Explore the power of natural medicine by understanding and applying the 7 laws to health. Part 7 of 7 in this series by Leisa describes how important stress management is in your quest for perfect health.

Not long ago I wrote about seven important words on health that author Michael Pollan had to say, namely “Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants”.  A statement that seems too simple to be as profound as it actually is.  A suggestion, that, if it was adopted by more people, would have far reaching positive consequences for both their health and for society.

Another simple group of words that are also a call to a healthier way of eating, come from Dr. Douglas Graham who is the author of a wonderful book called 80/10/10.  He is a raw vegan advocate, but even if people are not willing to take their diet to that stage completely, integrating a lot of his ideas makes plenty of sense.  The six words that he uses in regard to optimal food are: whole, fresh, raw, ripe, organic, plants.

In an interview he did with Raw Summit, (http://www.rawsummitarchives.com/), Dr. Graham  explained in more detail:

“The trick, I think, in good nutrition is to learn from decent pieces of information that are congruent, and to not lose track of them as we get excited about the next. And so, the concept of whole food is one we can all agree on, as is the concept of organic, as is the concept of raw or fresh or ripe. But what we’d find is that some people can all turn out of shape about organic and some people go crazy over raw. Some people just think that whole food is the biggest thing there is. And rather than saying, you know what? These are essentially the basic parameters that help us to determine the nutritional quality of the food on our plate, whole fresh, ripe raw, organic plants.

If we take those six parameters, you can look at your grandmother’s diet, you can look at your neighbors or your best friend’s diet and say, “You know what, if you would just increase the percentage of whole foods on your plate it would be a step in the right direction. If you would just eat more organic, you will be a step in the right direction or more raw, or more ripe, or more fresh, or more plant”.

You know, its better if there is more plants and fewer animals. That would be a better combination. You can evaluate the nutritional quality of anyone’s diet just using those six friendly words that would get people to shake their heads up and down because they can see it too, rather than getting all caught up in the depths of science that can easily be over your head. It can easily turn into an argument or sense of judgment. Really, our best leadership skills are in setting the example, but if you want to talk to somebody or evaluate the qualities of food on your own plate, let us just look at those six words and then, if you want to improve it, simply increase the percentage of whole fresh, ripe, raw, organic plants. Because we know that these are the most nutritious foods”.

Excellent advice!

I recently came across one of David Wolfe’s pet projects.  Those of you who have researched raw food would be familiar with David.  He has written the books Naked Chocolate, Eating for Beauty and the Sun Food Diet Success system; and is something of a guru in the raw food movement. 

 This project though, is one that encompasses many areas, as it states on the website:

“The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) is a unique nonprofit charity dedicated to planting edible, fruitful trees and plants to benefit needy populations and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water. Our programs, recently featured in The New York Times and The Hindu, strategically plant orchards where the harvest will best serve the community for decades to follow, at places such as homeless shelters, drug rehabs, low-income areas, international hunger relief sites, and animal sanctuaries. FTPF’s projects benefit the environment, human health, and animal welfare—all at once!

FTPF’s goal is straightforward: to collectively plant 18 billion fruit trees for a healthy planet (approximately 3 for every person alive). Fruit trees heal the environment by cleaning the air, improving soil quality, preventing erosion, creating animal habitat, sustaining valuable water sources, and providing healthy nutrition.

We envision a place where one can have a summer picnic under the shade of a fruit tree, breathe the clean air it generates, listen to the songbirds it attracts, and not have to bring anything other than an appetite for the healthy fruits growing overhead. A world where one can take a walk in the park during a lunch break, pick and eat a variety of delicious fruits, plant the seeds so others can eventually do the same and provide an alternative to buying environmentally-destructive, illness-causing, chemically-laden products.”

To read more about this brilliant initiative and to get involved in this most worthwhile of projects go to http://www.ftpf.org/