taste or health
May 9, 2008
Hi guys,
I know many of you might already know the raw, live drink called Kambucha, but I just found it.
Mostly I was drinking Ojas from Europe-I loved it. I mixed it with pear or orange or other fresh fruit juices or else even plain it was great.
But I couldn’t get Ojas anymore so I called them. I found out they were having some financial trouble. So, tried to help get Ojas back on their feet and into the country. (So if any one wants to invest in a great raw food drink-contact the Ojas folks!)
Anyway, I now found GT’s Kambucha. As with all new things I find, I started to do some research on it. I found that many people did not like the taste! I mean, a lot of the folks online complained about the taste! “Vinegar,” they said. “Cow poop!”
Stop being a big baby! Obviously you looked for and found a potent health drink. You are drinking it because you are looking for a health boost! Well, I say: what price health? I would rather be healthy and drink down 4 ounces of Kambucha in the morning and evening then to be unhealthy and if Kambucha has half the properties they say it has then: what up, man? Suffer!
But the truth is that I have given Kambucha to all my friends AND my family and after the initial warning that they may not like it, I have had only positive feedback! Because it comes in so many flavors, there has to be one you find that you like. Or else, add your own juices to it to soften the flavor-because it IS a rather tart flavor!
So, this is what I have found out about Kambucha:
It is a Chinese fermented tea.
Some people think it comes from mushrooms.
The Chinese and Russians drink it in hot tea form and seem to live FOREVER!
It has live cultures in it and raw enzymes (always good in my book) when I drink it I get this weird tingly feeling in my arms. When this happened I called the Kambucha folks and a nice girl name Wendy called me back immediately. She told me that feeling is the “energy surge” from the drink!
I also asked her about people with diabetes: can they drink Kambucha?
“Well,” she said, “They can drink ‘GT’s’ but not ‘Synergy’. Apparently they have two types of drinks: one has less of a “sugar” factor then the other.
I gave it to my girlfriend Kim the other day because she complained of being light-headed days after giving blood. She had decided to go running and felt ill. So I gave her the kambucha and she told me it “saved” her! I think she meant that it gave her back her energy and strength-even after giving blood and running.
I give it to my boyfriend before he runs-energy boost. But, he drinks it several times a day anyway because we just love it.
The last thing about Kambucha I might add is that it is very “fizzy”. I mean, mucho bubbles! So I open the jar, close it again immediately and then shake it. I do this a few times until I get the desired “fizziness”.
The thing for me is: I don’t care if something tastes tart or sour-if it is good for me or gives me a great feeling of well-being, I will suffer through. But the Kambucha actually grows on you. And this is from someone who won’t even eat raw apple cider vinegar (or any vinegar for that matter) because it is too sour!
So, don’t be put off by all the cry babies and whiners-try it for yourself. Just brace yourself for that first taste-after that, it goes down easy and feels great!
So here is the question: taste or health?
To Your Health
May 9, 2008
I received a lovely letter the other day from a woman whose daughter had bought my book and started on the raw diet. She told me her daughter felt so great already. And she expressed surprise at this and asked why did her daughter feel so good after just about a week of eating this way? Then she said she was over weight and that she wanted to start on raw but she was afraid. Afraid she couldn’t do it. Afraid she wouldn’t be able to start or that she might not like it. Believe me, in my book, even some raw is better then no raw. And starting somewhere is better then not starting at all! So this is what I told her:
First always check with a doctor who understands raw and who knows you.
That said, I will answer your last question first: change slowly!
Don’t push yourself to be in competition with your daughter. Some people change everything right away and some people move more slowly.
The thing is, you probably eat some raw already-fruits and salads perhaps?
The best way I have found is to list what I like to eat. Then I look for the raw substitute.
For example:as a model I NEVER ate cheese-too fattening. But now I go to the Cheese Store or Whole Foods and ask to taste RAW MILK CHEESES. Then I picked my favorites.
Now I feel fine eating some cheese just about everyday. But remember, I said SOME cheese-some people find their favorite things and they over eat them! Not good. One girl wrote me and asked why she wasn’t losing weight. When I wrote back and asked her what she ate, she wrote that she happened to love the sandwich recipe in my book. And that she ate it everyday-twice even! First of all, the Ezekiel bread is not RAW! And to eat the same sandwich everyday is to stock up on all the minerals and nutrients that are in that combo-only! We need a wide variety of things in our diet so change things around each day.
Anyway, there are raw substitutes for just about everything. And some things are already raw prepared: Spence and company cured fishes (not smoked) and cured ham (also called prosuitto) I found both at whole foods. The thing is to make sure you read the label. For example that salad dressing you eat on your salad is NOT raw. But, go to the store and buy olive oil-COLD PRESSED-it is right next to the cooked stuff. To me, it is the difference between fat and thin, sick and healthy! In my book I have recipes for dressings (among other things).
Even your salt is cooked if you eat iodized table salt-there are many fabulous evaporated salts out there without added iodizing that can be actually good for you.
so, my suggestion was to read “Eating In the Raw”. And don’t fear. Nobody is judging you, but you. I mean she even said in her letter that she was over weight.
So relax, read the book, think about what you eat and like and then do you’re first investigating into where you can buy or order what you like. Many things are right in your neighborhood grocery store; it is just that you may not be aware of them. Also, carolalt.com is a good place to start as I have lots of things on there.
Now, remember, you won’t like everything you try that is raw, just like with cooked food. It is a process of trial and error. But eventually, you will find your likes and dislikes-and your sources.
Second, in a nutshell, as I understand it, the reason your daughter feels better is because she is nourishing her body! She is stressing it less to digest raw foods. (Read the book!) Now because she has nutrients available, she will eventually eat less as her body repairs itself and then rebuilds and then gets to a point where she needs less food to do the same amount of rebuilding and repairing. And her PH will hopefully become more alkaline (as raw foods are alkaline. that is supposedly very necessary for the body)-making her feel better and better!
To Your Health!
CELEBRITY APPRENTICE
May 2, 2008
“Firing me (from ‘Celebrity Apprentice’) was the best thing Donald (Trump) could ever have done for me”, says Carol Alt. “People were so incensed – the one thing everybody says to me is ‘You should have won!’. And of course, no one will ever know if I would have or not (had she gone toe-to-toe with Piers Morgan, the ultimate winner), which keeps the conversation going and that’s always a good thing.”
Carol was shocked by the firing at first, because she had helped raise a lot of money for charity (close to $100,000) and had never lost a task. But, as everyone knows, Donald is a businessman extraordinaire and obviously must have had his reasons, mysterious as they may have been.
Something else that Carol was not completely prepared for was the fierce (and often vicious) competition among the women. She caught on to that quickly, though, and was able to use it to her advantage as the weeks went by. Surprisingly enough, the worst of it did not come from the “usual suspect”. She won’t name names, but it is safe to say that danger is often hidden in velvet-wrapped packages.
There was a list of nearly 200 celebrities who were interested in being a part of this wildly entertaining fund-raising event. Apparently, one who had already been chosen went into a mild state of panic shortly before shooting was supposed to begin and decided to bow out. Carol reports, “Donald and I have known each other for years. He’s always liked me and suggested calling to ask me if I would step in. I was just finishing a film and, since this was only two weeks before ‘Celebrity Apprentice” was set to start, I really didn’t have time to freak out. So I said I’d do it!” Carol saw this as a wonderful opportunity to raise money for TAMFI, the Tony Alt Memorial Fund, in honor of her late brother (www.TAMFI.com).
The shooting schedule was intense, to say the least. The average day lasted 20 or 21 hours, leaving them only 3 or 4 hours to sleep. “We often didn’t even have time to eat and I lost 12 pounds within the first 10 days”, Carol says. “I should write another book: ‘The Celebrity Apprentice Diet’!”
Lack of sleep and food aside, the stress level was horrendous. It was during the boardroom meeting following the first task that Carol says she “got it” – meaning, it became crystal clear to her that the other women had, shall we say, their own agendas and bringing Carol Alt down seemed to be a priority for most of them. There was obviously some kind of game being played and once Carol understood the “rules”, her competitive nature took over. She still doesn’t agree with the tactics that were being employed by the other women, but the old expression, “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” seemed to apply and certainly worked in her favor.
Carol’s business acumen was in high gear throughout the often grueling competition. Unfortunately, not everyone had the same savvy way of handling the various tasks, nor did they always agree on the best approach. Take the hot dog task, for example. “Basically, the leader (in this case, Omorossa) didn’t identify our assets. In her mind, we were. . .selling hot dogs. Period. Tiffany Fallon pointed out that we were not just ‘selling hot dogs’. We were seven beautiful women selling hot dogs and a thousand guys on the street that day would have bought anything from us, probably at any price. Well, Omorossa disagreed and insisted that we were just selling hot dogs, based solely upon their own merits, like anyone else would have done. The guys, on the other hand, recognized that they were seven celebrities selling hot dogs and behaved accordingly – they sold one hot dog for $10,000! – while we sold 1,000 hot dogs for $2.50 each. We did not identify our assets properly and that’s just a basic business strategy. So, we failed.”
In fact, Carol says that with each task, at least one common business point was overlooked or ignored by the women. One by one, each of the other female celebs was eliminated in the Boardroom until it was just Carol and the two final guys: Trace Adkins and Piers Morgan. That’s when Donald pulled the shocker and gave Carol the axe, which in retrospect, as she says, is the best thing he could have done for her. So, once again, Carol thanks Donald for yet another good turn.
In case you missed any of Carol’s episodes, or just want to re-visit them, click on the following link.
