On the elusive search for the ultimate breakfast, La Mesa broke the yolk in providing the ultimate morning cuisine in revel of National Breakfast Month. After an extensive search throughout East County (and many breakfasts), stumbling upon the La Mesa Bistro Bakery was the beginning of a very long relationship.
And there is an added benefit to this relationship-it has another location in El Cajon.
On the elusive search for the ultimate breakfast, La Mesa broke the yolk in providing the ultimate morning cuisine in revel of National Breakfast Month. After an extensive search throughout East County (and many breakfasts), stumbling upon the La Mesa Bistro Bakery was the beginning of a very long relationship.
And there is an added benefit to this relationship-it has another location in El Cajon.
In considering the visit, two things drew the search to this particular place. First, the ambiance of downtown La Mesa is a personal draw and secondly, if the food looked and tasted anywhere close to as wonderful as it looked on its website, it would be worth the adventure.
People poured into this small, but comfortable venue. Orders are taken at the register, you can pour your own coffee and find a seat. I ordered a special of the day, the Very Berry Pancake Breakfast, but also wanted to try something new and its menu is full of five star breakfast choices, at two star prices. For something new, I decided on the Healthy Acai Bowl, but the cashier/server/everything else suggested that I try the Healthy Piyata Bowl. She said it was her favorite of the two, a little sweeter and she liked the fruit selection in it.
Expecting a long wait, I watched as the servers brought food to other patrons, and every dish was as well presented as the pictures on its website, and every dish that passed my senses made me wish I had ordered that dish. Food came out extremely fast.
My eggs were fresh and made to order and it was obvious that the bacon was crisp and had not been sitting under a warming light. Pancakes lived up to it name, as four very large pancakes were filled with fresh strawberries and blueberries scattered throughout each one. With the whipped butter and just a slight drizzle of syrup, each bite was moist, fluffy and fruity. Hot off the griddle, there was no way to stop eating.
The pancake special was a meal in itself, but the Piyata bowl was an adventure. Fortunately, I had ordered the medium bowl not sure what I was getting into, but when it came out, it was too pretty to eat. A huge bowl, the top was covered with coconut, strawberries, bananas, mangos, granola and bee pollen. With no idea of what lay below, I dived my spoon into a delightful surprise. Underneath the mound of toppings was a fruity yogurt mixture that complimented all of the ingredients on top.
Never overwhelming, each bite was an exploration for the taste buds. It was filling, delicious and the perfect finale to an already wonderful breakfast.
And it had a boost-literally. They say breakfast is the most important start of the day, but with the Piyata bowl, I quickly felt energized after expecting to feel bloated and complacent from a full meal so early in the day.
This breakfast/lunch bistro has a diverse menu, gourmet coffee station, smoothies and any combination from country to lobster breakfasts with no entrée more than $10.
There is still plenty of time to celebrate National Breakfast Month, and the La Mesa Bistro and Bakery is one recommended to put on the list of places to eat. Next up-the El Cajon location.
Both locations have a website, with pictures and downloadable menus, and in this case, the pictures will not fool you. It’s the real deal.
Joan Jackson weighed 320 pounds at 39- years-old. She was depressed, pre-diabetic, and plagued by problems in her colon and feet. In such a condition, she had feeling that a stroke or heart attack was imminent. Her son was young at that time, and she had a wakeup call when her immobility kept her from being there for her son. She questioned the example of self-care and discipline she was setting for him.
“I knew I had to change, or I would die,” said Jackson.
Joan Jackson weighed 320 pounds at 39- years-old. She was depressed, pre-diabetic, and plagued by problems in her colon and feet. In such a condition, she had feeling that a stroke or heart attack was imminent. Her son was young at that time, and she had a wakeup call when her immobility kept her from being there for her son. She questioned the example of self-care and discipline she was setting for him.
“I knew I had to change, or I would die,” said Jackson.
So change she did. Jackson was a practicing attorney and research was nothing new to her. Luckily, she had some knowledge of self-help techniques that incorporated a raw, vegan lifestyle. Suspecting food was a major source of her health problems, she switched her diet overnight.
“Within three days, all my symptoms were gone,” Jackson said.
She lost 200 pounds by changing the food she ate, but also changing how she felt about food. She spent three weeks at the Optimum Health Institute in Lemon Grove. She took a raw food class after leaving OHI.
“My kitchen evolved over time, I started with almost nothing. My son was not thrilled. But I switched to all organic, and committed to 60 percent minimum raw for life,” Jackson said, sitting in the sun room of her home at Lemon Grove’s historic Troxell Manor.
During her stay at OHI, Jackson befriended her roommate who ended up influencing Jackson’s career path. Jackson’s former roommate dropped by her house one night with twenty OHI patients seeking tasty, flavorful but healthy food. Some wanted food for detox, some wanted to eat gluten free, some wanted raw. And Jackson found that she could easily accommodate all of them. Without stress, without fuss, inherently seeing a simple process where others had become intimidated by what they perceived as a strict culinary program, Jackson’s knack for the living raw lifestyle kicked in, and teaching others felt natural.
“I’m not a chef,” she insisted. “I’m a systems thinker, big on organization. I work with the energy of the students, I teach for empowerment. If what I was teaching made the difference between life and death for some people, I had no right to stay small with it.”
Jackson followed her instincts to expand her teaching. What started as casual demonstrations of the living raw lifestyle to small groups of people in her home became more of an occupation. She left full-time practice of law in 2009 because the satisfaction of that job was nowhere near what she derived from teaching people how to re-program their habits, their mindsets, their lives, for the purpose of living better.
“My real paycheck was when someone told me, ‘I can’t wait to get home so I can try this’,” Jackson said.
In full entrepreneurial spirit and equipped with the right tools, Jackson developed a manifesto of sorts to accompany her philosophy, approach and recipes. In 2013 she finished “The Raw Kitchen Magician: Making Raw Food Real Easy for Real People,” which retails for $150 but also sells on disc for less. It took two and a half years to put together her descriptive, image-rich manual/guidebook/cookbook. “The Raw Kitchen Magician” breaks down how to live raw, cook raw, why to eat raw because Jackson said it is not as difficult as people think. Starting with a stocked pantry, with basic equipment (dehydrators, a blender, cutting board, good knives and glass food storage), and a few hours in the kitchen once a month, Jackson outlined the easiest way possible for even the busiest, fast-food ingrained people to improve their physical and mental well-being with food.
“My teaching is coming from a real person who had no time, who didn’t have any experience really cooking food, who has a kid who couldn’t stand this, and I can articulate this,” she said. “I’ve truncated everything. Boom! You’re in the system. Just do it!”
People not only channel Jackson’s excitement about living raw but also sustain it, as her approach is surprisingly simple.
It is not necessary to eat 100 percent raw all of the time (Jackson herself only does that two to three months out of the year), nor do you need to be an aficionado in the kitchen. She said it gets easier as you go along, especially when clients begin to feel better.
“People have to walk through it and get their hands on it before they feel safe,” she said. “Some people quit before they have a chance to find out how easy it is, so my whole goal was to show people how the raw food lifestyle can compete with convenience.”
When Jackson’s clients have that breakthrough and the light bulbs go off for everyone, her calling is clear. She knows why raw food living grabbed her and “would not let her go,” and the process itself is more than just self-realization. She believes that society has relegated control to food and pharmaceutical companies. She said we worship convenience at the expense of our health. She is not alone in that idea, but said the raw food industry is unfortunately, polarized. Between doctors who promote raw living and chefs who offer recipes, Jackson saw a need for middle ground.
“There’s nobody in the middle helping real people with careers and disease to make this really work,” she said.
Jackson’s goal to help people aligned perfectly with the visions of current Troxell Manor owner Steve Hermecke. He bought Troxell Manor from the estate of the previous owner after he spotted the Manor with the enormous Moreton Bay fig trees in front and saw it as a place of healing. Hermecke brought in a gardener to clean up and take over the grounds and in 2012, after attending one of Jackson’s raw food classes, asked her to live at Troxell Manor and teach classes there in what was to be a community wellness center. Jackson now offers a residential one-week raw food lifestyle seminar and Saturday evening raw food classes at Troxell Manor.
She has clients who are doctors at UCSD’s cancer program, want to lose weight, are sick, or whom have gotten better and credit Jackson with saving their life from disease.
How exactly does this happen, from diet alone? Similar to the eating raw lifestyle, it is not as complicated as it sounds, and does not require lengthy explanations from doctors or nutritionist to understand that our bodies immediately use uncooked food.
“When you cook things, there are categories of loss,” she said. “Enzymes are the catalyst to almost every reaction your body has. They get destroyed at above 108 degrees. Our bodies need the enzymes in the food to digest the food. It’s like, a key to assimilate. Without those enzymes, then our body pulls from our own stores of enzymes.”
Your body essentially processes raw food “at a lower cost to you,” Jackson said. In addition, eating “clean” happens when eating raw. With fruits and vegetables consumed, healthy sources of protein are incorporated, and processed foods are phased out.
“I’m blessed to be at the forefront with pragmatic materials to help people know how to make this work, so this has been worth every sacrifice—absolutely,” she said.
To learn more about Jackson’s classes, log onto www.iamlivingraw.com or check out her Facebook page, www.facebook.com/iamlivingraw.
Article source: https://eccalifornian.com/change-or-die-philosophy-leads-to-new-lease-on-life-for-living-raw-enthusiast/
In the first case challenging a marketer’s use of fake paid reviews on an independent retail site, the Federal Trade Commission settled with Cure Encapsulations, Inc., and its owner over dozens of phony product reviews posted on Amazon.
According to the FTC, the defendants made false and unsubstantiated claims about their weight loss supplement, Quality Encapsulations Garcinia Cambogia Extract with HCA Capsules, including “Literally BLOCKS FAT from forming,” “powerful appetite suppressant” and “not only BURNS fat, but also keeps fat from forming in the first place!”
In addition, the defendants violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by paying third parties to write and post fake reviews of the product on Amazon, where the supplements were sold. In an email to www.amazonverifiedreviews.com, the defendants informed them that they needed “30 reviews[—]3 per day,” with an average rating of 4.3 stars to maintain sales.
“I am sending you now another $200 and will pay you total of $1000 additional to the cost of the reviews if you stand on the product, and make sure the next 12 days if someone post a negative review you add real positive reviews from real aged accounts (no proxy vpn vps) to make it back to a 4.3 overall,” the company’s chief executive officer wrote. “Please make sure my product should stay a five star.”
The website obliged, posting reviews such as “Wow. I’m actually still amazed that it worked way faster than I expected. I have lost 20 pounds by using these amazing capsules. The pills help you with your intake of food, cleans all toxins from your body and does not allow fat or sugar to stick. Highly recommended!” and “This product really cuts your appetite! I didn’t eat much and I was already feeling full. I used this product for 3 months and I am very glad I did. It helps with weight loss. I really love it.”
Pursuant to the proposed consent order, the defendants are prohibited from making claims of weight loss, appetite suppression, fat blocking or disease treatment for any dietary supplement, food or drug unless they have competent and reliable scientific evidence in the form of human clinical testing.
The defendants must also notify Amazon about the purchased reviews and send an agency-approved email to all purchasers of the supplement to inform them about the FTC’s case, along with a fact sheet from the National Institutes of Health that states “Garcinia cambogia has little to no effect on weight loss.” A $12.8 million judgment will be suspended upon payment of $50,000 and unpaid tax obligations.
“People rely on reviews when they’re shopping online,” Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement about the case. “When a company buys fake reviews to inflate its Amazon ratings, it hurts both shoppers and companies that play by the rules.”
To read the complaint and proposed stipulated order in Federal Trade Commission v. Cure Encapsulations, Inc., click here.
Why it matters: The message for marketers couldn’t be clearer, the agency emphasized in a blog post about the case: “The use of bills-for-shills product reviews violates the FTC Act.” And the FTC isn’t the only regulator ready to take action over fake reviews—New York Attorney General Letitia James recently announced an enforcement action against a company that allegedly sold “likes” and “views” from fake followers on sites such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, SoundCloud, Twitter and YouTube.
Article source: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a063f71d-b42a-4fbd-bfbf-30277e48d9fd