About the author

(NaturalNews) This is an excerpt from Dr. Doug Graham's interview for the Raw Summit, a complete interview encyclopedia of cutting edge living and raw food knowledge. You can find the complete transcripts and audios at (http://www.RawSummitArchives.com) and (www.RawSummitArchives.com) . In this excerpt, Dr. Doug Graham discusses some of the common issues with the raw food diet and how he brought a 36 year old NBA basketball player to the top of his game.



Raw Food World Summit Interview Excerpt with Dr. Doug Graham, creator of the 80-10-10 Diet



Kevin Gianni: Hi everyone! This is Kevin Gianni, optimal health expert, and I’d like to welcome you to another very special Raw Summit Teleseminar, which can be found online at (http://www.RawSummitArchives.com) and (www.RawSummitArchives.com) . The purpose of the raw summit is to pass along cutting edge information about raw and living food technology for you to reach optimal health, wellness, and success.



Today, I have a fantastic guest on the line. He is an author, a lifetime athlete, and a 27-year raw fooder. He has also been an adviser to world-class athletes and trainers from all around the globe. He has worked professionally with top performers in almost every sport and every field of entertainment including notables such as tennis legend Martina Navratilova, Chicken Soup for the Soul co-author Mark Victor Hansen, and actress Demi Moore. Today, we are going to talk about the new distinctions he has made about the raw food lifestyles. So, Dr. Doug Graham, I want to welcome you to the Raw Summit.



Doug Graham: Thank you! Thank you, Kevin. It is a pleasure to be here with you.



Kevin: Great! So, why don’t we get into it and let’s start with a little bit of a landscape of your history and why you are here now.



Doug: You know I always find this a funny question and I know people are fascinated and it’s one of the most boring parts for me. It’s a funny world isn’t it? You never know exactly what it is that is going to be meaningful to somebody else. I was a sick child. I was physically sick, I was an athlete, but I went every week to the allergy doctor for years and years for “shots”. I had every childhood disease at a very early age and I was a sick child. I never left the house without a pack of tissues in my pocket. It never occurred to me that I was a sick child because I was an athlete. But I was always looking for a way to improve my athletic performance, it just seemed there must be an edge I could gain over the competition, somehow. So, I started looking into food at a fairly early age.



My family was very open- minded about food and we went on many diets because my mother especially, was trying to control her weight. Whatever diet she went on, the family went on. Eventually, she discovered Weight Watchers and succeeded with that. The whole family went on Weight Watchers and I was just still approaching my teens. By my mid-teens I was making wholesale dietary changes, to attempt to eat more healthfully. I had coaches in grammar school, health classes, and high school health classes telling me to eat my fruits and vegetables. I was a health and Phys Ed major in college and the teachers all touted the health benefits of fruits and vegetables. And by the time I was in college, I was eating as a vegetarian and noticed small improvements. After a few years as a vegetarian, eventually the concept of vegan came to me. I was exposed to it. Before the internet, you know, these things came a little more slowly that they do now.



Kevin: Absolutely.



Doug: So, I did the vegan experiment and literally decided I would try it for a month to see if I liked it and I tried it for a month and at the end of 2 weeks, the changes were so profound. I could breathe better, I could run better. I found myself thinking more clearly. I was sleeping less and having more energy. And you know what? At the end of two weeks I was sold for life right then and there. Well vegan did not last long. To be quite honest, every time I thought I had arrived, it was a shock because it wasn’t where I was going. There was more. I bumped into a gentleman and I still stay in touch with him, who started explaining to me some of the benefits of raw food. And although I swore up and down that he was an absolute nutcase at the time, you know, you know you cannot get the thought out of your head once it is in.



Kevin: That is the truth.



Doug: I started eating more raw, and more raw and more raw. By the late seventies, I was eating a high percentage of raw diet which essentially was the raw diet back then and I got in touch with the various people who were promoting raw food. At the time, there were really only five major leaders in the raw movement and I contacted them and asked them about it, and all of them said the same thing about it. They said, look, we know how to get sick people well but helping athletes perform is really not our thing. So, it was reinvent the wheel, and reinvent the wheel over and over again. And I went through what maybe the world’s slowest transition into the raw food diet. Because I did not want to go there, it was just the results were inarguable. I did not want to go there.



I like all my food and it took me a long time to realize that essentially, I’m in a relationship with food. And that what ended up happening was that I loved all food, but all food did not love me back. And I much prefer to be in relationships with people who love me as much as I love them. Those are the most rewarding relationships. And so, gradually, I came to the realization that I was going to have to make some decisions about my food based on how much the food loved me. How did it make me feel? Did I want to wake up the next morning feeling like I have been in a train wreck? Did I want to ache in my joints, or be congested in my head? Or did I just want to feel fantastic all the time. Eventually, I committed to what was called an all-raw diet and failed miserably for seven years on the all-raw diet.



Kevin: Really?



Doug: Oh failed miserably. I either would loose my health or I would find myself binging on cooked carbohydrates, or both, or I would just get soup and eat myself into oblivion. I just couldn’t find anything even remotely that I would call balanced until I finally did the unthinkable thing which was to eat a lot more fruits and a lot more vegetables and reduced the amount of other raw food in my diet. I found that if I ate a lot more fruits and a lot more vegetables and started reducing nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, oils and other foods, I almost magically felt better. My athletic performance soared. My clarity of mind was better than ever. And I had no idea what I was doing, but it was working like crazy. So I just decided to keep on working it. This is about 1985. And I opened up a health retreat in 1986 where people came to fast with me and when they recovered from their fast, I would put them on to this version of the raw food diet where fruits and vegetables predominated over all other food both in volume, in weight, and in total calories, which was the big kicker.



Kevin: Total calories ok.



Doug: Total calories, because a teaspoon full of oil is only, you know, a teaspoon full. But in terms of calories, it’s many calories as an entire head of lettuce. So, once I got to that, we used that program for 10 years at the health retreat and had fantastic results helping sick people get well and then my roots of athleticism just kept coming back. Various doctors from around the world and athletes from around the world would contact me now and then asking for help.



I would help them as best that I could. And one of them, a player from the NBA, a gentleman named Ronnie Grandison came to me and said, “Look, this is my last year of playing basketball pro and I want to do the best I can.” And I said, “ Well, you know, don’t waste my time because I can’t imagine that your going to do what I’m gonna suggest.” And he goes, “No I really will, I am that kind of guy, I am extremely motivated.” So, I explained to him what to do over a series of telephone calls and he did it really to the letter, got phenomenal results and felt so good at the end of the year that he continued and went back the next year and tried out for his club who had told him he was too old the year before, but now he wasn’t too old anymore. Now, he was fitter, faster, shot better, thought more clearly and ended up playing another five years of NBA ball.



Kevin: Wow.



Doug: And the only reason he quit when he did was because he fell down in a training game, in a practice game, he fell down, when in a freaky accident somebody pushed him at the same time that somebody else stepped on his foot. Well, when he landed, because he was pinned, you’ve got to remember that guys six foot eight fall pretty hard. He broke both hands.



Kevin: Oh wow.



Doug: And was going to be out for several months. And by the time he was out for that long he just said, you know what, my family commitments are getting really strong and I want to spend my time with them. So, he did. But he said, “I am thinner than I have ever been.” At 36, he was actually the fittest man on the team and actually thinner than he had ever been when he played college ball. And what he said to me, in some ways haunts me and in some ways motivates me. But he said on many occasions, he said, “Doc are you going to die with all that information in your head or are you going to write it down?” I got to tell you I don’t like writing it down. It is a lot of work to write it down.



Kevin: Right.



Doug: But for Ronnie Grandison, I have written a few books and I continued to do so. And eventually through a back door, and I am almost closed, but eventually through a back door, I started realizing what I was doing that was different than most other people in the raw food world were doing. It is not about right or wrong, good or bad, in any way, it is strictly about consequences. But I started realizing what I was doing that was different. And what I was doing that was different was I was taking the Science of nutrition that I have learned in various areas. As I said in college, I was a nutrition major and health and Phys Ed and nutrition. Studying the various research that was out there, looking at the textbooks that were out there, looking at the private books that people had written, responsible nutritionists and doctors from the vegan world and from outside the vegan world have written a huge number of books, and it turned out that all of them agreed on one point and one point only.



In every other area they seem to have their own little perspective, you know, of this and that. But at one point they agreed, and that was that when your fat intake in terms of total calories exceed ten percent of calories consumed, predictable health decline ensues. Various doctors explained why from various fields, even the sports nutritionist say the same thing and they could tell what happens and why it happens. Whether it has to do with the lowered oxygen-carrying ability of the blood or whether it had to do with reduced permeability of the vessels so that various nutrients don’t cross the vessel wall as well. Whether it had to do with build-up on the arterial walls or in the joints but it did not seem to matter what it was. They all had a perspective, but they all agreed on this ten percent number, that when your fat intake exceeds ten percent, of course, you know, I am fighting that tooth and nail, because raw is different than cooked, right? And plant is different than animal, but it turned out that study after study kept confirming that it really didn’t matter whether it was cooked or raw, animal or plant. The kicker was when I started getting raw food clients coming to me who had heart attacks while they were on the raw food diet.



Kevin: Wow.



Doug: When I started putting those case histories together and looking at what was the common denominator between the various people having diabetes on a raw diet, having heart disease on a raw diet, experiencing chronic fatigue on a raw diet, experiencing candida on a raw diet and a wealth of various issues and huge digestive problems. These are things that we don’t tend to think of. They are not the norm, but I am seeing them in fairly large numbers. And when I start seeing those things happen, and looking for what is the common denominator, the common denominator was dietary fat. In the raw diet when the dietary fat level goes up beyond a certain point we start to see health decline rather than health improvement. And so, that stimulated for me a breakthrough in consciousness. So, I started saying, “You know what, let me start to define what I am doing. Rather than just calling it a raw diet, let’s call it a specific kind of raw diet. We will define the parameters of it a little more. and over the last ten years have been defining and referring to what I call the 80-10-10 diet”.



To read the rest of this interview please visit (http://www.RawSummitArchives.com) and (www.RawSummitArchives.com) . This is just an excerpt of over 14 hours of cutting edge living food, raw food or health information revealed during the Raw Food World Summit.





About the author

Kevin Gianni is a health advocate, author and speaker. He has helped thousands of people in over 85 countries learn how to take control of their health--and keep it. To view his popular internet TV Show "The Renegade Health Show" (and get a free gift!) with commentary on natural health issues, vegan and raw food diets, holistic nutrition and more click here.





His book, "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution," is a step-by-step guide to optimum health for the time and energy-strapped. To find out more about abundance, optimum health and self motivation click here... or you're interested in the vegan and raw food diet and cutting edge holistic nutrition click here. For access to free interviews, downloads and a complete bodyweight exercise archive visit www.LiveAwesome.com.



Dr. Doug Graham - Overcoming Common Issues of the Raw Food Diet (Pa...

(NaturalNews) This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's Raw Food Summit which can be found at (http://rawsummitarchives.com) . In this excerpt, Brendan Brazier shares information on his interest in nutrition as an athlete and also the research he's done on food and the body that can benefit all of us.



Raw Food Summit Excerpt with Brendan Brazier, triathlete thriving on living foods, author, speaker and the creator of a meal replacement formula.



Kevin: So, Brendan Brazier I would like to welcome you to Raw Summit.



Brendan: Thanks Kevin.



Kevin: Bren, there are a bunch of things that I want to talk about today, but first let’s start with just a little bit of background about you.



Brendan: Sure. I actually got into nutrition and just trying to achieve peak performance through nutrition back when I was around 15. That was all I cared about when I was 15. I was getting into track and field and I knew then that I wanted to try and become a professional athlete. I just really enjoyed running, I enjoyed swimming, biking, all those things. I realized pretty soon into the game that obviously I’ll have to do a lot of training. I got a hold of some of the top athlete training programs and then I also looked at some average athlete training programs. What really surprised me was that they hardly differ at all.



And so, then of course I wonder, well, what make some athletes Great? And I realized that it had to do with recovery because the quicker you can recover, the faster you improve. I found that 80% of recovery has to do with nutrition. So that’s what got me going down that road.



Kevin: Wow! So, for recovery even if someone is a light exerciser or a heavy exerciser, what are some of the things that we need to do to get ourselves in a top shape and continue to perform at the top level?



Brendan: Well, one of the big things is having high quality food right after a workout because really a workout is just a form of stress. You break down your body tissue, muscles and cells, and ligaments, tendons and if you don’t give yourself good food to reconstruct that, then your body has no

choice but to take the food you give it and build new body tissue.



Eating the high quality good raw plant-based foods right after a workout is going to be the best way to do that and you stay strong, you improve quickly as an athlete and you stay healthy as well.



Kevin: So, at the end of races, you go to so many things and you see people eating jelly doughnuts, pizza and there’s all this “junk food.” What is that doing and what are some of the best foods that people can eat after a race for recovery?



Brendan: Yes, it’s funny. That’s one of the things that seems to be common is after a workout or a race, people think that eating junk food is fine. They think, “Well, I've done workout today.” But actually, that’s the worst time to eat junk food.



So, for recovery what I started doing was making smoothies, liquid form of course so that really helps speed digestion. So, I would make my own smoothie, I’ll use ham protein, greens, flax and nuts and then I actually started just having that evolve over the years. It became really good and just really healthy and then I developed it as a product and called it Vega and that came out a few years ago, but it’s something that was born 15 years ago.



Kevin: Did you notice the difference in your recovery times and your results when you started to eat some of these different foods?



Brendan: Absolutely, yes. It was very noticeable. You know one of the things that I find interesting with a lot of people now is that they expect things to be instant. And we’re in that kind of culture of Sugar and you know if you drink a cup of coffee you feel the energy immediately.

And healthy foods are not that way. They’re not stimulating; they’re nourishing, so you don’t feel the energy immediately.



But over time, six to eight weeks or so, if you’ve cleaned up your diet, you’re really going to start feeling better and I just encourage people to stick with it.



Kevin: Well, when you exercise you’re causing a lot of stress on the body and you’re letting go of muscle glycogen. What’s the correlation between the muscle glycogen replacing it and the sugars? And why is that not necessarily the best thing?



Brendon: Well, definitely you want to stay away from any kind of refined sugar. Like white flour, for example, takes a lot of energy to breakdown and digest because your body has to build digestive enzymes to break that down and a healthy body can do that, but it takes work.



So if you’re spending all that energy to try and get energy, the amount of energy you’re left over with is very low. I used to be under the impression as most people are that if you eat more calories, you’ll have more energy, and it seems logical. But I was getting really tired and I was eating a plant-based diet, but I was eating also peanut butter and bread and things that are very high in calories, but very low in nutrition. And the body just had to work so hard to digest those things.



So when I switched to more raw food, lots of leafy green vegetables, lots of fruit, getting carbohydrate from fruit as opposed to grains, I noticed a huge difference and that was a big point for me.



I think just the whole calorie thing is so flawed and that it just doesn’t take into account what source the calorie is and how hard your body has to work to digest that and assimilate it.



Kevin: Yes. What sort of fruits were you eating that you found were the best for you?



Brendan: Pretty much any fruit works well for me, usually banana and the smoothies, dates and berries. I try and eat and fuse them as much as possible, so I’ll eat a lot of local berries. I like grapefruit a lot. I like apples, oranges. I like some tropical fruits too -- mangoes, papayas, dates. Dates are a great source of quick energy.



Kevin: Sure.



Brendan: Really good during long races just to have a date or even make an energy gel. I’m sure people -- a lot of people are familiar with energy gels that you can take during a long run. And a lot of them, all the commercial ones as far as I know, are really highly processed and not so healthy, but it’s very easy to make your own and I have a recipe for those in the new book, the Thrive Diet. You just take agave nectar, a couple of dates, blend them together with a bit of lemon and lime juice, grate off lemon and lime, mix them with a little Sea Salt , and that’s a great gel. You just put that in a gel flask and that’s high energy that will keep you going strong throughout the race. It tastes good. It’s refreshing and it’s a really simple solution, of course, 100% raw and natural end process.



Kevin: That’s incredible. When you’re exercising for even 40 minutes or maybe even longer, two hours, six hours, what are some of the nutrients that are depleted and then what are some of the specific things that you can take to bring them back?



Brendan: Well, the body burns carbohydrate, that's its first choice for fuel. So you want to make sure you’re getting enough carbohydrate. When a lot of people think carbohydrate, they think starchy foods like the pasta and rice and bread. I hardly eat any complex carbohydrate. I get almost all of my carbohydrate from fruit, which is simple carbohydrate and the advantage of that is that the body cannot use complex carbohydrate without first converting it into simple carbohydrate, into sugar. So it’s one less step for your body.



And one of the other things that’s good for good quality carbohydrates are pseudo-grains. Pseudo-grains are technically seeds. So quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, and wild rice, they’re all seeds...



You can make really simple snacks from them, even just sprouted quinoa with some avocado with lemon juice and some Sea Salt , just really plain simple taste that’s really good.



Kevin: You touched on protein there and I think a lot of people feel that they need to really overdo it on protein. And what does that do with the body and why might that not be the best thing to do?



Brendan: Yes, excess protein is very common. It’s bad quality protein, what a lot of people eat and drink. Whey protein has been very well marketed and it’s the staple of so many athletes. It’s unfortunate. It’s incredibly acid forming, so therefore, the body, to keep the blood neutral for survival’s sake will pull calcium from the bones, and calcium is very alkaline. So, over the course of a decade or two, that leads to weaker bones and it’s bad for the immune system. It creates inflammation and something I learned recently was that, in North America now, the chance

of getting osteoporosis is so much greater, and it’s happening younger and younger in life for people.



And it was originally thought that it was because our diet didn't have enough calcium. But as it turns out, that’s not the case. We’re leeching calcium out of our bodies by eating too many processed acid forming foods. And if we were just to eat more leafy green vegetables, more raw foods, basically the less processed the food, the more alkaline it’s going to be.



Kevin: When you talk about acid building up in the body over... let’s talk about this over a day. Someone wakes up in the morning. They drink a cup of coffee. They exercise. They have their whey protein shake after. What’s going on in their body in terms of acid, I mean how low is the pH actually getting?



Brendan: Yes, it’s critical. It’s turning people into very, very sick people and it’s become a very serious problem. You touched on coffee too, which I think is really interesting. What I found when I was researching this was that stress is the root cause of pretty much all problems and the minor problems that are the first signs of stress, there comes a red flag. We have to really, really focus on and not try and suppress them and treat the symptoms but really be opened to them and know how to actually get to the root cause of each problem.



For example, when your body gets stressed, stress response affects the adrenal glands and cortisol, the stress hormone, goes up and when cortisol is high you actually don’t get into a deep phase of sleep. It’s called delta and that’s a really deep rejuvenating sleep. That is when your body recovers and that’s vital because if you don’t get in that form of sleep, which 95% plus of North Americans don’t, when we wake up we feel tired and we crave coffee and sugar, because coffee and sugar

are stimulants.



If we clean up our diet, we can actually help reduce cortisol levels. Therefore, we will get into that deep delta phase of sleep and sleep efficiently. And therefore, we’ll wake up and feel ready to go. And also too if we sleep efficiently, we don’t need to sleep. People say all the time, “I wish I had an extra hour a day,” and in a way you can have an extra hour everyday if the diet is highly raw, plant-based and really stress relieving.



To read the rest of this transcript as well as access other experts on health, nutrition and raw foods, just like Brendan Brazier, please visit (http://rawsummitarchives.com) .





About the author

Kevin Gianni is a health advocate, author and speaker. He has helped thousands of people in over 85 countries learn how to take control of their health--and keep it. To view his popular internet TV Show "The Renegade Health Show" (and get a free gift!) with commentary on natural health issues, vegan and raw food diets, holistic nutrition and more click here.





His book, "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution," is a step-by-step guide to optimum health for the time and energy-strapped. To find out more about abundance, optimum health and self motivation click here... or you're interested in the vegan and raw food diet and cutting edge holistic nutrition click here. For access to free interviews, downloads and a complete bodyweight exercise archive visit www.LiveAwesome.com.



Raw Foods That Increase Athletic Performance, by Triathlete Brendan...

(NaturalNews) Harley Johnstone has been an endurance cyclist for ten years, and he has been eating a 100% vegan diet for 7 years and a 100% raw vegan diet for over 3 years. He promotes a raw vegan diet as the ultimate in healthy eating, sustainable farming, and blissful living with a passion to realize Mother Earth as an abundant fruit-bearing paradise.



David: What are some of your accomplishments as an athlete?



Harley: I am the 2008 South Australian 24-hour solo Cross Country Champion. Rode Paris - Brest - Paris in 51:30 (unsupported), ran many marathons, and still compete at national level on the bike. I raced full time in Belgium. Raw vegan diet turned me from chronic fatigue couch potato to world class ultra endurance athlete, and drug free.



David: Were you always an athlete?



Harley: No, as a child I was always sick and as a teen I had chronic fatigue, Crohn's disease, acne, asthma and depression.



David: What`s the most miles you have cycled in a day? In a week?



Harley: 321 miles solo. In a week - just over 900 miles... just over 20,000 miles in a year. Actually, next week I`m planning to beat my 321 mile record. I`ve been an athlete for 10 years now and low fat raw vegan is what provides me with the most optimum fuel and recovery.



David: What are your goals as an athlete?



Harley: I race for Organic Athlete. In January I will be taking Lance Armstrong`s team as their training guide in my home town. My goals are to keep contributing the message of health and fitness to all members of this planet!



David: What do you eat the day before a long distance race?



Harley: A big race for me isn't a marathon or a 5 hour road race. A big race for me is at least a 24-hour solo mountain bike race, and I eat 10 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body-weight each day when I`m training hard.



David: What kind of training do you do before a big race?



Harley: I train specific to my events. 24hr is my specialty. I do rides over 20 hours and solo. Mostly it`s around 20 hours a week: hills, flat, sprints, long easy rides, road races etc. I do a bit of running for cross-training. I can run 5km in 18:30 - nothing special. Like I said, 24 hour cross country is my gig.



David: Why do you eat a 100% raw vegan diet?



Harley: I went vegan because my heart directed me there. I went raw because I wanted more, and as an ethical vegan, raw vegan makes sense. I`m getting most of my calories from tree sources. Diverse organic fruit orchards is what the planet was designed for and what mother nature needs.



David: Why organic?



Harley: I want to tread as light as I can on this planet. I don't want the soil, workers, water or myself poisoned. Eating organic is what mother nature intended. Let`s listen to Mum.



David: Indeed. Where did you get the idea to eat only raw plant foods from? I don't see many people eating thirty bananas a day... how did you learn?



Harley: I read that book Fit for Life. Then I read Raw Life by Paul Nison but was confused on how to know I had eaten enough fuel to maintain health and fitness. Then I heard about Doug Graham and started working with him. Attending Doug`s sports camp really woke me up to how much volume I needed to stay healthy, fit AND raw vegan. So in the end it was `monkey see, monkey do`. That explains why people freak when they see you eat 10-20-30 bananas at mealtime, because they have no personal references to it. We grew up with open the box, empty the can, turn on the gas, pour the solution, measure the ingredients and wait as the oven or microwave `makes it edible`.



David: That makes sense... bananas are around 110 calories a piece so if you want two thousand calories you have to eat 18 or more. What did you eat in the last week?



Harley: Bananas, durian (fresh and local only; I never eat imported durian!), celery, lettuce, baby spinach, arugula, cilantro, wild greens, sweet-leaf, dragon fruit, cherry, peach, chumpadek, mulberry, mango, jakfruit, malay apple, rollinia, Watermelon and a quart of fresh pressed Sugar cane juice when I was in Malaysia last week.



David: Wow I haven`t even heard of a lot of those! No supplements? No salt?



Harley: No supplements!! No Salt! No Seaweed! That`s correct. It`s been over a year like this and I've really reached new levels with my life. I've done 5 hours on the bike today and climb up the steepest roads in my state - roads that force me to put in everything to get to the top. Salt free is the way to be. I get everything I need from fruits and vegetables and in season nuts and seeds.



David: I hear you`re also an eating champion can you tell me about this?



Harley: 2005 and 2007 world durian speed eating competition. You have to eat 2lb of durian flesh and the fastest wins! I won both those years against the Thai's for prize money and on national TV! You see, on this path, you get rewarded in sometimes very zany ways!



David: Do you ever rest? Have a full day without exercise? What do you eat on those days?



Harley: I just did 10 days off the bike. We went to Malaysia and just walked/jogged instead of riding. Recovery is vital. I eat what my body tells me. On fruits and veg you don`t have that same msg, cooked, salted, processed, dehydrated, refined or social pressure to eat when your body isn`t really hungry. Only on 811 have I learned the difference between hunger and appetite - I`m eating for fuel and nourishment rather than attachment and withdrawal from spices, seaweed etc.



David: Do you feel energized directly after eating 30 bananas? How stable is your energy eating so much ripe fruit?



Harley: Do I feel energized after eating 30 bananas? No. I feel energized from getting enough sleep. Eating sufficient fruit gives me the feeling I can go the distance in my daily life. Energy comes from rest, fuel comes from food. There is a BIG difference. The 80/10/10 Diet by Dr. Doug Graham explains it in detail. It`s not something they teach in formal nutrition, but it`s so simple and natural.



David: Lessons you've learned in your mindset that you think would be valuable for non-athletes?



Harley: Anyone can be an athlete if they CHOOSE to be. Eliminate time and distance remaining and just focus (on) being grateful for the present moment. The mind gives up before the body does. Keep positive to keep up. The more you burn, the more you learn!



David: Do you think attitude makes a difference in diet or digestion?



Harley: FOR SURE! Pure thoughts attract pure food. Pure food creates pure thoughts. Both pure food and pure thoughts provide optimum digestion and therefore overall nutrition.



David: I`m curious what would you eat if you lived in a location without so much fresh fruit or if you couldn't afford 30 bananas a day? Let`s say tomorrow you wake up and find yourself bike-less in a small town in northern Sweden with little cash?



Harley: Well I`m sure I earn less cash than 99% of the readers here! It`s just that I live very simply and have zero to minimal overheads. I mean my ONLY monthly bill is insurance for my bicycles. I've streamlined my life to contribute as much as possible, to live with only stuff for basic health and comfort. I can carry ALL my possessions in my bicycle trailer. I have no phone, no address, no debts.



So throw me anywhere and my hunger for fruit will determine what I get. People just ain't hungry enough for the good stuff and then they go and make up lame excuses or give up their control to their location. Me? I`m controlling my location, I`m controlling my emotions and my choices. I'M IN CONTROL!



I've had only 2 meals today but big ones. I ate lunch today off a mulberry tree, and dinner will be around 30 bananas. That`s around $6 on food today. 100% organic! Who is eating that cheap and nutritious and training 5 hours on the bike in the steep mountains? My advice is if you can`t afford it, you MUST afford it! Find a way. DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN YOUR HEALTH! With no health, we have NOTHING!



David: I hear you man! Anything else you`d like to tell the readers of NaturalNews.com?



Harley: It`s never wrong to do the right thing. If in your heart you know it`s the right thing to do but society says otherwise, just do it anyway! Create the raw courage within to blow yourself and others away with raw honesty and raw integrity!



If the harshness of society is getting to you, then remember that you`re in control of what `gets to you`. Shift your focus! Focus on Depression or leaving a positive impression?! Are you gonna burn out or burn brighter?! EXACTLY! YOU CHOOSE! CHOOSE RAW LIFE!



Learn how to drink enough water, learn how many calories you need each day and what that looks like in fruit. Get enough sleep, listen to positive mental attitude tapes DAILY. Program yourself champ, or society will program you!



Godspeed on your journey. All the best.

Durianrider.





About the author



David Hestrin an Ayurvedic Practitioner specializing in Eyesight Improvement and Deep Relaxation.

Contact him by phone (650)265-1776 or e-mail david.hestrin@gmail.com





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Riding Raw: Interview with Raw Vegan Endurance Cyclist Harley Johns...

Rachel Wenzlaff
NFL.com



David Carter played in all 32 games for the Arizona Cardinals in 2011 and '12. (Paul Spinelli/AP)


David Carter, a 6-foot-5, 300-pound defensive lineman, and his teammates are at a steakhouse, the second-most-frequented nonresidential house for NFL types after the field house.
Beefy football players order large slabs of steak. Knives cut through the buttery brown exterior and forks puncture the reddish center.
In front of Carter sits a dish of green beans, no butter.
This was a familiar scene for the now-retired Carter in his final couple of seasons as the rare vegan football player. After adopting the diet in 2014, his 300 pounds were 100 percent plant-powered, as the vegan diet prohibits the consumption of all animal products, including honey, eggs, meat and dairy.
"Socially, it kind of isolates you," Carter said. "Football is a machismo sport, which is great, but everything can't be machismo. On the field and at practice, yes, you can be machismo, but when it comes to diet, you need to have compassion for your body."
As a defensive lineman, Carter always focused on being big. A three-star recruit on Rivals.com coming out of high school, he worked his way up the depth chart at UCLA, eventually starting and earning the program's Kenneth S. Washington Award for Outstanding Senior in 2010. Drafted in the sixth round of the 2011 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals, Carter never could've imagined giving up his carnivorous lifestyle, fearful of becoming weak and skinny. He drank milkshakes and chomped down meat, consuming as much protein as possible. But as the years went on, he suffered from high blood pressure and nerve damage. He couldn't feel half of his right hand and had agonizing tendonitis in most of his joints. He took painkillers but still struggled to do push-ups and even make a fist.
One night in 2014, he watched a documentary titled "Forks Over Knives" that explained how dairy and animal fats can cause inflammation in joints.
"It got me thinking, why do we need meat?" Carter said. "I need protein to be big and strong, but look at some of the largest and strongest animals in the world and none of them eat meat."
When he became a vegan, all of his ailments dissipated, and his performance at practices and in the weight room improved.
"My food is my medication now," said Carter, who played with the Cardinals in 2011 and '12 before spending time with the Cowboys, Raiders, Jaguars and Bears from 2013 through '15. Having hung up his cleats, Carter now travels the country advocating for the diet.



Making his living in the trenches, Carter initially feared a major diet change. (Paul Connors/AP)


Carter recommends veganism to anyone in the NFL, a place that isn't typically known for meatless meals. Tyrann Mathieu's agent claims the Cardinals safety is "90 percent vegan," whatever that means. Aside from the Honey Badger's quasi-commitment to the diet, one of the few other widely known vegans active in the NFL is wide receiver Griff Whalen.
Undrafted out of Stanford in 2012, the former college walk-on signed with the Colts and ended up spending four seasons in Indianapolis, logging 45 catches for 487 yards and three touchdowns while also handling return duties at times. He spent this past offseason and preseason with the Dolphins, but was part of Miami's final cuts in early September. A couple of weeks later, he signed with his current team, the San Diego Chargers.
Whalen has been vegan for the last two and a half years. He grew up in Ohio, eating hearty Midwestern meals and "a lot of junk food." Like Carter, he worried that eliminating obvious protein sources from his diet would leave him scrawny. But after extensive research, he made the switch and found his physical recovery and overall health improved.
At 5-11 and just under 200 pounds, Whalen is less physically intimidating than Carter. While Carter can pass on the trademark steakhouse fare in relative peace, Whalen doesn't always get off as easy.
"Griff, look!" a friend hollered on an offseason golf outing, pointing to the side of the course. "There's some twigs and berries over there if you get hungry!"
"Pretty much all of my teammates thought it was weird," Whalen said of his diet. "Everyone's first question is, 'Where are you going to get your protein?' "
Both Carter and Whalen obtain most of their protein from legumes, such as beans, peas and peanuts.
Teammates peer over Whalen's shoulder at team lunches, examining his food. At first glance, he appears to have a slab of red meat, but further analysis reveals just two sweet potatoes with the skin on.
"They see my plate and it kind of triggers a thought," Whalen said. "They'll ask questions about it. I would suggest [veganism] to anybody, but I don't go out of my way to do it, especially with an NFL team. They have a special nutritionist. That's not my job."
But it is Mary Ellen Bingham's. As team nutritionist for the Dolphins, Bingham can make suggestions and answer players' dietary questions -- but she can't require anyone to eat or abstain from specific foods. During Whalen's time with the Dolphins earlier this year, Bingham said numerous players approached her and the receiver inquiring about making the switch to veganism. In the NFL, protein is king, so when someone gives up the most prevalent sources of it and still maintains muscle while feeling improved performance, word gets around.
"It's different for everyone," Bingham said. "There could be other athletes that benefit from it, but it may not be for everyone."



Griff Whalen spent four years in Indy with college roomie Andrew Luck. (Frank Franklin II/AP)


At Miami's OTAs in June, Dolphins star Jarvis Landry attempted the diet -- but he only lasted about a week.
"The hard thing is not eating a plant-based diet -- it's knowing what to eat and planning for it," Whalen said. "All of a sudden, you can't use meat, dairy, eggs, fish, anything -- it's like 90 percent of most guys' diets. Landry struggled because he just jumped right into it without any type of planning, but it was just cool that he wanted to try and he was all excited about it."
"I give Griff a lot of credit," Bingham said. "It's a lifestyle that requires a lot of attention to detail and discipline."
But Carter says the extra effort is more than worth it. Unlike Whalen, Carter goes out of his way to advocate for veganism in NFL circles, especially in conversations with veteran players.
"I get a lot of success talking to older guys because they're like 30 years old and have children," Carter said. "I tell them, 'You might want to change the way that you eat because you want to be around longer and see your family and your daughter graduate.' "
Carter knows the lengths guys will go to in order to stay big, and they aren't always healthy.
"Offensive and defensive linemen have the worst eating habits, for sure," Carter said. "Their job is to be a mass, be unmovable. They just eat whatever. Even before games, I've seen guys eat a big thing of fried chicken. They don't understand the Science behind eating healthy and what it can do for you."
Bingham points out that many guys enjoy the foods they are currently eating and don't want to give them up. Still, Carter has made it his mission to spread veganism. He spoke at July's Animal Rights National Conference in Los Angeles, but he doesn't always directly address animal rights. Carter believes it's a trickle-down effect -- expand veganism, expand the ethical treatment of animals -- and he is most interested in extending the vegan movement to minorities.
"The vegan movement is not very colorful at all -- like, it's mainly white people," Carter stated. "The vegan movement pushes themselves away from people of color, and people of color feel it, too."
Carter and his wife, Paige, work through their organization The 300 Pound Vegan. They argue that the vegan movement makes little effort to go into impoverished areas with food deserts (urban areas with scarce, if any, access to affordable, nutritious food), where Carter says people suffer the ravages of diabetes, obesity and heart disease. They work to include more people of color, more children, more athletes. He wants to reduce rates of high blood pressure across the league and across the country.
Both Carter and Whalen intend to stick with veganism for life -- despite their love of the pigskin, of course.
Follow Rachel Wenzlaff on Twitter @RachelWenzlaff.

NFL Vegans