There is a number of factors that lead to poor bowel movement. There is stress, dysfunction of the digestive system, and consumption of cooked food which sticks to your intestinal walls and lacks in fiber. Besides maximizing your intake of waterful raw foods, there is one more surprising thing you can do. It is so simple and works so fast that you will see improvement in your bowel movements the very same day: when you “do your business”, change your position away from a sitting one and closer to a squatting one. Why? Because you experience less elimination if you sit instead of squat.

Problems of Incomplete Elimination

Here’s the issue…When you experience recurring incomplete elimination, paired with constant extraction of water, sticky fecal matter is guaranteed to remain on the intestinal walls. Need more reasons not to poop sitting down? If you add in the extra strain exerted on your bowels, toss in increased risk of diverticulitis, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, and inflammatory bowel disease, and the case for squatting is really starting to flow.

Puborectalis Muscle

When you sit on a toilet, the puborectalis muscle (which helps the rectum maintain continence) still remains pressed around the rectum. You have to push harder and longer to counteract that pressure. Squatting, by contrast, relaxes the puborectalis muscle and straightens the rectum, making for more complete, efficient elimination.

Bringing Back Squatting

We need to re-learn squatting if we want to really be serious about our health.

So what do you do? If you live in Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia, then you are likely familiar with squat style toilets and can try to use them more often than sit down ones.

But what about those of us in the West where squat toilets are almost unheard of? No, you don’t need to dig holes in your back yard or remove your toilet bowl. All you need do, in fact, is raise your feet off the floor while you sit. If you or a household member are handy, you can easily construct a device to place under your feet to effectively deepen your sit into a squat—six inches will do nicely. In a pinch, place your feet on a stepping stool or a couple of phone books—at last, a good use for the yellow pages!—or the rungs of a chair.

Do “The Thinker” When You Have No Other Choice

If you’re a guest in a friend’s home or somewhere else outside your own realm, you can simply try a new pose: Rodin’s The Thinker. You know that most famous of sitting sculptural dudes—elbow on knee, fist under chin. The point: Anything will do that deepens your position beyond sitting towards the squat.

There’s even more to this squatting business. Quite apart from matters fecal, the fact is that squatting for even a few minutes a day is an aid to the body at large. It stretches muscles that rarely get the action they should. Yoga practice offers the Squat Pose, described as a pose of balance, strength, stretch, focus, breath and internal change. And, significantly, a relaxer.

So don’t just sit there…squat!

If you want to get a beautiful tan, fast, but want to avoid the risks of tanning beds, consider this innovative and effective tanning protocol. I came across this tanning method, developed by Goltis, a Russian natural health advocate, and I wanted to share it with you.

From my experience this method works very well for those following the raw food diet. Even though the author claims it can be used by anyone, if you still eat a lot of cooked food, I urge you to exercise additional care.

[Please note: This article is a translation of a Russian e-book. I received permission from the author to post the translation on my Blog.]

Beautiful Tan in Just Two Days…Naturally

You can achieve a beautiful tan in just two days—without any sunburn! If you use these prescribed methods of sun bathing, you’ll achive only the healthful effects— an olive skin tone, good mood, more energy, and a zest for life.

 Tanning: The ‘Supercompensation’ Method by Goltis: http://goltis.com.ua ]

At first it might seem that a nice tan, without getting burned, in just two days isn’t possible. But now, thanks to the supercompensation tanning method, you can build an even tan, safely, and in very little time.

How does it work?  What is a tan? It’s the darkening of the skin’s color from the effects of ultraviolet radiation. This darkening is caused by the formation and accumulation in the lower layers of the epidermis of a specific pigment—melanin. Melanin (from Greek melas, “black”) is the dark pigment that determines the skin’s color. The more melanin, the darker your skin. Melanin formation in the skin is a protective reaction to solar ultraviolet radiation. In this way, when your skin tans, it is the natural method by which it protects itself from the sun’s rays.

Supercompensation. The principle of supercompensation refers to the correct correlation between periods of exposure to the sun—at which time melanin is being expended or dissolved—and time spent in the shade—at which time new melanin is being formed.

The chart below outlines the optimal protocol for building up and expending
melanin, thus achieving your tan. Important: You’ll get good results safely only by following this protocol exactly!

Chart for Implementing Tanning Supercompensation

Cycle	Body Position, Time Spent in the Sun (in minutes)
	On the back	On the stomach	On the side	On the other side	Hide in the shade
1	1.5	1.5	1	1	3
2	2	2	1	1	3
3	3	3	1.5	1.5	5
4	5	5	2.5	2.5	5
5	7	7	3	3	7
6	9	9	5	5	10
7	12	12	7	7	10
8	15	15	10	10	10
9	20	20	15	15	15
10	25	25	20	20	20
11	35	35	25	25	30
12	45	45	30	30	40

• Cycle 1 -  First, sunbathe lying on your back (or in another position facing the sun) for 1.5 minutes, as shown in the chart. Turn over on your stomach (with your back to the sun)—again for 1.5 minutes. Then tan for 1 minute on each side. Now go rest in the shade for 3 minutes.
• Now move to Cycle 2, then 3, 4, 5…12 .
• Continue your routine in the same manner, using the times shown in the chart.

Before using this tanning method, consult your physician and ask whether tanning is contraindicated for you. If you decide to follow this tanning method, you are taking full responsibility for following the protocol and for the results you achieve.

Alternative methods of using the tanning chart…

Very quick—one day, when you just can’t wait! You will be completing the entire 12-cycle protocol in a single day. Not recommended, since you are going to be subject to the peak of the day’s solar activity. Consider this only if you have absolutely no skin problems.

Quick—two days. Still fast, but you can avoid the hours of maximum solar activity. Go through the entire 12 cycles over two days. Note what cycle number you ended day one with—cycle 6, let’s say. Subtract 2—to get 4, in this example—and start tanning on the second day from that cycle number. In any case, subtract 2 whenever you take a break from tanning for over two hours.

Normal—7 days. Here, you’ll simply go more slowly—fewer cycles per day. If you take a break from tanning for more than two hours, start with a cycle number 2 lower than the one you were on just before your break. Go through the cycle in “jumps of two.” Here’s what we mean: On day 1 you start at cycle 1…day 2, start at cycle 3…day 3, start at cycle 5…and so on.

Gentle—perfect for sensitive skin or for rehabilitation after a sunburn. Start with 10-second intervals. Use the chart protocol but replace minutes with seconds. For each unit of a minute on the chart, go for about ten seconds (meaning each cycle will be six times shorter).

With all these methods, take a break during peak hours—no tanning between about noon and three o’clock. Adjust this for more or less sunny climates—the nearer you are to the equator, the more breaks you should take, and the longer your advisable time out of the sun. And never, of course, apply this protocol with tanning beds or any other mode of artificial tanning.

By: Andrew Datsenko, Instructor of the Preparatory Course in Healing Impulse. Author of the method “Healing Impulse” – Goltis (V.I. Vuksta) http://goltis.info/

Chewing Guide to Raw Food Success

How do some manage to stick with the raw lifestyle for the long-term? And why do others revert, even after initial considerable success? Just eating raw, I believe, is not quite enough to achieve optimal health. How you eat is equally important.

The Chewing Idea Comes to America

Horace Fletcher (1849—1919), known by the nickname—“the Great Masticator” taught and religiously practiced chewing food until it “became liquid and swallowed itself.” According to Fletcher, following this practice would not only increase “the amount of strength a person could have,” but also considerably “decrease the amount of food that he consumed.”

At age 58, Horace Fletcher participated in strength and endurance tests against Yale University athletes. He outperformed the young athletes in all exercises, which tremendously helped to promote “Fletcherism,” as the practice of thorough chewing came to be called. Fletcher also advocated eating only when truly hungry, when in a good mood, and only a moderate amount at each meal.

Consider Saliva and How it Works

Saliva supplies amylase, an enzyme needed for proper carbohydrate digestion, which also fights any pathogenic bacteria that arrived with the food. Moreover, saliva imparts to the eater’s system information about the food that’s being eaten. Lingual lipase is released along with saliva to start breaking down fat while you are chewing. Chewing allows your brain to prepare the right enzymes and digestive juices to match the arriving food.

Weight Loss and Weight Gain Solution

Chewing can affect the processes of weight loss and weight gain. Fletcher is credited with conducting an experiment that involved overweight army officers and underweight rank and file soldiers. Given the same food, both groups were instructed to thoroughly chew each bite before swallowing. At the end of the experiment, participants in both groups arrived at their optimal weight.

The more you chew, the less you eat. The more you chew, the more legitimate nutritional value you gain from your food. By paying attention to the eating process, and chewing thoroughly, you allow time for your hormones to signal satiation. Bathed in saliva and broken down into smaller parts by teeth, the bolus—chewed up bits of food—begins undergoing efficient digestion before even reaching the stomach, giving welcome help to your hard-working digestive system. Available energy can now be diverted to cleansing and repairing.

More Benefits of Chewing

Thorough chewing:

• improves blood circulation in the brain, resulting in a clearer mind
• promotes healthy gums and sinuses
• prevents cavities thanks to saliva’s anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties
• builds stronger bones, and
• gives you more energy.

Unbeatable Raw Food Success Formula

It’s my strong conviction that to experience the real miracle of raw foods, one more ingredient is needed. And you need to practice it faithfully…I call it the 30/10 chewing rule—at least 30 times for solid food, at least 10 swishes for liquids, which allows your saliva to start working.

Scientists are finding some evidence that, given good digestion and high quality food, the beneficial bacteria in the human gut can synthesize significant amounts of the vitamin B12.

Chewing just might be the final key to raw food success. There’s nothing simpler. Or harder. It will require a strong will and real effort to develop this practice. But as with everything else, once it becomes a habit, you will do it automatically.

The rewards of thorough chewing will pay off almost immediately in the form of better digestion, reduced food intake, improved health and stamina. The best part: Eating raw foods with total attention and extensive chewing is your formula for long-term success on the raw food diet.

How to Practice Chewing…

Find some time and a place where you won’t be disturbed. Public venues and rushed lunches won’t help. Choose any type of raw food you like. Bring your awareness to the present moment. Focus on the food before you. Bless it. Evoke your senses of smell and touch before you start putting the food into your mouth. Stay in touch with the feelings and sensations in your body you experience in the process. When you are ready, take a small bite, about a teaspoon, and place it in your mouth. Chew slowly. Notice the flavors that get released as you continue to chew until you feel no more flavor, the original texture has been lost, and the food has turned liquid, and then effortlessly send it down your throat.

What to eat? Raw foods are the best for your health and beauty.

How to eat? Apply the 30/10 chewing rule.

When is the best time to eat?  Eating only during the first part of the day will give you the most impressive anti-aging benefits. Read my book Quantum Eating and decide for yourself.

What is cellulite? Cellulite is what happens when fat that’s just under the skin protrudes into the skin’s dermal layer, resulting in that undesirable hills-and-valleys appearance. Changes in metabolism, hormonal and genetic factors, stress, weight gain, sedentary lifestyles and possibly certain toxins—they’re all suspected culprits in bringing about this condition. For many who endure cellulite, probably several of these suspects are conspiring together. So what can be done? 

Can Men Get Cellulite? Sure, they can. But it’s a lot more common in women. The reasons are several. For one, there’s a theory that the female hormone estrogen tends to ‘aggravate’ cellulite. Another, better evidenced cause: Collagen cells are organized differently in women than in men. Collagen cells in men are arrayed in a mesh-like format, more tightly packed so less fat gets through, while in women they’re arranged more in rows, allowing fat cells to push between them easier. Not only that, women also tend to have body fat distributed closer to the surface of their skin, especially over their thighs, where it has more of a chance to protrude into the dermis resulting in cellulite. These are, however, tendencies. Men definitely get affected by cellulite. And increasingly, fat is becoming not just a “women’s issue,” but an issue for our society at large.

Is there a medical treatment for cellulite? For starters, cellulite is something the medical community largely considers “normal”—especially as we age—and for which doctors often recommend no particular treatment. What’s more, if “treatment” means a pill, a medical procedure, something that squirts out the end of a syringe, or some easy-breezy cream, salve, garment or gadget you can buy in a drugstore or from a late-night infomercial, then no, there pretty much is no treatment. No treatment, at least, in the mainstream sense.

Cellulite is stunningly stubborn. You will require perseverance and dedication even to reduce it, and much more to eliminate it.

What you can do. Let me offer five specific things you can start doing today to improve your lower body’s looks.

One…Watch what you eat. There’s a correlation between body fat generally and cellulite in particular. Studies show female athletes with lower percentage body fat typically have less cellulite. Calorie restriction and optimal nutrition will flood your body with the right raw materials for building healthy cells, tissues, and organs. That same diet will also help reduce underlying fat.

Consider trying an all raw diet—now there’s truly optimal nutrition. As your body cells become nourished by top-notch nutrients, you’ll be able to decrease portion sizes and the frequency of your meals—you’ll simply need less food to meet your body’s needs. You’ll begin eliminating food-borne toxins, too. Some high-value foods to emphasize in your diet: walnuts, chia seeds, purslane, and hemp seeds, all storehouses of essential fatty acids that help repair your skin’s epidermal layer. Foods high in anti-oxidants—berries, mango, peas, papaya, and broccoli—will help keep inflammation in check. To improve collagen production, get sulfur and Vitamin A from cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, black olives and carrots.

Two…Try a three-day vegetable juice fast. Green juices due to their anti-inflammatory, skin-cleansing and mucus-dissolving properties are essential for beautiful skin, and in improving your cellulite areas in particular. Make these your only food for three days, and keep a cellulite diary during that time.

Three…Embrace exercise. Commit to be physically active daily. I recommend hot yoga in particular. In a hot yoga studio, your body will steadily morph into its original blueprint shape, legs and thighs included. Yoga, as a system of exercise for addressing both physical and spiritual aspects of your life, can be added to your “bag of tricks” for cellulite problems. Don’t be deceived by the apparent simplicity of the static yoga poses you hold for a number of seconds: yoga will match, and in some instances surpass a good gym workout. It addresses cellulite from within, by improving circulation and lymphatic flow, stretching the fascia, burning fat and replacing it with muscle. Add heat to your workout by attending a hot yoga class, and you are also looking at accelerated detoxification through your skin during the class and beyond. Your metabolic rate will significantly increase during the class, leading to reduction of body fat, and thus, cellulite. The next time you are in a hot yoga room, rejoice when Hands to Feet Forward Bend and Eagle Poses come up, knowing you will be liberating your thighs from unsightly dimples.

It’s simple, in principle: Build muscles. Lose fat.

These aren’t the same thing, of course. Not the same process, biologically. Not the same result. Fat doesn’t “become” muscle. You can’t “turn” one into the other—that’s just loose talk.

But bodybuilding, as a muscle-building program, definitely cuts down the appearance of cellulite. Fitness research director Dr. Wayne Westcott of Boston’s South Shore YMCA states that lifting weights allows one to build “a firm and strong muscular foundation that smoothens out the irregular, lumpy appearance of skin.” Muscle-building reduces the push-and-pull tension under the skin, which we associate with cellulite.

Addressing cellulite effectively, through bodybuilding, means targeting your hips and thighs with exercises such as dead lifts, lunges, squats, leg presses, leg curls and other leg resistance exercises. The key: heavier weight, fewer repetitions. (Classic strength training, by contrast, warrants lighter weights, more reps.)

Look to hot yoga or weight lifting, or even better, both for smooth dimple-free skin!

Four…Dry brush your body daily. Praised by dieters, beauty experts and health nuts (including myself) alike, dry brushing boosts your circulation, helping break up those fat and toxin deposits. Brush daily before your shower, spending extra time on the areas of your body most prone to cellulite. Any body brush you buy at the health food store will do. To provide the final boost, try using the Amazing Skin Rejuvenator on your thighs and buttocks. This will improve circulation in those areas, reducing cellulite from the inside out.

Most conventional cellulite treatments available produce only a temporary effect in some individuals. Go beyond. Take matters into your own hands and start changing your body’s appearance of your part of the body one raw juice, one exercise at a time. And there’s still one more thing you can do…

Five…Cupping massage for reducing cellulite.

My four recommended steps: Diet…exercise…dry-brush…and perform regular juice fasting. They really work! Still many believe that liposuction is the only way to lose that cottage cheese.

You know there’s a better way. You can add the ancient practice of Cupping Massage to any sound diet and exercise program for additional cellulite fighting benefits. It’s become all the rage in the last couple of years. Its virtue: Cupping therapy addresses the cause of cellulite, not just its symptoms. Cupping stimulates, revitalizes the lymph system. It helps break down toxins, flush fat cells, and, in the end, help you get rid of that orange-peel texture. One of the best effects of cupping: stimulating renewed blood circulation.

A tip for those of you practicing juice-fasting…For best results, perform your cupping massage during your juice fast.

Cupping massage is wonderfully adapted to the task of conquering cellulite. Medically, cellulite is by itself not a contra-indication for cupping. But do consider other medical issues—skin conditions, in particular—and consult your physician if you have any worries.

Our  Venus Body Sculpting Cups can help deal with cellulite. When you perform sculpting massage with these cups, a vacuum is created which increases blood circulation in the massaged areas, causing blood to reach the deeper layers of the skin. As a result, metabolism and the flow of oxygen to the massaged areas increases,  subcutaneous fat is burned, and skin surface is refreshed.

Follow the instructions for cupping massage provided in the accompanying manual with one change – spend a bit longer time (10-20 minutes) on the cellulite affected areas, such as the thighs. With daily practice, you’ll see tighter, more youthful, supple skin. After four to six weeks of regular daily use, most people see a noticeable reduction in any cellulite.

Remember though, cupping massage is not a universal remedy, but is an effective weapon in your arsenal in combating cellulite. It, along with the other four tactics discussed in this article, can lead you to smooth, supple, more beautiful skin!

What is Cupping Therapy?  

If you know only a little bit about “cupping therapy,” you may suppose, as many do, that it’s some sort of latest trend in holistic health.

On the contrary… Cupping therapy is an ancient alternative form of medicine, long popular in China and Russia. You’ll find it mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest medical texts in existence. Cupping was used by the ancient Egyptians, by Hippocrates, and was known across Asia and Europe.

People in many cultures have used this method to not only deal with various internal ailments, but even for correcting structural misalignment. And recently cupping has become increasingly popular as cellulite, stretch marks and overall skin rejuvenation solution.

Methods for achieving reduced pressure inside the cup vary.  Local suction is achieved by using heat (fire), a mechanical pump, or hand-pumping.

Fire cupping

Here’s what’s commonly done in Russia and China for treating respiratory problems—colds, pneumonia or bronchitis…

A glass cup is used and an alcohol-soaked wick is lit and placed inside the cup. The air inside is heated and expands, so that when the wick is removed and the cup quickly placed against the skin, the air in the cup cools, forming a partial vacuum inside, so it sticks to the skin, creating a strong suction. As a result of the vacuum inside, blood rushes to the area, helping healing. The suction created by the cup penetrates deep into the tissues, releasing toxins, triggering the lymphatic system, and clearing the blood vessels. The glass cup is left stationary on the back for 10 to 20 minutes. Where the blood or lymph is stagnant, circular bruising impressions will be left. These fade in about 4-7 days.

No-Fire Cups

More and more people in the West becoming aware that cupping therapy is not only beneficial on the deep therapeutic level, but also produces a rejuvenating effect on the skin and underlying tissues at the place of application. But not many are comfortable with using the fire cups as they usually require assistance and can be messy. As a result, in recent years a new cupping method has rocketed in popularity. This is cupping massage with “no-fire cups.” Oil is applied to lubricate the area of the skin to be treated. Then a partial vacuum is created in the cup by means of a mechanical pump or, more commonly, by simply squeezing a rubber ball attached to the cup. The cup is then pressed on the skin and the rubber ball is released.

In this method, the cup is constantly moved over the skin surface in a massaging motion instead of being left in place as with the fire cups. Some temporary bruising is also to be expected with these cups during the first week of use, especially if your body has blood circulation issues and if you’re leading a sedentary lifestyle.

The Healing Potential of Bruising

Western medicine tends to react negatively to bruising. In the East, however, there are several holistic practices focusing on the healing potential of bruising. Fire-cupping and the Chinese practice of gua sha work on the same principle.

In Russia, fire cupping has long been used for treatment of various ailments. During 20^th century wars, when conventional medicine was in short supply or completely unavailable, Russian doctors used an interesting technique to save the lives of many wounded soldiers. They would draw some blood intravenously, then inject it subcutaneously—just under the skin—in the general area of an injured organ failing to heal properly. This would immediately cause a bruise, which triggers the body’s powerful repair mechanisms. Needed hormones and antibodies would rush to the area and healing would begin. The blood is the patient’s own, and there’s no real injury inflicted—a simple technique, yet it was effective by making use of the body’s own healing mechanisms.

How Does Cupping Therapy Work?

The suction-cupping massage technique uses the same principle. The only difference: how the blood gets there. When you use the suction cup, creating a partial vacuum, a little blood squeezes out through capillary walls underneath the skin, also creating a bruise. It comes down to this: Healthy capillaries are highly elastic and won’t break or allow blood to squeeze out. Only more aged, inelastic capillaries will lose blood. This fact makes suction cupping treatment usefully selective.

A more distant cousin of the same process: In holding a yoga pose, you create a brief “tourniquet effect,” and then, when you release the pose, your vessels are flushed with new blood and oxygen. Yoga focuses on the organs, joints and ligaments. But in cupping massage, we concentrate our efforts on rejuvenating our most visible organ—the skin.

The Reasons Behind Bruising

If a capillary is inelastic, the blood inside tends to be stagnant. Such stagnant blood often occurs if your body is highly acidic, and may indicate that you have a large number of abnormally shaped blood cells (poikilocytes).

When this stagnant blood starts to emerge from the capillaries after a cupping treatment, it triggers the body’s regenerative mechanism. There is then a jump in the immunal response, leading to tissue rejuvenation. What’s more, renewed blood flow stimulates the metabolism in areas of excess fat, making fat tissue more pliable, better able to be released by aerobic exercise.

There’s a lot going on here, causally. That’s why no single beauty tools will help you if you don’t take care of what goes into your body. Diet is an essential ingredient. For capillary strength, build lots of Vitamins C, K and E into your diet. That can be hard on a conventional diet. But the raw food diet already includes plenty of these vitamins.

Another thing you can do to improve the health of your capillaries is follow a regular exercise routine. Any reasonable exercise will do—regularity is the ticket. Yoga practice, in particular, promotes good blood circulation, which in turn strengthens your capillaries.

Benefits of Cupping Massage

Cupping is great for general skin rejuvenation. And it’s ideal for scars, stretch marks and cellulite. One great benefit of this massaging method: Bruising is usually minimal. Try it! At first you might feel a slight discomfort. But once you start noticing the improvement in your circulation, cupping will become a real pleasure.

Personally, I apply it on my legs, my upper chest area and on my arms.

The first four or five times you use the suction cups, you may find some slight bruising that will go away in a few days. At first begin with your thighs and butt, less visible areas of the body, so you can see how your skin reacts.

The benefits outweigh the temporary bruising you might experience. Cupping massage will improve the peripheral circulation of your blood, lymph and interstitial fluid. Stagnant blood in aging capillaries will gradually disappear, and you’ll improve the metabolism and respiration of the skin in massaged areas. Repeated cupping massage will improve skin tone and elasticity. Many users also report fewer muscle cramps in the treated areas.

To experience the benefits of cupping massage consider our Venus Body Sculpting Cups. They are convenient to use, for they have a simple pump to create the needed air pressure, allowing you to regulate how much suction you wish to apply. Regular practice will keep your skin nutrient-rich and well-hydrated, oxygenated and free of trapped toxins, all of which will show glowingly, through smooth, moist skin, blessedly free of cellulite!

These days  Sensa is on the news, TV talk shows, in big-time newspapers.

So what is Sensa?

It’s a patented blend of crystals you shake onto your food. The purpose: to lose weight.

How does Sensa work?

Here’s the idea…It works with your sense of smell. Certain smells are known to turn off your body’s “hunger switch.” Shake Sensa onto your food…and the crystals’ aroma makes your body react as if you’ve eaten more than you actually have—one hamburger instead of two, for example. Use Sensa on everything, the company claims, and you can lose up to 30 pounds in six months—all, of course, “without dieting” or “changing your lifestyle”. The mechanism: tripping the satiety center of your hypothalamus gland.

But will these miracle tastants actually work for you?

Our body is a miracle of adaptability. While this is usually a good thing, in the case of Sensa, it’s not. Your body gets used to the same scent very fast. And that’s why any such quick fix will stop working for you. Mark I. Friedman, associate director of Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, pointed out that while the sight, taste or smell of food may result in the release of insulin and an increase in metabolism, “those kinds of effects are short-lived. If you constantly smelled something you would adapt to the odor, and you wouldn’t smell it anymore.”

Sensa’s website points out that their weight loss claims can be backed up by a research study. There was, however, only one study, and it was done by the company founder. Their conclusion is that the smell approach “may be helpful for use in connection with a program of nutrition and exercise to facilitate weight loss reduction.” Hmm,  if you add a program of nutrition and exercise, I promise you will lose weight even without Sensa.

Even if it works, is it safe?

But even assuming such a product could work for a long time successfully suppressing your appetite, eating less is only part of the issue, for you need to eat highly nutritious foods. When you reduce calories, every calorie counts. So with Sensa, you have a false sense of safety, for if you start eating less but without paying attention to what you eat, you might become deficient in some essential nutrients and serious health issues could develop.

Sensa contains several artificial scents and flavors. It also contains maltodextrin, tricalcium phosphate, silica and soy and milk ingredients. All are USDA-approved ingredients, “generally recognized as safe”—GRAS is the government and industry code for this—in food. A point the manufacturer makes much of: No MSG. No salt. No sugar. No calories. But all of the Sensa ingredients are processed ingredients, and several of them—milk products especially—won’t be digestible by some.

Then there’s the cost. You’ll need to pay $59 for a one-month’s supply or $289 for six month’s worth on the company’s website or TV shopping networks. So even if the product helps you lose weight – with no side effects, to keep the weight off you will have to keep paying these costs indefinitely, if you really want to avoid changing your lifestyle.

And “no side effects” is far from guaranteed. If you check out public forums and message boards about Sensa you will run across some unhappy customers. Reports of headaches, nausea, stomach pains. And plenty of claims that it just doesn’t work, even caused some to gain weight. Of course, claims for either side are hard to gauge from internet reports.

How to make the smell-mechanism work for you.

There is a legitimate idea underneath Sensa—somewhere. But why spend the money? Why use a product you might find unpalatable and that might make you feel sick? Why use a product that contains highly processed chemical ingredients?

Truth: There’s another whole category of products out there that can work for you better than Sensa, will save you the cost, let you avoid processed ingredients, and which are far safer, far more satisfying. They’re the products of nature. Several scents—apple, banana, mint, lavender, rose, peppermint—can indeed reduce appetite. In fact, if you smell your fresh salad or other raw food dish before eating, you’ll get the same effect, plus a boost of nutrients. No point wondering whether Sensa really works when raw foods and vegetables will give you all the calcium and silica you could want, and offer a lovely range of natural scents you’ll find stimulating and satisfying. Check out my video, “Lose Weight the Right Way Go Raw“, for more info about losing weight by following the raw food diet.

Go for low calories, high nutrient content.

Why mess with suppressing your appetite for “standard”—which is to say, bad—food? Instead, let your appetite run free with fresh fruits and vegetables. You might already be on your way to a vigorously healthy all-raw diet. Or you might be vegan or vegetarian. Or you might just be a person keen on losing weight. Wherever you are, there’s nothing Sensa can do for you that you can’t gain better, cheaper, and more healthily than by upping your intake of fresh fruits and veggies. There’s no sense in Sensa, I say. Instead, go natural! If you are new to raw foods check out my first book: Your Right to Be Beautiful, where I discuss my journey in discovering the raw food diet and as a result reaching the pinnacle of health and gaining amazing anti-aging results.

These days in the raw food community the theory has been touted that staying on the “whole food diet”—for example, 80% raw—will let them achieve the same results as a 100% raw food diet, though over a much longer period of time.

Here’s the idea in a nutshell:

1. Since detox is slower on a “whole food diet” than on 100% raw, you’ll be cleansing your body longer, therefore you’ll be getting younger over a longer period of time, say 10 years.

2. 100% raw eaters detox faster and deeper, they will become “ridiculously young,” perhaps in 3 years, but then they’ll still begin to age.

3. Therefore, the 80%, the whole foods regime would be equal in results to the raw food diet at some point, since the “whole food” people who are still getting younger will catch up to 100% raw individuals. (Remember those started to age again after just 3 years.)

But the premises and the conclusion in the scenario above are seriously flawed on many levels. Let us consider them more carefully.

No Full Detox

First, we know that raw foods purify and restore cells much more thoroughly than whole foods ever can. Whole-foodists never achieve the deep detox effects raw-foodists do.

If you stay 80% raw, the body will adjust to the new regime pretty quickly. You’ll get younger for sure, but within a year or two you’ll stop “getting younger,” the plateau will be reached soon. In my case it happened after three months. Another diet upgrade will be needed to detox the body more deeply. But if that doesn’t happen, the body will still be subject to aging – slower than if the person were eating the Standard American Diet – but still faster than if she or he were 100% raw.

The idea that the body will continue cleansing itself on 80% raw for many years to come is simply wishful thinking. If you’re only 80% raw, you’re still taking in 20% of the toxins you used to. So long as your body’s digestive and waste systems are still dealing with that load of impurities, you’ll simply never become fully detoxed.

80 Doesn’t Equal 100

The argument at its core is that partial restoration of health will result in the same effects as total restoration, but will take longer. But can this idea really withstand logical analysis? Taking raw foods as the basis point for our assessment, we’ll call its cell restoration 100% (“full raw results”). As a “whole foods” diet partially purifies the cells, its resultant peak would be proportional to the degree of cellular restoration. Let’s be generous and call that 80%.

Another major flaw in the whole foods argument is that the peak “youthening” point achieved in 10 years (80%) would be equal to the extent of repair (100%) that’s achieved in 3 years on raw foods. Sorry…80% just never equals 100%.

I believe the chart below is more representative of the anti-aging effects of both dietary plans.

Every person who honestly lived 100% raw for a period of time knows this feeling once expressed by David Wolfe: My experience has been that by eating 95% raw food, I received 95% of the amazing results. After comfortably eating 100% raw food for several years, it seemed that I was receiving 1,000% of the results.

Everyone goes through detox. I agree on 100% raw, the detox is more pronounced. But with the right attitude, it can be very satisfying, and you will be reaping all the “youthening” benefits in the process. And when most of the major detox is complete, aging will proceed at a much slower pace than by just going with the 80% whole foods plan.

Anytime we upgrade our diet, regardless of our starting point, we can’t but feel better, have more energy, and get farther along the path of delaying the aging process. Switching from a standard American diet to a whole foods diet will surely bring its rewards. Look: I’m not loyal to 100% raw foods for the sake of raw food. And you bet I’d like it if only 80% of the effort could take me all the way. But it hasn’t. And it can’t.

Am I against your trying the 80% whole foods diet? Certainly not. I just don’t want you to have the wrong idea—that you’ll get the same health and anti-aging benefits as with a fully raw lifestyle.

The Addiction Factor

But there is more. What worries me is the key negative aspect of the Whole Foods plan-cooked food is the most addictive thing there is! Many people cannot stick to the 80% raw plan. They may start, but then that percentage will start to dwindle and dwindle. It is a situation similar to an alcoholic who believes he can kick the habit by only having two beers a night. But the fact is, he is an addict, and that’s why he can’t stick to only two beers. And with cooked food, we are hardcore addicts. We have been raised since infancy, possibly since birth if you were fed infant formula, to consume mostly cooked foods. This is why I believe abstinence from cooked food is the way to go.

Regardless of what we eat, we’ll all be experiencing some degree of aging. But in my almost sixteen year experience, over the long haul, a 100% raw food diet coupled with fastidious skin care, is the best anti-aging formula there is. See my book Quantum Eating for advanced anti-aging practices that make 100% raw more enjoyable and easy to follow.

What is dry fasting?

It’s as simple as the wet-dry distinction. Wet fasting: Drink water, but take no food. Dry fasting: a total abstinence from both food and water for a defined time.

There is one more level of dry fasting called Absolute Dry Fasting. Some suggest to reach the deepest level and realize the full benefits of dry fasting, it’s better not to let any water come in contact with the body through the skin or mucous membranes. You heard that right: no showers, no swimming, no brushing teeth while dry fasting.

Animals commonly use dry fasting for healing. When wounded or very sick, they retreat for rest and refuse to take in food or water until they get better. Humans used to have the same instinct, until the advances of civilization replaced it with readily available food and medicine, and culture took over to dictate when and what we eat.

You may have acquired somewhere the common belief that humans can only survive three days or so without water. If so, you might be surprised to learn that therapeutic dry fasts as long as five, seven, nine, even eleven days are not unheard of. The Guinness Book of Records mentions 18 days as a record for a person surviving without any food or water. With the right intention and some comprehensive information about fasting as a mode of healing, you can go with relative comfort through the experience of a 24-36 hour dry fast and reap the benefits.

The Mechanisms behind dry fasting

The cessation of both external food and water creates a special kind of stress in the body, prompting it urgently to come up with both nutrients and water, initiating the process of making both internally. During a dry fast, the body survives on so-called endogenous or metabolic water, produced internally as a result of metabolizing fat tissue. Unlike any exogenous water, this metabolic water is of superb quality, produced by the hard work of our own cells. It literally erases any negative information imprint which the body had before the fast, allowing cells to experience a kind of a rebirth, as a result.

Under dry fasting conditions, even the skin changes its function, from being an organ of elimination to serving as an organ of absorption, taking in any available water from the air and supplying it to healthy cells. Besides water, the body during a dry fast absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen to manufacture its own amino acids. Since there is no water to flush out the endogenous toxins, these are eliminated by means of a unique mechanism, dormant during less rigorous modes of fasting: Each cell, in effect, becomes the furnace that burns up its own waste.

Results seen in dry fasting

Inflammation cannot exist without water. Microorganisms need water to survive. These facts taken together make dry fasting a highly effective tool to address acute health issues and degenerative conditions. Such a fast stimulates the immune system, activates the body’s anti-inflammatory mechanisms, purifies the blood and clears the blood vessels, as well as cleanses the GI tract and renews its mucosal lining.

Dry fasting also eliminates parasites and promotes regeneration of healthy tissues. And this isn’t even a complete list of benefits. Every cell of the body literally cleans house. Only the strongest and healthiest of cells survive in such extreme conditions, while cysts and benign tumors dissolve as a result of autolysis, a process by which the body sacrifices its sickest cells for its own survival.

Sounds like a perfect solution for weight loss….or is it?

While it is true that during dry fast the fat tissues become the fuel for metabolizing the water needed for bodily processes, dry fasting is not a magical, one-time solution for weight loss.  You must adjust your diet after the water or dry fast by reducing the amount of food you eat and increasing its quality. Permanently. If you don’t, you’ll likely quickly gain back all the weight you’ve lost, and then some.

Can you use dry fasting for weight loss?

Sure. A better way: short dry fasts such as once a week. A still better way—perhaps the best way: Fast every day for 14 to 16 hours. That is what I call Quantum Eating. Embracing Quantum Eating, you’ll consistently teach your body to eat less, while performing regular short dry fasts. These, working in tandem, will be the key to your permanent weight loss. A special bonus: You simultaneously will reap unprecedented anti-aging benefits via this lifestyle. Read more in Quantum Eating.

Can dry fasting help you gain weight?

If your issue is the less common one of being underweight, Quantum Eating is also here to help you gain weight and stabilize at a desirable “normal” weight. Learn more in my book Raw Food and Hot Yoga.

Dry fasting retreats. Prolonged dry fasting to address a persisting health issue is a serious undertaking. It is important to find a knowledgeable, experienced practitioner who will supervise your fast. While dry fasting retreats are still hard to find in the USA, such centers do exist abroad. Sergey Filonov of Altai, Russia, is an experienced and competent health professional and author, who runs a retreat called Sinegorye, specializing in dry fasting http://filonov.net. Anna Yakuba, also an author on the topic, offers a similar retreat in the Ukraine http://syhoegolodanie.com/.

Dry fasting holds the potential of changing us on a much deeper level—physically, mentally, emotionally—than any other type of fast. And it’s my favorite way to fast. It’s easier than a water or juice fast and the results are three times more pronounced. But to do not attempt it until you thoroughly research the topic and until you are already very comfortable with water fasting.

Read more on water fasting in Your Right to be Beautiful.

A reader asked: “How can I go 100 percent raw? I keep falling back. A guru mantra from you will definitely help.”

I don’t know of a sacred verbal formula that will keep all bad food at bay. But I do know some simple steps that will definitely help.

Experience tells me this…at those times when we reach for that piece of forbidden food, it’s usually because we have let ourselves completely—if briefly—forget the reasons why we wanted to eliminate unhealthy foods in the first place.

What leads us to forget our well-thought out plans? Often it’s powerfully influential memories, whether memories of the foods themselves like mom’s meatloaf, or associated memories like a grandchild’s smile which bring back feelings of satisfaction, safety, comfort.

Why Am I Eating?

The family photos on your refrigerator only add to this hypnotic state. Your refrigerator is not the place to feel all warm and cozy and get emotional. It’s a place where you need to be all logic and common sense and post yourself a question (perhaps literally): Why am I eating?

Visual Reminders

Give yourself some visual reminders of what bad food does. A few pics of clogged arteries, fat tummies, a distorted colon—you’ll find a zillion on the internet—can serve as telling reminders, stuck on your fridge or cupboard door. Get graphic, if you have to.

But give yourself some positive reminders, too. A picture from a magazine resembling how you, yourself want to look, a cover of a book that inspired you to go raw in the first place.

Clear Your Kitchen

Another piece of advice: Empty your fridge and pantry of what shouldn’t be there anymore but may have lingered. Get rid of all your cooking paraphernalia! Lose the coffee maker…all but a single saucepan…the toaster-oven…the crock-pot…if it plugs in or gets hot, you probably don’t need it. Disconnect your stove and start using it for storage, so it will be really inconvenient if you get the urge to bake something in a moment of weakness.

Most of us are hopelessly addicted to food—a sad fact indeed. We eat for comfort. We eat from boredom. Or we eat because we’re sad. Or angry. We eat because it’s “time to eat.” We eat because someone else says, “Yeah, I could eat.”

Be in Love

The best way to forget food: Be in love. If romantic love isn’t on the immediate horizon, find something you love to do. Passion will take you away from unnecessary eating. It can be a passion for anything. Exercise, like yoga, Pilates, Zumba, racquetball, running, walking, weightlifting. Or perhaps a gentle outdoor pursuit, like birdwatching or geocaching. Volunteer work, whether it be helping at the church rummage sale or serving at a soup kitchen. A new pursuit, perhaps, or an old one brought to new life. Start loving someone or something well…and you’ll soon stop eating badly.

For more tips for kicking the cooked food addiction, check out this Blog article. For more advanced practice, take a look at my book Quantum Eating.

Several articles of mine—see Myths about Cosmetic Preservatives and Green Cosmetics—have as their purpose clearing up misconceptions about the need for preservatives in natural cosmetics, face creams especially. Still, I constantly get well-meant suggestions that I should use a “natural” preservative such as radish root, or aspen bark extract, or Japanese honeysuckle in my products.

The main difference among face creams and formulas is whether they’re oil-based or water-based. With an oil-based formula such as my new night cream, there’s no need for added preservatives at all. However, an oil-based formula is, as the name guarantees, oily and therefore usually unsuitable for daytime use. This is why most day creams and moisturizers are water-based.

Do not insist that your favorite water-based cream “has no preservatives”! Why not? Because it does. A cream can’t not contain ? preservative of some sort if it’s going to have a shelf life.

If someone tells you they have a water-based cream that’s free of preservatives, or that they use aspen bark extract as a preservative, look twice. They’re not telling you the whole truth. They’re not disclosing what else they’re using along with the “natural” preservative. Or they’re leaving out the fact that these natural ingredients are extracted, processed, isolated and put into bottles, rendering them a man-made chemical, although “derived from” sources such as aspen bark, radish root, or the like.

There is simply no such thing as a truly “plant preservative.” The very expression is an oxymoron. In nature no plant, ultimately is “preserved.” No preservative is completely natural. Sure, all plant-based preservative ingredients begin as natural products, even raw ones. But they must all go through some sort of processing and stabilization to make them usable and functional in a cosmetic product.

Well-meaning people write me all the time: But Tonya, so and so only uses Vitamin E, or so and so uses grapefruit seed extract—why don’t you? Suzanne Somers, I recently learned, uses Japanese honeysuckle in her cream, so why don’t you switch to something like that?

Let’s get real, folks: I can assure you that no one out there is squeezing fresh honeysuckle into jars and screwing on the lids for a nontoxic, perfectly preserved natural product. Not to pick on Suzanne—it’s the label makers I do not trust, and with good reason.

I already discussed the trouble with grapefruit seed extract in this article, but what’s wrong with Japanese honeysuckle? After it’s been processed into a usable form as a preservative, it becomes what is commonly known as a paraben. But if you put the word “parabens” on the label, you lose a huge customer base. So, thanks to labeling loopholes and savvy marketing,  you can simply call this form of paraben by its more benign plant based name—here the luscious, mellifluous, and oh-so-natural-sounding Japanese honeysuckle. Those in charge of labeling know that consumers are becoming more educated, more discerning, and ceasing to fall for old tricks. So they think up new ones—all very legal, of course, since labeling laws are so convoluted.

Sometimes ingredients themselves contain preservatives, as in the case of some of Dr. Hauschka formulas. People assume that Dr. Hauschka’s products contain no preservatives at all. But they do. It’s called alcohol. Below is the explanation I took directly from Dr. Hauschka’s website explaining the company’s use of alcohol for extraction and preservation:

“Q: Why do some of Dr Hauschka products contain alcohol? A: Herbs and flowers are the core of Dr Hauschka skin care preparations and many are extracted in a mixture of alcohol and water. We use a Certified Organic food-grade ethyl alcohol (ethanol) from grain, fruit or vegetable.”

The uninitiated see that there are flower or herb extracts in the formula, but they are unaware that those contain alcohol, a preservative.

The list could go on all day, I’m afraid. But I think by now you are getting my point. If your cosmetics are water-based, they will contain some form of preservative.

I call a spade a spade. And a preservative – a preservative. If I have to use a preservative I choose the best – that will do the job with the smallest amount yet keep the product safe – the industry can offer.

I applaud conscious consumers everywhere and encourage you to do your homework regarding ingredients that you feel comfortable using. If you want to avoid some type of preservative completely, then by all means, please, whip up those formulas in your raw kitchen and send me the recipe for my homemade cosmetics. We will share it with our readers so they, too, can benefit.