Holistic Feathers

1 very ripe, large banana
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 tablespoon honey

To Make:
1. Mash the banana. Add the cream and honey and whisk together until smooth.

To Use:
1. Apply to dry hair from the roots to the ends, cover with a shower cap, and then wrap your head in a warm towel.
2. Allow mixture to remain on hair for as long as possible – up to an hour. Rinse thoroughly with warm water, then shampoo as usual.

Recipe discovered at Stairway of Life

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MuLondon’s products have recently come to our attention … as you know, we only use vegan, concentrated natural products in our facial treatments and we are thinking that MuLondon would make a great addition to our online store and treatments!!!

If you’ve used MuLondon’s products I’d love to hear from you ~ in the meantime, I’d love to share Glamology’s video review of a small selection of their products … and news of MuLondon’s fabulous competition here >> MuLondon Competition

www.mulondon.com

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Article discovered via The Fresh Network Blog … to read the full article (20 ways!) please visit The Fresh Network Blog

After 12 years following the raw food lifestyle, I have found myself delightfully doing the backstroke downstream in the river of health, while most around me are swimming upstream and telling me I’m going the wrong direction!

I want to prepare you for some things you can expect over the long term when you truly become clean and healthy, inside and out. Your body will not function quite as it used to, nor will it function like the body of the “average” person. You will react differently to foods, medications and lifestyle choices. It will not be possible to compare you in any arena to the average Joe because you’ll no longer be average.

1. Doctors and you
Doctors won’t know quite what to do with you. For instance, one of my readers wrote:

“I had my white blood cells tested about three weeks ago, and my result was 2.9. The normal range is 4.1 to 5.6. My doctor ordered a repeat of test. Knowing my raw food diet was responsible for the test results, I ate some bread and cooked vegetables the afternoon before my next test. Next morning the result was 4.2! I was happy I’ve proven to myself one more time how sensitive our bodies are to the quality of food we eat. Can you imagine my delight, when several days later in your book Quantum Eating I read that you experienced the same thing?”

Here’s the explanation… Cooked food sets off an immune response that raw foods do not. That the blood of most cooked food eaters is infiltrated with white blood cells means that the body is fighting back, sending immune-cell soldiers into battle against infection. But with most folks on a raw food diet, there’s little or no infection – hence few soldiers.

In the hospital or in the doctor’s office, the parameters you will be measured by aren’t normal – they are more aptly termed average. They are derived by experimenting on people who eat cooked foods. The healthier you become, the more you will find yourself – quite literally – off the charts!

2. Sleep
You will need less sleep. I sleep only five or six hours a night. Cooked food is damaging, so we need more time to recover. If your body is abused either by cooked foods or by stress, it needs more sleep to heal. The absolute opposite is true if you are healthy. Remove the cause of illness, and you reduce the needed healing time. Sleep is like a recovery room. The more you hurt yourself, the more time you need to spend there in order to recover. After being on a 100% raw lifestyle for over 12 years and experimenting with different raw foods and quantities, I feel confident in saying that nothing influences your sleeping needs more than the amount and quality of food you eat.

3. Supplements
It always amazes me when people go raw, get more nutrients in one day than they had in a month on their former cooked diet, and then ask: Am I getting enough nutrients?

What nutrients are in the food does matter. But what matters more is whether your body is cleansed and efficient enough to absorb what you are getting. Don’t just load your body with more and more nutrients and calories. Instead, clean it. Make it more efficient at getting those nutrients. I eat fewer calories than ever before, after following a raw foods lifestyle for many years. My body now gets more nutrients from less food. Yours can, too.

There are, however, situations when short-term supplementing of a particular nutrient can be helpful or even necessary, if you are deficient. If you are not energetic, you are not healthy, and taking a pill is not going to change anything permanently. I am discovering: no supplementation is needed for the healthy body to feel great! (Okay – one exception: B12. But this is a topic for another article.)

4. Water, water, everywhere
Many health-conscious people are plagued with the question: Which type of water is the best to drink? After all, if we’re to be drinking the proverbial eight glasses of water per day, shouldn’t we drink the best? Should it be spring water or distilled water? Or maybe ionized water or silver water? When I am asked this question, I honestly say: I have no idea. Nor do I think it will become a topic of my research. Why? After 12 years following the 100% raw food lifestyle, I have no need for free water. I don’t drink water. Am I dehydrated? Not at all.

How can I do it? I do not eat anything from which water has been removed. I no longer consume dehydrated or concentrated foods. I get all the hydration I need from my daily juices, smoothies, melons and other foods with high water content. In my book Quantum Eating I use the analogy of dried prunes. If you place them in water, will they ever look like fresh, plump plums again? Is a soaked prune really hydrated? It’s the same with a person who eats cooked food and drinks lots and lots of bottled water. All that drinking swells you up without really giving you the dewy look of youth you desire. I believe that the best biologically active water comes from nature’s own vessels – fruits and vegetables.

However, if you are still transitioning, you must, I repeat, you must find out what is the best water to drink and drink lots of it.

Buy the Spring issue of Get Fresh! magazine to read the rest of the article and discover what Tonya has to say about the changes you can expect in the following areas when you go raw:

* Cleansing
* Sun exposure
* Calorie requirements
* Metabolism
* Cravings and binges
* Freedom from diseases
* Avoiding middle-age spread
* Muscle cramps
* Recovery time
* Peaceful mealtimes
* Skin
* Skincare
* Spontaneous bliss
* Finding your destiny
* Peace of mind

(c) Tonya Zavasta

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(NaturalNews) The Organic Consumers Association has long fought against what it calls “organic cheater brands” – personal care products that use the name “organic” in the product name or brand, yet are not truly organic products at all. This year at the Expo West Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, California, the OCA staged a very visible public protest to expose what it calls “sham poo products” that are “organic cheaters.”

The protest was part of the OCA’s Coming Clean Campaign which continues to expose dishonest or misleading products in the skin care industry. Due in large part to the OCA’s efforts, Whole Foods now says it will enforce honest labeling by taking a closer look at the word “organic” on personal care products (Organic Consumers).

I was present at the protest, where I spoke with some of the participants and captured some video footage of the action. You can watch the full video right now on YouTube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BaO_fnQTnI

What really happened at the protest
The protest was largely peaceful, and even though police did search the protestors – a violation of their 4th Amendment rights – they did not make any arrests. New Hope Media, the company that organizes the Expo West trade show each year, dispatched staffers to act as human shields to visually block the protest signs by standing in front of them. I attempted to get some of the New Hope Media personnel to explain why they were standing in front of the signs, asking them if they were attempting to block the signs, and they told me that they actually had no intention of blocking anything, that they were just “standing here” for no particular reason. (Yeah, right …)

They couldn’t say, of course, that the “organic cheater” brands whose signs they were blocking also happened to be some of the largest paying exhibitors at the show, and these show organizers were no doubt attempting to shield these companies from being publicly shamed. That act alone raises the all-important question: Why is New Hope Media protecting organic cheater brands?

There’s something you need to know about the Expo West trade show: That show has an on-duty FDA officer who runs around the show threatening companies that make truthful health claims on their product labels. New Hope Media is apparently quite content with an FDA tyrant running around the show threatening people for telling the truth, but when the Organic Consumers Association tries to expose the truth about organic cheater brands, New Hope Media places itself in the position of defending the cheaters!

Why is it illegal to tell the truth at Expo West, but it’s perfectly fine for some companies to lie to consumers through misleading product names… and New Hope Media will actually go to bat for those cheaters by sending people onto the street to disrupt a public protest that exposes the lies!

I find this all quite fascinating. Expo West is a terrific trade show with lots of really great companies sharing their health products, but it does seem that New Hope Media is eroding its own credibility by going to bat for organic cheater brands. Instead of defending organic cheater brands, the company might do itself a favor by requiring them to have honest labels before they can exhibit at the show!

Watch the video yourself to see the signs being blocked by New Hope Media employees (the guys in the suits):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BaO_fnQTnI

How the products really scored
The OCA has published an online spreadsheet detailing the test results of many personal care products to show their “Skin Deep Hazard Rating” – a score that indicates the presence of potentially hazardous or toxic chemicals in product formulations. A score of 7 or higher is considered bad enough to earn that product a “don’t buy this” rating. A score of 2 or lower is considered very good.

If you want to find out who these companies are, just visit Natural News to read the rest of the article … we were shocked when we read it!!

(c) Mike Adams, The Health Ranger
Article discovered at Natural News

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We were thrilled to see our top-seller MSM Beauty Cream by Raw Gaia appearing in the Sunday Mirror supplement last Sunday ….

(c) Sunday Mirror

Buying beauty products can be a moral minefield. Organic? Natural? Vegan? They all sound ethical, but none of them guarantee the product you’re buying wasn’t tested on animals. The shocking thing is, even if a product claims to be ‘not tested on animals’, this may only apply to the finished item – the ingredients still could have been.

To make finding critter-friendly products easier, BUAV, the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (the anti-animal testing guys to you and me) have produced a book of cruelty-free cosmetics (download it for free at gocrueltyfree.org). All the brands listed are carefully checked so, not only are the products on the shop shelf kind to Thumper and friends, but the ingredients in them are too.

Look for the BUAV leaping bunny logo to be sure a product meets their guidelines. And to prove you don’t have to sacrifice style or break the bank to help our furry friends, here are our cruelty-free faves.

For the full listings please read the article online at The Mirror

Article discovered at (c) Sunday Mirror

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(NaturalNews) At a time in history when all the rage is in looking and feeling young, there are a couple of things to understand. Most important: looking and feeling young doesn’t come from pills or chemical based potions. It comes from healthy, chemical-free living and a body that’s well nourished with appropriate foods and oils – and one that’s free of toxic waste. If you’re ready to take some simple steps to shave a few years off your appearance and start feeling better than ever, here are some easy ways to get started.

1) Eat coconut oil daily and use it as your body lotion
Coconut oil keeps your skin soft and supple, and of course, the smoothness of the skin is often associated with a younger appearance. Coconut oil can be used both internally and externally for this purpose. Coconut oil also helps detoxify the body which means to remove harmful substances from the body. Cultures that use coconut oil regularly have markedly decreased disease rates. And of course, a body that’s free of disease will feel much younger than one that’s riddled with it.

2) Detoxify your body to remove acids and waste
Most people don’t understand how much toxic waste is stored inside the body. Common estimates are that the average person has ten or more pounds of stored filth – just in the colon. But unfortunately, these days the waste isn’t even contained in the colon – it’s often throughout the body.

Think about it for a second: if acids are known to erode metals, what do you think stored acidic toxins are doing to your skin – to say the least of your organs – when they’ve been trapped inside your body for years? Deeply detoxifying your body can be an easy way to both look and feel younger. Deep detoxification, at a minimum, includes colon and liver cleansing with colonics or enemas and coffee enemas.

3) Start eating more raw foods
Raw foods from nature are often alkalizing, while cooked and processed foods are more than likely acidic. If you want to start looking and feeling younger, it’s important to give up a great deal of acidic foods while loading up on alkalizing ones. Green drinks are great for alkalizing, detoxifying, and are a wonderful way to add minerals to your body.

4) Use homemade body treatments
The youth-selling cosmetic industry is a multi-billion dollar business, but unfortunately, it’s based on chemical “solutions.” The good news is: natural homemade body treatments are easy and inexpensive, plus they’re effective and don’t contaminate your body with chemicals.

Blended pineapple is a great home body treatment because it’s enzyme rich. The enzymes in pineapple gently remove dead skin and pineapple is a wonderful face or full body treatment. Pineapple is especially effective at removing the dead skin on feet, but to remove it all can take a few treatments. So, cut and blend some fresh but not too ripe pineapple, rub it on your body and relax for ten minutes. Then, shower and use a washcloth to scrub away any dead skin.

Blended papaya is another winner, and again, it’s due to the enzymes. Green or unripe papaya is best and you can blend it with some seeds for an extra boost. Papaya is packed with antioxidants, lightens the skin, evens out skin tone, and is helpful for acne and age spots. Just prepare and use in the same manner as the pineapple mixture and know that lightening age spots can take some time. If desired, the inside of fresh aloe can be added too, and these treatments are best used once a week.

More:
Coconut Cures, Bruce Fife, N.D.

For full links, please visit (c) Natural News where we discovered this fascinating article.

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We recommend wholeheartedly the following products for your daily routine (remember – keep it simple!)

Cleanser

Living Facial Cleanser is brilliant for all skin-types, gentle yet efficient at removing grime with a blend of oils, essential oils and floral waters which keeps the natural balance of your skin

Toner

Floral Facial Toner is a special blend of uplifting, toning floral waters and essential oils to give your cells a revitalising boost

Floral waters offer different types to suit your own skin-type and personality: often described as a homeopathic alternative to essential oils. One of our favourites is Frankincense floral water, which offers healing properties for mature skin yet soothes and heals our inner selves too

Moisturiser

For Her Daughters Living Moisturiser contains revitalising rosehip, evening primrose and palmarosa oils which helps to restore smoothness and radiance to your skin, with rosehip oil acting as a booster for cellular regeneration (we use rosehip oil neat when our skin is proving rather troublesome or if there is a remote possibility of scarring). Delightfully feminine and a great all-rounder – all skin types will benefit from this delicious moisturiser

For Her Sons Living Moisturiser is especially for men with the masculine aromas of ylang ylang, lavender and patchouli – again, great for all skin types

MSM Beauty Cream is magic-in-a-jar: brilliant for tired, stressed skin for unlucky commuters and for those who suffer with acne or need a little bit of help with repairing scarring or damaged tissue. A perfect present for yourself as it contains frankincense and myrrh along with the “beauty mineral” MSM (Callie is intolerant to sulphur yet her skin has benefitted enormously from this cream).

Hemp Cream is high in omega 3 and 6 oils which is perfect for ultra-dry skin; clinical trials have shown that hemp oil may be beneficial for those suffering with psoriasis and eczema. We love it because of the lavender and sweet orange essential oils!

Additional products

Not content with just three products on your bathroom shelf for your daily skincare routine? Maybe you would like to try the revitalising eye oil treatment – containing the wonderful rejuvenating rosehip oil alongside sea buckthorn. Liquid love and nourishment for the delicate layers surrounding your eyes, lasts for ages and can be used as a moisturiser too, of course.

MSM Beauty spray is great for when your skin needs a pick-up – great for taking away on holiday as a refreshing mist on the flight and for keeping your skin nourished and protected in a different climate. Smells delicious too, so make sure it stays firmly in your handbag in case someone takes a fancy to it!

Weekly treats

Raw Chocolate Face Mask needs no introduction – always a firm favourite with our clients because of the delicious chocolate fragrance from raw cacao which offers excellent antioxidant properties (giving your skin an additional boost of energy) and a rosy glow comes from turmeric and amla fruit powder. Yum yum! If you have slightly oily skin you may prefer to treat your skin to a green clay mask which gently draws out impurities and leaves your skin feeling fresh and dewy. Rhassoul clay is excellent for skin which adores a deep cleansing experience: highly nourishing for the skin, rhassoul clay has a very high mineral content and unique composition, including silica, magnesium, potassium and calcium: anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-microbial and antiseptic it is also a versatile product as it can be used as a daily cleanser/face wash. Two products rolled into one – great product, we think! Oh yes, and it is also highly recommended for psoriasis and eczema.

There are also super-gentle products for your baby’s needs (including a wonderful Baby gift box with a range of goodies for the new parents), natural oils, massage oils and bath and bodycare products to suit everyone.

Raw: unadulterated; unheated; in its natural state; alive
Gaia: the Greek Goddess of the Earth; the planet as a single living organism
Raw Gaia is the world’s first range of living skin care products made using only cold-pressed, organic and vegan ingredients, infused with essential oils and floral waters of the finest quality. With wonderful skin moisturising and uplifting qualities because they are absolutely pure, alive and made with the Earth’s most nourishing and beautifying skin care ingredients, they offer a far more effective way to care for you and your family’s skin than any chemical or artificial moisturisers.

Through a special low temperature process, Raw Gaia’s hand-made skincare products retain all the life force, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids of the ingredients which help to moisturise, heal and revitalize all types of skin.

Raw Gaia is one of the most ethical skin care companies you will find anywhere. All of the Raw Gaia ingredients are organic, certified vegan and cruelty-free, as much as possible, fairtrade, and free from any chemicals – they have also adopted an unprecedented “ethical marketing” approach to beauty and ageing.

Try Raw Gaia skincare products and experience the nourishment that only something as natural, alive and pure as Mother Earth can give.

(c) Raw Gaia

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