I’ve known for a long time the importance of clean water and believe in and support the work of organizations like charity : water.

The documentary FLOW, For the Love of Water has completely left me changed.  Opening up a new angle on the water issue, documenting what is happening with water and water rights around the world, this film is a must see. From the website:

(FLOW) builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

After watching it, I wanted to DO SOMETHING. I didn’t want to have all this knowledge, all this information and have nothing I could do. The first thing I did was sign Article 31. Article 31 is a call, a petition upon the United Nations to establish access to clean and potable water as a fundamental human right.

Okay, done. But now what? I felt (and still feel) the need to do more. The FLOW website has links to organizations, non-profits and activism sites where you can partner, donate and volunteer to make a difference. You can be sure I’m going to be clicking those links and learning more.

But the first instinctual responses I had after watching FLOW were:

1) I will not buy/drink bottled water. Whatever it takes, I’m not going to do it. I’ll buy portable filters for road trips and and fill up my jugs at the local tap, wherever I may be. Whatever it takes, I’ll do it – I will not buy bottled water again.

2) I will not buy any products from Coca-Cola, Pepsi or Nestle. (watch the film and you’ll learn why I’m boycotting these three companies in specific) The harm they are causing here at home in the US and around the world is wrong. I will not support them or any of their brands until they stop their horrific, inhuman and environmentally damaging business practices.

Given the enormity of these three companies, it’s going to be interesting to avoid all the brands and products they make. But I’ll make a freakin’ master list if I have to. Thankfully, my lifestyle and diet already keeps most of their products off my shopping list… but I will be sure to keep an eye out and avoid any that might happen to appear.

I share all this for two reasons:

1. Please watch FLOW. You may not have the same reaction I did – but I think the information they share in that film is important for all of us to know.
2. I’m curious, what gets your goat? What topics or issues have made you get up out of your chair and do something, anything!… because you couldn’t imagine sitting still about it one more day?

Embrace Love and Life. Embrace Your Health!

This news came out of Consumer Reports blog post  “Death by bad health care“:

In the number of people who die for want of timely and effective health care…. From 1997-98 to 2002-03, the United States dropped from 15th out of 19 to dead last.

As the article wraps up:

“Something to keep in mind the next time you hear a politician boast that the U.S. has “the best health care in the world” or warn of the supposed horrors of the British or Canadian systems.”

A quick note: I’m not advocating universal health care as the cure all for all our country’s health ills.  We Americans, as a norm, have not taken responsibility for our health.  We’ve given our health and longevity into the hands of doctors, pharmaceuticals and symptomatic treatment systems.  Before we ever sit nervously in the doctor’s waiting lounge, pay out our hard earned money on pharmaceutical drugs, before all of these things… we have the responsibility to manage our personal health.

The most radical health care reform our country could experience is each of us owning the right and responsibility that we have for our own health and well-being.

Embrace Love and Life. Embrace Your Health!

Paul, my husband, sent an email to a work colleague who is battling cancer.  Here’s that email.  I’ll expound on each of his points below in posts to follow over the next few days, but this is a great introduction on how and why nutrition makes all the difference in our health – whether it be improved general well-being to battling disease.  So without further ado…   I present guest blogger: Paul Moment.

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DON’T let the final word on this cancer come from the doctors. Seriously. I strongly encourage you to, along with the doctors advice, take matters into your own hands and educate yourselves on alternatives and supportive regimes.

Specifically, raw food. Janece has been getting us into raw food and the anecdotal results are pretty startling. She just read me some stories tonight about raw food’s effect on cancer – specifically gynecological cancer and advanced leukemia in the stories we read. (Editorial note: These case studies can be found in Carol Alt’s The Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle.)  In both cases the cancer was neutralized to the point of completely disappearing, while the body’s critical nutritional indexes skyrockets. We personally had a friend with a very aggressive brain tumor who extended her life expectancy from months to almost two years just with nutritional changes, even though she didn’t know about raw food. Again, these are all people with very very serious health issues and the scariest kinds of cancers.

Here’s why Donna (Editorial note: name changed) should strongly consider trying raw food:

1) Nutrition is literally who we are. The only thing our body has to build itself, maintain a internal environment conducive to energetic life, and battle disease is what we take in — food and vitamins. When food is cooked, the important enzymes, fats, and chemical makeup of the food are altered and depleted, leaving our body bereft of the vital compounds it needs for cell building and disease prevention. Cancers exploit damaged and weakened immune systems. An important way to hold back cancer is to build an unfriendly environment for it by increasing the body’s overall vitality. In addition to cancer-fighting, raw food also contributes to healthy hair and skin, reduction or elimination of allergic symptoms and even serious conditions like irritable bowel syndrome etc.

2) Doctors know shockingly little about nutrition and its medicinal importance. I heard a stat once that most doctors only take one nutrition course in their almost decade-long medical training, and most of their ongoing training is in drug therapies – chemicals that can further disable the body’s natural disease fighting abilities. I strongly believe (and I believe the evidence is clear) that food is medicine, and it’s a much more pleasurable medicine than the chemo that Donna is potentially facing. At the very least, I hope she will take it on as a vital part of supporting her return to health, and no doctor is going to tell her to not try and eat healthy during the next months.

3) Raw food contributes to a non-acidic internal composition. In the early 1900s a scientist (Dr. Otto Warburg) won a Nobel prize for his work on how cancer is starved off and rendered much less potent in alkaline blood environments. Meat, sugars, dairy and other foods contribute to highly acidic blood environments (which additionally contributes to systemic inflammation, also problematic) whereas plant-based foods are highly alkalized. This accounts for the startling results that cancer patients have experienced switching to raw food.

4) Raw food is more energy-generating. Raw food is not only rich in all of the vital nutritional compounds, but it also frees the body from taking its own resources to try and milk some nutrition from the food. Having strong nutritional support mitigates stress and anxiety, which I’m sure Jim and Linda are feeling in abundance.

5) Raw food is delicious. It’s pie, lasagna & raviolis, smoothies, juice, sashimi, raw cheese, and tons of other delicious food. I am/have been a meat and potatoes kinda guy, preferring that even to sweet stuff. When I first heard raw food, I imagined bitter skinny people chewing nuts, but it’s really delicious and deeply satisfying – way more than I would have imagined.

Janece and I have been seeing fundamental body results. The anecdotal and study evidence is very compelling. The resources to take on a raw food lifestyle are abundant and well-developed. It’s easy, delicious, quick-acting, and cheaper than drugs. If Donna introduced just raw juice cocktail and greens-based smoothies into her diet, that would be enormously beneficial.

I’m copying Janece on this. She is researching this pretty thoroughly and has a ton of important resources. We’d love to give you any support in this that we can. You have our email.  Janece also has a health blog called “Embracing My Health” – http://www.embracingmyhealth.com. A couple of books we’ve found helpful – “Green for Life” by Victoria Boutenko and ““Eating in the Raw” and “The Raw 50″ by Carol Alt.

I see the headline on the Yahoo homepage: “If current trends continue, nearly all Americans could be overweight by 2030“. I click over to an ABC News video. And what is the commercial that I’m given to atch before the news article? Oreos. A back and forth “bonding moment” between a son and father (albeit over webcam) eating Oreos together…

Anyway. The video news blurb audio wouldn’t play for me after the advertisement for whatever reason. The only thing I could see was video image after image of overweight people. I gave up and searched online for the study and found it: (”Americans Could Be Overweight Or Obese By 2030.” ScienceDaily 29 July 2008.).

The net conclusion of the study: as much as 86% of American adults will be overweight or obese by 2030.  96% of non-Hispanic black women and 91% of Mexican American men…  That’s no small number.

The only thing that will begin to alter these numbers are you and me.

Want to buck the trend with me?