The Crunchy Coach Top 20 Recommended Resources

Here I provide for you the best products in the area of healthy and natural living. How do I know they’re the best? Because I use (or have read) most of them myself! If you see an asterick (*) in front of a company name, that means that I have not actually tried any of their products, but I present them to you as a resource that I believe to be highly valuable based on their reputation and the kind of product they carry.

APPLIANCES

1. Excalibur Food Dehydrator Since I believe in eating as much raw food as possible, I use a dehydrator to dry my soaked nuts and seeds. I can dehydrate them on a low temperature (which is not possible in an oven, even on the lowest setting), keeping all the enzymes intact. Believe me, there is no dehydrator like the Excalibur. I have heard many complaints about the cheaper ones found in department stores.

2. Vita-Mix 1700 I couldn’t live without my Vita-Mix! Okay, I could, but it would be very difficult to make smooth smoothies and green soups. Believe me, your regular run-of-the-mill $50 blender will NOT be able to pulverize greens and frozen fruits like a Vita-Mix. Plus it lasts a long time–I’ve had mine for over ten years.

3. Cuisinart Food Processor As far as I’m concerned, Cuisinart is the small appliance brand. Its food processor has a powerful blade that makes making nut butter, chopping vegetables, etc. a breeze.

4. Aquasana AQ-4100 Deluxe Shower Water Filter System with Adjustable Showerhead

5. Air Wise Air Purifier I wrote an article on this topic.

6. *Countertop Reverse Osmosis System Tap water is poisonous! You need to drink filtered water. Although we don’t have this exact system, we have something similar.

NATURAL HEALTH REMEDIES

7. There is an essential oil for every health condition you can think of! Read here why Be Young is the only brand of essential oil you should buy.

GREEN LIVING

8. Clean House Clean Planet by Karen Hogan has a recipe for a nontoxic, effective, homemade cleaner to replace almost every kind of toxic cleaning product under your sink, from disinfectants to furniture polish.

9. Pure Castile Soap can be used from everything to cleaning your toilet to washing your hair!

PERSONAL HYGIENE

10. Tooth Soap PEPPERMINT Shreds I admit, it takes a couple weeks to get used to the taste of tooth soap. But it has no chemicals and doesn’t coat your teeth with glycerine as toothpaste does, making re-enamelizing your teeth next to impossible.

11. Nurture My Body shampoo is one of the few completely chemical-free shampoos that actually make your hair feel clean and silky.

NUTRITION/FOOD PRODUCTS

12. Masaji is the only supplement that has notably impacted my health. It is high in antioxidants and a large spectrum of vitamins and minerals.

13. Be Young Meal Replacements make for nutrition-packed, tasty quick meals.

14. Fermented cod liver oil is essential for anyone with chronic tooth decay and/or who doesn’t like eating fish. The fermented kind is not available in stores (as of this writing), but should be preferred over regular cod liver oil. This article explains why.

15. Garden of Life Coconut Oil In my opinion, the best-tasting coconut oil there is. Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil is the second-best (and still very tasty), and since you can buy it in larger sizes, is less expensive than the Garden of Life brand.

16. *US Wellness Meats sells sells only meat from pastured animals. They also sell organ meats.

BOOKS AND E-BOOKS

17. The Healing Gourmet e-book series If you want detailed information about the antioxidants in various foods and how they impact your health, this is the resource to get. The authors also talk about everything from healthy cookware to medical tests to consider to make sure your body’s systems are functioning well. In my opinion, this series is worth every penny.

18. All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! by Mel Bartholomew makes gardening simple, fun and fruitful!

19. Fitness After 40: How to Stay Strong at Any Age by Vonda Wright, M.D. This book is great for anyone of any age needing specific information about fitness routines and strength exercises.

And last but certainly not least:

20. Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon has great recipes from everything from raw and fermented foods (including meat); familiar foods like roast beef; and baked goods made from soaked flour. Just make sure you don’t consider the proportion/quantity of a certain category of recipes as representative of the proportion you should include in you diet (for example, she has a lot more cooked than raw recipes, and quite a few dessert recipes).

BUT WAIT! I’ve got three bonuses for you. Ready?

Reading Cure Tooth Decay: Heal and Prevent Cavities with Nutrition by Ramie Nagel was an eye-opening experience for me. I follow his protocol to a certain extent, but not fully, in order to improve my oral hygiene (I have always been plagued by tooth decay).

Eating in the Raw: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Slimmer, Feeling Healthier, and Looking Younger the Raw-Food Way by Carol Alt. This is my favorite raw food book, as Carol emphasizes that veganism is not for everybody, and provides several raw meat recipes along with tasty plant-based dishes.

Natural Baby and Childcare: Practical Medical Advice and Holistic Wisdom for Raising Healthy Children by Dr. Lauren Feder, a natural-health minded pediatrician (gotta love ‘em!), has a section toward the back that provides all the natural, herbal and homeopathic remedies for various common ailments. A great resource for the adults in your family as well as the kids.

Okay, I’m done now, I promise! The list is far from comprehensive, but covers the important things when it comes to natural health.