The book that you are holding in your hands has the power to change your life.
Live Foods, Live Bodies! is a truly revolutionary program that my wife, Linda, and I have practiced for a combined total of nearly one hundred years—sixty-four years of my life and thirty-two years of Linda’s. Because we have dedicated our adult lives to achieving and promoting the highest standards of living health, you can be assured that Linda and I are experts in our field.
Live Foods, Live Bodies!, which we have created together, offers solid guidance in attaining vital health and longevity. We invite you to hear our story and learn how you, too, can create a diet and lifestyle based on living foods, design your own “living” kitchen, boost your health and stamina, and give yourself—as well as your loved ones—a long, disease-free life. The greatest gift I can give this world before I leave it is an understanding of these priceless principles of living health.
OUR STORY
You may remember me as the author of The Power of Juicing, which reached #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list in 1992. You may also have seen the infomercial for my Juicer, in which I taught millions of Americans about the life-giving benefits of fresh juicing that I discovered shortly after being diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1948. Prior to then, I was like most people; I ate high-fat, high-sugar foods like meats, dairy products, junk food, and desserts, and paid little attention to my health. Cancer was my body’s way of telling me that I had to shape up. Doctors told me that I had less than one year to live. Luckily, I was young and open-minded. I instinctively turned to nature and decided to try holistic medicine. I was fortunate enough to find a well-known holistic cancer doctor from Germany, Dr. Max Gerson. He started me on a diet of living (raw) foods and juice that would change my life forever. Eventually, I added some pure organic foods and cooked broths back into my diet, but with a new awareness of how and when to eat them. I have been following this diet ever since.
Now eighty-nine years young, I feel great and more certain than ever in my beliefs about living foods. It is my life’s goal and passion to let others know that it is possible to wake up each morning feeling refreshed and alive; that it is possible to ward off fatigue and disease, and live a life full of stamina and vitality; and that it is never too late to regenerate your body. Although I have been retired for quite some time, sharing my personal story and making others aware of the key to lasting health—living foods—has remained important to me throughout the years. In 2001, my wife, Linda, and I made a commitment to spread our message about the power of living foods.
The success of my juicing infomercial was actually due to the expertise of Linda, who is the strength behind all that I do. Linda became a vegetarian at only ten years of age, was juicing every day by the age of twelve, and was a proponent of juicing long before we met. While I was known as that “juice guy,” Linda was a known expert in her own right as a teacher of vegetarianism and veganism, as well as a living foods advocate. Throughout our more than thirty years of marriage, she and I have enjoyed an empowering juicing and eating lifestyle. Together, we not only make a knowledgeable and experienced team, but also the most deliciously satisfying foods and juices, ever!
In addition, we spent three years creating a program based on our unique living foods diet, which we present to you in this book. Our quick and easy-to-follow system provides you with the understanding and motivation needed to develop a lifelong appreciation of living foods as the foundation of optimal health. Although juicing has been my personal savior and passion for over sixty years, I have also spent most of my entire adult life teaching about the power of living foods and plant food enzymes. This is the real “juice” of our lifestyle program.
THE POWER OF LIVING FOODS
My core message has always been that live foods build live bodies. Living foods are powerful, whether in juice or food form. Your body needs living, fresh, colorful fruits and vegetables that are full of living enzymes, biological molecules that facilitate practically every chemical reaction that occurs in your body. They are the catalysts for energy and vitality, and the missing link to longevity and disease-free living. Live foods are also rich in a type of nutrient that I referred to as a “yet unidentified element of life and growth” before scientists introduced the term phytonutrient. Phytonutrients, or plant nutrients, are compounds that have been shown to offer life-sustaining benefits and disease-prevention properties. Enzymes and phytonutrients should be ingested every single day. This may seem like a daunting task, but just wait.
You will soon see that it is not hard at all. This book provides you with all the tools necessary to make a living foods diet easy, convenient, and enjoyable.One common misconception about vegetable juices andvegetarian foods is that they are tasteless and boring. The recipes and juice combinations that we use in our program prove this idea wrong. Some people once thought that carrot juice, for example, was strange and unappetizing. However, my carrot-apple juice combination (see page 000) quickly changed their opinion. As you will learn, sometimes all it takes is flavorful dressings and spices or creative combinations to transform the taste of your food and change your old ways of thinking. The recipes presented in Part Three (see page 000) are so easy to prepare and delicious that you’ll quickly leave behind your former eating habits without ever looking back. Included are some of the best healing recipes that Linda and I have been using for over thirty years, as well as recipes that the great Dr. Norman Walker and Dr. Max Gerson shared with me in 1948. We also hope to help you recognize that buying health oriented kitchen tools and appliances, juicers included, is only the first step towards vital wellness. If they sit unused in your kitchen, they are of no value or benefit to you. Regular— and enthusiastic—use of these appliances comes from truly understanding how they enhance your health and quality of life. Inspiration combined with applied knowledge is the key to success in any venture.
YOUR LIFE CAN CHANGE—ARE YOU READY?
A living-foods diet will truly change your life. You wouldn’t believe the stories we have heard about people who have adopted this lifestyle only to have their aches and pains, bowel and skin problems, and various health challenges disappear. They felt more alive and energetic than ever before, and this can be your story as well. You, too, can achieve optimal wellness, and live into your nineties with all your faculties intact. As you embark on this new path of eating and living, you will learn the secrets to vital health that have sustained me for all of these years. One of these secrets is summed up in a question that I would like you to ask yourself every time you sit down to eat: How much of my meal is alive? This may seem strange, but you will understand the true meaning and importance of this question once you have read this book.
Our advice is to take it slow and read each chapter carefully. Transition into your new lifestyle gradually, and don’t beat yourself up if you make a few mistakes along the way. Remember, slow and steady wins the race. With Live Foods, Live Bodies!, you will gain an awareness and understanding of living foods that will transform the way you eat forever.