ABOUT LIVE FOOD CUISINE:

The live-food dietary approach promoted by the Culture of Life and prepared at the Tree of Life Cafe is a sattvic/kedusha, vegan, organic, live-food, high-mineralized, low-sugar, individualized diet, eaten in moderation, with adequate pure living water hydration, and intermittent Spiritual Fasting.  Now that's a mouthful!  Want to know more? 

A sattvic/kedusha diet is a holy diet.  Sattva is a Sanskrit word for calm, peaceful, and steady.  Kedusha is a Hebrew word for holiness.  Holy food is prepared with love and consumed mindfully.  The chef prays or chants or is silent while making the meal. The food is blessed before being served.  The enjoyer of the meal does so with gratitude, humility, and proper chewing.  This mental attention to the meal imbues it with Divine energy, and ensures that it will be used to draw the one eating it toward God.   

Vegan nutrition is plant-source only.  It is the diet prescribed to man in Genesis 1:29, "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food."  Vegan food is essentially fruit, leaves, and nuts and seeds.  Vegan food is not meat, dairy, eggs, or any animal products. 

Organic food is grown without herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, synthetic fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms.  Organic food is grown naturally using natural fertilizers such as compost.  Organic farms utilize beneficial insects and birds to control pests and disease.  Organic farms rotate crops, till, hand weed, or mulch to manage weeds.   

Live-food is literally ALIVE.  Live-food has never been heated over 105 degrees.  That means all the enzymes, vitamins, and minerals are completely in tact and ready to be used by the body.  Live-food are bio-genic and bio-active foods.  Biogenic foods are raw or sprouted seeds, nuts, grains, and grasses, and are the most potent life-force foods.  Bioactive foods are vegetables, fruits, mature seeds, nuts, grains, beans, legumes, sea vegetables, and algaes.   

A highly mineralized diet is a diet containing ample quantities of high quality minerals.  Foods like wheatgrass, grown in diluted sea water solution, contain all known minerals necessary for sustaining life.  Sea vegetables contain many trace minerals that aid in basic biological functions.  The body is made of minerals, so it is important to consume enough mineral-rich food to build a healthy body.   

The Tree of Life promotes a low-glycemic diet.  Research has shown that a diet low in sugar promotes clean, healthy blood. According to Dr. Dan Engle, the Tree of Life's resident physician, "A low sugar diet is the basis for healing diets and protocols.  It assists in lessening inflammation and offers the body the opportunity to maximize the effectiveness of the immune system, rebalance and strengthen the hormonal system, and quiet the mind.” 

An individualized diet is the diet that works for you.  Within the context of a low-glycemic, live-food, vegan diet, it is important to consider your dosha (genetic predisposition), rate of oxidation, and level of activity.  We are all unique, and we each must eat to support our special needs. 

Moderate eating means under-eating.  Research has shown that a degree of caloric restriction adds years to one's life.  Being mindful what we need to eat verses what we want to eat out of habit or attachment, promotes abundant energy and robust health, as well as peaceful emotions, and a quiet mind. 

Adequate hydration with pure living water is vital for health.  Pure spring water is ideal, but distilled water, vitalized and re-activated with ionic minerals, prayers, and starlight is great if a clean spring is too far away.  Sufficient water cleanses the body, supports the kidneys, and provides substance for intra- and extra-cellular fluids.   

Finally, for optimal physical and spiritual health, Gabriel recommends regular Spiritual Fasting.  Fasting for a week to ten days, at the change of each season purifies the body, mind, and spirit.  It can be a powerful catalyst for reversing aging, clarifying intentions, and communing with the Divine.