When I heard about raw foods I had my doubts. Mostly because raw foodies are also vegans. I tried the whole vegetarian/vegan thing for a couple years and I walked away thinking I had done my body more harm than good. My eyes had dark circles, I was weak and tired all the time, my nails were brittle and broke often, my hair was dry and lifeless like straw. People would take one look at me and run screaming from all thoughts of a vegan diet. It was BAD.
After researching the raw food diet and trying it for many months I have come to some realizations…a vegan diet would have been just fine IF I had gone raw as well. Most of the food I was eating was cooked or processed. Tofu, soy dogs, vegan lasagna, vegan tacos with soy tofu “meat”, soy milk, soy ice cream, etc. Now I realize how dangerous it is to be eating all that soy and I won’t touch it with a ten foot poll. So that combined with the fact that I was cooking everything, except for small salads or the occasional banana, made for a very unhealthy diet.
Cooking usually destroys around 30-50% or more of the nutrient content of any given food. So cooking automatically renders something half as healthy as it should be. Cooking kills ALL of the life giving enzymes. The enzymes are what help us to digest that particular food…they come neatly packaged with everything you need for maximum digestion and absorption. When the enzymes are destroyed our body has to scramble and look for some within the stores of our body. Enzymes are a necessary element in maintaining good health and are responsible for every reaction in the human body. If our enzyme production is insufficient we open ourselves up to many health problems; and if we don’t have enzymes we will die. There is really no other way to put it. While the body has the ability to produce enzymes on it own, it is not enough to produce the quality enzymes needed…not when our optimal diet is SUPPOSED to have that covered.
In addition to the enzymes, raw foods are filled with the necessary vitamins and minerals that we can all use for healthier bodies. There is no need to worry about missing essential fatty acids, iron, calcium, or protein on a raw vegan diet; because raw foods contain some of the highest sources of each of these necessary nutrients.
So when I was eating vegan before I was essentially destroying my food before I consumed it. THAT was why I was so unhealthy…not because I wasn’t eating animal products and meat. I admit that I will not likely give up ALL animal products. I do like my raw milk on occassion and I like sushi something fierce but eventually I would like to make those occasional vices only and the rest of my diet would ideally be vegan.
Because of this realization about raw/vegan eating I have also started to disagree just a bit with Mr. Weston Price. Carrie please don’t flog me. ;) I think animal proteins have their place in many diets..I truly do but only because we humans are not eating what we should be in the first place. I absolutely loved the book Green for Life as it explained this beautifully.
We share an amazing 99.4% of our DNA sequence with Chimpanzees. In fact, many scientists believe they actually should be classified as humans! They have the same A-B-O blood groupings as we do. We are also closely related to Gorillas. With all of the similarities between us why do they not also have our degenerative diseases? Their diet! A Chimpanzee’s diet consists of 50% fruit, 43% greens, 5% pith, bark, and seeds, and 3% insects and on rare occasions…small animals. Are we eating diets proportional to that? Heck no!
They eat hardly any meat but yet would you call chimps or gorillas wimpy??? No, they get ample protein from plants and we can too. We could technically eat 1-2 pounds of plain leafy greens (Kale, Romaine, Spinach, etc) every day but who wants to. I sure don’t…unless I mix them up with some fruit and make a green smoothie. I can easily down a pound of Kale if I put it in smoothies and drink it throughout the day. The problem isn’t that we can’t get the protein from plant sources, the problem is that we aren’t willing or able to eat enough of it most times to GET that protein. Green smoothies though have solved this problem for many people though, including a lot of raw foodies. Consider too that animal proteins are extremely hard for our bodies to digest making it likely that much of the protein will be useless to us and you can see why I think plant based proteins win out every time.
I remember once reading about this a long time ago from a Biblical perspective too. The author talked about how humans were meant to eat what they could get from the Garden of Eden…fruits and greens. Only later did our diet adapt as we were essentially forced to eat what we could get our hands on. I can’t remember what book that was though.
Of course if you don’t chew your greens properly until they are like a liquid paste in your mouth…you are not accessing all of the nutritional benefit. The cells of plants are very tough and have actually one of the strongest molecular structures on the planet. In order for the nutrients to be released from the cells they have to be ruptured or “chewed” to a pulp. Think of how a cow can chew on the same wad of greens for like 5 minutes, LOL. Humans have lost their jaw power after centuries of soft, cooked foods. A good blender will “chew” the food for you and release all those lovely nutrients.
And one more tidbit…greens makes the body alkaline. This is optimal for health. Animal proteins and by-products make your body acidic. In 1931 a man named Otto Warburg won the Nobel prize for his research that showed cancer cells form when the body cells have become to acidic. When I was diagnosed with cancer I was told repeatedly I shouldn’t drink milk and I should reduce meat because cancer cells thrive on the acid. I have already shared that I think meat consumption played a BIG roll in my illness.
Anyway…can you believe I just went on an on about that when the whole point of this post is that I am 
joining a Green Smoothie Challenge? Mrs. Blabbermouth strikes again. ;)
Lately I gotten so busy I have neglected my green smoothie drinking and I have started to have cravings for food I know isn’t good for me. So I need to do this Green Smoothie Challenge from the Raw Divas. It only costs $5 and you get a free pass to gift to someone else. And $3 of that $5 is donated to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization whose mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species. Pretty cool!
In addition to that they are having a celebration on International Green Smoothie Day (August 15) which challenge members will be invited to and you can win prizes.
If you are looking for an easy intro to raw foods or you just want to try and incorporate more greens into your life then I suggest you take this challenge. Hope to see you there! I also whole heartedly recommend that everyone read Green for Life.
Also check out my green smoothies recipe book!
