WHY RAW

have raw cake and eat it

RAW PLANT FOOD

Raw foods are thought to contain enzymes, oxygen, hormones and phytochemicals. Cooking food kills the enzymes, which help the body to use vitamins and minerals. The vitamins, carbohydrates, fats and proteins are still there but perhaps not to the extent that they were depending on the cooking time and method. The minerals are made less soluble. Most types of fats have turned from healthy fatty acids to trans fatty acids, which create damaging free radicals in the body. Proteins are thought to become hard to digest. Unmetabolized protein particles in the bloodstream are considered by some to be a possible cause of allergies.

When you eat cooked foods, you put a heavy burden on your body, which then has to produce the enzymes missing in the food. One of the reasons you can feel sluggish after a cooked meal is because the body is focussing its energy on replacing the enzymes. In contrast, a raw food meal leaves you feeling light and full of energy. I noticed a big difference in how I felt in this respect after a transition to more raw foods.

Ingesting cooked food is also thought to cause the body to produce leukocytosis, when white blood cells are released into the stomach. These white blood cells normally defend our bodies against infection and injury to the body, but their production is a normal reaction to eating cooked foods. Leukocytosis does not occur when you eat raw food.

Raw foods are full of oxygen and chlorophyll, especially green leafy vegetables. Chlorophyll is detoxifying for the blood and also oxygenates it. The chemical structure of chlorophyll is similar to the hemoglobin in our red blood cells. The difference is that the hemoglobin molecule has iron in its nucleus and the chlorophyll molecule has magnesium.

Fibre is great for the body as it helps prevent constipation. In fact, cultures of who eat a mainly wholefood, plant based diet are known to have an easy bowel movement after every meal. My own bowel movements have changed considerably since I changed my diet and I am no longer ever constipated. I understand that constipation can contribute to a large amount of toxic waste stuck, sometimes for years, in the bowel.

MIXING RAW AND COOKED

There are differing views in the raw food movement about how much raw food is necessary for good health but the view I like to aim for is 51+ % raw for every meal. Of course there are times when I eat all raw meals and snacks and there are (rare) occasions, perhaps for convenience sake that I will eat an all-cooked meal. I do believe that a transitional stage is needed to convert to more raw foods, alongside eliminating other foods. This stage might involve a period of detoxification when you might not feel the true benefits until months later. In this stage you will also have a chance to experiment with different recipes and get used to a change of diet.

I find mixing raw foods with rice, other grains or rice pasta helps to make them taste less intense and sweeter. This is helpful for children who might find some raw foods too strong tasting and those in a transitional phase. I would add that even renowned Raw Foodist Gabriel Cousens (2008) sees a place for cooked grain and pulse dishes and there are many recipes and recommendations for such foods by Paul Pitchford (2002) in his book too.

Barbara Cousins’ Book (2000) Vegetarian Cooking Without also has a number of cooked, plant based recipes. These might make good transitional foods in an elimination diet to combine with salad for a partly raw, partly cooked meal. This book has recipes which contains eggs, though gluten, sugar, yeast, dairy, fish meat and saturated fats are not used.

SPROUTING

The fact that raw foods can sprout shows that they have life inside them. Raw grains, pulses, beans and seeds can sprout. For example, nuts, dry lentils, avocado stones, buckwheat and alfalfa seeds sprout.Sprouted seeds contain vital elements which nourish our bodies. The hormones needed by the body are created out of the natural fat and other essential principles found in seeds.

GREEN SUPERFOODS

According to Pitchford (2002), micro algae such as spirulina, chlorella and blue-green algae have more chlorophyll in than any other foods. They are only needed to be eaten in very small quantities and can be added to smoothies, raw chocolate and cakes. When dried, which is how we buy them, they are also high in protein, beta-carotene and nucleic acid. I try and take a teaspoon of one the algaes myself per day and give my children smaller amounts added to their cakes or chocolates and they should not be used in large amounts.

Algaes are considered anti-inflammatory and cleansing. Spirulina contains more protein than Chlorella but the taste is sometimes hard to get used to. According to Shazzie (2008:13) ‘Those with cancer, strokes and hayfever and brain deterioration have benefitted from spirulina’. However, she suggests that spirulina can interfere with vitamin B12 absorbency due to it containing B12 analogues, which appear to be like B12 to the body but in fact are different.

Chlorella and blue-green algae are not recommended during pregnancy by Pitchford (2002) unless the body has been used to it already for at least a year before conceiving. He suggests spirulina can be beneficial to provide extra protein required in pregnancy, but believes that the safest green superfoods in pregnancy to be wheatgrass and barleygrass.

Wheatgrass and barleygrass can be grown at home as a sprout but you need a specialist juicer such as the Greenstar to make the juice. Alternatively, they can be bought in powdered for, though they are not supposed to be as effective in this form. According to Pitchford (2002), the cereal grasses contain nearly as much chlorophyll as algae as well as digestive enzymes.

For me, chlorella tastes the best of the lot and so it is the one I might recommend to start with if you need time for you taste buds to adjust to the tastes of green superfoods. However, it is also more expensive. I like to rotate using different green superfoods so that I get benefits from all of them.