This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's Raw Food Summit which can be found at http://rawsummitarchives.com. In this excerpt, Brendan Brazier shares some amazing insight into talking about health in Washington and what he does on a daily basis for himself and to spread the message to others.

Raw Food Summit Excerpt with Brendan Brazier, tri-athlete thriving on living foods, author, speaker and the creator of a meal replacement formula.

Kevin: You recently have spoken in front of the government, in Washington DC to Capital Hill. Tell us a little bit about that and what your mission is to do something like that. I mean you have to have a pretty strong mission, so let's talk about that.

Brendan: Sure. Yes, last year 2006, I was invited to speak on Capital Hill on behalf of PCRM which is Positions Committee for Responsible Medicine, and it was really interesting actually because we had to just basically make a case that there's a connection between health and diet. That's how basic it was.

There are people there who had just not given it any thought. They just thought that, ?Ah, when you're 40 years old, you're going to be overweight. You'll have high cholesterol. You'll have sore joints. You'll be lethargic.? And why does that happen? Well we just don't know. But making the case that diet is probably the cause for that was what we had to do, and to their credit they were very receptive and people were nodding and you know saying, ?Yes, you know that makes sense.?

And one of our big things too is that sure we can, you know keep subsidies there and keep food like hamburgers, a dollar and an organic apple cost a dollar yet the amount of oil at today's current oil price to create a hamburger, it should be a $35 hamburger because of the resources that go into that.

Subsidies exist to keep those prices low and our saying was that the subsidy should come off to expose the real cost of food and sure people wouldn't be able to afford meat for one because we all know how much oil and fossil fuel has to be burned to create a pound of meat - it's incredible. And yes, it would make those foods out of reach but then others will become more available.

Lots of fruits and vegetables and things that are easier to obtain and the problem is that sure those subsidies make it cheaper now but what's happening is that people are of course eating lots of those type of food and getting sick. So therefore placing a huge burn on our medical system, which is of course taxpayer funded so in effect, we're really delaying when we pay and in doing so, we're weakening our society. I think that really struck the core with them. It's very basic, but it's - I, think they thought...you know, that does make sense. If we can really teach a preventative approach and reduce the dependence on the overworked medical systems, we will be a more prosperous nation. Sure, maybe the drug companies won't be so much and, you know it is a whole other story. But, it does make basic simple sense that if we can not have to pay as much and our tax dollars for the medical system that we'll be economically better off, and of course our health will be far better off in doing that too. I mean, we will have a stronger nation of people. And having stronger more vibrant people I think can only help the country.

Kevin: Yes, absolutely. What you think it's going to take to do that?

Brendan: It's going to take time for one. It's not going to happen overnight. As we all know, drug companies are very tightly tied with governments and drug companies of course. Treat symptoms of problems that have been created by eating the wrong kinds of foods for years and years and it's not going to happen overnight, but I do think that getting involved really on this, now is the time and over time, I think if we can make a really good economic case that ? because of course that's what they want to hear, you know everything comes down to money in the end, and if we can just make the case that by alleviating pressure on the medical system for one, that will be our get starting point and we can take it from there. But, yes...it's small steps for sure.

Kevin: And what can someone do who wants to make a difference with this? I mean what's the process that they go through? I mean should they start speaking about it? I mean, what can someone do to help bring this awareness about?

Brendan: Well, one of the things that I think is I guess probably the easiest way too, there are other good ways but I think doing it for yourself. Going and experience this for yourself and being vibrant and even being kind of selfish about it in the beginning. Just thinking about yourself, thinking about what you need to do to get as healthy as possible and people will laugh. When they feel the change in you, they will ask you what you've been doing. They'll say you look great though. They'll notice and then, your platform is so much stronger. If you just take it upon yourself to be as vibrant as possible and healthy as possible, you will be amazed at how many people seek you out for answers and then what you say just carries so much weight because they've asked you, you haven't just gone out and started preaching about it.

Kevin: In experience, talks fill out louder than theory. That's amazing. So, your book is Thrive and then the Thrive Diet. Are they similar or what's the?

Brendan: Yes. Well, Thrive came out as a self-published book that I wrote in 2004. And then, Penguin Canada bought the rights and I expanded it greatly. The Thrive Diet is 307 so obviously much bigger and far more in depth and a 100 recipes too, all wheat-free, glutton-free, soy-free. Mostly all raw. The ones that aren't raw have raw options so you can make them raw. And, also a 12- week meal plan that you don't have to follow completely, even just one meal or one snack a day can make a difference. Published by Penguin and that's available at any Canadian bookstore or health food store. And it comes out in the US in January of ?08 by a different publisher by Avalon. It's available online.

Kevin: Oh, wow.

Brendan: The premise is the same as the first one. It's about reducing stress to better nutrition. It's just as simple as that. And it is a very easy to understand, very logical approach I think and I've had a good feedback on it so I'm glad to say that the people are finding it helpful and enjoying it.

Kevin: Does it include exercise as well or no?

Brendan: It includes some basic talk about exercises and how exercise can help and basically how to select the exercise that you want to do. One of the things I talked about is not trying to force your self into a certain type of exercise because they are very specific to personality type like me, of course I'd like to run. I enjoy it but a lot of people don't and that's fine. I don't think those people who don't like running, I don't think they should run. I think they should find activities that they enjoy. And, you know a lot of people say well, yoga's great for relieving stress and yes that's true if you like yoga, but if you hate it, it's not.

Kevin: No, it's very stressful.

Brendan: Exactly. So try and like cram yourself into an exercise routine that does not jive with your personality can actually create more stress and I think just helping people find the activity that they enjoy is a good starting point as well and that's why I don't have a specific exercise program although I am working on a book now that will come out January of ?09 that will combine the nutrition with a full exercise program and the whole routine as well.

Kevin: Oh, great! And then, you also have the meal replacement as well. Can you get that just anywhere? How do you get it?

Brendan: Yes. Vega meal replacement. The meal replacement is the main one that will have the essential fat, fiber, greens, enzymes, the map, the carrel, and the whole bit. You can get that at all whole foods in the US. Basically, every health food store in Canada has it. In the US, very soon most health food stores will have it. So, it is getting out there. It's also in the UK now and in Taiwan as well.