I used to never really worry about my health. All throughout my High School and College years I participated in tennis, weight-lifting, and bike-riding. After I got married I still practiced the latter two, and added Tai Chi to the mix. What became a turning point in my life was when my, now, ex mother-in-law died of cancer. It was my first "close encounter" with the disease. She was a guinea pig for the medical community for three years from the moment she was diagnosed until her passing. She basically had no quality of life during that time.

At that time I was in my late thirty's and started noticing more and more people dying of dreadful diseases starting when they were in their fifty's. Fearing that same fate for me, I set about to learn what causes cancer in general and how one might prevent it. Please note that I am not a doctor, and I have had no medical training. What I describe on this page is just purely my own personal experience.

Lifestyle Change

I read several books, watched some video tapes, and did a lot of research on the Web. Then one fateful day in February 2003, I made the big personal decision to switch from my normal American diet (fast food, fried foods, etc., etc.) to an all raw foods diet. Part of that decision was to become a vegetarian. A raw food diet can consist of dairy products as well, but I felt that that was not the right thing for me. I only ate uncooked vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds. I drank water and lots of juices.

This was a very drastic change, especially the way I did it, i.e. overnight! I would not recommend that unless you are in pretty good shape to begin with. I started off with a juice fast. This is where you don't eat any solid food, only water and juices (fruit and/or vegetables pureed in a blender). I spent the first four days of this diet change on the toilet! I kid you not! When you start such a diet you will not believe what your body contains and can hold. I felt very weak at that time. I was already working from home for my business, so it was not a big inconvenience in my lifestyle, but it is definitely not something you want to start when you have a Monday-through-Friday, 9-to-5 job, unless you take some vacation days! (What a way to spend your hard-earned vacation days!...)

This fast will get rid of all the latent waste in your colon. It will also start to pull out all the toxins in your liver and kidneys. You must drink lots of fluids during this time, or else those toxins get re-absorbed via your colon. There will be times when you feel sick, almost like a flu. It is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. However, I had spent almost 40 years putting crap in my body and I was trying to eliminate it in just a matter of a few days. You do the math!

After a few days of doing nothing but a juice fast, I started in earnest on my raw foods diet. Like I said, I ate nothing but salads, nuts, seeds, and fruit. The mistake I made early on, though, was that I was not eating organically-grown fruits and vegetables. Conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables usually contain herbicides and pesticides. The body is able to handle those, but only if you have some sort of cleansing fast from time to time. Otherwise those nasty chemicals build up in your kidneys, liver, and/or colon. Ultimately it is that plus the many man-made chemicals that are found in most commonly-eaten foods that eventually, over many years and even decades, lead to cancer, diabetes, and all sorts of other nasty diseases.

I maintained my vegetarian, raw foods diet and after 6 months I went from weighing 238lbs (I'm 6'4") to 174. I weighed 175 throughout my college years; the rest of weight was added on by a relatively sedentary lifestyle as a computer programmer. I lost 64lbs in 6 months. I felt more energetic and moved a lot quicker because I didn't have to carry all that extra weight with me. At the time I was not aware of the benefits of organic fruits and vegetables. There were times when I felt very weak. I remember not being able to mow both the front and back yard in one session on a couple of occasions, for example. Conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables still have nutritional value; it is just that there isn't a lot of it left in them. In other words, you have to consume a lot more of it to be able to get the needed nutritional benefit. With organically-grown foods you get a lot more of what nature intended, and so you are able to maintain the energy level you want.

Now, some 8+ years later I am still a vegetarian (I haven't eaten a single piece of red or white meat in all that time), but I have relaxed the raw foods part a bit, mostly because of my current wife's urging. She thought I was too skinny (I now weigh 212lbs). I still eat a lot of raw food, but I also eat cooked vegetables, and a couple of times a month I eat a piece of salmon, mahi-mahi, or some shrimp. I also drink a glass of red wine almost every evening. I absolutely don't eat any processed foods at all, I limit my dairy intake as much as I can, I don't eat any meat (I don't consider fish a "meat"), I don't drink beer or any hard liquors, and I don't smoke (never have). I do exercise a lot. I also predominantly eat organic foods now. It is definitely more expensive, but there is such a difference in taste (and, of course, health benefits).

My Observations

Here are some things I have learned through my research. Some are quite controversial. Please note that my underlying philosophy is that doctors are only useful for setting broken bones and that sort of stuff. I firmly believe that doctors know little to nothing about diseases and how to cure them. I don't take any medication, and don't believe they are helpful unless in temporary, extreme cases. I see modern-day doctors as no different from drug dealers; they simply have a legal license to sell drugs manufactured by large pharmaceutical companies. There are exceptions to the stereo-typical doctor, of course (i.e. those that do their own research and take a more holistic approach to medicine). However, my simple question is this: have you EVER seen a person who was prescribed a drug for diabetes, high-blood pressure, etc. get off of those drugs? The drugs are not a cure; as a matter of fact my opinion is that they do more harm than good. The only cure for any disease is to switch your diet completely and permanently!

For example, to prevent getting cancer is easy... Stop eating processed foods, switch to an all-organic diet, eliminate hard liquors and tobacco from your life, and maintain a positive outlook on life. Should you already have cancer, DO NOT START A RAW FOODS DIET!!! It will literally kill you. A body with cancer is so riddled with toxic chemicals (even before you start radiation or chemo therapy) that releasing them into your body will prove to be too much. You must eventually get yourself to eating nothing but raw foods, but you must do it gradually. The same goes for those of you who are very overweight. Many overweight people who start on some sort of serious diet die of blood clots. Your diet releases clogs of crap that are then roaming free in your body getting stuck somewhere down the line leading to strokes, heart attacks, etc. If you are seriously unhealthy a diet change is very dangerous. You should consult with a doctor, preferably one who takes a holistic approach (i.e. one that looks at your whole life, what you eat and drink, your emotional states, and what medical problems you have). You need to first start weaning yourself off of the medication you are taking (really no different than a heroin addict), and then slowly change your diet. Only then will you have a chance to completely recover. Many people have successfully permanently gotten rid of cancer that way. "Finding the cure for cancer" is just a sham; the cure is simple and cheap (at least cheaper than the drugs the drug companies are peddling).

Red or white meat contains uric acid. When eaten over a long duration and in significant quantities, uric acid will build up in the body. Uric acid, when examined under a microscope has the cell structure of sharp, pointy needles. They tend to build up in joints. This leads to all forms of joint pains. I don't eat meat because of some "environmental wacko" philosophy, but simply because I don't want to experience such pain later on in life.

Skin Cancer Myth

One myth that is propagated is that people should stay out of the sun or cover themselves with suntan lotion to avoid skin cancer. The common misconception is that exposure to the sun causes skin cancer. The reason why this is wrong is quite simple. The medical community looks only at immediate cause-and-effect. You sunbathe every day, therefore you get skin cancer. However, the root cause of the cancer lies much deeper. Like the colon, the skin is an elimination organ. You eliminate bodily waste through your colon's bowel movements and through urine. However many people don't realize that their skin is actually the largest elimination organ. Every time you sweat, your body gets rid of toxins and other waste. That is why exercise (and especially getting to the point of sweating) is so healthy. When you then take a shower, you wash away all those toxins. It is my firm belief that if a person is diagnosed with skin cancer, it is simply that the body had cancer in it already, but the body is attempting to excrete the cancer through the skin. The sun does not cause cancer, the sun triggers our body to eliminate the cancer via the skin. That is why some people can work in the sun or sunbathe for decades and never have any form of skin cancer, while someone who barely goes outside gets it quickly. If you eat healthy, you have nothing to fear. The sun is actually very good and very necessary for good health; it helps your body produce vitamin D, which helps calcium absorption, which helps bones grow and stay strong. Without vitamin D, calcium is not absorbed (no matter how many vitamin supplements you take), and you risk having weak bones or osteoporosis.

Colon Health

On a more spiritual level, the emotions you hold internally when you are consuming food are absorbed into the food, and that is then internalized in your body. If you hold a lot of anger, resentment, bitterness, or fear in you and it doesn't get released, it can lead to cancer. Many people are stressed in today's world. When you eat in a hurry or when you are under stress, this gets internalized in the food that you consume at that time. This food, generally, is not processed well or at all by the body. The body just shoves it on down to the colon. Did you know that you should have a bowel movement about one to two hours after every meal you eat? If you don't have at least one good-sized bowel movement each day, you are constipated. Ever wonder what happens to all that food that you eat and a substantially disproportionate amount of waste comes out at the other end? Well, look down to your tummy. Is it flat, or is it bulged out? The colon can expand and grow to accommodate its content. Food starts to back up in your colon. Each time you eat, it adds a little more. That's why so many people have huge bellies when they get to be in their forty's and fifty's. It is nothing more than a backed-up sewer!

Food stays in the colon for a relatively long time (compared to how long it takes to chew, swallow your food, and for it to travel to your stomach). The reason why is because the colon extracts many nutrients from the food that you eat. It is then absorbed through the colon's walls and fed into your blood stream. When the colon starts getting backed-up, the food starts to form a hard caked-on layer. Eventually the colon can no longer absorb the nutrients. That is why so many people with huge bellies are basically mal-nourished. These people are starving to death. They eat and eat, but very few of the nutrients they do get even get absorbed. Naturally, this leads to all forms of diseases, whichever ones you are genetically pre-disposed to.

Listen to Your Body

Once you are reasonably healthy, your body will let you know what it needs. You will be attracted to a particular food. For example, I am genetically pre-disposed to high blood pressure. However, I am very attracted to bananas. I eat at least one every day. It wasn't until years later that I learned that bananas are a natural cure for high blood pressure. Don't let someone else dictate what you eat. Follow your body's guidance. If a particular food item appeals to you, eat it. If it doesn't, don't. If it does, make sure it is organic or grown without pesticides.

Read the Ingredients

What to watch out for when you read the labels of the ingredients in the food you buy: "partially hydrogenated oil" - very nasty; cancer-causing. "Trans fat" is partially hydrogenated oil. Please be aware that the front of the package can legally (according to the FDA) say "0 grams of trans fat", as long as it has less than 1/2 grams of trans fat in it. A good number of those "1/2 grams" starts adding up. A good, general tip is, if it has a lot of ingredients in it, skip it. If it has ingredients in it that you can't pronounce, skip it. Note that "fractionated oil" is not quite as bad as "partially hydrogenated oil", but it is still best to avoid it.

Enzymes

A quick note here. When I talk about "food", I'm talking about nature's products, not man-made processed "foods" (fast-food restaurants, most frozen dinners, etc.). I don't consider that food. The best food to eat is straight from the garden or the farm. Pick it and eat it. As soon as a piece of fruit or a vegetable is separated from its plant (from the Earth, really), it starts to decay. The longer (in duration) that separation, the less nutritional benefit it will have. Note that you can still eat something even if it provides little nutritional benefit, because it will provide bulk or roughage. That is what is needed to produce solid waste. Bulk food has the effect of a roto-rooter and scrapes stuff off of your colon walls to be eliminated. The more food is handled or "processed", the less nutritionally beneficial it is. Refrigerated food still decays, but at a slower rate.

Frozen fruits and vegetables are the next step down. When food is frozen, about 30% of the enzymes in the food are destroyed. Why is that significant? Enzymes are naturally encoded in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds (i.e. "food"). Our bodies, when they take in the food, look for those enzymes to see how the food is to be processed internally. Foods that don't contain the enzymes or not enough of them, are still processed, but at a less efficient manner. Our bodies have enzymes to process those kinds of foods, but there is a limited amount of those enzymes available. What you typically see is that older people have a hard time processing food, because their bodies have run out of enzymes. This contributes to the bloated bellies and mal-nourished state older people are in, typically. You can start adding enzyme supplements right before you eat to help your body out, if necessary. So, freezing fruit or vegetables kills about 30% of the enzymes, so they are not as nutritionally beneficial as their direct-picked counterparts, but still very worthwhile, especially if organically-grown.

The reason why cooked vegetables are not part of a "raw food" diet is that once a food item's temperature goes over a certain amount, the enzymes are completely killed off. Cooked food is therefore not very nutritionally beneficial, except as roughage. The body has to use up its own enzymes to process the cooked food.

Conclusion

Is it easy to eat healthy? No! When I ate nothing but raw food, it was very difficult to go out to restaurants, because there is very little there. Even "salads" are typically made from iceberg lettuce, which has no nutritional benefit. A lot of higher-quality, sit-down restaurants now use green leaf lettuce, which is fantastic. However, most restaurants don't use organic ingredients. There is a trend now to make organic food more widely available in restaurants. Whole chains are now offering organic food, or are 100% organic. This is fantastic, and a big step in the right direction. Changing your dietary lifestyle has a big impact on your life. Its benefits are many, and a lot of them won't pay off until you get older. So, it is tempting to go back to the old way of eating. It requires a life-time commitment to be effective. I am glad I changed, and, although it is awkward sometimes, I am healthy, full of energy, don't take any medication, and best of all, I never go to the doctor!

Do I eat healthy so that I can live long? No, not really. When my time is up on this Earth, I'll be happy to go. I eat healthy because it gives me more energy to do things here and now. I don't waste my time dealing with diseases or going to the doctors. I don't spent my money on pills and medical bills. And, I don't want to have any of these things later in life. I don't want to spend the last 10 or 20 years of my life living in some sort of debilitated form unable to enjoy life.

Tips

Late-night munchies? Eat a banana. Let it settle. Still hungry? Eat another banana. Usually after two bananas the munchies go away. Keep eating bananas until you are no longer hungry. It is simple, cheap, and very healthy.