Blogs

If you love pasta but can do without regular intake of refined carbohydrates, give this recipe a try - it calls for noodles that are made by thinly slicing raw zucchini into long strips; many raw food enthusiasts have long enjoyed zucchini noodles in place of conventional flour-based varieties.

The easiest way to make raw zucchini noodles is to use a special spiral slicer. There many different brands of spiral slicers on the market that you can view here: Spiralizer. Read more

Looking for more healthy recipes for the full body cleanse program? What follows are five green smoothie recipes - smoothies that are made with green vegetables and ripe fruit - that provide loads of flavor and nutrients to keep you going throughout the day. All of these smoothies are substantial enough to be full meals, so feel free to have "green smoothie days" during the full body cleanse program - days when you drink as many green smoothies as your appetite calls for, and nothing else. Read more

If you're doing your body good by avoiding pasteurized dairy products but you miss eating cheesecake, give this delicious dairy-free, all-raw, blueberry cheesecake recipe a try.

The "cheese" in this cheesecake is made with raw, organic cashews, and the crust is made with a combination of macadamia nuts, dates, and dried coconut. The recipe requires some work, but it's definitely worth the effort! Read more

If you love hummus but have a hard time digesting chickpeas, this chickpea-free hummus recipe is definitely worth trying. It calls for organic tahini (ground sesame seeds), but if you can only find tahini made with roasted sesame seeds, it's no problem to use that instead.

This raw hummus is rich in calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, and tryptophan. Because of its high tryptophan content, when eaten along with a healthy carbohydrate-rich food, it's an excellent evening food choice for promoting a good night's rest. Read more

Before we take a look at some of the best and worst foods for your heart, let's make one point clear: a healthy heart is useless without several other well functioning organ systems.

A strong heart can only keep you healthy if the following parts of your body are functioning properly:

• Nervous system (cerebrum, midbrain, spinal cord, vagus nerve, and sensory fibers)
• Respiratory system (nasal passageway, nasopharynx, oropharynx, trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, and alveoli)
• Digestive system (digestive tract, liver, gall bladder, and pancreas)
• Blood vessels (arteries, arterioles,capillaries, venules, and veins)

Assuming that all of the above components in your body are functional, some of the best foods for your heart and blood vessels are: Read more

When made with raw, organic milk, butter can be a healthy food choice, since it's naturally rich in healthy fatty acids, healthy cholesterol, and vitamin A.

If your body can't tolerate high quality dairy butter, you can still enjoy butter by mastering the following dairy-free butter recipes; extra-virgin olive oil and coconut oil are used as bases to create buttery goodness. Read more

If you love spinach dip but your body doesn't love the milk and sour cream that are often used to make most commercially prepared varieties, give this tahini-based spinach dip a try.

Not only is this raw spinach dip out-of-this-world yummy, it's rich in tryptophan, which means that when eaten with a carbohydrate-rich food (like baked, whole grain crackers), it makes for an excellent evening snack that promotes deep sleep. Read more

Though hummus made with chickpeas is a favorite dish in our home, occasionally, we like to mix things up and make different types of hummus that are chickpea-free.

If you're a fan of almonds, I encourage you to give the following almond hummus recipe a try - it's rich in naturally occurring vitamin E, magnesium, and calcium, all of which can help keep your heart and blood vessels healthy as you age. Read more

One of my favorite films of the past few years is Little Miss Sunshine, a story about a family that travels in their Volkswagen Minibus from New Mexico to California for a children's beauty pageant.

What I remember most about Little Miss Sunshine is a scene where Dwayne - a Nietzsche-reading, sullen teenager who has kept a vow of silence for nine months to show his commitment to becoming a pilot - discovers that he is color-blind; this discovery leads to the devastating realization that his quest to become a pilot is over.

Dwayne has a panic attack in the back seat of the van, leading his father (a struggling life coach) to pull over onto the shoulder of the highway. Dwayne jumps out of the van, and the family watches helplessly as he runs wildly on a nearby field while cursing at the world. Read more

My younger sister is famous for telling me in a half-menacing, half-joking tone: "Ben, don't judge me!"

And I'm just as famous for responding with "Sarah, aren't you judging me right now in thinking and saying that I'm judging you?

My sister thinks that it's wrong to judge others. I think that we judge each other all the time, and that this is a good thing, as we need to judge others to make good decisions on how to use our time and other resources. Read more