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LIVING FOODS INCREASE VITALITY and BETTER HEALTH
LIVING FOODS ARE a great weapon against the ravages of allergies and asthma. Unlike those prepackaged, nutrient-depleted snacks, living foods “love you back” by giving you a plethora of life-giving nutrients. That equates to higher energy levels, weight loss, detoxification, mental clarity, increased vitality, and fewer allergic or asthmatic episodes. Eating a wide variety of produce gives you a powerhouse of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phytonutrients, and biophotons. Raw foods, which are rich in antioxidants, also help the body remove toxins, thus helping to keep you from getting ill.
A diet that is made up of 60 to 80 percent raw foods is a live foods diet, because the majority of the foods are eaten in their natural state. Eating living foods, especially vegetables, sprouts, wild greens, fruits, nuts, and seeds, is the healthiest for the human body. Truly they can transform you from the inside out.
Raw juices and living foods are packed with a cornucopia of nutrients, including biophotons—those light rays of energy the plants get from the sun. When we cook food, those beautiful rays of energy are destroyed or shrink way down. Professor Fritz-Albert Popp and Dr. H. Niggli are two researchers who have found that the light energy in biophotons is an important aspect of food. The more light a food is able to store, the more beneficial the food is to your body. Naturally grown fruits and vegetables that are ripened in the sun are strong sources of light energy. Numerous minute particles of light—biophotons, the smallest units of light—make their way into our cells when we eat these foods. They provide our bodies with important information and they control complex processes such as ordering and regulating our cells.1
Biophotons help to fix errors that have taken place within the body,2 causing you to start feeling better, lighter, and more energized as time goes on. Your sleep improves, and you may need less of it. Your mind becomes more alert and creative, and your body comes to life. Your metabolism also ramps up, and you burn more calories helping you get fit with greater ease. In the process your overall health improves. Symptoms of poor health, ailments, allergies, asthma, and other chronic diseases begin to heal. Your whole life changes!
How Living Foods Love You Back
1. Alkalinity: Most Americans are slightly acidic because most of the American diet (animal products, grains, sugar and sweets of all kinds, coffee, black tea, sodas, sports drinks, and junk food) is acidic or turns acidic when it’s digested. This causes a host of problems from weight gain to joint pain. The body tends to store acid in fat cells to protect delicate organs and tissues. It will hold on to fat cells; it will even make more fat cells to protect you. But a living foods diet, which is dominated with fresh vegetables, vegetable juices, fruit, sprouts, seeds, and nuts, provides an abundance of alkalinity. This neutralizes the acids, and the body can let go of fat cells. Many people report that their bodies also got rid of pain—all sorts of pain throughout the body—when they began juicing and eating a living foods diet.
2. Hydration: One of the things lost when you cook food is the water content. Our bodies are about 70 percent water. Live foods contain plenty of water. Approximately 85 percent of many fruits and vegetables is water, so eating raw fresh produce is a wonderful way to obtain water. Plenty of water in our system equates to enzymes being able to carry out their metabolic work, and the easier it is for vitamins and minerals to be assimilated into our cells. The more live energy the water holds in the form of biophotons, the better the individual cells function and the higher the quality of your health.
3. Superior protein: Though not a complete protein, raw plants offer quality amino acids. Cooking denatures the proteins in our food—they coagulate, making them difficult to assimilate. The heat disorganizes their structure, leading to deficiencies of some of the essential amino acids, whereas eating live foods offers amino acids in their best state.
4. Abundant vitamins: Many vitamins are destroyed when food is cooked or processed.
5. Biophotons: Plants release biophotons, which can only be measured by special equipment developed by German researchers.3 These light rays of energy that plants take in from the sun energize our bodies and help our cells communicate more effectively.
6. Greater strength, energy, and stamina: Dr. Karl Elmer experimented with a raw food diet for top athletes in Germany. He saw improvement in their performance when they changed to an entirely raw food diet.4 After eating raw food, rather than feeling fatigued or sleepy, most people feel energized. Also, most people eating a high raw food diet experience a more restful sleep and require less of it.
7. Better mental performance: Your memory and concentration should be clearer. You should be more alert, more creative, and think more logically.
8. Improved digestion due to more enzymes: Enzymes are important because they are the catalysts of nearly every chemical reaction in our bodies. Vitamins and hormones need enzymes to do optimal work. Live foods contain a good mix of food enzymes. But when food is heated above 118 degrees, enzymes are destroyed, which forces our digestive system to work harder than it should. This can result in partially digested fats, proteins, and starches. When our diet is rich in enzymes, it spares our enzyme-producing organs extra work. That equates to better digestion and more energy.
9. Reduced risk of disease: A diet rich in raw vegetables and fruit has been shown to lower your risk of cancer and other diseases. Also, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal, eating fresh produce on a daily basis has been shown to reduce your chance of death from heart attacks and related problems by as much as 24 percent.5
1. Choose real, whole food. These are the foods that are closest to their natural form and, therefore, retain the most nutrient value and deliver the highest health benefits. They are picked after they’ve ripened, and they are rich in flavor. They retain natural diversity of taste. They have full nutrient and antioxidant content. And if they are organically grown, seasonal, and local foods, they are the healthiest choices possible.
2. Opt for the freshest fruit, vegetables, and legumes you can find. Choose food items that have been grown organically to avoid toxic pesticides and to get increased nutrition. Buy from local growers whenever possible, because that produce is fresher than anything trucked in from other locations.
3. Choose organic produce. Organic produce doesn’t have the many pesticides known or suspected to cause brain and nervous system damage, cancer, disruption of the endocrine and immune systems, and a host of other toxic effects resulting from pesticides that are in our food supply. Studies have also shown that organic produce completely surpasses conventional produce in nutritional content.6 When choosing organically grown foods, look for labels that are marked certified organic. This means the produce has been cultivated according to strict uniform standards that are verified by independent state or private organizations. Certification includes inspection of farms and processing facilities, detailed record keeping, and pesticide testing of soil and water to ensure that growers and handlers are meeting government standards.
4. Support your local farms and farmers who sell their produce at farmers markets, local markets, and home deliveries. Many of the smaller farms can’t promote their wares as “organic,” but if you talk with them, you’ll learn that they don’t use pesticides or chemical fertilizers; they just can’t afford to get certified as organic. Buying your produce from a local source is also the best way to insure freshness. The fresher the vegetables and fruit, the more biophotons you’ll be receiving.
5. Completely avoid irradiated foods. Nonorganic vegetables, meats, and other products have been irradiated for years. Irradiation (exposure to radiation in very high levels) kills insects and other bugs that may have crawled into foods before being shipped to the grocery store. Irradiation has been shown to produce chromosome damage, and causes nutrient destruction.7 Food growers and manufacturers must put the irradiation symbol (radura, which is a green flower within a circle) on the label that the food is irradiated, so avoidance of irradiated foods is possible if you shop carefully.
6. Say no to genetically modified (GM) plant varieties that have been modified for herbicide tolerance and pest tolerance.8 When trying to avoid the top GM crops, you’ll need to watch out for maltodextrin, soy lecithin, soy oil, textured vegetable protein (soy), canola oil, corn products, and high-fructose corn syrup. Other GM crops to avoid include some varieties of zucchini, crookneck squash, papayas from Hawaii, aspartame (NutraSweet), milk containing rbGH, and rennet (containing genetically modified enzymes) used to make hard cheeses. We must become informed consumers and careful shoppers. We can look at the labels of packaged products to see if they contain corn flour or cornmeal, soy flour, cornstarch, textured vegetable protein (TVP), corn syrup, or modified food starch. Check labels of soy sauce, tofu, soy beverages, soy protein isolate, soy milk, soy ice cream, soy cheese, margarine, and soy lecithin, among dozens of other products. Another hidden danger regarding GMO foods is the splicing of different genes into foods. You might have a peanut gene with a tomato. The unsuspecting consumer could have an attack by eating a food that never posed a problem before. If it doesn’t say organic or non-GMO, don’t buy it; the chances are strong that they are GMO. To shop smart, see the Non-GMO Shopping Guide, created by the Institute for Responsible Technology, at www.nongmoshoppingguide.com.
7. Wise up about red meat. Not all red meat is created equal. In addition to being higher in omega-3 fats and CLA, meat from grass-fed animals is also higher in vitamin E. In fact, studies show the meat from pastured cattle is four times higher in vitamin E than meat from feedlot cattle and, interestingly, almost twice as high as the meat from feedlot cattle given vitamin E supplements. That’s beneficial, in that vitamin E is linked with a lower risk of heart disease, asthma, and cancer.9 Grass-fed beef is also lower in total fat and particularly the saturated fats linked to heart disease. It’s also higher in beta-carotene, the B vitamins thiamine and riboflavin, and the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
8. Know the difference between pastured poultry versus free-range or commercial fowl. Pasture-raised poultry are far healthier than commercial-raised fowl. Pastured poultry are chickens, turkey, ducks, and geese that are raised in bottomless cages or pens outside or on grass where they can peck and scratch at the ground and hunt for bugs and seeds along with their grain. Sometimes they are mistakenly called free-range chickens, but free-range birds are still kept in confinement; they are just allowed to move about inside their buildings, which are often very crowded so “roaming” is not really possible. When you choose pasture-raised chicken, you avoid hormones, antibiotics, and drugs, which may pose immunological effects and cancer risks for consumers.10 Commercial poultry are also often fed trace amounts of arsenic in their feed to stimulate their appetites so they’ll fatten quickly for market. Traces of arsenic can be found in the meat we buy.11
9. Look for eggs from chickens that are raised cage-free on pasture, without hormones, and fed an organic diet that includes green grass. Eggs from pastured hens contain all eight essential amino acids and are a rich source of essential fatty acids. They also contain considerably more lecithin (a fat emulsifier) than cholesterol. Additionally, eggs from hens bred outdoors have four to six times more vitamin D than eggs from hens bred in confinement.12 Pastured hens are exposed to direct sunlight, which is converted to vitamin D and passed on to the eggs. And the eggs are rich in sulfur and glutathione as well. For organic pastured eggs, look to co-ops and natural food markets; also seek out local producers, farmers, and homesteaders who pasture their poultry in movable pens or let them roam free.
10. Buy only wild-caught fish—meaning caught with a boat and hook or net. The other option is ranched or farm-raised fish, which you should avoid. Farm-raised fish are housed within small pens that are set up in the ocean or in small ponds. The fish are often kept in overcrowded conditions that increase their risk of infection and disease. Farm-raised fish do not have the essential fatty acids that wild-caught fish offer and that are so important for our health. When it comes to animal fat, wild-caught fish are a good source of the healthy omega-3 fatty acids, especially cold-water fish such as salmon, mackerel, and trout. Also, the smaller the fish, the less mercury and other heavy metals that will be stored in the flesh and fat.
How to Cook Living Foods to Reduce Allergies and Asthma
It has been found that radiation exposure can weaken the immune system and cause health-related problems such as cancer and degenerative diseases. It may also cause ailments such as “persistent cough, headaches, sleep disturbances, and gastrointestinal dysfunction,” notes Dr. J. D. Decuypere. She has observed that respiratory illnesses such as asthma, bronchitis, chronic cough, and allergies have been increasing since the late 1970s, which prompted her to do her own investigation on radiation in our food.13
Though there are numerous ways that we are exposed to radiation, there are two ways that it enters our food—microwave ovens and irradiation of food. Radiating food in a microwave oven is convenient, and many people use their microwave daily. But studies have shown that it may negatively impact the nutrition of the food, and it may be harmful to the people who eat it.
While the dangers of using microwave ovens are still embroiled in battle and controversy, it is highly recommended that you not use a microwave at all—even for heating water. I recommend that you only use your stovetop, oven, toaster oven, countertop grill, or convection oven. Recently a friend sent an e-mail to me about a woman who conducted a home experiment with two similar plants. She watered one with cooled microwaved water and the other with tap water. The microwave-watered plant died rather quickly.
Choosing organic living foods, which means raw or dehydrated and whole foods, feeds the body superior nutrition and does not stress the body with toxins from preservatives, pesticides, and fillers. The nutrients they provide support the immune system, adrenal glands, and nervous system, all of which affect a person’s allergic and asthmatic responses. Also avoiding foods you are sensitive to, such as wheat, dairy, soy, sweets, and corn will remove stress from your body and allow your immune system to function more effectively. Purchase high-quality whole foods, and you will be investing in your health—one of the best investments you can make.