Garlic

The following is from HLifeMedia.com, October 12, 2010

Garlic has significant potential for preventing cardiomyopathy, a form of heart disease that is a leading cause of death in people with diabetes, scientists say. According to the study, garlic oil has potent antioxidant properties, with 20 substances that may contribute to improved heart health. The researchers noted that this is especially significant for people with diabetes, who have at least twice the risk of death from heart disease as others, with heart disease accounting for 80% of all diabetes-related deaths, and who are especially vulnerable to diabetic cardiomyopathy, a condition that inflames and weakens the heart’s muscle tissue. The study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Day Five

Sunday was hard because I was at home alone most of the day with pretty much nothing to do. Not because I was hungry; I wasn't. I was just bored. I kept pacing and wanting to make a recipe; but I didn't. So I read a lot, and started some beans on their sprouting adventure. They should be ready in a couple of days... but it didn't register that they were mixed beans until after I started them soaking, so they technically won't be mono-mealing, but hey, sprouts is sprouts, no?

I started the day with sole, as usual, and then I had some Wheat Grass Juice. I have been growing wheat grass in my window, but it wasn't tall enough; I think it is not warm enough yet for it to really grow well. But I cut the whole tray and put it through my new Hurom juicer. Then I put the pulp through again. Then I tasted it. Bleccch! I'm just not used to that much GREEN! So I juiced an apple to mix with it. That was actually quite good. Just not mono-mealing... But I got lots of clorophyll, and I know how good that is for my bod. A while later I had some raisins that I had dehydrated myself. They were big, fat, juicy grapes, and it took 48 hours to dehydrate them, and some of them were still quite juicy. By 11:00 I was ready for some strawberries, and at 1:00 I had some more green leaf lettuce. At 2:30 I finished that jicama, and went off to church. When I returned, I had a zucchini and finished off the day with an avocado. Oh, yeah, and the scale was down another 1.75 pounds. Yesssss!

Now, I know that a lot of people actually LIKE straight wheat grass juice, so it just might be that I will come to like it as well. I will definitely keep it up.

So now, it is Monday, and after stretching a bit, and drinking my sole, I put some red grapes through the juicer, and had a most delicious grape juice to start my day. Later I had a half a cantaloupe -- my first for the season -- I love melons. And we need to be sure to eat melons alone. Of all the fruits, they go through the stomach lickety-split, so you don't want to mix it with other things or they will just hold up the process. At 10:00 I had some really yummy blackberries, and at noon some Romaine. Do you know how to make Love Salad? "Lettuce Alone!" HaHa! I am really getting used to that, and enjoying it. 2:00 a tomato, 4:00 a cuke; and at 6 an avocado.

I am really happy with this; I have been cleansing even more than before. If I feel hungry between snacks, I drink distilled water. Oftentimes dehydration can make us feel hungry, when we are actually thirsty. Try that sometime; when you know you have eaten enough, realize that those hunger pangs might just be thirst, and have a glass or two of filtered water. I bet you will be surprised at the results.

Okey-dokey; that's all for today. I'll be back tomorrow...

Day Three

Third day: Awoke with the slightest hint of a headache, but didn't do anything; it went away after I started to move around. I had released two pounds since yesterday morning. [BIG Grin]

As usual, I started the day with stretching exercises, then had a glass of sole. That's pronounced "solay" and it means "sea" because it is salty water, like the sea. Our adult bodies are approximately 70% salty water; the earth is 70% sea water.

So on to breakfast: I had the three remaining ripe bananas -- they were spotted like an ocelot, but still firm and sweet and very good; then some grapes. After that an apple, then a tomato. In a few minutes I will be having a cucumber, then some green leaf lettuce, 1 cup of diced jicama (it was a big one, and I need to eat it, and it still tastes good to me). After that I will have a couple of carrots and an avocado. That seems to me like a lot of food during the day, but I am definitely not stuffing myself, and I am feeling great!

More Monday; have a great weekend.

Peas and Hominy,
Donna

21 days of Mono-Meals

So... Yesterday I started on 21-days of mono-meals. It is explained here. I have been vegan for about three years, now, and mostly raw for most of that. I have released 70 pounds and have made great improvements in my health. But when I saw this, I thought I could improve more, at least for three weeks. So I took the plunge, and decided to do it.

I can see that it will not be particularly easy, at least not at first. For one thing, I am a saltaholic. But I know I can make improvements there, if I try. Secondly, I do have to prepare food for others from time to time, and will be sorely tempted to partake of those things, too. On the other hand, I can just eat the same thing one at a time, rather than mixed, and still be ok. However, I know that I am going to really enjoy being able to taste the food in its pure, unadulterated state, which most of us have not done for a very long time. I am looking forward to the adventure...

Now, I usually start my day with a lemon-ginger blast and a green smoothie, however, those are not mono-meals, so I will have to forego them for these three weeks, and get back to it when this is done. I think I will really miss them.

So yesterday, I started with sole. Then I had a couple of ripe bananas. They tasted really good to me. I took a gallon of water to work with me, so I could stay hydrated throughout the day, but with all the fruit I planned to eat, I probably would not need that much. At noon I had a couple of large organic Delicious apples. I usually salt my apples -- yeah, I know -- but I did not, and you know, they really were Delicious. Later I had some tomatoes, after that, some lettuce -- now that was strange without anything else, and without dressing, but it was oddly tasty. I think I could get used to it. A bit later I had some cubed jicama, and that was so crispy, juicy and sweet, I couldn't imagine eating it any other way... After a while I had an avocado, and lastly, some almonds that I had soaked and dehydrated. I really ate an enormous amount of food, but come this morning, I had released 3/4 pound. :-)

You may notice that I started with fruit and worked toward more heavy things throughout the day. That is because fruit goes through the digestive system very quickly, and heavier things take longer. So if you put the heavier things in first, they block the way of the lighter things, and can cause gas and bloating. That would not be fun.

So it was a good day food-wise. I did have a headache this morning; I think it might have been a cleansing effect. So I had 1/8 tsp of cayenne in a glass of distilled water, and the headache was gone in just a few minutes.

Today, I packed a little less food -- I thought that with the avocado and the nuts, I was getting a bit too much fat. So again, after four minutes of stretching exercises, I started with sole, and a couple of bananas. For lunch some juicy grapes, and then some blueberries. I tried to leave about an hour between each snack to allow time for what I ate to get out of my stomach before eating again. Then some Romaine, and I again found it quite yummy all by itself. I am about to have some tomatoes, and later I will have more jicama and another avocado. That will do it for today, and I am totally not hungry nor do I feel deprived, and I have plenty of energy.

I am feeling great on this, the second day of mono-mealing.

More tomorrow...

I am really proud of my children.

They are making significant changes in their dietary choices... Giving up diet sodas, choosing more fruits and vegetables, and actually releasing the extra pounds they have been carrying for a long time. And the spouses are on board with them, which is great... And they are all feeling really good. This makes me really, really happy -- for me, yes, but more for them.

I have been on this path for almost three years now, and I need to apologize for the times when I have been overbearing, overzealous, and a total jerk about diet (or anything else, for that matter).

Each of us have to grow at our own pace, and make improvements in our own ways. If we can help each other on the way it is wonderful. I am continuing on my way, and growing and learning and changing all the time. If I can share the things I have learned, so much the better. If no one is interested, so be it. But I have found that "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear." (Confucius, I think) I can be both, in a way, and so can you. We are here to help each other, and I would like to learn from you, too. Words of Wisdom. We are never too old to learn and grow and change. It is what life is all about, and we will continue to do so long after we leave this plane of existence.

I love you all; keep up the good work.

Grawma Donna

My Story: Diabetes

I was born at the end of 1942. My mother prepared good meals for us according to the traditions of her family. Meat, potatoes, pasta, milk, eggs, cheese, and some fruits and vegetables, mostly canned were the standard ingredients for our meals. What we know of nutrition we generally learn from our parents. Our eating habits are the result of many generations of traditions. We had desserts on occasion, and a “treat” was just that -- something we had rarely and was really special – usually ice cream. Treats were not something we had every day, and cookies were not a staple in the pantry to be eaten whenever we wanted.

What I have learned in the last few years is that each generation takes the nutrition level down a notch or two or three … and then pays the price.

When I raised my family, in accordance with the traditions of my ancestors (and taking it down a notch), we had a lot of meat, potatoes, pasta, milk, eggs, cheese, and some fruits and vegetables, mostly canned… We had desserts more often and ice cream was always available in the freezer. And served in large portions. And so it goes.

My only sibling was diagnosed in his 30s with type-2 diabetes. He died at age 51. I was diagnosed in 2005 with type-2 diabetes. But I was determined that this disease would not define me. I would not refer to myself as a diabetic. I am Donna, and I have diabetes. I had been a diet counselor about 28 years before, and thought I knew something about a good diet. So my doctor agreed that I should try diet and exercise to “control” my blood sugar. That didn’t work. So I was placed on an oral medication. This did not help much, either.

I was praying for a solution, and constantly searching for information.

In the spring of 2007, I attended a meeting where a diabetic gentleman, much worse off than I was, had improved his diabetes, and was sharing information he had gleaned primarily from a book, The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell. This book was the turning point for me and has changed my life.

I changed my diet drastically. I planned to transition over the course of a year or so … pescatarian, ovo-lacto vegetarian, then vegan. But the more I studied – both from books and online sources, I learned that a raw-food diet is very effective in nourishing and strengthening our bodies, and provides everything we need to heal from even the worst of diseases.

Someone once told me that I was able to change faster than anyone she knew. My reasoning is – if you find out you are doing something wrong, that is the time to make the change – why dilly-dally when you learn that you need to change? So I did just that – no transition for me. I just did it. I stopped eating animal products, and stopped cooking. Period.

My dear husband was very tolerant during this time. I was learning a lot at a very rapid rate. And he enjoyed pretty much everything I prepared. I was gathering “uncook” books and trying new recipes, some worked out, some didn’t. But I was learning.

Then that summer, I took a series of classes put on by Sandra Ellis, “Dr. Mom” who is a Master Herbalist, Midwife, Microscopist, and Mother of 14 children. She has written a book, Dr. Mom’s Healthy Living, which is an account of her adventures in helping to change people’s lives naturally. On page 58 she writes about her diabetic husband, Steve, who was on the same oral medication I was taking:

"He was told that it helps the pancreas to produce insulin. When the nurse saw he was taking eight of these per day, she told him he should never take more than four because tests have shown that more than four are ineffective and it will kill the pancreas faster. Steve said, ‘What do you mean Faster?’ She told him this medication forces the pancreas to make insulin and to work much harder than normal. This is why the oral medication is only good for a couple of years because it will eventually burn out the pancreas and then you will have to go on insulin. Doctors know this when they prescribe the medicine, but it is used as an effective way to stall off taking insulin for a couple of years.

“Steve was furious when he left that lab. All of those months he had been trying so hard to rebuild his pancreas, only to find out he had been unknowingly killing it. He walked out of the lab and threw all of the prescription drugs away. He has not taken them since.

“The glandulars are also something I would never recommend to anyone. The fact is the tissue in these glandulars is dead – there is no vibration to them and, if there was, it certainly would not match the tissue of a live person. Not to mention the fact, I would be real concerned about what animal it is being taken out of and what condition the animal was in when it was taken. … I used to believe a vegetarian lifestyle would take care of this problem; I was wrong. This condition literally takes a lifestyle change! The system has to be alkalized and rebuilt with live food. Again depending on what type of diabetes you have and how far it has progressed – you must be as aggressive as what you are dealing with or it will win.”

This had an enormous impact on me. It was July 9, 2007, and I knew that this was not a road I wanted to travel. I tossed my meds. I do not recommend that anyone chuck their meds without consulting with their physician. However, that is just what I did. It’s just how I am; I take full responsibility for my own actions, whatever the outcome. It was the choice I made. And for me, it was the best choice I have made in a very long time. My blood sugar has steadily improved from that time until today, June 24, 2009, when my fasting blood sugar this morning was 85. Sometimes it’s even better. No meds for over two years, now. I am Donna and I do not have diabetes.

I have read a lot of books over the past couple of years, that I can highly recommend. Among them are: Dr. Norman Walker’s book on Juicing. Professor Arnold Ehret’s books on the Mucusless Diet. Dr. Christopher’s Family Herbalist course, Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s Eat To Live, Dr. John McDougall has a website and newsletter; I just finished Dr. Robert Young’s The pH Miracle, and I am currently reading There Is A Cure For Diabetes by Dr. Gabriel Cousens, of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, where they filmed the documentary, Raw for 30.

I am not a follower of any single “guru,” but there is a common thread with all of these authors – Meat and Milk are culprits in this and many other diseases. I am not so strict on the raw thing any more, either, but I do eat mostly raw, probably about 90 percent, (the goal is to get back to 100%) and cook sometimes for my dear husband. He says he is a vegetarian – “I only eat animals that eat vegetables – hahaha.” Cute, but he knows he won’t get meat or dairy at home, so when he travels on business or the rare occasions when we go out he gets to eat his vegetarian animals. However, the truth is, he is actually making better choices more frequently, and he is releasing weight and feeling healthier, too.