Adjusting towards a holistic life path (4)

The stepping-up crises

It's a blessing to have a group of like-minded
working together towards the betterment of the society.

However, with projects become bigger and sophisticated,
gradually my weaknesses of poor time management
and the lack of leadership got contrasted out.

There is one point in time,
where I was overwhelmed by multiple commitments (of substantial scales)
and I suddenly got lost.

There seemed to be to little time for too many things..

Hence, I decided to take one things one time;
but often, I behave more like procrastinating.
Things never get done and projects took too long to conclude
(e.g. the launch of Vegehub.org was delayed nearly 1 year).

Adverse conditions began to intensify,
many many of my partners/collaborators
started to complain about my slow progress;
some even throw in their emotional 'attacks',
  relationships became awkward,
    my leadership in some organisations was doubted,
      I was constantly late for appointments,
        communication among partners broke down,
      issues were misunderstood
and my energy level almost dropped to zero.

Basically. my life was paralysed.

Regardless of the hurdles,
I did my very best to manage and
patiently waited for breakthrough to occur.

However, the wait was, apparently, a bit too long...

.. to be continued.


Truthfully,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Adjusting towards a holistic life path (3)

Empowerment by friendly networks

As the scope of service become wider and deeper,
the learning path towards holism
proved to become tougher and more challenging.
I began to see the importance of coordination among
like-minded people to get things work out as a teamed effort.

This is where I started to appreciate a line
that I picked up from a window-displayed book @ MPH bookstore
many years back.

Quoting (crudely) from the biography of a successful figure (which I can't remember now):
"what make me a successful person isn't my talent, it's my network"

My belief on people network gradually strengthen
along the years of voluntary services.
No matter how I boost my vitality and manage my emotion,
I still couldn't get all things done all by myself
and eventually have to acknowledge the necessity of coordinated effort
to serve broader public...

This is when I looped in a few good friends to officially
start up Cielo Sereno in order to lay off some of my workload
in my education effort on organic living.

This is also when I deeply felt grateful about
having a bunch of sincere good friends around me
supporting the same ideal for a peaceful and healthy society.

Everytime I look back on how Cielo Sereno is well on track,
(the last check on Cielo Sereno web visit statistics, revealed
there have been >500 unique visitors
fetching some educative info from the website every month)
the similar notion came up:
--  it's the network of like minded friends that make
our organic education impactful and significant.

I slowly realise, network and relationship make a holistic life
more complete, more abundant
and more empowered (for a bigger and better cause).


Gratefully,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Adjusting towards a holistic life path (2)

Volunteerim is to me is the best course I have ever attended.

It's a life-long continuous learning,
which is rewarding but gives little space for complaceny (if the intention is true);

It's precisedly designed teaching program with real-time feedback,
encompassing a good balance between theory and practical.

Volunteerism gives instants gratification, tho' little materialistic returns;
it satisfies the inner soul, tho' often drains the physical body;
it completes one's personal development, tho' frequently it requires one to make sacrifices.

If one feels like the best school and best course to attend,
volunteerism is the only one I would recommend =)

So, for the past 8 years or so, I deeply plunged into volunteering
for the Vegetarian Society, The Chinese Buddhist Assoc,
The Singapore Budhdhist Federation, Fu Hai Monastry,
Kampung Senang, Dharma Drum, Buddhist Life Mission Assoc etc...

I reaped a lot of personal growth in there.
However, after I gathered enough physical strength or wellness to endure
the heavy load of volunteering part time after work
(to the extent I look so frailed, my family and friends called me crazy tiring out myself for 'nothing'),
I began to face an all new challenge in emotion management.

The emotional set back from adverse experiences during volunteering
could be quite a few log scale more intensive and damaging than
the plain physical energy drainage.


Buddhism as the fountain of sustainance

If it were not by some spiritual faith,
I couldn't have sustained so far.
-- I was taught that the 'boddhi path' i.e. path to enlightenment is meant to be tough and lengthy,
hence much perseverence is required despite of challenges of the body and soul.

Knowing that this path is tough, is one thing;
resolving the emotional predicaments along the way, is another thing.
Often I have to apply some buddhist teachings
either Amituiofo chanting, metta illumination, and some meditative detachment,
to handle emotional attacks or conflicts..

These are actually teachings from Venerable Chin Kung
that I learnt in my early buddhism days
and those precious widsom turned out to be the most valuable
in cushioning my bumpy ride on this holisitc path that I am striving on.

Volunteerism, when imparting into
every single cells of my body
and every episode of my life,
indirectly invoked the complementation of
vegetarianism and buddhism.

This is how my life began to step up towards a holistic path
(which I believe from my understanding from my teachers' teaching,
a necessity to achieve total awareness)




With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Adjusting towards a holistic life path (1)

The final quarter of 2010
has proven to be the most drastic change on my life path,
since I turned vegetarian and buddhist some 7~8 years ago.

This change wasn't all that sudden actually,
as some close friends may have observed in the past one year or so,
my gradual drifts into entrepreneurship, cyber-presence and intensive financial learning.

I have friends commenting in multiple events
that I somehow have gotten more interested in 'money' nowadays
(cf. my passion in volunteering and spiritual studies along those years).

But the core hasn't change since the very beginning.

Beginning from the will to serve

The story starts since I arrived in Singapore in 2000,
and was hungering for spiritual fulfillment after
a long depression (undiagnosed) since I left my secondary school.
[I wasn't happy how the world it was and built up a lot of skeptism towards people around and refrain to 'participate in life']

I hence started my volunteering path in 2001,
in search of peace, bliss and enlightenment.
Lucky enough, I was given many opportunities to
serve and wide exposure to buddhist teachings
since I devoted myself to volunteerism then.

I was submerged in total bliss and joy of volunteerism, as a reuslt.

After a while, I began to realise that my physical body
couldn't sustain the demanding effort in volunteering.
I wanted to do more and
very wished to serve a broader public with deeper impact,
but my exhausted body kept holding me back...


Vegetarian lifestyle as the foundation to serve

Subsequently, my natural instinct asked that
I go vegetarian to build a good health foundation.
And so I did.

Given the concern of imbalance nutrition and
my promise to mum to take good care of myself despite my special diet,
I drilled deep into vegetarian nutrition,
eagerly attending wellness seminars, workshop and cooking classes.

My health became better day by day
with a natural/organic vegetarian diet,
and gradually improved my energy level and endurance power.

Driven by my deep gratitude towards vegetarianism,
I geared my effort in contributing to the vegetarian community
(including The Vegetarian Society of Singapore).

And this brought me up to the next level in fulfillment
but also posed a new set of challenges.

to be continued...



With sincerity,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

When doing good is not good enough

There was this incidence, that often I share with some close friends,
where my mum was commenting that I donate too much to charities,
to the extent I didn't take good care of myself.
-- obviously it was only her imagination,
I was very comfortable how manage my personal finance.

But my mum did trigger some thoughts in my mind,
her remarks tho' not true, made me ask a question:
how do I donate more to charities and help more people out there.
The salary I earn is a finite figure, but the people who need helps out there
are almost infiite..

Of course, most people would comment,
just do whatever that is within our capacity.
-- this is a very clean answer.

But what if I would like to contribute more?

I didn't get to a satisfactory answer until I attended
T Harv Eker's Millionaire Mind Intensive in 2008.

Harv was illustrating in one of his session,
giving an example of how a sum of money could be better utilised
for the good of the society,
most importantly, in a sustainable manner.

He was asking, if you were to have a million dollars,
how much do you donate away and
how much do you use it for your own consumption?

The participants gave various answers
in term of different percentage that he/she would donate away,
some 10%, some 50% , some 90%..

Harv shocked the entire audience when he mentioned that he suggested
donate none of the million dollars!

He said, nobody touches the million dollars.
Instead of donating away, or using up the money for own consumption,
invest the money in a safe platform (e.g. an established business, foundation etc ),
which will yield a monthly cashflow.
From that monthly cashflow, one may decide the percentage,
one donate and use for own consumption.
That way, the money that we can donate will be infinite!!

The moment I heard that,
one of my biggest burden in life was released.

It's a very simple suggestion,
but often one can get stuck for many many years,
possibly till the end of life,
without pointers from gurus or teachers.

From then on, I had a new perspective on Cielo Sereno,
a non-profit organic education tour company that I set up early 2008.
There is basically no capital investment in this NPO,
but the effort that my partners and I volunteered,
could be converted to an anual cashflow, bulk of which,
we decided to donate to credible charities
and to fund on sustainable vegetarian projects e.g. Vegehub.Org launched recently.

Altho' the amount of surplus and
hence the donation (from Cielo Sereno) isn't a big sum,
but the amount of donation is way beyond the amount
I personally could afford, if I were to fork out from my salary.

Cielo Sereno is a realisation of theory of sustainable donation
I learnt at Harv's workshop
and it is a pride among my partners and myself :)


Sincerely,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: I have just come back from refresher course (3rd time) at Millionaire Mind Intensive, and gathered some new insights in helping chairities and the vegetarian community via my new project "The Veg School" =)

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Vegehub.Org: A new landmark for vegetarian landscape

When Cielo Sereno (CS) was first founded in early 2008,
it was commited to drive healthy vegetarianism to the next level.

During these years (even years before CS was officially registered),
CS have been dedicatedly organising organic education tours
locally and overseas,
giving her best effort to raise awareness of healthy vegetarian living
via fun and interactive tour activities.

In the year 2011 to come, CS continues to organise
meaningful local organic tours with new venues,
and will also be partnering with another VWO
on an overseas tour to Chiang Mai (October 2011, tentatively).

With Cielo Sereno's 3rd Anniversary
approaching in just a couple of months,
it's exciting to announce the rise of a new project Vegehub.org
to mark the blooming vegetarian landscape in Singapore and
to bring local vegetarianism on another quantum leap.

Vegehub is a project that derives support from Cielo Sereno's surplus,
to showcase the commitment of Singapore's vegetarian community towards
a healthier nation,
cleaner air,
greener environment,
more loving society and
more sustainable agriculture.

At Vegehub, you will see
the robust vegetarian blogosphere in Singapore,
established resources for vegetarian education,
a wide array of vegetarian services,
and vibrant pro-vegetarian businesses and events.

It's a one-stop vegetarian online hub for
vegetarians to become more cohesive
via facilated communication and mutual support of vegetarian services.

It's also a convenient reference point for
non-vegetarians to get comfy with the vegetarian world
by knowing the real vegetarian people through their blogs/services and the educational materials.

Please help yourself with this new website.
All feedbacks are welcome and
suggestion of more Singaporean vegetarian websites
are even better!! :D


With love,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Waking up from Bubbleland

I have been following Robert Kiyosaki's and Mike Maloney's
financial teachings for more than a year now.

Day by day, I am getting aware about the volatility
and impermanence of existing prosperity we are enjoying nowadays,
amidst the rampantly changing financial weather.

The deeper I delve into understanding of
how our financial system works in the modern world,
the more wary I become upon how the financial hypes
have been swarming around us
day in and day out.

Along the past 18months, after reading many of Kiyosaki's C.O.R. blog posts ,
Maloney's newsletters and his most recent compilation of
10-episode Gold and Silver educational video series
I couldn't help but begin to realise that we have been living in economic bubbleland
where the buildings that we see, the luxury beyond our means that we are enjoying,
and money that we accumulate are all 'illusive'...

We have all the way been constructing our dream world
by over-depriving Mother Earth's resources,
by over-drafting our children's and grand children's money (before they are even born),
by encouraging unnecessary spending,
by approving (silently) wastage of materialistic blessings...

The way of life we are leading nowadays is simply unsustainable
and worse, it is devastating to the planet we are living on,
destructive to the future of our next generation.

Every day, I am praying that more people will see through
the illusive luxury (which in fact is just another form of slavery)
and would take the initiative to take one step back to humble lifestyle
before the next tremedous financial crisis falls in.

To cushion from the hard hitting financial catastrophe to come,
gold and silver would be the basic preparation we need to do,
in order to start withdrawing ourselves from the deteriorating financial illusion.

Gold and Silver are expensive now, but the cost of unpreparedness
would a few log-fold more expensive...

Well wishes,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: if in doubt, please do get educated.


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

A vegetarian movement that first moved my heart

In August 2010,

I was in another workshop by T. Harv Eker
"Mission to Million".

Like many of the previous workshops by Eker,
it again touched the inner most of myself,
unleashing my true will, my true passion and
my true reason to celebrate this very life.

It was at this session on the second day of the workshop,
through a series of simple writing exercises,
my "mission of life" got contrasted out and became very prominent
(like never before).

The writing exercise actually made the participants to
answer a long list of questionaires,
to dig out the true "intention" in us.
(-- the questions themselves were straightfoward,
but all of them combined, were powerful and impactful!)

When the facilitator went through the questionaires with us afterward;
to my shock, these two words kept re-appearing, many many times, among the answers:
Vegetarian & Teaching.

As the facilitator put it, if a key word kept re-appearing more than 3 times,
it simply means it's something we are inclined to do it.

I love teaching vegetarian, this is something for sure,
and I do it as a hobby and as a happy volunteering job,
but all these while, I could never recognise/acknowledge that
vegetarian teaching
would be the main part of my life -- I have been burying this true intention...

After the exercise, I told myself, I should be honest to myself,
despite some debate in the mind to "justify"
how these two words floating up a few times doesn't mean I have to do it for life.

If it were not the written exercise at Harv's workshop,
I couldn't have sorted out the true self in me,
amidst a lot of distractions from the outer world,
many people's confusing opinions and my own mind fricks.

I then took a deep breath and decided to go up to the stage
to make a public declaration to about 500 participants at the workshop
that I would open a Vegetarian School,
to fulfill my inner will and passion to guide people towards a
sustainable holistic way of living via vegetarianism.

When I came back from the workshop,
I continued to make my public declaration
to > 700 friends in Facebook and
to >5000 readers of Vegetarian Society's e-newsletter.

I wanted to  firmly commit myself to something that is truthful to myself
and didn't want this dream, this passion, this mission of life
fade off through my procrastination or
even get dampened by my own mind fricks
like many other episodes of my life before.

I have now created a Faceboook Group on Vegetarian School to recruit supporters
and have also set up a survey page to collect comments/suggestions
for a Veg School that the People want.

The very next step is to have an important meeting this coming Saturday
to confirm the venue of the school.

I will probably take a few months to design the school syllabus
and likely that this Vegetarian School will open latest by mid 2011 :)


Cheers!
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: this Veg School will be one of its kind. Courses will be compiled in the format of intensive full day workshops, blended in with practicals, students interactions, experiments and fun! It's a totally out-of-the-square (or out-of-classroom) type of educational system --not to mention, Veg School will not have a fixed premise to conduct course in at least the next few years to come, so expect the unexpected!!


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Life Force Recipes - Explanatory Notes (3)

We now know that seeds are important to us,

as they are the vitality-generating engines.

We also know that harvesting the life-force from seeds
isn't straight forward.

However, there are a few general pointers on
how to minimise the "side-effects" from the consumption of seeds:

(I) choose seeds which are alkaline in nature
~~ these seeds which are relatively rare,
     and can be taken on it's own without much need
     to balance any prominent biased traits.
     Some good examples are: millet, quiona and amaranth seeds

(II) choose seeds which are grown in the climate/region of residence
~~ in other words, these seeds can be grown
     (naturally and robustly without much human intervention)
     in the region we live.
     In the case of Malaysia/Singapore which are in the tropical region,
     some examples are rice, mung bean, millet and amaranth seeds

(III) soak or sprout seeds before consumption
~~ whether to consume raw or cooked,
     soaking and sprouting of seeds prior to consumption
     will reduce acidity of seeds to substantial extent
     For example: soaking of almond overnight, sprouting adzuki beans for two days.

(IV) add in enhancement ingredients to improve digestivity
~~ many seeds are not easily digested and their nutrients are difficult to absorb.
     Adding in some other cooking ingredients that will improve the digestivity
     will balance off the side effects of seeds.
     These ingredients are usually herbs/spices,
     like ginger, pepper, cumin and corriander.
     Cooking lentil with ginger, mixing brown rice with cumin and corriander
     elevates the taste of humble staple food while ensuring the digestivity of the seeds.


Hope you have been enjoying this series on the science of life-force so far :)



Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

Life-force-notes

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Life Force Recipes - Explanatory Notes (2)

We know nothing is created equal on Earth,
because different entities have their uniqueness, preferences and bias,
so as seeds.

While the fact that seeds offer life force remains true,
some seeds are more difficult to digest compared to others;
some seeds are more toxic than others,
some seeds are more neutral (in term of Yin & Yang);
some seeds are more alkaline;
and some seeds are more robust (ie easier to germinate in harsh conditions).

In general, all seeds fit into life force recipes,
but without the knowledge of how to balance the biased traits of different seeds,
sometimes a badly formualted recipe may cause more harm
rather than serving the life-force-giving purpose.

There are different ways to balance off or to get around
the unfavourable traits of certain grains:

In the first recipes, Rejuvenate Concoction,
some of the grains are quite acidic,
but the problem was circumvented by selectively taking on the supernatant
and also balanced by other grains of opposite traits.

The same happened to the second recipe, Longevity Porridge,
where the Yang trait of Huangqi is counteracted by Yin trait of mung bean;
while the other ingredients were also formulated to balance each other.

As for the Amaranth recipe,
amaranth seed itself is very alkaline and not very biased in its medicinal properties,
hence it can be taken all by its own.

Hence, substantial knowledge and intellect are required in
formulating life force recipes... many a time this requires ancient wisdom!!

In the next blog,
more on how to harvest life force from seeds in the proper ways... =)


Well regards,
Kee Yew

Life-force-notes
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Life Force Recipes - Explanatory Notes (1)

In the past few days,
I have been posting a special series of Life Force Recipes.

This series of Life Force Recipes
will slowly expand in long term,
so that they will continue to guide people on taking the right food =)

Something I missed out from the beginning of this blog series
is the explanation on the essence of life force recipes.
Hence, there is a need of supplementary note here.

Probably one may already guess,
The essence of Life Force recipes
is to give longevity, vitality and energy?

Yes, but here are the principles behind:

(i) the food must have meant to give birth to life
(ii) the food must have comprehensive nutrients content to support a new life
to signify the presence of robust vitality.

Often in my vegetarian wellness classes,
I half-jokingly told my students that
there is one fool proof way to identify good nutritious food
-- that is to eat whatever babies eat!

In nature, babies are vulnerables and demand meticulous care
(especially in the quality and nutrition of their feed),
to ensure they grow up strong and healhty (reflection of life force).

If we have observed carefully,
it's not hard to notice that
eggs give life force to newborn chick
milk give life force to newborn cattle
seeds give life force to newborn seedling.

In vegan context, in order to harvest the life force from nature,
seeds is a very logical means for us to sustain life with vitality.

Seeds is a compact package of complete nutrients
(from proteins to minerals to carbo to fats to vitamins etc)
that ensure that a seedlings will germinate and grow up into a seedling
before it can nourish from the sun.

Therefore, in the entire series of Life Force Recipes,
one will always see the hallmark of
seeds, cereals, grains, nuts, legumes
among the major ingredients ;)

That's because life force recipes is virtually baby food :P

-- However, are all seeds created equal?
Are all seeds-packed recipes Life Force Recipes?
We will discuss about this next...



Toast to vitality,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

Life-force-notes

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}
Life-Force-Recipes-Explanatory-Notes

Life Force Recipe (3) - Amaranth Cereal Drink

Amaranth Plant

When I first became vegetarian,
like many newbies,
I was concerned about protein intake.

One day, I was surfing the internet
for more convincing info on vegan sources of protein,
and something 'different' popped up in my google search page
-- that is Amaranth Seeds.

According the article,
Amaranth seeds is actually the seeds of amaranth plant (of spinach family).
It was a staple of ancient South Americans
and is notably known for its high protein content and minerals.
This why one of the high protein foods that vegan body builders routinely consume
in place of whey protein and eggs
is Amaranth seeds.

Amaranth can be consumed in many ways,
e.g. served with salad, as cereal or amaranth powder blended into shake.

Sometimes, I would also add 1 or 2 tablespoon of Amaranth Seeds into my
millet/quiona congee, to further boost the protein content (and also life force!).

Here, would like to share a special Mexican-style Amaranth Breakfast Cereal Drink
for variety =)

Ingredients:
. Amaranth seeds (1/4 cup)
. water (2 cups)
. Cinnamon stick (x1)
. Agave nectar (1 tbs or to taste)
. Sea salt (a tiny pinch)

Methods:
- combine Amaranth seeds with water and cinnamon stick, and bring to boil.
- simmer for 20~25min
- stir in Agave nectar and sea salt and serve warm

~~ .. the cinnamon and the crunchy Amaranth seeds would perk you up in the morning =P


Bon apetit,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: Amaranth seeds is available at some health food shops in Singapore


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Life Force Recipe (2) - Longevity Porridge

I spent some quality time with mum
celebrating Mid Autumn in KL last weekend.

A very common scene
how I communicate with mum at home..
is watching cooking show or wellness show on satellite TV together
-- and discussing about the content (some times debate!!)
:P

I was almost falling asleep in the sofa
when my mum woke me up to catch
this program (中华医药) on CCTV Channel
featuring a 93-year-old TCM physician in China.

When asked about his secret to his longevity,
given his hectic schedule and frequent travelling,
Dr Zhu Liang Chun, revealed on this Longevity Porridge that he takes every single day
for the past 60 years!!

The ingredients as shown below are very common grains and herb;
but the combination (invented by himself and his mum, 60yrs ago)
is formulated to support the harmonious interaction among the 5 internal organs.
By harmonizing the 5 internal organs, our health will naturally strengthen.

This very 'secret' recipe of Dr Zhu that
helped him endure a lot of stress and long working hours is a truly simple one:

Ingredients:
[1 serving]
.Mung Beans 绿豆 (pre-soaked 8hr) ..................................... 10g
.Lotus Seeds 莲子 (pre-soaked 8hr)  .................................... 10g       
.Barley 薏仁 (pre-soaked 8hr)  ............................................. 10g    
.White Yunnan Biandou 白扁豆 (pre-soaked 8hr) ................. 10g       
.Red Dates 红枣 .................................................................... 6g            
.Wolfberries  枸杞子 ............................................................ 2g         
.HuangQi Herb 黄芪 (pre-soaked 20min) ..............................50g       
.Filtered Water 水 ..................................................................1 bowls 

Methods:
- Boil HuangQi herb in 1 bowl of water for 15min; collect the water.
- Boil with another bowl of water for 15min, collect the water and combine with the previous.
- Combine Mung beans, Lotus seeds, Barley, Biandou, Red Dates with HuangQi herbal water and bring to boil, before simmering for 40min
- add in Wolfberries and boil for another 10min and serve warm.



Longevity to all,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


p/s: if you read in Chinese, here is an excerpt of the TV program

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Life Force Recipe (1) - Rejuvenate Concoction

Several weeks ago,
I went for dinner at Kampung Senang Aljunied
after missing their hearty organic meal for a month or so!!

Then, Auntie MuiFa (the creative and loving chef @ Kg Senang)
came by my table and gave me this special beverage called
the Rejuvenate Concoction.

Rejuvenate Concoction is a humble wellness beverage
that helps (in TCM perspective)
  - improve digestivity and spleen function
  - unblock clogged up Qi within the body
  - remove "damp"-ness from the body

It's not the first time I had Rejuvanate Concoction,
but this time, it caught my extra attention, because I was shown the recipe along.
Auntie MuiFa asked that I spread this recipe for the benefit of broad public,
and hence I am happily uploading the recipe here to share the cyber community ;)

Ingredients:
.Lotus Seeds   30g
.Organic Whole Wheat   30g
.Organic Brown Rice   30g
.Organic Black Wild Rice   30g
.Organic Millet   30g
.Organic Pearl Barley (Western)   30g
.Organic Whole Oat   30g
.Glutinous Rice   30g
.Chinese Barley   30g
. Filtered water   12L

Methods:
- mix Lotus Seeds and Wheat with room temperature Water and bring to boil
- add in Millet and Rice
- add in Barley and boil for another 5 min
- add in whole Oat and boil for the last 5~10min before taking off the stove.

>>Drink only the supernatant (ie liquid part).
-- The sediment (ie grains) could be served as porridge or blended into rice milk.



Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The humble truth of genes (5)

Knowing genes are equally important as the environmental factors,
we should harness information from genes
to help us to improve our environmental factors.

For examples:
If we know from genetic screenings that
we are susceptible to cancer,
we should tailor our diet to contain more antioxidant or pick up a less stressful job.

If we know that we have gene variants that lead to higher cholesterol level in our body,
then we may take more folate to prevent inflammation of LDL.

The idea is to acknowledge the significance of genes,
but not to exaggerate the 'power' of genes.

Some time ago, I received an email from a friend asking for opinion whether
she should go for a genetic screening, as many of her relatives had cancers.

My suggestion then was that there wasn't a need to do a genetic screen,
as the family trend was already a virtual genetic screen!
There is no need to spend the extra money on the fanciful technologies
which tells the same as traditional methods do.

However if one happens to be unwell since young/birth for no obvious reason,
it's beneficial to go for genetic screening to get some clues what may have gone wrong.

What is most important is that we do the necessary changes accordingly in our lifestyle and diet
when the genetic cause is identified (instead of taking drugs to target the 'causative' gene)

There is no right or wrong as to how a genetic information is used,
but it's important to get educated on where gene is positioned in our lives
and take the corresponding action to improve our health via humble and practical means.
(hence the purpose of this blog series)




Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The humble truth of genes (4)

Genes, environment, diet, lifestyle and many other factors
are ultimately equal.

We sees genes being more important or playing a bigger part in one's health,
because we have little manipulation over it.

But, we forgot that we still have a lot of capacity to toggle the parameters (for good health) from the other aspects.

4 years ago or so,
I attended a scientific conference,
where a lot of biology experts gather to
discuss about the relationship between genes and cancer/stem cells/aging.

One of the speakers talked about how genes had something else beyond controlling them.
This new field is now called the epigenetic studies,
where biologists study how the physical structure of chromosomes
regulate the expression of genes and eventually direct the translation of genetic codes.

Apparently, the physical structure of chromosomes (cf. chemical coding)
as the speaker spelled out, is often influenced by diet and lifestyle of a person.

Since the discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick half a century ago,
scientist have been fancying the idea of
how DNA commands the biological function of living things
and gradually get drifted into thinking that
DNA is the ultimate number-one-in-command for biological entities.

Now with the latest modern scientific evidence,
we know that DNA and environment actually interacts on an equal ground,
influencing each other, balancing each other to eventually settle in a dynamic equilibrium.

Hence, it's important that we do not get carried away by the mysterious portrait of DNA
and sink into the futile attempts of controlling DNA we are not meant to control.
Exactly, this is how big pharmaceutical companies
convince the general public and governments
to fork out huge money in support for finding cure for a disease at it's 'ultimate source' (ie DNA level)
which is not truly the ultimate source (because there isn't one)...

Knowing that diet, lifetsyle and environment can also interact and influence the operation of genes,
why not instead put in effort into fine tuning these factors which we have the capacity to control?




Sincerely,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The humble truth of genes (3)

Some readers may be already arguing that
there are situations where a child is born defective (e.g. Down Syndrome)
and that could seriously prove impossible to treat/prevent,
despite the change of diet, living environment, exercise etc...

This is very true.
But these events are rare and
are usually due to some 'ad hoc' malicious mutations or deletion in gene coding.
This is the only situtation where genes could be 'blamed'
(still it is arguable, because the parents, with sufficient information and education, could avoid these mutations sometimes).

Most common degenerative diseases like
diabetes typeII, cardiovascular diseases, adulthood cancers, allergy etc
that contribute bulk of the death in modern days,
are not due to malicious mutations or deletion in gene coding.

In some of these degenerative diseases,
genes may play a slightly bigger part.
E.g. some women are more susceptible to Breast Cancer
if they inherit certain variant forms of BRCA1 from their ancestors.
But still, genetic predisposition isn't everything.

Another important concept about genes stemming from this discussion is that
there is actually no gene that is meant for causing cancer or
making one susceptible to cancer (or any disease).

During the course of evolution (over hundreds/thousands of years),
genetic codes randomly and gradually vary (a kind of natural mutation).
Sometimes the variation will improve the function of a gene
sometimes it is the reverse.

When a genetic code changes to one that compromise the function of the gene,
the new species is naturally selected against (in term of bioogical/social survival and offspring propagation).
So, eventually there is no truly bad variant that gets carried onto the next generation.

In the case of cancer susceptible BRCA1 variants,
they were not meant to cause cancer despite their compromised functions (in DNA repair).
If these cancer susceptible BRCA1 variants were truly bad,
they won't have been passed on from their ancestors
-- because their far end ancestors bearing these variants would have been compromised in their survival/reproduction.

The real situation is that these cancer susceptible variants
could not cause cancer given the environment, diet and lifestyle during their ancestors' time.

When the era changes,
the environment changes (now with more pollution),
the diet pattern changes (now with a lot more meat and food chemicals),
the lifestyle changes (now with less exercise opportunity and more stress),
certain BRCA1 variants could not handle so much 'workload'
and hence now labelled cancer susceptible variants.

The whole issue is very clear,
in order to prevent breast cancer(or a disease),
one can choose
to blame on their misfortune to have inherited the susceptible variants
(where nothing more could be done)
or
to create an environment, diet pattern, lifestyle that mimic the ancestral time
when these nowadays-so-called susceptible variants were totally harmless.

Question may arise:
How is it possible now to live like our ancestors?
-- exactly a question reflecting one's unwillingness to change and to step out of their comfort zones
as indicated in previous post :P



Sincerely,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The humble truth of genes (2)

One of the very common misconceptions about gene is that
genetic heridity is something not within our control.

While this hold true to the extent where we couldn't choose our parents
(--actually spiritually speaking, this is still argueable! but we are not discussing here :P) ,
not being able to choose our genes of preference
doesn't mean we can't control the outcome.

To take obesity as an example,
there are indeed genes that make one inclined towards obesity,
but having such genes doesn't mean one ought to be obese.

The proper way of analysing this issue
is to adopt the concept that
it's always multiple factors contributing to an outcome (so as disease).

While gene remains one of the major factors,
diet, exercise and environment (e.g. social culture)
are also important factors contributing to obesity.
As long as one of those many many factors is interfered,
obesity will not happen.

It's not very wise to just put all blames on genes and
quickly claim that one couldn't do anything to reverse a health condition.
(I exactly hear this very often among my relatives and friends who
kind of give up on their health problems, and use "gene predisposition" as an excuse
to go back to white rice,meat, cigarrettes, alcohol and inactive lifestyle)

The same applies to myopia (short-sightedness).
Many people naturally bear the myopia-susceptible genes.
But, it doesn't mean that if both parents wears spec,
the child is bound to wear spec.
If the child is brought up in a padi field, with little view blockage
in their living environment (cf. high rises in cities),
or if the child is banned from playing video games/computers and watch TV every day,
there will be little chance the child needs to wear glasses.

Treatment and prevention of many degenerative diseases/health conditions,
are actually (or supposedly) not that difficult (theoretically!).

As we could see from the above two examples,
the outcome of a disease is contributed by many factors.
As long as one of the factors is removed,
the outcome could be totally different (cured, or severity tamed).

If one would extrapolate such a strategy to treat/prevent a disease,
one may discover that cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, allergy etc..
could also be controlled.

The difficult part actually lies in
whether one is determined to eliminate one of those factors.
In other words the true hurdle happens to be human's attachment to their comfort zones
(ie lifestyle, diet, environment) and
hence the unwillingness to change...



Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The humble truth of genes (1)

Gene has become one mysterious or even 'mystical' term
that often get misunderstood/abused
in nowadays wellness circle.

It's likely that
one may have come across health and anti-aging wellness companies
which claim that their products could target the root of the problem
from the genetic level.

Very often over a dining table,
we may also hear friends and relatives reasoning that
their diabetic/cardiovascular problems are due to genetic predisposition.

In academic field,
we definitely sees pharmaceutical companies
researching around the clock
to screen for the "Obesity" genes and targeting drugs.

While it's a good sign that
the general public is getting more exposed and used to the terms:
gene, DNA, chromosome, heredity and many other synonyms,
I feel a little bit more of proper education is needed
to let the public properly understand what gene truly is.

In an over-simplied manner (for easier understanding),
gene is, physically, a long chain molecule,
which is folded up and slotted into the nucleus
(a compact compartment usually in the centre of a cell).

DNA/Gene/Chromosome/Chromatin (interchangeably in some sense)
are likened to the brain of a cell
which commands all the functions of cells.

This is one reason why the wellbeing
of a cell or a person
is always related to genes, in one way or another.

However, this very fact is often misinterpreted by public
and subsequently affects their attitude/behaviour
towards management of their diseases/wellness.
Sometimes, it's even abused by commercial companies
to mystify/glorify the functions of their treatment regime/supplements/drugs.

How it is misinterpreted could be due to two reasons:

(A) the public is not informed enough that a disease is actually influenced by
      50% genetic predisposition and 50% environmental perturbation
       -o- a same gene in two different people, will result in two very different outcome,
             due to their diet, upbringing, lifestyle etc.
       -o- two different genes (one good and another bad), could also result in very similar outcome,
             given that the environmental factors are adjusted accordingly.
       -o- with little knowledge about the participation and significance of
             environmental factors in our wellbeing,
             there are biased views that our health is overall fated
             and not much could be done,
             and hence there is no need to manage health,
             as our body will self adjust according to preset condition dictated by genes.

(B) the public is confused (mainly by media) that genetic code can be altered
      or diseases could be rectified at gene level
        -o- there is such an approach as genetic engineering to modify genes to rectify a condition,
              but this can only be done topically to repair a specific tissues
              with the involvement of virus to deliver the modifying genes.
        -o- little that people know, this approach is merely done in animals in R&D settings,
              not yet in human clinical setting; as the success rate is not high (+safety concern),
              also, not all diseases can be treated this way.
        -o- with this knowledge, we know that in the market now,
              theres is no treatment regime/supplement/drugs
              that will solve a health problem at gene level.
             

More clarification on genes to come...


Sincerely,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The true life force behind Biogenic Cuisine

Biogenic Dinner in preparation

Exactly a week ago,

I held my very first premium Biogenic Workshop

at ONAKA.

That was one very significant event to myself,

as I feel,
that was a rare and precious opportunity,

to pass on the true essence of what I have learnt in the past 8 years.

I also consider that as a fulfillment
of my promise to Ms Sim years ago,

to pass on her concept of biogenic living.

Hence, I pay the utmost tribute to Ms Sim for being
the true driving (life-)force of this successful Biogenic Extravaganza!!

In the Biogenic Workshop held successfully on 17 July 2010,
I had a very quality discussion and theoretical teaching session
with the students, before we started to do the hands-on (ie food preparation).
This was usually not doable with a typical 2-3hr cooking demo session.
-- the cooking extravaganza lasted 6 solid hours!

In the theoretical session,
a lot of health food topics were discussed.
Notably, we elaborated on the meaning of "Biogenic".

According to the doctrine of Biogenic Diet,
food could be divided into 4 categories:

1st category is Biogenic Food [also life generating food]
-- defined as food which are organic, raw and actively growing
-- this is food that generates life-force and provide us with vital nutrients
e.g. organic sprouts with actively growing cells and
      organic miso with actively dividing good bacteria

2nd category is Bioactive Food [also life giving food]
-- defined as food which are organic and raw
-- this is food that provides good nutrients but less life-force
e.g. raw organic celery and raw organic apple

3rd category is Biostatic Food [also life slowing food]
-- defined as food which are either cooked or non-organic
-- this is food that provides only nutrients but no life-force
e.g. cooked organic corn and raw non-organic beetroot

4th category is Bioacidic Food [also life decaying food]
-- defined as food which are processed, fried, artificially synthesized or refined
-- this is food that deprives us of our life-force,
   provide little nutrients and a lot of toxins, causing our blood turn acidic
e.g. canned food, synthetic vinegar, fried potato chips

Ideally, we should be only taking Biogenic Food,
which is the best food.

However, with constraints of modern living,
we could sacrifice a portion of Biogenic Food
for Bioactive food and a little Biostatic Food.
Bioacidic food should be avoided by all cost.

Incidentally, by looking at the proportion of
each of the food category one takes in everyday,
it's not hard to relate to the vitality of a person
or even to reason why a person fall sick easily.

After the theory session,
students were involved hands-on
in preparing the 10 biogenic dishes with upclose guidance.
To name a few:
Biogenic Spinach Soup, Vegan-sour cream mushroom (POPULAR!),
pumpkin pickle, Bioactivated Beetroot Rice etc..

At the end, students were invited to sit in together
to enjoy the fruits of their labour
in a classy dining ambience, just like what the video below depicts =)





Gratefully,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

Biogenic-Cuisine
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

How real are food nowadays...

Last weekend,
I was at Organic Living meetup
at Real Food Cafe @ Central.

The cafe was a cozy cafe with homely ambience
that serves good quality organic food!

And, a dozen of us, the organic goers,
had a good chat about what really are
Real Food.

Human beings nowadays have led lives
where indulgence and money come the foremost,
to the extent that,
even food can be compromised.
-- I mean, the real value or the intrinsic quality of food.

There are so many TV shows these days
that glorify the taste and creativity of food
which is just the surface.

That's exactly how we live our lives in this era:
we put so much emphasis on
appearance and sensual stimulation
that we forgot about the core or the original intention.

Real food is meant for sustaining lives
and maintain a healthy body.
However, when civilisation evolves,
people consciously and subcousciously sacrifice
the real meaning of food,
under the name of taste, art, cost and convenience...

In many food preparation out there,
in order to make food taste tantalising,
sugars, salts, fats, artificial flavours etc are abused
like they should.

To pursue artistic display and crafting of 'beautiful' food,
incompatible ingredients are blindly mixed,
nutritional parts are discarded during processing,
and some foods are even served in unsafe ways.

In order to maximize profits and minimize effort,
the modern agriculture utilises
harmful hormones, toxic pesticides, artificial fertilizers
and many "funny" chemicals...

Foods today are
foods with just the form
but without the soul.
These 'frankeinstein' foods
are not only deprived of life force, nutrients and natural taste
they are also foods without sincerity.

Like I mentioned in my recent class, Vegetarian Healing,
we have been, in the past few decades eating lot of soul-less foods
no wonder we are all sick (be it cancer, diabetes, cardio-diseases etc..)

Seriously,
we should wake up from the illusion that
we think have abundance of food.

We are actually eating matters
that look like food,
that fill our stomach;
but provide toxins,
deprive life force and
give little nourishment.

There is no better time to go real,
start organic today!


Sincerely,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Supporting Baby Vegsenz

Recently, I visited Vegsenz,
one of the best organic cafes in town.

The owner, Mr Gan told me that
Vegsenz may not be able to sustain long,
as the business hasn't been good since their opening earlier this year.

Mr Gan said he may be forced to close down Vegsenz
within the next couple of months,
as he has been owing the management a few months of rental!

Anybody who has been to Vegsenz knows that
it does very tasty, healthy, >90% organic food,
on top of the notable hygiene, comfy ambience and excellent staff service.

Vegsenz is only in its infancy stage.
It doesn't deserve this prematured termination which is saddening.

My personal experience with the organic cafes and retailers
is that their survival is always tough,
due to the lack of education on
the importance of organic food among the general public.

This is one very major reason why
Cielo Sereno and Organic Living Meetup
were set up to support the fragile organic industry in Singapore.

I would like to appeal to all compassionate friends,
to support Vegsenz before the situation really become irreversible.

Visit them as frequent as you can,
bring your family and friends and colleagues,
or do whatever you could do
to let Vegzenz know that we need Vegsenz to stay and to be strong.

Mahatma Gandhi said: "Be the change you want to see in the world."

Here is the change to overturn Vegsenz's fate, if you will.


Vegsenz is located at

2, Serangoon Rd,
#01-24/25, The Verge (ex-Tekka Mall),
Singapore 218227.
Tel: 63920369.

Closed on Mondays.

Their never-let-you-down dishes:

Portobello Burger
Rainbow Millet Rice
Assorted Color Cold Noodle
etc...

Price range SGD5~9.



Saddened by the news,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Raw Food with the OMMH! (5)

It's expected that on the path of raw veganism,
there may be some hurdles and bumpy rides.

At first, one may complain the limited food variety,
problem eating out/socialising, temptation by junk food etc...

To ensure a smoother path towards raw veganism,
a holistic approach embracing aspects of
body, mind and soul improvement
may be necessary to cushion those distress mentioned above.

For example,
MIND:    Meditation to tame the temptation from junk food
SOUL:    Prayers to fortify the faith constantly challenged by unfounded negative remarks
BODY:   Qigong to facilitate thorough oxygen/nutrients distribution to avoid Yin-yang imbalance


For some people, they may not want to go totally raw.
That is equally good -- at least raw food is taken everyday.

However, for partial raw foodist,
if possible, try to keep raw and cooked meals separate.
-- our gut will get confused & deprived when both cooked and raw food are mixed.


Lastly, I would like to share one of my favourite raw recipes
which guarantees vitality and clarity to sustain your day :)

Sproutie Smoothie
(serves 2-4)

Organic Ingredients:
- 1/2 mango or 1/2 dragon fruit or 1 big banana
- 1/2-1 cup of filtered water (chilled)
- 10pcs of soaked almond
- 2 heap spoonful of sprouted lentils, chickpea, mung bean or combination
- optional: 2g of spirulina (pills or powder)
- optional: 2 pcs of pitted medjool dates

Methods:
- blend all ingrdients in a super blender (e.g. Vitamix / Blendtec) until smooth
  [add chilled water to adjust the consistency needed]
- serve immediately

This is a complete raw meal exploded with
enzymes, proteins, vitamins, minerals, good omega, fibre, complex carb, phytonutrients..
ie everything!


Enjoy =P
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: due to the rich nourishment, Sproutie Smoothie is good in busting cravings for junk foods!


Raw-Food-with-the-OMMH


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Raw Food with the OMMH! (4)

Getting started with raw diet,

need a bit of preparation,
on top of fullfilling the 3 pre-requisites.

As one may see in most raw vegan recipes,
a lot of juicing and blending are required.
Hence, preparing the relevant kitchen equipment
would be a logical next step.

They are:

Juicer:
Basically any decent juicer will do;
altho a press juicer is preferred over a centrfugal juicer,
as there is less damage done when juice is pressed out.
A good durable press juicer
may cost SGD600-1000.

Blender:
Often people get this mixed up with juicer.
A blender is one that blends everything of a fruit,
a long with fiber and seeds.
The outcome is usually a thick liquid.
A good blender is required to make
the blended food smooth and fine;
also to save ingredients and cost.
Nothing get sieved out and wasted.
A favourable super blender
may cost SGD1000-1600.

Food processor:
This is not essential, if a super blender already exists.
But, this equipment may help to make
a lot of healthy salad cream, nut butter or even raw cakes!
-- to cheer up our life =)
A normal grade food processor
may cost about SGD100-250.

Yes, after the 3 pre-requisites,
it's investment.
They are inevitable.

Going raw isn't an overnight affair.
If one is not well educated, well prepared, well equiped,
any diet regime simply won't work.

That is why there is no need to rush.
As a start, perhaps one could go through
a year of transition,
slowly increase the portion of raw food
and decrease the portion of cooked food.

That will give one ample of time to
get educated (e.g. attending raw cooking classes),
restructure one's lifestyle,
and save up to buy those expensive equipment!!

So, get prepared!


Happy learning,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


p/s: Incidentally, I will be conducting a Biogenic raw food worshop on 17th July @ Onaka . Enquiry @ 6464 2007.

Raw-Food-with-the-OMMH
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Raw Food with the OMMH! (3)

Like many things in life,

things don't come easy and
things come with a cost or are tied with 'terms and conditions'.

It's true that going raw vegan
isn't a diet as complicated as rocket science,
but it's important that one abide by certain 'rules'
when participating in 'the game'.

Exactly why some of my students asked:
would raw diet be sufficiently nutritious/nutritionally balanced?

The answer is yes, if one plays by the rules =)

Rule 1:
Remember always that
one should not be selective with their food,
given any diet/regime they are undertaking.
Being selective about food, will obviously deprive
one from getting full spectrum of nutrition from the already limited
choice of raw food sources.
This is the #1  pre-requisite one needs to fulfill
before plunging into raw food diet.

Extended from the principle above,
it's also important to have easy/ready access to
wide variety of fresh produce
to ensure comprehensive nourishment.
(special note: Singapore which imports 90% of her food, may pose a bigger challenge to go totally raw)


Rule 2:
Access to organic food.
Raw food, is not just about eating non-cooked food.
It's actually about life-force and robust nourishment
(when eating right).
Organic food provides higher nutritients and life force
compared to chemically grown ones.
Hence, in order to ensure optimal nourishment,
organic food source is essential for raw foodists.

Many raw amateurs/beginners simply do not meet the first two pre-requisites,
hence the concern of balanced nutrients when they go raw.


Rule 3:
Dedicated to do sprouting and fermantation on weekly basis.
From TCM point of view,
fruits, leafy vegetables (as frequently seen in salad and raw smoothies)
are cooling.
These food groups are even more cooling, when eaten raw, generally speaking.
In order to counterbalance the Yin element predominating in raw diet,
it's important to take seeds which are of Warm/Yang.
Seeds are usually toxic (to different extent) when taken raw.
Hence, the only way to eat seeds raw is by sprouting
to do away the toxin.

Also, sprouting offers tremendous life-force in the raw food
(sprouts are not just alive but actively, robustly alive).
This consequently will provide raw foodists with
vigour, stamina and dynamic speed.

Fermented food (e.g. rejuvelac, raw vegan cheese)
which comprise of actively dividing live bacteria,
offers the similar benefits as sprouted seeds.

If the 3 pre-requisites above are fulfilled,
one will be on smoother path towards raw veganism.



Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

Raw-Food-with-the-OMMH


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Raw Food with the OMMH! (2)

c

While self-digestive enzyme remains
the magical key to motivate people go raw diet
so as to look younger and to be more energetic,
other supportive reasons to go raw, includes:

^preservation of the natural activity of the nutrients
      because heat from cooking sometimes damages
      the function of certain nutrients,
      one example is that heat will degrade Vitamin C.

^free of toxic by-products that arise from heating of food
      because many a time, heating induces chemical reaction among nutrients,
      forming substances that are not natural and toxic to our bodily system
      one example is heated oil that leads to formation of carcinogens

^bioavailability of some nutrients may be higher
      because heating sometimes damages/complicates
      the molecular structure of some nutrients,
      and subsequently causes the body's extra effort to convert it back to natural form or
      to break down to smaller form before assimilation.
      one example is heat-denatured proteins that needs extra step
      to be hydrolysed before assimilation
     *contraditively, heating is required to make
       some other nutrients(e.g. lycopene) readily absorbable.

^less food additives/chemicals
      because raw food is never processed and hence
      the lower chance of contamination of addivitives/chemical
      one example is fresh fruit juice
      vs bottled juice pasteurised and preserved by benzoates

Raw-Food-with-the-OMMH
Here is one of many testimonials of the benefits of going raw:




Getting moved to try out raw diet?

Don't rush..
Wait till the next blog post.
-- There are pre-requisites to go raw!.. hehehe..



Come back soon,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

Raw-Food-with-the-OMMH

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Raw Food with the OMMH! (1)

The trend of going for raw diet
is catching some attention these days,
while the concept of going vegan is also fast spreading.
-- this is a very good sign and ought to be congratulated :D

Along the years,
when I conducted classes on vegetarian wellness,
often I get questions of all sorts, substantially asking about:
- how to balance our nutrition by going raw
- whether raw is too "yin"/"cooling"
- is there more tasty ways to prepare raw meals
etc...

Recently, a friend of mine who has been attempting
on a partial raw diet,
came to me with the exact same complaints as listed above.
That triggers me on writing up this series of blog
on clarifying some facts and myths about raw diet.

First thing that needs to be clarified is
why go raw?

One of the major reason is that
raw food contains self-digesting enzymes.

This self-digesting enzymes mainly comes from
lysosome, a cellular compartment that is meant for
degrading waste/toxic substance in every single living cells.

When a cell is alive,
these self-digesting enzymes are organised and contained tightly in
the lysosome compartment to prevent leakage into other parts of the cells
-- otherwise, anything that comes in contact with lysosome content
will be digested/degraded.

But when a cell is ruptured,
the lysosome enzymes will leak out and blindly degrade anything that
it comes in contact with.

When we eat raw food,
cells are ruptured by chewing, or dissolved by gastric juices,
releasing the food-originated digestive enzymes
into our gastro-intestinal tract.

That in turn makes our food more quickly/efficiently digested
with less participation of digestive enzymes secreted by our own body.

Everything is energy.
That includes digestive enzymes.
If we were to eat food that will naturally self-digest itselves,
our body will save a lot of energy producing our own enzymes.

With that energy savings,
our body could redistribute energy resources to other parts of our body,
especially where healing is needed.

This further implies that
when we save energy when eating raw foods,
our body could channel energy
  to our brain for quicker thinking,
  to our immune system for disease prevention,
  to our skin for better complexion
  to many other organs for enhanced functions =)

More RAW info to come...


Good day,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

Raw-Food-with-the-OMMH
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}