Five years ago, I was working for a large publishing company in New York City. I began each morning with two cups of coffee, a doughnut, and a cigarette, and that usually kept me alive until mid-afternoon when I'd order some take-out food that I'd eat at my desk.
After lunch, I was so tired that I'd take two diet pills (amphetamines) and more coffee just to get through the rest of the day. On my way home from work, I'd usually eat of couple slices of pizza and then drink whiskey until around midnight when I'd pass out.
I was twenty-four years old, overweight, undernourished, and addicted. As you can probably guess, my first experience with yoga was a disaster. I couldn't even make it through an entire class. I tried to lift my hands up over my head in a prayer position, and sweat dripped off my body as I gasped for air. I couldn't bend backwards, backwards, balance on one foot, or even sit up straight!
During class, I burped up French fries and alcohol, and it was suddenly obvious to me that the food I was eating was doing me more harm than good. I wanted to be lean and limber like the other students. I wanted to feel strong and energetic, and at the very least, I wanted to be able to touch my toes! I knew nothing about yoga, but after that first class, I knew I needed to keep practicing and I also new I needed to change my lifestyle.
About a month later, my girlfriend took me to a lecture about raw food nutrition presented by a man named, David Wolfe. Wolfe was a young guy, glowing with health and energy, and he told me and about thirty others in the room that he'd been eating nothing but raw plant foods for five years, and he claimed it was the key to living a long, healthy life.
Vegetarians already seemed quite extreme to me, so the idea of eating nothing but raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds seemed completely crazy--so crazy that I decided to try it! The very next day, I quit drinking, quit smoking, and stopped eating. On a friend's recommendation, I went on a five-day juice fast, and when I began eating again, I ate only raw foods--just like David Wolfe suggested. I ate avocados, dates, oranges, coconuts, pineapples, almonds, and every kind of salad your can imagine.
From day one on raw food, my body responded positively. I felt light and energized, clear-headed and optimistic. Within eight weeks, I'd dropped forty pounds and my yoga practice improved ten fold. From the inside out, I was truly a different person. I quit my job, began teaching nutrition and raw food preparation classes, and later went on to manage a large vegan restaurant in New York City.
For me, the combination of a raw food diet with a committed yoga practice was completely transformative, and from what I've seen in my students, radiant health is possible for anyone who is willing to change their habits and try something new. Raw foods are the most powerful, healing foods on the planet!
Raw Food and You
People with full-time jobs and busy lifestyles are often forced to eat most of their food outside of the home at restaurants that are usually more concerned about profits than health. A restaurant manager, for example, is unlikely to cook with olive oil when he can buy cheap palm oil in a plastic bag for a fraction of the price. Nutritionally speaking, the olive oil is gold and the palm oil is like motor oil, but since both consumers and vendors are concerned more with prices than health, palm oil is what you'll find in most restaurants in Thailand.
For those who do have time to cook at home, things are just as complicated because instead of shopping at fresh markets and buying homemade goods, most of us now shop at supermarkets where 90% of the items sold have been cooked, pasteurized, or chemically preserved to make them last longer on the shelves. Commercially processed foods have been altered on a molecular level which means they are no longer the abundant source for nutrients that they once were.
Human's today eat more meat and dairy than ever before, but these foods are no longer healthy choices. Demand for animals products is so high today that family farms have been converted into factory farms where thousands of animals are cramped together in cages, fed growth hormones to fatten them quickly, and given regular doses of antibiotics to ward off the diseases that would normally kill them while living in such a stressful environment.
No one should eat meat or milk that comes from sick, suffering animals, but when price and convenience take precedence, again, it's our health that suffers. So with such limited sources for high-quality, natural foods, it's no wonder that more and more people are looking for simple alternatives such as raw foods--but what exactly are raw foods?
Today, when people talk about raw food, they are usually referring to the recent health craze that involves eating raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. That means no meat, wheat, rice, dairy, fish, coffee, or alcohol! At first, this might seem too extreme, but you don't have to eat 100% raw foods to see results.
For most people, a diet that consists of 70-80% raw plant foods is sufficient to dramatically improve your health in a matter of days--so just think what would happen if you ate mostly raw foods everyday for an entire year!
If you wanted to build a house out of wood, but first you burnt the wood and then sprayed it with chemicals so it wouldn't rot. The house might last a long time but it wouldn't have the beautiful color and glow that natural wood has.
Similarly, humans can survive for long time on unhealthy foods, but the quality of our lives is greatly diminished. Poor diet contributes to nearly every major health problem known and makes us more susceptible to infection, illness, and disease. Conversely, if we eat mostly fresh, ripe, raw fruits and vegetables as the bulk of our diet, we become healthy, energetic, and radiant.
Previously, it was believe that humans needed to eat meat and dairy products to survive, but more current research has shown us that people who eat primarily plant-based foods tend to be leaner, healthier, and less prone to disease because plant foods are loaded with vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and enzymes that are naturally balanced for easy absorption.
The Practice of Eating
When we practice yoga, most of what we learn is through direct personal experience. Teachers, books, and the study of sacred texts can help speed up the process, but nothing teaches us more than moving through the sun salutations each morning or sitting in silent mediation each evening.
Similarly, with food, it's important to read about nutrition and study the tenants of Ayurvedic medicine, but no one can teach you what or how to eat as well as you can teach yourself through daily observance and personal practice--the practice of eating. Below are some suggestions that tend to be helpful for most everyone, but don't take my word for it. Practice mindful eating and experiment for yourself!
HEALTHY FOOD COMES FROM THE SUN
The sun is an amazing star one million times larger than the earth. Its burning brightness enables plants to take inorganic matter like magnesium and nitrogen in the soil and convert them into edible fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. As a general rule, the foods that directly convert the sun's energy into edible foods are the healthiest choices.
EAT YOUR WATER
Despite the prevalence of bottled water these days, dehydration is a huge problem largely due to the fact most people eat dry foods all day. Dry foods include rice, bread, meats, and snack foods while watery foods include nearly all fresh fruits and vegetables.
Proper hydration is essential for nearly every biological process including digestion, circulation, absorption of nutrients, and elimination of waste. So drink your water! To ensure proper hydration, each day, try to eat about 70% fresh fruits and vegetables.
YOUR BODY IS A MACHINE
Think of your body like a machine and food like fuel. To keep you body running strong and healthy for years, you'll want to eat the best food you can find which means lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. If you abuse your body and fill your stomach primarily with low-grade, processed foods and animal products, your health will eventually be compromised.
