“I Won’t Trade Pizza and Booze to Live an Extra 10 Years…” Have you seen these sorts of headlines before?

I was watching an interview with comedian Ricky Gervais the other day when he repeated it.

Another of my favourite comedians, Bill Maher, is also known for giving similar statements slagging off healthy eating practices.

You may be asking why I am bothered writing an article about these remarks? I do enjoy Ricky Gervais and Bill Maher, and I think they are funny, though I do not agree with them on this issue and I’ll tell you why.

Let me start by saying that I don’t consider myself to be someone to tell anybody what they should eat or how they should conduct their lives. Live and let live is my motto.

I am merely a writer, trying to make sense of the world around me.

It always bothers me when I hear these sort of comments because I believe it has more to do with self-denial or even ignorance, than dealing with actual facts.

It’s also highly contradictory for people such as Bill Maher and Ricky Gervais, who supposedly care for the environment, to ignore the fact that eating a plant based diet (and specifically a raw diet) is perhaps the most far reaching personal decision any individual can make in order to save our planet’s resources.

If you eat crap food, you feel like crap – every day. I know anyone reading this and who’s been on healthy eating journey for a while will understand this sentiment without need for further explanation.

Even Ricky Gervais himself admitted to suffering from back problems due to his weight during that interview.

There is a big misconception that people chose healthy eating to merely add years to one’s life. I am sure some people think this way, but in my case – and the case of many other folks I know: How you feel TODAY is what matters and knowing the facts that our eating habits are sustainable for the Earth as a whole.

I think it’s great to “love” your food – I do love my food too, though the question you should be asking is: does your favourite food love you back? Can you not replace your meals with other equality good tasting food that isn’t going to hurt instead?

For over 30 years, I’ve worked in the music business and I overdid drugs, alcohol, food, you name it, and my body collapsed.

Had I not made the necessary diet changes, I doubt I’d be here today and I doubt my mother be around either.

Below is an incomplete list of health issues people deal with on regular basis, often as direct result of poor nutrition, which could easily be avoided by improving your diet.

• Constipation
• Obesity
• Bad skin
• Back pain
• Depression
• Mood Swings
• Bad breath
• Heartburn
• IBS
• Serious allergies
• Indigestion
• Vision problems
• Ear infections
• Acne
• Athlete’s foot
• Migraines
• Hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol)
• Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
• Fibromyalgia
• Diverticulitis
• Skin Diseases
• Arthritis
• Neck and Joint Pain
• Bloating
• Candida
• Colitis
• Upset Stomach
• Ulcers
• Hernias
• Hemorrhoids
• Cold sores
• Gum diseases
• Poor dental health
• Chronic Fatigue
• Asthma
• Cancers
• High Blood Pressure
• Crohn’s disease

By contrast, below is an incomplete list of the benefits you get on a low fat, raw food, plant based diet:

• Buzzing with natural energy
• Clearer, softer and more youthful skin
• Sparkling eyes (no dark circles)
• Heightened mental clarity
• Improved memory and concentration
• Consistent levels of energy
• Improved sleep quality
• Easier to sleep when travelling (no jetlag)
• Increased flexibility and range of motion in the joints and spine.
• Reduced swelling
• Improved breathing
• Heighten senses
• Enhanced vision
• Increased awareness
• Optimal dental health
• Clearer sinuses
• Less mucous discharge
• Ability to withstand temperature extremes
• No longer needing coffee to wake up
• More in touch with your body and intuition
• More confident in yourself
• No feeling of deprivation. You can eat as much as you like and not gain weight
• Save money on utility bills because you don’t cook, need extra heating, or AC
• Not using cooker, toaster, oven, microwave, dishwasher, steamers means there is never grease in your kitchen or the smell of cooked food in your home.
• Better and faster workouts. Speedy recovery between workouts and post.
• No dizziness or balance disorders
• Major improvement on treatment of tic disorders
• No food poisoning to worry about
• Saving money on buying new clothes because your weigh doesn’t change
• Huge help in quitting hard drugs, such as nicotine
• No need to use deodorants or perfumes.
• Stronger immune system
• Healing of major illnesses
• Spiritual expansion
• A feeling of ‘you can achieve your potential!’
• Environmentally sound

A major benefit of eating unprocessed raw food is that the body’s vital energy is freed up for healing and cleansing. When you stop eating cooked foods, you stop abusing your body at each meal with dehydrated, processed, and more often than not, toxic residue that it must work hard to eliminate.

When your liver and kidneys do less work detoxifying you, they are free to keep your system cleaner, making for a healthier body.

Eating the standard western diet means you operate during and between stimulation; when you eliminate stimulation, you become much more efficient.

And good looks are what you after; remember that the best moisturizer is in your blood.

I’d never forget the day I tried golden Kiwis for the first time; I thought the taste reminds me of a certain sweet I loved as a kid. Most junk food imitates and distorts the original flavour of foods found in nature, so you shouldn’t be too surprised that eating those foods makes you sick.

The issue of alcohol comes down to a confidence trap in my opinion. You think you need alcohol in order to have fun or to perform certain activities, when in reality you don’t; you’ll be far better off sober. All I do when I drink alcohol is talk bullshit.

Alcohol kills willpower.

The most hideous aspect of this argument is that you can make a raw pizza and enjoy the taste even more than eating a standard pizza, while knowing the food isn’t going to make you sick afterwards.

I believe one of the biggest problems when eating a healthy raw food diet is the issue of convenience. You can order a standard pizza to be delivered to your home from pretty much anywhere, but the same can’t be said for raw pizza.

Accessibility to healthy, prepared raw vegan meals can be a concern, but not the raw diet itself.

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