Benefits of Raw Diet

Are Humans an Exception?

Eighty million species on earth (about 700,000 of which are animals)

thrive on raw food. Only humans apply heat to what they eat. Humans on

average as a race, die at or below half their potential life span of

chronic illness that is largely diet and lifestyle related. Domesticated

pets also are fed cooked, processed, packaged food that likewise is

denatured by heat. As a consequence, they suffer human-like chronic

ailments including cancer, arthritis and other degenerative diseases.

The typical species in its natural pristine environment lives seven

times past its age of maturity. Humans normally mature in their late

teens to early twenties. Our average potential life span in robust

wellness is actually in the range of 120-140 years. This is never

actualized due to the effects of heating food and not learning to

skillfully handle psychological stress through self-mastery (see

Essentials of Health). Humans have been on earth for millions of years.

Prior to mastering fire perhaps less than 10,000 years ago, humans

thrived on a diet of nothing but fresh, live, unfired foods as furnished

by nature in their whole unadulterated state.

Presently, humans apply heat to the bulk of their food day in and day

out prior to consumption. 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.

Humans are biologically adapted to raw fresh produce (see: Biological

Adaptations: Diet is Species Specific). Eating raw fresh produce as a

staple rather than cooked food keeps your body vibrantly healthy at

nearly any age.

Scientific Research Proves Raw Food Protects Against Cancer and Heart

Disease

Scientific evidence shows that raw vegan diets decrease toxic products

in the colon (From: J Nutr 1992 Apr;122(4):924-30). Shifting from a

conventional diet to an uncooked vegan diet reversibly alters fecal

hydrolytic activities in humans, according to researchers, Ling WH, and

Hanninen O, of the Department of Physiology, University of Kuopio,

Finland. Results suggest a raw food uncooked extreme vegan diet causes a

decrease in bacterial enzymes and certain toxic products that have been

implicated in colon cancer risk.

Researchers have also found that a diet rich in raw vegetables lowers

your risk of breast cancer, and eating lots of fruit reduces your risk

for colon cancer, according to a study published in the May 1998 issue

of the journal Epidemiology. Including fresh fruit as part of your daily

diet has been associated with fewer deaths from heart attacks and

related problems, by as much as 24%, according to a study published in

the September 1996 issue of the British Medical Journal.

Excessive Heat Denatures Nutrients

Burn your finger and skin tissue dies. Overly apply heat to food and

nutrients are progressively destroyed. Fresh food prior to wilting or

rotting sustains life to a high degree of wellness. Harvested food from

field and orchard provides raw materials to replenish your cells and

tissues. Overly cooking food destroys live plant and animal tissue whose

nutrients no longer bear any relationship to your living body. A diet

containing an abundance of raw, unfired food maximizes well being.

The chemical changes that take place to individual nutrients, as

excessive heat is applied will now be examined. It is well understood

and recognized in scientific literature that heat breaks down vitamins,

amino acids and produces undesirable cross-linkages in proteins,

particularly in meat. When food is cooked above 117 degrees F for three

minutes or longer, the following deleterious changes begin, and

progressively cause increased nutritional damage as higher temperatures

are applied over prolonged periods of time: ï?· proteins coagulate, ï?·

high temperatures denature protein molecular structure, leading to

deficiency of some essential amino acids, ï?· carbohydrates caramelize,

ï?· overly heated fats generate numerous carcinogens including acrolein,

nitrosamines, hydrocarbons, and benzopyrene (one of the most potent

cancer-causing agents known), ï?· natural fibers break down, cellulose

is completely changed from its natural condition: it loses its ability

to sweep the alimentary canal clean, ï?· 30% to 50% of vitamins and

minerals are destroyed, ï?· 100% of enzymes are damaged, ï?· the

bodyâ??s enzyme potential is depleted which drains energy needed to

maintain and repair tissue and organ systems, thereby shortening our

life span, ï?· pesticides are restructured into even more toxic

compounds, ï?· valuable oxygen is lost, ï?· free radicals are produced,

ï?· cooked food pathogens enervate the immune system, ï?· heat

degenerates nucleic acids and chlorophyll, ï?· cooking causes inorganic

mineral elements to enter the blood and circulate through the system,

which settle in the arteries and veins, causing arteries to lose their

pliability, ï?· the body prematurely ages as this inorganic matter is

deposited in various joints or accumulates within internal organs,

including the heart valves.

As temperature rises, each of these damaging events reduces the

availability of individual nutrients. Modern food processing not only

strips away natural anti-cancer agents, but searing heat forms potent

cancer-producing chemicals in the process. Alien food substances are

created that the body cannot metabolize.

For example, according to research performed by cancerologist Dr. Bruce

Ames, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of

California, Berkeley various groups of chemicals from cooked food causes

tumors: ï?· Nitrosamines are created from fish, poultry or meat cooked

in gas ovens and barbecues, as nitrogen oxides within gas flames

interact with fat residues; ï?· Hetrocyclic amines form from heating

proteins and amino acids; ï?· Polycyclic hydrocarbons are created by

charring meat; ï?·

Mucoid plaque, a thick tar-like substance builds up

in the intestines on a diet of cooked foods. Mucoid plaque is caused by

uneliminated, partically digested, putrefying cooked fatty and starch

foods eaten in association with protein flesh foods; ï?· Lipofuscin is

another toxin: an accumulation of waste materials throughout the body

and within cells of the skin, manifesting as â??age-spotsâ??; in the

liver as â??liver-spotsâ??; and in the nervous system including the

brain, possibly contributing to ossification of gray matter and senility.

From the book â??Diet, Nutrition and Cancerâ?? published by the

Nutritional Research Council of the American Academy of Sciences (1982)

and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) Office of Toxicological

Sciences, additional carcinogens in heated foods include: ï?·

Hydroperoxide, alkoxy, endoperoxides and epoxides from heated meat,

eggs, fish and pasteurized milk; ï?· Ally aldehyde (acrolein), butyric

acid, nitropyrene, nitrobenzene and nitrosamines from heated fats and

oils; ï?· Methyglyoxal and chlorogenic atractyosides in coffee; ï?·

Indole, skatole, nitropyrene, ptomatropine, ptomaines, leukomaines,

ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, cadaverine, muscarine, putecine, nervine, and

mercaptins in cheese.

It is no coincidence since 1950 as processed food proliferated that

cancer rates in the United States have steadily increased and are now at

the highest point in history. The effect from consuming overly cooked

food is minimal nutrition. The body is forced to raid its dwindling

supply of nutrient reserves and remains hungry for quality nutrients

after a typical meal on the SAD diet (Standard American Diet). This

leads to further hunger even though the stomach is full. The result is

chronic overeating and rampant obesity seen nationwide.

Scientific Research: Denaturation: What Cooking Does to Protein

Cooking denatures protein. According to Encyclopedia Britannica,

denaturation is a modification of the molecular structure of protein by

heat or by an acid, an alkali, or ultraviolet radiation that destroys or

diminishes its original properties and biological activity.

Denaturation alters protein and makes it unusable or less usable.

According to Britannica, protein molecules are readily altered by heat:

ï?· â??Unlike simple organic molecules, the physical and chemical

properties of protein are markedly altered when the substance is boiled

in water.â?? ï?· Further: â??All of the agents able to cause

denaturat-ion are able to break the secondary bonds that hold the chains

in place. Once these weak bonds are broken, the molecule falls into a

disorganized tangle devoid of biological functionâ??.

According to Britannica the most significant effect of protein

denaturation is the loss of the its biological function. ï?· â??For

example, enzymes lose their catalytic powers and hemoglobin loses its

capacity to carry oxygen. ï?· The changes that accom-pany denaturation

have been shown to result from destruction of the specific pattern in

which the amino acid chains are folded in the native protein.â??

This is why the term â??dead foodâ?? referring to cooked food is often

stated. A result of denaturation is lowered solubility. In the case of

egg white, a gel or coagulum is formed when heat is applied, thereby

forming enzyme resistant linkages that inhibit the separation of

constituent amino acids.

Proteins Coagulate

You can see coagulation of protein take place on a macroscopic level

when you fry an egg. The clear protein gel surrounding the yolk whitens,

thickens, and coagulates into a glue-like consistency. Digestive enzymes

(peptones and proteases) cannot readily break down coagulated protein

molecules once they fuse together. Not only are heated proteins

unavailable to your body, worse yet: the indigestible, coagulated

protein molecules tend to putrefy as bacteria in the body feed upon this

dead organic matter. Bacterial enzymatic by-products are carcinogenic.

Coagulation occurs on a microscopic level in all cooked protein

molecules whether witnessed or not.

In Britannica is the acknowledgement that cooking destroys protein to

make it practically useless. Utilize raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and

seeds as your source of protein (amino acids). By eating The Fresh

Produce Diet, you are assured of maximum biological value of protein and

other consumed nutrients. (For further detail, see: The Truth About

Protein and The China Project: Avoid Animal Protein).

As you consume more fresh produce as a staple, the body progressively

requires less food. As you eat more nutrient rich raw food, the body

steadily becomes healthier, and its metabolic efficiency increases. So

does its ability to absorb and assimilate more nutriment. Only about

one-half the amount of protein if eaten raw from protein plant food is

necessary (via nuts and seeds) rather than from cooked animal protein.

The Difference Between Heat from Cooking and Digestive Chemistry

Physiologists claim that cooking and human digestion are virtually the

same: that cooking is a form of predigestion where heat is used to

hydrolyze nutrients that would otherwise be hydrolyzed at body

temperature through digestion.

There are two ways to denature the proteins: chemically using digestive

enzymes, or through the use of heat. Via heat, the body does not have

the recombinant ability to utilize damaged denatured protein components

(amino acids) and rebuild them once again into viable protein molecules.

This due to the enormous heat exposure during cooking, that denatures

the protein molecule past a point of being bioactive, whereas body heat

is too low to effect the protein molecule so adversely. The body does

not require heat to reduce proteins to amino acids. It does a fine job

of this chemically through enzymes. Chemically digested protein can be

reused, whereas most of the heat denatured protein molecules cannot.

Raw Plant Protein Is Best

The Fresh Produce Diet includes protein predominantly in raw form.

Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouts do not require cooking to

increase their palatability or digestibility. When proteins are

subjected to high heat during cooking, enzyme resistant linkages are

formed between the amino acid chains. The body cannot separate these

amino acids. What the body cannot use, it must eliminate. Cooked

proteins become a source of toxicity: dead organic waste material acted

upon and elaborated by bacterial flora.

When wholesome protein foods are eaten raw, the body makes maximum use

of all amino acids without the accompanying toxins of cooked food. Some

high-protein plant foods such as soybeans and lima beans contain

naturally occurring toxins thought to be neutralized by heat. It is best

not to eat these at all, since cooking does not totally remove the toxic

effect of these foods.

Further Scientific Research on Detrimental Effects of Thermal Energy on

Nutrients (Warning: this next section is rather tedious)

According to the textbook Nutritional Value of Food Processing, 3rd

Edition, (by Karmas, Harris, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold) which

is written for food chemists in the industrial processed food industry,

changes that occur during processing either result in nutrient loss or

destruction. Heat processing has a detrimental effect on nutri-ents

since thermal degradation of nutrients can and does occur. Reduction in

nutrient content depends on the severity of the thermal processing.

Effect of Temperature on Rate of Destruction of Various Food Components

Component minutes at 250 degrees F Ea(kcal/mol)

Vitamins 100 to 1000 20-30 Quality factors 5 to 500 10-30 (texture,

color, flavor) Enzyme inactivation 1 to 10 10-100 Vegetative cell

inactivation 0.001 to 0.01 80-200 Spore inactivation 0.1 to 5 50-200 At

121 degrees C (249.8 F) the nutritional components decreased by 90%

At relatively low thermal processing temperatures, the destruction of

enzymes is greater than that for microorganisms. The temperature range

where the destruction rate of enzymes equals that for microorganisms is

generally 270-290 degrees F. The fact that application of thermal energy

to foods reduces the nutritive value of some components cannot be

contested.

Degradation of Protein, Amino Acids and Carbohydrates: The Maillard

Reaction

Various heat-utilizing techniques are employed in the commercial

processing of food. Destruction of one or more nutrients often occurs

during baking. This adverse effect on nutrients is more intense in the

crust portions since the interior (crumb) of most baked foods rarely

approaches oven temperature. While the heat of baking denatures protein,

the quality of protein is adversely affected by nonenzymatic (chemical

type) browning: the Maillard reaction.

It is ironic that the desired dark crust on bread is a result of the

Maillard browning reaction that is known to reduce the nutritional value

of bread. Maillard reaction products appear to have no nutritional value

for the mammalian system. In fact, they may be of toxicological concern,

as studies have also shown them to raise cholesterol. The Maillard

reaction primarily affects the basic amino acids of which lysine is

particularly significant. Maillard reactions are complex and are

responsible for the odors and flavors of freshly baked products.

Specific Limiting Amino Acids

The first nutritionally limiting amino acid for humans in cereal grains

is lysine. Methionine is the first limiting amino acid in legumes and

has received particular attention in fortification of soy-based foods.

Methionine presents potentially serious odor and flavor problems in

fortification projects. It may not be used in infant foods or foods

containing added nitrates or nitrites.

Lysine, the most limiting amino acid in grain products, is not the only

amino acid destroyed during the Maillard reaction; almost all amino

acids are adversely affected. In breads made with flour, significant

losses of all essen-tial amino acids except tryptophan occurs. The loss

of essential amino acids such as lysine and methionine dur-ing extrusion

processes is of interest because of potential impact on protein quality.

A study of Maillard reactions on the loss of reactive lysine during

extrusion was conducted by using soy protein enriched wheat flour.

Lysine loss increased rapidly with increasing temperatures. Free amino

acid loss has also been reported in the extrusion of dried potato flakes.

At 1600 degrees C, all amino acids measured were reduced extensively,

with the average destruction rate being 89%. At extrusion temperatures

less than 1300 degrees C, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, tyrosine,

and serine were lost to a surprisingly high degree. Clearly, the

elevated temperatures lead to a substantial loss of availability of

amino acids during the ex-trusion process. Lysine became less available

nutritionally with conventional baking than with either microwave baking

or steaming.

The physiological effect of a diminished lysine value after toasting of

bread has been studied in weight gain in rats, and protein efficiency

ratio (PER) of breads toasted to varying degrees of brownness. The

toasted breads fed to the rats had a significant effect on growing rats.

Weight gain was especially low with diets consisting of dark-toasted bread.

In toasting bread, the greater surface area exposed to toasting heat

allows a greater proportion of the product to become browned and lysine

destruction is greater. For example, thickly sliced bread would be less

susceptible to nutritional loss than thinly sliced bread since less

surface area is exposed.

Vitamins

In addition to amino acids, the effect of baking on vitamins has also

been widely investigated. Vitamins are heat-labile, with thiamin and

vitamin C being the most susceptible to baking losses. When the pH of

the baked product rises above 6, nearly all of the thiamin is destroyed.

Such conditions exist in a variety of chemically leavened baked goods

including cookies and crackers. In high-protein cookies, calculations

revealed thiamin losses exceeding 90%.

In addition to baking, vitamin B6 and pantothenic losses could be as

high as 91% in canned food. The recommended -daily allowance (RDA) for

these two nutrients probably can not be obtained from a menu of refined,

processed, and canned foods. When we treat foods with heat, we lose up

to 97% of the water-soluble vitamins (Vitamins B and C) and up to 40% of

the lipid soluble vitamins (Vitamins A, D, E and K).

Minerals

Heat treat-ment also profoundly affects the absorption / utilization of

certain minerals primarily through cleavage of complexes that renders

these minerals less absorbable. Phytate, fiber, proteins, and certain

minerals are particularly suspect as components of these complexes.

[Vitamins and minerals need to be consumed in an organic colloidal and

naturally chelated molecular form to be absorbed, assimilated and

utilized by cells and tissues during metabolic processes. Heat deranges

the molecular arrangement of vitamins and minerals, thereby liberating

its carbon. They are returned to an inorganic, ash-like form as found in

soil. Inorganic nutrients are treated as toxins by your body. (For

detail, see: No Need for Supplements).]

Fats and Carbohydrates

The Maillard reaction adversely affects the available carbohydrate and

fatty acid content of baked products. At extreme baking conditions,

linoleic acid and possibly other fatty acids are converted to unstable

hydroperoxides, which affects both the lipid and vitamin nutritive

quality of the product.

Fats Are Rendered Carcinogenic:

Heating also changes the lipids. These changed fats are incorporated

into the cell wall and interfere with the respiration of the cell,

causing an increase in cancer and heart disease. Acrolein, nitrosamines,

hydrocarbons and benzopyrene are generated when fats are heated. Each

are carcinogenic, cancer causing substances.

Deep-fried foods are the worse such as fried chicken, french fries,

onion rings, potato chips, corn chips, cooked beef, chicken and just

about all cooked meats due to their high fat content. Cancer is the

number one killer of children in the United States and this is one

significant reason why.

Oils tend toward rancidity especially when heated. Consume these in very

small amounts, if at all. Paul Addis, professor of food science and

nutrition at the University of Minnesota, says ï?· â??Rancid oils are

one of the factors that are important in heart disease.â?? Oils turn

rancid when the fats are broken down in cooking, and â??itâ??s

unarguable, these fats are toxic,â?? Addis says.

High heat applied to oils during frying turns them into hydrocarbons

that can cause cancer. Typical frying temperature is about 400 degrees F

and can reach up to 600-700 degrees F. When fats / oils are heated to

such temperatures the CIS fatty acids are converted to TRANS fatty

acids. The unsaturated fats then begin to behave like saturated fats.

When heated, they raise rather than lower serum cholesterol levels

(about 50% of the cholesterol increasing effect of saturated fat) and

can raise LDL cholesterol by nearly as much as saturated fat. Besides

the extra fat consumed, this is another reason why fried foods

contribute to hardening of the arteries.

When oil is reheated to frying temperatures (as in deep fryers), the fat

is more likely to develop the cancer producing agents acrolein and

benzopyrene. Very hot temperatures also destroy vitamins and alter major

proteins. Temperatures up to 1000 degrees F especially when one re-uses

cooking oil (as in fast-food restaurants), breaks down the

polyunsaturated molecule and free radicals then form. These are

fragments that have combined with oxygen to produce poisonous peroxides.

They are toxic due to their strong oxidizing (rusting) capacity, as they

damage and destroy cells.

Carbohydrates Carmelize

Bake some yams or sweet potatoes. Notice the sweet sticky goo oozing

from the skin that partially turns to ash from the excessive heat.

Youâ??re witnessing sugar molecules (carbohydrates) carmelizing, fusing

together like sticky molasses. Similar to protein coagulation,

carmelization also occurs on a microscopic level when all foods are

sufficiently heated, whether or not it is witnessed.

When complex carbohydrate sugar molecules are carmelized or fused

together, amylases (digestive enzymes) cannot cleave them into

constituent simple sugars for use as an energy source. Not only are they

unavailable, but the heat turns them into an ash-like toxin.

Amino Acids Deaminize

Protein molecules under ideal eating and digestive conditions are broken

down into amino acids by gastric enzymes. Every protein molecule in your

body is synthesized from these amino acids. Protein you consume IS NOT

used as protein: it is first â??recycledâ?? or broken down into its

constituent amino acids AND THEN used to build protein molecules the

body needs.

There are 23 different amino acids. They link together in different

combinations in extremely long chains to create protein molecules, like

individual rail cars form a train. The amino group gives each amino acid

its specific identifying characteristic that differentiates it from the

others. Excessive heat sloughs off or decapitates the amino group.

Without this amino group, the amino acid is rendered useless and is toxic.

Heating Food Past 117 Degrees Deranges Enzyme Molecules

When food is heated past 117 degrees, enzymes are destroyed. This is not

a very high temperature. Consider the instructions on frozen food items

that are sitting in your kitchen freezer at home. â??Pre-heat oven to

350-400 degreesâ??. When cooking, the higher the temperature the worse

the damage to your food.

Enzymes are specialized protein molecules that perform numerous

catalytic physiological functions including breaking down food during

digestion. Expose food enzymes to heat and nearly all are inactivated.

The body then must utilize energy to generate more of its own digestive

enzymes. Heat of less than 117 degrees does not denature the food

enzymes, however. Using food dehydrators that blow hot air on food until

it â??cooksâ?? at low, safe temperatures allows for delicious, creative

recipes such as using uncooked dehydrated garbanzo beans to make raw

falafel, and dehydrated â??liveâ?? crackers of various flavors.

Live Enzymes?

Most physiologists cringe at the raw food enzyme theory. They claim that

digestion depends on enzymes that the body generates, and not food

enzymes. Enzymes in unripened fruit however, slowly break down its

nutrients. As the fruit ripens, starches are reduced to sugars, fats are

reduced to fatty acids, and proteins are reduced to amino acids.

But itâ??s not the food enzymes doing the work, says registered

dietitian Roxanne Moore, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic

Association. Fiber and antioxidants of which fruits and vegetables are

prime sources, make the difference. â??Overall, the less cooked the

fruit or vegetable, the more nutrients and fiber it retains,â?? Moore

says. If you donâ??t want to eat raw vegetables, how you cook them

determines how much of the nutrients survive, she says. A few tips: use

shorter cooking times, steam and microwave instead of boiling. Rely on

fresh produce, which has more nutrients than processed or canned varieties.

Theory aside, eating raw food is a smart step toward good health.

Consuming more fruits and vegetables gives your body a noticeable energy

boost without harmful stimulants. (See: Stimulants and Supplements:

Literally A Waste of Energy---Understanding Compensatory vs.

Non-Compensatory Stimulation).

When Cooking Is Better? Iron

Some nutritionists and biochemists erroneously claim that raw isnâ??t

always best. Sometimes cooked food gives more nutrients for the buck,

say Rutgers University and Taiwanese researchers at the 1999 annual

American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco. They found that the

body more easily absorbs iron from 37 of 48 vegetables tested when

boiled, stir-fried, steamed, or grilled. Absorbable iron in cabbage

jumped from 6.7% to 27% with cooking. Iron in broccoli flowerets rose

from 6% to 30%. What the researchers were apparently unaware of, is the

potential harm of high inorganic iron absorption.

The Danger of Increased Inorganic Iron Absorption

The reason for iron becoming more â??absorbableâ?? with cooking is that

heat breaks down cell structure more completely than chewing alone. The

ferrous iron (plant form) is changed to a more elemental inorganic form

that is more easily absorbable in the intestine. But the more elemental

iron begins to overload the system since it is relatively difficult for

the body to eliminate.

The iron in cooked food is altered by heat. Iron absorbed from cooked

food is detrimental compared to raw. There are several forms of iron,

and the body alters them to suit its needs. Elemental iron is inorganic.

After cooking, the structures and bonds have been radically altered.

Excess inorganic iron can be a problem. It is associated with: ï?·

increased infection, ï?· the generation of heart disease, ï?·

predisposition to formation of free radicals, and ï?· free radical

damage has extensive implications including the promotion of

atherosclerosis, premature aging and cancer.

If you chew raw carrots well, you get as much iron as if you ate cooked

mushy carrots. Thoroughness in mastication is just one factor governing

the ultimate utilization of any nutrient. The health of the entire

gastrointestinal tract has to be considered, as does the vitality of the

individual (see: Nerve Energy), their blood purity, and the presence of

all symbiotic factors involved in the absorption and utilization of iron.

Keep in mind the reasoning and trust, that Nature has provided the

perfect balance of available nutrients in fresh plant foods which we are

designed for (see: Biological Adaptations: Diet is Species Specific). By

the application of heat we upset that balance.

Food, Nutrients, Digestive Activity, and the Effects of Cooking Food

supplies the following nutrients:

NUTRIENT DIGESTION DIGESTIVE USED BY OVERLY COOKING CREATES ENZYMES BODY

FOR CAUSES

- protein amino acids hydrochloric acid body structure deaminization

pepsin, pepteoses enzymes, blood coagulation ACID environment steroids

numerous toxins

- carbohydrates simple sugars salivary amylase energy carmelization

(complex) pancreatic amylase dextrinization ALKALINE environment

- fats fatty acids bile cell structure numerous carcinogens: hormones,

energy acrolein, nitrosamines

- vitamins (no change) - - - - - - metabolism returns to an (organic)

inorganic state

- minerals (no change) - - - - --- metabolism returns to an (organic)

inorganic state

- phytochemicals (no change) - - - - - - wards of reduced to an (natural

cancer fighting chemicals) free radicals ash-like state

- fiber (no change) - - - - --- keep colon healthy loses fibrous nature

regular elimination becomes saturated

- water H2O - - - - - - plasma / blood - - - - - - - - - - (body removes

inorganic minerals) medium for all metabolic reactions

Practical Considerations: Living in Society

Cooking DOES NOT increase digestibility of foods. The more a food needs

cooking, the further it compromises health: a prime indicator it is NOT

one that you are biologically adapted to. This means you should not be

consuming it as a major component of your diet. Our society however, is

centered round a cooked food lifestyle. You can still enjoy cooked foods

and be healthy to some degree. If you eat cooked foods, practice proper

food combining.

Food combining allows your digestion to operate smoothly, without food

fermenting or putrefying in your digestive tract. Aim for a minimum of

85% raw food of mostly fresh produce. Use transitional cooked food

recipes. Enjoy your food, including your cooked food. But donâ??t kid

yourself. You will NOT achieve optimal wellness unless you consume a

â??Clean--Burning Fresh Produce Dietâ??.

Cooked vs. Raw Food and Pottengerâ??s Cats

Dr. Francis M. Pottenger Jr. MD wrote about his experiments with 900

cats over a period of ten years. Pottenger fed raw meat to a portion of

his test cats, and fed cooked meat to the other test cats. Pottenger

wrote, â??Cooked meat fed cats were irritable. The females were

dangerous to handle, occasionally biting the keeper...â??

Cooked meat and a pasteurized milk diet led to progressive degeneration

of the animals. He compared healthy cats on raw foods with those on

heated diets with mention of parallel findings among humans in Dr.

Weston A. Priceâ??s worldwide studies. Behavioral characteristics,

arthritis, sterility, skeletal deformities and allergies are some of the

problems that were associated with the consumption of all-cooked foods.

The cooked meat fed cats suffered with â??pneumonia, empyema, diarrhea,

osteomyelitis, cardiac lesions, hyperopia and myopia (eye diseases),

thyroid diseases, nephritis, orchitis, oophoritis (ovarian inflammation)

and many other degenerative diseases.â?? No cooked food is benign.

Cooked foods act malignantly by exhausting energy, inhibiting healing,

and decreasing alertness, efficiency and productivity.

Pinpointing the Pathogenic Nature of Cooked Foods: Leukocytosis

An increase in white corpuscles in the bloodstream is indicative of

pathology. White corpuscles are the bodyâ??s first line of defense

against toxic or harmful substances. The typical white corpuscle count

is about 6,000 per cubic millimeter. When this count doubles, triples or

increases four or five fold it is evidence of a diseased condition even

if outward appearance does not reflect it.

Dr. Kouchakoff of Switzerland conducted over 300 detailed experiments,

which pinpointed the pathogenic nature of cooked and processed foods.

Food heated to temperatures of just 120 to 190 degrees F (a range

usually relegated to warming rather than cooking which, nevertheless

destroys all enzymes), causes leukocytosis. Leukocytosis is a term

applied to an abnormally high white corpuscle count.

On Raw Food, Leukocytosis Does Not Occur

Within a short time after eating food cooked at these low temperatures,

white corpuscle counts tripled in the participants of Dr. Kouchakoff

experiments. When raw foods were added to the meal, foods cooked in this

low temperature range did not cause leukocytosis. At cooked temperatures

higher than 190 degrees, no amount of raw food offset the pathological

effects of heating, and leukocytosis always occurred.

There is no proliferation of white corpuscles when uncooked, raw fresh

produce food is eaten. On the contrary, the constant daily fight against

the toxic effects of cooked food eventually exhausts the immune system,

causing age-related illness and premature death.

White Blood Cells and the â??Immune Systemâ??

A spontaneous multiplication of white corpuscles takes place in normal

blood immediately after the introduction of any virulent infection or

poison since white corpuscles are the fighting organisms of the blood.

The human body contains hundreds of defensive mechanisms including

leukocytes, lymphocytes, plasma cells, monocytes, basophils,

neutrophils, eosinophils, and granulocytes to clear the circulation of

toxic materials. These serve to protect and continuously purify the body

against the ravages of poisons.

White blood cells patrol your circulatory system and defend against

alien potentially harmful substances that have been absorbed or injected

into the body. White cells are sanitation engineers maintaining the

purity of tissues, lymph, and body fluids. If poisons, bacteria, fungi

(yeast), metabolic wastes, cooked food debris, or other foreign

substances enter the blood, they are engulfed by white blood cells.

White cells tolerate nothing abnormal in the circulatory system. Some of

what is apprehended is recycled as food, especially organic materials.

High concentrations however, overwhelm your â??immune systemâ??.

When pharmaceutical or recreational drugs, medicinal herbs, nutritional

supplements, inorganic nutrients and cooked foods are consumed,

leukocytosis occurs. An abnormal proliferation of leukocytes are

released into your bloodstream from lymph glands and bone marrow where

they are normally held in reserve until needed, to apprehend harmful

alien substances before they disrupt and chemically unite with a

significant number of cells and tissues.

In the process, white cells go on a suicide mission sacrificing

themselves while protecting the greater good of the organism. In the

aftermath of eating cooked food or taking drugs, the white cell count

rises to between 12,000-20,000 per cubic millimeter of blood. After

clearing the bloodstream of toxic debris your white cell count decreases

back to â??normalâ??, about 4,300-7,000 per cubic millimeter of blood.

Healthfully Normal White Blood Cell Counts vs. Ordinary WBC Counts in

the Typically Toxic

Although ordinary, this pathological average WBC count of 4,300-7,000 is

exceedingly high and is based on the general populace who routinely

consume junk food, cooked foods, condiments, soft drinks, teas, coffee,

tobacco, and fermented foods: all of which cause abnormal proliferation

of white cells. This phenomenon repeated each meal, each day, each week,

each year for decades slowly lowers resistance to disease and hideously

drains your â??immuneâ?? defensive response.

On the contrary, those who consume a clean-burning diet of predominantly

raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds have white cell counts well below

4,300: and are mistakenly regarded as immunodeficient! The truth is:

those who are REALLY suffering immunodeficiency diseases (as in AIDS)

have destroyed their capacity to generate white blood cells, from

constantly ingesting drugs or massive transfusions.

The healthy body is parsimonious, harvesting its resources strictly

according to need. Your system is very economical in that it does not

maintain faculties beyond what it requires. Healthy individuals whose

blood streams are pure have lower white cell counts in circulation. The

remainder is held in reserve within bone marrow, capillaries, and lymph

nodes for times of emergency.

Raw fresh produce foods strengthen your immune system, alleviating the

need to deplete its reserves. Overtime however, an enervating typical

lifestyle routine gradually drains the bodyâ??s tremendous capacity to

throw-off toxins. The average American is self- poisoned 20-40 times

DAILY. Each bout lowers body vitality as chronic disease slowly develops.

Raw foods are easily digested, requiring only 24-36 hours for transit

time through the digestive tract, compared to 40-100 hours for cooked

foods. Eating overly heated nutrients increases the threat of

putrefaction and disease. As you consume cooked carbohydrates, proteins

and fats, you are eating numerous carcinogenic products generated by heat.

Bacteria Decompose Dead Organic Matter (Cooked Food) In the Body

Overly cooked foods literally wreck our body. They deny needed nutrients

to the system since heat alters foodstuffs such that they are partially

or wholly damaged. Nutrients are coagulated, deaminized, caramelized and

rendered inorganic and become pathogenic. Virulent bacteria find soil in

dead food substances whereas they cannot exist on living cells.

Cooked food spoils rapidly, both inside and outside our body, whereas

living foods are slow to lose their vital qualities and do not as

readily become soil for bacterial decay. Bacteria decompose the trash in

our digestive system just as they do in soil. Bacterial action renders

usable some waste materials that would ordinarily be expelled. Bacteria

are essential to live and without them our existence would not be possible.

Yogurt Requires Dead, Cooked Pasteurized Milk

After eating cooked food, bacterial populations multiply exponentially.

Consider what happens to milk while yogurt is made. If you start with

raw milk and add a culture of bacillus bulgaricus the culture dies

before it sours the milk.

But if first pasteurized or boiled, the milk is no longer fresh and is

rendered lifeless. In making yogurt, it is then cooled to 100 to 110

degrees F and the bacterial culture is added. Bacteria then spoils

(ferments) the milk by feeding on dead organic molecules, thereby

producing yogurt in 6 to 8 hours. Note that the bacterial culture could

not act on raw fresh milk whereas in a dead state, the milk readily

became decomposing soil for bacterial proliferation.

Cooked food is dead organic matter that bacteria feast on. As a result,

typical meals of protein, starches and sugars quickly ferment and

putrefy. The metabolic by-products of bacterial activity include acid

excreta, vinegars, alcohols, indole, skatole, nitropyrene, ptomatropine,

ptomaines, leukomaines, hydrogen sulfide, cadaverine, muscarine,

putecine, nervine, mercaptins and ammonias.

Our stomach becomes a cesspool of fermenting starches, sugars and

putrefying proteins especially when eaten in incompatible food

combina-tions as is typical in society. Indigestion occurs, and bacteria

feed upon most of the food rather than your body. Digestive juices are

no longer secreted when the digestive tract is vitiated. Under this

condition, the digestive canal seeks to divest instead of digest.

Healthful Changes that Occur When Adopting a Raw Food Diet

Three important changes immediately occur when you adopt a raw food

diet. First is the 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. While their stomach feels full, their physiology

craves nutrients and remains nutritionally starved.

The second important change that occurs on raw food cuisine 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. Instead, this energy

is now redirected to enhance internal cleansing and further maximize the

unfoldment of wellness.

The third major change on a fresh produce diet is the cessation of

overeating. Overeating saturates the body with degenerated unnatural

foodstuffs that constipate or clog the bloodstreamâ??s nutrient delivery

and sewage cleansing system. The blood delivers nutrients and oxygen to

living cells, and carries away their toxic metabolites generated during

ordinary cellular metabolism. This is why obesity is a serious

condition. With too much food, the body is overburdened with inferior

nutritionless empty calories.

High fiber, high water content fresh produce abolishes constipation of

the bowels, cells and circulatory system. Obstructions are cleared and

blood flow increases to each and every cell in the body. Enhanced blood

flow is significant for two reasons: as mentioned above, blood delivers

nutrients and oxygen to living cells, and carries away their toxic

metabolites.

Raw Food and Athletes

Superb athletic performance on a raw food diet are not unheard of. Dr.

Douglas Graham has been a 100% raw fooder for 17 years. He coaches

professional athletes and consults with trainers from around the world.

As a college gymnast he coached the springboard diving team. A national

level competitor himself, Dr. Graham went on to train a trampoline team.

After only three years under his tutelage, all seven members of the team

won age group National Championships. Dr. Graham has trained

professional athletes from many fields, including tennis legend Martina

Navratilova and NBA pro basketball player Ronnie Grandison. He has

advised Olympic athletes from four continents in a wide variety of sports.

Dr. Karl Elmer experimented with top athletes in Germany, producing

improvement in their performance by changing to a purely raw food diet.

Raw food provides you with more strength, energy and stamina. On raw

food, the mind, memory and power of concentration is more focussed. Raw

food leaves you energized rather than the typical tired feeling after

meals. The tendency toward sleepiness after cooked meals is forsaken.

Raw fooders require less sleep and achieve a more restful sleep.

Raw materials that the body needs to build wellness are not â??cooked

materialsâ??. Nutrient values expressed as â??Percent of Recommended

Dietary Allowance [RDA] per Calorieâ?? on nutrition charts are highest

for raw foods. Potato, brown rice, winter wheat, pasta, and bread

donâ??t even make it to the Recommended Dietary Allowance.

Just Eat

Donâ??t get bogged down with figuring out yet another diet or baffled

over how to cook (or not cook) your veggies or fruits. Whatâ??s most

important is that you actually eat them. The U.S. Department of

Agriculture recommends 3 to 5 servings of vegetables, and 2 to 4

servings of fruit every day, which is satisfied each meal on The Fresh

Produce Diet. This amount is a far cry from the 3.6 servings of fruits

and vegetables combined, that Americans are now eating, which includes

junk food such as french fries, potato chips, ice berg lettuce and

ketchup on a burger.

On raw food: ï?· energy levels will increase ï?· less money is spent at

the grocery store (processed snacks are alarmingly expensive) ï?· sugar

and fat cravings slowly subside since the sweet tooth is satisfied with

sugar in fruit, and nutrient dense fat is obtained from raw nuts, seeds

and avocado ï?· weight also normalizes: itâ??s almost impossible to

overeat fresh produce ï?· plus its colorful, and delicious. ï?· No

matter how you slice it, making room for raw does only good.

Raw food is also good for plants. When grasses are separately covered

with fertilizers that are both raw and cooked, the grass grown with the

raw fertilizer grows 400% more tonnage, over that grown with the same

amount per acre of cooked food fertilizer.

The Worldâ??s Scriptures

According to Dr. Bernarr Zovluck, if you consult ancient scriptures and

sacred writings, in Eden people did not eat cooked food with â??burning

fireâ??. Chinese, Egyptian, Indian and Hebrew accounts indicate that

people were expelled from Paradise for using fire to cook food.

Methuselah because he ate only raw foods, lived to an old age.

The Bhagavad Gita says, â??Pious men eat what the brilliant forces of

nature leave over them after the offering. But those ungodly, cooking

good food, sin as they eat it.â?? Theyâ??re speaking of illness caused

by fire-cooked food.

In the Essene Gospel of Peace, a third century Aramaic Essene

manuscript, Jesus is described as saying, â??Cook not your food with the

fire of death, which is the fire that blazed outside you, that is hotter

than your blood. Cook only with the fire of life,â?? that is the natural

heat of the day.

Professor Edmund Szekeley wrote concerning the Essene scrolls, â??Eat

nothing, therefore, which a stronger fire than the fire of life has

killed. Cook not, lest your bowels become as steaming bogs.â??

Review

- Maximize your well-being and strengthen your immune system by

consuming an abundance of unfired raw fresh produce at each meal.

- Heat destroys nutrients, wholesale. Not only are heated nutrients

unavailable to your body, the heated food debris becomes TOXIC which

overwhelms your immune system.

- Stop saturating your body with toxins and undermining your immune

system. Avoid an abundance of cooked food and junk food.

- If you cook, heat food conservatively. The lower the heat for the

shortest duration, the better.

- Use transitional recipes, proper food combining, and organic food

sources to achieve at least an 85% raw food diet.

Do It For the Health of It!

World Copyrights reserved 2000 Arthur M. Baker MA, NHE Self-Health Care

Systems ArtBaker@HealthCreation.net <mailto:ArtBaker@HealthCreation.net>

Visit Art's Web site for further Informative articles at:

http://www.healthcreation.net