On arrival, a Hispanic cab driver picks me up and asks me where we’re headed. “The Tree of Life” I tell him. He’s got a strong accent and an attitude. His cab looks like something out of an old Western movie. As I ride along the winding road to Patagonia Arizona, alongside my musings about whether I’d ever seen so many cactus trees in my life, I start thinking about the four weeks ahead.

I arrive at around three o’clock in the afternoon. It’s a remarkably simple place; red stone buildings set amongst the scenic Arizona desert. The weather in summer was hot, but dry. Thankfully, there was plenty of reverse osmosis water to go around, and a pool to cool off in.

The next few weeks were a download of nutritional and lifestyle information which was nothing less than sensational. The experience of being amongst health and spiritual enthusiasts from all around the world, having the chance to do my first seven-day juice fast and detox program all set the scene for what was to be a life-changing experience.

The intensive four week program, a requirement of the Masters Program in “Raw & Living Food and Spiritual Nutrition” offered through the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Centre and the University of Integrated Science was my first real contact with Dr. Gabriel Cousens and the start of an inspiring friendship.

The point of difference that has impressed me the most about Dr. Cousens’ work is that he successfully integrates the most cutting edge nutritional information into a strong spiritual framework where the divine element within all beings is at the centre of a truly holistic model of health.

What Dr. Cousens promotes is the idea that what we eat and how we live is not just about longevity, feeling great or looking good – it’s about using the physical body as an optimal vehicle for working towards spiritual liberation; something spoken about by the adepts of all spiritual traditions throughout the ages.

Ultimately, we cannot separate the mind, body and soul; we cannot separate our connection with the physical body or our connection with the living planet – to do so both diminishes and depletes us, both individually and collectively.

Dr. Cousens promotes the idea that both personal and planetary enlightenment is attainable, necessary and a responsibility that we can all actively participate in and provides a rationale and practical model for how this can be achieved in his inspiring books titled “Spiritual Nutrition” and “Conscious Eating”.

Dr Gabriel Cousens will be speaking on the topic of “Spiritual Nutrition” and the effects of food on mind, body and spirit in Brisbane on Thursday December 1st at 6.30pm.

Book your place.

Phytonutrients are powerful and vital nutrients found in plant foods, particularly fruit and vegetables. Research has demonstrated that  obtaining adequate amounts of these nutrients on a daily level is vital to achieving long-term health and longevity.

Nature’s foods are often colour-coded to represent the nutrients that are contained within them. For instance red fruits and vegetables such as tomato, red capsicum, cherries and raspberries contain powerful nutrients such as resveratrol , lycopene and quecertin. Resveratrol has been shown to activate a “longevity gene” that appears to have a significant effect on life span. It also appears to block cancer-promoting genes and protect against heart and blood vessel disease.

Green vegetables such as parsley, lettuce, arugula and lettuce contain other important phytonutrients such as indole-3-carbinol (which has powerful effects in preventing breast and prostate cancer), zeazanthin (which is important for maintaining eye health and preventing macular degeneration), thiocyanates and more. They also contain the important nutrient chlorophyll, which is responsible for the green colour of these foods, and are also loaded with minerals.

Orange foods such as carrots, oranges and squash contain an important class of nutrients call carotenoids. They include beta-carotene, which is a precursor of vitamin A. Blue foods include anthocyanins and are found in blueberries and blue-green algae. Each of these colour groups also represents one of the chakra, or energy centre of the body.
Getting a good spread from the various colour groups throughout the day ensures that you have a good selection of phytonutrients to boost your system throughout the day. The standard recommendation of two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables a day probably can be seen as an absolute minimum. One serve is approximately equal to a fist-sized serving.

Importantly, the majority of phytonutrients are degraded to some extent by cooking the food. With some foods, the loss can be up to 80%. Although there are rare exceptions, such as lycopene, which seems higher in tomato sauce than fresh tomatoes, in general one is wise to eat most vegetables in the raw state.  These foods are highest in water content, minerals, enzymes and electrical energy.

A great way to start the day is by getting a phytonutrient rich smoothie or shake, rather than the standard western practices of eating grains and sugars first thing up. This will set you up on the right foot towards  getting a good spread of phytonutrients for the day. Adding a vegetable juice through the day, particular one emphasizing green vegetables such as celery and cucumber is another huge boost.  As Victoria Boutenko states in “Green For Life”, green vegetables are an important missing factor in the current Western diet. They allow us to remineralize, alkalize and reach our highest potential.

In fact, the standard advice of having two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables a day is an absolute minimum. One serve is around a fist-sized portion. Adding vegetable juice or somoothies into our regime is a sure way of assuring we get well above this “minimum level”. Adding high nutrient “superfoods” such as berries, maca or spirulina take us even further towards reaching a level of super nutrition capable of turning around any chronic health complaint.

Osteoporosis means weak, brittle bones, and is a risk factor for bone fractures. It can be easily prevented by some simple lifestyle measures.

FOODS AND LIFESTYLE FACTORS TO EMPHASIZE

•    Emphasize green vegetables – these high magnesium foods can be introduced in the form of fresh, raw salads, or in the form of vegetable juices or green smoothies.

•    Emphasize berries, citrus fruit, tomatoes and other high vitamin C containing foods

•    Add in sea vegetables such as dulse, kelp, wakame and nori for all minerals including boron

•    Try Horsetail and nettle tea – these common herbs grow wildly and are an excellent source of silicon

•    Weight-bearing exercise – walking, jogging, weights, 30min five times a week walking is a good starting point

•    Sunlight exposure – 10-15 minutes at ‘off-peak’ times is ideal for a light-skinned person – try 10am or 3pm – this will generally provide approximately 20,000iu of vitamin D3.

•    Ignore calcium supplements – numerous studies have shown that calcium has very little impact on osteoporosis and may actually negatively impact vitamin D status

•    Consider a salivary hormone test panel to check for hormonal imbalances that may impact hormone balance

•   Consider adding maca root to your diet – maca is a traditional South American herb that has been shown to increase all steroid hormones

FOODS TO AVOID

•    White sugar products (including commercial sweets / soft drinks / pastries) – XYLITOL is a excellent alternative for sugar. Sugar leaches minerals from bone.

•    Artificial additives (eg Monosodium Glutamate, Aspartame, Saccharin, Nutrasweet)

•    Dairy products (including milk / butter / cheese / yoghurt) – are not essential for adequate calcium intake and in fact most likely detrimental to bone health

•    Caffeine (coffee / black tea) – are highly acidic and leach bone minerals – green tea is an acceptable transition food

•    Red and white meats are also highly acid forming and leach minerals from bone – emphasize plant-based foods

Further reading: “Building Bone Vitality” by Lanou and Castleman. Purchase from Amazon.com

The raw and living food movement has a simple philosophy. “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it”. This is certainly a truism when it comes to diet. Research has shown that around 50% of vitamins, 50% of protein, 80% of minerals, 100% of enzymes and the majority of biophoton energy is destroyed when food is cooked beyond approximately 50 degrees celsius. This is significant information for those in search of optimal health.

Research by Paul Kouchakoff in 1930 showed that after ingestion of cooked food, there is a phenomenon called digestive leukocytosis which takes place. This means that the number of white blood cells increases significantly and the proportions of the subtypes of white blood cells changes, as if the blood was mounting a response to a foreign invader. This effect was not seen when raw and living foods were ingested.

Furthermore when significant quantities of raw and living foods were added to a cooked meal, the phenomenon of digestive leukocytosis did not occur. This is a significant statement for the power of adding more living foods into our diet, and may mean that live foods have a beneficial effect upon the immune system.

Other research by Prof Francis Popp of Germany has shown that biophoton emissions can be measured in food through use of a biophoton analyzer. Through using such a device, he was able to note a direct correlation of the health of a person with the level of biophoton energy in their system.

His research further went on to show that organic raw and living foods had up to eight times the amount of biophoton energy as raw foods in general, and that cooked foods had almost no biophoton energy at all.

Although certain constitution types such as vata Ayurvedic types, or those with low spleen yang, as per traditional chinese medicine have been traditionally cautioned against raw and living food diets, with the advent of massive variety within the raw and living food movement, experience has shown that people with these constitutions can gently transition to a raw and living food diet with great benefit.

Reference: Gabriel Cousens M.D.,  “Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine”, 2003, North Atlantic Books. Purchase from Raw Pleasure

Research cited in “The China Study” by T. Colin Cambell, PhD, the largest human epidemiological study ever conducted, suggests that animal protein consumption has a direct association with cancer. The most striking association with cancer was with casein, a protein found in cow’s milk and other cow dairy products. This association was also reproduced amongst other categories of chronic disease, such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Vegetable proteins were not associated with increased chronic disease at all in this study.

Research published in Diabetes Care in 1988 showed that cooked animal protein is just as potent a stimulator of insulin as is pure glucose in type 2 diabetes. Insulin is the hormone released by the pancreas in response to a high sugar meal, and high levels are implicated in type 2 diabetes, obesity and a variety of other disoreders. This information combined with epidemiological data suggesting a direct correlation between intake of animal protein and incidence of diabetes and other insulin disturbances points to a significant role of cooked animal products in the causation of these disorders.

This information is in direct contrast to that provided by proponents of the many high animal protein diets currently available. Certainly, most holistic physicians would advocate the exclusion of refined carbohydrates such as white sugar and refined grains as part of the journey to wellness. Furthermore, certain people have a constitution with a greater need for protein and fat (eg fast oxidizer and parasympathetic metabolic types) than others, however experienced clinicians such as Dr Gabriel Cousens M.D. in Arizona, USA, have found that using concentrated plant-based protein superfoods such as spirulina, chlorella, bee pollen, hemp protein and fermented rice proteins (which are up to 80% complete protein) can provide the effect needed to balance their metabolism, without the higher rates of cancer and chronic disease.

Dr Joel Fuhrmann in his book “The Eat to Live Diet” quotes the nutrient density of various commonly eaten foods according to their concentration of health-promoting nutrients. On a scale of 1 to 1000, almost all animal-based foods rated in the 1 to 100 bracket, while dark green vegetables like kale rating over 900 on the scale.

In addition, a multitude of spiritual traditions from around the world, including the yogic, Buddhist and Essene traditions have described the plant-based diet as the most beneficial diet for personal spiritual evolution.

Recent data on Greenhouse gases has also suggested that methane as well as nitrous oxide from animal agriculture not only plays a very significant part in Global Warming, but in effect may be more significant than carbon dioxide production, as backed up by research from James Hansen, the pre-eminent researcher in the field.

The message is simple: consider a plant-based diet for health, spiritual, ecological and ethical reasons.