Karen Knowler * The Raw Food Coach

A Semi-Raw Semi-Rant!

This is Luke, my son, aged 5. This was him on Sunday at yet another children's birthday party; it must be our fifth in about a month, such is the social life of a child in school where the class totals 30 : )

I've been fighting the urge for ages, but enough really is enough when you watch a whole room of children diving into junk foods for the umpteenth time. I keep hoping it will get better as general "food awareness" increases, but alas I am not seeing much evidence of it!

Read on, if you are ready for a "real world" mini-rant!

Sportacus: We Love You!

On Friday I bit the bullet and bought a TV.

This was for two main reasons:

1) To watch DVDs

2) So Luke could watch his beloved DVDs (mostly Shrek, we are now on the 127th viewing), and WE could both watch Lazy Town!

If you don't have kids or spend time with them, then chances are you may not have heard of Sportacus and Lazy Town. Either way, you need to know he exists as he is the most amazing modern super-hero you'll ever meet and HE'S ON TV!

Sportacus jumps, leaps, runs, spins, does push ups and the splits in mid-air and generally moves faster and in the most amazingly strong and lean body I think I have ever seen! And what's more he seems to only eat fruit as far as I can see.

Created, written, directed and produced by Sportacus himself (real name Magnus Scheving, pictured, hailing from Iceland) the whole Lazy Town concept - from creation to delivery - is really something special.

And Magnus himself has got to be one of the most accomplished humans on the planet...

Not only has been a world-class athlete in his time, but he's also been an author, producer, gym owner, entrepreneur and so much more.

If you want to take a further look at all of this (as I really recommend you do, if only to see Sportacus in action - wow!) then go here. The philosophy itself is something to fall in love with, and as for Sportacus himself, wellllll.....!

The Take a Fruit Break Campaign: Sign it, Support it

From Storm of www.TheGardenDiet.com:

"Today I took the first big step in moving forward on a project that I hope can make a difference. Is the raw vegan diet a practical realistic diet that can totally benefit everyone? I don't know.

"Is it wrong to make junk food and put addictive additives in them and then run marketing campaigns on kids who just learned to speak only a year or two ago? This is absolutely wrong.

"Can one person do anything about it? I don't know. I would like to think that as individuals we have the power within us to make or bring about change.

"So what we have done is come up with the Take a Fruit Break Campaign. We have been working on this site on and off for over 6 years. And maybe when we first started the time was too soon. But I feel that the time is now right. We are going to just keep putting one foot in front of the other until we have Take a Fruit Break spots airing on TV in rotation around the country.

The Saladacco - Great for Spaghetti, Great for Kids

Recently I met Emily (left). Now, Emily is rather exceptional, not only as a person but also in her ability to find a way of melding passion with profit - which can only be a good thing. Amongst many other things, Emily has created the brilliant web site Cafe des Enfants which is all about feeding kids healthy food in the UK.

"Café des Enfants is for parents and children and its focus is on Kids Food: on eating in, eating out, staying out and going out with kids. Featuring articles, interviews, recipes and reviews, Café des Enfants seeks to change the way we think about Kids Food."

What follows is a copy of her most recent newsletter to her mailing list, which, as you will see brings raw food (for the very first time) to her audience. This features quick top tips for feeding kids raw, as well as my two Saladacco-utilising recipes. I thought this would be one you'd want to know about!