Quote:
Originally posted by ronb
Re grains - they're harder to digest, so if one goal of a raw food diet is to make digestion easier....I cut them out. Not suggesting that this is a universal thing to do. I am now very aware of my digestion, and i know that when i eat cooked food of any sort, or grains etc - it takes a few days instead of a few hours to move through...with constant processing. The nice thing about the raw diet is that food is digested within a few hours and afterwards the energy usually being used to digest is available for the rest of the body....that sounds a bit clinical as if i'm measuring...but i can actuallly feel the difference.
Regarding the comment about how one's body CAN'T digest raw food, eg vegetables fruits sprouted grains etc - that's wrong. Cooking above 120 degrees kills the enzymes that are IN the food that help one's own digestion break the food down. Raw food theorists tell you that cooked food is a whole lot harder to digest because it's without those enzymes, essentially the food is dead fiber with some nutrients, rather than a live enzyme rich food. Think about the difference between digesting a decent salad vs a hunk of lamb, no matter how well prepared - what sits in your gut for longer?
Re the query about sleep - I now am completely rested after 5 - 6 hours of sleep, which is very solid sleep, as opposed to before when i could sleep 7 - 9 hours waking up a few times at night. Because your body isn't working so hard during the day it requires less sleep....and because it's not still digesting stuff at night...better quality of sleep.
I know it sounds like a lot of wacko stuff, and i was not all that convincable except by having the experience myself. Note - that i got the suggestion from my physician (who is WAY out there though...but I trust him because everything he said was accurate...this guy was quite scary, but in a good way....the first time i saw him, in huge (back) pain, he put his hands on my feet and said...."you're alergic to x y & z, you don't drink coffee or tea but do eat chocolate etc etc, he knew exactly what was going on with me. I then went to a more "normal" doc and had tests, and everything the first guy said was completely accurate...just from careful observation / energy awareness etc, and a deep understanding of ayurveda).
Anyway....other benefits of the raw food thing for me have been a lot of small things clearing up that i just assumed was due to aging etc...I have a pretty vigorous daily physical practice, and since i made this dietary switch, i've made more progress with that than in the 4 previous years. Was quite astounding (and measurable ie against my training logs and notes, etc)
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I think what he meant was, cooking breaks down the cellulose walls that make up vegetable matter. For that reason you can extract more calories from cooked food. Yes you lose nutrients in the cooking process also. If you're interested I can dig up a paper or two on this.
Anyway thanks for the good info. I happen to have a PhD in chemistry, and I don't think a raw diet is "wacko". Actually I think it makes quite a bit of sense. Many things about digestion are not intuitive, e.g. people with malabsorption problems have a much slower gastric transit time. I'm really starting to believe that our society's approach to food is not in tune with our bodies, so I'm fishing for ideas. I really want to know what people have tried and if it worked. We have so much obesity, type II diabetes, GERD and IBS that it ought to be clear that something is seriously amiss.