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Sodium bicarbonate, tooth decay and abscesses.

Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) has been known to rid people of tooth decay, search youtube and the internet for it. Use baking soda as a mouth wash, or occasionally as toothpaste. Don’t brush with it too often though, because baking soda is abrasive. Sodium bicarbonate is very alkaline and is therefore very effective at reversing an acidic condition and halting infection. It has even been used to treat cancer which can’t survive in an alkaline evironment.

Tooth decay is just your body rotting. An abscess is simply an infection that’s trapped, often caused by poor teeth health. An infection is your body breaking down. These natural things are just natures way of recyling us and our unhealthy bodies! Both of these can be prevented or helped by alkalising and mineralising the body. Lots of raw food, less fat, loads of green juices and smoothies is the way. Don’t forget vitamin D3 (or the sunshine), K2 (from greens and possibly supplement), B vitamins (especially b12 – possibly supplement) and magnesium (from greens). People with higher levels of k2 in their saliva tend to have less teeth problems, but that could just mean that they have more minerals in their body overall. If your saliva is more alkaline you’ll also probably experience less teeth problems.

Keep off dried food, dehydrated food and sticky food (eg whole dates, raisons, honey, cooked food, biscuits, sweets etc), these all stick to your teeth. I do eat some of these, but I hydrate them, or have them in smoothies. Keep off any acid forming foods, ie eat almost exclusively raw fruit and vegetables! Keep off fruit juices and snacks between meals. Brush your teeth regularly, especially if you do eat anything dried or sticky.

If you have an infection of any kind, one of the most effective ways at helping your body to heal is to do a fast, or at least fast regularly. Our body goes into healing overdrive when it doesn’t have to process food. How about doing a green juice fast for a week? ie consume just green juice like celery, lettuce and pak choi (bok choy). You’ll get many of the benefits of a fast and at the same time rapidly alkalise and mineralise your body.

You can have a dabble and possibly help your health, or you can do something radical and see radical things happen to your health! It’s up to you. Health is a bit like gambling, if you want to play the game and have a good chance at winning, then you need to use dice that are loaded in your favour!

I don’t use a pillow!

I don’t use a pillow whilst sleeping. I almost always end up putting it on the floor.

Me not using a pillow, is my attempt at submitting yet another area of my life to a more natural lifestyle. A pillow is another man made creation designed to make us feel good and it’s not necessarily the best thing for us. Many people grow up with back problems as a result of prolonged bending in a certain position, this can be either caused by slouching in a chair, repetitive strain, bad posture, or by sleeping with a pillow!

For me, my lower back problems were caused by huge long motorcycle rides in the freezing cold whilst wearing a heavy rucksack. A way to over stretch ligaments and tendons is to stretch them and then leave them in the stretched position for an extended period. Applying heat and cold makes things even worse, that’s what would happen on my bike rides. I would be very wrapped up and very warm initially, but I would end up being totally freezing after 3.5 hours on the bike in winter. I suffered many years as a result. Being very careful with posture for 20 years and then consuming almost exclusively high water content low fat raw foods and drinking plenty of water eliminated my back problems.

A rounded back is often caused by osteoporosis, addressing diet issues can can greatly reduce this risk. Another way to get a rounded back is to really slouch in a couch whilst watching TV, or use several pillows in bed, or to sit hunched over a computer keyboard for many hours, days, months and years. As I mentioned, some people are prone to getting a rounded backs anyway, but take a look around you, many of those with rounded backs often add to the condition by their own lifestyle choices.

If you have a job at a computer desk, then don’t aggravate your condition by slouching, or by using pillows in bed. Go and buy yourself a really good ‘directors’ chair, and when resting use a really good ergonomic chair with good lumber support. By all means, please use cushions or pillows to provide adequate lumber support when sitting, especially in these increasingly common giant couches. Then when sleeping, use a firm bed and no pillow. If staying away, I have been known to sleep on the floor without a pillow rather than sleep in a squidgy bed! It may feel really uncomfortable at first, but if you can learn to sleep on a firm bed without a pillow, then a good night sleep may well help your back to recover and could reduce the risk of developing a rounded back later in life.

I now find it more comfortable not to use a pillow, or to sleep on the floor instead of a squidgy bed! I usually start by sleeping flat on my back but usually end up in some other position. I can sleep on either side, or flat on my back, or curled up like a baby, and I can get a good nights sleep in any position. I used to occasionally get a painful cricked neck, but I haven’t had one for a long time.

If you had a baby, would you give him (or her) an alarm clock to stop him sleeping, or a pillow? Would you place them on their back, or on their side, or face down? Would the bed be a really squidgy or relatively firm? Consider what would be best for the baby, and then do the same for yourself.

Sweet dreams

An answer to prayer. My health recovery on low fat raw food.

Others may think that I’m obsessive when it comes to diet, however my health has been turned around to such an extent that I find it difficult to keep quite about how this came about.

Here’s just a few of the health issues that have bothered me in the past.

Could you keep quiet if you recovered from the above? I really have recovered from these and they no longer bother me at all, this as long as I stick to a diet that is based around water rich low fat raw vegan foods.

As well as relief from my various health conditions I’ve had other positive benefits too, such as:

• I’ve lost all my stubborn excess weight
• I have so much more energy
• I feel as good as I did 25 years ago prior to my deteriorating health
• I’m much more joyful
• I’ve become a stronger character
• I’m taking on new challenges and commitments
• I have a positive outlook on life
• I feel much more secure in myself

It seems that other people see me differently too. I appear to be able to communicate more effectively and make friends easier. I used to long for the company of other people, probably due to my own insecurity. Now I don’t need the company of others, but I long to help others and bless them. Before I was probably drawing on others, but now I’m able to help and bless others more.

An answer to prayer

This whole healing thing is one huge answer to prayer. For 3 months I prayed daily for deliverance. Because I often had little energy, I would lie down to pray. One day I was laying face down on the floor and I asked, “Lord, why do I keep getting this fatigue?”. Instantly the answer was there in my mind. “It’s because you have been eating food made by man, not food made by me”.

That Word has kept me going and helped to guide me through the maze of different approaches to health, diet and lifestyle. Out of nowhere I became an avid reader and I very quickly learned that many of my attempts at following a healthy lifestyle were in fact contributing to my ill health.

Now the way I assess food and lifestyle choices as to the suitablilty to my body is as follows:

The more man does to food, then the worse it is for our body

As far as possible, I try and emulate what you might find in nature without the use of tools, heat and machinery. I apply a similar protocol and try and avoid other unnatural things that can adversely effect health, such as personal care and cleaning products. Also in nature, there is a balance that we often loose in our modern lifestyle. We need things like; exercise, get enough sleep, live in a low stress environment, get enough sunshine, we need to sweat!, we need to get out of breath. I’ve by no means made it yet, but now at least I’m heading in the right direction.

My prayer is now for you. Whether you believe in God or not, I pray that you’d be helped and that your body, which the bible says is a temple of the Holy Spirit, will be blessed and made whole.

If you are blessed, or helped in any way by this or any other of my blogs, forum postings or videos then I’d love to hear from you. Just leave a blog message, feedback or send me an email.

With kind regards, Stuart Porter.

How did I finally decide to go raw?

I actually finally realised that my diet and lifestyle were what was making me ill after a few months of praying most days about my health. One day, I was tired out and laying face down on the floor I prayed, “Lord why do I keep getting this fatigue?”. Instantly there was an answer in my head. “It’s because you’ve been eating food made by man, not food made by me”.!!!

From then on, from hardly ever reading anything I became an avid reader. I kept stumbling across the most amazing health & lifestyle books. Then one day I was wondering why we cook food, so I typed “raw food” into google and youtube. I was amazed to see loads of people recover from ill health by cutting out cooked food. I went raw from then on, or so I thought, as many things I was having weren’t totally raw. My health got a lot better but I kept having massive swings back into fatigue, depression and IBS. Cutting out fat and simplifying things totally changed all that. I feel massively better now.

In summary, the more man has to do with our food, the worse it is for us. We need to eat food as near as possible to the form found in nature, ie God made food. A high fat spiced up diet is a man made thing, it doesn’t occur in nature.

Things became much easier once I ditched the fat. Now the only difficult thing is buying massive amounts of fruit and veg. I don’t do much food preparation now, I eat most things in their whole form.
To get will power, you need to want health more than taste and comfort food. You could do want I did and do lots of praying, I often gain strength and guidence this way. If you fancy exploring this more then all over the country there are fantastic Alpha courses http://uk.alpha.org. I don’t normally mention the spiritual side of things in my blog, but being a Christian, being ill, and the resulting guidance gained from praying is what led me into raw foods.

If you are wanting to go raw, my tip to you would be to gradually reduce the grip of addictive foods, like tea and coffee, or dairy, wheat etc. See my blog post. http://eatmoreraw.net/blog/?p=329 . You can really help yourself on the way by still eating cooked food, and then ease yourself into eating more raw food from a healthier cooked diet as a starting point.

Stuart

Encouraging others to eat raw food

One of my pet hates is putting people in boxes, that’s one of the reasons that I don’t like to call myself a raw vegan. I do happen to eat almost exclusively low fat raw vegan food, but I feel calling myself a raw vegan puts pressure on me and others. It is with that pressure that some people may feel guilty for deviating slightly from their intended diet and the subsequent feeling of failure. A feeling of failure often stops people getting on and moving forward.

I do get a little annoyed as well by the doomsayers who may criticise others for following a slightly different path than something that they pronounce as ‘the way’.

Many say that garlic is not optimal food (including myself), yet I recently did a blog post with it in a recipe. So what! I probably had it then for the first time in couple of months. There are actually some health benefits from eating it, and if it helps you stay on the raw food then go for it. The same goes for fat, or even an odd bit of non-raw food. The important thing to remember is to learn how your body responds to all these various foods and do whatever is necessary to optimise your health and move forward.

I couldn’t do much exercise during the 2nd half of last year due to my hernia operation. As far as I was aware I went 6 months only on raw food. I feel better now though. I’ve backed off slightly to 95% low fat raw, mainly for social reasons. I’m doing exercising and getting other areas of my life in balance. I’m enjoying things more than I did then. I actually feel healthier now (probably due to exercise), and I seem to be able to comunicate this message to more people. My objective is not to impress those few who have ‘made it’, but to somehow encourage the masses to begin moving forward in the right direction to help their own health.

I’ve helped out in some schools recently, the primary objective is to get kids to eat fruit and salads, preferably raw. During one activity I had arranged egg mayonaise, on another honey. These are both often frowned upon in ‘health’ circles. However, 95% of the ingrediants in the activities are based on raw fruit and vegetables. We had kids who have NEVER eaten fruit before actually eating fruit and kids trying out their first salads. I was blessed so much during one activity when a child looked directly at me and said, “can I do what you do when I’m older?”!!!

Delicious raw tomatoe and pepper soup

This is something that I put together to use up some ingredients. I made it first as a dressing, it was so nice that a made another whole bowl full and added a few hemp seeds to make a lovely colourful raw soup.

Blend up the following for just a few seconds:

• 1 very large red bell pepper (or 2 medium ones).
• 2 ripe tomatoes.
• 1 TBSP of pumpkin seeds.
• 1/4 of a red onion.
• 1 or 2 garlic cloves crushed.
• 1 TBSP of dried goji berries.

Blend up the above, then add 1 TBSP of shelled hemp seeds.

Wow – it is a VERY TASTY savoury dish!

Improve your teeth health and stop nose bleeds!

I’ve had teeth issues a couple of times over the past year. The first was about a year ago when I used to eat late and snack on dates, I had visible signs of enamel erosion and my teeth became very sensitive. Another time was when I wasn’t getting enough greens. I couldn’t get my usual quota of fruit and greens, so I had loads of dates and some honey to get me by. Again I had more signs of enamel erosion. I think I’m learning by my mistakes now!

I put in quite a bit of time reading up on teeth and bone health. For healthy teeth and bones, we need in particular:

Vitamin D. best obtained from sunshine, otherwise take vitamin D3 supplements, 2000+ iu per day.
Vitamin K2. from leafy greens and also from the flora in a healthy gut. I took a supplement for a few weeks to boost mine, as well as greatly increasing greens intake.
Magnesium. Best from leafy greens.
B vitamins help too.

For a couple of weeks, each day I sucked a calcium tablet last thing at night.
I occasionally brush my teeth with baking soda.

My nose bleeds story: We all fall over and cave in to temptation at times. At around the same time as the above, I caved in and I went through 2 or 3 weeks where I just scoffed loads of freshly shelled peanuts. They were so nice and I didn’t get fatigue so I thought I’d be OK. I didn’t know about the effect peanuts can have, until a non raw friend told me about it. Peanuts (and excess fat) can rob the body of vitamin K2. A sign of low vitamin K2 is nose bleeds. Strangely for the first time in my life I had nose bleeds for a couple of weeks! After my friend told me that peanuts can cause nosebleeds, I read up on it found out about the vitamin K2 thing, and I stopped eating them. I also made sure that I consumed my increased quantity of greens and I took my temporary emergency measures as described above. The daily nose bleeds stopped almost overnight, and my teeth felt much better not long after that.

I didn’t take the supplements for long, I used them more as a kick-start for my teeth health. Now I’m making sure that I have plus 2 pounds of greens a day. I usually have a litre of green juice, or about 10 to 12 glasses of green smoothie plus a salad a day! The large volume of greens helps massively with teeth health as does keeping fat levels in the diet really low.

My teeth very quickly settled down, and now they feel like they’d been polished at the dentist, although my enamel damage is still there.

In summary, my problems were self inflicted and caused by poor habits, like snacking and eating between meals and not brushing teeth, especially after dates. They were also possibly caused by low vitamin K2. Dates (and honey) are quite dry and really stick to teeth. I don’t generally have honey and as far as dates goes, I try to have them in smoothies. If I do have dates out of the box, then I have them all in one go and brush my teeth straight away. On 10th March I also made a blog post warning to be careful when eating dates – one of my favourite foods!!!

Banana Date – Ice Cream

I’ve had my juicer for about 2.5 years now and I’ve never made ‘ice-cream’, that was until last night. Wow – I’m amazed at how quick, easy and how nice it was! I just put dates and frozen bananas through my juicer which had a blank crush screen fitted. It really was like ice-cream. It’s really healthy, raw and low fat. It was very tasty.

I’ve since seen other people on Youtube just use blenders or food processors and get a similar result. People just use frozen bananas or combine frozen bananas with other frozen fruit.

Today I made a nice date sauce, but I had no banana ice-cream to put it on

Now I have another excuse to buy even more bananas!!!

Travelling on a low fat raw vegan diet

Here’s my first youtube video!

Do you love dates? I do, but be careful with your teeth!

Dates tend to be dried a little so they will really stick to your tooth enamel. It’s best to soak them first, or have them in smoothies. I do still eat them as they come, but I try to get through them in one go rather than snack on them over an hour or two. Then once I’ve got through them I brush my teeth really well. It’s not good enough just to eat something like a carrot or few pieces of lettuce afterwards. You need to ensure that no bits of dates are sticking to your teeth, especially near the gum line. The reason I say all this is that I did have teeth problems, this was more due to poor habits such as snacking, eating late, and not brushing after eating. I’ve taken measures to address these poor habits and to improve my diet further. Now most of the time my teeth feel like they’ve been polished at the dentist!