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Saturday, May 4, 2013

Why I Choose to Eat Gluten Free

9:00 PM | Posted by Roland & Naoko | Edit Post

There seems to be much interest swirling around about gluten free foods and whether this idea should even be a concern for most people who are not gluten sensitive or have celiac disease. You may be saying, “Why bother with gluten free foods? It is too much trouble and I am not gluten sensitive.” I want to tell you that everyone has a reason to be concerned about gluten and it would be in everyone’s best interest to at least find out more about this subject.
Here is some background information about gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat and its allies, including rye, kamut, spelt, triticale, and barley.(1) Healthy gluten free foods that may replace wheat include buckwheat, quinoa, brown rice, amaranth, millet, corn, sorghum, possibly oats, and other flours made from yams, legumes, coconut, nuts, and seeds.(1) All, especially oats, may be cross contaminated with wheat and other grains at any point from the farm, to storage, to manufacturing, to transportation.(1) If you want to be sure about whether a food is gluten free or not, it is wise to contact the manufacturer of that food and ask. There are also gluten free certifiers such as Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO), National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA), and Celiac Sprue Association (CSA) that make it easier to find these foods.(2) There are also gluten free sections in natural food stores. So, here are my two important points why I think everyone can improve their health by limiting or entirely deleting gluten from their diet.
First, you may be gluten sensitive or even have celiac disease and not even know it. You may have some health conditions give you trouble from time to time and just think it is something unique to you and you have learned to live with it. You may be astonished to find out that you have celiac disease. The only way to find out is to be tested. So, if you notice that you have any type of adverse reaction when eating certain foods or strange health condition it would be worth your while to go to a physician and be tested.
Second, I believe that everyone can benefit from eating gluten free foods most of the time or even all of the time. Why? I have noticed certain benefits for myself since I have chosen to eat only gluten free foods. Some of the benefits I have noticed for myself include, I no longer have sniffles or a runny nose, no more congestion, no more excessive phlegm, no more constant sneezing, very few colds or other sicknesses, no sinus issues, no more lethargy, no more digestive problems, and much better bowel movements. You see I believe from my years of experience of trying different diets and eating various foods, that gluten foods, especially wheat as found in breads, crackers, cookies, and so on, caused me to have phlegm, a runny nose, more colds, and contributed to slower bowel movements. I feel much better after deleting gluten from my diet! I have more energy, no phlegm, no runny nose, so sinus problems, better bowel movements, improved digestion, no sickness, no allergies, and no sneezing. If I per chance eat any gluten, the aforementioned symptoms start to return. This is my body’s way of telling me that something is wrong and not optimal.
Unfortunately, many people have similar symptoms and just consider it normal. However, it is not normal. If you have any of these symptoms, your body’s health is not optimal and your body’s immune system is under attack from the gluten proteins and doing everything it can to get it out of the body. Hence, our bodies sneeze and produce phlegm. Our bodies make phlegm as a way of capturing and storing unsafe substances and eventually releasing from the body.

So, how have I eliminated gluten from my diet? Actually, it was rather easy for me to cut out gluten. Since I eat mostly raw foods, I have already stopped eating most wheat products and processed foods. And, I have found it joyful to transition to new gluten free legumes, seeds, and grains like quinoa, buckwheat, millet, brown rice, and garbanzo beans. To eat these foods, our family either steams or sprouts these foods. Also, there are gluten free foods that can be ground that act like flours including, coconut, nuts like almonds, and seeds like sesame seeds and vanilla. Also, gluten free green powders are made from certain grasses that are juiced and dried yielding high nutrition like alfalfa, barley, and wheatgrass. However, we do not eat legumes, seeds, grains, or proteins as the main course as many people do by eating large amounts of starch, like potatoes. We have found that eating too much cooked starches and proteins slows and ages the body. These gluten free grains and seeds are simply an adjunct to our diet of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, sea vegetables, wild foods, and mushrooms. We generally don’t eat at restaurants unless an exclusive organic, vegan, raw food restaurant, so we don’t have to worry about the integrity of our food at typical restaurants which are loaded with questionable practices and ingredients. Of course, you may choose to eat other gluten free foods like meat, dairy, and eggs.
So, as you can see, choosing a gluten free or gluten reduced diet has many benefits and is relatively easy to do in today’s world with the many options of gluten free foods. I invite you to at least research this topic more and to try new gluten free grains and legumes instead of wheat to see if you feel improvement in your health. You may open up a whole new healthier you!
Article Sources:
(1): No stated author. "Gluten Free Diet." Wikipedia. 02.May.2013. Wikipedia.com. 04.May.2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten-free_diet>.
(2): Anderson, Jane. “Certified Gluten Free Products: What Does Gluten Free Certification Mean for Consumers?” About.com. 09.Jan.2012. About.com. 04.May.2013 < http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenfreefoodshoppin1/a/Certified-Gluten-Free-Products.htm>.
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Friday, April 26, 2013

How the Modern Diet is the Source of Cavities and Gum Disease

3:20 PM | Posted by Roland & Naoko | Edit Post

New research has confirmed that humans’ modern diet is the main reason that modern day humans overwhelmingly get cavities and gum disease. (1) This research further confirms that hunter gatherers had perfect teeth and did not suffer from cavities and gum disease. (1) The big change that happened that is the cause of modern man’s dental problems is that farming was invented. (1) Prehistoric man was nomadic and subsisted mostly on “meat, vegetables, and nuts.” (1) This changed to modern man’s settled farms and their new diet of “carbohydrates and sugar.” (1) This dietary change also altered the bacteria found in our mouths, resulting in more of the bad bacteria and less of the good bacteria. (1) The result today is that our mouths are in a constantly fighting off these bad bacteria, thus weakening our health, and 75% of Americans have some form of gum disease. (1) The overuse of antibiotics has also been implicated in the poor state of our dental health. (1) Antibiotics kill off the bad but also the good bacteria that may never return. (1) Even taking probiotics may not be enough since most probiotics only have a few strains and replicate the hundreds of strains of bacteria found in a healthy gut. (1)
Perhaps even more importantly, this new research has discovered that there is a direct link between good bacteria in the gut and the brain. (1) Many types of mental illnesses like depression and anxiety can be linked to an unhealthy gut and low levels of healthy bacteria. (1) Currently, not much is known about how bacteria affect our bodies and health, so additional research is needed. (1) It may be in the future that one will take probiotics to treat bad bacteria or depression. (1)
Further research documents how rates of cavities are falling worldwide and there is no benefit to fluoridated water supplies. (1) Most countries do not fluoridate their water and there cavities rates are dropping substantially. (1) Only four western countries fluoridate their water: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the USA. (1)
So, how do we take better care of our teeth and gums in the 21st century? The research suggests that returning to how our ancestors ate will benefit our mouths. (1) This entails not eating processed carbohydrates and eating more like hunter gathers did including fermented foods that contain live beneficial bacteria. (1) Also, cranberry juice without added sweeteners prevents bad bacteria from sticking to the teeth. (1) And, brushing with baking soda helps to reduce plaque buildup on teeth. (1)

Article Sources:
No stated author. "The REAL Source of Cavities and Gum Disease." Global Research. 25.Apr.2013. World Truth.TV. 26.April.2013 <http://worldtruth.tv/the-real-source-of-cavities-and-gum-disease/>.
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Traveling with Happy Cow to Find Organic Rawfood Restaurants Around the World

3:11 PM | Posted by Roland & Naoko | Edit Post

When our family travels anywhere,our first source for finding healthy dining and stores is the Happy Cow website. It lists worldwide cities and has the most thorough, current, and numerous listings in an easy to read format. Happy Cow lists whether the business serves vegetarian, vegan, or raw foods. So, when we travel we search for organic stores and restaurants serving vegan, raw foods.

You can even use it for your home town! You might be surprised with the useful information that will appear. And if you notice a place of business is missing, you can add it too.
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Saturday, April 20, 2013

Chia Seed is the New Miracle Superfood

11:14 AM | Posted by Roland & Naoko | Edit Post



By now, many people have heard about the numerous health benefits of consuming chia seeds. I want to relate to you my personal story of how chia seed has immensely helped my life. I see my life as BC (before chia) and AC (after chia). Before chia my body suffered from periodic feeling of hunger, daily dehydration, periodic constipation, and periodic low energy. After I started eating chia seeds daily these conditions were solved! Consuming chia seed daily has helped me to feel satiated after eating and for many hours afterwards. I usually make a bowl of chia, water, and other superfoods that keeps me going through the rest of the afternoon until dinnertime. After eating chia I have continuous energy and feel hydrated. Suffering from constipation is a thing of the past after I started chia seed daily. Both flax seed and psyllium did not work for me and actually make it worse by slowing down my bowel movements and make me feel very dehydrated. With chia, my bowel movements are effortless and regular, and there is no feeling of dehydration.
The key is to my improved health benefits from chia seed is that I consume a lot of chia seed. I consume about 4 - 6 tablespoons daily of chia seed. I have found that this high amount is necessary to provide the health benefits that I have previously described. In fact, I have made chia seed the primary food that I eat during the day. I have found it makes me feel better than consuming the typical raw foods of dehydrated crackers, protein powders, grains, raw desserts, and the like since these raw foods can be too dehydrating, and often contain too much sodium, sugar, and/or concentrated nutrients.
Chia seed is an excellent source of Omega 3 fatty acids, dietary fiber, and manganese. Chia is also a great source of calcium, phosphorous, and protein. It also has smaller amounts of many key nutrients like zinc and copper.(1) As one of the few vegan sources of Omega 3, chia seed is vitally important to a raw foodist’s or vegan’s diet. Other good vegan sources of Omega 3 are walnuts, hemp seed, and flax seed. I definitely feel my brain power and memory has increased since I started eating chia seed.
Chia seed is also great for cleansing the colon and intestines. Chia seed becomes a larger gelatinous orb when soaked in water or liquid. As this gelatinous chia mass passes through the intestines and colon, it gently helps to clean out any hardened or stuck material. Many people suffer from toxic overload caused by partially blocked colons ultimately caused by consuming processed foods with zero dietary fiber. This is not as nature intended. Chia seed will help to cleanse the body of blocked waste and rid the body of toxins.
I feel that everyone will benefit from consuming chia seed daily. Chia may help if you are suffering from dehydration, constipation, low energy, feelings of hunger, and toxic overload.
Article Sources:
(1) Self Nutrition Data: Chia Seed:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3061/2
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Saturday, April 13, 2013

We Visit Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida

10:19 PM | Posted by Roland & Naoko | Edit Post
Here is the world renowned Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm beach, Florida. The directors are Dr Brian and Dr Anna-Maria Clement. The sick and diseased people from all over the world travel to this center to be healed from many of life's incurable diseases, and many are helped successfully.
Entrance sign to Hippocrates Health Institute located in subtropical West Palm Beach, Florida.

Typical organic, raw, vegan food served at Hippocrates Health Institute consists mostly of vegetables and sprouts with very little, if any fruit. Also, green juice is served to their clients instead of green smoothies.

Roland Oehme and his son enjoy dinner at Hippocrates Health Institute.
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Friday, April 12, 2013

Roland and Naoko’s Spring 2013 Trip - Rawfood Adventure in Florida

11:50 PM | Posted by Roland & Naoko | Edit Post
My wife, son, and I started our spring 2013 trip to Southern Florida with a long drive. Along the way it was invigorating to slowly feel the warmth returning to our skin and to see flowers blooming and palm trees. It took about two days of driving to reach southeastern Florida to our hotel in Deerfield Beach. The hotel was very nice and overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. The town and hotel was devoid of any raw food, so we left during the day.

Every morning during this trip we enjoyed a breakfast of fresh mango and green smoothies that we made in our hotel room. Yes, we brought our Blendtec blender with us!


Day 1 in Florida: Tuesday, 19.March: Morikami Japanese Garden; Dinner at Hippocrates Health Institute

We first visited Morikami Japanese Garden, a beautiful Japanese style garden with a large pond, lush garden, and traditional Japanese house. Our son loved seeing an iguana sunning himself on a stone, and running through the Japanese house.
That evening we visited the world renowned Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach. I have personally wanted to visit this health center for a long time. It is definitely on my top 5 list of health rejuvenation centers of the world. I have heard the HHI’s director Brian Clement, speak on several occasions and was very impressed by his seemingly firm grasp of creating true health, mainly through a raw foods lifestyle.

We ate dinner at Hippocrates. There was a large salad bar style buffet with organic salad, many kinds of sprouts (many legumes, pea, sunflower, etc.), radishes, red peppers, beet sauerkraut, a sprouted rice casserole dish, and some other foods. All of the food is organic, and mostly raw (the rice might have been cooked), and there is very little if any fruit. There was just tea and purified water to drink. The foods are designed for their clients, who travel from all over the world to cleanse and detoxify during a usual three week stay. People, who stay here, come here to heal themselves of various diseases through natural methods. HHI offers a large array of healing methods, and clients are monitored by on staff physicians. I felt the lack of fruit and sugar after dinner and can imagine that eating this way would take a large commitment to one’s health. The grounds are a large 50 acres and awash in lush, subtropical foliage.
Day 2 in Florida: Wednesday, 20.March:  Butterfly World; La Vie En Raw Café; arrive at Tavernier hotel
We checked out of our hotel and visited Butterfly World in Coconut Creek. This is certainly one of the best butterfly gardens I have visited since the whole park is based on butterflies, insects, birds, and plants that nourish them. The park consists of many elements like an aviary, a glass building tropical rain forest, gardens, vines collection, a pond, parakeet feeding aviary, a café, an insect museum and zoo, a plant nursery, and a gift shop.   
The admission price was high, but well worth it. Our entire family enjoyed seeing some of the most creative and beautiful animals and plants of nature. I took so many photos of plants, since there were so many amazing flowers to see. 


Our son chased after the butterflies and fed the parakeets. We could have stayed there all day. Alas, we had to leave since we had to drive to our new hotel in Tavernier.
Along the way, we stopped at La Vie En Raw Café in Coral Gables. It was a nice little café and the owner was friendly. The service was a bit slow and understaffed. However, I am happy when I can dine at a dedicated raw food restaurant. The raw cinnamon rolls, although small, were very tasty.


Then we drove to the keys and finally check into our hotel in Tavernier. I felt at home here since it was quiet, no noisy city, surrounded by forests and water, our room was a huge suite with 2 bedrooms and full kitchen, and we awoke to the sounds of tropical bird calls. 
Day 3 in Florida: Thursday, 21.March: Daytrip to Key West; Food For Thought Natural Marketplace; Key West Tropical Forest & Garden; Key West old town


Day three was a long day since we drove about three hours each way to Key West and back as a daytrip. I wanted my wife and son to experience Key West’s uniqueness that I had enjoyed on several trips before. 

In Marathon we stopped at a delightful natural marketplace called, Food For Thought. To our delight there were many raw foods in the store and there was a nice little organic café, fresh produce, and interesting books. We stocked up on some nice organic, raw chocolate bars here.
The Key West Tropical Forest & Garden was a wild forest and large pond. A group of birdwatchers were excitedly viewing birds in the trees with binoculars. Our family enjoyed playing the outdoor xylophone instruments.


In Key West, I enjoyed seeing how many of the historic homes were hidden behind tall walls of palms, bamboo, trees or other vegetation that gave the old town a natural appearance, almost like being in a forest.


There were no raw foods here, so we walked the shop lined streets, and had our photo taken at the “southernmost point in the USA” monument.

Day 4 in Florida: Friday, 22.March: Rest day; Beach at hotel; Beach at Harry Harris Park 


Today we had a lazy morning, ate watermelon, and eventually made it to two beaches. The hotel’s beach was small, but nice. It was roped off so one could not swim out too far. This for safety reasons I suppose. I really wanted to swim further out. So, I did not swim here. I picked up lots of trash that I noticed all over the sand. Mostly bits of plastic. I placed in the trash can nearby.


Then we visited a county beach nearby, where our son played with children at the playground and at the beach. I swam in the enclosed waters which seemed odd, but did feel safe. I swam a lot.


Day 5 in Florida: Saturday, 23.March: Beach at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo, FL; Begin drive to Maryland; 4th Generation Organic Market & Café in Boca Raton


This morning we woke up to find we all had sunburn from the day before. That is what happens when one confronts one’s body with intense sunlight for many hours after being hidden from for six months.

Along the drive back home, we stopped at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. This place was a delight! There were three beaches, and I swam a two of them. Our son enjoyed playing at the beach too. The beach was very natural with mangrove shrubs everywhere and seaweed growing in the water. The water was intermittently warm and cold, but mostly warm. 

After driving for hours, we reached 4th Generation Organic Market & Café in Boca Raton. This natural marketplace was very nice and included a nice little deli counter with seating. We ordered a lot of raw foods that we ate there. The foods appeared to be mostly vegan, with many raw foods as well. We enjoyed the Green Machine and Berry Island drinks, Enchilada Sticks, Salad with Guacamole, Falafel, and desserts of Banana Cream Pie, Blissed Out Brownie, Raw Chocolate Almond Bark, and the three Macaroon flavors. 
We had fond memories of our Florida Raw Food Experience as we drove back to Maryland. Our happiness jolted back to reality as we encountered the cold snowstorm in Virginia that night and the slow moving traffic. It was still worth it!


Have you had a nice experience visiting a raw food store, café, or restaurant? Tell us about it.
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