Vegetarians in Paradise/Raw Food Diet/Fruitarian/Living Foods Diet

We read an e-mail that featured an article by Susan Jorg, a raw foodist. We asked for permission to reprint it in our magazine and requested her bio. Her biographical statement was so engaging, we decided to share it in its entirety along with the article. Happy Birthday, Susan!

Jorg I'll be 51 on August 4th. It's a great birthday present to be able to share my views on raw food with your audience. Radical dietary changes started for me and my two children in 1984. My husband soon followed suit when he saw our transformation. Our primary motivation was our health. I and my son were always plagued with respiratory problems: allergies, earaches, sinus infections. Within a couple months of changing to a mostly raw, vegan diet all our health problems disappeared. (A deformed toenail even grew in normal.)

As I read various authors such as Dr. Herbert Shelton, Professor Arnold Ehret, and John Robbins, I embraced my new diet for ethical and ecological reasons as well. The benefits have been immense!

In the past 16 years I haven't needed any drugs (including asprin or acetaminophen) or medical attention, with only one exception. In 1997 I accidentally cut half way through my hand with a power miter saw. Most of the members of the surgical team who operated on me were in favor of amputating the left half of my left hand because it was badly mangled. However, the head surgeon noticed how healthy I am and decided to repair all the nerves and tendons as best he could. It healed perfectly with no pain or infection. With exercise I gained nearly 100% of my former range of movement. The surgeon credited my health; I credit my diet.

Avocado My husband, Mike, is a real sweetheart, but he hasn't been able to follow the diet as closely as I do. Even though we're the same age, strangers have taken me for Mike's daughter or thought I was my son's sister.

When I was in high school back in the 60's, I could barely get around the 1/4 mile track once. Running the whole mile required of us then nearly killed me. I was so out of breath and sore of muscle. But at fifty I can run a mile in less than 10 minutes and not even be winded.

Raw Foods!! They bestow strength, endurance, freedom from disease, and keep you feeling and looking young!

TEN ADVANTAGES OF EATING RAW
by Susan Jorg

The human race learned long ago that cooking meat before eating it would protect them from certain diseases. Since then this practice of cooking has grown to include all types of foods and is now considered an art. Very few meals are eaten which include raw elements, except for the leafy green salad.

One advantage of eating raw is that it brings Nature's intentions into focus. When I speak of eating raw, I am referring to fruit, nuts, and vegetables that taste good to the majority of humankind in their basic simplicity direct from tree, bush, or vine.

I realize it isn't easy to simply abandon thousands of years of tradition and revert back to 100% raw food. Margaret Mead once said, "It is easier to change a man's religion than to change his diet." So to the point, here are 10 advantages to a diet of fresh, whole raw fruits, vegetables, and nuts that may lead you to find a greater place for them in your diet.

Raw foods are better quality; therefore, you eat less to satisfy your nutritional needs. The heat of cooking depletes vitamins, damages proteins and fats, and destroys enzymes that benefit digestion. As your percentage of raw foods increases, you feel satisfied and have more energy on smaller meals because raw food has the best balance of water, nutrients, and fiber to meet your body's needs.
Raw foods have more flavor than cooked foods, so there is no need to add salt, sugar, spices, or other condiments that can irritate your digestive system or over stimulate other organs.
Raw foods take very little preparation, so you spend less time in the kitchen. Even a child of 5 or 6 can prepare most items for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This gives children a sense of self-esteem and independence, not to mention the break it gives Mom or Dad.
When you are eating raw, there's little chance of burns, unless you're in the middle of a forest fire or out in the sun too long. Just think! No burns to tongues, the roof of your mouth, or fingers, and many fewer house fires.
Cleaning up after a raw meal is a snap. No baked-on oils or crusty messes. And any inedible parts go directly to the compost pile.
Eating a diet of raw foods can reverse or stop the advance of many chronic diseases, including heart disease and cancer. Remember, cooking creates free radicals, which are the major cause of cancer. When you lower the number of free radicals your cells are bombarded with, you lower your risk of cancer.
A raw food diet can protect you from acute diseases such as colds, flu, measles, etc. Raw foods maintain a healthy body, and a healthy body will not become diseased.
As long as you combine raw food properly according to the rules of Natural Hygiene, you will soon reach a level where you no longer suffer from heartburn, gas, indigestion or constipation.
It is environmentally sound. With humanity on a diet of raw foods, the food industry would close up shop and take up organic gardening. This would save us enormous amounts of natural resources used to produce power for these industries. Nuclear power would be clearly unnecessary. And think of how many trees and oil reserves could be saved without the need for the paper and plastics used in packaging our processed foods.There would also be less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere when all the cooking stopped. More oxygen would be produced from all the new orchards and gardens, thus helping to reverse the Greenhouse Effect.
Eating raw saves you money on food, vitamins, pots and pans, appliances, doctor bills, drugs, and health insurance.

So don't waste your food, yourself, and our planet by cooking what you eat. Fruits, nuts, and vegetables which are whole, fresh and raw are brimming with life and have the ability to transmit their life force directly to you.

Susan Jorg,
Estacada, Oregon

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