I graduated this past May and I start working in San Francisco towards the end of July. My friends and I decided to college with a bang and go to Brazil. We started our trip on June 27th and we´re going to be out here until July 17th. So it´s a decently long trip before I start the grind. We´re hanging out in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and we went to go see the Iguacu Falls in Argentina. It´s been a blast so far. Brazil is a beautiful country with amazing beaches…and the girls are gorgeous. I´ve been able to keep going strong because there´s plenty of fruit options available. Everyone drinks coconuts, acai, and other fruit juices. E também aprendo português

Well, that´s all the time I have for now. I´ll be putting up some new posts about health policy when I get back to the states. Check out the photos. Ciao.

Hi everyone! Sorry I don’t have much time to write much here. I’m just going to put up some pictures for now, and I’ll update this post later with more about what I’ve been doing and more about the photos and all.

Enjoy the photos!

Me with my newest cousin, Anikka, and her mom

Baby cousin Anikka

At the Red Fort in Delhi

At Qutab Minar in Delhi

With my man Mahavir, founder of Jainism

With Hanumanji, warrior and hero of the Ramayana

Well after finishing the last of my final exams at UCSD today, I felt like the sun was shining much much brighter. I got back home and decided to make myself a special treat with the little food I still had left in the fridge after studying for 5 days straight. If you though my other recipes were simple, this is just going to blow you away. As always, I hope you love it as much as I do.

(click for more views and to enlarge)

Ingredients

2-3 oranges juiced
2 tbsp agave nectar
2 handfuls cashews
Whatever fruit you have

Directions

Juice your oranges. Put the juice in the food processor with the agave nectar and cashews. Let it run for a good 5-10 minutes until the mixture is really smooth. If its too runny, you might want to add a few more cashews. Once the sauce is right, pour it over mixture of fruit. Dig your spoon in and enjoy!

–Rishi

Its getting real close to my departure date, and my excitement has just been increasing exponentially.  I just got a guide of all the places to travel to in India, and now I really can’t wait to get there.  All the reading I’ve been doing has also gotten me really craving some Indian food.  One of my favorite Indian desserts used to be my grandma’s halva.  Halva’s a very sweet, very buttery dish, that’s probably just about as bad for your body as it is delicious.  But with a little creativity and a little ingenuity, I created up something equally scrumptious.  My mom described it as raw “ambrosia.”  I hope you agree!

(click for more views and to enlarge)

Ingredients

* 1 carrot - grated
* 2 bananas
* 1/8 cup raisins
* 1/4 cup pecans
* 3 tbsp agave nectar
* 2 tsp cinnamon
* 1 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp red chili powder (optional)

Directions

Take one banana, 1 tsp of cinammon, 1/2 tsp salt, and the optional chili powder, and mash them together with a fork.

Next, take the carrots, raisins, pecans, and agave nectar, and mix them together.  After thoroughly mixed, add 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of cinammon.

To serve, put some banana mixture into a small bowl (I used orange and grapefruit halves), and top with the carrot mixture and pieces of the remaining banana.

–Rishi

It seems like I’m always writing about sugar…

The granulated sugar supply in the U.S. comes from two agricultural sources: half from sugar cane and the other half from sugar beets. Recently, American Crystal, a large Wyoming-based sugar company, along with several other leading sugar manufacturers announced that they will be sourcing their sugar from genetically engineered sugar beets beginning this year and arriving in stores in 2008. Products containing GE sugar will not be labeled as such. It works the same way for GE corn and GE soy, which are both already on the market.

This marks a dramatic change in the U.S. food supply. Together, GE corn, GE soy, and now GE sugar, are found in many conventional food products. It has now reached the point where consumers will be exposed to GE foods in just about every non-organic multiple ingredient product they purchase.

The reason these sugar companies have decided to use GE sugar beets is because these sugar beets are designed to withstand strong doses of pesticides. Obviously, it’s a profit motive. Using these new sugar beets enables agribusiness to streamline production and cut costs. But what about the consumer? I don’t want to eat sugar that came from a crop of pesticide-ridden, unnatural, and engineered sugar beets. Can’t we eat any normal food anymore?

To read more, go here.

-Rohit

Well, its finally June, and that means only one thing for me. SUMMER VACATION! After working all last summer at a large software corporation, I decided to do things just a bit differently this year. On June 14th, I’ll be heading on over to India, where I’ll be starting a 3 month backpacking trap that will end in Hong Kong in September. For about 2 months, I’ll be in Southeast Asia, so I decided to make a Southeast Asian inspired dish. If you love Thai, Malaysian, or Cambodian food, then you’ll love this dish.

(click for more views and to enlarge)

Ingredients

Dressing:
1/8 cup Olive Oil
2 tbsp ACV
1 tbsp amino acid
1/4 onion
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 large leaves mint
5 large basil
5 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tbsp salt
1 lemon - juiced
1 tbsp agave
chili powder (to taste)

Filling:
2 medium tomatoes - half moon sliced
2 carrots - grated
1/4 cabbage
black pepper
alfalfa sprouts
walnuts
pecans
basil

Wrap:
collard greens

Directions:

Take all the ingredients for the dressing (except 3 tbsp of your sesame seeds), and just toss them into a food processor or spice mill.  Add the remaining sesame seeds afterwards.  Dressings done!

After you’ve diced your tomatoes and grated your carrots, slice up your cabbage so its real thin.  Mix your vegetables together, and then pour in enough of the dressing to coat them.  Mix the vegetables and dressing, and keep adding dressing until you feel the flavor is strong enough.

To make the actual burrito, take some of your vegetable mix and place it out on a leaf of collard greens.  Next, take some alfalfa sprouts and lay them next to the veggie mix.  Top everything with some walnuts, pecans, and a few extra leaves of basil.  Wrap everything up, and you’ve got it!

And you thought it would be difficult

Hope you enjoy it!
–Rishi

I recently went out to dinner to a Vietnamese restaurant (don’t worry, I brought food with me) with a few of my roommates, and watched as they devoured some delicious looking spring rolls.  Spring rolls used to be one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes, and they served as the inspiration for this dish.  It took a bit of experimenting on my part (and about a dozen or so dirty dishes), but I think I really came up with something special this time.  My Vietnamese roommate said they were as good as the spring rolls his mom makes, so I guess that says something.  And as always, they are really simple to make.  Hope you enjoy them!

(click for more views and to enlarge)

Ingredients

Orange Glaze:
3 oz fresh squeezed Orange Juice
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1/2 tsp cinammon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cashews
1 small piece ginger

Filling:
2 carrots, grated
1 tomato, finely diced
4-5 mushrooms, finely diced
1 cup spinach, finely diced
1 cup cashews
1 cup walnuts
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 sprig, mint leaves
1 1/2 tablespoon Braggs Liquid Aminos

Wrap:
1 head of cabbage

Directions

Take all the ingredients for the glaze and just throw them into the food processor.  Let it run for a few minutes until the mixture gets real smooth.  That’s it for the glaze.

For the filling, take the carrots, mushrooms, spinach, and tomatoes and put them in a large bowl.  Next, put the nuts, cumin, coriander, and Liquid Aminos into the food processor, and just pulse it a few times or until you see spices are evenly distributed through the nuts.  Take the nut mixture and put it into the large bowl with the vegetables.  Mix everything together.   Grab your head of cabbage, and cut it in half.  Then peel off one leaf at a time, fill it with the veggie mix, and top with the orange glaze and a few sprigs of mint.  I told you it would be simple!

My point: Consume less sugar, flour, starch, and alcohol to prevent hair loss and baldness.

This is another example of big pharmaceutical and food industries lying and cheating to consumers, and victimizing the public. The traditional theory dealing with baldness was that it is caused by the male hormone, testosterone. Testosterone is converted to another hormone called dihydrotestosterone, which causes hair to grow darker and longer on the body, face, and sides of the head. Dihydrotestosterone also causes hair loss and baldness because it makes the hair on the top of the head lighter and thinner.

Out of all the corporations out there, Merck is probably the worst because they screw behind your back and not to your face. Scientists at Merck developed a drug called Proscar to shrink enlarged prostates by blocking the formation of dihydrotestosterone. Merck then turned around and started selling the same drug as Propecia, charging five times as much to help hair grow on bald men. Propecia is not very effective because it treats the symptoms of baldness, not the root cause.

New research shows that high blood levels of insulin may lead to male pattern baldness in which men and women lose hair from the top and front of their heads. A study from the Harvard School of Public Health shows that men who have the highest blood levels of insulin like growth factor-1 are the ones most likely to suffer male pattern baldness. Women who have high levels of insulin are the ones most likely to lose hair from the tops of their heads. It still is early in the research, but evidence is accumulating that male-pattern baldness may be caused by high levels of insulin that are produced by eating huge amounts of sugary and floured foods such as bakery products and pastas. We need more research to show if male pattern baldness can be prevented by avoiding flour and sugar. The exact mechanism by which insulin causes baldness is yet to be determined. But, my experience is that high levels of sugar destroy the body’s normal functioning processes. It makes sense to me that high sugar consumption would lead to baldness. Trust your instincts.

So, we end up with a situation where the food industry is selling us the problem (refined sugar) and the health industry is selling us a solution to the problem (Propecia). Both industries make money while the consumer ends up unhealthy and bald. Fortunately, you as a consumer can make the choice to cut out excessive consumption of sugar, starches, flour, and alcohol-all these ingredients are used too often in our food supply.

To read more go here and here.

-Ro

Ever since Ro and I were in middle school, we would come home everyday from school and make ourselves a nice big sandwich.  Honey wheat bread, mayo, mustard, cheese, tomato, turkey, corn, the works.  I made the same sandwich all the way through high school, and it was absolutely one of my favorite things to eat.  It was also one of the meals that I missed the most when I became a raw foodist. Earlier this year, I was making a sandwich for a friend of mine who came to visit me at college, when I was hit by a burst of inspiration.  I got out all the freshest vegetables I had, and so the sunny side sandwich was born.  Its one of my favorite meals and its as simple to make as a salad.  You’re just gonna love it.

(click for more views and to enlarge)

Ingredients:

* Mustardaise (click for recipe)
* 1/2 of one onion
* 1 tomato
* 1 avocado
* 5 button mushrooms
* 1 leaf lettuce (whatever kind your favorite is)
* salt
* pepper
* 1 slice of raw cheese (non-vegans only)
* 2 pieces of your favorite raw crust

Directions:

The directions for this one are extraordinarily simple.  Mash up the avocados with a bit of salt and pepper.  Slice everything else up like you would for a sandwich.  Put a nice thick layer of my Mustardaise on both of the crusts, and sprinkle some salt and pepper on one side.  For a little extra kick, sprinkle on some red chili pepper too.  Finally, layer everything else on and you are done!  Enjoy it!

My point: I think that TV advertising is the single greatest factor contributing to obesity. People, especially children, tend to purchase and consume foods that are more widely advertised. The problem is that advertised foods are the most highly processed and packaged foods. This is leading to the obesity epidemic.

Food is supposed to nourish, replenish, and sustain the body. When you turn food into a major corporate for-profit venture, everything gets screwed up. Food conglomerates care more about their balance sheets then they do about consumer health. This is a simple fact. It is not necessarily anyone’s fault, but it is a result of the commodification of food in our market system.

Food is one of the most advertised commodities on television. In 2001, U.S. companies spent $3.5 billion on fast-food advertising, and another $5.8 billion on other food categories. Nearly $1 billion was spent on advertising for the top five soda brands.

Food advertising influences the way people think and the choices they make. The consumption of advertised foods is much higher than foods that are not advertised. Children exposed to more food advertising have been found to choose the products advertised at significantly higher rates than children not exposed to the advertisements. So what happens? You watch more TV, you eat more junk food. This is a blatant victimization of children.

The food industry and policymakers have a responsibility to encourage the creation and promotion of healthier foods. The problem is that so much money is tied up between politicians and major food corporations. As usual, the consumer is being screwed and the corporations are making out like bandits.

As consumers, we can make the decision to purchase healthier foods. As people, we need to work to build awareness about this issue, especially in schools. To read more click here.

-Ro