Deep Dive into Nutrition: The Superfood Catalog

So now that we know why raw foods are good for our body and mind, it is time to explore the nutritional gamut of the raw food world. When I first got acquainted with these superfoods, I was absolutely flabbergasted by the kind of nutrition Nature has provided us with in the herbs growing in the Peruvian Amazonas to China and the sea vegetables in our oceans, seas, and lakes!

Let's start by talking about 'Superfoods.' Simply put, superfoods are foods with high nutrient or phytochemical content that have huge health benefits. Blueberry (for anthocynanins, vitamin C, manganese, dietary fiber, etc.) and fish (for omega-3 fatty acids) are the two most common superfoods from the plant and animal worlds. In the recent years, this term has reduced to a mere (and misleading) marketing tool; but that's a different topic altogether for now...

In the rest of this journal entry, I will be introducing a large variety of superfoods that we can incorporate in our food rather easily to make it nutritionally dense AND delicious. It is worth noting here that these superfoods are in addition to the already well-known nuts, seeds, sprouts, etc. that are typically consumed raw.

Proteins

Hemp protein powder: Great nutrient profile - 45% protein, 43% fiber, 9% beneficial fats.

Buckwheat groats: High quality protein. Acts as a wheat (gluten sounds familiar?) substitute. Sprout and dehydrate to use as crispies to top salads, soups, sprinkle into wraps, etc.

Brown rice protein powder: Substitute for milk proteins. Somewhat chalky texture.

Spirulina: Microscopic blue-green algae. Tastes like seaweed with strong ocean aroma. High amounts of proteins, essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.

Boosts immune system, aids in digestion, makes body environment alkaline. Available as flake powder and pressed tablets.

Wheatgrass: Complete protein with about 30 enzymes, most vitamins and minerals needed for the human body, increases red blood cells, excellent detoxifying power, and the list continues. Best taken as "shots," though powder form can be used in smoothies (watch out for some nasty flavors - coming straight from my personal experience! =))

Golden berries: Originally from the Incan land. 16% protein, high in phosphorous, excellent source for vitamin A, C, B Complex, and bioflavonoids. Sweet and tart, enjoy as any berry or raisins in trail mix, cereals, cookies, salads.

Antioxidants

Matcha: Finely milled green tea packed with antioxidants - reported to boost metabolism, enhance mood, lower cholesterol, help balance blood sugar. Easy add to smoothies for anti-aging. In fact, half a teaspoon of matcha is an essential ingredient in my green smoothies every morning.

Goji berries: Comes from a shrub native to China. Increases longevity, has antioxidants and vitamins for brain health, prevents Alzheimer's. I personally love the flavor these berries add!

Alfalfa grass juice powder: Potential source of antioxidants and phytochemicals. Used in traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine to treat poor digestion, arthritis, kidney stones, other digestive issues. Sweet mild flavor. Super alkalizing. Use in smoothies and shakes to boost immune system.

Immunizers

Chlorella: Fresh water algae. Believed to boost immunity, help detox heavy metals, eliminate constipation, and body odor. Contains mostly protein, vitamins (E, B, C), and minerals (zinc, iron). Snack on tablets. Tastes like seaweed and green tea.

Maca: Peruvian superfood that rebuilds weak immune system and re-mineralizes poorly nourished bodies. Awesome source for increasing energy and building endurance.

Omega 3s

Hemp Oil: 3:1 ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids, rich in amino-acids and vitamin E, helps in hair and nail growth, anti-inflammatory.

Sacha Inchi: Peruvian plant that grows small nuts rich in oil that is cholesterol free and Omega 3 rich. Tasty source of vitamin A/E. High in protein, rich in nonessential amino acids, strong nutty flavor similar to hemp oil. Can be used as any oil in dressings, sauces, soups. Use sparingly due to strong flavor.

Fat Blast

Coconut oil: It has special fats called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) that can break down health fats leading to burning of energy. Also increases HDL and resistance to infection causing viruses and bacteria. It was quite a surprise for me to see coconut oil being abundantly used in detox plans. Stay tuned for a post on detoxing.

Cacao nibs and powder: Yes, chocolate, in its purest form, is a great aid to weight-loss. It has certain enzyme inhibitors that dimish appetite too. Also a great source of sulphur and manganese.

Sea vegetables

Nori, kelp, hijiki, wakame, kombu, dulse: One of the best sources of iodine, health-promoting vitamin K and folate. Nori has also been known to assist in weight-loss. In general, these see vegetables decrease inflammation, decrease LDL, anti-coagulate the blood, help fight cancers, and the thyroid in hormone balance.

Oils:

Flax oil: Low in cholesterol, anti-inflammatory, cancer fighting, etc.

Sesame oil: Helps in diabetes and lowers high blood pressure. Also known to assist in multiple sclerosis and cancer.

30 times for Vitamin C than oranges and lemons?

Camu Camu: Plant growing along the rivers and lakes of Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela. 30 times more vitamin C than oranges and lemons. It's a Dry pink powder - add to juices and smoothies for fruity, semi-sweet, acidic flavor.

22 times more iron that spinach?!

Barley grass juice powder: 22 times more iron than spinach, calcium, protein. Everything from aging to weight-loss, mild sweet flavor for smoothies, shake.

References:
"Ani's 15-Day Fat Blast" by Ani Phyo
Countless other material that I read in last several months...

My Stumble into the Raw Food World

"May We All Be Bored In Life!"

By late spring this year, I was bored, awfully bored! The careerist in me wasn't excited about her profession anymore, the artist painted masterpieces only in her imagination, the chef had run out of all ideas for new concoctions, the blogger had been meaning to start her blog for the last five years (!), and the woman in me had lost her glamor.

But it didn't stop there - food, too, became boring for me!! This might sound very alien to some of my readers. Day after day, I found visiting the same lunch places around work with colleagues boring. Week after week, I went to the groceries and brought almost nothing home because the taste of everything in my mouth felt, well, all too familiar. Stepping out with friends for dinner, all cuisines were the same old Mexican, Thai, Indian, Chinese, American... Clearly, my boredom wasn't sustainable for long.

So I knew I had to change things; getting interested in food again was critical if I had to continue to exist =). I decided to sign up for a cooking class to get my inner chef's creative juices flowing and add some new flavors to my life. Little did I know, I would move away from cooking. Among many classes, I came across Heather Haxo Phillips' "Forget Cooking! Introduction to RAW Food Cuisine" that sounded intriguing and was logistically feasible. Without knowing most of what I wrote about the benefits of a raw food diet in my last post, I signed up for Heather's class.

Fast forward to the day of the class, Heather had recipe handouts for all menu items. I flipped through them and thought:

Almond Milk - is it same as what we get at the supermarket?
Cream of Zucchini Soup - I had never bought another zucchini in my life after a friend served me an unappetizing curry made of zucchini =/
Mediterranean Kale Salad - Oh "kale," that ugly, very dark green colored leaf resembling the skin of a frog! Yikes!
Not Tuna Pate - no more pates for me. I had been to lunch with a few colleagues and had carrot pate and didn't like it. Apparently my taste hadn't quite evolved. (I like it now.)
Zucchini Noodles with Marinara - ugh, zucchini again!
Chocolate Mousse - yum, at last. But wait, with avocado?? I had quit buying avocados as I never managed to eat them in time and they rotted rather quickly.

Besides the menu items, the recipes called for uncommon (for me) ingredients that had never been a part of my rather well-stocked pantry. Doesn't sound like raw food and I were meant to be together, does it? Being a skeptic, one of my questions to Heather was, "Shouldn't we be always cooking our food to get rid of the germs and bacteria?"

It was sampling time at the end of the class. To my surprise, the whole plate, except for the kale salad (in my opinion), was actually DELICIOUS and tasted very different and exciting to my bored taste buds. Voila!! Heather also did a great job talking about many of the benefits of including more greens in our diet, shopping at the farmers' market instead of the supermarkets, the "correct" way of consuming nuts and seeds, etc. etc.

Later that day when I got home, I read a lot more about the raw food regimen and everything I had heard in the class seemed to get confirmed and re-confirmed. I decided to take my very first raw food step - just a green smoothie in the morning. In the first few days, I even cheated - I added ~80% fruit and only ~20% greens (60-40 is the suggested proportion). But it made a difference within a matter of days.

To begin with, somehow, I had more energy. I felt lighter. I felt like doing what the careerist, artist, chef, and woman in me had wanted to do. There was a gradual influx of Qi in me. I was beginning to creep out of the ditch of boredom. In a couple of weeks, I noticed my food choices for the rest of the day had begun changing - I did not long for the same flavors and food items anymore. More startling was the realization that on the days I did not start with a green smoothie, my eating patterns were different - they were the old patterns!

Over next couple of months, I started shopping at the local farmers' market (and eventually fell in love with it), stocked up my pantry with many new ingredients that had never been a part of my food repertoire (for which the chef in me couldn't be more thankful), switched to 40-50% greens in my smoothies =), and began buying bunches of kale and making variations of kale salads =) =). There is a lot more to be told about how far I have come in the last several months. That will be another journal entry...

To conclude this introduction to my rendezvous with raw food, the fact that I'm authoring this journal speaks volumes about what my philosophy around food has evolved into. We shall uncover these volumes in the upcoming days. For now, it's time for me to wrap up this long and writing-intensive but extremely rewarding Thanksgiving weekend of 2012.

So Why NOT Cook Our Food?

Amid all the frenzy for cooked, baked, grilled, deep-fried, stir-fried, BBQ-ed, pasteurized, you-name-it treatments applied to all edible things ever known to man, eating the same ingredients raw sounds like a semi-civilized and, to some extent, even a primitive proposition.

As we'll see in this post, it's quite the contrary. Eating raw foods is one of the best things we can do to our body and mind and environment! I summarize the benefits of eating raw into two categories - health & vitality and environmental friendliness.

Health & Vitality

Many beneficial nutrients exist only in fresh produce (such as fruits, vegetables, green leafy, and nuts and seeds). For the sake of concrete examples, cancer fighting falcarinol in raw carrots, anti-aging resveratrol in grapes, olive oil, etc., thousands of immune system enhancing and inflammation reducing phyto-nutrients found in fresh produce (many of these give the fruits and vegetables their bright colors).

Food heated at temperatures higher than 105 degree F is devoid of most "life." This startling scientific fact warranties some detailed discussion:

      If we sow a raw almond seed and a roasted one, the raw seed remains dormant and germinates when the conditions are right; the roasted seed rots quickly. When consumed, which is likely to provide us with more nutrients and energy?
                 
      A preliminary understanding of science tells us that heat causes the internal molecular structure of things to change (that's how red-hot iron can be cast into shapes whereas a cold iron rod can't be). The same principle, when applied to food, causes the molecular structures of the naturally available nutrients to change into complex compounds like acrylamide, HCAs, and PAHs. Our body has to work very hard to break these complex compounds again to digest them and release the nutrients. Ever felt as heavy after eating a large salad as an average plate of your most favorite cooked delicacy?

     Additionally, when heated, glucose particularly binds very tightly to proteins to form abnormally tight Advanced Glycoxidation End products (AGEs). This is an irreversible connection. The enzymes that disrupt other protein bonds cannot disrupt those in AGEs. These have been linked to many diseases from cardiovascular disorders to diabetes to stroke. Ironically, it is these AGEs that provide color, flavor, and texture in cooking - the golden brown color to roasted turkey and the darkening of a toast.

     In a nutshell, the complex compounds formed by thermal application to food are foreign to the human body. These are muta-gens and carcinogenic and cause inflammation. Inflammation is the cause of 90% of the diseases we know today.

Processed, pre-packaged foods are even worse. Essentially, these are foods that have been engineered so we crave for them even more (and the manufacturers make more profits). How many of us have turned over the packaging of our most favorite snack and tried to decipher the long ingredient list? How many of them can we pronounce? How many of those grow naturally? Who takes the brunt of breaking down these engineered toxins after our external taste-buds have been ephemerally satiated?

Ever wondered why we feel sleepy after a big meal? Brain and intestines are the two organs in our body that require the most energy to function. After a big meal, the brain diverts most energy (red blood cells) to the intestines to breakdown the food and carry the nutrients to all parts of the body. This causes the brain itself to feel lethargic and want to relax; the rest of the body obediently follows...

Conversely, how would the functioning of our brain change if we ate simpler, naturally-growing foods? Thinking about it, our ancestors lived on a raw, plant-based diet and evolved into what we are today! (Man's ability to make fire has been conclusively dated back to only 400,000 years.) Nature has genetically programmed our bodies to process these foods over millions of years. Does the opposition to GMO foods sound familiar? Without question, a raw food diet, over just a few days, sky-rockets our energy and vitality levels and gives us unprecedented mental clarity. How can we desire a fulfilling life while we feel listless and can't think clearly? It is the sole ability to think and analyze that places man on the apex of the pyramid of evolution on Earth.

Environmental Friendliness

Besides all the health benefits, eating raw foods is a huge help to the environment. First off, less cooking leads to less energy consumption - the cut in energy demands would be huge if we went raw en mass. A propensity to eat fresh foods also requires less transportation, thereby reducing oil consumption. A shorter transportation time further translates into less packaging, which, in turn, reduces the demand for non-biodegradable packing material and prevents that material from going into landfills afterwards. (A very small percentage of the trash we generate actually gets recycled and recycling takes a lot of resources by itself too; most of us are oblivious to these facts.)

More raw food consumption would obviously reduce the demands for pre-processed, packaged foods which would directly cap industrial waste and pollution. To take it a step further, by going raw, we'd be introducing less "artificial" material (from preservatives to industry chemicals) into our environment. In a nutshell, going raw helps us tread more lightly on our planet, as another raw foodist put it. There is so much more to be said here that it is going to be another blog post altogether.


References:
"12 Steps to Raw Foods: How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Food" by Victoria Boutenko
"Ani's 15-Day Fat Blast" by Ani Phyo
Countless other material that I read in last several months...