Raw Food Eating

I wanted to share my passion with raw food eating by posting an excerpt from Mark Johnson's Rapid Raw. I am not pushing any of his products. I just enjoy the book and want to share some of his words. I am not a raw "foodist", but I do try to eat as much raw as possible with some exceptions. I like Erica Steele's outlook on raw food. She is a trusted resource for naturopath medicine in Virginia Beach. Her rule is 80/20. 80% raw, 20% cooked. A nice goal to strive for and achieve. I also must note that her raw food cafe inside Essential Wellness Center is delicious!

After being mostly raw for about 6 months, I have noticed a shift in my body fat content as Mark notes in his book. As I flush out more toxins, I have noticed a gain in lean muscle mass. My body has made more of a major shift in the last 6 months than any other time during my previous fitness and health journeys. I am even more lean and muscular now than I was back when I was immersed in triathlon training 4 hours a day (pre-kids)!I have also noticed a shift in my energy levels. Even with poor sleep due to 3 children waking up throughout the night, I no longer feel the low dip and desire to take a nap in the afternoons. These are all good things!!


An excerpt from Rapid Raw:
   "Thanks to the growing popularity of eating raw and live foods as a primary source of ones diet, there has been an increasing amount of information to help us better understand their benefits and implement their use. So I definitely suggest exploring as in depth as you care to go, but since the intent of this book is to get you raw "rapidly", I will summarize some of this information and give you the basics to get you started.
   The first and probably most reliable resource to use in the effort of understanding what we should eat in accordance to our biological design, is our common sense. Just ask yourself, "was all this beautiful looking, tasty and health promoting food put on this planet with me, for me to eat?" Or was it meant to be heated, processed, transformed, denatured, etc., then regurgitated into some package for consumption on a later date. It's also interesteing to note that we are the only species on the planet to consume cooked foods. I guess we're the smart ones?

What are raw/live foods?
   Generally a raw or live food diet consists of exclusively plant foods. However, any food that is not cooked is raw, including raw dairy, fish, and meat. Of course, as with any food, you should know and be comfortable with the safety and source of your food, as well as try to determine its effect in your body and how it may accumulate to effect your overall health.
  Trying to eat all of your food raw is fairly simple, that is until you add processed store bought foods into the mix. Depending on your knowledge of food sources and of the manufacturers themselves, it may take some investigation to determine if foods are in fact raw. One example is soy or nut milks. They may seem raw because they are served cold, but soy beans are initially cooked to destroy toxins and all milks have been cooked to destroy everything (good & bad) for a safe long life on a shelf. Other foods can be labeled raw, but the companies that manufacture them may be using their own definition of raw (for some it's heating well beyond 120 degrees).

It's all about the Enzymes:
   We all know that cooking destroys much of the vitamin content in most foods. But did you know that cooking (at 115 degrees) destroys all of the enzymes in all foods? Enzymes provide the life force for all living things as they are the spark of life found in every living cell. No plant, animal, or human could exist without enzymes. For us they are essential for everything that goes on in our body, including thinking, breathing, digestion, circulation, and the prevention of inflammation and other deteriorating influences responsible for aging.
  In its raw state, each food not only contains the enzymes that the body requires to digest and assimilate it, but it also contains a surplus of enzymes to enhance the body's abilities, energy, and in a sense, its own life force. Once cooked however, the body must expel energy to make and use it's own enzymes to digest and assimilate food properly. So even though the body is capable of processing just about anything we put into it, it seems to make sense that a diet high is raw foods will only accumulate bodily energy and longevity instead of  detract from or lessen it.

Where's The Protein
   We have been trained that protein only comes from meat, eggs, and dairy, but a well rounded plant food diet that contains a variety of foods can easily supply the protein needs of most individuals. This is especially true of a raw plant food diet due to the retention and total assimilation of nutrients. The amount of protein that a food contains does not necessarily correlate to the amount of protein that is left after it is cooked and/or processed. Research has found that the amount of usable protein in raw food is about double that of cooked food. This is because when proteins are heated to anything above 118 degrees some of the amino acids that they contain become destroyed causing some of the protein content to become denatured. To the body denatured proteins are unusable and toxic (are of no use but still exist in the body). This secondary effect of toxins in the body not only forces the body to produce more body fat in order to store the toxins, but their accumulation also prevents the body from properly absorbing the only protein and nutrients still left in the food source.
   With the nutrients in raw foods being total bioavailable and the fact that they clear toxins, the body can actually add lean muscle mass and reduce its body fat stores. This is partly due to an increase in energy and activity as well as body fat stores dissolving...as they are no longer needed to store toxins.
   Here are a few examples of the amount of protein in raw foods according to their caloric intake.
Almonds 12%   Broccoli 45%   Buckwheat 15%   Cabbage 22%     Honeydew 16%   Kale 45%

Pumpkin 15%   Spinach  49%   Walnuts 13%        Watercress 84% Zucchini 28%

Organic Exceptions
The following foods are reported to receive the least amount of pesticide are are said to be safe:
- Avocado
- Citrus
- Coconuts
- Figs
- Garlic
- Mangoes
- Nuts (Except Peanuts)
- Papayas    
- Watermelon
Organic is still best for many other reasons, so shop from stores you trust or look for trusted labels."

Wow!