Iceland Update

I’ve always wanted to visit Iceland, ever since I read about it in GEO (a magazine similar to National Geographic in France), where I learned all about their hot springs, geothermal energy, and saw pictures of the amazing landscapes. Over the years this desire grew… until I was finally able to go as the first stop in my trip around the world I’m doing this year with my wife Veronica.

Iceland did not disappoint! In fact, after a short trip of 5 days I am left with the yearning to come back and discover more of this amazing country.

In case you don’t know, Iceland is an island that is considered part of Europe, but because of its location it’s quite isolated from the main continent. It’s just outside of the Arctic Circle and certainly the most northern place I have been so far in my life!

However, because of the oceanic currents, Iceland is not as cold as you’d imagine. In the winter, we’re told that the weather is often warmer here than it is in New York City and certainly most of Canada. In the summer it doesn’t get very hot either. The average daily high during our trip was about 15 degrees Celsius or 60 Fahrenheit. One day it got to 22 degrees (72 Fahrenheit) and that felt gloriously hot!

Icelanders don’t mind the weather and keep themselves warm in the numerous pools (open year round in almost every town). Because Iceland is so active volcanically, there’s a lot of hot springs everywhere. However, as we’ve discovered, they don’t necessarily take the hot spring water and bathe in it. Instead, they use it to warm up cold glacier water and then use that for bathing, and also for heating their homes.

Most houses in Iceland are heated using hot water. I found that the heating in the house felt pleasantly warm and not drying at all — much better than a traditional hot air furnace.

Because they have so much hot water, they don’t mind using lots of it to run their pools year round. There’s even an ocean beach that’s warmed up using geothermal water!

Speaking of water, the cold tap water is amazing! It’s better tasting and cleaner than your favorite brand of bottled water, and better yet it’s free.

The landscape of Iceland was amazing. Driving on the main road, we saw an endless number of waterfalls, gorgeous mountains and desolate but beautiful views.

Icelanders are quite friendly people. They all speak Icelandic, which is pretty close to the tongue of the Vikings, and unintelligible to everyone else, even those who speak Scandinavian languages. It’s also pretty tough to pronounce all those street names, but eventually I learned basic pronunciation and people were able to understand what I was talking about! However, almost everybody spoke flawless English which came in handy as well.

In terms of staying raw-vegan here, the selection of fruits and vegetables is all-right but some of the produce is not that great. We lived mostly on apples, oranges and bananas, which were tasty and cheap. In fact, we were surprised that the cost of these items was lower than in many supermarkets in North America. The main problem was not the price but the lack of varied ripe and sweet fruits. Vegetables were fairly cheap and some of them are even grown in greenhouses in Iceland.

There’s a few vegetarian restaurants in Reykjavik, the capital, and even a raw restaurant/bar (that we didn’t have enough time to visit.)

At the end of the trip, I felt like we should have planned to stay longer. I will definitely want to be back again in Iceland. Next time you might even catch me speaking some Icelandic!

NOTE: We have a special promotion this week on our Raw Health Starter Kit, the most complete program on the raw food diet available today. Just use the coupon code ICELAND to get $30 off! Go to: http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/starterkit.html

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The 15 most effective things you can do to dramatically boost your health and immune system TODAY

I noticed that I’ve been talking a lot about raw foods and more “advanced” topics, but without revising the basics. The following is a list of reminders for what I consider to be some of the most important steps you can take to dramatically improve your health starting today.

Make no mistake: if you choose to follow all of the steps listed below, you will completely TRANSFORM your health for the better.

You’ll notice however a lot of “negatives” in my list. That’s because I believe that what you DONT eat is much more important than what you DO eat. This is not a “feel-good”, watered down, “comfort zone” advice like the type that is so common nowadays in magazines and diet books.

Things like “eat some blueberries every day” or “eat some green vegetables” will not dramatically change your health. But follow the steps below, and you can expect some amazing results!

I don’t have time or space in this short article to cover all the details however. For more in depth info on what to eat, check out the Raw Health Starter Kit at www.fredericpatenaude.com/starterkit.html

1- Avoid caffeine. In short: caffeine is a drug and a stimulant. The energy you feel from it is a “fight or flight” response to the drug, not true energy. Overtime, consuming caffeine every day burns out your adrenal glands and leads to having less energy, less concentration, headaches, constant pains, depression, and other problems.

Don’t believe the hype! Drinking two or three cups of coffee a day is not “moderation”. Having a drug every single day is never being moderate. Some people are extremely sensitive to caffeine and even the slightest amount will upset their system.

To get off the bean, do it progressively over two weeks using Teeccino (www.teeccino.com) or another herbal (non-caffeinated) tea. When you’re clean, having an occasional cup of green tea and whatnot and then NOT having any for a while will bring a stimulation that can be useful at times, and if you give yourself enough time to recover you will be okay. Just make sure you never get in the habit of consuming caffeine regularly.

2- Eat green smoothies. It’s simple: eating green smoothies is the single best way to transform your diet overnight! Starting today, whether you’re raw or not, replace your breakfast with a giant green smoothie. Make it mild at first, using more fruit than greens. For some ideas and recipes, go to www.fredericpatenaude.com/greenforlife.html

3- Eliminate dairy products. Dairy is a conglomerate of foreign proteins the body can barely process. Research has demonstrated that dairy consumption is linked to increased rates of cancer, osteoporosis (isn’t that interesting?) and other nasty diseases. And YES, that includes all dairy products, including yogurt. Goat products are better, but still not health foods and are not part of a healthy diet.

4- Eliminate meat, fish, eggs and animal products. Excessive animal protein and saturated fat intake leads to all kinds of diseases. All animal products are a culprit, including eggs and fish. How much is too much? Most long-lived cultures ate meat less than 2-3 times a month, and in relatively small amounts. Any more than that is likely to create long-term health problems. You might find it easier to just say “no” and avoid them altogether.

5- (If you still) Cook without oils — Eliminate ALL oils, including olive oil, hemp oil and flax oil. There’s never any reason to consume pure fat in its refined form, no matter how much it’s marketed as a health food! Get your omega 3’s from whole foods like avocados or hemp seeds.

6- Cut the fat! Too much fat in the diet causes insulin resistance. It lowers your health and vitality, and causes candida and other health problems. Limit quantities of avocado, nuts, seeds and other whole food sources of fat to less than 15% of total calories. Fat is fat, whether it’s raw or not!

7- Avoid fake and industrialized foods — It goes without saying! If it comes from a factory, then it’s suspicious, no matter what it is. This includes raw labeled products that are more than likely not actually raw.

8- Eat more fruit. Take massive fruit action! Become a fruit expert. Learn everything you can about fruit. Become a fruit connoisseur the same way some people are wine connoisseur. Try all the exotic varieties, and decide what you like best. Replace your lunch with a fruit meal, and make sure you eat enough to hold you for several hours (that might be more than you think).

9- Eliminate gluten-containing foods, and watch out for grains. A good percentage of the population is either gluten-sensitive or gluten-intolerant. That might be you. Gluten is a protein found in many grains — mainly wheat. Overall, it’s better to avoid grains entirely and instead have fruits and root vegetables. Most grains are slightly acid-forming, while fruits and roots (including potatoes) are alkaline forming. The best of all grains are: brown rice, buckwheat, amaranth and quinoa (if you insist on keeping grains in your diet)

10- Go raw! Try going 100% raw and eliminate all cooked foods in your diet for a period of time. Enjoy the experience by trying out new low-fat recipes every day like smoothies, juices and savory salad dressings!

11- Don’t eat out. Foods at restaurants, no matter what it is, are loaded with salt and fat. If you must eat out, stick with a few simple choices such as salad with dressing on the side, fruit, vegetables, or low fat dishes (rice or potato based).

12- Start a manageable exercise program. Exercise is a necessity! Studies have shown that when we skip even just TWO days of exercise, there is a noticeable and measurable decline in health, especially in your insulin sensitivity (the ability of insulin to carry sugar to the cells). For exercise to work, it has to be fun! Pick and exercise you like, and remember that doing *something* always beats doing nothing every time.

13- Identify stressors in your life, eliminate them! Stress is a killer, and probably the biggest cause of disease besides diet. A little stress is good (like exercise), as long as it’s accompanied by proper recovery. Identify the unnecessary stressors in your life and work and eliminating them. (This is a topic for another, much longer article!)

14- Optimize your sleep. Most people need at least 7 hours of sleep per night, but rarely more than 9, unless they are training or otherwise recovering. There are several tricks and techniques to optimize your sleep. The most important one is to give yourself enough time to sleep, and don’t abruptly wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle with an alarm clock.

15- Fast! Fasting is often the fastest way to improve your health, but a long fast must be supervised. Fasting should be synonymous with resting, so a long fast is really a long “rest” to give your body all the energy it needs to heal. A short fast of 2-3 days is something most people can do on their own and can quickly jumpstart your health. Any longer than this and you should seek out the help of a trained professional.

Want more information to get started on the raw food diet or optimize your existing raw program? Check out the Raw Health Starter Kit at: http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/starterkit.html Use the coupon code ICELAND to get a discount (coupon expires soon).

Last week I was giving a conference on the raw food diet in Montreal, Canada. This is my home-town, but I haven’t given a talk here in a long time. One reason is that I’m more of a writer than a speaker, but also because even though I’m French Canadian, most of my material is in in English.

The talk I gave was in French this time, at the loft owned by Montreal’s only raw food restaurant, “Crudessence”, and organized by Ildiko Brunner (www.rawinmontreal.com)

The information I presented was in big contrast to what most people are used to hearing on the raw food diet. There was no talk about enzymes, no discussion on the “miracles” of wheatgrass juice, and no promotion for sprouts.

Instead, I showed my proven principles for succeeding on a mostly or completely raw diet, and the mistakes that are commonly made by most people who try out this lifestyle.
I explained that the raw food diet is like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can be extremely powerful and beneficial. On the other hand, it can harm you and hurt you if you don’t do it properly.

It’s not that fruits and vegetables are dangerous… but the incomplete advice people often get from books on the raw food diet will lead many people to new health problems they didn’t have before!

Twelve years ago, the same thing happened to me. I was in perfect health, then went raw, and started getting sick! I had no energy, and felt like my vitality had been sucked from my body. Why did this happen? I just subscribed to the philosophy of “as long as it’s raw, you should eat it. If it’s cooked, don’t it eat.”

It took me many years to learn to do it properly… and even though many people have read my books and others describing those common mistakes, I see people making them over and over again!

7 or 8 years ago, I was very active in the Montreal raw food community, when I lived there. I hosted many potlucks, and attended most of the other potlucks by other raw-foodists.

At my talk last week, even though we had a full house, I saw NONE of those same people again. Are they still raw-foodists? I seriously doubt it.

It seems that after 5 to 10 years, the raw-food community completely renews itself and the people that used to do it have either dropped it, or are doing something different. New people are coming on board, and the same cycle starts again.

I’ve seen the same thing happen everywhere.

People don’t stick with this program because the way raw food is taught by most people simply doesn’t make sense and doesn’t work!

In my talk, I explained exactly why that happens, and how you can make the raw food diet work in practice.

HINT: a lot of it is about following basic nutritional principles that every nutritionist knows, but most people think no longer apply to eating raw.

Big mistake!

In the Q&A session, people asked me about all kinds of things.

For example:

“What do you think about sprouting?”

“What do you think of superfoods?”

“Do we need to eat organic foods”?

I explained that all of these things, in the right context, can have some value but their importance is quite secondary in the whole picture.
Focus on applying the principles of a low-fat, raw vegan diet first, and THEN, and ONLY then, can you worry about more “advanced” things like eating organic, or maybe sprouting some seeds in the winter to have some fresh vegetables.

People tend to focus all of their attention on these little details that make literally no difference in the beginning and forget the whole picture!

In the grand scheme of things, starting and maintaining a successful exercise program will be 1000% more effective than just worrying whether everything you eat is organic, or whether every food they eat is a “super” food or not.

But few people want to hear this!

In the beginning of my talk, I asked people:

“How many of you would like to have a simple, powerful way to increase your vitality and improve your health without using supplements and products that often don’t work?”

Everybody said yes.
Then, just for fun, I asked:

“How many of you would prefer that I just sell you a magic pill instead?”

It made people laugh, and only one person raised their hand, but quickly said they were joking. But in reality, this is what people want!

If I could buy a magic pill that would transform my health with no effort, I would do it without a second thought, and stop talking about this raw-food non-sense!

But in reality, it doesn’t work like that. At least, not without side-effects…

The raw food diet can be incredibly powerful. But it can also destroy your health, if you do it improperly.

The best thing to do is master one important principle at a time. For example, I always tell people it’s more important to eat a low-fat, vegan diet than just eat raw.

Master that level first… and then move on to the rest by making your diet more raw.

If you want to get started immediately and increase your health and vitality with the raw food diet, while avoiding all of the common mistakes people make, get your copy of the Raw Health Starter Kit, my most complete raw food program, at:

http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/starterkit.html

It contains everything you need, and more. And, if you don’t like it, you can return it so you have everything to gain by giving it a try.

I will be giving more talks in Europe in the next few months and I will post excerpts on my blog as well. Stay tuned!

Yours for health and success,

Frederic

PS: The Raw Health Starter Kit includes my book “The Raw Secrets”, my recipe book “Instant Raw Sensations”, my “un-cooking” set of DVDs, my new book “The Raw Vegan Coach”, and more! Take a look at what’s available and get your copy at:

http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/starterkit.html

Pictures From Seminar

I’m currently in Calgary, Canada, pondering the question: “Why are Americans significantly fatter than Canadians?”

My good friend Roger Haeske (www.rogerhaeske.com), long-term raw-foodist and fitness enthusiast, is in Toronto right now and just sent an ezine to his mailing list on why he thinks Canadians are slimmer than Americans.

According to Roger, Canadians are thinner because of portion sizes, but more importantly because of French influence and culture, where it’s less socially acceptable to be overweight.

Now being French-Canadian myself, I can tell you that there’s not that much French influence outside of Quebec, at least not any positive one when it comes to diet. The most commonly known French-Canadian dish Canadians outside of Quebec know is called “Poutine”, which is a junk food concoction of French fries, gravies and cheeese curd.

I wouldn’t say that most Canadians are in great health, but we have about 15% less overweight people here.

Why is that?

It turns out that there is actually only one way to get overweight: eat more total calories than your body needs.

For example, for a long time scientists were puzzled by what they called the “French Paradox”.

As you probably know, the French pretty much invented gourmet cuisine, and traditional French food is very high in fat, with a lot of butter being used. Yet in spite of all of this heavy food, the French stay thin and have much lower rates of heart disease.

At first, they thought it must be all the wine that that they’re drinking that’s protecting them. But actually modern research shows that there is no “paradox”.

The French stay thin because they eat less food. They may make rich food, but the portion sizes are pretty small. Also, traditionally, people in France eat actual meals with no snacks in between.

It used to be believed that thin people metabolized food faster than overweight people. But when researchers actually measured accurately what those two groups ate in a day, they found that there is actually only one main reason why thin people stay thin: they eat fewer calories.

The reason people used to think other factors were at play was because whenever researchers would ask overweight people what they ate in a day, they would always under-estimate what they actually did eat.

When they finally decided to follow people around and take pictures of what they ate, they found that fat people ate more calories than they needed, compared to thin people.

But fat people thought they ate less than they actually did, whereas thin people were pretty accurate in remembering what they ate.

Recently my wife and I were in Hawaii for our Honeymoon. Then after spending a month there, we came back to Vancouver.

After two days in Vancouver I realized something shocking. Not only did we rarely see anyone obese there, but I also noticed that fast food restaurants were much less common.

In Hawaii, even on the remote island of Kauai, fast food is everywhere. Chains like McDonalds, KFC, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell and others are at every street corner.

In Vancouver, most of the restaurants are ethnic restaurants like Japanese and Indian. There is of course fast food restaurants, but you have to walk quite a few blocks before you find a McDonald’s.

In the US, I also noticed that portions of food are much bigger. Just looking at what people ate at a food court, I would say that portion sizes are about 20 to 25% smaller in Canada.

In America, it’s very easy to become overweight. Just eat out, and finish what’s on your plate.

Read the book “The End of Overeating”, and you’ll find out the shocking truth about the obesity situation in the USA. This book describes exactly why people overeat, with a lot of science to back it up.

Essentially, it comes down to three things:

Sugar, Fat, and Salt.

When you eat foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt, your reward centers in the brain go crazy, and you want to eat more of it.

You eat more of it for the simple reason that it tastes really, really good, and your body is designed to seek these delicious, high-calorie foods.

If you just eat sugar on its own, for example by eating pure white sugar, then there’s a limit to what you can eat. Eventually you hit the point were more sugar is just nauseating.

But if you combine sugar with fat, for example in chocolate or ice-cream, then you’ll want to eat much more of it than you need.

If you combine all three elements together: sugar, fat and salt, then your brain literally goes crazy and wants more and more. For example: French fries (complex carbs with oil and salt).

It’s funny that in the raw food movement, chefs want to imitate the very foods that are making people sick and fat.

If raw-foodists make a fruit smoothie, they want to add a bunch of fat to it (like nuts or coconut oil).

If they make a salad, they have to drench it in avocados and oil, and add more salt on top of it, and hopefully something sweet to excite the senses.

And what about the latest sensation: kale chips, which are nothing more than fat and salt, eaten on top of a meal made with more fat, salt and sugar.

Now there’s one way to reach your ideal weight without even changing your diet: simply eat less of it.

But in our world today, with all these high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt foods available everywhere, it’s extremely difficult to do.

Plus, being overweight is not the only consequence of the American diet. You have to think about all the diseases that are caused by it.

The best way to achieve your ideal weight is to only eat foods you can eat in unlimited quantities: such as fruits and vegetables. Limit or eliminate high-fat foods such as oil, nuts, seeds and avocados, because fat is easier to store in the body than carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates are what we need the most, so make sure you eat plenty of fruit, and if you must some complex carbs like potatoes, but make sure you don’t combine these carbs with a lot of fat.

To discover exactly how to eat a raw food diet to achieve your ideal weight and health, make sure you check out my Raw Health Starter Kit at:

http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/starterkit.html

We’ve just added a completely new book to the Starter Kit, “The Raw Vegan Coach: Answers to Your Questions on the Low-Fat, Raw Food Diet”.

That’s in addition to all of the books and DVDs already in the package.

Note that the price of the Starter Kit will eventually be increased because the total value is very high, so make sure you order it now while it’s still at the same price. Check it out at:

http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/starterkit.html

Yours for health and success,

Frederic

My wife and I just arrived a couple of days ago to the beautiful city of Vancouver. We’ve been enjoying our time here, discovering the city and exploring the possibilities for relocating here once we finish our trip around the world in one year.

Although a lot of people scared us of the high prices in this city, we found great deals for food everywhere, once we knew where to shop. It must be because we’re coming from Hawaii that fruits seem to be much cheaper here! (Probably, but reasonable for Canada nonetheless)

One thing we’ve been buying a lot is watermelon.

In Hawaii, the watermelon was pretty expensive ($1.50-$2.00/lb), but in Vancouver right now it’s sold for about 50 cents a pound.

And I personally LOVE to eat watermelon at any time of the day, but particularly in the morning or after or during a workout. Watermelon juice is by far my favorite juice of all!

Of course, pretty much all the watermelon you find everywhere is SEEDLESS.

Watermelon is also “pretty high” on the glycemic index compared to other fruits (at 72 compared with pure table sugar at 58).

For those reasons, a lot of people are avoiding watermelon and instead consume low-sugar fruits such as little green, acidic/tart apples or grapefruits.

And that my friend, is a big mistake.

You’re missing out on one of the best fruits on the planet just because you’re getting caught in numbers or the unverified hype of some “expert”.

First, let’s talk about the seedless issue.

The reason why seedless watermelon is popular is because people don’t really like to eat watermelon seeds or spit them out, and also because seedless watermelons have a longer shelf life.

They last longer because they’re more dense and have no seeds inside to break down the flesh.

The process for growing seedless watermelon might sound a little complicated, but it’s actually not anything GMO-related. It’s just a matter of crossing two plants together with the right set of chromosomes.

It’s been discovered over 40 years ago that if you cross breed a watermelon with four sets of chromosomes with one that has only two, you end up with a watermelon with three sets of chromosomes.

Follow so far?

The result is something that’s called a triploid seed (“tri” stands for three) and when grown the watermelon won’t reproduce itself and thus has no viable seeds.

They’re not always completely seedless by the way, and you may have noticed they often contain little edible white seeds.

You might not know that in order to produce seedless watermelons, seeded watermelons are planted *just for their seeds*, and in a big field of seedless watermelon you’ll find about 25% regular seeded watermelons that are used for their pollen so that bees can cross pollinate the other melons.

It’s actually not that much more complicated than the other cross-breeding techniques and grafting techniques that have been used in agriculture for thousands of years.

People who call seedless watermelon “unnatural” are eating a ton of foods that are cross-bred also without even knowing it, yet turning their nose up to seedless watermelon.
If you want to go full-on “natural”, the only way to go is to eat only truly wild foods and I don’t see a lot of benefits for doing that. If you are foraging all of your own food and taking only what was not planted by humans, you’re going to be doing a lot of work just to get enough to eat.

*What About the Glycemic Index?*

People like to get caught up in numbers for no reason, and avoid perfectly healthy foods like seedless watermelon just because someone created a neat little chart they could follow with foods to eat and foods to avoid.

But based on what?

The glycemic index measures the rise in blood sugar after eating specific foods. I’ve already debunked the myth that the glycemic index is terribly important in my new book “The Raw Vegan Coach” (which is no longer available on its own but is now included as part of the Raw Health Starter Kit: http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/starterkit.html)

The truth is, a higher glycemic index is sometimes a good thing.

Sometimes you DO want to eat something that will bring your blood sugar back up.

That’s why I find watermelon to be the perfect post-workout food, as well as a “lift-me up” kind of fruit when your energy is low.

Also, you have to take into account your entire state of health and the ability for your body to handle sugar and carbohydrates.

On a low-fat diet, with enough exercise, you will improve your insulin sensitivity and therefore you should be able to eat all kinds of fruit without problems.

But if you keep eating oil and fat every day, then any carbohydrate you eat will send you into an unnecessary blood sugar swing.

Watermelon is very high in water content and electrolytes, it is a food that is assimilated very quickly and helps rehydrate your body. Which means it’s perfectly healthy to eat a large bowl of watermelon for breakfast. You’ll feel instantly refreshed and rehydrated without the need to drink copious amounts of water to flush out your system every morning.

Do you have more unanswered questions on the raw food diet?

Last week I released my new book “The Raw Vegan Coach” which answers 144 common questions and controversies.

Unfortunately, the pre-order offer for this book is over and I will no longer be selling the book directly.

However, if you order the Raw Health Starter Kit now (which includes all of my main books and DVDs), I will include the new book The Raw Vegan Coach as part of your order for free!

Plus, you can save $32 if you use the following coupon code, but only if you order now:

the coupon code is:

VANCOUVER

Make sure to order the Starter Kit today and use this coupon code to receive your free book and save $32. Just go to:

http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/starterkit.html

Yours for health and success,

Frederic

PS: This offer will end soon so make sure you order today.

- Update from Frederic: Heading to Maui!
- How to Live 100 Years: the Blue Zones Revealed

2) My new book “The Raw Vegan Coach” should be released next week!

How to Live 100 Years: the Blue Zones Revealed!

I just read an interesting book called “The Blue Zones” which researched areas of the world that have an unusual concentration of centenarians (people reaching the age of 100).

I first became aware of this research when I was living in Costa Rica and a group of researchers came to the Nicoya Peninsula to discover that this area of the world was one of those coveted “Blue Zones” where there’s a very high percentage of centenarians compared to the United States.

What I really liked about the book was the fact that it was based on actual, verifiable research.

In the past, many people have claimed that certain cultures have lived a very long time, such as the Hunzas in Pakistan or the Vilcabamba residents in Ecuador. The problem is that the record keeping in those areas was very poor and there was no way to verify the ages of the alleged centenarians. Someone could claim to be 110 years old and in fact be only 90. In fact, this kind of exaggeration was very common.

With The Blue Zones, the researchers had new scientific techniques that could verify someone’s age, and using DNA data they could also trace back the ancestry of the people they met. Combined with verifiable birth certificates, they have located five areas of the world where people have managed to outlive Americans by often a decade or more.

A lot of people who are proponents of specific diets, such as the paleo diet, like to refer to some unproven, anecdotal advice on the “good health” of certain tribes, such as the Inuits. When in fact there are many other people who lived far longer and healthier than this example.

The Blue Zones is the first set of data that looks at populations that have an unusually high number of centenarians. Often these areas have been overtaken by fast food and the health of new generations is poor. But those people that managed to live 100 years or more are from a different era, and have kept the same lifestyle practices that they had in their youth.

These five Blue Zones are:

• The island of Sardinia, in Italy
• The tropical islands of Okinawa, in Japan
• The Nicoya peninsula, in Costa Rica
• The religious group of the 7th Day Adventists, living in Loma Linda, California

Those four groups are covered in the book. But last year the group of researchers also uncovered another Blue Zone, on the island of Ikaria in Greece, where nearly 1 out of every 3 people make it to their 90s (Which is very unusual).

Before I go into the characteristics of these people, I want to point out one important point for all those people out there on low-carb, paleo, meat-eating, “hunter-gatherer” diets (or whatever you want to call them).

All of the longest live people in the world — without exception — live on a high-carb, plant-based diet!

You will not find anywhere in the world a group of people — with documented evidence — living that long and that well on a high-fat, high protein, animal-based, low carb diet.

Also, the research done on the 7th Day Adventists debunks the myth that there are no long-lived populations on a vegan diet (more on that later).

What did these people eat?

==> In Sardinia, Italy, the traditional diet was based on whole wheat bread, vegetables, a little goat cheese and wine. Meat was not consumed on a daily basis.

From the book: “Shepherds and peasants in Sardinia have an exceptionally simple diet, which is extraordinarily lean even by mediterranean standards”, a 1941 survey reported. “Bread is by far the main food. Peasants leave early in the morning to the fields with a kilogram of bread in their saddlebag… At noon their meal consists only of bread, with some cheese among wealthier families, while the majority of the workers are satisfied with an onion, a little fennel, or a bunch of radishes. At dinner, the reunited family eats a single meal consisting of a vegetable soup (minestrone) to which the richest add some pasta. In most areas, families ate meat only once a week, on Sunday (…). Interestingly for a Mediterranean culture, fish did not figure prominently into the diet”

Also, the Sardinians consumed goat’s milk and not cow’s milk.

It doesn’t take much nutritional knowledge to see that the diet described above is plant-based and very low in fat, and high in carbohydrates.

===> On Okinawa, the diet was based on sweet potatoes, traditional soy products, rice and vegetables.

When a 102-year old woman (who apparently looks like she’s in her 70’s) describes her routine, she says:

“I wake up at about 6 a.m. and make a pot of jasmine tea and eat my breakfast, usually miso soup with vegetables. (…) At noon, Kamada said, she wanders into the kitchen garden behind her house to harvest some herbs and vegetables for her lunch. “I’ll use mugwork to give my rice flavor or tumeric to spice my soup, she said. “I don’t eat much any more. Usually just stir-fried vegetables and maybe some tofu.” And meat, I asked. “Oh yes, I like meat, but not always. When I was a girl, I ate it only during the New Year festivals. I’m not in the habit of eating it every day.”

She eats a very light dinner before 6 p.m. that might include some fish soup, whatever vegetables are in season, some spring onions, salad and rice. She’s usually in bed by 9 p.m.

When the researcher asks her daughter if she ever drank a Coke, we find out she never once did that in her life, and when she first saw a hamburger she had asked “What do you do with that?”

The typical diet of these Okinawan centenarian was again very simple: vegetables from the garden, green tea, and maybe a little fish, with some rice and tofu.

They also have the interesting habit of saying hara hachi bu, before each meal. It’s a Confucian adage that these elders say before they eat to remind them to eat until they are 80 percent full.

===> The 7th Day Adventists’s diet is more aligned with your typical health-food store enthusiast rather than a traditional diet forced by circumstances. Things like fresh fruit, oatmeal, salads and vegetarian foods are part of the menu. Interestingly enough, not all 7th Day Adventists are vegetarians or vegan. But the vegetarians lived longer than the meat eaters (on average two years longer), and the vegans lived even longer than the vegetarians.

“(…) Adventists who are what we call lacto-ovo vegetarians, meaning they eat eggs and other dairy products, still are an average of 16 pounds lighter than Adventists of the same height who are non-vegetarian. And Adventists who are strictly vegan, which is only 4 percent, are 30 to 32 pounds lighter than non-vegetarian Adventists of the same height. That has a huge impact on cardiovascular disease, on blood pressure, on blood cholesterol, on inflammation related to hormones and the way it stimulates cells in the body.”

For those who think there are no documented populations of vegans in the world who live a long life, they are wrong. The 7th Day Adventists prove exactly that.

===> The Nicoyans in Costa Rica ate mostly corn tortillas, beans, some animal protein such as eggs and some amount of pork or chicken. They ate more animal foods than other long-lived populations, but also ate the most fruit out of all long-lived populations.

From the book: “They asked centenarians what they ate and heard “beans, rice, tortillas and fruit” over and over. (…) A few characteristics of the Nicoya’s diet stood out. Like the people in most other Blue Zones, Nicoyans ate the emblematic low-calorie, low-fat, plant-based diet, rich in legumes. But unlike other Blue Zones, the Nicoyan diet featured portions of corn tortillas at almost every meal and huge quantities of tropical fruit. Sweet lemon, orange, and a banana variety are the most common fruits throughout most of the year in Nicoya.”

An interesting fact of the Nicoyan diet is that Nicoya have the lowest stomach cancer rate out of the country of Costa Rica. For some reason, Costa Ricans have one of the highest stomach cancer rates in the world. The conclusion by the researchers was that the high amount of fruit consumed in Nicoya helped prevent stomach cancer.

They haven’t finished the research on the Greek island of Ikaria, but apparently it’s something similar. The Ikarian diet is a variant of the Mediterranean diet which is high in vegetables and beans, and low in meat and sugar. But a very interesting fact: the Ikarian variant is lower in grains and fish, but high in potatoes (which goes in line with my teachings. I believe root vegetables are far superior to grains, and fish should be avoided). The Ikarians also frequently eat wild greens and drink herbal tea.

If you want the full story, you can read the book, but let me outline a few important points about diet that stood out for me.

1. All long-lived people live on a high-carb, low-fat, plant-based diet
2. All long-lived people eat a lot of vegetables, including greens.
3. Whenever they can get it, long-lived populations eat a lot of fruit and it seems to contribute to their longevity
4. The long-lived populations that consume dairy products consume goat milk instead of cow’s milk. Not that I recommend any milk, but it’s quite obvious that goat’s milk is superior nutritionally to cow’s milk and causes less allergies and fewer problems. However, some long-lived populations such as the Okinawans did not consume any dairy products, so we know they are not necessary.
5. When animal products are consumed, it’s occasionally and in small amounts only. But the 7th Day Adventist study also showed that vegans live longer than vegetarians or meat eaters, so the ideal is to avoid all animal products. If you do eat animal products, it shouldn’t be more than a few times a month (paleo eaters take note).
6. All long-lived people had periods in their life when a lot less food was available and they had to survive on a very sparse, limited diet. For example, the centenarians in the book in Okinawa describe a time during World War II when they lived on sweet potatoes for three meals a day. When discussing the centenarians in Italy: “When their family was young, in the 1950s, they were very poor. They ate what they produced on their land — mostly bread, cheese and vegetables (zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and most significantly, fava beans). Meat was at best a weekly affair, boiled on Sunday with pasta and roasted during the festivals.” This reinforces my concept of periodic fasting. Because we live in a society of such abundance, we have to force ourselves to go through periods of restrictions with periodic cleanses and fasting.
7. All long-lived people live in a sunny, warm climate — but not necessarily tropical. They got plenty of vitamin D from natural sunshine. The warmer climate probably also contributes to less stress and a more relaxed lifestyle.
8. All long-lived people consume legumes in some form or another. To me this does not indicate that they are necessary, but they certainly can’t harm you that much when they are cooked.
9. Nuts appear to be good for health. The 7th Day Adventists who ate a small serving of nuts several times a week had about half the risk of heart disease of those who didn’t.
10. Long-lived people often have a garden that provides them with fresh vegetables, or cultivated foods for a significant part of their diet throughout their lives.
11. The typical centenarian diet is very simple. If you analyze all these diets from long-lived people around the world, they essentially eat the same simple foods every day. It appears that you do not need a wide variety of foods in your diet to be healthy. Quality food over variety is more important. Also, rich foods like meat and cheese are reserved for special occasions, and eaten at the most a few times a month if at all.
12. They did not constantly change their diet or jump on the latest superfood fad. They ate the same seasonal things every day of the year.

Other Considerations

Of course, diet is only part of the answer. Other important points outlined in the Blue Zones include:

1. Exercise. The biggest insight in the book besides the diet points I have outlined is how much long-lived people exercise. It actually shocked me to realize that I’m not getting nearly as much exercise as I should.It seems that in the prime of their lives, these centenarians were probably getting something like 5 or 6 hours of moderate exercise per day (such as walking and working outdoors). And as they get older, they keep on walking and being active.Thus, the concept of exercising a few times a week to stay in shape seems seriously flawed. None of these centenarians “worked out”. They simply had an active lifestyle and walked a lot.An hour a day of walking or running, combined with weight training exercises and other outdoor activities you enjoy (golfing, swimming, etc.) should be the goal for anyone wanting to live a long and healthy life.
2. An Active Life — Another stunning realization is that all of the long-lived people in the book loved to work. In fact, some of them could be considered to have been “workaholics” in the prime of their life, and many of them never actually “retired”. They maintained an active lifestyle throughout their life.This blows out the concept that working hard is bad for you, or that staying home doing nothing is the best way to relax, or that the goal in life should be to save enough money to retire at age 55 or 60 and then enjoy the good life. After reading this book, I realized one thing: I’ll retire when I’m dead!
3. A sense of purpose — All long-lived people had a strong sense of purpose. They had a reason to get up in the morning and do something. The Nicoyans called it “A plan de vida” which means a “life plan”. They were also engaged socially in their communities.
4. Family — This is a tough one for many of us, but it seems pretty obvious that in order to live a long life you can’t go it alone. All centenarians had big families that they supported and who supported them until the end.
5. Obvious things — Of course, the obvious factors are there as well. None of them smoked (no kidding) or ate massive quantities of food. However, from reading between the lines, I also understood that these centenarians progressively reduced the quantities of food they ate as they got older. One lady in Okinawa said ‘I don’t eat much anymore”.

Obviously, if you’re 35 you can’t follow the diet of a 102 year old lady. But as we get older, we must progressively reduce the amount of food we eat if we want to live a long life.

How Come There Are No Raw-Foodists on this list?

The big question everybody will ask is obviously this one: how come none of the long-lived people on the planet eat a raw-food diet?

You have to keep in mind that except for the 7th Day Adventists, none of these long-lived people actually consciously chose their diet and lifestyle. It was something that evolved naturally and that they did due to the environment of where they lived.

But the 7th Day Adventist study showed that when a group of people consciously decides to improve their diet as a whole, that they can significantly increase their lifespan and the quality of their lives.

The 7th Day Adventists did not have particularly good genes. They just were part of a religious group that had the particular feature of discouraging bad habits such as eating meat or drinking caffeine.

The 7th Day Adventists who ate a vegetarian diets lived longer than those who still ate meat, and those who were vegans lived even longer. Who knows what would have happened if some of them also ate a mostly-raw or all raw diet?

We actually don’t know what would happen if a population of people ate a raw food diet because it’s never been done and documented before.

However, based on the current studies done on long-lived people with the Blue Zones, we know that:

• All long-lived people eat a high-carb, low fat diet
• All long-lived people eat a plant-based diet
• All long-lived people ate a lot of vegetables

So if you wanted to try a raw-food diet for longevity, it would have to at least meet those requirements.

Which means potentially the best diet in the world would be a diet of fruits and vegetables, with some nuts and seeds, where most of the calories come from fruit.

How many of you are ready to live 100 years or more?

A few months ago, I had the visit of Kevin Gianni and his wife Annmarie to Costa Rica, and Kevin and I had the chance to discuss some raw food controversies. Enjoy!

Part 2:

Two months ago, I stirred a lot of controversy with my open critique of the product “Raw Water” that was promoted in the raw food movement as the latest, greatest water. The controversy made me realize there was still too much confusion on the topic of water, and too many water scams.

This led me to do a complete research on every single aspect about water and publish them as part of my Raw Vegan Mentor Club newsletter.

The following is a short excerpt of the much longer newsletter that’s available as part of the Raw Vegan Mentor Club. To find out how to become a member and download this newsletter immediately as well as over $1200 in bonus gifts, click here.

Distilled Water and Health

“I heard that drinking distilled water can leech minerals from your body. Is this true?”

A lot of people believe distilled water to be dangerous based on information read on the Internet or other Natural Health Book. In fact, here’s what Dr. Mercola has to say about this:

“Many health fanatics, however, are often surprised to hear me say that drinking distilled water on a regular, daily basis is potentially dangerous.

Paavo Airola wrote about the dangers of distilled water in the 1970’s when it first became a fad with the health food crowd.
Distillation is the process in which water is boiled, evaporated and the vapor condensed.

Distilled water is free of dissolved minerals and, because of this, has the special property of being able to actively absorb toxic substances from the body and eliminate them.

Studies validate the benefits of drinking distilled water when one is seeking to cleanse or detoxify the system for short periods of time (a few weeks at a time).

Fasting using distilled water can be dangerous because of the rapid loss of electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride) and trace minerals like magnesium, deficiencies of which can cause heart beat irregularities and high blood pressure. Cooking foods in distilled water pulls the minerals out of them and lowers their nutrient value.”

At this point, I will agree with the conclusion that distilled water is not the best kind of water to drink, but will also point out that a lot of what Dr. Mercola said in his article (which you can find at: http://www.mercola.com/article/water/distilled_water.htm) is completely wrong.

Water, whether it is found in a spring or the tap, contains trace elements and minerals.

If the water is distilled, in that it is devoid of all minerals, it will draw from its stores, what it needs for biological processes (for example: the calcium in your bones).

So calcium in your bones, the biggest mineral store will be used.

Distilled water is used to remove toxins from the body. It is what is used in kidney dialysis machines to cleanse the blood of toxins. It can also reduce potassium which is needed for proper heart function. Same with magnesium.

Distilled water can and does remove minerals from the body.

But fortunately, I don’t think there’s any evidence that this would be very dramatic — as long as you get enough minerals from your food in order to offset this.

In one article on Dr. Mercola’s website, it was claimed that:

“There is a correlation between the consumption of soft water (distilled water is extremely soft) and the incidence of cardiovascular disease. Cells, tissues and organs do not like to be dipped in acid and will do anything to buffer this acidity including the removal of minerals from the skeleton and the manufacture of bicarbonate in the blood.”

Here, Mercola is dead wrong on the issue!

Distilled water is neither acidic nor alkaline! What happens is that the body removes it from various parts of the body to use the minerals it needs for biological function.

It’s not like acid is streaming through the body and dissolving your bones!

Overall, I think that drinking water that has some mineral ions in it is best, but I don’t think that drinking distilled water can be bad for health if you get minerals from other sources, such as a diet abundant in fruits and vegetables.

Dr. Mercola Continues:
“Those who supplement their distilled water intake with trace minerals are not as deficient but still not as adequately nourished in minerals as their non-distilled water drinking counterparts even after several years of mineral supplementation. The ideal water for the human body should be slightly alkaline and this requires the presence of minerals like calcium and magnesium”

There is no study, as far as I know, that shows that people drinking distilled water aren’t as adequately nourished as their “non-distilled water drinking counterparts”.

There will be too many factors to take into account besides just water intake.

I guess Mercola is correct that the presence of the minerals will make the water slightly alkaline but drawing the conclusion of alkaline “good” and acidic “bad” is hardly scientific!

For more information on the best waters to drink, make sure to sign up for a test drive to my Raw Vegan Mentor Club and get the latest issue of our members-only newsletter where I discuss every single aspect of water, including: is water alive? What’s the best water to drink? What about spring water?

Get your test-drive membership by going to: www.fredericpatenaude.com/mentorclub.html

The other day, I was in Vancouver (Canada) for a few days on my way to Hawaii for my honeymoon with my wife Veronica, and we stopped by at the Whole Foods Market in West Vancouver.

Veronica LOVES to hang out at Whole Foods because like me, she never had that store where she grew up and enjoys *window shopping* for fruit and foods she’s never had before.

Whole Foods is often called “Whole Paycheck” because of the high prices for produce and prepared food throughout the store, but I personally quite like the place because it’s by far the biggest natural health supermarket ever designed.

Overall, I would say that Whole Foods sells “good feelings” more than anything else, but you can still find lots of healthy stuff.

People who complain about Whole Foods Market are probably seriously spoiled. After six months of living in Costa Rica where almost no organic food is available and the closest thing to a health food store is a tiny “Macrobiotic” store that sells medicinal herbs and organic shampoo, entering a Whole Foods Market is like entering an oasis after having walked in the desert for months.

I wouldn’t buy everything there, but visiting the “museum” of Whole Foods is something we like to do.

One particular feature of the Whole Foods Market in West Vancouver is that they have an entire section of prepared raw meals. In fact, they seemed to be actively promoting raw foods in this store.

I was excited when I saw this but my excitement quickly wore off when I saw what was on the menu.

They had unappetizing dehydrated crackers with suspicious-looking high fat nut pâté, and a selection of salads that I would not touch with a ten-foot pole unless I was seriously starving.

I’m talking about a kale salad with nothing more than raw kale, oil and salt. Raw cauliflower with oil and some kind of curry dressing, julienned zucchini again in some oily concoction, raw broccoli with another oil-based dressing, and so on.

Each and every dish turned off my appetite just by looking at it.

This is a perfect example of how NOT to eat raw.

Yet, they were promoting these foods as “superior” to cooked foods because the enzymes are preserved (supposedly by not heating above 118 degrees).

Let me talk quickly about why this is not the way to eat raw.

Starchy vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli and kale are particularly tough to digest raw. You can eat them occasionally but making an entire salad out of them is not recommended for optimal digestion.

Just taking raw vegetables and drenching them in a oily dressing does NOT make them healthy. In fact, in makes the vegetables less healthy than if you’d just eat them raw or steam them and eat them as is.

You cannot make a meal out of raw vegetables, oils and raw crackers and expect to feel satisfied and sustained. This is NOT the way to eat raw. The large amounts of fat consumed will automatically negate all possible benefits of eating raw, and the meal is so low in calories that you’ll be starving in less than an hour.

Here’s how I would do it.

If I was in charge of that menu, I would want a selection of raw foods that would be both appetizing and healthy.

First, I would feature giant bowls of fruit salad and cut up fruit, as well as green smoothies (which feature fruits and vegetables).

I would also have some kind of raw soup, but instead of using massive amounts of fat in the soup, I would replace the fat with some fruit (such as mango) or maybe a small amount of sweetener (such as honey if mango is unavailble). I would blend this up with some soft vegetables and herbs. For example, a great soup can be made by blending tomatoes, mangoes, cucumbers, bell peppers and fresh herbs — while keeping the soup a little chunky.

I would also have big prepared salads but instead of using oil, I would make sure that the only fats I use come from avocados or raw nuts and seeds.

I might have a few nut pâtés or nori rolls (raw vegan sushi), but I’d make sure my pâtés are fresh and not overly fatty. For example, I have a delicious recipe of almond-carrot pâté that is made with soaked almonds, raw carrots and some seasonings.

I would avoid hard vegetables such as cauliflower and instead feature plenty of tender greens such as lettuce and celery.

A great dish could be a celery or cabbage “slaw” with an avocado mayonnaise (a personal favorite in my household).

While this entire menu wouldn’t be entirely low fat, it would be so much better than the terrible recipes they featured at the Whole Foods I visited. Instead of being 70% fat, it would be something like 30% fat as long as enough fruit was on the menu.

The big problem in the raw food movement is that everybody is hooked on this idea of eating “raw”.

Because they are so focused on eating foods that are raw for the wrong reason (such as the scientifically discredited enzyme theory), they forget about other health principles and end up eating a very high fat diet.

I don’t consider myself a “raw-foodist” in the typical sense of the word. While I believe in the importance of raw foods in the diet, my focus is on health and not raw foods.

In fact, my focus is on fruits and vegetables, and a low fat diet — which are scientifically proven to improve your health.

My point is a healthy lifestyle is more about what you AVOID in your diet more than what you ADD in. For example, avoiding oil is much more important than eating everything raw with lots of vegetables with oily and salty dressing, or taking in a particular type of raw supplement.

Want healthy raw food menu plans and recipes?

Make sure you sign up for a test-drive of the Raw Vegan Mentor Club at www.fredericpatenaude.com/mentorclub.html

You’ll get my monthly menu planners, monthly recipe eBooks, including my favorite delicious low-fat delights.

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By Jennifer Townes

A Date is a sweet fruit from the Date Palm (scientific name: Phoenix dactylifera). Originating in the desert oases of northern Africa and southwest Asia, Middle Eastern peoples have included dates as a part of their diet for centuries. The date is thought to be one of the world’s oldest cultivated fruits.

The date palm has been referenced to as a “tree of life,” probably due to its excellent health benefits as well as its high nutritional value.

The surface of a date can be rather sticky, and as such lends itself to the harboring of dust and various impurities. It is advisable to purchase dates in good packaging conditions. Thoroughly wash dates prior to consumption.

Dates are best eaten when they are fresh, in season and water rich. You may also find raw dried dates at your organic market and these will be more concentrated and should be treated like all other dried fruits.

History of Dates

As a staple of Middle Eastern countries, dates have been cultivated since ancient times, likely as early as 6000 BC. Date Palms produce bunches of oval drupes that are at least 3 cm long and 2 cm in diameter. These drupes are called dates.

Evidence from archeologists reveals that dates were likely first cultivated in ancient times in the eastern Arab region, later, spreading around northern Africa, Italy, Spain and South East Asia.

Spanish peoples introduced dates to the people of Mexico and California around 1765. The fruit has a large variety and more than 400 varieties are produced in the palm groves of Iran.

Today dates are cultivated in Arizona and southern California in the United States.

Dates are incorporated in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine and desserts, and are often eaten whole. Frequently they are found stuffed with sweet fillings after removing its seed.

Ramadan is celebrated during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and Muslims fast each day, from sunrise to sunset, in order to gain a higher level of spiritual enlightenment. The tradition of eating dates during Ramadan, in order to break the fast at the end of each day, spans the course of history back to the time of the Prophet Mohammed (570-632 CE).

Naturally, a depletion of energy can be experienced as a result of fasting, and consuming dates is thought to be a gentle way in which to ease the body back into the act of eating. Dates, it is said, prevent metabolic, digestive, and other physical issues that may be caused by the practice of fasting.

Proported Health Advantages of Eating Dates

· Dates are digested very easily therefore they are good for supplying quick energy.

· They are known to be an excellent cure for intestinal disturbances.

· Regular consumption of dates has been found to check the growth of pathological organisms and help in the growth of friendly bacteria in the intestines.

· Being a laxative food, dates have been found to be beneficial for those suffering from constipation, as well dates generally help the elimination of waste. They can be immersed in water at night and taken after making them into a fine syrup the next morning to secure laxative effect.

· Studies have shown that consumption of dates, soaked overnight and crushed, is good for those who have heart problems.

· Researchers have revealed that dates are effective in preventing abdominal cancer.

· One of the key benefits of dates is its ability to regulate a healthy nervous system, thanks to the rich potassium content. Research has recommended that higher intake of potassium (about 400 mg) can cut the risk of stroke by 40 percent.

· Ability to lower LDL cholesterol.

· Dates are rich in iron and can be beneficial to those who suffer from anemia.

· Israeli research has found that eating dates daily for four weeks can improve the quality of lipids (fats) in the blood without raising sugar levels.

Additional Benefits to Pregnant and Nursing Mothers

Some experiments have shown results that point to the strengthening of the uterine muscles due to consumption of dates. This is beneficial particularly in the last months of pregnancy. As well it is said dates can help dilation at the time of delivery. It should also be mentioned that research has found a link between dates and a reduction of bleeding postpartum.

With this information it is concluded that dates are a real benefit to women in pregnancy and those who are breast-feeding.

Dates are believed to contain elements that assist in alleviating depression in mothers and enriching the breast-milk with elements needed to make the child healthy and resistant to disease.

Health Benefits of Teeth in Regard to Eating Dates

By consuming dates, which contain an element called fluorine (this is responsible for the fruits enamel building) it is probable that they will assist in cavity prevention.

However care should be taken when partaking in all dried fruits, as well they should be enjoyed in moderation. Rinsing your mouth with water during and after meals should help prevent tooth decay. After eating high sugar fruits that leave residue on teeth (such as dried dates) you should always brush your teeth.

Suppliers of Raw Organic Dates

An excellent source that I recommend for purchasing high quality dates is the DATE PEOPLE.

They provide raw dates that are never frozen or heated. Using sustainable growing they provide forty different varieties of dates.

www.datepeople.net
The Date People P.O. Box 808,
Niland CA 92257 Phone 760-359-3211

By Gabriel Cousens, M.D. MD (H)

The work at the Tree of Life and in all my nutrition books, Spiritual Nutrition and the Rainbow Diet, Conscious Eating and Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine is to provide an optimal situation for everyone to be successful vegan and live food practitioners. To that end, we address every single issue that is connected with being successful. The B-12 issue is one that is critical to a successful and healthy vegan and live food way of life.

To understand the significance of this issue, we need to understand a little about the importance of B-12 in the diet. The average non-vegetarian stores between 2,000 and 3,000 picograms (pg., same as micrograms) of B-12 and loses about 3 pg. per day.

About 60 percent of the total amount of the B-12 in the body is stored in the liver and 30 percent is stored in the muscle. The body has a special circulation pattern between the digestive tract and the liver. Through the bile, we secrete 1.4 pg. per day of B-12 into the small intestine, and healthy people reabsorb about 0.7 pg.

Research suggests that if people have a low B-12 intake, the absorption increases to even draw more B-12 into the system. However, there is still a general potential for slow loss, depending on the variation in this special, what is known as enterohepatic circulation, before we develop the potential of B-12 deficiency symptoms.

B-12 has two functions: one, methylocobalamin is used by the enzyme methionine synthase to change homocysteine into methionine. When this enzyme is not working, we increase the homocysteine in our system, which recent research has associated with the increased potentiality of heart disease and deterioration of the arteries and nerves. When the homocysteine is high, it appears to be a nerve toxin, as well as a blood vessel toxin. The second function of B-12 is as a coenzyme is using 5′-deoxyadenosylcobalamin in the enzyme methyl malonyl-CoA mutase in the conversion of methyl malonyl-coA to succinyl-CoA.

Elevated homocysteine also happens with deficiencies in B-6 or folic acid. One of the major symptoms of B-12 or folic acid deficiency is macrocytic anemia. Folate, also called folic acid, is needed to turn the uracil into thymidine, an essential building block of DNA. This DNA is needed for production of new red blood cells and for red blood cell division. B-12 is involved because it is involved in the pathway that creates methyl cobalamin. This B-12 also produces a form of folate needed to make DNA. So, if there is no B-12, folate can become depleted and DNA production slows down.

Another little side part of the methyl malonyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA conversion is that when the B-12 is not available, the methyl malonyl-CoA levels increase and are converted to methyl malonic acid, which accumulates in the blood and urine.

Since the B-12 is the only co-enzyme required in this pathway, methyl malonic acid levels are considered the gold standard as an indicator of B-12 deficiency. Other causes of high methyl malonic acid (MMA) are genetic defects, kidney failure, low blood volume, dysbiosis, pregnancy and hypothyroid. The MMA test is important because the progressive medical community no longer considers serum B-12 levels an accurate measurement of appropriate amounts of B-12. In other words, a normal serum B-12 may not mean that B-12 levels are healthy.

We need a urinary assay of methyl malonic acid to really determine that. This is an important point, because when I first wrote about this issue in Conscious Eating, the establishment of the methyl malonic acid assay as the gold standard had not taken place yet. I based some of my statements at that time on the world research, which was using serum B-12. A serum B-12 of 200 pg. or less was considered deficient. As a result of the new gold standard and what we know about MMA and homocysteine, the B-12 serum levels should be around 450 pg. to maintain a normal homocysteine level. Therefore, serum B-12 levels less than 450 pg. may be considered as indicating a B-12 deficiency.

There are a variety of symptoms of B-12 deficiency, which are important to vegans and live fooders. The first is actually low energy. It could be a reason why some people just don’t feel well on these diets, besides not getting the right protein/carbohydrate/fat mix for their constitutional type.

There are specific neurological symptoms, often described as “subacute combined degeneration”. Some of this damage can be almost irreversible, if it becomes chronic. This nerve system degeneration affects peripheral nerves and the spinal cord. Some of the typical neurological feelings include depression, numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, nervousness, paranoia, hyperactive reflexes, impaired memory and behavioral changes.

With a B-12 deficiency, one can also have diarrhea, fever, frequent upper respiratory infections, impotence, infertility, sore tongue, enlargement of the mucous membranes of the mouth, vagina, and stomach, macrocytic anemia, low platelets, increased bleeding, low white blood cell count. Some of the causes of B-12 deficiency are low dietary intake of B-12 and/or poor absorption, which usually comes through loss of intrinsic factor and/or a lack of stomach acid.

Consistent research over the last decade has shown that vegans and live food people of all ages and sexes have a much higher risk of becoming B-12 deficient. This does not mean that everyone becomes B-12 deficient. This deficiency is particularly true with newborn babies, especially babies of vegan live-food nursing mothers who are not using B-12 supplementation.

In contrast to the average adult storage of 2,000-3,000 pg. of B-12, newborns of mothers with normal B-12 have about 25 pg. Studies have shown that the milk during the first week of life does contain large amounts of B-12. This means that the B-12 storage in infants at birth is normally adequate to last the first few weeks of life. Afterwards, they must get it from breast milk or other sources. If a vegan or live-food mother is already B-12 deficient during pregnancy, the baby may be born with seriously low B-12 levels and develop clinical signs of deficiency as soon as two weeks.

The general research suggests that even among non-vegetarians, B-12 can be insufficient in infants, and that perhaps all breastfeeding mothers should consider B-12 supplements for themselves and their infants during the time of breastfeeding. This lack of B-12 in the mother’s diet during pregnancy has been associated with a lack of myelin production, which is the coating of the nerves. It takes somewhere between one to twelve months to develop, and manifests as failure to thrive and slow developmental progression. The babies are often lethargic, lose their ability to use muscle adequately, and even their sensory attunement decreases. They also have irregular macrocytic anemia.

The good news that one major study in the United Kingdom in 1988 showed, in studying 37 vegan children was that there was normal growth and development in children who were breastfed for 6 months at a minimum, when there was B-12 supplementation.

Young children and teenage children who were supplemented with B-12 were found to grow normally. Adults who were vegetarian without B-12 supplementation for greater than six years usually had a lower B-12 than non-vegetarian adults in the general research. In one study of adults in 1994, 81% of the vegan adults had a B-12 lower than 200 pg. That is approximately the percentage of adults on a live food diet who are low in B-12.

In my clinical experience, meat eaters, vegans and live-fooders tend to have a fairly high percentage of B-12 deficiency, although meat eaters do have less incidence. My experience is that cooked food vegans have a higher incidence of B-12 deficiency than live fooders, but there is still a significant occurance in live fooders. In vegetarians and vegans, there is also a high percentage under 200 pg., about 54%.

A study in 1982 by Dunn and Scott of raw food vegans with 83 subjects from the Natural Hygiene Society showed that 92% of the vegans had a B-12 less than 200 pg., and in 53% it was less than 100 pg. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers B-12 deficiency to be less than 200 pg. The percentages of B-12 deficiency tend to increase over time on a natural hygiene diet. Another study in Finland in 1995 that examined B-12 status of long-term 100% raw vegans found that 66% of the people had a B-12 lower than 200 pg. One study done in 2000 by Donaldson at Hallelujah Acres on primarily live food diet people, but with some B-12 supplementation via nutritional yeast, showed only about 15% of the people were less than 200, and none of them less than 160. The supplementation with nutritional yeast was 5 pg. of B-12 from one tablespoon of Red Star Vegetarian Support.

Up until this time, many of us have felt that additional supplementation for live fooders with sea vegetables or probiotic formulas was sufficient for protection against B-12 deficiency. This does not seem to be the case. In macrobiotics, who primarily cook their food, we see a very high percentage of children actually having growth retardation due to low B-12 intake. Many of us have felt that spirulina, Klamath Lake Algae, all the sea vegetables had enough active B-12 to avoid a B-12 deficiency.

Although the research is not fully in, we do know that, as I pointed out in Conscious Eating, these substances do have human active B-12. The problem is they also have a significant amount of analog B-12 that competes with the human active B-12. This analog amount was not measured in my studies. Using the methyl malonic acid reduction approach, which is now the gold standard, research showed that when people used dry and raw nori from Japan, the dried nori actually made the methyl malonic acid (MMA) status worse, which means it actually reduced the B-12 status.

Therefore it could possibly worsen a B-12 deficiency. Raw nori seemed to keep the methyl malonic acid at the same level, meaning it did not harm the B-12 status, but the research showed it did not particularly help it either. No food in Europe or the U.S. has been tested for lowering methyl malonic acid. Research absolutely has to be done to answer this question fully.

There is one exception to this lack of vegetarian B-12 active food, which is that we do produce B-12 from bacteria in our large intestine, but since this B-12 is produced in the area below where B-12 is reabsorbed, it is really not available for absorption. Some people have argued that a lot of species of lower mammals do not need B-12. The reason why this is true is that a lot of species that are primarily vegetarian animals eat their feces.

Human research also has shown if you eat your feces, you will get enough B-12. Dr. Herbert sponsored research in England where vegan volunteers with a documented B-12 deficiency were fed B-12 extractions made from their own feces. It cured their B-12 deficiency. So, there is a natural vegan way to do it. It may not be the most tasteful way, however.

Some have theorized that organic foods, in various regions, would improve the B-12 tests by lowering the serum malonic acid, but again, the research has not shown that washed or unwashed organic food has made a difference.

Many animals, aside from eating their own feces, will ingest a variety of eggs, insects, small vertebrates or soils. For example, gorillas, who are the closest to vegan of all the species, will eat insects and sometimes their feces. So there are ways to do this for vegans, but again, they may not be the most aesthetic or tasteful. I would love, at this point, to come up with an alternative to this, however it doesn’t seem to be the case.

There are many ideas of vegan foods that have active B-12, but few are proving to actually raise B-12 or prevent its loss. The research has shown, for example, that tempeh does not supply human active B-12. Research in both the U.S. and the Netherlands has confirmed this. There was one paper that showed that tempeh from one particular source in Thailand did have some B-12, but what they basically found was that fermented soybean did not contain B-12.

Other foods such as barley, malted syrup, sourdough bread, parsley, shitake mushrooms, tofu, and soybean paste, had some B-12 in them. Amazake rice, barley miso, miso, natto, rice miso, shoyu, tamari, umeboshi, and a variety of nuts, seeds and grains did not contain any elements or even any detectable B-12 analog. My study using the earlier gold standard test for B-12 active bacteria did show indeed that arame, dulse, kelp, kombu and wakame had significant human active B-12. Other studies have shown that dulse did have a certain amount of B-12 analog per serving.

Until research is done to see if it actually lowers the methyl malonic acid levels, the question has to be raised that we can’t assume that because a food has human active B-12 it will help avoid a B-12 deficiency, because the actual non-human active analogs may be blocking the human active B-12. The same question arises now with the aphanizomenon flos-aqua and spirulina, as well as chlorella. So, until we actually do the gold standard test of these, through the methyl malonic test, to see if it actually lowers the methyl malonic acid, I think it is reasonable to eat these foods, but not expect that they are actually going to raise your human active B-12.

My serum B-12 of 600 pg. may have thrown off my conclusions when I wrote my summary in 1990. I may have been in that 20% of vegans and live food people that don’t seem to be affected. But I am more concerned about the other 80% that are B-12 deficient and that 50% whose B-12 levels go down to less than 100 pg. A study done in 1991 by Miller found that serum B-12 appeared to be unrelated to consumption of wakame, kombu, and other sea vegetables or tempeh in macrobiotic children. Other researchers feel that it is possible that raw nori, not dried nori, is a source of active B-12. Some of these conclusions are not finalized. This brings me to the next issue, which is, what is a normal level of B-12?

Now the next question really is, what is a healthy level of B-12 in the serum? The answer is that a serum level of 450 pg. keeps the homocysteine level within normal levels. Some might just say that dulse and raw nori and an algae called cocolithophorid algae, also known as pleurochritias cartera, may provide sufficient human active B-12. They have not been fully tested with the gold standard. The normal serum homocysteine level is 2.2 – 13.2 micromoles/liter. The normal adult urine MMA is .58 – 3.56 micromoles/mmol/cr. The normal level of B-12 for breast milk is 180 – 300 pg. per ml. The normal urine level for children is 820 – 11,200 micromoles/mmol/cr of MMA. The normal serum B-12 level of children is 160 – 1300 pg. per ml.

Using the methyl malonic acid study as the gold standard, elevated methyl malonic acid was found in subjects with a B-12 up to 486 pg. This is a really important statement, because up ’til this time, most of the studies in the world health basically say that 200 pg. and above is not considered deficient. That was somewhat how I based my ideas that B-12 in many vegans and raw foodists was low normal, but still within normal.

Using the gold standard methyl malonic acid test, studies show that without supplementing with B-12, vegans have higher homocysteine levels than lacto-ovo vegetarians and non-vegetarians, which means they are deficient in B-12. The good news, of course, is that B-12 supplementation will decrease these high homocysteine levels back to normal range. High homocysteine levels are connected with the potential for heart disease, arterial destruction and neurological pathologies.

Other diseases associated with an elevated homocysteine are: Alzheimer’s, age related hearing loss, neural tube defects, recurrent loss of pregnancy, increased mortality. Many non-vegetarians also have a poor B-12 status because there are many factors that can cause B-12 deficiency. They include malabsorption or inadequate intake of protein or calories or B-12, radiation exposure, drugs, and a variety of toxins, paraminosalicylic acid, alcohol, pancreatic tumors, failure of the small intestine to contract and move food associated with bacterial overgrowth, oral contraceptives, fungal infections, liver and kidney disease, tobacco smoking and B-6 or iron deficiency.

The research conclusion is that: it is a reasonably safe bet that about 80% of the vegan and live food population, over time, runs the risk of a subclinical or clinical B-12 deficiency and increased homocysteine levels. An even higher percentage of newborns run this risk. My suggestion, out of my concern for all of my clients, for my fellow live fooders and vegans is that it is well advised to supplement with an actual B-12 human active supplement. There are vegan B-12 supplements, which allow us to be totally successful vegan live fooders.

My general recommendation is that if you have symptoms of B-12 deficiency, you can even start with a 100 pg. injection, or according to the research, an oral administration of 1,000 pg. per day for two to four weeks is equal to repeated monthly injections. After about a month of the oral, the dose can be cut in half. One can even cut that in half again. I don’t really recommend nutritional red star yeast, because of the fungal potential; I think that the safest and healthiest approach is via supplementation.

Some people eat according to their philosophy and belief of what is natural, and this may be an impediment. For example, the black Hebrews, a group of African-Americans who have migrated to Israel, have horrendously high levels of infant B-12 deficiency, as well as adult B-12 deficiency. They did not believe in taking supplements.

Data in a 1982 study showed that of the infants who were breastfed for three months, and then were given diluted homemade soymilk for three months to one year, 25 of them (a significant percentage) had protein deficiency, iron and B-12 anemia, as well as zinc deficiency. In the 1982 study, three of the infants were dead on arrival, five more died within a few hours of hospital admission, despite treatment. Serum levels were low in 9 of 15 cases and undetectable in three of them. I don’t feel this is a very good example of what we want to show to the world in the way we want to treat our children. We can make those choices. We have a theory of natural, and we also have a theory of what it means to be healthy.

This is the first time in history that we can be completely successful live food vegans. What I mean by being successful is completely healthy, including no B-12 deficiency and no elevated homocysteine levels. It is my medical opinion, as a vegan since 1973 and live fooder since 1983, and as a person committed to supporting all those who choose to become healthy live food vegans, that it would be wise to incorporate some B-12 supplementation in your diet. I believe it is more natural to be healthy than it is to be anything less than that.

B12 UPDATE March 2004

Iwas pleased by the general positive response to the B12 article. It was nice that so many people understood the integrity of my intent, which is to create the understanding and support for everyone to be successful on a live food diet. The ethics of live food lifestyle are wonderful, but we need to remember that we are still in the first few generations of a worldwide live food movement. We need to give honest feedback so we can attain the highest level of health and make this a truly successful worldwide movement.

Contrary to what a few people wanted to interpret from my article, there was more than one study that showed live food people were B12 deficient. There were at least three studies on adults and two on children. All five of these published live food studies showed the participants had serious deficiencies. These are no studies that show live food vegans do not get B12 deficient overtime. There are at least fifteen vegan studies on adults that have shown identical results. Cooked food and live food vegans show the same results…approximately 80% of those who do not use B12 supplements or B12 fortified foods sooner or later develop symptoms of B12 deficiency. These may include physical symptoms such as the inability to walk, tremors, weakness, fatigue, diarrhea, fever, upper respiratory infections, impotence, infertility, anemia as well as neurological symptoms such as depression, anxiety, panic attacks, hyperactive reflexes, numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, impaired memory, and paranoid delusions. These appear in children as well, but in children if they are not caught in time, they often result in death. Sickness and death due to B12 deficiency do not support the expansion of the vegan live food movement. These symptoms are not just “a misunderstood healing crises or poorly functioning colon or a poor live food diet.”

Although bacteria in the colon do produce B12, it is not reabsorbed into the system. Published research has shown that if people eat an extract of their feces they will not get a B12 deficiency. Although this may be considered natural, it is not something that I recommend. There are far easier and tasteful ways to build the B12 such as taking a supplement or eating B12 fortified foods. Whether one’s colon is clean or not, B12 does not get absorbed from the colon.

A reasonable dose is 10-100 micrograms per day. Research shows that a daily intake best approximates the natural intake pattern. Vegan tablets are available from a variety of companies; Twin Labs has gelatin in its tablet and therefore is not vegan.

There are three forms of B12: cyanocobalamin, methylcobalamin, and hydroxycobalamin. Although all three forms work, but cyanocobalamin probably should not be used in people with kidney problems or who smoke. In some studies with people with severe B12 deficiencies oral doses of 1000 micrograms per day for two months worked as well as 1000 microgram injections repeatedly given.

A published report cites a man in his eighties who had been in excellent health as a vegan for 38 years, when suddenly he began to suffer from mental disturbances, developed confusion and sadness, lost bowel control, and lost motor control skill to the point where he could marginally stand up. After one shot of B12 his physical and mental health began to rapidly return and by one week many of his symptoms had disappeared.

A personal communication with Nazariah Owen who developed weakness, fatigue and impaired motor and nervous system symptoms including the loss of the ability to walk following a seven year history of lacto-vegetarian diet followed by a five year history of a pure raw vegan diet tells of a too common story.

His symptoms disappeared after starting B12 supplementation and eating B12 fortified foods. He found many people who had similar B12 deficiency symptoms, but who were afraid to share publicly. An additional health problem associated with a low B12 is elevated homocysteine which is associated with an increased incidence of heart attacks, neurological problems, neural tube defects in children especially if the folic acid is low, increased incidence of hearing loss with age. In one study women with higher homocysteine levels had 170% chance of two or more pregnancy losses in the first trimester.

If the live food movement is to mature, it requires that we do not suppress honest feedback so we can solve the problems that do arise in this young mass movement. Yes…there are 20% who may not get an immediate or even a deficiency after 20 years. There are one million four hundred thousand genetic variations in our DNA. Some people are going to get B12 deficient sooner than others or not at all because of their particular enzyme systems and metabolic patterns. For some it may be like the man in his eighties who took thirty-eight years before becoming deficient.

For those who do not want to risk the eighty percent chance of becoming deficient, oral supplementation is the simplest way to avoid a B12 deficiency and elevated homocysteine levels. The personal physical, moral and spiritual reasons for succeeding at live food vegan diet, the shift in world consciousness and healing of the planetary ecology brings is a far greater gift than the ego gratification of holding on to a concept of naturalness.