Food in its Natural State

Raw Food.

Perhaps a better name would be natural food.

You’ve probably heard about Raw Food, also known as Living Foods and Natural Hygiene. All words, that when first heard, may denote some negative images. Raw Food makes me think of raw meat, Living Foods causes me to think of actually living meat and growing vegetables, and Natural Hygiene has me thinking about natural soap and feminine products. But what it really does mean is eating fruits, vegetables and grains in their natural state, being not cooked and not processed.

For 4 million years we humans ate raw food, our entire bodily systems evolved around this very life sustaining practice. Cooking food causes a variety of changes to the nutrient value of it. Cooking our fruits and vegetables ruins the ‘structured water’ in these items making it less biologically processable. Cooking also destroys 50 percent of that food’s protein and 50 – 80 percent of the vitamins and minerals are destroyed. Cooking breaks down pesticides into more easily assimilated compounds, leading to a loss in oxygen and an increase in free radicals.

Perhaps the most important aspect of cooking our food is the destruction of needed enzymes. These enzymes are required for every chemical reaction in our bodies, such as cellular division, immune system functions, energy production, and brain activity. The vitamins and minerals cannot provide their functions without enzymes. Our hormones need enzymes to function properly.

There are 100,000 different enzymes with difference tasks, belonging to two different groups of enzymes, metabolic enzymes and digestive enzymes. Our food in it’s natural state contains the perfect mix of digestive (food) enzymes needed to break it down. Cooking food over 118 degrees destroys these enzymes leaving our bodies to generate the needed enzymes.

Our bodies are established with a particular number of enzymes, we are not able to re-establish this or any amount of enzymes once they are low or depleted. Because natural food contains the appropriate and necessary enzymes to digest itself, we do not cause any depletion in our enzyme stores. A cooked meal will need some of our numbered enzymes to help break it down and the enzymes we provide are not the exact metabolizing mix required for perfect digestion. This leads to partially fats, proteins and starches that will clog up our intestinal tract and arteries.
By the time we are 85 years old, we have 1/30th the enzyme activity of an 18 year old. Running out of enzymes is aging in action. Less enzymes causes cells to stop dividing and an immune system that now has trouble coping with what had been normal immune system functions. When cooked food is eaten, our bodies actually attack it with leukocytes, the white blood cell defense line of our immune system. These cells will bring enzymes to the cooked food to break it down and eliminate it, treating this cooked food as an evader.

We live four times our maturation age, which doesn’t sound too bad, but nature’s mammals (which we are – mammals) live 8 – 10 times their maturation age. Studies have been done to proof this point, in the famous Pottinger Cat Study, where the cats that ate raw food lived 50 percent longer – and healthy – than the cooked food fed cats.

If we pay close attention to our bodies; we will see the signs that will prove to us that raw/natural state foods are the healthiest way to go. Please consider that we often we confuse some signs with a positive meaning. For example, a large meat and potatoes dinner, we feel full, satisfied and relaxed. In reality, the heavy carbs and cooked foods have drugged us, hence the feeling of being relaxed. Raw Food enthusiasts state that there are other bonuses as well, such as not having to cook, no pots and pans to wash, more energy, needing less sleep, and weight loss. Some of the down sides would be menu limitations at restaurants and still some prep time in creating recipes from scratch. If all raw is too much to start with, try one meal a day, then 50% of your daily intake, then ideally, 80% raw would bring most of the sought after health benefits.

There are many raw and living foods ‘cook’ books out there. Check to see if special equipment is required, like a dehydrator or grinder. For a beginner, I would select a book that did not require any special kitchen equipment, or if you don’t like to be in the kitchen much anyways, select a book that used lesser amounts of ingredients and basic kitchen appliances. Applying a raw food diet into your life may also be easier in the summer than in the winter. Adding more natural fruits and vegetables into your life and body can only add positive and healthy benefits.

Indigo Earth Notes: Seemingly, one would think that eating unprocessed foods would be easy . . . fruits and vegetables right out of the fridge. But our hurried days and fast food conveniences are ingrained in us and will be tough to change. We believe that carbs, sugars, fats and salts do have some addictive qualities, some stronger than others, thus adding to the difficulty. One of the easier methods we had for adding fruits was simply a fruit salad, homemade with the fruits we like, and real whip-it-yourself whipping cream (no, unfortunately, whipping cream is not officially on the raw food list), but kids love it and all the adults will savor it. It's a start.