Better Nutrition Article:
Enzymes and Raw Food - Can You Cheat Time and Stay Young for Longer?
I'm going to be a bit radical here, but know that I'm only encouraging you to question and think and ideally do your own research, both theory and practice. I'm pretty confident that you'll thank me for it.
WHAT IF THE SO-CALLED 'AGING PROCESS' WAS A CHOICE?
Clearly, we can't stop time from moving on. When we have a birthday, we are another year older. That's a fact that, for the moment at least, we cannot change. But what if the weakening organs, bones and tissues and all the 'usual' signs of old age were not actually a part of the aging process we've come to accept as 'normal'? Have you ever considered that these conditions are simply symptoms of us mistreating our bodies over the course of our lives to date? Wouldn't our senior years be a whole lot more fun if we were pain and disease free and could jump around with the energy and vitality of a teenager?
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?
That this is a crazy, impossible idea borne out of fantasy? Or are you willing to open your mind and accept that actually, if you treat your body right and nourish it properly, it may in fact be possible? And this is where Enzymes come in...
In his book Intuitive Eating, Dr Humbart Santillo MD writes:
"A human being is not maintained by food intake alone, but rather by what is digested. Every food must be broken down by enzymes to simpler building blocks. Enzymes may be divided into 2 groups, exogenous (found in raw food) and endogenous (produced within our bodies). The more one gets of the exogenous enzymes, the less will have to be borrowed from other metabolic processes and supplied by the pancreas. The enzymes contained in raw food actually aid in the digestion of that same food when it is chewed. One can live many years on a cooked food diet, but eventually this will cause cellular enzyme exhaustion which lays the foundation for a weak immune system and ultimately disease."
Put simply, we are born with a finite supply of endogenous enzymes. It should be enough to last us a lifetime based on current life expectancy, but if we don't supply some exogenous enzymes through our diet, we will use up our original supplies and that's when we become susceptible to the accepted 'signs of old age' including premature death! And the fact is that when we cook our food, we kill all enzymes instead of allowing them to boost our immune system, our brain function and our energy levels.
Another doctor, Edward Howell, has written a book called Enzyme Nutrition. In it, he says:
"Humans eating an enzyme-less diet use up a tremendous amount of their enzyme potential in lavish secretions of the pancreas and other digestive organs. The result is a shortened lifespan (65 years or less as compared with 100 or more), illness, and lower resistance to stress of all types, psychological and environmental. By eating foods with their enzymes in tact and by supplementing cooked foods with enzyme capsules we can stop abnormal and pathological aging processes."
THESE SCIENTISTS ARE NOT CRACK-POTS WORKING ALONE
The raw food movement is gathering pace and the practice is becoming more mainstream now. In her book You Are What You Eat, Gillian McKeith places raw or living foods at the top of her list of Good Foods and has a section entitled The Case Against Cooking. Now don't get me wrong; I'm not suggesting that you switch overnight to a 100% raw food diet. Though plenty do and never look back, it's not always wise. Instead I would give the same advice as Gillian in urging you to eat something raw with every meal.
Just before I sat down to write this, I ate a yummy Quinoa Avocado Salad which other than the cooked quinoa was loaded with raw, enzyme-, EFA- and nutrient- rich foods. I ate it on its own, but you could serve it alongside a piece of grilled chicken or fish instead of dead, heavy, sugar-rush potatoes which do little more than bloat you up. Find the recipe on my Blog at http://claireraikes.blogs.com/claires_blog/.
Claire Raikes is a Wellbeing Coach, Speaker and Writer who 'cured' herself of a chronic, disabling and potentially life-threatening bowel condition without the use of steroids, surgery or any other traditional medical intervention. She now shares her passion for natural and vibrant health through coaching, speaking and writing about the importance and power of a truly healthy diet.
She publishes a free weekly eZine, In Essence and is compiling an eBook of Healthy Fast Food with 25% of the proceeds going to The Cancer Project, a charity set up by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and nutritionists to educate the public on the benefits of a healthy diet for cancer prevention and survival. If you have a recipe you would like to submit, visit http://www.LiveInEssence.com for further details. To book Claire to speak at your event, email her at Claire@LiveInEssence.com.
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