The Living Foods Lifestyle is based on Life.
Demi 'Charlie's Angels II' Moore, Woody 'Natural Born Killers' Harrelson and Alicia 'Clueless' Silverstone are all raw food converts. Leading Australian Raw Food proponent Paul Benhaim shows us that raw foods are not just for rabbits.
The life of our body is made up by the life of the individual cells that make up a healthy body.
We create healthy cells by providing our bodies with Living Foods and assisting our bodies in the excretion of Toxic Waste.
This can simply be done by eating easily digestible foods that have not been killed. All cooked foods are dead. That is, devoid of the life giving enzymes that assist our bodies in digesting foods.
Sure, we can eat dead foods, and most of modern society does- and most of modern society now suffers from ailments not seen in primitive or nature based communities.
Dead foods require our bodies to produce the extra enzymes to digest the food that are destroyed in the cooking process. This takes our body away from the important task of cleaning out toxic substances. Eventually leading to a build up and the onset of various symptoms. An 85 year old has only 1/30 the enzyme activity level of an 18 year old. Aging is really nothing more than running out of enzymes.
Living Foods advocates the use of fruits, vegetables, sprouted seeds and nuts processed in specific ways. Blending, fermenting, dehydrating allow creativity with foods you never thought of using raw. Thai Curry, Butternut Noodles, Lasagna, Spaghetti, Chocolate Cakes and soups are all on the menu board, and non involve cooking. Herbs and spices take on a whole new taste when used raw and at least one recipe book is useful in getting started.
Using a blender to warm soups, or a dehdyrator to produce crackers or bread substitutes is acceptable as long as temperatures do not reach the crucial death limit. Cooking or killing foods involves heating any food above 100-115 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the limit that enzymes can live in.
What about protein? A question I am asked all the time. Protein is no more important that any other element in our food. Protein comes from raw plant foods- yes, even fruit contains protein. How does a cow grow to hundreds of kilos of protein flesh from a simple grass diet that contains hardly any protein at all. It is not protein that is required by the body, but the essential amino acids that are present in raw fruits and vegetables. The mass media scares are created by the meat and dairy industry to push their products. The truth is no one has ever died from protein deficiency. Have you ever heard of anyone suffering from 'protein deficiency disease'? It is because it does not exist. However, people die from protein poisoning every day- heart attacks, strokes etc. are the inevitable results of overburdening the body with cooked animal proteins. But you are a bodybuilder or labourer who needs strength. So do the most powerful creatures- the herbivores. A gorilla can bench press 2000kg. A gorilla never eats anything except raw plant foods. A chimpanzee looks skinny but it can rip a car door off of its hinges. Its just logic. 99% of human DNA is identical to the chimpanzee.
And how do we survive the cold winters without warm food? Warm foods give us a false sense of security. They temporarily warm us up or stimulate us for a few minutes then leave us cold a short-while later. Its like taking a hot shower. Are you more resistant to cold weather if you take hot or cold showers? One feels warm after a cold shower, and weak and depleted after a hot shower that drains your vital energy. Prisoners at Alcatraz where actually forced to take extremely hot showers so that, if they ever escaped, they would not be able to survive the ice-cold waters. Grass eating wild-deer live happily in the winter as they have not been weakend by cooked foods.
But the blood-type diet book says raw foods are not for me. That book also says some types find coffee and meat more useful for their systems. I have met people who have been vegetarian most of their lives to start eating meat because of that book. There is no quick answer for 'your type'. The only person who can write a book about 'your type' is you. Everyone is unique and we cannot ignore this. There are raw food theory and recipe books available*. The best of which contain options. I suggest that you do not follow any recipe exactly, but use them as a guideline. Sometimes we feel like one type of food, and not another. What appeals to you may not appeal to the person next door. And that may all change tomorrow.
By learning how to follow our own instincts we will find a diet that will suit us perfectly- and this should consist of living foods. We can enjoy so many different forms and foods that there never needs to be repitition, unless we want it. And it can be fun, easy- no need to wash all that grime from the dishes, no waiting time- eat while or immediately after preparing.
So far all we have to do is substitute our regular meals with a Living Food alternative and can we can be strong, warm, vibrant and healthy. There is a Living Food alternative to pretty much every cooked food recipe. Great, but let's not forget cleansing.
Unless we are a 3 month year old, breast fed healthy baby then the likelihood that we have had a great deal of toxins build up in our body is high. Vegetarians, meat eaters, vegans and 'health food freaks' alike- we all have toxins.
Sometimes toxins are visible in the form of blotchy skin, sometime showing up as regular colds or in more serious cases as an 'incurable' disease. Whatever way we look at it the process is the same- eat cooked dead foods and create less space for toxic removal and increase risk of symptoms. Start with acne, move to colds, then headaches, a new allergy, body pains, then eczema, then asthma, then heart problems, then cancer, then death. Some of these symptoms are considered normal by today's civilizations.
We have an opportunity to stop this cycle at any point. We all have a choice and this is all we need to make changes. Eating Living Foods is a start, but the total Living Foods Lifestlye also includes regular down-time- in the form of meditation, relaxation or walking. Not too hard so far. Then there is exercise, in any form, preferably non-competative. For those, like me, not 'exercise' trained some light yoga and brisk walking can be fun. And for those of us lucky enough to live by the coast- a regular swim. Still sounds easy? Emotional healing is next- using our minds and simple techniques we can go right to the very depths of our being and cleanse ourselves at a cellular level. Brandon Bays and Deepak Chopra both agree that all cell damage- potential cancerous cells have an emotion attached to them that can be easily, painlessly and quickly healed. Still not difficult? Finally, is the colon. "ugh, do we have to talk about the colon and food in the same article". Well, yes. The colon is one of our most crucial organs. When the colon slows down, we get sick and none of the rest of our organs can function at full capacity. Think of the sewer pipe from your house- if this gets clogged up we do not ignore it and continue working in the kitchen. Another analogy is the car. How much do time and energy do we spend on servicing our much loved vehicle every year? It still runs if we do not change the oil doesn't it? But after a few years, blocked pipes appear and cause some dreadful symptoms that can be fatal to the life of the car if not addressed immediately. That's why we service our car. So how valuable are our bodies? Are they as valuable as our cars? Colonics or enemas are not painful, non-intrusive and can be done by very understanding and private consultants these days.
What have we got to gain from a Living Food Lifestyle? More energy for the things you enjoy; More beautiful skin and radiant energy; Less sick time, no more gas, indigestion or heartburn; Living Foods saves you money on pots, pans, vitamins, pills, additives, drugs and health insurance. What have you got to loose?
Paul Benhaim is author of
