Posted By: emmaspirit on

Sunday, August 19th, 2007, 3:24 pm

Last night my husband and I went downtown in NYC's West Village for dinner. We were looking for an adventure and wanted to try a new place so we looked in Zagat under their new Natural/Organic listing. We picked a place with a good rating, a promise of healthy food and a garden setting.

We arrived at the selected restaurant and were surprised to see that at 8pm on a Saturday night there was only one other couple in entire restaurant. The hostess took us to the back room and literally plugged in the garden lights and turned on the garden record player. I'm all for quaint but this was more of an adventure then we wanted to take on. Common sense tells me that a restaurant with very few patrons cannot possibly serve super fresh food.
So we politely excused ourselves and headed out into the Village for another adventure.

After walking a few blocks we stumbled across a beautiful garden with an open door. I saw people eating inside in a gently lit and plant filled garden so I convinced DH to give it a try. We were then whisked off to a quiet corner garden table and decided that no matter what type of food they served, we would stay.

What a thrill to see all our Green favorites on the menu. Roasted Amish Organic Chicken, Local Seven Tomato Salad, Country Frisee Salad with Organic Poached Egg, Wild Local Salmon, Natural Pork Chops...Then in big letters at the bottom of the menu it said "Local and Organic As Often As Possible. Reverse Osmosis Water." We were in heaven!

The evening turned out to be a double treat. Yes, we found a wonderful restaurant (Ye Waverly Inn) that served our favorite healthy foods in a serene setting. But we also looked around and saw a wide variety of people enjoying themselves and this special food. We were encouraged. The more folks seek out and request local and organic foods in restaurants, the more restaurants will invest the time and money in providing these types of food. In the end, we all benefit since locally grown, organic food is the best preventative medicine there is for leading a long and healthy life.

Are you seeing more local and organic dining options in your town? Tell us about it and let us know where so we can send folks to support these restaurants.  

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Tags: food, organic, healthy, green, natural

Posted By: emmaspirit on

Thursday, August 16th, 2007, 7:36 pm

While we all may have different reasons for Going Green, the most common reasons are facing a serious illness (either you or someone close to you) and getting pregnant. In both cases these life altering occasions force you to look at your choices and re-examine how you will conduct yourself differently in the future.

In my case, I had serious medical problems starting in high school. Fainting spells, severe migraines and blackouts led me to many specialists seeking a solution. A diagnosis was never provided but the suggested treatment was preventative and included eating all natural foods (I don't recall organic being in our vocabulary 20 years ago), no red wine, no cheese, nothing with preservatives and no alcohol.

 Yes, I was a really fun date in college. (God bless my roommate and boyfriend who supported me every step of the way.)

It wasn't easy 20 years ago to try to live this way - especially when I was in college eating in the cafeteria and living in the dorms. I did what I could but was sick more often than not. And it was scary to think that I could black out at any minute.

As time passed, my medical episodes happened less frequently and doctors passed it off as "a hormonal imbalance" even though all tests showed that I was "normal".

It wasn't until I met my husband in my thirties and went on his nutritional program that I saw all my symptoms go away. Following his customize organic diet program, doing his detox routines and living our Green lifestyle has given me my health back, and I no longer fear that any day the symptoms could reoccur.

I've referred to my husband here before as Dr. Blue Eyes. His real name is Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez and he is a doctor of nutritional medicine. His customized treatment has been proven to cure cancer and other degenerative diseases so curing my less serious symptoms took only a few months. If you are curious to learn more, you can read about his work and case studies at www.dr-gonzalez.com.

Yes, he is my wonderful and adoring husband, but he is first and foremost, an accomplished doctor who gets results by natural means. Since Green is about making a conscious choice to lead a healthier lifestyle, I thought you may be interested in hearing about a medical option that enables you to Live Green and Live Well.

Tags: natural, green, doctor, healing, medicine

Posted By: emmaspirit on

Sunday, August 5th, 2007, 12:57 pm

There is something very Laura Ingalls Wilder about being able to meet the local farmer who feeds you and your family. My husband and I belong to a local buyers club, and the Amish farmers I've met over the years are earnest, hard-working, simple family folk. In fact, they often bring their children with them on their dairy run to NYC and have them help package the orders. If the delicious taste of their fresh, locally grown organic food isn't enough, seeing the beaming, round face of a 7 year old Amish boy proudly hand over your order makes the entire experience profoundly satisfying. Through our membership, we basically own a share in a cow in Pennsylvania Amish country. Twice a month our farmer deliveries his raw milk orders to NYC. His dairy farm produces delicious and nutritious raw milk, raw cream, raw cheese, kefir, yogurt, organic eggs. Often the farmer also has local organic meats such as beef, sausage, bacon, chicken and pork.

Now when I talk about Going Green, my friends and colleagues nod along with me on why we should drive hybrids, eat organic foods and unplug our cell phone chargers when not in use but when it comes to consuming Raw Milk, they just shake their heads and wonder what I'm up to this time. I'd like to explain the secret power of Raw Milk as it can have an enormous impact on the health of you and your children.

Raw Milk is safe and good for you and your family if the farmer takes proper care of his cows, the milking and delivery process. Raw Milk contains multiple bioactive components that can reduce pathogenic bacteria. Simply said, though many of us fear raw milk, it can actually protect your body from dangerous bacteria. One of the reasons why doctors recommend that women breast feed their children is because of the natural Lactoperoxidase found in human breast milk. Lactoperoxidase seeks out and destroys bad bacteria. Animal milk like goat's milk has 10 times the level of Lactoperoxidase than in breast milk.

For those of you who seek more detail, raw animal milk contains dozens of bacteria fighting components such as Lactoferrin, Polysaccharides, Medium-Chain Fatty Acids, Enzymes, Anitbocides, White blood cells, B-lymphocytes, Macrophages, Neutophils, T-lymphocyes, Lysosyme, Mucins, Oligosaccharides, B12 Binding Protein, Bifidus and Fibronectin. All of these components are actively fighting bacteria when consumed raw but are made inactive when milk is pasteurized. In fact, pasteurization provides virtually no bacteria fighting protection.

So why should you care? You have the power to use the power of raw milk to protect you and your family from dangerous bacteria such as E.Coli and Salmonella. If you want to read more about this subject from scientific sources follow these links: http://www.realmilk.com/, http://www.westonaprice.org/ and http://www.westonaprice.org/children/rawmilk.html.

Unfortunately access to Raw Milk is limited due to legal restrictions. If you want to know where to find Raw Milk in your area check out this link: http://www.realmilk.com/where1.html. While access to Raw Milk isn't easy for everyone, it is truly worth the extra effort.

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Tags: raw, green, organic, milk