Day 48: Dealing with Food Addiction....the Nation's Biggest Killer

"You are sitting at the heartbeat of a sphere of influence of unlimited potential. What if the reason to get up in the morning and make that green juice isn't just for your benefit – it's for the benefit of every set of eyes in the world that looks up to you for answers and a way out of their pain, pimples and chronic ills?" - Tera Warner

I have an estranged relationship with my sister-in-law who is very overweight. Her mother (my husband's mother) died at age 59 from diabetes-related complications. She had an amputated leg and was on dialysis for 10 years. Due to her eating addiction, she passed those eating habits to her children.

 Her oldest son was obese his entire adult life and died at age 44 from diabetes. He had an amputated leg and was blind in one eye.

So yesterday we find out through my husband's father that his sister (who's 46) had that new surgery that they are touting as the solution to diabetes that is similar to gastric by-pass and she won't be eating for the next 14 days....she could've just done juicing and saved having to have part of her intestines removed....

 I have decided to join forces with a friend and have tele-classes on dealing with food addictions and emtional eating...I think even more than terrorism, smoking, drunk driving, auto and plane accidents our eating habits are our nation's BIGGEST killer hands down ....

Back when I was 17  25 years ago, I got a lot of flack for being vegetarian. I knew of NO ONE at that time who was vegetarian. Now, flash forward, I am seeing the ramifications of their choices and my choices. We do indeed, reap what we sow. I am on day 48 of my juice feast and still LOVE it.

I am very saddened and yet very hopeful at the present state of affairs of the course most people are on.

Juicing and having other alternative ways of dealing with stress are critical to living a long-healthy life.

I am working on my 6-week course that will be held via tele-conference. Sign up for my free newsletter at http://www.thefruitdoctor.com/ and recieve updates on when those classes will be held....

It's time for CHANGE.....

Day 46: Do it because you WANT to...

So many people when they go on a "diet" think of it as a short-term project and there's a lot of pain and denial associated with the whole process. They count down the days and can't wait to get it over with.

Healthy living is a joyful process. Healthy foods, when they are ripe and organic are delicious.

Processed foods have been designed to be addictive and chemical additives like MSG and Aspartame created a massive flavor hit on the tongue and the brain that cause them to be addictive.

Healthy foods are unbelievably delicious but don't have side effects. I thought it was interesting that they mentioned in "Hungry for Change" that MSG is known for causing weight gain and showed a huge rat that head been fed MSG.

Aside from being delicious, healthy living has fantastic side effects. Even fit athtletes like Lance Armstrong are noticing this. Look at this recent comment he made in an interview in the Huffington Post:

LA: Oh yeah. If we don’t somehow stem the tide of childhood obesity, we’re going to have a huge problem. If you just look at the rates of obesity and where they originate -- it always starts in the southeast [United States], and they eventually, almost like a cancer, kind of grow further to the northeast, and then it stretches out west.

And at the same time, we have this huge segment of our population that’s getting older, and as we know, cancer is a disease of the older population, so at some point these are going to cross, and we’ll be in a place where we can’t keep up with that. It’s all about prevention. I mean, prevention is a key factor with so many types of cancer, so whether that’s encouraging kids to exercise, or even encouraging adults to exercise, whether that’s encouraging kids to not smoke, encouraging kids to stop smoking -- all these preventative measures have, I think, been ignored for the most part.

HPC: Do you have a certain way you approach food?

LA: I didn’t for a long time until about a month ago until I started messing around with this new diet.

HPC: What changed?

LA: I started swimming again, and I swim with a guy [ed's note: former triathlete Rip Esselstyn] who started basically a food program called the Engine 2 Diet, which is a plant-based, 100% natural, organic diet. His dad was a famous cardiologist who did Forks Over Knives, and was President Clinton’s doctor. Clinton has gone to a completely vegan diet and he’s essentially erased his heart disease.

It’s basically whole grains, different types of beans, kale salad with creative alternatives for dressing. They’ll bring out something that looks like a brownie, but it’s not a brownie … though it tastes a bit like a brownie. So I did it for one day, then two days. Then I branched out and started doing it at breakfast and lunch. I still insist that I get to do whatever I want for dinner. But it’s made a significant difference in just in a month.

HPC: What kind of difference?

LA: Energy level. Even when you’re training really hard, it’s normal that you would have certain things for lunch or certain things for breakfast, and then have this dip, or almost like a food coma … I don’t experience that anymore. My energy level has never been this consistent, and not just consistent, but high. I’m a big napper -- I couldn’t even take a nap these days if I wanted to.

The other thing -- I expected to get rid of that dip, but I didn’t expect the mental side of it, and the sharpness and the focus that I’ve noticed. And I was the biggest non-believer, I was like ‘whatever man’, and I’m in. I’m not doing dinners yet, but breakfast and lunch, I’m in.

HPC: Do you think it’s pretty sustainable?

LA: If I were to stay in Austin, it’s very sustainable. It’s harder when you get on the road, of course -- I mean, you walk out that door and breakfast is sitting there. None of that [muffins, croissants, etc.] is on the Engine 2 diet. So it gets harder and harder. But you can even travel with stuff. Breakfast is not hard, you bring your cereal and then you go to the store and buy almond milk, you buy bananas to put on top of it. If you plan, then it’s possible

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/03/29/lance-armstrong-2012_n_1262237.html#s822356&title=He_Drinks_Wine

So there are two things that Lance said that I want to highlight:

1) That the effects in increased energy levels were so dramatic and noticable and so quick (within a month) that he was "IN" and onboard without feeling deprived at all...who wouldn't want more energy??

2) "If you plan, it's possible'. There's the crux of the matter. Aside from the detox and withdrawal, at this point in history (this is changing) there arent' that many healthy choices available always and we MUST PLAN.

Planning for something requires that it be a priority. And that we be organized. Tupperware, shopping ahead, having some "safe" restaurants and grocery stores in mind nearby, google searching for healthier options: all require PLANNING AHEAD....however, when something is a priority and you see the benefits, it's a small price to pay.

Living well is it's own reward with advantages that last a lifetime.

In the end, health is right up there with loving relationships on what truly matters in life. Bank accounts don't, status doesn't, material things don't.

Exercising ensures that you keep your world BIG. The world becomes very small for the elderly and disabled who are not able to enjoy activities that they once regularly participated in and depression and despair quickly set in as they view their increasingly small world with hopelessness.

We CAN rebuild lost health.

Our thoughts become THINGS. Deprivation, hopelessness, failing to plan...all become your future reality.

What garden are you cultivating in your mind for the flowers and fruits of tomorrow?

Day 43: Just Your Example Inspires Others

Day 43 was a cold dark rainy kind of day. Went shopping to stock up on yams and pineapple and the lady at the supermarket saw the 6 pineapples in my cart and said "You must really like pineapple". I said, "I do. I juice them." She raised her eyebrows and said "Really?!?" I said, "Yeah. With sweet potato." More raised eyebrows....

We don't need to preach..our example as we shop, as we eat, as we don't come down with the office cold, as we buy new clothes as our old ones don't fit anymore, as we don't age as fast as our contemporaries and they guess we are way younger than we really are....all speak that what we are doing is WORKING.

I will be making a video soon about all the dietary myths out there. And there are a LOT.

I was working with a man who used to make $150,000 a year selling cattle feed to dairy farmers. At those wages, I asked him how much he thought dairy farmers were making each year. He replied "Oh millions, easily".

At those rates, the agenda's they promote about their products being good for us are called into question.

The number one dietary lie that vegans are living testament to the untruthfulness of it is that we need huge amounts of protein in order to be healthy and to survive.

Change has always been so hard for humans. We are creatures of habits and we have delicate egos. We don't like to be wrong and we don't like to think that we've been misled.

However, vibrant health requires humility and an open mind and willingness to examine what has or has not been working for us.

I couldn't sleep last night so I was up all night online searching through vegan recipes so I can make raw versions of them.

So many nutrients are lost in the cooking process: certain B vitamins and vitamin C are destroyed by light and heat.

Raw plant-based nutrition is so life sustaining...all the phyto-chemicals and nutrients that haven't even been discovered yet.

I just watched "Hungry for Change". That documentary wasn't really about the benefits of being plant-based but rather avoiding High Fructose Corn Syrup and MSG which cause us to gain weight and cause mood disorders.

I really loved the message at the end about loving who we are RIGHT NOW unconditionally and accepting who we are completely. Self-love is the foundation of a healthy diet. We have to have a WHY for eating superior nutrition and what better "why" than we are worth it?

Deep down, eating a processed devitalized diet is a slow form of suicide, a denial of life itself and all the potential inside of us.

Our vulnerability is our best defense and by going raw, we become "raw" in our emotions...I am so grateful for my pioneer friends who have forged this juicing path before me who reassured me that this irritability is indeed normal and does indeed go away....if I just stay the course.

I, too, wanted to chart my journey so that you can know that as a coach, I've been where you are going and have personal experience.

So often we look at the fit and thin and think "oh, that's just genes" or "it's easy for you to eat healthy".

We didn't see their process of getting there and that's why "before and after" photos inspire us so much. We are actually able to SEE with our own eyes that someone went from unhealthy, unfit and fat to slender and glowing with vitality.

Health is earned by daily habits. What we repeatedly do. What we do when we don't want to do it. Day after day after day.

As I forge through this rough spot, there is a spot deep within me that knows what's on the other side...and knows what to do to get there. Emotions are just passing electrical currents...they are not reality. Weather is just passing through...the sun always comes back out again.

As I go through this cleansing, I am reminded of all the trans fats I've put into my body all these years with candy bars, cakes, ice cream, etc, and how much I love my body for working so hard to get that stuff out now that I've started cooperating with it.

Detoxing is such a small price to pay for good health and it is so temporary. We often think "I can't stand it" but we CAN stand it. We are bigger than detox. The infinite wisdom of our bodies ask us to slow down our daily pace so it can direct it's energies towards cleaning house so it can return to it's orginal pristine condition.

We are constantly in the process of becoming. We decide how much of our human potential we realize. We've been set here on earth for a reason and we need to put great fuel into our bodies to fulfill that purpose.

Day 42: Irritability and Toxic Thoughts

So I am heading into the week that brings my juice feast to the 1/2 way mark.

One would expect that as this continues that I would be  feeling  better and better, right?

Well, not exactly. Dr. Max Gerson said that our liver regenerates itself every 6 weeks. My six week mark is this Wednesay and I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but this weekend I was very irritable. Plus it's raining outside when we expected it to be sunny warm weather this weekend.

We tried to go outdoors and enjoy ourselves yesterday and we got our bikes out to go by the river and the first time out my husband's pedal broke. So we went home and fixed it and I said "why don't we give it a second try"?

Well, this time the chain on my bike came off and my bike couldn't get into gear. It eventually fixed itself, but by that time I was so grouchy we just went home.

Irritability is caused by toxins being in the blood stream which irritates our tissues on the way out..

It was a tough weekend to get through, but I am committed so I used some techniques to get through it and am juicing on....

Again, I just wanted to share my journey with you as transparently as possible so that when and if you decide to embark on your own journey, you know to not expect smooth sailing the entire time and can reread my journey and see my break thoughs afterwards and that it's all just temporary...

I also know that my tissues are releasing some old stuff because I've been having some cravings for some cooked foods....

These all are like clouds in the sky passing through....and I let them on their path.

As a fellow juicer remarked "Don't stop juicing until your life changes."

My revised motto is: "Don't stop juicing until the miracle happens."

We go through the grinder and come out the other side a new person: physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally.

There are no foods to numb out the emotions...just breathing and attending to our thoughts and distorted thinking. That's part of the healing process and unless our inner person does not catch up with the new outer person, lasting change does not occur.

Our new outer selves then become an outer reflection of what has happened internally and becomes our new normal, our new set-point.

It takes 30 days to establish a new habit and 90 days to make it automatic....

I have some more exciting news to share with you guys.....but more on that later. :)

Day 40: Are you in Denial About the TRUE State of your Health?

Today is Day 40 of my juice feast: it's official. I am now a middle-aged Juice Feaster. :)

Actually, my "true" middle is in five days...but we all associate 40 with midlife crisis and it's such a nice, mature, round number....

Forty is also about the age that people start noticing health issues. Granted, it's starting earlier and earlier these days, but even those who have been able to skate through life slender and healthy due to genes finally find that their lifestyles start catching up with them. The bulge in the tummy, middle-aged spread, cholesterol and blood pressure going up...diabetes diagnosis, heart attacks, allergies, cancer, etc,. etc.

What's amazing, is the collective denial that this somehow just "came out of the blue" and hit them out of nowhere as if it just suddenly happened.

My mother died at age 61. A week before she died, she was diagnosed with emphysema. She had been smoking since she was a teenager--over 40 years. Her father died from emphysema, her step-mother and husband both had lung cancer and emphysema which killed them, too. And yet, she never quit. I will never forget her words when she found out she had it:

"I don't understand. One week I was fine and then BAM. I was having trouble breathing."

I was thinking, "Mom?!? What do you expect? You think this wasn't growing inside of you all these years??

As a nation, the collective trance that once gripped people about smoking has been broken and it's no longer socially acceptable. Doctors used to be seen in ads promoting cigarettes. Nowadays, no reputable doctor would be caught dead in one of those ads.

And YET. The new collective denial is about FOOD.

"A little bit in moderation won't hurt."

"It's in my genes."

"I need my protein."

"Dairy is one of the four food groups" (while eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's)

We have a massive disconnect between what we put into our mouths and the state of our health or lack thereof. We compare ourselves to our other unhealthy neighbors and don't think we are doing so bad....


Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn has helped heart attack victims with diet and lifestyle changes reverse coronary blockages through using a plant-based low-fat vegan diet.

What's compelling about Dr. Esselstyn's work is his clinical evidence SHOWING the disease reversal though MRI's. One of his colleagues who was a 44 year old doctor had a heart attack and the blood vessel that was blocked was called the "widow maker" because it was in an inoperable area of the body. By using a plant-based diet, he was able to show an actual reversal of the blockage in this particular artery.

What's really compelling, however, it that this type of blockage takes YEARS TO DEVELOP.

That means, that as a 44 year old man, this blockage no doubt started in his 20's if not earlier. Notice what Dr. Esselstyn says to corroborate this in a recent interview: (you can read the whole interview here:

http://healthygirlskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/03/best-interview-ever-interview-with.html#more


Let me ask you a question that we health enthusiasts get asked all the time when we insist on no meat, dairy or oils: How do so many people seem to thrive on conventional diets? You look at athletes, movie stars and so many others whom we know and love who are not obese, who have lovely skin, beautiful figures and handsome builds who live on the conventional diet. How do you account for that?




Our culture worships the young and beautiful. We look at the diets of our sports heroes and movie stars doing commercials for Burger King or Pepsi and we want to emulate them....and yet, Farrah Fawcett died in her early 60's from colon cancer, which is known to be implicated in meat eating, there have been recent reports of some rock stars having heart attacks, and even sports heroes have gone vegan like Mike Tyson.

But even exercise alone will not bring about health. It may bring about fitness, but notice was Dr. Esselstyn has to say about this:

You focus a great deal on the plant-based diet. But what about the other factors of health — exercise, rest, productive activity, emotional poise? Where do they fit into the scheme? Can you do just one without the other?


 I think we need to reframe how we view that "cute" little pudgy toddler or that teenager with acne that may be rail-thin now, but will balloon up to over 200 lbs (I've known a few that that's happened to) by the time they are 30. And giving cookies and candy to a crying child to soothe them. Why not a hug instead? Instead of ice cream trips to Baskin Robbins for entertainment, why not bike rides in the park or trips to the swimming pool?

Going to McDonald's as a teenager or ordering pizza and eating Snickers bars IS THE VERY  LIFESTYLE THAT SETS THE STAGE FOR HEART DISEASE, CANCER, AND DIABETES LATER IN LIFE!!!

Granted, high fructose corn syrup and sugaring drinks like sodas, Starbuck's and candies and chips all play their role. One can still be "vegan" or plant-based and be eating all those foods and not be healthy....

However, we need to come out of the collective denial between cause and effect and connect the dots...

And "just a little bit" DOES hurt. We've got to realize that if something needs to be "consumed in moderation" then it is HARMFUL TO US and shouldn't be consumed at all. By consuming it in moderation, we're just giving the body a chance to heal the damage caused by that substance. Notice what Dr. Esselstyn says about his stance on moderation:

In your talk at YSU, when someone asked whether you were saying that they had to avoid all meat, dairy and oils, I recall you responding with the question, “How close do you want to get to the cliff?” What did you mean by that?

 Well, in other words, let’s take the example of somebody who says they understand that certain foods are going to be harmful. And now the question that they ask is how much of the harmful food can I eat and not have my heart attack until I’m 70 or 80 rather than at 40 or 50, or maybe I will just get a mild amount of erectile dysfunction. Maybe I will just get a small heart attack. Maybe I will get a small stroke. Why would you ever want to knowingly ingest something that you know within minutes may ravage or injure the lining of your artery? It’s those accumulated gifts which eventually lead to things like dementia, stroke, heart attack, erectile dysfunction, and so forth



Why do you campaign so strongly against meat, dairy and oil?






Making fun of being overweight in teenagers is not the issue. Their self-esteem is not even the only issue. The REAL issue should be redefined as: forget their college education for a second, and forget wanting grandchildren:

What are you doing to set them up for a long life and healthy future NOW by emulating positive eating habits and teaching them the importance of exercise??? Because, if they don't have their health, you might be raising your grandchildren some day, or taking care of your sick child again, only this time it will be in the cancer ward or coronary unit.  Or worse, perhaps you may not even be around to take care of them....what legacy will you leave for your child so that they can actually enjoy the fruits of their college education and see their grandchildren grow up?

I've seen parents of today putting soda in their children's baby bottles. It's a regular occurence to take their children to McDonald's to get the "toy" in the Happy Meal or play in the McDonald's play land.

And we can't use "genetics" as an excuse and play fatalistic here. Genes only get an expression if they have the environment to do so:

What about heredity as a determining factor in disease? I am sure you know that many people are convinced that if their mother had a heart attack, or if they have a history of cancer in their family they are doomed to suffer the same fate? Is this true?

 .

There might be a genetic predisposition if you continue to eat the same foods that your parents and grandparents did who have those diseases. But it’s clearly been shown time and again that when you make these types of significant changes, you can modify markedly genetic expression. And this is what is so powerful about the type of plant-based nutrition I advocate. Despite the fact that you may have had all the males in your family dead of heart disease by 55 or 60, once you start eating plant-based and you are not eating any of the building blocks of heart disease or are going to harm your delicate endothelial lining of the artery, you are beyond that. You are not going to have this problem. I mean, this is so vividly shown by the epidemiological geographic studies. For instance, heart disease is virtually nonexistent in the rural Chinese, the Papua Highlanders in New Guinea, Central Africa and the Tarahumara Indians in Northern Mexico. But as soon as they are exposed to Western civilization, they start getting our diseases. There was a magnificent study done by T. Colin Campbell from Cornell, who perhaps is one of America’s most prominent nutritionists. When he did the China Study, he was able to clearly show that in communities and villages in China, just as soon as they begin to Westernize, you begin to see the emergence of Western diseases which they previously did not have there


We can find more creative ideas. Notice what Anne Osborne does for her son Cappi every morning for breakfast:

You can see other fun plates she does for Cappi here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.290207597715606.66226.286791498057216&type=3

The point is: we can make eating healthy and exercise fun and enjoyable. We don't have to let fast food companies and Pepsi commercials define what fun is for us. Make your own memories. Define the course of not only your own life, which by the way, you're staying alive well into your 9th and 10th decade of life healthy is a beautiful gift you can give to your children, but for your progency as well.

Okinawa Japan has shown us it can be done. Eating a mostly plant-based diet with some fish added, they have the longest life expenctancy in the world. The older generation has been known to have a 120-year old mother riding her bike while her 100 year old daugher tends her own garden. Sadly, McDonald's is there, too, and the younger generations are losing this legacy.

This trend can be reversed. Vote with your feet and your dollars and go on Amazon and buy some new vegan recipe books, shop at your local organic farmer's markets and relearn some old bad habits. It's not too late to reverse this trend and you are never too old.

This year give the gift of health to yourself and your family. Because YOU are irreplacable:

I think that exercise is a wonderful bonus and I don’t think anyone would argue with that. But there is no question that food trumps it all. For instance, there was a recent study looking at German marathon runners who were ages 55 to 58 who had run at least two or three marathons the previous year. These are all slender, well-conditioned, well-muscled senior athletes. And when these 100 marathon runners were carefully studied, 90 of them already had evidence of cardiovascular disease despite this brutal exercise schedule. In other words, they were muscularly fit but they obviously had already begun to develop significant cardiovascular disease that was identifiable by this type of testing. So the reason that our book and our program emphasizes nutrition is that even patients who cannot exercise can gain tremendous benefits. I recall several of my patients in our earlier study that previously had strokes in addition to their heart disease. They were unable to exercise, but over the next 20 years in no way were they precluded from enjoying the same wonder benefits of the nutrition changes that they made despite the fact that they were unable to exercise. I have also observed that people who get into a cardiac rehabilitation program involving compulsory exercise and compulsory meditation and then a significant food change, it’s apparent that there seems to be a very high rate of what we call recidivism. People just don’t stick with it. Each of us has within us just so many behavioral modification units, and I want to be sure that, in terms of the outcome, there is the opportunity for maximum health. I want them to emphasize the food aspect because it’s very clear and we can make that message an absolute wonder they can understand and not be obfuscated by saying, “Look, if I take another extra few laps around the track I have entitled myself to a hot fudge sundae.” That just doesn’t play out.

Day 39: Making it through the Tough Spots...

This was my mantra today. Over and over and over again. I was tired. I was hungry. I was frustrated. I am about a week late on my female cycle and I wanted FOOD.

I've been doing about 4 hours a day of walking and coming home late and pushing myself on my PhD studies and other responsibilities and have the regular PMS blues...not really, actually, which is what kept me going and why it's so worth it, but definitely a feeling of "okay, will you START already?!?" lol

Just found out from a friend who did a 5-month juice feast that she lost her period while on her juice cleanse. So I feel better. Nothing to worry about. Maybe I'm actually ON my period right now and don't know it?? Wouldn't that be great?

Being patient is not one of my strong points and this was definitely a dark hour before dawn. A time I want to comfort myself with some old stand-bys but I didn't give in. No sirree. I stood strong and kept on juicing.

I am going to sleep in tomorrow and take it easy. I need a break 'cause I'm mentally burnt out.

I wanted to post this 'cause it's so easy to write about the good stuff. I wanted to be realistic and show you the good, bad and the ugly.

I'm okay and eager to wake up to tomorrow being day 40. Just tired and complaining a bit. :)

That said, I made some sweet potato juice today. MAN, was that good. If you like cooked sweet potatoes, you will love this juice. Tastes like sweet potato pie. And it's really nutritious, too.

I'm almost at the half way mark and then it's all downhill from there. One. Day. At. A. Time.

Oh, and another cool thing  about today: they opened up a new market in town with a huge organic produce section and health food section. Yay. Boise is finally getting some more options. :)

Day 37: Are you depriving Yourself by Eating Healthfully?

John McCabe, a raw food author made this statement recently:

People shouldn’t think about following a healthful diet as a restriction. If anything, an unhealthful diet is restrictive. An unhealthful diet restricts you from experiencing the amazing health you can own by following a healthful diet. In fact, the more healthful your diet, the better and less restrictive your life can be. The healthful diet opens doors, and eliminates restrictions."

When you look at the above photograph, it becomes clear that our everyday choices, one by one, add up until one day they reach critical mass and become our reality. Now, I'm sure the woman on the left didn't realize that that's what she was choosing each time she either smoked or ate unhealthy food, and yet, on some level, I'm sure she knew, but just was in denial that it would happen to HER because it was so far off.....until that day of reckoning came...

We have so many conflicting desires:

We want to fit in and eat what everyone else is eating--not always just because it tastes good, but because we have a desire for connection and don't want to stand out as different.

We want to be healthy and fit, but we also want our houses and cars and lifestyle which requires us to work long hours in jobs that may not support those goals...and we haven't made good health our top priority.

Then there's the seductive food labeling...which is downright misleading and often omits valuable information. Did you realize that a movie theater popcorn contain this many calories?



But, ultimately, at the end of the day, we are creating our lives, one day at a time, one bite at a time and our attitudes become our reality.

Do you have an attitude of deprivation and scarcity when it comes to diet and exercise?

Most people do. When rewatching the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, it was interesting to hear the viewpoints most people have towards their health and diets and how fatalistic they were and how they were unwilling to give up their "comfort" foods.

The process of change is both and art and a science. An art, in that we need to relearn how we view things and see it from a different perspective and a science, in that it's GOOD information that gets us there....

We don't truly know how bad these foods are for us and how good the healthy foods are for us because the true art, or shall I say, CON JOB, has been done by the slick marketers on us since birth and through McDonald's attaching our emotions of security, comfort and feeling nurtured to foods and substances that do anything BUT.

Learning to see the truth requires an act of will and of courage. An act of will since as you can see from the above video, the information isn't always readily available.

An act of courage because you may be the only person on your block who knows this information and is acting on it and you may be viewed as weird by those who haven't seen what you've seen yet.

That's okay. They will see your decision in your new glow, new energy, new slenderness, new youthfulness.

It is encumbant on the rest of us, however, to share what we know with our neighbors and friends because it's the right thing to do; what they are eating is hurting them and their families and causing needless suffering.

Hurt feelings now are nothing compared to the suffering of a child with cancer or a young woman grieving the loss of a mother to breast cancer who won't be able to attend her wedding.

Our life choices in this area make THAT BIG of a difference.

Self-love and self-care mean making these choices for yourself...and also indirectly giving permission for others by seeing your example by making it "cool" to eat fruits and vegetables and sharing with them how to eat them (most people don't know what a persimmon or real fig look like).

Exercising is also something that most people view as a waste of their time. Many would rather go to a dentist.

Sadly, they don't appreciate what they have until it's gone and then they become a burden to family and their world's become very small, indeed.

What is it that you want out of life? What is your life purpose? Why are you here on this earth? Who would grieve your loss if you were gone? Who's lives would be impacted without you in it?

Answering those tough questions brings into clear focus our "why" for finding the inner strength for loving ourselves enough to be our best.

I love being strong and fit. I have planted fruit trees that I would like to see mature. I have four cats that depend on me for their survival and to have a good home and have become quite attached to me. I take an interest in widows and people without their own families and those people would not have my companionship if I were gone.

I am married to a wonderful man of 20 years who grew up with a very sick mother who died young and he deserves a healthy wife.

I have no mother or father or children to take care of me when I get "old" and thus need my health to be vibrant into my vital years....

I need to be a healthy example to those that I come into contact with on a daily basis so they can see it CAN be done and my purpose in touching lives and helping making it better will be realized...

We can change. We do it all the time. Habits and familiarity are good because they bring about stablility and predicability, but we can find new ways of enjoying life that are also good for us.

We can redefine what's "cool" and what's "fun" and we don't have to let the TV or media do it for us. In fact, get off the couch, turn OFF the TV and go outside and plant a garden and live your own life and ride your bike down by the river....with someone you love...

There are thousands of people across the country, in fact, the world, who are not waiting for someone else to live their lives for them, but are creating the kind of lives they want just by setting small goals and reaching out for them one day at a time..

You CAN do this. No matter how many times you may have failed before, THIS time will be different.

Choose life. Choose vibrancy. Choose joy. Find your purpose and go out and SHINE....

Day 36: Broccoli--the best Liver detoxing food

So today is day 36 and I'm down another 2lbs from yesterday. I always carry water weight right before my monthly and then it releases so I reckon that's what's going on.

Today's food I'm focusing on is broccoli. When I started sitting down and looking at the nutritional content of various foods, a few foods kept on cropping up over and over again as nutritional powerhouses: broccoli, cauliflower and romaine lettuce. These three foods had such complete nutrition compared to other foods I realized I needed to start incorporating them regularly into my diet.

But wait, you're the FRUIT Doctor! Why are you recommending so many veggies???

Well, there are vitamins and minerals in greens that you just can't get enough of in just fruits alone. Namely, calcium, B Vitamins, zinc, selenium, Vitamin E as well as Omega 3 essential fatty acids.

Broccoli has a really strong taste and so a little goes a long way. And I've asked the maker of the above video if juicing counts as chewing. I'll let you know what I find out but I would imagine it does.

If anybody has any great broccoli recipes, I'd love to hear them.

Juice on, brave warriors.

Day 35: Iceburg Lettuce--Is it Really Nutritionally Inferior to Darker Greens?

Day 35 and just another day...had a friend e-mail me and ask if romaine lettuce was as nutritious as the other darker leafy greens like kale and such. Heck ya! I make sure I get AT LEAST two heads of romaine in a day because they fill up almost my entire day's requirements of vitmans, minerals and EFA's.

So I got to thinking about the poor reputation of iceburg lettuce. Is it really deserved to be believed that it, too, is "nutritionally inferior" to other "dark" leafy greens just 'cause it's light green?

The short answer is NO.

Why? Well, if you are trying to get in Omega 3 fatty acids which are severely deficient in our diets, iceburg is one of the leafy greens that has a 2 to 1 ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 which is totally opposite of most grains.

Also, it is extremely high in Vitamin E at 1.4 IU's a head, so 2 heads a day gives you 1/5 of your daily recommended allowance which is a very important anti-oxidant to get into our diets to prevent macular degeneration of our eyes and dry skin. Think of iceburg lettuce as skin-beauty food.

It is high in vitamin A: 3790 IU's per head and Vitamin C: 21 grams a head which is 1/3 our RDA--two heads will give you almost 2/3 of your daily recommended quota.

It is also high in B vitamins and as much zinc as romaine lettuce does.

In juices, it has the same mild taste as cucumber. Besides, it's more affordable than many other "exotic" greens.

So, if you have shyed away from this leafy green due to bad rumors as to it's nutritional "inferior-ness" think again. Add this to your juice and get a good dose of your  daily intake of Vitamin E and Panthothenic acid, an important B vitamin for your adrenals which helps for stress,

With that, dear juicers, I leave you with some motivation. It's not always easy keeping on the juicy path. I am available for coaching at http://www.thefruitdoctor.com/ and I have a forum you can join as well at http://thefruitdoctor.ning.com/.

DON'T GIVE UP!!!!

You are chiseling out a work of art in your body:

Day 34: Loving Your Body Enough to Get to Know it...

At day 34 of my juice feast, I woke up to another 3 lb weightloss bringing me to 112lbs about 2 lbs over what I weighed in high school. Looking in the mirror, I am seeing new cuts and contours almost daily. Fun stuff... Did P90X abs, chest and back today and ran 1/2 hour on the treadmill doing high intensity intervals..

The above image I found fascinating. It is a thermography, showing the heat changes in the body during fighting off breast cancer. Breast cancer is associated with the lymphatic system and you can see the lymph glands in the armpits and neck are fighting hard, too.

In addition, it's been said that bras tend to restrict blood flow to the breasts and are associated with increased risk for breast cancer and notice how right underneath the breasts you can see the body is working harder....

The other photo was also posted on Facebook recently and again, I found this fascinating. Notice the fatty deposits in the person's brain on the left? Also notice how the ankle and knee/hip joints are out of alignment because of the stress of carrying the extra weight?

Also notice the enlarged liver and heart and all the fat around the organs in the middle associated with diabetes and heart disease? This my friend is from eating a diet high in High Fructose Corn Syrup and animal foods. This can be reversed if you want to.

I made a video a couple of years ago entitled "What Goes In, Doesn't Always Come Out":

I had gone to an exhibit called "BodyWorlds" where they showed plastinated cadavers body's. It was fascinating to see fatty livers, uterus's with fibroids, lungs of smokers and those who had worked in coal mines...among other things.

I think we are in massive denial about our diets because we can't SEE what's under our "hoods" without being cut open.

It's unfortunate, because just because we can't "see" it doesn't mean that it's not happening...most things that we eventually see, like rust and even young sprouts of seeds we planted in the ground, were growing for some time before it became visible to us.

Same with our health. There are chemical changes going on in our bodies daily. Acne, rashes, boils, discolorations...should all clue us in that all of this type of thing is happening inside as well...

Loving ourselves requires the courage to not only DARE TO SEE...but also the courage to act on that knowledge promptly to reverse the trend and take care of ourselves. Just like you wouldn't look under the hood of your car and see a serious problem and then just shut the hood back down and ignore it because you can't see it anymore, so too, we need to act by eating a healthy diet, juice feasting if necessary and avoid eating all the processed junk that comes in pretty wrappers.

The body on the left of the photo below got that way by eating the foods in the top of the photo above. The body on the right in the photo below got that way by eating the foods in the bottom of the photo above. It is really Simple Math if you think about it. But, we don't do it. Why is that???

Day 33: No Excuses

As we come into Day 33, such a nice repetitive number, I am reminded of a quote that was pasted with this picture on Facebook today:


"The only disability in life is a BAD ATTITUDE".

I'm sure we all have a gazillion excuses why we haven't lived the life of our dreams....

Meet Aimee Mullen. Read her story. Be inspired. And then go BRING IT.

Aimee’s film debut was a starring role in the highly acclaimed film by contemporary artist Matthew Barney, Cremaster 3, first presented in the US at the Guggenheim Museum in 2003. Cremaster 3 is "an astonishing work of creativity," and was lauded by The Guardian as "the first truly great piece of cinema to be made in a fine art context since Dali and Bunuel filmed Un Chien Andalou in 1929. It is one of the most imaginative and brilliant achievements in the history of avant-garde cinema."


Currently starring as Isis, she continues her work with Barney in Ancient Evenings, an adaptation of Norman Mailer’s novel of the same name. Chronicling the seven stages of a soul’s journey from death to rebirth, each chapter, while filmed, will also be accompanied by a one-time only live performance. They recently performed “Khu,” the second chapter, in October 2010 in Detroit.
 

Aimee first received worldwide media attention as an athlete. Born without fibulae in both legs, Aimee's medical prognosis was discouraging; she was told she would never walk, and would likely spend the rest of her life using a wheelchair. In an attempt for an outside chance at independent mobility, doctors amputated both her legs below the knee on her first birthday. The decision paid off. By age two, she had learned to walk on prosthetic legs, and spent her childhood doing the usual athletic activities of her peers: swimming, biking, softball, soccer, and skiing, always alongside “able-bodies” kids.
 

After graduating high school with honors, Aimee was one of three students in the US chosen for a full academic scholarship from the Department of Defense, and at age 17 became the youngest person to hold a top-secret security clearance at the Pentagon. She worked there as an intelligence analyst during her summer breaks.
 

It was at this time that she rediscovered her love of competitive sports. While a dean's list student at the prestigious School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, she set her sights on making the US Team for the 1996 Atlanta Games. She enlisted the expertise of Frank Gagliano, one of the country's most respected track coaches. Through this partnership, she became the first amputee in history, male or female, to compete in the NCAA, doing so on Georgetown's nationally-ranked Division I track team. Outfitted with woven carbon-fiber prostheses that were modeled after the hind legs of a cheetah, she went on to set World Records in the 100 meter, the 200 meter, and the long jump, sparking a frenzy over the radical design of her prototype sprinting legs.
 

After a profile in Life magazine showcased her in the starting blocks at Atlanta, the world took notice. Aimee soon landed a 10-page feature in the inaugural issue of Sports Illustrated for Women, which led to her accepting numerous invitations to speak at international design conferences. This introduction to a discourse relating to aesthetic principles fueled her interest in issues relating to body image, and how fashion advertising impacted societal notions of femininity and beauty. In 1999, Aimee made her runway debut in London at the invitation of one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Alexander McQueen.
 

Walking alongside the supermodels of the world, Aimee's groundbreaking, triumphant turn captured the attention of the fashion media, propelling her onto the magazine covers of ID and Dazed and Confused. After making her mark in such fashion magazine standards as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, W, Glamour, and Elle, she was also named as one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World." In February 2011, she was named as the new Global Brand Ambassador to the world's largest beauty brand L’Oreal Paris, another cultural milestone.
 

An influential voice in today's culture, she is regularly invited to share her ideas at various corporations and global conferences like TED and TEDMED, and she has been named as one of Esquire's "Women We Love," one of Jane magazine's "10 Gutsiest Women," one of Sports Illustrated's "Coolest Girls in Sport," and was celebrated as the "Hottest Muse" in Rolling Stone's annual Hot List. In addition to her professional career, Aimee serves on numerous boards and spends much of her time assisting various non-profit organizations, most notably the Women's Sports Foundation (WSF). After serving as a Trustee for the WSF, founded by Billie Jean King, she was elected as the foundation's President, a position she stewarded from 2007 to 2009. Aimee served for years as Vice-President for J.O.B., the nation's oldest non-profit employment service for persons with disabilities, founded in 1947 by Eleanor Roosevelt, Orin Lehman, and others. She is a founding member of the Leadership Board to SPIRE Institute, the world’s largest and most diverse athletic development center.
 

Already at a young age, Aimee's impact on modern society and her influence on future generations is undeniable. Her likeness has been immortalized in exhibits at institutions such as the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the NCAA Hall of Fame, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Modern, the Track and Field Hall of Fame, and the Women's Museum, where she is honored for her contribution to sport among the "Greatest American Women of the 20th Century."

She resides in New York City.

Day 32: Don't QUIT

So there you have it. At 4 weeks, I am noticing changes. I doubt it will take 8 weeks for other's to notice, but at 8 weeks, I'll let you guys be the judge.

And in 12 weeks, yes, we'll show the world. :)

I brought my juices to work with me and I am getting my energy back. Yes, Michele is getting her mojo back....it's cold and rainy, but I'm getting more sleep than I have been so it's all good.

Mantra of the day: DON'T QUIT.

Day 30: Are You Pursuing Your WEALTH or Your HEALTH??

Okay, I've made it to Day 30...1/3 of the way to go and 60 more days ahead of me. It's actually Day 31 today, but I made this video at 11:30pm last night which is why I look a little tired...

Someone asked why I am doing 90 days. Why did I choose that length. Well, I have Raynaud's which is a condition that affects the extremities where they go either white or navy blue due to the blood vessels spasming which cuts off circulation. It can happen in cold weather or even in warm weather with air conditioning. Just yesterday I got it really bad. We were outside in the cold for about 1 1/2 and it was really painful when the circulation was returning to my fingers in the warm car afterwards so I still have some healing to do even though I've already brought the endometriosis and rosacea under control.

I really believe in the body's ability to heal when we stop injurying it. Dr. John McDougall wrote this fabulous article. It's a little long, but so worth the read:

Let’s Begin with A Colossal Example of Spontaneous Healing

As a medical doctor, I (John McDougall) have had a chance to witness the power of spontaneous (self-generated, arising from a natural inclination) healing thousands of times; but nothing has been more impressive than the recovery that follows massive trauma. During my early training years, working at Queen’s Medical Center in Hawaii, a young man mangled in a motorcycle accident arrived through the emergency room doors one evening. His splintered femur bone stuck through the flesh of his left thigh, a 12-inch long gash across his left forearm was streaming bright red blood, and the skin on his left cheek and forehead had been scraped off during his slide across the pavement only minutes before his arrival. X-rays showed his skull was fractured and many ribs were broken. I thought, “How could he ever survive?” Medical intervention was crucial—his bones were straightened and his wounds cleaned and sewn. However, without his body’s innate abilities to repair this massive damage, all would have been lost.
Moments after his motorcycle accident his body had begun the healing processes. Platelets and blood clotting proteins activated, coagulating his blood and plugging millions of leaking vessels. During the following hours inflammatory cells (commonly called white blood cells) migrated into his open wounds, defending them against infection. Fluids collected within his torn flesh and around the broken bones. The swelling of his thigh, arm, and face would last for weeks. Pain kept him still, preventing movements that could cause further injuries. Soon restoration of the damaged tissues began with the laying down of new structural materials by cells known as fibroblasts in the soft tissues and osteoblasts in the broken bones. Over months replicator cells produced new muscle, skin, bone, and scars, and remodeled his wounds to cause his body to look and function as close to normal as possible.
Within a week he was walking on crutches. Ten days post-accident the stitches were removed from his thigh and arm. The swelling and redness surrounding his wounds took four weeks to fully subside. Six weeks after the accident the coagulated blood (scabs) fell off his face revealing pink skin with new hair follicles filling in his beard. The broken ribs were stable and painless after seven weeks. Three months after this near-death experience he was walking on his own without a limp. Most of the pain was gone, but the memories were fresh. He sold his motorcycle in order to avoid a repeat of this experience.
His transition from broken, bleeding, and dying to health in three months was nothing short of a miracle. I reasoned then, and I know for sure now, that if a body can heal after these kinds of massive injuries, then, given a chance, it can heal from most any illness—even serious chronic illnesses, like heart disease, arthritis, and sometimes cancers, that have plagued my patients for years.

The Secret to Recovery: Stop the Repeated Injuries

The example above was due to a force like a single blast from a sledgehammer; whereas the people I care for, those with chronic disease, can be thought of as suffering from thousands of “micro pinprick” injuries to their arteries, joints, and all other tissues over prolonged periods of time. Even though the force, frequency, and means of impact differ; the mechanisms of repair are still the same, whether the injuries occur once or a million times.

If your health is getting worse it is not because your body is failing you—efforts to heal never stop—not for a moment. The reason for your continued decline is because the damage is ongoing. For disease to progress, injury must outpace healing. Reversing disease is simply a matter of turning this scenario around. To be specific, stop the ongoing injury, which is usually self-induced. (However, there is a point reached where disease is irreversible, because the injury is too severe and/or the body is too worn out to recover. Fortunately, few of my patients are in that much trouble.)

Let’s consider some familiar examples of self-induced injuries and the body’s efforts to heal. A cigarette smoker inhales toxic gaseous particles 20 and more times a day. With each puff, the lungs become more irritated and inflamed. They fight back by coughing and producing mucous in order to remove the poisons. Because of the addictive properties of the tobacco, the injury continues hour after hour, day after day, year after year. Eventually, the some of the red, swollen lung dies and is replaced by non-functioning scar tissues. The result is diminished lung capacity (emphysema). Chronic inflammation can also lay the foundation for lung cancer. Serious lung disease is not inevitable. Many smokers gain wisdom and strength, and are able to quit injuring themselves before the damage is irreversible—the lungs heal and breathing recovers. Toxic damage to the liver by alcohol, and overexposure of the skin to excess sunlight are other everyday examples of chronic injuries due to unwise behaviors. In these cases also, the body responds with efforts to heal, beginning with inflammation. Greater recovery is expected the sooner the repeated injury is stopped.

A Starch-based Diet Supports Spontaneous Healing
Over 75% of the chronic illnesses in developed countries are due to repeated injuries from the fork and spoon. Three and more times a day damaging quantities of fat, protein, cholesterol, and chemicals are ingested at the “dinner table”—better known these days as the “bag of fast food.” The beef, chicken, cheese, refined flours, and sugars are sources of present day malnutrition—excesses and deficiencies of vital nutrients plague these foods.

Replacement with starch corrects the malnutrition with a perfect balance of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, fibers, phytates, and other phytochemicals that support the body’s powers to heal and stay healthy. Rice, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beans are also devoid of injurious substances: dietary cholesterol, harmful (saturated and trans) fats, chemical toxins, allergy-inducing proteins, and much more.

Blood Tests Show Signs of Inflammation
There is much discussion these days in the scientific journals and the lay press about inflammation, foods, and chronic diseases, especially atherosclerosis, arthritis, and cancer. Populations of people who follow starch-based diets with fruits and vegetables show strong evidence of reduced inflammation in their bodies based on blood tests (C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6, E-selectin, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (sICAM-1), and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (sVCAM-1).^1-4 These same people also have much less heart disease, arthritis, and cancer than do populations of people who consume diets high in animal (saturated) fats and trans fats.^5-6 The foods themselves do not directly change these inflammatory markers. The elevations in these blood factors are the body’s response to the injury caused by the foods.

As an example, C-reactive protein (CRP), measured by a blood test, is a very sensitive indicator of inflammation going on anywhere in the body. It is non-specific—in other words, it does not tell you the source of the inflammation—a rise could be from an infection in your toe, arthritis in your knuckles, a bad cold, or the trauma of a motorcycle accident. C-reactive protein provides non-specific information similar to an elevation of the body temperature, called a “fever.” When the walls of your arteries are inflamed during the active phases of atherosclerosis, C-reactive protein rises—predicting a higher future risk of artery failure, commonly known as a heart attack or a stroke.⁷

Spontaneous Healing of Artery Disease

In the case of artery disease, like Robert Cross described above, the meat, poultry, and dairy foods he ate damaged his arteries over six decades. Many mechanisms for these micro pinpricks of injury have been described, including free-radical damage from oxidized fat and cholesterol, attacks from the body’s own antibodies, and poisonings from chemicals, like those from tobacco and the environment.^8-10 The repeated injuries result in sores (think of them as pimples or pustules) covering the inner surfaces of the arteries’ walls. Now that you understand the inflammatory nature of artery disease, you know the reason why a healthier diet, based on plant foods, lowers C-reactive protein levels.^11-13 This diet stops repeated injuries and allows the sores to heal. You also understand why low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets, like the Atkins diet, increase inflammation as indicated by a rise in C-reactive protein (CRP).¹⁴

The life-threatening event (a heart attack or a stroke) occurs when one of these pustules ruptures; causing a blood clot to form—occluding the flow of blood to vital tissues, such as the heart or brain.¹⁵

Common Inflammatory Diseases of ArteriesMacular degeneration Hearing loss Strokes Heart attacks Aneurysms Kidney failure Bowel infarction Degenerative disks Claudication (legs) Gangrene Impotence Other infarctions

　
Spontaneous Healing of Inflammatory Arthritis

Common Autoimmune DiseasesRheumatoid arthritis Lupus Psoriatic arthritis Ankylosing spondylitis Pernicious Anemia Type-1 diabetes Thyroiditis (most hypothyroidism) Vitiligo Ulcerative Colitis Crohn’s Disease Multiple Sclerosis Uveitis Polymyositis Dermatomyositis Scleroderma

　
Spontaneous Healing of Cancer

 Cancers are initiated and promoted by unhealthy components of the high-meat Western diet.¹⁹ Vegetarians are generally much healthier with lower cancer rates than others living in the same communities.²⁰ As discussed, repeated injuries from unhealthy foods are followed by inflammation. Chronic inflammation is implicated in all stages of cancer—initiation, promotion and progression.²¹ The relationship is best seen in chronic inflammatory diseases; including ulcerative colitis, gastritis, pancreatitis, prostatitis, endometriosis, thyroiditis, bronchitis, mastitis (milk ducts), and microbial infections, which are often complicated by cancers in their respective organs.²¹ Many mechanisms for the micro pinprick injuries that initiate and promote cancer have been described, including injuries from radiation, and poisonings from chemicals found in tobacco products and foods. Even though doctors and patients commonly believe otherwise, in the case of cancer the body does not abandon its whole body efforts for spontaneous healing.

Cancers, even when spread throughout the body, can be reversed as seen in the case of Ruth Heidrich. A recent review reported 32 cases of complete remission from metastatic breast cancer.²² Under the microscope, evidence of ongoing spontaneous healing in colonies of breast cancer cells is clearly observed.²³

 Inflammation results in the destruction of these aberrant cells and their replacement with scar tissue. A recent study of women published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that about 22% of mammography-detected invasive breast cancers underwent spontaneous remission—in other words, are healed—over a six-year period of study.²⁴ Advanced prostate, colon, melanoma, brain cancer
(neuroblastoma), and kidney cancer have also been reported to spontaneously disappear without treatment. Precancerous changes in the female uterine cervix and colon polyps also regress. The benefits of a healthy diet were not directly tested during any of these observations. Common sense and available research says that better nourished, healthier people are more likely to be cured by spontaneous healing.²⁵

Reported Spontaneous Regressions (Healing) of Common CancersBreast Prostate Colon Brain Kidney Melanoma

Read more about Ruth Heidrich.“For all my 47 years, I (Ruth Heidrich) thought I was extremely healthy! After all, at that time (1982), I'd been a daily runner for 14 years, had run 3 marathons, and ate what I considered a very healthy diet—lots of chicken, fish, and low-fat dairy. Little did I know there was an insidious cancer growing in my right breast. When it grew to the size of a golf ball, I was rushed into surgery. I was then told it was invasive cancer, and later, that it had spread, not only throughout the whole breast but also involved my bones and one lung. While recovering from the surgery I saw a newspaper item asking for volunteers for a breast cancer/diet research study. I volunteered and was soon convinced that Dr. McDougall was on the right track and left his office on a low-fat vegan diet. Since my diagnosis in 1982, I have completed the Ironman 6 times, run 67 marathons, won over 1000 racing trophies, and been declared "One of the Ten Fittest Women in North America" in 1999. I have a Fitness Age of 32 although chronologically am 74!”

 Read more about Phyllis Heaphy.

“About thirteen years ago, at the age of 46, I (Phyllis Heaphy) began suffering with pain after standing still for long periods of time. Soon thereafter, I began experiencing ‘traveling’ inflammation to various parts of my body: one week it would be in one or two fingers, the next week in one of my wrists, a month later in my shoulder. The turning point was when I spent two days unable to walk—I cried as I tried to make my way across the room. The rheumatologist I visited in September 2000 gave me a diagnosis of mild-to-moderate rheumatoid arthritis (an inflammatory arthritis). It sounded like a death sentence. She prescribed methotrexate, a powerful immune-system-suppressing drug often used to treat cancer. One day I stumbled onto a reference to Dr. McDougall's ultra-low-fat vegan diet for arthritis. The results were nothing short of miraculous: within a few days of eliminating unhealthy foods I became almost (perhaps 90%) pain-free, and I have continued to improve ever since. Today I remain essentially pain-free and on no medication.” Unhealthy foods cause the production antibodies that in turn attack the body’s own tissues. These diseases, where the body attacks itself, are referred to as autoimmune diseases. The process is known as molecular mimicry.¹⁶ In Phyllis’s case micro pinprick injuries resulted in hot, swollen, painful joints, a condition properly referred to as inflammatory arthritis. The problem begins with damage to the inside lining of the intestines forming a “leaky gut.” Now foreign proteins, such as cow-milk proteins, can pass into the blood stream.¹⁷ The body makes antibodies to these “invading milk proteins.” Unfortunately, the attack is not isolated to the cows-milk proteins. Proteins of similar structure are also attacked in the person’s joints, causing inflammation with swelling and crippling pain. Changing to a starch-based diet removes the animal proteins from the intestines immediately, and eventually heals the leaky gut. Inflammation begins to subside in four to seven days. Within four months over 70% of patients with inflammatory arthritis are dramatically improved or cured.¹⁸
　
The Solution to Chronic Disease Is Simple and Easy To Explain
 Stop the repeated injuries. Identifying the sources of these injuries is easy. Unhealthy foods, and “bad habits” (smoking, coffee, alcohol, etc.), have been known since antiquity to be at the root of human maladies. The real challenge is in changing lifelong behaviors. This change begins by telling a simple truth. The Starch Solution takes one giant step forward for health and healing. Expect dramatic results from your new diet. You won’t be disappointed.

So, for me, a juice feast helps "stop the repeated injuries" the best, by allowing the body to get a flood of nutrients from the juices while giving the digestive tract a rest. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, but a lot of people have already gotten fabulous results so far so I am confident.

Here's to the next 60 days!