Forbidden fruit

Well what a bummer that was. I was at work yesterday eating a really awesome fruit salad that drew attention from all my coworkers. One of my coworkers asked what the goji berries were. I told her to look it up on wikipedia (we enjoy having regular wikipedia discovery moments).

Sucks to be me... well not so much; I wasn't head over heels for the taste of goji berries to begin with but I was eating them because of their high anti-oxidant content. By some weird fluke of nature, Goji berries are related to the TOMATO. They are in fact, part of the nightshade family. These plants are toxic but their fruits are not. That being said, the fruit have minutes amount of toxins that most people are able to process without any big problems. Those with psoriasis however, seem to react badly to these foods. Dr. Pagano theorizes that is because of the toxins in these foods:

Solanine is the most prevalent toxin in potatoes, and to a lesser degree solanine is also present in tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers, especially when the vegetables are green or not yet ripe. Other glycoalkaloid toxins found in the nightshade family include tomatine from tomatoes, and nicotine from tobacco. These natural poisons protect the plant from insects and other enemies.
This is also why cancer patients and those on macrobiotic diets are encouraged to remove tomatoes from their diets. I'm not sure if goji berries have any of these alkaloids, but consider the following (from Wikipedia):

Some Western resellers may state that their wolfberries are organically grown when in fact they are not. The Green Certificate claimed by some wolfberry marketers to be the equivalent of the United States Department of Agriculture's "USDA Organic" seal[19] is in actuality simply an agricultural training program for China's rural poor.[20] China's Green Food Standard,[21] administered by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture's China Green Food Development Center, does permit some amount of pesticide and herbicide use. Despite some claims that wolfberries sold in Europe, the United States, and Canada meet organic standards^{[citation needed]}, there is no public evidence for standardized organic certification of wolfberries from the Asian regions where they are commercially grown. Often, these berries are marketed as Tibetan or Himalayan Goji Berries that have been "wild crafted" or "wild harvested". On the contrary, however, Tibet's agriculture conventionally uses fertilizers and pesticides, and neither wolfberries ("goji") of Tibetan or Himalayan origin sold outside Tibet nor organic certification of such berries have been proved[25]. Since the early 21st century, the names "Himalayan Goji berry" and "Tibetan Goji berry" have become common in the global health food market [...] Although Lycium species do grow in some regions of Tibet, commercial export production of wolfberries in the Tibetan Himayalas must be a myth^[11] fabricated for a marketing advantage, as this mountain range bordering the Tibetan Plateau is a region inhospitable to commercial cultivation of plant foods of any kind. [...] The Tibetan Plateau, comprising most of Tibet north and east of the Himalayas, lies at more than 3000 m (10,000 ft) in altitude, with poor soil and arid climate conditions unfavorable for fruit crops. Defined by the geography of Tibet, particularly in the western Himalayas, cold nighttime temperatures averaging -4°C year round [32] with six months of continual frost[33] would inhibit plant bud development and prevent fruit formation. Wolfberries with a vibrant orange-red color may have been treated with sulfites.

So yea.... That's one more raw-foodist staple I'll be crossing off my list! :) I find it intersting how I started flaking A LOT right about the time when I introduced these into my diet. Hmm.

I went to the communicator's conference today. Very fun! I ran into my good friend Jill who is trying to convince me to go to Arizona with her to attend the Raw Spirit Festival. I'm thinking about it. The cost is daunting right now but we'll see. I'm going to keep practicing some prosperity affirmations :)

I had an hour and a half for lunch so I was able to bike to a raw/vegan restaurant where I had a really tasty raw salad. I was hoping to have a raw pizza but the crust has tomatoes in it :(

Today I had:

1L water+lemon
strawberries/blackberries/dried figs/pineapple/kiwi
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flax crackers
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Salad: Field greens, dandelion, fennel, celery, cauliflower (used to hate it, now I love it!), dill, parsley....barely any dressing.. I think only cold-pressed olive oil
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Trail mix (I made it myself; almonds, pistachios, cashews, raisins, dried figs, dried currants, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds)
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flax crackers
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Salad: Romaine, celery, cucumber, sun-dried black olives, parsley, dill + Sweet and garlic-y tahini dressing
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Did I mention how much I love salads? :)

I had the weirdest dream last night. You see, right after I finished posting yesterday's blog-post, I got a call from an old high school friend. We started talking about the upcoming HS reunion (which is supposed to happen this year) and I told her I was thinking of not going. I think that would be better at this point... I need to work on releasing the resentment, etc I feel for these people... I'm not ready to come face to face with them yet. This lead to us talking about the bullies. There is one girl in particular, let's call her Liz. She was REALLY mean to me and another friend. She was a big girl and she was also strong. She had a fist that would put a sledgehammer to shame I can't tell you how many times that sledgehammer came down onto my shoulder. She continuously made fun of me, vandalized my property, stole my things, beat me up, called me names, intimidated me, etc. One of my friends actually PRAYED for her to fail one year so we could be free of her torment. She got her wish... and things got better for both of us.

I went to bed and had a dream that I came face to face with Liz. She was in my apartment and was being really nice to me. She had done my laundry to try and help me out. Although she didn't say it, I could feel that she felt badly about the torment she put me through. During the dream, I realized her home life must not have been the best. People aren't born evil... they learn that behavior from somewhere. I could feel my resentment towards her lift... I realized that I could not hate her anymore because she was just a product of her environment... and, unbeknownst to be at the time, that environment must have been tough for her too.

I woke up with a sense of relief. It was as if the universe or my subconscious had helped me let go of that resentment. It was as if this dream was fabricated to help me FORGIVE. It was all a bit weird. :)

Well I think I've babbled enough for tonight. Sleep tight everyone!

- Ben