Raw Foods Bible

Tonight I’m attending a chat with Dr Sommers at Erewhon, a famous natural store among health junkies in Los Angeles. He’s a raw foodist and also a Naturopathic Doctor. He will talk about nutrition being essential to longevity, food as medicine, cancer prevention, “safe” cellular phone use, electromagnetic radiation, and the mind and body connection. But his book it’s not just about food.

It’s about lifestyle changes, about prevention, about changing your mind. I absolutely recommend it, especially if you have cancer and are looking forward, and are open, to make changes in your life. I found it packed with information, truly updated information. I tried raw food unsuccessfully for an entire year until I read Green for Life and realized of the pitfalls I did. I dare to say that there is a before and after in the raw food movement when the book Green for Life came out. Unfortunately some people are still in the before.

Raw food diets are too high in oils, sugars, salt, seeds, and nuts, and have too little fiber and minimum amount of leafy green vegetables. You can munch on a bunch of dehydrated dates, almonds, roots, and agave nectar and not get enough nutrition. Actually, you might do more harm than good in the long run.

It’s frustrating. If you have cancer and then you read that raw food is the best for you, you might still not find the right information on how to proceed. You pick the “wrong” book and you might go down the wrong road. The majority of the writers focus too much in the simple fact that as long as you eat raw you don’t have to worry about anything else. That’s not true.

We have evolved to be better prepared to digest and absorb nutrients from raw food, but not any kind of raw food. Raw chocolate, for example, is being lauded as the epitome among super-foods. Yes, it has such and such antioxidants but are we designed to eat it? The answer is no. In fact, it is very toxic.

This is from Paul Nison, a raw food author:

* No animal in nature will eat cacao beans unless tricked into it with other food.
* When consumed, cacao beans shorten animal life span, if they don’t kill immediately.
* The native people who ate it only ate the fruit of the Theobroma (which contains all the benefits and none of the detriments) and only used the cacao seed as an addition to their psychedelic brew Ahyuwasca and in medical emergencies.
* Native people did not eat it as a food nor as a supplement, only for sacred use.
* Cacao is one of the most addictive substances known.
* Cacao is toxic to the liver.
* It acts as a stimulant and agitates the kidneys and adrenal glands. This can cause: insomnia, nightmares, waking up in the middle of the night, shakes, and extreme energy shifts.
* It is extremely clogging due to the toxins carried in the oils contained within. Plus the fat chains are highly complex and require tons of work to break down.
* The result of long-term use is a high level of liver and blood toxicity, which can cause extreme mood swings, angry outbursts, violence, depression, paranoia, & dizziness.
* In some cases of long-term use, there are also psychological effects that range from addictive tendencies, sexual dysfunction, violent outbursts, lack of reasoning, and decreased will.
* At mega does of 40 plus beans, it acts as a hallucinogen and can cause many effects attributed to LSD or Hashish

Well, raw cacao might be less toxic than the processed kind, but that doesn’t make it safer. The shelves at the natural food stores are filled with cacao containing products. I gorged on it while on a raw diet. There are books about it, articles, and new studies. You will find articles stating that raw cacao has selenium, a very anticancer agent. That doesn’t mean cacao beans are good for cancer! Some cigarette brands contain selenium as well. You’re probably better off taking Selenium on its own or finding a better source, like brazil nuts. You will find a lot of simplistic information about food that focuses on the amazing agents found on something while disregarding the whole picture, and never questioning if we have evolved to eat and reap the benefits from it.

Anyhow, in my personal experience with raw foodism I find the book Green for Life a must have to succeed in your raw journey. And if you have cancer, you should definitely consider that journey, at least for a period of your life. But if you want a broader book that also includes lifestyle changes, then Raw Food Bible is a great title.