Why We Must Cut Out Sugar (Initially) to Heal
Days 63-69One of the toughest parts of this trial has been cutting out sugar (even raw vegan versions such as agave), and sugary fruits.
There is a method to that madness, according to Gabriel Cousens, in his book Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine:
“In my opinion, the number-one type of food that deranges the biological terrain is any food that is high in sugar. This sugar is not limited to white sugar but includes fruits that contain a high amount of sugar or have a high glycemic index. A high-glycemic index food is one that coverts rapidly to sugar in the blood. It includes processed beet and corn sugar, sorbital, fructose, maple syrup, dried and sweet fruits, melons, and all refined carbohydrates, such as white flour, white sugar, white rice, rice cakes, some grains, and white potatoes. It is absolutely essential to eliminate these from the diet in order to restore the biological terrain to normal and to decrease and eliminate the mycosis that most people have.”
Dr. Cousens refers to having a strong mycosis infection (explained last week) as having the “composting button” turned on in your body. This may sound a bit dramatic, but is true; yeast, fungi and mold cause organic matter to decompose. Imagine these organisms in your blood stream and tissues? That is exactly what they are doing – decomposing, or “composting” your tissues.
What you can do
Hopefully you aren’t feeling depressed reading this. Giving up comfort foods you’ve known your whole life can be overwhelming. If you want to take some steps to strengthen your biological terrain, every little bit helps. Try to substitute stevia for other sweeteners as much as possible. If you are hooked on white sugar, use agave to transition, then start introducing stevia little by little. It also helps to cut back on the super sweet fruits, and try to increase the low glycemic ones like berries and grapefruit.
Be easy on yourself! It can take a year or more to make permanent changes. Keep learning and reading about healthy eating, and the motivation will come over time.
The Raw Food Trial
I’m thrilled to report that things have been going rather smoothly this past week. I look back on the 1st month and how difficult it was; I now feel so comfortable eating this stricter diet! The only thing I miss are bananas, apples, grapes, and dates as an ingredient in desserts. I will eventually go back to those foods in moderation when I feel I’ve reached optimal health and can move on to phase 2.
I went to a local running meetup this week and just going 2 miles at the slowest guy’s pace kicked my ass! Whoa, I need a lot of work.
I brought along my Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine book to plan for shopping in my car after the run.
I also brought some chlorella tabs and water for a post-workout recovery snack. They are very high in protein!
A Few Highlights of the week:
I’ve been loving coconuts lately. I recently learned how to properly open a young coconut.
My latest discovery is using coconut water in place of plain water when I make almond milk. (I did this last week and made a delicious hot cocoa out of it).
Here’s this week’s bounty of coconut almond milk:
My latest dessert discovery is a sugar free cinnamon roll from Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine (recipe below).
As usual I tweaked the recipe – in this case for the filling. The filling recipe calls for coconut meat, or suggests another recipe from the book – “Coconut Dream Cream.” I just used straight coconut butter (melted), sweetened with stevia, then added almond flour to firm it up while it dehydrates.
The overall finished product almost has the consistency of a very doughy 100% whole grain dinner roll. The coconut filling is delicious! The only sugar comes from the coconut water, and coconut butter.
Here’s the exact recipe:
Cinnamon Rolls
Dough:
1/2 cup almond flour
1 cup powdered flax seeds
1 cup fresh young coconut pulp
1 fresh vanilla pod soaked 8 hours (I didn’t bother soaking)
Blend ingredients in a food processor adding coconut water until it is the consistency of dough.
Sprinkle an additional 1/2 cup powdered flax seeds on a cutting board. Press dough out by hand into a square (I have no idea why I made it a rectangle).
Filling:
2 cups coconut pulp
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg (I put the spices in the dough rather than the filling)
Blend in a food processor or high powered blender, then spread the cream completely over the dough. Roll dough and cut into 1″ pieces. Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 5 hours.
My filling consisted of (melted) coconut butter with added almond flour (made from dehydrated almond pulp), sweetened with stevia. I think I used about 1 1/2 cups of coconut butter, and 1/2 – 1 cup of almond flour.
Here’s the filling spread over the dough:
This is the dough rolled up. The filling was still a bit too soft, so I had to put it out in the cool garage to firm it up before I was able to slice it.
Here’s how it looked when I first placed it in the dehydrator:
Here’s some leftover dough to refrigerate and use over the next few days:
Another new recipe is a nut pate from Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine. It’s called “Save the Tuna Salad.”
My favorite thing to do with this pate is roll it up in nori sheets. The flavor is addictive!
“Save the Tuna Salad” nut pate
1 cup almonds, soaked
1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked
1/3 cup celery, finely chopped
1/3 cup pickles, finely chopped (it’s recommended that you make your own – I found organic ones with the least amount of additives)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh dill, minced
1 Tbsp fresh oregano, minced
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp sage
1 tsp kelp granules
1/2 tsp Celtic salt
(optional: 1/3 cup red onions finely chopped)
Process almonds and sunflower seeds through a Champion Juicer with the solid plate; combine the remaining ingredients and mix well. (I don’t even own a juicer, so I simply process in the food processor).
Aside from rolling in a nori sheet, it can be stuffed in a tomato.
Enjoy! This is a recipe I’ve made multiple times.
Stay tuned for more raw food adventures!
