What exactly is this simple, healthy food?  You make yogurt by adding two bacterial cultures, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, to pasteurized milk to trun it into a thicker, fermented form.  All forms of yogurt contain these cultures at the start, and many supplement with additional probiotics that are associated with specific health benefits.  The healing benefits of yogurt have been known for centuries.  The active live cultures used for the making of yogurt and kefir are the good bacteria needed for your body to function at its highest level, can help you live longer and may fortify your immune system.  [...]

The juicing craze! After all of the hype and strict regimens of the raw and juiced diet fads, the whole idea may leave a bad taste in your mouth. But you do not have to learn how to cover up the taste of juiced beets or start watching infomercials with Jack LaLanne revving up his “Juice Tiger.” There is an easy, and yes, tasty way to drink your vitamins and boost your intake of the good stuff. For starters, you may be wondering why juiced foods are so fantastic to begin with. Simply put, it’s because they are living, unprocessed [...]

I remember eating salad growing up.  I remember carrots and potatoes placed beside the meat on my plate.  I remember tuna added to the spaghetti sauce.  I’m sure we had vegetables.  My brother had a garden in our backyard.  I remember pictures of him tending to it.  Most of my knowledge about vegetarian and living food comes from my parents, but not when I was a kid.  I learned most of it later on in life when they both started their own vegetarian/living food lifestyle.  The body requires electrically charged foods.  This energy comes from sunlight and many veggies are a [...]

I was sitting out on my back deck enjoying the river flow by.  The sun finally came out today and it feels like summer is finally showing up.  I just drank my green smoothie, and I started to think about what my body wants now.  Apples and raisins came to mind and I found a great recipe for Apple Raisin Squares.  It only requires a half cup of sugar and you can substitute sugar with anything from agave and stevia to maple syrup or honey. If you do this, you would have to decrease liquid in the recipe.  Also try substituting some raw ingredients when you [...]

I’ve been hearing so much about all the shifts in the universe these last months.  Is this the time for you to shift?  What do you need to do to shift?  What are you experiencing these days?  Is there struggle?  Is there drama?  Is there something pushing you from behind?  How can you use these struggles and difficulties? Most of you know I am closing my business that I’ve had for 20 years and moving to another state.  Big changes, right?  I’m ready; I’ve been ready and preparing for quite some time now.  A good friend of mine decided a [...]

….THROW THEM OUT!!  I recently purchased a large bag of lemons for making my “green smoothies” and for water with lemon to help my body become more alkaline.  Unfortunately, only a couple of days later, over half the bag had turned that beautiful shade of green and white and when I picked it up, mold dust spread all over the counter.  Lemons are like many other fruits and seeds, they cross contaminate.  When one goes bad and they are sitting close together, all will go bad very fast.  I now break up my bunches of bananas, not letting them touch.  The [...]

Here’s another topic I’m way too familiar with.  Fortunately I suffer from seasonal allergies and this is the season for me.  Spring and pollen.  Pollens are small, microscopic particles that are produced by plants and trees during the process of reproduction.  Hello spring and new growth!  I was in Connecticut a couple of weeks ago and I was feeling it then, but Vermont is behind its southern states by a couple of weeks.  So here I go again.  The only time I didn’t have any symptoms at all was when I had been eating a 100% raw diet for at [...]

Uh….that would be the environment of your body!  What’s the difference between an acidic and an alkaline environment?  Well first and foremost, if your body is highly acidic, cancer cells can thrive.  And, it’s not just about the food that goes in that effects your body’s pH balance….it’s about everything that goes in, on, and comes out of or comes near your body.  Stress, toxins…both can make the body more acidic.  Check out the previous blog about keeping toxins out of your body. A healthy pH is about 30% acid and 70% alkaline.  Processed and cooked foods, meat, cheese, caffeine, [...]

About a month ago, on a visit to my massage therapist and friend, I brought along one of my raw cacao drinks.  She had always shown interest in my lifestyle and wondered if she could actually do the “raw thing” and still make it through her busy day without being hungry.  I explained what was in it and how I made it.  She was open to trying it and I didn’t hear from her for a few days.  When I did hear from her, it was all good.  She couldn’t believe she wasn’t hungry at the end of the day and that she [...]

Oh, who am I kidding.  There’s only one answer here.  JUICE!!! Ghandi said, “Chew your drink and drink your food.”  What does that mean?  Very simple, take the time to liquefy your food before swallowing, and swish your drink around before swallowing.  Liquid is the way to go for assimilation and elimination. The only question I ask myself in the morning is this… “Should I use my Champion juicer or my Vitamix today?”  Or use my own teeth!  I first started seriously juicing over two years ago.  When I went “raw” and bought my Champion, I juiced anything I could [...]