Increase your Enzymes with Living Foods
With the growing awareness of health in the broader community, more and more people are looking at specific options of these. Some are exploring the virtues offered by such dietary regimes as that provided through becoming a Vegetarian, a Vegan or even a Fruitarian. Others are not seeking such apparently diverse dietary requirements and opting for that of just consuming raw food.
For many, the idea of consuming raw foods may be a little extreme, especially if you are used to a highly processed diet, but it is also something that does not have to be entered into in totality, as the consumption of any raw foods on an empty stomach will greatly improve the digestive process.
What are raw foods? These are any foods which have not been subjected to heat above 48ºC. Reality is that you probably already include some raw foods in your diet through the consumption of salads and fresh juices, but with a little thought, these can be further developed to contain all types of foods, including breads and cookies.
Why eat raw foods? We need enzymes to help us to digest the food we eat. In raw food all the enzymes that we need are present in the food, but if we heat it to above 48ºC we will be killing off these naturally occurring enzymes. This genocide will can also occur in apparently raw foods that are not consumed in their premium state (as in ‘fresh fruit juices’ which are not consumed until hours after their production). This does not mean that we cannot then digest the foods, just that our bodies are then forced to work all that much harder to accommodate this process, potentially at the loss or reduction in efficiency of other processes that our bodies need to carry out on a daily basis.
Any dietary change can and probably will result in immediate changes in your bodies reactions to the food you consume. As when traveling to a foreign country the subsequent dietary change can result in stomach and bowel upsets until your body adjusts to the new foods, so equally can be the reaction when you start on a raw food diet. Start out slowly and you will minimize if not avoid totally any of these potential concerns.
Starting each and every meal with a ‘raw’ course is the first and easiest way to incorporate raw food into your diet or even if you have decided to start a complete raw food dietary programme for ‘medical’ reasons. When you are comfortable with this and ready to move on to the next step, increase one more course. Probably the easiest meal to go completely raw on is breakfast, although that does mean that coffee is not on the menu. Fresh fruit juices and Sprouted buckwheat mixed with soaked raisins is a great way to start the day. For lunch, salads with ‘live dressings’ made from soaked sunflower seeds can be more filling than any traditional office day lunch. Then there are the sun-dried breads that can be added to this, or even a warm soup. For dinner, more elaborate combinations of the lunch selection, or why not add ‘raw’ fish or meats, if you are not into a totally vegetarian diet. Traditional dishes such as Japanese Sashimi and Italian Carparccio are great raw food dishes.
What ever your choice in raw foods, the selection really is yours. To increase the amount of raw food in your diet is better than no raw food, and practicalities can be limiting depending on when and where you eat your meals. Regardless, you will find that the more raw foods that are included in your diet the better you will feel, and while you do not have to be as extreme as some of the ‘raw food retreats’ that are on offer around the world, with a little effort, you can at least have some of the benefits in your own home.
Always consult your health care advisor before entering into any significant dietary change.
For more details, read ‘Living with Green Power’ by Elysa Markowitz and ‘The Raw Gourmet’ by Nomi Shannon, both published by Alive Books (Canada). Raw food ‘cooking classes’ are also available at: New Beginnings, Sukhumvit 22