Roshi's Raw Lifestyle » recipes

corporate food: the dangers of GM

rishi — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:18:42 +0000

As I learn more and more about the food system in the United States, the more I become afraid of it. Doing research for a paper recently, I found out that about 70% of all packaged foods sold in America have at least some genetically engineered components. For those of you unfamiliar with GM (genetically modified) crops, they are crops that have been altered at the DNA level to have some “desirable” trait. These crops have been banned in several countries such as Japan, Norway, Germany, and Spain because of their dangerous qualities. In the 1980s, a supplement of L-tryptophan which was genetically engineered killed nearly 100 people in the United States, and caused 10,000 to fall sick. In India, the introduction of GM cotton has caused untold miseries for farmers who have suffered crop failures and are drowning in the debt involved with the cultivation of GM crops. Just last year, over 30,000 farmers committed suicide as a result of these debts. For Ro and I, the importance of this issue can not be stresesd enough.

The documentary below gives an amazing run down of the development of biotechnology in the last 50 years, and the dangers of the unregulated and immoral use of such technologies. I encourage all of you to watch the whole video and share it with as many people as you can.

sheetali pranayama

rishi — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:17:57 +0000

Sheetali pranayama is a breathing technique to reduce heat in the body. It is often referred to as the “Cooling Breath”. Using the cooling tendencies of the tongue, sheetali pranayama only allows cool, relaxed breaths to enter the body. These breaths have the effect of lowering the temperature of the body, as well as cooling the mind. People with disorders resulting from excess heat in the body/mind, such as high blood pressure, acidity, or ulcers will benefit greatly from the daily practice of this pranayama. Remember, since this technique is very cooling to the body, it is preferrable to practice it in warm weather compared to cold weather.

For further reading, check out these links:
http://yogashaastra.blogspot.com/2008/05/beat-heat-with-sheetali-sheetkari.html
http://www.healthandyoga.com/HTML/news/sheetali.html
http://living.oneindia.in/yoga-spirituality/yoga/sheetali-surya-bhedan-pranayama.html

–Rishi

happy new year

rishi — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:45:34 +0000

Happy New Year everyone!

Ro and I would like to thank all of you for your love and support. We’re both excited for the new year and look forward to bringing you all some great new recipes, videos, and info posts and also learning from all of you.

Wishing everyone well,
Rishi

banana homicide

rishi — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:57:50 +0000

Seems that lately the only fruits I’ve been able to buy have been bananas and strawberrys, so I’ve been trying to get creative with what I can do with these fruits. I wanted to try to make something similar to a crepe filling, since crepes used to be one of my favorite desserts. After I finished making it, one of my roommates commented that it looked like I stabbed the banana and it bled on the plate, hence the name. I made a couple of these for my friends and everyone said it was really good, so I hope you all enjoy it too.

Ingredients:

* 1 banana
* 10 strawberries
* 3 tbsp agave nectar
* 1 tbsp soy lecithin
* 1 tbsp cacao powder

Directions:

Toss the strawberries and 2 tbsp agave nectar into a food processor and let it run for a good 10-12 minutes. That should give it a nice smooth texture. Then add in the soy lecithin; it adds a bit of thickness, along with a nice flavor. That does it for the strawberry topping.

For the chocolate topping, just stir the cocoa powder and a tablespoon of agave nectar until its thick and smooth. You can add more agave or cacao depending on how sweet you like it.

To finish, simply lay the banana on a plate and drizzle the strawberry and chocolate over it. Garnish with some mint leaves and a few nuts of your choice. Real easy and real elegant. Just how I like it.

–Rishi