Raw vs. Cooked Foods

Why Raw (as opposed to cooked) Foods?
Raw foods contain live enzymes that nourish and energize the body whereas cooked foods generally don’t. According to the late Arthur M. Baker, MA, “… like eating ash from the fireplace, microscopic burnt nutrients are toxic. Slowly and silently as the decades pass, the harmful effects of consuming these toxins accumulate (in the body). He goes on to point out, “three important changes immediately occur when you adopt a raw food diet:”

1. Improved quality of nutrients taken into your system
Raw fresh produce is nutrient dense, largely pre-digested nutriment that is easily absorbed into your blood. Heated nutrients are denatured and of inferior quality, which are among the reasons why people commonly overeat cooked food.
2. Involves what you STOP eating
No longer introduced into your system are devitalized, refined, heat-damaged toxic nutrient remnants. Energy is no longer wasted that previously was devoted to flushing these nutrient antagonists away from cells and tissues or quarantining them into fat cells, cysts, warts or tumors and abnormal growths.
3. Cessation of overeating
Overeating saturates the body with degenerated unnatural foodstuffs that constipate or clog the bloodstream’s nutrient delivery and sewage cleansing system.
View Arthur Baker’s complete article. It’s one of the best I’ve seen on raw vs. cooked foods.

Cold Gin
With the exception of flavorings such as Rose’s lime juice for key lime martinis, or herbs and spices and other things like low salt soy sauce for sashimi, if it’s in a can, bottle or some other death package such as lunch meats, I won’t have it. Again, this is a 90%+ rule for me, meaning I enjoy ice cold Chimay Ale or Salon champagne on occasion. Unfortunately, I can’t find Glendronach 15 anywhere or I’d have that as well. Things such as canned energy drinks or sodas (other than as drink mixers), mainstream breakfast cereal (such as Cheerios), and bagged snacks (such as Frito Lay products) are among those I avoid completely. I mention those specific products out of convenience and not because they are any better or worse than others of their kind. However, we must think about the persons who work for those companies and to them I can say this: If the public starts choosing healthier things to eat, your executive management should retool and rethink what what they are manufacturing and instead produce products that enhance our health. The end result is, you keep your job and we all have much better food to choose from.

Choose Your Own %
As inferred, not everything we eat or drink needs to be live. I would aim for 60-95% “live” foods such as raw vegetables and fruits and their juices and the hundreds of other raw foods described in the Cohen and Suzanne websites featured in Raw Food Enthusiasts (below). As I mention in Step 15 of the 20 Steps to Vibrant!, the raw crackers, dips and desserts taste FANTASTIC. Ingesting these raw foods and grains also provides the FIBER we need. When ingested, raw foods act as a broom that efficiently sweeps out the colon whereas many cooked foods act like a mop on an un-swept floor and inhibit the digestion process. Cooked meats can provide essential proteins, however, many of the most healthy individuals I have encountered were vegetarians. Sufficient proteins and fats can be obtained from non-animal sources of foods.

What about Egg Whites?
In 1998, researchers at the Research Centre, University Hospital Leuven, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, reported that cooked chicken egg whites deliver 91% of their protein content during digestion in the human body whereas raw egg whites only deliver 51%. I regularly consume both raw and cooked chicken egg whites, but only those sold as “free-range” and “organic.”

Raw Juices
I have sampled countless wines, beers, liquors, liqueurs, fruit drinks, and other beverages, however, none as invigorating and delicious as raw vegetable juice. Around 1980, I tried some carrot juice out of a can and promptly spit it out and cussed violently at the person who gave it to me. Remember, I don't often advocate eating or drinking anything packaged in a can. The vegetable juice I consume today is made fresh using a juice extractor. There is no comparison between it and that dead, tin-canned fluid I tried years ago. There are literally hundreds of healthy, live, drinks one can make with a juice extractor. A quick search on the Internet will yield hundreds of recipes. Check out my 'general' raw juice recipe in Food Tips 3.

Wheatgrass Juice: Powerful!
Wheatgrass is the most beneficial nutritional liquid on earth. It' recommended that one ounce be taken at a time, however, I tend to tolerate several ounces. After ingesting this juice, my physical performance increases. I can feel it! The grass can be conveniently grown in a potter's crate to about 6 inches high before it's cut with a pair of scissors and put through a special-type juicer. It yields only small amounts of super-concentrated juice. It has a pungent, albeit excellent aroma with a sweet, but jolting aftertaste. It's like drinking a 20-proof shot of your front lawn. Ann Wigmore's, The Wheatgrass Book (1974) is arguably the best book in existence on the topic.

I have a manual (a hand wind) wheatgrass juicer, (that I recently loaned out) but electric ones are available as well.

Raw Foods & Snacks and Dehydrators
Yes, I mean chips, cereals, crackers and most anything sweet, sour, salty, hard, soft, crunchy, or chewable. The recipes are simple.. but the taste is FANTASTIC! It's actually fun and no real mess!   Many persons use special produce cutters or other devices to prepare the foods, adding some salt and spices and after putting the ingredients through a food processor or blender ...simply spread the ingredients out on a sheet and slide it into a dehydrator for half-a-day or so. The result is delicious raw food snacks at a fraction of the price of conventional snack foods. Beth Wilke of Raw-for Life writes, "Raw food preparation is meant to be uncomplicated and simple just follow the ‘3 - 5 rule': number (1)under $5; (2)under 5 ingredients; and (3)prepared in under 5 minutes." Beth adds, "Raw food preparation can be as simple, or as difficult as the person preparing the food wishes it to be. There are numerous ‘gourmet' recipes that require additional devices, more time, and more ingredients to prepare, but the every-day raw food diet is meant to be simple and easy! Don't let ‘gourmet' recipes intimidate you!" The Excalibur Dehydrator website has some great recipes as well. Raw Living Food Success (.com) provides some great dehydrator use tips and recipes based on 10 years of trial and error. Be sure to checkout their dehydrator review.

In May 2009, I attended a raw food party in Sterling Heights, Michigan and was presented with some raw chocolate made by one of the attendees. When it comes to chocolate, I recommend Norman Love Confections out of Ft Myers Florida as world class. However, the raw chocolate I had at that party was also world class. The inventor (La Chocolaterie de Natalie) described the chocolate as a mechanism that delivers the raw minerals and nutrients (included in her recipe) to the body. She was remarkable in her description of the recipe and product. It sold out at the party. It's another example of the great diversity of raw foods and people who enjoy it!

I also had a brief conversation with a woman and her husband at that same party and she stated he had recently undergone chemo-therapy. She made it very clear that the chemo-therapy was much more tolerable for him because of the raw food diet he was on during and after the chemo. I asked her specifically if it were the raw juices or the raw foods that helped him and she quickly replied it was the raw foods as he did not do much raw juicing. While I've dedicated much attention to juice extractors in the past, I will continue to do so, but with added emphasis on the value of owning and using a dehydrator to prepare raw foods for a lifetime.

Raw Food Enthusiasts!
Alissa Cohen is one of the better known authorities. Check her out at alissacohen.com.
Here's an excerpt from alissa's website: ‘Imagine...Jumping out of bed in the morning feeling totally awake, vibrantly alive and healthier then you have ever felt before! Imagine having boundless energy for every moment of the day with a clear mind and a feeling of inner peace and calm. Imagine that you are in the best shape of your life with a healthy body, no pains, no ailments and free of any excess weight. This is all possible with the help of Alissa's program.'

Kristen Suzanne's of kristensraw.com is another great place to land!
Kristen writes: "Raw Food Isn't Just Salads and Fruit Plates"
‘Mounting evidence has shown that heat destroys many of the vitamins, phytonutrients, and enzymes found in raw, living food, rendering it harder to digest, nutritionally diminished, and toxic to the body. From Hollywood stars with personal chefs, to Manhattan's Raw restaurants featured in "Sex and the City," the Raw Food movement is sweeping the country as people gradually learn of the dramatic health benefits derived by eating a vegan diet in which food is never heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Raw food is all about getting "the glow" - looking fantastic and living longer by preventing (and even reversing) disease, and feeling better than you've ever felt in your life.'

The Jay Kordich "Juiceman" Audio CD's
Those audio CD's are outstanding and informative and can be obtained at: www.juicedaddy.com/Jay-Kordich.html.  Jay first released his teachings on cassette tapes over 20 years ago, which I have listened to countless times.