[Stupid] Not eating raw is really BAD, or it's just less healthy?...

[KenjiVeg]

Hi everybody!
I was thinking: ok, i'm vegan, and eating raw seems to be great, for A LOT of reasons. I'm trying it from some days now, and i can "feel" it.
BUT, boiling a potato, or some lentils or maybe some rise, sometimes, is really so bad for our body, or it's just not as healthy as eating a bunch of fresh fruits?

I know that boiling water carry away a lot of vitamins and nutrients from the food, but if it's only that, i think: "Ok, less vitamins if i boil some greens? So for dinner i'll eat raw greens, or fruits,
and i'll have all the vitamins i need! And in this way i don't have to renounce to all legumes, or rise.".
Maybe is there something else to know?
And if yes, are there concrete evidences to proove it? (i mean scientifics and indisputables studies).

(i'm not talking about frying food in oil, or consuming refined foods like pasta, but just talking about boiling some rise or greens or legumes)

Thank you guys!!

[MysticTree]

Heat alters the structure of things and makes nutrients less available to the body. It also destroys some nutrients entirely. I think this is generally known so I'm not sure where you find actual definitive, scientific confirmation of this.

[delmar]

Who suggested renouncing all legumes?

[MysticTree]

this forum belongs to Alissa and ALL cooked foods are off the menu Delmar. This forum doesn't allow the promotion of any cooked foods, legumes otherwise.

[KenjiVeg]

Ok. So, could you explain me why boiled greens and legums are so evil?
"Heat alters the structure of things and makes nutrients less available to the body", and that's ok. But as i said before, if a boiled thing is low with nutrients, can't i take the nutrients from other foods?
For example, what's bad with a rise salad, where i put inside tomato, peperoni, some greens, olives and avocado? Is it really so bad and unhealthy??

(Please don't read my post as an "attack" to your diet. I want to clearly understand because i want to go raw too, but with a full and clean knowledge.)

[MysticTree]

A MacD or KFC is always going to be worse but this forum doesn't discuss eating cooked foods. Not even cooked vegan foods. You must eat however works best for you but we don't support or promote eating cooked foods here. It's one of the rules.

[KenjiVeg]

I don't want to discuss about cooked foods MysticTree, i just want to discuss WHY you don't eat cooked (non processed) food, like legumes or rise.
And I don't want to support nor promote eating cooked food in no way.
I'm here just to learn.

Should i go to another place, search why i shouldn't eat cooked food, and then come back here and start chatting with you all??
It seems a bit absurd. If i'm here, the reason is that i'm a complete newbie, and just want to learn. I thought it was the perfect place where to learn everything about the raw-food choice...

[ReneeH]

Hi KenjiVeg!

First of all, welcome to the site!!! I hope that you do stay around because this really is a great learning environment for raw and living foods!

Alissa's philosophy is a simple one: eat whatever you want, as long as its raw and living foods. She breaks it down in her books as fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and sprouted grains.

Mystic is correct in what she said...just to add to that... Here's the WHY that you may be looking for: Cooking food destroys all it's enzymes. We consume foods in their natural state. We do sprout grains, beans, and some nuts & seeds that contain enzyme inhibitors. Raw and living food is NOT cooked, heated, or processed. When we go raw we say bye-bye to cooked grains and beans...really ANYTHING cooked. Cooked food creates toxins in our bodies and makes it more difficult to digest the food we eat.

Cooking legumes and greens (really anything) also feeds the desire for cooked foods, which we treat like an addiction. Eating it feeds the craving.

Having said all that, we are NOT gonna come to your kitchen and "POLICE" you! :). You can personally do what you want in the privacy of your own home. But on this site we lend support to the raw and living diet that frees you of addictions and focus' on best way to eat for optimal health. Why cheat yourself. There is no nutritional value in cooking rice, legumes, or greens. Living food is full of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, high quality protein, carbs, and fats...so you get everything you need.

You know, you can probably get the texture you want in your greens if you simply Shreaded them and then marinate them! They are FABULOUS that way!!!! Try it!!!!

This is how I do mine:

Marinated Kale:

http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u336/Pioneerspiritnee/Jan192009PHOTOS007.jpg

Sesame "Chicken" made with Sprouted Sunflower Seeds and with Marinated Zucchini & Squash:

http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u336/Pioneerspiritnee/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_4333.jpg

Marinated Portobella and Kale:

http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u336/Pioneerspiritnee/MarinatedMushrromKaleSaladZucchiniR.jpg

These raw "Chicken" fingers are made with Sprouted Red Lentils:

http://i517.photobucket.com/albums/u336/Pioneerspiritnee/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_5816.jpg


I hope this helps! We are all sharing and learning here, so please stick around! :)

[Revvell]

The heck with all this. I'm going to Renee's house. She feeds me; I'll keep her moving. Such a deal, eh?

[MysticTree]

Sounds like a good idea Revv. Those red lentil fingers look wonderful.

[SunshineMN]

I agree! Renee's food always looks so nummy!

To the OP, cooked food will keep giving you cravings for cooked food. Cooked food is hard for your body to digest as well as overworking your immune system. Many foods such as dairy make your immune system fight constantly and your body will generate more mucus. Raw foods heal the body, but your body won't have time to heal and clean house if it's spending all it's time trying to digest the food you're eating. Not everyone here is 100% raw but this board isn't for talking about what cooked food you are eating.

If you are looking for excellent health and energy be as close to 100% as you can. Many people that are high raw or all raw don't even suffer from the common cold. If you are young you can prevent all kinds of degenerative diseases including cancer, by eating right now. Make it a lifetime habit!

[ReneeH]

The heck with all this. I'm going to Renee's house. She feeds me; I'll keep her moving. Such a deal, eh?

Sounds like a FABULOUS deal to me!!!!!! :dance: You're welcome anytime!!!!! :)

[Revvell]

Sounds like a FABULOUS deal to me!!!!!! :dance: You're welcome anytime!!!!! :)

*starts packing Sand Bells, Kettlebells, clubs, ropes, medicine balls, Bul Bags and hoops!!! Oh! and some clothes..... * Coming!!!!

[Aleesha Sattva]

grabs her toothbrush and heads out the door... I wanna come too!

[Non]

I really enjoy the fact that live foods have enzymes. If the food is cooked it has to be digested with the body's own enzymes. Perhaps it's because I've been eaten raw for so long, when I eat something that is not raw I do feel like it will take longer to digest, and/or get stuck such that I need to then make more effort to clean out that sludge from my intestines.

[ReneeH]

*starts packing Sand Bells, Kettlebells, clubs, ropes, medicine balls, Bul Bags and hoops!!! Oh! and some clothes..... * Coming!!!!


grabs her toothbrush and heads out the door... I wanna come too!

Yea!!!!!!! Party over here!!!!!!!!! Let's GO GURLS!!!!!!

NEE. REV. LEE
:dance: :dance: :dance:

[Aleesha Sattva]

I :drool: can't :eat wait! :throwhearts:

[robh]

This thread got fun at the end, but I do have a serious comment to make on cooked vegetables and rice (not rise, fyi).

I have questioned this as well. In fact, up until 8 days ago I had this notion that it did not matter if I ate cooked food so long as it was "clean". I was allowing myself to eat a very small amount of good, healthy cooked foods. They never caused me to detox and I still felt good (or so I thought).

8 days ago, I really buckled down to do the 100% raw challenge for the month of July. Three days later, I felt better than I had in a long time! I felt that raw high again. Just because I gave up those few "healthy cooked" foods.

Why, you ask? I truly believe that it is a mystery that a lot of people are TRYING and FAILING to explain. A lot of people try to say that it is food enzymes. Other says that stomach acid denatures all food enzymes. Some say it's an alkaline environment in the intestines. Others leave science behind and claim that we are absorbing the living food's life force when we eat it and that's why we feel good.

I only need to listen to my body to know why I should strive to be 100% raw. I know, from personal experience, that I feel better when I eat raw vs. cooked food. It is that simple. It does not need an explanation.

[Raw Angel Mom]

Dear KenjiVeg, i think what it comes down is that you need to do what works for you and you don't need anyone to agree with you, but if you are seeking for the true answer is that the more you go 100% live food, the more your body will preserve its youth.

Your life style is far far far much better then most people, so if you aren't ready to go 100% raw then focus always on your accomplish, in time you will continue to upgrade your diet.

There are parasite that hide in the liver and organ and feed themselve on our stagnant lympth. They love starches even from cook potatoes and legume. I couldn't stand sprouted legume they just repulsed me, now i love them far better this way.

If you want true freedom, 100% raw food is the way. Let's face it, any cook food even steam vegetable is addictive period.

If your mind isn't ready to do the 100% raw or you aren't convince, then i say to you, make peace for eating the cook food and again focus on your accomplishment.

You are the one to know and to make the best decision for your success. If going 100% raw will make you go back to your old ways, then stick with your plan. On the other hand, if you feel that you want true freedom and you are ready for it, then grieves those starches and embrace life.

All the best!

p.s My say is that death cannot give life. You will never be able to grow cook legume ever. Life gives life only. The fresher the food the best. People who are true 100% raw food, will have no white cell in their blood, simply because live food isn't consider a foreign to our body.

[MysticTree]

I feel better when I eat raw vs. cooked food. It is that simple. It does not need an explanation.
Amen to that!

[fastfreedom]

KenjiVeg - If you're looking for something that shows the detriments of cooked vs raw then check out Dr. Pottenger or Pottengers Cats. It's a study done by Francis Pottenger on the effects that cooked food has on a living animal, "cats", compared to raw foods.

Or here's a logical way to look at it........do you know of any other organism on this planet that gathers their food, then makes a fire, then cooks their food before consuming it? Then after you think about that, consider the human race vs all other species on this planet.....why are only humans and their pets, "which are being fed cooked foods", getting degenerative diseases?

If you want real proof though, then prove it to yourself......eat 100% all raw plant foods for a month then give your cooked foods a try and compare how you feel. Then you'll have your answer.

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

Maybe is there something else to know?
And if yes, are there concrete evidences to proove it? (i mean scientifics and indisputables studies).



There are decent studies that talk about this. The studies aren't double blind but they still give good insite into raw v's cooked food and it's effect on health.

In 1970’s Tuffs University and HIpoocrates Health Institute did research to show that once they got a person healthy (free from disease) they were capable of eating (by weight) up to 25% of their diet as cooked vegan food without compromising their immune system in any significant way. When people increased the cooked vegan food from 25% to 30% (by weight) the immune system dropped more than 17%. When people increased the cooked food up to 35% about 50% of their immune system had been compromised. It proves what they found in the 1930’s at the `Pasteur Institute’ was correct.

But a person must be healthy if they want to eat cooked food because if a sick person eats any cooked food, it appears that their immune system will be compromised. Sometimes people need to eat 100% raw for several years before one is able to enjoy some cooked food, but NEVER EVER more than 25%. Two studies from major research centers has now shown this.

But that is only one side of the puzzle, there is also nutrient destruction. So if your diet is low in nutrients, cooking isn't going to help whether it's 5% cooked or 25% cooked. So yes, immiune ststem compromise and nutrition seem to be the key points with raw.

[Living Food]

There are decent studies that talk about this. The studies aren't double blind but they still give good insite into raw v's cooked food and it's effect on health.

In 1970’s Tuffs University and HIpoocrates Health Institute did research to show that once they got a person healthy (free from disease) they were capable of eating (by weight) up to 25% of their diet as cooked vegan food without compromising their immune system in any significant way. When people increased the cooked vegan food from 25% to 30% (by weight) the immune system dropped more than 17%. When people increased the cooked food up to 35% about 50% of their immune system had been compromised. It proves what they found in the 1930’s at the `Pasteur Institute’ was correct.

But a person must be healthy if they want to eat cooked food because if a sick person eats any cooked food, it appears that their immune system will be compromised. Sometimes people need to eat 100% raw for several years before one is able to enjoy some cooked food, but NEVER EVER more than 25%. Two studies from major research centers has now shown this.

But that is only one side of the puzzle, there is also nutrient destruction. So if your diet is low in nutrients, cooking isn't going to help whether it's 5% cooked or 25% cooked. So yes, immiune ststem compromise and nutrition seem to be the key points with raw.

Cooking food is harmful. Period. You might still feel good eating 25% of your diet cooked, but you'll never reach the levels of health and vitality that you can with a 100% raw food diet.

To the OP - if someone gave you $1 million, would you only accept half of it? Why would you settle for "adequate" nutrition and health when you could have amazing, spectacular nutrition and health? Underachieving when it comes to your health is something I'll never understand.

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

Cooking food is harmful. Period.

l agree. When you eat cooked food your body will be able to handle a small % o.k, but it still means your body's energies are diverted from higher tasks to be able to help digest the cooked food. Your physical health might remain high, but what about the spiritual factors/6th sense in the average person? l know myself that all raw is the way to go because my cosmic consciousness is really high on raw without even meditation, but as an old SAD man my cosmic consciousness and 6th sense was never very sharp.

Still...if the body is in good health we are able to have some cooked foods and the body will deal with it well. The body is an amazingly strong thing. But yes, cooked food is harmful (it takes away energy forces), but a healthy person eating 75% raw is able to deal with the catastrophe well.

And yes, l think it's better to be 100% raw to take much of the strain off the body and to feel the best possible, but the studies l mentioned have shown that the body can still maintain very good health via at least 75% raw.