My Raw Journey

They say everything happens for a reason. That each experience in our lives, whether good or bad, easy or difficult, happy or sad is meant to be... like it’s part of some master plan to guide you down your chosen path. Every now and then we have these moments of synchronicity that help us to realize the reason behind those experiences and help us see a little further down the path. Today was one of those moments for me.

As you know, Terra and I began a raw journey together 25 days ago, and many of you may be wondering how we are doing. That journey for me began as a cleanse. A desire to rid my body of some toxins that I knew had been plaguing it. However, after the initial juice fast my path took somewhat of a detour. Well not so much of a detour as a change in destination. My desire to continue the ‘cleanse’ became less about cleansing and more about a movement towards a raw lifestyle. While I didn’t exactly follow the cleanse protocols of juicing and blending everyday, I have maintained a 100% raw diet over the last 25 days, with the exception of two nights out with friends. We have 3 days left of the initial 28 day goal, but I don’t intend to end my journey there. I have been enjoying eating raw and learning how to “cook” raw and pulling myself out of my comfort zone. While, I don’t know exactly how far I will take this journey, for now my goal is to maintain a mostly raw diet and see how it goes.

I have been a vegan for about 6 or 7 years now and not once had I attempted to ‘go raw’. In fact, I probably have been heard to say on more than one occasion “I could never be a raw vegan”. So why now? Why was I all of a sudden enlightened to the fact that a raw diet isn’t as scary and intimidating as previously thought? Why do I now feel compelled and empowered to at least attempt a mostly raw lifestyle? I personally think it was the above mentioned synchronicity. It needed to happen simultaneously with other events in my life to help lead me down my path. I won’t get into it now, cause I tend to be a little superstitious, but I am hoping that those events are going to unfold in the coming weeks and if they do, this could be huge for me. Life-altering huge. So everyone send out all kinds of positive energy for me and I will keep you posted on my progress.

So all that being said, I will continue to post my raw preparation experiments and hopefully successes. Since my success with raw brazil nut milk I have somewhat successfully attempted raw ‘pasta’ marinara, raw pesto (which was amazing and because it was the most successful I am including the super duper, easy recipe in this post), raw cheesecake and raw hemp milk. And of course a myriad of yummy salads.
I will work on perfecting these and others and will continue to share them with you.

The following pesto recipe can be used with the pasta marinara, on top of salads, as spreads on both raw and non-raw sandwiches, on slices of raw tomatoes or any other ideas you come up with. And I hope if you come up with any you will share them with us!

Raw Pesto:

4 cups of fresh basil
1/4 cup cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup of pine nuts or walnuts (I used both)
2-4 cloves of garlic (I used 4, but you can use less if you aren’t big on garlic)
3 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 Teaspoon of unrefined sea salt
Black pepper to taste.




Combine all ingredients in a food processor until desired consistency. (A few pulses should do the trick). This should keep in the fridge in a sealed glass container for a few days, or you can freeze individual portions in ice trays, and then pop out and thaw when needed.

That’s it! So easy, and trust me, so delicious!

Keep it Fresh and Raw!
-Jill

Samaritan Ministries ordered to stop offering unauthorized insurance in Washington state

This post has been updated. See below.

Washington state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler on Friday ordered a health-care sharing ministry to stop offering unauthorized insurance in Washington.

Illinois-based Samaritan Ministries International, a nonprofit corporation, maintains that its member “need-sharing” program is not insurance. Under Washington state law, however, the program is considered insurance.

Insurers doing business in Washington must register with the state, submit their policies and rates for review, and meet state financial solvency requirements. Samaritan Ministries hasn’t done any of those things.

Kreidler on Friday issued a cease-and-desist order telling Samaritan to stop engaging in the unauthorized business of insurance in Washington state, which includes organizing the transfer of money between members.

“Our insurance laws exist to protect consumers and make sure that insurers live up to their promises,” said Kreidler. “Members of groups like this don’t have those protections.”

Samaritan Ministries members agree to pay monthly shares of $135 to $320 to other members who have medical costs, plus a $170-a-year administrative fee. A separate program is available to cover auto-accident injuries.

Members submit medical claims, and the group directs members to send their money to members with medical bills. The group says it has a total of 15,500 members in all 50 states, with shares totaling about $3.5 million per month.

The cease and desist order includes Samaritan Ministries International, its Christian Health Care Newsletter and 20 individuals.
Samaritan Ministries has the right to demand a hearing. The order takes effect immediately.

Update (5/31/2011) The order has been rescinded. On May 11, 2011, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed Senate Bill 5122 into law, excluding health sharing ministries such as Samaritan from regulation under the Washington state insurance code.

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April fools!

Organizational Culture: The Cost-Effective Solution for Hospital Success

        The hospital chosen for a patient with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) could be a life or death decision. Mortality rates for AMI patients are not the same in all hospitals, and until recently, the reason why these differences occurred was unknown. A new published in the March issue of Annals of Internal Medicine from the Yale Global Health Leadership Institute addresses the discrepancies between why some heart patients see better results at certain hospitals. Entitled, “What distinguishes top performing hospitals in AMI mortality rates,” lead author GHLI research scientist Leslie Curry and colleagues investigated ‘what works’ inside a hospital to achieve better mortality outcomes for patients with heart attacks.

The study used qualitative data from 11 hospitals by utilizing site visits and interviews with 158 key hospital staff. The study discovered organizational values and goals differentiated high performing hospitals from low performing hospitals, along with senior management involvement, communication and coordination and problem solving and learning.

Elizabeth Bradley, GHLI’s faculty director and senior author on the paper, explains why these findings are important to the medical and health community. “Our research shows that the key facets to safety and quality in hospitals may not be new gadgets. The essential ingredients are not expensive. If we could implement our findings in more hospitals, we could improve quality without adding to costs.” Curry adds, “We found that it is important to pay attention to the relational aspects of work. It was not just what the hospitals were doing but how they were doing it.”

This study helps support GHLI’s ongoing efforts to strengthen health care systems and ensure health equity and quality for all through evidence-based research, as stated in their mission.

To read more about this study, please visit our website at yale.edu/ghli or read about it in the Wall Street Journal Blog.

Amanda Sorrentino, GHLI Intern