A letter to all my Fans

This is a letter to all my Fans!!

Last night many of you joined me in a wonderful SOLD OUT debut on HSN of the first four products in my new line of skin care Raw Essentials! Thank you, thank you for your support….

As I realize some questions may arise from that debut I wish to take a moment out of my crazy schedule (I am packing for a 3 month job overseas!) to alleviate some concerns and to answer some questions….

My History in the beauty business is well documented. In fact, NOTHING is secret in this business….
that said, let me get to the meat of your questions:

Did I have a face lift?

NO! I have a problem with keyloiding in my skin. If I had a face lift, I would have scars- and any makeup artist would love to be the whistle blower who becomes famous from unveiling any improprieties…. I do have dermabrasion- every now and again- maybe twice this year. and maybe once last year for a deep clean….

I had no acid peel. I once tried a cool lazer…did not see much change…. My lids are not cut or tucked…. I had an injection of restyln when I made the mistake of injecting a pimple because it became a nagging problem and my girlfriend told me to get it injected- as much as I fought it, I could not see going on the “celebrity apprentice” with a big bump on my face that was not really quite a pimple…. well, the injection ate my skin and collagen… and you know what? The CAUSE of the pimple did not go away (a blocked pore that needed to be cleaned out!! simple problem- simple solution!! but NOOOOO! I had to deal with the symptom and cause my self other problems!! Sound familiar? Go to the cause of problems and save yourself more problems!!)

So I had to have the “hole” left by the injection-filled…. and as it already went against my philosophy to get anything chemical….I kicked myself the whole show and while watching it because you can see the “hole” on the left chin area all the way…. eventually my own collagen filled the spot and the filler-as I am told is normal- disappeared… So injections? Yes….

What else? Ask me by posting your questions on carolalt.com for anything I missed…

Le Mirador

Yes! I was under contract for Le mirador with QVC! Le Mirador was the homegrown QVC brand. I love QVC! They were great with me…. When my books came out, I decided to create my own line! Following the Philosophy of Raw! And QVC was very understanding of that…. I believe you can still get those products from the Spa in Switzerland.

My Raw calling!!

My line is as close as I can possibly get to how I eat! In fact, some of my ingredients are coconut oil and tamanu oil and Aloe Vera in their “purest” form possible and cold manufactured to keep all the integrity of these ingredients-or as much as humanly possible…

I know raw is a controversial subject, I know many people don’t think you get any benefit from raw…. Well, I am a walking bill board to the benefits of raw…. I changed my health…. Not a stomach/acid problem, not a headache, not a flu in 13 years!! (and I was ALWAYS sick with one thing or the other!!)

I had terrible allergies since I was a kid…oh my gosh!!! Terrible- no live Christmas tree for the Alt’s, Carol can’t handle the dust and pollen etc off a live tree…..my brother and sisters were so mad at me…
well, not any more, I have no more allergies!!

I feel better, I think I look better (although there was some debate about that, I will answer that below….) I am definitely healthier…..and I owe it all to the change in my diet… I went “cold turkey” with my diet changes….not everyone can do that!! I understand!! Believe me I have friends and family following in my foot steps and I went thru the changes with them all….. I wrote Eating in the Raw, my first book, as a response to people wanting know how to do it!! I took an non-raw foodie thru the process and we basically wrote about it! All his questions answered for you to read…. but I digress…..

The point is that you just need a little education on label reading and to understand how “normal” food is processed to change… and in fact, if weight is your problem (as it was mine) eating this way is the best way I know of to keep the weight off…and to find your most natural, healthiest weight! And man, I eat like a race horse now….Yum!

So I always suggest if you do not have access to your own “raw food” escort, find a doctor who knows this way of life and ask for help….you can’t believe the benefits and you can’t believe how easy…
I wrote Eating in the Raw to be a guide to helping you find the raw, and I wrote The Raw 50- (meant to be the Raw 50 Menus but hey even supermodels make mistakes…LOL) to help you remain healthy and safe while changing to the raw food way of life…

There has not been a person who has talked to me who has gone raw who regretted it…. And don’t forget, the first couple weeks, you may detoxify! you may feel worse first! Stick to it, follow your “escort’s” guidelines….and you will get thru it…and the “other side” of the detox experience is not like anything you have experienced before…funny, how after I detoxified….and I was feeling great…I then thought back to how I felt before I went raw and was astonished to think that I had THOUGHT I FELT GOOD BEFORE….BUT it was nothing like how good I felt after….

I did have cancer…in 1990 I had cervical and in 1999 I had uterine. I got help from both sides of the issue: conventional doctors and homeopathic. As I had gotten rid of all my “little” problems: allergies, sinus infections, colds, flu, headaches, stomach acid…with raw I called my homeopathic doctor who taught me raw and said: how can this be? I am raw 3 years…..he told me the following:

“Carol, I am surprised that is all you have!! When you came to me with your little aches and complaints, i knew you were in for a long haul. You had so many illnesses about to happen that i could not tell you because I did not want to scare you. But, I knew if you did not go raw, you would have had a very different future than you have now. you would have had many more problems than this and far more serious problems (more serious than cancer?? wow!!). Stay the course, and keep diligent, follow my Protocol for you and we can beat this!”

and I did- it was a roller coaster ride, but I followed my path of raw and supplements and enzymes and herbs, and I have had clean tests for the last 5.5 years. No surgery, chemo or radiation….This was my path….

Then I wanted to keep my environment clean, too, chemical free to help my healing and healthy process… Well, when it came to looking at all the things around me that had chemicals, the research that I did, in order to help save my own life, led me to understand that the air and water is polluted and that the body ends up trying to clean this…and it is taxing on the body…. And then I looked at skin care and realized that whatever we put on the skin goes into the bloodstream and becomes part of the body!! Scary!! Even more scary? THE FDA DOES NOT REGULATE SKIN CARE OR BEAUTY PRODUCTS!!!!

So, I decided that if I am putting it on my skin, I want the cleanest possible, most raw possible, most pure possible products…. Well, nothing that existed passed my test! So I made my own! In my home, in my blender!! And everyone loved them… And then I got the chance to make it for you! or as close to what I was making as possible! The biggest tests were the preservatives!! And the cold processing!! And we pioneered both. I believe this is the future… OH- and so does some of the other cosmetic companies… as they told me to my face, that in 5 years, they will be copying me… So draw your own conclusions!!

The before and after photo on HSN….

The before and after of me seemed to be of big debate online… Well here it is- first of all, the lightening in the photo was a yellow light and HSN has a more FLAT blue light! Better to show you FAB products!! But well, Yellow light is much more flattering for people and skin. I did the best with what i had….LOL

I had no foundation OR blush….I wanted to show you clean skin!!

I am 26 years older than that photo- so you need to separate the maturing of a “look” and the “quality” of the skin…. I was trying to show you that my skin quality is just about the same…as 26 years ago- as any makeup artist can tell you- I mean any artist who has been up close and personal with me that is!!

My raw line:

I will have another 7 products in the normal to sensitive line in January on the 27th…I will fly in from Europe and go right on air….so please be kind if i look stressed!! Listen to the message and stop picking apart the Human messenger…. We will have a melting scrub….I hope….I am working on it NOW!! We will have body moisture, masks, toners, scrubs….bath products…..what ever you need to start your Raw Skin Care Regime! I did the work for you…. join us and learn more!!

OK, OK…. I am not a scientist, but I hired the best, most unbelievable scientist!! One who loves natural ingredients and was up to the challenge of making a natural preservative and pioneering the cold process of mixing the line… In March, I will come out with my FAV line- as I have mature and ageing skin!! It is the Anti-aging line…

Do they Work? I aim for all the best results you need for skin, and then I work backwards to find the ingredients that are in nature that do this!! Then I work forward again to create a LUX, elegant, sexy line that is easy to use (no refrigeration!!) try it!! You will not go back……
AND JUST WAIT ’til you see my testimonials in January 27/28th! (most after two weeks of use only- some only 10 days of use!!) Even I was most pleasantly shocked at the results!!! I knew this line was good…..but THAT GOOD???? Wow!!

Feed your skin…. I am trying to educate you to make the right choices in your skin care and food regime…. Education is the beginning of change. it was for me…. and I do not force this philosophy on anyone….it is just that I had such amazing, incredible results from it, I cannot imagine that other women-IF THEY KNEW ABOUT IT- would not want those same changes…

Do I get too thin on raw, yup! I do- minor side effect….

I am happier, healthier, more aware, in less pain, more clear in my thinking and my spirituality than ever before….than even when I was 20!! I thank God for that… all I am doing is “Paying it Forward…”

SUMMERTIME AND RAW EATIN’ IS EASY

When the subject of summer vs winter raw foods is brought up, Carol Alt knows that in this day and age, there is virtually no difference between the two in terms of easy availability.  Access to foods that are grown internationally and transported all over the world is commonplace and relatively inexpensive, thanks to modern transportation methods.  No more waiting for the first warm days of summer if you crave strawberries, grapes or asparagus.  Winter vegetables?  No longer any different than the summer ones.  With very few exceptions, all fruits and vegetables are now available year-round.

What does seem to be seasonal, however, is the way many people think of summer vs winter meals.  In the wintertime, nothing seems more inviting that a hot cup of soup, followed by a rich, heavy, warming plate of…well, you name your favorite foods.

But who wants a heavy meal during the heat of summer?  Certainly not raw food enthusiasts and really, not too many other people, either.  We all want to cool off and a terrific, interesting salad, or a plate of fresh fruit, can be just what the doctor ordered.

Carol loves the variety of dishes available during the long, warm days of summer, and is happy to share a few choice ideas.  For example, a beautiful, yet simple salad composed of cucumbers, dill and cold-pressed olive oil.  She sometimes includes her own homemade kefir and a little sea salt in the dressing, for variety.

“I love kefir and since it’s so easy to make, especially during the summer, when it’s warm outside, I keep some going all the time”, says Carol.  “Ask your favorite Indian restaurant to sell you a kefir ‘bud’, which is just a scoop of their own kefir.  Heat your milk  (about a gallon) until just before it comes to a boil, let it cool, and add the kefir ‘bud’.  Set the bowl outside in the sun (cover it with a towel or plastic wrap), come back 8 hours later and voila! you have your own homemade kefir!  If the kefir isn’t quite thick enough, just leave it in the sun a while longer, until it’s the consistency you want”.  Carol likes to add granola to her kefir when it’s ready to eat and of course, you can add whatever fruits you prefer.  “Kefir contains more beneficial bacteria than yoghurt and by making my own, I know that the ingredients are not chemically altered”, something that fits right into Carol’s raw and healthy lifestyle.

Back to the salad dressing, Carol says there are countless variations on the cold-pressed olive oil and kefir base:  Curry, a pinch of cayenne (if you like things spicy), minced onion, garlic, etc., can all be added to suit your taste.  “Experiment with it.  You’ll discover a lot of different tastes that work beautifully with fresh salad greens, as well as other raw vegetables.  By using the cold-pressed oil, you also know that the dressing will be of the highest possible quality, especially in terms of raw.”

If you can’t resist eating pasta, Carol urges you to try rice pasta.  Chop up some fresh tomatoes, a little cilantro or basil, celtic sea salt and cold-pressed olive oil.   “Don’t cook the mixture - in Italy it is called ‘pomodoro al fresco’ or ‘cold tomatoes’”, Carol advises, “but even if you  HAVE to have a hot tomato sauce, which will probably give you heartburn, at least add the oil after cooking…” and toss it with the hot pasta.  “When I gave up wheat pasta, along with the other wheat products that I no longer eat, I never had another cold, or sinus infection, or allergy attack!”, she says.  “Before I changed that part of my diet, I was constantly taking aspirin, cold medicines, allergy medicines - I was sick all the time.  Never again.”

Depending on where you live, the myriad summer fruits - cherries, peaches, mangos, berries, pineapples, etc. - can be cut up, tossed together, and served with a kefir-based “dip” or dressing.  Add a little honey and some of the juices from the cut fruit to the kefir for a lovely, slightly sweet dressing.

Speaking of something sweet, Carol will combine a fresh banana, some fresh fruit, perhaps a little freshly squeezed orange juice and kefir, all whirled together with a little ice in the blender, for a delicious slushy.  And to cover her bets during the winter, or if she forgot to go to the market for fresh items, Carol freezes some fruit (including cut-up bananas) for emergency use.  She also recommends keeping commercially frozen fruits in the freezer year-round, with the caveat that they not be processed with added sugar or syrup.

These are just a few of the ideas and recipes included in Carol’s book, “The Raw Fifty”.  The book covers nearly 130 menu ideas and recipes, which help raw enthusiasts (and anyone else looking for delicious additions to their usual fare) come up with easy, tasty, family-pleasing dishes.

In case you’re wondering - and who doesn’t? - how the calorie count in raw fruits and vegetables stacks up against that of the same foods when they’ve been cooked, Carol has a great analogy.  “I compare the foods we put into our bodies to the gasoline we put into our cars.  It’s all going to be burned up, but if you put cheap gas into your car, it’ll leave a residue and not burn cleanly.  That will ultimately damage your car’s engine.  The higher quality the gas, the cleaner it burns.  With our food, the purer it is going in, the cleaner and more energy-efficient it will be.  What can be more pure than raw fruits and vegetables?”.

One of the things that Carol emphasizes is that “raw” really means “unprocessed”.  Every time you open a can of something - anything! - the food in that can has been processed, meaning that in a very basic way, it has been altered molecularly.  The human body then has to process the altered food differently (and less efficiently) than it would if the same food were raw and unaltered.

Carol has given lectures and even spoken to doctors and other medical professionals about the molecular changes that occur when raw food is cooked.  She is trying to teach everyone that by eating raw, your body receives the purest possible energy source and is really forced to burn it all off in the cleanest, healthiest way.

In a future article on this website, Carol will explore what it was like being a fat - yes! you read correctly! - kid.  But for now, she hopes you’ll push back from the computer, and take a walk…maybe to a fresh foods market nearby, for some of that luscious summer produce she’s been talking about

Eat well stay young

I have been doing much thinking about aging and the effects of food on aging. And if you have not read any books on raw foods, I will tell you what it is that I am thinking.

I am thinking that if cooked food is heated to high temps (in this case, anything over 115 degrees F is considered “high”.);

and if the heat kills ‘most’ of the enzymes(I guess the hardy ones survive?);

and if the heat also denatures some or most of the vitamins and minerals-meaning that vitamins and minerals are changed fundamentally in their chemical makeup so that they are less able to be absorbed by the body;

and if the heating of food effects the PH of the food- changing it from alkaline to acid;

Then the question I have been pondering is: does changing our food this way by cooking it, age the body?

The only conclusion I have come up with is that, yes, it must age the body-it has to; and it probably changes it a lot!

Ok, so again, I am not a doctor, nor a scientist. I am just a woman who is concerned about the effects of aging on her career, life and body. So I, too, am looking for “The Fountain of Youth”. The question is: Is there one and if so, where?

Come on, who isn’t concerned about the effects of aging? Who isn’t concerned about the effects of the ‘degeneration ‘of the body? I think degeneration even effects how susceptible we are to disease in the body. I think as we age, disease has more opportunity to attack our weaker and weaker bodies.

But even so, disease aside, it is such a “young” society and it seems everything is geared toward the young and sexy in this society. Magazines, books, music, movies advertisements- all cater to the younger generation or the desire to be or feel young.

The older I get, the more I notice this: the young have no idea how great it is to be young. I mean, as I got older, every spot, pimple, ache, or pain becomes cause for a call to the doctor.

Your hair, skin and body all change daily-and most times for the worse.

But I don’t mean to be morbid here, what I am getting to is my ‘beacon of light’. I am trying to paint the picture for you: If you don’t know you are in the darkness, how do you know when the light is shone?

Ok? So we are in the darkness of aging and disease.

The light that I shine is raw food and good nutrition.

Ok hand off the clicker!!!

This is really not boring-believe me, and it is not scary or confusing.

Let’s go back to the top of this blog where I said the following:

I am thinking that:

• if cooked food is heated to high temps (in this case, anything over 115 degrees F is considered “high”);
• if the heat kills most of the enzymes(I some of the hardy ones survive, I suppose?);
• if the heat also denatures some or most of the vitamins and minerals-meaning that vitamins and minerals are changed fundamentally in their chemical makeup so that they are less able to be absorbed by the body;
• and if the heating of food effects the PH of the food- changing it from alkaline to acid;

If all this is happening to our food when we cook it, then does eating this food affect our aging process?

And, if we find out the answer to this, will we be better able to control some of the effects of aging?

My opinion is absolutely “yes”!

Here is why I think that:

Let’s start with the last point on the list: PH of food.

First of all, if the body only produces acid (like lactic acid in muscles that make us sore after a work out or hydrochloric acid in our stomach to digest food) and if food gets more acid if you cook it, and acid eats things up-like rust can disintegrate a car or nail polish remover can eat away nail hard tough nail polish- and if our body needs to stay pretty neutral because our organs like to sit in neutral PH, then all that acid running in our blood and being stored in our tissues HAS GOT TO BE EATING THE BODY!

How long can something sit in acid and not basically melt away?

I mean, just in terms of a natural occurrence and common sense, acid on soft tissue has got to be damaging.

So go ahead, drink your ‘acid’ coffee, and eat your ‘acid’ cooked food and pile the acid into your system.

You will give yourself indigestion-yeah.

But you will also wear away at your body. And hey, when the body wears down more and more, then you know what? You may end up looking like what you eat.

Eat acid-look ‘eaten’ up and worn down!

I think that is pretty simple idea- or am I wrong in my thought process?

Think about it yourself and come up with your own conclusions.

Anyway, since this blog has turned out to be so long, and I want to go into more effects of food on aging and what we can do about it, you will have to wait until next time I blog-as I am doing two movies at the same time in Europe, I am blogging around my shooting schedule. So the next time I will go into molecular structure and why when you cook food changing the structure of it can age you

But for now:

Eat well-stay young!

How silly is that circle

I am picking up where my last blog left off.

Just to re-mind you of the facts we established in my last blog:

I am thinking that:

• if cooked food is heated to high temps. (In this case, anything over 115 degrees F is considered “high”)
• if the heat kills most of the enzymes(I supposed this means some of the hardy ones survive?)
• if the heat also denatures some or most of the vitamins and minerals-meaning that vitamins and minerals are changed fundamentally in their chemical makeup so that they are less able to be absorbed by the body;
• and if the heating of food effects the PH of the food- changing it from alkaline to acid;

If all this is happening to our food when we cook it, then does eating this food affect our aging process?

Let’s begin here

So, if in fact, when we add heat to anything we change the molecular structure, then by law of the universe, when we heat food we change its molecular structure, too

For example, in chemistry, you know if you boil water, that its molecular structure changes from a liquid to a gas (water to steam).

That is a chemical change.

So, a heated fat and a heated protein then is not the same as a raw fat in that when you heat them, you change its molecular structure, too-just as it happened with the water.

So, you have a food, perhaps a protein-which is an amino acid and you heat that protein. The heat does ‘its thing’ and changes the molecular structure of that protein.

Now you don’t really have an amino acid any more do you? I mean, how can you? If the structure of an amino acid is specific, then to change that structure is to change that amino acid.

Ok, that established, we now have this non-amino acid that WAS an amino acid before it was cooked going into your system.

The body looks at it and says: what is this? I have enzymes for an amino acid, but this is not an amino acid. What do I do?

The body decides then to break down the non-amino acid into its component parts, looks at it, then recognizes bits and pieces, puts those pieces together again as an amino acid, storing in the process the bits and pieces it cannot use.

Then when it recognizes the re-built amino acid, the body then makes another set of enzymes to break down the amino acid that it just re-built. Once, finally broken down into its component parts a second time, it can now be used to re-build and maintain the tissue and organs in the body or to make new enzymes.

Phew! A lot of work for the body-that creates stress and stress is more acid (see my last blog about the effects of acid on the body)

Ok so what does that mean to your body now?

1. You store whatever it is you don’t use of the original non-amino acid (oh, could this be stored as weight on the body? carrying around all that extra weight is stressful on the body and stress is acid forming-see the effects of acid on the body from my last blog!)
2. You have stressed the body to do all that work breaking down the non-amino, rebuilding it and breaking it down again so you can now use it-just to have a hamburger! (See the effects of acid on the body in my last blog.)
3. you have used up two sets of enzymes

since point 1&2 are about acid which I dealt with in my last blog, at this point, I want to talk about #3 above-Using up two sets of enzymes:

This next thought is simple to understand! (Just relax and follow my thought process to the end. I wrap it up I promise!)

OK here goes!

If enzymes are created from vitamins and minerals and our body is made up of and needs vitamins and minerals too, then our body has to split the vitamins and minerals it does get from any foods you eat.

And if we have established in my last blog (repeated above) that cooking food ‘denatures’ vitamins and minerals preventing the body from absorbing the most it can, then there are very little vitamins and minerals around for the body to use to make enzymes or to even rebuild and MAINTAIN itself.

If you eat only cooked food and there isn’t enough vitamins and minerals to make the enzymes the body needs to digest all the cooked food you eat, then the body will pull vitamins and minerals from the most available source-bones for calcium and teeth, copper from skin and veins (elasticity) vitamin E from cologne (wrinkles) and the list goes on and on because we need a lot of different vitamins and minerals to maintain the body and we need a lot of different vitamins and minerals to build enzymes.

Since the body is an eating machine (think about it, without eating you die; so the #1 purpose of the body is to eat and digest food) then all the other things like maintaining and re-building the body, keeping the immune system up etc., come second to making enzymes.

Here is where I start to wrap it up:

So the body will pull the vitamins and mineral it needs from your body systems and organs thereby degenerating them so that it can make enzymes to digest food that has no vitamins and minerals in it! Degeneration of the body is also called aging-it is also called disease!

Wow!

How silly is that circle?

WRAP-UP

heat=cooked food=denatured, acidic food= making lots of enzymes=pulling vitamins and minerals from body to make enzymes=degenerating body= aging/disease

Yet people insist on eating cooked foods because they like them or just because they are in the habit of eating them.

Well smoking is a habit, too. I would not want to do it! It is bad

And in order to have a healthy life, one must decide to have a healthy life and then do it- quit smoking.

The same with breaking the habit of cooked foods; one must decide what is more important:

Eating cooked foods or have a healthy life.

‘Staying young” for as along as you possibly can or eating cooked foods?

In my book, there is no choice! Be healthy stay young and eat fab. Raw Foods!

However, most of the time, people only change WHEN THEY HAVE TO.

Usually that is when they get sick and are faced with a terminal illness.

But why not prevent all this silliness? Especially when my books: EATING IN THE RAW and the new RAW 50 (which will hit the stores in May) tell you how ‘fab’ raw foods are and they teach you to make some easy and familiar recipes?

I always maintain: anything you eat cooked I can find you raw-

Raw is just a different process then cooking, but the foods taste the same or better-raw unpasteurized milk right from the cow is sweeter and better then it pasteurized counter part. The same goes for cheeses: raw milk cheeses taste great!

Come on, just substitute some raw foods at least and get on your way!

If any of this is confusing, my books explain in more detail especially raw 50 due out in book stores in May. (Eating in the Raw gives you my story and the HOW-TO on eating raw: how to shop, how to eat out etc.)

Next blog, perhaps I will talk about how raw foods stopped my indigestion?

Olive oil

hi again from Italy.

you know, even though this is a beautiful city, I just can’t wait to get home! being out of the house, in a hotel-although it is a beautiful hotel, is just not me!

tom cruise and his fiancé were next door to my hotel while they were in Rome before their wedding. the helicopters buzzed all day long! Boy, all the people and the press blocking everything-so silly.

I could not wait for them to leave. Life is such a circus when he is around!!

Last weekend, I went to a baptism up in Venice and the host, knowing I was a raw “person” (as they call me here) made sure that there was enough raw food for me to eat.

As I eat fish and meats, dairy etc. this was rather easy as he had great tartars and marinated fishes and cured meats-salads, too!

I ate like a queen!

funny how so many people think they will starve if they go raw-I find it rather easy and, oh-so pleasant! I have no problem eating except when it is not in my control-for example, I had been working on two sets and they were confused as to what to serve me. since one film location was far out of Rome, I could not go to a restaurant so I had to eat what they brought me! every day they brought bresaola- a cured meat, and salad. they would argue with me every day abut the olive oil-

“senora” they would say. “we know it does not SAY freddo on the bottle, but believe us it is great olive oil!”

nope, I have to bring my own-even into restaurants as I know the pressing of olive oil has changed over the years-and now they do it by machine and THAT is not cold pressed-at all.

I even had an argument one night-imagine arguing in Italian-with a gentleman who owned the biggest olive oil producing company in Italy. he told me how proud he was of the business. he told me that he made so much money producing oil, that he could revamp his factory and get machines to press the hot oil!

I nearly fainted!

I looked at him and I said, “you will make too many people fat!”

I tried to explain the idea behind raw and cold pressed but he would not hear about it-and of course, I could not expect him to even want to understand since he just invested to revamp his empire!

but really, the people of Italy eat so much olive oil and they liberally pour it on food. and because I USED to be raw and cold pressed, they actually could loose weight on it. but now, they still used it liberally, and they are getting fatter-and they don’t know why.

I mean, they really all the time complain to me about their weight-as they never had before

and I read an article-I forget where-that said that the Italian kids are the fattest kids respectively in growing population, in the world!!

see, their food process has changed, but their habits and their knowledge of their food did not!

this to me is dangerous. if you don’t know how your food is made, or what is in it, then how can you control your health and weight?

like this assistant told me this summer while working with me on my film “twist the cap”

she said she worked in an organic cherry orchid-but the cherries were not organic.

I said how did you do that?

she said, we only said the cherries were organic so that we could collect more money for them. but really, to grow organic is too expensive….

imagine?

You need to Eat Raw

I have to tell you all that I am in the middle of writing my second book! It is due out in April. I have put so much of myself into this book; it is literally years and years worth of fact finding and gathering of info that I have added to the tips in the book. This book is really going to be great!

I have several different whipped cream recipes-and if you love whipped cream like I do, then you are in for a real (healthy) treat. All the recipes are delicious-lemon tarts, pecan pie, ice cream, ravioli and lasagna!

But better then the recipes, I have gathered facts and information that will help you to become raw more easily and to become better educated about your food.

See, that last line is important; we eat out of habit and not out of education. When I cheat-and I teach you how to do some cheating in the new book-but when you cheat, you should know why you feel like cheating and why you chose that certain food you are cheating with.

In my life for example, I sometimes miss lunch. Being so well fed for breakfast, sometimes I just forget or I don’t have the time (both of these excuse are a real no-no!)

In any case, if I skip lunch I usually get in the mood for an Irish Coffee or a Muffin of some sort, corn bread maybe, even pretzels. If I am sitting down to dinner, I want the bread in the basket or I want pasta (and believe me this is the only time that that bread ever looks good to me!)

Seeing how I understand my body and the fact that if you skip a meal the body will call out for instant sugar, I can then understand this desire for an Irish Coffee (alcohol is sugar, whipped cream has milk sugar and usually added sugar)-and I avoid giving into it. I force myself to sit down and eat a salad or other healthy food-

It never fails that after dinner, after I have eaten well (healthy), my body and my brain no longer crave these innutritious foods. In fact, these foods now repulse me-as they should!

You see, Irish Coffee, muffins, corn bread and pretzels are what I ate my whole life for breakfast and snacks before going raw, and what I feel are my comfort foods. Every one has their comfort foods. The foods you remember you ate as a kid or as a teenager; the foods that remind you of better times or less complicated times, these are your comfort foods- and they are usually also the most unhealthy foods for you.

So, when you skip a meal and your body needs instant energy, your brain goes back to a time when you felt comfortable and happy-Viola! My Irish coffee!

For you, your comfort food may be granola or cereal, cookies or crackers-all of which are a form of sugar; as is pasta and bread. Wheat is a form of sugar-especially if it has not been “sprouted” and the grain has been separated (the chaff being thrown away and the more simple, short-chained carbohydrate being left behind)

A simple carbo will get you energy faster-but it is non-nutritious and in my book-empty calories.

The most important job you have on this earth, in my view, is to feed your body good clean nutritious food! Water and proper food, nothing is as important (except maybe clean air-but hey we don’t have that do we?)

That is why I say to think with your head and not with your stomach when you sit down to a meal. Know and look for the most nutritious foods, not the foods that you are craving in that moment because you have skipped lunch, these foods my give you the fastest “Kick”, but they sure don’t keep ya young.

You need foods that feed you and stay with you-rebuilding and healing your body.

You need to eat properly; you need to eat three times a day. And in my book-both my books for that matter, I give my opinion that you need to Eat Raw!

The world traveler

Hi! This is the world traveler returning from shooting a movie in Italy. I shot most of the film in Rome but then I went up to Milan for the weekend. Then I went to Venice for a christening! Boy, a lot of travel and a lot of hunting for food, for sure! But don’t we do that anyway? Hunt for food I mean-whether we eat raw or not!

Italy is great for food. As anyone who loves pasta knows. But what about the raw foodist? What can they eat and where can they eat?

I am going to answer the first question because it really answers the second question at the same time.

Because the Italians really like to cure their food I could eat almost anywhere. They have many interesting dishes and meats that are completely raw-because curing is not cooking. Marinating is not cooking either.

So let’s start with cured foods: Bresaola is a type of meat that is cured. It is dark red in color and tastes a little salty (it is cured by salt- so no kidding it tastes salty!) as is Proscuitto and Carpaccio-my favorite! Carpaccio is cow’s meat and Proscuitto is pig. I was told that Bresaola is venison (deer meat)-so I hope I translated that right!

They also marinate a lot of their fish-especially salmon. Now, don’t confuse marinated salmon with smoked salmon! In fact, many people consider smoked salmon to be carcinogenic (that means that it contributes to cancer in the body) and I do not eat it myself.

But I love marinated fishes. I went to a place called La Rizahaka 6 (and no, I don’t know if I spelt it right so let me tell you how it is pronounced La Riz-ak-a. just in case you go to Milan and need to ask!)

La Rizahaka had not only marinated salmon, but white fishes as well. Spada (swordfish), mackeral or sole all marinated-fabulous! In essence you can marinate practically any fish you would want to. I would think lemon, salt (evaporated sea salt) and a little olive oil (raw, cold pressed of course!) could probably do the job!

And that brings me to my next point: 8 years ago I had an argument with one of the leading olive oil producers in a piazza in Spoleto. Spoleto is outside of Rome about an hour and a half. It is beautiful countryside and I had my gorgeous night ruined by this man telling me how proud he was that he made enough money producing olive oil that he could now buy machines to heat press the oil!

I nearly fainted! I got so upset and he could not understand why. “But, I will make more oil and faster. Isn’t that good?” he asked. “Good for who?” I said, “You make more money because you produce more and you produce it faster, but you will destroy the health of more people!”

He looked at me like I was crazy (and believe me that is nothing new-I am a raw foodist for heavens sake, many people look at me like I am nuts!)

Anyway, I tried to tell him that the result of his changeover would be more fat children in the years to come. (Did you read the article on how the Italian kids are the fattest kids in the world now speaking-relative to the number of kids in Italy? Well, I did and it made an impression on me!) But, he did not believe me. He was too focused on his bottom line-not on his ‘bottom’!

You see, once you change how a food is prepared and you don’t tell people that you have done this, you take their power away from them. Because as we change how food is prepared, the newly formed food has a different effect on the body and its health and well-being. And if you do not know this happened, you will only experience the negative results over a period of time as the body starts to degenerate as you eat more cooked foods that were once a staple in your diet in their raw form.

And because people don’t connect their body’s degeneration with products they have been using their whole life, (albeit in different form, but they don’t know that because they have not been told) they start wondering how “suddenly”, “all of a sudden” everything is changing: How they “suddenly” have wrinkles, acid stomach or ill health.

Darling! We are the accumulation of everything we have done to our bodies through out our lives and this includes what do to ourselves with our food!

Anyway, Italians have always liberally poured olive oil on their food-but years ago it was cold pressed and therefore “raw”. But, as the machines take over and producers look toward the bottom line, they are heating their oil in their pressing machines to get more oil out and to get it faster.

So in short, always ask for “cold pressed”. Or rather do what I did: I carried a bottle with me and didn’t rely on waiters who don’t know their a** from their elbow!

But I digress….

The Italians have great salads and of course ‘fab’ meats and fishes. Many people tell me that they have found that they can go to Italy and eat until they are full and they feel better and lighter then they do in America-yeah! No kidding! They don’t do what we do to our food (hormone additives, spraying the crops, genetically altering God made seeds, radiating. Etc, etc.)

In fact, I still can find unpasteurized raw milk RIGHT in MILAN! But not in New York, however, a huge city in a democratic country!

Naturally, I drank up a storm so I could have my fill and be satisfied enough to face the “New York City Raw Milk Drought” when I got home! By the way, they also have a lot of unpasteurized cheeses, too.

Ok, so you say you have to have your pasta in Italy-go ahead and have it once or twice-but better to eat clean and healthy on your vacation then to have to come home and make up for that vacation with depriving yourself for the rest of your year.

Thanks Greg!

Healthy food

Today I would like to talk about a book I just received where the subject matter is the acid-alkaline balance of the body-or PH. The book is called, “The Acid-Alkaline Diet” by Christopher Vasey, N.D.

Now, DON’T FREAK out or tune out because I have found that the acid-alkaline balance is a very easy subject to understand yet very important for the body. Even if you failed out of 11th grade chemistry, this should be a no-brainer. Here is how it works:

“The body is acid by nature/ alkaline by necessity.” (Tim Brantley N.D.). That is all you need to remember!

What this means is that when you stress out or move or work out or digest food-when you do just about anything with the body-you create acid; In fact, you create 8 different kinds of acid.(the body is acid by “nature”.)

For example, we create hydrochloric acid (to digest food) and lactic acid- which everyone who works out knows because sore muscles are the result of lactic acid build-up after a workout. (Plus 6 other acids that if I named them all I would bore you to death!).

But the ‘catch’ is: the organs in the body work better in a neutral or slightly alkaline environment!

So, are we screwed or what? It looks like we are set up to get old fast and diseased early because we have acid running thru our veins!!!

I mean, the body is acid, but likes to be neutral, so, how can that be? What do we have to do to get it to be neutral?

We need to give it the complete opposite of what it has-in this case we need to give it something alkaline. Since the body does not make alkaline like it makes acid, we need to look to outside resources to find this alkaline. (The body is alkaline by “necessity”)

If the body is naturally an acid (5.0 ph) but likes to be neutral (7.0) then we need to put into it anything that is alkaline (8.0 ph) to neutralize it out. That is the Math of it!

(We can understand how acid works by looking at an old car. Acids eat the metal in the form of rust. Well, our bodies are really no different. If we are acid, we will rust from the inside out! Unless of course, we do something to neutralize that acid.)

Well, this is why I eat raw foods! Raw foods are more alkaline then cooked foods are. Raw foods stress the body less; add neutralizing, alkaline minerals that are in their whole and intact form and they are easier to break down because they have their enzymes intact ready to work!

Water should be alkalizing and it usually is alkaline-depending on your source, however.

So you can see that if you are high-stress person, work out a lot, are always on the go-you would need more alkaline food and drink then, say, someone who is more relaxed .

But, even relaxed people should eat some alkalizing foods to make sure they stay in a neutral/alkaline PH. (We DO live in a polluted world and this IS stressful on the body!)

A neutral/alkaline PH is a healthy PH.

So, how do you know if you are acid? You can find your PH very simply-your saliva and your urine tell you everything! Get some PH papers (on carolalt.com) and just dip. Dip in urine and saliva in the morning, the afternoon and in the evening. Dr. Brantley says between 8-10 am (not first urine) 2-4 pm and 8-10pm in the evening. Just NOT around food: 1 hour after eating or just before eating. It’s simple.

Keep tabs on your PH. Check it for three days and adjust your diet, water intake or supplement intake to help neutralize or alkalize or body. And check your results thru your urine and saliva!

So what happens if we find that our PH is acid but we don’t want to go thru the “trouble” of alkalizing? What if we just don’t care about acid- we want to ignore the body’s cry for neutralizing and we want to “eat that Pasta” or we just “can’t live without chicken”? We want to continue to eat cooked (acidifying) foods and work at high stressed jobs (acidifying) and workout in our time off (acidifying)? What happens? Think about it-what ELSE can it do? The body starts to store acid.

Here’s how it works: Understand that the body eliminates acid in several ways-thru the kidneys (urine), lungs (co2 breath and moisture) and skin (sweat). If you are producing too much acid, the body can only get rid of a certain amount of acid a day-AND THAT’S IT!

After that limit is reached, the acid that is not dumped is stored in the body-in the tissues, specifically-making for an unhealthy environment.

So, realizing that all the acid was not dumped-out and that the environment is becoming unhealthy the body then tries to buffer (or neutralize) the acids stored in the tissues to help “sneak” them out of the body. (Remember the body can only dump a certain amount of ‘acid’ day and that is it!)

But, it can neutralize some acid with minerals and dump it as neutral salts! In order to do this, the acid draws its neutralizing minerals from your tissues and organs thereby depleting them of these minerals and weakening them.

As we get older, the damage from years of this type of neutralizing begins to be known thru different aliments and illnesses. (Kidney salts/stones perhaps?)

Also, at some point we start to use up our mineral “reserves”(a misnomer since they are not reserves at all but an integral part of tissues and organs!) and we stop being able to neutralize all of this acid. What happens then is that some of this acid remains in the tissues themselves causing other problems and illnesses. (Skin disorders, burning urination, arthritis, neuritis, colitis perhaps?)

So, if we are acid, what can we do to alkalize our bodies? we can take alkalizing supplements, enzymes, alkaline food/drink and replenish the alkalizing minerals in the body by eating raw foods, as these are all useful to help buffer the acids (neutralize them). This should help the body to restore its perfect PH.

I mean, we can get more complex then this in explaining the PH of the body. And if you wish to understand more about PH there are plenty of books out there such as the one I mentioned above: “The Acid-Alkaline Diet” by Christopher Vasey N.D.

But, this blog is pretty much a layman’s take on the PH of the body-specifically this laymen-ME!

(I also remember: “Alkaline or Die” or “The PH Miracle” to name a couple more books.)

This is such an important subject and I believe that so many aliments and illnesses can be relieved by just changing diet and alkalizing the body! Try it, you might be amazed!

Check on carolalt.com for raw foods, enzymes and other great supplements! (Always check with a doctor!)

Eat an oil

Ok, here is the word on Bragg’s Aminos-they are NOT cooked. I mean, really, you can get this info off of the company’s website.

Why is it that people are still unsure? Go right to the source and get what you need. With the internet out there, you can find everything you want to know.

But, don’t always go to the “positive” websites-the website owned by the company or by people selling a particular product. You will NOT get a clear idea from someone who wants to sell you something! Go to the “nay-sayer” website, too. You might learn something in the process.

As for me? I want to hear the good and the bad and then make up my own mind. Like for instance-Canola oil.

I will NOT touch it and it is everywhere. I ask restaurants if they use it and I will not go there if they do.

Who did these Canola guys bribe? It is so thoroughly processed that there is nothing left except rancid oil which in my opinion causes many health problems. Unfortunately, we cannot attribute these health problems to Canola Oil because it would be hard to track it down. But, if you have health problems, try cutting out the Canola oil for a month and see if that makes any change.

Just always stay with the pure, unprocessed (or as little processed as possible) oils like cold pressed Udo’s choice, or Cold pressed olive oil, cold pressed flax seed oil, etc. that is what I do!

You see, I am a Canadian immigrant and when I first came to Canada, I saw fields and fields of beautiful yellow flowers. My husband, at the time, told me that the flowers were for rape seed.

I had no idea what rape seed was so I asked him: “do you eat it like pumpkin seeds or sesame seeds?” He looked at me like I was crazy- “no, you don’t eat it,” he laughed at me: “it’s a machine oil. It has a high viscosity; breaks down very slowly under high heat-perfect for oiling farm machinery. But the only problem now is that there is a lot of run off”

Ten years later? That runoff is Canola oil-Canada Oil.

Now, for me, I would not like to eat an oil that is the discard of machine oil!

But, that is my personal opinion. And all I have is my ex-husbands words to base my decision on-but that was good enough for me. Then, of course, I read the web page that talks about all the stuff that is wrong with canola oil. Then it kinda all fit-what my ex said, what the page found out-all told me: don’t eat canola oil! So I don’t!!

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