Raw Chef Dan

Banana's the Amazing fruit!!!

Never, put your banana in the refrigerator!!!
This is interesting, after reading this, you'll never look at a banana in the same way again .

Bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy.

Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes.

But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit.

It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.
Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.
Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds
up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system. Overweight and at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases.. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of
the stomach.

Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a 'cooling' fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan.

Smoking & Tobacco Use: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassiu! m and ma gnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Strokes: According to research in 'The New England Journal of Medicine, 'eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or  surgical tape!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, 'A banana a day keeps the doctor away!'

Share this with friends, if you like the banana...

PS: Bananas must be the reason monkeys are so happy all the time! I will add one here; want a quick shine on our shoes?? Take the INSIDE of the banana skin, and rub directly on the shoe...polish with dry cloth..
                            Amazing fruit!!!

Inspiring Raw Success story

I found this yesterday and just had to post it. This is truly a motivational story of raw food reality. Please take a moment to read it.

Many people have asked that I post a diet update since ending my 30-day Raw Food Diet trial in January. I don’t have a whole lot to report, but I’ll post a brief update to address the main questions I’ve been asked.

I went back to eating vegan cooked foods in February and March. As I already mentioned in the final update from the raw trial (linked above), I got sick for a few days starting with the first day back on cooked foods. That eventually passed, and I seemed to readapt just fine.

On the downside, in February and March, I gradually gained back all the weight I lost during the raw trial, so I weigh the same now that I did on January 1st. I didn’t change my exercise habits, and I probably ate the same or fewer calories as I ate during my raw trial. As I found out for myself with detailed measurements before and during my raw trial, all calories aren’t equal.

During the past two months, my energy wasn’t as good as it was during the last two weeks of my raw trial. I lost some endurance and strength at the gym within the first week back on cooked foods. I missed the higher levels of mental clarity and concentration I enjoyed while raw. These improvements came on so gradually during the trial that I didn’t consider them a big deal, but I really noticed the difference when they quickly faded after I returned to cooked foods. I also needed more sleep on cooked foods, and I was more tired in the evenings.

Even while eating cooked foods again, I noticed I always felt better when I ate more raw foods, especially the banana-spinach shakes. After a cooked food meal, my energy dropped. If I ate 80% raw for a day, I felt better. I continued eating lots of fresh fruit because I felt more alert and energetic when I did. I can’t say I felt bad eating cooked foods, but compared to how I felt eating 100% raw, it was clearly a step down.

On April 2nd, I decided to return to eating 100% raw. I didn’t have a time limited trial in mind. I just woke up one morning and felt like I’d lost interest in eating cooked foods. It’s hard to say whether I’m ready to make a permanent commitment to a raw food diet, but it does feel that way to me. This is the first time I went raw for more than a day when it wasn’t part of a planned trial.

I’m not doing the strict low-fat raw food diet I did during my previous trial, so I’m incorporating more fat, spices, onion, garlic, salt, and some condiments. That definitely makes it easier to stick with it and gives me a lot more flexibility. But it’s still a huge improvement over my cooked food vegan diet.

One of the most telling pieces of data was my urine pH. During my raw trial, my urine was alkaline; every reading was between 7.4 and 8.0. When I measured my urine pH in late March after eating cooked foods for 2 months, the reading was 5.8 (acidic). I’ve been eating 100% raw again since April 2nd, and this morning my urine pH was 8.0 (alkaline). The pH scale is logarithmic, so this is a significant shift. While eating cooked food, my urine pH has always been acidic; while eating raw food for a day or more, my urine pH has always been alkaline. If you want to measure your own urine pH, you can buy inexpensive pH strips at a health food or vitamin store.

I had some mild detox symptoms yesterday but nothing too severe. This morning I feel great. I don’t know if I’ll have the same dry skin problems I had during my last trial. Time will tell. A 30-day trial really wasn’t long enough to know if that problem would have corrected itself.

So I guess I’m a raw foodist now.

Origanal post at http://lifehack.wisebyte.org/?p=822

What is a fruit??????????????????

So I started working on some recipes for an upcoming fruitarian Recipe book. I am creating some sample recipes as a first step to feel out the situation / opportunity before I commit but that not what this is about. This is in fact about what is accepted in a fruitarian diet and what is not. If I was to create recipes for a fruitarian book I need to know my boundaries. So my first question was "what exactly is a fruit? A bit of googling and a few emails brought me to the conclusion that there is no were to be found a definitive list. There are though 2 listings on Wikipedia that best outline what is considered a fruit or fruitarian.

See for yourself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_culinary_fruits

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_culinary_vegetables#Fruiting_and_flowering_vegetables

Pate Pate so much to do with Pate

I love a good Pate and the funny thing is I don’t think that often of having some but when I do for whatever reason it is really enjoyable. There are many common pates in the raw food world like a Moc Tuna salad, Sun-dried Tomato and Basil, Walnut Herb, Zucchini Dill, “Refried Beans”…  This is great because these recipes are easy to find and we often have some emotional triggers or attachments to them. It is a comfort food in the raw. One of the things I really like about a good pate is that it is so versatile; one batch of pate can go a long why. There are almost as many ways to eat pate as there are recipes. Not so common is my favorite way which is to cut an avocado in half, remove the pit and blob a big scoop of pate on top, then with a spoon just eat the pate and avocado out of the avocado shell.  But that is as simple as it gets other that just eating the pate with a spoon but that’s cheating; you’re not really serving up a pate dish. One could do much better by putting it into a wrap, make a sandwich on sprouted raw bread with avocado, tomato, lettuce, onion, and a dressing of  choice. Finish this article here. http://www.rawchefdan.com/recipestore/tip_of_the_week/tipoftheweek.html

Out Searching for my brain

Hi everyone! Sorry I was MIA for most of the week but I was at an absolutely amazing workshop this weekend. In fact I have been taking many of these amazing workshop that have been just completely awesome. I’m not a big talker when it come to things I am doing myself for my personal growth but these workshops I have discovered are so great for everyone who goes I feel its only fair to you all I tell you about them. The company is called Peak Potentials. It has been created by this amazing and really cool guy T Harv Ekker author of The Secrets of a Millionaire Mind His introductory workshop is a three day event that will blow your mind. The Millionaire Mind Intensive or MMI The workshops are based in the theme of building wealth but the actual events teach us more about who we are and what it is in our very being that gets in the way of our self’s. This is about you and your entire self,  which is applicable to not just money and finance but everything, friendships, love relations, our jobs, happiness, internal peace… All I have to say is WOW, these worships are absolutely awesome and essential for anyone wanting to go from wherever they are now to the next level and beyond. This last course I took was on remapping and reprogramming your mind’s Dendrites or neurological pathways. There were two guest speakers from The Secret, John Kehoe the grand father of mind mastery teaching and author of Mind Power Into The 21st Century">Mind Power Into The 21st Century. Many more were there of equal qualifications as well as in the other courses I took. Just simply awesome; priceless experiences to say the least. If you plan to live on planet Earth and have a life, you have to take these courses. Just Go. If you buy the book you get two free passes to MMI. After that you can decide which other courses you want to take depending on your interest in what arias of you life, business or money.  To register I think you need a referral ID# (that would be me) and my ID is #408228. Just go!!!!!!!!

UDSA to Nuke All Greens

FDA Plans to Nuke ALL Our Greens Soon -- Take Action Quickly!
Our "beloved" government intends to require that all greens be pasteurized prior to sale, and their open comment period from the public runs only until this Tuesday, Dec. 3! We need to make our opinions heard and registered immediately if we hope to be able to still buy raw greens in the supermarkets.
In the forwarded email below, they refer to the FDA, but they really mean the USDA. Here are the procedures for posting a public comment:

1) To submit online: Go to www.regulations.gov. In the middle of the screen, you will see “Search Documents.”

In Step 1, choose "Documents with an open comments period"
In Step 2, choose "Department of Agriculture"
In Step 3, choose "PROPOSED RULES"
In Step 4, choose "Docket ID" and then type in "AMS-FV-07-0090"

Hit "Submit."
Next, you will see a column titled "Comments, add/due by." Click on the tiny tan dialogue icon, and you are now ready to submit your information and your comment.

2) To fax: (202) 720-8938.



 

sprouting facts, myths and the overly complicated.

So today I would like to address a pet peeve of mine. As I have stated in my post before, ether on my Myspace Blog or elsewhere much misinformation is being distributed and taught religiously by many “Raw Chefs and or Gurus” and it really gets to me.
One such instance in which I was so shocked to hear (actually i saw on you tube) was from a well know figure in the UK raw food scene. I won’t mention any names as that will only cause unnecessary turbulence. But the reason that it shocked me was not that the info was incorrect but that it came from a person whom we all would think knew what that person was talking about. This is one of the top leaders in the UK community and with the years of experience and knowledge behind this person you would think something so basic would be correct. Then speaking with a friend about this informed me she had attended one of the worlds most established and recognized raw chef schools I will not name had taught her the same misinformation. WHAT! I lashed, that school, there? Really? Who would have thought? Let me clear this up right now before my head explodes.

SUNFLOWER SEEDS LIKE ALL SEEDS DO NOT HAVE ENZYME INHIBITORS

The Vegetarian downfall!

This is reposted from my myspace blog Aug 19 2006
I know that, we only know what we know and being a vegetarian you are on a path of higher consciousness and that is great as long as one is open to continuing one's pursuit and willing to listen, change and grow. That said, I must say that I continually find if curious when vegetarians, a label with the word vegetable in it, insist on filling their plates with starch i.e.: pastas, rice, saitan, breads, potato, carrots... Starch, STArch, STARCH! Starch is one of the worst things we can put into our bodies. And Vegetarians on their mission to be health conscious, fill their bodies with this poison in huge amounts. This is why many Vegetarians fail to stay Vegetarian, why many are over weight, why many are sickly, and many simply do not feel good...