Raw foods

[Kila]

I have been experimenting with raw foods for about a year now. Off and on obviously. On when I have more money, off when I was broke.

There are basically two camps out there, the raw vegans, and the raw paleo types who eat raw meat.

One of the thing I noticed while studying anthropology was the absence of 'Western diseases' amongst primitive people. Essentially all the inflammatory condition are missing (i.e. cancer, heart disease, diabetes etc)
I read Dr Weston Price's book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration back in college and it made since in terms of what I was seeing in physical anthropology, particularly the line in the sand between paleolithic and neolithic people. In some ways Price definitely succumbs to the 'noble savage' dichotomy of his time but his work and slides are hard to put down.

In a nutshell, he determined after studying groups all over the world on his own dime and doing fairly extensive dietaries was that those with the most robust health ate a large amount of animal fat and received sometimes as much as 200% more of the fat soluble vitamins than standard Western fare supplies. The fat soluble vitamins would be A,D,K specifically. He also named one vitamin Factor X which has later proved to be a factor in the K family. These vitamins appear to be critically important to human health and are only found in animal products.
There is a whole foundation built on his work now
http://www.westonaprice.org/

They seem a bit militant to me but some of the research is very good and worth a look I think. Of course, it would make since that the prevailing medical opinion is that animal fats are evil and bad. That said, it is nigh impossible to find clean fat and meat.
The raw paleo crowd insist that said fat and meat must be eaten raw like a good caveman.
My thoughts are that humans have been cooking their food a long time(yet we are the only animal that does...makes you go hmmmm)and that we can probably tolerate some cooked food. Certainly the starches are rendered edible when cooked(again reason for pause ..should we even be eating those grains and tubers)
That said most hunter and gatherer folks did eat a majority of their food raw, both vegetable and animal. Widespread cooking did not come into existence until metalurgy and all the other neolithic 'advances'

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawpaleodiet/


Finally, there is this guy http://www.wewant2live.com/ He has an interesting story, not sure how much of it is true, but his work with cancer patients has been substantiated by an outside source so I dunno.
I got his book though and it's interesting if a bit unbelievable.

All that said, I am finding with my own stomach trouble that I can tolerate a lot of foods raw that I can't eat cooked.
Raw milk okay, cheese bad. Raw tomatoes fine, tomato sauce bad, Oranges raw good, juice in a carton very very bad. Even eggs...cooked terrible. Raw okay. Even meat, I can eat raw fish(had some lovely scallops yesterday) raw lamb, but not cooked meat.
Nuts ...I can tolerate but only if soaked first and in small quantities.

Today I am eating a slaw with cabbage, carrots, kale, chard, and lettuce. I had some raw goats milk yogurt. Some lacto fermented carrots and I'm going to have some raw lamb in a little while.


I also found this cereal made from soaked dehydrated buckwheat, it's pretty good. The kids don' t like it much.

And I am still cooking their food. But they do eat a lot of fruit and salads.

 

[wanderer33]

Any fruitarians or raw food people.

I am mostly a fruitarian, spent a year on a raw diet as below. Prior to that I used to used to cook from this book....


http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Krishnas-Cuisine-Vegetarian-Cooking/dp/0525245642

I highly recommend it.


Living Raw ‘ Living True by a crazy friend of mine



Today, more than ever, people are looking inward for solutions to their problems but because we are in the grip of large corporations we come up wanting. We are a sad nation of overworked, overstressed, overweight, unhealthy people wishing for happiness, health and generally a better life.

However wishing is not enough and so we place ourselves at the mercy of every fad going around. We blindly grasp at every new concept until we give up when the expected results just don’t happen. Frustrating isn’t it!

All the fads around are fuelled by one thing , greed. Someone is out to make money, your hard earned money, so they tell you what you want to hear. This is backed up by slick advertising campaigns that prey on your unhappiness. Why is this so? The real truth is very simple. It won’t make money for the large corporations so remains hidden until we blunder on to the truth, like you reading this article now.

We are spiritual people and our body is our temple which we should worship. What do we do instead, we fill it with dead, cooked, processed food and deny ourselves the gift nature bestowed on us. Your body is craving nature’s bounty. In a nutshell (sorry for the pun!) we need raw food full of vital, alive nutrients. Raw foods are living, may be dehydrated, frozen or fermented but not heated above 44*C.

After all our ancestors lived this way for hundreds of thousands of years and it’s only since we became ‘civilized’ that our eating habits changed. The trouble is a few thousand years is not long enough for evolutionary changes to occur for us to assimilate the new, inorganic compounds formed when we cook or process food.

Our bodies are still made to accept raw food and are left wondering what to do with all this foreign matter we ingest in the false belief that we are nourishing ourselves. The fault is not our body , we are the way we are , a perfectly engineered marvel capable of amazing health and vitality.

The fault lies in what we feed this body. If we fed it raw food like nature intended (and look at the amazing bounty she has provided us) we would all achieve this seemingly impossible dream.

So just what is so wrong with our typical ‘civilized’ diet? There are four main reasons why our diet of cooked and processed foods is doing us more harm than good. We will look at each in detail, followed by some interesting facts, but let me first warn you that you are going to be amazed and a little scared at what is going on inside our digestive tract. The good news is that it is not a life sentence. With eating the right foods it can easily be reversed and it is never too late to start. It is so simple and for once something that seems too good to be true actually is!



Raw food is brimming with enzymes which are quickly destroyed by heating (over 44*C enzymes start to die). Our body also produces enzymes as they are the catalyst for every bodily function. They are used in digestion, thinking, moving, working, growing, immunity, dreaming, sexual activity, reproduction and everything else we do. We are born with a huge enzyme bank but it is not infinite.

When we eat raw food the food itself contains all the enzymes needed to digest it , we do not need to draw on our enzyme bank. However when we cook our food we destroy its enzymes so the body has to use its own to digest the food. In other words we draw on the enzyme bank. When we run out of enzymes we grow tired and die! As we grow older we become enzyme impoverished causing our metabolism to slow down.

In our ignorance we accept this as an inevitable part of aging. All the symptoms of aging - digestive impairment, loss of skin elasticity and muscle tone, weight gain , can all be attributed to decreased enzyme activity. On our typical cooked diet it seems that by age 50 we have only about 30% of our enzymes left! If our enzyme bank account was healthy we would be brimming with energy well into old age. Eating a diet of raw, enzyme rich foods can restore our energy and vitality while decreasing the amount of cooked foods slows the drain on the energy bank.



The next point is a bit scarier! Our vital organs only function in a slightly alkaline environment which is tightly regulated by the body. If they become acidic you die. It is that simple. The problem lies in the fact that a ‘civilized’ cooked diet has a highly acidic reaction when digested.

The culprits are our consumption of meat, dairy, most grains, refined sugars and other processed foods including baked goods (bread, cakes, pastries etc). Eating a diet high in these foods leads to a state of acidosis in the body. Since the body must at all costs operate at a stable alkaline environment the acid has to be either neutralized or kept away from vital organs.

Calcium is an alkalizing mineral and strong buffer and will help neutralize the acid, both of which are then released in the urine. Calcium is leached from the bones to achieve this causing bone degrading , a lesser of two evils for the body. (milk is highly acidifying, see later comments) Similarly glutamine can neutralize acid causing a loss of skeletal muscle as it contains the body’s largest glutamine store.

Another way our clever body can protect itself from this acid overload is to store it in fat (should that be a four letter word!) The acid is then safely away from the vital organs. The more acidic our body is the more fat it will want to accumulate to store the acid. Remember the alternative is to die! So no matter what we do our cooked diet causes us to gain weight. If we do manage to loose a few kilos the body pulls out all the stops to build up its protection again.

Raw foods (especially fruits and vegetables) have an alkalizing reaction when digested and so are powerful acid neutralizers. Better still cut down on the acid producing foods (see in bold above) while increasing the alkaline foods (raw , especially fruit and vegetables) to give the body the required alkaline environment for optimum functioning and good health.



From the first time we ate cooked food as a baby our body responded by increasing the white blood cell production causing a pathogenic leukocytosis. This is what happens when the body responds to infection. In simpler terms the body is recognizing the ‘food’ as an invader that must be neutralized. That’s a lot of work for the immune system! Our body has adjusted to cooked food by creating mucus to use as a filter. All the surfaces of the digestive tract from the tongue to the intestines are covered with this mucus to protect the blood from invaders. The body does not recognize dead, inorganic nutrients (as found in cooked foods) as food.

The more cooked food we eat the more mucus is produced so the layer becomes thicker and denser eventually resembling a garden hose snaking through the digestive tract. This ‘hose’ works well preventing us absorbing toxins but at the expense of healthful nutrients which also find it hard to penetrate.

After many years of eating cooked food we become hungry and malnourished. Raw food is organic which the body recognizes as food so has no need to build its mucus protection. If we replace our predominantly cooked diet with a mainly raw diet this mucus lining can be broken down to allow our digestive tract to work in the efficient manner it was designed for.



The more cooked food we eat the more waste and toxins accumulate in the body. This is a big attraction for bacteria whose job it is to break down these wastes and toxins. This includes harmful bacteria as well so people who eat mostly cooked food are very prone to infections. These bacteria are not interested in live healthy flesh (the same as in a forest , bacteria don’t touch healthy trees but as soon as one dies they move in to return it back to the soil) so a person who eats mainly raw food with a clean healthy body are infection free. Also in healthy bodies there is nothing for parasites to feed on so they leave! Mosquitoes won’t even bite!


As hinted previously milk is possibly the worst drink for a healthy body. The protein molecule is too big for the human body to break down leading to waste residue stored in the body. It is also highly acidifying leading to the loss of calcium and other related problems as discussed earlier. Replacing milk with soy milk is not a healthy solution either. Soy is the most mucus forming plant food on the planet.




Cooking produces free radicals in food (unpaired, charged molecules that cause cellular destruction) which are thought to be the primary environmental cause of aging. The higher the temperature the more free radicals released.


Fats are damaged by cooking changing them into trans fatty acids (which the body cannot recognize) which impede cellular respiration and can be a factor in heart disease and cancer. Excessive use of cooked oils also causes cravings for stimulants like alcohol and caffeine.


Food fibres are softened with cooking which can hamper intestinal motility. Cooked fibres become demagnetized and leave a slimy coating on the intestines which can cause gas, heartburn and bloating.


Cooking depletes the nutrients in food. It turns beautiful organic nourishment into dead inorganic non-food. It is difficult to feel satisfied and nourished on a cooked diet leading to overeating and obesity. Also protein in cooked food has only 50% bioavailability therefore we need to eat twice as much. Deaminated (destroyed) protein is linked to heart disease, cancer and arthritis.

Our bodies on a cooked food diet become so under nourished it wants more and more food in the vain hope it will get all the nutrients it requires. No wonder we are a nation of overweight, unhappy people. A person on a raw food diet can eat eight to ten times less than a cooked diet and still satisfy the body’s needs and not feel hungry.



In the light of the above it is a marvel and a credit to the bodies will to survive that we are still alive. Considering the highly acidic and toxic state of our insides it is no wonder we suffer many illnesses from the mildly annoying right through to life threatening. What a crime it is to be given such a perfect vehicle for our journey through earth life and to slowly but surely destroy it. Even more of a crime when the solution is so simple ‘ eat more raw foods ‘ the way nature intended.



By now hopefully you will feel the need to heed this advice but where to start? Whenever you increase your raw food intake , especially fruit and vegetables and raw juices - your liver will start to detoxify by removing waste and poisons. These are then removed from the body through the elimination channels , mainly kidneys, colon and skin.

The more you increase raw foods the more toxins will be released to be eliminated. If you have more toxins waiting to be eliminated than the body can deal with you may suffer side effects such as tiredness, headaches or irritability. This will also happen if you don’t drink enough water to help flush the toxins from your system.

If you feel too taxed decrease your intake of raw food until your body catches up. Also you may experience emotional turmoil as you release old stored emotions along with the toxins. Accept it as a normal and welcome cleansing and it will soon pass. Gradually build up your raw foods remembering the more raw you eat and the less cooked you eat the better off your body will be.

In as little time as a few weeks the difference in your health will be evident. Then you get to the stage of how much raw food should you eat. Obviously 100% raw would be ideal but we also have to live in the real world. Instead of trying to go 100% raw and failing and giving up altogether it would be better to aim for an attainable level , maybe 80% raw. Many people even recommend 50/50.

Once you start to eat raw foods you will feel so great you will probably want to eat more and more! Also a strange thing happens when you have a high raw diet , you loose the desire for cooked foods , the raw foods seem so delicious with their natural flavours and textures.

Raw food doesn’t have to be boring. There are many recipe books full of delicious recipes (see the accompanying list of suggested reading) When the body is functioning as it was meant to your weight will return to normal and you begin to feel wonderfully alive. Now that’s worshipping your temple!



‘If you don’t look after your body where else are you going to live?’



Suggested Reading





The Powerhouse Diet Lesley Kenton



The Raw Energy Bible Lesley Kenton



Twelve Steps to Raw Food Victoria Boutenko



Raw Food Life Force Energy Natalia Rose



Living in the Raw Gourmet Rose Lee Calabro



The Raw Food Detox Diet Natalia Rose



Rawsome Bridgette Mars



Fit for Life Not Fat for Life Harvey Diamond

 

[mcb]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

I was a vegan for a few years. I still use a lot of what I learned, but "listen to your body" has proven to be a much more useful guide than highly subjective writings from this camp or that camp.

I have what sounds like an interesting book in my to-read list, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham. I have long been curious about why we cook our food and this book offers some possible answers. I have also read that some domestic animals have evolved and adapted to eat cooked food. Around this house, we have two cats that were given their choices of some of the better raw cat food varieties available. They turned their noses up at all of it and we now feed them other high-quality (but not raw) foods.

I like to eat a combination of raw and cooked foods now, including some cooked meat, because that is what my body is telling me to eat. I am particular, though, about how the food was grown or raised, and I have been using the forum here to help navigate the huge amount of information and disinformation that is out there.

 

[Laura]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

When I realized that the raw food and vegetarian movements were full of alleged alien abductees, which we know is an STS phenomenon, I took a closer look at it and asked the Cs about it. Seems that aliens like to eat people who are vegetarians and who don't smoke.

 

[mcb]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

When I realized that the raw food and vegetarian movements were full of alleged alien abductees, which we know is an STS phenomenon, I took a closer look at it and asked the Cs about it. Seems that aliens like to eat people who are vegetarians and who don't smoke.

Maybe our cats don't want to be seen as "food" either. :)

 

[Al Today]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

... Seems that aliens like to eat people who are vegetarians and who don't smoke.

Yeah... I wanna be like this to them

 

[daco]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

When I realized that the raw food and vegetarian movements were full of alleged alien abductees, which we know is an STS phenomenon, I took a closer look at it and asked the Cs about it. Seems that aliens like to eat people who are vegetarians and who don't smoke.

I agree with that,but I must say something,my mom is on raw food last 2 years but not 100%.
Well raw food and people who are on this diet dont have problems in health,my mom have diabetes type 2 before and with this kind of food he normalize it and she is more healthier than before (that amaze me to becaouse I was skeptical about raw food) and what I now there are people who live over 100 years and they are on raw food.

Soo my point is that raw food may be good for diet but just for human health and nothing more.

 

[cholas]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

Hi wanderer33,
Based on being a ''mostly-fruitarian'', have you had any problems with candida?

From what I understand, most fruit has very high levels of sugar and for people eating a anti-candida diet, it should be avoided.

Also imo, articles about 'people should eat...'' attempt to fit everyone into the same shoe. Have you read Eat Right for Your Blood Type?

 

[Laura]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

People with diabetes also do well on the Ultra Simple diet. Maybe they do better?

 

[Turgon]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

... Seems that aliens like to eat people who are vegetarians and who don't smoke.

Yeah... I wanna be like this to them

When I realized that the raw food and vegetarian movements were full of alleged alien abductees, which we know is an STS phenomenon, I took a closer look at it and asked the Cs about it. Seems that aliens like to eat people who are vegetarians and who don't smoke.

This might explain why most of the vegans I've met are complete nutbars! They are some of the pushiest, narrow-minded, self-important people I've ever met in my life! Can't speak for all, but definitely a good portion of the ones I've met. It's almost this militant attitude towards veganism, an us vs them mentality. Really freaky, because its supposedly a noble cause, but the way they act in relation to that cause doesn't add up.

 

[Al Today]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

... It's almost this militant attitude towards veganism, an us vs them mentality. ...

Yep, seems to be perhaps what is called in the software industry as a canned program. Pull off the shelf, populate the parameters and install the download. Fine tuned beyond my understanding. Populates this current model with a basic attitude of dominance and disruption, based upon various subjects. Perhaps with the purpose of creating high quality emotional distress. I say Food for the Moon because I don't KNOW what is fer real. . The truth. I've run into militant anti-smokers, religionists, racists, gays, conservatives, liberals, whatever social issue that one chooses to be dominant alpha dude or dudette within.
They are out there. As George W. said:

You're either with me or agin me.

I betcha to pick an area and there are closed minded agenda oriented individuals ready & willing to step up onto the soapbox of superiority.

If only they could realize there is so much more to life than these petty distractions.

Forgive me going , I had to post.

Thank you Laura for all you do. I've been reading and experimenting with inflammation. It is reassuring (fun) to learn and understand (learing) how things work. Thank You.

 

[wanderer33]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

LOL @ Chola. I'm a male and have never in my life suffered from Candida.

Daniel, your statement is a little judgmental and I note a slightly defensive attitude. :D

I'm not pushing a diet on anyone, though the friend who wrote that article is certainly pushy and does tend to
do that. Best to laugh.

Laura, I'm going to smoke cigarettes and stay on the diet. :lol

The Indian food diet is no chore it is absolutely delicious and milk curd (I make it myself) is a fantastic meat substitute.

In my view, the health aspects are secondary.

Ever been in an abattoir? If not, don't go. These are hellish places of misery, fear and blood.

In the early part of the CASS material, Laura performed a hypno session with a lady who has an experience of being an insect
and eating children. I think it becomes explained that we are a sort of farm for things that want to eat us. In a way I think there is a karma lesson here, a balancing act. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.... it cannot be argued that the slaughterhouse society does not contribute to the suffering of the world. It does.

We eat higher species in the animal kingdom, in China they eat dogs and cats which are beings which are close to taking birth in human form. From the perspective of lizards, they probably justify their food source in the same way meat eaters do. Also, there is often the statement by ETs to abductees that "you asked for it". I think in some way meat eating relates to that statement.

In ancient times, in India, a Vedic hunter would say the following to an animal who he had just slain for food...." I have taken your life in this life and I give you permission to take my life in a future life".

The simple question, is it right to contribute to the suffering of higher species because we cannot control our tongue's desire?

 

[anart]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

LOL @ Chola. I'm a male and have never in my life suffered from Candida.

You do realize that males can be as riddled with candida as females, right? How do you know you've never had a problem with candida - most people who are riddled with it have no idea until they try to address the problem.

You appear to be the one who is defensive with this post of yours, wanderer33, perhaps you're a bit identified with your choice of food?

 

[cholas]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

I'm a male and have never in my life suffered from Candida.

Candida in it's various forms affects all people, not just women, if that's what you are getting at. There are some very good threads on candida in this same section as it has been discussed at length here.

We eat higher species in the animal kingdom, in China they eat dogs and cats which are beings which are close to taking birth in human form.

I'm not sure there is much evidence to support this claim.??

The simple question, is it right to contribute to the suffering of higher species because we cannot control our tongue's desire?

If you have read thru this section, not to mention the Wave series, you would likely see that diet is a bit more than a simple sensational desire.

Fwiw wanderer, I think Daniel has a pretty good point and having been a strict vegetarian and vegan myself at one time, I concur with his statements. Your posts in this thread actually have a small amount of this same self-righteousness as well and I mean no disrespect in saying such.

There has been lots of research dug up in this forum in regard to diet and I don't think most would agree with the Vedic/Hindu style of kharma when it comes to killing for food. We all are STS here and by nature will, for the moment, have to kill,whether it be plant or animal in order to sustain ourselves.

For the most part, understanding this reality and being able to deal with it and it's various forms of attack requires a certain amount of energy and for most people, eating nothing but fruit in order to avoid killing anything(to have good/clean karma?) is not an option.

Speaking for myself, loosing this type of self-importance was a big step in my own growth and not easy. To go from telling people they should not kill animals for food to eating a more balanced diet with meat took some tail-tucking for certain. ;)

 

[Gertrudes]

Re: Any fruitarians or raw food people.

Wanderer33, I don't have the answer to all your questions for I lack the knowledge particularly in what concerns raw versus cooked food. But here are my thoughts after reading your last post:

I agree that abattoirs are a complete hell. Not to mention the conditions in which animals live their lifetime just to feed a growing human population. It is beyond horrific, no words can convey it.
Nevertheless, I don't agree with you here:

In my view, the health aspects are secondary.

I think not only they are not secondary, but are essential. I have been vegetarian for 6 years, only to find out that I am much stronger and healthier with some animal protein. I don't really eat a lot of meat or fish, I have medium to small portions, but it seems to be exactly what my body needs. And that is a fact that I really can't close my eyes to.
Now, back to the absolutely horrific conditions in which most animals are imprisoned and the food and poisonous hormones they are fed. I think it is up to each of us to do our own research to find proper meat. And by proper meat I mean animals that had good living conditions, being given space to wander around in the fields or wherever their nature has made them wander, being fed proper food, food that they are by nature designed to eat, and very importantly, being treated with respect. How can you tell this is being done? I think you can go wrong, but you have less chances to go wrong if you do your research.
A few months ago, I decided not to allow any meat in my house from animals that didn't have good living conditions, or whose source I didn't know. So far, I have been able to do a few changes, not as many as I would have wished to, but have been researching a lot and found quite a number of farms with what appears to be high standards of care for their animals. I am planing to set a few orders soon.

The simple question, is it right to contribute to the suffering of higher species because we cannot control our tongue's desire?

Currently as I see it, there is no way I am going to spare another being from suffering in this world, unless I starve myself to death. But then I am hurting myself. Even if I stop eating meat, what about the plants? Are they not beings in their own right? And these thoughts did wonder in my mind for quite a while. I think that in this 3D STS world, again, there is no way one can live without feeding on another being's life. What I can do, is respect that same life that I am consuming, and make sure I am not contributing to the appalling conditions some animals are treated by buying from their providers. So I carefully study who I buy from.

I have what sounds like an interesting book in my to-read list, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham. I have long been curious about why we cook our food and this book offers some possible answers.

Thanks for this suggestion Megan. I'm going to add it to my wish list, as I have always wondered the same :)