Raw In Scotland

Recent article by Brian Clement

2010-05-23T20:03:30+01:00

After our discussions at the raw potluck this afternoon (which was very nice indeed, with some very healthy food and some recreational food that was way less unhealthy than standard fare) I thought people might be interested in this article by Brian Clement - who I hope you will be lucky enough to see in Glasgow on 29th June!

Let food be thy medicine

Dr Brian Clement makes the case for eating for health, not recreation.

From the time we are babies, food is presented to us as a mechanism for pleasure and emotional sedation. The first drug pushers we meet are most often our parents. When we please them, they offer us sweets. When we disappoint them, these addictive foods are withheld. When we go out into the world on our own, most of us continue the learned unhealthy pattern of eating to pacify uncomfortable feelings. Consciously or unconsciously, we use food as a tool for veiling the emotional brokenness that we suffer.

Some of us are later provoked into leaving the standard fare of our heritage. If we are lucky, we springboard into the universe of natural whole foods and if we’re luckier still, we eventually arrive at the realm of raw foods. But unfortunately, our unhealthy emotional patterns around food often continue to prevail. Rather than traditional white refined sugar, we use sugar called agave (or other concentrated sweeteners, or bags of dried fruit). When these foods are consumed habitually, they create much the same disconnected consciousness refined sugar does.

The same goes for fats, which we formerly consumed from meats, gravies, butter, ice cream, and so on, and now derive from large amounts of oils, nuts and seeds, often mixed together in heavy concoctions. And raw chocolate, in my opinion, is like methadone for chocoholics.

Many would say that to consume raw/living foods without the “recreation factor” of these stimulating foods would be to condemn oneself to a very dull life. Others believe that food should be chosen and consumed primarily for its nutritional – and even medicinal – properties, while recreation should be found elsewhere in life. This, by the way, does not preclude mealtimes from being times of companionship and sharing, suffused with ritual significance.

The point is, developing a passionate existence will carve food down to the role it should rightfully play in your life. So if you find yourself consumed with consumption, work hard to fill your heart up with real security and fulfillment.

Hippocrates recognized the medicinal properties of food, and this recognition informs everything we do at the Hippocrates Health Institute. Our founder, Dr Ann Wigmore, was a genius when she chose to name her organization after the father of Western medicine. He was the epitome of what our organization stands for. For example, the original text of the Hippocratic Oath includes the statement: “I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.” Most of you will also recognize Hippocrates’ words, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food”.

My foremost project these days is researching scientific studies that support this very premise, and it is clear that in coming years we will free healthcare from the shackles of symptom treatment, raising it to the level of system building.

A vast data bank of scientific work points to the disease-fighting properties of plant foods. No foods have greater healing power than raw sprouts, vegetables, herbs and fruits. One reason for this is their phytochemical content. Phytochemicals are natural bioactive substances found in plant foods. They are found in highest quantity in freshly harvested plant foods and they are either diminished or destroyed by modern processing techniques, including cooking. Research has shown that phytochemicals can both prevent and heal degenerative disease.

However, science has only just begun to identify and document the healing properties of these natural plant-based medicines. While we wait for studies to provide even more conclusive evidence, which kind of diet do you choose to consume? One that is low in these potent natural healers, like the standard diet of our era? Or one that is abundant in them? '

Good question......

Wild greens to pick for a spring tonic

2010-05-21T21:22:16+01:00

I'm sitting in a warm sun room sipping green juice and feeling so appreciative of the WARM weather after such a long cold winter. Now everything is growing like crazy and there are plenty of wild leaves to eat. I pick dandelion leaves and sorrel in my own garden and nearby there are stinging nettles to juice, daisy flowers and garlicky ramsons flowers to put on salads. In fact, I might make a wild salad for the raw pot luck this week, . Some like the dandelions in salads. they are too bitter and overpowering for my taste so I eat them separately, usually straight from the plant in passing but occasionally with quite a robust dressing of their own. I feel all virtuous because they are good liver tonics.

Wild food isn't only good because it bypasses the budget, but because it is rich in nutrients, really rich. The plants grow in their ideal spots and they have never been subject to human breeding schemes. They are the most natural food in that sense, and the food of our ancestors. the American herbalist Susan Weed (yes, she did change her name...) describes wild plants as the original keys that unlock our human system perfectly, unlike the duplicate keys of domesticated plants that don't quite fit as well. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I do know wild foods have excellent nutritional pedigrees and are ideal food supplements and treats, and in some cases potent and effective herbal medicines - so long as you know what you are doing! Try Richard Mabey's 'Food For Free' as a reference book, and steer round the rarer plants which need our protection.

Bon appetit!

Brian Clement's biography

2010-04-11T16:39:00+01:00

I just thought I'd share Brian's biography with you in case you want to know more and may want to come along to his talk in Glasgow in June (see previous post and future posts;-)

BIOGRAPHY

Brian Clement

Ph.D., L.N., N.M.D.

Dr. Brian Clement, Ph.D., N.M.D., L.N. has spearheaded the international progressive health movement for more than three and one-half decades. By conducting daily clinical research as the director of the renowned Hippocrates Health Institute, the world’s foremost complementary residential health Mecca, he and his team have developed a state of the art program for health maintenance and recovery. His Florida (U.S.A.) center has pioneered a program and established training in active aging and disease prevention. With hundreds of thousands of people participating in this program over the last half century, volumes of data have been accrued giving Clement a privileged insight into the lifestyle required to prevent disease, enhance longevity, and maintain vitality and stamina. Among Dr. Clement’s many contributions are “Living Foods for Optimum Health”, “Longevity”, and Lifeforce”, which Dr. Colin Campbell called “One of the most important books ever written on nutrition”. His latest book “Supplements Exposed”, will change America’s perceptions about nutritional supplementation. This landmark publication will expose the pharmaceutical fraud rampant globally in the sales, production, and distribution of worthless and harmful vitamin pills.

Dr. Clement is first and foremost a devoted husband and a caring father of four. In addition to daily counseling and research studies, Clement conducts conferences worldwide on attaining health and creating longevity giving humanity a roadmap for redirecting, enriching, and extending their lives.

Dr. Clement is a licensed Nutritionist. He graduated from the University of Science, Arts, and Technology where he earned his Ph.D and N.M.D

Getting beyond boredom with bland

2010-04-09T16:09:00+01:00

When, which isn't that often considering I've always played around with food, I get bored with very simple salad dishes one thing I do is head to a delicatessen. This time it was a little Thai deli I'd never been to and I dawdled around looking at what they had. Most of the divine pastes and sauces are seasoned with fish sauce and shrimp paste which like me you may want to avoid and many are full of sugar, msg and other unhelpful things, but there are a few gems and this time I found one that was new to me, Tom Kha paste. It contains:Coconut milk, onion, galanga, lemon grass, salt, garlic, citrus leaf, red chilli, citric acid, sugar and, which I didn't notice when I bought it because the print was so small, MSG. The 12% sugar isn't that bad because I only used a teaspoon full for each serving, but now I've spotted the MSG I'll probably keep the jar long enough to figure out a raw equivalent recipe and buzz the rest.

Look out for vegetarian pastes without the pesky msg.

Anyway, what I did with it was to very finely chop just about every veggie I could find including shitake mushrooms, red onion, tray grown snow pea shoots and courgette. I grated some carrot so finely it was almost mush and mixed all with some of the paste and some warm water. It made completely divine soup. The paste wasn't raw but hey, all the veggies were so it was still a change and an excellent meal.

When I get time I'll be fiddling around with fresh coconut milk squeezed out of a coconut blended with water and lemongrass, and blending in cayenne (which, unlike chilli, is not irritating to the gut walls), onion, garlic, ginger, coriander/cilantro and whatever other nice fresh Thai ingredients I can lay my hands on. And that really will be divine. Do hassle me to post the recipe.

Brian Clement is visiting Scotland

2010-04-04T16:07:04+01:00

I hope you are enjoying the spring after such a long northern winter. I've been busy writing my next book and getting a new website together and am looking forward to giving more time to blogging for you.

My good news is that in conjunction with Sarah Duncan of Grass Roots Organics In Glasgow I'm bringing Brian Clement to Glasgow in June. As follows:

Brian Clement, renowned and brilliant speaker on the subject of raw and Living Foods and director of the Hippocrates Health Institute Florida is speaking on June 29th at the Pearce Institute in Glasgow. 7.00-9.00pm, with a raw food cafe open from 6.00-7.00 and 9.00-10.00. At this happy and inspiring event you can learn so much about raw and living foods, wellness and the tricky subject of supplements, and ask your burning questions. Meet with the growing numbers of people in Scotland who are getting interested, transforming their ways of eating and transforming their lives. Tickets for the talk are £15 and will be available from Grass Roots Organics shortly. For more information contact me at judy@judybarber.net and I'll post more here soon about booking and about the 'Pop Up' Raw Cafe.

I trained as a Hippocrates Health Educator with Brian and learn more each time he speaks. People flock to his talks, including the scientifically and sceptically minded. He speaks from a rich background of clinical and practical experience as director of the Hippocrates Institute that has helped so many people back from serious illness and taught so many how to live and eat in ways that support wellbeing and give plenty of energy.

We hope you will join us on the 29th June! Do circle the date in your diary. Please tell people too, people who eat raw, people who are interested, people who think you are slightly nuts for eating this way, people who just aren't feeling great or who want to loose weight and anyone you know who is dealing with very serious illness and who wants to learn how to win their life back. They may well thank you.

Greens growing in the snow

2010-02-25T06:39:58+00:00

A whole day yesterday of tumbling flakes, six inches or more. Beautiful and, taken in the right spirit, an invitation to stay home and get things done near the wood stove. We had run out of a few things so not enough greens for green juice. I missed it. But it is good having one's own sprout farm always on the go so there was plenty of living food - sprouted lentils, mung beans, alfalfa and broccoli, sunflower and snow pea (!) tray grown greens and, of course, fresh wheatgrass.

The tin of powdered barleygrass is great for travelling and dire emergency, but it's not a patch on the freshly grown and squeezed variety. Plus it's powdered whole leaf with fibre. Better to have the actual juice so it is nourishing while still giving the digestion a break from fibre between meals.

In fact I'm going to juice some now. If I had only one supplement/superfood/folk medicine it would be wheatgrass.

Eating out at SAF in London and eating at home

2010-02-22T22:03:31+00:00

My camera went walkabout so I missed taking photos of the lovely food I ate at SAF in London a couple of weeks ago. The camera turned up at the bottom of my daypack so I can take photos when I go for a meal in Glasgow this weekend prepared by Andrew Gerson who was chef at New York's raw restaurant 'Pure Food and Wine'.

How's that for name dropping ;-) !

And meanwhile, like the rest of us who eat plenty of raw food, I'm in the kitchen with sprout jars to rinse and veggies to chop.

SAF was wonderful. For lunch they had good choices, all vegan I think, with several raw options. My companion and I ordered different mains and then different desserts, with extra plates and cutlery. That doubled the decadent tasting experience and it was delicious, complex tastes and interesting textures. Because it's raw and hence can be rich without being heavy to digest, we felt great. I'm hoping for something similar this weekend from Andrew Gerson with a menu of six courses ahead of us!

I'm looking forward to the day when raw cafes and restaurants are everywhere and when many ordinary omnivore restaurants serve completely raw dishes so that we have plenty of places to eat out. I'm sure it will happen for two reasons. Firstly it will be market driven as so many more people are discovering the benefits of eating raw and living food. People will see the business potential for feeding us! Secondly there's the environmental reality of reducing our carbon footprints - and raw vegan food is a very good way to do that.

Back to the kitchen. At home I don't produce complex restaurant food because the day is not long enough, because careful food combining suits my system much better, because simple food is delicious too and because I do other things as well as prepare food and eat it!!

And long live eating out.

My Christmas present to you - Christmas dessert recipes :-)

2009-12-20T11:55:37+00:00

Raw desserts are fresh, delicious and nutricious - and can be rich, sweet and traditional enough to please whoever is lucky enough to eat your food this Christmas. Here are recipes for 'Christmas pudding' and creamy vanilla custard flavours and textures but in a quick-to-prepare pairing of a fruit salad and a creamy raw sauce whipped up in a blender. The only equipment you need is a good knife and a blender, any blender.

CHRISTMAS PUDDING FRUIT SALAD

OK, it hasn't got a puddingy texture, but the flavours are spot-on, and by the time you are eating it with the custardy sauce it really is good enough to be classified as Christmas pudding. These quantities are guidelines, just vary them according to what you have, how many people you are feeding and how much citrus zest, ginger and cinnamon you like in things.

3/4 cup each: raisins (Big soft lexias if possible)

currants

sultanas

2 tsps orange zest (that's very finely grated peel)

1 tsp lemon zest

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Juice of 2 oranges

1 level tsp ground cinnamon

I tsp very finely grated fresh ginger

Approx 10 apples and or pears.

Mix everything together except the apples and/or pears and leave the juice and flavours to soak into the dried fruit. Leave for several hours until the dried fruit has soaked up quite a bit of the juice and is soft and moist. Then chop up the apples/pears into little chunks about the size of the dried fruit and mix all together straight away. Leave covered at room temperature for the flavours to mix well. Serve at room temperature rather than fridge-cold.

RICH VANILLA CUSTARD

I cup cashew nuts

1 cup walnuts

1/2 cup raw agave syrup

seeds scraped from a vanilla pod

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup cold-pressed coconut oil

1/2 an avocado (really) a just-ripe but not over-ripe one, chopped

I cup water

Soak the nuts in cool water for a few hours(overnight is ideal) and drain them. If the walnuts still taste slightly bitter, soak and rinse again. Blend the soaked nuts with the cup of water, the coconut oil, salt and agave until very smooth. It doesn't matter if the coconut oil is in solid lumps to start with because the motion of the blender will warm it just enough to melt it. When you have a thin smooth cream blend in the avocado until all is creamy and smooth. The avocado adds that extra-smooth custardyness. Keep at room temperature to serve poured over the fruit salad.

This combination really does touch the right Christmas dessert tastebuds, without being over-sweet or heavy - but still sweet and rich enough!

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and the best of New Years

Eating raw-ish out and about

2009-12-07T18:40:34+00:00

One good snack that is relatively easy to find is cucumber and hummus.

Find a corner shop, delicatessen or supermarket and you'll probably find a cucumber and hummus. Get hummus with olive oil if you can, and of course organic when there's a choice.

Hummus isn't totally raw. If you are lucky the lemon juice, olive oil and tahini are though, even though the chickpeas won't be. However with the cucumber it's a very satisfying dip kind of a snack or meal, it's almost all raw, it's very good food value and it is a well balanced combination.

Great if you have a knife available, but still workable when you don't! Celery is a good alternative, just as long as you don't have to eat any mud along with it, or you might find those packets of mixed veggie sticks.

bon appetit.

What to eat when you are out and about and cold and hungry?

2009-11-28T08:30:06+00:00

Autumn is rapidly turning into winter here in Scotland and it's a bit of an art form carrying around warming snacks for hungry moments.

It might sound counter-intuitive carrying around cold green juice (celery, cucumber, sunflower sprouts, kale...) but a few swigs of that is a lift of good nutrition, really, - protein, minerals, vitamins, easy carbs.

Something else good is having a little container of chlorella tablets around one's person to eat when low energy moments are threatening to turn into grab-anything snack moments.

if you have a dehydrator there are many many good carry-snacks that you can make.

But in this climate not eating sufficient is definitely not good, especially when it's cold, so better to eat something cooked than nothing. In which case, what?

I'll think up some OK choices for you.