Transitioning to Raw and Individualizing Your Diet

You are feeling compelled to change the way you eat. You are aware of the sickness that consuming animal products brings to you and your planet. You want to be as vibrant and healthy as you can be. Here's some of the most potent information for helping you transition (or helping you help others), as well as tips and important concepts for staying balanced throughout the year and in different environments.

We will start with the basics:

1. Stop Poisoning Yourself: If you are still eating fast food, processed foods, soda, candy, conventionally produced meat, dairy, and produce you need to stop this. Going organic is the first step. I could (and maybe I will) write entire post on why this alone will make an enormous difference for your health and the environment. Authentic organic means that the food was produced without GMOs (genetically modified organisms), without the use of pesticides (poisons originally created in WWII for poisoning people), without the use of chemical fertilizers, and grown locally (ideally). You pay for what you get: it may cost more for organic but you are not only avoiding consuming poison and GMOs, you are getting more minerals and nutrients. Even though the giant conventional farmed tomato may be larger and cheaper then the organic; if you were to dehydrate them you would find that the organic actually held more nutrients by weight (2 times as much sometimes).
   
2. Go Veggie: Stop consuming meat. The usual transition that people follow is to let go of red meat first, then poultry, then fish. But, if you are feeling inspired get rid of it all at once. One must be careful not to over-do the carbs and dairy during this stage. This is a good place to start adding live-foods to your diet. Begin sprouting nuts and seeds and eating, large salads, and incorporating superfoods (like spirulina, blue-green algae, and bee pollen). You will likely begin to notice a lightness to your being; you have stopped consuming the fear soaked blood of other sentient beings, you have reduced the amounts of animal fats and protein that enter your system. At this point you're still eating cooked foods and some dairy; we'll work on that next.
3. Go Vegan: Time to loose the cheese and eggs. Your still eating soy products (which I don't recommend at all) and cooked foods. Good, high protein, grains include quinua and buckwheat. You have completely stopped supporting the enslavement of animals and made a massive contribution to reversing global warming (remember methane from animal agriculture is the primary cause of global warming).
4. Go Raw: Start eating living foods in abundance. Your diet is now founded on greens and sprouts and supplemented by nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables. Eliminate soy products (all of which is cooked; even if the label says otherwise), start sprouting your grains, nuts and seeds (it's good to eat some unsprouted nuts/seeds too), begin making green smoothies, and bringing some superfoods into your diet. This is also the stage when we become primarily low-glycemic eaters; avoiding the frequent consumption of sweet fruits like dates, mangoes, and dried fruit in general (this doesn't you can't eat these; it's simply means using them as treats as opposed to staples). Drink living pure water (I'll write a post on how to find and create good structured water in the future).
5. Go Super Human: This is the Highest High of human nutrition. This is a diet that consists of superfoods like: goji berries, cacao, spirulina, blue-green algae, maca, and coconut. Wild and medicinal superherbs and mushrooms like: reishi, chaga, wild herbs and grasses, ashwaganda, mucuna, and shilajit (these are my new favorites). And of course leafy greens and sprouts. At this stage we are moving into the superhero realm of living and nutrition and as a result will begin to experience super immunity, energy, well-being, and connection to our environment which is now a primary source of food. Wild foods by far have the most life-force, vitamins, minerals, and ormus energy (I'll talk more about this in future posts) of all foods. This is the ultimate level of nutrition and earth connection; this level requires a superhuman knowledge of ones environment and surroundings. At this level we can never go hungry because we have adapted our bodies and consciousness to be able to live off the foods that our Mother provides us with and that are always surrounding us. The Highest technological advances are right in front of us all the time; learn to eat your back yard and you will never go hungry.

Obviously we are all at different levels of awareness and locations in our transition. This is just a general flow of the evolution that I have personally gone through. I am currently transitioning from being raw to the superhuman stage of nutrition. It is important to know that we can be on multiple levels, and waver back and forth between them as we grow. There is no one clear and definitive path to follow. No matter where you are at, it is good to begin incorporating elements from the Higher levels. Everything seems strange when it first enters our consciousness; we create our realities and until we expand awareness we never know what we aren't experiencing and what kind of potentialities exist. For instance the additions of the wild foods, the superfoods and herbs, and medicinal mushrooms had not been a part of my reality until recently; and now I can get enough them. I have bought books on wild edibles, growing mushrooms, sprouting in your home and I am in awe of the limitless possibilities that await. The next greatest superfood ever might be waiting for me in the woods behind my house; this is where I am taking my nutrition and it started with the shift in awareness that opened me up to the possibility of this potential. All revolution and transformation begins with a shift in awareness. Einstein said, "problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." What may seem far out and radical in this moment can become common place tomorrow, and this process begins by being open to the limitless possibilities and potentialities held within every instant.

Staying Balanced:

We have been deliberately confused by the meat and dairy industry and the current nutritional paradigm about what our bodies truly require for balance. The old food pyramid that was originally created by the dairy industry and has been providing misinformation for decades. You need to maintain a balance of three major nutritional categories 1) Chlorophyll/Protein, 2) Fat, 3) Sugar. You need 33% of each by dry weight.

We can simply our nutritional needs into a triangle consisting of 1/3 Chlorophyll, 1/3 Fat, and 1/3 Sugar.

This “Sunfood Triangle” was taken from superhero and nutrition expert David Wolfe's book The Sunfood Diet Success System, and is based on dry weight of the foods. This means that one must eat a larger volume of greens, like kale which is mostly water, to balance a small volume of fats, like walnuts which are much more dense and heavy.

Using the Sunfood Triangle:

Ideally you live in the center of the triangle. This is the game you will be playing: how to stay in the center. For example, say you get a have a break down and pound a whole pint of Coconut Bliss ice cream which is mostly sugar and fat. You can return to balance by eating a large (very large if you ate a whole pint) green salad a few hours later, or first thing the next day. It is good to know that you can go for days, weeks, and maybe months without one of these categories but this will eventually lead to imbalance and disease. Use this to guide the way you combined food in single meal or over the course of the day.

Using fat as a buffer was an amazing revelation for me. For example if one eats a lot of sweet fruit, like dates or figs, you can avoid a swing in the blood sugar by eating fats, like nuts or oils, to give yourself a slower release of the sugar into your body and providing more sustained energy. Toxins that enter the body are stored in fat. With this knowledge you can use fats as a buffer against toxic environments, people, drugs, or foods. If one is trying to then detox you can completely eliminate fats from the diet and by diffusion the toxins will be released and eliminated.

Greens, greens, greens! Eat as much fresh raw leafy green vegetables as possible. Remember the triangle is based on dry weight so you need to consume a large volume of greens to stay balanced. I have found that I can always be eating more greens. Chlorophyll (which is the molecule that makes greens green) is where the highest concentration prana in the pant is stored and is nearly identical to hemoglobin which is what your blood is made of. Greens build your blood and your body. A 400 pound guerrilla, one of the most muscular creatures on the planet, eats about 75% leafy green vegetables. Greens are your best source for antioxidants and vitamins and minerals. Eating a variety of greens provides us with all the amino acids required to build protein in our bodies. Making green smoothies was such an important part of my transition to this diet. Start by blending up kale with bananas and fruit juice and a peeled and seeded lemon. Eventually you will find that you need less sweet as you begin to crave the greens that your body has always desired; start using water instead of fruit juice, and switch to less sweet fruits like pears, strawberries, and apples. Buy the book Green For Life by Victoria Boutenko for more recipes, research, and testimonials on the power of simply adding these smoothies to your diet.

Chlorophyll: All leafy green vegetables, chlorella, spirulina, blue-green algae, sea vegetables, sprouts.

Fats: Coconut flesh/oil/butter, nuts and seeds, avocados, cacao butter, olives, all vegetable and seed oils.

Sugar: All sweet fruit, grains, agave, honey.

Foods that are low glycemic, high water and mineral content are excellent snack foods that one should eat liberally. Examples: okra, bell peppers, water melon, daikon radish, cucumbers, celery, fresh berries, grapefruit.

This triangle also shows us why a superfood is a superfood. It is because they contain high concentrations of at least 2 and sometimes all 3 of the elements in our triangle. Most superfoods are foods that you could survive on soley for a long time. I will have an entire post on superfoods, their benefits, my favorites, and maybe even some of my favorite recipes in the near future.

Find Your Psycho-physiological Constitution:

There are three constitutional archetypes, called doshas, in the Ayurvedic system. The word dosha translates to “that which is thrown out of balance”, and your constitution is based on the dosha(s) that are most easily thrown out of balance. It is important to know that we all have within us all three of the doshas, but we are identified by the predominate one(s).

The Doshas:

Vata: This constitution is associated with the air and the ether elements. The archetypal animals are the goat/rabbit/dog and the life force energy associated with it is prana. Typical vata imbalances are related to being dry and airy: dry/flaky skin, dandruff, constipation, A.D.D., being spaced out and unable to concentrate, anxiety, insomnia, nervousness/fear, pain, tremors and spasms, thirst, gas, sensitivity, ect. The physical characteristics of vata are usually tall, thin, toned muscle structure, large protruding veins, , a flat chest. Vata people are creative but lack will power, they are active, alert, and restless, they grasp things quickly. They tend to talk and move quickly and fatigue quickly as well.

Vatas are thrown off by: Cold and windy weather, excess pranayama, over exertion, gas producing food, dried foods and drying herbs, and drug use.

Vata is Balanced by: warm, oily, sweet, salty, watery, creamy/soupy foods, ginger, cardamom, fennel, and cinnamon; slow, calm, and meditative environments.

Pitta: This constitution is associated with the fire element, its life force energy are the tejas, which are responsible for the digestion, assimilation, and body temperature. They are characterized by strong digestion and large appetites for food and drinks, high body heat, and intolerance to the heat and sun. They are ambitious; they have a tendency toward vanity, hatefulness, anger, stubbornness, and jealousy. Their archetypal animal is the tiger; they are warriors, CEO’s, and successful. They tend to gain weight evenly and don’t have trouble gaining weight.

Pittas are thrown off by: hot weather, spicy, acidic, salty, and pungent foods, emotions of grief, anger, or fear.

Pittas are balanced by: Sweet, astringent, bland and bitter foods; moonlight, cold showers

Kapha: This is the water and earth elements. Its life force energy is the ojas which give energy to the heart and lungs, lubricates the joints, moisturizes the skin, heals wounds, and governs growth in the body. Kapha people have a tendency to be over weight and have difficulty losing weight. They tend to produce mucus in the chest, throat, nose, sinuses, mouth, joints, and cytoplasm. They tend to be slow and heavy which means exercise is absolutely vital. Tolerance, calmness, envy, and possessiveness are kapha characteristics; they tend to be slow intellectually but retain information well once it is grasped.

Imbalanced by: laziness, TV watching, dairy, sweets, too much water, oily/creamy/watery foods, cold wet weather

Balanced by: Exercise, being social, fasting, mucus less, dry and warming foods, sunshine.

There are seven possible constitutions: kapha, vata, pitta, vata-pitta, pitta-vita, pitta-kapha, kapha-vata, and kapha-pitta-vata. Ask yourself these questions: What are my typical symptoms of illness? How do my colds usually progress?(List) What foods/activities drain, deplete, and unbalance me? (List) What activities/foods leave you feeling vibrant, light, and rejuvenated? (List)

Are you beginning to get an idea of your constitution? It can be hard to label oneself and remember that we have all of the doshas in us, but our dosha is that which is most easily thrown off. If you are still confused I recommend starting a food journal. Record what you eat, what time you eat, how it made you feel 2 hours later, and include cravings as well as your physical and spiritual activities. At the end of the day write down some general information on how your day went and any pertinent insights you’ve learn.

More Helpful Hints:

Doshas over our Lifetime: From birth until the age of 16 we are predominately kapha. This explains why kids tend to get runny noses, crave sweets, and have typical kapha tendencies. From the age of 16 to the age of about 60 we are in the pitta phase of life. Then from 60 as we get older we see more and more vata symptoms.

Dosha Throughout the Day: From 6am-10am kapha is predominate, from 10am-2pm pitta is dominant (this is the best time to eat as it is when our digestion is strongest), from 2pm-6pm vata dominates, then at 6pm till 10pm kapha dominates (it is best to not eat during kapha hours, especially if our constitution is kapha), from 10pm-2am pitta is again dominant, and from 2am-6am vata is again predominant.

Yoga, Pranayama, Kundalini, Meditation, and Raw Food: These practices and phenomenon increase the amount of prana entering the system. This can lead to vata imbalances, especially if one is a vata. It’s important to support the ojas with superfoods like bee pollen, and lifestyle practices that support the ojas. Also meditation activates the brain and uses up glucose, so it can be helpful have a small sweet treat after long meditations; dates and honey are good.

Have fun with all that. Read more about all that I have presented you with. Become a scientist and experiment with what works and what doesn't.

Peace-Love-Bliss

Baba

Nutritional Dharma and the Highest High

Dharma is a yogic term referring to the path or purpose of a being. It is the answer to the question "Why am I here?". So why are we here? What is the purpose of life? The answer really is simple: to know God. What the hell do I mean by that? I mean that the purpose of this human experience is to grow, evolve, and merge with the Divine Unified Living Field of Oneness while still walking in a human body-mind. Simple right? Ha! We are here to become Liberated from the mistaken identity that is our 5 sense biocomputer mind-body-I am-ego-personality-complex. The key is to be a living, doing, thinking, eating, human while simultaneously holding the awareness of the illusory temporal nature of all phenomenon and the Realization of the Infinite Oneness that you are, here now always. This is the Highest High!

Now the tricky part is that we all have our own unique dharma as well. That is to say that we all will arrive that the essential Dharma (to know God/hold God-awareness) by different paths. This is the dharma that we usually are talking about. We are one, but we are also unique; we live in the duality of these realities. What's your dharma in this lifetime? Why are you here? It is key to know that your individual dharma will take you to the essential Dharma; to Liberation. This is how we know we are on the right track: we are evolving and growing spiritually. This doesn't mean that things have to be "perfect" in your external world; your dharma may be painful and difficult, or it may be ecstatic and blissful, it will likely be both. The key is understanding that TrueBliss comes from within and is unperturbed by your external reality. This is being High on Life!

Now what does this have to do with nutrition? In a book called Biochemical Individuality, by Dr. Roger Williams, it is made clear that we are anatomically and physiologically very unique. This seems very obvious right? Everyone is different. The reason this is important to understand is because our medical system and conventional view of nutrition assumes that there is such a thing as an "average" or "normal" model of a human being that they can then prescribe normal daily values and homogeneous diet plans for everyone. Roger Williams clearly establishes that we are not only unique, but there is so much variation within humans that this "normal" human that the medical and nutritional establishment is constantly comparing your health and needs to, absolutely doesn't exist. There is no one diet that can be prescribed to everyone. Now let me clarify something: I am not saying that some people need meat, dairy, and cooked food; these have been proven to be unnatural and degenerative for everyone and the planet. EVERYONE CAN BE VEGAN! EVERYONE CAN BE RAW! What I am saying is that everyone's raw-vegan diet will be unique and vary with the seasons of the year as well as the seasons of one lifetime.

Forming the right diet is an experimental and personal process that requires a scientific mentality and a compassionate understanding. I have met many people who have gone raw and became ill or out of balance only to revert back to there old ways and proclaim that raw is not for them. They simple had the wrong raw diet. Gabriel often says that "raw food is like jet fuel; and to be successful you need to go to jet pilot school."

No one can tell you what your dharma is, just as no one can give you the perfect diet for you in any moment. We must learn to listen to our bodies; they know exactly what's right, but we don't always hear its calls. Be compassionate with your self and make clear, small changes to see how something effects your being. In my next post I'll give you some really helpful tools for individualizing your diet. Until then your homework is to become a scientist and really begin noticing how foods effect you. Let your intuitive-heart be your guide in this life, and accept no dogma other than it's.

Peace-Love-Bliss

Baba

Fasting Feeds the Spirit

Today is the last day of our 7-day juice fast here at the Tree Of Life. This is the longest I have ever gone without food in my life, and the first official fast that I have ever done. It is not easy. I had know idea how attached and even addicted to food I am. When you don't eat your body begins to dissolve all that is not necessary in your physical, mental, and emotional being; leaving you with your spirit as the sole source of nourishment. It is a test of your spirit and will without a doubt. We have done 7 days and this is really not a big deal when put into perspective. You can fast for 100 days on juice and 40 days on water, and it is not uncommon for average people to accomplish such a feat. They are even people called breatharians who have learned to survive on the energies of the sun and their breath; this is quite extreme but it proves the point. When we look at nature we find that beings fast regularly in the flow of the seasons and availability of food: bears hibernate, lizards can go 100 days without food, and many Native American cultures fasted every winter when food was scarce (this is likely why they are more predisposed for obesity and diabetes in the modern world: they naturally store fat as a result of generations of fasting). People around the world find themselves fasting to the point of starvation unwillingly as a result of the imbalanced distribution of wealth and food in the world. I have a new appreciation and empathy for these beings. Here at the Tree we are using an array of supplements and techniques to accelerate detox, support our organs and glands, stay mineralized, and even keep our subtle bodies aligned. We have an unbelievable staff and the wisdom and experience of Gabriel (who has been fasting and facilitating fasts for about 30 years now) at our disposal; and I still struggled with the discomfort of not to eating. In a way beginning a practice of regular fasts is another step toward a return to our natural rhythms and flow. It gives one a new appreciation for life, food, the body, spiritual will power, and the blessing it is that most of us (reading this blog) are able to eating 3 times day if we want. Gabriel recommends fasts for 7-10 days 3 or 4 times a year for optimal health, maintenance, and spiritual development.

To fast holistically we need to considered all dimensions of our being: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. This means that when we fast it is important to be in the right setting and take time away from our busy and stressful lifestyles. We also need to have support. Remember you will be detoxing physically which will bring up and out mental and emotional "toxins" as well; for this reason you want to be in a peaceful environment with some community support. It is vital to meditate while fasting; when we are still of mind we can best align ourselves to the Divine and sit with any personal issues that arise.

There is a new field of biology called epigenetics which is showing us that our cells have encoded memory beyond DNA which is passed on through cell division. Bruce Lipton PhD in his book Biology Of Belief tells us how our phenotype (physical expression of our genotype: DNA) is not only determined by our DNA. The prefix epi means above, and genetics is obviously refering to our genes, or our DNA. What we are seeing is that despite the almost limitless potential expressions hel within of our genes, we express certain traits that are more a result of our environment and our cellular memory then our DNA. These epigenetic patterns are both passed on from parent to child and accumilated over the couse of our lifes. What this also implies is that within our genetype (our DNA) exists the pontential for the most beautiful, vibrant, and healthy version of ourselves; as well as the most rotten, degenerative, and diseased version. It is our environment, meaning our physical environment and diet, our social constructs and beliefs, our emotions and stress levels that truly determines our phenotypic expression and health. When we fast we reset the epigenetic cell memories that were both passed on to us and that we aquired during our lifetime. This is the primary reason to fast: upgrade your gene expession!

With this knowledge we can say that fasting is like giving your body and being a second, or third, or fourth . . . chance to be optimal. When we fast we stop eating, we take ourelves away from our toxic and stressful modern lifestyles and we stop accumilating epigenetic habits and patterns that no longer serve us. We stop feeding our addictions, patterns, and limiting beliefs, and feed our spirits which are aways pure and hold the frequencies of our Highest Self. Fasting is a new begining; it is a reset button. Several of my fellow students were on the brink of dealth until they began fasting and creating the environment, diet, and lifestyle to improve their genetic expression and heal. I feel blessed to have begun this pracatice here at the Tree, in good health, and under my own will, becuase for many it took a close look death to decide to truy live. May you all know your optimal gene expessions and learn from the mistakes of others. It is never to late to hit the reset button and begining being High on Life.

Peace-Love-Bliss

Happy Summer Solctice!

Baba

Spiritual Nutrition and Live Food

The Basics of the New Paradigm:

• We are mostly vibration: We are living in an exciting time in human history in which we are able to describe spiritual truths in the language of modern science. You, or should I say the physical body that you commonly refer to as "I" or "me", is actually a community of approximately 50 trillion living cells. Modern microbiology has shown that these cells all communicate via electromagnetic and chemical signals. These cells are in essence conglomerates of living molecules, and as we know molecules are collections of atoms. The exciting science of sub-atomic physics has uncovered the baffling fact that atoms are comprised of 99.999999% empty space! This physical reality, meaning everything that we can perceive with our five senses, is an illusion. In yogic philosophy this is referred to as maya; in roots-rock-reggae terms it is called Babylon. It can be thought of like The Matrix. This has some profound implications: you have never touched anything, because you are connected to everything. The separation between us and everything around us is the illusion of what Gabriel refers to as the body-mind-I am-ego complex. Everything that you've ever seen, felt, tasted, smelled, and heard is in actuality a biological interpretation created by the mind. The spiritual path begins by transcending this illusion and experiencing the unity of all things.
  
• The Living Field: The entire universe can now be seen as a interconnected living field of energy in which we are in constant interaction. This means that everything we do, say, and think creates a vibration in the field that ripples into infinity. Quantum physic has shown that sub-atomic particles have the ability to communicate instantaneously through an infinite separation of space. This provides an explanation for the power of prayer and the legitimacy of all psychic phenomenon and energy healing. With is awareness we can no longer put limits on what we call our "self", because we contract into nothing, void, emptiness, and we extend out into infinity. A classic Buddhist teaching of this paradox is that "wisdom tells me I am nothing and love tells me I am everything." The spiritual path can now be seen as attuning our personal spirit or vibration with that of the Divine or the Living Field. It is a process of expansion of awareness. The Spiritual Nutrition Paradigm is about eating in a manner that increasing our energetic coherence with that of the Living Field.
  
• Living Food For Life: As you can see in the kirlian image above the organic mushroom has much more electromagnetic potential then the conventionally farmed one. When you cook food you turn of this energy completely, which means that you have to re-energize the dead food with your own life-force. This takes energy away from your being. When we eat vibrant, organic, living food we add the life force from the food to our own, thus strengthening our aura, or personal electromagnetic field, and increasing our cohernce and connection with the greater field of the universe. We can literally think of ourselves as bodies of light; we want to eat in a way that adds to our light as opposed to putting it out. Dr. Fritz Popp is a German physist is the leading the world's research in a field called Biophotonics. He has shown that 97% of our DNA, the 97% that is often refered to as "junk DNA", is responsible for the emmission of photons (light), while the other 3% is what makes up the human genome. We are light vibrations, and the universe is one big massise field of light vibrations. The more light in our cells the better they communicate and the healthier and more radient we become; the more radient we become the better we communicate with the Living Field. You are starting to get the picture, whether or not you fully acept what I am saying.
  
• A New Perspective on Nutrients: We can no longer think in terms of physical food as the souce of life giving nutrients; we need to expand our defintion to all energies that enter our vibrational being. We are living off of the sun, our breath, our thoughts, our emotions, our connection with nature and the Divine, the thoughts and patterns of those around us, and finally our food. To evaluate the wholelistic health of a human being we must consider all of these factors which can either be adding to or depleting our bio-photonic electromagnetic energy field; our spirit. Here at the Tree of life Gabriel has prescribed the Six Foundations for Spiritual Life as a structure for a vibrant healthy and spiritually evolving human life.
  

They are listed here:http://www.treeoflife.nu/sixfoundations/

When we cook our food 70-80% of the vitamins and minerals, and 50% of the protein is destroyed. This means that you can eat half of the amount of raw food and still recieve adequate nutrients. It has been proven in several studies that the less you eat the longer you live. Go raw, consume less, and live longer.

Peace-Love-Bliss

Baba

Why Vegan?

It has become obvious that the human organism was not design to consume animal products as a primary source of nutrition. It has also become apparent that the most important thing that one can do for the environment is to go vegan. This is much much more than some hippie doctrine or a fad diet; and though for some of you it may seem extreme it is my intent to help you realize how extremely out of balance our standard American diet (aka: the SAD diet) and lifestyle really is.



Number 1 Reason to be Vegan: STOP GLOBAL WARMING!
You want to be a part of the solution right? You want to live in a way that is sustainable and peaceful right? The fact is that the number one cause of global warming in not CO2! The most potent green house gases that are the cause of the accelerated warming on the planet are excess methane and NOx (nitrogen oxides) from animal agriculture. In a 414 page report by a Heather Moors United Nations Report entitled "Livestock's Long Shadow" concluded that livestock is "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." According to this report animal production for food contributes more green-house gases than all the cars, trucks, trains, ships, and planes in the world combined. This industry is not only one of the largest producers of CO2 emissions, it is the single largest producers of both methane and nitrous oxide emissions. NOx are ~300 times more potent in term of green-house effects than CO2. Meat, egg, and dairy industries account for 65% of the world's total NOx emissions.

At the University of Chicago researchers, Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin, demonstrated that switching to a vegan diet was more effective in mitigating global warming than switching from a standard American car to a Prius. They also found that a typical U.S. meat eater generates ~1.5 tons more CO2 per person per year than a vegan does.

Number 2 Reason to be Vegan: Water
Almost half of the water used in this country is wasted between watering the crops to feed livestock, providing drinking water for the billions of animals each year, cleaning up the waste in factory farms, transport trucks, and slaughterhouses. This places an uneccisary and serious strain on the world's dwindling and precious water supply.

2500 gal. of H2O = 1 pound of meat vs. 25 gal. = 1 pound wheat

4000+ gal./day for a meat eating diet vs. 300 gal./day for a vegan diet

The EPA has reported that factory farms pollute our water more than all other industries combined! Animals raised for meat create ~130 times more shit than the entire human population - 87,000 lbs. per second! All of this will ultimately find it's way into our soil, streams and rivers, and eventually in our showers and drinking water. People are getting sick and evening dying in staggering numbers in locations where livestock are concentrated.

Number 3 Reason to be Vegan: Land and Soil

3 1/4 acre needed to produce food for a meat vs. 1/6 acres for a vegan diet. 55 square feet of tropical rain forest are demolished to produce just 1 quarter-pound hamburger. More than 2.9 million acres of Amazon rain forest were destroyed between 2005-2006 in order to grow food for chickens and other farmed animals. More than 260 million acres in the U.S. have been cleared to create crop land to grow grain to feed farmed animals.

I don't currently have any statistic on top soil loss and depletion though I know from my background in environmental science that this is a serious issue created by modern conventional monoculture farming practices that don't create living soil; in fact they do just the opposite. Deforestation also leads to desertification which contributes to massive top loss and degradation.

Number 4 Reason to be Vegan: Vibrant Human Health

In my experience transitioning from a meat eating diet, to a vegetarian diet, to vegan, and now to raw vegan I have found that it has had the most profound influence on all aspects of my physical, mental, and spiritual health. It is so obvious to me now that the human body was designed to eat in this way. For instance: we have the smallest and dullest canine teeth of all the primates, our digestive tract is extremely long and designed to dehydrate masticated fruit and vegetable matter (where as carnivorous animals have a much smaller GI tract because meat begins to rot much faster then vegetable matter and thus needs to be expelled before it begin to toxify the system). I feel lighter, stronger, and have more energy and mental clarity then ever before. I have become more and more spiritual as this transition has taken place, and feel the Divine life-force energy moving through me more and more (I will explain how and why this is possible in my next post: "Spiritual Nutrition and Living Food"). Overall I am enthusiastic about life and my place in the universe; I am happy and content for no other reason than being awake and aware here now.

In a book The China Study, Dr. T. Colin Campbell clearly lays our his massive study of epidemiology in China as well as his laboratory tests with animal protein. Coming form a background in beef production Campbell had set out to prove definitively that animal protein was the optimal food for life; he found precisely the opposite. In his lab study with mice he was literally able to turn on and off cancer in the mice by switch from an animal protein (casin, which is in dairy) to a vegetable source of protein. His statistical analysis of death and disease in Chinese showed clearly that where people were affluent enough to afford meat as a regular part of there diet they were dying from cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. These chronic degenerative diseases (which are some of the leading causes of death in the U.S.) were not present in more rural, poor regions of China where they can not afford animal products and eat primary plant based diet.

Check it for yourself: http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html

Number 5 Reason to be Vegan: Peace and Compassion

• Peace with the Body: As explained above, a live-food vegan diet is the optimal diet for the human organism. We can think of disease in the body as chaos, disorder, and entropy; when one converts to a diet that is in coherence with nature we restore order and health to the body. In this sense we make peace with our bodies.
• Peace with the Mind: As mentioned above meat contains uric acid which is a agitating stimulant. When we choose to love ourselves enough to want to heal our bodies and the planet we are relieved of the sub-conscious and conscious guilt of being apart of what we are calling hear a the Tree the Culture of Death; this is a world view that treats animal and human life as economic commodities as opposed to living beings with a soul that we are ultimately connected. I have noticed profound changes in the clarity of my mind, my intuition, and my ability to focus since going vegan. It is much easier to quiet the mind in meditation which is surely part of the reason that most spiritual communities prescribe a vegetarian diet.
• Peace with the Family: When we become healthy, calm, and inspired it effects those around us. You are offering the invitation to those around you to emulate what your are doing. Your heightened levels of peace and well-being will be contagious and you will begin to see what a gift your presence and energy will be to those around you.
• Peace with the Community: By moving to an plant based diet you are almost forced to begin connecting to where your food comes from in a way that perhaps you never have. Farmer's markets, local produce, and the people that bring these things to you become a regular part of your experience. You will have faces and families that are associated to your food and you can eat with the joy that you are supporting them. As a healthier and more vibrant human you will also be more of an asset to the community in which you are living.
• Peace with Culture: Indigenous cultures around the world are being displaced and destroyed by large scale conventional agriculture and meat production. Genetically modified crops, most of which are grown to feed livestock, are contaminating ancient strains of plants that have been pass on through generations and are important not only as natural sources of food, but also as important parts of the cultural heritage of the peoples who have cultivated and kept them for hundreds of years. Large agro-business is putting small farmers out of business and forcing peoples who have been farmers for generations to find new lives and ways to support themselves. These cultures have the right to exist and thrive; when we stop supporting meat production we make this statement clearly with our actions.
• Peace with the Living Planet: We are all one. Our fellow humans, the animals, the plants, the wind, water, and land are all intimately interconnected and affected by each other. I have told you about the overall environmental catastrophe that the meat industry is, but now lets talk about the animals. The word ahimsa means non-violence, or compassion, in Sanskrit; a vegan diet has been prescribed for thousands of years by spiritual traditions all over the world that have recognized that killing another sentient being for any reason should be avoided. When a cow is slaughtered it is terrified in the moments before its death. That fear is correlated with a release of large amount of adrenaline in the blood of that animal which when cosumed by a human is toxic. Spiritually and vibrationally speaking when you eat slaughtered animals you take in their terror and pain. You are consuming death with the false sense that it is giving you life. The same concept applies when one consumes the milk from animals that have been pumped with horomes and kept impregnated forcing them to produce more milk than it would under normal circumstances. 80% of the antibiotic that are created go into livestock at would not servive the discusting conditions they're subject to without them. 25 billion animals are slaughter every year. When we begin to see that we are consuming the products of sick, mistreated, and tortured animals it should come as no surprise that we have become a very sick, violent, depressed, and troubled society.

You are begining to see that there is no good reason to still be consuming animal products in this day and age. We have the dietary technologies to live vibrantly on vegan sources, and it has been proven that meat and diary consumption is hazardous to our health and the planet. Nasa scientist Dr. James Hansen has shown that methane, not CO2, is the primary cause of global warming. This means that even if you drive a gas guzzling SUV you will have a greater influence on the improvement of global warming then if you eat meat and drive a Prius. And while CO2 stays in the atmoshpere for anywhere between 100 and 10,000 years, methane only persists for 9 to 15 years; which means that if the whole world went vegan we could reverse global warming in only about 10 years. That's exciting news! When Al Gore was asked about this he said that "the politics are too heavy." We need to take our health and our planet into our own hands and discontinue this Culture of Death that is putting our health and freedom at risk. Go vegan for your body, your mind, your family, communty, and planet. The time is now. I hope to encourage, inspire, and educate you in this transition toward world peace and health.

Peace-Love-Bliss

Baba

Welcome to the Tree Of Life

Bob is feeling like he has found his home in Patagonia, Arizona. The Tree Of Life Rejuvenation Center is at the forefront of the Vegan Live-Food movement. Founded and overseen by Rabbi Gabriel Cousens M.D., this center offers not only the opportunity for healing and growth through fasting, cleansing, spa treatments, and educational programs, but also provides and facilitates accelerated spiritual awakening and evolution. We are immersed in a beautiful high desert environment and inspired community. There is yoga in the morning, amazing raw vegan meals during the day and meditation and ceremonies at sunset. We celebrate Shabbat, receive shaktipat, chant, sing Lakota songs, meditate, and dance ecstatically.

Bob is currently 6 days into a 27 day intensive of the Masters Program in Vegan and Live-Food Nutrition. There about 30 people from all over the world here at the Tree which is completely shut down to the public during the intensive. We are receiving a massive transmission of information, life force and spiritual guidance. The new paradigm of nutrition, health and well-being, and spirituality is alive here and growing as each of us will bring the light home with us. Bob is definitely feeling high on life and there is no coming down.

It is my intent to provide you with as much information about the new paradigm of nutrition, giving you grounded advice based on my own experiences and cutting edge research. I choose to compassionately show you that this raw vegan lifestyle is not only something that everyone can do, but that the potential benefits personally and globally as a result of this way of living are profound. Go Vegan! Go Raw!

Peace-Love-Bliss

Check out the Tree: http://treeoflife.nu/
Check out Gabriel: http://gabrielcousens.com/