Raw Family Newsletter, March 2005
In this issue:
1. Raw Family recipe, published for the first time: Igor's Crackers,
Restricted calorie version
2. New Edition of our book Raw Family is out!
3. Article "Your Body Never Makes Mistakes" by Victoria Boutenko
(featured in a popular raw and living food magazine Get Fresh in UK)
4. 7-Day Shasta Lake Healing Vacation Cruise hosted by Raw Family
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IGOR'S CRACKERS,
Restricted Calorie Version
1. Juice 2 pounds of carrots and 1 pound of celery.
2. Combine juice with pulp (from juice) in a large bowl.
3. Add one sweetener of your choice: 3 Tablespoons of honey, a very ripe
banana, or 1/4 cup raisins (blended with a little water to the consistency
of honey).
4. Add the following ingredients into the same bowl and mix well:
2 medium onions, grated. Important: slightly squeeze grated onions with your
hands and dump the juice to avoid too much onion taste in crackers.
3 medium lemons juiced
1 Tablespoon whole coriander seeds
1 teaspoon ground caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (optional)
5. Grind 1 pound of flaxseeds in a Vita-Mix blender or a coffee grinder.
6. Combine the ground flaxseeds with your mixture. Make sure to mix it
thoroughly. We recommend using your hands for this part.
Please note, the consistency of your dough will significantly thicken within
10-15 minutes after adding flaxseeds. The thickness is perfect if it
resembles the consistency of sour cream. If your dough seems to be too
thick, add water. If it seems too thin, add more ground flax.
7. Line dehydrator trays with teflon sheets so your crackers don't stick to
the trays.
8. It takes approximately 3 medium ladles of dough per large (14"x14") tray.
9. Use a spatula to spread the dough evenly on the tray roughly 1/4 inch
thick.
10. Dehydrate at approximately 110'F for 8-12 hours. Then flip crackers over
and peel off the teflon sheets. Continue drying crackers for another 4-5
hours.
Store in a cool dry place. These crackers will stay fresh for up to two
months.
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A new edition of Raw Family book is out!
Raw Family: A true Story of Awakening
By Victoria, Igor, Sergei and Valya Boutenko
New Edition is published with a better cover, in a handy pocket-size format.
We have added 22 new recipes and several more pictures to this book.
New price - $9.95 US
Available now at http://www.rawfamily.com
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by Victoria Boutenko
http://www.rawfamily.com
Your Body Never Makes Mistakes
Wouldn't it be nice if every time your car broke down, it would fix
itself? This sounds like a fantasy, however, this is just what your
beautiful body can do! When you have a cut, the blood washes the dirt out
and seals the wound, the skin begins to grow faster and within a matter of
days you cannot find a trace of injury. If you ingest poison, your body will
create diarrhea or vomiting to purge the unwanted substance as soon as
possible. In the case of any injury, our body knows exactly to repair itself
in the most efficient way.
Every living thing is dedicated to survival, to prolonging its life to the
maximum. Each organism will do its best to adjust to any change in the
environment in order to survive. This miracle is called the universal law of
vital adjustment. This law has always existed and it always will. We can see
as many proofs of this law as we want, in every blade of grass striving
through the concrete, in every rabbit changing the color of its fur with the
seasons, and in every human being surviving in today's challenging and
constantly changing world. It continues to amaze me how this universal law
of adjustment applies to every one of us in many ways. When we understand
this important law, we lose the fear that for some mysterious reason, our
bodies could become ill and could kill us. Our bodies are dedicated to our
survival, not our death. The disease-like conditions that our bodies create,
such as coughing, sneezing, fever, pain of different kinds, high blood
pressure, etc. are nothing but the body's effort to survive. Ironically,
when the body heals after taking pills, it most likely heals not because of,
but in spite of the medicine. I feel sad that such a great misunderstanding
exists even among many health professionals. I wish science would do more
research on how to help the body heal itself instead of treating the
symptoms. By suppressing symptoms, we counteract the wise efforts of the
intelligent human body.
According to the law of vital adjustment, our bodies adjust to the changes
in our environment, including the harmful changes, such as pollution,
radiation, noise, lack of sunlight, etc. Similarly, the body adjusts to the
consumption of harmful substances. It develops a new pattern that is
actually the best way of coping with the situation. This pattern can quickly
become a habit. That doesn't mean that your super-intelligent body is
craving harmful substances, but that it has adjusted to the poison.
Unfortunately, our poor bodies have been forced to adjust to so many
thousands of harmful circumstances, that they can scarcely distinguish the
healthy from the harmful. I find it amazing, even amusing that the human
body continues to survive in spite of so many damaging factors, like
smoking, taking drugs, overeating harmful foods saturated with chemicals,
spending lifetimes indoors without fresh air or sunlight, nearly motionless,
surrounded by high voltage electromagnetic fields and radiation, breathing
in all kinds of pollution, showering with fluoridated and chlorinated water,
experiencing constant stress, etc; and on top of that we adopt numerous
smaller ills that seem so innocent, like wearing high heels and makeup,
sleeping in soft beds, wearing dark glasses, drinking coffee, eating candy
and many more. It took many years for me to discover that many habits I was
lovingly taught to acquire for myself, were actually harmful. In fact, I
have changed so many commonly accepted habits that I don't even want to risk
putting them into this article. Yet those changes have made my body
healthier and my life more joyous.
There is so much confusion in our lives today that we pay top money for
workshops and seminars to learn how to do the simplest things that every
animal knows naturally. The most popular classes today are not "Is there
Life on Mars?" or "How to Become a Millionaire" but those that teach the
most fundamental behaviors, like how to eat, how to sleep, how to run
properly, how to relax, how to stand straight, how to sit correctly, how to
see without glasses, how to exercise, how to spontaneously express emotions,
how much water to drink, how to breathe, even how to go to the bathroom.
There was a time that we knew all these things naturally. I try to imagine
what a natural human being looks like and I cannot.
Every one of us is living with thousands of adjustments that our body has
succumbed to in order for us to survive. We pay for each one of them with
our health and life span. The way to better health lies in the unburdening
of our organisms from having to adjust. However small, every effort towards
natural living makes a difference. For example, eating more fresh fruits and
vegetables, sleeping with an open window at night, wearing clothes made from
natural fibers, drinking pure water, exercising, getting sunlight regularly,
not suppressing sneezing, yawning and stretching, reducing stress, turning
off electrical devices when not using them to rest from harmful electric
fields, reducing use of soap and chemicals, buying organic produce, and
thousands more, including giving your microwave to your enemy.
However, never introduce new changes into your lifestyle just because some
authority recommended it. Always observe the reactions your body has to
those changes. If you feel better, continue. For example, I used to have a
habit of eating before bedtime. When I tried to eat just two hours earlier,
I immediately began to sleep more soundly. My body showed me that this was a
good change, and I adopted this new habit. I realize that these little
changes add a great deal of health and enjoyment to my life.
Sometimes our body has adjusted to harmful habits so deeply, that it takes
longer periods of time for the health benefits to surface. For example, I
used to like to sleep on a soft mattress. Once, I read an article describing
how healthy it is to sleep on a hard surface. I tried sleeping on the floor,
but had such an achy back the next morning, that I immediately quit. Many
years later, I went hiking in the Cascadian Mountains and slept on the
ground for one month. In the beginning, I had an achy back for a week. Then
my sleep became so sweet, as never before in all my life. Since then I have
always slept on a hard surface simply because soft beds make my back achy.
I encourage you to follow your own intuition, your own feeling, and your own
experience. I do not want you to do anything because I, or somebody else who
is considered an expert, say so. We are each unique individuals with
different body needs. We need to be our own best expert.
Let's do an experiment. If you went to an organic fruit stand right now and
picked out one fruit, what would it be? A pear, apple, orange, fig, papaya,
banana, grape, avocado, mango or cherry? Is everyone reading this article
picking the same fruit? Probably not. We are all individuals. Your body
knows what you need. Whatever fruit you choose, that is what your body is
ordering from you today. Your job is to get your organism what it needs.
Tomorrow your body may want the same fruit or something new. Let your body
lead.
Let's imagine that a piece of dust is falling into your right eye. Which eye
will blink? Your right eye, of course. Your left eye won't blink by mistake,
because your body never makes mistakes. We have been created perfectly. When
we underestimate the wisdom of nature, and stop listening to the messages
our bodies give us, we get into trouble. For example, what is the standard
response to fever in our culture? Aspirin. I trust that if my body has
created a fever, than I need a fever. When the body creates diarrhea, then
I'm glad to be saving money on a colonic irrigation. As I write these lines,
I become fascinated with the fact that I used to have these, and other
symptoms regularly, but since I adopted a more natural lifestyle, I haven't
been sick for many years now. Taking medication to stop fever, diarrhea, or
other symptoms would work against the wisdom of the body. Our body never
makes mistakes. If we listen carefully to our bodies, we can all know what
we need to do to feel better.
I would like to share with you a story that illustrates how I first began to
listen to my body. Ten years ago, when my family had only been on raw food
for two months, my children began craving different fruits. Sergei asked for
mangoes and blueberries and Valya asked for olives, grapefruits and figs. If
gave Sergei a mango, he would eat it right away and immediately want
another. Once, I bought him a whole flat of mangoes thinking that would last
him a week. He sat down and ate the entire flat in one day, peals and all.
He then said, "I wish there were more mangoes!" The same thing happened
with blueberries. I bought him a two-pound bag of blueberries and he ate it
in one sitting. Valya liked figs. She'd ask for fresh figs, dry figs, black
figs or green figs. She could never have enough figs; she also liked eating
olives and grapefruits.
That summer, we visited Dr. Bernard Jenson, a world famous clinical
nutritionist. I asked Dr. Jensen what Sergei needed to eat to help him
recover from diabetes. Dr. Jensen looked in his books and told me that the
best thing for Sergei to eat would be more mangoes and blueberries. I was
shocked. I then asked him what Valya needed to eat to help her asthma. He
said, "figs, olives, and grapefruits." I couldn't believe his words. I said,
"that's exactly what my children have been asking for!" Dr. Jensen then
asked me what my cravings were. I told him that I didn't know because I
always ate what was on sale.
Dr. Jensen helped me to understand that our bodies naturally crave foods
that aid healing. My children's bodies communicated with them sooner than
did my poor confused adult body. My husband and I started to pay more
attention to what our bodies were telling us, and within several weeks, we
became aware of our own cravings.
Today, everyone in my family eats slightly differently, even when sitting at
the same table. I know that when we develop an appetite for certain healthy
things, (not coffee and doughnuts) it is our body asking for particular
nutrients.
The human body is more beautiful and wise than we can comprehend. Just
remember, your body never makes mistakes.
7-Day Shasta Lake Healing Vacation Cruise
May 14 - May 21
Hosted By Raw Family
Join us for this unforgettable journey:
For seven days, a group of 30 people will be cruising in two comfortable
two-story houseboats along the spectacular Shasta Lake. For optimal healing
benefits, our food will consist entirely of a wide variety of tasty green
smoothies. For more information on their benefits, please read the "Ode to
Green Smoothie" article at rawfamily.com. A variety of freshly blended green
smoothies prepared with 100% organic ingredients will be offered 5 times
every day.
During this trip we offer you, at no additional cost, a unique opportunity
to participate in a study of the long range health benefits of green
smoothies. This research, composed of simple tests, and being conducted by
medical professionals, will be included in Victoria's forthcoming book.
We plan to boat during the day and will be staying in different
campgrounds at night.
Every morning after your yoga/exercise/hike/run/swim and green smoothie
breakfast you will be
invited to partake in spiritual dialogues led by Victoria Boutenko.
To fill our schedule with more learning experience, in the afternoons we
included several fun
workshops with experienced teachers:
-Boutenko family, authors, lecturers and chefs.
-Bob Miner, an amazing voice instructor, please check out:
http://www.HarmonicaBob.com
-Pamela Joy, (Hearftfull the Clown) an expert in movement and
improvisation.
-Vrinda Leier, a professional yoga teacher.
-Anu Lawrence, a guitarist and singer.
In the evenings we will have options of canoeing (we have two 3-person
canoes), playing fun games, drumming, singing and talking around a campfire.
We will return home tanned, rested, energized and inspired, having met
many wonderful new friends!
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http://www.rawfamily.com
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