Know Any Literary Animal Lovers?

Hi there PureJeevan readers! We wanted to let you know that Jim's new novel CHROO is available on Amazon. It's a crazy adventure involving a billionaire heiress, her Chihuahua BFF ("Chroo") and a host of human and animal characters. Find out more on Amazon! Here are some links:




As you read this, calming violins open a familiar tune and that sweet mellifluous voice of Etta James soon enters your mind: "At laaaaaaaaassssst. My looooove has come along....." Great tune, right ! Well, it's appropriate here because, at LAST, here's the long-awaited Episode #9 of Know Your Food! That's right, friends, today we're going to explore the wondrous FIG in all of its sweet, soothing glory. One taste and happiness blossoms within you, washing over your entire being... We only wish that the following video was as professionally rendered as this paragraph of evocative prose... (but, we promise we'll get there one day).

In case you missed the actual nutrition info in that video (what little there was, LOL), here's the transcript:

Jim here... Just a brief, fun post for the weekend... We just saw the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World a few days ago. ?It's a great movie, for many reasons. But, vegans will get a real kick out of one scene involving a character named Todd Ingram, who has super powers. ?Why? ?... Because he's a vegan! ?We won't spoil the scene, though. But, if you're a vegan, or know a lot of vegans, you should get a pretty good laugh from this! I think they nearly had to throw Wendi and me out of the theater, as we were laughing so hard (especially Wendi). ?Enjoy. :-)

You're in for a treat with this recipe. Our Guest Raw Chef this week is Shivie Kaur, half of "The Cook and Butler" duo of TeamRaw. Wendi shot this video a few weeks back in San Francisco during Pure Jeevan's recent cross-country tour! While there, Shivie and her partner Cemaaj created and served a delicious gourmet meal for Wendi and KDcat. The blog post from that visit was here. So, here's Shivie sharing with you how to make an easy and delicious raw salad dressing!

This Thursday I want to give a special "Thank You" to Kevin Gianni. He was on my list for a Take the Time Tuesday introduction, but I didn't want to wait until then to tell you about him. I've been following Kevin's work on the Internet since he hosted The Raw Food World Summit last year. You can tell when you hear him speak that he's a genuinely nice, intelligent, caring person. He's honestly listening to what people are saying, trying to absorb the plethora of health information that's available. He asks a lot of interesting questions, too. He then takes what he has learned, condenses it, and shares the knowledge with the rest of the world. He does all of the hard work for us! For this, I wanted to give a special thanks to him.

Here they are!! Images from the 3-Day Raw Food Spiritual Ashram Retreat! There were more taken by the ashram staff; once they are sent to me, I'll include those, as well.

Page One: Guests

Page Two: Raw Food

Many of you know some of my story of healing. I suffered with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) since I was a young teenager. Over the years, I began putting on more and more weight until I was nearly morbidly obese. I learned a lot about PCOS and how there is always an accompanying issue with Insulin Resistance.

Countless overweight women search the Internet looking for help in dealing with PCOS, hoping to find a natural cure to the harsh medications often prescribed that tend to cause other health concerns in our bodies. One of the most often asked questions is from women who have a pretty good understanding of PCOS. They want to know if they need to be careful with fruit consumption if they have PCOS and are trying to lose weight.

We've spent some time on this blog talking about how much fun you can have via the meetup.com web site. If you search that site, you can probably find raw food meetups near you!? But, a few readers have asked us some follow-ups, such as What should I bring and What should I do if I'd like to host a raw foods meetup

*Attending* Raw Foods Meetups

Okay, so you signed up for a raw foods meetup group, waited patiently for the next event to come round, and now it's time!? But, wait... this is your first such outing. What should you bring

Since our child was exposed to a large variety of vegetables and fruits at a young age, she has always enjoyed consuming them in myriad ways. When children's exposure to fruits and veggies has been limited, however, they don't always like consuming things that are so different from what they've grown accustomed to eating (and this many times carries into adulthood).

It's vital that children be exposed to a variety of foods, as often as possible, while growing up. For the vast majority of children, however, that has not been the case. Packaged, processed, and fast foods are a standard part of our society; we don't think twice about serving such foods to our children. Everyone is doing it, it's affordable and convenient, and they like it!

Today we wanted to do something fun and a bit unusual. We raw foodies are a creative bunch, so we? thought, "Why not profile a handful of raw musicians !" Sounded like an interesting project, as we've all heard of at least a few raw foodist musicians out there. So, here are a dozen raw musicians to get you started -- that's right, FOURTEEN wonderful raw musicians!? (Since when does a dozen equal fourteen? Well, we figure that cooked foodies have their "baker's dozen," which everyone knows is thirteen.We figure: Why be outdone by the cooked food world, eh? So, we're redefining things a bit!)

Anyway, some of these bands/musicians are internationally famous; others are names you may not have heard before. We asked some of our friends to suggest raw musicians for today's post and we were surprised with the number of musicians mentioned! All those listed below are reportedly raw (or, in the case of whole bands, at least one or more of the members are raw foodists).Please note that this is by no means a complete list.

To keep all of you inspired while we are away, we've asked some

remarkable individuals to share their raw food stories with you. Enjoy!

Jim here... Yesterday I promised to hypnotize you, so here it is (below). This is something I published elsewhere long ago, slightly modified. Interestingly, in the original version, I'd made reference to various cooked food items -- for example, describing the smell of fresh-baked muffins as comforting. Well, as pleasant as that smell may be to everyone, I just thought it would be odd to include it here on a blog devoted to raw foods.

I think, by the way, that next week I may post a piece on aroma and how it dovetails with raw foods. I'm sure there are interesting things to write about that topic. For now, I'll simply point you to the funny hypnotism picture, below. While it characterizes hypnotism as a sort of mystical power wielded over another's true will, that's definitely not the case. As you'll see, the text below is really just a very innocent, very calming, relaxing suggestion. Read it seriously and see if you aren't relaxed and happy afterward. Have a great weekend!