The Fresh Network Blog

Dr Brian Clement of Hippocrates Health Institute tells it like it is

Conscious eating is on the up

Last week's Sunday Times contained a very positive piece about eating vegan. The article touches on the health and eco benefits of animal-free cuisine, as well as its growing popularity: it reports that the conscious eating market is predicted to grow by 19% in the next five years. Eating raw is also mentioned in a positive light in this quote from a trend forecaster with the US agency Culture of Future:

“Eating vegan and raw is the quickest way to health, and it has really hit mass stride in Hollywood with stars who are more concerned with glowing health than going green. It gives the body what it wants: a rest from heavy and slow digestion and a chance to release and rebuild."

However, the main slant of the article is that veganism doesn't have to be a full-time thing. While we don't agree with everything in this article we think it makes some great points. Obviously, if you are a passionate ethical vegan, going part time isn't an option for you. But isn't it great news for humanity, the planet and all the creatures that inhabit it that so many people are starting to embrace vegan meals and plans like "vegan until dinner"?

Considering the UK press is often neanderthally scathing about all things vegan (did anyone else see the Telegraph review of Saf restaurant last year that amusingly yet also ridiculously described vegans as people who live in "hemp-knitted hovels"?), it is great to see The Times demonstrating once again that it has its finger on the pulse when it comes to conscious living.

Eat less, live longer - new primate study proves it

Late last week the prestigious journal Science published the results of a study into the effects of calorie restriction on the health and lifespan of rhesus monkeys. Although such studies have been carried out on many species, including primates, what is significant about this one is that it's the longest calorie restriction study ever carried out - it's been running for 20 years and is ongoing. That's important because it gives the researchers essential information about long-term effects.  

And what were the results? Reducing calories by 30% appears to reduce the risk of developing heart disease or cancer by half and to increase lifespan by nearly a third.

At the time the report was written, only 50% of the control-fed animals survived as compared with 80% of the calorie-restricted animals. And heart disease and cancer were not the only diseases the special diet seemed to protect against. The calorie-restricted group also showed a lower incidence of diabetes and brain atrophy.

As one of the researchers pointed out, even the control group in this experiment was on a very healthy diet, so the health and longevity gain between "standard diet" and "calorie restricted, optimal nutrition diet" in humans would be even greater.

The anatomics of your subatomics

Who we are and what we’re capable of starts with our trillions of body cells. Are they clean, are they healthy and are they communicating properly? By Natalia Rose.

What does true health look and feel like? What is the natural experience of childbirth and menopause? How many decades should we live? How many decades should we live in an excellent state of health? When mainstream science attempts to answer these questions and others, it does so based on what is common. But what is common should not be mistaken for what is natural. None of the above questions can be answered meaningfully by mainstream scientific studies, as those invariably focus on people following some version of the standard – i.e. very unnatural – diet and lifestyle.  

We cannot hope to achieve our potential if we don’t know what we actually are, what we are made of and what sustains our being. Let me start this discussion by introducing a concept I call, “The theory of the electronic human”.

Everything in the world of form gives off either a negative or positive ionic charge based on the number of electrons to protons in its atomic structure. Healthy cells and tissues are made up of negatively-charged ionic particles. This makes man’s body alkaline, and all life-generating substances in the world of form carry a negative, or alkaline, ionic charge. An ion is simply a particle that is electrically charged (either positively or negatively), meaning it has either lost or gained one or more electrons.

When an atom has more electrons orbiting its nucleus than there are protons in the nucleus, it carries a negative ionic charge; when there are more protons in the nucleus than electrons orbiting the nucleus, the atom is said to carry a positive ionic charge. If it’s been a while since high school science, just think “pro” for positive/proton. Alright, now that we’re up to speed on basic atomic structure let’s move on…

The truth about sun exposure, sunscreen and skin cancer

I was in the garden with a friend and her 6-month-old baby recently. The second the sun came out, anxiety clouded her face. She darted inside, reappeared with a bottle of sunscreen, and administered it liberally to the squirming infant, and then to herself. Not in the habit of offering unsolicited advice, I bit my tongue. But I was really biting it on this occasion because what I know about conventional sunscreens makes it very hard for me to sit and watch anyone putting such a toxic substance on themselves, let alone on a child.

My friend was just doing what any concerned mother naturally does given what we are told about the sun. She was following the advice of the world's leading doctors and dermatologists to protect her child from something we are told can cause deadly disease.

But when you stop and think about it, the idea that the sun is bad for us is completely nuts! Our species evolved in the tropics, under the sun, without houses, clothes, hats or sunscreen. Skin cancer rates are on the increase yet we get a tiny fraction of the sun exposure our ancestors did. Clearly there is something else at play here.

Did someone say ozone layer? Yes, there are parts of the world (for example, Australia) which have experienced both ozone depletion and an increased incidence of skin cancer, and there is evidence of a link there. But there are many other parts of the world where skin cancer rates are increasing despite the fact there has been no ozone depletion, so this isn’t the explanation we’re looking for. For example, skin cancer rates in Norway increased by 350% for men and 440% for women during the period 1955 to 1984. The ozone layer did not change during this period.

Skin cancer was very rare 100 years ago and is still very rare among many populations. For example, there is virtually no skin cancer in Africa, where people stay in the sun all day long without sunscreen. If you think that's down to the protective effect of darker skin pigmentation, think again: people with African heritage who live in America have very high rates of skin cancer.

So let's cut to the chase. What is causing the increase in skin cancer?

Tonya Zavasta's top beauty tips

This exclusive excerpt is taken from our interview with Tonya Zavasta in the newly released Summer issue of Get Fresh! magazine. We asked Tonya to list her top beauty tips - here they are:

1. A daily raw vegetable juice
Make it fresh and drink it right away. It's so healthy and hydrating. Juicing will make your face glow and your eyes sparkle.

2. Dry skin brushing
Brushing the entire body all over every morning is an invigorating way to start the day.

3. Dry facial brushing
Exfoliation is the most important part of a beauty regimen. We speed up the process of skin rejuvenation when we remove dead skin cells. Exfoliation energizes your face and improves circulation. All of these steps result in a better looking complexion.

4. Hot yoga
Nothing beats it for cleansing the body via sweating, nor for toning and stretching. It effectively works every muscle group in your body.

5. Facial exercises
They take care of the sag of skin and muscle tone due to aging or rapid weight loss, and they improve circulation too.

The truth about cancer: its causes, prevention and treatment

Today we bring you another great extended excerpt from the current issue of Get Fresh! magazine. Thomas Lodi, M.D. has a cancer clinic in Arizona where he combines the best alternative therapies with the best conventional ones. Here he talks about his methods and shares health information that is essential reading – whether you have a cancer diagnosis or want to prevent one. Introduction and interview by Sarah Best.

It is estimated that 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women in the Western world will get cancer during their lifetimes. Nearly four decades after U.S. president Richard Nixon declared "war on cancer" in 1971, and despite the billions spent since then researching potential “cures”, more people are getting cancer than ever before, and more people are dying from it than ever before. Why? More people are getting it because of the way we now live and more people are dying from it because despite all that money and medical research, mortality rates remain unchanged. 

Against this grim backdrop, for those who know where to look, numerous raw and living foods centres are busy educating patients about cancer prevention and recovery. It’s all anecdotal, of course, but cancer patients who are lucky enough to find themselves at one of these places seem to fare much better than those who go the conventional route. One such centre is unique in that it is also a fully-equipped cancer clinic, staffed by a team of doctors and nurses: the “An Oasis Of Healing” clinic, in Mesa, Arizona. Mesa is a suburb of Phoenix and the clinic, located in a quiet residential district, is the inspiration of Thomas Lodi, M.D. 

Lodi practises under a homeopathic licence at the clinic, but he is also a medical doctor of 24 years’ experience, and a member of many professional bodies, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is a passionate advocate for natural living and holistic healing whose email signature reads, “Health is our greatest treasure. It must be guarded more preciously than gold.”

He both looks and comes across as someone much younger than his 57 years. He is a raw vegan and a teacher of the power of raw foods and raw juices, colonics and other complementary therapies. It is not unusual for late-stage cancer patients with seemingly hopeless prognoses to arrive at his clinic horizontal and to leave not long after, healthy and full of hope. Here, he shares his views on cancer – its causes, its treatment and its prevention – and also on health and human potential.

Let’s consider conventional cancer treatment first. Obviously, it’s not working in the majority of cases. Why not?
The three aspects of healing cancer are: stop making cancer, selectively target and destroy cancer without harming the patient, and stimulate and rebalance the immune system. Conventional medicine does none of those things. It is based solely on aggressive, non-specific or non-targeted methods to kill cancer cells which often end up killing the patient first. At the clinic, we take very seriously our Hippocratic Oath, “First, do no harm”.

What cooking does to food, by Dr Douglas Graham

Today we bring you an exclusive excerpt of one of the main features in the newly-released Spring 09 issue of Get Fresh! magazine – Dr Douglas Graham with an in-depth look at what cooking does to food. Here it is...

Is cooking as harmful as some raw food teachers lead you to believe? After all, how can it be so terrible to gently and lovingly cook your food? People are cooking their food at every meal, every day, all around the entire world. Heck, people have been cooking for thousands of years. You survived decades of eating cooked food yourself, didn’t you? And the vast majority of people who count themselves as raw fooders still include substantial portions of cooked foods in their diet – usually intentionally but also unknowingly. 

What actually happens when foods are heated, and is it really such a big deal? After all, don’t some foods become more digestible when cooked? The material in this article outlines the health facts associated with cooking food. It delineates the nutritional losses caused by cooking, and explains the various health compromises associated with eating food that you have heated. The claim that cooking certain foods enhances their nutritional value is also put under the bright light of scrutiny. Hopefully, once the facts are rooted from the fiction, clear decision-making will be much easier.

We’ll take a look at various classes of nutrients, and evaluate what happens to each of them when exposed to the heat of cooking. Then we can look at the bigger picture and realistically evaluate the nutritional and other health issues associated with cooking. After all, when friends and loved ones ask you, “What’s wrong with cooked food?” it is valuable to be able to give a convincing and caring answer. Who knows? Besides supporting your own efforts at eating raw, you might even be able to sway someone else to give up their (self-destructive) cooked-food habits.

Defending detox

Following on from our recent post on the subject of detoxing and the scientists who claim it's impossible, we bring you two great resources to check out.

If you haven't yet heard Shazzie's verbal fisticuffs in the BBC Radio Five studio with one of the scientists in question, head here to listen to the highlights. Hats off to Shazzie, who did a great job of debunking the crazy claims these scientists are making!

The Alliance for Natural Health reacted to the craziness with a lengthy feature entitled 'Debunking Sense About Science's Stand on Detox'. Penned by the ANH's medical director and its scientific director (in consultation with other scientists on the ANH's expert committee), it contains a wealth of clever-clogs information on the body's natural detoxification systems, why those systems may be struggling and why there is no doubt that there are natural steps we can take that make a huge difference.

Our bodies are supposed to be beautiful!

Eight years ago I was at a corporate event having lunch with a group of female friends when the topic of cellulite came up. It has stuck in my mind because it wasn’t long after this that I discovered, and started following, the raw diet and lifestyle. The conversation went something like this:

“Did you see those photos of [X celebrity] in the papers the other day? She has cellulite!”

“And she’s really thin and she’s always on a diet.”

“It just goes to show it’s true what they say – you can’t avoid it.

“No, every woman has it.”

“There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“No, nothing.”

And so we carried on downing our wines and our coffees as we digested the three-course wheat, meat and dairy-based meal we had just enjoyed. And we continued discussing how our thighs had one day been attacked by some mysterious and malign force over which we had no control.

What I’ve since discovered is that once you stop consuming the foods that cause cellulite, you stop having cellulite! But I'll save the rest of my cellulite story for another time...

Today a new book by Susie Orbach, author of the 1978 classic Fat is a Feminist Issue, was released. It’s called, simply, Bodies. Orbach has long been vocal in condemning the pain and suffering women put themselves through in order to conform to the culturally-defined dictates about how the female body should look.

In this new book she argues that this problem is now more all-pervasive than ever. The preoccupation we have with our bodies – which manifests in dieting and gym memberships and also in eating disorders and surgical procedures – is a very troubling collective neurosis, she points out. And one which now affects not only women but ever-increasing numbers of men, too.