Fwd: Raw Family Newsletter, March 2006

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Victoria Boutenko <victoria wrote: 22 Mar 2006 21:03:36 -0800"Victoria Boutenko" <victoria<victoriaRaw Family Newsletter, March 2006Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:54:34 -0800 Raw Family Newsletter, March 2006 We dedicated this issue to the health of children In this issue: 1. Raw Family’s Newest Most Favorite Fruit Salad recipe 2. Most Popular Green Smoothie Question of March 3. THE IMPRINTING OF EATING

HABITS By Victoria and Valya Boutenko 4. Cartoon by Victoria 5. HEALTHY PREGNANCIES AND HEALTHY CHILDREN Contributed by Rachel Talley 6. AMAZING TESTIMONIAL RECEIVED IN MARCH 7. Two totally new DVDs focused on healthy harmonious children growing up raw: Please note: Previous issues of the Raw Family Newsletter are now available free of charge on our website: www.rawfamily.com If you have signed up before but are not yet receiving the newsletter, it may be because of your anti-spam program. Every time we send the newsletter out, we receive over 1000 returns due to the anti-spam programs. Make sure we are added to your address book! Raw Family’s

Newest Most Favorite Fruit Salad Place the following ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth: 1 very ripe banana 1/3 teaspoon cinnamon 4 medjool dates (or 2 tablespoons of honey) � cup water Pour the contents of the blender into a large bowl. Chop up the following fruits and mix them together with the blended mixture in the bowl. 3 ripe (crisp) apples 2 pears

2 cups seedless grapes 2 navel oranges (pealed and seeded) 7 strawberries 27 blueberries Serves 1-4 ============================================================ March Most Popular Green Smoothie Question Answered by Victoria: QUESTION: Why do you recommend blending greens and then using jaw exerciser? Wouldn’t it be better just to chew our salads? ANSWER: I became concerned with the lack of chewing a long time before I started to making and promoting green smoothies. My interest in the impacts of insufficient chewing was sparked by a book written by Dr. Weston Price, called, Nutrition and Psychical Degeneration. In his book, Dr. Price described an abrupt change in dental health that occurred about 150 years ago, when processed foods first started to be manufactured commercially and became easily available to the majority of people. He illustrated his points with pictures of brothers and sisters from the same family, who hade vast differences in their jaw appearance and strength of teeth. Children who were born after their mothers started eating processed foods had smaller, weaker jaws. Dr. Price justly connected this condition with the changes in their diets. However, many years later, other researchers discovered that the second biggest reason for forming smaller, weaker jaws was lack of chewing that was caused by eating processed (softened) foods. I would like to point out that just eating two or three salads a day or even two pounds of raw carrots daily does not provide adequate chewing because carrots, as we grow them, are juicy, crunchy and easy to bite into. Compare this to a tough dandelion root, which in texture closely resembles a wild carrot. In addition to this, in our modern lives, we do not have time to chew enough. Wild chimpanzees, (who share 99.4%

of genes with humans) chew for six hours every single day. This is the topic of a book I am currently working on. I have found groundbreaking scientific information that leads to shocking conclusions that lack of chewing causes multiple (not just dental) health problems. In my classes I tell people that they should start chewing whatever they can find handy:

baby teething toys, rubber toys wrapped in safe materials, or anything that will create sufficient resistance for the jaws, comparable to natural fibers. I want to emphasize that our ancestors did not even have knives, graters, forks or grinders. All they had were nails and teeth, which underwent many hours of hard chewing on a regular basis. Let us not overlook the benefits of exercising our jawbone. Just like we exercise our legs by walking or jogging, and we can expect dramatic improvement in our gums and teeth, in a matter of days and weeks by exercising our jaws. About blending greens: As I explained in my book, Green for Life, greens are loaded with many nutrients essential for our health. But in order to absorb these nutrients, every single cell of the leaves has to be ruptured. It is almost impossible to accomplish this by just chewing for many different reasons: many people don’t have their wisdom teeth,

(our molars are primarily designed for this purpose). Others have missing teeth or jaws that are not properly aligned. Yet, others don’t have time or simply undermine the importance of chewing. Dr. Ann Wigmore also knew about this and she insisted that all of her patients consume blended greens. That doesn’t mean that we cannot enjoy solid food any more, like salads or

fruits. I never promote eating only blended foods because I consider that eating whole foods is natural and enjoyable. I rather consider green smoothies to be a valuable addition to any diet, including the raw food diet, because most people do not consume enough greens. According to my research, every one of us needs to consume one to two great big bunches of dark leafy greens per day. Plus, they have to be not “gobbled†but properly chewed to a creamy consistency to ensure complete assimilation. I hope that my comments will eliminate further confusion on this matter.

------------------ �2006 Copyrighted material! Please reference this source when sharing this information: www.rawfamily.com THE IMPRINTING OF

EATING HABITS An excerpt from an up-coming book By Victoria and Valya Boutenko Dear Reader, Have you ever asked yourself any of these question: why do so many people know how to eat better, but still don’t? Why do we make poor food choices even when we are aware of the results improper eating habits will bring? For a long time I have wondered why this paradox

takes place. Being a health researcher, I am often surprised to observe these illogical patterns in my own behavior towards food. Sometimes, I notice my thoughts trying to skew the facts I know to be true and convince me to eat things I later regret eating. For example, I am currently trying not to eat after 6pm. (According to the human biological digestive rhythm, the digestive system dramatically slows down after this time and food remains virtually undigested throughout the night.) I seem to do fine until 6pm. Then, my mind makes multiple attempts at persuading me that, “watermelon is not really food,†or, “a cup of green smoothie is good at anytime,†or that, “a teaspoon of almond butter is so insignificant that my stomach would not even notice.†When I give in to my minds persuasions, and quickly begin regretting that I ate, I always ask myself why this happens. While teaching hundreds of classes about nutrition, it became clear to me that while most people are able to recognize which

foods are healthy and which are not, they do not apply this invaluable knowledge to their own lives. Many of them come to my classes seeking not information but rather motivation to do what they already know will help. Each time I teach a class, I witness how excited my audience becomes by the idea of improving their health through better eating. After each seminar, my students visibly express their commitment to dietary changes by enthusiastically sharing information amongst each other, buying educational books, and telling me how anxious they are to start changing the way they eat. I can see that these people have a genuine desire to improve their diets. However, I also know that the mass majority will return to their habitual eating patterns within a matter of days. I decided to further investigate some possible reasons of this irrational behavior, which I am sure,

is quite familiar to most of us. While conducting research on this matter, I started gathering information concerning the early formation of human behavior and found some astounding facts. Lifelong food

preferences start to develop while a baby is still in the mother’s womb. The strongest pattern for future food preferences is formed during the age of 9 to 18 months. At this time, everything connected with food intake leaves a strong imprint on the child’s brain. Also, the baby is tasting everything with his mouth: toys, shoes, body parts, everything. Simultaneously, the child is memorizing the experiences of his mother and father eating, what they are eating, what they are feeding the baby, their emotional reaction to the baby’s consumption of these foods, while the unsuspecting parents believe that the child does not c comprehend much that is going on. The child is forming food habits for a lifetime. Whatever his first tastes, textures, smells and sights of food are, he will crave them for the rest of his life, especially in moments of distress.

I remember how I was feeding potato chips with cola to my older son while taking pictures of him and being amused at how cute he looked. Had I known that those “cute moments†would compromise his health I would never have done that. As I read more and more literature about human behavior patterns forming in childhood, I began to understand how crucially important it is for parents to pay close attention to the eating habits they are helping their children form. I remember how many long nights I spent next to my children’s cribs in tears, while watching any one of my children suffering from illnesses that were likely to be caused by improper nutrition. Even worse than seeing my children suffering from sickness was feeling completely helpless several years later when they began persistently demanding unhealthy foods. By the time I realized that healthy eating contributed to health, I was unable to change my children’s junky food preferences. It took a long time, and several life-threatening illnesses to correct the patterns that were instilled in

them as babies. I deeply resonate with the feelings one mother shared with me during our correspondence: “Many nights I cry alone asking the universe to unlock the minds of my children and give them the strength, courage and awareness they need to overcome peer pressure and to love their bodies (and every other aspect of their essence and life) through eating and enjoying the right foods their bodies naturally crave.†-E.D. I am sure that many of us who are parents and grandparents can relate to the feelings expressed in this letter. Yet we are the ones who are responsible for our children’s eating habits. If we agree that eating

habits are critical, then we may choose to be prepared and do whatever it takes to influence our children in the best possible way. In Russia we have a proverb: Do the greatest job you can; the poor job will do itself. We need to promote good eating habits with extra special care. For example, I think that every parent should try to introduce fresh fruits and vegetables to their children as much as possible, whether or not they want to be on a raw food diet because billboards, commercials, and movies will certainly do the “poor†job of imprinting the images of junk food into your child’s mind. If you are allergic to fruits, or simply don’t like them, you may still be creative by keeping bowls of fruits on the table at all times, by placing pictures of fruits around the house, and reading books about fruits to your children. However, the strongest positive impression on your child’s brain will be left by him/her watching his/her parents eating fruits, vegetables and other healthy things. Having our children crave grapes and cucumbers will surely aid them in their lives, don’t you think? Cartoon by Victoria: I just can’t understand why my little Johnny doesn’t like veggies… ------------- HEALTHY PREGNANCIES AND HEALTHY CHILDREN by Rachel Talley My name is Rachel Talley. I’m a nutritional herbologist, and am educated about healthy eating.

Currently, I am a doula, studying to be a midwife. I will be licensed in about 6 months. I’m 32 years old, and have four children of my own, ages 9, 7, 6 and 3. I have been on a 100% raw vegan diet for about 3 � years. My family eats roughly 80-90% raw (they sometimes eat steamed veggies). I find it so discouraging to see how many parents don’t know how to feed their children and how many women experience severe complications during pregnancies. The purpose of this article is to inspire mothers to incorporate as many natural, healthy elements into their lives as possible in order to make their pregnancies more harmonious and less painful. I didn’t learn about eating healthier until my third pregnancy. With my first three children I was mostly on the standard American diet. Each time I gained up to 60 pounds. I developed bad edema, preclampsia, and extremely high blood pressure. During my third pregnancy, I began eating plenty of

fresh fruits and vegetables but also ate a lot of meat because I had read that preclampsia was caused by a lack of protein. I gained 50 lbs. My daughter was born and fine, but 4 months after her birth I developed a kidney stone, which was caused by an excess of uric acid caused by an over consumption of meat. By my forth and last pregnancy, I had already studied more about nutrition, and as a result, I cut out all sugar, meat and dairy. I exercised, took great care of myself, and I ate 50-80% raw vegan food. I heard Victoria speak when I was 6 months along in the pregnancy and I was inspired to eat more raw foods. This time I only gained 25-30 lbs. The labor was quick and easy and the least painful of all of four births. I had no hemorrhaging or bleeding, and my forth baby was the smartest, most well behaved infant. I noticed such a dramatic correlation between eating healthy and having an easy pregnancy that I decided to devote my life to sharing my experiences with other women. Out of compassion for other mothers and their children, I have resolved to become a health-oriented midwife. Now that I’ve learned about Victoria’s green smoothie research, I encourage women to drink green smoothies during pregnancy. One woman was planning on a

delivery in the hospital, and I was her doula and nutritional counselor. During her last month all she craved and drank were green smoothies. She did so well, that she called me when she was already very progressed in the labor. Suddenly she felt the urge to push, and I ended up catching the baby! She looked amazing, she felt great, and I honestly have to peg it to the green smoothies. Now I am dealing with a woman who had the beginnings of preclampsia, she had edema (ankle swelling) and high blood pressure. She is due in May. I gave her nutritional counseling, and her ankle swelling went away and her blood pressure stabilized within one week of 100% raw eating and green smoothie drinking. Some women think they have to eat a lot of protein when they’re pregnant and so they eat lots of meat. In addition to myself I know one woman who was eating large amounts of meat and created a kidney stone. I counseled her to eat raw, she began eating more than 80% of raw food with many green smoothies, and passed the stone within 24 hours without having any infection. In the near future, I would like to initiate a study of pregnancies with women who eat raw foods and drink green smoothies to further investigate the fascinating benefits of living foods on the health of mothers and babies. --------------- AMAZING TESTIMONIAL RECEIVED IN MARCH LELAND LOVES GREEN SMOOTHIES Hi, I'm Leland. I live in Montreal and I've been a fruitarian since about 2 years. I'm 11 years old, almost twelve. I say thanks for the green smoothies. I've been drinking mostly kale with some cilantro and baby greens for the last couple of weeks and I really feel better. My sleep has been greatly improved and I jump right out of bed in the morning, ready to do anything. Bye, Leland ---------- Two totally new DVDs focused on healthy harmonious children growing up raw: Breakthrough A Raw Film Documentary produced by Storm Talifero, USA This film aims to show that a raw-vegan lifestyle is not just a diet, not just a new way to live, but a "breakthrough" in the maximizing of human potential!! Storm and Jinjee have four raw

vegan children; the oldest is eight. In the film they share the challenges that they've faced, and the differences that cooked vegan and raw vegan have made in their lives. There is impressive footage of Jinjee during a raw vegan pregnancy, exercising and walking, and ten days after her child was born, with Jinjee healthy, radiant, active and thin... There is an interview with Jinjee discussing her

four pregnancies, both cooked vegan and raw vegan, and how the raw vegan deliveries went much smoother and faster. Running time – 90 minutes Price - $20 Available at www.rawfamily.com beginning March 24th ================================================= Raising Children Raises Us:

A day in the life of one family’s spirited journey. Homeschooling, nutrition, conscious parenting. Instilling purpose and freedom through discipline and creativity. By Shannon Leone, Canada Running time – 90 minutes Price - $20 Available at www.rawfamily.com beginning March 24th ------------------------- If you got on our list by mistake, please send this e-mail back with REMOVE in Subject line. Please specify WHICH email address you would like removed.

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