by Dr. Ariel Policano

So, you are loving the raw diet, right?

You’ve lost weight, you have more energy, and a positively juicy new outlook on life. Fantastic! A raw vegan diet is filled with nutrition, vital force, enzymes and is free of nasty preservatives and chemicals. It is truly amazing. Still, even on a raw or high raw diet, it is good to have a health “check-in” from time to time. The fact is there are actually a few deficiencies that could develop on a raw, vegan diet if you aren’t aware of them. They can develop if you are not meticulous about having diversity and perfect balance. And really, who is? Here are 3 markers I feel are crucial to keep your eye on. This way, you can be sure you are staying healthy in every way on your raw vegan diet.

1) Ferritin (your iron stores).

2) B12 Levels, measured as methylmalonic acid (MMA).

3) Cholesterol (wait to be surprised here!).

1) Ferritin.

It is important to keep your levels of iron healthy. Of course, iron allows the transport of oxygen to your cells via the blood. Low iron levels are commonly referred to as anemia. One of the most common signs of iron deficiency anemia is sensitivity to cold weather. You feel like you cannot get warm no matter what! Another sign you can look at are changes in your thumbnail. Yes, your thumbnail. Look at it from a side angle. Do you see a dip in your nail? This can happen from the deoxygenation of cells over a period of time. It is a “secret” sign of your body that you need to check your iron levels.

Now, back to those labs. The iron levels in your blood may show up as normal even if you are on the edge of becoming anemic. Ferritin, which are your stores of iron, provides a much more accurate check of whether you are running out of “gas”. It has been said that iron-rich blood gives you charisma. Now, who wants to be without that for very long?

Ferritin levels are very important to check to avoid iron deficiency anemia. The range for women is 12-300. I would address levels below 50. Depending on how low it is, supplementation may be in order. The company Floradix carries and “Iron and Herbs” mix that is tried and true for vegans. If you are very anemic, however, this is going to be a slow intervention. In this case, you may want to supplement with a chelated iron such as iron aspartate. For those worried about iron supplements causing constipation, no need to lose any sleep. Ferrous sulfate is a form of iron is prescribed by many MD’s in high doses (325mg) at one time. This type of iron is more likely to cause things to “slow down” or to be clear, cause constipation. Also, the dose we are talking about with the iron aspartate is about 30mg, more or less.

Keep in mind some foods that are high in iron so that you can avoid a deficiency. They include Jerusalem artichokes, cherries, blackberries, nettles, spinach, dates, Swiss chard, burdock root, sea vegetables like kelp, and (yum) figs. Iron needs to constantly be renewed, especially if you are physically active. So, round up some of these foods soon!

2) B12 – Methylmalonic Acid.

MMA is considered to be a more accurate check of Vitamin B12 levels. It will tell you if you are developing a deficiency before it will show up in the serum (blood) B12 levels. Having a B12 deficiency is serious business. It is probably the most risky deficiency that can develop out of a vegan or raw vegan diet. There are many things you can do to prevent it, you just need to be aware of them!

Just getting back to MMA for a moment. If you don’t have enough B12, MMA levels will increase. That is because B12 helps to convert MMA to a crazy substance called succinyl CoA. Succinyl CoA is a raw material that helps you to produce ATP, the raw fuel of your body. Which is why…one of the signs of low Vitamin B12 is fatigue.

The more serious sign of a vitamin B12 deficiency is parasthesia, or numbness in the extremities. The old pins and needles feeling, but for an extended time. The reason this is so dangerous is that it is irreversible. Yep. As in, permanent. You really don’t want to dance with the possibility of a B12 deficiency.

As a doc, I do recommend that this is the one place that you consider taking a B12 supplement on a regular basis. Why take any chances?

Here are some food-based ways to keep your B12 levels up. You can have nutritional yeast for vitamin B12. Caution, caution, caution! I recommend you look at Red Star Nutritional Yeast if you want to go with this option as they have one of the highest quality nutritonal yeast products. Get it fresh! Nutritional yeast that is out in the bulk bins, or has been sitting on the shelf for a long time is less likely to have sufficient levels of B12.

Are you a clean freak? You might be a good candidate for a B12 supplement. Washing your fruit and vegetables really thoroughly is excellent for clearing the germs, but you may also be washing off the soil-based organisms that build your B12 levels.

Foods that contain B12, but are questionable for reliable supplementation include spirulina, blue-green algae and sea veggies like dulse. I love these superfoods for many reasons, but I would not rely on them for sufficient quantities of B12. In Healing with Whole Foods, Paul Pitchford lets us know that this type of B12 may be an analogue of the B12 that our body utilizes. Enjoy the other high nutrition of minerals and amino acids in these foods.

Are you in love with raw sauerkraut? How about kombucha? Like to take mega-doses of probiotics as a hobby? Well, if your intestines are rich in healthy bacteria, you may be producing sufficient quantities of B12 internally. Of course, with people taking so many antibiotics and not having a healthy share of probiotics they are more at risk of having a B12 deficiency.

3) Cholesterol

OK, hold on to your hats and your shares in your pharmaceutical companies! Your cholesterol may be TOO LOW. If you have total cholesterol below 160, you may want to consider getting those levels UP, yes up.

Is cholesterol just some pesky toxin that we are trying to ban from our bodies with every opportunity? The drug companies make it seem that way, don’t they? Cholesterol is a crucial raw material for healthy hormones including reproductive hormones and adrenal hormones. It is also an important component in cell membranes. You want to love up your cell membranes! They surround your cells, allowing only certain things in (like good nutrition) and making sure that all the waste products get out. A healthy cell membrane is crucial to disease prevention including cancer.

Low cholesterol levels have been correlated with depression, anxiety, risk of hemorrhagic stroke and premature births. Pretty crazy! You might notice that you are craving saturated fats, or that you are feeling a little fatigued or just “not right”. Have your labs done and then check out the parameters below.

If I were looking at your labs, I would want to see total cholesterol above 160, LDL above 90 (even up to 110), and HDL above 50. If your total cholesterol or LDL is low, I want to recommend that you really make an effort to get some saturated fats into your diet. Of course, coconut oil satisfies this need, and so does cocoa butter (the fat portion of raw chocolate). Red palm oil is also another oil to consider. It is really beautiful to look at because it is also rich in beta-carotene, which is pretty cool. This is the palm oil that is NOT partially hydrogenated. Check out organic virgin Palm Oil from Tropical Traditions.

I suggest that once per year you give yourself a gift and check in with a health practitioner who is knowledgeable about raw vegan nutrition. Here are the labs that I suggest you have done each year:

• CBC – Complete blood count
• Chemistry Panel – numerous checks including fasting blood sugar, liver and kidney markers
• TSH – Thyroid marker
• Lipid panel – fats including good and bad cholesterol
• Vitamin D-25-Hydroxy – Best marker of your Vitamin D levels
• Ferritin – Iron Stores

It only takes a small investment of your time and attention to truly inform yourself about what you need to thrive and avoid deficiencies. You’re worth the effort.

To you health,

Dr. Ariel Policano

Dr. Ariel Policano has been studying live food nutrition for over 15 years. She is a licensed naturopathic physician and a graduate of the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Ariel helps people to optimize their health with a balanced diet of living foods, superfoods and other cutting-edge nutritional interventions. She is the creator of the Body Bliss Cleanse, which is an effective 14-day supplement program. Dr. Ariel is available for phone consultations and works with clients around the world.

I want to just take a few moments to acknowledge the different participants we had on the Believe in Green event.  Green Smoothie Girl, Robyn Openshaw. We picked her to help us kick off this event, because she knows how to keep it real. Some of our guests are known for their extremist points of view, but depending on where you’re coming from, these ideas can be a bit overwhelming.

Robyn knows how to speak to anyone and help create a comfortable gradient with objectives that feel realistic. She also is the single mom of 4 children (3 of which are teenagers) and so she knows how to shop on a budget, multitask, run a business and still make time for healthy living. You can sign up to access her interview here:

I am delighted to present Majora Carter.

Major was so busy we had to reschedule this interview about 4 times!  That’s probably part of the reason that when the interview started, she thought I was just another annoying journalist.   Jimmy the web wonder worker actually forgot to edit the part where Majora told me to look online for the answers to the questions I was asking!!

*gasp!* She thought it was a print interview.

I’ve never felt THIS worried that I’d be met with one word answers during an interview. She was a tough nut to crack, but once I managed to speak a few of the words that resonate with her, she actually ended the interview by calling me “sweetheart.” I received a lot of great feedback about this call. Majora was the first person to help create a public park in the South Bronx in over 60 years!!

If she was a tough nut to crack, it’s only because that’s what it takes to make things happen where she lives. The thing you need to know about Majora is that she’s seen a lot. She grew up in places you and I have never really known and she CHOOSES to live there still because she’s committed to making things better. I suggest you sign up to catch this interview and for more information about her, visit her website or catch her super-inspiring TED talk!

The next si-star to grace our BiG stage with her presence was the lovely Angela Stokes-Monarch! What a treat to connect with her again. She’s come along way from being 160 pounds overweight and while in the beginning her motivations were to lose weight and improve her personal health, she’s now inspired by her ability to touch the lives of tens of thousands of other women and men around the world.

I invited her to take the BiG stage because she’s invested a lot of time recently in learning more about sustainable living, and she’s nearly achieved that ideal for herself. When you sign up to catch this interview you’ll get to hear about some of her favorite resources for growing your own food and sustainable living, and you’ll also find out what she wanted to be when she was a little girl and how, in a certain way, that’s exactly what she ended up doing!!

You can sign up to access these calls for FREE at any time, but I suggest you fork our the ten smackeroos that will go to helping the Girls’ Club, too.
Thanks again for your support!

It’s hard to believe that there are only a few days left of our live Believe in Green event, the process has been an inspiring one. I’d been promising myself to do little blog posts on each of the presenters of the event and even though it’s late, late is better than never, so I’m going to start with the person whose interview kicked off our BiG event: Victoria Boutenko.

I’ve interviewed Victoria a few times, but this was by far my favorite. I was so surprised by some of her answers and her outburst of love and appreciation at the end of the interview is probably something I should record and listen to when I get up every morning. You can listen to the Believe in Green interviews at any time, and while you can sign up and listen to the calls for FREE, we encourage you to drop a wee bit of cash knowing that your $10 donation will go to support the Lower East Side Girls’ Club and their health and nutrition programs.

Here are a few reasons to sign up and listen to Victoria’s call

• She explains how to avoid the gross green smoothie experience of having your food taste like lawnmower pulp.
• Her personal routine is super inspiring.
• She’s got great advice for new comers!
• She gives a few secrets to foraging for wild edible greens that I had never heard before and added dozens of new plants to my wild repertoire.
• She’s got one of the best attitudes a human can possibly have.
• She’s the queen of green smoothies doing great things to make a better world, and listening to her will make YOU want to get up and do great things, too!

You can access Victoria’s interview when you sign up for the Believe in Green event here.

Thanks again for supporting this program!

Ooooh eeee!

Yesterday was officially International Green Smoothie Day and I am delighted to report that our Believe in Green program has lifted off.

We’re starting the event with a fabulous interview with the “creator” of green smoothies, Victoria Boutenko. I love Victoria (who doesn’t?!) and it’s been a pleasure to watch her skyrocket to success over the last few years with the popularity of “green smoothies.” We felt it important to pay special tribute to her work and so she was the key speaker for our preparatory day.

In that interview with me she shared some of her unusual personal habits, which I absolutely love, and if I could adopt them myself I would. Unfortunately skinny dipping isn’t looked favorably upon in downtown Montreal. I’ve had the pleasure of connecting with Victoria on many occasions and this was really a special treat!

You can still access this interview at any time by signing up for Believe in Green.

We set a target of $10,000 in donations, and we’ve nearly reached the $6000 mark by now. It’s exciting, encouraging and inspiring to watch the numbers rise! Thank you so much for all those who are helping to spread the word and make this happen.

Last night at around 6pm Eastern, Robyn Openshaw, also known as: Green Smoothie Girl, came to the stage to share her helpful information on how to get the kids on board healthy eating, and how to get the whole family started on a healthier path to whole foods no matter where you’re starting from.

Robyn is a single mom of 4 kids (3 of them are teenagers, so I TOTALLY take my hat off to this woman!) and she’s self-employed. In the moments when I think I’m crazy to be doing the things I do, I think of her and remember there are crazier.

All kidding aside, I LOVE Robyn’s work and think her get-real approach to raw food is the perfect message for so many people who struggle with a 100% ideal.

I need to give BIG thanks to Blendtec who is sponsoring this event with a fancy, shmancy, brand new Blendter to the winner of our Ripple Maker award. Every year for International Green Smoothie Day we award one (sometimes two) lucky participants with a new blender. All they have to do is host a green smoothie event or do something to get the word out about green smoothies. The person who touches the most lives with their event will win the blender!

It’s not the easiest task in the world, but for a prize like this, we want to honor it with a worthy endeavor to make a difference out there. It’s a thrill to know that seniors’ centers, and elementary schools in Mexico have become the stompin’ grounds for green smoothies because of this event.

If you’ve not yet signed up, you can still access ALL the interviews when you come onboard. We set a target of $10,000 in donations and until we reach our goal, we’re going to keep the gates open! We busted the $6000 mark, so all we need is 400 more people to join us for this green smoothie event and we’ll be home free.

Thanks so much for your support of this event!

Love and leafy greens,

Tera

p.s.

Oh my! I didn’t even mention that 100% of the money we generate for this event goes to the Lower East Side Girls’ Club!

by Kate Nicholson

You know how annoying it can be when you make a wonderful plate of salad with  heaps of fresh vibrant veggies, or blend up a delicious health-giving green smoothie for lunch that leaves you feeling light and energised, and someone inevitably says ‘There’s no protein in that…you’ll get all weak and scrawny…you need 70 grams of protein per day…’

Grrr! Well, I think I found the answer to that in an article I read in the New Scientist today, which totally blew me away. It’s a complete vindication for the raw food way of eating!

You’ve all come across the studies on calorie-restricted mice, right? – How their lifespan can be increased up to 50% by cutting their calorific intake by up to 30%.

Well, scientists have been looking at the diets of humans who have been applying calorie restriction in an attempt to prolong their lives (with slightly higher protein levels than average – about 1.7g per kilogram of bodyweight, compared to the standard American’s 1.2 g/kg/day), and found that there are differences in the way humans and animals respond physiologically to calorie restriction.

Despite having lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels than those eating a standard diet, people on a restricted calorie diet have the same levels of the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), a hormone that is a significant promoter of aging.  Animals on a restricted calorie diet have lower than normal levels of IGF-1.

Scientists started playing around, as scientists do, and found that feeding animals a low-protein high nutrient diet had the effect of increasing their lifespans without calorie restriction…and they found that changing the diets of humans to a non-calorie restricted but low-protein, optimal nutrient diet had the effect of lowering their IGF-1 levels – i.e. an anti-aging diet, in effect.

The article goes on to offer more evidence for reducing protein in the diet; ‘Further support…comes from studying molecular pathways inside cells that affect lifespan. A molecule called TOR has been found to set off a chain of reactions that boost cell growth at the expense of longevity. Blocking TOR increases lifespan in all organisms studied to date…crucially, the most potent activators of TOR are amino acids’.

And whaddya know…the pharmaceutical companies are already looking at finding compounds to block TOR. Imagine the profits they’d make from an anti-ageing pill! Last year, an immunosuppressant drug called Rampamycin (referred to in the article as ‘toxic’ by the way!) which blocks TOR was found to increase the lifespan of mice. I wonder what side effects it has…

The article concludes with some excellent advice; ‘In the meantime, the best bet for warding off ageing and disease could still be the time-honoured advice to eat your greens’.

So there you go. Hmm, a lower-protein optimum-nutrient diet…with greens…that sounds like a diet with lots of green smoothies to me! The only side effects of those include glowing skin, boundless energy and an increased sense of joie de vivre!

You might want to check out the Green Smoothie Summer Sensation which started on June 13th…a seven-day fest of fruit and veggies, with daily support, all for $5! See you there!

I’ve been on a bit of a success story binge lately! Just loving the letters that are coming in and wanted to share the most recent one with you! I am SO happy about our 7-day detox! It really is a winner because we get hundreds and hundreds of letters like this one! YAY!!  xo -tw

Hi,

I have kind of a crazy schedule, like most people, I guess.  So I haven’t spent a whole lot of time in the Powder Room, like I would have liked.  I did find it hard to follow the flow of the conversations.  It seemed that some of the threads where from two years ago, etc.  I did post, but didn’t receive a response.  So I was thinking maybe I posted in the wrong place. **shrug**  Or maybe I didn’t take enough time to figure it out.  I have only been a member of one forum before, so maybe I’m not forum-literate!  LOL!

Anyway, I wanted to tell you that since I started the three-day challenge, which immediately led to the 7-day detox, I have lost 13 pounds!  13 pounds! In less than two weeks!  I can’t believe this! I have stuck to the detox completely! I can’t tell you how many detoxes I have started and failed.  I have NEVER been able to finish one.  In fact, I had ordered all the materials I needed for another detox and was waiting for them to arrive when I found your Raw Divas site.  This has truly changed my life, and I wanted to tell you how grateful I am.

I know I have a long way to go.  And I have to say last night, Day 4, was definitely the toughest for me.  I was thinking about my favorite cookies. While I was thinking about them, though, I knew that if I started, I would not be able to stop because I was so hungry.  Why was I hungry?  I didn’t have dinner yet.  I was being lazy about preparing it.  But after eating my very big salad with strawberries and tomatoes, I was ALL GOOD.  No more hunger

Today is Day 5.  I am hydrating this morning, as every morning.  I drink about a liter of water before I have my first meal.  It’s 9:43 and I haven’t become hungry yet.  So weird.  I used to think I had to get up and immediately go to the kitchen to fuel my body, with stuff I’m now realizing isn’t even good for me and was actually what was causing my many issues that I am now free from — in less than two weeks!

All my aches and pains are gone, except for a nagging pinched nerve in my neck.  I wake up feeling refreshed in the morning, ready to start the day. No mood swings, whatsoever.  I just feel great.

Thank you,
Stephanie Bryant
Sunny San Diego

We have been so touched by Tammy’s regular updates about her progress. There’s more good news to come, but meet this incredible woman and her courageous family making some tough changes on the road to better health. -t.w.

- By Tammy Evanko

Are you ready for a drum roll?    Tadatadatadatadatadatadatadatadatada,,,,

Today marked 2 weeks of 100% raw with a release of 14 pounds so far!

It’s an accomplishment to be proud of just for myself, but I’m also happy to say that my experience is already touching others.  I felt inspired a few days after I was eating 100% raw to ask my husband, “If I could outline a protocol for you for the next 30 days that could almost promise a drastic decrease in your PSA (prostate cancer score card) score, that would help you lose 15 to 20 pounds, that would give you energy and vitality and energize you, would you do it?”

It took him awhile to answer me, but finally, he too agreed to 30 days of raw! Without hesitation, I started him raw the first day, and the next day I began him on a cleanse from the Young Living company.  For breakfast every morning we are both doing the “ginger blast drink” I learned years ago from raw foodist, Lou Corona.  The reason I wanted my husband to drink the ginger blast is because it helps to alkalinize the body.

You see, I think he has an over abundance of yeast in his body.  I remembered that Donna Gates (from the WISH Summit) wrote in her Body Ecology Diet book (and I’ve seen this idea from a couple others since then) that she thought cancer was related to Candida.  I figure, “Cure the Candida and the cancer will cure itself.”

The other benefit with this plan is that drinking the ginger blast keeps us from over-eating because of the “heat” from the ingredients in the drink and the alkalinizing properties that help balance the body pH and releases our sugar cravings.  Just as it was for me, in three days the puffiness from my husband’s face left and his skin looked so much healthier.  Anyway, I don’t know if you have heard of the ginger blast but it has 3 levels starting with:

1 lemon peeled
1 to 2 inches fresh ginger root
pinch of cayenne
8 oz purified water

They also call for 2 apples but because I would rather save my fruit to eat later, I drink it without them.

My husband also likes several cups of dark leafy greens, Read the rest of this entry »

Last night was our teleseminar on wild plants for health and beauty. If you joined us for the teleseminar on wild plants for health and beauty, you’ll enjoy the images we’ve posted below. Angela mentions them in our conversation. Click here to access the call recording if you missed it. If you’d like to contact Angelina or learn more about what she does, you can visit her website, www.she-zencuisine.com and follow her fan pages on Tonics and Tinctures  and  has made available if you’d like to learn more about what she does.

There were a few questions that we didn’t get the time to answer on the call. Here are the questions with the answers Angelina provided in writing.

Since wild plants contain more nutrition ounce per ounce, isn’t safe to think that they will also have a deeper and more profound cleansing effect on us?
Yes, I believe that to be true, but they are also very nourishing on a deep level. If you are a beginner at a healthier lifestyle, it is best to consume wild plants in small amounts. XO

Do you recommend wild plants and herbs for the beginner to raw foods, if so what ratio would be good to start with for a newbie to “Raw Living”
Do it slowly. Start by adding a small bunch of say malva, purslane, dandelions, or cats Ear to a regular salad. You can gradually add more as you go further into the raw food lifestyle. XO

You mentioned 2 plants I’m not familiar with, “CatsEar” and “Coo Koo Weed”. Do you know the botanical name for these plants, and do they grow regionally or throughout the entire USA? A couple other wild plants we use in California are Miner’s Lettuce, Purslane and Fir tips (the new growth on Fir trees make an excellent pickled condiment).

CooKoo weed is also known as Read the rest of this entry »

We’re trying more and more to share the experiences and stories of other divas around the world because we feel the best way to learn is by sharing with and inspiring one another. Here’s a letter I received this week by Carina after she completed our Green Smoothie Detox. Carina sent me a few of her pictures for this article and I’ll include a few of them below. She’s a knitter and makes gorgeous designs. You can learn more about her knitted works of wonder here.

Hi Tera,

I am finally getting around to writing you back.  Wow, life has been intense lately!!  The past month was a lot more than I expected, but things seem to be settling in around here and there are some things I really want to say about the detox. I’m going to try to be brief for both our sakes, and because my family is waiting for me.  First just a little about my personal history.

I consider myself a recovering perfectionist in the sense that addicts consider themselves “recovering” for life.  For many reasons my perfectionism manifested in food issues an obsession from the time I was a child. I have never had an eating disorder as most people know them, under or over eating, but I did have food obsession/perfectionism issues for most of my life.  When I started really facing my obsession/perfectionism (which, as you can well imagine was not limited to food) I had to drop any ideas about what I thought nutrition was.  I had to STOP thinking about food… what was “good” what was “bad” what I “should” or “should not” be eating/doing/thinking. It was the only way for me to get to the root of the fears I had.  I ate what everyone else ate when they were eating.  It was scary.  And then it was liberating.  And then it was funny.  And then I was FREE!!  For about 5 years I did this.  I never even came close the Standard American Diet, but I dropped all the judgment and dogma around what I put in my mouth and why. I did this with a lot of help and support and my life is very different now.

In January of ’09 my mom started having some health problems. She went on a raw diet to help herself heal and loved the results.  She asked me to accompany her on a trip to the Living Light institute in California. I have to tell you, I was genuinely afraid to go. Read the rest of this entry »

For the month of June we’ll be focusing on bringing you information about wild plants and herbs! We’ve got some exciting teleseminars and other topics planned, and we’re kicking of June with a fascinating teleseminar with Wild Woman, Angelina Elliott! Join us for an upcoming teleseminar where you can ask your biggest questions about wild foods, herbs and how to use them with Master Herbalist and my gushingly good friend, Angelina! **To access the teleseminar information for this call, please scroll down to the bottom of this article. Thank you! -T-raw

By Angelina Elliott

My days are often started in my my backyard foraging for goodies to use for my smoothies, juices, salads, and daily beauty masks. I look to nature for all my beauty needs, inside and out.

Last year, I had an amazing biodynamic garden and in it I grew gorgeous heirloom varieties of watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, lettuces, herbs, squash, pole beans, cabbages, potatoes, corn, garlic, ginger, onions, blueberries, goji berries, radishes, parsnips, turnips, and medicinal herbs. We had the sweetest, most divine food I have ever tasted. This year, we decided to go wild and I am so glad we did! Although I love cultivated foods, I love wild foods even more. Wild native foods have long root systems that heal, nourish, and fortify the soil, they are stronger and hardier, completely sustainable, and the nutrients in wild plants are far superior to even the finest cultivated foods.

I delight in going into my little jungle where the wild things are! New plants come in as old plants are leaving, so a trip out in my wild garden is always a surprise. The birds, butterflies, bees, lady bugs, worms, and other wildlife appreciate the wild area as much as I do. At any given moment, I can look outside and see birds playing and eating, butterflies and hummingbirds feasting, lizards lounging, and so much more! I have had a bee sanctuary for over 4 years now. I have at least 500,000 bees and they absolutely LOVE IT HERE! We love having them here too, because they pollinate our goodies. I’ve thought about having our backyard certified as a backyard wildlife Sanctuary, as we definitely qualify! We have Mexican parrots that eat fruit and poop trees in our yard. We now have three gourmet varieties of loquat, thanks to you lovely Parrots!

I know that if I ever cultivate my garden again, it will be even better than it was before and this time, I will keep the wilds among my cultivated plants to support, nourish, and provide shade for the cultivated plants. Did you know that wild foods use less water if any at all? Did you know that wild foods have at least 10 times more nutrients than cultivated foods? The best part about wild foods is they are FREE. Wild food gives you freedom from genetically modified organisms, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and fertilizers. Wild foods are bug resistant and feed the soil while they are growing, so there’s no need for the long list of supplies needed to grow conventional or even organic food. Oh and did I mention, less fuss? So you are probably wondering how to identify the wild edibles in your yard.

Here’s a little safety guideline:
To avoid potentially poisonous plants, stay away from any wild or unknown plants that have–

• Milky or discolored sap.
• Beans, bulbs, or seeds inside pods.
• Bitter or soapy taste.
• Spines, fine hairs, or thorns.
• Dill, carrot, parsnip, or parsleylike foliage.
• “Almond” scent in woody parts and leaves.
• Grain heads with pink, purplish, or black spurs.
• Three-leaved growth pattern.

Now that we’ve cleared this up, the most common wild safe edibles are:
Chickweed, catsEar, dandelion, malva, cleavers, sow thistle, lamb’s quarters, clover, mustard, nasturtiums, coo koo weed, sorrel, and nettles.

How I use the above herbs:

• I rotate my greens for my green smoothies and juices using all the above wild edibles.
• I put the above edibles in salads along with my cultivated salad greens that came back this year and a few of my tomatoes from my old garden
• I use aloe, wild sage, wild rosemary, clovers, and cleavers along with MSM, wild honey, olive oil, seaweed, and home-made coconut yogurt to make my skin masks.

I hope you will consider foraging for wild edibles. You’ll be glad you did. My energy is through the roof, well even more than it was (you all know how hyper I am), I look younger and younger, I feel so full of vitality, and my gourmet foods never tasted so good!

Lots of love
XO
Angelina

We’ve invited Angelina to tell us all about her wild garden and which plants to use for beauty, health and healing. You’re invited to attend this call for FREE and get your questions answered. The call is happening on Tuesday, June 1st at 9pm Eastern. IF for any reason you are unable to attend the call, simply click this link and you will be able to access the recording.

**THIS IS THE LINK FOR THE CALL**

Go ahead and click that link to send in your questions ahead of time!

Speak to you soon!