(This is Part 4 of a series. Go back to Part 3.)
My fourth discovery concerned the value of raw living
alive foods. Alive with what?
It turns out that all raw fruits and vegetables have living enzymes in them, enzymes which are severely damaged above 123*F and destroyed above 129*F. When we cook foods we deprive ourselves of these living enzymes, as well as damaging the availability of the phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals and proteins in the food.
And recently it's been found that starches, when heated, form substances called acrylamides, which happen to be
the same toxins formed in the body from radiation. This applies especially to foods cooked in high heat, such as baking, frying and broiling.
Actually, science has just begun to study the differences between cooked and raw food. This is a scientific subject still in its infancy, and I'm sure the future will bring many discoveries and revelations.
But right now the proof, as always, is in the pudding. To really understand what living food does for your body there's no substitute for trying it yourself. And of course, we're not talking here about adding a few raw foods to your diet; we're taking about adopting a living foods diet.
What are the benefits of a living foods diet? To begin with, many people have described it as the body "waking up", and I would agree. It feels exactly like the body has woken up from a long sleep. We could say you have a lot more vitality, more joy of life, more health and all that, but the most fundamental difference you'll notice is that something inside of you "wakes up".
Another difference—one that's not often talked about but that is very evident—is that you'll discover a new humor about life. You'll discover yourself experiencing more laughter and playfulness in all sorts of situations, and it's the damnedest thing—you'll find yourself making funny comments that you didn't expect! See for yourself!
People often ask if it isn't difficult to transition to a living foods diet and if you don't miss cooked foods. Candidly, the answer is yes—for the first few weeks.
It's actually quite similar to the transition from a diet containing animal foods to an exclusively plant-foods diet. For the first month or so you do miss meat, cheese, eggs, fish, etc. intensely. And you continue to miss them somewhat for several months. But in the meantime your taste buds are changing, and the craving does gradually taper off and then you wake up one morning and you're
craving cooked vegetable dishes.
A similar process happens in the transition from a cooked vegan diet to a raw vegan diet. For the first few weeks you do miss cooked food intensely—after all, we're talking about comfort food here like mashed potatoes
or pasta primavera or breakfast cereal. Moreover, eating cooked food is an strongly-engraved habit that's been indulged for decades.
But your taste buds do gradually change and after a few months you do reach a state where you prefer raw foods. You come to prefer their cleanness and naturalness and aliveness on your tongue and in your body.
But there's something even more important. What really makes the difference is that you have enough clarity about why you're doing what you're doing.
An example: Tonight I was at this dinner party and for dessert the others had a delicious-looking apple pie and I had a fresh mango. And believe me, pie used to be one of my favorite things. Yet what became apparent to me as we ate our desserts is that I was getting as much pleasure from my fresh mango as they were getting from their pie.
In other words, I wasn't suffering from a pleasure deficit. My taste buds had changed so that I hugely enjoyed just a plain simple unadorned mango.
But there was also something more profound going on, because there was a great clarity within me: It was far more important to me to allow my body to reach for and express its highest state of aliveness than it was to attempt any satisfying of my taste buds—even if they had been suffering a pleasure deficit, which they weren't.
No, it's just the opposite: You come to crave the different tastes of various fruits—the wonderful cherries and grapes and papaya and clementines and on and on. You come to love the taste of raw nuts such as almonds and cashews. You vastly enjoy a wonderful green salad with fresh corn and peppers and tomatoes and so on. The experience is that you're at a feast.
(This is the end of Part 4. Go to Part 5.)
—jim sloman, 12.3.05
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