Raw vegan warrior

Myths, Facts and Science of Raw Food

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Storm

Dr. Bretta Blanton of Brilliant Scientists of Tomorrow teaching chemistry in Africa

I feel that there is a definite global raw food movement. It is more than just a trendy diet; it is an actual step on the path of human destiny, a gathering of our collective consciousness so to speak. There is a certain clarion call when we first digest the concept of eating a raw vegan diet. There is the promise of health and vitality and for some it is a means of curing chronic debilitating conditions and reversing many other types of conditions.

I just read in a CNN article today that by the year 2030 43% of Americans will be obese. This will add half a trillion dollars to our health care costs, not to mention the diminished quality of life. We are in total control of our weight. Obesity is brought about by making bad food choices. It is almost impossible to be obese on the raw vegan diet. Just click on this link and look at some of the Before and Afters of people who had major weight problems for years and went raw vegan for just 3 to 7 weeks.

And like any movement there is a lot of confusion over ideals and philosophies. This is to be expected since it is such a drastic departure from what we would call the normal American Diet.

One of the problems as I see it is the fact that even though there are now a whole slew of raw food websites it is still hard to get definitive answers as to what is the best system to use for a well balanced raw vegan diet.

One of the reasons for this being whenever anyone starts getting a huge amount of traffic the first thing that they do is try to figure out how they can monetize this traffic. And the answer is always pretty much the same. You have to find a product that has shelf-life, is lightweight and easy to ship and is reasonably expensive. So the foods that fall into this category are raw cacao, Maca, dehydrated superfoods, supplements and vitamins, nuts, seeds and dried concentrated herbal pills and powders. The foods that are not in this category are fresh fruits and vegetables. They don’t have a long enough shelf-life, they are too heavy and fragile and there is not a lot of profit in fresh foods pound for pound.

The end result is that the actual philosophy of the raw vegan movement is geared to the selling of these packaged products. The main problem with this commercialization of the raw vegan movement is that a lot these processed raw vegan products don’t work as well as raw organic fresh fruits and vegetables. So a lot of people who hear the promise of the raw food diet aren’t able to achieve the level of results that they are looking for.

When we first set up The Garden Diet Website 14 years ago we didn’t set it up to be a commercial site. We wanted to give people a clear way to achieve a fully balanced raw diet by eating fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

One of the things that has always excited me about the raw vegan diet is the simple truth that I hear in it. If we put our food in the fire and if in fact many of the nutrients are then destroyed then how can that food nourish us! I think that this is a huge concept. I have been doing the raw vegan diet for forty years and I have been a vegetarian for forty-two years. But I’m not a scientist, I have no medical training and I feel like a quack anytime I start to go into detail about how and why the raw vegan diet should be our front line of defense against disease and chronic conditions.

Up to now the scientific community has not fully endorsed the raw vegan diet. I believe that until this happens, until medical papers are published in medical journals that the raw vegan diet will not enter into the mainstream. Over the last twenty years I have put on hundreds of raw food retreats. I have had many people come with many different types of ailments and I have seen many of these ailments reverse themselves after only two weeks on raw food. For more information on people’s experiences doing the raw food programs that we have developed please click on this link:

http://thegardendiet.com/testimonials-gorawprograms.html

One of the main things that the raw vegan diet does is help with weight control. It is almost impossible to be obese on a well balanced raw vegan diet.

But just how does the food we eat affect us? What are the scientific facts? What happens when we consume dairy, meats and processed foods? What are some of the myths that surround how and what we eat? For instance, it is now thought to be impossible for us to obtain all of our nutrients from a raw vegan diet. So therefore we have to eat cooked meats and pasteurized dairy. But at the same time over 85% of Americans are nutrient-deficient and 65% of them are on supplements and vitamins.

Not long ago I had an exchange of emails with a fascinating doctor named Dr. Bretta Blanton. Dr. Blanton is currently in Africa teaching in the back country of Nigeria. Her non-profit organization brings together a group of scientists that is dedicated to working to bring science education to communities all over the world. You can check Dr. Blanton’s amazing work at:

http://www.brilliant-scientists.com

What we would like to do is help Dr. Blanton not only with the work she is currently doing but we would also like to do some meaningful research along the lines of the raw vegan diet, how it works, what are the myths and what are the facts. We would like to see the raw vegan diet take some major steps without all of the commercialization that is currently muddying the waters. You can read more about our association with the Brilliant Scientists of Tomorrow Organization here.

Here is how you can help. We are going to start a ten dollar donation store. We are looking for writers, musicians and artists to donate CDs, song downloads, prints, books and other products. A percentage of the sales will go to the artists and the rest will help fund these doctors and scientists in doing research and teaching. The store will have a link directly to Dr. Blanton’s website so people can donate directly to the work she is doing. The site will also list all of the doctors and scientists who will be working with the research program and their areas of expertise.

Dr. Blanton is expected to return from Africa shortly and at that time we will work up a schedule of events as far as the type of research we will be doing and the types of programs that will be offered to the community through the work she is doing. Please keep an eye open for the launch of our new store where this information will be made available.

If you are in the medical or scientific fields and would like to be involved, we’d love to hear from you!

Yours,
Storm

Posted in raw research, science, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Raw for Boomers

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Storm

Storm, April 2012

I was born in the baby boom. I’m sixty-two years old and I’m enjoying one of the peak levels of health that I have ever experienced in my life. I have been much healthier the last twenty years of my life than I was the first twenty years of my life.

The first twenty years saw me catch every childhood disease known, including double pneumonia, and at the age of 18 almost dying from complete organ failure. My children are raw vegans and they have had none of the childhood diseases and enjoy a level of health that no one in my neighborhood could even imagine.

But the part that I want to focus on is the aging. When you first hear about the concept of the raw vegan diet it seems like a really extreme departure from the way that normal people eat. But when you look at the health statistics of normal people in this country they also seem really extreme.

One of the worst things that happens to people in our country is that they work all their lives and then when they are ready to retire and enjoy their golden years they find themselves in the revolving door of the medical industry.

And one of the saddest facts about this dilemma is that what they are suffering from is chronic and debilitating disease which means that they are not going to get better. So they go through the surgeries and the drug regimens, they find their savings diminished and then they die way before their time.

The average life span of an African American male is about sixty nine years. This means that I at sixty-two have seven more years to live before I drop dead of old age. I’m still working out with all of my kids two of whom are teenagers. We play tag, we have foot races, we run in the mountains and in the deep sand on the beach. We’re biking, hiking, mountain climbing, and fencing. I’m doing my weights and martial arts. I feel no pain or discomfort when I run or sprint. I honestly feel no different than I did in my 20s, physically.

Sometimes numbers and statistics can tell a story. I have been a raw vegan for forty years, and a vegetarian for forty-two years. I have not started to gain the traditional belly fat. This is a very important point, because belly fat is different from just gaining weight. They have now found that belly fat produces enzymes which lead to cancer and that belly fat also adversely affects the function of your organs.

I don’t have any of the following conditions that are common in people of my age group…

Arthritis
Heart conditions
Cancers
Diabetes
Obesity

The one thing that just about all of these conditions have in common is that they have their start in the colon. Most Americans are overweight and dehydrated. In short we eat too much of the wrong kinds of foods. We have an obesity problem that really affects the quality of life of not only for the Boomers but even our children. In the U.S. more than one in three adults are obese, one out of five children are obese, and one out of three children are overweight.

Everybody knows it. You can’t turn on the TV or look at a newspaper without some mention of the obesity epidemic. Nobody seems to really have an answer for it, but they will spend hours talking about the problem.

After doing the raw vegan diet with great success for over forty years and raising a total of nine children many of whom have been raw since birth, I have come to realize a few things about the raw vegan diet.

One of the main things that I’m realizing now is that even within the raw vegan diet we need to change or adjust as we get older. My kids eat a lot more food than I do and their diet is also a lot richer. But I find that I have designed a much lighter diet for myself that has a bit more living food present in it and that still tastes really good.

Eating a light raw vegan diet can help slow aging and prevent disease simply by preventing belly fat, the source of so much aging and illness.

It can even, in my humble opinion, actually reverse the conditions of aging, illness and disease. I don’t think I’m really allowed to say much more about this, but I think I can share with you the experiences of some of the people who have gone through our programs:

I am doing a 30 day cleanse with my father who has diabetes and we are on day 17. He was on 25 units of insulin per day when we started and now he is down to 7 units – Lilly

I decided to not take my insulin the night before the water fast, and now 1 week since I last took insulin, my blood sugars are perfect, and I have nearly lost 20 pounds. – Nikita

I am not getting headaches..Amen…My body is not in pain when I awake in the morning. I am sleeping better, I do not need a fan blowing at me and I breathe easier while sleeping. – O

I am a 100% raw foodist and have been for almost 4 years. I was diagnosed with cancer of the prostate and decided to allow my body to heal naturally. In the process I have improved and stabilized that condition and transformed the following:

1. Weight reduced from 83.7kg (184.1lbs) to 60.7kg (133.5lbs): a drop of 23kg (50.6lbs).
2. Blood pressure dropped from 135/85 to 110/60 (the blood pressure of a 21 year old, not a 67 year old). At one point sticking around 140/90.
3. Thyroid Function: TSH down from 27.90 to 3.12 (Healthy Range 0.40 – 4.00).
4. About 6 months into the raw food program, after initially getting worse, the diarrhoea I had been experiencing for several years stopped and normal bowl movements returned and have been sustained.
5. Also around the same time, after a very bad eczema attack on my shins, again which I had been suffering from for many years, disappeared along with the tinea between my toes and groin rash I had had since a young age. I have not re-experienced any of these skin conditions since.
6. Cholesterol has reduced from 5.3 to 3.8 (Healthy Range <5.5*).
7. LDL Cholesterol (the bad stuff) down from 3.8 to 2.6 (Healthy Range <3.5).
8. Coronary Risk Ratio has come down from 5.3 to 3.8 (Healthy Range <5.0).
9. Hay fever and itchy eye: This disabling condition, suffered since childhood has completely cleared.
10. I am engaged three times per week in a ‘serious group outdoor personal training program’ that includes sprinting, endurance running and weight training as well as weekly sessions of Yoga plus other gentle and not so gentle physical activity such as walking and gardening and solo running from 6 to 10 Kms non-stop on my ‘off days’. Not only has my health improved but my cardiovascular fitness and endurance has me training with, and keeping in touch with, people 20, 30 to 40 years my junior. I feel blessed with how fit and well I feel.

As you can imagine I am hooked 100% for life… - J

I am 75 years old and I have been diabetic for about 4 years and on a pill. I was taking 4 pills each day and after 10 days on the diet I am down to 1 pill each day. - John

I’m raw because it’s the first thing since I was like… 13 that’s made my IBS better. I’ve also lost 18 pounds, which is never a bad thing - T

I have enjoyed all the recipes. I have now lost 43 lbs. and still losing. I am a 70 year old woman and I can now exercise, where for a while I couldn't even walk! - Sue

My husband and I started on the raw diet 10 months ago and not only did God heal my husband of non-hodgkins lymphoma but (to testify regarding your episode on raw potency!) our sex life has been the best it’s been during our 33 years of marriage!!! - Stacy

…And that’s not including all the wonderful weight loss testimonials and more that you can find here…

I have taken the diet that I now eat and put it into a system and I think that it is a really good diet for the Baby Boomers because it is almost impossible to gain weight on this diet and if you are already overweight you can very easily and safely slim down. It is also detoxifying and it is high in fiber which promotes a healthy colon. And even though there are many people who don’t agree with the use of any salt I have found that by using a little salt (one teaspoon a day) it actually helps with hydration.

Some of the recipes I have been doing for years but I have made a few changes to them to lessen the concentration of the oils and fats. If you’ve done the other programs you’ll notice some similarities but one of the main changes in my new menu plan is that all the nuts are in a germinated state. This may seem like a small thing but if you look at sunflower seeds, for instance, in a dormant state they contain 9 of 22 amino acids, whereas in a germinated state after soaking in water for 12 hours they contain 18 of the 22 amino acids.

As the raw vegan movement grows and becomes more mainstream many corporations are starting to cash in on what is becoming one of the most expensive diets on the planet. And while I’m totally excited to see this growth in my lifetime, one of the downsides is that there is a huge amount of super expensive raw vegan junk food being marketed to us now.

The sad thing about this is that if you gorge yourself on dehydrated raw snacks and treats, which include addictive substances like raw cacao and MSG, and if you overeat a lot of processed raw vegan supermarket foods then you are not going to get the same results as if you spend a little extra time in the kitchen preparing fresh fruit and vegetable dishes. In fact the difference is almost the same as day and night as far as your long term health.

I have found that if you start the raw vegan diet in your twenties it won’t make that much of a difference in how you look and feel, but by your mid-forties you will notice a huge difference in the fact that there is no difference in how you feel. And I have now found that this carries on into your fifties and sixties.

My father became a raw vegan at the age of seventy five and he noticed a huge change in the quality of his life. The first thing that happened was he lost forty pounds, his energy level almost doubled and even though he was eating much less he felt satisfied for first time, so in passing it is never too late to start eating better.

I’d like to make this diet available to other boomers and anyone who is interested in a really light yet satisfying raw vegan diet. So, I’ve put my whole diet plan in my new eBook “The Vital Force Diet System”. For a complete raw vegan diet especially for boomers including a seven day eating plan with all the recipes all in one eBook, for only $25, please click the link below:

http://tinyurl.com/vitalforce

Be Well,
Storm

Posted in anti-aging, Raw Food | Tagged raw food for baby boomers | 1 Comment

Life Force System

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Storm

Storm, 62, life force system

About two weeks ago I made a huge discovery in my approach to improving my raw food system. I call it a system because for me it is no longer a diet, it is no longer about recipes or individual breakthroughs. For me at this point in my life it is about creating integrated systems that work together.

I’m always experimenting with new diet concepts within the raw vegan diet concept. There are so many different ways to do this diet and just about everybody I know or have ever heard of does it a different way. And of course everyone wants to know what is the right way or the best way.

I think that the truth is that we will never know in our lifetime. This is really true for me because I’m already sixty two years old and there will never be groups of people tested for longevity in my lifetime. I have been doing this diet for forty years and I don’t personally know anyone who has been doing the raw vegan diet as long as I have. I’m sure that there are lots of people who have, the concept of the raw vegan diet is not new, but perhaps they are quiet about it, as I once was.

I know from studying the Essenes that the concept of the raw vegan diet has been around as long as the teachings of Jesus. I have also done research into Zen philosophy and about the closest that I could come to a concept of diet was a quote saying that the Buddha lived on just one grain of rice a day. But I don’t know if that was meant to be taken literally, and I also don’t know if that grain of rice was cooked. Most rice in Asian culture is cooked. But I do know of a famous chef from Vietnam who specializes in creating raw vegan dishes from sprouted rices.

One of the problems you run into when trying to study ancient Asian culture is that they were so secretive when it came to the higher levels of knowledge. You had to be taken into the temple and then you had to earn the master’s respect before he would take you into the inner sanctum.

Another thing that kind of tipped me off was not too long ago I was thinking that it would be great to take some of my children and go to China and study with the Shaolin monks. So I wrote the temple and we had a warm exchange of letters, but one of the things that I was worried about was would there be any food for us to eat. When I brought this up in the next exchange of letters they replied that we would be place in a special house and that there would be raw food available for us. So even though there is plenty of information surrounding martial art monks being vegetarian this was my first reference to the concept of raw food being familiar within that culture.

But it makes perfect sense to me that in order to obtain the high level of performance that involves pushing the human body to its farthest limits you would need a diet that would enhance rather than clog the system.

So my new breakthrough was oat sprouts. I have known about oat sprouts for years, I first played around with them twenty years ago. When I first became raw in the seventies I used to soak raw oats in orange juice and by adding other ingredients I made really delicious high calorie meals that allowed me to maintain muscle mass. But then upon doing further research I found out that the oats where steam-hulled before being rolled and so therefore they were semi cooked. So I tried sprouting some oats but at the time I was not impressed with the results. I also tried buckwheat and by mixing them together I could make a living cereal.

About two weeks ago I was in a health food store and I saw a jar of oats for sprouting. I don’t know if this is the same as oat groats but I bought them anyway. The first thing that I noticed is that they looked just like brown rice. So I wondered what would happen if I soaked them and then prepared them the same way you would prepare a brown rice dish. So I put some on to soak and tasted them twenty four hours later; they were kinda of chewy but not bad tasting. I have always thought that certain foods don’t really have a taste; foods like tofu, bread, rice etc… So those foods take on the taste of whatever they are mixed with. This is one of the reasons that they can be used in so many different dishes.

I had meant to do something with the oat “rice” but I got distracted and forgot so they ended up soaking for forty eight hours instead of just twenty four. By the time I got back to them they were really soft and the water had pretty much soaked out the oat taste. I had marinated some mushrooms with olive oil and Celtic sea salt and finely chopped garlic which had been prepared the day before. It takes about twenty four hours to marinade mushroom in this fashion.

I then drained and mixed the oats with the mushrooms and garlic. I added a little more olive oil and cubed a Hass avocado into it, added some savory herbs and put a little into a bowl and let it sit for a few hours. After a few hours the garlic and the herbs had totally taken over and without a doubt this is the closest I have been able to come to reproducing a brown rice dish. It was so delicious that I just wolfed it down and flew back into the kitchen to get more but by then the rest of the family had discovered it and there was not one grain of rice – I mean oats – left in the bowl.

I don’t know if this is really a commercial dish or not. I have not tried it on anyone outside our family yet. Until this discovery I had used to buy wild rice and soak it but then one day I found out that they parch it with heat so I stopped buying it. I had even tried calling the company and seeing if I could buy sproutable rice seeds but they said no.

I did a little research on oats and the only charts that I could find we’re for cooked oats but even in a cooked state oats are loaded with nutrients, so in a sprouted state they are likely off the charts as far as nutrient density.

So based upon that discovery I created a system of sprouted and germinated dishes. I’m now putting it down in the form of an ebook so that I can share it with our customers. I will be including a menu integrating these recipes in to a weekly plan. It is really based upon eating food with a focus on the life force.

For instance I love broccoli I have over five dishes for raw broccoli that are delicious, but broccoli sprouts have over four times the nutrients that the mature broccoli has with a lot less fiber making them much easier to digest. So in this new book I have a recipe of broccoli sprouts with savory herbs and a germinated really raw cashew dressing. Most cashews are heated up in the shelling process but now because of the growth of the raw food movement it is possible to obtain cashews that have been shelled without heat.

In this ebook is also a list of stand-alone foods that can be eaten by themselves and constitute a complete meal.

Here’s what happened to me on this diet for two weeks. My target weight was one hundred seventy five pounds. I was in a really bad motorcycle accident about a year ago and I couldn’t walk for about three months so I actually stopped eating, to help with the healing, and I went from one hundred and eighty eight pounds to one hundred and seventy five. When I started working out again I also started eating more and I started gaining weight again but instead of gaining weight around my middle I started putting on muscle mass. When I got back up to around a hundred and eighty four pounds I started feeling heavier even though it was muscle mass and not fat.

So I thought what if I use this new concept and only eat foods that are really high in life force like sprouts instead of the mature plants. What if I only eat nuts and seeds that are germinated instead of eating the dry concentrated nuts and seeds. Sprouted sunflower seeds have 18 of the twenty two amino acids in a germinated state as compared to 9 in a dormant state.

So now I was eating really light but I wasn’t hungry. I had more energy on less food. I increased my workouts and I started gaining even more muscle mass so after two weeks on this life force raw vegan diet I now weigh one hundred and eighty six pounds and at the same time my waist has gotten smaller, and my energy level has doubled.

I wouldn’t say that I feel hungry all the time but I do feel empty in a good way. I don’t feel like my colon is packed.

I don’t think that this diet is for everybody. People who have food issues might find it stressful. I think that the reason I was able to put on muscle mass is because my workout is integrated into my diet plan. I think that if you ate this diet without a workout then you would lose weight, you would definitely lose fat and maybe even muscle mass if you didn’t do anything at all.

Included in the ebook is a circular workout system I have been using with this diet. I’m finding the results amazing.

But to be on safe side I would like to point out that this is an advancec raw vegan diet and it might not work for someone just starting out. As with the other diet systems that the Garden Diet is promoting we have invested a great deal of time and study into not only creating a system that is balanced but that also tastes really good, because we feel that no one is going to stick with a diet program that does not taste good.

This would be a really good ebook for an athlete or someone looking for a really high performance diet.

I’m hoping to have the ebook finished in the next week, possibly even as soon as tomorrow.

Jinjee will keep you posted via the Daily Raw Inspiration newsletter.

Be Well,
Storm

The Garden Diet Maintenance Program Coming January 2012

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Storm

Before and After The Garden Diet by Storm Talifero

Kathleen, Before and After The Garden Diet Programs

The Garden Diet Maintenance Program is the last of a three part series. The first two, The Garden Diet 21 Day Cleanse and 28 Day Transition-to-Raw Program were designed to help you prepare your body to become a long term raw vegan.

The raw vegan diet is a hard diet to change over to and do on a long term basis. Even many people who have a totally positive experience eventually go back to eating some cooked foods. Two of the reasons for this are that cooked foods are totally addictive and ever-present.

I believe that you need two things to go raw and stay raw…

1.) A wide variety of recipes in your menu plan so that you don’t get bored

…and…

2.) An cohesive philosophy or overall concept for a balanced raw vegan diet

Even after being a raw vegan for over forty years I am amazed at how well it works. It seems to work even better for me the longer I do it. I will be sixty two years old in January and I feel better than I have ever felt in my life. I am also amazed that the diet seems to work so well for pregnant moms, nursing moms, young children, teenagers, and men and women of all different ages and nationalities.

Even as a raw foodist who had trouble keeping weight on in my younger days, in my 60′s I had to start fighting the battle of the bulge. But just by decreasing my food intake and stepping up my exercise a little, I’ve adjusted to the changes in my metabolism and have found a way to stay on top of it.

One of the most insidious side effects of eating cooked food long term is that after a certain point you just start to spread in the middle and no matter what you do, it doesn’t seem to budge. It does not matter if you were a cheerleader in high school or a football star in college. After a certain point you just start to spread in the midsection.

Science is just now starting to find out how unhealthy belly fat is. It raises our chances for contracting cancer, diabetes, and heart disease plus a host of other chronic debilitating conditions. For every five pounds of belly fat that you carry your chances increase on a sliding percentage scale of becoming afflicted with one of these crippling conditions.

And the sad part of it is that it is totally avoidable just by making some simple dietary changes.

The raw food diet dates back to almost to the dawn of recorded history. There have always been tribes of peaceable people who were known as gatherers and farmers.

Some evidence reveals that the human race is over 2 million years old. Fire was discovered a mere 10,000 years ago and the onslaught of pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, supplements, and chemical vitamins date back only about a hundred years.

So that means that for most of the history of humankind we were eating raw, organic foods. So any debate of whether or not we can be healthy on a raw organic diet is a mute point; the question rather should be can we be healthy on a diet consisting of cooked foods, processed foods, and GMO foods. For the answer to that all you have to do is look around you; we are in the middle of a health crisis.

One out of three children are obese. There are people right now who are building their houses with ramps so that when they get older they won’t have to remodel their houses for wheelchair access. In other words they are planning on being confined to a wheelchair in their golden years of retirement.

In the Garden Diet Maintenance Program we will give you a breakdown on just why the raw vegan diet is the perfect diet for human beings and we will show you how really simple recipes can be made to taste every bit as good as anything in the cooked or processed world of foods.

We realize that taste is a huge part of why we eat and we have found that if we can offer people food that is really and truly healthy and if that food also tastes better than the food that they are currently eating and if in fact we can offer them enough recipe with convenient menu plans and shopping lists then a lot of people will stick with the raw vegan diet long term.

I put on my first raw food retreat in the Mountains of Ojai in 1975 and since then I have seen hundreds of people experience the joy of eating a diet of fresh, raw, organic foods even if just for a short time. And of all the retreats and programs that we have done, I think this maintenance program is going to be the most comprehensive method for tailoring a raw vegan diet to your unique needs with all the tools you need to make it a simple process.

One of the main reasons that we are doing this last program is that so many people have taken the first two programs with such great results that they just keep on doing the first two programs because they don’t want to go back to eating the way they were. There is nothing wrong with that, except that it might get a little boring and these programs were not designed to do long term; they were designed to set you up to go raw long term.

With this new program you will receive all of the information that you need to either gain or lose weight and once you have obtained your desired size we will then show you how to hold on to your victory over food.

This is kind of a new concept in a world of fad diets, crash diets, and overnight flash-in-the-pan diets that in the long term don’t help people keep off the weight that they may have lost while doing those quick weight loss programs.

In fact it was found that people doing the Atkins diet only lost an average of five pounds over a year long period.

This is what you will get when you sign up for the program in January.

You will get menu plans, shopping lists and all the information you need to stay healthy and thrive long term on the raw vegan diet.

You will have access to our forum and you will be set up with a small support network of four people who you can communicate with via email on a daily basis. People have told us this makes it a lot of fun because you are now a part of a community that is all moving in the same direction together.

The recipes for the Maintenance Program are truly delicious. They are simple and easy to prepare. Our battle cry is “Fresh Is Best”! Most of our recipes are just a matter of chopping up fresh fruits and vegetables and combining them in a way that is easy to digest and at the same time results in you having a totally balanced diet.

I believe that the next evolution of the raw vegan diet will be eating directly out of the garden, and that this will result in revolutionary health for our society and the end of the current health crisis!

All the best
Storm
P.S. Our Maintenance Program – The Garden Diet’s Raw Empowerment Program is here!

Posted in Raw Food, wieght loss | Tagged raw food weight loss programs | 1 Comment

The Promise of the Raw Vegan Diet

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Storm

Storm Talifero, 61 years old long-term Raw Vegan

What is the promise of the raw organic vegan diet? Is this a huge movement in the collective consciousness of humankind. Sometimes it is really hard for me to talk about all of the benefits of raw food. It goes way beyond anything that I can put into words.

You almost have to start at the beginning with the human body. The human body is such an amazing machine it is without doubt the most complicated machine in the known universe. It is such an incredible gift that we even exist until I feel like I’m on safe ground saying that we have not even scratched the surface of our true human potential.

And in light of all this, is it so far fetched to imagine that with the miracle of this life comes a diet that is also perfect for the way that this machine is designed. It is at this point that I find myself in dangerous waters because the arguments are literally endless. I do feel safe in saying that in the realm of science as far as nutrition is concerned we have failed miserably. Scientists are not a healthy group, doctors are not a healthy group, a lot of very wealthy people are not healthier than anyone else and in many instances they are even more unhealthy than others. Society at large is not doing well following the scientifically designed food pyramid.

So when it comes to diet and what defines a really good diet I feel that we are all in uncharted waters. I think that one of the reasons for this is that to do scientific research it takes deep pockets so you have a lot of food industries paying for research that ends up being slanted towards their product. Whereas on the other hand no one is funding research into the raw vegan diet. There is not a lot of money in people becoming raw vegans. In fact there are a lot of myths surrounding our foods that actually prevent people from even believing that the raw vegan diet is healthy at all. However, this is rapidly changing.

I loved the movie “Forks Over Knives” even though it didn’t carry the concept of plant based protein to the final conclusion that maybe it is better not to put your food into the fire it did show in scientific terms how just switching to a plant based diet can actually reverse chronic heart conditions. The doctors who came up with the concept of veganism to treat heart conditions are now being hailed as revolutionizing modern medicine. Their research spans a twenty year period.

On Christmas day of 2011 I will have been doing the raw vegan diet for exactly forty years. I don’t claim to have been doing this diet longer than anyone else nor do I claim to be the oldest raw vegan in the movement. What I will share with you is this. After sixty two journeys around the sun I am now in perfect health. I was told by doctors that because so many of my family members had died of cancer that I had a good chance of also dying from cancer. As of now I don’t have a trace of cancer in my body.

I was also told that I would have a predisposition toward diabetes and obesity because once again that was something that ran rampant through my family. But now at the age of sixty two I’m still the same size as I was in my twenties. I still wear a size thirty-two pants. My point being that we do not have to start to break down in our early thirties. Even though this is the norm in our society I would hazard to say that it is mainly driven by poor food choices.

If given the proper food these bodies can last in theory forever. That is to say that scientists can find no reason for the human body to ever break down. I feel that we experience a breakdown through the retention of un-eliminated waste matter that is stored in the body because we are eating food that is totally not designed for our bodies. I feel that a raw organic vegan diet that is well balanced is the best possible thing that we can do to ensure our health over a long period of time.

It is also one of the hardest lifestyles that we can adopt. One of the reasons being that we are besieged on all sides by foods that are totally unnatural. The actual diet itself is a very simple one. It consists of eating fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds in their freshest state possible. And drinking lots of water. But the benefits being derived from this simple diet are nothing short of miraculous.

The concept behind The Garden Diet is that we would eat our food almost straight from the garden. And from this simple concept came such an abundance of health for our whole family until I now feel that we have not even scratched the surface of what is really happening here.

I think that the most important thing for anyone embarking on this path is to make sure that they have a balanced diet. Without a balanced diet there is no way that anyone can do this diet long term without some loss of health and well being. Just about every raw teacher that I know does the diet a little differently. So at some point you find yourself faced with what exactly is the right way to do the raw vegan diet and make it work long term?

I’m no different than all of the other raw vegan teachers; I also do the diet totally different than everyone else I know. A few things that are different in my case is that I have been doing this diet longer than most people with totally great results and I have been able to tailor it to work for a large family with children who have been doing it since birth.

A little over a year ago we came out with two programs; one was a cleanse and the other was a transition diet. Now in early next year we are coming out with a raw maintenance diet. This will present a way to eat after you have already adjusted to the raw vegan diet and now you just want to maintain the gains that you have made without back-sliding. What the maintenance diet consists of are shopping lists and menu plans for doing the raw vegan diet long-term.

I personally feel that you have to be one hundred percent raw long term in order to harness the full effects of the raw vegan diet. I feel that in order to do this you have to be able to really enjoy your food and at the same time not compromise the quality of the food that you are eating for the sake of taste. Compromising for taste is something that happens a lot even within the raw vegan movement. I feel that it is totally unessecessary. You can enjoy a series of recipes that make it totally possible to enjoy your food to the max and never compromise healthfulness in order to enjoy your food.

This is what the Garden Diet Programs are all about. Learning to enjoy your food in a perfectly balanced format and hold onto the gains you make for the rest of your life instead of going back and forth and up and down which seems to be the case with most diet trends these days.

I am in awe of the accomplishments people who have done The Garden Diet Programs have made. You can see some Before and After photos which speak louder than words and also hear feedback from people who have done the Programs here:

21DaysRaw.com

28DaysRaw.com

Testimonials and Before and Afters

Most recent Before and Afters

All the best,

Storm

Posted in Raw Food, The Garden Diet | Tagged Effective Raw Vegan Diet | 3 Comments

Part 2 in The Balance Series – “A Balanced Workout”

Posted on September 10, 2011 by Storm

Part 2 in The Balance Series…”A Balanced Workout”

Watch it on Vimeo

Posted in anti-aging, building muscle, working out | Leave a comment

The Balance Series – “A Balanced Raw Diet”

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Storm

Storm Talifero, 61 year old raw-vegan

I’ll be 62 in January, and I’ve recently had to fine-tune my raw vegan diet yet again. At this age, my metabolism has slowed down and I had to start eating about half the amount that I used to, to keep that middle-age spread at bay. I also have to work out every day. When I was younger I could skip a day or a week and get right back on it, with no loss of physique. These days, if I miss a day, I notice it. If I miss a few days, other people notice it too.

The main thing I’ve learned in my 40 years as a health nut, is that balance is key to everything. In the raw diet, avoiding the extremes and striving for balance is mandatory. With working out, you have to do equal parts stretching, strengthening, and cardio conditioning. And if you’re going to live for over 60 years, you have to keep things interesting by doing different things.

Storm Talifero, 61 year old raw-vegan

Right now I’m working out at least twice daily for a total of 2-3 hours a day. Once in a while I’ll do an all-day hike. I’ll have a huge orange juice for breakfast, something like tabouli or a big salad for lunch, a nut milk in the afternoon and some fruit in the evening.

About four months ago I was in a serious motorcycle accident. I had bones showing in both my knee and shoulder. The doctors said I healed really quickly. I’ve been doing extreme sports since my 20′s and have always healed really quickly from injuries. My age doesn’t seem to be slowing the healing capacity at all, and I know I have the raw diet to thank.

Jinjee interviewed me the other day on my thoughts on why my raw diet is working so well. At 61 I’m feeling like I’m about 41. For me right now in all areas of life it is all about Balance; keeping all the balls in air, staying fluid, and keeping the momentum going. Here is “A Balanced Raw Diet”, the first video from “The Balance Series”….

If you can’t see the video above, you can watch it here!

Posted in anti-aging, balanced raw diet, Raw Food, working out | Tagged The Balance Series from Storm Talifero | Leave a comment

Storm’s Online Raw Food For Men Program – Exclusive Presale!

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Storm

storm

Storm is 61 years old. These picture were taken last year at 60, and his physique is even more improved now! I’ll be taking more pictures in the near future! I’m just amazed how after 40 years as a raw vegan, Storm defies the aging process and competes athletically in a number of diciplines with much younger athletes. His energy level is phenomenal, he needs very little sleep, and he enjoys a variety of exquisitely delicious raw foods in balanced and energizing recipes that are every bit as good or better than any cooked food I’ve ever tasted! I couldn’t stay raw without Storm’s recipes, and I’m happy to be able to share them with you! – Jinjee

Raw Food For Men
We know the raw diet is great for weight loss, but that isn’t great news if you are an athletic male! Men often become quite skinny on a raw vegan diet. They don’t have the natural fat reserves that women do, and in our society most men want to have some muscle. So how can you enjoy all the health benefits of a raw diet without losing too much weight? How can you build muscle while losing fat? How do you get the protein you need on a raw diet to build muscle? Are there other secrets to building muscle on the raw diet?

storm over time

Yes! And Storm wants to show you the answers to these questions and more in his Raw Food For Men Program! This will be a 3-week program that includes menu plans, workouts, motivation and support! Storm will do a weekly conference call and you’ll have access to videos and recipes, eBooks and daily emails, that will help you to gain muscle and achieve a healthy weight and vital energy with a 100% fresh raw vegan diet!

Storm has been a raw vegan for 40 years, and at 61 he is still athletic and an amazing example of raw longevity. Over the years Storm has developed an amazing repertoire of recipes geared to maintaining a healthy weight with an athletic lifestyle while enjoying a satisfying and delicious, balanced raw vegan diet.

This program starts on September 1st, 2011. The cost will be $300. We are now offering a Presale so if you order now you can have the complete program for only $147!!!

Order now and receive these Free Gifts immediately!

* Our 16 raw food eBooks to browse while you wait for the program to start, including: Raw Muscle, Raising Raw Kids, Storm’s Story, The Garden Diet, The Anti-Aging Guide, and more!

* Our documentary film about our family, produced by Storm, called “Breakthrough” – online download!

* mp3 Music downloads by Storm and The Three Solitary Birds, Nature-Inspired R&B

* Men’s Corner, online video about the secrets of male vitality and various diets’ effects on male potency.

* Storm’s new eBook “Unbelievable“, the story of a long-term raw vegan

storm back

If you are a dude struggling with raw food, or if you know a man who is raw and could use some guidance from a long term raw vegan who has found a way to make it work, sign up here today for our special Presale price for this Exclusive Raw Men’s Program Online and get ready to go raw on September 1st 2011!

Order Here, Presale Special: $147 and receive your free gifts today!

Buy Now!

Customer Service

Posted in menu plan, raw food for men | Tagged raw men | 1 Comment

Request for special help

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Storm

Benet shows gratitude and love for his educator and mom Sasha, who has been willing to invest everything to show him that he is capable of better life.

A few months ago, I blogged about Sasha and Benet. Benet was born with autism and a whole list of other ailments, including the inability to even move his muscles. Sasha, his mother, has helped him recover and essentially heal from many of his “incurable” diagnoses. A few days ago, she asked me to send this letter out to as many people as I could:

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Posted in Alternative Therapies, Diet Therapies | Tagged disease, kids | 2 Comments

Miraculous

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Storm

Devon, Before and after The Garden Diet

When we first put up the garden diet website we had no idea of its far reaching implications. As far as a healing modality we have tried to stick to some common sense principles. Our family uses the raw vegan diet as a preventive health approach. So being lay people we really don’t know a lot about specific chronic debilitating diseases.

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