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Simple Answer?

kandacekandace Raw Newbie

I’ve been asked a couple interview questions recently and fee like I could write a book as an answer. I’d welcome help with clear, concise answers. Thanks in advance!

1. What are some of the reasons for choosing raw or organic foods instead of pasteurized foods? benefits?

2. Do you see organic and raw foods as becoming a growing trend in the USA, especially with all the food coming in from China and antibiotic and steroid enhanced meat and produce.

Comments

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Write the book! Heehee, uh…wow! That WILL take some thought! Sorry, I don’t have the answer, but I wanted to let you know you’re not alone, & I will be interested to see the responses that come… I would just recommend focusing on the positive things like that fresh, live foods contain lots of enzymes – not just digestive ones, either – that are destroyed by the heat used in cooking & pasteurization, so these foods don’t put as much strain on the body to produce the enzymes that are needed for all kinds of functions in the body, including digestion. Please don’t tell people that “cooked food is poison” or “there’s s*#@ in the meat” or any other of the negative things I sometimes hear raw foodies tell other people in response to questions like this. These kinds of statements put people on the defensive & are not in the spirit of love, joy, & abundance that the raw lifestyle is all about :)

  • TomsMomTomsMom Raw Newbie

    I was just thinking on that first question, kandace. When you say “organic foods instead of pasteurized foods” . . . a lot of foods(or maybe I should say “products”) are “organic”. I mean, if you just meant organic RAW foods, ignore me:) I see boxes of organic dry foods, organic frozen desserts which are pasteurized, most organic frozen vegetables have been blanched, most organic nuts butters and organic olives in jars are pasteurized, etc. I would just make the questions clearer so you get great answers.

  • kandacekandace Raw Newbie

    angie: Yes, keeping it positive is important.

    Alix1962: Great advice! Unfortunately, I am the interviewee! I do find it interesting that raw and organic are basically used interchangeably here. Perhaps I can help to sort out the difference.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Yes, definitely help people understand the difference! I remember making lemonade for my family, and they asked me after I told them it was lemons, limes & agave “So, you mean this is organic?” No, I hadn’t had organic lemons or limes, but even after I told them that it was raw but not organic, they were like Yeah, that’s what I meant, etc. – they still used the two interchangeably. I think people who are used to the SAD, think of the words organic, raw, etc. as all meaning “something healthy I’m not doing,” so it’s all the same – “some weird health food kick!” :D Even a lady I know at church, who has been to raw food classes & potlucks & eats some raw food, told me she made a taco soup, and she that it was raw. So I asked her “So you didn’t put beans in it?” And she responded Oh, yeah, I put beans in it, but I think of those as raw. Turns out she also put corn, and corn chips, and put cheese in to melt in the hot (therefore cooking the raw veggies they blended into it)soup when they served it. I had my grandpa ask me once if beans were raw food, too. It seems a little funny to me now, but I just realize that it takes a lot for people to learn what raw foods really are, even after you tell them “nothing heated over such & such temperature,” or something like that. I also think that a lot of people don’t realize that store-bought juices & juice concentrates are pasteurized & canned foods are heated as part of the canning process; even if it’s just pineapple in its own juice it isn’t raw, etc. Wow; I’m starting to feel like I could write a book – whew!

  • bittbitt Raw Newbie

    1. orangic foods have more nutrients and no chemicals. the choice is obvious to me if you can afford it. pasturization is a type of processing of food. anytime you process the food, you loose nutrients and enzymes.

    2. i would hope that organic, raw, and LOCAL foods in the US would be on the mind of every american. we would make more choices in our eating that our healthy for our bodies and for the environment, and humane for the other creatures on this earth.

  • bananaboybananaboy Raw Superstar

    For more than 500 million years, all animal species on earth ate a raw diet and thrived. Only for the last 10,000 years one species has decided to cook much of it’s food and you don’t need to look very far to see the consequences. If a raw diet was harmful, we would never have survived as a species.

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    people are more aware of the global food shortage. vegetables and fruits take up the least amount of space and contain the most nutritional merit. local means less fossil fuels are wasted so we can eat. not to mention, the closer to the picking, the more nutrients. the advantages are increased exponentially when they are traditionally grown in rich, organic soil.

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    Hmmm, OK I’ll speak out for the extremists here lol!!

    Question one: The body treats non raw foods as poison, sorry but it is true.

    Our body reacts to cooked food as if it is poison. When we eat cooked food our body reacts with digestive leukocystosis, which is the immune system’s red alert response, flooding our body with white blood cells. This doesn’t happen with raw foods so our immune system gets the chance to heal and strengthen. With a healthy immune system it is possible to prevent and reverse anything.

    When we eat cooked foods our body produces mucus. This mucus builds up and forms a layer between out gut lining and the food that is supposed to be assililated into us. The body does this to protect us against cooked food. It does not happen with raw foods. This mucus prevents us from taking in nutrients from food.

    Cooked food changes our pH. It makes us acidic, when we are meant to be alkaline. The pH level of our bodily fluids affect every cell in our bodies. We thrive when our bodies are in an alkaline state. We use alkaloid highs like caffeine, cannabis and cocaine to mimic the feelings of being in an alkaline state. Unfortunately, these drugs throw us into a worse acidic state when they wear off, so we require more of them to get back to the alkaline high we desire.

    When we are in an acidic state, we experience many health problems. Acidity constricts us, causing stiffness and tissue degeneration. Alkalinity does the opposite, we let go and our bodies can release tension and stress, and our blood and lymph can flow more easily. Being in an alkaline state is absolutely lovely. Alkalinity soothes away our heath problems and we become balanced, calm and peaceful.

    I don’t see it as negative, these are simple scientific facts. One type of food has one reaction in our bodies, the other has a different reaction. I see it as positive because here are the clues for healthy vibrant living.

    Question two: Let’s hope so!

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Zoe – I know that about the body’s reaction to different types of foods, but I just think maybe the whole process just needs explaining and to be stated differently. If people don’t eat, they will die, and if they eat cooked food, they will stay alive and even grow, especially if they eat organic whole foods. “Poison” infers something that kills the body, or makes it weaker than it was. People will get sick/weak and die faster from not eating than they will from eating cooked foods, so it sounds illogical to say that cooked food is poison, but explaining the body’s reaction to one & the other is great!

  • kandacekandace Raw Newbie

    Thanks to each of you for your help – sending in now.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Sweet! Where can I see the interview?

  • kandacekandace Raw Newbie

    I’ll have to check. It is for a newspaper article, so I’m thinking there should be a link when it comes out. I’ll post!

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    wow you’re in a newspaper, that’s great Kandace! Congrats ;))

  • chriscarltonchriscarlton Raw Newbie

    Sorry you have already sent your answers off, but for future reference here is quick response:

    Whereas organic food has less toxins, and in that way is better than non organic food.Still, organic food has never been shown to reverse disease, and transform lives the way that raw food has.

    In response to sheltering people from the truth or watering down the message, I am glad that no-one decided that I wasn’t ready for the whole truth, because I would probably be dead by now. Instead, the last 7 years of my life have been the best so far. The truth will set you free.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    chriscarlton – Thanks for your response! I guess I am thinking that poison is just not the right word, because whole foods (cooked a lot of the time) have healed people, but poison isn’t known to heal. But maybe that’s just my perspective. I appreciate your perspective of not “watering down the truth” – It’s because of your and Zoe’s commitment to not watering down the truth that I am finally able to make the decisions that are best for my life – and to know who to ask for recipes in doing so! You two have my eternal gratitude – both for stating/sharing the truth, and for the yumminess in your recipes :)

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    awww shucks that is so sweet of you thank you Angie from me and Chris ;))

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    angie—poison is relative. i’m going to really seem like a matt monarch sheep now, but he gives this great analogy: if you were to give someone arsenic they would die. if you gave them a tiny drop and incrementally increased it over time they would be ok if you eventually gave them the same amount that might have killed them before. their health would deteriate a little, but they would develop a seeming tolerance for the POISON.

    since birth, we have been developing a slow tolerance for the POISON that is cooked food. if you IMPROVE your diet by eating a little less junk and a little more raw, you are reversing that tolerance, cleaning yourself out (that’s why people have been helped by switching to whole foods). we wouldn’t feed a hamburger and fries to a newborn baby, right? why? it hasn’t developed an immunity to the POISON yet. we “help” the child adapt over time.

    that’s why cooked food can make us sick if we haven’t eaten it in a while.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    pianissima – Matt Monarch sheep HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! :D Thanks for the insight. But then again, small drops of arsenic don’t make bodies grow & get stronger the way things like steamed veggies & Manna bread do; that’s why I think that poison may be the wrong word, or at least that it isn’t as applicable to all cooked foods equally… I don’t know, cuz a fast food burger & fries has a lot of things in it that I would consider harmful, and even poison, but I’m sure there are those who would argue with me on that one, too. I guess it’s just a balance of how much good is in something versus how much bad. A burger & fries has almost NOTHING good, and lots of bad. Steamed veggies & Manna bread have a lot of good, no bad in the way of chemicals, cooked fats, etc., but they are missing enzymes & some of the vitamins & minerals because of heating. To put these two different types of meals into the same category – that they’re all poison – doesn’t seem logical, even though I understand that raw foods are superior & I now feel half-dead when I eat a lot of cooked food. I guess it’s just (to me) a matter of cleaner & better quality fuel – it’s still fuel, but dirty old fuel causes more strain on the system to deal with it so that it can be used as fuel, and clean fuel makes the vehicle run better without clogging up the system.

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    you are right. i shouldn’t have used hamburgers as an example.

    here’s what i mean: the cleaner you are the more sensitive you are to the poison. the further along the raw path you get (fruitarian, liquidarian, breatharian…) the more your body will truly feel POISONED by even the slightest amount of cooked food. steamed veggies included.

    steamed veggie and mann bread only give the body “what it needs” in your terms COMPARED to happy meals, not compared to what they SHOULD be getting. that’s what i meant.

    someone going from hamburgers to steamed veggies and manna bread is DEFINITELY on the right track!

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Thanks for clarifying :) I think that’s helping me understand, and it’s kinda what I’ve been trying to say – that good, bad, poison, healthy, unhealthy, etc. are in COMPARISON to other things. Speaking of burgers & fries, I can’t believe that I used to work at a drive-in and eat my free burger, fries and sodas five days a week!

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