Turning Points to Health

The turning point in my life was when I purchased a Vitamix Total Nutrition Centre in 1994.  I had wanted a high powered blender for some time, as I inherently knew that I needed to include more raw food into my diet.  I could see the advantage of blending a whole pile of fruit, leaves, etc and just chugging it down.  At that stage I was 40 years old and suffering from various maladies.  These ranged from horrible PMS that lasted at least 2 weeks of every month, drinking too much alcohol and popping sleeping pills every night.  I was a mess.

I purchased my Vitamix from my daughter’s friend’s mother, Colleen Thornhill.  Meeting Colleen and her husband Mike, and purchasing the Vitamix changed my life almost immediately.

I became a vegetarian within two weeks of purchasing the machine and increased my raw intake by at least 70%. I blended smoothies every morning for myself and the rest of the family.  I took a flask of the stuff to work and basically just had fruit all day.  Supper was a big salad.  I lost weight, strangely enough, even though I was already very slim.  I dropped from 50kgs to around 44kgs, and kept this low weight for about 3 years – slowly stabilising and creeping back up to around 47kgs, which is my current weight.

For the next three years I still drank alcohol, but less so and still took sleeping pills, sadly, but I felt much better all round and I no longer experienced PMS, which was a huge relief.

In 1997 we left South Africa, and this was another turning point in my life.  My husband and I both gave up alcohol.  Two years later we moved to Saudi Arabia, and it was there that I decided to give up sleeping pills.  This was exceedingly difficult, but since I was not working, it seemed like the right time. Within 6 months I was able to sleep without any chemical aid.

A year later we moved to Dubai.  Here I increased my raw intake to around 95-100%, exercised every day on my rebounder (a gift from Colleen and Mike) and felt like I had evolved into the me I was meant to be.

At this point I purchased a distiller and a dehydrator. I wanted to be sure the water I was drinking was as clean and pure as possible. The dehydrator was to add other textures and flavours into the raw diet.  Dried fruit is my passion! I eat far too much of it.

I am now 56, and incredibly happy and well.  I have amazing energy and never get depressed, even if things do go wrong!

I highly recommend to anyone embarking on a ‘health crusade’ to seriously consider going ‘raw’.  Somehow raw food vitalises the body.  Every cell seems nourished, content and happy. If all the parts of the whole are well, it stands to reason that the whole being will be well too.    The easy way to do it is with a blender, particularly initially.  It is so easy to blend and chug.  Purchasing a juicer is also a good idea, but I have not yet done so.  I tend to only juice oranges and have a cheap little juicer for this purpose.

I also highly recommend exercising on a rebounder (or mini trampoline).  I bounce/aeorobicise on my trampoline every morning for 30 minutes to very upbeat, trendy music.  It is a great way to start the day and excellent for encouraging elimination, and of course keeping fit and trim.  The other benefit I have noticed is that I now have really good balance.

 

 

 

One Man’s Meat is Another Man’s Poison

When my daughters were young teenagers, they decided to become vegetarian.  I was against the idea as I was not prepared to cook separate meals and told them that I was still making what I always did and they could just eat the vegetables.  However, it did plant a bit of a seed in my mind and also the fact that I always watched the animal programmes on TV as I have always loved all creatures, and realised that animals have feelings too.

During December 1995 I decided to make it my new year’s resolution, to become a vegetarian. It was decision that I did not take lightly and I waited patiently for the 1^st January 1996 to roll around.  However, during that December I was watching Keith Floyd, the British chef, doing one of his cooking demonstrations on an ostrich farm in Oudtshoorn.  There he was with his glass of wine in his hand cooking an ostrich flambe with all the other ostriches running around and I thought to myself what an insensitive and uncaring man he was.  I then realised that I was not much better and instead of waiting until 1^st January, I gave up meat, fish and chicken from that day on (15 years ago).

 

I used to love the taste of meat, fish and chicken, enjoyed braais and roasts, chicken done in every way, all fish (except shellfish).  Tuna salad was a staple for me. I used to order baby chicken in a restaurant and enjoyed sucking on the tiny bones. Wiener Schnitzel was delicious done in breadcrumbs with a lemon sauce.  I never took note that veal was in fact a baby calf.  Veal calves are killed at about 18 or 20 weeks as “white” veal, or fed on grain and hay and killed at 22 to 35 weeks to produce red or pink veal. Delicious lamb roasts on a Sunday comprised of a little helpless animal killed at the age of between one month and one year.  Some of the lucky ones managed to be a bit older before they were killed as sheep. I could go on and on about the unnecessary killing spree of baby and adult animals.

Transport of the animals, killing of the animals – Poor practices include cruel treatment of animals during loading, unloading, transport and slaughter. Cruel treatment includes gouging out eyes before slaughter, using fire, twisting tails and beating exhausted animals to load and offload animals on to trucks and slaughtering animals with cuts across the throat that are incomplete and slaughtering in front of other animals

Some people say that fish don’t have feelings.  Well I disagree, it may not be feelings as we do, just instinct, however as Paul McCartney once said:  A fish’s life is as important to the fish, as yours is to you.  Have you ever watched a fish gasping for air and thrashing around when it is taken out of the water.

Then there is the whole subject on its own of fishing for larger species.  The trawlers drop their mammoth size nets and whatever unlucky fish is swimming in the vicinity also get caught in the nets and just die for no reason whatsoever. So many areas in the world have been over-fished and many fish are becoming endangered and possibly extinct.

Then there is the whole subject of eggs of battery hens.  These hens never see the light of day or walk on solid ground.  Their entire life consists of being in a wire cage. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the battery cage is the size. Most battery cages are barely larger than the hens they contain, and in many instances, hens are unable to move or turn around. Typically, battery hens are installed in battery cages within weeks of hatching, and they spend around nine months in cages before being disposed of because they are no longer productive.

Like many animals, chickens can develop some curious responses to stress. Many battery hens, for example, will attempt to attack each other through the wire. As a result, most commercial egg producer debeak their battery hens periodically, removing their beaks with a heated knife so that they cannot attack each other. The hens may also throw themselves against the bars of the cage or wedge body parts into the wire, in some cases severely injuring or killing themselves.  Although I do eat eggs, I only buy free range eggs.

Similarly, I only purchase milk which is RBST free, that is from cows that have not been force-fed hormones that cause many health issues for cows.

Its surprising how many people do give me a hard time about being vegetarian, from people quoting from the bible saying that god said the animals are here for us to eat.  That may be the case. however, I choose not to have something die because of me.

Whilst doing research on this topic, I was absolutely sickened by the cruelty and inhumanity of what sometimes goes into putting an animal meal on the table and I am so grateful that I am not part of it, and it reinforces my beliefs, and I am so happy to be a vegetarian.

Meat Patches

University finds solution to global warming. It might affect you so read on!

It has long been known that the estimated 1,3 billion cattle are breathing out CO2 and blowing off methane at such a rate as to be serious contributors to global warming. Just in case you are not aware of the impact that global warming can have on the earth, just take this as an example of climate change. Africa will experience heat waves and serious drought on a continent that already short of water. Wars are being fought over oil. When will people start fighting over water, the source of all life on this planet?

The contribution of cattle to this problem has set New York University and Oxford University to seek a solution to this ever-growing problem. It has been suggested that livestock farming is contributing to a massive 51% of the greenhouse emissions (Goodland and Anhang 2009). Global warming is not going away unless something serious is done we are going to be in dire straits. In their paper they consider a new kind of solution called human engineering. This involves biomedical modifications to humans that will reduce the number of cattle contributing to the problem or measures to enable humans to adapt to climate change”
As a vegetarian, this is the part that made me laugh out loud. Basically the suggestion is to find a way of making people hate eating meat. The academics recognised that people lack the motivation and willpower to give up eating meat So have suggested that a more realistic option would be to induce chainsa mild intolerance to meat. this can be achieved by humans that currently eat meat to wear meet patches which would be akin to nicotine patches for smokers. These would stimulate the immune system against common bovine proteins causing the person to have an unpleasant experience and not want to eat meat.

The other bizarre suggestions that the academics made to reduce the demand for livestock were:

• To make people smaller through hormone treatment and genetic engineering. Smaller people eat less than bigger people which means the consumption will be reduced
• To make people smarter with the use of drugs. Generally smarter people have less children and this again means there will be less consumption.

The lead author of the paper, S. Matthew Liao indicated that these were just ideas to deal with climate change and he was not in favour of these ideas being enforced on anybody but rather for people to volunteer in the interests of climate change.

Well it seems that the impact on global warming by livestock is serious enough that ‘Meatless Monday’ is actually being taken on by top restaurants around the world. Public figures, film produces, actors, actresses and schools all standing behind this moral drive to save the planet. When I was a child it was a common practice for Catholics to abstain from meat on Friday and instead to eat fish. Projecting forward I can see that Mondays will be a day when people will find difficulty in eating meat publicly on Monday. That will be a day I for one look forward to!

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