Is stevia a good sugar replacement? Yes, up to a point. Sugar addicted people must stop and heal before switching to stevia.
Stevia, a plant-extract originally from Central and South America, has been used as a sweetener for several centuries. It has been described alternately as either 30 or 300 times as sweet as sugar. Stevia has slowly gained popularity as an alternative to sugar; it was initially marketed in the US as a dietary supplement, and only recently as a sweetener. Stevia has slowly gained popularity as an alternative to sugar, even though it wasn’t marketed until recently.

One would think a food or drug is either safe or not, right? As of September 2009, the Food and Drug Administration has given support to two stevia products, Truvia and Purevia, for use as a sweetener in sodas and other drinks. What changed the stance of a government organization that used a 1985 study that described stevia as a mutagenic agent in the liver (possibly carcinogenic)?

Apparently, Coca-Cola and other large manufacturers of drinks and sodas have twisted the arms of some regulators, because as more people grasp Sugar Bad, Stevia Good, Big Soda needs to give the people soda that appears healthy in order to keep up sales. Trust a corporation to turn something potentially helpful in moderation into something you still shouldn’t consume.

No soda is safe to drink. The primary culprit after sugar is phosphoric acid. Phosphoric acid is an industrial solvent used to clean toilets and kill insects. Putting the amount of phosphorus from one soda into your body damages the calcium-phosphorus ratio.

Truvia will eventually be stuffed into the rainbow of packets on the table at our favorite eateries. Presently that rainbow includes white (sugar or sucrose), blue (aspartame), pink (saccharin) and yellow (sucralose). For purely aesthetic reasons how about green for Truvia?

However, don’t eat stevia from these Truvia packs because it will be mixed with dextrose or maltodextrin as the first ingredient (largest amount) in each pack, as is the case with the other colors in the bin. These are sugar derivatives that willadulterate whatever is good and useful about stevia. Mixing good things with bad things only ruins the food value of the beneficial.

So, what is so good about stevia that we actually are cautiously optimistic about the eventual release of small bags of pure stevia powder in the supermarket for use in baking, coffee, grapefruit and lemonade? Well, despite the ignominious beginning to stevia as a sweetener, a study that had been described as being “able to classify distilled water as a mutagen”, enough people have used the product now that there are health studies that show benefits for many diseases.

A study published in 2000 gave stevioside (stevia’s active ingredient) to 60 hypertension patients with a placebo group of 49. Results described as significant for reducing blood pressure supplemented similar animal studies.¹

Stevia’s reputed limited effect on blood glucose naturally led to diabetes studies. A Denmark study took blood glucose readings from 12 type-2 diabetes patients before eating stevia or cornstarch with their meals and a couple of hours later. The stevia group showed blood glucose levels at least 18-percent less than the starch group, leading to the possibility that diabetes patients have finally found the sweetener that will allow them to have their sweet cake and eat it, too.²

But after the FDA has spent many years trying to keep stevia out of the U.S. marketplace, we should ask if there are any side effects. A study conducted by the Burdock Group generally supports the safety of stevia, finding no adverse effects in rats at the massive doses such studies use to determine carcinogenic or mutagen properties of foods.³

And so we give stevia qualified support because while almost no information has surfaced to say that this sweetener hurts people, we realize that the weak link in any health plan is the patient. Many of us are unlikely to moderate our consumption of stevia because we just have to have ice cream, chocolate cake, or soda. Too much of a good thing isn’t good. But, on the range of things that are sweet but not named sugar, stevia is a great start.

1 Chan, P, et al “A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study of the Effectiveness and Tolerability of Oral Stevioside in Human Hypertension” Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2000 September; 50(3): 215–220. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2125.2000.00260.x

2 Gregersen S, et al. “Antihyperglycemic Effects of  Stevioside in Type-2 Diabetic Subjects.” Metabolism 2004 Jan;53(1):73-76

3 Williams LD, Burdock GA “Genotoxicity Studies on a High-Purity Rebauside A Preparation.” Food Chem Toxicol. 2009 Aug;47(8):1831-1836

Is Agave Nectar Better Than Sugar?

Is Agave Nectar Good For You?

Is Agave Nectar Safe For Diabetics?

No! Agave Is Not Healthy!

Agave Nectar is highly concentrated fructose.

Now, many readers may believe that since fructose is fruit sugar, it is “healthy sugar”. It isn’t. Refined fructose is no better than refined glucose.

Consuming fructose naturally from whole foods is different from consuming concentrated agave. In its natural state, fructose is part of a whole food which includes enzymes, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. But refined sugars, sugars that have been stripped of their nutrition through processing, are never healthy.

Refined fructose lowers circulating insulin and leptin levels and raises ghrelin levels after the meal. Since leptin and insulin decrease appetite and ghrelin increases appetite, some researchers suspect that eating large amounts of fructose increases the likelihood of weight gain.

Refined fructose puts an enormous strain on the liver. Dr. Meira Field says, “;…the liver goes bananas and stops everything else to metabolize the fructose.”

Large amounts of fructose in the diet rapidly turn into fatty acids, which are stored as fat or released into the bloodstream as triglycerides. These fatty triglycerides are insulin resistant and cause a host of problems. Overwhelming the liver and producing insulin resistant fatty triglycerides is the road to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other diseases.

This is another example of marketing magic. Agave is sold as the healthy alternative to refined sugar. But it is refined sugar. Avoid it like you avoid white table sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Good alternatives for sugar are stevia, raw honey, date sugar, or sugar cane juice. To understand more about sugar, please read Healthy Sugar Alternatives.

He had cancer, 7 lumps on his leg. He also had terrible breath, was overweight, had diarrhea, and he shed like crazy.

I adopted three dogs recently, one from the Fulton County Animal Shelter, and two from an individual who was advised to put one of them down.

Dayton, rescued from the animal shelter, is part pit bull, part Labrador. He is a dog with a lot of spunk and the attention span of a gnat, but he sure is a lot of fun. When I first got him he shed like crazy, had skin diseases, a nasty cough, bloody gums, and the worst doggy breath I have ever had the misfortune to smell.

Molly was severely overweight and had bleeding gums, staff infected skin rashes, ear mites, and just all kinds of parasites everywhere. She was contagious and really nasty. Oh, and of course, she shed like crazy (not just fur either). She is part Husky, German Sheppard, and chow. She’s a quite an obedient dog that has lots of love to share (Too much love! She keeps humping the other dogs! And she’s a female?!?!?!).

Rudy is part Beagle, and Dalmatian, and some kind of pointer (I am told). He is a people pleaser, always wanting to make people happy. He had cancer, 7 lumps on his leg. He also had terrible breath, was overweight (though not as much as Molly), had diarrhea, and (you may have guessed) he shed like crazy.

I put them all on the same diet. I found an organic dry dog food with meat as its main ingredient (no soy, corn, wheat, or animal bi-products). To every bowl of dried food I added an oil supplement 3-6-9 blend, Shillington, Body Balance (you can also make your own, see the recipe here), Total Nutrition Powder (I made my own, but it’s time consuming. You can get it from Dr. Shillington.), a lot of organic garlic powder, Nordic Naturals Cod Liver Oil, systemic enzymes, digestive enzymes, a tablespoon or two of coconut oil, and two raw eggs. I also added garlic, and increased garlic as they got used to it. I’ve read all about how garlic may be bad for dogs (and humans) but not in my experience. None of them were crazy about the dog food at first. The food would sit for hours before they would eat just enough to get rid of their hunger pains. But now, just two months later, they lick every bit of Total Nutrition Powder off the bowl. In fact, you should have seen the look I got today when I didn’t have time to feed them with all the good stuff. They were begging for food and it was getting late and I was so busy, I just poured some dry food in their bowls. They looked at me like I lost my mind. Four hours later the food was still sitting there and they are waiting to be properly fed.

In addition, for the first week, I gave them calcium and magnesium via this trick (used the leftover eggs in their food), Homemade Calcium and Magnesium.

It’s not just the eggs they love (though they do love the eggs). I have fed them with all of the other ingredients when I ran out of eggs and they still ate every bite.

Rudy’s cancer is almost completely gone. There is still one lump. It is much softer and getting smaller every day. It was a major battle to get rid of Molly’s ear mites, but they are gone, too. All of their other ailments are gone. Molly has dropped so much weight (I did restrict her food intake) that she has a lot of loose skin, but it is tightening up and she is vibrant and playful, a far cry from her old lethargic personality.

They shed so much less!!! They all get an itch every now and then, a flea no doubt, but we’ve had no infestations.

Did you know that our digestive system is not so different from a dog? Sure there are some differences, but how many times have you heard “people food is bad for dogs”? No worse than it is for rats, cats, bears, or humans! If people with cancer or any other “incurable” disease ate the exact same diet as my dogs, I bet they would return to health. You’re maybe thinking, “Eating dog food? Gross!” Well, yeah, maybe, but it sure isn’t as gross as the conventional meat you eat from restaurants and grocery stores. THAT’S WHAT’S DISGUSTING!

The man who had Rudy and Molly is of a conventional mind. He was buying them the most expensive dog food the vet had to offer and wondering why he kept having to take them to see the vet. This dog food was nothing but fillers like wheat and soy, along with overly processed diseased meat and meat by-products thrown in. I’m sure the high prices were justified by dumping in every single chemically, artificially produced vitamin and mineral ever printed in a study for dogs.

It wasn’t doing them any good, obviously. But now they are happy, healthy, vibrant, and looking very fit.

Oh, and I’m sure there is probably some law against saying I can cure cancer in a dog. So I won’t say it. Even though Rudy had had one tumor removed and declared malignant and his vet wanted to put him down when the “cancer” returned with a vengeance, we’ll do what we’re forced to do when discussing the human recovery from non-conventional means and say the dog is recovering from what was an obvious misdiagnosis. We know the truth. So does Rudy.

Update: I’ve had a lot more dogs and helped them heal a lot of diseases and then found them new homes. This is very similar to what I feed my dogs nowadays, along with Total Nutrition Formula (purchase here, or make it yourself). I don’t use all the other supplements anymore, but they are below under “recommended Supplements.”

Update: I kept a husky. I don’t have any other dogs and I focus my healing on humans now. She’s very healthy with an amazing coat. I feed her raw free-range beef, a raw egg, and a variety of vegetable scraps, as well as other leftovers from our food like quinoa and brown rice. She gets a pound of beef a day. Every now and then I will throw in total nutrtion. She’s been on this diet for years and she looks amazing. Never a single problem.

Recommended Supplements:

• Oil supplement 3-6-9 blend
• Shillington’s Body Balance
• Shillington’s  Total Nutrition Powder
• Systemic enzymes
• Digestive enzymes

Further Reading:

• Foods, Vitamins, and Herbs that Kill Cancer
• Cure Cancer Naturally
• Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases

As Americans, we have become greatly out of touch with our food sources in the past 50 or so years. There aren’t many of us who have had the experience of eating freshly harvested vegetables we grew on our own.

There are a few books I read that got me thinking about this. One book was Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon. The book is about the couple and their story of eating a 100-mile diet. Nearly everything they ate for an entire year was grown or raised within 100 miles of their home.

One thing they mentioned that stood out to me most was that, on average, our food travels from farm to plate about 1,500 – 2,000 miles. That’s insane.

The other book that got me thinking about food this way was Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. He said Americans spend only about 10% of their annual income on food.

That number seems frighteningly low. Food is what fuels our minds and bodies, yet we are cheap and skimp with what we put into them. People care more about the grade of fuel that they put into their cars than their bodies.

At this point you may be thinking what I just wrote makes sense, but how does one start?

Last spring, I was in the same boat. Then I just decided to start my own organic veggie garden with no experience and few costs. I can hear you now, “I have no space. I don’t have any experience. It’s too expensive.”

To that I say, “neither did I”. Living as I do on the 4th floor of an eight-story apartment building in New York City, it took a bit of creativity to start my urban gardening project. I now have a fire escape gardenand a backyard vegetable garden at my grandmother’s in Brooklyn.

Up until I started these gardens, I had zero experience in gardening, too. I just kind of experimented to see what would happen. You know what happened? I got some fresh homegrown veggies. No degrees. No books read. I just did it.

Now I’m not expecting all of you to start a garden as big as mine, but I am hoping that my success will inspire you to start and grow your organic vegetable garden.

The possibilities of what and where to start are endless. You can start a small veggie or herb garden in your windowsill. Do you have a balcony? Plant out there. Are you feeling a bit more adventurous? Do you have the space? Plant a small garden in your back or front yard.

Wherever you decide to start your garden, there is one thing that you can be sure of: not only will the veggies be fresh, but you will  know exactly from where they came. You’ll also know and appreciate what happened to them while they were being grown.

So starting your own organic vegetable garden is definitely possible and makes sense. What better time to start than right now? It’s the only time you’ve got.

If you are still hesitant to grow your own food but you still want to get more involved in knowing where your food comes from, I’d recommend joining your local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or food co-op. These will help put you in touch with the local farmers and get whatever food-growing questions you have answered by the sources.

So you have decided to make a change in your lifestyle and start growing some or all of your own vegetables and fruit. Some careful planning now will save you money and effort in the future.

Many new gardeners begin in the springtime with a hiss and a roar. They plants lots of seeds and seedlings and enthusiastically set to weeding, hoeing, and digging.

The first time a garden is weeded the sense of achievement is palpable. New gardeners know they are getting more fit and their aching muscles are helping to improve their health. By the third weeding, caring for the garden has become another chore. Many give up. By harvest time, their weed choked beds and tiny harvest convince them they just don’t have a green thumb and perhaps growing food just isn’t for them.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

With a little planning, anyone can enjoy growing at least some of their own food. Planning a garden can be divided into three categories: where, what, and how much.

Where?

For some reason many people seem to find the sight of their vegetables to be less than aesthetically pleasing. We have been conditioned to believe ideal beauty is a “clean” lawn surrounded by geometric beds of perfect flowers, no matter how unproductive and ultimately pointless it is. Too often vegetable beds are stuck up at the end of the yard, away from the house and the water supply. These gardens are usually ignored, infested with weeds, and full of slugs, spiders, and snails.
To make the most out of your garden you need to position it with three things in mind: sun, water, and access.

Plants need at least six hours of sun per day; many types will need more than that. Watch your garden and work out which areas get the most sun. Many houses are built to take advantage of the sun so that the best place for your garden may well be right next to the house. This is ideal as you will then have a close supply of water for your plants. You’ll find weeding is much easier. Just stop and remove a couple of weeds each time you pass by and you won’t even notice the aches and pains. And come harvest time, you will spot the ripe fruits before the birds do.

What?

I grew zucchini in my first year of gardening. I realised about halfway through the summer as the first fruits were coming ripe that no-one else in the family would eat them. The compost pile did very well that year. A little planning would have saved me the wasted effort. Have a look at what vegetables and fruit your family eats regularly. In terms of saving money, it may well be that your favourites will be cheapest in the shops at the same time as you harvest at home. Never mind. Home grown will always taste better.

If you are a complete beginner, start with the easier plants. Carrots, radishes, tomatoes and potatoes do well for many beginners. Of course, it will depend on your climate. If there is a little bit of shade, lettuces and salad greens will probably be good for you. You have to realise, though, that for most of us gardening is not an exact science. You will go through a bit of trial and error before you get things right for your patch. It is probably best to concentrate on doing a few things well at first rather than spreading yourself too thin and growing lots of things poorly. Build your skill set one step at a time.

How Much?

This part of the planning can be further divided into two parts: how much food do I want to grow, and how much time can I spend in the garden? If your lifestyle is frantically busy and you really don’t think that you can commit too much time to your garden, it may be best to grow a few herbs and maybe a tomato plant or two in pots.

I am a firm believer in the nudge form of change when it comes to lifestyles. So, if you are too busy to run a full garden, start small. Those few pots will almost certainly grow into more and more. Gardening is like that—it’s addictive. If you try to make huge changes all at once, you are less likely to succeed. A few herbs and a tomato this year, some salad greens next year to go with them. Make the changes small and you can live with them more easily. Set yourself smart goals for each year.

How much produce you actually grow is a little more complicated. It is likely that you will have at least one crop that does much better than expected and provides quite a surplus of food. Once you have been through every recipe for cooking and preserving and find that you still have some left, it’s time to appreciate the community of gardeners. Give some away to friends and family. The fine flavour of home grown food may wellencourage them to take up growing their own, too. Swap some with other gardeners. Don’t forget to swap your tales of success and failure too. Most gardeners love a good chat over the fence.

Look at your garden. What do you eat? How much can you grow? How much time do you have? Plan for your success.

Further Reading:

• DIY Solutions for the Garden
• How to Start a Vegetable Garden – How to Grow Vegetables
• 5 Natural Pest Remedies for Your Garden
• Medicinal Herb Garden – What To Grow and How To Keep It Growing All Winter
• Ten Great Gardening Tips
• How to Make Your Own Compost Tea

Eating Eden

We are hungry. Not just for calories; it goes much deeper than that. The hunger is for nourishment. We want the satisfaction of eating and assurance that what we’re putting in our mouths is safe, life enhancing, and vital.

We’re scared too—with good reason. There is too much cancer; too many people with heart problems, immunity problems, teeth problems, and weight issues; too many people living into old age without quality of life. We try to keep up with the latest buzz, but it’s no use. There’s always something new. The wonders of olive oil. Soy saves the day. Red wine is good for you. The Atkins’ diet is good for you, and tomato sauce cures prostrate cancer. It’s enough to make anyone go on a wild eating binge.

Food and diet marketers are having a field day with our ignorance. Adding to the confusion, scientists contradict one another every other month. But maybe we’re depending on science a little too much. After all, there are certain things that need no proof.

The truth is, we know how to eat to be nourished, vital, and alive. Imagine conducting an extensive, expensive study to prove what gorillas should eat. Ridiculous isn’t it? They know how to eat: wild and raw. Yes, they know how to eat and so do we. It’s not a diet filled with pizza, Coke, and ice cream.

Is eating a raw vegan diet the latest craze or the original diet? We have all heard about fashion models and movie stars adopting a raw food diet to keep their skin glowing, eyes sparkling, and their bodies svelte, but can it actually be healthy for us in the long run?

Yes. Through my 30 years of experience in helping others transition to a raw vegan diet, not only does eating this way maintain health, eating raw vegan can bring immediate transformation and balance to the tired, overweight, depressed, and ill.

Let’s break this down. RAW= uncooked food. VEGAN= foods that belong to the plant queendom. So basically you are eating things that grow on trees, stems, vines, bushes, and the ground in their raw, original, unadulterated state.

Here are the facts: cooked food is dead. When food is heated above 118 degrees, the enzymes die. Food enzymes are important little machines that break down food into its finest components so it can be metabolized and used by our systems. When enzymes are no longer viable in our foods, the body has to work much harder to process meals. This is why folks feel sleepy after lunch and often get that mid-afternoon slump that only a candy bar (or granola bar) and a cup of Joe will combat. Sound familiar?

Vitamins are fertilizers for our cells, organs, and brain. Eating a diet of primarily cooked, micro-waved, processed, packaged, and canned foods leaves us deficient in these vital substances, paving the way for compromised systems, foggy minds, depressed attitudes, and the slow slippery slope of degenerative disease.
Most folks expect a downward health spiral as they age. This expectation is completely and utterly avoidable if eating a “living” diet.

The Garden of Eating

Raw veganism is the diet of the Garden of Eden. The plants and seeds were given as our food and as far as I know, Adam and Eve were not slaving over some hot coals. It was paradise right? They just plucked the food from where it grew and were supremely nourished.

Wild and Original

All wild animals eat a raw diet. They eat unpackaged, unprocessed, uncooked food. When we look at our domestic pets, most are eating canned or packaged food exclusively. Many of them are suffering from the same diseases humans do—they are lethargic, overweight, arthritic, and suffering from tumors and cancer.
Our original diet was raw. We are designed to eat that way.

The foods available to prehistoric human foragers grew naturally, without cultivation, and included nuts, leafy vegetables, beans, fruits, flowers, gums, fungi, stems, and other similar items. These have been primate staples for tens of millions of years.

Humans share more than 98 percent of their genetic material with one particular primate…the Bonobos.

Bonobos are small apes. Like humans, they have individual facial characteristics, reach sexual maturity around 12-13 years old and are know to live well past 40 years. (They also “French kiss”, the only ape known to do so) The bonobo has a brain that is large both in absolute terms as well as relative to its body size. It does well on problem-solving tasks in laboratory settings and has also shown the ability to engage in symbolic communication. Tool use in the wild has not been observed, but captives have been reported to construct ropes to swing from; to wipe themselves with leaves; and to use sticks to probe, rake, and even pole-vault over water!!!

They live peacefully in forest communities. There are many striking similarities to humans, except for the “peaceful” part.

Fruits make up the majority of the bonobo’s diet, but they also enjoy leaves, pith, flowers, bark, seeds, honey, and fungi as well as small invertebrates such as worms and caterpillars. The main feeding activity, in the morning, is usually concentrated on fruits.

If our closest cousin in DNA eats primarily raw vegan, shouldn’t we? If you consider the human digestive tract, we are specifically designed for fruits, veggies, nuts, and grains.

The human digestive tract is so long that if it were stretched vertically to its capacity, it would measure an astounding 30 feet in length (about the width of a tennis court), more than 5 times the length of an average adult. A dog’s digestive tract is only half as long compared to its body length.

Human digestion begins in the mouth with thorough chewing, mixing with digestive juices (saliva). We have broad teeth with which to do this.

Carnivores on the other hand have sharp “canine’ teeth to tear their food. They gulp it down without much chewing. Because their digestive tracts are much shorter, the meat stays in their body for less time.

Because our digestive tracts are so long, (for better nutrient absorption) complete elimination can take many days. When you put partially chewed meat (WHO chews 30 times until it’s slurry?) in a hot environment for many many hours/days…. it ferments, rots, and well, stinks! Our bodies become cesspools. Disease follows.

Living Food

When we eat raw, the food is screaming with available nutrients and that nebulous, forgotten ingredient “energy”. Living foods simply have more energy. The yogis call this prana or life force. This energy is sun energy. Through the miracle of photosynthesis, plants transfer the life-giving power of the sun to us through their green blood, chlorophyll, and phyto-nutrients.

The more life force we put into our bodies, the more vibrant we are. Fresh picked organic apple? High in prana. Packaged energy bar of questionable age? Low prana. It’s quite simple. When we eat cooked, processed, and packaged food, the prana is severely diminished and we suffer. Over a period of time, the body becomes diseased. “We are what we eat” is a true statement.

Pleasure Tax

When you put a sprout into the ground, in time, you get a plant. When you put cooked food into the ground, you get a moldy mess. This is what happens in our bodies. I know this from personal experience.

I have basically eaten raw since the 70s. Sometimes I eat cooked foods, when I am out with friends or at a dinner party. When I stray, I pay. My body reacts immediately. I call this the “pleasure tax”. I pay with gas, stinky armpits, pimples, headaches, lethargy, PMS, and tightened joints. Many folks are so gunked up they no longer notice their body’s responses to foods and just chalk it up to “normal” aches and pains and problems.

Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine said “let food be thy medicine. Simple words, profound truth.

Let us also address the environmental impact and waste created by a conventional American diet. One pound of meat requires 2500 gallons of water to produce, while a pound of beans requires 25 gals. Large swaths of rainforest are cut down to graze cows. Since rainforest soil is notoriously shallow and poor, these “pastures” lose their vitality in a few years and are left fallow, while new swaths are destroyed. This is not the best use of the “lungs of the planet”. Some predict the Amazon will turn to savanna if this frightening trend continues.

Eating raw and un-package reduces kitchen waste to a minimum. I take out my kitchen garbage once/twice a month. We compost all of our food scraps and have practically zero packaging. I use minimum energy in creating my meals: no fuel for cooking, a few seconds using the blender or the food processor Eating raw vegan truly is the green diet.

A good way to hop on the raw path is to add more raw to your diet. Breakfast is simple, do like the bonobos and eat fruit.
Loaded with moisture, nutrients, fiber and natural sugars, it’s a great refreshing energetic food to begin the day. Choose a variety of fresh fruits in season, add a banana and a little water and whirl in the blender. No powders or dairy needed for the best smoothie ever!

A massive salad for lunch with avocado, deep green leafy veggies, tomatoes, carrots and olives…with a simple dressing of olive oil and lemon juice will stick with you through the afternoon without the 3pm slump. Snacks can be almonds, seeds, fruit. Eat a normal dinner and you are at 66% raw! This is a great way to start.

Experiment with all raw days or weekends. Notice how you feel. Most lose unwanted weight effortlessly, sleep better, digest better, eliminate better, and think better. Raw food is simple.

Make food choices as if your life depended on it. It does.

“Variety is the very spice of life,” wrote William Cowper. And certainly, ever since the spice wars launched numerous ships in search of these valuable commodities, our appetite for them has never ceased.

It was the search for spice that led to the voyages of Marco Polo, Vasco De Gamma, and Columbus. From the Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Ottomans, and Elizabethan England to modern day, the heady scents and aromas of spices have been associated with mystery, sensuality, aphrodisiacs, panaceas, wealth and luxury, the exotic, and the unknown.

The reason for the high demand of spices such as nutmeg, cloves, mace, and cinnamon was the belief that they provided protection against many ailments, including the plague. Now science has proven there is some truth to the healing powers of spices.

Black Pepper

Black Pepper helps the stomach produce hydrochloric acid to aid in digestion. It can also help to reduce flatulence by diminishing the amount of gas in the intestinal tract. It is a good source of antioxidants. Piperine, in black pepper, has been shown to help fight cancer in recent studies published in the journal, Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

Cloves

Cloves have long been known for their anesthetic qualities and have been used by many dentists for toothache. Clove oil is also found in many sore throat sprays. It has excellent anti-inflammatory properties in the form of eugenol, the main component in cloves. Eugenol has been studied for its effect on joint inflammation, digestive tract cancers, and prevents damage from toxic environmental pollutants. Cloves contain a variety of flavenoids that make it a good antioxidant and antibacterial.

Nutmeg

Nutmeg contains many essential oils with a host of health benefits; it is used as an anti-fungal, anti-depressant, and anti-oxidant. It helps aid digestion and relieves gas. It is rich in B-complex vitamins and flavenoids and is also claimed to have aphrodisiac properties.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon has unique healing abilities found in its essential oils. Cinnamaldehyde helps with anti-clotting of the blood by inhibiting the release of arachidonic acid, an inflammatory fatty acid. It has anti-microbial properties, which help to stop the growth of bacteria and fungi, including Candida. A study published in the International Journal of Food Microbiologyshowed that the addition of a few drops of cinnamon essential oil to 100ml of refrigerated carrot broth inhibited the growth of some food borne pathogens for 60 days.

Cinnamon is good for controlling blood sugar as it slows the rate at which the stomach empties after meals. There are compounds in cinnamon that stimulate insulin receptors and inhibit an enzyme that inactivates them, which can help type 2 diabetes sufferers with their ability to respond to insulin. Diabetes Care published an article in which tests have shown daily ingestion of cinnamon can reduce blood sugar levels by 20-30% depending on the quantity taken. As an antioxidant, it is more powerful than other spices, with the exception of mint (not that mint is a spice).

Cinnamon has been shown in numerous tests to improve brain function and cognitive processes. This applies even to just smelling cinnamon or chewing cinnamon gum.

Known for its warming properties, one of the best known natural preventions of colds and flu is a mixture hot water, ginger, cinnamon, and lemon—found in some of the oldest recordings of Chinese medicine, nearly 4000 yrs old.

Allspice

Known to be an anti-inflammatory, it is warming and soothing and has anti-flatulent properties. As with black pepper, it increases digestion by stimulating gastro-intestinal secretions. It is also an antiseptic and has anesthetic properties. The outer coating of the berries is the most beneficial.

Turmeric

Arguably the best, but probably one of the least used spices. There really is no end to the benefits of turmeric, mainly due to the effects of curcumin (the pigment that gives turmeric its bright yellow colour), which is proving to be “medicinal gold.” Chinese and Indian medicines have long used turmeric to alleviate a host of ailments including flatulence, jaundice, menstrual difficulties, hemorrhages, toothache, chest pain, and colic. It has been shown to be as effective an anti-inflammatory as hydrocortisone, phenylbutazone, and Motrin. Unlike these drugs, it has no toxic effects such as ulcers, decreased white blood cell count, and intestinal bleeding. In rheumatoid arthritis sufferers it has shown to help with easing morning stiffness, lengthened walking time, and reducing joint swelling.

Curcumin, along with piperine in pepper, has been shown to help fight cancer, as noted in a recent article in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. Frequent use of turmeric has been show to lower rates of breast, prostate, lung and colon cancer. When combined with onions, it is particularly effective against colon cancer. When taken with vegetables of the brassica family (cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, sprouts, kale, and turnips), it is effective against prostate cancer. In India, prostate cancer is rare amongst men. This has been attributed to a diet rich in brassicas and turmeric. Studies by Prof. Moolky Nagabhushan from Loyola University Medical Centre in Chicago have shown that curcumin can help mitigate factors that contribute to leukemia in children.

Curcumin improves liver function by helping produce detoxifying enzymes. Again, due to the high levels of turmeric use, elderly Indians have very low rates of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. Experimental research has shown that curcumin does slow Alzheimer’s in mice and also suggests that it may block the progression of multiple sclerosis.

The medieval and old wives tales of  yesteryear may not have been too far from the truth. Spices really are beneficial against a wide variety of ailments. Moreover, they have a psychological effect—the wonderful tastes, scents, and aromas stimulate memories.

Buying, Storing, and Using Spices

When buying and storing spices, stick to small quantities and use them quickly, within a month or two. They lose their flavor and colour fairly quickly, so keep them in airtight jars and store them in a cool dark place. Use them to scent your home by adding a few drops of essential oil, like cinnamon, to an oil burner. Or try taping a vanilla pod to the back of a radiator. As it warms up, it will give off a wonderful smell. When having a barbeque, burn some rosemary twigs. Or take an old trick from open plan restaurant kitchens and scorch some rosemary or thyme twigs for a bright fresh scent.