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Sacramento Monday">
Raw Sacramento News Newsletter to Raw
Sacramento Monday, March 14, 2005
(Raw) Dinner is Served by the Boutenkos
(Ludmila, Janet and David)
Report of Victoria Boutenko's Visit Simply Gourmet
Mexican Raw Food Class
Wasn't Mark Blackburn leaving Sacramento?
Room for rent in a Raw Household
Severe Doctor Shortage by 2020 May
Increase US Lifespan
Do you need a Raw Food Coach, Mentor, or
Caterer?
Tonight, Monday, March 14 Brenda Kent's 10-week
class will hold it's final session with a potluck. At this potluck Brenda
will have the Live Kim Chee and Cultured Vegetables (now fermented) from
Victoria's Saturday Morning Class. For information about
Brenda's final class or upcoming sessions click.
Milestone Reached: Raw Sacramento
now has 305 individuals receiving our event notification emails. Report of Victoria Boutenko's 4
Sacramento Lectures It was a pleasure to welcome Victoria Boutenko back to
Sacramento for her 4th major series for Raw Sacramento members. (Actually,
back in 2001 we had her here for 6 weekly classes). I attended 3 of her 4
sessions this weekend. Let me do the best I can to summarize the excellent
information she shared with us. The Boutenko Family has spent 11 years on
raw foods, each of them overcoming severe health issues with raw foods.
However, in the last couple years they began to have some health issues, most
notably dental problems. I myself, and many other raw fooders have had
dental problems, so this got my attention. Victoria is a person who is naturally curious, scientific,
reasoned, empowered, and inquisitive. Many of us have been the
beneficiaries of her research. In the last year especially, they
have been frustrated. If they ate cooked food, they would get the
beginning symptoms of the serious illnesses they had resolved with raw foods.
But, they now had some new problems and eating raw foods was not helping.
So, Victoria began searching, praying, and researching. Here is the essence of her research: Victoria as well as most raw-fooders realize that modern
man has lost touch with his natural diet and natural instincts. I
personally find contemporary man hopelessly ignorant and proud. And,
in our pride we are deluded. We believe we are so superior to the other
primates, and yet, they are much healthier than we are because they have not
become so 'civilized' that they forgot who they really are. They know what
they should eat. We do not. We have developed technology which
allows us tasty food that kills us and gives us disease. And, sadly for
us, enough generations have passed that we no longer have any memory or instinct
left of what we should eat. So, we go to MacDonald's and slowly
kill ourselves. The monkeys are in fact much smarter than we are in
some ways. Chimpanzees are 98% anatomically identical to humans, being
more similar to us than any other animal. There are greater DNA
differences between different species of horses than there are between humans
and chimpanzees. For this reason, Victoria looked to our primate cousins to
determine how humans should eat. Her hypothesis is that a Chimpanzee
diet should be also an appropriate human diet, due to the close genetic
similarities. In a recent trip to Costa Rica she & Igor watched
monkeys feeding in the wild. She has been corresponding with Jane Goodall
and inquiring of naturalists about the diet of Chimpanzees.
They even had some discussions at the Sacramento Zoo with the primate
specialists there. Her findings are that chimpanzees eat: Greens are NOT vegetables, but leafy green vegetables
(leaves). Gorillas by the way, eat about 80% greens. The above contrasts greatly with the current American SAD
diet which is 50% carbohydrates (bread, pasta, beans), and includes meat, dairy,
and sweets. However, more notably, the above diet, contrasts which how
the typical raw fooder eats. The typical raw fooder eats nuts that are not
eaten by chimpanzees ; oils, which are not eaten by chimpanzees; and high
amounts of fats in the form of avocados; and way too few greens. Because Victoria suffered dental trouble years ago in
Russia, she cannot easily chew greens. What was she to do? She has
decided to blend the greens along with some fruit in a blender creating "green
smoothies." She and Igor have been having 1-2 gallons a day of green
smoothies! (They started out much more conservatively, and built up
to this). She says she loves them now, and really misses them if she
cannot have them). Consuming these smoothies has drastically increased her
daily intake of chlorophyll, and soluble and insoluble fiber.
Victoria found that almost all Americans have insufficient acid in their
stomachs to properly digest the food we eat. Her research showed that the
best way to develop sufficient stomach acid is to increase fiber intake. Due to this research Victoria no longer recommends juicing.
She, in fact, is sometimes juicing to obtain the pulp, and throw away the juice
(just the opposite of what many of us have been doing).
Victoria makes up a huge batch of her
'green smoothie' at Cheri and Dan's During the past few months the Boutenkos have had many
symptoms go away. They are very excited to be feeling better.
Victoria says her skin is much better and she feels as though she has had a
facelift. Igor is losing some of his gray hair. Igor had some
warts that went away after a week of the green smoothies. Victoria said that by eating sufficient fiber raw fooders
who are very thin would gain some weight. Conversely, those who are
overweight, would continue to lose weight. Fiber also helps sweep toxins
out of the body, and aid in regulating hormone activity. Victoria is working on another book that she hopes to
complete by Summer that explores all of this in greater detail.. She is also self-publishing some great photo-guide books on
such things as creating raw Kim-Chee and Cultured Vegetables. Order
a Vita-Mix, nutmilk bags, books & videos from Victoria
here. Photos of Victoria's Weekend Events
The yellow stars are Star Fruit in
case you're wondering.
On Saturday AM Roberta and Paul hosted
Victoria's Live Kim Chee and Cultured Vegetables Class
Janet Ahlbrecht & Renee Mortell became close
friends at Brenda Kent's first "Get Healthy & Stay Balanced" a few years
ago. Far Right is Felicia, Renee's Daughter
Victoria has given more gourmet live food
demos than any person alive.
Thanks to Torin for photographing his
beautiful Danish friend, Christina with Ric and Mark
Veronika and her boyfriend, Greg are looking
over the class handouts that included recipes for green smoothies. Wasn't Mark Blackburn leaving
Sacramento? Since many have asked, I will make some brief remarks about
my personal situation. I have threatened for 2 years that I would be
leaving Sacramento for a warmer area. I must seem like those stores that
post a "Going out of Business Sale" every couple months, but stay in business
for years. It remains my desire and goal to move to either South Florida
or Orange County where I have 2 Grandchildren. I have unfinished business
in Sacramento that seems to keep me here. I do hope to ship out before
next winter. But, I've made it over the hump of Winter 2005, and obviously
the warmer weather is here. So, you're stuck with me for awhile
longer! Incidentally, soon Veronika Clay (VeRAWnika) will be
assisting in updating the website. I claim to be 99% raw. I have eaten 99-100% raw since
1998, when my Son's relentless nagging finally caused me to abandon my (then)
80-90% raw diet that I had followed for 4 years. I instantly felt
much more energy, and have been impervious to so many health annoyances since
then. No more headaches, sinus infections, stomach aches, hiccups, bad
breath, 'morning mouth', foot odor, etc. My body felt like it was finally
functioning as it was meant to. I had more energy than men 1/2 my age, and
could concentrate better and do the complex relational data analysis work that
has been my speciality for 20 years. I felt better than I ever remember
feeling. So, I have stuck with raw foods. Some people make raw foods a religion. And, they
become as fun to be with as your average religious fundamentalist. I do
not make raw foods a religion. For that reason, I now call myself 99% raw.
Yes, friends, once in a blue moon (perhaps 5-6 times a year I will have a
healthy vegetarian cooked meal). Most recently, Karen Baumann and I ate at
a Thai restaurant. A couple months before that I ate with my dear
friend Divna at another Thai Restaurant. Obviously if Sacramento had
a raw food restaurant, I would eat exclusively there. But, we don't,
and I do like to go out to eat every now and then. And, on those occasions
when I am stuck in Sacramento for a couple months, I may indulge. I don't
repent afterwards...I do not go to confession. (But, frankly, I sometimes
do feel like I did something my body didn't like). But, I do not have meat
or fried foods. (I have been a vegetarian for 20 years). So if you ever see me at a cooked restaurant, please do not
act like you've just seen your priest checking into a hotel room in Las Vegas
with a showgirl. You have just seen Mark Blackburn enjoying a meal out as
he very rarely does (unless I'm somewhere where they have raw restaurants). I go through this litany because I am probably the
best-known raw fooder in Sacramento. If it were a religion you would
think you'd found me 'backsliding.' But, since I do not personally
practice raw food religion, you will just have to accept me as I am.
I love raw foods and I know that I will never go back to eating predominately
cooked foods. I feel terrible on cooked foods. I feel
wonderful on raw foods. While I may be, as Victoria Boutenko called
me, the Raw "Godfather" of Sacramento, at 6+ years raw, I will not be the most
long-term raw fooder in Sacramento until April. In or by April, our dear
Friend Ric Lambart (29-years Raw) hopes to return to his beloved New Mexico.
If you know Ric, or see Ric, be sure to wish him well. The value of his
experience is huge, and Raw Sacramento was blessed to have the benefit of Ric's
experience shared with them last Summer during our "Friday Evenings with Ric"
series hosted by Karen Baumann. If you want to read more about my personal thoughts &
philosophy on Raw Foods, (especially as to whether we should make raw
foods a religion, I invite you to read an article that I wrote for the
Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, which they ran in their newsletter about 2 years
ago):
http://www.markblackburn.org/Papers/Orthrex.htm. I was responding to
an article they ran that was critical of people who follow a raw food diet. Many of you ask about my Son, Christian, who has been MIA
lately. Christian has been working very hard over the last 5 months or so,
and his hours have made it impossible to attend our potlucks. However, he
will begin in 1 week a new job as a business system analyst for a national
construction firm, and I am sure we'll see more of him soon...such as at the
April 3 Potluck that will be held at the home of Gordon & Gladys in Elk Grove. - Mark Blackburn
Room for rent in a raw household
Sacramento (Near
I-80 and Greenback/Elkhorn)
Janet
Ahlbrecht again has a room for rent for $390/mo. She writes: "Two
Christians (male 49/myself raw/vegetarian age 46) are looking for a roommate to
rent a private bedroom with full house privileges. Lets encourage each other in
a healthy way of living...A Preschool/Childcare is run in my home M-F
7:30-5:30p.m. Easy access to Freeway (1mile to/from off Elkhorn/I80) Quiet,
peaceful neighborhood with a nice backyard. Looking for a responsible,
courteous, quiet, stable person no drugs, pets or smoking. Someone that works in
the day would be best. We are a fun bunch. We check out different singles
activities...Meet me and check out the location at
www.happyheartskids.net
$390 a month/plus 1/3 utilities. Let's talk. Janet @ (916) 331-6406"
Raw Food Catering Service in Sacramento Would you like to have
raw food catered and delivered to you twice a week? Most of you are familiar
with our Raw Sacramento member, Veronika Clay. Veronika is one of 3
individuals collaborating in bringing the every-other-Tuesday Raw Food demo
classes at Whole Foods. vRAWnika has been a great blessing to me and many
others by crafting and delivering delicious, organic raw foods meals at a
reasonable price. Contact Veronika if you are interested at
rawfood@comcast.net.
Simply Gourmet Mexican Raw Food Class
Simply Gourmet Raw Foods Preparation Class -
By Veronika Clay and David Rogers
Mexican Food Theme Recipes
Tortilla Soup, Nachos, Tacos with
Refried Beans, and Custard
Prepay
by Sunday: March 27, $25 a person
Contact:
Veronika Clay at (916) 366-3898 or rawfood@comcast.net
Date/Time:
Friday, April 1, 2005, 6:30-8:30pm Location: The Prana Path,
3120 O Street, (916) 736-3380
Severe Doctor Shortage by 2020
May Increase US Lifespan
You've gotta love this headline from Dr. Joseph
Mercola's site. -Mark
Read about it here:
Severe Doctor Shortage by 2020 May Increase US Lifespan - Learn why the
anticipated doctor shortage will likely increase the number of years Americans
are living. Dr. Mercola's Comment: Last year I wrote an article on
Why Death Rates
Decrease When Doctors Go on Strike. It might be hard to believe, but the
facts speak quite strongly. Moreover, five years ago the
Israel Medical Association went on strike for two months to protest against
their treasury's imposition of a new four-year wage contract for physicians,
which devastated Israel’s funeral industry, as there was a dramatic fall in the
death rate. This unplanned study is an amazing testimony as to the power of
conventional medicine to accelerate the death rate. The majority of conventional medicine is focused on using drugs and
surgical band-aids rather than addressing the foundational causes of disease.
This focus has actually caused the
conventional
medical paradigm to be the leading cause of death in
the US. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could combine the best of
conventional medicine, which is clearly the acute care emergency trauma medicine
skills, with natural medicine? Naturopathic Medicine It would be great to start to infuse some of the principles of
naturopathic medicine into conventional medicine.
Naturopathic
doctors (N.D.s)--who have attended one of the five certified accredited
four-year naturopathic medical schools in North America--are fully licensed as
physicians in 14 states. Naturopathic physicians diagnose disease and treat patients by using
natural modalities such as physical manipulation, clinical nutrition, herbal
medicine, homeopathy, counseling, acupuncture and hydrotherapy, among others.
This approach has proven successful in treating both chronic and acute
conditions. Raw
Sacramento's main Event Calendar Mailing List: Please forward this email to any interested
party. If you would like to join this list, please send
us an
email. Best raw regards, -Team Raw Sacramento Contact us: info@rawsacramento.net
Food
Percent
Fruit
50%
Greens
40%
Pith, Bark, Seeds
6%
Insects
4%
(approximate percentages)
Diet of Chimpanzees
100%
Raw Sacramento sends about 3 emails per month. Raw
Sacramento currently has 305 individuals on our email notification list
(March, 2005).