“… FOR THE TEMPLE OF GOD IS HOLY, WHICH TEMPLE YE ARE.”
— I Corinthians 3:17
“YOU DON’T BECOME A RAW-FOODIST, YOU ALREADY ARE ONE.
YOUR BODY IS DESIGNED TO PROCESS RAW MATERIALS.”
— Raw Aphorism
First, we understand that The Sunfood Diet transforms you in three specific stages, all of which will elevate you to a new understanding of your inner potential:
1. DETOXIFICATION
2. REJUVENATION
3. REFINEMENT
Second, we understand every life process is reversible. It might take from a few months to many years to make the transition back to the most fitting diet for your body, but once we embark on the path, the benefits will be worth the effort.
Third, we must know that we are always in control. Success philosopher Napoleon Hill was well known for his belief that the power of thought is the only thing over which any person has complete, unquestionable control.
Napoleon Hill was wrong. The power of thought is not the only thing which any person has complete, unquestionable control. Any individual has complete and unquestionable control also over their food choices. No one has ever accidentally eaten a meal in their whole life. Now that fact is truly astounding. It means, unequivocally, you may choose to give your body the very highest-quality foods and it will, in turn, give you the very highest-quality performance. Eat the best food ever and experience the best day ever!
What To Eat
The Sunfood Diet is not about restriction, it is about abundance. Eat any kind of raw plant food you like in the quantities you like, keeping in mind the balance outlined in The Sunfood Triangle. Try adding new raw foods into your diet and allow them to crowd out the old food choices naturally. Don’t try — “try” is a lie. Avoid guilt. Allow and flow with what is happening.
The Sunfood Diet requires green-leafed vegetables, sweet fruits and fatty plant foods. But it can contain all kinds of raw plant foods: all fruits, herbs, vegetables of all types, sea vegetables, nuts and seeds, as well as superfoods (cacao beans, goji berries, wolfberries, spirulina, blue-green algae, maca, etc.), all preferentially in their wild state, and secondarily grown at home or organically from heirloom, non-hybrid strains. As a transitional stage The Sunfood Diet incorporates cooked vegetables with a preference for more natural plant varieties. For example, choosing baked sweet potato or yam preferentially over the standard hybrid potato. This program is to be coupled by individually advised short and long fasts on vegetable juices and or water.
Organic Food
Let’s begin the transition with organic food. Organic foods are not sprayed, grown with pesticides or fungicides, or genetically modified. Pesticides and fungicides are chemicals specifically designed to kill living organisms. They should not be used on our pristine lands, put on our foods or fed to our children.
Spend the extra money for organic food, you are worth it. That investment will come back to you multiplied a hundredfold. You will also be supporting the organic farmers and organic food distributors who need our financial assistance.
The famous 12-year Schuphan study tested the nutritional superiority of organically grown foods. Among other things, Schuphan found:
1. Organic foods have far higher mineral and trace mineral contents, with the exception of sodium. Organic produce contains far more iron, potassium, magnesium and calcium than conventional crops. (Most studies of this type demonstrate that organic foods have 2 to 10 times the mineral content of conventional foods — you really do get more value for the money).
2. Organic spinach contained 64-78% more vitamin C.
3. Organic Savoy cabbage contained 76-91% more vitamin C.
4. Organic crops had a dry weight (after dehydration) of 69-96% more than conventional crops, demonstrating a higher food-value content.
In 1993, Bob Smith, a trace minerals laboratory analyst, began a small experiment. For two years he visited stores in Chicago and purchased 4 to 15 samples of both organic and commercial produce. He brought these samples back to his laboratory and tested them for trace elements. His conclusions were as follows:
1. Organically grown wheat had twice the calcium, four times more magnesium, five times more manganese, and thirteen times more selenium than the commercial wheat.
2. Organically grown corn had twenty times more calcium and manganese, and two to five times more copper, magnesium, molybdenum, selenium and zinc.
3. Organically grown potatoes had two or more times the boron, selenium, silicon, strontium and sulfur, and 60% more zinc.
4. Organically grown pears had two to nearly three times more chromium, iodine, manganese, molybdenum, silicon and zinc.
Overall, organically-grown food exceeded commercial-grown crops significantly for twenty of the twenty-two beneficial trace minerals. Organic foods also had lower quantities of toxic trace elements, such as aluminum, lead, and mercury.
Pesticides are poison. According to data gathered from the Internet, the top 10 worst commercial fruits and vegetables based on pounds per acre (lbs./acre) or kilograms per hectare (kg/hectare) of pesticides used are:
Chart: Pesticides
| lbs./acre | kg/hectare | |
| Strawberries | 302 lbs | 340 kg |
| Dates | 140 lbs | 158 kg |
| Carrots | 119 lbs | 134 kg |
| Pears | 112 lbs | 126 kg |
| Cabbage | 102 lbs | 115 kg |
| Lemons | 93 lbs | 105 kg |
| Grapes | 91 lbs | 102 kg |
| Sweet Potatoes | 88 lbs | 99 kg |
| Peaches | 71 lbs | 80 kg |
| Nectarines | 70 lbs | 79 kg |
| The lowest pesticide use was in the following: | ||
| lbs./acre | kg/hectare | |
| Figs | 2 lbs | 2 kg |
| Avocados | 2 lbs | 2 kg |
| Pecan | 3 lbs | 3 kg |
| Garlic | 3 lbs | 3 kg |
Increasing Digestive Strength
The digestive organs act as one big muscle. If you have weak digestion, you can strengthen your digestive capacity by slowly increasing the raw green vegetable juices in your diet over time. If no juicer is available, one may help their digestion along by soaking green-leaves in olive oil for two to three hours before eating them. Chew your food well. One will automatically increase their digestive strength by introducing more and more fresh juices and raw foods at an appropriate pace, allowing the body to adjust.
After about 6 months on raw foods, once the eating disciplines are in place, it is a great idea to do a raw herbal cleanse. These cleanses typically last 2-4 weeks and consist of taking various combinations of healing herbs, clays, and probiotics. A cleanse will help strip out impacted mucus in the digestive tract, thus increasing digestive strength.
Poppy seeds are nature’s primary plant source of zinc. Zinc is a critical mineral for detoxification, transition and maintenance.
In my experience, I have found that drinking freshly-made green vegetable juice increases digestive strength. It supplies the minerals needed to digest the whole food.
Chinese oriental medicine claims that some people do not have enough “fire” in their constitution to thrive on raw foods. Anyone, however, can increase their fire to help digest raw foods — especially easy-to-digest blended foods. The best way to increase the fire in one’s constitution is to Sunbathe. It is my experience that the more direct Sun energy the body receives, the greater is the digestive strength. Other ways to increase the fire in one’s constitution is to practice vigorous exercise, deep breathing and astanga yoga. In yoga we find the “breath of fire,” which entails inhaling passively, exhaling in bursts through the nose as you pull the lower belly in, drawing up from the perineum.
Eating Healthy In Social Situations
What do you do when you go out to eat? Visit family? What about business lunches? Plan ahead. Bring one or two avocados and/or one or two apples with you. Order a salad, and mix the avocados and/or apples in with it. Generally, restaurants do not serve organic food, but we have to do the best we can in each circumstance. I have found that the best approach is to intelligently avoid the situation altogether. Do something different. Business people are tired of doing the “standard business lunch.” Take them to a juice bar or, where possible, a raw-food restaurant. Take them to a park. Without food in the way, you can conduct business quickly and efficiently — this will save you the expense and time in your day. Another idea is to hire a raw-food chef to cater business meetings. Check with your local raw-food restaurants to locate a raw-food chef in your area.
You have the most sophisticated computer in the world between your ears — use it! Leverage your mind to figure out a way to redirect family events and business lunches to fit your dietary health habits.
My experience as a raw-foodist has taught me a wonderful lesson: The way people react to you and your diet has nothing to do with the diet itself, with other people, or with anything else; the way people react has everything to do with what is going on in your own mind! Once your mind is set right, everything else will set right.
People have thousands of preconceived notions about vegetarian diets, but no preconceived ideas about eating raw foods. So you can say it is anything you want. Eating raw fruits and vegetables makes sense to most people, but eating tofu, seitan, or millet does sound strange to the average person.
When your attitude is positive and supportive towards other people and their food choices, they will not feel threatened by you, but will feel uplifted by you. Once we change, everything else changes around us.
Peer Pressure
Imagine if everybody smoked cigarettes and one day someone decided to stop. Imagine also, that as soon as the withdrawal symptoms began all the cigarette experts would get together and accost and attack anyone who did not smoke cigarettes for being nicotine deficient.
You are going to face peer pressure; it is part of the process. All great endeavors have their challenges, or they wouldn’t be great.
When people offer you toxic food, they may be projecting upon you their own lack of information or fears. Let them know why you are making other choices. If they persist with negative behaviors towards you, and make you feel uncomfortable, then you should minimize or eliminate spending time with those people. Use these incidents of negativity to drive you to stay resolute with your own diet and spiritual path.
Eating While Traveling
Cucumbers, nuts, seeds for eating and sprouting, dried fruit, sea salt, spirulina, blue-green algae, cacao beans, goji berries, grass powders for chlorophyll and minerals, as well as all-raw organic superfood powders that combine many of these ingredients, are beneficial to take with you while traveling. You may find that it is easy to be a Sunfoodist while traveling, especially in Europe and Mexico during the summer, because fresh fruit stands are abundant. In tropical countries fresh coconuts become a staple while traveling.
Water is another factor while traveling. Airplane travel dehydrates the body as cabin air is extremely dry. Be sure to bring quality water with you while flying.
I once spoke to a Mormon missionary on the phone who had befriended a raw-foodist as they were both working to spread their message in a third-world country. On the phone, the missionary told me that the raw-foodist was known for cooking his water, instead of his food! The lesson I picked up from this conversation was valuable: if you are in a less-developed country with a questionable water supply, boil your water to kill any parasites, then recharge it by placing pink salt or sea salt, MSM powder, large quartz crystals and fresh lemon juice in the water before drinking it. Water-borne parasites are a primary source of illness in less-developed countries.
Consider packing powdered cayenne with you on your travels. Powdered cayenne has been shown to protect against water-borne amoebic dysentery, a common ailment afflicting travelers in less-developed nations. Powdered cinnamon has also been shown to be very effective.
Eating while traveling requires planning ahead. Leverage your mind. You have built within you the intuitive ability to intelligently set goals and think ahead.
Fresh produce is available just about anywhere on the planet. If unavailable, one has the opportunity to explore wild food options.
How To Eat Raw In The City
Cities typically abound with chemicals and toxins. Because of all the toxicity in the air and water, we need to protect ourselves. I have found that densifying the body with more young coconuts and nuts protects the body from pollution. If we are totally purified on a raw-food diet containing little or no fats, pollution can filter into us (things move from areas of greater concentration to areas of lesser concentration). By eating nuts we provide a dense fat substance which moves into the lymph and thickens our tissues — this protects us. Nut fats (especially from cacao nuts) also provide us with more antioxidants to protect against free radicals formed from city toxins.
I have also found protection in the city by eating significantly more ripe hot peppers. Every city contains ill people who are carrying within them large amounts of toxicity that may be breeding virulent bacteria. City life often brings us into direct physical contact with these people. Hot peppers contain phyto-antibiotics that wipe out harmful bacteria, thus aiding our immune system. Hot peppers may be eaten with avocados or nuts to “cut” their heat. If hot peppers are too strong for you, you might want to add other antibiotic foods, such as garlic, onions or ginger to your diet while in the city.
Of course, Nature’s lung cleansers, the green vegetables should be increased when breathing polluted air. I generally achieve this by drinking more green vegetable juice while staying in big cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Toronto or London.
Eating Food Naturally
Food tastes better when you eat it naturally. The taste is altered when utensils are used. Have you ever eaten juicy, ripe, organic watermelon without a knife, just with your hands? One time my cousin and I decided to eat a ripe organic watermelon (I had grown in my backyard) without using a knife. We waited until it was ripe and soft enough for us to punch into the shell with our fists. Then, under a shiny afternoon Sun, we broke into the melon and began scooping out handful after handful of luscious melon. It was one of the most incredible eating experiences I have ever had. The melon tasted better. The seeds never got in the way, because when a watermelon is eaten naturally, the seeds slip through your fingers. Watermelon seeds only get in the way when the melon is eaten unnaturally with a knife! Those types of insights make life new and wonderful. Try eating a watermelon with your bare hands and see what happens.
Superior Food Combining
Natural hygiene is a philosophy that promotes entirely natural means to heal the body by using properly combined whole plant foods, exercise, Sunshine, and rest. The principles of food combining espoused by natural hygiene in books such as the Diamond’s Fit For Life, and Herbert Shelton’s Food Combining Made Easy work extremely well for the average individual who is new to this diet information. They worked for me when I first applied them. These principles essentially demonstrate that cooked proteins (fish, tofu, etc.) and cooked carbohydrates (potatoes, rice, etc.) should not be eaten together, and that all cooked foods should be eaten with a salad. They also demonstrate the vital point that only one type of concentrated (cooked) food should be eaten at a meal. Also, they suggest fruits should be eaten alone on an empty stomach.
The challenge with the old food combining principles is that they are outdated and much has been learned since they were formulated decades ago. My new guidelines are not strict (but helpful!) — eating should be fun. Below, I have listed my suggestions for superior food combining:
1. If cooked or dehydrated foods are eaten, try to eat only one type per meal and eat them with green vegetables.
2. For beginners, fruit digests best on an empty stomach. One may try eating sweet fruits with green vegetables and/or fats/oils; this is fine as long as no gas/flatulence is created. Sweet fruits may be eaten with light green-leafy vegetables such as lettuce or mint leaves.
3. The following fruits combine well with fat-dominant foods: bananas, apples, dried fruits and alkaline fruits (citrus, figs, papaya, berries). Fat-dominant foods include: avocados, olives or olive oils, nuts, seeds or seed oils, coconuts, durian and raw dairy. Combining sweet fruits and fats will allow the sugar from the sweet fruit to be time-released, providing more long-term energy.
4. If sweet fruits are eaten with cooked or steamed non-starchy vegetables (asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli), the fruit should be eaten first. Combining sweet fruits and non-starchy cooked vegetables may allow the sugar from the sweet fruit to be time-released, again providing more long-term energy; this does not work for everybody. Sweet fruits should otherwise not be mixed with cooked or dehydrated foods due to the potential for fermentation and gas.
5. Initially, if you are very sensitive, stay with one type of sweet fruit at a time. One may eat multiple types of sweet fruit together as the digestive strength increases over weeks, months and years of eating raw plant foods.
6. Green-leafy vegetables of different varieties may be eaten together.
7. Green-leafed vegetables should always be eaten with any cooked starches (bread, pasta, rice, cakes), except for crispy or crunchy starches (corn chips, potato chips, toast, popcorn), which should be eaten with fats (avocados, olives or their oil, young coconut, seed oils, etc.). Crispy or crunchy starch is very coarse and harsh on the soft tissues of the body. Fats soften the abrasive quality of these foods.
8. Foods dehydrated below 120° Fahrenheit are great for transition diets and as raw treats because the enzymes are intact and they provide a bridge away from cooked food. Typical dehydrated foods should be eaten with green-leafy vegetables. Crispy dehydrated foods should be eaten with plant fats. When transitioning onto raw foods, I found benefit in squeezing lemon or lime juice on cooked foods and dehydrated foods. This adds flavor, enzymes, and alkalinity without contributing to fermentation of the food in digestion.
9. Cooked foods and dehydrated foods should not be mixed together as it may cause a clash, fermentation and overall poor digestion. Again, only one concentrated food should be eaten per meal.
10. Plant protein (superfoods) such as hemp protein, goji berries, algae, bee pollen, etc. may be eaten with light green vegetables such as lettuce and celery. They also may combine well with oils and sweet fruits in smoothies. This works as long as they do not produce gas/flatulence. The fiber-bound plant proteins, such as sprouted grain and sprouted legumes, should be eaten with alkaline green vegetables to balance out their acids. These fiber-bound plant proteins typically do not mix well with fats/oils or sweet fruits. Animal proteins (except dairy protein such as whey) also do not mix well with fats/oils or sweet fruits. Animal proteins are recommended to be eaten with green-leafy salads for additional fiber and alkalinity.
11. Initially, stay with one type of fat per meal. Eventually, one may eat multiple types of raw fats together (e.g. avocados with nuts in a salad) as the digestive strength increases over weeks, months and years of eating raw plant foods.
12. Spicy foods, such as hot peppers, garlic, onions, ginger, etc., are not toxic if they are amenable to you. Eat them with fats and/or green vegetables. I can eat ripe red jalapeno peppers one after the other while feeling only a slight heat. (And that is an important point, peppers must be ripe, not green, or they may be allergenic or toxic.)
13. Low-sugar fruits and raw cruciferous vegetables may be eaten together (e.g. okra and cauliflower). Different types of low-sugar fruits may be mixed together (e.g. cucumbers and tomatoes). Different types of cruciferous vegetables (e.g. broccoli and cauliflower) may be mixed together.
14. Low-sugar fruits may be eaten with greens or fats. Low-sugar fruits can be juiced with green vegetables.
15. For purposes of food combining, seaweeds (dulse, nori, kelp) may be treated as green-leafy vegetables; however, they are not a replacement for green-leafy vegetables.
16. Raw fermented foods (e.g. seed cheeses, kim-chi, sauerkraut, etc.), which often appear in accelerated healing diets due to their high enzyme activity, may be eaten with green-leafy vegetables to calm their digestion. Raw fermented foods can combine well with cooked and/or dehydrated crackers.
17. Raw cruciferous vegetables and sprouts are typically more bound up in fiber than other vegetables and may be difficult for some people to digest. For this reason, when eaten with fruit, gas/flatulence commonly arises due to incomplete digestion of both foods. Raw cruciferous vegetables and sprouts may be eaten with green-leafy vegetables and oils. In some people they mix well with avocados and olives.
18. After some time of eating all raw plant foods you may find your digestion will have strengthened to the point where you can combine almost any raw foods together without any adverse reactions. I have even combined watermelon, macadamia nuts, avocados, cucumbers, kale, and tomatoes at the same time without an adverse reaction.
Transition Guidelines
1. Control and direct your thoughts. The more you think about yourself as you could be, rather than as you perceive you are, the more excited you will become about increasing your health. You will begin to see yourself as a radiant being. You will be convinced you can do it. One day you will succeed in performing something you previously thought of as quite impossible to accomplish. You may not even notice this extraordinary deed. But as you keep on performing impossible acts, or as impossible things keep on happening, you become aware that a sort of power is emerging.
2. What you do must be the product of your own conclusions. At some point on this dietary journey, you are going to have to have faith: faith in the restoring power of natural foods; faith in yourself and your own good judgment. No degree of success is possible without some degree of trust in our intuition and the unknown. This is laid out in nearly every spiritual book, including Napoleon Hill’s masterpiece Think And Grow Rich. In fact, he dedicated a whole chapter to faith, and I present you a lesson on this subject as well.
3. Guard your mind against the negative influences of other people. Critically think through free advice. Anything acquired without effort and without cost is generally not helpful. Seek out and listen to those who are getting the results you desire.
4. Transition smoothly away from the meat-based diet as calmly and as quickly as possible. People often first let go of red meat, then pork, then chicken and then fish. This pattern works extremely well. Replace meat with avocados, young coconuts, olives, nuts and seeds. By transitioning from a cooked-meat diet to a vegetarian diet, happier feelings, more vigorous health experiences and positive emotions will arise more often.
5. Transition smoothly away from dairy foods by first letting go of eggs, milk and then cheese. Move to raw organic milk or cheese if you feel it is necessary. One may replace dairy foods with green-leafed vegetables for calcium and avocados, young coconuts, olives, nuts and/or seeds for their excellent raw plant-fat content.
6. Continue to eat a large percentage of raw plant foods throughout your transition. Once you have let go of animal foods and have adopted a vegan diet, then you may find the transition to more and more raw foods easier.
7. The body feels a shake up and discomfort with a sudden change in diet. Counselors who have worked with drug addicts know that it can be dangerous to stop a drug habit too abruptly. The body can be shocked by being deprived of a certain poison, such as cocaine, especially when this drug’s constant use has forced the body to adapt itself to the poison. A drug can actually become a physiological necessity one must wean away from. This same principle holds true with many addictive cooked foods. Transition at your own pace, but continue moving forward. To be successful in anything, you must be willing to step outside of your comfort zone. Push the bounds of your potential. All successful people have this in common. You may realize your comfort zone was never really comfortable! Stabilize at 70% raw, then 80%, then 90%. Try eating a 100% raw plant-food diet if that is possible for you.
If you have never enjoyed the ripe, bursting, antioxidant-rich juice of the pomegranate then certainly one of life’s great pleasures has escaped you.
8. The ultimate diet, weight loss success formula: “Increase raw, decrease cooked.” It works every time.
9. Take massive raw-foods action. Start consistently putting significant amounts of high-quality raw plant foods into your body instead of cooked food. Just get the raw food into your body and everything else follows. Get the old juicer out of the cupboard or invest in a new juicer. Drinking fresh vegetable juice daily (about ½ liter or more) is extremely important in the transition process and beyond. Drink slowly; mix the juice well with your saliva before swallowing. Drinking fresh vegetable juice allows minerals to reach the blood and tissues quickly.
10. Eat wild, home-grown and/or organic food. Organic food is grown without pesticides and other dangerous chemicals, such as chemical fertilizers (see the section on Organic Food above). Organic food also is free of genetic modification. Eating pesticide-free and non-genetically-modified foods are extremely important for all healthy populations to observe into the future.
11. For the ideal digestion and assimilation of fruits, maintain a mono-diet (one fruit at a time) whenever comfortable. If you do eat more than one type of fruit, try to give yourself 30 to 60 minutes between fruit types. Fruits may be combined, but the mono-diet is simplest for digestion. The mono-diet is based on the realization that when you eat any fruit in its original state, its taste changes at some point from pleasant to unpleasant. This means that when the organism has filled its need for that particular food, it no longer wants any more and the taste of the food changes. Pineapple, for example, gives a very strong taste change and can actually burn the mouth if one continues to eat past the signal. This is called an aliesthetic taste change.
12. For ideal digestion and assimilation, eat green-leafy vegetables with raw plant fats and eat raw plant fats with green-leafy vegetables.
13. Chew your food well (50 to 100 chews per mouthful). This is going to take some concentration. An East Indian proverb states: “Chew your food well for the stomach has no teeth.” Another proverb states: “Drink your food, chew your juice.” Remember, the entire premise behind digestion is to turn the food into a liquid so it may be absorbed.
14. Eating seasonal fruits and green-leafed vegetables is Nature’s way of telling you what to eat and when.
15. Eat fruits which contain good, strong, viable seeds. Eat fruits in their perfectly ripe stage. A perfectly ripe jalapeno pepper is red. A perfectly ripe lime is yellow. A perfectly ripe eggplant is yellow.
16. Eat more sweet fruit and/or seeds if you are active. Eat more green-leafy vegetables and/or non-sweet fruits if you are sedentary.
17. Be aware that certain cooked-food cravings present themselves when you are tired (at the end of a long day). Be prepared. Go to sleep early if necessary. Drink a glass of pure water with a twist of fresh lemon. Persist, break the old cycles and soon the desire disappears. Cravings are always temporary.
18. For ideal food use and assimilation: eat only when actual hunger exists. Avoid “emotional” or “boredom” eating.
19. Exercise is the key to metabolizing food. Food is best metabolized when the desire is created for it through movement. Exercise creates a “draw” for nutrients within the blood and lymph systems. To thrive on a raw-food diet, exercise is essential.
20. Digestion is an art. Try eating while standing. When you are sitting, your internal organs are compressed and digestion is hindered. Also, try fully squatting, instead of sitting, during a bowel movement-elimination.
21. Make a practice of eating the foods that agree with you.
22. Food itself is an anchor that accesses different emotional states. To break food addictions, identify which emotional state you are trying to reach and then discover a way to get there without food. Periods of food obsession will pass, just stay the course. Work through emotional addictions to food. You can do it. Ask for help.
23. Have a relative, friend, spouse or lover do The Sunfood Diet with you. Support each other.
24. Get a job, career, or simply volunteer in either the diet, exercise, health or success field! This will challenge you to walk your talk and keep pushing beyond former boundaries. It will bring you in contact with positive, supportive people. Introduce this book to new, positive acquaintances to help them along.
25. Consider donating all the cooked foods, pots, and pans in your home to charity. When you decide to make the “jump,” go to local organic food stores, farmer’s markets, or farms and purchase a massive amount of raw plant food — get a good variety — and let the fun begin.
26. If interested in eating an all-raw diet, I recommend initially experimenting with it on a small scale. First go 100% raw for a day. Then extend that to a week, or a month. Set in advance a specific date and mark each successful day on a calendar. Understand that after you go 100% raw for five to seven months straight, your body will not readily accommodate a return to a previous cooked-food diet because you will be too cleansed, sensitized and purified for your body to handle other foods.
27. What is the method by which your body returns to its natural diet? It is the pain/pleasure principle. As your body becomes more and more in tune with itself, the pain/pleasure principle takes over. Raw plant foods are so pleasurable that other choices disappear!
28. Meet other people excited about eating a raw plant-food diet. Hold regular raw-food potlucks. Place a raw-food potluck notice on the bulletin board of your local natural-foods markets.
29. This book has been designed as a constant source of motivation. My desire is that the intensity of the emotion and the inspiration with which I live my life and which I have put into this book are passed along to you consistently. This book was created for you. Refer to it often. For support, reference my Internet websites (www.thebestdayever.com, www.davidwolfe.com). If you do not have a computer, Internet access is available at any public library.
30. Educate yourself. Saturate your mind (see Lesson 25: Saturation Point). Read, listen to audio recordings, watch DVDs and videos about natural, raw plant-food nutrition. Discuss the idea with others. What you think about comes about.
Cooked Starches
Cooked starches (breads, pastas, cakes, rice, corn chips, potato chips, baked potatoes, popcorn, crackers and cookies) are typically the last cooked foods to go for most people as they transition into raw foods. This is because cooked starch is the most addictive and the most blood-sugar-altering food. LifeFood nutritionist Dr. David Jubb has pointed out that starch does not appear in foods growing wildly, starch develops as foods are domesticated, genetically cross-bred and hybridized (see Lesson 16: Hybrid Food).
A diet heavy in cooked starch over many decades can cause arteriosclerosis (hardening of the blood vessels), ossification of the tissues and joints, skin thickening, and premature aging. As Professor Arnold Ehret pointed out, the reason a cooked-meat eater might live longer than a starch-eating vegetarian is because the first produces less obstructions than the starchy overeater; but the meat-eater’s later diseases are always more dangerous because of the accumulated poisons, pus and uric acid found in the meats.
To help overcome addictions to cooked starch, one can switch to dehydrated starchy foods. Every little discipline adds upon every other. Another useful tool to stay off starches is to combine sweet fruits and fats together in a meal. For example, oranges can be eaten with avocado or apples with nuts. This simulates the gradual sugar release from the breakdown of complex carbohydrates (cooked starch) in digestion.
Dehydrated Food
Dehydrated foods (foods heated below 118° Fahrenheit) are an excellent tool to help succeed with the raw-food approach. Dehydrated foods still have the enzymes intact and my experience has been that they do not dampen the raw-food “high.” However, I rarely eat dehydrated foods (except dehydrated flax crackers) and I imagine they could alter the raw-food “high” if overeaten regularly. Many raw-food recipe books describe how to make dehydrated foods. I recommend Raw Transformation, Rawvolution, I Am Grateful, Raw Food Real World, and RAW: The Uncook Book. There are many other great recipe books on the subject.
Frozen Food
Generally, freezing food destroys anywhere from 30% to 66% of the enzymes in the food. Freezing is not as damaging as cooking. My own experiences and experiments have demonstrated that freezing alters the water and fiber in food and causes slow or constipated digestion if frozen food (even if defrosted) is eaten in excessive quantities. Water expands when frozen. The delicate fibrous structures inside all fruits and vegetables are damaged as water expands during the freezing process.
Some raw plant foods are more tolerant of freezing than others. Durians, for example, tolerate freezing well. Berries are tolerant of the freezing process. Nuts and seeds are also tolerant of freezing temperatures as they possess a rich content of fats and oils and a low content of water.
Overeating
Every Sunfoodist grows through periods of eating large quantities of raw plant foods, especially during the transition and beyond. This is part of overcoming food cravings and releasing emotions. I recommend that you tune in to the aliesthetic taste change, progressively simplify your diet (by living mostly on liquids), face sunken emotions when they come up, and enjoy the process of becoming healthier, happier and more joyful.
My personal feeling is that occasionally overeating raw plant foods is okay. You still get the results and the spiritual connection. A gorilla might eat 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of fruits and vegetables a day! Considering that a gorilla weighs three times as much as the average person, we may deduce that eating ⅓ of a gorilla’s fare would not be overeating. ⅓ of 60 pounds is 20 pounds of fruits and vegetables! Nobody can eat 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of raw fruits and vegetables every single day.
If you overeat one type of food, such as sweet fruit, remember The Sunfood Triangle: balance by eating more fats and green-leafed vegetables. Many new Sunfoodists overeat dried fruit and nuts; this is okay, as long as this behavior is balanced by green-leafed vegetables (see The Sunfood Triangle). Also, it is better to overeat avocados and olives than nuts, as avocados and olives are more digestible.
Something to keep in mind: a raw-foodist once shared a great piece of knowledge when he told me that, “Any food is addictive, if you eat too much of it.” Switch your common foods around occasionally. Also, sometimes skip a meal and just drink water. Drinking water helps to alleviate hunger.
Eating more high-quality mineral-rich food stops us from overeating. This demonstrates that overeating is often caused more by a desire for minerals, and less by the desire for calories.
The best way to overcome the desire for eating is to be so busy striving for and achieving goals that no time is left to eat!
Enjoy your new diet. Once you feel capable, begin experimenting with eating less until you feel comfortable with less food. Refine your diet with time — be patient. The saying goes: “Eat a little, that way, you’ll be around long enough to eat a lot.” Systematic undereating slows the aging process.
When one begins The Sunfood Diet, fermentations may occur which form gas and flatulence in the intestinal tract. This may have several causes which are listed below:
1. When Sunfoods reach plaque encrusted intestines (impacted with mucus and hardened fecal matter), they will not digest properly and fermentation may occur. To alleviate this situation, one should have a series of 5 to 8 colonics conducted by a registered colon hydrotherapist and also undertake an herbal cleanse.
2. Foods are being combined haphazardly in less than ideal combinations. It is best to eat one type of food at a time, and then wait twenty minutes to an hour to consume the next item.
3. Foods that are difficult to digest, such as bean sprouts, wheatberry sprouts, or soaked oats, are eaten in large quantities without being mixed with a sufficiently large quantity of green-leafed vegetables.
4. Overeating apples and pears (or their juices). These foods contain large quantities of pectin and other bowel cleansing compounds that can increase flatulence.
5. Undereating full-spectrum salts (sea salt, rock salt) and/or sodium-residue foods — especially greens (kale, celery, dandelion, spinach). These foods cool the intestines. When the intestines are heated by too much potassium or sulfur-residue foods, flatulence results.
6. A candida overgrowth or another microbial/fungal imbalance of the digestive tract is occurring. This can be overcome by an organic no-sugar, no-starch diet, probiotics containing: acidophilus, bifidus and bulgaricus, supplemental enzymes, more dietary greens, green juices, seeds, seaweeds, superfoods, grapefruit seed extract, olive leaf extract, vitamin C (from powdered berries), MSM powder (1-2 tablespoons per liter of water) and garlic.
If one repeatedly experiences gas and fermentation from eating sweet fruit as a mono-diet, this could be a sign of a candida overgrowth. If this is your situation, please review Lesson 13: How To Use The Sunfood Triangle under the section Eating To Overcome Candida.
Natural healers know that snakebites are dangerous, not only because of the venom, but also due to the fermentation they cause in the tissues. Ice on a snakebite will halt fermentation (and also decrease circulation to slow the spread of the venom). To stop digestive fermentation, place a cool object or icepack on the diaphragm, or get into cold water. Sucking on ice cubes for 15 minutes may also be helpful.
The fabled queen of fruits—The Mangosteen
Better Choices
Choose positive friends over negative relatives.
Choose wine over beer. Most wine is raw. Wine is simply the product of grape fermentation. Beer is brewed (cooked)! An occasional glass of wine does not break or hinder the Sunfood “high.” Beer, however, always snapped the spell for me and I gave that up years ago. Choose organic wine containing no added sulfites. I personally do not consume alcohol anymore.
Choose dandelion over iceberg lettuce. Commercial iceberg lettuce contains relatively little nutrition. Dandelion is a wild food and it contains a full complement of minerals and vitamin C.
Choose yams over potatoes. Potatoes are genetically weak, hybridized foods. Yams are closer to the wild state; they contain far better nutrition.
Choose raw corn over corn chips. Have you ever eaten raw corn? We call it the “raw corn revelation.” Even though it is a hybrid food, a little white sweet corn in the summer time is a beautiful thing. Watch out for genetically modified strains. Even better is to grow sacred, heirloom purple corn at home.
Choose ocean water, seaweed, Himalayan pink salt, or celtic sea salt over table salt. Discover the taste sensation of ocean water or dulse seaweed with lime, tomato and avocado! If any sprinkled salt is to be used, use highly-mineralized pink salt or celtic sea salt.
Choose dried fruit over candy. Dried fruit is filled with natural sugar which the body can recognize. Candy contains refined sugar that the body does not recognize and which acts as a powerful behavioral drug. Eat green-leafy vegetables with or following dried fruit to clean the teeth.
Choose cruelty-free, organic, raw wild honey over conventional orchard honey. Because most farm bees are cruelly treated and have their honey (food) taken away and replaced with sugar-water and antibiotics, I do not recommend conventional orchard honey. I recommend cruelty free, organic, raw wild honey. Problems with bread addiction may find relief by spreading a high quality honey on their bread. The enzymes (amylase in honey) will begin to predigest the bread starch.
Choose raw cacao beans (and raw honey) over cooked chocolate. To conquer addictions to cooked chocolate, replace cooked chocolate with the real thing that all chocolate is made from — cacao beans! I had an encounter once at one of my seminars with a group of women who cheered when they found out they could eat raw chocolate with out guilt, fear or anxiety! (More information on chocolate is found at www.sacredchocolate.com and in my book Naked Chocolate.)
Choose dried prunes over dates. If you feel dates are too sugary or too strong, switch to dried prunes. If dates are eaten, they should be eaten in the fall and winter when they are in season. As far as dried fruit is concerned (while you are in the transition stage), prunes are a better choice than dates.
Choose dried figs over raisins. Raisins are great, if they have seeds. Without seeds they are hybrids (seedless). Dried figs are full of crunchy little seeds that compliment the taste and encourage thorough chewing.
1 Enjoy your food without fear or anxiety. Eat 100% love. As long as you are eating the food and it is entering your body, allow it to be fully enjoyed and metabolized! Eat your food naturally — relax. How relaxed are your face, stomach and hands while you eat?
2 Immediately act upon the transition guidelines outlined in this lesson. How can you adopt the transition principles into your lifestyle today and enjoy the process?
3 Use the Superior Food Combining table from this lesson daily until it becomes embedded in your consciousness. Photocopy the table and post it in your kitchen or dining area.
4 If you are not able to get organic fruits and vegetables, what do you do?
a Ask for organic food at your local store.
b Order organic foods to be delivered by mail to your home (see the Resources section at the end of this book).
c Start your own garden. If you do not have a yard, ask a friend if you can grow a garden in her/his yard.
d Search for local organic growers. Perhaps you can volunteer your services in exchange for food?
e Start your own organic farm!
f Write a letter to your local politicians, newspapers and other media outlets, telling them how you feel about the difficulties of finding non-poisoned food in your area.
g Eat wild foods.
h Plant fruiting plants and trees wherever you legally can and enjoy the harvest each year.
i Consider moving to a better location where higher-quality foods are available.
