The Fresh Network Blog

The anatomics of your subatomics

Who we are and what we’re capable of starts with our trillions of body cells. Are they clean, are they healthy and are they communicating properly? By Natalia Rose.

What does true health look and feel like? What is the natural experience of childbirth and menopause? How many decades should we live? How many decades should we live in an excellent state of health? When mainstream science attempts to answer these questions and others, it does so based on what is common. But what is common should not be mistaken for what is natural. None of the above questions can be answered meaningfully by mainstream scientific studies, as those invariably focus on people following some version of the standard – i.e. very unnatural – diet and lifestyle.  

We cannot hope to achieve our potential if we don’t know what we actually are, what we are made of and what sustains our being. Let me start this discussion by introducing a concept I call, “The theory of the electronic human”.

Everything in the world of form gives off either a negative or positive ionic charge based on the number of electrons to protons in its atomic structure. Healthy cells and tissues are made up of negatively-charged ionic particles. This makes man’s body alkaline, and all life-generating substances in the world of form carry a negative, or alkaline, ionic charge. An ion is simply a particle that is electrically charged (either positively or negatively), meaning it has either lost or gained one or more electrons.

When an atom has more electrons orbiting its nucleus than there are protons in the nucleus, it carries a negative ionic charge; when there are more protons in the nucleus than electrons orbiting the nucleus, the atom is said to carry a positive ionic charge. If it’s been a while since high school science, just think “pro” for positive/proton. Alright, now that we’re up to speed on basic atomic structure let’s move on…

Insider secrets to success on a living foods diet

That's the name of the event we're hosting in London on Saturday, and it promises to deliver just that. The speakers are none other than Drs Brian and Anna Maria Clement, world experts on the subject.

But this event won't just be about information. There will also be great opportunities for raw shopping, raw eating and raw mingling. You'll be able to buy a wide range of raw foods, books and healthy lifestyle products at up to 20% off and a gourmet raw lunch from caterer Rainforest Creations for just £5. Our last event attracted over 300 and this one looks set to attract an even higher number, making it a great opportunity to meet like-minded people.

It will all take place in Friends House, conveniently located just across the road from Euston station. The lecture begins at 11:30, and doors will open at 10:30 for early birds who want to shop before the crowds arrive and grab a freshly made snack to take into the lecture.

We'll be selling tickets on the door but to save queueing on the day why not pre-book your place through our website?

Click here to read more about the event, and/or to buy tickets.

We hope to see you there!

The truth about sun exposure, sunscreen and skin cancer

I was in the garden with a friend and her 6-month-old baby recently. The second the sun came out, anxiety clouded her face. She darted inside, reappeared with a bottle of sunscreen, and administered it liberally to the squirming infant, and then to herself. Not in the habit of offering unsolicited advice, I bit my tongue. But I was really biting it on this occasion because what I know about conventional sunscreens makes it very hard for me to sit and watch anyone putting such a toxic substance on themselves, let alone on a child.

My friend was just doing what any concerned mother naturally does given what we are told about the sun. She was following the advice of the world's leading doctors and dermatologists to protect her child from something we are told can cause deadly disease.

But when you stop and think about it, the idea that the sun is bad for us is completely nuts! Our species evolved in the tropics, under the sun, without houses, clothes, hats or sunscreen. Skin cancer rates are on the increase yet we get a tiny fraction of the sun exposure our ancestors did. Clearly there is something else at play here.

Did someone say ozone layer? Yes, there are parts of the world (for example, Australia) which have experienced both ozone depletion and an increased incidence of skin cancer, and there is evidence of a link there. But there are many other parts of the world where skin cancer rates are increasing despite the fact there has been no ozone depletion, so this isn’t the explanation we’re looking for. For example, skin cancer rates in Norway increased by 350% for men and 440% for women during the period 1955 to 1984. The ozone layer did not change during this period.

Skin cancer was very rare 100 years ago and is still very rare among many populations. For example, there is virtually no skin cancer in Africa, where people stay in the sun all day long without sunscreen. If you think that's down to the protective effect of darker skin pigmentation, think again: people with African heritage who live in America have very high rates of skin cancer.

So let's cut to the chase. What is causing the increase in skin cancer?

Tax on junk food

On here we recently asked the question, "When will there be a tax on junk food?" In an article in today's Sunday Times, Minette Marrin asks the same. Here's an excerpt:

"I am sick of people talking about health education and “lifestyle choices”. What’s clearly needed, contrary to everything I’ve always thought, is a little compulsion. Our NHS and our economy cannot take the consequences of poor lifestyle choices. First, all schools should make healthy meals compulsory and should offer pupils one meal only – no choice – and make them eat it. (Allowances would be made for religious taboos and ill health.)

Second, the polluter must pay, as the Greens always say. The polluters who manufacture junk food of all kinds should be forced to label it, like cigarette packets, with simple information about calories. And the food itself, the pollutant, should be made extremely expensive, by high taxes, so that those who are polluting their own bodies would have a powerful incentive to stop.

Admittedly this is hard on the poorest, who eat the most junk food, but bad diets are not only bad for them. They are also expensive for the NHS and us. Healthier diets will not provide a quick fix, but the taxes from junk food could go straight to the coffers of the local NHS organisations, and that would do something fast to ease the pain of the inevitable cuts to come."

Read the article in full

Tonya Zavasta's top beauty tips

This exclusive excerpt is taken from our interview with Tonya Zavasta in the newly released Summer issue of Get Fresh! magazine. We asked Tonya to list her top beauty tips - here they are:

1. A daily raw vegetable juice
Make it fresh and drink it right away. It's so healthy and hydrating. Juicing will make your face glow and your eyes sparkle.

2. Dry skin brushing
Brushing the entire body all over every morning is an invigorating way to start the day.

3. Dry facial brushing
Exfoliation is the most important part of a beauty regimen. We speed up the process of skin rejuvenation when we remove dead skin cells. Exfoliation energizes your face and improves circulation. All of these steps result in a better looking complexion.

4. Hot yoga
Nothing beats it for cleansing the body via sweating, nor for toning and stretching. It effectively works every muscle group in your body.

5. Facial exercises
They take care of the sag of skin and muscle tone due to aging or rapid weight loss, and they improve circulation too.

Summer issue of Get Fresh! now out

Here's the Summer issue of Get Fresh! magazine, out today - and yes, that's Your Right to be Beautiful author Tonya Zavasta on the cover. It's a right cracker of an issue, this one. Tonya looks stunning on our cover and people who saw it during the production process commented that they couldn't believe a woman of 51 or anything like that age could have skin like that. But having met Tonya in person I can vouch that she has a complexion more glowing and flawless than any photo could ever convey.

In our exclusive interview with her she talks in depth about the link between the raw diet, health and beauty and reveals her all-singing, all-dancing program for unveiling your natural gorgeousness and reaching your greatest potential for rejuvenation and longevity. A key part of Tonya's personal programme is Bikram (or hot) yoga and this issue also contains an exclusive article by her about the amazing detoxification and rejuvenative benefits of this practice.

Another special in our Summer issue is a trio of articles on the subject of our potential:

• Who we are and what we're capable of starts with our trillions of cells. Are they clean, are they healthy and are they communicating properly? Only if the answer to all these questions is yes can we hope to reach our potential, says Natalia Rose.
• As we've drifted further from nature we've drifted further from our true potential, says Thomas Lodi, M.D. To rediscover it, we must return to nature in the way we eat, relate and live.
• Potential and the power of the mind: it can be either your greatest obstacle or your greatest ally, says Dr Brian Clement. 

Plus:

• Dr Doug Graham on the foods that are supersizing our kids and why bigger is definitely not better when it comes to your child.
• Scary dairy: Dao Earl explores myths and facts about calcium, and the pros and cons of different kinds of milk.
• "Real" men eat meat and drink beer. Or so we are supposed to believe. Pete Vincent sets the record straight and explains why REAL men eat raw.
• Vaccination: a cautionary tale. Jesse Bogdanovich nearly died as a result of an allergic reaction to a polio vaccine when he was a baby. It condemned him to a childhood of disability and ill health. He became his own doctor when he went raw as a young adult and he tells his story for the first time here.
• "You are what you apply": Sarma Melngailis explains why we need to think of our skincare as skin food and Sarah Best reviews the top raw beauty ranges.
• Raw for beginners: in a new regular column, Karen Knowler describes how to get started on a raw diet and set yourself up for success.
• Making friends with your food: Tera Warner has 12 steps for overcoming compulsive eating once and for all.
• Cancer survivor and Living Foods Lifestyle author Brenda Cobb talks us through a typical day.
• Russell James with a step-by-step guide to making raw sushi.
• In an exclusive except from her new book Ani's Raw Food Desserts, Ani Phyo presents gorgeous sorbet and ice cream recipes.
• Low-fat recipe special: Cherie Soria on how to cut the fat without cutting flavour and Dr Doug Graham with simple savoury summer lunches.
• Plus the latest news, reviews, tips, useful contacts and much, much more!

Buy this issue

Find out about subscription options

Browse back issues 

Now showing in London cinemas: The End of the Line

Read a review. View film website.

Sun worship

Let me paint you a picture I only wish I could paint more often. I am currently sitting at my garden table, in my bikini, with a parasol shading my laptop, and the sun beating down on my back. It's scorching hot and there's not a cloud in the sky. And it's quarter past six in the evening, for goodness sake!

The south of England, where I live, has enjoyed uncharacteristically high temperatures since last Thursday. I've had an especially lucky time of it because, prior to that, I spent a week in Tuscany – which was also experiencing unusually high temperatures. And I feel better than I’ve felt since…well, since the last time I spent a fortnight in the sun. Coincidence? I think not.

For half of it I haven’t been on holiday; I’ve been hard at work. But whenever possible I’ve been hard at work in my outside office, wearing my summer uniform.

Why? Because the more I study health and meet people around the world who are enjoying extraordinary levels of it, the more convinced I am that getting out in the sun at every opportunity is one of the most health-promoting things we can do. And that whatever ails you, be it physical or mental, there are few things that will make you feel as good, as quickly, as getting out in the sun.

I’m sure there is more to this than vitamin D; I’m sure the sun’s rays bestow benefits on us that science has yet to uncover. But vitamin D is a huge deal and the studies that prove it just keep pouring in. Vitamin D has been linked with bone health, mental agility, immunity and emotional balance. And deficiency has been linked with osteoporosis, dementia, cancer, MS and depression – among other things.

Green shakes

I recently discovered a brilliant and very simple way to make green juices into a gourmet treat. This is a great alternative to adding fruit – though there is nothing wrong with adding some apple, pear or pineapple to take the edge off a potent elixir of dark greens. Add the juice of a lemon too and the interplay of sweet and tart will dominate, leaving the earthy bitter of the greens as a subtle – and decidedly more palatable – background taste. 

But bored of that after several years of it I started experimenting and came up with another way to make heavy-duty green juices taste good - even those with broccoli! I’m making my juices into shakes by adding nut milk, and they have never gone down as easily. Here’s an example: 

• 200g spinach or other dark greens
• 1 small head broccoli
• 1 red pepper
• 3 sticks celery
• Small piece root ginger
• Raw almond milk

Juice the first five ingredients and pour into a glass. Then add raw almond milk to taste – I find that two parts juice to one part nut milk is plenty.

Healing Cancer from Inside Out

We recently brought the brilliant DVD Healing Cancer from Inside Out to the UK for the first time. It quickly sold out, we have more in stock now and by popular demand we also have the accompanying book of the same name (pictured).

The emphasis of the DVD is on establishing that conventional methods to "cure" cancer will never rival the natural approaches that can heal it. The book, meanwhile, is a practical guide to a comprehensive anti-cancer lifestyle. As stated in the introduction, "This book focuses on providing the details for supporting cancer patients and essentially picks up where the film leaves off."

We recommend you invest in both the book and the DVD. The book is £12.97, and the DVD is £17.97, but we're selling both for a discount price of £26.30, a saving of £4.64, or 15%.

Go here to find out more about the book.

Go here to find out more about the DVD.

Go here if you missed the excerpt from our exclusive interview with cancer expert Thomas Lodi, M.D., one of the experts featured on the DVD.

Coffee and health

We received a letter from The British Coffee Association in response to a comment about coffee in our recent Spring issue. For those who didn't see it, the comment in question was: "Coffee is a central nervous system stimulant which has been linked with anxiety, mood swings and adrenal exhaustion. Just say no!" Here is the letter:

Dear Get Fresh,

We read with interest your article “The top 10 substances that destroy health” in the March edition of Get Fresh. With regards to the points raised in the article we wanted to highlight that in fact there is little scientific evidence to demonstrate a correlation between moderate caffeine intake (4-5 cups per day) and anxiety. Research concludes that “In lower doses caffeine appears to have little effect on this mood-state or, under certain circumstances, it may even reduce anxiety levels.”

Coffee is one of the most heavily researched products in the world today and the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence has found that moderate consumption of four to five cups per day (or 400mg caffeine) is perfectly safe for the majority of people and may confer certain health benefits. Pregnant women should, however, moderate their intake in line with the guidelines issued by the Food Standards Agency in November 2008 to 200mg of caffeine per day from all sources.

Dr Sarah Schenker, dietician, said, “Whilst extreme levels of caffeine may exacerbate stress the research in this area clearly shows that when consumed in moderation (up to 4-5 cups of coffee per day) there is no evidence to suggest that coffee/caffeine will add or lead to stress or anxiety”

Yours Sincerely

Dr Euan Paul, Executive Director, British Coffee Association

We will be responding to the letter in our next issue. In the meantime, we just wanted to share it with you and invite you to send us your comments.

When will there be a tax on junk food?

Have you read the story about the 30-stone Mum of triplets who's been feeding them fish and chips and McDonald's meals since they were six months old? It's been causing outrage and rightly so. Read the story here. These infants are eight months old now and according to the recommendations of all credible health authorities, including the World Health Organization, should still be getting most of their nutrition from breast milk, nature's perfect food for babies. But sadly breast milk doesn't figure anywhere in the diets of these babies, and it's doubtful it ever did.

I have to get up on my soap box about this story, because it points to so much that is wrong in our society. The mother, Leanne Salt, was the fattest woman ever to bear triplets, weighing in at 40 stone at the time of the birth (which necessitated a medical team of 68 and a custom-built operating table, and cost the NHS a mega £200,000). But these days barely a week passes without the popular media parading some grotesquely oversized couch potato whose lifestyle of idleness and junk food is financed by the taxpayer, along with anything needed to take care of the consequences of it.

Few of us would suggest leaving such people to fend for themselves with no state safety net, especially if they have children to support and care for. And few of us would want to do away with our free health service and adopt a system like the US one where people who can't afford essential treatment can be cast out of hospital to die.

The government hands out money but can't control what people spend it on, including what foods they buy...or can it? In fact, it could be doing a great deal to stop all but the wealthiest in society from making junk foods the staple of their diet. How? Through taxation.

What's your "fat age"?

Today, several UK papers report research done by chemist chain Lloyds Pharmacy which shows that the average British woman has consumed 92 years worth of fat by the time she is 50. This is calculated based on a recommended daily amount of 70 grams of fat. Read about it here. Clearly, this is a worrying finding but then again we don't need a scientific study to tell us that we, as a nation, eat too much fat.

But that said the fat calculator doesn't differentiate between woman A who is eating 100 grams of junky cooked fats a day with a high trans-fat intake, woman B who is eating the same amount of fat but over half of it in the form of raw nuts, seeds, avocado and cold-pressed oil (i.e. the health-conscious woman whose diet is better than average but not ideal), or woman C who consumes the same amount of fat but all of it is raw. Although too much fat is too much fat whether it's raw or cooked, clearly if you are going to overdose on it, there is a world of difference between raw plant fats and cooked trans fats.

Also, these shocking fat-related figures only tell part of the story. Refined sugar may be as harmful to health and as likely to cause obesity as cooked fats. With the range of synthetic, sugar- and additive-filled, "low fat" and "no fat" products now on the market, it is possible for someone to have a fat intake that is well within the recommended amount but still to be eating a diet that is very dangerous to their health. And what about the amount of chemical additives the average person takes in per year (from foods, drinks, the air, car exhaust fumes, cosmetics, household cleaning products and so on) versus what would be a safe amount? For this calculation to be really meaningful it would need to also include our "sugar age", "chemical additive age", "alcohol age"... (many people who are moderate drinkers still consume well over the recommended amounts) ...the list goes on.

The truth about cancer: its causes, prevention and treatment

Today we bring you another great extended excerpt from the current issue of Get Fresh! magazine. Thomas Lodi, M.D. has a cancer clinic in Arizona where he combines the best alternative therapies with the best conventional ones. Here he talks about his methods and shares health information that is essential reading – whether you have a cancer diagnosis or want to prevent one. Introduction and interview by Sarah Best.

It is estimated that 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women in the Western world will get cancer during their lifetimes. Nearly four decades after U.S. president Richard Nixon declared "war on cancer" in 1971, and despite the billions spent since then researching potential “cures”, more people are getting cancer than ever before, and more people are dying from it than ever before. Why? More people are getting it because of the way we now live and more people are dying from it because despite all that money and medical research, mortality rates remain unchanged. 

Against this grim backdrop, for those who know where to look, numerous raw and living foods centres are busy educating patients about cancer prevention and recovery. It’s all anecdotal, of course, but cancer patients who are lucky enough to find themselves at one of these places seem to fare much better than those who go the conventional route. One such centre is unique in that it is also a fully-equipped cancer clinic, staffed by a team of doctors and nurses: the “An Oasis Of Healing” clinic, in Mesa, Arizona. Mesa is a suburb of Phoenix and the clinic, located in a quiet residential district, is the inspiration of Thomas Lodi, M.D. 

Lodi practises under a homeopathic licence at the clinic, but he is also a medical doctor of 24 years’ experience, and a member of many professional bodies, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is a passionate advocate for natural living and holistic healing whose email signature reads, “Health is our greatest treasure. It must be guarded more preciously than gold.”

He both looks and comes across as someone much younger than his 57 years. He is a raw vegan and a teacher of the power of raw foods and raw juices, colonics and other complementary therapies. It is not unusual for late-stage cancer patients with seemingly hopeless prognoses to arrive at his clinic horizontal and to leave not long after, healthy and full of hope. Here, he shares his views on cancer – its causes, its treatment and its prevention – and also on health and human potential.

Let’s consider conventional cancer treatment first. Obviously, it’s not working in the majority of cases. Why not?
The three aspects of healing cancer are: stop making cancer, selectively target and destroy cancer without harming the patient, and stimulate and rebalance the immune system. Conventional medicine does none of those things. It is based solely on aggressive, non-specific or non-targeted methods to kill cancer cells which often end up killing the patient first. At the clinic, we take very seriously our Hippocratic Oath, “First, do no harm”.

Announcing The Fresh Forum

YOUR chance to ask the world's top raw experts the questions YOU want the answers to

When you first discovered the raw movement, you probably assumed it would be a cosy, close-knit fraternity where everyone is in agreement with everyone else about what constitutes optimal nutrition. But you don't have to spend much time looking into it to be hit by how little consensus there is about what the ideal diet looks like.

Meanwhile, doctors and dieticians and other mainstream medical experts insist that the raw diet is a fad, that it is extreme, that it will leave you deficient in essential nutrients, and that we digest cooked foods better – in other words, there is a great deal of opposition to the notion that raw is best when it comes to nutrition. So having navigated your way through those conflicting opinions and arrived at something that really makes sense, it can be very disheartening to discover that within the raw arena there is so little consensus about what we should actually be eating. And we are not talking shades of difference here, but diametrically opposed views.

For example, consider these polarized opinions – just a small selection of the many points of contention:

"We are all biochemically different so there is no 'ideal' diet that suits everyone"

"There is an ideal diet for humans, just like there is for every other species"

"A raw diet alone isn't adequate these days – you can't be healthy without taking supplements"

"Supplements are completely unnecessary, absolutely inferior to living raw foods and in many cases detrimental to health"

"Raw juices are an essential part of a raw diet"

"Raw juices are not essential and it's always better to consume the whole food"

"Eat little to no fruit"

"Eat 80% or more fruit"

The Fresh Forum is a panel of the world's leading experts on raw food. The line-up includes Elaine Bruce, Dr Brian Clement, Dao Earl, Dr Doug Graham, Thomas Lodi MD, Paul Nison, Frederic Patenaude, Natalia Rose, Jasmine Scalesciani, Shazzie and Tonya Zavasta.