Oklahoma Library Held Raw Foods Talk and Buffet Meal

It's great to see raw food events in small towns in the middle of the country!

The Tahlequah, Oklahoma library featured a talk recently about raw foods and many raw dishes, as part of its monthly "Books Sandwiched In" series. Here's an excerpt from what the Tahlequah Daily Press reported about the event, quoting the organizer, George Kilmer:

People also should encourage the produce managers in their grocery stores to stock more organic fruits and vegetables, he said. “It’s not only the health of our bodies, but the health of the planet that’s at stake,” he said. Among the benefits of raw foods is that they contain their natural enzymes. Cooking destroys these enzymes. “They’re little proteins, and proteins are heat sensitive,” he said.

Kilmer plans to organize a local farmer's market next.

Utah's First Raw Foods Restaurant

Kudos to Salt Lake Tribune writer Kathy Stephenson, on a beautiful, inspiring story (Raw Foods: Earth to mouth, March 7, 2007).

I'm delighted to hear that 27-year-old Omar Abou-Ismail left an intense career as a geophysical engineer to become a raw restaurateur! How awesome is that! And to think he started his business with a minuscule $3,000 loan!

Restaurants are known for being very risky businesses, even for experienced restaurateurs, so a big "Bravo!" to Omar!

Here's an excerpt from the article:

John Sroka, of South Jordan, is one of the many regulars at Living Cuisine. He was diagnosed with m yasthenia gravis, a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease that causes weakness, often in the muscles that control eye and eyelid movement, facial expression, chewing, talking and swallowing. "Eating raw foods is the only thing that I've found that helps me with that," said Sroka, as he dined on a falafel salad recently. Sroka said for several months he ate an entirely raw diet. "It seems like a strange thing," he said. "But it's cleansing, energizing and a great way to lose weight because you can eat as much as you want."

We're with Peta That Gore Should Go Vegan for the Environment

PETA's written a letter to Al Gore offering to have a chef teach him how to go vegan, for the environment. This is a fine idea! Peta's timing is right-on! What better a way could there be to draw attention to this topic?

In February 2006, my magazine, www.RawFoodsNewsMagazine.com published an article by a Ph.D. about why switching to a vegan diet does more to prevent global warming than switching to a hybrid car.

Last year I created an online store with t-shirts, totes, caps, bumper stickers, magnets and more saying:

STOP GLOBAL WARMING,

GO VEGAN

(And once Gore goes vegan, he can then discover how wonderful raw vegan is.)

Dean Ornish Explains Why JAMA Dietary Study is Flawed

In a Newsweek online column, M.D. Dean Ornish explains why he disagrees with a new study that compared four diets, including his. Hear, hear!

Here are two excerpts:

1. March 6, 2007 - A study came out today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) claiming that you can lose more weight on an Atkins diet than an Ornish, Zone, or LEARN (Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships and Nutrition) diet and—ta dah!—(drum roll, maestro), it’s even better for your heart! I imagine that a lot of people are going to be saying, “You mean I’ve been eating fruits and vegetables for all these years for nothing when I could have been eating bacon and eggs? What was I thinking!”

2. [In the study of the Ornish diet] There was a direct correlation between how well people adhered to the diet and how much blockage there was in their coronary arteries. There were 2.5 times fewer cardiac events such as heart attacks, and 99 percent of these patients stopped or reversed the progression of their heart disease. These are actual measures of heart disease, not just risk factors such as changes in cholesterol levels. So, for the study that came out today in JAMA to say that the Atkins diet is just as good for your heart as an Ornish diet makes me a little crazy, since they didn’t measure heart disease, only risk factors.

Darryl Hannah's Raw Foods Video

Darryl Hannah has a cool video on her blog about raw foods.

A List of Raw Restaurants

A list of raw restaurants in the US

A Raw Foods Way to Use Gumball Machines

Blanc writes the following:

Thought I'd share this with you all:

For several years I've had a gum-ball container (the kind they sell at those candy stores where they also provide all those many-colored round candies) that I didn't know what to do with, since I don't consume anything which would work well for dispensing through that little opening. I tried nuts, but they don't work so well, either. I finally found something I could use it for: goji berries!

I had bought a large bag and had been snacking on them like crazy. It occurred to me that I could put them in the gumball container and pour a small handfull as I walked by. Kind of amusing to me, but I'm glad I kept the container and could put it to good use.