I just finished reading the Brendan Brazier’s third book Whole Food To Thrive . It “wowed” me! Everyone should be aware of the information in this book. At first I thought it was mostly a recipe book but it’s rich in nutritional, health and environmental facts. Brendan has a gift of writing simply. I can grasp what could be some complicated concepts. A few WOW facts: - According to Organic-World.net, only 0.8% of the world’s total crops are grown without genetic modification and organically. - 75% of our planet is covered in water out of that only about 0.08% is used for domestic use. - Stress affects more than 85% of North Americans It mentions in the book that Brendan is collecting information that will allow us to know food’s nutrient-to-resource ratio. This information would be put on labels so that consumers could make better choices. Awesome! Until then if you want to know more how your food choices affect your health and the environment get this book and share the valuable info.

For the past several summers, I have volunteered at a series of running races, The ENDURrun, which is attended by a variety of elite runners. During the course of the week, they run seven races over some very challenging terrain, covering a total distance of 160 kms. The greatest challenge of the week is feeding these runners in such a manner that they can recover quickly and run again the next day. Add to this task that at least several of the runners have dietary restrictions such as vegetarian/vegan, lactose intolerance etc. Author Brendan Brazier is himself a vegan who mostly relies on a raw food diet to supply his nutritional needs. He is recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities on plant based nutrition. I first heard about raw food cooking for a race participant last summer. While reading this book, I was fascinated to learn that in almost every incidence, raw vegetables are much easier to digest than cooked food (exception starchy potatoes and sweet potatoes). In the first chapter, Mr. Brazier clearly explains why eating nutrient dense foods, such as vegetables, are important to our overall health. It's not the number of calories we eat, but whether we are eating foods that are packed with the micro-nutrients that our bodies crave. For the past few weeks I have been discussing this book with my teenage son who is an amateur body builder. Food and protein is very important to him. I am a runner and fencer and have different energy demands. We are looking forward to trying a number of recipes that are directly aimed at the sports minded reader. Lemon-Lime Sports Drink - contains coconut water which is perfect for electrolyte replacement Sunflower Seed Hemp Milk - This was easy to make and tasted great. Ginger Pear Smoothie - daughter and I enjoyed sharing this. More ginger next time. Green Energy Bars - Looking forward to trying both these bars and hope they will replace the store bought bars that are usually less than appealing. Walnut Cranberry Energy Bars - As for the upcoming running races, I am planning on having ground flax seeds and hemp seeds on hand for inclusion in the post race smoothies. This book is jam packed full of nutritional information that is relevant even to non-vegetarians. To learn more about this approach to eating, check out Brendan earlier books The Thrive Diet and Thrive Fitness. You can also sign up for Brendan's free Thrive in 30 .