Live foods are fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds that have not been altered from their natural state. Cooking foods destroys the enzymes (life force) in food along with the vitamins, and changes the food chemically making it harder for your body to digest. Even as a vegan, the average person who consumes mostly cooked foods uses more energy to digest their food than they get back from what they eat.

Over time ANY diet consisting primarily of cooked food will lead to enzyme deficiencies causing disease and premature aging. There are many alternative ways to prepare the foods we love that will not destroy all of their valuable nutrients. The Live Foodist can show you how to make all the dishes you love using the most nutritious Live Food ingredients. It is a very exciting experience to learn new innovative preparation methods that will give you the tastes you crave and the fuel your body needs to be healthy and vibrant well into old age.

What Can Live Food Do For You?

Weight Control
When we nourish ourselves with only pure natural foods we maintain our ideal natural weight. If we use live ingredients in our meals we can make decadent delicious hearty meals that will actually make us lose excess body mass. The abundance of enzymes present in Live Food allows your body to break down and eliminate the fat cells stored in your body. You are essentially losing weight by eating delicious satisfying Live Food meals.

Environmental Harmony
When we consume Live Food we are doing as much for the planet as we are for our body. Almost all of the ingredients in Live Food preparation require no packaging. They are either available in the produce section or are available in bulk. A few specialty Live Food items are available in reusable glass containers. This drastically cuts down the amount of waste per household. Also the amount of energy spent on processing and packaging conventional food ingredients is staggering. When one uses natural unprocessed ingredients we are saving an incredible amount of non renewable energy. The amount of energy required for live food preparation is far less than the amount of energy we use to power our ovens and stoves.

Health and Well-Being
The human body is in a constant state of repair from all the stress of daily activity. The more time the body spends on digestion, the less time it can devote to healing tissues and eliminating the accumulation of toxins. If we eat food that is rich in digestive enzymes we can let our body devote the majority of its own enzymes to building new tissues and flushing out toxins. When the body is free of toxicity it is not susceptable to any sickness or disease.

Matthew Warner
The Live Foodist

My Story...

I was lovingly raised on a Standard American Diet of mostly meat, dairy and grains. I hated vegetables and ate very few fruits. When I was a small child I had boundless energy and loved to play outside in nature. In my early years as a student I was considered to be ahead of the curve and was enrolled into enrichment programs for gifted students.

As I grew older and my diet caught up with me. I became very lazy and spent most of my free time eating junk food in front of the television. This lifestyle found me overweight, undernourished, and severely depressed. Despite my intelligence, I had a very difficult time in school due to my lack of energy and focus. I began to rely heavily on chemically enriched foods to pass the time. This habit of emotional eating created a vicious cycle that through the years developed into a pattern of chronic chemical dependency. From the age of 13 I was a heavy smoker and already a social drinker. Through my high school years my alcohol use was steadily increasing and so were my cravings for junk food. After barely graduating high school I attended university in West Virginia. I lasted only one semester and all I left with was more “addiction”. I had becomeheavily involved in all manner of drugs including cocaine, ecstacy, LSD, oxycontin, mescaline, stolen prescription drugs, and basically anything and everything I could get my hands on. Throughout all my bouts with various drugs I maintained my unshakable cravings for the junk food.

At age 21 I knew I couldn’t go on like that anymore anymore. After a great deal of arduous contemplation and internal conflict, I made a firm decision to take control and turn my life around. Since everything started with my diet, and my dependency on junk food, the most logical step for me was to clean up my diet as much as I knew how. I decided that my first step would be to discontinue my consumption of meat. Along with my desire to live a cruelty free lifestyle I knew that meat was leading casue of heart disease and certain froms of cancer. When I stopped eating meat, which had previously accounted for at least 85% of my total diet, I naturally resorted to trying new fruits and vegetables.

I was eating much healthier and I started to look and feel dramatically better. My improved diet helped me reconnect with my nature and I developed a strong urge to learn and to improve myself. I quit smoking and drinking, and began studying, exercising, and meditating daily. The clearer my mind became, the more I felt like my diet was still very lacking. All of the dairy and soy based meat substitutes began to make me feel as heavy as my old diet. One day my wife (then my fiance) Christine had mentioned to me that a couple friends of ours ,who were vegans, had begun a diet of exclusively raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. I thought they were totally crazy until our friends shared some of their information and delicious raw treats with us.

Over the next few weeks we became increasingly interested in this idea and did some research of our own. I began to realize that it just made way too much sense to be overlooked and it turned out to be just what I was looking for. I began collecting books and recipes, and learning from other health pioneers who were promoting the raw food lifestyle. The more I learned about it, every aspect of my life seemed to fall into place. It wasn't long before my passion was fully ignited and I coudn't imagine eating any other way. I rapidly transitioned to a 100% raw vegan lifestyle and never looked back.

This new lifestyle absolutely transformed me. I began to feel better than I ever even imagined I could. I had so much vitality and clarity. I began to enjoy every single daily activity, no matter how simple or mundane. Every aspect of my being has been enhanced dramatically and I have the same boundless energy and intense love of nature that I enjoyed as a small child. All of my food and seasonal allergies have since disappeared and I have not experienced even a small cold.

My life is now devoted to studying optimal nutrition, and teaching others about the transformational healing powers of Live Food. I am always working on new ways to introduce delicious Live Food alternatives into any diet. I also enjoy developing new recipes that include a low fat content and a majority of locally grown produce. I love working with Live Food, and with people who are seeking greater health and well being for themselves and the planet.

I have now been raw for about 3 years.My diet is mostly fresh fruit and young tender greens. I also absolutly love cucumbers, celery, sweet peppers, and of course, durian! I am happily married to my beautiful wife Christine. We have 4 dogs and 3 cats. I own a raw food cafe in Frenchtown New Jersey called The Rainbow Garden. I love to teach, exercise, and play outside in the woods with my wife, my friends, and my dogs.

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