Healthy Resources

Hi, Alan Pratt here, with healthy resources for you!

If you want to FEEL GOOD, you must put proper fuel in the body, and cleanse the body properly. Exercise, emotional balance, stress reduction, and self-expression are also important to being HAPPY AND HEALTHY, but to have life be a really great adventure, let's start by putting the right gas in our tanks, and by maintaining clean engines. 

For proper FUEL and proper CLEANSING of the human body, I heartily encourage people to engage in 4 practices:
1. Eating primarily raw organic plant food, heavy on the GREENS
2. Daily green juicing
3. Juice fasting
4. Herbal cleansing

Juicers

The best reasonably-priced juicer for greens - "Green Star". Several models from basic to deluxe feature other food processing functions, average $400 to $450, but all models juice greens equally well - www.greenstar.com or call them in California at 714.879.7150.
This juicer is totally worth it - it extracts more juice from the greens. I've had the basic Green Star for 8 years, used it hundreds or thousands of times, and for the past 5 years, it's been in the kitchen in an intentional community in Brooklyn, and it has survived use by at least a hundred other people.  This juicer also juices other fruits and veggies, and you can make nut pates and frozen fruit "ice cream", etc. -- but it's the GREEN JUICE we need the most, for the MINERALS, LIVE ENZYMES and ALKALINITY.
-- Dark leafy greens are the best source of PROTEIN for the human body – leafy greens are the fuel source for all the other massive muscular non-carnivorous mammals.
-- Green juice is the BEST DAILY FUEL for the human body.
I juice organic celery, cabbage, broccoli, kale, dandelion, spinach, romaine, chard -- plus a little carrot, beet, apple and ginger -- the more dark leafy greens the better. Some people flavor their juice with mint, lime or lemon juice. I drink about 1 or 2 liters of juice a day, and often juice fast, or "JUICE FEAST", on this juice for 1-7 days at a time. In 2007, I juice feasted a total of 100 days, averaging 8 or 9 juice fasting days a month. The longer I engage in this practice, the more amazing I feel!

For those who feel like spending more ($800), a trusted associate recommends the “Super Angel 3500” over the Green Star – even more juice, dryer pulp, all metal. I have not used it, but I checked their site, and it looks excellent… www.harvestessentials.com/suanlijuexmo.html

One of the finest resources for SPIRULINA and WILD GRASS POWDERS -- Health Force Nutritionals, www.healthforce.com. “VitaMineral Green” and “Spirulina” are the two products I purchase from this company, and I add these powerful green powders to my fresh organic green juice. Spirulina is high in PROTEIN. I’ve met Dr. Jameth Sheridan, the owner of the company, and listened to him lecture at the Raw Spirit Festival in Sedona. He and his staff exude integrity and vital life force, and I trust his products completely. I take powdered grasses and spirulina with me when I travel, so if I can’t get fresh green juice, I at least have this good source of minerals and alkalinity.

There are many excellent books to guide us on the path to health. Here is my short list of best bets to rock your world and catapult you to the next level of vitality:

Literature

"Living Foods for Optimum Health" by Dr. Brian Clement, director of the Hippocrates Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida, www.hippocratesinst.org. A very professsional and convincing approach to the raw food diet. People have come from around the nation and the world for 50 years to Hippocrates to be healed of all sorts of diseases; it is one of the most highly regarded holistic healing centers in the world.

"The Sunfood Diet Success System" by David Wolfe - many raw foodists call this "the Bible" for raw food. This book is significantly longer than Brian Clement's book, and includes a lot of David's philosophy and poetry. Buy it at  www.rawfood.com - David Wolfe's raw food empire of events, products, and books. His online bookstore has more inspiring health books.

"The Fasting Diet" by Dr. Steven Bailey, or fasting books by Paul Bragg, Arnold Ehret or Herbert Shelton. Also, I  hear a good one is Dr. Joel Fuhrman's "Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor's Program for Conquering Disease". Kevin Trudeau, author of the best-seller "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About", says the best fasting book he's ever read is "The Miracle of Juice Fasting" by Paavo Airola.

"Cleanse and Purify Thyself", Books 1 & 2, by Dr. Richard Anderson. (available through www.ariseandshine.com, or call 800.688.2444 to order). I read Book 2 and was blown away by Dr. Anderson's comprehensive approach -- he is a qualified Western medical doctor, a holistic practitioner, a raw foodist and a spiritual man. I did not read Book 1, but people tell me it is mostly about the 28-day "Arise and Shine" cleanse he developed, whereas Book 2 discusses our society's illnesses and how to prevent them in much greater depth, and also gives more than enough information about the cleanse. I suggest you read Book 2 and then strongly consider doing the 28-day cleanse. The Arise and Shine cleanse is one of the most highly regarded cleanses in the raw food community, and this community is highly enlightened and on the cutting edge in terms of what is best for the health of the human body. I've done the 28-day cleanse, as have many people who I know, and we ALL have reported excellent results.

"The Food Revolution" by John Robbins. John Robbins was the heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream business, but he did not go into the family business. He put his time and mind into researching the animal agriculture industry, and wrote "Diet for A New America", 1987. In this most recent book, his exhaustive research of commercial farming, animal agriculture, GMOs, and corporate and government corruption, as well as the damage done to humans, animals and the planet by animal agriculture and non-organic farming will inspire you to go vegan and organic!

"Sugar Blues" by William Dufty. We consume huge amounts of refined sugar, and we think it's normal, but it causes a lot of disease and suffering. Dufty's book traces the history of the sugar trade, and gives us some healthy perspective on this addictive and damaging substance. This book was written in the '70s and is a relevant read today.

"Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About" by Kevin Trudeau. A current bestseller - over 3 million sold - so it's mainstream and current. Preachy and righteous, but full of useful information. I'm reading it now, and I sense he is right on the money with his message, so it's on the list.

"Nourishing Wisdom" by Marc David. This book is subtitled "A Mind-Body Approach to Nutrition and Well-Being" -- an apt description. The author encourages us to "observe what happens when we think about food and when we eat it, and how both our thoughts and the food affect our bodies and emotions." He acknowledges that we need different things at different times in our lives, that there is no perfect diet, and that HOW we eat (as distinct from WHAT we eat) truly matters. This book covers everything from habits and cravings to chewing, posture and breathing. It is an excellent compliment to the other books on this list. One comment of caution: Marc David correctly identifies an element of compulsive perfection-seeking in many of us raw foodists. His perspective would seem to indicate raw foodism is an impractical or unrealistic goal in our society. This information is useful, however, I am still quite sure raw organic plant food is the best fuel for the human body, and a primarily raw vegan diet is very possible. I'm living proof!
THESE BOOKS ARE POWERFUL AND CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

You will find the raw foodists recommend fasting and herbal cleansing, the cleansing people say eat raw food and do fasting, and the fasting people recommend raw food and herbal cleansing. All together, it's an awesome package for VITAL HEALTH and LONGEVITY! Add shamanic healing with plant medicine from the Amazon, plus yoga, breathwork, meditation (check out www.dhamma.org - Vipassana meditation, my favorite) -- and we soar like superbeings!! But start with proper FUEL and proper CLEANSING.
 
No matter where you are with your diet, the first and most powerful thing you can do is drink a lot of fresh organic green juice every day, on an empty stomach, and don't eat for at least an hour after drinking your juice. Do it once a day, then twice a day, then try a day of just green juice, then two days, then more!

Let’s not try to figure out right now whether or not you can make major changes to your dietary lifestyle. Just be willing to look at the possibility, and READ one of the books on this list. They are quite inspiring, and the old saying is true -- knowledge is power. So read a book and see if it moves you to action.
 
Good luck, and just DO IT!
Peace & Love,
Alan Pratt
greenson[at]bellsouth.net

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