Supplements and the Vegan Raw Food Diet

The three supplements Gabriel recommends are

1) Vitamin B-12

- With 18 studies done on B-12, they concluded that 80% of vegans
and live fooders become B-12 deficient. Gabriel has a live B-12 called
the Activated B-12 lozenge . Dosage is one half a teaspoon daily.

This is not just a problem with vegans, over 39% of meat eaters are
also B-12 deficient.

Click Here to read Dr. Cousens' article on Vitamin B-12 for raw foodists.

2) Omega-3 Long Chain Fats

- The omega-3 fats (O3) are an essential nutrient which we must eat in
foods. O3's are broken into two categories- the short chain and the
long chain. The short chain O3's are found in plant foods such as flax
seeds, hemp seeds, and in a small amount of vegetables and greens.

There are two long chain fats which are called EPA and DHA. They are
mostly found in animal products such as fish.

The long chain O3's are very important to eat because they are found
in our brain and eyes. They are critical for brain development and as an
anti-depressant.

You don't need to eat fish! We can get our long-chain O3's from
vegan foods. Our body will convert the short chain fats into long
chain fats.

Gabriel found that adding coconut oil to flax seeds helps
increase their O3 conversion to about 10%.

When eating Flax seeds alone, about 1% to 2% of the short chain
O3's are converted to long chain O3's. When eating flax with coconut
oil, the conversion is significantly increased to 10%.

The herb purslane also contains the long chain O3 EPA. Purslane is
easy to grow in your yard or apartment balcony. Purchase purslane
seeds from Seeds of Change.

The only other vegan food that contains the long chain O3 fats is the
Klamath Lake AFA Blue-Green Algae. I use the E3 Live brand because it
is the highest quality. The E3 Live algae is available on my website in
liquid or powder form.

E3 Live and Purslane increases the amount of long chain O3's in our
system.

To prevent a potential O3 deficiency we recommend eating the following
foods once a day:

- 3 tablespoons of ground flax seed
- one tablespoon of coconut oil
- Generous servings of purslane and E3 Live

There is one other option for vegan DHA. This is a supplement called
Omega-Zen DHA. Some people may need to use this, especially
pregnant and nursing mothers.

3) Carnosine

- This nutrient originally came from an animal product. It prevents
aging because it is an anti-oxidant, prevents free radicals, and
prevents collagen cross linking. Dosage is small, about 1/8 a teaspoon
a day. This is not just a problem with vegans... meat eaters do not
receive adequate amounts of carnosine.

The only vegan form of carnosine is available on the Life Extension
Foundation website

Here is an excerpt from the Life Extension article:

Carnosine is "A substance that protects and extends the functional life
of the body's key building blocks—cells, proteins, DNA, lipids—can be
fairly called an agent of longevity. When that agent is safe, naturally
present in the body and in food, and has demonstrated prolongation
of life span in animals and cultured human cells, it is fundamental to
any life extension program. Mounting research suggests that carnosine
has just such anti-aging potential."

The body is made up largely of proteins. Unfortunately, proteins tend
to undergo destructive changes as we age, due largely to oxidation
and interactions with sugars or aldehydes. These interrelated protein
modifications include oxidation, carbonylation, cross-linking, glycation
and advanced glycation endproduct (AGE) formation. They figure
prominently not only in the processes of aging but also in its familiar
signs such as skin aging, cataracts and neurodegeneration. Studies
show that carnosine is effective against all these forms of protein
modification.

As an antioxidant, carnosine potently quenches that most destructive
of free radicals, the hydroxyl radical, as well as superoxide, singlet
oxygen and the peroxyl radical. Surprisingly, carnosine was the only
antioxidant to significantly protect chromosomes from oxidative
damage due to 90% oxygen exposure.

Carnosine's ability to rejuvenate connective tissue cells may explain its
beneficial effects on wound healing. In addition, skin aging is bound up
with protein modification. Damaged proteins accumulate and cross-link
in the skin, causing wrinkles and loss of elasticity. In the lens of the
eye, protein cross-linking is part of cataract formation. Carnosine eye
drops have been shown to delay vision senescence in humans, being
effective in 100% of cases of primary senile cataract and 80% of cases
of mature senile cataract. Carnosine levels decline with age. Muscle
levels decline 63% from age 10 to age 70, which may account for the
normal age-related decline in muscle mass and function..."

The Life Extension website is http://www.lef.org/

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks and have the best day eve!

To your great health,

Mike Snyder
503-771-3904
mike@therawdiet.com