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Please note that this article is still being written.
When people first hear about living-food or raw food diets, their first question is
always "why?" - why eat food raw? By the end of this article, you will understand why this
question should really be turned around and we should be questioning
our reasons for eating cooked food, because quite simply humans are designed to eat fresh
fruit, vegetables,
nuts and seeds in their whole, pure, natural state. This is our natural diet and this is the diet
we thrive on.
If you want to avoid disease, if you want to cure disease, if you want a more
vibrant, energetic life then raw living food is for you.
Our Natural Diet
No other animal on this planet, living in its natural habitat, denatures its food
before eating it except for man and no wild animals living in their natural habitat suffer from
the diseases prevalent in man such as cancer, diabetes and heart attacks.
Only humans subject their food to chemically-altering
heat before consumption, and in doing so we remove many valuable nutrients and create
harmful toxins. When animals are domesticated and fed on a diet of similarly processed, denatured and
imbalanced food, they too suffer from these chronic and degenerative illnesses.
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Plant food in its natural raw state has the perfect balance of water, nutrients and
fibre for us, because this is precisely the food that we evolved eating through almost 4 million
years. It is only in the
last 10,000-50,000 years since humans discovered fire that we have adulterated
our food, and now in our technological society we process and denature our food more than
ever before, further distancing it from its natural source and even creating food artificially.
The consequence is that the incidences of disease are steadily increasing.
Studies on wild animals show that they live somewhere between 8 and 10 times their age of matirity, whereas man only
reaches about 4 times. In other studies, scientists have concluded that the human body is capable of living for over
200 years. Studies of ancient cultures reveal that primitive man living on pure To DO: Pelegations: 200 years, Essenne 120, Hunza ...
TO DO: "primative" cultures, longevity. Wild animals - 8-10x maturity age. Man - 4x.
TO DO: Physiologically man is a frugivore by design. effect of meat and dairy
(iron, calcium myth, protein myth, fat myth). Higher up food chain we eat, more concentrated are the
accumulated toxins, radiation. Effect of meat and diary on human physiology (robbins)
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Why Vegan?
Health:
90-97% of heart attacks could be prevented on a vegetarian diet.
Meat eaters kidney's must work 3 times harder
than those of a vegetarian. During World War One when meat was scarce,
there was a 17% drop in death rates. Vegetarians generally have twice
the stamina, are stronger, more agile, have more endurance and suffer
from less fatigue than meat eaters.
Vegetarians have lower cholesterol and less incidence of colon cancer.
Milk and meat are acid forming, which depletes minerals (including
calcium - in fact it takes more calcium to digest milk than
the milk provides). Meat and dairy products have the highest
concentration of pesticide residues due to them being higher up the
food chain. A studt in Finland showed the link between diabetes and
dairy consumption. Studies have also linked dairy consumption
with leukemia, cancer of the lyphatic organs and breast cancer. Too
much protein consumption can lead to osteoporosis.
Planet:
Land, water, air. Livestock consume half of the world's grain,
outnumber people by 3 to 1, and their numbers are growing
exponentially. Meanwhile, 800 million people are malnourished, and
24,000,000 starve to death each year. It takes 400 gallons of oil to
feed each person
in the US per year (31% is used for inorganic fertiliser, 19% on
machinery, 16% on transport, 13% on irrigation,
and 8% on livestock). This dependency on oil to eat leads to oil wars.
1Kg of beef requires
100,000 litres of water. Worldwide aquifers are drying out and it is
though that the next war could be over water.
People:
American grain fed to cattle could feed 500 million people.
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Cooking Kills Food
If you've
ever burnt your hand in a flame, you will understand how
damaging heat can be.
Applying heat to any substance changes it chemically. When a simple potato is cooked, 200 new
chemicals that do not otherwise occur in nature are created.
When food is cooked its
nutritional value is severely diminished, as levels of vitamins are reduced, proteins are
damaged, fats are transformed and poisonous inorganic acids are formed;
much needed water is lost (our bodies being about 70% water); minerals are reduced
to an inorganic state which cannot be absorbed by our bodies; enzymes are
destroyed;
fibre is broken down; oxygen is lost; amino acids are broken down and
carbohydrates are
caramelised; carcinogenic and mutagenic free-radicals are created. No wonder raw-foodists
refer to cooked food as dead food.
Overall, cooking reduces food to a toxin laced substance which cannot satisfy our
nutritional needs and poisons our bodies. This is a double edged sword, since our bodies
need the nutrition in food to be able to function properly and
and to overcome disease or injury, but when fed on food damaged by cooking, it is the
very food we eat which causes the sickness that our bodies have
to overcome. The toxicity of cooked foods is confirmed by the 2 to 3 times increase in white
blood cells, the immune system, observed after eating. This is our body's first line of defence against attack
from foreign invaders such as viruses. The effect after eating food
is known as digestive leucocytosis, but it does not occur when eating natural raw foods, indicating that
our bodies recognise them as nutrient not invader.
To do: Loss of natural anti-cancer agents when cooked. Cooking vs
digestion. Myth - need to cook food to digest. Need to properly chew
food to get enzymes from saliva to mix with food in mouth which starts
the digestion. Some foods show increase
in certain nutrients on cooking - this is not sufficient to outweigh
the negative
effects of cooking. You are what you eat - Our bodies are made from
food - break food down into building blocks and build up, e.g break
down proteins into amino acids and build into human protien
Dead Food Causes Disease
In cooked food proteins are coagulated by cross-linking between molecules and deaminated by
removal of amino-acids.
Proteins transformed in this way are devoid of biological funtion and cannot be digested by the body.
Instead they are left to putrify in the intestinal tract by
bacteria, whose activity produces poisonous by products which can enter the bloodstream
causing various diseases, some of these bacterial by products being carcinogenic.
A person who eats cooked food has about 2 pounds of bacteria in their gut, whereas a raw fooder
has just a few ounces.
Indigestible proteins also combine with cooked fats and starch to form a tar-like substance, known
as mucoid plaque, that builds up on the intestine wall. This layer of plaque inhibits
the body's ability to absorb nutrients, as well as harbouring bacteria, parasites
and toxins. Live foods are almost completely absorbed before putrefaction can occur.
The broken fibre in cooked food takes longer to pass through the intestinal
tract adding to the problem of putrification in the gut. Unbroken fibre helps
the body to push food through our digestive system, but heat-damaged fibre
loses its ability to sweep clean the alimentary canal.
Minerals that have been returned to their inorganic state by cooking cannot be metabolised.
Instead, they combine with saturated fats and cholesterol to form hard deposits in
arteries, affecting their pliability, and in
other organs such as the heart, where they can affect the functioning of heart valves,
and the kidney, forming kidney stones. These minerals can aslo accumalute in the joints. Many minerals are also toxic in their
inorganic state giving rise to further problems.
Enzymes are important substances that activate every metabolic process in our bodies, from energy production to
cell division, brain activity to vitamin absorption. Our bodies produce over 100,000 different enzymes, each for a
specific purpose. Enzymes can either be metabolic or digestive. Digestive enzymes, of which there are only 20,
initiate the break down
of food, with different enzymes for starch, protein, fat etc. Plant food in its raw natural state contains exactly
the right mix of digestive enzymes to break it down and return it to the earth. When we eat raw plant
food these digestive enzymes allow our bodies to digest our food. If a nut is given to
a squirrel, it won't eat the nut immediately, but instead it will bury the nut, thereby activating
the nut's digestive enzymes and the squirrel will return later to eat the nut utilising these enzymes.
When food is heated to only 117 deg f
(47 deg C), well below most cooking temperatures, enzymes start to be destroyed. All plant food enzymes are destroyed after TO DO minutes at TO DO Deg f
When eating food devoid of enzymes we need to produce our own digestive enzymes
to break down the food. However our bodies cannot create the perfect mix of enzymes to completey
break down cooked food, in part due to the chemical changes in the food from cooking
which make it unrecognisable
to our bodies, and also partly due to bad food combination. This results in partially digested fat,
proteins and starches staying in our arteries and intestinal tract. It has been shown that our bodies
can create only a limited supply of enzymes, and enzyme production falls with age, so having to
create digestive enzymes to process cooked food may diminish the supply of enzymes for other uses.
There is also an extra burden on our bodies from creating the enzymes and mobilising the white
blood cells of our immune system which carry them to the cooked food. A typical human
pancreas, the organ which creates enzymes, is proportionally twice as large compared to
other mammals, suggesting the extra strain it is under.
Up to half the energy in a cooked meal has to be used to digest the food, mainly in mobilising the
white blood cells to transport enzymes, causing the tiredness common after large meals. This is the body coping with attack.
TO DO:
Waste materials accumulate in body: skin cells, liver, nervous system, effecting brain function.
Pesticides - made even more toxic.
Cooked food -> minimal nutrition -> body still "hungry" for nutrients -> still feel hungry ->
overeating -> obesity.
Link between food and behaviour/violence. Hormones and neurotransmitters. Toxic brain.
Life Giving Effects Of Living Food
TO DO: importance of each:
- Oxygenating (link with cancer)
- Alkalising (acid: associated with cancer and other diseases
- Water rich, superior "plant water", minerals
- detoxifying
- minerals
- chlorophyll
Scientific studies have confirmed: that a raw vegan diet reduces the amount of bacterial
enzymes and toxic
products that can cause colon cancer; that a diet rich in raw vegetables reduces the risk
of breast cancer;
live foods -> balance and optimum performance of our bodies -> can cope better with disease.
Some of the health benefits experienced by raw fooders include:
- vibrant health
- prevention and even cure of many chronic diseases
- more energy
- more stamina
- better sleep
- more alert
- clearer thought
- weight normalisation (either loss or gain)
Other Aspects for Healthful Living
As well as wholesome raw nutrition, with no toxic side effects, to lead healthy lives we also need:
- Clean air
- Clean water
- Exercise (lymph system)
- Rest (sleep, fasting, emotional, brain, meditating)
- Positive attitude, fun and laughter
The Bigger Picture
So, raw plant food provides us with superior nutrition to keep our
bodies in balanced
health. This higher quality nutrition means we need less food to to
supply us with adequate nutrients, and therefore need to put less
demand on the Earth's resources to produce food crops. Further, to
produce the
same nutrition from plant crops as from animals raised for food uses up
far less
resources such as land area and water.
Plant crops can also be grown in extremely environmentally friendly
ways as is being demonstrated by the pioneers
of the vegan-organic farming movement. Using natural predators for
balancing crop pests and diseases,
non-intensive chemical free growing methods produce healthier and more
nutritious crops. By caring for the health of the soil, these methods
produce plants which are stronger and so less susceptible to disease
and pests, meaning there is no need for toxic pesticides,
herbicides or insecticides, thereby avoiding the associated damaging
effect on human health and the polluting and
imbalancing effect on the environment. No need for artificial
fertilisers which in the short term produce less nutritious
crops and in the long term deplete the earth of valuable nutrients and
plant supporting bacteria.
With more nutritious crops produced using efficient and sustainable
methods, and by cutting out the waste of resources and nutrients
associated with a meat based diet, less land is needed for food
production and the freed land can be returned to nature to provide much
needed habitats
for wild plants and animals, to support biodiversity, and provide areas
for people to commune with nature and forage
for extra-nutritious wild food.
Look at a sustainably managed, organic fruit farm and then compare
it to a chemically intensive, mono-cultural mega-farm, or an intensive
livestock feedlot, or an
industrial slaughter unit, or a food processing plant. Then remember:
your blood, your skin, your hair, your cells and even the
neuro-transmitters that carry your thoughts will be formed from the raw
materials that you eat from these places.
In natural farming systems any wastes from crop production are reused within the
production system, for example to create soil enriching compost. Any wastes in the home from
live-food preparation
can also be safely composted. It has been shown that compost from raw plant
material can produce
up to 400% increases in yield compared to compost from non-raw material. Human waste
from people
eating raw diets is also far less toxic than those following a cooked and meat based
diet. This humanure
can be composted and reused safely, rather than the current system of
concentrating our
toxic wastes and disposing
of it via innapropriate and environmentally damaging ways. Thus in a raw society
a "waste" is transformed into a resource.
If food is produced locally within the community, and eaten in its natural state, there will be huge savings
in energy that is currently used to transport and process food, as well as the pollution this produces.
It has been estimated that 70% of road traffic is transporting food. Plastic for bags, wrapping.
Raw produce does not require elaborate packaging to contain it and make it appealing
to us, since its natural vibrant colours are enough to entice us. In fact, our ability
to see colour evolved precisely so that we could seek out fruits in trees - we are naturally drawn to them.
If the huge health improvements experienced by raw fooders were seen across entire communities the
requirement for expensive and often toxic medical intervention would be greatly reduced,removing a
large financial cost to society, not to mention the personal emotional cost of watching the diminishing
health of friends and loved ones.
Western medicine is now the third biggest killer of people in
industrialised nations, behind cancer and heart disease. Meanwhile,
the incidences of diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes
is steadily increasing. This situation comes about
because of fundamental flaws in Western medicine, and continues because
the medical establishment refuses to recognise these
flaws and actively resists any changes that could improve the
situation.
Overall, following a raw food diet breaks the cycle of toxicity we experience. Growing more
nutritous crops in a sustainable way creates a cleaner environment contributing
to our health. Eating those crops in a more
natural way further increases our health. A healthier
life leads to a reduction of relience on toxic "health" products further protecting
our environment and therefore our health.
In one year in the USA, xx patients die from being prescribed the
wrong medical drugs
or the wronf dosage. Shockingly, the number of patients dieing from
being prescribed
the correct drugs is even higher, at xxx per year. In developed
countries, western
medicine is the number 3 killer, behind cancer and heart attacks, both
of which are directly related to diet and lifestyle. The shameful
tragedy
is that the majority of disaeses that these drugs are attempting to
treat are preventable or curable through proper nutrition. Western
medicine is based on poisoning the disease, whereas nutritional therapy
is based on strengthening the body
to help it to overcome the disease.
- Plant based diet - more efficient use of land. CF Land required for
same amount of nutrition from beef vs veg/fruit. Oil required in meat
production etc.
- Less inputs.
- Less disease.
- Non-toxic human waste (humanure).
- Less pollution.
- Less waste (compostable).
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What's wrong with Western Medicine?
Supresses symptoms instead of treating causes
If you have a headache, supressing the pain will offer short term relief, but allows the
condition that caused the headache to persist. The pain is your body telling you to do something differently. Symptoms are
the bodies response to the condition that gave rise to the problem. The body acts in this way to survive.
Works Against the body's natural healing systems
The chemicals and pharmoceuticals used in western medicines are toxic. You can never cure disease using toxic poisons,
and in any case these
poisons are often misdirected at the symptoms not the cause. To heal ourselves
we need to assist our body to overcome the disease that gave rise to the symptoms.
Unethical
Western medicine is driven by other interests besides health.
Pharmoceutical companies make vast sums of money
from selling drugs (posions) to suppress symptoms, and they use this
money to supress any attempt that would threaten
this situation (such as ridiculing "alternative" natural therapies,
such as nutrition therapy), and using the medical institutions,
journals etc to attack, discredit and threaten doctors and researchers
who fall out of line. The methods of
medical study serve to perpetuate this situation. Meanwhile vast effort
is wasted on finding ever more exotic new drugs to treat more symptoms,
instead of treating causes.
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Practical Advantages of Raw Food Diets
- Less energy for food prep
- Quick and easy to clean up after meal preparation. No baked on food or fat and
grease to deal with.
- No danger of burns from hot pots or pans, nor from hot food in the mouth
How to Become Raw
Usual: No red meat -> No meat -> No Dairy -> No tea/coffee -> No alcohol -> no cooked
Ideal: No Dairy -> No red meat -> no meat -> no alcohol -> no tea/coffee -> no cooked
In Summary
Raw is our natural diet.
Raw prevents and cures disease.
Raw energises us.
Raw gives us vibrant health.
Raw has the power to liberate us to fulfill out potential.
More Information
Related articles at Eco-Raw
What is a raw/living food diet? Explains what and how of raw food diets.
Why vegan? Further discussion of the health and environmental impact of meat, as well as the ethical considerations.
Why Organic? Explains the advantages to our health and environment.
More "Why Raw" articles from around the WWW:
Acknowledgements
This article is merely a collation of ideas and findings from many other people's work. The
author gratefully acknowledges the effort and dedication of the following individuals (in no particular order):
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