Fruit For Our Children

Depression is a hard thing to live with.  Is there an answer outside of pharmaceutical medications and not knowing where else to turn.  Well I believe that there is.  Sometimes we are too quick to reach for a quick fix that never disperses the problem and only hides it.  Eating whole live foods and giving the body the nutrition it needs to be able to sustain a happy mind and heart is of essence.  By eating food as nature intended we are able to supply the body with the right energy to keep this amazing system nourished.  Sometimes it is hard to see that what we are affected by could be what we are or are not consuming.  Has anyone ever felt bad about eating fruit or over eating a salad before.  Yet we consume dead things and expect to feel good.  Perhaps for the delight of the taste on our lips and tongue, but the implications are great.  Try increasing fruit in your diet and getting out for a nice walk in the park if you are feeling down.  Pick up the phone and call a friend and get out and enjoy the sunshine.   Or better again, watch Real N’ Raw and see how others have naturally helped themselves by getting the fundamentals of nutrition into their lives.

Guilt free chocolate, how about it.  I totally enjoy my almost daily raw chocolate almond smoothie sweetened with honey.  It is the most delicious thing and it is so good for you.  For all of you who think chocolate is bad, well it isn’t if you eat it in its original form, perhaps it is all the gross stuff that is added that makes us feel bad.  Check out what leading expert and chocolate lover David Wolfe has to say about the worlds most eaten foods.

David Wolfe on Raw Cacao

Children love to grow plants and the cape gooseberry is a favorite of my children, so easy to grow and they love to run out back and devour the fruit – plant yours today, it only takes 6 months for fruit and they are prolific little beauties that form in the shape of hearts with a golden skin.  

Origin: The cape gooseberry is native to Brazil but long ago became naturalized in the highlands of Peru and Chile and became identified with the region. It was being grown in England in 1774 and was cultivated by early settlers at the Cape of Good Hope before 1807. Soon after introduction to the Cape the plant was carried to Australia where it quickly spread into the wild. Seeds were taken to Hawaii before 1825 and the plant is naturalized on all the islands at medium and somewhat higher altitudes. Only in fairly recent times has the fruit received any attention in the continental U.S.

Adaptation: The cape gooseberry is an annual in at temperate regions and a perennial in the tropics. In the Andean regions of South America it grows wild between 2,500 and 10,000 ft. The wild range in Hawaii is 1,000 to 8,000 ft. The plants are frost tender and are killed at temperatures of about 30° F. In much of California the cape gooseberry is best grown as an annual, but will persist for several years in frost-free areas of southern California. Some California growers have grown seedling materials under glass during the fall and winter and set out in early spring to gain the advantage of the longest possible growing season.The plants are easily grown in pots and adapt well to greenhouse culture.

DESCRIPTION

Growth Habit: The cape gooseberries is a soft-wooded, perennial, somewhat vining plant usually reaching 2 to 3 ft. in height. Under good conditions it can reach 6 ft. but will need support. The purplish, spreading branches are ribbed and covered with fine hairs.

Foliage: The heart-shaped, nearly opposite leaves are 2-1/2 to 6 inches long. They are slightly velvety when compared with the narrower and smoother leaves of the tomatillo.

Flowers: Bell-shaped, nodding flowers form in the leaf axils. They are yellow in color with dark purple-brown spots in the throat, and cupped by a purplish-green, hairy calyx. Fruit buds are produced after 12 to 13 stem internodes are formed.

Fruit: After the flower falls, the calyx expands, forming a straw-colored husk much larger than the fruit enclosed, which take 70 to 80 days to mature. The fruit is a berry with smooth, waxy, orange-yellow skin and juicy pulp containing numerous very small yellowish seeds. As the fruits ripen, they begin to drop to the ground, but will continue to mature and change from green to the golden-yellow of the mature fruit. The unripe fruit is said to be poisonous to some people. Cape gooseberries are self-pollinated but pollination is enhanced by a gentle shaking of the flowering stems or giving the plants a light spraying with water.

CULTURE

Location: The plant likes a sunny, frost-free location, sheltered from strong winds. It does well planted next to a south-facing wall or in a patio.

Soil: The cape gooseberry will grow in any well drained soil but does best on sandy to gravelly loam. Very good crops are obtained on rather poor sandy ground.

Irrigation: The plant needs consistent watering to set a good fruit crop, but can’t take “wet feet”. Where drainage is a problem, the plantings should be on a gentle slope or the rows should be mounded. Irrigation can be cut back when the fruits are maturing. The plants become dormant during drought.

Fertilization: The cape gooseberry seems to thrive on neglect. Even moderate fertilizer tends to encourage excessive vegetative growth and to depress flowering. High yields are attained with little or no fertilizer.

Pruning: Very little pruning is needed unless the plant is being trained to a trellis. Pinching back of the growing shoots will induce more compact and shorter plants.

Frost Protection: In areas where frost may be a problem, providing the plant with some overhead protection or planting them next to a wall or a building may be sufficient protection. Individual plants are small enough to be fairly easily covered during cold snaps by placing plastic sheeting, etc. over a frame around them. Plastic row covers will also provide some frost protection for larger plantings. Potted specimens can be moved to a frost-secure area.

Propagation: The plant is widely grown from seed. There are 5,000 to 8,000 seeds per ounce, which are sometimes mixed with pulverized soil or ashes for uniform sowing. High humidity is required for good germination. The plants can also be propagated from 1 year old stem cuttings treated with a rooting hormone. Plants grown this way flower early and yield well but are less vigorous than seedlings.

Pest and Diseases: Cape gooseberries are bothered by several diseases, including Alternaria spp. and powdery mildew. The plants are also prone to root rots and viruses when grown on poorly drained soil. A host of insect pests also attack the plants, namely cut worm, stem borer (Heliotis suflixa), leaf borer (Epiatrix spp.), fruit moth (Phthorimaea), Colorado potato beetle, flea beetle and striped cucumber beetle (Acalymma vittata). Greenhouse grown plants are attacked by white fly and aphids. The stored fruit can be adversely affected by Penicillium andBotrytis molds.

Harvest: The fruit is harvested when it falls to the ground, but not all fallen fruits may be in the same stage of maturity and must be held until they ripen. It may take some experience to tell when the calyx-enclosed fruits are fully ripe. Properly matured and prepared fruits will keep for several months.

The ripe fruit can be eaten out of hand or used in a number of other ways. The unique flavor of the fresh fruit makes it an interesting ingredient in salads and cooked dishes. Cape gooseberries cooked with apples or ginger make a very distinctive dessert. The fruits are also an attractive sweet when dipped in chocolate or other glazes or pricked and rolled in sugar. The high pectin content makes cape gooseberry a good preserve and jam product that can be used as a dessert topping. The fruit also dries into tasty “raisins”.

Watermelon is 93% Water

Here is an article I found from Shazzie, a long term Raw Vegan Mother. Enjoy

When I first wrote this article in July 2008, it caused huge waves throughout the raw food community. I got my poin across sufficiently to tone the article down now.

If you have any plans to raise a raw or vegan child, you need to read this, and I also urge you to read Evie’s Kitchen. I spent four years researching that book so we never need see a deficient raw child again.

Since 2000, I’ve had the opportunity to meet thousands of raw foodists. I’ve also met hundreds of raw children in that time. By far, the children who are vegetarian seem healthier than the vegan children.

These observations led me to research from the ground up childhood nutrition, vegan nutrition and raw food nutrition. I had a very good reason to get it right — my daughter Evie. I wanted her to be raw for health reasons. I wanted her to be vegan because I’d been vegan for so long.

However, all the while I was researching this information, I saw huge amounts of misinformation being fed to the raw food community. I also saw children with very damaged teeth, stunted growth and developmental problems.

Worse, the children of some of those who actively promoted raw food had experienced the worst symptoms. Once these children were put on a raw or cooked vegetarian diet, and were given supplements, they caught up. However, these “raw food promoters” never, not once publicly stated what had happened to their children. In fact, when other raw parents were having issues with the development of their children, these very same raw food promoters and coaches told them to keep on doing what they were doing. This caused the raw food community to remain oblivious to the dangers of raising children raw.

It all added up to a cover up in the raw food community spanning years, and my conscience wouldn’t let it lie.

These parents clearly love their children. And I can’t believe for one second they would wish their traumas on other families, so why didn’t they speak up? FEAR. Fear at being judged, fear at being seen as failures, fear at ruining their careers, fear of the small yet vocal hardline fruitarian-types saying they’d got it wrong because they weren’t following their dogmatic diet. This has happened with parents who tried to air this issue in the past. They have been ostracised and ridiculed, their claims have been dismissed, and they haven’t been listened to. Their experiences certainly haven’t been welcomed as something for the raw food community to build upon.

Worse than shunning genuine people with genuine experiences and genuine solutions is the lies that are being spread. For example, one mother experienced severe growth defects in her children on the raw vegan unsupplemented diet and resorted to dairy and meat. She now stands shoulder to shoulder with the other raw vegan dogmatists and writes on raw food forums pretending to be someone else! She says that she has been successful in raising her children raw vegan, yet she clearly hasn’t. When questioned on these forums, no-one could produce a child who has been raised 100% raw vegan unsupplemented. In fact, all anyone could do was deflect the question and turn it into a flame and blame war.

Why?

Indoctrination and dogmatism. These people are so tied into a belief system that nothing, not even the visible deteriorating health of their child can bring them out of their hypnotic state.

The truth is, though I’d love to see it, I have never once seen a 100% raw 100% vegan 100% unsupplemented child past breastfeeding age who has no tooth decay and is the correct weight and height for their age. Not one. Ever.

On the other hand, I have, since 2001 seen countless raw vegan unsupplemented children spanning several countries with growth, teeth and mental disorders. Now, don’t ask, because I will not name names, ever. I have cried at the child who was so retarded he barely moved (he since recovered on a cooked vegetarian diet, perhaps with some fish in the early stages). My heart has sank at the tiny girl on YouTube who has hardly any top teeth due to visible decay. My heart has wept when I’ve received letters from mothers who “just couldn’t raise their children raw vegan”, no matter how much they wanted to, even though they followed the advice of “experts” to the letter. And I’ve been puzzled as to why the raw food community covers these issues up time and time again. “Is it just me”? I’ve often wondered?

But it isn’t just me, as the letters I’ve recently received tell me. It is a cover up, or at least it was.

Like you, I desperately wanted to see these shining examples of raw vegan unsupplemented children because I wanted Evie to be one. I wanted to raise her naturally and cruelty free. I’d been told it was possible. There were tales of this family, and that family, and the other family. But whenever I looked into it, they weren’t all raw all vegan and not supplemented. Or if they were, they were too small, too birdlike, often with with tooth decay.

I would never knowingly put Evie’s health at risk. I always vowed that I’d continually assess her and make adjustments to her diet if necessary. I decided long ago to give her a small amount of supplementation daily. That way maybe she could still be raw and still be vegan yet also be the correct size, with good teeth and and a high IQ.

As Evie grew and became less dependant on my breast milk, I knew I had to research the precise missing links in raw vegan infant health. I would be doing her and my readers a terrible disservice if I didn’t.

First, I had to question my own belief system. At the time of writing I’ve been an ethical vegan for over 22 years and into raw food for over 9 years. I have a huge amount of experience with raw and vegan diets. I spend my life living, breathing and researching it. I’ve been taking small amounts of supplements on and off myself as long as I’ve been vegan. I had to keep reminding myself that a vegan diet isn’t natural and therefore should be supplemented.

Then I had to question the sanity of those who dismissed the experience of others. The blatant lies and cover-ups are likely due to the left brain being too dominant in these people. While I feel physically sick that this still happens, I refuse to judge or condemn them. They need love, just like the rest of us. They need to be made to feel safe and secure so they can be truthful and get the help they need for their children without risk of attack.

Next I had to research childhood nutrition in depth, from all angles. I had to understand it as a whole, and then work out where the pieces of the jigsaw were missing for raw vegans. As a result, I’ve worked out a way of making the raw vegan diet successful for growing children. Their needs are specific, and quite different to the needs of adults, so our experiences don’t equal their experiences on raw vegan foods. This is all in my book, Evie’s Kitchen, but I don’t want you to have to buy something that could be crucial to your child’s health, so I’ve outlined those jigsaw pieces below.

Finally, I had to apply my findings to Evie, cross my fingers tight and hope that it worked. Interestingly, as she turned four and I stopped breastfeeding her, I experimented with some raw animal byproducts, which was extremely difficult for me, as a vegan, to do. I finally settled on a few organic free range egg yolks a week. I’m hoping this, with her supplements and her hugely varied diet will be enough. I’m constantly evaluating her.

If her growth or teeth suffer, I will make adjustments. My vegan choice is not Evie’s, and I will only keep her “veggan” (vegan with egg) if she continues to flourish. I will not lie about any future choices I make for her, I will not cover it up, and I will not damage my child. This, I promise her and you.

I’m brave enough to face the flames of the forums (I actually laugh at the highly incorrect assumptions they make about me) and the army of raw vegans who insist they are right, regardless of their lack of experience in this matter.

I make absolutely no apologies for raising this issue. I will continue to raise it until we get a generation of healthy raw vegan children. Believe me, I will not make this convenient for the hardline raw vegans out there and scuttle off under a stone, feeling like a failure. They’ve done that to enough mothers, but they cannot do it to me — I have no fear and a huge audience. Nothing they can say can hurt me because I know I’m fully living my truth.

You can be brave enough, too. If your raw vegan child has suffered as a result of miseducation and lies, you will probably be able to reverse the damage with supplementation or dietary shifts. Seek help from a natural medical practitioner today. I wish you luck. Some day, your story may help other raw vegan parents and children. We need to all remain positive about this situation, it’s a great learning opportunity.

Please remember

A healthy raw vegan child should not be smaller or lighter than other children. Of course all children vary in size, but frail, bird-like and too small is a warning sign.
A healthy raw vegan child should not have tooth decay.
A healthy raw vegan child should not have sunken cheeks or a strange shaped face.
A healthy raw vegan child should be sociable, intelligent and happy.
A raw vegan child should not have to suffer permanent physical damage because of indoctrinated dogma and lies.
That being the case, please, for the sake of all the future raw kids, let’s stop these lies now! They benefit absolutely no-one and they lead to CHILD ABUSE! Junk food children are suffering throughout the western world — if we claim to have more knowledge about health than the average person, then our children should be more healthy than the average person. Poor growth and rotten teeth in a child is not detox, wheatgrass deficiency, emotional parental energetic genetic issues or anything else, it is intentional malnutrition, and that is CHILD ABUSE.

So what supplements could make a difference?

If you want more information on the missing elements, you can hear a radio interview I did on this subject. It’s all in there, free of charge to you right now. You don’t have to wait for Evie’s Kitchen to arrive to ensure you have a healthy raw vegan child. It is my wish right now for every raw vegan child to be fully radiant, happy and healthy. And I still feel that it’s possible, but only with supplementation.

In summary, Evie’s supplementation consists of:

Soya lecithin for choline (and egg for the same reason since turning four)
Viridian Vitamin D (sun exposure may be enough, depending on skin colour and location).
Vitamin K2 from Mercola.com (we can’t synthesise enough K2 and it’s essential for bones and teeth).
Ortho Bone Vegan (contains K2, but not enough, B12 and essential bone health co-factors).
Vegan DHA (long-chain fatty acid, essential for brain growth, especially up to two years of age).
Ionic iron (not always necessary to supplement but may be worthwhile up to five years due to faddy eating).

Everything else is ABUNDANT in a good raw vegan diet. Evie has about a pint of green juice a day, lots of seeds (and their mylks), lots of nutrient-dense food such as berries and coconut as well as small amounts of ecstatic foods such as maca, AFA algae, seaweeds, mesquite, purple corn, Incan berries and goji berries. Since she turned four, for sociable reasons I’ve lowered her rawness from 100% to 80%. The 20% of cooked food she eats is normally wholefood, and ultra healthy. She loves this change, and I love how she still adores my raw soups!

I cannot stress highly enough that I love raw vegan foods

Raw food gave me my life back, and I’m eternally grateful to it. I love being a vegan and hope I will be one for the rest of my life. However, it’s not natural to be a vegan. Even “vegan” animals such as horses eat lots of insects, unlike us. If you want your child to be raw vegan and unsupplemented, tread very carefully, keep checking growth and teeth and find a good role model. I don’t know of one. If you want your child to be raw vegan with a few small supplements, you now know what to look for.

Finally, every child has different needs and preferences. If possible, get your child tested for deficiencies to see if there is anything else you need to add in. For example, iodine is necessary for growth and IQ, and we get ours from kelp, you may need to supplement.

Here’s to your child’s health and the blossoming of honesty in the worldwide raw food community.

http://www.shazzie.com/

Yes, real fresh fruit!

(NaturalNews) It’s hard to beat fruits. They provide an abundance of nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, essential oils, antioxidants, fiber, and anti-inflammatory substances. Many are alkaline-forming, so they help counteract the strongly acidic Western diet that eats away at our bones. High levels of potassium in fruit balance high salt diets to help prevent high blood pressure. They also help manage blood sugar, regulate bowel function, and strengthen blood vessels, bones, nails, teeth, skin and hair. Humans could not survive long without healthy fruit.

Antioxidant content may be the most compelling reason for loading up on these wonderful foods. Oxidative stress from eating, illness or injury, produces excess free radicals that damage cells and tissues. Skipping antioxidants, over time, may ultimately lead to heart disease, cancer, allergies, and other inflammatory diseases. However, not all fruits are created equal. Fruits like blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, grapefruit and fresh cranberry have the best antioxidant content, followed by apples, peaches, pears, plums, oranges and dates. The exotic juices of pomegranate, mangosteen, acái and goji berry are also unbeatable for antioxidant protection. Whole fruit is best, but juices are acceptable, especially if not concentrated and no sugar is added. Unfortunately, people are attracted to the super sweet juices and fruits like bananas, grapes and orange juice. Yet, even these are superior to most of the sweetened junk that we feed our kids.

Choosing organic fruit is another important consideration, especially for children, who are more susceptible to the dangers of pesticides and other toxins. Organic fruit has also been shown to contain more antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals than conventional fruits. It may cost more, but the cost to health from eating inferior fruit is much greater.

Fruits are best eaten on an empty stomach. Indigestion is on the rise in the U.S., and one reason is from eating fruits with other foods. Fruits pass quickly though the stomach and are rapidly digested in the intestines. If fruit is eaten with other foods, it is kept waiting in the stomach, where it may ferment and produce gases and harmful compounds. Digestive processes are also disrupted and the fruit’s nutritive value is compromised. Therefore, it is best to eat fruit as a snack in between meals, especially about 30 minutes before a meal to get the best antioxidant boost. Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service, investigating the effects of antioxidants on after-meal oxidative stress, found that grapes, kiwi and wild blueberries were high performers when it came to raising blood levels of important antioxidants. As a general rule, fruit should not be eaten at the end of a meal. However, most people do not have digestive problems with berries after eating. So, if you insist on dessert after a meal, go with berries.

Our early ancestors would not recognize the fruits available in today’s supermarkets. Scientists in the last century have selectively bred fruits to have a long shelf life, few seeds, less fiber and a powerfully sweet taste. Wild fruits are typically less sweet, and much richer in micronutrients than cultivated fruits, particularly in minerals (e.g., copper, iron, calcium) and the vitamins C, E, K, beta-carotene and folic acid. The vitamin C intake of our fruit-eating ape cousins is estimated to be 2-6 grams, compared about 60 mg for humans (one hundred times less!). Wild fruits are also much richer in the millions of “background” nutrients essential to good human health, such as bioflavonoids, terpenes, phenols, carotenes, and many more. For much more information regarding the good foods our ancestors ate, pick up the book “Deadly Harvest” by Dr. Geoff Bond.

The biggest problem with modern fruits has as much to do with what is present in them as what is absent. Starchy and processed fruits are loaded with sugar. Fruits rich in sugar can aggravate pre-existing ailments, such as diabetes, allergies, cancer, and other inflammatory conditions. Dried fruits are nearly as bad, since the sugar is concentrated, and the drying process destroys many of the micronutrients. Frozen fruit retains much of its antioxidant content, but canned fruit should be (garbage) canned.

Vitamins, minerals and antioxidants can also be obtained through dietary supplements. Obviously, fruits and vegetables provide a greater wealth of nutrients than do supplements, but getting these nutrients in the diet somehow is the most important consideration. Even gummy bear antioxidants are better for kids than no fruit at all. Plus, antioxidant supplements can provide higher quantities of vitamins C, E, zinc, selenium, vitamin A and many plant flavonoids than fruits and vegetables. The content of these nutrients in fruits varies from farm to farm and year to year. And, with the deterioration of our soil, less and less of these nutrients are found in food. Fortunately, many essential antioxidants can be found in a high quality multivitamin, which every man, woman and child should be taking daily.

If you’re not interested in the chemistry of all the wonderful things found in fruits and vegetables, just shop for color. The colorful pigments in blueberries, raspberries oranges, pomegranate, purple tomatoes, etc., are chemicals that protect them from the sun. These pigments are antioxidant rich and protect people in the same way they do plants.

So, if you have a little boy or girl at home with a diarrhea problem, or an inflamed bun, the last thing you want to do is stop all fruits (as an ignorant physician recently recommended to a friend). Certainly stop the sugary juices, but not the whole fruit, especially organic, non-starchy varieties. Switch to water, perhaps with a little pomegranate juice for flavor and antioxidant punch. Make your own fresh fruit sauces or smoothies, or find a good organic brand of baby food that contains these antioxidants. Good food means good health. So, when it comes to food, we must take health into our own hands.

Reference: Bond G. Deadly Harvest. 2007. Square One Publishers, Garden City Park, NY.