Almonds, Avocados to Eggs, Cheese, and Beef: The Water Footprint of Our Food Choices

If you’ve ever listened to KQED (the local NPR channel) in the Bay Area, you can probably regurgitate these lines in your sleep: “Support for KQED comes from the Almond Board of California. The water needs of almond trees are not unique among trees, and almond growers are committed to innovation and water efficiency. More at almondsustainability.org." This defense is fueled by mounting pressure on almond growers about how much water almonds take up in the drought-ridden California, the producer of 80% of the world's almonds, over half of which are exported abroad. 

Almond farmers aren't the only ones feeling the heat of the scorching Sun, literally and metaphorically. There's an official drought State of Emergency -- mandatory water restrictions imposed on residents, businesses, and farms for the first time ever to reduce usage by 25%. Ban on watering of ornamental grass on public street medians. Drought-tolerant landscaping of lawns to conserve water. Scientific innovation. Frenzy among residents for two-minute showers. Pleas to God, praying for rain. Believing in America’s greatness in overcoming just about anything...

State officials say the 25% cut in usage amounts to roughly 1.5 million acre-feet of water (an acre foot of water equals about 325,000 gallons) over the next nine months. That amounts to saving 487.5 billion gallons of water over 9 months. Let's commit this number to memory for now.

Wherever we hear of water in relation to food production, it all comes down to drip irrigation over sprinklers over the traditional flood irrigation. Avocados, almonds, and asparagus are usually the bad guys over everything else. At the face value, this perception is not incorrect. Seeing is believing. Crop agriculture consumes water overtly. We see it. We measure it. We blame it. That's where we instinctually look to conserve it. But by conserving water in irrigation alone, we would be saving a few drops from what is already a trickle in our water footprint!

A water footprint measures the volume of water consumed, evaporated, and polluted to produce a product from its raw ingredients. The Water Footprint Network calculates water footprint as a sum total of three categories of water: blue (the amount of surface and ground water used directly or evaporated), green (the amount of rainwater used directly or evaporated), and grey (the amount of freshwater required to mix and dilute pollutants enough to maintain a certain standard of water quality, e.g. the US Clean Water Act).

This infographic published by National Geographic a few years ago reveals that animal products take up the lion’s share of water in food production. The particular order of most to least thirsty foods is beef (1800+ gallons for 1 pound!), sausage (1,382), pork (756), processed cheese (589), chicken (469), eggs (400), fresh cheese (371), followed by most other fruits and vegetables, including avocados (154 gal/lb). 1 pound of almonds does take up 2000 gallons of water but while 4 hamburgers (a total of 1 pound of beef) will feed a family of 4 for just one meal, that family won't consume 1 pound of almonds in one sitting. And certainly not in meal after meal. Woah.

Here is a more detailed insight into the amount of H2O embedded in our everyday life. Several other reputed sources have their own insights -- TreeHugger, HuffPo, LATimes, The Guardian, Water Footprint Network's product gallery -- and they unanimously illustrate just how water-intensive meat, dairy, and poultry production is. With meat-consumption ever increasing, per What the World Eats, the global water crises doesn't seem to be getting any significant respite anytime soon.

But why would animal agriculture be an insatiable water hog? Well, let’s try to rationalize with logic and science. The animals that we raise for food are living beings just like us. They drink water, eat food, pee and poop, breathe and fart and do everything else. (They feel as well, just like our pet dogs and cats, but that’s a story for another time.) Out in the Nature, they bathe and have sex too. But cattle and poultry is typically denied those primal needs. In contrast to plants that only 'drink' water and make up for it by inhaling carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen, these animals consume way more water and exhale CO2 and methane (more on that in a follow-up post) instead of oxygen.

A male steer is typically raised for 2 years before being slaughtered for the various meats. For those two years, it has to be fed grain or grass (that uses water to be cultivated, irrigated, harvested, transported), drinks hundreds of gallons of water, and takes up hundreds more for its waste to be cleaned up. Add all that up and that number is north of 1,800 gallons of water for one pound of beef. For one hamburger, it's 450 gallons. That's an equivalent of showering for 45 days! And we think we'd conserve water by taking 2 minute showers but never looking at our plates to determine just how much worse we are making the drought with every meal we eat.

Unfortunately, there's even more hidden water in animal agriculture. Think of the power needed to keep the giant cattle ranches and animal farms operational. They are not solar powered, in case you were wondering =). The coal and gas needed to generate electricity for these facilities uses water to be dug up or fracked from the earth and converted to energy from the crude materials. Given the current demand for meat, all factory farms have to be entirely mechanized for them to be profitable. That machinery is power hungry too. It also needs to be washed and treated periodically to get rid of all the blood, skin, flesh, and filth. So, more meat production equals more avenues for water usage.

The filth from these farms and the animal carcasses themselves are transported to faraway landfills to be disposed off, requiring more fuel and infrastructure. The massive amounts of urine and fecal matter need appropriate disposal too -- in the US alone, 7 million pounds of animal excrement is produced from the factory farms every minute. Did your jaw drop yet? Checkout the infographic by Cowspiracy to come face to face with the real gruesomeness behind our meat-loving culture. And there would be still more to be enlightened about.

No wonder the entire factory farming practice is extremely prone to disease and infection, given the nature of the work and the crowded and dingy conditions in which the animals are bred and kept for the business to be profitable. The entire ecosystem is propped up by massive doses of antibiotics that are added to animal feeds. Manufacturing these bacteria decimators takes up resources too, water being the foremost of them. Then, the waste water generated from these farms has to be ridded, once again, of these same antibiotics before it can be reused. Waste water treatment is incredibly energy-hungry.

So this raises the impending, yet much-dreaded, question -- how much water would we save by switching to a plant-based diet? Turns out we would be saving 1,100 gallons of water per day. The meat and dairy industries use one-third of the earth's fresh water resources. Domestic use of water is 5%; animal agriculture takes up 55%. It only takes some wisdom and resolve to replace one hamburger with a veggie burger but what would we replace 450 gallons of fresh water with? Without water, life itself would not exist.

With the 38.8 million people of California eating vegan just 1 day a week, we'd be saving 38.8 million x 1,100 gallons = 42.68 billion gallons of water a week. Over nine months, that is 42.68 x 4 x 9 = 1,536.5 billion gallons of water. That is more than one-third of the 487.5 billion gallons the state hopes to save with its extreme drought management measures. Again, this is the saving from choosing to eat plants over animal products just 1 out of 7 days a week. This choice, by the way, is healthy too. Even if praying to God has been your way of helping the drought so far, well, God only helps those who help themselves...

Further, even if drought and sustainability aren't your primary concerns, it's worth looking at how our food choices fit in the socio-economic model of today's world. Per UN Water, 85% of the world's population lives in the driest half of the planet and 783 million people do not have access to clean water. On the contrary, an average American lifestyle is kept afloat by 2,000 gallons of H2O a day -- twice the global average. Sounds like being in denial of the consequences of our obsession with meat and cheese is bearing a heavy burden on our core ethics and responsibility as a global citizen beyond any reasonable doubt. 

Finally, on the topic of veganism, or even vegetarianism, many people simply shrug and state "eating meat is my personal choice" or simply proclaim themselves as "proud meat eaters." Knowing what you know now, is it really a 'personal' choice? And are you still 'proud' of it? =)

May we be wiser and virtuous.

-Shine

Three Years and Counting...

Three years ago around this time, my most burning desire was to be in shape, be fit and physically strong, and have that envious endurance I had seen in my dad and some athletic friends while growing up. Being in top physical form seemed to be the gateway to all other long-cherished dreams and aspirations. Does that resonate with you?

In my case however, it wasn't a capricious pursuit. It had etched its way deeper and deeper ever since I turned into the tumultuous teen years realizing that being heavier than other girls had been an integral part of my identity all along. The sports field was the arena where other kids effortlessly outshone my lackluster talent.

For nearly two decades, my BMI ranged from 24.9 to 26. There was an intrinsic resistance to most physical activities, including walking more than a few blocks. The thought of breaking a sweat was unpleasant and required much self-negotiation, leave alone any vigorous activity that might test my physical limits. Any adventurous sport was beyond consideration.

As a result, most social situations centered around fitness intimidated me to the extent that I subconsciously precluded my involvement. Many shopping trips ended in disappointment when that pretty dress wasn't available in my size or didn't look flattering. The shape I saw in the mirror wasn't what I wanted to see. Loving myself took a lot of effort, at times.

Amid the gamut of things that each one of us inevitably gets to 'deal with', these were the skeletons in my closet.

My normal vegetarian diet -- and packaged boxes of 'healthy' foods -- didn't help. Phases of unwillingly exercising for several weeks didn't tip the scale by an ounce =(. A visit to a nutritionist found me reading calories labels on every food item I bought, but that wouldn't make the cut either. Needless to say, 20 years of being overweight witnessed numerous failed attempts at getting leaner and stronger.

Fast forward to today, my BMI has been ~21.7 for more than 2 years now (that's exactly midway in the normal range)! I am two dress sizes smaller. Forget walking; when I am in the running wave, I run a couple of miles 2-3 times a week. Breaking a sweat makes me feel lighter both physically and mentally. In fact, not sweating every couple of days feels itchy and yucky.

As I lost weight, the desire to get stronger quickly followed. With the help of a personal trainer in the last 18 months, I can now do 3 sets of 15 squats with a 35 pound kettle weight! I'm on my way to bike ~100 miles this month, including pedaling the uphills in my neighborhood. Those biceps, triceps, abs are beginning to peek from underneath layers of fat =). They need more work though.

But where do I stand in the statistics of endurance? About three weeks ago, I dropped in to a core power yoga class -- read fast paced yoga set to music and done with weights. Only 3 out of 8 folks made it to the end of the hour without any major breaks. I was one of them! The other two were omnivores! To my astonishment, I saw the most muscular, regularly working out men take breaks from exhaustion while I kept up with the class. Then I biked back home 4 miles with a 15" laptop strapped to my back...

In those moments, my mind inevitably cycled through those mental images with my childhood classmates when the playgrounds had been ruthless to me. Triumph is too insignificant a word in describing this journey of personal transformation.

Quantifiable accomplishments might feed to conceit; immeasurable ones only bring humility and gratitude.

Beyond the obvious gains in physical health, there have been many others. In the last 3 years, I have fallen sick exactly twice -- ironically both times when I ate something bad. Quite a leap in immunity levels; fingers crossed. I have written about several other benefits throughout this blog.

What would a similar transformation in your life look like? =)

* * *

So what was the catalyst that brought about my metamorphosis?

I changed the way the ate.

I transitioned from eating vegetarian meals and buying boxes of 'healthy' snack to no-animal-product, minimal-to-zero processed food. Who knew this would be much more than a random stumble into the raw vegan world.

Instead of spending my time at the grocery store deciphering 'nutrition' content on boxes of packaged foods, I run around filling my cart with naturally nutritious whole fruits and veggies and nuts and seeds. The time I save at the grocery store is now used towards peeling, chopping, blending, and juicing.

Here's my typical organic purchase from a local grocery store and farmer's market about every 3 weeks. Oils and condiments less frequently, of course.

Grocery cart

$25-ish worth of organic produce from the farmers market.

That nutritionist did her best to guide me; sadly, she didn't know the potential of whole foods plant-based eating. Unfortunately, most folks in the medical and health and fitness realms today don't! That's why educating ourselves is inevitable. This is the cultural change this blog intends to facilitate.

The more I incorporated organic, fresh fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds in my diet, the more my body and taste buds rejected the pervasive highly processed foods -- breakfast cereal, dairy milk, off the shelf juices, butter, cheese, jam, protein bars, cliff bars, microwaveable foods, pre-made salad dressings, yogurt, chips, pizza, pasta, cup noodles, chocolate, muffins, cakes, ice cream, you name it.

Yes, the list of what I have nearly eliminated from my food repertoire is rather exhaustive. To most people, this way of eating probably sounds like a perfect recipe for starvation, emotional erosion, tremendous sacrifice, and an invitation to unnecessary hassle and restriction in their lives. Simply put, it probably sounds undoable. And, perhaps even insane!

The truth is sometimes I can't believe it myself! =) Just a few months before I started eating the raw and vegan way, if someone had told me that I would be eating mostly uncooked, plant foods and would keep at it for 3 years, I would've educated them of my 'healthy' food choices and then pondered the conversation from a safe distance :p. Instead, today, some of my closest friends are those who eat this way! Yes, it's not undoable and we are not insane.

This petite woman who lasted that yoga sculpt class is in an equally sound mental health ;)

Yet, amid a culture drowned in processed foods and in the shimmer of their plastic packaging, commitment to eating natural foods can sound more overwhelming than a second full time job. So why keep doing it and go to great lengths to find that intricate choreography in my daily routine to balance this pursuit among all others?

Because feeling good in one's own mind and body trumps all other considerations of convenience, superficial emotional fulfillment, and social fitting in. It is a gateway to all other long-cherished dreams and aspirations, remember?

Of what use is convenience when that sugary snack bar only provides you with empty calories? Can you be a good sport in social situations when you're tired and feeling crappy because you ate something your body doesn't approve of? When you have some time at hand, aren't you naturally drawn to work on projects from your bucket list? But what does it feel like when you don't have the energy or motivation for them?

This is what has been fueling my commitment for 3 years.

* * *

Now, let's talk about some minutiae of this lifestyle. One of the big differences since last year has been in the way I portion and space my meals. Up until around two years ago, I still ate mostly 3 square meals a day -- breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a mid afternoon snack.

But now, my meals are usually smaller in portion and more frequent -- at 3 to 4 hours. This way, I don't overstuff myself in one meal and don't get starving hungry by the time for next meal.

One of the time proven ways of sustained healthy and mindful eating is not waiting to eat until you're starving. When we are starving, the urge to satisfy the pangs of hunger with the first thing that we can lay our hands on is hard to curb.

On the other hand, when we grab a meal while being reasonably hungry -- but not starving -- we have the time and energy to make a more informed and healthy choice. Overtime, this can make a day and night difference between wishfully aiming to eat healthy and actually eating healthy.

Another big change for me has been around re-weighing the different meals in a day. Overtime, lunch has become my biggest meal of the day and dinner, the smallest. When you think about it, we're most active during the day, so a major concentration of calories ought be to taken during day time.

Further, since cooked food is generally richer in carbs and fats, it's easier to eat a cooked meal at lunch time with coworkers and partake in the social experience at the same time.

Dinner is meant to conclude a long day and provide the body with just enough energy to rest and rebuild for the night until next morning hits and it's time for a break the 8-10 hour long fast.

* * *

Introducing the green juice dinner

In my second anniversary post, I wrote extensively about the benefits of green juices. Little did I know that green juices would become my elixir for life. Last fall, I began to break up my lunch into two parts and replaced an early dinner with a late green juice.

That is, half of the lunch around 12:30 pm, remaining around 4 pm and a 32-40 oz fresh, homemade green juice around 8pm. Boy, did I sleep well? =) I slept like a baby and woke up with unprecedented freshness and clarity of mind the next morning.

Some of the other changes include bringing seasonal fruits to work and snacking on them throughout the day. Keeping a jar of mixed raw nuts and seeds at my desk is another way of avoiding those roasted, salted cashews and pistachios.

Fruit and herb infused water is another way of sipping small amounts of natural sugars and nutrients all day and feeling satiated. Lemon water is quite cleansing as well, actually.

All in all, as you've probably concluded from my yearly posts, it takes time and patience for old habits to be unlearned. Big changes are best initiated in small steps. As new routines begin to set their roots, finer adjustments play an integral role in sustaining a major lifestyle change such as this one.

* * *

The rise of the activist in me

When I first went raw and vegan, I was vegan by the way of being raw. About a year and half into this lifestyle, I stumbled upon the heinous practices employed by the poultry and dairy industries to maximize their profit to cost ratio while meeting the tremendous demand for animal foods. Not to mention the strain this puts on the environment and our health care system.

I will refrain from making this port graphic by providing links to these practices. But being unable to condone them gave birth to the vegan activist in me.

If you've been following me on Facebook, you probably know how some of this activism has manifested itself in spreading awareness about the multi-faceted consequences of an omnivorous diet. Today, I'm proud to say that I am raw and vegan in equal parts and I eat vegan even when I don't eat raw. =)

Make every single calorie you eat count towards nutrition, satiety, and strength, and you will thrive on a plant-based diet. Recently, I customized this recipe for a yet new breakfast option.

Raw vegan muesli.

Key ingredients: rolled oats, pumpkin, sunflower, and chia seeds, coconut shreds, goji, mul-, and golden berries, almonds, walnuts, and chopped dates, all soaked and refrigerated overnight in homemade raw almond milk.

Taste test? Creamy, sweet, rich, delicious, and colorful. Find me a brand that can beat this breakfast in nutrition or flavor or calorie density. Too bad, no brand would sell this to us because it's perishable and can't be manufactured in a factory hundreds of miles away.

* * *


I hope this write-up inspires you to give a serious thought to what you've been eating and start out with making very small changes.

Think of it this way, if your body doesn't feel and perform at its best, where will your heart and brain reside? We first live in our bodies before living in a house in a community somewhere on this Earth.

Treat your body like you would treat your God's temple. If you are a non-believer, well, this body still carries your heart, brain, and mind. Where would you go if this vessel of yours began to rust and leak sooner than it ought to?

Wishing you a lifetime of radiant health and spiritual awareness.
-Shine

Taming your Sweet (or Salty) Tooth

Does the mere anticipation of cake, muffin, ice cream, or any other dessert give your brain a rush and keep your attention from other tasks attenuated until you eat them? What if you're not hungry or even if you just ate a meal? Doesn't matter, right? =)

Likewise for all those salty chips, pretzels, and roasted nuts. That coworker next to your desk at work didn't have time for lunch, so he substituted his with these. You just came back from lunch -- overstuffed -- but the anticipation of crackling chips in your mouth overpowered all resolves of self-control, didn't it?

And no one can eat just one of those, so it's got to be the whole packet. Only 120 calories, right? =)

I have been there too, and seldom catch myself off guard even now. But how did it reduce from an everyday thing to, maybe, a once a month occurrence? The trick lies in understanding the patterns and effects of our salt and sugar consumption and reducing one to combat cravings for the other.

Processed foods are laden with abnormally high amounts of salt and/or sugar. Why, may you ask. There are primarily three components that make food items tasty -- fat, salt, and sugar. F-a-t makes us F-A-T; everyone knows that. So how to make something taste good without fat? Add lots of salt. Or lots of sugar. Or both (aka soda and other carbonated drinks). It's that simple.

What is worse is when a lot of sugar is used to hide a lot of salt, our tongue can't tell how much salt we just had. But our brain does get hooked to sugar like it would to alcohol or narcotics -- it lights up in the same regions -- and the reward chemical, dopamine, spikes and reinforces desire for more. This is why the mere anticipation of a dessert gives us a rush and keeps our lips smacking.

When that happens to not just you and me but a whole generation around America and the world, Sugar: the Bitter Truth makes big headlines. Other conscious folks post abridged versions. Dire public health warnings are issued. Mere mortals like me try to do their bit in explaining how our existing eating habits keep reinforcing themselves, thereby determining our health long-term.

Now, what do you feel like eating after you've had something overwhelmingly sweet? Something salty, right? And what about after eating something very salty? Something sweet, obviously. When gone unchecked, our increased consumption of salt and sugar only reinforces the desire for more of each until the balance of these two spirals out of control and body can't take it anymore without signaling symptoms like high blood pressure (caused by salt) and diabetes (from sugar).

Clearly, salt and sugar -- in the forms we know them today -- are not needed in such large quantities by our body to function properly and thrive in the first place. For, if they were needed, they would be available in Nature in a ready-to-consume form, like all other vitamins, minerals, and nutrients are.

When you pause to think about it, both salt and sugar are either manufactured directly or are by-products of other industrial processes! If only our culture had learned to listen to our bodies, we would be able to avoid falling into this tailspin much before it gets so late. But sadly, so far, we only respond to the very basic needs -- to urinate, defecate, sleep, have sex, and resist physical pain.

So, then, how to form eating habits that naturally minimize ones intake of salt and processed, artificial sugars? After all, even a home-cooked meal has more salt than the body needs because it is the salt that makes that lentil or meat tender. After that meal comes the homemade dessert to balance out that salt... followed by salted hash browns the next morning. =)

Turns out that minimally processed plant foods -- in their raw, naturally available form -- contain just the right amount of salt and sugar to provide our body with everything it needs to function, look radiant, and thrive.

How much salt can you add to a salad before it gets bitter and mushy? Do you feel the need to sprinkle sugar on ripe bananas, peaches, cherries, and grapes. Do you feel the urge to eat something salty after eating fruits or something sugary after a salad or raw soup? Most likely, no.

One might still ask how fruits, being predominantly sugary, don't lead to the same diabetic conditions as from processed foods? To answer that, not all fruits we eat have to be sweet, and likewise, not all sugars are created equal.

Our body processes fructose from fruits very differently from the high fructose corn syrup used as sweetener in most processed foods and the glucose found in bread and pasta. In knowing that difference lies the key to eat plenty of sugar that provides real, clean energy to our body and sustain its peak performance without sending our brain down the whirlpool of insatiable desire for salt and sugar.

So I hope the next time you find yourself reaching out for that cake or packet of chips, you will pause for a second to take stock of what you've been eating recently and make a different, less processed choice. It only takes one moment of awareness to begin altering our deepest etched habits.

Your (un)sweet blogger,
Shine

Healthy Eating -- Sacrifice or Investment?

We all invest our earnings to secure our financial future. We invest time and energy in our closest relationships to make sure we’re covered emotionally. We invest in education to make sure we have the necessary skills to sustain a living. The wiser among us also ‘invest’ time and effort in exercising regularly to keep the physical body healthy, albeit the motivation is often rather short-sighted—staying fit and looking good. But what about ‘investing' in the food that powers our body and mind and, thereby, our very existence in this lifetime?!

No, choosing rice crispies over raisin bran, diet soda over regular, chicken over beef and pork, and 100-calorie ice cream over another dessert is not the kind of investment I’m alluding to; they’re all essentially the same processed trash--completely unnatural to our physiology. In fact, most leaner foods have more devastating effects on health than their plumper cousins. Think about it, how does a preparation get to have lower calories than its ingredients? Calories don’t vanish in thin air; the ingredients themselves are engineered.

Eating foods in their naturally available form and without hurting other sentient beings is the path Man has to lead to ensure prolonged sustainability of the entire Ecosystem. Very unfortunately though, we live in a culture where choosing a salad is seen as ‘sacrificing' ‘tastier’ foods, passing on processed snacks as being 'finicky', and being vegan often invites cautiously sympathetic comments like ‘oh poor you, there’s nothing for you to eat!’ from 'normal' folks who walk around devouring on dead animals and charred veggies... =(

But is it really a sacrifice? Or could eating wisely be a very prudent investment?! 

Let's start with the self. Usually energetic in the initial decades, we take good health for granted. The simple, yet profound, realization that vitality simply cannot co-exist with an ailing physical body doesn't dawn upon most people until their late 50's or 60's! One might argue that quadriplegics live fulfilling lives too. But that's only when their general health cooperates, not when life is an endless drag of waiting at doctors' offices, popping pills, and getting bypass procedures and implants...

That this body is ephemeral, fragile, and needs a continous investment is a realization that usually only dawns with the ambulance siren. Bill Clinton went vegan at 64 after two coronary implants; million others change their eating habits at a similar age. It is possible to start saving only from this paycheck but one cannot get back the money already spent. Likewise for health. Past negligence to our body simply cannot be undone with medical intervention and prescriptions at a later age.

Only a healthy body can be home to a healthy mind; only a healthy mind brings vitality and exuberance. All our hopes, aspirations, and dreams originate in the mind and are executed via the physical body. It is the individual dreams and aspirations that builds a society, nation, world, and eventually, shapes the future of humanity.

Moving on to world and humanity, we strive to invest money to send our kids to college and in research to find cures for the deadliest diseases known today. But these measures are both myopic and deceptive considering the rate at which our soil, water, and air are being polluted with toxic industrial by-products. Any guess on the single largest contributor to global warming, drought, and poisoning of our environment? It's the meat industry and the processed food industry! The time to be in denial was 50 years back...

Today, ironically--and naively--while we work day and night to 'save' enough for our kids and dream of them getting married and popping out grand kids for us, we continue to squander and deplete the very ecosystem that is quintessential to support them! It takes 1,799 gallons of water to make 1 pound beef and only 80 and 60 gallons each for 1 pound apples and oranges. Checkout out the excellent hidden water info-graphic published by National Geographic.

Further, think about the resources spent in packaging, transporting, and storing processed foods around the world. How many single-use plastic take out containers, spoons, forks, (non-biodegradable) packets of chips, soda cans, ZiCo bottles... does each person toss in trash every week?! How often do we take the time to sort these in appropriate compost. recycle and landfill bins? Ever wondered where this trash goes and who will excavate it from land and seas alike? Our grand and great-grand kids. =(

Alas, today's culture sees the environment and Nature as distant, indestructible, eternal elements instead of delicate threads that weave and sustain the fabric of all Life on Earth. Invest in that fabric and Life will flourish. Or sacrifice our grand dreams for the future of humanity.

So Why NOT Eat a 100% Raw?

So. If eating raw has so many benefits, why not go a 100% raw? Why eat only a percentage of your food raw as opposed to eating ALL food raw ALL the time? Most people that I meet in my local raw food community eat raw in variable percentages - 30-80% being the most common bracket. I, too, eat an average of 70-75% raw (and vegan) (average taken over a week, though my daily intake of raw food is about the same as well on most days).

Well, first of all, being a 100% raw IS possible - and sustainable - both physically and biologically. Victoria Boutenko, who I have mentioned several times in this blog, and family, is 100% raw vegan and an inspiring example for today's health science research (and very embarrassing for the pharmaceutical industry!). Kristina Carillo-Bucaram also has been a 100% raw vegan for about 7 years now and is quite a success in restoring her health and running a local, organic food co-op movement in Houston, TX. Annette Larkins, dubbed as the Ageless Woman - boy, she looks fabulous at 70!

Besides, several M.D.s openly advocate the live foods nutritional regimen - Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. T., etc. Cherie Soria, who I wrote about before, has a Science of Raw Food Nutrition program taught at her Living Light Institute that draws from the contemporary scientific research and studies on nutrition. There are notable vegan bodybuilders who are also raw to variable degrees. Venus Williams recently went raw vegan to cure her Sjogrens syndrome. However, 15 months into this lifestyle, so far I've chosen to relinquish some of these benefits to eat about 30% of my food cooked. Here are my reasons -

Being raw & vegan is easy and convenient as food preparation is usually fast and cleanup is easy. But it is also hard as the prepared dished don't have much of a shelf-life! Raw juices begin to disintegrate right away and must be consumed almost instantaneously. Green smoothies, when frozen, can last for up to a day, but don't taste quite the same - yuck! Salads become soggy when different ingredients are tossed together, even sans dressing. Raw soups are no longer yummy. Even raw ice cream, stored in the deep freeze, is not quite the same (from personal experience). This 'ephemerality' means that we need bursts of time available at hand right around when we're ready to eat. At times, that can be too much to ask for. And that's exactly when cooked food comes in handy.

Thinking about it, the short shelf-life of raw preparations makes complete sense - there are more enzymes and nutrients, so there is increased 'chemical' activity in the prepared dish! Cook the ingredients and they have lost most of their nutrition anyway - there's little left to spoil the food. Add preservatives, and voila, you have the isles after isles of ready-to-eat foods at the local supermarket. Use genetically-engineered ingredients and you have the 30-day survival kit for the Doomsday Preppers =). While we may not be in for an apocalypse yet, we're still doomed, albeit at a slower pace, if we continue to eat the way we do...

Raw food is nutritionally-dense. But not calorie-dense. Two bananas or a mango or a few peaches (the more calorie-dense fruits), won't fill us the same way as a large, baked potato. But we can't feel hungry all day, everyday, no matter the nutritional density of our food. Today, I simply can't eat the same amount of cooked food as I could before. However, even with my regulated portions, I do feel hungry earlier in the afternoon when I have had a salad for lunch, as opposed to a lean veggie sandwich - with bread. I get past this by keeping around more fruit and raw snack to munch on. But it can be a liability at times. It's unfortunate - just how easy it is to keep non-perishable, junk food around. The bacteria won't eat it, but we do, and expect the bacteria in our gut to just play along!

It's worth noting - a large baked potato, in turn, won't fill us the same way as one greased with oil, and loaded with cheese and salt. That, in turn, won't be the same as a plate full of deep fried chicken wings. In other words, getting enough nutrition and feeling full are two very different things. Lifelong social conditioning plays a subtle but significant role when it comes to feeling full. What can one do if deep fried chicken wings feel more satiating than heck, two avocados (which is too much of fat for one serving, BTW)?! We've all had moms shove three slices of bread down our throats when we really wanted to eat only two. In fact, these are exactly the food fads that our society needs to get rid of.

Further, most raw food dishes can be made more calorie-dense by adding avocados, nuts and seeds, coconut meat, olive oil, and more fruits. 

Certain fruits and veggies are best eaten cooked. For example, squash varieties, particularly, acorn. Beans, such as fava, kidney, soy. For others, heating releases nutrients from the cells they're bound to. For example, cooking a tomato releases lycopene, an important cancer-fighting antioxidant. Heating carotenoid vegetables, like bell peppers and carrots increases the bioavailability of their nutrients. Cooking mushrooms can dissipate some of their toxins. So why be headstrong and lose out on the added nutrition by cooking our food occasionally?

Did you know - bell peppers are one of the richest sources of vitamin C. Yes, way more than oranges! Red bell peppers also have a sweet, fruity flavor and taste great in salads and soups. They're the most ripe form of peppers - progressively after green, yellow, and orange. That explains their rich nutritional profile (and high price) in the family.

Another aspect that swings the balance in favor of cooked foods is Ayurveda, the system of ancient medicine from the Indian subcontinent. It might be rather surprising to learn that Ayurveda doesn't quite recommend eating a large percentage of raw foods! Particularly for vata and pitta dosha people. Kapha or kapha-dominant folks are the most suited to raw and vegan eating, according to it. Here's an online quiz, off of Deepak Chopra's website, that you can take to find out your dosha and exercise your judgement if a predominant raw food diet doesn't feel right to your body. For the sake of completeness, I must mention here that I am predominantly kapha. Good to know Ayurveda has my back covered ;).

Next, let's candidly address our selfishness and personal weaknesses - it's just too much of a sensory deprivation to give up all cooked food for the rest of our lives =). Being healthy, living eco-friendly, and riding the crest of the fountain of youth are all very desirable. But so are the joy and pleasure that come from doing (or in this case, eating) what we want, not merely need. For me, I have my favorite cooked vegetarian 'delicacies' that I am not ready to relinquish completely - yet. Maybe raw food will take their place in the upcoming times, or maybe it won't. I don't know. Until then, I will eat everything vegan in the remaining 30% of my diet. No animals will be hurt in the meantime.

Last but not the least, simply put, cooked food is much more accessible. That's what most of the restaurants serve. That's what we're (implicitly) expected to eat in social situations. Even when raw food is available in the form of salads and juices, at most places it's a fixer-upper menu item. No, Jamba Juice is no exception either! This makes eating 100% raw simply too socially restricting! To extend that, no matter how cleanly we eat, we're still exposed to a ton of pollutants and toxins in all walks of life. Do we really want to make our digestive system so sensitive that it can't take anything cooked, greasy, deep fried, even when feeding oneself supersedes everything else? Probably not.

This last argument comes from several personal experiences in the last 15 months. Most recently, while traveling to the western United States, I was appalled by the lack of fresh, organic produce at the local supermarkets. Particularly dismal was the (availability of!) limp, pale, green leafy vegetables. So fruit smoothies replaced my morning green smoothies. Rest of the day was all cooked food =/. 

Before that, I spent most of July 2012 eating 100% raw. Then one day, milk and cereal expected replaced the morning smoothie and yikes, I felt inflamed, heavy, and 'sick' all day. The message from my body was loud and clear - it did not like diesel in place of high octane gas =). There was my lesson - I could not rely on having raw food at hand at all times for the next 50 years of my life; I had to keep my body attuned to cooked and processed foods as well to survive optimally...

So as we end the celebrating cooked foods in this post, I'll leave you with this picture of acorn squash that I baked a couple of weeks back.

• Cut the squash vertically into two pieces. Be sure to use a sturdy knife. 
• Scoop away the seeds to roast them later. 
• Sprinkle salt and lay the pieces face down on the baking tray. 
• Preheat oven to 400F, bake for 40 minutes, turn the squash pieces over and bake for another 20 minutes. 
• Bring it out, sprinkle with honey/agave/maple syrup, nutmeg, cinnamon, and possibly more salt. 
• Scoop and relish.
• Note that most recipes call for butter and brown sugar, but hey, don't we know better as raw foodists?! =)

Baked acorn squash with wild huckleberry honey and spices

How Green Smoothies have Benefited Me

In my last post I wrote an extensive treatise on why green smoothies are, scientifically, a must-have food, regardless of whether one is living the raw food lifestyle. Before we move on to the many more exciting posts planned for this blog, I want to write a quick journal entry on the benefits I have personally reaped by incorporating green smoothies in my daily diet.

I first began making green smoothies for breakfast in late May/early June in 2012. Like many people, I was replacing ready-to-eat (and in my case, also freely and readily available at work) cereal and milk with something that I had to make at home. In the beginning this was not simple - I had to spend time on the weekend to plan, additionally, my breakfast for the week ahead, spend money to shop accordingly, and then store the ingredients carefully so the produce didn't perish half way through the week. Then, every morning, I had to wash/cut/blend, bring the smoothie in a jar to work, wash the blender, knife, cutting board, and lastly, wash my jar at work. It seemed to be a lot of additional effort.

So, 10 months down the line, why/how did I keep doing it?! In fact, the more regularly I drank green smoothies on a daily basis, not only did the whole 'chore' of making them become easier, a green smoothie a day became a vital need of my body! Today, I almost have a 'physical dependency' on green smoothies --- in a good way... For many months now, there are days on which I drink more than one green smoothie. In my stumble in the raw food world, I talked very briefly about what green smoothies have done for me; it's time to elaborate on that in this article.

First off, in only a week or two of getting started on this breakfast, I began feeling refreshed and energized. Even though my stomach was full in the same way as it used to be with cereal and milk, I felt lighter than usual. It's almost like I was using a better quality oil to run my machinery. As I felt lighter after breakfast, I could focus better on my work and my productivity increased. I knew I was getting more done than before, and at a faster pace. Days on which I missed a green smoothie, the heavy, clunky feeling that came with going back to drier, processed foods weighed me down. That, in itself, was reason enough to continue with my daily chore...

A couple of more weeks down the line, I realized green smoothies had actually begun affecting my food choices for the rest of the day! Days that I started with a green smoothie were days on which I naturally preferred salads for lunch (I hadn't quite been a salad eater before =)), fruits for snack, and a lighter supper. Anything that was deep fried, or just fried, creamy/cheesy/oily, or sodium- or sugar-laden did not appeal me on those days. Those were 'good' days - I got more work done, I had more spare energy, I was mentally more alert, I ate better, I felt better. On the other days, I was okay eating my usual lunch and snacking on roasted cashews, peanut butter pretzels, wheat thins, etc. Those were the days on which my exhaustion and general dissatisfaction with my routine came back.  

Heather did mention that green smoothies had the potential to impact our food choices for the rest of the day in her Introduction to Raw Food Cuisine class. Her statement made me quite cynical; it appeared that she was trying too hard to sell her food philosophy to have people sign up for more of her upcoming classes! But seeing this happen to me for real, amused and struck me and I had a new-found respect for her (she is a great teacher; I have taken many of her classes by now). A detailed account of her class is in an older post of mine. More about her is on her website - http://www.rawbayarea.com.

Soon after, I could predictably play around with my food choices every single day by having a green smoothie in the morning - or not. As I chose to continue with this regimen, with more passing weeks, it dawned upon me that I ate better even on days on which I occasionally missed a green smoothie. In other words, there was a shift in what was tasty to me and what wasn't; my taste buds had begun changing! What can be a more promising passport to healthier eating and, thereby, better health than all of us actually finding apples, oranges, romaine, and kale more delicious than burgers, pizza, nachos, soda, sundae? Would the processed food advertisements around us continue to be as effective as they are today? Would the Olympics have approved sponsors like McDonald's and Coke? Would we continue to be a nation victimized by obesity and a myriad of health problems that plague us today? Would our children have a shorter life span than us?

Beginning in July '12, I was taste bud-wise (and mentally) prepared to experiment with a 20-day raw food detox. Since I grew up vegetarian and had generally been a conscious eater (just not a salad eater, though =)), my body did not have much to detox. But that detox triggered my metabolism such that I began losing weight - something I had been aspiring for since my teenage years! What had never happened before happened now - I have lost ~22 pounds since, my BMI has dropped from 24.9 to 21.5!! Post detox, since August, I have been eating ~70% raw vegan and have never had this kind of energy and vitality before. I resumed swimming after 14 years in September and started this blog in November. Life has changed in many more profoundly positive ways...

What other benefits could I have reaped by making one single change - drinking one green smoothie a day? What else should I have to say to stress enough the importance of green smoothies and raw foods?

First Step towards Eating Raw: Green Smoothies

Okay, now I do understand that food, when eaten raw, claims to work unparalleled miracles for my mind and body(!) and is also lighter on our planet. I am also aware that there is a lot more to the raw food world for variety and nutrition than just the regular produce I see at my local grocery store. But what is the simplest thing I can do to start reaping the benefits of this regimen with minimal effort and time?

Fortunately, there does exist a "5-minute breakfast" in the raw food world. It is called a Green Smoothie. Whether or not this is a new menu item for you, this article discusses, in great details, why it is a key ingredient in our daily food palette. By the end of it, I truly hope to convince you to start your own one-green-smoothie-a-day routine for real.

To allure you into reading further, here is a picture of my VitaMix jar from one of these mornings.


In the jar: apple, purple kale, lemon, and alfa-alfa sprouts.

A "Complete" Meal

What would the nutritional chart of our ideal meal look like? It'd have to be rich in fiber, contain the recommended doses of vitamins, minerals, and proteins, and be low in fat and carbs. All this while keeping sugar low and, most importantly, still tasting delicious.

We absolutely need to care about getting enough fiber in our diet. Among other things, it helps control blood sugar, keeps bad cholesterol low, regulates bowel movement, keeps us full for a longer time (so we don't pile on empty? calories every hour), and thereby, helps us maintain an optimal body weight. A fiber rich meal in the morning keeps us full until lunch but does not weigh us down like many oily and greasy commonly preferred processed breakfast foods.

The best sources of fiber are natural, plant-based foods - vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts. (Animal products are not rich in fiber - bad news for hardcore meat eaters.) It is also worth noting that most fruits are not particularly rich in fiber (berries and a few others being an exception). When we juice an orange or apple, we essentially get concentrated sugar (with a small amount of vitamins/minerals). That's why The Holy OJ and AJ are not proving to be good accompaniments to the American breakfast table =).

While consuming fruits in their juiced form alone is not healthy, whole fruits offer a wide array of nutritional value. Additionally, they taste great, often beating vegetables that have an equally good nutritional profile. When grown organically, many fruits can be eaten with their peel on; most peels supplement the nutrition that their fruits offers (and reduce prep time).

Why Add Greens?

If I say "Green is Life" and leave it at that, you'll probably roll your eyes and skip the rest of this article. So here is the elaborated version: greens are nutritionally very dense, calorie for calorie. They are rich in almost all essential minerals and vitamins, including proteins. Pull up the nutritional profile of the most common green leafy vegetables - kale, spinach, collard greens, romaine lettuce - using your favorite search engine and take a look yourself. Here's my favorite one - kale. The darker the green color, the richer the nourishment.

If you're into the evolution theory, you might be curious to know what primitive man ate all these centuries before the Industrial Revolution came and trampled on our food preferences beyond resemblance with our ancestors. It is interesting to know that chimpanzees, our closest kin, consume 40% greens in their diet. Since their food pyramid has been far less modified than ours, there are reasons to believe that that's how many greens we really need in our diet (I'm looking at you, USDA!). Not sure if this also how we got to the 60 to 40 ratio of fruits to greens for smoothies, as a general rule of thumb.

So, after all this ado,

Essential Morning Meal => Fruits + Greens

But where does a smoothie fit into the picture?

Why Make a Smoothie?

All the nutrients that the greens possess are stored inside the cells of the plants, well, of course. These cells are made of cellulose, one of the strongest molecular structures on the planet. (It is this tough material that helps plants to survive outdoors.) For valuable nutrients to be released, these cell walls need to be ruptured. These wall are not ruprured unless we masticate our greens very well. Failing to do so jams our digestive system and makes greens unpalatable for the longer term.

Once again, an evolution-enthusiast reader would agree that our jaw muscles have frailed over past several centuries as we started eating cooked and other heavily processed foods. We biologically evolve to adapt to changes in our environment; we simply no longer need strong enough teeth and jaw muscles to masticate on rough fiber as our next of kin, chimpanzees, do!

So we resort to blending to do the "chewing" for us. Thus, is incarnated, a smoothie.

Another advantage of eating a blended food in the morning is that our digestive system is still waking up and we need to function at full throttle to get through our busy day. A holistic meal like this releases tremendous amounts of nutrients and energy in the body without engaging the digestive system heavily to break it down.

Have you ever juiced a celery and had to clean up the tangled mess of long, strong threads stuck in the juicing auger? That's fiber. It is the pulp left behind by our juicer when we juice fruits and vegetables. We saw the benefits of a fiber-rich diet above. In fact, it is the presence of fiber that makes a smoothie a complete meal.

Finally, in a nutshell,

Fruits + Greens => Blending => Green Smoothie (a holistic meal)

Now let's spend some time on getting started on green smoothies.

Delicious green smoothie recipes

These are some of my most favorite green smoothie recipes. (Yes, I'm very partial to kale.) Blend approximately 60% fruits, 40% greens, and water to the desired consistency to enjoy these combinations.

Apple + lemon + kale
Strawberry + banana + romaine
Pineapple + kale
Pineapple + parsley
Orange + banana + parsley
Kiwi + banana + celery
Banana + kale

orange + banana + parsley green smoothie

A Note on Equipment

Buying a VitaMix is not a precursor to making smoothies at home! A personal blender does just fine, in the beginning at least. I had to run my personal blender for much longer to blend the ingredients well. As I started enjoying these smoothies and they became an essential part of my everyday routine, I was motivated to invest in a VitaMix.

Green smoothie resources

Recipes

• http://www.rawfamily.com/recipes - The app didn't work very well on my Android phone but there are recipes as you scroll down on this page
• http://www.rawbayarea.com/raw-resources/recipes/#greensmoothie
• http://www.oatmealinmybowl.com/the-kitchen/30-delicious-green-smoothie-recipes/
• keep looking online, there are more recipes than one can try in a lifetime =).

Books

• Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko
• Green Smoothie Recolution by Boutenko, again
• Countless books on Amazon.com for {green smoothie recipes}

Next Steps

I will be writing a follow up post to revisit green smoothies to talk about many other ingredients that can be added to them for further enrichment, variety, and taste. In a second post, I'll be talking about all the positive changes these have brought in my life. For now, this extensive treatise should suffice to generate some serious interest in this promising breakfast option. To good health for everyone!

References:

• 12 Steps to Raw Foods: How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Foods by Victoria Boutenko
• Rigorous online reading...

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...

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...