“IN THE FIRST AGE FOOD CAME BY WISHING AND GREW FROM EARTH WITHOUT TENDING.” — Ramayana
“ELECTRIC FOODS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF HEALING. THEY MAKE THE BODY ALKALINE. THESE ARE ALL FOODS THAT ARE ABLE TO GROW IN THE WILD.” — Annie & Dr. David Jubb, Colloidal Biology & Secrets Of An Alkaline Body
The basis of natural nutrition is wild, raw plant food. The Germans call this “original food.” It has been the original food here since the beginning of time.
Wild food connects you immediately to the land. Eating wild food growing in your area acclimates you to the environment. I used to suffer from all kinds of allergies: hay fever, pollen, feline, etc. I completely conquered my allergies by undertaking The Sunfood Diet, by eating wild indigenous food, using MSM powder in my drinking water and through homeopathy. People who are allergic to the pollens of local plants can eliminate these allergies by eating local wild leaves, flowers, fruits, honeys and acclimating themselves to the environment. Many people never eat anything growing locally or wildly in their life! This is not the lifestyle for which we were designed.
Wild food is a revelation. When you eat wild food you will discover how domesticated standard food really is. As long as one is eating a wide variety of mineral-rich, wild, raw plant food, one stands ready to experience outstanding levels of clarity, compassion, vitality, health and connection with nature.
Brian Clement, director of Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida, has reported that, based on his research, wild greens have the highest energy frequency of any food. I have experienced their energy first-hand by eating plenty of wild green salads. They send me into a new plane of thought. Evenings after eating such meals are filled with incredible clarity of thought and electricity.
Seaweeds and sea vegetables of all kinds have never been cultivated. They are still in their wild unaltered form. They fit within the wild raw plant-food category, and are high in trace minerals. This is an important factor in a world where many are suffering from endemic mineral deficiencies brought about by consuming pharmaceuticals, chemicals, pesticides and cooked conventional foods that drain the vital energy.
Wild Fruit
Wild food is Sunfood — food grown in abundance under the Sun (and moon!), not under artificial conditions of any type. It is food as the Earth has given it to us in its normal state. Wild food is true to our Creator’s original intent.
Store-bought fruitarianism is not workable in the long-term. Fruit enthusiasts should seek out perfectly ripe fruit. Perfectly ripe fruit picked fresh, “from the tree right to me,” is an unmatched experience.
Wild fruit is high in minerals, and always lower in sugar than commercial fruit. It is less stimulating and thus is closer to the center point of The Sunfood Triangle.
Wild fruits are the sustenance of the immortals. Fruit has tremendous spiritual power. The more natural (nonhybridized) the fruit is, the greater its spiritual value.
Common fruits which are close to the wild state and/or are extremely viable when grown from seed include: avocados, cherimoyas, crab apples, guavas, heavily-seeded citrus fruits, jackfruits, mangos, most melons, most peppers or chilies, papayas, peaches, tomatoes, tomatilloes, olives, white sapotes and others.
A Kirlian image of the developing head of asparagus.
A good quality citrus fruit should contain 14-15 seeds, even if the fruit is small in size. The more seeds in citrus, the better. The less seeds in citrus, the more hybridized or grafted is the strain. After you purchase or pick them, keep citrus fruits in Sunlight or on the windowsill so they remain at their maximum nutritive value and quality. The more ripe and Sun-exposed the citrus fruits, the sweeter and less acidic are its contents.
Common vegetables which are close to the wild state and/or are extremely viable when grown from seed include: dandelion, garlic, kale, lamb’s quarters, malva, mint, mustard, onions, watercress, wintercress and others.
One of my favorite wild foods is malva (mallow). Malva seems to love growing on the outskirts of civilization — in canyons, back alleys and back yards. Malva is one of those phenomenal greens that tastes incredible when eaten alone. In the winter I typically start off the morning with fruit blended with superfoods, then eat malva for lunch and have a salad with some raw plant fats for dinner along with vegetable juice.
Common nuts and seeds which are close to the wild state and/or are extremely viable when grown from seed include: coconut, macadamia, quinoa and sunflower.
Every locale you find yourself in possesses wild foods with which to eat and live. Get out and explore your local canyons, fields, forests, hills, valleys and mountains. A great reference book is Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide by Elias & Dykeman. Take it with you on your hikes and identify your local edible greenery.
In his writings, the herbalist Earl Mindell has confirmed my experience. He has described that less than 1% of all plants are poisonous to eat.
The power of wild foods cannot be underestimated. Eating wild plant foods reconnects you with Nature in a most profound way. One time I was out hiking in a canyon near my home. On the way, I encountered several children ranging in age from seven to ten. We started talking and soon agreed that I would show them all the edible, interesting and poisonous plants growing in the area. We had an extraordinary time together. After several hours, all the children had gone home except one. The two of us were hiking up a hill through brush on our way to a field of young dandelion when we almost walked into a coyote. The coyote looked at us and bolted away. The young child’s eyes were wide open. Although earlier he had told me he had seen coyotes, I knew after that incident he had not — at least not like this. These moments are priceless, and this moment all came about in the fun of foraging for wild food.
The goal is to eat the highest quality food possible — the best food ever! The more mineralized and natural your food, the more mineralized and natural you will become. Wild plant foods make you strong and robust and put you “in tune” with your local natural environment.
If you cannot get wild food, or it is impractical, please eat organic. You deserve it. You are worth it! You and your family are worth more than anything on Earth; give your family the best fuel possible. The organic farmers also deserve your support for not spraying pesticides (poisons) on the Earth. If you have to pay twice as much or more for organic food, do it. It is an investment in yourself (which always comes back multiplied). Organic food has more vitality, minerals and value than commercial food. In my experience it is totally worth paying even three to four times as much money for organic food.
Although animal and dairy products are a source of vitamin B12, the natural soil microbes, insects and bacteria found on wild food, unwashed garden plants, in earthy soil and also those supplied by plant fermentation, are typically adequate to supply some vitamin B12 needs. The natural microbes and bacteria in the soil need to be duplicated and colonize in our intestinal tract for optimal absorption of nutrients and elimination of waste without excessive fermentation or internal putrefaction. Vitamin B12 is produced by these natural microbes and bacteria as they colonize the intestines. The best source of these organisms is wild, unwashed food.
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) represents a family of compounds that are one hundred times the molecular size of any other vitamin and contain the mineral cobalt. Vitamin B12 helps maintain the myelin sheaths that insulate the nerve fibers. Problems with vitamin B12 absorption and assimilation can result in nerve degeneration. A vitamin B12 deficiency, when in conjunction with a folate deficiency (due to a lack of green-leafy vegetables), can also cause pernicious anemia.
A problem with the formation of vitamin B12 occurs when there is a sterilization that happens between the picking of the fruit or vegetable and the moment it reaches one’s mouth. Sterile environments are unnatural. The soil microbes and bacteria that grow on raw fruits and vegetables need to be duplicated in the intestinal tract for the proper assimilation of vitamin B12 to take place. Dr. Victor Herbert described in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1988, vol. 48, p. 852-858) the experiences of Dr. James Halsted who traveled to Persia to study a colony of Iranian vegans who did not experience any vitamin B12 deficiencies. He found that their naturally fertilized vegetables were eaten without being carefully washed. He discovered that strict vegetarians who do not practice thorough hand washing or vegetable cleaning may be untroubled by a vitamin B12 deficiency.
Studies have shown that those eating a typical diet of animal products actually require more vitamin B12 than those who do not eat animal products. This is because the typical diet leads to digestive atrophy. Because vitamin B12 is peptide bound in animal products and must be enzymatically cleaved from the peptide bonds to be absorbed, a weakening of all gastric enzyme secretions (due to poor nutrition) causes an inability to efficiently extract vitamin B12 from external food. Raw-food vegans with powerful digestion, actually get more vitamin B12 by reabsorption from the bile (liver secretions into the duodenum) than they do from external food.
The vitamin B12 standards recommended based on studies of the average cooked-food consumer are 0.0000001 ounces (3-4 micrograms) per day. Studies by Dr. Victor Herbert reported in the American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition (1988, vol.48, p. 852-858) demonstrate that only 0.000000035 ounces (1 microgram) of vitamin B12 are required per day. This is enough to produce a “beautiful hematologic response.” These minimum vitamin B12 requirements are inadequate to explain the needs of well nourished individuals with strong digestion who require even less vitamin B12 due to excellent gastric strength, enzymatic activity and a high ability to recycle vitamin B12.
Dr. Gabriel Cousens, a long-term raw-food vegetarian, has included an excellent discussion of vitamin B12 in his book Conscious Eating and on the Internet. Dr. Cousens feels that a vitamin B12 deficiency, which is rare, is typically caused by a lack of absorption in the intestinal tract or a dietary lack of the vitamin. He states that vegetarian and meat-eating pregnant and lactating women alike seem to be susceptible to a vitamin B12 deficiency. He states that macrobioticists and fruitarians may also be susceptible. I have found that individuals who have damaged their digestive system with a high-protein diet are susceptible as well. A link seems to be present between weak digestion and vitamin B12 assimilation.
My own experience working with people who I have discovered were vitamin B12 deficient corroborates Dr. Cousens’ hypothesis, but I have narrowed it down to a more specific cause: poor hydrochloric acid production and/or low levels of intestinal flora.
Sugar, as I have mentioned, is an antibiotic. So a long-term high-sugar diet, whether the sugar is coming from refined sources or hybridized fruit, can damage or wipe out the intestinal flora.
Cooking also destroys microbes. A highly-sterilized, cooked-vegan diet (macrobiotics) may not provide the intestines with enough excellent flora.
To insure an excellent quality of vitamin B12, be sure to regularly eat unwashed garden plants. Leave foods unwashed that were grown wildly, home-grown, or picked by you from an organic farm. Store-bought food is much different, it should be washed because it can be layered with mold, pollution and toxins.
The sacred Joshua Tree (a member of the Agavaceae family) produces an edible wild fruit.
Getting some soil microbes into your body is very important. Consider the words of Annie & Dr. David Jubb in Secrets Of An Alkaline Body: “You can receive help virtually overnight for: seizures, diabetes, arthritis, pneumonia, Parkinson’s disease and immune challenges by simply ingesting some soil-born organisms. People have lived in such a sterile antiseptic environment that these necessary symbiotic organisms have been less than present in their diet … By ingesting soil-born organisms, you maintain an enormous reservoir of un-coded antibodies ready to transform specific pathogens … Iron metabolic challenges are solved by living the way Nature intended, occasionally eating a little dirt …”
I eat plenty of unwashed wild food to supply good bacteria for my intestinal flora. However, I have met many long-term raw-foodists (20+ years all-raw) who do not eat unwashed food and who are very healthy. They do eat seaweed and sometimes include spirulina, chlorella, and/or AFA blue-green algae (two to three teaspoons a day). These aquatic plants contain vitamin B12 analogues and perhaps human-active vitamin B12 (more research is required). Also, healthy raw-foodists regularly eat fermented foods, such as raw sauerkraut, which supplies the digestive system with good intestinal flora to manufacture B12. Instructions for creating fermented live-food dishes may be found in nearly all of the raw-food recipe books available, including the books by Dr. Ann Wigmore.
Many nutritionists feel that a vegan diet does not supply enough vitamin B12 for the body. This may or may not be true. My experience of meeting vegans and raw-food vegans who have been following those diets for 20+ years indicates that vitamin B12 deficiencies can arise in certain cases. It seems that if one is clever with their diet or occasionally uses vitamin B12 supplements and follows a healthy lifestyle, there is little chance of a vitamin B12 deficiency. A vitamin B12 deficiency is usually (but not always) symptomatic of a larger problem (high sugar diet, poor absorption, poor or absent flora, also a lack of Sunlight) manifested in weak digestion, pale skin, emaciation and extreme fatigue.
When I lived in Santa Barbara my friends and I would surf the beaches there. Since those beaches are loaded with pockets of tar and oil, lots of tar would bubble up into the ocean water and get on our wetsuits and surfboards. It was such a hassle to clean and worry about that one day I said, “I’ve had it, I’m through. I am no longer going to even worry about this anymore.” And you know what? It was never a problem again. It is my opinion, that the vitamin B12 hype is used most often to scare people away from wonderful vegetarian and vegan diets. If you were to put the vitamin B12 issue out of your mind, and follow the action steps below, you might be surprised to find that it disappears from your consciousness. Vitamin B12 is important, should be addressed and then put away so as to avoid excessive focus on the issue.
1 Read and study books and media on edible wild plants. Take a plant book with you on hikes through Nature. Begin identifying the wild edible plants growing in your area. Begin experimenting with eating some of the wild foods you identify.
2 For excellent intestinal flora and vitamin B12 assimilation, include one or more of the following in your daily diet:
a. Unwashed garden plants.
b. Wild plants.
c. Seaweeds (e.g. dulse, nori, etc.).
d. Roots, such as burdock root, have been shown to contain levels of B12 absorbed from soil organisms up to 0.5 mm into the outer skin.
e. Spirulina or blue-green algae (three tablespoons per day). Spirulina may contain a great ratio of human-active vitamin B12 as compared to B12 analogues. More research needs to be conducted in this area.
f. Occasional fermented foods (e.g. raw sauerkraut) when appropriate.
3 If the options in (2) are not available at the moment or are not strong enough to do the job, taking a vegan-quality vitamin B12 supplement (methyl-cobalamin form) daily is appropriate, especially when one is under stress, at risk of a heart attack or stroke, pregnant, nursing and/or cultivating increased neurological health. Also, including some raw, organic cultured dairy products (e.g. kefir, raw cheese, etc.) may be required to improve B12 levels and also raise the level of the important, bone-mineralizing vitamin K2 for a successful pregnancy and for complete children’s nutrition.
4 If you feel your intestinal flora and food absorption are not excellent, consider regularly including supplemental enzymes and probiotics in your diet. Supplemental enzymes increase digestive efficiency. Probiotic colonies help synthesize nutrients, they counteract pathogenic microbes, and they improve the overall internal environment. These recommendations are especially important for those with a history of prolonged antibiotic, or other drug use, as well as for those who have a history of sugar addictions.
5 To learn more, read Dr. Gabriel Cousens’ writings on vitamin B12 including those in his book Conscious Eating.
