Ani Phyo: Health, Wellness, Raw Food & Detox Expert Green Living Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Ani Phyo: Health, Wellness, Raw Food & Detox Expert

NYC Raw Food + Friends

I was in NYC last week for my television appearance on NBC at Rockefeller Center and several events celebrating my newest book Ani’s Raw Food Essentials. I love how easy it is to get around NYC without a car by walking, taking a train, bus, or subway. I miss great public transportation when living in LA. It’s also surprisingly easy to be healthy and to enjoy raw foods in NYC. I felt super lucky to be invited by the lovely Mia Andres from Organic Avenue and raw model Anthony Andersen for dinner at Pure Food and Wine.

This was my first visit to NYC in 6 years, and my first visit to Pure. I was blown away by the food! It was super fresh, beautifully plated, and really delicious. We enjoyed the S+M salad, appetizers, ravioli, lasagna, but my favorite thing ever was the Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sundae! I finally got to meet the heart of Pure Food and Wine, Sarma Melngailis, who’s even more beautiful in person.

The next day, I was invited to Quintessence for lunch with my good friends Dhrumil Purohit and

By admin|August 12th, 2010|Green Living, Health, LIFESTYLE, Music, Travel|1 Comment

Moby, Frances Fisher, and DiamondSnake

ani phyo, frances fisher, eva, moby, diamondsnake

Moby was performing with his new heavy metal band DiamondSnake last night in Hollywood, where I bumped into Frances Fisher and Eva. We had a blast dancing up a storm. You can see Moby on stage behind us rocking out to his new Heavy Metal music.

Lead singer Phil Costello’s voice is incredible. They have a song called Rock and Raw, give it a listen on their homepage. These guys are a funny!

It was way past my bedtime of 10pm, and I lasted to about midnight, but left before they finished their set, unfortunately. I hope to get to see DiamondSnake again, maybe along with NYC tour next month.

DiamondSnake was sporting vegan guitar straps, very cool! Choosing vegan has the biggest impact on helping to save our planet and stop animal suffering. Besides, a vegan diet, and especially a raw vegan diet, helps with weight loss, increases health and our immune system, and gives us tons of energy to rock on roll!

It’s official, I now like Heavy Metal music. Moby…I love you!

By admin|July 8th, 2010|Green Living, Health, LIFESTYLE, Music|1 Comment

Community Gardens in South Los Angeles

neelam ani phyo raw food essentials

During my silent 10-day Vipassina mediation last October, I had a vision to work with kids in underprivileged neighborhoods teaching them how to garden, grow food, and make healthy food. These neighborhoods lack fresh produce or healthy food options. The only way to save lives is to teach kids about food, real food. Growing our food builds confidence and self reliance. It’s important for kids to understand where their food comes from.

Neelam Sharma is the Executive Director of Community Services Unlimited, Inc. and is largely responsible for the development of CSU’s food justice and youth training programs. She helped create The Healthy School Food Coalition, The LA Food Justice Network, and the California Food Justice Coalition. An inspirational lady…passionate, intelligent, and beautiful.

garden ani phyo raw food

Neelam and I met at the Expo Center garden, where I first met Dana Clay, the Urban Farm Assistant responsible for this beautiful garden. I found a curry tree for the first time, and the leaves tasted pungent, like curry.

cherimoya ani phyo raw food

They even had a cherimoya tree! Yum. The last time I saw a cherimoya tree was in Baja. I love cherimoya, and just picked up 3 at the local farmer’s market. Visit CSU’s weekly Farm Stand in front of the Expo Center on Menlo just north of MLK on Thursdays from 3-6pm.

Find more […]

By admin|May 7th, 2010|Farmers' Market, Green Living, Health, LIFESTYLE|4 Comments

Ani’s Vital Juice Spa + Synchro Swim Weekend

It was a Vital Juice Spa weekend full of healthy beauty, yoga, massage, breath work, and good food. Co-founder Amanda Freeman was in town for the spa event, and it was lovely to catch up with her. On Friday, I enjoyed the best ever breath work session with Cindy Click. Perfectly what I needed after a challenging week.

I met lovely folks from my favorite yoga studio, YogaWorks. Terri Seiden, the Director of Marketing, has offered to throw a book release event to help me celebrate Ani’s Raw Food Essentials in late June at their Larchmount location.

ani phyo, jamie, vital juice los angeles, raw food

Here I am with the beautiful Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh. I forgot to bring my yoga clothes, so I missed out on doing yoga on the lawn in the sunshine.

kimberly Miguel Mullen, ani phyo raw food, jamie, vital juice, santa monica, ca

The next day, I got to see Jamie again… this time for a raw meal in Santa Monica at a newish raw food cafe with gorgeous Kimberly Miguel […]

By admin|April 27th, 2010|Green Living, Health, LIFESTYLE|0 Comments

Raw Food on Airlines in SE Asia

It can sometimes be a struggle to find a vegan option on an American airline. I was surprised that my flights in SE Asia on both Singapore and Silk Air both offered numerous vegan options, from Asian vegan to American vegan, and also offered a RAW FOOD option!

Cabin air pressure in flight is lower than air pressure at sea level, which means we have less oxygen being carried in our blood. Cabin pressure makes our digestion more challenging due to a 30% increase in gases trapped in our body. And, flying is dehydrating. I try to drink a liter of water for every hour of flight time.

I say a raw food platter should be served to everyone on every flight. It’s full of water, oxygen, and easy on the digestion. This isn’t rocket science, but simply common sense. Hopefully, this vegan and raw meal also helps offset my carbon emissions a little bit….

By admin|February 10th, 2010|Green Living, Health, LIFESTYLE, Travel|0 Comments

Mom Tri’s Villa Royale Paradise

Mom Tri, owner of the resort, totally gets it. His spa uses edible coconut oil, he has an organic farm in Chang Mai with a cooking school, and looks super fit and healthy.

This is one of 3 pools at Mom Tri’s, and salt water too.

Each morning I’d find a newly bloomed lotus flower. They’re beautiful!

This is just one of several decks overlooking the ocean for dining and drinking. What a view!

This is the beach at Mom Tri’s….turquoise water and white sands. I did get a minor jelly fish sting. I was with a doctor, luckily, who kept me calm, and though it left welts on my arm, it was really not a big deal. I tried to swim a mile a day in the ocean. It was bath water warm and such a treat.

By admin|January 22nd, 2010|Beauty, Fitness, Green Living, Health, LIFESTYLE, Travel|0 Comments

Rice Fields in Ubud, Bali

My friend and raw model Anthony told me to find Sari Organics in Ubud. I was ecstatic to finally find it on my 2nd visit to Ubud. I had one of the best medicinal herb salads ever, made with organic herbs from the fields and also gathered from the forest. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend this afternoon than chilling with my good friend in the middle of rice fields with a beautiful view and a bounty of delicious, fresh foods.

We had to walk a good 15 minutes or more to get to the organic cafe in the middle of the rice fields. An amazing journey with an organic treasure at the end. And walking is always the best exercise.

I even came upon a compost pile on the way. Someone was eating durian, I can see the rind in the heap.

I had been fasting the prior day and earlier this day only because some nuts I’d eaten didn’t digest very well. Our driver Wayan and Carol were starving, so they pulled over at a road side satay stand to enjoy local snacks. I like this photo, and we can imagine the satay to be […]

By admin|January 17th, 2010|Green Living, Health, LIFESTYLE, Travel|2 Comments

Reduce by Reusing

I love how the Balinese reuse litter glass bottles to hold petrol. At first I wondered if this could be dangerous. What if someone drank a bottle by accident? I guess that’s why they display the bottles on a special stand along with a funnel (you can see it in the photo on the bottom shelf).

Growing up in a Korean home in New York, I was taught to use less and to reuse things whenever possible. Like using prepared food containers, instead of buying bright plastic Tupperware, to store our left overs. Korean moms are notorious for saving plastic bags, and reusing them until they fall apart. I think this comes from the fact that Korea wasn’t always a 1st world country, and when my folks were growing up, resources and even food were scarce. So, it was important to make the best use of everything available, and never to waste.

By admin|January 5th, 2010|Green Living, LIFESTYLE, Travel|0 Comments

Tropical Fruits in SE Asia

It’s rainy season in Bali, so it downpours buckets of rain for 20 minutes to a couple hours almost every day. It’s warm, so I don’t mind it. On my first rainy day, I decided to visit a local grocery store, where I found a new fruit called salak. It grows on palm trees.

This is salak. It has a brown snakeskin that’s really thin. You peel it away to find what looks like garlic cloves inside. These pods of fruit contain a small seed, and taste sweet and tart at the same time.

The meat of the salak fruit is not juicy, but rather dry and firm. It has a texture similar to a pear, but not as firm and crisp, smoother in texture, and dry. Interesting texture and delicious flavor.

This brightly colored, hairy fruit is a rambutan. I love lychees, and the rambutan is very similar in texture and flavor. Rambutan is very cheap in Bali. I bought a big bag for about 50 cents. The rambutan, even at the grocery store, is always covered in crawling ants. I guess this means there’s no pesticides on the fruit, a good thing.

Here in hot, muggy Bali, I live off fresh tropical fruits (durian, salak, rambutan, mango, papaya, pineapple, and banana), and enjoy only occasional greens when I find them. Back home in the States, I had been cutting […]

By admin|December 29th, 2009|Desserts, Fitness, Gluten Free, Green Living, Health, LIFESTYLE, RECIPES, Super Foods, Travel, Vegan, Vegetarian, Whole Foods|1 Comment

Ani at SF Green Festival

Mayor Gavin Newsom at SF Green Festival last Saturday. It’s the largest green festival in the country. Mayor Newsom is a long time vegetarian.

The hall was packed for my talk on raw food desserts, nutrition, and overall well being. I demoed my famous Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Cake and Spiced Blueberry Cobbler, recipes from “Ani’s Raw Food Desserts”. There was a feeding frenzy over the sample tastes of the desserts, and they were delicious!

Read more about the SF Green Fest on VegNews Magazine’s blog.