Welcome to a new issue of the Pure Health & Nutrition E-Zine, brought to you by Frédéric Patenaude. Whether you are a vegetarian, a vegan, a raw foodist, or just someone interested in finding out more about diet and nutrition, you will find in Pure Health and Nutrition: lots of food for thought and practical advice.
To subscribe to this e-zine, go to: http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/newsletter.html
In this issue:
Dear readers,
I finally finished my article about my fasting experience in Costa Rica this winter. As you may know, I fasted 23 days on water in January. Many readers wanted to know about it. I’ve meant to write something on the subject for a while, but I found it hard because there is so much to say, yet the words didn’t come so easily to describe such a profound experience. I did my best to explain in simple words part of my experience with fasting. I hope you enjoy.
Now, a few announcements:
Yours,
Frederic
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"I just thought I'd send you a little note thanking you for producing your Learn Any Language In A Flash CD. Even though I had already read Barry Farber's book, even though I already use Pimsleur, and even though I am also familiar with the work of Tony Robbins, I still found so much that was worthwhile in your program. It is so nice to be able to have your experience to use as a role model.
Thanks for giving me more momentum in my language studies, and I wish you continued success!” Eric Nutt
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PS: My CD How to Learn Any Language in a Flash is available. If you want to know how I managed to learn
Spanish, German as well as many other language in my spare time in only 3 years, go to:
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"The Raw Secrets" is a powerful book in electronic format jam-packed cover to cover with all the most useful information that you need in order to take your diet and health to the next level.
When you read “The Raw Secrets” and finally decide to stop making the same mistakes that have been holding you back, you will experience the following benefits and more:
- Increased energy!
- Improved appearance and better skin.
- Fast and efficient weight loss.
- An overall younger appearance.
- Improved physical performance, endurance, muscular tone and flexibility.
-Feeling happier!: Depression often fades away (after an initial cleansing period).
- Improved capacity to focus, concentrate, and do mental work.
For more information, go to:
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THE RAW SECRETS
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“I find all of your info very helpful as I am trying to learn more about a natural way of eating and transitioning to a more raw food approach.
I recently ordered the RAW SECRETS about two weeks ago, which is fantastic.
Thank you for being so proactive and determined to clean away the confusion in this well-intentioned and contradicting path...” Gregor B
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“Thank you for writing “The Raw Secrets” I love this book and it helped me to change a lot of ways I was living. I’m Russian, living in USA for 7 years. I teach people about healthy living for 5 years (learning in the process myself). Your book helped me to see all my mistakes I was making for almost a year. God bless you!” Tatyana S.
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THE FIVE TIBETANS RULE
“I have been using the raw smoothies for breakfast and as part of my lunch -- they are great! Also I have been doing the 5 Tibetans -- it is remarkable! This comes from a 76 year old who had congestive heart failure last September. Keep up the good work.” Roger W.
COMMENT FROM FREDERIC: For more information on the 5 Tibetans, please read my article: http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/fivetibetans.html
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WHAT MAKES GREENS GOOD FOR YOU?
“What makes the “green” in green vegetables and what is it in these green vegetables that are so good for you?”
ANSWER: Chlorophyll is what makes the green vegetables green, but it's not what makes them good for us.
Green vegetables contain more vitamins and minerals than all other foods. The calcium is green vegetables is better assimilated than the calcium in cow's milk.
Also, green vegetables contain an abundance of phytochemicals that help fight cancer and other diseases.
LUCY’S QUESTIONS:
QUESTION #1: “I wanted to ask that since you do not believe that garlic, onions and spices are foods that humans ought to consume for optimum nutrition-- why are your recipes littered with these uses on your site. I came to make some of the soups and without the use of condiments/ and the concoctions I made tasted rank.”
ANSWER #1: Those recipes are pretty old — from my early raw days. I have some more in my book "Raw Soups" that don't include a lot of garlic, onions. I personally rarely use that stuff. My new book Instant Raw Sensations will be a great resource of simple AND tasty recipes.
QUESTION #2: “If we can slow every other degenerative occurrences due to free radical attacks on our bodies, then why can’t we slow down the aging problem in terms of aesthetics? What are we missing?”
ANSWER #2: We certainly can. Most people who follow a rather pure approach to eating looked younger than their age. After I fasted in Costa Rica, most people thought I was 20! I am 29.
QUESTION #3: “Shouldn’t raw-foodists age a little slower than their counterparts? Our skin may be healthier, but it doesn’t stop a 35 year-old looking like any other 35 year-old with thinning skin and wrinkles — what’s the deal?”
ANSWER #3: “It’s important to compare yourself with yourself only, and not with others. I personally don't count on living 100 years, but I also don't think I would have lived past the age of 60 if I had continued my previous diet/lifestyle. We have to deal with what we received when we were born. The idea is to do the best with what we got, not to compare ourselves with others who have a very different genetic background. But you can compare yourself with yourself, in different periods of life and with different diet and fitness programs.
My most complete work is “The Just Eat An Apple Compilation.”
The JEAA Compilation is a reprint of the first 17 issues of the raw-food magazine "Just Eat An Apple" that I published over the course of 5 years. These magazines are now very rare.
The spiral-bound book features over 500 pages of information, articles, recipes, tips, questions and answers, testimonials, letters from the readers, resources, that you will not be able to find anywhere else.
It represents 5 years of work and thousands of hours of research.
For more information on the JEAA compilation go to:
http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/compilation.html
In January, I fasted 23 days on water. What led me to this challenge goes back to eight years ago, when I read my first book on Natural Hygiene. It was “Fasting” by Herbert Shelton. That book was so inspiring to me that I decided to go on a three-day fast. Having never fasted before, I was a little unsure about the experience, but Shelton was so convincing about the body’s ability to go without food and the benefits gained from doing so that I decided to go on a short fast. For three days I ate nothing, but I continued my daily activities. I biked all over town; I ran errands and called friends. I was hungry, but fully energetic. On the third day, my hunger disappeared, just like Shelton had said it would. On the fourth day, I broke the fast, without being really hungry, but unsure about fasting any more time. That little experience at least proved me that the idea one must eat three meals a day in order to stay alive was a myth. My teachers in school told me that by skipping breakfast I could pass out before noon, but there I was, three days without food and being basically okay with it!
Over the years, I had read a great deal about fasting and its benefits for human health. I went on short fasts occasionally, the longest having been 5 days. I always had in mind to do a longer fast, but I always put it off for some reason. At first, I simply didn’t have the money to cover the expenses of going to a fasting center. Then, I didn’t want to take several weeks off to fast. I also had several fears of losing too much weight, of taking too much time to recover from the fast, etc. The fast was something I was going to do “one day” — a sort of experience I knew I wanted to have but found many reasons to not do just now.
The reasons I wanted to fast were numerous. Firstly, I was greatly impressed by the various positive experiences of fasters who had overcome various health problems through fasting. I understood that the body’s ultimate healing powers are best left to work on their own, and that this process can greatly be accelerated during a fast. For me, fasting seemed the best way to rejuvenate. I thought perhaps I could heal my failing vision (I’ve been wearing glasses or contacts for over 15 years), or after a fast my skin would glow like never before. When I was really naive about it, I thought that a long fast would “turn me into a new being.” Then with time, it became something I wanted to do because I knew I could benefit from it somehow.
The story of how I came to go fast in Costa Rica taught me how intuition can play a great part in making choices in life. I was planning to spend 2-3 months of the winter in Brazil. I was about to purchase my plane tickets when I started getting weird dreams about Brazil. At first I dismissed those dreams but eventually they continued. The dreams seemed to be telling me that this wasn’t the best choice. One day I stopped and asked myself, “What should I do instead?” An answer came from within: “Go to Central America.” I did not know any further. I talked to a friend of mine who suggested that I ask myself the following question, “What could I do that would advance me in my life?” That day, after a random search on the Internet, I found the possibility of fasting in Costa Rica with Dr. Doug Graham, and I decided that it was what I was going to do.
For about 1-2 months before the fast I prepared myself by being a lot stricter with my diet. I ate very little fat and ate fruits and vegetables almost exclusively. I lost about 5 pounds doing so.
When I arrived in Costa Rica, I was psychologically ready for the experience. The ideal conditions were met: a group of nice people (we were 10 to fast), the supervision of an expert in fasting, a tropical climate, and the start of a new year.
The fast started the day after my arrival in Costa Rica. After a tiring trip from Canada (one connection had been delayed for 5 hours), I went straight to bed. The next day, we had a breakfast consisting of a little papaya and pineapple at the hotel in San Jose. After that, we drove to our location about 6 hours away. The fast started when we left the hotel. When I learned that, I thought, “I should have eaten more!” But I was okay, being more or less psychologically prepared not to eat for the next few weeks.
I thought that fasting was going to be all about cleansing and detox. But when I think about it now, fasting has rather been a slow process of going deeper and deeper within myself. It has also been a process of surrendering to the healing powers of my body.
I did experienced a few cleansing reactions. For example, after a few days, I had a sore throat that lasted a few days. I also experienced some strange bodily reactions that I even now I can’t start to understand. What really happened deep within my body during the fast seems to be of knowledge only to the inner intelligence of my cells.
To put it in one way, the fast was a progressive decline in physical powers accompanied by a progressive increase in mental clarity. As Dr. Graham explained, during a fast the body goes from a carbohydrate-burning metabolism to a fat-burning metabolism. It relies on the inner reserves of fat to survive, converting that fat into the carbohydrates it needs. That process of consuming their fat reserves didn’t put most fasters in their most energetic state.
In the first few days of the fast, I had enough energy to walk around, swim in the pool, and have long chats with the other fasters. After 5 or 6 days, I started to slow down. After 10 days, I was definitely in the fast. I didn’t even bother to walk down to the pool (a 2 minutes walk) — it was already too much work. After 14 days, I started to take showers sitting down on a box. I was spending at least 20 hours a day lying down somewhere. My mind wasn’t inactive during those hours, but it was “horizontal” time.
In terms of mental powers, it was the opposite. My dreams during the fast were extremely clear and vivid. Sometimes I would spend hours dreaming non-stop, waking up from a dream and immediately falling asleep again into another one. The dreams often contained obvious messages. They were not scattered or confused as they sometimes are in normal life.
I had little desire to read much during the fast. But after about 6 or 7 days, I started being overwhelmed with ideas and projects that I wrote down on my computer. Otherwise, I occupied my time listening to music on my iPod (my life-savior during the fast) and doing nothing.
At first, the fast was relatively easy. Although the end seemed like a life away, I was ready to got at it one day at a time. Then after about a week, I reached the critical point were my mind tried to talk me into breaking this fast. Many times, I had doubts and fear. Whenever I would experience any new sensation I did not understand, it was another reason to start to doubt and want to break the fast.
Without the daily lectures by our doctor and the assistance provided, I would never have done such a long fast on my own. People who have fasted a long time at home without any supervision certainly have all my admiration now, but I would never recommend anybody to do such a thing. The right support and supervision is critical in the success of a fast.
Were you hungry during your fast?
After 3 days, I lost the physical sensation of hunger, but the desire for food was still there. Talking about food generated desire and awoke the digestive system a bit. During the first 10 days, I thought about food a lot. I even had dreams about food, like many other fasters. Many weird dreams. In one, I was gorging on a huge chocolate cake (something I have not eaten in at least 10 years!). I was also thinking about all the foods I would eat after the fast and I even came up with about 30 recipe ideas that I wrote down!
After about 10 days, the desire for food disappeared. After 14 days, I could have discussions about food with other fasters, without it generating any hunger sensations or desire to eat.
Was it difficult to spend all that time laying down and doing nothing?
For me, one of the best parts of the fast was the possibility (in fact, requirement) of doing absolutely nothing all day. In this regard, it has been the ultimate vacation. Little things suddenly had a lot of meaning: watching the sunset, drinking water, hearing the rainfall. It was like those weeks with the flu in bed when I was a kid, but without being sick.
How did you spend your day?
I was spending a lot of time in bed. We were going to bed at around 6 when it was dark. I stayed in bed and listened to music until I fell asleep, at around 10 usually. Then I would wake up around 6 or 7 (yes, I was sleeping 8 or 9 hours a day during the fast!), and stayed in bed until I felt like getting up, a few hours later. The rest of the day was spent reading, listening to music, chatting, sleeping, and doing nothing. At around 3 p.m. we had a talk by Doug Graham for 1 or 2 hours. Doug would lectures on specific topics about fasting and health. Those lectures were very enlightening and inspiring and were the best part of the day.
After 10 days into the fast, I discovered that my roommate had brought a complete collection of DVDs! Although this didn’t meet the approval of our doctor, a few of us watched some DVDs during the last week or two of the fast, and I must say those moments were nice treats!
Did you lose a lot of weight during the fast?
I lost 25 pounds in 23 days. Some people lost more. By the end, I was the skinniest I had been in my entire life! I easily gained 10 pounds and then took another 2 months or so to gain another 10 pounds. I am not so sure because I didn’t weigh myself very often after the fast.
The breaking of the fast was in some ways the best part of the fast, but in other ways also the most challenging. After 23 days, I was less hungry than on the 3rd day of fasting. In fact, I had no hunger at all and could discuss food with other fasters without even salivating!
When I decided to break my fast, I followed Dr. Graham’s procedure, which involved breaking the fast in the afternoon for more optimal results. At 2 p.m., I was given a tiny slice of watermelon to eat. I must say that that slice of watermelon was something I’ll never forget! Was it the best tasting meal of my life? Probably. It had something magical to it for sure. It was the first step of being reborn again. As soon as I ate that watermelon, my hunger came back full spine! I was ready for more.
I had to control myself for the next few days, and I must say this wasn’t always easy. Dr. Graham explained to us that during the fast, the body must rely on its stored reserves of fat to produce the glucose it needs. But as soon as the body can utilize sugar directly — its preferred form of nourishment — it does so. So when we eat that first piece of fruit, the sugar hits the brain directly! The result is that we get a sudden rise in mental energy — almost verging very nervous and uncontrolled mental activity — but without the physical powers to accompany with. So you want to go straight to the beach, but your legs can’t take you there yet! The muscles need to rebuild their reserves of glycogen and that takes a few days.
The refeeding period is the time after the fast when we are brought progressively back to speed, so to speak. We build up our capacity and ability to digest food again, as well as our physical and muscular power.
We were served small quantities of food at first. Those quantities increased as the days went by. We had watermelon for the first two days, then papaya, then mangoes, and then bananas and vegetables were introduced. After about a week, we had some fatty food: avocado first, and then some nut butter.
I found it extremely hard to correctly gauge the quantities of foods eaten — even though we had the supervision to do so. The refeeding period was a difficult period where the delicate balance between the needs of the body and its capacity to digest food was easily disturbed.
Although I was very week during the fast, the strength came back very quickly. The basic exercise we did consisted of walking up and down the hill. The hills in that region of Costa Rica were extremely steep and difficult to climb — the perfect terrain for training! With that basic exercise and other forms of training, I was up to speed in about 2-3 weeks. In about 4 weeks my endurance was probably higher than before the fast. In fact, when the second group of people arrived for the other event with Doug Graham I attended to in Costa Rica — the “walking tour” — my fitness level was certainly better than I expected. It surprised me that I could go through tough hikes with relative ease, even though I had not eaten almost anything during the month of January!
It is hard to tell how that fast changed me. Essentially, I am the same. I did not experience a “complete physical rejuvenation” and I doubt that such a thing is even possible. My body sure benefited from it in ways that I probably could never tell.
Apparently, my eyes were quite bright after my fast. I even got that comment from people who didn’t know I had fasted, who told me that my eyes were a lot brighter than before. Unfortunately, the fast didn’t help correct my myopic vision.
I know for one thing, even 3 months after breaking my fast, that I am more sensitive to toxins and pollution than before. Cigarette smoke is something I can’t even tolerate anymore. I know if my neighbor is smoking and I can hardly stand it!
But the most obvious result of my fast hasn’t been on the physical level. It’s not like the fast made me have some sort of spiritual realization, but just that process brought to my attention things that I previously ignored or didn’t act upon. I became more confident about what I wanted to do and accomplish in the next years. Just in the 2 months since I came back from Costa Rica, I definitely got more done than usual. I also made important decision such as moving out of my apartment in the city to go find a place in the country.
Fasting doesn’t help at all to correct diet and food addictions. In fact, it made all that stuff come to the surface! As Dr. Graham told us: you learn proper eating habits by eating, not by fasting! In fact, after a period of deprivation you are certainly on dangerous terrain when making food choices.
It wasn’t that fasting 23 days on water has been an impossible feat to accomplish, but it’s certainly something I would never have done on my own. After 7 days, I was ready for it to end. After 10 days, I was still looking forward that “magic moment” of breaking the fast, which seemed like an eternity away. This whole process certainly built character in me and helped me to “follow through.” Although I wouldn’t recommend fasting as a way to build your character or as a feat to accomplish, the self-development benefits of fasting certainly became obvious to me when I looked back at how it helped to change me in some ways.
Fasting 23 days on water in Costa Rica has been a unique experience that I’ll probably never repeat in my life. Sure, I would like to fast again, but not that long. My next fast will probably be 7 days, and it won’t happen in at least a year I think. What I did in Costa Rica was a “once-in-a-lifetime” kind of thing.
I’ll always remember those reveries in bed during the fast, the incredible mental clarity I had while not eating, and the burning desire to live that arose in me when I broke the fast. If things get too confused in my life, I know I can still take time to do nothing.
An all-time favorite!
-1 cup celery juice
-2 cups carrot juice
-1 cup carrot pulp
-1/2 avocado
-small handful dill, or cilantro
-2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 cup vegetables of your choice (cucumbers, peppers, etc.)
-1/2 avocado, pieces (optional)
Instructions:
When juicing the carrots, save 1 cup of carrot pulp. Blend the juice with the avocado and herb (dill or cilantro) together. Add in, without blending, the remaining ingredients.
Notes:
This soup will give you a reason to use that juicer you haven’t used in months!
I’m now ready to reveal how you can learn ANY language in a flash and on your own.
For more information, go to:
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1- Everything you need to know about cheating! Why we cheat, why small cheating can ruin our best efforts at maintaining our balance in the long-term, and more!
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