Enzymes
and Raw Food - Can You Cheat Time and Stay Young for Longer?
By Claire Raikes
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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