Guest Blog Post

Happy Friday! Thought I'd let someone else take the reins today and share with you an interesting topic.

How Raw Diets Can Make a Difference

Transitioning to a raw food diet is often thought of as only a personal choice, as a journey that one individually decides to embark on for whatever reason, whether it be ethical or health-related or some other reason entirely. But the Examiner in Sacramento suggests an interesting idea involving raw food diets that could potentially make a difference in the greater community. The social problem that the Examiner discusses is the city's increased problems with homelessness among seniors.

The article reports that Sacramento has seen a sharp rise in the elderly being displaced, resulting from what many speculate the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. The article goes on to posit a refreshing new idea that would offer homeless seniors both a source of sustaining and sustainable nutrition and that would also give them something rewarding to do—gardening.

In a Sacramento Bee article, the problem of senior homelessness is further discussed. The National Alliance to End Homelessness conducted a new study, which revealed that homelessness among seniors will rise by thirty-three percent within the next ten years, and it will increase by as much as fifty percent by 2050. These staggering statistics are explained by the aging of those homeless who have been on the streets for most of their lives, whether because of mental illness or struggles with substance abuse. Now that more of these life-long homeless are getting older, traditional state and city measures to combat homelessness can no longer afford to service them, simply because this particular group of homeless is too old to work.

The other group of homeless seniors that the National Alliance to End Homelessness categorizes is those who are newly homeless as a result of job loss. In a weak economy, those who are traditionally laid off first are older. What's more, these particular seniors, more often than not, neither have the means nor support to access necessary medication and other items and services because state governments are so tightly strapped for cash.

The Examiner suggests that seniors be provided the tools to sample a raw food diet for an initial trial period. It supports the idea of implementing gardens in homeless and senior shelters and offering nutrition courses on how to balance one's diet, how to plant and grow foods, and how to prepare foods without cooking them. The reason that a raw food diet would be especially valuable to homeless seniors is obvious—it's low-cost, it's a do-it-yourself endeavor that doesn't require expensive cookware or expending lots of physical energy, and, bottom line—it's healthy. Seniors whose greatest risk is type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other common elderly ailments will be benefited even more, because a raw, plant-based diet would significantly lower their high risks for these diseases.

This guest post is contributed by Donna Moore, who writes on the topics of massage therapy training. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: donnamoore20@gmail.com.

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Thanks Donna for a well-written, interesting topic of how raw diets can make a difference.

I would love to see how this progresses. My thought is gardening alone is so healthy and invigorating and can do such wonders but to eat the organic whole foods you helped cultivate, wow! A program like this can be life-changing in so many ways.

I'd love your comments on this but if you can, take the time to share with Donna your thoughts to her email posted above.

P.S. You may have noticed a few changes with my blog over the last couple weeks or so but they were all for naught because well, I recently won a blog makeover (a premade template) thanks to Moms Wear Your Tees blog and Premades for a Purpose! Woo Hoo! You will soon see a new look to HiHoRosie's Place. Hope you'll like it.

P.P.S. I won some other great things too (don't you love giveaways?!) that I'll share when I've got the new blog layout up and running.

P.P.P.S. Speaking of giveaways, remember to enter my giveaway going on now for a very special, not-so-ordinary sippy cup (complete with review) sponsored by EcoMom.com.