Apples can be beneficial to ones health; containing pectin and fiber that cleanse the colon, liver and gallbladder. The downside though is that many apples are hybridized or cross-pollinated and about as “natural” to their original state as a Chihuahua is to a wild wolfe. That’s right, most modern fruit is in a highly man-altered state, resulting in a fruit that is 60 times sweeter and larger than it would be if it were grown wildly. This means potentially toxic levels of fructose (fruit sugar) and the greater likelihood of it being grown with pesticides.

All that being said,  if you do love an apple every now and then the maximum fructose intake recommended would be about 1 apple per day (ideally a granny smith or wildly picked!)

On the other hand, we have raw cacao and while not all cacao is grown equally, it is certainly non-GMO and of it’s original species, either Forastero, Criollo, or Trinitario. Then of course we have the long list of medicinal benefits that cacao provides:

• Over 300 potent antioxidant qualties
• Protein, calcium, carotene, thiamin, riboflavin, magnesium, sulfur, flavonoids, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids
• Lowers LDL cholesterol
• Improves heart function
• Reduces risk of cancer
• Rich in phenethylamine (PEA), which is a natural pain and stress relieving chemicals that stimulates the secretion of endorphins to help us stay alert and focused
• Rich in anandamide, which produces uniquely euphoric feelings of relaxation and contentment.

With all the reasons to consume cacao and among the many ways to consume cacao, chocolate pie is easy, fun and uniquely delicious. But don’t believe me, try it for your self!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 cups raw thai coconut meat
• 2 cups raw almonds *soaked
• 6 tbsp. extra virgin coconut oil
• 1 1/2 cup raw cacao
• 1 cup birch xylitol
• 2 tbsp. brain octane
• 1 tbsp. vanillamax

Here’s how you make it:

1. First make your crust – in a food processor, grind soaked and dried almonds with 2 tbsp. of coconut oil and 1/2 tbsp. vanillamax
2. Press your crust into a pie dish and refrigerate.
3. Now for your filling – remove the meat from two young thai coconuts and scrap away and skin.
4. In a high-speed blender, blend your coconut meat with the 1 cup cacao powder, 4 tbsp. coconut oil, 2 tbsp. brain octane, and the rest of the vanillamax until smooth.
5. Remove pie crust and with a rubber spatula spread your filling into the crust.
6. Refrigerate overnight and enjoy the next day!

What’s so nice about fermented cheese is that they make the nuts and seeds or whatever base ingredients very easy to digest. Typically, nuts and seeds are hard to digest and are better on the digestive system when soaked and fermented. This means not only easier digestion but also the increased bioavailability of nutrients in the nuts and seeds.

Making cheese does take time but it’s actually very simple to do.

PART 1: Culturing The Cheese

There are two steps to this cheese making process; first we prepare and culture the nut pate and secondly we age it.

To begin, here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 cup of unpasteurized almonds
• 1 cup of raw pumpkin seeds
• 1 starter culture
• 1 tbsp. coconut yogurt
• 1 tbsp. real salt
• 1 tbsp. reasoning of choice (rosemary, thyme, basil)

Here;s how you make it:

1. Begin by soaking your nuts & seeds for 6-8 hours.
2. Afterwards, give them a nice rinse.
3. Next, you have options. I would recommend blending them with 2 cups of water, straining through a nut mylk bag and viola, you have fresh nut milk. You can then use the pulp to make your cheese! You can also just blend the soaked nuts.
4. If you go the first route, you’ll want to add a little bit of liquid back to the pulp or what I do is add one big tbsp. of coconut yogurt to the pulp. This serves as a starter culture and will add creaminess.
5. If you go the second route – simply blend the nuts with a starter culture with sea salt.
6. Transfer this mixture to your nut mylk bag or cheese cloth and wrap tightly.
7. You can put in your dehydrator on low for 24hrs, or you can let it sit on your counter for 36 hours. This is the initial culturing phase.

PART 2: Aging & Flavoring The Cheese

After you’ve completed part 1 and your cheese has cultured (you’ll know because will be dry on the outside and soft on the inside with a yeasty smell) your next step is to age it with some flavor.

1. Take your cultured cheese and place it into a glass bowl.
2. Add your choice of spices. I like to add this blend of 24 spices for a savory cheese.
3. Mix the spices into the cheese until fully incorporated.
4. Scoop the mixture onto parchment paper.
5. Roll it into a log shape.
6. Store in the fridge for 4-6 days. This will age the cheese, making it more potent in probiotic bacteria and flavor.
7. Serve on top of my savory sprouted sunflower seed crackers, sourdough bread or dip with veggie sticks.

For more delicious probiotic food recipes like this and over 130 other whole food recipes be sure to check out my new cookbook The Gourmet Foodie!

Why am I doing this? Well, fasting is incredible healing and has the ability to completely reset and regenerate the body. However, it being summer time, I am eager to be outdoors and moving around.

Because I want to stay active — what would probably be too active for regular fasting — I want to get in some incredibly easy-to-digest nutrition. Because I am going to be moving about and active my body is going to need protein and inflammatory fats to aid recovery.

This inspired the thought of what an athletes fast would look like, then I created this! Thought it seems my diet couldn’t be any more dialed in, the one thing I haven’t done in a while is an extended fast or detoxification. I haven’t felt compelled too, which is likely do to my already clean diet.

Anyway, this post is more about this recipe I just created! I’ll spare you some of the details so I can talk to you more about the benefits of fasting, how to know if you should do one and why I’m drinking not eating solid food and nothing but water and buttery lattés all day,

The Miracle of Fasting

Fasting is one of the most ancient forms of healing. It’s practiced all around the world and even in nature. When an animal gets sick it simply finds a quite dark place to just be; no food, no exercise, no work, just pure relaxation.

Some say that fasting can cure anything. Even science can attest to the miracle of fasting. When fasting, the body goes into homeostasis or self-repair. The body releases incredible amounts of HGH and self-healing enzymes. In simple terms, fasting gets us out of the way of ourselves.

It is more often than not, that our illnesses come from our own bad habits. When we the time to fast, one of the most beneficial aspects of it, is that we finally stop doing what’s making us unwell. Which is usually, overworking, overeating, eating the wrong things, thinking too much and not just being present enough.

This is the idea of detoxification. Though the body already does an incredible job of detoxifying, our bad habits tend to give us more than it can handle. When we fast the body finally gets a chance to catch up. All those toxins from poor food choices, negative thinking and other forms of stress finally have the opportunity to leave the body.

Without fasting in some form, the body doesn’t get a chance to deep cleanse. In this modern world of excess and the “more is better” mentality, it could not be needed more.

During a fast, disease, tumors, cancers, parasites, and all that nasty stuff is competing for nutrition with our organs and the body makes sure the organs win. Though it is always trying to do this, we often vote in favor of disease with our harmful choices.

Fasting is one of the only proven methods for reversing the aging process. Above all else, it is proper calorie restriction that preserves the body. That’s because the body is a manifestation of energy. Because we are always expending energy (often more than we have) we need to be careful as to how we choose to use our finite energy.

Health is a balance of making the most optimal choice of bringing in energy without expending too much. This is the balance of life; making a choice that is more helpful than harmful.

Here’s the challenge, every single choice in life has a harmful or negative aspect. Even when we eat, we kill. That’s because we are all dying. Some try to stay ignorant to this truth, but death cannot be escaped.

When we eat, digestion is using incredible amounts of our energy. At the same time, we need calories and nutrition for energy and nutrition. Therefore, the long term goal is to making choices nutritionally that give us more true energy than it takes away. Food should energize you authentically and lift your spirits. You should never feel tired after eating.

During a fast, you step into this realization. You start to notice how much lighter you are. In the first 24 hours of fasting, there is no loss of protein or muscle. However, there comes a point where you start to feel natural hunger (not appetite). Then when you eat again, your new found heightened sense tell you what clearly gives you energy and at what point you hit diminishing returns.

Overall, fasting improves the mind/body connection to make long term beenfical choices. In the short term, fasting can:

• Cleanse fat deposits around the organs and glands, where toxins are stored.
• Aid the body in ridding toxins and the production of new clean cells.
• Resets the hormonal system.
• Improve mental clarity.
• Balance the body.

Essentially, fasting is great for just about anything.

Who shouldn’t fast?

For the most part, fasting is going to be healing for anyone. However, that being said, individuals with adrenal fatigue, server disease or hormonal imbalances may feel incredibly worse when fasting.

This is because their body isn’t functioning well on it’s own and is greatly dependant on the energy from outside sources. The body is too deplleted of it’s own energy to survive off of it.

These individuals would want to first build up energy before fasting. Once the adrenals and thyroid are functioning well, the person would feel much more stable when experimenting with fasting and actually be able to reap the many benefits of a fast.

How to fast?

Fasting is about as simple as it gets, just stop eating and drinking — aside from pure, living water. Depending on how toxic you are, your experience may be different.

Try it for at least one day, where you drink nothing but water or green vegetable juices, herbal teas or homemade broths. Water fasting is going to be the most intense form of cleansing and should be done only by people who know what they are doing.

Depending on your condition you could try these various forms of fasting:

• Intermittent fasting. slowly test the waters of fasting by spacing out your last meal of the day and your first meal of the next day. An example would be to stop eating at 6 pm, then do not eat again until around noon-2pm the next day. During that period only drink liquid (no protein in the liquid). Ideally, you would drink only water. You could do warm lemon water, herbal teas or if you need something more substantial try this Chamomile latté at the bottom of the post.
• Bulletproof fasting. This is were you would fast on a liquid with more nutrition than plain water, yet is still giving the digestive system a break. Instead of meals, have a fat-added tonic/tea. This could again, be a bulletproof coffee (though for the benefits of a fast I would do decaf or an herbal substitute like this one.) Adding nutrient-dense fats to your liquids will help your hormonal system reset while giving the digestive system a break. Also, it is said that it takes 10 lbs. of healthy fat to regenerate a new liver in two months. This would be a great idea for anyone who doesn’t feel energetically up to a water fast and looking to regenerate or simply experience the lightness associated with fasting. This is what I do most of the time, I start my morning with my adrenal tonic, then a Bulletproof coffee or Tea Latté then have my first and only solid meal around 3-4. Then end the day with only water or tea. My energy is ridiculous.
• Broth fasts. These are great for anyone with Candida or other expansive imbalances like bacterial imbalances or viral infections. Also, anyone with love adrenal or thyroid. Green juice can be way too cooling for the body and further exaggerate Candida or adrenal/thyroid imbalances. Broths on the other hand made from grass-fed bones, organic vegetables and seaweed will provide the body with tons of essential minerals for the body to heal. They are also more warming and balancing for anyone who is overly expansive.
• Juice fast. If you want to juice fast only do it for 3 days max. Othrwise, you will imbalance the body. Also, only use green juice as root vegetales and fruit in juices are way too sweet to keep the body in balance. Better than juice fasting alone would be to have one or two green juices then add a green smoothie. In general, smoothies are superior to juices anyway. Here’s a blog post I wrote on the difference between juicing and blending. PErsonally, I would recommend sticking to having a juice for breakfast to get the benefits.
• Water fasting. Not for the faint at heart, water fasting is intense and one ironically has to be in good shape to handle this. In general, build up energy as much as you can first before trying this. And make sure you are able to spend most of your time totally resting. A good way to water fast would be to do it once a week on a day when you have no obligations whatsoever. Be well rested and slept as well. Spend the day lounging, taking baths, out in the sun napping or in a sauna. Though water fasting can be incredibly healing and perhaps the most healing, it should be done with enthusiasm.

As a general rule of thumb to fasting, do not fast unless you are completely comfortable with the idea. Listen to your intuition.

So, this recipe…

I designed this and a few others out of the curiosity to fast but without losing too much size. The idea that was born was to spend a good two weeks only doing liquid. Instead of just water alone, I wanted to add the medicinal benefits of tea, healthy fats and easy to digest protein — all in liquid form.

This I created a sort of Bulletproof fast. This chamomile latté came to me in the evening when I was hungry but did not want anything stimulating, but rather relaxing. So I thought, chamomile!

Why Chamomile?

• Relieves allergies, as much as any antihistamine.
• Aids in digestion, especially when taken as a tea after meals.
• Speeds healing of skin ulcers, wounds, or burns.
• Treats gastritis and ulcerative colitis.
• Reduces inflammation and facilitate bowel movement naturally. Non-laxative.
• Treats skin issues, including inflammations of mucous tissue.
• Promotes relaxation and relieves stress.
• Heals insomnia. Chamomile’s mildly sedating and muscle-relaxing effects may help those who suffer from insomnia to fall asleep more easily.
• Treats diverticular disease, irritable bowel problems and various gastrointestinal complaints. Chamomile is known as an anti-inflammatory and it’s antispasmodic properties relax the muscles lining the stomach and intestine. Therefore, it may be able to help to relieve stress-related digestive issues.
• Soothes skin rashes (including eczema), minor burns and sunburn. It may also speed healing and prevent bacterial infection.
• Treats eye inflammation and infection.
• Heal mouth sores and prevent gum disease. A chamomile mouthwash may help soothe mouth inflammations and keep gums healthy.
• Reduces menstrual cramping. Chamomile’s ability to relax the muscles can also relax the muscles of the uterus to ease cramping.

To say the least, this flower is rather powerful as a food and medicine. Not to mention it has a naturally sweet taste. If anything, I thought it would make a delicious tonic. If even just one of these bullet’s were completely true that would just be icing on the cake!

When your fasting, the most difficult aspect is to be without the pleasuring experience that eating can offer. So often we eat out of boredom and it’s because food can be a very pleasant and healing experience.

Though for me, the point of fasting was not only to get clearer physically, but to direct that new energy toward other areas of life; music, writing, relationships and my overall creative endeavors.

So far it’s been working great! Ever since I first started to really simplify my diet years ago, I have had much more creative power. It even reflects in my recipes! When I do eat, I create food with just as much creativity as I would anything else. This for me, is a good sign that the energy I have cultivated with a liquid diet is used wisely in every area of my life!

Anyway, I am ranting a bit on this blog. Let’s just get to the recipe!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 cup of spring water
• 2 tablespoons dried Chamomile flowers
• 1 scoop grass-fed undenatured whey
• 1 tablespoon ghee or coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon BrainOctane oil
• 1 tablespoon grassfed collagen
• 1 tsp of Vanillamax
• 1 tsp Bupleurum & Dragon Bone
• A dash of cinnamon
• Stevia to sweeten

Here’s how you make it:

1. Bring water to a boil
2. Add flowers to a steeping device then place in water. I use one of these sweet things!
3. Let steep for about 10 minutes. Floral teas usually take a bit longer to steep I’ve noticed.
4. Remove tea from water, then strain again through nylon strainer (Chamomile can leave behind little tiny flower pieces if no run through a fine strainer).
5. Add tea to Blendtec with the rest of the ingredients then blend at warped speed until frothy and smooth.

What you’ll have is a creamy, frothy vanilla latté like none other. The ingredients will promote relaxation, stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system, a sense of calm and best of all it’s so delicious!