones, footprints and on environmental evidence, both of our hominid ancestors and the predators that coexisted with them."
Since the process of human evolution is so long and varied, Sussman and Hart decided to focus their research on one specific species, Australopithecus afarensis, which lived between five million and two and a half million years ago and is one of the better known early human species. Most paleontologists agree that Australopithecus afarensis is the common link between fossils that came before and those that came after. It shares dental, cranial and skeletal traits with both. It's also a very well-represented species in the fossil record.
"Australopithecus afarensis was probably quite strong, like a small ape," Sussman says. Adults ranged from around 3 to 5 feet and they weighed 60-100 pounds. They were basically smallish bipedal primates. Their teeth were relatively small, very much like modern humans, and they were fruit and nut eaters.
But what Sussman and Hart discovered is that Australopithecus afarensis was not dentally pre-adapted to eat meat. "It didn't have the sharp shearing blades necessary to retain and cut such foods," Sussman says. "These early humans simply couldn't eat meat. If they couldn't eat meat, why would they hunt?"
Read more: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/wuis-th020305.php.
Dear Jim,
Thanks ever so much for this reply. I wanted to email you this morning to ask you about something.
Your journey from obese to dare-I-say-buff is most expected and reasonable for having gone through the phases of vegetarian (vegetarian-vegan-raw and any combination of these three "methods"). Do you encounter men that think the non-meat way is not manly? Having seen your photo and read your story, finding Storm and Jinjee's website, and maybe two others, have you considered writing or doing talks directed to men that are in need of this change of food intake for any number of reasons?
Very best,
Helen
Hi Jim,
I have been thinking lately about a couple of old myths. Perhaps you will find these ideas interesting in the context of the raw foods movement.
The first is the Greek myth of Pandora and Prometheus. Prometheus (a non-human Titan) stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. As a punishment the gods gave man (Pandora, a woman), a giftbox containing all sorts of diseases and afflictions. I find the direct link between man getting fire and man getting disease very interesting.
The other myth that I have been thinking about is the story of Adam and Eve. If you remember, they were thrown out of Eden because they ate of the forbidden fruit of a tree (knowledge). Once out of the Garden they were beset by a host of unpleasant ills: work, clothes, old age and disease.
If you read between the lines a bit and take fire as the fruit of a tree (you need wood to have fire), and that they ate of this forbidden fruit, i.e. cooked food, then this myth also relates fire and cooking to disease and hardship for mankind.
In both cases woman was closely connected with the connection of man getting fire. Perhaps it was a woman who first got the idea to cook things? We still connect women with cooking to this day.
What do you think? Pretty interesting.
Yours in health,
Eric Rothwarf
----------------------
Eric,
I'm going to post this, with the full realization of the Political Incorrectness contained within. I hope you're ready to deal with all the feedback, flames and comments you're going to get about this one!
Hahahahhahah!
Jim Carey
"Real men eat meat." I live in the heart of Georgia; I hear that all the time.
I'm 58, I don't eat meat, yet I live out in the woods, built my house by myself, can live off the land, race sailboats on the ocean, have a USCG Captain's license, am an accomplished kayaker, have a Class A skydiver's license, can walk 50 miles in a day, tame dogs, gentle horses, and live closer to nature than anybody else I know. Read my resume: http://jcarey.com/jimcareyresume.htm. Here's my Raw Living Foods testimony, with before and after pictures: http://rawlivingfoods.typepad.com/1/2009/01/what_raw_living.html
Real men don't eat meat? Oh, yeah? I believe a Real Man is one who can think for himself. A man who can put aside what he thinks he knows, and examine the facts with a critical mind. Here's an 12-minute video by Billy Bob Thornton called The Last Real Cowboys that illustrates my point: http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/last_real_cowboys/.
(Reuters Health) - Many of the same things that are good for a man's heart may also be good for his sex life, new research confirms.
Maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking and getting regular exercise may all reduce the risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED), according to a study that followed more than 22,000 U.S. men for 14 years: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060707/hl_nm/impotence_risk_dc_1.
Update: While Yahoo news has pulled the article, it's still available here:
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Smoking-and-obesity-linked-to-erectile-dysfunction-12079-1/
This is a good, related article:
http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=3140
Jim
(August, 2005) You're not "cheating," you've not "fallen off the wagon," you haven't "failed," you're just making poorer choices about how you eat, you're dealing with your addictions to your old "comfort foods," and you've simply been "eating outside of the program."
I like to stop each week for a few minutes, usually on Sunday morning, and consider what I've eaten over the past seven days. I come up with an honest number, a percentage, by volume, of the non-raw foods I've eaten over the last week. Sometimes I'm shocked at how much I ate outside of the program. When I'm in the high 90's (99% raw last week) I congratulate myself for doing so well. When I'm in the 80's (or wherever), I resolve to do better next week.
Over time I'm finding new "comfort foods" that are also Raw and Vegan.
I don't beat myself up over it, and I don't share the number with anybody else (well, except with you). It's my personal business. I just remind myself that this is MY chosen lifestyle, and then get on with my life. This is a lifestyle choice, not a religion, and it's MY choice.
As I've been promising in my Backslider's Corner column, here are two photos of me. One when I weighed 260 lbs, and the other is of me today, at 175. The Raw Living Foods Lifestyle sure agrees with me!
 Jim at 260 lbs. December, 2000 |
 Jim at 180 lbs. August, 2005 |
Sunlight is emerging as proven treatment for breast cancer, prostate cancer and other cancers. Natural sunlight news and the healing power of sunshine and the sun's rays - http://www.sunlightnews.com.
by Jim Carey
During my radio interview with Kerry Pharr last November he mentioned going Raw for three days, and then gave up because he was always hungry. I have a solution for that:
A) To make a raw dish that is delicious and satisfying it is necessary to have all five of these flavors in your recipe:
The ratios will change with the type of dish you are creating. The key to creating great Raw Recipes is learning to balance the five flavors. With time and practice creating Raw Gourmet food will be second nature to you. Here is a great resource for raw recipes: chiDiet.net.
A breakdown of the five tastes:
B) Quantity. We're used to having small bowls of salad with our meals (at best). When you're a rawbie, what might look like a salad for four is now dinner for one. For active guys in particular, don't hesitate to eat an entire salad bowl for lunch, or a blender or more of green smoothie for breakfast. Supper should be a small meal.
C) Eating on a schedule. Get you body used to eating on time. I eat at 7:30 am, 12:30 pm and 5:30 pm. Within a few days your body will begine producing digestive juices on schedule, digesting your foods more completely, and leaving you alone between meals.
D) Listen to your body, and eat only what it needs. If you're coming off the SAD, this might mean training your body as to what it needs vs. what it wants.
- with thanks to Victoria Boutenko for the "5 Tastes" insights.
(Reuters) - Men 65 and beyond with low testosterone tend to fall more often than older men with higher levels of the sex hormone, according to a study published on Monday.
It may be that low levels of the hormone impair vision, thinking processes or coordination, said the report from Oregon Health & Science University in Portland: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061023/hl_nm/testosterone_dc_1.
[Note: Instead of testosterone therapy, you might want to consider that proper diet, nutrition and exercise raise testosterone levels.]
Baby-boomers beware: Even being a little overweight at age 50 increases your chances of premature death, a large new study reveals.
Past research has shown that being obese, roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight, increases the risk of premature death. But scientists have debated whether being overweight, one pound to 29 pounds over a normal weight, is linked to early death.
To investigate this, researchers with the National Cancer Institute examined the lifestyle habits of more than 527,000 men and women, ages 50 to 71, who were members of AARP. Participants completed surveys, including giving their weight and height. Researchers also looked at participants' death records over 10 years. Findings in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-08-22-overweight-study_x.htm?csp=N009.
New research at Cedars Sinai and UCLA shows a compound in chili peppers can cause prostate cancer cells to kill themselves... a disease that strikes more than 200,000 men every year... doctors are finding that the foods we eat can directly influence the management of diseases:
Wherever you go, if you talk about nutrition, healing with food, natural health or any similar topics, you'll find that women are far more open to these ideas than men. I have wondered for a long time why this is, and I have a few ideas on some possible answers.
For the men out there reading this, you're probably excluded from the generalizations I am about to offer, because if you're reading this, you are open to new ideas. In fact, you'll probably agree with most of this. The question is, why do other men have such closed minds when it comes to new information about natural healing or healing nutrition?
One of the answers, I believe, is that many men want to believe they already understand the way the universe works. Men like to be rational. In fact, they often disparage the intuition and emotion more readily demonstrated by women. They tend to believe that intuition is false and that making decisions with emotions is somehow inferior. They think rationality is the highest form of intelligence, which, of course, is a belief that deserves some rational questioning all by itself.
For one thing, there is no such thing as objective reality because mere existence is subjective. Being alive, being born, breathing, seeing and feeling turns you into a subjective reality filter, so everything you observe throughout your life actually becomes subjective. There's no such thing as a truly objective human being.
I believe most men also don't like the idea of thinking they're not in control. If you discuss things like bioenergy or the idea that conventionally-raised meat has negative energy that affects mood or that a plant has positive energy that makes you feel better, most men reflexively reject these ideas without even bothering to consider them. That's because such ideas take the sense of control away from them.
Men like to feel like they are in control of their minds, emotions and moods, and they don't like the idea that unhealthy foods or "low energy" foods could somehow diminish their cognitive function or worsen their moods.
And yet if they are consuming a typical male American diet, they are not in control at all: http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=13260.
- submitted by Helen Terry
The following is an interview I did with Dr. Fred Bisci for my book The Raw Life (avilable at www.rawlife.com)
Fred Bisci is in his upper 70's and have been eating a raw food diet for over 55 years. He does coaching over the phone. He does not have email but his phone number is 718-979-7950. Please only call him if you would like to pay to do a sesion with him. He does not have time to take calls for any other reasons. Tell him you heard about him from me, Paul Nsion.
Fred Bisci is one of the nicest and most knowledgeable person I have ever met. He is kind and gentle. His knowledge about the human body surpasses that of most people alive today. He is also the most humble person I’ve ever met. Since the publication of the first edition of my book The Raw Life, Fred has become a great friend to me. I feel blessed to have such an amazing person to share my time with. Fred and I have been touring together all over the world speaking about the raw food diet and health.
Interview with Dr. Bisci
How many years have you been on the raw food diet, and what got you into it?
I was always interested in nutrition. When I was a young kid, I was an athlete. I was also learning disabled. Little by little, I changed my diet. I would say about 30 years ago, I ran into a fellow who was into eating raw foods. At the time, I thought he really was extreme or radical, but I always had an open mind. I have always been the type of person who did not settle for mediocrity. I always believed in striving for the highest ideals. Therefore, I decided to make a change and pursue it. The more I did it, I got to a point where I decided that there is no doubt about it, eating a raw-food diet is definitely the way to go. Since then, it has served me well.
How was your health when you started the diet?
Fortunately, I was always a healthy guy. When I started the diet, I was big and strong. I had very big muscles. I was into weightlifting at that time and was a good athlete. I came from an athletic family, so I never really had any health problems. I was not the type of person who got into this diet because I was sick. Illness is the main reason why many people first start eating the raw-food diet. However, I never had any major illnesses before getting into this.
Continue reading "Interview with 55 year raw fooder Dr. Fred Bisci - by Paul Nison" »
Fitness
News
from Black
Men's Magazine / February 2002
BY MATTHEW GRACE
KEEPING
IT SIMPLE: REAL MEN
LIKE IT RAW!
Hey you, reader...yeah you...with the magazine in
your hand. Have I got news for you! Are you someone who is fed up
with the barrage of information, mis-information and just plain lies concerning
health and nutrition? How would you like to cut through all the nonsense
and confusion and find a way to eat that makes complete sense and will provide
you with all the health, energy and vitality you could ever wish for?
Also, the quickest, safest and most cost effective way to lose weight and
return your body back to its natural weight.
I know what
you're thinking, "Yeah right, what's the catch and how much does it
cost?" I don't blame you. I am not selling any powders, pills,
or magic potions, just trying to re-mind you of what you already know. Deep
beneath the morass of nutritional propaganda we have been bombarded with since
our birth, health is really a simple issue.
There is no need for all the confusion that exists in the nutritional arena. The confusion is created by our relentless human compulsion for the "quick fix," and the "easy" way out. If you want things to be truly difficult in your life keep seeking the easy way.
Companies are falling over each other to come out with the latest, high tech supplements and "energy drinks." Many of which are extremely taxing to the body and devoid of any assimilable nutrients. Every year a new vitamin, mineral or amino acid is touted as the answer to all our health problems. It is an unfortunate human trait to try to get something for nothing, i.e. "exercise in a bottle," "a great body in just six minutes a day," "become a millionaire working just three hours a week," etc. This form of behavior simply creates more problems. It is a universal law that you cannot get something for nothing, yet the madness ensues.
Nature is a wonderful teacher rich with invaluable wisdom and guidance for our benefit. Nature is the outer equivalent of that little voice inside us that always knows what's right.
Let's get
to the point. Cooking destroys food and all the intrinsic nourishment and
vitality nature has provided for us. Enzymes are destroyed in any food
cooked over 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Enzymes are responsible for an
endless array of vital bodily functions. The destruction of these enzymes
wreaks havoc on every metabolic, digestive and assimilative functions and a
body completely devoid of these enzymes will soon perish. This is why any
fever over 104 degrees can be fatal. Cooked foods create mucus and an
acid condition in the body. The more cooked and processed a food is, the
more difficult it is for the body to digest it. (Cooking also destroys
and coagulates amino acids, the building blocks of protein.)
New research confirms that surgery and dangerous drugs for prostate cancer may be unnecessary and powerful nutritional tools may be a far wiser option: http://www.mercola.com/2006/jun/10/most_prostate_cancer_treatments_unnecessary_and_harmful.htm.
Is everyone feeling and looking their healthiest?
We hope you are eating plenty of green leafy vegetables, fruits, legumes, and all kinds of wonderful whole grains. Much has happened over the last couple of months including a feature story on the front of the national section of the Sunday edition of the New York Times on March 26, 2006: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/national/26vegan.html?ex=1301029200&en=2a80650fc12be1eb&ei=5088%02%22ner=rssnyt&emc=rss.
Afterward, we got a great deal of interest from literary agents soliciting us to write a tell-all book about our story, philosophy, alignment, vision, recipes, and meal plans. We feel we can reach an audience that wouldn't otherwise be willing to hear such a message as well as win back some people who need a little nudge to get back on course. We have decided to go with Inkwell Management literary agency out of New York City who also did the wildly successful South Beach diet.
We anticipate the book coming out in about one year and are looking for help in creating a spectacular recipe section. Send us 2 or 3 of your favorite healthy vegan recipes and we'll try them at the firehouse. If it's a winner we'll include the recipe in the book and give you full credit along with any other pertinent personal information; # of years as vegan/vegetarian, cholesterol level, blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, you name it.
We've recently added several sections to the website so we encourage you to visit and e-mail us any ideas and suggestions. We also have t-shirts and hats for sale if you are so inclined.
Lastly, our illustrious driver, James Rae, has moved to station 23 to help a 33-year veteran and lieutenant in the department regain his health and lose about 50 pounds. J.R. is taking the lead role and already has 4 of the 5 members at station 23 eating vegan while at work. Our new driver is very excited about embracing a new and healthier way of eating. Last shift he made some amazing portabella mushroom fajitas with all the trimmings.
We hope this e-mail finds you safe, healthy, happy and well.
The guys at Engine 2
www.engine2.org
Vegan ultramarathon runner Scott Jurek has won the grueling Badwater Ultramarathon for the second year in a row. Known as the toughest footrace on earth, this 135-mile race takes runners from Death Valley, where temperatures often soar to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, to the trailhead of Mt. Whitney in California. The runners cross three mountain ranges with a combined vertical ascent and descent of over 17,000 feet. Jurek won his first Badwater Ultramarathon in 2005, setting a course record of 24 hours, 36 minutes. Most runners take two days to finish the race.
Both this year and last, Jurek won the race at Badwater just two weeks after winning the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run, which he has won seven consecutive times. In 1999, at age 25, Jurek became the youngest male runner to win the Western States race, and in 2004, he set a record of 15 hours, 36 minutes.
Jurek, who has been following a vegan diet since 1999, credits his wins to his healthy diet, which allows for faster recovery to restore his body to a higher level of conditioning. Jurek was named Runner’s World Hero of 2005 and UltraRunning magazine’s Ultrarunner of the Year in 2003, 2004, and 2005. In 2003, he was awarded UltraRunning magazine’s Performance of the Year: http://www.pcrm.org/magazine/gm06autumn/marathon.html.
(NewsTarget) Prolonged cell phone use may damage sperm in male users, suggests a study by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio.
The findings -- presented at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine conference in New Orleans -- were based on a study of 361 men attending the clinic for infertility tests. The men were divided into four groups -- one group with no cell phone usage; one group that used cell phones less than two hours a day; a group that used one for two to four hours a day; and a group with more than four hours a day of cell phone usage. The men who used their cell phones in excess of four hours showed a 30 percent drop in sperm motility and viability when compared to the men who did not use cell phones. Sperm count, quality, and shape were also reduced with each level of increased phone usage.
(BBC) Heavy use of mobile phones may damage men's fertility, a study has suggested. Experts are calling for further research into the effect of mobiles on fertility: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6079782.stm.
