Raw vegan diet for beauty – Hidden Garden workshops
Hidden Garden is a hidden accommodation in Puerto Viejo town in Costa Rica. Not only is Puerto Viejo area one of my favorite destinations, but Costa Rica is overall the second dearest country to my heart, just after Mexico. Once you are in Central America, it is easy to get around mostly by buses or boats. The same thing can be said about Puerto Viejo as to get there you can take a bus.
When I was staying at Hidden Garden in Puerto Viejo for 2 weeks, I participated at Hidden Garden workshops each time I could. One of them was about why and how to follow raw vegan diet for beauty. Hillary Damato told us basics about raw food and prepared some delicious meals for us to prove.
I am trying to be as much raw vegan as I can so this workshop was the right one for me. Even though I knew most of the information already, it is always good to recap and learn new details.
We all eat raw vegan food, just don’t think about it that much until someone says he/she is on raw vegan diet.
When you on raw vegan diet, it connects you to something different, something bigger, the ultimate source, you get awaken …
Everything that was kept inside of your body for a long time will get out with raw food and yoga …
Hillary mostly pointed out some raw plants and their beauty benefits on skin and the rest of the body.
11 best raw vegan tips for beauty:
1. Nettle juice
Juice out of nettles is high in minerals so it gives you a lot of iron and large amount of chlorophyl. It helps to take away any body ordour and it used to be used in hospitals years ago. Chlorophyl gives us natural protection from the Sun. Chlorophyl has a lot of energy as well.
Be careful when touching the nettles as they have spikes. So breathe first, respect it, and touch it with bare hands, or with gloves if you need them.
Nettles mixed with coconut water (palm tree = tree of life) can be used for blood transfusion, it matches out blood plasma.
55% of pipa coconut water + 45% of chlorophyl = totally matches our blood.
2. Coconut water
Pipa in Costa Rica, is the closest thing to breast milk too. Even the very young coconut flush contains a lot of minerals, such as potassium. It’s only missing sodium so you can add Himalayan salt to get a full mineral drink. We need minerals to import it all into our blood.
Young coconuts are more medicinal. The very young ones are very soft so are the best for pipa fast.
3. Aloe vera
Aloe vera plant was Cleopatra’s beauty secret. It is used for wounds and burnts to heal them up. I used to travel with aloe vera gel to heal all my bruises and scratches as I was a super clumsy person. Without aloe vera I would have a lot of scars which are not visible at all on my skin now.
For a 10 min face lift, just put aloe vera on your skin, to protect it when sunbathing and after sunbathing too. Aloe vera is great to add into smoothies as it helps the digestive system.
We mixed it with coconut, nettles and lemon juice to drink. You can also add aloe into salad dressings or just eat it.
Aloe vera plant with rain water make natural MSM which is good to cure arthritis, and it definitely makes your skin clearer and firmer.
In Costa Rica they do have abundance of aloe vera.
4. Lemon
If you have sensitive skin, you can mix it with honey to put on your skin.
5. Cucumber
6. Moringa
Moringa is one of the most nutritious plants. It is full of vitamin C and A, and iron. Moringa seeds purify water. It grows very well in Puerto Viejo area. Moringa is very similar to katuk plant we had in the backyard at Hidden Garden and I used to add it into greensmoothies.
If you would like to plant moringa, the best is to plant it in an old coconut shell.
7. Papaya
Oh, papaya! I cannot get enough of ripe papaya in Costa Rica! It is not only full enzymes, but the inner part of the peel cleanse your skin. A lot of papaya eating gets you a radiant flow. Half ripe papaya has more enzymes than a fully ripe one. It also helps when doing parasite cleanse (also pumpkin seeds and other bitter food as they all kill the parasites.)
You can dehydrate the papaya seeds and use them instead of pepper spice as they taste very similar.
I even heard women can eat some papaya seeds (e.g. add them into smoothies) in order not to get pregnant. New or old way of contraception? :)
And did you know that in 9 months you can get a fruiting tree of papaya?
8. Cacao
Cacao is yet another super healthy ingredient and one of my favorite ones (who would guess so?) Hilary believes it is going to be back like gold as it is so important! People want the right chocolate and there is a lot of it in Costa Rica. We definitely want non-GMO cacao which contains magnesium and a sort of love chemical (something like a feromon which makes us fall in love, we are in our little bliss bubble after eating raw cacao.)
There’s vitamin C in raw cacao only, not in the roasted one any more.
*BUT eating milk chocolate is like morphium, makes you dependent on it as milk in it contains casein which has similar effects to morphium.
(Check our my Caribeans chocolate Puerto Viejo farm tour and tasting. Yummy!)
9. Beets
Beets clean the blood and give your skin the glow. Beetroot contains precursor to iron, so it is great for pregnant women and those on period; also contain vitamin A a C, boosts collagen, prevents against sunburn, anti-inflammatory …
Hillary made us a salty dip to eat with carrots (pictured below) – made of brazil nuts, cashews, beets (she put just this) or you can also add coconut oil, garlic and parsley.
10. Turmeric
Turmeric roots grow very well in Costa Rica while in the US they are expensive. I was jumping like a baby the first time I saw a bowl full of turmeric roots when I came to Hidden Garden because I use turmeric powder in all the salads back home in Slovakia.
It helps the cells to repair, it’s anti-inflammatory and anti-septic, great for anything inflamed, to cure deep wounds and to increase flexibility.
If you continuously scratch turmeric root over the place where you have a lot of hair, it will stop growing.
Turmeric mixed with honey, tea tree and cinnamon speeds up the healing skin process.
Make your own beauty lotion – cut up turmeric root, leave it for 2 weeks in sesame oil (or coconut oil), strain out, and apply it to your skin … It takes the irritation after waxing.
Then Hilary showed us how to make a traditional Indonesia/India drink. Just blend water, coconut/sesame milk or nuts – (she put a handful of cashews), then add also raw honey, turmeric, vanilla beans and cinnamon. The best time to drink it is after yoga or other exercise, or before going to sleep.
11. Neem oil
Neem oil can be found in many beauty products. It is used for birth control in India (eaten or in pills.)
Because it is anti-viral and anti-bacterial, it is good for cuts, take the pain away like aspirin, good in toothpaste (for example neem, coconut oil, charcoal and tea tree mixed together.)
You stink if you put neem oil on your skin but it makes your skin cool and nice.
Hilary’s best natural wonders are: neem, lavender, apple cider vinegar, tea tree, coconut oil, hydrogen peroxide (for swimmer ears, it dries up the ears, to treat earache just put a few drops in the ear, then take them out.)
Raw vegan cake
I honestly liked everything that Hillary let us taste but the best for served as the last. She made us a raw vegan cake!
First, nuts had to be soaked with salt to activate them so the fatty acids could get out of them, and they became easier to digest.
Cake crust: soaked seeds and nuts (4 hours sunflower seeds, 2 h brasil nuts, 2 h walnuts, 2,5h cashews, 8 – 10 h almonds), then add cacao powder, shredded coconut, organic raisins/dates/figs), organic raw honey if you feel like. So we don’t add coconut oil into the cake as all the seeds and nuts have their own oils in them.
Topping: blend tahini, coconut oil, cacao butter (or cashews instead), maca, mesquite powder, Himalayan salt, a bit of water, vanilla beans.
We first put the crust, then the topping and let the cake froze a little bit in the fridge so it was easier to cut. THE best thing ever! Finger-licking!
More about some of raw vegan cake ingredients:
- Vanilla beans are considered an aphrodisiac. They grow in Puerto Viejo area, too.
- Mesquite has low glycemic index (great for diabetis), tons of minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc and amino acid lysine. It grows in Arizona, it’s like maple natural liquid and is gluten-free.
- Tahini is made of sesame seeds.
- Maca is a root veggie from Peru which balances our hormones, good for menstruation and other female hormone problems.
- Raw honey is thick, not like a liquid and has low glycemic index.
Other things I learned at the workshop about raw vegan diet:
- 7 big companies in the world control everything, drug stores and food stores, drinks and processed foodsorganic and wild greens are very healthy
- salads should be the main meal and then have everything around it, not the opposite way how it is nowadays
- you need to chew leafy greens properly or to juice them to help the digestion
- B12 in the rain water is still there, not much in the soil too.
- mugwort plant is used for a good sleep, cramps and period
- you can make a great carrot cake out of carrot pulp, flax seeds, sunflower, dry coconut, honey, cinnamon and nutmeg
- restorative drink to take in the morning or after sunbathing – we blend coconut water, squeezed juice of 4 nettle leaves, 1 cucumber, aloe vera, 2 lemons
- we have a certain amount of enzymes while children have a lot of them. The adults lose them after eating cooked meals, so we need to awaken the taste buds again with raw vegan meals
- aloe vera, cacao butter, coconut oil, sunbathing and apple cider vinegar heal fungus and molds on skin
- apple seeds and apricot seeds both have B17 vitamin
- cacao butter, coconut oil and aloe vera are great for sun protection
- when we eat cooked meals, all the bad things come out of the food, so at least 51% of raw food is better to eat along.
- bread, pasta and rice get stuck in our body
- in cereal bars they sell in stores they use beaver parts that taste like raspberry or vanilla!!!
- durian has the highest protein out of all the fruits
- women on raw vegan diet have less time in labour and a lot less pain as they have less toxins in the body. Hilary had 4 babies, the first 2 were difficult, then she became more raw vegan and it made it easier using a lot of herbs and favorite plants
- cacao and turmeric get you flexible
- we should eat instinctively like animals and eat from the garden
- coconuts are great for boobs, carrots for eyes, noni for tumors, walnuts for brain and bets for blood (or the color or the shape, or both, tell us what part of body they are good for
- beets can be used in lipstick or like eyeshadows, cacao powder like brown cheek powder, spirulina like green eyeshadows
- sometimes animal cheese can make you emotional, probably from all the emotions that the animals had before while alive
- you can make thick vegan cheese blending cashews, lemon juice, turmeric, salt and black pepper
- banana vinegar is good for salad dressings (its use is similar to apple cider vinegar)
- bark of cacao tree can be used to brush your skin when cleansing or detoxifying
- lemon takes the oils out
- lemon and honey moisturize skin; also papaya, aloe vera and cucumber
- coconut oil is 1 of the best oils, and it can be heated well
- sterility in a bottle – other vegetable oils in restaurants mostly (vs. Puerto Pirata uses only coconut organic things)
- mustard greens contain sulphur
- radishes are super purifying, and remove the dampness; good for pregnant women
Getting back to basics gets us back to nature.
Adding a lot of raw vegan meals is like art … you can play with it :)
If you are interested in this topic, also check out Hidden Garden workshop about Costa Rican medicinal plants I wrote.
For more information, visit Hidden Garden website. Many thanks to Hilary for teaching us so much about raw vegan diet for beauty!
Vicky
| #
Well, I already tried this on me last summer but it didn’t work.
In just three weeks, I have lost almost 20 lbs.
I have a very fast metabolism and it seems that for me is not so healthy to try this.
Now I’m back to my normal weight and I want to try a combination of my current diet plan with some vegan elements.
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
| #
Did you just try going raw vegan for 3 weeks only? If so, then what you say that it did not work is you had detox. What you ate for years cannot leave your body in just 3 weeks. After a while it all changes ;)