Joan’s Boomer Blog

When I first posted a few of my raw food recipes, I would never have guessed they would become some of my most popular posts. Interest in eating more raw foods has grown as people realize how health improves as more foods are eaten in their original form.

Why Eat Raw?

Raw food contains digestive enzymes, which help us use the nutrients in our food. As we get older, our natural digestive enzymes aren’t as efficient as they were when we were young. Cooking destroys many of these enzymes. Also, more and more young people are suffering from digestive problems-partly due to poor diet choices. Eating lettuce and tomato on a McDonald’s burger doesn’t qualify on the raw food diet!

Eating more raw foods means cutting back on processed foods, which contain chemicals and preservatives - basically anything that comes in a box or package. Fruits and veggies, nuts and grains can be eaten raw.

It’s getting easier to find raw foods too. Most supermarkets offer raw almond butter to use in place of peanut butter and of course, anything in the fruit and vegetable section qualifies.

After switching to more raw foods in their diet, many people report losing weight, smoother, softer skin, more vibrant energy, better digestive health and improved health issues, such as lowering high blood pressure, improving diabetes or heart disease and many, many others.

Raw Food Diet Newsletters and Resources

There are many resources out there to help you learn more about the raw food diet and why it’s so good for you. If you’re interested in learning more about the raw food diet and how you can incorporate more of these healthy foods into your daily diet, here are some resources to help you.

Free Raw Food Info at Vitamix

Owning a Vitamix or other powerful food processor is very helpful for creating raw food drinks especially. Green Smoothies are raw food wonders. You can throw any type of fruit or veggie into a Vitamix and make a drink from it. Don’t like Kale, Mustard Greens or Swiss Chard? Add some to a green smoothie with some banana and berries and it will be so delicious, you won’t even think about how healthy it is.

Vitamix has a Green Smoothie section with info and recipes

Free Raw Food Newsletters

Information on the Raw Food Diet at WebMD

WebMD is the go-to source for pretty much anything do to with health and the raw food diet is no exception. You’ll find an unbiased view of the pros and cons of eating raw here.

Raw Food 101- Free Raw Food e-course Raw food guru Yuri Elkaim offers a free raw food diet ecourse which contains lots of great info. He also has a wonderful ebook on the Eating for Energy Program, which is a raw food diet. This program isn’t free but it contains valuable info, plus many free gifts, including audios and free reports. Energy for Energy and the audios and reports are instantly downloadable.

Green Smoothie Girl - Green Smoothie Girl, Robin Openshaw’s free newsletter offers recipes and other info on Green Smoothies. Green Smoothies are based on whole food ingredients, such as spinach, kale and Swiss Chard. From there, you can use your imagination! I use nuts, oatmeal, chia seeds and other whole, nutritious foods in our morning smoothie.

Raw food recipes from Living and Raw Foods. Delicious recipes-everything from smoothies to soups to breads to main dishes. Have you considered how you would make bread if you were eating raw and couldn’t bake your bread or other dishes? These recipes tell you everything you need to know.

About.com offers an alternative medicine newsletter, which isn’t strictly about raw foods only, but is a great source of information about all aspects of alternative medicine.

Remember too, a raw food diet doesn’t have to be 100% raw to be effective and improve health. Begin by incorporating more fruits and veggies into your diet by adding some to every meal or trying new recipes, a few at a time. The more raw foods, you eat, the more you’ll like the way you look at feel. What’s important is making a start through your daily food choices.

This morning I read a newsletter from Dr. Mercola about nutritional supplements and lifestyle changes which can help prevent Alzheimers and dementia. According to research, in the next 20 years, Alzheimers may affect one in four Americans and is even now the sixth leading cause of death in adults in the US.

Chances are good that you personally know someone with these health conditions. Alzheimers and dementia currently have no cure. There are medications which may slow the progression but these too have side effects that can be harmful. The best answer is to avoid getting these conditions in the first place through more healthy lifestyle choices.

Dr Mercola’s newsletter offers a complete list of nutritional supplements you can take to decrease your chances of getting Alzheimers and dementia and healthy lifestyle choices you can make. Some are as simple as adding blueberries to your diet and getting more exercise.

Typically brain atrophy precipitates the more serious forms of dementia, including Alzheimers. Some of the risk factors you can address which may lead to this brain atrophy include high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. These risk factors can all be improved through a more healthy lifestyle.

Certain nutritional deficiencies and other health conditions, such as obesity and thyroid dysfunction, are also associated with an increased risk of Alzheimers.

If you have any of the risk factors associated with Alzheimers and dementia, besides working with your doctor, you can improve your health through better nutrition, exercise, getting enough sleep and keeping your mind active.

Read more about Dr. Mercola’s suggestions for preventing Alzheimers and dementia and keep up with all the latest health news by subscribing to Dr. Mercola’s free health newsletter.

Green Smoothie Recipe to Help Prevent Demenita

2 cups green tea - Read more about the benefits of green tea in the diet.

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup dark cherries - Read more about the health benefits of cherry juice

2 cups spinach

1/8 cup walnuts

1 TBS chia seeds - Read more about the health benefits of chia seeds.

Blend all ingredients in a food processor and enjoy several times a week. The vital nutrients in this green smoothie will help keep your brain in tip top condition!

More Improtant Brain Health Strategies

My husband and I are embracing the raw food diet - not all the way, mind you. We still like our barbecue and

Raw food recipe for powerball snack

steamed veggies. However, we’ve started drinking Green Smoothies - the ultimate raw food - and I’m making more raw food snacks and large salads.

The raw food diet is just that. You don’t eat anything cooked as it destroys valuable digestive enzymes and nutrients. I have a raw food cookbook and the only cooking you do involves a dehydrator set to no higher than 115 degrees. If you’re in your baby boomer years, your body isn’t assimilating nutrients like it once did so you need all the digestive enzymes you can get. You’ll feel healthier and many of your health issues will disappear.

Green Smoothies are easy to incorporate into your diet. You simply make a tasty smoothie in the morning and drink 1-2 quarts of it during each day. Add any fresh, raw veggies you have and some fruit.

I’ve also discovered raw food recipes for snacks. These are super easy snack recipes because you mix up ingredients but don’t have to cook them. Here is one raw food snack recipe I created yesterday. Compare them to any expensive energy bar and I think you’ll like these much better.

These raw food power balls are full of energy creating superfoods so they are great to eat between meals or after a workout:

Raw Food Power Ball Snack Recipe

Ingredients

3/4 cup sliced raw almonds (you can substitute any other raw nuts if you prefer)
1/8 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4cup coconut shredded
1 cup mixed dried fruit (I found a great antioxidant mix at Costco with dried cherries, cranberries and blueberries)
1/2 cup raw honey
1 cup raw peanut butter (you can also use other raw nut butters)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Using a food processor or Vitamix, blend the first 4 dry ingredients to a meal stage. Don’t make a fine powder out of it, just chop for about 20 seconds.

Put dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and add dried fruit, cinnamon, peanut or other raw nut butter, and honey. Mix thoroughly.

Once your raw food ingredients are mixed, form into balls of about 1 1/2 inches and put into a glass container with a tight fitting lid. I put tin foil between my rows so they don’t stick together.

Refrigerate for 24 hours and enjoy.

These raw food powerballs will keep in the frig for 2 weeks - if they last that long! I send them to work with my husband for his lunch and snack on them after my yoga class.

This recipe makes about 30 raw food power balls.

The great thing about this recipe is you can change up ingredients to suit yourself. They are a quick and easy snack that requires no baby sitting a hot oven for several hours.

If you’re interested in healthy aging, you should be eating more raw food recipes. Eating raw foods can help ward off eye diseases like cataracts and macular degeneration, cancer, heart disease, arthritis and more.

If you’d like to know more about Green Smoothies, click here for more info. Get free shipping on your Vitamix if you don’t own one already. I’ve found so many uses for my Vitamix I can’t imagine what I did without it.

More information on the raw food diet at Best of Raw Food.com

How can green smoothies help prevent glaucoma and eye disease like macular degeneration?

As we age, we become susceptible to eye problems like glaucoma, macular degeneration, cataracts and other eye diseases. However, it is possible to help prevent or reduce the effects of eye disease and vision problems by consuming an eye health foods in our daily diet.

For instance, the National Eye Institute has found that taking zinc and high doses of antioxidants, such as those found in fruits and veggies, can reduce your chances of getting macular degeneration by as much as 25%. Antioxidants such as Lutein and zeaxanthin are vital to continuing eye health and you can get these from eye health foods.

Rather than taking supplements, which may be synthetic and not real food at all, the best way to get enough antioxidants in your diet is to eat at least 9 servings of veggies for eye nutrition. To make sure you get the most out of these veggies, eating them raw, blended into a green smoothie, provides eye health nutrition that your body can easily absorb and make use of. In a green smoothie recipe, it isn’t hard to get these eye health foods daily.

My husband and I started drinking green smoothies about a month ago. I had to take a break for 2 weeks when I visited family, but have been back on the green smoothie diet for nearly a week. My husband has glaucoma in his family and suffers from high eye pressure and I was told on my last eye exam that I had the beginnings of cataracts, plus I’ve had various floaties and flashes in my eyes, which happens as we age and the fluid in our eyes becomes hardened.

When we started drinking green smoothies, I was especially interested in recipes with eye health foods and eye health nutrition so perhaps we can keep these eye conditions from worsening.

The key to staying healthy with green smoothies is to vary your intake of fruits and veggies. The nutrients you are looking for are zinc, beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein and zeaxanthin and omega 3 fatty acids. If you are seeking veggies which are eye health foods, here are a list of veggies to include in your smoothies which contain valuable nutrients for preventing cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration:

• Beta carotene foods: cherries, carrots, sweet potatoes, kale, cantaloupe, apricots
• Vitamin C foods: bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, oranges, strawberries, kiwis and brocoli
• Vitamin E foods: wheat germ, almonds, avocados, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, peanut butter
• Zinc foods: chick peas, oysters, ostrich (a very lean meat), turkey, pumpkin seeds
• Lutein-Zeaxanthin foods: spinach, Swiss chard, corn, watercress and persimmons contain both.
• Omega-3 fats: wild salmon, sardines, Atlantic mackerel and omega-3-fortified eggs. If you’re making a green smoothie, you can add 1 tsp of flax seed oil or add flax meal to your smoothie.

If you want to prevent cataracts, studies have shown that foods rich in riboflavin also help:

• Riboflavin foods: skim milk and low-fat, eggs, mushrooms and almonds
• Niacin foods: chicken and turkey breast, wild salmon, kidney beans and natural peanut butter

To make a green smoothie with eye health foods, here’s one sample recipe:

1 cup water
One whole carrot, peeled if not organic
1/2 cup strawberries
1 dozen almonds
1 tsp flax seed oil
1/2 cup chick peas, canned
1 cup spinach
1/4 cup kefir or yogurt - (Learn to make Kefir at home and save money!)

Blend all of these ingredients on high in your Vitamix. for 30 seconds.

If you prefer your smoothie a little sweeter, add a few drops of stevia or organic agave nector or throw in more berries.

To make up your own green smoothie recipes to benefit your eyes, just choose a different eye health food group and vary your smoothie each day. The precise measurements aren’t that important. You can adjust your smoothie recipe to your personal taste.

Can green smoothies cure eye problems such as cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration? If you suffer from these conditions, it’s important to follow the advice of your doctor. However, proper eye health nutrition and eye health foods, especially if you begin consuming them early, can go a long way to help preventing or controlling these health issues.

Read more about green smoothies and get some free recipes from Vitamix.

Click on the banner below and receive free shipping on your Vitamix - a $25 value.

Vitamix for Green Smoothies

More tips to prevent eye diseases:

Always wear sunglasses and a visor or hat to protect your eyes from sunlight.

If you smoke, quit.

If you’re overweight, lose some of that weight. (Green smoothies can help!)

National Eye Institute Information on Eye Diseases, their prevention and treatments.