In the article below, a Nottingham woman explains how a raw food diet cured her rheumatoid arthritis which she had suffered from since 13. Interestingly, the arthritis developed after a rubella immunization. (The more I read about vaccinations, the more opposed I become to the practice of immunizing children.)

From The Mirror, a U.K. based publication.

Exclusive: Raw Food Diet Has Cured My Arthritis
By Claire Collins

As the Daniels family gathers round the dinner table it resembles a scene played out in many households. An evening meal shared with loved ones, a time to eat and talk together. But there is one significant difference. All the food laid before mum Jatinder, husband Derek and their three children, Raman, 17, Priyanka, 13, and seven-year-old Mohan is raw. And this unusual diet has been credited with saving Jatinder's life and turning her family's fortunes around.

"I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 16 and doctors said my future was bleak," says Jatinder, a healthy 45. "They said I could be in a wheelchair by the end of my teens, that I would be in varying degrees of constant pain for the rest of my life and, due to aggressive drugs, may not be able to have children. It was like a death sentence.

"But look at me now! I'm a mum of three, perfectly mobile and free from the agony I endured for years. And it's all down to my raw food, low-toxin lifestyle." Jatinder's teenage years in Nottingham were dogged with frustration and confusion over her stiffness and pain until, after endless tests, she was diagnosed.

"I was a healthy until 13 when I was vaccinated against rubella in school," Jatinder recalls."My health deteriorated rapidly afterwards. Suddenly I couldn't do any sports at all. I was persistently tired and regularly in terrible pain. There were days when I couldn't walk, dress myself or bathe. Sometimes my jaw was so stiff I couldn't eat at all or just manage soup." Jatinder went to hospital once a week for six months for injections into her joints yet the arthritis intensified and her knuckles and knees began to deform. She became suicidal.

She says: "The injections offered no immediate relief. I felt alone, angry and full of resentment. I was trying to do my A-levels but I couldn't even carry my own books. "My condition worsened during the winter. The cold wind went straight to my bones and was agony. I became very depressed and often thought about throwing myself into the River Trent."

Despite being in constant pain, Jatinder was determined to live life to the full and at 21 went to London to study computing. She says: "I needed a walking stick by the time I went to university but I refused to use one out of pride. I felt so vulnerable. I was adamant that I was going to be independent." Derek, a 43-year-old computer programmer, remembers the difficulties his bride-to-be faced when they met while studying. He recalls: "She couldn't walk for more than five minutes without pain. I felt helpless and desperately wanted to ease her discomfort.

"It was clear to us that the anti-inflammatory drugs she was taking made very little difference to her discomfort. In fact, the side-effects of stomach ulcers and blinding headaches made her feel worse. I fully supported her decision to stop taking them five years later." The couple married the year after she stopped taking the drugs and Jatinder summoned every bit of grit to walk down the aisle unaided. She says: "The days when I couldn't walk at all were becoming more frequent and I was limping more often than not. "But there was no way I was going to let my illness get in the way of a perfect wedding. "I blocked out the pain, held my head up high and slowly walked to join my future husband. It was very emotional."

Jatinder and Derek set up home in London and Raman was born later that year. But with their new baby came new hardships for Jatinder. She explains: "The doctors had warned that I would have difficulty conceiving because of the drugs I'd been taking, so Raman was extra special. But caring for him was the biggest challenge I'd ever faced. "The normal duties that new mums take for granted like bathing their child was like climbing a mountain. But I had no choice but to cope." Their second child Priyanka was born four years later and developed chronic eczema and asthma at eight weeks. The lack of sleep and stress that caused only made Jatinder's condition worse. She said: "I was beginning to think I couldn't go on. I couldn't see myself reaching my 40th birthday and if I'm honest part of me didn't want to if it meant living with constant pain. "I believed it was only going to get worse."

It was during these dark times that Derek discovered the raw food way of life on the internet. He read claims that nature intended us to eat raw, who le food and that it is unnatural to consume cooked or processed foods. Jatinder explains: "Long-term consumption of processed food will lead to toxicity or toxaemia – when the body is overloaded with poisons. These harmful toxins are found all around us – in our environment, treated water, non-organic fruit and vegetables and cooked food.

"Raw foodists believe that major illnesses like cancer, diabetes and arthritis are often a result of toxaemia and can be prevented and greatly helped by a raw food way of life." Jatinder says she realised the importance of food in relation to wellbeing years ago but the idea of eating only raw food seemed impossible. "I had stopped eating wheat years earlier noticing that wheat flour made my joints flare up and I had become vegan the previous year for similar reasons," she says.

"I put the fact that I wasn't already in a wheelchair down to my healthy diet and generally positive mindset. "I believed that food could have a miraculous effects on health, I just didn't believe I could take such drastic measures." When Jatinder conceived her youngest son Mohan, at the age of 37, she knew something had to be done to improve her health. So, at two months pregnant, she changed her diet to 100 per cent raw for one week. She says: "I had diarrhoea but felt the benefit and the pain reduced. "I went back to 50 per cent cooked until the following summer when the whole family began to detox."

The family moved to Spain four years ago where Jatinder is a raw food consultant. They live in beautiful whitewashed mountainside village on the Costa del Sol and the children attend the local school. "We wanted the children to grow up in a natural environment and I believe sunshine is another key to good health," she says. And the family insists the raw food diet is fun and tasty. "Now the kids love it," Jatinder laughs. "There is so much variety. I make biscuits, crackers, sweets and some really tasty desserts. Friends are amazed when I tell them what they are eating is not cooked.

"Just like you learn how to cook, you can learn how to uncook. It is amazing what textures you can achieve by using a blender or the food you can create simply by dehydrating it. It may sound complicated but once you've got the hang of it, the preparation time is actually less.

"Friends who come around for lunch are amazed when I tell them what they are eating is in fact raw." Jatinder is keen to stress that to truly detox, your whole lifestyle has to be adjusted. She says: "Detoxing is not as simple as just eating raw food — it includes being aware of your environment.

"It means changing you hair gel, your toothpaste, the chemicals you use around the house, chlorinated tap water — even your negative thought patterns. They all introduce toxins into our bodies."

After 12 months of raw food, Jatinder's arthritis all but disappeared. She smiles modestly: "I can now walk and ride a bike for miles, prepare amazing meals and look after my family. And I am pain-free. "We are all so much healthier. Neither myself of Mohan has been treated by a doctor since he was born. I don't believe a doctor will treat me again for my arthritis. I am healing myself.

Columbia News Service just published an article questioning whether children should be fed an all raw food diet. The article mentions the Talifero's, Gabriel Cousen's Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, and the Boutenko's. The recent controversy over whether children should be fed a raw food diet was sparked when a 6-month old girl in Florida died in 2003, after her parents fed her a diet composed only of wheat grass and coconut milk. The article, in its entirety…

Raw Food Diet: Half-Baked Idea For Kids?
Columbia News Service

At mealtime, the Talifero family's kitchen is abuzz with the sounds of the blender, juicer and nut grinder, but there's no whir of a microwave or heat from a stove. Raven, 11, and Jome, 8, may be lunching on spaghetti made of spirals of raw cut zucchini with a sauce of avocado, sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil and salt. Shale, 5, has simpler tastes, preferring plain fruit or whole avocado. Adagio, at 21 months, is fed primarily breast milk, nut milks and mashed fruits and vegetables. But while their home is filled with a brightly colored raw bounty, including desserts made of crushed nuts, blended fruits and raw honey, there is no cooked food to be found.

Jinjee and Storm Talifero have chosen a raw, or "live foods," diet for their Pine Mountain Club home in California's Los Padres National Forest. They say that their children are thriving without meat, dairy, cooked, canned or frozen foods. "A few years ago at a party, Raven said she didn't want to be all raw anymore," recalled her mother, Jinjee, 38. "So we gave her a choice and said, 'OK, you can go ahead and eat whatever you want.' She loaded up her plate with bread, pastries and cupcakes. But two weeks later, she decided that she wanted to eat raw again."

The Taliferos, who sell their eBooks, documentary, workout DVD, music CDs and digital magazines on their Website, thegardendiet.com, want to help other families go raw. By ignoring the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food pyramid, which includes cooked grains and beans, dairy products and other sources of animal protein, they believe they can protect their children from diseases ranging from the common cold to diabetes and cancer.

Although it is difficult to estimate the number of children being raised on a raw diet, the Vegetarian Resource Group, a national meat-free advocacy organization, said that based on its 2005 Internet survey results, the United States has more than 450,000 vegans (those who abstain from meat, dairy and eggs) between the ages of 8 and 18. Talifero estimates that one in 10 of those follow a primarily raw diet, adding that her family's Website receives about 1,500 hits a day.

The Taliferos and other raw families expressed support for Lamoy and Joseph Andressohn, a Florida couple put under legal scrutiny after the 2003 death of their 6-month-old daughter, Woyah, who was born with DiGeorge Syndrome and fed a diet of coconut milk and wheat grass. The Andressohns were acquitted on manslaughter charges in November 2005 but were given suspended sentences and probation on charges of neglect, and have appealed.

"It is pretty sad that people's children can be taken away if they are sick on the raw vegan diet, but obese children who get sick on a standard American diet won't be taken away," said Talifero, whose children see a doctor for regular checkups. In order to combat some of the concerns that followed the Andressohn case, the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, a retreat for raw food education in Patagonia, Ariz., is studying the impact of such diets on babies and children.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens, the founder and director of the center, created a raw baby formula and is conducting a long-term study of the height, weight and health histories of babies fed all-raw diets. Educational manager Susan Miller-Madeley, who piloted the study, said she was surprised to find that some parents were nervous about the consequences of including their children in the study in the wake of the Andressohn case.

"There really is a need for more education around raw food diets," Miller-Madeley said. "Parents are definitely getting intimidated because of lack of information. There are some things that your baby will need supplements for, and it is not that you can go by the seat of your pants." Many in the mainstream medical establishment have been critical of the diet. "Children fed raw foods at weaning are likely to develop protein malnutrition and iron deficiency," said Dr. Robert Karp, a professor of pediatrics at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. "These conditions are precursors to developmental delay and a lifelong learning deficit."

Even some vegetarian doctors have questioned the necessity to go all raw. Dr. Joel Fuhrman, whose recent book "Disease-Proof Your Child" suggests that parents can prevent childhood illnesses through diet, said he did not necessarily mean no cooking. "These people have their heads buried in the broccoli," Fuhrman said of devotees of a strictly raw regimen. "Raw food should be mostly what we eat, but clearly if you are raising your child on an all-raw food diet, there may not be enough vitamin B12, enough vitamin D and enough calories." Fuhrman fed his own four children raw and cooked vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, beans and occasionally eggs.

But a 2005 study in Archives of Internal Medicine found no major deficiencies when comparing the bone health of adults on raw diets with those who ate a typical cooked diet. While the raw food group had lower weights and bone mass, they had normal vitamin D levels.

Some raw food families say they could not reap the same health benefits from eating cooked foods. After Victoria Boutenko and her husband, Igor, emigrated from Russia to Ashland, Ore., they suffered from arrhythmia and hyperthyroid conditions. In 1994 the parents turned to an all-raw diet for themselves and their diabetic son, Sergei, then 10, and asthmatic daughter, Valya, then 9. "Sergei's blood stabilized right away and Valya stopped having asthma attacks," said Boutenko, 50. Since that time, she and her family have stayed on a raw regimen and have remained free of disease, she said.

"Once in a while I would have panic attacks, worrying if they were missing nutrients," Boutenko said. "But my other choice was asthma and diabetes, so we didn't really have a choice."

From the Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel… 50-year old woman finds a cure for Epstein Barr, mononucleosis, and hypoglycemia with raw foods…

Rx For Raw Recipes
by Peggy Townsend

Robyn Boyd says her symptoms began when she was 10 years old. She would have debilitating headaches that required shots of Demerol to calm. Then came bouts of hypoglycemia, Epstein Barr and mononucleosis that left her weak and exhausted, she says. Anxiety attacks followed and, finally, after a day spent painting the baseboards of her house with oil-based paint, she collapsed, poisoned by the volatile fumes it gave off, she says. Barely able to pull herself out of bed, the petite, sandy-haired woman turned to a cure that didn't come on any prescription pad: Food. Specifically, raw food.

Nine years later, Boyd is a cheerleader for the benefits of raw foods and the author of a cookbook called "RawSome Recipes," which is in its third printing. Standing in her modern, Soquel kitchen with its red birch cabinets and green quartz-style counters, the woman who says she was raised on junk food smiles and explains that while a strict diet of raw food saved her life, a person doesn't have to be a fanatic to reap the benefits of this way of eating. Simple changes in the way a person shops and eats can lead to more energy and a healthier immune system, she believes. "I like to teach people how to take everyday foods and make them fun and pretty, but doable," she says.

Going Raw

The 50-year-old former massage therapist and aerobics teacher has set out a mini-party of raw foods on her dining room table. There are Banana Fingers made up of slices of sweet bananas and chocolate pudding that she fashioned from avocados. There is a ranch-pesto dip made of soaked almonds and a yam salad that tastes like old-fashioned potato salad. She pours a cup of Rooibus tea from Africa, sweetens it with agave nectar and almond milk, and settles in to talk. Technically, raw food is never heated past 117 degrees, preventing damage to the enzymes that help us digest and assimilate food, she says.

But as a wife and mother in a world full of restaurants and fast-food joints, taking a hard line on raw foods doesn't always work, she says. "I want to be more practical," Boyd says. "Nourishment can come from cooked food, too." That's the reason her cookbook is named "RawSome." It has recipes with both raw and cooked foods and even includes recipes kids will like. For breakfast, Boyd says, she will make a smoothie out of almond milk, brewer's yeast, spirulina, flax seed and a banana. At lunch, she'll have a whole coconut or a lettuce-leaf wrap filled with guacamole, grated carrots and pine nuts.

Dinner will be a huge salad and maybe a warm soup or stew. Boyd doesn't even shy away from meat. She'll eat salmon and lamb. Organic, of course, she says. Food, she believes, shouldn't be a religion, but rather an intelligent way to nourishment and health. Filled with an easy energy, Boyd whacks open a coconut with a knife and offers the liquid to sip. Coconut, she says, is good for weight loss and has antifungal and antibacterial properties. She opens a cabinet and demonstrates how to make "spaghetti" out of raw zucchini, then zips to a storeroom to bring out crackers that she made herself.

Largely self-taught, Boyd talks about the hazards of cooking in a microwave, of storing food in plastic, of the benefits of spirulina. This month, she'll be teaching a class on how to ease raw foods into your diet and make an appearance at the Capitola Book Cafe. "People hear raw food and think it is scary and boring," she says. "But it's vibrant and exciting and good food."

Boyd will teach a class on her eating style from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 18, 2006 in Santa Cruz, CA. The $130 class will include making and eating 14 recipes, a full sit-down lunch and a copy of "RawSome Recipes." Call 689-0609 or visit Rawsome Recipes

The Morning Call, a Pennsylvania newspaper, published an article about Arnold's Way Vegetarian Raw Cafe. If you live near Landsdale, PA and you're a raw foodist, you've got a new restaurant to try out. Unfortunately, I don't live near PA, but for those who do…this is for you…

Raw Restaurant Offers Tasty, Inventive Vegan Fare
By Pervaiz Shallwani
Of The Morning Call

Veggies, I like. But a Lansdale eatery that prepares traditional all-American dishes using only raw vegan ingredients?

Will it be tasteless? Or will the dishes be a throwback to the scrumptious eats I encountered during a short stay in the country's unofficial vegetable mecca, San Francisco?

Gotta find out.

My friend Steve and I head to investigate Arnold's Way Vegetarian Organic Raw Cafe. If nothing else, Steve's puerile personality could make for an amusing afternoon. (He was puzzled and disgusted by a self-help book on display about the healthy benefits of consuming your own urine.) This tiny cafe and cluttered health food store sits tucked inside a shopping mall on W. Main Street. It is designed to be a one-stop shop for healthy, earth-friendly living, complete with organic toothpaste, sandals and shoes.

Customers flutter through in a steady stream, some eating wraps — rolled with seaweed, not a flour tortilla — others sitting on a love seat with a "banana whip" or chocolate mousse, which actually is carob, bananas and dates ''served a la chocolate Sunday style." (It was not my favorite.) One thing is clear: Owner Arnold Kauffman is serious about raw, organic, vegan cuisine. Seated, we are greeted with a sample of flavored banana whips, a sweet treat of frozen and pureed bananas that create the smooth consistency of ice cream or frozen yogurt.

"Yogurt?" Steve asked after the first spoonful.

"No yogurt, ever," Arnold blurted from behind the counter.

"Why not?

"Don't go there."

Arnold is convinced "the No. 1 reason for all diseases is based on dairy products."

Arnold, 57, has been experimenting with a raw diet ever since a heart condition forced him into a hospital more than 13 years ago. He had stuck to it 100 percent but has slipped to 95, including some boiled potatoes. "When I was 45, before I knew I didn't know anything, I started developing chest pains." The pains got so bad that Arnold had to make a hospital detour while driving his daughter to school one day. "I didn't think I was going to make it."

Obviously, Arnold did make it, but he wanted a healthier lifestyle. Thirteen years ago that quest led to the original Arnold's Way in the glitzy Manayunk section of Philadelphia. "[Eating raw] is hard for people to do. What you eat for breakfast, what you eat for lunch and what you do for dinner has to be re-evaluated," Arnold preaches.

"The thing that turned me on the most is that if you change the way you eat, you can pretty much reverse the aging process," swears Arnold, who looks his age and a little wiry.

He is trying to regain sight in one eye by drinking 80 to 100 ounces of carrot juice daily. He was accidentally poked by his grandson. Doctors told him surgery would cure the problem in a half-hour, but Arnold is waiting eight months, hoping to fix it naturally. Arnold moved to Lansdale in 2002 because "I live around here and my rent had skyrocketed four times."

The recipes were developed by Arnold and his daughter, Maya, many of which while doing mundane chores. A meatless ''stake," surprisingly red and close in texture to steak, and with its own juicy flavor, came about while driving down Bethlehem Pike. "I thought I need something red because a steak is pinkish in color," Arnold said. "You want a juicy steak. Beets and carrots are for color and consistency and cashews help hold it together."

The wraps: Arnold was in line at the restaurant supply store and the restaurant owner in front is "famous" for them. Immediately, he thought "nori" — paper-thin seaweed used to roll sushi. The "living bread" is a variation of a recipe that includes "a little oil and salt to make it Americanized." It's made using pulp after a carrot is juiced. The pulp is mixed with flaxseed and buckwheat that has germinated for a night. Together they make a loaf, which tastes moist and looks fittingly compact. The menu, unheated and uncooked, has grown to more than 60 dishes including burgers, pizza, spaghetti, nachos and the region's gastronomical staple sandwich, cleverly spelled "cheze stake."

The Pick-Me-Up soup — pureed carrot, celery, broccoli and red cabbage — is a forest green hue with a little spice to give it heat. It was OK. The Polynesian delight, a salad with frozen mango and pineapple mixed with shredded coconut and chopped almonds, is crunchy, sweet and pleasantly exotic in appearance and flavor. A "cheze burger" has "cheese sauce" of pureed sunflower seeds, but who would have thought a burger could be served at room temperature? It's a little dry, but the plate was cleaned, although I still don't like raw mushrooms.

Sally's red salad, a mound of minced beet, red pepper, tomato, carrot, red cabbage and green olives served on a bed of lettuce, looks like a mini red hill that Steve swears was "great." Yogurt or not, he had another whip. He just about licked it clean on the drive back.

Reversing the aging process? OK, maybe. But we'll pass on "Urine Therapy: Nature's Elixir for Good Health."

"Even if I lived 200 years, I am not going to drink my own urine," Steve remarked.

Neither would Arnold.

"That's where I draw the line."

A southwest Florida raw food group was recently profiled in The Herald Tribune. It seems raw food is making more headlines daily. The text of the article is re-printed below…

Eat Your Vegetables

When your mother told you to eat your vegetables, she probably didn't realize just how good they really could be for you.

So believes a new group forming in the South County [Florida] area called The Raw Food Group.

The raw food enthusiasts offered the public a look-see recently at how far raw food preparation has come when it presented a Mexican raw food dinner at the Venice United Church of Christ. Approximately 40 people attended the event to not only learn how raw food can benefit them, but also how to prepare a full course dinner made entirely of raw food.

It was both an amazement and a delight. Chefs for the evening were raw food specialists Johanna Farias of Sarasota and Alice Gilmartin of Venice. Gilmartin is hoping to create enough interest in raw foods in the Venice area to offer monthly meetings and potlucks. The pair prepared the entire meal, which included a salad, soup, entree and dessert without baking, broiling, boiling, frying, steaming or microwaving. "I try to make the foods that people are familiar with such as tacos," said Farias, adding, "only I make them using only raw foods."

Why only raw foods? "It's all in the enzymes," said Gilmartin. "Enzymes are essential to all activity in living organisms. By eating foods raw, you are keeping the enzymes intact for your body to digest and use to regain health and vitality." Gilmartin believes that there are many more people open to eating a raw food diet now than just a decade ago."A hundred years ago, Americans were living much more naturally and eating foods that were, on the whole, acquired locally," said Gilmartin. "As Americans are looking for more ways to achieve better health there is a growing interest in a raw food lifestyle."

Farias, who is raising her three children on a totally raw food diet, is writing a book titled, Raw Babies to help other mothers make the decision to go natural with their children. "I'm not fanatical," said Farias, who is in charge of a raw food group that meets in Sarasota. "It is important for people not to be extreme when changing their lifestyle. Sometimes you have to take things slowly and adjust to the change."

Gilmartin agrees. She has used an 80 percent raw food diet on her mother who was suffering from diabetes, arthritis pain and more. "In just three weeks, I saw her balance her sugar levels, relieve constipation, and even her wrists were symptom free," said Gilmartin, who made raw food soups, salads and smoothies for her mother. "An American diet is a very addictive type of diet, as everyone can attest to," stated Gilmartin, as heads around the room nodded in agreement. "If you start by just eliminating the most toxic foods from your diet and then eat more of the foods that are closest to nature, you can help your body to heal from all kinds of diseases."

Gilmartin continued by telling the audience stories of witnessing people in a macrobiotic class healing themselves from tumors, cancer, diabetes, arthritis and obesity. "I am so impressed with what food can do to help the body heal," she said. "I have seen it do such wonders. I have been in natural foods forever." Gilmartin said she began taking macrobiotic cooking classes when she was 12. "I want to offer workshops and give lectures to help other people make raw food choices for their diet," she added.

Sari Middaugh, owner of Veggie Patch Produce in Englewood, attended the gathering to learn more about raw food preparation. "It is nice to know more ways to prepare raw foods so that when people ask me, I can tell them," said Middaugh. Jean Ost came to the event at the encouragement of her friend Lavon Burtnett. "I came tonight because I like to experience the unusual," Ost said.

Judy Pokras, editor and founder of Raw Foods News Magazine, attended the event to meet other people with similar interests.

"The magazine is growing as more and more people become health conscious and are taking a new interest in raw foods," said Pokras.