Raw Food News to Know:
"RAW VS. COOKED & PROCESSED FOODS"
By Rhio
What are some of the known differences? Cooked foods cannot create true health because they are missing some very vital elements needed by the body for its optimal functioning; things like enzymes, oxygen, hormones, phytochemicals, bio-electrical energy and life-force. When foods are heated above 105 degrees F they begin to lose all of these. By 118 degrees F, most food is dead. Yes, the vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats and proteins are still there, but in a greatly altered state - not at all what nature provided.
Each cell of the body is like a tiny battery, and raw and living foods supply the bio-electricity which charges these batteries. The bio-electrical energy of raw food can be clearly seen in Kirlian photographs of the food. This photographic process shows electrical discharges that naturally emanate from all living things as luminescent, aura-like flares surrounding the subject. The glow is bright and radiant in raw foods, yet almost totally absent in Kirlian photographs of comparable cooked foods.
To me “life-force” means “the energy that is able to create life.” The sprouting ability of raw foods demonstrates the presence of the life-force within them. All grains, legumes, beans and seeds sprout. Nuts in the shell sprout. Potatoes sprout and create new potato plants. (Do not eat potato sprouts as they are poisonous.) If you stick the top part of a pineapple into water, it will sprout roots. Apple seeds create apple trees. Avocado pits and mango pits sprout.
Now, take cooked versions of all the above, put them into soil and see if a plant will grow. Cooked food rots, rather than sprouts, and a new plant does not come forth. Through observation, you can easily demonstrate for yourself what you are losing by eating cooked foods. A food that is cooked cannot create life and cannot maintain the life-force energy in our bodies.
Cooking food disrupts its molecular structure and kills all the enzymes too. Enzymes are the indispensable biological catalysts (infused with “energy charges”) which enable the body to utilize vitamins and minerals. (Think of enzymes as the workmen and vitamins and minerals as the bricks and mortar. Without the workmen, the bricks and mortar don’t get put into place.) Enzymes are extremely heat-sensitive and thus do not survive in cooked foods. The vitamins and phytochemicals also are injured, greatly diminished, and left in an altered molecular state. The minerals are made less soluble. The fats have turned from life enhancing cis fatty acids to trans fatty acids, which create damaging free radicals in the body. Trans fatty acids also interfere with respiration of the cells. The proteins (including vegetable proteins), become denatured; they then coagulate (like the white of an egg) and are very difficult to digest. Some researchers report that unmetabolized protein particles in the bloodstream are a possible cause of allergies.
When you eat cooked (enzymeless) foods, you put a heavy burden on your body, which then has to produce the enzymes missing in the food. One of the reasons you feel lethargic or sleepy after a cooked meal is because the body is diverting its energy to replacing the enzymes that were not supplied. By comparison, a raw food meal leaves you feeling light and full of energy. You can judge this for yourself. Uncooked foods digest in 1/3 to 1/2 the time of cooked foods. The stress of creating and replacing enzymes, meal after meal, day after day, year after year, greatly contributes to accelerated aging.
Ingesting cooked food also causes the body to produce a surge of white blood cells (leukocytosis). These cells normally defend against disease, infection and injury to the body, but their production is a routine effect of ingesting cooked foods (as if the body considers such food a threat or danger). Because leukocytes carry a variety of enzymes, there is another possible explanation for the increase in white blood cells. The leukocytes may be delivering the missing enzymes so that digestion can proceed unhindered. Leukocytosis does not occur when raw, unheated foods are eaten. According to Viktoras Kulvinskas,5 “in any pathological condition, including the intoxification of the digestive system with cooked food or other toxic materials, these white cells increase from 5 or 6 thousand per cubic millimeter to 7, 8 or 9 thousand per cu.m.m.” Leukocytosis also occurs when additives, pesticides and chemically based supplements are ingested. And, of course, producing these cells creates an additional stress upon the body.
Raw foods are full of oxygen, especially green leafy vegetables which contain an abundance of chlorophyll. The chemical structure of chlorophyll is almost identical to the hemoglobin in our red blood cells. The only difference is that the hemoglobin molecule has iron in its nucleus and the chlorophyll molecule has magnesium. Chlorophyll detoxifies the bloodstream and every other part of the body better than anything else you could eat. When you eat raw green chlorophyll foods, you oxygenate the blood. The bloodstream, through its capillary system, then delivers this oxygen to every cell in your body. And when you eat greens in blended form, such as in Dr. Ann’s Energy Soups (see Recipe Index), this process is even more efficient.
Sprouted seeds contain vital elements which nourish our glands, nerves and brain. The hormones needed by the body are created out of the natural fat and other essential principles found in seeds. Think about how few seeds are found in the average diet. The plant breeders are hybridizing most of the seeds out of our foods. Now we can get seedless watermelons, seedless grapes, seedless citrus, and the list goes on. Even if we did find a seed, most of us don’t understand the value of eating it and thus, it would be discarded.
When you eat cooked starch, the body absorbs more than it needs. Getting rid of the excess starch then becomes another burden to the body. Those who favor cooked foods often make the point that since the body cannot absorb raw starch, this is a sign the food should be cooked. Another way to look at it, however, is that the body absorbs just enough of the raw starch for its needs and then passes out the rest. (When pig farmers feed their pigs raw potatoes, the pigs stay slender. Since farmers sell their pigs by the pound, they have learned to feed them cooked potatoes, which fattens them up.)
Cellulose - the woody, fibrous part of food - was previously believed to be unnecessary to the body. Because the body did not absorb it, it wasn’t deemed important. Now we know that this fiber is what keeps things moving through our body so that we don’t become constipated. Nature is vindicated again! I believe, in addition, that raw fiber has the ability to act as a broom which sweeps the intestinal tract and keeps it clean. Cooked fiber has lost the ability to do this for us. Enemas and colonics serve their purpose, but they are a poor substitute for what nature, by putting (raw) fiber into foods, has provided.
Raw and live foods nourish and improve the body’s inner environment. Raw and live foods enable the body to dislodge and expel accumulated wastes. A member of my family had a tiny sliver of metal lodged in his hand as a result of an accident. For two years he tried to get it out by squeezing, pushing, and probing with sterilized needles, etc., but it wouldn’t budge. He went to the Optimum Health Institute (to learn about live foods) for a week and, when he returned home, decided he would continue on raw foods. Four weeks later, a bubble formed on his hand and inside the bubble was the sliver of metal. The bubble then burst and the sliver came out. This is an example of what raw and live foods do. If something is not supposed to be in your body, it will be expelled.
Eating cooked food prevents the immune system from working on what is really important in keeping us superbly healthy and young in body, mind and soul. We exhaust and dissipate the body’s strength by using the immune system to combat the unnatural cooked foods, chemically based supplements, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, hormones (in meats, poultry, fish and dairy) and numerous other toxins we ingest, breathe in or absorb through our skin. When we really need the immune system to support us (as when a disease or infection develops or an injury occurs), it then lacks the strength to defend us properly.
Eating healthy means giving your body power foods it can easily assimilate and use for regeneration and rejuvenation. Life comes from life. So the more foods you eat which are organic and straight from nature’s raw garden, the better you are going to feel.
Source: http://www.rawfoodinfo.com/home/home_a.html
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The Living and Raw Foods F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions)
What are Enzymes?
Enzymes assist in the digestion of foods. They are known to be the "Life-Force" and or "energy" of food.
From the dictionary:
Noun: Any of the various complex organic substances, as pepsin originating from living cells and capable of producing certain chemical changes in organic substances by catalytic action, as in digestion.
Why are Enzymes Important?
Enzymes are important because they assist in the digestion and absorption of food. If you eat food that is enzyme-less, your body will not get maximum utilization of the food. This causes toxicity in the body. (Can you guess why over 75% of Americans are overweight?)
Doesn't the acidic ph of the stomach destoy enzymes?
Viktorus Kulvinskas, one of the world's foremost and most experienced active researchers into enzyme nutrition has information showing then stomach acid merely deactivates food enzymes. The enzymes are then reactivated in the more alkaline small intestine. Many people who eat all raw foods, sense a world of healthful difference in our energy, digestion and connectedness with nature by eating enzyme-rich living foods. When we stopped eating cooked protein foods which require large secretions of stomach acid (which is not healthful for several reasons) our stomach doesn't produce much stomach acid. Many people who eat raw foods eat a low protein diet and are free from the stomach acid secretions and have much more energy and a lighter disposition.
Is there a difference between living foods and raw foods?
Living and Raw foods both contain enzymes. In living foods, the enzyme
content is much higher. Raw, unsprouted nuts contain enzymes in a "dormant"
state. To activate the enzymes contained in almonds, for example, soak them
in water for as just 24 hours. Once the almonds begin to sprout, the enzymes become "active" and are then considered living. In the context of this web site,
the terms are used loosely.
Why eat only Organic Foods?
When juicing or eating foods, it is very important to choose to consume only organically grown produce. "Conventional" or "industrial" produce are grown with pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, and other chemicals that are toxic and/or harmful to your body. Organic foods are grown without the use of these harmful substances, taste better, and are more nutritious.
Do I need to eat all organic to be raw?
No, you do not NEED to eat all organic to be raw. I personally reccomend eating as much organic food as possible. It has been shown that organic produce contains less pesticide and other toxic residues. In addition, it has been shown that organic food may taste better and contain more nutrition. I believe its better to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables in most any case.
Will rinsing wash off the pesticide from industrially grown produce?
Rinsing with cool water will remove some surface pesticide residue, but not the pesticide that was absorbed into the produce as it was grown. Some of the most severely tainted types of produce are strawberries and bell peppers. Some of the least tainted: carrots and avocados.
Is this a "new" fad diet or something?
Not at all! Consider the following: during the vast majority of our existence on this planet, what choices did we have for food? What COULD we have eaten before we discovered fire, tools and implements to kill animals? The original diet for us MUST have consisted primarily of vegetables, fruits, and nuts! What other choices did we have? Clearly, a raw, plant based diet is the main food staple throughout the vast majority of the history of Humankind! Before Humans started killing and eating dead animal carcass, we ate fruits, leaves, nuts, berries, etc...
Is this just another vegetarian or vegan diet?
Yes and NO! This is the ULTIMATE vegetarian/vegan diet. It should be the goal of all vegetarians, vegans and SAD - [Standard American Diet] eaters to eat raw. The benefits are out of this world! Once you embrace an all-raw and living food diet, you are more living, have more energy, better health, think more clearly, and become more in tune with your body! This type of diet even gives you a "competitive edge" over people that eat life-less food.
What is the difference between a raw/living foods diet and a vegetarian one?
Vegetarians and vegans believe in only eating a plant based diet.
Living and Raw Foodists believe in eating only an UNCOOKED, UNHEATED, UNPROCESSED and ORGANIC plant based diet.
What is a Living Foodist or Raw Foodist?
A person who eats 75% or more living/raw food.. The more, the better. Optimally one should eat 100% raw and living foods if it feels right for them.
Is a 100% living and raw food diet best?
That depends on the person. I believe life should not be about 100% raw food, but about 100% health. You can be "unhealthy" and eat 100% raw food, if you are not eating the correct raw foods. In addition, the stress that can be caused by "screwing up" or "falling off the wagon" can be worse than eating a high percentage raw food diet, with "better" cooked alternatives. I personally eat 99.999% raw foods.
Is there just one type of living/raw foodist?
There are many subcategories of living/raw foodists. Some include:
Why would someone want to eat a raw and living foods diet?
There are many reasons why people eat a raw and living foods diet.
What do raw/living foodists eat?
Raw and Living Foodist eat all fruits, vegetables, sprouts, nuts, seeds, grains, sea vegetables, and other organic/natural foods that have not been processed. In some instances, there are special ways to prepare the foods (example: most raw and living foodists soak/sprout nuts, seeds and grains before consuming them). For some delicious recipes, see our recipe section!
How can you tell if something is a raw/living food?
Most foods that have not been processed in any way, shape or form are raw and living foods (until cooked). Processed foods (canned, bottled or prepackaged) are most often adulterated, (changed from their original state) by heating, additives, preservatives, colorings, salt, and sugar. Don't think this is all for your benefit; the benefactor is the manufacturer's profit margin, NOT YOU. Try to purchase foods that are in their natural state.
What do raw and living foodists drink?
Water (purified water - never tap water), Freshly made juices (made with your own juicer - and consumed immediately), coconut milk (from a young coconut), are some of the liquids living and raw foodists drink.
Most all drinks purchased at the store have been processed (Including: soda, bottled juices, coffee, alcohol, and most others) and are not included in a living / raw foodist diet.
Do raw and living foodists drink tea?
Some living and raw foodists will drink SUN TEA, which is tea brewed by the power of the Sun. Teas that contain boiling water are not considered raw. Many teas that are purchased in the store may have been processed at temperatures above 118 degrees. The best way is to grow your own herbs and dry them at a low temperature, and use them for sun teas.
Are certain raw foods better than others?
Yes. I believe one should focus on eating the majority of fresh fruits and vegetables. All other raw foods (such as nuts, seeds, etc) should be minimized. Fresher foods are always best. Ones that you grow yourself, or purchased at a farmers market, are much fresher than foods purchased in the grocery or health food store.
Where do raw and living foodist get their protein?
The WHO (World Health Organization) says humans need about 5% of their daily calories to come from protein to be healthy. The USDA puts this figure at 6.5%. On average, fruits have about 5% of their calories from protein. Vegetables have from 20-50% of their calories from protein. Sprouted seeds, beans, and grains contain from 10-25% of their calories from protein. So if you are eating any variety of living plant foods, you are getting more than adequate protein. Numerous scientific studies have shown the daily need for protein to be about 25-35 grams per day. So if you ate 2,000 calories per day, and ate raw plant foods that had an average of 10% of their calories from protein, you would get 200 calories worth of protein, or 50 grams. This is more than adequate to support optimal well-being. Other studies have shown that heat treating a protein (such as with cooking) makes about half of it unusable to the human body. So raw plant food protein is even a better source than cooked plant foods or animal foods. There is still a huge, foolish, misguided idea that plant protein is not "complete". This is based on studies done on rats in the 1940's. This false conclusion was drawn before we discovered the bodies protein recycling mechanism and its ability to "complete" any amino acid mix from our bodies amino acid pool, no matter what the amino acid composition of a meal consumed. This false idea is still perpetuated by the meat and dairy industries, in an attempt to influence people to continue consuming their truly health destroying products.
What should I eat to overcome my illness or disease?
Please see our disclaimer. We know of many people who have overcome their illness/disease by changing their lifestyle and diet.
Source: http://www.living-foods.com/faq.html
