The Complete Book of Raw Food (115 page)

    Email:
[email protected]

Phone: 360–446–3060

Website:
www.MakeItBigWithChocolate.com

From the age of 17, Dave Klein’s robust health began to gradually decline. A heavy eater of meat and junk food, his physical and mental energies quickly deteriorated over a period of six months, and he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Dave was hospitalized and given medicines. The symptoms subsided, temporarily, but the drugs further ruined his health.

Eight tortuous years ensued with colitis flare-ups and off-and-on drug therapy. At age 26, Dave was reduced to a weak, sickly shadow of his former self, and his nervous system was shattered. Each of the seven gastroenterologists he saw said that diet had nothing to do with the cause of his disease and there was no diet or natural approach that could help anyone overcome ulcerative colitis. Dave was not satisfied with their position.

After an exam confirmed that Dave had advanced ulcerations throughout his colon, his gastroenterologist recommended that he either try an experimental drug that knocks out the immune system, or have his colon surgically removed. Upon hearing this, Dave realized he’d be dead soon if he didn’t find an answer himself.

In 1984, Dave found a Doctor of Natural Hygiene, Laurence Galant, who introduced him to the Natural Hygiene concepts of self-healing and eating a raw fruit-based diet. Dave threw away his medicines, divorced himself from all medical intervention for good, and gave up all meat and dairy forever. He adopted a fruit-based diet with which he quickly healed and his energies continuously increased. Soon, he was able to enjoy eating and life again as he began a new healthful lifestyle. He had set himself free of illness, doctors and medicines for good, and eventually attained vibrant robust health.

Dave is now a certified Nutrition Educator and has helped over 1,000 colitis and Crohn’s sufferers recover their health. He is the author of
Self Healing Colitis & Crohn’s
, and co-author of
Your Natural Diet: Alive Raw Foods
and
Self Healing Power!
He has published
Living Nutrition Magazine
since 1996, and is cofounder of Healthful Living International, a health organization that teaches Natural
Hygiene. He is also a partner in Raw Passion Productions, which holds seminars and Rawstock festivals. Today, at age 45, Dave enjoys excellent youthful health.

    E-mail:
[email protected]

Phone: (707) 827-3469

Web sites:
www.livingnutrition.com
;
www.colitis-crohns.com
;
www.healthfullivingintl.org
;
www.raw-passion.com
;
www.rawstock.us
;
www.rawndelish.us

Karen Knowler is the Managing Director of The Fresh Network, one of the world’s most extensive and comprehensive raw and living foods organization, based in the UK, and author of several publications, including Feel-Good Food: A Guide to Intuitive Eating, Pure & Simple: Raw Food Prep & Menu Planning, and Diary of a Raw Pregnancy. Karen divides her time between running the Network, writing, speaking, networking and consulting, both nationally and internationally, and spending time with her friends and family.

Karen discovered raw food in the spring of 1993, at age 20. Inspired by the powerful changes she felt and saw in herself as she added more fresh foods to her diet, she went looking for as much information on the subject as she could find. Very soon into her search she spotted a tiny ad in
The Vegetarian
magazine for The Fresh Network, which read: Raw Food for Vibrant Health! She joined the network shortly after, and soon became one of its most pro-active members—little did she know that only five years later she’d be running the organization herself!

In the years that followed, Karen was to face many challenges. In April 1984, just a year after adopting a more raw diet, Karen was diagnosed with “severe cervical cell abnormalities” after a routine smear test. She was advised by her doctor to have laser treatment as soon as possible. Knowing that she had to take her condition seriously, yet in the back of her mind aware that there was another way, she decided to take responsibility for her own health and adopted an all raw diet, took wheatgrass juice, and also practiced visualization techniques to see her cells healthy and well again. When she was re-tested some months later her test came back negative—she was completely clear.

Further inspired to teach and spread the word about the benefits of eating naturally, Karen spent every spare moment reading and researching her chosen subject for the next 4 years, until she finally came to maintain a 100-percent raw diet on a permanent basis. At this point she took on the role as co-coordinator for The Fresh Network, and the rest is history.

In the years since, Karen has expanded the Network to offer a higher level of help and support. It provides a massive array of raw resources and events, publishes its own magazine (Get Fresh!) and has a unique membership package, plus Fresh Groups around the UK. “And this is just the start!” says Karen, who clearly is on a mission!

Now in her thirties, Karen is a mother and is looking forward to developing delicious raw meals for her new family as much as she is to introducing the UK to gourmet raw cuisine through all the events and promotion she has planned. She maintains that her philosophy is simple: “If you feed yourself right, you feel much more able to take life on and make the most of it in every way. When people begin to experience raw energy for the first time it can be truly life-changing, like finally someone switched the light back on.”

    Email:
[email protected]

Phone: +44 (0) 870 800 7070

Web site:
www.fresh-network.com

Viktoras was born in Lithuania, at the beginning of World War II, and came to the United States in 1950. He received an M.S. Degree in Pure Mathematics from the University of Connecticut, and was a computer consultant for four years for Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and the Apollo Project.

Just like everyone else, Viktoras consumed large amounts of fast food in his youth—sometimes as many as three McDonalds hamburgers in a day. He ate mostly cooked food, drank, used medication, and consumed up to 20 cups of coffee and 3 packs of cigarettes per day. He ate more than most, did not rest, and was overworked. He did not drink water. He did not exercise.

The combination of all of these factors did extensive damage to his health. By his mid-twenties, Viktoras was suffering from advanced arthritis, edema, insomnia, tumors, hardening of the arteries, hair loss and graying, migraines, systemic pain, hypoglycemia, depression, chronic fatigue, environmental sensitivity, allergies, ulcers, skin disorders, sinus problems and at least 5 colds per year. Viktoras says he feels fortunate to have been this ill, because it forced him to make serious lifestyle changes to improve his health. “I would have been dead long ago,” he says “if I did not upgrade my lifestyle choices.” His books capture this physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual transformation.

For help, after working with several naturopathic doctors, Viktoras joined Rev. Ann Wigmore of the Rising Sun Christianity, where she was pioneering wheatgrass therapy for individuals with incurable diseases. After several years together, working and conducting research, they decided to join forces and co-founded the Hippocrates Health Institute (
www.hippocratesinst.com
).

As a self-taught live food nutritionist, Viktoras was the personal health consultant to comedian/activist Dick Gregory during his 900-mile run for peace.

While doing research for his own book at Harvard Medical Library, Viktoras discovered the manuscript of Dr. Edward Howell, MD,
The Status of Food Enzymes in Digestion and Metabolism
. He was granted permission to publish 10,000 copies under the new title,
Food Enzymes for Health and Longevity
, and wrote the new introduction himself. This was the first book to go into print in Enzymology and it laid the foundation for all future popularization of food enzymes and live/raw foods.

Viktoras is the author of five books and has contributed articles to many New Age journals, among them,
Vegetarian Voice, Vegetarian Times, Vegetarian World, Health Street Journal, New Life, Magical Blend, Alternatives
and many others.

He has given seminars for the World Symposium on Humanity in Canada, Australia, the Philippines and Germany, and has lectured well over 10,000 hours at such events as the New Earth Exposition, the Whole Earth Festival, the World Vegetarian Congress, the Cancer Victims and Friends Convention, the National Health Federation Convention, and others.

    E-mail:
[email protected]

Phone: 1-870-867-4521

Web sites: 
www.naturalusa.com/viktor/
;
www.bluegreenorganics.com/viktoras/
 
www.youkta.org
;
www.youthing101.com

For Master Raw Food Chef John Larsen, the joy of creative food invention began many years ago. At a very young age, John would concoct different combinations of lotions and shampoos in his family’s bathroom. Soon, his mother recognized his innate need to prepare and mix, and gave him real food ingredients to experiment with. John began with traditional fare—creative egg dishes, unusual sandwich combinations, and different blends of fruit smoothies.

At the age of six, John tragically lost his father in a car accident. For several years afterwards, he sought to soothe the pain of this loss with sugary and fatty “comfort foods.” Both John and his mother gained a lot of weight during this
period, which was compounded by the ill feeling that results from consuming large quantities of unwholesome denatured foods.

John changed his pattern of eating at just ten years old, awaking one morning to announce that he was no longer going to eat this way. He wanted to lose weight and be healthier—he was swearing off sugar!

No one thought that this whim would last very long, for how much will power does a ten-year-old have to avoid sugar and fat? A lot, in John’s case. Halloween came around, along with holidays and birthdays. John stayed true to his goal, to the astonishment of his family and friends. He went on to become a vegetarian in high school and has remained very health conscious throughout his life. Not surprisingly, John gravitated towards work as a chef after high school.

During his 12-year career as a professional chef, John has cooked in four-star restaurants, catered for private events, and prepared different styles of cuisine up and down the West Coast. The journey to raw foods began while traveling five years ago; John’s seat companion turned out to be a raw food enthusiast and chef. After talking for hours about this exciting new style of cuisine, John changed his approach to food, met and became a student of Victoria Boutenko, and later that year, ran the first raw food café in Ashland, Oregon.

John enjoys ethnic foods, especially Mexican cuisine, and has invested a great deal of his energy in creating raw recipes that replicate the cooked ethnic dishes that he and his wife Hamsa love. John is currently a living foods chef for a private household in the Ashland area and continues to cater raw food for festivals and individual customers. Friends and clients are constantly begging John to share his delicious recipes, relished by so many in Ashland’s expanding raw food community. This is the first time that a sample of his recipes has been committed to print. John plans to publish an extensive collection of his own in the near future and will be opening a raw food restaurant, Luminescence.

    E-mail:
[email protected]

Phone: 541-488-0931

Web site:
www.NewParadigmNutrition.com

Jalissa was born in Puerto Rico, where delicious exotic fruits abound all year long. The traditional Puerto Rican diet consists mainly of rice, beans and chicken with a lot of fried foods and very few raw vegetables. The only raw veggie Jalissa remembers eating as a child is lettuce.

Jalissa had chronic tonsillitis growing up, and received many shots of antibiotics. She became overweight and was often sick. At the age of 18, she moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she learned to eat salads and discovered new vegetables. She also discovered barbecued beef, and ate it even though it made her sick. Her favorite hobby was looking at magazines and books to find and try new recipes.

Jalissa was married in 1999, and moved to Montreal, Canada. Before the wedding, some of her friends asked her, “Are you really going to marry a vegetarian?” She laughed and told them she would try to bring him back to a “normal” diet. Little did she know that she was the one who was going to change.

Jalissa’s husband convinced her to start reading books and watching videos about nutrition. She attended a 3 day training workshop with George Malkmus, the founder of Hallelujah Acres, on achieving optimum health through the living foods diet. Jalissa began to realize the importance of nutrition. She stopped eating animal products, and noticed an improvement in her health. Her chronically inflamed tonsils shrunk and she did not get a single cold or flu during her entire first winter in Canada.

Jalissa became interested in vegan cooking. She met the Boutenkos, and, after tasting their dishes, learned how delicious raw food could be. Jalissa started to experiment on her own, preparing raw foods in tasty new ways. Together with her husband, she organized conferences in which he talked about healthy nutrition and she prepared raw meals for each guest to eat. The many positive comments from those who attended these dinners led Jalissa to write her first recipe book,
The Delights of Living Food
, available now in English, French and Spanish. Jalissa continues to encourage people to add living foods to their diet. She hopes we will enjoy her recipes and have a good time around the table.