The Raw Food Feed

No healthy meal is complete without vegetables. Not only do vegetables fortify our health, they also add visual appeal and flavour to the meal.

Loaded with anti-oxidants, phyto-chemicals, vitamins, minerals and fibre, this low-calorie high-nutrient group is one of the most valuable elements in our current lifestyles. You can eat a lot of vegetables without worrying much about calories. They can almost be treated as free foods, with the exception of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other starches which need to be watched.

The debate around vegetables has been whether they are best eaten raw or cooked. It was first proposed as early as the 1930s that raw food and cooked food might affect the body differently, when Dr Paul Kouchakoff presented his work on feeding experiments at the First International Congress of Microbiology.

Evidence suggests that cooked vegetables have some harmful effects, as cooking destroys nutrients and enzymes. However, cooking kills potentially harmful organisms and makes food safe, increases the bio-availability of certain nutrients and improves digestibility.

The truth is that vegetables are beneficial both in the raw and cooked state.

Cooking vegetables decreases water-soluble and heat-sensitive nutrients, such as Vitamin C, B-vitamins and folic acid. In fact, it was reported that salad and raw vegetable consumption has been found to be positively associated with higher levels of these nutrients among adults in the US population. It showed higher levels of these nutrients among salad eaters suggested better absorption.

Heat also destroys some enzymes. Garlic and cruciferous vegetables (like cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts) contain special enzymes with anti-cancer properties. However, heating these vegetables destroys these properties. One of the common examples is garlic, which contains the enzyme alliinase that converts alliin to allicin. It is activated by crushing or cutting garlic and can be completely deactivated by 60 seconds of microwave heating. However, when garlic is crushed and allowed to stand for 10 minutes prior to being microwaved for 60 seconds, it retains some of its enzyme activity.

Increasing cooking time and temperatures of vegetables creates some harmful by-products called dietary advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). AGEs in our food can lead to several diseases including allergies, digestive disorders, arthritis, asthma, aches and pains and accelerate ageing.

In addition to loss of nutrients, enzyme activity and formation of AGEs, cooking vegetables is likely to affect their glycemic indices.

Glycemic index is the ability of carbohydrates in food to raise blood sugar levels. As the digestibility improves, the carbohydrate availability would also increase. Therefore, raw vegetables may be more useful for weight watchers and diabetics.

Most vegetables, when consumed raw, leave an alkaline ash which helps in better absorption of several nutrients. Raw vegetables have been found to be strongly associated with protection against cancer, particularly esophageal, gastric, and breast cancers than cooked vegetables.

While there are some losses during cooking, it also has some positive effects. Besides making it safer, cooking vegetables increases the bio-availability of Vitamin A.

A study found that heating tomatoes significantly increased lycopene content and anti-oxidant activity despite a decrease in Vitamin C. Studies of colorectal cancer showed both raw and cooked vegetables to be inversely associated with risk.

Make sure you have a good mix of both raw and cooked vegetables to maximise their benefits. Remember that salads, vegetable juices and raw vegetables can be a source of infection and eat these only at hygienic places.

Excerpt from “The Raw Food Solution: How To Create Vibrant Health With A Raw Food Diet“.

When someone says that they eat a 100% raw food diet it really doesn’t give us a great deal of information regarding the quality of their diet or whether it is appropriate for their individual health challenges. Someone could be eating 100% raw while living on raw chocolate, raw cookies and raw ice cream! Obviously this is not a health promoting diet as it is loaded in fat, sugar and calories; a combination that can dramatically increase the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and cancer, among other health problems.

In comparison, another person may be consuming some raw foods such as fresh fruit and salads, in combination with certain cooked foods, such as steamed vegetables, baked potatoes, quinoa and lentil soup. Even though the diet of the second person may only be 50% raw their overall dietary picture is much more supportive of health in general.

What it is important to remember is that just because a food is raw it doesn’t necessarily mean it will always be superior to another cooked food. Due to this mistaken belief many raw foodists consume an excessive amount of nuts, oils and dried fruits, when in actuality they would generally be much better off substituting some of these foods for healthy cooked foods such as steamed broccoli, lentils or sweet potatoes.

However, we do know that in order to overcome chronic illness, promote optimal immune function and support long-term health it is absolutely vital to maintain a high intake of raw fruit and vegetables.

According to the results of one in-depth study of five hundred participants who consumed a diet containing a minimum of 80% raw food for a period of two years, immunity was improved by 93.4%, compared to a standard diet. In support of this research, as well as the knowledge gained from many years of experience, most raw food experts agree that in most cases it is necessary that the diet contains a minimum of 80% raw foods in order for benefits to be achieved in regards to promoting a recovery from chronic illness.

It is also essential to consider that since we are all unique, there may be some people that require an even higher intake of raw foods in order to achieve a complete health recovery. It is quite likely that this could be a vital element to give certain individuals that extra edge they need so as to cross the threshold into optimal health.

Moreover, there are also some raw food advocates who maintain that a 100% raw diet is essential for health recovery and it may well be that this is necessary in certain situations. Max Bircher Benner, who is one of the founding fathers of the raw food movement, stated that people who are ill must eat 100% raw in order to completely recover. He asserted that only healthy people have the capacity to digest cooked foods, and even then cooked foods should comprise no more than 50% of the diet.

Jan Dries is another advocate of a strict raw food diet for healing purposes. In his book, The Dries Cancer Diet: A Practical Guide to the Use of Fresh Fruit and Raw Vegetables in the Treatment of Cancer, he explains that when diet is utilized as a tool for cancer recovery, patients must adhere to a high-fruit, raw food diet for at least the first three months, after which the diet can be relaxed to a degree if desired.

It is interesting to note however that Dries offers dieters some flexibility within the strict application of the diet. He states that it is a mistake to attempt to make the diet completely pure, because these greater flexibility improves enjoyment of food as well as promoting better digestion and this will ultimately result in more positive outcomes.

The start of summer is the perfect time to enjoy delicious, sizzling meals straight off the grill! Meatless grilling is an easy way to enjoy seasonal flavors without ruining your swimsuit diet. Plus, the occasional vegetarian dish can help you incorporate more vitamin-packed vegetables into your diet and reduce your risk of certain chronic diseases.

“Americans love grilling and eating a lot of meat, but consuming red and processed meat, like our beloved hamburgers and hot dogs, has been linked to a host of illnesses including diabetes, heart disease and various forms of cancer,” says Allison Cappelaere, Registered Dietitian and Project Director for the Johns Hopkins Meatless Monday Project. “What’s more, cooking and grilling meat at high temperatures - especially when charred - releases cancer-causing compounds and increases health risks.”

It’s easy to remember to cut back with Meatless Monday, a public health campaign that encourages individuals to start the week with healthy meals. Founded in 2003 and backed by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the campaign has become an international movement with support from celebrities, chefs, schools and communities.

So fire up the grill and take a break from meat with these 10 easy summer grilling tips:

1. Kabobs are a BBQ staple that can easily go meatless. Add tofu cubes, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, roasted potatoes or any other vegetable that strikes your fancy.

2. Many vegetables can be thrown right on the grill (with delicious results)! Try fresh corn, asparagus, eggplant, zucchini, squash or bell peppers.

3. You can also add fruit to the grill for a sweet side or dessert. Try peach halves, pineapples, melon, kiwi or figs with a touch of honey marinade.

4. Swap your burger for a portobello mushroom or grilled eggplant slices. Put it on a bun and add interesting toppings like avocados, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, or an olive spread.

5. Try a veggie burger recipe that celebrates hearty ingredients like black beans, lentils, quinoa and chickpeas. You can also find pre-made patties at supermarkets and natural food stores.

6. All you need is pizza dough, the usual toppings and your favorite thinly sliced or pre-grilled vegetables to make a delicious, smoky pie right on the grill.

7. Use your favorite marinade recipe to add flavor to extra firm tofu cubes. Grill them up and add them to a salad, serve with veggies, or enjoy them on their own.

8. Try grilled vegetables to make a filling summer salad. Add a bit of fruit, feta or olive oil to complete the dish; or think beyond lettuce and concoct a bean or grain salad.

9. Consider your sides when planning a meatless BBQ. Pasta salads, raw vegetables and hummus dip are great ways to turn your plant-based dishes into a full meal.

10. End the meal on a healthy note with a tray of fresh fruit, a parfait or homemade smoothies.

Have you ever wondered why eating a fresh, raw, garden salad can leave you feeling light and energized but eating a cheeseburger can leaving you feeling tired and bloated?  Raw fruits and vegetables, like lettuce, cucumbers and apples, contain enzymes.  Enzymes help the body digest food and assimilate nutrients from proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and plant fibers.In addition, enzymes assist in all chemical reactions taking place in the body.  Enzymes are known as the “sparks of life,” and are essential for digesting food.  

According to The Prescription for Nutritional Healing, there are two types of enzymes that are essential for digestion: food enzymes and digestive enzymes.  Food enzymes are found in raw fruits and vegetables.  Raw fruits and vegetables have not been subjected to processing or heat cooking.  Food enzymes are extremely sensitive to heat an dare destroyed at approximately 118 degrees Fahrenheit.  Raw fruits and vegetables contain all the food enzymes needed to properly digest that particular food.  Unfortunately, raw fruits and vegetables do not always contain all the enzymes needed for proper digestion of certain cooked foods like meat, bread and pasteurized dairy. 

The other type of enzymes, digestive enzymes, are produced in the body and are needed to break down foods. This includes cooked foods.  The proper breakdown of foods allows the nutrients to be absorbed into the blood stream for use in the body.  There are three main types of digestive enzymes: amylase, protease and lipase.  Amylase assists in the breakdown of carbohydrates, protease assists in the breakdown of protein and lipase assists in the breakdown of fat.  Bloating, gas and indigestion can be a result of the body not manufacturing enough digestive enzymes.  Eating a cheeseburger can leave you feeling bloated and tired because the body might not be producing enough digestive enzymes to break down the cooked food. 

Before there were stoves, crockpots and ovens to cook food, humans ate their food raw. Eating raw foods is nothing new, but recently many raw food zealots are loudly proclaiming the benefits of eating food in its natural, uncooked state. Raw foodists avoid eating any food that’s been heated above 116 degrees Fahrenheit. The raw food movement does have some science behind it. Some studies show that eating a diet of mostly raw foods reduces the risk of breast cancer, high blood pressure and obesity. Even if you’re not ready to jump on the raw food bandwagon and eat a raw food diet, there are still some good reasons to add more raw foods to your diet.

Some Nutrients Are Destroyed by Cooking Food

Some foods lose some of their vitamin and antioxidant power when you heat them. Vitamin C is especially sensitive to heat, and vitamins A, E and B1 are also partially destroyed by cooking. Vitamins A, C and E are antioxidant vitamins so you may lose some of the antioxidant benefits of vegetables if you cook them. When you cook them in water, many of the nutrients are poured down the sink instead of doing good things for your body. On the other hand, the absorption of some nutrients is increased by cooking them. Two examples are the lycopenes in tomatoes and the carotenes in carrots.

Does Cooking Foods Cause Free Radicals to Form?

The other argument raw food zealots make is heating food to high temperatures causes some of the nutrients in foods to change in structure so that they form free radicals. Free radicals have the ability to damage other cells and cause changes that could lead to cancer. It’s not clear how much of a problem this actually is, but you don’t have to worry about it when you eat foods in their uncooked state.

Raw Food May Be Helpful for Weight Loss

When you eat raw fruits and vegetables, you’re getting the benefits of their high water content, which helps to suppress appetite. When you cook fruits and vegetables you reduce their water content and usually add a high calorie sauce. This means you take in more calories. People who switch to eating mostly raw foods often have an easier time controlling their weight.

Cooking Some Foods Creates Harmful Compounds

When you grill or cook meats to high temperatures, they form cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines. When you grill, fry, roast or bake foods that contain the amino acid asparagine in the absence of water it produces compounds called acrylamides that are potentially carcinogenic. Acrylamides are found in some cereals, cookies, bread, snack products and are formed when potatoes and some vegetables are roasted, baked or grilled. Raw foods are free of acrylamide and HCA.

Raw Foods Are Good in Moderation

Eating raw fruits and vegetables has health benefits, but eating raw meat or dairy products may put you at risk for food poisoning. One study showed that people who eat raw food diets have lower bone densities. They’re also at higher risk of being deficient in iron, zinc, vitamin B12 and calcium.

The Bottom Line?

You don’t have to become a hardcore raw vegan to get the health benefits of a raw food diets. Simply replace some of the cooked foods in your diet with salads, raw nuts and seeds or enjoy a smoothie made from raw fruits and vegetables. You’ll get some of the benefits of a raw food diet without the risk of being deficient in critical vitamins and nutrients such as vitamin B12. Eating raw veggies and fruits can also help you control your weight.

Source: http://cathe.com/4-reasons-to-add-more-raw-foods-to-your-diet

For an easy, on the go raw food meal replacement, visit us at www.rawconvenience.com

A cosmetic surgeon specializing in alternative medicine on Monday urged employees of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables to avoid cancer. 

Dr. Rommel Gloria, who was guest during Monday’s flag raising rites PIA, said that eating the right food keeps people away from illnesses and diseases. 

“Stay away from processed foods. You may use raw vegetables in making a combination veggie-fruit juice by using a blender so you can have a healthy meal,” Gloria explained in an interview by the PIA-National Capital Region after his talk on health and wellness. 

“From the green leafy vegetables, we can get the right calcium which will be absorbed by our body,” Gloria said. 

“Eighty percent of premature deaths can be avoided through healthy food,” he said. “Avoid smoking and regular exercise for at least 30 minutes, kicking the smoking habit, cutting intake of red meat like steak and increasing consumption of fiber-rich vegetables and fruits will help prevent the cancer disease.” 

Gloria said that a high intake of red or processed and barbecued meats, obesity or excess fat around the waist, smoking, excessive consumption of alcohol and a sedentary lifestyle were among the risk factors that can be controlled. 

Some of the notable vegetarians are tennis player Martina Navratilova of Czehoslovakia and U.S. football player Joe Namath. 

Gloria said vegetarian food, as part of anti-aging care, is also key to health and good basis for studies involving cancer alternative treatments. 

He also said people can regain physical and mental balance by returning to traditional diet of whole natural foods. 

Gloria said Macrobiotics and similar vegetarian diets are arguably preventive for cancers that were closely associated with high fat Western diet. 

He said fiber helps decrease colon and rectal cancer. This cancer diet cure could be obtained from vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. 

“Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts should be taken regularly to detoxify cancer-causing chemicals. The phytochemicals in these vegetables may detoxify cancer-causing chemicals. He said this is best when you eat more or undercook,” he explained. 

“Allum vegetables such as onion, garlic, chives to prevent cancer. These sulphur containing chemicals in alum vegetables may help prevent cancer. You need to eat more of these vegetables,” he said. 

“Beta-carotene for at least 15 mg. Vitamin E for at least 400 IU. Selenium for at least 50 ug. Daily supplement helps reduced cancer especially the stomach and the esophagus cancer,” he added.

Source: http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?article=2271337573555

For an easy, on the go raw food meal replacement, visit us at www.rawconvenience.com

A sweet smell enveloped the room Thursday night in Willard Hall as university alumna Christa Smedile prepared one of her “green smoothies,” made with organic kale, mango, pineapple, banana and water.

Smedile spoke to a room of 18 students and community members about the benefits of the raw food movement. She says her interest in holistic health and disease prevention attracted her to the diet.

“The raw food diet really caught my attention because it was something I had never heard about before,” Smedile says. “It really made sense to me because we are eating a lot of packaged and processed foods in the standard American diet.”

Smedile graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and dietetics in 2006, after which she completed a year-long internship in dietetics and became a registered dietician. She currently works at Alere, a health enhancement company in Philadelphia, and owns a business called Living Lotus, which focuses on nutrition, exercise and stress management.

Smedile says the raw food diet is made up of 75 to 100 percent unprocessed, whole-plant based, and preferably organic, food. In order to retain its enzymes, the food cannot be cooked above 118 degrees Farenheit.

Although her diet is not completely raw, she begins each morning with a green smoothie, which includes at least one dark, leafy green vegetable like kale or spinach, and tries to eat seven to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Smedile says she is 95 percent vegetarian and eats locally and organically as much as she can.

“I think it just bumps up your quality of life so much that you are really living a vital life,” she says. “There’s a difference between being healthy and vital and being without disease. Lots of people are without disease, but they’re not really living their life to the max.”

Smedile’s workshop was hosted by the Food and Garden Policy Committee, a graduate student organization started two years ago. The organization currently operates a garden behind the English Language Institute on Main Street that includes community beds where students can grow anything they want and a section where members teach students how to garden.

Junior Elizabeth Hetterly, a member of the committee, heard Smedile speak on campus last fall and attempted to follow her diet suggestions.

“I had heard about the raw food movement before, but I didn’t really know that much about it,” Hetterly says. “After hearing her [Smedile] speak at the last workshop, I tried out a couple of recipes and I tried being at least half raw but it was really challenging.”

She says if she found more recipes she liked, she would consider trying the raw food diet again. However, she still enjoys a green smoothie every morning, her favorite of which includes banana, orange, strawberry and either kale or chard. She says by replacing her daily cup of coffee with the smoothie, she has considerably increased her energy level.

“It’s definitely more long-lasting and more stable,” she says. “It’s not a sharp peak and a drop. You get energy and it’s consistent throughout the day.”

Senior Kayley Hassler, a human services major with a focus in nutritional counseling, says she was inspired by the workshop. Although she does not follow a raw food diet, she says she has prepared a lot of smoothies and juices and would consider trying it.

“You look better, you feel better, you are better,” Hassler says.