Gorilla since completing degree

Some people think juicing/blending is convenient but it is a false economy!!

Juicing has literally saved peoples live's...It is not false. It's healed people of many major diseases. Part of the reason i'm doing so well with cirrhosis of the liver is BECAUSE of juice.

When your diet is 100% fresh, unadulterated whole fruit, your digestive system works as it is supposed to

That wasn't my experience...If I ate enough to keep me full I had nothing but gas and loose stools...

I take offense to some of this because you are going around praising this stuff and a lot of what you say is not true.

 

That wasn't my experience...If I ate enough to keep me full I had nothing but gas and loose stools...

I ad the same experience in that i had gas and loose stools, but in time all of that went away when eating whole fruits. and i found it to be the other way around, when i ate cooked foods i had gas and diharrehea

I chew my juices, I even chew my water. It works wonders for me!

Room temperature on fruit as well as water (or anything that is to be eaten) is something I recomend too! Im glad things are working well for you Gorilla!! Good luck on your journey!

Thanks and sorry Zack - my mistake for not being clear about the context - I am reporting my personal, subjective experience: I personally find eating whole fruit to be better for my digestive system than drinking juice. However, as Liz says, of course it is possible to consume juice slowly - this would certainly be easier for example for an elderly person who may have other problems, such as dental problems. I completely agree that in such cases juicing can save lives.

On a final note for this post I would say that it seems to me that preserving enzymes is as important as caloric intake, and that when the digestive system is in a relaxed, alkaline state it is more efficient, and it is possible to find that fewer calories are needed.

Thanks and sorry Zack - my mistake for not being clear about the context - I am reporting my personal, subjective experience: I personally find eating whole fruit to be better for my digestive system than drinking juice. However, as Liz says, of course it is possible to consume juice slowly, and, as you hinted at, this would certainly be easier for example for an elderly person who may have other problems, such as dental problems. I completely agree that in such cases juicing can save lives.

On a final note for this post I would say that it seems to me that preserving enzymes is as important as caloric intake, and that when the digestive system is in a relaxed, alkaline state it is more efficient, and it is possible to find that fewer calories are needed.

Awesome dude i'm glad it's working for you. I just don't like it when people make it seem like what's working for them is the only way. I know you didn't intentionally do it, but as you know everybody's needs are different and people gotta accept that.

Keep on going you're doing an awesome job!

Thanks for all the great tips and links. I'm going to take the time to read them all carefully. Ciao

see posts below

This week, fresh figs were on sale at the market. What a treat! I remember in Italy when I was a child I could pick these off the tree. Now, I'm lucky to be able to buy them, even here in Québec.

What was funny however, is the exchange I had with the check out clerk. She had never even tasted one before and she asked me what they were like. I told her they were a little piece of paradise, somethwhat like raspberry jam only juicier. She asked what I was going to do with 4 crates of twelve figs. To which I replied, eat at least one immediately in the car! She laughed.

That's what I'm talking about

these are excellent posts, gorilla.

there is such a vibrance with fruit! we are so fortunate to have a spectacular variety of colors and flavors and textures!

thanks

see posts below

Wow, Gorilla!

I have been catching up on all your posts on this thread and I am grateful that you listed so many links to sites! I love the nutritiondata site because I needed a site that would list the amino acid content of foods. It'll be easier now to put together my nutrition plan for training.

Coming from a body building world where it is common for people to omit fruit because "it has sugar in it", yet opt for chemical-laden supplements, fat burners, dry, grey, boiled chicken instead, it just doesn't make sense. I just LOVE how you and others on this site are forging your own healthy path AND building muscle.

Thanks for the inspiration today. You RAWK!!!

thanks

see posts below

Article about nutrients in the outer skin of the fruit:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070601181005.htm

Cornell researchers have identified a dozen compounds -- triterpenoids -- in apple peel that either inhibit or kill cancer cells in laboratory cultures. Three of the compounds have not previously been described in the literature.

"We found that several compounds have potent anti-proliferative activities against human liver, colon and breast cancer cells and may be partially responsible for the anti-cancer activities of whole apples," says Rui Hai Liu, Cornell associate professor of food science. Liu is affiliated with Cornell's Institute of Comparative and Environmental Toxicology and is senior author of the study, which is online and published this month in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

In previous Cornell studies, apples had been found not only to fight cancer cells in the laboratory but also to reduce the number and size of mammary tumors in rats. The Cornell researchers now think that the triterpenoids may be doing much of the anti-cancer work.

"Some compounds were more potent and acted differently against the various cancer cell lines, but they all show very potent anti-cancer activities and should be studied further," said Liu.

With co-author Xiangjiu He, a Cornell postdoctoral researcher, Liu analyzed the peel from 230 pounds of red delicious apples from the Cornell Orchard and isolated their individual compounds. After identifying the structures of the promising compounds in the peel, the researchers tested the pure compounds against cancer cell growth in the laboratory. In the past, Liu has also identified compounds called phytochemicals -- mainly flavonoids and phenolic acids -- in apples and other foods that appear to be have anti-cancer properties as well, including inhibiting tumor growth in human breast cancer cells.

"We believe that a recommendation that consumers to eat five to 12 servings of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables daily is appropriate to reduce the risks of chronic diseases, including cancer, and to meet nutrient requirements for optimum health," said Liu.

More links:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Fruitmel.html

http://www.foodreference.com/html/artmelon.html

Hey Gorilla,

Great info! You are the 'web link' guy.

I have been feeling amazingly well on raw food now. I've been 90% raw now for about 2 weeks and not having any cravings except for more raw!

Also, I have incredible energy in the gym. I took a break from my weight training for the past 2 months and focused more on biking, hiking but I am back up to weights I was lifting in my competition training days after training solidly for only 1 week now.

I sleep better, feel better and my skin looks clearer now being vegan and mostly raw.

I did a couple of full body circuit workouts and now doing a split program with supersets alternating upper and lower body workouts. I like supersets because I can do an effective workout in a short span of time. Good for muscle and cardio, too.

Yoga: getting back into a studio again the September. I need some group motivation and feed off their energy!

Best to you.

thanks - and to you

Hi Gorilla,

Yes, the multi-vitamin question. Hmmm.. Right now I am doing a cleanse to detox the body but afterwards I will go raw fruits and veggie while the harvest is in. Come the winter months I might start taking a multi-vitamin. There is a really good quality on by Platinum Nutrition that I prefer.

Oh, I agree on the long term plan! I, too, want to move myself and my kids out to a farm and grow, grow, grow! I don't like the stress and confines of a corporate job. It pays the bills but it's not working for me in terms of my values. I am in the process of transitioning into more health-based industry. The Farm plan with a horse, dogs is 4 years away.

Be well.

Awesome -

Keep it up!

see posts below

HOLY YUMM!

That looks so full of flavour, juice and LIFE! It's almost spiritual!

Thanks for sharing. Just a few more days on my cleanse and I am off to the market to partake in local peaches, melons, tomatoes, greens, berries.

Be better than well!

Yes indeed:

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd245/GorillaPics/372.jpg

GREAT MINDS

EINSTEIN:

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."

LEONARDO DA VINCI

He considered the bodies of meat-eaters to be "burial places," graveyards for the animals they eat. His notebooks are full of passages that show his compassion for living creatures. He lamented, "Endless numbers of these animals shall have their little children taken from them, ripped open, and barbarously slaughtered."

"I have learned from an early age to abjure the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men."

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW:

"Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn! You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak! Bury a sheep, and nothing happens but decay."

"Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends."

"A mind of the calibre of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows."

"A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses."

ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER:

"Even in the worm that crawls in the earth there glows a divine spark. When you slaughter a creature, you slaughter God."

THOREAU:

"I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals."

GHANDHI:

"He was a vegetarian. His parents, being devout Hindus, never gave him meat, fish, or eggs."

"I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants."

PYTHAGORAS:

"Oh, my fellow men, do not defile your bodies with sinful foods. We have corn, we have apples bending down the branches with their weight, and grapes swelling on the vines. There are sweet-flavored herbs, and vegetables which can be cooked and softened over the fire, nor are you denied milk or thyme-scented honey. The earth affords a lavish supply of riches, of innocent foods, and offers you banquets that involve no bloodshed or slaughter: only beasts satisfy their hunger with flesh, and not even all of those, because horses, cattle, and sheep live on grass." The biographer Diogenes tells us that Pythagoras ate bread and honey in the morning and raw vegetables at night. He would also pay fisherman to throw their catch back into the sea.

PLUTARCH:

"Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstinence from flesh? For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of mind the first man touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, set forth tables of dead, stale bodies, and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that has a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb. How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds? It is certainly not lions or wolves that we eat out of self-defense; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without stings or teeth to harm us. For the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being."

"If you declare that you are naturally designed for such a diet, then first kill for yourself what you want to eat. Do it, however, only through your own resources, unaided by cleaver or cudgel or any kind of ax."

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

He maintained that meat-eating animals are generally more cruel and violent than herbivores. Therefore a vegetarian diet would produce a more compassionate person. He even advised that butchers not be allowed to testify in court or sit on juries.

ADAM SMITH

Stated the advantages of a vegetarian diet: "It may indeed be doubted whether butchers' meat is anywhere a necessary of life. Grain and other vegetables, with the help of milk, cheese, and butter, or oil, where butter is not to be had, afford the most plentiful, the most wholesome, the most nourishing, and the most invigorating diet. Decency nowhere requires that any man should eat butchers' meat."

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

He became a vegetarian at the age of sixteen.

"My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chided for my singularity, but, with this lighter repast, I made the greater progress, for greater clearness of head and quicker comprehension."

"Flesh eating is unprovoked murder."

THOMAS EDISON

"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."

SHELLEY

Shelley was a committed vegetarian. In his essay "A Vindication of Natural Diet," he wrote, "Let the advocate of animal food force himself to a decisive experiment on its fitness, and as Plutarch recommends, tear a living lamb with his teeth and, plunging his head into its vitals, slake his thirst with the steaming blood ... then, and then only, would he be consistent."

Shelley's interest in vegetarianism began when he was a student at Oxford, and he and his wife, Harriet, took up the diet soon after their marriage. In a letter dated March 14, 1812, his wife wrote to a friend, "We have foresworn meat and adopted the Pythagorean system." Shelley, in his poem Queen Mab, described a Utopian world where men do not kill animals for food.

... no longer now He slays the lamb that looks him in the face, And horribly devours his mangled flesh, Which, still avenging Nature's broken law, Kindled all putrid humors in his frame, All evil passions, and all vain belief, Hatred, despair, and loathing in his mind, The germs of misery, death, disease and crime. The Russian author Leo Tolstoy became a vegetarian in 1885.

Giving up the sport of hunting, he advocated "vegetarian pacifism" and was against killing even the smallest living things, such as the ants. He felt there was a natural progression of violence that led inevitably to war in human society. In his essay "simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to moral feeling - killing."

TOLSTOY

By killing, Tolstoy believed, "man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity - that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself - and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel."

"A human can be healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore, if he eats meat he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite."

see posts below

More quotes:

To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana.

-- Buddha

If you're not vegan, you're not vegetarian.

~V.L. Allineare

My perspective of veganism was most affected by learning that the veal calf is a by-product of dairying, and that in essence there is a slice of veal in every glass of what I had thought was an innocuous white liquid - milk.

~Rynn Berry

I just could not stand the idea of eating meat - I really do think that it has made me calmer.... People's general awareness is getting much better, even down to buying a pint of milk: the fact that the calves are actually killed so that the milk doesn't go to them but to us cannot really be right, and if you have seen a cow in a state of extreme distress because it cannot understand why its calf isn't by, it can make you think a lot.

~Kate Bush

It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and .

~Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab Notes

To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body.

~Mahatma Gandhi

I eat everything that nature voluntarily gives: fruits, vegetables, and the products of plants. But I ask you to spare me what animals are forced to surrender: meat, milk, and cheese.

~Author Unknown

The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of "real food for real people" you'd better live real close to a real good hospital.

-- Neal Barnard, M.D.

If you could see or feel the suffering you wouldn't think twice. Give back life. Don't eat meat.

-- Kim Basinger

The American fast food diet and the meat eating habits of the wealthy around the world support a world food system that diverts food resources from the hungry. A diet higher in whole grains and legumes and lower in beef and other meat is not just healthier for ourselves but also contributes to changing the world system that feeds some people and leaves others hungry.

-- Dr.Walden Bello

If any kid ever realized what was involved in factory farming they would never touch meat again. I was so moved by the intelligence, sense of fun and personalities of the animals I worked with on Babe that by the end of the film I was a vegetarian.

-- James Cromwell

A dead cow or sheep lying in a pasture is recognized as carrion. The same sort of a carcass dressed and hung up in a butcher's stall passes as food.

-- John Harvey Kellogg, M.D.

Our food system takes abundant grain,which people can't afford,and shrinks it into meat,which better-off people will pay for.

-- Frances Moore Lappe

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.

-- Paul and Linda McCartney

The Utopians feel that slaughtering our fellow creatures gradually destroys the sense of compassion, which is the finest sentiment of which our human nature is capable.

-Thomas More

But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.

-- Plutarch

As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.

-- Pythagoras

It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation, that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion; and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and .

-- Percy Bysshe Shelley

By all that is sacred in our hope for the human race, I conjure those who love happiness and truth to give a fair trial to the vegetable system!

-- Percy Bysshe Shelley

When a human being kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man expect mercy from God? It is unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give.

-- Isaac B. Singer

Nothing more strongly arouses our than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own.

~Robert Louis Stevenson

"I know, in my soul, that to eat a creature who is raised to be eaten, and who never has a chance to be a real being, is unhealthy. It's like...you're just eating misery. You're eating a bitter life."

~Alice Walker

I think there will come a time, and this is down the road a great many years, when civilized people will look back in horror on our generation and the ones that have preceded it: the idea that we should eat other living things running around on four legs, that we should raise them just for the purpose of killing them! The people of the future will say, meat-eaters in and regard us in the same way that we regard cannibals and cannibalism.

-- Dennis Weaver

In all the round world of Utopia there is no meat. There used to be, but now we cannot stand the thought of slaughterhouses. And it is impossible to find anyone who will hew a dead ox or pig.I can still remember as a boy the rejoicings over the closing of the last slaughterhouse.

-- H G Wells - A Modern Utopia

No humane being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.

-- Henry David Thoreau

Vegetarianism serves as the criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of humanity is genuine and sincere.

-- Leo Tolstoy

If he be really and seriously seeking to live a good life, the first thing from which he will abstain will always be the use of animal food, because ...its use is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to the moral feeling -- killing.

-- Leo Tolstoy

A human can be healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore if he eats meat he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite.

-- Leo Tolstoy

"Thou shalt not kill" does not apply to murder of one's own kind only, but to all living beings; and this Commandment was inscribed in the human breast long before it was proclaimed from Sinai.

-- Leo Tolstoy