This was my second raw food training session with Eric Levinson, a raw food Chef and wellness consultant who is now working on forming a community in Brooklyn that promotes sustainable living. Every time I meet with Eric I am astounded as to how many amazingly delicious raw food recipes he can create that are so easy to make! I first heard about him when he worked as a raw food chef at Sproutcraft cafe, a raw food restaurant that he opened in NYC and I would go almost every week for his delicious dishes that were so addictive it was surprising how healthy they were.

One of my favorite recipes is his raw salsa wrap which turned out so good-I can’t wait to make them again! You can check out the raw salsa wrap video below. There is also the mouth watering coconut meat wrap recipe also in the below video.

Eric focuses on the most sustainable and affordable way to live on the raw food lifestyle which he says can still be very enjoyable and in some ways healthier for you. In the vids below Eric talks about how some raw foods like superfoods and certain nuts can be costly and don’t support a green lifestyle since they have to ship them here from all over the world. Eric also shares how he discovered a way to keep his candida and allergies under control. I am looking forward to continuing to learn and train with Eric in the future and can’t wait to see what new manifestations will sprout into existence from his new endeavors!

To learn more about Eric’s sustainable community go to: www.hivebk.wordpress.com or you can contact him via email at permayogi@gmail.com

I came accross another article today that spoke about how researchers found that the extracts of bitter melon is proven to prevent cancer growth. The article goes on to say that “many cancer treatments have been developed from plant chemicals, but only after years of thorough research.” Why are all of these scientists wasting their time doing research on things that we’ve had information on all along? Is finding out about another plant that can prevent cancer really news to us? How many more articles on plants’ healing effects do we have to read to get the point that eating a cheeseburger or pizza is not a good way to prevent cancer or any other disease for that matter? This article ends with what all of these kinds of “scientific” articles conclude with: “The most up-to-date, reliable evidence shows that drinking less alcohol, being physically active and keeping a healthy weight can reduce the risk of breast cancer.” Do we really need our scientists to spend years of their time, energy, and money conducting research that result with the same statement about healthy eating and exercise being the only sure thing to a long and healthy life? Western culture has removed what is innately ours to own…our intuition which comes with being more in tune with what our bodies really need. We are so trapped in having the “higher authorities” telling us how to take care of ourselves and prescribing us pharmaceutical drugs that we have lost the ability to intuit how to treat our own bodies. There are so many other cultures out there that have an unlimited wellspring of knowledge about preventitive medicine that do we really need our scientists who are mostly knowledgeable about chemically altered drugs (you know…from an industry that’s only worth billions of dollars) to do this kind of research?

Right after I read the bitter melon article I came accross an article addressing the issues of another UFDA approved drug proven to cause heart disease and death. The article states that “U.S. senators said the makers of Avandia, British firm GlaxoSmithKline, knew it carried a higher risk of heart attack than a rival medicine but had tried to keep evidence of the risk from the public.” Another company that cares more about making money than the health of humanity. As consumers we need to make wise decisions. In order to make wise decisions we have to start with ourselves. We need to be honest with what our priorities are in this world at this time and place. The diseases, mental illnesses, crime rates…that are manifesting all around us are signs that what we’ve invested in for our mass culture is not working. The majority of today’s society stands on greed and power. We are at a time where we have a tremendous amount of opportunity and space to be heard and to make a difference which could go both ways; it could contribute to the same energy that’s been invested in our culture until now or it could courageously lead us to new avenues that can create pathways of healing for the masses. There are obviously bits and pieces of those new avenues sprouting into our existence at this time but it won’t be enough unless they reach the masses. I believe that we are only as strong as our weakest link-it takes all of us to discover the ultimate path of healing for humanity and the world around us. Right now with all of the messages that the media is spreading to the masses about what we should think, feel and do we are standing on an empire that will self-destruct unless each one of us starts taking responsibility for our role in the world today.