Almonds have the most proteins of all the nuts. They have to be sprouted in order to release the enzymes inhibitors as well as the calcium and protein that are locked inside. 

Soaking Almonds

• Start with Raw Organic Almonds
• Soak overnight in the refrigerator in purified filtered water
• During this 24 hour soaking period, rinse and change the water several times to keep them soaking in fresh water
• After 24 hours, peel the almonds. Since they are soaked it is very easy to take the skins off
• Here is your versatile raw sprouted almonds for almond milk and other raw treats

For Almond Milk

• Use one cup of these almonds with 3-4 cups of water in a blender (ideally a VitaMix), varies for your thickness preference.
• To strain, get a Nut Milk Bag and pour blended liquid through the bag into a container.
• Place liquid back into the blender and get creative.

For Taste

• For sweetness, add a few medjool dates or raw honey may be used
• Cinnamon for added flavor
• Raw Cacao Powder can be added to the blender for Cacao Almond Milk
• Try a pinch of Sea Salt for taste
• You can really add more nutrition to your almond milk base by adding SuperFood Powders:
  •   Goji Berry Powder: Eyesight, Libido, Blood Builder
    • Or, soak a few goji berries in water, strain and add to VitaMix
  • Pomegranate Powder: Great for the Prostate and Heart, Antioxidant, High in ORAC
  • Maca Powder: Reproductive System, Fertility, Athletic Activity 
  • Ashwagandha: Adaptogen, Increase Thyroid Function
  • Jing City: Strengthen the Kidneys, Essence, Improves Jing
  • So many other options

Other Options

• With the strained almond pulp you can use a dehydrator to make raw cookies
  • Almond Pulp (Ground Almond)
  • Dates
  • Raisins
  • Bananas
  • Cacao Nibs
  • Cinnamon
  • Raw Honey
  • Creative Ingredients
• Mix these in a food processor
• Mash together
• Dehydrate

ENJOY!

Dry Skin Brushing is a form of Lymphatic drainage using a dry natural bristle brush to gently brush your skin all over your body.

It helps your skin to glow by removing all of the dull and dead layers of skin. It also aids in encouraging new cells to regenerate. The massaging motion of the bristles from the brush also has a beneficial effect on cellulite and can eliminate toxins from the Lymphatic system by stimulating it.

How to do a dry skin brushing massage?

First your skin must be dry as well as the brush. This may be done first thing in the morning or right before your evening bath.

You start at the neck with downward strokes towards the clavicle. This is to activate the large lymph nodes in the neck at the terminus.

Then you move to the chest wall area. DO NOT BRUSH INTO THE BREAST TISSUE! Brush the chest wall outward toward the armpit or axilla. 

ARMS:  Divide your arm in two. Start brushing from the elbow upward toward the armpit. Then brush the lower arm to the elbow. Finally, brush from the fingertips all the way up to the armpit. Do the next arm.

Below the chest wall or breast you want to brush down into the lower abdominal area as we have many lymph nodes in this region leading to your colon. Brush the abdominal area in a clockwise position

LEGS: The same way you divided the arms you will do with the legs. Start with your thigh to your groin. Then your ankle to your knee and finally the entire leg.

How much strokes? 

Usually about 3 to 5. However, do it as long as you want just make sure that you are doing it correctly.

The Outcome?

Your skin will glow, the appearance of cellulite will decrease, your Lymphatic System will start removing toxic build up and you will feel rejuvenated! 

I was introduced to the Ann Wigmore Health Institute in Aguarda, Puerto Rico, in December 2010 by a dear raw food friend. While I went kicking and screaming, having to leave my office for two weeks, it ended up being the best thing I’ve done. I loved it so much I returned there in the summer, and I just returned from another two weeks there this holiday season. The institute taught me so much about the living food lifestyle and its differences and similarities to the raw food lifestyle and how important they both are to us.

What’s the difference?

Living foods and raw foods both contain numerous enzymes; but in living foods, the enzyme content is much higher. For example, raw, unsprouted seeds and nuts contain enzymes in their “dormant” state. To activate the enzymes in seeds and nuts, they must be soaked in water for a period of time. Once the seeds and nuts begin to sprout, the enzymes become “active” and are then considered a “living food.”

Both raw and living foods are not heated . Any food heated over 115 degrees F destroys the enzymes in the food. Actually the degradation of enzymes begins at about 105 degrees F. All foods that are cooked are devoid of enzymes, and the molecular structure of the components of the food changes as well. So to sustain life and get the life-force energy of foods filled with high enzymatic and nutrients activities, one must eat raw foods in combination with living foods.

Why are enzymes important to us?

Enzymes assist in the digestion of food. There are three classes of enzymes:
· Metabolic enzymes, which run our bodies, organs and tissues
· Digestive enzymes, which digest our food
· Food enzymes, from raw food, which start food digestion

Enzymes are important because they assist in the digestion and absorption of food. They are catalysts that allow cells to metabolize carbohydrates, proteins and fats. They are also responsible for the respiration in cells and converting proteins into usable energy. If you eat food that is void of enzymes, your body will be undernourished and unable to utilize the nutrients from the food. This causes toxicity in the body.

Raw food is filled with multiple enzymes that aid digestion. In fact, the digestion of the carbohydrates, proteins and fats in raw food begins in the mouth at the moment that the plant cell walls are ruptured from mastication, thus releasing the food enzymes within.

Does cooking destroy enzymes?

Yes, yes and yes. As hard as it is to hear and accept because we have been cooking for centuries, this process devoids us of precious enzymes that help maintain our health. Disease and cooking originated simultaneously in the world. For instance, animals who only eat raw are healthy because their food intake in the jungle or wilderness is filled with enzymes. We have never heard of an elephant or a lion in the jungle getting a heart attack or suffering from arthritis. Better yet a gorilla getting breast cancer. Our domesticated animals eating processed food or the cooked food we give them are now facing the same disease as we are.

We know that heat destroys enzymes, but another amazing fact is that enzymes work harder at slightly warmer temperatures than they do at cooler ones. An experiment performed by Dr. Edward Howell involved soluble potato starch placed into two dishes with water and saliva added to each. Saliva contains an enzyme called amylase. One of the dishes was placed in an 80 degree F room, and the other was placed in the refrigerator at about 40 degrees F. The experiment showed that the starch at room temperature digested more quickly, while the one in the refrigerator was practically stagnant. If the room was at 100 degrees F, the enzymes would do the work at four times the rate than at 80 degrees F. The experiment showed this continued up to 160 degrees F, and then the enzymes wore out and could no longer do any of their duties. So keeping the temperature lower than 115 degrees F is beneficial but not so low as to stagnate its energy potential.

There is a fixed amount of enzyme potential in everyone. The enzyme bank account we are born with diminishes over time if it is not subsidized by incoming enzymes and can also diminish due to different conditions and the lifestyle of the individual. By eating foods with their enzymes intact as in raw and living foods, along with supplementing the cooked food being digested with exogenous food enzymes, we are able to eradicate abnormal and pathological aging.

What are the functions of enzymes in the body?

Life as we know it could not exist without enzymes. We must thoroughly chew our food so that the enzymes are able to fully work and break the food particles down into tiny structures capable of supplying our body with nutrients. Enzymes also aid in making new bone, nerves, muscles and glands. The enzymes work directly with the liver and all the other eliminative organs to store excess food. They are used for every function that goes on in the body. Eating raw and living foods is essential to our health, since nature provided them with an abundant supply of enzymes to get the job done. Last but not least, enzymes also breakdown toxins and waste material for elimination.

Some Important Enzymes

Amylase: Breaks down carbohydrates in the mouth from starches to simple sugars.

Hydrochloric acid (HCL): Found in the stomach and mainly responsible for the break down of solid food into a semi-solid liquid called chyme. The chyme then leaves the pylorus area of the stomach and enters the duodenum of the small intestines where more enzymes are released via the pancreas and bile from the gallbladder to further breakdown the molecules. If one drinks while they eat, they will dilute the HCL and enzyme activity, making digestion more difficult and less efficient.

Trypsin and chymotrypsin: Both from the pancreas, they work together to break down proteins into amino acids.

Lipase: Also from the pancreas, lipase is an enzyme that converts fats into fatty acids and triglycerides.

I hope this information is helpful to you and encourages you to have two thirds of your meals raw or living.

Photo credit: Kevin Dooley

Today I want to talk to you about one of my life’s passion: Acupuncture.

Acupuncture is one of the oldest healing practices in the world.  It is part of alternative medicine and is used to restore and maintain peoples health.  This is done through fine sterile needles placed at specific points of the body. These needles stimulate qi (life force energy).  It is used for many ailments listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) but has to be performed by a qualified practitioner.  Our body is made up of yin and yang aspects.  Yin being inner, soft, slow, cold, weak.  Yang being the opposite: outer, hard, fast, hot, strong.  As opposite as they are, they are inseparable  forces that maintain the body in  balanced states. This balanced state is HEALTH.  The opposite to health is of course disease. Disease is a stagnation of energy  leading to blockage of qi along the 12 regular meridians and 8 extra-ordinary meridians.  So what can Acupuncture treat?  Stress, Pain, Digestive problems, Fertility, Neurological issues, Orthopedic  Disorders, etc….

I have been an Acupuncturist since 2002 and have seen it change so many lives.  Coming from the conventional world of medicine it was hard for me to mentally understand that these little needles with the fine prick can actually change things.   My eyes have been opened and my patients have thought me so much and continues to.   In my practice I use acupuncture alone or in conjunction with other modalities to get different desired benefits.   Many  patients may not think it important to reveal certain medications, recreational drugs or medical conditions but these are very important for the practitioner to know before treating you.   E.g. I treated a young man years ago who intentionally held back information that he smoked marijuana before coming in for a treatment.  Well, the treatment I was giving him was for pain so I was increasing circulation intensely.  In chinese medicine, pain is caused by stagnation of the qi (energy). This patient ended up getting a serious high and passing out.  This was quite frightening. Fortunately, he came through and promised to reveal all future information.

I personally have treated various types of conditions with acupuncture.  I remember when I was called to turn my first breached baby.  I had only heard of it in theory and wasn’t sure what to expect.  Well, I still remember everything of that first session.  So client laying supine ( face up) and I proceed to calm her and place needles in her pinky toe at Urinary Bladder 67.  This is an empirical point for turning breech babies.  The patient has seen the doctor and was slated for inversion ift he baby didn’t turn on its own.  She did not want such an invasive procedure and abted for acupuncture. Needles to increase circulation: Four Gates which are Large Intestine 4 bilaterally and Liver 3 bilaterally.  These two points increase qi and blood flow in a smooth manner.  I also used Gallbladder 21 which is used to cause the bearing down effect.  So with needles in place, I took pole moxa which is the AiYe (motherwort) herb in a cigar shape and lit it.  This herb along with the pecking motion of the moxa around UB 67 starts the qi movement.  After a few minutes of pecking and circling in a clockwise position I saw her abdominal area start to move.  Ah ha I’m getting somewhere. As much as this was the desired effect, it was still scary and yet exciting to see the baby move vigorously inside.  I continued this for thirty minutes and then the baby decided to go to sleep. I guess tired from all the activity.  Needles were removed and off I went to return on Day 2.  Now sometimes you can turn a breech baby in one session, but most of the time it takes a few sessions. 

Day 2: Mom stated she did not sleep too well because there was a lot of movement.   Hey did the baby finish its turn?  I palpated the abdominal area and found the baby to be horizontal.  Out came needles and moxa to finish the turn to homestretch.  I repeated the session from Day 1.  MASSIVE MOVEMENTS!  It looked as if the baby was going to come out right there.  Now I didn’t mention but the moxa smells like marijuana and so it leaves you feeling quite relaxed.  Being in the home of a prominent attorney and the neighbors smelling this well known aroma was not easy for them.  After our session getting into the elevator with a neighbor and that weird “how dare you” look left a little crackle of smile to end my day.  

Day 3: Mom went to see her doctor and yes baby was turned.  Our lovely baby girl was born almost a week later through natural childbirth.

Health inside and out,

Tracy Piper, L.M.T., L.Ac., C.H. C.C.T

Since spring is a prime time for detoxing, talking about the digestive system seems extremely fitting this time of year.

Gastrointestinal problems are one the most common health complaints challenging our society. These include indigestion, heartburn, acid reflux, bloating, and constipation, just to name a few. Many live with these discomforts and take pills or other drugstore remedies, never really knowing what more can be done. Some may go to the doctor, and they are either dismissed, given yet another pill or told to take a laxative. Many have never heard of colon hydrotherapy and consider it a new modality. Yet it has been around for centuries, dating back to 1500 B.C. in the Egyptian medical document Ebers Papyrus. Most notably, it was first used by Cleopatra and credited for her porcelain skin.

In modern times, medical professionals like the American surgeon Dr. John Harvey Kellogg have advanced colon hydrotherapy. His experience performing thousands of bowel surgeries led to the conclusion that 90% of the diseases of civilization were due to improper functioning of the colon.

Facts of digestive disorders
· Digestive diseases affect 60-70 million people.
· Digestive disorders account for 50 million visits to physicians’ offices per year.
· 13% of all hospitalizations are for digestive disorders.
· Digestive disorders cost $87-107 billion in direct medical costs and $20 billion in indirect medical costs per year.
(Source: Brenda Watson, N.D., author of “Essential Cleansing for Perfect Health.”)

What is colon hydrotherapy (colonic)?
Once the colon is overrun with old waste, toxins and parasites, a colon hydrotherapy session (colonic) may be needed to return the system to its normal, healthy state. Colon hydrotherapy is a very safe—and often very pleasant—procedure. If more people actually knew how toxic the colon can be, they may be inclined to get a colonic more frequently. During the course of the day, the body can come in contact with all kinds of toxins and unwanted bacteria in addition to normal body waste. If your colon isn’t working a peak performance, these elements can sit stagnant in the system… sometimes for years! Colonics can help bring the balance back to your system and make it a healthy environment. Each colonic session will be roughly the same, and every effort is made to allow the person getting the colonic to remain in a relaxed state for the duration of the session.

What happens during a colonic?
A colonic session is 40-45 minutes in length. Approximately 15 gallons of filtered water are gently infused into the colon using a disposable speculum. The speculum allows for the insertion of filtered water and the removal of waste. The speculum used may vary from therapist to therapist, but they all basically work the same way. As the patient inserts the speculum (with the aid of the therapist) into the rectum about two inches into the rectal canal, a gentle flow of hot and cold water is used to create contractions of the colon muscles. The water breaks down the waste, which then exits the body through the speculum. Gentle massage is applied to the abdomen to help loosen impacted material for a more complete elimination. For personal comfort, most people keep their bodies covered during the session. The use of disposable instruments and tubing is employed to secure total sanitation and hygiene. The waste can be seen in the tube. Over subsequent visits, the entire length of the colon can be cleansed this way. The therapist monitors the water temperature and waste as it exits the body. Often, the therapist can tell a great deal simply by observing the waste—including much about the patient’s bodily health, dietary lifestyle and what may be causing the issue or issues at hand.

How many colonics are recommended?
One colonic, although helpful, is not necessarily enough to effectively cleanse the colon. A comprehensive program with nutritional input, colon management techniques, and a series of five to ten colonics is recommended for a thorough program. The first three colonics should take place over a period of ten days, followed by weekly colonics thereafter. Seasonal maintenance colonics are also recommended. Additionally, a colonic is suggested before a colonoscopy (a medical examination by a gastroenterologist). It is also good to perform before, during and after a long term fast. Working with a therapist on a regular routine can help anyonemove toward a clean, healthy body and lifestyle.

What are the other benefits of colonics?
Colonics tone the muscles of the bowel while removing waste matter from the colon. They recondition colons that have become distorted due to poor eating habits. Colonics also stimulate reflex points, which positively affect other organs.

How do I prepare for a colonic?
To prevent cramping during the session, AVOID ALCOHOL COMPLETELY. To increase chances for success in each session, avoid bread, pasta, coffee and heavy meals. Fruit, vegetables, and grains are good choices to eat. Drink plenty of water, fresh juice and non-caffeinated tea. Also, it is wise to refrain from eating anything two hours prior to the colonic. Your personal therapist can advise you on what to eat following the colonic session.