LIVING FOOD LIFESTYLE

THE PATHWAY TO RADIANT HEALTH

Traveling Microbes

We are introducing our Fifth Anniversary Newsletter with important information about pathogenic bacteria that may be riding into your home on fruits, vegetables and other food items.

Due to the large increase in fresh produce imported from other countries, a number of serious disease outbreaks have occurred in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about nine thousand people die in this country each year, and more than six million become quite ill, from foods that contain unfriendly microbes.

Last year, an article that appeared in Clinical Infectious Diseases journal predicted that "food-poisoning outbreaks are likely to occur more frequently in the future" resulting from use of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The United States imports thirty billion tons of food each year, but only a tiny fraction of it is inspected by government authorities. In addition, many people returning from trips abroad illegally carry food items back with them.

Food workers in this country and abroad often fail to use simple hygienic practices that could avoid food-borne contamination. Refrigerated trucks may break down or otherwise fail to maintain safe temperatures during transit.

The outside of melons, for example, may be covered with toxic pathogens that can be transferred to the inside during the process of cutting and serving. All fresh produce is capable of providing a convenient ride for potentially dangerous bacteria.

In addition to possible pesticide contamination of our food supply this newly discovered danger of food-borne bacterial and viral contamination significantly upgrades the importance of proper decontamination procedures in the kitchen before serving or eating food.

We suggest that all produce be thoroughly rinsed with purified water containing an effective antimicrobial agent. Many people have found the environmentally friendly Shaklee Germicidal Concentrate to be safe and effective for this purpose. You will find this product listed in our new Living Food Products Catalog that is described later in this newsletter.

The Natural Diet for Humans 2

Food Compatibility 2

The Staff of Life 3

Diet and Aging 5

Questions and Answers 5

Recipe Corner 5

Recent Testimonials 6

New Publications 6

Living Food Product Catalog 6

Home Rejuvenation Program 6

Until the discovery of fire, humans (along with the rest of the animal kingdom) had developed and evolved utilizing a diet of natural, raw foods. Since the discovery of fire, without much reflection, we have put natural foods on the fire, thereby destroying their essential nutrients, and then tried to nourish our bodies with these debased foods. The direct consequence is the development of the diseases from which mankind suffers today.

All life must comply with certain natural laws in order to be free -- for a person in the throes of disease is not free. He is a slave. He is in bondage. He has imprisoned himself by disobeying nature's laws.

Obedience to these laws will keep life in the line of evolution to higher and higher degrees of perfection till it reaches that zenith to which nature is ever striving to bring all she creates.

But if these laws are violated, the process of evolution is interfered with, and the penalty is disease and premature death. In the support and maintenance of life, the first and most important thing is the substance upon which it feeds.

On the checkered highway of our curious doings, there is indeed nothing stranger than this: we bake, boil, stew, broil and heat our foods, until their original elements are wholly changed, until they are rendered almost totally valueless.

Excerpts from Raw Food Anthology (American Living Foods Institute, 1995).

For years, many people have been confused and bewildered by food combining charts and principles that have been handed down almost like Biblical injunctions. With our present day, busy lifestyles, such stringent guidelines are nearly impossible to follow.

Although Dr. Herbert Shelton provided some useful food combining principles, he understood that people are not always able to comply with them. He suggested a simple procedure for handling less-desirable food combinations: allow more time for digesting them before taking the next meal!

That's very good advice. Fruits and melons take about thirty minutes to digest. Vegetables alone or eaten with grains take about two hours, but in combination with protein take at least three hours.

Activated, germinated or sprouted grain with proteins are semi-compatible and may take four hours to digest. Less compatible combinations like two grains, two proteins, protein with avocado, and grain/fruit or protein/fruit combinations may also take a minimum of four hours to digest.

Psychologically speaking, extremism is really unhealthy in itself. So, feel free to make exceptions -- then wait for real hunger before eating again.

Refer to Living Food Compatibility Guide( (American Living Foods Institute, 1995)

Note from Publisher:

LIVING FOOD LIFESTYLE is published quarterly by the American Living Foods Institute, a non-profit organization, with mailing address at 1147 E. Broadway #188, Glendale, CA 91205.

For further information about this or other Institute publications or programs, call toll-free 1-800-440-ALFI. You may also obtain information on the Internet by consulting our home page http://www.serve.com/alfi. Our E-mail address is livingfood@aol.com. Copyright 1996, American Living Foods Institute. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without written permission of the publisher. Subscription: $9.00 per year. This publication is dedicated to providing critical information about the value of living food nutrition to human health. Its contents are not intended to provide medical guidance or advice, and we encourage our readers to seek health advice from recognized medial or naturopathic practitioners.

The importance of starch in the human diet is greatly underestimated by many advocates of the living food lifestyle. Starch is definitely the staff of life. In this article, we will present our reasons for reaching this conclusion, and contrast the difference in the effect on the human body of fruit foods (simple carbohydrates) and starch foods (complex carbohydrates).

Fruit Foods (Simple Carbohydrates)

Fruit foods are not able to provide sustainable energy. They are body cleansers, not body builders. Vegetable foods are the body builders. The human body is not ideally suited to a predominately fruit diet, despite some theories to the contrary.

Too much reliance on fruit foods can result in moderate to severe mood swings, mental disorientation, physical coldness, constant cravings and abnormal weight loss. Fruit foods alone do not provide an adequate quantity of amino acids, mineral salts, trace elements or essential fatty acids.

Because fruit foods temporarily elevate the blood sugar level and are easy to digest, they can provide the illusion of health and well being. The blood-sugar highs produced by excessive fruit consumption can become physiologically and psychologically addictive.

Complex carbohydrates
from starch foods are like
timed-release energy capsules.

Unfortunately, people who eat predominately fruit diets often suffer from progressive nutritional deficiencies which may not become evident for months or years. They also often experience severe cravings for pasta, bread, pastry or chips. These cravings frequently lead to binges, followed by unpleasant periods of detoxification and withdrawal. The body has a natural longing for starch foods, and to ignore this instinctive hunger is pure folly.

Starch Foods (Complex Carbohydrates)

In ancient times the primary sources of starch were root vegetables and tubers such as raw yams and potatoes, and high-starch nuts such as acorns and chestnuts. The importance of root vegetables was recognized by Dr. Norman Walker, the famous nutritionist, who emphasized that they are rich in essential minerals and vitamins. In his book, Diet and Salad, he recommended that we include raw potatoes, yams, parsnips, rutabagas and turnips in our diet by grinding, grating or chopping them and adding to salads. Most people don't find these raw starch foods appetizing.

In today's world our primary source of starch is grain, which we are conditioned by a lifetime of use to prefer. Grain is a relatively recent addition to the human diet, and in its uncooked form is somewhat less ideal than raw roots and tubers. However, when properly activated, germinated or sprouted, grain is a quite acceptable and convenient source of essential complex carbohydrates.

Complex carbohydrates derived from starch foods are like timed-release energy capsules. They metabolize more slowly than fruits, providing energy to the body over a longer period of time and increasing physical endurance. The slower rate of metabolism also reduces hunger. Starch foods are satisfying and fulfilling precisely because they are an essential source of nutrition in the human diet.

History of Starch Consumption

Other plants with roots and tubers eaten by early native Americans include Miner's Lettuce, Alpine Bistort, Dandelion, Chicory, Thistle, Bullbriar, Great Bulrush and American Lotus.

Objective research into the habits of our primordial ancestors indicates that roots, tubers and starchy nuts comprised the foundation of their diet, followed in descending order of importance by leafy greens, raw fruits and vegetables and finally high protein nuts and seeds.

Starch and Greens

Along with starch foods early humans included a significant quantity of leaves and green shoots in their diet. These green vegetables are high in vitamins and minerals, which are lacking in other foods. A few of the North American edible leaves and shoots which were eaten by the indigenous population are: Chickweed, Winter Cress, Peppergrass, Watercress, American Brookline, Miner's Lettuce, Purslaine, Cornsalad, Dandelion, Chicory, Lamb's Quarters and Pokeweed.

Starch foods combine extremely well with green salads and, if activated, germinated or sprouted, can be combined with protein foods from time to time. For example, activated grain bread can be combined with a spread made from nutmeats or activated seeds. Allow a little longer time for digestion since this is a more complex food combination.

Importance of Variety

Dr. Herbert Shelton in his famous book, Superior Nutrition, states clearly that whole plants alone do not contain all the food factors required by man in correct correlations. "Only by eating a variety of plant foods, so selected that the total diet of fruits, nuts and vegetables can supply all the food factors required, can he be well and adequately nourished. The mono-diet is a fallacy...so far as the higher animals and man are concerned. Variety we need, but not the whole variety at any one meal."

He recommended that fruit be eaten as a separate meal, and that other meals consist of vegetables combined with either a starch or a protein.

Our Instinctive Nature

When the human body is purified of accumulated toxins it instinctively gravitates toward starch foods and green vegetables, as well as a modest amount of fruits, nuts and seeds.

Our wonderful body speaks to us if we but listen to it. Empirical evidence, which is gathered from our own actual experience, is far more accurate than theories, no matter how much we'd like to believe in them. We humans have an unusual tendency to try to force our theories to work, because we believe they should work, even when they don't.

Raw food and living food diets are often seriously deficient in starch foods. This is one of the major reasons why very few individuals can sustain such a diet for long periods of time. Our bodies instinctively crave starch foods, and if we don't consume them in their natural form, we will eventually gravitate to them in their cooked form.

Cooked Starches

Just as with all other natural foods, the cooking of starch foods converts them into inorganic and indigestible fillers. They fill but do not nourish. Their enzymes are denatured, thus depriving them of the key elements required for proper digestion and body maintenance. Dr. Walker warns that cooking of starch foods reduces or eliminates the value of their vitamins and minerals. Starch foods are not fattening when eaten in their natural, uncooked state.

Psychological Benefits

We should also consider the psychological benefits of access to healthy and delicious substitutes for bread and pastry products. Having a piece of living banana bread, a slice of living pizza or a dish of living spaghetti can make the difference between a living food diet which provides a feeling of satisfaction, contentment and fulfillment, or one which precipitates swings between bingeing and detoxing.

Recognizing the major need for starch foods in human nutrition, the American Living Foods Institute has developed a variety of living breads, cereals, pastas, and pastries as well as starchy entrees and side dishes. These fill a crucial physiological and psychological role in the ALFI New Paradigm Living Food System.

Living Food Pyramid

Based on our extensive research into the original human diet, we have developed a Living Food Pyramid which is illustrated below.

We hope you will provide your body, as Dr. Shelton recommended, with a complete array of living plant foods so that you can enjoy the radiant health your body is designed to experience.

Reprints of this article available .

Is degenerative disease a product of age, or is it rather a product of incorrect diet? Why do other species of animals, when eating their normal diet, live to a ripe old age without experiencing similar degenerative diseases? And why do domesticated animals, which eat predominantly cooked and packaged foods, experience virtually the same degenerative diseases as their human owners?

Over the past four years since its founding, the American Living Foods Institute has been amazed at the physical rejuvenation which has occurred in relatively short periods to older program participants. When the body is supplied with uncooked, living foods it immediately jumps into action to purify and regenerate itself. Even progressive mental degeneration has responded well to a diet of living food.

Unfortunately, as people grow older, they become accustomed to the taste, texture and temperature of cooked food and their bodies do not always react favorably to cold, raw food. Older people are more likely to benefit from the natural healing qualities inherent in living food, if it is presented to them in a familiar and enjoyable form.

At any age, the human body is an amazing machine. As long as there is life left, it responds very well when it receives the proper nourishment. Living foods are truly the Pathway to Radiant Health for our extremely valuable older generation.

After many years of dedicated service to family, friends and society, older people should not have to suffer from unnecessary diseases and illnesses. If you are an older person, or you know an older person, who is in need of a simple, natural way to restore and maintain radiant health, please consider living foods as a pathway.

When I take natural medications they seem to help me. Why should I have to make such a big change in my normal diet?

A

Medical and natural methods can temporarily alleviate disease symptoms, making it appear that the physical problem has been resolved. However, as long as the dietary intake is toxic, illness and disease are inevitable in one form or another.

Q

I eat high-quality prepared foods from the health food store. Shouldn't this make me healthy?

A

There is no such thing as healthy cooked food. Some cooked food products are a little less damaging than others, but all cooked food produces toxins in the human body. You must decide how much poison to tolerate in your system.

Living food, i.e., food that has not been cooked, has superior nutritive qualities that can be utilized by your body for regenerative purposes. When food is heated above 118 degrees, the enzymes are "denatured." This means they are changed into a form that prevents the body from properly utilizing the nutrients to maintain and rehabilitate itself.

Cauliflower Pilaf

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Delicious served as a cold salad...or gently warmed to 115 degrees

Melt butter at low temperature in electric skillet or double boiler, add onions and seasonings. Finely grind cauliflower flowerets in food processor using "S" blade. Stir into seasoned butter along with pine nuts. Continue stirring until uniformly warm. Serve on preheated plates.

*OK to substitute unrefined oil.

(1991)

Recent Testimonials

• "Wonderful program. Wish I had heard about it years ago. I signed up for one week, and at the end of the third day I felt so much better I signed up for two more weeks. For the first time in years, I fall asleep normally, have much energy, no heartburn or digestive problems."
• "I enjoyed the flexibility and adaptable way to use this way of eating. I will definitely try to stay with this way of eating. Ed's talks were very informative, and his gentleness just reconfirmed that quality in myself so that I can be gentle with myself as I continue with this new eating adventure."
• "In the past week, I have finally achieved improvement and relief of some physical problems which I couldn't seem to find elsewhere. Now I can see clearly the path to seek improvement of my energy, sleep, circulation, indigestion and an achy, stiff body in general."
• "I am totally satisfied with this program. The educational part is as terrific as the food. I have lost 20 lbs. without hunger -- lower extremities no longer cold at night."
• "James and I are really enjoying our new way of life. We aren't craving cooked foods, candy or coffee. We are so glad we were so lucky to be exposed to your discoveries."

Books

• Raw Food Anthology
  Raw Eating by A.T. Hovannessian, Uncooked Foods and How to Use Them by Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Christian, What Symptoms To Expect When You Improve Your Diet by Dr. Stanley S. Bass, D.C.

Articles

• The Truth About Fats & Oils
  Demystifies the subject of good vs. bad fats
• Diet & Violence
  Much of today's violence can be attributed to diet
• The Sweet Controversy
  We do need safe forms of sweetness in our lives
• The Raw Food Dilemma
  Why it is difficult to integrate sufficient raw foods into our lifestyle
• The Staff of Life
  Complex carbohydrates are the foundation of a healthy diet
• Hooked on Cooked
  Cooked food is physiologically and psychologically addictive
• The Milky Way
  Dairy products are indigestible and support unfriendly bacteria
• Savoring Your Food
  Appetite must be stimulated to promote proper digestion
• On The Juice!
  When to juice and when to rely on whole foods

Charts

• Living Food Compatibility Guide
• Living Food Pyramid
  ALFI is delighted to announce the availability of its new Living Food Product Catalog. The catalog contains a large selection of living food products:
  • ALIVE! EnzymeSafe( prepared foods, breads and crackers; sunflower, pecan and falafel patties, etc.)
  • Dried fruits, nuts and seeds
  • Natural sweeteners
  • Unrefined oils and dressings
  • Unusual herbal tea blends
  • Savory seasonings
  • Equipment and supplies
  • Enzyme-active food supplements
  • Whole-Food Concentrates
  • Natural cosmetics and cleaners
  • Home Rejuvenation Programs
  • Publications
    

Home Rejuvenation Program

You will receive a Home Rejuvenation Guide which provides recommendations for cleansing and purification, a supply of delicious ALIVE! Enzyme Safe( prepared foods, enzyme-active Shaklee multivitamins, whole food concentrates and much more.)

The program has been designed for busy people who must keep alert and active during their purification process.

Request our Home Rejuvenation Program sheet for more details.

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