The star ingredients of a raw food diet are fruits, vegetables and greens, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains, beans, and roots — virtually everything that grows from the earth and hasn't been cooked. The supporting cast is made up of herbs, spices, oils, and nutritional boosts such as raw cacao, chlorella, bee pollen, spirulina, coconut water, barley grass, and carob powder.
Live foods, technically, are those raw foods that could be planted in the ground and grown into another plant, such as seeds, nuts, beans, grains, and roots. They contain the enzymes and nutrients needed to produce more plant life. To be considered truly raw, the food is never exposed to heat beyond a maximum of 115 to 118°F. Many raw foodists, though, never warm their food beyond 105°F to ensure the viability of nutrients. Over 120°F and all food degrades rapidly; nutrients are compromised and molecular changes occur. Most vitamins are destroyed; proteins, minerals, carbohydrates, and fats are structurally altered; enzymes are destroyed; color fades (in many cases); and free radicals are created — major contributors to many diseases, including cancer. Cooking a food also dehydrates it and renders its naturally occurring water content virtually de-energized, thus creating a problem of dehydration within the body. A diet high in cooked food necessitates drinking volumes of water to slake your ever-present thirst and replenish the vital fluids lost in the act of cooking. If you consume a diet high in raw plant foods, you’ll soon notice that you’re not nearly as thirsty and often have energy to spare. Indeed a desirable bonus!
Raw food is uncooked, minimally processed, unpasteurized (pasteurization is a method of cooking), and contains an enzyme complex capable of digesting itself and contributing excess enzymes that assist the body’s metabolic processes (more details about enzymes in the next section). If it’s a plant food (versus a raw animal food), it is loaded with more health-promoting phytonutrients than we can imagine and in a form that we can easily assimilate. This is a truly natural food. Now, as an example, let’s take a look at orange juice. Most people think of orange juice as a pure, natural food. It’s squeezed from oranges that are picked off the tree, right? But, let’s examine the standard commercial process involved in making orange juice. First, the fruit is picked by workers in the field, put into trucks, and taken to the processing plant where it’s pressed into juice. The fresh juice is then pasteurized (heated to a temperature of approximately 165°F) or flash-pasteurized at an even higher temperature for a predetermined amount of time in order to kill potentially harmful bacteria and extend shelf life. It is then filtered, condensed, frozen, and transported to the packaging plant where it is reconstituted, generally using local municipal tap water, put into bottles or cartons, and sold as fresh orange juice. Sometimes that container of juice contains concentrates from various countries. This is not fresh juice or a raw food. Remember the previous definition of a raw food: uncooked, minimally processed, unpasteurized, and containing enzymes.
The vitamin C content of any fresh-pressed juice begins to deteriorate rapidly within moments of pressing. Commercial, processed juices have nothing in the nutrient department to compare to freshly pressed juices, plus their valuable enzyme content is zilch. If you happen to have a juicer at home and can press your own orange juice or live near one of those fabulous juice bars, you can purchase a glass of orange juice that is raw, fresh-squeezed, and nonpasteurized. The way nature intended. Doesn’t fresh, raw juice taste incredibly better than pasteurized orange juice? That should be your first clue to the nutritional vibrancy of a food: fresh, exciting, tantalizing taste that’s dramatically better in the raw form!
Raw plant-derived protein is the easiest for the body to digest and assimilate.
Let me give you another example of what cooking does to food. If you’ve ever fried an egg, it’s obvious that the composition of the protein is drastically changed by heat. Once the raw egg hits the hot frying pan, the clear, runny albumen (protein) of the egg instantly begins to change to a white, rubbery, drier texture. Egg protein is clearly not the same substance before and after it hits the heat, and neither is the protein of cooked milk, meat, poultry, or seafood. Cooked protein is more difficult to digest due to a loss of the vital raw nutrients, moisture, and enzymes needed for the body to efficiently process it. Raw plant-derived protein is the easiest for the body to digest and assimilate, followed by some raw, extremely clean, animal proteins such as grass-fed beef, organic eggs, raw milk, and raw seafood, eaten in small amounts on an infrequent basis.
On a human level, just think of what happens to your skin (a protein substance) when it suffers a kitchen burn. Your raw flesh reddens, puckers, forms blisters, peels, sometimes scars, and, depending on the severity of the burn, may never return to its former radiant, functional self. The raw, live, enzyme-rich keratin or protein that makes up your skin becomes altered or molecularly changed by heat. You now understand how the application of heat permanently alters the structure of a living substance or food.
Raw food is full of vibrant flavor and color, and it is excellent for our health. Raw foods, unlike so many of today’s processed and packaged foods, are not fortified with synthetic vitamins and crushed rocks or coral masquerading as beneficial minerals in an attempt to replace a mere handful of the vital nutrients that have been stripped away. One of the beautiful and simply obvious aspects of raw-vegan eating is that the foods are in their natural state, replete with enzymes and bioavailable vitamins, phytonutrients, minerals, proteins, sugars, and essential fats, plus fiber.
No other animal on this planet cooks its food; it eats it in raw form, the way the food was meant to be eaten.
No other animal on this planet cooks its food. Man attempts to build healthy cells out of primarily deficient, dead, cooked foods that are lacking in live enzymes, and other raw, easily assimilable nutrients, much to the detriment of his well-being. Yes, we humans can tolerate a diet of cooked foods to some extent, but in my opinion, it is not the best choice for a long life of superior health.
A diet high in raw food will supercharge your energy level and replenish depleted reserves. Raw food is digested very quickly, usually within 30 to 60 minutes, rather than the hours or even days required to digest many cooked foods, especially cooked flesh foods. This mere fact of energy conservation alone is a major contributor toward the attainment of optimal health — physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
Like you, whether I’m working, gardening, playing, or simply going out for a long walk, I want to have plenty of energy to help me accomplish my goals as well as enjoy my leisure time. Foods that are loaded with unheated, unrefined nutrients and enzymes will leave your body’s cells filled to the brim with fuel for the daily chores of life. They contain the necessary nutritional molecular components that actually power the process of anabolism, or construction of new cells — initiating growth of tissues, repairing existing damage, and replacing aged or inferior cells within your body.
Enzymes are the power of life, the life force in the cells of every living human, every creature that walks the earth, flies in the skies, and swims in the seas. They are inherent in all raw plant matter, including the raw food that you eat. Without sufficient enzymes in your diet and physical being, your life would cease to exist. Like the construction workers who build your home, enzymes make up the labor force that builds your body and is responsible for every chemical action and reaction that takes place. Enzymes break foods into blocks of molecules that can be used to fuel the body. We couldn’t walk, talk, breathe, digest food, build bone, heal, process thoughts, or grow hair and nails without them — no activity would take place. Vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, and hormones can do no work without enzymes.
Enzymes can be divided into two groups: exogenous (originating outside of the body, such as those contained in raw foods) and endogenous (produced or arising from within our bodies). The more exogenous enzymes we obtain, the better. They aid digestion, preserving energy and overall health and prolonging youthfulness.
It is said that we each inherit a certain enzyme potential at birth. In other words, we are born with finite enzyme pools or enzyme levels within our bodies. It’s imperative that we preserve our stores, as this limited supply of life force must last a lifetime. There are two ways to preserve and replenish our enzyme level: by taking enzyme supplements (which are void of other necessary raw food nutrients and not really the ideal way to acquire enzymes) and by eating raw food, our main focus here.
Enzymes are not able to withstand high temperatures, such as those used in cooking. The heat of cooking destroys the enzymes in your food. Consequently, there are no enzymes left in foods that are fried, stewed, roasted, toasted, baked, pasteurized, caramelized, canned, stir-fried, steamed, refined, bleached, and processed. Does your diet consist entirely of foods such as these? If you’re the average person eating the average standard American diet, then I’m sure it comes very close. In this case, I guarantee that the enzyme activity in your body is draining at this very moment, and over time, if you continue to eat this way, you will feel fatigued and unwell and, unfortunately, age prematurely. In fact, low enzyme levels are associated with old age and chronic disease.
Enzymes are indeed the spark of life. Let me give you an example. When you consume fresh, raw tomatoes, sprouted mung beans, or crunchy raw almonds, you are ingesting live, enzyme-rich seeds, beans, and nuts. If planted in moist earth, these little storehouses of nutrient energy would sprout into living plants, capable of maturing and reproducing more edible tomatoes, beans, and nuts. Conversely, put a boiled tomato seed, canned bean, or roasted nut in the ground and it will not sprout, grow, and reproduce — all it will do is rot. The life force or spark is dead. The food has been literally cooked to death. The enzymes that must be present for a seed to produce new life are completely lost from exposure to cooking. Thus, if you eat a 100 percent cooked-food diet, there is no new life force entering your being, and that’s not a good thing if you want to live a long, healthy, pain-free, vital life.
Consider your stomach a living Crock-Pot, if you will, that attempts to maintain a relatively even temperature of approximately 100°F. Your stomach slowly rots and ripens your food, mixing it with fluids, acids, and enzymes, churning it around and beginning to break it down into a pulp, preparing for delivery to the small intestine. Those people plagued with digestive complaints may find that cold beverages further complicate digestion. According to Ayurvedic teachings, this heat in the digestive tract is called agni or digestive fire, and it must be maintained, lest digestion slow and food sour, resulting in gas, burping, and general indigestion. What doesn’t digest, doesn’t nourish; it’s eliminated as waste product. Frequently consuming cold or frozen beverages can harm this warm digestive process, like adding water to a fire — putting out the agni. If you suffer from fatigue, chronically loose stools, undigested food in the stools, cold hands and feet, aversion to cold, or dizziness upon standing, then it’s best to avoid chilled food and beverages. Room temperature or warmer (not hot) is the best choice for you. When making your raw food beverages, simply avoid adding frozen or chilled foods to the blender or allow the prepared drink to come to room temperature prior to consuming it. If you’re allowing the beverage to sit, please cover tightly so that the valuable nutrients don’t oxidize.
I’ve categorized these food groupings according to their degree of life force or their ability to enhance energy, revitalize, rejuvenate, promote health, slow the aging process, and prevent illness. They are ranked from the most alive, regenerating, and enzyme-rich down to the least beneficial, dead, health-destroying foods. The more foods that you choose from the first three categories — and the more organic in origin — the better you’ll look, perform, and feel.
Category 1. Homegrown nut, bean, grain, and seed sprouts; baby greens and grasses; young vegetables and herbs; and sugar-ripe fruits and berries that are just picked and preferably eaten within hours of harvesting. They are alkaline-producing, high in enzymes, and packed with abundant nutrients. They take little energy to digest and assimilate.
Category 2. Fresh, raw, ripe fruits and vegetables, herbs, and young greens, preferably from a local farmers’ market or farmstand, have a bit less enzyme action and life force due to not being “just picked,” but are still alkaline-producing, easy to digest, and loaded with valuable nutrients.
Category 3. Dried fruits, vegetables, herbs, cocoa, carob, and greens such as dried spirulina, chlorella, alfalfa grass, barley grass, and wheatgrass have a moderate enzyme content (depending on the degree of freshness), range from alkaline to mildly acidic in nature, and offer plenty of beneficial nutrients. Unless rehydrated prior to consumption, they are a bit harder to digest because their living water has been evaporated. Raw, unsoaked, ungerminated nuts, seeds, nut and seed butters, and fresh-pressed oils, such as extra-virgin olive and unrefined coconut, also belong in this category, as do frozen fruits and vegetables.
Category 4. This grouping of foods sustains many a life and is considered quite healthful by most people and major health organizations. It primarily consists of cooked organic and nonorganic, unprocessed, and unrefined fruits, vegetables, greens, nuts, seeds, beans, and grains; local seafood; organic, grass-fed meats; free-range poultry and their eggs; and raw, organic dairy from grass-fed cows, goats, or sheep. These foods are predominantly acid-producing, have minimal, if any, enzyme content except for what’s contained in the raw milk, are generally dehydrating to the body, and are more difficult to digest.
Category 5. Highly processed commercial foods, full of artificial additives, preservatives, herbicides, pesticides, steroids, hormones, or antibiotics, or all of the above. These foods will set your biological clock on fast-forward, prematurely aging your body from the inside out, depleting your energy and immune system, and rapidly catapulting you toward chronic disease. They’ve often been genetically modified, irradiated, microwaved, cooked at high temperatures, pasteurized, and overly salted, sweetened, and/or bleached. They can be purchased from the many purveyors of fast foods, vending machines, convenience stores, and just about every supermarket. If you value life and love yourself at all, totally avoid this category.